Search results for: affective expressions

Authors: Happy Kumar Das, Md. Shahriar Shafiq

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This paper portrays an assumed change in the primary teacher education program in Bangladesh. An initiative has been taken with a vision to ensure an integrated approach to developing trainee teachers’ knowledge and understanding about learning at a deeper level, and with that aim, the Diploma in Primary Education (DPEd) program replaces the Certificate-in-Education (C-in-Ed) program in Bangladeshi context for primary teachers. The stated professional values of the existing program such as ‘learner-centered’, ‘reflective’ approach to pedagogy tend to contradict the practice exemplified through the delivery mechanism. To address the challenges, through the main two components (i) Training Institute-based learning and (ii) School-based learning, the new program tends to cover knowledge and value that underpin the actual practice of teaching. These two components are given approximately equal weighting within the program in terms of both time, content and assessment as the integration seeks to combine theoretical knowledge with practical knowledge and vice versa. The curriculum emphasizes a balance between the taught modules and the components of the practicum. For example, the theories of formative and summative assessment techniques are elaborated through focused reflection on case studies as well as observation and teaching practice in the classroom. The key ideology that is reflected through this newly developed program is teacher’s belief in ‘holistic education’ that can lead to creating opportunities for skills development in all three (Cognitive, Social and Affective) domains simultaneously. The proposed teacher education program aims to address these areas of generic skill development alongside subject-specific learning outcomes. An exploratory study has been designed in this regard where 7 Primary Teachers’ Training Institutes (PTIs) in 7 divisions of Bangladesh was used for experimenting DPEd program. The analysis was done based on document analysis, periodical monitoring report and empirical data gathered from the experimental PTIs. The findings of the study revealed that the intervention brought positive change in teachers’ professional beliefs, attitude and skills along with improvement of school environment. Teachers in training schools work together for collective professional development where they support each other through lesson study, action research, reflective journals, group sharing and so on. Although the DPEd program addresses the above mentioned factors, one of the challenges of the proposed program is the issue of existing capacity and capabilities of the PTIs towards its effective implementation.

Keywords: Bangladesh, effective implementation, primary teacher education, reflective approach

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Authors: Maryam Mostafaee, Hassan Sadeghi Naeini, Sara Mostowfi

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Today’s Knowledge management (KM), plays an important role in organizations. Basically, knowledge management is in the relation of using it for taking advantage of work forces in an organization for forwarding the goals and demand of that organization used at the most. The purpose of knowledge management is not only to manage existing documentation, information, and Data through an organization, but the most important part of KM is to control most important and key factor of those information and Data. For sure it is to chase the information needed for the employees in the right time of needed to take from genuine source for bringing out the best performance and result then in this matter the performance of organization will be at most of it. There are a lot of definitions over the objective of management released. Management is the science that in force the accurate knowledge with repeating to the organization to shape it and take full advantages for reaching goals and targets in the organization to be used by employees and users, but the definition of Knowledge based on Kalinz dictionary is: Facts, emotions or experiences known by man or group of people is ‘ knowledge ‘: Based on the Merriam Webster Dictionary: the act or skill of controlling and making decision about a business, department, sport team, etc, based on the Oxford Dictionary: Efficient handling of information and resources within a commercial organization, and based on the Oxford Dictionary: The art or process of designing manufactured products: the scale is a beautiful work of industrial design. When knowledge management performed executive in universities, discovery and create a new knowledge be facilitated. Make procedures between different units for knowledge exchange. College's officials and employees understand the importance of knowledge for University's success and will make more efforts to prevent the errors. In this strategy, is explored factors and affective trends and manage of it in University. In this research, Iranian universities for a time being analyzed that over usage of knowledge management, how they are behaving and having understood this matter: 1. Discovery of knowledge management in Iranian Universities, 2. Transferring exciting knowledge between faculties and unites, 3. Participate of employees for getting and using and transferring knowledge, 4.The accessibility of valid sources, 5. Researching over factors and correct processes in the university. We are pointing in some examples that we have already analyzed which is: -Enabling better and faster decision-making, -Making it easy to find relevant information and resources, -Reusing ideas, documents, and expertise, -Avoiding redundant effort. Consequence: It is found that effectiveness of knowledge management in the Industrial design field is low. Based on filled checklist by Education officials and professors in universities, and coefficient of effectiveness Calculate, knowledge management could not get the right place.

Keywords: knowledge management, industrial design, educational curriculum, learning performance

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Authors: Komal Vig, Syamala Soumyakrishnan, Yadav Baral

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Bypass surgery, using the autologous vein has been one of the most effective treatments for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). More recently tissue engineering including engineered vascular grafts to synthesize blood vessels is gaining usage. Dacron and ePTFE has been employed for vascular grafts, however, these does not work well for small diameter grafts (<6 mm) due to intimal hyperplasia and thrombosis. In the present study PTFE was treated with LTP to improve the endothelialization of intimal surface of graft. Scaffolds were also modified with polyvinylpyrrolidone coated silver nanoparticles (Ag-PVP) and the antimicrobial peptides, p753 and p359. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were plated on the developed scaffolds and cell proliferation was determined by the MTT assay. Cells attachment on scaffolds was visualized by microscopy. mRNA expressions levels of different cell markers were investigated using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). X ray photoelectron spectroscopic confirmed the introduction of oxygenated functionalities from LTP air plasma. Microscopic and MTT assays indicated increase in cell viability in LTP treated scaffolds. Gene expression studies shows enhanced expression of cell adhesion marker Integrin- α 5 gene after LTP treatment. The KB test displayed a zone of inhibition for Ag-PVP, p753 and p359 of 19mm, 14mm, and 12mm respectively. To determine toxicity of antimicrobial agents to cells, MTT Assay was performed using HEK293 cells. MTT Assay exhibited that Ag-PVP and the peptides were non-toxic to cells at 100μg/mL and 50μg/mL, respectively. Live/dead analysis and plate count of treated bacteria exhibited bacterial inhibition on develop scaffold compared to non-treated scaffold. SEM was performed to analyze the structural changes of bacteria after treatment with antimicrobial agents. Gene expression studies were conducted on RNA from bacteria treated with Ag-PVP and peptides using qRT-PCR. Based on our initial results, more scaffolds alternatives will be developed and investigated for cell growth and vascularization studies.

Keywords: low temperature plasma, vascular graft, HUVEC cells, antimicrobial

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Authors: Mei-Ling Chan, Jin-Ming Wu, Konstantin V. Kudryavtsev, Jih-Hwa Guh

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Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignant disease in men. KUD983 is an enantiomerically pure β-dipeptide derivative, which may have anti-cancer effects. In the present study, KUD983 exhibits powerful activity against hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) PC-3 and DU145 cells. The IC50 values of KUD983 in PC-3 and DU145 cells are 0.56±0.07M and 0.50±0.04 M respectively. KUD983 induced G1 arrest of the cell cycle and subsequent apoptosis associated with the down-regulation of several related proteins including cyclin D1, cyclin E and Cdk4, and the de-phosphorylation of RB. The protein expressions of nuclear and total c-Myc protein, which was able to regulate the expression of both cyclin D1 and cyclin E, were significantly suppressed by KUD983. Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is an important signaling pathway that influences the energy metabolism, cell cycle, proliferation, survival and apoptosis of cells, and is associated with numerous other signaling pathways. The Western Blot data revealed that KUD983 inhibited PI3K/Akt and mTOR/p70S6K/4E-BP1 pathways. The transient transfection of constitutively active myristylated Akt (myr-Akt) cDNA significantly reversed KUD983-induced caspase activation but did not abolish the suppression of mTOR/p70S6K/4E-BP1 signaling cascade indicating the presence of both Akt-dependent and -independent pathways. Moreover, KUD983-induced effect was collaborated with the down-regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 members (e.g., Bcl-2, and Mcl-1) and IAP family members (e.g., survivin). Furthermore, KUD983 induced autophagic cell death using confocal microscopic examination, investigating the level of conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II and flow cytometric detection of AVO-positive cells. Taken together, the data suggest that KUD983 is an anticancer β-dipeptide against HRPCs through the inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptotic and autophagic cell death. The suppression of signaling pathways mediated by c-Myc, PI3K/Akt and mTOR/p70S6K/4E-BP1 and the collaboration with down-regulation of Mcl-1 and survivin may indicate the mechanism of KUD983 against HRPC.

Keywords: β-dipeptide, hormone-refractory prostate cancer, mTOR, PI3K/Akt

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Authors: Masahiro Nochi

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This study explores the process in which a Japanese child with congenital blindness deepens understanding of the condition of being “unable to see” and develops the idea of “blind self,” despite having no direct experience of vision. The rehabilitation activities of a child with a congenital visual impairment that were video-recorded from 1 to 6 years old were analyzed qualitatively. The duration of the video was about 80 hours. The recordings were transcribed verbatim, and the episodes in which the child used the words related to the act of “looking” were extracted. Detailed transcripts were constructed referencing the notations of conversation analysis. Characteristics of interactions in those episodes were identified and compared longitudinally. Results showed that the child used the expression "look" under certain interaction patterns and her body expressions and interaction with adults developed in conjunction with the development of language use. Four stages were identified. At the age of 1, interactions involving “look” began to occur. The child said "Look" in the sequence: the child’s “Look,” an adult’s “I’m looking,” certain performances by the child, and the adult’s words of praise. At the age of 3, the child began to behave in accordance with the spatial attributes of the act of "looking," such as turning her face to the adult’s voice before saying, “Look.” She also began to use the expression “Keep looking,” which seemed to reflect her understanding of the temporality of the act of “looking.” At the age of 4, the use of “Look” or “Keep looking” became three times more frequent. She also started to refer to the act of looking in the future, such as “Come and look at my puppy someday.” At the age of 5, she moved her hands toward the adults when she was holding something she wanted to show them. She seemed to understand that people could see the object more clearly when it was in close priximity. About that time, she began to say “I cannot see” to her mother, which suggested a heightened understanding of her own blindness. The findings indicate that as she grew up, the child came to utilize nonverbal behavior before and after the order "Look" to make the progress of the interaction with adults even more certain. As a result, actions that reflect the characteristics of the sighted person's visual experience were incorporated into the interaction chain. The purpose of "Look," with which she intended to attract the adult's attention at first, changed and became something that requests a confirmation she was unable to make herself. It is considered that such a change in the use of the word as well as interaction with sighted adults reflected her heightened self-awareness as someone who could not do what sighted people could do easily. A blind child can gradually deepen their understanding of their own characteristics of blindness among sighted people around them. The child can also develop “blind self” by learning how to interact with others even without direct visual experiences.

Keywords: blindness, child development, conversation analysis, self-concept

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Authors: Orhan Akınoğlu, Arif Çömek, Ersin Elmacı, Tuğba Gündoğdu

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The concept map is known to be a powerful tool to organize the ideas and concepts of an individuals’ mind. This tool is a kind of visual map that illustrates the relationships between the concepts of a certain subject. The effect of concept mapping on cognitive and affective qualities is one of the research topics among educational researchers for last decades. We educators want to utilize it both as an instructional tool or an assessment tool in classes. For that reason, this study aimed to determine the effect of concept mapping as a learning strategy in science classes on students’ academic achievement and attitude. The research employed a randomized pre-test post-test control group design. Data collected from 60 sixth grade students participated in the study from a randomly selected primary school in Turkey. Sixth-grade classes of the school were analyzed according to students’ academic achievement, science attitude, gender, mathematics, science courses grades, and their GPAs before the implementation. Two of the classes found to be equivalent (t=0,983, p>0,05) and one of them was defined as experimental and the other one control group randomly. During a 5-weeks period, the experimental group students (N=30) used the paper-based concept mapping method while the control group students (N=30) were taught with the traditional approach according to the science and technology education curriculum for light and sound subject. Both groups were taught by the same teacher who is experienced using concept mapping in science classes. Before the implementation, the teacher explained the theory of the concept maps and showed how to create paper-based concept mapping individually to the experimental group students for two hours. Then for two following hours she asked them to create some concept maps related to their former science subjects and gave them feedback by reviewing their concept maps to be sure that they can create during the implementation. The data were collected by science achievement test, science attitude scale and personal information form. Science achievement test and science attitude scale were implemented as pre-test and post-test while personal information form was implemented just as once. The reliability coefficient of the achievement test was KR20=0,76 and Cronbach’s Alpha of the attitude scale was 0,89. SPSS statistical software was used to analyze the data. According to the results, there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control group for academic achievement but not for attitude. The experimental group had significantly greater gains from academic achievement test than the control group (t=0,02, p<0,05). The findings showed that the paper-and-pencil concept mapping can be used as an effective method for students’ academic achievement in science classes. The results have implications for further researches.

Keywords: concept mapping, science education, constructivism, academic achievement, science attitude

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Authors: Sinem Bulkan

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This study introduces the construct of psychopathic manager behaviour and aims for the development of psychopathic manager behaviour (Psycho-Man B) measure. The study also aims for the understanding of the relationship between psychopathic manager behaviour and workplace deviance while investigating the mediating role of a revenge motive and the moderating roles of the core self-evaluations and the attitude importance. Data were collected from 519 employees from a wide variety of jobs and industries who currently work for or previously worked for a manager in a collectivist culture, Turkey. Psycho-Man B Measure was developed resulting in five dimensions as opposed to the proposed ten dimensions. Simple linear and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results of simple linear regression analyses showed that psychopathic manager behaviour was positively significantly related to supervisor-directed and organisation-directed deviance. Revenge motive towards the manager partially mediated the relationship between psychopathic manager behaviour and supervisor-directed deviance. Similarly, revenge motive towards the organisation partially mediated the relationship between psychopathic manager behaviour and organisation-directed deviance. Furthermore, no support was found for the expected moderating role of core self-evaluations in the revenge motive towards the manager-supervisor-directed deviance and revenge motive towards the organisation-organisation-directed deviance relationships. Attitude importance moderated the relationship between revenge motive towards the manager and supervisor-directed deviance; revenge motive towards the organisation and organisation-directed deviance. Moderated-mediation hypotheses were not supported for core self-evaluations but were supported for the attitude importance. Additional analyses for sub-dimensions were conducted to further examine the hypotheses. Demographic variables were examined through independent samples t-tests, and one way ANOVA. Finally, findings are discussed; limitations, suggestions and implications are presented. The major contribution of this study is that ‘psychopathic manager behaviour’ construct was introduced to the literature and a scale for the reliable identification of psychopathic manager behaviour was developed in to evaluate managers’ level of sub-clinical psychopathy in the workforce. The study introduced that employees engage in different forms of supervisor-directed deviance and organisation-directed deviance depending on the level of the emotions and personal goals. Supervisor-directed deviant behaviours and organisation-directed deviant behaviours became distinct in a way as impulsive and premeditated, active or passive, direct and indirect actions. Accordingly, it is important for organisations to notice that employees’ level of affective state and attitude importance for psychopathic manager behaviours predetermine the certain type of employee deviant behaviours.

Keywords: attitude importance, core self evaluations, psychopathic manager behaviour, revenge motive, workplace deviance

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Authors: Per Blomqvist

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This study is part of a larger research project on creativity and writing cultures in upper secondary schools in Sweden, with the purpose of exploring how formative assessment practices can be developed to better support students' writing of subject-specific texts. The purpose of the study is to shed light on how writing has changed over time in the subjects of Social Studies and Swedish, especially regarding changes in the formative assessment practice in relation to students opportunities to take part in creative writing processes that can develop their subject specific-writing. Theoretically, the study is based on concepts and models concerning creativity, writing instructions and formative assessment, especially regarding scaffolding in relation to the development of students' subject-specific writing. The empirical data consists of video recordings of teacher groups' conversations from five upper secondary schools in Sweden, compromising a total of twenty teachers. The conversations were conducted as so-called collective remembering interviews, a method to stimulate the participants' memory through social interaction, and focused on addressing issues on how writing assessment has changed over time. Topic analysis was used to analyze the conversations in order to identify common descriptions and expressions among the teachers in each group. The result highlights two different assessment practices that are described as giving students different opportunities to take part in creative writing processes to develop their writing of subject-specific texts. One of the assessment practices is characterized by teachers focusing on explaining to the students what the grading criteria mean and showing sample texts that correspond to a certain grade. The teachers describe that this assessment practice has led to a formalized, instrumental and product-oriented writing culture that has negative consequences for the student's development of their subject-specific writing, which often lacks independent reasoning, own conclusions and understanding of concepts. The other assessment practice is characterized by students examining text qualities and discussing a variety of sample texts to understand what different texts require. These teachers describe the assessment practice as an exploratory work that leads to more creative writing processes where the students gradually deepen their understanding of subject-specific texts and develop their writing.

Keywords: teaching for creativity, writing processes, formative assessment, subject-specific writing

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Authors: Fitria D. Ayuningtyas, Anggraini Barlian

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Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is one of TSD (Temperature-dependent Sex Determination, TSD) animals which sex is determined by the egg’s incubation temperature. GSD (Genotypic Sex Determination) homologous genes such as Wilms’ Tumor (Wt1) and Forkhead Box L2 (FoxL2) play a role in TSD animal sex determination process. Wt1 plays a role in both male pathway, as a transcription factor for Sf1 gene and in female pathway, as a transcription factor for Dax1. FoxL2 plays a role specifically in female sex determination, and known as transcriptional factor for Aromatase gene. Until now, research on the pattern of Wt1 and FoxL2 genes expression in C.mydas has not been conducted yet. The aim of this research is to know the pattern of Wt1 and FoxL2 genes expression in Mesonephros-Gonad (MG) complexes of Chelonia mydas embryos incubated in masculinizing temperature (MT) and feminizing temperature (FT). Eggs of C.mydas incubated in 3 different stage of TSP (Thermosensitive Period) at masculinizing temperature (26±10C, MT) and feminizing temperature (31±10C FT). Mesonefros-gonad complexes were isolated at Pre-TSP stage (FT at days 14th, MT at days 24th), TSP stage (FT at days 24th, MT at days 36th) and differentiated stage (FT at days 40th, MT at days 58th). RNA from mesonephros-gonad (MG) complexes were converted into cDNA by RT-PCR process, and the pattern of Wt1 and FoxL2 genes expression is analyzed by quantitative Real Time PCR (qPCR) method, β-actin gene is used as an internal control. The pattern of Wt1 gene expression in Pre-TSP stage was almost the same between MG complexes incubated at MT or FT, while TSP and differentiation stage, the pattern of Wt1 gene expression in MG complexes incubated at MT or FT was increased. Wt1 gene expression of MG complexes that incubated at FT was higher than at MT. There was a difference pattern between Wt1 gene expression in this research compared to the previous research in protein level. It could be assumed that the difference caused by post-transcriptional regulation mechanisms before mRNA of Wt1 gene translated into protein structure. The pattern of FoxL2 gene expression in Pre-TSP stage was almost the same between MG complexes that incubated at MT and FT, and increased in both TSP and differentiated stage. The FoxL2 gene expression in MG complexes that incubated in FT is higher than MT on TSP and differentiated stage. Based on the results of this research, it can be assumed that Wt1 and FoxL2 gene were expressed in MG complexes that incubated both at MT and FT since Pre-TSP stage. The pattern of Wt1 gene expression was increased in every stage of gonadal development, and so do the pattern of FoxL2 gene expression. Wt1 and FoxL2 gene expressions were higher in MG complexes incubated at FT than MT.

Keywords: chelonia mydas, FoxL2, gene expression, TSD, Wt1

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Authors: Thalita Carvalho Martins de Castro, Núbia Bernardi

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Currently, studies evidence that our cities are portraits of social relations. In the midst of so many segregations, cultural buildings emerge as a place to assemble collective activities and expressions. Through theater, exhibitions, educational workshops, libraries, the architecture approaches human relations and seeks to propose meeting places. The purpose of this research is to deepen the discussions about the contributions of cultural buildings in the use of the spaces of the contemporary city, based on the data and measure collected in the master's research in progress. The graphic analysis of the insertion of contemporary cultural buildings seeks to highlight the social use of space. The urban insertions of contemporary cultural buildings in the city of São Paulo (Brazil) will be analyzed to understand the relations between the architectural form and its audience. The collected data describe a dynamic of flows and the permanence in the use of these spaces, indicating the contribution of the cultural buildings, associated with artistic production, in the dynamics of urban spaces and the social modifications of their milieu. Among the case studies, the research in development is based on the registration and graphic analysis of the Praça das Artes (2012) building located in the historical central region of the city, which after a long period of great degradation undergoes a current redevelopment. The choice of this building was based on four parameters, both on the architectural scale and on the urban scale: urban insertion, local impact, cultural production and a mix of uses. For the analysis will be applied two methodologies of graphic analysis, one with diagrams accompanied by texts and another with the active analysis for open space projects using complementary graphic methodologies, with maps, plants, info-graphics, perspectives, time-lapse videos and analytical tables. This research aims to reinforce the debates between the methodologies of form-use spaces and visual synthesis applied in cultural buildings, in order that new projects can structure public spaces as catalysts for social use, generating improvements in the daily life of its users and in the cities where they are inserted.

Keywords: cultural buildings, design methodologies, graphic analysis, public spaces

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Authors: Anup Anand Deshmukh, Catherine Soladie, Renaud Seguier

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Emotion plays a key role in many applications like healthcare, to gather patients’ emotional behavior. Unlike typical ASR (Automated Speech Recognition) problems which focus on 'what was said', it is equally important to understand 'how it was said.' There are certain emotions which are given more importance due to their effectiveness in understanding human feelings. In this paper, we propose an approach that models human stress from audio signals. The research challenge in speech emotion detection is finding the appropriate set of acoustic features corresponding to an emotion. Another difficulty lies in defining the very meaning of emotion and being able to categorize it in a precise manner. Supervised Machine Learning models, including state of the art Deep Learning classification methods, rely on the availability of clean and labelled data. One of the problems in affective computation is the limited amount of annotated data. The existing labelled emotions datasets are highly subjective to the perception of the annotator. We address the first issue of feature selection by exploiting the use of traditional MFCC (Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) features in Convolutional Neural Network. Our proposed Emo-CNN (Emotion-CNN) architecture treats speech representations in a manner similar to how CNN’s treat images in a vision problem. Our experiments show that Emo-CNN consistently and significantly outperforms the popular existing methods over multiple datasets. It achieves 90.2% categorical accuracy on the Emo-DB dataset. We claim that Emo-CNN is robust to speaker variations and environmental distortions. The proposed approach achieves 85.5% speaker-dependant categorical accuracy for SAVEE (Surrey Audio-Visual Expressed Emotion) dataset, beating the existing CNN based approach by 10.2%. To tackle the second problem of subjectivity in stress labels, we use Lovheim’s cube, which is a 3-dimensional projection of emotions. Monoamine neurotransmitters are a type of chemical messengers in the brain that transmits signals on perceiving emotions. The cube aims at explaining the relationship between these neurotransmitters and the positions of emotions in 3D space. The learnt emotion representations from the Emo-CNN are mapped to the cube using three component PCA (Principal Component Analysis) which is then used to model human stress. This proposed approach not only circumvents the need for labelled stress data but also complies with the psychological theory of emotions given by Lovheim’s cube. We believe that this work is the first step towards creating a connection between Artificial Intelligence and the chemistry of human emotions.

Keywords: deep learning, brain chemistry, emotion perception, Lovheim's cube

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Authors: Maha Z. Rizk, Sami A. Fattah, Heba M. Darwish, Sanaa A. Ali, Mai O. Kadry

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Although it is known that nano-TiO2 and other nanoparticles can induce liver toxicity, the mechanisms and the molecular pathogenesis are still unclear. The present study investigated some biochemical indices of nano-sized Titanium dioxide (TiO2 NPS) toxicity in mice liver and the ameliorative efficacy of individual and combined doses of idebenone, carnosine and vitamin E. Nano-anatase TiO2 (21 nm) was administered as a total oral dose of 2.2 gm/Kg daily for 2 weeks followed by the afore-mentioned antioxidants daily either individually or in combination for 1month. TiO2-NPS induced a significant elevation in serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and hepatic oxidative stress biomarkers [lipid peroxides (LP), and nitric oxide levels (NOX), while it significantly reduced glutathione reductase (GR), reduced glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase(GPX) levels. Moreover the quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that nano-anatase TiO2 can significantly alter the mRNA and protein expressions of the fibrotic factors TGF-B1, VEGFand Smad-2. Histopathological examination of hepatic tissue reinforced the previous biochemical results. Our results also implied that inflammatory responses and liver injury may be involved in nano-anatase TiO2-induced liver toxicity Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and Interleukin -6 (IL-6) and increased the percent of DNA damage which was assessed by COMET assay in addition to the apoptotic marker Caspase-3. Moreover mRNA gene expression observed by RT-PCR showed a significant overexpression in nuclear factor relation -2 (Nrf2), nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-Kβ) and the apoptotic factor (bax), and a significant down regulation in the antiapoptotic factor (bcl2) level. In conclusion idebenone, carnosine and vitamin E ameliorated the deviated previously mentioned parameters with variable degrees with the most pronounced role in alleviating the hazardous effect of TiO2 NPS toxicity following the combination regimen.

Keywords: Nano-anatase TiO2, TGF-B1, SMAD-2

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Authors: Samiksha Raviraja, Junaid Arif

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One of the most important abilities in species is the ability to communicate. This paper proposes steps to take when and if aliens came in contact with humans, and how humans would communicate with them. The situation would be a time-sensitive scenario, meaning that communication is at the utmost importance if such an event were to happen. First, humans would need to establish mutual peace by conveying that there is no threat to the alien race. Second, the aliens would need to acknowledge this understanding and reciprocate. This would be extremely difficult to do regardless of their intelligence level unless they are very human-like and have similarities to our way of communicating. The first step towards understanding their mind is to analyze their level of intelligence - Level 1-Low intelligence, Level 2-Human-like intelligence or Level 3-Advanced or High Intelligence. These three levels go hand in hand with the Kardashev scale. Further, the Barrow scale will also be used to categorize alien species in hopes of developing a common universal language to communicate in. This paper will delve into how the level of intelligence can be used toward achieving communication with aliens by predicting various possible scenarios and outcomes by proposing an intensive categorization system. This can be achieved by studying their Emotional and Intelligence Quotient (along with technological and scientific knowledge/intelligence). The limitations and capabilities of their intelligence must also be studied. By observing how they respond and react (expressions and senses) to different kinds of scenarios, items and people, the data will help enable good categorisation. It can be hypothesised that the more human-like aliens are or can relate to humans, the more likely it is that communication is possible. Depending on the situation, either human can teach aliens a human language, or humans can learn an alien language, or both races work together to develop a mutual understanding or mode of communication. There are three possible ways of contact. Aliens visit Earth, or humans discover aliens while on space exploration or through technology in the form of signals. A much rarer case would be humans and aliens running into each other during a space expedition of their own. The first two possibilities allow a more in-depth analysis of the alien life and enhanced results compared. The importance of finding a method of talking with aliens is important in order to not only protect Earth and humans but rather for the advancement of Science through the shared knowledge between the two species.

Keywords: intelligence, Kardashev scale, Barrow scale, alien civilizations, emotional and intelligence quotient

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Authors: Seunghwan Seo, Woo-Seok Lee, Ji-Sun Shin, Young Kyoung Rhee, Chang-Won Cho, Hee-Do Hong, Kyung-Tae Lee

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Doenjang, known as traditional Korean food, is product of a natural mixed fermentation process carried out by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Lactobacillus sakei K040706 (K040706) has been accepted as the most populous LAB in over ripened doenjang. Recently, we reported the immunostimulatory effects of K040706 in RAW 264.7 macrophages and in a cyclophosphamide-induced mouse model. In this study, we investigated the ameliorative effects of K040706 in a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis mouse model. We induced colitis using DSS in 5-week-ICR mice over 14 days with or without 0.1, 1 g/kg/day K040706 orally. The body weight, stool consistency, and gross bleeding were recorded for determination of the disease activity index (DAI). At the end of treatment, animals were sacrificed and colonic tissues were collected and subjected to histological experiments and myeloperoxidase (MPO) accumulation, cytokine determination, qRT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Results showed that K040706 significantly attenuated DSS-induced DAI score, shortening of colon length, enlargement of spleen and immune cell infiltrations into colonic tissues. Histological examinations indicated that K040706 suppressed edema, mucosal damage, and the loss of crypts induced by DSS. These results were correlated with the restoration of tight junction protein expression, such as, ZO-1 and occludin in K040706-treated mice. Moreover, K040706 reduced the abnormal secretions and mRNA expressions of pro-inflammatory mediators, such as nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6). DSS-induced mRNA expression of intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM) in colonic tissues was also downregulated by K040706 treatment. Furthermore, K040706 suppressed the protein and mRNA expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and phosphorylation of NF-κB and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). These results suggest that K040706 has an anti-colitic effect by inhibition of intestinal inflammatory responses in DSS-induced colitic mice.

Keywords: Lactobacillus sakei, NF-κB, STAT3, ulcerative colitis

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Authors: Hoa Pham

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Code switching, which can be described as the use of students’ first language in second language classrooms, has long been a controversial topic in the area of language teaching and second language acquisition. While this has been widely investigated across different contexts, little empirical research has been undertaken in Vietnam. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of bilingual discourse and code switching practices in content and language integrated classrooms, which has significant implications for language teaching and learning in general and in particular for language pedagogy at tertiary level in Vietnam. This study examines the accounts the teachers articulated for their code switching practices in content-based Business English in Vietnam. Data were collected from five teachers through the use of stimulated recall interviews facilitated by the video data to garner the teachers' cognitive reflection, and allowed them to vocalise the motivations behind their code switching behaviour in particular contexts. The literature has recommended that when participants are provided with a large amount of stimuli or cues, they will experience an original situation again in their imagination with great accuracy. This technique can also provide a valuable "insider" perspective on the phenomenon under investigation which complements the researcher’s "outsider" observation. This can create a relaxed atmosphere during the interview process, which in turn promotes the collection of rich and diverse data. Also, participants can be empowered by this technique as they can raise their own concerns and discuss instances which they find important or interesting. The data generated through this study were analysed using a constant comparative approach. The study found that the teachers indicated their support for the use of code switching in their pedagogical practices. Particularly, as a pedagogical resource, the teachers saw code switching to the L1 playing a key role in facilitating the students' comprehension of both content knowledge and the target language. They believed the use of the L1 accommodates the students' current language competence and content knowledge. They also expressed positive opinions about the role that code switching plays in stimulating students' schematic language and content knowledge, encouraging retention and interest in learning and promoting a positive affective environment in the classroom. The teachers perceived that their use of code switching to the L1 helps them meet the students' language needs and prepares them for their study in subsequent courses and addresses functional needs so that students can cope with English language use outside the classroom. Several factors shaped the teachers' perceptions of their code switching practices, including their accumulated teaching experience, their previous experience as language learners, their theoretical understanding of language teaching and learning, and their knowledge of the teaching context. Code switching was a typical phenomenon in the observed classes and was supported by the teachers in certain contexts. This study reinforces the call in the literature to recognise this practice as a useful instructional resource.

Keywords: codeswitching, language teaching, teacher beliefs, tertiary level

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Authors: Mohammad H. Taheri, David J. Brown, Nasser Sherkat

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Engagement is one of the most important factors in determining successful outcomes and deep learning in students. Existing approaches to detect student engagement involve periodic human observations that are subject to inter-rater reliability. Our solution uses real-time multimodal multisensor data labeled by objective performance outcomes to infer the engagement of students. The study involves four students with a combined diagnosis of cerebral palsy and a learning disability who took part in a 3-month trial over 59 sessions. Multimodal multisensor data were collected while they participated in a continuous performance test. Eye gaze, electroencephalogram, body pose, and interaction data were used to create a model of student engagement through objective labeling from the continuous performance test outcomes. In order to achieve this, a type of continuous performance test is introduced, the Seek-X type. Nine features were extracted including high-level handpicked compound features. Using leave-one-out cross-validation, a series of different machine learning approaches were evaluated. Overall, the random forest classification approach achieved the best classification results. Using random forest, 93.3% classification for engagement and 42.9% accuracy for disengagement were achieved. We compared these results to outcomes from different models: AdaBoost, decision tree, k-Nearest Neighbor, naïve Bayes, neural network, and support vector machine. We showed that using a multisensor approach achieved higher accuracy than using features from any reduced set of sensors. We found that using high-level handpicked features can improve the classification accuracy in every sensor mode. Our approach is robust to both sensor fallout and occlusions. The single most important sensor feature to the classification of engagement and distraction was shown to be eye gaze. It has been shown that we can accurately predict the level of engagement of students with learning disabilities in a real-time approach that is not subject to inter-rater reliability, human observation or reliant on a single mode of sensor input. This will help teachers design interventions for a heterogeneous group of students, where teachers cannot possibly attend to each of their individual needs. Our approach can be used to identify those with the greatest learning challenges so that all students are supported to reach their full potential.

Keywords: affective computing in education, affect detection, continuous performance test, engagement, flow, HCI, interaction, learning disabilities, machine learning, multimodal, multisensor, physiological sensors, student engagement

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Authors: Monica Karlsson

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The positive effect of a supportive written context on comprehension and retention when faced with a previously unknown idiomatic expression is today an indisputable fact, especially if relevant clues are given in close proximity of the item in question. Also, giving learners a chance of visualizing the meaning of an idiom by offering them its source domain and/or by elaborating etymologically, i.e. providing a mental picture in addition to the spoken/written form (referred to as dual coding), seems to enhance comprehension and retention even further, especially if the idiom is of a more transparent kind. For example, by explaining that walk the plank has a maritime origin and a canary in a coal mine comes from the time when canaries were kept in cages to warn miners if gas was leaking out at which point the canaries succumbed immediately, learners’ comprehension and retention have been shown to increase. The present study aims to investigate whether contextualization of an audiovisual kind could help increase comprehension and retention of L2 idioms. 40 Swedish first-term university students studying English as part of their education to become middle-school teachers participated in the investigation, which tested 24 idioms, all of which were ascertained to be previously unknown to the informants. While half of the learners were subjected to a test in which they were asked to watch scenes from various TV programmes, each scene including one idiomatic expression in a supportive context, the remaining 20 students, as a point of reference, were only offered written contexts, though equally supportive. Immediately after these sessions, both groups were given the same idioms in a decontextualized form and asked to give their meaning. After five weeks, finally, the students were subjected to yet another decontextualized comprehension test. Furthermore, since mastery of idioms in one’s L1 appears to correlate to a great extent with a person’s ability to comprehend idioms in an L2, all the informants were also asked to take a test focusing on idioms in their L1. The result on this test is thus seen to indicate each student’s potential for understanding and memorizing various idiomatic expressions from a more general perspective. Preliminary results clearly show that audiovisual contextualization indeed has a positive effect on learners’ retention. In addition, preliminary results also show that those learners’ who were able to recall most meanings were those who had a propensity for idiom comprehension in their L1.

Keywords: English, L2, idioms, audiovisual context

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Authors: Jui-Hsueh Hu

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This study investigated various models of refusal speech acts among three target groups: French learners of Mandarin Chinese (FM), Taiwanese native Mandarin speakers (TM), and native French speakers (NF). The refusal responses were analyzed in terms of their options, frequencies, and sequences and the contents of their semantic formulas. This study also examined differences in refusal strategies, as determined by social status and social distance, among the three groups. The difficulties of refusal speech acts encountered by FM were then generalized. The results indicated that Mandarin instructors of NF should focus on the different reasons for the pragmatic failure of French learners and should assist these learners in mastering refusal speech acts that rely on abundant cultural information. In this study, refusal policies were mainly classified according to the research of Beebe et al. (1990). Discourse completion questionnaires were collected from TM, FM, and NF, and their responses were compared to determine how refusal policies differed among the groups. This study not only emphasized the dissimilarities of refusal strategies between native Mandarin speakers and second-language Mandarin learners but also used NF as a control group. The results of this study demonstrated that regarding overall strategies, FM were biased toward NF in terms of strategy choice, order, and content, resulting in pragmatic transfer under the influence of social factors such as 'social status' and 'social distance,' strategy choices of FM were still closer to those of NF, and the phenomenon of pragmatic transfer of FM was revealed. Regarding the refusal difficulties among the three groups, the F-test in the analysis of variance revealed statistical significance was achieved for Role Playing Items 13 and 14 (P < 0.05). A difference was observed in the average number of refusal difficulties between the participants. However, after multiple comparisons, it was found that item 13 (unrecognized heterosexual junior colleague requesting contacts) was significantly more difficult for NF than for TM and FM; item 14 (contacts requested by an unrecognized classmate of the opposite sex) was significantly more difficult to refuse for NF than for TM. This study summarized the pragmatic language errors that most FM often perform, including the misuse or absence of modal words, hedging expressions, and empty words at the end of sentences, as the reasons for pragmatic failures. The common social pragmatic failures of FM include inaccurately applying the level of directness and formality.

Keywords: French Mandarin, interlanguage refusal, pragmatic transfer, speech acts

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Authors: Gyoomi Kim, Jiyoung Bae

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In the field of language education research, there are not many tries to empirically examine learners’ acceptance behavior and related factors of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). This study is one of the few attempts to propose an integrated theoretical framework that explains MALL users’ acceptance behavior and potential factors. Constructs from technology acceptance model (TAM) and MALL research are tested in the integrated framework. Based on previous studies, a hypothetical model was developed. Four external variables related to the MALL user’s acceptance behavior were selected: subjective norm, content reliability, interactivity, self-regulation. The model was also composed of four other constructs: two latent variables, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, were considered as cognitive constructs; attitude toward MALL as an affective construct; behavioral intention to use MALL as a behavioral construct. The participants were 438 undergraduate students who enrolled in an intensive English program at one university in Korea. This particular program was held in January 2018 using the vacation period. The students were given eight hours of English classes each day from Monday to Friday for four weeks and asked to complete MALL courses for practice outside the classroom. Therefore, all participants experienced blended MALL environment. The instrument was a self-response questionnaire, and each construct was measured by five questions. Once the questionnaire was developed, it was distributed to the participants at the final ceremony of the intensive program in order to collect the data from a large number of the participants at a time. The data showed significant evidence to support the hypothetical model. The results confirmed through structural equation modeling analysis are as follows: First, four external variables such as subjective norm, content reliability, interactivity, and self-regulation significantly affected perceived ease of use. Second, subjective norm, content reliability, self-regulation, perceived ease of use significantly affected perceived usefulness. Third, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use significantly affected attitude toward MALL. Fourth, attitude toward MALL and perceived usefulness significantly affected behavioral intention to use MALL. These results implied that the integrated framework from TAM and MALL could be useful when adopting MALL environment to university students or adult English learners. Key constructs except interactivity showed significant relationships with one another and had direct and indirect impacts on MALL user’s acceptance behavior. Therefore, the constructs and validated metrics is valuable for language researchers and educators who are interested in MALL.

Keywords: blended MALL, learner factors/variables, mobile-assisted language learning, MALL, technology acceptance model, TAM, theoretical framework

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Authors: Sigal Gat-Lazer, Ronny Geva, Dan Ramon, Eitan Gur, Daniel Stein

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Introduction: Eating disorders (ED) are common psychopathologies which involve distorted body image and eating disturbances. Binge-purge eating disorders (B/P ED) are characterized by repetitive events of binge eating followed by purges. Patients with B/P ED behavior may be seen as impulsive especially when relate to food stimulation and affective conditions. The current study included innovative modification of the day-night task targeted to assess inhibitory control among patients with B/P ED. Methods: This prospective study included 50 patients with B/P ED during acute phase of illness (T1) upon their admission to specialized ED department in tertiary center. 34 patients repeated the study towards discharge to ambulatory care (T2). Treatment effect was evaluated by BMI and emotional questionnaires regarding depression and anxiety by the Beck Depression Inventory and State Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires. Control group included 36 healthy controls with matched demographic parameters who performed both T1 and T2 assessments. The current modification is based on the emotional day-night task (EDNT) which involves five emotional stimulation added to the sun and moon pictures presented to participants. In the current study, we designed the food-emotional modification day night task (F-EDNT) food stimulations of egg and banana which resemble the sun and moon, respectively, in five emotional states (angry, sad, happy, scrambled and neutral). During this computerized task, participants were instructed to push on “day” bottom in response to moon and banana stimulations and on “night” bottom when sun and egg were presented. Accuracy (A) and reaction time (RT) were evaluated and compared between EDNT and F-EDNT as a reflection of participants’ inhibitory control. Results: Patients with B/P ED had significantly improved BMI, depression and anxiety scores on T2 compared to T1 (all p<0.001). Task performance was similar among patients and controls in the EDNT without significant A or RT differences in both T1 and T2. On F-EDNT during T1, B/P ED patients had significantly reduced accuracy in 4/5 emotional stimulation compared to controls: angry (73±25% vs. 84±15%, respectively), sad (69±25% vs. 80±18%, respectively), happy (73±24% vs. 82±18%, respectively) and scrambled (74±24% vs. 84±13%, respectively, all p<0.05). Additionally, patients’ RT to food stimuli was significantly faster compared to neutral ones, in both cry and neutral emotional stimulations (356±146 vs. 400±141 and 378±124 vs. 412±116 msec, respectively, p<0.05). These significant differences between groups as a function of stimulus type were diminished on T2. Conclusion: Having to process food related content, in particular in emotional context seems to be impaired in patients with B/P ED during the acute phase of their illness and elicits greater impulsivity. Innovative modification using such procedures seem to be sensitive to patients’ illness phase and thus may be implemented during screening and follow up through the clinical management of these patients.

Keywords: binge purge eating disorders, day night task modification, eating disorders, food related stimulations

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Authors: Anand Kumar Yadav

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the fluctuation of amplitude ratios of various transmitted and reflected waves. Design/methodology/approach – The reflection and transmission of plane waves on the interface between an orthotropic hygro-thermo-elastic half-space (OHTHS) and a viscous-fluid half-space (VFHS) were investigated in this study with reference to coupled hygro-thermo-elasticity. Findings – The interface, where y = 0, is struck by the principal (P) plane waves as they travel through the VFHS. Two waves are reflected in VFHS, and four waves are transmitted in OHTHS as a result namely longitudinal displacement, Pwave − , thermal diffusion TDwave − and moisture diffusion mDwave − and shear vertical SV wave. Expressions for the reflection and transmitted coefficient are developed for the incidence of a hygrothermal plane wave. It is noted that these ratios are graphically displayed and are observed under the influence of coupled hygro-thermo-elasticity. Research limitations/implications – There isn't much study on the model under consideration, which combines OHTHS and VFHS with coupled hygro-thermo-elasticity, according to the existing literature Practical implications – The current model can be applied in many different areas, such as soil dynamics, nuclear reactors, high particle accelerators, earthquake engineering, and other areas where linked hygrothermo-elasticity is important. In a range of technical and geophysical settings, wave propagation in a viscous fluid-thermoelastic medium with various characteristics, such as initial stress, magnetic field, porosity, temperature, etc., gives essential information regarding the presence of new and modified waves. This model may prove useful in modifying earthquake estimates for experimental seismologists, new material designers, and researchers. Social implications – Researchers may use coupled hygro-thermo-elasticity to categories the material, where the parameter is a new indication of its ability to conduct heat in interaction with diverse materials. Originality/value – The submitted text is the sole creation of the team of writers, and all authors equally contributed to its creation.

Keywords: hygro-thermo-elasticity, viscous fluid, reflection coefficient, transmission coefficient, moisture concentration

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Authors: Roberto Rosenhaim, Marcos Antonio Crus Moreira, Robson da Cunha, Gerson Gomes Cunha

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This work provides details on the wind speed behavior within cities of Arraial do Cabo and São Pedro da Aldeia located in the Lakes Region of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This region has one of the best potentials for wind power generation. In interurban layer, wind conditions are very complex and depend on physical geography, size and orientation of buildings and constructions around, population density, and land use. In the same context, the fundamental surface parameter that governs the production of flow turbulence in urban canyons is the surface roughness. Such factors can influence the potential for power generation from the wind within the cities. Moreover, the use of wind on a small scale is not fully utilized due to complexity of wind flow measurement inside the cities. It is difficult to accurately predict this type of resource. This study demonstrates how fuzzy logic can facilitate the assessment of the complexity of the wind potential inside the cities. It presents a decision support tool and its ability to deal with inaccurate information using linguistic variables created by the heuristic method. It relies on the already published studies about the variables that influence the wind speed in the urban environment. These variables were turned into the verbal expressions that are used in computer system, which facilitated the establishment of rules for fuzzy inference and integration with an application for smartphones used in the research. In the first part of the study, challenges of the sustainable development which are described are followed by incentive policies to the use of renewable energy in Brazil. The next chapter follows the study area characteristics and the concepts of fuzzy logic. Data were collected in field experiment by using qualitative and quantitative methods for assessment. As a result, a map of the various points is presented within the cities studied with its wind viability evaluated by a system of decision support using the method multivariate classification based on fuzzy logic.

Keywords: behavior of winds, wind power, fuzzy logic, sustainable development

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Authors: Ni Zhenyu

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A human settlement is defined as the social activities, social relationships and lifestyles generated within a certain territory, which is also relatively independent territorial living space and domain composed of common people. Along with the advancement of technology and the development of society, the idea, presented in traditional research, that human settlements are deemed as substantial organic integrity with strong autonomy, are more often challenged nowadays. Spatial form of human settlements is one of the most outstanding external expressions with its subjectivity and autonomy, nevertheless, the projections of social, economic activities on certain territories are even more significant. What exactly is the relationship between human beings and the spatial form of the settlements where they live in? a question worth thinking over has been raised, that if a new view, a spatial anthropological one , can be constructed to review and respond to spatial form of human settlements based on research theories and methods of cultural anthropology within the profession of architecture. This article interprets how the typical spatial form of human settlements in the basin area of Bac Giang Province is formed under the collective impacts of local social order, land use condition, topographic features, and social contracts. A particular case of the settlement in Sizhai Village, City of Zhuji, Zhejiang Province is chosen to study for research purpose. Spatial form of human settlements are interpreted as a modeled integrity affected corporately by dominant economy, social patterns, key symbol marks and core values, etc.. Spatial form of human settlements, being a structured existence, is a materialized, behavioral, and social space; it can be considered as a place where human beings realize their behaviors and a path on which the continuity of their behaviors are kept, also for social practice a territory where currant social structure and social relationships are maintained, strengthened and rebuilt. This article aims to break the boundary of understanding that spatial form of human settlements is pure physical space, furthermore, endeavors to highlight the autonomy status of human beings, focusing on their relationships with certain territories, their interpersonal relationships, man-earth relationships and the state of existence of human beings, elaborating the deeper connotation behind spatial form of human settlements.

Keywords: spatial anthropology, human settlement, spatial pattern, spatial structure

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Authors: German Osma, Gabriel Ordonez

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The production of metal-rubber spares for vehicles is a sequential process that consists in the transformation of raw material through cutting activities and chemical and thermal treatments, which demand electricity and fossil fuels. The energy efficiency analysis for these cases is mostly focused on studying of each machine or production step, but is not common to study of the quality of the production process achieves from aggregated value viewpoint, which can be used as a quality measurement for determining of impact on the environment. In this paper, the theory of exergetic cost is used for determining of aggregated exergy to three metal-rubber spares, from an exergy analysis and thermoeconomic analysis. The manufacturing processing of these spares is based into batch production technique, and therefore is proposed the use of this theory for discontinuous flows from of single models of workstations; subsequently, the complete exergy model of each product is built using flowcharts. These models are a representation of exergy flows between components into the machines according to electrical, mechanical and/or thermal expressions; they determine the demanded exergy to produce the effective transformation in raw materials (aggregated exergy value), the exergy losses caused by equipment and irreversibilities. The energy resources of manufacturing process are electricity and natural gas. The workstations considered are lathes, punching presses, cutters, zinc machine, chemical treatment tanks, hydraulic vulcanizing presses and rubber mixer. The thermoeconomic analysis was done by workstation and by spare; first of them describes the operation of the components of each machine and where the exergy losses are; while the second of them estimates the exergy-aggregated value for finished product and wasted feedstock. Results indicate that exergy efficiency of a mechanical workstation is between 10% and 60% while this value in the thermal workstations is less than 5%; also that each effective exergy-aggregated value is one-thirtieth of total exergy required for operation of manufacturing process, which amounts approximately to 2 MJ. These troubles are caused mainly by technical limitations of machines, oversizing of metal feedstock that demands more mechanical transformation work, and low thermal insulation of chemical treatment tanks and hydraulic vulcanizing presses. From established information, in this case, it is possible to appreciate the usefulness of theory of exergetic cost for analyzing of aggregated value in manufacturing processes.

Keywords: exergy-aggregated value, exergy efficiency, thermoeconomics, exergy modeling

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Authors: Aleksandra Tomic

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According to reliable sources, 4% of all websites is devoted to pornographic material, yet these estimates are often reported to be much higher. The largest internet pornography streaming website reports 21.2 billion visits in 2015 only. Considering the ubiquity of online pornography and the frequency of use, it is necessary to examine its potential influence on the construal of the sexual act and the roles of participants. Apart from the verbal and physical interactions in the pornographic movies themselves, the language in the titles of movies has the power to frame the sexual intercourse. In this study, Critical Discourse Analysis and corpus linguistics approaches will be used to examine the way the sexual intercourse and the roles of the participants are ideologically construed and perpetuated in the Internet pornography discourse. To this end, the study will explore the association between the specific morphosyntactic aspects of the references to performers of both genders, the person and the thematic role, and the gender of referred performer in the corpus of online pornographic movie titles. Distinctive collexeme analysis will be conducted to uncover possible associations between for gender of the performer denoted by the linguistic expression, and the person and thematic role assigned to it in the titles of online pornography movies. Initial results of the chi-square procedure performed on a sample of 295 online pornography movie titles on the largest pornography streaming website ‘Pornhub’ yielded significant results. The use of the three person categories was not equally distributed between genders, X2 (2, N = 106) = 32.52, p < 0.001, with female performers being referred to in the third person in 71.7% of the instances, and speaking in the first person 20.8% of the time, whereas male performers spoke in the first person 68% of the time, and were referred to in the third person in 17% of the instances. Moreover, there was a gender disparity in the assignment of thematic roles, with linguistic expressions for women being assigned the Patient role and men the Agent role in 58.8% of the cases, whereas the roles were reversed in 41.2% of the instances, X2 (1, N = 262) = 8.07633, p < 0.005. The results are discussed in terms of the ideologies surrounding female and male sexuality in the pornography discourse. Potential patterns of power imbalance, objectification, and discrimination are highlighted. Finally, the evidence from psycholinguistic studies on the influence of the language structure on event construal is related to the results of the study.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, gender studies, pornography, thematic roles

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Authors: Daria Reczynska, Justyna Jarczak, Michal Czopowicz, Danuta Sloniewska, Karina Horbanczuk, Wieslaw Jarmuz, Jaroslaw Kaba, Emilia Bagnicka

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Since people, animals and plants are constantly exposed to pathogens they have developed very complex systems of defense. Among ca. 1000 antimicrobial peptides from different families so far identified, approximately 30 belonging to cathelicidin family can be found in mammals. Cathelicidins probably constitute the first line of defense because they can act at a physiological salt concentration which is present in healthy tissues. Moreover, the low salt concentration which is present in infected tissues inhibits their activity. In goat bactenecin 7.5 (BAC7.5), bactenecin 5 (BAC5), myeloid antimicrobial peptide 28 (MAP28), myeloid antimicrobial peptide 34 (MAP34 A and B), goat bactenecin3.4 (ChBac3.4) were identified. Caprine arthritis-encephalitis (CAE) caused by small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV) is economic problem. The main CAE symptoms are weight loss, arthritis, pneumonia and mastitis (significant elevation of the somatic cell count and deterioration of some technological parameters). The study was conducted on 24 dairy goats. The animals were divided into two groups: experimental (SRLV-infected) and control (non-infected). The blood samples were collected five times: on the 1st, 7th, 30th, 90th and 150thday of lactation. The levels of transcripts of BAC7.5, BAC5, MAP28 and MAP34 genes in blood leucocytes were measured using qPCR method. There were no differences in mRNA levels of studied genes between stages of lactation. The differences were observed in expressions of BAC5, MAP28 and MAP34 genes with lower levels in the experimental group. There was no difference in BAC7.5 expression between groups. The decreased levels of transcripts of cathelicidin genes in blood leucocytes of SRLV-infected goats may indicate the disturbances of homeostasis in organisms. It can be concluded that SRLV infection seems to inhibit expression of cathelicidin genes. The study was financed by a grant from the National Scientific Center No. UMO-2013/09/B/NZ/03514.

Keywords: goat, CAEV, cathelicidins, blood leukocytes, gene expression

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Authors: S. R. Santhanam

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A gifted child is one who gives evidence of creativity, good memory, rapid learning. In mathematics, a teacher often comes across some gifted children and they exhibit the following characteristics: unusual alertness, enjoying solving problems, getting bored on repetitions, self-taught, going beyond what teacher taught, ask probing questions, connecting unconnected concepts, vivid imagination, readiness for research work, perseverance of a topic. There are two main areas of research carried out on them: 1)identifying gifted children, 2) interacting and channelizing them. A lack of appropriate recognition will lead the gifted child demotivated. One of the main findings is if proper attention and nourishment are not given then it leads a gifted child to become depressed, underachieving, fail to reach their full potential and sometimes develop negative attitude towards school and study. After identifying them, a mathematics teacher has to develop them into a fall fledged achiever. The responsibility of the teacher is enormous. The teacher has to be resourceful and patient. But interacting with them one finds a lot of surprises and awesomeness. The elementary algebraic identities like (a+b)(a-b)=a²-b², expansion of like (a+b)²(a-b)² and others are taught to students, of age group 13-15 in India. An average child will be satisfied with a single proof and immediate application of these identities. But a gifted child expects more from the teacher and at one stage after a little training will surpass the teacher also. In this short paper, the author shares his experience regarding teaching algebraic identities to gifted children. The following problem was given to a set of 10 gifted children of the specified age group: If a natural number ‘n’ to expressed as the sum of the two squares, will 2n also be expressed as the sum of two squares? An investigation has been done on what multiples of n satisfying the criterion. The attempts of the gifted children were consolidated and conclusion was drawn. A second problem was given to them as: can two natural numbers be found such that the difference of their square is 3? After a successful solution, more situations were analysed. As a third question, the finding of the sign of an algebraic expression in three variables was analysed. As an example: if a,b,c are real and unequal what will be sign of a²+4b²+9c²-4ab-12bc-6ca? Apart from an expression as a perfect square what other methods can be employed to prove an algebraic expression as positive negative or non negative has been analysed. Expressions like 4x²+2y²+13y²-2xy-4yz-6zx were given, and the children were asked to find the sign of the expression for all real values of x,y and z. In all investigations, only basic algebraic identities were used. As a next probe, a divisibility problem was initiated. When a,b,c are natural numbers such that a+b+c is at least 6, and if a+b+c is divisible by 6 then will 6 divide a³+b³+c³. The gifted children solved it in two different ways.

Keywords: algebraic identities, gifted children, Indian scenario, research

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: Sergio A. Navarro Tuch, Martin Rogelio Bustamante Bello, Leopoldo Julian Lechuga Lopez

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In recent years, Mexico’s population has seen a rise of different physiological and mental negative states. Two main consequences of this problematic are deficient work performance and high levels of stress generating and important impact on a person’s physical, mental and emotional health. Several approaches, such as the use of audiovisual stimulus to induce emotions and modify a person’s emotional state, can be applied in an effort to decreases these negative effects. With the use of different non-invasive physiological sensors such as EEG, luminosity and face recognition we gather information of the subject’s current emotional state. In a controlled environment, a subject is shown a series of selected images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) in order to induce a specific set of emotions and obtain information from the sensors. The raw data obtained is statistically analyzed in order to filter only the specific groups of information that relate to a subject’s emotions and current values of the physical variables in the controlled environment such as, luminosity, RGB light color, temperature, oxygen level and noise. Finally, a neural network based control algorithm is given the data obtained in order to feedback the system and automate the modification of the environment variables and audiovisual content shown in an effort that these changes can positively alter the subject’s emotional state. During the research, it was found that the light color was directly related to the type of impact generated by the audiovisual content on the subject’s emotional state. Red illumination increased the impact of violent images and green illumination along with relaxing images decreased the subject’s levels of anxiety. Specific differences between men and women were found as to which type of images generated a greater impact in either gender. The population sample was mainly constituted by college students whose data analysis showed a decreased sensibility to violence towards humans. Despite the early stage of the control algorithm, the results obtained from the population sample give us a better insight into the possibilities of emotional domotics and the applications that can be created towards the improvement of performance in people’s lives. The objective of this research is to create a positive impact with the application of technology to everyday activities; nonetheless, an ethical problem arises since this can also be applied to control a person’s emotions and shift their decision making.

Keywords: data analysis, emotional domotics, performance improvement, neural network

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Authors: Isabella B. Davidman

Abstract:

Violence used against Jewish women in both the Eastern European pogroms and during the Nazi era was specifically gendered, targeting their female identity and dignity of womanhood. Not only did these acts of gendered violence dehumanize Jewish women, but they also hurt the Jewish community as a whole. The devastating sexual violence that women endured during the pogroms and the Nazi era caused profound trauma. Out of shame and fear, silence about women’s experiences of sexual abuse manifests in forms that words cannot translate. Women have turned to art and other means of storytelling to convey their female experiences in visual and non-verbal ways. Therefore, this paper aims to address the historical accounts of gendered violence against Jewish women during the pogroms and Nazi era, as well as art that reflects upon the female experience, in order to understand the emotional impact resulting from these events. To analyze the artwork, a feminist analysis was used to understand the intersection of gender with the other systems of inequality, such as systemic anti-semitism, in women’s lives; this ultimately explained the ways in which cultural productions undermine and reinforce the political and social oppression of women by exploring how art confronts the exploitation of women's bodies. By analyzing the art in the context of specific acts of violence, such as public rape, as a strategic weapon, we are able to understand women’s experiences and how these experiences, in turn, challenged their womanhood. Additionally, these atrocities, which often occurred in the public space, were dismissed and forgotten due to the social stigma of rape. In this sense, the experiences of women in pogroms and the Nazi era were both highly unacknowledged and forgotten. Therefore, the art that was produced during those time periods, as well as those after those events, gives voice to the profound silence on the narratives of Jewish women. Sexual violence is a weapon of war used to cause physical and psychological destruction, not only as a product of war. In both the early twentieth-century pogroms and the Holocaust, the sexual violence that Jewish women endured was fundamentally the same: the rape of Jewish women became a focal target in the theater of violence– women were not raped because they were women, but specifically, because they were Jewish women. Although the events of the pogroms and the Holocaust are in the past, the art that serves as testimony to the experience of Jewish women remains an everlasting reminder of the gendered violence that occurred. Even though covert expressions, such as an embroidered image of a bird eating an apple, the artwork gives voice to the many silenced victims of sexualized and gendered violence.

Keywords: gendered violence, holocaust, Nazi era, pogroms

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Authors: Filipa Cruz, Grecia P. Matos

Abstract:

An Inexhaustible Will of Infinite is ongoing practice-based research focused on a psychophysiological conception of body and on the creative will that seeks to examine the possibility of art being simultaneously a pacifier and an intensifier in a physiological artistic production. This is a study where philosophy and art converge in a commentary on the affection of the concept of will to power in the art world through Nietzsche’s commentaries, through the analysis of case studies and a reflection arising from artistic practice. Through Nietzsche, it is sought to compare concepts that communicate with the artistic practice since creation is an intensification and engenders perspectives. It is also a practice highly embedded in the body, in the non-verbal, in the physiology of art and in the coexistence between the sensorial and the thought. It is questioned if the physiology of art could be thought of as a thinking-feeling with no primacy of the thought over the sensorial. Art as a manifestation of the will to power participates in a comprehension of the world. In this article, art is taken as a privileged way of communication – implicating corporeal-sensorial-conceptual – and of connection between humans. Problematized is the dream and the drunkenness as intensifications and expressions of life’s comprehension. Therefore, art is perceived as suggestion and invention, where the artistic intoxication breaks limits in the experience of life, and the artist, dominated by creative forces, claims, orders, obeys, proclaims love for life. The intention is also to consider how one can start from pain to create and how one can generate new and endless artistic forms through nightmares, daydreams, impulses, intoxication, enhancement, intensification in a plurality of subjects and matters. It is taken into consideration the fact that artistic creation is something that is intensified corporeally, expanded, continuously generated and acting on bodies. It is inextinguishable and a constant movement intertwining Apollonian and Dionysian instincts of destruction and creation of new forms. The concept of love also appears associated with conquering, that, in a process of intensification and drunkenness, impels the artist to generate and to transform matter. Just like a love relationship, love in Nietzsche requires time, patience, effort, courage, conquest, seduction, obedience, and command, potentiating the amplification of knowledge of the other / the world. Interlacing Nietzsche's philosophy, not with Modern Art, but with Contemporary Art, it is argued that intoxication, will to power (strongly connected with the creative will) and love still have a place in the artistic production as creative agents.

Keywords: artistic creation, body, intensification, psychophysiology, will to power

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