Search results for: Laban Movement Analysis

Authors: Mohd Asim, K. Nageswara Rao

Abstract:

The present work was carried out on River Yamuna passing through Delhi- National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR) of India for a stretch of about 130 km to assess the anthropogenic impact on the channel migration process for a period of 200 years with the help of satellite data and topographical maps with integration of geographic information system environment. Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) application was used to quantify river channel migration in ArcGIS environment. The average river channel migration was calculated to be 22.8 m/year for the entire study area. River channel migration was found to be moving in westward and eastward direction. Westward migration is more than 4 km maximum in length and eastward migration is about 4.19 km. The river has migrated a total of 32.26 sq. km of area. The results reveal that the river is being impacted by various human activities. The impact indicators include engineering structures, sand mining, embankments, urbanization, land use/land cover, canal network. The DSAS application was also used to predict the position of river channel in future for 2032 and 2042 by analyzing the past and present rate and direction of movement. The length of channel in 2032 and 2042 will be 132.5 and 141.6 km respectively. The channel will migrate maximum after crossing Okhla Barrage near Faridabad for about 3.84 sq. km from 2022 to 2042 from west to east.

Keywords: river migration, remote sensing, river Yamuna, anthropogenic impacts, DSAS, Delhi-NCR

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Authors: T. Padma, Jayashree S. Pillai

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Random entities are an essential component in any cryptographic application. The suitability of a number theory based novel pseudorandom sequence called Pseudorandom Partial Quotient Sequence (PPQS) generated from the continued fraction expansion of irrational numbers, in cryptographic applications, is analyzed in this paper. An approach to build the algorithm around a hard mathematical problem has been considered. The PQ sequence is tested for randomness and its suitability as a cryptographic key by performing randomness analysis, key sensitivity and key space analysis, precision analysis and evaluating the correlation properties is established.

Keywords: pseudorandom sequences, key sensitivity, correlation, security analysis, randomness analysis, sensitivity analysis

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Authors: Sandeep Nath

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There are good stresses and bad stresses. To tell the difference, recognize early signs of stress, and label stress conditions correctly, we need to understand stress triggers and the mechanism of stress as it arises. By understanding this in our teenage years, we can be prepared to prevent harmful stress from escalating and ruining health, physical, mental, and emotional. We can also prepare others/peers to be stress-free. The understanding of this is available in a form closest to our natural being, in ancient oriental wisdom, and is brought together as actionable habits in the movement called RENEWALism. The constructs of RENEWALism Habits are detailed in this paper, and case studies are presented of teenagers who have been equipped with both capability and capacity to handle their situations and environments independently.

Keywords: habits, renewalism, stress, teenagers

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Authors: Maryam Esfandiari, Bohdan Fridrich

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On December 28, 2017, a wave of protests erupted in several Iranian cities. Protesters demonstrated against the president, Hasan Rohani, and theocratical nature of the regime. Iran has a recent history with protest movements, such as Green Movement responsible for demonstrations after 2009 Iranian presidential election. However, the 2017/2018 protests differ from the previous ones in terms of organization and agenda. The events show little to no central organization and seem as being sparked by grass root movements and by citizens’ fatigue of government corruption, authoritarianism, and economic problems of the country. Social media has played important role in communicating the protests to the outside world and also in general coordination. By using content analyses, this paper analyzes the visual content of Twitter posts published during the protests. It aims to find the correlation between their decentralized nature and nature of the tweets – either emotionally arousing or efficiency-elicit. Pictures are searched by hashtags and coded by their content, such as ‘crowds,’ ‘protest activities,’ ‘symbols of unity,’ ‘violence,’ ‘iconic figures,’ etc. The study determines what type of content prevails and what type is the most impactful in terms of reach. This study contributes to understanding the role of social media both as a tool and a space in protest organization and portrayal in countries with limited Internet access.

Keywords: twitter, Iran, collective action, protest

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Authors: Simone Jane Dennis

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This paper leverages the spatial and temporal investigative strategy utilized by crime scene investigators – blood spatter work– to engage with the real and metaphorical memorialization of blood-soaked places. It uses this key trope with phenomenological sensibility, to trace the physical and temporal movement of blood outbound from the human body to sites beyond. Working backward, as crime scene investigators do, this paper traces the importance of both space and time and their confluence, to developing a comprehensive theory of violence. To do this work, the paper engages a range of geo-violent scales, from murder scenes to genocides, to both engage an extraordinarily replete literature of bloodshed across history and to move beyond analyses of how significance is assigned to the sites in which blood comes to rest to instead consider the importance of space and time to the structure of violence itself. It is in this regard that the kind of investigative work upon which blood spatter analysis depends is crucial: it engages time and space in reverse to understand the microscopic relations between bodies, places, and numerous (biological, clock, and seasonal) temporalities. Considering the circumstances under which blood escaped a body, the details of its destination in place, and the temporal circumstances of corporal departure, is crucial to making new knowledge about the peculiar temporality and spatiality of violence itself.

Keywords: blood, crime scenes, temporality, violence

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Authors: Viktorija Mano

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The objective of my research is to critique the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stance on foreign investment and the benefits for small, open economies of allowing the free movement of capital. In my research as a whole I will explore the extent to which this stance impacted upon and influenced the economic policies of Macedonia. This will involve providing a contextualized, critical account of the policy of the IMF focusing on a comparison of its policies during the early 2000s through policy documents, political discourse and enacted policies in Macedonia. The conditionality associated with these policies, such as the enforcement of austerity measures (including cutting public spending and reducing debt) and the privatization of public institutions has provoked strong reactions in countries which receive such loans. My main focus in my research is on exploring how the process of Financial Liberalization (FL) of the Macedonian economy affected capital flows in the form of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the private sector and how the recent Greek crisis of 2008 has impacted on this. In the case of Macedonia, the reality of FL was tested by the collapse of the Greek economy. However, this paper will highlight the main duties of the IMF and the goals of the FL process implemented in various countries.Additionally, I will undertake a rhetorical documentary analysis on the IMF reports regarding the process of FL in Macedonia since its independence until today.

Keywords: FDI, financial liberalization, Greece, IMF, Macedonia

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Authors: Berfu Guley Goren, Ayse Lale Berkoz

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The aim of the study is to analyze the concept of universal design and accessibility to make the city which allows equality and independence for individuals. In the content of the study, literature researches and observations of samples in Istanbul, Turkey are analyzed. As a result proposals are going to be developed to create the cities which are designed for everyone. In globalization process, in cities, population have been increasing dramatically with social and economic activities. Medical developments have been effective in prolonging human life and the disability that comes with aging has also increased in parallel with the disabled population. Nowadays disability is an important phenomenon. Because approximately 1 billion people live with disabilities. The heterogeneous structure formed by the rapid gathering of individuals with different social, economic and physical characteristics in the cities creates great spatial diversity and richness in the cities with different needs brought together. Unlike the cultural and physical wealth in these places and the potential to integrate and diversify the urban people, unfortunately, the designs in practice cause the urban areas to break apart, the urbanities to tear themselves apart, to interfere with their communication and interactions. The social and physical structure of the city is important to feel belonging to the urban society. In most cities when an observation is made, obstructions for people with disabilities can be seen in urban physical structure and design. With these obstructions, people with disabilities cannot live in urban space, and they are desolated in urban life. The city, which offers equal opportunity, the relation between economic development, social justice and built environment must be planned synchronous. Isolation and stigmatization must be abolished by regulations, activities of awareness and universal urban design. Without regard to social, economical and physical features every individual has the same right, which is using the freedom of movement. Supporting freedom of movement of every individual may be ensured by universal design and its principles. So urban spaces are going to be for every individual. For equal opportunity in urban services, urban design must be the focus on every individual including people with disabilities. In built environment practices, democratic suitable spaces should be created. In this respect, urban planners, architects, political decision-makers and other relevant actors should work together and should think very versatile.

Keywords: disability, equality, universal design, urban design

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Authors: Ho Yeon Park, Kyoung-Jae Kim

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The purpose of this study is to investigate whether friendship in social media can be an important factor in recommender system through social scientific analysis of friendship in popular social media such as Facebook and Twitter. For this purpose, this study analyzes data on friendship in real social media using component analysis and clique analysis among sub-group analysis in social network analysis. In this study, we propose an algorithm to reflect the results of sub-group analysis on the recommender system. The key to this algorithm is to ensure that recommendations from users in friendships are more likely to be reflected in recommendations from users. As a result of this study, outcomes of various subgroup analyzes were derived, and it was confirmed that the results were different from the results of the existing recommender system. Therefore, it is considered that the results of the subgroup analysis affect the recommendation performance of the system. Future research will attempt to generalize the results of the research through further analysis of various social data.

Keywords: sub-group analysis, social media, social network analysis, recommender systems

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Authors: Sannikumar Patel, Brian Nolan, Markus Hofmann, Philip Owende, Kunjan Patel

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Sentiment analysis and opinion mining have become emerging topics of research in recent years but most of the work is focused on data in the English language. A comprehensive research and analysis are essential which considers multiple languages, machine translation techniques, and different classifiers. This paper presents, a comparative analysis of different approaches for multilingual sentiment analysis. These approaches are divided into two parts: one using classification of text without language translation and second using the translation of testing data to a target language, such as English, before classification. The presented research and results are useful for understanding whether machine translation should be used for multilingual sentiment analysis or building language specific sentiment classification systems is a better approach. The effects of language translation techniques, features, and accuracy of various classifiers for multilingual sentiment analysis is also discussed in this study.

Keywords: cross-language analysis, machine learning, machine translation, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Jehan Fahim M. Alsulami

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Academic research about sentiment analysis in sentiment analysis has obtained significant advancement over recent years and is flourishing from the collection of knowledge provided by various academic disciplines. In the current study, the status and development trend of the field of sentiment analysis in social networks is evaluated through a bibliometric analysis of academic publications. In particular, the distributions of publications and citations, the distribution of subject, predominant journals, authors, countries are analyzed. The collaboration degree is applied to measure scientific connections from different aspects. Moreover, the keyword co-occurrence analysis is used to find out the major research topics and their evolutions throughout the time span. The area of sentiment analysis in social networks has gained growing attention in academia, with computer science and engineering as the top main research subjects. China and the USA provide the most to the area development. Authors prefer to collaborate more with those within the same nation. Among the research topics, newly risen topics such as COVID-19, customer satisfaction are discovered.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, sentiment analysis, social networks, social media

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Authors: Zahir Bakiri, Saci Nacefa

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In this paper a comparison in made between two models, with and without dispersion term, and focused on the characterization of the movement of the sludge blanket in the secondary sedimentation tank using the solid flux theory and the velocity settling. This allowed us develop a one-dimensional models, with and without dispersion based on a thorough experimental study carried out in situ and the application of online data which are the mass load flow, transfer concentration, and influent characteristic. On the other hand, in the proposed model, the new settling velocity law (double-exponential function) used is based on the Vesilind function.

Keywords: wastewater, activated sludge, sedimentation, settling velocity, settling models

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Authors: Jaime Leavitt, Katy Haralampides

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Numerical modelling has been used to investigate the long-term impact of a large dam on downstream wetland areas, specifically in terms of changing sediment dynamics in the system. The Mactaquac Generating Station (MQGS) is a 672MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric facility, commissioned in 1968 on the mainstem of the Wolastoq|Saint John River in New Brunswick, Canada. New Brunswick Power owns and operates the dam and has been working closely with the Canadian Rivers Institute at UNB Fredericton on a multi-year, multi-disciplinary project investigating the impact the dam has on its surrounding environment. With focus on the downstream river, this research discusses the initialization, set-up, calibration, and preliminary results of a 2-D hydrodynamic model using the Delft3d Flexible Mesh Suite (successor of the Delft3d 4 Suite). The flexible mesh allows the model grid to be structured in the main channel and unstructured in the floodplains and other downstream regions with complex geometry. The combination of grid types improves computational time and output. As the movement of water governs the movement of sediment, the calibrated and validated hydrodynamic model was applied to sediment transport simulations, particularly of the fine suspended sediments. Several provincially significant Protected Natural Areas and federally significant National Wildlife Areas are located 60km downstream of the MQGS. These broad, low-lying floodplains and wetlands are known as the Grand Lake Meadows Complex (GLM Complex). There is added pressure to investigate the impacts of river regulation on these protected regions that rely heavily on natural river processes like sediment transport and flooding. It is hypothesized that the fine suspended sediment would naturally travel to the floodplains for nutrient deposition and replenishment, particularly during the freshet and large storms. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impacts of river regulation on downstream environments and use the model as a tool for informed decision making to protect and maintain biologically productive wetlands and floodplains.

Keywords: hydrodynamic modelling, national wildlife area, protected natural area, sediment transport.

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Authors: Marco Frieslaar, Bing Chu, Eric Rogers

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Stroke is a devastating illness that is the second biggest cause of death in the world (after heart disease). Where it does not kill, it leaves survivors with debilitating sensory and physical impairments that not only seriously harm their quality of life, but also cause a high incidence of severe depression. It is widely accepted that early intervention is essential for recovery, but current rehabilitation techniques largely favor hospital-based therapies which have restricted access, expensive and specialist equipment and tend to side-step the emotional challenges. In addition, there is insufficient funding available to provide the long-term assistance that is required. As a consequence, recovery rates are poor. The relatively unexplored solution is to develop therapies that can be harnessed in the home and are formulated from technologies that already exist in everyday life. This would empower individuals to take control of their own improvement and provide choice in terms of when and where they feel best able to undertake their own healing. This research seeks to identify how effective post-stroke, rehabilitation therapy can be applied to upper limb mobility, within the physical context of a home rather than a hospital. This is being achieved through the design and construction of an automation scheme, based on iterative learning control and the Riener muscle model, that has the ability to adapt to the user and react to their level of fatigue and provide tangible physical recovery. It utilizes a SMART Phone and laptop to construct an iterative learning control (ILC) system, that monitors upper arm movement in three dimensions, as a series of exercises are undertaken. The equipment generates functional electrical stimulation to assist in muscle activation and thus improve directional accuracy. In addition, it monitors speed, accuracy, areas of motion weakness and similar parameters to create a performance index that can be compared over time and extrapolated to establish an independent and objective assessment scheme, plus an approximate estimation of predicted final outcome. To further extend its assessment capabilities, nerve conduction velocity readings are taken by the software, between the shoulder and hand muscles. This is utilized to measure the speed of response of neuron signal transfer along the arm and over time, an online indication of regeneration levels can be obtained. This will prove whether or not sufficient training intensity is being achieved even before perceivable movement dexterity is observed. The device also provides the option to connect to other users, via the internet, so that the patient can avoid feelings of isolation and can undertake movement exercises together with others in a similar position. This should create benefits not only for the encouragement of rehabilitation participation, but also an emotional support network potential. It is intended that this approach will extend the availability of stroke recovery options, enable ease of access at a low cost, reduce susceptibility to depression and through these endeavors, enhance the overall recovery success rate.

Keywords: home-based therapy, iterative learning control, Riener muscle model, SMART phone, stroke rehabilitation

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Authors: Hanjun Hu, Jinxiang Zhang

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With the decline of "growthism", China's urbanization process has shifted from the stage of spatial expansion to the stage of optimization of built-up spaces, and urban renewal has gradually become a new wave of China's urban movement in recent years. The ongoing urban renewal movement in China not only needs to generate new motivation for urban development but also solve the backlog of social problems caused by rapid urbanization, which provides an opportunity for the transformation of China's urban governance model. Unlike previous approaches that focused on physical space and functional renewal, such as urban reconstruction, redevelopment, and reuse, the key challenge of urban renewal in the post-growth era lies in coordinating the complex interest relationships between multiple stakeholders. The traditional theoretical frameworks that focus on the structural relations between social groups are insufficient to explain the behavior logic and mutual cooperation mechanism of various groups and individuals in the current urban renewal practices. Therefore, based on the long-term tracking of the urban renewal practices in the Old City of Nanjing (OCN), this paper introduces the "collective action" theory to deeply analyze changes in the urban renewal governance model in OCN and tries to summarize the governance strategies that promote the formation of collective action within recent practices from a micro-scale. The study found that the practice in OCN experienced three different stages "government-led", "growth coalition" and "asymmetric game". With the transformation of government governance concepts, the rise of residents' consciousness of rights, and the wider participation of social organizations in recent years, the urban renewal in OCN is entering a new stage of "collective renewal action". Through the establishment of the renewal organization model, incentive policies, and dynamic negotiation mechanism, urban renewal in OCN not only achieves a relative balance between individual interests and collective interests but also makes the willingness of residents the dominant factor in formulating urban renewal policies. However, the presentation of "collective renewal action" in OCN is still mainly based on typical cases. Although the government is no longer the dominant role, a large number of resident-led collective actions have not yet emerged, which puts forward new research needs for a sustainable governance policy innovation in this action.

Keywords: urban renewal, collective action theory, governance, cooperation mechanism, China

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Authors: Syarif Hidayat

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As millions of people with different backgrounds perform hajj every year in Saudi Arabia, it brings out several problems. Missing people is among many crucial problems need to be encountered. Some people might have had insufficient knowledge of using tracking system equipment. Other might become a victim of an accident, lose consciousness, or even died, prohibiting them to perform certain activity. For those reasons, people could not send proper SOS message. The major contribution of this paper is the application of the diverse alert method in pilgrims tracking system. It offers a simple yet robust solution to send SOS message by pilgrims during Hajj. Knowledge of context aware computing is assumed herein. This study presents four methods that could be utilized by pilgrims to send SOS. The first method is simple mobile application contains only a button. The second method is based on behavior analysis based off GPS location movement anomaly. The third method is by introducing pressing pattern to smartwatch physical button as a panic button. The fourth method is by identifying certain accelerometer pattern recognition as a sign of emergency situations. Presented method in this paper would be an important part of pilgrims tracking system. The discussion provided here includes easy to use design whilst maintaining tracking accuracy, privacy, and security of its users.

Keywords: context aware computing, emergency alert system, GPS, hajj pilgrim tracking, location-based services

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Authors: Elif Tugce Aksun Tumerkan, Chris Lowe, Hannah Krupa

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Fluorescent proteins are self-sufficient in forming chromophores with a visible wavelength from 3 amino acids sequence within their own polypeptide structure. This chromophore – a molecule that absorbs a photon of light and exhibits an energy transition equal to the energy of the absorbed photon. Fluorescent proteins (FPs) consisted of a chain of 238 amino acid residues and composed of 11 beta strands shaped in a cylinder surrounding an alpha helix structure. A better understanding of the system of the chromospheres and the increasing advance in protein engineering in recent years, the properties of FPs offers the potential for new applications. They have used sensors and probes in molecular biology and cell-based research that giving a chance to observe these FPs tagged cell localization, structural variation and movement. For clarifying functional uses of fluorescent proteins, electrophoretic properties of these proteins are one of the most important parameters. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis is used for determining electrophoretic properties commonly. While there are many techniques are used for determining the functionality of protein-based research, SDS-PAGE analysis can only provide a molecular level assessment of the proteolytic fragments. Before SDS-PAGE analysis, fluorescent proteins need to successfully purified. Due to directly purification of the target, FPs is difficult from the animal, gene expression is commonly used which must be done by transformation with the plasmid. Furthermore, used gel within electrophoresis and staining agents properties have a key role. In this review, the different factors that have the impact on the electrophoretic properties of fluorescent proteins explored. Fluorescent protein separation and purification are the essential steps before electrophoresis that should be done very carefully. For protein purification, gene expression process and following steps have a significant function. For successful gene expression, the properties of selected bacteria for expression, used plasmid are essential. Each bacteria has own characteristics which are very sensitive to gene expression, also used procedure is the important factor for fluorescent protein expression. Another important factors are gel formula and used staining agents. Gel formula has an effect on the specific proteins mobilization and staining with correct agents is a key step for visualization of electrophoretic bands of protein. Visuality of proteins can be changed depending on staining reagents. Apparently, this review has emphasized that gene expression and purification have a stronger effect than electrophoresis protocol and staining agents.

Keywords: cell biology, gene expression, staining agents, SDS-page

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Authors: Siamak Feizi, Gunvor Baardvik

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Soil erosion has special consequences for landfills that are more serious than those found at conventional construction sites. Different potential heads between two sides of a landfill and the subsequent movement of water through pores within the soil body could trigger the soil erosion and construction instability. Such a condition was encountered in a landfill project in the southern part of Norway. To check the risk of internal erosion due to changes in the groundwater level (because of seasonal flooding in the river), a series of numerical simulations by means of Geo-Seep software was conducted. Output of this study provides a total picture of the landfill stability, possibilities of erosions, and necessary measures to prevent or reduce the risk for the landfill operator.

Keywords: erosion, seepage, landfill, stability

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Authors: Andrew Wee

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As a result of the Italian Independence Wars starting in 1848, Italy began to change through unification. People gradually moved away from some of their traditional practices and values, such as the long-held belief that women were inferior to men, as part of the Risorgimento. Italians began to take interest in opera as a form of emotional release. As opera became more popular and prominent in their culture, it aided in the dissemination of ideas, especially stimulating the spread of imperialism, in the late 19th century, as Italy began extending its presence to other countries. In order to collect the information needed to analyze Italy’s foreign presence, it was necessary to consult texts concerning the culture of the Risorgimento. These texts included primary sources from operatic composers and contemporary recorded accounts. Letters from Giuseppe Verdi, a leader in opera during the Risorgimento, have been scrutinized for indications of popular attitudes of the time. The cultural context of the Risorgimento is essential to understanding the Italian motives and attitudes towards the outside world. On the more political side, research has also entailed the study of historical data of general laws, policies, and their purposes concerning geopolitical boundaries and foreign affairs, such as Edward Said’s thesis on Orientalism. By establishing these two characteristics of Italy, the paper will thoroughly illustrate Italy’s presence in foreign affairs. Texts have been searched with the intent of using information that reveals Italian attitudes toward exotic countries to determine whether their demeanor was positive or condescending. Motives behind sources have been interpreted in context in order to form a complete picture of the Italian sentiment towards foreigners. Additionally, research pertaining to Italian nationalism and imperialism such as song and literature has been used. The primary form of research has been the division of sources that are culturally based and those that are political in nature. Opera had always been developing since its creation in the 17th century, and in the 19th century, the bel canto movement revolutionized opera and its role in Italian society. This paper uses evidence that popular sentiment was influenced by opera to support the belief that the evolution of opera was as a result of the nationalist sentiment, and in turn fueled the cultural movement known as the Risorgimento. In this way, opera proceeded to affect Italian culture by spreading the idea of imperialism.

Keywords: opera, Italian unification, music history, imperialism

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Authors: Seyed Hamed Mousavi, Juha M. Hijmans, Reza Rajabi, Ron Diercks, Johannes Zwerver, Henk van der Worp

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Introduction: Running is one of the most popular sports activity among people. Improper sagittal plane ankle, knee and hip kinematics are considered to be associated with the increase of injury risk in runners. Motion assessing smart-phone applications are increasingly used to measure kinematics both in the field and laboratory setting, as they are cheaper, more portable, accessible, and easier to use relative to 3D motion analysis system. The aims of this study are 1) to compare the results of 3D gait analysis system and CE; 2) to evaluate the test-retest and intra-rater reliability of coach’s eye (CE) app for the sagittal plane hip, knee, and ankle angles in the touchdown and toe-off while running. Method: Twenty subjects participated in this study. Sixteen reflective markers and cluster markers were attached to the subject’s body. Subjects were asked to run at a self-selected speed on a treadmill. Twenty-five seconds of running were collected for analyzing kinematics of interest. To measure sagittal plane hip, knee and ankle joint angles at touchdown (TD) and toe off (TO), the mean of first ten acceptable consecutive strides was calculated for each angle. A smartphone (Samsung Note5, android) was placed on the right side of the subject so that whole body was simultaneously filmed with 3D gait system during running. All subjects repeated the task with the same running speed after a short interval of 5 minutes in between. The CE app, installed on the smartphone, was used to measure the sagittal plane hip, knee and ankle joint angles at touchdown and toe off the stance phase. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess test-retest and intra-rater reliability. To analyze the agreement between 3D and 2D outcomes, the Bland and Altman plot was used. The values of ICC were for Ankle at TD (TRR=0.8,IRR=0.94), ankle at TO (TRR=0.9,IRR=0.97), knee at TD (TRR=0.78,IRR=0.98), knee at TO (TRR=0.9,IRR=0.96), hip at TD (TRR=0.75,IRR=0.97), hip at TO (TRR=0.87,IRR=0.98). The Bland and Altman plots displaying a mean difference (MD) and ±2 standard deviation of MD (2SDMD) of 3D and 2D outcomes were for Ankle at TD (MD=3.71,+2SDMD=8.19, -2SDMD=-0.77), ankle at TO (MD=-1.27, +2SDMD=6.22, -2SDMD=-8.76), knee at TD (MD=1.48, +2SDMD=8.21, -2SDMD=-5.25), knee at TO (MD=-6.63, +2SDMD=3.94, -2SDMD=-17.19), hip at TD (MD=1.51, +2SDMD=9.05, -2SDMD=-6.03), hip at TO (MD=-0.18, +2SDMD=12.22, -2SDMD=-12.59). Discussion: The ability that the measurements are accurately reproduced is valuable in the performance and clinical assessment of outcomes of joint angles. The results of this study showed that the intra-rater and test-retest reliability of CE app for all kinematics measured are excellent (ICC ≥ 0.75). The Bland and Altman plots display that there are high differences of values for ankle at TD and knee at TO. Measuring ankle at TD by 2D gait analysis depends on the plane of movement. Since ankle at TD mostly occurs in the none-sagittal plane, the measurements can be different as foot progression angle at TD increases during running. The difference in values of the knee at TD can depend on how 3D and the rater detect the TO during the stance phase of running.

Keywords: reliability, running, sagittal plane, two dimensional

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Authors: Li Cheng, Zhang Yilei, Cohen Yehuda

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Two motility mechanisms were introduced into iDynoMiCs software, which adopts an individual-based modeling method. Based on the new capabilities, along with the pressure motility developed before, influence of bacterial motility on biofilm formation was studied. Simulation results were evaluated both qualitatively through 3D structure inspections and quantitatively by parameter characterizations. It was showed that twitching motility increased the biofilm surface irregularity probably due to movement of cells towards higher nutrient concentration location whereas free motility, on the other hand, could make biofilms flatter and smoother relatively. Pressure motility showed no significant influence in this study.

Keywords: iDynoMics, biofilm structure, bacterial motility, motility mechanisms

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Sandeep Nath

Abstract:

There are good stresses and bad stresses. To tell the difference, recognize early signs of stress, and label stress conditions correctly, we need to understand stress triggers and the mechanism of stress as it arises. By understanding this through mindfulness of body, mind, and spirit, we can be prepared to prevent harmful stress from escalating and ruining health; physical, mental, and emotional. We can also prepare others/peers to be stress-free. The understanding of this is available in a form closest to our natural being, in ancient oriental wisdom, and is brought together as actionable habits in the movement called RENEWALism. The constructs of RENEWALism Habits are detailed in this paper, and case studies presented of how mindfulness has equipped individuals with both capability and capacity to handle their situations and environments despite the odds.

Keywords: habits, mindfulness, renewalism, stress

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Authors: Aizreena Azaman, Mai Ishibashi, Masanori Ishizawa, Shin-Ichiroh Yamamoto

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Sensory input plays an important role to human posture control system to initiate strategy in order to counterpart any unbalance condition and thus, prevent fall. In previous study, joint stiffness was observed able to describe certain issues regarding to movement performance. But, correlation between balance ability and joint stiffness is still remains unknown. In this study, joint stiffening strategy at ankle and hip were observed under different sensory manipulations and its correlation with conventional clinical test (Functional Reach Test) for balance ability was investigated. In order to create unstable condition, two different surface perturbations (tilt up-tilt (TT) down and forward-backward (FB)) at four different frequencies (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 Hz) were introduced. Furthermore, four different sensory manipulation conditions (include vision and vestibular system) were applied to the subject and they were asked to maintain their position as possible. The results suggested that joint stiffness were high during difficult balance situation. Less balance people generated high average joint stiffness compared to balance people. Besides, adaptation of posture control system under repetitive external perturbation also suggested less during sensory limited condition. Overall, analysis of joint stiffening response possible to predict unbalance situation faced by human.

Keywords: balance ability, joint stiffness, sensory, adaptation, dynamic

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Authors: Vahid Hosseinzadeh

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Salafism is a movement of thought-religion that was born into Sunni Islam and Hanbali sect. However, many groups and different attitudes call themselves Salafis, but they all have common characteristics, the main of which is radical and retrograde interpretation of Islamic sources. Taqi Ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah in the Muslim world was the first thinker who established these thoughts. The authors of this article initially tried to express the meaning of Salafism and its appellation in order to focus on the beliefs and thoughts of Ibn Taymiyyah. In this way, it was tried to extract the intellectual foundations of Ibn Taymiyya from the literature and scientific works of his own using a descriptive-analytical method. Extreme focus on the appearance of Quranic phrases and opposition to any new thing that did not exist in Qur'an, Sunnah and the first 3 centuries of Islam, are among the central feature of his thoughts.

Keywords: Salafism, Ibn Taymiyyah, radical literalism, monotheism, polytheism, takfir

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Authors: Farshad Amini, Kejun Wen

Abstract:

The formation of reflective cracking of pavement overlays has confronted highway engineers for many years. Stress-relieving interlayers, such as paving fabrics, have been used in an attempt to reduce or delay reflective cracking. The effectiveness of paving fabrics in reducing reflection cracking is related to joint or crack movement in the underlying pavement, crack width, overlay thickness, subgrade conditions, climate, and traffic volume. The nonwoven geotextiles are installed between the old and new asphalt layers. Paving fabrics enhance performance through two mechanisms: stress relief and waterproofing. Several factors including proper installation, remedial work performed before overlay, overlay thickness, variability of pavement strength, existing pavement condition, base/subgrade support condition, and traffic volume affect the performance. The primary objective of this study was to conduct a long-term monitoring of the paving fabric interlayer systems to evaluate its effectiveness and performance. A comprehensive testing, monitoring, and analysis program were undertaken, where twelve 500-ft pavement sections of a four-lane highway were rehabilitated, and then monitored for seven years. A comparison between the performance of paving fabric treatment systems and control sections is reported. Lessons learned, and the various factors are discussed.

Keywords: monitoring, paving fabrics, performance, reflective cracking

Procedia PDF Downloads 333

Authors: Liang Zhou, Qinke Sun

Abstract:

Taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt as an example, using long-term nighttime lighting data from DMSP/OLS from 1992 to 2012, support vector machine classification (SVM) was used to quantitatively extract urban built-up areas of economic belts, and spatial analysis of expansion intensity index, standard deviation ellipse, etc. was introduced. The model conducts detailed and in-depth discussions on the strength, direction, and type of the expansion of the middle and lower reaches of the economic belt and the key node cities. The results show that: (1) From 1992 to 2012, the built-up areas of the major cities in the Yangtze River Valley showed a rapid expansion trend. The built-up area expanded by 60,392 km², and the average annual expansion rate was 31%, that is, from 9615 km² in 1992 to 70007 km² in 2012. The spatial gradient analysis of the watershed shows that the expansion of urban built-up areas in the middle and lower reaches of the river basin takes Shanghai as the leading force, and the 'bottom-up' model shows an expanding pattern of 'upstream-downstream-middle-range' declines. The average annual rate of expansion is 36% and 35%, respectively. 17% of which the midstream expansion rate is about 50% of the upstream and downstream. (2) The analysis of expansion intensity shows that the urban expansion intensity in the Yangtze River Basin has generally shown an upward trend, the downstream region has continued to rise, and the upper and middle reaches have experienced different amplitude fluctuations. To further analyze the strength of urban expansion at key nodes, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Wuhan in the upper and middle reaches maintain a high degree of consistency with the intensity of regional expansion. Node cities with Shanghai as the core downstream continue to maintain a high level of expansion. (3) The standard deviation ellipse analysis shows that the overall center of gravity of the Yangtze River basin city is located in Anqing City, Anhui Province, and it showed a phenomenon of reciprocating movement from 1992 to 2012. The nighttime standard deviation ellipse distribution range increased from 61.96 km² to 76.52 km². The growth of the major axis of the ellipse was significantly larger than that of the minor axis. It had obvious east-west axiality, in which the nighttime lights in the downstream area occupied in the entire luminosity scale urban system leading position.

Keywords: urban space, support vector machine, spatial characteristics, night lights, Yangtze River Economic Belt

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: Habibi Said Mustafa, Hiroko Ono

Abstract:

Since 2006, Afghanistan is dealing with one of the most dramatic trend of urban movement in its history, cities and towns are expanding in size and number. Kabul is the capital of Afghanistan and as well as the fast-growing city in the Asia. The influx of the returnees from neighbor countries and other provinces of Afghanistan caused high rate of artificial growth which slums increased. As an unwanted consequence of this growth, today informal settlements have covered a vast portion of the city. Land Readjustment (LR) has proved to be an important tool for developing informal settlements and reorganizing urban areas but its implementation always varies from country to country and region to region within the countries. Consequently, to successfully develop the informal settlements in Kabul, we need to define an Afghan model of LR specifically for Afghanistan which needs to incorporate all those factors related to the socio-economic condition of the country. For this purpose, a part of the old city of Kabul has selected as a study area which is located near the Central Business District (CBD). After the further analysis and incorporating all needed factors, the result shows a positive potential for the implementation of an adaptable Land Readjustment model for Kabul city which is more sustainable and socio-economically friendly. It will enhance quality of life and provide better urban services for the residents. Moreover, it will set a vision and criteria by which sustainable developments shall proceed in other similar informal settlements of Kabul.

Keywords: adaptation, informal settlements, Kabul, land readjustment, preservation

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Authors: Mehmet Halkaci, Ekrem Öztürk, Mevlüt Türköz, H. Selçuk Halkacı

Abstract:

Hydromechanical deep drawing (HMD) process is an advanced manufacturing process used to form deep parts with only one forming step. In this process, sheet metal blank can be drawn deeper by means of fluid pressure acting on sheet surface in the opposite direction of punch movement. High limiting drawing ratio, good surface quality, less springback characteristic and high dimensional accuracy are some of the advantages of this process. The performance of the HMD process is affected by various process parameters such as fluid pressure, blank holder force, punch-die radius, pre-bulging pressure and height, punch diameter, friction between sheet-die and sheet-punch. The fluid pressure and bank older force are the main loading parameters and affect the formability of HMD process significantly. The punch diameter also influences the limiting drawing ratio (the ratio of initial sheet diameter to punch diameter) of the sheet metal blank. In this research, optimal loading (fluid pressure and blank holder force) profiles were determined for AA 5754-O sheet material through fuzzy control algorithm developed in previous study using LS-DYNA finite element analysis (FEA) software. In the preceding study, the fuzzy control algorithm was developed utilizing geometrical criteria such as thinning and wrinkling. In order to obtain the final desired part with the developed algorithm in terms of the punch diameter requested, the effect of punch diameter, which is the one of the process parameters, on loading profiles was investigated separately using blank thickness of 1 mm. Thus, the practicality of the previously developed fuzzy control algorithm with different punch diameters was clarified. Also, thickness distributions of the sheet metal blank along a curvilinear distance were compared for the FEA in which different punch diameters were used. Consequently, it was found that the use of different punch diameters did not affect the optimal loading profiles too much.

Keywords: Finite Element Analysis (FEA), fuzzy control, hydromechanical deep drawing, optimal loading profiles, punch diameter

Procedia PDF Downloads 431

Authors: Forouzan Salehi Fergeni

Abstract:

Converting the movement intents of a person into commands for action employing brain signals like electroencephalogram signals is a brain-computer interface (BCI) system. When left or right-hand motions are imagined, different patterns of brain activity appear, which can be employed as BCI signals for control. To make better the brain-computer interface (BCI) structures, effective and accurate techniques for increasing the classifying precision of motor imagery (MI) based on electroencephalography (EEG) are greatly needed. Subject dependency and non-stationary are two features of EEG signals. So, EEG signals must be effectively processed before being used in BCI applications. In the present study, after applying an 8 to 30 band-pass filter, a car spatial filter is rendered for the purpose of denoising, and then, a method of analysis of variance is used to select more appropriate and informative channels from a category of a large number of different channels. After ordering channels based on their efficiencies, a sequential forward channel selection is employed to choose just a few reliable ones. Features from two domains of time and wavelet are extracted and shortlisted with the help of a statistical technique, namely the t-test. Finally, the selected features are classified with different machine learning and neural network classifiers being k-nearest neighbor, Probabilistic neural network, support-vector-machine, Extreme learning machine, decision tree, Multi-layer perceptron, and linear discriminant analysis with the purpose of comparing their performance in this application. Utilizing a ten-fold cross-validation approach, tests are performed on a motor imagery dataset found in the BCI competition III. Outcomes demonstrated that the SVM classifier got the greatest classification precision of 97% when compared to the other available approaches. The entire investigative findings confirm that the suggested framework is reliable and computationally effective for the construction of BCI systems and surpasses the existing methods.

Keywords: brain-computer interface, channel selection, motor imagery, support-vector-machine

Procedia PDF Downloads 50

Authors: Sophie Whittle

Abstract:

Prior to present day, English syntax historically exhibited an inconsistent verb-second (V2) rule, which saw the verb move to the second position in the sentence following the fronting of a type of phrase. There was a high amount of variation throughout the history of English with regard to the ordering of subject and verb, and many explanations attempting to account for this variation have been documented in previous literature. However, these attempts have been contradictory, with many accounts positing the effect of previous syntactic changes as the main motivations behind the decline of V2. For instance, morphosyntactic changes, such as the loss of clitics and the loss of empty expletives, have been loosely connected to changes in frequency for the loss of V2. The questions surrounding the development of non-V2 in English have, therefore, yet to be answered. The current paper aims to bring together a number of explanations from different linguistic fields to determine the factors driving the changes in English V2. Using historical corpus-based methods, the study analyses both quantitatively and qualitatively the changes in frequency for the history of V2 in the Old, Middle, and Modern English periods to account for the variation in a range of sentential environments. These methods delve into the study of information structure, prosody and language contact to explain variation within different contexts. The analysis concludes that these factors, in addition to changes within the syntax, are responsible for the position of verb movement. The loss of V2 serves as an exemplar study within the field of historical linguistics, which combines a number of factors in explaining language change in general.

Keywords: corpora, English, language change, mixed-methods, syntax, verb-second

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Taliah Foudah, Sana Masri, Jana Al Ghamdi, Rimaz Alzaaqi

Abstract:

This research project explores the creative works of the app Metui, which allows consumers to edit their photos and use the new and popular AI feature, which turns any photo into a cartoon-like animated image with beautified enhancements. Studying this AI app demonstrates the significance of the ability in which AI can develop intricate designs which verily replicate the human mind. Our goal was to investigate the Metui app by asking our audience certain questions about its functionality and their personal feelings about its credibility as well as their beliefs as to how this app will add to the future of the AI generation, both positively and negatively. Their responses were further explored by analyzing the questions and responses thoroughly and calculating the results through pie charts. Overall, it was concluded that the Metui app is a powerful step forward for AI by replicating the intelligence of humans and its creativity to either benefit society or do the opposite.

Keywords: AI Art, Meitu, application, photo editing

Procedia PDF Downloads 68