Search results for: paradigm shift

Authors: Mohamed Ayoub

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The structures and energetics of various isomeric hydrogen bonded dimers, such as (FH…OC, FH…CO), (FH…CNH, FH…NCH), (FH…N2O, FH…ON2), and (FH…NHCO, FH…OCNH) have been investigated using DFT B3LYP with aug-cc-pVTZ basis set and by natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. For each isomeric pair we calculated: H-bond energy (ΔEB…H), charge-transfer (QCT), where B is atom bearing lone-pairs in CO, CNH, NCH, N2O, and NHCO, H-bond distances (RB…H), the elongation of HF bond (ΔRHF) and the red-shift of HF stretching frequency (ΔVHF). We conclude that the principle difference in the relative stability between each isomeric pair is attributed to distinctive interaction of carbon and oxygen lone pairs of CO, carbon and nitrogen lone-pairs of CNH and NCH, and nitrogen and oxygen lone pairs of N2O and NHCO into the unfilled antibond on HF (σ*HF).

Keywords: charge transfer, computational chemistry, isomeric hydrogen bond, natural bond orbital

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Authors: Khader Titi

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Information technology developments have changed the way how businesses are working. Organizations are required to become visible online and stay connected to take advantages of costs reduction and improved operation of existing resources. The approval and the application areas of the cloud computing has significantly increased since it was presented by Google in 2007. Internet Cloud computing has attracted the IT enterprise attention especially the e-business enterprise. At this time, there is a great issue of environmental costs during the enterprises apply the e- business, but with the coming of cloud computing, most of the problem will be solved. Organizations around the world are facing with the continued budget challenges and increasing in the size of their computational data so, they need to find a way to deliver their services to clients as economically as possible without negotiating the achievement of anticipated outcomes. E- business companies need to provide better services to satisfy their clients. In this research, the researcher proposed a paradigm that use and deploy cloud computing technology environment to be used for e-business in small enterprises. Cloud computing might be a suitable model for implementing e-business and e-commerce architecture to improve efficiency and user satisfaction.

Keywords: E-commerce, cloud computing, B2C, SaaS

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Authors: Foluke Dada

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Prisons all over the world are set up by law to provide restraint and custody for individuals accused or convicted of crimes by the state. The Nigerian prison dates back to the colonial era and is modelled after the British system. It is a system that lays emphasis on punishment and deterrence. It emphasises retribution rather than reformation. These, it can be argued, results in the inhuman conditions of Nigerian prisons and the conscienceless treatment of convicts and awaiting trial inmates in Nigerian prisons. This paper attempts an examination of the challenges currently beguiling Nigerian prisons, the need for reforms in the prison systems and the imperative of these reforms to an efficient criminal justice delivery system in the country. This paper further postulates that rehabilitation should be favoured as against retribution f the development of the Nigerian criminal justice system in line with the shift towards reform.

Keywords: criminal justice, human rights, prison reforms, rehabilitation and retribution

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Authors: Alan Bhekisisa Buthelezi

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The aim of this paper is to explore African management and leadership philosophies at secondary schools in post-apartheid South Africa. The research was conducted in the King Cetshwayo district of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. Apart from the literature on participative management, the paper reports on a research in which an empirical investigation based on a quantitative research paradigm was used to collect data from secondary school principals. The literature findings revealed that secondary school principals need to rethink their management and leadership philosophies in the twenty-first century. The findings of this research further reveal that ubuntu (humanness) and lekgotla (Sesotho term for “an African participatory approach to decision-making”) should be embedded in the art of school management and leadership in the South African context. The paper concludes with the submission that ongoing capacity-building workshops should be fast-tracked on matters pertaining to management and leadership.

Keywords: distributed leadership, team leadership, decentralization of power, transformational leadership

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Authors: Alan Bhekisisa Buthelezi

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to explore African management and leadership philosophies at secondary schools in post-apartheid South Africa. The research was conducted in the King Cetshwayo district of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. Apart from the literature on participative management, the paper reports on research in which an empirical investigation based on a quantitative research paradigm was used to collect data from secondary school principals. The literature findings revealed that secondary school principals need to rethink their management and leadership philosophies in the twenty-first century. The findings of this research further reveal that ubuntu (humanness) and lekgotla (Sesotho term for ‘an African participatory approach to decision-making’) should be embedded in the art of school management and leadership in the South African context. The paper concludes with the submission that ongoing capacity-building workshops should be fast-tracked on matters pertaining to management and leadership.

Keywords: transformational leadership, distributed leadership, team leadership, decentralisation of power

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Authors: Faisal Zaman, Ya Ping Wong, Boon Yian Ng

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Point cloud source data for surface reconstruction is usually contaminated with noise and outliers. To overcome this, we present a novel approach using modified kernel density estimation (KDE) technique with bilateral filtering to remove noisy points and outliers. First we present a method for estimating optimal bandwidth of multivariate KDE using particle swarm optimization technique which ensures the robust performance of density estimation. Then we use mean-shift algorithm to find the local maxima of the density estimation which gives the centroid of the clusters. Then we compute the distance of a certain point from the centroid. Points belong to outliers then removed by automatic thresholding scheme which yields an accurate and economical point surface. The experimental results show that our approach comparably robust and efficient.

Keywords: point preprocessing, outlier removal, surface reconstruction, kernel density estimation

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Authors: Samuel Fernandes, Dylan Kato, Emin Burak Onat, Patrick Keyantuo, Raja Sengupta, Amine Bouzaghrane

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The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the United States, forcing cities to impose stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders. Building operations had to adjust as non-essential personnel worked from home. But as buildings prepare for personnel to return, they need to plan for safe operations amid new COVID-19 guidelines. In this paper we propose a methodology for capacity and flow modeling of personnel within buildings to safely operate under COVID-19 guidelines. We model personnel flow within buildings by network flows with queuing constraints. We study maximum flow, minimum cost, and minimax objectives. We compare our network flow approach with a simulation model through a case study and present the results. Our results showcase various scenarios of how buildings could be operated under new COVID-19 guidelines and provide a framework for building operators to plan and operate buildings in this new paradigm.

Keywords: network analysis, building simulation, COVID-19

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Authors: Sempiga Olivier, Dominika Latusek-Jurczak

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Climate change has allegedly been attributed to a high consumption of fossil fuels, leading to severe environmental problems. The energy sector has been among the most polluting sectors for many decades. Consequently, there is a lack of trust in several energy firms, especially those in fossil fuels and nuclear energy. A robust regulatory framework is needed, and more investment in renewable energy sources is paramount for a better environmental outcome. Given the significant environmental impact of energy production and consumption in the energy sector, sustainable marketing practices have become increasingly important. Although the latter has had the lion’s share in polluting the environment, much effort has been made recently to move away from fossil fuels and privilege renewable energy sources. How this shift would help rebuild trust in the energy industry is unclear. For the shift to have lasting effects, it may be essential that regulatory agencies examine how energy firms engage in sustainable investment. There is little empirical evidence on whether adopting regulating marketing practices and investment initiatives can help different organizations reduce their environmental impact and promote sustainable development. Little is known about how and whether the environmental value in firms goes beyond rhetoric, greenwashing and publicity to translate into economic gains and environmental performance. The study investigates how regulatory agencies can help energy firms invest sustainably and take sustainable initiatives even amid the energy crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and how these sustainable practices relate to renewed consumer trust. Using data from Corporate Knights, the study, through time series, analyses the relationship between sustainable regulation, sustainable practices of energy firms from around the world and their relation to consumer trust and environmental performance over the past 20 years. It examines how their sustainable investment, energy, and carbon productivity relate to environmental sustainability and consumer trust. This longitudinal study provides empirical evidence of the interplay between regulation, trust and environmental performance. The research is grounded in institutional trust theory, which emphasizes the role of regulatory frameworks and organizational practices in shaping public perceptions of fairness, transparency, and legitimacy. Results show that organizations in the energy sector, supported by robust regulatory tools, can overcome the negative image of polluters and compete with other companies in the fight against climate change and global warming. However, to do so, energy firms should consider investing more in renewable energy sources and implementing sustainable strategies and practices that go beyond greenwashing to improve their environmental performance, thereby rebuilding consumer trust in the energy sector. Results allow regulatory regimes and organizations to learn why it is crucial for energy firms to invest in renewable energy sources and engage in various sustainable initiatives and practices to contribute to better environmental outcomes and higher levels of trust.

Keywords: consumer trust, energy, environmental performance, regulation, renewable energy sources, sustainable practices

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Authors: Dong-Keun Jeong, Jong-Hyun Kim, Woon-Ha Yoon, Hee-Je Kim

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In order to automatically operate the ultrasonic transducer drive system for sonicating aluminum, this paper proposes the ultrasonic transducer sensorless control algorithm. The resonance frequency shift and electrical impedance change is a common phenomenon in the state of the ultrasonic transducer. The proposed control algorithm make use of the impedance change of ultrasonic transducer according to the environment between air state and aluminum alloy state, it controls the ultrasonic transducer drive system autonomous without a sensor. The proposed sensorless autonomous ultrasonic transducer control algorithm was experimentally verified using a 3kW prototype ultrasonic transducer drive system.

Keywords: ultrasonic transducer drive system, impedance change, sensorless, autonomous control algorithm

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Authors: Kanit Manatura

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The combustion and pyrolysis behavior of Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) were investigated in a thermogravimetric analyzer. A 10 mg sample of each biomass was heated from 30 °C to 800 °C at four heating rates (within 5, 10, 15 and 30 °C/min) in nitrogen and dry air flow of 20 ml/min instead of pyrolysis and combustion process respectively. During pyrolysis, thermal decomposition occurred on three different stages include dehydration, hemicellulose-cellulose and lignin decomposition on each temperature range. The TG/DTG curves showed the degradation behavior and the pyrolysis/combustion characteristics of the PKS samples which led to apply in thermogravimetric analysis. The kinetic factors including activation energy and pre-exponential factor were determined by the Coats-Redfern method. The obtained kinetic factors are used to simulate the thermal decomposition and compare with experimental data. Rising heating rate leads to shift the mass loss towards higher temperature.

Keywords: combustion, palm kernel shell, pyrolysis, thermogravimetric analyzer

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Authors: Ponghyung Lee

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This study seeks to investigate the variations occurring to Korean consonantal variations center around laryngeal features of the concerned sounds, to the exclusion of others. Our fundamental premise is that the weak contrast associated with concerned segments might be held accountable for the oscillation of the status quo of the concerned consonants. What is more, we assume that an array of notions as a measure of communicative efficiency of linguistic units would be significantly influential on triggering those variations. To this end, we have tried to compute the surprisal, entropic contribution, and relative contrastiveness associated with Korean obstruent consonants. What we found therein is that the Information-theoretic perspective is compelling enough to lend support our approach to a considerable extent. That is, the variant realizations, chronologically and stylistically, prove to be profoundly affected by a set of Information-theoretic factors enumerated above. When it comes to the biblical proper names, we use Georgetown University CQP Web-Bible corpora. From the 8 texts (4 from Old Testament and 4 from New Testament) among the total 64 texts, we extracted 199 samples. We address the issue of laryngeal feature variations associated with Korean obstruent consonants under the presumption that the variations stem from the weak contrast among the triad manifestations of laryngeal features. The variants emerge from diverse sources in chronological and stylistic senses: Christianity biblical texts, ordinary casual speech, the shift of loanword adaptation over time, and ideophones. For the purpose of discussing what they are really like from the perspective of Information Theory, it is necessary to closely look at the data. Among them, the massive changes occurring to loanword adaptation of proper nouns during the centennial history of Korean Christianity draw our special attention. We searched 199 types of initially capitalized words among 45,528-word tokens, which account for around 5% of total 901,701-word tokens (12,786-word types) from Georgetown University CQP Web-Bible corpora. We focus on the shift of the laryngeal features incorporated into word-initial consonants, which are available through the two distinct versions of Korean Bible: one came out in the 1960s for the Protestants, and the other was published in the 1990s for the Catholic Church. Of these proper names, we have closely traced the adaptation of plain obstruents, e. g. /b, d, g, s, ʤ/ in the sources. The results show that as much as 41% of the extracted proper names show variations; 37% in terms of aspiration, and 4% in terms of tensing. This study set out in an effort to shed light on the question: to what extent can we attribute the variations occurring to the laryngeal features associated with Korean obstruent consonants to the communicative aspects of linguistic activities? In this vein, the concerted effects of the triad, of surprisal, entropic contribution, and relative contrastiveness can be credited with the ups and downs in the feature specification, despite being contentiousness on the role of surprisal to some extent.

Keywords: entropic contribution, laryngeal feature variation, relative contrastiveness, surprisal

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Authors: Adamu Mudi, Ibrahim Wahab Fawole, Abubakar Abba Kolo

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In this research paper, we present a microcontroller-based liquid level controller that identifies the various levels of a liquid, carries out certain actions, and is capable of communicating with the human being and other devices through the GSM network. This project is useful in ensuring that a liquid is not wasted. It also contributes to the internet of things paradigm, which is the future of the internet. The method used in this work includes designing the circuit and simulating it. The circuit is then implemented on a solderless breadboard, after which it is implemented on a strip board. A C++ computer program is developed and uploaded into the microcontroller. This program instructs the microcontroller on how to carry out its actions. In other to determine levels of the liquid, an ultrasonic wave is sent to the surface of the liquid similar to radar or the method for detecting the level of sea bed. Message is sent to the phone of the user similar to the way computers send messages to phones of GSM users. It is concluded that the routine of observing the levels of a liquid in a tank, refilling the tank when the liquid level is too low can be entirely handled by a programmable device without wastage of the liquid or bothering a human being with such tasks.

Keywords: Arduino Uno, HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, internet of things, IoT, SIM900 GSM module

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Authors: Amratpal Kaur

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The right to education is universal in nature. This right has been enshrined in Indian Constitution and in various significant international documents. Unfortunately, despite of comprehensive legislation at the regional and international level 98% children with disabilities in developing countries don’t attend schools. Vast majority of children suffering from disability in developing nations lack basic literacy. The paper discusses in detail that the term inclusive education has got impetus all over the world and more so in India in the last decade. India has committed itself to the development of an inclusive education system as it is signatory to the Salamanca Statement and it has strived to achieve it thereon. Due to the shift from medical to social model of disability the emphasis is on inclusive school, so that the disabled children can be integrated in the mainstream easily. Thus, the idea is to educate disabled children along with their peers. The paper focuses on developing a clear understanding of inclusive education and identifying strategies to enhance the education of all children at the regional and international level.

Keywords: inclusion, disability, education, policy

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Authors: Yong Xue, Daniel A. Menascé

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Automated and end-to-end network resource management and provisioning for virtual service networks in a multiple autonomous systems (a.k.a multi-AS) environment is a challenging and open problem. This paper proposes a novel, scalable and interoperable high-level architecture that incorporates a number of emerging enabling technologies including Software Defined Network (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Autonomic Computing. The proposed architecture can be used to not only automate network resource management and provisioning for virtual service networks across multiple autonomous substrate networks, but also provide an adaptive capability for achieving optimal network resource management and maintaining network-level end-to-end network performance as well. The paper argues that this SDN and autonomic computing based architecture lays a solid foundation that can facilitate the development of the future Internet based on the pluralistic paradigm.

Keywords: virtual network, software defined network, virtual service network, adaptive resource management, SOA, multi-AS, inter-domain

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Authors: Peter E. Egielewa

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Communication through the smartphone connects people globally. However, since the last 10 years, there has been an increasing shift from the social engagement in the family to the digital mediated communication aided by the smartphone. The traditional family communication had largely been oral and relational, which the smartphone is now digitally mediating. The study employs mixed research method of quantitative and qualitative research design and deploys questionnaire to elicit responses from both parents and children of 50 purposively selected families from five villages in Southern Nigeria that are very active with smartphone use. Based on the Theory of Family Systems, preliminary findings show that the smartphone is becoming an addiction among Nigerian family members and has shifted the dynamics of family communication from relational to digital culture. The research concludes that smartphone use affects family communication negatively and recommends the moderation of smartphone use in the family and the search for alternative platforms for family communication that minimises smartphone addiction.

Keywords: digital, distorted communication, family, Nigeria, smartphone

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Authors: Kimberly Samaha

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In order to attract new types of investors into the emerging Bio-Economy, new methodologies to analyze investment risk are needed. The Bio-Hub Ecosystem model was developed to address a critical area of concern within the global energy market regarding the use of biomass as a feedstock for power plants. This study looked at repurposing existing biomass-energy plants into Circular Zero-Waste Bio-Hub Ecosystems. A Bio-Hub model that first targets a ‘whole-tree’ approach and then looks at the circular economics of co-hosting diverse industries (wood processing, aquaculture, agriculture) in the vicinity of the Biomass Power Plants facilities. This study modeled the economics and risk strategies of cradle-to-cradle linkages to incorporate the value-chain effects on capital/operational expenditures and investment risk reductions using a proprietary techno-economic model that incorporates investment risk scenarios utilizing the Monte Carlo methodology. The study calculated the sequential increases in profitability for each additional co-host on an operating forestry-based biomass energy plant in West Enfield, Maine. Phase I starts with the base-line of forestry biomass to electricity only and was built up in stages to include co-hosts of a greenhouse and a land-based shrimp farm. Phase I incorporates CO2 and heat waste streams from the operating power plant in an analysis of lowering and stabilizing the operating costs of the agriculture and aquaculture co-hosts. Phase II analysis incorporated a jet-fuel biorefinery and its secondary slip-stream of biochar which would be developed into two additional bio-products: 1) A soil amendment compost for agriculture and 2) A biochar effluent filter for the aquaculture. The second part of the study applied the Monte Carlo risk methodology to illustrate how co-location derisks investment in an integrated Bio-Hub versus individual investments in stand-alone projects of energy, agriculture or aquaculture. The analyzed scenarios compared reductions in both Capital and Operating Expenditures, which stabilizes profits and reduces the investment risk associated with projects in energy, agriculture, and aquaculture. The major findings of this techno-economic modeling using the Monte Carlo technique resulted in the masterplan for the first Bio-Hub to be built in West Enfield, Maine. In 2018, the site was designated as an economic opportunity zone as part of a Federal Program, which allows for Capital Gains tax benefits for investments on the site. Bioenergy facilities are currently at a critical juncture where they have an opportunity to be repurposed into efficient, profitable and socially responsible investments, or be idled and scrapped. The Bio-hub Ecosystems techno-economic analysis model is a critical model to expedite new standards for investments in circular zero-waste projects. Profitable projects will expedite adoption and advance the critical transition from the current ‘take-make-dispose’ paradigm inherent in the energy, forestry and food industries to a more sustainable Bio-Economy paradigm that supports local and rural communities.

Keywords: bio-economy, investment risk, circular design, economic modelling

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Authors: Jason Sah

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Music ensemble class is a non-traditional classroom in the sense that it is always a group effort during rehearsal. When measuring student performance ability in class, it is imperative that the grading rubric includes a collaborative skill component. Assessments that stop short of testing students' ability to make music with others undermine the group mentality by elevating individual prowess. Applying empirical and evidence-based methodology, this research develops a grading rubric that defines the criteria for assessing collaborative skill, and then explores different strategies for implementing this rubric in a timely and effective manner. Findings show that when collaborative skill is regularly tested, students gradually shift their attention from playing their own part well to sharing their part with others.

Keywords: assessment, ensemble class, grading rubric, student collaboration

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Authors: U. V. S. Seshavatharam, S. Lakshminarayana

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In a unified approach observed cosmic red shift can be re-interpreted as an index of cosmological galactic atomic light emission phenomenon. By increasing the applications of Hubble volume in cosmology as well as in quantum physics, concepts of ‘Black Hole Cosmology’ can be well-confirmed. Clearly speaking ‘quantum mechanics’ can be shown to be a branch of ‘black hole cosmology’. In Big Bang Model, confirmation of all the observations directly depend on the large scale galactic distances that are beyond human reach and raise ambiguity in all respects. The subject of modern black hole physics is absolutely theoretical. Advantage of Black hole cosmology lies in confirming its validity through the ground based atomic and nuclear experimental results.

Keywords: Hubble volume, black hole cosmology, CMBR energy density, Planck’s constant, fine structure ratio, cosmic time, nuclear charge radius, unification

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Authors: Mourad Ben Bennani

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Views of language and language learning have undergone a tremendous change over the last decades. Language is no longer seen as a set of structured rules. It is rather viewed as a tool of interaction and communication. This shift in views has resulted in change in viewing language learning, which gave birth to various approaches and methodologies of language teaching. Two of these approaches are content-based instruction and content and language integrated learning (CLIL). These are similar approaches which integrate content and foreign/second language learning through various methodologies and models as a result of different implementations around the world. This presentation deals with sociocultural view of CBI and CLIL. It also defines language and content as vital components of CBI and CLIL. Next it reviews the origins of CBI and the continuum perspectives and CLIL definitions and models featured in the literature. Finally it summarizes current aspects around research in program evaluation with a focus on the benefits and challenges of these innovative approaches for second language teaching.

Keywords: CBI, CLIL, CBI continuum, CLIL models

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Authors: Slimane Souag, Amel Graa, Farid Benhamida

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In this paper we present a new method for solving the secured power flow problem by the economic dispatch using DC power flow method and Generation Shift Distribution Factor (GSDF), in this work we create a graphical interface in LabVIEW as a virtual instrument. Hence the dc power flow reduces the power flow problem to a set of linear equations, which make the iterative calculation very fast and the GSFD matrix present the effects of single and multiple generator MW change on the transmission line. The effectiveness of the method developed is identified through its application to an IEEE-14 bus test system. The calculation results show excellent performance of the proposed method, in regard to computation time and quality of results.

Keywords: electrical power system security, economic dispatch, sensitivity matrix, labview

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Authors: Hamideh Marefat, Eskandar Samadi

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This study examined the effect of semantics on processing ambiguous sentences containing Relative Clauses (RCs) preceded by a complex Determiner Phrase (DP) by Persian-speaking learners of L2 English with different proficiency and Working Memory Capacities (WMCs). The semantic relationship studied was one between the subject of the main clause and one of the DPs in the complex DP to see if, as predicted by Spreading Activation Model, priming one of the DPs through this semantic manipulation affects the L2ers’ preference. The results of a task using Rapid Serial Visual Processing (time-controlled paradigm) showed that manipulation of the relationship between the subject of the main clause and one of the DPs in the complex DP preceding RC has no effect on the choice of the antecedent; rather, the L2ers' processing is guided by the phrase structure information. Moreover, while proficiency did not have any effect on the participants’ preferences, WMC brought about a difference in their preferences, with a DP1 preference by those with a low WMC. This finding supports the chunking hypothesis and the predicate proximity principle, which is the strategy also used by monolingual Persian speakers.

Keywords: semantics, relative clause processing, ambiguity resolution, proficiency, working memory capacity

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Authors: Peter Modregger, Özgül Öztürk

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Glass fabric reinforced thermoplastic (GFRT) are composite materials, which combine low weight and resilient mechanical properties rendering them especially suitable for automobile construction. However, defects in the glass fabric as well as in the polymer matrix can occur during manufacturing, which may compromise component lifetime or even safety. One type of these defects is local fiber shifts, which can be difficult to detect. Recently, we have experimentally demonstrated the reliable detection of local fiber shifts by X-ray scattering based on the edge-illumination (EI) principle. EI constitutes a novel X-ray imaging technique that utilizes two slit masks, one in front of the sample and one in front of the detector, in order to simultaneously provide absorption, phase, and scattering contrast. The principle of contrast formation is as follows. The incident X-ray beam is split into smaller beamlets by the sample mask, resulting in small beamlets. These are distorted by the interaction with the sample, and the distortions are scaled up by the detector masks, rendering them visible to a pixelated detector. In the experiment, the sample mask is laterally scanned, resulting in Gaussian-like intensity distributions in each pixel. The area under the curves represents absorption, the peak offset refraction, and the width of the curve represents the scattering occurring in the sample. Here, scattering is caused by the numerous glass fiber/polymer matrix interfaces. In our recent publication, we have shown that the standard deviation of the absorption and scattering values over a selected field of view can be used to distinguish between intact samples and samples with local fiber shift defects. The quantification of defect detection performance was done by using p-values (p=0.002 for absorption and p=0.009 for scattering) and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR=3.0 for absorption and CNR=2.1 for scattering) between the two groups of samples. This was further improved for the scattering contrast to p=0.0004 and CNR=4.2 by utilizing a harmonic decomposition analysis of the images. Thus, we concluded that local fiber shifts can be reliably detected by the X-ray scattering contrasts provided by EI. However, a potential application in, for example, production monitoring requires fast data acquisition times. For the results above, the scanning of the sample masks was performed over 50 individual steps, which resulted in long total scan times. In this paper, we will demonstrate that reliable detection of local fiber shift defects is also possible by using single images, which implies a speed up of total scan time by a factor of 50. Additional performance improvements will also be discussed, which opens the possibility for real-time acquisition. This contributes a vital step for the translation of EI to industrial applications for a wide variety of materials consisting of numerous interfaces on the micrometer scale.

Keywords: defects in composites, X-ray scattering, local fiber shifts, X-ray edge Illumination

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Authors: Madhusudan Hamirwasia, Sarang Barbarwar, Arshleen Kaur

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The construction of memorials began thousands of years ago and the practice is still continuing. These memorials became a symbol to honor great people and events in the history. The aim of the study was to understand the evolution of memorials from an architectural design perspective. It is also concentrated on the similarities and differences between the memorials in Europe and those in the Indian subcontinent. The study shows how the design of a memorial has seen a considerable shift from the tribal Urasgattas to the contemporary commemorative structures. While they were somber symbolic gestures in the past, they have now transformed into a socio-cultural space in urban areas. Not only the memorials were inspired by the culture but the culture too got influenced by the memorials as with progressing time, they hold the vital link to our past. The study intends to encapsulate the essence of design elements in these memorials that convey the visitors the intangible messages held by the edifice in its tangible presence.

Keywords: evolution, emotion, memorials, symbolism

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Authors: Abdallah H. Ramini, Alwathiqbellah I. Ibrahim, Mohammad I. Younis

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We investigate experimentally and theoretically the dynamics of a capacitive resonator under mixed frequency excitation of two AC harmonic signals. The resonator is composed of a proof mass suspended by two cantilever beams. Experimental measurements are conducted using a laser Doppler Vibrometer to reveal the interesting dynamics of the system when subjected to two-source excitation. A nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom model is used for the theoretical investigation. The results reveal combination resonances of additive and subtractive type, which are shown to be promising to increase the bandwidth of the resonator near primary resonance frequency. Our results also demonstrate the ability to shift the combination resonances to much lower or much higher frequency ranges. We also demonstrate the dynamic pull-in instability under mixed frequency excitation.

Keywords: electrostatically actuated resonator, multi-frequency excitation, nonlinear dynamics, AC harmonic signals

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Authors: Saha Saradindu, Das Payel, Somdeb BoseDasgupta

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Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacteria tuberculosis is a dreadful disease and more so with the advent of extreme and total drug-resistant species. Mycobacterial pathogenesis is an ever-changing paradigm from phagosome maturation block to phagosomal escape into macrophage cytosol and finally acid tolerance and survival inside the lysosome. Mycobacteria are adept at subverting the host immune response by highjacking host cell signaling and secreting virulence factors. One such virulence factor is a ser/thr kinase; Protein kinase G (PknG), which is known to prevent phagosome maturation. The host substrates of PknG, allowing successful pathogenesis still remain an enigma. Hence we carried out a comparative phosphoproteomic screen and identified a number of substrates phosphorylated by PknG. We characterized some of these substrates in vivo and in vitro and observed that PknG mediated phosphorylation of these substrates leads to reduced TNFa production as well as decreased response to TNFa induced macrophage necroptosis, thus enabling mycobacterial survival and proliferation.

Keywords: mycobacteria, Protein kinase G, phosphoproteomics, necroptosis

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Authors: Lucie Hayashi

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This paper offers a view on a different approach towards a dancer´s career in two very dissimilar countries: on one hand Japan, an economic predator at the end of last century, but suffering under economic crisis from the beginning of the new century; and the Czech Republic, a post-communist country, caught up in capitalist fever from the 1990s on the other. The government’s approach towards culture and dance in these two countries not only has a different history and nature, but also presents a different take on the ideal future development in its respective dance scenes. The level of support from the state budget echoes in all the fields of a professional dance career, dance art and the education of the public towards dance. The message of the statistic data is clear: the production of an enormous number of well trained and expensively educated dancers with no jobs for them in Japan, and a lack of good dancers ready to fill state supported theatre companies in the Czech Republic (that gladly employs Japanese dancers). The paradigm leaves a big exclamation mark on the huge influence the policy has on dance in society, and a question mark on the ideal situation.

Keywords: culture policy, dance, education, employment, Czech Republic, Japan

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Authors: Muhammad Hamza Tariq

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The regrouping of the Islamists and the politics of religious education was the most common debate in the last decades of Turkish history. Religious schools were criticized to be influenced by partisan politics. Within this turmoil, the faculty of Ilahiyat which was established by the Republic to cherish Islamic modernism and to raise modern clergy also underwent a considerable change. This research studies the revisions in the curriculum of the faculty over the last few decades. A series of interviews were also conducted to observe the prevalent trends, especially modernist among the professors at the Ilahiyat faculties. Lastly, a survey was done among the freshman and final year students based on the similar questions to observe the changes of opinions with regards to their views on Islam, modernity, political Islam, interpretation, etc. A shift in the curriculum was noted though it cannot be overgeneralized whereas a degree of prevalence of modernist thoughts was also recorded among the teachers and the students.

Keywords: ilahiyat, divinity, religion, Islamization

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Authors: Somesh Misha, Smita Raghuvanshi, Suresh Gupta

Abstract:

Increasing concentration of green house gases (GHG's), such as CO2 is of major concern and start showing its impact nowadays. The recent studies are focused on developing the continuous system using photoautotrophs for CO2 mitigation and simultaneous production of primary and secondary metabolites as a value addition. The advent of carbon concentrating mechanism had blurred the distinction between autotrophs and heterotrophs and now the paradigm has shifted towards the carbon capture and utilization (CCU) rather than carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). In the present work, a bioreactor was developed utilizing the chemolithotrophic bacterial species using CO2 mitigation and simultaneous value addition. The kinetic modeling was done and the biokinetic parameters are obtained for developing the bioreactor. The bioreactor was developed and studied for its operation and performance in terms of volumetric loading rate, mass loading rate, elimination capacity and removal efficiency. The characterization of effluent from the bioreactor was carried out for the products obtained using the analyzing techniques such as FTIR, GC-MS, and NMR. The developed bioreactor promised an economic, efficient and effective solution for CO2 mitigation and simultaneous value addition.

Keywords: CO2 mitigation, bio-reactor, chemolithotrophic bacterial species, FTIR, GC-MS, NMR

Procedia PDF Downloads 472

Authors: Daphne Ashley Sze, Kenneth Santos, Ariane Gabrielle Lim

Abstract:

As women are now given more freedom and choice to pursue employment, the world’s over-all fertility has been decreasing mainly due to the shift in time allocation between working and child rearing. As such, we study the case of the Philippines, where there exists a decreasing fertility rate and increasing openness for women labor participation. We focused on the distinction between fertility and fecundity, the former being the manifestation of the latter and aim to trace and compare the effects of both fecundity and fertility to women’s employment status through the estimation of the reproduction function and multinomial logistic function. Findings suggest that the perception of women regarding employment opportunities in the Philippines links the negative relationship observed between fertility, fecundity and women’s employment status. Today, there has been a convergence in the traditional family roles of men and women, as both genders now have identical employment opportunities that continue to shape their preferences.

Keywords: multinomial logistic function, tobit, fertility, women employment status, fecundity

Procedia PDF Downloads 611

Authors: Ahmed Mateen, Zhu Qingsheng, Faisal Shahzad

Abstract:

Requirement Engineering (RE) is a part being created for programming structure during the software development lifecycle. Software product line development is a new topic area within the domain of software engineering. It also plays important role in decision making and it is ultimately helpful in rising business environment for productive programming headway. Decisions are central to engineering processes and they hold them together. It is argued that better decisions will lead to better engineering. To achieve better decisions requires that they are understood in detail. In order to address the issues, companies are moving towards Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) which helps in providing large varieties of products with minimum development effort and cost. This paper proposed a new framework for software product line and compared with other models. The results can help to understand the needs in SPL testing, by identifying points that still require additional investigation. In our future scenario, we will combine this model in a controlled environment with industrial SPL projects which will be the new horizon for SPL process management testing strategies.

Keywords: requirements engineering, software product lines, scoping, process structure, domain specific language

Procedia PDF Downloads 225