Search results for: experience product

Authors: V. Esteves

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As products of participatory culture, internet memes represent a global form of interaction with online culture. These digital objects draw upon a rich historical engagement with remix practices that dates back decades: from the copy and paste practices of Dadaism and punk to the re-appropriation techniques of the Situationist International; memes echo a long established form of cultural creativity that pivots on the art of the remix. Online culture has eagerly embraced the changes that the Web 2.0 afforded in terms of making use of remixing as an accessible form of societal expression, bridging these remix practices of the past into a more widely available and accessible platform. Memes embody the idea of 'intercreativity', allowing global creative collaboration to take place through networked digital media; they reflect the core values of participation and interaction that are present throughout much internet discourse whilst also existing in a historical remix continuum. Memes hold the power of cultural symbolism manipulated by global audiences through which societies make meaning, as these remixed digital objects have an elasticity and low literacy level that allows for a democratic form of cultural engagement and meaning-making by and for users around the world. However, because memes are so elastic, their ability to be re-appropriated by other powers for reasons beyond their original intention has become evident. Recently, corporations have made use of internet memes for advertising purposes, engaging in the circulation and re-appropriation of internet memes in commercial spaces – which has, in turn, complicated this relation between online users and memes' democratic possibilities further. By engaging in a widespread online ethnography supplemented by in-depth interviews with meme makers, this research was able to not only track different online meme use through commercial contexts, but it also allowed the possibility to engage in qualitative discussions with meme makers and users regarding their perception and experience of these varying commercial uses of memes. These can be broadly put within two categories: internet memes that are turned into physical merchandise and the use of memes in advertising to sell other (non-meme related) products. Whilst there has been considerable acceptance of the former type of commercial meme use, the use of memes in adverts in order to sell unrelated products has been met with resistance. The changes in reception regarding commercial meme use is dependent on ideas of cultural ownership and perceptions of authorship, ultimately uncovering underlying socio-cultural ideologies that come to the fore within these overlapping contexts. Additionally, this adoption of memes by corporate powers echoes the recuperation process that the Situationist International endured, creating a further link with older remix cultures and their lifecycles.

Keywords: commodification, internet culture, memes, recuperation, remix

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Authors: Chris Neale, Jenny Roe, Peter Aspinall, Sara Tilley, Steve Cinderby, Panos Mavros, Richard Coyne, Neil Thin, Catharine Ward Thompson

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This research directly assesses older people’s neural activation in response to walking through a changing urban environment, as measured by electroencephalography (EEG). As the global urban population is predicted to grow, there is a need to understand the role that the urban environment may play on the health of its older inhabitants. There is a large body of evidence suggesting green space has a beneficial restorative effect, but this effect remains largely understudied in both older people and by using a neuroimaging assessment. For this study, participants aged 65 years and over were required to walk between a busy urban built environment and a green urban environment, in a counterbalanced design, wearing an Emotiv EEG headset to record real-time neural responses to place. Here we report on the outputs for these responses derived from both the proprietary Affectiv Suite software, which creates emotional parameters with a real time value assigned to them, as well as the raw EEG output focusing on alpha and beta changes, associated with changes in relaxation and attention respectively. Each walk lasted around fifteen minutes and was undertaken at the natural walking pace of the participant. The two walking environments were compared using a form of high dimensional correlated component regression (CCR) on difference data between the urban busy and urban green spaces. For the Emotiv parameters, results showed that levels of ‘engagement’ increased in the urban green space (with a subsequent decrease in the urban busy built space) whereas levels of ‘excitement’ increased in the urban busy environment (with a subsequent decrease in the urban green space). In the raw data, low beta (13 – 19 Hz) increased in the urban busy space with a subsequent decrease shown in the green space, similar to the pattern shown with the ‘excitement’ result. Alpha activity (9 – 13 Hz) shows a correlation with low beta, but not with dependent change in the regression model. This suggests that alpha is acting as a suppressor variable. These results suggest that there are neural signatures associated with the experience of urban spaces which may reflect the age of the cohort or the spatiality of the settings themselves. These are shown both in the outputs of the proprietary software as well as the raw EEG output. Built busy urban spaces appear to induce neural activity associated with vigilance and low level stress, while this effect is ameliorated in the urban green space, potentially suggesting a beneficial effect on attentional capacity in urban green space in this participant group. The interaction between low beta and alpha requires further investigation, in particular the role of alpha in this relationship.

Keywords: ageing, EEG, green space, urban space

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Authors: Şeyda Kaya

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The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility perception and organizational commitment among Turkish cabin crew. At the same time, the social responsibility perception and organizational commitment scores of the participants were compared according to their gender, age, education level, title, and work experience. In the globalizing world, businesses have developed some innovative marketing methods in order to survive and strengthen their place in the market. Nowadays, consumers who are connected to the brand with an emotional bond rather than being just consumers. Corporate Social Responsibility Projects, on the one hand, provide social benefit, on the other hand, increase the brand awareness of businesses by providing credibility in the eyes of consumers. The rapid increase of competition, requires businesses to use their human resources, which is the most important resource to sustain their existence, in the most effective and efficient way. For this reason, the concept of ‘Organizational Commitment’ has become an important research topic for business and academics. Although there are studies in the literature to determine the effect of the perception of corporate social Responsibility on Organizational Commitment in Banking and Finance and Tourism sectors, there are no studies conducted specifically for the Turkish aviation sector to our best knowledge. Personal information form, CSR scale, Importance of CSR scale, Organizational commitment scale were used as data collection tools in the research. CSR Scale created by Türker (2006). was used to find out how employees felt about CSR. Importance of CSR Scale through a subscale of the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility (PRESOR) that Etheredge (1999) converted into a two-factor framework, the significance of social responsibility for employees was assessed. Organizational Commitment Scale, Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) created the OCQ, which uses 15 measures to evaluate global commitment to the organization. As a result of the study, there is a significant positive relationship between the participants' CSR scale sub-dimensions, CSR to Employees, CSR to Customers, CSR to Society, CSR to Government, CSR to Natural Environment, CSR to Next Generation, CSR to Governmental Organizations, Importance of CSR, and Organizational Commitment scores. As a result; as the participants' Corporate Social Responsibility scores increase, their organizational commitment increases. To summarize the findings of our study, the scores obtained from the CSR scale and the scores obtained from the Organizational Commitment scale were found to have a positive and significant relationship. In other words, if the participants value the corporate social responsibility projects of the institution they work for and think that they spare time and effort, the importance they attach to the corporate social responsibility projects and their organizational commitment to the institution they work for, increase. Similarly, the scores obtained from the Importance of CSR and the scores obtained from the Organizational Commitment scale also have a positive and significant relationship. As the importance given to corporate social responsibility projects by the participants increases, their organizational commitment to the institution they work for also increases.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, organizational commitment, Turkish cabin crew, aviation

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Authors: Peter Burggräf, Matthias Dannapfel, Hanno Voet, Patrick-Benjamin Bök, Jérôme Uelpenich, Julian Hoppe

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The increasing digitalization of value chains can help companies to handle rising complexity in their processes and thereby reduce the steadily increasing planning and control effort in order to raise performance limits. Due to technological advances, companies face the challenge of smart value chains for the purpose of improvements in productivity, handling the increasing time and cost pressure and the need of individualized production. Therefore, companies need to ensure quick and flexible decisions to create self-optimizing processes and, consequently, to make their production more efficient. Lean production, as the most commonly used paradigm for complexity reduction, reaches its limits when it comes to variant flexible production and constantly changing market and environmental conditions. To lift performance limits, which are inbuilt in current value chains, new methods and tools must be applied. Digitalization provides the potential to derive these new methods and tools. However, companies lack the experience to harmonize different digital technologies. There is no practicable framework, which instructs the transformation of current value chains into digital pervasive value chains. Current research shows that a connection between lean production and digitalization exists. This link is based on factors such as people, technology and organization. In this paper, the introduced method for the determination of digitally pervasive value chains takes the factors people, technology and organization into account and extends existing approaches by a new dimension. It is the first systematic approach for the digital transformation of lean production and consists of four steps: The first step of ‘target definition’ describes the target situation and defines the depth of the analysis with regards to the inspection area and the level of detail. The second step of ‘analysis of the value chain’ verifies the lean-ability of processes and lies in a special focus on the integration capacity of digital technologies in order to raise the limits of lean production. Furthermore, the ‘digital evaluation process’ ensures the usefulness of digital adaptions regarding their practicability and their integrability into the existing production system. Finally, the method defines actions to be performed based on the evaluation process and in accordance with the target situation. As a result, the validation and optimization of the proposed method in a German company from the electronics industry shows that the digital transformation of current value chains based on lean production achieves a raise of their inbuilt performance limits.

Keywords: digitalization, digital transformation, Industrie 4.0, lean production, value chain

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Authors: Catia Correia Caeiro, Kun Guo, Daniel Mills

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Despite its growing interest, emotions are still an understudied cognitive process and their origins are currently the focus of much debate among the scientific community. The use of facial expressions as traditional hallmarks of discrete and holistic emotions created a circular reasoning due to a priori assumptions of meaning and its associated appearance-biases. Ekman and colleagues solved this problem and laid the foundations for the quantitative and systematic study of facial expressions in humans by developing an anatomically-based system (independent from meaning) to measure facial behaviour, the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). One way of investigating emotion cognition processes is by applying comparative psychology methodologies and looking at either closely-related species (e.g. chimpanzees) or phylogenetically distant species sharing similar present adaptation problems (analogy). In this study, the domestic dog was used as a comparative animal model to look at facial expressions in social interactions in parallel with human facial expressions. The orofacial musculature seems to be relatively well conserved across mammal species and the same holds true for the domestic dog. Furthermore, the dog is unique in having shared the same social environment as humans for more than 10,000 years, facing similar challenges and acquiring a unique set of socio-cognitive skills in the process. In this study, the spontaneous facial movements of humans and dogs were compared when interacting with hetero- and conspecifics as well as in solitary contexts. In total, 200 participants were examined with FACS and DogFACS (The Dog Facial Action Coding System): coding tools across four different emotionally-driven contexts: a) Happiness (play and reunion), b) anticipation (of positive reward), c) fear (object or situation triggered), and d) frustration (negation of a resource). A neutral control was added for both species. All four contexts are commonly encountered by humans and dogs, are comparable between species and seem to give rise to emotions from homologous brain systems. The videos used in the study were extracted from public databases (e.g. Youtube) or published scientific databases (e.g. AM-FED). The results obtained allowed us to delineate clear similarities and differences on the flexibility of the facial musculature in the two species. More importantly, they shed light on what common facial movements are a product of the emotion linked contexts (the ones appearing in both species) and which are characteristic of the species, revealing an important clue for the debate on the origin of emotions. Additionally, we were able to examine movements that might have emerged for interspecific communication. Finally, our results are discussed from an evolutionary perspective adding to the recent line of work that supports an ancient shared origin of emotions in a mammal ancestor and defining emotions as mechanisms with a clear adaptive purpose essential on numerous situations, ranging from maintenance of social bonds to fitness and survival modulators.

Keywords: comparative and evolutionary psychology, emotion, facial expressions, FACS

Procedia PDF Downloads 434

Authors: Mladen Milicevic

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This presentation will address how the statistical analysis of digitized popular music influences the music creation and emotionally manipulates consumers.Furthermore, it will deal with semiological aspect of uniformization of musical taste in order to predict the potential revenues generated by popular music sales. In the USA, we live in an age where most of the popular music (i.e. music that generates substantial revenue) has been digitized. It is safe to say that almost everything that was produced in last 10 years is already digitized (either available on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or some other platform). Depending on marketing viability and its potential to generate additional revenue most of the “older” music is still being digitized. Once the music gets turned into a digital audio file,it can be computer-analyzed in all kinds of respects, and the similar goes for the lyrics because they also exist as a digital text file, to which any kin of N Capture-kind of analysis may be applied. So, by employing statistical examination of different popular music metrics such as tempo, form, pronouns, introduction length, song length, archetypes, subject matter,and repetition of title, the commercial result may be predicted. Polyphonic HMI (Human Media Interface) introduced the concept of the hit song science computer program in 2003.The company asserted that machine learning could create a music profile to predict hit songs from its audio features Thus,it has been established that a successful pop song must include: 100 bpm or more;an 8 second intro;use the pronoun 'you' within 20 seconds of the start of the song; hit the bridge middle 8 between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 30 seconds; average 7 repetitions of the title; create some expectations and fill that expectation in the title. For the country song: 100 bpm or less for a male artist; 14-second intro; uses the pronoun 'you' within the first 20 seconds of the intro; has a bridge middle 8 between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 30 seconds; has 7 repetitions of title; creates an expectation,fulfills it in 60 seconds.This approach to commercial popular music minimizes the human influence when it comes to which “artist” a record label is going to sign and market. Twenty years ago,music experts in the A&R (Artists and Repertoire) departments of the record labels were making personal aesthetic judgments based on their extensive experience in the music industry. Now, the computer music analyzing programs, are replacing them in an attempt to minimize investment risk of the panicking record labels, in an environment where nobody can predict the future of the recording industry.The impact on the consumers taste through the narrow bottleneck of the above mentioned music selection by the record labels,created some very peculiar effects not only on the taste of popular music consumers, but also the creative chops of the music artists as well. What is the meaning of this semiological shift is the main focus of this research and paper presentation.

Keywords: music, semiology, commercial, taste

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: B. D. Patni, Ashwani Jain, Arindom Chakraborty

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The world’s highest mountain range has been forming since the collision of Indian Plate with Asian Plate 40-50 million years ago. The Indian subcontinent has been deeper and deeper in to the rest of Asia resulting upliftment of Himalaya & Tibetan Plateau. The complex domain has become a major challenge for construction of hydro electric projects. The Himalayas are geologically complex & seismically active. Shifting of Indian Plate northwardly and increasing the amount of stresses in the fragile domain which leads to deformation in the form of several fold, faults and upliftment. It is difficult to undergo extensive geological investigation to ascertain the geological problems to be encountered during construction. Inaccessibility of the terrain, high rock cover, unpredictable ground water condition etc. are the main constraints. The hydroelectric projects located in Himalayas have faced many geological and geo-hydrological problems while construction of surface and subsurface works. Based on the experience, efforts have been made to identify the expected geological problems during and after construction of the projects. These have been classified into surface and subsurface problems which include existence of inhomogeneous deep overburden in the river bed or buried valley, abrupt change in bed rock profile, Occurrences of fault zones/shear zones/fractured rock in dam foundation and slope instability in the abutments. The tunneling difficulties are many such as squeezing ground condition, popping, rock bursting, high temperature gradient, heavy ingress of water, existence of shear seams/shear zones and emission of obnoxious gases. However, these problems were mitigated by adopting suitable remedial measures as per site requirement. The support system includes shotcrete, wire mesh, rock bolts, steel ribs, fore-poling, pre-grouting, pipe-roofing, MAI anchors, toe wall, retaining walls, reinforced concrete dowels, drainage drifts, anchorage cum drainage shafts, soil nails, concrete cladding and shear keys. Controlled drilling & blasting, heading & benching, proper drainage network and ventilation system are other remedial measures adopted to overcome such adverse situations. The paper highlights the geological uncertainties and its remedial measures in Himalaya, based on the analysis and evaluation of 20 hydroelectric projects during construction.

Keywords: geological problems, shear seams, slope, drilling & blasting, shear zones

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Authors: Mirim Kim, Won-Oak Oh

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify hospitalized children's fall risk factors, fall prevention status and fall prevention strategies recognized by nurses and caregivers of hospitalized children and present an ecological model for fall preventive management in hospitalized children. Method: The participants of this study were 14 nurses working in medical institutions and having more than one year of child care experience and 14 adult caregivers of children under 6 years of age receiving inpatient treatment at a medical institution. One to one interview was attempted to identify their perception of fall preventive management. Transcribed data were analyzed through latent content analysis method. Results: Fall risk factors in hospitalized children were 'unpredictable behavior', 'instability', 'lack of awareness about danger', 'lack of awareness about falls', 'lack of child control ability', 'lack of awareness about the importance of fall prevention', 'lack of sensitivity to children', 'untidy environment around children', 'lack of personalized facilities for children', 'unsafe facility', 'lack of partnership between healthcare provider and caregiver', 'lack of human resources', 'inadequate fall prevention policy', 'lack of promotion about fall prevention', 'a performanceism oriented culture'. Fall preventive management status of hospitalized children were 'absence of fall prevention capability', 'efforts not to fall', 'blocking fall risk situation', 'limit the scope of children's activity when there is no caregiver', 'encourage caregivers' fall prevention activities', 'creating a safe environment surrounding hospitalized children', 'special management for fall high risk children', 'mutual cooperation between healthcare providers and caregivers', 'implementation of fall prevention policy', 'providing guide signs about fall risk'. Fall preventive management strategies of hospitalized children were 'restrain dangerous behavior', 'inspiring awareness about fall', 'providing fall preventive education considering the child's eye level', 'efforts to become an active subject of fall prevention activities', 'providing customed fall prevention education', 'open communication between healthcare providers and caregivers', 'infrastructure and personnel management to create safe hospital environment', 'expansion fall prevention campaign', 'development and application of a valid fall assessment instrument', 'conversion of awareness about safety'. Conclusion: In this study, the ecological model of fall preventive management for hospitalized children reflects various factors that directly or indirectly affect the fall prevention of hospitalized children. Therefore, these results can be considered as useful baseline data for developing systematic fall prevention programs and hospital policies to prevent fall accident in hospitalized children. Funding: This study was funded by the National Research Foundation of South Korea (grant number NRF-2016R1A2B1015455).

Keywords: fall down, safety culture, hospitalized children, risk factors

Procedia PDF Downloads 164

Authors: Aysen Celen Ozturk, Hatice Dulger

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University may be defined as a teaching institution consisting of faculties, institutes, colleges, and units that have undergraduate and graduate education, scientific research and publications. It has scientific autonomy and public legal personality. Today, universities are not only the institutions in which students and lecturers experience education, training and scientific work. They also offer social, cultural and artistic activities that strengthen the link with the city. This also incorporates all city users into the campus borders. Thus, universities contribute to social and individual development of the country by providing science, art, socio-cultural development, communication and socialization with people of different cultural and social backgrounds. Moreover, universities provide an active social life, where the young population is the majority. This enables the sense of belonging to the users to develop, to increase the interaction between academicians and students, and to increase the learning / producing community by continuing academic sharing environments outside the classrooms. For this reason, besides academic spaces in university campuses, the users also need closed and open spaces where they can socialize, spend time together and relax. Public open spaces are the most important social spaces that individuals meet, express themselves and share. Individuals belonging to different socio-cultural structures and ethnic groups maintain their social experiences with the physical environment they are in, the outdoors, and their actions and sharing in these spaces. While university campuses are being designed for their individual and social development roles, user needs must be determined correctly and design should be realized in this direction. While considering that requirements may change over time, user satisfaction should be questioned at certain periods and new arrangements should be made in existing applications in the direction of current demands. This study aims to determine the user requirements through the case of Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Meşelik Campus / Turkey. Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) questionnaire, cognitive mapping and deep interview methods are used in the research process. All these methods show that the students, academicians and other officials in the Meşelik Campus of Eskişehir Osmangazi University find way finding elements insufficient and are in need of efficient landscape design and social spaces. This study is important in terms of determining the needs of the users as a design input. This will help improving the quality of common space in Eskişehir Osmangazi University and in other similar universities.

Keywords: university campuses, public open space, user requirement, post occupancy evaluation

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: M. Amo, A. Alvaro, A. Astudillo, R. Mc Culloch, J. C. del Castillo, M. Gómez, J. M. Martín

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Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) of course comprise a range of highly toxic compounds that may exist as particulates within the air or accumulate within water supplies, soil, or vegetation. They may be created either ubiquitously or naturally within the environment as a product of forest fires or volcanic eruptions. It is only since the industrial revolution, however, that it has become necessary to closely monitor their generation as a byproduct of manufacturing/combustion processes, in an effort to mitigate widespread contamination events. Of course, the environmental concentrations of these toxins are expected to be extremely low, therefore highly sensitive and accurate methods are required for their determination. Since ionization of non-polar compounds through electrospray and APCI is difficult and inefficient, we evaluate the performance of a novel low-flow Atmospheric Pressure Photoionization (APPI) source for the trace detection of various dioxins and furans using rapid Mass Spectrometry workflows. Air, soil and biota (vegetable matter) samples were collected monthly during one year from various locations within the vicinity of an industrial incinerator in Spain. Analytes were extracted and concentrated using soxhlet extraction in toluene and concentrated by rotavapor and nitrogen flow. Various ionization methods as electrospray (ES) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) were evaluated, however, only the low-flow APPI source was capable of providing the necessary performance, in terms of sensitivity, required for detecting all targeted analytes. In total, 10 analytes including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD) were detected and characterized using the APPI-MS method. Both PCDDs and PCFDs were detected most efficiently in negative ionization mode. The most abundant ion always corresponded to the loss of a chlorine and addition of an oxygen, yielding [M-Cl+O]- ions. MRM methods were created in order to provide selectivity for each analyte. No chromatographic separation was employed; however, matrix effects were determined to have a negligible impact on analyte signals. Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry was chosen because of its unique potential for high sensitivity and selectivity. The mass spectrometer used was a Sciex´s Qtrap3200 working in negative Multi Reacting Monitoring Mode (MRM). Typically mass detection limits were determined to be near the 1-pg level. The APPI-MS2 technology applied to the detection of PCDD/Fs allows fast and reliable atmospheric analysis, minimizing considerably operational times and costs, with respect other technologies available. In addition, the limit of detection can be easily improved using a more sensitive mass spectrometer since the background in the analysis channel is very low. The APPI developed by SEADM allows polar and non-polar compounds ionization with high efficiency and repeatability.

Keywords: atmospheric pressure photoionization-mass spectrometry (APPI-MS), dioxin, furan, incinerator

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Authors: Nursyafiq Ali Shibramulisi, Nor Farah Fauzi, Nur Azniza Zawin Anuar, Nurul Atikah Azmi, Janice Hew Pei Fang

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Background: Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMD) among dental personnel have been underestimated and under-reported worldwide and specifically in Malaysia. The problem will arise and progress slowly over time, as it results from accumulated injury throughout the period of work. Several risk factors, such as repetitive movement, static posture, vibration, and adapting poor working postures, have been identified to be contributing to WRMSD in dental practices. Dental personnel is at higher risk of getting this problem as it is their working nature and core business. This would cause pain and dysfunction syndrome among them and result in absence from work and substandard services to their patients. Methodology: A cross-sectional study involving 19 government dental clinics in Perak was done over the period of 3 months. Those who met the criteria were selected to participate in this study. Malay version of the Self-Reported Nordic Musculoskeletal Discomfort Form was used to identify the prevalence of WRMSD, while the intensity of pain in the respective regions was evaluated using a 10-point scale according to ‘Pain as The 5ᵗʰ Vital Sign’ by MOH Malaysia and later on were analyzed using SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics, including mean and SD and median and IQR, were used for numerical data. Categorical data were described by percentage. Pearson’s Chi-Square Test and Spearman’s Correlation were used to find the association between the prevalence of WRMSD and other socio-demographic data. Results: 159 dentists, 73 dental therapists, 26 dental lab technicians, 81 dental surgery assistants, and 23 dental attendants participated in this study. The mean age for the participants was 34.9±7.4 and their mean years of service was 9.97±7.5. Most of them were female (78.5%), Malay (71.3%), married (69.6%) and right-handed (90.1%). The highest prevalence of WRMSD was neck (58.0%), followed by shoulder (48.1%), upper back (42.0%), lower back (40.6%), hand/wrist (31.5%), feet (21.3%), knee (12.2%), thigh 7.7%) and lastly elbow (6.9%). Most of those who reported having neck pain scaled their pain experiences at 2 out of 10 (19.5%), while for those who suffered upper back discomfort, most of them scaled their pain experience at 6 out of 10 (17.8%). It was found that there was a significant relationship between age and pain at neck (p=0.007), elbow (p=0.027), lower back (p=0.032), thigh (p=0.039), knee (p=0.001) and feet (p=0.000) regions. Job position also had been found to be having a significant relationship with pain experienced at the lower back (p=0.018), thigh (p=0.011), knee, and feet (p=0.000). Conclusion: The prevalence of WRMSD among dental personnel in Perak was found to be high. Age and job position were found to be having a significant relationship with pain experienced in several regions. Intervention programs should be planned and conducted to prevent and reduce the occurrence of WRMSD, as all harmful or unergonomic practices should be avoided at all costs.

Keywords: WRMSD, ergonomic, dentistry, dental

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: Kinyas Aydin, Fatih Erguney, Tolga Ceper, Serap Ozay, Ipar N. Uzun, Sebnem Kemaloglu Dogan, Deniz Tunc

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In order to meet high growth rates in baby diaper industry worldwide, the high-speed textile backsheet lamination lines have recently been introduced to the market for non-woven/film lamination applications. It is a process where two substrates are bonded to each other via hotmelt adhesive (HMA). Nonwoven (NW) lamination system basically consists of 4 components; polypropylene (PP) nonwoven, polyethylene (PE) film, HMA and applicator system. Each component has a substantial effect on the process efficiency of continuous line and final product properties. However, for a precise subject cover, we will be addressing only the main challenges and possible solutions in this paper. The NW is often produced by spunbond method (SSS or SMS configuration) and has a 10-12 gsm (g/m²) basis weight. The NW rolls can have a width and length up to 2.060 mm and 30.000 linear meters, respectively. The PE film is the 2ⁿᵈ component in TBS lamination, which is usually a 12-14 gsm blown or cast breathable film. HMA is a thermoplastic glue (mostly rubber based) that can be applied in a large range of viscosity ranges. The main HMA application technology in TBS lamination is the slot die application in which HMA is spread on the top of the NW along the whole width at high temperatures in the melt form. Then, the NW is passed over chiller rolls with a certain open time depending on the line speed. HMAs are applied at certain levels in order to provide a proper de-lamination strength in cross and machine directions to the entire structure. Current TBS lamination line speed and width can be as high as 800 m/min and 2100 mm, respectively. They also feature an automated web control tension system for winders and unwinders. In order to run a continuous trouble-free mass production campaign on the fast industrial TBS lines, rheological properties of HMAs and micro-properties of NWs can have adverse effects on the line efficiency and continuity. NW fiber orientation and fineness, as well as spun/melt blown composition fabric micro-level properties, are the significant factors to affect the degree of “HMA bleed through.” As a result of this problem, frequent line stops are observed to clean the glue that is being accumulated on the chiller rolls, which significantly reduces the line efficiency. HMA rheology is also important and to eliminate any bleed through the problem; one should have a good understanding of rheology driven potential complications. So, the applied viscosity/temperature should be optimized in accordance with the line speed, line width, NW characteristics and the required open time for a given HMA formulation. In this study, we will show practical aspects of potential preventative actions to minimize the HMA bleed through the problem, which may stem from both HMA rheological properties and NW spun melt/melt blown fiber characteristics.

Keywords: breathable, hotmelt, nonwoven, textile backsheet lamination, spun/melt blown

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Authors: Shiau-Fang Chao, Yu-Chih Chen

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Owing to physical limitations and restrained lifestyle, older long-term care (LTC) residents are more likely to be affected by their environment than their community-dwelling counterparts. They also participate fewer activities and experience worse mental health than healthy older adults. This study adopts the ICF model to determine the extent to which the clustered patterns of LTC environment and activity participation are associated with older residents’ mental health. Method: Data were collected from a stratified equal probability sample of 634 older residents in 155 LTC institutions in Taiwan. Latent profile analysis (LPA) and latent class analysis (LCA) were conducted to explore the profiles for environment and activity participation. Multilevel modeling was performed to elucidate the relationships among environment profiles, activity profiles, and mental health. Results: LPA identified three mutually exclusive environment profiles (Low-, Moderate-, and High-Support Environment) based on the physical, social, and attitudinal environmental domains, consolidated from 12 environmental measures. LCA constructed two distinct activity profiles (Low- and High-Activity Participation) across seven activity domains (outdoor, volunteer-led leisure, spiritual, household chores, interpersonal exchange, social, and sedentary activity) that were factored from 20 activities. Compared to the Low-Support Environment class, older adults in the Moderate- and High-Support Environment classes had better mental health. Older residents in the Moderate- and High-Support Environment classes were more likely to be in the “High Activity” class, which in turn, exhibited better mental health. Conclusion: This study advances the current knowledge through rigorous methods and study design. The study findings lead to several conclusions. First, this study supports the use of ICF framework to institutionalized older individuals with functional limitations and demonstrates that both measures of environment and activity participation can be refined from multiple indicators. Second, environmental measures that encompass the physical, social, and attitudinal domains would provide a more comprehensive assessment on the place where an older individual embeds. Third, simply counting activities in which an older individual participates or considering a certain type of activity may not capture his or her way of life. Practitioners should not only focus on group or leisure activities within the institutions; rather, more efforts should be made to consider residents’ preferences for everyday life and support their remaining ability by encouraging continuous participation in activities they still willing and capable to perform. Fourth, environment and activity participation are modifiable factors which have greater potential to strengthen older LTC residents’ mental health, and activity participation should be considered in the link between environment and mental health. A combination of enhanced physical, social, and attitudinal environments, and continual engagement in various activities may optimize older LTC residents’ mental health.

Keywords: activity, environment, mental health, older LTC residents

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Authors: David Gottlieb, Jason Yoder

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The feeling of loneliness is not uncommon in modern society, and yet, there is a fundamental lack of understanding in its origins and purpose in nature. One interpretation of loneliness is that it is a subjective experience that punishes a lack of social behavior, and thus its emergence in human evolution is seemingly tied to the survival of early human tribes. Still, a common counterintuitive response to loneliness is a state of hypervigilance, resulting in social withdrawal, which may appear maladaptive to modern society. So far, no computational model of loneliness’ effect during evolution yet exists; however, agent-based models (ABM) can be used to investigate social behavior, and applying evolution to agents’ behaviors can demonstrate selective advantages for particular behaviors. We propose an ABM where each agent contains four social behaviors, and one goal-seeking behavior, letting evolution select the best behavioral patterns for resource allocation. In our paper, we use an algorithm similar to the boid model to guide the behavior of agents, but expand the set of rules that govern their behavior. While we use cohesion, separation, and alignment for simple social movement, our expanded model adds goal-oriented behavior, which is inspired by particle swarm optimization, such that agents move relative to their personal best position. Since agents are given the ability to form connections by interacting with each other, our final behavior guides agent movement toward its social connections. Finally, we introduce a mechanism to represent a state of loneliness, which engages when an agent's perceived social involvement does not meet its expected social involvement. This enables us to investigate a minimal model of loneliness, and using evolution we attempt to elucidate its value in human survival. Agents are placed in an environment in which they must acquire resources, as their fitness is based on the total resource collected. With these rules in place, we are able to run evolution under various conditions, including resource-rich environments, and when disease is present. Our simulations indicate that there is strong selection pressure for social behavior under circumstances where there is a clear discrepancy between initial resource locations, and against social behavior when disease is present, mirroring hypervigilance. This not only provides an explanation for the emergence of loneliness, but also reflects the diversity of response to loneliness in the real world. In addition, there is evidence of a richness of social behavior when loneliness was present. By introducing just two resource locations, we observed a divergence in social motivation after agents became lonely, where one agent learned to move to the other, who was in a better resource position. The results and ongoing work from this project show that it is possible to glean insight into the evolutionary advantages of even simple mechanisms of loneliness. The model we developed has produced unexpected results and has led to more questions, such as the impact loneliness would have at a larger scale, or the effect of creating a set of rules governing interaction beyond adjacency.

Keywords: agent-based, behavior, evolution, loneliness, social

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Authors: Demelash Kassaye

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The Ethiopia case study reveals a unique model of community policing that has developed from a particular political context in which there is a history of violent political transition, a political structure characterized by ethnic federalism and a political ideology that straddles liberal capitalism and democracy on the one hand, and state-led development and centralized control on the other. The police see community policing as a way to reduce crime. Communities speak about community policing as an opportunity to take on policing responsibilities themselves. Both of these objectives are brought together in an overarching rhetoric of community policing as a way of ‘mobilizing for development’ – whereby the community cooperate with the police to reduce crime, which otherwise inhibits development progress. Community policing in Amhara has primarily involved the placement of Community Police Officers at the kebele level across the State. In addition, a number of structures have also been established in the community, including Advisory Councils, Conflict Resolving Committees, family police and the use of shoe shiner’s and other trade associations as police informants. In addition to these newly created structures, community policing also draws upon pre-existing customary actors, such as militia and elders. Conflict Resolving Committees, Community Police Officers and elders were reported as the most common first ports of call when community members experience a crime. The analysis highlights that the model of community policing in Amhara increased communities’ access to policing services, although this is not always attended by increased access to justice. Community members also indicate that public perceptions of the police have improved since the introduction of community policing, in part due to individual Community Police Officers who have, with limited resources, innovated some impressive strategies to improve safety in their neighborhoods. However, more broadly, community policing has provided the state with more effective surveillance of the population – a potentially oppressive function in the current political context. Ultimately, community policing in Amhara is anything but straightforward. It has been a process of attempting to demonstrate the benefits of newfound (and controversial) ‘democracy’ following years of dictatorship, drawing on generations of customary dispute resolution, providing both improved access to security for communities and an enhanced surveillance capacity for the state. For external actors looking to engage in community policing, this case study reveals the importance of close analysis in assessing potential merits, risks and entry points of programming. Factors found to be central in shaping the nature of community policing in the Amhara case include the structure of the political system, state-society relations, cultures dispute resolution and political ideology.

Keywords: community policing, community, militias, ethiopia

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Authors: Kiyanoush Ghalavand, Ali Ferydooni

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Fars province Fārs or Pārs is a vast land located in the southwest of Iran. All over the province, you can see and feel the glory of Ancient Iranian culture and civilization. There are many monuments from pre-historical to the Islamic era within this province. The existence of ancient cultural and historical monuments in Fars province including the historical complex of Persepolis, the tombs of Persian poets Hafez and Saadi, and dozens of other valuable cultural and historical works of this province as a symbol of Iranian national identity and the manifestation of transcendent cultural values of this national identity. Fars province is quintessentially Persian. Its name is the modern version of ancient Parsa, the homeland, if not the place of origin, of the Persians, one of the great powers of antiquity. From here, the Persian Empire ruled much of Western and Central Asia, receiving ambassadors and messengers at Persepolis. It was here that the Persian kings were buried, both in the mountain behind Persepolis and in the rock face of nearby Naqsh-e Rustam. We have a complex paradox in Persian and Islamic ideology in the age of technology in Iran. The main purpose of the present article is to identify and describe the problems and prospects of origin and development of the modern approach to the conservation and restoration of ancient monuments and historic buildings, the influence that this development has had on international collaboration in the protection and conservation of cultural heritage, and the present consequences worldwide. The definition of objects and structures of the past as heritage, and the policies related to their protection, restoration, and conservation, have evolved together with modernity, and are currently recognized as an essential part of the responsibilities of modern society. Since the eighteenth century, the goal of this protection has been defined as the cultural heritage of humanity; gradually this has included not only ancient monuments and past works of art but even entire territories for a variety of new values generated in recent decades. In its medium-term program of 1989, UNESCO defined the full scope of such heritage. The cultural heritage may be defined as the entire corpus of material signs either artistic or symbolic handed on by the past to each culture and, therefore, to the whole of humankind. As a constituent part of the affirmation and enrichment of cultural identities, as a legacy belonging to all humankind, the cultural heritage gives each particular place its recognizable features and is the storehouse of human experience. The preservation and the presentation of the cultural heritage are therefore a corner-stone of any cultural policy. The process, from which these concepts and policies have emerged, has been identified as the ‘modern conservation movement’.

Keywords: tradition, modern, heritage, historical building, protection, cultural policy, fars province

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Authors: Samuel I. Becher, Tal Z. Zarsky

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The digital world becomes part of our DNA now. The way e-commerce, human behavior, and law interact and affect one another is rapidly and significantly changing. Among others things, the internet equips consumers with a variety of platforms to share information in a volume we could not imagine before. As part of this development, online information flows allow consumers to learn about businesses and their contracts in an efficient and quick manner. Consumers can become informed by the impressions that other, experienced consumers share and spread. In other words, consumers may familiarize themselves with the contents of contracts through the experiences that other consumers had. Online and offline, the relationship between consumers and businesses are most frequently governed by consumer standard form contracts. For decades, such contracts are assumed to be one-sided and biased against consumers. Consumer Law seeks to alleviate this bias and empower consumers. Legislatures, consumer organizations, scholars, and judges are constantly looking for clever ways to protect consumers from unscrupulous firms and unfair behaviors. While consumers-businesses relationships are theoretically administered by standardized contracts, firms do not always follow these contracts in practice. At times, there is a significant disparity between what the written contract stipulates and what consumers experience de facto. That is, there is a crucial gap (“the Gap”) between how firms draft their contracts on the one hand, and how firms actually treat consumers on the other. Interestingly, the Gap is frequently manifested by deviation from the written contract in favor of consumers. In other words, firms often exercise lenient approach in spite of the stringent written contracts they draft. This essay examines whether, counter-intuitively, policy makers should add firms’ leniency to the growing list of firms suspicious behaviors. At first glance, firms should be allowed, if not encouraged, to exercise leniency. Many legal regimes are looking for ways to cope with unfair contract terms in consumer contracts. Naturally, therefore, consumer law should enable, if not encourage, firms’ lenient practices. Firms’ willingness to deviate from their strict contracts in order to benefit consumers seems like a sensible approach. Apparently, such behavior should not be second guessed. However, at times online tools, firm’s behaviors and human psychology result in a toxic mix. Beneficial and helpful online information should be treated with due respect as it may occasionally have surprising and harmful qualities. In this essay, we illustrate that technological changes turn the Gap into a key component in consumers' understanding, or misunderstanding, of consumer contracts. In short, a Gap may distort consumers’ perception and undermine rational decision-making. Consequently, this essay explores whether, counter-intuitively, consumer law should sanction firms that create a Gap and use it. It examines when firms’ leniency should be considered as manipulative or exercised in bad faith. It then investigates whether firms should be allowed to enforce the written contract even if the firms deliberately and consistently deviated from it.

Keywords: consumer contracts, consumer protection, information flow, law and economics, law and technology, paper deal v firms' behavior

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Authors: Laura Alvarez-Alonso, Francisco Garcia-Carro, Jorge Loredo

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Population growth and industrial development imply an increase in the energy demands and the problems caused by emissions of greenhouse effect gases, which has inspired the search for clean sources of energy. Hydrogen (H₂) is expected to play a key role in the world’s energy future by replacing fossil fuels. The properties of H₂ make it a green fuel that does not generate pollutants and supplies sufficient energy for power generation, transportation, and other applications. Supercritical Water Gasification (SCWG) represents an attractive alternative for the recovery of energy from wastes. SCWG allows conversion of a wide range of raw materials into a fuel gas with a high content of hydrogen and light hydrocarbons through their treatment at conditions higher than those that define the critical point of water (temperature of 374°C and pressure of 221 bar). Methane used as a transport fuel is another important gasification product. The number of different uses of gas and energy forms that can be produced depending on the kind of material gasified and type of technology used to process it, shows the flexibility of SCWG. This feature allows it to be integrated with several industrial processes, as well as power generation systems or waste-to-energy production systems. The final aim of this work is to study which conditions and equipment are the most efficient and advantageous to explore the possibilities to obtain streams rich in H₂ from oily wastes, which represent a major problem both for the environment and human health throughout the world. In this paper, the relative complexity of technology needed for feasible gasification process cycles is discussed with particular reference to the different feedstocks that can be used as raw material, different reactors, and energy recovery systems. For this purpose, a review of the current status of SCWG technologies has been carried out, by means of different classifications based on key features as the feed treated or the type of reactor and other apparatus. This analysis allows to improve the technology efficiency through the study of model calculations and its comparison with experimental data, the establishment of kinetics for chemical reactions, the analysis of how the main reaction parameters affect the yield and composition of products, or the determination of the most common problems and risks that can occur. The results of this work show that SCWG is a promising method for the production of both hydrogen and methane. The most significant choices of design are the reactor type and process cycle, which can be conveniently adopted according to waste characteristics. Regarding the future of the technology, the design of SCWG plants is still to be optimized to include energy recovery systems in order to reduce costs of equipment and operation derived from the high temperature and pressure conditions that are necessary to convert water to the SC state, as well as to find solutions to remove corrosion and clogging of components of the reactor.

Keywords: hydrogen production, organic wastes, supercritical water gasification, system integration, waste-to-energy

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Authors: Kyong-Ku Yun, Dae-Ae Kim, Kyeo-Re Lee, Kyong Namkung, Seung-Yeon Han

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Micro silica is collected as a by-product of the silicon and ferrosilicon alloy production in electric arc furnace using highly pure quartz, wood chips, coke and the like. It consists of about 85% of silicon which has spherical particles with an average particle size of 150 μm. The bulk density of micro silica varies from 150 to 700kg/m^3 and the fineness ranges from 150,000 to 300,000cm^2/g. An amorphous structure with a high silicon oxide content of micro silica induces an active reaction with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) generated by the cement hydrate of a large surface area (about 20 m^² / g), and they are also known to form calcium, silicate, hydrate conjugate (C-S-H). Micro silica tends to act as a filler because of the fine particles and the spherical shape. These particles do not get covered by water and they fit well in the space between the relatively rough cement grains which does not freely fluidize concrete. On the contrary, water demand increases since micro silica particles have a tendency to absorb water because of the large surface area. The overall effect of micro silica depends on the amount of micro silica added with other parameters in the water-(cement + micro silica) ratio, and the availability of superplasticizer. In this research, it was studied on cellular sprayed concrete. This method involves a direct re-production of ready mixed concrete into a high performance at a job site. It could reduce the cost of construction by an adding a cellular and a micro silica into a ready mixed concrete truck in a field. Also, micro silica which is difficult with mixing due to high fineness in the field can be added and dispersed in concrete by increasing the fluidity of ready mixed concrete through the surface activity of cellular. Increased air content is converged to a certain level of air content by spraying and it also produces high-performance concrete by remixing of powders in the process of spraying. As it does not use a field mixing equipment the cost of construction decrease and it can be constructed after installing special spray machine in a commercial pump car. Therefore, use of special equipment is minimized, providing economic feasibility through the utilization of existing equipment. This study was carried out to evaluate a highly reliable method of confirming dispersion through a high performance cellular sprayed concrete. A mixture of 25mm coarse aggregate and river sand was applied to the concrete. In addition, by applying silica fume and foam, silica fume dispersion is confirmed in accordance with foam mixing, and the mean and standard deviation is obtained. Then variation coefficient is calculated to finally evaluate the dispersion. Comparison and analysis of before and after spraying were conducted on the experiment variables of 21L, 35L foam for each 7%, 14% silica fume respectively. Taking foam and silica fume as variables, the experiment proceed. Casting a specimen for each variable, a five-day sample is taken from each specimen for EDS test. In this study, it was examined by an experiment materials, plan and mix design, test methods, and equipment, for the evaluation of dispersion in accordance with micro silica and foam.

Keywords: micro silica, distribution, ready mixed concrete, foam

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Authors: Marziye Hadian, Alireza Jabbari

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Background: The World Health Organization has identified COVID-19 as a public health emergency and is urging governments to stop the virus transmission by adopting appropriate policies. In this regard, authorities have taken different approaches to cut the chain or controlling the spread of the disease. Now, the questions we are facing include what these approaches are? What tools should be used to implement each preventive protocol? In addition, what is the impact of each approach? Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the approaches to biological epidemics and related prevention tools with an emphasis on COVID-19 disease. Data sources: Databases including ISI web of science, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Ovid, and ProQuest were employed for data extraction. Furthermore, authentic sources such as the WHO website, the published reports of relevant countries, as well as the Worldometer website were evaluated for gray studies. The time-frame of the study was from 1 December 2019 to 30 May 2020. Methods: The present study was a systematic study of publications related to the prevention strategies for the COVID-19 disease. The study was carried out based on the PRISMA guidelines and CASP for articles and AACODS for grey literature. Results: The study findings showed that in order to confront the COVID-19 epidemic, in general, there are three approaches of "mitigation", "active control" and "suppression" and four strategies of "quarantine", "isolation", "social distance" and "lockdown" in both individual and social dimensions to deal with epidemics. Selection and implementation of each approach requires specific strategies and has different effects when it comes to controlling and inhibiting the disease. Key finding: One possible approach to control the disease is to change individual behavior and lifestyle. In addition to prevention strategies, use of masks, observance of personal hygiene principles such as regular hand washing and non-contact of contaminated hands with the face, as well as an observance of public health principles such as sneezing and coughing etiquettes, safe extermination of personal protective equipment, must be strictly observed. Have not been included in the category of prevention tools. However, it has a great impact on controlling the epidemic, especially the new coronavirus epidemic. Conclusion: Although the use of different approaches to control and inhibit biological epidemics depends on numerous variables, however, despite these requirements, global experience suggests that some of these approaches are ineffective. The use of previous experiences in the world, along with the current experiences of countries, can be very helpful in choosing the accurate approach for each country in accordance with the characteristics of that country and lead to the reduction of possible costs at the national and international levels.

Keywords: novel corona virus, COVID-19, approaches, prevention tools, prevention strategies

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Authors: Linda Weinberg, Miriam Symon

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While few institutions of higher education in Israel offer international programs taught entirely in English, many Israeli students today can study at least one content course taught in English during their degree program. In particular, with the growth of international partnerships and opportunities for student mobility, English medium instruction is a growing phenomenon. There are however no official guidelines in Israel for how to develop and implement content courses in English and no training to help lecturers prepare for teaching their materials in a foreign language. Furthermore, the implications for the students and the nature of the courses themselves have not been sufficiently considered. In addition, the institution must have lecturers who are able to teach these courses effectively in English. An international project funded by the European Union addresses these issues and a set of guidelines which provide guidance for lecturers in adapting their courses for delivery in English have been developed. A train-the-trainer approach is adopted in order to cascade knowledge and experience in English medium instruction from experts to language teachers and on to content teachers thus maximizing the scope of professional development. To accompany training, a model English medium course has been created which serves the dual purpose of highlighting alternatives to the frontal lecture while integrating language learning objectives with content goals. This course can also be used as a standalone content course. The development of the guidelines and of the course utilized backwards, forwards and central design in an iterative process. The goals for combined language and content outcomes were identified first after which a suitable framework for achieving these goals was constructed. The assessment procedures evolved through collaboration between content and language specialists and subsequently were put into action during a piloting phase. Feedback from the piloting teachers and from the students highlight the need for clear channels of communication to encourage frank and honest discussion of expectations versus reality. While much of what goes on in the English medium classroom requires no better teaching skills than are required in any classroom, the understanding of students' abilities in achieving reasonable learning outcomes in a foreign language must be rationalized and accommodated within the course design. Concomitantly, preparatory language classes for students must be able to adapt to prepare students for specific language and cognitive skills and activities that courses conducted in English require. This paper presents findings from the implementation of a purpose-designed English medium instruction course arrived at through an iterative backwards, forwards and central design process utilizing feedback from students and lecturers alike leading to suggested guidelines for English medium instruction in higher education.

Keywords: English medium instruction, higher education, iterative design process, train-the-trainer

Procedia PDF Downloads 300

Authors: Ana Breda, Catarina Cruz

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Daily, we face unpredictable events, often attributed to chance, as there is no justification for such an occurrence. Chance, understood as a source of uncertainty, is present in several aspects of human life, such as weather forecasts, dice rolling, and lottery. Surprisingly, humans and some animals can quickly adjust their behavior to handle efficiently doubly stochastic processes (random events with two layers of randomness, like unpredictable weather affecting dice rolling). This adjustment ability suggests that the human brain has built-in mechanisms for perceiving, understanding, and responding to simple probabilities. It also explains why current trends in mathematics education include probability concepts in official curriculum programs, starting from the third year of primary education onwards. In the first years of schooling, children learn to use a certain type of (specific) vocabulary, such as never, always, rarely, perhaps, likely, and unlikely, to help them to perceive and understand the probability of some events. These are keywords of crucial importance for their perception and understanding of probabilities. The development of the probabilistic concepts comes from facts and cause-effect sequences resulting from the subject's actions, as well as the notion of chance and intuitive estimates based on everyday experiences. As part of a junior summer school program, which took place at a Portuguese university, a non-formal learning experiment was carried out with 18 children in the 5th and 6th grades. This experience was designed to be implemented in a dynamic of a serious ice-breaking game, to assess their levels of probabilistic, critical, and creative thinking in understanding impossible, certain, equally probable, likely, and unlikely events, and also to gain insight into how the non-formal learning context influenced their achievements. The criteria used to evaluate probabilistic thinking included the creative ability to conceive events classified in the specified categories, the ability to properly justify the categorization, the ability to critically assess the events classified by other children, and the ability to make predictions based on a given probability. The data analysis employs a qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative-methods approach based on students' written productions, audio recordings, and researchers' field notes. This methodology allowed us to conclude that such an approach is an appropriate and helpful formative assessment tool. The promising results of this initial exploratory study require a future research study with children from these levels of education, from different regions, attending public or private schools, to validate and expand our findings.

Keywords: critical and creative thinking, non-formal mathematics learning, probabilistic thinking, serious game

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Authors: S. Gustafsson

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The aim of this paper is to explore the connection between gender, agency, and health on personal and social levels over time. The use of gender as an analytical tool for health research has been shown to be useful to explore thoughts and ideas that are taken for granted, which have relevance for health. The paper highlights the following three issues. There are multiple forms of femininity and masculinity. Agency and social structure are closely related and referred to in this paper as 'gender agency'. Gender is illuminated as a product of history but also treated as a social factor and a producer of history. As a prominent social factor in the process of shaping living conditions, gender is highlighted as being significant for understanding health. To make health explicit as a dynamic and complex concept and not merely the opposite of disease requires a broader alliance with feminist theory and a post-Bourdieusian framework. A personal story, included with other ethnographic material about women’s networking in rural Sweden, is used as an empirical illustration. Ethnographic material was chosen for its ability to illustrate historical, local, and cultural ways of doing gendered and capitalized health. New concepts characterize ethnography, exemplified in this study by 'processes of transformation'. The semi-structured interviews followed an interview guide drafted with reference to the background theory of gender. The interviews lasted about an hour and were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcribed interviews and the author’s field notes formed the basis for the writing up of this paper. Initially, the participants' interests in weaving, sewing, and various handicrafts became obvious foci for networking activities and seemed at first to shape compliance with patriarchy, which generally does the opposite of promoting health. However, a significant event disrupted the stability of this phenomenon. What was permissible for the women began to crack and new spaces opened up. By exploiting these new spaces, the participants found opportunities to try out alternatives to emphasized femininity. Over time, they began combining feminized activities with degrees of masculinity, as leadership became part of the activities. In response to this, masculine enactment was gradually transformed and became increasingly gender neutral. As the tasks became more gender neutral the activities assumed a more formal character and the women stretched the limits of their capacity by enacting gender agency, a process the participants referred to as 'personal growth' and described as health promotion. What was described in terms of 'personal growth' can be interpreted as the effects of a raised status. Participation in women’s networking strengthened the participants’ structural position. More specifically, it was the gender-neutral position that was rewarded. To clarify the connection between gender, agency, and health on personal and social levels over time the concept processes of transformation is used. This concept is suggested as a dynamic equivalent to habitus. Health is thus seen as resulting from situational access to social recognition, prestige, capital assets and not least, meanings of gender.

Keywords: a cross-gender bodily hexis, gender agency, gender as analytical tool, processes of transformation

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Authors: Sachin Jain, Daniel Perez-Astudillo, Dunia A. Bachour, Antonio P. Sanfilippo

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The future of solar energy in Qatar is evolving steadily. Hence, high-quality spatial solar radiation data is of the uttermost requirement for any planning and commissioning of solar technology. Generally, two types of solar radiation data are available: satellite data and ground observations. Satellite solar radiation data is developed by the physical and statistical model. Ground data is collected by solar radiation measurement stations. The ground data is of high quality. However, they are limited to distributed point locations with the high cost of installation and maintenance for the ground stations. On the other hand, satellite solar radiation data is continuous and available throughout geographical locations, but they are relatively less accurate than ground data. To utilize the advantage of both data, a product has been developed here which provides spatial continuity and higher accuracy than any of the data alone. The popular satellite databases: National Solar radiation Data Base, NSRDB (PSM V3 model, spatial resolution: 4 km) is chosen here for merging with ground-measured solar radiation measurement in Qatar. The spatial distribution of ground solar radiation measurement stations is comprehensive in Qatar, with a network of 13 ground stations. The monthly average of the daily total Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) component from ground and satellite data is used for error analysis. The normalized root means square error (NRMSE) values of 3.31%, 6.53%, and 6.63% for October, November, and December 2019 were observed respectively when comparing in-situ and NSRDB data. The method is based on the Empirical Bayesian Kriging Regression Prediction model available in ArcGIS, ESRI. The workflow of the algorithm is based on the combination of regression and kriging methods. A regression model (OLS, ordinary least square) is fitted between the ground and NSBRD data points. A semi-variogram is fitted into the experimental semi-variogram obtained from the residuals. The kriging residuals obtained after fitting the semi-variogram model were added to NSRBD data predicted values obtained from the regression model to obtain the final predicted values. The NRMSE values obtained after merging are respectively 1.84%, 1.28%, and 1.81% for October, November, and December 2019. One more explanatory variable, that is the ground elevation, has been incorporated in the regression and kriging methods to reduce the error and to provide higher spatial resolution (30 m). The final GHI maps have been created after merging, and NRMSE values of 1.24%, 1.28%, and 1.28% have been observed for October, November, and December 2019, respectively. The proposed merging method has proven as a highly accurate method. An additional method is also proposed here to generate calibrated maps by using regression and kriging model and further to use the calibrated model to generate solar radiation maps from the explanatory variable only when not enough historical ground data is available for long-term analysis. The NRMSE values obtained after the comparison of the calibrated maps with ground data are 5.60% and 5.31% for November and December 2019 month respectively.

Keywords: global horizontal irradiation, GIS, empirical bayesian kriging regression prediction, NSRDB

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Authors: Burmansyah Muhammad, Supriyoto Supriyoto

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Crop yield, quality and food safety are three important components that all estate and food crops must put into consideration to lifting the economic value. These measurements should be evaluated because marketplace demand is simultaneously changing and farmers must adapt quickly to remain competitive. The increase in economic value could be done by producing high quality product that aligns with harvest collector preferences. The purpose of this study is to examine the causal effects of value added farming in agriculture economic aspects towards crop yield, quality and food security. This research is using descriptive survey research by employing data from small-scale cocoa farmers listed to off-taker company, located on Sulawesi area of Indonesia. The questionnaire was obtained from 650 cocoa farmers, selected randomly. Major findings of the study indicate that 78% of respondents agree that agriculture inputs have positive effect on crop yield, quality and food safety. The study recommended that cocoa stakeholders should ensure access to agriculture inputs in first priority and then followed by ensuring access to cocoa supply chain trader and micro-financing. Value Added Farming refers to lifting the economic value of a commodity through particular intervention. Regarding access to agriculture inputs, one of significant intervention is fertilization and plant nutrition management, both organic and inorganic fertilizer. Small-scale cocoa farmers can get access to fertilizer intervention through establishment of demo farm. Ordinary demo farm needs large area, selective requirements, lots of field resources and centralization impact. On the contrary, satellite demo farm is developing to wide-spread the impact of agriculture economic aspects and also the involvement in number of farmers. In Sulawesi Project, we develop leveling strata of small-scale demo farm with group of farmers and local cooperative. With this methodology, all of listed small-scale farmers can get access to agriculture input, micro-financing and how to deliver quality output. PT Pupuk Kaltim is member firm of holding company PT Pupuk Indonesia, private company belongs to the government of Indonesia. The company listed as Indonesia's largest producer of urea fertilizers, besides ammonia, Compound Fertilizer (NPK) and biological fertilizers. To achieve strategic objectives, the company has distinguished award such as SNI Platinum, SGS Award IFA Protect and Sustain Stewardship and Gold Rank of Environment Friendly Company. This achievement has become the strategic foundation for our company to energize value added farming in sustaining food security program. Moreover, to ensure cocoa sustainability farming the company has developed partnership with international companies and Non-Government Organization (NGO).

Keywords: fertilizer and plant nutrition management, good agriculture practices, agriculture economic aspects, value-added farming

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Authors: R. Abdulrahman, A. Eardley, A. Soliman

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The proliferation in the development of mobile learning (m-learning) has played a vital role in the rapidly growing electronic learning market. This relatively new technology can help to encourage the development of in learning and to aid knowledge transfer a number of areas, by familiarizing students with innovative information and communications technologies (ICT). M-learning plays a substantial role in the deployment of learning methods for nursing students by using the Internet and portable devices to access learning resources ‘anytime and anywhere’. However, acceptance of m-learning by students is critical to the successful use of m-learning systems. Thus, there is a need to study the factors that influence student’s intention to use m-learning. This paper addresses this issue. It outlines the outcomes of a study that evaluates the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model as applied to the subject of user acceptance in relation to m-learning activity in nurse education. The model integrates the significant components across eight prominent user acceptance models. Therefore, a standard measure is introduced with core determinants of user behavioural intention. The research model extends the UTAUT in the context of m-learning acceptance by modifying and adding individual innovativeness (II) and quality of service (QoS) to the original structure of UTAUT. The paper goes on to add the factors of previous experience (of using mobile devices in similar applications) and the nursing students’ readiness (to use the technology) to influence their behavioural intentions to use m-learning. This study uses a technique called ‘convenience sampling’ which involves student volunteers as participants in order to collect numerical data. A quantitative method of data collection was selected and involves an online survey using a questionnaire form. This form contains 33 questions to measure the six constructs, using a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 42 respondents participated, all from the Nursing Institute at the Armed Forces Hospital in Saudi Arabia. The gathered data were then tested using a research model that employs the structural equation modelling (SEM), including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the CFA show that the UTAUT model has the ability to predict student behavioural intention and to adapt m-learning activity to the specific learning activities. It also demonstrates satisfactory, dependable and valid scales of the model constructs. This suggests further analysis to confirm the model as a valuable instrument in order to evaluate the user acceptance of m-learning activity.

Keywords: mobile learning, nursing institute students’ acceptance of m-learning activity in Saudi Arabia, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model (UTAUT), structural equation modelling (SEM)

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Authors: Rebeca P Ramos-Bueno, Maria Jose Gonzalez-Fernandez, Rosa M. Moreno-Zamora, Antonia Barros Heras, Yolanda Serrano Alonso, Carolina Sanchez Barranco

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Insects are a new source of fatty acids (FA), so they are considered a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative for both animal feed and the human diet, and furthermore, their harvesting/rearing require a low-tech and low capital investment. For that reason, lipids obtained by insect breeding open interesting possibilities with alimentary and industrial purposes, i.e., the production of biodiesel. Particularly, certain insect species, especially during the larval stage, contain high proportions of fat which is highly dependent on their feed and stage of development. Among them, Hermetia illucens larvae can be bred on food wastes to produce fat- and protein-rich raw materials for food by-product management. So, insects can act as excellent bioconverters of organic waste to nutrient-rich materials. In this regard, the aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of fruit byproducts on the FA compositions of Tenebrio molitor, Zophoba morio, and H. illucens larvae. Firstly, oil was extracted with the green solvent ethyl acetate, and FA methyl ester was obtained and analyzed by GC to show the FA profile. In addition, the triacylglycerol (TAG) profile was obtained by HPLC. Dehydrated watermelon, tomato, and papaya by-products, as well as wheat-based control feed, were assayed. High FA content was reached by Z. morio larvae fed with all fruits; however, no differences were shown in lipid profile with any change. It is worth highlighting that both Z. morio and H. illucens could be selected as the best candidates for biodiesel production due to their high content of saturated FA. On the other hand, T. molitor larvae showed a higher content of monounsaturated FA than control larvae, whereas the n-6 polyunsaturated FA content decreased in larvae fed with fruits. This result indicates that the improvement of the FA profile of Tenebrio can depend on both the type of feeding and the intended use. The lipid profile of H. illucens larvae fed with papaya and tomato showed a slight increase in the content of α-linoleic acid (ALA, 18:3n3). This FA is the precursor of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n3), which plays an important role as a component of structural lipids in cell membranes as well as in the synthesis of eicosanoids, protecting and resolving. Also, it was evaluated the TAG profile of Z. morio larvae due to their highest oil content. The results showed a high oleic acid (OA, 18:1n9) content, which displays modulatory effects in a wide range of physiological functions, having anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic properties. In conclusion, this study clearly shows that Z. morio and H. illucens larvae constitute an alternative source of OA- and ALA-rich oils, respectively, which can be devoted for food use, as well as for using in the food and pharmaceutical industries, with agronomic implications. Finally, although the profile of Z. morio was not improved with fruit feeding, this kind of feeding could be used due to its low environmental impact.

Keywords: fatty acids, fruit byproducts, Hermetia illucens, Zophoba morio, Tenebrio molitor, insect rearing

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Authors: Wageeh A. Nafei

Abstract:

This paper explores the role of Paradoxical Leadership (PL) in enhancing Organizational Success (OS) at private hospitals in Egypt. Based on the collected data from employees in private hospitals (doctors, nursing staff, and administrative staff). The researcher has adopted a sampling method to collect data for the study. The appropriate statistical methods, such as Alpha Correlation Coefficient (ACC), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA), are used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The research has reached a number of results, the most important of which are (1) there is a statistical relationship between the independent variable represented by PL and the dependent variable represented by Organizational Success (OS). The paradoxical leader encourages employees to express their opinions and builds a work environment characterized by flexibility and independence. Also, the paradoxical leader works to support specialized work teams, which leads to the creation of new ideas, on the one hand, and contributes to the achievement of outstanding performance on the other hand. (2) the mentality of the paradoxical leader is flexible and capable of absorbing all suggestions from all employees. Also, the paradoxical leader is interested in enhancing cooperation among them and provides an opportunity to transfer experience and increase knowledge-sharing. Also, the sharing of knowledge creates the necessary diversity that helps the organization to obtain rich external information and enables the organization to deal with a rapidly changing environment. (3) The PL approach helps in facing the paradoxical demands of employees. A paradoxical leader plays an important role in reducing the feeling of instability in the work environment and lack of job security, reducing negative feelings for employees, restoring balance in the work environment, improving the well-being of employees, and increasing the degree of job satisfaction of employees in the organization. The study referred to a number of recommendations, the most important of which are (1) the leaders of the organizations must listen to the views of employees and their needs and move away from the official method of control. The leader should give sufficient freedom to employees to participate in decision-making and maintain enough space among them. The treatment between the leaders and employees must be based on friendliness, (2) the need for organizational leaders to pay attention to sharing knowledge among employees through training courses. The leader should make sure that every information provided by the employee is valuable and useful, which can be used to solve a problem that may face his/her colleagues at work, (3) the need for organizational leaders to pay attention to sharing knowledge among employees through brainstorming sessions. The leader should ensure that employees obtain knowledge from their colleagues and share ideas and information among them. This is in addition to motivating employees to complete their work in a new creative way, which leads to employees’ not feeling bored of repeating the same routine procedures in the organization.

Keywords: paradoxical leadership, organizational success, human resourece, management

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Authors: Jean-Eric Pelet, Erhard Lick, Basma Taieb

Abstract:

Purpose This research bridges the gap between sensory marketing and the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in luxury hotels. We investigated how stimulating guests’ senses through IoT devices influenced their emotions, affective experiences, eudaimonism (well-being), and, ultimately, guest behavior. We examined potential moderating effects of gender. Design/methodology/approach We adopted a mixed method approach, combining qualitative research (semi-structured interviews) to explore hotel managers’ perspectives on the potential use of IoT in luxury hotels and quantitative research (surveying hotel guests; n=357). Findings The results showed that while the senses of smell, hearing, and sight had an impact on guests’ emotions, the senses of touch, hearing, and sight impacted guests’ affective experiences. The senses of smell and taste influenced guests’ eudaimonism. The sense of smell had a greater effect on eudaimonism and behavioral intentions among women compared to men. Originality IoT can be applied in creating customized multi-sensory hotel experiences. For example, hotels may offer unique and diverse ambiences in their rooms and suites to improve guest experiences. Research limitations/implications This study concentrated on luxury hotels located in Europe. Further research may explore the generalizability of the findings (e.g., in other cultures, comparison between high-end and low-end hotels). Practical implications Context awareness and hyper-personalization, through intensive and continuous data collection (hyper-connectivity) and real time processing, are key trends in the service industry. Therefore, big data plays a crucial role in the collection of information since it allows hoteliers to retrieve, analyze, and visualize data to provide personalized services in real time. Together with their guests, hotels may co-create customized sensory experiences. For instance, if the hotel knows about the guest’s music preferences based on social media as well as their age and gender, etc. and considers the temperature and size (standard, suite, etc.) of the guest room, this may determine the playlist of the concierge-tablet made available in the guest room. Furthermore, one may record the guest’s voice to use it for voice command purposes once the guest arrives at the hotel. Based on our finding that the sense of smell has a greater impact on eudaimonism and behavioral intentions among women than men, hotels may deploy subtler scents with lower intensities, or even different scents, for female guests in comparison to male guests.

Keywords: affective experience, emotional value, eudaimonism, hospitality industry, Internet of Things, sensory marketing

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Authors: Tuula Nygard

Abstract:

This study contributes to the pedagogical discussion on how to promote adolescents’ multiliteracies with the emphasis on information seeking and evaluation skills in contemporary media environments. The study is conducted in the school environment utilizing perspectives of educational sciences and information studies to health communication and teaching. The research focus is on the teacher role as a trusted person, who guides students to choose and use credible information sources. Evaluating the credibility of information may often be challenging. Specifically, children and adolescents may find it difficult to know what to believe and who to trust, for instance, in health and well-being communication. Thus, advanced multiliteracy skills are needed. In the school environment, trust is based on the teacher’s subject content knowledge, but also the teacher’s character and caring. Teacher’s benevolence and approachability generate trustworthiness, which lays the foundation for good interaction with students and further, for the teacher’s pedagogical authority. The study explores teachers’ perceptions of their pedagogical authority and the role of a trustee. In addition, the study examines what kind of multiliteracy practices teachers utilize in their teaching. The data will be collected by interviewing secondary school health education teachers during Spring 2019. The analysis method is a nexus analysis, which is an ethnographic research orientation. Classroom interaction as the interviewed teachers see it is scrutinized through a nexus analysis lens in order to expound a social action, where people, places, discourses, and objects are intertwined. The crucial social actions in this study are information seeking and evaluation situations, where the teacher and the students together assess the credibility of the information sources. The study is based on the hypothesis that a trustee’s opinions of credible sources and guidance in information seeking and evaluation affect students’, that is, trustors’ choices. In the school context, the teacher’s own experiences and perceptions of health-related issues cannot be brushed aside. Furthermore, adolescents are used to utilize digital technology for day-to-day information seeking, but the chosen information sources are often not very high quality. In the school, teachers are inclined to recommend familiar sources, such as health education textbook and web pages of well-known health authorities. Students, in turn, rely on the teacher’s guidance of credible information sources without using their own judgment. In terms of students’ multiliteracy competences, information seeking and evaluation tasks in health education are excellent opportunities to practice and enhance these skills. To distinguish the right information from a wrong one is particularly important in health communication because experts by experience are easy to find and their opinions are convincing. This can be addressed by employing the ideas of multiliteracy in the school subject health education and in teacher education and training.

Keywords: multiliteracies, nexus analysis, pedagogical authority, trust

Procedia PDF Downloads 107