Search results for: spatial point patterns

Authors: Shahid Hussain Abro, Siamak Zohari, Lena H. M. Renström, Désirée S. Jansson, Faruk Otman, Karin Ullman, Claudia Baule

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Infectious bronchitis is an acute, highly contagious respiratory, nephropathogenic and reproductive disease of poultry that is caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). The present study used a large data set of structural gene sequences, including newly generated ones and sequences available in the GenBank database to further analyze the diversity and to identify selective pressures and recombination spots. There were some deletions or insertions in the analyzed regions in isolates of the Italy-02 and D274 genotypes. Whereas, there were no insertions or deletions observed in the isolates of the Massachusetts and 4/91 genotype. The hypervariable nucleotide sequence regions spanned positions 152–239, 554–582, 686–737 and 802–912 in the S1 sub-unit of the all analyzed genotypes. The nucleotide sequence data of the E gene showed that this gene was comparatively unstable and subjected to a high frequency of mutations. The M gene showed substitutions consistently distributed except for a region between nucleotide positions 250–680 that remained conserved. The lowest variation in the nucleotide sequences of ORF5a was observed in the isolates of the D274 genotype. While, ORF5b and N gene sequences showed highly conserved regions and were less subjected to variation. Genes ORF3a, ORF3b, M, ORF5a, ORF5b and N presented negative selective pressure among the analyzed isolates. However, some regions of the ORFs showed favorable selective pressure(s). The S1 and E proteins were subjected to a high rate of mutational substitutions and non-synonymous amino acids. Strong signals of recombination breakpoints and ending break point were observed in the S and N genes. Overall, the results of this study revealed that very likely the strong selective pressures in E, M and the high frequency of substitutions in the S gene can probably be considered the main determinants in the evolution of IBV.

Keywords: IBV, avian infectious bronchitis, structural genes, genotypes, genetic diversity

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Authors: Jinhui Bak, Bumjin Kim

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The purpose of this study is to analyze how the scientific and mathematical fields (STEM) and liberal arts (A) work together in the STEAM program. In the future STEAM programs that have been designed and developed, the humanities will act not just as a 'tool' for science technology and mathematics, but as a 'core' content to have an equivalent status. STEAM was first introduced to the Republic of Korea in 2011 when the Ministry of Education emphasized fostering creative convergence talent. Many programs have since been developed under the name STEAM, but with the majority of programs focusing on technology education, arts and humanities are considered secondary. As a result, arts is most likely to be accepted as an option that can be excluded from the teachers who run the STEAM program. If what we ultimately pursue through STEAM education is in fostering STEAM literacy, we should no longer turn arts into a tooling area for STEM. Based on this consciousness, this study analyzed over 160 STEAM programs in middle and high schools, which were produced and distributed by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Science and Technology Foundation from 2012 to 2017. The framework of analyses referenced two criteria presented in the related prior studies: normative convergence and technological convergence. In addition, we divide Arts into fine arts and liberal arts and focused on Korean Language Course which is in liberal arts and analyzed what kind of curriculum standards were selected, and what kind of process the Korean language department participated in teaching and learning. In this study, to ensure the reliability of the analysis results, we have chosen to cross-check the individual analysis results of the two researchers and only if they are consistent. We also conducted a reliability check on the analysis results of three middle and high school teachers involved in the STEAM education program. Analyzing 10 programs selected randomly from the analyzed programs, Cronbach's α .853 showed a reliable level. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the convergence ratio of the liberal arts was lowest in the department of moral at 14.58%. Second, the normative convergence is 28.19%, which is lower than that of the technological convergence. Third, the language and achievement criteria selected for the program were limited to functional areas such as listening, talking, reading and writing. This means that the convergence of Korean language departments is made only by the necessary tools to communicate opinions or promote scientific products. In this study, we intend to compare these results with the STEAM programs in the United States and abroad to explore what elements or key concepts are required for the achievement criteria for Korean language and curriculum. This is meaningful in that the humanities field (A), including Korean, provides basic data that can be fused into 'equivalent qualifications' with science (S), technical engineering (TE) and mathematics (M).

Keywords: Korean STEAM Programme, liberal arts, STEAM curriculum, STEAM Literacy, STEM

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Authors: Nazeema Ahmed

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This paper reports on the development of a student peer mentoring programme at a higher education institution. The programme is dependent on volunteering senior undergraduate students who are trained to mentor first-year students studying towards an engineering degree. The evaluation of the programme took the form of first-year students completing a self-report paper questionnaire at the onset of a lecture and mentors completing their questionnaire electronically. The evaluation yielded mixed findings. Peer mentoring clearly benefited some students in their adjustment to the institution. Specific mentors’ personal attributes enabled the establishment of successful mentoring relationships, where encouragement, advice and academic assistance was provided. Gains were reciprocal with mentors reporting that the programme contributed towards their personal development. Confidence in the programme was expressed in mentors feeling that it was an initiative worth continuing and first-year students agreeing that it be recommended to future first-year students. This was despite many unfavourable experiences of mentors where their professionalism and commitment to the programme was suspect. It is evident that while mentors began with noble intentions they appear either to lose interest or become overwhelmed with their own workload as the academic year progresses. On the other hand, some mentors reported feeling challenged by the apathy of first-year students who failed to maximise the opportunity available to them. The different attitudes towards mentoring that manifested as a mentoring culture in some departments were particularly pertinent to its successful implementation. The findings point to the key role of academic staff in the mentoring programme who model the mentoring relationship in their interaction with student mentors. While their involvement in the programme may be perceived as a drain on resources in an already demanding academic teaching environment, it is imperative that structural changes be put in place for the programme to be both efficient and sustainable. A pervasive finding concerns the evolving institutional culture of student development in the faculty. Mentors and first-year students alike alluded to the potential of the mentoring programme provided it is seriously endorsed at both the departmental and faculty level. The findings provide a foundation from which to develop the programme further and to begin improving its capacity for maximizing student retention in South African higher education.

Keywords: engineering students, first-year students, peer mentoring

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Authors: Marta Ribo, Ian D. Goodwin, Thomas Mortlock, Phil O’Brien

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Coastal behavior is best investigated using a sediment budget approach, based on the identification of sediment sources and sinks. Grain size distribution over the New South Wales (NSW) continental shelf has been widely characterized since the 1970’s. Coarser sediment has generally accumulated on the outer shelf, and/or nearshore zones, with the latter related to the presence of nearshore reef and bedrocks. The central part of the NSW shelf is characterized by the presence of fine sediments distributed parallel to the coastline. This study presents new grain size distribution maps along the NSW continental shelf, built using all available NSW and Commonwealth Government holdings. All available seabed bathymetric data form prior projects, single and multibeam sonar, and aerial LiDAR surveys were integrated into a single bathymetric surface for the NSW continental shelf. Grain size information was extracted from the sediment sample data collected in more than 30 studies. The information extracted from the sediment collections varied between reports. Thus, given the inconsistency of the grain size data, a common grain size classification was her defined using the phi scale. The new sediment distribution maps produced, together with new detailed seabed bathymetric data enabled us to revise the delineation of sediment compartments to more accurately reflect the true nature of sediment movement on the inner shelf and nearshore. Accordingly, nine primary mega coastal compartments were delineated along the NSW coast and shelf. The sediment compartments are bounded by prominent nearshore headlands and reefs, and major river and estuarine inlets that act as sediment sources and/or sinks. The new sediment grain size distribution was used as an input in the morphological modelling to quantify the sediment transport patterns (and indicative rates of transport), used to investigate sand supply rates and processes from the lower shoreface to the NSW coast. The rate of sand supply to the NSW coast from deep water is a major uncertainty in projecting future coastal response to sea-level rise. Offshore transport of sand is generally expected as beaches respond to rising sea levels but an onshore supply from the lower shoreface has the potential to offset some of the impacts of sea-level rise, such as coastline recession. Sediment exchange between the lower shoreface and sub-aerial beach has been modelled across the south, central, mid-north and far-north coast of NSW. Our model approach is that high-energy storm events are the primary agents of sand transport in deep water, while non-storm conditions are responsible for re-distributing sand within the beach and surf zone.

Keywords: New South Wales coast, off-shore transport, sand supply, sediment distribution maps

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Authors: Sophie Kroeling, Agnetha Schuchardt

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Striving for sustainability brings a lot of challenges for different fields of interest, e. g. security or health concerns. In Germany, civil protection is predominantly carried out by emergency responders who perform essential tasks of civil protection. Based on theoretical concepts of different psychological stress theories this contribution focuses on the question, how the resilience of emergency responders can be improved. The goal is to identify resources and successful coping strategies that help to prevent and reduce negative outcomes during or after stressful events. The paper will present results from a qualitative analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews with 20 emergency responders. These results provide insights into the complexity of coping processes (e. g. controlling the situation, downplaying perceived personal threats through humor) and show the diversity of stressors (like complexity of the disastrous situation, intrusive press and media, or lack of social support within the organization). Self-efficacy expectation was a very important resource for coping with stressful situations. The results served as a starting point for a quantitative survey (that was conducted in March 2017), the development of education and training tools for emergency responders and the improvement of critical incident stress management processes. First results from the quantitative study with more than 700 participants show that, e. g., the emergency responders use social coping within their private social network and also within their aid organization and that both are correlated to resilience. Moreover, missing information, bureaucratic problems and social conflicts within the organization are events that the majority of the participants considered very onerous. Further results from regression analysis will be presented. The proposed paper will combine findings from the qualitative study with the quantitative results, illustrating figures and correlations with respective statements from the interviews. At the end, suggestions for the improvement of the emergency responder’s resilience are given and it is discussed how this can make a contribution to strive for civil security and furthermore a sustainable development.

Keywords: civil security, emergency responders, stress, resilience, resources

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Authors: Nidhi Prabha

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Transportation as a sector is one of the most significant infrastructural elements of the ‘urban.' The distinctness of an urban life in a city is marked by the dynamic movements that it enables within the city-space. Therefore it is important to study the public-transport systems that enable and foster mobility which characterizes the urban. It is also crucial to underscore the way one is examining the urban transport systems - either as an infrastructural unit in a strict physical-structural sense or as a structural unit which acts as a prism refracting multiple experiences depending on the location of the ‘commuter.' In the proposed paper, the attempt is to uncover and investigate the assumption of the neuter-commuter by looking at urban transportation in the secondary sense i.e. as a structural unit which is experienced differently by different kinds of commuters, thus making transportation deeply distributed with various social structures and locations like class or gender which map onto the transport systems. To this end, the public-transit systems operating in Urban Delhi i.e. the Delhi Metros and the Delhi Transport Corporation run public-buses are looked at as case studies. The study is premised on the knowledge and data gained from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include data and knowledge collected from fieldwork, the methodology for which has ranged from adopting ‘mixed-methods’ which is ‘Qualitative-then-Quantitative’ as well as borrowing ethnographic techniques. Apart from fieldwork, other primary sources looked at including Annual Reports and policy documents of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), Union and Delhi budgets, Economic Survey of Delhi, press releases, etc. Secondary sources include the vast array of literature available on the critical nodes that inform the research like gender, transport geographies, urban-space, etc. The study indicates a deeply-distributed urban transport system wherein the various social-structural locations or different kinds of commuters map onto the way these different commuters experience mobility or movement within the city space. Mobility or movement, therefore, becomes gendered or has class-based ramifications. The neuter-commuter assumption is thus challenged. Such an understanding enables us to challenge the anonymity which the ‘urban’ otherwise claims it provides over the rural. The rural is opposed to the urban wherein urban ushers a modern way of life, breaking ties of traditional social identities. A careful study of the transport systems through the traveling patterns and choices of the commuters, however, indicate that this does not hold true as even the same ‘public-space’ of the transport systems allocates different places to different kinds of commuters. The central argument made though the research done is therefore that infrastructure like urban-transport-systems has to be studied and examined as seen beyond just a physical structure. The various experiences of daily mobility of different kinds of commuters have to be taken into account in order to design and plan more inclusive transport systems.

Keywords: gender, infrastructure, mobility, urban-transport-systems

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Authors: Rakesh Mishra

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India’s Demography has always amazed the world because of its unprecedented outcomes in the presence of multifaceted socioeconomic and geographical characteristics. Being the first one to implement family panning in 1952, it occupies 2nd largest population of the world, with some of its state like Uttar Pradesh contributing 5th largest population to the world population surpassing Brazil. Being the one with higher in number it is more prone to the demographic disparity persisting into its territories brought upon by the inequalities in availability, accessibility and attainability of socioeconomic and various other resources. Fifth goal of Millennium Development Goal emphasis to improve maternal and child health across the world as Children’s development is very important for the overall development of society and the best way to develop national human resources is to take care of children. The target is to reduce the infant deaths by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. Child health status depends on the care and delivery by trained personnel, particularly through institutional facilities which is further associated with the status of the mother. However, delivery in institutional facilities and delivery by skilled personnel are rising slowly in India. The main objective of the present study is to measure the child health status on based on the educational and occupational background of the women in India. Study indicates that women education plays a very crucial role in deciding the health of the new born care and access to family planning, but the women autonomy indicates to have mixed results in different states of India. It is observed that rural women are 1.61 times more likely to exclusive breastfed their children compared to urban women. With respect to Hindu category, women belonging to other religious community were 21 percent less likely to exclusive breastfed their child. Taking scheduled caste as reference category, the odds of exclusive breastfeeding is found to be decreasing in comparison to other castes, and it is found to be significant among general category. Women of high education status have higher odds of using family planning methods in most of the southern states of India. By and large, girls and boys are about equally undernourished. Under nutrition is generally lower for first births than for subsequent births and consistently increases with increasing birth order for all measures of nutritional status. It is to be noted that at age 12-23 months, when many children are being weaned from breast milk, 30 percent of children are severely stunted and around 21 percent are severely underweight. So, this paper presents the evidence on the patterns of prevailing child health status in India and its states with reference to the mother socioeconomics and biological characteristics and examines trends in these, and discusses plausible explanations.

Keywords: immunization, exclusive breastfeeding, under five mortality, binary logistic regression, ordinal regression and life table

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Authors: Aisha Ijaz

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The paper focuses on the impact of Muslim religiosity on convenience food purchases and involvement experienced in a non-Muslim culture. There is a scarcity of research on the purchasing patterns of Muslim diaspora communities residing in risk societies, particularly in contexts where there is an increasing inclination toward industrialized food items alongside a renewed interest in the concept of natural foods. The United Kingdom serves as an appropriate setting for this study due to the increasing Muslim population in the country, paralleled by the expanding Halal Food Market. A multi-dimensional framework is proposed, testing for five forms of involvement, specifically Purchase Decision Involvement, Product Involvement, Behavioural Involvement, Intrinsic Risk and Extrinsic Risk. Quantitative cross-sectional consumer data were collected through a face-to-face survey contact method with 141 Muslims during the summer of 2020 in Liverpool located in the Northwest of England. proportion formula was utilitsed, and the population of interest was stratified by gender and age before recruitment took place through local mosques and community centers. Six input variables were used (intrinsic religiosity and involvement dimensions), dividing the sample into 4 clusters using the Two-Step Cluster Analysis procedure in SPSS. Nuanced variances were observed in the type of involvement experienced by religiosity group, which influences behaviour when purchasing convenience food. Four distinct market segments were identified: highly religious ego-involving (39.7%), less religious active (26.2%), highly religious unaware (16.3%), less religious concerned (17.7%). These segments differ significantly with respects to their involvement, behavioural variables (place of purchase and information sources used), socio-cultural (acculturation and social class), and individual characteristics. Choosing the appropriate convenience food is centrally related to the value system of highly religious ego-involving first-generation Muslims, which explains their preference for shopping at ethnic food stores. Less religious active consumers are older and highly alert in information processing to make the optimal food choice, relying heavily on product label sources. Highly religious unaware Muslims are less dietary acculturated to the UK diet and tend to rely on digital and expert advice sources. The less-religious concerned segment, who are typified by younger age and third generation, are engaged with the purchase process because they are worried about making unsuitable food choices. Research implications are outlined and potential avenues for further explorations are identified.

Keywords: consumer behaviour, consumption, convenience food, religion, muslims, UK

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Authors: İlkay Özer Erselcan, Abdi Kükner, Gökhan Ceylan

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The power generated by eight point absorber type wave energy converters each having a different buoy are calculated in order to investigate the performances of buoys in this study. The calculations are carried out by modeling three different sea states observed in two different locations in the Black Sea. The floats analyzed in this study have two basic geometries and four different draft/radius (d/r) ratios. The buoys possess the shapes of a semi-ellipsoid and a semi-elliptic paraboloid. Additionally, the draft/radius ratios range from 0.25 to 1 by an increment of 0.25. The radiation forces acting on the buoys due to the oscillatory motions of these bodies are evaluated by employing a 3D panel method along with a distribution of 3D pulsating sources in frequency domain. On the other hand, the wave forces acting on the buoys which are taken as the sum of Froude-Krylov forces and diffraction forces are calculated by using linear wave theory. Furthermore, the wave energy converters are assumed to be taut-moored to the seabed so that the secondary body which houses a power take-off system oscillates with much smaller amplitudes compared to the buoy. As a result, it is assumed that there is not any significant contribution to the power generation from the motions of the housing body and the only contribution to power generation comes from the buoy. The power take-off systems of the wave energy converters are high pressure oil hydraulic systems which are identical in terms of their characteristic parameters. The results show that the power generated by wave energy converters which have semi-ellipsoid floats is higher than that of those which have semi elliptic paraboloid floats in both locations and in all sea states. It is also determined that the power generated by the wave energy converters follow an unsteady pattern such that they do not decrease or increase with changing draft/radius ratios of the floats. Although the highest power level is obtained with a semi-ellipsoid float which has a draft/radius ratio equal to 1, other floats of which the draft/radius ratio is 0.25 delivered higher power that the floats with a draft/radius ratio equal to 1 in some cases.

Keywords: Black Sea, buoys, hydraulic power take-off system, wave energy converters

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Authors: S. B. Q. Tran

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Drop condensation is the phenomenon that the tiny drops form when the oversaturated vapour present in the environment condenses on a substrate and makes the droplet growth. Recently, this subject has received much attention due to its applications in many fields such as thin film growth, heat transfer, recovery of atmospheric water and polymer templating. In literature, many papers investigated theoretically and experimentally in macro droplet growth with the size of millimeter scale of radius. However few papers about nanodroplet condensation are found in the literature especially theoretical work. In order to understand the droplet growth in nanoscale, we perform the numerical simulation work to study nanodroplet growth. We investigate and discuss the role of the droplet shape and monomer diffusion on drop growth and their effect on growth law. The effect of droplet shape is studied by doing parametric studies of contact angle and disjoining pressure magnitude. Besides, the effect of pinning and de-pinning behaviours is also studied. We investigate the axisymmetric homogeneous growth of 10–100 nm single water nanodroplet on a substrate surface. The main mechanism of droplet growth is attributed to the accumulation of laterally diffusing water monomers, formed by the absorption of water vapour in the environment onto the substrate. Under assumptions of quasi-steady thermodynamic equilibrium, the nanodroplet evolves according to the augmented Young–Laplace equation. Using continuum theory, we model the dynamics of nanodroplet growth including the coupled effects of disjoining pressure, contact angle and monomer diffusion with the assumption of constant flux of water monomers at the far field. The simulation result is validated by comparing with the published experimental result. For the case of nanodroplet growth with constant contact angle, our numerical results show that the initial droplet growth is transient by monomer diffusion. When the flux at the far field is small, at the beginning, the droplet grows by the diffusion of initially available water monomers on the substrate and after that by the flux at the far field. In the steady late growth rate of droplet radius and droplet height follow a power law of 1/3, which is unaffected by the substrate disjoining pressure and contact angle. However, it is found that the droplet grows faster in radial direction than high direction when disjoining pressure and contact angle increase. The simulation also shows the information of computational domain effect in the transient growth period. When the computational domain size is larger, the mass coming in the free substrate domain is higher. So the mass coming in the droplet is also higher. The droplet grows and reaches the steady state faster. For the case of pinning and de-pinning droplet growth, the simulation shows that the disjoining pressure does not affect the droplet radius growth law 1/3 in steady state. However the disjoining pressure modifies the growth rate of the droplet height, which then follows a power law of 1/4. We demonstrate how spatial depletion of monomers could lead to a growth arrest of the nanodroplet, as observed experimentally.

Keywords: augmented young-laplace equation, contact angle, disjoining pressure, nanodroplet growth

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Authors: C. Bateira, J. Fernandes, A. Costa

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The Douro Demarked Region (DDR) is a production Porto wine region. On the NE of Portugal, the strong incision of the Douro valley developed very steep slopes, organized with agriculture terraces, have experienced an intense and deep transformation in order to implement the mechanization of the work. The old terrace system, based on stone vertical wall support structure, replaced by terraces with earth embankments experienced a huge terrace instability. This terrace instability has important economic and financial consequences on the agriculture enterprises. This paper presents and develops cartographic tools to access the embankment instability and identify the area prone to instability. The priority on this evaluation is related to the use of physically based mathematical models and develop a validation process based on an inventory of the past embankment instability. We used the shallow landslide stability model (SHALSTAB) based on physical parameters such us cohesion (c’), friction angle(ф), hydraulic conductivity, soil depth, soil specific weight (ϱ), slope angle (α) and contributing areas by Multiple Flow Direction Method (MFD). A terraced area can be analysed by this models unless we have very detailed information representative of the terrain morphology. The slope angle and the contributing areas depend on that. We can achieve that propose using digital elevation models (DEM) with great resolution (pixel with 40cm side), resulting from a set of photographs taken by a flight at 100m high with pixel resolution of 12cm. The slope angle results from this DEM. In the other hand, the MFD contributing area models the internal flow and is an important element to define the spatial variation of the soil saturation. That internal flow is based on the DEM. That is supported by the statement that the interflow, although not coincident with the superficial flow, have important similitude with it. Electrical resistivity monitoring values which related with the MFD contributing areas build from a DEM of 1m resolution and revealed a consistent correlation. That analysis, performed on the area, showed a good correlation with R2 of 0,72 and 0,76 at 1,5m and 2m depth, respectively. Considering that, a DEM with 1m resolution was the base to model the real internal flow. Thus, we assumed that the contributing area of 1m resolution modelled by MFD is representative of the internal flow of the area. In order to solve this problem we used a set of generalized DEMs to build the contributing areas used in the SHALSTAB. Those DEMs, with several resolutions (1m and 5m), were built from a set of photographs with 50cm resolution taken by a flight with 5km high. Using this maps combination, we modelled several final maps of terrace instability and performed a validation process with the contingency matrix. The best final instability map resembles the slope map from a DEM of 40cm resolution and a MFD map from a DEM of 1m resolution with a True Positive Rate (TPR) of 0,97, a False Positive Rate of 0,47, Accuracy (ACC) of 0,53, Precision (PVC) of 0,0004 and a TPR/FPR ratio of 2,06.

Keywords: agricultural terraces, cartography, landslides, SHALSTAB, vineyards

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Authors: Mohammed Alasel, Michael Keusgen

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Gold is a noble metal; in its nano-scale level (e.g. spherical nanoparticles), the conduction electrons are triggered to collectively oscillate with a resonant frequency when certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation interact with its surface; this phenomenon is known as surface plasmon resonance (SPR). SPR is responsible for giving the gold nanoparticles its intense red color depending mainly on its size, shape and distance between nanoparticles. A decreased distance between gold nanoparticles results in aggregation of them causing a change in color from red to blue. This aggregation enables gold nanoparticles to serve as a sensitive biosensoric indicator. In the proposed work, gold nanoparticles were modified with two proteins: i) Borrelia antigen, variable lipoprotein surface-exposed protein (VlsE), and ii) protein A. VlsE antigen induces a strong antibody response against Lyme disease and can be detected from early to late phase during the disease in humans infected with Borrelia. In addition, it shows low cross-reaction with the other non-pathogenic Borrelia strains. The high specificity of VlsE antigen to anti-Borrelia antibodies, combined simultaneously with the high specificity of protein A to the Fc region of all IgG human antibodies, was utilized to develop a rapid test for serological point of care diagnosis of borreliosis in human serum. Only in the presence of anti-Borrelia antibodies in the serum probe, an aggregation of gold nanoparticles can be observed, which is visible by a concentration-dependent colour shift from red (low IgG) to blue (high IgG). Experiments showed it is clearly possible to distinguish between positive and negative sera samples using a simple suspension of the two-protein modified gold nanoparticles in a very short time (30 minutes). The proposed work showed the potential of using such modified gold nanoparticles generally for serological diagnosis. Improved specificity and reduced assay time can be archived in applying increased salt concentrations combined with decreased pH values (pH 5).

Keywords: gold nanoparticles, gold aggregation, serological diagnosis, protein A, lyme borreliosis

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Authors: Nuran Öze

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People always want to be aware of what is happening around them. The nature of man constantly triggers the need for gathering information because of curiosity. The media has emerged to save people the need for information. It is known that the media has changed with the technological developments over time, diversified and, people's information needs are provided in different ways. Today, the Internet has become an integral part of everyday life. The invasion of the Internet into everyday life practices at this level affects every aspect of life. These effects cause people to change their life practices. Technological developments have always influenced of people, the way they reach information. Looking at the history of the media, the breaking point about the dissemination of information is seen as the invention of the machine of the printing press. This adventure that started with written media has now become a multi-dimensional structure. Written, audio, visual media has now changed shape with new technologies. Especially emerging of the internet to everyday life, of course, has effects on media field. 'New media' has appeared which contains most of traditional media features in its'. While in the one hand this transformation enables captures a harmony between traditional and new media, on the other hand, new media and traditional media are rivaling each other. The purpose of this study is to examine the problematic relationship between traditional media and new media through the news reading practices of individuals. This study can be evaluated as a kind of media sociology. To reach this aim, two different field researches will be done besides literature review. The research will be conducted in Northern Cyprus. Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus is located in the Mediterranean Sea. North Cyprus is a country which is not recognized by any country except Turkey. Despite this, takes its share from all technological developments take place in the world. One of the field researches will consist of the questionnaires to be applied on media readers' news reading practices. This survey will be conducted in a social media environment. The second field survey will be conducted in the form of interviews with general editorials or news directors in traditional media. In the second field survey, in-depth interview method will be applied. As a result of these investigations, supporting sides between the new media and the traditional media and directions which contrast with each other will be revealed. In addition to that, it will try to understand the attitudes and perceptions of readers about the traditional media and the new media in this study.

Keywords: new media, news, North Cyprus, traditional media

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Authors: Yogesh Kumar Tiwari

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Chhattisgarh has realized the fundamental role of information and communication technology in the globalized world where knowledge is at the top for the growth and intellectual development. They are spreading so widely that one feels lagging behind if not using them. The influence of these radiating and technological tools has encompassed all aspects of the educational, business, and economic sectors of our world. Undeniably the computer has not only established itself globally in all walks of life but has acquired a fundamental role of paramount importance in the educational process also. This role is getting all pervading and more powerful as computers are being manufactured to be cheaper, smaller in size, adaptable and easy to handle. Computers are becoming indispensable to teachers because of their enormous capabilities and extensive competence. This study aims at observing the effect of using computer based software program of English language on the achievement of undergraduate level students studying in tribal area like Sarguja Division, Chhattisgarh, India. To testify the effect of an innovative teaching in the graduate classroom in tribal area 50 students were randomly selected and separated into two groups. The first group of 25 students were taught English grammar i.e., passive voice/narration, through traditional method using chalk and blackboard asking some formal questions. The second group, the experimental one, was taught English grammar i.e., passive voice/narration, using computer, projector with power point presentation of grammatical items. The statistical analysis was done on the students’ learning capacities and achievement. The result was extremely mesmerizing not only for the teacher but for taught also. The process of the recapitulation demonstrated that the students of experimental group responded the answers of the questions enthusiastically with innovative sense of learning. In light of the findings of the study, it was recommended that teachers and professors of English ought to use self-made instructional program in their teaching process particularly in tribal areas.

Keywords: achievement computer assisted language learning, use of instructional program

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Authors: Sachiko Hosoya

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Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the social policy of preventive genetic medicine in Iran, by following the legalization process of abortion law and the factors affecting the process in wider Iranian contexts. In this paper, ethical discussions of prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion in Iran will be presented, by exploring Iranian social policy to control genetic diseases, especially a genetic hemoglobin disorder called Thalassemia. The ethical dilemmas in application of genetic medicine into social policy will be focused. Method: In order to examine the role of the policy for prevention of genetic diseases and selective abortion in Iran, various resources have been sutudied, not only academic articles, but also discussion in the Parliament and documents related to a court case, as well as ethnographic data on living situation of Thalassemia patients. Results: Firstly, the discussion on prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion is overviewed from the viewpoints of ethics, disability rights activists, and public policy for lower-resources countries. As a result, it should be noted that the point more important in the discussion on prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion in Iran is the allocation of medical resources. Secondly, the process of implementation of national thalassemia screening program and legalization of ‘Therapeutic Abortion Law’ is analyzed, through scrutinizing documents such as the Majlis record, government documents and related laws and regulations. Although some western academics accuse that Iranian policy of selective abortion seems to be akin to eugenic public policy, Iranian government carefully avoid to distortions of the policy as ‘eugenic’. Thirdly, as a comparative example, discussions on an Iranian court case of patient’s ‘right not to be born’ will be introduced. Along with that, restrictive living environments of people with Thalassemia patients and the carriers are depicted, to understand some disabling social factors for people with genetic diseases in the local contexts of Iran.

Keywords: abortion, Iran, prenatal diagnosis, public health ethics, Thalassemia prevention program

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Authors: Seyed-Yaser Nabavi-Chashmi, Davood Asadi, Karim Ahmadi, Eren Demir

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The landing phase of a UAV is very critical as there are many uncertainties in this phase, which can easily entail a hard landing or even a crash. In this paper, the estimation of relative distance and velocity to the ground, as one of the most important processes during the landing phase, is studied. Using accurate measurement sensors as an alternative approach can be very expensive for sensors like LIDAR, or with a limited operational range, for sensors like ultrasonic sensors. Additionally, absolute positioning systems like GPS or IMU cannot provide distance to the ground independently. The focus of this paper is to determine whether we can measure the relative distance and velocity of UAV and ground in the landing phase using just low-resolution images taken by a monocular camera. The Lucas-Konda feature detection technique is employed to extract the most suitable feature in a series of images taken during the UAV landing. Two different approaches based on Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) have been proposed, and their performance in estimation of the relative distance and velocity are compared. The first approach uses the kinematics of the UAV as the process and the calculated optical flow as the measurement; On the other hand, the second approach uses the feature’s projection on the camera plane (pixel position) as the measurement while employing both the kinematics of the UAV and the dynamics of variation of projected point as the process to estimate both relative distance and relative velocity. To verify the results, a sequence of low-quality images taken by a camera that is moving on a specifically developed testbed has been used to compare the performance of the proposed algorithm. The case studies show that the quality of images results in considerable noise, which reduces the performance of the first approach. On the other hand, using the projected feature position is much less sensitive to the noise and estimates the distance and velocity with relatively high accuracy. This approach also can be used to predict the future projected feature position, which can drastically decrease the computational workload, as an important criterion for real-time applications.

Keywords: altitude estimation, drone, image processing, trajectory planning

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Authors: Chandanee Wasana Kalansooriya

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Dietary behaviour is a crucial factor affecting diabetes control. With increasing rates of diabetes prevalence in Asian countries, examining their dietary patterns, which are largely based on rice, is timely required. It has been identified that higher consumption of some rice varieties is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Although diabetes patients are advised to consume healthier rice varieties, which contains low glycemic, several conditions, one of which food insecurity, make them difficult to preserve those healthy dietary guidelines. Hence this study tries to investigate how food security affects on making right decisions of rice consumption within diabetes affected households using a sample from Sri Lanka, a country which rice considered as the staple food and records the highest diabetes prevalence rate in South Asia. The study uses data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016, a nationally representative sample conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka. The survey used a two-stage stratified sampling method to cover different sectors and districts of the country and collected micro-data on demographics, health, income and expenditures of different categories. The study uses data from 2547 households which consist of one or more diabetes patients, based on the self-recorded health status. The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), which constructed based on twelve food groups, is used to measure the level of food security. Rice is categorized into three groups according to their Glycemic Index (GI), high GI, medium GI and low GI, and the likelihood and impact made by food security on each rice consumption categories are estimated using a Two-part Model. The shares of each rice categories out of total rice consumption is considered as the dependent variable to exclude the endogeneity issue between rice consumption and the HDDS. The results indicate that the consumption of medium GI rice is likely to increase with the increasing household food security, but low GI varieties are not. Households in rural and estate sectors are less likely and Tamil ethnic group is more likely to consume low GI rice varieties. Further, an increase in food security significantly decreases the consumption share of low GI rice, while it increases the share of medium GI varieties. The consumption share of low GI rice is largely affected by the ethnic variability. The effects of food security on the likelihood of consuming high GI rice varieties and changing its shares are statistically insignificant. Accordingly, the study concludes that a higher level of food security does not ensure diabetes patients are consuming healthy rice varieties or reducing consumption of unhealthy varieties. Hence policy attention must be directed towards educating people for making healthy dietary choices. Further, the study provides a room for further studies as it reveals considerable ethnic and sectorial differences in making healthy dietary decisions.

Keywords: diabetes, food security, glycemic index, rice consumption

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Authors: Marta Fernandez Cabrera

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The period of economic boom generated by the housing bubble created a climate of social indifference to the problem of corruption. This resulted in the persecution and conviction for these criminal offenses being low. After the economic recession, social awareness about the problem of corruption has increased. This has led to the Spanish citizenship requiring the public authorities to try to end the problem in the most effective way possible. In order to respond to the continuous social demands that require an exemplary punishment, the legislator has made changes in crimes against the public administration in the Spanish Criminal Code. However, from the point of view of criminal law, the social change has not served to modify only the law, but also the jurisprudence. After the recession, judges are punishing more severely these conducts than in the past. Before the crisis, it was usual for criminal judges to divert relevant behavior to other areas of the legal system such as administrative law and acquit in the criminal field. Criminal judges have considered that administrative law already has mechanisms that can effectively deal with this type of behavior in order to respect the principle of subsidiarity or ultima ratio. It has also been usual for criminal judges to acquit civil servants due to the absence of requirements unrelated to the applicable offense. For example, they have required an economic damage to the public administration when the offense in the criminal code does not require it. Nevertheless, for some years, these arguments have either partially disappeared or considerably transformed. Since 2010, a jurisprudential stream has been consolidated that aims to provide a more severe response to corruption than it had received until now. This change of opinion, together with greater prosecution of these behaviors by judges and prosecutors, has led to a significant increase in the number of individuals convicted of corruption crimes. This paper has two objectives. The first one is to show that even though judges apply the law impartially, they are flexible to social changes. The second one is to identify the erroneous arguments the courts have used up until now. To carry out the present paper, it has been done a detailed analysis of the judgments of the supreme court before and after the year 2010. Therefore, the jurisprudential analysis is complemented with the statistical data on corruption available.

Keywords: corruption, public administration, social perception, ultima ratio principle

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Authors: Henry Kelly, Helena Shaw

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This paper will seek how innovative methods from Health Economics and, to a lesser extent, wellbeing analysis can be applied in the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) of transport infrastructure and policy interventions. The context for this will focus on the framework articulated by the UK Treasury (finance department) and the English Department for Transport. Both have well-established methods for undertaking CBA, but there is increased policy interest, particularly at a regional level of exploring broader strategic goals beyond those traditionally associated with transport user benefits, productivity gains, and labour market access. Links to different CBA approaches internationally, such as New Zealand, France, and Wales will be referenced. By exploring a complementary method of accessing the impacts of policies through the quantification of health impacts is a fruitful line to explore. In a previous piece of work, 14 impact pathways were identified, mapping the relationship between transport and health. These are wide-ranging, from improved employment prospects, the stress of unreliable journey times, and air quality to isolation and loneliness. Importantly, we will consider these different measures of health from an intersectional point of view to ensure that the basis that remains in the health industry does not get translated across to this work. The objective is to explore how a CBA based on these pathways may, through quantifying forecast impacts in terms of Quality-Adjusted Life Years may, produce different findings than a standard approach. Of particular interest is how a health-based approach may have different distributional impacts on socio-economic groups and may favour distinct types of interventions. Consideration will be given to the degree this approach may double-count impacts or if it is possible to identify additional benefits to the established CBA approach. The investigation will explore a range of schemes, from a high-speed rail link, highway improvements, rural mobility hubs, and coach services to cycle lanes. The conclusions should aid the progression of methods concerning the assessment of publicly funded infrastructure projects.

Keywords: cost-benefit analysis, health, QALYs transport

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Authors: Andrey Cherdantsev, Mikhail Cherdantsev, Sergey Isaenkov, Dmitriy Markovich

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In annular gas-liquid flow, liquid flows as a film along pipe walls sheared by high-velocity gas stream. Film surface is covered by large-scale disturbance waves which affect pressure drop and heat transfer in the system and are necessary for entrainment of liquid droplets from film surface into the core of gas stream. Disturbance waves are a highly complex and their properties are affected by numerous parameters. One of such aspects is flow development, i.e., change of flow properties with the distance from the inlet. In the present work, this question is studied using brightness-based laser-induced fluorescence (BBLIF) technique. This method enables one to perform simultaneous measurements of local film thickness in large number of points with high sampling frequency. In the present experiments first 50 cm of upward and downward annular flow in a vertical pipe of 11.7 mm i.d. is studied with temporal resolution of 10 kHz and spatial resolution of 0.5 mm. Thus, spatiotemporal evolution of film surface can be investigated, including scenarios of formation, acceleration and coalescence of disturbance waves. The behaviour of disturbance waves' velocity depending on phases flow rates and downstream distance was investigated. Besides measuring the waves properties, the goal of the work was to investigate the interrelation between disturbance waves properties and integral characteristics of the flow such as interfacial shear stress and flow rate of dispersed phase. In particular, it was shown that the initial acceleration of disturbance waves, defined by the value of shear stress, linearly decays with downstream distance. This lack of acceleration which may even lead to deceleration is related to liquid entrainment. Flow rate of disperse phase linearly grows with downstream distance. During entrainment events, liquid is extracted directly from disturbance waves, reducing their mass, area of interaction to the gas shear and, hence, velocity. Passing frequency of disturbance waves at each downstream position was measured automatically with a new algorithm of identification of characteristic lines of individual disturbance waves. Scenarios of coalescence of individual disturbance waves were identified. Transition from initial high-frequency Kelvin-Helmholtz waves appearing at the inlet to highly nonlinear disturbance waves with lower frequency was studied near the inlet using 3D realisation of BBLIF method in the same cylindrical channel and in a rectangular duct with cross-section of 5 mm by 50 mm. It was shown that the initial waves are generally two-dimensional but are promptly broken into localised three-dimensional wavelets. Coalescence of these wavelets leads to formation of quasi two-dimensional disturbance waves. Using cross-correlation analysis, loss and restoration of two-dimensionality of film surface with downstream distance were studied quantitatively. It was shown that all the processes occur closer to the inlet at higher gas velocities.

Keywords: annular flow, disturbance waves, entrainment, flow development

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Authors: Yan Torres, Fernanda Simoes, Francisco Petrucci-Fonseca, Freddie-Jeanne Richard

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The non-invasive samples are an alternative of collecting genetic samples directly. Non-invasive samples are collected without the manipulation of the animal (e.g., scats, feathers and hairs). Nevertheless, the use of non-invasive samples has some limitations. The main issue is degraded DNA, leading to poorer extraction efficiency and genotyping. Those errors delayed for some years a widespread use of non-invasive genetic information. Possibilities to limit genotyping errors can be done using analysis methods that can assimilate the errors and singularities of non-invasive samples. Genotype matching and population estimation algorithms can be highlighted as important analysis tools that have been adapted to deal with those errors. Although, this recent development of analysis methods there is still a lack of empirical performance comparison of them. A comparison of methods with dataset different in size and structure can be useful for future studies since non-invasive samples are a powerful tool for getting information specially for endangered and rare populations. To compare the analysis methods, four different datasets used were obtained from the Dryad digital repository were used. Three different matching algorithms (Cervus, Colony and Error Tolerant Likelihood Matching - ETLM) are used for matching genotypes and two different ones for population estimation (Capwire and BayesN). The three matching algorithms showed different patterns of results. The ETLM produced less number of unique individuals and recaptures. A similarity in the matched genotypes between Colony and Cervus was observed. That is not a surprise since the similarity between those methods on the likelihood pairwise and clustering algorithms. The matching of ETLM showed almost no similarity with the genotypes that were matched with the other methods. The different cluster algorithm system and error model of ETLM seems to lead to a more criterious selection, although the processing time and interface friendly of ETLM were the worst between the compared methods. The population estimators performed differently regarding the datasets. There was a consensus between the different estimators only for the one dataset. The BayesN showed higher and lower estimations when compared with Capwire. The BayesN does not consider the total number of recaptures like Capwire only the recapture events. So, this makes the estimator sensitive to data heterogeneity. Heterogeneity in the sense means different capture rates between individuals. In those examples, the tolerance for homogeneity seems to be crucial for BayesN work properly. Both methods are user-friendly and have reasonable processing time. An amplified analysis with simulated genotype data can clarify the sensibility of the algorithms. The present comparison of the matching methods indicates that Colony seems to be more appropriated for general use considering a time/interface/robustness balance. The heterogeneity of the recaptures affected strongly the BayesN estimations, leading to over and underestimations population numbers. Capwire is then advisable to general use since it performs better in a wide range of situations.

Keywords: algorithms, genetics, matching, population

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Authors: Nemanja Kidzin, Danka Puric

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Recently, the field of personality change has received an increasing amount of attention. Previously under-researched variables, such as the intention to change or taking on new social roles (in a working environment, education, family, etc.), have been shown to be relevant for personality change. Following this line of research, our study aimed to determine whether the process of acting can bring about personality changes in students of acting and, if yes, in which way. We hypothesized that there will be a significant difference between self-reported personality traits of students acting at the beginning and the end of preparing for a role. Additionally, as potential moderator variables, we measured the reported personality traits of the roles the students were acting, as well as empathy, disintegration, and years of formal education. The sample (N = 47) was composed of students of acting from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (first- to fourth-year) and the Faculty of Modern Arts (first-year students only). Participants' mean age was 20.2 (SD = 1.47), and there were 64% of females. The procedure included two waves of testing (T1 at the beginning and T2 at the end of the semester), and students’ acting exercises and character immersion comprised the pseudo-experimental procedure. Students’ personality traits (HEXACO-60, self-report version), empathy (Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy, QCAE), and disintegration (DELTA9, 10-item version) were measured at both T1 and T2, while the personality of the role (HEXACO-60 observer version) was measured at T2. Responses to all instruments were given on a 5-point Likert scale. A series of repeated-measures T-tests showed significant differences in emotionality (t(46) = 2.56, p = 0.014) and conscientiousness (t(46) = -2.39, p = 0.021) between T1 and T2. Moreover, an index of absolute personality change was significantly different from 0 for all traits (range .53 to .34, t(46) = 4.20, p < .001 for the lowest index. The average test-retest correlation for HEXACO traits was 0.57, which is lower than proposed by other similar researches. As for moderator variables, neither the personality of the role nor empathy or disintegration explained the change in students’ personality traits. The magnitude of personality change was the highest in fourth-year students, with no significant differences between the remaining three years of studying. Overall, our results seem to indicate some personality changes in students of acting. However, these changes cannot be unequivocally related to the process of preparing for a role. Further and methodologically stricter research is needed to unravel the role of acting in personality change.

Keywords: theater, personality change, acting, HEXACO

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Authors: Santi Gopal Maji, R. A. J. Syngkon

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The changing attitude of the corporate enterprises from maximizing economic benefit to corporate sustainability after the publication of Brundtland Report has attracted the interest of researchers to investigate the sustainability practices of firms and its impact on financial performance. To enrich the empirical literature in Asian context, this study examines the disclosure pattern of corporate sustainability and the influence of sustainability reporting on financial performance of firms from four Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, India and Indonesia) that are publishing sustainability report continuously from 2009 to 2016. The study has used content analysis technique based on Global Reporting Framework (3 and 3.1) reporting framework to compute the disclosure score of corporate sustainability and its components. While dichotomous coding system has been employed to compute overall quantitative disclosure score, a four-point scale has been used to access the quality of the disclosure. For analysing the disclosure pattern of corporate sustainability, box plot has been used. Further, Pearson chi-square test has been used to examine whether there is any difference in the proportion of disclosure between the countries. Finally, quantile regression model has been employed to examine the influence of corporate sustainability reporting on the difference locations of the conditional distribution of firm performance. The findings of the study indicate that Japan has occupied first position in terms of disclosure of sustainability information followed by South Korea and India. In case of Indonesia, the quality of disclosure score is considerably less as compared to other three countries. Further, the gap between the quality and quantity of disclosure score is comparatively less in Japan and South Korea as compared to India and Indonesia. The same is evident in respect of the components of sustainability. The results of quantile regression indicate that a positive impact of corporate sustainability becomes stronger at upper quantiles in case of Japan and South Korea. But the study fails to extricate any definite pattern on the impact of corporate sustainability disclosure on the financial performance of firms from Indonesia and India.

Keywords: corporate sustainability, quality and quantity of disclosure, content analysis, quantile regression, Asian countries

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Authors: Van Trieu, Shouhuai Xu, Yusheng Feng

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Tracking attack trajectories can be difficult, with limited information about the nature of the attack. Even more difficult as attack information is collected by Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) due to the current IDSs having some limitations in identifying malicious and anomalous traffic. Moreover, IDSs only point out the suspicious events but do not show how the events relate to each other or which event possibly cause the other event to happen. Because of this, it is important to investigate new methods capable of performing the tracking of attack trajectories task quickly with less attack information and dependency on IDSs, in order to prioritize actions during incident responses. This paper proposes a two-level graph causality framework for tracking attack trajectories in internet networks by leveraging observable malicious behaviors to detect what is the most probable attack events that can cause another event to occur in the system. Technically, given the time series of malicious events, the framework extracts events with useful features, such as attack time and port number, to apply to the conditional independent tests to detect the relationship between attack events. Using the academic datasets collected by IDSs, experimental results show that the framework can quickly detect the causal pairs that offer meaningful insights into the nature of the internet network, given only reasonable restrictions on network size and structure. Without the framework’s guidance, these insights would not be able to discover by the existing tools, such as IDSs. It would cost expert human analysts a significant time if possible. The computational results from the proposed two-level graph network model reveal the obvious pattern and trends. In fact, more than 85% of causal pairs have the average time difference between the causal and effect events in both computed and observed data within 5 minutes. This result can be used as a preventive measure against future attacks. Although the forecast may be short, from 0.24 seconds to 5 minutes, it is long enough to be used to design a prevention protocol to block those attacks.

Keywords: causality, multilevel graph, cyber-attacks, prediction

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Authors: Mamta Jat

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Background: The increased longevity has resulted in the increase in the percentage of the global population aged 60 years or over. With this “demographic transition” towards ageing, “epidemiologic transition” is also taking place characterised by growing share of non-communicable diseases in the overall disease burden. So, many of the older adults are ageing with chronic disease and high levels of frailty which often results in lower levels of quality of life. Although frailty may be increasingly common in older adults, prevention or, at least, delay the onset of late-life adverse health outcomes and disability is necessary to maintain the health and functional status of the ageing population. This is an effort using SAGE data to assess levels of frailty and its socio-demographic correlates and its relation with quality of life in LMICs of India, China, Ghana, Mexico, Russia and South Africa in a comparative perspective. Methods: The data comes from multi-country Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE), consists of nationally representative samples of older adults in six low and middle-income countries (LMICs): China, Ghana, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation and South Africa. For our study purpose, we will consider only 50+ year’s respondents. The logistic regression model has been used to assess the correlates of frailty. Multinomial logistic regression has been used to study the effect of frailty on QOL (quality of life), controlling for the effect of socio-economic and demographic correlates. Results: Among all the countries India is having highest mean frailty in males (0.22) and females (0.26) and China with the lowest mean frailty in males (0.12) and females (0.14). The odds of being frail are more likely with the increase in age across all the countries. In India, China and Russia the chances of frailty are more among rural older adults; whereas, in Ghana, South Africa and Mexico rural residence is protecting against frailty. Among all countries china has high percentage (71.46) of frail people in low QOL; whereas Mexico has lowest percentage (36.13) of frail people in low QOL.s The risk of having low and middle QOL is significantly (p<0.001) higher among frail elderly as compared to non–frail elderly across all countries with controlling socio-demographic correlates. Conclusion: Women and older age groups are having higher frailty levels than men and younger aged adults in LMICs. The mean frailty scores demonstrated a strong inverse relationship with education and income gradients, while lower levels of education and wealth are showing higher levels of frailty. These patterns are consistent across all LMICs. These data support a significant role of frailty with all other influences controlled, in having low QOL as measured by WHOQOL index. Future research needs to be built on this evolving concept of frailty in an effort to improve quality of life for frail elderly population, in LMICs setting.

Keywords: Keywords: Ageing, elderly, frailty, quality of life

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Authors: Rachel Gough

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In 2014, Skellig Michael, an island off Ireland’s western seaboard and UNESCO world heritage site became a major setting in Disney’s Star Wars franchise. The subsequent influx of tourists to the site has proven to be a point of contention nationally. The increased visitor numbers have uplifted certain areas of the local economy, the mainland, but have caused irreparable damage to historic monuments and to endangered bird populations who breed on the island. Recent research carried out by a state body suggests far-reaching and longterm negative impacts on the island’s culture and environment, should the association with the Star Wars franchise persist. In spite of this, the film has been widely endorsed by the Irish government as providing a vital economic boost to historically marginalised rural areas through film tourism. This paper argues quite plainly that what is taking place on Skellig is neocolonialism. Skellig Michael’s unique resources, its aesthetic qualities, its ecosystem, and its cultural currency have been sold by the state to a multinational corporation, who profit from their use. Meanwhile, locals are left to do their best to turn a market trend into sustainable business at the expense of culture ecology and community. This paper intends to be the first dedicated study into the psychogeographic and cultural impact of Skellig Michael’s deterioration as a result of film tourism. It will discuss the projected impact of this incident on Irish culture more broadly and finally will attempt to lay out a roadmap for more collaborative filmmaking and touristic approach, which allows local cultures and ecosystem’s to thrive without drastically inhibiting cultural production. This paper will ultimately find that the consequences of this representation call for a requirement to read tourism as a split concept — namely into what we might loosely call “eco-tourism” and more capital-based “profit-bottom-line tourism.”

Keywords: ecology, film tourism, neocolonialism, sustainability

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Authors: Nanh Lovanh, John Loughrin, Kimberly Cook, Phil Silva, Byung-Taek Oh

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In the era of sustainability, utilization of livestock wastes as soil amendment to provide micronutrients for crops is very economical and sustainable. It is well understood that livestock wastes are comparable, if not better, nutrient sources for crops as chemical fertilizers. However, the large concentrated volumes of animal manure produced from livestock operations and the limited amount of available nearby agricultural land areas necessitated the need for volume reduction of these animal wastes. Composting of these animal manures is a viable option for biomass and pathogenic reduction in the environment. Nevertheless, composting also increases the potential loss of available nutrients for crop production as well as unwanted emission of anthropogenic air pollutants due to the loss of ammonia and other compounds via volatilization. In this study, we examine the emission of ammonia and nitrous oxide from swine manure windrows to evaluate the benefit of biomass reduction in conjunction with the potential loss of available nutrients. The feedstock for the windrows was obtained from swine farm in Kentucky where swine manure was mixed with wood shaving as absorbent material. Static flux chambers along with photoacoustic gas analyzer were used to monitor ammonia and nitrous oxide concentrations during the composting process. The results show that ammonia and nitrous oxide fluxes were quite high during the initial composting process and after the turning of each compost pile. Over the period of roughly three months of composting, the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) decreased by about 90%. Although composting of animal waste is quite beneficial for biomass reduction, composting may not be economically feasible from an agronomical point of view due to time, nutrient loss (N loss), and potential environmental pollution (ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions). Therefore, additional studies are needed to assess and validate the economics and environmental impact of animal (swine) manure composting (e.g., crop yield or impact on climate change).

Keywords: windrow, swine manure, ammonia, nitrous oxide, fluxes, management

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Authors: James Beringer

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Switzerland’s ability to forge a strong national identity across linguistic barriers has long been of interest to nationalism scholars. This begs the question of how this has been achieved, given that traditional explanations of luck or exceptionalism appear highly reductionist. This paper evaluates the theory that successful Swiss management of linguistic diversity stems from the strong integration of multilingualism into Swiss national identity. Using archival analysis of Swiss government records, historical accounts of prominent Swiss citizens, as well as secondary literature concerning the fundamental aspects of Swiss national identity, this paper charts the historical evolution of Swiss national identity. It explains how multilingualism was deliberately and successfully integrated into Swiss national identity as a response to political fragmentation along linguistic lines during the First World War. Its primary conclusions are the following. Firstly, the earliest foundations of Swiss national identity were purposefully removed from any association with a single national language. This produced symbols, myths, and values -such as a strong commitment to communalism, the imagery of the Swiss natural landscape, and the use of Latin expressions, which can be adopted across Swiss linguistic groups. Secondly, the First World War triggered a turning point in the evolution of Swiss national identity. The fundamental building blocks proved insufficient in preventing political fractures amongst linguistic lines, as each Swiss linguistic group gravitated towards its linguistic neighbours within Europe. To avoid a repeat of such fragmentation, a deliberate effort was made to fully integrate multilingualism as a fundamental aspect of Swiss national identity. Existing natural symbols, such as the St Gotthard Mountains, were recontextualized in order to become associated with multilingualism. The education system was similarly reformed to reflect the unique multilingual nature of the Swiss nation. The successful result of this process can be readily observed in polls and surveys, with large segments of the Swiss population highlighting multilingualism as a uniquely Swiss characteristic, indicating the symbiotic connection between multilingualism and the Swiss nation.

Keywords: language's role in identity formation, multilingualism in nationalism, national identity formation, Swiss national identity history

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Authors: Mohamed Ali Abdennadher

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Digital rock physics, an emerging field leveraging advanced imaging and numerical techniques, offers a promising approach to investigating the mechanical properties of granular materials without extensive physical experiments. This study focuses on using X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) to capture the three-dimensional (3D) structure of coarse-grained soil at the particle level, combined with finite element analysis (FEA) to simulate the soil's behavior under compression. The primary goal is to establish a reliable virtual testing framework that can replicate laboratory results and offer deeper insights into soil mechanics. The methodology involves acquiring high-resolution CT scans of coarse-grained soil samples to visualize internal particle morphology. These CT images undergo processing through noise reduction, thresholding, and watershed segmentation techniques to isolate individual particles, preparing the data for subsequent analysis. A custom Python script is employed to extract particle shapes and conduct a statistical analysis of particle size distribution. The processed particle data then serves as the basis for creating a finite element model comprising approximately 500 particles subjected to one-dimensional compression. The FEA simulations explore the effects of mesh refinement and friction coefficient on stress distribution at grain contacts. A multi-layer meshing strategy is applied, featuring finer meshes at inter-particle contacts to accurately capture mechanical interactions and coarser meshes within particle interiors to optimize computational efficiency. Despite the known challenges in parallelizing FEA to high core counts, this study demonstrates that an appropriate domain-level parallelization strategy can achieve significant scalability, allowing simulations to extend to very high core counts. The results show a strong correlation between the finite element simulations and laboratory compression test data, validating the effectiveness of the virtual experiment approach. Detailed stress distribution patterns reveal that soil compression behavior is significantly influenced by frictional interactions, with frictional sliding, rotation, and rolling at inter-particle contacts being the primary deformation modes under low to intermediate confining pressures. These findings highlight that CT data analysis combined with numerical simulations offers a robust method for approximating soil behavior, potentially reducing the need for physical laboratory experiments.

Keywords: X-Ray computed tomography, finite element analysis, soil compression behavior, particle morphology

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Authors: Esther Simpson, Evans Addo Tetteh

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One of the most important sectors in Ghana’s economy is the oil and gas sector. Effective supply chain management is required to ensure the timely delivery of these products to the end users, given the rise in nationwide demand for petroleum products. Contrarily, freight forwarding plays a crucial role in facilitating intra- and intra-country trade, particularly the movement of oil goods. Nevertheless, there has not been enough scientific study done on how marketing, supply chain management, and freight forwarding are integrated in the oil business. By highlighting possible areas for development in the supply chain management of petroleum products, this article seeks to close this gap. The study was predominantly qualitative and featured semi-structured interviews with influential figures in the oil and gas sector, such as marketers, distributors, freight forwarders, and regulatory organizations. The purpose of the interviews was to determine the difficulties and possibilities for enhancing the management of the petroleum products supply chain. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data obtained in order to find patterns and themes that arose. The findings from the study revealed that the oil sector faced a number of issues in terms of supply chain management. Inadequate infrastructure, insufficient storage facilities, a lack of cooperation among parties, and an inadequate regulatory framework were among the obstacles. Furthermore, the study indicated significant prospects for enhancing petroleum product supply chain management, such as the integration of more advanced digital technologies, the formation of strategic alliances, and the adoption of sustainable practices in petroleum product supply chain management. The study's conclusions have far-reaching ramifications for the oil and gas sector, freight forwarding, and Ghana’s economy as a whole. Marketing, supply chain management, and freight forwarding has high prospects from being integrated to improve the efficiency of the petroleum product supply chain, resulting in considerable cost savings for the industry. Furthermore, the use of sustainable practices will improve the industry's sustainability and lessen the environmental effect of the petroleum product supply chain. Based on the findings, we propose that stakeholders in Ghana’s oil and gas sector work together and collaborate to enhance petroleum supply chain management. This collaboration should include the use of digital technologies, the formation of strategic alliances, and the implementation of sustainable practices. Moreover, we urge that governments establish suitable rules to guarantee the efficient and sustainable management of petroleum product supply chains. In conclusion, the integration and combination of marketing, supply chain management, and freight forwarding in the oil business gives a tremendous opportunity for enhancing petroleum product supply chain management. The study's conclusions have far-reaching ramifications for the sector, freight forwarding, and the economy as a whole. Using sustainable practices, integrating digital technology, and forming strategic alliances will improve the efficiency and sustainability of the petroleum product supply chain. We expect that this conference paper will encourage more study and collaboration among oil and gas sector stakeholders to improve petroleum supply chain management.

Keywords: collaboration, logistics, sustainability, supply chain management

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