Search results for: current practice

Authors: Yahya Toyin Muritala, Nonglaksana Kama, Ahmad Yani

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The aim of the paper is to investigate various linguistic techniques in enhancing and facilitating the acquisition of the practical knowledge of Arabic grammatical structuring among non-Arab learners of the standard classical Arabic language in non-Arabic speaking academic settings in the course of the current growth of the internationalism and cultural integration in some higher institutions. As the nature of the project requires standard investigations into the unique principal features of Arabic structurings and implications, the findings of the research work suggest some principles to follow in solving the problems faced by learners while acquiring grammatical aspects of Arabic language. The work also concentrates on the the structural features of the language in terms of inflection/parsing, structural arrangement order, functional particles, morphological formation and conformity etc. Therefore, grammatical aspect of Arabic which has gone through major stages in its early evolution of the classical stages up to the era of stagnation, development and modern stage of revitalization is a main subject matter of the paper as it is globally connected with communication and religion of Islam practiced by millions of Arabs and non-Arabs nowadays. The conclusion of the work shows new findings, through the descriptive and analytical methods, in terms of teaching language for the purpose of effective global communication with focus on methods of second language acquisitions by application.

Keywords: language structure, Arabic grammar, classical Arabic, intercultural communication, non-Arabic speaking environment and prospects

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Authors: Sanpetchuda Krutkrua, Suphawatchara Malanond

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Throughout the history of Antitrust regimes in Thailand, Thailand has been trying to prevent collusive practices in the market through the amendments of the Trade Competition Act, and Thailand just passed the current Trade Competition Act of B.E. 2560 in 2017 of which several aspects of the law were amended in order to enhance the prevention of collusive outcome through both vertical trade restraints and horizontal trade restraints. An agreement is vertical when it involves arrangements that are in a complementary relationship. In Section 55 of the Act, any agreements to reduce the price, quantity, or quality of the goods, agreements to assign a sole retailer for the goods, and the agreement to impose conditions on the retailers are not allowed. However, Section 56 provides exemptions for the vertical relationship between the business operators, the franchise agreement, and the licensing agreement as long as such agreements do not surpass the necessity to do so, create monopolization, or affect the consumers in terms of price, quality, quantity, or options. The paper aims to explore the extent of the exemption under Section 56 and sequential regulations in terms of the vertical trade restraints regarding intellectual property licensing, and, at the same time, compare with the exemptions under the European Union competition law, and Singapore competition law. Comparative legal analysis with leading jurisdiction will illustrate the application of the newly enacted Thai Competition Act in terms of its enforcement in the global impact of IP rights, which, by nature are de jure or de facto international protection.

Keywords: antitrust, competition law, vertical restraint, intellectual property, IP licensing

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Authors: Yveta Pohnětalová, Veronika Nováková, Lucie Hrašová

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The paper presents the results of research in which we were looking for common characteristics of the family environment of students alternative and innovative education systems. Topicality comes from the fact that nowadays in the Czech Republic there are several civic and parental initiatives held with the aim to establish schools for their children. The goal of our research was to reveal key aspects of these families and to identify their common indicators. Among other things, we were interested what reasons lead parents to decide to enroll their child into different education than standard (common). The survey was qualitative and there were eighteen respondents of parents of alternative schools´ pupils. The reason to implement qualitative design was the opportunity to gain deeper insight into the essence of phenomena and to obtain detailed information, which would become the basis for subsequent quantitative research. There have been semi structured interviews done with the respondents which had been recorded and transcribed. By an analysis of gained data (categorization and by coding), we found out that common indicator of our respondents is higher education and higher economic level. This issue should be at the forefront of the researches because there is lack of analysis which would provide a comparison of common and alternative schools in the Czech Republic especially with regard to quality of education. Based on results, we consider questions whether approaches of these parents towards standard education come from their own experience or from the lack of knowledge of current goals and objectives of education policy of the Czech Republic.

Keywords: alternative schools, family environment, quality of education, parents´ approach

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Authors: Eu Tteum Ha, Seyoung Kim, Jeongmin Kim, Kwang Ryel Ryu

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The smart home environment backed up by IoT (internet of things) technologies enables intelligent services based on the awareness of the situation a user is currently in. One of the convenient sensors for recognizing the situations within a home is the smart meter that can monitor the status of each electrical appliance in real time. This paper aims at learning a Bayesian network that models the causal relationship between the user situations and the status of the electrical appliances. Using such a network, we can infer the current situation based on the observed status of the appliances. However, learning the conditional probability tables (CPTs) of the network requires many training examples that cannot be obtained unless the user situations are closely monitored by any means. This paper proposes a method for learning the CPT entries of the network relying only on the user feedbacks generated occasionally. In our case study with a robot vacuum cleaner, the feedback comes in whenever the user gives an order to the robot adversely from its preprogrammed setting. Given a network with randomly initialized CPT entries, our proposed method uses this feedback information to adjust relevant CPT entries in the direction of increasing the probability of recognizing the desired situations. Simulation experiments show that our method can rapidly improve the recognition performance of the Bayesian network using a relatively small number of feedbacks.

Keywords: Bayesian network, IoT, learning, situation -awareness, smart home

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Authors: Mohamad Javad Shakouri, Behshad Riahipour

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Today, the use of medicinal herbs in architecture and green space has a significant effect on the process of calming human and increases the reliability coefficient of design and design flexibility. The current research was conducted with the aim to design green roof and investigate the effect of medicinal herbs such as cress, leek, fenugreek, beet, sweet fennel, green basil, purple basil, and purslane on reducing the number of environmental pollutants (copper, zinc, and cadmium). Finally, the weight of the dry plant and the concentration of elements zinc, lead, and cadmium in the herbs was measured. According to the results, the maximum dry weight (88.10 and 73.79 g) was obtained in beet and purslane respectively and the minimum dry weight (24.12 and 25.21) was obtained in purple basil, and green basil respectively. The maximum amount of element zinc (235 and 213 mg/kg) and the maximum amount of lead (143 mg/kg) were seen in sweet fennel and purple basil. In addition, the maximum amount of cadmium (13 mg/kg) was seen in sweet fennel and purple basil and the minimum amount of lead and cadmium (78 and 7 mg/kg) was seen in green basil, and the minimum amount of zinc (110 mg/kg) was seen in leek. On the other hand, the absorption amount of element lead in the herbs beet and purslane was the same and both absorbed 123 mg/kg lead. Environmentally, if green roofs are implemented extensively and in wide dimensions in urban spaces, they will purify and reduce pollution significantly by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

Keywords: medicinal herbs, green space, green roof, heavy metals, lead, green basil

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Authors: Wujian Han

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In the process of human interaction and communication, speech act verbs are considered to be the most active component and the main means for information transmission, and are also taken as an indication of the structure of linguistic behavior. The theoretical value and practical significance of such everyday built-in metalanguage have long been recognized. This paper, which is part of a bigger study, is aimed to provide useful insights for a more precise and systematic application to speech act verbs translation between English and Chinese, especially with regard to the degree to which generic integrity is maintained in the practice of translation of legal documents. In this study, the corpus, i.e. Chinese legal texts and their English translations, English legal texts, ordinary Chinese texts, and ordinary English texts, serve as a testing ground for examining contrastively the usage of English and Chinese directive speech act verbs in legal genre. The scope of this paper is relatively wide and essentially covers all directive speech act verbs which are used in ordinary English and Chinese, such as order, command, request, prohibit, threat, advice, warn and permit. The researcher, by combining the corpus methodology with a contrastive perspective, explored a range of characteristics of English and Chinese directive speech act verbs including their semantic, syntactic and pragmatic features, and then contrasted them in a structured way. It has been found that there are similarities between English and Chinese directive speech act verbs in legal genre, such as similar semantic components between English speech act verbs and their translation equivalents in Chinese, formal and accurate usage of English and Chinese directive speech act verbs in legal contexts. But notable differences have been identified in areas of difference between their usage in the original Chinese and English legal texts such as valency patterns and frequency of occurrences. For example, the subjects of some directive speech act verbs are very frequently omitted in Chinese legal texts, but this is not the case in English legal texts. One of the practicable methods to achieve adequacy and conciseness in speech act verb translation from Chinese into English in legal genre is to repeat the subjects or the message with discrepancy, and vice versa. In addition, translation effects such as overuse and underuse of certain directive speech act verbs are also found in the translated English texts compared to the original English texts. Legal texts constitute a particularly valuable material for speech act verb study. Building up such a contrastive picture of the Chinese and English speech act verbs in legal language would yield results of value and interest to legal translators and students of language for legal purposes and have practical application to legal translation between English and Chinese.

Keywords: contrastive analysis, corpus-based, directive speech act verbs, legal texts, translation between English and Chinese

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Authors: Elizabeth Latham

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Billions of people worldwide profess some feeling of psychological or spiritual connection with the divine. The majority of them attribute this personal connection to the God of the Christian Bible. The objective of this research was to discover what could be known about the exact social nature of these relationships and to see if they mimic the interactions recounted in the bible; if a worldwide majority believes that the Christian Bible is a true account of God’s interactions with mankind, it is reasonable to assume that the interactions between God and the aforementioned people would be similar to the ones in the bible. This analysis required the employment of an unusual method of biblical analysis: Game Theory. Because the research focused on documented social interaction between God and man in scripture, it was important to go beyond text-analysis methods. We used stories from the New Revised Standard Version of the bible to set up “games” using economics-style matrices featuring each player’s motivations and possible courses of action, modeled after interactions in the Old and New Testaments between the Judeo-Christian God and some mortal person. We examined all relevant interactions for the objectives held by each party and their strategies for obtaining them. These findings were then compared to similar “games” created based on interviews with people subscribing to different levels of Christianity who ranged from barely-practicing to clergymen. The range was broad so as to look for a correlation between scriptural knowledge and game-similarity to the bible. Each interview described a personal experience someone believed they had with God and matrices were developed to describe each one as social interaction: a “game” to be analyzed quantitively. The data showed that in most cases, the social features of God-man interactions in the modern lives of people were like those present in the “games” between God and man in the bible. This similarity was referred to in the study as “biblical faith” and it alone was a fascinating finding with many implications. The even more notable finding, however, was that the amount of game-similarity present did not correlate with the amount of scriptural knowledge. Each participant was also surveyed on family background, political stances, general education, scriptural knowledge, and those who had biblical faith were not necessarily the ones that knew the bible best. Instead, there was a high degree of correlation between biblical faith and family religious observance. It seems that to have a biblical psychological relationship with God, it is more important to have a religious family than to have studied scripture, a surprising insight with massive implications on the practice and preservation of religion.

Keywords: bible, Christianity, game theory, social psychology

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Authors: Rishabh Pandey, Umang Kumar Yadav

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In today’s era of technological advancement, we come across incalculable innovations, almost every day. No doubt that the society has developed a lot in learning and technology, but we should also take into account the problems and inflictions that are occurring. Focusing on the petroleum sector a trending global concern is toward lowering fuel consumption and emissions. It is well known that gasoline is non-renewable source of energy and its burning produces harmful emissions which are adversely affecting the environment, such issues are motivating us to seek alternative solutions that would not require much modification in engine design and help us come out with an outcome. Keeping in mind the importance of environment and human race, we present a factious idea of use of oxyhydrogen gas or HHO gas in place of gasoline in the vehicles and petroleum industry. This technology is prospering, highly efficient, could be used economically and safe, and it will be responsible for changing the future of oil and gas sector in accordance with protection to the environment. In the coming future, we will check the compatibility of HHO generator with fuel engine for production of oxyhydrogen gas with use of water and effect of introducing HHO gas to the combustion on both thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption. We will also work on the comparison of HHO gas and commercially available gasoline fuel in support of their chemical structures; ignition rate; octane rating; knocking properties; storage; transportation and cost effectiveness and it is trusted that use of HHO gas will be ecofriendly as no harmful emissions are produced, rather the only emission is water. Additionally, this paper will include the use of HHO cell in fuel engines and challenges faced in installing it in the current period and provide effective solutions for the same.

Keywords: fuel, gas, generator, water

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Authors: Summer Hassan, David Crossman

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Myocardial fibrosis (MF) has been loosely defined as the process occurring in the pathological remodeling of the myocardium due to excessive production and deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, including collagen. This reduces tissue compliance and accelerates progression to heart failure, as well as affecting the electrical properties of the myocytes resulting in arrhythmias. Microscopic interrogation of MF is key to understanding the molecular orchestrators of disease. It is well-established that recruitment and stimulation of myofibroblasts result in Collagen deposition and the resulting expansion in the ECM. Many types of Collagens have been identified and implicated in scarring of tissue. In a series of experiments conducted at our lab, we aim to elucidate the role collagen VI plays in the development of myocardial fibrosis and its direct impact on myocardial function. This was investigated through an animal experiment in Rats with Collagen VI knockout diseased and healthy animals as well as Collagen VI wild diseased and healthy rats. Echocardiogram assessments of these rats ensued at four-time points, followed by microscopic interrogation of the myocardium aiming to correlate the role collagen VI plays in myocardial function. Our results demonstrate a deterioration in cardiac function as represented by the ejection fraction in the knockout healthy and diseased rats. This elucidates a potential protective role that collagen-VI plays following a myocardial insult. Current work is dedicated to the microscopic characterisation of the fibrotic process in all rat groups, with the results to follow.

Keywords: heart failure, myocardial fibrosis, collagen, echocardiogram, confocal microscopy

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Authors: Yun Chan Lee

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Background: End-of-life care is a large area of all nursing practice and student nurses are likely to meet dying patients in many placement areas. It is therefore important to understand the emotional responses and coping strategies of student nurses in order for nursing education systems to have some appreciation of how nursing students might be supported in the future. Methodology: This research used a qualitative phenomenological approach. Six student nurses understanding a degree-level adult nursing course were interviewed. Their responses to questions were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Finding: The findings identified 3 main themes. First, the common experience of ‘unpreparedness’. A very small number of participants felt that this was unavoidable and that ‘no preparation is possible’, the majority felt that they were unprepared because of ‘insufficient input’ from the university and as a result of wider ‘social taboos’ around death and dying. The second theme showed that emotions were affected by ‘the personal connection to the patient’ and the important sub-themes of ‘the evoking of memories’, ‘involvement in care’ and ‘sense of responsibility’. The third theme, the coping strategies used by students, seemed to fall into two broad areas those ‘internal’ with the student and those ‘external’. In terms of the internal coping strategies, ‘detachment’, ‘faith’, ‘rationalization’ and ‘reflective skills’ are the important components of this part. Regarding the external coping strategies, ‘clinical staff’ and ‘the importance of family and friends’ are the importance of accessing external forms of support. Implication: It is clear that student nurses are affected emotionally by caring for dying patients and many of them have apprehension even before they begin on their placements but very often this is unspoken. Those anxieties before the placement become more pronounced during and continue after the placements. This has implications for when support is offered and possibly its duration. Another significant point of the study is that participants often highlighted their wish to speak to qualified nurses after their experiences of being involved in end-of-life care and especially when they had been present at the time of death. Many of the students spoke that qualified nurses were not available to them. This seemed to be due to a number of reasons. Because the qualified nurses were not available, students had to make use of family members and friends to talk to. Consequently, the implication of this study is not only to educate student nurses but also to educate the qualified mentors on the importance of providing emotional support to students.

Keywords: nursing students, coping strategies, end-of-life care, emotional responses

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Authors: Mohammad Mehdizadeh, Sara Miri

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Due to the recent events surrounding the global health crisis and the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the activities of many businesses and start-up companies have been disrupted. It solves many economic problems and can reduce unemployment in countries because governments can take advantage of their potential without direct investment. However, with the help of their innovative ideas and new technologies, these companies can develop and grow the economy. But it is essential to consider that there will be no guarantee of their success in the event of unforeseen events, as the coronavirus outbreak in the last two years has seriously damaged these companies and, like other businesses, challenges and stagnation have started. The startup companies' challenge in the face of coronavirus begins with its impact on customers. Changing customer behavior can affect their products and distribution channels. On the other hand, to prevent countless losses in this crisis, startup companies require creative solutions to address challenges in various areas of human capital, supply chain management, sales and marketing, and so on. Therefore, all business leaders must consider and plan for the current crisis and the future; after overcoming these conditions and returning to regular business routines, it will no longer be an option, and new situations will prevail in a competitive environment. The essential strategies for developing and growing startups during the Coronavirus outbreak can be connecting with the global startup ecosystem, hosting webinars, providing podcasts and free question and answer sessions, mentoring services to growing teams, and consulting pointed out this to firms for digitalization.

Keywords: business, COVID-19, digitalization, startups

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Authors: Yves Lacroix, Van Van Than, Didier Léandri, Pierre Liardet

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The western Tombolo of the Giens peninsula in southern France, known as Almanarre beach, is subject to coastal erosion. We are trying to use computer simulation in order to propose solutions to stop this erosion. Our aim was first to determine the main factors for this erosion and successfully apply a coupled hydro-sedimentological numerical model based on observations and measurements that have been performed on the site for decades. We have gathered all available information and data about waves, winds, currents, tides, bathymetry, coastal line, and sediments concerning the site. These have been divided into two sets: one devoted to calibrating a numerical model using Mike 21 software, the other to serve as a reference in order to numerically compare the present situation to what it could be if we implemented different types of underwater constructions. This paper presents the first part of the study: selecting and melting different sources into a coherent data basis, identifying the main erosion factors, and calibrating the coupled software model against the selected reference period. Our results bring calibration of the numerical model with good fitting coefficients. They also show that the winter South-Western storm events conjugated to depressive weather conditions constitute a major factor of erosion, mainly due to wave impact in the northern part of the Almanarre beach. Together, current and wind impact is shown negligible.

Keywords: Almanarre beach, coastal erosion, hydro-sedimentological, numerical model

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Authors: Sergey Kopysov, Nikita Nedozhogin, Leonid Tonkov

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The article presents a parallel iterative solver for large sparse linear systems which can be used on a heterogeneous platform. Traditionally, the problem of solving linear systems does not scale well on multi-CPU/multi-GPUs clusters. For example, most of the attempts to implement the classical conjugate gradient method were at best counted in the same amount of time as the problem was enlarged. The paper proposes the pipelined variant of the conjugate gradient method (PCG), a formulation that is potentially better suited for hybrid CPU/GPU computing since it requires only one synchronization point per one iteration instead of two for standard CG. The standard and pipelined CG methods need the vector entries generated by the current GPU and other GPUs for matrix-vector products. So the communication between GPUs becomes a major performance bottleneck on multi GPU cluster. The article presents an approach to minimize the communications between parallel parts of algorithms. Additionally, computation and communication can be overlapped to reduce the impact of data exchange. Using the pipelined version of the CG method with one synchronization point, the possibility of asynchronous calculations and communications, load balancing between the CPU and GPU for solving the large linear systems allows for scalability. The algorithm is implemented with the combined use of technologies: MPI, OpenMP, and CUDA. We show that almost optimum speed up on 8-CPU/2GPU may be reached (relatively to a one GPU execution). The parallelized solver achieves a speedup of up to 5.49 times on 16 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, as compared to one GPU.

Keywords: conjugate gradient, GPU, parallel programming, pipelined algorithm

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Authors: Aisha Adam

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This study critically examines the transformative impact of automated decision-making (ADM) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems on South African labour law. As AI technologies increasingly infiltrate workplaces, existing liability frameworks face challenges in addressing the unique complexities presented by these innovations. This article explores the necessity of redefining liability to accommodate the nuanced landscape of ADM and AI within South African labour law. It emphasises the importance of ensuring responsible deployment and safeguarding the rights of workers amid evolving technological dynamics. This research investigates the central concern of fairness, bias, and discrimination in ADM and AI decision-making. Focusing on algorithmic bias and discriminatory outcomes, the paper advocates for the integration of mechanisms within the South African legal framework, particularly under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (PEPUDA) and the Employment Equity Act (EEA). The study scrutinises the shifting dynamics of the employment relationship, calling for clear guidelines on the responsibilities and liabilities of employers, employees, and technology providers. Furthermore, the article analyses legal and policy responses to ADM and AI within South African labour law, exploring potential amendments to legislation, guidelines, and codes of practice. It assesses the role of regulatory bodies, specifically the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA), in overseeing and enforcing responsible practices in the workplace. Lastly, the research evaluates the impact of ADM and AI on human and social rights in the South African context. Emphasising the protection of constitutional rights, including fair labour practices, privacy, and equality, the study proposes remedies and safeguards. It advocates for a multidisciplinary approach involving legal, technological, and ethical considerations to redefine liability in South African labour law effectively. The article contends that a shift from accountability to responsibility is crucial for promoting fairness, antidiscrimination, and the protection of human and social rights in the age of automated decision-making. It calls for collaborative efforts among stakeholders to shape responsible practices and redefine liability in this evolving technological landscape.

Keywords: automated decision-making, artificial intelligence, labour law, vicarious liability

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Authors: Orla McConnell, Cormac MacMahon, Jen Harvey

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Ireland’s national professional development framework for those who teach in higher education, aims to provide guidance and leadership in the planning, developing and engaging in professional development practices. A series of pilot projects have been initiated to help explore the framework’s likely utility and acceptance by educators and their institutions. These projects require engagement with staff in the interpretation and adaption of the framework within their working contexts. The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of one such project with engineering educators at three Institutes of Technology seeking designation as a technological university. The initiative aims to gain traction in the acceptance of the framework with the engineering education community by linking core and discipline-specific teaching and learning competencies with professional development activities most valued by engineering educators. Informed by three strands of literature: professional development in higher education; engineering education; and teaching and learning training provisions, the project begins with a survey of all those involved in teaching and learning in engineering across the three institutes. Based on engagement with key stakeholders, subsequent qualitative research informs the contextualization of the national framework for discipline-specific and institutional piloting. The paper concludes by exploring engineering educator perceptions of the national framework’s utility based on their engagement with the pilot process. Feedback from the pilot indicates that there is a significant gap between the professional development needs of engineering educators and the current professional development provision in teaching and learning.

Keywords: engineering education, pilot, professional development, teaching and learning

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Authors: Yasamiyan Alolaywi

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The sources of second language acquisition vary and depend on a learner’s preferences and choices; however, undoubtedly, the most effective methods provide authentic language input. This current study explores the effectiveness of watching movies as a means of English language acquisition. It explores university students’ views on the impact of this method in improving English language skills. The participants in this study were 74 students (25 males and 49 females) from the Department of English Language and Translation at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Data for this research were collected from questionnaires and individual interviews with several selected students. The findings of this study showed that many students watch movies frequently and for various purposes, the most important of which is entertainment. The students also admitted that movies help them acquire a great deal of vocabulary and develop their listening and writing skills. Also, the participants believed that exposure to a target language by native speakers helps enhance language fluency and proficiency. The students learn not only linguistic aspects from films but also other aspects, such as culture, lifestyle, and ways of thinking, in addition to learning other languages such as Spanish. In light of these results, some recommendations are proposed, such as verifying the feasibility of integrating media into a foreign language classroom. While this study covers aspects of the relationship between watching movies and English language acquisition, knowledge gaps remain that need to be filled by further research, such as on incorporating media into the educational process and how movie subtitles can improve learners’ language skills.

Keywords: language acquisition, English movies, EFL learners, perceptions

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Authors: Navkiran Kaur, Apoorva Mathur, Abhishree Agarwal, Sakshi Gupta, Tuhin Rashmi

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Aim: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, and resistance to the current therapeutics, often concurrently, is an increasing clinical challenge. Glycosylation of proteins is one of the most important post-translational modifications. It is widely known that aberrant glycosylation has been implicated in many different diseases due to changes associated with biological function and protein folding. Alterations in cell surface glycosylation, can promote invasive behavior of tumor cells that ultimately lead to the progression of cancer. In breast cancer, there is an increasing evidence pertaining to the role of glycosylation in tumor formation and metastasis. In the present study, an attempt has been made to study the disease associated sialoglycoproteins in breast cancer by using bioinformatics tools. The sequence will be retrieved from UniProt database. A database in the form of a word document was made by a collection of FASTA sequences of breast cancer gene sequence. Glycosylation was studied using yinOyang tool on ExPASy and Differential genes expression and protein analysis was done in context of breast cancer metastasis. The number of residues predicted O-glc NAc threshold containing 50 aberrant glycosylation sites or more was detected and recorded for individual sequence. We found that the there is a significant change in the expression profiling of glycosylation patterns of various proteins associated with breast cancer. Differential aberrant glycosylated proteins in breast cancer cells with respect to non-neoplastic cells are an important factor for the overall progression and development of cancer.

Keywords: breast cancer, bioinformatics, cancer, metastasis, glycosylation

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Authors: Ana Lucia Mosquera Rosado

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Media is believed to be the reflection of Peruvian society. However, the context in which media content is generated not always respond to an accurate representation of its cultural diversity, since many of the contents portray images of cultural minorities (indigenous and Afro-Peruvian) that contribute to the reproduction of negative stereotypes, having an impact on society. The current research paper aims to discuss the use of parody as a way of representing Afro-Peruvian population in the national television, through the reproduction of negative stereotypes and the construction of the black body, specifically relating the analysis to El Negro Mama, a very popular character in Peruvian television thought to be a portrait of the Afro-Peruvian men. In order to analyze these representations, the research will use the theory of simulation and simulacra, explained by James Baudrillard to understand the replacement of reality as a consequence of both of these concepts. This research paper will also focus on the social reaction to the existence of this character, in order to construct a hypothesis based on the theory of cultural hegemony, conceived by Jackson Lears as a legitimized group of patterns and behaviors that shape social interaction. This theoretical framework will be used to explain the popularity of this character among Peruvian society and the reactions caused by the controversy generated by the demands of civil society to remove the character from national television.

Keywords: media representation, media, race and ethnicity, racist discourse, afro-descendants in the media

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Authors: Jerome Michael J. Sadullo, Jamaica Lois A. Torres, Trisha Muriel T. Valino

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In the Philippines, Central Luzon is one of the regions at high risk in terms of volcanic eruption. In fact, last June 15, 1991, which were the Mount Pinatubo has erupted, the most affected provinces were Zambales, Olangapo, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bataan, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. During the Mount Pinatubo eruption, Castillejos, Zambales, has recorded the most significant damage to both commercial and residential structures. In this study, the researchers aim to determine and analyze the various impacts of ashfall on roof structures in Concepcion, Tarlac, during the event of a volcanic eruption. In able for the researcher to determine the sample size of the study, they have utilized Cochran's sample size formula. With the computed sample size, the researchers have gathered data through the distribution of survey forms, utilizing public records, and picture documentation of different roof structures in Concepcion, Tarlac. With the data collected, Chi-squared goodness of fit was done by the researcher in order to compare the data collected from the observed N (Concepcion, Tarlac) and expected N (Castillejos, Zambales). The results showed that when it comes to the roof constructions material used in Concepcion, Tarlac and Castillejos, Zambales. Structures in Concepcion, Tarlac were most likely to suffer worse when another eruption happens compared to the structures in Castillejos, Zambales. Yet, considering the current structural statuses of structure in Concepcion Tarlac and its location from Mount Pinatubo, they are less likely to experience ashfall.

Keywords: risk assessment, Concepcion, Tarlac, Volcano Pinatubo, roof structures, ashfall

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Authors: Alireza Derambakhsh

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The reason for this study was to inspect undergraduate interior design student state of mind toward destitution, vagrancy, and group administration. An auxiliary intention was to figure out whether introduction to plan ventures for the individuals who have encountered hardship would change student convictions. All first year recruits (n = 18), sophomore (n = 26), junior (n = 17), and senior (n = 25) interior design undergraduate students at a public university completed a questionnaire in light of a few current scales. Amid the semester, the sophomores dealt with assignments that were intended to provide exposure to different socio-economic groups. Students finished three projects. Initially, the outline of a makeshift destitute asylum. Second, a re-model of a childcare focus office and gathering region that gives administrations to low-salary families, and third, the outline of a low-wage, private home. In these ventures, students were obliged to direct broad data assembling so they could better comprehend the issues connected with destitution. Toward the end of the semester, the sophomores finished the survey again and were asked extra inquiries in regards to the class and projects. Students’ sentiments towards the poor were more individualistic when contrasted with the white collar class, yet when the working class correlation was uprooted, some of their mentality gave a more unpredictable comprehension of destitution and vagrancy. The semester-long intercession fundamentally moved students' understanding that underscored auxiliary and multifaceted reason.

Keywords: interior design, destitution, vagrancy, group administration

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Authors: Sonia Saddiqui, Maya Marcus

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UTS STEAMpunk Girls is an educational program for young women (aged 12-16), to empower them to be more informed and active members of the 21st century workforce. With the number of STEM graduates on the decline, especially among young women, an additional aim of the program is to trial a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences, Mathematics), inter-disciplinary approach to improving STEM engagement. In-line with UNESCO’s recent focus on promoting ‘transversal competencies’ in future graduates, the program utilised co-design, project-based learning, entrepreneurial processes, and inter-disciplinary learning. The program consists of two phases. Taking a participatory design approach, the first phase (co-design workshops) provided valuable insight into student perspectives around engaging young women in STEM and inter-disciplinary thinking. The workshops positioned 26 young women from three schools as subject matter experts (SMEs), providing a platform for them to share their opinions, experiences and findings around the STEAM disciplines. The second (pilot) phase put the co-design phase findings into practice, with 64 students from four schools working in groups to articulate problems with real-world implications, and utilising design-thinking to solve them. The pilot phase utilised project-based learning to engage young women in entrepreneurial and STEAM frameworks and processes. Scalable program design and educational resources were trialed to determine appropriate mechanisms for engaging young women in STEM and in STEAM thinking. Across both phases, data was collected via longitudinal surveys to obtain pre-program, baseline attitudinal information, and compare that against post-program responses. Preliminary findings revealed students’ improved understanding of the STEM disciplines, industries and professions, improved awareness of STEAM as a concept, and improved understanding regarding inter-disciplinary and design thinking. Program outcomes will be of interest to high-school educators in both STEM and the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences fields, and will hopefully inform future programmatic approaches to introducing inter-disciplinary STEAM learning in STEM curriculum.

Keywords: co-design, STEM, STEAM, project-based learning, inter-disciplinary

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Authors: Handan Alan, Ulkü Baykal

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Personal characteristics help people understand and recognize both themselves and other people. They are also known to have direct effects on managerial behaviors. Managers’ personalities indicate how they think, perceive reality and relate to others, and affect their decision-making and problem-solving methods. This descriptive study aims to determine the personal characteristics of nurse managers and the personal and professional factors that affect them since sufficient data does not exist on personal characteristics despite the focus on the leadership and managerial characteristics in nursing. The study population consisted of nurses working in administrative positions at hospitals affiliated with the public hospitals union, research and practice hospitals affiliated with universities and private hospitals in cities in the Marmara Region. The study sample consisted of nurse managers working in the hospitals that permitted conducting the study (excluding private branch hospitals). The data were collected after obtaining the approval of the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (Approval date: 1.7.2015, Decision No: 2015-01) and written official permissions from the administrations of the hospitals included in the study. The data analysis was carried out using means and standard deviations (SD) as descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance for inter-group comparisons and the independent samples t-test for paired group comparisons. A significance threshold of p < 0.05 was used to evaluate the findings. The data were collected using the Five Factor Personality Inventory. The study included 900 nurse managers, who obtained the highest mean score on the conscientiousness dimension (X=4.22 ±0.35). This dimension was followed by their mean scores on the agreeableness (X=4.06±0.40), intelligence (X=4.05±0.37), extroversion (X=3.50±0.43), and emotional instability (X=2.07±0.53) dimensions. Statistically significant differences were found between the independent variables of age, gender, marital status, education level, work institution, professional experience, institutional experience, managerial experience, administrative position, work unit and managerial education when compared using the five factor personality inventory (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the nurse managers described themselves having high conscientiousness. Statistically significant differences were found between the five factor personality inventory mean scores and their personal and professional characteristics.

Keywords: nurse manager, personality, personal characteristics, professional characteristics

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Smita Nepal

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Despite being on the global education reform agenda for over two decades, interpretations and practices of inclusive education vary widely across the world. In Nepal, similar to many other developing countries, inclusive education is still an emerging concept and limited research is available to date in relation to how inclusive education is conceptualized and implemented here. Moreover, very little is known about how teachers who are at the frontline of providing inclusive education understand this concept and how well they are prepared to teach inclusively. This study addresses this research gap by investigating an overarching research question, ‘How prepared are Nepalese teachers to practice inclusive pedagogy?’ Different societies and cultures may have different interpretations of the concepts of diversity and inclusion. Acknowledging that such contextual differences influence how these issues are addressed, such as preparing teachers for providing inclusive education, this study has investigated the research questions using a sociocultural conceptual framework. A sequential mixed-method research design involved quantitative data from 203 survey responses collected in the first phase, followed by qualitative data in the second phase collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers. Descriptive analysis of the quantitative data and reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed a narrow understanding of inclusive education in the participating Nepalese teachers with limited preparedness for implementing inclusive pedagogy. Their interpretation of inclusion substantially included the need for non-discrimination and the provision of equal opportunities. This interpretation was found to be influenced by the social context where a lack of a deep understanding of human diversity was reported, leading to discriminatory attitudes and practices. In addition, common norms established in society that experiencing privileges or disadvantages was normal for diverse groups of people appeared to have led to limited efforts to enhance teachers’ understanding of and preparedness for inclusive education. This study has significant implications, not only in the Nepalese context but globally, for reform in policies and practices and for strengthening the teacher education and professional development system to promote inclusion in education. In addition, the significance of this research lies in highlighting the importance of further context-specific research in this area to ensure inclusive education in a real sense by valuing socio-cultural differences.

Keywords: inclusive education, inclusive pedagogy, sociocultural context, teacher preparation

Procedia PDF Downloads 55

Authors: M. Al Huwayz, A. Salhi, S. Alhassan, S. Alotaibi, A. Almalki, M.Almunyif, A. Alhassni, M. Henini

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Recently, there has been much research carried out to investigate quantum dots (QDs) lasers with the aim to increase the gain of quantum well lasers. However, one of the difficulties with these structures is that electrically active defects can lead to serious issues in the performance of these devices. It is therefore essential to fully understand the types of defects introduced during the growth and/or the fabrication process. In this study, the effects of Gamma radiation on the electrically active defects in p-i-n InAs/InGaAsQDs laser structures grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) technique on GaAs substrates were investigated. Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS), current-voltage (I-V), and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements were performed to explore these effects on the electrical properties of these QDs lasers. I-V measurements showed that as-grown sample had better electrical properties than the irradiated sample. However, DLTS and Laplace DLTS measurements at different reverse biases revealed that the defects in the-region of the p-i-n structures were decreased in the irradiated sample. In both samples, a trap with an activation energy of ~ 0.21 eV was assigned to the well-known defect M1 in GaAs layers

Keywords: quantum dots laser structures, gamma radiation, DLTS, defects, nAs/IngaAs

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Laura Ramona Nae

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The issue of risks faced by companies providing tourist and hotel services in the HoReCa field, related to the goods belonging to consumer tourists left in hotel storage, has acquired a new dimension in the context of the economic and geo-political influences that have recently intervened at the global level. Thus, hoteliers and not only had to create contractual mechanisms regarding the risks and to protect the businesses in this field of activity. This situation has led to a reassessment of the importance of insurance, in particular with regard to hotel liability insurance-premises liability, safety, and security of goods. Interpretation of clauses in contracts concluded between hoteliers and tourists consuming hotel services and products, all the more so in the current pandemic context of Covid 19, stressed the increase in the number of disputes generated by them. This article presents a general picture of the significance of the risks related to the activity carried out in the hospitality industry, tourism, respectively within the HoReCa field. The study mainly marks the specificities of the hotel deposit contract, as well as the related insurance specific to the field, as a way to cover these risks. The article also refers to alternative methods of out-of-court settlement of disputes (ADR) in the HoReCa domain, generally used in both Romania and the European Union.

Keywords: consumer tourist, disputes and ADR methods, deposit contract, hotel warehouse and hotelier insurance, hotel services and tourist products, HoReCa

Procedia PDF Downloads 45

Authors: Atefeh Heydari, Mohammadali Tavakoli, Naomie Salim

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In recent years, we have witnessed that online reviews are the most important source of customers’ opinion. They are progressively more used by individuals and organisations to make purchase and business decisions. Unfortunately, for the reason of profit or fame, frauds produce deceptive reviews to hoodwink potential customers. Their activities mislead not only potential customers to make appropriate purchasing decisions and organisations to reshape their business, but also opinion mining techniques by preventing them from reaching accurate results. Spam reviews could be divided into two main groups, i.e. multiple and singleton spam reviews. Detecting a singleton spam review that is the only review written by a user ID is extremely challenging due to lack of clue for detection purposes. Singleton spam reviews are very harmful and various features and proofs used in multiple spam reviews detection are not applicable in this case. Current research aims to propose a novel supervised technique to detect singleton spam reviews. To achieve this, various features are proposed in this study and are to be combined with the most appropriate features extracted from literature and employed in a classifier. In order to compare the performance of different classifiers, SVM and naive Bayes classification algorithms were used for model building. The results revealed that SVM was more accurate than naive Bayes and our proposed technique is capable to detect singleton spam reviews effectively.

Keywords: classification algorithms, Naïve Bayes, opinion review spam detection, singleton review spam detection, support vector machine

Procedia PDF Downloads 288

Authors: Abeer A. Q. Ahmed, Tracey McKay

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Biomass can provide a sustainable source for the production of high valued chemicals. Under the uncertain availability of fossil resources biomass could be the only available source for chemicals in future. Cellulose and hemicellulose can be hydrolyzed into their building blocks (hexsoses and pentoses) which can be converted later to the desired high valued chemicals. A cellulase- and xylanase- producing bacterial strain identified as Paenibacillus illinoisensis CX11 by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis was found to have the ability to saccharify different lignocellulosic materials. Cellulase and xylanase activities were evaluated by 3,5-dinitro-salicylic acid (DNS) method using CMC and xylan as substrates. Results showed that P. illinoisensis CX11 have cellulase (2.63± 0.09 mg/ml) and xylanase (3.25 ± 0.2 mg/ml) activities. The ability of P. illinoisensis CX11 to saccharify lignocellulosic materials was tested using wheat straw (WS), wheat bran (WB), saw dust (SD), and corn stover (CS). DNS method was used to determine the amount of reducing sugars that were released from lignocellulosic materials. P. illinoisensis CX11 showed to have the ability to saccharify lignocellulosic materials and producing total reducing sugars as 2.34 ± 0.12, 2.51 ± 0.37, 1.86 ± 0.16, and 3.29 ± 0.20 mg/l from WS, WB, SD, and CS respectively. According to the author's knowledge, current findings are the first to report P. illinoisensis CX11 as a cellulase and xylanase producing species and that it has the ability to saccharify different lignocellulosic materials. This study presents P. illinoisensis CX11 that can be good source for cellulase and xylanase enzymes which could be introduced into lignocellulose bioconversion processes to produce high valued chemicals.

Keywords: cellulase, high valued chemicals, lignocellulosic materials, Paenibacillus illinoisensis CX11, Xylanase

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Linyu Wang, Mingjun Zhu, Jianhong Xiang, Hanyu Jiang

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Aiming at the problem that the spectral efficiency of hybrid precoding (HP) is too low in the current millimeter wave (mmWave) massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system, this paper proposes a digital joint equivalent channel hybrid precoding algorithm, which is based on the introduction of digital encoding matrix iteration. First, the objective function is expanded to obtain the relation equation, and the pseudo-inverse iterative function of the analog encoder is derived by using the pseudo-inverse method, which solves the problem of greatly increasing the amount of computation caused by the lack of rank of the digital encoding matrix and reduces the overall complexity of hybrid precoding. Secondly, the analog coding matrix and the millimeter-wave sparse channel matrix are combined into an equivalent channel, and then the equivalent channel is subjected to Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) to obtain a digital coding matrix, and then the derived pseudo-inverse iterative function is used to iteratively regenerate the simulated encoding matrix. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm improves the system spectral efficiency by 10~20%compared with other algorithms and the stability is also improved.

Keywords: mmWave, massive MIMO, hybrid precoding, singular value decompositing, equivalent channel

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Rafia Asghar, Abdul Hafeez

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The current research was related with natural dyes’ extraction from the powder of Neem (Azadirachta indica) bark and studied characterization of this dye under microwave radiation’s influence. Both cotton fabric and dyeing powder were exposed to microwave rays for different time intervals (2minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes, 8 minutes and 10 minutes) using conventional oven. Aqueous, 60% Methanol and Ethyl Acetate solubilized extracts obtained from Neem (Azadirachta indica) bark were also exposed to different time intervals (2minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes, 8 minutes and 10 minutes) of microwave rays exposure. Pre, meta and post mordanting with Alum (2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10%) was done to improve color strength of the extracted dye. Exposure of Neem (Azadirachta indica) bark extract and cotton to microwave rays enhanced the extraction process and dyeing process by reducing extraction time, dyeing time and dyeing temperature. Microwave rays treatment had a very strong influence on color fastness and color strength properties of cotton that was dyes using Neem (Azadirachta indica) bark for 30 minutes and dyeing cotton with that Neem bark extract for 75 minutes at 30°C. Among pre, meta and post mordanting, results indicated that 5% concentration of Alum in meta mordanting exhibited maximum color strength.

Keywords: dyes, natural dyeing, ecofriendly dyes, microwave treatment

Procedia PDF Downloads 678

Authors: Ahmed Raza Khan

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Local-strain engineering is an exciting approach to tune the optoelectronic properties of materials and enhance the performance of devices. Two dimensional (2D) materials such as 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are particularly well-suited for this purpose because they have high flexibility and can withstand high deformations before rupture. Wrinkles on thick TMDC layers have been reported to show the interesting photoluminescence enhancement due to bandgap modulation and funneling effect. However, the wrinkles in ultrathin TMDCs have not been investigated, because the wrinkles can easily fall down to form folds in these ultrathin layers of TMDCs. Here, we have achieved both wrinkle and fold nano-structures simultaneously on 1-3L WS₂ using a new fabrication technique. The comparable layer dependent reduction in surface potential is observed for both folded layers and corresponding perfect pack layers due to the dominant interlayer screening effect. The strains produced from the wrinkle nanostructures considerably vary semi conductive junction properties. Thermo-ionic modelling suggests that the strained (1.6%) wrinkles can lower the Schottky barrier height (SBH) by 20%. The photo-generated carriers would further significantly lower the SBH. These results present an important advance towards controlling the optoelectronic properties of atomically thin WS₂ using strain engineering, with important implications for practical device applications.

Keywords: strain engineering, folding, WS₂, Kelvin probe force microscopy, KPFM, surface potential, photo current, layer dependence

Procedia PDF Downloads 98