Search results for: media richness theory

Authors: Sade Ogundipe

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The private healthcare sector in the United Kingdom has experienced unprecedented challenges during times of crisis, necessitating effective leadership adaptability. This qualitative study delves into the dynamic landscape of leadership within the sector, particularly during crises, employing the lenses of complexity theory and institutional theory to unravel the intricate mechanisms at play. Through in-depth interviews with 25 various levels of leaders in the UK private healthcare sector, this research explores how leaders in UK private healthcare organizations navigate complex and often chaotic environments, shedding light on their adaptive strategies and decision-making processes during crises. Complexity theory is used to analyze the complicated, volatile nature of healthcare crises, emphasizing the need for adaptive leadership in such contexts. Institutional theory, on the other hand, provides insights into how external and internal institutional pressures influence leadership behavior. Findings from this study highlight the multifaceted nature of leadership adaptability, emphasizing the significance of leaders' abilities to embrace uncertainty, engage in sensemaking, and leverage the institutional environment to enact meaningful changes. Furthermore, this research sheds light on the challenges and opportunities that leaders face when adapting to crises within the UK private healthcare sector. The study's insights contribute to the growing body of literature on leadership in healthcare, offering practical implications for leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders within the UK private healthcare sector. By employing the dual perspectives of complexity theory and institutional theory, this research provides a holistic understanding of leadership adaptability in the face of crises, offering valuable guidance for enhancing the resilience and effectiveness of healthcare leadership within this vital sector.

Keywords: leadership, adaptability, decision-making, complexity, complexity theory, institutional theory, organizational complexity, complex adaptive system (CAS), crises, healthcare

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Authors: Neda Jebellie

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New information and communication technologies (ICT) not only has revolutionized the world of communication but has also strongly impacted the state of international terrorism. Using the potential of social media, the new wave of terrorism easily can recruit new jihadi members, spread their violent ideology and garner financial support. IS (Islamic State) as the most dangerous terrorist group has already conquered a great deal of social media space and has deployed sophisticated web-based strategies to promote its extremist doctrine. In this respect the vastly popular social media are the perfect tools for IS to establish its virtual Caliphate (e-caliphate) and e-Ommah (e-citizen).Using social media to release violent videos of beheading journalists, burning their hostages alive and mass killing of prisoners are IS strategies to terrorize and subjugate its enemies. Several Twitter and Facebook accounts which are IS affiliations have targeted young generation of Muslims all around the world. In fact IS terrorists use modern resources of communication not only to share information and conduct operations but also justify their violent acts. The strict Wahhabi doctrine of ISIS is based on a fundamental interpretation of Islam in which religious war against non Muslims (Jihad) and killing infidels (Qatal) have been praised and recommended. Via social media IS disseminates its propaganda to inspire sympathizers across the globe. Combating this new wave of terrorism which is exploiting new communication technologies is the most significant challenge for authorities. Before the rise of internet and social media governments had to control only mosques and religious gathering such as Friday sermons(Jamaah Pray) to prevent spreading extremism among Muslims community in their country. ICT and new communication technologies have heighten the challenge of dealing with Islamic radicalism and have amplified its threat .According to the official reports even some of the governments such as UK have created a special force of Facebook warriors to engage in unconventional warfare in digital age. In compare with other terrorist groups, IS has effectively grasped social media potential. Their horrifying released videos on YouTube easily got viral and were re-twitted and shared by thousands of social media users. While some of the social media such as Twitter and Facebook have shut down many accounts alleged to IS but new ones create immediately so only blocking their websites and suspending their accounts cannot solve the problem as terrorists recreate new accounts. To combat cyber terrorism focusing on disseminating counter narrative strategies can be a solution. Creating websites and providing online materials to propagate peaceful and moderate interpretation of Islam can provide a cogent alternative to extremist views.

Keywords: IS-islamic state, cyber terrorism, social media, terrorism, information, communication technologies

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Authors: K. V. Nabichu

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The rationale of this research was to review how Germans perceive Uganda as a tourism destination, after German visitors arrivals to Uganda remain few compared to other destinations like Kenya. It was assumed that Uganda suffers a negative image in Germany due to negative media influence. The study findings indicate that Uganda is not a popular travel destination in Germany, there is generally lack of travel information about Uganda. Despite the respondents’ hearing about Uganda’s and her beautiful attractions, good climate and friendly people, they also think Uganda is unsafe for travel. Findings further show that Uganda is a potential travel destination for Germans due to her beautifull landscape, rich culture, wild life, primates and the Nile, however political unrest, insecurity, the fear for diseases and poor hygiene hinder Germans from travelling to Uganda. The media, internet as well as friends and relatives were the major primary sources of information on Uganda while others knew about Uganda through their school lessons and sports. Uganda is not well advertised and promoted in Germany.

Keywords: destination Uganda and Germany, image, perception, negative media influence

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Authors: Aji Budi Rinekso, Revika Niza Artiyana, Lisa Widayanti

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English is one of the international languages in the world. People use this language to communicate with each other in the international forums, international events or international organizations. As same as other languages, English has a rule which is called grammar. Grammar is the part of english which has a role as the language systems. In grammar, there are tenses which provide a time period system for past, present and future. Sometimes it is difficult for some English learner to remember all of the tenses completely. Especially for those with special needs or exceptional children with vision restrictiveness. The aims of this research are 1) To know the design of Special Grammar Circle (Spegraci) as the media for blind people to learn english grammar. 2) To know the work of Special Gramar Circle (Spegraci) as the media for blind people to learn english grammar. 3) To know the function of this device in increasing tenses ability for blind people. The method of this research is Research and Development which consists of several testing and revision of this device. The implementation of Special Grammar Circle (Spegraci) is to make blind people easily to learn the tenses. This device is easy to use. Users only roll this device and find out the tense formula and match to the name of the formula in braille. In addition, this device also enables to be used by normal people because normal written texts are also provided.

Keywords: blind people, media innovation, spegraci, tenses

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Authors: Simon Winberg

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The landscape of professional postgraduate education is changing: the focus of these programmes is moving from preparing candidates for a life in academia towards a focus of training in expert knowledge and skills to support industry. This is especially pronounced in engineering disciplines where increasingly more complex products are drawing on a depth of knowledge from multiple fields. This connects strongly with the broader notion of Industry 4.0 – where technology and society are being brought together to achieve more powerful and desirable products, but products whose inner workings also are more complex than before. The changes in what we do, and how we do it, has a profound impact on what industry would like universities to provide. One such change is the increased demand for taught doctoral and Masters programmes. These programmes aim to provide skills and training for professionals, to expand their knowledge of state-of-the-art tools and technologies. This paper investigates one such course, namely a Software Defined Radio (SDR) Master’s degree course. The teaching support for this course had to be drawn from an existing pool of academics, none of who were specialists in this field. The paper focuses on the kind of educator, a ‘hybrid academic’, assembled from available academic staff and bolstered by research. The conceptual framework for this paper combines Activity Theory and Genre Ecology. Activity Theory is used to reason about learning and interactions during the course, and Genre Ecology is used to model building and sharing of technical knowledge related to using tools and artifacts. Data were obtained from meetings with students and lecturers, logs, project reports, and course evaluations. The findings show how the course, which was initially academically-oriented, metamorphosed into a tool-dominant peer-learning structure, largely supported by the sharing of technical tool-based knowledge. While the academic staff could address gaps in the participants’ fundamental knowledge of radio systems, the participants brought with them extensive specialized knowledge and tool experience which they shared with the class. This created a complicated dynamic in the class, which centered largely on engagements with technology artifacts, such as simulators, from which knowledge was built. The course was characterized by a richness of ‘epistemic objects’, which is to say objects that had knowledge-generating qualities. A significant portion of the course curriculum had to be adapted, and the learning methods changed to accommodate the dynamic interactions that occurred during classes. This paper explains the SDR Masters course in terms of conflicts and innovations in its activity system, as well as the continually hybridizing genre ecology to show how the structuring and resource-dependence of the course transformed from its initial ‘traditional’ academic structure to a more entangled arrangement over time. It is hoped that insights from this paper would benefit other educators involved in the design and teaching of similar types of specialized professional postgraduate taught programmes.

Keywords: professional postgraduate education, taught masters, engineering education, software defined radio

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Authors: Mina Darabi Amin

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In 1972, Hans Robert Jauss introduced the Reception Theory a version of Reader-response criticism, that suggests the literary critics to re-examine the relationship between the author, the work and the reader. The revealing of these relationships has shown that, besides the creation, the reception and the reading of the text have different levels which exempt it from a continuous reference to the meaning intended by the artist and could lead to multiplicity of possible interpretations according to the ‘Horizon of Expectations’. This theory could be associated with another intellectual process called ‘translation’, a process that is always confronted by different levels of readers in the target language and different levels of reception by these readers. By adopting the perspective of Reception theory in translation, we could ignore a particular kind of translation and consider the initiation to a literary text, its translation and its reception as a continuous process. Just like the creation of the text, the translation and its reception, are not made once and for all; they are confronted with different levels of reception and interpretation which are made and remade endlessly. After having known and crossing the first levels, the Horizons of Expectation could be extended and the reader could be initiated to the higher levels. On the other hand, we could say that the faithful and free translation are not opposed to each other, but depending on the type of reception by the readers and in a particular moment, the existence of both is necessary. In fact, it is the level of reception in readers and their Horizon of Expectations that determine the degree of fidelity and freedom of translation.

Keywords: reception theory, reading, literary translation, horizons of expectation, reader

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Authors: Z. Sun

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Health communication is essential in promoting healthy lifestyles, managing disease conditions, and eventually reducing health disparities. The key elements of successful health communication always include the development of communication strategies to engage people in thinking about their health, inform them about healthy choices, persuade them to adopt safe and healthy behaviours, and eventually achieve public health objectives. The use of 'Narrative' is recognised as a kind of health communication strategy to enhance personal and public health due to its potential persuasive effect in motivating and supporting individuals change their beliefs and behaviours by inviting them into a narrative world, breaking down their cognitive and emotional resistance and enhance their acceptance of the ideas portrayed in narratives. Meanwhile, the popularity of social media has provided a novel means of communication for both healthcare stakeholders, and a special group of active social media users (influencers) have started playing a pivotal role in providing health ‘solutions’. Such individuals are often referred to as ‘influencers’ because of their central position in the online communication system and the persuasive effect their actions may have on audiences. They may have established a positive rapport with their audience, earned trust and credibility in a specific area, and thus, their audience considers the information they delivered to be authentic and influential. To our best knowledge, to date, there is no published research that examines the effect of diabetes narratives presented by social media influencers and their impacts on health-related outcomes. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the diabetes narratives presented by social media influencers in the UK because of the new dimension they bring to health communication and the potential impact they may have on audiences' health outcomes. This study is situated within the interpretivist and narrative paradigms. A mixed methodology combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches has been adopted. Qualitative data has been derived to provide a better understanding of influencers’ personal experiences and how they construct meanings and make sense of their world, while quantitative data has been accumulated to identify key social media influencers in the UK and measure the impact of diabetes narratives on audiences. Twitter has been chosen as the social media platform to initially identify key influencers. Two groups of participants are the top 10 key social media influencers in the UK and 100 audiences of each influencer, which means a total of 1000 audiences have been invited. This paper is going to discuss, first of all, the background of the research under the context of health communication; Secondly, the necessity and contribution of this research; then, the major research questions being explored; and finally, the methods to be used.

Keywords: diabetes, health communication, narratives, social media influencers

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Authors: Lele Zhang, Hui Leng Choo, Alexander Konyukhov, Shuguang Li

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Finite Element (FE) model of simplified e-bike structure was generated by main frame with two tiers, which consisted of pipe, mass, beam, and shell elements (pipe 289, beam188, shell 181, shell 281, combin14, link11, mass21). These elements would be introduced and demonstrated using mathematical formulas. Based on coupling theory, constrain equations was proposed. Exporting all the parameters obtained from theory part, the connection stiffness matrix of the whole e-bike structure between each of these elements was detected.

Keywords: coupling theory, stiffness matrix, e-bike, finite element model

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Authors: Mukta Avachat-Shirke

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The process of manifestation in art has been studied deeply by various Indian and Western philosophers through times. In the art of painting, ‘Practice’ is always considered as techniques or making and ‘Theory’ is related to intelligence or the ‘conceptual.' The question about the significance of ‘Practice’ in artistic research has been a topic of debate. The aim of this qualitative study is to find the relevance of practice and theory while creating artworks. This study analyzes the thoughts and philosophy of Abhinavgupta, Hegel, and Croce to find a new perspective for looking at practice and theory within artistic research. With the method of grounded theory, the study attempts to establish the importance of both in artistic research. It discusses the issues like stages of creating art, role of tacit knowledge and importance of the decision-making the ability of the artist. This comparative analysis of these three philosophers along with the present systems can be used as a point of reference for further developments in the pedagogy of art research and artists, to understand the psychology and to follow the process of creativity effectively.

Keywords: artistic research, Indian philosophy, practice, Western Philosophy

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Authors: Chin-Hsiang Chu

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This article review the literature in the field among the marketing and aesthetics, the current market and customer-oriented product sales, and gradually from the practical functionality, transformed into the visual appearance of the concept note and the importance of marketing experience substance 'economic Aesthetics' trend. How to introduce the concept of aesthetic and differentiate products have become an important content of marketing management in for an organization in marketing.In previous studies,marketing aesthetic related researches are rare.Therefore, the purpose of this study to explore the connection between aesthetics and marketing of the market economy, and aggregated content through literature review, trying to find related research implications for the management of marketing aesthetics, market-oriented and customer value and development of the product. In this study, the problem statement and background, the development of the theory of evolution, as well as methods and results of discovery stage, literature review was conducted to explore. The results found: (1) Study of Aesthetics will help deepen the shopping environment and service environment commonly understood. (2) the perceived value of products imported aesthetic, consumer willingness to buy, and even premium products will be more attractive. (3) marketing personnel for general marketing management with a high degree of aesthetic identity. (4) management in marketing aesthetics connotation, aesthetic characteristics of five elements is greatly valued by the real-time, complex, specificity, attract sexual and richness. (5) allows consumers to experience through the process due to stimulate the senses, the mind and thinking with the corporate brand or have a deeper link. Results of this study can be used as business in a competitive market, new product development and design of the guide.

Keywords: marketing aesthetics, aesthetics economic, aesthetic, experiential marketing

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Authors: Jiandong Lv, Xingang Wang, Cuiling Shao

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The rapid development of social media platforms has made it one of the important news sources. While it provides people with convenient real-time communication channels, fake news and rumors are also spread rapidly through social media platforms, misleading the public and even causing bad social impact in view of the slow speed and poor consistency of artificial rumor detection. We propose an end-to-end rumor detection model-TIMF, which captures the dependencies between multimodal data based on the interactive attention mechanism, uses a transformer for cross-modal feature sequence mapping and combines hybrid fusion strategies to obtain decision results. This paper verifies two multi-modal rumor detection datasets and proves the superior performance and early detection performance of the proposed model.

Keywords: hybrid fusion, multimodal fusion, rumor detection, social media, transformer

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Authors: Joseph Osodo, Motsa Thobekani Phila

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The study investigated the impact of e-learning on the performance of history learners in Eswatini general certificate of secondary education in the Manzini region of Eswatini. The study was guided by the theory of connectivism. The study had three objectives which were to find out the significance of e-learning during the COVID-19 era in learning History subject; challenges faced by history teachers’ and learners’ in e-learning; and how the challenges were mitigated. The study used a qualitative research approach and descriptive research design. Purposive sampling was used to select eight History teachers and eight History learners from four secondary schools in the Manzini region. Data were collected using face to face interviews. The collected data were analyzed and presented in thematically. The findings showed that history teachers had good knowledge on what e-learning was, while students had little understanding of e-learning. Some of the forms of e-learning that were used during the pandemic in teaching history in secondary schools included TV, radio, computer, projectors, and social media especially WhatsApp. E-learning enabled the continuity of teaching and learning of history subject. The use of e-learning through the social media was more convenient to the teacher and the learners. It was concluded that in some secondary school in the Manzini region, history teacher and learners encountered challenges such as lack of finances to purchase e-learning gadgets and data bundles, lack of skills as well as access to the Internet. It was recommended that History teachers should create more time to offer additional learning support to students whose performance was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic effects.

Keywords: e-learning, performance, COVID-19, history, connectivism

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Authors: Iva Nedelcheva

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This study is part of a doctoral thesis on the topic of Hyperfiction: Past, Present and Future of Storytelling through Hypertext. It explores in depth the impact of transmedia storytelling and the role of hypertext in the realm of the currently popular social media phenomenon Pokémon GO. Storytelling is a powerful method to engage and unite people. Moreover, the technology progress adds a whole new angle to the method, with hypertext and cross-platform sharing that enhance the traditional storytelling so much that transmedia storytelling gives unlimited opportunities to affect the everyday life of people across the globe. This research aims at examining the transmedia storytelling approach in Pokémon GO, and explaining how that contributed to its establishment as a massive worldwide hit in less than a week. The social engagement is investigated in all major media platforms, including traditional and online media channels. Observation and content analyses are reported in this paper to form the conclusion that transmedia storytelling with the input of hypertext has a promising future as a method of establishing a productive and rewarding communication strategy.

Keywords: communication, hypertext, Pokemon Go, storytelling, transmedia

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Authors: Sabriye Piskin, Sibel Kasap, Muge Sari Yilmaz

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Nanocrystalline TiO₂ particles were successfully synthesized via sol-gel and sonochemical combination using titanium tetraisopropoxide as a precursor at lower temperature for a short time. The effect of the reaction parameters (hydrolysis media, acid media, and reaction temperatures) on the synthesis of TiO₂ particles were investigated in the present study. Characterizations of synthesized samples were prepared by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It was shown that the reaction parameters played a significant role in the synthesis of TiO₂ particles.

Keywords: crystalline TiO2, sonochemical mechanism, sol-gel reaction, XRD

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Authors: Chih-Hsiang Chang, Pei-Shan Kao

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This paper discusses the reaction of investors in the Taiwan stock market to the most probable unknown earnings-related information and the most probable known earnings-related information. As compared with the previous literature regarding the effect of an official announcement of earnings forecast revision, this paper further analyzes investors’ cognitive bias toward the unknown and known earnings-related information, and the role of media during the investors' reactions to the foresaid information shocks. The empirical results show that both the unknown and known earnings-related information provides useful information content for a stock market. In addition, cognitive bias and disposition effect are the behavioral pitfalls that commonly occur in the process of the investors' reactions to the earnings-related information. Finally, media coverage has a remarkable influence upon the investors' trading decisions.

Keywords: cognitive bias, role of media, disposition effect, earnings-related information, behavioral pitfall

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Authors: James R. Wilson

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Music is typically defined as having the attributes of melody, harmony, and rhythm. In this paper, a fourth element is proposed -"flow". "Flow" is a new dimension in music that has always been present but only recently identified and measured. The Adagio "Flow Machine" enables us to envision this component and even suggests a new approach to music theory and analysis. The Adagio was created specifically to measure the underlying “flow” in music. The Adagio is an entirely new way to experience and visualize the music, to assist in performing music (both as a conductor and/or performer), and to provide a whole new methodology for music analysis and theory. The Adagio utilizes musical “hit points”, such as a transition from one musical section to another (for example, in a musical composition utilizing the sonata form, a transition from the exposition to the development section) to help define the compositions flow rate. Once the flow rate is established, the Adagio can be used to determine if the composer/performer/conductor has correctly maintained the proper rate of flow throughout the performance. An example is provided using Mozart’s Piano Concerto Number 21. Working with the Adagio yielded an unexpected windfall; it was determined via an empirical study conducted at Nova University’s Biofeedback Lab that watching the Adagio helped volunteers participating in a controlled experiment recover from stressors significantly faster than the control group. The Adagio can be thought of as a new arrow in the Musicologist's quiver. It provides a new, unique way of viewing the psychological impact and esthetic effectiveness of music composition. Additionally, with the current worldwide access to multi-media via the internet, flow analysis can be performed and shared with others with little time and/or expense.

Keywords: musicology, music analysis, music flow, music therapy

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Authors: Ahmad Fahim Nasiry, Shigeo Honma

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We examine two-dimensional oil displacement by water in a petroleum reservoir. The pore fluid is immiscible, and the porous media is homogenous and isotropic in the horizontal direction. Buckley-Leverett theory and a combination of Laplacian and Darcy’s law are used to study the fluid flow through porous media, and the Laplacian that defines the dispersion and diffusion of fluid in the sand using heavy oil is discussed. The reservoir is homogenous in the horizontal direction, as expressed by the partial differential equation. Two main factors which are observed are the water saturation and pressure distribution in the reservoir, and they are evaluated for predicting oil recovery in two dimensions by a physical and mathematical simulation model. We review the numerical simulation that solves difficult partial differential reservoir equations. Based on the numerical simulations, the saturation and pressure equations are calculated by the iterative alternating direction implicit method and the iterative alternating direction explicit method, respectively, according to the finite difference assumption. However, to understand the displacement of oil by water and the amount of water dispersion in the reservoir better, an interpolated contour line of the water distribution of the five-spot pattern, that provides an approximate solution which agrees well with the experimental results, is also presented. Finally, a computer program is developed to calculate the equation for pressure and water saturation and to draw the pressure contour line and water distribution contour line for the reservoir.

Keywords: numerical simulation, immiscible, finite difference, IADI, IDE, waterflooding

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Authors: Nadeem Akhtar, An Ran, Cornelius B. Pratt

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China’s President Xi' vision of Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructural project of development and connectivity, is attracting international students to Chinese universities, with Pakistan and India among the top-10 countries of origin of those students (Ministry of Education China, 2018). An additional factor in international students’ interest in Chinese universities is their improving global rankings of Chinese universities. Against that backdrop, this study addresses two overarching questions: (a) What factors explain South Asian students’ study-away experiences, particularly in their multicultural environments? and (b) What role do new media play in their adaptation to that environment? This study is guided by Stephen’s (2011) theoretical model, which suggests that social networks influence immigrants’ interactions with host and home culture. The present study used a structured questionnaire distributed through both WeChat and other online platforms to international students studying in Chinese universities. Preliminary results are threefold: (a) that the frequency of use of social media is a predictor of the level of adjustment of the students to their multicultural environment; (b) that social engagement with their international-student peers is a moderating factor in their experiential outcomes; and (c) length of stay in Chinese universities, surprisingly, was not a predictor of adaptation. A major implication of these findings is that, even though social media tend to be criticized for contributing to anomie and to diminishing social capital among youths and millennials, they can be poignant tools for cultural adaptation, particularly among international students in China. It remains to be seen if such outcomes occur among international students in other countries or world regions.

Keywords: adaptation, China's Belt and Road Initiative, international students, social media

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Authors: H. K. Bonsu-Owu

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Media portrayal of women in traditional stereotypical roles such as mothers, or seductress has been the norm for years. However, the changing socioeconomic and political environment and advancement of women in today’s society have given rise to questions on the appropriate portrayal of women in the media today. The purpose of the study is to analyze the portrayal of women in Ghanaian newspapers and find women’s perception on the issue. The study uses a three step approach in gathering data for analysis. Using the stratified sampling method, it analyzes front page images of women from 210 issues of the selected newspapers. Further, it administers questionnaires to 100 female students to find out how they relate to the images of women in the selected newspapers. Finally, editors of the newspapers are interviewed to find their rational for portraying women as seen on their front pages. The findings suggest that the newspapers portray women for varied reasons such as promoting sales and influencing the public agenda. Further, the female students claim that in spite of women’s vast contribution to the growth of society, the media continue to marginalize them. They add that such portrayals promote and reinforce social construct, however, refuse to see themselves through the male gaze concept. The study concludes that the stereotyped portrayal of women is likely to continue if the government, regulatory bodies, the media and society do not make a conscious effort to address this problem.

Keywords: women, newspaper, portrayal, social construct

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Authors: Paduri Veerabhadram, Antoinette Lombard

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In this paper a framework for hypothesizing about mobile learning to complement theories of formal and informal learning is presented. As such, activity theory will form the main theoretical lens through which the elements involved in formal and informal learning for mobile learning will be explored, specifically related to context-aware mobile learning application. The author believes that the complexity of the relationships involved can best be analysed using activity theory. Activity theory, as a social, cultural and activity theory can be used as a mobile learning framework in an academic environment, but to develop an optimal artifact, through investigation of inherent system's contradictions. As such, it serves as a powerful modelling tool to explore and understand the design of a mobile learning environment in the study’s environment. The Academic Tool Kit Framework (ATKF) as also employed for designing of a constructivism learning environment, effective in assisting universities to facilitate lecturers to effectively implement learning through utilizing mobile devices. Results indicate a positive perspective of students in the use of mobile devices for formal and informal learning, based on the context-aware learning environment developed through the use of activity theory and ATKF.

Keywords: collaborative learning, cooperative learning, context-aware learning environment, mobile learning, pedagogy

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Authors: Sanjay Ranade

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Traditional film theory assumes the cinema audience in a darkened room where cinema is projected on to a white screen, and the audience suspends their sense of reality. Shifts in audiences due to changes in cultural tastes or trends have been studied for decades. In the past two decades, however, the audience, especially the youth, has shifted to digital media for the consumption of cinema. As a result, not only are audiences watching cinema on different devices, they are also consuming cinema in places and ways never imagined before. Public transport often crowded to the brim with a lot of ambient content, and a variety of workplaces have become sites for cinema viewing. Cinema is watched piecemeal and at different times of the day. Audiences use devices such as mobile phones and tablets to watch cinema. The cinema viewing experience is getting redesigned by the user. The emerging design allows the spectator to not only consume images and narratives but also produce, reproduce, and manipulate existing images and narratives, thereby participating in the process and influencing it. Spectatorship studies stress on the importance of subjectivity when dealing with the structure of the film text and the cultural and psychological implications in the engagement between the spectator and the film text. Indian cinema has been booming and contributing to global movie production significantly. In 2005 film production was 1000 films a year and doubled to 2000 by 2016. Digital technology helped push this growth in 2012. Film studies in India have had a decided Euro-American bias. The studies have chiefly analysed the content for ideological leanings or myth or as reflections of society, societal changes, or articulation of identity or presented retrospectives of directors, actors, music directors, etc. The one factor relegated to the background has been the spectator. If they have been addressed, they are treated as a collective of class or gender. India has a performative tradition going back several centuries. How Indians receive cinema is an important aspect to study with respect to film studies. This exploratory and descriptive study looked at 162 young media students studying cinema at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The students, speaking as many as 20 languages amongst them, were drawn from across the country’s media schools. The study looked at nine film societies registered with the Federation of Film Societies of India. A structured questionnaire was made and distributed online through media teachers for the students. The film societies were approached through the regional office of the FFSI in Mumbai. Lastly, group discussions were held in Mumbai with students and teachers of media. A group consisted of between five and twelve student participants, along with one or two teachers. All the respondents looked at themselves as spectators and shared their experiences of spectators of cinema, providing a very rich insight into Indian conditions of viewing cinema and challenges for cinema ahead.

Keywords: audience, digital, film studies, reception, reception spectatorship

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Authors: Davood Yazdani Cherati, Hussein Hashemi Senejani

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In this paper, a convenient analytical solution for a system of coupled differential equations, derived from thermo-hydro-mechanical analysis of three-phase porous media such as unsaturated soils is developed. This kind of analysis can be used in various fields such as geothermal energy systems and seepage of leachate from buried municipal and domestic waste in geomaterials. Initially, a system of coupled differential equations, including energy, mass, and momentum conservation equations is considered, and an analytical method called AGM is employed to solve the problem. The method is straightforward and comprehensible and can be used to solve various nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). Results indicate the accuracy of the applied method for solving nonlinear partial differential equations.

Keywords: AGM, analytical solution, porous media, thermo-hydro-mechanical, unsaturated soils

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Authors: Md Mizanur Rahman, Lotanna Micah Nneji, Adeola C. Adeniyi, Edem Archibong Eniang, Abiodun B. Onadeko, Felista Kasyoka Kilunda, Babatunde E. Adedeji, Ifeanyi C. Nneji, Adiaha A. A. Ugwumba, Jie-Qiong Jin, Min-Sheng Peng, Caroline Olory, Nsikan Eninekit, Jing Che

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Nigeria contains a number of forest habitats that believed to host highly rich amphibian diversity. However, a dearth of herpetological studies has restricted information on the amphibian diversity in Nigeria. To cover the gap of knowledge, this study focused field surveys on relatively less studied forests–Afi Forest Reserve and Ikpan forest ecosystem. The goal of this study is to make a checklist and to investigate the habitat preferences of amphibians in these two forests. The study areas were surveyed between August 2018 and July 2019 following visual and acoustic methods. Individuals were identified using the morphological and molecular (16S ribosomal RNA) approach. Literature searches were conducted to document additional species that were not encountered during the current field surveys. Using the observational records and arrays of diversity indices, the patterns of species richness and abundance across habitat types were evaluated. Voucher specimens and tissue samples were deposited in the museums of the Department of Zoology, University of Ibadan Nigeria, and the remainder at the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China. The result of this study revealed the presence of 30 and 31 amphibian species from the Afi Forest Reserve and the Ikpan Forest Ecosystem, respectively. There were two unidentified species from AFR and one from IFE. In total, 324 individuals of amphibian species were observed from the two study areas. Forest and swamps showed high species diversity and richness than the agricultural field and savannah. Savannah and agricultural fields had the highest similarity in the species composition. Given the increased human disturbances and consequent threats to these forests, this study offers recommendations for the initiation of conservation plans immediately.

Keywords: biodiversity, conservation, cryptic species, ecology, integrated taxonomy, species inventory

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Authors: Raya A. Jones

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This paper interrogates online representations of robot companions for children, including promotional material by manufacturers, media articles and technology blogs. The significance of the study lies in its contribution to understanding attitudes to robots. The prospect of childcare robots is particularly controversial ethically, and is associated with emotive arguments. The sampled material is restricted to relatively recent posts (the past three years) though the analysis identifies both continuous and changing themes across the past decade. The method extrapolates social representations theory towards examining the ways in which information about robotic products is provided for the general public. Implications for social acceptance of robot companions for the home and robot ethics are considered.

Keywords: acceptance of robots, childcare robots, ethics, social representations

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Authors: Jiyeon Kim

Abstract:

This conceptual paper examines the psychological drivers of green consumerism and sustainable consumption by integrating the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) Theory and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). With growing environmental concerns, green consumerism promotes eco-friendly choices such as purchasing sustainable products and supporting environmentally responsible companies. However, there remains a need for research that effectively guides strategies to encourage sustainable behaviors. This paper evaluates VBN Theory’s role in driving pro-environmental behaviors. By incorporating TRA, the paper proposes an enhanced model that improves understanding of the factors driving sustained pro-environmental actions. Focusing on values, beliefs, and norms, this integrated model provides a deeper understanding of the cognitive and motivational factors that influence sustainable consumption. The findings offer valuable theoretical and practical insights for developing strategies to support long-term responsible consumer behavior.

Keywords: green consumerism, sustainable behavior, TRA, VBN

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Authors: Chane-Yu Lai, Xiang-Yu Huang

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This study conducted an assessment of sampling result by using the new development rotation filtration device (RFD) filled with porous media filters integrating the method of cyclone centrifugal spins. The testing system established for the experiment used corn oil and potassium sodium tartrate tetrahydrate (PST) as challenge aerosols and were produced by using an Ultrasonic Atomizing Nozzle, a Syringe Pump, and a Collison nebulizer. The collection efficiency of RFD for oil aerosol was assessed by using an Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS) and a Fidas® Frog. The results of RFD for the liquid particles condition indicated the cutoff size was 1.65 µm and 1.02 µm for rotation of 0 rpm and 9000 rpm, respectively, under an 80 PPI (pores per inch）foam with a thickness of 80 mm, and sampling velocity of 13.5 cm/s. As the experiment increased the foam thickness of RFD, the cutoff size reduced from 1.62 µm to 1.02 µm. However, when increased the foam porosity of RFD, the cutoff size reduced from 1.26 µm to 0.96 µm. Moreover, as increased the sampling velocity of RFD, the cutoff size reduced from 1.02 µm to 0.76 µm. These discrepancies of above cutoff sizes of RFD all had statistical significance (P < 0.05). The cutoff size of RFD for three experimental conditions of generated liquid oil particles, solid PST particles or both liquid oil and solid PST particles was 1.03 µm, 1.02 µm, or 0.99 µm, respectively, under a 80 PPI foam with thickness of 80 mm, rotation of 9000 rpm, and sampling velocity of 13.5 cm/s. In addition, under the best condition of the experiment, two hours of sampling loading, the RFD had better collection efficiency for particle diameter greater than 0.45 µm, under a 94 PPI nickel mesh with a thickness of 68 mm, rotation of 9000 rpm, and sampling velocity of 108.3 cm/s. The experiment concluded that increased the thickness of porous media, face velocity, and porosity of porous media of RFD could increase the collection efficiency of porous media for sampling oil particles. Moreover, increased the rotation speed of RFD also increased the collection efficiency for sampling oil particles. Further investigation is required for those above operation parameters for RFD in this study in the future.

Keywords: oil aerosol, porous media filter, rotation, filtration

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Authors: Amin Behradfar

Abstract:

‎Tourism has a direct impact on the national revenue for all touristic countries. It creates work opportunities‎, ‎industries‎, ‎and several investments to serve and raise nations performance and cultures. ‎This paper is devoted to analyze dynamical behaviour of a four-dimensional non-linear tourism-based social-ecological system by using the codimension two bifurcation theory‎. ‎In fact we investigate the cusp bifurcation of that‎. ‎Implications of our mathematical results to the tourism‎ ‎industry are discussed‎. Moreover, profitability‎, ‎compatibility and sustainability of the tourism system are shown by the aid of cusp bifurcation and numerical techniques‎.

Keywords: tourism-based social-ecological dynamical systems, cusp bifurcation, center manifold theory, profitability, ‎compatibility, sustainability

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Authors: Sabrina Boutaleb, Fouad Bourad, Kouider Halim Benrahou, Abdelouahed Tounsi

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In the present work, the dynamic analysis of the functionally graded rectangular nanoplates is studied. The theory of nonlocal elasticity based on the quasi 3D high shear deformation theory (quasi 3D HSDT) has been employed to determine the natural frequencies of the nanosized FG plate. In HSDT, a cubic function is employed in terms of thickness coordinates to introduce the influence of transverse shear deformation and stretching thickness. The theory of nonlocal elasticity is utilized to examine the impact of the small scale on the natural frequency of the FG rectangular nanoplate. The equations of motion are deduced by implementing Hamilton’s principle. To demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method, the calculated results in specific cases are compared and examined with available results in the literature, and a good agreement is observed. Finally, the influence of the various parameters, such as the nonlocal coefficient, the material indexes, the aspect ratio, and the thickness-to-length ratio, on the dynamic properties of the FG nanoplates is illustrated and discussed in detail.

Keywords: nonlocal elasticity theory, FG nanoplate, free vibration, refined theory, elastic foundation

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Authors: Martin H¨ausl, Maximilian Auch, Johannes Forster, Peter Mandl, Alexander Schill

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In order to survive on the market, companies must constantly develop improved and new products. These products are designed to serve the needs of their customers in the best possible way. The creation of new products is also called innovation and is primarily driven by a company’s internal research and development department. However, a new approach has been taking place for some years now, involving external knowledge in the innovation process. This approach is called open innovation and identifies customer knowledge as the most important source in the innovation process. This paper presents a concept of using social media posts as an external source to support the open innovation approach in its initial phase, the Ideation phase. For this purpose, the social media posts are semantically structured with the help of an ontology and the authors are evaluated using graph-theoretical metrics such as density. For the structuring and evaluation of relevant social media posts, we also use the findings of Natural Language Processing, e. g. Named Entity Recognition, specific dictionaries, Triple Tagger and Part-of-Speech-Tagger. The selection and evaluation of the tools used are discussed in this paper. Using our ontology and metrics to structure social media posts enables users to semantically search these posts for new product ideas and thus gain an improved insight into the external sources such as customer needs.

Keywords: idea ontology, innovation management, semantic search, open information extraction

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Authors: Jing-Gang Xie

Abstract:

The research, in this case, considers the integration of the Quantum Field Theory and the General Relativity Theory. As two successful models in explaining behaviors of particles, they are incompatible since they work at different masses and scales of energy, with the evidence that regards the description of black holes and universe formation. It is so considering previous efforts in merging the two theories, including the likes of the String Theory, Quantum Gravity models, and others. In a bid to prove an actionable experiment, the paper’s approach starts with the derivations of the existing theories at present. It goes on to test the derivations by applying the same initial assumptions, coupled with several deviations. The resulting equations get similar results to those of classical Newton model, quantum mechanics, and general relativity as long as conditions are normal. However, outcomes are different when conditions are extreme, specifically with no breakdowns even for less than Schwarzschild radius, or at Planck length cases. Even so, it proves the possibilities of integrating the two theories.

Keywords: general relativity theory, particles, photons, Quantum Gravity Model, gravitational frequency shift

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