Search results for: physical state

Authors: Rana Tajammal Rashid

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Federalism is a political system in which government power and responsibility are divided between a federal legislature and units of the state or provincial legislatures. This system provides the structure for the states having large territory and through that can manage the state affairs and administration easily. Many of the largest countries in the world are federations, like; The United States, Canada, India, Pakistan South Africa, Argentina, and Australia. Every large democratic nation has a federal system of government. This study will explore the feature and good governance of two developed countries Canada and Australia. This study will be helpful to the developing countries like Pakistan, India which have a federal form of structure to run the affairs of the state. In the federal system of Pakistan there are lot of issues and conflicts with the provinces with a comparative study of these two developed countries, i.e., Australia and Canada, our policy and decision maker political actors will understand in which way a state will successfully manage the issues related to federalism. This study will also provide the help to the students of comparative politics that how to analysis the different political system of the developed countries of the world.

Keywords: federalism, features of federalism, types of federalism, history of federalism, Australian federalism, Canadian federalism, federalism developments, executives, federal and provincial autonomy legislative, judicial

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Authors: Dahia Chibouti, Benoit Trouette, Eric Chenier

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With the development of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), understanding fluid flow and heat transfer at the micrometer scale is crucial. In the case where the flow characteristic length scale is narrowed to around ten times the mean free path of gas molecules, the classical fluid mechanics and energy equations are still valid in the bulk flow, but particular attention must be paid to the gas/solid interface boundary conditions. Indeed, in the vicinity of the wall, on a thickness of about the mean free path of the molecules, called the Knudsen layer, the gas molecules are no longer in local thermodynamic equilibrium. Therefore, macroscopic models based on the continuity of velocity, temperature and heat flux jump conditions must be applied at the fluid/solid interface to take this non-equilibrium into account. Although these macroscopic models are widely used, the assumptions on which they depend are not necessarily verified in realistic cases. In order to get rid of these assumptions, simulations at the molecular scale are carried out to study how molecule interaction with walls can change the fluid flow and heat transfers at the vicinity of the walls. The developed approach is based on a kind of heterogeneous multi-scale method: micro-domains overlap the continuous domain, and coupling is carried out through exchanges of information between both the molecular and the continuum approaches. In practice, molecular dynamics describes the fluid flow and heat transfers in micro-domains while the Navier-Stokes and energy equations are used at larger scales. In this framework, two kinds of micro-simulation are performed: i) in bulk, to obtain the thermo-physical properties (viscosity, conductivity, ...) as well as the equation of state of the fluid, ii) close to the walls to identify the relationships between the slip velocity and the shear stress or between the temperature jump and the normal temperature gradient. The coupling strategy relies on an implicit formulation of the quantities extracted from micro-domains. Indeed, using the results of the molecular simulations, a Bayesian regression is performed in order to build continuous laws giving both the behavior of the physical properties, the equation of state and the slip relationships, as well as their uncertainties. These latter allow to set up a learning strategy to optimize the number of micro simulations. In the present contribution, the first results regarding this coupling associated with the learning strategy are illustrated through parametric studies of convergence criteria, choice of basis functions and noise of input data. Anisothermic flows of a Lennard Jones fluid in micro-channels are finally presented.

Keywords: multi-scale, microfluidics, micro-channel, hybrid approach, coupling

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Authors: Tosin Osasona

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The Nigeria Police Force bears the constitutional mandate as the primary policing agency for the protection of life and property within Nigeria; however, the police have an historical ill-reputation for corruption, ineptitude and impunity. Using the institutional theory of police as the framework of analysis, the paper argues that the performance of the police in Nigeria mirrors the dominant political, social and economic institutions and the structural environment of the Nigerian state. The article puts in perspective the deliberate political decision to underfund the police, leaving officers of the force the extra task of foraging for funds to undertake the duty that the Nigeria state primarily exists for; the article further explores the nexus between corruption in the police in Nigeria and the issue of funding. The article finds that the Nigerian state, by deliberately under-funding the police, while expecting the agency to perform its duties, has indirectly sanctioned the corruption of the force and approved the cooption of the institution of police and policing for private use in Nigeria.

Keywords: Police Corruption, Funding , Informal Taxation, POlice Checkpoint

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Authors: Safi Haider

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This work seeks to understand the fundamental mourning ceremonies termed azadari in the tristate Shi’i community. Azadari, a name derived from the Arabic aza (mourning) and the Persian dari (commemoration) as it exists in the Tri-State Shi'i community has a unique relation to the hearts and minds of its adherents. It shows the development of the community from the various perspective offered by the participants of this work. This work seeks to analyze Azadari in the light of the Tri-State Shi'i community, which is a deeply diverse community, consisting of immigrants from various other countries, including Pakistan, India, Iran, and the Arab communities. At its heart, this work is an ethnography, it seeks to know the experience of those who are a part of the Muharram commemorations and it seek to see what the underlying psychological and the social foundations of Azadari are. Five people from each of the four communities were interviewed, and the aim was to have at least two men, two women, two youth, two elders, and one person from either of these categories. What was found was that the Shi’i community is scarcely a monolith in its mourning practices, and there is a great difference not only when comparing one cultural community to another, but also within the communities as well. This work seeks to analyze azadari from the various perspective of the Shi’i community in the tri-state area. This work seeks to analyze interviews from twenty people in total: two men, two women, two youth, and two adults from each of the communities of the Shi’i of the tristate area, for a total of twenty people. Two Priests were also interviewed for the sake of the paper as well.

Keywords: Ashura, Imam Husayn, Islam, Muharram, Shi'i

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Authors: Majid Galoie, Khodadad Safavi, Abdolreza Karami Nejad, Reza Roshan

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Scour downstream of a flip bucket in a plunge pool is caused by impingement of water jet force. In order to reduce this force and consequently reduce scour hole depth, flip buckets may equip by dents. The minimum scour hole depth might be occurred by optimization of dents (number, shape, placement) on flip buckets. In this study, a comprehensive physical model has been developed and various options for dents have been investigated. The experimental data for each dent option such as scour hole depth, angle of impingement jet, piezometric pressure in tail-water and jet trajectory have been measured for various discharges. Finally, the best option can be found by analysis of the experimental results which has been expressed in this paper.

Keywords: scouring process, plunge pool, scour hole depth, physical model, flip bucket

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Authors: Karima Adilla

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Aceh province, into which Islam convinced to have entered Indonesia in the 12th Century before spreading throughout the archipelago and the rest of Southeast Asia, has several early Islamic mosques that still exist until today. However, due to some circumstances, the restoration and rehabilitation towards those mosques have been made in some periods, while the background was diverse. Concerning this, the research will examine the physical changing aspects of 3 prominent historical mosques in Aceh Besar and Banda Aceh; those are, Indrapuri Mosque, Baiturrahman Grand Mosque, and Baiturrahim Mosque built coincided with the beginning of Islam’s development in Aceh and regarded as eventful mosques. The existence of Indrapuri Mosque built on the remains of the Lamuri Kingdom’s temple is a historical trace that there was Hindu-Buddhist civilization in Aceh before Islam entered and became the majority religion about 98% from Aceh total population. Also, there was the Dutch who colonialized Aceh behind the existence of two famous mosques in Aceh, namely Baiturrahman Grand Mosque and Baiturrahim Mosque, as the colonizer also assisted to rebuild those 2 sacred Mosques to quell the anger of the Acehnese people because their mosque was burnt by the Dutch. Interestingly, despite underwent a long history successively since the rise of Islam after the Hindu-Buddhist kingdom had collapsed, colonialization, conflict, in Aceh, and even experienced the earthquake and tsunami disaster in 2004, those mosques still exist. Therefore, those mosques have been considered as historical silent witnesses. However, it was not merely those reasons that led the mosques underwent several physical changes, otherwise economic, political, social, cultural and religious factors were also highly influential. Instead of directly illustrating the physical changing of those three mosques, this research intends to identify under what condition the physical appearance continuously changing during the sultanate era, the colonial period until post-independent in terms of the architectural style, detail elements, design philosophy, and how the remnants buildings act as medium to bridge the history. A framework will use qualitative research methods by collecting actual data of the mosque's physical change figures through field studies, investigations, library studies and interviews. This research aims to define every trace of historical issues embedded in the physical changing of those mosques as they are intertwined in collecting historical proof. Thus, the result will reveal the characteristic interrelation between history, the mosque architectural style in a certain period, the physical changes background and its impact. Eventually, this research will also explicate a clear inference of each mosque’s role in representing history in Aceh Besar and Banda Aceh specifically, as well as Aceh generally through architectural design concepts.

Keywords: Aceh ancient mosques, Aceh history, Islamic architecture, physical changing

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Authors: Emil Danehorn, Ulla Peterson, Marie Oscarsson, Goldina Smirthwaite, Katarina Swahnberg

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Swedish students who choose to study abroad are common, but there has been limited research on exchange students. There are indications that some Swedish exchange students have been exposed to violence, but it is not known if they, already before their semester abroad, are more exposed to violence than students who remain on campus. Our aim was to investigate potential differences in exposure to physical, sexual, and emotional violence between prospective exchange students and campus students and between male and female students in general, as well as to determine any associations between mental health and exposure to violence among students in the total sample. Method: Comparative cross-sectional design using an online survey containing the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire 12. A total of 565 participants took part in the study. Results: Prospective exchange students were less exposed to emotional violence compared to campus students. About one-half of all the participating female students had been exposed to sexual violence and about one-third of all the male students had been exposed to physical violence. The results also indicated that exposure to more than one form of violence was associated with poor mental health for students as a group. Conclusion: Prospective exchange students as a group do not report more exposure to physical and sexual violence than campus students but do report less exposure to emotional violence. However, the overall frequency of exposure to violence among the students was high. This highlights the need for proactive efforts for everyone, not least for exchange students who will be staying in a new environment unknown to them.

Keywords: sexual violence, physical violence, emotional violence, exchange students, mental health

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Authors: Ahmed Mudi, Bala Zakar

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The paper assesses the impact of safe motherhood initiative on maternal health of women in Gumel Local Government Area of Jigawa State. The work will specifically concentrate on the background on safe motherhood scheme and maternal health of women. The objective of this paper is to assess the level of safe motherhood scheme in Gumel local government area, to find out the level of maternal health in Gumel local government as well as to determine the impact of safe motherhood scheme on maternal health on women in Gumel Local Government Area Jigawa State. Various literature on the topic are reviewed, the paper adopts survey design and use questionnaire to collect data from the respondent. The study comprises 350 women selected from six rural communities in Gumel using random sampling techniques, and the data was analysed by simple frequency and percentage. The research concluded that safe motherhood initiative has a significant impact on the maternal health of women in Gumel Local Government Area of Jigawa State. Finally, suitable recommendations were given on how to improve the scheme to ensure better maternal health in the region.

Keywords: action, assessment, maternal health, safe motherhood, surgery

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Authors: Ekpekpo Arthur

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Thin films can either be conductive or dielectric (non-conductive). It is formed through atom/molecules state or formed after decomposing the materials into atomic/molecular scale by physical or chemical processes. In this study, thin films of Lead Sulphide were deposited on glass substrate prepared from lead acetate and thiourea solution using chemical bath deposition (CBD). The glass slides were subjected to the pretreatment by soaking them in a solution of 50% sulphuric acid and 50% nitric acid. Lead sulphide was deposited at different parameters such as deposition time and temperature. The optical properties of the thin films were determined from spectroscopy measurements of absorbance and reflectance. Optical studies show that the band gap of lead sulphide ranges between 0.41 eV to 300K.

Keywords: lead sulphide, spectroscopy, absorbance, reflectance

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Authors: Tran Gia Khanh, Dao Phuong Nam, Do Trong Tan, Nguyen Van Huong, Mai Xuan Sinh

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This work presents the problem of tube-based robust model predictive controller for a class of continuous-time systems in the presence of input disturbances. The main objective is to point out the state trajectory of closed system being maintained inside a sequence of tubes. An estimation of attraction region of the closed system is pointed out based on input state stability (ISS) theory and linearized model in each time interval. The theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm for a wheeled inverted pendulum system.

Keywords: input state stability (ISS), tube-based robust MPC, continuous-time nonlinear systems, wheeled inverted pendulum

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Authors: Binod Shrestha, Sandrine Hoppe, Thierry Ghislain, Phillipe Marchal, Nicolas Brosse, Anthony Dufour

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The thermochemical conversion of lignin has received an increasing interest in the frame of different biorefinery concepts for the production of chemicals or energy. It is needed to better understand the physical and chemical conversion of lignin for feeder and reactor designs. In-situ rheology reveals the viscoelastic behaviour of lignin upon thermal conversion. The softening, re-solidification (char formation), swelling and shrinking behaviours are quantified during pyrolysis in real-time [1]. The in-situ rheology of an alkali lignin (Protobind 1000) was conducted in high torque controlled strain rheometer from 35°C to 400°C with a heating rate of 5°C.min-1. The swelling, through glass phase transition overlapped with depolymerization, and solidification (crosslinking and “char” formation) are two main phenomena observed during lignin pyrolysis. The onset of temperatures for softening and solidification for this lignin has been found to be 141°C and 248°C respectively. An ex-situ characterization of lignin/char residues obtained at different temperatures after quenching in the rheometer gives a clear understanding of the pathway of lignin degradation. The lignin residues were sampled from the mid-point temperatures of the softening range and solidification range to study the chemical transformations undergoing. Elemental analysis, FTIR and solid state NMR were conducted after quenching the solid residues (lignin/char). The quenched solid was also extracted by suitable solvent and followed by acetylation and GPC-UV analysis. The combination of 13C NMR and GPC-UV reveals the depolymerization followed by crosslinking of lignin/char. NMR and FTIR provide the evolution of functional moieties upon temperature. Physical and chemical mechanisms occurring during lignin pyrolysis are accounted in this study. Thanks to all these complementary methods.

Keywords: pyrolysis, bio-chemicals, valorization, mechanism, softening, solidification, cross linking, rheology, spectroscopic methods

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Authors: A. Douara, N. Kermas, B. Djellouli

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In this study, we report calculations of gate capacitance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with nextnano device simulation software. We have used a physical gate capacitance model for III-V FETs that incorporates quantum capacitance and centroid capacitance in the channel. These simulations explore various device structures with different values of barrier thickness and channel thickness. A detailed understanding of the impact of gate capacitance in HEMTs will allow us to determine their role in future 10 nm physical gate length node.

Keywords: gate capacitance, AlGaN/GaN, HEMTs, quantum capacitance, centroid capacitance

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Authors: G. Çelik Gül, F. Kurtuluş

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Colemanite is the most common borate mineral, and the main source of the boron required by plants, human, and earth. Transition metals exhibit optical and physical properties such as; non-linear optical character, structural diversity, thermal stability, long cycle life and luminescent radiation. The doping of colemanite with a transition metal, bring it very interesting and attractive properties which make them applicable in industry. Iron doped calcium borate was synthesized by conventional solid state method at 1200 °C for 12 h with a systematic pathway. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive analyze (SEM/EDS) were used to characterize structural and morphological properties. Also, thermal properties were recorded by thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA). 

Keywords: colemanite, conventional synthesis, powder x-ray diffraction, borates

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Authors: Laura C. Dapp, Claudia M. Roebers

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Being physically active has many benefits for children and adolescents. It is crucial for various aspects of physical and mental health, the development of a healthy self-concept, and also positively influences academic performance and school achievement. In addressing the still incomplete understanding of the link between physical activity (PA) and academic achievement, the current study scrutinized the open issue of how PA has to be implemented to positively affect mathematical outcomes in N = 138 fourth graders. Therefore, the current study distinguished between structured PA (formal, organized, adult-led exercise and deliberate sports practice) and unstructured PA (non-formal, playful, peer-led physically active play and sports activities). Results indicated that especially structured PA has the potential to contribute to mathematical outcomes. Although children spent almost twice as much time engaging in unstructured PA as compared to structured PA, only structured PA was significantly related to mathematical achievement as well as to mathematical self-concept. Furthermore, the pending issue concerning the quantity of PA needed to enhance children’s mathematical achievement was addressed. As to that, results indicated that the amount of time spent in structured PA constitutes a critical factor in accounting for mathematical outcomes, since children engaging in PA for two hours or more a week were shown to be both the ones with the highest mathematical self-concept as well as those attaining the highest mathematical achievement scores. Finally, the present study investigated the indirect effect of PA on mathematical achievement by controlling for the mathematical self-concept as a mediating variable. The results of a maximum likelihood mediation analysis with a 2’000 resampling bootstrapping procedure for the 95% confidence intervals revealed a full mediation, indicating that PA improves mathematical self-concept, which, in turn, positively affects mathematical achievement. Thus, engaging in high amounts of structured PA constitutes an advantageous leisure activity for children and adolescents, not only to enhance their physical health but also to foster their self-concept in a way that is favorable and encouraging for promoting their academic achievement. Note: The content of this abstract is partially based on a paper published elswhere by the authors.

Keywords: Academic Achievement, Mathematical Performance, Physical Activity, Self-Concept

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Authors: C. Patrascioiu, Cao Minh Ahn

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The paper presents the research evolution in the propylene – propane distillation process, especially for the distillation columns equipped with heat pump. The paper is structured in three parts: separation of the propylene-propane mixture, steady state process modeling, and quality control systems. The first part is dedicated to state of art of the two distillation processes. The second part continues the author’s researches of the steady state process modeling. There has been elaborated a software simulation instrument that may be used to dynamic simulation of the process and to design the quality control systems. The last part presents the research of the control systems, especially for quality control systems.

Keywords: absorption, distillation, heat pump, Unisim design

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Authors: Abdul Latif Shaikh, Osama Kattos

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Purpose: The study compared the effects of intra and inter group short duration intensity training and long duration steady state-run training on the cardiovascular performance on female athletes. Method: Twenty trained young female athletes age between 17 to 20 years were randomly selected to participate in the test. The sprint interval training (n-10) program consisted of 5 min sprints and steady state run (n-10) conducted for 30 min. Both groups completed eight sessions of training within four weeks. Result: In intragroup distribution of mean % change in all the variables from week 4 to week 1 did not differ significantly (p-value > 0.05). The inter-group means value of post resting heart rate, max oxygen consumption (VO2max), and calorie expenditure in sprint interval training was higher with compared with steady state run. Conclusion: The comparative mean value of the intergroups program concludes that the SIT program is superior to SSR in performance-based variables in trained young females. The SIT program can be applied as a time-efficient program for improving performance.

Keywords: calorie expenditure, maximum rate of oxygen consumption, post recovery HR (1-4-7 min), time domain

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Authors: Imed Feki, Faouzi Msahli

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Selection of relevant parameters from a high dimensional process operation setting space is a problem frequently encountered in industrial process modelling. This paper presents a method for selecting the most relevant fabric physical parameters for each sensory quality feature. The proposed relevancy criterion has been developed using two approaches. The first utilizes a fuzzy sensitivity criterion by exploiting from experimental data the relationship between physical parameters and all the sensory quality features for each evaluator. Next an OWA aggregation procedure is applied to aggregate the ranking lists provided by different evaluators. In the second approach, another panel of experts provides their ranking lists of physical features according to their professional knowledge. Also by applying OWA and a fuzzy aggregation model, the data sensitivity-based ranking list and the knowledge-based ranking list are combined using our proposed percolation technique, to determine the final ranking list. The key issue of the proposed percolation technique is to filter automatically and objectively the relevant features by creating a gap between scores of relevant and irrelevant parameters. It permits to automatically generate threshold that can effectively reduce human subjectivity and arbitrariness when manually choosing thresholds. For a specific sensory descriptor, the threshold is defined systematically by iteratively aggregating (n times) the ranking lists generated by OWA and fuzzy models, according to a specific algorithm. Having applied the percolation technique on a real example, of a well known finished textile product especially the stonewashed denims, usually considered as the most important quality criteria in jeans’ evaluation, we separate the relevant physical features from irrelevant ones for each sensory descriptor. The originality and performance of the proposed relevant feature selection method can be shown by the variability in the number of physical features in the set of selected relevant parameters. Instead of selecting identical numbers of features with a predefined threshold, the proposed method can be adapted to the specific natures of the complex relations between sensory descriptors and physical features, in order to propose lists of relevant features of different sizes for different descriptors. In order to obtain more reliable results for selection of relevant physical features, the percolation technique has been applied for combining the fuzzy global relevancy and OWA global relevancy criteria in order to clearly distinguish scores of the relevant physical features from those of irrelevant ones.

Keywords: data sensitivity, feature selection, fuzzy logic, OWA operators, percolation technique

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Authors: Bulus Kpame, Mukhtar Mohammed Alhaji, Garba Jibril

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In any team sport, the most important variables that should be used to measure performance are physical condition, and technical and tactical performance. In a complex game like football, it is extremely difficult to measure the relative importance of each of these variables. However, physical fitness itself has been shown to consist of several components, like endurance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination and speed. Each of these components has been shown to consist of several subcomponents. This paper attempts to describe a test battery to assess and evaluate physical performance in football players. This battery comprises a functional, structured training session of about 2.5hrs. it consists of quality rating of the warm-up procedure, tests of flexibility, football skills, power, speed, and endurance. Acceptable values for performance in each of the tests are also presented under each test. It is hoped that this battery of tests will be helpful to the coach in determining the effect of a specific training program. It would also be helpful to train physician and trainer, to monitor progress during rehabilitation after sustaining any injury.

Keywords: assessment, evaluation, performance, programs

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Authors: Sunmaila Oyetunji Raimi, Olufemi Akinloye Bolaji, Abiodun Ezekiel Adesina

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The lingering poor performance of students in basic science spells doom for a vibrant scientific and technological development which pivoted the economic, social and physical upliftment of any nation. This calls for identifying appropriate strategies for imparting basic science knowledge and attitudes to the teaming youths in secondary schools. This study, therefore, determined the impact of computer mediated power point presentations on students’ achievement in basic science in Oyo State, Nigeria. A pre-test, posttest, control group quazi-experimental design adopted for the study. Two hundred and five junior secondary two students selected using stratified random sampling technique participated in the study. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Two evaluative instruments – Students’ Basic Science Attitudes Scale (SBSAS, r = 0.91); Students’ Knowledge of Basic Science Test (SKBST, r = 0.82) were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics of ANCOVA, scheffe post-hoc test were used to analyse the data. The results indicated significant main effect of treatment on students cognitive (F(1,200)= 171.680; p < 0.05) and attitudinal (F(1,200)= 34.466; p < 0.05) achievement in Basic science with the experimental group having higher mean gain than the control group. Gender has significant main effect (F(1,200)= 23.382; p < 0.05) on students cognitive outcomes but not significant for attitudinal achievement in Basic science. The study therefore recommended among others that computer mediated power point presentations should be incorporated into curriculum methodology of Basic science in secondary schools.

Keywords: basic science, computer mediated power point presentations, gender, students’ achievement

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Authors: C. Santhana Krishnan, A. M. Mimi Sakinah, Lakhveer Singh, Zularisam A. Wahid

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This study was initiated to evaluate and optimize the conversion of animal fat from tannery wastes into methyl ester. In the pre-treatment stage, animal fats feedstock was hydrolysed and esterified through solid state fermentation (SSF) using Microbacterium species immobilized onto sand silica matrix. After 72 hours of fermentation, predominant esters in the animal fats were found to be with 83.9% conversion rate. Later, esterified animal fats were transesterified at 3 hour reaction time with 1% NaOH (w/v %), 6% methanol to oil ratio (w/v %) to produce 89% conversion rate. C₁₃ NMR revealed long carbon chain in fatty acid methyl esters at 22.2817-31.9727 ppm. Methyl esters of palmitic, stearic, oleic represented the major components in biodiesel.

Keywords: tannery wastes, fatty animal fleshing, trans-esterification, immobilization, solid state fermentation

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Authors: Malakeh Zuhdi Malak, Mahmoud Taher Kalaldeh

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In Jordan, no available data exists regarding violence and unintentional injuries among secondary school students aged 15-19 years. The purpose of this study was to assess the violence and unintentional injuries among those students, and to compare these two behaviors between male and female students. A descriptive cross-sectional design was carried out on randomly selected eight comprehensive secondary schools (four schools for females and four schools for males) from the public school educational directorate located in Amman. A modified Arabic version of the General School Health Survey questionnaire was used to measure violence and unintentional injuries. A sample of 750 secondary school students was studied. The findings showed that 26.8 % of students had been physically attacked. Overall, 43.3 % of students had been involved in a physical fight and 20.1% of them had been bullied. Overall, 45.3% of students were seriously injured. There was a difference between male and female students regarding to physical attack, physical fight, and serious injuries. In conclusion, it is necessary to develop effective training program in life skills for students that functions to reduce risk-taking behaviors that often leading to violence and unintentional injuries.

Keywords: secondary school students, violence, unintentional injuries, bullying

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Authors: Nikoloz Jalabadze, Roin Chedia, Lili Nadaraia, Levan Khundadze

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Nanocrystalline materials in powder condition can be manufactured by a number of different methods, however manufacture of composite materials product in the same nanocrystalline state is still a problem because the processes of compaction and synthesis of nanocrystalline powders go with intensive growth of particles – the process which promotes formation of pieces in an ordinary crystalline state instead of being crystallized in the desirable nanocrystalline state. To date spark plasma sintering (SPS) has been considered as the most promising and energy efficient method for producing dense bodies of composite materials. An advantage of the SPS method in comparison with other methods is mainly low temperature and short time of the sintering procedure. That finally gives an opportunity to obtain dense material with nanocrystalline structure. Graphene has recently garnered significant interest as a reinforcing phase in composite materials because of its excellent electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. Graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) in particular have attracted much interest as reinforcements for ceramic matrix composites (mostly in Al2O3, Si3N4, TiO2, ZrB2 a. c.). SPS has been shown to fully densify a variety of ceramic systems effectively including Al2O3 and often with improvements in mechanical and functional behavior. Alumina consolidated by SPS has been shown to have superior hardness, fracture toughness, plasticity and optical translucency compared to conventionally processed alumina. Knowledge of how GNPs influence sintering behavior is important to effectively process and manufacture process. In this study, the effects of GNPs on the SPS processing of Al2O3 are investigated by systematically varying sintering temperature, holding time and pressure. Our experiments showed that SPS process is also appropriate for the synthesis of nanocrystalline powders of alumina-graphene composites. Depending on the size of the molds, it is possible to obtain different amount of nanopowders. Investigation of the structure, physical-chemical, mechanical and performance properties of the elaborated composite materials was performed. The results of this study provide a fundamental understanding of the effects of GNP on sintering behavior, thereby providing a foundation for future optimization of the processing of these promising nanocomposite systems.

Keywords: alumina oxide, ceramic matrix composites, graphene nanoplatelets, spark-plasma sintering

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Authors: Veepaul Kaur Mann Balwinder Singh

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The COVID-19 had an intense impact on several countries across the world. National governments have imposed widespread restrictions to prevent the growth of this pandemic. The new health competitive scenario induced by the COVID-19 crisis raised many issues on how business activities should be reorganized due to the difficulties of physical interactions with distributors, suppliers and customers. The pandemic has particularly affected the whole selling process because of the relevant issues that emerged in managing physical sale channels and interactions with one another, both in the Business-to-Consumer and in the Business-to-Business markets. Recent research about the appropriate actions and strategies that could help firms overcome the crisis has highlighted the key role of digital expertise that may ensure connections and, thus, help business activities run smoothly. This could be true, especially with the occurrence of strong limitations on physical interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The catastrophe changes life publically and economically. People are living alone for following the social distancing norms. In that set-up, Digital Marketing is playing an important role in civilization. Anyone can buy any item, pay bills, transfer money and compare items through Digital Marketing without physical interactions. After COVID-19, people will be more aware of health safety and trust. So, through Digital Marketing, organizations can approach customers and provide good service environments. In such a situation, the online network becomes the most important encouraging for online customers to get in contact with the firm and carry out online selling and purchasing activities around the world.

Keywords: COVID-19, business, digital marketing, online customer

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Authors: Kaznah Alshammari, Thomas Beach, Yacine Rezgui

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Technological advances in the construction sector are helping to make smart cities a reality by means of cyber-physical systems (CPS). CPS integrate information and the physical world through the use of information communication technologies (ICT). An increasingly common goal in the built environment is to integrate building information models (BIM) with the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor technologies using CPS. Future advances could see the adoption of digital twins, creating new opportunities for CPS using monitoring, simulation, and optimisation technologies. However, researchers often fail to fully consider the security implications. To date, it is not widely possible to assimilate BIM data and cybersecurity concepts, and, therefore, security has thus far been overlooked. This paper reviews the empirical literature concerning IoT applications in the built environment and discusses real-world applications of the IoT intended to enhance construction practices, people’s lives and bolster cybersecurity. Specifically, this research addresses two research questions: (a) how suitable are the current IoT and CPS security stacks to address the cybersecurity threats facing digital twins in the context of smart buildings and districts? and (b) what are the current obstacles to tackling cybersecurity threats to the built environment CPS? To answer these questions, this paper reviews the current state-of-the-art research concerning digital twins in the built environment, the IoT, BIM, urban cities, and cybersecurity. The results of these findings of this study confirmed the importance of using digital twins in both IoT and BIM. Also, eight reference zones across Europe have gained special recognition for their contributions to the advancement of IoT science. Therefore, this paper evaluates the use of digital twins in CPS to arrive at recommendations for expanding BIM specifications to facilitate IoT compliance, bolster cybersecurity and integrate digital twin and city standards in the smart cities of the future.

Keywords: BIM, cybersecurity, digital twins, IoT, urban cities

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Authors: Desmond Agbolade Ademola

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This work aimed to introduce a theory, called Guided Energy Theory of a particle that answered questions that arise from quantum foundation, quantum mechanics theory, and interpretation such as: what is nature of wavefunction? Is mathematical formalism of wavefunction correct? Does wavefunction collapse during measurement? Do quantum physical entanglement and many world interpretations really exist? In addition, is there uncertainty in the physical reality of our nature as being concluded in the Quantum theory? We have been able to show by the fundamental analysis presented in this work that the way quantum mechanics theory, and interpretation describes nature is not correlated with physical reality. Because, we discovered amongst others that, (1) Guided energy theory of a particle fundamentally provides complete physical observable series of quantized measurement of a particle momentum, force, energy e.t.c. in a given distance and time.In contrast, quantum mechanics wavefunction describes that nature has inherited probabilistic and indeterministic physical quantities, resulting in unobservable physical quantities that lead to many worldinterpretation.(2) Guided energy theory of a particle fundamentally predicts that it is mathematically possible to determine precise quantized measurementof position and momentum of a particle simultaneously. Because, there is no uncertainty in nature; nature however naturally guides itself against uncertainty. Contrary to the conclusion in quantum mechanics theory that, it is mathematically impossible to determine the position and the momentum of a particle simultaneously. Furthermore, we have been able to show by this theory that, it is mathematically possible to determine quantized measurement of force acting on a particle simultaneously, which is not possible on the premise of quantum mechanics theory. (3) It is evidently shown by our theory that, guided energy does not collapse, only describes the lopsided nature of a particle behavior in motion. This pretty offers us insight on gradual process of engagement - convergence and disengagement – divergence of guided energy holders which further highlight the picture how wave – like behavior return to particle-like behavior and how particle – like behavior return to wave – like behavior respectively. This further proves that the particles’ behavior in motion is oscillatory in nature. The mathematical formalism of Guided energy theory shows that nature is certainty whereas the mathematical formalism of Quantum mechanics theory shows that nature is absolutely probabilistics. In addition, the nature of wavefunction is the guided energy of the wave. In conclusion, the fundamental mathematical formalism of Quantum mechanics theory is wrong.

Keywords: momentum, physical entanglement, wavefunction, uncertainty

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Authors: Zhang Jun Xiong

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Objective: To explore the effect of physical exercise and outdoor lighting on the improvement of pupils' eyesight. Methods: A total of 208 first grade students in a primary school in Chengdu were enrolled in the study, 104 of whom were nearsighted and 104 had normal vision. They were randomly divided into indoor exercise group, outdoor exercise group, indoor control group and outdoor control group. Indoor and outdoor exercise groups performed moderate and high-intensity aerobic exercise three times a week, 60 minutes each time; The indoor and outdoor control groups had normal study and life during the experiment, without exercise intervention. The experiment lasted for one academic year, and the visual indicators of the subjects were tested before and after the experiment. Results: After the experiment, the visual fatigue index of the subjects with normal vision in the outdoor exercise group, indoor exercise group and outdoor control group decreased by 1.5 ± 2.89, 1.4 ± 3.05, 2.12 ± 2.66 respectively, and the diopter index decreased by 0.30D ± 0.09, 0.41D ± 0.16, 0.40D ± 0.19 respectively, while the visual fatigue score of the subjects with normal vision in the indoor control group increased by 2.3 ± 2.15, and the diopter decreased by 0.53D ± 0.22, There were significant differences in visual fatigue and diopter among the subjects with normal vision in each group (P<0.001). After the experiment, the visual fatigue index of the myopic subjects in the outdoor exercise group, indoor exercise group and outdoor control group decreased by 1.8 ± 1.95, 0.8 ± 1.81, 1.1 ± 1.85 respectively, and the diopter index decreased by 0.35D ± 0.21, 0.52D ± 0.24, 0.52D ± 0.15 respectively, while the visual fatigue score of the myopic subjects in the indoor control group increased by 1.3 ± 2.66, and the diopter decreased by 0.62D ± 0.29. There were significant differences between groups in visual fatigue and diopter (P<0.001). Conclusion: Both physical exercise and outdoor lighting can have a beneficial effect on children's vision, and the superposition effect of the two is better. It is suggested that outdoor physical exercise should be carried out more in primary school.

Keywords: physical exercise, outdoor lighting, pupil, vision, myopia

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Authors: Amit Kumar Bhandary, Prithviraj Gupta, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Mahua Ghosh Chaudhuri, Rajib Dey

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Chromite ores are primarily used for extraction of chromium, which is an expensive metal. For low grade chromite ores (containing less than 40% Cr₂O₃), the chromium extraction is not usually economically viable. India possesses huge quantities of low grade chromite reserves. This deposit can be utilized after proper physical beneficiation. Magnetic separation techniques may be useful after reduction for the beneficiation of low grade chromite ore. The sample collected from the sukinda mines is characterized by XRD which shows predominant phases like maghemite, chromite, silica, magnesia and alumina. The raw ore is crushed and ground to below 75 micrometer size. The microstructure of the ore shows that the chromite grains surrounded by a silicate matrix and porosity observed the exposed side of the chromite ore. However, this ore may be utilized in refractory applications. Chromite ores contain Cr₂O₃, FeO, Al₂O₃ and other oxides like Fe-Cr, Mg-Cr have a high tendency to form spinel compounds, which usually show high refractoriness. Initially, the low grade chromite ore (containing 34.8% Cr₂O₃) was reduced at 1200 ⁰C for 80 minutes with 30% coke fines by weight, before being subjected to magnetic separation. The reduction by coke leads to conversion of higher state of iron oxides converted to lower state of iron oxides. The pre-reduced samples are then characterized by XRD. The magnetically inert mass was then reacted with 20% MgO by weight at 1450 ⁰C for 2 hours. The resultant product was then tested for various refractoriness parameters like apparent porosity, slag resistance etc. The results were satisfactory, indicating that the resultant spinel compounds are suitable for refractory applications for elevated temperature processes.

Keywords: apparent porosity, beneficiation, low-grade chromite, refractory, spinel compounds, slag resistance

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Authors: Qian Mao, Xiaozan Wang, Jiarong Zhong, Xiaolin Zou

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Introduction: As a result of the decline of students' physical health level and the increase of study pressure, students’ academic performance is not so good. Objective: This study aims to verify whether the Brain-Break intervention in the fourth-grade classroom of primary school can improve students' physical health and academic performance. Methods: According to the principle of no difference in pre-test data, students from two classes of grade four in Fuhai Road Primary School, Fushan district, Yantai city, Shandong province, were selected as experimental subjects, including 50 students in the experimental class (25 males and 25 females) and 50 students in the control class (24 males and 26 females). The content of the experiment was that the students were asked to perform a 4-minute Brain-Berak program designed by the researcher in the second class in the morning and the afternoon, and the intervention lasted for 12 weeks. In addition, the lung capacity, 50-meter run, sitting body forward bend, one-minute jumping rope and one-minute sit-ups stipulated in the national standards for physical fitness of students (revised in 2014) were selected as the indicators of physical health. The scores of Chinese, Mathematics, and English in the unified academic test of the municipal education bureau were selected as the indicators of academic performance. The independent-sample t-test was used to compare and analyze the data of each index between the two classes. The paired-sample t-test was used to compare and analyze the data of each index in the two classes. This paper presents only results with significant differences. Results: in terms of physical health, lung capacity (P=0.002, T= -2.254), one-minute rope skipping (P=0.000, T=3.043), and one-minute sit-ups (P=0.045, T=6.153) were significantly different between the experimental class and the control class. In terms of academic performance, there is a significant difference between the Chinese performance of the experimental class and the control class (P=0.009, T=4.833). Conclusion: Adding Brain-Berak intervention in the classroom can effectively improve the cardiorespiratory endurance (lung capacity), coordination (jumping rope), and abdominal strength (sit-ups) of fourth-grade students. At the same time, it can also effectively improve their Chinese performance. Therefore, it is suggested to promote micro-sports in the classroom of primary schools throughout the country so as to help students improve their physical health and academic performance.

Keywords: academic performance, brain break, fourth grade, physical health

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Authors: Okike Benjamin

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Terrorism is the use of violence and threat to intimidate or coerce a person, group, society or even government especially for political purposes. Terrorism may be a way of resisting government by some group who may feel marginalized. It could also be a way of expressing displeasure over the activities of government. On 26th December, 2009, US placed Nigeria as a terrorist nation. Recently, the occurrences of terrorism in Nigeria have increased considerably. In Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria, there was a bomb blast which claimed many lives on the eve of 2010 Christmas. Similarly, there was another bomb blast in Mugadishi (Sani Abacha) Barracks Mammy market on the eve of 2011 New Year. For some time now, it is no longer news that bomb exploded in some Northern part of Nigeria. About 25 years ago, stopping terrorism in America by the Americans relied on old-fashioned tools such as strict physical security at vulnerable places, intelligence gathering by government agents, or individuals, vigilance on the part of all citizens, and a sense of community in which citizens do what could be done to protect each other. Just as technology has virtually been used to better the way many other things are done, so also this powerful new weapon called computer technology can be used to detect and prevent terrorism not only in Nigeria, but all over the world. This paper will x-ray the possible causes and effects of bomb blast, which is an act of terrorism and suggest ways in which Explosive Detection Devices (EDDs) and computer software technology could be deployed to reduce the occurrences of terrorism in Nigeria. This become necessary with the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State from their hostel by members of Boko Haram sect members on 14th April, 2014. Presently, Barrack Obama and other world leaders have sent some of their military personnel to help rescue those innocent schoolgirls whose offence is simply seeking to acquire western education which the sect strongly believe is forbidden.

Keywords: terrorism, bomb blast, computer technology, explosive detection devices, Nigeria

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Authors: Ummeh Saika, Toshio Kikuchi

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Population growth and urbanization is a global phenomenon. As the rapid progress of technology, many cities in the international community are facing serious problems of urbanization. There is no doubt that the urbanization will proceed to have significant impact on the ecology, economy and society at local, regional, and global levels. The inhabitants of Dhaka city suffer from lack of proper urban facilities. The green spaces are needed for different functional and leisure activities of the urban dwellers. Again growing densification, a number of green space are transferred into open space in the Dhaka city. As a result greenery of the city's decreases gradually. Moreover, the existing green space is frequently threatened by encroachment. The role of green space, both at community and city level, is important to improve the natural environment and social ties for future generations. Therefore, it seems that the green space needs to be more effective for public interaction. The main objective of this study is to address the effectiveness of urban green space (Urban Park) of Dhaka City. Two approaches are selected to fulfill the study. Firstly, analyze the long-term spatial changes of urban green space using GIS and secondly, investigate the relationship of urban park network with physical and social environment. The case study site covers eight urban parks of Dhaka metropolitan area of Bangladesh. Two aspects (Physical and Social) are applied for this study. For physical aspect, satellite images and aerial photos of different years are used to find out the changes of urban parks. And for social aspect, methods are used as questionnaire survey, interview, observation, photographs, sketch and previous information of parks to analyze about the social environment of parks. After calculation of all data by descriptive statistics, result is shown by maps using GIS. According to physical size, parks of Dhaka city are classified into four types: Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large parks. The observed result showed that the physical and social environment of urban parks varies with their size. In small size parks physical environment is moderate by newly tree plantation and area expansion. However, in medium size parks physical environment are poor, example- tree decrease, exposed soil increase. On the other hand, physical environment of large size and extra large size parks are in good condition, because of plenty of vegetation and well management. Again based on social environment, in small size parks people mainly come from surroundings area and mainly used as waiting place. In medium-size parks, people come to attend various occasion from different places. In large size and extra large size parks, people come from every part of the city area for tourism purpose. Urban parks are important source of green space. Its influence both physical and social environment of urban area. Nowadays green space area gradually decreases and transfer into open space. The consequence of this research reveals that changes of urban parks influence both physical and social environment and also impact on urban life.

Keywords: physical environment, social environment, urban life, urban parks

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