Search results for: software development education

Authors: K. Vrinda

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Coastal ecosystems across the world are facing a lot of challenges due to natural phenomena as well as from uncontrolled human interventions. Here, Alappad, a coastal island situated in Kerala, India is undergoing significant damage and is gradually losing its environmental and social sustainability. The area is blessed with very rare and precious black mineral sand deposits. Sand mining for these minerals started in 1911 and is still continuing. But, unfortunately all the problems that Alappad faces now, have its root on mining of this mineral sand. The land area is continuously diminishing due to sea erosion. The mining has also caused displacement of people and environmental degradation. Marine life also is getting affected by mining on beach and pollution. The inhabitants are fishermen who are largely dependent on the eco-system for a living. So loss of environmental sustainability subsequently affects social sustainability too. Now the damage has reached a point beyond which our actions may not be able to make any impact. This was one of the most affected areas of the 2004 tsunami and the environmental degradation has further increased the vulnerability. So this study focuses on understanding the concerns related to the resource utilization, environment and the indigenous community staying there, and on formulating suitable strategies to restore the sustainability of the area. An extensive study was conducted on site, to find out the physical, social, and economical characteristics of the area. A focus group discussion with the inhabitants shed light on different issues they face in their day-to-day life. The analysis of all these data, led to the formation of a new development vision for the area which focuses on environmental restoration and socio-economic development while allowing controlled exploitation of resources. A participatory approach is formulated which enables these three aspects through community based programs.

Keywords: Community development, Disaster resilience, Ecological restoration, Environmental sustainability, Social-environmental planning, Social Sustainability

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Authors: A. M. Sagir

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The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance of the developed linear multistep block method for solving first order initial value problem of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs). The method calculates the numerical solution at three points simultaneously and produces three new equally spaced solution values within a block. The continuous formulations enable us to differentiate and evaluate at some selected points to obtain three discrete schemes, which were used in block form for parallel or sequential solutions of the problems. A stability analysis and efficiency of the block method are tested on ordinary differential equations involving practical applications, and the results obtained compared favorably with the exact solution. Furthermore, comparison of error analysis has been developed with the help of computer software.

Keywords: block method, first order ordinary differential equations, linear multistep, self-starting

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Authors: Barbara Roosen, Oswald Devisch

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Spatial projects are often contested. Despite participatory trajectories in official spatial development processes, citizens engage often by their power to say no. Participatory mapping helps to produce more legible and democratic ways of decision-making. It has proven its value in producing a multitude of knowledges and views, for individuals and community groups and local stakeholders to imagine desired and undesired futures and to give them the rhetorical power to present their views throughout the development process. From this perspective, mapping works as a social process in which individuals and groups share their knowledge, learn from each other and negotiate their relationship with each other as well as with space and power. In this way, these processes eventually aim to activate communities to intervene in cooperation in real problems. However, these are fragile and bumpy processes, sometimes leading to (local) conflict and intractable situations. Heterogeneous subjectivities and knowledge that become visible during the mapping process and which are contested by members of the community, is often the first trigger. This paper discusses a participatory mapping project conducted in a residential subdivision in Flanders to provide a deeper understanding of how or under which conditions the mapping process could moderate discordant situations amongst inhabitants, local organisations and local authorities, towards a more constructive outcome. In our opinion, this implies a thorough documentation and presentation of the different steps of the mapping process to design and moderate an open and transparent dialogue. The mapping project ‘Make the Neighbourhood’, is set up in the aftermath of a socio-spatial design intervention in the neighbourhood that led to polarization within the community. To start negotiation between the diverse claims that came to the fore, we co-create a desired future map of the neighbourhood together with local organisations and inhabitants as a way to engage them in the development of a new spatial development plan for the area. This mapping initiative set up a new ‘common’ goal or concern, as a first step to bridge the gap that we experienced between different sociocultural groups, bottom-up and top-down initiatives and between professionals and non-professionals. An atlas of elements (materials), an atlas of actors with different roles and an atlas of ways of cooperation and organisation form the work and building material of the future neighbourhood map, assembled in two co-creation sessions. Firstly, we will consider how the mapping procedures articulate the plurality of claims and agendas. Secondly, we will elaborate upon how social relations and spatialities are negotiated and reproduced during the different steps of the map making. Thirdly, we will reflect on the role of the rules, format, and structure of the mapping process in moderating negotiations between much divided claims. To conclude, we will discuss the challenges of visualizing the different steps of mapping process as a strategy to moderate tense negotiations in a more constructive direction in the context of spatial development processes.

Keywords: conflict, documentation, participatory mapping, residential subdivision

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Authors: Babak Kamrani, Nozar Kishi

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Stochastic catalog represents the events module of the earthquake loss estimation models. It includes series of events with different magnitudes and corresponding frequencies/probabilities. For the development of the stochastic catalog, random or uniform sampling methods are used to sample the events from the seismicity model. For covering all the Magnitude Frequency Distribution (MFD), a huge number of events should be generated for the above-mentioned methods. Characteristic Event (CE) method chooses the events based on the interest of the insurance industry. We divide the MFD of each source into bins. We have chosen the bins based on the probability of the interest by the insurance industry. First, we have collected the information for the available seismic sources. Sources are divided into Fault sources, subduction, and events without specific fault source. We have developed the MFD for each of the individual and areal source based on the seismicity of the sources. Afterward, we have calculated the CE magnitudes based on the desired probability. To develop the stochastic catalog, we have introduced uncertainty to the location of the events too.

Keywords: stochastic catalogue, earthquake loss, uncertainty, characteristic event

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Authors: Asfaw Gezae Daful, Mohsen Alimandagari, Kathleen Haigh, Somayeh Farzad, Eugene Van Rensburg, Johann F. Görgens

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The sugar industry has to 're-invent' itself to ensure long-term economic survival and opportunities for job creation and enhanced community-level impacts, given increasing pressure from fluctuating and low global sugar prices, increasing energy prices and sustainability demands. We propose biorefineries for re-vitalisation of the sugar industry using low value lignocellulosic biomass (sugarcane bagasse, leaves, and tops) annexed to existing sugar mills, producing a spectrum of high value platform chemicals along with biofuel, bioenergy, and electricity. Opportunity is presented for greener products, to mitigate climate change and overcome economic challenges. Xylose from labile hemicellulose remains largely underutilized and the conversion to value-add products a major challenge. Insight is required on pretreatment and/or extraction to optimize production of cellulosic ethanol together with lactic acid, furfural or biopolymers from sugarcane bagasse, leaves, and tops. Experimental conditions for alkaline and pressurized hot water extraction dilute acid and steam explosion pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse and harvest residues were investigated to serve as a basis for developing various process scenarios under a sugarcane biorefinery scheme. Dilute acid and steam explosion pretreatment were optimized for maximum hemicellulose recovery, combined sugar yield and solids digestibility. An optimal range of conditions for alkaline and liquid hot water extraction of hemicellulosic biopolymers, as well as conditions for acceptable enzymatic digestibility of the solid residue, after such extraction was established. Using data from the above, a series of energy efficient biorefinery scenarios are under development and modeled using Aspen Plus® software, to simulate potential factories to better understand the biorefinery processes and estimate the CAPEX and OPEX, environmental impacts, and overall viability. Rigorous and detailed sustainability assessment methodology was formulated to address all pillars of sustainability. This work is ongoing and to date, models have been developed for some of the processes which can ultimately be combined into biorefinery scenarios. This will allow systematic comparison of a series of biorefinery scenarios to assess the potential to reduce negative impacts on and maximize the benefits of social, economic, and environmental factors on a lifecycle basis.

Keywords: biomass, biorefinery, green economy, sustainability

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Authors: Alexandre Daliberto Frugoli, Pedro Jose Gabriel Ferreira, Pedro Americo Frugoli, Lucio Leonardo, Thais Cavalheri Santos

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Laboratory classes in Engineering courses are essential for students to be able to integrate theory with practical reality, by handling equipment and observing experiments. In the researches of physical phenomena, students can learn about the complexities of science. Over the past years, universities in developing countries have been reducing the course load of engineering courses, in accordance with cutting cost agendas. Quality education is the object of study for researchers and requires educators and educational administrators able to demonstrate that the institutions are able to provide great learning opportunities at reasonable costs. Didactic test benches are indispensable equipment in educational activities related to turbo hydraulic pumps and pumping facilities study, which have a high cost and require long class time due to measurements and equipment adjustment time. In order to overcome the aforementioned obstacles, aligned with the professional objectives of an engineer, GruPEFE - UNIP (Research Group in Physics Education for Engineering - Universidade Paulista) has developed a multi-purpose stand for the discipline of fluid mechanics which allows the study of velocity and flow meters, loads losses and pump association. In this work, results obtained by the association in series and in parallel of hydraulic pumps will be presented and discussed, mainly analyzing the repeatability of experimental procedures and their agreement with the theory. For the association in series two identical pumps were used, consisting of the connection of the discharge of a pump to the suction of the next one, allowing the fluid to receive the power of all machines in the association. The characteristic curve of the set is obtained from the curves of each of the pumps, by adding the heads corresponding to the same flow rates. The same pumps were associated in parallel. In this association, the discharge piping is common to the two machines together. The characteristic curve of the set was obtained by adding to each value of H (head height), the flow rates of each pump. For the tests, the input and output pressure of each pump were measured. For each set there were three sets of measurements, varying the flow rate in range from 6.0 to 8.5 m 3 / h. For the two associations, the results showed an excellent repeatability with variations of less than 10% between sets of measurements and also a good agreement with the theory. This variation agrees with the instrumental uncertainty. Thus, the results validate the use of the fluids bench designed for didactic purposes. As a future work, a digital acquisition system is being developed, using differential sensors of extremely low pressures (2 to 2000 Pa approximately) for the microcontroller Arduino.

Keywords: engineering education, fluid mechanics, hydrostatic pumps association, multi-purpose stand

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Authors: Yobo Opare-Addo

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Ghana came under a military and democratic rule of the same leadership from 1981-2000. These were the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), a military government and a democratic government, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) both under the leadership of Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings. Meanwhile the year 1985 marked a turning point in the development of the tourism industry in Ghana. Interest in tourism among African governments and for that matter the ‘PNDC cum NDC Government’ (PNDC/NDC) arose because of adverse developments in intangible exports and a corresponding decline in commodity export earnings. The ‘PNDC/NDC Government’ undertook measures and policies to improve the tourism industry and at the same time embarked on export diversification to reap the foreign exchange that the industry could generate in Ghana. The objective of this paper is to examine the measures and policies of the PNDC/NDC to improve the tourism industry in order to reap the foreign exchange. It specifically interrogates the role of the government as an agent of tourism development, through its deliberate creation of a conducive environment for tourism to flourish, the involvement of the private sector both foreign and local and the provision of tourism facilities and infrastructure and how these factors impacted on the tourism industry in Ghana. In the final analysis it evaluates the degree of success of the PNDC/NDC Government in this arena of Ghana’s socio-cultural and economic development. Introduction The Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), a military government under the leadership of Flt. Lt J.J. Rawlings overthrew a constitutionally elected government of People’s National Party in 1981. In 1992, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the general election conducted in December. Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings, the party’s leader became the President of the Fourth Republic from January 1993 to December 2000. It was refreshing to see Ghanaians embrace democracy with renewed energy, zeal, and enthusiasm. This paper takes a critical look at the efforts of the PNDC cum NDC Government (PNDC/NDC) to develop tourism in Ghana during the period from 1981-2000 Methodology: Qualitative method of research was adopted for the study. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources, and analysis was done using descriptive analysis because descriptive analysis made it possible to describe or summarize the statistical data in the research. To gather data from primary sources, questionnaires, oral interviews, and semi-structured discussions were conducted. Respondents included public officials from Ghana Tourist Board, Ministry of Tourism, Hoteliers, restaurant operators and travel and tour operators in Accra. Secondary data sources included articles in journals, reports, magazines, bulletins, and books. The major findings included statistical data for tourism arrivals and receipts during the period and the status of the industry by the year 2000. Conclusion: The paper contributes to knowledge on political and historical aspects of tourism development in Ghana, which is almost non-existent, attitudes of the PNDC cum NDC government towards tourism development and the debates on the generation of foreign exchange to Ghana and third world countries.

Keywords: ghana, infrastructure, policies, privatization, tourism facilities

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Authors: Dinka Fikadu, Mulugeta Shegaze

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Background: Currently in health facility, provider-initiated human immunodeficiency virus testing is the key entry point to prevention, care, treatment and support services, but most people remains unaware of their HIV status due to various reasons. In many high-prevalence countries, fewer than one in ten people with HIV are aware of their HIV status. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, "has become one of the world’s most serious health and development challenges. Reaching individuals with HIV who do not know their serostatus is a global public health priority. Objective: To assess utilization of provider initiated HIV testing and counseling and associated factors among adult outpatient department patients. Methods: Health facility based cross sectional study was conducted among 392 adult outpatient department patients in Wonchi woreda from February 24 to March 24 /2013. The study participant was recruited patients from all adult outpatient department patients of all four public health facilities of wonchi woreda using systematic sampling. A structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to elicit all important variables from the study participants and multiple logistic regression analysis was used. Result: A total of 371 adult outpatient department patients aged between 15 to 64 years were actively participated in the study and 291(78.4%) of them utilized provider initiated HIV testing and counseling and 80(21.6%) of them refused. Knowledge on HIV is low in the study population; majority of the participants didn’t have comprehensive knowledge (64.7%) and (35.3%) fail to reject misconception about means of HIV transmission and prevention. Utilization of provider-initiated HIV testing and counseling were associated with divorced/widowed marital status[AOR (95%CI) = 0.32(0.15, 0.69)], being male sex [AOR (95%CI) =1.81(1.01, 3.24)], having comprehensive knowledge on HIV [AOR (95%CI) =0.408(0.220,0.759)],having awareness about provider initiated HIV testing and counseling [AOR(95%CI) =2.89(1.48,5.66)] and receiving test on HIV before[AOR (95%CI)=4.15(2.30, 7.47)]. Conclusion: Utilization of provider initiated HIV testing and counseling among adult outpatient departments in wonchi woreda public health facility was [(78.4%)].Strengthening health information through mass media and peer education on HIV to address barrier to testing in the community such as low awareness on PITC, to increase up take of PITC among adult OPD patients.

Keywords: utilization, human immune deficiency, testing, provider, initiate

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Authors: Puwanenthiren Pratheepkanth

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This study considers whether national development level influences a firm’s voluntary intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) provided by a sample of 100 Australian and 100 Sri Lankan firms in terms of a two-years during 2015-16. This two-nation study uses a content analysis and literature-review analysis to provide an understanding of the underlying forces and issues. It was found that Australian firms tend to rely heavily on external structure disclosures (with particular attention to brands, customer loyalty, and research collaborations), but Sri Lankan relatively larger firms prefer intellectual property disclosures and the smaller firms tend to be as adept at external structure as their Australian counterparts. It was also found that the nature of a firm tends to trump the nurture of the development level of the country in which the firm is embedded. While a wider diffusion of better ICD methodology under International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) could improve the cost-effectiveness of financial reporting and generally increase efficiency, this is unlikely to occur until competition is more of a spur.

Keywords: developed countries, developing countries, content analysis, intellectual capital disclosure

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Authors: Olga V. Korotkaya

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This article is devoted to an important problem of calculation of deflected mode of the combustion chamber and the nozzle end of a new liquid-propellant rocket cruise engine. A special attention is given to the methodology of calculation. Three operating modes are considered. The analysis has been conducted in ANSYS software. The methods of conducted research are mathematical modelling, substructure method, cyclic symmetry, and finite element method. The calculation has been carried out to order of S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation «Energia». The main results are practical. Proposed methodology and created models would be able to use for a wide range of strength problems.

Keywords: combustion chamber, cyclic symmetry, finite element method, liquid-propellant rocket engine, nozzle end, substructure

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Authors: Hsiao-Chien Tsai, Yu-Pin Chen, Ruei-Ming Chen

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Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterized by joint destruction and causes chronic disability. One of the prominent symptoms is pain. Alleviating the pain is necessary and urgent for the therapy of OA patients. However, currently, understanding the mechanisms that drive OA-induced pain remains challenging, which hampers the optimistic management of pain in OA patients. Semaphorin 4D (Sema4D) participates in axon guidance pathway and bone remodeling, thus, may play a role in the regulation of pain in OA. In this study, we have established a rat model of OA to find out the mechanisms of OA-induced pain and to deliberate the roles of Sema4D. Methods: Behavioral changes and the pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-17) associated with pain were measured during the development of OA. Sema4D expression in cartilage and synovial membrane at 1, 4, and 12 weeks after inducing OA was analyzed. To assess if Sema4D is related to the neurogenesis in OA as an axon repellant, we analyzed the expression of PGP9.5 as well. Results: Synovitis and cartilage degradation were evident histologically during the development of OA. Mechanical hyperalgesia was most severe at week 1, then persisted thereafter. It was associated with stress coping strategies. Similar to the pain behavioral results, levels of IL-1β and TNF-α in synovial lavage fluid were significantly elevated in the OA group at weeks 1 and 4, respectively. Sema4D expression in cartilage and the synovial membrane was also enhanced in the OA group and was correlated with pain and pro-inflammatory cytokines. The marker of neurogenesis, PGP9.5, was also enhanced during the development of OA. Discussion: OA induced mechanical hyperalgesia, which might be through upregulating IL-1β/TNF-α-mediated Sema4D expressions. If anti-Sema4D treatment could reduce OA-induced mechanical hyperalgesia and prevent the subsequent progression of OA needs to be further investigated. Significance: OA can induce mechanical hyperalgesia through upregulation of IL-1β/TNF-α-mediated Sema4D and PGP9.5 expressions. And the upregulation of Sema4D may indicate the severity or active status of OA and OA-induced pain.

Keywords: traumatic osteoarthritis, mechanical hyperalgesia, Sema4D, inflammatory cytokines

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Authors: Sarra Boukhari

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Refugee studies have lately emerged as a focused area of research, yet there is a vast knowledge gap vis-à-vis the integration experiences and socialization processes of diversified refugees in different educational settings. This research intends to study the diverse experiences of African refugee children in an Algerian mainstream secondary school. The study seeks to explore the nature and complexity of refugees’ experiences and their relevance to the integration processes. Highlighting these diverse perspectives will be for the sake of understanding ways by which integration could be facilitated amongst refugees within mainstream school classrooms. Subsequently, this study shall investigate the possibility of story-telling activities in exploring and dealing with different issues of integration met by refugees in the predefined context. Accordingly, stories and narratives will be used to discuss values designed by the Living Values Educational Programme (LVEP) that could change the negative effect of war and conflict. These stories can potentially develop young refugees’ understanding of the key social concepts that can facilitate acceptance and integration inside refugee communities and the host society. This study invokes the theoretical framework provided by Jerome Bruner’s works on constructing the narrative through real-life experiences. In practice, the idea is to voice children’ sense-making of their own world and integrate it with good values to help them construct a positive narrative. Qualitative methods will be integrated to investigate the readiness and acceptance of African refugee children to each other in an Algerian classroom. Two phases of data collection will be conducted. The first phase will attempt to answer the first research question about the challenges that refugee children encounter in their education in a host society. In this phase, classroom observation and semi-structured interviews will be held to explore the context regarding the research question. After issues and challenges have been identified in this phase, topics of discussion (values) that reflect these issues will be designed for the second phase. The use of participatory methods with children in the second stage of the data collection will help in discussing the core values by giving them the optionality of the arts-based tools through which they can express themselves. Story-telling was the idea behind the activities. It could help children express their thoughts and feelings about the discussed values freely. The methods used promoted a very integrating atmosphere in the classroom where both refugee and non-refugee students showed cohesion and integration. Children identified many issues in their integration processes that exceeded the classroom or the education setting. Political and economic opinions were openly shared in the class. Overall, the study is an attempt to reveal how refugee children in Algeria are experiencing integration in their education. The study will be unveiling the impact of the context on the integration of refugee children. The process of integration involved in this context helped to shape refugee experiences in a very unique way.

Keywords: children’s agency, narrative construction, refugee children, refugee experiences, story-telling

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Authors: Nadiah Yola Putri, Nesia Putri Sharfina, Traviata Prakarti

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This paper is a literature review presented descriptively to review the concept of green building to face the challenge of sustainable development and food in urban areas. In this paper, researchers initiated the concept of green building with sky farming method. Sky farming use vertical landscape system in order to realizing food self-sufficient green city. Sky farming relying on plantings and irrigation system efficiency in the building which is adopted the principles of green building. Planting system is done by applying hydroponic plants with Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) using energy source of solar cell and grey water from the processing of waste treatment plant. The application of sky farming in urban areas can be a recommendation for the design of environmental-friendly construction. In order to keep the land and distance efficiency, this system is a futuristic idea that would be the connector of human civilization in the future.

Keywords: green building, urban area, sky farming, vertical landscape

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Authors: Benhammadi Hocine, Chaffai Hicham

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Urban development is often dependent on adequate land for expansion, except that sometimes these areas have vulnerability. This is the case of karst regions characterized by carbonate geological formations marked by the presence of cavities and cracks. The impact of climate variability in Cheria area marked by a growing shortage of rainfall, the impact resulted in the development of the vulnerability of these structures. This vulnerability has led to the appearance of collapse phenomena as well in both agricultural and urban areas. Two phenomena have emerged to explain the collapses, the first is assigned a filling process in the cavities, and the second is due to a weakening of the resistance that collapses limestone slab shear phenomenon. In urban areas, the weight of the buildings has increased the load on the limestone slab and accelerated the collapse. The analysis of the environmental process is in the context of our modest work, after which we indicate the appropriate methods for management policy of urban expansion. This management more preventive (upstream), much less expensive than remedial solutions (downstream) needed after the event and sometimes ineffective.

Keywords: Cheria, urban, climate variability, vulnerability karst collapse, extension, management

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Authors: Shruti Soudi, Anushka Nayak

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Altruism is a voluntary helping behavior that is not motivated by rewards. The empathy-altruism hypothesis states that altruistic behavior results from empathy, a constant emotional response between the helper and the individual in need. Individual variances in familiar ways of thinking, feeling, and acting are called personalities. The personality of an individual determines their behavior. More importantly, Adler was among the first psychologists to document the importance of birth order on personality. The present study aims to understand the influence of personality and birth order on altruism. A questionnaire consisting of standardized tools to measure altruism (Hindi Self Report Altruism Scale) and personality (Big Five Personality Inventory) will aid in studying the relationship between these variables among young adults in India. A statistical analysis of the data will be completed using ANOVA and T-Test in the SPSS Software.

Keywords: altruism, personality, birth order, ANOVA, young adults

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Authors: Maria Luz Macasinag

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This study aims to determine and to examine critically successful family-owned higher educational institutions towards identifying the attributes and practices that may likely have led to their success. This research is confined to private, non-sectarian, family-owned higher institutions of learning that have been operating for more than fifty years, had only one founder and had at least two transitions in terms of generation. The criteria for selecting family-owned universities to be part of the cases under investigation include institutions (1) with increasing enrollment over the past five years, with level III accreditation status, (3) with good performance in the Board examinations in most of its programs and (4) with high employability of graduates. The study uses the multiple case study method. A model based on the cross-case analysis of the attributes and practices of all the case studies of successful family- owned higher institutions of learning is the output. The paper provides insights to current and future school owners and administrators in the management of their institutions for competitiveness, sustainability and advancement. This research encourages the evaluation of how the ideas that may lead to the success of schools owned by families in developing a sense of community, a reciprocal relationship among colleagues, the students and other stakeholders will result to the attainment of the vision and mission of the school. The study is beneficial to entrepreneurs and to business students whose know-how may provide insights that would be helpful in guiding prospective school owners. The commission on higher education and the Department of Education stand to benefit from this academic paper for the guidance that they provide to family-owned educational institutions. Banks and other financial institutions may find valuable ideas from this academic paper for the purpose of providing financial assistance to colleges and universities that are family-owned. Researchers in the field of educational management and administration may be able to extract from this study related topics for future research.

Keywords: administration practices, attributes, family-owned schools, success factors

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Authors: Eric K. W. Aikins

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Traditionally, Ghana is a marine fishing country. The fishing industry dominated by artisanal marine fishing helps Ghana to meet its fish and protein requirements. Also, it provides employment for most coastal dwellers that depend on fishing as their main economic enterprise. Nonetheless, the marine fishing industry is confronted with challenges that have contributed to a declining fish production in recent past decade. Bad fishing practices and the general limited knowledge on sustainable management of fisheries resources are the limiting factors that affect sustainable fish production and sustainable marine biodiversity management in Ghana. This paper discusses the challenges and strategies for attaining and maintaining sustainable marine fishing in Ghana as well as the state of marine fishing in Ghana. It concludes that an increase in the level of involvement of local fishers in the management of fisheries resources of the country could help local fishers to employ sustainable fisheries resources exploitation methods that could result in an improvement in the spatio-economic development and wellbeing of affected fishing communities in particular and Ghana in general.

Keywords: pair trawling, sargassum, spatio-economic development, sustainable marine fishing

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Authors: Hayrettin Eroglu, Adem Kara

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Recently there has been significant attention given to imaging of the biological tissues via microwave imaging techniques. In this study, a phantom for the test and calibration of Microwave imaging used in detecting unhealthy breast structure or tumors was produced by using sol gel method. The liquid and gel phantoms being used nowadays are not durable due to evaporation and their organic ingredients, hence a new design was proposed. This phantom was fabricated from materials that were widely available (water, salt, gelatin, and glycerol) and was easy to make. This phantom was aimed to be better from the ones already proposed in the literature in terms of its durability and stability. S Parameters of phantom was measured with 1-18 GHz Probe Kit and permittivity was calculated via Debye method in “85070” commercial software. One, three, and five-week measurements were taken for this phantom. Finally, it was verified that measurement results were very close to the real biological tissue measurement results.

Keywords: phantom, breast tissue, cancer, microwave imaging

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Authors: Peninah Agaba, Monica Magadi, Bev Orton

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Uganda is one of the countries with high maternal mortality (336/100,000) where adolescents account for 24 percent of the total maternal deaths. Research shows that use of maternal health services may prevent some of these deaths and good provider attitudes attract adolescents to use the services. However, poor health provider’s attitudes discourage adolescents from seeking the services during the maternity period. This study explores the experiences of unmarried female adolescents at the health facilities during the maternity period. The study population is unmarried adolescent girls aged 10-19 years who were pregnant or had given birth within three years before the interview. This is a special interest group that requires attention throughout this period. Most of the pregnancies among unmarried adolescents are unwanted; as a result, many of them have been abused and neglected by parents and close family members including partners who deny fatherhood of the pregnancy/child. These adolescents hope to find comfort from health providers like being listened to during counseling, not abused and judged; unfortunately this is not the case always. The research was approved by the University of Hull, School of Education and Social Sciences ethics review committee, Mildmay Uganda Research Ethics Committee and Uganda National Council of Science and Technology. The study was carried out in Bushenyi and Kibale districts in Western Uganda. Fourteen in-depth interviews and seven focus group discussions were completed in the local languages and later transcribed to English language. Thematic analysis to identify the themes was done. Adolescents were aged 16-19 years, two had become pregnant before 15 years. Most had not completed secondary education; none had tertiary education and three of the 14 IDI adolescent participants wanted to get pregnant. Analysis shows varied experiences; most adolescents were abused verbally and physically by the health providers due to their young age of pregnancy, lack of essential items during this period (maternity dresses, children clothes, delivery kit) and fear of labour pains. Another cause for abuse was these adolescents coming for antenatal care with no partners yet the implementation of a policy on increasing male involvement in reproductive health in Uganda requires them to attend antenatal care with their partners and most of these unmarried adolescents have no partners to accompany them. Despite the above challenges, the study also identified the care some of these unmarried adolescents received during the maternity visits for example they were not abused, were provided with appropriate information and supported with child care. The study identified abuse and support the unmarried adolescents received during the maternity period. Efforts to provide adolescents with adequate information including what to expect during labour by providers and provision of basic needs are essential. Health providers should have trainings on client care especially how to embrace unmarried adolescents when they come to access maternity services. More so, the policy on improving male involvement in RH issues need to be considerate of unmarried adolescents who in most cases do not have the partners to go with to access maternity care.

Keywords: abuse, maternity care, Uganda, unmarried, adolescents

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Authors: Isiaka Oladele Oladipo, Olusegun Adewale Ajayi

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The blood pressure fitness of female college students has been implicated in sedentary lifestyles. This study was designed to determine the effects of the Aerobic Dance Circuit Training Programme (ADCT) on blood pressure variables (Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) and Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP). Participants’ Pretest-Posttest control group quasi-experimental design using a 2x2x4 factorial matrix was adopted, while one (1) research question and two (2) research hypotheses were formulated. Seventy (70) untrained obese students-volunteers age 21.10±2.46 years were purposively selected from Oyo town, Nigeria; Emmanuel Alayande College of Education (experimental group and Federal College of Education (special) control group. The participants’ BMI, weight (kg), height (m), systolic bp(mmHg), and diastolic bp (mmHg) were measured before and completion of ADCT. Data collected were analysed using a pie chart, graph, percentage, mean, frequency, and standard deviation, while a t-test was used to analyse the stated hypotheses set at the critical level of 0.05. There were significant mean differences in baseline and post-treatment values of blood pressure variables in terms of SBP among the experimental group 136.49mmHg and 131.66mmHg; control group 130.82mmHg and 130.56mmHg (crit-t=2.00, cal.t=3.02, df=69, p<.0, the hypothesis was rejected; while DBP experimental group 88.65mmHg and 82.21mmHg; control group 69.91mmHg and 72.66mmHg (crit-t=2.00, cal.t=1.437, df=69, p>.05) in which the hypothesis was accepted). It was revealed from the findings that participants’ SBP decrease from week 4 to week 12 of ADCT indicated an effective reduction in blood pressure variables of obese female students. Therefore, the study confirmed that the use of ADCT is safe and effective in the management of blood pressure for the healthy benefit of obesity.

Keywords: aerobic dance circuit training, fitness lifestyles, obese college female students, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure

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Authors: Luis Javier Serrano Tamayo

Abstract:

This research on technology makes a first approach to the selection of an amphibious landing ship with strategic capabilities, through the implementation of a multi-criteria model using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), in which a significant group of alternatives of latest technology has been considered. The variables were grouped at different levels to match design and performance characteristics, which affect the lifecycle as well as the acquisition, maintenance and operational costs. The model yielded an overall measure of effectiveness and an overall measure of cost of each kind of ship that was compared each other inside the model and showed in a Pareto chart. The modeling was developed using the Expert Choice software, based on AHP method.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, multi-criteria decision-making, Pareto analysis, Colombian Marine Corps, projection operations, expert choice, amphibious landing ship

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Authors: Edward J. Kansa, Pavel Holoborodko

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Continuously differentiable radial basis functions (RBFs) are meshfree, converge faster as the dimensionality increases, and is theoretically spectrally convergent. When implemented on current single and double precision computers, such RBFs can suffer from ill-conditioning because the systems of equations needed to be solved to find the expansion coefficients are full. However, the Advanpix extended precision software package allows computer mathematics to resemble asymptotically ideal Platonic mathematics. Additionally, full systems with extended precision execute faster graphical processors units and field-programmable gate arrays because no branching is needed. Sparse equation systems are fast for iterative solvers in a very limited number of cases.

Keywords: partial differential equations, Meshfree radial basis functions, , no restrictions on spatial dimensions, Extended arithmetic precision.

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Authors: D. Tappi

Abstract:

In the past decades, the idea of innovation moved from being considered the result of development to being seen as its means. Innovation and its diffusion are indeed keys to the development and economic catch-up of a country. However, the process of diffusing existing innovation in low income countries has demonstrated dependent on inadequate infrastructures and institutions. The paper examines the role of disruptive innovation in bridging the technology gap between high- and low-income countries, overcoming the lack in infrastructures and institutions. In particular, the focus of this paper goes to the role of disruptive innovation in people transportation in Nigeria. Uber, Taxify, and Smartcab are covering a small and interesting market that was underserved, between the high-end private driver markets, the personal car owners and the low-priced traditional cab and the Keke (tricycle). Indeed the small Nigerian middle class and international community have found in the sharing people transportation market a safe, reasonably priced means of transportation in Nigerian big cities. This study uses mainly qualitative data collection methods in the form of semi-structured interviews with major players and users and quantitative data analysis in the form of a survey among users in order to assess the role of these new transportation modes in shaping the market and even creating a new niche. This paper shows how the new sharing economy in people transportation is creating new solutions to old problems as well as creating new challenges for both the existing market players and institutions. By doing so, the paper shows how disruptive innovations applied to low income countries, not only can overcome the lacking infrastructure problem but could also help bridge the technology gap between those and high income countries. This contribution proves that it is indeed exactly because the market presents these obstacles that disruptive innovations can succeed in countries such as Nigeria.

Keywords: development, disruptive innovation, sharing economy, technology gap

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Authors: Samantha Rix

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The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the cognitive processing of learners who receive input but produce very little or no output, and who, when they do produce output, exhibit a similar language proficiency as do those learners who produced output more regularly in the language classroom. Previous studies have investigated the benefits of output (with somewhat differing results); therefore, the presentation will begin with an investigation of what may underlie gains in proficiency without output. Consequently, a pilot study was designed and conducted to gain insight into the cognitive processing of low-output language learners looking, for example, at quantity and quality of noticing. This will be carried out within the paradigm of action classroom research, observing and interviewing low-output language learners in an intensive English program at a small Midwest university. The results of the pilot study indicated that autonomy in language learning, specifically utilizing strategies such self-monitoring, self-talk, and thinking 'out-loud', were crucial in the development of language proficiency for academic-level performance. The presentation concludes with an examination of pedagogical implication for classroom use in order to aide students in their language development.

Keywords: cognitive processing, language learners, language proficiency, learning strategies

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Authors: M. Nemer, E. I. Konukseven

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In this paper, a motion generation algorithm for a six Degrees of Freedom (DoF) robotic hand in a static environment is presented. The purpose of developing this method is to be used in the path generation of the end-effector for edge finishing and inspection processes by utilizing the CAD model of the considered workpiece. Nonetheless, the proposed algorithm may be extended to be applicable for other similar manufacturing processes. A software package programmed in the application programming interface (API) of SolidWorks generates tool path data for the robot. The proposed method significantly simplifies the given problem, resulting in a reduction in the CPU time needed to generate the path, and offers an efficient overall solution. The ABB IRB2000 robot is chosen for executing the generated tool path.

Keywords: CAD-based tools, edge deburring, edge scanning, offline programming, path generation

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Authors: Min Wang, Hui Tian

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Health promotion of high school students is essential for the construction of ‘Healthy China’, and increasing high school students’ physical activity is a must for their health promotion. School plays a crucial role in increasing high school students’ physical activity. Therefore, to have a comprehensive command of the school physical activity promotion strategies is of great significance for the health promotion of high school students in China and will shed some light on physical activity promotion worldwide. Literature review and interview survey are the main methods adopted for this research. It has been found that reforms of P.E. classes, improving the overall quality of P.E. teachers, and construction of school fields and facilities are among the major strategies to promote students’ physical activities. Even though it has been stipulated that primary and middle school students should take 3-4 times of P.E. classes per week, the execution is greatly influenced by the exam-oriented educational system. Randomly canceling P.E. classes or taking up the time to study other subjects is common, so it is difficult to guarantee the quantity of P.E. classes. According to national surveys, only 20%-40% of schools have 3-4 times of P.E. classes per week. In order to reduce the hindering effects of the exam-oriented educational system, a physical education test is included in the senior middle school entrance exam. The exam items include 1000m run for boys, 800m run for girls, and the basic skills for basketball/football/volleyball. The scores of the physical education test will greatly influence the admission of senior middle schools. China is now developing the ‘campus football’ policy and has established 20,000 football featured schools by 2017. Especially in these schools, football has become an important part of the students’ P.E. classes and a major means to promote students’ physical activity. As the Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing in 2022, China has promoted the ‘winter sports for all’ movement. The aim is to encourage 300 million people to winter sports, and the high school students are among the most potential participants. The primary and middle schools in Beijing have introduced winter sports to their P.E. curriculum, providing opportunities for the students to experience ice hockey and curling. Some Winter Olympics champions also go to the schools to popularize winter sports among the students. This greatly adds variety to the students’ physical activity regimen at school. In November 2017, seven ministries, including the General Administration of Sport of China and Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, release Youth Sport Promotion Strategy. The strategy stipulates to strengthen the construction of youth sport facilities and implement the cultivation plan for P.E. teachers. It also emphasizes that school sport facilities should be open to students during holidays and vacations for free or at an affordable price. Overall speaking, the Chinese government stresses the importance of youth physical activity promotion and has issued a series of related policies and strategies, but the implementation still needs improvement.

Keywords: China, physical activity, promotion, school

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Authors: Aleksandar Jovanovic, Katarina Kukic, Ana Uzelac, Dusan Teodorovic

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Wisdom of the Crowd (WoC) is a decentralized method that uses the collective intelligence of humans. Individual guesses may be far from the target, but when considered as a group, they converge on optimal solutions for a given problem. We will utilize WoC to address the challenge of controlling traffic lights within intersections from the streets of Kragujevac, Serbia. The problem at hand falls within the category of NP-hard problems. We will employ an algorithm that leverages the swarm intelligence of bees: Bee Colony Optimization (BCO). Data regarding traffic signal timing at a single intersection will be gathered from citizens through a survey. Results obtained in that manner will be compared to the BCO results for different traffic scenarios. We will use Vissim traffic simulation software as a tool to compare the performance of bees’ and humans’ collective intelligence.

Keywords: wisdom of the crowd, traffic signal control, combinatorial optimization, bee colony optimization

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Authors: Benedict O. Muyale, Emmanuel S. Murunga

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Cities have always been the loci for nationals as well as growth of cultural fusion and innovation. Over 50%of global population dwells in cities and urban centers. This means that cities are prolific users of natural resources and generators of waste; hence they produce most of the greenhouse gases which are causing global climate change. The root cause of increase in the transport sector carbon curve is mainly the greater numbers of individually owned cars. Development in these cities is geared towards economic progress while environmental sustainability is ignored. Infrastructure projects focus on road expansion, electrification, and more parking spaces. These lead to more carbon emissions, traffic congestion, and air pollution. Recent development plans for Nairobi city are now on road expansion with little priority for electric train solutions. The Vision 2030, Kenya’s development guide, has shed some light on the city with numerous road expansion projects. This chapter seeks to realize the following objectives; (1) to assess the current transport situation of Nairobi; (2) to review green transport solutions being undertaken in the city; (3) to give an overview of alternative green transportation solutions, and (4) to provide a green transportation framework matrix. This preliminary study will utilize primary and secondary data through mainly desktop research and analysis, literature, books, magazines and on-line information. This forms the basis for formulation of approaches for incorporation into the green transportation framework matrix of the main study report.The main goal is the achievement of a practical green transportation system for implementation by the City County of Nairobi to reduce carbon emissions and congestion and promote environmental sustainability.

Keywords: cities, transport, Nairobi, green technologies

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Authors: Tamara Jimah, Priscilla Kehoe, Pamela Pimentel, Amir Rahmani, Nikil Dutt, Yuqing Guo

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Ensuring equitable access to maternal health care is critical for public health. Particularly for underserved women, community health workers (CHWs) have been invaluable in providing support through health education and strategies for improved maternal self-care management. Our research aimed to assess the acceptance of technology by CHWs and perinatal women to promote healthy pregnancy and postpartum wellness. This pilot study was conducted at a local community organization in Orange County, California, where CHWs play an important role in supporting low-income women through home visitations. Questionnaires were administered to 14 CHWs and 114 pregnant and postpartum women, literate in English and/or Spanish. CHWs tested two wearable devices (Galaxy watch and Oura ring) and shared their user experience, including potential reception by the perinatal women they served. In addition, perinatal women provided information on access to a smart phone and the internet, as well as their interest in using wearable devices to self-monitor personal health with guidance from a CHW. Over 85% of CHWs agreed that it was useful to track pregnancy with the smart watch and ring. The majority of perinatal women owned a smartphone (97.4%), had access to the internet (80%) and unlimited data plans (78%), expressed interest in using the smart wearable devices to self-monitor health, and were open to receiving guidance from a CHW (87%). Community health workers and perinatal women embraced the use of wearable technology to monitor maternal health. These preliminary findings have formed the basis of an ongoing research study that integrates CHW guidance and technology (i.e., smart watch, smart ring, and a mobile phone app) to promote self-efficacy and self-management among underserved perinatal women.

Keywords: community health workers, health promotion and education, health equity, maternal and child health, technology

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Authors: Yenisleidy Martínez-Martínez, Yannay Casas-Ledón, Jo Dewulf

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Wind power constitutes a cleaner energy source with smaller unfavorable impacts on the environment than fossil fuels. Its development could be an alternative to fight climate change while meeting energy demands. However, wind energy development requires first determining the existing potential and areas with aptitude. Also, potential socio-economic and environmental impacts should be analyzed to prevent social rejection of this technology. In this context, this work performs a suitability assessment on a GIS environment to locate suitable areas for wind energy expansion in South-Central Chile. In addition, suitable areas were characterized in terms of potential goods and services to be produced as a proxy for analyzing potential impacts and trade-offs. First, layers of annual wind speed were generated as they represent the resource potential, and layer representing previously defined territorial constraints were created. Zones depicting territorial constraints were removed from resource measurement layers to identify suitable sites. Then, the appropriation of the primary production in suitable sites was determined to measure potential ecosystem services derived from human interventions in those areas. Results show that approximately 52% of the total surface of the study area has a good aptitude to install wind farms. In this area, provisioning services like food crops production, timber, and other forest resources like firewood play a key role in the regional economy and thus are the main cause of human interventions. This is reflected by human appropriation of the primary production values of 0.71 KgC/m².yr, 0.36 KgC/m².yr, and 0.14 KgC/m².yr, respectively. In this sense, wind energy development could be compatible with croplands, which is the predominant land use in suitable areas, and provide farmers with cheaper energy and extra income. Also, studies have reported changes in local temperature associated with wind turbines, which could be beneficial to crop growth. The results obtained in this study prove to be useful for identifying available areas for wind development, which could be very useful in decision-making processes related to energy planning.

Keywords: net primary productivity, provisioning services, suitability assessment, wind energy

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