Search results for: deterministic process

Authors: Sakapas Saengchai, Vilasinee Jintalikhitdee, Mathinee Khongsatid, Nattapol Pourprasert

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This paper studied the participation of people of the five villages of Bang Nang Li Community in Ampawa District, Samut Songkram Province, in designing community planning. The population was 2,755 villagers from the 5 villages with 349 people sampled. The level of involvement was measured by using Likert Five Scale for: preparing readiness of local people in the community, providing information for community and self analysis and learning, designing goals and directions for community development, designing strategic plans for community projects, and operating according to the plans. All process items reported a medium level of involvement except the item of preparing readiness for local people that presented the highest mean score. A test of a correlation between personal factors and level of involvement in designing the community planning unveiled no correlation between gender, age and career. Contrarily, the findings revealed that the villagers’ educational level and community membership status had a correlation with their level of involvement in designing the community planning.

Keywords: community development, community planning, people participation, educational level

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Authors: Madiha Zahid, Afifa Khanam

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The present study aims to investigate the effect of reflective teaching practices on prospective teachers’ performance. Reflective teaching practice helps teachers to plan, implement and improve their performance by rethinking about their strengths and weaknesses. An action research was conducted by the researcher. All prospective teachers of sixth semester in a women university’s teacher education program were the population of the study. From 40 students, 20 students were taken as experimental group, and the rest of 20 students were taken as control group. During the action research a cyclic process of producing a module, training teachers for the reflective practices and then observing them during their class for reflective practice was done by the researchers. The research used a set of rubrics and checklists for assessing prospective teachers’ performance during their class. Finally, the module was modified with the help of findings. It was found that the training has improved the performance of teachers as they revised and modified their teaching strategies through reflective practice. However, they were not able to train their students for reflective practice as per expectation. The study has implications for teacher training programs to include reflective practice modules as part of their course work for making them better teachers.

Keywords: reflective practices, prospective teacher, effect, performance

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Authors: H. N. S. Silva, S. N. Silva

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Introduction: 88.3% of physicians decided to choose a ‘no-code’ or a DNR order if hospitalized and would choose to die less aggressively at home. However, their wishes were mostly over ridden. Objective: To assess the attitudes of nurses towards the end-of-the-life care they would like to receive for themselves and their attitudes towards terminal illnesses. Methods: A mixed method approach was used. A closed and open-ended questionnaire was administered to 73 participants and 5 registered nurses, who have more than 10 years of experience, working in hospitals both in Sri Lanka and abroad, were interviewed. Results: 94.1% of the participants stated that they would like to die at home, spending their last hours at home surrounded by their loved ones and engaging in religious activities but 57.7% of unmarried nurse said they would agree on euthanasia if they had a terminal disease, and also 66.2% of them stated they would agree in DNR order if they happen to be admitted to the ICU, but 82.5% wanted to diagnose if they had a terminal illness or cancer but did not agree on euthanasia. Qualitative analysis confirmed the findings and revealed that despite having adequate confidence about the hospital care, nurses would choose to die at home, surrounded by their loved once and engaging in religious activities. Euthanasia was believed to be inappropriate as it is religiously incorrect and as death is a natural process. Conclusion: The perception of death among nurses depends on their religious belief.

Keywords: death, do not resuscitate, euthanasia, nurses

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Authors: M. Top, H. Telli

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Plaster material has been a preferred material especially in the Middle East geography in terms of economy, easy process and thermal insulation since very old times. However, due to the unstable nature of the material, very little has been reached today. For this reason, both finds and studies about stucco ornamentation are very few. In this study, the excavated plasterwork finds used in the architectural ornamentation in the Hosap Castle (Van/Turkey) were considered worth examining since they are rare examples. The stucco relief finds that were found in the castle is discussed. The finds of engraved artifacts on the plasterworks were not addressed. Only the pieces found in Area II and Area III (harem) and surrounding during the cleaning and excavation work carried out at Hosap Kalesi between 2007-2015, will be discussed. This is a general assessment about the finds. It is unknown where many of the pieces found. For this reason, only general appraisal was able to done. Most of the parts are made of mold technique. The motifs on the fragments are similar to the motifs of Ottoman period tiles. Parallel to the settlement history of the castle, thought that these plaster pieces belong to the 16th-17th centuries.

Keywords: stucco decoration, Eastern Anatolia, Ottoman motifs, ornamentation, plasterwork

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Authors: Allmin Susaiyah, Aki Härmä, Milan Petković

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Automatic generation of insights from data using insight mining systems (IMS) is useful in many applications, such as personal health tracking, patient monitoring, and business process management. Existing IMS face challenges in controlling insight extraction, scaling to large databases, and generalising to unseen domains. In this work, we propose a hybrid approach consisting of rule-based and neural components for generating insights from data while overcoming the aforementioned challenges. Firstly, a rule-based data 2CNL component is used to extract statistically significant insights from data and represent them in a controlled natural language (CNL). Secondly, a BERTSum-based CNL2NL component is used to convert these CNLs into natural language texts. We improve the model using task-specific and domain-specific fine-tuning. Our approach has been evaluated using statistical techniques and standard evaluation metrics. We overcame the aforementioned challenges and observed significant improvement with domain-specific fine-tuning.

Keywords: data mining, insight mining, natural language generation, pre-trained language models

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Authors: Hong Zhang

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Photocatalytic degradation is an appealing process to remove organic contaminants from industrial wastewater, but usually impeded by less effective photocatalysts. Here, we successfully synthesized Ag doped La₂Ti₂O₇ via a simple sol-gel route for photocatalytic methyl orange (MO) degradation. Their crystal structures, morphology, surface area and optical absorption activity were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, BET N₂ adsorption-desorption study, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by MO photodegradation under a 300 W xenon lamp. The results indicate that the doping of Ag has effectively narrowed the band gap, increased the specific area of La2Ti2O7, and supressed the recombination of photogenerated carriers. Compared with the pristine La₂Ti₂O₇, La₁.₉Ag₀.₁Ti₂O₇-δ revealed a superior performance for MO degradation with a degradation rate of 97% in only 60 min. Also, the pseudo-first order kinetic constant for La₁.₉Ag₀.₁Ti₂O₇-δ is ~ 11 times higher than that of undoped sample. The outstanding performance of Ag modified La₂Ti₂O₇ is probably attributed to the integrated factors. Active species trapping experiments indicated that h+ plays a critical role in MO degradation, while •O₂− has slight effect on the photocatalytic activity and the function of •OH can almost be neglected.

Keywords: Ag doped La₂Ti₂O₇, methyl orange, photodegradation, surface plasmon resonance

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Authors: Burcu Yilmaz Şahinbaşkan, Recep Karadağ, Emine Torgan

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Nowadays, many natural dyes are used for colouration of textile materials. The natural dyes are friendly to human health and environment. Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus Costa) can be used with other natural dye plants for colouration of silk and wool fabrics. Almost never research works on the dyeing of silk fabric with Dactylopius coccus Costa and Quercus infectoria Olivier together. In this study, dyeability of 100 % silk fabric with Dactylopius coccus Costa and Quercus infectoria Olivier was studied. Optimum dyeing parameters were determined by using different concentration of Dactylopius coccus Costa (10%), Quercus infectoria Olivier (0,1,5 and 10%) and mordant salt (0 and 3%). The dyed silk fabrics were examined for their colorimetric and fastness properties. The fabrics were dyed succesfully dark colours with 10 % Dactylopius coccus Costa, 10 % Quercus infectoria Olivier and presence of mordanting after dyeing process (3% mordant salt). The washing and light colour fastness of the dyed fabrics were investigated and adequate results were obtained.

Keywords: Dactylopius coccus Costa, Quercus infectoria Olivier, natural dye, dyeing, silk fabric

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Authors: Yung Gi Wu

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With the growing of computer and network, digital data can be spread to anywhere in the world quickly. In addition, digital data can also be copied or tampered easily so that the security issue becomes an important topic in the protection of digital data. Digital watermark is a method to protect the ownership of digital data. Embedding the watermark will influence the quality certainly. In this paper, Vector Quantization (VQ) is used to embed the watermark into the image to fulfill the goal of data hiding. This kind of watermarking is invisible which means that the users will not conscious the existing of embedded watermark even though the embedded image has tiny difference compared to the original image. Meanwhile, VQ needs a lot of computation burden so that we adopt a fast VQ encoding scheme by partial distortion searching (PDS) and mean approximation scheme to speed up the data hiding process. The watermarks we hide to the image could be gray, bi-level and color images. Texts are also can be regarded as watermark to embed. In order to test the robustness of the system, we adopt Photoshop to fulfill sharpen, cropping and altering to check if the extracted watermark is still recognizable. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system can resist the above three kinds of tampering in general cases.

Keywords: data hiding, vector quantization, watermark, color image

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Authors: Ruwan Gunawardane

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Second language teaching and learning is a complex process in which various factors are identified as having a negative impact on the competency in English among undergraduates of Sri Lanka. One such issue is the lack of intrinsic motivation among them to learn English despite the fact that they all know the importance of English. This study attempted to ascertain how the intrinsic motivation of undergraduates to learn English can be improved through reading out of curiosity. Humans are curious by nature, and cognitive psychology says that curiosity facilitates learning, memory, and motivation. The researcher carried out this study during the closure of universities due to the outbreak of the coronavirus through ‘Online Reading Café’, an online reading programme introduced by himself. He invited 1166 students of the Faculty of Science, University of Ruhuna, to read 50 articles taken from CNN and the BBC and posted at least two to three articles on the LMS of the faculty almost every day over a period of 23 days. The themes of the articles were based on the universe, exploration of planets, scientific experiments, evolution, etc., and the students were encouraged to collect as many words, phrases, and sentence structures as possible while reading and to form meaningful sentences using them. The data obtained through the students’ feedback was qualitatively analyzed. It was found that these undergraduates were interested in reading something out of curiosity, due to which intrinsic motivation is enhanced, and it facilitates competence in L2.

Keywords: English, competence, reading, curiosity

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Authors: Tatyana Kim

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This paper seeks to explore the academic and sociocultural adaptation experiences of international students studying in Kazakhstan. Using multiple case study design, the research will be undertaken at two private Kazakhstani universities having a relatively large and diverse body of international students. Thus, 20 full-time undergraduate international students from the sampled universities will be interviewed to identify factors that impede or, vice versa, facilitate their academic and sociocultural adaptation in Kazakhstan, as well as to reveal how universities support these students in the process of their adaptation. To investigate the issue more deeply, it was decided to explore the university administrators’ viewpoint of the issue. Thus, six university administrators who are in charge of recruiting and supporting international students and, thus, are particularly knowledgeable about their experiences, have been recruited for this study. Identification of both students’ and administrators’ perspectives on the matter may help reveal miscommunication, if any, and gain greater insight into the phenomenon. The data will be collected between November 5, 2019, and December 10, 2019. Preliminary findings will be presented at the conference. Lysgaard’s U-curve adjustment theory (1955) will be employed as a guiding framework to discuss and interpret the findings.

Keywords: academic adaptation, adaptation, higher education, international students, sociocultural adaptation

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Authors: B. Alajmi, L. Marouf, A. S. Chaudhry

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In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed upon issues concerning the evaluation of health care. In this regard, knowledge management has also been considered an important component of the evaluation process. KM facilitates the transfer of existing knowledge or the development of new knowledge among healthcare staff and patients. This research aimed to examine how hospitals in Kuwait employ knowledge management practices, including capturing, sharing, and generating, and the perceived impact of KM practices on performance of hospitals in Kuwait. Through adopting a quantitative survey method with 277 sample of doctors, the study found that in terms of the three major knowledge management practices – knowledge capturing, sharing, and generating – the adoption of KM practices were rated very low in the sampled hospitals in Kuwait. Hospitals paid little attention to the main activities that support the transfer of expertise among doctors in hospitals. However, as predicted by previous studies, knowledge management practices were perceived to have an impact on hospitals’ performance. Through knowledge capturing, sharing, and generating, hospitals could improve the services they provide through documenting best practices, transforming their hospitals into learning organizations in which lessons learned are captured, stored, and made available for others to learn from.

Keywords: knowledge management, hospitals, knowledge management practices, knowledge management tools, performance

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Authors: Andreas Aceranti, Simonetta Vernocchi, Marco Colorato, Pozzaglio Carolina

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This work analyses the term sect or religious cult and the general traits of those groups and the people involved so as to better understand this unexpectedly popular reality. Some translations taken from research papers as well as academic articles are likewise taken into consideration. We have carried out an in-depth analysis of the topics presented. Firstly we defined magic related to religion and all the similarities and differences between magical thinking and religious thinking, religion, and superstition. Secondly, the term “sect” was defined, and the phenomenon was dealt with, along with the listing of all kinds of existing groups. Then we studied the recruitment process in general and recruitment according to the brainwashing theory. We then analysed the criminological aspects that entail their harmfulness with a particular focus on the structure of those religious communities and the theories regarding the people involved: leader, members, and the group, as it has its own pattern of behaviour and its conformism. Finally, we studied the ideology and the techniques of manipulation used, such as brainwashing, which got already introduced in previous chapters trying to explain this reality not only in theory but studying and trying to understand some of the most famous religious cults.

Keywords: psychological manipulation, brainwashing, love bombing, magic and religion

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Authors: V. Endo, A. G. Silva Sobrinho, F. A. Almeida, N. L. L. Lima, G. M. Manzi, L. G. A. Cirne, N. M. B. L. Zeola

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We used 24 Ile de France lambs, weighing between 15 and 32 kg (BW). Treatments were supplemented with concentrate: “in nature” sugarcane (IN), sugarcane hydrolyzed using 0.6% calcium oxide (CaO) under aerobic condition (AER), and sugarcane hydrolyzed using 0.6% CaO under anaerobic condition (ANA), constituting a completely randomized design with eight repetitions per treatment. Lambs were housed in individual stalls and fed into the through, allowing 10% of leftovers. Lambs were slaughtered when body weight reached 32 kg. The following parameters were determined on Longissimus lumborum muscle of hot and cold carcasses: pH and color, 45 minutes and 24 hours after slaughtering. Qualitative analysis of the meat were performed in the loins, water-holding capacity (WHC), cooking loss (CL), and shear force (SF). We used a completely randomized design with three treatments and eight repetitions. Means were compared by Tukey test at 5% significance. A higher value for redness (a*) 45 minutes after slaughter (10.48) was found for lambs fed sugarcane hydrolyzed under anaerobic conditions. The other qualitative characteristics of meat were not affected by treatments (P >0.05). The comparison of meat quality resulting from the treatments shows that it is possible to feed in nature sugarcane to lambs, thus waiving hydrolyses process and the spending with alkalizing agent.

Keywords: oxide, hydrolysis, meat quality, pH

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Authors: Mukhtarkhanova Ainagul Madievna, Imanbek Karakoz

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The development and implementation of active forms and methods of extracurricular work in biology are carried out, assistance to people in determining sustainable interests in a particular field of science, expanding pupil's knowledge and horizons during in–depth study of program issues that go beyond the curriculum where considered, but accessible to the understanding of people; the development of interest in the subject, independence, creative activity. The purpose of this study is to open interest through extracurricular activities for teaching biology. The purpose of the presented work is to arouse people's interest in biology lessons in the modern world through extracurricular activities. First, the level of people was determined in the traditional style of teaching lessons, for which special tests and evaluation criteria were compiled. The level of pupils' knowledge of biology was determined by a questionnaire. Samples of extracurricular work were presented, and practices were conducted in the educational process. At the next stage, the level of pupils after the experiment was compared. The results of the work were discussed, and recommendations were developed.

Keywords: extracurricular activities, modern world, teaching, method, excursions, laboratory experiments, science fairs

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Authors: K.Narasimhulu, Y. Pydi Setty

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The objective of this present study is the optimization of process parameters in biosorption of Ni(II) and Cd(II) ions by Pseudomonas putida using Response Surface Methodology in a Packed bed bioreactor. The experimental data were also tested with theoretical models to find the best fit model. The present paper elucidates RSM as an efficient approach for predictive model building and optimization of Ni(II) and Cd(II) ions using Pseudomonas putida. In packed bed biosorption studies, comparison of the breakthrough curves of Ni(II) and Cd(II) for Agar immobilized and PAA immobilized Pseudomonas putida at optimum conditions of flow rate of 300 mL/h, initial metal ion concentration of 100 mg/L and bed height of 20 cm with weight of biosorbent of 12 g, it was found that the Agar immobilized Pseudomonas putida showed maximum percent biosorption and bed saturation occurred at 20 minutes. Optimization results of Ni(II) and Cd(II) by Pseudomonas putida from the Design Expert software were obtained as bed height of 19.93 cm, initial metal ion concentration of 103.85 mg/L, and flow rate of 310.57 mL/h. The percent biosorption of Ni(II) and Cd(II) is 87.2% and 88.2% respectively. The predicted optimized parameters are in agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords: packed bed bioreactor, response surface mthodology, pseudomonas putida, biosorption, waste water

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Authors: Yifan Zheng, Jinmin Zhu, Jiji Li, Gulling Li, Huahong Shi

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Secondary microplastics originate from the fragmentation of large plastics, and weathering is supposed to be the main cause of fragmentation. In this study, we investigated burrows and burrowing invertebrates on Styrofoam floats from the mariculture areas of China’s coastal waters. Various burrows were found on the submerged surface of Styrofoam floats and could be divided into ‘I’, ‘S’, ‘J’, and ‘Y’ types based on the burrow entrance number and passage curvature. Different invertebrate species, including 5 isopods, 8 clamworms, and 12 crabs, were found inside the burrows. Micro-foams were found in the bodies of these burrowers, with an average abundance of 4.2 ± 0.3 (isopod), 6.9 ± 2.0 (clamworm), and 3.0 ± 0.5 (crab) micro-foams per individual. In the laboratory, we observed the boring process of crabs in abandoned floats. Field and laboratory evidence suggested that these invertebrates bored various burrows. The total volume of crab burrows on a 3-year-used float was estimated to be 2.6 × 10³ cm³, producing 4.1 × 10⁸ microplastics. This study highlights the critical role of bioerosion in destroying man-made substrates and prompting microplastic pollution.

Keywords: burrowing invertebrate, mariculture area, styrofoam float, fragmentation, microplastics

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Authors: Oyugi Ngure Robert, Kallen Mulilo Nalyanya, Tabitha A. Amollo

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Nanomaterials have attracted significant attention in research because of their exemplary properties, making them suitable for diverse applications. This paper reports the successful synthesis as well as the structural properties of silver sulfide/reduced graphene oxide (Ag_2 S-rGO) nanocomposite. The nanocomposite was synthesized by the chemical reduction method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets were intercalated within the Ag_2 S nanoparticles during the chemical reduction process. The SEM images also showed that Ag_2 S had the shape of nanowires. Further, SEM energy dispersive X-ray (SEM EDX) showed that Ag_2 S-rGO is mainly composed of C, Ag, O, and S. X-ray diffraction analysis manifested a high crystallinity for the nanowire-shaped Ag2S nanoparticles with a d-spacing ranging between 1.0 Å and 5.2 Å. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that rGO enhances the thermal stability of the nanocomposite. Ag_2 S-rGO nanocomposite exhibited strong optical absorption in the UV region. The formed nanocomposite is dispersible in polar and non-polar solvents, qualifying it for solution-based device processing.

Keywords: silver sulfide, reduced graphene oxide, nanocomposite, structural properties, optical properties

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Authors: Riffat Kalsoom, Qurat-Ul-Ain Javed

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Optical and dielectric properties of lithium niobates have made them the fascinating materials to be used in optical industry for device formation such as Q and optical switching. Synthesis of lithium niobates was carried out by solvothermal process with and without temperature fluctuation at 200°C for 4 hrs, and behavior of properties for different durations was also examined. Prepared samples of LiNbO₃ were examined in a way as crystallographic phases by using XRD diffractometer, morphology by scanning electron microscope (SEM), absorption by UV-Visible Spectroscopy and dielectric measurement by impedance analyzer. A structural change from trigonal to spherical shape was observed by changing the time of reaction. Crystallite size decreases by the temperature fluctuation and increasing reaction time. Band gap decreases whereas dielectric constant and dielectric loss was increased with increasing time of reaction. Trend of AC conductivity is explained by Joschner’s power law. Due to these significant properties, it finds its applications in devices, such as cells, Q switching and optical switching for laser and gigahertz frequencies, respectively and these applications depend on the industrial demands.

Keywords: lithium niobates, renewable energy devices, controlled structure, temperature fluctuations

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Authors: Racha Khairallah, Lamia Ben Hamida

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Our paper attempts to examine how Swiss manufacturing firms manage to learn from patent citations to improve their innovation performance. We argue that the assessment of these effects needs a detailed analysis of spillovers according to the source of knowledge with respect to formal and informal patent citations made in European and internal search, the horizontal and vertical mechanisms by which knowledge spillovers take place, and the technological characteristics of innovative firms that able them to absorb external knowledge and integrate it in their existing innovation process. We use OECD data and find evidence that knowledge spillovers occur only from horizontal and backward linkages. The importance of these effects depends on the type of citation, in which the references to non-patent literature (informal citations made in European and international searches) have a greater impact. In addition, only firms with high technological capacities benefit from knowledge spillovers from formal and informal citations. Low-technology firms fail to catch up and efficiently learn external knowledge from patent citations.

Keywords: innovation performance, patent citation, absorptive capacity, knowledge spillover mechanisms

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Authors: Soheila Ghanbari

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After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted, federal policy transformed employment rights. Equal employment opportunity law, legislation for occupational safety and health, and regulations for fringe benefits were established to ensure that employees have rights to equal protection, health and safety, and the benefits guaranteed by employers. In research analyzing data from 279 organizations over time, it was discovered that legal changes prompted organizations to establish personnel, antidiscrimination, safety, and benefits departments to ensure compliance. However, as the process of institutionalization advanced, middle managers began to separate these fresh offices from policy and rationalize them solely in economic terms as a component of the new human resources management model. This common occurrence is seen in the United States, where the Constitution represents government control of business as unlawful. It could potentially clarify the extended lack of a state theory in organizational analysis and shed light on a puzzle pointed out by state theorists: the federal state is weak in terms of administration but strong in terms of norms.

Keywords: management, state, human, resources, employment

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Authors: Amit Keshav

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Waste bone, produced in large quantity (8-10 kg./day) from a slaughterhouse, could be a cheap (cost $0.20 per kg) substitute for commercial catalysts. In the present work, catalyst for esterification reaction was prepared from waste bone and characterized by various techniques. Bone was deoiled and then sulfonated. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra of prepared catalyst predicted –OH vibration at 3416 and 1630 cm⁻¹, S-O stretching at 1124 cm⁻¹ and intense bands of hydroxypatite in a region between 500 and 700 cm⁻¹. X-ray diffraction (XRD) predicts peaks of hydroxyapatite, CaO, and tricalcium phosphate. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to reveal the presence of non-uniformity deposited fine particles on the catalyst surface that represents active acidic sites. The prepared catalyst was employed to study its performance on esterification reaction between acrylic acid and ethanol in a molar ratio of 1:1 at a set temperature of 60 °C. Results show an equilibrium conversion of 49% which is matched to the commercial catalysts employed in literature. Thus waste bone could be a good catalyst for acrylic acid removal from waste industrial streams via the process of esterification.Keywords— Heterogeneous catalyst, characterization, esterification, equilibrium conversion

Keywords: heterogeneous catalyst, characterization, esterification, equilibrium conversion

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Authors: Aline Giardin, Maria Rosa Chitolina, Maria Catarina Zanini

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In this paper, we analyze the conceptions of high school students about mental health issues, and discuss the creation of mental basic health programs in schools. We base our findings in a quantitative survey carried out by us with 156 high school students of CTISM (Colégio Técnico Industrial de Santa Maria) school, located in Santa Maria city, Brazil. We have found that: (a) 28 students relate the subject ‘mental health’ with psychiatric hospitals and lunatic asylums; (b) 28 students have relatives affected by mental diseases; (c) 76 students believe that mental patients, if treated, can live a healthy life; (d) depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are the most cited diseases; (e) 84 students have contact with mental patients, but know nothing about the disease; (f) 123 students have never been instructed about mental diseases while in the school; and (g) 135 students think that a mental health program would be important in the school. We argue that these numbers reflect a vision of mental health that can be related to the reductionist education still present in schools and to the lack of integration between health professionals, sciences teachers, and students. Furthermore, this vision can also be related to a stigmatization process, which interferes with the interactions and with the representations regarding mental disorders and mental patients in society.

Keywords: mental health, schools, mental illness, conception

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Authors: Jingjing Lan, Jun Yu, Muthukumaraswamy Annamalai Arasu

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This paper presents a digital non-linear pulse-width modulation (PWM) controller in a high-voltage (HV) buck-boost DC-DC converter for the piezoelectric transducer of the down-hole acoustic telemetry system. The proposed design controls the generation of output signal with voltage higher than the supply voltage and is targeted to work under high temperature. To minimize the power consumption and silicon area, a simple and efficient design scheme is employed to develop the PWM controller. The proposed PWM controller consists of serial to parallel (S2P) converter, data assign block, a mode and duty cycle controller (MDC), linearly PWM (LPWM) and noise shaper, pulse generator and clock generator. To improve the reliability of circuit operation at higher temperature, this design is fabricated with the 1.0-μm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS process. The implementation results validated that the proposed design has the advantages of smaller size, lower power consumption and robust thermal stability.

Keywords: DC-DC power conversion, digital control, high temperatures, pulse-width modulation

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Authors: Gabriel Wosiak, Jeyse da Silva, Sthefany S. Sena, Renato N. de Andrade, Ernesto Pereira

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The bubble formation during hydrogen production by electrolysis and several electrochemical processes is an inherent phenomenon and can impact the energy consumption of the processes. In this work, it was reported both experimental and computational results describe the effect of bubble displacement, which, under the cases investigated, leads to the formation of a convective flow in the solution. The process is self-sustained, and a solution vortex is formed, which modifies the bubble growth and covering at the electrode surface. Using the experimental data, we have built a model to simulate it, which, with high accuracy, describes the phenomena. Then, it simulated many different experimental conditions and evaluated the effects of the boundary conditions on the bubble surface covering the surface. We have observed a position-dependent bubble covering the surface, which has an effect on the water-splitting efficiency. It was shown that the bubble covering is not uniform at the electrode surface, and using statistical analysis; it was possible to evaluate the influence of the gas type (H2 and O2), current density, and the bubble size (and cross-effects) on the covering fraction and the asymmetric behavior over the electrode surface.

Keywords: water splitting, bubble, electrolysis, hydrogen production

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Authors: Sweta Rout-Hoolash

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Each year, selected students from around 20 countries begin their degrees at Middlesex University with the International Foundation Program (IFP), developing the skills required for academic study at a UK university. The IFP runs for 30 learning/teaching weeks at Middlesex University Mauritius Branch Campus, which is an international campus of UK’s Middlesex University. Successful IFP students join their degree courses already settled into life at their chosen campus (London, Dubai, Mauritius or Malta) and confident that they understand what is required for degree study. Although part of the School of Science and Technology, in Mauritius it prepares students for undergraduate level across all Schools represented on campus – including disciplines such as Accounting, Business, Computing, Law, Media and Psychology. The researcher has critically reviewed the framework and resources in the curriculum for a particular six week period of IFP study (dedicated group work phase). Despite working together closely for 24 weeks, IFP students approach the final 6 week small group work project phase with mainly inhibitive feelings. It was observed that students did not engage effectively in the group work exercise. Additionally, groups who seemed to be working well did not necessarily produce results reflecting effective collaboration, nor individual members’ results which were better than prior efforts. The researcher identified scope for change and innovation in the IFP curriculum and how group work is introduced and facilitated. The study explores the challenges of groupwork in the context of the Mauritius campus, though it is clear that the implications of the project are not restricted to one campus only. The presentation offers a reflective review on the previous structure put in place for the management of small group assessed projects on the programme from both the student and tutor perspective. The focus of the research perspective is the student voice, by taking into consideration past and present IFP students’ experiences as written in their learning journals. Further, it proposes the introduction of a revised framework to help students take greater ownership of the group work process in order to engage more effectively with the learning outcomes of this crucial phase of the programme. The study has critically reviewed recent and seminal literature on how to achieve greater student ownership during this phase especially under an environment of assessed multicultural group work. The presentation proposes several new approaches for encouraging students to take more control of the collaboration process. Detailed consideration is given to how the proposed changes impact on the work of other stakeholders, or partners to student learning. Clear proposals are laid out for evaluation of the different approaches intended to be implemented during the upcoming academic year (student voice through their own submitted reflections, focus group interviews and through the assessment results). The proposals presented are all realistic and have the potential to transform students’ learning. Furthermore, the study has engaged with the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education, and demonstrates practice at the level of ‘fellow’ of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

Keywords: collaborative peer learning, enhancing learning experiences, group work assessment, learning communities, multicultural diverse classrooms, studying abroad

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Authors: Gheorghe Braniste

Abstract:

It is a matter of common knowledge the fact that the International Olympic Movement is characterized by dynamism and adaptability to the challenges of modern society. A significant proof of this is the establishment of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in 2016, at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, a practice continued in Tokyo in 2020 and with a great chance to be successfully repeated in subsequent editions: Paris 2024 and Dakar 2026. This phenomenon is all the more welcome as, after the global refugee crisis of 2015, when the whole world has seen millions of people in the world displaced, we are now experiencing the negative effects of the war that started in February 2022 in Ukraine; which caused the exodus of the population to neighboring countries. Therefore, the international Olympic community must decide how to integrate Ukrainian athletes with refugee status into the Olympic system. Until the establishment of an internationally agreed policy, Romania and the Republic of Moldova, as countries directly involved in this process, must find urgent solutions to allow athletes to continue their Olympic careers. This article proposes a description of the strategies adopted both at the national level and at the level of sports clubs and an analysis of their impact on the performance of athletes.

Keywords: olympic movement, olympic games, refugees, performance, integration

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Authors: Mahrukh Shehzadi

Abstract:

Pakistan is a democratic republic but has spent much time under military rulers; after a few years of independence, Pakistan faced three martial laws in 1958, 1969, and 1977, and the latest in 1999 by General Musharraf. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the politics, policies and overall performance of Pakistan People’s Party Government from 2008-2013. PPP won a significant victory in the elections of 2008. The co-chairman, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, announced the end of the fourth dictatorship. It was for the first time in Pakistan’s history that an elected government completed its term (2008-2013). While the completion of its term is an achievement, the performance of the democratically-elected government – federal, provincial and local does not inspire much confidence. Poor governance, persistent confrontational relations between the executive and the judiciary, charges of corruption, and the incompetence of the political leadership to build consensus to combat terrorism continue to cast criticisms on the democratic process and the civilian regime’s capability to sustain democracy. In the present study, the researcher will try to describe and explain the public thinking pattern regarding the policies opted for by the PPP-led government and their impact on the people’s minds of Pakistan.

Keywords: democracy, performance, policies, state, manifesto

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Authors: Melike Yaylacı, Tuğba Bilgin

Abstract:

Against the climate crisis, an increasing number of countries are working on green energy, carbon emission measurement, calculation and reduction. The work of industrial organizations with the highest carbon emissions on these issues is increasing. Aim of this paper is calculating carbon emissions of laser cutting machine with cradle-to-grave approach and discuss the potential affects of usage condisions, such as laser power, gas type, gas pressure, on carbon footprint. In particular, this study includes consumption of electricity used in production, laser cutting machine raw materials, and disposal of the machine. In the process of raw material supplying, machine procesing and shipping, all calculations were studied using the Tier1 approach. Laser cutting machines require a specified cutting parameter set for each different material in different thickneses, this parameters are a combination of laser power, gas type, cutting speed, gas pressure and focus point, The another purpose of this study is examine the potential affect of different cutting parameters for the same material in same thickness on carbon footprint.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, carbon emission, laser cutting machine, cutting parameters

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Authors: Shazi Farooqui, Anupam Sharma

Abstract:

The Mahi River (~600km long) is an important west flowing the river of Central India. It originates in Madhya Pradesh and starts flowing in NW direction and enters into the state of Rajasthan. It flows across southern Rajasthan and then enters into Gujarat and finally debouches in the Gulf of Cambay. In Gujarat state, it flows through all four geomorphic zones i.e. eastern upland zone, shallow buried piedmont zone, alluvial zone and coastal zone. In lower reaches and particularly when it is flowing under the coastal regime, it provides an opportunity to study – 1. Land–Sea interaction and role of relative sea level changes, 2. Coastal/estuarine geological process, 3. Landscape evolution in marginal areas and so on. The Late Quaternary deposits of Mainland Gujarat is appreciably studied by Chamyal and his group of MS University of Baroda, and they have established that the 30-35m thick sediment package of the Mainland Gujarat is comprised of marine, fluvial and aeolian sediments. It is also established that in the estuarine zone, the upper few meter thick sediments package is of marine nature. However, its thickness, characters and the depositional environment including the role of climate and tectonics is still not clearly defined. To understand few aspects of the above mentioned, in the present study, a 17m subsurface sediment core has been retrieved from the estuarine zone of Mahi river basin. The Multiproxy studies which include the textural analysis (grain size), Loss on ignition (LOI), Bulk and clay mineralogy and geochemical studies have been carried out. In the entire sedimentary sequence, the grain size largely varies from coarse sand to clay; however, a solitary gravel bed is also noticed. The lower part (depth 9-17m), is mainly comprised of sub equal proportion of sand and silt. The sediments mainly have bimodal and leptokurtic distribution and deposited in alternate sand-silt package, probably indicating flood deposits. Relatively low moisture (1.8%) and organic carbon (2.4%) with increased carbonate values (12%) indicate that conditions must have to remain oxidizing. The middle part (depth 9–6m) has a 1m thick gravel bed at the bottom and overlain by coarse sand to very fine sand showing fining upward sequence. The presence of gravel bed suggests some kind of tectonic activity resulting into change in base level or enhanced precipitation in the catchment region. The upper part (depth 6–0m; top part of sequence) mainly comprised of fine sand to silt size grains (with appreciable clay content). The sediment of this part is Unimodal and very leptokurtic in nature suggesting wave and winnowing process and deposited in low energy suspension environment. This part has relatively high moisture (2.1%) and organic carbon (2.7%) with decreased carbonate content (4.2%) indicating change in the depositional environment probably under estuarine conditions. The presence of chlorite along with smectite clay mineral further supports the significant marine contribution in the formation of upper part of the sequence.

Keywords: grain size, statistical analysis, clay minerals, late quaternary, LOI

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Authors: Li Qingjian, Li Ke, He Chun, Huang Yong

Abstract:

In this paper, the method of combining the Pohl Seidman's deep belief network with the self-organizing neural network is proposed to classify the target. This method is mainly aimed at the high nonlinearity of the hyperspectral image, the high sample dimension and the difficulty in designing the classifier. The main feature of original data is extracted by deep belief network. In the process of extracting features, adding known labels samples to fine tune the network, enriching the main characteristics. Then, the extracted feature vectors are classified into the self-organizing neural network. This method can effectively reduce the dimensions of data in the spectrum dimension in the preservation of large amounts of raw data information, to solve the traditional clustering and the long training time when labeled samples less deep learning algorithm for training problems, improve the classification accuracy and robustness. Through the data simulation, the results show that the proposed network structure can get a higher classification precision in the case of a small number of known label samples.

Keywords: DBN, SOM, pattern classification, hyperspectral, data compression

Procedia PDF Downloads 324