Search results for: active removal of space debris

Authors: Pavel Bulai, Taras Pitlik, Tatsiana Kulahava, Timofei Lipski

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The method of Electrocardiography (ECG) interpretation for post-exercise recovery tracking was developed. Metabolic indices (aerobic and anaerobic) were designed using ECG-derived features. This study reports the associations between aerobic and anaerobic indices and classical parameters of the person’s physiological state, including blood biochemistry, glycogen concentration and VO2max changes. During the study 9 participants, healthy, physically active medium trained men and women, which trained 2-4 times per week for at least 9 weeks, fulfilled (i) ECG monitoring using Apple Watch Series 4 (AWS4); (ii) blood biochemical analysis; (iii) maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) test, (iv) bioimpedance analysis (BIA). ECG signals from a single-lead wrist-wearable device were processed with detection of QRS-complex. Aerobic index (AI) was derived as the normalized slope of QR segment. Anaerobic index (ANI) was derived as the normalized slope of SJ segment. Biochemical parameters, glycogen content and VO2max were evaluated eight times within 3-60 hours after training. ECGs were recorded 5 times per day, plus before and after training, cycloergometry and BIA. The negative correlation between AI and blood markers of the muscles functional status including creatine phosphokinase (r=-0.238, p < 0.008), aspartate aminotransferase (r=-0.249, p < 0.004) and uric acid (r = -0.293, p<0.004) were observed. ANI was also correlated with creatine phosphokinase (r= -0.265, p < 0.003), aspartate aminotransferase (r = -0.292, p < 0.001), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (r = -0.190, p < 0.050). So, when the level of muscular enzymes increases during post-exercise fatigue, AI and ANI decrease. During recovery, the level of metabolites is restored, and metabolic indices rising is registered. It can be concluded that AI and ANI adequately reflect the physiology of the muscles during recovery. One of the markers of an athlete’s physiological state is the ratio between testosterone and cortisol (TCR). TCR provides a relative indication of anabolic-catabolic balance and is considered to be more sensitive to training stress than measuring testosterone and cortisol separately. AI shows a strong negative correlation with TCR (r=-0.437, p < 0.001) and correctly represents post-exercise physiology. In order to reveal the relation between the ECG-derived metabolic indices and the state of the cardiorespiratory system, direct measurements of VO2max were carried out at various time points after training sessions. The negative correlation between AI and VO2max (r = -0.342, p < 0.001) was obtained. These data testifying VO2max rising during fatigue are controversial. However, some studies have revealed increased stroke volume after training, that agrees with findings. It is important to note that post-exercise increase in VO2max does not mean an athlete’s readiness for the next training session, because the recovery of the cardiovascular system occurs over a substantially longer period. Negative correlations registered for ANI with glycogen (r = -0.303, p < 0.001), albumin (r = -0.205, p < 0.021) and creatinine (r = -0.268, p < 0.002) reflect the dehydration status of participants after training. Correlations between designed metabolic indices and physiological parameters revealed in this study can be considered as the sufficient evidence to use these indices for assessing the state of person’s aerobic and anaerobic metabolic systems after training during fatigue, recovery and supercompensation.

Keywords: aerobic index, anaerobic index, electrocardiography, supercompensation

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Authors: Alastair Hales, Xi Jiang

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Numerical methods are used to evaluate the operation of confined face-to-face piezoelectric fan arrays as pitch, P, between the blades is varied. Both in-phase and counter-phase oscillation are considered. A piezoelectric fan consists of a fan blade, which is clamped at one end, and an extremely low powered actuator. This drives the blade tip’s oscillation at its first natural frequency. Sufficient blade tip speed, created by the high oscillation frequency and amplitude, is required to induce vortices and downstream volume flow in the surrounding air. A single piezoelectric fan may provide the ideal solution for low powered hot spot cooling in an electronic device, but is unable to induce sufficient downstream airflow to replace a conventional air mover, such as a convection fan, in power electronics. Piezoelectric fan arrays, which are assemblies including multiple fan blades usually in face-to-face orientation, must be developed to widen the field of feasible applications for the technology. The potential energy saving is significant, with a 50% power demand reduction compared to convection fans even in an unoptimised state. A numerical model of a typical piezoelectric fan blade is derived and validated against experimental data. Numerical error is found to be 5.4% and 9.8% using two data comparison methods. The model is used to explore the variation of pitch as a function of amplitude, A, for a confined two-blade piezoelectric fan array in face-to-face orientation, with the blades oscillating both in-phase and counter-phase. It has been reported that in-phase oscillation is optimal for generating maximum downstream velocity and flow rate in unconfined conditions, due at least in part to the beneficial coupling between the adjacent blades that leads to an increased oscillation amplitude. The present model demonstrates that confinement has a significant detrimental effect on in-phase oscillation. Even at low pitch, counter-phase oscillation produces enhanced downstream air velocities and flow rates. Downstream air velocity from counter-phase oscillation can be maximally enhanced, relative to that generated from a single blade, by 17.7% at P = 8A. Flow rate enhancement at the same pitch is found to be 18.6%. By comparison, in-phase oscillation at the same pitch outputs 23.9% and 24.8% reductions in peak downstream air velocity and flow rate, relative to that generated from a single blade. This optimal pitch, equivalent to those reported in the literature, suggests that counter-phase oscillation is less affected by confinement. The optimal pitch for generating bulk airflow from counter-phase oscillation is large, P > 16A, due to the small but significant downstream velocity across the span between adjacent blades. However, by considering design in a confined space, counterphase pitch should be minimised to maximise the bulk airflow generated from a certain cross-sectional area within a channel flow application. Quantitative values are found to deviate to a small degree as other geometric and operational parameters are varied, but the established relationships are maintained.

Keywords: piezoelectric fans, low energy cooling, power electronics, computational fluid dynamics

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Authors: Soumya Rajan

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While delving into the heart of any organization, the structural pre-requisites which form the framework of its system, allures and sometimes invokes great interest. In an attempt to understand the ecosystem of Knowledge that existed in organizations with diverse ownership and legal blueprints, Cooperative Societies, which form a crucial part of the neo-liberal movement in India, was studied. The exploration surprisingly led to the re-designing of at least a set of premises of the researcher on the drivers of engagement in an otherwise structured trade environment. The liberal organizational structure of Cooperative Societies has been empowered with certain terminologies: Voluntary, Democratic, Equality and Distributive Justice. To condense in Hubert Calvert’ words, ‘Co-operation is a form of organization wherein persons voluntarily associated together as human beings on the basis of equality for the promotion of the economic interest of themselves.’ In India, largely the institutions which work under this principle is registered under Cooperative Societies Act of the Central or State laws. A Worker Cooperative Society which originated as a movement in the state of Kerala and spread its wings across the country - Indian Coffee House was chosen as the enterprise for further inquiry for it being a living example and a highly successful working model in the designated space. The exploratory study reached out to employees and key stakeholders of Indian Coffee House to understand the nuances of the structure and the scope it provides for engagement. The key questions which formed shape in the mind of researcher while engaging in the inquiry were: How has the organization sustained despite its principle of accepting employees with no skills into employment and later training and empowering them? How can a system which has pre-independence and post-independence (independence here means the colonial independence from Great Britain) existence seek to engage employees within the premise of equality? How was the value of socialism ingrained in a commercial enterprise which has a turnover of several hundreds of Crores each year? How did the vision of a flat structure, way back in the 1940’s find its way into the organizational structure and has continued to remain as the way of life? These questions were addressed by the Case study research that ensued and placing Knowledge as the key premise, the possibilities of engagement of the organization man was pictured. Understanding that although the macro or holistic unit of analysis is the organization, it is pivotal to understand the structures and processes which best reflect on the actors. The embedded design which was adopted in this study delivered insights from the different stakeholder actors from diverse departments. While moving through variables which define and sometimes defy bounds in rationality, the study brought to light the inherent features of the organization structure and how it influences the actors who form a crucial part of the scheme of things. The research brought forth the key enablers for engagement and specifically explored the standpoint of knowledge in the larger structure of the Cooperative Society.

Keywords: knowledge, organizational structure, engagement, worker cooperative

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Authors: Soumya Awasthi

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The spread of radical ideology is possible not merely through public meetings, protests, and mosques but even in schools, seminaries, and madrasas. The rhetoric created around the relationship between religion and conflict has been the primary factor for instigating global conflicts – when religion is used to achieve broader objectives. There have been numerous cases of religion-driven conflict around the world be it the Jewish revolt between 66 AD and 628 AD or the 1119 AD the Crusades revolt or during the Cold War period or the rise of right-wing politics in India. Some of the major developments which reiterate the significance of religion in the contemporary times include: (1) The emergence of theocracy in Iran in 1979 (2) Resurgence of world-wide religious beliefs in post-Soviet space. (3) Emergence of transnational terrorism shaped by twisted depiction of Islam by the self proclaimed protectors of the religion. Therefore this paper is premised in the argument that religion has always found itself on the periphery of the discipline of International Relations (IR), and has received less attention than it deserves. The focus of the topic is on the discourses of ‘Deobandi’ and its impact both on the geopolitics of the region- particularly in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan- and also at the global level. Discourse is a mechanism in use since time immemorial and has been a key tool to mobilise masses against the ruling authority. With the help of field surveys, qualitative and analytical method of research in religion and international relations, it has been found that they are numerous madrassas that are running illegally and are unregistered. These seminaries are operating in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, relation between religion and geopolitics was highlighted when there was a sudden spread of radical ideas, finding support from countries like Saudi Arabia (who funded the campaign) and Pakistan (which organised the Saudi funds and set up training camps, both educational and military). During this period there was a huge influence of Wahabi theology on the madrasas which started with Deoband philosophy and later became a mix of Wahabi (influenced by Ahmad Ibn Hannabal and Ibn Taimmiya) and Deobandi philosophy, tending towards fundamentalism. Later the impact of regional geopolitics had influence on the global geopolitics when the incidents like attack on the US in 2001, bomb blasts in U.K, Indonesia, Turkey, and Israel in 2000s. In the midst of all this, there were several scholars who pointed towards Deobandi Philosophy as one of the drivers in the creation of armed Islamic groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan. Hence this paper will make an attempt to understand the trend as to how Deobandi religious discourses originating from India have changed over the decades, and who the agents of such changes are. It will throw light on Deoband from pre-independence till date to create a narrative around the religious discourses and Deobandi philosophy and its spill over impact on the map of global and regional security.

Keywords: Deobandi School of Thought, radicalization, regional and global geopolitics, religious discourses, Whabi movement

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Authors: Fatna Benmessaoud, Mohammed Cheikh, Vencent Velay, Vanessa Vedal, Farhad Rezai-Aria, Christine Boher

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The global mechanical behavior of materials is strongly linked to their microstructure, especially their crystallographic texture and their grains morphology. These material aspects determine the mechanical fields character (heterogeneous or homogeneous), thus, they give to the global behavior a degree of anisotropy according the initial microstructure. For these reasons, the prediction of global behavior of materials in relationship with the microstructure must be performed with a multi-scale approach. Therefore, multi-scale modeling in the context of crystal plasticity is widely used. In this present contribution, a phenomenological elasto-viscoplastic model developed in the crystal plasticity context and finite element method are used to investigate the effects of crystallographic texture and grains sizes on global behavior of a polycrystalline equiaxed Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The constitutive equations of this model are written on local scale for each slip system within each grain while the strain and stress mechanical fields are investigated at the global scale via finite element scale transition. The beta phase of Ti-6Al-4V alloy modeled is negligible; its percent is less than 10%. Three families of slip systems of alpha phase are considered: basal and prismatic families with a burgers vector and pyramidal family with a burgers vector. The twinning mechanism of plastic strain is not observed in Ti-6Al-4V, therefore, it is not considered in the present modeling. Nine representative elementary volumes (REV) are generated with Voronoi tessellations. For each individual equiaxed grain, the own crystallographic orientation vis-à-vis the loading is taken into account. The meshing strategy is optimized in a way to eliminate the meshing effects and at the same time to allow calculating the individual grain size. The stress and strain fields are determined in each Gauss point of the mesh element. A post-treatment is used to calculate the local behavior (in each grain) and then by appropriate homogenization, the macroscopic behavior is calculated. The developed model is validated by comparing the numerical simulation results with an experimental data reported in the literature. It is observed that the present model is able to predict the global mechanical behavior of Ti-6Al-4V alloy and investigate the microstructural parameters' effects. According to the simulations performed on the generated volumes (REV), the macroscopic mechanical behavior of Ti-6Al-4V is strongly linked to the active slip systems family (prismatic, basal or pyramidal). The crystallographic texture determines which family of slip systems can be activated; therefore it gives to the plastic strain a heterogeneous character thus an anisotropic macroscopic mechanical behavior. The average grains size influences also the Ti-6Al-4V mechanical proprieties, especially the yield stress; by decreasing of the average grains size, the yield strength increases according to Hall-Petch relationship. The grains sizes' distribution gives to the strain fields considerable heterogeneity. By increasing grain sizes, the scattering in the localization of plastic strain is observed, thus, in certain areas the stress concentrations are stronger than other regions.

Keywords: microstructural parameters, multi-scale modeling, crystal plasticity, Ti-6Al-4V alloy

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Authors: Chien-Ho Lin, Ho-Ching Yang, Barbara Knowlton, Shin-Leh Huang, Ming-Chang Chiang

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Practicing motor tasks arranged in an interleaved order (interleaved practice, or IP) generally leads to better learning than practicing tasks in a repetitive order (repetitive practice, or RP), an example of how desirable difficulty during practice benefits learning. Greater difficulty during practice, e.g. IP, is associated with greater brain activity measured by higher blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the sensorimotor areas of the brain. In this study resting-state fMRI was applied to investigate whether increase in resting-state brain connectivity immediately after practice predicts the benefit of desirable difficulty to motor learning. 26 healthy adults (11M/15F, age = 23.3±1.3 years) practiced two sets of three sequences arranged in a repetitive or an interleaved order over 2 days, followed by a retention test on Day 5 to evaluate learning. On each practice day, fMRI data were acquired in a resting state after practice. The resting-state fMRI data was decomposed using a group-level spatial independent component analysis (ICA), yielding 9 independent components (IC) matched to the precuneus network, primary visual networks (two ICs, denoted by I and II respectively), sensorimotor networks (two ICs, denoted by I and II respectively), the right and the left frontoparietal networks, occipito-temporal network, and the frontal network. A weighted resting-state functional connectivity (wRSFC) was then defined to incorporate information from within- and between-network brain connectivity. The within-network functional connectivity between a voxel and an IC was gauged by a z-score derived from the Fisher transformation of the IC map. The between-network connectivity was derived from the cross-correlation of time courses across all possible pairs of ICs, leading to a symmetric nc x nc matrix of cross-correlation coefficients, denoted by C = (pᵢⱼ). Here pᵢⱼ is the extremum of cross-correlation between ICs i and j; nc = 9 is the number of ICs. This component-wise cross-correlation matrix C was then projected to the voxel space, with the weights for each voxel set to the z-score that represents the above within-network functional connectivity. The wRSFC map incorporates the global characteristics of brain networks measured by the between-network connectivity, and the spatial information contained in the IC maps measured by the within-network connectivity. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that greater IP-minus-RP difference in wRSFC was positively correlated with the RP-minus-IP difference in the response time on Day 5, particularly in brain regions crucial for motor learning, such as the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the right premotor and supplementary motor cortices. This indicates that enhanced resting brain connectivity during the early phase of memory consolidation is associated with enhanced learning following interleaved practice, and as such wRSFC could be applied as a biomarker that measures the beneficial effects of desirable difficulty on motor sequence learning.

Keywords: desirable difficulty, functional magnetic resonance imaging, independent component analysis, resting-state networks

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Authors: Kostas Kouvaris, Anastasia Eleftheriou, Georgios A. Sarantitis, Apostolos Chondronasios

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To achieve the objective of almost zero carbon energy solutions by 2050, the EU needs to accelerate the development of integrated, highly efficient and environmentally friendly solutions. In this direction, district heating and cooling (DHC) emerges as a viable and more efficient alternative to conventional, decentralized heating and cooling systems, enabling a combination of more efficient renewable and competitive energy supplies. In this paper, we develop a forecasting tool for near real-time local weather and thermal energy demand predictions for an entire DHC network. In this fashion, we are able to extend the functionality and to improve the energy efficiency of the DHC network by predicting and adjusting the heat load that is distributed from the heat generation plant to the connected buildings by the heat pipe network. Two case-studies are considered; one for Vransko, Slovenia and one for Montpellier, France. The data consists of i) local weather data, such as humidity, temperature, and precipitation, ii) weather forecast data, such as the outdoor temperature and iii) DHC operational parameters, such as the mass flow rate, supply and return temperature. The external temperature is found to be the most important energy-related variable for space conditioning, and thus it is used as an external parameter for the energy demand models. For the development of the forecasting tool, we use state-of-the-art deep neural networks and more specifically, recurrent networks with long-short-term memory cells, which are able to capture complex non-linear relations among temporal variables. Firstly, we develop models to forecast outdoor temperatures for the next 24 hours using local weather data for each case-study. Subsequently, we develop models to forecast thermal demand for the same period, taking under consideration past energy demand values as well as the predicted temperature values from the weather forecasting models. The contributions to the scientific and industrial community are three-fold, and the empirical results are highly encouraging. First, we are able to predict future thermal demand levels for the two locations under consideration with minimal errors. Second, we examine the impact of the outdoor temperature on the predictive ability of the models and how the accuracy of the energy demand forecasts decreases with the forecast horizon. Third, we extend the relevant literature with a new dataset of thermal demand and examine the performance and applicability of machine learning techniques to solve real-world problems. Overall, the solution proposed in this paper is in accordance with EU targets, providing an automated smart energy management system, decreasing human errors and reducing excessive energy production.

Keywords: machine learning, LSTMs, district heating and cooling system, thermal demand

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Authors: Milica Carević, Katarina Banjanac, Marija ĆOrović, Ana Milivojević, Nevena Prlainović, Aleksandar Marinković, Dejan Bezbradica

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Nowadays, considering the growing awareness of functional food beneficial effects on human health, due attention is dedicated to the research in the field of obtaining new prominent products exhibiting improved physiological and physicochemical characteristics. Therefore, different approaches to valuable bioactive compounds synthesis have been proposed. β-Galactosidase, for example, although mainly utilized as hydrolytic enzyme, proved to be a promising tool for these purposes. Namely, under the particular conditions, such as high lactose concentration, elevated temperatures and low water activities, reaction of galactose moiety transfer to free hydroxyl group of the alternative acceptor (e.g. different sugars, alcohols or aromatic compounds) can generate a wide range of potentially interesting products. Up to now, galacto-oligosaccharides and lactulose have attracted the most attention due to their inherent prebiotic properties. The goal of this study was to obtain a novel product sorbitol galactoside, using the similar reaction mechanism, namely transgalactosylation reaction catalyzed by β-galactosidase from Aspergillus oryzae. By using sugar alcohol (sorbitol) as alternative acceptor, a diverse mixture of potential prebiotics is produced, enabling its more favorable functional features. Nevertheless, an introduction of alternative acceptor into the reaction mixture contributed to the complexity of reaction scheme, since several potential reaction pathways were introduced. Therefore, the thorough optimization using response surface method (RSM), in order to get an insight into different parameter (lactose concentration, sorbitol to lactose molar ratio, enzyme concentration, NaCl concentration and reaction time) influences, as well as their mutual interactions on product yield and productivity, was performed. In view of product yield maximization, the obtained model predicted optimal lactose concentration 500 mM, the molar ratio of sobitol to lactose 9, enzyme concentration 0.76 mg/ml, concentration of NaCl 0.8M, and the reaction time 7h. From the aspect of productivity, the optimum substrate molar ratio was found to be 1, while the values for other factors coincide. In order to additionally, improve enzyme efficiency and enable its reuse and potential continual application, immobilization of β-galactosidase onto tailored silica nanoparticles was performed. These non-porous fumed silica nanoparticles (FNS)were chosen on the basis of their biocompatibility and non-toxicity, as well as their advantageous mechanical and hydrodinamical properties. However, in order to achieve better compatibility between enzymes and the carrier, modifications of the silica surface using amino functional organosilane (3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, APTMS) were made. Obtained support with amino functional groups (AFNS) enabled high enzyme loadings and, more importantly, extremely high expressed activities, approximately 230 mg proteins/g and 2100 IU/g, respectively. Moreover, this immobilized preparation showed high affinity towards sorbitol galactoside synthesis. Therefore, the findings of this study could provided a valuable contribution to the efficient production of physiologically active galactosides in immobilized enzyme reactors.

Keywords: β-galactosidase, immobilization, silica nanoparticles, transgalactosylation

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Authors: Utpal Das, Sona Das

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InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice (T2SL) Mid-wave infrared (MWIR) focal plane arrays (FPAs) have recently seen rapid development. However, in small pixel size large format FPAs, the occurrence of high mesa sidewall surface leakage current is a major constraint necessitating proper surface passivation. A simple pixel isolation technique in InAs/GaSb T2SL detector arrays without the conventional mesa etching has been proposed to isolate the pixels by forming a more resistive higher band gap material from the SL, in the inter-pixel region. Here, a single step femtosecond (fs) laser anneal of the T2SL structure of the inter-pixel T2SL regions, have been used to increase the band gap between the pixels by QW-intermixing and hence increase isolation between the pixels. The p-i-n photodiode structure used here consists of a 506nm, (10 monolayer {ML}) InAs:Si (1x10¹⁸cm⁻³)/(10ML) GaSb SL as the bottom n-contact layer grown on an n-type GaSb substrate. The undoped absorber layer consists of 1.3µm, (10ML)InAs/(10ML)GaSb SL. The top p-contact layer is a 63nm, (10ML)InAs:Be(1x10¹⁸cm⁻³)/(10ML)GaSb T2SL. In order to improve the carrier transport, a 126nm of graded doped (10ML)InAs/(10ML)GaSb SL layer was added between the absorber and each contact layers. A 775nm 150fs-laser at a fluence of ~6mJ/cm² is used to expose the array where the pixel regions are masked by a Ti(200nm)-Au(300nm) cap. Here, in the inter-pixel regions, the p+ layer have been reactive ion etched (RIE) using CH₄+H₂ chemistry and removed before fs-laser exposure. The fs-laser anneal isolation improvement in 200-400μm pixels due to spatially selective quantum well intermixing for a blue shift of ~70meV in the inter-pixel regions is confirmed by FTIR measurements. Dark currents are measured between two adjacent pixels with the Ti(200nm)-Au(300nm) caps used as contacts. The T2SL quality in the active photodiode regions masked by the Ti-Au cap is hardly affected and retains the original quality of the detector. Although, fs-laser anneal of p+ only etched p-i-n T2SL diodes show a reduction in the reverse dark current, no significant improvement in the full RIE-etched mesa structures is noticeable. Hence for a 128x128 array fabrication of 8μm square pixels and 10µm pitch, SU8 polymer isolation after RIE pixel delineation has been used. X-n+ row contacts and Y-p+ column contacts have been used to measure the optical response of the individual pixels. The photo-response of these 8μm and other 200μm pixels under a 2ns optical pulse excitation from an Optical-Parametric-Oscillator (OPO), shows a peak responsivity of ~0.03A/W and 0.2mA/W, respectively, at λ~3.7μm. Temporal response of this detector array is seen to have a fast response ~10ns followed typical slow decay with ringing, attributed to impedance mismatch of the connecting co-axial cables. In conclusion, response times of a few ns have been measured in 8µm pixels of a 128x128 array. Although fs-laser anneal has been found to be useful in increasing the inter-pixel isolation in InAs/GaSb T2SL arrays by QW inter-mixing, it has not been found to be suitable for passivation of full RIE etched mesa structures with vertical walls on InAs/GaSb T2SL.

Keywords: band-gap blue-shift, fs-laser-anneal, InAs/GaSb T2SL, Inter-pixel isolation, ns-Response, photodiode array

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Authors: Elisa Boatti, Ulisse Stefanelli, Alessandro Reali, Ferdinando Auricchio

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Thanks to their unusual properties, shape memory alloys (SMAs) are good candidates for advanced applications in a wide range of engineering fields, such as automotive, robotics, civil, biomedical, aerospace. In the last decades, the ever-growing interest for such materials has boosted several research studies aimed at modeling their complex nonlinear behavior in an effective and robust way. Since the constitutive response of SMAs is strongly thermomechanically coupled, the investigation of the non-isothermal evolution of the material must be taken into consideration. The present study considers an existing three-dimensional phenomenological model for SMAs, able to reproduce the main SMA properties while maintaining a simple user-friendly structure, and proposes a variational reformulation of the full non-isothermal version of the model. While the considered model has been thoroughly assessed in an isothermal setting, the proposed formulation allows to take into account the full nonisothermal problem. In particular, the reformulation is inspired to the GENERIC (General Equations for Non-Equilibrium Reversible-Irreversible Coupling) formalism, and is based on a generalized gradient flow of the total entropy, related to thermal and mechanical variables. Such phrasing of the model is new and allows for a discussion of the model from both a theoretical and a numerical point of view. Moreover, it directly implies the dissipativity of the flow. A semi-implicit time-discrete scheme is also presented for the fully coupled thermomechanical system, and is proven unconditionally stable and convergent. The correspondent algorithm is then implemented, under a space-homogeneous temperature field assumption, and tested under different conditions. The core of the algorithm is composed of a mechanical subproblem and a thermal subproblem. The iterative scheme is solved by a generalized Newton method. Numerous uniaxial and biaxial tests are reported to assess the performance of the model and algorithm, including variable imposed strain, strain rate, heat exchange properties, and external temperature. In particular, the heat exchange with the environment is the only source of rate-dependency in the model. The reported curves clearly display the interdependence between phase transformation strain and material temperature. The full thermomechanical coupling allows to reproduce the exothermic and endothermic effects during respectively forward and backward phase transformation. The numerical tests have thus demonstrated that the model can appropriately reproduce the coupled SMA behavior in different loading conditions and rates. Moreover, the algorithm has proved effective and robust. Further developments are being considered, such as the extension of the formulation to the finite-strain setting and the study of the boundary value problem.

Keywords: generalized gradient flow, GENERIC formalism, shape memory alloys, thermomechanical coupling

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Authors: Marie Alexandre, Jean Bernatchez

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This paper focuses on the complexity of the face-to-face-to-distance learning transition process. Our research action aims to support the process of transition from classroom to distance learning for teachers in higher education with regard to pedagogical practices that can meet the various needs of students using digital learning environments. In Quebec and elsewhere in the world, the advent of digital education is helping to transform teaching, which is significantly changing the role of teachers. While distance education implies a dissociation of teaching and learning to a variable degree in space and time, distance education (DE) is becoming more and increasingly becoming a preferred option for maintaining the delivery of certain programs and providing access to programs and to provide access to quality activities throughout Quebec. Given the impact of teaching practices on educational success, this paper reports on the results of three research objectives: 1) To document teachers' knowledge of teaching in distance education through the design, experimentation and production of a repertoire of the determinants of pedagogical practices in response to students' needs. 2) Explain, according to a gendered logic, the adequacy between the pedagogical practices implemented in distance learning and the response to the profiles and needs expressed by students using digital learning environments; 3) Produce a model of a support approach during the process of transition from classroom to distance learning at the college level. A mixed methodology, i.e., a quantitative component (questionnaire survey) and a qualitative component (explanatory interviews and living lab) was used in cycles that were part of an ongoing validation process. The intervention includes the establishment of a professional collaboration group, webinars training webinars for the participating teachers on the didactic issue of knowledge-teaching in FAD, the didactic use of technologies, and the differentiated socialization models of educational success in college education. All of the tools developed will be used by partners in the target environment as well as by all teacher educators, students in initial teacher training, practicing teachers, and the general public. The results show that access to training leading to qualifications and commitment to educational success reflects the existing links between the people in the educational community. The relational stakes of being present in distance education take on multiple configurations and different dimensions of learning testify to needs and realities that are sometimes distinct depending on the life cycle. This project will be of interest to partners in the targeted field as well as to all teacher trainers, students in initial teacher training, practicing college teachers, and to university professors. The entire educational community will benefit from digital resources in education. The scientific knowledge resulting from this action research will benefit researchers in the fields of pedagogy, didactics, teacher training and pedagogy in higher education in a digital context.

Keywords: action research, didactics, digital learning environment, distance learning, higher education, pedagogy technological, pedagogical content knowledge

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Authors: Ayten Tahirli

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Settlements and grave monuments discovered by archeological excavations conducted in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic have a special place in studying the Ancient history of Azerbaijan between the 4th century B.C. and the 3rd century A.C. From this point of view, the archeological excavations and investigations conducted at Oglankala, Goshatapa, Babatapa, Pusyan, Agvantapa, Meydantapa and other monuments in Nakhchivan have a specific place. From this point of view, the conclusions of archeological research conducted at the Oglankala settlement enable studying of Nakhchivan history, economic life and trade relationships broadly. Oglankala, which is located on Garatapa Mountain with a space of 50 ha, was the largest fortress in Nakhchivan and one of the largest fortresses in the South Caucasus during the Middle Iron Age. The territory where the monument is located is very important in terms of keeping Sharur Lowland, which has great importance for agriculture and is the most productive territory in Nakhchivan, where Arpachay passes starting from the Lesser Caucasus. During the excavations between 1988 and 1989 at Oglankala, covering the fortress's history belonging to the Early and Middle Iron Ages, indisputable proofs showing that the territory was an important political center were discovered at that territory. Oglankala was the capital city of an independent government during the Middle Iron Age. It maintained economic and cultural relationships with the neighboring Urartu Government and was the capital city of a city government covered by a strong protection system in the centuries after the collapse of the Achaemenid Empire. It is need say that broader archeological excavations at Oglankala City were first started by Vali Bakhshaliyev, the Department Head of the Institute of History, Ethnography and Archeology of ANAS Nakhchivan Branch. Between 1988 and 1989, V.B. Bakhshaliyev conducted an excavation within an area of 320 square meters at Oglankala. Since 2006, Oglankala has become a research object for the International Azerbaijan-USA archeological expedition. In 2006, Lauren Ristvet from Pennsylvania State University, Veli Bakhshaliyev from the Nakhchivan Branch of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and Safar Ashurov from Baku Office of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, together with their other colleagues and students, started to study the ancient history of that magic area. During the archeological research conducted by an international expedition between 2008 and 2011 under the supervision of Vali Bakhshaliyev, the remnants of a palace and the protective walls of a citadel constructed between late 9th century B.C. and early 8th century A.C. were discovered in that residential area. It was found out that Oglankala was the capital city of a small government established at Sharur Lowland during the Middle Iron Age and struggled against the Urartu by establishing a union with the local tribes. That government had a specific cuneiform script. Between the 4th and 2nd centuries B.C., Oglankala and the territory it covered was one of the major political centers of the Atropathena Government.

Keywords: Nakhchivan, Oglankala, settlement, ceramic, archaeological excavation

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Authors: Jessica J. Gillies

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Human trafficking is a gross violation of human rights and thus invokes a strong response particularly throughout the global academic community. A longstanding tension throughout academic debate remains the question of a relationship between anti-trafficking policy and sex industry policy. In Australia, over the previous decade, many human trafficking investigations have related to the sexual exploitation of female victims, and convictions in Australia to date have often been for trafficking women from Thailand. Sex industry policy in Australia varies between states, providing a rich contextual landscape in which to explore this relationship. The purpose of this study was to deconstruct how meaning is constructed surrounding human trafficking throughout these supposedly related political discourses in Australia. In order to analyse the discursive construction of the problem of human trafficking in relation to sex industry policy, a discursive analysis was conducted. The methodology of the study was informed by a feminist theoretical framework, and included academic sources and grey literature such as organisational reports and policy statements regarding anti-trafficking initiatives. The scope of grey literature was restricted to Australian and Thai government and non-government organisation texts. The chosen methodology facilitated a qualitative exploration of the influence of feminist discourses over political discourse in this arena. The discursive analysis exposed clusters of active feminist debates interacting with sex industry policy within individual states throughout Australia. Additionally, strongly opposed sex industry perspectives were uncovered within these competing feminist frameworks. While the influence these groups may exert over policy differs, the debate constructs a discursive relationship between human trafficking and sex industry policy. This is problematic because anti-trafficking policy is drawn to some extent from this discursive construction, therefore affecting support services for survivors of human trafficking. The discursive analysis further revealed misalignment between government and non-government priorities, Australian government anti-trafficking policy appears to favour criminal justice priorities; whereas non-government settings preference human rights protections. Criminal justice priorities invoke questions of legitimacy, leading to strict eligibility policy for survivors seeking support following exploitation in the Australian sex industry, undermining women’s agency and human rights. In practice, these two main findings demonstrate a construction of policy that has serious outcomes on typical survivors in Australia following a lived experience of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The discourses constructed by conflicting feminist arguments influence political discourses throughout Australia. The application of a feminist theoretical framework to the discursive analysis of the problem of human trafficking is unique to this study. The study has exposed a longstanding and unresolved feminist debate that has filtered throughout anti-trafficking political discourse. This study illuminates the problematic construction of anti-trafficking policy, and the implications in practice on survivor support services. Australia has received international criticism for the focus on criminal justice rather than human rights throughout anti-trafficking policy discourse. The outcome of this study has the potential to inform future language and constructive conversations contributing to knowledge around how policy effects survivors in the post trafficking experience.

Keywords: Australia, discursive analysis, government, human trafficking, non-government, Thailand

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Authors: Idoia Landa Oregi, Itsaso Gonzalez Ochoantesana, Olatz Nicolas Buxens, Carlo Ferretti

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The impact of citizens in urban transformations has become increasingly important in the pursuit of creating citizen-centered cities. Citizens at the forefront of the urban transformation process are key to establishing resilient, sustainable, and inclusive cities that cater to the needs of all residents. Therefore, collecting data and information directly from citizens is crucial for the sustainable development of cities. Within this context, public participation becomes a pillar for acquiring the necessary information from citizens. Public participation in urban transformation processes establishes a more responsive, equitable, and resilient urban environment. This approach cultivates a sense of shared responsibility and collective progress in building cities that truly serve the well-being of all residents. However, the implementation of public participation practices often overlooks strategies to effectively engage citizens in the processes, resulting in non-successful participatory outcomes. Therefore, this research focuses on identifying and analyzing the critical aspects of citizen engagement during the same participatory urban transformation process in different European contexts: Ermua (Spain), Elva (Estonia) and Matera (Italy). The participatory neighborhood regeneration process is divided into three main stages, to turn social districts into inclusive and smart neighborhoods: (i) the strategic level, (ii) the design level, and (iii) the implementation level. In the initial stage, the focus is on diagnosing the neighborhood and creating a shared vision with the community. The second stage centers around collaboratively designing various action plans to foster inclusivity and intelligence while pushing local economic development within the district. Finally, the third stage ensures the proper co-implementation of the designed actions in the neighborhood. To this date, the presented results critically analyze the key aspects of engagement in the first stage of the methodology, the strategic plan, in the three above-mentioned contexts. It is a multifaceted study that incorporates three case studies to shed light on the various perspectives and strategies adopted by each city. The results indicate that despite of the various cultural contexts, all cities face similar barriers when seeking to enhance engagement. Accordingly, the study identifies specific challenges within the participatory approach across the three cities such as the existence of discontented citizens, communication gaps, inconsistent participation, or administration resistance. Consequently, key learnings of the process indicate that a collaborative sphere needs to be cultivated, educating both citizens and administrations in the aspects of co-governance, giving these practices the appropriate space and their own communication channels. This study is part of the DROP project, funded by the European Union, which aims to develop a citizen-centered urban renewal methodology to transform the social districts into smart and inclusive neighborhoods.

Keywords: citizen-centred cities, engagement, public participation, urban transformation

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Authors: Atefeh Omidkhah, Mohammadreza Bemanian

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The issue of way-finding earmarks a wide range of literature in architecture and despite the 50 year background of way-finding studies, it still lacks a comprehensive theory for indoor settings. Way-finding has a notable role in emergency evacuation as well. People in the panic situation of a fire emergency need to find the safe egress route correctly and in as minimum time as possible. In this regard the parameters of an appropriate way-finding are mentioned in the evacuation related researches albeit scattered. This study reviews the fire safety related literature to extract a way-finding related framework for architectural purposes of the design of a safe evacuation route. In this regard a research trend review in addition with applied methodological approaches review is conducted. Then by analyzing eight original researches related to way-finding parameters in fire evacuation, main parameters that affect way-finding in emergency situation of a fire incident are extracted and a framework was developed based on them. Results show that the issues related to exit route and emergency evacuation can be chased in task oriented studies of way-finding. This research trend aims to access a high-level framework and in the best condition a theory that has an explanatory capability to define differences in way-finding in indoor/outdoor settings, complex/simple buildings and different building types or transitional spaces. The methodological advances demonstrate the evacuation way-finding researches in line with three approaches that the latter one is the most up-to-date and precise method to research this subject: real actors and hypothetical stimuli as in evacuation experiments, hypothetical actors and stimuli as in agent-based simulations and real actors and semi-real stimuli as in virtual reality environment by adding multi-sensory simulation. Findings on data-mining of 8 sample of original researches in way-finding in evacuation indicate that emergency way-finding design of a building should consider two level of space cognition problems in the time of emergency and performance consequences of them in the built environment. So four major classes of problems in way-finding which are visual information deficiency, confusing layout configuration, improper navigating signage and demographic issues had been defined and discussed as the main parameters that should be provided with solutions in design and interior of a building. In the design phase of complex buildings, which face more reported problem in way-finding, it is important to consider the interior components regarding to the building type of occupancy and behavior of its occupants and determine components that tend to become landmarks and set the architectural features of egress route in line with the directions that they navigate people. Research on topological cognition of environmental and its effect on way-finding task in emergency evacuation is proposed for future.

Keywords: architectural design, egress route, way-finding, fire safety, evacuation

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Authors: Panagiotis Gkekas, Christos Sougles, Dionysios Kehagias, Dimitrios Tzovaras

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This paper presents the architecture of the “Intelligent cooperative integrated system for road safety and road infrastructure maintenance towards 2020” (ODOS2020) advanced infrastructure, which implements a number of cooperative ITS applications based on Internet of Things and Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (V2I) technologies with the purpose to enhance the active road safety level of vehicles through the provision of a fully automated V2I environment. The primary objective of the ODOS2020 project is to contribute to increased road safety but also to the optimization of time for maintenance of road infrastructure. The integrated technological solution presented in this paper addresses all types of vehicles and requires minimum vehicle equipment. Thus, the ODOS2020 comprises a low-cost solution, which is one of its main benefits. The system architecture includes an integrated notification system to transmit personalized information on road, traffic, and environmental conditions, in order for the drivers to receive real-time and reliable alerts concerning upcoming critical situations. The latter include potential dangers on the road, such as obstacles or road works ahead, extreme environmental conditions, etc., but also informative messages, such as information on upcoming tolls and their charging policies. At the core of the system architecture lies an integrated sensorial network embedded in special road infrastructures (strips) that constantly collect and transmit wirelessly information about passing vehicles’ identification, type, speed, moving direction and other traffic information in combination with environmental conditions and road wear monitoring and predictive maintenance data. Data collected from sensors is transmitted by roadside infrastructure, which supports a variety of communication technologies such as ITS-G5 (IEEE-802.11p) wireless network and Internet connectivity through cellular networks (3G, LTE). All information could be forwarded to both vehicles and Traffic Management Centers (TMC) operators, either directly through the ITS-G5 network, or to smart devices with Internet connectivity, through cloud-based services. Therefore, through its functionality, the system could send personalized notifications/information/warnings and recommendations for upcoming events to both road users and TMC operators. In the course of the ODOS2020 project pilot operation has been conducted to allow drivers of both C-ITS equipped and non-equipped vehicles to experience the provided added value services. For non-equipped vehicles, the provided information is transmitted to a smartphone application. Finally, the ODOS2020 system and infrastructure is appropriate for installation on both urban, rural, and highway environments. The paper presents the various parts of the system architecture and concludes by outlining the various challenges that had to be overcome during its design, development, and deployment in a real operational environment. Acknowledgments: Work presented in this paper was co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (call RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE) under contract no. Τ1EDK-03081 (project ODOS2020).

Keywords: infrastructure to vehicle, intelligent transportation systems, internet of things, road safety

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Authors: Olivier Delage, Thierry Portafaix, Hassan Bencherif, Guillaume Guimbretiere

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Most observation data sequences in geophysics can be interpreted as resulting from the interaction of several physical processes at several time and space scales. As a consequence, measurements time series in geophysics have often characteristics of non-linearity and non-stationarity and thereby exhibit strong fluctuations at all time-scales and require a time-frequency representation to analyze their variability. Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is a relatively new technic as part of a more general signal processing method called the Hilbert-Huang transform. This analysis method turns out to be particularly suitable for non-linear and non-stationary signals and consists in decomposing a signal in an auto adaptive way into a sum of oscillating components named IMFs (Intrinsic Mode Functions), and thereby acts as a bank of bandpass filters. The advantages of the EMD technic are to be entirely data driven and to provide the principal variability modes of the dynamics represented by the original time series. However, the main limiting factor is the frequency resolution that may give rise to the mode mixing phenomenon where the spectral contents of some IMFs overlap each other. To overcome this problem, J. Gilles proposed an alternative entitled “Empirical Wavelet Transform” (EWT) which consists in building from the segmentation of the original signal Fourier spectrum, a bank of filters. The method used is based on the idea utilized in the construction of both Littlewood-Paley and Meyer’s wavelets. The heart of the method lies in the segmentation of the Fourier spectrum based on the local maxima detection in order to obtain a set of non-overlapping segments. Because linked to the Fourier spectrum, the frequency resolution provided by EWT is higher than that provided by EMD and therefore allows to overcome the mode-mixing problem. On the other hand, if the EWT technique is able to detect the frequencies involved in the original time series fluctuations, EWT does not allow to associate the detected frequencies to a specific mode of variability as in the EMD technic. Because EMD is closer to the observation of physical phenomena than EWT, we propose here a new technic called EAWD (Empirical Adaptive Wavelet Decomposition) based on the coupling of the EMD and EWT technics by using the IMFs density spectral content to optimize the segmentation of the Fourier spectrum required by EWT. In this study, EMD and EWT technics are described, then EAWD technic is presented. Comparison of results obtained respectively by EMD, EWT and EAWD technics on time series of ozone total columns recorded at Reunion island over [1978-2019] period is discussed. This study was carried out as part of the SOLSTYCE project dedicated to the characterization and modeling of the underlying dynamics of time series issued from complex systems in atmospheric sciences

Keywords: adaptive filtering, empirical mode decomposition, empirical wavelet transform, filter banks, mode-mixing, non-linear and non-stationary time series, wavelet

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Authors: Tiffany Chuang

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The study of inequality in urban space has typically emphasized class and race as dimensions of stratification, but a small and growing body of work also pays attention to exclusionary processes based on moral grounds, as is the case with mainstream disapproval of sexually oriented businesses and red-light districts. However, many sexually-oriented businesses co-exist with similar non-sexually oriented businesses in the tourism and broader entertainment industries. Furthermore, regulators and tourism- and entertainment industries are acknowledged by regulators and ordinary citizens as important contributors to the economy, and in the case of aspiring global cities, to urban prestige. Under such circumstances, it is important to examine how policymakers, residents, and other stakeholders distinguish between sexually oriented and non-sexually oriented businesses, as well as how such efforts shape moral geographies in urban settings. To address this question, this paper introduces the concept of permeable industries to describe businesses that, by their very nature of providing adult entertainment along with a measure of privacy and discretion, facilitate easy interchange between their officially sanctioned purposes and illicit or stigmatised uses, most notably by the sex industry. The permeability and ambiguity surrounding the sexual- and non-sexual activities in such establishments is in fact, a source of tension that generates energetic boundary-drawing exercises that designate legitimate from illegitimate establishments. This paper draws on three years of ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative research, and archival research (1920—2020) on Joo Chiat, a neighborhood in the city-state of Singapore. It then analyzes how middle-class residents reacted to the sudden influx of sexually oriented businesses in the early 2000s, turning the once-quiet residential and commercial neighborhood into a semi-red-light district staffed by migrant Asian women. Ironically, the red-light district had been inadvertently precipitated by the state’s neoliberal policies in the 1990s to cultivate suburban neighborhoods as decentralized tourist attractions while loosening social regulations in pursuit of global city ambitions. Residents mobilized around the discourse of “sleaze”, using it to draw symbolic boundaries while advocating for regulatory boundaries between sexually oriented and non-sexually oriented businesses in the neighborhood. Since the concept of “sleaze” was informed by middle-class distaste for low-status sex work, the result of residents’ efforts was a state-endorsed moral geography that excluded sexually-oriented businesses while tolerating adult-oriented entertainment businesses that dovetailed with global city aspirations. This study contributes to the study of urban inequality by demonstrating the importance of boundary work in reproducing respectability politics, which in turn shapes the urban geographies of moral worth.

Keywords: moral geography, boundary work, respectability politics, entertainment businesses

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Authors: Mariko Hara, Mari Aoki, Takako Ito, Masao Sugita

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Social distancing measures due to the COVID-19 crisis had a severe impact on music and art practices based in community settings. They had to re-think how to connect with their dispersed community using online tools. As the social distancing continues, there is an urgent need to investigate the possibilities of online community music and art practices. Are they sustainable actions that can have positive impacts on the community and the quality of lives of people over time? The Online Lindgren Café (hereafter ‘OLC’) is a monthly online literature event which started in June 2020. In the OLC, up to 14 members meet online to discuss the works of Astrid Lindgren and similar authors. Members come from various places in Japan and Norway, with a variety of expertise from music therapy, music education, psychotherapy, music sociology, storytelling, and theatre, and their family members join them. In these meetings, music and arts activities emerged in response to interests among the members. The resources and experiences of the members helped to develop these activities further. This paper first introduces one of the music and art activities in one specific event, a collaborative picture book-making with music, which was initiated and led by the second author. The third author chose the music, and the activity itself was recorded. This is followed by the description of a reflecting event, where the recording of the collaborative picture book-making activity was shared to facilitate further creations (drawings, haiku, and fabric weaving) as well as group reflections on the trajectories of the Online Lindgren Café. Finally, we will discuss the preliminary findings using the data collected at the reflecting event. Key findings suggest that the resource-driven approach of the OLC leveled the relationships among the intergenerational, multi-cultural, and interdisciplinary members. This enabled the members to set aside their professional and/or predominant identities, which allowed them to discover their own and others’ resources. The relaxed, unstructured, and liminal phenomenon at OLC can be regarded as a form of communitas, where members gain a sense of liberation and belonging in a different way from in-person communications. Participation from one’s home, as well as a video conferencing function that allowed the members to position themselves among the other participants in equal-sized windows, seems to have enabled members to feel safe to express themselves openly at the same time feel a sense of belonging. Furthermore, in the OLC, music and arts activities acted to inclusively connect and re-connect dispersed, intergenerational members with each other. For instance, in a music and drawing activity, music acted as a means for each member to engage in their own ‘drawing space’ while still feeling connected with the others. The positive experiences from these activities inspired the members to use similar approaches outside of the OLC. The finding suggests that, because of its resource-driven approach supported by the music and arts activities, the OLC could be developed further as a permeable and sustainable action even after any current social distancing measures are lifted.

Keywords: communitas, COVID-19, musical affordances, online community of practices, resource-driven approach

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Authors: Shelley Zion

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This study examines the longitudinal impact (10 years) of a course for education leaders designed to encourage the development of critical consciousness surrounding issues of equity, oppression, power, and privilege. The ability to resist and challenge oppression across social and cultural contexts can be acquired through the use of transformative pedagogies that create spaces that use the practice of exploration to make connections between pervasive structural and institutional practices and race and ethnicity. This study seeks to extend this understanding by exploring the longitudinal influence of participating in a course that utilizes transformative pedagogies, course materials, exercises, and activities to encourage the practice of exploration of student experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination with the end goal of providing them with the necessary knowledge and skills that foster their ability to resist and challenge oppression and discrimination -critical action- in their lives. To this end, we use the explanatory power of the theories of critical consciousness development, sociopolitical development, and social identity construction that view exploration as a crucial practice in understanding the role ethnic and racial differences play in creating opportunities or barriers in the lives of individuals. When educators use transformative pedagogies, they create a space where students collectively explore their experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination through course readings, in-class activities, and discussions. The end goal of this exploration is twofold: first, to encourage the student’s ability to understand how differences are identified, given meaning to, and used to position them in specific places and spaces in their world; second, to scaffold students’ ability to make connections between their individual and collective differences and particular institutional and structural practices that create opportunities or barriers in their lives. Studies have found the formal exploration of students’ individual and collective differences in relation to their experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination results in developing an understanding of the roles race and ethnicity play in their lives. To trace the role played by exploration in identity construction, we utilize an integrative approach to identity construction informed by multiple theoretical frameworks grounded in cultural studies, social psychology, and sociology that understand social-cultural, racial, and ethnic -identities as dynamic and ever-changing based on context-specific environments. Stuart Hall refers to this practice as taking “symbolic detours through the past” while reflecting on the different ways individuals have been positioned based on their roots (group membership) and also how they, in turn, chose to position themselves through collective sense-making of the various meanings their differences carried through the routes they have taken. The practice of exploration in the construction of ethnic-racial identities has been found to be beneficial to sociopolitical development.

Keywords: political polarization, civic participation, democracy, education

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Authors: Luis Reynaldo Mota-Santiago, Angélica Lozano

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Determining appropriate measures to face earthquakesarea challenge for practitioners. In the literature, some analyses consider disaster scenarios, disregarding some important field characteristics. Sometimes, software that allows estimating the number of victims and infrastructure damages is used. Other times historical information of previous events is used, or the scenarios’informationis assumed to be available even if it isnot usual in practice. Humanitarian operations start immediately after an earthquake strikes, and the first hours in relief efforts are important; local efforts are critical to assess the situation and deliver relief supplies to the victims. A preparation action is prepositioning stockpiles, most of them at central warehouses placed away from damage-prone areas, which requires large size facilities and budget. Usually, decisions in the first 12 hours (standard relief time (SRT)) after the disaster are the location of temporary depots and the design of distribution paths. The motivation for this research was the delay in the reaction time of the early relief efforts generating the late arrival of aid to some areas after the Mexico City 7.1 magnitude earthquake in 2017. Hence, a preparation approach for planning the immediate response to earthquake disasters is proposed, intended for local governments, considering their capabilities for planning and for responding during the SRT, in order to reduce the start-up time of immediate response operations in urban areas. The first steps are the generation and analysis of disaster scenarios, which allow estimatethe relief demand before and in the early hours after an earthquake. The scenarios can be based on historical data and/or the seismic hazard analysis of an Atlas of Natural Hazards and Risk as a way to address the limited or null available information.The following steps include the decision processes for: a) locating local depots (places to prepositioning stockpiles)and aid-giving facilities at closer places as possible to risk areas; and b) designing the vehicle paths for aid distribution (from local depots to the aid-giving facilities), which can be used at the beginning of the response actions. This approach allows speeding up the delivery of aid in the early moments of the emergency, which could reduce the suffering of the victims allowing additional time to integrate a broader and more streamlined response (according to new information)from national and international organizations into these efforts. The proposed approachis applied to two case studies in Mexico City. These areas were affectedby the 2017’s earthquake, having limited aid response. The approach generates disaster scenarios in an easy way and plans a faster early response with a short quantity of stockpiles which can be managed in the early hours of the emergency by local governments. Considering long-term storage, the estimated quantities of stockpiles require a limited budget to maintain and a small storage space. These stockpiles are useful also to address a different kind of emergencies in the area.

Keywords: disaster logistics, early response, generation of disaster scenarios, preparation phase

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Authors: Jelvin Tom Sebastian, Vinod Yeldho Baby

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In space, electronic devices are constantly attacked with radiation, which causes certain parts to fail or behave in unpredictable ways. To advance the thermal controllability for microsatellites, we need a new approach and thermal control system that is smaller than that on conventional satellites and that demand no electric power. Heat exchange inside the microsatellites is not that easy as conventional satellites due to the smaller size. With slight mass gain and no electric power, accommodating heat using phase change materials (PCMs) is a strong candidate for solving micro satellites' thermal difficulty. In other words, PCMs can absorb or produce heat in the form of latent heat, changing their phase and minimalizing the temperature fluctuation around the phase change point. The main restriction for these systems is thermal conductivity weakness of common PCMs. As PCM is having low thermal conductivity, it increases the melting and solidification time, which is not suitable for specific application like electronic cooling. In order to increase the thermal conductivity nanoparticles are introduced. Adding the nanoparticles in base PCM increases the thermal conductivity. Increase in weight concentration increases the thermal conductivity. This paper numerically investigates the thermal energy storage panel with nanoparticle enhanced phase change material. Silver nanostructure have increased the thermal properties of the base PCM, eicosane. Different weight concentration (1, 2, 3.5, 5, 6.5, 8, 10%) of silver enhanced phase change material was considered. Both steady state and transient analysis was performed to compare the characteristics of nanoparticle enhanced phase material at different heat loads. Results showed that in steady state, the temperature near the front panel reduced and temperature on NePCM panel increased as the weight concentration increased. With the increase in thermal conductivity more heat was absorbed into the NePCM panel. In transient analysis, it was found that the effect of nanoparticle concentration on maximum temperature of the system was reduced as the melting point of the material reduced with increase in weight concentration. But for the heat load of maximum 20W, the model with NePCM did not attain the melting point temperature. Therefore it showed that the model with NePCM is capable of holding more heat load. In order to study the heat load capacity double the load is given, maximum of 40W was given as first half of the cycle and the other is given constant OW. Higher temperature was obtained comparing the other heat load. The panel maintained a constant temperature for a long duration according to the NePCM melting point. In both the analysis, the uniformity of temperature of the TESP was shown. Using Ag-NePCM it allows maintaining a constant peak temperature near the melting point. Therefore, by altering the weight concentration of the Ag-NePCM it is possible to create an optimum operating temperature required for the effective working of the electronics components.

Keywords: carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer, micro/nano-satellite, nanoparticle phase change material, thermal energy storage

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Authors: Cynthia Adlerstein-Grimberg, Andrea Bralic-Echeverría

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An extensive and controversial research debate discusses pedagogical documentation (PD) within early childhood education (ECE) as integral to ECE teachers' professional development. The literature converges in acknowledging that ICT integration in PD can be fundamental for children's and teachers' collaborative learning by making their processes visible and open to reflection. Controversial issues about PD emerge around ICT integration and the use of multimedia applications and platforms, displacing the physical experience involved in this pedagogical practice. Authors argue that online platforms make PD become a passive device to demonstrate accountability and performance. Furthermore, ICT integration would make educators inform children and families of pedagogical processes, positioning them more as consumers instead of involving them in collective thinking and pedagogical decision-making. This article analyses how pedagogical documentation mediated by a multimedia application (MAFApp) allows for the positive strengthening of an ECE pedagogical online community that thinks collectively about learning environments. In doing so, the paper shows how ICT integration supports ECE teachers' collective online thinking, enabling them to move from the controversial version of online PD, where they only act as informers of children's learning and assume a voyeuristic perspective, towards a collective online thinking that builds professional development and supports pedagogical decision-making about learning environments. This article answers How ECE teachers' pedagogical documentation evolves with ICT integration using the MAFApp multimedia application in a national ECE online community. From a posthumanist stance, this paper draws on an 18-month collaborative ethnographic immersion in Chile's unique public ECE online PD community. It develops a unique case study of an online ECE pedagogical community mediated by a multimedia application called MAFApp. This ECE online community includes 32 Chilean public kindergartens, 45 ECE teachers, and 72 assistants, who produced 534 pedagogical documentation. Fieldwork included 35 in-depth interviews, 13 discussion groups, and the constant comparison method for the PD coding. Findings show ICT integration in PD builds collective online thinking that evolves through four moments of growing complexity: 1) teachernalism of built environments, 2) onlookerism of children's anecdotes in learning environments; 3) storytelling of children's place-making, and 4) empowering pedagogies for co-creating learning environments. ICT integration through the MAFApp multimedia application enabled ECE teachers to build collective online thinking, making pedagogies of place visible and engaging children in co-constructing learning environments. This online PD is a continuous professional learning space for ECE teachers, empowering pedagogies of place. In conclusion, ICT integration into PD progressively empowers pedagogies of place in Chilean public ECE. Strengthening collective online thinking using the MAFApp multimedia application sharply contrasts with some recent PD research findings. ICT integration to PD enabled strong collective online thinking. Doing so makes PD operate as a place of professional development, pedagogical reflective encounters, and experimentation while inhabiting their own learning environments with children.

Keywords: early childhood education, ICT integration, multimedia application, online collective thinking, pedagogical documentation, professional development

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Authors: Vinti Davar

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Introduction: Childhood overweight increases the risk for certain medical and psychological conditions. Millions of school-age children worldwide are affected by serious yet easily treatable and preventable illnesses that inhibit their ability to learn. Healthier children stay in school longer, attend more regularly, learn more and become healthier and more productive adults. Schools are an important setting for nutrition education because one can reach most children, teachers and parents. These years offer a key window for shaping their lifetime habits, which have an impact on their health throughout life. Against this background, an attempt was made to impart nutrition education to school children in Haryana state of India to promote healthy food choices and assess the effectiveness of this program. Methodology: This study was completed in two phases. During the first phase, pre-intervention anthropometric and dietary survey was conducted; the teaching materials for nutrition intervention program were developed and tested; and the questionnaire was validated. In the second phase, an intervention was implemented in two schools of Kurukshetra, Haryana for six months by personal visits once a week. A total of 350 children in the age group of 6-12 years were selected. Out of these, 279 children, 153 boys and 126 girls completed the study. The subjects were divided into four groups namely: underweight, normal, overweight and obese based on body mass index-for-age categories. A power point colorful presentation to improve the quality of tiffin, snacks and meals emphasizing inclusion of all food groups especially vegetables every day and fruits at least 3-4 days per week was used. An extra 20 minutes of aerobic exercise daily was likewise organized and a healthy school environment created. Provision of clean drinking water by school authorities was ensured. Selling of soft drinks and energy-dense snacks in the school canteen as well as advertisements about soft drink and snacks on the school walls were banned. Post intervention, anthropometric indices and food selections were reassessed. Results: The results of this study reiterate the critical role of nutrition education and promotion in improving the healthier food choices by school children. It was observed that normal, overweight and obese children participating in nutrition education intervention program significantly (p≤0.05) increased their daily seasonal fruit and vegetable consumption. Fat and oil consumption was significantly reduced by overweight and obese subjects. Fast food intake was controlled by obese children. The nutrition knowledge of school children significantly improved (p≤0.05) from pre to post intervention. A highly significant increase (p≤0.00) was noted in the nutrition attitude score after intervention in all four groups. Conclusion: This study has shown that a well-planned nutrition education program could improve nutrition knowledge and promote positive changes in healthy food choices. A nutrition program inculcates wholesome eating and active life style habits in children and adolescents that could not only prevent them from chronic diseases and early death but also reduce healthcare cost and enhance the quality of life of citizens and thereby nations.

Keywords: children, eating habits healthy food, obesity, school going, fast foods

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Authors: Frederica Pettit

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Contribution: Stakeholder involvement in CSR is essential to ensuring pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours across multi-stakeholder groups. Despite increased awareness of the benefits surrounding a collaborative approach to sustainability communications, its success is limited by difficulties engaging with active online conversations with stakeholder groups. Whilst previous research defines the effectiveness of sustainability communications; this paper contributes to knowledge through the development of a theoretical framework that explores the processes to achieving pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours in stakeholder groups. The research will also consider social media as an opportunity to communicate CSR information to all stakeholder groups. Approach: A systematic review was chosen to investigate the effectiveness of the types of sustainability communications used in the hospitality and tourism industries. The systematic review was completed using Web of Science and Scopus using the search terms “sustainab* communicat*” “effective or effectiveness,” and “hospitality or tourism,” limiting the results to peer-reviewed research. 133 abstracts were initially read, with articles being excluded for irrelevance, duplicated articles, non-empirical studies, and language. A total of 45 papers were included as part of the systematic review. 5 propositions were created based on the results of the systematic review, helping to develop a theoretical framework of the processes needed for companies to encourage pro-environmental behaviours across multi-stakeholder groups. Results: The theoretical framework developed in the paper determined the processes necessary for companies to achieve pro-environmental behaviours in stakeholders. The processes to achieving pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours are stakeholder-focused, identifying the need for communications to be specific to their targeted audience. Collaborative communications that enable stakeholders to engage with CSR information and provide feedback lead to a higher awareness of CSR shared visions and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. These processes should also aim to improve their relationships with stakeholders through transparency of CSR, CSR strategies that match stakeholder values and ethics whilst prioritizing sustainability as part of their job role. Alternatively, companies can prioritize pro-environmental behaviours using choice editing by mainstreaming sustainability as the only option. In recent years, there has been extensive research on social media as a viable source of sustainability communications, with benefits including direct interactions with stakeholders, the ability to enforce the authenticity of CSR activities and encouragement of pro-environmental behaviours. Despite this, there are challenges to implementing CSR, including difficulties controlling stakeholder criticisms, negative stakeholder influences and comments left on social media platforms. Conclusion: A lack of engagement with CSR information is a reoccurring reason for preventing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours across stakeholder groups. Traditional CSR strategies contribute to this due to their inability to engage with their intended audience. Hospitality and tourism companies are improving stakeholder relationships through collaborative processes which reduce single-use plastic consumption. A collaborative approach to communications can lead to stakeholder satisfaction, leading to changes in attitudes and behaviours. Different sources of communications are accessed by different stakeholder groups, identifying the need for targeted sustainability messaging, creating benefits such as direct interactions with stakeholders, the ability to enforce the authenticity of CSR activities, and encouraging engagement with sustainability information.

Keywords: hospitality, pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, sustainability communication, social media

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Authors: Magdalena Idzikowska, Katarzyna Pająk, Kamil Kowalczyk

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Seafloor topography is a fundamental issue in geological, geophysical, and oceanographic studies. Single-beam or multibeam sonars attached to the hulls of ships are used to emit a hydroacoustic signal from transducers and reproduce the topography of the seabed. This solution provides relevant accuracy and spatial resolution. Bathymetric data from ships surveys provides National Centers for Environmental Information – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Unfortunately, most of the seabed is still unidentified, as there are still many gaps to be explored between ship survey tracks. Moreover, such measurements are very expensive and time-consuming. The solution is raster bathymetric models shared by The General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans. The offered products are a compilation of different sets of data - raw or processed. Indirect data for the development of bathymetric models are also measurements of gravity anomalies. Some forms of seafloor relief (e.g. seamounts) increase the force of the Earth's pull, leading to changes in the sea surface. Based on satellite altimetry data, Sea Surface Height and marine gravity anomalies can be estimated, and based on the anomalies, it’s possible to infer the structure of the seabed. The main goal of the work is to create regional bathymetric models and models of the sea surface in the area of the east coast of North America – a region of seamounts and undulating seafloor. The research includes an analysis of the methods and techniques used, an evaluation of the interpolation algorithms used, model thickening, and the creation of grid models. Obtained data are raster bathymetric models in NetCDF format, survey data from multibeam soundings in MB-System format, and satellite altimetry data from Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service. The methodology includes data extraction, processing, mapping, and spatial analysis. Visualization of the obtained results was carried out with Geographic Information System tools. The result is an extension of the state of the knowledge of the quality and usefulness of the data used for seabed and sea surface modeling and knowledge of the accuracy of the generated models. Sea level is averaged over time and space (excluding waves, tides, etc.). Its changes, along with knowledge of the topography of the ocean floor - inform us indirectly about the volume of the entire water ocean. The true shape of the ocean surface is further varied by such phenomena as tides, differences in atmospheric pressure, wind systems, thermal expansion of water, or phases of ocean circulation. Depending on the location of the point, the higher the depth, the lower the trend of sea level change. Studies show that combining data sets, from different sources, with different accuracies can affect the quality of sea surface and seafloor topography models.

Keywords: seafloor, sea surface height, bathymetry, satellite altimetry

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Authors: Pedro A. Marques, Francisco Monteiro, Alessandra Zumbo, Alessia Simonini, Miguel A. Mendez

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Cryogenic fuels such as Liquid Hydrogen (LH₂) must be transported and stored at extremely low temperatures. Without expensive active cooling solutions, preventing fuel boil-off over time is impossible. Hence, one must resort to venting systems at the cost of significant energy and fuel mass loss. These losses increase significantly in propellant tanks installed on vehicles, as the presence of external accelerations induces sloshing. Sloshing increases heat and mass transfer rates and leads to significant pressure oscillations, which might further trigger propellant venting. To make LH₂ economically viable, it is essential to minimize these factors by using advanced control techniques. However, these require accurate modelling and a full understanding of the tank's thermodynamics. The present research aims to implement a simple thermodynamic model capable of predicting the state of a cryogenic fuel tank under different operating conditions (i.e., filling, pressurization, fuel extraction, long-term storage, and sloshing). Since this model relies on a set of closure parameters to drive the system's transient response, it must be calibrated using experimental or numerical data. This work focuses on the former approach, wherein the model is calibrated through an experimental campaign carried out on a reduced-scale model of a cryogenic tank. The thermodynamic model of the system is composed of three control volumes: the ullage, the liquid, and the insulating walls. Under this lumped formulation, the governing equations are derived from energy and mass balances in each region, with mass-averaged properties assigned to each of them. The gas-liquid interface is treated as an infinitesimally thin region across which both phases can exchange mass and heat. This results in a coupled system of ordinary differential equations, which must be closed with heat and mass transfer coefficients between each control volume. These parameters are linked to the system evolution via empirical relations derived from different operating regimes of the tank. The derivation of these relations is carried out using an inverse method to find the optimal relations that allow the model to reproduce the available data. This approach extends classic system identification methods beyond linear dynamical systems via a nonlinear optimization step. Thanks to the data-driven assimilation of the closure problem, the resulting model accurately predicts the evolution of the tank's thermodynamics at a negligible computational cost. The lumped model can thus be easily integrated with other submodels to perform complete system simulations in real time. Moreover, by setting the model in a dimensionless form, a scaling analysis allowed us to relate the tested configurations to a representative full-size tank for naval applications. It was thus possible to compare the relative importance of different transport phenomena between the laboratory model and the full-size prototype among the different operating regimes.

Keywords: destratification, hydrogen, modeling, pressure-drop, pressurization, sloshing, thermodynamics

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Authors: Yuliya Y. Gavrichenko

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Background and Aims: The increasing bacterial resistance to almost all the available antibiotics has encouraged scientists to search for alternative sources of antibacterial agents. Nowadays, it is known that many plant secondary metabolites have diverse biological activity. These compounds can be potentially active against human bacterial and viral infections. Extended research has been carried out to explore the use of the luminescent bacterial test as a rapid, accurate and inexpensive method to assess the antibacterial properties and to predict the biological activity spectra for plant origin substances. Method: Botanical material of fifteen species was collected from their natural and cultural habitats on the Crimean peninsula. The aqueous extracts of following plants were tested: Robinia pseudoacacia L., Sideritis comosa, Cotinus coggygria Scop., Thymus serpyllum L., Juglans regia L., Securigera varia L., Achillea millefolium L., Phlomis taurica, Corylus avellana L., Sambucus nigra L., Helichrysum arenarium L., Glycyrrhiza glabra L., Elytrigia repens L., Echium vulgare L., Conium maculatum L. The test was carried out using luminous strains of marine bacteria Photobacterium leiognathi, which was isolated from the Sea of Azov as well as four Escherichia coli MG1655 recombinant strains harbouring Vibrio fischeri luxCDABE genes. Results: The bactericidal capacity of plant extracts showed significant differences in the study. Cotinus coggygria, Phlomis taurica, Juglans regia L. proved to be the most toxic to P. leiognathi. (EC50 = 0.33 g dried plant/l). Glycyrrhiza glabra L., Robinia pseudoacacia L., Sideritis comosa and Helichrysum arenarium L. had moderate inhibitory effects (EC50 = 3.3 g dried plant/l). The rest of the aqueous extracts have decreased the luminescence of no more than 50% at the lowest concentration (16.5 g dried plant/l). Antibacterial activity of herbal extracts against constitutively luminescent E. coli MG1655 (pXen7-lux) strain was observed at approximately the same level as for P. leiognathi. Cotinus coggygria and Conium maculatum L. extracts have increased light emission in the mutant E. coli MG1655 (pFabA-lux) strain which is associated with cell membranes damage. Sideritis comosa, Phlomis taurica, Juglans regia induced SOS response in E. coli (pColD-lux) strain. Glycyrrhiza glabra L. induced protein damage response in E. coli MG1655 (pIbpA-lux) strain. Conclusion: The received results have shown that the plants’ extracts had nonspecific antimicrobial effects against both E. coli (pXen7-lux) and P. leiognathi biosensors. Mutagenic, cytotoxic and protein damage effects have been observed. In general, the bioluminescent inhibition test result correlated with the traditional use of screened plants. It leads to the following conclusion that whole-cell luminescent biosensors could be the indicator of overall plants antibacterial capacity. The results of the investigation have shown a possibility of bioluminescent method in medicine and pharmacy as an approach to research the antibacterial properties of medicinal plants.

Keywords: antibacterial property, bioluminescence, medicinal plants, whole-cell biosensors

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Authors: Signe Svensson, Remy Rey, Anna-Lisa Osvalder, Henrik Artman, Lars Nordström

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The electric power system is undergoing significant changes. Thereby, the operation and control are becoming partly modified, more multifaceted and automated, and thereby supplementary operator skills might be required. This paper discusses developing operational challenges in future power system control rooms, posed by the evolving landscape of sustainable power systems, driven in turn by the shift towards electrification and renewable energy sources. A literature review followed by interviews and a comparison to other related domains with similar characteristics, a descriptive analysis was performed from a human factors perspective. Analysis is meant to identify trends, relationships, and challenges. A power control domain taxonomy includes a temporal domain (planning and real-time operation) and three operational domains within the power system (generation, switching and balancing). Within each operational domain, there are different control actions, either in the planning stage or in the real-time operation, that affect the overall operation of the power system. In addition to the temporal dimension, the control domains are divided in space between a multitude of different actors distributed across many different locations. A control room is a central location where different types of information are monitored and controlled, alarms are responded to, and deviations are handled by the control room operators. The operators’ competencies, teamwork skills, team shift patterns as well as control system designs are all important factors in ensuring efficient and safe electricity grid management. As the power system evolves with sustainable energy technologies, challenges are found. Questions are raised regarding whether the operators’ tacit knowledge, experience and operation skills of today are sufficient to make constructive decisions to solve modified and new control tasks, especially during disturbed operations or abnormalities. Which new skills need to be developed in planning and real-time operation to provide efficient generation and delivery of energy through the system? How should the user interfaces be developed to assist operators in processing the increasing amount of information? Are some skills at risk of being lost when the systems change? How should the physical environment and collaborations between different stakeholders within and outside the control room develop to support operator control? To conclude, the system change will provide many benefits related to electrification and renewable energy sources, but it is important to address the operators’ challenges with increasing complexity. The control tasks will be modified, and additional operator skills are needed to perform efficient and safe operations. Also, the whole human-technology-organization system needs to be considered, including the physical environment, the technical aids and the information systems, the operators’ physical and mental well-being, as well as the social and organizational systems.

Keywords: operator, process control, energy system, sustainability, future control room, skill

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Authors: Sunha Ahn

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Intimate relationships have constructed our embodied experiences and emotional memories, which can become grounded as practical knowledge to some extent and play a critical role in social medicine, particularly, in our well-being and mental health. In South Africa, such relational factors are significant for young women and girls in their emotional development period of time, especially, working as the existence of social and relational pressures over feminine sexual health and choices. This, in turn, brings about the absence/lack of communication in intimate relationships, especially with their parents, which leads to a vicious cycle in sexual health behaviour choices. Drawing upon sociological and socio-anthropological understandings of HIV-related issues, this study provides narrative threads of evidence about South African teenage mothers from early-dating debuted to HIV infection. Their stories consist of a visualised figure in chronicle order, illustrating embodied journeys of sexual health choices surrounding uncommunicative relationships and socially-suppressive environments. Methodologically, this qualitative study explored data from mixed online methods: 1) a case study analysing online comments (N = 12,763) on the South African Springster's website, run by the UK-based NGO, namely, Girl Effect; and 2) In-depth online interviews (N = 21) were conducted with young SA women and girls (16-28 ages) recruited in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Johannesburg, SA. Participants consist of both those living with HIV and without. Ethical approval was gained via the College of Social Sciences Ethical Committee at the University of Glasgow, and informed consent was obtained verbally and in writing from participants in due course. Data were thematically applied to an iteratively developed codebook and analysed. There are three kinds of typical pressures as relational factors for them, including peer pressure, partners or boyfriends, and parents’ reactions. Under the patriarchal and religious-devoted social atmospheres, these relationships work as a source of scaredness among young women and girls who could not talk about their sexual health concerns and rights. Such an inability to communicate with intimate relationships, eventually, emerges as a perpetuated or taken-for-granted social environment in South Africa, insistently leading to an increase in unwanted pregnancies or new HIV infections in young South African women and girls. In this sense, this study reveals the pressing need for open communication between generations with accurate information about HIV/AIDS. This also implies that the sociological feminist praxes in South Africa would help eliminate HIV-related stigma as well as construct open space to reduce gender-based violence and sexually-transmitted infection. Ultimately, this will be a road for supporting sexually healthy decisions and well-being across South African generations.

Keywords: HIV, young women, South Africa, intimate relationships, communication, social medicine

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