Search results for: environmental education

Authors: Natalia Sáez, Dina Shulfman

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There is an important research gap regarding accessible pedagogical techniques for teaching foreign languages to adults with visual impairments. English as a foreign language (EFL), in particular, is needed in many countries to expand occupational opportunities and improve living standards. Within EFL research, teaching and learning prepositions have only recently gained momentum, considering that they constitute one of the most difficult structures to learn in a foreign language and are fundamental for communicating about spatial relations in the world, both on the physical and imaginary levels. Learning to use prepositions would not only facilitate communication when referring to the surrounding tangible environment but also when conveying ideas about abstract topics (e.g., justice, love, society), for which students’ sociocultural knowledge about space could play an important role. By potentiating visually impaired students’ ability to construe mental spatial imagery, this study made efforts to explore pedagogical techniques that cater to their strengths, helping them create new worlds by welcoming and expanding their sociocultural funds of knowledge as they learn to use English prepositions. Fifteen visually impaired adults living in Chile participated in the study. Their first language was Spanish, and they were learning English at the intermediate level of proficiency in an EFL workshop at La Biblioteca Central para Ciegos (The Central Library for the Blind). Within this workshop, a series of activities and interviews were designed and implemented with the intention of uncovering students’ spatial funds of knowledge when learning literal/physical uses of three English prepositions, namely “in,” “at,” and “on”. The activities and interviews also explored whether students used their original spatial funds of knowledge when learning metaphorical uses of these prepositions and if their use of spatial imagery changed throughout the learning activities. Over the course of approximately half a year, it soon became clear that the students construed mental images of space when learning both literal/physical and metaphorical uses of these prepositions. This research could inform a new approach to inclusive language education using pedagogical methods that are relevant and accessible to students with visual impairments.

Keywords: EFL, funds of knowledge, prepositions, spatial cognition, visually impaired students

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Authors: Eun Jae Ko, In Young Sung, Eui Soo Joeng

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Cognitive impairment is commonly encountered problem in children with various clinical diseases, including Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, brain injury, and others. Cognitive impairment limits participation in education and society, and this further hinders development in cognition. However, young children with cognitive impairment tend not to respond well to traditional cognitive treatments, therefore alternative treatment choices are need. As a cognitive training program, touch screen technology can easily be applied to very young children by involving visual and auditory support. Injini was developed as tablet computer based cognitive rehabilitation program for young children or individuals with severe cognitive impairment, which targeted on cognitive ages of 18 to 36 months. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a tablet computer based cognitive rehabilitation program (Injini) for children with cognitive impairment. 38 children between cognitive ages of 18 to 36 months confirmed by cognitive evaluations were recruited and randomly assigned to the intervention group (n=20) and the control group (n=18). The intervention group received tablet computer based cognitive rehabilitation program (Injini) for 30 minutes per session, twice a week, over a period of 12 weeks, in addition to the traditional rehabilitation program. The control group received traditional rehabilitation program only. Mental score of Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID II), Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB), Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ), and Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) were evaluated before and after 12 weeks of therapeutic intervention. When comparing the baseline characteristics, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the measurements of cognitive function. After 12 weeks of treatment, both group showed improvements in all measurements. However, in comparison of improvements after treatment, the intervention group showed more improvements in the mental score of BSID II, social function domain of PEDI, observation domain of Lab-TAB, and GAS, as compared to the control group. Application of the tablet computer based cognitive rehabilitation program (Injini) would be beneficial for improvement of cognitive function in young children with cognitive impairment.

Keywords: cognitive therapy, computer-assisted therapy, early intervention, tablets

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Authors: Dwi Kartika Rukmi, Miftafu Darussalam

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Background: The disclosure of women’s HIV status toward their sexual partners is an important issue that should be regarded as one of the efforts to prevent and control the spread of HIV. Research on the disclosure of seropositive HIV status as well as women-related factors in Indonesia, especially Yogyakarta is only a few. Methods: This is a correlational descriptive research along with its cross-sectional approach on 329 women with HIV/AIDS at the Victory Plus NGO from June to July 2016. This research used a purposive sampling method and a questionnaire as the data collection technique. The bivariate analysis test was undertaken by using a chi-square and multivariate test along with a logistic regression. Result: The multivariate analysis and logistic regression show five independent variables related to the disclosure of seropositive HIV status of women with HIV/AIDS toward their sexual partners, namely ethnicity (aOR = 36,859; 95% CI; (6,544-207,616)) religion (aOR =0,255; 95%CI; (0,075-0,868)), discussion with partners prior to the HIV test (aOR =0,069; 95%CI; (0,065-0,438)) , types of sexual partners (aOR = 0.191; 95% CI; (0.082-0,445)) and knowledge on the partners’ HIV status (aOR = 0.036; 95% CI; (0.008-0.160)). The highest level of reason for seropositive HIV women not to be open about their partners’ status is the fear of being rejected by their partners and the environmental stigma of HIV AIDS disease. Conclusion: The disclosure of seropositive HIV status in women with HIV/AIDS in the Victory Plus NGO of Yogyakarta was 79.4% or classified as a high category with some related factors such as ethnicity, religion, discussion with partners prior to the HIV test, types of partners and knowledge on the partners’ HIV status.

Keywords: women, HIV, disclosure, sexual partner

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Authors: Nicholas Reinicke, Brennan Borlaug, Matthew Moniot

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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant change in driving behavior as people respond to the new environment. However, existing methods for analyzing driver behavior, such as travel surveys and travel demand models, are not suited for incorporating abrupt environmental disruptions. To address this, we analyze a set of high-resolution trip data and introduce two new metrics for quantifying driving behavioral shifts as a function of time, allowing us to compare the time periods before and after the pandemic began. We apply these metrics to the Denver, Colorado metropolitan statistical area (MSA) to demonstrate the utility of the metrics. Then, we present a case study for comparing two distinct MSAs, Louisville, Kentucky, and Des Moines, Iowa, which exhibit significant differences in the makeup of their labor markets. The results indicate that although the regions of study exhibit certain unique driving behavioral shifts, emerging trends can be seen when comparing between seemingly distinct regions. For instance, drivers in all three MSAs are generally shown to have spent more time at residential locations and less time in workplaces in the time period after the pandemic started. In addition, workplaces that may be incompatible with remote working, such as hospitals and certain retail locations, generally retained much of their pre-pandemic travel activity.

Keywords: COVID-19, driver behavior, GPS data, signal analysis, telework

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Authors: Mina Bakhshi

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Nowadays, issues such as various types of pollution, problems caused by energy consumption, population density, social activities, difficulties related to urban access and communication, transportation, etc., have challenged different communities and become the subject of their discussions. In response to this issue, theories and movements have emerged to achieve sustainable urban development, including the smart growth movement. This theory emphasizes that the physical growth and expansion of cities should serve the community and the environment, aiming to improve the quality of life and promote the use of renewable energy resources for sustainability. The smart city network system not only improves the economic situation of the society and benefits the environment but also enables the achievement of important issues such as sustainable development, continuity, and diversity of energy resources. In this article, we investigate the impact of using renewable energy sources on optimizing energy consumption and reducing pollution caused by fossil fuels with the help of smart city development. The aim of this article is to introduce renewable energy sources and their utilization as a solution to address the energy crisis and reduce environmental pollution. This research has attempted to introduce the smart city and the use of renewable energy sources as a method for solving many urban problems and achieving efficient urban control and management.

Keywords: smart city, renewable energy sources, sustainable development, sustainable city

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Authors: Yu-Chen Chang, Yen-Ping Peng, Wei-Yu Chen, Ku-Fan Chen

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Contamination of soil and groundwater has become a serious and widespread environmental problem. In this study, sustained-release persulfate tablets were developed using persulfate powder and a modified cellulose binder for organic-contaminated groundwater remediation. Conventional cement-based persulfate-releasing materials were also synthesized for the comparison. The main objectives of this study were to: (1) evaluate the release rates of the remedial tablets; (2) obtain the optimal formulas of the tablets; and (3) evaluate the effects of the tablets on the subsurface environment. The results of batch experiments show that the optimal parameter for the preparation of the persulfate-releasing tablet was persulfate:cellulose = 1:1 (wt:wt) with a 5,000 kg F/cm2 of pressure application. The cellulose-based persulfate tablet was able to release 2,030 mg/L of persulfate per day for 10 days. Compared to cement-based persulfate-releasing materials, the persulfate release rates of the cellulose-based persulfate tablets were much more stable. Moreover, since the tablets are soluble in water, no waste will be produced in the subsurface. The results of column tests show that groundwater flow would shorten the release time of the tablets. This study successfully developed unique persulfate tablets based on green remediation perspective. The efficacy of the persulfate-releasing tablets on the removal of organic pollutants needs to be further evaluated. The persulfate tablets are expected to be applied for site remediation in the future.

Keywords: sustained-release persulfate tablet, modified cellulose, green remediation, groundwater

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Authors: Suha Alawadhi, Malak Alrasheed

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In the recent past, public participation in governments has been declined to a great extent, as citizens have been isolated from community life and their ability to articulate demands for good government has been noticeably decreased. However, the Internet has introduced new forms of interaction that could enhance different types of relationships, including government-public relationship. In fact, technology-enabled government has become a catalyst for enabling social inclusion. This exploratory study seeks to investigate public perceptions in Kuwait regarding the use of social media networks in government where social capital is built to achieve social inclusion. Social capital has been defined as social networks and connections amongst individuals, that are based on shared trust, ideas and norms, enable participants of a network to act effectively to pursue a shared objective. The quantitative method was used to generate empirical evidence. A questionnaire was designed to address the research objective and reflect the identified constructs: social capital dimensions (bridging, bonding and maintaining social capital), social inclusion, and social equality. In this pilot study, data was collected from a random sample of 61 subjects. The results indicate that all participants have a positive attitude towards the dimensions of social capital (bridging, bonding and maintaining), social inclusion and social equality constructs. Tests of identified constructs against demographic characteristics indicate that there are significant differences between male and female as they perceived bonding and maintaining social capital, social inclusion and social equality whereas no difference was identified in their perceptions of bridging social capital. Also, those who are aged 26-30 perceived bonding and maintaining social capital, social inclusion and social equality negatively compared to those aged 20-25, 31-35, and 40-above whose perceptions were positive. With regard to education, the results also show that those holding high school, university degree and diploma perceived maintaining social capital positively higher than with those who hold graduate degrees. Moreover, a regression model is proposed to study the effect of bridging, bonding, and maintaining social capital on social inclusion via social equality as a mediator. This exploratory study is necessary for testing the validity and reliability of the questionnaire which will be used in the main study that aims to investigate the perceptions of individuals towards building social capital to achieve social inclusion.

Keywords: government, social capital, social inclusion, social networks

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Authors: Chiung-Hui Chen

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With advancements in science and technology, the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) has gradually developed. The development of the intelligent environment adds intelligence to objects in the living space by using the IoT. In the smart environment, when multiple users share the living space, if different service requirements from different users arise, then the context-aware system will have conflicting situations for making decisions about providing services. Therefore, the purpose of establishing a communication and negotiation mechanism among objects in the intelligent environment is to resolve those service conflicts among users. This study proposes developing a decision-making methodology that uses “Event Agents” as its core. When the sensor system receives information, it evaluates a user’s current events and conditions; analyses object, location, time, and environmental information; calculates the priority of the object; and provides the user services based on the event. Moreover, when the event is not single but overlaps with another, conflicts arise. This study adopts the “Multiple Events Correlation Matrix” in order to calculate the degree values of incidents and support values for each object. The matrix uses these values as the basis for making inferences for system service, and to further determine appropriate services when there is a conflict.

Keywords: internet of things, intelligent object, event agents, negotiation mechanism, degree of similarity

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Authors: Susan Lubbers

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This study applies critical discourse analysis to the language used by educators to frame international students of Asian backgrounds in Anglo-Western universities as quiet, shy, passive and unable to think critically. Emphasis is on the self-promoted ‘internationalised’ Australian tertiary context, where negative stereotypes are commonly voiced not only in the academy but also in the media. Parallels are drawn as well with other Anglo-Western educational contexts. The study critically compares the discourse of these persistent negative stereotypes, with in-class and interview discourses of international students of Asian and Western language, cultural and educational backgrounds enrolled in a Media and Popular Culture unit in an Australian university. The focus of analysis of the student discourse is on their engagement in critical dialogic interactions on the topics of culture and interculturality. The evidence is also drawn from student interviews and focus groups and from observation of whole-class discussion participation rates. The findings of the research project provide evidence that counters the myth of student as problem. They point rather to the widespread lack of intercultural awareness of Western educators and students as being at the heart of the negative perceptions of students of Asian backgrounds. The study suggests the efficacy of an approach to developing intercultural competence that is embedded, or integrated, into tertiary programs. The presentation includes an overview of the main strategies that have been developed by the tertiary educator (author) to support the development of intercultural competence of and among the student cohort. The evidence points to the importance of developing intercultural competence among tertiary educators and students. The failure by educators to ensure that the diverse voices, ideas and perspectives of students from all cultural, educational and language backgrounds are heard in our classrooms means that our universities can hardly be regarded or promoted as genuinely internationalised. They will continue as undemocratic institutions that perpetrate persistent Western educational hegemony.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, critical thinking, embedding, intercultural competence, interculturality, international student, internationalised education

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Authors: Alessandra Turini Bolsoni-Silva, Sonia Regina Loureiro

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It is important to evaluate such variables simultaneously and differentiating types of behavior problems: internalizing, externalizing and with comorbidity of internalizing and externalizing. The objective was to compare, correlate and predict teacher educational practices (educational social skills and negative practices) and children's behaviors (social skills and behavior problems) of children with internalizing, externalizing and combined internalizing and externalizing problems, controlling variables of child (gender and education). A total of 262 children were eligible to compose the participants, considering preschool age from 3 to 5 years old (n = 109) and school age from 6 to 11 (n = 153) years old, and their teachers who were distributed, in designs case-control, non-clinical, with internalizing, externalizing problems and internalizing and externalizing comorbidity, using the Teacher's Report Form (TRF) as a criterion. The instruments were applied with the teachers, after consent from the parents/guardians: a) Teacher’s Report Form (TRF); b) Educational Social Skills Interview Guide for Teachers (RE-HSE-Pr); (c) Socially Skilled Response Questionnaire – Teachers (QRSH-Pr). The data were treated by univariate and multivariate analyses, proceeding with comparisons, correlations and predictions regarding the outcomes of children with and without behavioral problems, considering the types of problems. As main results stand out: (a) group comparison studies: in the Inter group there is emphasis on behavior problems in affection interactions, which does not happen in the other groups; as for positive practices, they discriminate against groups with externalizing and combined problems and not in internalizing ones, positive educational practices – hse are more frequent in the G-Exter and G-Inter+Exter groups; negative practices differed only in the G-Exter and G-Inter+Exter groups; b) correlation studies: it can be seen that the Inter+Exter group presents a greater number of correlations in the relationship between behavioral problems/complaints and negative practices and between children's social skills and positive practices/contexts; c) prediction studies: children's social skills predict internalizing, externalizing and combined problems; it is also verified that the negative practices are in the multivariate model for the externalizing and combined ones. This investigation collaborates in the identification of risk and protective factors for specific problems, helping in interventions for different problems.

Keywords: development, educational practices, social skills, behavior problems, teacher

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Authors: Sresha Yadav, Ishwar Kumar

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Second language learning is an important area of research in the language and linguistic domains. Literature suggests that several factors impact second language learning, including age, motivation, objectives, teacher, instructional material, classroom interaction, intelligence and previous background, previous linguistic experience, other student characteristics. Previous researchers have also highlighted that classroom atmospherics has a significant impact on learning as well as on the performance of students. However, the impact of classroom atmospherics on second language learning is still not known in the existing literature. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to explore whether classroom atmospherics has an impact on second language learning or not? And if it does, it would be worthwhile to explore the nature of such relationship. The present study aims to explore the impact of classroom atmospherics on second language learning by dwelling into the existing literature to explore factors which impact second language learning, classroom atmospherics which impact language learning and the metrics through which such learning impacts could be measured. Based on the findings of literature review, the researchers have adopted a clustering approach for categorization and positioning of various measures of second language learning. Based on the clustering approach, the researchers have approach for measuring the impact of classroom atmospherics on second language learning by drawing a student sample consisting of 80 respondents. The results of the study uncover various basic premises of second language learning, especially with regard to classroom atmospherics. The present study is important not only from the point of view of language learning but implications could be drawn with regard to the design of classroom atmospherics, environmental psychology, anthropometrics, etc as well.

Keywords: classroom atmospherics, cluster analysis, linguistics, second language learning

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Authors: Xiaoling Dai

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Many Chinese artists have used digital photography to create works with features of Chinese landscape paintings since the 20th century. The ‘New Mountains and Water’ works created by digital techniques reflect the fusion of photographic techniques and traditional Chinese aesthetic thoughts. Borrowing from Chinese landscape paintings in the Song Dynasty, the Chinese photographer Yao Lu uses digital photography to reflect contemporary environmental construction in his series New Landscapes. By portraying a variety of natural environments brought by urbanization in the contemporary period, Lu deconstructs traditional Chinese paintings and reconstructs contemporary photographic practices. The primary object of this study is to investigate how Chinese photographer Yao Lu redefines and re-interprets the relationship between tradition and contemporaneity. In this study, Yao Lu’s series work New Landscapes is used for photo elicitation, which seeks to broaden understanding of the development of Chinese landscape photography. Furthermore, discourse analysis will be used to evaluate how Chinese social developments influence the creation of photographic practices. Through visual and discourse analysis, this study aims to excavate the relationship between tradition and contemporaneity in Lu’s works. According to New Landscapes, the study argues that in Lu’s interpretations of landscapes, tradition and contemporaneity are seen to establish a new relationship. Traditional approaches to creation do not become obsolete over time. On the contrary, traditional notions and styles of creation can shed new light on contemporary issues or techniques.

Keywords: Chinese aesthetics, Yao Lu, new landscapes, tradition, contemporaneity

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Authors: R. Kanmaniraja, R. Freshipali, J. Abdullah, K. Niranjan, K. Balasubramani, V. R. Sanal Kumar

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The present environmental issues have made aircraft jet noise reduction a crucial problem in aero-acoustics research. Acoustic studies reveal that addition of chevrons to the nozzle reduces the sound pressure level reasonably with acceptable reduction in performance. In this paper comprehensive numerical studies on acoustic characteristics of different types of chevron nozzles have been carried out with non-reacting flows for the shape optimization of chevrons in supersonic nozzles for aerospace applications. The numerical studies have been carried out using a validated steady 3D density based, k-ε turbulence model. In this paper chevron with sharp edge, flat edge, round edge and U-type edge are selected for the jet acoustic characterization of supersonic nozzles. We observed that compared to the base model a case with round-shaped chevron nozzle could reduce 4.13% acoustic level with 0.6% thrust loss. We concluded that the prudent selection of the chevron shape will enable an appreciable reduction of the aircraft jet noise without compromising its overall performance. It is evident from the present numerical simulations that k-ε model can predict reasonably well the acoustic level of chevron supersonic nozzles for its shape optimization.

Keywords: supersonic nozzle, Chevron, acoustic level, shape optimization of Chevron nozzles, jet noise suppression

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Authors: Adeosun, Festus Idowu; Omoniyi, Isaac Tunde, Adeosun, Olamide Modinat

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This study assessed the association between household livelihood diversification and fisheries conservation policies among fishermen in coastal areas of Ogun State, Nigeria by adopting a multistage sampling procedure. The sample size was 90 fishermen from six randomly selected fishing communities (Abureji, Agbalegiyo, Ilamo, Imosan, Iseku and Wharf) along the coastline in Ogun State, Nigeria. Data were collected using pre-validated interview schedule and subjected to descriptive and inferential analytical techniques. Results revealed that majority of the fishermen were married (98.9%), in the age bracket of 41-60 years (71.1%) with mean age of 49 years, had household size of 6-15 persons (91.1%) with mean household size being 9 persons, from extended families (90.0%), either either no formal (43.3%) or only primary education (41.1%), were non-members of social groups (62.2%), and had no other occupations (93.3%). It was also reported that there was generally low level of household livelihood diversification across the fishing communities. Gill nets were the most commonly used fishing gears across the fishing communities (80.0%). This was followed by seine nets (63.3%), traps (56.7%) and trawl nets (53.3%) while fish aggregating devices (35.6%), cast nets (37.8%) and hook and line (24.4%) were the least used fishing gears in the study locations. Results further revealed that coastal fishery was characterised by conflicts among water users (64.4%), absence of protected fishing areas (81.1%), and experience of water pollution (36.7%). Majority (71.1%) of the fishermen across the study locations agreed with closed season policy as a coastal fisheries conservation strategy. This was followed by gear restriction (30.0%). Results of Chi-square analysis revealed that there were significant associations between level of household livelihood diversification and fishermen’s agreement with gear restriction (χ2 = 15.545, df = 5), and closed season (χ2 = 11.214, df = 4). The study concluded that coastal fisheries is in a poor state and that it could be improved through the introduction of gear restriction and closed season policies. The study recommended that youths in the coastal areas should venture into fishing, and that government and non-governmental agencies should organize sensitization programmes on fisheries conservation policies across the coastal areas in Ogun State.

Keywords: coastal, fisheries, conservation, livelihood

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Authors: Yueh Hsiu Giffen Cheng, Teng Jung Wang

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According to the study of British national advisory council on creative and cultural education（NACCCE, what the present and the future need awesome innovative and creative people from the perspective of commercial human resources. Therefore, we can know from above, creativity plays an important role in today’s enterprise indeed. Besides, many companies are aimed at developing team work as their main goal, so “creativity” and “teamwork” become more and more important factors to succeed and team creativity also turn into an important issue gradually. Then, the study takes in-depth interviews of design companies’ leaders and uses self-designed questionnaire regarding affecting team creativity to conduct cross-analysis. The results show that for those creative-oriented integrated design companies, their design strategies don’t begin until data collection and their scripts are usually the best way to inspire creativity. Besides, passing down a legacy of experiences are their common educational training. Most important of all, their organizational resources and leaders can assist all the team to learn and grow effectively and the good interaction between the leader and the member can also bring work flexibility and efficiency. In short, the leader’s expectation of members’ performance can cause them to encourage each other to progress. Moreover, the analysis of questionnaire indicates that members who are open-minded and leaders who have transformational leadership style can both help to establish a good team interaction. Furthermore, abundant resources and training system are also good approaches to establish a harmonious relationship. Finally, through integrating the outcomes of interviews and questionnaires, we can infer that those integrated design companies’ circumstances of design progress are mainly from their leaders’ guidance. In addition, the analysis of design problems are focused on their creative strategies and their scripts and sketches can also inspire their creativity. In sum, the feature of all team is influenced by 4 factors: leaders who have transformational leadership style, open-minded members, flexible working environment, resources and interactive relationship. Ultimately, the study hopes that the result above can apply to the design-related industries or help general companies elevate the team creativity.

Keywords: creativity, team creativity, integrated design companies, design process

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Authors: Wilmer Esteban Vallejo Narváez, Serguei Fomine

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The theoretical investigation of Si-doped graphene nanoflakes (NFs) was conducted to understand their catalytic impact on CO₂ reduction using molecular hydrogen at the Density Functional Theory (DFT) level. The introduction of silicon by substituting carbon induces defects in the NF structure, resulting in a polyradical ground state. This silicon defect significantly boosts reactivity towards substrates, making Si-doped graphene NFs more catalytically active in CO₂ reduction to formic acid compared to silicene. Notably, Si-doped graphene demonstrates a preference for formic acid over carbon monoxide, mirroring the behavior of silicene. Furthermore, investigations into formic acid-to-formaldehyde and formaldehyde-to-methanol conversions reveal instances where Si-doped graphene outperforms silicene in terms of efficacy. In the final reduction step, the methanol-to-methane reaction unfolds in four stages, with the rate-determining step involving hydrogen transfer from silicon to methyl. Notably, the activation energy for this step is lower in Si-doped graphene compared to silicene. Consequently, Si-doped graphene NFs emerge as superior catalysts with lower activation energies overall. Remarkably, throughout these catalytic processes, Si-doped graphene maintains environmental stability, further highlighting its enhanced catalytic activity without compromising graphene's inherent stability.

Keywords: silicon-doped graphene, CO₂ reduction, DFT, catalysis

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Authors: Fatima Muhammad Shitu

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In language learning, Second language learners like their native speaker counter parts, commit errors in their attempt to achieve competence in the target language. The realm of Collocation has to do with meaning relation between lexical items. In all human language, there is a kind of ‘natural order’ in which words are arranged or relate to one another in sentences so much so that when a word occurs in a given context, the related or naturally co -occurring word will automatically come to the mind. It becomes an error, therefore, if students inappropriately pair or arrange such ‘naturally’ co – occurring lexical items in a text. It has been observed that most of the second language learners in this research group commit collocational errors. A study of this kind is very significant as it gives insight into the kinds of errors committed by learners. This will help the language teacher to be able to identify the sources and causes of such errors as well as correct them thereby guiding, helping and leading the learners towards achieving some level of competence in the language. The aim of the study is to understand the nature of these errors as stumbling blocks to effective essay writing. The objective of the study is to identify the errors, analyse their structural compositions so as to determine whether there are similarities between students in this regard and to find out whether there are patterns to these kinds of errors which will enable the researcher to understand their sources and causes. As a descriptive research, the researcher samples some nine hundred essays collected from three hundred undergraduate learners of English as a second language in the Federal College of Education, Kano, North- West Nigeria, i.e. three essays per each student. The essays which were given on three different lecture times were of similar thematic preoccupations (i.e. same topics) and length (i.e. same number of words). The essays were written during the lecture hour at three different lecture occasions. The errors were identified in a systematic manner whereby errors so identified were recorded only once even if they occur severally in students’ essays. The data was collated using percentages in which the identified number of occurrences were converted accordingly in percentages. The findings from the study indicates that there are similarities as well as regular and repeated errors which provided a pattern. Based on the pattern identified, the conclusion is that students’ collocational errors are attributable to poor teaching and learning which resulted in wrong generalisation of rules.

Keywords: collocations, errors, second language learning, ESL students

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Authors: Reza Sadeghi, Maryam Nazarahari

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Considering the effectiveness of plant pesticides in pest control, this group of pesticides can provide an efficient way to reduce the damage caused by pests in agriculture and maintain environmental health. Plant pesticides allow farmers to cultivate their crops by lowering the use of chemical pesticides and help improve the quality of agricultural products. In this research, various plant compounds were extracted from two different sources, thyme and eucalyptus, by using n-hexane solvent and investigated to control cotton bollworm in laboratory conditions. The mortality rates of cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) caused by different concentrations of hexanic extract formulations were evaluated. The results showed that the varied concentrations of the hexanic extract formulations of thyme and eucalyptus had significant effects on the mortality rates of cotton bollworm larvae during a 24-h exposure period. The hexanic extract of thyme as a plant pesticide can be an effective alternative in agriculture and plant pest control. The use of pesticides in agriculture can help the environment and reduce the problems related to chemical toxins. Also, this research revealed that the types and compounds of plant pesticides can be effective in pest control and help to develop more efficient agricultural strategies.

Keywords: cotton bollworm, thyme, eucalyptus, extract formulation, toxicity

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Authors: Rachel Koshy, Nazrila Hairizan Bt. Nasir, Samsiah Bt. Awang, Kamaliah Bt. Mohamad Noh

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Malaysia collaborated as a ‘trailblazer’ country with PHCPI (Primary Health Care Performance Initiative) to populate the Primary Health Care (PHC) Vital Signs Profile (VSP) for the country. The PHC VSP provides an innovative snapshot of the primary health care system's performance. Four domains were assessed: system financing, system capacity, system performance, and system equity, and completed in 2019. There were two phases using a mixed method study design. The first phase involved a quantitative study, utilising existing secondary data from national and international sources. In the case of unavailability of data for any indicators, comparable alternative indicators were used. The second phase was a mixed quantitative-qualitative approach to measure the functional capacity based on governance and leadership, population health needs, inputs, population health management, and facility organisation and management. PHC spending constituted 35% of overall health spending in Malaysia, with a per capita PHC spending of $152. The capacity domain was strong in the three subdomains of governance and leadership, information system, and funds management. The two subdomains of drugs & supplies and facility organisation & management had low scores, but the lowest score was in empanelment of the population under the population health management. The PHC system performed with an access index of 98%, quality index of 84%, and service coverage of 62%. In the equity domain, there was little fluctuation in the coverage of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health services by mother’s level of education and under-five child mortality between urban and rural areas. The public sector was stronger in the capacity domain as compared to the private sector. This is due to the different financing, organisational structures, and service delivery mechanism. The VSP has identified areas for improvement in the effort to provide high-quality PHC for the population. The gaps in PHC can be addressed through the system approach and the positioning of public and private primary health care delivery systems.

Keywords: primary health care, health system, system domains, vital signs profile

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Authors: Ebtissem Sassi, Abdellatif Benabdelhafid, Sami Hammami

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Congestion, pollution and space misuse are the major risks in the hinterland. Management of these risks is a major issue for all the actors intervening in territory management. A good mastery of these risks is based on the consideration of environmental and physical constraints since the implementation of a policy integrates simultaneously an efficient use, territorial resources, and financial resources which become increasingly rare. Yet, this balance can be difficult to establish simultaneously by all the actors. Indeed, every actor has often the tendency to favor these objectives in detriment to others. In this framework, we have fixed the objective of designing and achieving a model which will centralize multidisciplinary data and serve the analysis tool as well as a decision support tool. In this article, we will elaborate some methodological axes allowing the good management of the territory system through (i) determination of the structural factors of the decision support system, (ii) integration of methods tools favoring the territorial decisional process. Logistics territory geographic information system is a model dealing with this issue. The objective of this model is to facilitate the exchanges between the actors around a common question which was the research subject of human sciences researchers (geography, economy), nature sciences (ecology) as well as finding an optimal solution for simultaneous responses to all these objectives.

Keywords: complexity, territory, logistics, territory planning, conceptual model, GIS, MCA

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Authors: Sudipt Agarwal, Siddharth Verma, S. M. Iqbal, Hitik Kalra

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Natural gas as a fuel has created wonders, but on the contrary, the ill-effects of methane have been a great worry for professionals. The largest source of methane emission is the oil and gas industry among all industries. Methane depletes groundwater and being a greenhouse gas has devastating effects on the atmosphere too. Methane remains for a decade or two in the atmosphere and later breaks into carbon dioxide and thus damages it immensely, as it warms up the atmosphere 72 times more than carbon dioxide in those two decades and keeps on harming after breaking into carbon dioxide afterward. The property of a fluid to adhere to the surface of a solid, better known as adsorption, can be a great boon to minimize the hindrance caused by methane. Adsorption of methane during upstream processes can save the groundwater and atmospheric depletion around the site which can be hugely lucrative to earn profits which are reduced due to environmental degradation leading to project cancellation. The paper would deal with reasons why casing and cementing are not able to prevent leakage and would suggest methods to adsorb methane during upstream processes with mathematical explanation using volumetric analysis of adsorption of methane on the surface of activated carbon doped with copper oxides (which increases the absorption by 54%). The paper would explain in detail (through a cost estimation) how the proposed idea can be hugely beneficial not only to environment but also to the profits earned.

Keywords: adsorption, casing, cementing, cost estimation, volumetric analysis

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Authors: Sirus Mohammadi, Rohala Moghimi

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The main advantages of microgrids are high energy efficiency through the application of Combined Heat and Power (CHP), high quality and reliability of the delivered electric energy and environmental and economic advantages. This study presents an energy management system (EMS) to optimize the operation of the microgrid (MG). In this paper an Adaptive Modified Firefly Algorithm (AMFA) is presented for optimal operation of a typical MG with renewable energy sources (RESs) accompanied by a back-up Micro-Turbine/Fuel Cell/Battery hybrid power source to level the power mismatch or to store the energy surplus when it’s needed. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear constraint problem to minimize the total operating cost. The management of Energy storage system (ESS), economic load dispatch and operation optimization of distributed generation (DG) are simplified into a single-object optimization problem in the EMS. The proposed algorithm is tested on a typical grid-connected MG including WT/PV/Micro Turbine/Fuel Cell and Energy Storage Devices (ESDs) then its superior performance is compared with those from other evolutionary algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Fuzzy Self Adaptive PSO (FSAPSO), Chaotic Particle PSO (CPSO), Adaptive Modified PSO (AMPSO), and Firefly Algorithm (FA).

Keywords: microgrid, operation management, optimization, firefly algorithm (AMFA)

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Authors: Hyunsik Park

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Objective: To provide information of charged nursing care facility for helping to establish geriatric health care policy, and to figure out which factors would be the main determinants for the choice of it. Method: 46 males and 53 females, and the same number of their caregivers admitted into the charged nursing care facility were recruited for intensive interview including personal information, disease information, and economic, familial, marital and emotional statuses. This is a cross-sectional study and we analyzed the data qualitatively. Results: Patients had 3.2 diseases and a hospitalization for 2.3 years on average. They were consists of 46 singles (46.9%), 8 unmarried (8.2%), 5 divorced (5.1%) and 32 married (32.7%). More than two third (70.1%) were supported by their eldest son or daughter. Mostly, the family caregivers decided to admit into the facilities by the doctor’s recommendation (68.4%). When they made a choice for a facility, most of them (42.9%) considered environmental and sanitary conditions. According to their expectation for management in nursing care facility, most caregivers (59.2%) wanted simple-staying for the duration, but most patients (61.3%) expected to be home after taking comprehensive rehabilitation. Three-quarter of the caregivers would agree to use nursing care facilities in the future, if they would be the same situation. Conclusion: Life style and environment are rapidly changing. In the near future, we need lots of the charged nursing care facilities for the old, thus this study can be the good reference for the preparing upcoming aged and super-aged society.

Keywords: nursing care facility, aged society, qualitative analysis, health

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Authors: Apurva Sapra

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The aim of this research was to study and compare the nature of expected, feared and hoped-for selves in institutionalized adolescent boys in two residential settings – an observation home with children in conflict with the law, and a children’s home with children in need of care and protection. The study uses a concurrent mixed methods design, in which eight adolescent boys from each group, aged 13-17, were asked to respond to a questionnaire, followed by an in-depth interview. The questionnaire looked into the total scores on current, probable and hoped-for/feared positive and negative self-descriptors. Possible selves of both groups were found to be influenced by their unique histories, such as with their experience of violence, interaction with the police and emphasis given on education. Expected selves and hoped-for selves were similar within the two groups. However, they were more concrete and attainable in the observation home and more ambitious in the children’s home. Quantitative results showed that on the positive self-descriptors, the participants in the observation home had a slightly lower total score on the current parameter as on the probable and hoped-for parameters. The participants in the children’s home showed similar results on current and probable positive self-descriptors, with higher scores on the hoped-for parameter. For most of the negative self-descriptors, the current score for the observation home group was lower than the expected score, and for the children’s home group, they were feared slightly more than they were expected. Along with the nature of possible selves, the study also looked into threats and support to desired and feared possible selves, as well as strategies to attain the desired possible selves and avoid feared possible selves. While threats to possible selves were identified as external and internal in both groups, the participants in the children’s home tended to identify threats as external. The categories of support were similar across the two groups, although the nature of support provided differed. Strategies adopted by participants in the observation home could be clearly divided as past, present and future strategies, while those adopted by participants in the children’s home had an overlap with past and future strategies. The institution was perceived as having a negative influence for the future in the observation home group, but positive in the children’s home group. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research, policy setting and the counselling profession are discussed.

Keywords: adolescents, expected self, feared self, hoped-for self, institutions, possible selves

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Authors: Panpan Feng

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The concept of green infrastructure originated in Europe and the United States. It aims to ensure smart growth of urban and rural ecosystems and achieve sustainable urban and rural ecological, social, and economic development by combining it with gray infrastructure in traditional planning. Based on the literature review of the theoretical origin, value connotation, and measurement methods of green infrastructure, this study summarizes the research content of green infrastructure at different scales from the three spatial levels of region, city, and block and divides it into functional dimensions, spatial dimension, and strategic dimension. The results show that in the functional dimension, from region-city-block, the research on green infrastructure gradually shifts from ecological function to social function. In the spatial dimension, from region-city-block, the research on the spatial form of green infrastructure has shifted from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, and the spatial structure of green infrastructure has shifted from single ecological elements to multiple composite elements. From a strategic perspective, green infrastructure research is more of a spatial planning tool based on land management, environmental livability and ecological psychology, providing certain decision-making support.

Keywords: green infrastructure, multi-scale, social and ecological functions, spatial strategic decision-making tools

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Authors: Yu-Hsiu Li, Chun-Hsun Chen

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Analysis of automatic sprinkler system protects the scooter in underground parking space, the current of general buildings is mainly equipped with foam fire-extinguishing equipment in Taiwan, the automatic sprinkling system has economic and environmental benefits, even high stability, China and the United States allow the parking space to set the automatic sprinkler system under certain conditions. The literature about scooter full-scale fire indicates that the average fire growth coefficient is 0.19 KW/sec2, it represents the scooter fire is classified as ultra-fast time square fire growth model, automatic sprinkler system can suppress the flame height and prevent extending burning. According to the computer simulation (FDS) literature, no matter computer simulation or full-scale experiments, the active order and trend about sprinkler heads are the same. This study uses the computer simulation program (FDS), the simulation scenario designed includes using a different system (enclosed wet type and open type), and different configurations. The simulation result demonstrates that the open type requires less time to extinguish the fire than the enclosed wet type if the horizontal distance between the sprinkler and the scooter ignition source is short, the sprinkler can act quickly, the heat release rate of fire can be suppressed in advance.

Keywords: automatic sprinkler system, underground parking Spac, FDS, scooter fire extinguishing

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Authors: Amer Rghei

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The Sahara region potentially is one of the most attractive heritage areas in the world. Yet presently, the heritage of the Sahara is currently facing serious planning challenges of underdeveloped and neglected economic and physical potentials. Deterioration of heritage resources has been observed by the author during his several field tours for historic sites has discovered special heritage values such as in Ghadames which combines historic oasis, natural environment along with its exceptional urban fabric and architectural character. Despite the richness of Ghadames with historic significance, it is found that at the present time, Ghadames city, the UNESCO World Heritage site, is facing serious challenges including the abandonment by its tenants and inclusive negligence by its officials. The author believes that Ghadames can illustrate an excellent heritage example in North Africa with cultural pride and socio-economic opportunities that can contribute to overall economic development in the Sahara region. However, the paper deals with the case of Ghadames ‘The World Heritage Site’ in Libya and discusses the current challenges and possible planning for its heritage conservation strategy. The momentous resources in Ghadames with their historical, environmental, economic, social, cultural, and aesthetic values would benefit from a careful heritage planning and management program for its significant values. In this paper an attempt is made to investigate this issue seriously towards building a model of a strategy for heritage conservation planning for Ghadames is proposed.

Keywords: Ghadames, Oasis architecture, Sahara region, heritage environment

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Authors: Valerie Follonier, Henrike Hamelmann, Jean-Michel Jullien

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The Distance Learning University in Switzerland (UniDistance) is offering bachelor and master courses as well as further education programs. The professors and their assistants work at traditional Swiss universities and are giving their courses at UniDistance following a blended learning and flipped classroom approach. A standardized course evaluation by the students has been established as a component of a quality improvement process. The students’ feedback enables the stakeholders to identify areas of improvement, initiate professional development for the teaching teams and thus continuously augment the quality of instruction. This paper describes the evaluation process, the tools involved and how the approach involving all stakeholders helps forming a culture of quality in teaching. Additionally, it will present the first evaluation results following the new process. Two software tools have been developed to support all stakeholders in the process of the semi-annual formative evaluation. The first tool allows to create the survey and to assign it to the relevant courses and students. The second tool presents the results of the evaluation to the stakeholders, providing specific features for the teaching teams, the dean, the directorate and EDUDL+ (Educational development unit distance learning). The survey items were selected in accordance with the e-learning strategy of the institution and are formulated to support the professional development of the teaching teams. By reviewing the results the teaching teams become aware of the opinion of the students and are asked to write a feedback for the attention of their dean. The dean reviews the results of the faculty and writes a general report about the situation of the faculty and the possible improvements intended. Finally, EDUDL+ writes a final report summarising the evaluation results. A mechanism of adjustable warnings allows it to generate quality indicators for each module. These are summarised for each faculty and globally for the whole institution in order to increase the vigilance of the responsible. The quality process involves changing the indicators regularly to focus on different areas each semester, to facilitate the professional development of the teaching teams and to progressively augment the overall teaching quality of the institution.

Keywords: continuous improvement process, course evaluation, distance learning, software tools, teaching quality

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Authors: Siffat Ullah Khan, Rahmat Ullah Khan, Rafiq Ahmad Khan, Habibullah Khan

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Green IT or green computing has emerged as a fast growing business paradigm in recent years in order to develop energy-efficient Software and peripheral devices. With the constant evolution of technology and the world critical environmental status, all private and public information technology (IT) businesses are moving towards sustainability. We identified, through systematic literature review and questionnaire survey, 9 motivators, in total, faced by vendors in IT-Outsourcing relationship. Amongst these motivators 7 were ranked as critical motivators. We also identified 21, in total, practices for addressing these critical motivators. Based on these inputs we have developed Green IT-Outsourcing Assurance Model (GITAM) for IT-Outsourcing vendors. The model comprises four different levels. i.e. Initial, White, Green and Grey. Each level comprises different critical motivators and their relevant practices. We conclude that our model, GITAM, will assist IT-Outsourcing vendors in gauging their level in order to manage IT-Outsourcing activities in a green and sustainable fashion to assist the environment and to reduce the carbon emission. The model will assist vendors in improving their current level by suggesting various practices. The model will contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of Green IT.

Keywords: Green IT-outsourcing Assurance Model (GITAM), Systematic Literature Review, Empirical Study, Case Study

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Authors: M. Dezvarei, S. Morovati

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In recent years, increasing usage of electrical energy provides a widespread field for investigating new methods to produce clean electricity with high reliability and cost management. Fuel cells are new clean generations to make electricity and thermal energy together with high performance and no environmental pollution. According to the expansion of fuel cell usage in different industrial networks, the identification and optimization of its parameters is really significant. This paper presents optimization of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) parameters based on modified particle swarm optimization with real valued mutation (RVM) and clonal algorithms. Mathematical equations of this type of fuel cell are presented as the main model structure in the optimization process. Optimized parameters based on clonal and RVM algorithms are compared with the desired values in the presence and absence of measurement noise. This paper shows that these methods can improve the performance of traditional optimization methods. Simulation results are employed to analyze and compare the performance of these methodologies in order to optimize the proton exchange membrane fuel cell parameters.

Keywords: clonal algorithm, proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), particle swarm optimization (PSO), real-valued mutation (RVM)

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