Search results for: classroom friendly approach

Authors: David De Smet, Myriam Vanneste

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There is a constant need for the improvement of materials applied in textile industries. Nowadays there is a tendency for “bio, eco, natural and environmental friendly” consciousness of the consumer resulting in various textile labels. Materials, totally based on CO2-neutral renewable resources (biopolymers), respond very well to this tendency. Proteins and PLA were evaluated as binders for textile coatings. Much attention is paid to the functionalization of textiles, therefore bio-additves are examined to introduce abrasion resistance, antimicrobial and flame retardant properties.

Keywords: biomaterial, textile, coating, finishing

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Authors: Arpit Panwar, Arvind Deshpande

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The study of external vehicle aerodynamics using Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model with adjoint method was conducted. The accessibility and ease of working with the Fluent module of ANSYS and OpenFOAM were considered. The objective of the study was to understand and analyze the possibility of bringing high-level aerodynamic simulation to the average consumer vehicle. A form-factor of BMW M6 vehicle was designed in Solidworks, which was analyzed in OpenFOAM and Fluent. The turbulence model being a single equation provides much faster convergence rate when clubbed with the adjoint method. Fluent being commercial software still does not allow us to solve Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model using the adjoint method. Hence, the turbulence model was solved using the SIMPLE method in Fluent. OpenFOAM being an open source provide flexibility in simulation but is not user-friendly. It supports solving the defined turbulence model with the adjoint method. The result generated from the simulation gives us acceptable values of drag, when validated with the result of percentage error in drag values for a notch-back vehicle model on an extensive simulation produced at 6th ANSA and μETA conference, Greece. The success of this approach will allow us to bring more aerodynamic vehicle body design to all segments of the automobile and not limiting it to just the high-end sports cars.

Keywords: Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model, OpenFOAM, adjoint method, SIMPLE method, vehicle aerodynamic design

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Authors: George Fomunyam Kehdinga

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Assessment is a vital part of the educational process, and formative assessment is a way of ensuring that higher education achieves the desired effects. Different factors influence how students perform in assessments in general, and formative assessment in particular and temperament is one of such determining factors. This paper which is a qualitative case study of four universities in four different countries examines how the temperamental make up of students either empowers them to perform excellently in formative assessment or incapacitates their performance. These four universities were chosen from Cameroon, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States of America and three students were chosen from each institution, six of which were undergraduate student and six postgraduate students. Data in this paper was generated through qualitative interviews and document analyses which was preceded by a temperament test. From the data generated, it was discovered that cholerics who are natural leaders, hence do not struggle to express themselves often perform excellently in formative assessment while sanguines on the other hand who are also extroverts like cholerics perform relatively well. Phlegmatics and melancholics performed averagely and poorly respectively in formative assessment because they are naturally prone to fear and hate such activities because they like keeping to themselves. The paper, therefore, suggest that temperament is a success determinant in formative assessment. It also proposes that lecturers need and understanding of temperaments to be able to fully administer formative assessment in the lecturer room. It also suggests that assessment should be balance in the classroom so that some students because of their temperamental make-up are not naturally disadvantaged while others are performing excellently. Lastly, the paper suggests that since formative assessment is a process of generating data, it should be contextualised or given and individualised approach so as to ensure that trustworthy data is generated.

Keywords: temperament, formative assessment, academic success, students

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Authors: Zeynep Tanriverdi̇

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Sustainable architecture is a design approach that provides healthy, comfortable, safe, clean space production as well as utilizes minimum resources for efficient and economical use of natural resources and energy. Traditional houses located in rural areas are sustainable structures built at the design and implementation stage in accordance with the climatic environmental data of the region and also effectively using natural energy resources. The fact that these structures are located in an earthquake geography like Türkiye brings their earthquake resistance to the agenda. Since the construction of these structures, which contain the architectural and technological cultural knowledge of the past, is shaped according to the characteristics of the regions where they are located, their resistance to earthquakes also differs. Analyses in rural areas after the earthquake show that there are light-damaged structures that can survive, severely damaged structures, and completely destroyed structures. In this regard, experts can implement repair, consolidation, and reconstruction applications, respectively. While simple repair interventions are carried out in accordance with the original data in traditional houses that have shown great resistance to earthquakes, reinforcement work blended with new technologies can be applied in damaged structures. In reconstruction work, a wide variety of applications can be seen with the possibilities of modern technologies. In rural areas experiencing earthquakes around the world, there are experimental new housing applications that are renewable, environmentally friendly, and sustainable with modern construction techniques in the light of scientific data. With these new residences, it is aimed to create earthquake-resistant, economical, healthy, and pain-relieving therapy spaces for people whose daily lives have been interrupted by disasters. In this study, the preservation of high earthquake-prone rural areas will be discussed through the knowledge transfer of traditional architecture and also permanent housing practices using new sustainable technologies to improve the area. In this way, it will be possible to keep losses to a minimum with sustainable, reliable applications prepared for the worst aspects of the disaster situation and to establish a link between the knowledge of the past and the new technologies of the future.

Keywords: sustainability, conservation, traditional construction systems and materials, new technologies, earthquake resistance

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Authors: E. Zarei, M. Bazaei, A. Seifi, A. Keshavarzi

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Amos Rapoport, based on his anthropology approach, believed that the space origins from the human body and influences on human body mutually. As a holistic approach in architecture, Contextualism describes a collection of views in philosophy which emphasize the context in which an action, utterance, or expression occurs, and argues that, in some important respect, the action, utterance, or expression can only be understood relative to that context. In this approach, the main goal – studying the role of cultural component in the Contextualism construction shaping up, based on Amos Rapoport’s anthropology approach- has being done by descriptive- analytic method. The results of the research indicate that in the field of Contextualism designing, referring to the cultural aspects are as necessary as the physical dimensions of a construction. Rapoport believes that the shape of a construction is influenced by cultural aspects and he suggests a kind of mutual interaction between human and environment that should be considered in housing. The mail goal of contextual architecture is to establish an interaction between environment, human and culture. According to this approach, a desirable design should be in harmony with this approach.

Keywords: Amos Rapoport, anthropology, contextual architecture, culture

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Authors: Zeineb Ben Azzouz, Wahiba Ben Abdessalem Karaa

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The automated extraction of UML class diagram from natural language requirements is a highly challenging task. Many approaches, frameworks and tools have been presented in this field. Nonetheless, the experiments of these tools have shown that there is no approach that can work best all the time. In this context, we propose a new accurate approach to facilitate the automatic mapping from textual requirements to UML class diagram. Our new approach integrates the best properties of statistical Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to reduce ambiguity when analysing natural language requirements text. In addition, our approach follows the best practices defined by conceptual modelling experts to determine some patterns indispensable for the extraction of basic elements and concepts of the class diagram. Once the relevant information of class diagram is captured, a XMI document is generated and imported with a CASE tool to build the corresponding UML class diagram.

Keywords: class diagram, user’s requirements, XMI, software engineering

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Authors: H. Weigelt-Marom

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Over the years and up to the arousal of the COVID-19 pandemic, deaf or hard of hearing students studying in higher education institutions, participated lectures on campus using hearing aids and strategies adapted for frontal learning in a classroom. Usually, these aids were well known to them from their earlier study experience in school. However, the transition to online lessons, due to the latest pandemic, led deaf or hard of hearing students to study outside of their physical, well known learning environment. The change of learning environment and structure rose new challenges for these students. The present study examined the learning experience, limitations, challenges and benefits regarding learning online with lecture and classmates via the “Zoom” video conference program, among deaf or hard of hearing students in academia setting. In addition, emotional and social aspects related to learning in general versus the “Zoom” were examined. The study included 18 students diagnosed as deaf or hard of hearing, studying in various higher education institutions in Israel. All students had experienced lessons on the “Zoom”. Following allocation of the group study by the deaf and hard of hearing non-profit organization “Ma’agalei Shema”, and receiving the participants inform of consent, students were requested to answer a google form questioner and participate in an interview. The questioner included background information (e.g., age, year of studying, faculty etc.), level of computer literacy, and level of hearing and forms of communication (e.g., lip reading, sign language etc.). The interviews included a one on one, semi-structured, in-depth interview, conducted by the main researcher of the study (interview duration: up to 60 minutes). The interviews were held on “ZOOM” using specific adaptations for each interviewee: clear face screen of the interviewer for lip and face reading, and/ or professional sign language or live text transcript of the conversation. Additionally, interviewees used their audio devices if needed. Questions regarded: learning experience, difficulties and advantages studying using “Zoom”, learning in a classroom versus on “Zoom”, and questions concerning emotional and social aspects related to learning. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed severe difficulties regarding the ability of deaf or hard of hearing students to comprehend during ”Zoom“ lessons without adoptive aids. For example, interviewees indicated difficulties understanding “Zoom” lessons due to their inability to use hearing devices commonly used by them in the classroom (e.g., FM systems). 80% indicated that they could not comprehend “Zoom” lessons since they could not see the lectures face, either because lectures did not agree to open their cameras or, either because they did not keep a straight forward clear face appearance while teaching. However, not all descriptions regarded learning via the “zoom” were negative. For example, 20% reported the recording of “Zoom” lessons as a main advantage. Enabling then to repeatedly watch the lessons at their own pace, mostly assisted by friends and family to translate the audio output into an accessible input. These finding and others regarding the learning experience of the group study on the “Zoom”, as well as their recommendation to enable deaf or hard of hearing students to study inclusively online, will be presented at the conference.

Keywords: deaf or hard of hearing, learning experience, Zoom, qualitative research

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Authors: Sanaa Rashed Abdallah, Yasser F. Hassan

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The paper will introduce an approach where a rough sets, gene expression programming and rough neural networks are used cooperatively for learning and classification support. The Objective of gene expression programming rough neural networks (GEP-RNN) approach is to obtain new classified data with minimum error in training and testing process. Starting point of gene expression programming rough neural networks (GEP-RNN) approach is an information system and the output from this approach is a structure of rough neural networks which is including the weights and thresholds with minimum classification error.

Keywords: rough sets, gene expression programming, rough neural networks, classification

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Authors: Reiko Yamamoto

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This paper reports on a joint research project in which a researcher in applied linguistics and elementary school teachers in Japan explored new ways to realize emotional synchrony in a classroom in childhood education. The primary purpose of this project was to develop a cross-curriculum of the first language (L1) and second language (L2) based on the concept of plurilingualism. This concept is common in Europe, and can-do statements are used in forming the standard of linguistic proficiency in any language; these are attributed to the action-oriented approach in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). CEFR has a basic tenet of language education: improving communicative competence. Can-do statements are classified into five categories based on the tenet: reading, writing, listening, speaking/ interaction, and speaking/ speech. The first approach of this research was to specify the linguistic proficiency of the children, who are still developing their L1. Elementary school teachers brainstormed and specified the linguistic proficiency of the children as the competency needed to synchronize with others – teachers or peers – physically and mentally. The teachers formed original can-do statements in language proficiency on the basis of the idea that emotional synchrony leads to understanding others in communication. The research objectives are to determine the effect of language education based on the newly developed curriculum and can-do statements. The participants of the experiment were 72 third-graders in Uji Elementary School, Japan. For the experiment, 17 items were developed from the can-do statements formed by the teachers and divided into the same five categories as those of CEFR. A can-do checklist consisting of the items was created. The experiment consisted of three steps: first, the students evaluated themselves using the can-do checklist at the beginning of the school year. Second, one year of instruction was given to the students in Japanese and English classes (six periods a week). Third, the students evaluated themselves using the same can-do checklist at the end of the school year. The results of statistical analysis showed an enhancement of linguistic proficiency of the students. The average results of the post-check exceeded that of the pre-check in 12 out of the 17 items. Moreover, significant differences were shown in four items, three of which belonged to the same category: speaking/ interaction. It is concluded that children can get to understand others’ minds through physical and emotional synchrony. In particular, emotional synchrony is what teachers should aim at in childhood education.

Keywords: elementary school education, emotional synchrony, language proficiency, sympathy with others

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Authors: Nina Ponikvar, Katja Zajc Kejžar

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While the positive impacts of heritage on a broad societal spectrum have long been recognized and measured, the economic effects of the heritage sector are often less visible and frequently underestimated. At macro level, economic effects are usually studied based on one of the two mainstream approach, i.e. either the multiplier approach or the value chain approach. Consequently, there is limited comparability of the empirical results due to the use of different methodological approach in the literature. Furthermore, it is also not clear on which criteria the used approach was selected. Our aim is to bring the attention to the difference in the scope of effects that are encompassed by the two most frequent methodological approaches to valuation of economic effects of cultural heritage on macroeconomic level, i.e. the multiplier approach and the value chain approach. We show that while the multiplier approach provides a systematic, theory-based view of economic impacts but requires more data and analysis, the value chain approach has less solid theoretical foundations and depends on the availability of appropriate data to identify the contribution of cultural heritage to other sectors. We conclude that the multiplier approach underestimates the economic impact of cultural heritage, mainly due to the narrow definition of cultural heritage in the statistical classification and the inability to identify part of the contribution of cultural heritage that is hidden in other sectors. Yet it is not possible to clearly determine whether the value chain method overestimates or underestimates the actual economic impact of cultural heritage since there is a risk that the direct effects are overestimated and double counted, but not all indirect and induced effects are considered. Accordingly, these two approaches are not substitutes but rather complementary. Consequently, a direct comparison of the estimated impacts is not possible and should not be done due to the different scope. To illustrate the difference of the impact assessment of the cultural heritage, we apply both approaches to the case of Slovenia in the 2015-2022 period and measure the economic impact of cultural heritage sector in terms of turnover, gross value added and employment. The empirical results clearly show that the estimation of the economic impact of a sector using the multiplier approach is more conservative, while the estimates based on value added capture a much broader range of impacts. According to the multiplier approach, each euro in cultural heritage sector generates an additional 0.14 euros in indirect effects and an additional 0.44 euros in induced effects. Based on the value-added approach, the indirect economic effect of the “narrow” heritage sectors is amplified by the impact of cultural heritage activities on other sectors. Accordingly, every euro of sales and every euro of gross value added in the cultural heritage sector generates approximately 6 euros of sales and 4 to 5 euros of value added in other sectors. In addition, each employee in the cultural heritage sector is linked to 4 to 5 jobs in other sectors.

Keywords: economic value of cultural heritage, multiplier approach, value chain approach, indirect effects, slovenia

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Authors: S. S. Bendib, L. W. Mouss, S. Kalla

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This paper proposes a self-organization-based approach for real-time systems design. The addressed issue is the mapping of an application onto an architecture of heterogeneous processors while optimizing both makespan and reliability. Since this problem is NP-hard, a heuristic algorithm is used to obtain efficiently approximate solutions. The proposed approach takes into consideration the quality as well as the diversity of solutions. Indeed, an alternate treatment of the two objectives allows to produce solutions of good quality while a self-organization approach based on the neighborhood structure is used to reorganize solutions and consequently to enhance their diversity. Produced solutions make different compromises between the makespan and the reliability giving the user the possibility to select the solution suited to his (her) needs.

Keywords: embedded real-time systems design, makespan, reliability, self-organization, compromises

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Authors: S. Sehar, S. Khan, N. Ali, S. Ahmed

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In the last decade, the hunt for cost-effective, eco-friendly and energy sustainable technologies for waste water treatment are gaining much attention due to emerging water crisis and rapidly depleting existing water reservoirs all over the world. In this scenario, constructed wetland being a “green technology” could be a reliable mean for waste water treatment especially in small communities due to cost-effectiveness, ease in management, less energy consumption and sludge production. Therefore, a low cost, lab-scale sub-surface flow hybrid constructed wetland (SS-HCW) was established for domestic waste water treatment.It was observed that not only the presence but also choice of suitable vegetation along with hydraulic retention time (HRT) are key intervening ingredients which directly influence pollutant removals in constructed wetlands. Another important aspect of vegetation is that it may facilitate microbial attachment in rhizosphere, thus promote biofilm formation via microbial interactions. The major factors that influence initial aggregation and subsequent biofilm formation i.e. divalent cations (Ca2+) and extra cellular DNA (eDNA) were also studied in detail. The presence of Ca2+ in constructed wetland demonstrate superior performances in terms of effluent quality, i.e BOD5, COD, TDS, TSS, and PO4- than in absence of Ca2+. Finally, light and scanning electron microscopies coupled with EDS were carried out to get more insights into the mechanics of biofilm formation with or without Ca addition. Therefore, the same strategy can be implemented in other waste water treatment technologies.

Keywords: hybrid constructed wetland, biofilm formation, waste water treatment, waste water

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Authors: Noa Nelson, Meitar Moshe, Dana Cohen

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Work-family conflict (WFC) is a significant source of stress for contemporary employees, with research indicating its heightened severity for women. The conservation of resources theory argues that individuals experience stress when their resources fall short of demands, and attempt to reach balance by obtaining resources. Presumably then, to achieve work-family balance women would need to negotiate for resources such as spouse support, employer support and work flexibility. The current research tested the hypotheses that competent negotiation at home and at work associated with increased family and job resources and with decreased WFC, as well as with higher work, marital and life satisfaction. In the first study, 113 employed mothers, married or cohabiting, reported to what extent they conducted satisfactory negotiation with spouse over division of housework, and their actual housework load compared to spouse. They answered a WFC questionnaire, measuring how much work interferes with family (WIF) and how much family interferes with work (FIW), and finally, measurements of satisfaction. In the second study, 94 employed mothers, married or cohabiting reported to what extent they conducted satisfactory negotiation with their boss over balancing work demands with family needs. They reported the levels of three job resources: flexibility, control and family-friendly organizational culture. Finally, they answered the same WFC and satisfaction measurements from study 1. Statistical analyses –t-tests, correlations, and hierarchical linear regressions- showed that in both studies, women reported higher WIF than FIW. Negotiations associated with increased resources: support from spouse, work flexibility and control and a family-friendly culture; negotiation with spouse associated also with satisfaction measurements. However, negotiations or resources (except family-friendly culture) did not associate with reduced conflict. The studies demonstrate the role of negotiation in obtaining family and job resources. Causation cannot be determined, but the fact is that employed mothers who enjoyed more support (at both home and work), flexibility and control, were more likely to keep active interactions to increase them. This finding has theoretical and practical implications, especially in view of research on female avoidance of negotiation. It is intriguing that negotiations and resources generally did not associate with reduced WFC. This finding might reflect the severity of the conflict, especially of work interfering with family, which characterizes many contemporary jobs. It might also suggest that employed mothers have high expectations from themselves, and even under supportive circumstances, experience the challenge of balancing two significant and demanding roles. The research contributes to the fields of negotiation, gender, and work-life balance. It calls for further studies, to test its model in additional populations and validate the role employees have in actively negotiating for the balance that they need. It also calls for further research to understand the contributions of job and family resources to reducing work-family conflict, and the circumstances under which they contribute.

Keywords: sork-family conflict, work-life balance, negotiation, gender, job resources, family resources

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Authors: N. W. U. D. Chathurani, Shlomo Geva, Vinod Chandran, Proboda Rajapaksha

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Selecting an appropriate image representation is the most important factor in implementing an effective Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system. This paper presents a multi-feature fusion approach for efficient CBIR, based on the distance distribution of features and relative feature weights at the time of query processing. It is a simple yet effective approach, which is free from the effect of features' dimensions, ranges, internal feature normalization and the distance measure. This approach can easily be adopted in any feature combination to improve retrieval quality. The proposed approach is empirically evaluated using two benchmark datasets for image classification (a subset of the Corel dataset and Oliva and Torralba) and compared with existing approaches. The performance of the proposed approach is confirmed with the significantly improved performance in comparison with the independently evaluated baseline of the previously proposed feature fusion approaches.

Keywords: feature fusion, image retrieval, membership function, normalization

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Authors: Abdelhadi Adel, Kadri Ouahab

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This paper proposes a hybrid algorithm for the integration of systematic preventive maintenance policies in hybrid flow shop scheduling to minimize makespan. We have implemented a problem-solving approach for optimizing the processing time, methods based on metaheuristics. The proposed approach is inspired by the behavior of the human body. This hybridization is between a multi-agent system and inspirations of the human body, especially genetics. The effectiveness of our approach has been demonstrated repeatedly in this paper. To solve such a complex problem, we proposed an approach which we have used advanced operators such as uniform crossover set and single point mutation. The proposed approach is applied to three preventive maintenance policies. These policies are intended to maximize the availability or to maintain a minimum level of reliability during the production chain. The results show that our algorithm outperforms existing algorithms. We assumed that the machines might be unavailable periodically during the production scheduling.

Keywords: multi-agent systems, emergence, genetic algorithm, makespan, systematic maintenance, scheduling, hybrid flow shop scheduling

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Authors: M. Radunovic

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Region of Southeastern Europe has a substantial energy resource potential and is witnessing an increasing rate of power and energy project investments. This comes as a result of countries harmonizing their legal framework and market regulations to conform the ones of European Union, enabling direct private investments. Funding in the power and energy market in this region originates from various resources and investment entities, including commercial and institutional ones. Risk anticipation and assessment is crucial to project success, especially given the long exploitation period of project in power and energy domain, as well as the wide range of stakeholders involved. This paper analyzes the possibility of combined application of tools used in total quality management and international financing institutions for project planning, execution and evaluation, with the goal of anticipating, assessing and minimizing the risks that might occur in the development and execution phase of a power and energy project in the market of southeastern Europe. History of successful project management and investments both in the industry and institutional sector provides sufficient experience, guidance and internationally adopted tools to provide proper project assessment for investments in power and energy. Business environment of southeastern Europe provides immense potential for developing power and engineering projects of various magnitudes, depending on stakeholders’ interest. Diversification on investment sources provides assurance that there is interest and commitment to invest in this market. Global economic and political developments will be intensifying the pace of investments in the upcoming period. The proposed approach accounts for key parameters that contribute to the sustainability and profitability of a project which include technological, educational, social and economic gaps between the southeastern European region and western Europe, market trends in equipment design and production on a global level, environment friendly approach to renewable energy sources as well as conventional power generation systems, and finally the effect of the One Belt One Road Initiative led by People’s Republic of China to the power and energy market of this region in the upcoming period on a long term scale. Analysis will outline the key benefits of the approach as well as the accompanying constraints. Parallel to this it will provide an overview of dominant threats and opportunities in present and future business environment and their influence to the proposed application. Through concrete examples, full potential of this approach will be presented along with necessary improvements that need to be implemented. Number of power and engineering projects being developed in southeastern Europe will be increasing in the upcoming period. Proper risk analysis will lead to minimizing project failures. The proposed successful combination of reliable project planning tools from different investment areas can prove to be beneficial in the future power and engineering investments, and guarantee their sustainability and profitability.

Keywords: capital investments, lean six sigma, logical framework approach, logical framework matrix, one belt one road initiative, project management tools, quality function deployment, Southeastern Europe, total quality management

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Authors: Peijen Pamela Chuang, Tzu-Hua Wang

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To address the notion of educational equity, undergo the global pandemic, a digital learning system was cross-disciplinarily designed by a 15-year-experienced teaching practitioner. A study was performed on students through the use of this pioneering e-learning system, in which Taiwanese students with different learning styles and special needs have a foreign language- English as the target subject. 121 students are particularly selected from an N= 580 sample spread across 20 inclusive and special education schools throughout districts of Taiwan. To bring off equity, the participants are selected from a mix of different socioeconomic statuses. Grouped data, such as classroom observation, individual learning preference, prerequisite knowledge, learning interest, and learning performance of the population, is carefully documented for further analyzation. The paper focuses on documenting the awareness and needs of this pedagogical methodology revolution, data analysis of UX (User Experience), also examination and system assessment of this system. At the time of the pilot run, this newly-developed e-learning system had successfully applied for and received a national patent in Taiwan. This independent research hoped to expand the awareness of the importance of individual differences in SDG4 (Substantial Development Goals 4) as a part of the ripple effect, and serve as a comparison for future scholars in the pedagogical research with an interdisciplinary approach.

Keywords: e-learning, educational equity, foreign language acquisition, inclusive education, individual differences, interdisciplinary innovation, learning preferences, SDG4

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Authors: L. Bammou, M. Belkhaouda R. Salghi, L. Bazzi, B. Hammouti

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Steel and steel-based alloys of different grades steel are extensively used in numerous applications where acid solutions are widely applied such as industrial acid pickling, industrial acid cleaning and oil-well acidizing. The use of chemical inhibitors is one of the most practical methods for the protection against corrosion in acidic media. Most of the excellent acid inhibitors are organic compounds containing nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. The use of non-toxic inhibitors called green or eco-friendly environmental inhibitors is one of the solutions possible to prevent the corrosion of the material. These advantages have incited us to draw a large part of program of our laboratory to examine natural substances as corrosion inhibitors such as: prickly pear seed oil, Argan oil, Argan extract, Fennel oil, Rosemary oil, Thymus oil, Lavender oil, Jojoba oil, Pennyroyal Mint oil, and Artemisia. In the present work, we investigate the corrosion inhibition of steel in 1 M HCl by junipers extract using weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The result obtained of junipers extract (JE) shows excellent inhibition properties for the corrosion of C38 steel in 1M HCl at 298K, and the inhibition efficiency increases with increasing of the JE concentration. The inhibitor efficiencies determined by weight loss, Tafel polarisation and EIS methods are in reasonable agreement. Based on the polarisation results, the investigated junipers extract can be classified as mixed inhibitor. The calculated structural parameters show increase of the obtained Rct values and decrease of the capacitance, Cdl, with JE concentration increase. It is suggested to attribute this to the increase of the thickness of the adsorption layer at steel surface. The adsorption model obeys to the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The adsorption process is a spontaneous and exothermic process.

Keywords: corrosion inhibition, steel, friendly inhibitors, Tafel polarisation

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Authors: Fong-Zuo Lee, Jihn-Sung Lai, Yung-Bin Lin, Xiaoqin Liu, Kuo-Chun Chang, Zhi-Xian Yang, Wen-Dar Guo, Jian-Hao Hong

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In recent years, climate change is a major factor to increase rainfall intensity and extreme rainfall frequency. The increased rainfall intensity and extreme rainfall frequency will increase the probability of flash flood with abundant sediment transport in a river basin. The floods caused by heavy rainfall may cause damages to the bridge, embankment, hydraulic works, and the other disasters. Therefore, the foundation scouring of bridge pier, embankment and spur dike caused by floods has been a severe problem in the worldwide. This severe problem has happened in many East Asian countries such as Taiwan and Japan because of these areas are suffered in typhoons, earthquakes, and flood events every year. Results from the complex interaction between fluid flow patterns caused by hydraulic works and the sediment transportation leading to the formation of river morphology, it is extremely difficult to develop a reliable and durable sensor to measure river bed degradation and bridge pier scouring. Therefore, an innovative scour monitoring sensor using vibration-based Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) was developed. This vibration-based MEMS sensor was packaged inside a stainless sphere with the proper protection of the full-filled resin, which can measure free vibration signals to detect scouring/deposition processes at the bridge pier. In addition, a friendly operational system includes rainfall runoff model, one-dimensional and two-dimensional numerical model, and the applicability of sediment transport equation and local scour formulas of bridge pier are included in this research. The friendly operational system carries out the simulation results of flood events that includes the elevation changes of river bed erosion near the specified bridge pier and the erosion depth around bridge piers. In addition, the system is developed with easy operation and integrated interface, the system can supplies users to calibrate and verify numerical model and display simulation results through the interface comparing to the scour monitoring sensors. To achieve the forecast of the erosion depth of river bed and main bridge pier in the study area, the system also connects the rainfall forecast data from Taiwan Typhoon and Flood Research Institute. The results can be provided available information for the management unit of river and bridge engineering in advance.

Keywords: flash flood, river bed degradation, bridge pier scouring, a friendly operational system

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Authors: Helena Sit

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Developing skills in using ICT in the language classroom has been discussed at all educational levels. Digital tools and learning management systems enable teachers to transform their instructional activities while giving learners the opportunity to engage with virtual communities. In the field of English as a second language (ESL) teaching and learning, the use of technology-enhanced learning and diverse pedagogical practices continues to grow. Whilst technology and multimodal learning is a way of the future for education, second language teachers now face the predicament as to whether implementing these newer ways of learning is, in fact, beneficial or disadvantageous to learners. Research has shown that integrating multimodality and technology can improve students’ engagement and participation in their English language learning. However, students can experience anxiety or misunderstanding when engaging with E-learning or digital-mediated learning. This paper aims to explore how ESL teaching and learning are transformed via the use of educational technology and what impact it has had on student teachers. Case study is employed in this research. The study reviews the growing presence of technology and multimodality in university language classrooms, discusses their impact on teachers’ pedagogical practices, and proposes scaffolding strategies to help design effective English language courses in the Australian education context. The study sheds light on how pedagogical integration today may offer a way forward for language teachers of tomorrow and provides implications to implement an evidence-informed approach that blends knowledge from research, practice and people experiencing the practice in the digital era.

Keywords: educational technology, ICT in higher education, curriculum design and innovation, teacher education, multiliteracies pedagogy

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Authors: Diana F. Lopes, Jorge Simoes, José Martins, Eduardo Castro

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Health professionals are the keystone of any health system, by delivering health services to the population. Given the time and cost involved in training new health professionals, the planning process of the health workforce is particularly important as it ensures a proper balance between the supply and demand of these professionals and it plays a central role on the Health 2020 policy. In the past 40 years, the planning of the health workforce in Portugal has been conducted in a reactive way lacking a prospective vision based on an integrated, comprehensive and valid analysis. This situation may compromise not only the productivity and the overall socio-economic development but the quality of the healthcare services delivered to patients. This is even more critical given the expected shortage of the health workforce in the future. Furthermore, Portugal is facing an aging context of some professional classes (physicians and nurses). In 2015, 54% of physicians in Portugal were over 50 years old, and 30% of all members were over 60 years old. This phenomenon associated to an increasing emigration of young health professionals and a change in the citizens’ illness profiles and expectations must be considered when planning resources in healthcare. The perspective of sudden retirement of large groups of professionals in a short time is also a major problem to address. Another challenge to embrace is the health workforce imbalances, in which Portugal has one of the lowest nurse to physician ratio, 1.5, below the European Region and the OECD averages (2.2 and 2.8, respectively). Within the scope of the HEALTH 2040 project – which aims to estimate the ‘Future needs of human health resources in Portugal till 2040’ – the present study intends to get a comprehensive dynamic approach of the problem, by (i) estimating the needs of physicians and nurses in Portugal, by specialties and by quinquenium till 2040; (ii) identifying the training needs of physicians and nurses, in medium and long term, till 2040, and (iii) estimating the number of students that must be admitted into medicine and nursing training systems, each year, considering the different categories of specialties. The development of such approach is significantly more critical in the context of limited budget resources and changing health care needs. In this context, this study presents the drivers of the healthcare needs’ evolution (such as the demographic and technological evolution, the future expectations of the users of the health systems) and it proposes a Bayesian methodology, combining the best available data with experts opinion, to model such evolution. Preliminary results considering different plausible scenarios are presented. The proposed methodology will be integrated in a user-friendly decision support system so it can be used by politicians, with the potential to measure the impact of health policies, both at the regional and the national level.

Keywords: bayesian estimation, health economics, health workforce planning, human health resources planning

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Authors: Yayun Hsu, Henry Horng-Shing Lu

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In this paper, a new method is proposed to extending the method of connected component labeling from processing binary images to multi-scale modeling of images. By using the adaptive threshold of multi-scale attributes, this approach minimizes the possibility of missing those important components with weak intensities. In addition, the computational cost of this approach remains similar to that of the typical approach of component labeling. Then, this methodology is applied to grain boundary detection and Drosophila Brain-bow neuron segmentation. These demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach in the analysis of challenging microscopy images for scientific discovery.

Keywords: microscopic image processing, scientific data mining, multi-scale modeling, data mining

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Authors: Karam Ignaim, Joao M. Fernandes, Andre L. Ferreira

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Mapping the artifacts coming from a set of similar products family developed in an ad-hoc manner to make up the resulting software product line (SPL) plays a key role to maintain the consistency between requirements and code. This paper presents a feature mapping approach that focuses on tracing the artifact coming from the migration process, the current feature model (FM), to the other artifacts of the resulting SPL, the reference architecture, and code. Thus, our approach relates each feature of the current FM to its locations in the implementation code, using the reference architecture as an intermediate artifact (as a centric point) to preserve consistency among them during an SPL evolution. The approach uses a particular artifact (i.e., traceability tree) as a solution for managing the mapping process. Tool support is provided using friendlyMapper. We have evaluated the feature mapping approach and tool support by putting the approach into practice (i.e., conducting a case study) of the automotive domain for Classical Sensor Variants Family at Bosch Car Multimedia S.A. The evaluation reveals that the mapping approach presented by this paper fits the automotive domain.

Keywords: feature location, feature models, mapping, software product lines, traceability

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Authors: Farnaz Yusuf, Naseem A. Gaur

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The increase in environmental concerns, rapid depletion of fossil fuel reserves and intense interest in achieving energy security has led to a global research effort towards developing renewable sources of fuels. Second generation biofuels have attracted more attention recently as the use of lignocellulosic biomass can reduce fossil fuel dependence and is environment-friendly. Xylose is the main pentose and second most abundant sugar after glucose in lignocelluloses. Saccharomyces cerevisiae does not readily uptake and use pentose sugars. For an economically feasible biofuel production, both hexose and pentose sugars must be fermented to ethanol. Therefore, it is important to develop S. cerevisiae host platforms with more efficient xylose utilization. This work aims to construct a xylose fermenting yeast strains with engineered oxido-reductative pathway for xylose metabolism. Engineered strain was further improved by adaptive evolutionary engineering approach. The engineered strain is able to grow on xylose as sole carbon source with the maximum ethanol yield of 0.39g/g xylose and productivity of 0.139g/l/h at 96 hours. The further improvement in strain development involves over expression of pentose phosphate pathway and protein engineering of xylose reductase/xylitol dehydrogenase to change their cofactor specificity in order to reduce xylitol accumulation.

Keywords: biofuel, lignocellulosic biomass, saccharomyces cerevisiae, xylose

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Authors: Mahdi Taheri Asl

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Using a variety of strategies to read text plays an important role to make students strategic independent, strategic, and metacognitive readers. Given the importance of comprehension instruction (CI), it is essential to support the fostering comprehension skills at elementary age students, particularly those who struggle with or dislike reading. One of the main components of CI is activating metacognitive skills, which double function of elementary students. Thus, it’s important to evaluate the implemented comprehension interventions to inform reading specialist and teachers. There has been limited review research in the area of CI, so the conduction review research is required. The purpose of this review is to examine the effectiveness of metacognitive reading strategies in a regular classroom environment with elementary aged students. We develop five inclusion criteria to identify researches relevant to our research. First, the article had to be published in a peer-reviewed journal from 2000 to 2023. second, the study had to include participants in elementary school it could include of special education students. Third, the intervention needed to be involved with metacognitive strategies. Fourth, the articles had to use experimental or quasi experimental design. The last one needed to include measurement of reading performance in pre and post intervention. We used computer data-based site like Eric, PsychoINFO, and google scholar to search for articles that met these criteria. we used the following search terms: comprehension instruction, meta cognitive strategies, and elementary school. The next step was to do an ancestral search that get in reviewing the relevant studies cited in the articles that were found in the database search. We identified 30studies in the initial searches. After coding agreement, we synthesized 13 with respect to the participant, setting, research design, dependent variables, measures, the intervention used by instructors, and general outcomes. The finding show metacognitive strategies were effective to empower student’s comprehension skills. It also showed that linguistic instruction will be effective if got mixed with metacognitive strategies. The research provides a useful view into reading intervention. Despite the positive effect of metacognitive instruction on students’ comprehension skills, it is not widely used in classroom.

Keywords: comprehension instruction, metacogntion, metacognitive skills, reading intervention

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Authors: Maho Komura

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The purpose of this study was to determine from a questionnaire survey of teachers the status of implementation of individualized support for the pupils with suspected developmental disabilities in regular elementary school classes in Japan. In inclusive education, the goal is for all pupils to learn in the same place as much as possible by receiving the individualized support they need. However, in the Japanese school culture, strong "homogeneity" sometimes surfaces, and it is pointed out that it is difficult to provide individualized support from the viewpoint of formal equality. Therefore, we decided to conduct this study in order to examine whether there is a difference in the frequency of implementation depending on the content of individualized support and to consider the direction of future individualized support. The subjects of the survey were 196 public elementary school teachers who had been in charge of regular classes within the past five years. In the survey, individualized support was defined as individualized consideration including rational consideration, and did not include support for the entire class or all pupils enrolled in the class (e.g., reducing the amount of homework for pupils who have trouble learning, changing classroom rules, etc.). (e.g., reducing the amount of homework for pupils with learning difficulties, allowing pupils with behavioral concerns to use the library or infirmary when they are unstable). The respondents were asked to choose one answer from four options, ranging from "very much" to "not at all," regarding the degree to which they implemented the nine individual support items that were set up with reference to previous studies. As a result, it became clear that the majority of teachers had pupils with developmental disabilities or pupils who require consideration in terms of learning and behavior, and that the majority of teachers had experience in providing individualized support to these pupils. Investigating the content of the individualized support that had been implemented, it became clear that the frequency with which it was implemented varied depending on the individualized support. Individualized support that allowed pupils to perform the same learning tasks was implemented more frequently, but individualized support that allowed different learning tasks or use of places other than the classroom was implemented less frequently. It was suggested that flexible support methods tailored to each pupil may not have been considered.

Keywords: inclusive education, ndividualized support, regular class, elementary school

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Authors: Taoufik Bettaieb, Sihem Soufi

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As a bioactive metalloid, silicon (Si) is an essential element for plant growth and development. It also plays a crucial role in enhancing plants’ resilience to different abiotic and biotic stresses. The morpho-physiological, biochemical, and molecular background of Si-mediated stress tolerance in plants were unraveled. Cold stress is a severe abiotic stress response to the decrease of plant growth and yield by affecting various physiological activities in plants. Several approaches have been used to alleviate the adverse effects generated from cold stress exposure, but the cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and defensible approach is the supply of silicon. Silicon has the ability to neutralize the harmful impacts of cold stress. Therefore, based on these hypotheses, this study was designed in order to investigate the morphological and physiological background of silicon effects applied at different concentrations on cold stress mitigation during early growth of a turfgrass, namely Paspalum vaginatum Sw. Results show that silicon applied at different concentrations improved the morphological development of Paspalum subjected to cold stress. It is also effective on the photosynthetic apparatus by maintaining stability the photochemical efficiency. As the primary component of cellular membranes, lipids play a critical function in maintaining the structural integrity of plant cells. Silicon application decreased membrane lipid peroxidation and kept on membrane frontline barrier relatively stable under cold stress.

Keywords: crops, cold stress, silicon, abiotic stress

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Authors: Sheila Shahidi

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UV protection by fabrics has recently become a focus of great interest, particularly in connection with environmental degradation or ozone layer depletion. Fabrics provide simple and convenient protection against UV radiation (UVR), but not all fabrics offer sufficient UV protection. To describe the degree of UVR protection offered by clothing materials, the ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) is commonly used. UV-protective fabric can be generated by application of a chemical finish using normal wet-processing methodologies. However, traditional wet-processing techniques are known to consume large quantities of water and energy and may lead to adverse alterations of the bulk properties of the substrate. Recently, usage of plasmas to generate physicochemical surface modifications of textile substrates has become an intriguing approach to replace or enhance conventional wet-processing techniques. In this research work the effect of plasma treatment on UV protection properties of fabrics was investigated. DC magnetron sputtering was used and the parameters of plasma such as gas type, electrodes, time of exposure, power and, etc. were studied. The morphological and chemical properties of samples were analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Furrier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively. The transmittance and UPF values of the original and plasma-treated samples were measured using a Shimadzu UV3101 PC (UV–Vis–NIR scanning spectrophotometer, 190–2, 100 nm range). It was concluded that, plasma which is an echo-friendly, cost effective and dry technique is being used in different branches of the industries, and will conquer textile industry in the near future. Also it is promising method for preparation of UV protection textile.

Keywords: fabric, plasma, textile, UV protection

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Authors: Helan Gethse J., Dhanya K., Muthuselvi G., Diana Hyden N., Samuel Pakianathan P.

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Transformer oil is mostly used to keep the transformer cool. It functions as a cooling agent. Mineral oil has long been used in transformers. Mineral oil has a high dielectric strength, which allows it to withstand high temperatures. Mineral oil's main disadvantage is that it is not environmentally friendly and can be dangerous to the environment. The features of breakdown voltage (BDV), viscosity, flash point, and fire point are measured and reported in this study, and the characteristics of olive oil are compared to the characteristics of mineral oil.

Keywords: antioxidants, transformer oil, mineral oil, olive oil

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Authors: Siyanda S. Biyela, Willie A. Cronje

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This paper presents a desktop study of comparing two different wave energy to electricity technologies (WECs) using a techno-economic approach. This techno-economic approach forms basis of a framework for rapid comparison of current and future technologies. The approach also seeks to assist in investment and strategic decision making expediting future deployment of wave energy harvesting in South Africa.

Keywords: cost of energy (COE) tool, sea state, wave energy converter (WEC), WEC-Sim

Procedia PDF Downloads 287