Search results for: multiple themes

Authors: Ratnawati Mohd Asraf, Sabreena Ahmed

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This paper describes how the method of focused freewriting can be used to help teachers to foster critical thinking through writing. In this study, we used focused freewriting during the pre-writing stage of our writing course to help our English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students to generate ideas and to think critically about the issues they were to write on. In each of the four classes where we applied this technique, we used pictures or videos to stimulate their thinking during the prewriting stage of writing and then asked them to write non-stop for ten minutes about whatever that came to their minds as a result of being presented with these prompts. We then asked them to focus on the themes that emerged from their brief writing. Using observations, in-depth interviews, and an analysis of their brief essays, our study found that focused freewriting helped our students to generate ideas and think critically about the issues they were writing on. We postulate that by using focused freewriting and discussions during the prewriting stage of writing, instructors can help their students to think critically about various issues and facilitate their efforts at organising their arguments for critical, academic essays.

Keywords: academic writing, critical writing, critical thinking, focused free-writing, pre-writing

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Authors: Seongho Han, Dongkwan Kim

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The focus of regional innovation policies is shifting from a central government to local governments. The central government demands that regions enforce autonomous and responsible regional innovation policies and that regional governments seek for innovation policies fit for regional characteristics. However, the central government and local governments have not arrived yet at a conclusion on what innovation policies are appropriate for regional circumstances. In particular, even if each local government is trying to find regional innovation strategies that are based on the needs of a region, its innovation strategies turn out to be similar with those of other regions. This leads to a consequence that is inefficient not only at a national level, but also at a regional level. Existing researches on regional innovation types point out that there are remarkable differences in the types or characteristics of innovation among the regions of a nation. In addition they imply that there would be no expected innovation output in cases in which policies are enforced with ignoring such differences. This means that it is undesirable to enforce regional innovation policies under a single standard. This research, given this problem, aims to find out the characteristics and differences in innovation types among the regions in Korea and suggests appropriate policy implications by classifying such characteristics and differences. This research, given these objectives, classified regions in consideration of the various indicators that comprise the innovation suggested by existing related researches and illustrated policies based on such characteristics and differences. This research used recent data, mainly from 2012, and as a methodology, clustering analysis based on multiple factor analysis was applied. Supplementary researches on dynamically analyzing stability in regional innovation types, establishing systematic indicators based on the regional innovation theory, and developing additional indicators are necessary in the future.

Keywords: regional innovation policy, regional innovation type, region-based innovation, multiple factor analysis, clustering analysis

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Authors: Renukha Devi Anandan

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Charles Forsman’s The End of The Fxxxing World, I Am Not Okay With This, and Slasher invariably deals with existential themes. They reflect the perplexed situation of the characters torn between the search for existence and the constraints of human conditions that impede them from such realization, ensuing a dilemma deeply-rooted in absurdity and alienation. These characters are social misfits who fail to fashion their existence and develop harmoniously. Therefore, the present paper adopts an Existential approach to examine the vignettes of alienation and absurdity vis-à-vis the characters’ speech, actions, and thoughts. Furthermore, this paper explores the role of death either as a self-destructive behavior or the eternal freedom of man in graphic novels. Findings portrayed how the characters’ absurd existence surrounded by the void, would eventually develop into death. Finally, the study revealed that Forsman’s distinctive serial illustration not only unveiled the predicaments of the characters through their hard-boiled smokescreens in the 21st-century social paradigm but also established graphic novels as part and parcel of a literary genre.

Keywords: existentialism, absurdity, alienation, death, self-destruction, eternal freedom

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Authors: Badar Dhehawi A. Aldhafeeri

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Objective: To explore the views and experiences of healthcare providers (HCPs) and their expectations toward pharmacists in mental healthcare, in addition to their acceptance of new pharmacist roles. Barriers and facilitators that are emerging in the process of developing enhanced pharmacist-related roles were also explored. Methods: Qualitative semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with HCPs who had worked in mental health services in Saudi Arabia. The data were thematically analysed using a constant comparison with NVivo software to develop a series of key themes from the interviews. Results: Most HCPs indicated that they rarely interacted with pharmacists. They expected pharmacists to educate both patients and other healthcare workers in the future. Concerns were raised regarding inadequate pharmacy education and lack of clinical training for pharmacists. Conclusion: This study revealed that interactions between HCPs and pharmacists concerning mental health are still limited. A communication strategy for addressing mental health issues should be developed among pharmacists and other HCPs.

Keywords: pharmacist, pharmacy student, saudi arabia, qualitative research

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Authors: Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed

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Universal and equitable access to safe and inexpensive water is one of the core goals of UN Sustainable Development (Goal-6). Rainwater harvesting and drinkable water scarcity are also prominent themes in the current literature. However, the lack of readily available drinking water sources is a serious roadblock in achieving this major goal in developing countries, especially in Bangladesh. In this study, we aimed to explore how water collecting activities in Bangladesh's coastal region are influenced by participants’ selected socio-demographic characteristics. We gathered information using a structured questionnaire from 154 people who were chosen at random from two of Bangladesh's most susceptible subdistricts situated in the country's southwest coast. Our results show that majority of the respondents think water fetching is a job for the woman as like their other day-day to household works and it’s not a man's duty. Interestingly, we found that person's age, family structure, monthly income and religion all play important roles in how they see and behave water-gathering techniques. Moreover, the local taboo on women and men's roles in water-gathering is also evident in the studied areas.

Keywords: water fetching, socio-demographic characteristic, coastal region, Bangladesh, SDG

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Authors: Taufik Mulyadin

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The tuition reform for public colleges that the Indonesian government initiated and has implemented since 2013 resulted in the growing number of college students from low-income families, many of whose parents did not attend college. This study sought to examine the experiences of persistence for Indonesian first-generation college students in public universities utilizing social capital as a framework. It is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach primarily to capture the essence of how Indonesian first-generation college students interpret, process, and experience their persistence during college years. Fifteen Indonesian young college graduates were involved as well as questionnaire and interview were employed for data collection in this study. It revealed certain themes from the experiences that first-generation college students attributed to their persistence: (a) family encouragement, (b) support from friends, (c) guidance from faculty and staff, (d) fund of knowledge they bring with them, (e) financial aid availability, and (f) self-motivation. By examining first-generation college students’ voices, Indonesian public universities can better support, engage, and retain this group of students who were historically struggled to persist in college and complete their degree.

Keywords: first-generation student, Indonesian higher education, persistence, public universities

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Authors: Prodipta Bhowmik, Poulami Saha, Preety Mehra, Yogesh Soni, Triloki Nath Jha

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In India, the smart city concept is growing day by day. So, for smart city development, a better traffic management and monitoring system is a very important requirement. Nowadays, road accidents increase due to more vehicles on the road. Reckless driving is mainly responsible for a huge number of accidents. So, an efficient traffic management system is required for all kinds of roads to control the traffic speed. The speed limit varies from road to road basis. Previously, there was a radar system but due to high cost and less precision, the radar system is unable to become favorable in a traffic management system. Traffic management system faces different types of problems every day and it has become a researchable topic on how to solve this problem. This paper proposed a computer vision and machine learning-based automated system for multiple vehicle detection, tracking, and speed estimation of vehicles using image processing. Detection of vehicles and estimating their speed from a real-time video is tough work to do. The objective of this paper is to detect vehicles and estimate their speed as accurately as possible. So for this, a real-time video is first captured, then the frames are extracted from that video, then from that frames, the vehicles are detected, and thereafter, the tracking of vehicles starts, and finally, the speed of the moving vehicles is estimated. The goal of this method is to develop a cost-friendly system that can able to detect multiple types of vehicles at the same time.

Keywords: OpenCV, Haar Cascade classifier, DLIB, YOLOV3, centroid tracker, vehicle detection, vehicle tracking, vehicle speed estimation, computer vision

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Authors: Parsa Naji

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Following the Iran Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the subsequent formation of a theocratic regime, the new regime implemented stringent regulations and a complicated censorship system in the film industry. Thereupon, the screening of films showing the relationships between males and females encountered numerous limitations. Not only did these limits encompass the physical portrayal of the relationship between males and females, but also the dialogues containing explicit sexual or even passionate romantic themes, resulting in a film being permanently consigned to archival storage. However, despite these limitations, Iranian filmmakers persevered in creating their interesting cinematic works. Throughout the years after the revolution, Iranian directors have navigated a series of challenges and obstacles, employing innovative and unconventional methods to bypass the rigorous censorship system imposed by the government, ensuring the screening of their films. This study aims to analyze the creative approaches employed by Iranian filmmakers to circumvent governmental censorship regulations.

Keywords: censorship, Iranian cinema, Islamic revolution, male-female relationship

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Authors: Tajudeen Yusuf

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Arabic Literature of Nigerian Authorship, like others, has contributed widely to the spread of morality and values in human Society. There is no doubt that the relationship between literature and society has been widely conceived, for it reflects society and serves as a means of social control. Indeed, the influence of literature on attitude and human behaviors cannot be underestimated. Focused on some selected themes and verses in a literary work of Isa Abubakar Alabi known as (Ar-Ryaadh), the paper aims to reveal the contributions of the Arabic literary icon of Nigerian origin in spreading values and morality in society through his literary works. The study employs a descriptive method. Isa Abubakar Alabi, a Nigerian Arabic scholar, is known as a wise and famous poet not only in Nigeria but throughout West Africa and Arab countries at large. He has produced a sort of poetry that is distinguished with superiority in spreading peace, harmony, societal values and morality. Indeed, his literary works address humanism, kindness, honesty, law, justice, truthfulness, and patriotism, which may positively influence humans.

Keywords: Arabic, literature, moral, Nigeria, values

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Authors: Intan Azura Mokhtar, Yaacob Ibrahim

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In recent years, learning about sustainable development and sustainability has become an increasingly significant component in universities’ degree programmes and curricula. As the world comes together and races to fulfil the 17 United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the year 2030, our educational curricula and landscapes simultaneously evolve to integrate lessons and opportunities for sustainable development and sustainability to redefine our university education and set the trajectory for our young people to take the lead in co-creating solutions for a better world. In this paper, initiatives and projects that revolved around themes of sustainable development and sustainability in a young university in Singapore are discussed. These initiatives and projects were curated by a new centre in the university that focuses on community leadership, social innovation, and service learning and was led by the university’s academic staff. The university’s undergraduate students were also involved in these initiatives and projects and played an active role in reaching out to and engaging members of different segments of the community – to better understand their needs and concerns and to co-create with them relevant and sustainable solutions that generate positive social impact.

Keywords: singapore, sustainable development, sustainability, undergraduate education

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Authors: Lisa Winstead, Penny Congcong Wang

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This two-year multiple case study of eight Spanish-English speaking teachers explores bilingual-bicultural Latino teachers’ lived experiences as English Language Learners and, more recently, as adult teachers who work with English Language Learners in mainstream schools. Research questions explored include: How do bilingual-bicultural teachers perceive their native language use and sense of self within society from childhood to adulthood? Correspondingly, what are bilingual teachers’ perceptions of how their own language learning experience might affect teaching students of similar linguistic and cultural backgrounds? This study took place in an urban area in the Pacific Southwest of the United States. Participants were K-8 teachers and enrolled in a Spanish-English bilingual authorization program. Data were collected from journals, focus group interviews, field notes, and class artifacts. Within case and cross-case analysis revealed that the participants were shamed about their language use as children which contributed to their primary language loss. They similarly reported how experiences of mainstream educator and administrator language shaming invalidated their ability to provide support for Latino heritage ELLs, despite their bilingual-bicultural expertise. However, participants reported that counter-narratives from the bilingual authorization program, parents, community and church organizations, and cultural responsive teachers were effective in promoting their language retention, pride, and feelings of well-being.

Keywords: teacher education, bilingual education, English language learners, emergent bilinguals, social justice, language shame, language loss, translanguaging

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Authors: Mahdieh Dehghan Nayeri, Hani Arbabi, Seid Pooyan Ghafoori

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Civic crowdfunding- crowdfunding public projects- which goes beyond people management- as a significant part of public projects stakeholders- and requires the active engagement of the public in both the financing and decision-making processes of public projects, is expanding. However, in most countries of the world, no specific legal framework has been approved for governing and managing the implementation of projects through this method. Through a systematic literature review, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA), this article has studied and discussed the legal issues of civic crowdfunded projects in the countries leading the use of this method, in four themes; one related to the legal environment and three related to three leading players in civic crowdfunded projects include the investor, the platform, and the investee. The review showed that despite the increasing attention to people's engagement in public projects -financial and non-financial- not much scientific research has been done to formulate fully structured legal structures. Finally, neglected areas in research have been discussed as a guide for future research.

Keywords: civic crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding, public projects, legal issues, crowdsourcing

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Authors: Min Jindong, Wang Mingxia

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With the widespread use of artificial intelligence in life, computer vision, especially deep convolutional neural network models, has developed rapidly. With the increase of the complexity of the real visual target detection task and the improvement of the recognition accuracy, the target detection network model is also very large. The huge deep neural network model is not conducive to deployment on edge devices with limited resources, and the timeliness of network model inference is poor. In this paper, knowledge distillation is used to compress the huge and complex deep neural network model, and the knowledge contained in the complex network model is comprehensively transferred to another lightweight network model. Different from traditional knowledge distillation methods, we propose a novel knowledge distillation that incorporates multi-faceted features, called M-KD. In this paper, when training and optimizing the deep neural network model for target detection, the knowledge of the soft target output of the teacher network in knowledge distillation, the relationship between the layers of the teacher network and the feature attention map of the hidden layer of the teacher network are transferred to the student network as all knowledge. in the model. At the same time, we also introduce an intermediate transition layer, that is, an intermediate guidance layer, between the teacher network and the student network to make up for the huge difference between the teacher network and the student network. Finally, this paper adds an exploration module to the traditional knowledge distillation teacher-student network model. The student network model not only inherits the knowledge of the teacher network but also explores some new knowledge and characteristics. Comprehensive experiments in this paper using different distillation parameter configurations across multiple datasets and convolutional neural network models demonstrate that our proposed new network model achieves substantial improvements in speed and accuracy performance.

Keywords: object detection, knowledge distillation, convolutional network, model compression

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Authors: Andreas Kunz, Ali Alavi

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In this paper, we present a simple active stylus for interactive IR-based tabletop systems. Such tables offer a set of tags for realizing tangible user interfaces, which can only be applied to objects having a relatively big contacting area with the interactive surface. The stylus has a unique address and thus can be clearly distinguished from other styli, objects or finger touches that might simultaneously occur on the interactive surface.

Keywords: interactive screens, pen, tangibles, user interfaces

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Authors: Alisher Ibragimov, Sofya Senotrusova, Aleksandra Beliaeva, Egor Ushakov, Yuri Markin

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Mammography plays a critical role in screening for breast cancer in women, and artificial intelligence has enabled the automatic detection of diseases in medical images. Many of the current techniques used for mammogram analysis focus on a single view (mediolateral or craniocaudal view), while in clinical practice, radiologists consider multiple views of mammograms from both breasts to make a correct decision. Consequently, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems could benefit from incorporating information gathered from multiple views. In this study, the introduce a method based on a Siamese neural network (SNN) model that simultaneously analyzes mammographic images from tri-view: bilateral and ipsilateral. In this way, when a decision is made on a single image of one breast, attention is also paid to two other images – a view of the same breast in a different projection and an image of the other breast as well. Consequently, the algorithm closely mimics the radiologist's practice of paying attention to the entire examination of a patient rather than to a single image. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, this research represents the first experiments conducted using the recently released Vietnamese dataset of digital mammography (VinDr-Mammo). On an independent test set of images from this dataset, the best model achieved an AUC of 0.87 per image. Therefore, this suggests that there is a valuable automated second opinion in the interpretation of mammograms and breast cancer diagnosis, which in the future may help to alleviate the burden on radiologists and serve as an additional layer of verification.

Keywords: breast cancer, computer-aided diagnosis, deep learning, multi-view mammogram, siamese neural network

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Authors: Valerii Dudin

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With the continuous increase in quantity and importance of the information surrounding our daily lives, it has become crucial to understand what makes information stand out and affect our point of view, regardless of the accuracy of the facts involved. Alaa Al-Aswany’s numerous works have been an inspiration for millions of his readers in Egypt and all across the Arab World. While highly factual, the author’s political essays are both lexically and stylistically rich; they also implement descriptive allusions and proverbs to support the presented opinions. We have undertaken an effort to explore the impact on the individual perception through these political works of the author. In this study, we have overviewed previously made research on similar subjects and through contextual, intertextual, linguistic and corpus analyses we have come to realize the presence of suggestive themes in these works, capable of shaping the reader’s perception regarding a certain topic, specifically targeting the reader’s emotional bias. The findings presented in the study will reveal an overview of such examples of suggestive elements used in the author’s works, as well as various new insights on what can be considered suggestive in the context of modern Arabic printed press.

Keywords: Alaa al-Aswany, cognitive linguistics, political essays, suggestion

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Authors: Ruvaitha Banu, Amaladhithyan Krishnamoorthy

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IoT networks today solve various consumer problems, from home automation systems to aiding in driving autonomous vehicles with the exploration of multiple devices. For example, in an autonomous vehicle environment, multiple sensors are available on roads to monitor weather and road conditions and interact with each other to aid the vehicle in reaching its destination safely and timely. IoT systems are predominantly dependent on the cloud environment for data storage, and computing needs that result in latency problems. With the advent of Fog networks, some of this storage and computing is pushed to the edge/fog nodes, saving the network bandwidth and reducing the latency proportionally. Managing the data stored in these fog nodes becomes crucial as it might also store sensitive information required for a certain application. Data management in fog nodes is strenuous because Fog networks are dynamic in terms of their availability and hardware capability. It becomes more challenging when the nodes in the network also live a short span, detaching and joining frequently. When an end-user or Fog Node wants to access, read, or write data stored in another Fog Node, then a new protocol becomes necessary to access/manage the data stored in the fog devices as a conventional static way of managing the data doesn’t work in Fog Networks. The proposed solution discusses a protocol that acts by defining sensitivity levels for the data being written and read. Additionally, a distinct data distribution and replication model among the Fog nodes is established to decentralize the access mechanism. In this paper, the proposed model implements stewardship towards the data stored in the Fog node using the application of Reinforcement Learning so that access to the data is determined dynamically based on the requests.

Keywords: IoT, fog networks, data stewardship, dynamic access policy

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Authors: Shivani Kuttuva, Bridget Fergie, Andrew Mishreki, Shovkat Mir, Fintan Bergin

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Diaphragm disease (DD) of the small bowel is a condition wherein the bowel lumen is divided into a series of short compartments by multiple circumferential membranes of mucosa and submucosa, leading to pinhole lumen and subsequent obstruction. It is a rare condition commonly attributed to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) usage. Herein we present a 31-yr-old-female with a history of NSAIDs usage for one year following neurosurgery, who presented with recurrent idiopathic small bowel obstruction, recalcitrant anaemia, and impaction of capsule endoscope on investigating for anaemia. The capsule endoscopy images demonstrated multiple circumferential strictures with ulcers at its tip and villous atrophy in the proximal bowel, suggestive of NSAIDs related damage. However, due to the lack of awareness of the detrimental effects of NSAIDs on bowel mucosa distal to the duodenum, the underlying aetiology of this clinical presentation remained a mystery for a significant duration. The patient had to undergo repeated laparotomies in order to relieve the symptoms of recurring acute small bowel obstruction. Upon examining the resected specimen under microscopy, the histopathological hallmark of expanded, fibrotic, and congested submucosa was picked up, leading to the confirmation of diaphragm disease. Thus, this case report aims to widen the awareness among clinicians and aid surgeons in devising a management plan for young individuals presenting with recurring episodes of obstruction due to Diaphragm disease.

Keywords: capsule endoscopy, diaphragm disease, NSAIDs, recurrent small bowel obstruction

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Authors: Nada Azhar

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As a developing country, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) needs to make the best possible use of its workforce for social and economic reasons. The workforce is diverse, calling for appropriate diversity management (DM). The thesis focuses on the banking sector in KSA. To date, there have been no studies on DM in the banking sector in this country. Many organizations have introduced specific policies and programmes to improve the recruitment, inclusion, promotion, and retention of diverse employees, in addition to the legal requirements existing in many countries. However, Western-centric models of DM may not be applicable, at least not in their entirety, in other regions. The aim of the study is to devise a framework for understanding gender, age and disability DM in the banking sector in KSA in order to enhance DM in this sector. A sample of 24 managers, 2 from each of the 12 banks, was interviewed to obtain their views on DM in the banking sector in KSA. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. These themes were used to develop the questionnaire, which was administered to 10 managers in each of the 12 banks. After analysis of these data, and completion of the study, the research will make a theoretical contribution to the knowledge on DM and a practical contribution to the management of diversity in Saudi banks. This paper concerns a work in progress.

Keywords: age, disability, diversity, gender, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Ping Tan, Xiaomeng Su, Yi Shen

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The motion intention in the motor imagery braincomputer interface is identified by classifying the event-related desynchronization (ERD) and event-related synchronization ERS characteristics of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) in EEG signals. When the subject imagines different limbs or different parts moving, the rhythm components and bandwidth will change, which varies from person to person. How to find the effective sensorimotor frequency band of subjects is directly related to the classification accuracy of brain-computer interface. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a Minimum Distance to Riemannian Mean Classification method based on Non-Uniform Filter Banks. During the training phase, the EEG signals are decomposed into multiple different bandwidt signals by using multiple band-pass filters firstly; Then the spatial covariance characteristics of each frequency band signal are computered to be as the feature vectors. these feature vectors will be classified by the MDRM (Minimum Distance to Riemannian Mean) method, and cross validation is employed to obtain the effective sensorimotor frequency bands. During the test phase, the test signals are filtered by the bandpass filter of the effective sensorimotor frequency bands, and the extracted spatial covariance feature vectors will be classified by using the MDRM. Experiments on the BCI competition IV 2a dataset show that the proposed method is superior to other classification methods.

Keywords: non-uniform filter banks, motor imagery, brain-computer interface, minimum distance to Riemannian mean

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Authors: Sony Baral, Bijendra Basnyat, Kalyan Gauli

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Forests are depleted throughout the world in the 1990s, and since then, various efforts have been undertaken for the restoration of the forest. A government of Nepal promoted various community based forest management in which leasehold forestry was the one introduce in 1990s, aiming to restore degraded forests land. However, few attempts have been made to systematically evaluate its cost effectiveness. Hence the study assesses the cost effectiveness of leasehold forestry intervention in the mid-hill district of Nepal following the cost and benefit analysis approach. The study followed quasi-experimental design and collected costs and benefits information from 320 leasehold forestry groups (with intervention) and 154 comparison groups (without intervention) through household survey, forest inventory and then validated with the stakeholders’ consultative workshop. The study found that both the benefits and costs from intervention outweighed without situation. The members of leasehold forestry groups were generating multiple benefits from the forests, such as firewood, grasses, fodder, and fruits, whereas those from comparison groups were mostly getting a single benefit. Likewise, extent of soil carbon is high in leasehold forests. Average expense per unit area is high in intervention sites due to high government investment for capacity building. Nevertheless, positive net present value and internal rate of return was observed for both situations. However, net present value from intervention, i.e., leasehold forestry, is almost double compared to comparison sites, revealing that community are getting higher benefits from restoration. The study concludes that leasehold forestry is a highly cost-effective intervention that contributes towards forest restoration that brings multiple benefits to rural poor.

Keywords: cost effectiveness, economic efficiency, intervention, restoration, leasehold forestry, nepal

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Authors: Keiko Shimazu, Yasuhiro Maida, Tetsuya Sugata, Daisuke Tamakoshi, Kenji Makabe, Haruki Suzuki

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In this paper, we report how to acquire serious victims’ locations in the Acute Stage of Large-scale Disasters, in an Emergency Information Network System designed by us. The background of our concept is based on the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11^th, 2011. Through many experiences of national crises caused by earthquakes and tsunamis, we have established advanced communication systems and advanced disaster medical response systems. However, Japan was devastated by huge tsunamis swept a vast area of Tohoku causing a complete breakdown of all the infrastructures including telecommunications. Therefore, we noticed that we need interdisciplinary collaboration between science of disaster medicine, regional administrative sociology, satellite communication technology and systems engineering experts. Communication of emergency information was limited causing a serious delay in the initial rescue and medical operation. For the emergency rescue and medical operations, the most important thing is to identify the number of casualties, their locations and status and to dispatch doctors and rescue workers from multiple organizations. In the case of the Tohoku earthquake, the dispatching mechanism and/or decision support system did not exist to allocate the appropriate number of doctors and locate disaster victims. Even though the doctors and rescue workers from multiple government organizations have their own dedicated communication system, the systems are not interoperable.

Keywords: crisis management, disaster mitigation, messing, MGRS, military grid reference system, satellite communication system

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Authors: Prince Amartey

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Bees are clever creatures, thus, capturing bees implies that the hives are intelligent in the sense that they have all of the required circumstances to attract and trap the bees. If the hive goes above and beyond to keep the bees in the hive and to keep the activities of in-hive pests to a minimal in order for the bees to develop to their maximum potential, the hive is becoming or is more 'intelligent'. Some bee pests, such as tiny beehive beetles, are endemic to Africa; however, the way we now extract honey by cutting off the combs and pressing for honey prevents the spread of these bees' insect enemies. However, when we explore entering the commercialization. When freshly collected combs are returned to the hives following the adoption of the frame and other systems, there is a need to consider putting in strategies to manage the accompanying pest concerns that arise with unprotected combs.The techniques for making hives more'intelligent' are thus more important presently, given that the African apicultural business does not wish to encourage the use of pesticides in the hives. This include changing the hive's entrance holes in order to improve the bees' own mechanism for defending the entry sites, as well as collecting pests by setting exterior and in-hive traps to prevent pest infiltration into hives by any means feasible. Material and Methods: The following five (5) mechanisms are proposed to make the hives more 'intelligent.' i. The usage of modified frames with five (5) beetle traps positioned horizontally on the vertical 'legs' to catch the beetle along the combs' surfaces-multiple bee ii. Baited bioelectric frame traps, which has both vertical sections of frame covered with a 3mm mesh that allows pest entry but not bees. The pest is attracted by strips of combs of honey, open brood, pollen on metal plates inserted horizontally on the vertical ‘legs’ of the frames. An electrical ‘mine’ system in place that electrocutes the pests as they step on the wires in the trap to enter the frame trap iii. The ten rounded hive entry holes are adapted as the bees are able to police the entrance to prevent entry of pest. The holes are arranged in two rows, with one on top of the other What Are the Main Contributions of Your Research?-Results Discussions and Conclusions The techniques implemented decrease pest ingress, while in-hive traps capture those that escape entry into the hives. Furthermore, the stand alteration traps larvae and stops their growth into adults. As beekeeping commercialization grows throughout Africa, these initiatives will minimize insect infestation in hives and necessarily enhance honey output.

Keywords: bee pests, modified frames, multiple beetle trap, Baited bioelectric frame traps

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Authors: Yo Fukutani, Shuji Moriguchi, Takuma Kotani, Terada Kenjiro

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If risk management of the assets owned by companies, risk assessment of real estate portfolio, and risk identification of the entire region are to be implemented, it is necessary to consider simultaneous damage to multiple buildings. In this research, the Sagami Trough earthquake tsunami that could have a significant effect on the Japanese capital region is focused on, and a method is proposed for simultaneous damage assessment using copulas that can take into consideration the correlation of tsunami depths and building damage between two sites. First, the tsunami inundation depths at two sites were simulated by using a nonlinear long-wave equation. The tsunamis were simulated by varying the slip amount (five cases) and the depths (five cases) for each of 10 sources of the Sagami Trough. For each source, the frequency distributions of the tsunami inundation depth were evaluated by using the response surface method. Then, Monte-Carlo simulation was conducted, and frequency distributions of tsunami inundation depth were evaluated at the target sites for all sources of the Sagami Trough. These are marginal distributions. Kendall’s tau for the tsunami inundation simulation at two sites was 0.83. Based on this value, the Gaussian copula, t-copula, Clayton copula, and Gumbel copula (n = 10,000) were generated. Then, the simultaneous distributions of the damage rate were evaluated using the marginal distributions and the copulas. For the correlation of the tsunami inundation depth at the two sites, the expected value hardly changed compared with the case of no correlation, but the damage rate of the ninety-ninth percentile value was approximately 2%, and the maximum value was approximately 6% when using the Gumbel copula.

Keywords: copulas, Monte-Carlo simulation, probabilistic risk assessment, tsunamis

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Authors: Hajer Najjar, Riad Bourguiba, Jaouhar Mouine

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Reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processors are widely used because of their multiple advantages. In fact, they are based on a simple instruction set so that they increase the speed of the processor and reduce its energy consumption. In this paper, we will present a basic RISC architecture processor that will be developed later to converge to a new architecture with runtime reconfiguration.

Keywords: processor, RISC, DLX, pipeline, runtime reconfiguration

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Authors: Keith Schofield, Garry R. Prentice

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The perceptions of the work an academic does, and the environment in which they do it, contributes to the professional identity of that academic. In turn, this has implications for the level of involvement they have in their job, their satisfaction, and their work product. This research explores academic identities in British and Irish institutions and considers the complex interplay between identity, practice, and participation. Theoretical assumptions made in this paper assert that meaningful work has positive effects on work pride, organisational commitment, organisational citizenship, and motivation; when employees participate enthusiastically they are likely to be more engaged, more successful, and more satisfied. Further examination is given to the context in which this participation happens; the nature of institutional process, management, and relationships with colleagues, team members, and students is considered. The present study follows a mixed-methods approach to explore work satisfaction constructs in a number of academic contexts in the UK and Ireland. The quantitative component of this research (Convenience Sample: 155 academics, and support/ administrative staff; 36.1% male, 63.9% female; 60.8% academic staff, 39.2% support/ administration staff; across a number of universities in the UK and Ireland) was based on an established emotional labour model and was tested across gender groups, job roles, and years of service. This was complimented by qualitative semi-structured interviews (Purposive Sample: 10 academics, and 5 support/ administrative staff across the same universities in the UK and Ireland) to examine various themes including values within academia, work conditions, professional development, and transmission of knowledge to students. Experiences from both academic and support perspectives were sought in order to gain a holistic view of academia and to provide an opportunity to explore the dynamic of the academic/administrator relationship within the broader institutional context. The quantitative emotional labour model, tested via a path analysis, provided a robust description of the relationships within the data. The significant relationships found within the quantitative emotional labour model included a link between non-expression of true feelings resulting in emotional labourious work and lower levels of intrinsic motivation and higher levels of extrinsic motivation. Higher levels of intrinsic motivation also linked positively to work pride. These findings were further explored in the qualitative elements of the research where themes emerged including the disconnection between faculty management and staff, personal fulfilment and the friction between the identities of teacher, researcher/ practitioner and administrator. The implications of the research findings from this study are combined and discussed in relation to possible identity-related and emotional labour management-related interventions. Further, suggestions are made to institutions concerning the application of these findings including the development of academic practices, with specific reference to the duality of identity required to service the combined teacher/ researcher role. Broader considerations of the paper include how individuals and institutions may engage with the changing nature of students-as-consumers as well as a recommendation to centralise personal fulfillment through the development of professional academic identities.

Keywords: academic work, emotional labour, identity friction, mixed methods

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Authors: Leah Plocharczyk, Matthew Conner

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This paper analyzes the relatively new trend of PSE programs which seek to provide education, vocational training, and a college experience to individuals with an intellectual and developmental disability (IDD). Specifically, the paper examines the degree of interaction between PSE programs and the libraries of their college campuses. Using ThinkCollege, a clearinghouse and advocate for PSE programs, the researchers identified 293 programs throughout the country. These were all contacted with an email survey asking them about the nature of their involvement, if any, with the academic libraries on their campus. Where indicated by the responses, the libraries of PSE programs were contacted for additional information about their programming. Responses to the survey questions were tabulated and analyzed quantitatively. Written comments were analyzed for themes which were then tabulated. This paper presents the results of this study. They show obvious preferences for library programming, such as group formal instruction, individual liaisons, embedded reference, and various instructional designs. These are discussed in terms of special education principles of mainstreaming, level of restriction, training demands and cost effectiveness. The work serves as a foundation for best practices that can advance the field.

Keywords: disability studies, instructional design, universal design for learning, assessment methodology

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Authors: Chih Jou Hsiao, Chung Ming Lo, Li Chun Hsieh

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Brain tumor is not the cancer having high incidence rate, but its high mortality rate and poor prognosis still make it as a big concern. On clinical examination, the grading of brain tumors depends on pathological features. However, there are some weak points of histopathological analysis which can cause misgrading. For example, the interpretations can be various without a well-known definition. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of malignant tumors is a challenge to extract meaningful tissues under surgical biopsy. With the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), tumor grading can be accomplished by a noninvasive procedure. To improve the diagnostic accuracy further, this study proposed a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system based on MRI features to provide suggestions of tumor grading. Gliomas are the most common type of malignant brain tumors (about 70%). This study collected 34 glioblastomas (GBMs) and 73 lower-grade gliomas (LGGs) from The Cancer Imaging Archive. After defining the region-of-interests in MRI images, multiple quantitative morphological features such as region perimeter, region area, compactness, the mean and standard deviation of the normalized radial length, and moment features were extracted from the tumors for classification. As results, two of five morphological features and three of four image moment features achieved p values of <0.001, and the remaining moment feature had p value <0.05. Performance of the CAD system using the combination of all features achieved the accuracy of 83.18% in classifying the gliomas into LGG and GBM. The sensitivity is 70.59% and the specificity is 89.04%. The proposed system can become a second viewer on clinical examinations for radiologists.

Keywords: brain tumor, computer-aided diagnosis, gliomas, magnetic resonance imaging

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Authors: Lule Basha, Eralda Gjika

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This study is focused on analyzing climate change in Albania and its potential effects on cereal yields. Initially, monthly temperature and rainfalls in Albania were studied for the period 1960-2021. Climacteric variables are important variables when trying to model cereal yield behavior, especially when significant changes in weather conditions are observed. For this purpose, in the second part of the study, linear and nonlinear models explaining cereal yield are constructed for the same period, 1960-2021. The multiple linear regression analysis and lasso regression method are applied to the data between cereal yield and each independent variable: average temperature, average rainfall, fertilizer consumption, arable land, land under cereal production, and nitrous oxide emissions. In our regression model, heteroscedasticity is not observed, data follow a normal distribution, and there is a low correlation between factors, so we do not have the problem of multicollinearity. Machine-learning methods, such as random forest, are used to predict cereal yield responses to climacteric and other variables. Random Forest showed high accuracy compared to the other statistical models in the prediction of cereal yield. We found that changes in average temperature negatively affect cereal yield. The coefficients of fertilizer consumption, arable land, and land under cereal production are positively affecting production. Our results show that the Random Forest method is an effective and versatile machine-learning method for cereal yield prediction compared to the other two methods.

Keywords: cereal yield, climate change, machine learning, multiple regression model, random forest

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Authors: Steffany Anne Poblador, Ruben Jr. Tagare

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The Philippine Education System is now undergoing transition as a result of the implementation of Republic Act 10533, commonly referred to as the Enhanced Basic Education Act. Since its implementation in 2013, researchers have been examining the initial impact of this transition; however, investigations into the gains and drawbacks of the Philippine Senior High School Sports Track Program based on teachers’ assessment were scarcely adequate. As a result, this research used a Qualitative Phenomenology Research Design to elicit information on the gains and drawbacks faced by these instructors. Focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and extensive field observation were conducted with participants from selected schools in Cotabato Province. During the triangulation of the data, five (5) significant themes for gains and six (6) concerns from the research participants emerged. The findings were then used to provide recommendations for a more effective implementation of the Sports Track Program in the Philippine Senior High School program.

Keywords: teachers’ gains and drawbacks, Philippine K to 12 problems, K to 12 transition years, favorable experiences, phenomenology

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