Search results for: online learning activities

Authors: Samskrati Gulvady

Abstract:

Oman Vision 2040 aims to overcome challenges, keep pace with regional and global changes, generate and seize opportunities to foster economic competitiveness and social well-being, stimulate growth and build confidence in all economic, social and developmental relations nationwide. While identifying the national priorities, the vision focuses on reshaping the roles of and relation between public, private and civil sectors to ensure effective economic management; achieve a developed, diversified and sustainable national economy; ensure fair distribution of development gains among governorates; and protect the nation’s natural resources and unique environment. In this milieu, the present study will explore the youth's awareness of sustainability and its impact on economic renaissance. It aims to gather information from the stakeholders and provide an evidence-based understanding of an issue of national importance that is less studied or documented. Ethnocentric consumer studies have been conducted in Oman and other countries which discuss the purchase decisions made by the consumer under various parameters. Awareness or the lack of awareness can influence the consumers buying choices or decisions. Globalization, online shopping, and social media are some of the factors that influence the awareness levels among the people in society. Hence it is important to understand the level of awareness of young consumers towards both domestic and imported products. The gathered data will help address the opportunities and challenges towards achieving the national priorities in Oman Vision 2040. Knowledge-based Participatory Action Research (PAR) method is considered for this study, as it involves the active participation of the researcher and respondents (stakeholders) to generate ideas and action for social change. A mixed-method approach will be used to collect data. The data collected through the questionnaires will be analyzed using SPSS software, while the responses gathered from personal interviews will be categorized and analyzed. The information generated from this two-fold Participatory Action Research approach will allow the researchers to explore the problem statement. This, in turn will help identify the gaps, if any, that will further help the policymakers in developing suitable strategies to achieve the desired outcome. The findings will also significantly contribute to the literature related to Oman.

Keywords: sustainability, awareness, Oman Vision 2040, national pride

Procedia PDF Downloads 11

Authors: Satya Pradhan, Venky Nanniyur

Abstract:

As the software industry transitions from a license-based model to a subscription-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, many software development groups are using a hybrid development model that incorporates Agile and Waterfall methodologies in different parts of the organization. The traditional metrics used for measuring software quality in Waterfall or Agile paradigms do not apply to this new hybrid methodology. In addition, to respond to higher quality demands from customers and to gain a competitive advantage in the market, many companies are starting to prioritize quality as a strategic differentiator. As a result, quality metrics are included in the decision-making activities all the way up to the executive level, including board of director reviews. This paper presents key challenges associated with measuring software quality in organizations using the hybrid development model. We introduce a framework called Prevention-Inspection-Evaluation-Removal (PIER) to provide a comprehensive metric definition for hybrid organizations. The framework includes quality measurements, quality enforcement, and quality decision points at different organizational levels and project milestones. The metrics framework defined in this paper is being used for all Cisco systems products used in customer premises. We present several field metrics for one product portfolio (enterprise networking) to show the effectiveness of the proposed measurement system. As the results show, this metrics framework has significantly improved in-process defect management as well as field quality.

Keywords: quality management system, quality metrics framework, quality metrics, agile, waterfall, hybrid development system

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Orit Shamir Balderman, Shamir Michal

Abstract:

Israel often deals with crisis situations, but most have been characterized as security crises (e.g., war). This is the first time that the Israel has dealt with a health and social emergency as part of a global crisis. The crisis began in January 2020 with the emergence of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), which was defined as a pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020) and arrived in Israel in early March 2020. This study examined how single mothers by choice (SMBC) experience state anxiety (SA), social support, work–family conflict (WFC), and happiness. This group has not been studied in the context of crises in general or a global crisis. Using a snowball sample, 386 SMBCanswered an online questionnaire. The findings show a negative relationship between income and level of state anxiety. State anxiety was also negatively associated with social support, level of happiness, and WFC. Finally, a stepwise regression analysis indicated that happiness explained 34% of the variance in SA. We also found that most of the women did not turn to formal support agencies such as social workers, other Government Ministries, or municipal welfare. A positive and strong correlations was also found between SA and WFC. The findings of the study reinforce the understanding that although these women made a conscious and informed decision regarding the choice of their family cell, their situation is more complex in the absence of a spouse support. Therefore, this study, as other future studies in the field of SMBC, may contribute to the improvement of their social status and the understanding that they are a unique group. Although SMBC are a growing sector of society in the past few years, there are still special needs and special attention that is needed from the formal and informal supports systems. A comparative study of these two groups and in different countries would shed light on SA among mothers in general, regardless of their relationship status and location.Researchers should expand this study by comparing mothers in relationships and exploring how SMBC coped in other countries. In summary, the findings of the study contribute knowledge on three levels: (a) knowledge about SMBC in general and during crisis situations; (b) examination of social support using tools assessing receipt of assistance and support, some of which were developed for the present study; and (c) insights regarding counseling, accompaniment, and guidance of welfare mechanisms.

Keywords: single mothers by choice, state anxiety, social support, happiness, work–family conflict

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Pichamon Chansuchai

Abstract:

This paper studied the expanding market opportunity palm oil ASEAN community: case study of Choomporn Palm Oil Cooperative as qualitative research. The purpose is to study and analyze expanding and linking the liberalization of trade in palm oil products under the terms of cooperation and ASEAN countries. Collection data were collected using participatory observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups, government officials, palm oil cooperative, entrepreneurs and farmers to exchange opinions. The study found that of major competitors is Indonesia and Malaysia which as ASEAM members countries has the potential to produce over Thailand. Thailand government must have a policy to increase the competitiveness of the palm oil Thailand. Using grants from the Free Trade Area fund should add value to agricultural products, palm oil and the development of standard products to meet the needs of the member countries. And creating a learning center of the palm oil sector can transfer knowledge, development of palm species, solution process from planting to harvest care privatization process. And the development of palm oil in order to expand market opportunities for Thailand's palm oil has the potential to be competitive in the neighboring countries and the region.

Keywords: palm oil, market, cooperative, ASEAN

Procedia PDF Downloads 502

Authors: Djordjevic J. Sladjana, Djordjevic-Milošević B. Suzana, Milošević M. Slobodan

Abstract:

The potential of biomass as a renewable energy source leads Serbia to be the top of European countries by the amount of available but unused biomass. Technologies for its use are available and ecologically acceptable. Moreover, they are not expensive high-tech solutions even for the poor investment environment of Serbia, while other options seem to be less achievable. From the other point of view, Serbia has a huge percentage of unused agriculture land. Agricultural production in Serbia languishes: a large share of agricultural land therefore remains untreated, and there is a significant proportion of degraded land. From all the above, biomass intended for energy production is becoming an increasingly important factor in the stabilization of agricultural activities. Orientation towards the growing bioenergy crops versus conventional crop cultivation becomes an interesting option. The aim of this paper is to point out the possibility of growing energy crops in accordance with the conditions and cultural practice in rural areas of Serbia. First of all, the cultivation of energy crops on lower quality land is being discussed, in order to revitalize the rural areas of crops through their inclusion into potential energy sector. Next is the theme of throwing more light on the increase in the area under this competitive agricultural production to correct land use in terms of climate change in Serbia. The goal of this paper is to point out the contribution of the share of biomass in energy production and consumption, and the effect of reducing the negative environmental impact.

Keywords: agro-energy crops, conditions for plantation, revitalization of rural areas, degraded and unused soils

Procedia PDF Downloads 269

Authors: Mohit Gupta, Chialing Wei, Thomas Czerniawski

Abstract:

In this paper, we have built a neural network that can detect walls on 2D sheets and subsequently create a 3D model in Revit using Dynamo. The training set includes 3500 labeled images, and the detection algorithm used is YOLO. Typically, engineers/designers make concentrated efforts to convert 2D cad drawings to 3D models. This costs a considerable amount of time and human effort. This paper makes a contribution in automating the task of 3D walls modeling. 1. Detecting Walls in 2D cad and generating 3D pop-ups in Revit. 2. Saving designer his/her modeling time in drafting elements like walls from 2D cad to 3D representation. An object detection algorithm YOLO is used for wall detection and localization. The neural network is trained over 3500 labeled images of size 256x256x3. Then, Dynamo is interfaced with the output of the neural network to pop-up 3D walls in Revit. The research uses modern technological tools like deep learning and artificial intelligence to automate the process of generating 3D walls without needing humans to manually model them. Thus, contributes to saving time, human effort, and money.

Keywords: neural networks, Yolo, 2D to 3D transformation, CAD object detection

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Shreyas Gambhirrao, Aditya Vichare, Aniket Tembhurne, Shahuraj Bhosale

Abstract:

In today's rapidly evolving environment, stress has emerged as a significant health concern across different age groups. Stress that isn't controlled, whether it comes from job responsibilities, health issues, or the never-ending news cycle, can have a negative effect on our well-being. The problem is further aggravated by the ongoing connection to technology. In this high-tech age, identifying and controlling stress is vital. In order to solve this health issue, the study focuses on three key metrics for stress detection: body temperature, heart rate, and galvanic skin response (GSR). These parameters along with the Support Vector Machine classifier assist the system to categorize stress into three groups: 1) Stressed, 2) Not stressed, and 3) Moderate stress. Proposed training model, a NodeMCU combined with particular sensors collects data in real-time and rapidly categorizes individuals based on their stress levels. Real-time stress detection is made possible by this creative combination of hardware and software.

Keywords: real time stress detection, NodeMCU, sensors, heart-rate, body temperature, galvanic skin response (GSR), support vector machine

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: A. Pedro, T. Goldschmidt

Abstract:

Socio-emotional development is considered to be an essential prerequisite for school readiness. To our best knowledge, research on socio-emotional development specifically from the views of teachers in the South African context is limited. This study explored preschool teachers’ understanding of the role that socio-emotional development plays in preparing the child for school. Using the social learning theory, a qualitative approach with an exploratory design was used for the study. A total of 12 preschool teachers from both community-based and school-based preschools were purposively recruited. Upon receiving ethics clearance from the University of the Western Cape and the Western Cape Education Department, semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed by utilizing Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis. Participants’ rights, anonymity, and confidentiality were upheld throughout the research process. Findings reveal that preschool teachers emphasise the importance of holistic development for school readiness. Teachers deemed socio-emotional development as absolutely crucial for preparing children for school as it eases the transition to formal schooling and adaptation to the classroom environment.

Keywords: early childhood, preschool teachers, school readiness, socio-emotional development

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Siti Navila

Abstract:

Hedging as a kind of pragmatic competence is an essential part in achieving the goal in communication, especially in academic discourse where the process of sharing knowledge among academic community takes place. Academic discourse demands an appropriateness and modesty of an author or speaker in stating arguments, to name but few, by considering the politeness, being cautious and tentative, and differentiating personal opinions and facts in which these aspects can be achieved through hedging. This study was conducted to find the hedging devices used by students as well as to analyze how they use them in their oral presentation. Some oral presentations from English Department students of the State University of Jakarta on their Academic Presentation course final test were recorded and explored formally and functionally. It was found that the most frequent hedging devices used by students were shields from all hedging devices that students commonly used when they showed suggestion, stated claims, showed opinion to provide possible but still valid answer, and offered the appropriate solution. The researcher suggests that hedging can be familiarized in learning, since potential conflicts that is likely to occur while delivering ideas in academic contexts such as disagreement, criticism, and personal judgment can be reduced with the use of hedging. It will also benefit students in achieving the academic competence with an ability to demonstrate their ideas appropriately and more acceptable in academic discourse.

Keywords: academic discourse, hedging, hedging devices, lexical hedges, Meyer classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 465

Authors: Md. Shadab, Mariyam N. Nashid, Venkata Srikanth Meka, Thiagarajan Madheswaran

Abstract:

Naringenin (NAR), is a naturally occurring plant flavonoid, found predominantly in citrus fruits, that possesses a wide range of pharmacological properties including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory behaviour, cholesterol-lowering and anticarcinogenic activities. However, despite the therapeutic potential of naringenin shown in a number of animal models, its clinical development has been hindered due to its low aqueous solubility, slow dissolution rate and inefficient transport across biological membranes resulting in low bioavailability. Naringenin nanosuspension were produced using stabilizers Tween® 80 by high pressure homogenization techniques. The nanosuspensions were characterized with regard to size (photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), size distribution, charge (zeta potential measurements), morphology, short term physical stability, dissolution profile and antioxidant potential. A nanocrystal PCS size of about 500 nm was obtained after 20 homogenization cycles at 1500 bar. The short-term stability was assessed by storage of the nanosuspensions at 4 ◦C, room temperature and 40 ◦C. Result showed that naringenin nanosuspension was physically unstable due to large fluctuations in the particle size and zeta potential after 30 days. Naringenin nanosuspension demonstrated higher drug dissolution (97.90%) compared to naringenin powder (62.76%) after 120 minutes of testing. Naringenin nanosuspension showed increased antioxidant activity compared to naringenin powder with a percentage DPPH radical scavenging activity of 49.17% and 31.45% respectively at the lowest DPPH concentration.

Keywords: bioavailability, naringenin, nanosuspension, oral delivery

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Ahsan Ullah

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to measure the relationship between sedentary behaviour and metabolic rate among adult professionals. An intervention (e-mobile) approach was used for gathered the information from the participants. A total of 40 participants (men = 30, and women = 10) with an average age of (36.53 years ± 8.85) were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n= 20) and control group (n= 20). All the participants completed the Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire (SBQ) and The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) at baseline and at the end of eight weeks. The participants in the intervention group were given physical activity guidelines targeted at increasing physical activity levels during daily activities. On the other side, the control group was advised to continue with their routine daily physical activity. Statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics and inferential analysis like mean, SD, T-tests, and ANOVA, were used to analyze the data and determine relationships between variables. After analyzing the data, the results showed that significant difference in pre and post metabolic rate scores (1488.31 ± 179.13 to 1468.44 ± 128.19) (f = 10.83, p < 0.000) were noted in the experimental group after eight week. The experimental group increased their walking (863.78 METs per week to 1625.55 METs per week), moderate activity (295 METs per week to 743 METs per week) and vigorous activity (362 METs per week to 1366 METs per week) physical activity (all p<0.001). There were no significant differences observed in any outcome measured before and after eight weeks in the control group. These findings suggest that engaging in physical activity can effectively improve metabolic rate and reduce sedentary behavior among physically active adults.

Keywords: sedentary behavior, metabolic rate, adult’s professionals, physical activity

Procedia PDF Downloads 37

Authors: Hounyèmè Romuald, Maxime Logez, Mama Daouda, Argillier Christine

Abstract:

In view of the very strong degradation of aquatic ecosystems, it is urgent to set up monitoring systems that are best able to report on the effects of the stresses they undergo. This is particularly true in developing countries, where specific and relevant quality standards and funding for monitoring programs are lacking. The objective of this study was to make a relevant and objective choice of physicochemical parameters informative of the main stressors occurring on African lakes and to identify their alteration thresholds. Based on statistical analyses of the relationship between several driving forces and the physicochemical parameters of the Nokoué lagoon, relevant Physico-chemical parameters were selected for its monitoring. An innovative method based on Bayesian statistical modeling was used. Eleven Physico-chemical parameters were selected for their response to at least one stressor and their threshold quality standards were also established: Total Phosphorus (<4.5mg/L), Orthophosphates (<0.2mg/L), Nitrates (<0.5 mg/L), TKN (<1.85 mg/L), Dry Organic Matter (<5 mg/L), Dissolved Oxygen (>4 mg/L), BOD (<11.6 mg/L), Salinity (7.6 .), Water Temperature (<28.7 °C), pH (>6.2), and Transparency (>0.9 m). According to the System for the Evaluation of Coastal Water Quality, these thresholds correspond to” good to medium” suitability classes, except for total phosphorus. One of the original features of this study is the use of the bounds of the credibility interval of the fixed-effect coefficients as local weathering standards for the characterization of the Physico-chemical status of this anthropized African ecosystem.

Keywords: driving forces, alteration thresholds, acadjas, monitoring, modeling, human activities

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Rohit Gupta, Ravinder Agarwal

Abstract:

Surface electromyographic (sEMG) signal has the potential to identify the human activities and intention. This potential is further exploited to control the artificial limbs using the sEMG signal from residual limbs of amputees. The paper deals with the development of multichannel cost efficient sEMG signal interface for research application, along with evaluation of proposed class dependent statistical approach of the feature selection method. The sEMG signal acquisition interface was developed using ADS1298 of Texas Instruments, which is a front-end interface integrated circuit for ECG application. Further, the sEMG signal is recorded from two lower limb muscles for three locomotions namely: Plane Walk (PW), Stair Ascending (SA), Stair Descending (SD). A class dependent statistical approach is proposed for feature selection and also its performance is compared with 12 preexisting feature vectors. To make the study more extensive, performance of five different types of classifiers are compared. The outcome of the current piece of work proves the suitability of the proposed feature selection algorithm for locomotion recognition, as compared to other existing feature vectors. The SVM Classifier is found as the outperformed classifier among compared classifiers with an average recognition accuracy of 97.40%. Feature vector selection emerges as the most dominant factor affecting the classification performance as it holds 51.51% of the total variance in classification accuracy. The results demonstrate the potentials of the developed sEMG signal acquisition interface along with the proposed feature selection algorithm.

Keywords: classifiers, feature selection, locomotion, sEMG

Procedia PDF Downloads 296

Authors: Edward Schwalb, Matthias Dehmer, Michael Schlenkrich, Farzaneh Taslimi, Ketron Mitchell-Wynne, Horen Kuecuekyan

Abstract:

We present a generalized feature extraction approach for supporting Machine Learning (ML) algorithms which perform tasks similar to Finite-Element Analysis (FEA). We report results for estimating the Head Injury Categorization (HIC) of vehicle engine compartments across various impact scenarios. Our experiments demonstrate that models learned using features derived with a simple discretization approach provide a reasonable approximation of a full simulation. We observe that Decision Trees could be as effective as Neural Networks for the HIC task. The simplicity and performance of the learned Decision Trees could offer a trade-off of a multiple order of magnitude increase in speed and cost improvement over full simulation for a reasonable approximation. When used as a complement to full simulation, the approach enables rapid approximate feedback to engineering teams before submission for full analysis. The approach produces mesh independent features and is further agnostic of the assembly structure.

Keywords: mechanical design validation, FEA, supervised decision tree, convolutional neural network.

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Amna Beshir Medani Ahmed, Samia Mohammed Ali El Badwi, Ahmed El Amin Mohammed

Abstract:

This work has been managed to yield toxicity information on water treatment agents in the Sudan namely polyDADMAC, using New Zealand rabbits at multiple daily oral doses for a period of 10 weeks. Thirty-three heads of New Zealand rabbits were divided into 11 groups, each of three. Group 1 animals were the undosed controls. Test groups of either species were given polyDADMAC at similar dose rates of 0.5, 2.5, 4.5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg body weight respectively for groups 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11. Clinical signs were closely observed with postmortem and histopathological examinations. Chemical investigations included enzymatic concentrations of ALP, GOT, CK, GPT and LDH together with hematological changes in Hb, PCV, RBCs and WBCs. Mortalities occurred to variable degrees irrespective of the dose level. On polyDADMAC challenge, the test species showed clinical signs of dullness, loss of weight, anorexia, diarrhea, difficulty in respiration, hind limb paralysis and recumbency. Notably oral dosing with polyDADMAC caused lung emphysema, hepatic and renal dysfunctions, irregularity in enzymatic activities and serum metabolites, sloughing of intestinal epithelium, decreased electrolytes in serum, and splenic haemosiderosis. On evaluation of the above results, polyDADMAC was considered toxic to New Zealand rabbits at all dose rates tried. Practical implications of the results were highlighted and suggestions for future work were put forward.

Keywords: polydiallyldiethylaluminiumchloride (polyDADMAC), nubian goats, toxicity of drinking water, treatment of drinking water using chemicals

Procedia PDF Downloads 375

Authors: Nagaveni Hegde, Priya Sharma, Anitha M.

Abstract:

A vital network of two-way communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the gastrointestinal tract, the gut-brain axis has a major impact on both health and illness. This axis revolves around the gut microbiota, a complex ecology of microbes that is essential for controlling brain activity and influencing mood, cognitive activities, and pain perception. Chronic pain and neuroinflammation are caused by microglia, the CNS's resident macrophages, which are impacted by signals from the stomach and the central nervous system. Mechanisms including immune system modulation, vagus nerve pathways, neurotransmitter modulation, and microbial metabolites further mediate this interaction. Numerous neurological problems, such as mood disorders (depression, bipolar disorder), neurodevelopmental issues (schizophrenia, autism), and neurodegenerative diseases, have been linked to dysbiosis, an imbalance in the gut microbiota. The mechanics of gut-brain communication, the factors influencing the composition of the gut microbiome, and the effects of dysbiosis on neurological health are all examined in this review. Furthermore, we discuss state-of-the-art developments in microbiome research that present promising paths for the creation of new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders, including microbial profiling, microbiota transplantation, and tailored therapeutics. Knowing how the stomach and brain interact dynamically creates new opportunities for tailored microbiome-based therapies that improve mental health and wellbeing.

Keywords: gut-brain axis, microbiota, dysbiosis, neurological disorders, microglia

Procedia PDF Downloads 9

Authors: Ngan Nguyen

Abstract:

The study analyses adjectives collocating with the word ‘education’ in the American language of the Corpus of Global Web-based English using a combination of corpus linguistic and discourse analytical methods to examine not only language patterns but also social political ideologies around the topic. Significant conclusions are deduced: (1) there are a large number of adjectival collocates of the word education which have been identified and classified into four categories representing four different aspects of education: level, quality, forms and types of education; (2) education, as in combination with three first categories, carries the meaning as the act and process of teaching and learning while with the last category having the meaning of a particular kind of teaching or training; (3) higher education is the topic that gains most concerns from the American public; (4) five most significant ideologies are discovered from the corpus: higher education associates with financial affairs, higher education is an industry, monetary policy of the government on higher education, people require greater accessibility to higher education and people value higher education. The study contributes to the field of developing meanings of words through corpus analysis and the field of discourse analysis.

Keywords: adjectival collocation, American context, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, education

Procedia PDF Downloads 351

Authors: Katsue Edo, Yu Hiroi

Abstract:

T Increasing attention has been paid to using pictures and photographs in research since the beginning of the 21th century in social sciences. Meanwhile we have been studying the usefulness of Picture mining, which is one of the new ways for a these picture using researches. Picture Mining is an explorative research analysis method that takes useful information from pictures, photographs and static or moving images. It is often compared with the methods of text mining. The Picture Mining concept includes observational research in the broad sense, because it also aims to analyze moving images (Ochihara and Edo 2013). In the recent literature, studies and reports using pictures are increasing due to the environmental changes. These are identified as technological and social changes (Edo et.al. 2013). Low price digital cameras and i-phones, high information transmission speed, low costs for information transferring and high performance and resolution of the cameras of mobile phones have changed the photographing behavior of people. Consequently, there is less resistance in taking and processing photographs for most of the people in the developing countries. In these studies, this method of collecting data from respondents is often called as ‘participant-generated photography’ or ‘respondent-generated visual imagery’, which focuses on the collection of data and its analysis (Pauwels 2011, Snyder 2012). But there are few systematical and conceptual studies that supports it significance of these methods. We have discussed in the recent years to conceptualize these picture using research methods and formalize theoretical findings (Edo et. al. 2014). We have identified the most efficient fields of Picture mining in the following areas inductively and in case studies; 1) Research in Consumer and Customer Lifestyles. 2) New Product Development. 3) Research in Fashion and Design. Though we have found that it will be useful in these fields and areas, we must verify these assumptions. In this study we will focus on the field of fashion and design, to determine whether picture mining methods are really reliable in this area. In order to do so we have conducted an empirical research of the respondents’ attitudes and behavior concerning pictures and photographs. We compared the attitudes and behavior of pictures toward fashion to meals, and found out that taking pictures of fashion is not as easy as taking meals and food. Respondents do not often take pictures of fashion and upload their pictures online, such as Facebook and Instagram, compared to meals and food because of the difficulty of taking them. We concluded that we should be more careful in analyzing pictures in the fashion area for there still might be some kind of bias existing even if the environment of pictures have drastically changed in these years.

Keywords: empirical research, fashion and design, Picture Mining, qualitative research

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Aleksandra Ibragimow, Moritz Albrecht, Eerika Albrecht

Abstract:

Close international cooperation between all countries within a river basin has become one of the key aspects of sustainable cross-border water management. This is due to the fact that water does not stop at administrative or political boundaries. Therefore, the preferred mode to protect and manage transnational water bodies is close cooperation between all countries and stakeholders within the natural hydrological unit of the river basin. However, past practices have demonstrated that combining interests of different countries and stakeholders with differing political systems and management approaches to environmental issues upstream as well as downstream can be challenging. The study focuses on particular problems and challenges of water management in international river basin districts by the example of the International Oder River Basin District. The Oder River is one of the largest cross-border rivers of the Baltic Sea basin passing through Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Attention is directed towards the activities and the actions that were carried out during the Districts' first management cycle of transnational river basin management (2009-2015). The results show that actions of individual countries have been focused on the National Water Management Plans while a common appointment about identified supra-regional water management problems has not been solved, and conducted actions can be considered as preliminary and merely a basis for future management. This present state raises the question whether the achievement of main objectives of Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) can be a realistic task.

Keywords: International River Basin Districts, water management, water frameworkdirective, water management plans

Procedia PDF Downloads 320

Authors: Ayman M. Othman, Hassan Y. Ahmed, Tallat A. Ali

Abstract:

Inadequate maintenance programs and funds allocated for highway networks in the developed countries have led to fast deterioration of road side elements. Therefore, this research focuses on developing a performance model for road side elements periodic maintenance activities. Road side elements that receive periodic maintenance include; earthen shoulder, road signs and traffic markings. Using the level of service concept, the developed model can determine the optimal periodic maintenance intervals for those elements based on a selected level of service suitable with the available periodic maintenance budget. Data related to time periods for progressive deterioration stages for the chosen elements were collected. Ten maintenance experts in Aswan, Sohag and Assiut cities were interviewed for that purpose. Time in months related to 10%, 25%, 40%, 50%, 75%, 90% and 100% deterioration of each road side element was estimated based on the experts opinion. Least square regression analysis has shown that a power function represents the best fit for earthen shoulders edge drop-off and damage of road signs with time. It was also evident that, the progressive dirtiness of road signs could be represented by a quadratic function an a linear function could represent the paint degradation nature of both traffic markings and road signs. Actual measurements of earthen shoulder edge drop-off agree considerably with the developed model.

Keywords: deterioration, level of service, periodic maintenance, performance model, road side element

Procedia PDF Downloads 577

Authors: Karthick Prasad Gunasekaran, B. Chase Babrich, Saurabh Shirodkar, Hee Hwang

Abstract:

Construction preparation is crucial for the success of a construction project. By involving project participants early in the construction phase, project managers can plan ahead and resolve issues early, resulting in project success and satisfaction. This study uses quantitative data from construction management projects to determine the relationship between the pre-construction phase, construction schedule, and customer satisfaction. This study examined a total of 65 construction projects and 93 clients per job to (a) identify the relationship between the pre-construction phase and program reduction and (b) the pre-construction phase and customer retention. Based on a quantitative analysis, this study found a negative correlation between pre-construction status and project schedule in 65 construction projects. This finding means that the more preparatory work done on a particular project, the shorter the total construction time. The Net Promoter Score of 93 clients from 65 projects was then used to determine the relationship between construction preparation and client satisfaction. The pre-construction status and the projects were further analyzed, and a positive correlation between them was found. This shows that customers are happier with projects with a higher ready-to-build ratio than projects with less ready-to-build.

Keywords: NLP, BERT, LLM, deep learning, classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Yuko Tomoto

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to examine the assumption that female bilingual speakers more often change the way they talk or think depending on the language they use compared with male bilingual speakers. The author collected data through questionnaires on 241 bilingual speakers. Also, in-depth interview surveys were conducted with 13 Japanese/English bilingual speakers whose native language is Japanese and 16 English/Japanese bilingual speakers whose native language is English. The results indicate that both male and female bilingual speakers are more or less influenced consciously and unconsciously by the language they use, as well as by the background cultural values of each language. At the same time, it was found that female speakers are much more highly affected by the language they use, its background culture and also by the interlocutors they were talking to. This was probably due to the larger cultural expectations on women. Through conversations, speakers are not only conveying a message but also attempting to express who they are, and what they want to be like. In other words, they are constantly building up and updating their own identities by choosing the most appropriate language and descriptions to express themselves in the dialogues. It has been claimed that the images of ideal L2 self could strongly motivate learners. The author hopes to make the best use of the fact that bilingual speakers change their presence depending on the language they use, in order to motivate Japanese learners of English, especially female learners from the viewpoint of finding their new selves in English.

Keywords: cultural influence, gender expectation, language learning, L2 self

Procedia PDF Downloads 426

Authors: M. López-Moreno, L. Lugo Avilés, F. Román, J. Lugo Rosas, J. Hernández-Viezcas Jr., Peralta-Videa, J. Gardea-Torresdey

Abstract:

Degradation of agricultural soils has increased rapidly during the last 20 years due to the indiscriminate use of pesticides and other anthropogenic activities. Currently, there is an urgent need of soil restoration to increase agricultural production. Utilization of sewage sludge or municipal solid waste is an important way to recycle nutrient elements and improve soil quality. With these amendments, nutrient availability in the aqueous phase might be increased and production of healthier crops can be accomplished. This research project aimed to achieve sustainable management of tropical agricultural soils, specifically in Puerto Rico, through the amendment of water treatment plant sludge’s. This practice avoids landfill disposal of sewage sludge and at the same time results cost-effective practice for recycling solid waste residues. Coriander sativum was cultivated in a compost-soil-sludge mixture at different proportions. Results showed that Coriander grown in a mixture of 25% compost+50% Voladora soi+25% sludge had the best growth and development. High chlorophyll content (33.01 ± 0.8) was observed in Coriander plants cultivated in 25% compost+62.5% Coloso soil+ 12.5% sludge compared to plants grown with no sludge (32.59 ± 0.7). ICP-OES analysis showed variations in mineral element contents (macro and micronutrients) in coriander plant grown I soil amended with sludge and compost.

Keywords: compost, Coriandrum sativum, nutrients, waste sludge

Procedia PDF Downloads 414

Authors: Neha Bhushan

Abstract:

For the purpose of this study a village of district Azamgarh has been selected which is a part of the most populous and backward state of the country, Uttar Pradesh. In the age of information, everyone has the right to acquire information and it becomes important to assess the acceptance and non-acceptance of social media among rural population. Rural women of the state are showing positive trends in the form of increased social media and mobile usage. This study is an effort to know the purpose of rural women for using social media. The study design is exploratory and qualitative in nature. Data collection primarily consisted of 25 semi-structured individual interviews having 10 open-ended specific questions in one of the villages of Azamgarh district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Sampling approach is flexible and situational. Data reveals that rural women have become active on social media since last six months to one year. Most of them are using Facebook, Whatsapp, and YouTube for the purpose of interaction, learning new skills, checking out recipes and latest fashion. This pilot study gives a bird eye view of the problem and opens door for exploring this least explored area.

Keywords: exploratory research, mobile usage, rural women, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Teklebrhan Kidane

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to investigate the species diversity and relative abundance of migratory waterbirds in Abijata Lake, an Important Bird Area and potential Ramsar site located in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The study was carried out, using line transect method along the shoreline and open area of the Lake. The data was analyzed with different diversity indices; t-Test and descriptive statistics. Thirty-two migratory waterbird species grouped into twelve families consisting of globally threatened birds were identified and recorded. Family Scolopacidae (12 species) had the highest number of species. The lowest number of species was observed under the families Ciconidae, Accipitridae, Laridae and Falconidae with one species each. The recorded bird species comprised 19 Palearctic, 5 Intra-African, 2 local migrants as well as 6 resident Palearctic migratory waterbird species. The dry season had higher species diversity (H'=1.01) compared to the wet season (H'=0.76). The highest and lowest diversity of migratory waterbirds were recorded during January (H'= 1.28) and June (H'= 0.52), respectively. However, the highest evenness (E) of bird species was recorded during wet season (E=0.21) and lower during the dry season (E=0.09). The computed seasonal effect reveals that there is significant effect of seasons on species diversity (t=2.80, P < 0.05), but the effect of seasons on individuals of migratory bird species was not significant (t=1.42, P > 0.05). Even though Lake Abijata is the sanctuary of several migratory waterbirds, anthropogenic activities are rigorously threatening their survival. Therefore, it needs an urgent conservation concern.

Keywords: migration, important bird area, species diversity, wetland birds

Procedia PDF Downloads 210

Authors: Ananya Mitra Pramanik, Anjali Agrawal

Abstract:

The objective of this paper is to trace the origin and evolution of clothing in the Indian Subcontinent. The paper seeks to understand the need for mankind to shed his natural state and adopt clothing as an inseparable accessory for his body. It explores the various theories of the origin of clothing. The known journey of clothing of this region started from the Indus Valley Civilisation which dates back to 2500 BC. Due to the weather conditions of the region, few actual samples have survived, and most of the knowledge of textiles is derived from the sculptures and other remains from this era. The understanding of textiles of the period after the Indus Valley Civilisation (2500-1500 BC) till the Mauryan and the Sunga Period (321-72 BC) comes from literary sources, e.g., Vedas, Smritis, the eminent Indian epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, forest books, etc. Textile production was one of the most important economic activities of this region. It was next only to agriculture. While attempting to trace the history of clothing the paper draws the evolution of Indian traditional fashion through the change of rulers of this region and the development of the modern Indian traditional dress, i.e., sari, salwar kamiz, dhoti, etc. The major aims of the study are to define the different time periods chronologically and to inspect the major changes in textile fashion, manufacturing, and materials that took place. This study is based on secondary research. It is founded on data taken primarily from books and journals. Not much of visuals are added in the paper as actual fabric references are near nonexistent. It gives a brief history of the ancient textiles of India from the time frame of 2500 BC-8th C AD.

Keywords: evolution, history, origin, textiles

Procedia PDF Downloads 184

Authors: Muhammad Saleem

Abstract:

Tourism stands as one of the swiftly expanding sectors globally, contributing to 10% of the overall worldwide GDP. It holds a vital role in generating income, fostering employment opportunities, alleviating poverty, facilitating foreign exchange earnings, and advancing intercultural understanding. This industry encompasses a spectrum of activities, encompassing transportation, communication, hospitality, catering, entertainment, and advertising. The objective of this study is to assess the evolution and obstacles encountered by sports tourism in Pakistan. In pursuit of this objective, relevant literature has been scrutinized, while data has been acquired from 60 respondents, employing a simple random sampling approach for analysis. The survey comprised close-ended inquiries directed towards all participants. Analytical tools such as mean, mode, median, graphs, and percentages have been employed for data analysis. The findings revealed through robust analysis, indicate that the mean, mode, and median tools consistently yield results surpassing the 70% mark, underscoring that heightened development within sports tourism significantly augments its progress. Effective governance demonstrates a favorable influence on sports tourism, with increased government-provided safety and security potentially amplifying its expansion, thus attracting a higher number of tourists and consequently propelling the growth of the sports tourism sector. This study holds substantial significance for both academic scholars and industry practitioners within Pakistan's tourism landscape, as previous explorations in this realm have been relatively limited.

Keywords: obstacles-spots, evolution-tourism, sports-pakistan, sports-obstacles-pakistan

Procedia PDF Downloads 59

Authors: Talha Sareshwala

Abstract:

The purpose of this research paper is to revise the skills of an entrepreneur in the making and to guide future Entrepreneurs into a promising future. The study presents a broader review of entrepreneurship, starting from its definition and antecedents. A well-developed original set of guidelines can help budding entrepreneurs and practitioners seeking an answer to being successful as an entrepreneur. It is a journey full of excitement, experiences, rewards, and learning. Dedication, work ethics and a never-say-die attitude will largely contribute to the success as a businessman and an entrepreneur. This paper is sharing an experience of how an entrepreneur can act as a catalyst for young minds while ensuring them that ethics and principles do pay in business when followed in true spirit and action. It is very important for an entrepreneur to enhance his product or services, marketing skills, and market share, along with providing customer satisfaction and opportunities for teams to improve their leadership qualities. To have strong employee loyalty and job satisfaction among its employees. Based on Research objectives, primarily in-depth interviews and focused group interviews were conducted as a qualitative research method. And to support this survey, questionnaires were used as a qualitative research method to explore how Indian Entrepreneurs face the challenge of the changing, volatile socio-political environment in India.

Keywords: entrepreneur, business ethics, sales, marketing

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: Jamal Gaber Abdalla

Abstract:

In business promotion and advertising, language is used intentionally to create a powerful influence over people and their behavior. In commercial and marketing activities, the choice of language to convey specific messages with the intention of influencing people is pragmatically important. Design and visual content in promotional and advertising texts also have a great persuasive impact on consumers. It is the functional combination of design, language and visual content that helps people to identify a product or service and remember it. Translating promotional and advertising texts between structurally and culturally different languages, such as English and Arabic, usually involves pragmatic/functional shifts that decide the quality of translation. This study explores some of these shifts in translating promotional and advertising texts between English and Arabic and their implications for translation quality. The study is based on a contrastive analysis of data collected from real samples of English-Arabic translations of promotional and advertising texts. The samples cover different promotional and advertising text types and different business domains. The aim is to identify the most recurrent translation shifts and most used translation approaches/strategies that achieve quality in view of the functional nature of promotional and advertising texts and target language culture conventions. The study shows that linguistic shifts and visual shifts are recurrent in English-Arabic translations of promotional and advertising texts. The study also shows that the most commonly used translation approaches/strategies are functional translation, domestication, communicative translation.

Keywords: advertising, Arabic, English, functional translation, promotion

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Pierre Kancir, Jean-Philippe Diguet, Marc Sevaux

Abstract:

One of the main difficulties in developing multi-robot systems (MRS) is related to the simulation and testing tools available. Indeed, if the differences between simulations and real robots are too significant, the transition from the simulation to the robot won’t be possible without another long development phase and won’t permit to validate the simulation. Moreover, the testing of different algorithmic solutions or modifications of robots requires a strong knowledge of current tools and a significant development time. Therefore, the availability of tools for MRS, mainly with flying drones, is crucial to enable the industrial emergence of these systems. This research aims to present the most commonly used tools for MRS simulations and their main shortcomings and presents complementary tools to improve the productivity of designers in the development of multi-vehicle solutions focused on a fast learning curve and rapid transition from simulations to real usage. The proposed contributions are based on existing open source tools as Gazebo simulator combined with ROS (Robot Operating System) and the open-source multi-platform autopilot ArduPilot to bring them to a broad audience.

Keywords: ROS, ArduPilot, MRS, simulation, drones, Gazebo

Procedia PDF Downloads 215