Search results for: Dinara Nature Park

Authors: Yi-Hsiu Lai

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The present study aimed to elucidate the nature of semantic processing in Chinese. Language and cognition related to the issue of aging are examined from the perspective of picture naming and category fluency tasks. Twenty Chinese-speaking adults (ranging from 25 to 45 years old) and twenty Chinese-speaking seniors (ranging from 65 to 75 years old) in Taiwan participated in this study. Each of them individually completed two tasks: a picture naming task and a category fluency task. Instruments for the naming task were sixty black-and-white pictures: thirty-five object and twenty-five action pictures. Category fluency task also consisted of two semantic categories – objects (or nouns) and actions (or verbs). Participants were asked to report as many items within a category as possible in one minute. Scores of action fluency and of object fluency were a summation of correct responses in these two categories. Category effects (actions vs. objects) and age effects were examined in these tasks. Objects were further divided into two major types: living objects and non-living objects. Actions were also categorized into two major types: action verbs and process verbs. Reaction time to each picture/question was additionally calculated and analyzed. Results of the category fluency task indicated that the content of information in Chinese seniors was comparatively deteriorated, thus producing smaller number of semantic-lexical items. Significant group difference was also found in the results of reaction time. Category Effect was significant for both Chinese adults and seniors in the semantic fluency task. Findings in the present study helped characterize the nature of semantic processing in Chinese-speaking adults and seniors and contributed to the issue of language and aging.

Keywords: semantic processing, aging, Chinese, category effects

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Authors: Xavier Everaert

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Ever since the publication of “The Problem of Social” cost, Coasean insights on externalities, transaction costs, and the reciprocal nature of harms, have been widely debated. What has been largely neglected however, is the role of technological innovation in the mitigation of negative externalities or transaction costs. Incorporating future uncertainty about negligence standards or expected restitution costs and the profit opportunities these uncertainties reveal to entrepreneurs, allow us to frame problems regarding social costs within the reality of rapid technological evolution.

Keywords: environmental law and economics, entrepreneurship, commons, pollution, wildlife

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Authors: Richard Adu Antwako

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Coastal wetland destruction and its consequences have recently taken the center stage of global discussions. This phenomenon is no gray area to humanity as coastal wetland-human interaction seems inevitably ingrained in the earliest civilizations, amidst the demanding use of its resources to meet their necessities. The severity of coastal wetland destruction parallels with growing civilizations, and it is against this backdrop that, this paper interrogated the causes of coastal wetland destruction in Harper City in Liberia, compared the degree of coastal wetland stressors to the non-equilibrium thermodynamic scale as well as suggested an integrated coastal zone management to address the problems. Literature complemented the primary data gleaned via global positioning system devices, field observation, questionnaire, and interviews. Multi-sampling techniques were used to generate data from the sand miners, institutional heads, fisherfolk, community-based groups, and other stakeholders. Non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory remains vibrant in discerning the ecological stability, and it would be employed to further understand the coastal wetland destruction in Harper City, Liberia and to measure the coastal wetland stresses-amplitude and elasticity. The non-equilibrium thermodynamics postulates that the coastal wetlands are capable of assimilating resources (inputs), as well as discharging products (outputs). However, the input-output relationship exceedingly stretches beyond the thresholds of the coastal wetlands, leading to coastal wetland disequilibrium. Findings revealed that the sand mining, mangrove removal, and crude dumping have transformed the coastal wetlands, resulting in water pollution, flooding, habitat loss and disfigured beaches in Harper City in Liberia. This paper demonstrates that the coastal wetlands are converted into developmental projects and agricultural fields, thus, endangering the future society against nature.

Keywords: amplitude, crude dumping, elasticity, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, wetland destruction

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Authors: El Montassir Dahmane, Nadia Eladlani, Aziz Ouahrouch, Mohammed Rhazi, Moha Taourirte

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The present study was aimed to approximate the optimal conditions to chromium recovery from wastewater by nanoparticles and whiskers of chitosan. Chitosan with an average molecular weight of 63 kDa and a 96% deacetylation degree was prepared according to our previous study. Chromium recovery is influenced by different parameters. In our search, we determined the appropriate range of pH to form chitosan–Cr(III), nanoparticles Cr(III), and whiskers– Cr(III) complex. We studied also the influence of chromium concentration and the nature of chitosan-based materials on the complexation process. Our main aim is to approximate the optimal conditions to remove chromium(III) from the tanning bath, recuperated from tannery wastewater of Marrakech in Morocco. A Perkin Elmer optima 2000 Inductively Coupled Plasma- Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES), was used to determine the quantity of chromium persistent in tannery wastewater after complexation phenomenon. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report interested in the optimal conditions for chromium recovery from wastewater by nanoparticles and whiskers of chitosan. From our research, we found that in chromium solution, the appropriate range of pH to form complex is between 5.6 and 6.7. Also, the complexation of Cr(III) is depending on the nature of complexing ligand and chromium concentration. The obtained results reveal that nanoparticles present an excellent adsorption capacity regardless of chromium concentration. In addition, after a critical chromium concentration (250 mg/l), our ligand becomes saturated, that requires an increase of ligand mass for increasing chromium concentration in order to have a better adsorption capacity. Hence, in the same conditions, we used chitosan, its nanoparticles, whiskers, and chitosan based films to remove Cr(III) from tannery wastewater. The pH of this effluent was around 6, and its chromium concentration was 300 mg/l. The results expose that the sequence of complexing ligand in the effluent is the same in chromium solution, determined via our previous study. However, the adsorbed quantity is less due to the presence of other metallic ions in tannery wastewater. We conclude that the best complexing ligand-based chitosan is chitosan nanoaprticles whether it’s in chromium solution or in tannery wastewater. Nanoparticles are the best complexing ligand after 24 h of contact nanoparticles can remove 70% of chromium from this tannery wastewater.

Keywords: nanoparticles, whiskers, chitosan, chromium

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Authors: Heeyeul Kwon, Yongtae Park

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Despite the highly touted benefits, emerging technologies have unleashed pervasive concerns regarding unintended and unforeseen social impacts. Thus, those wishing to create safe and socially acceptable products need to identify such side effects and mitigate them prior to the market proliferation. Various methodologies in the field of technology assessment (TA), namely Delphi, impact assessment, and scenario planning, have been widely incorporated in such a circumstance. However, literatures face a major limitation in terms of sole reliance on participatory workshop activities. They unfortunately missed out the availability of a massive untapped data source of futuristic information flooding through the Internet. This research thus seeks to gain insights into utilization of futuristic data, future-oriented documents from the Internet, as a supplementary method to generate social impact scenarios whilst capturing perspectives of experts from a wide variety of disciplines. To this end, network analysis is conducted based on the social keywords extracted from the futuristic documents by text mining, which is then used as a guide to produce a comprehensive set of detailed scenarios. Our proposed approach facilitates harmonized depictions of possible hazardous consequences of emerging technologies and thereby makes decision makers more aware of, and responsive to, broad qualitative uncertainties.

Keywords: emerging technologies, futuristic data, scenario, text mining

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Authors: Yoonjung An, Yongtae Park

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Knowledge flows are a critical source of faster technological progress and stouter economic growth. Knowledge flows have been accelerated dramatically with the establishment of a patent system in which each patent is required by law to disclose sufficient technical information for the invention to be recreated. Patent analysis, thus, has been widely used to help investigate technological knowledge flows. However, the existing research is limited in terms of both subject and approach. Particularly, in most of the previous studies, business method (BM) patents were not covered although they are important drivers of knowledge flows as other patents. In addition, these studies usually focus on the static analysis of knowledge flows. Some use approaches that incorporate the time dimension, yet they still fail to trace a true dynamic process of knowledge flows. Therefore, we investigate dynamic patterns of knowledge flows driven by BM patents using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM). An HMM is a popular statistical tool for modeling a wide range of time series data, with no general theoretical limit in regard to statistical pattern classification. Accordingly, it enables characterizing knowledge patterns that may differ by patent, sector, country and so on. We run the model in sets of backward citations and forward citations to compare the patterns of knowledge utilization and knowledge dissemination.

Keywords: business method patents, dynamic pattern, Hidden-Markov Model, knowledge flow

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Authors: Tomasz Kosicki

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The subject of the presentation will be the administrative and legal instruments of disciplining maintenance debtors adopted by the Polish legislator, the substantive legal bases of which were adopted in the Act of 7 September 2007 on assistance to persons entitled to maintenance (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1205). These provisions are complemented by procedural regulations resulting from the Act of 14 June 1960 - Code of Administrative Procedure (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 735, as amended). The first part of the paper will focus on the administrative proceedings regarding the recognition of the debtor as evading maintenance obligations. The initiation of this procedure ex officio is preceded by a number of actions by public administration bodies, including Conducting a maintenance interview with the debtor, during which his health and professional situation and the reasons for non-payment of maintenance are determined, Professional activation in a situation where the lack of payment of maintenance results from the lack of employment. The reasons for initiating the above-mentioned administrative proceedings ex officio will be indicated, taking into account the current views of the judicial decisions. The second part of the paper will focus on the instrument of retaining the driving license of the debtor, who was previously found to be evading maintenance. The author points out that the detention of the driving license is one of the types of administrative sanctions of a very severe nature. Doubts of a constitutional nature will also be highlighted, as well as those concerning the effectiveness of this legal instrument and the protection of the debtor's rights. The thesis will be presented that the administrative procedure for the retention of a driving license does not fulfill its role and especially does not affect the collection of maintenance obligations from debtors. All the considerations will be based on the current and most representative views of the literature on the subject and the jurisprudence of Polish administrative courts.

Keywords: maintenance debtor, administrative proceedings, detention of driving license, administrative sanction, polish administrative law, public administration

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Authors: Bayan Bevrani, Robert L. Burdett, Prasad K. D. V. Yarlagadda

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This article focuses upon multi-modal transportation systems (MMTS) and the issues surrounding the determination of system capacity. For that purpose a multi-objective framework is advocated that integrates all the different modes and many different competing capacity objectives. This framework is analytical in nature and facilitates a variety of capacity querying and capacity expansion planning.

Keywords: analytical model, capacity analysis, capacity query, multi-modal transportation system (MMTS)

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Authors: Yaxian Chen, Yeonhee Park

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Driven by evolving FDA recommendations, modern clinical trials demand innovative designs that strike a balance between statistical rigor and ethical considerations. Covariate-adjusted response-adaptive (CARA) designs bridge this gap by utilizing patient attributes and responses to skew treatment allocation in favor of the treatment that is best for an individual patient’s profile. However, existing CARA designs for survival outcomes often hinge on specific parametric models, constraining their applicability in clinical practice. In this article, we address this limitation by introducing a CARA design for survival outcomes (CARAS) based on the Cox model and a variance estimator. This method addresses issues of model misspecification and enhances the flexibility of the design. We also propose a group sequential overlapweighted log-rank test to preserve type I error rate in the context of group sequential trials using extensive simulation studies to demonstrate the clinical benefit, statistical efficiency, and robustness to model misspecification of the proposed method compared to traditional randomized controlled trial designs and response-adaptive randomization designs.

Keywords: cox model, log-rank test, optimal allocation ratio, overlap weight, survival outcome

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Authors: Myoung-Jin Lee, Sung-Jin Lee, Young-Kon Park, Jin-Wook Kim, Bo-Kyoung Kim, Song-Hun Chong, Sun-Ii Kim

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The ability to resist the shear strength arises mainly from the web panel of steel girders and as such, the shear buckling strength of these girders has been extensively investigated. For example, Blaser’s reported that when buckling occurs, the tension field has an effect after the buckling strength of the steel is reached. The findings of these studies have been applied by AASHTO, AISC, and to the European Code that provides guidelines for designs aimed at preventing shear buckling. Steel girders are susceptible to corrosion resulting from exposure to natural elements such as rainfall, humidity, and temperature. This corrosion leads to a reduction in the size of the web panel section, thereby resulting in a decrease in the shear strength. The decrease in the panel section has a significant effect on the maintenance section of the bridge. However, in most conventional designs, the influence of corrosion is overlooked during the calculation of the shear buckling strength and hence over-design is common. Therefore, in this study, a steel girder with an A/D of 1:1, as well as a 6-mm-, 16-mm-, and 12-mm-thick web panel, flange, and intermediate reinforcing material, respectively, were used. The total length was set to that (3200 mm) of the default model. The effect of corrosion shear buckling was investigated by determining the volume amount of corrosion, shape of the erosion patterns, and the angular change in the tensile field of the shear buckling strength. This study provides the basic data that will enable designs that incorporate values closer (than those used in most conventional designs) to the actual shear buckling strength.

Keywords: corrosion, shear buckling strength, steel girder, shear strength

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Authors: Aoqi Zhang, Changgil Lee Lee, Seunghee Park

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A non-contact nondestructive technique using laser-induced ultrasonic wave generation method was applied to visualize corrosion damage at aluminum alloy plate structures. The ultrasonic waves were generated by a Nd:YAG pulse laser, and a galvanometer-based laser scanner was used to scan specific area at a target structure. At the same time, wave responses were measured at a piezoelectric sensor which was attached on the target structure. The visualization of structural damage was achieved by calculating logarithmic values of root mean square (RMS). Damage-sensitive feature was defined as the scattering characteristics of the waves that encounter corrosion damage. The corroded damage was artificially formed by hydrochloric acid. To observe the effect of the location where the corrosion was formed, the both sides of the plate were scanned with same scanning area. Also, the effect on the depth of the corrosion was considered as well as the effect on the size of the corrosion. The results indicated that the damages were successfully visualized for almost cases, whether the damages were formed at the front or back side. However, the damage could not be clearly detected because the depth of the corrosion was shallow. In the future works, it needs to develop signal processing algorithm to more clearly visualize the damage by improving signal-to-noise ratio.

Keywords: non-destructive testing, corrosion, pulsed laser scanning, ultrasonic waves, plate structure

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Authors: Sung-Chul Hwang, Di Ren, Sang-Moon Yoon, Jong-Chun Park, Abbas Khayyer, Hitoshi Gotoh

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The slamming impact problem has a very important engineering background. For seaplane landing, recycling for the satellite re-entry capsule, and the impact load of the bow in the adverse sea conditions, the slamming problem always plays the important role. Due to its strong nonlinear effect, however, it seems to be not easy to obtain the accurate simulation results. Combined with the strong interaction between the fluid field and the elastic structure, the difficulty for the simulation leads to a new level for challenging. This paper presents a fully Lagrangian coupled solver for simulations of fluid-structure interactions, which is based on the Moving Particle Semi-implicit (MPS) method to solve the governing equations corresponding to incompressible flows as well as elastic structures. The developed solver is verified by reproducing the high velocity impact loads of deformable thin wedges with two different materials such as aluminum and steel on water entry. The present simulation results are compared with analytical solution derived using the hydrodynamic Wagner model and linear theory by Wan.

Keywords: fluid-structure interaction, moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method, elastic structure, incompressible flow, wedge slamming impact

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Authors: Sang Guen Kim, Sib Sankar Giri, Jin Woo Jun, Saekil Yun, Hyoun Joong Kim, Sang Wha Kim, Jung Woo Kang, Se Jin Han, Se Chang Park

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Emerging of the super bacteria, bacteriophages are considered to be as an alternative to antibiotics. As the demand of phage increased, economical and large production of phage is becoming one of the critical points. For the therapeutic use, what is important is to eradicate the pathogenic bacteria as fast as possible, so higher concentration of phages is generally needed for effective therapeutic function. On the contrary, for the maximum production, bacteria work as a phage producing factory. As a microbial cell factory, bacteria is needed to last longer producing the phages without eradication. Consequently, killing the bacteria fast has a negative effect on large production. In this study, Multiplicity of Infection (MOI) was manipulated based on initial bacterial inoculation and used phage pAh-6C which has therapeutic effect against Aeromonas hydrophila. 1, 5 and 10 percent of overnight bacterial culture was inoculated and each bacterial culture was co-cultured with the phage of which MOI of 0.01, 0.0001, and 0.000001 respectively. Simply changing the initial MOI as well as bacterial inoculation concentration has regulated the production quantity of the phage without any other changes to culture conditions. It is anticipated that this result can be used as a foundational data for mass production of lytic bacteriophages which can be used as the therapeutic bio-control agent.

Keywords: bacteriophage, multiplicity of infection, optimization, Aeromonas hydrophila

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Authors: Emilia A. Campayo-Munoz, Alberto Cabedo-Mas

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Music students have to face the challenges of musical practice -such as discipline in study, competitiveness, or performance anxiety- that require good emotional management to enable successful performance. However, few rigorous implementations focused on studying the influence of emotional skills in student's musical performance. Responding to this gap in the literature, this study aims to explore the relationship between emotional skills and musical performance in the context of elementary music education in conservatoires. Given the individual nature of the instrumental studies and the difficult availability of teachers to be trained in emotional education, it was decided to conduct a multiple case study in a Spanish music conservatoire. Author 1 carried out the implementation of the research with three 10-year-old students who were selected from her piano class. All of them attended the third year of their piano studies. The research processes consisted of the implementation of a set of specific and cross-sectional activities designed 'ad hoc' to be articulated in the subjects of individual instrument -piano- and ensemble in parallel to the contents of musical nature. The CE-360º questionnaire was used to measure different aspects of the students' emotional skills from a multi-angle perspective, each of the questionnaires being responded by oneself, three teachers and three peers, before and after the implementation. The data from the questionnaire were compared with the grades that the students obtained during the first and last quarter of the school year in the attended subjects. Acknowledging the complexity of emotional development, the results indicate possible relations between emotional skills and musical performance in music education in conservatoires. The results show that for the cases explored; there exists a relationship between emotional skills and musical performance. Although generalizations cannot be made, this study reinforces the need to further explore emotional development in instrumental teaching and suggest the importance of inviting teachers to reflect on the pedagogical practices extended in the conservatoires and to develop and implement those that promote the work of the students' emotions.

Keywords: conservatoires, emotional skills, music education, musical performance

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Authors: Gabriel Gomez

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The very concept of information seeking behavior, and the means by which librarians teach users to gain information, that is information literacy, are at the heart of how libraries deliver information, but big data will forever change human interaction with information and the way such behavior is both studied and taught. Just as importantly, big data will orient the study of behavior towards commercial ends because of a tendency towards instrumentalist views of human behavior, something one might also call a trend towards behaviorism. This oral presentation seeks to explore how the impact of big data on understandings of human behavior might impact a library information science (LIS) view of human behavior and information literacy, and what this might mean for social justice aims and concomitant community action normally at the center of librarianship. The methodology employed here is a non-empirical examination of current understandings of LIS in regards to social justice alongside an examination of the benefits and dangers foreseen with the growth of big data analysis. The rise of big data within the ever-changing information environment encapsulates a shift to a more mechanistic view of human behavior, one that can easily encompass information seeking behavior and information use. As commercial aims displace the important political and ethical aims that are often central to the missions espoused by libraries and the social sciences, the very altruism and power relations found in LIS are at risk. In this oral presentation, an examination of the social justice impulses of librarians regarding power and information demonstrates how such impulses can be challenged by big data, particularly as librarians understand user behavior and promote information literacy. The creeping behaviorist impulse inherent in the emphasis big data places on specific solutions, that is answers to question that ask how, as opposed to larger questions that hint at an understanding of why people learn or use information threaten library information science ideals. Together with the commercial nature of most big data, this existential threat can harm the social justice nature of librarianship.

Keywords: big data, library information science, behaviorism, librarianship

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Authors: Sukhee Park, Gaab Soo Kim

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Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the adequacy of second-generation laryngeal mask airway use during prolonged abdominal surgery in respect of ventilation, oxygenation, postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC), and postoperative non-pulmonary complications on living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) surgery. Methods: In total, 257 recipients who underwent LDKT using either laryngeal mask airway-ProSeal (LMA-P) or endotracheal tube (ETT) were retrospectively analyzed. Arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2 and ratio of arterial partial pressure of oxygen to fractional inspired oxygen (PFR) during surgery were compared between two groups. In addition, PPC including pulmonary aspiration and postoperative non-pulmonary complications including nausea, vomiting, hoarseness, vocal cord palsy, delirium, and atrial fibrillation were also compared. Results: PaCO2 and PFR during surgery were not significantly different between the two groups. PPC was also not significantly different between the two groups. Interestingly, the incidence of delirium was significantly lower in the LMA-P group than the ETT group (3.0% vs. 10.3%, P = 0.029). Conclusions: During prolonged abdominal surgery such as LDKT, second-generation laryngeal mask airway offers adequate ventilation and oxygenation and can be considered a suitable alternative to ETT.

Keywords: laryngeal mask airway, prolonged abdominal surgery, kidney transplantation, postoperative pulmonary complication

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Authors: Men An Pan, Ho Hsiung Huang, Jui Chuan Lin, Tsui Hsun Wu, Hsing Yuan Yen

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Pingtung County, located in the southernmost region of Taiwan, has the largest number of pig farms in the country. In the past, livestock operators in Dongpian Village discharged their wastewater into the nearby water bodies, causing water pollution in the local rivers and polluting the air with the stench of the pig excrement. These resulted in many complaints from the local residents. In response to a long time fighting back of the community against the livestock farms due to the confrict, the County Government's Environmental Protection Bureau (PTEPB) examined potential wayouts in addition to heavy fines to the perpetrators. Through helping the livestock farms to upgrade their pollution prevention equipment, promoting the reuse of biogas residue and slurry from the pig excrement, and environmental education, the confrict was successfully resolved. The properly treated wastewater from the livestock farms has been freely provided to the neighboring farmlands via pipelines and tankers. Thus, extensive cultivation of bananas, papaya, red dragon fruit, Inca nut, and cocoa has resulted in 34% resource utilization of biogas residue as a fertilizer. This has encouraged farmers to reduce chemical fertilizers and use microbial materials like photosynthetic bacteria after banning herbicides while lowering the cost of wastewater treatment in livestock farms and alleviating environmental pollution simultaneously. That is, the livestock farms fully demonstrate the determination to fulfill their corporate social responsibility (CSR). Due to the success, Eight farms jointly established a social enterprise - "Dongpian Gemstone Village Co., Ltd." to promote organic farming through a "shared farm." The company appropriates 5% of its total revenue back to the community through caregiving services for the elderly and a fund for young local farmers. The community adopted the Satoyama Initiative in accordance with the Conference of the CBD COP10. Through the positive impact of environmental education, the community seeks to realize the coexistence between society and nature while maintaining and developing socio-economic activities (including agriculture) with respect for nature and building a harmonic relationship between humans and nature. By way of sustainable management of resources and ensuring biodiversity, the community is transforming into a socio-ecological production landscape. Apart from nature conservation and watercourse ecology, preserving local culture is also a key focus of the environmental education. To mitigate the impact of global warming and climate change, the community and the government have worked together to develop a disaster prevention and relief system, strive to establish a low-carbon emitting homeland, and become a model for resilient communities. By the power of environmental education, this community has turned its residents’ hearts and minds into concrete action, fulfilled social responsibility, and moved towards realizing the UN SDGs. Even though it is not the only community to integrate government agencies, research institutions, and NGOs for environmental education, it is a prime example of a low-carbon sustainable community that achieves more than 9 SDGs, including responsible consumption and production, climate change action, and diverse partnerships. The community is also leveraging environmental education to become a net-zero carbon community targeted by COP26.

Keywords: environmental education, biogas residue, biogas slurry, CSR, SDGs, climate change, net-zero carbon emissions

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Authors: Enrico Porfido

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The paper aims to investigate the relation between landscape and tourism, with a special focus on coastal protected areas of Albania. The relationship between tourism and landscape is bijective: There is no tourism without landscape attractive features and on the other side landscape needs economic resources to be conserved and protected. The survival of each component is strictly related to the other one. Today, the Albanian protected areas appear as isolated islands, too far away from each other to build an efficient network and to avoid waste in terms of energy, economy and working force. This study wants to stress out the importance of cooperation in terms of common strategies and the necessity of introducing a touristic sustainable model in Albania. Comparing the protection system laws of the neighbor countries of the Adriatic-Ionian region and through a desk review on the best practices of protected areas that benefit from touristic activities, the study proposes the creation of the Albanian Riviera Landscape Park. This action will impact positively the whole southern Albania territory, introducing a sustainable tourism network that aims to valorize the local heritage and to stop the coastal exploitation processes. The main output is the definition of future development scenarios in Albania with the establishment of new protected areas and the introduction of touristic initiatives.

Keywords: Adriatic-Ionian region, protected areas, tourism for landscape, sustainable tourism

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Authors: N. V. Nikhil, S. R. Lee, Do Won Park

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Korean peninsula receives about two third of the annual rainfall during summer season. The extreme rainfall pattern due to typhoon and heavy rainfall results in severe mountain disasters among which 55% of them are debris flows, a major natural hazard especially when occurring around major settlement areas. The basic mechanism underlined for this kind of failure is the unsaturated shallow slope failure by reduction of matric suction due to infiltration of water and liquefaction of the failed mass due to generation of positive pore water pressure leading to abrupt loss of strength and commencement of flow. However only an empirical model cannot simulate this complex mechanism. Hence, we have employed an empirical-physical based approach for hazard analysis of debris flow using TRIGRS, a debris flow initiation criteria and DAN3D in mountain Woonmyun, South Korea. Debris flow initiation criteria is required to discern the potential landslides which can transform into debris flow. DAN-3D, being a new model, does not have the calibrated values of rheology parameters for Korean conditions. Thus, in our analysis we have used the recent 2011 debris flow event in mountain Woonmyun san for calibration of both TRIGRS model and DAN-3D, thereafter identifying and predicting the debris flow initiation points, path, run out velocity, and area of spreading for future extreme rainfall based scenarios.

Keywords: debris flow, DAN-3D, extreme rainfall, hazard analysis

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Authors: Muhammed Shahriar Haque

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As an offshoot of journalistic discourse, the documentary should be objective in nature without harbouring any preconceived notion to foster ulterior motifs. When it comes to a social issue like rape in South Asian countries, as media in recent times is inundated with this violent act in India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, how does one document it in terms of objectivity and subjectivity? The objective of this study is twofold: to document the history of documentaries, and to critically analyze South Asian rape/flesh trade-documentaries. The overall goal is to trace the (re/de)construction of objectivity-subjectivity in documentaries. This paper adopts a qualitative approach to documentarist discourse through the lens of critical discourse analysis (CDA). Data was gathered for 10 documentaries on the theme of rape and/or flesh trade from eight South Asian countries, predominantly the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region. The documentaries were primarily categorised by using three frameworks based on six modes, six subgenres, and four basic approaches of documentary. Subsequently, the findings were critiqued from CDA perspective. The outcome suggests that there a two schools of thoughts regarding documentaries. According to journalistic ethics, news and/or documentaries should be objective in orientation and focus on informing the audience and/common people. The empirical findings tend to challenge ethical parameters of objectivity. At times, it seems that journalistic discourse is discursively (re)constructed to give an augmented simulation of objectivity. Based on the findings it may be recommended that if documentaries steer away from empirical facts and indulge in poetic naivety, their credibility could be questioned. A research of this nature is significant as it raises questions with regard to ethical and moral conscience of documentary filmmakers. Furthermore, it looks at whether they uphold journalistic integrity or succumb to their bias, and thereby depict subjective views, which could be tainted with political and/or propagandist ulterior motifs.

Keywords: discursive (re/de)construction, documentaries, journalistic integrity, rape/flesh trade

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Authors: Yangyang Zhang

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Martin Eden tells about the tragedy of the protagonist Martin Eden’s suicide after his disillusion about American dream. The author Jack London presents various spatial routines of Martin Eden and reveals the involvement of space in realizing American dream: on the one hand, the Berkeley and Oakland cities contribute to Martin’s material success, making his American dream practical, and on the other hand, the two cities involve in the oppression of bourgeoisie ideology to Martin, promoting the domestic imperialization of bourgeoisie ideology represented by American dream. Molded by bourgeoisie ideology in the city, Martin constructed the oriental South Sea, revealing the oversea imperialization of bourgeoisie ideology behind American dream. By exploring the social, historical and political aspects of space, Martin Eden tries to demonstrate the mere material success and imperialism represented by American dream, revealing the fact of the involvement of American dreamin ideological oppression. When Jack London wrote Martin Eden, he had become a famous writer and realized his personal "American dream". He integrated his struggle experience into the protagonist Martin Eden, and also put his critique of the nature of "American dream" in the novel. The concept of the "American Dream" made the United States the land of dreams, and it also made many Americans believe that through personal struggle, they could climb the social ladder. Under the context of rapid growth in economy in the late 19 th century, American dream was reduced to the satisfaction on a material level. When material wealth was fulfilled, many people felt shattered for a variety of reasons, and such a phenomenon was reflected in the literature of disillusionment in 19th-century America.Martin Eden is such a work about disillusion, in which the geographical space becomes the witness of the realization and disillusionment of the protagonist Martin's "American dream". By analyzing the spatial narrative in Martin Eden, this paper reveals that the "American dream" only represents material success for individuals and the imperialization of capitalist ideology, and exposes the ideological nature of the "American Dream".

Keywords: Martin Eden, space, American dream, ideology of imperialism

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Authors: Feifei Wu, Pius Babuna, Xiaohua Yang

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The suitability evaluation of human settlements over time and space is essential to track potential challenges towards suitable human settlements and provide references for policy-makers. This study established a theoretical framework of human settlements based on the nature, human, economy, society and residence subsystems. Evaluation indicators were determined with the consideration of the coupling effect among subsystems. Based on the extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test algorithm, the global sensitivity analysis that considered the coupling effect among indicators was used to determine the weights of indicators. The human settlement suitability was evaluated at both subsystems and comprehensive system levels in 30 provinces of China between 2000 and 2016. The findings were as follows: (1) human settlements suitability index (HSSI) values increased significantly in all 30 provinces from 2000 to 2016. Among the five subsystems, the suitability index of the residence subsystem in China exhibited the fastest growinggrowth, fol-lowed by the society and economy subsystems. (2) HSSI in eastern provinces with a developed economy was higher than that in western provinces with an underdeveloped economy. In con-trast, the growing rate of HSSI in eastern provinces was significantly higher than that in western provinces. (3) The inter-provincial difference of in HSSI decreased from 2000 to 2016. For sub-systems, it decreased for the residence system, whereas it increased for the economy system. (4) The suitability of the natural subsystem has become a limiting factor for the improvement of human settlements suitability, especially in economically developed provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong. The results can be helpful to support decision-making and policy for improving the quality of human settlements in a broad nature, human, economy, society and residence context.

Keywords: human settlements, suitability evaluation, extended fourier amplitude, human settlement suitability

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Authors: M. Reni Sagayaraj, S. Anand Gnana Selvam, R. Reynald Susainathan

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In this paper we study that the catastrophic events arrive independently at the service facility according to a Poisson process with rate λ. The nature of a catastrophic event is that upon its arrival at a service station, it destroys all the customers there waiting and in the service. We will derive the net profit associated with queuing system and obtain its probability of the busy period.

Keywords: queueing system, net-profit, busy period, catastrophical events

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Authors: Byung Wook Yang, Jong Dae Park, Wang Soo Shin, Ji-Hyeon Song, Seo-Yun Choi, Boo-Yong Lee, Young Tae Hahm

Abstract:

Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) is frequently taken orally as a traditional herbal medicine with ginsenosides as the main pharmacological component in Asian countries, and its use is increasing worldwide. Recently, the increase in global temperature has been reported to cause various kinds of biological disorders induced by heat stress in human. The standardized black ginseng extract (SBGE; KGR-BG1) was developed in our biological screening experiment on the thermo-regulation, whose chemical characteristics were evaluated as ginsenoside Rg1, Rb1, Rg3(S), as well as Re, Rf, Rg2(S), Rh1(S), Rh2(S), and Rg5+Rk1. Heat stress responses such as body weight, food intake, water consumption have been measured when treated with Standardized Black Ginseng Extract (SBGE) in the animal experiment and also, biomarkers. SBGE treated group has been found to inhibit a decrease in body weight, a decrease in food intake and an increase in the water consumption when compared with non-treated group against environmental heat stress. These results suggest that SBGE might have a protective effect against environmental heat stress. And also, the several factors of stress response on the immune system need to be done for further studies and its evaluation is in progress.

Keywords: ginseng, ginsenoside, standardization, heat stress, immunomodulatory effect

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Authors: SunWoo Lee, TaeBum Lee, YoonHwa Park, YooJeong Kim

Abstract:

Solar lentigines appear predominantly on chronically sun-exposed areas of skin, such as the face and the back of the hands. Among the several ways to lentigines treatment, quality-switched lasers are well-known effective treatment for removing solar lentigines. The present pilot study was therefore designed to assess the efficacy of quality-switched ruby laser treatment of such lentigines compare between pretreatment and posttreatment of skin brightness. Twenty-two adults with chronic sun-damaged skin (mean age 52.8 years, range 37–74 years) were treated at the Korean site. A 694 nm Q-switched ruby laser was used, with the energy density set from 1.4 to 12.5 J/cm2, to treat solar lentigines. Average brightness of skin color before ruby laser treatment was 137.3 and its skin color was brightened after ruby laser treatment by 150.5. Also, standard deviation of skin color was decreased from 17.8 to 16.4. Regarding the multivariate model, age and energy were identified as significant factors for skin color brightness change in lentigo depigmentation by ruby laser treatment. Their respective odds ratios were 1.082 (95% CI, 1.007–1.163), and 1.431 (95% CI, 1.051–1.946). Lentigo depigmentation treatment using ruby lasers resulted in a high performance in skin color brightness. Among the relative factors involve with ruby laser treatment, age and energy were the most effective factors which skin color change to brighter than pretreatment.

Keywords: depigmentation, lentigine, quality switched ruby laser, skin color

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Authors: Anita Ghai

Abstract:

The present paper explores the imperative to establish disability studies as an independent area of academic inquiry in India through the establishment of specific programmes in disability studies. The case study of the efforts made by the Ambedkar University, Delhi, to develop such programs and courses shall be used to substantiate this imperative as well as to explore some of the challenges entailed. The paper shall explore the certain extent aspects of relevant scholarship in the area of disability studies in India today and critically reflect on the perspectives of disability in this scholarship. The study of disability in India has hitherto been the prerogative of special education, rehabilitation psychology, and social work departments. While instances of these departments adopting critical approaches to disability can be identified, their empirical focus has perpetuated the production of disability as the site of suffering and oppression. The complex cultural, phenomenological, historical and economic discourses within which disability is embedded can be better captured within distinctive programmes that have disability sui generis as their focus. Such programs would foreground disability as an epistemology, which universalizes the study of disability from disabled people alone to an analysis of various other groups who have been historically marginalized. It will also play an important role in recuperating disability from a state of alterity. The interdisciplinary nature of disability studies offers an opportunity to integrate perspectives from the humanities and the social sciences in the proposed programs. Some of the challenges or rather aspects of reflection that emerge in the course of developing these programs are the criteria for determining the suitability of faculty to teach these programs and the challenges in identifying faculty and in addressing any apprehensions about career prospects that prospective students might have. The manner in which these concerns are being addressed through the collaboration of expertise as well as through the interdisciplinary and flexible nature of the program shall be addressed in the course of the paper. In conclusion, the paper shall foreground the need for disability studies programs in India, the re-appropriation of existing scholarship in the process of formulation these programs, emerging concerns and the manner in which these concerns will be addressed.

Keywords: academia, disability studies, epistemology, India

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Authors: Junnile Romero, Ilhwan Park, Vannie Joy Resabal, Carlito Tabelin, Richard Alorro, Leaniel Silva, Joshua Zoleta, Takunda Mandu, Kosei Aikawa, Mayumi Ito, Naoki Hiroyoshi

Abstract:

Rare earth elements (REE) play a vital role in technological advancement due to their unique physical and chemical properties essential for various renewable energy applications. However, this increasing demand represents a challenging task for sustainability that corresponds to various research interests relating to the development of various extraction techniques, particularly on the extractant being used. In this study, TK221 (a modified polymer resin containing diglycolamide, carbamoyl methyl phosphine oxide (CMPO), and diglycolamide (DGA-N)) has been investigated as a conjugate extractant. FTIR and SEM analysis results confirmed the presence of CMPO and DGA-N being coated onto the PS-DVB support of TK221. Moreover, the kinetic rate law and adsorption isotherm batch test was investigated to understand the corresponding adsorption mechanism. The results show that REEs’ (Nd, Y, Ce, and Er) obtained pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm, suggesting that the adsorption mechanism undergoes a single monolayer adsorption site via a chemisorption process. The Qmax values of Nd, Ce, Er, Y, and Fe were 45.249 mg/g, 43.103 mg/g, 35.088 mg/g, 15.552 mg/g, and 12.315 mg/g, respectively. This research further suggests that TK221 polymer resin can be used as an alternative absorbent material for an effective REE extraction.

Keywords: rare earth element, diglycolamide, characterization, extraction resin

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Authors: Maria C. Proença, Marco Aniceto, Pedro N. Santos, José C. Freitas

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A methodology based on wavelets is proposed for the automatic location and delimitation of defects in limestone plates. Natural defects include dark colored spots, crystal zones trapped in the stone, areas of abnormal contrast colors, cracks or fracture lines, and fossil patterns. Although some of these may or may not be considered as defects according to the intended use of the plate, the goal is to pair each stone with a map of defects that can be overlaid on a computer display. These layers of defects constitute a database that will allow the preliminary selection of matching tiles of a particular variety, with specific dimensions, for a requirement of N square meters, to be done on a desktop computer rather than by a two-hour search in the storage park, with human operators manipulating stone plates as large as 3 m x 2 m, weighing about one ton. Accident risks and work times are reduced, with a consequent increase in productivity. The base for the algorithm is wavelet decomposition executed in two instances of the original image, to detect both hypotheses – dark and clear defects. The existence and/or size of these defects are the gauge to classify the quality grade of the stone products. The tuning of parameters that are possible in the framework of the wavelets corresponds to different levels of accuracy in the drawing of the contours and selection of the defects size, which allows for the use of the map of defects to cut a selected stone into tiles with minimum waste, according the dimension of defects allowed.

Keywords: automatic detection, defects, fracture lines, wavelets

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Authors: Mateusz Meserszmit, Mariusz Chrabąszcz, Adriana Trojanowska-Olichwer, Zygmunt Kącki

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Semi-natural meadows are valuable communities from the point of view of biodiversity, but their survival is strongly related to human activity. Unfortunately, the current status of preservation of extensively used meadows in Europe is frequently assessed as “unfavorable”. This is due to agricultural activity, in particular the lack of appropriate conservation procedures such as the cutting of meadows or livestock grazing. However, for more effective protective measures, the preservation of the biological diversity of meadows requires an interdisciplinary approach from both scientists and practitioners from many fields. Our research aimed to present the possibility of conservation of semi-natural meadows using cut biomass for the production of bioenergy – biogas, taking into consideration the botanical characteristics of the studied habitat and the chemical properties of biomass. A field study was conducted in Poland, within an area covered by the European Union's nature conservation programme. The samples were collected on four dates (May 24th, July 1st, July 23rd, and September 1st) from a study site established within a Molinion meadow. The biomass collected at the earliest date mostly consisted of plants with flowers in bud or fully open flowers. At the later harvest dates, most plants were at the fruiting or seed shed stage. An earlier stage of plant growth contributed to a lower biomass yield, which also resulted in a lower methane yield per hectare. The methane yield per hectare was at the end of May 482 m3 CH4 ha-1, at the beginning of July 867 m3 CH4 ha-1, at the end of July 759 m3 CH4 ha-1 and at the beginning of September 730 m3 CH4 ha-1. The biomass harvested in May demonstrated a significantly higher content of the elements: N, P, and K, but a lower Ca content compared to later harvested biomass, which may affect the biogas production process. The use of hay as a source of renewable energy can become an important element of conservation adapted for this type of habitat.

Keywords: nature conservation, biomass, bioenergy, grassland

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Authors: Inese Trusina, Elita Jermolajeva

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Global challenges require a transition from the existing linear economic model to a model that will consider nature as a life support system for the developmenton the way to social well-being in the frame of the ecological economics paradigm. The article presentsbasic definitions for the development of formalized description of sustainabledevelopment monitoring. It provides examples of calculating the parameters of monitoring for the Baltic Sea region countries and their primary interpretation.

Keywords: sustainability, development, power, ecological economics, regional economic, monitoring

Procedia PDF Downloads 120