Search results for: project transparency

Authors: Beverly Redman

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With the Theatre Season of 2020-2021 cancelled due to COVID-19 at Purdue University, Fort Wayne, IN, USA, faculty directors found themselves scrambling to create theatre production opportunities for their students in the Department of Theatre. Redman, Chair of the Department, found her community to be suffering from anxieties brought on by a confluence of issues: the global-scale Covid-19 Pandemic, the United States’ Black Lives Matter protests erupting in cities all across the country and the coming Presidential election, arguably the most important and most contentious in the country’s history. Redman wanted to give her students the opportunity to speak not only on these issues but also to be able to record who they were at this time in their personal lives, as well as in this broad socio-political context. She also wanted to invite them into an experience of feeling empathy, too, at a time when empathy in this world seems to be sorely lacking. Returning to a mode of Devising Theatre she had used with community groups in the past, in which storytelling and re-enactment of participants’ life events combined with oral history documentation practices, Redman planned The Shared Breath Project. The process involved three months of workshops, in which participants alternated between theatre exercises and oral history collection and documentation activities as a way of generating original material for a theatre production. The goal of the first half of the project was for each participant to produce a solo piece in the form of a monologue after many generations of potential material born out of gammes, improvisations, interviews and the like. Along the way, many film and audio clips recorded the process of each person’s written documentation—documentation prepared by the subject him or herself but also by others in the group assigned to listen, watch and record. Then, in the second half of the project—and only once each participant had taken their own contributions from raw improvisatory self-presentations and through the stages of composition and performative polish, participants then exchanged their pieces. The second half of the project involved taking on each other’s words, mannerisms, gestures, melodic and rhythmic speech patterns and inhabiting them through the rehearsal process as their own, thus the title, The Shared Breath Project. Here, in stage two the acting challenges evolved to be those of capturing the other and becoming the other through accurate mimicry that embraces Denis Diderot’s concept of the Paradox of Acting, in that the actor is both seeming and being simultaneous. This paper shares the carefully documented process of making the live-streamed theatre production that resulted from these workshops, writing processes and rehearsals, and forming, The Shared Breath Project, which ultimately took the students’ Realist, life-based pieces and edited them into a single unified theatre production. The paper also utilizes research on the Paradox of Acting, putting a Post-Structuralist spin on Diderot’s theory. Here, the paper suggests the limitations of inhabiting the other by allowing that the other is always already a thing impenetrable but nevertheless worthy of unceasing empathetic, striving and delving in an epoch in which slow, careful attention to our fellows is in short supply.

Keywords: otherness, paradox of acting, oral history theatre, devised theatre, political theatre, community-based theatre, peoples’ theatre

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Authors: Margarida Porfírio Tomás, Paula Pereira, José Palma Oliveira

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Robotic grasping is advancing rapidly, but transferring techniques from rigid to deformable objects remains a challenge. Deformable and flexible items, such as food containers, demand nuanced handling due to their changing shapes. Bridging this gap is crucial for applications in food processing, surgical robotics, and household assistance. AGILEHAND, a Horizon project, focuses on developing advanced technologies for sorting, handling, and packaging soft and deformable products autonomously. These technologies serve as strategic tools to enhance flexibility, agility, and reconfigurability within the production and logistics systems of European manufacturing companies. Key components include intelligent detection, self-adaptive handling, efficient sorting, and agile, rapid reconfiguration. The overarching goal is to optimize work environments and equipment, ensuring both efficiency and safety. As new technologies emerge in the food industry, there will be some implications, such as labour force, safety problems and acceptance of the new technologies. To overcome these implications, AGILEHAND emphasizes the integration of social sciences and humanities, for example, the application of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The project aims to create a change management manual, that will outline strategies for developing digital skills and managing health and safety transitions. It will also provide best practices and models for organizational change. Additionally, AGILEHAND will design effective training programs to enhance employee skills and knowledge. This information will be obtained through a combination of case studies, structured interviews, questionnaires, and a comprehensive literature review. The project will explore how organizations adapt during periods of change and identify factors influencing employee motivation and job satisfaction. This project received funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement No101092043 (AGILEHAND).

Keywords: change management, technology acceptance model, organizational change, health and safety

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Authors: Chang Yu Chuan

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Background and Aim: Pressure sore is not only the consequence of any gradual damage of the skin leading to tissue defects but also an important indicator of clinical care. If hospitalized patients develop pressure sores without proper care, it would result in delayed healing, wound infection, increase patient physical pain, prolonged hospital stay and even death, which would have a negative impact on the quality of care and also increase nursing manpower and medical costs. This project is aimed at decreasing the incidence of pressure sore in one ward of internal medicine. Our data showed 53 cases (0.61%) of pressure sore in 2015, which exceeded the average (0.5%) of Taiwan Clinical Performance Indicator (TCPI) for medical centers. The purpose of this project is to reduce the incidence rate of pressure sore in the ward. After data collection and analysis from January to December 2016, the reasons of developing pressure sore were found: 1. Lack of knowledge to prevent pressure among nursing staffs; 2. No relevant courses about preventing pressure ulcers and pressure wound care being held in this unit; 3. Low complete rate of pressure sore care education that family members should receive from nursing staffs; 4. Decompression equipment is not enough; 5. Lack of standard procedures for body-turning and positioning care. After team members brainstorming, several strategies were proposed, including holding in-service education, pressure sore care seed training, purchasing decompression mattress and memory pillows, designing more elements of health education tools, such as health education pamphlet, posters and multimedia films of body-turning and positioning demonstration, formulation and promotion of standard operating procedures. In this way, nursing staffs can understand the body-turning and positioning guidelines for pressure sore prevention and enhance the quality of care. After the implementation of this project, the pressure sore density significantly decreased from 0.61%(53 cases) to 0.45%(28 cases) in this ward. The project shows good results and good example for nurses working at the ward and helps to enhance quality of care.

Keywords: body-turning and positioning, incidence density, nursing, pressure sore

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Authors: Saou Mohamed Amine

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The construction industry has been identified as a user of substantial amount of materials and energy resources that has an enormous impact on environment. The energy efficient in refurbishment project is being considered as one of the approaches to achieve sustainability in construction industry. The increasing concern for environment has made building owners and designers to incorporate the energy efficiency features into their building projects. However, an overwhelming issue of existing non-energy efficient buildings which exceeds the number of new building could be ineffective if the buildings are not refurbished through the energy efficient measures. Thus, energy efficient in refurbishment project is being considered as one of the approaches to achieve sustainability that offers significant opportunities for reducing global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the quality of design team attributes and the characteristics of the refurbishment building projects have been argued to be the main factors that determine the energy efficiency performance of the building.

Keywords: construction industry, design team attributes, energy efficient performance, refurbishment projects characteristics

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Authors: Mita Sirait

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Everyday Jakarta produces 7,000 tons of solid waste and only about 5,200 tons delivered to landfill out of the city by 720 trucks, the rest are left yet manageable, as reported by Government of Clean Sector. CLEAN Jakarta Project is aimed at empowering community to achieve healthy environment for children and families in urban slum in Semper Barat and Penjaringan sub-district of North Jakarta that consisted of 20,584 people. The project applies Community Based Total Sanitation, an approach to empowering community to achieve total hygiene and sanitation behaviour by triggering activities. As regulated by Ministry of Health, it has 5 pillars: (1) open defecation free, (2) hand-washing with soaps, (3) drinking-water treatment, (4) solid-waste management and (5) waste-water management; and 3 strategic components: 1) demand creation, 2) supply creation and 3) enabling environment. Demand creation is generated by triggering community’s reaction to their daily sanitation habits by exposing them to their surrounding where they can see faeces, waste and other environmental pollutant to stimulate disgusting, embarrassing and responsibility sense. Triggered people then challenged to commit to improving their hygiene practice such as to stop littering and start waste separation. In order to support this commitment, and for supply creation component, the project initiated waste bank with community working group. It facilitated capacity-building trainings, waste bank system formulation and meetings with local authorities to solicit land permit and waste bank decree. As it is of a general banking system, waste bank has customer service, teller, manager, legal paper and provides saving book and money transaction. In 8 months, two waste banks have established with 148 customers, 17 million rupiah cash, and about 9 million of stored recyclables. Approximately 2.5 tons of 15-35 types of recyclable are managed in both waste banks per week. On enabling environment, the project has initiated sanitation working group in community and multi sectors government level, and advocated both parties. The former is expected to promote behaviour change and monitoring in the community, while the latter is expected to support sanitation with regulations, strategies, appraisal and awards; to coordinate partnering and networking, and to replicate best practices to other areas.

Keywords: urban community, waste management, Jakarta, community based total sanitation (CBTS)

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Authors: Roman Kalvin, Anam Nadeem, Saba Arif, Juntakan Taweekun

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In the current scenario demand of power is increasing day by day with increasing population. It is needed to sort out this problem with a technique which will not only overcome this energy crisis but also should be environment friendly. This project emphasizes on idea which shows that power could be generated by specially designed speed breaker. This project shows clearly how power can be generated by using Cam Mechanism where basically linear motion is converted into rotatory motion that can be used to generate electricity. When vehicle passes over the speed breaker, presses the cam with the help of connecting rod which rotate main shaft attached with large pulley. A flywheel is coupled with the shaft whose purpose is to normalize the oscillation in the energy and to make the energy unvarying. So, the shafts will spin with firm rpm. These shafts are coupled from end to end with a belt drive. The results show that power generated from this mechanism is 12 watts. The generated electricity does not required any fuel consumption it only generates power which can be used for the street light as well as for the traffic signals.

Keywords: revolution per minute, RPM, cam, speed breaker, rotatory motion

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Authors: L. M. H. Mustonen, S. A. Heikkilä

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The focus of the paper is to describe team teaching as a HAMK’s pedagogical method, and its impacts to the teachers work. Background: Traditionally it is thought that teaching is a job where one mostly works alone. More and more teachers feel that their work is getting more stressful. Solutions to these problems have been sought in Häme University of Applied sciences’ (From now on referred to as HAMK). HAMK has made a strategic change to move to the group oriented working of teachers. Instead of isolated study courses, there are now larger 15 credits study modules. Implementation: As examples of the method, two cases are presented: technical project module and summer studies module, which was integrated into the EU development project called Energy Efficiency with Precise Control. In autumn 2017, technical project will be implemented third time. There are at least three teachers involved in it and it is the first module of the new students. Main focus is to learn the basic skills of project working. From communicational viewpoint, they learn the basics of written and oral reporting and the basics of video reporting skills. According to our quality control system, the need for the development is evaluated in the end of the module. There are always some differences in each implementation but the basics are the same. The other case summer studies 2017 is new and part of a larger EU project. For the first time, we took a larger group of first to third year students from different study programmes to the summer studies. The students learned professional skills and also skills from different fields of study, international cooperation, and communication skills. Benefits and challenges: After three years, it is possible to consider what the changes mean in the everyday work of the teachers - and of course – what it means to students and the learning process. The perspective is HAMK’s electrical and automation study programme: At first, the change always means more work. The routines born after many years and the course material used for years may not be valid anymore. Teachers are teaching in modules simultaneously and often with some subjects overlapping. Finding the time to plan the modules together is often difficult. The essential benefit is that the learning outcomes have improved. This can be seen in the feedback given by both the teachers and the students. Conclusions: A new type of working environment is being born. A team of teachers designs a module that matches the objectives and ponders the answers to such questions as what are the knowledge-based targets of the module? Which pedagogical solutions will achieve the desired results? At what point do multiple teachers instruct the class together? How is the module evaluated? How can the module be developed further for the next execution? The team discusses openly and finds the solutions. Collegiate responsibility and support are always present. These are strengthening factors of the new communal university teaching culture. They are also strong sources of pleasure of work.

Keywords: pedagogical development, summer studies, team teaching, well-being at work

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Authors: Angie Al Habib, Khalid Al Siyabi

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To measure or asses any government’s efficiency we need to measure the performance of this government in regards to the quality of the service it provides. Using a technological platform in service provision became a trend and a public demand. It is also a public need to make sure these services are aligned to values and to the whole government’s strategy, vision and goals as well. Providing services using technology tools and channels can enhance the internal business process and also help establish many essential values to government services like transparency and excellence, since in order to establish e-services many standards and policies must be put in place to enable the handing over of decision making to a mature system oriented mechanism. There was no doubt that the Sultanate of Oman wanted to enhance its services and move it towards automation and establishes a smart government as well as links its services to life events. Measuring government efficiency is very essential in achieving social security and economic growth, since it can provide a clear dashboard of all projects and improvements. Based on this data we can improve the strategies and align the country goals to them.

Keywords: government, maturity, Oman, performance, service

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Authors: Johnson Adafin, James O. B. Rotimi, Suzanne Wilkinson, Abimbola O. Windapo

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An aspect of client expenditure management that requires attention is the level of accuracy achievable in design-stage elemental cost planning. This has been a major concern for construction clients and practitioners in New Zealand (NZ). Pre-tender estimating inaccuracies are significantly influenced by the level of risk information available to estimators. Proper cost planning activities should ensure the production of a project’s likely construction costs (initial and final), and subsequent cost control activities should prevent unpleasant consequences of cost overruns, disputes and project abandonment. If risks were properly identified and priced at the design stage, observed variance between design-stage elemental cost plans (ECPs) and final tender sums (FTS) (initial contract sums) could be reduced. This study investigates the variations between design-stage ECPs and FTS of construction projects, with a view to identifying risk factors that are responsible for the observed variance. Data were sourced through interviews, and risk factors were identified by using thematic analysis. Access was obtained to project files from the records of study participants (consultant quantity surveyors), and document analysis was employed in complementing the responses from the interviews. Study findings revealed the discrepancies between ECPs and FTS in the region of -14% and +16%. It is opined in this study that the identified risk factors were responsible for the variability observed. The values obtained from the analysis would enable greater accuracy in the forecast of FTS by Quantity Surveyors. Further, whilst inherent risks in construction project developments are observed globally, these findings have important ramifications for construction projects by expanding existing knowledge on what is needed for reasonable budgetary performance and successful delivery of construction projects. The findings contribute significantly to the study by providing quantitative confirmation to justify the theoretical conclusions generated in the literature from around the world. This therefore adds to and consolidates existing knowledge.

Keywords: accuracy, design-stage, elemental cost plan, final tender sum

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Authors: Lina Wu, Wenyi Lu, Ye Li

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Regarding heavy video game players for boys and super online chat lovers for girls as a symbolic phrase in the current adolescent culture, this project of data analysis verifies the displacement effect on deteriorating mathematics performance. To evaluate correlation or regression coefficients between a factor of playing video games or chatting online and mathematics performance compared with other factors, we use multivariate analysis technique and take gender difference into account. We find the most important reason for the negative sign of the displacement effect on mathematics performance due to students’ poor academic background. Statistical analysis methods in this project could be applied to study internet users’ academic performance from the high school education to the college education.

Keywords: correlation coefficients, displacement effect, multivariate analysis technique, regression coefficients

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Authors: Khalid Almarri

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The UAE is currently developing a peaceful nuclear energy program as part of its low Carbon energy strategy to meet future energy demands. Research of nuclear energy technologies is required to support nuclear energy generation projects and maximize their performance. Research of this type will require building an operating a research reactor (RR), a costly undertaking in most circumstances. Collaboration between government and private parties through public, private partnerships (PPP) can maximize the benefits expected from the adoption of an RR project. The aim of this research is to establish the critical success factors (CSF) for developing an RR project for newcomer countries, with the UAE taken as a case study, through the utilization of public, private partnerships (PPP). The results of this study were arrived at through the use of semi-structured interviews conducted with ten experts in the field of research reactors, using grounded theory method. Underutilization was identified as the main stumbling block that impairs the success of research reactors.

Keywords: public private partnerships, research reactors, grounded theory, critical success factors

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Authors: Katharina Kargel, Frederic Vobbe

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Sexualized violence against children and adolescents using digital media poses particular challenges for practitioners with a focus on crisis intervention (social work, psychotherapy, law enforcement). The technical delimitation of violence increases the burden on those affected and increases the complexity of interdisciplinary cooperation. Urgently needed recommendations for practical action do not yet exist in Germany. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, these recommendations for action are being developed in the HUMAN project together with science and practice. The presentation introduces the participatory approach of the HUMAN project. We discuss the application-oriented, casuistic approach of the project and present its results using the example of concrete case-based recommendations for Action. The participants will be presented with concrete prototypical case studies from the project, which will be used to illustrate quality criteria for crisis intervention in cases of sexualized violence using digital media. On the basis of case analyses, focus group interviews and interviews with victims of violence, we present the six central challenges of sexualized violence with the use of digital media, namely: • Diffusion (Ambiguities regarding the extent and significance of violence) , • Transcendence (Space and time independence of the dynamics of violence, omnipresence), • omnipresent anxiety (considering diffusion and transcendence), • being haunted (repeated confrontation with digital memories of violence or the perpetrator), • disparity (conflicts of interpretative power between those affected and the social environment) • simultaneity (of all other factors). We point out generalizable principles with which these challenges can be dealt with professionally. Dealing professionally with sexualized violence using digital media requires a stronger networking of professional actors. A clear distinction must be made between their own mission and the mission of the network partners. Those affected by violence must be shown options for crisis intervention in the context of the aid networks. The different competencies and the professional mission of the offers of help are to be made transparent. The necessity of technical possibilities for deleting abuse images beyond criminal prosecution will be discussed. Those affected are stabilized by multimodal strategies such as a combination of rational emotive therapy, legal support and technical assistance.

Keywords: sexualized violence, intervention, digital media, children and youth

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Authors: M. Richichi

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Evidencing the learning and developmental needs of students in specific educational institutions is central to determining the type of whole school pedagogical shift required. Initiating this transition by designing and implementing STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) project-based learning opportunities, in collaboration with industry, exposes teachers to new pedagogical and assessment practices. This experience instills confidence and a renewed sense of energy, which contributes to greater efficacy. Championing teachers in such learning environments leads to “bleeding” of inventive pedagogical understanding and skills as well as motivation. This contributes positively to collective teacher efficacy and the transition towards more cross-disciplinary initiatives and opportunities, and hence an innovative pedagogical shift. Evidence of skill and knowledge development in students, combined with greater confidence, work ethic and interest in STEAM areas, are further indicators of the success of the transitioning process.

Keywords: efficacy, pedagogy, transition, STEAM

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Authors: Çiğdem Bakır, Mecit Yüzkat

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With the increasing emphasis on water quality worldwide, the search for and expanding the market for new and intelligent monitoring systems has increased. The current method is the laboratory process, where samples are taken from bodies of water, and tests are carried out in laboratories. This method is time-consuming, a waste of manpower, and uneconomical. To solve this problem, we used machine learning methods to detect water pollution in our study. We created decision trees with the Orange3 software we used in our study and tried to determine all the factors that cause water pollution. An automatic prediction model based on water quality was developed by taking many model inputs such as water temperature, pH, transparency, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and ammonia nitrogen with machine learning methods. The proposed approach consists of three stages: preprocessing of the data used, feature detection, and classification. We tried to determine the success of our study with different accuracy metrics and the results. We presented it comparatively. In addition, we achieved approximately 98% success with the decision tree.

Keywords: decision tree, water quality, water pollution, machine learning

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Authors: Haitham Assiri, Priyadarsi Nanda

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The world is gradually entering the fourth industrial revolution. E-Government services are scaling government operations across the globe. However, as promising as an e-Government system would be, it is also susceptible to malicious attacks if not properly secured. This study found out that, in Saudi Arabia, the e-Government website, Yesser is vulnerable to external attacks. Obviously, this can lead to a breach of data integrity and privacy. In this paper, a Systematic Literature Review was conducted to explore possible ways the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can take necessary measures to strengthen its e-Government system using Blockchain. Blockchain is one of the emerging technologies shaping the world through its applications in finance, elections, healthcare, etc. It secures systems and brings more transparency. A total of 28 papers were selected for this SLR, and 19 of the papers significantly showed that blockchain could enhance the security and privacy of Saudi’s e-government system. Other papers also concluded that blockchain is effective, albeit with the integration of other technologies like IoT, AI and big data. These papers have been analysed to sieve out the findings and set the stage for future research into the subject.

Keywords: blockchain, data integrity, e-government, security threats

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Authors: Zuzana Durajova, Natasa Diatkova, Shreya Bhardwaj

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This paper introduces the project START, its activities, goals, evaluation and final results. Over the past few decades, the legal discourse surrounding mental health has resulted in improvement in patient rights (in Netherlands, etc.), the appointment of Ombudspersons for psychiatric patients (in Austria, Sweden) and facilitating the participation of patients in decision-making processes. Czech legislation already recognizes the position of “patient’s advocate” as a person of trust. However, this instrument is not very widely known and rarely used in practice. In the pilot study of the project, legal training for patient advocacy is provided to persons with experience with mental health problems/psychiatric hospitalization chosen from a Czech-based NGO. These persons (patient advocates) visit patients in involuntary hospitalization in one closed ward in the chosen psychiatric institution. During visits, the patient advocates inform patients about their legal standing, their procedural rights and also offer them individual support in contacting their counsel, family members etc. To understand the effect of the intervention, qualitative interviews and participant observations are conducted with the patients, advocates, the hospital management and staff and other identifiable stakeholders, such as government officials responsible for mental health care reform. The interviews are held before, during and after the intervention (support from patient advocates in hospitals). Given the ethical quandaries arising from using psychiatric wards as a field setting, we assume a participatory approach to ensure respect for patient boundaries and dignity. Through this project, we seek to establish a profession of patient advocates based on professional standards.

Keywords: patient advocacy, involuntary hospitalization, Czech Republic, patient Rights, professionalization

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Authors: Chiara Magliacane

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This project aims to analyse the relationship between the post-conflict Northern Irish environment and youth trauma in deprived areas. Using an anthropological perspective and methodology, the study investigates the possible contribution that a socio-cultural perspective can give to the current research on the field, with a special focus on the role of transgenerational trauma. The recognition of the role that socio-economic determinants have on health is usually a challenge for social researchers. In post-conflict Northern Ireland, the overall lack of research about connections between the social context and youth trauma opens the way to the present project. Anthropological studies on social implications of mental disorders have achieved impressive results in many societies; they show how conditions of sufferance and poverty are not intrinsically given, but are the products of historical processes and events. The continuum of violence and the politics of victimhood sustains a culture of silence and fear in deprived areas; this implies the need of investigating the structural and symbolic violence that lies behind the diffusion of mental suffering. The project refers to these concepts from Medical Anthropology and looks at connections between trauma and social, political and economic structures. Accordingly, the study considers factors such as poverty, unemployment, social inequality and gender and class perspectives. At the same time, the project problematises categories such as youth and trauma. 'Trauma' is currently debated within the social sciences since the 'invention' of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in 1980. Current critics made to its clinical conception show how trauma has been mainly analysed as a memory of the past. On the contrary, medical anthropological research focuses on wider perspectives on society and its structures; this is a new and original approach to the study of youth trauma considering that, to author’s best knowledge, there is no research of this kind regarding Northern Ireland. Methods: Qualitative interviews, participant observation. Expected Impact: Local Northern Ireland organizations, i.e. specific charities that provide mental health support. Ongoing and present connections will ensure they will hear about this research.

Keywords: health and social inequalities, Northern Ireland, structural violence, youth

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Authors: Edoghogho Ogbeifun, Charles Mbohwa, J. H. C. Pretorius

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Several research report on the factors responsible for the delays in the completion of construction projects has identified the issue of funding as a critical factor; insufficient funding, low cash-flow or lack of funds. Indeed, adequate funding plays pivotal role in the effective execution of construction projects. In the last twenty years (or so), there has been increase in the funds available for infrastructure development in tertiary institution in Nigeria, especially, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund. This funding body ensures that there is enough fund for each approved project, which is released in three stages during the life of the construction project. However, a random tour of many of the institutions reveals striking evidence of projects not delivered on schedule, to quality and sometime out rightly abandoned. This suggests, therefore, that there are other latent factors, responsible for project delays, that should be investigated. Thus, this research, a pilot scheme, is aimed at unearthing the possible reasons for the delays being experienced in the execution of construction projects for infrastructure upgrade in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria, funded by Tertiary Education Trust Fund. The multiple site case study of qualitative research was adopted. The respondents were the Directors of Physical Planning and the Directors of Works of four Nigerian Public Universities. The findings reveal that delays can be situated within three entities, namely, the funding body, the institutions and others. Therefore, the emerging factors have been classified as external factors (haven to do with the funding body), internal factors (these concern the operations within the institutions) and general factors. The outcome of this pilot exercise provides useful information to guide the Directors as they interact with the funding body as well as challenges themselves to address the loopholes in their internal operations.

Keywords: delays, external factors, funding, general factors, Internal factors

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Authors: Hebe Wong, Luz Fernandez Calventos

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Tandem language learning, a language exchange process based on the principles of autonomy and reciprocity, provides opportunities for interlocutors to learn each other’s language by communicating online or face-to-face. While much attention has been paid to the process and outcomes of tandem learning via email, little has been discussed about the effectiveness of face-to-face tandem learning on language and culture exchange for university students. The LACTS (Language and Culture Tandem Scheme), an 8-week project, was set up to study students’ perceptions of conducting tandem learning to assist their language and culture exchange. Students of both post-graduate and undergraduate programmes (N=103) from a Hong Kong SAR university were put in groups of 4 to 6 according to their availability and language preferences and met for an hour a week. While sample task sheets on a range of topics were provided to assist the language exchange, all groups were encouraged to take charge of their meeting format and choose their own topics. At the end of the project, a 19-item questionnaire, which included both open-and closed-ended questions investigating students’ perceptions of reciprocal teaching and cultural exchange, was administered. Thirty-minute individual interviews were conducted to elicit students’ views and experiences in the LACTS activities. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis showed that most students agreed that the project had enhanced their cultural awareness and helped create an inclusive and participatory learning environment. Significant differences were found in students’ confidence in speaking their targeted language after joining the scheme. The interviews also provided rich data on the variety of formats and leadership patterns in student-led meetings, which could shed light on student autonomy and future tandem language learning projects.

Keywords: autonomy, reciprocity, tandem language learning, university students

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Authors: Lorena Blasco-Arcas, Francesca Pucciarelli

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Business contexts have become globalised and digitalised, which requires that managers develop a strong sense of cross-cultural intelligence while working in geographically distant teams by means of digital technologies. How to better equip future managers on these kinds of skills has been put forward as a critical issue in Business Schools. In pursuing these goals, higher education is shifting from a passive lecture approach, to more active and experiential learning approaches that are more suitable to learn skills. For example, through the use of case studies, proposing plausible business problem to be solved by students (or teams of students), these institutions have focused for long in fostering learning by doing. Though, case studies are no longer enough as a tool to promote active teamwork and experiential learning. Moreover, digital advancements applied to educational settings have enabled augmented classrooms, expanding the learning experience beyond the class, which increase students’ engagement and experiential learning. Different authors have highlighted the benefits of digital engagement in order to achieve a deeper and longer-lasting learning and comprehension of core marketing concepts. Clickers, computer-based simulations and business games have become fairly popular between instructors, but still are limited by the fact that are fictional experiences. Further exploration of real digital platforms to implement real, live projects in the classroom seem relevant for marketing and business education. Building on this, this paper describes the development of an experiential learning activity in class, in which students developed a communication campaign in teams using the BuzzFeed platform, and subsequently implementing the campaign by using other social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…). The article details the procedure of using the project for a marketing module in a Bachelor program with students located in France, Italy and Spain campuses working on multi-campus groups. Further, this paper describes the project outcomes in terms of students’ engagement and analytics (i.e. visits achieved). the project included a survey in order to analyze and identify main aspects related to how the learning experience is influenced by the cultural competence developed through working in geographically distant and culturally diverse teamwork. Finally, some recommendations to use project-based social media tools while working with virtual teamwork in the classroom are provided.

Keywords: cultural competences, experiential learning, social media, teamwork, virtual group work

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Authors: Ehsan Daryadel, Hamid Shakeri

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Good governance is considered as one of the necessary prerequisites for promotion of sustainable development programs in countries. Theoretical model of good governance is going to form the best methods for administration and management of subject country. The importance of maintaining the balance between the needs of present and future generation through sustainable development caused a change in method of management and providing service for citizens that is addressed as the most efficient and effective way of administration of countries. This method is based on democratic and equal-seeking sustainable development which is trying to affect all actors in this area and also be accountable to all citizens’ needs. Meanwhile, it should be noted that good governance is a prerequisite for sustainable development. In fact, good governance means impact of all actors on administration and management of the country for fulfilling public services, general needs of citizens and establishing a balance and harmony between needs of present and future generation. In the present study, efforts have been made to present concepts, definitions, purposes and indices of good governance with a descriptive-analytical method.

Keywords: accountability, efficiency and effectiveness, good governance, rule of law, transparency

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Authors: R. Barros, J. Azevedo, P. Padrão, M. Gregório, I. Pádua, C. Almeida, C. Rodrigues, P. Fontes, A. Coelho

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Recent evidence shows a positive association between nutritional literacy and healthy eating. Traditional nutrition education strategies for childhood obesity prevention have shown weak effect. The Nutriscience project aims to create and evaluate an innovative and multidisciplinary strategy for promoting effective and accessible nutritional information to children, their families, and educators. Nutriscience is a one-year prospective follow-up evaluation study including pre-school children (3-5 y), who attend national schools’ network (29). The project is structured around a web-based intervention, using an on-line interactive platform, and focus on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and reducing sugar and salt intake. The platform acts as a social network where educational materials, games, and nutritional challenges are proposed in a gamification approach that promotes family and community social ties. A nutrition Massive Online Open Course is developed for educators, and a national healthy culinary contest will be promoted on TV channel. A parental self-reported questionnaire assessing sociodemographic and nutritional literacy (knowledge, attitudes, skills) is administered (baseline and end of the intervention). We expect that results on nutritional literacy from the presented strategy intervention will give us important information about the best practices for health intervention with kindergarten families. This intervention program using a digital interactive platform could be an educational tool easily adapted and disseminated for childhood obesity prevention.

Keywords: childhood obesity, educational tool, nutritional literacy, web-based intervention

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Authors: Vaidehi Murarka, Sneha Mehta, Dishant Upadhyay

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Our project topic is “Alphabet Recognition using pixel probability distribution”. The project uses techniques of Image Processing and Machine Learning in Computer Vision. Alphabet recognition is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files etc. Alphabet Recognition based OCR application is sometimes used in signature recognition which is used in bank and other high security buildings. One of the popular mobile applications includes reading a visiting card and directly storing it to the contacts. OCR's are known to be used in radar systems for reading speeders license plates and lots of other things. The implementation of our project has been done using Visual Studio and Open CV (Open Source Computer Vision). Our algorithm is based on Neural Networks (machine learning). The project was implemented in three modules: (1) Training: This module aims “Database Generation”. Database was generated using two methods: (a) Run-time generation included database generation at compilation time using inbuilt fonts of OpenCV library. Human intervention is not necessary for generating this database. (b) Contour–detection: ‘jpeg’ template containing different fonts of an alphabet is converted to the weighted matrix using specialized functions (contour detection and blob detection) of OpenCV. The main advantage of this type of database generation is that the algorithm becomes self-learning and the final database requires little memory to be stored (119kb precisely). (2) Preprocessing: Input image is pre-processed using image processing concepts such as adaptive thresholding, binarizing, dilating etc. and is made ready for segmentation. “Segmentation” includes extraction of lines, words, and letters from the processed text image. (3) Testing and prediction: The extracted letters are classified and predicted using the neural networks algorithm. The algorithm recognizes an alphabet based on certain mathematical parameters calculated using the database and weight matrix of the segmented image.

Keywords: contour-detection, neural networks, pre-processing, recognition coefficient, runtime-template generation, segmentation, weight matrix

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Authors: Alan Walsh, Peter Walker, Michael Ellis

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There is a real danger that both practitioners and researchers considering risks associated with megaprojects ignore or underestimate the impacts of cultural risk. The paper investigates the potential impacts of a failure to achieve cultural unity between the principal actors executing a megaproject. The principle relationships include the relationships between the principle Contractors and the project stakeholders or the project stakeholders and their principle advisors, Western Consultants. This study confirms that cultural dissonance between these parties can delay or disrupt the megaproject execution and examines why cultural issues should be prioritized as a significant risk factor in megaproject delivery. This paper addresses the practical impacts and potential mitigation measures, which may reduce cultural dissonance for a megaproject's delivery. This information is retrieved from on-going case studies in live infrastructure megaprojects in Europe and the Middle East's GCC states, from Western Consultants' perspective. The collaborating researchers each have at least 30 years of construction experience and are engaged in architecture, project management and contracts management, dealing with megaprojects in Europe or the GCC. After examining the cultural interfaces they have observed during the execution of megaprojects, they conclude that globally, culture significantly influences their efficient delivery. The study finds that cultural risk is ever-present, where different nationalities co-manage megaprojects and that cultural conflict poses a real threat to the timely delivery of megaprojects. The study indicates that the higher the cultural distance between the principal actors, the more pronounced the risk, with the risk of cultural dissonance more prominent in GCC megaprojects. The findings support a more culturally aware and cohesive team approach and recommend cross-cultural training to mitigate the effects of cultural disparity.

Keywords: cultural risk underestimation, cultural distance, megaproject characteristics, megaproject execution

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Authors: Jerlin George, R. Chitra

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The devices with sensors that can monitor your temperature, heart rate, and other vital signs and link to the internet, known as the Internet of Things (IoT), have completely transformed the way we control health. Providing real-time health data, these sensors improve diagnostics and treatment outcomes. Security and privacy matters when IoT comes into play in healthcare. Cyberattacks on centralized database systems are also a problem. To solve these challenges, the study uses blockchain technology coupled with proxy re-encryption to secure health data. ThingSpeak IoT cloud analyzes the collected data and turns them into blockchain transactions which are safely kept on the DriveHQ cloud. Transparency and data integrity are ensured by blockchain, and secure data sharing among authorized users is made possible by proxy re-encryption. This results in a health monitoring system that preserves the accuracy and confidentiality of data while reducing the safety risks of IoT-driven healthcare applications.

Keywords: internet of things, healthcare, sensors, electronic health records, blockchain, proxy re-encryption, data privacy, data security

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Authors: E. Maistrou, P. Themelis, D. Kosmopoulos, K. Boulougoura, A. M. Konidi, K. Moretti

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InterArch is an ongoing research project that is running since September 2020 and aims to propose a digital application for the enhancement of the cultural landscape, which emphasizes the contribution of physical space and time in digital data organization. The research case study refers to Ancient Messene in the Peloponnese, one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece. The project integrates an interactive approach to the natural environment, aiming at a manifold sensory experience. It combines the physical space of the archaeological site with the digital space of archaeological and cultural data while, at the same time, it embraces storytelling processes by engaging an interdisciplinary approach that familiarizes the user to multiple semantic interpretations. The research project is co‐financed by the European Union and Greek national funds, through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH - CREATE – INNOVATE (project code: Τ2ΕΔΚ-01659). It involves mutual collaboration between academic and cultural institutions and the contribution of an IT applications development company. New technologies and the integration of digital data enable the implementation of non‐linear narratives related to the representational characteristics of the art of collage. Various images (photographs, drawings, etc.) and sounds (narrations, music, soundscapes, audio signs, etc.) could be presented according to our proposal through new semiotics of augmented and virtual reality technologies applied in touch screens and smartphones. Despite the fragmentation of tangible or intangible references, material landscape formations, including archaeological remains, constitute the common ground that can inspire cultural narratives in a process that unfolds personal perceptions and collective imaginaries. It is in this context that cultural landscape may be considered an indication of space and historical continuity. It is in this context that history could emerge, according to our proposal, not solely as a previous inscription but also as an actual happening. As a rhythm of occurrences suggesting mnemonic references and, moreover, evolving history projected on the contemporary ongoing cultural landscape.

Keywords: cultural heritage, digital data, landscape, archaeological sites, visitors’ itineraries

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Authors: Juan Manuel Macia

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The Montreal Port Authority (MPA) wanted to build a new road link via Souligny Avenue to increase the fluidity of goods transported by truck in the Viau Street area of Montreal and to mitigate the current traffic problems on Notre-Dame Street. With the purpose of having a better integration and acceptance of this project with the neighboring residential surroundings, this project needed to include an architectural integration, bringing some artistic components to the bridge design along with some landscaping components. The MPA is required primarily to provide direct truck access to Port of Montreal with a direct connection to the future Assomption Boulevard planned by the City of Montreal and, thus, direct access to Souligny Avenue. The MPA also required other key aspects to be considered for the proposal and development of the project, such as the layout of road and rail configurations, the reconstruction of underground structures, the relocation of power lines, the installation of lighting systems, the traffic signage and communication systems improvement, the construction of new access ramps, the pavement reconstruction and a summary assessment of the structural capacity of an existing service tunnel. The identification of the various possible scenarios began by identifying all the constraints related to the numerous infrastructures located in the area of the future link between the port and the future extension of Souligny Avenue, involving interaction with several disciplines and technical specialties. Several viaduct- and tunnel-type geometries were studied to link the port road to the right-of-way north of Notre-Dame Street and to improve traffic flow at the railway corridor. The proposed design took into account the existing access points to Port of Montreal, the built environment of the MPA site, the provincial and municipal rights-of-way, and the future Notre-Dame Street layout planned by the City of Montreal. These considerations required the installation of an engineering structure with a span of over 60 m to free up a corridor for the future urban fabric of Notre-Dame Street. The best option for crossing this span length was identified by the design and construction of a curved bridge over Notre-Dame Street, which is essentially a structure with a deck formed by a reinforced concrete slab on steel box girders with a single span of 63.5m. The foundation units were defined as pier-cap type abutments on drilled shafts to bedrock with rock sockets, with MSE-type walls at the approaches. The configuration of a single-span curved structure posed significant design and construction challenges, considering the major constraints of the project site, a design for durability approach, and the need to guarantee optimum performance over a 75-year service life in accordance with the client's needs and the recommendations and requirements defined by the standards used for the project. These aspects and the need to include architectural and artistic components in this project made it possible to design, build, and integrate a signature infrastructure project with a sustainable approach, from which the MPA, the commuters, and the city of Montreal and its residents will benefit.

Keywords: curved bridge, steel box girder, medium span, simply supported, industrial and urban environment, architectural integration, design for durability

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Authors: Mónika Bartalné-Berceli, Eszter Izsó, Szilveszter Gergely, András Salgó

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Nowadays a significant portion of the Earth's population does not have access to healthy food. Either because they can not afford them or because they do not know which they are. The aim of the VIIth Framework CHANCE project (Nr. 266331) supported by the European Union has been to develop relatively cheap food favorable from nutritional point of view and has acceptable quality for consumers. Within the project we dealt with manufacturing of bread belonging to basic foods. We had examined the enrichment of bread products with four kinds of bran, with a special milling product of grain industry (aleurone flour) and with a soy-based sprouted additive. The applied concentration of the six mentioned additives has been optimized and the physical and sensory properties of the bread products were monitored. The weight of the enriched breads increased slightly, however the volume and height decreased slightly compared to the corresponding data of the control bread. The composition of the final product is favorable affected by these additives having highly preferred composition from nutritional point of view.

Keywords: bread products, brans, YASO, aleurone flour

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Authors: Anh Dao Vu, Bill Ryan

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The Vietnamese government struggles to grapple with the problem of rampant corruption, one of the most challenging difficulties the country faces. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2014, Vietnam ranks 119 out of 175 countries. The CPI gives Vietnam a score of 31 on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 indicates ‘highly corrupt’ and 100 represents ‘very clean’. Corruption eats into the national GDP of Vietnam, causing a loss of 3% to 4% of GDP per annum. In general, the Vietnamese people’s trust in their government to wage an effective fight against corruption, especially in the public sector, has been greatly eroded in recent years. Some substantial public demonstrations persuaded the government to implement strong anti-corruption measures. However, so far those measures have not been particularly successful. One of the main reasons for this shortcoming is that neither the Communist Party of Vietnam nor the government has demonstrated sufficiently strong ‘political will’ in fighting corruption. There remains a large gap between rhetoric and reality. This paper will examine the reasons why insufficient ‘political will’ is displayed in the ostensible fight against public sector corruption, and how certain anti-corruption strategies will both strengthen levels of political commitment to the fight against corruption while enhancing the effectiveness of that essential national endeavor.

Keywords: corruption, political will, Vietnam, anti-corruption

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Authors: Cansu Gülser, Tuğce Ercan

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The construction sector is a key driver of the global economy, contributing significantly to growth and employment through a diverse array of sub-sectors. However, it faces challenges due to its project-based nature, which often hampers long-term collaboration and broader incentives beyond individual projects. These limitations are frequently discussed in scientific literature as obstacles to innovation and industry-wide change. Traditional practices and unwritten rules further hinder the adoption of new processes within the construction industry. The disadvantages of the construction industry’s project-based structure in fostering innovation and long-term relationships include limited continuity, fragmented collaborations, and a focus on short-term goals, which collectively hinder the development of sustained partnerships, inhibit the sharing of knowledge and best practices, and reduce incentives for investing in innovative processes and technologies. This structure typically emphasizes specific projects, which restricts broader collaborations and incentives that extend beyond individual projects, thus impeding innovation and change. The temporal complexities inherent in project-based sectors like construction make it difficult to address societal challenges through collaborative efforts. Traditional management approaches are inadequate for scaling up innovations and adapting to significant changes. For systemic transformation in the construction sector, there is a need for more collaborative relationships and activities beyond traditional supply chains. This study delves into the concept of an innovation ecosystem within the construction sector, highlighting various research findings. It aims to explore key questions about the components that enhance innovation capacity, the relationship between a robust innovation ecosystem and this capacity, and the reasons why innovation is less prevalent and implemented in this sector compared to others. Additionally, it examines the main factors hindering innovation within companies and identifies strategies to improve these efforts, particularly in developing countries. The innovation ecosystem in the construction sector generates various outputs through interactions between business resources and external components. These outputs include innovative value creation, sustainable practices, robust collaborations, knowledge sharing, competitiveness, and advanced project management, all of which contribute significantly to company market performance and competitive advantage. This article offers insights and strategic recommendations for industry professionals, policymakers, and researchers interested in developing and sustaining innovation ecosystems in the construction sector. Future research should focus on broader samples for generalization, comparative sector analysis, and application-focused studies addressing real industry challenges. Additionally, studying the long-term impacts of innovation ecosystems, integrating advanced technologies like AI and machine learning into project management, and developing future application strategies and policies are also important.

Keywords: construction industry, innovation ecosystem, innovation ecosystem components, project management

Procedia PDF Downloads 35