Search results for: Central American Coffee

Authors: Tomás Speziale

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This paper aims to analyse how Ian Hacking states the theoretical basis of his research on the classification of people. Although all his early philosophical education had been based in Foucault, it is also true that Erving Goffman’s perspective provided him with epistemological and methodological tools for understanding face-to-face relationships. Hence, all his works must be thought of as social science texts that combine the research on how the individuals are constituted ‘top-down’ (as in Foucault), with the inquiry into how people renegotiate ‘bottom-up’ the classifications about them. Thus, Hacking´s proposal constitutes a middle ground between the French Philosopher and the American Sociologist. Placing himself between both authors allows Hacking to build a frame that is expected to adjust to Social Sciences’ main particularity: the fact that they study interactive kinds. These are kinds of people, which imply that those who are classified can change in certain ways that prompt the need for changing previous classifications themselves. It is all about the interaction between the labelling of people and the people who are classified. Consequently, understanding the way in which Hacking uses Foucault’s and Goffman’s theories is essential to fully comprehend the social dynamic between individuals and concepts, what Bert Hansen had called dialectical realism. His theoretical proposal, therefore, is not only valuable because it combines diverse perspectives, but also because it constitutes an utterly original and relevant framework for Sociological theory and particularly for Criminology.

Keywords: classification of people, Foucault's archaeology, Goffman's interpersonal sociology, interactive kinds

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Authors: Małgorzata Jakubowska, Monika Michałowska

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Since the beginning of the cinematographic industry, there has been a visible interest in two leading themes: death and sexuality. One of the reasons of the unfading popularity of these motives was the fact that death or sex employed as leitmotivs attracted great attention of the viewers, and this guaranteed a financial success. What seems interesting is the fact that the themes of death and sexuality/eroticism seem to be mutually exclusive in the mainstream movies to such extent that they almost never appear together on the screen. As leitmotivs they describe opposite experiences of human life, one refers to affirmation of life, the other points to atrophy and decay. This film paradigm is rarely challenged. Thus, a relatively less attention has been devoted so far to entwining dying and sexuality/eroticism in one movie. In our paper, we wish to have a closer look at the visualizations of dying with focus on the aspect of sexuality/eroticism. Our analysis will concentrate on the contemporary European and American cinema, and especially the recent productions that contribute to the cultural phenomenon of entwining the two realms of human life. We will investigate the main clichés, plot and visual schemes, motives and narrative techniques on the examples of Sweet November (2001), A Little Bit of Heaven (2011) and Now is good (2012). We will also shed some light on the recent film productions that seem to provide a shift in portraying the realms of dying and sexuality concentrating on The Garden of Earthly Delights (2003) as the most paradigmatic example.

Keywords: contemporary cinema, dying and sexuality, narrative techniques, plot and visual schemes

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Authors: Mohammed Gamil Montasser, Angelo Battaglia

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Tourism is making its presence felt across the Sultanate of Oman. The story is one of the most recognized phenomena as a sustainable solid growth and is considered a remarkable outcome for any destination. The competitive situation and challenges within the tourism industry worldwide entail a better understanding of the destination position and its image to achieve Oman’s aspiration to retain its international reputation as one of the most desirable destinations in the Middle East. To access general perceptions of Oman’s attributes, their importance and their influences among U.S. tourists, an online survey was conducted with 522 American travelers who have traveled internationally, including non-visitors, virtual-visitors and visitors to Oman. This research involved a total of 36 attributes in the survey. Participants were asked to rate their agreement on how each attribute represented Oman and how important each attribute was for selecting destinations on 5- point Likert Scale. They also indicated if each attribute has a positive, neutral or negative influence on their destination selection. Descriptive statistics and importance performance analysis (IPA) were conducted. IPA illustrated U.S. tourists’ perceptions of Oman’s destination attributes and their importance in destination selection on a matrix with four quadrants, divided by actual mean value in each grid for importance (M=3.51) and performance (M=3.57). Oman tourism organizations and destination managers may use these research findings for future marketing and management efforts toward the U.S. travel market.

Keywords: analysis of importance, performance, destination attributes, Oman's position, U.S. tourists

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Authors: Claudia Donoso

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This study compares the restriction of mobility of migrants and asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and Ecuador. Based on the discourse analysis of anti-migrant rhetoric in press articles, migrant stories in the press, reports, and border control practices, the study examines the Ecuadorian government’s response to the migration flow of Venezuelans and the United States enforcement practices against Latin American asylum seekers. By exploring Giorgio Agamben’s concept of bare life, the article argues that this failure to protect mobility rights is due to the United States and Ecuador’s views of forced migrants as bare life and carriers of the virus, justifying xenophobia, resistance to humanitarian international law, and exceptionalism. By drawing on a feminist intersectional approach, the study adds to recent research on the securitization of forced migration and challenge the race/ethnicity, immigration status, class, and nationality-based discrimination of the measures undertaken during the pandemic. The article illustrates how the treatment of forced migrants as bare life was aggravated by their intersectional inequalities. It concludes by providing recommendations that could be enforced by the US and Ecuadorian governments to protect the right to freedom of mobility.

Keywords: bare life, intersectionality, mobility rights, COVID-19, Ecuador, United States

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Authors: Arlinda Memetaj

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Building up of a well-functioning administrative justice system is one of the key prerequisites for ensuring the existence of an accountable and efficient public administration in Kosovo as well. To this aim, the country has already established an almost comprehensive legislative and institutional frameworks. The latter derives from (among others) the Kosovo`s Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU of 2016. A series of efforts are being presently still undertaken by all relevant domestic and international stakeholders being active in both the Kosovo`s public administration reform and the country` s system of a local self-government. Both systems are thus under a constant state of reform. Despite the aforesaid, there is still a series of shortcomings in the country in above context. There is a lot of backlog of administrative cases in the Prishtina Administrative court; there is a public lack in judiciary; the public administration is organized in a fragmented way; the administrative laws are still not properly implemented at local level; the municipalities` legislative and executive branches are not sufficiently transparent for the ordinary citizens ... Against the above short background, the full paper firstly outlines the legislative and institutional framework of the Kosovo's systems of an administrative justice and local self-government (on the basis of the fact that public administration and local government are not separate fields). It then illustrates the key specific shortcomings in those fields, as seen from the perspective of the citizens' right to good administration. It finally claims that the current status quo situation in the country may be resolved (among others) by granting Kosovo a status of full member state of the Council of Europe or at least granting it with a temporary status of a contracting party of (among others) the European Human Rights Convention. The later would enable all Kosovo citizens (regardless their ethnic or other origin whose human rights are violated by the Kosovo`s relative administrative authorities including the administrative courts) to bring their case/s before the respective well-known European Strasbourg-based Human Rights Court. This would consequently put the State under permanent and full monitoring process, with a view to obliging the country to properly implement the European Court`s decisions (as adopted by this court in those cases). This would be a benefit first of all for the very Kosovo`s ordinary citizens regardless their ethnic or other background. It would provide for a particular positive input in the ongoing efforts being undertaken by Kosovo and Serbia states within the EU-facilitated Dialogue, with a view to building up of an integral administrative justice system at central and local level in the whole Kosovo` s territory. The main method used in this paper is the descriptive, analytical and comparative one.

Keywords: administrative courts, administrative justice, administrative procedure, benefit, European Human Rights Court, human rights, monitoring, reform.

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Authors: Ismail Bamidele Afolabi, Abdulmujeeb Babatunde Aremu, Lawal Abdurraheem Maidoki, Nnodimele Onuigbo Atulomah

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Background: Hepatitis B virus infection remains a significant global public health challenge with infectivity as well as the potential for transmission more than 50 to 100 times that of HIV. Annually, global HBV-related mortality is linked primarily to cirrhosis and liver carcinoma. The ever-increasing endemicity of HBV among children under-5-years, owing to vertical transmission and its lingering chronicity in developing countries, will hamper the global efforts concertedly endorsed towards eliminating viral hepatitis as a global public health threat by 2030. Objective: This study assessed information motivation behavioral skills model constructs as predictors of HBV infection prevention practices among consenting expectant mothers attending antenatal care in Central Uganda as a focal point of intervention towards breaking materno-foetal transmission of HBV. Methods: A cross-sectional study with a quantitative data collection approach based on the constructs of the IMB model was used to capture data on the study variables among 385 randomly selected pregnant women between September and October 2020. Data derived from the quantitative instrument were transformed into weighted aggregate scores using SPSS version 26. ANOVA and regression analysis were done to ascertain the study hypotheses with a significance level set as (p ≤ 0.05). Results: Relatively 60% of the respondents were aged between 18 and 28. Expectant mothers with secondary education (42.3%) were predominant. Furthermore, an average but inadequate knowledge (X ̅=5.97±6.61; B=0.57; p<.001), incorrect perception (X ̅=17.10±18.31; B=0.97; p=.014), and good behavioral skills (X ̅=12.39±13.37; B=0.56; p<.001) for adopting prevention practices all statistically predicted the unsatisfactory level of prevention practices (X ̅=15.03±16.20) among the study respondents as measured on rating scales of 12, 33, 21 and 30 respectively. Conclusion: Evidence from this study corroborates the imperativeness of IMB constructs in reducing the burden of HBV infection in developing countries. Therefore, the inadequate HBV knowledge and misperception among obstetric populations necessitate personalized health education during antenatal visits and subsequent health campaigns in order to inform better prevention practices and, in turn, reduce the lingering chronicity of HBV infection in developing countries.

Keywords: behavioral skills, HBV infection, knowledge, perception, pregnant women, prevention practices

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Authors: Azucena Yearby

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This study examined if cultural intelligence can be developed through the study of a foreign language. Specifically, the study sought to determine if strategies such as the Arts/History, Vocabulary and Real or Simulated Experiences have an effect on the development of cultural intelligence in the foreign language classroom. Students enrolled in Spanish 1114 or level 1 Spanish courses at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) completed Linn Van Dyne’s 20-item questionnaire that measures Cultural Intelligence (CQ). Results from the study indicated a slight cultural intelligence increase in those students who received an intervention. Therefore, the study recommended that foreign language educators implement the considered strategies in the classroom in order to increase their students’ cultural intelligence.

Keywords: cultural competency, cultural intelligence, foreign language, language

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Authors: Katalin Bodor, Zsolt Bodor, Robert Szep

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The particulate matter (PM) smaller than 2.5 μm are less studied due to the limited availability of PM₂.₅, and less information is available on the health effects attributable to PM₁₀ in Central-Eastern Europe. The objective of the current study was to assess the human health risk and characterize the spatial and temporal variation of PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀ in eight Romanian regions between the 2009-2018 and. The PM concentrations showed high variability over time and spatial distribution. The highest concentration was detected in the Bucharest region in the winter period, and the lowest was detected in West. The relative risk caused by the PM₁₀ for all-cause mortality varied between 1.017 (B) and 1.025 (W), with an average 1.020. The results demonstrate a positive relative risk of cardiopulmonary and lung cancer disease due to exposure to PM₂.₅ on the national average 1.26 ( ± 0.023) and 1.42 ( ± 0.037), respectively.

Keywords: PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, relative risk, health effect

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Authors: Michael Keller

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Beyond the heterodoxy expressed in his now-famous 1838 address to the Harvard Divinity School, Emerson’s timing was particularly dangerous. Ideologically, New England faced a severe crisis of identity, as traditional categories of class and religion were growing increasingly unstable. Jones Very, influenced by Emerson, crossed the perceived border between acceptable religious zeal and insane enthusiasm. Abner Kneeland, on the other hand, crossed the uncomfortable border between post-Puritan Unitarian rationalism and blasphemous Enlightenment skepticism. More importantly, Kneeland oversaw a more overtly subversive brand of resistance (in the form of freethought periodicals) that not only threatened religious orthodoxy but also threatened to destabilize the class structure of New England. Very and Kneeland provide instructive case studies of how religious ideologies could run afoul of the social contract and the law itself. By looking closely at the social and religious forces that led to Kneeland’s prosecution for blasphemy, Jones Very’s forced committal to McLean Asylum, and Emerson’s escape from these fates, we gain a greater understanding of the shifting cultural landscape of 1830s New England. This paper will examine Emerson’s resistance to the traditional forces of class and ideology in Massachusetts by situating his early work in the context of the ideological battles of his time. More specifically, I will explore how Emerson was able to resist the conservative cultural forces of his time without experiencing the extremity of their wrath.

Keywords: American literature, cultural studies, emerson, religious studies

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Authors: Yu Ling Chang

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Since the United Nations announced Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, people are paying more and more attention to the value of lives. On the other hand, life education is being vigorously pushed in different countries. Unfortunately, the results have been only moderately successful by reason that the concept is not implemented in everyone’s daily life. Even worse, animal abuse and killing events keep happening. This research is focused on generalizing a conclusion from different countries’ Animal Protection Act and actual execution by case studies, in order to make an approach of whether the number of animal abuse is directly influenced by different laws and regimes or not. It concludes the central notion and spirit of Animal Protection Act in German, Japan, and Taiwan. Providing the reference of specific schemes and analysis based on Taiwanese social culture.

Keywords: animal abuse, Animal Management Act, Animal Protection Act, social culture

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Authors: Andres Calderon

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In order to avoid detection and punishment, cartels have recruited the help of third parties to organize, execute and disguise the anticompetitive practices cartel members have agreed upon. These third parties may take the form of consultancy firms, guilds or professional advisors that do not perform an economic activity in the market where the collusion takes place. This paper takes a look into how national competition authorities and national legislators have dealt with the emergence of the cartels’ facilitators in Latin America. Following the practice of other jurisdictions such as United States (Toys R' Us, Apple), European Union (AC Treuhand), United Kingdom (Replica Kits, Hasbro) and Spain (Urban, Snap-On), some countries (e.g. Argentina, Chile) in Latin America have started to conduct investigations and find antitrust liability in cartels’ facilitators for helping others to violate their national competition laws. Some countries (e.g. Peru and Colombia) have also amended their legislation to amplify the subjective scope of application in order to include cartels’ facilitators. The Latin American case is one of special relevance because public officials are often prone to promote or indulge agreements between competitors in sectors of political interest. A broad definition of cartels’ facilitator, consequently, could lead to the prosecution of punishment of public officials that may hinder the competitive process.

Keywords: anticompetitive practices, cartel, collusion, competition, facilitator, hub and spoke

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Authors: Joshua Harrell, Gideon Osei Bonsu, Susan Garza, Clarence Conner, Da’Neisha Harris, Emma Bukoswki, Zohreh Safari

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The Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) stands as a pivotal tool for gauging community resilience amidst diverse stressors, including pandemics like COVID-19. This paper synthesizes recent research and underscores the significance of SVI in elucidating the differential impacts of crises on communities. Drawing on studies by Fox et al. (2023) and Mah et al. (2023), we delve into the application of SVI alongside emerging data sources to uncover nuanced insights into community vulnerability. Specifically, we explore the utilization of SVI in conjunction with mobility data from platforms like SafeGraph to probe the intricate relationship between social vulnerability and mobility dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic. By leveraging 16 community variables derived from the American Community Survey, including socioeconomic status and demographic characteristics, SVI offers actionable intelligence for guiding targeted interventions and resource allocation. Building upon recent advancements, this paper contributes to the discourse on harnessing AI techniques to mitigate health disparities and fortify public health resilience in the face of pandemics and other crises.

Keywords: social vulnerability index, mobility dynamics, data analytics, health equity, pandemic preparedness, targeted interventions, data integration

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Authors: L. Korpinen, P. Taskinen, P. Rautio

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This study aimed to describe procedures that we developed to use in the quantitative, bone-specific SPECT/CT at our hospital. Our procedures included the following questions for choosing imaging protocols, which were based on a clinical doctor's referral: (1) Is she/he a cancer patient or not? (2) Are there any indications of inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis? We performed about 1,106 skeletal scintigraphies over two years. About 394 patients were studied with quantitative bone-specific single-photon emission computed tomography/computerized tomography (SPECT/CT) (i.e., about 36% of all bone scintigraphies). Approximately 64% of the patients were studied using the conventional Anterior-Posterior/Posterior-Anterior imaging. Our procedure has improved efficiency and decreased cycle times.

Keywords: skeletal scintigraphy, SPECT/CT, imaging, procedure

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Authors: Carrollyne Aasen, Laverne Seales

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With increased Latinx communities within the United States, specifically in California, and more universities receiving designations of Hispanic-Serving institutions, Spanish programs have evolved to include more targeted and applicable practical skills. The Spanish program in the Languages and Cultures Department at California Lutheran University incorporated an interdisciplinary project with the Communication Department to create student-generated Spanish-language news inserts, which serve as a sister publication to the English-language student newspaper, The Echo. California Lutheran University is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, meaning it is an accredited undergraduate institution with full-time Hispanic/Latinx students equivalent to at least 25 percent of the total students enrolled. As a Hispanic Serving Institution with growing numbers of bilingual students, faculty, staff, and community members, the need for more information aimed at Hispanic/Latinx communities increased, resulting in the opportunity to reflect topics of interest by community members. This project was developed to fulfill the Spanish program's goals for proficiency by using the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages guidelines and the university's need to support students and the community's voices. This article describes the stages from inception to production and the incorporation of journalism principles into the Spanish curriculum.

Keywords: interdisciplinary, media, foreign languages, HSI

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Authors: Yue Huang, Yiheng Feng

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Due to the global pressure on climate and energy, many countries are vigorously promoting electric vehicles and building charging (public) charging facilities. Faced with the supply-demand gap of existing electric vehicle charging stations and unreasonable space usage in China, this paper takes the central city of Nanjing as an example, establishes a site selection model through multivariate data integration, conducts multiple linear regression SPSS analysis, gives quantitative site selection results, and provides optimization models and suggestions for charging station layout planning.

Keywords: electric vehicle, charging station, allocation optimization, urban mobility, urban infrastructure, nanjing

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Authors: Luis Felipe Brito-Gaona, Emma M. Iglesias

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There is a growing literature that studies the main determinants and drivers of inequality and economic growth in several countries, using panel data and different estimation methods (fixed effects, Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) and Two Stages Least Squares (TSLS)). Recently, it was studied the evolution of these variables in the period 1980-2009 in the 18 countries of Latin-America and it was found that one of the main variables that explained their evolution was Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We extend this study to the year 2015 in the same 18 countries in Latin-America, and we find that FDI does not have a significant role anymore, while we find a significant negative and positive effect of schooling levels on inequality and economic growth respectively. We also find that the point estimates associated with human capital are the largest ones of the variables included in the analysis, and this means that an increase in human capital (measured by schooling levels of secondary education) is the main determinant that can help to reduce inequality and to increase economic growth in Latin-America. Therefore, we advise that economic policies in Latin-America should be directed towards increasing the level of education. We use the methodologies of estimating by fixed effects, GMM and TSLS to check the robustness of our results. Our conclusion is the same regardless of the estimation method we choose. We also find that the international recession in the Latin-American countries in 2008 reduced significantly their economic growth.

Keywords: economic growth, human capital, inequality, Latin-America

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Authors: A. Maruf Aytekin

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We present our approach on using continuous delivery pattern for release management. One of the key practices of agile and lean teams is the continuous delivery of new features to stakeholders. The main benefits of this approach lie in the ability to release new applications rapidly which has real strategic impact on the competitive advantage of an organization. Organizations that successfully implement Continuous Delivery have the ability to evolve rapidly to support innovation, provide stable and reliable software in more efficient ways, decrease the amount of resources need for maintenance, and lower the software delivery time and costs. One of the objectives of this paper is to elaborate a case study where IT division of Central Securities Depository Institution (MKK) of Turkey apply Continuous Delivery pattern to improve release management process.

Keywords: automation, continuous delivery, deployment, release management

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Authors: Mohammad Hamzah Alshehab

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Metaphor is a substitute expression in everyday life in languages, thoughts and actions. It has an original value in language use with different conceptual, grammatical and properties. In addition, it is a central concept in literary studies. The present paper aims at investigating metaphor’s types imbedded in some Holy Verses (HV). For achieving the objectives of this paper, two English versions were chosen , the first is the Translation of the Meanings of the Noble Qura’n in the English Language by Mohammad AlHilali and Mohammad Khan, and the second version is the English Translation of the Holy Qura’n by Mohammad Ali were used. The researcher selected (20) Holy Verses include metaphors to be analyzed and investigated. Metaphor types were categorized by an assessment of the two translations followed by a discussion between the two versions of translation.

Keywords: metaphor, metaphor’s types, Holy Qura’n, Holy Verses

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Authors: Alper Akin, Ibrahim Aydogdu

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This study presents a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm to obtain optimum designs for steel space buildings. The optimum design problem of three-dimensional steel frames is mathematically formulated according to provisions of LRFD-AISC (Load and Resistance factor design of American Institute of Steel Construction). Design constraints such as the strength requirements of structural members, the displacement limitations, the inter-story drift and the other structural constraints are derived from LRFD-AISC specification. In this study, a hybrid algorithm by using teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO) and harmony search (HS) algorithms is employed to solve the stated optimum design problem. These algorithms are two of the recent additions to metaheuristic techniques of numerical optimization and have been an efficient tool for solving discrete programming problems. Using these two algorithms in collaboration creates a more powerful tool and mitigates each other’s weaknesses. To demonstrate the powerful performance of presented hybrid algorithm, the optimum design of a large scale steel building is presented and the results are compared to the previously obtained results available in the literature.

Keywords: optimum structural design, hybrid techniques, teaching-learning based optimization, harmony search algorithm, minimum weight, steel space frame

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Authors: Michal Kopcek, Tomas Skulavik, Michal Kebisek, Gabriela Krizanova

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The operation of nuclear power plants involves continuous monitoring of the environment in their area. This monitoring is performed using a complex data acquisition system, which collects status information about the system itself and values of many important physical variables e.g. temperature, humidity, dose rate etc. This paper describes a proposal and optimization of communication that takes place in teledosimetric system between the central control server responsible for the data processing and storing and the decentralized measuring stations, which are measuring the physical variables. Analyzes of ongoing communication were performed and consequently the optimization of the system architecture and communication was done.

Keywords: communication protocol, transmission optimization, data acquisition, system architecture

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Authors: Qihang Jiang

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Fansubbing, the combination of fan and subtitling, is one of the main branches of Audiovisual Translation (AVT) having kindled more and more interest of researchers into the AVT field in recent decades. In particular, the quality of so-called non-professional translation seems questionable due to the non-transparent qualification of subtitlers in a huge community network. This paper attempts to figure out how YYeTs aka 'ZiMuZu', the largest fansubbing group in China, translates swearwords from English to Chinese for its fans of the prevalent American sitcom The Big Bang Theory, taking cultural, social and political elements into account in the context of China. By building a bilingual corpus containing both the source and target texts, this paper found that most of the original swearwords were translated in a toned-down manner, probably due to Chinese audiences’ cultural and social network features as well as the strict censorship under the Chinese government. Additionally, House (2015)’s newly revised model of Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) was applied and examined. Results revealed that most of the subtitled swearwords achieved their pragmatic functions and exerted a communicative effect for audiences. In conclusion, this paper enriches the empirical research concerning House’s new TQA model, gives a full picture of the subtitling of swearwords in AVT field and provides a practical guide for the practitioners in their career of subtitling.

Keywords: corpus-based approach, fansubbing, pragmatic functions, swearwords, translation quality assessment

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Authors: Marc Arthur Bien Aimé, Julio da Silveira Moreira

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This study examines the political speech in Haiti over the course of the decade 2011-2021, focusing on the speeches of the presidents Michel J. Martelly and Jovenel Moïse and their impacts on their awareness collective. In using a qualitative approach, we have analyzed the speech of the president pronounced in response to the political instability of countries, as well as interviews with a group of 20 Haitians living in Port- Au-Prince. Our results put in evidence their complex relationship between politics, awareness collective, and the influence of the powers imperialists. We show that the situation in Haiti's disastrous social and political situation is driven by personal political interests and the absence of a state political project. Moreover, the speeches of the president’s analysis are meaningless, transforming concepts such as social progress and justice in simple words. This political rhetoric contributes to the domination symbolic of the population of Haitian. This study is also linked to the theme “Constitutions, processes democratic and critical of the state in Latin America,” emphasizing the importance of analysis of political speech to understand the complexities of the democratic process and criticism of the State in their Latin American region. We suggest future research to deepen our understanding of these political dynamics and their impact on public policies and developments of the constitutions throughout Latin America.

Keywords: political discourse, conscience collective, inequality social, democratic processes, constitutions, Haiti

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Authors: Oluwagbemi Victor Aladeokin

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In the last decade, the global peanut cultivation has seen increased demand, which is attributed to their health benefits, rising to ~ 41.4 MMT in 2019/2020. Peanut and other nutshells are considered as waste in various parts of the world and are usually used for their fuel value. However, this agricultural by-product can be converted to a higher value product such as activated carbon. For many years, due to the highly porous structure of activated carbon, it has been widely and effectively used as an adsorbent in the purification and separation of gases and liquids. Those used for commercial purposes are primarily made from a range of precursors such as wood, coconut shell, coal, bones, etc. However, due to difficulty in regeneration and high cost, various agricultural residues such as rice husk, corn stalks, apricot stones, almond shells, coffee beans, etc, have been explored to produce activated carbons. In the present study, the potential of peanut shells as precursors in the production of activated carbon and their adsorption capacity is investigated. Usually, precursors used to produce activated carbon have carbon content above 45 %. A typical raw peanut shell has 42 wt.% carbon content. To increase the yield, this study has employed chemical activation method using zinc chloride. Zinc chloride is well known for its effectiveness in increasing porosity of porous carbonaceous materials. In chemical activation, activation temperature and impregnation ratio are parameters commonly reported to be the most significant, however, this study has also studied the influence of activation time on the development of activated carbon from peanut shells. Activated carbons are applied for different purposes, however, as the application of activated carbon becomes more specific, an understanding of the influence of activation variables to have a better control of the quality of the final product becomes paramount. A traditional approach to experimentally investigate the influence of the activation parameters, involves varying each parameter at a time. However, a more efficient way to reduce the number of experimental runs is to apply design of experiment. One of the objectives of this study is to optimize the activation variables. Thus, this work has employed response surface methodology of design of experiment to study the interactions between the activation parameters and consequently optimize the activation parameters (temperature, impregnation ratio, and activation time). The optimum activation conditions found were 485 °C, 15 min and 1.7, temperature, activation time, and impregnation ratio respectively. The optimum conditions resulted in an activated carbon with relatively high surface area ca. 1700 m2/g, 47 % yield, relatively high density, low ash, and high fixed carbon content. Impregnation ratio and temperature were found to mostly influence the final characteristics of the produced activated carbon from peanut shells. The results of this study, using response surface methodology technique, have revealed the potential and the most significant parameters that influence the chemical activation process, of peanut shells to produce activated carbon which can find its use in both liquid and gas phase adsorption applications.

Keywords: chemical activation, fixed carbon, impregnation ratio, optimum, surface area

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Authors: M. Leonora D. Guerrero

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The study attempted to uncover the most and least frequent phonological variation evident in the speech patterns of grade 1 teachers in select public elementary schools in the Philippines. It also determined the lectal description of the participants based on Tayao’s consonant charts for American and Philippine English. Descriptive method was utilized. A total of 24 grade 1 teachers participated in the study. The instrument used was word list. Each column in the word list is represented by words with the target consonant phonemes: labiodental fricatives f/ and /v/ and lingua-alveolar fricative /z/. These phonemes were in the initial, medial, and final positions, respectively. Findings of the study revealed that the most frequent variation happened when the participants read words with /z/ in the final position while the least frequent variation happened when the participants read words with /z/ in the initial position. The study likewise proved that the grade 1 teachers exhibited the segmental features of both the mesolect and basilect. Based on these results, it is suggested that teachers of English in the Philippines must aspire to manifest the features of the mesolect, if not, the acrolect since it is expected of the academicians not to be displaying the phonological features of the acrolects since this variety is only used by the 'uneducated.' This is especially so with grade 1 teachers who are often mimicked by their students who classify their speech as the 'standard.'

Keywords: consonant phonemes, lectal description, Philippine English, phonological variation

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Authors: Fabianna Bacil, Zenathan Hasannundin, Clovis Freire

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The green transition opens green windows of opportunity – temporary moments in which there are lower barriers and shorter learning periods for developing countries to enter emerging technologies and catch-up. However, taking advantage of these windows requires capabilities in national sectoral systems to adopt and develop technologies linked to green sectors as well as strong responses to build the required knowledge, skills, and infrastructure and foster the growth of targeted sectors. This paper uses UNCTAD’s frontier technology readiness index to analyse the current position of Latin America and the Caribbean to use, adopt, and adapt frontier technologies, examining the preconditions in the region to take up windows of opportunity that arise with the green transition. The index highlights the inequality across countries in the region, as well as gaps in capabilities dimensions, especially in terms of R&D. Moving to responses, it highlights industrial policies implemented to foster the growth of green technologies, emphasising the essential role played by the state to build and strengthen capabilities and provide infant industry protection that enables the growth of these sectors. Overall, while there are exceptions, especially in the Brazilian case, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean should focus on strengthening their capabilities to be better positioned, especially in terms of knowledge creation, infrastructure, and financing availability.

Keywords: Green technologies, Industrial policy, Latin America, windows of opportunity

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Authors: S. El-Azzeh, A. Al-Aqqad, M. Salem, H. Al-Khaldi, S. Thaher

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Thermal comfort studies are very important during the early stages of the building’s design. If this study was ignored, problems will start to occur for the occupants in the future. In hot climates, where solar radiations are entering buildings all year long, occupant’s thermal comfort in office buildings needs to be examined. This study aims to investigate the thermal comfort at an existing office building at the Australian College of Kuwait and test its validity and improve occupant’s thermal satisfaction by covering windows with a heat rejection tint material that enables sunlight to pass through the office while reflecting solar heat outside. Environmental variables were measured using thermal comfort data logger INNOVA 1221 to find the predicted mean vote (PMV) in the selected location. Also, subjective variables were measured to find the actual mean vote (AMV) through surveys distributed among occupants in the selected case study office. All the variables collected were analyzed and classified according to international standards ISO 7730 and ASHRAE55. The results of this study showed improvement in both PMV and AMV. The mean value of PMV based on the original design was 0.691 which dropped to 0.32 after installation and it still at comfort zone. Also, the mean value of the AMV has improved for the first occupant, where before it was -0.46 and it became -1 which is cooler. For the other occupant, it was slightly warm with a mean value of 0.9 and it was improved and became cooler with a -0.25 mean value based on American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) seven-point scale.

Keywords: thermal comfort, office buildings, indoor environments, predicted mean vote

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Authors: África Vicario, Fernando J. Álvarez, Felipe Parralejo, Fernando Aranda

Abstract:

The irrigation systems of traditional agriculture, such as gravity-fed irrigation, produce a great waste of water because, generally, there is no control over the amount of water supplied in relation to the water needed. The AIRON Project tries to solve this problem by implementing an IoT-based system to sensor the irrigation plots so that the state of the crops and the amount of water used for irrigation can be known remotely. The IoT system consists of a sensor network that measures the humidity of the soil, the weather conditions (temperature, relative humidity, wind and solar radiation) and the irrigation water flow. The communication between this network and a central gateway is conducted by means of long-range wireless communication that depends on the characteristics of the irrigation plot. The main objective of the AIRON project is to deploy an IoT sensor network in two different plots of the irrigation community of Aranjuez in the Spanish region of Madrid. The first plot is 2 km away from the central gateway, so LoRa has been used as the base communication technology. The problem with this plot is the absence of mains electric power, so devices with energy-saving modes have had to be used to maximize the external batteries' use time. An ESP32 SOC board with a LoRa module is employed in this case to gather data from the sensor network and send them to a gateway consisting of a Raspberry Pi with a LoRa hat. The second plot is located 18 km away from the gateway, a range that hampers the use of LoRa technology. In order to establish reliable communication in this case, the long-term evolution (LTE) standard is used, which makes it possible to reach much greater distances by using the cellular network. As mains electric power is available in this plot, a Raspberry Pi has been used instead of the ESP32 board to collect sensor data. All data received from the two plots are stored on a proprietary server located at the irrigation management company's headquarters. The analysis of these data by means of machine learning algorithms that are currently under development should allow a short-term prediction of the irrigation water demand that would significantly reduce the waste of this increasingly valuable natural resource. The major finding of this work is the real possibility of deploying a remote sensing system for irrigated plots by using Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) devices, easily scalable and adaptable to design requirements such as the distance to the control center or the availability of mains electrical power at the site.

Keywords: internet of things, irrigation water control, LoRa, LTE, smart farming

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Authors: Lely A. Luengas, Pedro R. Vizcaya, Giovanni Sánchez

Abstract:

In this paper, a methodology is presented to obtain the Static Alignment Model for any transtibial amputee person. The proposed methodology starts from experimental data collected on the Hospital Militar Central, Bogotá, Colombia. The effects of transtibial prosthesis malalignment on amputees were measured in terms of joint angles, center of pressure (COP) and weight distribution. Some statistical tools are used to obtain the model parameters. Mathematical predictive models of prosthetic alignment were created. The proposed models are validated in amputees and finding promising results for the prosthesis Static Alignment. Static alignment process is unique to each subject; nevertheless the proposed methodology can be used in each transtibial amputee.

Keywords: information theory, prediction model, prosthetic alignment, transtibial prosthesis

Procedia PDF Downloads 252

Authors: Kassahun Tilahun

Abstract:

Most of the studies available on adult psychological well-being have been centered on Western countries. However, psychological well-being does not have the same meaning across the world. The Euro-American and African conceptions and experiences of psychological well-being differ systematically. As a result, questions like, how do people living in developing African countries, like Ethiopia, report their psychological well-being; what would the context-specific prominent determinants of their psychological well-being be, needs a definitive answer. This study was, therefore, aimed at developing a new theory that would address these socio-cultural issues of psychological well-being. Consequently, data were obtained through interview and open ended questionnaire. A total of 438 adults, working in governmental and non-governmental organizations situated in Addis Ababa, participated in the study. Appropriate qualitative method of data analysis, i.e. thematic content analysis, was employed for analyzing the data. The thematic analysis involves a type of abductive analysis, driven both by theoretical interest and the nature of the data. Reliability and credibility issues were addressed appropriately. The finding identified five major categories of themes, which are viewed as essential in determining the conceptions and experiences of psychological well-being of Ethiopian adults. These were; socio-cultural harmony, social cohesion, security, competence and accomplishment, and the self. Detailed discussion on the rational for including these themes was made and appropriate positive psychology interventions were proposed. Researchers are also encouraged to expand this qualitative research and in turn develop a suitable instrument taping the psychological well-being of adults with different sociocultural orientations.

Keywords: sociocultural, psychological, well-being Ethiopia, adults

Procedia PDF Downloads 544

Authors: Steven Hidalgo, Patricio Neumann

Abstract:

The growth of societies has increased the consumption of raw materials and food obtained from nature. This has influenced the services offered by ecosystems to humans, mainly supply and regulation services. One of the indicators used to evaluate these services is Net Primary Productivity (NPP), which is understood as the energy stored in the form of biomass by primary organisms through the process of photosynthesis and respiration. The variation of NPP by defined area produces changes in the properties of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, which alter factors such as biodiversity, nutrient cycling, carbon storage and water quality. The analysis of NPP to evaluate variations in ecosystem services includes harvested NPP (understood as provisioning services), which is the raw material from agricultural systems used by humans as a source of energy and food, and the remaining NPP (expressed as a regulating service) or the amount of biomass that remains in ecosystems after the harvesting process, which is mainly related to factors such as biodiversity. Given that agriculture is a fundamental pillar of Chile's integral development, the purpose of this study is to evaluate provisioning and regulating ecosystem services in the agricultural sector, specifically in cereal production, in the communes of the central-southern regions of Chile through a conceptual framework based on the quantification of the fraction of Human Appropriation of Net Primary Productivity (HANPP) and the fraction remaining in the ecosystems (NPP remaining). A total of 161 communes were analyzed in the regions of O'Higgins, Maule, Ñuble, Bio-Bío, La Araucanía and Los Lagos, which are characterized by having the largest areas planted with cereals. It was observed that the region of La Araucanía produces the greatest amount of dry matter, understood as provisioning service, where Victoria is the commune with the highest cereal production in the country. In addition, the maximum value of HANPP was in the O'Higgins region, highlighting the communes of Coltauco, Quinta de Tilcoco, Placilla and Rengo. On the other hand, the communes of Futrono, Pinto, Lago Ranco and Pemuco, whose cereal production was important during the study, had the highest values of remaining NPP as a regulating service. Finally, an inverse correlation was observed between the provisioning and regulating ecosystem services, i.e., the higher the cereal or dry matter production in a defined area, the lower the net primary production remaining in the ecosystems. Based on this study, future research will focus on the evaluation of ecosystem services associated with other crops, such as forestry plantations, whose activity is an important part of the country's productive sector.

Keywords: provisioning services, regulating services, net primary productivity, agriculture

Procedia PDF Downloads 91