Search results for: four common ethics/ virtues
5043 Out of the Closet: Transgressive Representations of Queer Intimacy in Filipino Mainstream Media
Authors: Darel Magramo
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This study argues that media representations of queer intimacies can be transgressive. Representations of queerness in local and international media can be a reflection of the culture where the media product belongs to and these representations can be peculiar and intolerable to different communities. Since these representations of queerness in any media product are rare and unacceptable it can be seen as transgressive in a way that it goes beyond the norms of a particular community and violates the common perceptions about gender and sexuality. Examining media representations of the queer community in a predominantly Catholic country means breaking the religious belief, principles, and stereotypes about homosexuality and same-sex relationship. Using a mainstream media and gender theory this study examined whether and how one particular Filipino mainstream media representation of queer intimacies can enact such transgression. Over the past years Original Pinoy Music (Original Filipino Music) or OPM has produced chart-topping and controversial hit songs which includes: This guy is in love with you pare (pare refers to a guy or men) released in 2002: Nagmahal ako ng bakla (I fell in love with a gay) released in 2009: and lastly Pare mahal mo raw ako (Man, you love me?) released in 2014. By examining these songs, this study outlines tropes on how OPM songs present transgression in queer intimacy including the image of love for money only to gaiety and satisfaction which presents how an openly gay man makes a cisgender man falls in love for him by satisfying him through his humorous antics, this is one way of showing transgression in queer relationship in Philippine context by going beyond the common stereotype of a cisgender man falling in love to a gay man for his wealth to falling in love genuinely because of gaiety and satisfaction in the relationship. This study also identifies how media created a new way of presenting gay and homosexual relationship - from the stereotypes of gays having illnesses and mental health problems, mainstream media continues to present that queer relationship is not all about love and sexual desire but also it promotes acceptance and love towards people in the community. A queer relationship does not only revolve in the idea of having a same-sex relationship but the idea that queer relationship is also between friends and other people of the community by manifesting acceptance and love. Amidst the conservative culture of the Philippines, mainstream media continues to progress and develop ways on how to present gender and sexuality in different media products. These representations create a transgressive way of showing acceptance and understanding towards identities particularly homosexuality and queer relationships.Keywords: gender studies, homosexuality, media representations, queer intimacy
Procedia PDF Downloads 1645042 Comparison of Presented Definitions to Authenticity and Integrity
Authors: Golnaz Salehi Mourkani
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Two conception of Integrity and authenticity, in texts have just applied respectively for adaptive reuse and conservation, which in comparison with word “Integrity” in texts related to adaptive reuse is much more seen than Authenticity, which is often applied with conservation. According to Stove, H., (2007) in some cases, this conception have used with this form “integrity/authenticity” in texts, that cause to infer one conception of both. In this article, with referring to definitions and comparison of aspects specialized to both concept of “Authenticity and Integrity” through literature review, it was attempted to examine common and distinctive aspects of each one, then with this method we can reach their differences in adaptive reuse.Keywords: adaptive reuse, integrity, authenticity, conservation
Procedia PDF Downloads 4345041 Dentofacial-Targeted Bullying: A Review
Authors: Mai Ashraf Talaat
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Bullying is an aggressive behavior and a serious issue that should be addressed by everyone and should be avoided at all costs. It is very common among adolescents and schoolchildren and the effects can be devastating and long-lasting. Students are most commonly bullied about physical appearance, race, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. Appearance-targeted bullying is a form of bullying that targets an aspect of a person's appearance, which includes facial and dental features. Deviation from accepted dentofacial aesthetics leads to elevated incidences of bullying in schoolchildren. The aim of this review article is to assess the prevalence of bullying due to dentofacial characteristics and evaluate the importance of dentofacial appearance on perceived social attractiveness based on multiple studies.Keywords: dentofacial features, orthodontics, malocclusion, adolescents, bullying
Procedia PDF Downloads 845040 Survival Data with Incomplete Missing Categorical Covariates
Authors: Madaki Umar Yusuf, Mohd Rizam B. Abubakar
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The survival censored data with incomplete covariate data is a common occurrence in many studies in which the outcome is survival time. With model when the missing covariates are categorical, a useful technique for obtaining parameter estimates is the EM by the method of weights. The survival outcome for the class of generalized linear model is applied and this method requires the estimation of the parameters of the distribution of the covariates. In this paper, we propose some clinical trials with ve covariates, four of which have some missing values which clearly show that they were fully censored data.Keywords: EM algorithm, incomplete categorical covariates, ignorable missing data, missing at random (MAR), Weibull Distribution
Procedia PDF Downloads 4095039 Half-Circle Fuzzy Number Threshold Determination via Swarm Intelligence Method
Authors: P. W. Tsai, J. W. Chen, C. W. Chen, C. Y. Chen
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In recent years, many researchers are involved in the field of fuzzy theory. However, there are still a lot of issues to be resolved. Especially on topics related to controller design such as the field of robot, artificial intelligence, and nonlinear systems etc. Besides fuzzy theory, algorithms in swarm intelligence are also a popular field for the researchers. In this paper, a concept of utilizing one of the swarm intelligence method, which is called Bacterial-GA Foraging, to find the stabilized common P matrix for the fuzzy controller system is proposed. An example is given in in the paper, as well.Keywords: half-circle fuzzy numbers, predictions, swarm intelligence, Lyapunov method
Procedia PDF Downloads 6905038 The Democratization of 3D Capturing: An Application Investigating Google Tango Potentials
Authors: Carlo Bianchini, Lorenzo Catena
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The appearance of 3D scanners and then, more recently, of image-based systems that generate point clouds directly from common digital images have deeply affected the survey process in terms of both capturing and 2D/3D modelling. In this context, low cost and mobile systems are increasingly playing a key role and actually paving the way to the democratization of what in the past was the realm of few specialized technicians and expensive equipment. The application of Google Tango on the ancient church of Santa Maria delle Vigne in Pratica di Mare – Rome presented in this paper is one of these examples.Keywords: the architectural survey, augmented/mixed/virtual reality, Google Tango project, image-based 3D capturing
Procedia PDF Downloads 1545037 Commoning as an Approach to Community Planning: An Inquiry into the Role of Urban Local Bodies and Commoners
Authors: Pruthvi Nath Palleti, Sarmada Madhulika Kone
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Communities are formed based on the commonalities that exist in a set of individuals and when the group comes together on identifying those commonalities and to achieve their common goals. Thus, community planning with its vision to strengthen the community mostly involves with making or remaking of commons, which results in making or remaking of communities. This paper looks into different practices of planning around the world and tried to establish a link between commoning (the act of exercising the rights over commons by commoners) and participatory approach to community planning.Keywords: commoners, commoning, community, participatory planning, urban local bodies
Procedia PDF Downloads 3775036 Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Rural India through Developing Online Communities of Purpose Using Social Technologies
Authors: Jayanta Basak, Somprakash Bandyopadhyay, Parama Bhaumik, Siuli Roy
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To solve the life and livelihood related problems of socially and economically backward rural women in India, several Women Self-Help Groups (WSHG) are formed in Indian villages. WSHGs are micro-communities (with 10-to 15 members) within a village community. WSHGs have been conceived not just to promote savings and provide credit, but also to act as a vehicle of change through the creation of women micro-entrepreneurs at the village level. However, in spite of huge investment and volume of people involved in the whole process, the success is still limited. Most of these entrepreneurial activities happen in small household workspaces where sales are limited to the inconsistent and unpredictable local markets. As a result, these entrepreneurs are perennially trapped in the vicious cycle of low risk taking ability, low investment capacity, low productivity, weak market linkages and low revenue. Market separation including customer-producer separation is one of the key problems in this domain. Researchers suggest that there are four types of market separation: (i) spatial, (ii) financial, (iii) temporal, and (iv) informational, which in turn impacts the nature of markets and marketing. In this context, a large group of intermediaries (the 'middleman') plays important role in effectively reducing the factors that separate markets by utilizing the resource of rural entrepreneurs, their products and thus, accelerate market development. The rural entrepreneurs are heavily dependent on these middlemen for marketing of their products and these middlemen exploit rural entrepreneurs by creating a huge informational separation between the rural producers and end-consumers in the market and thus hiding the profit margins. The objective of this study is to develop a transparent, online communities of purpose among rural and urban entrepreneurs using internet and web 2.0 technologies in order to decrease market separation and improve mutual awareness of available and potential products and market demands. Communities of purpose are groups of people who have an ability to influence, can share knowledge and learn from others, and be committed to achieving a common purpose. In this study, a cluster of SHG women located in a village 'Kandi' of West Bengal, India has been studied closely for six months. These women are primarily engaged in producing garments, soft toys, fabric painting on clothes, etc. These women were equipped with internet-enabled smart-phones where they can use chat applications in local language and common social networking websites like Facebook, Instagram, etc. A few handicraft experts and micro-entrepreneurs from the city (the 'seed') were included in their mobile messaging app group that enables the creation of a 'community of purpose' in order to share thoughts and ideas on product designs, market trends, and practices, and thus decrease the rural-urban market separation. After six months of regular group interaction in mobile messaging app among these rural-urban community members, it is observed that SHG women are empowered now to share their product images, design ideas, showcase, and promote their products in global marketplace using some common social networking websites through which they can also enhance and augment their community of purpose.Keywords: communities of purpose, market separation, self-help group, social technologies
Procedia PDF Downloads 2595035 Approximating Fixed Points by a Two-Step Iterative Algorithm
Authors: Safeer Hussain Khan
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In this paper, we introduce a two-step iterative algorithm to prove a strong convergence result for approximating common fixed points of three contractive-like operators. Our algorithm basically generalizes an existing algorithm..Our iterative algorithm also contains two famous iterative algorithms: Mann iterative algorithm and Ishikawa iterative algorithm. Thus our result generalizes the corresponding results proved for the above three iterative algorithms to a class of more general operators. At the end, we remark that nothing prevents us to extend our result to the case of the iterative algorithm with error terms.Keywords: contractive-like operator, iterative algorithm, fixed point, strong convergence
Procedia PDF Downloads 5555034 Investigating Salafism and Its Founder
Authors: Vahid Hosseinzadeh
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Salafism is a movement of thought-religion that was born into Sunni Islam and Hanbali sect. However, many groups and different attitudes call themselves Salafis, but they all have common characteristics, the main of which is radical and retrograde interpretation of Islamic sources. Taqi Ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah in the Muslim world was the first thinker who established these thoughts. The authors of this article initially tried to express the meaning of Salafism and its appellation in order to focus on the beliefs and thoughts of Ibn Taymiyyah. In this way, it was tried to extract the intellectual foundations of Ibn Taymiyya from the literature and scientific works of his own using a descriptive-analytical method. Extreme focus on the appearance of Quranic phrases and opposition to any new thing that did not exist in Qur'an, Sunnah and the first 3 centuries of Islam, are among the central feature of his thoughts.Keywords: Salafism, Ibn Taymiyyah, radical literalism, monotheism, polytheism, takfir
Procedia PDF Downloads 6245033 Artemisia Species from Iran as Valuable Resources for Medicinal Uses
Authors: Mohammad Reza Naghavi, Farzad Alaeimoghadam, Hossein Ghafoori
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Artemisia species, which are medically beneficial, are widespread in temperate regions of both Northern and Southern hemispheres among which Iran is located. About 35 species of Artemisia are indigenous in Iran among them some are widespread in all or most provinces, yet some are restricted to some specific regions. In this review paper, initially, GC-Mass results of some experiments done in different provinces of Iran are mentioned among them some compounds are common among species, some others are mostly restricted to other species; after that, medical advantages based on some researches on species of this genus are reviewed; different qualities such as anti-leishmania, anti-bacteria, antiviral as well as anti-proliferative could be mentioned.Keywords: artemisia, GC-Mass analysis, medical advantage, antiviral
Procedia PDF Downloads 5535032 The Relations Between Hans Kelsen’s Concept of Law and the Theory of Democracy
Authors: Monika Zalewska
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Hans Kelsen was a versatile legal thinker whose achievements in the fields of legal theory, international law, and the theory of democracy are remarkable. All of the fields tackled by Kelsen are regarded as part of his “pure theory of law.” While the link between international law and Kelsen’s pure theory of law is apparent, the same cannot be said about the link between the theory of democracy and his pure theory of law. On the contrary, the general thinking concerning Kelsen’s thought is that it can be used to legitimize authoritarian regimes. The aim of this presentation is to address this concern by identifying the common ground between Kelsen’s pure theory of law and his theory of democracy and to show that they are compatible in a way that his pure theory of law and authoritarianism cannot be. The conceptual analysis of the purity of Kelsen’s theory and his goal of creating ideology-free legal science hints at how Kelsen’s pure theory of law and the theory of democracy are brought together. The presentation will first demonstrate that these two conceptions have common underlying values and meta-ethical convictions. Both are founded on relativism and a rational worldview, and the aim of both is peaceful co-existence. Second, it will be demonstrated that the separation of law and morality provides the maximum space for deliberation within democratic processes. The conclusion of this analysis is that striking similarities exist between Kelsen’s legal theory and his theory of democracy. These similarities are grounded in the Enlightenment tradition and its values, including rationality, a scientific worldview, tolerance, and equality. This observation supports the claim that, for Kelsen, legal positivism and the theory of democracy are not two separate theories but rather stem from the same set of values and from Kelsen’s relativistic worldview. Furthermore, three main issues determine Kelsen’s orientation toward a positivistic and democratic outlook. The first, which is associated with personality type, is the distinction between absolutism and relativism. The second, which is associated with the values that Kelsen favors in the social order, is peace. The third is legality, which creates the necessary condition for democracy to thrive and reveals that democracy is capable of fulfilling Kelsen’s ideal of law at its fullest. The first two categories exist in the background of Kelsen’s pure theory of law, while the latter is an inherent part of Kelsen’s concept of law. The analysis of the text concerning natural law doctrine and democracy indicates that behind the technical language of Kelsen’s pure theory of law is a strong concern with the trends that appeared after World War I. Despite his rigorous scientific mind, Kelsen was deeply humanistic. He tried to create a powerful intellectual weapon to provide strong arguments for peaceful coexistence and a rational outlook in Europe. The analysis provided by this presentation facilitates a broad theoretical, philosophical, and political understanding of Kelsen’s perspectives and, consequently, urges a strong endorsement of Kelsen’s approach to constitutional democracy.Keywords: hans kelsen, democracy, legal positivism, pure theory of law
Procedia PDF Downloads 1135031 Clinical Evidence of the Efficacy of ArtiCovid (Artemisia Annua Extract) on Covid-19 Patients in DRC
Authors: Md, MCS, MPH Munyangi Wa Nkola Jerome
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The pandemic of COVID-19, a recently discovered contagious respiratory disease called SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus 2 Majority of people infected with SARS-CoV-2: Asymptomatic or mildly ill 14% of patients will develop severe illness requiring hospitalization and oxygen support, and 5% of these will be transferred to an intensive care unit, Urgent need for new treatments that can be used quickly to avoid transfer of patients to intensive care and death. Objective: To evaluate the clinical activity (efficacy) of ArtiCovid Hypothesis: Administration of 3 times a teaspoon per day by COVID patients (symptomatic, mild, or moderate forms) results in the disappearance of symptoms and improvement of biological parameters (including viral suppression). Clinical efficacy: the disappearance of clinical signs after seven days of treatment; reduction in the rate of patients transferred to intensive care units for mechanical ventilation and a decrease in mortality related to this infection Paraclinical efficacy: improvement of biological parameters (mainly d-dimer, CRP) Virological efficacy: suppression of the viral load after seven days of treatment (control test on the seventh day is negative) Pilot study using a standardized solution based on Artemisia annua (ARTICOVID) Obtaining authorization from the health authorities of the province of Central Kongo Recruitment of volunteer patients, mainly in the Kinkanda HospitalCarrying out tests before and after treatment as well as analyses before and after treatment. The protocol obtained the approval of the ethics committee 50 patients who completed the treatment were aged between 2 and 70 years, with an average age of 36 yearsMore half were male (56%). One in four patients was a health professional (25%) Of the 12 health professionals, 4 were physicians. For those who reported the date of onset of the disease, the average duration between the appearance of the first symptoms and the medical consultation was 5 days. The 50 patients put on ARTICOVID were discharged alive with CRP levels substantially normalizedAfter seven to eight days, the control test came back negative. This pilot study suggests that ARTICOVID may be effective against COVID-19 infection.Keywords: artiCovid, DRC, Covid-19, SARS_COV_2
Procedia PDF Downloads 1235030 Reflection of Gender Differences on the Associations among BMI, Body Fat Percentages, Body Circumference Values, and Cardiometabolic Parameters
Authors: Mustafa Metin Donma
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The associations among anthropometric measurements, body fat, and cardiometabolic parameters have attracted attention for years due to the importance and topicality of the subject. Gender is also an important factor to be considered during the evaluation of the study findings. Gender is particularly important in the field of pediatrics and during the interpretation of complete blood cell count parameters. These parameters are important because their ratios are being used as valuable and informative markers demonstrating cardiometabolic risk. The aim of this study was to introduce potential differences between male and female children in terms of the associations between these ratios and parameters closely related to obesity development. The study population was composed of six hundred and twenty-seven children. Fifty-eight percent of children were females, and forty-two percent of children were males. The body mass index distribution of the groups was almost the same. The study was evaluated by the Institutional Ethics Committee and approved. Parents have given informed consent forms on behalf of their children to participate in the study. Anthropometric measurements were taken. Complete blood cell count, biochemical and body fat percentage analysis were performed. Body mass index, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (N/L) ratio, aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet count ratio were calculated. Statistical evaluations were performed by a statistical package program. Body mass index, circumferences of waist, hip, head, and neck values were higher, and body fat percentages of trunk and extremities were lower in males than females (p>0.05). Increased eosinophil percent and alanine aminotransferase-to-aspartate aminotransferase ratio decreased N/L ratio values in males were observed. Positive correlations between total body fat percent and N/L ratio in female children, platelet count in male children were noteworthy. In conclusion, associations of total body fat percent with N/L and platelet count in female children and male children, respectively, point out the importance of N/L and platelet count in different genders for the future development of cardiovascular diseases.Keywords: body fat percentages, children, gender, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet count
Procedia PDF Downloads 115029 Detonating Culture, Statistic and Developmenet in Imo State of Nigeria
Authors: Ejikeme Ugiri
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In an executive summary, UNESCO describes Framework for Cultural Statistics as a tool for organizing cultural statistics both nationally and internationally. This is based on conceptual foundation and a common understanding of culture that will enable the measurement of a wide range of cultural expressions. This means therefore that cultural expression in whatever guise has the potentiality of contributing reasonably to the development of a given society. The paper looked into the various tangible and intangible cultures in Imo State of Nigeria. Due to government’s insensitivity, there is need to remind ourselves of the need to pay adequate attention to the cultural heritage bequeathed to us by our forefathers for the sake of posterity. Documenting this information in written form therefore becomes imperative. The study concludes that culture if developed, could reasonably contribute to economic and social growth of the society.Keywords: culture, detonation, development, statistics
Procedia PDF Downloads 4725028 Identification of Igneous Intrusions in South Zallah Trough-Sirt Basin
Authors: Mohamed A. Saleem
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Using mostly seismic data, this study intends to show some examples of igneous intrusions found in some areas of the Sirt Basin and explore the period of their emplacement as well as the interrelationships between these sills. The study area is located in the south of the Zallah Trough, south-west Sirt basin, Libya. It is precisely between the longitudes 18.35ᵒ E and 19.35ᵒ E, and the latitudes 27.8ᵒ N and 28.0ᵒ N. Based on a variety of criteria that are usually used as marks on the igneous intrusions, twelve igneous intrusions (Sills), have been detected and analysed using 3D seismic data. One or more of the following were used as identification criteria: the high amplitude reflectors paired with abrupt reflector terminations, vertical offsets, or what is described as a dike-like connection, the violation, the saucer form, and the roughness. Because of their laying between the hosting layers, the majority of these intrusions are classified as sills. Another distinguishing feature is the intersection geometry link between some of these sills. Every single sill has given a name just to distinguish the sills from each other such as S-1, S-2, and …S-12. To avoid the repetition of description, the common characteristics and some statistics of these sills are shown in summary tables, while the specific characters that are not common and have been noticed for each sill are shown individually. The sills, S-1, S-2, and S-3, are approximately parallel to one other, with the shape of these sills being governed by the syncline structure of their host layers. The faults that dominated the strata (pre-upper Cretaceous strata) have a significant impact on the sills; they caused their discontinuity, while the upper layers have a shape of anticlines. S-1 and S-10 are the group's deepest and highest sills, respectively, with S-1 seated near the basement's top and S-10 extending into the sequence of the upper cretaceous. The dramatic escalation of sill S-4 can be seen in N-S profiles. The majority of the interpreted sills are influenced and impacted by a large number of normal faults that strike in various directions and propagate vertically from the surface to the basement's top. This indicates that the sediment sequences were existed before the sill’s intrusion, were deposited, and that the younger faults occurred more recently. The pre-upper cretaceous unit is the current geological depth for the Sills S-1, S-2 … S-9, while Sills S-10, S-11, and S-12 are hosted by the Cretaceous unit. Over the sills S-1, S-2, and S-3, which are the deepest sills, the pre-upper cretaceous surface has a slightly forced folding, these forced folding is also noticed above the right and left tips of sill S-8 and S-6, respectively, while the absence of these marks on the above sequences of layers supports the idea that the aforementioned sills were emplaced during the early upper cretaceous period.Keywords: Sirt Basin, Zallah Trough, igneous intrusions, seismic data
Procedia PDF Downloads 1145027 Aristotle’s Notion of Prudence as Panacea to the Leadership Crisis in Nigeria
Authors: Wogu Ikedinachi Ayodele Power, Agbude Godwyns, Eniayekon Eugenia, Nchekwube Excellence-Oluye, Abasilim Ugochukwu David
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Contemporary ethicists and writers on leadership, in their quest to address the problem of leadership crisis in Nigeria, have identified the absence of practical prudence -which manifests in variables such as corruption, ethnicity and greed- as one of the major factors which breeds leadership crises. These variables are further fuelled by the lack of a consistent theory of leadership among scholars that could guide the pertinent actions of political leaders, hence the rising cases of leadership crises in the country. The theoretical framework that guides this study emanates from Aristotle’s notion of prudence as contained in the Nicomachean Ethics, which states that prudence is a central moral resource for political leaders. The method of conceptual analysis shall be used to clarify the concepts of virtue, prudence and leadership. The traditional method of critical analysis and the reconstructive method of ideas in philosophy are used to conceptually and contextually analyze all relevant texts and archival materials in the subject areas of this study. The study identifies a high degree of ideological bias and logical inconsistencies inherent in the theories of leadership proposed by the realist and the moralist schools of thought. The conflicting ideologies regarding what political leadership should be among scholars of leadership is identified as one of the major factors militating against ascertaining a practicable theory of leadership, which has the capacity to guide the pertinent actions of political leaders all over the world. This paper therefore identifies the absence of practical prudence, ‘wisdom’, as the major factor associated with leadership crises in Nigeria. We therefore argue that only prudent leaders will have the capacity to identify salient aspects of political situations which leaders have obligations to consider before making political decisions. Seven frameworks were prescribed from Aristotle’s Notion of prudence to strengthen this position, they include: Disciplined reason and openness to experience; Foresight and attention to the long term, among others. We submit that leadership devoid of crisis can be attained through the application of the virtue of prudence. Where this theory is adopted, it should eliminate further leadership crises in Nigeria.Keywords: Aristotle, leadership crisis, political leadership, prudence
Procedia PDF Downloads 3855026 Regenerating Historic Buildings: Policy Gaps
Authors: Joseph Falzon, Margaret Nelson
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Background: Policy makers at European Union (EU) and national levels address the re-use of historic buildings calling for sustainable practices and approaches. Implementation stages of policy are crucial so that EU and national strategic objectives for historic building sustainability are achieved. Governance remains one of the key objectives to ensure resource sustainability. Objective: The aim of the research was to critically examine policies for the regeneration and adaptive re-use of historic buildings in the EU and national level, and to analyse gaps between EU and national legislation and policies, taking Malta as a case study. The impact of policies on regeneration and re-use of historic buildings was also studied. Research Design: Six semi-structured interviews with stakeholders including architects, investors and community representatives informed the research. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed in the English language. Thematic analysis utilising Atlas.ti was conducted for the semi-structured interviews. All phases of the study were governed by research ethics. Findings: Findings were grouped in main themes: resources, experiences and governance. Other key issues included identification of gaps in policies, key lessons and quality of regeneration. Abandonment of heritage buildings was discussed, for which main reasons had been attributed to governance related issues both from the policy making perspective as well as the attitudes of certain officials representing the authorities. The role of authorities, co-ordination between government entities, fairness in decision making, enforcement and management brought high criticism from stakeholders along with time factors due to the lengthy procedures taken by authorities. Policies presented an array from different perspectives of same stakeholder groups. Rather than policy, it is the interpretation of policy that presented certain gaps. Interpretations depend highly on the stakeholders putting forward certain arguments. All stakeholders acknowledged the value of heritage in regeneration. Conclusion: Active stakeholder involvement is essential in policy framework development. Research informed policies and streamlining of policies are necessary. National authorities need to shift from a segmented approach to a holistic approach.Keywords: adaptive re-use, historic buildings, policy, sustainable
Procedia PDF Downloads 3975025 Review of Cable Fault Locating Methods and Usage of VLF for Real Cases of High Resistance Fault Locating
Authors: Saadat Ali, Rashid Abdulla Ahmed Alshehhi
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Cable faults are always probable and common during or after commissioning, causing significant delays and disrupting power distribution or transmission network, which is intolerable for the utilities&service providers being their reliability and business continuity measures. Therefore, the adoption of rapid localization & rectification methodology is the main concern for them. This paper explores the present techniques available for high voltage cable localization & rectification and which is preferable with regards to easier, faster, and also less harmful to cables. It also provides insight experience of high resistance fault locating by utilization of the Very Low Frequency (VLF) method.Keywords: faults, VLF, real cases, cables
Procedia PDF Downloads 1155024 A Comparative Study of Cognitive Factors Affecting Social Distancing among Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Filipinos
Authors: Emmanuel Carlo Belara, Albert John Dela Merced, Mark Anthony Dominguez, Diomari Erasga, Jerome Ferrer, Bernard Ombrog
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Social distancing errors are a common prevalence between vaccinated and unvaccinated in the Filipino community. This study aims to identify and relate the factors on how they affect our daily lives. Observed factors include memory, attention, anxiety, decision-making, and stress. Upon applying the ergonomic tools and statistical treatment such as t-test and multiple linear regression, stress and attention turned out to have the most impact to the errors of social distancing.Keywords: vaccinated, unvaccinated, socoal distancing, filipinos
Procedia PDF Downloads 2065023 Sustainable Behavior and Design in Chinese Traditional Culture
Authors: Jin Chuhao
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Sustainable design is the key for the human to realize the harmonious development. However, sustainable design requires localization that combines their own regional culture’s characteristics, then forms the most common cultural identity. As a result, the concept of sustainable design integrates into social behavior and promotes the harmonious development. Chinese Confucian doctrine is one of the important thoughts of human culture, which is accepted by more and more people. This paper summarizes the sustainable concept from the Chinese traditional culture and local design, discusses how they change the life of human being and produces enlightenment and significance to China and world.Keywords: sustainable design, Chinese traditional culture, harmonious development, Confucianism
Procedia PDF Downloads 6925022 Different Receptions of Hygienic Architecture in Two Mexican Cities: Cuernavaca and Mexico
Authors: Marcela Dávalos López
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In Mexico, the distribution of hygienistarchitecture during the 20th century had different rhythms. The culmination of the urban hygiene system (from sewers to showers, passing through garbage collection) forced neighbors and citizens to participate in the common welfare. This turned the urban references and dissociated the ways of living and led to comfort and health. However, the contrast between two Mexicancities, Cuernavaca and Mexico City shows us very different cultural practices regarding the use of hygienicarchitectures: in the first, thenature of its deepravines marked the destiny of residential architecture, while in Mexico City, state participation alteredthelandscape and homogenized the architectural models of domestic and intímate spaces.Keywords: Cultural Practices, Dissociated Ways To Comfort, Hygiene Architecture , Mexico
Procedia PDF Downloads 1955021 A Research Review of Cycling Suitability Assessment for Mountainous Cities
Authors: Xiaofeng Fu
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This paper begins with the deconstruction of the localization of China's bicycle renaissance. Then think about how to scientifically plan bicycle traffic in a sustainable way in typed cities, especially in mountainous cities, because they need to respond to more serious geographical issues. Therefore, by sorting out the international research on bicycle traffic in mountainous cities, bike-ability is summarized as a prevalent qualitative analysis medium. Then this paper lists the influencing factors of likeability, the general research framework, and responds to the common problem of mountain cities, that is, the treatment of road longitudinal slopes, to assist urban managers in assessing whether the city's complex terrain is suitable for cycling and identifying possible improvements.Keywords: traffic planning, bikeability, cycling suitability, mountainous cities
Procedia PDF Downloads 805020 The Effect of Realizing Emotional Synchrony with Teachers or Peers on Children’s Linguistic Proficiency: The Case Study of Uji Elementary School
Authors: Reiko Yamamoto
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This paper reports on a joint research project in which a researcher in applied linguistics and elementary school teachers in Japan explored new ways to realize emotional synchrony in a classroom in childhood education. The primary purpose of this project was to develop a cross-curriculum of the first language (L1) and second language (L2) based on the concept of plurilingualism. This concept is common in Europe, and can-do statements are used in forming the standard of linguistic proficiency in any language; these are attributed to the action-oriented approach in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). CEFR has a basic tenet of language education: improving communicative competence. Can-do statements are classified into five categories based on the tenet: reading, writing, listening, speaking/ interaction, and speaking/ speech. The first approach of this research was to specify the linguistic proficiency of the children, who are still developing their L1. Elementary school teachers brainstormed and specified the linguistic proficiency of the children as the competency needed to synchronize with others – teachers or peers – physically and mentally. The teachers formed original can-do statements in language proficiency on the basis of the idea that emotional synchrony leads to understanding others in communication. The research objectives are to determine the effect of language education based on the newly developed curriculum and can-do statements. The participants of the experiment were 72 third-graders in Uji Elementary School, Japan. For the experiment, 17 items were developed from the can-do statements formed by the teachers and divided into the same five categories as those of CEFR. A can-do checklist consisting of the items was created. The experiment consisted of three steps: first, the students evaluated themselves using the can-do checklist at the beginning of the school year. Second, one year of instruction was given to the students in Japanese and English classes (six periods a week). Third, the students evaluated themselves using the same can-do checklist at the end of the school year. The results of statistical analysis showed an enhancement of linguistic proficiency of the students. The average results of the post-check exceeded that of the pre-check in 12 out of the 17 items. Moreover, significant differences were shown in four items, three of which belonged to the same category: speaking/ interaction. It is concluded that children can get to understand others’ minds through physical and emotional synchrony. In particular, emotional synchrony is what teachers should aim at in childhood education.Keywords: elementary school education, emotional synchrony, language proficiency, sympathy with others
Procedia PDF Downloads 1725019 A Framework Based Blockchain for the Development of a Social Economy Platform
Authors: Hasna Elalaoui Elabdallaoui, Abdelaziz Elfazziki, Mohamed Sadgal
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Outlines: The social economy is a moral approach to solidarity applied to the projects’ development. To reconcile economic activity and social equity, crowdfunding is as an alternative means of financing social projects. Several collaborative blockchain platforms exist. It eliminates the need for a central authority or an inconsiderate middleman. Also, the costs for a successful crowdfunding campaign are reduced, since there is no commission to be paid to the intermediary. It improves the transparency of record keeping and delegates authority to authorities who may be prone to corruption. Objectives: The objectives are: to define a software infrastructure for projects’ participatory financing within a social and solidarity economy, allowing transparent, secure, and fair management and to have a financial mechanism that improves financial inclusion. Methodology: The proposed methodology is: crowdfunding platforms literature review, financing mechanisms literature review, requirements analysis and project definition, a business plan, Platform development process and implementation technology, and testing an MVP. Contributions: The solution consists of proposing a new approach to crowdfunding based on Islamic financing, which is the principle of Mousharaka inspired by Islamic financing, which presents a financial innovation that integrates ethics and the social dimension into contemporary banking practices. Conclusion: Crowdfunding platforms need to secure projects and allow only quality projects but also offer a wide range of options to funders. Thus, a framework based on blockchain technology and Islamic financing is proposed to manage this arbitration between quality and quantity of options. The proposed financing system, "Musharaka", is a mode of financing that prohibits interests and uncertainties. The implementation is offered on the secure Ethereum platform as investors sign and initiate transactions for contributions using their digital signature wallet managed by a cryptography algorithm and smart contracts. Our proposal is illustrated by a crop irrigation project in the Marrakech region.Keywords: social economy, Musharaka, blockchain, smart contract, crowdfunding
Procedia PDF Downloads 815018 Development of a Journal over 20 Years: Citation Analysis
Authors: Byung Lee, Charles Perschau
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This study analyzes the development of a communication journal, the Journal of Advertising Education (JAE) over the past 20 years by examining citations of all research articles there. The purpose of a journal is to offer a stable and transparent forum for the presentation, scrutiny, and discussion of research in a targeted domain. This study asks whether JAE has fulfilled this purpose. The authors and readers who are involved in a journal need to have common research topics of their interest. In the case of the discipline of communication, scholars have a variety of backgrounds beyond communication itself since the social scientific study of communication is a relatively recent development, one that emerged after World War II, and the discipline has been heavily indebted to other social sciences, such as psychology, sociology, social psychology, and political science. When authors impart their findings and knowledge to others, their work is not done in isolation. They have to stand on previous studies, which are listed as sources in the bibliography. Since communication has heavily piggybacked on other disciplines, cited sources should be as diverse as the resources it taps into. This paper analyzes 4,244 articles that were cited by JAE articles in the past 36 issues. Since journal article authors reveal their intellectual linkage by using bibliographic citations, the analysis of citations in journal articles will reveal various networks of relationships among authors, journal types, and fields in an objective and quantitative manner. The study found that an easier access to information sources because of the development of electronic databases and the growing competition among scholars for publication seemed to influence authors to increase the number of articles cited even though some variations existed during the examined period. The types of articles cited have also changed. Authors have more often cited journal articles, periodicals (most of them available online), and web site sources, while decreased their dependence on books, conference papers, and reports. To provide a forum for discussion, a journal needs a common topic or theme. This can be realized when an author writes an article about a topic, and that article is cited and discussed in another article. Thus, the citation of articles in the same journal is vital for a journal to form a forum for discussion. JAE has gradually increased the citations of in-house articles with a few fluctuations over the years. The study also examines not only specific articles that are often cited, but also specific authors often cited. The analysis of citations in journal articles shows how JAE has developed into a full academic journal while offering a communal forum even though the speed of its formation is not as fast as desired probably because of its interdisciplinary nature.Keywords: citation, co-citation, the Journal of Advertising Education, development of a journal
Procedia PDF Downloads 1595017 Integrated Best Worst PROMETHEE to Evaluate Public Transport Service Quality
Authors: Laila Oubahman, Duleba Szabolcs
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Public transport stakeholders aim to increase the ridership ratio by encouraging citizens to use common transportation modes. For this sight, improving service quality is a crucial option to reach the quality desired by users and reduce the gap between desired and perceived quality. Multi-criteria decision aid has been applied in literature in recent decades because it provides efficient models to assess the most impacting criteria on the overall assessment. In this paper, the PROMETHEE method is combined with the best-worst approach to construct a consensual model that avoids rank reversal to support stakeholders in ameliorating service quality.Keywords: best-worst method, MCDA, PROMETHEE, public transport
Procedia PDF Downloads 2135016 An Enhanced Support Vector Machine Based Approach for Sentiment Classification of Arabic Tweets of Different Dialects
Authors: Gehad S. Kaseb, Mona F. Ahmed
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Arabic Sentiment Analysis (SA) is one of the most common research fields with many open areas. Few studies apply SA to Arabic dialects. This paper proposes different pre-processing steps and a modified methodology to improve the accuracy using normal Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification. The paper works on two datasets, Arabic Sentiment Tweets Dataset (ASTD) and Extended Arabic Tweets Sentiment Dataset (Extended-AATSD), which are publicly available for academic use. The results show that the classification accuracy approaches 86%.Keywords: Arabic, classification, sentiment analysis, tweets
Procedia PDF Downloads 1525015 Genotyping of Rotaviruses in Pediatric Patients with Gastroenteritis by Using Real-Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction
Authors: Recep Kesli, Cengiz Demir, Riza Durmaz, Zekiye Bakkaloglu, Aysegul Bukulmez
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Objective: Acute diarrhea disease in children is a major cause of morbidity worldwide and is a leading cause of mortality, and it is the most common agent responsible for acute gastroenteritis in developing countries. With hospitalized children suffering from acute enteric disease up to 50% of the analyzed specimen were positive for rotavirus. Further molecular surveillance could provide a sound basis for improving the response to epidemic gastroenteritis and could provide data needed for the introduction of vaccination programmes in the country. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of viral etiology of the gastroenteritis in children aged 0-6 years with acute gastroenteritis and to determine predominant genotypes of rotaviruses in the province of Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. Methods: An epidemiological study on rotavirus was carried out during 2016. Fecal samples obtained from the 144 rotavirus positive children with 0-6 years of ages and applied to the Pediatric Diseases Outpatient of ANS Research and Practice Hospital, Afyon Kocatepe University with the complaint of diarrhea. Bacterial agents causing gastroenteritis were excluded by using bacteriological culture methods and finally, no growth observed. Rotavirus antigen was examined by both the immunochromatographic (One Step Rotavirus and Adenovirus Combo Test, China) and ELISA (Premier Rotaclone, USA) methods in stool samples. Rotavirus RNA was detected by using one step real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). G and P genotypes were determined using RT-PCR with consensus primers of VP7 and VP4 genes, followed by semi nested type-specific multiplex PCR. Results: Of the total 144 rotavirus antigen-positive samples with RT-PCR, 4 (2,8%) were rejected, 95 (66%) were examined, and 45 (31,2%) have not been examined for PCR yet. Ninety-one (95,8%) of the 95 examined samples were found to be rotavirus positive with RT-PCR. Rotavirus subgenotyping distributions in G, P and G/P genotype groups were determined as; G1:45%, G2:27%, G3:13%, G9:13%, G4:1% and G12:1% for G genotype, and P[4]:33%, P[8]:66%, P[10]:1% for P genotype, and G1P[8]:%37, G2P[4]:%21, G3P[8]:%10, G4P[8]:%1, G9P[8]:%8, G2P[8]:%3 for G/P genotype . Not common genotype combination were %20 in G/P genotype. Conclusions: This study subscribes to the global agreement of the molecular epidemiology of rotavirus which will be useful in guiding the alternative and application of rotavirus vaccines or effective control and interception. Determining the diversity and rates of rotavirus genotypes will definitely provide guidelines for developing the most suitable vaccine.Keywords: gastroenteritis, genotyping, rotavirus, RT-PCR
Procedia PDF Downloads 2485014 Application of Zeolite Nanoparticles in Biomedical Optics
Authors: Vladimir Hovhannisyan, Chen Yuan Dong
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Recently nanoparticles (NPs) have been introduced in biomedicine as effective agents for cancer-targeted drug delivery and noninvasive tissue imaging. The most important requirements to these agents are their non-toxicity, biocompatibility and stability. In view of these criteria, the zeolite (ZL) nanoparticles (NPs) may be considered as perfect candidates for biomedical applications. ZLs are crystalline aluminosilicates consisting of oxygen-sharing SiO4 and AlO4 tetrahedral groups united by common vertices in three-dimensional framework and containing pores with diameters from 0.3 to 1.2 nm. Generally, the behavior and physical properties of ZLs are studied by SEM, X-ray spectroscopy, and AFM, whereas optical spectroscopic and microscopic approaches are not effective enough, because of strong scattering in common ZL bulk materials and powders. The light scattering can be reduced by using of ZL NPs. ZL NPs have large external surface area, high dispersibility in both aqueous and organic solutions, high photo- and thermal stability, and exceptional ability to adsorb various molecules and atoms in their nanopores. In this report, using multiphoton microscopy and nonlinear spectroscopy, we investigate nonlinear optical properties of clinoptilolite type of ZL micro- and nanoparticles with average diameters of 2200 nm and 240 nm, correspondingly. Multiphoton imaging is achieved using a laser scanning microscope system (LSM 510 META, Zeiss, Germany) coupled to a femtosecond titanium:sapphire laser (repetition rate- 80 MHz, pulse duration-120 fs, radiation wavelength- 720-820 nm) (Tsunami, Spectra-Physics, CA). Two Zeiss, Plan-Neofluar objectives (air immersion 20×∕NA 0.5 and water immersion 40×∕NA 1.2) are used for imaging. For the detection of the nonlinear response, we use two detection channels with 380-400 nm and 435-700 nm spectral bandwidths. We demonstrate that ZL micro- and nanoparticles can produce nonlinear optical response under the near-infrared femtosecond laser excitation. The interaction of hypericine, chlorin e6 and other dyes with ZL NPs and their photodynamic activity is investigated. Particularly, multiphoton imaging shows that individual ZL NPs particles adsorb Zn-tetraporphyrin molecules, but do not adsorb fluorescein molecules. In addition, nonlinear spectral properties of ZL NPs in native biotissues are studied. Nonlinear microscopy and spectroscopy may open new perspectives in the research and application of ZL NP in biomedicine, and the results may help to introduce novel approaches into the clinical environment.Keywords: multiphoton microscopy, nanoparticles, nonlinear optics, zeolite
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