Search results for: local learning resource

Authors: Hsin-Hung Lai, Wei Lo

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Whether it is in virtue or vice for a construction quality of public construction project, it is one of the important indicators for national economic development and overall construction, the impact on the quality of national life is very deep. In recent years, a number of scandal of public construction project occurred, the requirements of the government agencies and the public require the quality of construction of public construction project are getting stricter than ever, the three-level public construction project construction quality of quality control system implemented by the government has a profound impact. This study mainly aggregated the evolution of ISO 9000 quality control system, the difference between the practice of implementing management of construction quality by many countries and three-level quality control of our country, so we explored and found that almost all projects of enhancing construction quality are dominated by civil organizations in foreign countries, whereas, it is induced by the national power in our country and develop our three-level quality control system and audit mechanism based on IOS system and implement the works by legislation, we also explored its enhancement and relevance with construction quality of public construction project that are intervened by such system and national power, and it really presents the effectiveness of construction quality been enhanced by the audited result. The three-level quality control system of our country to promote the policy of public construction project is almost same with the quality control system of many developed countries; however our country mainly implements such system on public construction project only, we promote the three-level quality control system is for enhancing the quality of public construction project, for establishing effective quality management system, so as to urge, correct and prevent the defects of quality management by manufacturers, whereas, those developed countries is comprehensively promoting (both public construction project and civil construction) such system. Therefore, this study is to explore the scope for public construction project only; the most important is the quality recognition by the executor, either good quality or deterioration is not a single event, there is a certain procedure extends from the demand and feasibility analysis, design, tendering, contracting, construction performance, inspection, continuous improvement, completion and acceptance, transferring and meeting the needs of the users, all of mentioned above have a causal relationship and it is a systemic problems. So the best construction quality would be manufactured and managed by reasonable cost if it is by extensive thinking and be preventive. We aggregated the implemented results in the past 10 years (2005 to 2015), the audited results of both in central units and local ones were slightly increased in A-grade while those listed in B-grade were decreased, although the levels were not evidently upgraded, yet, such result presents that the construction quality of concept of manufacturers are improving, and the construction quality has been established in the design stage, thus it is relatively beneficial to the enhancement of construction quality of overall public construction project.

Keywords: ISO 9000, three-level quality control system, audit and review mechanism for construction implementation, quality of construction implementation

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Authors: Laura M. Espinoza, Karen A. Hernández, Diana B. Ledezma

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Currently, in Chile, migratory movements are generated, where the country receives constantly people from Latin America such as Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Haiti, among others. This phenomenon has reached the schools of Chile, where immigrant children and adolescents are educated in a context of cultural diversity. However, education professionals face this recent phenomenon without prior preparation to carry out their pedagogical practices in the classroom. On the other hand, research on how to understand and guide the processes of cultural diversity especially within the school is even scarce and recent in Latin America and specifically in Chile. The general purpose of the study is to analyze the relationships between teaching efforts towards multiculturalism and inclusive pedagogical practices in the schools of the city of La Serena and Coquimbo, in Chile. The study refers to a quantitative approach, with a correlational design. The selection of the participants was not intentional probabilistic. It comprises 88 teachers of preschool, primary, secondary and special education, who work in two schools with similar characteristics. For the collection of information on the independent variable, the attitude scale towards Immigration and the attitude scale towards Multiculturalism in the school are applied. To obtain information on the independent variable, the guide for the evaluation of inclusive practices in the classroom is applied. Both instruments have statistical validation. A Spearman correlation analysis was made to achieve the objective of the study. Among the main findings, we will find the relationships between the positive perceptions of multiculturalism at school and inclusive practices such as the physical conditions of the classroom, planning, methodology, use of time and evaluation. These findings are relevant to the teaching and learning processes of students in Chilean classrooms and contribute to literature for the understanding of educational processes in contexts of cultural diversity.

Keywords: cultural diversity, immigration, inclusive pedagogical practices, multiculturalism

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Authors: Harini Aiyer, Kalyani Premkumar

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Health professionals are the key players who can help achieve the goals of population health equity. Social accountability (SA) of health professionals emphasizes their role in addressing issues of equity in the population they serve. Therefore, health professional education must focus on instilling SA in health professionals. There is limited literature offering a longitudinal perspective of how students sustain the practice of SA in later life. This project aims to identify the drivers of social accountability among physicians. This study employed an exploratory mixed methods design (QUAL-> Quant) to explore alumni perceptions and experiences. The qualitative data, collected via 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, provided an understanding of the perceptions of the alumni regarding the influence of their undergraduate learning environment on their SA. This was followed by a quantitative portion -a questionnaire designed from the themes identified from the qualitative data. Emerging themes from the study highlighted community-centered education and a focus on social and preventative medicine in both curricular and non-curricular facilitators of SA among physicians. Curricular components included opportunities to engage with the community, such as roadside clinics, community-orientation programs, and postings at a secondary hospital. Other facilitators that emerged were the faculty leading by example, a subsidized fee structure, and a system that prepared students for practice in rural and remote areas. The study offers a fresh perspective and dimension on how SA is addressed by medical schools. The findings may be adapted by medical schools to understand how their own SA initiatives have been sustained among physicians over the long run.

Keywords: community-based work, global health, health education, medical education, providing health in remote areas, social accountability

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Authors: Maisa Haj-Tas, Jehad Alaraifi

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The significance of the study: This retrospective study examined the speech and language profiles of patients who received clinical services at the University of Jordan Hearing and Speech Clinic (UJ-HSC) from 2009 to 2014. The UJ-HSC clinic is located in the capital Amman and was established in the late 1990s. It is the first hearing and speech clinic in Jordan and one of first speech and hearing clinics in the Middle East. This clinic provides services to an annual average of 2000 patients who are diagnosed with different communication disorders. Examining the speech and language profiles of patients in this clinic could provide an insight about the most common disorders seen in patients who attend similar clinics in Jordan. It could also provide information about community awareness of the role of speech therapists in the management of speech and language disorders. Methodology: The researchers examined the clinical records of 1140 patients (797 males and 343 females) who received clinical services at the UJ-HSC between the years 2009 and 2014 for the purpose of data analysis for this study. The main variables examined in the study were disorder type and gender. Participants were divided into four age groups: children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. The examined disorders were classified as either speech disorders, language disorders, or dysphagia (i.e., swallowing problems). The disorders were further classified as childhood language impairments, articulation disorders, stuttering, cluttering, voice disorders, aphasia, and dysphagia. Results: The results indicated that the prevalence for language disorders was the highest (50.7%) followed by speech disorders (48.3%), and dysphagia (0.9%). The majority of patients who were seen at the JU-HSC were diagnosed with childhood language impairments (47.3%) followed consecutively by articulation disorders (21.1%), stuttering (16.3%), voice disorders (12.1%), aphasia (2.2%), dysphagia (0.9%), and cluttering (0.2%). As for gender, the majority of patients seen at the clinic were males in all disorders except for voice disorders and cluttering. Discussion: The results of the present study indicate that the majority of examined patients were diagnosed with childhood language impairments. Based on this result, the researchers suggest that there seems to be a high prevalence of childhood language impairments among children in Jordan compared to other types of speech and language disorders. The researchers also suggest that there is a need for further examination of the actual prevalence data on speech and language disorders in Jordan. The fact that many of the children seen at the UJ-HSC were brought to the clinic either as a result of parental concern or teacher referral indicates that there seems to an increased awareness among parents and teachers about the services speech pathologists can provide about assessment and treatment of childhood speech and language disorders. The small percentage of other disorders (i.e., stuttering, cluttering, dysphasia, aphasia, and voice disorders) seen at the UJ-HSC may indicate a little awareness by the local community about the role of speech pathologists in the assessment and treatment of these disorders.

Keywords: clinic, disorders, language, profile, speech

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Authors: Diamant Irene, Dar Tamar

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Burnout, conceptualized within the framework of stress research, is to a large extent a result of a threat on resources of time or a feeling of time shortage. In reaction to numerous tasks, deadlines, high output, management of different duties encompassing work-home conflicts, many individuals experience ‘time pressure’. Time pressure is characterized as the perception of a lack of available time in relation to the amount of workload. It can be a result of local objective constraints, but it can also be a chronic attribute in coping with life. As such, time pressure is associated in the literature with general stress experience and can therefore be a direct, contributory burnout factor. The present study examines the relation of chronic time pressure – feeling of time shortage and of being rushed, with another central aspect in subjective temporal experience - time perspective. Time perspective is a stable personal disposition, capturing the extent to which people subjectively remember the past, live the present and\or anticipate the future. Based on Hobfoll’s Conservation of Resources Theory, it was hypothesized that individuals with chronic time pressure would experience a permanent threat on their time resources resulting in relatively increased burnout. In addition, it was hypothesized that different time perspective profiles, based on Zimbardo’s typology of five dimensions – Past Positive, Past Negative, Present Hedonistic, Present Fatalistic, and Future, would be related to different magnitudes of chronic time pressure and of burnout. We expected that individuals with ‘Past Negative’ or ‘Present Fatalist’ time perspectives would experience more burnout, with chronic time pressure being a moderator variable. Conversely, individuals with a ‘Present Hedonistic’ - with little concern with the future consequences of actions, would experience less chronic time pressure and less burnout. Another temporal experience angle examined in this study is the difference between the actual distribution of time (as in a typical day) versus desired distribution of time (such as would have been distributed optimally during a day). It was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between the gap between these time distributions and chronic time pressure and burnout. Data was collected through an online self-reporting survey distributed on social networks, with 240 participants (aged 21-65) recruited through convenience and snowball sampling methods from various organizational sectors. The results of the present study support the hypotheses and constitute a basis for future debate regarding the elements of burnout in the modern work environment, with an emphasis on subjective temporal experience. Our findings point to the importance of chronic and stable temporal experiences, as time pressure and time perspective, in occupational experience. The findings are also discussed with a view to the development of practical methods of burnout prevention.

Keywords: conservation of resources, burnout, time pressure, time perspective

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Authors: Maliheh Rezaei

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As demand for learning English as the global language remains high, scholars are increasingly encouraged to explore the potential of this medium for creating hegemony and positive changes in human communities. This makes English Language teachers the potential agents of positive change who play a major role in fostering the culture of peace in their classes. The purpose of this literature review was thus evaluating the implementation of peace pedagogies by English language teachers. More specifically, it addressed a) the role and characteristics of English language teachers as peace agents and b) the pedagogies that they used to construct the culture of peace. Literature review was used, and several inclusion criteria were applied. Only papers published in English, which contained the keywords of English language teaching (ELT) and other related terms and acronyms such as teaching English to speakers of other languages, and teaching English as a second/foreign language as well as peace, peace education, and similar derivatives such ‘peacebuilding’ in their title and/or abstract were included in this review. Moreover, only papers that dealt with the actual implementation of peace education theories were investigated. Findings highlighted that most English language teachers relied on pedagogies adopted from social justice, global citizenship, and positive psychology. They specifically aimed to foster positive human traits such as resilience, empathy, and reflection that were also believed to play an important role in peacebuilding efforts. Nevertheless, the role of English language teachers in educating for peace was found to be peripheral. The main challenge to incorporate the tenets of peace education was the shortage of English language teachers who were skilled and qualified enough to incorporate and promote the culture of peace in their classes. This literature review presents the body of research that has linked peace education to ELT; therefore, it informs language teachers about the potential roles they have in creating a peaceful and sustainable future. It also presents them with more effective pedagogies and practices to successfully integrate peace-related activities in their classes.

Keywords: English language teachers, English language teaching, culture of peace, peace pedagogies

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Authors: Ogemdi Chinwendu Anika, Anna Strzelecka, Yadira Bajón-Fernández, Raffaella Villa

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Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been used since time in memorial to take care of organic wastes in the environment, especially for sewage and wastewater treatments. Recently, the rising demand/need to increase renewable energy from organic matter has caused the AD substrates spectrum to expand and include a wider variety of organic materials such as agricultural residues and farm manure which is annually generated at around 140 billion metric tons globally. The problem, however, is that agricultural wastes are composed of materials that are heterogeneous and too difficult to degrade -particularly lignin, that make up about 0–40% of the total lignocellulose content. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of varying concentrations of lignin on biogas yields and their subsequent response to a commercial yeast-based bioadditive in batch anaerobic digesters. The experiments were carried out in batches for a retention time of 56 days with different lignin concentrations (200 mg, 300 mg, 400 mg, 500 mg, and 600 mg) treated to different conditions to first determine the concentration of the bioadditive that was most optimal for overall process improvement and yields increase. The batch experiments were set up using 130 mL bottles with a working volume of 60mL, maintained at 38°C in an incubator shaker (150rpm). Digestate obtained from a local plant operating at mesophilic conditions was used as the starting inoculum, and commercial kraft lignin was used as feedstock. Biogas measurements were carried out using the displacement method and were corrected to standard temperature and pressure using standard gas equations. Furthermore, the modified Gompertz equation model was used to non-linearly regress the resulting data to estimate gas production potential, production rates, and the duration of lag phases as indicatives of degrees of lignin inhibition. The results showed that lignin had a strong inhibitory effect on the AD process, and the higher the lignin concentration, the more the inhibition. Also, the modelling showed that the rates of gas production were influenced by the concentrations of the lignin substrate added to the system – the higher the lignin concentrations in mg (0, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600) the lower the respective rate of gas production in ml/gVS.day (3.3, 2.2, 2.3, 1.6, 1.3, and 1.1), although the 300 mg increased by 0.1 ml/gVS.day over that of the 200 mg. The impact of the yeast-based bioaddition on the rate of production was most significant in the 400 mg and 500 mg as the rate was improved by 0.1 ml/gVS.day and 0.2 ml/gVS.day respectively. This indicates that agricultural residues with higher lignin content may be more responsive to inhibition alleviation by yeast-based bioadditive; therefore, further study on its application to the AD of agricultural residues of high lignin content will be the next step in this research.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, renewable energy, lignin valorisation, biogas

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Authors: Ozgu Hafizoglu

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An analogy is an essential tool of human cognition that enables connecting diffuse and diverse systems with physical, behavioral, principal relations that are essential to learning, discovery, and innovation. The Cognitive Model of Analogy (CMA) leads and creates patterns of pathways to transfer information within and between domains in science, just as happens in the brain. The connectome of the brain shows how the brain operates with mental leaps between domains and mental hops within domains and the way how analogical reasoning mechanism operates. This paper demonstrates the CMA as an evolutionary approach to science, technology, and life. The model puts forward the challenges of deep uncertainty about the future, emphasizing the need for flexibility of the system in order to enable reasoning methodology to adapt to changing conditions in the new era, especially post-pandemic. In this paper, we will reveal how to draw an analogy to scientific research to discover new systems that reveal the fractal schema of analogical reasoning within and between the systems like within and between the brain regions. Distinct phases of the problem-solving processes are divided thusly: stimulus, encoding, mapping, inference, and response. Based on the brain research so far, the system is revealed to be relevant to brain activation considering each of these phases with an emphasis on achieving a better visualization of the brain’s mechanism in macro context; brain and spinal cord, and micro context: glia and neurons, relative to matching conditions of analogical reasoning and relational information, encoding, mapping, inference and response processes, and verification of perceptual responses in four-term analogical reasoning. Finally, we will relate all these terminologies with these mental leaps, mental maps, mental hops, and mental loops to make the mental model of CMA clear.

Keywords: analogy, analogical reasoning, brain connectome, cognitive model, neurons and glia, mental leaps, mental hops, mental loops

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Authors: Hatice Akbıyık, Hülya Gökmen Özel, Nagehan Emiralioğlu, Elmas Ebru Güneş Yalçın, Deniz Doğru Ersöz, Hayriye Uğur Özçelik, Nural Kiper

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Background: Dietary recommendations in cystic fibrosis (CF) are based on the need to compensate for the increased energy needs of infection, the increased energy cost of breathing and the losses, incurred from malabsorption. Studies in CF indicate that dietary recommendations for CF patients can be difficult to achieve Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the energy and nutrient intakes and to compare in accordance with CF dietary guidelines in CF. Methods: One-hundred sixty patients with CF, aged between 2 to 20 years (mean±SD= 7.4±4.8 years) attending Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Pulmonary Diseases were included. Energy and nutrient intakes from foods and enteral products were calculated using a-24-hour dietary recall method with BEBIS 7.2 programme. Percentages of energy and nutrient intakes were compared in accordance with CF dietary guidelines. Patients or/and parents completed a questionnaire showing mealtime problems, usage of alternative therapies and type of nutrition. Statistical analyses were done using SPSS 16.0 programme. Results: It was obtained that 14.5% and 46.9% of the total energy intake were from proteins and carbohydrates, respectively. The actual contribution of total, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats to the total caloric intake was 37.5%, 14.3%, 14.9%, 9.9%, respectively. It was found that 87.7% of energy, 85% of protein 91.7% of carbohydrate, 81.1% of fat intakes were met, when compared CF recommended intakes of 120% RDA. Additionally 67%, 69.5%, 68.2% and 68.9% of the subjects did not achieve CF recommended intakes of 120% RDA for energy, protein, carbohydrate and fat, respectively. Patients with CF had low intakes for age for almost all vitamins and minerals, although supplementation was given. Especially most patients did not achieve the minimum recommended vitamin K intake of 120% RDA. The percentage meeting 120% RDA was 75.9% for vitamin K. It was shown that 41% of the patients had mealtime problems and they skipped the breakfast. Moreover 25.4% of the patients used alternative products outside the standard treatment (such as omega-3, ginger, turmeric, local honey). It was also showed that 60.8% of patients were using enteral products in addition to normal foods, the remaining patients were on only normal foods. Conclusion: The aims of improving nutritional status in children are to achieve normal weight gain and growth; optimize vitamin and mineral status; and slow the rate of clinical decline. In this study although enteral products were used in patients with CF, it was found that energy and nutrient requirements were unable to meet. Because dietary assessment is essential to identify the need for earlier nutritional intervention, in each visit patients need to be referred to CF specialist dietitian.

Keywords: cystic fibrosis, energy and nutrient intakes, mealtime problems, malabsorbtion

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Authors: Grace Adebo

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Rural Farmers-herdsmen conflicts have resulted in a large number of causalities in many parts of Nigeria. Herds of cattle have died, while farmers recorded inestimable losses of their crops and harvests. The overall consequences have impacted negatively on food security across the country. There are divided opinions by scholars, agricultural experts and conflict analysts on the root causes of the conflicts and why traditional institutional interventions are ineffective in resolving the crisis. The study, therefore, aims to investigate the fundamentality of the conflicts’ causes in Southwest Nigeria and the correlates between traditional institutional authorities’ intervention and farmers-herdsmen conflicts in Southwest Nigeria. A structured interview schedule and focus group discussion were employed to elicit information from 180 farmers and 48 herdsmen selected through a multistage sampling procedure from the conflict zones in Southwest Nigeria. Collected data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, means and the Relative Importance Index (RII). The study found that climate change effects, farmland encroachment, crop damage, theft, and competition for land and water resources and pollution were the root causes of the violent herders-rural farmer’s clashes. The quest for wealth acquisition by some traditional rulers and some notable individuals in the conflict neighborhoods, occasioned tribal-mix herds possession and, thus undermining local institutional interventions and perverting justice through weak conflict resolution strategies, therefore, fueling further conflicts. Most farmers in the conflict zones have abandoned their farms for fear of death. This coupled with physical, social, economic and psychological consequences have deepened food insecurity and impaired the economic conditions of the herdsmen and the farmers. Currently, there are no mutually established mediation mechanisms as most states are opposed to the enactment of grazing laws to protect territorial encroachments of lands and subsequent multiplication of the herdsmen. It is suggested that government and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) should encourage a functional stakeholder's forum for sustainable conflict resolution and establish a compensation scheme for losses incurred while extension agents are equipped with knowledge on conflict management strategies for peace attainment with the envisioned goal of achieving sustainable livelihoods and food security in Southwest Nigeria.

Keywords: conflict resolution, food security, herdsmen-farmers conflict, sustainable livelihoods, traditional institutions

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Authors: Angelis P. Barlampas

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Purpose or Learning Objective It is well known that previous examinations play a major role in futural diagnosis, thus avoiding unnecessary new exams that cost in time and money both for the patient and the health system. A case is presented in which past patient’s results, in combination with the least needed new tests, give an easy final diagnosis. Methods or Background A middle aged man visited the emergency department complaining of hard controlled, persisting fever for the last few days. Laboratory tests showed an elevated number of white blood cells with neutrophil shift and abnormal CRP. The patient was admitted to hospital a month ago for continuing lungs symptomatology after a recent covid-19 infection. Results or Findings Computed tomography scanning showed a solid mass with spiculating margins in right lower lobe. After intravenous iodine contrast administration, there was mildly peripheral enhancement and eccentric non enhancing area. A pneumonic cancer was suspected. Comparison with the patient’s latest computed tomography revealed no mass in the area of interest but only signs of recent post covid-19 lung parenchyma abnormalities. Any new mass that appears in a month’s time span can not be a cancer but a benign lesion. It was obvious that an abscess was the most suitable explanation. The patient was admitted to hospital, and antibiotic therapy was given, with very good results. After a few days, the patient was afebrile and in good condition. Conclusion In this case , a PET scan or a biopsy was avoided, thanks to the patient’s medical history and the availability of previous examinations. It is worthy encouraging the patients to keep their medical records and organizing more efficiently the health system with the current technology of archiving the medical examinations, too.

Keywords: covid-19, chest ct, cancer, abscess, fever

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Authors: Olga I. Moskalenko, Vladislav A. Khanadeev, Anastasya D. Koloskova, Alexey A. Koronovskii, Anatoly A. Pivovarov

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Generalized synchronization is one of the most intricate phenomena in nonlinear science. It can be observed both in systems with a unidirectional and mutual type of coupling including the complex networks. Such a phenomenon has a number of practical applications, for example, for the secure information transmission through the communication channel with a high level of noise. Known methods for the secure information transmission needs in the increase of the privacy of data transmission that arises a question about the observation of such phenomenon in systems with a complex topology of chaotic attractor possessing two or more positive Lyapunov exponents. The present report is devoted to the study of such phenomenon in two unidirectionally and mutually coupled dynamical systems being in chaotic (with one positive Lyapunov exponent) and hyperchaotic (with two or more positive Lyapunov exponents) regimes, respectively. As the systems under study, we have used two mutually coupled modified Lorenz oscillators and two unidirectionally coupled time-delayed generators. We have shown that in both cases the generalized synchronization regime can be detected by means of the calculation of Lyapunov exponents and phase tube approach whereas due to the complex topology of attractor the nearest neighbor method is misleading. Moreover, the auxiliary system approaches being the standard method for the synchronous regime observation, for the mutual type of coupling results in incorrect results. To calculate the Lyapunov exponents in time-delayed systems we have proposed an approach based on the modification of Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure in the context of the time-delayed system. We have studied in detail the mechanisms resulting in the generalized synchronization regime onset paying a great attention to the field where one positive Lyapunov exponent has already been become negative whereas the second one is a positive yet. We have found the intermittency here and studied its characteristics. To detect the laminar phase lengths the method based on a calculation of local Lyapunov exponents has been proposed. The efficiency of the method has been verified using the example of two unidirectionally coupled Rössler systems being in the band chaos regime. We have revealed the main characteristics of intermittency, i.e. the distribution of the laminar phase lengths and dependence of the mean length of the laminar phases on the criticality parameter, for all systems studied in the report. This work has been supported by the Russian President's Council grant for the state support of young Russian scientists (project MK-531.2018.2).

Keywords: complex topology of attractor, generalized synchronization, hyperchaos, Lyapunov exponents

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Authors: Faraj M. Elkhatri, Hana Ali Alafi

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The spatial and temporal distribution of diagenetic alterations related impact on the reservoir quality of the Sarir Formation. (present-day burial depth of about 9000 feet) Depositional facies and diagenetic alterations are the main controls on reservoir quality of Sarir Formation Sirt Basin Libya; these based on lithology and grain size as well as authigenic clay mineral types and their distributions. However, petrology investigation obtained on study area with five sandstone wells concentrated on main rock components and the parameters that may have impacts on reservoirs. the main authigenic clay minerals are kaolinite and dickite, these investigations have confirmed by X.R.D analysis and clay fraction. mainly Kaolinite and Dickite were extensively presented on all of wells with high amounts. As well as trace of detrital smectite and less amounts of illitized mud-matrix are possibly found by SEM image. Thin layers of clay presented as clay-grain coatings in local depth interpreted as remains of dissolved clay matrix is partly transformed into kaolinite adjacent and towards pore throat. This also may have impacts on most of the pore throats of this sandstone which are open and relatively clean with some of fine martial have been formed on occluded pores. This material is identified by EDS analysis to be collections of not only kaolinite booklets but also small disaggregated kaolinite platelets derived from the disaggregation of larger kaolinite booklets. These patches of kaolinite not only fill this pore, but also coat some of the surrounding framework grains. Quartz grains often enlarged by authigenic quartz overgrowths partially occlude and reduce porosity. Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM) was conducted on the post-test samples to examine any mud filtrate particles that may be in the pore throats. Semi-qualitative elemental data on selected minerals observed during the SEM study were obtained through the use of an Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) unit. The samples showed mostly clean open pore throats, with limited occlusion by kaolinite. very fine-grained elemental combinations (Si/Al/Na/Cl, Si/Al Ca/Cl/Ti, and Qtz/Ti) have been identified and conformed by EDS analysis. However, the identification of the fine grained disaggregated material as mainly kaolinite though study area.

Keywords: fine migration, formation damage, kaolinite, soled bulging.

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Authors: Assel E. Molzhigitova, Amankeldi K. Sadanov, Elvira T. Ismailova, Kulyash A. Iskandarova, Olga N. Shemshura, Ainur I. Seitbattalova

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Fire blight is a very harmful for commercial apple and pear production quarantine bacterial disease. To date, several different methods have been proposed for disease control, including the use of copperbased preparations and antibiotics, which are not always reliable or effective. The use of bacteria as biocontrol agents is one of the most promising and eco-friendly alternative methods. Bacteria with protective activity against the causal agent of fire blight are often present among the epiphytic microorganisms of the phyllosphere of host plants. Therefore, the main objective of our study was screening of local epiphytic bacteria as possible antagonists against Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fire blight. Samples of infected organs of apple and pear trees (shoots, leaves, fruits) were collected from the industrial horticulture areas in various agro-ecological zones of Kazakhstan. Epiphytic microorganisms were isolated by standard and modified methods on specific nutrient media. The primary screening of selected microorganisms under laboratory conditions to determine the ability to suppress the growth of Erwinia amylovora was performed by agar-diffusion-test. Among 142 bacteria isolated from the fire blight host plants, 5 isolates, belonging to the genera Bacillus, Lactobacillus, Pseudomonas, Paenibacillus and Pantoea showed higher antagonistic activity against the pathogen. The diameters of inhibition zone have been depended on the species and ranged from 10 mm to 48 mm. The maximum diameter of inhibition zone (48 mm) was exhibited by B. amyloliquefaciens. Less inhibitory effect was showed by Pantoea agglomerans PA1 (19 mm). The study of inhibitory effect of Lactobacillus species against E. amylovora showed that among 7 isolates tested only one (Lactobacillus plantarum 17M) demonstrated inhibitory zone (30 mm). In summary, this study was devoted to detect the beneficial epiphytic bacteria from plants organs of pear and apple trees due to fire blight control in Kazakhstan. Results obtained from the in vitro experiments showed that the most efficient bacterial isolates are Lactobacillus plantarum 17M, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens MB40, and Pantoea agglomerans PA1. These antagonists are suitable for development as biocontrol agents for fire blight control. Their efficacies will be evaluated additionally, in biological tests under in vitro and field conditions during our further study.

Keywords: antagonists, epiphytic bacteria, Erwinia amylovora, fire blight

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Authors: Xueyan Hu, Liwen Chen, Weilin He, Sujie Peng

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Writing is an important but challenging skill For English language learners. Due to the small amount of time allocated for writing classes at schools, students have relatively few opportunities to practice writing in the classroom. While the practice of integrating listening and speaking activates with writing instruction has been used for adult English language learners, its application for young English learners has seldom been examined due to the challenge of listening and speaking activities for young English language learners. The study attempted to integrating integrating listening and speaking activities with writing instruction for middle school English language learners so as to improving their writing achievements and writing abilities in terms of the word use, coherence, and complexity in their writings. Guided by Gagne's information processing learning theory and memetics, this study conducted a 8-week writing instruction with an experimental class (n=44) and a control class (n=48) . Students in the experimental class participated in a series of listening and retelling activities about a writing sample the teacher used for writing instruction during each period of writing class. Students in the control class were taught traditionally with teachers’ direction instruction using the writing sample. Using the ANCOVA analysis of the scores of students’ writing, word-use, Chinese-English translation and the text structure, this study showed that the experimental writing instruction can significantly improve students’ writing performance. Compared with the students in the control class, the students in experimental class had significant better performance in word use and complexity in their essays. This study provides useful enlightenment for the teaching of English writing for middle school English language learners. Teachers can skillfully use information technology to integrate listening, speaking, and writing teaching, considering students’ language input and output. Teachers need to select suitable and excellent composition templates for students to ensure their high-quality language input.

Keywords: wring instruction, retelling, English language learners, listening and speaking

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Authors: Hsing-Hua Stella Chang, Mong-Ching Lin, Cher-Min Fong

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There has recently been a notable rise in the number of emerging-market industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have managed to upgrade their operations. Evolving from original equipment manufacturing (OEM) into value-added original or own brand manufacturing (OBM) in such firms represents a specific process of internationalization. The OEM-OBM upgrade requires development of a firm’s own brand. In this respect, the extant literature points out that emerging-market industrial marketers (latecomers) have developed some marketing capabilities, of which branding has been identified as one of the most important. In specific, an industrial non-brand marketer (OEM) marks the division of labor between manufacturing and branding (as part of marketing). In light of this discussion, this research argues that branding capability plays a critical role in supporting the evolution of manufacture upgrade. This is because a smooth transformation from OEM to OBM entails the establishment of strong brands through which branding capability is developed. Accordingly, branding capability can be exemplified as a series of processes and practices in relation to mobilizing branding resources and orchestrating branding activities, which will result in the establishment of business relationships, greater acceptance of business partners (channels, suppliers), and increased industrial brand equity in the firm as key resource advantages). For the study purpose, Taiwan was chosen as the research context, representing a typical case that exemplifies the industrial development path of more-established emerging markets, namely, transformation from OEM to OBM. This research adopted a two-phase research design comprising exploratory (a qualitative study) and confirmatory approaches (a survey study) The findings show that: Country-specific advantage is positively related to branding capability for internationalizing SMEs. Firm-specific advantage is positively related to branding capability for internationalizing SMEs. Hsing-Hua Stella Chang is Assistant Professor with National Taichung University of Education, International Master of Business Administration, (Yingcai Campus) No.227, Minsheng Rd., West Dist., Taichung City 40359, Taiwan, R.O.C. (phone: 886-22183612; e-mail: [email protected]). Mong-Ching Lin is PhD candidate with National Sun Yat-Sen University, Department of Business Management, 70 Lien-hai Rd., Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail: [email protected]). Cher-Min Fong is Full Professor with National Sun Yat-Sen University, Department of Business Management, 70 Lien-hai Rd., Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan, R.O.C. (e-mail: [email protected]). Branding capability is positively related to international performance for internationalizing SMEs. This study presents a pioneering effort to distinguish industrial brand marketers from non-brand marketers in exploring the role of branding capability in the internationalizing small and medium-sized industrial brand marketers from emerging markets. Specifically, when industrial non-brand marketers (OEMs) enter into a more advanced stage of internationalization (i.e., OBM), they must overcome disadvantages (liabilities of smallness, foreignness, outsidership) that do not apply in the case of incumbent developed-country MNEs with leading brands. Such critical differences mark the urgency and significance of distinguishing industrial brand marketers from non-brand marketers on issues relating to their value-adding branding and marketing practices in international markets. This research thus makes important contributions to the international marketing, industrial branding, and SME internationalization literature.

Keywords: brand marketers, branding capability, emerging markets, SME internationalization

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Authors: Charles U. Eze, Joy Johnbest Egbo

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The study investigated the effect of Context-Based Instructional Strategy (CBIS) on students’ achievement in chemistry. CBIS was used as an experimental group and expository method (EM) as a control group, sources showed that students poor achievement in chemistry is from teaching strategy adopted by the chemistry teachers. Two research questions were answered, and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested. This strategy recognizes the need for student-centered, relevance of tasks and students’ voice; it also helps students develop creative and critical learning skills. A quasi-experimental (non-equivalent, pretest, posttest control group) design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprised all senior secondary class one (SSI) students who were offering chemistry in co-education schools in Agbani Education zone. The instrument for data collection was a self-developed Basic Chemistry Achievement Test (BCAT). Relevant data were collected from a sample of SSI chemistry students using purposive random sampling techniques from two co-education schools in Agbani Education Zone of Enugu State, Nigeria. A reliability co-efficient was obtained for the instrument using Kuder-Richardson formula 20. Mean and standard deviation scores were used to answer the research questions while two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The findings showed that the experimental group taught with context-based instructional strategy (CBIS) obtained a higher mean achievement score than the control group in the post BCAT; male students had higher mean achievement scores than their female counterparts. The difference was significant. It was recommended, among others, that CBIS should be given more emphasis in the training and re-training program of secondary school chemistry teachers.

Keywords: context-based instructional strategy, expository strategy, student-centered

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Authors: Gary Pattemore, Michael Edgar, Andrew Job, Marina Auad, Kathryn Job

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As critical commodities become more scarce, significant time and resources have been used to better understand complicated ore bodies and extract their full potential. These challenging ore bodies provide several pain points for geologists and engineers to overcome, poor handling of these issues flows downs stream to the processing plant affecting throughput rates and recovery. Many open cut mines utilise blast hole drilling to extract additional information to feed back into the modelling process. This method requires samples to be collected during or after blast hole drilling. Samples are then sent for assay with turnaround times varying from 1 to 12 days. This method is time consuming, costly, requires human exposure on the bench and collects elemental data only. To address this challenge, research has been undertaken to utilise hyperspectral imaging across a broad spectrum to scan samples, collars or take down hole measurements for minerals and moisture content and grade abundances. Automation of this process using unmanned vehicles and on-board processing reduces human in pit exposure to ensure ongoing safety. On-board processing allows data to be integrated into modelling workflows with immediacy. The preliminary results demonstrate numerous direct and indirect benefits from this new technology, including rapid and accurate grade estimates, moisture content and mineralogy. These benefits allow for faster geo modelling updates, better informed mine scheduling and improved downstream blending and processing practices. The paper presents recommendations for implementation of the technology in open cut mining environments.

Keywords: grade control, hyperspectral scanning, artificial intelligence, autonomous mining, machine learning

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Authors: P. L. Madhushi Kavindya

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Sri Lanka is a developing country where hydrology plays an important role in its economic and social growth, followed by irrigation and power generation. Therefore, reservoirs are a principal element of the culture and social status of Sri Lankans. The emergence of a newly built reservoir goes along with a community relocation process which eventually causes alterations in the cultural landscape around it. From the 18th century, the emergence of reservoirs has caused major impacts on the landscape of Sri Lanka. Foremost aspects can be identified as the increased and decreased value of the cultural landscape around a reservoir. Community relocation in regard to reservoir projects is discussed as a key factor in the research. The study further carries out observations and findings of the relocation process of reservoirs in global and local contexts. Consequently, the study discusses the vast study area of ‘cultural landscape’ in brief and its behavior overall. Besides, specific data about reservoir-related cultural landscapes in a worldwide context, along with facts about the evolution, has been discussed. The significance and diversity of the Sri Lankan reservoir-related cultural landscape are explored in the succeeding study. This study will mainly identify the existing constraints and tendencies regarding the relocation process in an overall status. The base for the research has been laid thereafter by broadening the study on alterations which occur in the cultural landscape in relevance to reservoir-related relocation. Uma Oya multipurpose development project is selected as the exemplary study area considering its visible impacts. This analysis will indicate strategies, theories, and methods that can be applied to apprehend the impact of the relocation process on the cultural landscape of reservoirs. The research was carried out by conducting the Uma Oya multipurpose development project case study and by defining its cultural landscape and process of relocation. A suitable theoretical framework is developed in order to assess the set of vulnerable areas of a cultural landscape which are likely to change due to relocation. A questionnaire survey is done in order to assess socio-economic aspects, and a GIS data analysis is conducted to analyze the impact on physical aspects. Findings show that the impacts of the cultural landscape fall under both positive and negative categories. It also shows that the previous condition before resettlement and post stages have significant changes, where the previous condition had more socio-economic benefits for the community. And it also shows a clear alteration pattern of physical environment changes. These specifically developed theories, areas of assessment, and strategies, along with the outcomes, can be used for any location with geographical similarities worldwide.

Keywords: cultural diffusion theory, cultural landscape, physical aspects, relocation, reservoirs, socio-economic aspects

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Authors: Daniele Lerede, Gianvito Colucci, Matteo Nicoli, Laura Savoldi

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The European Green Deal is the first internationally agreed set of measures to contrast climate change and environmental degradation. Besides the main target of reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030, it sets the target of accompanying European countries through an energy transition to make the European Union into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive net-zero emissions economy by 2050, decoupling growth from the use of resources and ensuring a fair adaptation of all social categories to the transformation process. While the general purpose to allow the realization of the purposes of the Green Deal already dates back to 2019, strategies and policies keep being developed coping with recent circumstances and achievements. However, general long-term measures like the Circular Economy Action Plan, the proposals to shift from fossil natural gas to renewable and low-carbon gases, in particular biomethane and hydrogen, and to end the sale of gasoline and diesel cars by 2035, will all have significant effects on energy supply and demand evolution across the next decades. The interactions between energy supply and demand over long-term time frames are usually assessed via energy system models to derive useful insights for policymaking and to address technological choices and research and development. TEMOA-Europe is a newly developed energy system optimization model instance based on the minimization of the total cost of the system under analysis, adopting a technologically integrated, detailed, and explicit formulation and considering the evolution of the system in partial equilibrium in competitive markets with perfect foresight. TEMOA-Europe is developed on the TEMOA platform, an open-source modeling framework totally implemented in Python, therefore ensuring third-party verification even on large and complex models. TEMOA-Europe is based on a single-region representation of the European Union and EFTA countries on a time scale between 2005 and 2100, relying on a set of assumptions for socio-economic developments based on projections by the International Energy Outlook and a large technological dataset including 7 sectors: the upstream and power sectors for the production of all energy commodities and the end-use sectors, including industry, transport, residential, commercial and agriculture. TEMOA-Europe also includes an updated hydrogen module considering its production, storage, transportation, and utilization. Besides, it can rely on a wide set of innovative technologies, ranging from nuclear fusion and electricity plants equipped with CCS in the power sector to electrolysis-based steel production processes and steel in the industrial sector – with a techno-economic characterization based on public literature – to produce insightful energy scenarios and especially to cope with the very long analyzed time scale. The aim of this work is to examine in detail the scheme of measures and policies for the realization of the purposes of the Green Deal and to transform them into a set of constraints and new socio-economic development pathways. Based on them, TEMOA-Europe will be used to produce and comparatively analyze scenarios to assess the consequences of Green Deal-related measures on the future evolution of the energy mix over the whole energy system in an economic optimization environment.

Keywords: European Green Deal, energy system optimization modeling, scenario analysis, TEMOA-Europe

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Authors: Meenakshi Chaubey

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A principle proposed in the cross-cultural adaption of behavior among Indian and Tibetan societies in which there are not any great variations between their young adults on the mindset of day-to-day marriage, Marriage plays a dominant position in constructing the society, which in large part comprises underneath the domain of lifestyle. Way of life is a social behavior and norm located in human societies where an extensive range of phenomena can be transmitted thru social studying. It acts characteristic of the individual has been the diploma day-to-day which they have got cultivated a specific stage of class in arts, science, architecture. The existing studies preliminarily on young adults of each community, wherein we carried out a comparative observe of the mindset of daily marriage among Indian and Tibetan teens. Further, we studied statistics comprehensively on the mindset closer day by day the marriage between Indian adult males and Tibetan younger males. With the extension of a complete look, we considered the mindset of an everyday marriage of Indian girls and Tibetan young ladies. Studies 1 showed that there might be no sizable distinction within the attitude of the day-to-day marriage of Indian and Tibetan teenagers. It, in addition, showed that they followed each different marriage beliefs and customs. Studies 2 showed that there might be no important difference in the attitude toward the everyday marriage of Indian and Tibetan young males. It similarly showcased that day-to-day secular schooling gadget in Tibetan society complements their clinical approach and changes their point of view on distinct social issues along with marriage. Research three confirmed that there is no substantial difference in the mindset of the daily marriage of Indian and Tibetan younger females. It similarly spread out the strict authorities' recommendations that they may no longer be allowed day-to-day comply with their marriage practices, including polygamy and polyandry. Thus, the information showed that there's a shift of lifestyle from one network every day to some other community because of social every day, which affects the conduct and results of daily past cultural adaptation.

Keywords: culture, marriage, attitude, society, young adults, Indian, Tibetan

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Authors: Doddy T. P. Enggarsyah, Soebowo Musa

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Covid-19 pandemic has changed business environments and has spread economic contagion rapidly, as the stringent lockdowns and social distancing, which were initially intended to cut off the spread, have instead cut off the flow of economies. With no existing experience or playbook to deal with such a crisis, the prolonged pandemic can lead to bankruptcies, despite the fact that there are cases of companies that are not only able to survive but also to increase sales and create more jobs amid the economic crisis. This quantitative research study clarifies conflicting findings on organizational inertia whether it is a better strategy to implement during a disruptive environment. 316 respondents who worked in diverse firms operating in various industry types in Indonesia have completed the survey with a response rate of 63.2%. Further, this study clarifies the roles and relationships between organizational inertia, organizational creativity, organizational agility, and organizational resilience that potentially have determinants factors on firm performance in a disruptive environment. The findings of the study confirm that the organizational inertia of the firm will set up strong protection on the organization's fundamental orientation, which eventually will confine organizations to build adequate creative and adaptability responses—such fundamental orientation built from path dependency along with past success and prolonged firm performance. Organizational inertia acts like a control mechanism to ensure the adequacy of the given responses. The term adequate is important, as being overly creative during a disruptive environment may have a contradictory result since it can burden the firm performance. During a disruptive environment, organizations will limit creativity by focusing more on creativity that supports the resilience and new technology adoption will be limited since the cost of learning and implementation are perceived as greater than the potential gains. The optimal path towards firm performance is gained through organizational resilience, as in a disruptive environment, the survival of the organization takes precedence over firm performance.

Keywords: disruptive environment, organizational agility, organizational creativity, organizational inertia, organizational resilience

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Authors: Pankaj Dhiman, Simranjeet Kaur

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This research paper presents a comprehensive sentiment analysis of social media responses to videos on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram during the 2024 Indian general elections. The study focuses on the sentiment patterns of voters towards the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on these platforms. The analysis aims to understand the impact of social media on voter sentiment and its correlation with the election outcome. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods. With a total of 200 posts analysed during general election-2024 final phase, the sentiment analysis was conducted using natural language processing (NLP) techniques, including sentiment dictionaries and machine learning algorithms. The results show that NDA received significantly more positive sentiment responses across all platforms, with a positive sentiment score of 47% compared to INDIA's score of 38.98 %. The analysis also revealed that Twitter and YouTube were the most influential platforms in shaping voter sentiment, with 60% of the total sentiment score coming from these two platforms. The study's findings suggest that social media sentiment analysis can be a valuable tool for understanding voter sentiment and predicting election outcomes. The results also highlight the importance of social media in shaping public opinion and the need for political parties to engage effectively with voters on these platforms. The study's implications are significant, as they indicate that social media can be a key factor in determining the outcome of elections. The findings also underscore the need for political parties to develop effective social media strategies to engage with voters and shape public opinion.

Keywords: Indian Elections-2024, NDA, INDIA, sentiment analysis, social media, democracy

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Authors: Ellen Patricia, Marilou Hyson

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Coaching has been showing great potential to strengthen the impact of brief group trainings and help early childhood teachers solve specific problems at work with the goal of raising the quality of early childhood services. However, there have been some doubts about the benefits that village teachers can receive from coaching. It is perceived that village teachers may struggle with the thinking skills needed to make coaching beneficial. Furthermore, there are reservations about whether principals and supervisors in villages are open to coaching’s facilitative approach, as opposed to the directive approach they have been using. As such, the use of coaching to develop the professionalism of early childhood teachers in the villages needs to be examined. The Coaching Pilot for early childhood teachers in Indonesia villages provides insights for the above issues. The Coaching Pilot is part of the ECED Frontline Pilot, which is a collaboration project between the Government of Indonesia and the World Bank with the support from the Australian Government (DFAT). The Pilot started with coordinated efforts with the local government in two districts to select principals and supervisors who have been equipped with basic knowledge about early childhood education to take part in 2-days coaching training. Afterwards, the participants were asked to collect 25 hours of coaching early childhood teachers who have participated in the Enhanced Basic Training for village teachers. The participants who completed this requirement were then invited to come for an assessment of their coaching skills. Following that, a qualitative evaluation was conducted using in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussion techniques. The evaluation focuses on the impact of the coaching pilot in helping the village teachers to develop in their professionalism, as well as on the sustainability of the intervention. Results from the evaluation indicated that although their low education may limit their thinking skills, village teachers benefited from the coaching that they received. Moreover, the evaluation results also suggested that with enough training and support, principals and supervisors in the villages were able to provide an adequate coaching service for the teachers. On top of that, beyond this small start, interest is growing, both within the pilot districts and even beyond, due to word of mouth of the benefits that the Coaching Pilot has created. The districts where coaching was piloted have planned to continue the coaching program, since a number of early childhood teachers have requested to be coached, and a number of principals and supervisors have also requested to be trained as a coach. Furthermore, the Association for Early Childhood Educators in Indonesia has started to adopt coaching into their program. Although further research is needed, the Coaching Pilot suggests that coaching can positively impact early childhood teachers in villages, and village principals and supervisors can become a promising source of future coaches. As such, coaching has a significant potential to become a sustainable model for a continuous professional development program for early childhood teachers in villages.

Keywords: coaching, coaching pilot, early childhood teachers, principals and supervisors, village teachers

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Authors: Leticia Lengler, Jefferson Oliveira, Vania Estivalete, Jordana Marques Kneipp

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The context of social, economic and environmental transformations has driven innumerable changes in the organizational environment, influencing the social interactions that occur in this scenario. In this sense, social entrepreneurship emerges as a unique opportunity to challenge, question, rethink certain concepts and traditional theories widely discussed in relation to entrepreneurship. Therefore, the interest in studying personal values has been based on the idea that they might be predictors of the behavior of individuals. As an attempt to relate personal values with the characteristics of social entrepreneurs, this study aims to investigate the salient values and the social entrepreneurship perceptions that occur in two social projects responsible for developing sports skills among the students. For purposes of analysis, it is intended to consider: (i) a description of both Social Projects and their respective institutions, considering their history and relevance in the context; (ii) analysis of the personal values of the idealizers and teachers responsible for the projects, (iii) identification of the characteristics of social entrepreneurship manifested in the two projects, and (iv) discussion of similarities and disparities of the categories identified among the participants of the projects. Therefore, this study will carry a qualitative analysis from the interviews with 10 participants of each social project (named Projeto Remar/ASENA and Projeto Mãos Dadas/JUDÔ SANTA MARIA): 2 projects coordinators, 2 students, 2 parents of students, 2 physical education internships and 2 businessmen who stablished a partnership with each project. The data collection will be done through semi-structured interviews that are going to last around 30 minutes each, being recorded, transcribed and later analyzed, through the categorical analysis. The option for categorical analysis is supported by the fact that it is the best alternative when one wants to study values, opinions, attitudes and beliefs, through qualitative ones. In the present research, the pre-analysis phase consisted of an organization of the material collected during the research with Remar and Mãos Dadas Project, and a dynamic reading of this material, seeking to identify the characteristics of social entrepreneurship and values addressed in the study. In the analytical description phase, a more in-depth analysis of the material collected in the research will be carried out. The third phase, referred to as referential interpretation or treatment of results obtained will allow to verify the homogeneity and the heterogeneity among the participants' perceptions of the projects. Some preliminary results coming from the first interviews revealed the projects are guided by values such as cooperation, respect, well-being and nature preservation. These values are linked to the social entrepreneurship perception of the projects managers, who established their activities in behalf of the local community.

Keywords: personal values, social entrepreneurship, social projects, sports participants

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Authors: Mukhtar Raban

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As part of Nelson Mandela University’s journey of repositioning its learning and teaching agenda, the university adopted and foregrounded a humanizing pedagogy-aligning with institutional goals of critically transforming the academic project. The university established the Humanizing Pedagogy Praxis and Research Niche (HPPRN) as a centralized hub for coordinating institutional work exploring and advancing humanizing pedagogies and tasked the unit with developing and enacting a model for humanizing pedagogy exploration. This investigation endeavored to report on the development and enactment of a model that sought to institutionalize a humanizing pedagogy at a South African university. Having followed a qualitative approach, the investigation presents the case study of Nelson Mandela University’s HPPRN and the model it subsequently established and enacted for the advancement towards a more common institutional understanding, interpretation and application of the humanizing pedagogy. The study adopted an interpretive lens for analysis, complementing the qualitative approach of the investigation. The primary challenge that confronted the HPPRN was the development of a ‘living model’ that had to complement existing institutional initiatives while accommodating a renewed spirit of critical reflection, innovation and research of continued and new humanizing pedagogical exploration and applications. The study found that the explicit consideration of tenets of humanizing and critical pedagogies in underpinning and framing the HPPRN Model contributed to the sense of ‘lived’ humanizing pedagogy experiences during enactment. The multi-leveled inclusion of critical reflection in the development and enactment stages was found to further the processes of praxis employed at the university, which is integral to the advancement of humanizing and critical pedagogies. The development and implementation of a model that seeks to institutionalize the humanizing pedagogy at a university rely not only on sound theoretical conceptualization but also on the ‘richness of becoming more human’ explicitly expressed and encountered in praxes and application.

Keywords: humanizing pedagogy, critical pedagogy, institutional implementation, praxis

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Authors: Isabel Brás, Artur Figueirinha, Bruno Esteves, Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes

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The agriculture lignocellulosic by-products are receiving increased attention, namely in the search for filter materials that retain contaminants from water. These by-products, specifically almond and hazelnut shells are abundant in Portugal once almond and hazelnuts production is a local important activity. Hazelnut and almond shells have as main constituents lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses, water soluble extractives and tannins. Along the adsorption of heavy metals from contaminated waters, water soluble compounds can leach from shells and have a negative impact in the environment. Usually, the chemical characterization of treated water by itself may not show environmental impact caused by the discharges when parameters obey to legal quality standards for water. Only biological systems can detect the toxic effects of the water constituents. Therefore, the evaluation of toxicity by biological tests is very important when deciding the suitability for safe water discharge or for irrigation applications. The main purpose of the present work was to assess the potential impacts of waters after been treated for heavy metal removal by hazelnut and almond shells adsorption systems, with short term acute toxicity tests. To conduct the study, water at pH 6 with 25 mg.L-1 of lead, was treated with 10 g of shell per litre of wastewater, for 24 hours. This procedure was followed for each bark. Afterwards the water was collected for toxicological assays; namely bacterial resistance, seed germination, Lemna minor L. test and plant grow. The effect in isolated bacteria strains was determined by disc diffusion method and the germination index of seed was evaluated using lettuce, with temperature and humidity germination control for 7 days. For aquatic higher organism, Lemnas were used with 4 days contact time with shell solutions, in controlled light and temperature. For terrestrial higher plants, biomass production was evaluated after 14 days of tomato germination had occurred in soil, with controlled humidity, light and temperature. Toxicity tests of water treated with shells revealed in some extent effects in the tested organisms, with the test assays showing a close behaviour as the control, leading to the conclusion that its further utilization may not be considered to create a serious risk to the environment.

Keywords: lignocellulosic wastes, adsorption, acute toxicity tests, risk assessment

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Authors: Sara Cumming, Julianne DiSanto, Leah Burton

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Homelessness in Canada is a persistent problem. It has been widely argued that the best tactic for eradicating homelessness is to approach social issues from a Housing First perspective—an approach that centers on quickly moving people into permanent and independent housing and then providing them additional support and services as needed. It is recognized that life skills training is both necessary and an effective way to reduce cyclical homelessness; however, there is a scarcity of research on effective ways to teach life skills; this problem was exacerbated in a pandemic context, where in-person delivery was severely restricted or no longer possible. Very little attention has been paid to the diverse cultural needs of clients in a multicultural context and the need to foster cultural knowledge/awareness in individuals to successfully contribute to the cultural safety of communities. This research attempts to fill these gaps in the literature and in practice by employing a community-engaged research (CER) approach. Academic, government, funders, front-line staff, and clients at 15 not-for-profits from across the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada, collaborated to co-create a virtual, client-centric, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) informed life skill learning management system. We employed a triangulation methodology for this research. An environmental scan was conducted for best practices. Two separate Creative Problem Solving Sessions were held with over 100 front-line workers, managers, and executive directors who work with homeless populations. Quantitative and open-ended surveys were completed by over 200 individuals with experience with homelessness. All sections of this research aimed to discover the areas of skills that individuals need to maintain housing and to ascertain what a more client-driven EDI approach to life skills training should include. This research will showcase which life skills are deemed essential for homeless and precariously housed individuals.

Keywords: homelessness, Housing First, life skills, community engaged research

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Authors: Kuo-Chun Chien, Chia-Hui Chang, Ren-Der Sun

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Legal Judgment Prediction (LJP) is a subtask for legal AI. Its main purpose is to use the facts of a case to predict the judgment result. In Taiwan's criminal procedure, when prosecutors complete the investigation of the case, they will decide whether to prosecute the suspect and which article of criminal law should be used based on the facts and evidence of the case. In this study, we collected 305,240 indictments from the public inquiry system of the procuratorate of the Ministry of Justice, which included 169 charges and 317 articles from 21 laws. We take the crime facts in the indictments as the main input to jointly learn the prediction model for law source, article, and charge simultaneously based on the pre-trained Bert model. For single article cases where the frequency of the charge and article are greater than 50, the prediction performance of law sources, articles, and charges reach 97.66, 92.22, and 60.52 macro-f1, respectively. To understand the big performance gap between articles and charges, we used a bipartite graph to visualize the relationship between the articles and charges, and found that the reason for the poor prediction performance was actually due to the wording precision. Some charges use the simplest words, while others may include the perpetrator or the result to make the charges more specific. For example, Article 284 of the Criminal Law may be indicted as “negligent injury”, "negligent death”, "business injury", "driving business injury", or "non-driving business injury". As another example, Article 10 of the Drug Hazard Control Regulations can be charged as “Drug Control Regulations” or “Drug Hazard Control Regulations”. In order to solve the above problems and more accurately predict the article and charge, we plan to include the article content or charge names in the input, and use the sentence-pair classification method for question-answer problems in the BERT model to improve the performance. We will also consider a sequence-to-sequence approach to charge prediction.

Keywords: legal judgment prediction, deep learning, natural language processing, BERT, data visualization

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Authors: Gabriela Macera DiFilippo

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The world watched in disbelief as George Floyd was killed by a policeman. The images from the scene were made more memorable by Mr. Floyd’s pleas and cries for his mother. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum. Weeks and months after the protests, global interest in learning about tackling systemic racism erupted. One must wonder how school children of color viewed and processed this trauma. This study will examine the kinds of trauma experienced by children of color and the opportunity for school mental health providers to support these children. This study used literature searches that were previously conducted for proven and practical assessment methods that can help deal with racial trauma for children. As part of the assessment, trauma symptoms experienced by children of color were summarized and characterized in a non-imperial manner. The research was also will be done in practical ways to make adequate and effective mental health services available in schools and lessen the stigma. This research study found that there is a need to provide an analysis of the ongoing racial trauma of children of color after the death of George Floyd. Impactful and appropriate assessment methods, such as surveys, were presented to all school professionals. Lastly, this paper attempted to provide mental health professionals with the tools to screen and provide guidance based on unequivocal, unbiased methods for helping these children. There is a need for both schools and community leaders to ensure that every child has access to mental health care and is being assessed for their overall well-being. There is a need to educate the communities about racial trauma and its impact on individuals, especially children. School mental health professionals are encouraged to offer and educate schools and communities about racial trauma awareness, its importance, and ways to cope with it in different settings. The delivery of these informed services should focus on behavioral health and must be sensitive to children of color and different ways of self-care.

Keywords: trauma, children, black psychology, students

Procedia PDF Downloads 39