Search results for: athletes' career development and management

Authors: Roshanak Khodabakhsh Jolfaei, Javad Akbari Torkestani

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As a cooperative environment for problem-solving, it is necessary that grids develop efficient job scheduling patterns with regard to their goals, domains and structure. Since the Grid environments facilitate distributed calculations, job scheduling appears in the form of a critical problem for the management of Grid sources that influences severely on the efficiency for the whole Grid environment. Due to the existence of some specifications such as sources dynamicity and conditions of the network in Grid, some algorithm should be presented to be adjustable and scalable with increasing the network growth. For this purpose, in this paper a job scheduling algorithm has been presented on the basis of learning automata in computational Grid which the performance of its results were compared with FPSO algorithm (Fuzzy Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm) and GJS algorithm (Grid Job Scheduling algorithm). The obtained numerical results indicated the superiority of suggested algorithm in comparison with FPSO and GJS. In addition, the obtained results classified FPSO and GJS in the second and third position respectively after the mentioned algorithm.

Keywords: computational grid, job scheduling, learning automata, dynamic scheduling

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Authors: Armine Vahanyan

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Humanity has been still coping with the new COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare providers, economists, psychologists, and other specialists speak about the impact of the virus on different spheres of our life. In the list of similar discussions, the impact of pandemics on global education is of utmost importance. Ideally, providing quality education services should be crucial, and the ways education programs are being adapted will determine the success or failure of the service providers. The paper aims to summarize the research touching upon the current situation of higher education in Armenia. The research includes data from official reports, surveys among education leads, faculty, and students, as well as personal observations and consideration. Through descriptive analysis, the findings of the research are being presented from various aspects. Interim results of the research unveiled two major issues in the sector of higher education in Armenia. On the one hand, the entire compulsory digitization of instruction, assessment, and grading has evoked serious gaps related to the lack of technical competencies. There is an urgent need for professional development programs that will address most of the concerns due to the shift to the online instruction mode. On the other hand, online teaching and learning require revision and adaptation of the existing curricula. Given that the content of certain programs may not be compromised, the teaching methods, the assignments, and evaluation require profound transformation, which will still be in line with course learning outcomes and student learning outcomes. The given paper focuses on the ways the mentioned issues are being addressed in Armenia. The extent of commitment for changes and adaptability to the new situation varies from the government-funded and private universities. In particular, the paper compares and contrasts activities and measures taken at the Armenian State Pedagogical University and the American University of Armenia. Thus, the Pedagogical University focused on the use of Google Classroom as the only means for teaching and learning as well as adopted the compulsory synchronous instruction mode. The American University, on the contrary, kept practicing the academic freedom, enabling both synchronous and asynchronous instruction modes, ensuring alignment of the course learning outcomes and student learning outcomes. The State University utilized the assignments and assessment, which would work for the on-campus instruction mode, while the American university employed a variety of assignments applicable for online teaching mode. The latter has suggested the utilization of multiple apps, internet sources, and online library access for a better online instant. Discussions with faculty through online forums and/or professional development workshops also facilitate restructuring and adaptation of the courses. Finally, the paper will synthesize the results of the undertaken research and will outline the e-learning perspectives and opportunities boosted by the known devastating healthcare issue.

Keywords: assessment, compulsory digitization of education services, online teaching, instruction mode, program restructuring

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Authors: Andrea Ghermandi

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Natural treatment systems such as constructed wetlands and waste stabilization ponds are increasingly used to treat water and wastewater from a variety of sources, including stormwater and polluted surface water. The provision of ancillary benefits in the form of cultural ecosystem services makes these systems unique among water and wastewater treatment technologies and greatly contributes to determine their potential role in promoting sustainable water management practices. A quantitative analysis of these benefits, however, has been lacking in the literature. Here, a critical assessment of the recreational and educational benefits in natural treatment systems is provided, which combines observed public use from a survey of managers and operators with estimated public use as obtained using geotagged photos from social media as a proxy for visitation rates. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used to characterize the spatial boundaries of 273 natural treatment systems worldwide. Such boundaries are used as input for the Application Program Interfaces (APIs) of two popular photo-sharing websites (Flickr and Panoramio) in order to derive the number of photo-user-days, i.e., the number of yearly visits by individual photo users in each site. The adequateness and predictive power of four univariate calibration models using the crowdsourced data as a proxy for visitation are evaluated. A high correlation is found between photo-user-days and observed annual visitors (Pearson's r = 0.811; p-value < 0.001; N = 62). Standardized Major Axis (SMA) regression is found to outperform Ordinary Least Squares regression and count data models in terms of predictive power insofar as standard verification statistics – such as the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP), the mean absolute error of prediction (MAEP), the reduction of error (RE), and the coefficient of efficiency (CE) – are concerned. The SMA regression model is used to estimate the intensity of public use in all 273 natural treatment systems. System type, influent water quality, and area are found to statistically affect public use, consistently with a priori expectations. Publicly available information regarding the home location of the sampled visitors is derived from their social media profiles and used to infer the distance they are willing to travel to visit the natural treatment systems in the database. Such information is analyzed using the travel cost method to derive monetary estimates of the recreational benefits of the investigated natural treatment systems. Overall, the findings confirm the opportunities arising from an integrated design and management of natural treatment systems, which combines the objectives of water quality enhancement and provision of cultural ecosystem services through public use in a multi-functional approach and compatibly with the need to protect public health.

Keywords: constructed wetlands, cultural ecosystem services, ecological engineering, waste stabilization ponds

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Authors: Pegah Eshraghi, Zahra Sadat Zomorodian, Mohammad Tahsildoost

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Over the past decade, energy consumption in educational buildings has steadily increased. The purpose of this research is to provide a method to quickly predict the energy consumption of buildings using separate evaluation of zones and decomposing the building to eliminate the complexity of geometry at the early design stage. To produce this framework, machine learning algorithms such as Support vector regression (SVR) and Artificial neural network (ANN) are used to predict energy consumption and thermal comfort metrics in a school as a case. The database consists of more than 55000 samples in three climates of Iran. Cross-validation evaluation and unseen data have been used for validation. In a specific label, cooling energy, it can be said the accuracy of prediction is at least 84% and 89% in SVR and ANN, respectively. The results show that the SVR performed much better than the ANN.

Keywords: early stage of design, energy, thermal comfort, validation, machine learning

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Authors: Jagriti Mishra, Vasundhara Chaudhary

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Introduction: The case highlights various issues and challenges faced by Khanna Enterprises while conceptualizing and execution of launching Active Leisure wear in the domestic market, where different steps involved in the range planning and production have been elaborated. Although Khanna Enterprises was an established company which dealt in the production of knitted and woven garments, they took the risk of launching a new concept- Active Leisure wear for Millennials. Methodology: It is based on primary and secondary research where data collection has been done through survey, in-depth interviews and various reports, forecasts, and journals. Findings: The research through primary and secondary data and execution of active leisure wear substantiated the acceptance, not only by the millennials but also by the generation X. There was a demand of bigger sizes as well as more muted colours. Conclusion: The sales data paved the way for future product development in tune with the strengths of Khanna Enterprises.

Keywords: millennials, range planning, production, active leisure wear

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Authors: R. A. Temah, L. A. Nkengla-Asi

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Planning for future disasters sets the stage for a variety of activities that may trigger multiple recurring operations and expose the community to opportunities to minimize risks. Local communities are increasingly embracing the necessity for planning based on local risks, but are also significantly challenged to effectively plan and response to disasters. This research examines basic risk-based disaster planning model and compares it with advanced risk-based planning that introduces the identification and alignment of varieties of local capabilities within and out of the local community that can be pivotal to facilitate the management of local risks and cascading effects prior to a disaster. A critical review shows that the identification and alignment of capabilities can potentially enhance risk-based disaster planning. A tailored holistic approach to risk based disaster planning is pivotal to enhance collective action and a reduction in disaster collective cost.

Keywords: capabilities, disaster planning, hazards, local community, risk-based

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Authors: Ali Safaeianpour, Nima Shamandi

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As air traffic expands, many airports have evolved into transit centers for people, information, and commerce, and technology implementation is an absolute part of airport development. Several challenges are in the way of implementing technology in an airport. Airport 4.0 proposes the "Smart Airport" concept, which focuses on using modern technologies such as Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced biometric systems, blockchain, and cloud computing to alter and enhance passengers' journeys. Several common IoT concrete topics as partial keys to smart airports are discussed and introduced, ranging from automated check-in systems to exterior tracking processes, with the goal of enlightening more and more insightful ideas and proposals about smart airport solutions. IoT will dramatically alter people's lives by infusing intelligence, boosting the quality of life, and assembling it smarter. This paper reviews the approaches to transforming an airport into a smart airport and describes several enabling components of IoT and challenges that can hinder the implementation of a smart airport's function, which require to be addressed.

Keywords: airport 4.0, digital airport, smart airport, IoT

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Authors: Nadia Fatima Zahra Malki

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Quality is one of the most important modern management patterns that organizations seek to achieve in all areas and sectors in order to meet the needs and desires of customers and to remain and continuity, as they constitute a competitive advantage for the organization. and among the most prominent organizations that must be available on the quality factor are health organizations as they relate to the most valuable component of production. It is a person, and his health, and any error in it threatens his life and may lead to death, so she must provide health services of high quality to achieve the highest degree of satisfaction for the patient. This research aims to study the quality of health services and the extent of their impact on patient satisfaction, and this is through an applied study that relied on measuring the level of quality of health services in the university hospital center of Algeria and the extent of their impact on patient satisfaction according to the dimensions of the quality of health services, and we reached a conclusion that the determinants of the quality of health services It affects patient satisfaction, which necessitates developing health services according to patients' requirements and improving their quality to obtain patient satisfaction.

Keywords: health service, health quality, quality determinants, patient satisfaction

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Authors: Pedram Saadati, Zahra Nazari

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Anticipating and identifying future opportunities and challenges facing industry activists for the emergence and entry of new knowledge and technologies of personal financial planning, and providing practical solutions is one of the goals of this research. For this purpose, a future research tool based on receiving opinions from the main players of the insurance industry has been used. The research method in this study was in 4 stages; including 1- a survey of the specialist salesforce of life insurance in order to identify the variables 2- the ranking of the variables by experts selected by a researcher-made questionnaire 3- holding a panel of experts with the aim of understanding the mutual effects of the variables and 4- statistical analyzes of the mutual effects matrix in Mick Mac software is done. The integrated analysis of influencing variables in the future has been done with the method of Structural Analysis, which is one of the efficient and innovative methods of future research. A list of opportunities and challenges was identified through a survey of best-selling life insurance representatives who were selected by snowball sampling. In order to prioritize and identify the most important issues, all the issues raised were sent to selected experts who were selected theoretically through a researcher-made questionnaire. The respondents determined the importance of 36 variables through scoring, so that the prioritization of opportunity and challenge variables can be determined. 8 of the variables identified in the first stage were removed by selected experts, and finally, the number of variables that could be examined in the third stage became 28 variables, which, in order to facilitate the examination, were divided into 6 categories, respectively, 11 variables of organization and management. Marketing and sales 7 cases, social and cultural 6 cases, technological 2 cases, rebranding 1 case and insurance 1 case were divided. The reliability of the researcher-made questionnaire was confirmed with the Cronbach's alpha test value of 0.96. In the third stage, by forming a panel consisting of 5 insurance industry experts, the consensus of their opinions about the influence of factors on each other and the ranking of variables was entered into the matrix. The matrix included the interrelationships of 28 variables, which were investigated using the structural analysis method. By analyzing the data obtained from the matrix by Mic Mac software, the findings of the research indicate that the categories of "correct training in the use of the software, the weakness of the technology of insurance companies in personalizing products, using the approach of equipping the customer, and honesty in declaring no need Customer to Insurance", the most important challenges of the influencer and the categories of "salesforce equipping approach, product personalization based on customer needs assessment, customer's pleasant experience of being consulted with consulting robots, business improvement of the insurance company due to the use of these tools, increasing the efficiency of the issuance process and optimal customer purchase" were identified as the most important opportunities for influence.

Keywords: personal financial planning, wealth management, advisor robots, life insurance, digital transformation

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Authors: A. van Staden, A. A. van Rhyn

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The numerous challenges South African, ESL learners experience were highlighted by the results of several literacy surveys and tests, which demonstrated that our learners’ literacy abilities are far below standard and very weak compared to other international countries. This study developed and implemented an interactive storybook intervention program to support the reading development of ESL learners. The researchers utilized an experimental pre-test/post-test research design, whereby 80 ESL learners from five participating schools, were purposively sampled to take part in this study. This paper, inter alia, discusses the key features of this intervention program whilst also reporting the results of the experimental investigation. Results are promising and show a significant improvement in the mean scores of the learners in the experimental group. Moreover, the results show the value of interactive storybook reading in creating responsive literacy environments to develop the literacy skills of ESL learners.

Keywords: ESL learners, reading comprehension, Interactive story book reading, South Africa

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Authors: My T. Truong

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Among various professional development (PD) options available for English as a second language (ESL) teachers, especially those at the tertiary level, research engagement has been recently recommended as an innovative model with a transformative force for both individual teachers’ PD and wider school improvement. Teachers who conduct research themselves tend to develop critical and analytical thinking about their instructional practices, and enhance their ability to make autonomous pedagogical judgments and decisions. With such capabilities, teacher researchers are thus more likely to contribute to curriculum innovation of their schools and improvement of the whole educational process. The extent to which ESL teachers are engaged in research, however, depends largely on their research motivation, which can not only decide teachers’ choice of a PD activity to pursue but also affect the degree and duration of effort they are willing to invest in pursuing it. To understand language teachers’ research practices, and to inform educational authorities about ways to promote research culture among their ESL teaching staff, it is therefore vital to investigate teachers’ research motivation. Despite its importance as such, this individual difference construct has not been paid due attention especially in the ESL contexts. To fill this gap, this study aims to explore Vietnamese tertiary ESL teachers’ motivations towards research. Guided by the self-determination theory and the process model of motivation, it investigates teachers’ initial motivations for conducting research, and the factors that sustained or degraded their motivation during the research engagement process. Adopting a qualitative case-study approach, the study collected longitudinal data via semi-structured interviews and guided diary entries from three ESL tertiary teachers who were conducting their own research project. The respondents attended two semi-structured interviews (one at the beginning of their project, and the other one three months afterwards); and wrote six guided diary entries between the two interviews. The results confirm the significant role motivation plays in driving teachers to initiate and maintain their participation in research, and challenge some common assumptions in teacher motivation literature. For instance, the quality of the past and actual research experience unsurprisingly emerged as an important factor that both motivated and demotivated teachers in their research engagement process. Unlike general suggestions in the motivation literature however, external demand was found in this study to be a critical motivation sustaining factor while intrinsic research interest actually did not suffice to help a teacher fulfil his research endeavor. With such findings, the study is expected to widen the motivational perspective in understanding language teacher research practice given the paucity of related studies. Practically, it is hoped to enable teacher educators, PD program designers and educational policy makers in Vietnam and similar contexts to approach the question of whether and how to promote research activities among ESL teachers feasibly. For practicing and in-service teachers, the findings may elucidate to them the motivational conditions in which they can be research engaged, and the motivational factors that might hinder or encourage them in so doing.

Keywords: teacher motivation, teacher professional development, teacher research engagement, English as a second language (ESL)

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Authors: Aber Salem Aboalgasm, Rupert Ward

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The aim of this research is to explore how pupils in art classes can use creative digital art tools to redesign Tamazight fonts, in order to develop children’s artistic creativity, enable them to learn about a new culture, and to help the teacher assess the creativity of pupils in the art class. It can also help students to improve their talents in drawing. The study could relate to research in Libya among the Amazigh people (better known as Berber) and possibly the development of Tamazight fonts with new uses in art. The research involved students aged 9-10 years old working with digital art tools, and was designed to explore the potential of digital technology by discovering suitable tools and techniques to develop children’s artistic performance using Tamazight fonts. The project also sought to show the aesthetic aspects of these characters and to stimulate the artistic creativity of these young people.

Keywords: artistic creativity, Tamazight fonts, technology acceptance model, traditional, digital art tools

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Authors: Serge Lacroix

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The proposed study looks at the psychoeducational assessment of bilingual students, in English and French in this case. It will be the opportunity to look at language of assessment and specifically how certain tests can be administered in one language and others in another language. It is also a look into the questioning of the validity of the test scores that are obtained as well as the quality and generalizability of the conclusions that can be drawn. Bilingualism and multiculturalism, although in constant expansion, is not considered in norms development and remains a poorly understood factor when it is at play in the context of a psychoeducational assessment. Student placement, diagnoses, accurate measures of intelligence and achievement are all impacted by the quality of the assessment procedure. The same is true for questionnaires administered to parents and self-reports completed by bilingual students who, more often than not, are assessed in a language that is not their primary one or are compared to monolinguals not dealing with the same challenges or the same skills. Results show that students, when offered to work in a bilingual fashion, chooses to do so in a significant proportion. Recommendations will be offered to support educators aiming at expanding their skills when confronted with multilingual students in an assessment context.

Keywords: psychoeducational assessment, bilingualism, multiculturalism, intelligence, achievement

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Authors: Tesfaye Worku

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Human hair, chicken feathers, and hairs of other birds and animals are commonly described as waste products, and the currently available disposal methods, such as burying and burning these waste products, are contributing to environmental pollution. However, those waste products are used to develop fiber-reinforced textile composite material. In this research work, the composite was developed using human hair fiber and analysis of the mechanical and physical properties of the developed composite sample. A composite sample was made with different ratios of human hair and unsaturated polyester resin, and an analysis of the mechanical and physical properties of the developed composite sample was tested according to standards. The fabricated human hair fibers reinforced polymer matrix composite sample has given encouraging results in terms of high strength and rigidity for lightweight house ceiling board material.

Keywords: composite, human hair fiber, matrix, unsaturated polyester

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Authors: Mingyan Hong, Shuozhao Hou

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Collaborative Strategic Learning (CSL) teaches students to use learning strategies while working cooperatively. Student strategies include the following steps: defining the learning task and purpose; conducting ongoing negotiation of the learning materials by deciding "click" (I get it and I can teach it – green card, I get it –yellow card) or "clunk" (I don't get it – red card) at the end of each learning unit; "getting the gist" of the most important parts of the learning materials; and "wrapping up" key ideas. Find out how to help students of mixed achievement levels apply learning strategies while learning content area in materials in small groups. The design of CSL is based on social-constructivism and Vygotsky’s best-known concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The definition of ZPD is the distance between the actual acquisition level as decided by individual problem solution case and the level of potential acquisition level, similar to Krashen (1980)’s i+1, as decided through the problem-solution case under the facilitator’s guidance, or in group work with other more capable members (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky claimed that learners’ ideal learning environment is in the ZPD. An ideal teacher or more-knowledgable-other (MKO) should be able to recognize a learner’s ZPD and facilitates them to develop beyond it. Then the MKO is able to leave the support step by step until the learner can perform the task without aid. Steven Krashen (1980) proposed Input hypothesis including i+1 hypothesis. The input hypothesis models are the application of ZPD in second language acquisition and have been widely recognized until today. Krashen (2019)’s optimal language learning environment (2019) further developed the application of ZPD and added the component of strategic group learning. The strategic group learning is composed of desirable learning materials learners are motivated to learn and desirable group members who are more capable and are therefore able to offer meaningful input to the learners. Purpose-driven Collaborative Strategic Learning Model is a strategic integration of ZPD, i+1 hypothesis model, and Optimal Language Learning Environment Model. It is purpose driven to ensure group members are motivated. It is collaborative so that an optimal learning environment where meaningful input from meaningful conversation can be generated. It is strategic because facilitators in the model strategically assign each member a meaningful and collaborative role, e.g., team leader, technician, problem solver, appraiser, offer group learning instrument so that the learning process is structured, and integrate group learning and team building making sure holistic development of each participant. Using data collected from college year one and year two students’ English courses, this presentation will demonstrate how purpose-driven collaborative strategic learning model is implemented in the second/foreign language classroom, using the qualitative data from questionnaire and interview. Particular, this presentation will show how second/foreign language learners grow from functioning with facilitator or more capable peer’s aid to performing without aid. The implication of this research is that purpose-driven collaborative strategic learning model can be used not only in language learning, but also in any subject area.

Keywords: collaborative, strategic, optimal input, second language acquisition

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Authors: Samantha Jeffries, Chontit Chuenurah

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Thailand incarcerates the largest number of women and has the highest female incarceration rate in South East Asia. Since the 1990s, there has been a substantial increase in the number, rate and proportion of women imprisoned. Thailand places a high priority on the gender specific contexts out of which offending arises and the different needs of women in the criminal justice system. This is manifested in work undertaken to guide the development of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules); adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010. The Bangkok Rules make a strong statement about Thailand’s recognition of and commitment to the fair and equitable treatment of women throughout their contact with the criminal justice system including at sentencing and in prison. This makes the comparatively high use of imprisonment for women in Thailand particularly concerning and raises questions about the relationship between gender, crime and criminal justice. While there is an extensive body of research in Western jurisdictions exploring women’s pathways to prison, there is a relative dearth of methodologically robust research examining the possible gendered circumstances leading to imprisonment in Thailand. In this presentation, we will report preliminary findings from a qualitative study of women’s pathways to prison in Thailand. Our research aims were to ascertain: 1) the type, frequency, and context of criminal behavior that led to women’s incarceration, 2) women’s experiences of the criminal justice system, 3) the broader life experiences and circumstances that led women to prison in Thailand. In-depth life history interviews (n=77) were utilized to gain a comprehensive understanding of women’s journeys into prison. The interview schedule was open-ended consisting of prisoner responses to broad discussion topics. This approach provided women with the opportunity to describe significant experiences in their lives, to bring together distinct chronologies of events, and to analyze links between their varied life experiences, offending, and incarceration. Analyses showed that women’s journey’s to prison take one of eight pathways which tentatively labelled as follows, the: 1) harmed and harming pathway, 2) domestic/family violence victimization pathway, 3) drug connected pathway, 4) street woman pathway, 5) economically motivated pathway, 6) jealousy anger and/or revenge pathway, 7) naivety pathway, 8) unjust and/or corrupted criminal justice pathway. Each will be fully discussed during the presentation. This research is significant because it is the first in-depth methodologically robust exploration of women’s journeys to prison in Thailand and one of a few studies to explore gendered pathways outside of western contexts. Understanding women’s pathways into Thailand’s prisons is crucial to the development of effective planning, policy and program responses not only while women are in prison but also post-release. To best meet women’s needs in prison and effectively support their reintegration, we must have a comprehensive understanding of who these women are, what offenses they commit, the reasons that trigger their confrontations with the criminal justice system and the impact of the criminal justice system on them.

Keywords: pathways, prison, women, Thailand

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Authors: Ahmed Malki

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Breast cancer has been identified as the most lethal form of cancer today. In our study, we designed and screened 16 steviosides derivatives for their cytotoxic activities in MCF-7human breast cancer cells and normal MCF-12a cells. Our data indicated that steviosides derivatives 9 and 15 decreased cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in MCF-7 breast cancer cells more thannormal breast cells epithelial cells. Flow cytometric analysis showed that both steviosides, derivatives 9 and 15 arrested the MCF-7 cells in G1 phase, which is further confirmed by the increased expression level of p21. Moreover, both steviosides derivatives increased caspase-9 activity, and the induction of apoptosis was significantly reduced after treating cells with caspase-9 inhibitor LEHD-CHO. Both steviosides derivatives increased Caspase 3 activities and induced Parp-1 cleavage in H1299 cells. Based on previous results, we have identified two novel steviosides derivatives which provoked apoptosis in breast cancer cells by arresting cells in G1 phase and increasing caspase-9 and caspase-3 activities which merits further development and investigations.

Keywords: steviosides, breast cancer, p53, cell cycle

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Authors: Bassam Istanbouli

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Organizations are living in a very competitive and dynamic environment which is constantly changing. In order to achieve a high level of service, the products and processes of these organizations need to be flexible and evolvable. If the supply chains are not modular and well designed, changes can bring combinatorial effects to most areas of a company from its management, financial, documentation, logistics and its information structure. Applying the normalized system’s concept to segments of the supply chain may help in reducing those ripple effects, but it may also increase lead times. Lead times are important and can become a decisive element in gaining customers. Industries are always under the pressure in providing good quality products, at competitive prices, when and how the customer wants them. Most of the time, the customers want their orders now, if not yesterday. The above concept will be proven by examining lead times in a manufacturing example before and after applying normalized systems concept to that segment of the chain. We will then show that although we can minimize the combinatorial effects when changes occur, the lead times will be increased.

Keywords: supply chain, lead time, normalization, modular

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Authors: Mohammad F. Bostanudin, Tan S. Fei, Azwan M. Lazim

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Toward the development of colloidal systems that are able to enhance permeation across the skin, a material combining the non-toxic and non-immunogenic of dextran with alkylglycerols permeation enhancing property has been designed. To this purpose, a range of butylglyceryl dextrans (DEX-OX4) were synthesized via functionalization with n-butylglycidyl ether and the successful functionalization was confirmed by NMR and FT-IR spectroscopies, along with GPC with a degree of modification in the range 6.3–35.7 %. A reduced viscosity and an increased molecular weight of DEX-OX4 were also recorded when compared to that of the native dextran. DEX-OX4 was further formulated into nanocarriers and loaded with α-arbutin prior to be investigated for their particle size, morphology, stability, loading ability, and release profiles. The resulting nanoparticles were found to be close-to-spherical and relatively stable at pH 5 and 7, with size 180–220 nm (ζ-potential -22 to -25 mV), and a loading degree of 11.7 %. Lack of toxicity at application-relevant concentrations and increased permeation across skin biological membrane model were demonstrated by nanoparticles in-vitro results against immortalized skin human keratinocytes cells (HaCaT).

Keywords: butylglycerols, dextran, nanoparticles, transdermal

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Authors: Aliya K. Salahova

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Scientific thinking, characterized by purposeful knowledge-seeking and the harmonization of theory and facts, holds a crucial role in preparing young minds for an increasingly complex and technologically advanced world. This abstract presents a research study aimed at fostering scientific thinking in early childhood, focusing on children aged 5 to 9 years, through experiential learning in Kids Science Labs (STEM). The study utilized a longitudinal exploration design, spanning 240 weeks from September 2018 to April 2023, to evaluate the effectiveness of the Kids Science Labs program in developing scientific thinking skills. Participants in the research comprised 72 children drawn from local schools and community organizations. Through a formative psychology-pedagogical experiment, the experimental group engaged in weekly STEM activities carefully designed to stimulate scientific thinking, while the control group participated in daily art classes for comparison. To assess the scientific thinking abilities of the participants, a registration table with evaluation criteria was developed. This table included indicators such as depth of questioning, resource utilization in research, logical reasoning in hypotheses, procedural accuracy in experiments, and reflection on research processes. The data analysis revealed dynamic fluctuations in the number of children at different levels of scientific thinking proficiency. While the development was not uniform across all participants, a main leading factor emerged, indicating that the Kids Science Labs program and formative experiment exerted a positive impact on enhancing scientific thinking skills in children within this age range. The study's findings support the hypothesis that systematic implementation of STEM activities effectively promotes and nurtures scientific thinking in children aged 5-9 years. Enriching education with a specially planned STEM program, tailoring scientific activities to children's psychological development, and implementing well-planned diagnostic and corrective measures emerged as essential pedagogical conditions for enhancing scientific thinking abilities in this age group. The results highlight the significant and positive impact of the systematic-activity approach in developing scientific thinking, leading to notable progress and growth in children's scientific thinking abilities over time. These findings have promising implications for educators and researchers, emphasizing the importance of incorporating STEM activities into educational curricula to foster scientific thinking from an early age. This study contributes valuable insights to the field of science education and underscores the potential of STEM-based interventions in shaping the future scientific minds of young children.

Keywords: Scientific thinking, education, STEM, intervention, Psychology, Pedagogy, collaborative learning, longitudinal study

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Authors: Karim Hamidi Machekposhti, Hossein Sedghi

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This study was designed to find the best-fit probability distribution of annual rainfall based on 50 years sample (1966-2015) in the Karkheh river basin at Iran using six probability distributions: Normal, 2-Parameter Log Normal, 3-Parameter Log Normal, Pearson Type 3, Log Pearson Type 3 and Gumbel distribution. The best fit probability distribution was selected using Stormwater Management and Design Aid (SMADA) software and based on the Residual Sum of Squares (R.S.S) between observed and estimated values Based on the R.S.S values of fit tests, the Log Pearson Type 3 and then Pearson Type 3 distributions were found to be the best-fit probability distribution at the Jelogir Majin and Pole Zal rainfall gauging station. The annual values of expected rainfall were calculated using the best fit probability distributions and can be used by hydrologists and design engineers in future research at studied region and other region in the world.

Keywords: Log Pearson Type 3, SMADA, rainfall, Karkheh River

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Authors: Pedro Mauricio Acosta, Carlos Andrés Caro

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This research presents the regionalization of IDF curves for the department of Boyacá, Colombia, which comprises 16 towns, including the provincial capital, Tunja. For regionalization adjustment parameters (U and alpha) of the IDF curves stations referred to in the studied area were used. Similar regionalization is used by the interpolation of intensities. In the case of regionalization by parameters found by the construction of the curves intensity, duration and frequency estimation methods using ordinary moments and maximum likelihood. Regionalization and interpolation of data were performed with the assistance of Arcgis software. Within the development of the project the best choice to provide a level of reliability such as to determine which of the options and ways to regionalize is best sought. The resulting isolines maps were made in the case of regionalization intensities, each map is associated with a different return period and duration in order to build IDF curves in the studied area. In the case of the regionalization maps parameters associated with each parameter were performed last.

Keywords: intensity duration, frequency curves, regionalization, hydrology

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Authors: Kawai Nobuaki

Abstract:

This paper describes the design and implementation of web system for continuable and viable collaboration. This study proposes the improvement of the system based on a result of a certain practice. As contemporary higher education information environments transform, this study highlights the significance of university identity and college identity that are formed continuously through independent activities of the students. Based on these discussions, the present study proposes a practical media environment design which facilitates the processes of organizational identity formation based on a continuous and cyclical model. Even if users change by this system, the communication system continues operation and cooperation. The activity becomes the archive and produces new activity. Based on the result, this study elaborates a plan with a re-design by a system from the viewpoint of second-order cybernetics. Systems theory is a theoretical foundation for our study.

Keywords: collaborative work, learning management system, second-order cybernetics, systems theory, user generated contents, viable system model

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Authors: Sandabad Sara, Sayd Tahri Yassine, Hammouch Ahmed

Abstract:

The development of science has allowed computer scientists to touch the medicine and bring aid to radiologists as we are presenting it in our article. Our work focuses on the detection and localization of tumors areas in the human brain; this will be a completely automatic without any human intervention. In front of the huge volume of MRI to be treated per day, the radiologist can spend hours and hours providing a tremendous effort. This burden has become less heavy with the automation of this step. In this article we present an automatic and effective tumor detection, this work consists of two steps: the first is the image filtering using the filter Nl-means, then applying the expectation maximization algorithm (EM) for retrieving the tumor mask from the brain MRI and extracting the tumor area using the mask obtained from the second step. To prove the effectiveness of this method multiple evaluation criteria will be used, so that we can compare our method to frequently extraction methods used in the literature.

Keywords: MRI, Em algorithm, brain, tumor, Nl-means

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Authors: Lenka Markovičová, Viera Zatkalíková, Tomasz Garbacz

Abstract:

The development of composite materials and the related design and manufacturing technologies is one of the most important advances in the history of materials. Composites are multifunctional materials having unprecedented mechanical and physical properties that can be tailored to meet the requirements of a particular application. Some composites also exhibit great resistance to high-temperature corrosion, oxidation, and wear. Polymers are widely used indoors and outdoors, therefore they are exposed to a chemical environment which may include atmospheric oxygen, acidic fumes, acidic rain, moisture heat and thermal shock, ultra-violet light, high energy radiation, etc. Different polymers are affected differently by these factors even though the amorphous polymers are more sensitive. Ageing is also important and it is defined as the process of deterioration of engineering materials resulting from the combined effects of atmospheric radiation, heat, oxygen, water, micro-organisms and other atmospheric factors.

Keywords: composites with glass fibers, mechanical properties, polyamides, UV degradation

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Authors: Fakhreddin El Wali Elalaoui, Maatouk Mustapha

Abstract:

The problem of global climate change isbecoming more and more serious. Therefore, there is a growing interest in renewable energy sources to minimize the impact of this phenomenon. Environmental policies are changing in different countries, including Morocco, with a greater focus on the integration and development of renewable energy projects. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of solar power plants in Morocco based on two technologies: concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaics (PV). In order to perform an accurate search, we must follow a certain method to select the correct criteria. Four selection criteria were retained: climate, topography, location, and water resources. AnalyticHierarchy Process (AHP) was used to calculate the weight/importance of each criterion. Once obtained, weights are applied to the map for each criterion to produce a final ranking that ranks regions according to their potential. The results show that Morocco has strong potential for both technologies, especially in the southern region. Finally, this work is the first in the field to include the whole of Morocco in the study area.

Keywords: PV, Csp, solar energy, GIS

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Authors: Fred Fudah Moveh, Muhammad Abba Jallo

Abstract:

Electoral fraud remains a persistent threat to democracy in Nigeria, undermining public trust and stalling political development. This study explores the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in curbing electoral fraud, focusing on its application in recent Nigerian elections. The paper identifies the main forms of electoral fraud, evaluates the effectiveness of ICT-based interventions like the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) and the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and discusses challenges such as poor infrastructure, voter intimidation, and legal inadequacies. Data was collected through structured questionnaires and interviews and analyzed using SPSS software. Results reveal that while ICT has mitigated some forms of fraud, systemic issues continue to hinder its full potential. The study concludes with recommendations for enhancing the application of ICT in Nigeria’s electoral process.

Keywords: ICT, electoral fraud, election process, Nigeria, political instability

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Authors: Sezgi Isik, Yasin Urersoy, Gizem Ustunel, Ilkyaz Yalcin

Abstract:

Improvement of the digital tile application, lots of process revolutions have occurred in the tile production. In order to create unique and inimitable designs, all the competitors start to try different applications. Both Europian and domestic ceramic producers focus on the deep and realistic surfaces. In this study, the trend of engoglaze, which is becoming widespread in glaze porcelain tile designs to create the most intensive colours, were investigated. The aim of the study is to develop engoglaze formulation that supports digital ink activation. Thermal expansion coefficient values were determined by a dilatometer. Chemical analyses and sintering behaviors of engoglazes were made by X-ray diffraction and heat microscopy analysis. According to these glaze formulation studies, it has been reported that using engoglaze could easily reduce the digital ink consumption of the design. On the other hand, the advantage of the production cost is gained, and deepness of the design is provided.

Keywords: ceramic, engoglaze, digital ink activation, glazed porcelain tile

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Authors: M. Volpini, D. Alves, A. Horta, M. Borges, P. Reis

Abstract:

The gait pattern in people that present motor limitations foment the demand for auxiliary locomotion devices. These artifacts for movement assistance vary according to its shape, size and functional features, following the clinical applications desired. Among the ortheses of lower limbs, the ankle-foot orthesis aims to improve the ability to walk in people with different neuromuscular limitations, although they do not always answer patients' expectations for their aesthetic and functional characteristics. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of using new design in additive manufacturer to reproduce the shape and functional features of a ankle-foot orthesis in an efficient and modern way. Therefore, this work presents a study about the performance of the mechanical forces through the analysis of finite elements in an ankle-foot orthesis. It will be demonstrated a study of distribution of the stress on the orthopedic device in orthostatism and during the movement in the course of patient's walk.

Keywords: additive manufacture, new designs, orthoses, finite elements

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Authors: Amritpal Slaich, Mark Elshaw

Abstract:

This paper explores the development of a decision support framework for the introduction of business intelligence (BI) through operational research techniques for application by SMEs. Aligned with the goals of the new Midlands Enterprise Initiative of improving the skill levels of the Midlands workforce and addressing high levels of regional unemployment, we have developed a framework to increase the level of business intelligence used by SMEs to improve business decision-making. Many SMEs in the Midlands fail due to the lack of high quality decision making. Our framework outlines how universities can: engage with SMEs in the use of BI through operational research techniques; develop appropriate and easy to use Excel spreadsheet models; and make use of a process to allow SMEs to feedback their findings of the models. Future work will determine how well the framework performs in getting SMEs to apply BI to improve their decision-making performance.

Keywords: SMEs, decision support framework, business intelligence, operational research techniques

Procedia PDF Downloads 463