Search results for: secular perspective

Authors: Anjuman Antil, Anuj Kapoor, Neha Saini

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the evolution of insurance in India and the world. The paper also traced the historical basis of life insurance in the world and how it emerged as a major sector in India’s economy. The promotional strategies and distribution channel of top three companies in the Indian insurance sector are also discussed. Design/methodology/approach: The paper examined the secondary data which includes the reports issued by Insurance Regulatory Authority of India, websites of companies, books, and journals relevant to the study. Findings: The paper argued the role and importance of insurance in an emerging economy. The challenges and opportunities of the insurance sector are briefed out. The emerging areas in the insurance sector in terms of promotional strategies and distribution channel are also listed. Implications: The historical evolution can be studied by companies while formulating their strategies. It will help them analyse the insurance sector, how things have changed and how to change with the changing times. Originality/value: This paper gives comprehensive data regarding the background of the insurance sector. Along with historical perspective, marketing and distribution, current and future trends have been discussed.

Keywords: insurance, evolution, life insurance, marketing, distribution channels

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Authors: Andrew Hardman, Alistair T. McIlhagger, Edward Archer

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A degree of research has been undertaken in the determination of 3D textile preforms behaviour to compression with direct comparison to 2D counterparts. Multiscale simulations have been developed to try and accurately analyse the behaviour of varying architectures post-consolidation. However, further understanding is required to experimentally identify the mechanisms and deformations that exist upon conforming to a complex contour. Due to the complexity of 3D textile preforms, determination of yarn behaviour to a complex contour is assessed through consolidation by means of vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM), and the resulting mechanisms are investigated by micrograph analysis. Varying architectures; with known areal densities, pic density and thicknesses are assessed for a cohesive study. The resulting performance of each is assessed qualitatively as well as quantitatively from the perspective of material in terms of the change in representative unit cell (RVE) across the curved beam contour, in crimp percentage, tow angle, resin rich areas and binder distortion. A novel textile is developed from the resulting analysis to overcome the observed deformations.

Keywords: comformability, compression, binder architecture, 3D weaving, textile preform

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Authors: Cynthia Mahadi, Norhafezah Kasmuri

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Water scarcity is a growing issue these days. As a result, saltwater is being considered a limitless supply of fresh water through the desalination process, which is likely to address the worldwide water crisis, including in Malaysia. This study aims to offer the best management practice for controlling brine discharge in Malaysia by comparing environmental regulations on brine waste management in other countries. Then, a survey was distributed to the public to acquire further information about their level of awareness of the harmful effects of brine waste and to find out their perspective on the proposed solutions to ensure the effectiveness of the measures. As a result, it has been revealed that Malaysia still lacks regulations regarding the disposal of brine waste. Thus, a recommendation based on practices in other nations has been put forth by this study. This study suggests that the government and Malaysia's environmental regulatory body should govern brine waste disposal in the Environmental Quality Act 1974. Also, to add the construction of a desalination plant in Schedule 1 of prescribed activities was necessary. Because desalination plants can harm the environment during both construction and operation, every proposal for the construction of a desalination plant should involve the submission of an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

Keywords: seawater desalination, brine waste, environmental impact assessment, fuzzy Delphi method

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Authors: K. C. Iyer, Yogita Manan Bindal, Sumit Kumar Bakshi

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Disputes and litigation are becoming inherent to the construction industry in India, and despite construction being one of the major drivers of growth, there have not been many reforms in the government construction contracts. Many of the disputes arising from the government contracts, can be avoided by the proper drafting of contracts and their administration. This study aims to 1) identify the best practices in the construction contract as reviewed from the research papers and additional literature on contract management, 2) obtain perspectives from the industry experts on the implementation of these best practices with regards to likely challenges and relative benefits for implementing the best practices in construction contracts. The best practices for disputes arising due to delay events have been identified through extensive literature survey. The industry perspective is gathered by way of a questionnaire survey to understand the applicability of the identified best practices, the benefits that are likely to be obtained and the challenges that are likely to be faced in the implementation of these practices. The study concludes with the recommended best practices that can be implemented based on the perspectives obtained from the survey. The findings of the study can be used by the industry professionals while drafting construction contracts with a view to avoid disputes related to delay events.

Keywords: best practices, construction contract, delay, dispute avoidance

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Authors: B. A. A. Paixão, J. V. B. Gomide

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This work aims to analyze the locative structure used by the locative games of the company Niantic. To fulfill this objective, a literature review on the representation and simulation of cities was developed; interviews with Ingress players and playing Ingress. Relating these data, it was possible to deepen the relationship between the virtual and the real to create the simulation of cities and their cultural objects in locative games. Cities representation associates geo-location provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS), with augmented reality and digital image, and provides a new paradigm in the city interaction with its parts and real and virtual world elements, homeomorphic to real world. Bibliographic review of papers related to the representation and simulation study and their application in locative games was carried out and is presented in the present paper. The cities representation and simulation concepts in locative games, and how this setting enables the flow and immersion in urban space, are analyzed. Some examples of games are discussed for this new setting development, which is a mix of real and virtual world. Finally, it was proposed a Locative Structure for electronic games using the concepts of heterotrophic representations and isotropic representations conjoined with immediacy and hypermediacy.

Keywords: cities representation, cities simulation, games simulation, immersion, locative games

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Authors: Yao Chen

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Empathy is crucial for teachers working with teenagers in secondary school. Despite that, little attention was paid to English language teachers’ experiences of empathy in class. Empathy contains cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components that are manifested in the teaching practice. The qualitative study focused on how Chinese ELT teachers expressed empathy in interaction with students in public high schools and private institutions and what factors might lead them to show empathy in different ways. Four participants were invited to attend the individual interviews to share their stories about their empathic experiences. Classroom observation was conducted to investigate teachers’ language use in teaching and non-verbal communication with students to witness their behavior of expressing empathy. Through thematic analysis, three main themes relevant to different types of empathy in teachers’ interaction with students were generated: 1) perspective taking, 2) emotional connections, 3) action taking. Based on the participants’ statements of their personal experiences, the discussion concluded the reasons for their differences in expressing empathy. The result underlined the significance of the role of empathy in building a rapport with students and motivating their language learning. Further implications for the role of empathy in ELT teachers’ professional development are also discussed.

Keywords: teacher empathy, experiences, interaction with students, ELT class

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Authors: Elahe Moradi, Hossein Ali Khonakdar

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In the context of the growing interest in renewable polymers, this study presents an innovative approach to environmental conservation through the development of an eco-friendly structure. The research focused on enhancing the compatibility between two immiscible polymers, poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), using polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) nanoparticles with an epoxy functional group (Epoxy-POSS). This was achieved through a solution casting method. The study found that the modulus in the glassy region for blends containing Epoxy-POSS was significantly higher than that of the PLA/PBAT blend without Epoxy-POSS. However, in the transition and rubbery regions, the modulus of the Epoxy-POSS-containing blends was only marginally greater. From a mechanical properties’ perspective, the study demonstrated that the incorporation of POSS-EPOXY at varying concentrations enhanced the tensile strength of the PLA/PBAT blend by 30%, thereby acting as a reinforcement. This finding underscores the potential of this approach in the development of renewable polymers.

Keywords: Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane, mechanical behavior, PLA, PBAT, nanocomposite

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Authors: Dominik Krimpmann

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Cloud computing has provided the impetus for change in the demand, sourcing, and consumption of IT-enabled services. The technology developed from an emerging trend towards a ‘must-have’. Many organizations harnessed on the quick-wins of cloud computing within the last five years but nowadays reach a plateau when it comes to sustainable savings and performance. This study aims to investigate what is needed from an organizational perspective to make cloud computing a sustainable success. The study was carried out in Germany among senior IT professionals, both in management and delivery positions. Our research shows that IT executives must be prepared to realign their IT workforce to sustain the advantage of cloud computing for today and the near future. While new roles will undoubtedly emerge, roles alone cannot ensure the success of cloud deployments. What is needed is a change in the IT workforce’s business behaviour, or put more simply, the ways in which the IT personnel works. It gives clear guidance on which dimensions of an employees’ working behaviour need to be adapted. The practical implications are drawn from a series of semi-structured interviews, resulting in a high-level workforce enablement plan. Lastly, it elaborates on tools and gives clear guidance on which pitfalls might arise along the proposed workforce enablement process.

Keywords: cloud computing, organization design, organizational change, workforce enablement

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Authors: Daniel Schimmelpfennig

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This paper attempts to delineate the idea to curate the leveling up for whole-systems change. Curation is the act fo select, organize, look after, or present information from a professional point of view through expert knowledge. The trans-paradigmatic, trans-contextual, trans-disciplinary, trans-perspective of trans-media futures studies hopes to enable a move from a monochrome intellectual pursuit towards breathing a higher dimensionality. Progressing to the next level to equip actors for whole-systems change is in consideration of the commonly known symptoms of our time as well as in anticipation of future challenges, both a necessity and desirability. Systems of collective intelligence could potentially scale regenerative, adaptive, and anticipatory capacities. How could such a curation then be enacted and implemented, to initiate the process of leveling-up? The suggestion here is to focus on the metasystem transition, the bio-digital fusion, namely, by merging neurosciences, the ontological design of money as our operating system, and our understanding of the billions of years of time-proven permutations in nature, biomimicry, and biological metaphors like symbiogenesis. Evolutionary cybernetics accompanies the process of whole-systems change.

Keywords: bio-digital fusion, evolutionary cybernetics, metasystem transition, symbiogenesis, transmedia futures studies

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Authors: Ruijuan Bi

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Discrimination in insurance pricing is a topic of increasing concern, particularly in the context of the rapid development of big data and artificial intelligence. There is a need to explore the various forms of discrimination, such as direct and indirect discrimination, proxy discrimination, algorithmic discrimination, and unfair discrimination, and understand their implications in insurance pricing models. This paper aims to analyze and interpret the definitions of discrimination in insurance pricing and explore measures to reduce discrimination. It utilizes a textual analysis methodology, which involves gathering qualitative data from relevant literature on definitions of discrimination. The research methodology focuses on exploring the various forms of discrimination and their implications in insurance pricing models. Through textual analysis, this paper identifies the specific characteristics and implications of each form of discrimination in the general insurance industry. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of discrimination in insurance pricing. By analyzing and interpreting relevant literature, this paper provides insights into the definitions of discrimination and the laws and regulations surrounding it. This theoretical foundation can inform future empirical research on discrimination in insurance pricing using relevant theories of probability theory.

Keywords: algorithmic discrimination, direct and indirect discrimination, proxy discrimination, unfair discrimination, insurance pricing

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Authors: Sibo Lu, Zhongkai Qian

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This study endeavors to articulate a spectrum of capitalist transformation from a politico-economic perspective, categorizing the development of capitalism into pre-modern, modern, and post-modern stages while examining the transitions between these states. It critically engages with the concepts of pre-modernity, modernity, and post-modernity, typically aligned with cultural studies, to shed light on their objective changes in the politico-economic realm. Post-modernity, in this context, is associated with the transition to high-value-added services and economic growth in ‘developed’ countries amidst globalization, framing a ‘neoliberal’ economic transformation. The paper scrutinizes the neoliberal economic shifts in the latter half of the 20th century as part of the post-modern state, arguing against viewing post-modernity merely as a cultural or subjective interpretative stance. Instead, it is posited as a concrete politico-economic phase marked by the dominance of post-Fordist systems. Through integrating insights from the political economy with continental philosophy, this research provides a nuanced analysis of capitalism's evolution, challenging conventional class analyses under the capitalist system and fostering a broader understanding of socio-economic paradigms.

Keywords: post marxism, critical theory, political economy, capitalism transformation

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Authors: A. Kolendo

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Pacific Islands are one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change. Sea level rise and accelerating storm surge continuously threaten the communities' habitats on low-lying atolls. With scientific predictions of encroaching tides on their land, the Islanders have been informed about the need for future relocation planning. However, some communities oppose such retreat strategies through the reasoning that comprehends current climatic changes through the lenses of the biblical ark of Noah. This parable states God's promise never to flood the Earth again and never deprive people of their land and habitats. Several interpretations of this parable emerged in Oceania, prompting either climate action or denial. Resistance to relocation planning expressed through Christian thoughts led religion to be perceived as a barrier to dialogue between the Islanders and scientists. Since climate change concerns natural processes, the attitudes towards environmental stewardship prompt the communities' responses to it; some Christian teachings indicate humanity's responsibility over the environment, whereas others ascertain the people's dominion, which prompts resistance and sometimes denial. With church denominations and their various environmental standpoints, competing responses to climate change emerged in Oceania. Before miss-ionization, traditional knowledge had guided the environmental sphere, influencing current Christian teachings. Each atoll characterizes a distinctive manner of traditional knowledge; however, the unique relationship with nature unites all islands. The interconnectedness between the land, sea and people indicates the integrity between the communities and their environments. Such a factor influences the comprehension of Noah's story in the context of climate change that threatens their habitats. Pacific Islanders experience climate change through the slow disappearance of their homelands. However, the Western world perceives it as a global issue that will affect the population in the long-term perspective. Therefore, the Islanders seek to comprehend this global phenomenon in a local context that reads climate change as the Great Deluge. Accordingly, the safety measures that this parable promotes compensate for the danger of climate change. The rainbow covenant gives hope in God's promise never to flood the Earth again. At the same time, Noah's survival relates to the Islanders' current situation. Since these communities have the lowest carbon emissions rate, their contribution to anthropogenic climate change is scarce. Therefore, the lack of environmental sin would contextualize them as contemporary Noah with the ultimate survival of sea level rise. This study aims to defy religion constituting a barrier through secondary data analysis from a risk compensation perspective. Instead, religion is portrayed as a source of knowledge that enables comprehension of the communities' situation. By demonstrating that the Pacific Islanders utilize Noah's story as a vessel for coping with the danger of climate change, the study argues that religion provides safety measures that compensate for the future projections of land's disappearance. The purpose is to build a bridge between religious communities and scientific bodies and ultimately bring an understanding of two diverse perspectives. By addressing the practical challenges of interdisciplinary research with faith-based systems, this study uplifts the voices of communities and portrays their experiences expressed through Christian thoughts.

Keywords: Christianity, climate change, existential threat, Pacific Islands, story of Noah

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Authors: Bilgehan Gultekin, Tuba Gultekin

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Diplomatic public relations gives an ideal concept for recognition of palestine state in all over the europe. The first step of official recognition is approval of palestine state in international political organisations such as United Nations and Nato. So, diplomatic public relations provides a recognition process in communication scale. One of the aims of the study titled “Diplomatic Public Relations Techniques for Recognition of Palestine State in Europe” is to present some communication projects on diplomatic way. The study also aims at showing communication process at diplomatic level. The most important level of such kind of diplomacy is society based diplomacy. Moreover,The study provides a wider perspective that gives some creative diplomatic communication strategies for attracting society. To persuade the public for official recognition also is key element of this process. The study also finds new communication routes including persuasion techniques for society. All creative projects are supporting parts in original persuasive process of official recognition of Palestine.

Keywords: diplomatic public relations, diplomatic communication strategies, diplomatic communication, public relations

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Authors: Mohammad Alnasrallah, Muhammad Almatar

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This study seeks to understand the relationship between the effect of geography and obesity prevalence among Kuwait University students. The sample involved 735 participants, 231 male, and 504 females, where there is a high percentage of them are overweight and obese. The percentage of overweight is 21% (BMI >25 - 30) while the percentage of obesity is 13.7% (BMI > 30). Both overweight and obese people account for 34.7%. In the study area, there are 327 fast food restaurants located in different places of in the urban area. This study uses the Geographic Information System to analyze the distribution of obesity and fast food restaurants. The study found that within half kilometers of fast food outlets, there are 33% of normal weight (BMI < 25), 30% of overweight while for the obese people there are 43 %, which shows that obesity is linked to the location of fast food restaurants. One of the significant tools that were used in this study hot and cold spots. The study found that areas of hot spots of fast food restaurants tend to be located in areas of hot spots of obese people. In conclusion, studying the prevalence of obesity from geographical perspective help to understand this public health issue and its relation to the effect of geography.

Keywords: obesity prevalence, GIS, fast food, Kuwait

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Authors: Kasun P. Wijayaratna, Lauren Gardner, Taha Hossein Rashidi

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Undergraduate students entering university across the last 2 to 3 years tend to be born during the middle years of the 1990s. This generation of students has been exposed to the internet and the desire and dependency on technology since childhood. Brains develop based on environmental influences and technology has wired this generation of student to be attuned to sophisticated complex visual imagery, indicating visual forms of learning may be more effective than the traditional lecture or discussion formats. Furthermore, post-millennials perspectives on career are not focused solely on stability and income but are strongly driven by interest, entrepreneurship and innovation. Accordingly, it is important for educators to acknowledge the generational shift and tailor the delivery of learning material to meet the expectations of the students and the needs of industry. In the context of transport engineering, effectively teaching undergraduate students the basic principles of transport planning, traffic engineering and highway design is fundamental to the progression of the profession from a practice and research perspective. Recent developments in technology have transformed the discipline as practitioners and researchers move away from the traditional “pen and paper” approach to methods involving the use of computer programs and simulation. Further, enhanced accessibility of technology for students has changed the way they understand and learn material being delivered at tertiary education institutions. As a consequence, blended learning approaches, which aim to integrate face to face teaching with flexible self-paced learning resources, have become prevalent to provide scalable education that satisfies the expectations of students. This research study involved the development of a series of ‘Blended Learning’ initiatives implemented within an introductory transport planning and geometric design course, CVEN2401: Sustainable Transport and Highway Engineering, taught at the University of New South Wales, Australia. CVEN2401 was modified by conducting interactive polling exercises during lectures, including weekly online quizzes, offering a series of supplementary learning videos, and implementing a realistic design project that students needed to complete using modelling software that is widely used in practice. These activities and resources were aimed to improve the learning environment for a large class size in excess of 450 students and to ensure that practical industry valued skills were introduced. The case study compared the 2016 and 2017 student cohorts based on their performance across assessment tasks as well as their reception to the material revealed through student feedback surveys. The initiatives were well received with a number of students commenting on the ability to complete self-paced learning and an appreciation of the exposure to a realistic design project. From an educator’s perspective, blending the course made it feasible to interact and engage with students. Personalised learning opportunities were made available whilst delivering a considerable volume of complex content essential for all undergraduate Civil and Environmental Engineering students. Overall, this case study highlights the value of blended learning initiatives, especially in the context of large class size university courses.

Keywords: blended learning, highway design, teaching, transport planning

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Authors: Yemi Mahmud

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Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols as significations in a communication process. Television advertisement combines verbal and nonverbal signs to apprise consumers of products’ deliverables. This makes the language of television advertisement an important area of semiotic research. This paper focuses on nonverbal signs in television advertisement in purposively selected advertisements of two Nivea beauty products television advertisements: New Nivea Natural Fairness and Nivea Natural Fairness Lotion in Nigeria to investigate signs in meaning construction. It studies the interpretative realities of the signification of the nonverbal signs in television advertisements in Nigeria; examining signs in relation to the embedded and contextual meanings they are capable of exhuming vis-a-vis, viewers’ social and cultural senses extrapolated to draw inferences. The paper anchors its research on visual rhetorics and concludes that signs, as nonverbal elements in television advertisements, form part of the entire linguistic system of meaning transmission, noting that interpretations do not rely, solely, on the intrinsic properties of signs as signifiers, but on the imbued sociocultural elements that suggest meaning to viewers.

Keywords: Nivea, nonverbal signs, semiotics, signification, signifiers, television advertisement

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Authors: S. Bouchami, M.N. Lakhoua

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The automotive market is a dynamic market that continues to grow. That’s why several companies belonging to this sector adopt a quality improvement approach. Wanting to be competitive and successful in the environment in which they operate, these companies are dedicated to establishing a system of quality management to ensure the achievement of the objective quality, improving the products and process as well as the satisfaction of the customers. In this paper, the management of the quality and the improvement of a production line in an industrial company is presented. In fact, the project is divided into two essential parts: the creation of the technical line documentation and the quality assurance documentation and the resolution of defects at the line, as well as those claimed by the customer. The creation of the documents has required a deep understanding of the manufacturing process. The analysis and problem solving were done through the implementation of PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) and FTA (Fault Tree Analysis). As perspective, in order to better optimize production and improve the efficiency of the production line, a study on the problems associated with the supply of raw materials should be made to solve the problems of stock-outs which cause delays penalizing for the industrial company.

Keywords: quality management, documentary system, Plan Do Check Act (PDCA), fault tree analysis (FTA) method

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Authors: Zhou Mo, Dennis Chow

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In the dynamic positioning system (DPS) for vessels, the reliable information transmission between each note basically relies on the wireless protocols. From the perspective of cluster-based routing protocols for wireless sensor networks, the data fusion technology based on the sleep scheduling mechanism and remaining energy in network layer is proposed, which applies the sleep scheduling mechanism to the routing protocols, considering the remaining energy of node and location information when selecting cluster-head. The problem of uneven distribution of nodes in each cluster is solved by the Equilibrium. At the same time, Classified Forwarding Mechanism as well as Redelivery Policy strategy is adopted to avoid congestion in the transmission of huge amount of data, reduce the delay in data delivery and enhance the real-time response. In this paper, a simulation test is conducted to improve the routing protocols, which turn out to reduce the energy consumption of nodes and increase the efficiency of data delivery.

Keywords: DPS for vessel, wireless sensor network, data fusion, routing protocols

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Authors: Nasir Ahmed

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The study was designed to explore the managerial practices of secondary school principals in collaboration with different school stakeholder’s i.e. Teachers, students and school councils. The population of the study comprised 41 principals of government secondary schools, 249 Secondary school teachers (SSTs), 3360 students of 10th class and 300 members of the school councils of government secondary schools (both boys and girls) in Wazirabad, Pakistan. 50 percentage principals, 40 percentage SSTs, 3 percentage students and 15% members of the school councils were taken as a sample of the study. Data was collected through different four-questionnaire design on a five point rating scale. The questionnaires for teachers, students, and school councils were developed to see their involvement in school management. The questionnaire for the secondary school principals was designed to find out to see their perceptions about the involvement of these stakeholders in school’s management. The results of the students indicated that, the remaining stakeholders were not cooperating with the school management. It was recommended that all the stakeholders be provided equal opportunities to take an active part in the school management. This may be based on a formal mechanism for the collaborative efforts of all the stakeholders.

Keywords: collaboration, management, school stakeholders, school councils, managerial practices

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Authors: Jiaqi Zhang, Zhi Dong, Pan Xing

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With the continuous development of urban agglomerations, higher demands are placed on intercity public transport travel services. To improve these services, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the views and evaluations of travelers. Taking the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration in China as the object, this study explores subjective attitude indicators from self-administrated survey data and examines the relationship among perceived accessibility, preference, and satisfaction for intercity public transport using a structural equation model. The results show that perceived service quality has a direct positive impact on perceived accessibility and satisfaction. Perceived accessibility and preference significantly affect satisfaction. In addition, perceived accessibility mediates the effect of service quality on satisfaction. This study provides valuable insights from a policy perspective to improve the subjective evaluation of intercity public transport travelers while emphasizing the importance of subjective variables in transport system evaluation and advocates for their subdivision to more comprehensively improve the travel experience.

Keywords: intercity public transport, perceived accessibility, satisfaction, structural equation model

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Authors: Olokode Enitan Aishat

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People can perform to the best of their abilities and produce the highest-quality work most effectively and efficiently with the aid of performance management tools. The performance, goal-setting, activation, monitoring, measurement, and evaluation aspects of hospitality operations are key. The hospitality industry, the investors, and management would become irrelevant without performance since the industry would no longer be viable. The goal of this study is to elucidate the quandary for both management and investor, which derives from an intrinsic perspective in which both parties seek to reach and exceed goals while maximizing returns on investment. The desire for achievement and a return on investment is a major conundrum for all parties concerned. It is envisaged that there would be returns on the investments and expenses made in maintaining hospitality facilities with human resources. Secondary research was used to develop the theoretical framework. A random sample of respondents from hotels employee and investors within the city of Abuja was used to collect data, which was then analyzed using SPSS. This study confirms the validity of simple and straightforward common misunderstandings and provides tried and tested strategies for understanding and working together as a team among managers and owners in a business, as this would guarantee a return for business owners and management.

Keywords: performance management, hospitality industry, conflict, alignment of key performance indicator

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Authors: Ahasanul Haque, Abdullah Sarwar, Khaliq Ahmed

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Networking is important among students to achieve better understanding. Social networking plays an important role in the education. Realizing its huge potential, various organizations, including institutions of higher learning have moved to the area of social networks to interact with their students especially through Facebook. Therefore, measuring the effectiveness of Facebook as a learning tool has become an area of interest to academicians and researchers. Therefore, this study tried to integrate and propose new theoretical and empirical evidences by linking the western idea of adopting Facebook as an alternative learning platform from a Malaysian perspective. This study, thus, aimed to fill a gap by being among the pioneering research that tries to study the effectiveness of adopting Facebook as a learning platform across other cultural settings, namely Malaysia. Structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis and hypothesis testing. This study findings have provided some insights that would likely affect students’ awareness towards using Facebook as an alternative learning platform in the Malaysian higher learning institutions. At the end, future direction is proposed.

Keywords: Learning Management Tool, social networking, education, Malaysia

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Authors: Khaled Halimi, Hassina Seridi-Bouchelaghem

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The purpose of this paper is to describe how learning analytics approaches based on social semantic web techniques can be applied to enhance the lifelong learning experiences in a connectivist perspective. For this reason, a prototype of a system called SoLearn (Social Learning Environment) that supports this approach. We observed and studied literature related to lifelong learning systems, social semantic web and ontologies, connectivism theory, learning analytics approaches and reviewed implemented systems based on these fields to extract and draw conclusions about necessary features for enhancing the lifelong learning process. The semantic analytics of learning can be used for viewing, studying and analysing the massive data generated by learners, which helps them to understand through recommendations, charts and figures their learning and behaviour, and to detect where they have weaknesses or limitations. This paper emphasises that implementing a learning analytics approach based on social semantic web representations can enhance the learning process. From one hand, the analysis process leverages the meaning expressed by semantics presented in the ontology (relationships between concepts). From the other hand, the analysis process exploits the discovery of new knowledge by means of inferring mechanism of the semantic web.

Keywords: connectivism, learning analytics, lifelong learning, social semantic web

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Authors: Luo Jin China, Jin Fang

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Countryside has been generally recognized and regarded as a characteristic symbol which presents in human memory for a long time. As a result of the change of times, because of it’s failure to meet the growing needs of the growing life and mental decline, the vast rural area began to decline. But their history feature image which accumulated by the ancient tradition provides people with the origins of existence on the spiritual level, such as "identity" and "belonging", makes people closer to the others in the spiritual and psychological aspects of a common experience about the past, thus the sense of a lack of culture caused by the losing of memory symbols is weakened. So, in the modernization process, how to repair its vitality and transform and planning it in a sustainable way has become a hot topics in architectural and urban planning. This paper aims to break the constraints of disciplines, from the perspective of interdiscipline, using the research methods of systems science to analyze and discuss the theories and methods of rural form factors, which based on the viewpoint of memory in psychology. So, we can find a right way to transform the Rural to give full play to the role of the countryside in the actual use and the shape of history spirits.

Keywords: rural, sustainable renovation, restoration, psychology, memory

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Authors: Hsiao-Yung Wang

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This paper aims to elaborate methodology of visual rhetoric with constant reference to Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of “chronotope”. First, it attempts to outline Ronald Barthes, the most representative scholar of visual rhetoric and structuralism, perspective on visual rhetoric and its time-space category by referring to the concurrent word-image, the symbolic systematicity, the outer dialogicity. Second, an alternative approach is explored for grasping the dynamics and functions of visual rhetoric by articulating Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of “chronotope.” Furthermore, that visual rhetorical consciousness could be identified as “the meaning parabola which projects from word to image,” “the symbolic system which proceeds from sequence to disorder,” “the ideological environment which struggles from the local to the global.” Last but not least, primary vision of the 2014 Taipei LGBT parade would be analyzed preliminarily to evaluate the effectiveness and persuasiveness embodied by specific visual rhetorical strategies. How Bakhtin’s concept of “chronotope” to explain the potential or possible ideological struggle deployed by visual rhetoric might be interpreted empirically and extensively.

Keywords: barthes, chronotope, Mikhail Bakhtin, Taipei LGBT parade, visual rhetoric

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Authors: Christiana Fwenji Zumyil, Toma Maina Antip

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Environmental Science subject is currently not an independent subject taught in secondary schools in Nigeria like Biology, Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Geography and other subjects that students take final exams (West Africa Examination Council, WAEC, National Examination Council, NEC, National Board for Technical Education, NABTED)., on it but its elements/topics/contents are integrated into the curriculum of the subjects mentioned, and because of that, it becomes difficult to know what should be taught and how it should be taught. Currently, it is still difficult to implement student-centered strategies in the classroom. Through this study, we sought to diagnose the difficulties, advantages and perceptions that Environmental Teachers experience when conceiving and implementing Science-Technology-Society (STS) strategies in SS2 classes at the Secondary Education level. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with Secondary School Environmental Teachers. Despite the difficulties found, the advantages, the motivation and the involvement of the students that this teaching perspective enables to lead the teacher to continue developing and implementing STS strategies in the classroom.

Keywords: environment, science, technology, society, science-technology-society, science education, secondary teaching

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Authors: A. Benmoussa, M. Bouanini, M. Rebhi

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The mixing and agitation of fluid in stirred tank is one of the most important unit operations for many industries such as chemical, biotechnological, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, cosmetic, and food processing. Therefore, determining the level of mixing and overall behaviour and performance of the mixing tanks are crucial from the product quality and process economics point of views. The most fundamental needs for the analysis of these processes from both a theoretical and industrial perspective is the knowledge of the hydrodynamic behaviour and the flow structure in such tanks. Depending on the purpose of the operation carried out in mixer, the best choice for geometry of the tank and agitator type can vary widely. Initially, a local and global study namely the velocity and power number on a typical agitation system agitated by a mobile-type two-blade straight (d/D=0.5) allowed us to test the reliability of the CFD, the result were compared with those of experimental literature, a very good concordance was observed. The stream function, the velocity profile, the velocity fields and power number are analyzed. It was shown that the hydrodynamics is modified by the curvature of the mobile which plays a key role.

Keywords: agitated tanks, curved blade agitator, laminar flow, CFD modelling

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Authors: Xiwu Feng

Abstract:

The paper is to analyze research ethics in social and behavioral sciences from a cross-cultural perspective. A multi-phase study investigated implementations of ethical standards and guidelines in higher institutions in China. Institutional policies and procedures on human subject research and perceptions of human subject protection were assessed in the Chinese research universities from different regions. The findings of the study indicate that the implementations of ethical standards and guidelines vary from institution to institution and from region to region. Education and cultural backgrounds of the participants influence their perceptions of the welfare and privacy of human subjects. The results of the study reveal great differences and complexities in ethical standards for the protection of human subjects of research in contrast to the Western world. The Chinese collectivistic values and the cooperative-harmonious democracy play a significant role in perceiving and implementing ethical guidelines. Chinese researchers find themselves a long way to go before seeing implementations of regulations and guidelines on human subject research in social and behavioral sciences.

Keywords: ethical standards, human subjects, research ethics, social and behavioral research

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Authors: Yichao Lv, Minmin Cai, Yanqiang Tao, Xinyuan Zou, Chao Zhang, Xiangping Liu

Abstract:

Objective: This study aims to explore the network structure of personality traits and mental health and identify key factors for effective intervention strategies. Methods: All participants (N = 6,067; 3,368 females) underwent the Eysenck Personality Scale (EPQ) to measure personality traits and the Symptom Self-rating Scale (SCL-90) to measure psychiatric symptoms. Using the mean value of the SCL-90 total score plus one standard deviation as the cutoff, 854 participants (14.08%; 528 females) were categorized as individuals exhibiting potential psychological symptoms and were included in the follow-up network analysis. The structure and bridge centrality of the network for dimensions of EPQ and SCL-90 were estimated. Results: Between the EPQ and SCL-90, psychoticism (P), extraversion (E), and neuroticism (N) showed the strongest positive correlations with somatization (Som), interpersonal sensitivity (IS), and hostility (Hos), respectively. Extraversion (E), somatization (Som), and anxiety (Anx) were identified as the most important bridge factors influencing the overall network. Conclusions: This study explored the network structure and complex connections between mental health and personality traits from a network perspective, providing potential targets for intervening in adolescent personality traits and mental health.

Keywords: EPQ, SCL-90, Chinese adolescents, network analysis

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Authors: Carlos David Carrillo Trujillo, Rebelín Echeverría Echeverría, Nancy Evia Alamilla, Rocío Quintal López

Abstract:

Gender as a social construct is a term now widely studied. Within the social sciences it has become very important. In this sense, psychology tries to make some contributions from your area. The intention is to promote equal opportunities for men and women. Social, employment and educational inequities perpetuate sexism, violence and other important social problems in Mexico. The gender perspective is conceptualized as a tool to promote laws, policies, plans, programs and procedures where women are made ​​visible and empowered. The aim of this is the pursuit of equality. Thus, gender mainstreaming is one of the main challenges of education in Mexico. Only a few universities have programs, research or subjects related to the topic. Human resources, and time allocated to teachers are identified as obstacles to the institutionalization of gender. The objective was to make a diagnosis on course offerings and policies on gender. A documentary study and interviews with managers of at least 20 higher education institutions (IES's) were performed. The results indicate the need for greater gender courses, research projects and intervention. The need to promote policies that seek equal opportunities between men and women is also noted.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, institutionalization, universities, intervention

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