Search results for: feedback style

Authors: M. B. Ricardo De Oliveira, A. Borghi-Silva, L. Di Thommazo, D. Braatz

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Prototypes can be understood as representations of a product concept. Furthermore, prototyping consists in an important stage in product development and results in better team communication, decision making, testing and problem solving through feedback. Although there are several methods of prototyping suggested by recent studies for designers to choose from, some methods present different advantages, such as cost and time reduction, performance and fidelity, which should be taken in account during a product development project. In this multidisciplinary study, involving areas of physiotherapy, engineering and computer science (hardware and software), we compared four developed prototypes of an ergometric step: a virtual prototype, a 3D printed prototype, a bricolage prototype and a prototype manufactured by a third-party company. These prototypes were evaluated in a comparative-qualitative approach for their contribution to the concept’s maturation of the product, the different prototyping methods used and the advantages and disadvantages of each one based on the product’s design specifications (performance, safety, materials, cost, maintenance, usability, ergonomics and portability). Our results indicated that despite prototypes show overall advantages, all of them have limitations, thus being crucial to have different methods of testing and interacting with the product. Additionally, virtual and 3D printed prototypes were essential at early stages of the project due to their low-cost and high-fidelity representation of the product, while the prototype manufactured by a third-party company and bricolage prototype introduced functional tests in real scenarios, allowing more detailed evaluations. This study also resulted in a patent for an ergometric step.

Keywords: Product Design, Product Development, Prototypes, Step

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Authors: Deepak L. Waikar

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Unprecedented natural as well as human made disasters have been responsible for loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, injury & displacement of millions of people and damages in billions of dollars in various parts of the world. Scientists, experts, associations and united nation have been warning about colossal disregard for human safety and environment in exploiting natural resources for insatiable greed for economic growth and rising lavish life style of the rich. Usual blame game is routinely played at international forums & summits by vested interests in developing and developed nations, while billions of people continue to suffer in abject energy poverty. Energy security, on the other hand, is becoming illusive with the dominance of few players in the market, poor energy governance mechanisms, volatile prices and geopolitical conflicts in supply chain. Conflicting scenarios have been cited as one of the major barriers for transformation to a low carbon economy. Policy makers, researchers, academics, businesses, industries and communities have been evaluating sustainable alternatives, albeit at snail’s pace. This presentation focuses on technologies, energy governance, policies & practices, economics and public concerns about safe, prudent & sustainable harnessing of energy resources. Current trends and potential research & development projects in power & energy sectors which students can undertake will be discussed. Speaker will highlight on how youths can be engaged in meaningful, safe, enriching, inspiring and value added self-development programmes in our quest for sustainability in the midst of conflict between climate and energy security.

Keywords: clean energy, energy policy, energy security, sustainable energy

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Authors: Nir Wittenberg, Moshe Farhi

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This mixed-methods study examines the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in a first-year social work course to assess their potential for enhancing professional knowledge and skills. The incorporation of digital technologies, such as AI, in social work interventions, training, and research has increased, with the expectation that AI will become as commonplace as email and mobile phones. However, policies and ethical guidelines regarding AI, as well as empirical evaluations of its usefulness, are lacking. As AI is gradually being adopted in the field, it is prudent to explore AI thoughtfully in alignment with pedagogical goals. The outcomes assessed include professional identity, course satisfaction, and motivation. AI offers unique reflective learning opportunities through personalized simulations, feedback, and queries to complement face-to-face lessons. For instance, AI simulations provide low-risk practices for situations such as client interactions, enabling students to build skills with less stress. However, it is essential to recognize that AI alone cannot ensure real-world competence or cultural sensitivity. Outcomes related to student learning, experience, and perceptions will help to elucidate the best practices for AI integration, guiding faculty, and advancing pedagogical innovation. This strategic integration of selected AI technologies is expected to diversify course methodology, improve learning outcomes, and generate new evidence on AI’s educational utility. The findings will inform faculty seeking to thoughtfully incorporate AI into teaching and learning.

Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI), social work education, students, developing a professional identity, ethical considerations

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Authors: Leo Latasch, Mario Di Gennaro

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Introduction: The goal of this project was to increase the resilience of the population as well as rescue organizations to make both quality and time-related improvements in handling crises. A helper network was created for this purpose. Methods: Social questions regarding the structure and purpose of helper networks were considered - specifically with regard to helper motivation, the level of commitment and collaboration between populations and agencies. The exchange of information, the coordinated use of volunteers, and the distribution of available resources will be ensured through defined communication and cooperation routines. Helper smartphones will also be used provide a picture of the situation on the ground. Results: The helper network was established and deployed based on the RESIBES information technology system. It consists of a service platform, a web portal and a smartphone app. The service platform is the central element for collaboration between the various rescue organizations, as well as for persons, associations, and companies from the population offering voluntary aid. The platform was used for: Registering helpers and resources and then requesting and assigning it in case of a disaster. These services allow the population's resources to be organized. The service platform also allows for a secure data exchange between services and external systems. Conclusions: The social and technical work priorities have allowed us to cover a full cycle of advance structural work, gaining an overview, damage management, evaluation, and feedback on experiences. This cycle allows experiences gained while handling the crisis to feed back into the cycle and improve preparations and management strategies.

Keywords: coordination, disaster, resilience, volunteers

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Authors: Rahm Sibylle

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The core element in most European teacher training concepts consists in practical periods where teacher students may review the chosen profession before going on to their theoretical studies. In Germany, teacher students learn in practical studies about everyday teaching and learning in schools. Teacher students appreciate opportunities to explore school practice and to feel responsible for students’ learning. In practical studies, teacher students often idealize their teacher mentors (and consequently tend to imitate their teaching style) or contrarily feel disappointed about school practice. Concepts of empowerment through practical experience in school-based academic teacher training have to be developed. Our Swiss-German research project COPRA (Coaching in practical periods; funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG), aims at gaining resilient results about the effectiveness of (peer) coaching in practical school periods. To explore innovative ways of accompanying novice teachers in practical periods we consider different cultures of teacher training institutions. School cultures, including teachers’ beliefs and teaching traditions involve different training cultures as starting positions for our intervention study. In our qualitative study, we describe typologies of teacher training institutions by analyzing group discussions with teacher students, mentor teachers and university lecturers concerning participation, cooperation, and relationships. In our paper, we present the design of our intervention study, our coaching concept as well as typologies of teacher training cultures. We discuss opportunities for teacher students to learn through domain-specific (peer) coaching on the background of these typologies.

Keywords: teacher training (practical periods), teacher students' coaching, training cultures (typologies), COPRA (coaching in practical periods)

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Authors: Ralph Adaimy, Wassim El-Hajj, Ghassen Ben Brahim, Hazem Hajj, Haidar Safa

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Huge amounts of data and personal information are being sent to and retrieved from web applications on daily basis. Every application has its own confidentiality and integrity policies. Violating these policies can have broad negative impact on the involved company’s financial status, while enforcing them is very hard even for the developers with good security background. In this paper, we propose a framework that enforces security-by-construction in web applications. Minimal developer effort is required, in a sense that the developer only needs to annotate database attributes by a security class. The web application code is then converted into an intermediary representation, called Extended Program Dependence Graph (EPDG). Using the EPDG, the provided annotations are propagated to the application code and run against generic security enforcement rules that were carefully designed to detect insecure information flows as early as they occur. As a result, any violation in the data’s confidentiality or integrity policies is reported. As a proof of concept, two PHP web applications, Hotel Reservation and Auction, were used for testing and validation. The proposed system was able to catch all the existing insecure information flows at their source. Moreover and to highlight the simplicity of the suggested approaches vs. existing approaches, two professional web developers assessed the annotation tasks needed in the presented case studies and provided a very positive feedback on the simplicity of the annotation task.

Keywords: web applications security, secure information flow, program dependence graph, database annotation

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Authors: Temilola Akinbolade, Bukola Okunade, Karounwi Okunade

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Leadership is a subject of direction. Direction entails ensuring that employees carryout the jobs assigned to them. In order to direct subordinates, a manager must lead, motivate, communicate and ensure effective co-ordination of activities so that enterprise objectives are achieved. The purpose of the study was to find out the impact of Leadership Styles on Employees Performance, Study of Wema Bank Plc. Leadership has been described as a tool used in influencing people in order to willingly get a particular or task done. The importance of leadership is followership. That is the willingness of people to follow what makes a person a leader. A sample size of 150 was systematically selected from the study population using the statistical packages for Social Science (SPSS) formula. Based on this, questionnaire was designed and administered. Out of the 105 copies of the questionnaire administered. 150 were recovered, 45 were discarded for improper filling and mutilation while the remaining 105 were used for statistical analysis. Chi-square was employed in testing the hypothesis. The following findings were discovered in the course of the study: how leadership enhances employee’s performance, 85.7% of the respondents were in agreement. Also how implementation of workers social welfare packages enhance the employees performance. 88.6 percent of the respondents in agreement. Over the years, some leadership styles adopted by managers and administrators have an impact on the level of employee’s performance in workplace and this has led to the inefficient and ineffective attainment of organizational goals and objectives. Due to the inability of employees to perform to set standard, this research work will also indicate some ways through which high employee performance will be attained most especially with regards to the leadership style adopted by the management that is managers and administrators. It was also discovered that collective intelligence of employees leads to high employee’s performance 82.9 percent of the respondent in agreement.

Keywords: leadership, employees, performance, banking sector

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Authors: Sebastian Kölbl, Thomas Reitmaier, Mathias Hartmann

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Trial and error approaches to adapt wearable support structures to human physiology are time consuming and elaborate. However, during preliminary design, the focus lies on understanding the interaction between exoskeleton and the human body in terms of forces and moments, namely body mechanics. For the study at hand, a multi-body simulation approach has been enhanced to evaluate actual forces and moments in a human dummy model with and without a digital mock-up of an active exoskeleton. Therefore, different motion data have been gathered and processed to perform a musculosceletal analysis. The motion data are ground reaction forces, electromyography data (EMG) and human motion data recorded with a marker-based motion capture system. Based on the experimental data, the response of the human dummy model has been calibrated. Subsequently, the scalable human dummy model, in conjunction with the motion data, is connected with the exoskeleton structure. The results of the human-machine interaction (HMI) simulation platform are in particular resulting contact forces and human joint forces to compare with admissible values with regard to the human physiology. Furthermore, it provides feedback for the sizing of the exoskeleton structure in terms of resulting interface forces (stress justification) and the effect of its compliance. A stepwise approach for the setup and validation of the modeling strategy is presented and the potential for a more time and cost-effective development of wearable support structures is outlined.

Keywords: assistive devices, ergonomic design, inverse dynamics, inverse kinematics, multibody simulation

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Authors: Mirjana Ruppel, Rajendra Persad, Amit Bahl, Sanja Dogramadzi, Chris Melhuish, Lyndon Smith

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Multimodal image registration is a profoundly complex task which is why deep learning has been used widely to address it in recent years. However, two main challenges remain: Firstly, the lack of ground truth data calls for an unsupervised learning approach, which leads to the second challenge of defining a feasible loss function that can compare two images of different modalities to judge their level of alignment. To avoid this issue altogether we implement a generative adversarial network consisting of two registration networks GAB, GBA and two discrimination networks DA, DB connected by spatial transformation layers. GAB learns to generate a deformation field which registers an image of the modality B to an image of the modality A. To do that, it uses the feedback of the discriminator DB which is learning to judge the quality of alignment of the registered image B. GBA and DA learn a mapping from modality A to modality B. Additionally, a cycle-consistency loss is implemented. For this, both registration networks are employed twice, therefore resulting in images ˆA, ˆB which were registered to ˜B, ˜A which were registered to the initial image pair A, B. Thus the resulting and initial images of the same modality can be easily compared. A dataset of liver CT and MRI was used to evaluate the quality of our approach and to compare it against learning and non-learning based registration algorithms. Our approach leads to dice scores of up to 0.80 ± 0.01 and is therefore comparable to and slightly more successful than algorithms like SimpleElastix and VoxelMorph.

Keywords: cycle consistency, deformable multimodal image registration, deep learning, GAN

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Authors: Elham Fariborzi, Hoda Anvari Kazemabad

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Today, ICT plays an important role in all matters and it affects the development of creative cities. According to virtual space in this technology, it use especially for expand terms like smart schools, Virtual University, web-based training and virtual classrooms that is in parallel with the traditional teaching. Nowadays, the educational systems in different countries such as Iran are changing and start increasing creativity in the learning environment. It will contribute to the development of innovative ideas and thinking of the people in this environment; such opportunities might be cause scientific discovery and development issues. The creativity means the ability to generate ideas and numerous, new and suitable solutions for solving the problems of real and virtual individuals and society, which can play a significant role in the development of creative current physical cities or virtual borders ones in the future. The purpose of this paper is to study strategies to increase creativity in a virtual learning to develop a creative city. In this paper, citation/ library study was used. The full description given in the text, including how to create and enhance learning creativity in a virtual classroom by reflecting on performance and progress; attention to self-directed learning guidelines, efficient use of social networks, systematic discussion groups and non-intuitive targeted controls them by involved factors and it may be effective in the teaching process regarding to creativity. Meanwhile, creating a virtual classroom the style of class recognizes formally the creativity. Also the use of a common model of creative thinking between student/teacher is effective to solve problems of virtual classroom. It is recommended to virtual education’ authorities in Iran to have a special review to the virtual curriculum for increasing creativity in educational content and such classes to be witnesses more creative in Iran's cities.

Keywords: virtual learning, creativity, e-learning, bioinformatics, biomedicine

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Authors: Daniel M. Muntean, Viorel Ungureanu

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More than half of the urban population in Romania lives today in residential buildings made out of large prefabricated reinforced concrete panels. Since their initial design was made in the 1960’s, these housing units are now being technically and morally outdated, consuming large amounts of energy for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting, while failing to meet the needs of the contemporary life-style. Due to their widespread use, the design of a system that improves their energy efficiency would have a real impact, not only on the energy consumption of the residential sector, but also on the quality of life that it offers. Furthermore, with the transition of today’s existing power grid to a “smart grid”, buildings could become an active element for future electricity networks by contributing in micro-generation and energy storage. One of the most addressed issues today is to find locally adapted strategies that can be applied considering the 20-20-20 EU policy criteria and to offer sustainable and innovative solutions for the cost-optimal energy performance of buildings adapted on the existing local market. This paper presents a possible adaptive design scenario towards sustainable retrofitting of these housing units. The apartments are transformed in order to meet the current living requirements and additional extensions are placed on top of the building, replacing the unused roof space, acting not only as housing units, but as active solar energy collection systems. An adaptive building envelope is ensured in order to achieve overall air-tightness and an elevator system is introduced to facilitate access to the upper levels.

Keywords: adaptive building, energy efficiency, retrofitting, residential buildings, smart grid

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Authors: Prachi Chavda

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The world, as of today, is smaller than it was for those who lived few decades ago. Internet, media and telecommunications have impacted the world like never before. Culture is the pillar upon which a society mushrooms. A culture develops with human creativity over the years and also by the exchange and intermixing of ideas and way of life across different civilizations and we can say that one of the influencing medium of exchange and intermixing of these ideas is cinema. Cinema has been the wonderful as well as important medium of communication since it has been emerged. Change is the thumb rule of life and so have been Indian cinema. As society has evolved from time to time so has the stories of Indian Cinema and its characters, hence it directly effects to the Indian culture as cinema has been very strong mediator for information exchange. The paper tries to discuss deeply how Indian cinema (reel life) and Indian culture (real life) has been influencing each other that results into a constant modification in both. Moreover, the research tries to deal with the issue with some examples that as a outcome how movies impact the Indian culture positively and negatively on culture. Therefore, it spreads the wave of change in cultural settings of society. The paper also tries to light the psychology of youth of India. Today, children and youth greatly admire the ostentatious materialistic display of outfits and style of the actors in the movies. Also, the movies bearing romanticism and showcasing disputatious issues like pre-marital sex, live-in relationship, homo-sexuality etc. though without highlighting them extensively have indeed inspired the commoners. Pros and cons always exist. Such revelation of issues certainly give a spark in the minds of those who are in their formative years and the effect of which is seen with the passage of time Thus, we can say that emergence of cinema as a strong tool of social change as well as culture as a triggering factor for transformation in cinema. As, a finding we can say that culture and cinema of India are influencing factors for each other. Cinema and culture are two sides of a coin, where both are responsible for evolution of each other.

Keywords: cinema, culture, influence, transformation

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Authors: Sabariah Mohd Yusoff, Qamaruddin Adzeem Muhamad Murad

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This study investigates the impact of car seat design on driver response time, addressing a critical gap in understanding how ergonomic features influence both performance and safety. Controlled driving experiments were conducted with fourteen participants (11 male, 3 female) across three locations chosen for their varying traffic conditions to account for differences in driver alertness. Participants interacted with various seat designs while performing driving tasks, and objective metrics such as braking and steering response times were meticulously recorded. Advanced statistical methods, including regression analysis and t-tests, were employed to identify design factors that significantly affect driver response times. Subjective feedback was gathered through detailed questionnaires—focused on driving experience and knowledge of response time—and in-depth interviews. This qualitative data was analyzed thematically to provide insights into driver comfort and usability preferences. The study aims to identify key seat design features that impact driver response time and to gain a deeper understanding of driver preferences for comfort and usability. The findings are expected to inform evidence-based guidelines for optimizing car seat design, ultimately enhancing driver performance and safety. The research offers valuable implications for automotive manufacturers and designers, contributing to the development of seats that improve driver response time and overall driving safety.

Keywords: car seat design, driver response time, cognitive driving, ergonomics optimization

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Authors: Stephanie Ho

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This project utilizes principles derived from the Surrealist movement to prioritize creative and critical thinking in secondary English Language Arts (ELA). The implementation of Surrealist-style pedagogies within an ELA classroom will be rooted in critical, radical pedagogy, which addresses the injustices caused by economic-oriented educational systems. The use of critical pedagogy will enable the subversive artistic and political aims of Surrealism to be transmitted to a classroom context. Through aesthetic reading strategies, appreciative questioning and dialogue, students will actively critique the power dynamics which structure (and often restrict) their lives. Within the ELA domain, cost-effective approaches often replace the actual “arts” of ELA. This research will therefore explore how Surrealist-oriented pedagogies could restore imaginative freedom and deconstruct conceptual barriers (normative standards, curricular constraints, and status quo power relations) in secondary ELA. This research will also examine how Surrealism can be used as a political and pedagogical model to treat societal problems mirrored in ELA classrooms. The stakeholders are teachers, as they experience constant pressure within their practices. Similarly, students encounter rigorous, results-based pressures. These dynamics contribute to feelings of powerlessness, thus reinforcing a formulaic model of ELA. The ELA curriculum has potential to create laboratories for critical discussion and active movement towards social change. This proposed research strategy of Surrealist-oriented pedagogies could enable students to experiment with social issues and develop senses of agency and voice that reflect awareness of contemporary society while simultaneously building their ELA skills.

Keywords: arts-informed pedagogies, language arts, literature, surrealism

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Authors: Pankhudi Khandelwal

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The revenue models of digital giants such as Facebook and Google, use targeted advertising for revenues. Such a model requires huge amounts of consumer data. While the data protection law deals with the protection of personal data, however, this data is acquired by the companies on the basis of consent, performance of a contract, or legitimate interests. This paper analyses the role that competition law can play in evading these loopholes for the protection of data and privacy of online consumers. Digital markets have certain distinctive features such as network effects and feedback loop, which gives incumbents of these markets a first-mover advantage. This creates a situation where the winner takes it all, thus creating entry barriers and concentration in the market. It has been also seen that this dominant position is then used by the undertakings for leveraging in other markets. This can be harmful to the consumers in form of less privacy, less choice, and stifling innovation, as seen in the cases of Facebook Cambridge Analytica, Google Shopping, and Google Android. Therefore, the article aims to provide a legal framework wherein the data protection law and competition law can come together to provide a balance in regulating digital markets. The issue has become more relevant in light of the Facebook decision by German competition authority, where it was held that Facebook had abused its dominant position by not complying with data protection rules, which constituted an exploitative practice. The paper looks into the jurisdictional boundaries that the data protection and competition authorities can work from and suggests ex ante regulation through data protection law and ex post regulation through competition law. It further suggests a change in the consumer welfare standard where harm to privacy should be considered as an indicator of low quality.

Keywords: data protection, dominance, ex ante regulation, ex post regulation

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Authors: Soumya Chaturvedi

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Ever since India opened its doors for the world economy to enter, there has not been a single instance of recoil. A consequence of this move by the government of India resulted in India evolving as a consumer-driven market and in order to survive in this era of extreme competition, the corporate houses have employed every possible means to reach out and hit onto the sentiments of the consumers. The most obvious way to ensure a strong perseverance towards the specific product or brand is through celebrity endorsements. In a country like India, whose film industry accounts for the largest sales and output, it is indeed appalling to acknowledge the fact that it lacks an effective mechanism of protection of the commercial exploitation of celebrities’ attributes under the ambit of law. The western half of the globe has very well accepted and recognized the rights of the celebrities to decide upon the quantum of commercial exploitation of their own attributes and earn profit out of the same. However, the eastern half seems to be a little reluctant in accepting and enforcing these views per se. A celebrity has a right to publicity over the traits of his personality which involves voice, autographs, reputation, and style, so on and so forth as it is these attributes that are responsible for huge trade profits concerning the products to which such traits are attributed to. This clearly involves the right of the celebrity to benefit himself by commercially exploiting the same and refraining the unauthorized gain to third parties. The market is making it nearly impossible to proceed further with such weak laws considering the escalating rate of celebrity endorsements in the nation. This paper discusses the lacunae in law per se to identify a right as such by a celebrity over his traits that are potentially under the circle of commercial exploitation and the need of a definite legislation that would ensure a change in the paradigm of the Courts in India. Also, it discusses the only remedy available currently for violation, which is, a suit for passing off by Indian Courts under Trademark and Copyright laws and a comparison of the same with the mechanisms adopted by the legal systems across the globe.

Keywords: celebrity, rights, intellectual property, trademark, copyrights

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Authors: M. S. Sulaiman, N. Hassan, M. A. Aziz, M. S. A. Haron, J. H. A. Halim

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The classic profile of heritage clay roof tiles gives unique characteristics and timeless style to the almost historical building. It is not only designed to meet basic construction needs, offering great performance and durability but also highlights unnoticed stamp impressions, known as ‘insignia imprinted.’ It seems that the insignia imprinted is not significant to all stakeholders, especially in preserving heritage clay roof tiles in Malaysia. They are not even realized the existence and importance of that element, where it represents the cognitive and social character of that particular era. It creates a sense of belongings for the manufacturers regarding their most elementary features, such as a fortress, crown, fauna and etc. This research aims to identify and analyze the late stamp marks on heritage interlocking clay roof tiles in a government heritage building in Malaysia. The methodology used is literature reviews (desktop study), observation on sites, and interviews. Initial findings from the preliminary observation on-site in Peninsular Malaysia show some evidence that the stamp marks appear on the front and back sides of the tile that indicates the year, manufacturer, code numbers, and logos. Almost more than 30 samples of different types of stamp marks were found and collected. Some of which had been described Guichard & Carvin Cie Marsielle St Andre France, Pierre Sacoman St Henry Marsielle, Tuileries Aixoises Les Milles B.D.R France, The Calicut Tile Co Feroke, And B. Pinto & Co Mangalore dated 1865, 1919 and 1936. In view of this abundance of materials, it will lead to the establishment of a comprehensive database consisting of detailed specifications and material performance for future conservation works and maintenance purposes that will sustain for future references.

Keywords: clay roof tiles, insignia imprinted, interlocking, stamp mark

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Authors: N. J. M. Yusof, T. Sabir, J. McLoughlin

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Garment manufacturing industry involves sequential processes that are subjected to uncontrollable variations. The industry depends on the skill of labour in handling the varieties of fabrics and accessories, machines, and also a complicated sewing operation. Due to these reasons, garment manufacturers created systems to monitor and control the product’s quality regularly by conducting quality approaches to minimize variation. The aims of this research were to ascertain the quality approaches deployed by Malaysian garment manufacturers in three key areas-quality systems and tools; quality control and types of inspection; sampling procedures chosen for garment inspection. The focus of this research also aimed to distinguish quality approaches used by companies that supplied the finished garments to both domestic and international markets. The feedback from each of company’s representatives was obtained using the online survey, which comprised of five sections and 44 questions on the organizational profile and quality approaches used in the garment industry. The results revealed that almost all companies had established their own mechanism of process control by conducting a series of quality inspection for daily production either it was formally been set up or vice versa. Quality inspection was the predominant quality control activity in the garment manufacturing and the level of complexity of these activities was substantially dictated by the customers. AQL-based sampling was utilized by companies dealing with the export market, whilst almost all the companies that only concentrated on the domestic market were comfortable using their own sampling procedures for garment inspection. This research provides an insight into the implementation of quality approaches that were perceived as important and useful in the garment manufacturing sector, which is truly labour-intensive.

Keywords: garment manufacturing, quality approaches, quality control, inspection, Acceptance Quality Limit (AQL), sampling

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Authors: Salizar Mohamed Ludin, Mohd Khairul Hasyimi Firdaus, Paul Arbon

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Purpose: This paper aims to develop Malaysian Government and community-level critical thinking, planning and action for improving community disaster resilience by reporting Phase 1, Part 1 of a larger community disaster resilience measurement study about adapting the Torrens Resilience Institute Australian Community Disaster Resilience Scorecard to the Malaysian context. Methodology: Pparticipatory action research encouraged key people involved in managing the six most affected areas in the 2014 flooding of Kelantan in Malaysia’s north-east to participate in discussions about adapting and self-testing the Australian Community Disaster Resilience Scorecard to measure and improve their communities’ disaster resilience. Findings: Communities need to strengthen their disaster resilience through better communication, cross-community cooperation, maximizing opportunities to compare their plans, actions and reactions with those reported in research publications, and aligning their community disaster management with reported best practice internationally while acknowledging the need to adapt such practice to local contexts. Research implications: There is a need for a Malaysia-wide, simple-to-use, standardized disaster resilience scorecard to improve the quality, quantity and capability of healthcare and emergency services’ preparedness, and to facilitate urgent reallocation of aid. Value: This study is the first of its kind in Malaysia. The resulting community disaster resilience guideline based on participants’ feedback about the Kelantan floods and scorecard self-testing has the potential for further adaptation to suit contexts across Malaysia, as well as demonstrating how the scorecard can be adapted for international use.

Keywords: community disaster resilience, CDR Scorecard, participatory action research, flooding, Malaysia

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Authors: Monjur E-Khoda Tarafdar

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Institutional autonomy and academic freedom corresponding to accountability are seen as a core concept of university governance. Universities are crucial factors in search of truth for knowledge production and dissemination. Academic leaders are the pivots to progressively influence the university governance. Therefore, in a continuum of debate about autonomy and accountability in the aspect of perception, academic leadership has been studied. Having longstanding acquaintance in the field the researcher has been instrumental to gain lived experiences of the informants in this qualitative study. Case studies are useful to gain an understanding of the complexities of a particular site to preserve a sense of wholeness of the site being investigated. Thus, multiple case study approach has been employed with a sample size of seventy-one. Such large size of informants was interviewed in order to capture a wider range of views that exist in Bangladesh. This qualitative multiple case study has engaged in-depth interviewing method of academic leaders and policy makers of three case universities. Open-ended semi-structured questionnaires are used to have a comprehensive understanding of how the perception of autonomy and accountability of academic leaders has impacted university governance in the context of Bangladesh. The paper has interpreted the voices of the informants and distinguished both the transformational and transactional style of academic leaderships in local university settings against the globally changed higher education demography. The study finds contextual dissimilarity in the perspectives of autonomy and accountability of academic leadership towards university governance. Unaccountability results in losing autonomous power and collapsing academic excellence. Since accountability grows competitiveness and competence, the paper also focuses on how academic leaders abuse the premise of academic loyalty to universities.

Keywords: academic loyalty, accountability, autonomy, leadership, perception, university governance

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Authors: Ebrahim Panah, Muhammad Yasir Babar

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Thanks to the development of online technology and social networks, people are able to communicate as well as learn. WhatsApp is a popular social network which is growingly gaining popularity. This app can be used for communication as well as education. It can be used for instructor-learner, learner-learner, and learner-content interactions; however, very little knowledge is available on these potentials of WhatsApp. The current study was undertaken to investigate university students’ perceptions of WhatsApp used as a tool for instructor-learner dialogue, learner-content dialogue, and learner-learner dialogue. The study adopted a survey approach and distributed the questionnaire developed by Google Forms to 54 (11 males and 43 females) university students. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. The result of data analysis indicates that students have positive attitudes towards WhatsApp as a tool for Instructor-Learner Dialogue: it easy to reach the lecturer (4.07), the instructor gives me valuable feedback on my assignment (4.02), the instructor is supportive during course discussion and offers continuous support with the class (4.00). Learner-Content Dialogue: WhatsApp allows me to academically engage with lecturers anytime, anywhere (4.00), it helps to send graphics such as pictures or charts directly to the students (3.98), it also provides out of class, extra learning materials and homework (3.96), and Learner-Learner Dialogue: WhatsApp is a good tool for sharing knowledge with others (4.09), WhatsApp allows me to academically engage with peers anytime, anywhere (4.07), and we can interact with others through the use of group discussion (4.02). It was also found that there are significant positive correlations between students’ perceptions of Instructor-Learner Dialogue (ILD), Learner-Content Dialogue (LCD), Learner-Learner Dialogue (LLD) and WhatsApp Application in classroom. The findings of the study have implications for lectures, policy makers and curriculum developers.

Keywords: instructor-learner dialogue, learners-contents dialogue, learner-learner dialogue, whatsapp application

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Authors: Aminu Ololade Matilda

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Child abuse is a significant issue worldwide, affecting the socio-development and mental and physical health of young individuals. It is the maltreatment of a child by an adult or a child. This paper focuses on child abuse in Communities in Lagos State. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent of child abuse and its impact on the mood, social activities, self-worth, concentration, and academic performance of children in Communities in Lagos State. The primary research instrument used in this study was the interview (Forensic), which consisted of two sections. The first section gathered data on the details of the child and the forms and impacts of abuse experienced, while the second section focused on parental style. The study found that children who experienced various forms of abuse, such as emotional, neglect, physical, or sexual abuse, were hesitant to report it out of fear of threats or even death from the abuser. These abused children displayed withdrawn behaviour, depression, and low self-worth and underperformed academically compared to their peers who did not experience abuse. The findings align with socio-learning and intergenerational transmission of violence theories, which suggest that parents and caregivers who engage in child abuse often do so because they themselves experienced or witnessed abuse as children, thereby normalizing violence. The study highlights the prevalent issue of child abuse in Lagos State and emphasizes the need for advocacy programs and capacity building to raise awareness about child abuse and prevention. The distribution of the Child’s Rights Act in various sectors is also recommended to underscore the importance of protecting the rights of children. Additionally, the inclusion of courses on child abuse in the school curriculum is proposed to ensure children are educated on recognizing and reporting abuse.

Keywords: abuse, child, awareness, effects, emotional, neglect, physical, psychological, sexual, recognize, reporting, right

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Authors: Gramza-Michalowska Anna, Skrety Joanna, Kobus-Cisowska Joanna, Kmiecik Dominik, Korczak Jozef, Anna Zywica

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Background: Recent research presented many evidences confirming that food besides its basic nutritional function, possess significant therapeutic and prophylactic potential. Conscious consumer is aware of diet habits and well being lifestyle influencing a proper functioning that is why there is a need of new pro-health products. Objective: Proposition of the technology of unsweetened almond drinks enriched with plant extracts for pro-health oriented individuals. Research investigated the influence of selected plant extracts addition on antioxidative activity and consumer’s acceptance of drinks as all day diet product representatives. Methods: The analysis of the basic composition and antioxidant properties of the almond drink was conducted. Research included analysis of basic composition (protein, lipids and fiber content) and antioxidant capacity of drink (DPPH, ABTS, ORAC value, and FRAP). Proposed drink was also characterized with sensory analysis, including color, aroma, taste, consistency, and overall acceptance. Results: Results showed that addition of plant extracts into an almond drink allowed to improve its antioxidant capacity and sensory value of the drinks. Profitable composition and pro-health properties of designed drink permits offering healthy product for all day consumption. Conclusion: Designed almond drink would be a significant supplement for pro-healthy life style of the consumers. Results showed that plant extracts enriched almond drink would be a good source of antioxidants and accepted by the consumers.

Keywords: phytonutrients, pro-health, almond, wellbeing, antioxidant potential, sensory value

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Authors: Amira Yousef Mahrous Yousef

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This paper includes fast fashion verses sustainable fashion or slow fashion Indian based consumers. The expression ‘Fast fashion’ is generally referred to low-cost clothing collections that considered first hand copy of luxury brands, sometime interchangeably used with ‘mass fashion’. Whereas slow fashion or limited fashion which are consider to be more organic or eco-friendly. "Sustainable fashion is ethical fashion and here the consumer is just not design conscious but also social-environment conscious". Paper will deal with desire of young Indian consumer towards such luxury brands present in India, and their understanding of sustainable fashion, how to maintain the equilibrium between never newer fashion, style, and fashion sustainability. The green fashion market is growing rapidly as eco-friendly consumers are willing to expand their organic lifestyle to include clothing. With an increasing share of fashion consumers globally, Indian consumers are observed to consider the social and environmental ethics while making purchasing decisions. While some research clearly identifies the efforts of responsible consumers towards green fashion, some argue that fashion-orientated consumers who are sensitive towards environment do not actively participate towards supporting green fashion. This study aims to analyze the current perception of green fashion among Indian consumers. A small-scale exploratory study is conducted where consumers’ perception of green fashion is examined followed by an analysis of translation of this perception into purchase decision making. This research paper gives insight into consumer awareness on green fashion and provides scope towards the expansion of ethical fashion consumption .

Keywords: inclusions, temperature gradient, HPHT synthetic fibers, polyamide fibers, fiber volume, compressive strength. gold nano clusters, copper ions, wool keratin, fluorescence

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Authors: Muhammad Nasar-u-Minallah, Dagmar Haase, Salman Qureshi

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Rapid urbanization significantly change land use, urban nature, land surface vegetation cover, and heat distribution, leading to the formation of urban heat island (UHI) effect and affecting the healthy growth of cities and the comfort of human living style. Past information and present changes in Land Surface Temperature (LST) and urban landscapes could be useful to geographers, environmentalists, and urban planners in an attempt to shape the urban development process and mitigate the effects of urban heat islands (UHI). This study aims at using Satellite Remote Sensing (SRS) and GIS techniques to develop an approach for assessing the urban nature and UHI effects in Lahore, Pakistan. The study employed the Radiative Transfer Method (RTM) in estimating LST to assess the SUHI effect during the interval of 20 years (2000-2020). The assessment was performed by the available Landsat 7/ETM+ and Landsat 8/OIL_TIRs data for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020 respectively. Pearson’s correlation and normalized mutual information were applied to investigate the relationship between green space characteristics and LST. The result of this work revealed that the influence of urban heat island is not always at the city centers but sometimes in the outskirt where a lot of development activities were going on towards the direction of expansion of Lahore, Pakistan. The present study explores the usage of image processing and spatial analysis in the drive towards achieving urban greening of Lahore and a sustainable urban environment in terms of urban planning, policy, and decision making and promoting the healthy and sustainable urban environment of the city.

Keywords: urban nature, urban heat islands, urban green space, land use, Lahore

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Authors: Heba M. Jahin, Ali F. Bakr, Zeyad T. Elsayad

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As smart spaces can be defined as any working environment which integrates embedded computers, information appliances and multi-modal sensors to remain focused on the interaction between the users, their activity, and their behavior in the space; hence, smart space must be aware of their contexts and automatically adapt to their changing context-awareness, by interacting with their physical environment through natural and multimodal interfaces. Also, by serving the information used proactively. This paper suggests a dynamic framework through the architectural design process of the space based on the principles of computational methods and context-awareness principles to help in creating a field of changes and modifications. It generates possibilities, concerns about the physical, structural and user contexts. This framework is concerned with five main processes: gathering and analyzing data to generate smart design scenarios, parameters, and attributes; which will be transformed by coding into four types of models. Furthmore, connecting those models together in the interaction model which will represent the context-awareness system. Then, transforming that model into a virtual and ambient environment which represents the physical and real environments, to act as a linkage phase between the users and their activities taking place in that smart space . Finally, the feedback phase from users of that environment to be sure that the design of that smart space fulfill their needs. Therefore, the generated design process will help in designing smarts spaces that can be adapted and controlled to answer the users’ defined goals, needs, and activity.

Keywords: computational methods, context-awareness, design process, smart spaces

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Authors: Khader A. Almhdawi, Saddam F. Kanaan

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Background: Allied health (AH) students, including rehabilitation sciences students, are subjected to significant levels of physical and mental stressors, which could affect their education. This study aimed to study physical and mental of Health-related Quality of Life (HR-QoL) levels along with their predictors among students of nine AH majors. Methods: Students filled validated anonymous surveys covering demographics and life style, Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS- 42). SF-12 Mental (MCS) and Physical (PCS) summary scores were compared between academic majors and gender. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to examine potential predictors of PCS and MCS scores. Results: 838 students (77.4% females) participated in this study. Participants’ PCS mean score was 45.64±7.93 and found statistically different between the nine academic majors (P < 0.001). Additionally, participants’’ MCS mean score was 39.45±10.86 and significantly greater in males (P < 0.001). Significant PCS scores predictors included hip and upper back musculoskeletal pain, anxiety score, diet self-evaluation, and GPA. Finally, MCS scores were statistically associated with neck musculoskeletal pain, stress score, depression score, number of weekly clinical training hours, gender, university year, GPA, sleep quality self-evaluation, and diet self-evaluation. Conclusion: Clinical educators of AH need to account for students’ low levels of HR-QoL and their academic-related, health-related, and lifestyle-related associated factors. More studies are recommended to investigate the progression of HR-QoL throughout university years and to create effective interventions to improve HR-QoL among healthcare students.

Keywords: medical education, quality of life, stress, anxiety, depression

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Authors: Raneem Osama Salem, Ayesha Nuzhat, Fatimah Nasser Al Shehri, Nasser Al Hamdan

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Background: Recently, most medical schools around the globe are using simulation for teaching and assessing students’ clinical skills and competence. There are many obstacles that could face students and faculty when simulation sessions are introduced into undergraduate curriculum. Objective: The aim of this study is to obtain the opinion of undergraduate medical students and our faculty regarding the role of simulation in undergraduate curriculum, the simulation modalities used, and perceived barriers in implementing stimulation sessions. Methods: To address the role of simulation, modalities used, and perceived challenges to implementation of simulation sessions, a self-administered pilot tested questionnaire with 18 items using a 5 point Likert scale was distributed. Participants included undergraduate male medical students (n=125) and female students (n=70) as well as the faculty members (n=14). Result: Various learning outcomes are achieved and improved through the technology enhanced simulation sessions such as communication skills, diagnostic skills, procedural skills, self-confidence, and integration of basic and clinical sciences. The use of high fidelity simulators, simulated patients and task trainers was more desirable by our students and faculty for teaching and learning as well as an evaluation tool. According to most of the students,' institutional support in terms of resources, staff and duration of sessions was adequate. However, motivation to participate in the sessions and provision of adequate feedback by the staff was a constraint. Conclusion: The use of simulation laboratory is of great benefit to the students and a great teaching tool for the staff to ensure students learning of the various skills.

Keywords: simulators, medical students, skills, simulated patients, performance, challenges, skill laboratory

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Authors: Rafooneh Mokhtarshahi Sani

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This study explores how the residents of a conserved urban area have used goods and ideas as resources to maintain an enviable architectural identity. Whereas conserved urban quarters are seen as role model for maintaining architectural identity, the article describes how their residents try to give a contemporary modern image to their homes. It is argued that despite the efforts of authorities and decision makers to keep and preserve the traditional architectural identity in conserved urban areas, people have already moved on and have adjusted their homes with their preferred architectural taste. Being through such conflict of interests, have put the future of architectural identity in such places at risk. The thesis is that, on the one hand, such struggle over a desirable symbolic status in identity formation is taking place, and, on the other, it is continuously widening the gap between the real and ideal identity in the built environment. The study then analytically connects the concept of symbolic status to current identity debates. As an empirical research, this study uses systematic social and physical observation methods to describe and categorize the characteristics of settlements in Walled City of Famagusta, which symbolically represent the modern houses. The Walled City is a cultural heritage site, which most of its urban context has been conserved. Traditional houses in this area demonstrate the identity of North Cyprus architecture. The conserved residential buildings, however, either has been abandoned or went through changes by their users to present the ideal image of contemporary life. In the concluding section, the article discusses the differences between the symbolic status of people and authorities in defining a culturally valuable contemporary home. And raises the question of whether we can talk at all about architectural identity in terms of conserving the traditional style, and how we may do so on the basis of dynamic nature of identity and the necessity of its acceptance by the users.

Keywords: symbolic status, architectural identity, conservation, facades, Famagusta walled city

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Authors: Jeaha Yang, Ahmed Khan, Donna L. Rodela, Mohammed A. Qaudeer

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Traditional supply chain silos still exist today due to the difficulty of establishing trust between various partners and technological barriers across industries. Companies lose opportunities and revenue and inadvertently make poor business decisions resulting in further challenges. Blockchain technology can bring a new level of transparency through sharing information with a distributed ledger in a decentralized manner that creates a basis of trust for business. Blockchain is a loosely coupled, hub-style communication network in which trading partners can work indirectly with each other for simpler integration, but they work together through the orchestration of their supply chain operations under a coherent process that is developed jointly. A Blockchain increases efficiencies, lowers costs, and improves interoperability to strengthen and automate the supply chain management process while all partners share the risk. Blockchain ledger is built to track inventory lifecycle for supply chain transparency and keeps a journal of inventory movement for real-time reconciliation. State design patterns are used to capture the life cycle (behavior) of inventory management as a state machine for a common, transparent and coherent process which creates an opportunity for trading partners to become more responsive in terms of changes or improvements in process, reconcile discrepancies, and comply with internal governance and external regulations. It enables end-to-end, inter-company visibility at the unit level for more accurate demand planning with better insight into order fulfillment and replenishment.

Keywords: supply chain management, inventory trace-ability, perpetual inventory system, inventory lifecycle, blockchain, inventory consignment, supply chain transparency, digital thread, demand planning, hyper ledger fabric

Procedia PDF Downloads 90