Search results for: development of mobile application

Authors: Nilam Bano, Uzma Iram

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Globally, the dilemma of undernutrition has become a notable concern for the researchers, academicians, and policymakers because of its severe consequences for many centuries. The nutritional deficiencies create hurdles for the people to achieve goals related to live a better lifestyle. Not only at micro level but also at the macro level, the consequences of undernutrition affect the economic progress of the country. The initial five years of a child’s life are considered critical for the physical growth and brain development. In this regard, children require special care and good quality food (nutrient intake) to fulfill their nutritional demand of the growing body. Having the sensitive stature and health, children specially under the age of 5 years are more vulnerable to the poor economic, housing, environmental and other social conditions. Beside confronting economic challenges and political upheavals, Pakistan is also going through from a rough patch in the context of social development. Majority of the children are facing serious health problems in the absence of required nutrition. The complexity of this issue is getting severe day by day and specially children are left behind with different type of immune problems and vitamins and mineral deficiencies. It is noted that children from the well-off background are less likely affected by the undernutrition. In order to underline this issue, the present study aims to highlight the existing nutritional inequalities among the children of under five years in Pakistan. Moreover, this study strives to decompose those factors that severely affect the existing nutritional inequality and standing in the queue to capture the consideration of concerned authorities. Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13 was employed to assess the relevant indicators of undernutrition such as stunting, wasting, underweight and associated socioeconomic factors. The objectives were executed through the utilization of the relevant empirical techniques. Concentration indices were constructed to measure the nutritional inequalities by utilizing three measures of undernutrition; stunting, wasting and underweight. In addition to it, the decomposition analysis following the logistic regression was made to unfold the determinants that severely affect the nutritional inequalities. The negative values of concentration indices illustrate that children from the marginalized background are affected by the undernutrition more than their counterparts who belong from rich households. Furthermore, the result of decomposition analysis indicates that child age, size of a child at birth, wealth index, household size, parents’ education, mother’s health and place of residence are the most contributing factors in the prevalence of existing nutritional inequalities. Considering the result of the study, it is suggested to the policymakers to design policies in a way so that the health sector of Pakistan can stimulate in a productive manner. Increasing the number of effective health awareness programs for mothers would create a notable difference. Moreover, the education of the parents must be concerned by the policymakers as it has a significant association with the present research in terms of eradicating the nutritional inequalities among children.

Keywords: concentration index, decomposition analysis, inequalities, undernutrition, Pakistan

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Matan Cohen, Maxim Shoshany

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Climatic, topographic and geological diversity, together with frequent disturbance and recovery cycles, produce highly complex spatial patterns of trees, shrubs, dwarf shrubs and bare ground patches. Assessment of spatial and temporal variations of these life-forms patterns under climate change is of high ecological priority. Here we report on one of the first attempts to discriminate between images of three Mediterranean life-forms patterns at three densities. The development of an extensive database of orthophoto images representing these 9 pattern categories was instrumental for training and testing pre-trained and newly-trained DL models utilizing DenseNet architecture. Both models demonstrated the advantages of using Deep Learning approaches over existing spectral and spatial (pattern or texture) algorithmic methods in differentiation 9 life-form spatial mixtures categories.

Keywords: texture classification, deep learning, desert fringe ecosystems, climate change

Procedia PDF Downloads 87

Authors: D. Malouch, M. Berchel, C. Dreanno, S. Stachowski-Haberkorn, P-A. Jaffres

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Biofouling is a complex natural phenomenon that involves biological, physical and chemical properties related to the environment, the submerged surface and the living organisms involved. Bio-colonization of artificial structures can cause various economic and environmental impacts. The increase in costs associated with the over-consumption of fuel from biocolonized vessels has been widely studied. Measurement drifts from submerged sensors, as well as obstructions in heat exchangers, and deterioration of offshore structures are major difficulties that industries are dealing with. Therefore, surfaces that inhibit biocolonization are required in different areas (water treatment, marine paints, etc.) and many efforts have been devoted to produce efficient and eco-compatible antifouling agents. The different steps of surface fouling are widely described in literature. Studying the biofilm and its stages provides a better understanding of how to elaborate more efficient antifouling strategies. Several approaches are currently applied, such as the use of biocide anti-fouling paint (mainly with copper derivatives) and super-hydrophobic coatings. While these two processes are proving to be the most effective, they are not entirely satisfactory, especially in a context of a changing legislation. Nowadays, the challenge is to prevent biofouling with non-biocide compounds, offering a cost effective solution, but with no toxic effects on marine organisms. Since the micro-fouling phase plays an important role in the regulation of the following steps of biofilm formation, it is desired to reduce or delate biofouling of a given surface by inhibiting the micro-fouling at its early stages. In our recent works, we reported that some amphiphilic compounds exhibited bacteriostatic or bactericidal properties at a concentration that did not affect mammalian eukaryotic cells. These remarkable properties invited us to assess this type of bio-inspired phospholipids to prevent the colonization of surfaces by marine bacteria. Of note, other studies reported that amphiphilic compounds interacted with bacteria leading to a reduction of their development. An amphiphilic compound is a molecule consisting of a hydrophobic domain and a polar head (ionic or non-ionic). These compounds appear to have interesting antifouling properties: some ionic compounds have shown antimicrobial activity, and zwitterions can reduce nonspecific adsorption of proteins. Herein, we investigate the potential of amphiphilic compounds as inhibitors of bacterial growth and marine biofilm formation. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of four synthetic phospholipids that features a cationic charge or a zwitterionic polar-head group to prevent microfouling with marine bacteria. Toxicity of these compounds was also studied in order to identify the most promising compounds that inhibit biofilm development and show low cytotoxicity on two links representative of coastal marine food webs: phytoplankton and oyster larvae.

Keywords: amphiphilic phospholipids, biofilm, marine fouling, non-toxique assays

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Authors: Johanna Bapela, Heino Heyman, Marion Meyer

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Regardless of the significant advances accomplished in reducing the burden of malaria and other tropical diseases in recent years, malaria remains a major cause of mortality in endemic countries. This is especially the case in sub-Saharan Africa where 99% of the estimated global malaria deaths occurs on an annual basis. The emergence of resistant Plasmodium species and the lack of diversified chemotherapeutic agents provide the rationale for bioprospecting for antiplasmodial scaffolds. Crude extracts from twenty indigenous antimalarial plant species were screened for antimalarial activity and then subjected to 1H NMR-based metabolomic analysis. Ten plant extracts exhibited significant in vitro antiplasmodial activity (IC50 ≤ 5 µg/ml). The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the acquired 1H NMR spectra could not separate the analyzed plant extracts according to the detected antiplasmodial bioactivity. Application of supervised Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures–Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) to the 1H NMR profiles resulted in a discrimination pattern that could be correlated to bioactivity. A contribution plot generated from the OPLS-DA scoring plot illustrated the classes of compounds responsible for the observed grouping. Given the preliminary in vitro results, Tabernaemontana elegans Stapf. (Apocynaceae) and Vangueria infausta Burch. subsp. infausta (Rubiaceae) were subjected to further phytochemical investigations. Two indole alkaloids, dregamine and tabernaemontanine possessing antiplasmodial activity were isolated from T. elegans. Two compounds were isolated from V. infausta subsp. infausta and identified as friedelin (IC50 = 3.01 µg/ml) and morindolide (IC50 = 18.5 µg/ml). While these compounds have been previously identified, this is the first account of their occurrence in the genus Vangueria and their antiplasmodial activity. Based on the results of the study, metabolomics can be used to globally identify classes of plant secondary metabolites that are responsible for antiplasmodial activity.

Keywords: ethnopharmacology, Malaria, medicinal plants, metabolomics

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Authors: Pankaj Singh Rawat, Rajeew Kumar, Pradeep Ram, Priyanka Pandey

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Wheat is an important cereal crop for food security. Boosting the wheat production and productivity is the major challenge across the nation. Good quality of seed is required for maintaining optimum plant stand which ultimately increases grain yield. Ensuring a good germination is one of the key steps to ensure proper plant stand and moisture assurance during seed germination may help to speed up the germination. The tiny size of nanoparticles may help in entry of water into seed without disturbing their internal structure. Considering above, a laboratory experiment was conducted during 2012-13 at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India. The completely randomized design was used for statistical analysis. The experiment was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the appropriate concentration of nanoparticles for seed treatment was screened. In second phase seed soaking hours of nanoparticles for better seed germination were standardized. Wheat variety UP2526 was taken as test crop. Four nanoparticles (TiO₂, ZnO, nickel and chitosan) were taken for study. The crop germination studies were done in petri dishes and standard package and practices were used to raise the seedlings. The germination studies were done by following standard procedure. In first phase of the experiment, seeds were treated with 50 and 300 ppm of nanoparticles and control was also maintained for comparison. In the second phase of experiment, seeds were soaked for 4 hours, 6 hours and 8 hours with 50 ppm nanoparticles of TiO₂, ZnO, nickel and chitosan along with control treatment to identify the soaking time for better seed germination. Experiment revealed that the application of nanoparticles help to enhance seed germination. The study revealed that seed treatment with  nanoparticles at 50 ppm concentration increases root length, shoot length, seedling length, shoot dry weight, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index I and seedling vigour index II as compared to seed soaking at 300 ppm concentration. This experiment showed that seed soaking up to 4 hr was better as compared to 6 and 8 hrs. Seed soaking with nanoparticles specially TiO₂, ZnO, and chitosan proved to enhance germination and seedling growth indices of wheat crop.

Keywords: nanoparticles, seed germination, seed soaking, wheat

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Authors: Sanjay Kumar, Dinesh Pathak, Sudhir Saralch

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Copper oxide is a semiconductor that has been studied for several reasons such as the natural abundance of starting material copper (Cu); the easiness of production by Cu oxidation; their non-toxic nature and the reasonably good electrical and optical properties. Copper oxide is well-known as cuprite oxide. The cuprite is p-type semiconductors having band gap energy of 1.21 to 1.51 eV. As a p-type semiconductor, conduction arises from the presence of holes in the valence band (VB) due to doping/annealing. CuO is attractive as a selective solar absorber since it has high solar absorbency and a low thermal emittance. CuO is very promising candidate for solar cell applications as it is a suitable material for photovoltaic energy conversion. It has been demonstrated that the dip technique can be used to deposit CuO films in a simple manner using metallic chlorides (CuCl₂.2H₂O) as a starting material. Copper oxide films are prepared using a methanolic solution of cupric chloride (CuCl₂.2H₂O) at three baking temperatures. We made three samples, after heating which converts to black colour. XRD data confirm that the films are of CuO phases at a particular temperature. The optical band gap of the CuO films calculated from optical absorption measurements is 1.90 eV which is quite comparable to the reported value. Dip technique is a very simple and low-cost method, which requires no sophisticated specialized setup. Coating of the substrate with a large surface area can be easily obtained by this technique compared to that in physical evaporation techniques and spray pyrolysis. Another advantage of the dip technique is that it is very easy to coat both sides of the substrate instead of only one and to deposit otherwise inaccessible surfaces. This method is well suited for applying coating on the inner and outer surfaces of tubes of various diameters and shapes. The main advantage of the dip coating method lies in the fact that it is possible to deposit a variety of layers having good homogeneity and mechanical and chemical stability with a very simple setup. In this paper, the CuO thin films preparation by dip coating method and their characterization will be presented.

Keywords: absorber material, cupric oxide, dip coating, thin film

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Authors: Idris Lawal

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Electronic payment system is simply a payment or monetary transaction made over the internet or a network of computers. This study was carried out in order to assess how electronic payment system has impacted on banks service delivery, to examine the efficiency of electronic payment system in Nigeria and to determine the level of customer's satisfaction as a direct result of the deployment of electronic payment systems. It is an empirical study conducted using structured questionnaire distributed to officials and customers of Access Bank plc. Chi-square(x2) was adopted for the purpose of data analysis. The result of the study showed that the development of electronic payment system offer great benefit to bank customers including improved services, reduced turn-around time, ease of banking transaction, significant cost saving etc. The study recommends that customer protection laws should be properly put in place to safeguard the interest of end users of e-payment instruments.

Keywords: bank, electronic payment systems, service delivery, customer's satisfaction

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Authors: Norah Mohammed Alshahrani, Abdulaziz Almaleh

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition related to issues with brain development that affects how a person recognises and communicates with others which results in difficulties with interaction and communication socially and it is constantly growing. Early recognition of ASD allows children to lead safe and healthy lives and helps doctors with accurate diagnoses and management of conditions. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a method that will achieve good results and with high accuracy for the measurement of ASD in children. In this paper, ASD datasets of toddlers and children have been analyzed. We employed the following machine learning techniques to attempt to explore ASD and they are Random Forest (RF), Decision Tree (DT), Na¨ıve Bayes (NB) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Then Feature selection was used to provide fewer attributes from ASD datasets while preserving model performance. As a result, we found that the best result has been provided by the Support Vector Machine (SVM), achieving 0.98% in the toddler dataset and 0.99% in the children dataset.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, machine learning, feature selection, support vector machine

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Authors: Muhammad Shuaibu Birniwa

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Automobile Independent Workshop Service Technicians (popularly called roadside mechanics) are technical personals that repairs most of the automobile vehicles in Nigeria. Majority of these mechanics acquired their skills through apprenticeship training. Modern vehicle imported into the country posed greater challenges to the present automobile technicians particularly in the area of carrying out maintenance repairs of these latest automobile vehicles (autotronics vehicle) due to their inability to possessed autotronic skills competency. To source for solution to the above mentioned problems, therefore a research is carried out in North – Western region of Nigeria to produce a suitable maintenance training modules that can be used to train the technicians for them to upgrade/acquire the needed competencies for successful maintenance repair of the autotronic vehicles that were running everyday on the nation’s roads. A cluster sampling technique is used to obtain a sample from the population. The population of the study is all autotronic inclined lecturers, instructors and independent workshop service technicians that are within North – Western region of Nigeria. There are seven states (Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara) in the study area, these serves as clusters in the population. Five (5) states were randomly selected to serve as the sample size. The five states are Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi and Zamfara, the entire population of the five states which serves as clusters is (183), lecturers (44), instructors (49) and autotronic independent workshop service technicians (90), all of them were used in the study because of their manageable size. 183 copies of autotronic maintenance training module questionnaires (AMTMQ) with 174 and 149 question items respectively were administered and collected by the researcher with the help of an assistants, they are administered to 44 Polytechnic lecturers in the department of mechanical engineering, 49 instructors in skills acquisition centres/polytechnics and 90 master craftsmen of an independent workshops that are autotronic inclined. Data collected for answering research questions 1, 3, 4 and 5 were analysed using SPSS software version 22, Grand Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test null hypotheses one (1) to three (3) and t-test statistical tool is used to analyzed hypotheses four (4) and five (5) all at 0.05 level of significance. The research conducted revealed that; all the objectives, contents/tasks, facilities, delivery systems and evaluation techniques contained in the questionnaire were required for the development of the autotronic maintenance training modules for independent workshop service technicians in the north – western zone of Nigeria. The skills upgrade training conducted by federal government in collaboration with SURE-P, NAC and SMEDEN was not successful because the educational status of the target population was not considered in drafting the needed training modules. The mode of training used does not also take cognizance of the theoretical aspect of the trainees, especially basic science which rendered the programme ineffective and insufficient for the tasks on ground.

Keywords: autotronics, roadside, mechanics, technicians, independent

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Authors: Odile Amoncou, Djedje-Kossu Zahui

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The integration of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach within a company appears nowadays as a fundamental system of response to the different problems that threaten our planet. The abusive exploitation of natural resources, social inequalities, discrimination and poverty are some examples. Thus, faced with these different global problems, each company must include in its operating system measures or actions with the aim not only of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but also for the improvement of its performance and its brand internationally. The objective of this article is to assess the implementation of CSR by telecommunication companies. It is our belief that given its high energy consumption and proximity to society, the telecom sector must pay particular attention to environmental and social issues. Our study examines the CSR of three Ivorian telecom operators, namely ORANGE CI, MOOV Africa and MTN, by applying a series of performance indicators related to CSR management. We hope that our study will raise awareness about sustainability issues for all other Ivorian companies but also sub-Sahara African companies in general in order to encourage CEOs to make CSR concept a top priority.

Keywords: CSR, telecom, SDGs, cote d’Ivoire

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Authors: Theodore Panton

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As cities in the United States experience critical housing shortages, mass timber presents the opportunity to address this crisis in housing supply while taking advantage of the carbon-positive benefits of sustainably forested wood fiber. Mass timber, however, currently has a low level of adoption in residential multifamily structures due to the risk-averse nature of change within the construction financing, Architecture / Engineering / Contracting (AEC) communities, as well as various agency approval challenges. This study demonstrates how mass timber can be used within the cost and feasibility parameters of a typical multistory residential structure and ultimately address the need for dense urban housing. This study will utilize The Garden District, a mixed-use market-rate housing project in Woodinville, Washington, as a case study to illuminate the potential of mass timber in this application. The Garden District is currently in final stages of permit approval and will commence construction in 2023. It will be the tallest dowel-laminated timber (DLT) residential structure in the United States when completed. This case study includes economic, technical, and design reference points to demonstrate the relevance of the use of this system and its ability to deliver “triple bottom line” results. In terms of results, the study establishes scalable and repeatable approaches to project design and delivery of mass timber in multifamily residential uses and includes economic data, technical solutions, and a summary of end-user advantages. This study discusses the third party tested systems for satisfying acoustical requirements within dwelling units, a key to resolving the use of mass timber within multistory residential use. Lastly, the study will also compare the mass timber solution with a comparable cold formed steel (CFS) system with a similar program, which indicates a net carbon savings of over three million tons over the life cycle of the building.

Keywords: DLT, dowell laminated timber, mass timber, market rate multifamily

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Authors: Nourhane Mohamed El Haridi, Mostafa El Arabi, Zeyad El Sayad

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Biomimicry is defined, by Benyus the natural sciences writer, as imitating or taking inspiration from nature’s forms and processes to solve human problems. Biomimicry is the conscious emulation of life’s genius. As the design community realizes the tremendous impact human constructions have on the world, environmental designers look to new approaches like biomimicry to advance sustainable design. Building leading the declaration made by biomimicry scientists that a full imitation of nature engages form, ecosystem, and process; this paper uses a logic approach to interpret human and environmental wholeness. Designers would benefit from both integrating social theory with environmental thinking and from combining their substantive skills with techniques for getting sustainable biomimic urban design. Integrating biomimicryʹs “Life’s Principles” into a built environment process model will make biomimicry more accessible and thus more widely accepted throughout the industry, and the sustainability of all species will benefit. The Biomimicry Guild hypothesizes the incorporation of these principles, called Lifeʹs Principles, increase the likelihood of sustainability for a respective design, and make it more likely that the design will have a greater impact on sustainability for future generations of all species as mentioned by Benyus in her book. This thesis utilizes Life’s Principles as a foundation for a design process model intended for application on built environment projects at various scales. This paper takes a look at the importance of the integration of biomimicry in urban design to get more sustainable cities and better life, by analyzing the principles of both sustainability and biomimicry, and applying these ideas on futuristic or existing cities to make a biomimic sustainable city more healthier and more conductive to life, and get a better biomimic urban design. A group of experts, architects, biologists, scientists, economists and ecologists should work together to face all the financial and designing difficulties, to have better solutions and good innovative ideas for biomimic sustainable urban design, it is not the only solution, but it is one of the best studies for a better future.

Keywords: biomimicry, built environment, sustainability, urban design

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Authors: Andres Nieto-Leal, Victor N. Kaliakin, Tania P. Molina

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The nature of most engineering materials is quite complex. It is, therefore, difficult to devise a general mathematical model that will cover all possible ranges and types of excitation and behavior of a given material. As a result, the development of mathematical models is based upon simplifying assumptions regarding material behavior. Such simplifications result in some material idealization; for example, one of the simplest material idealization is to assume that the material behavior obeys the elasticity. However, soils are nonhomogeneous, anisotropic, path-dependent materials that exhibit nonlinear stress-strain relationships, changes in volume under shear, dilatancy, as well as time-, rate- and temperature-dependent behavior. Over the years, many constitutive models, possessing different levels of sophistication, have been developed to simulate the behavior geomaterials, particularly cohesive soils. Early in the development of constitutive models, it became evident that elastic or standard elastoplastic formulations, employing purely isotropic hardening and predicated in the existence of a yield surface surrounding a purely elastic domain, were incapable of realistically simulating the behavior of geomaterials. Accordingly, more sophisticated constitutive models have been developed; for example, the bounding surface elastoplasticity. The essence of the bounding surface concept is the hypothesis that plastic deformations can occur for stress states either within or on the bounding surface. Thus, unlike classical yield surface elastoplasticity, the plastic states are not restricted only to those lying on a surface. Elastoplastic bounding surface models have been improved; however, there is still need to improve their capabilities in simulating the response of anisotropically consolidated cohesive soils, especially the response in extension tests. Thus, in this work an improved constitutive model that can more accurately predict diverse stress-strain phenomena exhibited by cohesive soils was developed. Particularly, an improved rotational hardening rule that better simulate the response of cohesive soils in extension. The generalized definition of the bounding surface model provides a convenient and elegant framework for unifying various previous versions of the model for anisotropically consolidated cohesive soils. The Generalized Bounding Surface Model for cohesive soils is a fully three-dimensional, time-dependent model that accounts for both inherent and stress induced anisotropy employing a non-associative flow rule. The model numerical implementation in a computer code followed an adaptive multistep integration scheme in conjunction with local iteration and radial return. The one-step trapezoidal rule was used to get the stiffness matrix that defines the relationship between the stress increment and the strain increment. After testing the model in simulating the response of cohesive soils through extensive comparisons of model simulations to experimental data, it has been shown to give quite good simulations. The new model successfully simulates the response of different cohesive soils; for example, Cardiff Kaolin, Spestone Kaolin, and Lower Cromer Till. The simulated undrained stress paths, stress-strain response, and excess pore pressures are in very good agreement with the experimental values, especially in extension.

Keywords: bounding surface elastoplasticity, cohesive soils, constitutive model, modeling of geomaterials

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Authors: Sapfo Mortaki

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Over the years, Greeks were leaving their homeland looking for better luck, including artists - painters and sculptors. Until mid-1940's, few were the ones who lived, worked, studied and were distinguished abroad. After the end of the Second World War, the group exit towards the cultural centers of the West commences. Since the mid-1970s, and especially in the early 1980s, Modern Greek Diaspora has undergone a new period. The creation of the European Community affects both the character of the immigration of artists as well as the creation of their identity within cultural pluralism. Since 1980 the situation in Greece changed significantly, and the contacts of artists with their homeland became greatly enhanced. Based on the above, this paper examines the cultural identity of the Greek artists in Paris during the 1980s, in comparison to the creation of the identity of the artists of the previous migratory movements, since this decade constitutes a critical point. Their cultural presence in Paris, as reflected in French and Greek daily press and journals of the period, is also investigated. At the same time, their connection with Greece and their contribution to the development and evolution of Contemporary Greek Art is discussed.

Keywords: artistic migration in Paris, cultural identity, cultural interaction, greek artists, greek contemporary art

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Authors: Larysa Novak-Kalyayeva, Aleksander Kuczabski, Orystlava Sydorchuk, Nataliia Fersman, Tatyana Zemlinskaia

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The article presents the results of the creative analysis and comparison of trends in the development of the theory of public administration during the period from the second half of the 20^th to the beginning of the 21^st century. The process of conceptualization of the priorities of public administration in the dynamics of reforming was held under the influence of such factors as globalization, integration, information and technological changes and human rights is examined. The priorities of the social state in the concepts of the second half of the 20^th century are studied. Peculiar approaches to determining the priorities of public administration in the countries of "Soviet dictatorship" in Central and Eastern Europe in the same period are outlined. Particular attention is paid to the priorities of public administration regarding the interaction between public power and society and the development of conceptual foundations for the modern managerial process. There is a thought that the dynamics of the formation of concepts of the European governance is characterized by the sequence of priorities: from socio-economic and moral-ethical to organizational-procedural and non-hierarchical ones. The priorities of the "welfare state" were focused on the decent level of material wellbeing of population. At the same time, the conception of "minimal state" emphasized priorities of human responsibility for their own fate under the conditions of minimal state protection. Later on, the emphasis was placed on horizontal ties and redistribution of powers and competences of "effective state" with its developed procedures and limits of responsibility at all levels of government and in close cooperation with the civil society. The priorities of the contemporary period are concentrated on human rights in the concepts of "good governance" and all the following ones, which recognize the absolute priority of public administration with compliance, provision and protection of human rights. There is a proved point of view that civilizational changes taking place under the influence of information and technological imperatives also stipulate changes in priorities, redistribution of emphases and update principles of managerial concepts on the basis of publicity, transparency, departure from traditional forms of hierarchy and control in favor of interactivity and inter-sectoral interaction, decentralization and humanization of managerial processes. The necessity to permanently carry out the reorganization, by establishing the interaction between different participants of public power and social relations, to establish a balance between political forces and social interests on the basis of mutual trust and mutual understanding determines changes of social, political, economic and humanitarian paradigms of public administration and their theoretical comprehension. The further studies of theoretical foundations of modern public administration in interdisciplinary discourse in the context of ambiguous consequences of the globalizational and integrational processes of modern European state-building would be advisable. This is especially true during the period of political transformations and economic crises which are the characteristic of the contemporary Europe, especially for democratic transition countries.

Keywords: concepts of public administration, democratic transition countries, human rights, the priorities of public administration, theory of public administration

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Authors: M. Richichi

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Evidencing the learning and developmental needs of students in specific educational institutions is central to determining the type of whole school pedagogical shift required. Initiating this transition by designing and implementing STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) project-based learning opportunities, in collaboration with industry, exposes teachers to new pedagogical and assessment practices. This experience instills confidence and a renewed sense of energy, which contributes to greater efficacy. Championing teachers in such learning environments leads to “bleeding” of inventive pedagogical understanding and skills as well as motivation. This contributes positively to collective teacher efficacy and the transition towards more cross-disciplinary initiatives and opportunities, and hence an innovative pedagogical shift. Evidence of skill and knowledge development in students, combined with greater confidence, work ethic and interest in STEAM areas, are further indicators of the success of the transitioning process.

Keywords: efficacy, pedagogy, transition, STEAM

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Authors: Bunthida Chunngam, Thanyanan Worasesthaphong

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This research had objective to develop of the website learning the local wisdom in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province and studied satisfaction of system user. This research sample was multistage sample for 100 questionnaires, analyzed data to calculated reliability value with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient method α=0.82. This system had 3 functions which were system using, system feather evaluation and system accuracy evaluation which the statistics used for data analysis was descriptive statistics to explain sample feature so these statistics were frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. This data analysis result found that the system using performance quality had good level satisfaction (4.44 mean), system feather function analysis had good level satisfaction (4.11 mean) and system accuracy had good level satisfaction (3.74 mean).

Keywords: website, learning, local wisdom, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province

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Authors: Ozlem Durna Aydin, Gultekin Yildiz

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Antibiotics are microbial metabolites with low molecular weight produced by fungi and algae, inhibiting the development of other microorganisms even in low growth. Antibiotics have been used as growth factors in animal feeds for many years. They prohibited; because of increased residue problem and increased resistance to antibiotics in bacteria due to prolonged use. Aromatic plants and extracts have attracted the attention of scientists nowadays due to positive reasons such as confidence of the community to the products those are coming from nature, desire to consume, and no residue problems. Plant extracts are obtained from aromatic plants, and they come forward with antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant and antilipidemic properties. It has been stated that intestinal histomorphology and microbiosis are positively affected by the use of plant extract in feeds. In the present day, aromatic plants and extracts are a remarkable research field with intriguing unknowns in the field of animal nutrition, and they continue to exist in the journal in vitro and in vivo studies.

Keywords: aromatic plant, broilers, extract mechanism of action, intestinal health

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Authors: Ramona Georgeta Biholar

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Gender-based violence against women plagues societies around the world. The work to eliminate it is an ongoing battle. At the international level, Article 5 (a) CEDAW establishes an agenda for social and cultural transformation: it imposes on States parties to CEDAW an obligation to modify sex roles and stereotypical social and cultural patterns of conduct. Also, it provides for the protection of women from violence stemming from such gender norms. Yet, the lived realities of women are frequently disconnected from this agenda. Nonetheless, it is the reality of the local that is crucial for the articulation, implementation and realization of women’s rights in general, and for the elimination of gender-based violence against women in particular. In this paper we discuss the transformation of sex roles and gender stereotyping with a view to realize women’s right to be free from gender-based violence. This paper is anchored in qualitative data collection undertaken in Jamaica and socio-legal research. Based on this research, 1) We explain the process of vernacularisation as a strategy that enables women’s human rights to hit the ground and benefit rights holders, and 2) We present a synergistic model for the implementation of Article 5 (a) CEDAW so that women’s right to be free from gender-based violence can be realized in a concrete national jurisdiction. This model is grounded in context-based demands and recommendations for social and cultural transformation as a remedy for the incidence of gender-based violence against women. Moreover, the synergistic model offers directions that have a general application for the implementation of CEDAW and Article 5 (a) CEDAW in particular, with a view to realize women’s right to be free from gender-based violence. The model is thus not only a conceptual tool of analysis, but also a prescriptive tool for action. It contributes to the work of both academics and practitioners, such as Governmental officials, and national and local civil society representatives. Overall, this paper contributes to understanding the process necessary to bridge that gap between women’s human rights norms and women’s life realities of discrimination and violence.

Keywords: CEDAW, gender-based violence against women, international human rights law, women’s rights implementation, the Caribbean

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Authors: Paul Kipchumba

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Kenya is an East African Country lying at the Equator. It had a population of 46 million in 2015 with an annual growth rate of 2.7%, making a population of at least 65 million in 2030. Kenya’s GDP in 2015 was about 63 billion USD with per capita GDP of about 1400 USD. The rural population is 74%, whereas urban population is 26%. Kenya grapples with not only access to energy but also with energy security. There is direct correlation between economic growth, population growth, and energy consumption. Kenya’s energy composition is at least 74.5% from renewable energy with hydro power and geothermal forming the bulk of it; 68% from wood fuel; 22% from petroleum; 9% from electricity; and 1% from coal and other sources. Wood fuel is used by majority of rural and poor urban population. Electricity is mostly used for lighting. As of March 2015 Kenya had installed electricity capacity of 2295 MW, making a per capital electricity consumption of 0.0499 KW. The overall retail cost of electricity in 2015 was 0.009915 USD/ KWh (KES 19.85/ KWh), for installed capacity over 10MW. The actual demand for electricity in 2015 was 3400 MW and the projected demand in 2030 is 18000 MW. Kenya is working on vision 2030 that aims at making it a prosperous middle income economy and targets 23 GW of generated electricity. However, cost and non-cost factors affect generation and consumption of electricity in Kenya. Kenya does not care more about CO2 emissions than on economic growth. Carbon emissions are most likely to be paid by future costs of carbon emissions and penalties imposed on local generating companies by sheer disregard of international law on C02 emissions and climate change. The study methodology was a simulated application of carbon tax on all carbon emitting sources of electricity generation. It should cost only USD 30/tCO2 tax on all emitting sources of electricity generation to have solar as the only source of electricity generation in Kenya. The country has the best evenly distributed global horizontal irradiation. Solar potential after accounting for technology efficiencies such as 14-16% for solar PV and 15-22% for solar thermal is 143.94 GW. Therefore, the paper recommends adoption of solar power for generating all electricity in Kenya in order to attain zero carbon electricity generation in the country.

Keywords: co2 emissions, cost factors, electricity generation, non-cost factors

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Authors: Abobaker Mohammed Qasem Farhan, Olof M. A. Saif

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The demand for parking spaces in urban areas, particularly in developing countries, has led to a significant issue in the absence of sufficient parking spaces in crowded areas, which results in daily traffic congestion as drivers search for parking. This not only affects the appearance of the city but also has indirect impacts on the economy, society, and environment. In response to these challenges, researchers from various countries have sought technical and intelligent solutions to mitigate the problem through the development of smart parking systems. This paper aims to analyze and design three models of parking lots, with a focus on parking time and security. The study used computer software and Uppaal tools to simulate the models and determine the best among them. The results and suggestions provided in the paper aim to reduce the parking problems and improve the overall efficiency and safety of the parking process. The conclusion of the study highlights the importance of utilizing advanced technology to address the pressing issue of insufficient parking spaces in urban areas.

Keywords: preliminaries, system requirements, timed Au- tomata, Uppaal

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Authors: Bita Bayatsarmadi, Shi-Zhang Qiao

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The development of ordered mesoporous carbon materials with controllable structures and improved physicochemical properties by doping heteroatoms such as nitrogen into the carbon framework has attracted a lot of attention, especially in relation to energy storage and conversion. Herein, a series of Nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon spheres (NMC) was synthesized via a facile dual soft-templating procedure by tuning the nitrogen content and carbonization temperature. Various physical and (electro) chemical properties of the NMCs have been comprehensively investigated to pave the way for feasible design of nitrogen-containing porous carbon materials. The optimized sample showed a favorable electrocatalytic activity as evidenced by high kinetic current and positive onset potential for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) due to its large surface area, high pore volume, good conductivity and high nitrogen content, which make it as a highly efficient ORR metal-free catalyst in alkaline solutions.

Keywords: porous carbon, N-doping, oxygen reduction reaction, soft-template

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Authors: Paulina Dwuznik

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For students of legal English, the skill of mediation is of special importance as it constitutes part of their everyday work. Developing the skill of mediation requires developing linguistic, communicative, textual, pragmatic, interactive, social, and intercultural competencies. The study conducted at the Open University of the University of Warsaw compared the results of a questionnaire concerning the needs of legal professionals relating to mediation tasks, which they perform at work with the analysis of the content of different legal English handbooks with special stress on the development of intercultural competence necessary in interlinguistic mediation. The study found that legal English handbooks focus mainly on terminology study, but some of them extend students' intercultural competence in a way which may help them to perform tasks of mediating concepts, texts, and communication. The author of the paper will present the correlation between intercultural competence and mediation skill and give some examples of mediation tasks which may be based on comparative intercultural content of some chosen academic legal English handbooks.

Keywords: intercultural competence, legal English, mediation skill, teaching

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Authors: Seyedeh Belin Tavakoly Sany, H. Rosli, R. Majid, S. Aishah

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In this study, water monitoring was performed from Nov. 2012 to Oct. 2013 to assess water quality and evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of physicochemical and biological variables in water. Water samples were collected from 10 coastal water stations of West Port. In the case of water-quality assessment, multi-metric indices and operational indicators have been proposed to classify the trophic status at different stations. The trophic level of West Port coastal water ranges from eutrophic to hypertrophic. Chl-a concentration was used to estimate the biological response of phytoplankton biomass and indicated eutrophic conditions in West Port and mesotrophic conditions at the control site. During the study period, no eutrophication events or secondary symptoms occurred, which may be related to hydrodynamic turbulence and water exchange, which prevent the development of eutrophic conditions in the West Port.

Keywords: water quality, multi-metric indices, operational indicator, Malaysia, West Port

Procedia PDF Downloads 292

Authors: Rania Albsoul, Muhammad Ahmed Alshyyab, Baraa Ayed Al Odat, Nermeen Borhan Al Dwekat, Batool Emad Al-masri, Fatima Abdulsattar Alkubaisi, Salsabil Awni Flefil, Majd Hussein Al-Khawaldeh, Ragad Ayman Sa’ed, Maha Waleed Abu Ajamieh, Gerard Fitzgerald

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of operating room staff towards the use of the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist in a tertiary hospital in Jordan. Design/methodology/approach: This was a qualitative descriptive study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 21 healthcare staff employed in the operating room (nurses, residents, surgeons, and anaesthesiologists). The interviews were conducted in the period from October to December 2021. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings: Three main themes emerged from data analysis, namely compliance with the surgical safety checklist, the impact of the surgical safety checklist, and barriers and facilitators to the use of the surgical safety checklist. The use of the checklist was seen as enabling staff to communicate effectively and thus accomplish patient safety and positive outcomes. The perceived barriers to compliance included excessive workload, congestion, and lack of training and awareness. Enhanced training and education were thought to improve the utilization of the surgical safety checklist and help enhance awareness about its importance. Originality/value: While steps to utilize the surgical safety checklist by the operation room personnel may seem simple, the quality of its administration is not necessarily robust. There are several challenges to consistent, complete, and effective administration of the surgical safety checklist by the surgical team members. Healthcare managers must employ interventions to eliminate barriers to and offer facilitators of adherence to the application of the surgical safety checklist, therefore promoting quality healthcare and patient safety.

Keywords: patient safety, surgical safety checklist, compliance, utility, operating room, quality healthcare, communication, teamwork

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

Authors: Riya Roy, Anjana Bhasi

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Column-supported embankments provide a practical and efficient solution for construction on soft soil due to the low cost and short construction times. In the recent years, geosynthetic have been used in combination with column systems to support embankments. The load transfer mechanism in these systems is a combination of soil arching effect, which occurs between columns and membrane effect of the geosynthetic. This paper aims at the study of soil arching effect on columnar embankments using finite element software, ABAQUS. An axisymmetric finite element model is generated and using this model, parametric studies are carried out. Thus the effects of various factors such as height of embankment fill, elastic modulus of pile and tensile stiffness of geosynthetic, on soil arching have been studied. The development of negative skin friction along the pile-soil interface have also been studied and the results obtained from this study are compared with the current design methods.

Keywords: ABAQUS, geosynthetic, negative skin friction, soil arching

Procedia PDF Downloads 374

Authors: G. Blugan, B. Jiang, J. Thornberry, P. Sturzenegger, U. Gonzenbach, M. Misson, D. Cartlidge, R. Stenerud, J. Kuebler

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Low-cost ceramic spheres were developed and manufactured from the engineering ceramic aluminium oxide. Hollow spheres of 50 mm diameter with a wall thickness of 0.5-1.0 mm were produced via an adapted slip casting technique. It was possible to produce the spheres with good repeatability and with no defects or failures in the spheres due to the manufacturing process. The spheres were developed specifically for use in buoyancy devices for deep-sea exploration conditions at depths of 3000 m below sea level. The spheres with a 1.0 mm wall thickness exhibit a buoyancy of over 54% while the spheres with a 0.5 mm wall thickness exhibit a buoyancy of over 73%. The mechanical performance of the spheres was confirmed by performing a hydraulic burst pressure test on individual spheres. With a safety factor of 3, all spheres with 1.0 mm wall thickness survived a hydraulic pressure of greater than 150 MPa which is equivalent to a depth of more than 5000 m below sea level. The spheres were then incorporated into a buoyancy module. These hollow aluminium oxide ceramic spheres offer an excellent possibility of deep-sea exploration to depths greater than the currently used technology.

Keywords: buoyancy, ceramic spheres, deep-sea, oil exploration

Procedia PDF Downloads 410

Authors: Adil K. Tamimi, Tarig Ali, Rawan Anoohi, Ahmed Rajput, Kaltham Alkamali

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3D concrete printing is one of the most innovative and modern techniques in the field of construction that achieved several milestones in that field for the following advantages: saving project’s time, ability to execute complicated shapes, reduce waste and low cost. However, the concept of 3D printing in UAE is relatively new where construction teams, including clients, consultants, and contractors, do not have the required knowledge and experience in the field. This is the most significant obstacle for the construction parties, which make them refrained from using 3D concrete printing compared to conventional concreting methods. This study shows the historical development of the 3D concrete printing, its advantages, and the challenges facing this innovation. Concrete mixes and materials have been proposed and evaluated to select the best combination for successful 3D concrete printing. The main characteristics of the 3D concrete printing in the fresh and hardened states are considered, such as slump test, flow table, compressive strength, tensile, and flexural strengths. There is need to assess the structural stability of the 3D concrete by testing the bond between interlayers of the concrete.  

Keywords: 3D printing, workability, compressive strength, robots, dimensions

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Pui-Lai To, E-Ping Sung

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With the flourishing development of online shopping, an increasing number of customers see online shopping as an entertaining experience. Because the online consumer has a double identity as a shopper and an Internet user, online shopping should offer hedonic values of shopping and Internet usage. The purpose of this study is to investigate hedonic online shopping motivations from the perspectives of traditional hedonic value and flow theory. The study adopted a focus group interview method, including two online and two offline interviews. Four focus groups of shoppers consisted of online professionals, online college students, offline professionals and offline college students. The results of the study indicate that traditional hedonic values and dimensions of flow theory exist in the online shopping environment. The study indicated that online shoppers seem to appreciate being able to learn things and grow to become competitive achievers online. Comparisons of online hedonic motivations between groups are conducted. This study serves as a basis for the future growth of Internet marketing.

Keywords: flow theory, hedonic motivation, internet shopping

Procedia PDF Downloads 275

Authors: Fernando G. Torres, Omar P. Troncoso

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A wide range of bacteria synthesizes and secretes polymeric substances composed of a mixture of high-molecular-mass heteropolysaccharides. Nostoc commune cyanobacteria grow in colonial spherules of 10-20 mm in diameter. These spherules are filled with an internal gel made from a variety of polysaccharides known as Nostoc commune exopolysaccharides (NCE). In this paper, we report the use of these exopolysaccharides as a raw material for the preparation of a solid polymer electrolyte. Ammonium iodide and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Bmim]Cl) salts were used to provide NCE films with ionic conductivity. In addition, a carboxymethylation treatment was used to further increase the conductivity of NCE films. The structural characterization of the NCE films was assessed by FTIR, XRD, and DSC tests. Broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) and dielectric thermal analysis (DETA) were used to evaluate the ionic conductivity of the samples. The results showed that NCE can be used to prepare solid polymer electrolyte films and that carboxymethylation improves their ionic conductivity. These NCE films can be used in the development of novel energy storage devices such as flat batteries or supercapacitors.

Keywords: polymer electrolyte, Nostoc commune, cyanobacteria, exopolysaccharides

Procedia PDF Downloads 210