Search results for: learning management systems

Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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The adoption and application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in government administration through e-government is expected to permeate all sectors of state/ public institutions as well as democratic institutions. One of such public institutions is the Electoral Commission of Ghana mandated by the 1992 Constitution to hold all public elections including presidential and parliamentary elections. As Ghana holds its 7th General Elections since 1992, on 7th November 2016, there are demands from key stakeholders for the Election Management Body, which is the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to adopt and implement an electronic voting system. This case study, therefore, attempts to contribute significantly to the debate by examining influencing factors that would impact on citizen’s readiness to adopt and use an electronic voting system in Ghana. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as a theoretical framework for this study, out of which a research model and hypotheses were developed. Importantly, the outcome of this research finding would form a basis for appropriate policy recommendation for consideration of Government and EC of Ghana.

Keywords: citizens readiness, e-government, electronic voting, technology acceptance model (TAM)

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Authors: Usman Aliyu Jalam, Shuaibu Alolo Sumaila, Sa’adiya Iliyasu Muhammed

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Modern building industry lays much emphasis on sophisticated materials that have high embodied energy with intrinsic distinctiveness for damaging the environment. But today, advances in solid waste management have resulted in alternative building materials as partial or complete replacement of the conventional materials like cement, aggregate etc particularly for low cost housing. Investigations carried out revealed that an estimated 18.0 million tonnes of agricultural solid wastes are being generated in Nigeria annually. This constitutes a problem not only to the natural environment but also to the built environment more particularly with the way the wastes are being dispose of. The paper has discussed the present status on the generation and utilisation of agricultural solid wastes, their recycling potentials and environmental implications. It further discovered that although considerable quantity of these wastes were found to have the potentials of being recycled as building materials, the availability of the appropriate technology remains a big challenge in the country. Moreover, majority of the wastes type have gained popularity as fuel. As such, the economic and environmental benefits of recycling the wastes and the use of the wastes as fuel need further investigation.

Keywords: agricultural waste, building, environment, materials, Nigeria

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Authors: Baghdasaryan Marinka

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The particular significance of comprehensive estimation of the increase in the operation efficiency of the mill motor electromechanical system, providing the main technological process for obtaining a metallic concentrate, as well as the technical state of the system are substantiated. The works carried out in the sphere of investigating, creating, and improving the operation modes of electric drive motors and ore-grinding mills have been studied. Analytic dependences for estimating the operation modes of the ore-grinding mills aimed at improving the ore-crashing process maintenance and technical service efficiencies have been obtained. The obtained analytic dependencies establish a link between the technological and power parameters of the electromechanical system, and allow to estimate the state of the system and reveal the controlled parameters required for the efficient management in case of changing the technological parameters. It has been substantiated that the changes in the technological factors affecting the consumption power of the drive motor do not cause an instability in the electromechanical system.

Keywords: electromechanical system, estimation, operation mode, productivity, technological process, the mill filling degree

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Authors: Sinead Impey, Gaye Stephens, Declan O’Sullivan

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Mitigating organisational knowledge loss presents challenges for knowledge managers. Expert knowledge is embodied in people and captured in ‘routines, processes, practices and norms’ as well as in the paper system. These knowledge stores have limitations in so far as they make knowledge diffusion beyond geography or over time difficult. However, technology could present a potential solution by facilitating the capture and management of expert knowledge in a codified and sharable format. Before it can be digitised, however, the knowledge of healthcare experts must be captured. Methods: As a first step in a larger project on this topic, a scoping review was conducted to identify how expert healthcare knowledge is captured digitally. The aim of the review was to identify current healthcare knowledge capture practices, identify gaps in the literature, and justify future research. The review followed a scoping review framework. From an initial 3,430 papers retrieved, 22 were deemed relevant and included in the review. Findings: Two broad approaches –direct and indirect- with themes and subthemes emerged. ‘Direct’ describes a process whereby knowledge is taken directly from subject experts. The themes identified were: ‘Researcher mediated capture’ and ‘Digital mediated capture’. The latter was further distilled into two sub-themes: ‘Captured in specified purpose platforms (SPP)’ and ‘Captured in a virtual community of practice (vCoP)’. ‘Indirect’ processes rely on extracting new knowledge using artificial intelligence techniques from previously captured data. Using this approach, the theme ‘Generated using artificial intelligence methods’ was identified. Although presented as distinct themes, some papers retrieved discuss combining more than one approach to capture knowledge. While no approach emerged as superior, two points arose from the literature. Firstly, human input was evident across themes, even with indirect approaches. Secondly, a range of challenges common among approaches was highlighted. These were (i) ‘Capturing an expert’s knowledge’- Difficulties surrounding capturing an expert’s knowledge related to identifying the ‘expert’ say from the very experienced and how to capture their tacit or difficult to articulate knowledge. (ii) ‘Confirming quality of knowledge’- Once captured, challenges noted surrounded how to validate knowledge captured and, therefore, quality. (iii) ‘Continual knowledge capture’- Once knowledge is captured, validated, and used in a system; however, the process is not complete. Healthcare is a knowledge-rich environment with new evidence emerging frequently. As such, knowledge needs to be reviewed, updated, or removed (redundancy) as appropriate. Although some methods were proposed to address this, such as plausible reasoning or case-based reasoning, conclusions could not be drawn from the papers retrieved. It was, therefore, highlighted as an area for future research. Conclusion: The results described two broad approaches – direct and indirect. Three themes were identified: ‘Researcher mediated capture (Direct)’; ‘Digital mediated capture (Direct)’ and ‘Generated using artificial intelligence methods (Indirect)’. While no single approach was deemed superior, common challenges noted among approaches were: ‘capturing an expert’s knowledge’, ‘confirming quality of knowledge’, and ‘continual knowledge capture’. However, continual knowledge capture was not fully explored in the papers retrieved and was highlighted as an important area for future research. Acknowledgments: This research is partially funded by the ADAPT Centre under the SFI Research Centres Programme (Grant 13/RC/2106) and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund.

Keywords: expert knowledge, healthcare, knowledge capture and knowledge management

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Authors: Syauqi Asfiya R.

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This study examines the constraints faced by Islamic boarding school (Pesantren) in Indonesia in effectively addressing physical violence within their educational institutions. The vulnerability to violence in the education sector remains pervasive, including in Pesantren, primarily due to the residential nature of the boarding school system, which necessitates round-the-clock interaction among students from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, environmental factors, parenting styles, individual characteristics, and media influences further complicate the conditions within Pesantren. Numerous cases of physical violence have been reported, underscoring the need to identify the constraints of violence prevention strategies implemented by Pesantren. Adopting a case study approach, this research focuses on a Modern Pesantren in Tangerang and utilizes interviews conducted with 20 victims of violence to explore the aspects of Pesantren's violence prevention strategies that may have been overlooked. The findings indicate that many students face a dilemma when reporting the violence they experience, as the imposed sanctions often prove excessively severe and carry the risk of exacerbating the violence perpetrated by the offenders. Consequently, numerous victims choose to remain silent, thereby enabling the perpetuation of violence. Moreover, senior students (mudabbir) are prohibited from giving punishment, but there are still many who punish other students based on their personal moods. Furthermore, violence is also perpetrated by religious teachers (ustadz), despite their responsibility for addressing such issues. The evaluation process often follows a unidirectional approach wherein the santri have limited freedom compared to the Mudabbir or ustadz when it comes to providing feedback. Additionally, sentiment within specific student generations is reinforced due to the segregation of dormitories based on cohorts. Lastly, the absence of psychologists to address the trauma experienced by victims further exacerbates the situation. This research sheds light on the constraints faced by Pesantren in effectively preventing physical violence and emphasizes the importance of implementing comprehensive measures to create safer and nurturing learning environments within these institutions.

Keywords: physical violence, islam, boarding school, constraint

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Authors: Loretta Ichim, Dan Popescu, Grigore Stamatescu

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The paper reports the collaboration between a top university from Romania and three companies for the implementation of a research project in a multidisciplinary domain, focusing on the impact and benefits both for the education and industry. The joint activities were developed under the Space Technology and Advanced Research Program (STAR), funded by the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) for a university-industry partnership. The context was defined by linking the European Space Agency optional programs, with the development and promotion national research, with the educational and industrial capabilities in the aeronautics, security and related areas by increasing the collaboration between academic and industrial entities as well as by realizing high-level scientific production. The project name is Multisensory Robotic System for Aerial Monitoring of Critical Infrastructure Systems (MUROS), which was carried 2013-2016. The project included the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (coordinator) and three companies, which manufacture and market unmanned aerial systems. The project had as main objective the development of an integrated system for combined ground wireless sensor networks and UAV monitoring in various application scenarios for critical infrastructure surveillance. This included specific activities related to fundamental and applied research, technology transfer, prototype implementation and result dissemination. The core area of the contributions laid in distributed data processing and communication mechanisms, advanced image processing and embedded system development. Special focus is given by the paper to analyzing the impact the project implementation in the educational process, directly or indirectly, through the faculty members (professors and students) involved in the research team. Three main directions are discussed: a) enabling students to carry out internships at the partner companies, b) handling advanced topics and industry requirements at the master's level, c) experiments and concept validation for doctoral thesis. The impact of the research work (as the educational component) developed by the faculty members on the increasing performances of the companies’ products is highlighted. The collaboration between university and companies was well balanced both for contributions and results. The paper also presents the outcomes of the project which reveals the efficient collaboration between high education and industry: master thesis, doctoral thesis, conference papers, journal papers, technical documentation for technology transfer, prototype, and patent. The experience can provide useful practices of blending research and education within an academia-industry cooperation framework while the lessons learned represent a starting point in debating the new role of advanced research and development performing companies in association with higher education. This partnership, promoted at UE level, has a broad impact beyond the constrained scope of a single project and can develop into long-lasting collaboration while benefiting all stakeholders: students, universities and the surrounding knowledge-based economic and industrial ecosystem. Due to the exchange of experiences between the university (UPB) and the manufacturing company (AFT Design), a new project, SIMUL, under the Bridge Grant Program (Romanian executive agency UEFISCDI) was started (2016 – 2017). This project will continue the educational research for innovation on master and doctoral studies in MUROS thematic (collaborative multi-UAV application for flood detection).

Keywords: education process, multisensory robotic system, research and innovation project, technology transfer, university-industry partnership

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Authors: F. Esfandyari Darabad, Z. Samadi

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The volume of runoff caused by rainfall in the river basin has enticed the researchers in the fields of the water management resources. In this study, first of the hydrological data such as the rainfall and discharge of the Khiyav river basin of Meshkin city in the northwest of Iran collected and then the process of analyzing and reconstructing has been completed. The soil conservation service (scs) has developed a method for calculating the runoff, in which is based on the curve number specification (CN). This research implemented the following model in the Khiyav river basin of Meshkin city by the GIS techniques and concluded the following fact in which represents the usage of weight model in calculating the curve numbers that provides the possibility for the all efficient factors which is contributing to the runoff creation such as; the geometric characteristics of the basin, the basin soil characteristics, vegetation, geology, climate and human factors to be considered, so an accurate estimation of runoff from precipitation to be achieved as the result. The findings also exposed the accident-prone areas in the output of the Khiyav river basin so it was revealed that the Khiyav river basin embodies a high potential for the flood creation.

Keywords: curve number, khiyav river basin, runoff estimation, SCS

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Authors: Xue Bai, Ranran He, Chang Liu

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Care planning before the onset of intensive care needs can benefit older adults’ psychological well-being and increases families’ ability to manage caregiving crises and cope with care transitions. Effective care planning requires collaborative ‘team-work’ in families. However, future care planning has not been substantially examined in intergenerational or family contexts, let alone among immigrant families who have to face particular challenges in parental caregiving. From a family systems perspective, this study intends to explore the extent, processes, and contents of intergenerational care planning of Mainland immigrant ageing families in Hong Kong and to examine the intergenerational congruence and discrepancies in the care planning process. Adopting a qualitative research design, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 adult child-older parent pairs and another 33 adult children. In total, 50 adult children who migrated to Hong Kong after the age of 18 with more than three years’ work experience in Hong Kong had at least one parent aged over 55 years old who was not a Hong Kong resident and considered his/herself as the primary caregiver of the parent were recruited. Seventeen ageing parents of the recruited adult children were invited for dyadic interviews. Scarcity of caregiving resources in the context of cross-border migration, intergenerational discrepancies in care planning stages, both generations’ struggle and ambivalence toward filial care, intergenerational transmission of care values, and facilitating role of accumulated family capital in care preparation were primary themes concluded from participants’ narratives. Compared with ageing parents, immigrant adult children generally displayed lower levels of care planning. Although with a strong awareness of parents’ future care needs, few adult children were found engaged in concrete planning activities. This is largely due to their uncertainties toward future life and career, huge work and living pressure, the relatively good health status of their parents, and restrictions of public welfare policies in the receiving society. By contrast, children’s cross-border migration encouraged ageing parents to have early and clear preparation for future care. Ageing parents mostly expressed low filial care expectations when realizing the scarcity of family caregiving resources in the cross-border context. Even though they prefer in-person support from children, most of them prepare themselves for independent ageing to prioritize the next generation’s needs or choose to utilize paid services, welfare systems, friend networks, or extended family networks in their sending society. Adult children were frequently found caught in the dilemma of desiring to provide high quality and in-person support for their parents but lacking sufficient resources. Notably, a salient pattern of intergenerational transmission in terms of family and care values and ideal care arrangement emerged from intergenerational care preparation. Moreover, the positive role of accumulated family capital generated by a reunion in care preparation and joint decision-making were also identified. The findings of the current study will enhance professionals’ and service providers’ awareness of intergenerational care planning in cross-border migration contexts, inform services to alleviate unpreparedness for elderly care and intergenerational discrepancies concerning care arrangements and broaden family services to encompass intergenerational care planning interventions. Acknowledgment: This study is supported by a General Research Grant from the Research Grants Council of the HKSAR, China (Project Number: 15603818).

Keywords: intergenerational care planning, mainland immigrants in Hong Kong, migrant family, older adults

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Authors: Hanaa M. Abdelgawad, Mona Safar, Ayman M. Wahba

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Real-time image and video processing is a demand in many computer vision applications, e.g. video surveillance, traffic management and medical imaging. The processing of those video applications requires high computational power. Therefore, the optimal solution is the collaboration of CPU and hardware accelerators. In this paper, a Canny edge detection hardware accelerator is proposed. Canny edge detection is one of the common blocks in the pre-processing phase of image and video processing pipeline. Our presented approach targets offloading the Canny edge detection algorithm from processing system (PS) to programmable logic (PL) taking the advantage of High Level Synthesis (HLS) tool flow to accelerate the implementation on Zynq platform. The resulting implementation enables up to a 100x performance improvement through hardware acceleration. The CPU utilization drops down and the frame rate jumps to 60 fps of 1080p full HD input video stream.

Keywords: high level synthesis, canny edge detection, hardware accelerators, computer vision

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Authors: Tareq AlNuaim, Mubashir Alam, Abdulrazaq Aldowesh

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The usage of micro-Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) has witnessed an enormous increase recently. Detection of such drones became a necessity nowadays to prevent any harmful activities. Typically, such targets have low velocity and low Radar Cross Section (RCS), making them indistinguishable from clutter and phase noise. Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Radars have many potentials; it increases the degrees of freedom on both transmit and receive ends. Such architecture allows for flexibility in operation, through utilizing the direct access to every element in the transmit/ receive array. MIMO systems allow for several array processing techniques, permitting the system to stare at targets for longer times, which improves the Doppler resolution. In this paper, a 2×2 MIMO radar prototype is developed using Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology, and its performance is evaluated against a slow-moving low radar cross section micro-UAV used by hobbyists. Radar cross section simulations were carried out using FEKO simulator, achieving an average of -14.42 dBsm at S-band. The developed prototype was experimentally evaluated achieving more than 300 meters of detection range for a DJI Mavic pro-drone

Keywords: digital beamforming, drone detection, micro-UAV, MIMO, phased array

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Authors: Hafiz Muhammad Umer Aslam, Mohammad Rafiq Khan

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This techno-economic study reports the feasibility of generating thermoelectric power from municipal solid waste (MSW) of Kasur City by incineration process. The data was gathered from different establishments of Kasur, through appropriate permission from their heads, and processed to design different alternative projects for installation of a thermal power plant in the city of Kasur. A technique of discounted cash flow was used to evaluate alternative projects so that their Benefit to Cost Ratio, Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return and Payback Period can be determined. The study revealed that Kasur City currently consumes 18MWh electricity and generates 179 tons/day MSW. The generated waste has the ability to produce 2.1MWh electricity at the cost of USD 0.0581/unit with an expenditure of USD 3,907,692 as initial fixed investment of forming about 1/7th of consumption of Kasur. The cost from this source, when compared to current rate of electricity in Pakistan (USD 0.1346), is roughly half.

Keywords: Kasur City, resource recovery, thermoelectric power, waste management

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Authors: Nana Saralidze, Nino Sharashenidze, Zurab Kevanishvili

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Hidden hearing loss may occur in humans exposed to prolonged high-level sound. It is the loss of ability to hear high-level background noise while having normal hearing in quiet. We compared the hearing of people who regularly listen 3 hours and more to personal music players and those who do not. Forty participants aged 18-30 years were divided into two groups: regular users of music players and people who had never used them. And the third group – elders aged 50-55 years, had 15 participants. Pure-tone audiometry (125-16000 Hz), auditory brainstem response (ABR) (70dB SPL), and ability to identify speech in noise (4-talker babble with a 65-dB signal-to-noise ratio at 80 dB) were measured in all participants. All participants had normal pure-tone audiometry (all thresholds < 25 dB HL). A significant difference between groups was observed in that regular users of personal audio systems correctly identified 53% of words, whereas the non-users identified 74% and the elder group – 63%. This contributes evidence supporting the presence of a hidden hearing loss in humans and demonstrates that speech-in-noise audiometry is an effective method and can be considered as the GOLD standard for detecting hidden hearing loss.

Keywords: mp3 player, hidden hearing loss, speech audiometry, pure tone audiometry

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Authors: Morten Stigaard Laursen, Rasmus Nyholm Jørgensen, Mads Dyrmann, Robert Poulsen

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For the past three years, the Danish project, RoboWeedSupport, has sought to bridge the gap between the potential herbicide savings using a decision support system and the required weed inspections. In order to automate the weed inspections it is desired to generate a map of the weed species present within the field, to generate the map images must be captured with samples covering the field. This paper investigates the economical cost of performing this data collection based on a camera system mounted on a all-terain vehicle (ATV) able to drive and collect data at up to 50 km/h while still maintaining a image quality sufficient for identifying newly emerged grass weeds. The economical estimates are based on approximately 100 hectares recorded at three different locations in Denmark. With an average image density of 99 images per hectare the ATV had an capacity of 28 ha per hour, which is estimated to cost 6.6 EUR/ha. Alternatively relying on a boom solution for an existing tracktor it was estimated that a cost of 2.4 EUR/ha is obtainable under equal conditions.

Keywords: weed mapping, integrated weed management, weed recognition, image acquisition

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Authors: A. Aman, S. M. Tang, F. H. Alharrassy

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Omanisation was established to increase job opportunities for national employment in Sultanate of Oman. With half of the population below 25 years of age, the sultanate is striving to diversify the economy fast enough to meet the burgeoning number of jobseekers annually. On the other hand, training personnel to be competent oil and gas operators and technicians is a difficult task in a complex reservoir structures in Oman using highly advanced and sophisticated extracting processes. Coupled towards Omanisation which encourages nationals into the oil and gas sector so as to create sustainable employment for the local population, the challenge to churn out competent manpower became a daunting task. Immersive technologies provided the impetus to create a new digital media sector which provided job opportunities as well as the learning contents to enhance the competency-based training for the oil and gas sector in the Sultanate. This lead to a win-win-win collaboration amongst the government represented by the Information Technology Authority (ITA), private sector specialised company (represented by ASM Technologies), jobseekers and oil and gas organisations. This is also one of the first private-public partnership model in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Oman. A pilot phase was conducted for 8 months to develop four virtual applications for training in equipment and process engineering; oil rig familiarisation, Health Safety Environment (HSE) application, turbine application and the mechanical vapour compressor (MVC) water recycling plant in order to enhance the competency level of the trainees. The immersive applications were installed in operational settings which enabled new employees to practice and understand various processes and procedures regarding enhanced oil recovery. Existing employees used the application to review the working principles in order to carry out troubleshooting scenarios. Concurrently, these applications were also developed by local Omani resources within the country. This created job opportunities for job-seekers as well the establishment of a digital media sector. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how immersive technologies can enhance operational competencies, create job and establish a digital media sector in the Sultanate of Oman.

Keywords: immersive, virtual reality, operations training, Omanisation

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Authors: Andrii Shalaginov, Katrin Franke, Xiongwei Huang

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One of the leading problems in Cyber Security today is the emergence of targeted attacks conducted by adversaries with access to sophisticated tools. These attacks usually steal senior level employee system privileges, in order to gain unauthorized access to confidential knowledge and valuable intellectual property. Malware used for initial compromise of the systems are sophisticated and may target zero-day vulnerabilities. In this work we utilize common behaviour of malware called ”beacon”, which implies that infected hosts communicate to Command and Control servers at regular intervals that have relatively small time variations. By analysing such beacon activity through passive network monitoring, it is possible to detect potential malware infections. So, we focus on time gaps as indicators of possible C2 activity in targeted enterprise networks. We represent DNS log files as a graph, whose vertices are destination domains and edges are timestamps. Then by using four periodicity detection algorithms for each pair of internal-external communications, we check timestamp sequences to identify the beacon activities. Finally, based on the graph structure, we infer the existence of other infected hosts and malicious domains enrolled in the attack activities.

Keywords: malware detection, network security, targeted attack, computational intelligence

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Authors: Panagiotis Platanitis

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Purpose: This research paper seeks to review the empirical studies in the field of expatriate adjustment in East Asia in order to produce a thematic understanding of the current adjustment challenges, thus enabling practitioners to enrich their knowledge. Background: Learning to live, work, and function in a country and culture vastly different from that of one’s upbringing can pose some unique challenges in terms of adaptation and adjustment. This has led to a growing body of research about the adjustment of expatriate workers. Adjustment itself has been posited as a three-dimensional construct; work adjustment, interaction adjustment and general or cultural adjustment. Methodology: This qualitative systematic review has been conducted on all identified peer-reviewed empirical studies related to expatriate adjustment in East Asia. Five electronic databases (PsychInfo, Emerald, Scopus, EBSCO and JSTOR) were searched to December 2015. Out of 625 identified records, thorough evaluation for eligibility resulted in 15 relevant studies being subjected to data analysis. The quality of the identified research was assessed according to the Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a Variety of Fields. The data were analysed by means of thematic synthesis for systematic reviews of qualitative research. Findings: Data analysis revealed five key themes. The themes developed were: (1) personality traits (2) types of adjustment, (3) language, (4) culture and (5) coping strategies. Types of adjustment included subthemes such as: Interaction, general, work, psychological, sociocultural and cross-cultural adjustment. Conclusion: The present review supported previous literature on the different themes of adjustment and it takes the focus from work and general adjustment to the psychological challenges and it introduces the psychological adjustment. It also gives a different perspective about the use of cross-cultural training and the coping strategies expatriates use when they are abroad. This review helps counselling psychologists to understand the importance of a multicultural approach when working with expatriates and also to be aware of what expatriates might face when working and living in East Asia.

Keywords: adjustment, counselling psychology, East Asia, expatriates

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Authors: Ahmed Mateen, Zhu Qingsheng, Faisal Shahzad

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Requirement Engineering (RE) is a part being created for programming structure during the software development lifecycle. Software product line development is a new topic area within the domain of software engineering. It also plays important role in decision making and it is ultimately helpful in rising business environment for productive programming headway. Decisions are central to engineering processes and they hold them together. It is argued that better decisions will lead to better engineering. To achieve better decisions requires that they are understood in detail. In order to address the issues, companies are moving towards Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) which helps in providing large varieties of products with minimum development effort and cost. This paper proposed a new framework for software product line and compared with other models. The results can help to understand the needs in SPL testing, by identifying points that still require additional investigation. In our future scenario, we will combine this model in a controlled environment with industrial SPL projects which will be the new horizon for SPL process management testing strategies.

Keywords: requirements engineering, software product lines, scoping, process structure, domain specific language

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Authors: Z. Ezzouine, A. Nakheli

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This paper presents a high position electromagnetic sensor system (HPESS) that is applicable for moving object detection. The authors have developed a high-performance position sensor prototype dedicated to students’ laboratory. The challenge was to obtain a highly accurate and real-time sensor that is able to calculate position, length or displacement. An electromagnetic solution based on a two coil induction principal was adopted. The HPESS converts mechanical motion to electric energy with direct contact. The output signal can then be fed to an electronic circuit. The voltage output change from the sensor is captured by data acquisition system using LabVIEW software. The displacement of the moving object is determined. The measured data are transmitted to a PC in real-time via a DAQ (NI USB -6281). This paper also describes the data acquisition analysis and the conditioning card developed specially for sensor signal monitoring. The data is then recorded and viewed using a user interface written using National Instrument LabVIEW software. On-line displays of time and voltage of the sensor signal provide a user-friendly data acquisition interface. The sensor provides an uncomplicated, accurate, reliable, inexpensive transducer for highly sophisticated control systems.

Keywords: electromagnetic sensor, accurately, data acquisition, position measurement

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Authors: Franklin Nantui Mabe, Robert Osei

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Activities and operations of artisanal small scale mining (ASM) have recently appealed to the attention of policymakers, researchers, and the general public in Ghana. This stems from the negative impacts of ASM operations on the environment and livelihoods of local inhabitants, as well as the disregard for available ASM mining policies. This study, therefore, investigates whether or not artisanal small-scale miners have enough knowledge of the mining policies and their implementations. The study adopted the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) framework approach to design the research, collect and analyze primary data. The most aware ASM policy provision is the one that mandates the government to reserve demarcated ASM areas for Ghanaians, whilst the least aware provision is the one that admonishes the government to promote co-operative saving among ASM. The awareness index is lower than the attitude index towards the policy provisions. In terms of practices, miners continued to use bad practices with the associated negative impacts on the environment and rural livelihoods. It is therefore important for the government through mineral commission, district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to intensify the education on the ASM policies. These could be done with the help of ASM associations. The current systems where a cluster of districts have a single Mineral Commission Office should be restructured to make sure that each mining district has an office.

Keywords: mining policies, KAP, awareness, artisanal small-scale mining

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Authors: Olga Lasaga, Carmen Parra

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Within the EU 'New Skills for New Jobs' initiative, the art and music sector is considered one of the most vulnerable. Its graduates are faced with the threat of the dole or of not finding work in the sector in which they trained. In this regard, an increasing number of students are graduating every year from European Conservatories and Fine Arts Centres, while the number of job opportunities in this sector has stagnated or decreased. Moreover, the traditional teaching of these institutes does not favour the acquisition of basic skills, such as team building, entrepreneurship, marketing, website design and the design of events, which are among the most important facets of project management and are precisely those aspects that are often most related to the improvement of employability in the art world. To remedy this situation, the results of the European Erasmus+ OMEGA project (Opening More Employment Gates for Art and Music Students) are presented. The OMEGA project aims to increase the employability of art and music students by equipping them with additional skills needed for the search for work. As a result of this project, a manual has been created, a pilot course has been designed and taught, and a comparative study has been conducted on the state of play of the participating countries.

Keywords: artists, employability, entrepreneurship, musicians, skills

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Authors: Christoph Köster

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Supplier selection is one of the key challenges in supply chain management and can be considered a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In the 1960s, it evolved from considering only economic criteria, such as price, quality, and performance, to including environmental and social criteria nowadays. Although receiving considerable attention from scholars and practitioners over the past decades, existing research has not considered governance criteria so far. This is, however, surprising, as ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria have gained considerable attention. In order to complement ESG criteria in the supplier selection process, this study investigates German DAX and MDAX companies and evaluates the impact of governance criteria along their supplier selection process. Moreover, it proposes a set of criteria for the respective process steps. Specifically, eleven criteria for the first process step and five criteria for the second process step are identified. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the supplier selection process by elucidating the relevance of governance criteria in the supplier selection process and providing a set of empirically developed governance criteria. These results can be applied by practitioners to complement the criteria set in the supplier selection process and thus balance economic, environmental, social, and governance targets.

Keywords: ESG, governance, sustainable supplier selection, sustainability

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Authors: Dong Yue, Hua Chen

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The study region Xihu Harbor in Xiangshan County, Ningbo City is located in the central coast of Zhejiang Province. Concerning the wave dispating issue, Ningbo government firstly introduced Spartina alterniflora in 1980s. In the 1990s, S. alterniflora spread so rapidly thus a ‘grassland’ in the sea has been created nowadays. It has become the most important invasive plant of China’s coastal tidal flats. Although S. alterniflora had some ecological and economic functions, it has also brought series of hazards. It has ecological hazards on many aspects, including biomass and biodiversity, hydrodynamic force and sedimentation process, nutrient cycling of tidal flat, succession sequence of soil and plants and so on. On engineering, it courses problems of poor drainage and channel blocking. On economy, the hazard mainly reflected in the threat on aquaculture industry. The purpose of this study is to explore an ecological, feasible and economical way to manage Spartina alterniflora and use the land formed by it, taking Xihu Harbor in Xiangshan County as a case. Comparison method, mathematical modeling, qualitative and quantitative analysis are utilized to proceed the study. Main outcomes are as follows. By comparing a series of S. alterniflora managing methods which include the combination of mechanical cutting and hydraulic reclamation, waterlogging, herbicide and biological substitution from three standpoints – ecology, engineering and economy. It is inferred that the combination of mechanical cutting and hydraulic reclamation is among the top rank of S. alternifora managing methods. The combination of mechanical cutting and hydraulic reclamation means using large-scale mechanical equipment like large screw seagoing dredger to excavate the S. alterniflora with root and mud together. Then the mix of mud and grass was blown off nearby coastal tidal zone transported by pipelines, which can cushion the silt of tidal zone to form a land. However, as man-made land by coast, the reclamation area’s ecological sensitivity is quite high and will face high possibility of flood threat. Therefore, the reclamation area has many reasonability requirements, including ones on location, specific scope, water surface rate, direction of main watercourse, site of water-gate, the ratio of ecological land to urban construction land. These requirements all became important basis when the planning was being made. The water system planning, green space system planning, road structure and land use all need to accommodate the ecological requests. Besides, the profits from the formed land is the managing project’s source of funding, so how to utilize land efficiently is another considered point in the planning. It is concluded that by aiming at managing a large area of S. alterniflora, the combination of mechanical cutting and hydraulic reclamation is an ecological, feasible and economical method. The planning of reclamation area should fully respect the natural environment and possible disasters. Then the planning which makes land use efficient, reasonable, ecological will promote the development of the area’s city construction.

Keywords: ecological management, ecological planning method, reclamation area, Spartina alternifora, Xihu harbor

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Authors: Nilanjana Chanda, Rangeet Bhattacharyya

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Grover’s search algorithm is the fastest possible quantum mechanical algorithm to search a certain element from an unstructured set of data of N items. The algorithm can determine the desired result in only O(√N) steps. It has been demonstrated theoretically and experimentally on two-qubit systems long ago. In this work, we investigate the fidelity of Grover’s search algorithm by implementing it on an open quantum system. In particular, we study with what accuracy one can estimate that the algorithm would deliver the searched state. In reality, every system has some influence on its environment. We include the environmental effects on the system dynamics by using a recently reported fluctuation-regulated quantum master equation (FRQME). We consider that the environment experiences thermal fluctuations, which leave its signature in the second-order term of the master equation through its appearance as a regulator. The FRQME indicates that in addition to the regular relaxation due to system-environment coupling, the applied drive also causes dissipation in the system dynamics. As a result, the fidelity is found to depend on both the drive-induced dissipative terms and the relaxation terms, and we find that there exists a competition between them, leading to an optimum drive amplitude for which the fidelity becomes maximum. For efficient implementation of the search algorithm, precise knowledge of this optimum drive amplitude is essential.

Keywords: dissipation, fidelity, quantum master equation, relaxation, system-environment coupling

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Authors: Yafa Haron, Hanna Adami

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Background: World Health Organization emphasizes the contribution of nurses in planning and implementing health policies and reforms. Aim: To evaluate nursing students’ attitudes towards nurses’ involvement in health policy issues. Methods: Mixed-methods; qualitative and quantitative – a descriptive study. Participants - nursing students who were enrolled in their last year in the undergraduate program (BSN). Qualitative data included two open-ended questions: What is health policy and what is the importance of studying health policy, and 18 statements on the Likert Scale range 1-5. Results: Qualitativeanalysisrevealed that the majority of students defined health policy as a set of rules and regulations that defined procedures, borders, and proper conduct. 73% of students responded that nurses should be active in policymaking, but only 22% thought that nurses were currently involved in political issues. 28% thought that nurses do not have the knowledge and the time needed (60%) for political activity. 77% thought that the work environment did not encourage nurses to be politically active. Nursing students are aware of the importance towards nurses’ involvement in health policy issues, however, they do not have role models based on their low evaluation regarding nurses’ involvement in the health policy decision making process at the local or national level. Conclusions: Results emphasize the importance and the need of implementation the recommendation to include “advance policy changes” as core competency in nursing education and practice.

Keywords: health policy, nursing education, health systems, student perceptions

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Authors: Atef Alaaeddine Sarraj, Brendan Jackman, Frank Walsh

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Tomorrow’s car will be more automated and increasingly connected. Innovative and intuitive interfaces are essential to accompany this functional enrichment. For that, today the automotive companies are competing to offer an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) which will be able to provide enhanced navigation, collision avoidance, intersection support and lane keeping. These vision-based functions require an accurately calibrated camera. To achieve such differentiation in ADAS requires sophisticated sensors and efficient algorithms. This paper explores the different calibration methods applicable to vehicle-mounted fish-eye cameras with arbitrary fields of view and defines the first steps towards a self-calibration method that adequately addresses ADAS requirements. In particular, we present a self-calibration method after comparing different camera calibration algorithms in the context of ADAS requirements. Our method gathers data from unknown scenes while the car is moving, estimates the camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters and corrects the wide-angle distortion. Our solution enables continuous and real-time detection of objects, pedestrians, road markings and other cars. In contrast, other camera calibration algorithms for ADAS need pre-calibration, while the presented method calibrates the camera without prior knowledge of the scene and in real-time.

Keywords: advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), fish-eye, real-time, self-calibration

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Authors: Joanna Cabaj, Sylwia Baluta, Karol Malecha

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Catecholamines are vital neurotransmitters that mediate a variety of central nervous system functions, such as motor control, cognition, emotion, memory processing, and endocrine modulation. Dysfunctions in catecholamine neurotransmission are induced in some neurologic and neuropsychiatric diseases. Changeable neurotransmitters level in biological fluids can be a marker of several neurological disorders. Because of its significance in analytical techniques and diagnostics, sensitive and selective detection of neurotransmitters is increasingly attracting a lot of attention in different areas of bio-analysis or biomedical research. Recently, optical techniques for the detection of catecholamines have attracted interests due to their reasonable cost, convenient control, as well as maneuverability in biological environments. Nevertheless, with the observed need for a sensitive and selective catecholamines sensor, the development of a convenient method for this neurotransmitter is still at its basic level. The manipulation of nanostructured materials in conjunction with biological molecules has led to the development of a new class of hybrid-modified enzymatic sensors in which both enhancement of charge transport and biological activity preservation may be obtained. Immobilization of biomaterials on electrode surfaces is the crucial step in fabricating electrochemical as well as optical biosensors and bioelectronic devices. Continuing systematic investigation in manufacturing of enzyme–conducting sensitive systems, here is presented a convenient fluorescence as well as electrochemical sensing strategy for catecholamines detection.

Keywords: biosensors, catecholamines, fluorescence, enzymes

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Authors: Sonia Anand Knowlton

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As the use of Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated in virtually every area of life, the need and interest to logically formalize the law and judicial reasoning is growing tremendously. The study of argumentation frameworks (AFs) provides promise in this respect. AF’s provide a way of structuring human reasoning using a formal system of non-monotonic logic. P.M. Dung first introduced this framework and demonstrated that certain arguments must prevail and certain arguments must perish based on whether they are logically “attacked” by other arguments. Dung labelled the set of prevailing arguments as the “preferred extension” of the given argumentation framework. Trevor Bench-Capon’s Value-based Argumentation Frameworks extended Dung’s AF system by allowing arguments to derive their force from the promotion of “preferred” values. In VAF systems, the success of an attack from argument A to argument B (i.e., the triumph of argument A) requires that argument B does not promote a value that is preferred to argument A. There has been thorough discussion of the application of VAFs to the law within the computer science literature, mainly demonstrating that legal cases can be effectively mapped out using VAFs. This article analyses VAFs from a jurisprudential standpoint to provide a philosophical and theoretical analysis of what VAFs tell the legal community about the judicial reasoning, specifically distinguishing between legal and moral reasoning. It highlights the limitations of using VAFs to account for judicial moral reasoning in theory and in practice.

Keywords: nonmonotonic logic, legal formalization, computer science, artificial intelligence, morality

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Authors: Ibrahim Cil, Onur Kurtcu, H. Ibrahim Demir, Furkan Yener, Yusuf. S. Turkan, Muharrem Unver, Ramazan Evren

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Fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method is decision-making way at the end of integrating the current AHP method with fuzzy structure. In this study, the processes of production planning, inventory management and purchasing department of a system were analysed and were requested to decide the performance criteria of each area. At this point, the current work processes were analysed by various decision-makers and comparing each criteria by giving points according to 1-9 scale were completed. The criteria were listed in order to their weights by using Fuzzy AHP approach and top three performance criteria of each department were determined. After that, the performance criteria of supply chain consisting of three departments were asked to determine. The processes of each department were compared by decision-makers at the point of building the supply chain performance system and getting the performance criteria. According to the results, the criteria of performance system of supply chain by using Fuzzy AHP were determined for which will be used in the supply chain performance system in the future.

Keywords: AHP, fuzzy, performance evaluation, supply chain

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Authors: Mehdi Modabberifar, Sanaz Jabary, Mojtaba Ghodsi

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Stiffness sensing is an important issue in medical diagnostic, robotics surgery, safe handling, and safe grasping of objects in production lines. Detecting and obtaining the characteristics in dwelling lumps embedded in a soft tissue and safe removing and handling of detected lumps is needed in surgery. Also in industry, grasping and handling an object without damaging in a place where it is not possible to access a human operator is very important. In this paper, a method for object handling is presented. It is based on the use of an intelligent gripper to detect the object stiffness and then setting a programmable force for grasping the object to move it. The main components of this system includes sensors (sensors for measuring force and displacement), electrical (electrical and electronic circuits, tactile data processing and force control system), mechanical (gripper mechanism and driving system for the gripper) and the display unit. The system uses a rotary potentiometer for measuring gripper displacement. A microcontroller using the feedback received by the load cell, mounted on the finger of the gripper, calculates the amount of stiffness, and then commands the gripper motor to apply a certain force on the object. Results of Experiments on some samples with different stiffness show that the gripper works successfully. The gripper can be used in haptic interfaces or robotic systems used for object handling.

Keywords: gripper, haptic, stiffness, robotic

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Authors: Snehal L. Kadam, Shriniwas B. Kulkarni

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Flexible electrode material with high surface area and good electrochemical properties is the current trend captivating the researchers across globe for application in the next generation energy storage field. In the present work, crumpled sheet like reduced graphene oxide grown on carbon cloth by the hydrothermal method with a series of different deposition temperatures at fixed time. The influence of the deposition temperature on the structural, morphological, optical and supercapacitive properties of the electrode material was investigated by XRD, RAMAN, XPS, TEM, FE-SEM, UV-VISIBLE and electrochemical characterization techniques.The results show that the hydrothermally synthesized reduced graphene oxide on carbon cloth has sheet like mesoporous structure. The reduced graphene oxide material at 160°C exhibits the best supercapacitor performance, with a specific capacitance of 443 F/g at scan rate 5mV/sec. Moreover, stability studies show 97% capacitance retention over 1000 CV cycles. This result shows that hydrothermally synthesized RGO on carbon cloth is the potential electrode material and would be used in the next-generation wearable energy storage systems. The detailed analysis and results will be presented at the conference.

Keywords: graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, carbon cloth, deposition temperature, supercapacitor

Procedia PDF Downloads 185