Search results for: business data processing

Authors: Asma Aid, Samira Amokrane, Djamel Nibou, Hadj Mekatel

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The marine Enteromorpha Compressa (L.) (ECL) biomass was used as a low-cost biological adsorbent for the removal of Cr⁶⁺, Co²⁺ and Ni²⁺ ions from artificially contaminated aqueous solutions. The operating variables pH, the initial concentration C₀, the solid/liquid ratio R and the temperature T were studied. A full factorial experimental design technique enabled us to obtain a mathematical model describing the adsorption of Cr⁶⁺, Co²⁺ and Ni²⁺ ions and to study the main effects and interactions among operational parameters. The equilibrium isotherm has been analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich models; it has been found that the adsorption process follows the Langmuir model for the used ions. Kinetic studies showed that the pseudo-second-order model correlates our experimental data. Thermodynamic parameters showed the endothermic heat of adsorption and the spontaneity of the adsorption process for Cr⁶⁺ ions and exothermic heat of adsorption for Co²⁺ and Ni²⁺ ions.

Keywords: enteromorpha Compressa, adsorption process, Cr⁶⁺, Co²⁺ and Ni²⁺, equilibrium isotherm

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Authors: Seyyedeh Mahdis Mousavi, Masoud Maghsoudi, Zahra Vahed

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence as conceptualized in Goleman’s competency model, and decision making styles in levels of management. To conduct this study, different level managers in Iran Broadcasting Organization completed a questionnaire on emotional intelligence and decision making styles. Researcher used descriptive and inferential statistics to describe data and analyze the two variables relationship in managers of three levels. Results revealed significant relationships for rational, dependent, avoidant, and spontaneous styles. No significant relationship was found for intuitive style. Yet the results indicate that avoidant style has negative relation to EI. Furthermore, EI has direct and strong relation to rational style.

Keywords: emotional intelligence (EI), decision making styles, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Iranian manager

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Authors: Yair Bleiberg, Michael Werman

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Coordinate-based Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs) are known to have difficulty reconstructing high frequencies of the training data. A common solution to this problem is Positional Encoding (PE), which has become quite popular. However, PE has drawbacks. It has high-frequency artifacts and adds another hyper hyperparameter, just like batch normalization and dropout do. We believe that under certain circumstances, PE is not necessary, and a smarter construction of the network architecture together with a smart training method is sufficient to achieve similar results. In this paper, we show that very simple MLPs can quite easily output a frequency when given input of the half-frequency and quarter-frequency. Using this, we design a network architecture in blocks, where the input to each block is the output of the two previous blocks along with the original input. We call this a Fibonacci Network. By training each block on the corresponding frequencies of the signal, we show that Fibonacci Networks can reconstruct arbitrarily high frequencies.

Keywords: neural networks, positional encoding, high frequency intepolation, fully connected

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Authors: Sunmyeng Kim

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IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards support multiple transmission rates. Even though the use of multiple transmission rates increase the WLAN capacity, this feature leads to the performance anomaly problem. Cooperative communication was introduced to relieve the performance anomaly problem. Data packets are delivered to the destination much faster through a relay node with high rate than through direct transmission to the destination at low rate. In the legacy cooperative protocols, a source node chooses a relay node only based on the transmission rate. Therefore, they are not so feasible in multi-flow environments since they do not consider the effect of other flows. To alleviate the effect, we propose a new relay node selection algorithm based on the transmission rate and channel contention level. Performance evaluation is conducted using simulation, and shows that the proposed protocol significantly outperforms the previous protocol in terms of throughput and delay.

Keywords: cooperative communications, MAC protocol, relay node, WLAN

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Authors: Salomé Elizabeth Scholtz

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Reviewers are the gatekeepers of knowledge dissemination and promote the scientific validity of the research. However, the literature indicates that authors often receive questionable feedback on qualitative manuscripts. Thus, this qualitative descriptive study sought to explore the qualitative knowledge and experiences of reviewers of psychology journals. A purposive and snowball sample (n=27) of psychology journal reviewers completed an online questionnaire, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Reviewers felt their postgraduate education, reading, and the process of reviewing qualitative articles equipped them to review qualitative manuscripts. Less than half of the reviewer’s published articles were qualitative and male reviewers published more than females. Despite not expecting authors to have the same level of research skills, reviewers still experienced authors as unskilled and biased, creating difficulty in accepting and reviewing qualitative articles. The applicability of the qualitative method and recommendations in preparing qualitative manuscripts for reviewing are reported.

Keywords: journal reviewers, psychology, qualitative research, research method, research skills

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Authors: Ishtiaq A. Chaudhry, Zia R. Tahir, F. A. Siddiqui, F. Noor, M. J. Rashid

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It has experimentally been proved that the performance of compression ignition (CI) engine is spray characteristics related. In modern diesel engine the spray formation and the eventual combustion process are the vital processes that offer more challenges towards enhancing the engine performance. In the present work, the numerical simulation has been carried out for evaporating diesel sprays using Fluent software. For computational fluid dynamics simulation “Meshing” is done using Gambit software before transmitting it into fluent. The simulation is carried out using hot bomb conditions under varying chamber conditions such as gas pressure, nozzle diameter and fuel injection pressure. For comparison purpose, the numerical simulations the chamber conditions were kept the same as that of the experimental data. At varying chamber conditions the spray penetration rates are compared with the existing experimental results.

Keywords: evaporating diesel sprays, penetration rates, hot bomb conditions

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Authors: Gilbert Makanda

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The problem of the teaching of mathematics is studied using differential equations. A mathematical model for knowledge acquisition in mathematics is developed. In this study we adopt the mathematical model that is normally used for disease modelling in the teaching of mathematics. It is assumed that teaching is 'infecting' students with knowledge thereby spreading this knowledge to the students. It is also assumed that students who gain this knowledge spread it to other students making disease model appropriate to adopt for this problem. The results of this study show that increasing recruitment rates, learning contact with teachers and learning materials improves the number of knowledgeable students. High dropout rates and forgetting taught concepts also negatively affect the number of knowledgeable students. The developed model is then solved using Matlab ODE45 and \verb"lsqnonlin" to estimate parameters for the actual data.

Keywords: differential equations, knowledge acquisition, least squares, dynamical systems

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Authors: Sunha Ahn

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Intimate relationships have constructed our embodied experiences and emotional memories, which can become grounded as practical knowledge to some extent and play a critical role in social medicine, particularly, in our well-being and mental health. In South Africa, such relational factors are significant for young women and girls in their emotional development period of time, especially, working as the existence of social and relational pressures over feminine sexual health and choices. This, in turn, brings about the absence/lack of communication in intimate relationships, especially with their parents, which leads to a vicious cycle in sexual health behaviour choices. Drawing upon sociological and socio-anthropological understandings of HIV-related issues, this study provides narrative threads of evidence about South African teenage mothers from early-dating debuted to HIV infection. Their stories consist of a visualised figure in chronicle order, illustrating embodied journeys of sexual health choices surrounding uncommunicative relationships and socially-suppressive environments. Methodologically, this qualitative study explored data from mixed online methods: 1) a case study analysing online comments (N = 12,763) on the South African Springster's website, run by the UK-based NGO, namely, Girl Effect; and 2) In-depth online interviews (N = 21) were conducted with young SA women and girls (16-28 ages) recruited in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Johannesburg, SA. Participants consist of both those living with HIV and without. Ethical approval was gained via the College of Social Sciences Ethical Committee at the University of Glasgow, and informed consent was obtained verbally and in writing from participants in due course. Data were thematically applied to an iteratively developed codebook and analysed. There are three kinds of typical pressures as relational factors for them, including peer pressure, partners or boyfriends, and parents’ reactions. Under the patriarchal and religious-devoted social atmospheres, these relationships work as a source of scaredness among young women and girls who could not talk about their sexual health concerns and rights. Such an inability to communicate with intimate relationships, eventually, emerges as a perpetuated or taken-for-granted social environment in South Africa, insistently leading to an increase in unwanted pregnancies or new HIV infections in young South African women and girls. In this sense, this study reveals the pressing need for open communication between generations with accurate information about HIV/AIDS. This also implies that the sociological feminist praxes in South Africa would help eliminate HIV-related stigma as well as construct open space to reduce gender-based violence and sexually-transmitted infection. Ultimately, this will be a road for supporting sexually healthy decisions and well-being across South African generations.

Keywords: HIV, young women, South Africa, intimate relationships, communication, social medicine

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Authors: M. Pienaar, J. W. Odendaal, J. C. Smit, J. Joubert

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Simulations are commonly used to predict the bistatic radar cross section (RCS) of military targets since characterization measurements can be expensive and time consuming. It is thus important to accurately predict the bistatic RCS of targets. Computational electromagnetic (CEM) methods can be used for bistatic RCS prediction. CEM methods are divided into full-wave and asymptotic methods. Full-wave methods are numerical approximations to the exact solution of Maxwell’s equations. These methods are very accurate but are computationally very intensive and time consuming. Asymptotic techniques make simplifying assumptions in solving Maxwell's equations and are thus less accurate but require less computational resources and time. Asymptotic techniques can thus be very valuable for the prediction of bistatic RCS of electrically large targets, due to the decreased computational requirements. This study extends previous work by validating the accuracy of asymptotic techniques to predict bistatic RCS through comparison with full-wave simulations as well as measurements. Validation is done with canonical structures as well as complex realistic aircraft models instead of only looking at a complex slicy structure. The slicy structure is a combination of canonical structures, including cylinders, corner reflectors and cubes. Validation is done over large bistatic angles and at different polarizations. Bistatic RCS measurements were conducted in a compact range, at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The measurements were performed at different polarizations from 2 GHz to 6 GHz. Fixed bistatic angles of β = 30.8°, 45° and 90° were used. The measurements were calibrated with an active calibration target. The EM simulation tool FEKO was used to generate simulated results. The full-wave multi-level fast multipole method (MLFMM) simulated results together with the measured data were used as reference for validation. The accuracy of physical optics (PO) and geometrical optics (GO) was investigated. Differences relating to amplitude, lobing structure and null positions were observed between the asymptotic, full-wave and measured data. PO and GO were more accurate at angles close to the specular scattering directions and the accuracy seemed to decrease as the bistatic angle increased. At large bistatic angles PO did not perform well due to the shadow regions not being treated appropriately. PO also did not perform well for canonical structures where multi-bounce was the main scattering mechanism. PO and GO do not account for diffraction but these inaccuracies tended to decrease as the electrical size of objects increased. It was evident that both asymptotic techniques do not properly account for bistatic structural shadowing. Specular scattering was calculated accurately even if targets did not meet the electrically large criteria. It was evident that the bistatic RCS prediction performance of PO and GO depends on incident angle, frequency, target shape and observation angle. The improved computational efficiency of the asymptotic solvers yields a major advantage over full-wave solvers and measurements; however, there is still much room for improvement of the accuracy of these asymptotic techniques.

Keywords: asymptotic techniques, bistatic RCS, geometrical optics, physical optics

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Authors: Alfred M. Caronia

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The aim of this pilot study was to explore an NCAA Division 1 female volleyball players’ experience of a strength and conditioning program and the result this has on self-efficacy of sport skill performance. This phenomenological study comprised of 10 college aged participants that have strength training program experience. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and a reflective journal; the transcribed interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. From the analysis, four themes emerged: performance enhancement, injury prevention, motivational experience, and learning experience. From the players’ perspective, care needs to be taken to explain the purpose of an exercise and the benefit it will have for a play performance. Other factors that play an important role in a strength training program are team motivation, individual goal setting, bonding, and communication with the strength coach, as all these items appear to be fundamentals of coaching.

Keywords: self-efficacy, skill performance, sports performance, strength training

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Authors: Bakr M. Saeid

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Psychological flexibility is a basic ability that allows people to adapt to a changing, difficult world. TRIZ is a Theory of Solving Inventive Problems that has many applications in both science & technology and creativity development; this research aimed to investigate the impact of basic TRIZ training on psychological flexibility among university students. The research sample included (30) university students divided into two groups: experimental group (n=15) and control group (n=15). The Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire (PFQ) was conducted in the pre-test and post-test on the experimental and control group, as the study treatment was applied to the experimental group only. Data were analyzed statistically by the Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon z test; results showed the effectiveness of the TRIZ training program on the development of psychological flexibility and its five factors. Results were interpreted, recommendations were presented.

Keywords: psychological flexibility, TRIZ, positive perception of change, self as flexible and innovative, perception of reality

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Authors: Patrick Ahern, David Collery

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The implementation of lean thinking in the manufacturing industry revolutionized the traditional approach to large-scale production through the process of identifying the waste in each task and putting in place mitigation measures to eliminate the waste in all its forms. The Irish construction industry, however, has been much slower to adopt the principles of lean, opting instead to stick with the traditional approach to construction project delivery which is inherently wasteful. Lean thinking holds the potential to revolutionize the construction industry in a similar manner to the adoption of lean manufacturing. Lean principles present opportunities for reduced project duration, reduced project cost, improved quality, and elimination of re-works and non-value-added activities. The following research has been designed to accumulate research data through available literature, electronic surveys, and interviews. The results show an industry reluctant to accept change and an undefined path to successful lean construction implementation.

Keywords: barriers, lean construction, lean implementation, lean manufacturing, lean philosophy

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Authors: V. Naciti, L. Pulejo, F. Cesaroni

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This study empirically analyzes whether the composition of the board of directors (BoD) enhances sustainability performance, in order to understand how the BoD contribute to the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their businesses. Hypotheses are developed based on the agency theory and stakeholder theory. Using a system generalized method of the moment (SGMM) two-step estimator, with data from Sustainalytics and Compustat databases for 362 firms in six regions, we find that firms with more diversity on the board and a separation of chair and CEO roles have higher sustainability performance. Moreover, our findings provide that a higher number of independent directors is negatively associated with sustainability performance. This study contributes to the literature on corporate governance and the firm’s performance by demonstrating that the composition of the board of directors contributes to a better sustainability performance: by the implementation of a particular corporate governance mechanism, it is possible to integrate SDGs in the corporate strategy.

Keywords: sustainable development goals, corporate governance, board of directors, sustainability performance

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Authors: Marut Phichetvit

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The research objective aims to search information about storytelling and fable associated with fireflies in Amphawa community, in order to design and create a story book which is appropriate for the interests of children in early childhood. This book should help building the development of learning about the natural environment, imagination, and creativity among children, which then, brings about the promotion of the development, conservation and dissemination of cultural values and uniqueness of the Amphawa community. The population used in this study were 30 students in early childhood aged between 6-8 years-old, grade 1-3 from the Demonstration School of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The method used for this study was purposive sampling and the research conducted by the query and analysis of data from both the document and the narrative field tales and fable associated with the fireflies of Amphawa community. Then, using the results to synthesize and create a conceptual design in a form of 8 visual images which were later applied to 1 illustrated children’s book and presented to the experts to evaluate and test this media.

Keywords: children’s illustrated book, fireflies, Amphawa

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Authors: Waheed O. Majekodunmi

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Climate change is a real global phenomenon and an unquestionable threat to our quest for a healthy and livable planet. It is now regarded as potentially the most monumental environmental challenge people and the planet will be confronted with over the next centuries. Expectedly, climate change mitigation was one of the central themes of COP 28. Despite contributing the least to climate change, Africa is and remains the hardest hit by the negative consequences of climate change including poor growth performance. Currently, it is being hypothesized that the high level of vulnerability and exposure to climate-related disasters, low adaptive capacity against global warming and high mitigation costs of climate change across the continent could be linked to the recent abysmal economic performance of African countries, especially in oil-producing countries where greenhouse gas emissions, is potentially more prevalent. This paper examines the impact of climate change on the economic performance of selected oil-producing countries in Africa using evidence from Nigeria, Algeria and Angola. The objective of the study is to determine whether or not climate change influences the economic performance of oil-producing countries in Africa by examining the nexus between economic growth and climate-related variables. The study seeks to investigate the effect of climate change on the pace of economic growth in African oil-producing countries. To achieve the research objectives, this study utilizes a quantitative approach by using historical and current secondary data sets to determine the relationship between climate-related variables and economic growth variables in the selected countries. The study employed numbers, percentages, tables and trend graphs to explain the trends or common patterns between climate change, economic growth and determinants of economic growth: governance effectiveness, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability and regulatory efficiency. Results from the empirical analysis of data show that the trends of economic growth and climate-related variables in the selected oil-producing countries are in the opposite directions as the increasing share of renewable energy sources in total energy consumption and the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the oil-producing countries did not translate to higher economic growth. Further findings show that annual surface temperatures in the selected countries do not share similar trends with the food imports ratio and GDP per capita annual growth rate suggesting that climate change does not impact significantly agricultural productivity and economic growth in oil-producing countries in Africa. Annual surface temperature was also found to not share a similar pattern with governance effectiveness, macroeconomic stability and regulatory efficiency reinforcing the claim that some economic growth variables are independent of climate change. The policy implication of this research is that oil-producing African countries need to focus more on improving the macroeconomic environment and streamlining governance and institutional processes to boost their economic performance before considering the adoption of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Keywords: climate change, climate vulnerability, economic growth, greenhouse gas emissions per capita, oil-producing countries, share of renewable energy in total energy consumption

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Authors: Elena Chernyak, Ryan Ceresola

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Intimate partner violence is a serious social problem that affects a million women worldwide and impacts their health and wellbeing. Some risk factors for intimate partner violence against women (e.g., disobeying or arguing with a partner, women’s age, education, and employment) are similar in many countries, both developed and developing. However, one of the principal and most significant contributors to women’s vulnerability to violence perpetrated by their intimate partners is the witnessing of interparental aggression in the family of origin. Witnessing interparental violence may lead to acceptance of intimate partner violence as a normal way to resolve conflicts. Thus, utilization of violence becomes the behavioral model: men who witnessed the parental violence are more likely to employ physical violence against their female partners whereas women who observed their fathers beating their mothers learn to tolerate aggressive behavior and become victims of domestic violence themselves. Taking into consideration the importance of this subject matter, the association between witnessing intimate partner violence in family-of-origin and experience of intimate partner violence in adulthood requires further attention. The objective of this research is to analyze and compare the prevalence of intimate partner violence in ten developing countries in different regions, namely: Mali, Haiti, Jordan, Peru, the Philippines, Pakistan, Cambodia, Egypt, the Dominican Republic and Nigeria. Specifically, this research asks whether witnessing interparental violence in a family of origin is associated with the woman’s experience of intimate partner violence during adulthood and to what extent this factor varies among the countries under investigation. This study contributes to the literature on domestic violence against women, prevalence and experience of intimate partner violence against women in developing countries, and the risk factors, using recently collected, nationally representative population-based data from above-mentioned countries. The data used in this research are derived from the demographic and health surveys conducted in the ten mentioned above countries from 2013-2016. These surveys are cross-sectional, nationally representative surveys of ever-married or cohabitating women of reproductive age and the good source of high quality and comprehensive information about women, their children, partners, and households. To complete this analysis, multivariate logistic regression was run for each of the countries, and the results are presented with odds ratios, in order to highlight the effect of witnessing intimate partner violence controlling for other factors. The results of this study indicated that having witnessed partner violence in a family of origin significantly (by 50-500%) increases the likelihood of experiencing later abuse for respondents in all countries. This finding provides robust support for the intergenerational transmission of violence theory that explains the link between interparental aggression and intimate partner violence in subsequent relationships in adulthood as a result of a learned model of behavior observed in childhood. Furthermore, it was found that some of the control variables (e.g., education, number of children, and wealth) are associated with intimate partner violence in some countries under investigation while are not associated with male partner’s abusive behavior in some other, which may be explained by specific cultural and economic factors.

Keywords: intimate partner violence, domestic violence against women, developing countries, demographic and health surveys, risk factors

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Authors: Hadis Mahmoodsalehi, Elham Shakoor, Maryam Koushkie Jahromi

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Background and aims: Given the importance of health promotion in elderly and attention to health factors including physical activity and self-image reinforcing, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between exercise attitude and performance with self-image concept in elderly men. Methods: In this descriptive–correlational study, 50 different daily exercise activities of the elderly men living in Iran (mean age: 60.94 years) were selected through simple sampling method. Participants completed a questionnaire regarding exercise attitude and performance and Beck self-image concept. Pearson correlation test was used for analysis of the data. Results: The results showed the significant correlation between optimism and exercise performance (p = 0.012) and exercise attitude (p = 0.005). Conclusion: Findings show that exercise performance and attitude are associated positively with optimism in elderly women. So, increasing exercise or improving attitude toward exercise can lead to improving optimism.

Keywords: elderly, exercise performance and attitude, self-image, descriptive–correlational study

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Authors: Salma Akter, Mohammad M. Haque, Lawrence Akwetey

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An empirical research design will analyze different factors/predictors children use to influence their parents in the family buying decision process in the unexplored area of British Bangladeshi children in the United Kingdom. The proposed conceptual model of factors- buying decision making process will be tested by the Structure Equation Model. A structured Questionnaire and secondary sources will employ to collect data and analyse and measure the validity by Statistical tools (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel. The Contemporary research aims to use the deductive approach developing the research questions and testing the hypothesis to identify the impact of different strategies British Bangladeshi children used to influence their parents in the family buying decision which was overlooked in the previous research.

Keywords: British Bangladeshi children, buying decision process, children influence, influential factors

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Authors: Preecha Pongpeng

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This research aims to study the education quality management to solve the problem of teachers shortage by the communities participation. This research is action research by using the tools is questionnaire to collect the data whit, students and community representatives and final will interview to ask the opinions of people in the community to help and support instruction in problems in teaching. Results found that people in the community are aware and working together to solve the lack the of teachers by collaboration between school personnel and community members by finding people who are knowledgeable, organized into local wisdom in the community, compound money to donate and hire someone in the community to teaching between classroom with people in the community. In addition, researcher discovered this research project contributes to cooperation between the school and community and there was a problem including administrative expenses and the school's academic quality management.

Keywords: education quality management, local wisdom, northern part of Thailand, participation of the community

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Authors: Meilan Jin, Mary Jane Moran

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This study aims to introduce the framework of culturally responsive home visiting (CRHV) to head start teacher professional sessions in the Southeastern of the US and investigate its influence on the evolving beliefs of teachers about their roles and relationships with families in-home visits. The framework orients teachers to an effective way of taking on the role of learner to listen for spoken and unspoken needs and look for family strengths. In addition, it challenges the deficit model that is grounded on 'cultural deprivation,' and it stresses the value of family cultures and advocates equal, collaborative parent-teacher relationships. The home visit reflection papers and focus group transcriptions of eight teachers have been collected since 2010 throughout a five-year longitudinal collaboration with them. Reflection papers were written by the teachers before and after introducing the CRHV framework, including the details of visit purposes and actions and their plans for later home visits. Particularly, the CRHV framework guided the teachers to listen and look for information about family-living environments; parent-child interactions; child-rearing practices; and parental beliefs, values, and needs. Two focus groups were organized in 2014 by asking the teachers to read their written reflection papers and then discussing their shared beliefs and experiences of home visits in recent years. The average length of the discussions was one hour, and the discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Moreover, the data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis, and the analysis was verified through (a) the uses of multiple data sources, (b) the involvement of multiple researchers, (c) coding checks, and (d) the provisions of the thick descriptions of the findings. The study findings corroborate that the teachers become to reposition themselves as 'knowledge seekers' through reorienting their cynosure toward 'setting stones' to learn, grow, and change rather than framing their home visits. The teachers also continually engage in careful listening, observing, questioning, and dialoguing, and these actions reflect their care toward parents. The value of teamwork with parents is advocated, and the teachers recognize that when parents feel empowered, they are active and committed to doing more for their children, which can further advantage proactive long-term parent-teacher collaborations. The study findings also validate that the framework is influential for educators to provide the experiences of home visiting that is culturally responsive and to share collaborative relationships with caregivers. The long-term impact of the framework further implies that teachers continue to put themselves in the position of evolving, including beliefs and actions, to better work with children and families who are culturally, ethnically, and linguistically different from them. This framework can be applicable to educators and professionals who are looking for avenues to bridge the relationship between home and school and parents and teachers.

Keywords: culturally responsive home visit, early childhood education, parent–teacher collaboration, teacher professional development

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Authors: Amina Ramdani, Abdelkader Kadeche, Zoubida Taleb, Safia Taleb

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The aim of this present study is to evaluate the adsorption capacity of a dye, Malachite green, on a local Algerian montmorillonite clay mineral (raw, purified and Cr-pillared). Various parameters influencing the dye adsorption process ie contact time, adsorbent dose, initial concentration of dye, pH of the solution and temperature. Cr pillared clay has been obtained with a better surface character than purified and natural clay. An increase in basal spacing from 12.45 Å (Mont-Na) to 22.88 Å (Mont-PLCr), surface area from 67 m2 /g (Mont-Na) to 102 m2 /g (Mont-PLCr). The experimental results show that the dye adsorption kinetic were fast: 5 min for Cr-pillared clay mineral, and 30 min for raw and purified clay mineral (RC and Mont-Na). The removal efficiency on Mont-PLCr (98.64%) is greater than that of Mont-Na (86.20%) and RC (82.09%). The acidity and basicity of the medium considerably affect the adsorption of the dye. It attained its maximum at pH 4.8. The equilibrium and kinetic data were found to fit well the Langmuir model and the pseudo-second-order model.

Keywords: Dye removal, pillared clay, isotherm, kinetic

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Authors: Vishwambhar Prasad Sati

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This article examines cloudburst-triggered natural hazards mainly flashfloods and landslides in the Uttarakhand Himalaya. It further describes mechanism and implications of natural hazards and illustrates the preventive and mitigation measures. We conducted this study through collection of archival data, case study of cloudburst hit areas, and rapid field visit of the affected regions. In the second week of August 2017, about 50 people died and huge losses to property were noticed due to cloudburst-triggered flashfloods. Our study shows that although cloudburst triggered hazards in the Uttarakhand Himalaya are natural phenomena and unavoidable yet, disasters can be minimized if preventive measures are taken up appropriately. We suggested that construction of human settlements, institutions and infrastructural facilities along the seasonal streams and the perennial rivers should be avoided to prevent disasters. Further, large-scale tree plantation on the degraded land will reduce the magnitude of hazards.

Keywords: cloudburst, flash floods, landslides, fragile landscape

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Authors: Yul Y. Nazaruddin, Anas Y. Widiaribowo, Satriyo Nugroho

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Boiler is one of the critical unit in a petrochemical plant. Steam produced by the boiler is used for various processes in the plant such as urea and ammonia plant. An alternative method to optimize the boiler combustion system is presented in this paper. Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) approach is applied to model the boiler using real-time operational data collected from a boiler unit of the petrochemical plant. Nonlinear equation obtained is then used to optimize the air to fuel ratio using Genetic Algorithm, resulting an optimal ratio of 15.85. This optimal ratio is then maintained constant by ratio controller designed using inverse dynamics based on ANFIS. As a result, constant value of oxygen content in the flue gas is obtained which indicates more efficient combustion process.

Keywords: ANFIS, boiler, combustion process, genetic algorithm, optimization.

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Authors: Micheal Olaolu Arowolo, Muhammad Azam, Fei He, Mihail Popescu, Dong Xu

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As the quantity of biological articles rises, so does the number of biological route figures. Each route figure shows gene names and relationships. Annotating pathway diagrams manually is time-consuming. Advanced image understanding models could speed up curation, but they must be more precise. There is rich information in biological pathway figures. The first step to performing image understanding of these figures is to recognize gene names automatically. Classical optical character recognition methods have been employed for gene name recognition, but they are not optimized for literature mining data. This study devised a method to recognize an image bounding box of gene name as a photo using deep Siamese neural network models to outperform the existing methods using ResNet, DenseNet and Inception architectures, the results obtained about 84% accuracy.

Keywords: biological pathway, gene identification, object detection, Siamese network

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Authors: Manoj Kumar, Preeti Goel

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National Capital Region of India is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. This region has residents from all the parts of India, and their shopping behaviors are quite different. The region also has the substantial population of people from other countries. Due to high purchasing power of a large number of people, NCR is one the major markets for luxury fashion brands. Marketers of luxury fashion brands keep on adding innovative features to their products to attract the buyers. This research is an attempt to understand the major factors which impact the brand selection for these brands and other buying decisions like purchasing time and location. The research is based on primary data collected from potential buyers of luxury fashion brands and the people involved in the marketing of these brands in various roles. The research has tried to identify the relative strength of various factors on the shopping behavior for these brands.

Keywords: luxury brands, fashion, shopping, National Capital Region (NCR)

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Authors: Pedro B. Antunes, Paulo J. Ramísio

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Road runoff is a linear source of diffuse pollution that can cause significant environmental impacts. During rainfall events, pollutants from both stationary and mobile sources, which have accumulated on the road surface, are dragged through the superficial runoff. Road runoff in coastal zones may present high levels of salinity and chlorides due to the proximity of the sea and transported marine aerosols. Appearing to be correlated to this process, organic matter concentration may also be significant. This study assesses this phenomenon with the purpose of identifying the relationships between monitored water quality parameters and intrinsic site variables. To achieve this objective, an extensive monitoring program was conducted on a Portuguese coastal highway. The study included thirty rainfall events, in different weather, traffic and salt deposition conditions in a three years period. The evaluations of various water quality parameters were carried out in over 200 samples. In addition, the meteorological, hydrological and traffic parameters were continuously measured. The salt deposition rates (SDR) were determined by means of a wet candle device, which is an innovative feature of the monitoring program. The SDR, variable throughout the year, appears to show a high correlation with wind speed and direction, but mostly with wave propagation, so that it is lower in the summer, in spite of the favorable wind direction in the case study. The distance to the sea, topography, ground obstacles and the platform altitude seems to be also relevant. It was confirmed the high salinity in the runoff, increasing the concentration of the water quality parameters analyzed, with significant amounts of seawater features. In order to estimate the correlations and patterns of different water quality parameters and variables related to weather, road section and salt deposition, the study included exploratory data analysis using different techniques (e.g. Pearson correlation coefficients, Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis), confirming some specific features of the investigated road runoff. Significant correlations among pollutants were observed. Organic matter was highlighted as very dependent of salinity. Indeed, data analysis showed that some important water quality parameters could be divided into two major clusters based on their correlations to salinity (including organic matter associated parameters) and total suspended solids (including some heavy metals). Furthermore, the concentrations of the most relevant pollutants seemed to be very dependent on some meteorological variables, particularly the duration of the antecedent dry period prior to each rainfall event and the average wind speed. Based on the results of a monitoring case study, in a coastal zone, it was proven that SDR, associated with the hydrological characteristics of road runoff, can contribute for a better knowledge of the runoff characteristics, and help to estimate the specific nature of the runoff and related water quality parameters.

Keywords: coastal zones, monitoring, road runoff pollution, salt deposition

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Authors: Saqib Amina, Waqas Mehmoodb, Iftikhar Yasinc

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This study analyzes the robust association between ethnic violence and mental health from a global perspective (201-countries across the world) by using the panel data for the period 1970 to 2020. Mental health has been determined through various dimensions such as mental disorders, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The empirical findings show that ethnic violence has a significant positive association with all types of mental health indicators, including mental disorders, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The study also reveals that institutional quality may reduce the effect of mental health disorders in a better way than promoting democracy. This study suggests the non-stigmatizing social form of community-based support services instead of a stigmatizing the concept of mental illnesses that promotes hospitalization and drug treatment.

Keywords: ethnic violence, unemployment, mental health, violence

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Richard Abel

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In the United States, increased incarceration rates have caused many adolescents to feel the strain of parental absence. This absence is then manifest through adolescent feelings of parental rejection. Additionally, upon reentry maternal incarceration may be related to adolescents experienced perceived excessive disciple. It is possible parents engage in this manner of discipline attempting to prevent the child from taking the same path to incarceration as the parent. According to General Strain Theory, adolescents encountering strain are likely to experience negative emotions. The emotion that is most likely to lead to delinquency is anger through reduced inhibitions and motivation to act. Additionally, males are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior, regardless of experiencing strain. This is not the case for every male who experiences maternal incarceration, parental rejection, excessive discipline, or anger. There are protective factors that enable agency within individuals. One such protective factor is mastery, or the perception that one is in control of his or her own future. The model proposed in this research suggests maternal incarceration is associated with increased parental rejection and excessive discipline in males. Males experiencing parental rejection and excessive discipline are likely to experience increased anger, which is then associated with increases in delinquent behavior. This model explores whether agency, in the form of mastery, mediates the relationship between strains and negative emotions, or between negative emotions and delinquent behavior. The Kaplan Longitudinal and Multigenerational Study (KLAMS) dataset is uniquely situated to analyze this model providing longitudinal data collected from both parents and their offspring. Maternal incarceration is constructed using parental responses such that the mother was incarcerated after the child’s birth, and any incarceration that happened prior to birth is excluded. The remaining variables of the study are all constructed from varying waves of the adolescent survey. Parental rejection, along with control variables for age, race, parental socioeconomic status, neighborhood effects, delinquent peers, and prior delinquent behavior are all constructed using Wave I data. To increase causal inference, the negative emotion of anger and the mediating variable of mastery are measured during Wave II. Lastly, delinquent behavior is measured at Wave III. Results of the analysis show expected relationships such that adolescent males encountering maternal incarceration show increased perception of parental rejection and excessive discipline. Additionally, there is a positive relationship between parental rejection and excessive discipline at Wave I and feelings of anger at Wave II for males. For males experiencing either of these strains in Wave I, feelings of anger in Wave II are found to be associated with increased delinquent behavior in Wave III. Mastery was found to mediate the relationship between both parental rejection and excessive discipline and anger, but no such mediation occurs in the relationship between anger and delinquency, regardless of the strain being experienced. These findings suggest adolescent males who feel they are in control of their own lives are less likely to experience negative emotions produced by the occurrence of strain, thereby decreasing male engagement in delinquent behavior later in life.

Keywords: delinquency, mastery, maternal incarceration, strain

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: K.T Alade, A.F Lawal, A.A Omonori

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Construction is an everlasting activity across the globe. Likewise, the problem of delay in the construction industry is a global phenomenon. Although there are several reasons that may be responsible for delay during construction, this may vary from place to place and can be reduced to the minimum when identified. This study considered the major causes and effects of delay in the execution of construction projects in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. Using literatures, a total number of 30 causes of construction delays were identified. The convenient sampling technique was used to select sixty respondents for a survey. The respondents comprise twenty-two (22) clients, eighteen consultants (18) and twenty (20) contractors. The analyses of the primary data revealed that the three most important causes of delay in construction projects in Akure, Ondo State Nigeria are poor site management and supervision, inadequate contractors experience and client’s financial difficulties. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations were given on how the causes and effects of delay in construction can be mitigated.

Keywords: Akure, causes, construction projects, delay, effects

Procedia PDF Downloads 495

Authors: Claudia P. Saunderson

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Widening of participation in higher education globally has increased diversity of student populations. However, widening participation is more than mere access. Central to the debate about widening participation are social justice issues of authentic inclusion and appropriate support for success for all students in higher education (HE). Given the recent global campaign for 'Black Lives Matter' as well as the worldwide advocacy for justice in the George Floyd case, the importance of the experiences of Black men, were again poignantly foregrounded. The literature abounds with the negative experiences of Black male students in higher education. Much of this literature emanates from the Global North, with little systematic research on black male students' university experiences originating from the Global South. This research, therefore, explores the psychosocial experiences of Black male students at a historically white South African university. Not only are these students' educational or academic adjustment important, but so is their psychosocial adjustment to the institution. The psychosocial adjustment might include emotional well-being, motivation, as well as the student’s perception of how well he fits in or is made to feel welcome at the institution. The study draws on strands of critical race theory (CRT), co-cultural theory (CCT) as well as defining properties of micro-aggression theory (MAT). In the study, CRT, therefore, served as an overarching theory at the macro level, and it comments on the structural dynamics while MAT and CCT rather focussed on the impact of structural arrangements like racialization, at an individual and micro-level. These theories furthermore provided a coherent analytic framework for this study. Using a case study design, this qualitative study, employing focus groups and individual interviews, drew on the psychosocial experiences of twenty Black male students to explore how they navigate this specific historically white campus. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis that provided a systematic procedure for generating codes and themes from the qualitative data. The study found that the combination of race and gender-based micro-aggressions experienced by students included negative stereotyping, criminalization as well as racial profiling and that these experiences impede participants' ability to thrive at the institution. However, participants also shared positive perspectives about the institution. Some of the positive traits of the institution that the participants mentioned were well-aligned administration, good quality of education, as well as various funding opportunities. This study implies that if any HE institution values transformation, it necessitates the exploration and interrogation of potential aspects that are subtly hidden in the institutional culture and environment that might serve as barriers to the transformation process. This positioning is based on a social justice stance and believes that all students are equal and have the right to racially and culturally equitable and appropriate education and support.

Keywords: critical race theory, higher education transformation, micro-aggression, student experience

Procedia PDF Downloads 121