Search results for: manufacturing scale technology development

Authors: Khedidja Benaicha Mati

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The present research tries to highlight a very crucial issue which exists at the level of the faculty of Economics and Management at Chlef university. This issue is represented by the challenges and difficulties which face the teaching / learning process in the faculty on the part of the language teachers, the learners, and the administration staff, including mainly the absence of an agreed syllabus, lack of teaching materials, teachers’ qualifications and training, timing, coefficient, and lack of motivation and interest amongst students. All these negative factors make teaching and learning EFL rather ambiguous, ineffective and unsatisfactory. The students at the faculty of Economics and Management are looking for acquiring not only GE but also technical English to respond efficiently to the ongoing changes at the various levels most notably economy, business, technology, and sciences. Therefore, there is a need of ESP programmes which would focus on developing the communicative competence of the learners in their specific field of study or work. The aim of the present research is to explore the ways of improving the actual situation of teaching English in the faculty of Economics and to make the English courses more purposive, fulfilling and satisfactory. The sample population focused on second and third-year students of Economics from different specialties mainly commercial sciences, insurance and banking, accountancy, and management. This is done through a questionnaire which inquires students about their learning weaknesses, difficulties and challenges they encounter, and their expectations of the subject matter.

Keywords: faculty of economics and management, challenges, teaching/ learning process, EFL, GE, ESP, English courses, communicative competence

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Authors: Robert van Ling, Alexander Schwahn, Shanhua Lin, Ken Cook, Frank Steiner, Rowan Moore, Mauro de Pra

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Purpose: Demonstration of fast high resolution charge variant analysis for monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutics within 5 minutes. Methods: Three commercially available mAbs were used for all experiments. The charge variants of therapeutic mAbs (Bevacizumab, Cetuximab, Infliximab, and Trastuzumab) are analyzed on a strong cation exchange column with a linear pH gradient separation method. The linear gradient from pH 5.6 to pH 10.2 is generated over time by running a linear pump gradient from 100% Thermo Scientific™ CX-1 pH Gradient Buffer A (pH 5.6) to 100% CX-1 pH Gradient Buffer B (pH 10.2), using the Thermo Scientific™ Vanquish™ UHPLC system. Results: The pH gradient method is generally applicable to monoclonal antibody charge variant analysis. In conjunction with state-of-the-art column and UHPLC technology, ultra fast high-resolution separations are consistently achieved in under 5 minutes for all mAbs analyzed. Conclusion: The linear pH gradient method is a platform method for mAb charge variant analysis. The linear pH gradient method can be easily optimized to improve separations and shorten cycle times. Ultra-fast charge variant separation is facilitated with UHPLC that complements, and in some instances outperforms CE approaches in terms of both resolution and throughput.

Keywords: charge variants, ion exchange chromatography, monoclonal antibody, UHPLC

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Authors: Mera Ababneh, Sayer Al-Azzam, Karem Alzoubi, Abeer Rababa'h

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Background: Medication errors are among the most common medical errors. Their occurrences result in patient’s mortality, morbidity, and additional healthcare costs. Continuous monitoring and detection is required. Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare medication errors in outpatient’s prescriptions in two different hospitals (paper system vs. electronic system). Methods: This was a cross sectional observational study conducted in two major hospitals; King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH) and Princess Bassma Teaching Hospital (PBTH) over three months period. Data collection was conducted by two trained pharmacists at each site. During the study period, medication prescriptions and dispensing procedures were screened for medication errors in both participating centers by two trained pharmacist. Results: In the electronic prescription hospital, 2500 prescriptions were screened in which 631 medication errors were detected. Prescription errors were 231 (36.6%), and dispensing errors were 400 (63.4%) of all errors. On the other side, analysis of 2500 prescriptions in paper-based hospital revealed 3714 medication errors, of which 288 (7.8%) were prescription errors, and 3426 (92.2%) were dispensing errors. A significant number of 2496 (67.2%) were inadequately and/or inappropriately labeled. Conclusion: This study provides insight for healthcare policy makers, professionals, and administrators to invest in advanced technology systems, education, and epidemiological surveillance programs to minimize medication errors.

Keywords: medication errors, prescription errors, dispensing errors, electronic prescription, handwritten prescription

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Authors: Bai-Chen Xie, Biao Li

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With the deepening of international exchanges and investment, the international comparison of power grid firms has become the focus of regulatory authorities. Ignoring the differences in the economic environment, resource endowment, technology, and other aspects of different countries or regions may lead to efficiency bias. Based on the Meta-frontier model, this paper divides China and Japan into two groups by using the data of China and Japan from 2006 to 2020. While preserving the differences between the two countries, it analyzes and compares the efficiency of the transmission and distribution industries of the two countries. Combined with the four-component stochastic frontier model, the efficiency is divided into transient and persistent efficiency. We found that there are obvious differences between the transmission and distribution sectors in China and Japan. On the one hand, the inefficiency of the two countries is mostly caused by long-term and structural problems. The key to improve the efficiency of the two countries is to focus more on solving long-term and structural problems. On the other hand, the long-term and structural problems that cause the inefficiency of the two countries are not the same. Quality factors have different effects on the efficiency of the two countries, and this different effect is captured by the common frontier model but is offset in the overall model. Based on these findings, this paper proposes some targeted policy recommendations.

Keywords: transmission and distribution industries, transient efficiency, persistent efficiency, meta-frontier, international comparison

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Authors: Piyush Hajela

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Public spaces in Indian market places are vibrant, colorful and carry latent dimensions that make them attractive and popular gathering spaces. These markets satisfy the household needs of the people and also their social, cultural and traditional aspirations. Going to a market place for shopping in India is a great source of entertainment for the people. They would love to spend as much time as possible and stay for longer durations than otherwise required. It is this desire of the people that generates public spaces. Much of these public spaces emerge as squares, plazas, corners of varied shapes and sizes at different locations, and yet provide a conducive environment. Such public spaces grow organically and are discovered by the people themselves. Indian markets serve people of different culture, religion, caste, age, gender which keeps them alive all the year round. Indian is a diverse country and this diversity is reflected clearly in the market places. They hold the people together and promote harmony across cultures. Free access to these market places makes them magnets for social interaction. Public spaces are spread across a city and more or less have established their existence and prominence in a social set up. While few of them are created, others are discovered by the people themselves in their constant search for desirable interactive public spaces. These are the most sought after gathering spaces that have the quality of promoting social interaction, providing free accessibility, provide desirable scale etc. The paper aims at identifying these freely accessible public spaces and the dimensions within it that make these public spaces hold the people for significant duration of time. The dimensions present shall be judged through collective response of human senses in form of safety, comfort and so on through the expressions of the participants. The aim therefore would be to trace the freely accessible public spaces emerged in Indian markets and evaluate them for human response and behavior. The hierarchy of market places in the city of Bhopal is well established as, city center level, sub city-center level, community level, local and convenient level market places. While many city-centers are still referred to as the old or traditional or the core area of the city, the others are part of the planned city. These different levels of market places are studied for emerged public spaces. These emerged public spaces are then documented in detail for unveiling the dimensions they offer through, photographs, visual observations, questionnaires and response of the participants of these public spaces.

Keywords: human comfort, enclosure, safety, social interaction

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Authors: Zafar Tabrez, Nizamuddin Khan

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Agriculture in India in the pre-green revolution period was mostly controlled by terrain, climate and edaphic factors. But after the introduction of innovative factors and technological inputs, green revolution occurred and agricultural scene witnessed great change. In the development of India’s agriculture, speedy, and extensive introduction of technological change is one of the crucial factors. The technological change consists of adoption of farming techniques such as use of fertilisers, pesticides and fungicides, improved variety of seeds, modern agricultural implements, improved irrigation facilities, contour bunding for the conservation of moisture and soil, which are developed through research and calculated to bring about diversification and increase of production and greater economic return to the farmers. The green revolution in India took place during late 60s, equipped with technological inputs like high yielding varieties seeds, assured irrigation as well as modern machines and implements. Initially the revolution started in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. With the efforts of government, agricultural planners, as well as policy makers, the modern technocratic agricultural development scheme was also implemented and introduced in backward and marginal regions of the country later on. Agriculture sector occupies the centre stage of India’s social security and overall economic welfare. The country has attained self-sufficiency in food grain production and also has sufficient buffer stock. Our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said ‘everything else can wait but not agriculture’. There is still a continuous change in the technological inputs and cropping patterns. Keeping these points in view, author attempts to investigate extensively the mechanization of agriculture and the change by selecting western Trans-Ghaghara plain as a case study and block a unit of the study. It includes the districts of Gonda, Balrampur, Bahraich and Shravasti which incorporate 44 blocks. It is based on secondary sources of data by blocks for the year 1997 and 2007. It may be observed that there is a wide range of variations and the change in farm mechanization, i.e., agricultural machineries such as ploughs, wooden and iron, advanced harrow and cultivator, advanced thrasher machine, sprayers, advanced sowing instrument, and tractors etc. It may be further noted that due to continuous decline in size of land holdings and outflux of people for the same nature of works or to be employed in non-agricultural sectors, the magnitude and direction of agricultural systems are affected in the study area which is one of the marginalized regions of Uttar Pradesh, India.

Keywords: agriculture, technological inputs, farm mechanization, food production, cropping pattern

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Authors: Zoran Veršić, Josip Galić, Marin Binički, Lucija Stepinac

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With the current increase in CO₂ emissions and global warming, the sustainability of both existing and new solutions must be assessed on a wide scale. As the implementation of closed cavity facades (CCF) is on the rise, a variety of factors must be included in the analysis of new types of CCF. This paper aims to cover the relevant factors included in the sustainability assessment of new types of CCF. Several mathematical models are being used to describe the physical behavior of CCF. Depending on the type of CCF, they cover the main factors which affect the durability of the façade: thermal behavior of various elements in the façade, stress, and deflection of the glass panels, pressure inside a cavity, exchange rate, and the moisture buildup in the cavity. CCF itself represents a complex system in which all mentioned factors must be considered mutually. Still, the façade is only an envelope of a more complex system, the building. Choice of the façade dictates the heat loss and the heat gain, thermal comfort of inner space, natural lighting, and ventilation. Annual consumption of energy for heating, cooling, lighting, and maintenance costs will present the operational advantages or disadvantages of the chosen façade system in both the economic and environmental aspects. Still, the only operational viewpoint is not all-inclusive. As the building codes constantly demand higher energy efficiency as well as transfer to renewable energy sources, the ratio of embodied and lifetime operational energy footprint of buildings is changing. With the drop in operational energy CO₂ emissions, embodied energy emissions present a larger and larger share in the lifecycle emissions of the building. Taken all into account, the sustainability assessment of a façade, as well as other major building elements, should include all mentioned factors during the lifecycle of an element. The challenge of such an approach is a timescale. Depending on the climatic conditions on the building site, the expected lifetime of CCF can exceed 25 years. In such a time span, some of the factors can be estimated more precisely than others. The ones depending on the socio-economic conditions are more likely to be harder to predict than the natural ones like the climatic load. This work recognizes and summarizes the relevant factors needed for the assessment of new types of CCF, considering the entire lifetime of a façade element and economic and environmental aspects.

Keywords: assessment, closed cavity façade, life cycle, sustainability

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Authors: Eng Lye, Ooi

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The Old Man and The Sea is a novella written by Ernest Hemingway that depicts an old fisherman’ journey out into the deep sea in his pursuit to catch a big fish. Through this novella, Hemingway creates a world for his protagonist, Santiago who is portrayed as an old man who has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish, at last hooks an eighteen-foot marlin, the largest he ever known. The old man endures pain and struggles to bring back to shore. Looking through the lens of gerotranscendence, we can see that the old man has his dreams, and goals in life. In his pursuit for happiness, he has fought tirelessly to ward off the shark attacks and finally he won even though only half of his fish is left. Hemingway has portrayed Santiago as an old man as a transcendent self leaping from the dimension of “The Self” to the cosmic dimension with the personal and social relationship dimension in tow. The Old Man and The Sea offers a glimpse of the struggles of an old man, who is old and gaunt but spiritually undefeated in his battle out in the sea. He is surprisingly strong and powerful despite his old age, he respects the sea, the birds. the turtles, the sharks and the fish. He can endure suffering and is focussed on achieving his goals. This is what Hemingway has portrayed Santiago to be a gerotranscendent in the eyes of the gerotranscendental approach in respect of the changes and development as seen in Santiago, the protagonist in this novella.

Keywords: gerotranscendence, gerotranscendenatal, old man, the sea, hemingway

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Authors: Belinda Crissman

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Serious mental disorder is greatly overrepresented in prisoners compared to the general community, with consequences for prison management, recidivism and the prisoners themselves. Incarcerated individuals with psychotic disorders experience insufficient detection and treatment and higher rates of suicide in custody. However direct evidence to explain the overrepresentation of individuals with psychosis in prisons is sparse. The current study aimed to use a life course criminology perspective to answer two key questions: 1) What is the temporal relationship between psychosis and offending (does first mental health contact precede first recorded offence, or does the offending precede the mental health diagnosis)? 2) Are there key temporal points or system contacts prior to incarceration that could be identified as opportunities for early intervention? Data from the innovative Queensland Linkage project was used to link individuals with their corrections, health and relevant social service systems to answer these questions.

Keywords: mental disorder, crime, life course criminology, prevention

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Authors: Ming-Chan Chung, Wen-Ming Huang, Yi-Chu Liu, Li-Hui Yang, Ming-Jyh Chen

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introduction: Hospital buildings require considerable energy, including air conditioning, lighting, elevators, heating, and medical equipment. Energy consumption in hospitals is expected to increase significantly due to innovative equipment and continuous development plans. Consequently, the environment and climate will be adversely affected. Hospitals should therefore consider transforming from their traditional role of saving lives to being at the forefront of global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. As healthcare providers, it is our responsibility to provide a high-quality environment while using as little energy as possible. Purpose / Methods: Compare the energy-saving benefits of solar photovoltaic systems and solar hot water systems. The proportion of electricity consumption effectively reduced after the installation of solar photovoltaic systems. To comprehensively assess the potential benefits of utilizing solar energy for both photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal applications in hospitals, a solar PV system was installed covering a total area of 28.95 square meters in 2021. Approval was obtained from the Taiwan Power Company to integrate the system into the hospital's electrical infrastructure for self-use. To measure the performance of the system, a dedicated meter was installed to track monthly power generation, which was then converted into area output using an electric energy conversion factor. This research aims to compare the energy efficiency of solar PV systems and solar thermal systems. Results: Using the conversion formula between electrical and thermal energy, we can compare the energy output of solar heating systems and solar photovoltaic systems. The comparative study draws upon data from February 2021 to February 2023, wherein the solar heating system generated an average of 2.54 kWh of energy per panel per day, while the solar photovoltaic system produced 1.17 kWh of energy per panel per day, resulting in a difference of approximately 2.17 times between the two systems. Conclusions: After conducting statistical analysis and comparisons, it was found that solar thermal heating systems offer higher energy and greater benefits than solar photovoltaic systems. Furthermore, an examination of literature data and simulations of the energy and economic benefits of solar thermal water systems and solar-assisted heat pump systems revealed that solar thermal water systems have higher energy density values, shorter recovery periods, and lower power consumption than solar-assisted heat pump systems. Through monitoring and empirical research in this study, it has been concluded that a heat pump-assisted solar thermal water system represents a relatively superior energy-saving and carbon-reducing solution for medical institutions. Not only can this system help reduce overall electricity consumption and the use of fossil fuels, but it can also provide more effective heating solutions.

Keywords: sustainable development, energy conservation, carbon reduction, renewable energy, heat pump system

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Authors: Asena Biber, Ates Gul Ergun, Seda Bulut

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Based on the literature, there are large numbers of studies investigating the relationship between culture and leadership effectiveness. Although giving effective speeches is vital characteristic for a leader to be perceived as effective, to our knowledge, there is no research study the determinants of perceived effective leader speech. The aim of this study is to find the effects of both culture and voice pitch on perceptions of leader's speech effectiveness. Our hypothesis is that people from high power distance countries will perceive leaders' speech effective when the leader's voice pitch is high, comparing with people from relatively low power distance countries. The participants of the study were 36 undergraduate students (12 Pakistanis, 12 Nigerians, and 12 Turks) who are studying in Turkey. National power distance scores of Nigerians ranked as first, Turks ranked as second and Pakistanis ranked as third. There are two independent variables in this study; three nationality groups that representing three levels of power distance and voice pitch of the leader which is manipulated as high and low levels. Researchers prepared an audio to manipulate high and low conditions of voice pitch. A professional whose native language is English read the predetermined speech in high and low voice pitch conditions. Voice pitch was measured using Hertz (Hz) and Decibel (dB). Each nationality group (Pakistan, Nigeria, and Turkey) were divided into groups of six students who listened to either the low or high pitch conditions in the cubicles of the laboratory. It was expected from participants to listen to the audio and fill in the questionnaire which was measuring the leadership effectiveness on a response scale ranging from 1 to 5. To determine the effects of nationality and voice pitch on perceived effectiveness of leader' voice pitch, 3 (Pakistani, Nigerian, and Turk) x 2 (low voice pitch and high voice pitch) two way between subjects analysis of variances was carried out. The results indicated that there was no significant main effect of voice pitch and interaction effect on perceived effectiveness of the leader’s voice pitch. However, there was a significant main effect of nationality on perceived effectiveness of the leader's voice pitch. Based on the results of Turkey’s HSD post-hoc test, only the perceived effectiveness of the leader's speech difference between Pakistanis and Nigerians was statistically significant. The results show that the hypothesis of this study was not supported. As limitations of the study, it is of importance to mention that the sample size should be bigger. Also, the language of the questionnaire and speech should be in the participant’s native language in further studies.

Keywords: culture, leadership effectiveness, power distance, voice pitch

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Authors: Amin Jabbari

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The state of the art in major 3D printing technologies, such as powder-based and slurry based, has led researchers to investigate the ability to fabricate bone scaffolds for bone tissue engineering using biomaterials. In addition, 3D printing technology can simulate mechanical and biological surface properties and print with high precision complex internal and external structures that match their functional properties. Polymer matrix composites reinforced with particulate bioceramics, hydrogels reinforced with particulate bioceramics, polymers coated with bioceramics, and non-porous bioceramics are among the materials that can be investigated for bone scaffold printing. Furthermore, it was shown that the introduction of high-density micropores into the sparingly dissolvable CSiMg10 and dissolvable CSiMg4 shell layer inevitably leads to a nearly 30% reduction in compressive strength, but such micropores can easily influence the ion release behavior of the scaffolds. Also, biocompatibility tests such as cytotoxicity, hemocompatibility and genotoxicity were tested on printed parts. The printed part was tested in vitro, and after 24-26 h for cytotoxicity, and 4h for hemocompatibility test, the CSiMg4@CSiMg10-p scaffolds were found to have significantly higher osteogenic capability than the other scaffolds of implantation. Overall, these experimental studies demonstrate that 3D printed, additively-manufactured bioceramic calcium (Ca)-silicate scaffolds with appropriate pore dimensions are promising to guide new bone ingrowth.

Keywords: AM, 3D printed implants, bioceramic, tissue engineering

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Authors: Ma Lanting, S. Eguilior, A. Hurtado, Juan F. Llamas Borrajo

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Horizontal hydraulic fracturing is a technology to increase natural gas flow and improve productivity in the low permeability formation. During this drilling operation tons of flowback and produced water which contains many organic compounds return to the surface with a potential risk of influencing the surrounding environment and human health. A mathematical model is urgently needed to represent organic compounds in water transportation process behavior and the concentration change with time throughout the hydraulic fracturing operation life cycle. A comprehensive model combined Organic Matter Transport Dynamic Model with Two-Compartment First-order Model Constant (TFRC) Model has been established to quantify the organic compounds concentration. This algorithm model is composed of two transportation parts based on time factor. For the fast part, the curve fitting technique is applied using flowback water data from the Marcellus shale gas site fracturing and the coefficients of determination (R2) from all analyzed compounds demonstrate a high experimental feasibility of this numerical model. Furthermore, along a decade of drilling the concentration ratio curves have been estimated by the slow part of this model. The result shows that the larger value of Koc in chemicals, the later maximum concentration in water will reach, as well as all the maximum concentrations percentage would reach up to 90% of initial concentration from shale formation within a long sufficient period.

Keywords: model, shale gas, concentration, organic compounds

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Authors: Muhammad G. Almatar, Mohammad A. Alnasrallah

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This research focuses on the study of three main issues: 1) The temporal analysis of leukemia for a period of six years (2006-2012), 2) spatial analysis by investigating this phenomenon in the Kuwaiti society spatially in the residential areas within the six governorates, 3) the use of Geographic Information System technology in investigating the hypothesis of the research and its variables using the linear regression, to show the pattern of linear relationship. The study depends on utilizing the map to understand the distribution of blood cancer in Kuwait. Several geodatabases were created for the number of patients and air pollution. Spatial interpolation models were used to generate layers of air pollution in the study area. These geodatabases were tested over the past six years to reach the conclusion: Is there a relationship with significant significance between the two main variables of the study: blood cancer and air pollution? This study is the first to our best knowledge. As far as the researchers know, the distribution of this disease has not been studied geographically at the level of regions in Kuwait within six years and in specific areas as described above. This study investigates the concentration of this type of disease. The study found that there is no relationship of significant value between the two variables studied, and this may be due to the nature of the disease, which are often hereditary. On the other hand, this study has reached a number of suggestions and recommendations that may be useful to decision-makers and interested in the study of leukemia in Kuwait by focusing on the study of genetic diseases, which may be a cause of leukemia rather than air pollution.

Keywords: Kuwait, GIS, cancer, geography

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Authors: Johnson C. Y. Pang, Bo Pengb, Kara K. L. Reevesc, Allan C. L. Fud

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Objective: Dry needling (DN) has long been used as a treatment method for various musculoskeletal pain conditions. However, the evidence level of the studies was low due to the limitations of the methodology. Lack of randomization and inappropriate blinding are potentially the main sources of bias. A method that can differentiate clinical results due to the targeted experimental procedure from its placebo effect is needed to enhance the validity of the trial. Therefore, this study aimed to validate the method as a placebo ultrasound(US)-guided DN for patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Design: This is a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Ninety subjects (25 males and 65 females) aged between 51 and 80 (61.26±5.57) with radiological KOA were recruited and randomly assigned into three groups with a computer program. Group 1 (G1) received real US-guided DN, Group 2 (G2) received placebo US-guided DN, and Group 3 (G3) was the control group. Both G1 and G2 subjects received the same procedure of US-guided DN, except the US monitor was turned off in G2, blinding the G2 subjects to the incorporation of faux US guidance. This arrangement created the placebo effect intended to permit comparison of their results to those who received actual US-guided DN. Outcome measures, including the visual analog scale (VAS) and Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) subscales of pain, symptoms and quality of life (QOL), were analyzed by repeated-measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for time effects and group effects. The data regarding the perception of receiving real US-guided DN or placebo US-guided DN were analyzed by the chi-squared test. The missing data were analyzed with the intention-to-treat (ITT) approach if more than 5% of the data were missing. Results: The placebo US-guided DN (G2) subjects had the same perceptions as the use of real US guidance in the advancement of DN (p<0.128). G1 had significantly higher pain reduction (VAS and KOOS-pain) than G2 and G3 at 8 weeks (both p<0.05) only. There was no significant difference between G2 and G3 at 8 weeks (both p>0.05). Conclusion: The method with the US monitor turned off during the application of DN is credible for blinding the participants and allowing researchers to incorporate faux US guidance. The validated placebo US-guided DN technique can aid in investigations of the effects of US-guided DN with short-term effects of pain reduction for patients with KOA. Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the Caritas Institute of Higher Education [grant number IDG200101].

Keywords: reliability, jumping, 3D motion analysis, anterior crucial ligament reconstruction

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Authors: Phuong Nguyen, Trung Tran

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Along with the global ongoing energy transition, Vietnam has indicated a strong commitment in the last COP events on the zero-carbon emission target. However, it is a real challenge for the nation to replace fossil-fired power plants by a significant amount of renewable energy sources (RES) while maintaining security of supply. The unpredictability and variability of RES would cause technical issues for supply-demand balancing, network congestions, system balancing, among others. It is crucial to take these into account while planning the future grid infrastructure. This study will address both generation and transmission adequacy and reveal a comprehensive analysis about the impact of ongoing energy transition on the development of Vietnam power system in 2030. This will provide insight for creating an secure, stable, and affordable pathway for the country in upcoming years.

Keywords: generation adequacy, transmission adequacy, security of supply, energy transition

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Authors: Mohsine Jebbour

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Motivation and classroom interaction are of prime significance for second/foreign language learning to take place effectively. Thus, a considerable amount of motivation and classroom interaction helps ensure students’ success in and continuation of learning the TL. One way to enhance students’ motivation and classroom interaction in the Moroccan EFL classroom then is through the use of self-disclosure. For the purposes of this study, self-disclosure has been defined as the verbal communication of positive personal information including opinions, feelings, experiences, family and friendship stories to classmates and teachers. This paper is meant to demonstrate that positive self-disclosure can serve as an effective tool for helping students develop favorable attitudes toward the EFL classroom (i.e., English courses, teacher of English, and classroom activities) and promoting their intrinsic motivation (IM to know and IM toward stimulation). A further objective is that since self-disclosure is reciprocal, when teachers of English reveal their personal information, students will uncover their personal matters in return. This will help ensure effective classroom participation, foster teacher-student communication, and encourage students to practice and hence improve their oral proficiency (i.e., the speaking skill). A questionnaire was used to collect data in this study. 164 undergraduate students (99 females and 65 males) from the department of English at the faculty of letters and humanities, Dher el Mehraz, Sidi Mohammed Ben Abd Allah University completed a questionnaire that assessed self-disclosure in relation to motivation (i.e., attitudes toward the learning situation and intrinsic motivation) and classroom interaction (i.e., teacher-student interaction, participation, and out-of-class communication) on a 1 to 5 scale with (1) Strongly Disagree and (5) Strongly Agree. The level of agreement on the positive dimension of self-disclosure was ranked first by the respondents. The hypothesis set at the very beginning of the study, which posited that positive self-disclosure is essential to enhancing motivation and classroom interaction in the EFL context, was confirmed. In this regard, the findings suggest that implementing self-disclosure in the Moroccan EFL classroom may serve as an effective tool to have positive affect of teacher, class and classroom activities. This in turn will encourage the learners to attend classes, enjoy the language learning activity, complete classroom assignments, participate in class discussions, and interact with their teachers and classmates. It is hoped that teachers benefit from the results of this study and hence encourage the use of positive self-disclosure to develop English language learning in the Moroccan context where opportunities of using English outside the classroom are limited.

Keywords: EFL classroom, classroom interaction, motivation, self-disclosure

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Authors: Muhammad S. El-Feky, Mohamed I. Serag, Ahmed M. Yasien, Hala Elkady

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Reinforced concrete requires steel bars in order to provide the tensile strength that is needed in structural concrete. However, when steel bars corrode, a loss in bond between the concrete and the steel bars occurs due to the formation of rust on the bars surface. Permeability of concrete is a fundamental property in perspective of the durability of concrete as it represents the ease with which water or other fluids can move through concrete, subsequently transporting corrosive agents. Nanotechnology is a standout amongst active research zones that envelops varies disciplines including construction materials. The application of nanotechnology in the corrosion protection of metal has lately gained momentum as nano scale particles have ultimate physical, chemical and physicochemical properties, which may enhance the corrosion protection in comparison to large size materials. The presented research aims to study the bond performance of concrete containing relatively high volume nano silica (up to 4.5%) exposed to corrosive conditions. This was extensively studied through tensile, bond strengths as well as the permeability of nano silica concrete. In addition micro-structural analysis was performed in order to evaluate the effect of nano silica on the properties of concrete at both; the micro and nano levels. The results revealed that by the addition of nano silica, the permeability of concrete mixes decreased significantly to reach about 50% of the control mix by the addition of 4.5% nano silica. As for the corrosion resistance, the nano silica concrete is comparatively higher resistance than ordinary concrete. Increasing Nano Silica percentage increased significantly the critical time corresponding to a metal loss (equal to 50 ϻm) which usually corresponding to the first concrete cracking due to the corrosion of reinforcement to reach about 49 years instead of 40 years as for the normal concrete. Finally, increasing nano Silica percentage increased significantly the residual bond strength of concrete after being subjected to corrosive environment. After being subjected to corrosive environment, the pullout behavior was observed for the bars embedded in all of the mixes instead of the splitting behavior that was observed before being corroded. Adding 4.5% nano silica in concrete increased the residual bond strength to reach 79% instead of 27% only as compared to control mix (0%W) before the subjection of the corrosive environment. From the conducted study we can conclude that the Nano silica proved to be a significant pore blocker material.

Keywords: bond strength, concrete, corrosion resistance, nano silica, permeability

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Authors: Klea Ramaj

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Objectives: There have recently been increasing calls to better understand the intergenerational transmission of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). In particular, little is known about the links between maternal (ACEs), maternal stress, maternal depression, and child abuse against toddlers in countries in South-East Europe. This paper, therefore, aims to present new descriptive data on the epidemiology of maternal mental well-being and maternal ACEs in the capital of Albania, Tirana. It also aims to advance our understanding of the overlap between maternal stress, maternal depression, maternal exposure to ACEs, and child abuse toward two-to-three-year-old. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted with a representative sample of 328 mothers of two-to-three-year-olds, recruited through public nurseries located in 8 diverse socio-economic and geographical areas in Tirana, Albania. Maternal stress was measured through the perceived stress scale (α = 0.78); maternal depression was measured via the patient health questionnaire (α = 0.77); maternal exposure to ACEs was captured via the ACEs international questionnaire (α = 0.77); and child maltreatment was captured via ISPCAN ICAST-P (α = 0.66). The main outcome examined here will be child maltreatment. The paper will first present estimates of maternal stress, depression, and child maltreatment by demographic groups. It will then use multiple regression to examine associations between child maltreatment and risk factors in the domains of maternal stress, maternal depression, and maternal ACEs. Results: Mothers' mean age was 32.3 (SD = 4.24), 87.5% were married, 51% had one child, and 83.5% had completed higher education. Analyses show high levels of stress and exposure to childhood adversity among mothers in Tirana. 97.5% of mothers perceived stress during the last month, and 89% had experienced at least one childhood adversity as measured by the ACE questionnaire, with 20.2% having experienced 4+ ACEs. Analyses show significant positive associations between maternal ACEs and maternal stress r(325) = 0.25, p = 0.00. Mothers with a high number of ACEs were more likely to abuse their children r(327) = .43, p = 0.00. 32% of mothers have used physical discipline with their 2–3-year-old, 84% have used psychological discipline, and 35% have neglected their toddler at least once or twice. The mothers’ depression levels were also positively and significantly associated with child maltreatment r(327) = .34, p = 0.00. Conclusions: This study provides cross-sectional data on the link between maternal exposure to early adversity, maternal mental well-being, and child maltreatment within the context of Tirana, Albania. The results highlight the importance of establishing policies that encourage maternal support, positive parenting, and family well-being in order to help break the cycle of transgenerational violence.

Keywords: child maltreatment, maternal mental well-being, intergenerational abuse, Tirana, Albania

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Authors: Mahua Banerjee, Debtanu Maiti

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Zero-tillage cultivation is a farming practice that reduces costs while maintaining harvests and protecting the environment. Innovative partnerships among researchers, farmers, and other actors in the agricultural value chain have enabled the adoption of zero-tillage to sow rice in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, increasing farmers' incomes, fostering more sustainable use of soil and water, and providing a platform for cropping diversification and the introduction of other resource-conserving practices. A field experiment was conducted in the farmer’s field of Ausgram I Block, Burdwan, West Bengal, India under sandy loam soil with soil pH of 5.2, which is low in Nitrogen, medium in Phosphorus and Potassium. There were three techniques of tillage-T1: Zero tillage in Rice, T2: conventional tillage in Rice, T3: Rice grown with Drum seeder and three varieties namely V1: MTU 7029 V2-MTU 1010, V3: Pratikha thus making nine treatment combinations which were replicated thrice and the experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomised Block Design. Among the three varieties, rice variety MTU 7029 gave higher yield in all the tillage techniques. The highest yield was obtained under Zero tillage followed by conventional tillage. From economic analysis it was revealed that the benefit:cost ratio was higher in Zero tillage and rice cultivation by drum seeder. Zero-till is increasingly being adopted because it gives more yield at less cost, saves labour and farmer time. Farmers will be interested in this technology once they overcome their tillage biases.

Keywords: economics, Indo-Gangetic plain, rice, zero tillage, yield

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Authors: Carolina B. A. Morais, Antonio Bob Santos

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In order to determine how innovation procurement can strengthen public efficiency and foster the modernization of public services, while at the same time promoting the opening of new private markets, this paper aims to present the two key instruments for the practice of innovation procurement at a European, national, and regional level – Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP), and Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions (PPI). Thus, it starts with a theoretical framework on the emergence of this topic in the European Innovation Policy (Section 2), then continues with the identification and systematization of the main mechanisms for its effective adoption, both on the demand and supply side of the market (Section 3), as well as to expose and describe methods and tools for positioning innovation at the heart of public entities. The innovative projects best distinguished by the European Commission for their good practices in innovation procurement are identified, and the main methodology for the development and management of innovation procurement – Forward Commitment Procurement (FCP) – is applied to them in a pioneering way (Section 4). The relevance of innovation in public procurement is systematized and reflected upon in Section 5.

Keywords: innovation procurement, innovation policy, innovation, pubic procurement

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Authors: Cory A. Bennett

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Teaching and learning through the use of discourse support students’ conceptual understanding by attending to key concepts and relationships. One discourse structure used in primary classrooms is number talks wherein students mentally calculate, discuss, and reason about the appropriateness and efficiency of their strategies. In the secondary mathematics classroom, the mathematics understudy does not often lend itself to mental calculations yet learning to reason, and articulate reasoning, is central to learning mathematics. This qualitative case study discusses how one secondary school in the Middle East adapted the number talk protocol for secondary mathematics classrooms. Several challenges in implementing ‘reasoning talks’ became apparent including shifting current discourse protocols and practices to a more student-centric model, accurately recording and probing student thinking, and specifically attending to reasoning rather than computations.

Keywords: discourse, reasoning, secondary mathematics, teacher development

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Authors: Ladaporn Pithuk

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The purposes of the study were to ascertain the customer requirement, to identify the factors related to online business in Thailand. The sample of this study consisted of 400 customers who are purchasing product and service on E-commerce. To get primary sources, a questionnaire consisting of 31 questions was designed and adapted from previous studies. The data from the questionnaires were collected and analyzed in descriptive forms and (ONE-WAY ANOVA) was conducted. The majority of the respondents showed customer requirement by stating “moderately agree” for questions asking them about customization, connection, content, commerce, context, communication and community, however, they also displayed negative attitudes by identifying “moderately disagree” for security concerns and after-sales services. These important issues need to be improved immediately since it can encourage customers to buy goods and services through the Internet or discourage them, and businesses should offer more channels of payment methods for customers for instance, e-payment.

Keywords: customer requirement, customization, connection, online business

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Authors: Wang Ye, Wei Wei

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Residential block construction of big cities in China began in the 1950s, and four models had far-reaching influence on modern residential block in its development process, including unit compound and residential district in 1950s to 1980s, and gated community and open community in 1990s to now. Based on analysis of the four models’ fabric, the article takes residential blocks in Hangzhou west area as an example and carries on the studies from urban structure level and block special level, mainly including urban road network, land use, community function, road organization, public space and building fabric. At last, the article puts forward semi-open sub-community strategy to improve the current fabric.

Keywords: Hangzhou west area, residential block model, residential block fabric, semi-open sub-community strategy

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Authors: Dina Sabirova, Madina Moldagali

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The rapid development of new media, especially the Internet, has led to major changes in folk culture. The net space is increasingly becoming a creation of the ‘folk’ imagination, saturated with multimedia stories with collective authorship, like traditional folklore. Moreover, the Internet picks up and changes old folklore traditions, such as the form of publication, the way of storytelling, or gave a new morality to the ‘old tales’. In this article, the similarities and differences between Internet folklore/ cyber-folklore/ digital folklore and oral folk art were examined by using the material of modern Kazakh authors. The relationship between tradition and innovation was studied in order to interpret the sequence of the authors' research taking into account the realities. The material of the article was the prose texts of Kazakh writers published in internet magazines and social networks. An immanent and intertextual analysis of the text was carried out. Thus, the new forms of Internet folklore lead to new forms of expression and social morality in society

Keywords: internet literature, modern Kazakhstani authors, net folklore, oral folk art

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Authors: Haga Abdelrahman Elimam

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This paper investigates the connotation, and some of the realistic implications, of the economic reform of health sector in under developed countries. The paper investigates the issues that economic reforms have to address, and the policy targets they are considered to accomplish. The work argues that the development of economic reform is not connected only with understanding the priorities and refining them, furthermore with reformation and restructuring the organizations through which health policies are employed. Considering various organizational values, that are likely to be regular to all economic reform programs, a regulatory approach to institutional reform is unsuitable. The paper further investigates the selection of economic reform that may as well influence via technical suggestions and analysis, but the verdict to continue, and the consequent success of execution, eventually depends on the progressive political sustainability. The paper concludes by giving examples of institutional reforms from various underdeveloped countries and includes recommendation of the responsibility and control of donor organizations.

Keywords: economic reform, health sector, underdeveloped countries, technical suggestions

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Authors: Aniruddha Hore, Saptarshi Mitra, Sandip Ghosh, Sujoy Bose, Avijit Ghosh

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The Indian rupee is the official currency of India. With time, science and technology got advanced, and our society is slowly making its way to a cashless mode of transaction. But as India is still a developing country, a large part of our society still depends on transaction through cash. During times of pandemics, we came to understand that everything that we touch is not safe from microbial contamination. The Indian currency is also not an exception. The Indian currency is the modern-day medium of harmful bacterial as well as other microbial contaminations resulting in diseases in human bodies. Therefore, the need came to make the currency disinfectant to give our people a healthier lifestyle. The main focus of the study is to develop a solution that, when applied to the currency notes, will kill the persisting bacteria or microbes present in the notes. So various natural edible products were used in order to prepare the solution, which is highly effective against the presence of harmful bacteria such as E. coli and S. aureus. The antibacterial activity of these natural ingredients is not unknown to us, so extracts from those products were mixed together to form a solution which was made the Indian currency notes antibacterial for 20min approx. The solution was creating a layer on the surface of currency notes, therefore, making it antibacterial for a given duration of time, i.e., no bacterial growth was seen during the time period of 20 minutes, therefore, making it safe for the usage of human hands.

Keywords: Indian currency, antibacterial property of Indian currency, surface coating, currency disinfectant

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Authors: Chimey Lhamo, Ngawang Tsering

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Traditional Tibetan medicine, known as Sowa Rigpa (Science of healing), originated more than 2500 years ago with an insightful background, and it has been growing significant attention in many Asian countries like China, India, Bhutan, and Nepal. Particularly, the Indian government has targeted Traditional Tibetan medicine as its major Indian medical system, including Ayurveda. Although Traditional Tibetan medicine has been growing interest and has a long history, it is not easily recognized worldwide because it exists only in the Tibetan language and it is neither accessible nor understood by patent examiners at the international patent office, data about Traditional Tibetan medicine is not yet broadly exist in the Internet. There has also been the exploitation of traditional Tibetan medicine increasing. The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library is a database aiming to prevent the patenting and misappropriation of India’s traditional medicine knowledge by using India’s Traditional knowledge Digital Library on Sowa Rigpa in order to prevent its exploitation at international patent with the help of information technology tools and an innovative classification systems-traditional knowledge resource classification (TKRC). As of date, more than 3000 Sowa Rigpa formulations have been transcribed into a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library database. In this paper, we are presenting India's Traditional Knowledge Digital Library for Traditional Tibetan medicine, and this database system helps to preserve and prevent the exploitation of Sowa Rigpa. Gradually it will be approved and accepted globally.

Keywords: traditional Tibetan medicine, India's traditional knowledge digital library, traditional knowledge resources classification, international patent classification

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Authors: Yu Luan

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The bone-conducted objective occlusion effect (OE) is characterized by a discomforting sensation of fullness experienced in an occluded ear. This phenomenon arises from various external stimuli, such as human speech, chewing, and walking, which generate vibrations transmitted through the body to the ear canal walls. The bone-conducted OE occurs due to the pressure build-up inside the occluded ear caused by sound radiating into the ear canal cavity from its walls. In the hearing aid industry, artificial ears are utilized as a tool for developing hearing aids. However, the currently available commercial artificial ears primarily focus on pure acoustics measurements, neglecting the bone-conducted vibration aspect. This research endeavors to develop an artificial ear specifically designed for bone-conducted occlusion measurements. Finite element analysis (FEA) modeling has been employed to gain insights into the behavior of the artificial ear.

Keywords: artificial ear, bone conducted vibration, occlusion measurement, finite element modeling

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Authors: Stefan Nicolae, Cristina Cirtoaje, Emil Petrescu, Florin-Razvan Duca

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In the context of the accelerated expansion of urban agglomerations and the exponential development of industry, a huge amount of water is used, and a crisis of drinking water may occur any time. Classic wastewater treatment removes most pollutants but, for some chemical residues, special methods are needed. Carbon nanotubes and other carbon materials might be used in many cases [1-2], especially for heavy metals removal but also on pharmaceutical products such as paracetamol [3]. Our research has confirmed the better efficiency of nanotubes compared to graphene on paracetamol removal from water, but even better results were obtained on single-walled nanotubes (SWCNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets. This can be due to their better dispersion in water which leads to an increased contact surface, so we propose a filtration system of membranes and carbon materials that can be used for paracetamol removal from wastewater but also for other drugs that affect the aquatic life as well as terrestrial animals and people who use this contaminated water.

Keywords: applied physics, wastewater, nanomaterials, enviromental science

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