Search results for: curriculum integration
1582 Culturally Responsive Teaching for Learner Diversity in Czech Schools: A Literature Review
Authors: Ntite Orji Kalu, Martina Kurowski
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Until recently, the Czech Republic had an educational system dominated by indigenous people, who accounted for 95% of the school population. With the increasing influx of migrants and foreign students, especially from outside European Union, came a great disparity among the quality of learners and their learning needs and consideration for the challenges associated with being a minority and living within a foreign culture. This has prompted the research into ways of tailoring the educational system to meet the rising demand of learning styles and needs for the diverse learners in the Czech classrooms. Literature is reviewed regarding the various ways to accommodate the international students considering racial differences, focusing on theoretical approach and pedagogical principles. This study examines the compulsory educational system of the Czech Republic and the position and responsibility of the teacher in fostering a culturally sensitive and inclusive learning environment. Descriptive and content analysis is relied upon for this study. Recommendations are made for stakeholders to imbibe a more responsive environment that enhances the cultural and social integration of all learners.Keywords: culturally responsive teaching, cultural competence, diversity, learners, inclusive education, Czech schools
Procedia PDF Downloads 1401581 A Nexus between Research and Teaching: Fostering Student Expectations of Research-Informed Teaching Approaches
Authors: Lina S. Calucag
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Integration of research and teaching in higher education can provide valuable ways of enhancing the student learning experience, but establishing such integrative links can be complex and problematic, given different practices and levels of understanding. This study contributes to the pedagogical literature in drawing on findings from students’ survey exploring perceptions of research-informed teaching to examine how links between research and teaching can be suitably strengthened. The study employed a descriptive research design limited to the undergraduate students taking thesis/capstone courses in the tertiary levels private or public colleges and universities across the globe as respondents of the study. The findings noted that the students’ responses from different disciplines: engineering, science, education, business-related, and computer on the nexus between research and teaching is remarkable in fostering student expectations of research-informed teaching approaches. Students’ expectations on research-led, research-oriented, research-based, and research-tutored are enablers in linking research and teaching. It is recommended that experimental studies should be conducted using the four different research-informed teaching approaches in the classroom, namely: research-led, research-oriented, research-based, and research-tutored.Keywords: research-led, research-informed teaching, research-oriented teaching, research-tutored, research-based
Procedia PDF Downloads 1501580 Interaction between River and City Morphology
Authors: Ehsan Abshirini
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Rivers as one of the most important topographic factors have played a strategic role not only on the appearance of cities but they also affect the structure and morphology of cities. In this paper author intends to find out how a city in its physical network interacts with a river flowing inside. The pilot study is Angers, a city in western France, in which it is influenced by the Maine River. To this purpose space syntax method integrating with GIS is used to extract the properties of physical form of cities in terms of global and local integration value, accessibility and choice value. Simulating the state of absence of river in this city and comparing the result to the current state of city according to the effect of river on the morphology of areas located in different banks of river is also part of interest in this paper. The results show that although a river is not comparable to the city based on size and the area occupied by, it has a significant effect on the form of the city in both global and local properties. In addition, this study endorses that tracking the effect of river-cities and their interaction to rivers in a hybrid of space syntax and GIS may lead researchers to improve their interpretation of physical form of these types of cities.Keywords: river-cities, Physical form, space syntax properties, GIS, topographic factor
Procedia PDF Downloads 4231579 Modification of the Athena Vortex Lattice Code for the Multivariate Design Synthesis Optimisation of the Blended Wing Body Aircraft
Authors: Paul Okonkwo, Howard Smith
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This paper describes a methodology to integrate the Athena Vortex Lattice Aerodynamic Software for automated operation in a multivariate optimisation of the Blended Wing Body Aircraft. The Athena Vortex Lattice code developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Mark Drela allows for the aerodynamic analysis of aircraft using the vortex lattice method. Ordinarily, the Athena Vortex Lattice operation requires a text file containing the aircraft geometry to be loaded into the AVL solver in order to determine the aerodynamic forces and moments. However, automated operation will be required to enable integration into a multidisciplinary optimisation framework. Automated AVL operation within the JAVA design environment will nonetheless require a modification and recompilation of AVL source code into an executable file capable of running on windows and other platforms without the –X11 libraries. This paper describes the procedure for the integrating the FORTRAN written AVL software for automated operation within the multivariate design synthesis optimisation framework for the conceptual design of the BWB aircraft.Keywords: aerodynamics, automation, optimisation, AVL
Procedia PDF Downloads 6501578 Optimal Allocation of Distributed Generation Sources for Loss Reduction and Voltage Profile Improvement by Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Muhammad Zaheer Babar, Amer Kashif, Muhammad Rizwan Javed
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Nowadays distributed generation integration is best way to overcome the increasing load demand. Optimal allocation of distributed generation plays a vital role in reducing system losses and improves voltage profile. In this paper, a Meta heuristic technique is proposed for allocation of DG in order to reduce power losses and improve voltage profile. The proposed technique is based on Multi Objective Particle Swarm optimization. Fewer control parameters are needed in this algorithm. Modification is made in search space of PSO. The effectiveness of proposed technique is tested on IEEE 33 bus test system. Single DG as well as multiple DG scenario is adopted for proposed method. Proposed method is more effective as compared to other Meta heuristic techniques and gives better results regarding system losses and voltage profile.Keywords: Distributed generation (DG), Multi Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), IEEE standard Test System
Procedia PDF Downloads 4481577 Correlation Between Political Awareness and Political Participation for University Students: An Applied Study
Authors: Rana Mohamed Abd El Aal
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This is an exploratory study that aims to answer the question of whether and to what extent the prevailing political culture with a special focus to the factor of political awareness for Egyptian university students is influential in shaping their participatory behavior; more precisely in four main Universities ;(Cairo University- BaniSwif University- BUE University- Suez Canal University). To ensure the validity of my results, I deployed a number of different data collection methods: the collection, analysis, integration of both quantitative and qualitative methods; for investigating two main hypothesis H1: There is a positive relation between the political awareness level and political participation for university students, H2: There is a positive relation between political values in the society and the level of political participation of university students. The study reveals that though the sample represented the portion of political science students in different Universities, the level of political awareness and political participation was low with a statistically significant relationship; also, the patterns of values in Egyptian culture affects significantly the level of participation in the different universities. Therefore; the study using SWOT analysis recommends some policies for increasing the level of awareness and integrating youth in the political process.Keywords: political awareness, political participation, civic culture, citizenship, egyptian universities, political knowledge
Procedia PDF Downloads 2271576 An Investigation of Surface Water Quality in an Industrial Area Using Integrated Approaches
Authors: Priti Saha, Biswajit Paul
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Rapid urbanization and industrialization has increased the pollution load in surface water bodies. However, these water bodies are major source of water for drinking, irrigation, industrial activities and fishery. Therefore, water quality assessment is paramount importance to evaluate its suitability for all these purposes. This study focus to evaluate the surface water quality of an industrial city in eastern India through integrating interdisciplinary techniques. The multi-purpose Water Quality Index (WQI) assess the suitability for drinking, irrigation as well as fishery of forty-eight sampling locations, where 8.33% have excellent water quality (WQI:0-25) for fishery and 10.42%, 20.83% and 45.83% have good quality (WQI:25-50), which represents its suitability for drinking irrigation and fishery respectively. However, the industrial water quality was assessed through Ryznar Stability Index (LSI), which affirmed that only 6.25% of sampling locations have neither corrosive nor scale forming properties (RSI: 6.2-6.8). Integration of these statistical analysis with geographical information system (GIS) helps in spatial assessment. It identifies of the regions where the water quality is suitable for its use in drinking, irrigation, fishery as well as industrial activities. This research demonstrates the effectiveness of statistical and GIS techniques for water quality assessment.Keywords: surface water, water quality assessment, water quality index, spatial assessment
Procedia PDF Downloads 1731575 Knowledge Management Best Practice Model in Higher Learning Institution: A Systematic Literature Review
Authors: Ismail Halijah, Abdullah Rusli
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Introduction: This systematic literature review aims to identify the Knowledge Management Best Practice components in the Knowledge Management Model for Higher Learning Institutions environment. Study design: Systematic literature review. Methods: A systematic literature re-view of Knowledge Management Best Practice to identify and define the components of Best Practice from the Knowledge Management models was conducted recently. Results: This review of published papers of conference and journals’ articles shows the components of Best Practice in Knowledge Management are basically divided into two aspect which is the soft aspect and the hard aspect. The lacks of combination of these two aspects into an integrated model decelerate Knowledge Management Best Practice to fully throttle. Evidence from the literature shows the lack of integration of this two aspects leads to the immaturity of the Higher Learning Institution (HLI) towards the implementation of Knowledge Management System. Conclusion: The first steps of identifying the attributes to measure the Knowledge Management Best Practice components from the models in the literature will led to the definition of the Knowledge Management Best Practice component for the higher learning environment.Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge management system, knowledge management best practice, knowledge management higher learning institution
Procedia PDF Downloads 5851574 Evaluation of Pragmatic Information in an English Textbook: Focus on Requests
Authors: Israa A. Qari
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Learning to request in a foreign language is a key ability within pragmatics language teaching. This paper examines how requests are taught in English Unlimited Book 3 (Cambridge University Press), an EFL textbook series employed by King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to teach advanced foundation year students English. The focus of analysis is the evaluation of the request linguistic strategies present in the textbook, frequency of the use of these strategies, and the contextual information provided on the use of these linguistic forms. The researcher collected all the linguistic forms which consisted of the request speech act and divided them into levels employing the CCSARP request coding manual. Findings demonstrated that simple and commonly employed request strategies are introduced. Looking closely at the exercises throughout the chapters, it was noticeable that the book exclusively employed the most direct form of requesting (the imperative) when giving learners instructions: e.g. listen, write, ask, answer, read, look, complete, choose, talk, think, etc. The book also made use of some other request strategies such as ‘hedged performatives’ and ‘query preparatory’. However, it was also found that many strategies were not dealt with in the book, specifically strategies with combined functions (e.g. possibility, ability). On a sociopragmatic level, a strong focus was found to exist on standard situations in which relations between the requester and requestee are clear. In general, contextual information was communicated implicitly only. The textbook did not seem to differentiate between formal and informal request contexts (register) which might consequently impel students to overgeneralize. The paper closes with some recommendations for textbook and curriculum designers. Findings are also contrasted with previous results from similar body of research on EFL requests.Keywords: EFL, requests, saudi, speech acts, textbook evaluation
Procedia PDF Downloads 1301573 Confidence Levels among UK Emergency Medicine Doctors in Performing Emergency Lateral Canthotomy: Should it be a Key Skill in the ED
Authors: Mohanad Moustafa, Julia Sieberer, Rhys Davies
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Background: Orbital compartment syndrome (OCS) is a sight-threatening Ophthalmologic emergency caused by rapidly increasing intraorbital pressure. It is usually caused by a retrobulbar hemorrhage as a result of trauma. If not treated in a timely manner, permanent vision loss can occur. Lateral canthotomy and cantholysis are minor procedures that can be performed bedside with equipment available in the emergency department. The aim of the procedure is to release the attachments between the suspensory ligaments of the eye and the bony orbital wall, leading to a decrease in intraorbital pressure and preventing irreversible loss of vision. As most Ophthalmologists across the UK provide non-resident on-call service, this may lead to a delay in the treatment of OCS and stresses the need for Emergency medical staff to be able to provide this sight-saving procedure independently. Aim: To survey current training, experience, and confidence levels among Emergency Medicine doctors in performing emergency lateral canthotomy and to establish whether these variables change the following teaching from experienced ophthalmologists. RESULTS: Most EM registrars had little to no experience in performing lateral canthotomy and cantholysis. The majority of them showed a significant increase in their confidence to perform the procedure following ophthalmic-led teaching. The survey also showed that the registrars felt such training should be added to/part of the EM curriculum. Conclusion: The involvement of Ophthalmologists in the teaching of EM doctors to recognise and treat OCS independently may prevent delays in treatment and reduce the risk of permanent sight loss. This project showed potential in improving patient care and will lead to a National Survey of EM doctors across the UK.Keywords: lateral canthotomy, retrobulbar hemorrhage, Ophthalmology, orbital compartment syndrome, sight loss, blindness
Procedia PDF Downloads 921572 Communities of Practice as a Training Model for Professional Development of In-Service Teachers: Analyzing the Sharing of Knowledge by Teachers
Authors: Panagiotis Kosmas
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The advent of new technologies in education inspires practitioners to approach teaching from a different angle with the aim to professionally develop and improve teaching practices. Online communities of practice among teachers seem to be a trend associated with the integration efforts for a modern and pioneering educational system and training program. This study attempted to explore the participation in online communities of practice and the sharing of knowledge between teachers with aims to explore teachers' incentives to participate in such a community of practice. The study aims to contribute to international research, bringing in global debate new concerns and issues related to the professional learning of current educators. One official online community was used as a case study for the purposes of research. The data collection was conducted from the content analysis of online portal, by questionnaire in 184 community members and interviews with ten active users of the portal. The findings revealed that sharing of knowledge is a key motivation of members of a community. Also, the active learning and community participation seem to be essential factors for the success of an online community of practice.Keywords: communities of practice, teachers, sharing knowledge, professional development
Procedia PDF Downloads 3411571 The Role of Uncertainty in the Integration of Environmental Parameters in Energy System Modeling
Authors: Alexander de Tomás, Miquel Sierra, Stefan Pfenninger, Francesco Lombardi, Ines Campos, Cristina Madrid
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Environmental parameters are key in the definition of sustainable energy systems yet excluded from most energy system optimization models. Still, decision-making may be misleading without considering them. Environmental analyses of the energy transition are a key part of industrial ecology but often are performed without any input from the users of the information. This work assesses the systemic impacts of energy transition pathways in Portugal. Using the Calliope energy modeling framework, 250+ optimized energy system pathways are generated. A Delphi study helps to identify the relevant criteria for the stakeholders as regards the environmental assessment, which is performed with ENBIOS, a python package that integrates life cycle assessment (LCA) with a metabolic analysis based on complex relations. Furthermore, this study focuses on how the uncertainty propagates through the model’s consortium. With the aim of doing so, a soft link between the Calliope/ENBIOS cascade and Brightway’s data capabilities is built to perform Monte Carlo simulations. These findings highlight the relevance of including uncertainty analysis as a range of values rather than informing energy transition results with a single value.Keywords: energy transition, energy modeling, uncertainty, sustainability
Procedia PDF Downloads 751570 Digital Control Algorithm Based on Delta-Operator for High-Frequency DC-DC Switching Converters
Authors: Renkai Wang, Tingcun Wei
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In this paper, a digital control algorithm based on delta-operator is presented for high-frequency digitally-controlled DC-DC switching converters. The stability and the controlling accuracy of the DC-DC switching converters are improved by using the digital control algorithm based on delta-operator without increasing the hardware circuit scale. The design method of voltage compensator in delta-domain using PID (Proportion-Integration- Differentiation) control is given in this paper, and the simulation results based on Simulink platform are provided, which have verified the theoretical analysis results very well. It can be concluded that, the presented control algorithm based on delta-operator has better stability and controlling accuracy, and easier hardware implementation than the existed control algorithms based on z-operator, therefore it can be used for the voltage compensator design in high-frequency digitally- controlled DC-DC switching converters.Keywords: digitally-controlled DC-DC switching converter, digital voltage compensator, delta-operator, finite word length, stability
Procedia PDF Downloads 4041569 Attachment Systems and Psychotherapy: An Internal Secure Caregiver to Heal and Protect the Parts of Our Clients: InCorporer Method
Authors: Julien Baillet
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In light of 30 years of scientific research, InCorporer Method was created in 2019 as a new approach to heal traumatic, developmental, and dissociative injuries. Following natural nervous system functions, InCorporer aims to heal, develop, and update the different defensive mammalian subsystems: fight, flight, freeze, feign death, cry for help, & energy regulator. The dimensions taken into account are: (i) Heal the traumatic injuries who are still bleeding, (ii) Develop the systems that never received the security, attention, and affection they needed. (iii) Update the parts that stayed stuck in the past, ignoring for too long that they are out of danger now. Through the Present Part and its caregiving skills, InCorporer method enables a balanced, soothed, and collaborative personality system. To be as integrative as possible, InCorporer method has been designed according to several fields of research, such as structural dissociation theory, attachment theory, and information processing theory. In this paper, the author presents how the internal caregiver is developed and trained to heal all the different parts/subsystems of our clients through mindful attention and reflex movement integration.Keywords: PTSD, attachment, dissociation, part work
Procedia PDF Downloads 641568 Impact of Extended Enterprise Resource Planning in the Context of Cloud Computing on Industries and Organizations
Authors: Gholamreza Momenzadeh, Forough Nematolahi
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The Extended Enterprise Resource Planning (ERPII) system usually requires massive amounts of storage space, powerful servers, and large upfront and ongoing investments to purchase and manage the software and the related hardware which are not affordable for organizations. In recent decades, organizations prefer to adapt their business structures with new technologies for remaining competitive in the world economy. Therefore, cloud computing (which is one of the tools of information technology (IT)) is a modern system that reveals the next-generation application architecture. Also, cloud computing has had some advantages that reduce costs in many ways such as: lower upfront costs for all computing infrastructure and lower cost of maintaining and supporting. On the other hand, traditional ERPII is not responding for huge amounts of data and relations between the organizations. In this study, based on a literature study, ERPII is investigated in the context of cloud computing where the organizations operate more efficiently. Also, ERPII conditions have a response to needs of organizations in large amounts of data and relations between the organizations.Keywords: extended enterprise resource planning, cloud computing, business process, enterprise information integration
Procedia PDF Downloads 2101567 The Implementation of the Multi-Agent Classification System (MACS) in Compliance with FIPA Specifications
Authors: Mohamed R. Mhereeg
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The paper discusses the implementation of the MultiAgent classification System (MACS) and utilizing it to provide an automated and accurate classification of end users developing applications in the spreadsheet domain. However, different technologies have been brought together to build MACS. The strength of the system is the integration of the agent technology with the FIPA specifications together with other technologies, which are the .NET widows service based agents, the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Oracle Data Mining (ODM). Microsoft's .NET windows service based agents were utilized to develop the monitoring agents of MACS, the .NET WCF services together with SOA approach allowed the distribution and communication between agents over the WWW. The Monitoring Agents (MAs) were configured to execute automatically to monitor excel spreadsheets development activities by content. Data gathered by the Monitoring Agents from various resources over a period of time was collected and filtered by a Database Updater Agent (DUA) residing in the .NET client application of the system. This agent then transfers and stores the data in Oracle server database via Oracle stored procedures for further processing that leads to the classification of the end user developers.Keywords: MACS, implementation, multi-agent, SOA, autonomous, WCF
Procedia PDF Downloads 2661566 The Integration of Patient Health Record Generated from Wearable and Internet of Things Devices into Health Information Exchanges
Authors: Dalvin D. Hill, Hector M. Castro Garcia
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A growing number of individuals utilize wearable devices on a daily basis. The usage and functionality of these wearable devices vary from user to user. One popular usage of said devices is to track health-related activities that are typically stored on a device’s memory or uploaded to an account in the cloud; based on the current trend, the data accumulated from the wearable device are stored in a standalone location. In many of these cases, this health related datum is not a factor when considering the holistic view of a user’s health lifestyle or record. This health-related data generated from wearable and Internet of Things (IoT) devices can serve as empirical information to a medical provider, as the standalone data can add value to the holistic health record of a patient. This paper proposes a solution to incorporate the data gathered from these wearable and IoT devices, with that a patient’s Personal Health Record (PHR) stored within the confines of a Health Information Exchange (HIE).Keywords: electronic health record, health information exchanges, internet of things, personal health records, wearable devices, wearables
Procedia PDF Downloads 1211565 Unique Interprofessional Mental Health Education Model: A Pre/Post Survey
Authors: Michele L. Tilstra, Tiffany J. Peets
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Interprofessional collaboration in behavioral healthcare education is increasingly recognized for its value in training students to address diverse client needs. While interprofessional education (IPE) is well-documented in occupational therapy education to address physical health, limited research exists on collaboration with counselors to address mental health concerns and the psychosocial needs of individuals receiving care. Counseling education literature primarily examines the collaboration of counseling students with psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. This pretest/posttest survey research study explored changes in attitudes toward interprofessional teams among 56 Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) (n = 42) and Counseling and Human Development (CHD) (n = 14) students participating in the Counselors and Occupational Therapists Professionally Engaged in the Community (COPE) program. The COPE program was designed to strengthen the behavioral health workforce in high-need and high-demand areas. Students accepted into the COPE program were divided into small MOT/CHD groups to complete multiple interprofessional multicultural learning modules using videos, case studies, and online discussion board posts. The online modules encouraged reflection on various behavioral healthcare roles, benefits of team-based care, cultural humility, current mental health challenges, personal biases, power imbalances, and advocacy for underserved populations. Using the Student Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education- Revision 2 (SPICE-R2) scale, students completed pretest and posttest surveys using a 5-point Likert scale (Strongly Agree = 5 to Strongly Disagree = 1) to evaluate their attitudes toward interprofessional teamwork and collaboration. The SPICE-R2 measured three different factors: interprofessional teamwork and team-based practice (Team), roles/responsibilities for collaborative practice (Roles), and patient outcomes from collaborative practice (Outcomes). The mean total scores for all students improved from 4.25 (pretest) to 4.43 (posttest), Team from 4.66 to 4.58, Roles from 3.88 to 4.30, and Outcomes from 4.08 to 4.36. A paired t-test analysis for the total mean scores resulted in a t-statistic of 2.54, which exceeded both one-tail and two-tail critical values, indicating statistical significance (p = .001). When the factors of the SPICE-R2 were analyzed separately, only the Roles (t Stat=4.08, p =.0001) and Outcomes (t Stat=3.13, p = .002) were statistically significant. The item ‘I understand the roles of other health professionals’ showed the most improvement from a mean score for all students of 3.76 (pretest) to 4.46 (posttest). The significant improvement in students' attitudes toward interprofessional teams suggests that the unique integration of OT and CHD students in the COPE program effectively develops a better understanding of the collaborative roles necessary for holistic client care. These results support the importance of IPE through structured, engaging interprofessional experiences. These experiences are essential for enhancing students' readiness for collaborative practice and align with accreditation standards requiring interprofessional education in OT and CHD programs to prepare practitioners for team-based care. The findings contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting the integration of IPE in behavioral healthcare curricula to improve holistic client care and encourage students to engage in collaborative practice across healthcare settings.Keywords: behavioral healthcare, counseling education, interprofessional education, mental health education, occupational therapy education
Procedia PDF Downloads 331564 Poverty Reduction in European Cities: Local Governments’ Strategies and Programmes to Reduce Poverty; Interview Results from Austria
Authors: Melanie Schinnerl, Dorothea Greiling
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In the context of the 2020 strategy, poverty and its fight returned to the center of national political efforts. This served as motivation for an Austrian research grant-funded project to focus on the under-researched local government level with the aim to identify municipal best-practice cases and to derive policy implications for Austria. Designing effective poverty reduction strategies is a complex challenge which calls for an integrated multi-actor in approach. Cities are increasingly confronted to combat poverty, even in rich EU-member states. By doing so cities face substantial demographic, cultural, economic and social challenges as well as changing welfare state regimes. Furthermore, there is a low willingness of (right-wing) governments to support the poor. Against this background, the research questions are: 1. How do local governments define poverty? 2. Who are the main risk groups and what are the most pressing problems when fighting urban poverty? 3. What is regarded as successful anti-poverty initiatives? 4. What is the underlying welfare state concept? To address the research questions a multi-method approach was chosen, consisting of a systematic literature analysis, a comprehensive document analysis, and expert interviews. For interpreting the data the project follows the qualitative-interpretive paradigm. Municipal approaches for reducing poverty are compared based on deductive, as well as inductive identified criteria. In addition to an intensive literature analysis, interviews (40) were conducted in Austria since the project started in March 2018. From the other countries, 14 responses have been collected, providing a first insight. Regarding the definition of poverty the EU SILC-definition as well as counting the persons who receive need-based minimum social benefits, the Austrian form of social welfare, are the predominant approaches in Austria. In addition to homeless people, single-parent families, un-skilled persons, long-term unemployed persons, migrants (first and second generation), refugees and families with at least 3 children were frequently mentioned. The most pressing challenges for Austrian cities are: expected reductions of social budgets, a great insecurity of the central government's social policy reform plans, the growing number of homeless people and a lack of affordable housing. Together with affordable housing, old-age poverty will gain more importance in the future. The Austrian best practice examples, suggested by interviewees, focused primarily on homeless, children and young people (till 25). Central government’s policy changes have already negative effects on programs for refugees and elderly unemployed. Social Housing in Vienna was frequently mentioned as an international best practice case, other growing cities can learn from. The results from Austria indicate a change towards the social investment state, which primarily focuses on children and labour market integration. The first insights from the other countries indicate that affordable housing and labor market integration are cross-cutting issues. Inherited poverty and old-age poverty seems to be more pressing outside Austria.Keywords: anti-poverty policies, European cities, empirical study, social investment
Procedia PDF Downloads 1131563 Using Short Learning Programmes to Develop Students’ Digital Literacies in Art and Design Education
Authors: B.J. Khoza, B. Kembo
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Global socioeconomic developments and ever-growing technological advancements of the art and design industry indicate the pivotal importance of lifelong learning. There exists a discrepancy between competencies, personal ambition, and workplace requirements. There are few , if at all, institutions of higher learning in South Africa which offer Short Learning Programmes (SLP) in Art and Design Education. Traditionally, Art and Design education is delivered face to face via a hands-on approach. In this way the enduring perception among educators is that art and design education does not lend itself to online delivery. Short Learning programmes (SLP) are a concentrated approach to make revenue and lure potential prospective students to embark on further education study, this is often of weighted value to both students and employers. SLPs are used by Higher Education institutions to generate income in support of the core academic programmes. However, there is a gap in terms of the translation of art and design studio pedagogy into SLPs which provide quality education, are adaptable and delivered via a blended mode. In our paper, we propose a conceptual framework drawing on secondary research to analyse existing research to SLPs for arts and design education. We aim to indicate a new dimension to the process of using a design-based research approach for short learning programmes in art and design education. The study draws on a conceptual framework, a qualitative analysis through the lenses of Herrington, McKenney, Reeves and Oliver (2005) principles of the design-based research approach. The results of this study indicate that design-based research is not only an effective methodological approach for developing and deploying arts and design education curriculum for 1st years in Higher Education context but it also has the potential to guide future research. The findings of this study propose that the design-based research approach could bring theory and praxis together regarding a common purpose to design context-based solutions to educational problems.Keywords: design education, design-based research, digital literacies, multi-literacies, short learning programme
Procedia PDF Downloads 1581562 A Multi-Tenant Problem Oriented Medical Record System for Representing Patient Care Cases using SOAP (Subjective-Objective-Assessment-Plan) Note
Authors: Sabah Mohammed, Jinan Fiaidhi, Darien Sawyer
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Describing clinical cases according to a clinical charting standard that enforces interoperability and enables connected care services can save lives in the event of a medical emergency or provide efficient and effective interventions for the benefit of the patients through the integration of bedside and bench side clinical research. This article presented a multi-tenant extension to the problem-oriented medical record that we have prototyped previously upon using the GraphQL Application Programming Interface to represent the notion of a problem list. Our implemented extension enables physicians and patients to collaboratively describe the patient case via using multi chatbots to collaboratively describe the patient case using the SOAP charting standard. Our extension also connects the described SOAP patient case with the HL7 FHIR (Health Interoperability Resources) medical record for connecting the patient case to the bench data.Keywords: problem-oriented medical record, graphQL, chatbots, SOAP
Procedia PDF Downloads 831561 Accelerated Evaluation of Structural Reliability under Tsunami Loading
Authors: Sai Hung Cheung, Zhe Shao
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It is of our great interest to quantify the risk to structural dynamic systems due to earthquake-induced tsunamis in view of recent earthquake-induced tsunamis in Padang, 2004 and Tohoku, 2011 which brought huge losses of lives and properties. Despite continuous advancement in computational simulation of the tsunami and wave-structure interaction modeling, it still remains computationally challenging to evaluate the reliability of a structural dynamic system when uncertainties related to the system and its modeling are taken into account. The failure of the structure in a tsunami-wave-structural system is defined as any response quantities of the system exceeding specified thresholds during the time when the structure is subjected to dynamic wave impact due to earthquake-induced tsunamis. In this paper, an approach based on a novel integration of a recently proposed moving least squares response surface approach for stochastic sampling and the Subset Simulation algorithm is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is discussed by comparing its results with those obtained from the Subset Simulation algorithm without using the response surface approach.Keywords: response surface, stochastic simulation, structural reliability tsunami, risk
Procedia PDF Downloads 6691560 Detection of Concrete Reinforcement Damage Using Piezoelectric Materials: Analytical and Experimental Study
Authors: C. P. Providakis, G. M. Angeli, M. J. Favvata, N. A. Papadopoulos, C. E. Chalioris, C. G. Karayannis
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An effort for the detection of damages in the reinforcement bars of reinforced concrete members using PZTs is presented. The damage can be the result of excessive elongation of the steel bar due to steel yielding or due to local steel corrosion. In both cases the damage is simulated by considering reduced diameter of the rebar along the damaged part of its length. An integration approach based on both electromechanical admittance methodology and guided wave propagation technique is used to evaluate the artificial damage on the examined longitudinal steel bar. Two actuator PZTs and a sensor PZT are considered to be bonded on the examined steel bar. The admittance of the Sensor PZT is calculated using COMSOL 3.4a. Fast Furrier Transformation for a better evaluation of the results is employed. An effort for the quantification of the damage detection using the root mean square deviation (RMSD) between the healthy condition and damage state of the sensor PZT is attempted. The numerical value of the RSMD yields a level for the difference between the healthy and the damaged admittance computation indicating this way the presence of damage in the structure. Experimental measurements are also presented.Keywords: concrete reinforcement, damage detection, electromechanical admittance, experimental measurements, finite element method, guided waves, PZT
Procedia PDF Downloads 2471559 MBR-RO System Operation in Quantitative and Qualitative Promotion of Waste Water Cleaning: Case Study of Shokohieyh Qoms’ Waste Water Cleaning
Authors: A. A. Hassani, M. Nasri Nasrabadi
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According to population growth and increasing water needs of industrial and agricultural sections and lack of existing water sources, also increases of wastewater and new wastewater treatment plant construction’s high costs, it is inevitable to reuse wastewater with the approach of increasing wastewater treatment capacity and output sewage quality. In this regard, the first sewage reuse plan in industrial uses was designed with the approach of qualitative and quantitative improvement due to the increased organic load of the output sewage of Qom Shokohieh city’s’ in wastewater treatment plant. This research investigated qualitative factors COD, BOD, TSS, TDS, and input and output heavy metal of MBR-RO system and ability of increase wastewater acceptance capacity by existing in wastewater treatment plant. For this purpose, experimental results of seven-month navigation system have been used from 07/01/2013 to 02/01/2014. Existing data analysis showed that MBR system is able to remove 93.2% COD, 94.4% BOD, 13.8% TDS, 98% heavy metals and RO system is able to remove 98.9% TDS. This study showed that MBR-RO integration system is able to increase the capacity of refinery by 30%.Keywords: industrial wastewater, wastewater reuse, MBR, RO
Procedia PDF Downloads 2841558 Integration of Climatic Factors in the Meta-Population Modelling of the Dynamic of Malaria Transmission, Case of Douala and Yaoundé, Two Cities of Cameroon
Authors: Justin-Herve Noubissi, Jean Claude Kamgang, Eric Ramat, Januarius Asongu, Christophe Cambier
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The goal of our study is to analyse the impact of climatic factors in malaria transmission taking into account migration between Douala and Yaoundé, two cities of Cameroon country. We show how variations of climatic factors such as temperature and relative humidity affect the malaria spread. We propose a meta-population model of the dynamic transmission of malaria that evolves in space and time and that takes into account temperature and relative humidity and the migration between Douala and Yaoundé. We also integrate the variation of environmental factors as events also called mathematical impulsion that can disrupt the model evolution at any time. Our modelling has been done using the Discrete EVents System Specification (DEVS) formalism. Our implementation has been done on Virtual Laboratory Environment (VLE) that uses DEVS formalism and abstract simulators for coupling models by integrating the concept of DEVS.Keywords: compartmental models, DEVS, discrete events, meta-population model, VLE
Procedia PDF Downloads 5481557 A Creative Strategy to Functionalize TiN/CNC Composites as Cathode for High-Energy Zinc Ion Capacitors
Authors: Ye Ling, Jiang Yuting, Ruan Haihui
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Zinc ion capacitors (ZICs) have garnered tremendous interest recently from researchers due to the perfect integration of batteries and supercapacitors (SC). However, ZICs are currently still facing two major challenges, one is low specific capacitance because of the limited capacity of capacitive cathode materials. In this work, TiN/CNC composites were obtained by a creative method composed of simple mixing and calcination treatment of tetrabutyl titanate (TBOT) and ZIF-8. The formed TiN particles are of ultra-small size and distributed uniformly on the nanoporous carbon matrix, which enhances the conductivity of the composites and the micropores caused by the evaporation of zinc during the calcination process and can serve as the reservoir of electrolytes; both are beneficial to zinc ion storage. When it was used as a cathode with zinc metal and 2M ZnSO₄ as the anode and electrolyte, respectively, in a ZIC device, the assembled device delivered a maximum energy density as high as 153 Wh kg-¹ at a power density of 269.4 W kg-¹, which is superior to many ZICs as reported. Also, it can maintain an energy density of 83.7 Wh kg-¹ at a peak power density of 8.6 kW kg-¹, exhibiting good rate performance. Moreover, when it was charged/discharged for 5000 cycles at a current density of 5 A g-¹, it remained at 85.8% of the initial capacity with a Coulombic efficiency (CE) of nearly 100%.Keywords: zinc ion capacitor, metal nitride, zif-8, supercapacitor
Procedia PDF Downloads 311556 Indian Art Education and Career Opportunities: A Critical Analysis on Commercial Art
Authors: Pooja Jain
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Art education is often ignored in syllabus of developing countries like India and in educational planning for development but now days Indian Art with a global recognition is becoming an integral part of the education at all levels. The term art, widely used in all parts of the modern world, carried varied significance in India as its meaning was continuously being extended, covering the many varieties of creative expression such as painting, sculpture, commercial art, design, poetry, music, dance, and architecture. Over the last 100 years Indian artists of all forms have evolved a wide variety of expressive styles. With the recommendations and initiatives by Government of India, Art Education has subsequently gained pace at the school level as a mandatory subject for all making a path way for students with a creative bend of mind. This paper investigates curriculum in various schools of the country at secondary and senior secondary levels along with some eminent institutions running the program. Findings depicted the role of art education and justified its importance primarily with commercial art being perceived to be essential for students learning skills for economic gain in their career ahead. With so many art colleges spread across India, emerging artists and designers are being trained and are creating art of infinite variety and style and have opened up many career avenues. Commercial Art being a plethora of artistic expressions has confidently come of age wherein a creative perception is mixed with an introspective imagination to bring out multi faceted career options with a significant future enveloped in art. Visual arts in education thus is an expanding field of result assured research.
Keywords: modern art, commercial art, introspective imagination, career
Procedia PDF Downloads 1811555 Detection of Concrete Reinforcement Damage Using Piezoelectric Materials: Analytical and Experimental Study
Authors: C. P. Providakis, G. M. Angeli, M. J. Favvata, N. A. Papadopoulos, C. E. Chalioris, C. G. Karayannis
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An effort for the detection of damages in the reinforcement bars of reinforced concrete members using PZTs is presented. The damage can be the result of excessive elongation of the steel bar due to steel yielding or due to local steel corrosion. In both cases the damage is simulated by considering reduced diameter of the rebar along the damaged part of its length. An integration approach based on both electro-mechanical admittance methodology and guided wave propagation technique is used to evaluate the artificial damage on the examined longitudinal steel bar. Two actuator PZTs and a sensor PZT are considered to be bonded on the examined steel bar. The admittance of the Sensor PZT is calculated using COMSOL 3.4a. Fast Furrier Transformation for a better evaluation of the results is employed. An effort for the quantification of the damage detection using the root mean square deviation (RMSD) between the healthy condition and damage state of the sensor PZT is attempted. The numerical value of the RSMD yields a level for the difference between the healthy and the damaged admittance computation indicating this way the presence of damage in the structure. Experimental measurements are also presented.Keywords: concrete reinforcement, damage detection, electromechanical admittance, experimental measurements, finite element method, guided waves, PZT
Procedia PDF Downloads 2851554 Prevalence of Over-Schooling Preschoolers as Perceived by Teachers in Kwara Central, Nigeria
Authors: Rachael Ojima Agarry, Raheemat Opeyemi Omosidi
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Over-schooling children is an abuse of the fundamental provisions of the National Policy on Education in Nigeria. The practice overburdens or places unwarranted academic demands on children, particularly preschoolers. This study was carried out to ascertain the prevalence of over-schooling preschoolers as perceived by teachers in the Kwara Central Senatorial District. One research question and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A descriptive survey design was employed. The population of the study consists of all preschool teachers in both private and public schools in Kwara Central. A validated instrument tagged “Questionnaire on Prevalence of Over-schooling of Preschoolers (QPOP)” with a reliability index of 0.76 was used for data collection. The questionnaire consists of sections A and B. Section A solicited the respondents’ demographic information, and Section B sought the prevalence of over-schooling as perceived by teachers. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the demographic information and the research question. The two research hypotheses were analyzed using a t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANCOVA) at a 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed that there is a high level of prevalence of over-schooling of preschoolers in Kwara Central. Also, there is a significant difference in teachers' perception of the prevalence of over-schooling preschoolers based on school type and school location. It was concluded that both private and public schools in Kwara Central practice over-schooling of preschoolers at a high level. Hence, it was recommended that the government, through the State and/or Federal Ministry of Education, should enact and enforce a law that would ensure children in this category spend only the stipulated time in school as well as strict adherence to the recommended curriculum contents by proprietors and teachers.Keywords: over-schooling, preschoolers, school type, school location
Procedia PDF Downloads 471553 Voices of Dissent: Case Study of a Digital Archive of Testimonies of Political Oppression
Authors: Andrea Scapolo, Zaya Rustamova, Arturo Matute Castro
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The “Voices in Dissent” initiative aims at collecting and making available in a digital format, testimonies, letters, and other narratives produced by victims of political oppression from different geographical spaces across the Atlantic. By recovering silenced voices behind the official narratives, this open-access online database will provide indispensable tools for rewriting the history of authoritarian regimes from the margins as memory debates continue to provoke controversy among academic and popular transnational circles. In providing an extensive database of non-hegemonic discourses in a variety of political and social contexts, the project will complement the existing European and Latin-American studies, and invite further interdisciplinary and trans-national research. This digital resource will be available to academic communities and the general audience and will be organized geographically and chronologically. “Voices in Dissent” will offer a first comprehensive study of these personal accounts of persecution and repression against determined historical backgrounds and their impact on collective memory formation in contemporary societies. The digitalization of these texts will allow to run metadata analyses and adopt comparatist approaches for a broad range of research endeavors. Most of the testimonies included in our archive are testimonies of trauma: the trauma of exile, imprisonment, torture, humiliation, censorship. The research on trauma has now reached critical mass and offers a broad spectrum of critical perspectives. By putting together testimonies from different geographical and historical contexts, our project will provide readers and scholars with an extraordinary opportunity to investigate how culture shapes individual and collective memories and provides or denies resources to make sense and cope with the trauma. For scholars dealing with the epistemological and rhetorical analysis of testimonies, an online open-access archive will prove particularly beneficial to test theories on truth status and the formation of belief as well as to study the articulation of discourse. An important aspect of this project is also its pedagogical applications since it will contribute to the creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) to support students and educators worldwide. Through collaborations with our Library System, the archive will form part of the Digital Commons database. The texts collected in this online archive will be made available in the original languages as well as in English translation. They will be accompanied by a critical apparatus that will contextualize them historically by providing relevant background information and bibliographical references. All these materials can serve as a springboard for a broad variety of educational projects and classroom activities. They can also be used to design specific content courses or modules. In conclusion, the desirable outcomes of the “Voices in Dissent” project are: 1. the collections and digitalization of political dissent testimonies; 2. the building of a network of scholars, educators, and learners involved in the design, development, and sustainability of the digital archive; 3. the integration of the content of the archive in both research and teaching endeavors, such as publication of scholarly articles, design of new upper-level courses, and integration of the materials in existing courses.Keywords: digital archive, dissent, open educational resources, testimonies, transatlantic studies
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