Search results for: OSSIM (Open Source Security Information Management tool)

Authors: Chinchira Bunchutrakun

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The purposes of the study are to investigate the problems that the translators encountered when translating English idioms into Thai and study the strategies they applied in solving the problems. The original English version and the Thai translated version of each of two works of fiction were purposively selected for the study. The first was Mr. Maybe, written by Jane Green and translated by Montharat Songphao. The second was The Trials of Tiffany Trott, written by Isabel Wolff and translated by Jitraporn Notoda. Thirty idioms of two translated works of fiction were, then, analyzed. Questionnaires and interviews with the translators of each novel were conducted to obtain the best possible information. The results indicated that the only type of problem that occurred was cultural problems, and these were solved differently by the two translators.

Keywords: translation, idiom translation, fiction translation, problem-solution strategies

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Authors: Kaveh Shahi, Helmi Z. M. Shafri, Ebrahim Taherzadeh

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In remote sensing, shadow causes problems in many applications such as change detection and classification. It is caused by objects which are elevated, thus can directly affect the accuracy of information. For these reasons, it is very important to detect shadows particularly in urban high spatial resolution imagery which created a significant problem. This paper focuses on automatic shadow detection based on a new spectral index for multispectral imagery known as Shadow Detection Index (SDI). The new spectral index was tested on different areas of World-View 2 images and the results demonstrated that the new spectral index has a massive potential to extract shadows effectively and automatically.

Keywords: spectral index, shadow detection, remote sensing images, World-View 2

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Authors: Rajkumar Ghosh, Bhabani Prasad Mukhopadhyay

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The increasing demand for environmentally friendly energy solutions highlights the need to optimize solar energy systems. This study compares two types of solar energy systems: ground-mounted solar panels for drought-prone locations and rooftop solar PV installations measuring 300 sq. ft. (approx. 28 sq. m.). The electricity output of 4730 kWh/year saves ₹ 14191/year. As a clean and sustainable energy source, solar power is pivotal in reducing greenhouse gas CO2 emissions reduction by 85 tonnes in 25 years and combating climate change. This effort, "PM Suryadaya Ghar-Muft Bijli Yojana," seeks to empower Indian homes by giving free access to solar energy. The initiative is part of the Indian government's larger attempt to encourage clean and renewable energy sources while reducing reliance on traditional fossil fuels. This report reviews various installations and government reports to analyse the performance and impact of both ground-mounted and rooftop solar systems. Besides, effectiveness of government subsidy programs for residential on-grid solar systems, including the ₹78,000 incentive for systems above 3 kW. The study also looks into the subsidy schemes available for domestic agricultural grid use. Systems up to 3 kW receive ₹43,764, while systems over 10 kW receive a fixed subsidy of ₹94,822. Households can save a substantial amount of energy and minimize their reliance on grid electricity by installing the proper solar plant capacity. In terms of monthly consumption at home, the acceptable Rooftop Solar Plant capacity for households is 0-150 units (1-2 kW), 150-300 units (2-3 kW), and >300 units (above 3 kW). Ground-mounted panels, particularly in arid regions, offer benefits such as scalability and optimal orientation but face challenges like land use conflicts and environmental impact, particularly in drought-prone regions. By evaluating the distinct advantages and challenges of each system, this study aims to provide insights into their optimal applications, guiding stakeholders in making informed decisions to enhance solar energy efficiency and sustainability within regulatory constraints. This research also explores the implications of regulations, such as Italy's ban on ground-mounted solar panels on productive agricultural land, on solar energy strategies.

Keywords: sustainability, solar energy, subsidy, rooftop solar energy, renewable energy

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Authors: P. Gil, F. Charrua-Santos, A. A. Baptista, S. Azevedo, A. Espirito-Santo, J. Páscoa

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Lean manufacturing is a philosophy of industrial management that aims to identify and eliminate any waste that exists in the companies. The augmented reality is a new technology that stills being developed in terms of software and hardware. This technology consists of an image capture device, a device for data processing and an image visualization equipment to visualize collected and processed images. It is characterized by being a technology that merges the reality with the virtual environment, so there is an instantaneous interaction between the two environments. The present work intends to demonstrate that the use of the augmented reality will contribute to improve some tools and methods used in Lean manufacturing philosophy. Through several examples of application in industry it will be demonstrated that the technological impact of the augmented reality on the Lean Manufacturing philosophy contribute to added value improvements.

Keywords: lean manufacturing, augmented reality, case studies, value

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Authors: Weidong Xia, Malgorzata Kolotylo, Xuan Tan

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This study examines the key factors that influence general practitioners’ learning and transfer of specialized arthritis knowledge and self-care techniques to patients during normal patient visits. Drawing on the theory of planed behavior and using matched survey data collected from general practitioners before and after training sessions provided by specialized orthopedic physicians, the study suggests that the general practitioner’s intention to use and transfer learned knowledge was influenced mainly by intrinsic motivation, organizational learning culture and absorptive capacity, but was not influenced by extrinsic motivation. The results provide both theoretical and practical implications.

Keywords: empirical study, healthcare knowledge management, patient self-care, physician knowledge transfer

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Authors: Elida M. R. Bonifacio

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English language proficiency has become an essential issue in aviation communication after aviation incidents, and accidents happened. Lack of proficiency or inappropriate use of the English language has been found as one of the factors that cause most of those incidents or accidents. Therefore, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) established the requirements for minimum English language proficiency of aviation personnel, especially pilots and air traffic controllers in the 192 member states. In Brazil, the discussions about this topic became patent after an accident that occurred in 2006, which was a mid-air collision and costed the life of 154 passengers and crew members. Thus, the number of schools and private practitioners willing to teach English for aviation purposes started to increase. Although the number of teaching materials internationally used for general purposes is relatively large, it would be inappropriate to adopt the same materials in classes that focus on communication in aviation contexts. On the contrary, the options of aviation English materials are scarce; moreover, they are internationally used and may not fulfill the linguistic needs of all their users around the world. In order to diminish the problems that Brazilian practitioners may encounter in the adoption of materials that demand a great level of adaptation to meet their students’ needs, a checklist was thought to evaluate textbooks. The aim of this paper is to propose a checklist that evaluates textbooks used in English language training of Brazilian air traffic controllers. The criteria used to compound the checklist are based on materials development literature, as well as on linguistic requirements established by ICAO on its publications, on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) principles, and on Brazilian aviation English language proficiency test format. The checklist has as main indicators the language learning tenets under which the book was written, graphical features, lexical, grammatical and functional competencies required for minimum proficiency, similarities to official testing format, and support materials, totaling 117 items marked as YES, NO or PARTIALLY. In order to verify if the use of the checklist is effective, an aviation English textbook was evaluated. From this evaluation, it is possible to measure quantitatively how much the material meets the students’ needs and to offer a tool to help professionals engaged in aviation English teaching around the world to choose the most appropriate textbook according to their audience. From the results, practitioners are able to verify which items the material does not fulfill and to make proper adaptations since the perfect material will be difficult to find.

Keywords: aviation English, ICAO, materials development, English language proficiency

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Authors: Prema Basargekar

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Facilitating the subject ‘Entrepreneurship Education’ in higher education, such as management studies, can be exhilarating as well as challenging. It is a multi-disciplinary and ever-evolving subject. Capturing entrepreneurship as a phenomenon in a holistic manner is a daunting task as it requires covering various dimensions such as new ideas generation, entrepreneurial traits, business opportunities scanning, the role of policymakers, value creation, etc., to name a few. Implicit entrepreneurship theory and effectuation are two different theories that focus on engaging the participants to create content by using their own experiences, perceptions, and belief systems. It helps in understanding the phenomenon holistically. The assumption here is that all of us are part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and effective learning can come through active engagement and peer learning by all the participants together. The present study is an attempt to use these theories in the class assignment given to the students at the beginning of the course to build the course content and understand entrepreneurship as a phenomenon in a better way through peer learning. The assignment was given to three batches of MBA post-graduate students doing the program in one of the private business schools in India. The subject of ‘Entrepreneurship Management’ is facilitated in the third trimester of the first year. At the beginning of the course, the students were given the assignment to submit a brief write-up/ collage/picture/poem or in any other format about “What entrepreneurship means to you?” They were asked to give their candid opinions about entrepreneurship as a phenomenon as they perceive it. Nearly 156 students doing post-graduate MBA submitted the assignment. These assignments were further used to find answers to two research questions. – 1) Are students able to use divergent and innovative forms to express their opinions, such as poetry, illustrations, videos, etc.? 2) What are various dimensions of entrepreneurship which are emerging to understand the phenomenon in a better way? The study uses the Brawn and Clark framework of reflective thematic analysis for qualitative analysis. The study finds that students responded to this assignment enthusiastically and expressed their thoughts in multiple ways, such as poetry, illustration, personal narrative, videos, etc. The content analysis revealed that there could be seven dimensions to looking at entrepreneurship as a phenomenon. They are 1) entrepreneurial traits, 2) entrepreneurship as a journey, 3) value creation by entrepreneurs in terms of economic and social value, 4) entrepreneurial role models, 5) new business ideas and innovations, 6) personal entrepreneurial experiences and aspirations, and 7) entrepreneurial ecosystem. The study concludes that an implicit approach to facilitate entrepreneurship education helps in understanding it as a live phenomenon. It also encourages students to apply divergent and convergent thinking. It also helps in triggering new business ideas or stimulating the entrepreneurial aspirations of the students. The significance of the study lies in the application of implicit theories in the classroom to make higher education more engaging and effective.

Keywords: co-creation of content, divergent thinking, entrepreneurship education, implicit theory

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Authors: Rory Patrick O'Kane

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More universities and third level institutions now require at least an IELTS Band 6 for entry into courses of study for non-native speakers of English. This presentation focuses on IELTS Academic Writing Tasks 1 and 2 and in particular on the marking criterion of Coherence and Cohesion. A requirement for candidates aiming at Band 6 and above is that they produce answers which show a clear, overall progression of information and ideas and which use cohesive devices effectively. With this in mind, the presenter will examine what exactly is meant by coherence and cohesion and various strategies which can be used to assist students in improving their scores in this area. A number of classroom teaching ideas will be introduced, and participants will have the opportunity to compare and discuss sample answers written by candidates for this examination with a specific focus on coherence and cohesion. Intended audience: Teachers of IELTS Academic Writing.

Keywords: coherence, cohesion, IELTS, strategies

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Authors: Eva L. Sanjuán, Jacinto Martín, M. Isabel Parra, Mario M. Pizarro

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In Extreme Value Theory, inference estimation for the parameters of the distribution is made employing a small part of the observation values. When block maxima values are taken, many data are discarded. We developed a new Bayesian inference model to seize all the information provided by the data, introducing informative priors and using the relations between baseline and limit parameters. Firstly, we studied the accuracy of the new model for three baseline distributions that lead to a Gumbel extreme distribution: Exponential, Normal and Gumbel. Secondly, we considered mixtures of Normal variables, to simulate practical situations when data do not adjust to pure distributions, because of perturbations (noise).

Keywords: bayesian inference, extreme value theory, Gumbel distribution, highly informative prior

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Authors: Godaye Gobena Gomiole

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The purpose of this study is to determine how principals at Tarcha Town Primary Schools in Ethiopia perceive their instructional leadership responsibilities in curriculum execution. The research was guided by a phenomenological study design. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling was used to include twelve principals. The study's conclusions showed that principals fall short of their duties in overseeing instruction. Setting clear objectives for the school and coordinating the curriculum receive less attention from principals. Additionally, they focus less on keeping track of students' progress. It is, therefore, advised that principals take instructional leadership and management training.

Keywords: curriculum execution, instructional leadership, practice, primary school

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Authors: Vishnu Asokan, Zaid M. Paloba

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Flow over cavities is an important area of research due to the significant change in flow physics caused by cavity aspect ratio, free stream Mach number and the nature of upstream boundary layer approaching the cavity leading edge. Cavity flow finds application in aircraft wheel well, weapons bay, combustion chamber of scramjet engines, etc. These flows are highly unsteady, compressible and turbulent and it involves mass entrainment coupled with acoustics phenomenon. Variation of flow dynamics in an angled cavity with a heated and cooled pylon upstream to the cavity with spatial combinations of heat flux addition and removal to the wall studied numerically. The goal of study is to investigate the effect of energy addition, removal to the cavity walls and pylon cavity flow dynamics. Preliminary steady state numerical simulations on inclined cavities with heat addition have shown that wall pressure profiles, as well as the recirculation, are influenced by heat transfer to the compressible fluid medium. Such a hybrid control of cavity flow dynamics in the form of heat transfer and pylon geometry can open out greater opportunities in enhancement of mixing and flame holding requirements of supersonic combustors. Addition of pylon upstream to the cavity reduces the acoustic oscillations emanating from the geometry. A numerical unsteady analysis of supersonic flow past cavities exposed to cavity wall heating and cooling with heated and cooled pylon helps to get a clear idea about the oscillation suppression in the cavity. A Cavity of L/D 4 and aft wall angle 22 degree with an upstream pylon of h/D=1.5 mm with a wall angle 29 degree exposed to supersonic flow of Mach number 2 and heat flux of 40 W/cm² and -40 W/cm² modeled for the above study. In the preliminary study, the domain is modeled and validated numerically with a turbulence model of SST k-ω using an HLLC implicit scheme. Both qualitative and quantitative flow data extracted and analyzed using advanced CFD tools. Flow visualization is done using numerical Schlieren method as the fluid medium gives the density variation. The heat flux addition to the wall increases the secondary vortex size of the cavity and removal of energy leads to the reduction in vortex size. The flow field turbulence seems to be increasing at higher heat flux. The shear layer thickness increases as heat flux increases. The steady state analysis of wall pressure shows that there is variation on wall pressure as heat flux increases. Shift in frequency of unsteady wall pressure analysis is an interesting observation for the above study. The time averaged skin friction seems to be reducing at higher heat flux due to the variation in viscosity of fluid inside the cavity.

Keywords: energy addition, frequency shift, Numerical Schlieren, shear layer, vortex evolution

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Authors: Surinder Pal, Ajay Gupta, Johny Khajuria

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Casting simulation helps visualize mold filling and casting solidification; predict related defects like cold shut, shrinkage porosity and hard spots; and optimize the casting design to achieve the desired quality with high yield. Flow and solidification of molten metals are, however, a very complex phenomenon that is difficult to simulate correctly by conventional computational techniques, especially when the part geometry is intricate and the required inputs (like thermo-physical properties and heat transfer coefficients) are not available. Simulation software is based on the process of modeling a real phenomenon with a set of mathematical formulas. It is, essentially, a program that allows the user to observe an operation through simulation without actually performing that operation. Simulation software is used widely to design equipment so that the final product will be as close to design specs as possible without expensive in process modification. Simulation software with real-time response is often used in gaming, but it also has important industrial applications. When the penalty for improper operation is costly, such as airplane pilots, nuclear power plant operators, or chemical plant operators, a mockup of the actual control panel is connected to a real-time simulation of the physical response, giving valuable training experience without fear of a disastrous outcome. The all casting simulation software has own requirements, like magma cast has only best for crack simulation. The latest generation software Auto CAST developed at IIT Bombay provides a host of functions to support method engineers, including part thickness visualization, core design, multi-cavity mold design with common gating and feeding, application of various feed aids (feeder sleeves, chills, padding, etc.), simulation of mold filling and casting solidification, automatic optimization of feeders and gating driven by the desired quality level, and what-if cost analysis. IIT Bombay has developed a set of applications for the foundry industry to improve casting yield and quality. Casting simulation is a fast and efficient solution for process for advanced tool which is the result of more than 20 years of collaboration with major industrial partners and academic institutions around the world. In this paper the process of casting simulation is studied.

Keywords: casting simulation software’s, simulation technique’s, casting simulation, processes

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Authors: Kailash Chandra, Devanshu Gupta

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The Himalayan Mountains of India fall under two biogeographic zones Trans Himalaya (TH) and Himalaya and seven biotic provinces (TH-Ladakh Mountains, TH-Tibetan Plateau, TH-Sikkim, North-West Himalaya, West Himalaya, Central Himalaya, and East Himalaya). Because of the extreme environment and altitudinal variations, unique physiography, varied ecological conditions, and different vegetations, the Himalaya exhibit a rich assemblage of life, both flora, and fauna, further subjected to the impacts of climate change. To the authors’ best knowledge, there is no comprehensive account except for sporadic faunal investigations, to assess or interpret the insect diversity and their biogeographic distribution in Indian Himalaya (IH), one of the biodiversity hotspots. Therefore, in this paper, a compelling review of the extensive knowledge of insect diversity of IH is presented for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The inventory of the known insect species of IH was compiled from the exploration cum faunal-study data ready with the zoological survey of India, Kolkata as well as from the information published in the scientific literature till date. The species were listed with their valid names with their distribution in seven biotic provinces of IH. The insect fauna of IH represents about 38% of the identified insect diversity of India. The interpretation of data provided significant information in detecting possible gap areas in the taxonomic representation of different insect orders. Archaeognatha, Zygentoma, Ephemeroptera, Phasmida, Embioptera, Psocoptera, Phthiraptera, Strepsiptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera, Siphonaptera, and Mecoptera need revisions, and it is required to collect more samples from remote areas of the region. Scope for finding new taxa even in the most diverse orders, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Hemiptera cannot be overlooked. Exploration of cold deserts of Trans Himalaya and East Himalaya (Arunachal Pradesh) may result in a good number of new species from these regions. The most notable data was that many of the species recorded from Himalaya are still known from their type localities only, so there is an urgency to revisit and resurvey those collection localities for the evaluation of the status of those species. It is also required to assess and monitor the impact of climate change on the diversity of insects inhabiting in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem. DNA barcoding especially pests and biological control agents to solve the problems of identification in species complexes is also the need of the hour. In a nutshell, it can be concluded that the inventory of insects of this region is extensive but is far from final as every year hundreds of new species are described.

Keywords: catalog, climate change, diversity, DNA barcoding

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Authors: Caroline Kim

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Scholars have long disputed the relationship between the origins of language and human behavior. Historically, behaviorist psychologist B. F. Skinner argued that language is one instance of the general stimulus-response phenomenon that characterizes the essence of human behavior. Another, more recent approach argues, by contrast, that language is an innate cognitive faculty and does not arise from behavior, which might develop and reinforce linguistic facility but is not its source. Pinker, among others, proposes that linguistic defects arise from damage to the brain, both congenital and acquired in life. Much of his argument is based on case studies in which damage to the Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas of the brain results in loss of the ability to produce coherent grammatical expressions when speaking or writing; though affected speakers often utter quite fluent streams of sentences, the words articulated lack discernible semantic content. Pinker concludes on this basis that language is an innate component of specific, classically language-correlated regions of the human brain. Taking a notorious 1970s case of linguistic maladaptation, this paper queries the dominant materialist paradigm of language-correlated regions. Susan “Genie” Wiley was physically isolated from language interaction in her home and beaten by her father when she attempted to make any sort of sound. Though without any measurable resulting damage to the brain, Wiley was never able to develop the level of linguistic facility normally achieved in adulthood. Having received a negative reinforcement of language acquisition from her father and lacking the usual language acquisition period, in adulthood Wiley was able to develop language only at a quite limited level in later life. From a contemporary behaviorist perspective, this case confirms the possibility of language deficiency without brain pathology. Wiley’s potential language-determining areas in the brain were intact, and she was exposed to language later in her life, but she was unable to achieve the normal level of communication skills, deterring socialization. This phenomenon and others like it in the case limited literature on linguistic maladaptation pose serious clinical, scientific, and indeed philosophical difficulties for both of the major competing theories of language acquisition, innateness, and linguistic stimulus-response. The implications of such cases for future research in language acquisition are explored, with a particular emphasis on the interaction of innate capacity and stimulus-based development in early childhood.

Keywords: behaviorism, innateness hypothesis, language, Susan "Genie" Wiley

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Authors: Rosaline Govender, Shubnam Rambharos

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Universities are, to a certain extent, the source of under-preparedness ideologically, structurally, and pedagogically, particularly since organizational cultures often alienate students by failing to enable epistemological access. This is evident in the unsustainably low graduation rates that characterize South African higher education, which indicate that under 30% graduate in minimum time, under two-thirds graduate within 6 years, and one-third have not graduated after 10 years. Although the statistics for the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) in South Africa have improved significantly from 2019 to 2021, the graduation (32%), throughput (50%), and dropout rates (16%) are still a matter for concern as the graduation rates, in particular, are quite similar to the national statistics. For our students to succeed, higher education should take a multi-pronged approach to ensure student success, and student engagement is one of the ways to support our students. Student engagement depends not only on students’ teaching and learning experiences but, more importantly, on their social and academic integration, their sense of belonging, and their emotional connections in the institution. Such experiences need to challenge students academically and engage their intellect, grow their communication skills, build self-discipline, and promote confidence. The aim of this mixed methods study is to explore the multi-pronged nature of student success within the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics at DUT and focuses on the enabling and constraining factors of student success. The sources of data were the Mid-year student experience survey (N=60), the Hambisa Student Survey (N=85), and semi structured focus group interviews with first, second, and third year students of the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics Hambisa program. The Hambisa (“Moving forward”) focus area is part of the Siyaphumelela 2.0 project at DUT and seeks to understand the multiple challenges that are impacting student success which create a large “middle” cohort of students that are stuck in transition within academic programs. Using the lens of the sociocultural influences on student engagement framework, we conducted a thematic analysis of the two surveys and focus group interviews. Preliminary findings indicate that living conditions, choice of program, access to resources, motivation, institutional support, infrastructure, and pedagogical practices impact student engagement and, thus, student success. It is envisaged that the findings from this project will assist the university in being better prepared to enable student success.

Keywords: social and academic integration, socio-cultural influences, student engagement, student success

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Authors: Prabukusumo Prakoso

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The topic research aims to analyze the influence of employer branding towards the voluntary turnover intention on employee by projecting the variable of organization commitment and employee satisfaction. To measure each components of employer branding, the author conducted an exploratory study to confirm the items in the questionnaire. There are 80 respondents that are mostly permanent employees at an IT company in Indonesia, including partner and clients to get external viewpoints of employer branding. The result of this research indicates that employer branding has an influence on the voluntary turnover. Furthermore, to maintain the organization commitment in the company, the management can develop employer branding strategy in order to increase employee’s organization commitment.

Keywords: employer branding, organization commitment, employee satisfaction, voluntary intention turnover

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Authors: Natalia Oli, Abhinav Vaidya, Katja Pahkala, Gabriele Eiben, Alexandra Krettek

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The nutritional transition towards a high fat and energy dense diet, decreasing physical activity level, and poor cardiovascular health knowledge contributes to a rising burden of cardiovascular diseases in Nepal. Dietary and physical activity behaviors are formed early in life and influenced by family, particularly by mothers in the social context of Nepal. The purpose of this study was to explore knowledge, attitude and behavior of mothers regarding diet and physical activity of their pre-school children. Cross-sectional study was conducted in the semi-urban area of Duwakot and Jhaukhel communities near the capital Kathmandu. Between August and November 2014, nine trained enumerators interviewed all mothers having children aged 2 to 7 years in their homes. Questionnaire contained information about mothers’ socio-demographic characteristics; their knowledge, attitude, and behavior regarding diet and physical activity as well as their children’s diet and physical activity. Knowledge, attitude and behavior responses were scored. SPSS version 22.0 was used for data analyses. Out of the 1,052 eligible mothers, 962 consented to participate in the study. The mean age was 28.9 ± 4.5 years. The majority of them (73%) were housewives. Mothers with higher education and income had higher knowledge, attitude, and behavior scores (All p < 0.001) whereas housewives and farmers had low knowledge score (p < 0.001). They, along with laborers, also exhibited lower attitude (p<0.001) and behavior scores (p < 0.001). Children’s diet score increased with mothers’ level of education (p <0.001) and income (p=0.041). Their physical activity score, however, declined with increasing level of their mothers’ education (p < 0.001) and income (p < 0.001). Children’s overall behavior score correlated poorly with mothers’ knowledge (r = 0.009, p=0.003), attitude (r =0.012, p=0.001), and behavior (r = 0.007, p= 0.008). Such poor correlation can be due to existence of the barriers among mothers. Mothers reported such barriers as expensive healthy food, difficulty to give up favorite food, taste preference of others family members and lack of knowledge on healthy food. Barriers for physical activity were lack of leisure time, lack of parks and playgrounds, being busy by caring for children and old people, feeling lazy and embarrassed in front of others. Additionally, among the facilitators for healthy lifestyle, mentioned by mothers, were better information, family eating healthy food and supporting physical activity, advice of medical personnel regarding healthy lifestyle and own ill health. The study demonstrated poor correlation of mothers’ knowledge and attitude with children’s behavior regarding diet and physical activity. Hence improving mothers’ knowledge or attitude may not be enough to improve dietary and physical activity habits of their children. Barriers and facilitators that affect mothers’ practices towards their children should also be addressed due to future intervention.

Keywords: attitude, behavior, diet, knowledge, mothers, physical activity

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Authors: Masoumeh Ali Pouri, Hamid Haj Seyyed Javadi

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Nowadays, cloud processing is one of the important issues in information technology. Since scheduling of tasks graph is an NP-hard problem, considering approaches based on undeterminisitic methods such as evolutionary processing, mostly genetic and cuckoo algorithms, will be effective. Therefore, an efficient algorithm has been proposed for scheduling of tasks graph to obtain an appropriate scheduling with minimum time. In this algorithm, the new approach is based on making the length of the critical path shorter and reducing the cost of communication. Finally, the results obtained from the implementation of the presented method show that this algorithm acts the same as other algorithms when it faces graphs without communication cost. It performs quicker and better than some algorithms like DSC and MCP algorithms when it faces the graphs involving communication cost.

Keywords: cloud computing, scheduling, tasks graph, chakoos algorithm

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Authors: Sutapa Mondal Roy, Suban K. Sahoo

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The primary aim of this work is to synthesis silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) through environmentally benign routes to avoid any chemical toxicity related undesired side effects. The nanoparticles were stabilized with drug ciprofloxacin (Cp) and were studied for their effectiveness as drug delivery agent. Targeted drug delivery improves the therapeutic potential of drugs at the diseased site as well as lowers the overall dose and undesired side effects. The small size of nanoparticles greatly facilitates the transport of active agents (drugs) across biological membranes and allows them to pass through the smallest capillaries in the body that are 5-6 μm in diameter, and can minimize possible undesired side effects. AgNPs are non-toxic, inert, stable, and has a high binding capacity and thus can be considered as biomaterials. AgNPs were synthesized from the nutrient broth supernatant after the culture of environment-friendly bacteria Bacillus subtilis. The AgNPs were found to show the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band at 425 nm. The Cp capped Ag nanoparticles formation was complete within 30 minutes, which was confirmed from absorbance spectroscopy. Physico-chemical nature of the AgNPs-Cp system was confirmed by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) etc. The AgNPs-Cp system size was found to be in the range of 30-40 nm. To monitor the kinetics of drug release from the surface of nanoparticles, the release of Cp was carried out by careful dialysis keeping AgNPs-Cp system inside the dialysis bag at pH 7.4 over time. The drug release was almost complete after 30 hrs. During the drug delivery process, to understand the AgNPs-Cp system in a better way, the sincere theoretical investigation is been performed employing Density Functional Theory. Electronic charge transfer, electron density, binding energy as well as thermodynamic properties like enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs free energy etc. has been predicted. The electronic and thermodynamic properties, governed by the AgNPs-Cp interactions, indicate that the formation of AgNPs-Cp system is exothermic i.e. thermodynamically favorable process. The binding energy and charge transfer analysis implies the optimum stability of the AgNPs-Cp system. Thus, the synthesized Cp-Ag nanoparticles can be effectively used for biological purposes due to its environmentally benign routes of synthesis procedures, which is clean, biocompatible, non-toxic, safe, cost-effective, sustainable and eco-friendly. The Cp-AgNPs as biomaterials can be successfully used for drug delivery procedures due to slow release of drug from nanoparticles over a considerable period of time. The kinetics of the drug release show that this drug-nanoparticle assembly can be effectively used as potential tools for therapeutic applications. The ease of synthetic procedure, lack of possible chemical toxicity and their biological activity along with excellent application as drug delivery agent will open up vista of using nanoparticles as effective and successful drug delivery agent to be used in modern days.

Keywords: silver nanoparticles, ciprofloxacin, density functional theory, drug delivery

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Authors: T. Santiboon, S. Tongbu, P. S. Saihong

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This study focuses on investigating students' perceptions of their physics classroom learning environments of their individualizations and their interactions with the instructional practicum in teaching physics of the master science trainee educational students for improving and creating attitude skills’ sustainable development toward physics for upper secondary educational students in Thailand. Associations between these perceptions and students' attitudes toward physics were also determined. The learning environment perceptions were obtained using the 35-item Physics Laboratory Environment Inventory (PLEI) modified from the original Science Laboratory Environment Inventory. The 25-item Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) was assessed those dimensions which distinguish individualized physics classrooms from convention on individualized open and inquiry-based education Teacher-student interactions were assessed with the 48-item Questionnaires on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Both these questionnaires have an Actual Form (assesses the class as it actually is) and a Preferred Form (asks the students what they would prefer their class to be like - the ideal situation). Students’ creating attitude skills’ sustainable development toward physics were assessed with the Test Of Physics-Related Attitude (TOPRA) modified from the original Test Of Science-Related Attitude (TOSRA) The questionnaires were administered in three phases with the Custer Random Sampling technique to a sample consisted of 989 students in 28 physics classes from 10 schools at the grade 10, 11, and 12 levels in the Secondary Educational Service Area 26 (Maha Sarakham Province) and Area 27 (Roi-Et). Statistically significant differences were found between the students' perceptions of actual-1, actual-2 and preferred environments of their physics laboratory and distinguish individualized classrooms, and teacher interpersonal behaviors with their improving and creating attitudes skills’ sustainable development to their physics classes also were found. Predictions of the monitoring and evaluation of master science trainee educational students of their practicum in teaching physics; students’ skills developments of their physics achievements’ sustainable for the set of actual and preferred environments as a whole and physics related attitudes also were correlated. The R2 values indicate that 58%, 67%, and 84% of the variances in students’ attitudes to their actuale-1, actual-2 and preferred for the PLEI; 42%,science trainee educational students of their practicum in teaching physics; students’ skill developments of their physics achievements’ sustainable for the set of actual and preferred environments as a whole and physics related attitudes also were correlated. The R2 values indicate that 58%, 67%, and 84% of the variances in students’ attitudes to their actuale-1, actual-2 and preferred for the PLEI; 42%, 63%, and 72% for the ICEQ, and 38%, 59%, and 68% for the QTI in physics environment classes were attributable to their perceptions of their actual and preferred physics environments and their developing creative science skills’ sustainable toward physics, consequently. Based on all the findings, suggestions for improving the physics laboratory and individualized classes and teacher interpersonal behaviors with students' perceptions are provided of their improving and creating attitude skills’ sustainable development by the master science trainee educational students ’ instructional administrations.

Keywords: promotion, instructional model, qualitative method, reflective thinking, trainee teacher student

Procedia PDF Downloads 255

Authors: Evgeny Chugunnyy, Alena Gerasimova, Kirill Chernyavskiy, Alexander Krasnov

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One of the primary component of Continuous deployment (CD) is a binary artifact repository — the place where artifacts are stored with metadata in a structured way. The binary artifact repository manager (BARM) is a software, which implements this repository logic and exposes a public application programming interface (API) for managing these artifacts. Almost every programming language ecosystem has its own artifact repository kind. During creating Artipie — BARM constructor and server, we analyzed and implemented a lot of different artifact repositories. In this paper we present criterias for comparing artifact repositories, and analyze the most popular repositories using these metrics. We also describe some of the notable features of different repositories. This paper aimed to help people who are creating, maintaining or optimizing software repository and CI tools.

Keywords: artifact, repository, continuous deployment, build automation, artifacts management

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Authors: Umair Shoukat Ali, Kamil Zafar, Rashna Hoshang Sukhia, Mubassar Fida, Aqeel Ahmed

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Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to summarize the effectiveness of bonded and removable retainers (Hawley and Essix retainer) in terms of improvement in occlusal settling (occlusal contact points/areas) after orthodontic treatment. Search Method: We searched the Cochrane Library, CINAHL Plus, PubMed, Web of Science, Orthodontic journals, and Google scholar for eligible studies. We included randomized control trials (RCT) along with Cohort studies. Studies that reported occlusal contacts/areas during retention with fixed bonded and removable retainers were included. To assess the quality of the RCTs Cochrane risk of bias tool was utilized, whereas Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for assessing the quality of cohort studies. Data analysis: The data analysis was limited to reporting mean values of occlusal contact points/areas with different retention methods. By utilizing the RevMan software V.5.3, a meta-analysis was performed for all the studies with the quantitative data. For the computation of the summary effect, a random effect model was utilized in case of high heterogeneity. I2 statistics were utilized to assess the heterogeneity among the selected studies. Results: We included 6 articles in our systematic review after scrutinizing 219 articles and eliminating them based on duplication, titles, and objectives. We found significant differences between fixed and removable retainers in terms of occlusal settling within the included studies. Bonded retainer (BR) allowed faster and better posterior tooth settling as compared to Hawley retainer (HR). However, HR showed good occlusal settling in the anterior dental arch. Essix retainer showed a decrease in occlusal contact during the retention phase. Meta-analysis showed no statistically significant difference between BR and removable retainers. Conclusions: HR allowed better overall occlusal settling as compared to other retainers in comparison. However, BR allowed faster settling in the posterior teeth region. Overall, there are insufficient high-quality RCTs to provide additional evidence, and further high-quality RCTs research is needed.

Keywords: orthodontic retainers, occlusal contact, Hawley, fixed, vacuum-formed

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Authors: Venkata Buddharaju, Irene Mccarron, Hazel Alba

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Introduction: Male external catheters (MECs) are commonly used to collect and drain urine. MECs are increasingly used in acute care, long-term acute care hospitals, and nursing facilities, and in other patients as an alternative to invasive urinary catheters to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI).MECs are also used to avoid the need for incontinence pads and diapers. Most of the Male External Catheters are held in place by skin adhesive, with the exception of a few, which uses a foam strap clamp around the penile shaft. The adhesive condom catheters typically stay for 24 hours or less. It is also a common practice that extra skin adhesive tape is wrapped around the condom catheter for additional security of the device. The fixed nature of the adhesive will not allow the normal skin expansion of penile size over time. The adhesive can cause skin irritation, redness, erosion, and skin damage. Acanthus condom catheter (ACC) is a patented, specially designed, stretchable silicone catheter without adhesive, adapts to the size and contour of the penis. It is held in place with a single elastic strap that wraps around the lower back and tied to the opposite catheter ring holescriss cross. It can be reused for up to 5 days on the same patient after daily cleaning and washingpotentially reducing cost. Methods: The study was conducted from September 17th to October 8th, 2020. The nursing staff was educated and trained on how to use and reuse the catheter. After identifying five (5) appropriate patients, the catheter was placed and maintained by nursing staff. The data on the ease of use, leak, and skin damage were collected and reported by nurses to the nursing education department of the hospital for analysis. Setting: RML Chicago, long-term acute care hospital, an affiliate of Loyola University Medical Center, Chicago, IL USA. Results: The data showed that the catheter was easy to apply, remove, wash and reuse, without skin problems or urine infections. One patient had used for 16 days after wash, reuse, and replacement without any urine leak or skin issues. A minimal leak was observed on two patients. Conclusion: Acanthus condom catheter was easy to use, functioned well with minimal or no leak during use and reuse. The skin was intact in all patients studied. There were no urinary tract infections in any of the studied patients.

Keywords: CAUTI, male external catheter, reusable, skin adhesive

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Authors: Saadia Khalid

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This paper discusses the various leadership styles of project manager which lead to the success of a project since it is important for a project manager to understand and adopt the skills required to cope up with the modern challenges of any project. A project manager must be able to handle a project effectively and efficiently and be ready to assess the factors effecting success or failure of the project. A project manager must be capable of handling a project by managing, directing and leading the projects with requisite knowledge and skills. In this paper a project manager’s characteristics linkage to project success have been developed and analyzed for three different projects/industries. A web-based survey has also been carried out which revealed that specific leadership styles/traits can lead to better performance and success of organizations. Some basic factors like project complexity, the age, gender and nationality of the project manager and type of project also play a vital role in success of a project.

Keywords: leadership style, project success, project management, project manager

Procedia PDF Downloads 414

Authors: Zainab Algharibi, Julie McAdam, Catherine Fagan

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The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how Omani children in the first grade experience their needs during their transition to primary school. Theoretically, the paper was built on two perspectives: Dewey's concept of continuity of experience and the boundary objects introduced by Vygotsky (CHAT). The methodology of the study is based on the crucial role of children’s agency which is a very important activity as an educational tool to enhance the child’s participation in the learning process and develop their ability to face various issues in their life. Thus, the data were obtained from 45 children in grade one from 4 different primary schools using drawing and visual narrative activities, in addition to researcher observations during the start of the first weeks of the academic year for the first grade. As the study dealt with children, all of the necessary ethical laws were followed. This paper is considered original since it seeks to deal with the issue of children's transition from kindergarten to primary school in Oman, if not in the Arab region. Therefore, it is expected to fill an important gap in this field and present a proposal that will be a door for researchers to enter this research field later. The analysis of drawing and visual narrative was performed according to the social semiotics approach in two phases. The first is to read out the surface message “denotation,” while the second is to go in-depth via the symbolism obtained from children while they talked and drew letters and signs. This stage is known as “signified”; a video was recorded of each child talking about their drawing and expressing themself. Then, the data were organised and classified according to a cross-data network. Regarding the researcher observation analyses, the collected data were analysed according to the model was developed for the "grounded theory". It is based on comparing the recent data collected from observations with data previously encoded by other methods in which children were drawing alongside the visual narrative in the current study, in order to identify the similarities and differences, and also to clarify the meaning of the accessed categories and to identify sub-categories of them with a description of possible links between them. This is a kind of triangulation in data collection. The study came up with a set of findings, the most vital being that the children's greatest interest goes to their social and psychological needs, such as friends, their teacher, and playing. Also, their biggest fears are a new place, a new teacher, and not having friends, while they showed less concern for their need for educational knowledge and skills.

Keywords: children’s academic needs, children’s social needs, transition, primary school

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Authors: Jade Martínez-Llinàs, Pere Colet

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By exploring the possible dynamical regimes in a prototypical model for mutually delay-coupled OEOs, here it is shown that two mutually coupled non-identical OEOs, besides in- and out-of-phase square-waves, can generate stable square-wave pulses synchronized at a quarter of the period (T/4) in a broad parameter region. The key point to obtain T/4 solutions is that the two OEO operate with mixed feedback, namely with negative feedback in one and positive in the other. Furthermore, the coexistence of multiple solutions provides a large degree of flexibility for tuning the frequency in the GHz range without changing any parameter. As a result the two coupled OEOs system is good candidate to be implemented for information encoding as a high-capacity memory device.

Keywords: nonlinear optics, optoelectronic oscillators, square waves, synchronization

Procedia PDF Downloads 355

Authors: Mónica P. Cala, Juan S. Carreño, Roland J.W. Meesters

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Recently, collection of biological fluids on special filter papers has become a popular micro-sampling technique. Especially, the dried blood spot (DBS) micro-sampling technique has gained much attention and is momently applied in various life sciences reserach areas. As a result of this popularity, DBS are not only intensively competing with the venous blood sampling method but are at this moment widely applied in numerous bioanalytical assays. In particular, in the screening of inherited metabolic diseases, pharmacokinetic modeling and in therapeutic drug monitoring. Recently, microsampling techniques were also introduced in “omics” areas, whereunder metabolomics. For a metabolic profiling study we applied micro-sampling of biological fluids (blood and plasma) from healthy controls and from women with breast cancer. From blood samples, dried blood and plasma samples were prepared by spotting 8uL sample onto pre-cutted 5-mm paper disks followed by drying of the disks for 100 minutes. Dried disks were then extracted by 100 uL of methanol. From liquid blood and plasma samples 40 uL were deproteinized with methanol followed by centrifugation and collection of supernatants. Supernatants and extracts were evaporated until dryness by nitrogen gas and residues derivated by O-methyxyamine and MSTFA. As internal standard C17:0-methylester in heptane (10 ppm) was used. Deconvolution and alignment of and full scan (m/z 50-500) MS data were done by AMDIS and SpectConnect (http://spectconnect.mit.edu) software, respectively. Statistical Data analysis was done by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using R software. The results obtained from our preliminary study indicate that the use of dried blood/plasma on paper disks could be a powerful new tool in metabolic profiling. Many of the metabolites observed in plasma (liquid/dried) were also positively identified in whole blood samples (liquid/dried). Whole blood could be a potential substitute matrix for plasma in Metabolomic profiling studies as well also micro-sampling techniques for the collection of samples in clinical studies. It was concluded that the separation of the different sample methodologies (liquid vs. dried) as observed by PCA was due to different sample treatment protocols applied. More experiments need to be done to confirm obtained observations as well also a more rigorous validation .of these micro-sampling techniques is needed. The novelty of our approach can be found in the application of different biological fluid micro-sampling techniques for metabolic profiling.

Keywords: biofluids, breast cancer, metabolic profiling, micro-sampling

Procedia PDF Downloads 399

Authors: Adnan Alhazmi

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Background: UDL can be understood as a framework that holds the potential to elaborate the alternatives and platforms for the students with intellectual disabilities within general education settings and aims at offering flexible pathways that can support all the students in gaining a mastering over the goals of learning. This system of learning addresses the problem of the variability of the learner by delineating the diverse ways in which the individuals can understand, conceive, express and deal with the information. Goal: The aim of the proposed research is to examine the impact of the implementation of UDL in teaching practices for the students with intellectual disabilities in Saudi Arabian schools. Method: This research has used a combination of quantitative and qualitative designs. Survey questionnaires were used to gather the data for under this analytical descriptive method. The application of the qualitative interpretive approach was applied with the help of the interview to gather a detailed understanding on the aim of the research. For this purpose, the semi-structured interviews were conducted. Thus, the primary data will be gathered with the help of survey and interview to examine the impact of universal design learning implementation on teaching practices for intellectually disabled students in Saudi Arabian schools. The survey was conducted to examine the prevailing teaching practices for the students with intellectual disabilities in Saudi Arabia and evaluate if the teaching experience influences the current practices or not. The surveys were distributed to 50 teachers who teach the students with intellectual disabilities. However, the interviews were conducted to explore barriers of implementing UDL in Saudi Arabia and provide suggested guideline for the implementation of UDL in Saudi Arabia. The interviews, therefore, were with 10 teachers teaching the same subject. Findings: A key findings highlighted in this study revealed that the UDL framework serves as a crucial guide for teachers within inclusive settings to undertake meaningful planning for the individuals with intellectual disabilities so that they are able to access, participate, and grow within the general education curriculum. Other findings of the study highlighted the need to prepare the educators and all faculty members to understand the purpose and need for inclusion, the UDL framework so that better information about academic and social expectations for individuals with intellectual disabilities can be delivered. Conclusion: On the basis of the preliminary study undertaken on the subject of research, it could be suggested that UDL can serve to be an effective support for undertaking a meaningful inclusion of students with intellectual disability (ID) in general educational settings. It holds the potential role of working as an institutional design framework that could be used for designing curriculum for students with intellectual disabilities.

Keywords: intellectual disability, inclusion, universal design for learning, teaching practice

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Amy Stringer, Resa Chandler

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High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) involves a 3-10-minute circuit of various exercises which is a viable alternative to a traditional cardiovascular and strength training regimen. Research suggests that measures of health-related fitness can either be maintained or actually improve with the use of this training method. After conducting a 6-week HIIT research study with 10-14 year old children, considerations for using a daily HIIT workout are presented. Is the use of HIIT with children a reasonable consideration for physical education programs? The benefits and challenges of this type of an intervention are identified. This study is significant in that achieving fitness gains in a small amount of daily class time is an attractive concept – especially for physical education teachers who often do not have the time necessary to accomplish all of their curricular goals in the amount of class time assigned. Basic methodologies include students participating in a circuit of exercises for 7-10 minutes at 80-95% of max heart rate as measured by heart rate monitors. Student pre and post fitness test data were collected for cardio-vascular endurance, muscular endurance, and body composition. Research notes as well as commentary by the teachers and researchers who participated in the HIIT study contributed to the understanding of the cost-benefit analysis. Major findings of the study are that HIIT has limited effectiveness but is a good choice for limited class times. Student efficacy of their ability to complete the exercises and visible heart rate data were considered to be significant factors in success of the HIIT study. The effective use of technology promoting positive audience effect during the display of heart rate data was more important at the beginning of the study than at the end. Student ‘buy-in’ and motivation, teacher motivation and ‘buy-in’, the variety of activities in the circuit and the fitness level of the student at the beginning of the study were also findings influencing the fitness outcomes of the study. Concluding Statement: High intensity interval training can be used effectively in a secondary physical education program. It is not a ‘magic bullet’ to produce health-related fitness outcomes in every student but it is an effective tool to enhance student fitness in a limited time and contribute to the goals of the program.

Keywords: cardio vascular fitness, children, high intensity interval training, physical education

Procedia PDF Downloads 104

Authors: Grigoria Athanasaki, Veerarajan Vimala, A. M. Kannan, Louis Cindrella

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Energy usage has been increased throughout the years, leading to severe environmental impacts. Since the majority of the energy is currently produced from fossil fuels, there is a global need for clean energy solutions. Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) offer a very promising solution for transportation applications because of their solid configuration and low temperature operations, which allows them to start quickly. One of the main components of PEMFCs is the Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL), which manages water and gas transport and shows direct influence on the fuel cell performance. In this work, a novel dual-layer GDL with gradient porosity was prepared, using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as pore former, to improve the gas diffusion and water management in the system. The microporous layer (MPL) of the fabricated GDL consists of carbon powder PUREBLACK, sodium dodecyl sulfate as a surfactant, 34% wt. PTFE and the gradient porosity was created by applying one layer using 30% wt. PEG on the carbon substrate, followed by a second layer without using any pore former. The total carbon loading of the microporous layer is ~ 3 mg.cm-2. For the assembly of the catalyst layer, Nafion membrane (Ion Power, Nafion Membrane NR211) and Pt/C electrocatalyst (46.1% wt.) were used. The catalyst ink was deposited on the membrane via microspraying technique. The Pt loading is ~ 0.4 mg.cm-2, and the active area is 5 cm2. The sample was ex-situ characterized via wetting angle measurement, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Pore Size Distribution (PSD) to evaluate its characteristics. Furthermore, for the performance evaluation in-situ characterization via Fuel Cell Testing using H2/O2 and H2/air as reactants, under 50, 60, 80, and 100% relative humidity (RH), took place. The results were compared to a single layer GDL, fabricated with the same carbon powder and loading as the dual layer GDL, and a commercially available GDL with MPL (AvCarb2120). The findings reveal high hydrophobic properties of the microporous layer of the GDL for both PUREBLACK based samples, while the commercial GDL demonstrates hydrophilic behavior. The dual layer GDL shows high and stable fuel cell performance under all the RH conditions, whereas the single layer manifests a drop in performance at high RH in both oxygen and air, caused by catalyst flooding. The commercial GDL shows very low and unstable performance, possibly because of its hydrophilic character and thinner microporous layer. In conclusion, the dual layer GDL with PEG appears to have improved gas diffusion and water management in the fuel cell system. Due to its increasing porosity from the catalyst layer to the carbon substrate, it allows easier access of the reactant gases from the flow channels to the catalyst layer, and more efficient water removal from the catalyst layer, leading to higher performance and stability.

Keywords: gas diffusion layer, microporous layer, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, relative humidity

Procedia PDF Downloads 112