Search results for: structural equation model

Authors: Francisco Liaño-Carrera, Jorge Enrique Baños-Illana, Arturo Gómez-Barrero, José Isaac Ramírez-Macías, Erik Omar Paredes-JuáRez, David Salas-Monreal, Mayra Lorena Riveron-Enzastiga

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Topographical changes in coastal areas are usually assessed with airborne LIDAR and conventional photogrammetry. In recent times Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have been used several in photogrammetric applications including coastline evolution. However, its use goes further by using the points cloud associated to generate beach Digital Elevation Models (DEM). We present a methodology for monitoring coastal topographic changes along a 50 km coastline in Veracruz, Mexico using high-resolution images (less than 10 cm ground resolution) and dense points cloud captured with an UAV. This monitoring develops in the context of the port of Veracruz expansion project which construction began in 2015 and intends to characterize coast evolution and prevent and mitigate project impacts on coastal environments. The monitoring began with a historical coastline reconstruction since 1979 to 2015 using aerial photography and Landsat imagery. We could define some patterns: the northern part of the study area showed accretion while the southern part of the study area showed erosion. Since the study area is located off the port of Veracruz, a touristic and economical Mexican urban city, where coastal development structures have been built since 1979 in a continuous way, the local beaches of the touristic area are been refilled constantly. Those areas were not described as accretion since every month sand-filled trucks refill the sand beaches located in front of the hotel area. The construction of marinas and the comitial port of Veracruz, the old and the new expansion were made in the erosion part of the area. Northward from the City of Veracruz the beaches were described as accretion areas while southward from the city, the beaches were described as erosion areas. One of the problems is the expansion of the new development in the southern area of the city using the beach view as an incentive to buy front beach houses. We assessed coastal changes between seasons using high-resolution images and also points clouds during 2016 and preliminary results confirm that UAVs can be used in permanent coast monitoring programs with excellent performance and detail.

Keywords: digital elevation model, high-resolution images, topographic coast monitoring, unmanned aerial vehicle

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Authors: Shailendra Kumar Singh

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With the rise of New Linguistic World Order in the 21st century, the Aged Pragmatics is palpitating on the edge of theoretical irrelevance. What appears to be a new sociolinguistic reality is that the enlightening combination of alternative west, inclusive globalization and techno-revolution is adding novel recipes to communicative actions, style and gain among new linguistic breed which is being neither dominated nor powered by the western supremacy. The paper has the following main, interrelated, aims: it is intended to introduce the concept of alternative pragmatics that can offer what exactly is needed for our emerging societal realities; it asserts as to how the basic pillar of linguistic success in the new linguistic world order rests upon linguistic temptation and calibration of all; and it also reviews an inevitability of emerging economies in shaping the communication trends at a time when the western world is struggling to maintain the same control on the others exercised in the past. In particular, the paper seeks answers for the following questions: (a) Do we need an alternative pragmatics, one with alternativist leaning in an era of inclusive globalization and alternative west? (b) What are the pulses of shift which are encapsulating emergence of new communicative behavior among the new linguistic breed by breaking yesterday’s linguistic rigidity? (c) Or, what are those shifts which are making linguistic shift more perceptible? (d) Is New Linguistic World Order succeeding in reversing linguistic priorities of `who speaks, what language, where, how, why, to whom and in which condition’ with no parallel in the history? (e) What is explicit about the contemporary world of 21st century which makes linguistic world all exciting and widely celebrative phenomenon and that is also forced into our vision? (f) What factors will hold key to the future of yesterday’s `influential languages’ and today’s `emerging languages’ as world is in the paradigm transition? (g) Is the collapse of Aged Pragmatics good for the 21st century for understanding the difference between pragmatism of old linguistic world and new linguistic world order? New Linguistic world Order today, unlike in the past, is about a branding of new world with liberal world view for a particular form of ideal to be imagined in the 21st century. At this time without question it is hope that a new set of ideals with popular vocabulary will become the implicit pragmatic model as one of benign majoritarianism in all aspects of sociolinguistic reality. It appears to be a reality that we live in an extraordinary linguistic world with no parallel in the past. In particular, the paper also highlights the paradigm shifts: Demographic, Social-psychological, technological and power. These shifts are impacting linguistic shift which is unique in itself. The paper will highlight linguistic shift in details in which alternative west plays a major role without challenging the west because it is an era of inclusive globalization in which almost everyone takes equal responsibility.

Keywords: inclusive globalization, new linguistic world order, linguistic shift, world order

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Authors: Arianna Vedaschi

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This paper addresses the relationship between freedom of expression, national security and radicalization. Is it still possible to talk about a balance between the first two elements? Or, due to the intrusion of the third, is it more appropriate to consider freedom of expression as “permanently disfigured” by securitarian concerns? In this study, both the legislative and the judicial level are taken into account and the comparative method is employed in order to provide the reader with a complete framework of relevant issues and a workable set of solutions. The analysis moves from the finding according to which the tension between free speech and national security has become a major issue in democratic countries, whose very essence is continuously endangered by the ever-changing and multi-faceted threat of international terrorism. In particular, a change in terrorist groups’ recruiting pattern, attracting more and more people by way of a cutting-edge communicative strategy, often employing sophisticated technology as a radicalization tool, has called on law-makers to modify their approach to dangerous speech. While traditional constitutional and criminal law used to punish speech only if it explicitly and directly incited the commission of a criminal action (“cause-effect” model), so-called glorification offences – punishing mere ideological support for terrorism, often on the web – are becoming commonplace in the comparative scenario. Although this is direct, and even somehow understandable, consequence of the impending terrorist menace, this research shows many problematic issues connected to such a preventive approach. First, from a predominantly theoretical point of view, this trend negatively impacts on the already blurred line between permissible and prohibited speech. Second, from a pragmatic point of view, such legislative tools are not always suitable to keep up with ongoing developments of both terrorist groups and their use of technology. In other words, there is a risk that such measures become outdated even before their application. Indeed, it seems hard to still talk about a proper balance: what was previously clearly perceived as a balancing of values (freedom of speech v. public security) has turned, in many cases, into a hierarchy with security at its apex. In light of these findings, this paper concludes that such a complex issue would perhaps be better dealt with through a combination of policies: not only criminalizing ‘terrorist speech,’ which should be relegated to a last resort tool, but acting at an even earlier stage, i.e., trying to prevent dangerous speech itself. This might be done by promoting social cohesion and the inclusion of minorities, so as to reduce the probability of people considering terrorist groups as a “viable option” to deal with the lack of identification within their social contexts.

Keywords: radicalization, free speech, international terrorism, national security

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Authors: Gedefaye Nibret Mihretie

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Background: Transactional sex is casual sex between two people to receive material incentives in exchange for sexual favors. Transactional sex is associated with negative consequences, which increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and physiological trauma. Many primary studies in Sub-Saharan Africa have been conducted to assess the prevalence and associated factors of transactional sex among women. These studies had great discrepancies and inconsistent results. Hence, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize the pooled prevalence of the practice of transactional sex among women and its associated factors in Sub-Saharan Africa. Method: Cross-sectional studies were systematically searched from March 6, 2022, to April 24, 2022, using PubMed, Google Scholar, HINARI, Cochrane Library, and grey literature. The pooled prevalence of transactional sex and associated factors was estimated using DerSemonial-Laird Random Effect Model. Stata (version 16.0) was used to analyze the data. The I-squared statistic was used to assess the studies' heterogeneity. A funnel plot and Egger's test were used to check for publication bias. A subgroup analysis was performed to minimize the underline heterogeneity depending on the study years, source of data, sample sizes and geographical location. Results: Four thousand one hundred thirty articles were extracted from various databases. The final thirty-two studies were included in this systematic review, including 108,075 participants. The pooled prevalence of transactional sex among women in Sub-Saharan Africa was 12.55%, with a confidence interval of 9.59% to 15.52%. Educational status (OR = .48, 95%CI, 0.27, 0.69) was the protective factors of transactional sex whereas, alcohol use (OR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.52), early sex debut (OR = 2.57, 95%CI, 1.17, 3.98), substance abuse (OR = 4.21, 95% CI: 2.05, 6.37), having history of sexual experience abuse (OR = 4.08, 95% CI: 1.38, 6.78), physical violence abuse (OR = 6.59, 95% CI: 1.17, 12.02), and sexual violence abuse (OR = 3.56, 95% CI: 1.15, 8.27) were the risk factors of transactional sex. Conclusion: The prevalence of transactional sex among women in Sub-Saharan Africa was high. Educational status, alcohol use, substance abuse, early sex debut, having a history of sexual experiences, physical violence, and sexual violence were predictors of transaction sex. Governmental and other stakeholders are designed to reduce alcohol utilization, provide health information about the negative consequences of early sex debut, substance abuse, and reduce sexual violence, ensuring gender equality through mass media, which should be included in state policy.

Keywords: women’s health, child health, reproductive health, midwifery

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Authors: Victor N. Anisimov, Lyubov A. Boyko, Yazgul R. Almukhametova, Natalia V. Galkina, Alexander V. Latanov

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Modern commercials presented on billboards, TV and on the Internet contain a lot of information about the product or service in text form. However, this information cannot always be perceived and understood by consumers. Typical sociological focus group studies often cannot reveal important features of the interpretation and understanding information that has been read in text messages. In addition, there is no reliable method to determine the degree of understanding of the information contained in a text. Only the fact of viewing a text does not mean that consumer has perceived and understood the meaning of this text. At the same time, the tools based on marketing analysis allow only to indirectly estimate the process of reading and understanding a text. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a valid method of recording objective indicators in real time for assessing the fact of reading and the degree of text comprehension. Psychophysiological parameters recorded during text reading can form the basis for this objective method. We studied the relationship between multimodal psychophysiological parameters and the process of text comprehension during reading using the method of correlation analysis. We used eye-tracking technology to record eye movements parameters to estimate visual attention, electroencephalography (EEG) to assess cognitive load and polygraphic indicators (skin-galvanic reaction, SGR) that reflect the emotional state of the respondent during text reading. We revealed reliable interrelations between perceiving the information and the dynamics of psychophysiological parameters during reading the text in commercials. Eye movement parameters reflected the difficulties arising in respondents during perceiving ambiguous parts of text. EEG dynamics in rate of alpha band were related with cumulative effect of cognitive load. SGR dynamics were related with emotional state of the respondent and with the meaning of text and type of commercial. EEG and polygraph parameters together also reflected the mental difficulties of respondents in understanding text and showed significant differences in cases of low and high text comprehension. We also revealed differences in psychophysiological parameters for different type of commercials (static vs. video, financial vs. cinema vs. pharmaceutics vs. mobile communication, etc.). Conclusions: Our methodology allows to perform multimodal evaluation of text perusal and the quality of text reading in commercials. In general, our results indicate the possibility of designing an integral model to estimate the comprehension of reading the commercial text in percent scale based on all noticed markers.

Keywords: reading, commercials, eye movements, EEG, polygraphic indicators

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Authors: Susana Gonçalves, Joana Lencart, Anabela Gregório Dias

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Introduction: In combination with chemotherapy, Total Body Irradiation (TBI) is most used as part of the conditioning regimen prior to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Conventional TBI techniques have a long application time but non-conformality of beam-application with the inability to individually spare organs at risk. Our institution’s intention is to start using Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) techniques to increase homogeneity of delivered radiation. As a first approach, a dosimetric plan was performed on a computed tomography (CT) scan of a Rando Alderson antropomorfic phantom (head and torso), using a set of six arcs distributed along the phantom. However, a full body anthropomorphic phantom is essential to carry out technique validation and implementation. Our aim is to define the physical and chemical characteristics and the ideal manufacturing procedure of upper and lower limbs to our anthropomorphic phantom, for later validate TBI using VMAT. Materials and Methods: To study the better fit between our phantom and limbs, a CT scan of Rando Alderson anthropomorphic phantom was acquired. CT was performed on GE Healthcare equipment (model Optima CT580 W), with slice thickness of 2.5 mm. This CT was also used to access the electronic density of soft tissue and bone through Hounsfield units (HU) analysis. Results: CT images were analyzed and measures were made for the ideal upper and lower limbs. Upper limbs should be build under the following measures: 43cm length and 7cm diameter (next to the shoulder section). Lower limbs should be build under the following measures: 79cm length and 16.5cm diameter (next to the thigh section). As expected, soft tissue and bone have very different electronic density. This is important to choose and analyze different materials to better represent soft tissue and bone characteristics. The approximate HU values of the soft tissue and for bone shall be 35HU and 250HU, respectively. Conclusion: At the moment, several compounds are being developed based on different types of resins and additives in order to be able to control and mimic the various constituent densities of the tissues. Concurrently, several manufacturing techniques are being explored to make it possible to produce the upper and lower limbs in a simple and non-expensive way, in order to finally carry out a systematic and appropriate study of the total body irradiation. This preliminary study was a good starting point to demonstrate the feasibility of TBI with VMAT.

Keywords: TBI, VMAT, anthropomorphic phantom, tissue equivalent materials

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Authors: Luis Guilherme Resende Santos, Ido Nevat, Leslie Norford

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The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is characterized by increased air temperatures in urban areas compared to undeveloped rural surrounding environments. With urbanization and densification, the intensity of UHI increases, bringing negative impacts on livability, health and economy. In order to reduce those effects, it is required to take into consideration design factors when planning future developments. Given design constraints such as population size and availability of area for development, non-trivial decisions regarding the buildings’ dimensions and their spatial distribution are required. We develop a framework for optimization of urban design in order to jointly minimize UHI intensity and buildings’ energy consumption. First, the design constraints are defined according to spatial and population limits in order to establish realistic boundaries that would be applicable in real life decisions. Second, the tools Urban Weather Generator (UWG) and EnergyPlus are used to generate outputs of UHI intensity and total buildings’ energy consumption, respectively. Those outputs are changed based on a set of variable inputs related to urban morphology aspects, such as building height, urban canyon width and population density. Lastly, an optimization problem is cast where the utility function quantifies the performance of each design candidate (e.g. minimizing a linear combination of UHI and energy consumption), and a set of constraints to be met is set. Solving this optimization problem is difficult, since there is no simple analytic form which represents the UWG and EnergyPlus models. We therefore cannot use any direct optimization techniques, but instead, develop an indirect “black box” optimization algorithm. To this end we develop a solution that is based on stochastic optimization method, known as the Cross Entropy method (CEM). The CEM translates the deterministic optimization problem into an associated stochastic optimization problem which is simple to solve analytically. We illustrate our model on a typical residential area in Singapore. Due to fast growth in population and built area and land availability generated by land reclamation, urban planning decisions are of the most importance for the country. Furthermore, the hot and humid climate in the country raises the concern for the impact of UHI. The problem presented is highly relevant to early urban design stages and the objective of such framework is to guide decision makers and assist them to include and evaluate urban microclimate and energy aspects in the process of urban planning.

Keywords: building energy consumption, stochastic optimization, urban design, urban heat island, urban weather generator

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Authors: Chen Yang, Jun Hu, Ping Li, Lili Xue

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Most companies pay careful attention to consumer feedback collection, so it is popular to find the ‘feedback’ button of all kinds of mobile apps. Yet it is much more changeling to analyze these feedback texts and to catch the true feelings of a consumer regarding either a problem or a complimentary of consumers who hands out the feedback. Especially to the Chinese content, it is possible that; in one context the Chinese feedback expresses positive feedback, but in the other context, the same Chinese feedback may be a negative one. For example, in Chinese, the feedback 'operating with loudness' works well with both refrigerator and stereo system. Apparently, this feedback towards a refrigerator shows negative feedback; however, the same feedback is positive towards a stereo system. By introducing Bradley, M. and Lang, P.'s Affective Norms for English Text (ANET) theory and Bucci W.’s Referential Activity (RA) theory, we, usability researchers at Pingan, are able to decipher the feedback and to find the hidden feelings behind the content. We subtract 2 disciplines ‘valence’ and ‘dominance’ out of 3 of ANET and 2 disciplines ‘concreteness’ and ‘specificity’ out of 4 of RA to organize our own rating system with a scale of 1 to 5 points. This rating system enables us to judge the feelings/emotion behind each feedback, and it works well with both single word/phrase and a whole paragraph. The result of the rating reflects the strength of the feeling/emotion of the consumer when he/she is typing the feedback. In our daily work, we first require a consumer to answer the net promoter score (NPS) before writing the feedback, so we can determine the feedback is positive or negative. Secondly, we code the feedback content according to company problematic list, which contains 200 problematic items. In this way, we are able to collect the data that how many feedbacks left by the consumer belong to one typical problem. Thirdly, we rate each feedback based on the rating system mentioned above to illustrate the strength of the feeling/emotion when our consumer writes the feedback. In this way, we actually obtain two kinds of data 1) the portion, which means how many feedbacks are ascribed into one problematic item and 2) the severity, how strong the negative feeling/emotion is when the consumer is writing this feedback. By crossing these two, and introducing the portion into X-axis and severity into Y-axis, we are able to find which typical problem gets the high score in both portion and severity. The higher the score of a problem has, the more urgent a problem is supposed to be solved as it means more people write stronger negative feelings in feedbacks regarding this problem. Moreover, by introducing hidden Markov model to program our rating system, we are able to computerize the scoring system and are able to process thousands of feedback in a short period of time, which is efficient and accurate enough for the industrial purpose.

Keywords: computerized scoring system, feeling/emotion of consumer feedback, referential activity, text mining

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Authors: Wing Mui Winnie So, Tian Luo, Zeyu Han

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To fully explore and develop the potentials of gifted students systematically and strategically by providing them with opportunities to receive education at appropriate levels, schools in Hong Kong are encouraged to adopt the "Three-Tier Implementation Model" to plan and implement the school-based gifted education, with Level Three refers to the provision of learning opportunities for the exceptionally gifted students in the form of specialist training outside the school setting by post-secondary institutions, non-government organisations, professional bodies and technology enterprises. Due to the growing concern worldwide about low interest among students in pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers, cultivating and boosting STEM career interest has been an emerging research focus worldwide. Although numerous studies have explored its critical contributors, little research has examined the effectiveness of comprehensive interventions such as “Studying with STEM professional”. This study aims to examine the effect on gifted students’ career interest during their participation in an off-school support programme designed and supervised by a team of STEM educators and STEM professionals from a university. Gifted students were provided opportunities and tasks to experience STEM career topics that are not included in the school syllabus, and to experience how to think and work like a STEM professional in their learning. Participants involved 40 primary school students joining the intervention programme outside the normal school setting. Research methods included adopting the STEM career interest survey and drawing tasks supplemented with writing before and after the programme, as well as interviews before the end of the programme. The semi-structured interviews focused on students’ views regarding STEM professionals; what’s it like to learn with a STEM professional; what’s it like to work and think like a STEM professional; and students’ STEM identity and career interest. The changes in gifted students’ STEM career interest and its well-recognised significant contributors, for example, STEM stereotypes, self-efficacy for STEM activities, and STEM outcome expectation, were collectively examined from the pre- and post-survey using T-test. Thematic analysis was conducted for the interview records to explore how studying with STEM professional intervention can help students understand STEM careers; build STEM identity; as well as how to think and work like a STEM professional. Results indicated a significant difference in STEM career interest before and after the intervention. The influencing mechanism was also identified from the measurement of the related contributors and the analysis of drawings and interviews. The potential of off-school support programme supervised by STEM educators and professionals to develop gifted students’ STEM career interest is argued to be further unleashed in future research and practice.

Keywords: gifted students, STEM career, STEM education, STEM professionals

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Authors: Melvin Sethobya, Sithule Xanga, Sechaba Lenong, Lunga Nolakana, Gbenga Adesola

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Mining has been the cornerstone of the South African economy for the last century. Most of the gold mining in South Africa was conducted within the Witwatersrand basin, which contributed to the rapid growth of the city of Johannesburg and capitulated the city to becoming the business and wealth capital of the country. But with gradual depletion of resources, a stoppage in the extraction of underground water from mines and other factors relating to survival of the mining operations over a lengthy period, most of the mines were abandoned and left to pollute the local waterways and groundwater with toxins, heavy metal residue and increased acid mine drainage ensued. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy commissioned a project whose aim is to monitor, maintain, and mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of polluted water mine water flowing into local streams affecting local ecosystems and livelihoods downstream. As part of mitigation efforts, the diagnosis and monitoring of groundwater or surface water polluted sites has become important. Geophysical surveys, in particular, Resistivity and Magnetics surveys, were selected as some of most suitable techniques for investigation of local ingress points along of one the major streams cutting through the Witwatersrand basin, namely the Blesbokspruit, which is found in the eastern part of the basin. The aim of the surveys was to provide information that could be used to assist in determining possible water loss/ ingress from the Blesbokspriut stream. Modelling of geophysical surveys results offered an in-depth insight into the interaction and pathways of polluted water through mapping of possible ingress channels near the Blesbokspruit. The resistivity - depth profile of the surveyed site exhibit a three(3) layered model with low resistivity values (10 to 200 Ω.m) overburden, which is underlain by a moderate resistivity weathered layer (>300 Ω.m), which sits on a more resistive crystalline bedrock (>500 Ω.m). Two locations of potential ingress channels were mapped across the two traverses at the site. The magnetic survey conducted at the site mapped a major NE-SW trending regional linearment with a strong magnetic signature, which was modeled to depth beyond 100m, with the potential to act as a conduit for dispersion of stream water away from the stream, as it shared a similar orientation with the potential ingress channels as mapped using the resistivity method.

Keywords: eletrictrical resistivity, magnetics survey, blesbokspruit, ingress

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Authors: Mohd Khairul Bazli Mohd Aziz, Fadhilah Yusof, Zulkifli Yusop, Zalina Mohd Daud, Mohammad Afif Kasno

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Recent developed rainfall network design techniques have been discussed and compared by many researchers worldwide due to the demand of acquiring higher levels of accuracy from collected data. In many studies, rain-gauge networks are designed to provide good estimation for areal rainfall and for flood modelling and prediction. In a certain study, even using lumped models for flood forecasting, a proper gauge network can significantly improve the results. Therefore existing rainfall network in Johor must be optimized and redesigned in order to meet the required level of accuracy preset by rainfall data users. The well-known geostatistics method (variance-reduction method) that is combined with simulated annealing was used as an algorithm of optimization in this study to obtain the optimal number and locations of the rain gauges. Rain gauge network structure is not only dependent on the station density; station location also plays an important role in determining whether information is acquired accurately. The existing network of 84 rain gauges in Johor is optimized and redesigned by using rainfall, humidity, solar radiation, temperature and wind speed data during monsoon season (November – February) for the period of 1975 – 2008. Three different semivariogram models which are Spherical, Gaussian and Exponential were used and their performances were also compared in this study. Cross validation technique was applied to compute the errors and the result showed that exponential model is the best semivariogram. It was found that the proposed method was satisfied by a network of 64 rain gauges with the minimum estimated variance and 20 of the existing ones were removed and relocated. An existing network may consist of redundant stations that may make little or no contribution to the network performance for providing quality data. Therefore, two different cases were considered in this study. The first case considered the removed stations that were optimally relocated into new locations to investigate their influence in the calculated estimated variance and the second case explored the possibility to relocate all 84 existing stations into new locations to determine the optimal position. The relocations of the stations in both cases have shown that the new optimal locations have managed to reduce the estimated variance and it has proven that locations played an important role in determining the optimal network.

Keywords: geostatistics, simulated annealing, semivariogram, optimization

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Authors: Vahid Asadzadeh, Amin Ataee

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Since the advent of social media, there has been a wave of optimism among researchers and civic activists about the influence of virtual networks on the democratization process, which has gradually waned. One of the lesser-known concerns is how to increase the possibility of hearing the voices of different minorities. According to the theory of media logic, the media, using their technological capabilities, act as a structure through which events and ideas are interpreted. Social media, through the use of the learning machine and the use of algorithms, has formed a kind of structure in which the voices of minorities and less popular topics are lost among the commotion of the trends. In fact, the recommended systems and algorithms used in social media are designed to help promote trends and make popular content more popular, and content that belongs to minorities is constantly marginalized. As social networks gradually play a more active role in politics, the possibility of freely participating in the reproduction and reinterpretation of structures in general and political structures in particular (as Laclau‎ and Mouffe had in mind‎) can be considered as criteria to democracy in action. The point is that the media logic of virtual networks is shaped by the rule and even the tyranny of the majority, and this logic does not make it possible to design a self-foundation and self-revolutionary model of democracy. In other words, today's social networks, though seemingly full of variety But they are governed by the logic of homogeneity, and they do not have the possibility of multiplicity as is the case in immanent radical democracies (influenced by Gilles Deleuze). However, with the emergence and increasing popularity of Clubhouse as a new social media, there seems to be a shift in the social media space, and that is the diminishing role of algorithms and systems reconditioners as content delivery interfaces. This has led to the fact that in the Clubhouse, the voices of minorities are better heard, and the diversity of political tendencies manifests itself better. The purpose of this article is to show, first, how social networks serve the elimination of minorities in general, and second, to argue that the media logic of social networks must adapt to new interpretations of democracy that give more space to minorities and human rights. Finally, this article will show how the Clubhouse serves the new interpretations of democracy at least in a minimal way. To achieve the mentioned goals, in this article by a descriptive-analytical method, first, the relation between media logic and postmodern democracy will be inquired. The political economy popularity in social media and its conflict with democracy will be discussed. Finally, it will be explored how the Clubhouse provides a new horizon for the concepts embodied in radical democracy, a horizon that more effectively serves the rights of minorities and human rights in general.

Keywords: algorithmic tyranny, Clubhouse, minority rights, radical democracy, social media

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Authors: Bruno Vicente, Sandra Rafael, Vera Rodrigues, Sandra Sorte, Sara Silva, Ana Isabel Miranda, Carlos Borrego

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Wind comfort for pedestrians is an important condition in urban areas. In Portugal, a country with 900 km of coastline, the wind direction are predominantly from Nor-Northwest with an average speed of 2.3 m·s -1 (at 2 m height). As a result, a set of city authorities have been requesting studies of pedestrian wind comfort for new urban areas/buildings, as well as to mitigate wind discomfort issues related to existing structures. This work covers the efficiency evaluation of a set of measures to reduce the wind speed in an outdoor auditorium (open space) located in a coastal Portuguese urban area. These measures include the construction of barriers, placed at upstream and downstream of the auditorium, and the planting of trees, placed upstream of the auditorium. The auditorium is constructed in the form of a porch, aligned with North direction, driving the wind flow within the auditorium, promoting channelling effects and increasing its speed, causing discomfort in the users of this structure. To perform the wind comfort assessment, two approaches were used: i) a set of experiments using the wind tunnel (physical approach), with a representative mock-up of the study area; ii) application of the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) model VADIS (numerical approach). Both approaches were used to simulate the baseline scenario and the scenarios considering a set of measures. The physical approach was conducted through a quantitative method, using hot-wire anemometer, and through a qualitative analysis (visualizations), using the laser technology and a fog machine. Both numerical and physical approaches were performed for three different velocities (2, 4 and 6 m·s-1 ) and two different directions (NorNorthwest and South), corresponding to the prevailing wind speed and direction of the study area. The numerical results show an effective reduction (with a maximum value of 80%) of the wind speed inside the auditorium, through the application of the proposed measures. A wind speed reduction in a range of 20% to 40% was obtained around the audience area, for a wind direction from Nor-Northwest. For southern winds, in the audience zone, the wind speed was reduced from 60% to 80%. Despite of that, for southern winds, the design of the barriers generated additional hot spots (high wind speed), namely, in the entrance to the auditorium. Thus, a changing in the location of the entrance would minimize these effects. The results obtained in the wind tunnel compared well with the numerical data, also revealing the high efficiency of the purposed measures (for both wind directions).

Keywords: urban microclimate, pedestrian comfort, numerical modelling, wind tunnel experiments

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Authors: Nicola S. Schutte, John M. Malouff

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Introduction: Curiosity is a positive emotion and motivational state that consists of the desire to know. Curiosity consists of several related dimensions, including a desire for exploration, deprivation sensitivity, and stress tolerance. Creativity involves generating novel and valuable ideas or products. How curiosity may prompt greater creativity remains to be investigated. The phenomena of flow may link curiosity and creativity. Flow is characterized by intense concentration and absorption and gives rise to optimal performance. Objective of Study: The objective of the present study was to investigate whether the phenomenon of flow may link curiosity with creativity. Methods and Design: Fifty-seven individuals from Australia (45 women and 12 men, mean age of 35.33, SD=9.4) participated. Participants were asked to design a program encouraging residents in a local community to conserve water and to record the elements of their program in writing. Participants were then asked to rate their experience as they developed and wrote about their program. Participants rated their experience on the Dimensional Curiosity Measure sub-scales assessing the exploration, deprivation sensitivity, and stress tolerance facets of curiosity, and the Flow Short Scale. Reliability of the measures as assessed by Cronbach's alpha was as follows: Exploration Curiosity =.92, Deprivation Sensitivity Curiosity =.66, Stress Tolerance Curiosity =.93, and Flow=.96. Two raters independently coded each participant’s water conservation program description on creativity. The mixed-model intraclass correlation coefficient for the two sets of ratings was .73. The mean of the two ratings produced the final creativity score for each participant. Results: During the experience of designing the program, all three types of curiosity were significantly associated with the flow. Pearson r correlations were as follows: Exploration Curiosity and flow, r =.68 (higher Exploration Curiosity was associated with more flow); Deprivation Sensitivity Curiosity and flow, r =.39 (higher Deprivation Sensitivity Curiosity was associated with more flow); and Stress Tolerance Curiosity and flow, r = .44 (more stress tolerance in relation to novelty and exploration was associated with more flow). Greater experience of flow was significantly associated with greater creativity in designing the water conservation program, r =.39. The associations between dimensions of curiosity and creativity did not reach significance. Even though the direct relationships between dimensions of curiosity and creativity were not significant, indirect relationships through the mediating effect of the experience of flow between dimensions of curiosity and creativity were significant. Mediation analysis using PROCESS showed that flow linked Exploration Curiosity with creativity, standardized beta=.23, 95%CI [.02,.25] for the indirect effect; Deprivation Sensitivity Curiosity with creativity, standardized beta=.14, 95%CI [.04,.29] for the indirect effect; and Stress Tolerance Curiosity with creativity, standardized beta=.13, 95%CI [.02,.27] for the indirect effect. Conclusions: When engaging in an activity, higher levels of curiosity are associated with greater flow. More flow is associated with higher levels of creativity. Programs intended to increase flow or creativity might build on these findings and also explore causal relationships.

Keywords: creativity, curiosity, flow, motivation

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Authors: Mesfin Abebe Molla

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This research aims to examine the practices of inclusion of the hard of hearing and deaf students in regular schools. It also focuses on exploring strategies for optimal benefits of students with Hard of Hearing and Deaf (HH-D) from inclusion. Concurrent mixed methods research design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The instruments used to gather data for this study were questionnaire, semi- structured interview, and observations. A total of 102 HH-D students and 42 primary and High School teachers were selected using simple random sampling technique and used as participants to collect quantitative data. Non-probability sampling technique was also employed to select 14 participants (4-school principals, 6-teachers and 4-parents of HH-D students) and they were interviewed to collect qualitative data. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques (independent sample t-test, one way ANOVA and Multiple regressions) were employed to analyze quantitative data. Qualitative data were also analyzed qualitatively by theme analysis. The findings reported that there were individual principals’, teachers’ and parents’ strong commitment and efforts for practicing inclusion of HH-D students effectively; however, most of the core values of inclusion were missing in both schools. Most of the teachers (78.6 %) and HH-D students (75.5%) had negative attitude and considerable reservations about the feasibility of inclusion of HH-D students in both schools. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant difference of attitude toward to inclusion between the two school’s teachers and the teachers’ who had taken and had not taken additional training on IE and sign language. The study also indicated that there was a statistically significant difference of attitude toward to inclusion between hard of hearing and deaf students. However, the overall contribution of the demographic variables of teachers and HH-D students on their attitude toward inclusion is not statistically significant. The finding also showed that HH-D students did not have access to modified curriculum which would maximize their abilities and help them to learn together with their hearing peers. In addition, there is no clear and adequate direction for the medium of instruction. Poor school organization and management, lack of commitment, financial resources, collaboration and teachers’ inadequate training on Inclusive Education (IE) and sign language, large class size, inappropriate assessment procedure, lack of trained deaf adult personnel who can serve as role model for HH-D students and lack of parents and community members’ involvement were some of the major factors that affect the practicing inclusion of students HH-D. Finally, recommendations are made to improve the practices of inclusion of HH-D students and to make inclusion of HH-D students an integrated part of Ethiopian education based on the findings of the study.

Keywords: deaf, hard of hearing, inclusion, regular schools

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Authors: Cesar Vazquez-Gonzalez, Sophie Avila-Foucat, Leonardo Ortiz-Lozano, Patricia Moreno-Casasola, Alejandro Granados-Barba

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In the last twenty years, academic and scientific literature has been focused on understanding the processes and factors of coastal social-ecological systems vulnerability and resilience. Some scholars argue that resilience and vulnerability are isolated concepts due to their epistemological origin, while others note the existence of a strong resilience-vulnerability relationship. Here we present an ordinal logistic regression model based on the analytical framework about dynamic resilience-vulnerability interaction along adaptive cycle of complex systems and disasters process phases (during, recovery and learning). In this way, we demonstrate that 1) during the disturbance, absorptive capacity (resilience as a core of attributes) and external response capacity explain the probability of households capitals to diminish the damage, and exposure sets the thresholds about the amount of disturbance that households can absorb, 2) at recovery, absorptive capacity and external response capacity explain the probability of households capitals to recovery faster (resilience as an outcome) from damage, and 3) at learning, adaptive capacity (resilience as a core of attributes) explains the probability of households adaptation measures based on the enhancement of physical capital. As a result, during the disturbance phase, exposure has the greatest weight in the probability of capital’s damage, and households with absorptive and external response capacity elements absorbed the impact of floods in comparison with households without these elements. At the recovery phase, households with absorptive and external response capacity showed a faster recovery on their capital; however, the damage sets the thresholds of recovery time. More importantly, diversity in financial capital increases the probability of recovering other capital, but it becomes a liability so that the probability of recovering the household finances in a longer time increases. At learning-reorganizing phase, adaptation (modifications to the house) increases the probability of having less damage on physical capital; however, it is not very relevant. As conclusion, resilience is an outcome but also core of attributes that interacts with vulnerability along the adaptive cycle and disaster process phases. Absorptive capacity can diminish the damage experienced by floods; however, when exposure overcomes thresholds, both absorptive and external response capacity are not enough. In the same way, absorptive and external response capacity diminish the recovery time of capital, but the damage sets the thresholds in where households are not capable of recovering their capital.

Keywords: absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, capital, floods, recovery-learning, social-ecological systems

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Authors: Shengnan Chen, Shuhua Wang

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Successful production of hydrocarbon from unconventional tight oil reserves has changed the energy landscape in North America. The oil contained within these reservoirs typically will not flow to the wellbore at economic rates without assistance from advanced horizontal well and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. Efficient and economic development of these reserves is a priority of society, government, and industry, especially under the current low oil prices. Meanwhile, society needs technological and process innovations to enhance oil recovery while concurrently reducing environmental impacts. Recently, big data analysis and artificial intelligence become very popular, developing data-driven insights for better designs and decisions in various engineering disciplines. However, the application of data mining in petroleum engineering is still in its infancy. The objective of this research aims to apply intelligent data analysis and data-driven models to exploit unconventional oil reserves both efficiently and economically. More specifically, a comprehensive database including the reservoir geological data, reservoir geophysical data, well completion data and production data for thousands of wells is firstly established to discover the valuable insights and knowledge related to tight oil reserves development. Several data analysis methods are introduced to analysis such a huge dataset. For example, K-means clustering is used to partition all observations into clusters; principle component analysis is applied to emphasize the variation and bring out strong patterns in the dataset, making the big data easy to explore and visualize; exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to identify the complex interrelationships between well completion data and well production data. Different data mining techniques, such as artificial neural network, fuzzy logic, and machine learning technique are then summarized, and appropriate ones are selected to analyze the database based on the prediction accuracy, model robustness, and reproducibility. Advanced knowledge and patterned are finally recognized and integrated into a modified self-adaptive differential evolution optimization workflow to enhance the oil recovery and maximize the net present value (NPV) of the unconventional oil resources. This research will advance the knowledge in the development of unconventional oil reserves and bridge the gap between the big data and performance optimizations in these formations. The newly developed data-driven optimization workflow is a powerful approach to guide field operation, which leads to better designs, higher oil recovery and economic return of future wells in the unconventional oil reserves.

Keywords: big data, artificial intelligence, enhance oil recovery, unconventional oil reserves

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Authors: Dijiang Lyu, Shaoying Li, Zhangzhi Tan, Zhifeng Wu, Feng Gao

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Nowadays, China is experiencing rapidly urban rail transit expansions in the world. The purpose of this study is to finely model factors influencing transit ridership at multi-time dimensions within transit stations’ pedestrian catchment area (PCA) in Guangzhou, China. This study was based on multi-sources spatial data, including smart card data, high spatial resolution images, points of interest (POIs), real-estate online data and building height data. Eight multiple linear regression models using backward stepwise method and Geographic Information System (GIS) were created at station-level. According to Chinese code for classification of urban land use and planning standards of development land, residential land-use were divided into three categories: first-level (e.g. villa), second-level (e.g. community) and third-level (e.g. urban villages). Finally, it concluded that: (1) four factors (CBD dummy, number of feeder bus route, number of entrance or exit and the years of station operation) were proved to be positively correlated with transit ridership, but the area of green land-use and water land-use negative correlated instead. (2) The area of education land-use, the second-level and third-level residential land-use were found to be highly connected to the average value of morning peak boarding and evening peak alighting ridership. But the area of commercial land-use and the average height of buildings, were significantly positive associated with the average value of morning peak alighting and evening peak boarding ridership. (3) The area of the second-level residential land-use was rarely correlated with ridership in other regression models. Because private car ownership is still large in Guangzhou now, and some residents living in the community around the stations go to work by transit at peak time, but others are much more willing to drive their own car at non-peak time. The area of the third-level residential land-use, like urban villages, was highly positive correlated with ridership in all models, indicating that residents who live in the third-level residential land-use are the main passenger source of the Guangzhou Metro. (4) The diversity of land-use was found to have a significant impact on the passenger flow on the weekend, but was non-related to weekday. The findings can be useful for station planning, management and policymaking.

Keywords: fine-scale modeling, Guangzhou city, multi-time dimensions, multi-sources spatial data, transit ridership

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Authors: Salma A. Mahmoud

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Epigenetic, or alteration in gene expression influenced by extragenetic factors, has emerged as one of the most promising areas that will address some of the gaps in our current knowledge in understanding patterns of human variation. In the last decade, the research investigating epigenetic mechanisms in many fields has flourished and witnessed significant progress. It paved the way for a new era of integrated research especially between anthropology/archeology and life sciences. Skeletal remains are considered the most significant source of information for studying human variations across history, and by utilizing these valuable remains, we can interpret the past events, cultures and populations. In addition to archeological, historical and anthropological importance, studying bones has great implications in other fields such as medicine and science. Bones also can hold within them the secrets of the future as they can act as predictive tools for health, society characteristics and dietary requirements. Bones in their basic forms are composed of cells (osteocytes) that are affected by both genetic and environmental factors, which can only explain a small part of their variability. The primary objective of this project is to examine the epigenetic landscape/signature within bones of archeological remains as a novel marker that could reveal new ways to conceptualize chronological events, gender differences, social status and ecological variations. We attempted here to address discrepancies in common variants such as methylome as well as novel epigenetic regulators such as chromatin remodelers, which to our best knowledge have not yet been investigated by anthropologists/ paleoepigenetists using plethora of techniques (biological, computational, and statistical). Moreover, extracting epigenetic information from bones will highlight the importance of osseous material as a vector to study human beings in several contexts (social, cultural and environmental), and strengthen their essential role as model systems that can be used to investigate and construct various cultural, political and economic events. We also address all steps required to plan and conduct an epigenetic analysis from bone materials (modern and ancient) as well as discussing the key challenges facing researchers aiming to investigate this field. In conclusion, this project will serve as a primer for bioarcheologists/anthropologists and human biologists interested in incorporating epigenetic data into their research programs. Understanding the roles of epigenetic mechanisms in bone structure and function will be very helpful for a better comprehension of their biology and highlighting their essentiality as interdisciplinary vectors and a key material in archeological research.

Keywords: epigenetics, archeology, bones, chromatin, methylome

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Authors: Ke-Jing Lee, Cheng-Jung Lee, Yu-Chi Chang, Li-Wen Wang, Yeong-Her Wang

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To avoid the cross-talk issue of only resistive random access memory (RRAM) cell, one transistor and one resistor (1T1R) architecture with a TiO₂-based RRAM cell connected with solution barium zirconate nickelate (BZN) organic thin film transistor (OTFT) device is successfully demonstrated. The OTFT were fabricated on a glass substrate. Aluminum (Al) as the gate electrode was deposited via a radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering system. The barium acetate, zirconium n-propoxide, and nickel II acetylacetone were synthesized by using the sol-gel method. After the BZN solution was completely prepared using the sol-gel process, it was spin-coated onto the Al/glass substrate as the gate dielectric. The BZN layer was baked at 100 °C for 10 minutes under ambient air conditions. The pentacene thin film was thermally evaporated on the BZN layer at a deposition rate of 0.08 to 0.15 nm/s. Finally, gold (Au) electrode was deposited using an RF magnetron sputtering system and defined through shadow masks as both the source and drain. The channel length and width of the transistors were 150 and 1500 μm, respectively. As for the manufacture of 1T1R configuration, the RRAM device was fabricated directly on drain electrodes of TFT device. A simple metal/insulator/metal structure, which consisting of Al/TiO₂/Au structures, was fabricated. First, Au was deposited to be a bottom electrode of RRAM device by RF magnetron sputtering system. Then, the TiO₂ layer was deposited on Au electrode by sputtering. Finally, Al was deposited as the top electrode. The electrical performance of the BZN OTFT was studied, showing superior transfer characteristics with the low threshold voltage of −1.1 V, good saturation mobility of 5 cm²/V s, and low subthreshold swing of 400 mV/decade. The integration of the BZN OTFT and TiO₂ RRAM devices was finally completed to form 1T1R configuration with low power consumption of 1.3 μW, the low operation current of 0.5 μA, and reliable data retention. Based on the I-V characteristics, the different polarities of bipolar switching are found to be determined by the compliance current with the different distribution of the internal oxygen vacancies used in the RRAM and 1T1R devices. Also, this phenomenon can be well explained by the proposed mechanism model. It is promising to make the 1T1R possible for practical applications of low-power active matrix flat-panel displays.

Keywords: one transistor and one resistor (1T1R), organic thin-film transistor (OTFT), resistive random access memory (RRAM), sol-gel

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Authors: Mahmoud Reza Hosseini

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The universe is in a continuous expansion process, resulting in the reduction of its density and temperature. Also, by extrapolating back from its current state, the universe at its early times has been studied known as the big bang theory. According to this theory, moments after creation, the universe was an extremely hot and dense environment. However, its rapid expansion due to nuclear fusion led to a reduction in its temperature and density. This is evidenced through the cosmic microwave background and the universe structure at a large scale. However, extrapolating back further from this early state reaches singularity which cannot be explained by modern physics and the big bang theory is no longer valid. In addition, one can expect a nonuniform energy distribution across the universe from a sudden expansion. However, highly accurate measurements reveal an equal temperature mapping across the universe which is contradictory to the big bang principles. To resolve this issue, it is believed that cosmic inflation occurred at the very early stages of the birth of the universe According to the cosmic inflation theory, the elements which formed the universe underwent a phase of exponential growth due to the existence of a large cosmological constant. The inflation phase allows the uniform distribution of energy so that an equal maximum temperature could be achieved across the early universe. Also, the evidence of quantum fluctuations of this stage provides a means for studying the types of imperfections the universe would begin with. Although well-established theories such as cosmic inflation and the big bang together provide a comprehensive picture of the early universe and how it evolved into its current state, they are unable to address the singularity paradox at the time of universe creation. Therefore, a practical model capable of describing how the universe was initiated is needed. This research series aims at addressing the singularity issue by introducing an energy conversion mechanism. This is accomplished by establishing a state of energy called a “neutral state”, with an energy level which is referred to as “base energy” capable of converting into other states. Although it follows the same principles, the unique quanta state of the base energy allows it to be distinguishable from other states and have a uniform distribution at the ground level. Although the concept of base energy can be utilized to address the singularity issue, to establish a complete picture, the origin of the base energy should be also identified. This matter is the subject of the first study in the series “A Conceptual Study for Investigating the Creation of Energy and Understanding the Properties of Nothing” which is discussed in detail. Therefore, the proposed concept in this research series provides a road map for enhancing our understating of the universe's creation from nothing and its evolution and discusses the possibility of base energy as one of the main building blocks of this universe.

Keywords: big bang, cosmic inflation, birth of universe, energy creation

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Authors: M. Aboalazayem, Essam A. Gouda, Ahmed M. Moussa, Amr E. Flifl

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Field data collecting is considered one of the most difficult work due to the difficulty of accessing large zones such as large lakes. Also, it is well known that the cost of obtaining field data is very expensive. Remotely monitoring of lake water quality (WQ) provides an economically feasible approach comparing to field data collection. Researchers have shown that lake WQ can be properly monitored via Remote sensing (RS) analyses. Using satellite images as a method of WQ detection provides a realistic technique to measure quality parameters across huge areas. Landsat (LS) data provides full free access to often occurring and repeating satellite photos. This enables researchers to undertake large-scale temporal comparisons of parameters related to lake WQ. Satellite measurements have been extensively utilized to develop algorithms for predicting critical water quality parameters (WQPs). The goal of this paper is to use RS to derive WQ indicators in Aswan High Dam Reservoir (AHDR), which is considered Egypt's primary and strategic reservoir of freshwater. This study focuses on using Landsat8 (L-8) band surface reflectance (SR) observations to predict water-quality characteristics which are limited to Turbidity (TUR), total suspended solids (TSS), and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a). ArcGIS pro is used to retrieve L-8 SR data for the study region. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to derive new correlations between observed optical water-quality indicators in April and L-8 SR which were atmospherically corrected by values of various bands, band ratios, and or combinations. Field measurements taken in the month of May were used to validate WQP obtained from SR data of L-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) satellite. The findings demonstrate a strong correlation between indicators of WQ and L-8 .For TUR, the best validation correlation with OLI SR bands blue, green, and red, were derived with high values of Coefficient of correlation (R2) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) equal 0.96 and 3.1 NTU, respectively. For TSS, Two equations were strongly correlated and verified with band ratios and combinations. A logarithm of the ratio of blue and green SR was determined to be the best performing model with values of R2 and RMSE equal to 0.9861 and 1.84 mg/l, respectively. For Chl-a, eight methods were presented for calculating its value within the study area. A mix of blue, red, shortwave infrared 1(SWR1) and panchromatic SR yielded the greatest validation results with values of R2 and RMSE equal 0.98 and 1.4 mg/l, respectively.

Keywords: remote sensing, landsat 8, nasser lake, water quality

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Authors: James Beauchemin

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Introduction: The incarceration of people with mental illness and substance use disorders is a major public health issue, with social, clinical, and economic implications. Yoga participation has been associated with numerous psychological benefits; however, there is a paucity of research examining impacts of yoga with incarcerated populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate effectiveness of a six-week yoga intervention on several mental health-related variables, including emotion regulation, body awareness, and warnings of substance relapse among incarcerated females. Methods: This study utilized a pre-post, three-arm design, with participants assigned to intervention, therapeutic community, or general population groups. A between-groups analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted across groups to assess intervention effectiveness using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Scale of Body Connection (SBC), and Warnings of Relapse (AWARE) Questionnaire. Results: ANCOVA results for warnings of relapse (AWARE) revealed significant between-group differences F(2, 80) = 7.15, p = .001; np2 = .152), with significant pairwise comparisons between the intervention group and both the therapeutic community (p = .001) and the general population (p = .005) groups. Similarly, significant differences were found for emotional regulation (DERS) F(2, 83) = 10.521, p = .000; np2 = .278). Pairwise comparisons indicated a significant difference between the intervention and general population (p = .01). Finally, significant differences between the intervention and control groups were found for body awareness (SBC) F(2, 84) = 3.69, p = .029; np2 = .081). Between-group differences were clarified via pairwise comparisons, indicating significant differences between the intervention group and both the therapeutic community (p = .028) and general population groups (p = .020). Implications: Study results suggest that yoga may be an effective addition to integrative mental health and substance use treatment for incarcerated women, and contributes to increasing evidence that holistic interventions may be an important component for treatment with this population. Specifically, given the prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders, findings revealed that changes in body awareness and emotion regulation may be particularly beneficial for incarcerated populations with substance use challenges as a result of yoga participation. From a systemic perspective, this proactive approach may have long-term implications for both physical and psychological well-being for the incarcerated population as a whole, thereby decreasing the need for traditional treatment. By integrating a more holistic, salutogenic model that emphasizes prevention, interventions like yoga may work to improve the wellness of this population, while providing an alternative or complementary treatment option for those with current symptoms.

Keywords: yoga, mental health, incarceration, wellness

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Authors: I. S. Gandhi, D. N. Patel, M. Johnson, A. R. Hirsch

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Although distortion of taste perception following a cerebrovascular event may seem to be a frivolous consequence of a classic stroke presentation, altered taste perception places patients at an increased risk for malnutrition, weight loss, and depression, all of which negatively impact the quality of life. Impaired taste perception can result from a wide variety of cerebrovascular lesions to various locations, including pons, insular cortices, and ventral posteromedial nucleus of the thalamus. Wallenberg syndrome, also known as a lateral medullary syndrome, has been described to impact taste; however, specific sweet to bitter taste dysgeusia from a territory infarction is an infrequent event; as such, a case is presented. One year prior to presentation, this 64-year-old right-handed woman, suffered a right posterior inferior cerebellar artery aneurysm rupture with resultant infarction, culminating in a ventriculoperitoneal shunt placement. One and half months after this event, she noticed the gradual onset of lack of ability to taste sweet, to eventually all sweet food tasting bitter. Since the onset of her chemosensory problems, the patient has lost 60-pounds. Upon gustatory testing, the patient's taste threshold showed ageusia to sucrose and hydrochloric acid, while normogeusia to sodium chloride, urea, and phenylthiocarbamide. The gustatory cortex is made in part by the right insular cortex as well as the right anterior operculum, which are primarily involved in the sensory taste modalities. In this model, sweet is localized in the posterior-most along with the rostral aspect of the right insular cortex, notably adjacent to the region responsible for bitter taste. The sweet to bitter dysgeusia in our patient suggests the presence of a lesion in this localization. Although the primary lesion in this patient was located in the right medulla of the brainstem, neurodegeneration in the rostal and posterior-most aspect, of the right insular cortex may have occurred due to diaschisis. Diaschisis has been described as neurophysiological changes that occur in remote regions to a focal brain lesion. Although hydrocephalus and vasospasm due to aneurysmal rupture may explain the distal foci of impairment, the gradual onset of dysgeusia is more indicative of diaschisis. The perception of sweet, now tasting bitter, suggests that in the absence of sweet taste reception, the intrinsic bitter taste of food is now being stimulated rather than sweet. In the evaluation and treatment of taste parageusia secondary to cerebrovascular injury, prophylactic neuroprotective measures may be worthwhile. Further investigation is warranted.

Keywords: diaschisis, dysgeusia, stroke, taste

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Authors: Hanieh Sakha, Nader Nader, Haleh Farzin

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Introduction: Throughout history, pain theories have been supposed by biomedicine, especially regarding its diagnosis and treatment aspects. Therefore, the feeling of pain is not only a personal experience and is affected by social background; therefore, it involves extensive systems of signals. The challenges in emotional and sentimental dimensions of pain originate from scientific medicine (i.e., the dominant theory is also referred to as the specificity theory); however, this theory has accepted some alterations by emerging physiology. Then, Von Frey suggested the theory of cutaneous senses (i.e., Muller’s concept: the common sensation of combined four major skin receptors leading to a proper sensation) 50 years after the specificity theory. The pain pathway was composed of spinothalamic tracts and thalamus with an inhibitory effect on the cortex. Pain is referred to as a series of unique experiences with various reasons and qualities. Despite the gate control theory, the biological aspect overcomes the social aspect. Vrancken provided a more extensive definition of pain and found five approaches: Somatico-technical, dualistic body-oriented, behaviorist, phenomenological, and consciousness approaches. The Western model combined physical, emotional, and existential aspects of the human body. On the other hand, Kotarba felt confused about the basic origins of chronic pain. Freund demonstrated and argued with Durkhemian about the sociological approach to emotions. Lynch provided a piece of evidence about the correlation between cardiovascular disease and emotionally life-threatening occurrences. Helman supposed a distinction between private and public pain. Conclusion: The consideration of the emotional aspect of pain could lead to effective, emotional, and social responses to pain. On the contrary, the theory of embodiment is based on the sociological view of health and illness. Social epidemiology shows an imbalanced distribution of health, illness, and disability among various social groups. The social support and socio-cultural level can result in several types of pain. It means the status of athletes might define their pain experiences. Gender is one of the important contributing factors affecting the type of pain (i.e., females are more likely to seek health services for pain relief.) Chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) has become a serious public health issue affecting more than 70 million people globally. CNCP is a serious public health issue which is caused by the lack of awareness about chronic pain management among the general population.

Keywords: pain, sociology, sociological, body

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Authors: Ankita Singh, Chandan Gorain, Amirul I. Mallick

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Successful adherence of the mucosal epithelial cells is the key early step for Campylobacter jejuni pathogenesis (C. jejuni). A set of Surface Exposed Colonization Proteins (SECPs) are among the major factors involved in host cell adherence and invasion of C. jejuni. Among them, constitutively expressed surface-exposed lipoprotein adhesin of C. jejuni, JlpA, interacts with intestinal heat shock protein 90 (hsp90α) and contributes in disease progression by triggering pro-inflammatory response via activation of NF-κB and p38 MAP kinase pathway. Together with its ability to express in the bacterial surface, higher sequence conservation and predicted predominance of several B cells epitopes, JlpA protein reserves its potential to become an effective vaccine candidate against wide range of Campylobacter sps including C. jejuni. Given that chickens are the primary sources for C. jejuni and persistent gut colonization remain as major cause for foodborne pathogenesis to humans, present study explicitly used chickens as model to test the immune-protective efficacy of JlpA protein. Taking into account that gastrointestinal tract is the focal site for C. jejuni colonization, to extrapolate the benefit of mucosal (intragastric) delivery of JlpA protein, a food grade Nisin inducible Lactic acid producing bacteria, Lactococcus lactis (L. lactis) was engineered to express recombinant JlpA protein (rJlpA) in the surface of the bacteria. Following evaluation of optimal surface expression and functionality of recombinant JlpA protein expressed by recombinant L. lactis (rL. lactis), the immune-protective role of intragastric administration of live rL. lactis was assessed in commercial broiler chickens. In addition to the significant elevation of antigen specific mucosal immune responses in the intestine of chickens that received three doses of rL. lactis, marked upregulation of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene expression in association with mixed pro-inflammatory responses (both Th1 and Th17 type) was observed. Furthermore, intragastric delivery of rJlpA expressed by rL. lactis, but not the injectable form, resulted in a significant reduction in C. jejuni colonization in chickens suggesting that mucosal delivery of live rL. lactis expressing JlpA serves as a promising vaccine platform to induce strong immune-protective responses against C. jejuni in chickens.

Keywords: chickens, lipoprotein adhesion of Campylobacter jejuni, immuno-protection, Lactococcus lactis, mucosal delivery

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Authors: Eunice Gan Ghee Wu, Marcus Goh Tian Xi, Alicia Chua Si Wen, Helen Bound, Lee Liang Ying, Albert Lee

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The Map of Dialogical Inquiry provides a conceptual basis of learning processes. According to the Map, dialogical inquiry motivates complex thinking, dialogue, reflection, and learner agency. For instance, classrooms that incorporated dialogical inquiry enabled learners to construct more meaning in their learning, to engage in self-reflection, and to challenge their ideas with different perspectives. While the Map contributes to the psychology of learning, its qualitative approach makes it hard to track and compare learning processes over time for both teachers and learners. Qualitative approach typically relies on open-ended responses, which can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. With these concerns, the present research aimed to develop and validate a quantifiable measure for the Map. Specifically, the Map of Dialogical Inquiry reflects the eight different learning processes and perspectives employed during a learner’s experience. With a focus on interpersonal and emotional learning processes, the purpose of the present study is to construct and validate a scale to measure the “Relating” aspect of learning. According to the Map, the Relating aspect of learning contains four conceptual components: using intuition and empathy, seeking personal meaning, building relationships and meaning with others, and likes stories and metaphors. All components have been shown to benefit learning in past research. This research began with a literature review with the goal of identifying relevant scales in the literature. These scales were used as a basis for item development, guided by the four conceptual dimensions in the “Relating” aspect of learning, resulting in a pool of 47 preliminary items. Then, all items were administered to 200 American participants via an online survey along with other scales of learning. Dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the “Relating” scale was assessed. Data were submitted to a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), revealing four distinct components and items. Items with lower factor loadings were removed in an iterative manner, resulting in 34 items in the final scale. CFA also revealed that the “Relating” scale was a four-factor model, following its four distinct components as described in the Map of Dialogical Inquiry. In sum, this research was able to develop a quantitative scale for the “Relating” aspect of the Map of Dialogical Inquiry. By representing learning as numbers, users, such as educators and learners, can better track, evaluate, and compare learning processes over time in an efficient manner. More broadly, this scale may also be used as a learning tool in lifelong learning.

Keywords: lifelong learning, scale development, dialogical inquiry, relating, social and emotional learning, socio-affective intuition, empathy, narrative identity, perspective taking, self-disclosure

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Authors: Păcurar Diana Istina

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Structured in three chapters, the article attempts an X-ray of the theatrical aesthetics, correctly understood through the emotions generated in the intimate structure of the spectator that precedes the triggering of the viewer’s perception and not through the superposition, unfortunately common, of the notion of aesthetics with the style in which a theater show is built. The first chapter contains a brief history of the appearance of the word aesthetic, the formulation of definitions for this new term, as well as its connections with the notions of semiotics, in particular with the perception of the message transmitted. Starting with Aristotle and Plato, and reaching Magritte, their interventions should not be interpreted in the sense that the two scientific concepts can merge into one discipline. The perception that is the object of everyone’s analysis, the understanding of meaning, the decoding of the messages sent, and the triggering of feelings that culminate in pleasure, shaping the aesthetic vision, are some elements that keep semiotics and aesthetics distinct, even though they share many methods of analysis. The compositional processes of aesthetic representation and symbolic formation are analyzed in the second part of the paper from perspectives that include or do not include historical, cultural, social, and political processes. Aesthetics and the organization of its symbolic process are treated, taking into account expressive activity. The last part of the article explores the notion of aesthetics in applied theater, more specifically in the theater show. Taking the postmodern approach that aesthetics applies to the creation of an artifact and the reception of that artifact, the intervention of these elements in the theatrical system must be emphasized –that is, the analysis of the problems arising in the stages of the creation, presentation, and reception, by the public, of the theater performance. The aesthetic process is triggered involuntarily, simultaneously, or before the moment when people perceive the meaning of the messages transmitted by the work of art. The finding of this fact makes the mental process of aesthetics similar or related to that of semiotics. No matter how perceived individually, beauty, the mechanism of production can be reduced to two. The first step presents similarities to Peirce’s model, but the process between signified and signified additionally stimulates the related memory of the evaluation of beauty, adding to the meanings related to the signification itself. Then, the second step, a process of comparison, is followed, in which one examines whether the object being looked at matches the accumulated memory of beauty. Therefore, even though aesthetics is derived from the conceptual part, the judgment of beauty and, more than that, moral judgment come to be so important to the social activities of human beings that it evolves as a visible process independent of other conceptual contents.

Keywords: aesthetics, semiotics, symbolic composition, subjective joints, signifying, signified

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Authors: Nareshkumar Harale, B. B. Meshram

Abstract:

The continued exponential growth of successful cyber intrusions against today’s businesses has made it abundantly clear that traditional perimeter security measures are no longer adequate and effective. We evolved the network trust architecture from trust-untrust to Zero-Trust, With Zero Trust, essential security capabilities are deployed in a way that provides policy enforcement and protection for all users, devices, applications, data resources, and the communications traffic between them, regardless of their location. Information exchange over the Internet, in spite of inclusion of advanced security controls, is always under innovative, inventive and prone to cyberattacks. TCP/IP protocol stack, the adapted standard for communication over network, suffers from inherent design vulnerabilities such as communication and session management protocols, routing protocols and security protocols are the major cause of major attacks. With the explosion of cyber security threats, such as viruses, worms, rootkits, malwares, Denial of Service attacks, accomplishing efficient and effective intrusion detection and prevention is become crucial and challenging too. In this paper, we propose a design and analysis model for next generation network intrusion detection and protection system as part of layered security strategy. The proposed system design provides intrusion detection for wide range of attacks with layered architecture and framework. The proposed network intrusion classification framework deals with cyberattacks on standard TCP/IP protocol, routing protocols and security protocols. It thereby forms the basis for detection of attack classes and applies signature based matching for known cyberattacks and data mining based machine learning approaches for unknown cyberattacks. Our proposed implemented software can effectively detect attacks even when malicious connections are hidden within normal events. The unsupervised learning algorithm applied to network audit data trails results in unknown intrusion detection. Association rule mining algorithms generate new rules from collected audit trail data resulting in increased intrusion prevention though integrated firewall systems. Intrusion response mechanisms can be initiated in real-time thereby minimizing the impact of network intrusions. Finally, we have shown that our approach can be validated and how the analysis results can be used for detecting and protection from the new network anomalies.

Keywords: network intrusion detection, network intrusion prevention, association rule mining, system analysis and design

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Inga Žukovaitė

Abstract:

This work aims to present postdoc research on remote criminal proceedings in court in order to streamline the proceedings and, at the same time, ensure the effective participation of the parties in criminal proceedings and the court's obligation to administer substantive and procedural justice. This study tests the hypothesis that remote criminal proceedings do not in themselves violate the fundamental principles of criminal procedure; however, their implementation must ensure the right of the parties to effective legal remedies and a fair trial and, only then, must address the issues of procedural economy, speed and flexibility/functionality of the application of technologies. In order to ensure that changes in the regulation of criminal proceedings are in line with fair trial standards, this research will provide answers to the questions of what conditions -first of all, legal and only then organisational- are required for remote criminal proceedings to ensure respect for the parties and enable their effective participation in public proceedings, to create conditions for quality legal defence and its accessibility, to give a correct impression to the party that they are heard and that the court is impartial and fair. It also seeks to present the results of empirical research in the courts of Lithuania that was made by using the interview method. The research will serve as a basis for developing a theoretical model for remote criminal proceedings in the EU to ensure a balance between the intention to have innovative, cost-effective, and flexible criminal proceedings and the positive obligation of the State to ensure the rights of participants in proceedings to just and fair criminal proceedings. Moreover, developments in criminal proceedings also keep changing the image of the court itself; therefore, in the paper will create preconditions for future research on the impact of remote criminal proceedings on the trust in courts. The study aims at laying down the fundamentals for theoretical models of a remote hearing in criminal proceedings and at making recommendations for the safeguarding of human rights, in particular the rights of the accused, in such proceedings. The following criteria are relevant for the remote form of criminal proceedings: the purpose of judicial instance, the legal position of participants in proceedings, their vulnerability, and the nature of required legal protection. The content of the study consists of: 1. Identification of the factual and legal prerequisites for a decision to organise the entire criminal proceedings by remote means or to carry out one or several procedural actions by remote means 2. After analysing the legal regulation and practice concerning the application of the elements of remote criminal proceedings, distinguish the main legal safeguards for protection of the rights of the accused to ensure: (a) the right of effective participation in a court hearing; (b) the right of confidential consultation with the defence counsel; (c) the right of participation in the examination of evidence, in particular material evidence, as well as the right to question witnesses; and (d) the right to a public trial.

Keywords: remote criminal proceedings, fair trial, right to defence, technology progress

Procedia PDF Downloads 71