Search results for: online platforms

Authors: Robert Jacobsen

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Flood inundation maps (FIMs) are an essential tool in communicating flood threat scenarios to the public as well as in floodplain governance. With an increasing demand for online raster FIMs, the FIM State-of-the-Practice (SOP) is rapidly advancing to meet the dual requirements for high-resolution and high-accuracy—or High-Definition. Importantly, today’s technology also enables the resolution of problems of local—neighborhood-scale—bias errors that often occur in FIMs, even with the use of SOP two-dimensional flood modeling. To facilitate the development of HD-FIMs, a new GIS method--Raster Adjustment with Scenario Profiles, RASPTM—is described for adjusting kernel raster FIMs to match refined scenario profiles. With RASPTM, flood professionals can prepare HD-FIMs for a wide range of scenarios with available kernel rasters, including kernel rasters prepared from vector FIMs. The paper provides detailed procedures for RASPTM, along with an example of applying RASPTM to prepare an HD-FIM for the August 2016 Flood in Louisiana using both an SOP kernel raster and a kernel raster derived from an older vector-based flood insurance rate map. The accuracy of the HD-FIMs achieved with the application of RASPTM to the two kernel rasters is evaluated.

Keywords: hydrology, mapping, high-definition, inundation

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Authors: Kellen Sharp

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This study explores the phenomenon of ‘Passport Bros’, a subset within the manosphere responding to perceived crises in masculinity amidst changing gender dynamics. Focusing on a computational analysis of the passport bro community, the research addresses normative beliefs, deviations from MGTOW ideology, and discussions on nationality, race, and gender. Originating from the MGTOW movement, passport bros engage in a neocolonial approach by seeking traditional, non-Western women, attributing this pursuit to dissatisfaction with modern Western women. The paper examines how hetero pessimism within MGTOW shapes the emergence of passport bros, leading to the adoption of red pill ideologies and ultimately manifesting in the form of sex tourism. Analyzing data collected from passport bro forums through computer-assisted content analysis, the study identifies key discourses such as questions and answers, money, attitudes towards Western and traditional women, and discussions about the movement itself. The findings highlight the nuanced intersection of gender, race, and global power dynamics within the passport bro community, shedding light on their motivations and impact on neocolonial legacies.

Keywords: toxic online community, manosphere, gender and media, neocolonialism

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Authors: Anant Mehrotra, Krish Phagwani

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Democratic voting is vital for any country, but current methods like ballot papers or EVMs have drawbacks, including transparency issues, low voter turnout, and security concerns. Blockchain technology offers a potential solution by providing a secure, decentralized, and transparent platform for e-voting. With features like immutability, security, and anonymity, blockchain combined with smart contracts can enhance trust and prevent vote tampering. This paper explores an Ethereum-based e-voting application using Solidity, showcasing a web app that prevents duplicate voting through a token-based system, while also discussing the advantages and limitations of blockchain in digital voting. Voting is a crucial component of democratic decision-making, yet current methods, like paper ballots, remain outdated and inefficient. This paper reviews blockchain-based voting systems, highlighting strategies and guidelines to create a comprehensive electronic voting system that leverages cryptographic techniques, such as zero-knowledge proofs, to enhance privacy. It addresses limitations of existing e-voting solutions, including cost, identity management, and scalability, and provides key insights for organizations looking to design their own blockchain-based voting systems.

Keywords: electronic voting, smart contracts, blockchain nased voting, security

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Authors: Joshua Adan Valdez, Shawn Gallaher

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Global climate change has impacted atmospheric temperatures contributing to rising sea levels, decreasing sea ice, and increased freshening of high latitude oceans. This freshening has contributed to increased stratification inhibiting local mixing and nutrient transport, modifying regional circulations in polar oceans. In recent years, the Western Arctic has seen an increase in freshwater volume at an average rate of 397+-116km3/year across the Beaufort Gyre. The majority of the freshwater volume resides in the Beaufort Gyre surface lens driven by anticyclonic wind forcing, sea ice melt, and Arctic river runoff, and is typically defined as water fresher than 34.8. The near-isothermal nature of Arctic seawater and non-linearities in the equation of state for near-freezing waters result in a salinity-driven pycnocline as opposed to the temperature-driven density structure seen in the lower latitudes. In this study, we investigate the relationship between freshwater content and dynamic ocean topography (DOT). In situ measurements of freshwater content are useful in providing information on the freshening rate of the Beaufort Gyre; however, their collection is costly and time-consuming. Utilizing NASA’s ICESat-2’s DOT remote sensing capabilities and Air Expendable CTD (AXCTD) data from the Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys (SIZRS), a linear regression model between DOT and freshwater content is determined along the 150° west meridian. Freshwater content is calculated by integrating the volume of water between the surface and a depth with a reference salinity of ~34.8. Using this model, we compare interannual variability in freshwater content within the gyre, which could provide a future predictive capability of freshwater volume changes in the Beaufort-Chukchi Sea using non-in situ methods. Successful employment of the ICESat-2’s DOT approximation of freshwater content could potentially demonstrate the value of remote sensing tools to reduce reliance on field deployment platforms to characterize physical ocean properties.

Keywords: Cryosphere, remote sensing, Arctic oceanography, climate modeling, Ekman transport

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Authors: Abrar Al-Enzi

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This study investigates the role of the popular utilization of Wasta within Arab societies. Wasta, by definition, is a set of personal networks based on family or kinship ties in which power and influence are utilized to get things done. As Wasta evolved, it became intensely rooted in Arab cultures, which is considered as an intrinsic tool of the culture, a method of doing business transactions and as a family obligation. However, the consequences related to Wasta in business are substantial as it impacts organizational performance, employee’s perception of the organization and the atmosphere between employees. To date, there has been little in-depth organizational research on the impact of Wasta. Hence, the question that will be addressed is: Does Wasta influence human resource management, knowledge sharing and innovation in Kuwait, which in turn affects employees’ commitment within organizations? As a result, a mixed method sequential exploratory research design will be used to examine the mentioned subject, which consists of three phases: (1) Doing some initial exploratory interviews; (2) Developing a paper-based and online survey (Quantitative method) based on the findings; (3) Lastly, following up with semi-structured interviews (Qualitative method). The rationale behind this approach is that both qualitative and quantitative methods complement each other by providing a more complete picture of the subject matter.

Keywords: commitment, HRM practices, social capital, Wasta

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Authors: Sara Bashir, Arthur Pagiwa, Merlyn Chapfunga, Ali Ahmad Khan, Gugulethu Moyo, Osman Hassan

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Micronutrient malnutrition (MNM) is a persistent health issue in Sudan, where food fortification (FF) has the potential to improve nutritional intake. However, community acceptance and understanding are critical to the success of fortification programs. This study aimed to explore community perspectives on food fortification in Sudan, assessing knowledge, acceptability, and misconceptions. Using a mixed-methods design, an online survey was conducted through social media, gathering responses from 1,118 participants from various demographic backgrounds. Approximately half of the respondents were not aware of what FF entails and there were prevalent misconceptions about FF, perceived health benefits, and acceptance influenced by individual beliefs and circumstances. The results highlight a considerable gap in understanding the purpose and benefits of FF, despite general awareness. This study underscores the need for targeted educational campaigns to address misconceptions and promote acceptance, with attention to gender and age-specific perspectives. Furthermore, the findings provide valuable insights for policymakers aiming to implement effective, culturally-sensitive FF initiatives and awareness campaigns in Sudan.

Keywords: food fortification, malnutrition, micronutrients, Sudan

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Authors: Shahid Karim, Alfredo Bautista, Kerry Lee

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The association between teachers’ beliefs and practices has been extensively studied across the levels of education. Yet, there is a lack of context-specific evidence on the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and intentions regarding their interaction with children in early childhood education settings. Given the critical role of teachers’ beliefs in their practices, the present study examined Cambodian preschool teachers’ beliefs and intentions related to their interaction with children and what factors affect the relationship. Data was collected through a self-reported Beliefs and Intentions Questionnaire (BTQ) from preschool teachers teaching at different types of preschools in Cambodia. Four hundred nine preschool teachers teaching in public, private and community schools participated in the study through an online survey administered on Qualtrics. The quantitative analysis of the data revealed that teachers’ beliefs predict their intentions in preschool. Teachers’ teaching experience, level of education and professional training moderated the relationship between their beliefs and intentions. Differences existed between the groups of teachers teaching in different types of preschools and genders. Implications of the findings related to policy and preschool teachers’ professional development are discussed.

Keywords: teacher-child interaction, teaching beliefs, teaching intentions, preschool teaching accreditations, Cambodia

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Authors: Kiri Trier, Theresa Treffers

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In the course of continuous volatility like production stops due to the COVID-19 pandemic, video-on-demand player monopolizing the film industry, filmmakers are stuck in traditional, linear content development processes. The industry has to become more agile in order to react quickly and easily to changes. Since content development in agile project management is scientifically–empirically not at all recorded, and a lack beyond the software development in terms of agile methods consists, we examined if the agile manifesto values and principles from the software development can be adapted to the film industry to enable agility and digitalization of content development in the industry. We conducted an online questionnaire with 184 German filmmakers (producers, authors, directors, actors, film financiers) for a first cross-sectional assessment for adaptability of the agile manifesto from the software development to the film industry, factor analysis was used to validate the construct. Our results show that it is crucial to digitalize traditional content development to agile content development end-to-end, with tools, lean processes, new collaboration structures, and holacracy to prepare for any volatility. Overall, we examined the first construct for an agile manifesto for the film industry with four values related to nine own principles. Our findings help to get a better understanding of the agile manifesto beyond the software development as a guideline for implementing agility in the film industry.

Keywords: agile manifesto, agile project management, agility, film industry

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Authors: Ahmed T. Alahmar

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There is an increasing trend toward student-centred interactive e-learning methods and students’ feedback is a valuable tool for improving learning methods. The aim of this study was to explore the attitude of second year pharmacy students at the University of Babylon, Iraq, towards lectures, exams and e-learning. Materials and methods: Ninety pharmacy students were surveyed by paper questionnaire about their preference for lecture format, use of e-files, theoretical lectures versus practical experiments, lecture and lab time. Students were also asked about their predilection for Moodle-based online exams, different types of exam questions, exam time and other extra academic activities. Results: Students prefer to read lectures on paper (73.3%), use of PowerPoint file (76.7%), short lectures of less than 10 pages (94.5%), practical experiments (66.7%), lectures and lab time of less than two hours (89.9% and 96.6 respectively) and intra-lecture discussions (68.9%). Students also like to have paper-based exam (73.3%), short essay (40%) or MCQ (34.4%) questions and also prefer to do extra activities like reports (22.2%), seminars (18.6%) and posters (10.8%). Conclusion: Second year pharmacy students have different attitudes toward traditional and electronic leaning and assessment methods. Using multimedia, e-learning and Moodle are increasingly preferred methods among some students.

Keywords: pharmacy, students, lecture, exam, e-learning, Moodle

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Authors: Daban Mohammed Haji

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This paper explores the application of constructive alignment in digital education at the University of Sulaimani, focusing specifically on the Language and Culture Center, Translation Department, and English Department. Constructive alignment, an outcome-based pedagogical framework developed by John Biggs, ensures that learning activities and assessments are directly aligned with the intended learning outcomes (ILOs). The study's findings reveal a significant gap in awareness and understanding of this pedagogical concept among lecturers. Many instructors are unfamiliar with constructive alignment, and those who have some knowledge of it face considerable challenges. These challenges include aligning learning activities and assessments with the ILOs and fostering higher-order cognitive skills as outlined in the SOLO taxonomy and revised Bloom’s taxonomy. To address this issue, the existing pedagogy center at the University of Sulaimani could play a pivotal role. This center has the potential to foster faculty development and promote the adoption of constructive alignment in online teaching. By leveraging the center's expertise and resources, a tailored program can be designed to enhance faculty understanding and application of this pedagogical framework.

Keywords: constructive alignment, student-centerdness, pedagogy, bologna process

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Authors: Boadi Agyekum

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In this study, a social location perspective is used to explore the challenges of creating opportunities that will foster lifelong education, inclusion, and equity for residents of rural communities in Ghana. The differentiated experiences of rural adults are under-researched and often unacknowledged in lifelong education literature and distance education policy. There is a need to examine carefully the structural inequalities that create disadvantages for residents of rural communities and women in pursuing distance education in designated cities in Ghana. The paper uses in-depth interviews to explore participants’ experiences of learning at a distance and to scrutinise the narratives of lifelong education. The paper reflects on the implications of the framework employed for educators and social justice in lifelong education. It further recommends the need to provide IT laboratories and fully online programs that would require stable and regular internet and access to ICT equipment for potential learning in rural communities. The social location approach presented a number of axes of diversity as comparatively more important than others; these included gender, age, education, work commitment, geography, and degree of social connectedness. This can inform lifelong education policy and programs to sustain quality education.

Keywords: equity, distance education, lifelong learning, social location, intersectionality, rural communities

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Authors: Sean Goltz, Michael Mayo

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The purpose of this research is to use Global-Regulation.com database of the world laws, focusing on tax treaties between countries, in order to create an AI-driven tax simulator that will run an AI agent through potential tax scenarios across countries. The AI agent goal is to identify the scenario that will result in minimum tax liability based on tax treaties between countries. The results will be visualized by a three dimensional matrix. This will be an online web application. Multinational corporations are running their business through multiple countries. These countries, in turn, have a tax treaty with many other countries to regulate the payment of taxes on income that is transferred between these countries. As a result, planning the best tax scenario across multiple countries and numerous tax treaties is almost impossible. This research propose to use Global-Regulation.com database of word laws in English (machine translated by Google and Microsoft API’s) in order to create a simulator that will include the information in the tax treaties. Once ready, an AI agent will be sent through the simulator to identify the scenario that will result in minimum tax liability. Identifying the best tax scenario across countries may save multinational corporations, like Google, billions of dollars annually. Given the nature of the raw data and the domain of taxes (i.e., numbers), this is a promising ground to employ artificial intelligence towards a practical and beneficial purpose.

Keywords: taxation, law, multinational, corporation

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Authors: Ali Ahmad AlGassim

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The objective of this study is to explore the local community perceptions toward the impact of tourism from the COR theory perspective. The current study used qualitative methods and purposive sampling to engage informants. Data was collected using an online survey with closed-ended and open-ended questions from 57 informants living in Al-Jufa Village, and then data was analysed using content analysis. The findings showed that COR theory help explains the residents’ perception of the threat and stress of losing resources. The findings showed the residents feel stressed about losing resources, such as lands, houses, heritage, sociocultural and Islamic values, as well as job and investment opportunities if the village is developed for tourism. Findings also present that one group of residents declared rejections and aiming to resist the development if it takes place, and they will not allowing foreigners to come and live in the village. The findings also show that this stress and strain can be alleviated by allowing residents to participate in the development. Finally, the residents of Al-Juhfa showed a high level of feeling of ownership towards their resources.

Keywords: perception of threat, effect of tourism, COR theory, local community, impact of tourism, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Lasha Kamashidze

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COVID19 has already become one of the biggest challenges in the modern world. The virus has also had a significant impact on the world economy, which has faced a major crisis. Each crisis and challenge creates new opportunities. Changes in the world have allowed us to see business in a new light. The aim of the article is to explore new opportunities in the business that have arisen as a result of the Corona virus. Now, organizations with a service profile are working to meet the rapidly changing needs of their staff and customers. Due to the situation created by the pandemic, it became necessary to make some changes in people's daily lives. It became necessary to adapt to the new reality. The changes caused by Coronavirus require in-depth research and analysis in the world economy, as the current situation is not ruled out to be repeated in the future. Many companies have resorted to remote work methods, which require organizational changes. The form of remote work is not new to the Georgian reality. In Georgia, as well as in the rest of the world, the business sector has undergone changes. It will be beneficial for many Georgian companies to make organizational changes that will allow them to work remotely. The current situation has shown the managers of both Georgian and other companies to have "weak points" in organizing modern business. A survey was conducted (online survey), as a result of which it received important information about the problems of remote work in Georgia.

Keywords: organizational change, coronomics, remote work, management

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Authors: Karolina Ziembowicz, Andrzej Nowak

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In the current study, we examined the consequences of adding prosodic cues to text communication by allowing users to observe the process of message creation while engaged in dyadic conversations. In the first condition, users interacted through a traditional chat that requires pressing ‘enter’ to make a message visible to an interlocutor. In another, text appeared on the screen simultaneously as the sender was writing it, letter after letter (Synchat condition), so that users could observe the varying rhythm of message production, precise timing of message appearance, typos and their corrections. The results show that the ability to observe the dynamics of message production had a twofold effect on the social interaction process. First, it enhanced the relational aspect of communication – interlocutors synchronized their emotional states during the interaction, their communication included more statements on relationship building, and they evaluated the Synchat medium as more personal and emotionally engaging. Second, it increased the coherence of communication, reflected in greater continuity of the topics raised in Synchat conversations. The results are discussed from the interaction design (IxD) perspective.

Keywords: chat communication, online conversation, prosody, social synchronization, interaction incoherence, relationship building

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Authors: Natalia Wojarnik

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The paper aims to present the analysis of a Reddit confessions corpus. The interpretation focuses on the use of emotional language, in particular emotive verbs, in the context of personal pronouns. The analysis of the linguistic properties answers the question of what the Reddit users confess about and who is the subject of confessions. The study reveals that the specific language patterns used in Reddit confessions reflect the language of depression and the language used by patients during different stages of their psychotherapy sessions. The paper concludes that Reddit users are more willing to confess about their own experiences, not rarely very private and intimate, extensively using the first person singular pronoun I. It indicates that the Reddit users use the language of depression and the language used by psychotherapy patients. The language they use is very emotionally impacted and includes many emotive verbs such as want, feel, need, hate, love. This finding in Reddit confessions correlates with the extensive use of stative affective verbs in the first stages of the psychotherapy sessions. Lastly, the paper refers to the positive and negative lexicon and helps determine how online posts can serve as a depression detector and “talking cure” for the users.

Keywords: confessions, emotional language, emotive verbs, pronouns, first person pronoun, language of depression, depression detection, psychotherapy language

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Authors: Sivia Amado Cordeiro, Bruna Rodrigues, Maria Do Ceu Taveira, Catia Marques, Iris Oliveira, Ana Daniela Silva, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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This work intends to analyse the teaching of Psychology in Portugal and, particularly, the teaching of Career Psychology, reflecting about the changes that have occurred to date. Were analysed the educational offerings of 31 Portuguese higher education institutions, 12 public and 19 private, who teach the course of Psychology. The three degrees of study were considered, namely, bachelors, masters and doctoral. The analysis of the data focused on the curricular plans of the different degrees of studies in Psychology made available online by higher education institutions. Through them, we identified the curricular units with themes related to the teaching of Career Psychology. The results show the existence of 89 higher psychology courses in Portugal, distributed throughout the three degrees of studies. Concerning to the teaching of Career Psychology there were registered 49 curricular units with themes dedicated to this area of knowledge. There were identified 16 curricular units in the bachelor’s degree, 31 in master’s degree, and two in doctoral degree. It was observed a reduction in the number of degrees in Psychology in the last nine years in Portugal. We discuss the current situation of Psychology teaching, particularly the teaching of Career Psychology. The aim is to stimulate reflection about future perspectives of Psychology teaching, and specifically, specialized training in Psychology of Career, in Portugal.

Keywords: career psychology, higher education, psychology, Portugal

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Authors: Sandra T. Matarneh, Mark Danso-Amoako, Salam Al-Bizri, Mark Gaterell

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Today’s facilities are ever more sophisticated and the need for available and reliable information for operation and maintenance activities is vital. The key challenge for facilities managers is to have real-time accurate and complete information to perform their day-to-day activities and to provide their senior management with accurate information for decision-making process. Currently, there are various technology platforms, data repositories, or database systems such as Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) that are used for these purposes in different facilities. In most current practices, the data is extracted from paper construction documents and is re-entered manually in one of these computerized information systems. Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie), is a non-proprietary data format that contains the asset non-geometric data which was captured and collected during the design and construction phases for owners and facility managers use. Recently software vendors developed add-in applications to generate COBie spreadsheet automatically. However, most of these add-in applications are capable of generating a limited amount of COBie data, in which considerable time is still required to enter the remaining data manually to complete the COBie spreadsheet. Some of the data which cannot be generated by these COBie add-ins is essential for facilities manager’s day-to-day activities such as job sheet which includes preventive maintenance schedules. To facilitate a seamless data transfer between BIM models and facilities management systems, we developed a framework that enables automated data generation using the data extracted directly from BIM models to external web database, and then enabling different stakeholders to access to the external web database to enter the required asset data directly to generate a rich COBie spreadsheet that contains most of the required asset data for efficient facilities management operations. The proposed framework is a part of ongoing research and will be demonstrated and validated on a typical university building. Moreover, the proposed framework supplements the existing body of knowledge in facilities management domain by providing a novel framework that facilitates seamless data transfer between BIM models and facilities management systems.

Keywords: building information modeling, BIM, facilities management systems, interoperability, information management

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Authors: Husain A. Murad, Ali A. Dashti, Ali Al-Kandari

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The outbreak of Coronavirus during the Spring semester of 2020 brought new challenges for the teaching of vocational mass communication courses at universities in Kuwait. Using the Media Richness Theory (MRT), this study examines the response of 252 university students on mass communication programs. A questionnaire regarding their perceptions and preferences concerning modes of instruction on vocational courses online, focusing on the four factors of MRT: immediacy of feedback, capacity to include personal focus, conveyance of multiple cues, and variety of language. The outcomes show that immediacy of feedback predicted all criterion variables: suitability of distance learning (DL) for teaching vocational courses, sentiments of students toward DL, perceptions of easiness of evaluation of DL coursework, and the possibility of retaking DL courses. Capacity to include personal focus was another positive predictor of the criterion variables. It predicted students’ sentiments toward DL and the possibility of retaking DL courses. The outcomes are discussed in relation to implications for using DL, as well as constructing an agenda for DL research.

Keywords: distance learning, media richness theory, traditional learning, vocational media courses

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Authors: Terry Teo, Sun Woh Lye, Yufei Li, Zainuddin Zakaria

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Wearable devices such as Electroencephalography (EEG) hold immense potential in the monitoring and assessment of a person’s task engagement. This is especially so in remote or online sites. Research into its use in measuring an individual's cognitive state while performing task activities is therefore expected to increase. Despite the growing number of EEG research into brain functioning activities of a person, key challenges remain in adopting EEG for real-time operations. These include limited portability, long preparation time, high number of channel dimensionality, intrusiveness, as well as level of accuracy in acquiring neurological data. This paper proposes an approach using a 4-6 EEG channels to determine the cognitive states of a subject when undertaking a set of passive and active monitoring tasks of a subject. Air traffic controller (ATC) dynamic-tasks are used as a proxy. The work found that when using the channel reduction and identifier algorithm, good trend adherence of 89.1% can be obtained between a commercially available BCI 14 channel Emotiv EPOC+ EEG headset and that of a carefully selected set of reduced 4-6 channels. The approach can also identify different levels of engagement activities ranging from general monitoring ad hoc and repeated active monitoring activities involving information search, extraction, and memory activities.

Keywords: assessment, neurophysiology, monitoring, EEG

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Authors: Defne Akinci Midas

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The aim of this study was to determine the minimum, and maximum number of words that would be sufficient to fulfill the writing task in the local English Proficiency Exam (EPE) produced and administered at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. The relationship between the number of words and the scores of the written products that had been awarded by two raters in three online EPEs administered in 2020 was examined. The means, standard deviations, percentages, range, minimum and maximum scores as well as correlations of the scores awarded to written products with the words that amount to 0-50, 51-100, 101-150, 151-200, 201-250, 251-300, and so on were computed. The results showed that the raters did not award a full score to texts that had fewer than 100 words. Moreover, the texts that had around 200 words were awarded the highest scores. The highest number of words that earned the highest scores was about 225, and from then onwards, the scores were either stable or lower. A positive low to moderate correlation was found between the number of words and scores awarded to the texts. We understand that the idea of ‘the longer, the better’ did not apply here. The results also showed that words between 101 to about 225 were sufficient to fulfill the writing task to fully display writing skills and language ability in the specific case of this exam.

Keywords: English proficiency exam, number of words, scoring, writing task

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Authors: Yu Hung Chiang, Hei Chia Wang

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In the academic area, it is important for research to find proper research domain. Many researchers may refer to conference issues to find their interesting or new topics. Furthermore, conferences issues can help researchers realize current research trends in their field and learn about cutting-edge developments in their specialty. However, online published conference information may widely be distributed; it is not easy to be concluded. Many researchers use search engine of journals or conference issues to filter information in order to get what they want. However, this search engine has its limitation. There will still be some issues should be considered; i.e. researchers cannot find the associated topics which may be useful information for them. Hence, use Knowledge Management (KM) could be a way to resolve these issues. In KM, ontology is widely adopted; but most existed ontology construction methods do not consider social information between target users. To effective in academic KM, this study proposes a method of constructing research Topic Maps using Open Directory Project (ODP) and Social Information Processing (SIP). Through catching of social information in conference website: i.e. the information of co-authorship or collaborator, research topics can be associated among related researchers. Finally, the experiments show Topic Maps successfully help researchers to find the information they need more easily and quickly as well as construct associations between research topics.

Keywords: knowledge management, topic map, social information processing, ontology extraction

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Authors: Saira Naeem, Rana Muhammad Ayyub

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The main objective of this study is to empirically study the antecedents of perceptions of non-Muslim consumers towards Halal foods. The questionnaire survey was conducted through surveymonkey.com from non-Muslims (n=222) of USA. The validated scales of knowledge about Halal foods, animal welfare concerns, acculturation and perception about Halal foods were adopted after necessary adaptation as measures. The structural equation modelling (SEM) approach was used to study the structural model. It was found that Knowledge about Halal foods and ongoing acculturation among non-Muslims has a positive effect on perception about Halal food whereas; animal welfare concerns have negative effect on it. Furthermore, the acculturation has moderating effects but it was found non-significant. It is recommended that Halal food marketers should increase their efforts to educate customers by updating their knowledge about it. Furthermore, it is recommended that the non-Muslim consumers must be apprised of the fact that their animal welfare concerns are adequately addressed while Halal food production and supply chain. Online data collection is the only limitation of this study. This study will guide the Halal marketers of western countries about how to market the Halal food products and services to serve the non-Muslim customers.

Keywords: non-Muslims, consumer perceptions, animal welfare concerns, acculturation, knowledge about Halal

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Authors: Somruedee Pongsena

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The purpose of this study is to follow up on the graduated students of Bachelor of Science in Applied Statistics from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU) during the 1999 – 2012 academic years and to provide the fundamental guideline for developing the current curriculum according to Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (TQF: HEd). The sample was collected from 75 graduates by interview and online questionnaire. The content covered 5 subjects: ethics and moral, knowledge, cognitive skills, interpersonal skills and responsibility, numerical analysis as well as communication and information technology skills. Data were analyzed by using statistical methods as percentiles, means, standard deviation, t-tests, and F-tests. The findings showed that samples were mostly females younger than 26 years old. The majority of graduates had income in the range of 10,001-20,000 Baht and their experience range was 2-5 years. In addition, overall opinions from receiving knowledge to apply to work were at agree; mean score was 3.97 and standard deviation was 0.40. In terms of opinion difference, the hypothesis' testing results indicate gender only had different opinion at a significant level of 0.05.

Keywords: follow-up, graduates, knowledge, opinion, work performance.

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Authors: Xinrong Li, Jiawei Dai

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Food production, food safety, and the food supply chain are causing a great challenge to human health and the environment. Different kinds of food have different environmental costs. Therefore, a healthy diet can alleviate this problem to a certain extent. In this project, an online questionnaire was conducted to understand the purchase behaviour of consumers and their attitudes towards basic food information. However, the data shows that the public's current consumption habits and ideology do not meet the long-term development of sustainable social needs. In order to solve the environmental problems caused by the unbalanced diet of the public and the social problems of unequal food distribution, the purpose of this paper is to explore how to use the emerging media of VR to visualize food supply chain information so as to attract users' attention to the environmental cost of food. In this project, the food supply chain of imported and local cheese was compared side-by-side in the virtual reality environment, including the origin, transportation, sales, and other processes, which can effectively help users understand the difference between the two processes and environmental costs. Besides, the experimental data demonstrated that the participant would like to choose low environmental cost food after experiencing the whole process.

Keywords: virtual reality, information design, food supply chain, environmental cost

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Authors: Nkatow Mafany Christian

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According to UNHCR’s annual Database, humanitarian crises have globally been on the increase since the beginning of the 21st Century, especially in the Middle East and in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cameroon is one of the countries that has suffered tremendously from humanitarian challenges in recent years, especially with crises in the Far North, the East and its Two English-speaking Regions. These have been a result of failed mechanisms in conflict resolution peacebuilding by the government. The paper draws from this basic premise to argue that the failure to reach a consensus in order to curb internal conflicts has largely been due to the government’s attachment to the domineering attitude which emphasizes an imposition of peace terms by a superordinate (government) agency on the subordinate (aggrieved) entities. This has stalled peace efforts that have so far been engaged to address the dreaded armed conflicts in the North and South West Regions, leading to the persistence of the armed conflict. The paper exploits written, oral and online sources to sustain its argument. It suggests that an eclectic approach to resolving conflicts, which emphasizes open and frank dialogue as well as a review of the root causes, can go a long way not only to build trust but also to address the Anglophone-Cameroonian problems in Cameroon.

Keywords: conflict, conflict resolution, peace building, humanitarian crisis

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Authors: Abdel Qader Al Bawab, Mohannad Odeh, Rami Amer

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Recently, there has been an increasing interest in innovative business development. Nevertheless, in the pharmacy practice field, there seems to be a gap in perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge about innovation between practicing pharmacists and academia. This study explores this gap and aspects of pharmaceutical innovation in Jordan, comparing pharmacists and last-year pharmacy students. A validated (r2 = 0.74) and reliable (Pearson’s r = 0.88) online questionnaire was designed to assess and compare knowledge, attitude, and perceptions about pharmaceutical innovation. A total of 397 participants (215 pharmacy students and 182 pharmaceutical professionals) responded. Compared with 50% of the pharmacists, only 32.1% of the students claimed that they knew the differences between pharmaceutical innovation, discovery, invention, and entrepreneurship [x2 (2) = 14.238, p = 0.001; Cramer’s V = 0.189]. Pharmacists demonstrated a higher level of trust in the innovative website design for their institution compared with students (25.3% vs. 16.3%, p < 0.001, Cramer’s V = 0.327). However, 60% of the students did not know the innovative design standards for websites, while the corresponding percentage was 37% for the pharmacists (p < 0.001; Cramer’s V = 0.327). The majority of the students were interested in pharmaceutical innovation (81.9%). Unfortunately, 76.3% never studied innovation in their pharmacy curricula. Similarly, most pharmacists (76.4%) considered adopting innovation, but only 30% had a concrete plan. For the field where pharmacists aim to innovate in the next 5 years, new pharmaceutical services were the dominant field (34.6%). Despite a positive attitude and perception, pharmacists and pharmacy students expressed poor knowledge about innovation. Policies to enhance awareness about innovation and professional educational tools should be implemented.

Keywords: pharmacy, innovation, knowledge, attitude, practice

Procedia PDF Downloads 87

Authors: Mariam Shalaby, Kayla Krause, Raisha Ismail, Daniel George

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Introduction: The Pennsylvania State College of Medicine Refugee Initiative is a student-run organization that works with eleven Syrian and Congolese refugee families. Since 2016, it has used grant funding to make weekly produce purchases at a local market, provide tutoring services, and develop trusting relationships. This case study explains how the Refugee Initiative shifted focus to face new challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Methodology: When refugees who had previously attained stability found themselves unable to pay the bills, the organization shifted focus from food security to direct assistance such as applying for unemployment compensation since many had recently lost jobs. When refugee families additionally struggled to access hygiene supplies, funding was redirected to purchase them. Funds were also raised from the community to provide financial relief from unpaid rent and bills. Findings: Systemic challenges were encountered in navigating federal/state unemployment and social welfare systems, and there was a conspicuous absence of affordable, language-accessible assistance that could help refugees. Finally, as struggling public schools failed to maintain adequate English as a Second Language (ESL) education, the group’s tutoring services were hindered by social distancing and inconsistent access to distance-learning platforms. Conclusion: Ultimately, the pandemic highlighted that a charity-based arrangement is helpful but not sustainable, and challenges persist for refugee families. Based on the Refugee Initiative's experiences over the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic, several needs must be addressed to aid refugee families at this time, including: increased access to affordable and language-accessible social services, educational resources, and simpler options for grant-based financial assistance. Interventions to increase these resources will aid refugee families in need in Central Pennsylvania and internationally

Keywords: COVID-19, health, pandemic, refugees

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Mandar Ghodekar, Sharad Jadhav, Sangram Jadhav

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Speed control of rotor during startup and under varying load conditions is one of the most difficult tasks of gas turbine operation. In this paper, power plant gas turbine (GE9001E) is considered for this purpose and fuzzy and fuzzy-PI rotor speed controllers are designed. The goal of the presented controllers is to keep the turbine rotor speed within predefined limits during startup condition as well as during operating condition. The fuzzy controller and fuzzy-PI controller are designed using Takagi-Sugeno method and Mamdani method, respectively. In applying the fuzzy-PI control to a gas-turbine plant, the tuning parameters (Kp and Ki) are modified online by fuzzy logic approach. Error and rate of change of error are inputs and change in fuel flow is output for both the controllers. Hence, rotor speed of gas turbine is controlled by modifying the fuel ƒflow. The identified linear ARX model of gas turbine is considered while designing the controllers. For simulations, demand power is taken as disturbance input. It is assumed that inlet guide vane (IGV) position is fixed. In addition, the constraint on the fuel flow is taken into account. The performance of the presented controllers is compared with each other as well as with H∞ robust and MPC controllers for the same operating conditions in simulations.

Keywords: gas turbine, fuzzy controller, fuzzy PI controller, power plant

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: Kuang-Hsiung Tan, Chih-Chan Hu, Chien-Wu Lan, Shih-Sung Lin, Te-Jen Chang

Abstract:

An active islanding detection method using disturbance signal injection with intelligent controller is proposed in this study. First, a DC\AC power inverter is emulated in the distributed generator (DG) system to implement the tracking control of active power, reactive power outputs and the islanding detection. The proposed active islanding detection method is based on injecting a disturbance signal into the power inverter system through the d-axis current which leads to a frequency deviation at the terminal of the RLC load when the utility power is disconnected. Moreover, in order to improve the transient and steady-state responses of the active power and reactive power outputs of the power inverter, and to further improve the performance of the islanding detection method, two probabilistic fuzzy neural networks (PFNN) are adopted to replace the traditional proportional-integral (PI) controllers for the tracking control and the islanding detection. Furthermore, the network structure and the online learning algorithm of the PFNN are introduced in detail. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the tracking control and the proposed active islanding detection method are verified with experimental results.

Keywords: distributed generators, probabilistic fuzzy neural network, islanding detection, non-detection zone

Procedia PDF Downloads 389