Search results for: call drop probability

Authors: Domagoj Nakic, Drazen Vouk, Nina Stirmer, Mario Siljeg, Ana Baricevic

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Wastewater treatment processes generate significant quantities of sewage sludge that need to be adequately treated and disposed. In many EU countries, the problem of adequate disposal of sewage sludge has not been solved, nor is determined by the unique rules, instructions or guidelines. Disposal of sewage sludge is important not only in terms of satisfying the regulations, but the aspect of choosing the optimal wastewater and sludge treatment technology. Among the solutions that seem reasonable, recycling of sewage sludge and its byproducts reaches the top recommendation. Within the framework of sustainable development, recycling of sludge almost completely closes the cycle of wastewater treatment in which only negligible amounts of waste that requires landfilling are being generated. In many EU countries, significant amounts of sewage sludge are incinerated, resulting in a new byproduct in the form of ash. Sewage sludge ash is three to five times less in volume compared to stabilized and dehydrated sludge, but it also requires further management. The combustion process also destroys hazardous organic components in the sludge and minimizes unpleasant odors. The basic objective of the presented research is to explore the possibilities of recycling of the sewage sludge ash as a supplementary cementitious material. This is because of the main oxides present in the sewage sludge ash (SiO2, Al2O3 and Cao, which is similar to cement), so it can be considered as latent hydraulic and pozzolanic material. Physical and chemical characteristics of ashes, generated by sludge collected from different wastewater treatment plants, and incinerated in laboratory conditions at different temperatures, are investigated since it is a prerequisite of its subsequent recycling and the eventual use in other industries. Research was carried out by replacing up to 20% of cement by mass in cement mortar mixes with different obtained ashes and examining characteristics of created mixes in fresh and hardened condition. The mixtures with the highest ash content (20%) showed an average drop in workability of about 15% which is attributed to the increased water requirements when ash was used. Although some mixes containing added ash showed compressive and flexural strengths equivalent to those of reference mixes, generally slight decrease in strength was observed. However, it is important to point out that the compressive strengths always remained above 85% compared to the reference mix, while flexural strengths remained above 75%. Ecological impact of innovative construction products containing sewage sludge ash was determined by analyzing leaching concentrations of heavy metals. Results demonstrate that sewage sludge ash can satisfy technical and environmental criteria for use in cementitious materials which represents a new recycling application for an increasingly important waste material that is normally landfilled. Particular emphasis is placed on linking the composition of generated ashes depending on its origin and applied treatment processes (stage of wastewater treatment, sludge treatment technology, incineration temperature) with the characteristics of the final products. Acknowledgement: This work has been fully supported by Croatian Science Foundation under the project '7927 - Reuse of sewage sludge in concrete industry – from infrastructure to innovative construction products'.

Keywords: cement mortar, recycling, sewage sludge ash, sludge disposal

Procedia PDF Downloads 247

Authors: Iris Alkaher, Nurit Carmi

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It is widely agreed among scientists that population growth (PG) is a major factor that drives the global environmental crisis. Many researchers recognize that explicitly addressing the impact of PG on the environment and human quality of life through education systems worldwide could play a significant role in improving understanding regarding the links between rapid PG and environmental degradation and changing perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors concerning the necessity to reduce the fertility rate. However, the issue of PG is still rarely included in schools' curricula, mainly because of its complexity and controversiality. This study aims to explore the perspectives of teachers with an academic background in environmental and sustainability education (ESEteachers) and teachers with no such background (non-ESE teachers) regarding PG as an environmental risk. The study also explores the teachers’ willingness to include PG in their teaching and identifies what predicts their inclusion of it. In this mixed-methods research study, data were collected using questionnaires and interviews. The findings portray a complex picture concerning the debate aboutPG as a major factor that drives the global environmental crisis in the Israeli context. Consistent with other countries, we found that the deep-rooted pronatalist culture in the Israeli society, as well as a robust national pronatalist agenda and policies, have a tremendous impact on the education system. Therefore, we found that an academic background in ESE had a limited impact on teachers' perceptions concerning PG as a problem and on their willingness to include it in their teaching and discuss its controversiality. Teachers' attitudes related to PG demonstrated social, cultural, and politically oriented disavowal justification regarding the negative impacts of rapid PG, identified in the literature as population-skepticism and population-fatalism. Specifically, factors such as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Jewish anxiety of destruction, and the religious command to“be fruitful and multiply”influenced the perceptions of both ESE and non-ESE teachers. While these arguments are unique to the Israeli context, pronatalist policies are international. In accordance with the pronatalist policy, we also found that the absence of PG from both school curricula and the Israeli public discourse was reported by ESE and non-ESE teachers as major reasons for their disregarding PG in their teaching. Under these circumstances, the role of the education system to bring the population question to the front stage in Israel and elsewhere is more challenging. To encourage science and social studies teachers to incorporate the controversial issue of PG in their teaching and successfully confront dominant pronatalist cultures, they need strong and ongoing scaffolding and support. In accordance with scientists' agreement regarding the role of PG as a major factor that drives the global environmental crisis, we call on stakeholders and policymakers in the education system to bring the population debate into schools' curricula, the sooner, the better. And not only as part of human efforts to mitigate environmental degradation but also to use this controversial topic as a platform for shaping critical learners and responsible and active citizens who are tolerant of different people’s opinions.

Keywords: population growth, environmental and sustainability education, controversial environmental sustainability issues, pronatalism

Procedia PDF Downloads 102

Authors: Nishimwe Clemence, Mchunu Gugu, Mukamusoni Dariya

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Background: Community health workers and extension workers can play an important role in supporting families to adopt health practices, encourage delivery in a health care facility, and ensure time referral of mothers and newborns if needed. Saving the lives of neonates should, therefore, be a significant health outcome in any maternal and newborn health program that is being implemented. Furthermore, about half of a million mothers die from pregnancy-related causes. Maternal and newborn deaths related to the period of postnatal care are neglected. Some authors emphasized that in developing countries, newborn mortality rates have been reduced much more slowly because of the lack of many necessary facility-based and outreach service. The aim of this review was to critically analyze the implementation and integration process of the maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers, into the health care system, in Africa. Furthermore, it aims to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. We addressed the following review question: (1) what process is involved in the implementation and integration of the maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers during antenatal, delivery and postnatal care into health system care in Africa? Methods: The database searched was from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition through academic search complete via EBSCO Host. An iterative approach was used to go through Google scholarly papers. The reviewers considered adapted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidance, and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used. Synthesis method in integrative review following elements of noting patterns and themes, seeing plausibility, clustering, counting, making contrasts and comparisons, discerning commons and unusual patterns, subsuming particulars into general, noting relations between variability, finding intervening factors and building a logical chain of evidence, using data–based convergent synthesis design. Results: From the seventeen of studies included, results focused on three dimensions inspired by the literature on antenatal, delivery, and postnatal interventions. From this, further conceptual framework was elaborated. The conceptual framework process of implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers was elaborated in order to ensure the sustainability of community based intervention. Conclusions: the review revealed that the implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health care program require planning. We call upon governments, non-government organizations, the global health community, all stakeholders including policy makers, program managers, evaluators, educators, and providers to be involved in implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health program in updated policy and community-based intervention. Furthermore, emphasis should be placed on competence, responsibility, and accountability of maternal community health workers, their training and payment, collaboration with health professionals in health facilities, and reinforcement of outreach service. However, the review was limited in focus to the African context, where the process of maternal and newborn health care program has been poorly implemented.

Keywords: Africa, implementation of integration, maternal, newborn

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Mohamed Mouloud Haddak, Bouthayna Hayou

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Road accidents in French overseas territories have been understudied, with relevant data often collected late and incompletely. Although these territories account for only 3% to 4% of road traffic injuries in France, their unique characteristics merit closer attention. Despite lower mobility and, consequently, lower exposure to road risks, the actual road risk in Overseas France is as high or even higher than in Metropolitan France. Significant disparities exist not only between Metropolitan France and Overseas territories but also among the overseas territories themselves. The varying population densities in these regions do not fully explain these differences, as each territory has its own distinct vulnerabilities and road safety challenges. This analysis, based on BAAC data files from 2005 to 2018 for both Metropolitan France and the overseas departments and regions, examines key variables such as gender, age, type of road user, type of obstacle hit, type of trip, road category, traffic conditions, weather, and location of accidents. Logistic regression models were built for each region to investigate the risk factors associated with fatal road accidents, focusing on the probability of being killed versus injured. Due to insufficient data, Mayotte and the Overseas Communities (French Polynesia and New Caledonia) were not included in the models. The findings reveal that road safety is worse in the overseas territories compared to Metropolitan France, particularly for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and motorized two-wheelers. These territories present an accident profile that sits between that of Metropolitan France and middle-income countries. A pressing need exists to standardize accident data collection between Metropolitan and Overseas France to allow for more detailed comparative analyses. Further epidemiological studies could help identify the specific road safety issues unique to each territory, particularly with regards to socio-economic factors such as social cohesion, which may influence road safety outcomes. Moreover, the lack of data on new modes of travel, such as electric scooters, and the absence of socio-economic details of accident victims complicate the evaluation of emerging risk factors. Additional research, including sociological and psychosocial studies, is essential for understanding road users' behavior and perceptions of road risk, which could also provide valuable insights into accident trends in peri-urban areas in France.

Keywords: multivariate logistic regression, french overseas regions, road safety, road traffic accidents, territorial inequalities

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Authors: Jean Felix Tuyisingize

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Speeding or inappropriate speed is a major problem worldwide, contributing to 10-15% of road crashes and 30% of fatal injury crashes. The consequences of speeding put the driver's life at risk and the lives of other road users like motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians. To control vehicle speeds, governments, and traffic authorities enforced speed regulations through speed cameras and speed section control, which monitor all vehicle speeds and detect plate numbers to levy penalties. However, speed limit violations are prevalent, even on motorways with speed cameras. The problem with speed cameras is that they alter driver behaviors, and their effect declines with increasing distance from the speed camera location. Drivers decelerate short distances before the camera and vigorously accelerate above the speed limit just after passing by the camera. The sudden decelerating near cameras causes the drivers to try to make up for lost time after passing it, and they do this by speeding up, resulting in a phenomenon known as the "Kangaroo jump" or "V-profile" around camera/ASSC areas. This study investigated the impact of speed enforcement devices, specifically Average Speed Section Control (ASSCs) and fixed cameras, on acceleration and deceleration events within their vicinity. The research employed advanced statistical and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis on naturalistic driving data, to uncover speeding patterns near the speed enforcement systems. The study revealed a notable concentration of events within a 600-meter radius of enforcement devices, suggesting their influence on driver behaviors within a specific range. However, most of these events are of low severity, suggesting that drivers may not significantly alter their speed upon encountering these devices. This behavior could be attributed to several reasons, such as consistently maintaining safe speeds or using real-time in-vehicle intervention systems. The complexity of driver behavior is also highlighted, indicating the potential influence of factors like traffic density, road conditions, weather, time of day, and driver characteristics. Further, the study highlighted that high-severity events often occurred outside speed enforcement zones, particularly around intersections, indicating these as potential hotspots for drastic speed changes. These findings call for a broader perspective on traffic safety interventions beyond reliance on speed enforcement devices. However, the study acknowledges certain limitations, such as its reliance on a specific geographical focus, which may impact the broad applicability of the findings. Additionally, the severity of speed modification events was categorized into low, medium, and high, which could oversimplify the continuum of speed changes and potentially mask trends within each category. This research contributes valuable insights to traffic safety and driver behavior literature, illuminating the complexity of driver behavior and the potential influence of factors beyond the presence of speed enforcement devices. Future research directions may employ various categories of event severity. They may also explore the role of in-vehicle technologies, driver characteristics, and a broader set of environmental variables in driving behavior and traffic safety.

Keywords: acceleration, deceleration, speeding, inappropriate speed, speed enforcement cameras

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Authors: Tim Vollmer, Andrea Greven, Malte Brettel

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Family firms represent the predominant business structure worldwide, accounting for 90 percent of all operational businesses. These firms are essential to society and the economy. In the past decade, family firm exits increased by 72%; and in the next five years, 95,000 German family firms will be sold, acquired, or liquidated. For family firms, socioemotional wealth represents the frame of reference and value to preserve when making decisions. Family firm exits threaten the socioemotional wealth, as in extreme scenarios, economic logic may take over. So, a dilemma arises: Maintaining socioemotional wealth versus pursuing financial wealth. Family firm researchers agree that family involvement leads to specific goals, behaviors, and outcomes. For instance, the desire to protect socioemotional wealth when selling the firm and the focus on particular exit success dimensions, depending on the family's role inside the firm. However, despite the regularity of family firm exits, there is little research on the effect of family involvement on the family firm CEOs' perceived exit performance. We investigate the family firm CEOs' perceived exit performance, which we call exit success. Considering the deficiencies in the literature, we identify two research gaps. First, it remains unclear how family involvement affects the dimensions of exit success. Hence, we provide evidence of which success dimensions matter most depending on the family's involvement and how to differentiate successful from unsuccessful exits. Second, prior work has analyzed family involvement in the socioemotional wealth context but found contradictory findings. This work considers, for example, the family generation in control and identifies the tipping point of economic objectives becoming preferable over socioemotional wealth-related goals. This paper theorizes and empirically investigates, through the lens of socioemotional wealth and conflict theory, how socioemotional wealth mediates the relationship between family involvement and family firms' exit success. We analyze family firms' exit success dimensions of personal financial benefits, personal reputation, employee benefits, and firm mission persistence. Family involvement considers the family firms' heterogeneity in ownership, management, and generation. We use a quantitative approach in the form of an online survey by drawing on 116 responses from former family firm CEOs'. This study highlights that socioemotional wealth mediates the relationship between the dimensions of family involvement and exit success. The greater socioemotional wealth, the greater the family firm CEOs focus on the pro-organizational exit success dimensions of employee benefits and firm mission persistence. In contrast, the self-regarding dimension of personal financial benefits is significantly negatively affected. An important finding is that later generations and the number of family managers involved significantly negatively affect the two pro-organizational dimensions of exit success. Family ownership does not show any significant effect. Our work widens implications for research, theory, and practice by contributing in two meaningful ways. First, our results offer insights to differentiate successful from unsuccessful family firm exits and provide evidence of which success dimensions matter and which to focus on, most dependent on the family's role inside the firm. Second, our article advances research and empirical understanding of family firms and socioemotional wealth by clarifying contradictory findings.

Keywords: exit success, family firm exit, perceived exit performance, socioemotional wealth

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Z. Xu

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Immersive virtual reality (VR) has gained momentum in humanitarian communication due to its utopian promises of co-presence, immediacy, and transcendence. These potential benefits have led the United Nations (UN) to tirelessly produce and distribute VR series to evoke global empathy and encourage policymakers, philanthropic business tycoons and citizens around the world to actually do something (i.e. give a donation). However, it is unclear whether or not VR can cultivate cosmopolitans with a sense of social responsibility towards the geographically, socially/culturally and morally mediated misfortune of faraway others. Drawing upon existing works on the mediation of distant suffering, this article constructs an analytical framework to articulate the issue. Applying this framework on a case study of five of the UN’s VR pieces, the article identifies three paradoxes that exist between cyber-utopian and cyber-dystopian narratives. In the “paradox of distance”, VR relies on the notions of “presence” and “storyliving” to implicitly link audiences spatially and temporally to distant suffering, creating global connectivity and reducing perceived distances between audiences and others; yet it also enables audiences to fully occupy the point of view of distant sufferers (creating too close/absolute proximity), which may cause them to feel naive self-righteousness or narcissism with their pleasures and desire, thereby destroying the “proper distance”. In the “paradox of agency”, VR simulates a superficially “real” encounter for visual intimacy, thereby establishing an “audiences–beneficiary” relationship in humanitarian communication; yet in this case the mediated hyperreality is not an authentic reality, and its simulation does not fill the gap between reality and the virtual world. In the “paradox of the hierarchies of human life”, VR enables an audience to experience virtually fundamental “freedom”, epitomizing an attitude of cultural relativism that informs a great deal of contemporary multiculturalism, providing vast possibilities for a more egalitarian representation of distant sufferers; yet it also takes the spectator’s personally empathic feelings as the focus of intervention, rather than structural inequality and political exclusion (an economic and political power relations of viewing). Thus, the audience can potentially remain trapped within the minefield of hegemonic humanitarianism. This study is significant in two respects. First, it advances the turn of digitalization in studies of media and morality in the polymedia milieu; it is motivated by the necessary call for a move beyond traditional technological environments to arrive at a more novel understanding of the asymmetry of power between the safety of spectators and the vulnerability of mediated sufferers. Second, it not only reminds humanitarian journalists and NGOs that they should not rely entirely on the richer news experience or powerful response-ability enabled by VR to gain a “moral bond” with distant sufferers, but also argues that when fully-fledged VR technology is developed, it can serve as a kind of alchemy and should not be underestimated merely as a “bugaboo” of an alarmist philosophical and fictional dystopia.

Keywords: audience, cosmopolitan, distant suffering, virtual reality, humanitarian communication

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Authors: Mohammad Didar Hossain

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Background/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between productive engagements and the psychological well-being of older adults in the U.S by analyzing cross-sectional data from a secondary dataset. Specifically, this paper analyzed the associations of 4 different types of productive engagements, including current work status, caregiving to the family members, volunteering and religious strengths with the psychological well-being as an outcome variable. Methods: Data and sample: The study used the data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The HRS is a nationally representative prospective longitudinal cohort study that has been conducting biennial surveys since 1992 to community-dwelling individuals 50 years of age or older on diverse issues. This analysis was based on the 2016 wave (cross-sectional) of the HRS dataset and the data collection period was April 2016 through August 2017. The samples were recruited from a multistage, national area-clustered probability sampling frame. Measures: Four different variables were considered as the predicting variables in this analysis. Firstly, current working status was a binary variable that measured by 0=Yes and 1= No. The second and third variables were respectively caregiving and volunteering, and both of them were measured by; 0=Regularly, 1= Irregularly. Finally, find in strength was measured by 0= Agree and 1= Disagree. Outcome (Wellbeing) variable was measured by 0= High level of well-being, 1= Low level of well-being. Control variables including age were measured in years, education in the categories of 0=Low level of education, 1= Higher level of education and sex r in the categories 0=male, 1= female. Analysis and Results: Besides the descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression analyses were applied to examine the association between independent and dependent variables. The results showed that among the four independent variables, three of them including working status (OR: .392, p<.001), volunteering (OR: .471, p<.003) and strengths in religion (OR .588, p<.003), were significantly associated with psychological well-being while controlling for age, gender and education factors. Also, no significant association was found between the caregiving engagement of older adults and their psychological well-being outcome. Conclusions and Implications: The findings of this study are mostly consistent with the previous studies except for the caregiving engagements and their impact on older adults’ well-being outcomes. Therefore, the findings support the proactive initiatives from different micro to macro levels to facilitate opportunities for productive engagements for the older adults, and all of these may ultimately benefit their psychological well-being and life satisfaction in later life.

Keywords: productive engagements, older adults, psychological wellbeing, productive aging

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Fathonah Siti, Ardiana Irma

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Indonesia is currently on its track to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2019. The program aims to address issues on disintegration in the implementation and coverage of various health insurance schemes and fragmented fund pooling. Family planning service is covered as one of benefit packages under preventive care. However, little has been done to examine how family planning program are appropriately managed across levels of governments and how family planning services are delivered to the end user. The study is performed through focus group discussion to related policy makers and selected programmers at central and district levels. The study is also benefited from relevant studies on family planning in the UHC scheme and other supporting data. The study carefully investigates some programmatic implications when family planning is integrated in the UHC program encompassing the need to recalculate contraceptive logistics for beneficiaries (eligible couple); policy reformulation for contraceptive service provision including supply chain management; establishment of family planning standard of procedure; and a call to update Management Information System. The study confirms that there is a significant increase in the numbers of contraceptive commodities needs to be procured by the government. Holding an assumption that contraceptive prevalence rate and commodities cost will be as expected increasing at 0.5% annually, the government need to allocate almost IDR 5 billion by 2019, excluded fee for service. The government shifts its focus to maintain eligible health facilities under National Population and Family Planning Board networks. By 2019, the government has set strategies to anticipate the provision of family planning services to 45.340 health facilities distributed in 514 districts and 7 thousand sub districts. Clear division of authorities has been established among levels of governments. Three models of contraceptive supply planning have been developed and currently in the process of being institutionalized. Pre service training for family planning services has been piloted in 10 prominent universities. The position of private midwives has been appreciated as part of the system. To ensure the implementation of quality and health expenditure control, family planning standard has been established as a reference to determine set of services required to deliver to the clients properly and types of health facilities to conduct particular family planning services. Recognition to individual status of program participation has been acknowledged in the Family Enumeration since 2015. The data is precisely recorded by name by address for each family and its members. It supplies valuable information to 15.131 Family Planning Field Workers (FPFWs) to provide information and education related to family planning in an attempt to generate demand and maintain the participation of family planning acceptors who are program beneficiaries. Despite overwhelming efforts described above, some obstacles remain. The program experiences poor socialization and yet removes geographical barriers for those living in remote areas. Family planning services provided for this sub population conducted outside the scheme as a complement strategy. However, UHC program has brought remarkable improvement in access and quality of family planning services.

Keywords: beneficiary, family planning services, national population and family planning board, universal health coverage

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Authors: Iulia E. Falcan

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The transition of the European power sector towards a clean, renewable energy (RE) system faces the challenge of meeting power demand in times of low wind speed and low solar radiation, at a reasonable cost. This is likely to be achieved through a combination of 1) energy storage technologies, 2) development of the cross-border power grid, 3) installed overcapacity of RE and 4) dispatchable power sources – such as biomass. This paper uses NASA; derived hourly data on weather patterns of sixteen European countries for the past twenty-five years, and load data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators-Electricity (ENTSO-E), to develop a stochastic optimization model. This model aims to understand the synergies between the four classes of technologies mentioned above and to determine the optimal configuration of the energy technologies portfolio. While this issue has been addressed before, it was done so using deterministic models that extrapolated historic data on weather patterns and power demand, as well as ignoring the risk of an unbalanced grid-risk stemming from both the supply and the demand side. This paper aims to explicitly account for the inherent uncertainty in the energy system transition. It articulates two levels of uncertainty: a) the inherent uncertainty in future weather patterns and b) the uncertainty of fully meeting power demand. The first level of uncertainty is addressed by developing probability distributions for future weather data and thus expected power output from RE technologies, rather than known future power output. The latter level of uncertainty is operationalized by introducing a Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) constraint in the portfolio optimization problem. By setting the risk threshold at different levels – 1%, 5% and 10%, important insights are revealed regarding the synergies of the different energy technologies, i.e., the circumstances under which they behave as either complements or substitutes to each other. The paper concludes that allowing for uncertainty in expected power output - rather than extrapolating historic data - paints a more realistic picture and reveals important departures from results of deterministic models. In addition, explicitly acknowledging the risk of an unbalanced grid - and assigning it different thresholds - reveals non-linearity in the cost functions of different technology portfolio configurations. This finding has significant implications for the design of the European energy mix.

Keywords: cross-border grid extension, energy storage technologies, energy system transition, stochastic portfolio optimization

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Authors: Jae Hyun Park, Sangmi Chai, Minkyun Kim

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As users spend more time on the Internet, the probability of their personal information being exposed has been growing. This research has a main purpose of investigating factors and examining relationships when Internet users recognize their value of private information with a perspective of an economic asset. The study is targeted on Internet users, and the value of their private information will be converted into economic figures. Moreover, how economic value changes in relation with individual attributes, dealer’s traits, circumstantial properties will be studied. In this research, the changes in factors on private information value responding to different situations will be analyzed in an economic perspective. Additionally, this study examines the associations between users’ perceived risk and value of their personal information. By using the cost-benefit analysis framework, the hypothesis that the user’s sense in private information value can be influenced by individual attributes and situational properties will be tested. Therefore, this research will attempt to provide answers for three research objectives. First, this research will identify factors that affect value recognition of users’ personal information. Second, it provides evidences that there are differences on information system users’ economic value of information responding to personal, trade opponent, and situational attributes. Third, it investigates the impact of those attributes on individuals’ perceived risk. Based on the assumption that personal, trade opponent and situation attributes make an impact on the users’ value recognition on private information, this research will present the understandings on the different impacts of those attributes in recognizing the value of information with the economic perspective and prove the associative relationships between perceived risk and decision on the value of users’ personal information. In order to validate our research model, this research used the regression methodology. Our research results support that information breach experience and information security systems is associated with users’ perceived risk. Information control and uncertainty are also related to users’ perceived risk. Therefore, users’ perceived risk is considered as a significant factor on evaluating the value of personal information. It can be differentiated by trade opponent and situational attributes. This research presents new perspective on evaluating the value of users’ personal information in the context of perceived risk, personal, trade opponent and situational attributes. It fills the gap in the literature by providing how users’ perceived risk are associated with personal, trade opponent and situation attitudes in conducting business transactions with providing personal information. It adds to previous literature that the relationship exists between perceived risk and the value of users’ private information in the economic perspective. It also provides meaningful insights to the managers that in order to minimize the cost of information breach, managers need to recognize the value of individuals’ personal information and decide the proper amount of investments on protecting users’ online information privacy.

Keywords: private information, value, users, perceived risk, online information privacy, attributes

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Authors: Mark R. Leipnik, Dahlia Durga, Linda Johnson-Bhola

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Kaieteur is the most iconic National Park in the rainforest-clad nation of Guyana in South America. However, the magnificent 226-meter-high waterfall at its center is virtually inaccessible by surface transportation, and the occasional charter flights to the small airstrip in the park are too expensive for many tourists and residents. Thus, the largest waterfall in all of Amazonia, where the Potaro River plunges over a single free drop twice as high as Victoria Falls, remains preserved in splendid isolation inside a 57,000-hectare National Park established by the British in 1929, in the deepest recesses of a remote jungle canyon. Kaieteur Falls are largely unseen firsthand, but images of the falls are depicted on the Guyanese twenty dollar note, in every Guyanese tourist promotion, and on many items in the national capital of Georgetown. Georgetown is only 223-241 kilometers away from the falls. The lack of a single mileage figure demonstrates there is no single overland route. Any journey, except by air, involves changes of vehicles, a ferry ride, and a boat ride up a jungle river. It also entails hiking for many hours to view the falls. Surface access from Georgetown (or any city) is thus a 3-5 day-long adventure; even in the dry season, during the two wet seasons, travel is a particularly sticky proposition. This journey was made overland by the paper's co-author Dahlia Durga. This paper focuses on potential ways to improve overland tourist access to Kaieteur National Park from Georgetown. This is primarily a GIS-based analysis, using multiple criteria to determine the least cost means of creating all-weather road access to the area near the base of the falls while minimizing distance and elevation changes. Critically, it also involves minimizing the number of new bridges required to be built while utilizing the one existing ferry crossings of a major river. Cost estimates are based on data from road and bridge construction engineers operating currently in the interior of Guyana. The paper contains original maps generated with ArcGIS of the potential routes for such an overland connection, including the one deemed optimal. Other factors, such as the impact on endangered species habitats and Indigenous populations, are considered. This proposed infrastructure development is taking place at a time when Guyana is undergoing the largest boom in its history due to revenues from offshore oil and gas development. Thus, better access to the most important tourist attraction in the country is likely to happen eventually in some manner. But the questions of the most environmentally sustainable and least costly alternatives for such access remain. This paper addresses those questions and others related to access to this magnificent natural treasure and the tradeoffs such access will have on the preservation of the currently pristine natural environment of Kaieteur Falls.

Keywords: nature tourism, GIS, Amazonia, national parks

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Authors: Mansir Abubakar, Hazlina Hamdan, Norwati Mustapha, Teh Noranis Mohd Aris

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In order to build a matching pattern for each class correspondences of ontology, it is required to specify a set of attribute correspondences across two corresponding classes by clustering. Clustering reduces the size of potential attribute correspondences considered in the matching activity, which will significantly reduce the computation workload; otherwise, all attributes of a class should be compared with all attributes of the corresponding class. Most existing ontology matching approaches lack scalable attributes discovery methods, such as cluster-based attribute searching. This problem makes ontology matching activity computationally expensive. It is therefore vital in ontology matching to design a scalable element or attribute correspondence discovery method that would reduce the size of potential elements correspondences during mapping thereby reduce the computational workload in a matching process as a whole. The objective of this work is 1) to design a clustering method for discovering similar attributes correspondences and relationships between ontologies, 2) to discover element correspondences by classifying elements of each class based on element’s value features using K-medoids clustering technique. Discovering attribute correspondence is highly required for comparing instances when matching two ontologies. During the matching process, any two instances across two different data sets should be compared to their attribute values, so that they can be regarded to be the same or not. Intuitively, any two instances that come from classes across which there is a class correspondence are likely to be identical to each other. Besides, any two instances that hold more similar attribute values are more likely to be matched than the ones with less similar attribute values. Most of the time, similar attribute values exist in the two instances across which there is an attribute correspondence. This work will present how to classify attributes of each class with K-medoids clustering, then, clustered groups to be mapped by their statistical value features. We will also show how to map attributes of a clustered group to attributes of the mapped clustered group, generating a set of potential attribute correspondences that would be applied to generate a matching pattern. The K-medoids clustering phase would largely reduce the number of attribute pairs that are not corresponding for comparing instances as only the coverage probability of attributes pairs that reaches 100% and attributes above the specified threshold can be considered as potential attributes for a matching. Using clustering will reduce the size of potential elements correspondences to be considered during mapping activity, which will in turn reduce the computational workload significantly. Otherwise, all element of the class in source ontology have to be compared with all elements of the corresponding classes in target ontology. K-medoids can ably cluster attributes of each class, so that a proportion of attribute pairs that are not corresponding would not be considered when constructing the matching pattern.

Keywords: attribute correspondence, clustering, computational workload, k-medoids clustering, ontology matching

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Authors: P. Mounnarath, U. Schmitz, Ch. Zhang

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Fragility analysis is an effective tool for the seismic vulnerability assessment of civil structures in the last several years. The design of the expansion joints according to various bridge design codes is almost inconsistent, and only a few studies have focused on this problem so far. In this study, the influence of the expansion joint clearances between the girder ends and the abutment backwalls on the seismic fragility assessment of continuous integral bridge frames is investigated. The gaps (ranging from 60 mm, 150 mm, 250 mm and 350 mm) are designed by following two different bridge design code specifications, namely, Caltrans and Eurocode 8-2. Five bridge models are analyzed and compared. The first bridge model serves as a reference. This model uses three-dimensional reinforced concrete fiber beam-column elements with simplified supports at both ends of the girder. The other four models also employ reinforced concrete fiber beam-column elements but include the abutment backfill stiffness and four different gap values. The nonlinear time history analysis is performed. The artificial ground motion sets, which have the peak ground accelerations (PGAs) ranging from 0.1 g to 1.0 g with an increment of 0.05 g, are taken as input. The soil-structure interaction and the P-Δ effects are also included in the analysis. The component fragility curves in terms of the curvature ductility demand to the capacity ratio of the piers and the displacement demand to the capacity ratio of the abutment sliding bearings are established and compared. The system fragility curves are then obtained by combining the component fragility curves. Our results show that in the component fragility analysis, the reference bridge model exhibits a severe vulnerability compared to that of other sophisticated bridge models for all damage states. In the system fragility analysis, the reference curves illustrate a smaller damage probability in the earlier PGA ranges for the first three damage states, they then show a higher fragility compared to other curves in the larger PGA levels. In the fourth damage state, the reference curve has the smallest vulnerability. In both the component and the system fragility analysis, the same trend is found that the bridge models with smaller clearances exhibit a smaller fragility compared to that with larger openings. However, the bridge model with a maximum clearance still induces a minimum pounding force effect.

Keywords: expansion joint clearance, fiber beam-column element, fragility assessment, time history analysis

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Authors: Bouthayna Hayou, Mohamed Mouloud Haddak

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In road accidents in French overseas territories have been understudied, with relevant data often collected late and incompletely. Although these territories account for only 3% to 4% of road traffic injuries in France, their unique characteristics merit closer attention. Despite lower mobility and, consequently, lower exposure to road risks, the actual road risk in Overseas France is as high or even higher than in Metropolitan France. Significant disparities exist not only between Metropolitan France and Overseas territories but also among the overseas territories themselves. The varying population densities in these regions do not fully explain these differences, as each territory has its own distinct vulnerabilities and road safety challenges. This analysis, based on BAAC data files from 2005 to 2018 for both Metropolitan France and the overseas departments and regions, examines key variables such as gender, age, type of road user, type of obstacle hit, type of trip, road category, traffic conditions, weather, and location of accidents. Logistic regression models were built for each region to investigate the risk factors associated with fatal road accidents, focusing on the probability of being killed versus injured. Due to insufficient data, Mayotte and the Overseas Communities (French Polynesia and New Caledonia) were not included in the models. The findings reveal that road safety is worse in the overseas territories compared to Metropolitan France, particularly for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and motorized two-wheelers. These territories present an accident profile that sits between that of Metropolitan France and middle-income countries. A pressing need exists to standardize accident data collection between Metropolitan and Overseas France to allow for more detailed comparative analyses. Further epidemiological studies could help identify the specific road safety issues unique to each territory, particularly with regard to socio-economic factors such as social cohesion, which may influence road safety outcomes. Moreover, the lack of data on new modes of travel, such as electric scooters, and the absence of socio-economic details of accident victims complicate the evaluation of emerging risk factors. Additional research, including sociological and psychosocial studies, is essential for understanding road users' behavior and perceptions of road risk, which could also provide valuable insights into accident trends in peri-urban areas in France.

Keywords: multivariate logistic regression, overseas France, road safety, road traffic accident, territorial inequalities

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Authors: Amir Shouri, Fereshteh Tabe

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Master planning and urban infrastructure’s thoughtful and sequential design strategies will play the major role in reducing the damages of natural disasters, war and or social/population related conflicts for cities. Defensive strategies have been revised during the history of mankind after having damages from natural depressions, war experiences and terrorist attacks on cities. Lessons learnt from Earthquakes, from 2 world war casualties in 20th century and terrorist activities of all times. Particularly, after Hurricane Sandy of New York in 2012 and September 11th attack on New York’s World Trade Centre (WTC) in 21st century, there have been series of serious collaborations between law making authorities, urban planners and architects and defence related organizations to firstly, getting prepared and/or prevent such activities and secondly, reduce the human loss and economic damages to minimum. This study will work on developing a model of planning for New York City, where its citizens will get minimum impacts in threat-full time with minimum economic damages to the city after the stress is passed. The main discussion in this proposal will focus on pre-hazard, hazard-time and post-hazard transformative policies and strategies that will reduce the “Life casualties” and will ease “Economic Recovery” in post-hazard conditions. This proposal is going to scrutinize that one of the key solutions in this path might be focusing on all overlaying possibilities on architectural platforms of three fundamental infrastructures, the transportation, the power related sources and defensive abilities on a dynamic-transformative framework that will provide maximum safety, high level of flexibility and fastest action-reaction opportunities in stressful periods of time. “Planning Fore Stress” is going to be done in an analytical, qualitative and quantitative work frame, where it will study cases from all over the world. Technology, Organic Design, Materiality, Urban forms, city politics and sustainability will be discussed in deferent cases in international scale. From the modern strategies of Copenhagen for living friendly with nature to traditional approaches of Indonesian old urban planning patterns, the “Iron Dome” of Israel to “Tunnels” in Gaza, from “Ultra-high-performance quartz-infused concrete” of Iran to peaceful and nature-friendly strategies of Switzerland, from “Urban Geopolitics” in cities, war and terrorism to “Design of Sustainable Cities” in the world, will all be studied with references and detailed look to analysis of each case in order to propose the most resourceful, practical and realistic solutions to questions on “New City Divisions”, “New City Planning and social activities” and “New Strategic Architecture for Safe Cities”. This study is a developed version of a proposal that was announced as winner at MoMA in 2013 in call for ideas for Rockaway after Sandy Hurricane took place.

Keywords: urban scale, city safety, natural disaster, war and terrorism, city divisions, architecture for safe cities

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Authors: Zongping Wang, Chengjun Cui, Jiacun Wang

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The concept of intelligence has been widely used to access an individual's cognitive abilities to learn, form concepts, understand, apply logic, and reason. According to the multiple intelligence theory, there are eight distinguished types of intelligence. One of them is the bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence that links to the capacity of an individual controlling his body and working with objects. Motor intelligence, on the other hand, reflects the capacity to understand, perceive and solve functional problems by motor behavior. Both bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence and motor intelligence refer directly or indirectly to bodily capacity. Inspired by these two intelligence concepts, this paper introduces motional intelligence (MI). MI is two-fold. (1) Body strength, which is the capacity of various organ functions manifested by muscle activity under the control of the central nervous system during physical exercises. It can be measured by the magnitude of muscle contraction force, the frequency of repeating a movement, the time to finish a movement of body position, the duration to maintain muscles in a working status, etc. Body strength reflects the objective of MI. (2) Level of psychiatric willingness to physical events. It is a subjective thing and determined by an individual’s self-consciousness to physical events and resistance to fatigue. As such, we call it subjective MI. Subjective MI can be improved through education and proper social events. The improvement of subjective MI can lead to that of objective MI. A quantitative score of an individual’s MI is motional quotient (MQ). MQ is affected by several factors, including genetics, physical training, diet and lifestyle, family and social environment, and personal awareness of the importance of physical exercise. Genes determine one’s body strength potential. Physical training, in general, makes people stronger, faster and swifter. Diet and lifestyle have a direct impact on health. Family and social environment largely affect one’s passion for physical activities, so does personal awareness of the importance of physical exercise. The key to the success of the MQ study is developing an acceptable and efficient system that can be used to assess MQ objectively and quantitatively. We should apply different accessing systems to different groups of people according to their ages and genders. Field test, laboratory test and questionnaire are among essential components of MQ assessment. A scientific interpretation of MQ score is part of an MQ assessment system as it will help an individual to improve his MQ. IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional quotient) and their test have been studied intensively. We argue that IQ and EQ study alone is not sufficient for an individual’s all round development. The significance of MQ study is that it offsets IQ and EQ study. MQ reflects an individual’s mental level as well as bodily level of intelligence in physical activities. It is well-known that the American Springfield College seal includes the Luther Gulick triangle with the words “spirit,” “mind,” and “body” written within it. MQ, together with IQ and EQ, echoes this education philosophy. Since its inception in 2012, the MQ research has spread rapidly in China. By now, six prestigious universities in China have established research centers on MQ and its assessment.

Keywords: motional Intelligence, motional quotient, multiple intelligence, motor intelligence, all round development

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Authors: Robert Pocklington

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Most current language courses expect students to be ‘vocational’, sacrificing their free time in order to learn. However, pupils with a full-time job, or bringing up children, hardly have a spare moment. Others just need the language as a tool or a qualification, as if it were book-keeping or a driving license. Then there are children in unstructured families whose stressful life makes private study almost impossible. And the countless parents whose evenings and weekends have become a nightmare, trying to get the children to do their homework. There are many arguments against homework being a necessity (rather than an optional extra for more ambitious or dedicated students), making a clear case for teaching methods which facilitate full learning of the key content within the classroom. A methodology which could be described as Programmed Mastery Learning has been used at Fluency Language Academy (Spain) since 1992, to teach English to over 4000 pupils yearly, with a staff of around 100 teachers, barely requiring homework. The course is structured according to the tenets of Programmed Learning: small manageable teaching steps, immediate feedback, and constant successful activity. For the Mastery component (not stopping until everyone has learned), the memorisation and practice are entrusted to flashcard-based drilling in the classroom, leading all students to progress together and develop a permanently growing knowledge base. Vocabulary and expressions are memorised using flashcards as stimuli, obliging the brain to constantly recover words from the long-term memory and converting them into reflex knowledge, before they are deployed in sentence building. The use of grammar rules is practised with ‘cue’ flashcards: the brain refers consciously to the grammar rule each time it produces a phrase until it comes easily. This automation of lexicon and correct grammar use greatly facilitates all other language and conversational activities. The full B2 course consists of 48 units each of which takes a class an average of 17,5 hours to complete, allowing the vast majority of students to reach B2 level in 840 class hours, which is corroborated by an 85% pass-rate in the Cambridge University B2 exam (First Certificate). In the past, studying for qualifications was just one of many different options open to young people. Nowadays, youngsters need to stay at school and obtain qualifications in order to get any kind of job. There are many students in our classes who have little intrinsic interest in what they are studying; they just need the certificate. In these circumstances and with increasing government pressure to minimise failure, teachers can no longer think ‘If they don’t study, and fail, its their problem’. It is now becoming the teacher’s problem. Teachers are ever more in need of methods which make their pupils successful learners; this means assuring learning in the classroom. Furthermore, homework is arguably the main divider between successful middle-class schoolchildren and failing working-class children who drop out: if everything important is learned at school, the latter will have a much better chance, favouring inclusiveness in the language classroom.

Keywords: flashcard drilling, fluency method, mastery learning, programmed learning, teaching English as a foreign language

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Authors: Priscila A. Bernardes, Marcos E. Buzanskas, Luciana C. A. Regitano, Ricardo V. Ventura, Danisio P. Munari

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Genotype imputation has been used to reduce genomic selections costs. In order to increase haplotype detection accuracy in methods that considers the linkage disequilibrium, another approach could be used, such as combined genotype data from different panels. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the linkage disequilibrium and haplotype blocks in two high-density panels before and after the imputation to a combined panel in Nelore beef cattle. A total of 814 animals were genotyped with the Illumina BovineHD BeadChip (IHD), wherein 93 animals (23 bulls and 70 progenies) were also genotyped with the Affymetrix Axion Genome-Wide BOS 1 Array Plate (AHD). After the quality control, 809 IHD animals (509,107 SNPs) and 93 AHD (427,875 SNPs) remained for analyses. The combined genotype panel (CP) was constructed by merging both panels after quality control, resulting in 880,336 SNPs. Imputation analysis was conducted using software FImpute v.2.2b. The reference (CP) and target (IHD) populations consisted of 23 bulls and 786 animals, respectively. The linkage disequilibrium and haplotype blocks studies were carried out for IHD, AHD, and imputed CP. Two linkage disequilibrium measures were considered; the correlation coefficient between alleles from two loci (r²) and the |D’|. Both measures were calculated using the software PLINK. The haplotypes' blocks were estimated using the software Haploview. The r² measurement presented different decay when compared to |D’|, wherein AHD and IHD had almost the same decay. For r², even with possible overestimation by the sample size for AHD (93 animals), the IHD presented higher values when compared to AHD for shorter distances, but with the increase of distance, both panels presented similar values. The r² measurement is influenced by the minor allele frequency of the pair of SNPs, which can cause the observed difference comparing the r² decay and |D’| decay. As a sum of the combinations between Illumina and Affymetrix panels, the CP presented a decay equivalent to a mean of these combinations. The estimated haplotype blocks detected for IHD, AHD, and CP were 84,529, 63,967, and 140,336, respectively. The IHD were composed by haplotype blocks with mean of 137.70 ± 219.05kb, the AHD with mean of 102.10kb ± 155.47, and the CP with mean of 107.10kb ± 169.14. The majority of the haplotype blocks of these three panels were composed by less than 10 SNPs, with only 3,882 (IHD), 193 (AHD) and 8,462 (CP) haplotype blocks composed by 10 SNPs or more. There was an increase in the number of chromosomes covered with long haplotypes when CP was used as well as an increase in haplotype coverage for short chromosomes (23-29), which can contribute for studies that explore haplotype blocks. In general, using CP could be an alternative to increase density and number of haplotype blocks, increasing the probability to obtain a marker close to a quantitative trait loci of interest.

Keywords: Bos taurus indicus, decay, genotype imputation, single nucleotide polymorphism

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Authors: Sandra Adarve, Jhon Osorio

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Uncertainty has been studied in patients with different types of cancer, except in patients with hematologic cancer and undergoing transplantation. The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with uncertainty in adults patients with malignant hemato-oncology diseases who are scheduled to undergo hematopoietic stem cell transplantation based on Merle Mishel´s Uncertainty theory. This was a cross-sectional study with an analytical purpose. The study sample included 50 patients with leukemia, myeloma, and lymphoma selected by non-probability sampling by convenience and intention. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were measured. Mishel´s Scale of Uncertainty in Illness was used for the measurement of uncertainty. A bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to explore the relationships and associations between the different variables and uncertainty level. For this analysis, the distribution of the uncertainty scale values was evaluated through the Shapiro-Wilk normality test to identify statistical tests to be used. A multivariate analysis was conducted through a logistic regression using step-by-step technique. Patients were 18-74 years old, with a mean age of 44.8. Over time, the disease course had a median of 9.5 months, an opportunity was found in the performance of the transplantation of < 20 days for 50% of the patients. Regarding the uncertainty scale, a mean score of 95.46 was identified. When the dimensions of the scale were analyzed, the mean score of the framework of stimuli was 25.6, of cognitive ability was 47.4 and structure providers was 22.8. Age was identified to correlate with the total uncertainty score (p=0.012). Additionally, a statistically significant difference was evidenced between different religious creeds and uncertainty score (p=0.023), education level (p=0.012), family history of cancer (p=0.001), the presence of comorbidities (p=0.023) and previous radiotherapy treatment (p=0.022). After performing logistic regression, previous radiotherapy treatment (OR=0.04 IC95% (0.004-0.48)) and family history of cancer (OR=30.7 IC95% (2.7-349)) were found to be factors associated with the high level of uncertainty. Uncertainty is present in high levels in patients who are going to be subjected to bone marrow transplantation, and it is the responsibility of the nurse to assess the levels of uncertainty and the presence of factors that may contribute to their presence. Once it has been valued, the uncertainty must be intervened from the identified associated factors, especially all those that have to do with the cognitive capacity. This implies the implementation and design of intervention strategies to improve the knowledge related to the disease and the therapeutic procedures to which the patients will be subjected. All interventions should favor the adaptation of these patients to their current experience and contribute to seeing uncertainty as an opportunity for growth and transcendence.

Keywords: hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, hematologic diseases, nursing, uncertainty

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Authors: Marcin Zieliński, Marcin Dębowski, Mirosław Krzemieniewski

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The anaerobic degradation of substrates is limited especially by the rate and effectiveness of the first (hydrolytic) stage of fermentation. This stage may be intensified through pre-treatment of substrate aimed at disintegration of the solid phase and destruction of substrate tissues and cells. The most frequently applied criterion of disintegration outcomes evaluation is the increase in biogas recovery owing to the possibility of its use for energetic purposes and, simultaneously, recovery of input energy consumed for the pre-treatment of substrate before fermentation. Hydrodynamic cavitation is one of the methods for organic substrate disintegration that has a high implementation potential. Cavitation is explained as the phenomenon of the formation of discontinuity cavities filled with vapor or gas in a liquid induced by pressure drop to the critical value. It is induced by a varying field of pressures. A void needs to occur in the flow in which the pressure first drops to the value close to the pressure of saturated vapor and then increases. The process of cavitation conducted under controlled conditions was found to significantly improve the effectiveness of anaerobic conversion of organic substrates having various characteristics. This phenomenon allows effective damage and disintegration of cellular and tissue structures. Disintegration of structures and release of organic compounds to the dissolved phase has a direct effect on the intensification of biogas production in the process of anaerobic fermentation, on reduced dry matter content in the post-fermentation sludge as well as a high degree of its hygienization and its increased susceptibility to dehydration. A device the efficiency of which was confirmed both in laboratory conditions and in systems operating in the technical scale is a hydrodynamic generator of cavitation. Cavitators, agitators and emulsifiers constructed and tested worldwide so far have been characterized by low efficiency and high energy demand. Many of them proved effective under laboratory conditions but failed under industrial ones. The only task successfully realized by these appliances and utilized on a wider scale is the heating of liquids. For this reason, their usability was limited to the function of heating installations. Design of the presented cavitation generator allows achieving satisfactory energy efficiency and enables its use under industrial conditions in depolymerization processes of biomass with various characteristics. Investigations conducted on the laboratory and industrial scale confirmed the effectiveness of applying cavitation in the process of biomass destruction. The use of the cavitation generator in laboratory studies for disintegration of sewage sludge allowed increasing biogas production by ca. 30% and shortening the treatment process by ca. 20 - 25%. The shortening of the technological process and increase of wastewater treatment plant effectiveness may delay investments aimed at increasing system output. The use of a mechanical cavitator and application of repeated cavitation process (4-6 times) enables significant acceleration of the biogassing process. In addition, mechanical cavitation accelerates increases in COD and VFA levels.

Keywords: hydrodynamic cavitation, pretreatment, biomass, methane fermentation, Virginia fanpetals

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Authors: Naima Mohammadi

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The present paper critically reports on the emergency of Iranian international students in a large public university in Italy. Although the most sizeable diaspora of Iranians dates back to the 1979 revolution, a huge wave of Iranian female students travelled abroad after the Iranian Green Movement (2009) due to the intensification of gender discrimination and Islamization. To explore the experience of Iranian female students at an Italian public university, two complementary methods were adopted: a focus group and individual interviews. Focus groups yield detailed collective conversations and provide researchers with an opportunity to observe the interaction between participants, rather than between participant and researcher, which generates data. Semi-structured interviews allow participants to share their stories in their own words and speak about personal experiences and opinions. Research participants were invited to participate through a public call in a Telegram group of Iranian students. Theoretical and purposive sampling was applied to select participants. All participants were assured that full anonymity would be ensured and they consented to take part in the research. A two-hour focus group was held in English with participants in the presence and some online. They were asked to share their motivations for studying in Italy and talk about their experiences both within and outside the university context. Each of these interviews lasted from 45 to 60 minutes and was mostly carried out online and in Farsi. The focus group consisted of 8 Iranian female post-graduate students. In analyzing the data a blended approach was adopted, with a combination of deductive and inductive coding. According to research findings, although 9/11 was the beginning of the West’s challenges against Muslims, the nuclear threats of Islamic regimes promoted the toughest international sanctions against Iranians as a nation across the world. Accordingly, carrying an Iranian identity contributes to social, political, and economic exclusion. Research findings show that geopolitical factors such as international sanctions and Islamophobia, and a lack of reciprocity in terms of recognition, have created a sense of stigmatization for veiled and unveiled Iranian female students who are the largest groups of ‘non-European Muslim international students’ enrolled in Italian universities. Participants addressed how their nationality has devalued their public image and negatively impacted their self-confidence and self-realization in academia. They highlighted the experience of an unwelcoming atmosphere by different groups of people and institutes, such as receiving marked students’ badges, rejected bank account requests, failed visa processes, secondary security screening selection, and hyper-visibility of veiled students. This study corroborates the need for institutions to pay attention to geopolitical factors and religious diversity in student recruitment and provide support mechanisms and access to basic rights. Accordingly, it is suggested that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a social and moral responsibility towards the discrimination and both social and academic exclusion of Iranian students.

Keywords: Iranian diaspora, female students, recognition theory, inclusive university

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Authors: S. A. Krutovertsev, A. E. Tarasova, L. S. Krutovertseva, O. M. Ivanova

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The aim of the work was to get stable sensitive films with good sensitivity to ethanolamine (C2H7NO) in air. Ethanolamine is used as adsorbent in different processes of gas purification and separation. Besides it has wide industrial application. Chemical sensors of sorption type are widely used for gas analysis. Their behavior is determined by sensor characteristics of sensitive sorption layer. Forming conditions and characteristics of chemical gas sensors based on nanostructured modified silica films activated by different admixtures have been studied. As additives molybdenum containing polyoxometalates of the eighteen series were incorporated in silica films. The method of hydrolythic polycondensation from tetraethyl orthosilicate solutions was used for forming such films in this work. The method’s advantage is a possibility to introduce active additives directly into an initial solution. This method enables to obtain sensitive thin films with high specific surface at room temperature. Particular properties make polyoxometalates attractive as active additives for forming of gas-sensitive films. As catalyst of different redox processes, they can either accelerate the reaction of the matrix with analyzed gas or interact with it, and it results in changes of matrix’s electrical properties Polyoxometalates based films were deposited on the test structures manufactured by microelectronic planar technology with interdigitated electrodes. Modified silica films were deposited by a casting method from solutions based on tetraethyl orthosilicate and polyoxometalates. Polyoxometalates were directly incorporated into initial solutions. Composite nanostructured films were deposited by drop casting method on test structures with a pair of interdigital metal electrodes formed at their surface. The sensor’s active area was 4.0 x 4.0 mm, and electrode gap was egual 0.08 mm. Morphology of the layers surface were studied with Solver-P47 scanning probe microscope (NT-MDT, Russia), the infrared spectra were investigated by a Bruker EQUINOX 55 (Germany). The conditions of film formation varied during the tests. Electrical parameters of the sensors were measured electronically in real-time mode. Films had highly developed surface with value of 450 m2/g and nanoscale pores. Thickness of them was 0,2-0,3 µm. The study shows that the conditions of the environment affect markedly the sensors characteristics, which can be improved by choosing of the right procedure of forming and processing. Addition of polyoxometalate into silica film resulted in stabilization of film mass and changed markedly of electrophysical characteristics. Availability of Mn3P2Mo18O62 into silica film resulted in good sensitivity and selectivity to ethanolamine. Sensitivity maximum was observed at weight content of doping additive in range of 30–50% in matrix. With ethanolamine concentration changing from 0 to 100 ppm films’ conductivity increased by 10-12 times. The increase of sensor’s sensitivity was received owing to complexing reaction of tested substance with cationic part of polyoxometalate. This fact results in intramolecular redox reaction which sharply change electrophysical properties of polyoxometalate. This process is reversible and takes place at room temperature.

Keywords: ethanolamine, gas analysis, polyoxometalate, silica film

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Authors: Farhad Azadi, Mohammad Mahdi Mohammadi, Mohsen Vahedi, Zahra Mahdiin

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Context: The aging population is growing all over the world and maintaining physical activity is essential for healthy aging. However, fear of falling is a major obstacle to physical activity among the elderly. The aim of this study is to investigate and compare the relationship between fear of falling and physical activity in Iranian urban and rural elderly. Research Aim: The main aim of this cross-sectional analytical study is to investigate and compare the relationship between fear of falling and physical activity in Iranian rural and urban elderly. Methodology: The study used simple non-probability sampling to select 350 participants aged 60 years and older from rural and urban areas of Konarak, Sistan and Baluchistan provinces in Iran. The Persian versions of the Falls Efficacy Scale - International, Rapid Physical Activity Assessment, Activities of Daily Living, and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living questionnaires were used to assess fear of falling and physical activity. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation tests. Findings: The study found a statistically significant negative correlation between fear of falling and physical activity, as measured by ADL, IADL, and RAPA1(aerobic ), in all elderly and rural and urban elderly (p<0.001). Fear of falling was higher in rural areas, while physical activity levels measured by ADL and RAPA1 were higher in urban areas. No significant difference was found between the two groups in IADL and RAPA2 (strength and flexibility) scores. Theoretical Importance: This study highlights the importance of considering the fear of falling as a significant obstacle to proper physical activity, especially among the elderly living in rural areas. Furthermore, the study provides insight into the difference between rural and urban elderly people in terms of fear of falling and physical activity. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: Data was collected through questionnaires and analyzed using Pearson correlation tests. Questions Addressed: The study attempted to answer the following questions: Is there a relationship between fear of falling and physical activity in Iranian urban and rural elderly people? Is there a difference in fear of falling and physical activity between rural and urban elderly? Conclusion: Fear of falling is a major obstacle to physical activity among the elderly, especially in rural areas. The study found a significant negative correlation between fear of falling and physical activity in all elderly and rural and urban elderly. In addition, urban and rural elderly have differences in aerobic activity levels, but they do not differ in terms of flexibility and strength. Therefore, proper interventions are required to ensure that the elderly can maintain physical activity, especially in rural and deprived areas.

Keywords: aged, fear of falling, physical activity, urban population, rural population

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Authors: Seonaid Hume, Gordon Dobie, Graeme West

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Detecting and localizing radioactive sources is a necessity for safe and secure decommissioning of nuclear facilities. An important aspect for the management of the sort-and-segregation process is establishing the spatial distributions and quantities of the waste radionuclides, their type, corresponding activity, and ultimately classification for disposal. The data received from surveys directly informs decommissioning plans, on-site incident management strategies, the approach needed for a new cell, as well as protecting the workforce and the public. Manual classification of nuclear waste from a nuclear cell is time-consuming, expensive, and requires significant expertise to make the classification judgment call. Also, in-cell decommissioning is still in its relative infancy, and few techniques are well-developed. As with any repetitive and routine tasks, there is the opportunity to improve the task of classifying nuclear waste using autonomous systems. Hence, this paper proposes a new framework for the automatic classification of nuclear waste. This framework consists of five main stages; 3D spatial mapping and object detection, object classification, radiological mapping, source localisation based on gathered evidence and finally, waste classification. The first stage of the framework, 3D visual mapping, involves object detection from point cloud data. A review of related applications in other industries is provided, and recommendations for approaches for waste classification are made. Object detection focusses initially on cylindrical objects since pipework is significant in nuclear cells and indeed any industrial site. The approach can be extended to other commonly occurring primitives such as spheres and cubes. This is in preparation of stage two, characterizing the point cloud data and estimating the dimensions, material, degradation, and mass of the objects detected in order to feature match them to an inventory of possible items found in that nuclear cell. Many items in nuclear cells are one-offs, have limited or poor drawings available, or have been modified since installation, and have complex interiors, which often and inadvertently pose difficulties when accessing certain zones and identifying waste remotely. Hence, this may require expert input to feature match objects. The third stage, radiological mapping, is similar in order to facilitate the characterization of the nuclear cell in terms of radiation fields, including the type of radiation, activity, and location within the nuclear cell. The fourth stage of the framework takes the visual map for stage 1, the object characterization from stage 2, and radiation map from stage 3 and fuses them together, providing a more detailed scene of the nuclear cell by identifying the location of radioactive materials in three dimensions. The last stage involves combining the evidence from the fused data sets to reveal the classification of the waste in Bq/kg, thus enabling better decision making and monitoring for in-cell decommissioning. The presentation of the framework is supported by representative case study data drawn from an application in decommissioning from a UK nuclear facility. This framework utilises recent advancements of the detection and mapping capabilities of complex radiation fields in three dimensions to make the process of classifying nuclear waste faster, more reliable, cost-effective and safer.

Keywords: nuclear decommissioning, radiation detection, object detection, waste classification

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Authors: Panagiota Katsikouli, William Hamilton Byrne, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Tijs Slaats

Abstract:

An individual who demonstrates a well-founded fear of persecution or faces real risk of being subjected to torture is eligible for asylum. In Danish law, the exact legal thresholds reflect those established by international conventions, notably the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1950 European Convention for Human Rights. These international treaties, however, remain largely silent when it comes to how states should assess asylum claims. As a result, national authorities are typically left to determine an individual’s legal eligibility on a narrow basis consisting of an oral testimony, which may itself be hampered by several factors, including imprecise language interpretation, insecurity or lacking trust towards the authorities among applicants. The leaky ground, on which authorities must assess their subjective perceptions of asylum applicants' credibility, questions whether, in all cases, adjudicators make the correct decision. Moreover, the subjective element in these assessments raises questions on whether individual asylum cases could be afflicted by implicit biases or stereotyping amongst adjudicators. In fact, recent studies have uncovered significant correlations between decision outcomes and the experience and gender of the assigned judge, as well as correlations between asylum outcomes and entirely external events such as weather and political elections. In this study, we analyze a publicly available dataset containing approximately 8,000 summaries of asylum cases, initially rejected, and re-tried by the Refugee Appeals Board (RAB) in Denmark. First, we look for variations in the recognition rates, with regards to a number of applicants’ features: their country of origin/nationality, their identified gender, their identified religion, their ethnicity, whether torture was mentioned in their case and if so, whether it was supported or not, and the year the applicant entered Denmark. In order to extract those features from the text summaries, as well as the final decision of the RAB, we applied natural language processing and regular expressions, adjusting for the Danish language. We observed interesting variations in recognition rates related to the applicants’ country of origin, ethnicity, year of entry and the support or not of torture claims, whenever those were made in the case. The appearance (or not) of significant variations in the recognition rates, does not necessarily imply (or not) bias in the decision-making progress. None of the considered features, with the exception maybe of the torture claims, should be decisive factors for an asylum seeker’s fate. We therefore investigate whether the decision can be predicted on the basis of these features, and consequently, whether biases are likely to exist in the decisionmaking progress. We employed a number of machine learning classifiers, and found that when using the applicant’s country of origin, religion, ethnicity and year of entry with a random forest classifier, or a decision tree, the prediction accuracy is as high as 82% and 85% respectively. tentially predictive properties with regards to the outcome of an asylum case. Our analysis and findings call for further investigation on the predictability of the outcome, on a larger dataset of 17,000 cases, which is undergoing.

Keywords: asylum adjudications, automated decision-making, machine learning, text mining

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Authors: Panagiotis Gkekas, Christos Sougles, Dionysios Kehagias, Dimitrios Tzovaras

Abstract:

This paper presents the architecture of the “Intelligent cooperative integrated system for road safety and road infrastructure maintenance towards 2020” (ODOS2020) advanced infrastructure, which implements a number of cooperative ITS applications based on Internet of Things and Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (V2I) technologies with the purpose to enhance the active road safety level of vehicles through the provision of a fully automated V2I environment. The primary objective of the ODOS2020 project is to contribute to increased road safety but also to the optimization of time for maintenance of road infrastructure. The integrated technological solution presented in this paper addresses all types of vehicles and requires minimum vehicle equipment. Thus, the ODOS2020 comprises a low-cost solution, which is one of its main benefits. The system architecture includes an integrated notification system to transmit personalized information on road, traffic, and environmental conditions, in order for the drivers to receive real-time and reliable alerts concerning upcoming critical situations. The latter include potential dangers on the road, such as obstacles or road works ahead, extreme environmental conditions, etc., but also informative messages, such as information on upcoming tolls and their charging policies. At the core of the system architecture lies an integrated sensorial network embedded in special road infrastructures (strips) that constantly collect and transmit wirelessly information about passing vehicles’ identification, type, speed, moving direction and other traffic information in combination with environmental conditions and road wear monitoring and predictive maintenance data. Data collected from sensors is transmitted by roadside infrastructure, which supports a variety of communication technologies such as ITS-G5 (IEEE-802.11p) wireless network and Internet connectivity through cellular networks (3G, LTE). All information could be forwarded to both vehicles and Traffic Management Centers (TMC) operators, either directly through the ITS-G5 network, or to smart devices with Internet connectivity, through cloud-based services. Therefore, through its functionality, the system could send personalized notifications/information/warnings and recommendations for upcoming events to both road users and TMC operators. In the course of the ODOS2020 project pilot operation has been conducted to allow drivers of both C-ITS equipped and non-equipped vehicles to experience the provided added value services. For non-equipped vehicles, the provided information is transmitted to a smartphone application. Finally, the ODOS2020 system and infrastructure is appropriate for installation on both urban, rural, and highway environments. The paper presents the various parts of the system architecture and concludes by outlining the various challenges that had to be overcome during its design, development, and deployment in a real operational environment. Acknowledgments: Work presented in this paper was co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (call RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE) under contract no. Τ1EDK-03081 (project ODOS2020).

Keywords: infrastructure to vehicle, intelligent transportation systems, internet of things, road safety

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Authors: M. S. Alatas, H. D. Umucalilar

Abstract:

SARA is a common and serious metabolic disorder in early lactation in dairy cattle and in finishing beef cattle, caused by diets with high inclusion of cereal grain. This experiment was performed to determine the efficacy of Megasphaera elsdenii, a major lactate-utilizing bacterium in prevention/treatment of SARA in vivo. In vivo experimentation, it was used eight ruminally cannulated rams and it was applied the rapid adaptation with the mixture of grain based on wheat (%80 wheat, %20 barley) and barley (%80 barley, %20 wheat). During the systematic adaptation, it was followed the probability of SARA formation by being measured the rumen pH with two hours intervals after and before feeding. After being evaluated the data, it was determined the ruminal pH ranged from 5,2-5,6 on the condition of feeding with 60 percentage of grain mixture based on barley and wheat, that assured the definite form of subacute acidosis. In four days SARA period, M. elsdenii (1010 cfu ml-1) was inoculated during the first two days. During the SARA period, it was observed the decrease of feed intake with M. elsdenii inoculation. Inoculation of M. elsdenii was caused to differentiation of rumen pH (P < 0,0001), while it was found the pH level approximately 5,55 in animals applied the inoculation, it was 5,63 pH in other animals. It was observed that total VFA with the bacterium inoculation tended to change in terms of grain feed (P < 0,07). It increased with the effect of total VFA inoculation in barley based diet, but it was more stabilized in wheat based diet. Bacterium inoculation increased the ratio of propionic acid (18,33%-21,38%) but it caused to decrease the butyric acid, and acetic/propionic acid. During the rapid adaptation, the concentration of lactic acid in the rumen liquid increased depending upon grain level (P<0,0001). On the other hand bacterium inoculation did not have an effect on concentration of lactic acid. M. elsdenii inoculation did not affect ruminal ammonia concentration. In the group that did not apply inoculation, the level of ruminal ammonia concentration was higher than the others applied inoculation. M. elsdenii inoculation did not changed protozoa count in barley-based diet whereas it decreased in wheat-based diet. In the period of SARA, it was observed that the level of blood glucose, lactate and hematocrit increased greatly after inoculation (P < 0,0001). When it is generally evaluated, it is seen that M. elsdenii inoculation has not a positive impact on rumen parameters. Therefore, to reveal the full impact of the inoculation with different strains, feedstuffs and animal groups, further research is required.

Keywords: In vivo, Subactute ruminal acidosis, Megasphaera elsdenii, Rumen fermentation

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Authors: Charles Ruffner, Michael Manton, Gintautas Kibirkstis, Gediminas Brazaitas, Vitas Marozas, Ekaterine Makrickiene, Rutile Pukiene, Per Angelstam

Abstract:

In dynamic boreal forests, fire is an important natural disturbance, which drives regeneration and mortality of living and dead trees, and thus successional trajectories. However, current forest management practices focusing on wood production only have effectively eliminated fire as a stand-level disturbance. While this is generally well studied across much of Europe, in Lithuania, little is known about the historic fire regime and the role fire plays as a management tool towards the sustainable management of future landscapes. Focusing on Scots pine forests, we explore; i) the relevance of fire disturbance regimes on forestlands of Lithuania; ii) fire occurrence in the Dzukija landscape for dry upland and peatland forest sites, and iii) correlate tree-ring data with climate variables to ascertain climatic influences on growth and fire occurrence. We sampled and cross-dated 132 Scots pine samples with fire scars from 4 dry pine forest stands and 4 peatland forest stands, respectively. The fire history of each sample was analyzed using standard dendrochronological methods and presented in FHAES format. Analyses of soil moisture and nutrient conditions revealed a strong probability of finding forests that have a high fire frequency in Scots pine forests (59%), which cover 34.5% of Lithuania’s current forestland. The fire history analysis revealed 455 fire scars and 213 fire events during the period 1742-2019. Within the Dzukija landscape, the mean fire interval was 4.3 years for the dry Scots pine forest and 8.7 years for the peatland Scots pine forest. However, our comparison of fire frequency before and after 1950 shows a marked decrease in mean fire interval. Our data suggest that hemi-boreal forest landscapes of Lithuania provide strong evidence that fire, both human and lightning-ignited fires, has been and should be a natural phenomenon and that the examination of biological archives can be used to guide sustainable forest management into the future. Currently, fire use is prohibited by law as a tool for forest management in Lithuania. We recommend introducing trials that use low-intensity prescribed burning of Scots pine stands as a regeneration tool towards mimicking natural forest disturbance regimes.

Keywords: biodiversity conservation, cultural burning, dendrochronology, forest dynamics, forest management, succession

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Authors: Chunyang Miao, Bingxin Li, Shanglong Ning, Christopher J. B. Ford

Abstract:

While it is challenging to fabricate electronic devices close to atomic dimensions in conventional top-down lithography, molecular electronics is promising to help maintain the exponential increase in component densities via using molecular building blocks to fabricate electronic components from the bottom up. It offers smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient electronic and photonic systems. A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of molecules is a layer of molecules that self-assembles on a substrate. They are mechanically flexible, optically transparent, low-cost, and easy to fabricate. A large-area multi-layer structure has been designed and investigated by the team, where a SAM of designed molecules is sandwiched between graphene and gold electrodes. Each molecule can act as a quantum dot, with all molecules conducting in parallel. When a source-drain bias is applied, significant current flows only if a molecular orbital (HOMO or LUMO) lies within the source-drain energy window. If electrons tunnel sequentially on and off the molecule, the charge on the molecule is well-defined and the finite charging energy causes Coulomb blockade of transport until the molecular orbital comes within the energy window. This produces ‘Coulomb diamonds’ in the conductance vs source-drain and gate voltages. For different tunnel barriers at either end of the molecule, it is harder for electrons to tunnel out of the dot than in (or vice versa), resulting in the accumulation of two or more charges and a ‘Coulomb staircase’ in the current vs voltage. This nanostructure exhibits highly reproducible Coulomb-staircase patterns, together with additional oscillations, which are believed to be attributed to molecular vibrations. Molecules are more isolated than semiconductor dots, and so have a discrete phonon spectrum. When tunnelling into or out of a molecule, one or more vibronic states can be excited in the molecule, providing additional transport channels and resulting in additional peaks in the conductance. For useful molecular electronic devices, achieving the optimum orbital alignment of molecules to the Fermi energy in the leads is essential. To explore it, a drop of ionic liquid is employed on top of the graphene to establish an electric field at the graphene, which screens poorly, gating the molecules underneath. Results for various molecules with different alignments of Fermi energy to HOMO have shown highly reproducible Coulomb-diamond patterns, which agree reasonably with DFT calculations. In summary, this large-area SAM molecular junction is a promising candidate for future electronic circuits. (1) The small size (1-10nm) of the molecules and good flexibility of the SAM lead to the scalable assembly of ultra-high densities of functional molecules, with advantages in cost, efficiency, and power dissipation. (2) The contacting technique using graphene enables mass fabrication. (3) Its well-observed Coulomb blockade behaviour, narrow molecular resonances, and well-resolved vibronic states offer good tuneability for various functionalities, such as switches, thermoelectric generators, and memristors, etc.

Keywords: molecular electronics, Coulomb blokade, electron-phonon coupling, self-assembled monolayer

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