Search results for: novel object recognition

Authors: Nisreen Agha

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Investigation of representative core samples under the petrological microscope reveals common petrographic and mineralogical characteristics with distinct faunal assemblages, allowing establishing of the microfacies associations and deducing the paleoenvironmental trends of the Paleocene Farrud and Mabruk rock units. Recognition of the early and post-diagenetic processes, particularly dolomitization and micritization, as well as dissolution and precipitation of spary drusy calcite as a new morphism process affecting the reservoir rocks, is established. The microfacies trends detected from the investigation of 46 core samples from Farrud member (Lower Paleocene) representing six wells; QQQ1-11, GG1-11, LLL1-11, RRR1-11, RRR40-11, and RRR45-11 indicate that the deposition was started within the realm of shallow supratidal and intertidal subenvironments followed by deeper environments of the shelf bays with maximum sea level during inner shelf environment where fossiliferous bioclastic packstone dominated. The microfacies associations determined in 8 core samples from two wells LLL1and RRR40 representing Mabruk Member (Upper Paleocene), indicate paleoenvironmental trends marked by sea level fluctuations accompanied with a relatively marine shelf bay conditions intervened with short-lived shallow intertidal and supratidal warm coastal sedimentation. As a result, dolostone, evaporitic dismicrites, and gypsiferous dolostone of supratidal characters were deposited. They reflect rapid oscillation of the sea level marked by drop land-ward shift of the sea shore deposition prevailed by supratidal gypsiferous dolostone and numerous ferruginous materials as clouds straining many parts of dolomite and surrounded the micritized fossils. This situation ends the deposition of the Farrud Member in most of the studied wells. On the other hand, the facies in the northern part of the Concession -11 field indicates deposition in a deeper marine setting than in the southern facies.

Keywords: Farrud and Mabruk members, paleocene, microfacies associations, diagenesis, sea level oscillation, depositional environments

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Authors: Păcurar Diana Istina

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The indissoluble link between aesthetics and semiotics, the harmonization and semiotic understanding of the interactions between the viewer and the object being looked at, are the basis of the practical demonstration of the importance of aesthetic perception within the theater performance. The design of a theater performance includes several structures, some considered from the beginning, art forms (i.e., the text), others being represented by simple, common objects (e.g., scenographic elements), which, if reunited, can trigger a certain aesthetic perception. The audience is delivered, by the team involved in the performance, a series of auditory and visual signs with which they interact. It is necessary to explain some notions about the physiological support of the transformation of different types of stimuli at the level of the cerebral hemispheres. The cortex considered the superior integration center of extransecal and entanged stimuli, permanently processes the information received, but even if it is delivered at a constant rate, the generated response is individualized and is conditioned by a number of factors. Each changing situation represents a new opportunity for the viewer to cope with, developing feelings of different intensities that influence the generation of meanings and, therefore, the management of interactions. In this sense, aesthetic perception depends on the detection of the “correctness” of signs, the forms of which are associated with an aesthetic property. Fairness and aesthetic properties can have positive or negative values. Evaluating the emotions that generate judgment and implicitly aesthetic perception, whether we refer to visual emotions or auditory emotions, involves the integration of three areas of interest: Valence, arousal and context control. In this context, superior human cognitive processes, memory, interpretation, learning, attribution of meanings, etc., help trigger the mechanism of anticipation and, no less important, the identification of error. This ability to locate a short circuit produced in a series of successive events is fundamental in the process of forming an aesthetic perception. Our main purpose in this research is to investigate the possible conditions under which aesthetic perception and its minimum content are generated by all these structures and, in particular, by interactions with forms that are not commonly considered aesthetic forms. In order to demonstrate the quantitative and qualitative importance of the categories of signs used to construct a code for reading a certain message, but also to emphasize the importance of the order of using these indices, we have structured a mathematical analysis that has at its core the analysis of the percentage of signs used in a theater performance.

Keywords: semiology, aesthetics, theatre semiotics, theatre performance, structure, aesthetic perception

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Authors: C. Brecher, M. Fey, F. Du Bois-Reymond, S. Neus

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Additive manufacturing has emerged into a fast-growing section within the manufacturing technologies. Established machine tool manufacturers, such as DMG MORI, recently presented machine tools combining milling and laser welding. By this, machine tools can realize a higher degree of flexibility and a shorter production time. Still there are challenges that have to be accounted for in terms of maintaining the necessary machining accuracy - especially due to thermal effects arising through the use of high power laser processing units. To study the thermal behavior of laser-integrated machine tools, it is essential to analyze and simulate the thermal behavior of machine components, individual and assembled. This information will help to design a geometrically stable machine tool under the influence of high power laser processes. This paper presents an approach to decrease the loss of machining precision due to thermal impacts. Real effects of laser machining processes are considered and thus enable an optimized design of the machine tool, respective its components, in the early design phase. Core element of this approach is a matched FEM model considering all relevant variables arising, e.g. laser power, angle of laser beam, reflective coefficients and heat transfer coefficient. Hence, a systematic approach to obtain this matched FEM model is essential. Indicating the thermal behavior of structural components as well as predicting the laser beam path, to determine the relevant beam intensity on the structural components, there are the two constituent aspects of the method. To match the model both aspects of the method have to be combined and verified empirically. In this context, an essential machine component of a five axis machine tool, the turn-swivel table, serves as the demonstration object for the verification process. Therefore, a turn-swivel table test bench as well as an experimental set-up to measure the beam propagation were developed and are described in the paper. In addition to the empirical investigation, a simulative approach of the described types of experimental examination is presented. Concluding, it is shown that the method and a good understanding of the two core aspects, the thermo-elastic machine behavior and the laser beam path, as well as their combination helps designers to minimize the loss of precision in the early stages of the design phase.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, laser beam machining, machine tool, thermal effects

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Authors: L. Serrano-Lara, J.M Alba-Gómez

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Qubbet el–Hawa Project has been documented archaeological artifacts as 3d models by laser scanning technique since 2015. Currently, research has obtained the right methodology to develop a high accuracy photographic texture for each geometrical 3D model. Furthermore, the right methodology to attach the complete digital surrogate into a 3DPDF document has been obtained; it is used as a catalogue worksheet that brings archaeological data and, at the same time, allows us to obtain precise measurements, volume calculations and cross-section mapping of each scanned artifact. This validated archaeological documentation is the first step for dissemination, application as Qubbet el-Hawa Virtual Museum, and, moreover, multi-sensory experience through 3D print archaeological artifacts. Material culture from four funerary complexes constructed in West Aswan has become physical replicas opening the archaeological research process itself and offering creative possibilities on museology or educational projects. This paper shares a method of acquiring texture for scanning´s output product in order to achieve a 3DPDF archaeological cataloguing, and, on the other hand, to allow the colorfully 3D printing of singular archaeological artifacts. The proposed method has undergone two concrete cases, a polychrome wooden ushabti, and, a cartonnage mask belonging to a lady, bought recovered on intact tomb QH34aa. Both 3D model results have been implemented on three main applications, archaeological 3D catalogue, public dissemination activities, and the 3D artifact model in a bachelor education program. Due to those three already mentioned applications, productive interaction among spectator and three-dimensional artifact have been increased; moreover, functionality as archaeological documentation has been consolidated. Finding the right methodology to assign a specific color to each vector on the geometric 3D model, we had been achieved two essential archaeological applications. Firstly, 3DPDF as a display document for an archaeological catalogue, secondly, the possibility to obtain a colored 3d printed object to be displayed in public exhibitions. Obsolescences 3D models have become updated archaeological documentation of QH43aa tomb cultural material. Therefore, Qubbet el-Hawa Project has been actualized the educational potential of its results thanks to a multi-sensory experience that arose from 3d scanned´s archaeological artifacts.

Keywords: 3D printed, 3D scanner, Middle Kingdom, Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis, virtual archaeology

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Authors: Jordan Gallant

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In the compound word processing literature, much attention has been paid to the relationship between a compound’s denotational meaning and that of its morphological whole-word constituents, which is referred to as ‘semantic transparency’. However, the parallel relationship between a compound’s connotation and that of its constituents has not been addressed at all. For instance, while a compound like ‘painkiller’ might be semantically transparent, it is not ‘affectively transparent’. That is, both constituents have primarily negative connotations, while the whole compound has a positive one. This paper investigates the role of affective transparency on compound processing using two methodologies commonly employed in this field: a lexical decision task and a typing task. The critical stimuli used were 112 English bi-constituent compounds that differed in terms of the effective transparency of their constituents. Of these, 36 stimuli contained constituents with similar connotations to the compound (e.g., ‘dreamland’), 36 contained constituents with more positive connotations (e.g. ‘bedpan’), and 36 contained constituents with more negative connotations (e.g. ‘painkiller’). Connotation of whole-word constituents and compounds were operationalized via valence ratings taken from an off-line ratings database. In Experiment 1, compound stimuli and matched non-word controls were presented visually to participants, who were then asked to indicate whether it was a real word in English. Response times and accuracy were recorded. In Experiment 2, participants typed compound stimuli presented to them visually. Individual keystroke response times and typing accuracy were recorded. The results of both experiments provided positive evidence that compound processing is influenced by effective transparency. In Experiment 1, compounds in which both constituents had more negative connotations than the compound itself were responded to significantly more slowly than compounds in which the constituents had similar or more positive connotations. Typed responses from Experiment 2 showed that inter-keystroke intervals at the morphological constituent boundary were significantly longer when the connotation of the head constituent was either more positive or more negative than that of the compound. The interpretation of this finding is discussed in the context of previous compound typing research. Taken together, these findings suggest that affective transparency plays a role in the recognition, storage, and production of English compound words. This study provides a promising first step in a new direction for research on compound words.

Keywords: compound processing, semantic transparency, typed production, valence

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Authors: A. V. Shashkova

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The aim of the present article is to analyze the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the matter of restricting the constitutional rights of citizens to inviolability of professional and banking secrecy in effecting controlling activities. The methodological ground of the present Article represents the dialectic scientific method of the socio-political, legal and organizational processes with the principles of development, integrity, and consistency, etc. The consistency analysis method is used while researching the object of the analysis. Some public-private research methods are also used: the formally-logical method or the comparative legal method, are used to compare the understanding of the ‘secrecy’ concept. The aim of the present article is to find the root of the problem and to give recommendations for the solution of the problem. The result of the present research is the author’s conclusion on the necessity of the political will to improve Russian legislation with the aim of compliance with the provisions of the Constitution. It is also necessary to establish a clear balance between the constitutional rights of the individual and the limit of these rights when carrying out various control activities by public authorities. Attempts by the banks to "overdo" an anti-money laundering law under threat of severe sanctions by the regulators actually led to failures in the execution of normal economic activity. Therefore, individuals face huge problems with payments on the basis of clearing, in addition to problems with cash withdrawals. The Bank of Russia sets requirements for banks to execute Federal Law No. 115-FZ too high. It is high place to attract political will here. As well, recent changes in Russian legislation, e.g. allowing banks to refuse opening of accounts unilaterally, simplified banking activities in the country. The article focuses on different theoretical approaches towards the concept of “secrecy”. The author gives an overview of the practices of Spain, Switzerland and the United States of America on the matter of restricting the constitutional rights of citizens to inviolability of professional and banking secrecy in effecting controlling activities. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation basing on the Constitution of the Russian Federation has its special understanding of the issue, which should be supported by further legislative development in the Russian Federation.

Keywords: constitutional court, restriction of constitutional rights, bank secrecy, control measures, money laundering, financial control, banking information

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Authors: Amira Mabrouk

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This paper deals with the acceptability of urban toll in Tunisia. The price-based regulation, i.e. urban toll, is the outcome of a political process hampered by three-fold objectives: effectiveness, equity and social acceptability. This produces both economic interest groups and functions that are of incongruent preferences. The plausibility of this speculation goes hand in hand with the fact that these economic interest groups are also taxpayers who undeniably perceive urban toll as an additional charge. This wariness is coupled with an inquiry about the conditions of usage, the redistribution of the collected tax revenue and the idea of the leviathan state completes the picture. In a nutshell, if researches related to road congestion proliferate, no de facto legitimacy can be pleaded. Nonetheless, the theory on urban tolls engenders economists’ questioning of ways to reduce negative external effects linked to it. Only then does the urban toll appear to bear an answer to these issues. Undeniably, the urban toll suggests inherent conflicts due to the apparent no-payment principal of a public asset as well as to the social perception of the new measure as a mere additional charge. However, when the main concern is effectiveness is its broad sense and the social well-being, the main factors that determine the acceptability of such a tariff measure along with the type of incentives should be the object of a thorough, in-depth analysis. Before adopting this economic role, one has to recognize the factors that intervene in the acceptability of a congestion toll which brought about a copious number of articles and reports that lacked mostly solid theoretical content. It is noticeable that nowadays uncertainties float over the exact nature of the acceptability process. Accepting a congestion tariff could differ from one era to another, from one region to another and from one population to another, etc. Notably, this article, within a convenient time frame, attempts at bringing into focus a link between the social acceptability of the urban congestion toll and the value of time through a survey method barely employed in Tunisia, that of stated preference method. How can the urban toll, as a tax, be defined, justified and made acceptable? How can an equitable and effective tariff of congestion toll be reached? How can the costs of this urban toll be covered? In what way can we make the redistribution of the urban toll revenue visible and economically equitable? How can the redistribution of the revenue of urban toll compensate the disadvantaged while introducing such a tariff measure? This paper will offer answers to these research questions and it follows the line of contribution of JULES DUPUIT in 1844.

Keywords: congestion charge, social perception, acceptability, stated preferences

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Authors: Cindy Woods

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After years of implacable neoliberal globalization, multinational corporations have moved from the periphery to the center of the international legal agenda. Human rights advocates have long called for greater corporate accountability in the international arena. The creation of the Global Compact in 2000, while aimed at fostering greater corporate respect for human rights, did not silence these calls. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to adopt a set of norms relating to the human rights responsibilities of transnational corporations, the United Nations succeeded in 2008 with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles). The Guiding Principles, praised by some within the international human rights community for their recognition of an individual corporate responsibility to respect human rights, have not escaped their share of criticism. Many view the Guiding Principles to be toothless, failing to directly impose obligations upon corporations, and call for binding international obligations on corporate entities. After decades of attempting to promulgate human rights obligations for multinational corporations, the existing legal frameworks in place fall short of protecting individuals from the human rights abuses of multinational corporations. The Global Compact and Guiding Principles are proof of the United Nations’ unwillingness to impose international legal obligations on corporate actors. In June 2014, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to draft international legally binding human rights norms for business entities; however, key players in the international arena have already announced they will not cooperate with such efforts. This Note, through an overview of the existing corporate accountability frameworks and a study of Newmont Mining’s Minas Conga project in Peru, argues that binding international human rights obligations on corporations are necessary to fully protect human rights. Where states refuse to or simply cannot uphold their duty to protect individuals from transnational businesses’ human rights transgressions, there must exist mechanisms to pursue justice directly against the multinational corporation.

Keywords: business and human rights, Latin America, international treaty on business and human rights, mining, human rights

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Authors: Karolina Porada

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Over the last 40 years, there has been a trend in landscape architecture which supporters do not perceive the role of pro-ecological or postmodern solutions in the design of public green spaces as an essential goal, shifting their attention to the 'sculptural' shaping of areas with the use of slopes, hills, embankments, and other forms of terrain. This group of designers can be considered avant-garde, which in its activities refers to land art. Initial research shows that such applications are particularly frequent in places of former post-industrial sites and landfills, utilizing materials such as debris and post-mining waste in their construction. Due to the high degradation of the environment surrounding modern man, the brownfields are a challenge and a field of interest for the representatives of landscape architecture avant-garde, who through their projects try to recover lost lands by means of transformations supported by engineering and ecological knowledge to create places where nature can develop again. The analysis of a dozen or so facilities made it possible to come up with an important conclusion: apart from the cultural aspects (including artistic activities), the green areas formally referring to the land are important in the process of remediation of post-industrial sites and waste recycling (e. g. from construction sites). In these processes, there is also a potential for applying the concept of Natural Based Solutions, i.e. solutions allowing for the natural development of the site in such a way as to use it to cope with environmental problems, such as e.g.  air pollution, soil phytoremediation and climate change. The paper presents examples of modern parks, whose compositions are based on shaping the surface of the terrain in a way referring to the land art, at the same time providing an example of brownfields reuse and application of waste recycling.  For the purposes of object analysis, research methods such as historical-interpretation studies, case studies, qualitative research or the method of logical argumentation were used. The obtained results provide information about the role that landscape architecture can have in the process of remediation of degraded areas, at the same time guaranteeing the benefits, such as the shaping of landscapes attractive in terms of visual appearance, low costs of implementation, and improvement of the natural environment quality.

Keywords: brownfields, contemporary parks, landscape architecture, remediation

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Authors: R. M. Shabbir Ahmed, Mohamed Haneef, A. R. Anwar Khan

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Analysis of stresses plays important role in the optimization of structures. Prior stress estimation helps in better design of the products. Composites find wide usage in the industrial and home applications due to its strength to weight ratio. Especially in the air craft industry, the usage of composites is more due to its advantages over the conventional materials. Composites are mainly made of orthotropic materials having unequal strength in the different directions. Composite materials have the drawback of delamination and debonding due to the weaker bond materials compared to the parent materials. So proper analysis should be done to the composite joints before using it in the practical conditions. In the present work, a composite plate with elastic pin is considered for analysis using finite element software Ansys. Basically the geometry is built using Ansys software using top down approach with different Boolean operations. The modelled object is meshed with three dimensional layered element solid46 for composite plate and solid element (Solid45) for pin material. Various combinations are considered to find the strength of the composite joint under uniaxial loading conditions. Due to symmetry of the problem, only quarter geometry is built and results are presented for full model using Ansys expansion options. The results show effect of pin diameter on the joint strength. Here the deflection and load sharing of the pin are increasing and other parameters like overall stress, pin stress and contact pressure are reducing due to lesser load on the plate material. Further material effect shows, higher young modulus material has little deflection, but other parameters are increasing. Interference analysis shows increasing of overall stress, pin stress, contact stress along with pin bearing load. This increase should be understood properly for increasing the load carrying capacity of the joint. Generally every structure is preloaded to increase the compressive stress in the joint to increase the load carrying capacity. But the stress increase should be properly analysed for composite due to its delamination and debonding effects due to failure of the bond materials. When results for an isotropic combination is compared with composite joint, isotropic joint shows uniformity of the results with lesser values for all parameters. This is mainly due to applied layer angle combinations. All the results are represented with necessasary pictorial plots.

Keywords: bearing force, frictional force, finite element analysis, ANSYS

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Authors: Amnah M. A. Alsuhaibani, Amal N. Al-Kuraieef

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Introduction: In the recent decades, production of low-calorie jams is needed for diabetics that comprise low calorie fruits and low calorie sweeteners. Object: the research aimed to prepare low calorie formulated pumpkin jams (fructose, stevia and aspartame) incorporated with soy bean and evaluate the jams through chemical analysis and sensory evaluation after storage for six month. Moreover, the possible effect of consumption of low calorie jams on diabetic rats was investigated. Methods: Five formulas of pumpkin jam with different sucrose, fructose, stevia and aspartame sweeteners and soy bean were prepared and stored at 10 oC for six month compared to ordinary pumpkin jam. Chemical composition and sensory evaluation of formulated jams were evaluated at zero time, 3 month and 6 month of storage. The best three acceptable pumpkin jams were taken for biological study on diabetic rats. Rats divided into group (1) served as negative control and streptozotocin induce diabetes four rat groups that were positive diabetic control (group2), rats fed on standard diet with 10% sucrose soybean jam, fructose soybean jam and stevia soybean jam (group 3, 4&5), respectively. Results: The content of protein, fat, ash and fiber were increased but carbohydrate was decreased in low calorie formulated pumpkin jams compared to ordinary jam. Production of aspartame soybean pumpkin jam had lower score of all sensory attributes compared to other jam then followed by stevia soybean Pumpkin jam. Using non nutritive sweeteners (stevia & aspartame) with soybean in processing jam could lower the score of the sensory attributes after storage for 3 and 6 months. The highest score was recorded for sucrose and fructose soybean jams followed by stevia soybean jam while aspartame soybean jam recorded the lowest score significantly. The biological evaluation showed a significant improvement in body weight and FER of rats after six weeks of consumption of standard diet with jams (Group 3,4&5) compared to Group1. Rats consumed 10% low calorie jam with nutrient sweetener (fructose) and non nutrient sweetener (stevia) soybean jam (group 4& 5) showed significant decrease in glucose level, liver function enzymes activity, and liver cholesterol & total lipids in addition of significant increase of insulin and glycogen compared to the levels of group 2. Conclusion: low calorie pumpkin jams can be prepared by low calorie sweeteners and soybean and also storage for 3 months at 10oC without change sensory attributes. Consumption of stevia pumpkin jam fortified with soybean had positive health effects on streptozoticin induced diabetes in rats.

Keywords: pumpkin jam, HFCS, aspartame, stevia, storage

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Authors: Menna Brown, Tania Domun

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Digital health interventions are effective across a wide array of health conditions spanning physical health, lifestyle behaviour change, and mental health and wellbeing; furthermore, they are rapidly increasing in volume within both the academic literature and society as commercial apps continue to proliferate the digital health market. However, adherence and engagement to digital health interventions remains problematic. Technology-based personalised and tailored reminder strategies can support engagement to digital health interventions. Interventions which support individuals’ mental health and wellbeing are of critical importance in the wake if the COVID-19 pandemic. Student and young person’s mental health has been negatively affected and digital resources continue to offer cost effective means to address wellbeing at a population level. Develop a databank of digital co-produced tailored messages to support engagement to a range of digital health interventions including those focused on mental health and wellbeing, and lifestyle behaviour change. Qualitative research design. Participants discussed their views of health and wellbeing, engagement and adherence to digital health interventions focused around a 12-week wellbeing intervention via a series of focus group discussions. They worked together to co-create content following a participatory design approach. Three focus group discussions were facilitated with (n=15) undergraduate students at one Welsh university to provide an empirically derived, co-produced, databank of (n=145) tailored messages. Messages were explored and categorised thematically, and the following ten themes emerged: Autonomy, Recognition, Guidance, Community, Acceptance, Responsibility, Encouragement, Compassion, Impact and Ease. The findings provide empirically derived, co-produced tailored messages. These have been made available for use, via ‘ACTivate your wellbeing’ a digital, automated, 12-week health and wellbeing intervention programme, based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The purpose of which is to support future research to evaluate the impact of thematically categorised tailored messages on engagement and adherence to digital health interventions.

Keywords: digital health, engagement, wellbeing, participatory design, positive psychology, co-production

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Authors: Subhankar Kumar Sarkar

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Beetles of the subfamily Dynastinae under the family Scarabaeidae of the insect order Coleoptera are popularly known as ‘Rhinoceros beetles’ because of the characteristic horn borne by the males on their head. These horns are dedicated in mating battle against other males and have evolved as a result of phenotypic plasticity. Scarabaeidae is the largest of all families under Coleoptera and is composed of 11 subfamilies, of which the subfamily Dynastinae is represented by approximately 300 species. Some of these beetles have been reported to cause considerable damage to agriculture and forestry both in their larval and adult stages, while many of them are beneficial as they pollinate plants and recycle plant materials. Eastern Himalayas is regarded as one of the 35 biodiversity hotspot zones of the world and one of the four of India, which is exhibited by its rich and megadiverse tropical forests. However, our knowledge on the faunal diversity of these forests is very limited, particularly for the insect fauna. One such tropical forest of Eastern Himalayas is the ‘Buxa Tiger Reserve’ located between latitudes 26°30” to 26°55” North and Longitudes 89°20” to 89˚35” East of India and occupies an area of about 759.26 square kilometers. It is with this background an attempt has been made to explore the insect fauna of the forest. Insect sampling was carried out in each beat and range of Buxa Tiger Reserve in all the three seasons viz, Premonsoon, Monsoon, and Postmonsoon. Sample collections were done by sweep nets, hand picking technique and pit fall traps. UV light trap was used to collect the nocturnal insects. Morphological examinations of the collected samples were carried out with Stereozoom Binocular Microscopes (Zeiss SV6 and SV11) and were identified up to species level with the aid of relevant literature. Survey of the insect fauna of the forest resulted in the recognition of 76 scarab species, of which 8 belong to the subfamily dealt herein. Each of the 8 species represents a separate genus. The forest is dominated by the members of Xylotrupes gideon (Linnaeus) as is represented by highest number of individuals. The recorded taxa show about 12% endemism and are of mainly oriental in distribution. Premonsoon is the most favorable season for their occurrence and activity followed by Monsoon and Postmonsoon.

Keywords: Dynastinae, Scarabaeidae, diversity, Buxa Tiger Reserve

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Authors: Vaida Jurgile

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Intercultural learning is one of the approaches taken to understand the cultural diversity of the modern world and to accept changes in cultural identity and otherness and the expression of tolerance. During intercultural learning, students develop their abilities to interact and communicate with their group members. These abilities help to understand social and cultural differences, to form one’s identity, and to give meaning to intercultural learning. Intercultural education recognizes that a true understanding of differences and similarities of another culture is necessary in order to lay the foundations for working together with others, which contributes to the promotion of intercultural dialogue, appreciation of diversity, and cultural exchange. Therefore, it is important to examine the concept of intercultural learning, revealed through students’ learning experiences and understanding of how this learning takes place and what significance this phenomenon has in higher education. At a scientific level, intercultural learning should be explored in order to uncover the influence of cultural identity, i.e., intercultural learning should be seen in a local context. This experience would provide an opportunity to learn from various everyday intercultural learning situations. Intercultural learning can be not only a form of learning but also a tool for building understanding between people of different cultures. The research object of the study is the process of intercultural learning. The aim of the dissertation is to develop a grounded theory of the process of learning in an intercultural study environment, revealing students’ learning experiences. The research strategy chosen in this study is a constructivist grounded theory (GT). GT is an inductive method that seeks to form a theory by applying the systematic collection, synthesis, analysis, and conceptualization of data. The targeted data collection was based on the analysis of data provided by previous research participants, which revealed the need for further research participants. During the research, only students with at least half a year of study experience, i.e., who have completed at least one semester of intercultural studies, were purposefully selected for the research. To select students, snowballing sampling was used. 18 interviews were conducted with students representing 3 different fields of sciences (social sciences, humanities, and technology sciences). In the process of intercultural learning, language expresses and embodies cultural reality and a person’s cultural identity. It is through language that individual experiences are expressed, and the world in which Others exist is perceived. The increased emphasis is placed on the fact that language conveys certain “signs’ of communication and perception with cultural value, enabling the students to identify the Self and the Other. Language becomes an important tool in the process of intercultural communication because it is only through language that learners can communicate, exchange information, and understand each other. Thus, in the process of intercultural learning, language either promotes interpersonal relationships with foreign students or leads to mutual rejection.

Keywords: intercultural learning, grounded theory, students, other

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Authors: Samhita Mummadi, Sree Divya Nagalli, Harshini Vemuri, Saketh Charan Nakka, Sumesh K. J.

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One of the most significant challenges faced by people in today’s digital era is an alarming increase in fraudulent activities on online platforms. The fascination with online shopping to avoid long queues in shopping malls, the availability of a variety of products, and home delivery of goods have paved the way for a rapid increase in vast online shopping platforms. This has had a major impact on increasing fraudulent activities as well. This loop of online shopping and transactions has paved the way for fraudulent users to commit fraud. For instance, consider a store that orders thousands of products all at once, but what’s fishy about this is the massive number of items purchased and their transactions turning out to be fraud, leading to a huge loss for the seller. Considering scenarios like these underscores the urgent need to introduce machine learning approaches to combat fraud in online shopping. By leveraging robust algorithms, namely KNN, Decision Trees, and Random Forest, which are highly effective in generating accurate results, this research endeavors to discern patterns indicative of fraudulent behavior within transactional data. Introducing a comprehensive solution to this problem in order to empower e-commerce administrators in timely fraud detection and prevention is the primary motive and the main focus. In addition to that, sentiment analysis is harnessed in the model so that the e-commerce admin can tailor to the customer’s and consumer’s concerns, feedback, and comments, allowing the admin to improve the user’s experience. The ultimate objective of this study is to ramp up online shopping platforms against fraud and ensure a safer shopping experience. This paper underscores a model accuracy of 84%. All the findings and observations that were noted during our work lay the groundwork for future advancements in the development of more resilient and adaptive fraud detection systems, which will become crucial as technologies continue to evolve.

Keywords: behavior analysis, feature selection, Fraudulent pattern recognition, imbalanced classification, transactional anomalies

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Authors: Diaa Ahmed Mohamed Ahmedien

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Nowadays, it cannot be denied that the most important interactive arts trends have appeared as a result of significant scientific mutations in the modern sciences, and holographic art is not an exception, where it is considered as a one of the most important major contemporary interactive arts trends in visual arts. Holographic technique had been evoked through the modern physics application in late 1940s, for the improvement of the quality of electron microscope images by Denis Gabor, until it had arrived to Margaret Benyon’s art exhibitions, and then it passed through a lot of procedures to enhance its quality and artistic applications technically and visually more over 70 years in visual arts. As a modest extension to these great efforts, this research aimed to invoke extraordinary attempt to enroll sample of normal people in Egyptian community in holographic recording program to record their appreciated objects or antiques, therefore examine their abilities to interact with modern techniques in visual communication arts. So this research tried to answer to main three questions: 'can we use the analog holographic techniques to unleash new theoretical and practical knowledge in interactive arts for public in Egyptian community?', 'to what extent holographic art can be familiar with public and make them able to produce interactive artistic samples?', 'are there possibilities to build holographic interactive program for normal people which lead them to enhance their understanding to visual communication in public and, be aware of interactive arts trends?' This research was depending in its first part on experimental methods, where it conducted in Laser lab at Cairo University, using Nd: Yag Laser 532 nm, and holographic optical layout, with selected samples of Egyptian people that they have been asked to record their appreciated object, after they had already learned recording methods, and in its second part on a lot of discussion panel had conducted to discuss the result and how participants felt towards their holographic artistic products through survey, questionnaires, take notes and critiquing holographic artworks. Our practical experiments and final discussions have already lead us to say that this experimental research was able to make most of participants pass through paradigm shift in their visual and conceptual experiences towards more interaction with contemporary visual arts trends, as an attempt to emphasize to the role of mature relationship between the art, science and technology, to spread interactive arts out in our community through the latest scientific and artistic mutations around the world and the role of this relationship in our societies particularly with those who have never been enrolled in practical arts programs before.

Keywords: Egyptian community, holographic art, laser art, visual art

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Authors: Umedov Mekhroz, Griaznova Svetlana

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In connection with the growth of oncological diseases, the design of centers for diagnostics and the production of radiopharmaceuticals is the most relevant area of healthcare facilities. The design of new nuclear medicine centers should be carried out from the standpoint of solving the following tasks: the availability of medical care, functionality, environmental friendliness, sustainable development, improving the safety of drugs, the use of which requires special care, reducing the rate of environmental pollution, ensuring comfortable conditions for the internal microclimate, adaptability. The purpose of this article is to substantiate architectural and planning solutions, formulate recommendations and principles for the design of nuclear medicine centers and determine the connections between the production and medical functions of a building. The advantages of combining the production of radiopharmaceuticals and the department of medical care: less radiation activity is accumulated, the cost of the final product is lower, and there is no need to hire a transport company with a special license for transportation. A medical imaging department is a structural unit of a medical institution in which diagnostic procedures are carried out in order to gain an idea of the internal structure of various organs of the body for clinical analysis. Depending on the needs of a particular institution, the department may include various rooms that provide medical imaging using radiography, ultrasound diagnostics, and the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance. The production of radiopharmaceuticals is an object intended for the production of a pharmaceutical substance containing a radionuclide and intended for introduction into the human body or laboratory animal for the purpose of diagnosis, evaluation of the effectiveness of treatment, or for biomedical research. The research methodology includes the following subjects: study and generalization of international experience in scientific research, literature, standards, teaching aids, and design materials on the topic of research; An integrated approach to the study of existing international experience of PET / CT scan centers and the production of radiopharmaceuticals; Elaboration of graphical analysis and diagrams based on the system analysis of the processed information; Identification of methods and principles of functional zoning of nuclear medicine centers. The result of the research is the identification of the design principles of nuclear medicine centers with the functions of the production of radiopharmaceuticals and the department of medical imaging. This research will be applied to the design and construction of healthcare facilities in the field of nuclear medicine.

Keywords: architectural planning solutions, functional zoning, nuclear medicine, PET/CT scan, production of radiopharmaceuticals, radiotherapy

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Mina Malak Hanna Saad

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New strategies for supplying banking services to the customer have been brought, which include online banking. Banks have begun to recall electronic banking (e-banking) as a manner to replace some conventional department features by means of the usage of the internet as a brand-new distribution channel. A few clients have at least one account at multiple banks and get admission to those debts through online banking. To test their present-day internet worth, customers need to log into each of their debts, get particular statistics, and paint closer to consolidation. Not only is it time-ingesting; however, but it is also a repeatable activity with a certain frequency. To solve this problem, the idea of account aggregation was delivered as a solution. Account consolidation in e-banking as a form of digital banking appears to build stronger dating with clients. An account linking service is usually known as a service that permits customers to manipulate their bank accounts held at exceptional institutions through a common online banking platform that places a high priority on safety and statistics protection. The object affords an outline of the account aggregation approach in e-banking as a distinct carrier in the area of e-banking. The advanced facts generation is becoming a vital thing in the improvement of financial services enterprise, specifically the banking enterprise. It has brought different ways of delivering banking to the purchaser, which includes net Banking. Banks began to study electronic banking (e-banking) as a means to update some of their traditional branch functions and the use of the net as a distribution channel. Some clients have at least multiple accounts throughout banks and get the right of entry to that money owed through the usage of e-banking offerings. To examine the contemporary internet's well-worth position, customers have to log in to each of their money owed, get the information and work on consolidation. This no longer takes sufficient time; however, it is a repetitive interest at a specified frequency. To address this point, an account aggregation idea is brought as an answer. E-banking account aggregation, as one of the e-banking kinds, appeared to construct a more potent dating with clients. Account Aggregation carrier usually refers to a service that allows clients to control their bank bills maintained in one-of-a-kind institutions via a common Internet banking working platform, with an excessive subject to protection and privateness. This paper offers an overview of an e-banking account aggregation technique as a new provider in the e-banking field.

Keywords: compatibility, complexity, mobile banking, observation, risk banking technology, Internet banks, modernization of banks, banks, account aggregation, security, enterprise developmente-banking, enterprise development

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Authors: Yingyi Luo

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Cross-border surrogacy is seen by many as a market in which women are bought and sold commodities at risk of trafficking. A surrogate can be framed as either a fully acknowledged subject, with whom intended parents engage in cross-border surrogacy—or as a tool utilized by intended parents and surrogacy facilitators in the furtherance of their own objectives. In order to identify which frame prevails, this paper applies subjectivity theory to an empirical study of cross-border surrogacy facilitated by facilitators in Australia analysing interviews with surrogate agents, counsellors and lawyers, and observations at trade show. The aim of the paper is to advance understanding of the dynamics of the relationship between intended parents, surrogates, and surrogacy facilitators by collecting new data and applying unique framework. As dominant players, surrogacy facilitators have a significant impact on determining the nature of cross-border surrogacy. However, little is known concerning the manner in which facilitators influence the inter-subjectivity between surrogate mothers and intended parents. Thus, this paper intends to identify how facilitators depict surrogate mothers, the degree to which their perspectives bear upon both the subjectivity of the surrogate mother and the relationship of intended parents with surrogate mothers. For the purpose of introducing and developing this framework in the context of cross-border surrogacy, this paper borrows from the work of theorists not often mentioned in bioethics, including Jacques Lacan, Marco Cavallaro, Michel Foucault, and others. It also applies the concept of 'the gaze' along with the dynamic of 'self' and 'other' to the cross-border surrogacy arrangement. Applying the concept of the gaze can provide a new way to interpret the power dynamic that plays out among surrogacy facilitators, intended parents, and surrogates within the commercial surrogacy arrangement and how the subjectivity is produced through the power. Viewing the relationships between the players in cross-border surrogacy through the lens of gaze theory, this paper finds that, in cross-border surrogacy, due to the structural power imbalance, affluent intended parents and surrogacy facilitators are possessors of the gaze, while surrogate mothers are under the thrall of the gaze. Specifically, facilitators frame surrogate mothers' reproductive abilities as commodities that intended parents can purchase to fulfil their urgent need to have children and experience full subjectivity, and they take a cut of the money that paid by intended parents. Therefore, commodification of the body results in degrading a surrogate mother (the object), reifying her as no more than a walking womb (the other), a process which is highly detrimental to the self of surrogate mothers. This relationship, formalized through contractual means, allows intended parents and facilitators to take advantage of surrogate mothers in the furtherance of their own objectives. This argument is enriched by new data from interviews and observations that provide nuance to this understanding of inter-subjectivity.

Keywords: cross-border surrogacy, facilitators, self, surrogate mothers

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Atsuko Okazaki, Jurg Ott

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Some genetic diseases (‘digenic traits’) are due to the interaction between two DNA variants. For example, certain forms of Retinitis Pigmentosa (a genetic form of blindness) occur in the presence of two mutant variants, one in the ROM1 gene and one in the RDS gene, while the occurrence of only one of these mutant variants leads to a completely normal phenotype. Detecting such digenic traits by genetic methods is difficult. A common approach to finding disease-causing variants is to compare 100,000s of variants between individuals with a trait (cases) and those without the trait (controls). Such genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been very successful but hinge on genetic effects of single variants, that is, there should be a difference in allele or genotype frequencies between cases and controls at a disease-causing variant. Frequent pattern mining (FPM) methods offer an avenue at detecting digenic traits even in the absence of single-variant effects. The idea is to enumerate pairs of genotypes (genotype patterns) with each of the two genotypes originating from different variants that may be located at very different genomic positions. What is needed is for genotype patterns to be significantly more common in cases than in controls. Let Y = 2 refer to cases and Y = 1 to controls, with X denoting a specific genotype pattern. We are seeking association rules, ‘X → Y’, with high confidence, P(Y = 2|X), significantly higher than the proportion of cases, P(Y = 2) in the study. Clearly, generally available FPM methods are very suitable for detecting disease-associated genotype patterns. We use fpgrowth as the basic FPM algorithm and built a framework around it to enumerate high-frequency digenic genotype patterns and to evaluate their statistical significance by permutation analysis. Application to a published dataset on opioid dependence furnished results that could not be found with classical GWAS methodology. There were 143 cases and 153 healthy controls, each genotyped for 82 variants in eight genes of the opioid system. The aim was to find out whether any of these variants were disease-associated. The single-variant analysis did not lead to significant results. Application of our FPM implementation resulted in one significant (p < 0.01) genotype pattern with both genotypes in the pattern being heterozygous and originating from two variants on different chromosomes. This pattern occurred in 14 cases and none of the controls. Thus, the pattern seems quite specific to this form of substance abuse and is also rather predictive of disease. An algorithm called Multifactor Dimension Reduction (MDR) was developed some 20 years ago and has been in use in human genetics ever since. This and our algorithms share some similar properties, but they are also very different in other respects. The main difference seems to be that our algorithm focuses on patterns of genotypes while the main object of inference in MDR is the 3 × 3 table of genotypes at two variants.

Keywords: digenic traits, DNA variants, epistasis, statistical genetics

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Sandra Thompson, Paul Dervan

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Ireland’s first Technological University (TU Dublin) was established on 1st January 2019, and its creation is an exciting new milestone in Irish Higher Education. TU Dublin is now Ireland’s biggest University supporting 29,000 students across three campuses with 3,500 staff. The University aspires to create work-ready graduates who are socially responsible, open-minded global thinkers who are ambitious to change the world for the better. As graduates, they will be enterprising and daring in all their endeavors, ready to play their part in transforming the future. Feedback from Irish employers and students coupled with evidence from other authoritative sources such as the World Economic Forum points to a need for greater focus on the development of students’ employability skills as they prepare for today’s work environment. Moreover, with an increased focus on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and inclusiveness, there is recognition that students are more than a numeric grade value. Robust grading systems have been developed to track a student’s performance around discipline knowledge but there is little or no global consensus on a definition of transversal skills nor on a unified framework to assess transversal skills. Education and industry sectors are often assessing one or two skills, and some are developing their own frameworks to capture the learner’s achievement in this area. Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) have discovered and implemented a framework to allow students to develop, assess and record their transversal skills using transformative learning theory. The model implemented is an adaptation of Student Transformative Learning Record - STLR which originated in the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). The purpose of this paper therefore, is to examine the views of students, staff and employers in the context of deploying a Transformative Learning model within the University to assess transversal skills. It will examine the initial impact the transformative learning model is having socially, personally and on the University as an organization. Crucially also, to identify lessons learned from the deployment in order to assist other Universities and Higher Education Institutes who may be considering a focused adoption of Transformative Learning to meet the challenge of preparing students for today’s work environment.

Keywords: assessing transversal skills, higher education, transformative learning, students

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Haniyeh Parhizkar

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When Sarris came up with the "auteur theory" in 1962, he emphasized that the utmost premise of auteur theory is the inner meanings and concepts of a film and that a film is purely an art form. Today's mainstream movies are conceptually closer to what the Frankfurt School scholars regarded as "reproduced" and "mass culture" years ago. Hollywood goes on to be a huge movie-making machine that leads the dominant paradigms of films throughout the world and cinema is far from art. Although there are still movies, directors, and audiences who favor art cinema over Hollywood and mainstream movies, it's an almost undeniable fact that, for the most part, people's perception of movies is widely influenced by their American depiction and Hollywood's legacy of mass culture. With the uprising of Hollywood studios as the forerunners of the movie industry and cinema being largely dependent on economics rather than artistic values, this distinctive role of cinema has diminished and is replaced with a global standard. The Blockbuster 2022 film, 'Everything, Everywhere, All at Once' is now the most-awarded movie of all time, winning seven Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards. Despite its main cast being Asian, the movie is produced by American incorporation and is heavily influenced by Hollywood's dominant themes of superheroes, fantasy, action, and adventure. The New Yorker film critic, Richard Brody, called the movie "a pitch for a Marvel" and critiqued the film for being "universalized" and "empty of history and culture". Other critics of Variety pinpointed the movie's similarities to Marvel, particularly in their storylines of multi-universe which manifest traces of American legacy. As argued by these critics, 'Everything, Everywhere, All at Once' might appear as a unique and authentic film at first glance, but it can be argued that it is yet another version of a Marvel movie. While the movie's universal acclaim was regarded as recognition and an acknowledgment of its Asian cast, the issue that arises here is when the Hollywood influences and American themes are so robust in the film, is the movie industry honoring another culture or is it yet another celebration of Hollywood's dominant paradigm. This essay will employ a critical approach to Hollywood's dominance and mass-produced culture, which has deprived authenticity of non-American movies and is constantly reproducing the same formula of success.

Keywords: hollywoodization, universalization, blockbuster, dominant paradigm, marvel, authenticity, diversity

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: Tobias Strübing, Fatemeh Ziaeetabar

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Humans usually manipulate objects with their hands. To represent these actions in a simple and understandable way, we need to use a semantic framework. For this purpose, the Semantic Event Chain (SEC) method has already been presented which is done by consideration of touching and non-touching relations between manipulated objects in a scene. This method was improved by a computational model, the so-called enriched Semantic Event Chain (eSEC), which incorporates the information of static (e.g. top, bottom) and dynamic spatial relations (e.g. moving apart, getting closer) between objects in an action scene. This leads to a better action prediction as well as the ability to distinguish between more actions. Each eSEC manipulation descriptor is a huge matrix with thirty rows and a massive set of the spatial relations between each pair of manipulated objects. The current eSEC framework has so far only been used in the category of manipulation actions, which eventually involve two hands. Here, we would like to extend this approach to a whole body action descriptor and make a conjoint activity representation structure. For this purpose, we need to do a statistical analysis to modify the current eSEC by summarizing while preserving its features, and introduce a new version called Enhanced eSEC or (e2SEC). This summarization can be done from two points of the view: 1) reducing the number of rows in an eSEC matrix, 2) shrinking the set of possible semantic spatial relations. To achieve these, we computed the importance of each matrix row in an statistical way, to see if it is possible to remove a particular one while all manipulations are still distinguishable from each other. On the other hand, we examined which semantic spatial relations can be merged without compromising the unity of the predefined manipulation actions. Therefore by performing the above analyses, we made the new e2SEC framework which has 20% fewer rows, 16.7% less static spatial and 11.1% less dynamic spatial relations. This simplification, while preserving the salient features of a semantic structure in representing actions, has a tremendous impact on the recognition and prediction of complex actions, as well as the interactions between humans and robots. It also creates a comprehensive platform to integrate with the body limbs descriptors and dramatically increases system performance, especially in complex real time applications such as human-robot interaction prediction.

Keywords: enriched semantic event chain, semantic action representation, spatial relations, statistical analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: S. Behnia, S. Fathizadeh, A. Akhshani

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In the recent decades, DNA has increasingly interested in the potential technological applications that not directly related to the coding for functional proteins that is the expressed in form of genetic information. One of the most interesting applications of DNA is related to the construction of nanostructures of high complexity, design of functional nanostructures in nanoelectronical devices, nanosensors and nanocercuits. In this field, DNA is of fundamental interest to the development of DNA-based molecular technologies, as it possesses ideal structural and molecular recognition properties for use in self-assembling nanodevices with a definite molecular architecture. Also, the robust, one-dimensional flexible structure of DNA can be used to design electronic devices, serving as a wire, transistor switch, or rectifier depending on its electronic properties. In order to understand the mechanism of the charge transport along DNA sequences, numerous studies have been carried out. In this regard, conductivity properties of DNA molecule could be investigated in a simple, but chemically specific approach that is intimately related to the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. In SSH model, the non-diagonal matrix element dependence on intersite displacements is considered. In this approach, the coupling between the charge and lattice deformation is along the helix. This model is a tight-binding linear nanoscale chain established to describe conductivity phenomena in doped polyethylene. It is based on the assumption of a classical harmonic interaction between sites, which is linearly coupled to a tight-binding Hamiltonian. In this work, the Hamiltonian and corresponding motion equations are nonlinear and have high sensitivity to initial conditions. Then, we have tried to move toward the nonlinear dynamics and phase space analysis. Nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory, regardless of any approximation, could open new horizons to understand the conductivity mechanism in DNA. For a detailed study, we have tried to study the current flowing in DNA and investigated the characteristic I-V diagram. As a result, It is shown that there are the (quasi-) ohmic areas in I-V diagram. On the other hand, the regions with a negative differential resistance (NDR) are detectable in diagram.

Keywords: DNA conductivity, Landauer resistance, negative dierential resistance, Chaos theory, mean Lyapunov exponent

Procedia PDF Downloads 425

Authors: Lianne M. Q. Lee, Mohammed Sharaf Shaiban

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The importance of bank liquidity management took center stage as policy makers promoted a more resilient global banking system after the market turmoil of 2007. The growing recognition of Islamic banks’ function of intermediating funds in the economy warrants the need to investigate its balance sheet structure which is distinct from its conventional counterparts. Given that asymmetric risk, transformation is inevitable; Islamic banks need to identify the liquidity risk within their distinctive balance sheet structure. Thus, there is a strong need to quantify and assess the liquidity position to ensure proper functioning of a financial institution. It is vital to measure bank liquidity because liquid banks face less liquidity risk. We examine this issue by using two alternative quantitative measures of liquidity creation “cat fat” and “cat nonfat” constructed by Berger and Bouwman (2009). “Cat fat” measures all on balance sheet items including off balance sheet, whilst the latter measures only on balance sheet items. Liquidity creation is measured over the period 2007-2014 in 14 countries where Islamic and conventional commercial banks coexist. Also, separately by bank size class as empirical studies have shown that liquidity creation varies by bank size. An interesting and important finding shows that all size class of Islamic banks, on average have increased creation of aggregate liquidity in real dollar terms over the years for both liquidity creation measures especially for large banks indicating that Islamic banks actually generates more liquidity to the economy compared to its conventional counterparts, including from off-balance sheet items. The liquidity creation for off-balance sheets by conventional banks may have been affected by the global financial crisis when derivatives markets were severely hit. The results also suggest that Islamic banks have the higher volume of assets and deposits and that borrowing/issues of bonds are less in Islamic banks compared to conventional banks because most products are interest-based. As Islamic banks appear to create more liquidity than conventional banks under both measures, it translates that the development of Islamic banking is significant over the decades since its inception. This finding is encouraging as, despite Islamic banking’s overall size, it represents growth opportunities for these countries.

Keywords: financial institution, liquidity creation, liquidity risk, policy and regulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Zsuzsanna Schnell, Francesca Ervas

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Background: Our study aims to clarify how language fosters further cognitive development and how we eventually arrive at the complex human specific skill of pragmatic competence and reveal what levels of mentalization and theory of mind are in place before language. Method: Our experimental pragmatic investigation maps the interaction of mentalization and pragmatic competence. We map the different levels of mentalization that empower different levels of pragmatic meaning construction and evaluate the results with statistical analysis (MannWhitney and ANOVA). Analyzing the comprehension of literal and non-compositional (figurative) utterances, we apply linguistic trials, among them metaphor-, irony-, irony with surface cue-, humor- and the recognition of maxim infringements trial in neurotypical (NT) preschoolers with a coherent and comparative methodology. Results: The findings reveal the relationship and direction of interaction between Language and theory of mind. On the one hand social-cognitive skills enhance, facilitate and provide a basis for language acquisition, and in return linguistic structures (DeVilliers 2000, 2007) provide a framework for further development of mentalizing skills. Conclusions: Findings confirm that this scaffolding becomes a mutually supportive system where language and social cognition develops in interaction. Certain stages in ToM development serve as a precursor of understanding grammatically complex sentences, like embedded phrases which mirror embedded mental states; which, in turn, facilitates the development of pragmatic competence, thus, the social use of language, integrating social, cognitive, linguistic and psychological factors in discourse. Future implications: Our investigation functions as a differential-diagnostic measure, with typically developing results thus serve as a baseline in further empirical research for atypical cases. This enables the study of populations where language and ToM development is disturbed, reveals how language and ToM are acquired and interact, and gives an insight into what this has to do with clinical symptoms. This in turn can reveal the causal link to the syndrome at hand, which can set directions for therapeutic development and training.

Keywords: theory of mind, language development, mentalization, language philosophy, experimental pragmatics

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Authors: Munawar Malik, Muntaha Ahmad, Khalil Ullah Khan

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Linguistic abilities in students with hearing impairment yet remain a concern for educationists. The emerging technological support and provisions in recent era vows to have addressed the situation and claims significant contribution in terms of linguistic repertoire. Being a descriptive and quantitative paradigm of study, the purpose of this research set forth was to assess linguistic competencies of students with hearing impairment in English language. The goals were further broken down to identify level of reading abilities in the subject population. The population involved students with HI studying at higher secondary level in Lahore. Simple random sampling technique was used to choose a sample of fifty students. A purposive curriculum-based assessment was designed in line with accelerated learning program by Punjab Government, to assess Linguistic competence among the sample. Further to it, an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) corresponding to reading levels was also developed by researchers duly validated and piloted before the final use. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to reach to the findings. Spearman’s correlation was used to find out relationship between degree of hearing loss, grade level, gender and type of amplification device. Independent sample t-test was used to compare means among groups. Major findings of the study revealed that students with hearing impairment exhibit significant deviation from the mean scores when compared in terms of grades, severity and amplification device. The study divulged that respective students with HI have yet failed to qualify an independent level of reading according to their grades as majority falls at frustration level of word recognition and passage comprehension. The poorer performance can be attributed to lower linguistic competence as it shows in the frustration levels of reading, writing and comprehension. The correlation analysis did reflect an improved performance grade wise, however scores could only correspond to frustration level and independent levels was never achieved. Reported achievements at instructional level of subject population may further to linguistic skills if practiced purposively.

Keywords: linguistic competence, hearing impairment, reading levels, educationist

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Authors: Badawi Mahmoud, Eid Mohamed, Salih Hytham, Tahoun Mamdouh

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Cultural properties made of types of materials; we can classify them broadly into three categories. There are organic cultural properties which have their origin in the animal and plant kingdoms. There are the inorganic cultural properties made of metal or stone. Then there are those made of both organic and inorganic materials such as metal with wood. Most cultural properties are made from several materials rather than from one single material. Cultural properties reveal a lot of information about the past and often have great artistic value. It is important to extend the life of cultural properties and preserve themif possible, that is intended to preserve them for future generations. The study of metallic relics usually includes examining the techniques used to make them and the extent to which they have corroded. The conservation science of archaeological artifacts demands an accurate grasp of the interior of the article, which cannot be seen. This is essential to elucidate the method of manufacture and provides information that is important for cleaning, restoration, and other processes of conservation. Conservation treatment does not ensure the prevention of further degradation of the archaeological artifact. Instead, it is an attempt to inhibit further degradation as much as possible. Ancient metallic artifacts are made of many materials. Some are made of a single metal, such as iron, copper, or bronze. There are also composite relics made of several metals. Almost all metals (except gold) corrode while they rest underground. Corrosion is caused by the interaction of oxygen, water, and various ions. Chloride ions play a major role in the advance of corrosion. Excavated metallic relics are usually scientifically examined as to their structure and materials and treated for preservation before being displayed for exhibition or stored in a storehouse. Bird statue hermit body is made of wood and legs and beak bronze, the object broken separated to three parts. This statue came to Grand Egyptian Museum – Conservation Centre (GEM-CC) Inorganic Lab. Statuette representing the god djehoty shaped of the bird (ibis) sculpture made of bronze and wood the body of statues made from wood and bronze from head and leg and founded remains of black resin maybe it found with mummy, the base installed by wooden statue of the ancient writings there dating, the archaeological unit decided the dating is 3rd intermediate period - late period. This study aims to do conservation process for this statue, attempt to inhibit further degradation as much as possible and fill fractures and cracks in the wooden part.

Keywords: inorganic materials, metal, wood, corrosion, ibis

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Preetham Shankapal, Jill King, Kori Murray, Corby Martin, Paula Giselman, Jason Hicks, Owen Carmicheal

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Activation of reward and satiety networks in the brain while processing palatable food cues, as well as functional connectivity during rest has been studied using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the brain in various obesity phenotypes. However, functional connectivity within the reward and satiety network during food cue processing is understudied. 14 obese individuals underwent two fMRI scans during viewing of Macronutrient Picture System images. Each scan included two blocks of images of High Sugar/High Fat (HSHF), High Carbohydrate/High Fat (HCHF), Low Sugar/Low Fat (LSLF) and also non-food images. Seed voxels within seven food reward relevant ROIs: Insula, putamen and cingulate, precentral, parahippocampal, medial frontal and superior temporal gyri were isolated based on a prior meta-analysis. Beta series correlation for task-related functional connectivity between these seed voxels and the rest of the brain was computed. Voxel-level differences in functional connectivity were calculated between: first and the second scan; individuals who saw novel (N=7) vs. Repeated (N=7) images in the second scan; and between the HC/HF, HSHF blocks vs LSLF and non-food blocks. Computations and analysis showed that during food image viewing, reward network ROIs showed significant functional connectivity with each other and with other regions responsible for attentional and motor control, including inferior parietal lobe and precentral gyrus. These functional connectivity values were heightened among individuals who viewed novel HS/HF images in the second scan. In the second scan session, functional connectivity was reduced within the reward network but increased within attention, memory and recognition regions, suggesting habituation to reward properties and increased recollection of previously viewed images. In conclusion it can be inferred that Functional Connectivity within reward network and between reward and other brain regions, varies by important experimental conditions during food photography viewing, including habituation to shown foods.

Keywords: fMRI, functional connectivity, task-based, beta series correlation

Procedia PDF Downloads 270

Authors: Veruska C. Dutra, Lucio F.M. Adorno, Mary L. G. S. Senna

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Since it recognized the importance of planning sustainable tourism, which has been discussed effective methods of monitoring tourist. In this sense, the indicators, can transmit a set of information about complex processes, events or trends, showing up as an important monitoring tool and aid in the environmental assessment, helping to identify the progress of it and to chart future actions, contributing, so for decision making. The World Tourism Organization - WTO recognizes the importance of indicators to appraise the tourism activity in the point of view of sustainability, launching in 1995 eleven Keys Indicators of Sustainable Tourism to assist in the monitoring of tourist destinations. So we propose a case study to examine the applicability or otherwise of a monitoring methodology and aid in the understanding of tourism sustainability, analyzing the effectiveness of local indicators on the approach defined by the WTO. The study was applied to the Lagoa da Confusão City, in the state of Tocantins - North Brazil. The case study was carried out in 2006/2007, with the guiding deductive method. The indicators were measured by specific methodologies adapted to the study site, so that could generate quantitative results which could be analyzed at the proposed scale WTO (0 to 10 points). Applied indicators: Attractive Protection – AP (level of a natural and cultural attractive protection), Sociocultural Impact–SI (level of socio-cultural impacts), Waste Management - WM (level of management of solid waste generated), Planning Process-PP (trip planning level) Tourist Satisfaction-TS (satisfaction of the tourist experience), Community Satisfaction-CS (satisfaction of the local community with the development of local tourism) and Tourism Contribution to the Local Economy-TCLE (tourist level of contribution to the local economy). The city of Lagoa da Confusão was presented as an important object of study for the methodology in question, as offered condition to analyze the indicators and the complexities that arose during the research. The data collected can help discussions on the sustainability of tourism in the destination. The indicators TS, CS, WM , PP and AP appeared as satisfactory as allowed the measurement "translating" the reality under study, unlike TCLE and the SI indicators that were not seen as reliable and clear and should be reviewed and discussed for an adaptation and replication of the same. The application and study of various indicators of sustainable tourism, give better able to analyze the local tourism situation than monitor only one of the indicators, it does not demonstrate all collected data, which could result in a superficial analysis of the tourist destination.

Keywords: indicators, Lagoa da Confusão, Tocantins, Brazil, monitoring, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 401