Search results for: open channels

Authors: Thuy Phan, Stephanie Luallin

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Inclusive education policies have demonstrated benefits for students with and without disabilities in the US. There are several laws that relate to inclusive education, such as 'No Child Left Behind', 'The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act'. However, the application of these inclusive education laws and policies vary per state and school district. Classroom teachers in an inclusive classroom often experience confusion as to how to apply these policies in order to create appropriate inclusive learning environments that meet the abilities and needs of their diverse student population. The study aims to investigate teachers’ perspective of their capacities to create an appropriate learning environment for their diverse student population including students with disabilities. Qualitative method is implemented in this study, using open-end interview questions to investigate teachers’ perspective of their capacities to create an appropriate inclusive learning environment for all students based on current inclusive education laws and district policies in the state of Colorado, USA. These findings may indicate a lack of confidence in teachers’ capacity to create appropriate inclusive learning environments based on laws and district policies; including challenges that classroom teachers may experience in creating inclusive learning environments. The purpose of this study is to examine the adequate preparation of classroom teachers in creating inclusive classrooms with the intent of determining implications for developing policies in inclusive education.

Keywords: educator’s capacity, inclusive education, inclusive learning environment, policy

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: Saleh O. Allehabi, V. A. Dzubaa, V. V. Flambaum, Jiguang Li, A. V. Afanasjev, S. E. Agbemava

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Recently developed versions of the configuration method for open shells, configuration interaction with perturbation theory (CIPT), and configuration interaction with many-body perturbation theory (CI+MBPT) techniques are used to study the electronic structure of Er, Fm, and No atoms. Excitation energies of odd states connected to the even ground state by electric dipole transitions, the corresponding transition rates, isotope shift, hyperfine structure, ionization potentials, and static scalar polarizabilities are calculated. The way of extracting parameters of nuclear charge distribution beyond nuclear root mean square (RMS) radius, e.g., a parameter of quadrupole deformation β, is demonstrated. In nuclei with spin > 1/2, parameter β is extracted from the quadrupole hyperfine structure. With zero nuclear spin or spin 1/2, it is impossible since quadrupole zero, so a different method was developed. The measurements of at least two atomic transitions are needed to disentangle the contributions of the changes in deformation and nuclear RMS radius into field isotopic shift. This is important for testing nuclear theory and for searching for the hypothetical island of stability. Fm and No are heavy elements approaching the superheavy region, for which the experimental data are very poor, only seven lines for the Fm element and one line for the No element. Since Er and Fm have similar electronic structures, calculations for Er serve as a guide to the accuracy of the calculations. Twenty-eight new levels of Fm atom are reported.

Keywords: atomic spectra, electronic transitions, isotope effect, electron correlation calculations for atoms

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Aqsa Mehmood, Muhammad Ali Tahir, Hafiz Syed Hamid Arshad, Salman Atif, Ejaz Hussain, Gavin McArdle, Michela Bertolotto

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The evolution of smart cities in recent years has been developing dramatically. As urbanization increases, the demand for big data analytics and digital technology-based solutions for cities has also increased. Many cities around the world have now planned to focus on smart cities. To obtain a systematic overview of smart city models, we carried out a bibliometric analysis in the context of seven regions of the world to understand the main dimensions that characterize smart cities. This paper analyses articles published between 2017 and 2021 that were captured from Web of Science and Scopus. Specifically, we investigated publication trends to highlight the research gaps and current developments in smart cities research. Our survey provides helpful insights into the geographical distribution of smart city publications with respect to regions of the world and explores the current key topics relevant to smart cities and the co-occurrences of keywords used in these publications. A systematic literature review and keyword analysis were performed. The results have focused on identifying future directions in smart city development, including smart citizens, ISO standards, Open Geospatial Consortium and the sustainability factor of smart cities. This article will assist researchers and urban planners in understanding the latest trends in research and highlight the aspects which need further attention.

Keywords: smart cities, sustainability, regions, urban development, VOS viewer, research trends

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Authors: A. Roukbi, B. Draoui

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Due to the high cost and the environmental problems caused by the conventional air-conditioning systems, various researches are being increasingly focused on thermal comfort in the building sector integrating renewable energy sources, particularly solar energy. For that purpose, this study aims to present a modeling and performance analysis of a direct air-cooled Water/LiBr absorption chiller. The chiller is considered to be coupled to a small residential building at an arid zone situated in south Algeria. The system is modeled with TRNSYS simulation program. The main objective is to study the feasibility of the chosen system in arid zones and to apply a simplified method to predict the performance of the system by mean of the characteristic equation approach tacking in account the influence of the climatic conditions of the considered site, the collector area and storage volume of the hot water tank on the performance of the installation. First, the results of the system modeling are compared with an experimental data from the open literature and the developed model is then validated. In another hand, a parametric study is performed to analyze the performance of the direct air-cooled absorption chiller at the operating conditions of interest for the present study. Thus, the obtained results has shown that the studied system can present a good alternative for cooling systems in arid zones since the cooling load is roughly in phase with solar availability.

Keywords: absorption chiller, air-cooled, arid zone, thermal comfort

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Authors: C. D. Ellis, H. Xia, X. Chen

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Experimental and computational studies investigating heat transfer in separated flows have been of increasing importance over the last 60 years, as efforts are being made to understand and improve the efficiency of components such as combustors, turbines, heat exchangers, nuclear reactors and cooling channels. Understanding of not only the time-mean heat transfer properties but also the unsteady properties is vital for design of these components. As computational power increases, more sophisticated methods of modelling these flows become available for use. The hybrid LES-RANS approach has been applied to a blunt leading edge flat plate, utilising a structured grid at a moderate Reynolds number of 20300 based on the plate thickness. In the region close to the wall, the RANS method is implemented for two turbulence models; the one equation Spalart-Allmaras model and Menter’s two equation SST k-ω model. The LES region occupies the flow away from the wall and is formulated without any explicit subgrid scale LES modelling. Hybridisation is achieved between the two methods by the blending of the nearest wall distance. Validation of the flow was obtained by assessing the mean velocity profiles in comparison to similar studies. Identifying the vortex structures of the flow was obtained by utilising the λ2 criterion to identify vortex cores. The qualitative structure of the flow compared with experiments of similar Reynolds number. This identified the 2D roll up of the shear layer, breaking down via the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Through this instability the flow progressed into hairpin like structures, elongating as they advanced downstream. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) analysis has been performed on the full flow field and upon the surface temperature of the plate. As expected, the breakdown of POD modes for the full field revealed a relatively slow decay compared to the surface temperature field. Both POD fields identified the most energetic fluctuations occurred in the separated and recirculation region of the flow. Latter modes of the surface temperature identified these levels of fluctuations to dominate the time-mean region of maximum heat transfer and flow reattachment. In addition to the current research, work will be conducted in tracking the movement of the vortex cores and the location and magnitude of temperature hot spots upon the plate. This information will support the POD and statistical analysis performed to further identify qualitative relationships between the vortex dynamics and the response of the surface heat transfer.

Keywords: heat transfer, hybrid LES-RANS, separated and reattached flow, vortex dynamics

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Authors: R. Hassan, J. Duncombe, E. Darke, A. Dias, K. Anderson, R. G. Middleton

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NHS England has set itself the task of delivering a “Net Zero” National Health service by 2040. It is incumbent upon all health care practioners to work towards this goal. Orthopaedic surgeons are no exception. Distal radial fractures are the most common fractures sustained by the adult population. However, studies are shortcoming on individual patient experience. The aim of this study was to assess the patient’s satisfaction and outcomes with woodcast used in the conservative management of distal radius fractures. For all patients managed with woodcast in our unit, we undertook a structured questionnaire that included the Patient Rated Wrist Evaluation (PRWE) score, The EQ-5D-5L score and the pain numerical score at the time of injury and six weeks after. 30 patients were initially managed with woodcast. 80% of patients tolerated woodcast for the full duration of their treatment. Of these, 20% didn’t tolerate woodcast and had their casts removed within 48 hours. Of the remaining, 79.1% were satisfied about woodcast comfort, 66% were very satisfied about woodcast weight, 70% were satisfied with temperature and sweatiness, 62.5% were very satisfied about the smell/odour, and 75% were satisfied about the level of support woodcast provided. During their treatment, 83.3% of patients rated their pain as five or less. For those who completed their treatment in woodcast, none required any further intervention or utilised the open appointment because of ongoing wrist problems. In conclusion, when woodcast is tolerated, patients’ satisfaction and outcome levels were good. However, we acknowledged 20% of patients in our series were not able to tolerate woodacst, Therefore, we suggest a comparison between the widely used synthetic plaster of Paris casting and woodcast to come in order.

Keywords: distal radius fractures, ecological cast, sustainability, woodcast

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Authors: Caner Koc, Dilara Gerdan Koc, Emrah Saka, H. Ibrahim Karagol

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The use of pesticides in agricultural activities is the most harmful to the environment and farmers' health, and it also has the greatest input prices, along with fertilizers. In this study, an electric, electrostatically charged, autonomous agricultural robot was developed, modeled, and prototyped and manufactured. It allows for sensitive pesticide applications with variable levels, has controllable spray nozzles, and uses camera distance sensors to detect and spray into tree canopies. The created prototype was produced with flexibility in mind. Two stages of prototype manufacture were completed. The initial stage involved designing and producing the flexible primary body of the autonomous vehicle. Detachable hanger assemblies are employed so that the main body robot can perform a variety of agricultural tasks. The design of the spraying devices and their fitting to the autonomous vehicle was completed as the second stage of the prototype. The built prototype spraying robot's itinerary was planned using the free, open-source program Mission Planner. PX4, telemetry, and RTK GPS are used to maneuver the autonomous car along the designated path. To avoid potential obstructions, the robot uses ultrasonic and lidar sensors. The developed autonomous vehicle's energy needs are intended to be met entirely by electric batteries. In the event that the batteries run out of power, the sockets are set up to be recharged both by using the generator and the main power source through the specifically constructed panel.

Keywords: autonomous agricultural robot, pesticide, smart farming, spraying, variable rate application

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Authors: M. Roberts

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We Are Undefeatable - is a mass marketing behaviour change campaign that aims to support the least active people living with long term health conditions to be more active. This is an important issue to address because people with long term conditions are an historically underserved community for the sport and physical activity sector and the least active of those with long term conditions have the most to gain in health and wellbeing benefits. The campaign has generated a significant change in the way physical activity is communicated and people with long term conditions are represented in the media and marketing. The goal is to create a social norm around being active. The campaign is led by a unique partnership of organisations: the Richmond Group of Charities (made up of Age UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Asthma + Lung UK, Breast Cancer Now, British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, Diabetes UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Rethink Mental Illness, Royal Voluntary Service, Stroke Association, Versus Arthritis) along with Mind, MS Society, Parkinson’s UK and Sport England, with National Lottery Funding. It is underpinned by the COM-B model of behaviour change. It draws on the lived experience of people with multiple long term conditions to shape the look and feel of the campaign and all the resources available. People with long term conditions are the campaign messengers, central to the ethos of the campaign by telling their individual stories of overcoming barriers to be active with their health conditions. The central messaging is about finding a way to be active that works for the individual. We Are Undefeatable is evaluated through a multi-modal approach, including regular qualitative focus groups and a quantitative evaluation tracker undertaken three times a year. The campaign has highlighted the significant barriers to physical activity for people with long term conditions. This has changed the way our partnership talks about physical activity but has also had an impact on the wider sport and physical activity sector, prompting an increasing departure from traditional messaging and marketing approaches for this audience of people with long term conditions. The campaign has reached millions of people since its launch in 2019, through multiple marketing and partnership channels including primetime TV advertising and promotion through health professionals and in health settings. Its diverse storytellers make it relatable to its target audience and the achievable activities highlighted and inclusive messaging inspire our audience to take action as a result of seeing the campaign. The We Are Undefeatable campaign is a blueprint for physical activity campaigns; it not only addresses individual behaviour change but plays a role in addressing systemic barriers to physical activity by sharing the lived experience insight to shape policy and professional practice.

Keywords: behaviour change, long term conditions, partnership, relatable

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Authors: Jutamas Wisansing, Thanakarn Vongvisitsin, Udom Hongchatikul

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Food could be used to open up a dialogue about local heritage. Contributing to the world sustainable consumption mission, this research aims to explore the linkages between agriculture, senses of place and performing arts. Thailand and its destination marketing ‘Discover Thainess’ was selected as a working principle, enabling a case example of how the three elements could be conceptualized. The model offered an integrated institutional arrangement where diverse entities could be formed to design how Thainess (local heritage) could be interpreted and embedded into an art of food. Using case study research approach, three areas (Chiangmai, Samutsongkram and Ban Rai Gong King) representing 3 different scales of tourism development were selected. Based on a theoretical analysis, a working model was formulated. An action research was then designed to experiment how the model could be materialized. Brainstorming elicitation and in-depth interview were employed to reflect on how each element could be integrated. The result of this study offered an innovation on how food tourism could be profoundly interpreted and how tourism development could enhance value creation for agricultural based community. The outcomes of the research present co-creative multi-stakeholder model and the value creation method through the whole supply chain of Thai gastronomy. The findings have been eventually incorporated into ‘gastro-diplomacy’ strategy for Thai tourism.

Keywords: community-based tourism, gastro-diplomacy, gastronomy tourism, sustainable tourism development

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Authors: Erol Karaca

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This study aims to analyze ceramic employees’ occupational health and safety training expectations. To that general objective, the study tries to examine whether occupational health and safety training expectations of ceramic employees meaningfully differentiate depending on demographic features and professional, social and economic conditions. For this purpose, the research data was collected through “Questionnaire of Occupational Health and Safety Training Expectation” (QSOHSTE) consisting of 25 open and close-ended questions developed by the researcher on the base of the literature review. QSOHSTE was applied to 125 ceramic employees working in Kutahya, Turkey. Data obtained from questionnaires were analyzed via SPSS 21. The findings, obtained from the study, revealed that employees’ agreement level to occupational health and safety training expectation statements is generally high-level. These findings also reveals that employees have various expectations about occupational health and safety training. These expectations are increasing sensitivity towards occupational health and safety training about the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases, contributing occupational health and safety training in establishing healthy and safe working environment, requiring occupational health and safety training before starting work, in case of changing working equipment and new technological applications, necessity of measurement and evaluation after occupational health and safety training. Besides these findings, employees’ agreement level to occupational health and safety training expectation statements also varies in terms of educational level, professional seniority, income level and perception of economic condition.

Keywords: occupational health and safety, occupational training, occupational expectation, professional seniority

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Authors: Lauren M. McKinnon, Justin B. Miller, Michael F. Whiting, John S. K. Kauwe, Perry G. Ridge

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Background: Ramp sequences increase translational speed and accuracy when rare, slowly-translated codons are found at the beginnings of genes. Here, the results of the first analysis of ramp sequences in a phylogenetic construct are presented. Methods: Ramp sequences were compared from 211 vertebrates (110 Mammalian and 101 non-mammalian). The presence and absence of ramp sequences were analyzed as a binary character in a parsimony and maximum likelihood framework. Additionally, ramp sequences were mapped to the Open Tree of Life taxonomy to determine the number of parallelisms and reversals that occurred, and these results were compared to what would be expected due to random chance. Lastly, aligned nucleotides in ramp sequences were compared to the rest of the sequence in order to examine possible differences in phylogenetic signal between these regions of the gene. Results: Parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses of the presence/absence of ramp sequences recovered phylogenies that are highly congruent with established phylogenies. Additionally, the retention index of ramp sequences is significantly higher than would be expected due to random chance (p-value = 0). A chi-square analysis of completely orthologous ramp sequences resulted in a p-value of approximately zero as compared to random chance. Discussion: Ramp sequences recover comparable phylogenies as other phylogenomic methods. Although not all ramp sequences appear to have a phylogenetic signal, more ramp sequences track speciation than expected by random chance. Therefore, ramp sequences may be used in conjunction with other phylogenomic approaches.

Keywords: codon usage bias, phylogenetics, phylogenomics, ramp sequence

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Authors: Mehmet Sinan Erguven

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A number of authorities argue that radio is an outdated medium for advertising and does not have the same impact on consumers as it did in the past. This grim outlook on the future of radio has its basis in the audio-visual world that consumers now live in and the popularity of Internet-based marketing tools among advertising professionals. Nonetheless, consumers still appear to overwhelmingly prefer radio as an entertainment tool. Today, in Canada, 90% of all adults (18+) tune into the radio on a weekly basis, and they listen for 17 hours. Teens are the most challenging group for radio to capture as an audience, but still, almost 75% tune in weekly. One online radio station reaches more than 250 million registered listeners worldwide, and revenues from radio advertising in Australia are expected to grow at an annual rate of 3% for the foreseeable future. Radio is also starting to become popular again in Turkey, with a 5% increase in the listening rates compared to 2014. A major matter of concern always affecting radio advertising is creativity. As radio generally serves as a background medium for listeners, the creativity of the radio commercials is important in terms of attracting the attention of the listener and directing their focus on the advertising message. This cannot simply be done by using audio tools like sound effects and jingles. This study aims to identify the creative elements (execution formats appeals and approaches) and creativity factors of radio commercials in Turkey. As part of the study, all of the award winning radio commercials produced throughout the history of the Kristal Elma Advertising Festival were analyzed using the content analysis technique. Two judges (an advertising agency copywriter and an academic) coded the commercials. The reliability was measured according to the proportional agreement. The results showed that sound effects, jingles, testimonials, slices of life and announcements were the most common execution formats in creative Turkish radio ads. Humor and excitement were the most commonly used creative appeals while award-winning ads featured various approaches, such as surprise musical performances, audio wallpaper, product voice, and theater of the mind. Some ads, however, were found to not contain any creativity factors. In order to be accepted as creative, an ad must have at least one divergence factor, such as originality, flexibility, unusual/empathic perspective, and provocative questions. These findings, as well as others from the study, hold great value for the history of creative radio advertising in Turkey. Today, the nature of radio and its listeners is changing. As more and more people are tuning into online radio channels, brands will need to focus more on this relatively cheap advertising medium in the very near future. This new development will require that advertising agencies focus their attention on creativity in order to produce radio commercials for their customers that will differentiate them from their competitors.

Keywords: advertising, creativity, radio, Turkey

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Authors: Maaly Jarrah

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In a study abroad context, students have the advantage of immersing themselves in the environment of the target language and being exposed to it. However, in and a stay home context, where English is not the mother tongue, students’ exposure to the second language is often times restricted to the classroom. Although language teachers are keen to develop inside class room activities and practices that increase the suitability of students to acquire a second language (Cook & Singleton, 2014), many would agree that class time is too limited to enhance students’ oral fluency skills. Consequently, creating opportunities outside the classroom for students to speak English is an effective strategy in compensating for students’ limited use of the L2. In an argument by Ortega (2012) external classroom activities have equal significance in enabling students learn English as a second language. The author further asserts that the activities provide a non-educational environment from which a student may feel free and comfortable to acquire new language skills. This study investigates the significance of outside classroom activities in promoting students’ oral proficiency. In addition, it reports on students’ perceptions of such activities. 15 participants from the American University of Kuwait took part in this study. Open-ended interviews were done to find out what the participants thought of these activities, and what they gained from them. Interview results show that students found outside classroom activities very effective in improving not only their oral fluency skills, but their confidence and critical thinking skills as well. The implications of this research study are for language practitioners and language programs in the EFL context to be aware of the benefits of incorporating outside classroom activities in language teaching.

Keywords: language teaching, oral fluency, outside classroom activities

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Authors: Dorota M. Michalak

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The agricultural sector, due to the growing demand for food and over-exploitation of the natural environment, contributes to the deepening of climate change, on the one hand, and on the other hand, shrinking freshwater resources, as a negative effect of climate change, threaten the food security of each country. Therefore, adaptation measures to climate change should take into account effective water management and seek solutions ensuring food production at an unchanged or higher level, while not burdening the environment and not contributing to the worsening of the negative consequences of climate change. The problems of Poland's water management result not only from relatively small, natural water resources but to a large extent on the low efficiency of their use. Appropriate agricultural practices and state solutions in this field can contribute to achieving significant benefits in terms of economical water management in agriculture, providing a greater amount of water that could also be used for other purposes, including for purposes related to environmental protection. The aim of the article is to determine the level of use of water resources in Polish agriculture and the advancement of measures aimed at adapting Polish agriculture in the field of water management to climate change. The study provides knowledge about Polish legal regulations and water management tools, the shaping of water policy of Polish agriculture against the background of EU countries and other sources of energy, and measures supporting Polish agricultural holdings in the effective management of water resources run by state budget institutions. In order to achieve the above-mentioned goals, the author used research tools such as the analysis of existing sources and a survey conducted among five groups of entities, i.e. agricultural advisory centers and departments, agricultural, rural and environmental protection departments, regional water management boards, provincial agricultural chambers and restructuring and modernization of agriculture. The main conclusion of the analyses carried out is the low use of water in Polish agriculture in relation to other EU countries, other sources of intake in Poland, as well as irrigation. The analysis allows us to observe another problem, which is the lack of reporting and data collection, which is extremely important from the point of view of the effectiveness of adaptation measures to climate change. The results obtained from the survey indicate a very low level of support for government institutions in the implementation of adaptation measures to climate change and the water management of Polish farms. Some of the basic problems of the adaptation policy to change climate with regard to water management in Polish agriculture include a lack of knowledge regarding climate change, the possibilities of adapting, the available tools or ways to rationalize the use of water resources. It also refers to the lack of ordering procedures and the separation of responsibility with a proper territorial unit, non-functioning channels of information flow and practically low effects.

Keywords: water management, adaptation policy, agriculture, climate change

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Authors: Youmen Chaaban

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The study examined the influence of a situated professional development program (PD) aimed at enhancing English language teachers’ knowledge and skills and improving their instructional practices. The PD model under examination was developed upon sound theoretical underpinnings, taking into consideration research-based principles of effective PD. However, the implementation of the PD model within several school contexts required further investigation from the perspectives of the teachers, who were receiving the PD activities, and the instructional coaches, who were providing them. The paper, thus, presents the results of a qualitative study examining the perceptions of seventeen English language teachers and nineteen instructional coaches about the strengths of the PD program, the challenges they faced in the implementation of the program, and their suggestions for the improvement of the program’s implementation and outcomes. Comparisons were further made between the two groups of participants to uncover agreements and contradictions in their perceptions. Data were collected from the teachers through in-depth interviews and observations, while the data collected from the instructional coaches were open-ended surveys followed by focus group interviews. The findings of the study confirm the necessity of structuring PD activities around sound theoretical underpinnings. However, practical considerations specific to the contexts where the PD activities take place should be considered when evaluating the PD’s effectiveness. Finally, the study provides several recommendations for maximizing the influence of the PD program on teachers’ practices and beliefs.

Keywords: English language teachers, situated professional development, teacher beliefs, teacher practices

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Authors: Upeksha Jayasuriya

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The sudden transition from onsite to online teaching/learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic called for a need to incorporate feasible as well as effective methods of online teaching in most developing countries like Sri Lanka. The English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom faces specific challenges in this adaptation, and teaching writing can be identified as the most challenging task compared to teaching the other three skills. This study was therefore carried out to explore the challenges of teaching writing online and to provide effective means of overcoming them while taking into consideration the attitudes of students and teachers with regard to learning/teaching English writing via online platforms. A survey questionnaire was distributed (electronically) among 60 students from the University of Colombo, the University of Kelaniya, and The Open University in order to find out the challenges faced by students, while in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 lecturers from the mentioned universities. The findings reveal that the inability to observe students’ writing and to receive real-time feedback discourage students from engaging in writing activities when taught online. It was also discovered that both students and teachers increasingly prefer Google Slides over other platforms such as Padlet, Linoit, and Jam Board as it boosts learner autonomy and student-teacher interaction, which in turn allows real-time formative feedback, observation of student work, and assessment. Accordingly, it can be recommended that teaching writing online can be better facilitated by using interactive platforms such as Google Slides, for it promotes active learning and student engagement in the ESL class.

Keywords: ESL, teaching writing, online teaching, active learning, student engagement

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Authors: Arina V. Tankanag, Gennady V. Krasnikov, Nikolai K. Chemeris

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The development of respiration-dependent oscillations in the peripheral blood flow may occur by at least two mechanisms. The first mechanism is related to the change of venous pressure due to mechanical activity of lungs. This phenomenon is known as ‘respiratory pump’ and is one of the mechanisms of venous return of blood from the peripheral vessels to the heart. The second mechanism is related to the vasomotor reflexes controlled by the respiratory modulation of the activity of centers of the vegetative nervous system. Early high phase synchronization of respiration-dependent blood flow oscillations of left and right forearm skin in healthy volunteers at rest was shown. The aim of the work was to study the effect of deep controlled breathing on the phase synchronization of skin blood flow oscillations. 29 normotensive non-smoking young women (18-25 years old) of the normal constitution without diagnosed pathologies of skin, cardiovascular and respiratory systems participated in the study. For each of the participants six recording sessions were carried out: first, at the spontaneous breathing rate; and the next five, in the regimes of controlled breathing with fixed breathing depth and different rates of enforced breathing regime. The following rates of controlled breathing regime were used: 0.25, 0.16, 0.10, 0.07 and 0.05 Hz. The breathing depth amounted to 40% of the maximal chest excursion. Blood perfusion was registered by laser flowmeter LAKK-02 (LAZMA, Russia) with two identical channels (wavelength 0.63 µm; emission power, 0.5 mW). The first probe was fastened to the palmar surface of the distal phalanx of left forefinger; the second probe was attached to the external surface of the left forearm near the wrist joint. These skin zones were chosen as zones with different dominant mechanisms of vascular tonus regulation. The degree of phase synchronization of the registered signals was estimated from the value of the wavelet phase coherence. The duration of all recording was 5 min. The sampling frequency of the signals was 16 Hz. The increasing of synchronization of the respiratory-dependent skin blood flow oscillations for all controlled breathing regimes was obtained. Since the formation of respiration-dependent oscillations in the peripheral blood flow is mainly caused by the respiratory modulation of system blood pressure, the observed effects are most likely dependent on the breathing depth. It should be noted that with spontaneous breathing depth does not exceed 15% of the maximal chest excursion, while in the present study the breathing depth was 40%. Therefore it has been suggested that the observed significant increase of the phase synchronization of blood flow oscillations in our conditions is primarily due to an increase of breathing depth. This is due to the enhancement of both potential mechanisms of respiratory oscillation generation: venous pressure and sympathetic modulation of vascular tone.

Keywords: deep controlled breathing, peripheral blood flow oscillations, phase synchronization, wavelet phase coherence

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Authors: Zohreh Didar Yaser, Zanganeh Asadabadi

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The aim of this work is to open up the structure of lemon peel (Citrus × latifolia) with mild pretreatments. The effects of autoclave, microwave and ultrasonic with or without acid addition were investigated on the amount of glucose, soluble and insoluble lignin, furfural, yeast viability and bioethanol. The finding showed that autoclave- acid impregnated sample, has the highest glucose release from lignocellulose materials (14.61 and 14.95 g/l for solvent exposed and untreated sample, respectively) whereas at control sample glucose content was at its minimal level. Pretreatments cause decrease on soluble and insoluble lignin and the highest decrease cause by autoclave following with microwave and ultrasonic pretreatments (p≤5%). Moderate increase on furfural was seen at pretreated samples than control ones. Also, the most yeast viability and bioethanol content was belong to autoclave samples especially acid- impregnated ones (40.33%). Comparison between solvent treated and untreated samples indicated that significant difference was between two tested groups (p≤1%) in terms of lignin, furfural, cell viability and ethanol content but glucose didn’t show significant difference. It imply that solvent extraction don’t influences on glucose release from lignocellulose material of lemon peel but cause enhancement of yeast viability and bioethanol production.

Keywords: Bioethanol, Lemon peel, Pretreatments, Solvent Extraction

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Authors: Ayan Giri, Lukaranjan Phukan, Shantanu Karmakar

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Structure and tectonics play a vital role in ore genesis and deposition. The existence of a swelling structure below the current level of a mine leads to the discovery of ores below some permeant developments of the mine. The discovery and the extraction of the ore body are very critical to sustain the business requirement of the mine. The challenge was to extract the ore without hampering the global stability of the mine. In order to do so, different mining options were considered and analysed by numerical modelling in FLAC3d software. The constitutive model prepared for this simulation is the improved unified constitutive model, which can better and more accurately predict the stress-strain relationships in a continuum model. The IUCM employs the Hoek-Brown criterion to determine the instantaneous Mohr-Coulomb parameters cohesion (c) and friction (ɸ) at each level of confining stress. The extra swelled part can be dimensioned as north-south strike width 50m, east-west strike width 50m. On the north side, already a stope (P1) is excavated of the dimension of 25m NS width. The different options considered were (a) Open stoping of extraction of southern part (P0) of 50m to the full extent, (b) Extraction of the southern part of 25m, then filling of both the primaries and extraction of secondary (S0) 25m in between. (c) Extraction of the southern part (P0) completely, preceded by backfill and modify the design of the secondary (S0) for the overall stability of the permanent excavation above the stoping.

Keywords: extraction, IUCM, FLAC 3D, stoping, tectonics

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Authors: Maja Martinovic, Valentina Zarkovic, Hrvoje Maljak

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Europe is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, in which tourism occupies a significant place among the most relevant economic activities, and this applies to the Republic of Croatia as well. Based on this study, the authors intended to encourage and support the creation of an effective tourism policy in Croatia that would be based on the profiling of certain target groups. Another objective was to compare the results obtained from the customer analysis with the market analysis of the tourism industry in Croatia. The objective is to adapt the current tourist offer according to the identified needs and expectations of a particular tourist group in order to increase the attractiveness of Croatia as a tourist destination and motivate greater attendance of the targeted tourist groups. The current research was oriented towards the Russian market as the target group. Therefore, the authors wanted to encourage a discussion on how to attract more Russian guests. Consequently, the intention of the research was a detailed analysis of Russian tourists, in order to gain a better understanding of their travelling motives and tendencies. Furthermore, attention was paid to the expectations of Russian customers and to compare them with the Croatian tourist offer, and to determine whether there is a possibility for an overlap. The method used to obtain the information required was a survey conducted among Russian citizens about their travelling habits. The research was carried out on the basis of 166 participants of different age, gender, profession and income group. The sampling and distribution of the survey took place between May and July 2016. The results provided from the research indicate that Croatian tourism has certain unrealized potential considering the popularization of Croatia as a tourist destination, and there is a capacity for increasing the revenues within the group of Russian tourists. Such a conclusion is based on the fact that the Croatian tourist offer and the preferences of the Russian guests are compatible, i.e. they overlap in many aspects. The results demonstrate that beautiful nature, cultural and historical heritage as well as the sun and sea, play a leading role in attracting more Russian tourists. It is precisely these elements that form the three pillars of the Croatian tourist offer. On the other hand, the profiling revealed that the most desirable destinations for the Russian guests are Italy and Spain, both of which provide the same main tourist attractions as Croatia. Therefore, the focus of the strategic ideas given in the paper shifted to other tourism segments, such as type of accommodation, sales channels, travel motives, additional offer and seasonality etc., in order to gain advantage in the Russian market, the Mediterranean region and tourism in general. The purpose of the research is to serve as a foundation for analysing the attractiveness of the other tourist destinations in the Russian market, as well as to be a general basis for a more detailed profiling of the various specific target groups of the Russian and other tourist groups.

Keywords: Croatia, Russian market, target groups, tourism, tourist destination

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Authors: Deeman Yousif Mahmood, Mohammed Abdullah Hussein

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The goal of a network-based intrusion detection system is to classify activities of network traffics into two major categories: normal and attack (intrusive) activities. Nowadays, data mining and machine learning plays an important role in many sciences; including intrusion detection system (IDS) using both supervised and unsupervised techniques. However, one of the essential steps of data mining is feature selection that helps in improving the efficiency, performance and prediction rate of proposed approach. This paper applies unsupervised K-means clustering algorithm with information gain (IG) for feature selection and reduction to build a network intrusion detection system. For our experimental analysis, we have used the new NSL-KDD dataset, which is a modified dataset for KDDCup 1999 intrusion detection benchmark dataset. With a split of 60.0% for the training set and the remainder for the testing set, a 2 class classifications have been implemented (Normal, Attack). Weka framework which is a java based open source software consists of a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks has been used in the testing process. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is very accurate with low false positive rate and high true positive rate and it takes less learning time in comparison with using the full features of the dataset with the same algorithm.

Keywords: information gain (IG), intrusion detection system (IDS), k-means clustering, Weka

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Authors: M. Nazim, S. Ameen, H. K. Seo, H. S. Shin

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Energy is the basis of life and strong attention has been growing for the cost-effective energy production. Recently, solution-processed small molecule organic solar cells (SMOSCs) have grown much attention due to the wages such as well-defined molecular structures, definite molecular weight, easy synthesis and easy purification techniques. In particular, the size of donor (D) and acceptor (A) unit is a crucial factor for the exciton-diffusion towards D-A interface and then charge-separation for the effective charge-transport to the electrodes. Furan-bridged materials are more electron-rich, high fluorescence, with better molecular-packing, and greater rigidity and greater solubility than their thiophene-counterparts In this work, a furan-bridged thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole based organic small molecule (RFTzR) was formulated and applied for BHJ organic solar cells (OSCs). The introduction of furan spacer with two terminal alkyl units improved its absorption and solubility in the common organic solvents, significantly. RFTzR exhibited a HOMO and LUMO energy levels of -5.36 eV and -3.14 eV, respectively. The fabricated solar cell devices of RFTzR (donor) with PC60BM (acceptor) as photoactive materials showed high performance of 2.72% (RFTzR:PC60BM, 2:1, w/w) ratio with open-circuit voltage of 0.756 V and high photocurrent density of 10.13 mA/cm².

Keywords: chromophore, organic solar cells, photoactive materials, small molecule

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Authors: S. Mahdi S. Kolbadi, Ramezan Ali Alvand, Afrasiab Mirzaei

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In this study, to investigate and analyze the seismic behavior of concrete in open rectangular water storage tanks in two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces, the Finite Element Method has been used. Through this method, dynamic responses can be investigated together in fluid storages system. Soil behavior has been simulated using tanks boundary conditions in linear form. In this research, in addition to flexibility of wall, the effects of fluid-structure interaction on seismic response of tanks have been investigated to account for the effects of flexible foundation in linear boundary conditions form, and a dynamic response of rectangular tanks in two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces using finite element method has been provided. The boundary conditions of both rigid and flexible walls in two-dimensional finite element method have been considered to investigate the effect of wall flexibility on seismic response of fluid and storage system. Furthermore, three-dimensional model of fluid-structure interaction issue together with wall flexibility has been analyzed under the three components of earthquake. The obtained results show that two-dimensional model is also accurately near to the results of three-dimension as well as flexibility of foundation leads to absorb received energy and relative reduction of responses.

Keywords: dynamic behavior, flexible wall, fluid-structure interaction, water storage tank

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Authors: Mohamed Loutou, Mohamed Hajjaji, Mohamed Ait Babram, Mohammed Mansori, Rachid Hakkou, Claude Favotto

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More than 26,4 million tons of phosphates are produced by the phosphates industries in Morocco (2010), generating huge amounts of sludge by flocculation during the ore beneficiation. They way are stored at the end of the process in open air ponds. Its accumulation and storage may have an impact on several scales such as ground water and human being. For this purpose, an efficient way to use it the field of the ceramic is proposed. The as received sludge and a clay-rich sediment have been studied in terms of chemical, mineralogical and micro-structural side using various analytical methods. Several formulations have been performed by mixing the sludge with the binder shaped in the form of granules. After being dried at 105 °C, the samples were heated in the range of 900-1200 °C. As well as the ceramic properties (firing shrinkage, water absorption, total porosity and compressive strength) the micro structure has been investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The relations between properties and the operating factors were formulated using the design of experiments (DOE). Gehlenite was the only phase neo-formed in the sintering samples. SEM micrographs revealed the presence of nano metric stains. Based on RSM results, all factors had positive effects on Firing shrinkage, compressive strength and total porosity. However, they manifested opposite effects on density and water absorption.

Keywords: phosphate sludge, clay, ceramic properties, granule

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Authors: Xiaoqing Wang, Junfeng Wang, Xiaolan Zhu

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Android operating system has been recognized by most application developers because of its good open-source and compatibility, which enriches the categories of applications greatly. However, it has become the target of malware attackers due to the lack of strict security supervision mechanisms, which leads to the rapid growth of malware, thus bringing serious safety hazards to users. Therefore, it is critical to detect Android malware effectively. Generally, the permissions declared in the AndroidManifest.xml can reflect the function and behavior of the application to a large extent. Since current Android system has not any restrictions to the number of permissions that an application can request, developers tend to apply more than actually needed permissions in order to ensure the successful running of the application, which results in the abuse of permissions. However, some traditional detection methods only consider the requested permissions and ignore whether it is actually used, which leads to incorrect identification of some malwares. Therefore, a machine learning detection method based on the actually used permissions combination and API calls was put forward in this paper. Meanwhile, several experiments are conducted to evaluate our methodology. The result shows that it can detect unknown malware effectively with higher true positive rate and accuracy while maintaining a low false positive rate. Consequently, the AdaboostM1 (J48) classification algorithm based on information gain feature selection algorithm has the best detection result, which can achieve an accuracy of 99.8%, a true positive rate of 99.6% and a lowest false positive rate of 0.

Keywords: android, API Calls, machine learning, permissions combination

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Authors: Walailak Atthirawong

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By the end of 2015, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries proclaim to transform into the next stage of an economic era by having a single market and production base called ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). One objective of the AEC is to establish ASEAN as a single market and one production base making ASEAN highly competitive economic region and competitive with new mechanisms. As a result, it will open more opportunities to enterprises in both trade and investment, which offering a competitive market of US$ 2.6 trillion and over 622 million people. Location decision plays a key role in achieving corporate competitiveness. Hence, it may be necessary for enterprises to redesign their supply chains via enlarging a new production base which has low labor cost, high labor skill and numerous of labor available. This strategy will help companies especially for apparel industry in order to maintain a competitive position in the global market. Therefore, in this paper a generic model for location selection decision for Thai apparel industry using Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP) is proposed. Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia are referred for alternative location decision from interviewing expert persons in this industry who have planned to enlarge their businesses in AEC countries. The contribution of this paper lies in proposing an approach model that is more practical and trustworthy to top management in making a decision on location selection.

Keywords: apparel industry, ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP), location decision

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Authors: Rodrigo Coelho

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We believe that in the majority of the “recent production of public space", the overvaluation of the "image", of the "ephemeral" and of the "objectual", has come to determine the configuration of banal and (more or less) arbitrary "public spaces", mostly linked to a problem of “outdoor decoration”, reflecting a clear sign of uncertainty and arbitrariness about the meaning, the role and shape of public space and public art.This "inconsistency" which is essentially linked to the loss of urban, but also social, cultural and political, vocation of the disciplines that “shape” the urban space (but is also linked to the lack of urban and technical culture of techinicians and policy makers) converted a significant set of the recently built "public space" and “urban art” into diffuse and multi-referenced pieces, which generally shares the inability of confering to the urban space, civic, aesthetic, social and symbolic meanings. In this sense we consider it is essential to undertake a theoretical reflection on the values, the meaning(s) and the shape(s) that open space, and urban art may (or must) take in the current urban and cultural context, in order to redeem for public space its status of significant physical reference, able to embody a spatial and urban identity, and simultaneously enable the collective accession and appropriation of public space. Taking as reference public space interventions built in the last decade on the European context, we will seek to explore and defend the need of considering public space as a true place of exception, an exceptional support where the emphasis is placed on the quality of the experience, especially by the relations public space/urban art can established with the city, with nature and geography in a broad sense, referring us back to a close and inseparable and timeless relationship between nature and culture.

Keywords: art, city, nature, public space

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Authors: Yongsheng Guo, Shuchao Li

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This study explores Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe and the cross-cultural cooperation between Chinese and European managers. The aim of this research is to shed light on the phenomenon of investments in developed countries from an emerging market and to gain insights into the cooperation process. A grounded theory approach is adopted, and 46 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 case companies in Germany and 13 case companies in the UK. Grounded theory models are developed from primary data and interview quotes are used to support the themes. The interviewees perceived differences between the two parties in cultural traits, management concepts, knowledge structure and resource endowment between the two parties. Chinese and European partners can take advantage of different resources and cooperate in innovative ways to improve corporate performance. Moreover, both parties appreciate different ethical and cultural characteristics and complement each other to develop a combined organizational culture. This study proposes an ethical and cultural diversity theory in international management arguing that a team with diversified values and behaviors may be more excited and motivated. This study suggests that “resource complement” and “cross-cultural cooperation” might be an advantage for international investment. Firms are encouraged to open their minds and cooperate with partners with different resources and cultures. The authorities may review the FDI policies to reduce social and political barriers.

Keywords: cross-culture, FDI, cooperation, innovation, China, Europe

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Authors: Ahmed Boutejdar, Bishoy I. Halim, Soumia El Hani, Larbi Bellarbi, Amal Afyf

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In this paper, a planar monopole antenna for multi band applications is proposed. The antenna structure operates at three operating frequencies at 3.7, 6.2, and 13.5 GHz which cover different communication frequency ranges. The antenna consists of a quasi-modified rectangular radiating patch with a partial ground plane and two parasitic elements (open-loop-ring resonators) to serve as coupling-bridges. A stepped cut at lower corners of the radiating patch and the partial ground plane are used, to achieve the multiband features. The proposed antenna is manufactured on the FR4 substrate and is simulated and optimized using High Frequency Simulation System (HFSS). The antenna topology possesses an area of 30.5 x 30 x 1.6 mm³. The measured results demonstrate that the candidate antenna has impedance bandwidths for 10 dB return loss and operates from 3.80 – 3.90 GHz, 4.10 – 5.20 GHz, 11.2 – 11.5 GHz and from 12.5 – 14.0 GHz, which meet the requirements of the wireless local area network (WLAN), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), C- (Uplink) and Ku- (Uplink) band applications. Acceptable agreement is obtained between measurement and simulation results. Experimental results show that the antenna is successfully simulated and measured, and the tri-band antenna can be achieved by adjusting the lengths of the three elements and it gives good gains across all the operation bands.

Keywords: planar monopole antenna, FR4 substrate, HFSS, WLAN, WiMAX, C and Ku

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Authors: Shakila Singh

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This research was conducted at a selected South African university campus with women students who drink alcohol. The purpose of the study was to examine their perspectives on the role of alcohol in their lives, their understandings about women’s vulnerability to alcohol-related sexual risk and their strategies against these. The study draws on feminist principles and practices to challenge gendered inequalities that legitimate and facilitate violence against women. Recognising the danger of focusing on risk management in ways that place the burden of responsibility entirely on young women to prevent their violation, this article focuses on women students’ agency in managing risk while taking up opportunities for self-discovery. Participation was voluntary, and a student-researcher administered an open-ended questionnaire to 55 participants. The findings suggest that young women position alcohol- use as a common activity at university, and that it gives them much pleasure. They recognise that it is riskier for women and articulate valuable strategies to manage the risk to their sexual safety when drinking. These include drinking within supportive networks, avoiding financial dependence, and managing their alcohol intake. This article argues that alcohol at university is an integral part of expressions of gender and sexuality and that risk-taking is a normal part of university students’ lives. Consequently, arguments about equality need to consider risk-taking as part of young people’s lives and promote ways of managing alcohol-related risks, rather than imagining that alcohol can be avoided entirely.

Keywords: alcohol-related sexual risk, drinking at university, managing risk, women students

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