Search results for: communicative purposes

Authors: Wolfram Karg

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The Occupy-Movement came into in 2011 existence in the US as a reaction to one of the worst economic crisis since World War II. With cuts in benefits and social services, with people being evicted from their homes on the one hand and high bonuses granted to their managers of the very same companies, a strong feeling of injustice besieged people in the US and caused them to voice their anger peacefully in social media and on the streets. Due to the world-wide-web, users all around the world read about this movement and recognized the same injustice in their own countries, making Occupy a global movement. The vast array of topics covered by Occupy offers a unique chance to carry out a corpus-based discourse analysis based on the DIMEAN-Model. The focus on this paper is limited to two aspects of DIMEAN: intertextual references and the use of connectors in texts. Because the discourse is to a large extent carried out via posts in blogs, online-articles and comments, the paper also analyses, in how far modern (i.e. computer-based media) there is a correlation between the use of connectors in different communicative types used by the Occupy-Movement.

Keywords: discourse, new media, occupy, corpus analysis

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Authors: M. Joris, O. Agirdag

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For over two decades, calls for citizenship education (CE) have been rising to the top of educational policy agendas in Europe. The main motive for the current treatment of CE as a key topic is a sense of crisis: social and political threats that go beyond the reach of nations and require action at the international and European level. On the one hand, this context has triggered abundant attention to the promotion of citizenship through education. On the other hand, the ubiquity of citizenship and education in policy language is paired with a self-evident manner of using the concepts: the more we call for citizenship in and through education, the less the concepts seem to be made explicit or be defined. Research and reflection on the normativity of the concepts of citizenship and CE in Europe are scarce. Departing from the idea that policies are always normative, this study, therefore, investigates the normativity of the current concepts of citizenship and education, in ’key’ European CE policy texts. The study consists of a content analysis of these texts, based on a normative framework developed around the different dimensions of citizenship as status, identity, virtues and agency. The framework also describes the purposes of education and its learning processes, content and practices, based on the assumption that good education always includes, next to qualification and socialisation, a purpose of emancipation: of helping young people become autonomous and independent subjects. The analysis shows how contemporary European citizenship is conceptualised around the dimension of competences. This focus on competences is also visible in the normative framing of education and its relationship to citizenship in the texts: CE should help young people learn how to become good citizens by acquiring a toolkit of competences, consisting of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that can be predetermined, measured and evaluated. This ideal of citizenship-as-competence entails a focus on the educational purposes of socialisation and qualification. Current policy texts thus seem to leave out the educational purpose of emancipating young people, allowing them to take on citizenship as something to which they can determine their own relation and position. It is, however, this purpose of CE that seems increasingly important in our current context. Young people are stepping out of school and onto the streets by the thousands in Belgium and throughout Europe, protesting for more and better environmental policies. They are making use of existing modes of citizenship, exactly to indicate to policymakers how these are falling short and are claiming their right and entitlement to a future that established practices of politics are putting at risk. The importance of citizenship education might then lie, now more than ever, not in the fact that it would prepare young people for competent citizenship, but in offering them a possibility, an emancipatory experience of being able to do something new. It seems that this is what we might want to expect from the school if we want it to educate our truly future citizens.

Keywords: citizenship education, normativity, policy, purposes of education

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Authors: Saba Gachpaz, Hamid Reza Heidari

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The sharp increase in population growth leads to more pressure on agricultural areas to satisfy the food supply. To achieve this, more resources should be consumed and, besides other environmental concerns, highlight sustainable agricultural development. Land-use management is a crucial factor in obtaining optimum productivity. Machine learning is a widely used technique in the agricultural sector, from yield prediction to customer behavior. This method focuses on learning and provides patterns and correlations from our data set. In this study, nine physical control factors, namely, soil classification, electrical conductivity, normalized difference water index (NDWI), groundwater level, elevation, annual precipitation, pH of water, annual mean temperature, and slope in the alluvial plain in Khuzestan (an agricultural hotspot in Iran) are used to decide the best agricultural land use for both rainfed and irrigated agriculture for ten different crops. For this purpose, each variable was imported into Arc GIS, and a raster layer was obtained. In the next level, by using training samples, all layers were imported into the python environment. A random forest model was applied, and the weight of each variable was specified. In the final step, results were visualized using a digital elevation model, and the importance of all factors for each one of the crops was obtained. Our results show that despite 62% of the study area being allocated to agricultural purposes, only 42.9% of these areas can be defined as a suitable class for cultivation purposes.

Keywords: land suitability, machine learning, random forest, sustainable agriculture

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Authors: Wajdan Al Malwi, Karen Renaud, Lewis Mackenzie

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The privacy paradox describes a phenomenon whereby there is no connection between stated privacy concerns and privacy behaviours. We need to understand the underlying reasons for this paradox if we are to help users to preserve their privacy more effectively. In particular, the Social Networking System (SNS) domain offers a rich area of investigation due to the risks of unwise information disclosure decisions. Our study thus aims to untangle the complicated nature and underlying mechanisms of online privacy-related decisions in SNSs. In this paper, we report on the findings of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that revealed a number of factors that are likely to influence online privacy decisions. Our deductive analysis approach was informed by Communicative Privacy Management (CPM) theory. We uncovered a lack of clarity around privacy attitudes and their link to behaviours, which makes it challenging to design privacy-protecting SNS platforms and to craft legislation to ensure that users’ privacy is preserved.

Keywords: privacy paradox, self-disclosure, privacy attitude, privacy behavior, social networking sites

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Authors: Ana Maghfiroh

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Learning a foreign language needs a big effort from the learner itself to make their language ability grows better day by day. Among those, they also need a support from all around them including teacher, friends, as well as activities which support them to speak the language. When those activities developed well as a habit which are done regularly, it will help improving the students’ language competence. It was a qualitative research which aimed to find out and describe some activities implemented in Pesantren Al Mawaddah, Ponorogo, in order to teach the students a foreign language. In collecting the data, the researcher used interview, questionnaire, and documentation. From the study, it was found that Pesantren Al Mawaddah had successfully built the language habit on the students to speak the target language. More than 15 hours a day students were compelled to speak foreign language, Arabic or English, in turn. It aimed to habituate the students to keep in touch with the target language. The habit was developed through daily language activities, such as dawn vocabs giving, dictionary handling, daily language use, speech training and language intensive course, daily language input, and night vocabs memorizing. That habit then developed the students awareness towards the language learned as well as promoted their language mastery.

Keywords: habit, communicative competence, daily language activities, Pesantren

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Authors: Paulina Dwuznik

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For students of legal English, the skill of mediation is of special importance as it constitutes part of their everyday work. Developing the skill of mediation requires developing linguistic, communicative, textual, pragmatic, interactive, social, and intercultural competencies. The study conducted at the Open University of the University of Warsaw compared the results of a questionnaire concerning the needs of legal professionals relating to mediation tasks, which they perform at work with the analysis of the content of different legal English handbooks with special stress on the development of intercultural competence necessary in interlinguistic mediation. The study found that legal English handbooks focus mainly on terminology study, but some of them extend students' intercultural competence in a way which may help them to perform tasks of mediating concepts, texts, and communication. The author of the paper will present the correlation between intercultural competence and mediation skill and give some examples of mediation tasks which may be based on comparative intercultural content of some chosen academic legal English handbooks.

Keywords: intercultural competence, legal English, mediation skill, teaching

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Authors: Sherine A. El Baradei

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Global warming and climatic change are very important topics that are being studied and investigated nowadays as they have lots of diverse impacts on mankind, water quality, aquatic life, wildlife,…etc. Also, many water and hydraulics structures like dams and barrages are being built every day to satisfy water consumption needs, irrigation purposes and power generating purposes. Each of global warming and water structures alone has diversity of impacts on water quality and aquatic life in rivers. This research is investigating the dual combined effect of both water structures and global warming on the water quality and aquatic life through mathematical modeling. A case study of the Esna Barrage on the Nile River in Egypt is being studied. This research study is taking into account the effects of both seasons; namely, winter and summer and their effects on air and hence water temperature of the Nile reach under study. To do so, the study is conducted on the last 23 years to investigate the effect of global warming and climatic change on the studied river water. The mathematical model is then combining the dual effect of the Esna barrage and the global warming on the water quality; as well as, on aquatic life of the Nile reach under study. From the results of the mathematical model, it could be concluded that the dual effect of water structures and global warming is very negative on the water quality and the aquatic life in rivers upstream those structures.

Keywords: aquatic life, barrages, climatic change, dissolved oxygen, global warming, river, water quality, water structures

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Authors: Rian Diana, Naufal Muharam Nurdin, Faisal Anwar, Hadi Riyadi, Ali Khomsan

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The use of traditional medicine (herbs and medicinal plants) are common among Indonesian people especially the elderly. Few study explore the use of medicinal plants in middle aged people. This study aims to collect information on the use of medicinal plants in middle aged people in rural areas. This cross sectional study included 224 subjects aged 45-59 years old and conducted in Cianjur District, West Java in 2014. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect information about preference in treatment of illness, the use of medicinal plants, and their purposes. Information also recorded plant names, parts used, mode of preparation, and dosage. Buying drugs in stall (83.9%) is the first preference in treatment of illness, followed by modern treatment 19.2% (doctors) and traditional treatment 17.0% (herbs/medicinal plants). 87 subjects (38.8%) were using herbs and medicinal plants for curative (66.7%), preventive (31.2%), and rehabilitative (2.1%) purposes. In this study, 48 species are used by the subjects. Physalis minima L. 'cecenet', Orthosiphon aristatus Mic. 'kumis kucing', and Annona muricata 'sirsak' are commonly used for the treatment of hypertension and stiffness. Leaves (64.6%) are the most common part used. Medicinal plants were washed and boiled in a hot water. Subject drinks the herbs with a different dosage. One in three middle aged people used herbal and medicinal plants for curative and preventive treatment particularly hypertension and stiffness. Increasing knowledge about herbal or medicinal plants dosage and their interaction with medical drugs are important to do.Doses vary between 1-3 glasses/day for treatment and 1-2 glasses/months for prevention of diseases.

Keywords: herbs, hypertension, medicinal plants, middle age, rural

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Authors: M. Kowalski, M. Brodowski, K. Dziabowska, E. Czaczyk, W. Bialobrzeska, N. Malinowska, S. Zoledowska, R. Bogdanowicz, D. Nidzworski

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Boron-doped-carbon nanowall (BCNW) electrodes are recently in much interest among scientists. BCNWs are good candidates for biosensor purposes as they possess interesting electrochemical characteristics like a wide potential range and the low difference between redox peaks. Moreover, from technical parameters, they are mechanically resistant and very tough. The production process of the microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) allows boron to build into the structure of the diamond being formed. The effect is the formation of flat, long structures with sharp ends. The potential of these electrodes was checked in the biosensing field. The procedure of simple carbon electrodes modification by antibodies was adopted to BCNW for specific antigen recognition. Surface protein D deriving from H. influenzae pathogenic bacteria was chosen as a target analyte. The electrode was first modified with the aminobenzoic acid diazonium salt by electrografting (electrochemical reduction), next anti-protein D antibodies were linked via 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride/N-hydroxysuccinimide (EDC/NHS) chemistry, and free sites were blocked by BSA. Cyclic voltammetry measurements confirmed the proper electrode modification. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy records indicated protein detection. The sensor was proven to detect protein D in femtograms. This work was supported by the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) TECHMATSTRATEG 1/347324/12/NCBR/ 2017.

Keywords: anti-protein D antibodies, boron-doped carbon nanowall, impedance spectroscopy, Haemophilus influenzae.

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Authors: Kristine Dzagnidze

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The paper equally centers on both the structural and cognitive linguistics in light of phraseologism and its emotional implication. Accordingly, the methods elaborated within the framework of both the systematic-structural and linguo-cognitive theories are identically relevant to the research of mine. In other words, through studying the negotiation process, our attention is drawn upon defining negotiations’ peculiarities, emotion, style and specifics of cognition, motives, aims, contextual characterizations and the quality of cultural context and integration. Besides, the totality of the concepts and methods is also referred to, which is connected with the stage of the development of the emotional linguistic thinking. The latter contextually correlates with the dominance of anthropocentric–communicative paradigm. The synthesis of structuralistic and cognitive perspectives has turned out to be relevant to our research, carried out in the form of intellectual action, that is, on the one hand, the adequacy of the research purpose to the expected results. On the other hand, the validity of methodology for formulating the objective conclusions needed for emotional connotation beyond phraseologism. The mechanism mentioned does not make a claim about a discovery of a new truth. Though, it gives the possibility of a novel interpretation of the content in existence.

Keywords: cognitivism, communication, implication, negotiation

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Authors: Francisco Dos Santos, Diogo Fonseca-Pereira, Sílvia Arroz-Madeira, Henrique Veiga-Fernandes

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Haematopoiesis is a developmental process that generates all blood cell lineages in health and disease. This relies on quiescent haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that are able to differentiate, self renew and expand upon physiological demand. HSCs have great interest in regenerative medicine, including haematological malignancies, immunodeficiencies and metabolic disorders. However, the limited yield from existing HSC sources drives the global need for reliable techniques to expand harvested HSCs at high quality and sufficient quantities. With the extensive use of cord blood progenitors for clinical applications, there is a demand for a safe and efficient expansion protocol that is able to overcome the limitations of the cord blood as a source of HSC. StemCell2MAXTM developed a technology that enhances the survival, proliferation and transplantation efficiency of HSC, leading the way to a more widespread use of HSC for research and clinical purposes. StemCell2MAXTM MIX is a solution that improves HSC expansion up to 20x, while preserving stemness, when compared to state-of-the-art. In a recent study by a leading cord blood bank, StemCell2MAX MIX was shown to support a selective 100-fold expansion of CD34+ Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells (when compared to a 10-fold expansion of Total Nucleated Cells), while maintaining their multipotent differentiative potential as assessed by CFU assays. The technology developed by StemCell2MAXTM opens new horizons for the usage of expanded hematopoietic progenitors for both research purposes (including quality and functional assays in Cord Blood Banks) and clinical applications.

Keywords: cord blood, expansion, hematopoietic stem cell, transplantation

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Authors: Tuyuan Cheng

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As we age, many things become more difficult. Among the abilities are the linguistic and cognitive ones. Competing theories have shown that these two functions could diminish together or that one is selectively affected by the other. In other words, some proposes aging affects sentence production in the same way it affects sentence comprehension and other cognitive functions, while some argues it does not.To address this question, the current investigation is conducted into the critical aspect of sentences as well as cognitive abilities – the syntactic complexity and the number of perspective shifts being contained in the elicited production. Healthy non-pathological aging is often characterized by a cognitive and neural decline in a number of cognitive abilities. Although the language is assumed to be of the more stable domain, a variety of findings in the cognitive aging literature would suggest otherwise. Older adults often show deficits in language production and multiple aspects of comprehension. Nevertheless, while some age differences likely reflect cognitive decline, others might reflect changes in communicative goals, and some even display cognitive advantages. In the domain of language processing, research efforts have been made in tests that probed a variety of communicative abilities. In general, there exists a distinction: Comprehension seems to be selectively unaffected, while production does not. The current study raises a novel question and investigates whether aging affects the production of relative clauses (RCs) under the cognitive factor of perspective shifts. Based on Perspective Hypothesis (MacWhinney, 2000, 2005), our cognitive processes build upon a fundamental system of perspective-taking, and language provides a series of cues to facilitate the construction and shifting of perspectives. These cues include a wide variety of constructions, including RCs structures. In this regard, linguistic complexity can be determined by the number of perspective shifts, and the processing difficulties of RCs can be interpreted within the theory of perspective shifting. Two experiments were conducted to study language production under controlled conditions. In Experiment 1, older healthy participants were tested on standard measures of cognitive aging, including MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination), ToMI-2 (a simplified Theory of Mind Inventory-2), and a perspective-shifting comprehension task programmed with E-Prime. The results were analyzed to examine if/how they are correlated with aging people’s subsequent production data. In Experiment 2, the production profile of differing RCs, SRC vs. ORC, were collected with healthy aging participants who perform a picture elicitation task. Variable containing 0, 1, or 2 perspective shifts were juxtaposed respectively to the pictures and counterbalanced presented for elicitation. In parallel, a controlled group of young adults were recruited to examine the linguistic and cognitive abilities in question. The results lead us to the discussion whetheraging affects RCs production in a manner determined by its semantic structure or the number of perspective shifts it contains or the status of participants’ mental understanding. The major findingsare: (1) Elders’ production on Chinese RCtypes did not display intrinsic difficulty asymmetry. (2) RC types (the linguistic structural features) and the cognitiveperspective shifts jointly play important roles in the elders’ RCproduction. (3) The production of RC may defy the aging in the case offlexibly preserved cognitive ability.

Keywords: cognition aging, perspective hypothesis, perspective shift, relative clauses, sentence complexity

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Authors: Li Yuqing

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Fostering the development of intercultural (communicative) competence (IC) is one way to equip our students with the linguistic and cultural skills to communicate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds, particularly English majors who are most likely to encounter multicultural work environments in the future. The purpose of this study is to compare the English majors' intercultural competence in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects before and after a ten-week telecollaboration program between 23 English majors at a Chinese university and 23 American students enrolled in a Chinese class at an American university, and analyze their development during the program. The results indicate that subjects' cognitive, affective, and behavioral perceptions of IC improved significantly over time. In addition, the program had significant effects on the participants' “Interaction Confidence,” “Interaction Engagement,” and “Interaction Enjoyment” - three components of intercultural sensitivity - as well as their overall intercultural effectiveness (except for “Message Skills”). With the widespread use of the internet, this type of online cultural exchange has a promising future, as suggested by the findings of the current study.

Keywords: intercultural competence, English majors, computer-mediated communication, telecollaboration

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Authors: Harshadkumar Rajgor, Jeff Butterworth

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Background: Barretts oesophagus increases the risk of developing oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Over the last 40 years, there has been a 6 fold increase in the incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma in the western world and the incidence rates are increasing at a greater rate than cancers of the colon, breast and lung. Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) is a relatively new technique being used by 2 centres in the greater midlands cancer network. EMR can be used for curative or staging purposes, for high-grade dysplasia’s and T1 tumours of the oesophagus. EMR is also suitable for those who are deemed high risk for oesophagectomy. EMR has a recurrence rate of 21% according to the Wiesbaden data. Method: A retrospective study of prospectively collected data was carried out involving 24 patients who had EMR for curative or staging purposes. Complications of residual or recurrent disease following EMR that required further treatment were investigated. Results: In 54% of cases residual or recurrent disease was suspected. 96% of patients were given clear and concise information regarding their diagnosis of high-grade dysplasia or T1 tumours. All 24 patients consulted the same specialist healthcare team. Conclusion: EMR is a safe and effective treatment for patients who have high-grade dysplasia and T1NO tumours. In 54% of cases residual or recurrent disease was suspected. Initially, only single resections were undertaken. Multiple resections are now being carried out to reduce the risk of recurrence. Complications from EMR remain low in this series and consisted of a single episode of post procedural bleeding.

Keywords: endoscopic mucosal resection, oesophageal dysplasia, T1 tumours, cancer network

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Authors: Zehra Sultan

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The study is based on the task-based language teaching approach which is found to be very effective in the EFL/ESL classroom. This approach engages learners to acquire the usage of authentic language skills by interacting with the real world through sequence of pedagogical tasks. The use of technology enhances the effectiveness of this approach. This study throws light on the historical background of TBLT and its efficacy in the EFL/ESL classroom. In addition, this study precisely talks about the implementation of this approach in the General Foundation Programme of Muscat College, Oman. It furnishes the list of the pedagogical tasks embedded in the language curriculum of General Foundation Programme (GFP) which are skillfully allied to the College Graduate Attributes. Moreover, the study also discusses the challenges pertaining to this approach from the point of view of teachers, students, and its classroom application. Additionally, the operational success of this methodology is gauged through formative assessments of the GFP, which is apparent in the students’ progress.

Keywords: task-based language teaching, authentic language, communicative approach, real world activities, ESL/EFL activities

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Authors: Yuta Nakano, Kozo Kajiwara, Atsushi Hori, Takeshi Fujita

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In association with the wave of electric vehicles (EV), low energy consumption systems have become more and more important. One of the key technologies to realize low energy consumption is a dynamic vision sensor (DVS), or we can call it an event sensor, neuromorphic vision sensor and so on. This sensor has several features, such as high temporal resolution, which can achieve 1 Mframe/s, and a high dynamic range (120 DB). However, the point that can contribute to low energy consumption the most is its sparsity; to be more specific, this sensor only captures the pixels that have intensity change. In other words, there is no signal in the area that does not have any intensity change. That is to say, this sensor is more energy efficient than conventional sensors such as RGB cameras because we can remove redundant data. On the other side of the advantages, it is difficult to handle the data because the data format is completely different from RGB image; for example, acquired signals are asynchronous and sparse, and each signal is composed of x-y coordinate, polarity (two values: +1 or -1) and time stamp, it does not include intensity such as RGB values. Therefore, as we cannot use existing algorithms straightforwardly, we have to design a new processing algorithm to cope with DVS data. In order to solve difficulties caused by data format differences, most of the prior arts make a frame data and feed it to deep learning such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for object detection and recognition purposes. However, even though we can feed the data, it is still difficult to achieve good performance due to a lack of intensity information. Although polarity is often used as intensity instead of RGB pixel value, it is apparent that polarity information is not rich enough. Considering this context, we proposed to use the timestamp information as a data representation that is fed to deep learning. Concretely, at first, we also make frame data divided by a certain time period, then give intensity value in response to the timestamp in each frame; for example, a high value is given on a recent signal. We expected that this data representation could capture the features, especially of moving objects, because timestamp represents the movement direction and speed. By using this proposal method, we made our own dataset by DVS fixed on a parked car to develop an application for a surveillance system that can detect persons around the car. We think DVS is one of the ideal sensors for surveillance purposes because this sensor can run for a long time with low energy consumption in a NOT dynamic situation. For comparison purposes, we reproduced state of the art method as a benchmark, which makes frames the same as us and feeds polarity information to CNN. Then, we measured the object detection performances of the benchmark and ours on the same dataset. As a result, our method achieved a maximum of 7 points greater than the benchmark in the F1 score.

Keywords: event camera, dynamic vision sensor, deep learning, data representation, object recognition, low energy consumption

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Authors: Victor Ademulegun Arijeniwa

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This is a sociolinguistic study of Olu Obafemi’s Naira Has No Gender as a microcosm of life experiences. The paper assesses how Olu Obafemi’s use of language in the dramatic world serves as both social relationships and symbolic order of communicative roadmap that are capable of yielding well expressed and richly articulated sociolinguistic implications. Being the interface between language and social institutions, sociolinguistics and its application is highly utilitarian in linguistics analysis, especially where the language of a text appears to be deeply tensed, such as found in dramatic texts. The aim of this paper has been (i) to assess the symbolic orderly presentation of form in Olu Obafemi’Naira Has No Gender; (ii) to find out the linguistic elements and textual organization that represent social relationships in Olu Obafemi’s Naira Has No Gender. Using qualitative research design in data generation with insights from John Gumperz Interactional Sociolinguistics Theory with particular reference to contextualization cues and miscommunication, the paper identifies the implication of the dramatic discourse on society.

Keywords: sociolinguistics, Microcosm, contextualisation, miscommunication variable, identity, symbolic order

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Authors: Pascal Mwenge, Tumisang Seodigeng

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The increase in urbanisation in South Africa has led to an increase in water demand and a decline in freshwater supply. Despite this, poor water usage is still a major challenge in South Africa, for instance, freshwater is still used for non-drinking applications. The freshwater shortage can be alleviated by using other sources of water for non-portable purposes such as greywater treated with activated biochar produced from agricultural waste. The success of activated biochar produced from agricultural waste to treat greywater can be both economically and environmentally beneficial. Greywater treated with activated biochar produced from agricultural waste is considered a cost-effective wastewater treatment.  This work was aimed at determining the ability of activated biochar to remove Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Ammonium (NH₄-N), Nitrate (NO₃-N), and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) from greywater. The experiments were carried out in 800 ml laboratory plastic cylinders used as filter columns. 2.5 cm layer of gravel was used at the bottom and top of the column to sandwich the activated biochar material. Activated biochar (200 g and 400 g) was loaded in a column and used as a filter medium for greywater. Samples were collected after a week and sent for analysis. Four types of greywater were treated: Kitchen, floor cleaning water, shower and laundry water. The findings showed: 95% removal of TSS, 76% of NO₃-N and 63% of COD on kitchen greywater and 85% removal of NH₄-N on bathroom greywater, as highest removal of efficiency of the studied pollutants. The results showed that activated biochar produced from agricultural waste reduces a certain amount of pollutants from greywater. The results also indicated the ability of activated biochar to treat greywater for onsite non-potable reuse purposes.

Keywords: activated biochar produced from agriculture waste, ammonium, NH₄-N, chemical oxygen demand, COD, greywater, nitrate, NO₃-N, total suspended solids, TSS

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Authors: Marina Sartor Hoffer

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The multicultural composition of today's societies poses new challenges to educational contexts. Schools are therefore called first to develop dialogic aptitudes and communicative skills adapted to the complex reality of post-modern societies. It is indispensable for educators and for young people to learn theoretical and practical tools during their scholastic path, in order to allow the knowledge of themselves and of the others with the aim of recognizing the value of the others regardless of their culture. Dialogic Skills help to understand and manage individual differences by allowing the solution of problems and preventing conflicts. The Educational Sector of Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis offers a range of methods and techniques for this purpose. Educational Transactional Analysis is firmly anchored in the Personalist Philosophy and deserves to be promoted as a theoretical frame suitable to face the challenges of contemporary education. The goal of this paper is therefore to outline some conceptual and methodological signposts for the education to dialogue by drawing concepts and methodologies from educational transactional analysis.

Keywords: dialogic process, education to dialogue, educational transactional analysis, personalism, the good of the relationship

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Authors: Flavio Cannavo

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Continuous evaluation of the status of potentially hazardous volcanos plays a key role for civil protection purposes. The importance of monitoring volcanic activity, especially for energetic paroxysms that usually come with tephra emissions, is crucial not only for exposures to the local population but also for airline traffic. Presently, real-time surveillance of most volcanoes worldwide is essentially delegated to one or more human experts in volcanology, who interpret data coming from different kind of monitoring networks. Unfavorably, the high nonlinearity of the complex and coupled volcanic dynamics leads to a large variety of different volcanic behaviors. Moreover, continuously measured parameters (e.g. seismic, deformation, infrasonic and geochemical signals) are often not able to fully explain the ongoing phenomenon, thus making the fast volcano state assessment a very puzzling task for the personnel on duty at the control rooms. With the aim of aiding the personnel on duty in volcano surveillance, here we introduce a system based on an ensemble of data-driven classifiers to infer automatically the ongoing volcano status from all the available different kind of measurements. The system consists of a heterogeneous set of independent classifiers, each one built with its own data and algorithm. Each classifier gives an output about the volcanic status. The ensemble technique allows weighting the single classifier output to combine all the classifications into a single status that maximizes the performance. We tested the model on the Mt. Etna (Italy) case study by considering a long record of multivariate data from 2011 to 2015 and cross-validated it. Results indicate that the proposed model is effective and of great power for decision-making purposes.

Keywords: Bayesian networks, expert system, mount Etna, volcano monitoring

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Authors: Jenna Pyorala

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This research looks at the principles and purposes ornamental design has served in the field of textile design. Ornamental designs are characterized by richness of details, abundance of elements, vegetative motifs and organic forms that flow harmoniously in complex compositions. Research on ornamental design is significant, because ornaments have been overlooked and considered as less meaningful and aesthetically pleasing than minimalistic, modern designs. This is despite the fact that in many parts of the world ornaments have been an important part of the cultural identification and expression for centuries. Ornament has been claimed to be superficial and merely used as a decorative way to hide the faults of designs. Such generalization is an incorrect interpretation of the real purposes of ornament. Many ornamental patterns tell stories, present mythological scenes or convey symbolistic meanings. Historically, ornamental decorations have been representing ideas and characteristics such as abundance, wealth, power and personal magnificence. The production of fine ornaments required refined skill, eye for intricate detail and perseverance while compiling complex elements into harmonious compositions. For this reason, ornaments have played an important role in the advancement of craftsmanship. Even though it has been claimed that people in the western design world have lost the relationship to ornament, the relation to it has merely changed from the practice of a craftsman to conceptualisation of a designer. With the help of new technological tools the production of ornaments has become faster and more efficient, demanding less manual labour. Designers who commit to this style of organic forms and vegetative motifs embrace and respect nature by representing its organically growing forms and by following its principles. The complexity of the designs is used as a way to evoke a sense of extraordinary beauty and stimulate intellect by freeing the mind from the predetermined interpretations. Through the study of these purposes it can be demonstrated that complex and richer design styles are as valuable a part of the world of design as more modern design approaches. The study highlights the meaning of ornaments by presenting visual examples and literature research findings. The practice based part of the project is the visual analysis of historical and cultural ornamental traditions such as Indian Chikan embroidery, Persian carpets, Art Nouveau and Rococo according to the rubric created for the purpose. The next step is the creation of ornamental designs based on the key elements in different styles. Theoretical and practical parts are woven together in this study that respects respect the long traditions of ornaments and highlight the importance of these design approaches to the field, in contrast to the more commonly preferred styles.

Keywords: cultural design traditions, ornamental design, organic forms from nature, textile design

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Authors: Eftychia Damaskou

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This article intends to place the question of the adequate approach for teaching multilingualism within the public education. Linguistic education, as it is defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for the Languages, is no longer the proficiency in one or two languages. It’s about the development of a linguistic repertoire, where all linguistic skills find their place. In fact, the linguistic theories that frame the development of plurilingual competence point out the affective and intercultural aspect of such a process, insisting on an awareness of linguistic diversification, rather than an acquisition of communicative competence in many languages. In this spirit, our article attempts to go beyond a mere plurilingual awareness, present a research based on an experience in class, within 115 pupils, aiming at the development of plurilingual competence in five unknown foreign languages. This experience was held through a teaching unit personally conceived and applied, and consisted of a series of 6 activities based on a cross-linguistic content approach. The data analysis proves to be very interesting, as it reveals the development of plurilingual competences, as well as positive attitudes towards less common languages by the majority of our sample.

Keywords: multilingual awareness, multilingual teaching material, plurilingual competence

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Authors: A. Ibovi Mouondayi, S. Zaher, K. Nassar, S. Janani

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Introduction: Osteoarticular ultrasound has become an essential tool for the investigation and monitoring of osteoarticular pathologies for rheumatologists. It is performed in the clinic, cheap to access than other imaging technics. Important anatomical sites of inflammation in inflammatory diseases such as synovium, tendon sheath, and enthesis are easily identifiable on ultrasound. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the importance of ultrasound for rheumatologists in the development of diagnoses of inflammatory rheumatism in cases of uncertain clinical presentation. Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted in our department and carried out over a period of 30 months from January 2020 to June 2022. We included all patients with inflammatory arthralgia without clinical arthritis. Patients' data were collected through a patient operating system. Results: A total of 35 patients were identified, made up of 4 men and 31 women, with a sex ratio M/F of 0.12. The average age of the patients was 48.8 years, with extremes ranging from 17 years to 83 years. All patients had inflammatory polyarthralgia for an average of 9.3 years. Only two patients had suspicious synovitis on clinical examination. 91.43% of patients had a positive inflammatory assessment with an average CRP of 22.2 mg/L. Rheumatoid factor (RF) was present in 45.7% of patients and anti-CCP in 48.57%, with respective averages of 294.43 and 314.63 international units/mL. Radiographic lesions were found in 54% of patients. Osteoarticular ultrasound was performed in all these patients. Subclinical synovitis was found in 60% of patients, including 23% Doppler positive. Tenosynovitis was found in 11% of patients. Enthesitis was objectified in 3% of patients. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was retained in 40% of patients; psoriatic arthritis in 6% of patients, hydroxyapatite arthritis, and osteoarthritis in 3% each. Conclusion: Osteoarticular ultrasound has been an essential tool in the practice of rheumatology in recent years. It is for diagnostic purposes in chronic inflammatory rheumatism as well as in degenerative rheumatism and crystal induced arthropathies, but also essential in the follow-up of patients in rheumatology.

Keywords: ultrasound, skeletal, rheumatoid arthritis, arthralgia

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Authors: Yun-Ching Tu, Yu-Chun Chih

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People with aphasia (PWA) may have communicative difficulties in their daily lives, but research on functional communication in aphasia is still limited in Taiwan. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of aphasia-related factors on functional communication assessment. This study adopted a convenience sampling method. Thirty aphasic participants participated in the study. During the test, the examiner would ask questions that are encountered in daily life and record the participant‘s responses. Some questions would provide pictures to simulate situations in daily life. The results showed that the non-fluent aphasia group performed significantly worse than the fluent aphasia group. In addition, patients with severe aphasia performed significantly lower scores than patients with moderate aphasia and mild aphasia. However, group differences in the chronic stage and acute stage were not significant. In sum, since communication in daily life is diverse and language is still needed in the communication process, patients with aphasia who have better language ability may have relatively better functional communication. In contrast, the more severely impaired the language ability of a patient with aphasia is, the more functional communication will be affected, resulting in poor communication performance in daily life.

Keywords: adult, aphasia, assessment, functional communication

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Authors: Lily Chimuanya, Esther Ajiboye, Emmanuel Uba

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One of the consequences of online communication is the birth of new orthography genres characterised by novel conventions of abbreviation and acronyms usually referred to as Netspeak. Netspeak, also known as internet slang, is a style of writing mainly used in online communication to limit the length of text characters and to save time. The aim of this study is to evaluate how second language users of the English language have internalised this new convention of writing; identify the recurrent patterns of Netspeak; and assess the consistency of the use of the identified patterns in relation to their meanings. The study is corpus-based, and data drawn from WhatsApp chart pages of selected groups of Nigerian English speakers show a large occurrence of inconsistencies in the patterns of Netspeak and their meanings. The study argues that rather than emphasise the negative impact of Netspeak on the communicative competence of second language users, studies should focus on suggesting models as yardsticks for standardising the usage of Netspeak and indeed all other emerging language conventions resulting from online communication. This stance stems from the inevitable global language transformation that is eminent with the coming of age of information technology.

Keywords: abbreviation, acronyms, Netspeak, online communication, standardisation

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Authors: Yakin Ekin, Onur Akbulut

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This study aims not only to create a summarized background for the effective and efficient use of the potential of Izmir by providing the strategic planning works and institutional and sectoral strategy documents with different purposes realized by all relevant institutions and organizations in Izmir and Aegean Region to steer towards the same priorities and aims, but also focuses on a criticism and comparison viewpoint about tourism sector in Izmir.

Keywords: regional plan, Izmir, tourism, sectoral strategy

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Authors: Yi Meng, YunGao

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Having been studied and worked in North America and Europe, we, two Chinese art educators, have been enormously influenced by eastern and western cultures. Thus, we aim to enhance students’ learning experiences by exploring and amalgamating both cultures for art creating. This text draws on our action research study of students’ visual literacy practices in a foundation sketching course in a major Chinese university, exploring art forms by cross-utilizing various cultural aspects. Instead of relying on the predominant western observational drawing skills in our classroom, we taught students about ancient Chinese art in the provincial museum, using Fu Hao owl-shaped vessel, a Shang Dynasty national treasure, as the final sketch project of this course. We took up multimodal literacy, which emphasized students’ critical use of creativity to exploit the semiotic potentials of communicative modes to address diverse cultural issues through their multimodal design. We used the Hong Kong-based artist Tik Ka’s artworks to demonstrate the cultural amalgamation of Chinese traditions and western pop cultures. Collectively, these approaches create a dialogical space for students to experience, analyze, and negotiate with complex modes and potentially transform their understanding of both cultures by redesigning Fu Hao.

Keywords: Chinese traditions, western pop cultures, Fu Hao, arts education, design sketch

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Authors: Mingshu Liu, Laura Santamaria, Xavier Carmaniu Mainadé

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As one of the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism is facing challenges in revitalizing the industry. But at the same time, it would be a good opportunity to take advantage of digital communication as an effective tool for tourism promotion. Our proposal aims to verify the linguistic operations on online platforms in China. The research is carried out based on the theory of Eco-traductology put forward by Gengshen Hu, whose contribution focuses on the translator's adaptation to the ecosystem environment and the three elaborated parameters (linguistic, cultural and communicative). We also relate it to Even-Zohar's and Toury's theoretical postulates on the Polysystem to elaborate on interdisciplinary methodology. Such a methodology allows us to analyze personal treatments and phraseology in the target text. As for the corpus, we adopt the official Spanish-language website of Turismo de España as the source text and the postings on the two major social networks in China, Weibo and Wechat, in 2019. Through qualitative analysis, we conclude that, in the tourism advertising campaign on Chinese social networks, chengyu (Chinese phraseology) and honorific titles are used very frequently.

Keywords: digital communication, eco-traductology, polysystem theory, tourism advertising

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Authors: Islam Zeb

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The water of poor quality used for irrigation purposes has the potential to be the direct source of contamination and a vehicle for spreading contamination in the field. A number of wide-ranging review articles have been published that highlight irrigation water as a source of heavy metals toxicity which leads to chronic diseases in the human body. Here a study was planned to determine the microbial and heavy metals status of irrigation water collected from various locations of district Swat in various months. The analyses were carried out at the Environmental Horticulture Laboratory, Department of Horticulture, The University of Agriculture Peshawar, during the year 2018 – 19. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two factors and three replicates. Factor A consist of different locations and factor B represent various months. The result of heavy metals concentration in different regions, maximum Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel and Copper (4.27, 0.56, 0.81, 1.33 and 1.51 mg L-1 respectively) were noted for the irrigation water samples collected from Mingora while minimum Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel and Copper concentration (2.59, 0.30, 0.27, 0.40 and 0.54 mg L-1 respectively) were noted for the samples of matta. Whereas results of heavy metals content in irrigation water samples for various months maximum content of Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel and Copper (4.56, 0.63, 1.15, 1.31 and 1.48 mg L-1 respectively) were noted for the samples collected in Jan/Feb while lowest values for Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel and Copper (2.38, 0.24, 0.21, 0.41 and 0.52 mg L-1 respectively) were noted in the samples of July/August. A significant interaction was found for all the studied parameters. It was concluded that the concentration of heavy metal was maximum in irrigation water samples collected from the Mingora location during the month of Jan/Feb because Mingora is the most polluted area as compared to other studied regions, whereas the water content in winter goes to freeze and mostly contaminated water is used for irrigation purposes.

Keywords: irrigation water, various months, different regions, heavy metals contamination, Swat

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Authors: Elizabeth Mahenge

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Unemployment is a problem that face many graduates all over the world. Every year universities in many parts of the world produce graduates who are looking for an employment. Swahili, a Bantu language originated in East African coast, can be used as an avenue for youth’s employment in South Africa. This paper helps youth to know about job opportunities available through teaching Swahili language. The objective of this paper is capacity building to youths to be teachers of Swahili and be ready to compete in the marketplace. The methodology was through two weeks online training on how to teach Swahili as a foreign language. The communicative approach and task-based approach were used.  Participants to this training were collected through a WhatsApp group advertisement about “short training for Swahili teachers for foreigners”. A total number of 30 participants registered but only 11 attended the training. Training was online via zoom. The contribution of this paper is that by being fluent in Swahili one would benefit with teaching job opportunities anywhere in the world. Hence the problem of unemployment among the youths would be reduced as they can employ themselves or being employed in academic institutions anywhere in the world. The paper calls for youths in South Africa to opt for Swahili language courses to be trained and become experts in the teaching Swahili as a foreign language.

Keywords: foreign language, linguistic market, Swahili, employment

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