Search results for: object fact

Authors: Ludivine Gueho, Sylvain Fleury, Eric Jamet

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Driver distraction is known to be a major contributing factor of car accidents. Since many years, constructors have been designing embedded technologies to face this problem and reduce distraction. Being able to predict user acceptance would further be helpful in the development process to build appropriate systems. The present research aims at modelling the acceptability of a specific system, an innovative personalized and contextualized embedded radio, through an online survey of 202 people in France that assessed the psychological variables determining intentions to use the system. The questionnaire instantiated the dimensions of the extended version of the UTAUT acceptability model. Because of the specific features of the system assessed, we added 4 dimensions: perceived security, anxiety, trust and privacy concerns. Results showed that hedonic motivation, i.e., the fun or pleasure derived from using a technology, and performance expectancy, i.e., the degree to which individuals believe that the characteristics of the system meet their needs, are the most important dimensions in determining behavioral intentions about the innovative radio. To a lesser extent, social influence, i.e., the degree to which individuals think they can use the system while respecting their social group’s norms and while giving a positive image of themselves, had an effect on behavioral intentions. Moreover, trust, that is, the positive belief about the perceived reliability of, dependability of, and confidence in a person, object or process, had a significant effect, mediated by performance expectancy. In an applicative way, the present research reveals that, to be accepted, in-car embedded new technology has to address individual needs, for instance by facilitating the driving activity or by providing useful information. If it shows hedonic qualities by being entertaining, pretty or comfortable, this may improve the intentions to use it. Therefore, it is clearly important to include reflection about user experience in the design process. Finally, the users have to be reassured on the system’s reliability. For example, improving the transparency of the system by providing information about the system functioning, could improve trust. These results bring some highlights on determinant of acceptance of an in-vehicle technology and are useful for constructors to design acceptable systems.

Keywords: acceptability, innovative embedded radio, structural equation, user-centric evaluation, UTAUT

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Authors: Naseer M. A.

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Buildings are major consumers of energy in both their construction and operation. They account for 40% of World’s energy use. It is estimated that 40-60% of this goes for conditioning the indoor environment. In India, like many other countries, the residential buildings have a major share (more than 50%) in the building sector. Of these, single-family units take a mammoth share. The single-family dwelling units in the urban and fringe areas are built in two stories to minimize the building foot print on small land parcels. And quite often, the bedrooms are located in the first floors. The modern buildings are provided with reinforced concrete (RC) roofs that absorb heat throughout the day and radiate the heat into the interiors during the night. The rooms that are occupied in the night, like bedrooms, are having their indoors uncomfortable. This has resulted in the use of active systems like air-conditioners and air coolers, thereby increasing the energy use. An investigation conducted by monitoring the thermal comfort condition in the residential building with RC roofs have proved that the indoors are really uncomfortable in the night hours. A sustainable solution to improve the thermal performance of the RC roofs was developed by an experimental study by continuously monitoring the thermal comfort parameters during summer (the period that is most uncomfortable in temperate climate). The study conducted in the southern peninsular India, prove that retrofitting of existing residential building can give a sustainable solution in abating the ever increasing energy demand especially when it is a fact that these residential buildings that are built for a normal life span of 40 years would continue to consume the energy for the rest of its useful life.

Keywords: energy efficiency, thermal comfort, retrofitting, residential buildings

Procedia PDF Downloads 252

Authors: Lison Carlier

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The English language that is taught in school or used in media nowadays is defined as 'standard English,' although unstandardized Englishes, or 'parallel' Englishes, are practiced throughout the world. The existence of these 'parallel' Englishes has challenged standardization by imposing its own specific vocabulary or grammar. These non-standard languages tend to be regarded as inferior and, therefore, pose a problem regarding their translation. In the USA, 'slanguage', or slang, is a good example of a 'parallel' language. It consists of a particular set of vocabulary, used mostly in speech, and rarely in writing. Qualified as vulgar, often reduced to an urban language spoken by young people from lower classes, slanguage – or the language that is often first spoken between youths – is still the most common language used in the English-speaking world. Moreover, it appears that the prime meaning of 'informal' (as in an informal language) – a language that is spoken with persons the speaker knows – has been put aside and replaced in the general mind by the idea of vulgarity and non-appropriateness, when in fact informality is a sign of intimacy, not of vulgarity. When it comes to translating American slang, the main problem a translator encounters is the image and the cultural background usually associated with this 'parallel' language. Indeed, one will have, unwillingly, a predisposition to categorize a speaker of a 'parallel' language as being part of a particular group of people. The way one sees a speaker using it is paramount, and needs to be transposed into the target language. This paper will conduct an analysis of American slang – its use, perception and the image it gives of its speakers – and its translation into French, using the novel Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns) by way of example. In her autobiography/personal essay book, comedy writer, actress and author Mindy Kaling speaks with a very familiar English, including slang, which participates in the construction of her own voice and style, and enables a deeper connection with her readers.

Keywords: translation, English, slang, French

Procedia PDF Downloads 318

Authors: Shabnam Naderi

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Traditional understandings of ethics considered translators, translations, technologies and other agents as separate and prioritized human agents. In fact, ethics was equated with morality. This disengaged understanding of ethics is superseded by an ethics of relation/entanglement in the posthuman philosophy. According to this ethics of entanglement, human and nonhuman agents are in constant ‘intra-action’. The human is not separate from nature, from technology and from other nonhuman entities, and an ethics of translation in this regard cannot be separated from technology and ecology and get defined merely within the realm of human-human encounter. As such, a posthuman ethics offers opportunities for change and responds to the changing nature of reality, it is negotiable and reveals itself as a moment-by-moment practice (i.e. as temporally emergent and beyond determinacy and permanence). Far from the linguistic or cultural, or individual concerns, posthuman translational ethics discusses how the former rigid norms and laws are challenged in a process ontology which puts emphasis on activity and activation and considers ethics as surfacing in activity, not as a predefined set of rules and values. In this sense, traditional ethical principles like faithfulness, accuracy and representation are superseded by principles of privacy, sustainability, multiplicity and decentralization. The present conceptual study, drawing on Ferrando’s philosophical posthumanism (as a post-humanism, as a post-dualism and as a post-anthropocentrism), Deleuze-Guattarian philosophy of immanence and Barad’s physics-philosophy strives to destabilize traditional understandings of translation ethics and bring an ethics that has loose ends and revolves around multiplicity and decentralization into the picture.

Keywords: ethics of entanglement, post-anthropocentrism, post-dualism, post-humanism, translation

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Authors: Dusanee Suwankhong, Pranee Liamputtong

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Breast surgery leaves undesirable scars to all women who experienced mastectomy, despite the fact that this could be a principle approach to save one life. This paper explores how Thai women living with breast cancer perceived and experienced a scarred body after breast surgery. In-depth interviews and drawing methods were employed among 20 women diagnosed with breast cancer. The interviewed data were analysed using thematic analysis method. The results showed that all women with breast cancer who underwent breast surgery perceived and experienced scar as a persisting and visible side-effect. This disfigurement appearance presented a negative image of feminine identity and led to emotional burdens among women. They responded to being scarred in different ways relating to their perceptions of body and changes. The older group had less embarrassed feelings towards being scarred comparing to the younger one. All women tried to seek means to cope with such physical impairment and keep balance life related to their condition. For example, they relied on Buddhism practice and tried to heal the keloid using natural products. Scars appeared to be an unpleasant effect for women who underwent breast mastectomy. Nurses and health care professionals in the local health service sectors need to pay close attention to how the women see the scarred body and their experiences of living with the distorted feminine appearance, and to provide sensitive support that meets the needs of these vulnerable women. The suitable supports can reduce the sense of embarrassment and increase their sense of self-confidence about their social femininity.

Keywords: breast surgery, emotional response, qualitative study, scars, Thai women

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Authors: Fatemeh Khalili Varnamkhasti

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Natural administration has outside impacts such that companies regularly respect natural input as a fetched with no clear advantage. In this manner, in case natural security can bring financial benefits, showing that natural security and financial interface are in concordance, companies will effectively fulfill their obligation to ensure the environment. Contamination is, for the most part, related to the squandering of assets, misplaced vitality, and crude materials not completely utilized. Contamination avoidance and clean innovation, as inner organizational hones, can offer assistance to play down taken toll and to develop economic aptitudes for the long run, whereas outside organizational hones (item stewardship and maintainability vision) can offer assistance to coordinated partner sees into trade operations and to define future commerce directions. Taken together, these practices can drive shareholder esteem while at the same time contributing to a more feasible world. On the off chance that the company's budgetary execution is nice, it'll draw in financial specialists to contribute and progress the company's execution. In this way, budgetary execution is additionally the determinant of the progression of a company. This can be because the monetary back gotten by the company gets to be the premise for the running of trade forms in the future. Moreover, A green picture can assist firms in pulling in more clients by influencing shopper choices and moving forward with buyer brand dependability. Numerous shoppers need to purchase items from ecologically inviting firms, in spite of the fact that there are, of course, a few who will not pay premium costs for green items.

Keywords: environmental activities, financial performanance, advantage, clients

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Authors: Allaeddine Athmani, Abdelhacine Gouasmia, Tiago Ferreira, Romeu Vicente

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Seismic vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings is a fundamental issue even for moderate to low seismic hazard regions. This fact is even more important when dealing with old structures such as those located in Annaba city (Algeria), which the majority of dates back to the French colonial era from 1830. This category of buildings is in high risk due to their highly degradation state, heterogeneous materials and intrusive modifications to structural and non-structural elements. Furthermore, they are usually shelter a dense population, which is exposed to such risk. In order to undertake a suitable seismic risk mitigation strategies and reinforcement process for such structures, it is essential to estimate their seismic resistance capacity at a large scale. In this sense, two seismic vulnerability index methods and damage estimation have been adapted and applied to a pilot-scale building area located in the moderate seismic hazard region of Annaba city: The first one based on the EMS-98 building typologies, and the second one derived from the Italian GNDT approach. To perform this task, the authors took the advantage of an existing data survey previously performed for other purposes. The results obtained from the application of the two methods were integrated and compared using a geographic information system tool (GIS), with the ultimate goal of supporting the city council of Annaba for the implementation of risk mitigation and emergency planning strategies.

Keywords: Annaba city, EMS98 concept, GNDT method, old city center, seismic vulnerability index, unreinforced masonry buildings

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Authors: E. Grochowska-Niedworok, K. Brukało, M. Hadasik, M. Kardas

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Consumption of vegetables by school children and adolescents is essential for their normal growth, development and health, but a significant minority of the world's population consumes the right amount of these products. The aim of the study was to evaluate the preferences and frequency of consumption of vegetables by school children and adolescents. It has been assumed that effectively implemented nutrition education programs should have an impact on increasing the frequency of vegetable consumption among the recipients. The study covered 514 students of five schools in the Opole Voivodeship aged 9 years to 22 years. The research tool was an author's questionnaire, which consisted of closed questions on the frequency of vegetable consumption and the use of 10 ways to treat them. Preferences and frequencies are shown in percentages, while correlations were estimated on the basis of Cramer`s V and gamma coefficients. In each of the examined age groups, the relationship between sex and vegetable consumption (the Cramer`s V coefficient value was 0.06 to 0.38) was determined and the various methods of culinary processing were used (V Craméra was 0.08 to 0.34). For both sexes, the relationship between age and frequency of vegetable consumption was shown (gamma values ranged from ~ 0.00 to 0.39) and different cooking methods (gamma values were 0.01 to 0.22). The most important determinant of nutritional choices is the taste and availability of products. The fact that they have a positive effect on their health is only in third position. As has been shown, obesity prevention programs can not only address nutrition education but also teach about new flavors and increase the availability of healthy foods. In addition, the frequency of vegetable consumption can be a good indicator reflecting the healthy behaviors of children and adolescents.

Keywords: children and adolescents, frequency, welfare rate, vegetables

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Authors: Adebayo A. Abimbola, Anifowose O. Joseph, Olanrewaju S. Taiwo

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Green building (GB) practices have the potential to save energy, save money, and improve the quality of human habitat. They can also contribute to water conservation, more efficient use of raw materials, and ecosystem health around the globe. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) singled out the building sector as having the most cost-effective opportunities for reducing carbon emissions—in fact, many building-related opportunities are cost-neutral, or even cost-positive, to the building owner. These benefits have made green building practices the fastest-growing trend in the building industry, but they still represent only a fraction of new construction, and the enormous stock of existing buildings has barely been touched at all. To effectively deliver the kind of (GB) that can become a force for positive change at global, regional and local scales, all workforce sectors need new skills that are both technical and interpersonal in nature. A prominent bottleneck is seen to be education and training. This paper investigates the major gaps in current GB education and training offerings in Nigeria. A questionnaire survey was developed to capture the perception of construction professionals and academics in relevant professions regarding the significance of the identified gaps as it affects GB education and training. Based on Likert scale ranking, research result shows that perception of training in specific technical fields and financial benefits and evaluation are identified as the top gaps in GB training and education offerings. The paper concludes with suggestions and actions that can enhance capabilities of the GB workforce in Nigeria.

Keywords: education and training, gaps, green building, workforce

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Authors: Jakob Krause

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Past Financial Crisis has shown that contemporary risk management models provide an unjustified sense of security and fail miserably in situations in which they are needed the most. In this paper, we start from the assumption that risk is a notion that changes over time and therefore past data points only have limited explanatory power for the current situation. Our objective is to derive the optimal amount of representative information by optimizing between the two adverse forces of estimator convergence, incentivizing us to use as much data as possible, and the aforementioned non-representativeness doing the opposite. In this endeavor, the cornerstone assumption of having access to identically distributed random variables is weakened and substituted by the assumption that the law of the data generating process changes over time. Hence, in this paper, we give a quantitative theory on how to perform statistical analysis in non-ergodic systems. As an application, we discuss the impact of a paragraph in the last iteration of proposals by the Basel Committee on Banking Regulation. We start from the premise that the severity of assumptions should correspond to the robustness of the system they describe. Hence, in the formal description of physical systems, the level of assumptions can be much higher. It follows that every concept that is carried over from the natural sciences to economics must be checked for its plausibility in the new surroundings. Most of the probability theory has been developed for the analysis of physical systems and is based on the independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) assumption. In Economics both parts of the i.i.d. assumption are inappropriate. However, only dependence has, so far, been weakened to a sufficient degree. In this paper, an appropriate class of non-stationary processes is used, and their law is tied to a formal object measuring representativeness. Subsequently, that data set is identified that on average minimizes the estimation error stemming from both, insufficient and non-representative, data. Applications are far reaching in a variety of fields. In the paper itself, we apply the results in order to analyze a paragraph in the Basel 3 framework on banking regulation with severe implications on financial stability. Beyond the realm of finance, other potential applications include the reproducibility crisis in the social sciences (but not in the natural sciences) and modeling limited understanding and learning behavior in economics.

Keywords: banking regulation, non-ergodicity, risk management, semimartingale modeling

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Authors: Hamidreza Namazi

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Fractal analysis is assessing fractal characteristics of data. It consists of several methods to assign fractal characteristics to a dataset which may be a theoretical dataset or a pattern or signal extracted from phenomena including natural geometric objects, sound, market fluctuations, heart rates, digital images, molecular motion, networks, etc. Fractal analysis is now widely used in all areas of science. An important limitation of fractal analysis is that arriving at an empirically determined fractal dimension does not necessarily prove that a pattern is fractal; rather, other essential characteristics have to be considered. For this purpose a Visual C++ based software called FRATSAN (FRActal Time Series ANalyser) was developed which extract information from signals through three measures. These measures are Fractal Dimensions, Jeffrey’s Measure and Hurst Exponent. After computing these measures, the software plots the graphs for each measure. Besides computing three measures the software can classify whether the signal is fractal or no. In fact, the software uses a dynamic method of analysis for all the measures. A sliding window is selected with a value equal to 10% of the total number of data entries. This sliding window is moved one data entry at a time to obtain all the measures. This makes the computation very sensitive to slight changes in data, thereby giving the user an acute analysis of the data. In order to test the performance of this software a set of EEG signals was given as input and the results were computed and plotted. This software is useful not only for fundamental fractal analysis of signals but can be used for other purposes. For instance by analyzing the Hurst exponent plot of a given EEG signal in patients with epilepsy the onset of seizure can be predicted by noticing the sudden changes in the plot.

Keywords: EEG signals, fractal analysis, fractal dimension, hurst exponent, Jeffrey’s measure

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Authors: Eduardo Costa

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Hospital strikes in the Portuguese National Health Service (NHS) are becoming increasingly frequent, raising concerns in what respects patient safety. In fact, data shows that mortality rates for patients admitted during strikes are up to 30% higher than for patients admitted in other days. This paper analyses the effects of hospital strikes on patients’ outcomes. Specifically, it analyzes the impact of different strikes (physicians, nurses and other health professionals), on in-hospital mortality rates, readmission rates and length of stay. The paper uses patient-level data containing all NHS hospital admissions in mainland Portugal from 2012 to 2017, together with a comprehensive strike dataset comprising over 250 strike days (19 physicians-strike days, 150 nurses-strike days and 50 other health professionals-strike days) from 135 different strikes. The paper uses a linear probability model and controls for hospital and regional characteristics, time trends, and changes in patients’ composition and diagnoses. Preliminary results suggest a 6-7% increase in in-hospital mortality rates for patients exposed to physicians’ strikes. The effect is smaller for patients exposed to nurses’ strikes (2-5%). Patients exposed to nurses strikes during their stay have, on average, higher 30-days urgent readmission rates (4%). Length of stay also seems to increase for patients exposed to any strike. Results – conditional on further testing, namely on non-linear models - suggest that hospital operations and service levels are partially disrupted during strikes.

Keywords: health sector strikes, in-hospital mortality rate, length of stay, readmission rate

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: L. Spitaleri, C. M. A. Gangemi, R. Purrello, G. Nicotra, G. Trusso Sfrazzetto, G. Casella, M. Casarin, A. Gulino

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Hybrid molecular–nanoparticle materials, obtained with a bottom-up approach, are suitable for the fabrication of functional nanostructures showing structural control and well-defined properties, i.e., optical, electronic or catalytic properties, in the perspective of applications in different fields of nanotechnology. Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) exhibit important chemical, electronic and optical properties due to their size, shape and electronic structures. In fact, Au NPs containing no more than 30-40 atoms are only luminescent because they can be considered as large molecules with discrete energy levels, while nano-sized Au NPs only show the surface plasmon resonance. Hence, it appears that gold nanoparticles can alternatively be luminescent or plasmonic, and this represents a severe constraint for their use as an optical material. The aim of this work was the fabrication of nanoscale assembly of Au NPs covalently anchored to each other by means of novel bi-functional porphyrin molecules that work as bridges between different gold nanoparticles. This functional architecture shows a strong surface plasmon due to the Au nanoparticles and a strong luminescence signal coming from porphyrin molecules, thus, behaving like an artificial organized plasmonic and fluorescent network. The self-assembly geometry of this porphyrin on the Au NPs was studied by investigation of the conformational properties of the porphyrin derivative at the DFT level. The morphology, electronic structure and optical properties of the conjugated Au NPs – porphyrin system were investigated by TEM, XPS, UV–vis and Luminescence. The present nanostructures can be used for plasmon-enhanced fluorescence, photocatalysis, nonlinear optics, etc., under atmospheric conditions since our system is not reactive to air nor water and does not need to be stored in a vacuum or inert gas.

Keywords: gold nanoparticle, porphyrin, surface plasmon resonance, luminescence, nanostructures

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Authors: P. G. Siddheshwar, T. N. Sakshath

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In the paper we make linear and non-linear stability analyses of Rayleigh-Bénard convection of a Newtonian nanoliquid in a rotating medium (called as Rayleigh-Bénard-Taylor convection). Rigid-rigid isothermal boundaries are considered for investigation. Khanafer-Vafai-Lightstone single phase model is used for studying instabilities in nanoliquids. Various thermophysical properties of nanoliquid are obtained using phenomenological laws and mixture theory. The eigen boundary value problem is solved for the Rayleigh number using an analytical method by considering trigonometric eigen functions. We observe that the critical nanoliquid Rayleigh number is less than that of the base liquid. Thus the onset of convection is advanced due to the addition of nanoparticles. So, increase in volume fraction leads to advanced onset and thereby increase in heat transport. The amplitudes of convective modes required for estimating the heat transport are determined analytically. The tri-modal standard Lorenz model is derived for the steady state assuming small scale convective motions. The effect of rotation on the onset of convection and on heat transport is investigated and depicted graphically. It is observed that the onset of convection is delayed due to rotation and hence leads to decrease in heat transport. Hence, rotation has a stabilizing effect on the system. This is due to the fact that the energy of the system is used to create the component V. We observe that the amount of heat transport is less in the case of rigid-rigid isothermal boundaries compared to free-free isothermal boundaries.

Keywords: nanoliquid, rigid-rigid, rotation, single phase

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Authors: Udeh Nneka Evelyn

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The shortcomings of traditional costing system, in terms of validity, accuracy, consistency and relevance increased the need for modern management accounting system. ABC (Activity-Based Costing) can be used as a modern tool for planning, control and decision making for management. Past studies on activity-based costing (ABC) system have focused on manufacturing firms thereby making the studies on service firms scanty to some extent. This paper reviewed the application and relevance of activity-based costing techniques in service oriented business organisations by employing a qualitative research method which relied heavily on literature review of past and current relevant articles focusing on activity-based costing (ABC). Findings suggest that ABC is not only appropriate for use in a manufacturing environment; it is also most appropriate for service organizations such as financial institutions, the healthcare industry, and government organizations. In fact, some banking and financial institutions have been applying the concept for years under other names. One of them is unit costing, which is used to calculate the cost of banking services by determining the cost and consumption of each unit of output of functions required to deliver the service. ABC in very basic terms may provide very good payback for businesses. Some of the benefits that relate directly to the financial services industry are: Identification of the most profitable customers; more accurate product and service pricing; increase product profitability; well-organized process costs.

Keywords: profitability, activity-based costing (ABC), management accounting, manufacture

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Authors: Y. T. van Popta

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This paper focuses on the never thoroughly examined yet in native relevant late medieval maritime cultural landscape of the former Zuiderzee (A.D. 1170-1932) in the center part of the Netherlands. Especially the northeastern part of the region, nowadays known as the Noordoostpolder, testifies of the dynamic battle of the Dutch against the water. This highly dynamic maritime region developed from a lake district into a sea and eventually into a polder. By linking physical and cognitive datasets from the Noordoostpol-der region in a spatial environment, new information on a late medieval maritime culture is brought to light, giving the opportunity to: (i) create a modern day perception on the late medieval maritime cultural landscape of the region and (ii) to underline the value of interdisciplinary and spatial research in maritime archaeology in general. Since the large scale reclamations of the region (A.D. 1932-1968), many remains have been discovered of a drowned and eroded late medieval maritime culture, represented by lost islands, drowned settlements, cultivated lands, shipwrecks and socio-economic networks. Recent archaeological research has proved the existence of this late medieval maritime culture by the discovery of the remains of the drowned settlement Fenehuysen (Veenhuizen) and its surroundings. The fact that this settlement and its cultivated surroundings remained hidden for so long proves that a large part of the maritime cultural landscape is ‘invisible’ and can only be found by extensive interdisciplinary research.

Keywords: drowned settlements, late middle ages, lost islands, maritime cultural landscape, the Netherlands

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Authors: Othmane Zarhali, Cécilia Aubrun, Emmanuel Bacry, Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, Jean-François Muzy

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The Nested factor model was introduced by Bouchaud and al., where the asset return fluctuations are explained by common factors representing the market economic sectors and residuals (noises) sharing with the factors a common dominant volatility mode in addition to the idiosyncratic mode proper to each residual. This construction infers that the factors-residuals log volatilities are correlated. Here, we consider the case of a single factor where the only dominant common mode is a S-fbm process (introduced by Peng, Bacry and Muzy) with Hurst exponent H around 0.11 and the residuals having in addition to the previous common mode idiosyncratic components with Hurst exponents H around 0. The reason for considering this configuration is twofold: preserve the Nested factor model’s characteristics introduced by Bouchaud and al. and propose a framework through which the stylized fact reported by Peng and al. is reproduced, where it has been observed that the Hurst exponents of stock indices are large as compared to those of individual stocks. In this work, we show that the Log S-fbm Nested factor model’s construction leads to a Hurst exponent of single stocks being the ones of the idiosyncratic volatility modes and the Hurst exponent of the index being the one of the common volatility modes. Furthermore, we propose a statistical procedure to estimate the Hurst factor exponent from the stock returns dynamics together with theoretical guarantees, with good results in the limit where the number of stocks N goes to infinity. Last but not least, we show that the factor can be seen as an index constructed from the single stocks weighted by specific coefficients.

Keywords: hurst exponent, log S-fbm model, nested factor model, small intermittency approximation

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Authors: Mohamed Moustafa, Medhat Abdallah, Ramy Magdy, Ahmed Abdrabou, Mohamed Badr

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The scribe box under study dates back to the old kingdom. It was excavated by the Italian expedition in Qena (1935-1937). The box consists of 2pieces, the lid and the body. The inner side of the lid is decorated with ancient Egyptian inscriptions written with a black pigment. The box was made using several panels assembled together by wooden dowels and secured with plant ropes. The entire box is covered with a red pigment. This study aims to use analytical techniques in order to identify and have deep understanding for the box components. Moreover, the authors were significantly interested in using infrared reflectance transmission imaging (RTI-IR) to improve the hidden inscriptions on the lid. The identification of wood species included in this study. The visual observation and assessment were done to understand the condition of this box. 3Ddimensions and 2D programs were used to illustrate wood joints techniques. Optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence portable (XRF) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used in this study in order to identify wood species, remains of insects bodies, red pigment, fibers plant and previous conservation adhesives, also RTI-IR technique was very effective to improve hidden inscriptions. The analysis results proved that wooden panels and dowels were identified as Acacia nilotica, wooden rail was Salix sp. the insects were identified as Lasioderma serricorne and Gibbium psylloids, the red pigment was Hematite, while the fiber plants were linen, previous adhesive was identified as cellulose nitrates. The historical study for the inscriptions proved that it’s a Hieratic writings of a funerary Text. After its transportation from the Egyptian museum storage to the wood conservation laboratory of the Grand Egyptian museum –conservation center (GEM-CC), conservation techniques were applied with high accuracy in order to restore the object including cleaning , consolidating of friable pigments and writings, removal of previous adhesive and reassembly, finally the conservation process that were applied were extremely effective for this box which became ready for display or storage in the grand Egyptian museum.

Keywords: scribe box, hieratic, 3D program, Acacia nilotica, XRD, cellulose nitrate, conservation

Procedia PDF Downloads 271

Authors: Evangelos Tsakalos, Maria Kazantzaki, Eleni Filippaki, Yannis Bassiakos

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The coastal areas of the Mediterranean have been extensively affected by the transgressive event that followed the Last Glacial Maximum, with many studies conducted regarding the stratigraphic configuration of coastal sediments around the Mediterranean. The coastal zone of the Messologi area, western Greece, consists of low relief beaches containing low cliffs and eroded dunes, a fact which, in combination with the rising sea level and tectonic subsidence of the area, has led to substantial coastal. Coastal vulnerability assessment is a useful means of identifying areas of coastline that are vulnerable to impacts of climate change and coastal processes, highlighting potential problem areas. Commonly, coastal vulnerability assessment takes the form of an ‘index’ that quantifies the relative vulnerability along a coastline. Here we make use of the coastal vulnerability index (CVI) methodology by Thieler and Hammar-Klose, by considering geological features, coastal slope, relative sea-level change, shoreline erosion/accretion rates, and mean significant wave height as well as mean tide range to assess the present-day vulnerability of the coastal zone of Messologi area. In light of this, an impact assessment is performed under three different sea level rise scenarios, and adaptation measures to control climate change events are proposed. This study contributes toward coastal zone management practices in low-lying areas that have little data information, assisting decision-makers in adopting best adaptations options to overcome sea level rise impact on vulnerable areas similar to the coastal zone of Messologi.

Keywords: coastal vulnerability index, coastal erosion, sea level rise, GIS

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Authors: Bekhemmas Youcef

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The category of the disabled, like other social groups, is considered to have been affected by fate with a disability that led to a reduction in the fulfillment of its social roles to the fullest extent or led to its complete abandonment. Psychological, and until we understand its behavioral methods that express a lot of this complexity and intertwining, and despite all that, this category has not yet received the appropriate great interest from specialized researchers, and even officials, and it is natural that the category of people with disabilities has psychological and social requirements in order to regains their capabilities or some From her, it also needs to prepare the environment in which she lives in order to integrate into society As the motor disability is one of the most common types of disability in the world, and it is constantly increasing, considering the increase in the causes leading to it, such as the traffic accident, and the motor disability often affects individuals from a psychological point of view, but it also affects their social surroundings, whether close or extended, and thus it draws limits and quality For their way of life, as well as determining roles for them as actors of a special kind within their societies. The methodology is similar to the organizational framework for the production of any scientific knowledge and based on the fact that sociology is a project that aims to understand and interpret the social reality scientifically and through the nature of the subject studied in the framework of the reality of the disabled in the city and in order to get closer to the daily life of the physically disabled within the urban center, we adopted the qualitative approach A choice that complies with the spirit of Viberian sociology, especially since Max Weber insists on the need to search for the meaning that the social actor gives to his behavior. Through the results reached in this study, it was found that the city still suffers from several deficiencies at the level of equipment and urban planning in a way that keeps pace with the number of people with disabilities in the city.

Keywords: physically, handicapped, in, the city

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Authors: Jonathan Sohn

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Deep neural networks (DNNs) have shown state-of-the-art performance for many applications, including computer vision, natural language processing, and speech recognition. Recently, adversarial attacks have been studied in the context of deep neural networks, which aim to alter the results of deep neural networks by modifying the inputs slightly. For example, an adversarial attack on a DNN used for object detection can cause the DNN to miss certain objects. As a result, the reliability of DNNs is undermined by their lack of robustness against adversarial attacks, raising concerns about their use in safety-critical applications such as autonomous driving. In this paper, we focus on studying the adversarial attacks and defenses on DNNs for image classification. There are two types of adversarial attacks studied which are fast gradient sign method (FGSM) attack and projected gradient descent (PGD) attack. A DNN forms decision boundaries that separate the input images into different categories. The adversarial attack slightly alters the image to move over the decision boundary, causing the DNN to misclassify the image. FGSM attack obtains the gradient with respect to the image and updates the image once based on the gradients to cross the decision boundary. PGD attack, instead of taking one big step, repeatedly modifies the input image with multiple small steps. There is also another type of attack called the target attack. This adversarial attack is designed to make the machine classify an image to a class chosen by the attacker. We can defend against adversarial attacks by incorporating adversarial examples in training. Specifically, instead of training the neural network with clean examples, we can explicitly let the neural network learn from the adversarial examples. In our experiments, the digit recognition accuracy on the MNIST dataset drops from 97.81% to 39.50% and 34.01% when the DNN is attacked by FGSM and PGD attacks, respectively. If we utilize FGSM training as a defense method, the classification accuracy greatly improves from 39.50% to 92.31% for FGSM attacks and from 34.01% to 75.63% for PGD attacks. To further improve the classification accuracy under adversarial attacks, we can also use a stronger PGD training method. PGD training improves the accuracy by 2.7% under FGSM attacks and 18.4% under PGD attacks over FGSM training. It is worth mentioning that both FGSM and PGD training do not affect the accuracy of clean images. In summary, we find that PGD attacks can greatly degrade the performance of DNNs, and PGD training is a very effective way to defend against such attacks. PGD attacks and defence are overall significantly more effective than FGSM methods.

Keywords: deep neural network, adversarial attack, adversarial defense, adversarial machine learning

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Authors: Muge Unal, Ahmet Cilek

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Urban identity, having a dynamic characteristic spatial and semantic aspects, is a phenomenon in an ever-changing. Urban identity formation includes not only a process of physical nature but also development and change processes that take place in the political, economic, social and cultural values, whether national and international level. Although the concept of urban transformation is basically regarded as the spatial transformation; in fact, it reveals a holistic perspective and transformation based on dialectical relationship existing between the spatial and social relationship. For this reason, urban renewal needs to address as not only spatial but also the impact of spatial transformation on social, cultural and economic. Implementation tools used in the perception of urban transformation are varied concepts such as urban renewal, urban resettlement, urban rehabilitation, urban redevelopment, and urban revitalization. The phenomenon of urban transformation begins with the Industrial Revolution. Until the 1980s, it was interpreted as reconsidering physical fossil on urban environment factor like occurring in rapid urbanization, changing in the spatial structure of the city, concentrating of the population in urban areas. However, after the 1980s, it has resided in a conceptual structure which requires to be addressed physical, economic, social, technological and integrity of information. In conclusion, urban transformation, when it enter the literature as a practice of planning, has been up to date in terms of the conceptual structure and content and also hasn’t remained behind converting itself. Urban transformation still maintains its simplest expression, while it transforms so fast converts the contents. In this study, the relationship between urban design and components of urban transformation were discussed with strategies used as a place in the historical process of urban transformation besides a general evaluation of the concept of urban renewal.

Keywords: conceptual approach, urban identity, urban regeneration, urban renewal

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Authors: Katyana A. Vert-Pre, James T. Thorson, Thomas Trancart, Eric Feunteun

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In marine ecosystems, spatial and temporal species structure is an important component of ecosystems’ response to anthropological and environmental factors. Although spatial distribution patterns and fish temporal series of abundance have been studied in the past, little research has been allocated to the joint dynamic spatio-temporal functional patterns in marine ecosystems and their use in multispecies management and conservation. Each species represents a function to the ecosystem, and the distribution of these species might not be random. A heterogeneous functional distribution will lead to a more resilient ecosystem to external factors. Applying a Vector-Autoregressive Spatio-Temporal (VAST) model for count data, we estimate the spatio-temporal distribution, shift in time, and abundance of 140 species of the Eastern English Chanel, Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean Sea. From the model outputs, we determined spatio-temporal clusters, calculating p-values for hierarchical clustering via multiscale bootstrap resampling. Then, we designed a functional map given the defined cluster. We found that the species distribution within the ecosystem was not random. Indeed, species evolved in space and time in clusters. Moreover, these clusters remained similar over time deriving from the fact that species of a same cluster often shifted in sync, keeping the overall structure of the ecosystem similar overtime. Knowing the co-existing species within these clusters could help with predicting data-poor species distribution and abundance. Further analysis is being performed to assess the ecological functions represented in each cluster.

Keywords: cluster distribution shift, European marine ecosystems, functional distribution, spatio-temporal model

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Authors: Devadrita Dey Sarkar

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Regardless of the many technologic advances in the past decade, increased training and experience, and the obvious benefits of uniform standards, the false-negative rate in screening mammography remains unacceptably high .A computer aided neural network classification of regions of suspicion (ROS) on digitized mammograms is presented in this abstract which employs features extracted by a new technique based on independent component analysis. CAD is a concept established by taking into account equally the roles of physicians and computers, whereas automated computer diagnosis is a concept based on computer algorithms only. With CAD, the performance by computers does not have to be comparable to or better than that by physicians, but needs to be complementary to that by physicians. In fact, a large number of CAD systems have been employed for assisting physicians in the early detection of breast cancers on mammograms. A CAD scheme that makes use of lateral breast images has the potential to improve the overall performance in the detection of breast lumps. Because breast lumps can be detected reliably by computer on lateral breast mammographs, radiologists’ accuracy in the detection of breast lumps would be improved by the use of CAD, and thus early diagnosis of breast cancer would become possible. In the future, many CAD schemes could be assembled as packages and implemented as a part of PACS. For example, the package for breast CAD may include the computerized detection of breast nodules, as well as the computerized classification of benign and malignant nodules. In order to assist in the differential diagnosis, it would be possible to search for and retrieve images (or lesions) with these CAD systems, which would be reliable and useful method for quantifying the similarity of a pair of images for visual comparison by radiologists.

Keywords: CAD(computer-aided design), lesions, neural network, ROS(region of suspicion)

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Authors: Libor Zachoval, Daire O Broin, Oisin Cawley

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E-learning platforms, such as Blackboard have two major shortcomings: limited data capture as a result of the limitations of SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model), and lack of incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms which could lead to better course adaptations. With the recent development of Experience Application Programming Interface (xAPI), a large amount of additional types of data can be captured and that opens a window of possibilities from which online education can benefit. In a corporate setting, where companies invest billions on the learning and development of their employees, some learner behaviours can be troublesome for they can hinder the knowledge development of a learner. Behaviours that hinder the knowledge development also raise ambiguity about learner’s knowledge mastery, specifically those related to gaming the system. Furthermore, a company receives little benefit from their investment if employees are passing courses without possessing the required knowledge and potential compliance risks may arise. Using xAPI and rules derived from a state-of-the-art review, we identified three learner behaviours, primarily related to guessing, in a corporate compliance course. The identified behaviours are: trying each option for a question, specifically for multiple-choice questions; selecting a single option for all the questions on the test; and continuously repeating tests upon failing as opposed to going over the learning material. These behaviours were detected on learners who repeated the test at least 4 times before passing the course. These findings suggest that gauging the mastery of a learner from multiple-choice questions test scores alone is a naive approach. Thus, next steps will consider the incorporation of additional data points, knowledge estimation models to model knowledge mastery of a learner more accurately, and analysis of the data for correlations between knowledge development and identified learner behaviours. Additional work could explore how learner behaviours could be utilised to make changes to a course. For example, course content may require modifications (certain sections of learning material may be shown to not be helpful to many learners to master the learning outcomes aimed at) or course design (such as the type and duration of feedback).

Keywords: artificial intelligence, corporate e-learning environment, knowledge maintenance, xAPI

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Authors: Shivani Jha, Klaus Baier, Rafiq Azzam, Ramakar Jha

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In India, generally people migrate from rural area to the urban area for better infra-structural facilities, high standard of living, good job opportunities and advanced transport/communication availability. In fact, unplanned urban development due to migration of people causes seriou damage to the land use, water pollution and available water resources. In the present work, an attempt has been made to use satellite data of different years for urban change detection of Chennai metropolitan city along with pattern analysis to generate future scenario of urban development using buffer zoning in GIS environment. In the analysis, SRTM (30m) elevation data and IRS-1C satellite data for the years 1990, 2000, and 2014, are used. The flow accumulation, aspect, flow direction and slope maps developed using SRTM 30 m data are very useful for finding suitable urban locations for industrial setup and urban settlements. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) have been used in ERDAS imagine software for change detection in land use of Chennai metropolitan city. It has been observed that the urban area has increased exponentially in Chennai metropolitan city with significant decrease in agriculture and barren lands. However, the water bodies located in the study regions are protected and being used as freshwater for drinking purposes. Using buffer zone analysis in GIS environment, it has been observed that the development has taken place in south west direction significantly and will do so in future.

Keywords: urban change, satellite data, the Chennai metropolis, change detection

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Authors: Charbel Aoun, Loic Lagadec

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A Sensor Network (SN) is considered as an operation of two phases: (1) the observation/measuring, which means the accumulation of the gathered data at each sensor node; (2) transferring the collected data to some processing center (e.g., Fusion Servers) within the SN. Therefore, an underwater sensor network can be defined as a sensor network deployed underwater that monitors underwater activity. The deployed sensors, such as Hydrophones, are responsible for registering underwater activity and transferring it to more advanced components. The process of data exchange between the aforementioned components perfectly defines the Marine Observatory (MO) concept which provides information on ocean state, phenomena and processes. The first step towards the implementation of this concept is defining the environmental constraints and the required tools and components (Marine Cables, Smart Sensors, Data Fusion Server, etc). The logical and physical components that are used in these observatories perform some critical functions such as the localization of underwater moving objects. These functions can be orchestrated with other services (e.g. military or civilian reaction). In this paper, we present an extension to our MO meta-model that is used to generate a design tool (ArchiMO). We propose new constraints to be taken into consideration at design time. We illustrate our proposal with an example from the MO domain. Additionally, we generate the corresponding simulation code using our self-developed domain-specific model compiler. On the one hand, this illustrates our approach in relying on Enterprise Architecture (EA) framework that respects: multiple views, perspectives of stakeholders, and domain specificity. On the other hand, it helps reducing both complexity and time spent in design activity, while preventing from design modeling errors during porting this activity in the MO domain. As conclusion, this work aims to demonstrate that we can improve the design activity of complex system based on the use of MDE technologies and a domain-specific modeling language with the associated tooling. The major improvement is to provide an early validation step via models and simulation approach to consolidate the system design.

Keywords: smart sensors, data fusion, distributed fusion architecture, sensor networks, domain specific modeling language, enterprise architecture, underwater moving object, localization, marine observatory, NS-3, IMS

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Authors: Dibya Jivan Pati, Kazuhisa Iki, Riken Homma

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Unlike other metro cities of India, Bhubaneswar–the capital city of Odisha, is expected to reach 1-million-mark population by now. The demands of dwelling unit requirement mostly among urban poor belonging to Economically Weaker section (EWS) and Low Income groups (LIG) is becoming a challenge due to high housing cost and rents. As a matter of fact, it’s also noted that, with increase in population, the solid waste generation also increases subsequently affecting the environment due to inefficiency in collection of waste by local government bodies. Methods of utilizing Solid Waste - especially in form of Plastic bottles, Glass bottles and Metal cans (PGM) are now widely used as an alternative material for construction of low-cost building by Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in developing countries like India to help the urban poor afford a shelter. The application of disposed plastic bottle used in construction of single dwelling significantly reduces the overall cost of construction to as much as 14% compared to traditional construction material. Therefore, considering its cost-benefit result, it’s possible to provide housing to EWS and LIGs at an affordable price. In this paper, we estimated the quantity of plastic bottles generated in Bhubaneswar which further helped to estimate the possible number of single dwelling unit that can be constructed on yearly basis so as to refrain from further housing shortage. The estimation results will be practically used for planning and managing low-cost housing business by local government and NGOs.

Keywords: construction, dwelling unit, plastic bottle, solid waste generation, groups

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Authors: Dinakaran Venkatachalam, Paul Chambers, Kavitha Kongara, Preet Singh

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The objective of this study is to formulate different topical preparations containing articaine and to investigate their permeation through goat skin. Initially, articaine and its hydrochloride salt were compared for in vitro permeation using Franz cell model. Goat skin samples were collected after euthanizing male goat kids purchased from the dairy goat farmers. Subcutaneous fat was removed and the skin was mounted on the donor chamber (orifice area 1.00 cm²) and drugs were applied onto the epidermis. Phosphate buffer saline (pH 7.4) was used to maintain sink condition in the receptor chamber (8 ml) of the Franz cell. Samples (0.4 ml) were collected at various intervals over 24 hours after each sampling equal volume of PBS was replaced in the receptor chamber. Articaine in the collected samples were quantified using LC/MS. The results suggested that articaine free base permeates better than its hydrochloride salt through goat skin. This study results support the fact that local anesthetics in its base form are lipophilic and thus penetrates faster through cell membranes than their salts. Later, articaine free base was formulated either using ethanol and octyl salicylate or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as penetration enhancers and was compared for in vitro permeation. The transdermal flux of articaine in the formulation containing DMSO was approximately 3.8 times higher than that of the formulation containing ethanol and octyl salicylate. Further studies to evaluate the local anesthetic efficacy of the topical formulation containing articaine for dermal anesthesia in animals have been planned.

Keywords: articaine, dermal anesthesia, local anesthetic, transdermal

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Authors: Somaye Sabetnia

Abstract:

This paper is accomplished to probe Susanna Kaysen’s memoir Girl, Interrupted in the light of Michel Foucault’s theory of madness comprehensively set forth in his History of Madness (1961). It is an endeavor to analysis this novel based on Foucault’s idea of madness. In his archeological study of madness, Foucault introduces a way to perceive madness and its association with dominant discourses. He argues that the concept of madness is constructed within the social context, and different institutions affect its definition. Furthermore, he takes into consideration how each era treats madness, and affirms that in modern times, people considered mad are exiled out of cities, confined in madhouses, and later in clinics where they are treated with drugs. Set after World War II, the novel under observation highlights women’s conditions in which they were becoming a housewife or following their own desires; in fact, choosing the second one results in labeling mad. The protagonist of novel is labeled 'mad,' and is hence impelled to go to asylums where so-called patients are under the vigilant surveillance of the authorities to go through the process of 'normalization.' To discern how she is considered 'mad,' this article probes the dominant discourse of the time when the stories take place to provide a better understanding of madness under the impact of social, cultural, and political conditions. It examines how a so-called mad considered 'Other' and treated after being confined by the disciplinary system of the asylum in a panoptic world. In addition to, it describes the aim of treatment is to punish and control a patient not to cure. This article aims to indicate that Susanna Kaysen tries to picture what is defined as women’s madness is the result of the patriarchal society of the post-war America as well as the mental illness has nothing to do with blood; it is rather the result of the social inequality of the age.

Keywords: clinical treatment, disciplining and punishment, dominant discourse, normalization, other, panoptic world, reason vs. unreason

Procedia PDF Downloads 320