Search results for: recent stream sediment

Authors: Zhifeng Kong

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Over-parameterized neural networks have attracted a great deal of attention in recent deep learning theory research, as they challenge the classic perspective of over-fitting when the model has excessive parameters and have gained empirical success in various settings. While a number of theoretical works have been presented to demystify properties of such models, the convergence properties of such models are still far from being thoroughly understood. In this work, we study the convergence properties of training two-hidden-layer partially over-parameterized fully connected networks with the Rectified Linear Unit activation via gradient descent. To our knowledge, this is the first theoretical work to understand convergence properties of deep over-parameterized networks without the equally-wide-hidden-layer assumption and other unrealistic assumptions. We provide a probabilistic lower bound of the widths of hidden layers and proved linear convergence rate of gradient descent. We also conducted experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets to validate our theory.

Keywords: over-parameterization, rectified linear units ReLU, convergence, gradient descent, neural networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Ç. Erdoğan, T. Turan

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Pediatric cancer patients experience multiple distressing, challenges, physical symptom such as fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance, and balance impairment that continue years after treatment completion. In recent years, yoga is often used in children with cancer to cope with these symptoms. Yoga practice is defined as a unique physical activity that combines physical practice, breath work and mindfulness/meditation. Yoga is an increasingly popular mind-body practice also characterized as a mindfulness mode of exercise. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of yoga intervention of children with cancer. This article planned searching the literature in this field. It has been determined that individualized yoga is feasible and provides benefits for inpatient children, improves health-related quality of life, physical activity levels, physical fitness. After yoga program, children anxiety score decreases significantly. Additionally, individualized yoga is feasible for inpatient children receiving intensive chemotherapy. As a result, yoga is an alternative and complementary medicine that can be safely used in children with cancer.

Keywords: cancer treatment, children, nursing, yoga

Procedia PDF Downloads 228

Authors: Roberto Rubem Silva-Brandao, Aurea Maria Zollner Ianni

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This article discusses the use and the incorporation of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP) within a risk society context. Considering contemporary social theoreticians, we discuss implications of biotechnological uses for health enhancement. Firstly, we explore examples of biological manipulation and its consequences of use on given ecological dynamics, particularly taking into account other Sexually Transmitted Infections. In addition, we discuss how HIV resistance cases occurred with people on PrEP and its possible consequences on population-based interventions. Moreover, we present recent studies that analyze biological modifications on bodies of those who are on consistent use of PrEP, and how these body modifications are addressed on common practices of Public Health. Secondly, we present our theoretical references, which are intended to the analysis that situates our contemporary society in the reflexive stage of modernization. We discuss limits of biological use by individuals and how this can fabric feelings of freedom and autonomy within the individualization process and health. Finally, we argue that biotechnological uses on health, specifically on Public Health, tackling the risk aspects of its application, shows that another sanitary pact is needed.

Keywords: PrEP, public health, social sciences, risk society

Procedia PDF Downloads 396

Authors: Sukran Acikel, Mehmet Ekmekci, Otgonbayar Namkhai

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Lignite coal fields in western Turkey generally occurs in tensional Neogene basins bordered by major faults. Karacahisar coal field in Mugla province of western Turkey is a large Neogene basin filled with alternation of silisic and calcerous layers. The basement of the basin is composed of mainly karstified carbonate rocks of Mesozoic and schists of Paleozoic age. The basement rocks are exposed at highlands surrounding the basin. The basin fill deposits forms shallow, low yield and local aquifers whereas karstic carbonate rock masses forms the major aquifer in the region. The karstic aquifer discharges through a spring zone issuing at intersection of two major faults. Municipal water demand in Bodrum city, a touristic attraction area is almost totally supplied by boreholes tapping the karstic aquifer. A well field has been constructed on the eastern edge of the coal basin, which forms a ridge separating two Neogene basins. A major concern was raised about the plausible impact of mining activities on groundwater system in general and on water supply well field in particular. The hydrogeological studies carried out in the area revealed that the coal seam is located below the groundwater level. Mining operations will be affected by groundwater inflow to the pits, which will require dewatering measures. Dewatering activities in mine sites have two-sided effects: a) lowers the groundwater level at and around the pit for a safe and effective mining operation, b) continuous dewatering causes expansion of cone of depression to reach a spring, stream and/or well being utilized by local people, capturing their water. Plausible effect of mining operations on the flow of the spring zone was another issue of concern. Therefore, a detailed representative hydrogeological conceptual model of the site was developed on the basis of available data and field work. According to the hydrogeological conceptual model, dewatering of Neogene layers will not hydraulically affect the water supply wells, however, the ultimate perimeter of the open pit will expand to intersect the well field. According to the conceptual model, the coal seam is separated from the bottom by a thick impervious clay layer sitting on the carbonate basement. Therefore, the hydrostratigraphy does not allow a hydraulic interaction between the mine pit and the karstic carbonate rock aquifer. However, the structural setting in the basin suggests that deep faults intersecting the basement and the Neogene sequence will most probably carry the deep groundwater up to a level above the bottom of the pit. This will require taking necessary measure to lower the piezometric level of the carbonate rock aquifer along the faults. Dewatering the carbonate rock aquifer will reduce the flow to the spring zone. All findings were put together to recommend a strategy for safe and effective mining operation.

Keywords: conceptual model, dewatering, groundwater, mining operation

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Authors: Peter Oyelere, Fernando Zanella

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Corporate governance is one of the most discussed and researched issues in recent times in countries around the world, with different countries developing and adopting different governance structures, models and mechanisms. While the Codes of corporate governance have been weaved into the regulatory fabrics of most countries, it is equally critically important that their mechanisms, procedures and practices be transparent, and be transparently communicated to all stakeholders. The Internet can be a very useful and cost-effective tool for the timely and voluntary communication of corporate governance matters to stakeholders. The current paper details the results of an investigation on the extent of which companies listed in the UAE are using the Internet for communicating corporate governance issues, matters and procedures. We surveyed the websites of companies listed on the two UAE Stock Exchanges – the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) – to find out their level and nature of usage of the Internet for corporate governance disclosures. Regulatory and policy implications of the results of our investigation, as well as other areas for further studies, are also presented in the paper.

Keywords: corporate governance, internet financial reporting, regulation, transparency, United Arab Emirates

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Authors: Abdulrahman K. Alshegaifi, Chun-Hsi Huang

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Treating data based on its location in memory has received much attention in recent years due to its different properties, which offer important aspects for cache utilization. Stack data and non-stack data may interfere with each other’s locality in the data cache. One of the important aspects of stack data is that it has high spatial and temporal locality. In this work, we simulate non-unified cache design that split data cache into stack and non-stack caches in order to maintain stack data and non-stack data separate in different caches. We observe that the overall hit rate of non-unified cache design is sensitive to the size of non-stack cache. Then, we investigate the appropriate size and associativity for stack cache to achieve high hit ratio especially when over 99% of accesses are directed to stack cache. The result shows that on average more than 99% of stack cache accuracy is achieved by using 2KB of capacity and 1-way associativity. Further, we analyze the improvement in hit rate when adding small, fixed, size of stack cache at level1 to unified cache architecture. The result shows that the overall hit rate of unified cache design with adding 1KB of stack cache is improved by approximately, on average, 3.9% for Rijndael benchmark. The stack cache is simulated by using SimpleScalar toolset.

Keywords: hit rate, locality of program, stack cache, stack data

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Authors: S. Sadegzadeh, A. Mousavi

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Temperature-dependent tunable photonic crystals have attracted widespread interest in recent years. In this research, transmission characteristics of a one-dimensional photonic crystal structure with a single defect have been studied. Here, we assume two different defect layers: InSb as a semiconducting layer and HgBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O₁₀ as a high-temperature superconducting layer. Both the defect layers have temperature-dependent refractive indexes. Two different types of dielectric materials (Si as a high-refractive index dielectric and MgF₂ as a low-refractive index dielectric) are used to construct the asymmetric structures (Si/MgF₂)^NInSb(Si/MgF₂)^N named S.I, and (Si/MgF₂)^NHgBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O₁₀(Si/MgF₂)^N named S.II. It is found that in response to the temperature changes, transmission peaks within the photonic band gap of the S.II structure, in contrast to S.I, show a small wavelength shift. Furthermore, the results show that under the same conditions, S.I structure generates an extra defect mode in the transmission spectra. Besides high efficiency transmission property of S.II structure, it can be concluded that the semiconductor-dielectric photonic crystals are more sensitive to temperature variation than superconductor types.

Keywords: defect modes, photonic crystals, semiconductor, superconductor, transmission

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Authors: Kenichiro Hida, Shin-Ichi Kuribayashi

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In a conventional network, most network devices, such as routers, are dedicated devices that do not have much variation in capacity. In recent years, a new concept of network functions virtualisation (NFV) has come into use. The intention is to implement a variety of network functions with software on general-purpose servers and this allows the network operator to select their capacities and locations without any constraints. This paper focuses on the allocation of NFV-based routing functions which are one of critical network functions, and presents the virtual routing function allocation algorithm that minimizes the total power consumption. In addition, this study presents the useful allocation policy of virtual routing functions, based on an evaluation with a ladder-shaped network model. This policy takes the ratio of the power consumption of a routing function to that of a circuit and traffic distribution between areas into consideration. Furthermore, the present paper shows that there are cases where the use of NFV-based routing functions makes it possible to reduce the total power consumption dramatically, in comparison to a conventional network, in which it is not economically viable to distribute small-capacity routing functions.

Keywords: NFV, resource allocation, virtual routing function, minimum power consumption

Procedia PDF Downloads 348

Authors: Christina A. van Hal, Xiaoqian Jiang, Luyao Chen, Yan Chu, Robert D. Jolly, Yaobin Lin, Jitian Zhao, Kang Lin Hsieh

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The COVID-19 Literature Summary App was created for the primary purpose of enabling academicians and clinicians to quickly sort through the vast array of recent coronavirus publications by topics of interest. Multiple methods of summarizing and sorting the manuscripts were created. A summary page introduces the application function and capabilities, while an interactive map provides daily updates on infection, death, and recovery rates. A page with a pivot table allows publication sorting by topic, with an interactive data table that allows sorting topics by columns, as wells as the capability to view abstracts. Additionally, publications may be sorted by the medical topics they cover. We used the CORD-19 database to compile lists of publications. The data table can sort binary variables, allowing the user to pick desired publication topics, such as papers that describe COVID-19 symptoms. The application is primarily designed for use by researchers but can be used by anybody who wants a faster and more efficient means of locating papers of interest.

Keywords: COVID-19, literature summary, information retrieval, Snorkel

Procedia PDF Downloads 157

Authors: Sunil M. Gaikwad, Yogesh J. Koli, Gopal A. Raut, Ganesh P. Bhawane

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The present investigation was directed to study the diversity of short-horned grasshoppers from a forested area of Kolhapur district, Maharashtra, India, which is spread along the hilly terrain of the Northern Western Ghats. The collection was made during 2013 to 2015, and identified with the help of a reference collection of ZSI, Kolkata, and recent literature and dry preserved. The study resulted in the enumeration of 40 species of short-horned grasshoppers belonging to four families of suborder: Caelifera. The family Acrididae was dominant (27 species) followed by Tetrigidae (eight species), Pyrgomorphidae (four species) and Chorotypidae (one species). The report of 40 species from the forest habitat of the study region highlights the significance of the Western Ghats. Ecologically, short-horned grasshoppers are integral to food chains, being consumed by a wide variety of animals. The observations of the present investigation may prove useful for conservation of the Diversity in Northern Western Ghats.

Keywords: diversity, Kolhapur, northern western Ghats, short-horned grasshoppers

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Nicole Kaye A. Callanta, Shalimar B. Baruang, Anne Edelienne P. Tadena, Imelu G. Mordeno, Odessa May D. Escalona

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Untold numbers of children and adolescents around the world are exposed increasingly to the war on a daily basis. These experiences shape how they will view themselves, others, and the world. A wealth of studies have shown the role of family dynamics in the development of children’s attitudes, particularly their social behaviors. This specific study, however, contends that family dynamics influence peace and conflict resolution attitude and further asserts that it is brought about by the degree of emotional regulation strategies they use. Utilising purposive sampling, adolescent participant-respondents were from different schools in Southern Philipines, specifically of the cities of Marawi and Iligan, where exposure to warring clans, internal struggle between the Philippine Military and insurgencies, and the recent Marawi Seige caused by Al-Qaeda and ISIS-spawned terrorism. Results showed emotional regulation strategies mediate the relationship between family dynamics, particularly on family cohesion, and attitude towards peace. Thus implying the association between family cohesion and attitude towards peace strengthens with the use of emotional regulation strategies.

Keywords: attitude towards peace, emotional regulation strategies, family cohesion, family dynamics

Procedia PDF Downloads 179

Authors: Suleyman Karacor

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The main purpose of this study is to investigate tourism marketing in the information age because of the importance and sensitivity. In the twenty-first century as a result of today's the increasing competition and product diversification in the tourism sector, tourism businesses must take into account exogenous variables such as new technological developments, commercial experience and consumer demand. In the information age, tourist product consumers tend to reserve their leisure time and expenditure on more active opportunities for different experiences instead of living the same experience again. Increasing the number of agents in the tourism sector, travel opportunities offering different experiences and more intensive use of modern technology helps to present diversification of leisure activities for tourists. From the perspective of tourists, travel costs are still important for buying the touristic products but maintaining a high level of tourist satisfaction is also of increasing importance. Tourists tend to prefer activities that add value. A real tourist product must be able to create value and new priorities for tourists. Therefore this study aims to review recent significant developments in international tourism marketing research and practices. To this end, this study reviews tourism marketing-focused articles.

Keywords: information age, tourism marketing, tourism marketing mix, management

Procedia PDF Downloads 432

Authors: Jun Yuan

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Shipping is a major transportation mode all over the world, and it has a significant contribution to global carbon emissions. Electrification of ships is one of the main strategies to reduce shipping carbon emissions. The number of electric ships has continued to grow in recent years. However, charging infrastructure is still scarce, which severely restricts the development of electric ships. Therefore, it is very important to design ship charging stations reasonably by comprehensively considering charging demand and investment costs. This study aims to minimize the full life cycle cost of charging stations, considering the uncertainty of charging demand. A mixed integer programming model is developed for this optimization problem. Based on the characteristics of the mathematical model, a simulation based optimization method is proposed to find the optimal number and rated power of chargers. In addition, the impact of renewable energy and storage systems is analyzed. The results can provide decision support and a reference basis for the design of ship charging stations.

Keywords: shipping emission, electricity ship, charging station, optimal design

Procedia PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Sarah Kinyanjui, Mahnaaz Mohamed

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The child justice system in Kenya is organically departing from a managerial and retributive model to one that espouses restorative justice. Notably, the Children Act 2001, and the most recent, Children Act 2022, signalled an aspiration to facilitate meaningful interventions as opposed to ‘processing’ children through the justice system. In this vein, the Children Act 2022 formally recognises diversion and provides modalities for its implementation. This paper interrogates the diversion promise and reflects on the implementation of diversion as envisaged by the 2022 Act. Using restorative justice, labelling and differential association theories as well as the value of care lenses, the paper discusses diversion as a meaningful response to child offending. It further argues that while diversion presents a strong platform for the realisation of the restorative and rehabilitative ideals, in the absence of a well-planned, coordinated, and resourced framework, diversion may remain a mere alternative ‘conveyor belt’. Strategic multi-agency planning, capacity building and cooperation are highlighted as essential minimums for the realisation of the goals of diversion.

Keywords: diversion for child offenders, restorative justice, responsive criminal justice system, children act 2022 kenya

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: Khaja Moiduddin, Sherif Mohammed Elseufy, Hisham Alkhalefah

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Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing, medical imaging, and implant design may alter how craniomaxillofacial surgeons construct individualized treatments using patient data. By utilizing medical image data, medical professionals can obtain detailed information about a patient's injuries, enabling them to conduct a thorough preoperative assessment while ensuring the implant's accuracy. However, selecting the right implant material requires careful consideration of various mechanical properties. This study aims to compare the two commonly used implant material for cranial reconstruction which includes titanium (Ti6Al4V) and Polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Biomechanical analysis was performed to study the implant behavior, by keeping the implant design and fixation constant in both cases. A finite element model was created and analyzed under loading conditions. The finite element analysis proves that although Ti6Al4V is stronger than PEEK but, its mechanical strength is adequate to bear the loads of the adjacent bone tissue.

Keywords: cranial reconstruction, titanium implants, PEEK, finite element model

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Authors: Farid Amidi Fazli

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Replacement of plastics used in the food industry seems to be a serious issue to overcome mainly the environmental problems in recent years. This study investigates the hydrophilicity and permeability properties of starch biopolymer which ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) (0-10%) and nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) (1 -15%) were used to enhance its properties. Starch -EVOH nanocomposites were prepared by casting method in different formulations. NCC production by acid hydrolysis was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. Solubility, water vapor permeability, water vapor transmission rate and moisture absorbance were measured on each of the nanocomposites. The results were analyzed by SAS software. The lowest moisture absorbance was measured in pure starch nanocomposite containing 8% NCC. The lowest permeability to water vapor belongs to starch nanocomposite containing 8% NCC and the sample containing 7.8% EVOH and 13% NCC. Also, the lowest solubility was observed in the composite contains the highest amount of EVOH. Applied Process resulted in production of bio films which have good resistance to water vapor permeability and solubility in water. The use of NCC and EVOH leads to reduced moisture absorbance property of the biofilms.

Keywords: starch, EVOH, nanocrystalline cellulose, hydrophilicity

Procedia PDF Downloads 413

Authors: Sameh Baccari, Mahmoud Neji

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In recent years, the rapid developments on mobile devices and wireless technologies enable new dimension capabilities for the learning domain. This dimension facilitates people daily activities and shortens the distances between individuals. When these technologies have been used in learning, a new paradigm has been emerged giving birth to mobile learning. Because of the mobility feature, m-learning courses have to be adapted dynamically to the learner’s context. The main challenge in context-aware mobile learning is to develop an approach building the best learning resources according to dynamic learning situations. In this paper, we propose a context-aware mobile learning system called Collaborative and Context-aware Mobile Learning System (CCMLS). It takes into account the requirements of Mobility, Collaboration and Context-Awareness. This system is based on the semantic modeling of the learning context and the learning content. The adaptation part of this approach is made up of adaptation rules to propose and select relevant resources, learning partners and learning activities based not only on the user’s needs, but also on its current context.

Keywords: mobile learning, mobile technologies, context-awareness, collaboration, semantic web, adaptation engine, adaptation strategy, learning object, learning context

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Authors: Henriette Scholtz

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Excessive executive directors’ remuneration remains a major concern for many stakeholders and are some of the factors to blame for the recent global financial crisis. The objective of this study was to examine whether certain firm characteristics are an effective way of protecting shareholders’ interests with respect to executive directors’ remuneration. To achieve this, an ordinary least squares model was used to test the relationship between the remuneration of executive directors and a number of firm and corporate governance characteristics to determine whether these characteristics have an influence on executive directors’ remuneration of large listed companies in South Africa. It was found that corporate governance reforms relating to institutional ownership, shareholder voting on the remuneration policy and the number of remuneration committee meetings acts as an effective governance tool to protect shareholder’s interests with regard to executive remuneration. There is no evidence that the number of non-executive directors on the remuneration committee has an influence on the executive directors’ remuneration.

Keywords: executive directors’ remuneration, agency theory, corporate governance, remuneration committee, directors’ shareholding, institutional ownership

Procedia PDF Downloads 212

Authors: Luyao Zhang, Tianyu Wu, Jiayi Li, Carlos-Gustavo Salas-Flores, Saad Lahrichi

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Recent advances in AI have made algorithmic trading a central role in finance. However, current research and applications are disconnected information islands. We propose a generally applicable pipeline for designing, programming, and evaluating algorithmic trading of stock and crypto tokens. Moreover, we provide comparative case studies for four conventional algorithms, including moving average crossover, volume-weighted average price, sentiment analysis, and statistical arbitrage. Our study offers a systematic way to program and compare different trading strategies. Moreover, we implement our algorithms by object-oriented programming in Python3, which serves as open-source software for future academic research and applications.

Keywords: algorithmic trading, AI for finance, fintech, machine learning, moving average crossover, volume weighted average price, sentiment analysis, statistical arbitrage, pair trading, object-oriented programming, python3

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Lai Junzhe, Wang Lihao, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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In recent years, due to today's global technological advances, big data and artificial intelligence technologies have been widely used in various industries and fields, playing an important role in reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Among them, artificial intelligence has derived another branch in its own continuous progress and the continuous development of computer personnel, namely distributed artificial intelligence computing systems. Distributed AI is a method for solving complex learning, decision-making, and planning problems, characterized by the ability to take advantage of large-scale computation and the spatial distribution of resources, and accordingly, it can handle problems with large data sets. Nowadays, distributed AI is widely used in military, medical, and human daily life and brings great convenience and efficient operation to life. In this paper, we will discuss three areas of distributed AI computing systems in vision processing, blockchain, and smart home to introduce the performance of distributed systems and the role of AI in distributed systems.

Keywords: distributed system, artificial intelligence, blockchain, IoT, visual information processing, smart home

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Qian Wang

Abstract:

In recent years, a growing number of Chinese women choose to pursue Ph.D. education. Except for the male and female, women with PhD degrees are stigmatized as the ‘third gender’ in Chinese society. People, especially most men, believe that female PhD students challenge the traditional image and gender role of Chinese women. This gender stereotype causes a range of difficulties in finding partners in marriage market for Chinese female PhD students. In this study, the author conducted in-depth interviews with 15 participants who are currently doing their PhD studies in Chinese universities to explore their perceptions of being leftover women on the basis of their experience. All the participants are single. Based on the analysis of qualitative data, this study found that the ‘leftover women’ phenomenon among Chinese female PhD students is the result of the contradictions generated between Chinese patriarchal society and them. Although Chinese female PhD students is an attention-attracting group, the studies about them are very limited in China. This study could not only contribute to the understanding of the ‘third gender’ phenomenon and the ‘leftover women’ studies in China, but also, in practical level, could give some guidance for governments to resolve the social problems of female PhD students.

Keywords: Chinese female Ph.D. students, the ‘leftover women’, the Chinese patriarchal society, gender role, Chinese culture

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Authors: Diane Vassallo., Leonard Busuttil

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Recent educational developments have seen increasing attention attributed to Computational Thinking (CT) and its integration into primary and secondary school curricula. CT is more than simply being able to use technology but encompasses fundamental Computer Science concepts which are deemed to be very important in developing the correct mindset for our future digital citizens. The case study presented in this article explores the journey of a Maltese secondary school teacher in his efforts to plan, develop and integrate CT within the context of a local classroom. The teacher participant was recruited from the Malta EU Code week summer school, a pilot initiative that stemmed from the EU Code week Team’s Train the Trainer program. The qualitative methodology involved interviews with the participant teacher as well as an analysis of the artefacts created by the students during the lessons. The results shed light on the numerous challenges and obstacles that the teacher encountered in his integration of CT, as well as portray some brilliant examples of good practices which can substantially inform further research and practice around the integration of CT in classroom practice.

Keywords: computational thinking, digital citizens, digital literacy, technology integration

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Authors: Morolake Josephine Adeagbo

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South Africa is one of those countries that openly rejected racism, and this is entrenched in its Bill of Rights. Despite the acceptance and incorporation of racial integration into the South Africa Constitution, the implementation within some sectors, most especially the educational sector, seems difficult. Recent occurrences of racism in some higher institutions of learning in South Africa are indications that racial integration / racial transformation is still farfetched in the country’s higher educational sector. It is against this background that this study was conducted to understand how gender and residential background influence racial integration in a South African university which was predominantly a white Afrikaner institution. Using a quantitative method to test the attitude of different categories of undergraduate students at the university, this study found that the factors- residential background and gender- used in measuring student’s attitude do not necessarily have a significant relationship towards racial integration. However, this study concludes with a call for more research with a range of other factors in order to better understand how racial integration can be promoted in South African institutions of higher learning.

Keywords: racial integration, gender, residential background, transformation

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Authors: Gani Pllana

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In the conditions of the rapid development of technics and technology in recent years, the cooperation of the scientific-technical language with the standard Albanian language is continuing with a higher intensity than before. We notice a vigor of enrichment in the vocabulary of technical terminology, due to the birth and formation of new fields and subfields of technics, technology, as computing, mechatronics, telemetry, a multitude of concepts many of which, on the one hand, are marked with names of the languages they come from, mainly from English, but on the other hand, they meet their needs with the lexical mother tongue composition (by common words being raised to terms) and with the activation of other layers, such as compound word terms. Thus, for example, in the field of computing, we notice in it the inclusion of the ordinary vocabulary for reproductive reasons, like mi, dritare, flamur, adresë, skedar (Engl: mouse, window, flag, address, file), and along with them, the compound word terms, serving to differentiate relevant concepts, like, adresë e hiperlidhjes, adresë e uebit, adresë relative, adresë virtuale (Engl. address hyperlink, web address, relative address, virtual address) etc.

Keywords: common words, Albanian language, technical terminology, standardization

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Authors: G. L. Devnani, Shishir Sinha

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In the recent years, researchers have drawn their focus on natural fibers reinforced composite materials because of their excellent properties like low cost, lower weight, better tensile and flexural strengths, biodegradability etc. There is little concern however that when these materials are put in moist conditions for long duration, their mechanical properties degrade. Therefore, in order to take maximum advantage of these novel materials, one should have a complete understanding of their moisture or water absorption phenomena. Various fiber surface treatment methods like alkaline treatment, acetylation etc. have also been suggested for reduction in water absorption of these composites. In the present study, a detailed review is done for water absorption behavior of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites, and experiments also have been performed on these composites with varying the parameters like fiber loading etc. for understanding the water absorption kinetics. Various surface treatment methods also performed to reduce the water absorption behavior of these materials and effort is made to develop a proper understanding of water absorption mechanism mathematically and experimentally for full potential utilization of natural fiber reinforced polymer composite materials.

Keywords: alkaline treatment, composites, natural fiber, water absorption

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Authors: Xin-Hua Zhao

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In recent years, the growth rate of social responsibility reports disclosed by Chinese corporations has grown rapidly. The economic effects of the growing corporate social responsibility reports have become a hot topic. The article takes the chemical listed engineering corporations that disclose social responsibility reports in China as a sample, and based on the information asymmetry theory, examines the economic effect generated by corporate social responsibility disclosure with the method of ordinary least squares. The research is conducted from the perspective of analysts’ earnings forecasts and studies the impact of corporate social responsibility information disclosure on improving the accuracy of analysts' earnings forecasts. The results show that there is a statistically significant negative correlation between corporate social responsibility disclosure index and analysts’ earnings forecast error. The conclusions confirm that enterprises can reduce the asymmetry of social and environmental information by disclosing social responsibility reports, and thus improve the accuracy of analysts’ earnings forecasts. It can promote the effective allocation of resources in the market.

Keywords: analysts' earnings forecasts, corporate social responsibility disclosure, economic effect, information asymmetry

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Authors: Hosseini Siahi Zohreh, Sana Mohammad Jafar

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The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents has increased in recent decades in different countries. Childhood obesity, increases the risk of adult obesity and its related diseases. Determine the prevalence of the problem in different populations results to screening and adequate intervention and the effects of early and late complications. Various studies have shown Parents and family environment has a significant impact on the incidence of overweight and obesity in children. As parental obesity is directly related to child obesity. In this study were selected randomly 60 girl students with a BMI above the 95th percentile (as fat) and BMI greater than 85 and less than 95 (overweight). So 60 were selected randomly of girl students with a BMI of between 5 and 85 (normal). In the case of boys was done exactly the same. Case and control groups were matched according to age and grade for statistical analysis of SPPS software version 17. According to results the prevalence of overweight and obesity in girl students respectively is 8.7 percent and 13.76 percent and in boy students 9.9 percent and 10.42 percent. Also was not found in boys group the relationship significant between obesity and overweight with parents BMI. Whereas in girls group was found a significant relationship.

Keywords: parents BMI, overweight, obesity, primary school students

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Authors: Hamidreza Bagheri, Alireza Shariati

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There are many difficulties in the purification of raw components and products. However, researchers are seeking better ways for purification. One of the recent methods is extraction using supercritical fluids. In this study, the phase equilibria of benzoic acid-supercritical carbon dioxide system were investigated. Regarding the phase equilibria of this system, the modeling of solid-supercritical fluid behavior was performed using the Perturbed-Chain Statistical Association Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT) and Peng-Robinson equations of state (PR EoS). For this purpose, five PC-SAFT EoS parameters for pure benzoic acid were obtained using its experimental vapor pressure. Benzoic acid has association sites and the behavior of the benzoic acid-supercritical fluid system was well-predicted using both equations of state, while the binary interaction parameter values for PR EoS were negative. Genetic algorithm, which is one of the most accurate global optimization algorithms, was also used to optimize the pure benzoic acid parameters and the binary interaction parameters. The AAD% value for the PC-SAFT EoS, were 0.22 for the carbon dioxide-benzoic acid system.

Keywords: supercritical fluids, solubility, solid, PC-SAFT EoS, genetic algorithm

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Authors: Gabriele Barrocas, Habon Issa

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The amygdala is one of various brain regions that tend to be pathological in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is a prevalent and heterogeneous developmental disorder affecting all ethnic and socioeconomic groups and consists of a broad range of severity, etiology, and behavioral symptoms. Common features of ASD include but are not limited to repetitive behaviors, obsessive interests, and anxiety. Neuroscientists view the amygdala as the core of the neural system that regulates behavioral responses to anxiogenic and threatening stimuli. Despite this consensus, many previous studies and literature reviews on the amygdala’s alterations in individuals with ASD have reported inconsistent findings. In this review, we will address these conflicts by highlighting recent studies which reveal that anatomical and related socio-emotional differences detected between individuals with and without ASD are highly age-dependent. We will specifically discuss studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), structural MRI, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to provide insights into the neuroanatomical substrates of ASD across development, with a focus on amygdala volumes, cell densities, and connectivity.

Keywords: autism, amygdala, development, abnormalities

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Alex Contarino

Abstract:

Professional sports leagues often have a “free agency” period, during which teams may sign players with expiring contracts.To promote parity, many leagues operate under a salary cap that limits the amount teams can spend on player’s salaries in a given year. Similarly, in fantasy sports leagues, salary cap drafts are a popular method for selecting players. In order to sign a free agent in either setting, teams must bid against one another to buy the player’s services while ensuring the sum of their player’s salaries is below the salary cap. This paper models the bidding process for a free agent as a constrained optimization problem that can be solved using linear programming. The objective is to determine the largest bid that a team should offer the player subject to the constraint that the value of signing the player must exceed the value of using the salary cap elsewhere. Iteratively solving this optimization problem for each available free agent provides teams with an effective framework for maximizing the talent on their rosters. The utility of this approach is demonstrated for team sport roster construction and fantasy sport drafts, using recent data sets from both settings.

Keywords: linear programming, optimization, roster management, salary cap

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