Search results for: concrete word

Authors: M. Moso-Diez, J. L. Moragues-Oregi, K. Simon-Elorz

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Innovation procurement is designed to steer the development of solutions towards concrete public sector needs as a driver for innovation from the demand side (in public services as well as in market opportunities for companies), is horizontally emerging as a new policy instrument. In 2014 the new EU public procurement directives 2014/24/EC and 2014/25/EC reinforced the support for Public Procurement for Innovation, dedicating funding instruments that can be used across all areas supported by Horizon 2020, and targeting potential buyers of innovative solutions: groups of public procurers with similar needs. Under this programme, new policy adapters and networks emerge, aiming to embed innovation criteria into new procurement processes. As these initiatives are in process, research related to is scarce. We argue that Innovation Public Procurement can arise as an innovative policy instrument to public procurement in different policy domains, in spite of existing institutional and cultural barriers (legal guarantee versus innovation). The presentation combines insights from public procurement to supply management chain management in a sustainability and innovation policy arena, as a means of providing understanding of: (1) the circumstances that emerge; (2) the relationship between public and private actors; and (3) the emerging capacities in the definition of the agenda. The policy adopters are the contracting authorities that mainly are at municipal level where they interact with the supply management chain, interconnecting sustainability and climate measures with other policy priorities such as innovation and urban planning; and through the Competitive Dialogue procedure. We found that geography and territory affect both the level of municipal budget (due to municipal income per capita) and its institutional competencies (due to demographic reasons). In spite of the relevance of institutional determinants for public procurement, other factors play an important role such as human factors as well as both public policy and private intervention. The experience is a ‘city project’ (Bilbao) in the field of brownfield decontamination. Brownfield sites typically refer to abandoned or underused industrial and commercial properties—such as old process plants, mining sites, and landfills—that are available but contain low levels of environmental contaminants that may complicate reuse or redevelopment of the land. This article concludes that Innovation Public Procurement in sustainability and climate issues should be further developed both as a policy instrument and as a policy research line that could enable further relevant changes in public procurement as well as in climate innovation.

Keywords: innovation, city projects, public policy, public procurement

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Authors: Christine Demaecker

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Many researchers have underlined the importance of metaphors in specialised language. Their use of specific domains helps us understand the conceptualisations used to communicate new ideas or difficult topics. Within the wide area of specialised discourse, wine tasting is a very specific example because it is almost exclusively metaphoric. Wine tasting metaphors express various conceptualisations. They are not linguistic but rather conceptual, as defined by Lakoff & Johnson. They correspond to the linguistic expression of a mental projection from a well-known or more concrete source domain onto the target domain, which is the taste of wine. But unlike most specialised terminologies, the vocabulary is never clearly defined. When metaphorical terms are listed in dictionaries, their definitions remain vague, unclear, and circular. They cannot be replaced by literal linguistic expressions. This makes it impossible to transfer them into another language with the traditional linguistic translation methods. Qualitative research investigates whether wine tasting metaphors could rather be translated with the cognitive translation process, as well described by Nili Mandelblit (1995). The research is based on a corpus compiled from two high-profile wine guides; the Parker’s Wine Buyer’s Guide and its translation into French and the Guide Hachette des Vins and its translation into English. In this small corpus with a total of 68,826 words, 170 metaphoric expressions have been identified in the original English text and 180 in the original French text. They have been selected with the MIPVU Metaphor Identification Procedure developed at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The selection demonstrates that both languages use the same set of conceptualisations, which are often combined in wine tasting notes, creating conceptual integrations or blends. The comparison of expressions in the source and target texts also demonstrates the use of the cognitive translation approach. In accordance with the principle of relevance, the translation always uses target language conceptualisations, but compared to the original, the highlighting of the projection is often different. Also, when original metaphors are complex with a combination of conceptualisations, at least one element of the original metaphor underlies the target expression. This approach perfectly integrates into Lederer’s interpretative model of translation (2006). In this triangular model, the transfer of conceptualisation could be included at the level of ‘deverbalisation/reverbalisation’, the crucial stage of the model, where the extraction of meaning combines with the encyclopedic background to generate the target text.

Keywords: cognitive translation, conceptual integration, conceptual metaphor, interpretative model of translation, wine tasting metaphor

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Authors: Rama Munajat

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Discourse information levels may be viewed from either a background-foreground distinction or a multi-level perspective, and cross-linguistic studies on this area suggest that each information level is marked by a specific linguistic device. In this sense, Sundanese, spoken in Indonesia’s West Javanese Province, further differentiates the background and foreground information into ordinary and significant types. This paper will report an ongoing shift from particle-to-active voice marking in the way Sundanese signals foregrounding events. The shift relates to decades of contact with Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesia’s official language) and linguistic compatibility between the two surface marking strategies. Representative data analyzed include three groups of short stories in both Sundanese and Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) published in three periods: before 1945, 1965-2006, and 2016-2019. In the first group of Sundanese data, forward-moving events dominantly appear in particle KA (Kecap Anteuran, word-accompanying) constructions, where the KA represents different particles that co-occur with a special group of verbs. The second group, however, shows that the foregrounded events are more frequently described in active-voice forms with a subject-predicate (SP) order. Subsequently, the third offers stronger evidence for the use of the SP structure. As for the Indonesian data, the foregrounding events in the first group occur in verb-initial and passive-voice constructions, while in the second and third, the events more frequently appear in active-voice structures (subject-predicate sequence). The marking shift above suggests a structural influence from Indonesian, stemmed from generational differences among authors of the Sundanese short stories, particularly related to their education and language backgrounds. The first group of short stories – published before 1945 or before Indonesia's independence from Dutch – were written by native speakers of Sundanese who spoke Indonesian as a foreign language and went through the Dutch education system. The second group of authors, on the other hand, represents a generation of Sundanese native speakers who spoke Indonesian as a second language. Finally, the third group consists of authors who are bilingual speakers of both Sundanese and Indonesian. The data suggest that the last two groups of authors completed the Indonesian education system. With these, the use of subject-predicate sequences to denote foregrounding events began to appear more frequently in the second group and then became more dominant in those of the third. The coded data also signify that cohesion, coherence, and pragmatic purposes in Particle KA constructions are intact in their respective active-voice structure counterparts. For instance, the foregrounding events in Particle KA constructions occur in Sentence-initial KA and Pre-verbal KA forms, whereas those in the active-voice are described in Subject-Predicate (SP) and Zero-Subject active-voice patterns. Cross-language data further demonstrate that the Sentence-initial KA and the SP active-voice structures each contain an overt noun phrase (NP) co-referential with one of the entities introduced in a preceding context. Similarly, the pre-verbal KA and Zero-Subject active-voice patterns have a deleted noun phrase unambiguously referable to the only one entity previously mentioned. The presence and absence of an NP inform a pragmatic strategy to place prominence on topic/given and comment/new information, respectively.

Keywords: discourse analysis, foregrounding marking, pragmatics, language contact

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Authors: Junie B. Billones, Maria Constancia O. Carrillo, Voltaire G. Organo, Stephani Joy Y. Macalino, Inno A. Emnacen, Jamie Bernadette A. Sy

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The drug discovery and development process is generally known to be a very lengthy and labor-intensive process. Therefore, in order to be able to deliver prompt and effective responses to cure certain diseases, there is an urgent need to reduce the time and resources needed to design, develop, and optimize potential drugs. Computer-aided drug design (CADD) is able to alleviate this issue by applying computational power in order to streamline the whole drug discovery process, starting from target identification to lead optimization. This drug design approach can be predominantly applied to diseases that cause major public health concerns, such as tuberculosis. Hitherto, there has been no concrete cure for this disease, especially with the continuing emergence of drug resistant strains. In this study, CADD is employed for tuberculosis by first identifying a key enzyme in the mycobacterium’s metabolic pathway that would make a good drug target. One such potential target is the lipoate protein ligase B enzyme (LipB), which is a key enzyme in the M. tuberculosis metabolic pathway involved in the biosynthesis of the lipoic acid cofactor. Its expression is considerably up-regulated in patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and it has no known back-up mechanism that can take over its function when inhibited, making it an extremely attractive target. Using cutting-edge computational methods, compounds from AnalytiCon Discovery Natural Derivatives database were screened and docked against the LipB enzyme in order to rank them based on their binding affinities. Compounds which have better binding affinities than LipB’s known inhibitor, decanoic acid, were subjected to in silico toxicity evaluation using the ADMET and TOPKAT protocols. Out of the 31,692 compounds in the database, 112 of these showed better binding energies than decanoic acid. Furthermore, 12 out of the 112 compounds showed highly promising ADMET and TOPKAT properties. Future studies involving in vitro or in vivo bioassays may be done to further confirm the therapeutic efficacy of these 12 compounds, which eventually may then lead to a novel class of anti-tuberculosis drugs.

Keywords: pharmacophore, molecular docking, lipoate protein ligase B (LipB), ADMET, TOPKAT

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Authors: Castillo-Acevedo J, Mena-Rivero R, Silva-Poot H

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In Mexico, as largely of the developing countries, the rural housing is a study object, since the diversity of constructive idiosyncrasies for locality, involves various factors that make it vulnerable; an important aspect of study is the progressive deterioration that is seen in the rural housing. Various social programs, contribute financial resources in the field of housing to provide support for families living in rural areas, however, they do not provide a coordination with the self-construction that is usually the way in which is built in these areas. The present study, exposes the physical situation and an economic assessment that presents the rural self-constructed housing in three rural communities in the south of the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, which were built with funding from federal social programs. The information compilation was carried out in a period of seven months in which there was used the intentional sampling of typical cases, where the object study was the housing constructed with supports of the program “Rural Housing” between the year 2009 and 2014. Instruments were used as the interview, ballot papers of observation, ballot papers of technical verification and various measuring equipment laboratory for the classification of pathologies; for the determination of some pathologies constructive Mexican standards were applied how NMX-C-192-ONNCCE, NMX-C-111-ONNCCE, NMX-C-404-ONNCCE and finally used the software of Opus CMS ® with the help of tables of the National Consumer Price Index (CPI) for update of costs and wages according to the line of being applied in Mexico, were used for an economic valuation. The results show 11 different constructive pathologies and exposes greater presence with the 22.50% to the segregation of the concrete; the economic assessment shows that 80% of self-constructed housing, exceed the cost of construction it would have compared to a similar dwelling built by a construction company; It is also exposed to the 46.10% of the universe of study represent economic losses in materials to the social activities by houses not built. The system of self-construction used by the social programs, affect to some extent the program objectives applied in underserved areas, as implicit and additional costs affect the economic capacity of beneficiaries who invest time and effort in an activity that are not specialists, which this research provides foundations for sustainable alternatives or possibly eliminate the practice of self-construction of implemented social programs in marginalized rural communities in the south of state of Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Keywords: economic valuation, pathologies constructive, rural housing, social programs

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Authors: Tomasz Holecki, Hanna Dobrowolska

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In the Polish health care system, nurses and midwives are obliged to regularly update their professional knowledge. It is all regulated by the Law on the nurse and midwife’s profession and the code of ethics. The professional self-governing body (County Chamber of Nurses and Midwives) is obliged to organize ongoing training for them so that maintaining accessibility and availability to the high quality of educational services could be possible at all levels of post-graduate education. The aim of this study is an analysis of post-graduate education organized by the County Chamber of Nurses and Midwives in the city of Katowice, Poland, as a professional self-governing body operating in the area of Silesian province inhabited by almost 5 million citizens which bring together more than 30 thousand professionally active nurses and midwives. In the years 2000-2017, the self-government of nurses and midwives trained over 50,000 people. The education and supervision system over the labour of nurses and midwives establishes exercising control by a self-governing body. In practice, this means that conducting activities aimed at creating legal regulations and organizational conditions, as well as the practical implementation of courses, belongs to the professional self-government of nurses and midwives. The most of specialization courses that were provided from their own funds came from membership fees. The biggest group was participants of specializations in the fields of cardiac, anesthesia, and preventive nursing. The smallest group of people participated in such specializations as neonatal, emergency, and obstetrics nursing. The most popular specialist courses were in the fields of the electrocardiogram and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, whereas the least popular were the ones in the fields of protective vaccinations of neonates. So-called 'soft training-courses' in the fields of improvement of social skills and management were also provided. The research shows that a vast majority of nurses and midwives are interested in raising their professional qualifications. Specialist courses and selected fields of qualification courses received the most concrete attention. In light of conducted research, one can assert that cooperation inside the community of nurses and midwives provides access to high-quality education and training services regularly used by a wide circle of them. The presented results exemplify a level of real interest in specialist and qualification training-courses and also show sources of financing them.

Keywords: nurses and midwives, ongoing training, postgraduate education, specialist training-courses

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Authors: Muhammad Alhada Fuadilah Habib, Ayla Karina Budita, Cut Rizka Al Usrah, Mukhammad Fatkhullah, Kanita Khoirun Nisa, Siti Muslihatul Mukaromah

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In this contemporary era, the term of development often emphasised merely on the economic growth aspect. Development of a program often considered as superior by the government, in fact, it often raises various problems. The problems occur because the development policies determined by the government tend to favor private entrepreneurs and impose on the oppression toward the community. The development promised to prosper the community's life, turn out in fact of harming the community, threatening the survival of the community and damaging the ecosystem of nature where the community hangs their life to it. Nowadays many natural resources should be used for the community’s life prosperity. However, the prosperity is conquered by the private entrepreneurs that are regulated through the free market mechanism and wrapped in democratization. This condition actually is a form of neoliberalism that builds new administration order system which is far from the meaning of the word democracy. The government should play more role in protecting community's life and prosperity, but in fact, the government sides with the private entrepreneurs for the sake of the economic benefits regardless of other aspects of the community’s life. This unjustified condition presents a wide range of social movements from the community in response to the neoliberalis policy that actually eliminates the doctrine of community sovereignty. Social movements performed by Yogyakarta south coastal area community, as the focus of the discussion in this paper, is one of the community’s response toward the government policies related to the construction of the ferruginous sand quarry which is tend to favor on private entrepreneurs and highly prejudicing or even threatening the survival of Yogyakarta south coastal area community. The data collection in this study uses qualitative research methods with in-depth interview data collection techniques and purposive informant determination techniques. This method was chosen in order to obtain the insightful data and detailed information to uncover the injustice policies committed by the government-private entrepreneurs toward Yogyakarta south coastal area community. The brief results of this study show that the conflicts between the community and government-private entrepreneurs occurred because of the differences of interests and paradigm of natural resource management. The resistance movements done by the community to fight back the government-private entrepreneurs was conducted by forming an organization called Paguyupan Petani Lahan Pantai Kulon Progo (PPLP-KP). This organization do the resistances through two ways; firstly, quiet action done through various actions such as; refusing against the socialization, performing discussion to deliberate their argument with the government-private entrepreneurs, complaining the problems to the central government, creating banners or billboards which contain the writing of rejection, performing pray rituals to invoke the justice from the God, as well as instill the resistance ideology to their young generation. Secondly, the rough action also is done through various actions such as; doing roadblocks, conducting rallies, as well as doing clash with the government apparatus. In case the resistances done by the community are seen from the pattern. Actually, the resistances are reaction toward the aggression carried out by the government-private entrepreneurs.

Keywords: community resistance, conflict, ferruginous sand quarry construction, social movement

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Authors: Hilal Karakuş, Berrin Akman

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Preschool years are considered as critical years because of shaping the future lives of individuals. All of the knowledge, skills, and concepts are acquired during this period. Also, basis of academic skills is based on this period. As all of the developmental areas are the fastest in that period, the basis of mathematics education should be given in this period, too. Mathematics is seen as a difficult and abstract course by the most people. Therefore, the enjoyable side of mathematics should be presented in a concrete way in this period to avoid any bias of children for mathematics. This study is conducted to examine mathematics concept acquisition of children in terms of different variables. Screening model is used in this study which is carried out in a quantity way. The study group of this research consists of total 300 children, selected from each class randomly in groups of five, who are from public and private preschools in Çankaya, which is district of Ankara, in 2014-2015 academic year and attending children in the nursery classes and preschool institutions are connected to the Ministry of National Education. The study group of the research was determined by stage sampling method. The schools, which formed study group, are chosen by easy sampling method and the children are chosen by simple random method. Research data were collected with Bracken Basic Concept Scale–Revised Form and Child’s Personal Information Form generated by the researcher in order to get information about children and their families. Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised Form consists of 11 sub-dimensions (color, letter, number, size, shape, comparison, direction-location, and quantity, individual and social awareness, building- material) and 307 items. Subtests related to the mathematics were used in this research. In the “Child Individual Information Form” there are items containing demographic information as followings: age of children, gender of children, attending preschools educational intuitions for children, school attendance, mother’s and father’s education levels. At the result of the study, while it was found that children’s mathematics skills differ from age, state of attending any preschool educational intuitions , time of attending any preschool educational intuitions, level of education of their mothers and their fathers; it was found that it does not differ by the gender and type of school they attend.

Keywords: preschool education, preschool period children, mathematics education, mathematics concept acquisitions

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Authors: Geir Kirkebøen

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Most patients with serious diagnoses want to know their prognosis, in particular their expected survival time. As part of the informed consent process, physicians are legally obligated to communicate such information to patients. However, there is no established (evidence based) ‘best practice’ for how to do this. The two questions explored in this study are: How do physicians communicate expected survival time to patients, and how should it be done? We explored the first, descriptive question in a study with Norwegian oncologists as participants. The study had a scenario and a survey part. In the scenario part, the doctors should imagine that a patient, recently diagnosed with a serious cancer diagnosis, has asked them: ‘How long can I expect to live with such a diagnosis? I want an honest answer from you!’ The doctors should assume that the diagnosis is certain, and that from an extensive recent study they had optimal statistical knowledge, described in detail as a right-skewed survival curve, about how long such patients with this kind of diagnosis could be expected to live. The main finding was that very few of the oncologists would explain to the patient the variation in survival time as described by the survival curve. The majority would not give the patient an answer at all. Of those who gave an answer, the typical answer was that survival time varies a lot, that it is hard to say in a specific case, that we will come back to it later etc. The survey part of the study clearly indicates that the main reason why the oncologists would not deliver the mortality prognosis was discomfort with its uncertainty. The scenario part of the study confirmed this finding. The majority of the oncologists explicitly used the uncertainty, the variation in survival time, as a reason to not give the patient an answer. Many studies show that patients want realistic information about their mortality prognosis, and that they should be given hope. The question then is how to communicate the uncertainty of the prognosis in a realistic and optimistic – hopeful – way. Based on psychological research, our hypothesis is that the best way to do this is by explicitly describing the variation in survival time, the (usually) right skewed survival curve of the prognosis, and emphasize to the patient the (small) possibility of being a ‘lucky outlier’. We tested this hypothesis in two scenario studies with lay people as participants. The data clearly show that people prefer to receive expected survival time as a median value together with explicit information about the survival curve’s right skewedness (e.g., concrete examples of ‘positive outliers’), and that communicating expected survival time this way not only provides people with hope, but also gives them a more realistic understanding compared with the typical way expected survival time is communicated. Our data indicate that it is not the existence of the uncertainty regarding the mortality prognosis that is the problem for patients, but how this uncertainty is, or is not, communicated and explained.

Keywords: cancer patients, decision psychology, doctor-patient communication, mortality prognosis

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Authors: Liat Shamri-Zeevi, Neta Ram-Vlasov

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Today the world as a whole is attempting to cope with the COVID-19, which has affected all facets of personal and social life from country-wide confinement to maintaining social distance and taking protective measures to maintain hygiene. One of the populations faced with the most severe restrictions is seniors. Various studies have shown that creativity plays a crucial role in dealing with crisis events. Painting - regardless of media - allows for emotional and cognitive processing of these situations, and enables the expression of experiences in a tangible creative way that conveys and endows meaning to the artwork. The current study was conducted in Israel immediately after a 6-week lockdown. It was designed to specifically examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of elderly women as reflected in their artworks. The sample was composed of 21 Israeli women aged 60-90, in good mental health (without diagnosed dementia or Alzheimer's), all of whom were Hebrew-speaking, and retired with an extended family, who indicated that they painted and had engaged in artwork on an ongoing basis throughout the lockdown (from March 12 to May 30, 2020). The participants' artworks were collected, and a semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted that lasted one to two hours. The participants were asked about their feelings during the pandemic and the artworks they produced during this time, and completed a questionnaire on well-being and mental health. The initial analysis of the interviews and artworks revealed themes related to the specific role of each piece of artwork. The first theme included notions that the artwork was an activity and a framework for doing, which supported positive emotions, and provided a sense of vitality during the closure. Most of the participants painted images of nature and growth which were ascribed concrete and symbolic meaning. The second theme was that the artwork enabled the processing of difficult and /or conflicting emotions related to the situation, including anxiety about death and loneliness that were symbolically expressed in the artworks, such as images of the Corona virus and the respiratory machines. The third theme suggested that the time and space prompted by the lockdown gave the participants time for a gathering together of the self, and freed up time for creative activities. Many participants stated that they painted more and more frequently during the Corona lockdown. At the conference, additional themes and findings will be presented.

Keywords: Corona virus, artwork, quality of life of elderly

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Authors: Tobias Schnabel

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Naphthalene and naphthalene similar compounds are a common problem in the indoor air of buildings from the 1960s and 1970s in Germany. Often tar containing roof felt was used under the concrete floor to prevent humidity to come through the floor. This tar containing roof felt has high concentrations of PAH (Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) and naphthalene. Naphthalene easily evaporates and contaminates the indoor air. Especially after renovations and energetically modernization of the buildings, the naphthalene concentration rises because no forced air exchange can happen. Because of this problem, it is often necessary to change the floors after renovation of the buildings. The MFPA Weimar (Material research and testing facility) developed in cooperation a project with LEJ GmbH and Reichmann Gebäudetechnik GmbH. It is a technical solution for the disintegration of naphthalene in naphthalene, similar compounds in indoor air with photocatalytic reforming. Photocatalytic systems produce active oxygen species (hydroxyl radicals) through trading semiconductors on a wavelength of their bandgap. The light energy separates the charges in the semiconductor and produces free electrons in the line tape and defect electrons. The defect electrons can react with hydroxide ions to hydroxyl radicals. The produced hydroxyl radicals are a strong oxidation agent, and can oxidate organic matter to carbon dioxide and water. During the research, new titanium oxide catalysator surface coatings were developed. This coating technology allows the production of very porous titan oxide layer on temperature stable carrier materials. The porosity allows the naphthalene to get easily absorbed by the surface coating, what accelerates the reaction of the heterogeneous photocatalysis. The photocatalytic reaction is induced by high power and high efficient UV-A (ultra violet light) Leds with a wavelength of 365nm. Various tests in emission chambers and on the reformer itself show that a reduction of naphthalene in important concentrations between 2 and 250 µg/m³ is possible. The disintegration rate was at least 80%. To reduce the concentration of naphthalene from 30 µg/m³ to a level below 5 µg/m³ in a usual 50 ² classroom, an energy of 6 kWh is needed. The benefits of the photocatalytic indoor air treatment are that every organic compound in the air can be disintegrated and reduced. The use of new photocatalytic materials in combination with highly efficient UV leds make a safe and energy efficient reduction of organic compounds in indoor air possible. At the moment the air cleaning systems take the step from prototype stage into the usage in real buildings.

Keywords: naphthalene, titandioxide, indoor air, photocatalysis

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Authors: Siham Boulaknadel

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Every culture has its share of a rich history of storytelling in oral, visual, and textual form. The Amazigh language, as many languages, has its own which has entertained and informed across centuries and cultures, and its instructional potential continues to serve teachers. According to many researchers, listening to stories draws attention to the sounds of language and helps children develop sensitivity to the way language works. Stories including repetitive phrases, unique words, and enticing description encourage students to join in actively to repeat, chant, sing, or even retell the story. This kind of practice is important to language learners’ oral language development, which is believed to correlate completely with student’s academic success. Today, with the advent of multimedia, digital storytelling for instance can be a practical and powerful learning tool. It has the potential in transforming traditional learning into a world of unlimited imaginary environment. This paper reports on a research project on development of multimedia Storytelling Website using traditional Amazigh oral narratives called “tell me a story”. It is a didactic tool created for the learning of good moral values in an interactive multimedia environment combining on-screen text, graphics and audio in an enticing environment and enabling the positive values of stories to be projected. This Website developed in this study is based on various pedagogical approaches and learning theories deemed suitable for children age 8 to 9 year-old. The design and development of Website was based on a well-researched conceptual framework enabling users to: (1) re-play and share the stories in schools or at home, and (2) access the Website anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, the system stores the students work and activities over the system, allowing parents or teachers to monitor students’ works, and provide online feedback. The Website contains following main feature modules: Storytelling incorporates a variety of media such as audio, text and graphics in presenting the stories. It introduces the children to various kinds of traditional Amazigh oral narratives. The focus of this module is to project the positive values and images of stories using digital storytelling technique. Besides development good moral sense in children using projected positive images and moral values, it also allows children to practice their comprehending and listening skills. Reading module is developed based on multimedia material approach which offers the potential for addressing the challenges of reading instruction. This module is able to stimulate children and develop reading practice indirectly due to the tutoring strategies of scaffolding, self-explanation and hyperlinks offered in this module. Word Enhancement assists the children in understanding the story and appreciating the good moral values more efficiently. The difficult words or vocabularies are attached to present the explanation, which makes the children understand the vocabulary better. In conclusion, we believe that the interactive multimedia storytelling reveals an interesting and exciting tool for learning Amazigh. We plan to address some learning issues, in particularly the uses of activities to test and evaluate the children on their overall understanding of story and words presented in the learning modules.

Keywords: Amazigh language, e-learning, storytelling, language teaching

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Authors: Prasita Sooksamran, Wareerat Kaewurai

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STEM is an integrated teaching approach promoted by the Ministry of Education in Thailand. STEM Education is an integrated approach to teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It has been questioned by Thai teachers on the grounds of how to integrate STEM into the classroom. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to develop a science instructional model based on the STEM approach to enhance scientific mind and problem-solving skills for primary students. This study is participatory action research, and follows the following steps: 1) develop a model 2) seek the advice of experts regarding the teaching model. Developing the instructional model began with the collection and synthesis of information from relevant documents, related research and other sources in order to create prototype instructional model. 2) The examination of the validity and relevance of instructional model by a panel of nine experts. The findings were as follows: 1. The developed instructional model comprised of principles, objective, content, operational procedures and learning evaluation. There were 4 principles: 1) Learning based on the natural curiosity of primary school level children leading to knowledge inquiry, understanding and knowledge construction, 2) Learning based on the interrelation between people and environment, 3) Learning that is based on concrete learning experiences, exploration and the seeking of knowledge, 4) Learning based on the self-construction of knowledge, creativity, innovation and 5) relating their findings to real life and the solving of real-life problems. The objective of this construction model is to enhance scientific mind and problem-solving skills. Children will be evaluated according to their achievements. Lesson content is based on science as a core subject which is integrated with technology and mathematics at grade 6 level according to The Basic Education Core Curriculum 2008 guidelines. The operational procedures consisted of 6 steps: 1) Curiosity 2) Collection of data 3) Collaborative planning 4) Creativity and Innovation 5) Criticism and 6) Communication and Service. The learning evaluation is an authentic assessment based on continuous evaluation of all the material taught. 2. The experts agreed that the Science Instructional Model based on the STEM Education Approach had an excellent level of validity and relevance (4.67 S.D. 0.50).

Keywords: instructional model, STEM education, scientific mind, problem solving

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Authors: Giuliana Scuderi, Patrick Teuffel

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The proven vulnerability of the existing social housing building heritage to natural or induced earthquakes requires the development of new design concepts and conceptual method to preserve materials and object, at the same time providing new performances. An integrate intervention between civil engineering, building physics and architecture can convert the social housing districts from a critical part of the city to a strategic resource of revitalization. Referring to bio-mimicry principles the present research proposes a taxonomy with the exoskeleton of the insect, an external, light and resistant armour whose role is to protect the internal organs from external potentially dangerous inputs. In the same way, a “building exoskeleton”, acting from the outside of the building as an enclosing cage, can restore, protect and support the existing building, assuming a complex set of roles, from the structural to the thermal, from the aesthetical to the functional. This study evaluates the structural efficiency of shape memory alloys devices (SMADs) connecting the “building exoskeleton” with the existing structure to rehabilitate, in order to prevent the out-of-plane collapse of walls and for the passive dissipation of the seismic energy, with a calibrated operability in relation to the intensity of the horizontal loads. The two case studies of a masonry structure and of a masonry structure with concrete frame are considered, and for each case, a theoretical social housing building is exposed to earthquake forces, to evaluate its structural response with or without SMADs. The two typologies are modelled with the finite element program SAP2000, and they are respectively defined through a “frame model” and a “diagonal strut model”. In the same software two types of SMADs, called the 00-10 SMAD and the 05-10 SMAD are defined, and non-linear static and dynamic analyses, namely push over analysis and time history analysis, are performed to evaluate the seismic response of the building. The effectiveness of the devices in limiting the control joint displacements resulted higher in one direction, leading to the consideration of a possible calibrated use of the devices in the different walls of the building. The results show also a higher efficiency of the 00-10 SMADs in controlling the interstory drift, but at the same time the necessity to improve the hysteretic behaviour, to maximise the passive dissipation of the seismic energy.

Keywords: adaptive structure, biomimetic design, building exoskeleton, social housing, structural envelope, structural retrofitting

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Authors: Emmanuel Ophel Gilbert, Williams Speret

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The control for fluid flow behaviours of viscous fluids and heat transfer occurrences within heated mini-channel is considered. Heat transfer and flow characteristics of different viscous liquids, such as engine oil, automatic transmission fluid, one-half ethylene glycol, and deionized water were numerically analyzed. Some mathematical applications such as Fourier series and Laplace Z-Transforms were employed to ascertain the behaviour-wave like structure of these each viscous fluids. The steady, laminar flow and heat transfer equations are reckoned by the aid of numerical simulation technique. Further, this numerical simulation technique is endorsed by using the accessible practical values in comparison with the anticipated local thermal resistances. However, the roughness of this mini-channel that is one of the physical limitations was also predicted in this study. This affects the frictional factor. When an additive such as tetracycline was introduced in the fluid, the heat input was lowered, and this caused pro rata effect on the minor and major frictional losses, mostly at a very minute Reynolds number circa 60-80. At this ascertained lower value of Reynolds numbers, there exists decrease in the viscosity and minute frictional losses as a result of the temperature of these viscous liquids been increased. It is inferred that the three equations and models are identified which supported the numerical simulation via interpolation and integration of the variables extended to the walls of the mini-channel, yields the utmost reliance for engineering and technology calculations for turbulence impacting jets in the near imminent age. Out of reasoning with a true equation that could support this control for the fluid flow, Navier-stokes equations were found to tangential to this finding. Though, other physical factors with respect to these Navier-stokes equations are required to be checkmated to avoid uncertain turbulence of the fluid flow. This paradox is resolved within the framework of continuum mechanics using the classical slip condition and an iteration scheme via numerical simulation method that takes into account certain terms in the full Navier-Stokes equations. However, this resulted in dropping out in the approximation of certain assumptions. Concrete questions raised in the main body of the work are sightseen further in the appendices.

Keywords: frictional losses, heat transfer, laminar flow, mini-channel, number simulation, Reynolds number, turbulence, viscous fluids

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Sharib Ahmed, Mansoor Rafi, Kamran Ali Awan, Faraz Khaskhali, Amir Maqbool, Altaf Hashmi

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Medical linear accelerators (LINAC’s) used in radiotherapy treatments produce undesired neutrons when they are operated at energies above 8 MeV, both in electron and photon configuration. Neutrons are produced by high-energy photons and electrons through electronuclear (e, n) a photonuclear giant dipole resonance (GDR) reactions. These reactions occurs when incoming photon or electron incident through the various materials of target, flattening filter, collimators, and other shielding components in LINAC’s structure. These neutrons may reach directly to the patient, or they may interact with the surrounding materials until they become thermalized. A work has been set up to study the effect of different parameter on the production of neutron around the room by photonuclear reactions induced by photons above ~8 MeV. One of the commercial available neutron detector (Ludlum Model 42-31H Neutron Detector) is used for the detection of thermal and fast neutrons (0.025 eV to approximately 12 MeV) inside and outside of the treatment room. Measurements were performed for different field sizes at 100 cm source to surface distance (SSD) of detector, at different distances from the isocenter and at the place of primary and secondary walls. Other measurements were performed at door and treatment console for the potential radiation safety concerns of the therapists who must walk in and out of the room for the treatments. Exposures have taken place from Elekta Synergy® linear accelerators for two different energies (10 MV and 18 MV) for a given 200 MU’s and dose rate of 600 MU per minute. Results indicates that neutron doses at 100 cm SSD depend on accelerator characteristics means jaw settings as jaws are made of high atomic number material so provides significant interaction of photons to produce neutrons, while doses at the place of larger distance from isocenter are strongly influenced by the treatment room geometry and backscattering from the walls cause a greater doses as compare to dose at 100 cm distance from isocenter. In the treatment room the ambient dose equivalent due to photons produced during decay of activation nuclei varies from 4.22 mSv.h−1 to 13.2 mSv.h−1 (at isocenter),6.21 mSv.h−1 to 29.2 mSv.h−1 (primary wall) and 8.73 mSv.h−1 to 37.2 mSv.h−1 (secondary wall) for 10 and 18 MV respectively. The ambient dose equivalent for neutrons at door is 5 μSv.h−1 to 2 μSv.h−1 while at treatment console room it is 2 μSv.h−1 to 0 μSv.h−1 for 10 and 18 MV respectively which shows that a 2 m thick and 5m longer concrete maze provides sufficient shielding for neutron at door as well as at treatment console for 10 and 18 MV photons.

Keywords: equivalent doses, neutron contamination, neutron detector, photon energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 441

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

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

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Damtew Samson Zerihun

Abstract:

This paper primarily describes the concept of a hierarchical safety control (HSC) in discrete manufacturing to up-hold productivity with human intervention and machine failures using a systematic approach, through increasing the system availability and using additional knowledge on machines so as to improve the human machine collaboration (HMC). It also highlights the implemented PLC safety algorithm, in applying this generic concept to a concrete pro-duction line using a lab demonstrator called FATIE (Factory Automation Test and Integration Environment). Furthermore, the paper describes a model and provide a systematic representation of human-machine collabora-tion in discrete manufacturing and to this end, the Hierarchical Safety Control concept is proposed. This offers a ge-neric description of human-machine collaboration based on Finite State Machines (FSM) that can be applied to vari-ous discrete manufacturing lines instead of using ad-hoc solutions for each line. With its reusability, flexibility, and extendibility, the Hierarchical Safety Control scheme allows upholding productivity while maintaining safety with reduced engineering effort compared to existing solutions. The approach to the solution begins with a successful partitioning of different zones around the Integrated Manufacturing System (IMS), which are defined by operator tasks and the risk assessment, used to describe the location of the human operator and thus to identify the related po-tential hazards and trigger the corresponding safety functions to mitigate it. This includes selective reduced speed zones and stop zones, and in addition with the hierarchical safety control scheme and advanced safety functions such as safe standstill and safe reduced speed are used to achieve the main goals in improving the safe Human Ma-chine Collaboration and increasing the productivity. In a sample scenarios, It is shown that an increase of productivity in the order of 2.5% is already possible with a hi-erarchical safety control, which consequently under a given assumptions, a total sum of 213 € could be saved for each intervention, compared to a protective stop reaction. Thereby the loss is reduced by 22.8%, if occasional haz-ard can be refined in a hierarchical way. Furthermore, production downtime due to temporary unavailability of safety devices can be avoided with safety failover that can save millions per year. Moreover, the paper highlights the proof of the development, implementation and application of the concept on the lab demonstrator (FATIE), where it is realized on the new safety PLCs, Drive Units, HMI as well as Safety devices in addition to the main components of the IMS.

Keywords: discrete automation, hierarchical safety controller, human machine collaboration, programmable logical controller

Procedia PDF Downloads 363

Authors: Satyen Mondal, Frederickson Entila, Shalabh Dixit, Pompe C. Sta. Cruz, Abdelbagi M. Ismail

Abstract:

Anaerobic condition caused by flooding during germination in direct seeded rice systems, known as anaerobic germination (AG), severely reduces crop establishment in both rainfed and irrigated areas. Seeds germinating in flooded soils could encounter hypoxia or even anoxia in severe cases, and this hinders germination and seedling growth. This study was conducted to quantify the effects of incorporating two major QTLs, AG1 and AG2, associated with tolerance of flooding during germination and to assess their interactive effects on enhancing crop establishment. A greenhouse experiment was conducted at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Baňos, Philippines, using elite lines incorporating AG1, AG2 and AG1+AG2 in the background of the popular varieties PSBRc82 (PSBRc82-AG1, PSBRc82-AG2, PSBRc82-AG1+AG2) and Ciherang-Sub1 (Ciherang-Sub1-AG1, Ciherang-Sub1-AG2, Ciherang-Sub1-AG1+AG2), along with the donors Kho Hlan On (for AG1) and Ma-Zhan Red (AG2) and the recipients PSBRc82 and Ciherang-Sub1. The experiment was conducted using concrete tanks in an RCBD with three replications. Dry seeds were sown in seedling trays then flooded with 10 cm water depth. Seedling survival, root and shoot growth and relative growth rate were measured. The germinating seedlings were used for assaying nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) and ascorbate concentrations, lipid peroxidation, total phenolic concentration, reactive oxygen species and total amylase enzyme activity. Flooding reduced overall survival, though survival of AG1+AG2 introgression lines was greater than other genotypes. Soluble sugars increased, while starch concentration decreased gradually under flooding especially in the tolerant checks and AG1+AG2 introgression lines. Less lipid peroxidation and higher amylase activity, reduced-ascorbate (RAsA) and total phenolic contents (TPC) were observed in the tolerant checks and in AG1+AG2 introgression lines. Lipid peroxidation correlated negatively with ascorbate and total phenolic concentrations and with reactive oxygen species (ROS). Introgression of AG1+AG2 QTLs upregulated total amylase activity causing rapid starch degradation and increase in ascorbate and total phenolic concentrations resulting in higher germination and seedling growth in flooded soils.

Keywords: amylase, anaerobic germination, ascorbate, direct-seeded rice, flooding, lipid peroxidation

Procedia PDF Downloads 266

Authors: Friman Hen, Banner Ifaa, Shalom-Tuchin Bosmat, Einav Yulia

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The action learning course is an academic course which involves academic learning and social activities. The courses deal with processes and social challenges, reveal different ideologies, and develop critical thinking and pragmatic ideas. Students receive course credits and a grade for being part of such courses. Participating students enroll in courses that involve action and activities to engage in the experiential learning process, thereby creating a dialogue and cross-fertilization between being taught in the classroom and experiencing the reality in the real world. A learning experience includes meeting with social organizations, institutions, and state authorities and carrying out practical work with diverse populations. Through experience, students strengthen their academic skills, formulate ethical attitudes toward reality, develop professional and civilian perspectives, and realize how they can influence their surrounding in the present and the hereafter. Under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Hen Friman, H.I.T. has built an innovative course that combines action and activities to increase the awareness and accessibility of the community in an experiential way. The end goal is to create Green Ambassadors—children with a high level of environmental awareness. This course is divided into two parts. The first part, focused on frontal teaching, delivers knowledge from extensive environmental fields to students. These areas include introduction to ecology, the process of electricity generation, air pollution, renewable energy, water economy, waste and recycling, and energy efficiency (first stage). In addition to the professional content in the environment field, students learn the method of effective and experiential teaching to younger learners (4 to 8 years old). With the attainment of knowledge, students are divided into operating groups. The second part of the course shows how the theory becomes practical and concrete. At this stage, students are asked to introduce to the first- and second-graders of ‘Revivim’ School in Holon a lesson of 90 minutes focused on presenting the issues and their importance during the course (second stage). This course is the beginning of a paradigm shift regarding energy usage in the modern society in Israel. The objective of the course is to expand worldwide and train the first and second-graders, and even pre-schoolers, in a wide scope to increase population awareness rate, both in Israel and all over the world, for a green future.

Keywords: air pollution, green ambassador, recycling, renewable energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 232

Authors: Petra Hofmann, Dana Koniel, Jussi Luukkanen, Walter Nieminen, Lea Hannola, Ilkka Donoghue

Abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic forced people to isolate and become physically less connected. The pandemic has not only reshaped people’s behaviours and needs but also accelerated digital transformation (DT). DT of cities has become an imperative with the outlook of converting them into smart cities in the future. Embedding digital infrastructure and smart city initiatives as part of normal design, construction, and operation of cities provides a unique opportunity to improve the connection between people. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology and one of the drivers in DT. It has disrupted many industries by introducing different services and business models, and IoT solutions are being applied in multiple fields, including smart cities. As IoT and data are fundamentally linked together, IoT solutions can only create value if the data generated by the IoT devices is analysed properly. Extracting relevant conclusions and actionable insights by using established techniques, data analytics contributes significantly to the growth and success of IoT applications and investments. Companies must grasp DT and be prepared to redesign their offerings and business models to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. As there are many IoT solutions available today, the amount of data is tremendous. The challenge for companies is to understand what solutions to focus on and how to prioritise and which data to differentiate from the competition. This paper explains how IoT and data analytics can impact competitive advantage and how companies should approach IoT and data analytics to translate them into concrete offerings and solutions in the smart city context. The study was carried out as a qualitative, literature-based research. A case study is provided to validate the preservation of company’s competitive advantage through smart city solutions. The results of the research contribution provide insights into the different factors and considerations related to creating competitive advantage through IoT and data analytics deployment in the smart city context. Furthermore, this paper proposes a framework that merges the factors and considerations with examples of offerings and solutions in smart cities. The data collected through IoT devices, and the intelligent use of it, can create competitive advantage to companies operating in smart city business. Companies should take into consideration the five forces of competition that shape industries and pay attention to the technological, organisational, and external contexts which define factors for consideration of competitive advantages in the field of IoT and data analytics. Companies that can utilise these key assets in their businesses will most likely conquer the markets and have a strong foothold in the smart city business.

Keywords: data analytics, smart cities, competitive advantage, internet of things

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Nitika Sharma, Yogesh Jain

Abstract:

Introduction: An efficient Information System helps in improving the service delivery as well provides the foundation for policy and regulation of other building blocks of Health System. Health care organizations require an integrated working of its various sub-systems. An efficient EMR software boosts the teamwork amongst the various sub-systems thereby resulting in improved service delivery. Although there has been a huge impetus to EMR under the Digital India initiative, it has still not been mandated in India. It is generally implemented in huge funded public or private healthcare organizations only. Objective: The study was conducted to understand the factors that lead to the successful adoption of an affordable EMR in the low level healthcare organization. It intended to understand the design of the EMR and address the solutions to the challenges faced in adoption of the EMR. Methodology: The study was conducted in a non-profit registered Healthcare organization that has been providing healthcare facilities to more than 2500 villages including certain areas that are difficult to access. The data was collected with help of field notes, in-depth interviews and participant observation. A total of 16 participants using the EMR from different departments were enrolled via purposive sampling technique. The participants included in the study were working in the organization before the implementation of the EMR system. The study was conducted in one month period from 25 June-20 July 2018. The Ethical approval was taken from the institute along with prior approval of the participants. Data analysis: A word document of more than 4000 words was obtained after transcribing and translating the answers of respondents. It was further analyzed by focused coding, a line by line review of the transcripts, underlining words, phrases or sentences that might suggest themes to do thematic narrative analysis. Results: Based on the answers the results were thematically grouped under four headings: 1. governance of organization, 2. architecture and design of the software, 3. features of the software, 4. challenges faced in adoption and the solutions to address them. It was inferred that the successful implementation was attributed to the easy and comprehensive design of the system which has facilitated not only easy data storage and retrieval but contributes in constructing a decision support system for the staff. Portability has lead to increased acceptance by physicians. The proper division of labor, increased efficiency of staff, incorporation of auto-correction features and facilitation of task shifting has lead to increased acceptance amongst the users of various departments. Geographical inhibitions, low computer literacy and high patient load were the major challenges faced during its implementation. Despite of dual efforts made both by the architects and administrators to combat these challenges, there are still certain ongoing challenges faced by organization. Conclusion: Whenever any new technology is adopted there are certain innovators, early adopters, late adopters and laggards. The same pattern was followed in adoption of this software. He challenges were overcome with joint efforts of organization administrators and users as well. Thereby this case study provides a framework of implementing similar systems in public sector of countries that are struggling for digitizing the healthcare in presence of crunch of human and financial resources.

Keywords: EMR, healthcare technology, e-health, EHR

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: N. Gelovani, D. Ismailov, S. Bochorishvili

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Religious minorities of Georgia include Muslims. Their composition is sufficiently miscellaneous, enclosing both ethnical viewpoint and belonging to the inner Islamic denomination. A majority of Muslims represent Azerbaijanis, who chiefly live in Kvemo Kartli (Bolnisi, Gardabani, Dmanisi, Tetri Tskaro, Marneuli and Tsalka). The catalyst for researchers of Islamic History is the geopolitical interests of Georgia, centuries-old contacts with the Islamic world, the not entirely trivial portion of Islam confessor population, the increasing influence of the Islamic factor in current religious-political processes in the world, the elevating procedure of Muslim religious self-consciousness in the Post-Soviet states, significant challenges of international terrorism, and perspectives of rapid globalization. The rise in the level of religious identity of Muslim citizens of Georgia (first of all of those who are not ethnic Georgians) is noticeable. New mosques have been constructed and, sometimes, even young people are being sent to the religious educational institutions of Muslim countries to gain a higher Islamic education. At a time when gender studies are substantive, the goal of which is to eliminate gender-based discrimination and violence in societies, it is essential in Georgia to conduct researches around the concrete problem – Islamic tradition, woman and education in Georgia. A woman’s right to education is an important indicator of women’s general status in a society. The appropriate resources, innovative analysis of Georgian ethnological materials, and surveying of the population (quantitative and qualitative research reports, working papers), condition the success of these researches. In the presented work, interrelation matters of Islam, gender and education in contemporary Georgia by the example of the Azerbaijani population in Kvemo Kartli during period 1992-2016 are studied. We researched the history of Muslim religious education centers in Tbilisi and Kvemo Kartli (Bolnisi, Gardabani, Dmanisi, Tetri Tskaro, Marneuli and Tsalka) in 1992-2016, on the one hand, and the results of sociological interrogation, on the other. As a result of our investigation, we found that Azeri women in the Kvemo Kartli (Georgia) region mostly receive their education in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Educational and Cultural Institutions are inaccessible for most Azeri women. The main reasons are the absence of educational and religious institutions at their places of residence and state policies towards Georgia’s Muslims. 

Keywords: Islam, gender, Georgia, education

Procedia PDF Downloads 217

Authors: Petra Hofmann, Dana Koniel, Jussi Luukkanen, Walter Nieminen, Lea Hannola, Ilkka Donoghue

Abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic forced people to isolate and become physically less connected. The pandemic hasnot only reshaped people’s behaviours and needs but also accelerated digital transformation (DT). DT of cities has become an imperative with the outlook of converting them into smart cities in the future. Embedding digital infrastructure and smart city initiatives as part of the normal design, construction, and operation of cities provides a unique opportunity to improve connection between people. Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology and one of the drivers in DT. It has disrupted many industries by introducing different services and business models, and IoT solutions are being applied in multiple fields, including smart cities. As IoT and data are fundamentally linked together, IoT solutions can only create value if the data generated by the IoT devices is analysed properly. Extracting relevant conclusions and actionable insights by using established techniques, data analytics contributes significantly to the growth and success of IoT applications and investments. Companies must grasp DT and be prepared to redesign their offerings and business models to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. As there are many IoT solutions available today, the amount of data is tremendous. The challenge for companies is to understand what solutions to focus on and how to prioritise and which data to differentiate from the competition. This paper explains how IoT and data analytics can impact competitive advantage and how companies should approach IoT and data analytics to translate them into concrete offerings and solutions in the smart city context. The study was carried out as a qualitative, literature-based research. A case study is provided to validate the preservation of company’s competitive advantage through smart city solutions. The results of the researchcontribution provide insights into the different factors and considerations related to creating competitive advantage through IoT and data analytics deployment in the smart city context. Furthermore, this paper proposes a framework that merges the factors and considerations with examples of offerings and solutions in smart cities. The data collected through IoT devices, and the intelligent use of it, can create a competitive advantage to companies operating in smart city business. Companies should take into consideration the five forces of competition that shape industries and pay attention to the technological, organisational, and external contexts which define factors for consideration of competitive advantages in the field of IoT and data analytics. Companies that can utilise these key assets in their businesses will most likely conquer the markets and have a strong foothold in the smart city business.

Keywords: internet of things, data analytics, smart cities, competitive advantage

Procedia PDF Downloads 84

Authors: Youlu Huang, Huanjun Jiang

Abstract:

A large number of old masonry buildings built in the last century still remain in the city. It generates the problems of unsafety, obsolescence, and non-habitability. In recent years, many old buildings have been reconstructed through renovating façade, strengthening, and adding floors. However, most projects only provide a solution for a single problem. It is difficult to comprehensively solve problems of poor safety and lack of building functions. Therefore, a comprehensive functional renovation program of adding reinforced concrete frame story at the bottom via integrally lifting the building and then strengthening the building was put forward. Based on field measurement and YJK calculation software, the seismic performance of an actual three-story masonry structure in Shanghai was identified. The results show that the material strength of masonry is low, and the bearing capacity of some masonry walls could not meet the code requirements. The elastoplastic time history analysis of the structure was carried out by using SAP2000 software. The results show that under the 7 degrees rare earthquake, the seismic performance of the structure reaches 'serious damage' performance level. Based on the code requirements of the stiffness ration of the bottom frame (lateral stiffness ration of the transition masonry story and frame story), the bottom frame story was designed. The integral lifting process of the masonry building was introduced based on many engineering examples. The reinforced methods for the bottom frame structure strengthened by the steel-reinforced mesh mortar surface layer (SRMM) and base isolators, respectively, were proposed. The time history analysis of the two kinds of structures, under the frequent earthquake, the fortification earthquake, and the rare earthquake, was conducted by SAP2000 software. For the bottom frame structure, the results show that the seismic response of the masonry floor is significantly reduced after reinforced by the two methods compared to the masonry structure. The previous earthquake disaster indicated that the bottom frame is vulnerable to serious damage under a strong earthquake. The analysis results showed that under the rare earthquake, the inter-story displacement angle of the bottom frame floor meets the 1/100 limit value of the seismic code. The inter-story drift of the masonry floor for the base isolated structure under different levels of earthquakes is similar to that of structure with SRMM, while the base-isolated program is better to protect the bottom frame. Both reinforced methods could significantly improve the seismic performance of the bottom frame structure.

Keywords: old buildings, adding story, seismic strengthening, seismic performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: Ambika Roy Bardhan

Abstract:

Kolkata, the City of Joy, is a greying metropolis not only in respect of its concrete jungle but also because of the largest population of 60-plus residents that it shelters among all other cities in India. Declining birth and death rates and a negative growth of population indicate that the city has reached the last stage of demographic transition. Thus, the obvious consequence has been the ageing of its population. With this background, the present paper attempts to study the demographic and socio-economic status of the elderly population in Kolkata. Analysis and findings have been based on secondary data obtained from Census of India of various years, Sample Registration System Reports and reports by HelpAge India. Findings show that the elderly population is increasing continuously. With respect to gender, the male elderly outnumbers the female elderly population. The percentage of households having one elderly member is more in the city due to the emergence of the nuclear families and erosion of joint family system. With respect to socio-economic status, those elderly who are the heads of the family are lower in percentages than those in the other age groups. Also, male elderly as head of the family are greater in percentage than female elderly. Elderly in the category of currently married records the highest percentage followed by widowed, never married and lastly, separated or divorced. Male elderly outnumber the female elderly as currently married, while female elderly outnumbers the male elderly in the category of widowed. In terms of living status, the percentage of elderly who are living alone is highest in Kolkata and the reason for staying alone as no support from children also happens to be highest in this city. The literacy rate and higher level of education is higher among the male than female elderly. Higher percentages of female elderly have been found to be with disability. Disability in movement and multiple disabilities have been found to be more common among the elderly population in Kolkata. Percentages of male literate pensioners are highest than other categories. Also, in terms of levels of education male elderly who are graduate and above other than technical degree are the highest receivers of pension. Also, in terms of working status, elderly as non-workers are higher in percentages with the population of elderly females outnumbering the males. The old age dependency ratio in the city is increasing continuously and the ratio is higher among females than male. Thus, it can be stated that Kolkata is witnessing continuous and rapid ageing of its population. Increasing dependency ratio is likely to create pressure on the working population, available civic, social and health amenities. This requires intervention in the form of planning, formulation and implementation of laws, policies, programs and measures to safeguard and improve the conditions of the elderly in Kolkata.

Keywords: demographic, elderly, population, socio-economic

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Evangelos G. Ilias, Panagiotis G. Ilias, Vasileios T. Popotas

Abstract:

The United Kingdom has one of the oldest railway networks in the world dating back to 1825 when the world’s first passenger railway was opened. The network has some 40,000 bridges of various construction types using a wide range of materials including masonry, steel, cast iron, wrought iron, concrete and timber. It is commonly accepted that the successful operation of the network is vital for the economy of the United Kingdom, consequently the cost effective maintenance of the existing infrastructure is a high priority to maintain the operability of the network, prevent deterioration and to extend the life of the assets. Every bridge on the railway network is required to be assessed every eighteen years and a structured approach to assessments is adopted with three main types of progressively more detailed assessments used. These assessment types include Level 0 (standardized spreadsheet assessment tools), Level 1 (analytical hand calculations) and Level 2 (generally finite element analyses). There is a degree of conservatism in the first two types of assessment dictated to some extent by the relevant standards which can lead to some structures not achieving the required load rating. In these situations, a Level 2 Assessment is often carried out using finite element analysis to uncover ‘latent strength’ and improve the load rating. If successful, the more sophisticated analysis can save on costly strengthening or replacement works and avoid disruption to the operational railway. This paper presents the ‘strengthening by assessment’ achieved by Level 2 analyses. The use of more accurate analysis assumptions and the implementation of non-linear modelling and functions (material, geometric and support) to better understand buckling modes and the structural behaviour of historic construction details that are not specifically covered by assessment codes are outlined. Metallic bridges which are susceptible to loss of section size through corrosion have largest scope for improvement by the Level 2 Assessment methodology. Three case studies are presented, demonstrating the effectiveness of the sophisticated Level 2 Assessment methodology using finite element analysis against the conservative approaches employed for Level 0 and Level 1 Assessments. One rail overbridge and two rail underbridges that did not achieve the required load rating by means of a Level 1 Assessment due to the inadequate restraint provided by U-Frame action are examined and the increase in assessed capacity given by the Level 2 Assessment is outlined.

Keywords: assessment, bridges, buckling, finite element analysis, non-linear modelling, strengthening

Procedia PDF Downloads 298

Authors: M. Aouimeur

Abstract:

The environmental risks of a dam and particularly the security in the Valley downstream of it,, is a very complex problem. Integrated management and risk-sharing become more and more indispensable. The definition of "vulnerability “concept can provide assistance to controlling the efficiency of protective measures and the characterization of each valley relatively to the floods's risk. Security can be enhanced through the integrated land management. The social sciences may be associated to the operational systems of civil protection, in particular warning networks. The passage of extreme floods in the site of the dam causes the rupture of this structure and important damages downstream the dam. The river bed could be damaged by erosion if it is not well protected. Also, we may encounter some scouring and flooding problems in the downstream area of the dam. Therefore, the protection of the dam is crucial. It must have an energy dissipator in a specific place. The basin of dissipation plays a very important role for the security of the dam and the protection of the environment against floods downstream the dam. It allows to dissipate the potential energy created by the dam with the passage of the extreme flood on the weir and regularize in a natural manner and with more security the discharge or elevation of the water plan on the crest of the weir, also it permits to reduce the speed of the flow downstream the dam, in order to obtain an identical speed to the river bed. The problem of the dimensioning of a classic dissipation basin is in the determination of the necessary parameters for the dimensioning of this structure. This communication presents a simple graphical method, that is fast and complete, and a methodology which determines the main features of the hydraulic jump, necessary parameters for sizing the classic dissipation basin. This graphical method takes into account the constraints imposed by the reality of the terrain or the practice such as the one related to the topography of the site, the preservation of the environment equilibrium and the technical and economic side.This methodology is to impose the loss of head DH dissipated by the hydraulic jump as a hypothesis (free design) to determine all the others parameters of classical dissipation basin. We can impose the loss of head DH dissipated by the hydraulic jump that is equal to a selected value or to a certain percentage of the upstream total head created by the dam. With the parameter DH+ =(DH/k),(k: critical depth),the elaborate graphical representation allows to find the other parameters, the multiplication of these parameters by k gives the main characteristics of the hydraulic jump, necessary parameters for the dimensioning of classic dissipation basin.This solution is often preferred for sizing the dissipation basins of small concrete dams. The results verification and their comparison to practical data, confirm the validity and reliability of the elaborate graphical method.

Keywords: dimensioning, energy dissipation basin, hydraulic jump, protection of the environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 573

Authors: Hsin-Yu Lee, Ming-Zhong Li, Wen-Hsi Chiu, Su-Fen Cheng, Shwu-Wen Lin

Abstract:

Background: The use of medical terminology is essential to professional nurses on clinical practice. However, most nursing students consider traditional lecture-based teaching of medical terminology as boring and overly conceptual and lack motivation to learn. It is thus an issue to be discussed on how to enhance nursing students’ self-directed learning and improve learning outcomes of medical terminology. Digital game-based learning is a learner-centered way of learning. Past literature showed that the most common game-based learning for language education has been immersive games and teaching games. Thus, this study selected role-playing games (RPG) and digital puzzle games for observation and comparison. It is interesting to explore whether digital game-based learning has positive impact on nursing students’ learning of medical terminology and whether students can adapt well on this type of learning. Results can be used to provide references for institutes and teachers on teaching medical terminology. These instructions give you guidelines for preparing papers for the conference. Use this document as a template if you are using Microsoft Word. Otherwise, use this document as an instruction set. The electronic file of your paper will be formatted further at WASET. Define all symbols used in the abstract. Do not cite references in the abstract. Do not delete the blank line immediately above the abstract; it sets the footnote at the bottom of this column. Page margins are 1,78 cm top and down; 1,65 cm left and right. Each column width is 8,89 cm and the separation between the columns is 0,51 cm. Objective: The purpose of this research is to explore respectively the impact of RPG and puzzle game on nursing students’ self-directed learning and technology acceptance. The study further discusses whether different game types bring about different influences on students’ self-directed learning and technology acceptance. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was adopted in this study so that repeated measures between two groups could be conveniently conducted. 103 nursing students from a nursing college in Northern Taiwan participated in the study. For three weeks of experiment, the experiment group (n=52) received “traditional teaching + RPG” while the control group (n=51) received “traditional teaching + puzzle games”. Results: 1. On self-directed learning: For each game type, there were significant differences for the delayed tests of both groups as compared to the pre and post-tests of each group. However, there were no significant differences between the two game types. 2. On technology acceptance: For the experiment group, after the intervention of RPG, there were no significant differences concerning technology acceptance. For the control group, after the intervention of puzzle games, there were significant differences regarding technology acceptance. Pearson-correlation coefficient and path analysis conducted on the results of the two groups revealed that the dimension were highly correlated and reached statistical significance. Yet, the comparison of technology acceptance between the two game types did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion and Recommend: This study found that through using different digital games on learning, nursing students have effectively improved their self-directed learning. Students’ technology acceptances were also high for the two different digital game types and each dimension was significantly correlated. The results of the experimental group showed that through the scenarios of RPG, students had a deeper understanding of medical terminology, which reached the ‘Understand’ dimension of Bloom’s taxonomy. The results of the control group indicated that digital puzzle games could help students memorize and review medical terminology, which reached the ‘Remember’ dimension of Bloom’s taxonomy. The findings suggest that teachers of medical terminology could use digital games to assist their teaching according to their goals on cognitive learning. Adequate use of those games could help improve students’ self-directed learning and further enhance their learning outcome on medical terminology.

Keywords: digital game-based learning, medical terminology, nursing education, self-directed learning, technology acceptance model

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: A. T. Muruviwa

Abstract:

To-date, the discourse on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily centred on the actions and inactions of corporations; hence, the dominant focus on CSR has been on impacts and outcomes. The obscuring effect of this approach has, arguably, resulted in the emergence of what may be termed a ‘Northern’ agenda on CSR theory and practice, in contrast to an emergency ‘Southern’ discourse, which appears to highlight the crucial issues of poverty reduction, infrastructure development and the broader questions of social provisioning and community empowerment. Some scholars have explicitly called for a CSR research agenda that focuses on the 'reciprocal duties' of the stakeholders in the CSR process rather than fixate on the actions and inactions of business. It is against the backdrop of these contestations that this study assesses the reciprocal relationships amongst CSR stakeholders in a Zimbabwean platinum mining town, with a view to demonstrating how such relationships – and the expectations and obligations embedded in them – impact on the success or failure of CSR initiatives. The existence of mutual relations between the corporation and its stakeholders signifies the successes of CSR processes and hence the outcomes. The company is Zimplats Mining Company; the community is Mhondoro-Ngezi, and the stakeholders are clearly identified in the study. The study utilised a triangulated design, with data collected using a mini survey, focus groups, in-depth interview and observation. The key findings are that the CSR process in the study community is dominated by the mining company. Despite the existence of a CSR framework that recognises government, local leaders and community members as legitimate stakeholders, there is little evidence of concrete contributions made by these stakeholders towards the realisation of CSR objectives. As a result, the community development process – in so far as CSR is concerned – fails to address the developmental concerns of the various stakeholders. On the basis of these findings, the study concludes that there is a crisis of reciprocity in the CSR process in Mhondoro-Ngezi, and that a situation where the conceptualisation of local development needs and the deployment of specific development tools seems to be driven by one stakeholder almost to the exclusion of all others, can only present contradictory development outcomes. The significance of this study is that it allows for the development of a more nuanced and robust CSR discourse. Rather than focusing on the corporate and stakeholder perspectives and outcomes of CSR initiatives, this study examines the CSR- development nexus by interrogating the idea of reciprocal responsibility as a sin qua non to CSR success. This analytical strategy and focus allow the researcher to gain a clear understanding of how stakeholder relationships and duties influence CSR processes and also the overall outcome. At a more practical level, the findings of the study should help to shape the policy on corporate community relationships with a view to enhancing the role of mining in development.

Keywords: community development, processes, reciprocity, stakeholders

Procedia PDF Downloads 336