Search results for: socioscientific issue based instruction

Authors: Hanife Akar, Basak Calik, Gulcin Gulmez-Dag, Elanur Yilmaz

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Internationalization in higher education (IHE) has been a longstanding issue in the Western World but its impact has travelled beyond its borders. As a developing country, universities in Turkey also have put into their agendas strategic plans for IHE to compete with global trends and benchmarked universities. The purpose of this study was to explore how faculty in a private university in Mid Anatolia would like see modes of internationalization in their institution through a survey design and understand their quest for internationalization. Findings indicate that participants (N=49) are internationalized in different ways, from holding international Ph.D. degrees to postdoctoral degrees, or being international faculty themselves. Participants’ visions seem to be affected by the type of programs they are in, and many consider being a part of an international joint program or having international students and faculty are an essential component in IHE. In addition to holding joints degrees, and exchange or international human sources, participants quest for more collaboration for R&D, more comparative research opportunities, and examine or develop curricula from a global perspective.

Keywords: faculty, higher education, internationalization, visions

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Authors: Debesh R. Roy

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The fundamental issue in understanding the origin and growth mechanism of nanomaterials, from a fundamental unit is a big challenging problem to the scientists. Recently, an immense attention is generated to the researchers for prediction of exceptionally stable atomic cluster units as the building units for future smart materials. The present study is a systematic investigation on the stability and electronic properties of a series of bimetallic (semiconductor-alkaline earth) clusters, viz., BxMg3 (x=1-5) is performed, in search for exceptional and/ or unusual stable motifs. A very popular hybrid exchange-correlation functional, B3LYP as proposed by A. D. Becke along with a higher basis set, viz., 6-31+G[d,p] is employed for this purpose under the density functional formalism. The magic stability among the concerned clusters is explained using the jellium model. It is evident from the present study that the magic stability of B4Mg3 cluster arises due to the jellium shell closure.

Keywords: atomic clusters, density functional theory, jellium model, magic clusters, smart nanomaterials

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Authors: Jun-Yong Lee, Hyoung-Gook Kim

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In this paper, we propose a smart music player that combines the musical genre classification and the spatial audio processing. The musical genre is classified based on content analysis of the musical segment detected from the audio stream. In parallel with the classification, the spatial audio quality is achieved by adding an artificial reverberation in a virtual acoustic space to the input mono sound. Thereafter, the spatial sound is boosted with the given frequency gains based on the musical genre when played back. Experiments measured the accuracy of detecting the musical segment from the audio stream and its musical genre classification. A listening test was performed based on the virtual acoustic space based spatial audio processing.

Keywords: automatic equalization, genre classification, music segment detection, spatial audio processing

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Authors: Lianne M. Q. Lee, Mohammed Sharaf Shaiban

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The importance of bank liquidity management took center stage as policy makers promoted a more resilient global banking system after the market turmoil of 2007. The growing recognition of Islamic banks’ function of intermediating funds in the economy warrants the need to investigate its balance sheet structure which is distinct from its conventional counterparts. Given that asymmetric risk, transformation is inevitable; Islamic banks need to identify the liquidity risk within their distinctive balance sheet structure. Thus, there is a strong need to quantify and assess the liquidity position to ensure proper functioning of a financial institution. It is vital to measure bank liquidity because liquid banks face less liquidity risk. We examine this issue by using two alternative quantitative measures of liquidity creation “cat fat” and “cat nonfat” constructed by Berger and Bouwman (2009). “Cat fat” measures all on balance sheet items including off balance sheet, whilst the latter measures only on balance sheet items. Liquidity creation is measured over the period 2007-2014 in 14 countries where Islamic and conventional commercial banks coexist. Also, separately by bank size class as empirical studies have shown that liquidity creation varies by bank size. An interesting and important finding shows that all size class of Islamic banks, on average have increased creation of aggregate liquidity in real dollar terms over the years for both liquidity creation measures especially for large banks indicating that Islamic banks actually generates more liquidity to the economy compared to its conventional counterparts, including from off-balance sheet items. The liquidity creation for off-balance sheets by conventional banks may have been affected by the global financial crisis when derivatives markets were severely hit. The results also suggest that Islamic banks have the higher volume of assets and deposits and that borrowing/issues of bonds are less in Islamic banks compared to conventional banks because most products are interest-based. As Islamic banks appear to create more liquidity than conventional banks under both measures, it translates that the development of Islamic banking is significant over the decades since its inception. This finding is encouraging as, despite Islamic banking’s overall size, it represents growth opportunities for these countries.

Keywords: financial institution, liquidity creation, liquidity risk, policy and regulation

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Authors: Ana Fonseca, Ana Gouveia, Edgar Ramalho, Rita Henriques, Filipa Figueiredo, João Nunes

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Due to persistent climate pressures, there is a need to find a resilient economic system that is regenerative in nature. Bioeconomy offers the possibility of replacing non-renewable and non-biodegradable materials derived from fossil fuels with ones that are renewable and biodegradable, while a Circular Economy aims at sustainable and resource-efficient operations. The term "Circular Bioeconomy", which can be summarized as all activities that transform biomass for its use in various product streams, expresses the interaction between these two ideas. Portugal has a very favourable context to promote a Circular Bioeconomy due to its variety of climates and ecosystems, availability of biologically based resources, location, and geomorphology. Recently, there have been political and legislative efforts to develop the Portuguese Circular Bioeconomy. The Action Plan for a Sustainable Bioeconomy, approved in 2021, is composed of five axes of intervention, ranging from sustainable production and the use of regionally based biological resources to the development of a circular and sustainable bioindustry through research and innovation. However, as some statistics show, Portugal is still far from achieving circularity. According to Eurostat, Portugal has circularity rates of 2.8%, which is the second lowest among the member states of the European Union. Some challenges contribute to this scenario, including sectorial heterogeneity and fragmentation, prevalence of small producers, lack of attractiveness for younger generations, and absence of implementation of collaborative solutions amongst producers and along value chains.Regarding the Portuguese industrial sector, there is a tendency towards complex bureaucratic processes, which leads to economic and financial obstacles and an unclear national strategy. Together with the limited number of incentives the country has to offer to those that pretend to abandon the linear economic model, many entrepreneurs are hesitant to invest the capital needed to make their companies more circular. Absence of disaggregated, georeferenced, and reliable information regarding the actual availability of biological resources is also a major issue. Low literacy on bioeconomy among many of the sectoral agents and in society in general directly impacts the decisions of production and final consumption. The WinBio project seeks to outline a strategic approach for the management of weaknesses/opportunities in the technology transfer process, given the reality of the territory, through road mapping and national and international benchmarking. The developed work included the identification and analysis of agents in the interior region of Portugal, natural endogenous resources, products, and processes associated with potential development. Specific flow of biological wastes, possible value chains, and the potential for replacing critical raw materials with bio-based products was accessed, taking into consideration other countries with a matured bioeconomy. The study found food industry, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries generate huge amounts of waste streams, which in turn provide an opportunity for the establishment of local bio-industries powered by this biomass. The project identified biological resources with potential for replication and applicability in the Portuguese context. The richness of natural resources and potentials known in the interior region of Portugal is a major key to developing the Circular Economy and sustainability of the country.

Keywords: circular bioeconomy, interior region of portugal, regional development., public policy

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Authors: Irtaza M. Syed, Kaameran Raahemifar

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This paper presents comparative analysis of photovoltaic systems (PVS) and proposes practical techniques to improve operational efficiency of the PVS. The best engineering and construction practices for PVS are identified and field oriented recommendation are made. Comparative analysis of central and string inverter based, as well as 600 and 1000 VDC PVS are performed. In addition, direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) photovoltaic (PV) module based systems are compared. Comparison shows that 1000 V DC String Inverters based PVS is the best choice.

Keywords: photovoltaic module, photovoltaic systems, operational efficiency improvement, comparative analysis

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Authors: Narges Nejati

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Nowadays as science hasten toward technology, only quantity of construction noticed and there is a little attention toward quality of construction and there is no usage for element which was prevalent in traditional architecture. This is the cause of this issue that nowadays we see building that most of them just keep you from heat and cold of outside environment and there is no trace of any culture of their country or nation in it. And although we know that man is a creature that adores beauty by his nature, but this spiritual need of him is ignored. And designers by taking an enormous price instead of planning (spiritual designing) to release peace, they attend to planning which make a human soul bothered and ill. The present research is trying to illustrate price of concepts and principles of water usage as one of the elements of nature and also shows the water application in some of the Iranian constructions and the results show the motif of using water in constructions and also some benefits of using it in constructions. And also this matter can causes a reconnection between nature and constructing of a beautiful environment which is consonant and proportional with man’ physical, spiritual and cultural needs. And causes peace and comfort of men. A construction which man feels a friendly atmosphere in them which he has a sense of belonging to them not a construction which arouses feeling of weariness and fatigue.

Keywords: water usage, belonging, sustainable architecture, urban design

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Authors: Rafika Bayu Kusumandari, Istyarini, Ispen Safrel

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Character education will be more meaningful if carried out since early childhood. This is because early childhood education is the foundation of the formation of character. This study intends to find a model of character education in early childhood based on Javanese culture. In keeping with the focus of the study, long-term goals to be achieved through this research is to find once described the development of a model of character education in early childhood Javanese culture based in Semarang are then applied across early childhood education institutions in Semarang City. The specific objective of the study is: Describe the character models and management education in early childhood Java-based culture in Semarang City. The benefits of this research are; Provide an overview of the model and describe the management of character education in early childhood Java-based culture in Semarang City. Referring to the objectives of the research program was designed with a "Research and Development", meaning that a program of research followed by development programs for improvement or refinement. To produce a prototype model of character education in early childhood Java-based culture in the city, taken systematic measures in the form of the action, reflection, evaluation and innovation by applying qualitative research methods, descriptive, development, experimentation, and evaluation. This study aims to gain in-depth description of the model of character education in early childhood Java-based culture in the city of Semarang. The reason for the use of the use of qualitative methods researcher's knowledge, no study results and empirical research specifically about the model of character education in early childhood Java-based culture in the city of Semarang. On the implementation of character education early childhood adapted to the characteristics of each school and the emphasis of each agency arrangements for early childhood education, culture-based Java. Javanese culture should be introduced early in order not to erode the cultural lost outside the entrance as the era of globalization. In addition, Java is promoting a culture of courtesy and manners are very appropriate for the character formation of children of early age.

Keywords: education character, Javanese culture, childhood, character

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Authors: Harsh Thakkar, Ganesh Iyer

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In this paper, we survey various user-centered or context-based biomedical health information retrieval systems. We present and discuss the performance of systems submitted in CLEF eHealth 2014 Task 3 for this purpose. We classify and focus on comparing the two most prevalent retrieval models in biomedical information retrieval namely: Language Model (LM) and Vector Space Model (VSM). We also report on the effectiveness of using external medical resources and ontologies like MeSH, Metamap, UMLS, etc. We observed that the LM based retrieval systems outperform VSM based systems on various fronts. From the results we conclude that the state-of-art system scores for MAP was 0.4146, P@10 was 0.7560 and NDCG@10 was 0.7445, respectively. All of these score were reported by systems built on language modeling approaches.

Keywords: clinical document retrieval, concept-based information retrieval, query expansion, language models, vector space models

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Authors: Z. Zerdoumi, D. Benatia, , D. Chicouche

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This paper investigates the application of artificial neural network to the problem of nonlinear channel equalization. The difficulties caused by channel distortions such as inter symbol interference (ISI) and nonlinearity can overcome by nonlinear equalizers employing neural networks. It has been shown that multilayer perceptron based equalizer outperform significantly linear equalizers. We present a multilayer perceptron based equalizer with decision feedback (MLP-DFE) trained with the back propagation algorithm. The capacity of the MLP-DFE to deal with nonlinear channels is evaluated. From simulation results it can be noted that the MLP based DFE improves significantly the restored signal quality, the steady state mean square error (MSE), and minimum Bit Error Rate (BER), when comparing with its conventional counterpart.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, signal restoration, Nonlinear Channel equalization, equalization

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Authors: Ahmed Tarek, Ahmed Alveed

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Vehicle routing problem is a well-known re-search avenue in computing. Modern vehicle routing is more focused with the GPS-based coordinate system, as the state-of-the-art vehicle, and trucking systems are equipped with digital navigation. In this paper, a new two dimensional coordinate-based algorithm for addressing the vehicle routing problem for a supply chain network is proposed and explored, and the algorithm is compared with other available, and recently devised heuristics. For the algorithms discussed, which includes the pro-posed coordinate-based search heuristic as well, the advantages and the disadvantages associated with the heuristics are explored. The proposed algorithm is studied from the stand point of a small supermarket chain delivery network that supplies to its stores in four different states around the East Coast area, and is trying to optimize its trucking delivery cost. Minimizing the delivery cost for the supply network of a supermarket chain is important to ensure its business success.

Keywords: coordinate-based optimal routing, Hamiltonian Circuit, heuristic algorithm, traveling salesman problem, vehicle routing problem

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Authors: Meltem Karatepe Kaya

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The concept of corporate governance is not new but, due to the recent international financial crisis, it has become prominent in contemporary business, accounting and legal debates. There is a wealth of anecdotal evidence which shows that protection of minority shareholders is an important issue in the corporate governance literature. Minority shareholders typically hold low amounts of stocks, so the benefits gained from their participation in shareholder meetings are very asymmetric to the cost. Therefore, the presence of a good corporate governance structure is the proper protection of and respect for the rights and interests of shareholders, particularly those of minority shareholders. The research will attempt to find answers to the following questions: Why minority shareholders’ rights should be protected? How minority shareholders’ rights could be improved? Does the legal framework in the United Kingdom provide adequate protection for minority shareholders? This study will assess regulations about the legal protections of minority shareholders and try to find answer this question: ’Why is it inevitable for company law to treat in a successful way the problems arising from minority shareholders' conflict with other shareholders of a company?’The protection of minority shareholders is not only a corporate governance objective in its own right but also has added importance particularly in developing countries. In the United Kingdom(UK) and the United States of America(USA), there are diffused ownership structures so that any shareholders do not influence the management of the company. This is in stark contrast to companies in developing countries such as Turkey where controlling shareholders and related insiders are a well-known feature of ownership structures, and where companies are often governed and managed by controlling shareholders such as family firms and associated companies through cross-shareholdings and pyramiding ownership structures. In Turkey, the agency problem is not between shareholders and management. Rather it gives rise to another dimension of the agency problem – a conflict of interest between majority shareholders (controlling) and minority shareholders. This research will make a particularly useful contribution to knowledge-based information and understanding of company law in the UK, particularly minority shareholders' remedies. It will not only give information about law and regulations of minority shareholders' remedies but also it will provide some knowledge about doctrinal discussions and relevant cases. The major contribution to study will be in the knowledge of law and regulation in the legal protections of minority shareholders in the United Kingdom and Turkey. In this study, the recommendations will be given for the development of the legal framework and practices of protections for minority shareholders and small investors.

Keywords: controlling shareholders, corporate governance, derivative actions, minority shareholders

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Authors: Ela Ari, Aysi̇ma Findikoglu

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Consumers’ switching GSM operators’ has been an important research issue since the rise of their competitive offers. Recent research has looked at consumer switching behavior through the theory of planned behavior, but not yet extended the theory with identity, psycho-social and cultural influences within the service context. This research explores an extended version of the theory of planned behavior including social and financial risks and brand loyalty. Moreover, the role of individualism and collectivism at the individual level is investigated in a collectivistic culture that moves toward to individualism due to changing family relationships, use of technology and education. Our preliminary analysis showed that financial risk and vertical individualism prove to be a significant determinant of intention to switch. The study also investigates social risk and intention, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control relationship. The effect of individualism and collectivism and attitudes relationship has been also examined within a service industry. Implications for marketing managers and scholars are also discussed.

Keywords: attitude, individualism, intention, subjective norm

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Authors: Mahmut Genc, Seda Genc

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Wine is the most popular alcoholic drink in the World with 274.4 million of hectoliter annual production in the year of 2015. The wine industry is very important for some regions as well as creating significant value in their economies. This industry is very sensitive to the global warming since viticulture highly depends on climate and geographical region. Sustainability concept is a crucial issue for the wine industry and sustainability performances of wine production processes should be determined. Although wine production industry is an energy intensive sector as a whole, the most energy intensive products are widely used both in the viti and vinicultural process. In this study, gate-to-gate LCA approach in energy resource utilization and global warming potential impacts for white wine production line were attempted and carbon footprint and exergy destruction footprint were calculated, accordingly. As a result, carbon footprint and exergy destruction footprint values were calculated to be 1.75 kg CO2eq and 365.3kW, respectively.

Keywords: carbon footprint, exergy analysis, exergy destruction footprint, white wine

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Authors: Saneeya Qureshi

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This paper reports doctoral research into the impact of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) on teachers in England, UK. Since 1994, it has been compulsory for all mainstream schools in the UK to have a SENCO who co-ordinates assessment and provision for supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN), helping teachers to develop and implement optimal SEN planning and resources. SENCOs’ roles have evolved as various policies continually redefined SEN provision, impacting their positioning within the school hierarchical structure. SENCOs in England are increasingly recognised as key members of school senior management teams. In this paper, It will be argued that despite issues around the transformative ‘professionalisation’ of their role, and subsequent conflict around boundaries and power relations, SENCOs enhance teachers’ abilities in terms of delivering optimal SEN provision. There is a significant international dimension to the issue: a similar role in respect of SEN management already exists in countries such as Ireland, Finland and Singapore, whilst in other countries, such as Italy and India, the introduction of a role similar to that of a SENCO is currently under discussion. The research question addressed is: do SENCOs enhance teachers’ abilities to be effective teachers of children with Special Educational Needs? The theoretical framework of the project is that of interpretivism, as it is acknowledged that there are contexts and realities are social constructions. The study applied a mixed method approach consisting of two phases. The first phase involved a purposive survey (n=42) of 223 primary school SENCOs, which enabled a deeper insight into SENCOs’ perceptions of their roles in relation to teachers. The second phase consisted of semi-structured interviews (n=36) of SENCOs, teachers and head teachers, in addition to school SEN-related documentation scrutiny. ‘Trustworthiness’ was accomplished through data and methodological triangulation, in addition to a rigorous process of coding and thematic analysis. The research was informed by an Ethical Code as per national guidelines. Research findings point to the evolutionary aspect of the SENCO role having engendered a culture of expectations amongst practitioners, as SENCOs transition from being ‘fixers’ to being ‘enablers’ of teachers. Outcomes indicate that SENCOs can empower teaching staff through the dissemination of specialist knowledge. However, there must be resources clearly identified for such dissemination to take place. It is imperative that both SENCOs and teachers alike address the issue of absolution of responsibility that arises when the ownership and accountability for the planning and implementation of SEN provision are not clarified so as to ensure the promotion of a positive school ethos around inclusive practices. Optimal outcomes through effective SEN interventions and teaching practices are positively correlated with the inclusion of teachers in the planning and execution of SEN provisions. An international audience can consider how the key findings are being manifest in a global context, with reference to their own educational settings. Research outcomes can aid the development of specific competencies needed to shape optimal inclusive educational settings in accordance with the official global priorities pertaining to inclusion.

Keywords: inclusion, school professionals, school leadership, special educational needs (SEN), special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs)

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Authors: Mario Belseran

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The issue of climate change become world attention where one of them increase in air temperature due to greenhouse gas emissions. This climate change is caused by gases in the atmosphere, one of which is CO2. DKI Jakarta as the capital has a dense population with a variety of existing land use. Land use that is dominated by settlements resulting in fewer green space, which functions to absorb atmospheric CO2. Image interpretation SPOT-7 is used to determine the greenness level of vegetation on a green space using the vegetation index NDVI, EVI, GNDVI and OSAVI. Measuring the diameter and height of trees were also performed to obtain the value of biomass that will be used as the CO2 absorption value. The CO2 absorption value that spread in Jakarta are classified into three classes: high, medium, and low. The distribution pattern of CO2 absorption value at green space in Jakarta dominance in the medium class with the distribution pattern is located in South Jakarta, East Jakarta, North Jakarta and West Jakarta. The distribution pattern of green space in Jakarta scattered randomly and more dominate in East Jakarta and South Jakarta

Keywords: carbon dioxide, DKI Jakarta, green space, SPOT-7, vegetation index

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Authors: Bhaskar Basu

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Universities and higher education institutes are finding it increasingly difficult to engage students fruitfully through traditional pedagogic tools. Web 2.0 technologies comprising social networking sites (SNSs) offer a platform for students to collaborate and share information, thereby enhancing their learning experience. Despite the potential and reach of SNSs, its use has been limited in academic settings promoting higher education. The purpose of this paper is to assess the perception of social networking sites among business school students in India and analyze its role in enhancing quality of student experiences in a business school leading to the proposal of an agenda for future research. In this study, more than 300 students of a reputed business school were involved in a survey of their preferences of different social networking sites and their perceptions and attitudes towards these sites. A questionnaire with three major sections was designed, validated and distributed among  a sample of students, the research method being descriptive in nature. Crucial questions were addressed to the students concerning time commitment, reasons for usage, nature of interaction on these sites, and the propensity to share information leading to direct and indirect modes of learning. It was further supplemented with focus group discussion to analyze the findings. The paper notes the resistance in the adoption of new technology by a section of business school faculty, who are staunch supporters of the classical “face-to-face” instruction. In conclusion, social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn provide new avenues for students to express themselves and to interact with one another. Universities could take advantage of the new ways  in which students are communicating with one another. Although interactive educational options such as Moodle exist, social networking sites are rarely used for academic purposes. Using this medium opens new ways of academically-oriented interactions where faculty could discover more about students' interests, and students, in turn, might express and develop more intellectual facets of their lives. hitherto unknown intellectual facets.  This study also throws up the enormous potential of mobile phones as a tool for “blended learning” in business schools going forward.

Keywords: business school, India, learning, social media, social networking, university

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Authors: Sana Mohammad Jafar

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Salmonella is one of the major causes of foodborne diseases throughout the world. Shrimp are an important commodity in world fishery trade. The microbiological quality of shrimp must be evaluated for assurance of shrimp. The aim of this study was to evaluate the microbiological quality and to determine the prevalence of Salmonella in shrimp sold in Khuzestan province. In this study, a total of 245 samples of shrimp sold in Khuzestan province were tested for Salmonella prevalence and total microbial population. The mean aerobic bacterial count in 50.2% of samples was 2200, in 29.8% of samples was 13,600, in 20% of samples was 36,700, and the mean aerobic bacterial count in the total samples was 20,000. (20,000 cfu/cc). Of the total samples, 33 samples were positive for Salmonella and the prevalence of Salmonella was determined 13.4%. These results indicate the possibility that shrimp contribute to foodborne infections. The improvement of shrimp quality is an important issue, and shrimp before consuming should be washed with water containing chlorine, with the aim of increasing safety. In addition, it should be avoided to eat shrimp as raw or not cooked properly.

Keywords: determination, total microbial, Salmonella, shrimp

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Authors: Gi-Beom Park, Hyong-Gi Park, Seong-Yong Lee, Jaeho Choi, Seok Hong Min, Tae Kwon Ha

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The Nb silicide-based alloy has the excellent high-temperature strength and relatively lower density than the Ni-based superalloy; therefore, it has been receiving a lot of attention for the next generation high-temperature material. To enhance the high temperature creep property and oxidation resistance, Si was added to the Nb-based alloy, resulting in a multi-phase microstructure with metal solid solution and silicide phase. Since the silicide phase has a low machinability due to its brittle nature, it is necessary to fabricate components using the powder metallurgy. However, powder manufacturing techniques for the alloys have not yet been developed. In this study, we tried to fabricate Nb-based alloy powder by the hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reaction. The Nb-based alloy ingot was prepared by vacuum arc melting and it was annealed in the hydrogen atmosphere for the hydrogenation. After annealing, the hydrogen concentration was increased from 0.004wt% to 1.22wt% and Nb metal phase was transformed to Nb hydride phase. The alloy after hydrogenation could be easily pulverized into powder by ball milling due to its brittleness. For dehydrogenation, the alloy powders were annealed in the vacuum atmosphere. After vacuum annealing, the hydrogen concentration was decreased to 0.003wt% and Nb hydride phase was transformed back to Nb metal phase.

Keywords: Nb alloy, Nb metal and silicide composite, powder, hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reaction

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Authors: Amon Olimov, Umarov Jamshid, Dae-Ho Kim, Chol-U Lee, Ryum-Duck Oh

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This paper proposes IoT virtualization platform based incident information system. IoT information based environment is the platform that was developed for the purpose of collecting a variety of data by managing regionally scattered IoT devices easily and conveniently in addition to analyzing data collected from roads. Moreover, this paper configured the platform for the purpose of providing incident information based on sensed data. It also provides the same input/output interface as UNIX and Linux by means of matching IoT devices with the directory of file system and also the files. In addition, it has a variety of approaches as to the devices. Thus, it can be applied to not only incident information but also other platforms. This paper proposes the incident information system that identifies and provides various data in real time as to urgent matters on roads based on the existing USN/M2M and IoT visualization platform.

Keywords: incident information system, IoT, virtualization platform, USN, M2M

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Authors: Dominika Collett

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AI applications, such as machine learning, require access to a vast amount of data in the training phase, which can often be the subject of copyright protection. During later usage, the various content with which the application works can be recorded or made available on the basis of which it produces the resulting output. The EU has recently adopted new legislation to secure machine access to protected works under the DSM Directive; but, the issue of machine use of copyright works is not clearly addressed. However, such clarity is needed regarding the increasing importance of AI and its development. Therefore, this paper provides a basic background of the technology used in the development of applications in the field of computer creativity. The second part of the paper then will focus on a legal analysis of machine use of the authors' works from the perspective of existing European and Czech legislation. The main results of the paper discuss the potential collision of existing legislation in regards to machine use of works with special focus on exceptions and limitations. The legal regulation of machine use of copyright work will impact the development of AI technology.

Keywords: copyright, artificial intelligence, legal use, infringement, Czech law, EU law, text and data mining

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Authors: Saou Mohamed Amine

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The construction industry has been identified as a user of substantial amount of materials and energy resources that has an enormous impact on environment. The energy efficient in refurbishment project is being considered as one of the approaches to achieve sustainability in construction industry. The increasing concern for environment has made building owners and designers to incorporate the energy efficiency features into their building projects. However, an overwhelming issue of existing non-energy efficient buildings which exceeds the number of new building could be ineffective if the buildings are not refurbished through the energy efficient measures. Thus, energy efficient in refurbishment project is being considered as one of the approaches to achieve sustainability that offers significant opportunities for reducing global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the quality of design team attributes and the characteristics of the refurbishment building projects have been argued to be the main factors that determine the energy efficiency performance of the building.

Keywords: construction industry, design team attributes, energy efficient performance, refurbishment projects characteristics

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Authors: Venkateswara R. Naira, Debasish Das, Soumen K. Maiti

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Achieving high cell densities of microalgae under obligatory light-limiting and high light conditions of diurnal (low-high-low variations of daylight intensity) sunlight are further limited by CO₂ supply and dissolved oxygen (DO) accumulation in large-scale photobioreactors. High DO levels cause low growth due to photoinhibition and/or photorespiration. Hence, scalable elevated CO₂ levels (% in air) and their effect on DO accumulation in a 10 L cylindrical membrane photobioreactor (a vertical tubular type) are studied in the present study. The CO₂ elevation strategies; biomass-based, pH control based (types II & I) and diurnal light based, were explored to study the growth of Chlorella sp. FC2 IITG under single-sided LED lighting in the laboratory, mimicking diurnal sunlight. All the experiments were conducted in fed-batch mode by maintaining N and P sources at least 50% of initial concentrations of the optimized BG-11 medium. It was observed that biomass-based (2% - 1st day, 2.5% - 2nd day and 3% - thereafter) and well-known pH control based, type-I (5.8 pH throughout) strategies were found lethal for FC2 growth. In both strategies, the highest peak DO accumulation of 150% air saturation was resulted due to high photosynthetic activity caused by higher CO₂ levels. In the pH control based type-I strategy, automatically resulted CO₂ levels for pH control were recorded so high (beyond the inhibition range, 5%). However, pH control based type-II strategy (5.8 – 2 days, 6.3 – 3 days, 6.7 – thereafter) showed final biomass titer up to 4.45 ± 0.05 g L⁻¹ with peak DO of 122% air saturation; high CO₂ levels beyond 5% (in air) were recorded thereafter. Thus, it became sustainable for obtaining high biomass. Finally, a diurnal light based (2% - low light, 2.5 % - medium light and 3% - high light) strategy was applied on the basis of increasing/decreasing photosynthesis due to increase/decrease in diurnal light intensity. It has resulted in maximum final biomass titer of 5.33 ± 0.12 g L⁻¹, with total biomass productivity of 0.59 ± 0.01 g L⁻¹ day⁻¹. The values are remarkably higher than constant 2% CO₂ level (final biomass titer: 4.26 ± 0.09 g L⁻¹; biomass productivity: 0.27 ± 0.005 g L⁻¹ day⁻¹). However, 135% air saturation of peak DO was observed. Thus, the diurnal light based elevation should be further improved by using CO₂ enriched N₂ instead of air. To the best of knowledge, the light-based CO₂ elevation strategy is not reported elsewhere.

Keywords: Chlorella sp., CO₂ elevation strategy, dissolved oxygen accumulation, diurnal light based CO₂ elevation, high cell density, microalgae, scale-up

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Authors: Yasemin Ilkay

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Urban spatial pattern interacts with the minds and bodies of citizens and influences their perception and attitudes, which leads to a two-folded map of the same space: physical and Psychogeographic maps. Psychogeography is a field of inquiry (rooted in literature and fiction) investigating how the environment affects the feelings and behaviors of individuals. This term was posed by Situationist International Movement in the 1950s by Guy Debord; in the course of time, the artistic framework evolved into a political issue, especially with the term Dérive, which indicates ‘deviation’ and ‘resistance’ to the existing spatial reality. The term Dérive appeared on the track of Flânéur after one hundred years; and turned out to be a political tool to transform everyday urban life. The three main concepts of psychogeography [walking, dérive, and palimpsest] construct the epistemological framework for a psychogeographic spatial analysis. Mental representations investigating this framework would provide a designer to capture the invisible layers of the gap between ‘how a space is conceived’ and ‘how the same space is perceived and experienced.’ This gap is a neglected but critical issue to discuss in the planning discipline, and psychogeography provides methodological inputs to cover the interrelation among top-down designs of urban patterning and bottom-up reproductions of ‘the soul’ of urban space at the intersection of geography and psychology. City centers and university campuses exemplify opposite poles of spatial organization and walking practice, which may result in differentiated spatial appropriation forms. There is a traditional city center in Van, located at the core of the city with a dense population and several activities, but not connected to Van Lake, which is the largest lake in the country. On the other hand, the university campus is located at the periphery, and although it has a promenade along the lake’s coast and a regional hospital, it presents a limited walking experience with ambiguous forms of spatial appropriation. The city center draws a vivid urban everyday life; however, the campus presents a relatively natural life far away from the center. This paper aims to reveal the differentiated psychogeographic maps of spatial appropriation at the city center vs. the university campus, which is located at the periphery of the city and along the coast of the largest lake in Turkey. The main question of the paper is, “how do the psychogeographic maps of spatial appropriation differentiate at the city center and university campus in Van within the walking experience with reference to the two-folded map assumption.” The experiential maps of a core group of 15 planning students will be created with the techniques of mental mapping, photographing, and narratives through attentive walks conducted together on selected routes; in addition to these attentive walks, 30 more in-depth interviews will be conducted by the core group. The narrative of psychogeographic mapping of spatial appropriation at the two spatial poles would display the conflicting soul of the city with reference to sub-behavioural regions of walking, differentiated forms of derive and layers of palimpsest.

Keywords: attentive walk, body, cognitive geography, derive, experiential maps, psychogeography, Van, Turkey

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Authors: Rigers Dodaj

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Nowadays, the environment is a critical goal for civil engineers, human activity, construction projects, economic growth, and whole national development. Regarding the development of Albania's economy, people's living standards are increasing, and the requirements for the living environment are also increasing. Under these circumstances, environmental protection and sustainability this is the critical issue. The rising industrialization, urbanization, and energy demand affect the environment by emission of carbon dioxide gas (CO2), a significant parameter known to impact air pollution directly. Consequently, many governments and international organizations conducted policies and regulations to address environmental degradation in the pursuit of economic development, for instance in Albania, the CO2 emission calculated in metric tons per capita has increased by 23% in the last 20 years. This paper analyzes the importance of civil engineering and economic growth in the sustainability of the environment focusing on CO2 emission. The analyzed data are time series 2001 - 2020 (with annual frequency), based on official publications of the World Bank. The statistical approach with vector error correction model and time series forecasting model are used to perform the parameter’s estimations and long-run equilibrium. The research in this paper adds a new perspective to the evaluation of a sustainable environment in the context of carbon emission reduction. Also, it provides reference and technical support for the government toward green and sustainable environmental policies. In the context of low-carbon development, effectively improving carbon emission efficiency is an inevitable requirement for achieving sustainable economic and environmental protection. Also, the study reveals that civil engineering development projects impact greatly the environment in the long run, especially in areas of flooding, noise pollution, water pollution, erosion, ecological disorder, natural hazards, etc. The potential for reducing industrial carbon emissions in recent years indicates that reduction is becoming more difficult, it needs another economic growth policy and more civil engineering development, by improving the level of industrialization and promoting technological innovation in industrial low-carbonization.

Keywords: CO₂ emission, civil engineering, economic growth, environmental sustainability

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Authors: Tamrat Girma Biru

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Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is defined as resistant to at least Refampicin and Isoniazed: the most two power full TB drugs. It is a leading cause of high rates of morbidity and mortality, and increasing psychosocial challenges to patients, especially when co-infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Ethiopia faces the highest rates of MDR-TB infection in the world. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to identify the psychosocial challenges of MDR-TB patients, to investigate the extent of the psychosocial challenges on (self-esteem, depression, and stigma) that MDR-TB patients encounter, to examine whether there is a sex difference in experiencing psychosocial challenges and assess the counseling needs of MDR-TB patients. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at St. Peter TB Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa on 40 patients (25 males and 15 females) who are hospitalized for treatment. The patients were identified by using purposive sampling and made fill a questionnaire measuring their level of self-esteem, depression and stigma. Besides, data were collected from 16 participants, 28 care providers and 8 guardians, using semi-structured interview. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS statistical program, descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and qualitative description. Results and Discussion: The results of the study showed that the majority (80%) of the respondents had suffered psychological challenges and social discriminations. Thus, the significance of MDR-TB and its association with HIV/AIDS problems is considered. Besides the psychosocial challenges, various aggravating factors such as length of treatment, drug burden and insecurity in economy together highly challenges the life of patients. In addition, 60% of participants showed low level of self-esteem. The patients also reported that they experienced high self-stigma and stigma by other members of the society. The majority of the participants (75%) showed moderate and severe level of depression. In terms of sex there is no difference between the mean scores of males and females in the level of depression and stigmatization by others and by themselves. But females showed lower level of self-esteem than males. The analysis of the t-test also shows that there were no statistically significant sex difference on the level of depression and stigma. Based on the qualitative data MDR-TB patients face various challenges in their life sphere such as: Psychological (depression, low self value, lowliness, anxiety), social (stigma, isolation from social relations, self-stigmatization,) and medical (drug side effect, drug toxicity, drug burden, treatment length, hospital stays). Recommendations: Based on the findings of this study possible recommendations were forwarded: develop and extend MDR-TB disease awareness creation through by media (printing and electronic), school net TB clubs, and door to door community education. Strengthen psychological wellbeing and social relationship of MDR-TB patients using proper and consistent psychosocial support and counseling. Responsible bodies like Ministry of Health (MOH) and its stakeholders and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) need to assess the challenges of patients and take measures on this pressing issue.

Keywords: psychosocial challenges, counseling, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), tuberculosis therapy

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Zhuang Guo

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In the field of GaN-based resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) simulations, the traditional Tsu-Esaki formalism failed to predict the values of peak currents and peak voltages in the simulated current-voltage(J-V) characteristics. The main reason is that due to the strong internal polarization fields, two-dimensional electron gas(2DEG) accumulates at emitters, resulting in 2D-2D resonant tunneling currents, which become the dominant parts of the total J-V characteristics. By comparison, based on the 3D-2D resonant tunneling mechanism, the traditional Tsu-Esaki formalism cannot predict the J-V characteristics correctly. To overcome this shortcoming, we develop a new analytical model for the 2D-2D resonant tunneling currents generated in GaN-based RTDs. Compared with Tsu-Esaki formalism, the new model has made the following modifications: Firstly, considering the Heisenberg uncertainty, the new model corrects the expression of the density of states around the 2DEG eigenenergy levels at emitters so that it could predict the half width at half-maximum(HWHM) of resonant tunneling currents; Secondly, taking into account the effect of bias on wave vectors on the collectors, the new model modifies the expression of the transmission coefficients which could help to get the values of peak currents closer to the experiment data compared with Tsu-Esaki formalism. The new analytical model successfully predicts the J-V characteristics of GaN-based RTDs, and it also reveals more detailed mechanisms of resonant tunneling happened in GaN-based RTDs, which helps to design and fabricate high-performance GaN RTDs.

Keywords: GaN-based resonant tunneling diodes, tsu-esaki formalism, 2D-2D resonant tunneling, heisenberg uncertainty

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Misha Alexander, S. B. Waykar

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Visual Cryptography is a special unbreakable encryption technique that transforms the secret image into random noisy pixels. These shares are transmitted over the network and because of its noisy texture it attracts the hackers. To address this issue a Natural Visual Secret Sharing Scheme (NVSS) was introduced that uses natural shares either in digital or printed form to generate the noisy secret share. This scheme greatly reduces the transmission risk but causes distortion in the retrieved secret image through variation in settings and properties of digital devices used to capture the natural image during encryption / decryption phase. This paper proposes a new NVSS scheme that extracts the secret key from randomly selected unaltered multiple natural images. To further improve the security of the shares data hiding techniques such as Steganography and Alpha channel watermarking are proposed.

Keywords: decryption, encryption, natural visual secret sharing, natural images, noisy share, pixel swapping

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Authors: Feddal Imene, Boumediene Youssra, Mimanne Goussem

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The history of the environment and its chemistry is above all the history of its pollution. For a large part, it is the changes made in the air, water and soil by human beings. From there, we can define that pollution is an unfavorable modification of the natural environment that appears as a by-product of human action, through direct and indirect effects. The protection and preservation of the environment is one of the pillars of sustainable development, which is currently a major issue for the future of man and the planet. Currently, humanity is facing an alarming increase in the pollution of the natural environment by various organic or inorganic materials. The objective of our work is to study the adsorption of a textile dye which is known in the industrial environment, methyl green, on raw calcic clay. Our material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), we also determined its cation exchange capacity (CEC), pHzc and specific surface by Methylene Blue method. The kinetic and thermodynamic study of the adsorption of methyl green was studied, these experiments resulted that the adsorption of the dye follows pseudo second order kinetics, and according to the thermodynamic study and the study of the probability we can say that we have a physisorption.

Keywords: calcic clay, dye, materials, environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Zefry Darmawan, Shigeyuki Haruyama, Ken Kaminishi

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Product development is a big issue in the industrial competition and takes a serious part in development of technology. Product development process could adapt high changes of market needs and transform into engineering concept in order to produce high-quality product. One of the latest methods in product development is Analysis-Led-Design (ALD). It utilizes digital engineering design tools with finite analysis to perform product robust analysis and valuable for product reliability assurance. Heavy machinery which operates under severe condition should maintain safety to the customer when faced with potential hazard. Cab frame should able to absorb the energy while collision. Through ALD, a series of improvement of cab frame to increase energy absorption was made and analyzed. Improvement was made by modifying shapes of frame and-or install absorption device in certain areas. Simulation result showed that install absorption device could increase absorption energy than modifying shape.

Keywords: ALD, ROPS, energy absorption, cab frame

Procedia PDF Downloads 371