Search results for: language and leadership

Authors: Martina Katalin Szabó, István Üveges

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In this paper, the usage of negative emotive words is examined on the basis of a large Hungarian twitter-database via NLP methods. The data is analysed from a gender point of view, as well as changes in language usage over time. The term negative emotive word refers to those words that, on their own, without context, have semantic content that can be associated with negative emotion, but in particular cases, they may function as intensifiers (e.g. rohadt jó ’damn good’) or a sentiment expression with positive polarity despite their negative prior polarity (e.g. brutális, ahogy ez a férfi rajzol ’it’s awesome (lit. brutal) how this guy draws’. Based on the findings of several authors, the same phenomenon can be found in other languages, so it is probably a language-independent feature. For the recent analysis, 67783 tweets were collected: 37818 tweets (19580 tweets written by females and 18238 tweets written by males) in 2016 and 48344 (18379 tweets written by females and 29965 tweets written by males) in 2021. The goal of the research was to make up two datasets comparable from the viewpoint of semantic changes, as well as from gender specificities. An exhaustive lexicon of Hungarian negative emotive intensifiers was also compiled (containing 214 words). After basic preprocessing steps, tweets were processed by ‘magyarlanc’, a toolkit is written in JAVA for the linguistic processing of Hungarian texts. Then, the frequency and collocation features of all these words in our corpus were automatically analyzed (via the analysis of parts-of-speech and sentiment values of the co-occurring words). Finally, the results of all four subcorpora were compared. Here some of the main outcomes of our analyses are provided: There are almost four times fewer cases in the male corpus compared to the female corpus when the negative emotive intensifier modified a negative polarity word in the tweet (e.g., damn bad). At the same time, male authors used these intensifiers more frequently, modifying a positive polarity or a neutral word (e.g., damn good and damn big). Results also pointed out that, in contrast to female authors, male authors used these words much more frequently as a positive polarity word as well (e.g., brutális, ahogy ez a férfi rajzol ’it’s awesome (lit. brutal) how this guy draws’). We also observed that male authors use significantly fewer types of emotive intensifiers than female authors, and the frequency proportion of the words is more balanced in the female corpus. As for changes in language usage over time, some notable differences in the frequency and collocation features of the words examined were identified: some of the words collocate with more positive words in the 2nd subcorpora than in the 1st, which points to the semantic change of these words over time.

Keywords: gender differences, negative emotive words, semantic changes over time, twitter

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Authors: Antonieta Heyden Megale

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With the advent of globalization, the social, cultural and linguistic situation of the whole world has changed. In this scenario, the teaching of English, in Brazil, has become a booming business and the belief that this language is essential to a successful life is played by the media that sees it as a commodity and spares no effort to sell it. In this context, it has become evident the growth of bilingual and international schools that have English and Portuguese as languages of instruction. According to federal legislation, all schools in the country must follow the Curriculum guidelines proposed by the Ministry of Education of Brazil. It is then mandatory that, in addition to the specific foreign curriculum an international school subscribes to, it must also teach all subjects of the official minimum curriculum and these subjects have to be taught in Portuguese. It is important to emphasize that, in these schools, English is the most prestigious language. Therefore, firstly, Brazilian teachers who teach Portuguese in such contexts find themselves in a situation in which they teach in a low-status language. Secondly, because such teachers’ actions are guided by a different cultural matrix, which differs considerably from Anglo-Saxon values and beliefs, they often experience intercultural conflict in their workplace. Taking it consideration, this research, focusing on the trajectories of a specific group of Brazilian teachers of Portuguese in international and bilingual schools located in the city of São Paulo, intends to analyze how they discursively represent their own professional identities and practices. More specifically the objectives of this research are to understand, from the perspective of the investigated teachers, how they (i) rebuilt narratively their professional careers and explain the factors that led them to an international or to an immersion bilingual school; (ii) position themselves with respect to their linguistic repertoire; (iii) interpret the intercultural practices they are involved with in school and (v) position themselves by foregrounding categories to determine their membership in the group of Portuguese teachers. We have worked with these teachers’ autobiographical narratives. The autobiographical approach assumes that the stories told by teachers are systems of meaning involved in the production of identities and subjectivities in the context of power relations. The teachers' narratives were elicited by the following trigger: "I would like you to tell me how you became a teacher in a bilingual/international school and what your impressions are about your work and about the context in which it is inserted". These narratives were produced orally, recorded, and transcribed for analysis. The teachers were also invited to draw their "linguistic portraits". The theoretical concepts of positioning and the indexical cues were taken into consideration in data analysis. The narratives produced by the teachers point to intercultural conflicts related to their expectations and representations of others, which are never neutral or objective truths but discursive constructions.

Keywords: bilingual schools, identity, interculturality, narrative

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Authors: Kadidiatou Toure

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Mali has started experimentation of teaching the national languages at school through the convergent pedagogy in 1987. Then, it is in 1994 that it will become widespread with eleven of the thirteen former national languages used at primary school. The aim was to improve the Malian educational system because the use of French as the only medium of instruction was considered a contributing factor to the significant number of student dropouts and the high rate of repetition. The Convergent pedagogy highlights the knowledge acquired by children at home, their vision of the world and especially the knowledge they have of their mother tongue. That pedagogy requires the use of a specific medium only during classroom practices and teachers have been trained in this sense. The specific medium depends on the learning content, which sometimes is French, other times, it is the national language. Research has shown that bilingual learners do not only use the required medium in their learning activities, but they code switch. It is part of their learning processes. Currently, many scholars agree on the importance of CS in bilingual classes, and teachers have been told about the necessity of integrating it into their classroom practices. One of the challenges of the Malian bilingual education curriculum is the question of ‘effective languages management’. Theoretically, depending on the classrooms, an average have been established for each of the involved language. Following that, teachers make use of CS differently, sometimes, it favors the learners, other times, it contributes to the development of some linguistic weaknesses. The present research tries to fill that gap through a tentative model of didactization of CS, which simply means the practical management of the languages involved in the bilingual classrooms. It is to know how to use CS for effective learning. Moreover, the didactization of CS tends to sensitize the teachers about the functional role of CS so that they may overcome their own weaknesses. The overall goal of this research is to make code switching a real tool for bilingual education. The specific objectives are: to identify the types of CS used during classroom activities to present the functional role of CS for the teachers as well as the pupils. to develop a tentative model of code-switching, which will help the teachers in transitional classes of bilingual schools to recognize the appropriate moment for making use of code switching in their classrooms. The methodology adopted is a qualitative one. The study is based on recorded videos of teachers of 3rd year of primary school during their classroom activities and interviews with the teachers in order to confirm the functional role of CS in bilingual classes. The theoretical framework adopted is the typology of CS proposed by Poplack (1980) to identify the types of CS used. The study reveals that teachers need to be trained on the types of CS and the different functions they assume and on the consequences of inappropriate use of language alternation.

Keywords: bilingual curriculum, code switching, didactization, national languages

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Authors: David Blaine, George Raschbaum

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The evaluation of DHCP has synthesized SCSI disks, and current trends suggest that the exploration of e-business that would allow for further study into robots will soon emerge. Given the current status of embedded algorithms, hackers worldwide obviously desire the exploration of replication, which embodies the confusing principles of programming languages. In our research we concentrate our efforts on arguing that erasure coding can be made "fuzzy", encrypted, and game-theoretic.

Keywords: SCHI disks, robot, algorithm, hacking, programming language

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Authors: William G. "Gus" Simmons

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Municipal and industrial wastewater plants across our country utilize anaerobic digestion as either primary treatment or as a means of waste sludge treatment and reduction. The emphasis on renewable energy and clean energy over the past several years, coupled with increasing electricity costs and increasing consumer demands for efficient utility operations has led to closer examination of the potential for harvesting the energy value of the biogas produced by anaerobic digestion. Although some facilities may have already come to the belief that harvesting this energy value is not practical or a top priority as compared to other capital needs and initiatives at the wastewater plant, we see that many are seeing biogas, and an opportunity for additional revenues, go up in flames as they continue to flare. Conversely, few wastewater plants under progressive and visionary leadership have demonstrated that harvesting the energy value from anaerobic digestion is more than “smoke and hot air”. From providing thermal energy to adjacent or on-campus operations to generating electricity and/or transportation fuels, these facilities are proving that energy harvesting can not only be profitable, but sustainable. This paper explores ways in which wastewater treatment plants can increase their value and import to the communities they serve through the generation of clean, renewable energy; also presented the processes in which these facilities moved from energy and cost sinks to sparks of innovation and pride in the communities in which they operate.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, harvesting energy, biogas, renewable energy, sustainability

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Authors: Dongqi Li, Yunjia Huang, Tomo Inoue, Kohei Inoue

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With urbanization, urban cultural heritage is facing the impact and destruction of modernization and urbanization. Many historical areas are losing their historical information and regional cultural characteristics, so it is necessary to carry out systematic color planning for historical areas in conservation. As an early focus on urban color planning, Japan has a systematic approach to urban color planning. Hence, this paper selects five merchant towns from the category of important traditional building preservation areas in Japan as the subject of this study to explore the color structure and emotion of this type of historic area. First, the image semantic segmentation method identifies the buildings, roads, and landscape environments. Their color data were extracted for color composition and emotion analysis to summarize their common features. Second, the obtained Internet evaluations were extracted by natural language processing for keyword extraction. The correlation analysis of the color structure and keywords provides a valuable reference for conservation decisions for this historic area in the town. This paper also combines the color structure and Internet evaluation results with generative adversarial networks to generate predicted images of color structure improvements and color improvement schemes. The methods and conclusions of this paper can provide new ideas for the digital management of environmental colors in historic districts and provide a valuable reference for the inheritance of local traditional culture.

Keywords: historic districts, color planning, semantic segmentation, natural language processing

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Authors: Nadja Ylvestedt

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Uppsala University Library is a geographically dispersed research library consisting of nine subject libraries located in different campus areas throughout the city of Uppsala. Despite the geographical dispersion, it is the library's ambition to be perceived as a cohesive library with consistently high service and quality. A key factor to being one cohesive library is the library's online services, especially the virtual reference service. E-mail, chat and phone are answered by a team of specially trained staff under the supervision of a team leader. When covid-19 hit, well-established routines and processes to provide an infrastructure for students and researchers at the university changed radically. The strong connection between services provided at the library locations as well as at the VRS has been one of the key components of the library’s success in providing patrons with the help they need. With radically minimized availability at the physical locations, the infrastructure was at risk of collapsing. Objectives:- The objective of this project has been to evaluate the consequences of the sudden change in the organization of the library. The focus of this evaluation is the library’s VRS as an important space for learning, interaction and communication between the library and the community when other traditional spaces were not available. The goal of this evaluation is to capture the lessons learned from providing infrastructure for learning and research in times of crisis both on a practical, user-centered level but also to stress the importance of leadership in ever-changing environments that supports and creates agile, flexible services and teams instead of rigid processes adhering to obsolete goals. Results:- Reduced availability at the physical library locations was one of the strategies to prevent the spread of the covid-19 virus. The library staff was encouraged to work from home, so student workers staffed the library’s physical locations during that time, leaving the VRS to be the only place where patrons could get expert help. The VRS had an increase of 65% of questions asked between spring term 2019 and spring term 2020. The VRS team had to navigate often complicated and fast-changing new routines depending on national guidelines. The VRS team has a strong emphasis on agility in their approach to the challenges and opportunities, with methods to evaluate decisions regularly with user experience in mind. Fast decision-making, collecting feedback, an open-minded approach to reviewing rules and processes with both a short-term and a long-term focus and providing a healthy work environment have been key factors in managing this crisis and learn from it. This was resting on a strong sense of ownership regarding the VRS, well-working communication tools and agile and active communication between team members, as well as between the team and the rest of the organization who served as a second-line support system to aid the VRS team. Moving forward, the VRS has become an important space for communication, interaction and provider of infrastructure, implementing new routines and more extensive availability due to the lessons learned during crisis. The evaluation shows that the virtual environment has become an important addition to the physical spaces, existing in its own right but always in connection with and in relationship with the library structure as a whole. Thereby showing that the basis of human interaction stays the same while its form morphs and adapts to changes, thus leaving the virtual environment as a space of communication and infrastructure with unique opportunities for outreach and the potential to become a staple in patron’s education and learning.

Keywords: virtual reference service, leadership, digital infrastructure, research library

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Authors: Monika Kulikowska-Pawlak, Katarzyna Bratnicka-Myśliwiec, Tomasz Ingram

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This study seeks to contribute to the literature on firm competitiveness by advancing the perspective of organizational politics that views this process as a driver which creates identifiable differences in firm performance. The hypothesized relationships were tested on the basis of data from 355 Polish medium and large-sized enterprises. Data were analyzed using correlation analysis, EFA and robustness tests. The main result of the conducted analyses proved the coexistence, previously examined in the literature, of corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance. The obtained research findings made it possible to add organizational politics to a wide range of elements determining corporate entrepreneurship, followed by competitive advantage, in addition to antecedents such as strategic leadership, corporate culture, opportunity-oriented resource-based management, etc. Also, the empirical results suggest that four dimensions of organizational politics (dominant coalition, influence exertion, making organizational changes, and information openness) are positively related to firm competitiveness. In addition, these findings seem to underline a supposition that corporate entrepreneurship is an important mediator which strengthens the competitive effects of organizational politics.

Keywords: corporate entrepreneurship, firm competitiveness, organizational politics, sensemaking

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Authors: Maria Luisa T. Uayan

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The global need for qualified nurses to take care of the clients with various health needs is an incessant occurrence that persistently cause migration of nurses from developing to developed countries. The pull-push theory of migration greatly affects health care delivery systems of sending countries which is the same way affects nursing management. The exodus of nurses prepared to provide the much needed leadership at the bedside leaves the country in clusters giving health care institutions limited time to develop the next front-line managers that will assure quality patient care. This paper focuses on the extent and consequences of the massive recurring migration phenomena that is felt ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINE health care arena. It deals with the causes, problems, and effects of the cyclical loss of competent Filipina nurses in terms of emigration. Also, it will highlights the difficulties confronted by nursing service departments and health care teams when more experienced nurses set out for the “greener pastures” and patients are placed under the care of novice nurses. Fundamentally, it will emphasize the impact of suffering the loss of competent nurse managers in the Philippine health care institutions and provide contemporary recommendations on how to responsd accordingly to this very timely issue.

Keywords: Migration, Nurse Manager, Philippines

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Authors: Zainal Abu Zarim, Hafizah Omar Zaki

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The objective of this study is to analyse the success factors of entrepreneurs in the Malaysian SMEs in the urge to discover their entrepreneurial leadership characteristics. Data has been collected from top 50 SME award winning companies. The study has used the qualitative approach to data collection, where interviews are dispersed on these selected companies. From these 50 SMEs, only 25 accepted the interview request where one entrepreneur from each SME answered the questions. To successfully run this study, we administered some questions based on Hornaday 42 characteristics of an entrepreneurs, as well some structured questions to determine a successful of a company. The result shows that, entrepreneurs are confident, determine, diligent, flexible, responsive to challenges, responsible, foresight, courageous, aggressive, and committed. Consistent to this, several elements that makes the company successful includes (1) strong financial control, (2) continuous improvement, (3) product quality and product safety as top priority, (4) hard work and team work, and (5) eagerness in taking challenges. These results has deemed that entrepreneurs in many aspects are also leaders that are risk averse and determine, and are eager to work on continuous improvement in a financially strong company.

Keywords: characteristics of entrepreneurs, success of a company, key success factors, Malaysian SMEs

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Authors: Nesrine Boussaoui

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Background: International students often encounter challenges while studying in the UK, including communication and language barriers, lack of social networks, and socio-cultural differences that adversely impact on their mental health. For Algerian international students (AISs), these challenges may be heightened as English is not their first language and the culture of their homeland is substantially different from British culture, yet research has to incorporate their experiences and perspectives. Aim: The current study aimed to explore AISs’ 1) understandings of mental health; 2) issues of disclosure for mental health difficulties; and 3) mental health help-seeking and coping strategies. Method: In-depth, audio recorded semi-structured interviews (n = 20) with AISs in UK universities were conducted. An inductive, reflective thematic approach analysis was used. Finding: The following themes and associated sub-themes were developed: (1) Algerian cultural influences on mental health understanding(socio-cultural comparisons); (2) the paradox of the family (pressure vs. support); (3) stigma and fear of disclosure; (4) Barriers to formal help-seeking (informal disclosure as first step to seeking help); (5) Communication barriers (resort to mother tongue to disclose); (6) Self-reliance and religious coping. Conclusion: Recognising and understanding the challenges faced by AISs in terms of disclosure and mental health help-seeking is essential to reduce barriers to formal help-seeking. Informal disclosure among peers is often the first step to seeking help. Enhancing practitioners’ cultural competences and awareness of diverse understandings of mental health and the role of religious coping among AISs’ may have transferable benefits to a wider international student population.

Keywords: mental health, stegma, coping, disclosure

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Authors: Nitu Marilena Cristina

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Decentralization of the education system is an educational policy option necessary from the perspective of democratizing internal life and streamlining service administration public. The experience of recent years has shown that decisions taken at central level do not to take into account all situations and especially all the specific needs and interests of the various institutions and individuals. A democratic society implies that the decision-making process is brought closer to the place of application, allowing citizens to take part in the decision-making that affects them directly or indirectly. Essentially decentralization of pre-university education is the transfer of authority, responsibility and resources in decision-making and general management, and financially to the educational units and the local community. This creates a frame of an effective collaboration between school and community. Modern theories on the leadership of education advocate the adoption of decentralization measures and participatory strategies. Numerous countries confronted with the educational impasse has appealed to these strategies. Reforming projects have begun application diversified and nuanced social decentralization models according to the specific social and educational situation. Analysis of legal provisions and measures adopted in the framework of the reform process indicates that, at least formally, decentralization is the solution chosen.

Keywords: decentralization, educational, management, reforming

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Authors: Apichaya Kaewuthai

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To study the meaning of Muslim name in order to analyse the underlining value and identity from first year to forth year Muslim students at Prince of Songkla University, Hatyai Campus. The questionnaires are employed as a main analytical tool to acquire the names from 80 Muslim students in four study years. The meanings of obtained names are subsequently analysed and summarized base upon related documents to uncover the beneath value. The study reveals that name of male is derived from the name of prophet; Nabi Muhammad, merit, dignity, origins, leadership and the faith in Islam. For female, on the other hand, their names are related to virtue and beauty, cleanliness and peace, hope and flowers which comply with their characteristics. One of the reasons contribute to the principle of naming is the regulation of Ministry of Culture which states that the name should represent one’s nature and characters. The given name reflects value and identity of Muslim which can be classified into three categories including 1) Value related to belief in Islam 2) value related to relationship among families and relatives 3) value about relationship with nature and environment. All the above mentioned reflect Muslim value and identity vividly. The name of Muslim students allows the researcher to perceive the perspective, belief and value in giving the name of Thai Muslim. Besides, it reveals social condition and their culture. It can also be the fundamental of studying the meaning of name in other races.

Keywords: the naming, Thai Muslim, culture, economic

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Authors: Dino Carpentras, Paul J. Maher, Caoimhe O'Reilly, Michael Quayle

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Opinion dynamics is a sub-field of agent-based modeling that focuses on people’s opinions and their evolutions over time. Despite the rapid increase in the number of publications in this field, it is still not clear how to apply these models to real-world scenarios. Indeed, there is no agreement on how people update their opinion while interacting. Furthermore, it is not clear if different topics will show the same dynamics (e.g., more polarized topics may behave differently). These problems are mostly due to the lack of experimental validation of the models. Some previous studies started bridging this gap in the literature by directly measuring people’s opinions before and after the interaction. However, these experiments force people to express their opinion as a number instead of using natural language (and then, eventually, encoding it as numbers). This is not the way people normally interact, and it may strongly alter the measured dynamics. Another limitation of these studies is that they usually average all the topics together, without checking if different topics may show different dynamics. In our work, we collected data from 200 participants on 5 unpolarized topics. Participants expressed their opinions in natural language (“agree” or “disagree”). We also measured the certainty of their answer, expressed as a number between 1 and 10. However, this value was not shown to other participants to keep the interaction based on natural language. We then showed the opinion (and not the certainty) of another participant and, after a distraction task, we repeated the measurement. To make the data compatible with opinion dynamics models, we multiplied opinion and certainty to obtain a new parameter (here called “continuous opinion”) ranging from -10 to +10 (using agree=1 and disagree=-1). We firstly checked the 5 topics individually, finding that all of them behaved in a similar way despite having different initial opinions distributions. This suggested that the same model could be applied for different unpolarized topics. We also observed that people tend to maintain similar levels of certainty, even when they changed their opinion. This is a strong violation of what is suggested from common models, where people starting at, for example, +8, will first move towards 0 instead of directly jumping to -8. We also observed social influence, meaning that people exposed with “agree” were more likely to move to higher levels of continuous opinion, while people exposed with “disagree” were more likely to move to lower levels. However, we also observed that the effect of influence was smaller than the effect of random fluctuations. Also, this configuration is different from standard models, where noise, when present, is usually much smaller than the effect of social influence. Starting from this, we built an opinion dynamics model that explains more than 80% of data variance. This model was also able to show the natural conversion of polarization from unpolarized states. This experimental approach offers a new way to build models grounded on experimental data. Furthermore, the model offers new insight into the fundamental terms of opinion dynamics models.

Keywords: experimental validation, micro-dynamics rule, opinion dynamics, update rule

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Authors: Wenjun Hou, Marek Perkowski

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The Traveling Salesman problem is famous in computing and graph theory. In short, it asks for the Hamiltonian cycle of the least total weight in a given graph with N nodes. All variations on this problem, such as those with K-bounded-degree nodes, are classified as NP-complete in classical computing. Although several papers propose theoretical high-level designs of quantum algorithms for the Traveling Salesman Problem, no quantum circuit implementation of these algorithms has been created up to our best knowledge. In contrast to previous papers, the goal of this paper is not to optimize some abstract complexity measures based on the number of oracle iterations, but to be able to evaluate the real circuit and time costs of the quantum computer. Using the emerging quantum programming language Q# developed by Microsoft, which runs quantum circuits in a quantum computer simulation, an implementation of the bounded-degree problem and its respective quantum circuit were created. To apply Grover’s algorithm to this problem, a quantum oracle was designed, evaluating the cost of a particular set of edges in the graph as well as its validity as a Hamiltonian cycle. Repeating the Grover algorithm with an oracle that finds successively lower cost each time allows to transform the decision problem to an optimization problem, finding the minimum cost of Hamiltonian cycles. N log₂ K qubits are put into an equiprobablistic superposition by applying the Hadamard gate on each qubit. Within these N log₂ K qubits, the method uses an encoding in which every node is mapped to a set of its encoded edges. The oracle consists of several blocks of circuits: a custom-written edge weight adder, node index calculator, uniqueness checker, and comparator, which were all created using only quantum Toffoli gates, including its special forms, which are Feynman and Pauli X. The oracle begins by using the edge encodings specified by the qubits to calculate each node that this path visits and adding up the edge weights along the way. Next, the oracle uses the calculated nodes from the previous step and check that all the nodes are unique. Finally, the oracle checks that the calculated cost is less than the previously-calculated cost. By performing the oracle an optimal number of times, a correct answer can be generated with very high probability. The oracle of the Grover Algorithm is modified using the recalculated minimum cost value, and this procedure is repeated until the cost cannot be further reduced. This algorithm and circuit design have been verified, using several datasets, to generate correct outputs.

Keywords: quantum computing, quantum circuit optimization, quantum algorithms, hybrid quantum algorithms, quantum programming, Grover’s algorithm, traveling salesman problem, bounded-degree TSP, minimal cost, Q# language

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Authors: Budhvin T. Withana, Sulochana Rupasinghe

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The educational system faces a significant concern with regards to Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, which are learning disabilities impacting reading and writing abilities. This is particularly challenging for children who speak the Sinhala language due to its complexity and uniqueness. Commonly used methods to detect the risk of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia rely on subjective assessments, leading to limited coverage and time-consuming processes. Consequently, delays in diagnoses and missed opportunities for early intervention can occur. To address this issue, the project developed a hybrid model that incorporates various deep learning techniques to detect the risk of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. Specifically, Resnet50, VGG16, and YOLOv8 models were integrated to identify handwriting issues. The outputs of these models were then combined with other input data and fed into an MLP model. Hyperparameters of the MLP model were fine-tuned using Grid Search CV, enabling the identification of optimal values for the model. This approach proved to be highly effective in accurately predicting the risk of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, providing a valuable tool for early detection and intervention. The Resnet50 model exhibited a training accuracy of 0.9804 and a validation accuracy of 0.9653. The VGG16 model achieved a training accuracy of 0.9991 and a validation accuracy of 0.9891. The MLP model demonstrated impressive results with a training accuracy of 0.99918, a testing accuracy of 0.99223, and a loss of 0.01371. These outcomes showcase the high accuracy achieved by the proposed hybrid model in predicting the risk of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia.

Keywords: neural networks, risk detection system, dyslexia, dysgraphia, deep learning, learning disabilities, data science

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Authors: Andrew Nowlan

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During the Coronavirus pandemic, collaborative online international learning (COIL) emerged as an alternative to overseas sojourns. However, now that face-to-face classes have resumed and students are studying abroad, the rationale for doing COIL is not always clear amongst educators and students. Also, the logistics of COIL become increasingly complicated when participants involved in a potential collaboration have different second language (L2) learning goals. In this paper, the researcher will report on a study involving two bilingual, cross-cultural COIL courses between students at a university in Japan and those studying in North America, from April to December, 2022. The students in Japan were enrolled in an intercultural communication class in their L2 of English, while the students in Canada and the United States were studying intermediate Japanese as their L2. Based on a qualitative survey and journaling data received from 31 students in Japan, and employing a transcendental phenomenological research design, the researcher will highlight the students’ essence of experience during COIL. Essentially, students benefited from the experience through improved communicative competences and increased knowledge of the target culture, even when the L2 learning goals between institutions differed. Students also reported that the COIL experience was effective in preparation for actual study abroad, as opposed to a replacement for it, which challenges the existing literature. Both educators and administrators will be exposed to the perceptions of Japanese university students towards COIL, which could be generalized to other higher education contexts, including those in Southeast Asia. Readers will also be exposed to ideas for developing more effective pre-departure study abroad programs and domestic intercultural curriculum through COIL, even when L2 learning goals may differ between participants.

Keywords: collaborative online international learning, study abroad, phenomenology, EdTech, intercultural communication

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Authors: Ekin Ece Gürer, Tarık Onur Tiryaki, Sevgi Kalayoğlu Beşışık, Fatma Savran Oğuz, Uğur Sezerman, Fatma Erdem, Gülşen Günel, Dürdane Serap Kuruca, Zerrin Aktaş, Oral Öncül

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Aim: Chemotherapytreatment in HodgkinLymphomaandNon-HodgkinLymphoma (NHL) diseasescausesgastrointestinalepithelialdamage, disruptstheintestinalmicrobiotabalanceandcausesdysbiosis. Inourstudy, it wasaimedtoshowtheeffect of thedamagecausedbychemotherapy on themicrobiotaandtheeffect of thechangingmicrobiota flora on thecourse of thedisease. Materials And Methods: Seven adult HL and seven adult HL patients to be treatedwithchemotherapywereincluded in the study. Stoolsamplesweretakentwice, beforechemotherapytreatmentandafterthe 3th course of treatment. SamplesweresequencedusingNextGenerationSequencing (NGS) methodafternucleicacidisolation. OTU tableswerepreparedusing NCBI blastnversion 2.0.12 accordingtothe NCBI general 16S bacterialtaxonomyreferencedated 10.08.2021. Thegenerated OTU tableswerecalculatedwith R Statistical Computer Language version 4.04 (readr, phyloseq, microbiome, vegan, descrand ggplot2 packages) to calculate Alpha diversityandtheirgraphicswerecreated. Statistical analyzeswerealsoperformedusing R Statistical Computer Language version 4.0.4 and studio IDE 1.4 (tidyverse, readr, xlsxand ggplot2 packages). Expression of IL-12 and IL-17 cytokineswasperformedbyrtPCRtwice, beforeandaftertreatment. Results: InHL patients, a significantdecreasewasobserved in themicrobiota flora of Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014 genus (p:0.036) andUndefined Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014 species (p:0.036) comparedtopre-treatment. When the post-treatment of HL patientswerecomparedwithhealthycontrols, a significantdecreasewasfound in themicrobiota of Prevotella_7 genus (p:0.049) andButyricimonas (p:0.006) in the post-treatmentmicrobiota of HL patients. InNHL patients, a significantdecreasewasobserved in themicrobiota flora of Coprococccus_3 genus (p:0.015) andUndefined Ruminoclostridium_5 (p:0.046) speciescomparedtopre-treatment. When post-treatment of NHL patientswerecomparedwithhealthycontrols, a significantabundance in theBacilliclass (p:0.029) and a significantdecrease in theUndefinedAlistipesspecies (p:0.047) wereobserved in the post-treatmentmicrobiota of NHL patients. While a decreasewasobserved in IL-12 cytokineexpressionuntilbeforetreatment, an increase in IL-17 cytokineexpressionwasdetected. Discussion: Intestinal flora monitoringafterchemotherapytreatmentshowsthat it can be a guide in thetreatment of thedisease. It is thoughtthatincreasingthediversity of commensalbacteria can alsopositivelyaffecttheprognosis of thedisease.

Keywords: hodgkin lymphoma, non-hodgkin, microbiota, cytokines

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Authors: Sakshi V. Tantak, Vishap K. Malik, Neelanjney Pilarisetty

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A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. It can be a product or a process that provides an innovative method of doing something, or offers a new technical perspective or solution to a problem. A patent can be obtained by making the technical information and details about the invention publicly available. The patent owner has exclusive rights to prevent or stop anyone from using the patented invention for commercial uses. Any commercial usage, distribution, import or export of a patented invention or product requires the patent owner’s consent. It has been observed that the central and important parts of patents are scripted in idiosyncratic and complex linguistic structures that can be difficult to read, comprehend or interpret for the masses. The abstracts of these patents tend to obfuscate the precise nature of the patent instead of clarifying it via direct and simple linguistic constructs. This makes it necessary to have an efficient access to this knowledge via concise and transparent summaries. However, as mentioned above, due to complex and repetitive linguistic constructs and extremely long sentences, common extraction-oriented automatic text summarization methods should not be expected to show a remarkable performance when applied to patent documents. Other, more content-oriented or abstractive summarization techniques are able to perform much better and generate more concise summaries. This paper proposes an efficient summarization system for patents using artificial intelligence, natural language processing and deep learning techniques to condense the knowledge and essential information from a patent document into a single summary that is easier to understand without any redundant formatting and difficult jargon.

Keywords: abstractive summarization, deep learning, natural language Processing, patent document

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Authors: Mengwei Li

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Since the 1990s, biennials, and large-scale transnational art exhibitions, have proliferated exponentially across the globe, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It has spurred debates regarding the inclusion of "new art cultures" and the deconstruction of the mechanism of exclusion embedded in the Western monopoly on art. Hans Belting introduced the concept of "global art" in 2013 to denounce the West's privileged canons in art by emphasising the inclusion of art practices from alleged non-Western regions. Arguably, the rise of new biennial networks developed by these locations has contributed to the asserted "inclusion of new art worlds." However, phrases such as "non-Western" and "beyond Euro-American" attached to these discussions raise the question of non- or beyond- in relation to whom. In this narrative, to become "integrated" and "equal" implies entry into the "core," a universal system in which preexisting authoritative voices define "newcomers" by what they are not. Possibly, if there is a global biennial system that symbolises a "universal language" of the contemporary art world, it is centered on the inherently dynamic yet asymmetrical interaction and negotiation between the "core" and the rest of the world's "periphery." Engaging with theories of "minor literature" developed by Deleuze and Guattari, this research proposes an epistemological framework to comprehend the global biennial discourse since the 1990s. Using this framework, this research looks at two biennial models in China: the 13th Shanghai Biennale, which was organised in the country's metropolitan art centre, and the 2nd Yinchuan Biennale, which was inaugurated in a geographically and economically marginalised city compared to domestic centres. By analysing how these two biennials from different locations in China positioned themselves and conveyed their local profiles through the universal language of the biennial, this research identifies a potential "minor" positionality within the global biennial discourse from China's perspective.

Keywords: biennials, China, contemporary, global art, minor literature

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Authors: Budhvin T. Withana, Sulochana Rupasinghe

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The problem of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, two learning disabilities that affect reading and writing abilities, respectively, is a major concern for the educational system. Due to the complexity and uniqueness of the Sinhala language, these conditions are especially difficult for children who speak it. The traditional risk detection methods for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia frequently rely on subjective assessments, making it difficult to cover a wide range of risk detection and time-consuming. As a result, diagnoses may be delayed and opportunities for early intervention may be lost. The project was approached by developing a hybrid model that utilized various deep learning techniques for detecting risk of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. Specifically, Resnet50, VGG16 and YOLOv8 were integrated to detect the handwriting issues, and their outputs were fed into an MLP model along with several other input data. The hyperparameters of the MLP model were fine-tuned using Grid Search CV, which allowed for the optimal values to be identified for the model. This approach proved to be effective in accurately predicting the risk of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, providing a valuable tool for early detection and intervention of these conditions. The Resnet50 model achieved an accuracy of 0.9804 on the training data and 0.9653 on the validation data. The VGG16 model achieved an accuracy of 0.9991 on the training data and 0.9891 on the validation data. The MLP model achieved an impressive training accuracy of 0.99918 and a testing accuracy of 0.99223, with a loss of 0.01371. These results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid model achieved a high level of accuracy in predicting the risk of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia.

Keywords: neural networks, risk detection system, Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, deep learning, learning disabilities, data science

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Authors: Wen-Chen Hwang, Yu-Hsi Yuan

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According to the estimation made by researchers of safety and hygiene, 80% to 90% of workplace accidents in enterprises could be attributed to human factors. Nevertheless, human factors are not the only cause for accidents; instead, happening of accidents is also closely associated with the safety culture of the organization. Therefore, the most effective way of reducing accident rate would be to improve the social and the organizational factors that influence organization’s safety performance. Overview the present study is to understand the current level of safety culture in manufacturing enterprises. A tool for evaluating safety culture matching the needs and characteristics of manufacturing enterprises was developed by reviewing literature of safety culture, and taking the special backgrounds of the case enterprises into consideration. Expert validity was also implied for developing the questionnaire. Moreover, safety culture assessment was conducted through the practical investigation of the case enterprises. Total 505 samples were involved, 53 were executives and 452 were operators. The result of this study in comparison of the safety culture level between the executives and the operators was reached the significant level in 8 dimensions: Safety Commitment, Safety System, Safety Training, Safety Involvement, Reward and Motivation, Communication and Reporting, Leadership and Supervision, Learning and Changing. In general, the overall safety culture were executive level higher than operators level (M: 74.98 > 69.08; t=2.87; p < 0.01).

Keywords: questionnaire survey, safety culture, t-test, media studies

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Authors: Agus Masrukhin

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This research aims to find and analyze the model of character building in the Police Headquarters in Bali with a case study of Muslim members in improving the quality of the morality of its members. The formation of patterns of thinking, behavior, mentality, and police officers noble character, later can be used as a solution to reduce the hedonistic nature of the challenges in the era of globalization. The benefit of this study is expected to be a positive recommendation to find a constructive character building models of police officers in the Republic of Indonesia, especially Bali Police. For the long term, the discovery of the character building models can be developed for the entire police force in Indonesia. The type of research that would apply in this study researchers mix the qualitative research methods based on the narrative between the subject and the concrete experience of field research and quantitative research methods with 92 respondents from the police regional police Bali. This research used a descriptive analysis and SWOT analysis then it is presented in the FGD (focus group discussion). The results of this research indicate that the variable modeling the leadership of the police and variable police offices culture have significant influence on the implementation of spiritual development.

Keywords: positive constructive, hedonistic, character models, morality

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Authors: Pooya Lotfabadi

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As the global community struggles with pressing environmental challenges, the field of architecture finds itself at the forefront of sustainability issues. This study evaluates the effectiveness of "ecological conscious building design" courses in architecture education, promoting ecological awareness among future architects. Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) as a framework, the study assesses the course’s influence on students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward sustainable practices. Through analyzing student feedback, performance assessments, and course outcomes, the research highlights the advantages and limitations of integrating ecological building design into the curriculum. Furthermore, the alignment between the course content and the leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) certification criteria is explored, evaluating its adequacy in preparing students for environmentally responsible architectural practices. This research offers critical insights for academia and the industry, offering guidance for refining pedagogical approaches, improving curriculum design, and fostering young architects committed to environmentally conscious practices. Ultimately, this study seeks to propel the field of architecture toward a more sustainable and ecologically responsible future.

Keywords: AHP, architectural education, ecological design, sustainability

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Authors: Gabriel Sunday Ayayia

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The paper argues that Ubuntu, as a philosophy that emphasizes the interconnectedness of all living things and importance of community and mutual support, can be used as a social framework to address the problems of climate change and promote environmental sustainability. The research demonstrate that Ubuntu is an ideological concept that encourages collective action on climate change, with the emphasis on individual and collective commitment to taking concrete action to address the problems of climate change. The paper shows that Ubuntu can be employed as a social tool that would enhance the cultivation of shared identity and promote the sense of shared response responsibility to develop the resilience to cope with climate change. Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the study establishes the imperativeness of mutual support and cooperation through the lens of Ubuntu as a human-centered scalable response to the debacle of climate change. It recommends that we can build a society that values the environment and promotes sustainable practices by encouraging community involvement in sustainable initiatives by integrating Ubuntu-based principles to our decision-making processes, collaboration, leadership, human agency and governance.

Keywords: ubuntu, climate change, humanity, collective actions, community-based

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Authors: Wenbo Du, Xiaomei Ma

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With the empowerment of Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment (CDA), various domains of language testing and assessment have been investigated to dig out more diagnostic information. What is noticeable is that most of the extant empirical CDA-based research puts much emphasis on individual-level diagnostic purpose with very few concerned about learners’ group-level performance. Even though the personalized diagnostic feedback is the unique feature that differentiates CDA from other assessment tools, group-level diagnostic information cannot be overlooked in that it might be more practical in classroom setting. Additionally, the group-level diagnostic information obtained via current CDA always results in a “flat pattern”, that is, the mastery/non-mastery of all tested skills accounts for the two highest proportion. In that case, the outcome does not bring too much benefits than the original total score. To address these issues, the present study attempts to apply cluster analysis for group classification and quantile regression analysis to pinpoint learners’ performance at different proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) thus to enhance the interpretation of the CDA results extracted from a group of EFL learners’ reading performance on a diagnostic reading test designed by PELDiaG research team from a key university in China. The results show that EM method in cluster analysis yield more appropriate classification results than that of CDA, and quantile regression analysis does picture more insightful characteristics of learners with different reading proficiencies. The findings are helpful and practical for instructors to refine EFL reading curriculum and instructional plan tailored based on the group classification results and quantile regression analysis. Meanwhile, these innovative statistical methods could also make up the deficiencies of CDA and push forward the development of language testing and assessment in the future.

Keywords: cognitive diagnostic assessment, diagnostic feedback, EFL reading, quantile regression

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Authors: Yusuf Abubakar Mamud

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Highlighting the imperatives of local conflicts considering the dangerous dimensions of terrorism they are assuming in Africa has not attracted serious academic and political attention. The discourse about conflict in Africa was discussed within five identified conflict zones in the continent. The threats from these local conflicts are diverse and complex and the acts of terrorism in these local conflicts are driven by certain attitudes and behaviours linked to the African leadership. The paper examined and noted that the current conflict resolution model of the African Union (AU) was robust with requisite institutions to address the trends in local conflicts. However, it was observed that the AU peace and security framework lacked the requisite structural and technical capabilities to proactively address the drivers of local conflicts in Africa. It was found that the persistence of local conflicts in the African region may deny her the opportunities of achievement of the targets envisioned in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, the paper called on the international community to support Africa through provision of capacity. It urged the African leaders themselves to develop the political will to ensure that all issues concerning peace and security in the continent were guided by the provisions of the AU Constitutive Act. The need to strengthen the APRM in the light of the current trends in local conflicts was also highlighted.

Keywords: conflicts, local conflicts, terrorism, sustainable development

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Authors: Matshidiso Joyce Taole, Linley Cornish

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Teacher’s professional knowledge has become the focus of interest over decades and the interest has intensified in the 21st century. Teachers are expected to develop their professional academic expertise continually, on an ongoing basis. Such professional development may relate to acquiring enhanced expertise in terms of leadership, curriculum development, teaching and learning, assessment of/for learning and feedback for enhanced learning. The paper focuses on professional knowledge base required for teachers in multi-grade contexts. This paper argues that although teacher knowledge is strongly related to individual experiences and contexts, there are elements of teacher knowledge that are particular to multi-grade context. The study employed qualitative design using interviews and observations. The participants were multi-grade teachers and teaching principals. The study revealed that teachers need to develop skills such as learner grouping, differentiating the curriculum, planning, time management and be life-long learners so that they stay relevant and up to date with developments not only in the education sector but globally. This will help teachers to learn increasingly sophisticated methods for engaging the diverse needs of students in their classrooms.

Keywords: curriculum differentiation, multi-grade, planning, teacher knowledge

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Authors: Eunice Tang

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The main focus of this study is investigating introvert and extrovert university students’ perception of the use of interactive digital tools (such as Padlet and Mentimeter) in a face-to-face English for Specific Purposes (ESP) class after all classes in the university had been switched to online mode for three semesters. The subjects of the study were business students from three ESP classes at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The basic tool for data collection was an anonymous online survey, which included 3 required multiple-choice questions and 3 open questions (2 required; 1 optional) about the effects of interactive digital tools on their amount of contribution to the class discussions, their perception of the role of interactive digital tools to the sharing of ideas and whether the students considered themselves introvert or extrovert. The online survey will be emailed to all 54 students in the three ESP classes and subjected to a three-week data collection period. The survey results will then be analyzed qualitatively, particularly on the effect the use of interactive digital tools had on the amount of contribution to the class among introvert and extrovert students, their perception of a language class with and without digital tools and most importantly, the implication to educators about how interactive digital tools can be used (or not) to cater for the needs of the introvert and extrovert students. The pandemic has given educators various opportunities to use interactive digital tools in class, especially in an online environment. It is interesting for educators to explore the potential of such tools when classes are back face-to-face. This research thus offers the students’ perspective on using interactive digital tools in a face-to-face classroom. While a lot has been said about introverted students responding positively to digital learning online, the student's perception of their own personality collected in the survey and the digital impact tools have on their contribution to class may shed some light on the potential of interactive digital tools in a post-pandemic era.

Keywords: psychology for language learning, interactive digital tools, personality-based investigation, ESP

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Authors: Thelma Palaoag, Melanie Basa, Jezreel Mark Panilo

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Checking short-answer questions and essays, whether it may be paper or electronic in form, is a tiring and tedious task for teachers. Evaluating a student’s output require wide array of domains. Scoring the work is often a critical task. Several attempts in the past few years to create an automated writing assessment software but only have received negative results from teachers and students alike due to unreliability in scoring, does not provide feedback and others. The study aims to create an application that will be able to check short-answer questions which incorporate information extraction. Information extraction is a subfield of Natural Language Processing (NLP) where a chunk of text (technically known as unstructured text) is being broken down to gather necessary bits of data and/or keywords (structured text) to be further analyzed or rather be utilized by query tools. The proposed system shall be able to extract keywords or phrases from the individual’s answers to match it into a corpora of words (as defined by the instructor), which shall be the basis of evaluation of the individual’s answer. The proposed system shall also enable the teacher to provide feedback and re-evaluate the output of the student for some writing elements in which the computer cannot fully evaluate such as creativity and logic. Teachers can formulate, design, and check short answer questions efficiently by defining keywords or phrases as parameters by assigning weights for checking answers. With the proposed system, teacher’s time in checking and evaluating students output shall be lessened, thus, making the teacher more productive and easier.

Keywords: information extraction, short-answer question, natural language processing, application

Procedia PDF Downloads 428