Search results for: computer assisted strategies

Authors: Medha Talpade, Salil Talpade

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The intent of this quantitative project was to compare the values and perceptions of students from a predominantly white college (PWI) to those from a historically black college (HBCU) about culturally relevant teaching and learning practices in the academic realm. The reason for interrelating student culture with teaching practices is to enable a pedagogical response to the low retention rates of African American students and first generation Caucasian students in high schools, colleges, and their low rates of social mobility and educational achievement. Culturally relevant pedagogy, according to related research, is deemed rewarding to students, teachers, the local and national community. Critical race theory (CRT) is the main framework used in this project to explain the ubiquity of a culturally relevant pedagogy. The purpose of this quantitative study was to test the critical race theory that relates the presence of the factors associated with culturally relevant teaching strategies with perceived relevance. The culturally relevant teaching strategies were identified based on the recommendations and findings of past research. Participants in this study included approximately 145 students from a HBCU and 55 students from the PWI. A survey consisting of 37 items related to culturally relevant pedagogy was administered. The themes used to construct the items were: Use of culturally-specific examples in class whenever possible; use of culturally-specific presentational models, use of relational reinforcers, and active engagement. All the items had a likert-type response scale. Participants reported their degree of agreement (5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree) and importance (3-point scale ranging from not at all important to very important) with each survey item. A new variable, Relevance was formed based on the multiplicative function of importance and presence of a teaching and learning strategy. A set of six demographic questions were included in the survey. A consent form based on NIH and APA ethical standards was distributed prior to survey administration to the volunteers. Results of a Factor Analyses on the data from the PWI and the HBCU, and a ANOVA indicated significant differences on ‘Relevance’ related to specific themes. Results of this study are expected to inform educational practices and improve teaching and learning outcomes.

Keywords: culturally relevant pedagogy, college students, cross-cultural, applied psychology

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Authors: Sender Dovchin

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Moving beyond two main frameworks of interlingual and intralingual discrimination, this paper will address the understanding of translingual discrimination. This concept refers to discrimination based on how one uses certain languages, linguistic and communicative repertoires, which are (il)legitimised by the interactants. Translingual discrimination contributes intensity to transnational migrations processes, where migrants with transitional backgrounds seem to illustrate two main characteristics of marginalizations – “name discrimination” and “accentism”. The lifelong accumulation of these characteristics of translingual discrimination may cause negative emotionality, such as translingual inferiority complexes, to its victims. As a result, these transnational migrants seem to adopt varied coping strategies such as CV-whitening and accent purifications while probing for translingual safe spaces. The presentation concludes with the socio-cultural and pedagogical implications of translingual discrimination in relation to the language usage of transnational migrants.

Keywords: accentism, discrimination, migrants, translingualism

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Authors: Mohammad Sheikhalishahi, Vahid Ebrahimipour, Amir Hossein Radman-Kian

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This paper proposes an Ontology framework for knowledge modeling and representation of the equipment integrity process in a typical oil and gas production plant. Our aim is to construct a knowledge modeling that facilitates translation, interpretation, and conversion of human-readable integrity interpretation into computer-readable representation. The framework provides a function structure related to fault propagation using ISO 14224 and ISO 15926 OWL-Lite/ Resource Description Framework (RDF) to obtain a generic system-level model of asset integrity that can be utilized in the integrity engineering process during the equipment life cycle. It employs standard terminology developed by ISO 15926 and ISO 14224 to map textual descriptions of equipment failure and then convert it to a causality-driven logic by semantic interpretation and computer-based representation using Lite/RDF. The framework applied for an offshore gas riser. The result shows that the approach can cross-link the failure-related integrity words and domain-specific logic to obtain a representation structure of equipment integrity with causality inference based on semantic extraction of inspection report context.

Keywords: asset integrity modeling, interoperability, OWL, RDF/XML

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Authors: Keiko Sakai

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In Japan, all stages of public education aim to foster a zest for life. ‘Zest’ implies solving problems by oneself, using acquired knowledge and skills. It is related to the self-regulation of metacognition. To enhance this, establishing good learning habits is important. Tardiness in undergraduate students should be examined based on self-regulation. Accordingly, we focussed on self-monitoring and self-planning strategies among self-regulated learning factors to examine the causes of tardiness. This study examines the impact of self-monitoring and self-planning learning skills on the degree and reason for tardiness in undergraduate students. A questionnaire survey was conducted, targeted to undergraduate students in University X in the autumn semester of 2018. Participants were 247 (average age 19.7, SD 1.9; 144 males, 101 females, 2 no answers). The survey contained the following items and measures: school year, the number of classes in the semester, degree of tardiness in the semester (subjective degree and objective times), active participation in and action toward schoolwork, self-planning and self-monitoring learning skills, and reason for tardiness (open-ended question). First, the relation between strategies and tardiness was examined by multiple regressions. A statistically significant relationship between a self-monitoring learning strategy and the degree of subjective and objective tardiness was revealed, after statistically controlling the school year and the number of classes. There was no significant relationship between a self-planning learning strategy and the degree of tardiness. These results suggest that self-monitoring skills reduce tardiness. Secondly, the relation between a self-monitoring learning strategy and the reason of tardiness was analysed, after classifying the reason for tardiness into one of seven categories: ‘overslept’, ‘illness’, ‘poor time management’, ‘traffic delays’, ‘carelessness’, ‘low motivation’, and ‘stuff to do’. Chi-square tests and Fisher’s exact tests showed a statistically significant relationship between a self-monitoring learning strategy and the frequency of ‘traffic delays’. This result implies that self-monitoring skills prevent tardiness because of traffic delays. Furthermore, there was a weak relationship between a self-monitoring learning strategy score and the reason-for-tardiness categories. When self-monitoring skill is higher, a decrease in ‘overslept’ and ‘illness’, and an increase in ‘poor time management’, ‘carelessness’, and ‘low motivation’ are indicated. It is suggested that a self-monitoring learning strategy is related to an internal causal attribution of failure and self-management for how to prevent tardiness. From these findings, the effectiveness of a self-monitoring learning skill strategy for reducing tardiness in undergraduate students is indicated.

Keywords: higher-education, self-monitoring, self-regulation, tardiness

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Authors: Vidya Nimkar Tayade

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Introduction: Intellectual capital of an organization is a key factor to success. Many companies invest a huge amount in their Research and development activities. Any innovation is helpful not only to that particular company but also to many other companies, industry and mankind as a whole. Companies undertake innovative changes for increasing their capital profitability and indirectly increase in pay packages of their employees. The quality of human capital can also improve due to such positive changes. Employees become more skilled and experienced due to such innovations and inventions. For increasing intangible capital, the author has referred to a couple of books and referred case studies to come to a conclusion. Different charts and tables are also referred to by the author. Case studies are more important because they are proven and established techniques. They enable students to apply theoretical concepts in real-world situations. It gives solutions to an open-ended problem with multiple potential solutions. There are three different strategies for undertaking intellectual capital increase. They are: Research push strategy/ Technology pushed approach, Market pull strategy/ approach and Open innovation strategy/approach. Research push strategy, In this strategy, research is undertaken and innovation is achieved on its own. After invention inventor company protects such invention and finds buyers for such invention. In this way, the invention is pushed into the market. In this method, research and development are undertaken first and the outcome of this research is commercialized. Market pull strategy, In this strategy, commercial opportunities are identified first and our research is concentrated in that particular area. For solving a particular problem, research is undertaken. It becomes easier to commercialize this type of invention. Because what is the problem is identified first and in that direction, research and development activities are carried on. Open invention strategy, In this type of research, more than one company enters into an agreement of research. The benefits of the outcome of this research will be shared by both companies. Internal and external ideas and technologies are involved. These ideas are coordinated and then they are commercialized. Due to globalization, people from the outside company are also invited to undertake research and development activities. Remuneration of employees of both the companies can increase and the benefit of commercialization of such invention is also shared by both the companies. Conclusion: In modern days, not only can tangible assets be commercialized, but also intangible assets can also be commercialized. The benefits of such an invention can be shared by more than one company. Competition can become more meaningful. Pay packages of employees can improve. It Is a need for time to adopt such strategies to benefit employees, competitors, stakeholders.

Keywords: innovation, protection, management, commercialization

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Authors: Najla Alshenaifi, Nicholas Clarke

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Interest in how followers may influence their leaders in order to achieve their goals can be traced to studies in the late 1970s. The last major review of the literature was published over a decade ago in 2002. It would seem timely then to take stock of the literature and consider what we have learned since then. In so doing, our aim is to derive an empirically-based framework for understanding the effects of upward influence tactics to underpin future research in the field. Many factors are identified as having a major effect on upward influence processes including goals of influence, culture, gender, leadership style and the outcome of influence. A key conclusion from our review is that although upward influence tactics can result in positive outcomes for followers, the results from many studies are more often than inconclusive.

Keywords: upward influence tactics, influence tactics, influence strategies, followership

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Authors: Hameed Alsamadany, Nader Aryamanesh, Guijun Yan

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Heat is one of the major abiotic stresses limiting wheat production worldwide. To identify heat tolerant genotypes, a newly designed system involving a large plastic box holding many layers of filter papers positioned vertically with wheat seeds sown in between for the ease of screening large number of wheat geno types was developed and used to study heat tolerance. A collection of 499 wheat geno types were screened under heat stress (35ºC) and non-stress (25ºC) conditions using the new method. Compared with those under non-stress conditions, a substantial and very significant reduction in seedling length (SL) under heat stress was observed with an average reduction of 11.7 cm (P<0.01). A damage index (DI) of each geno type based on SL under the two temperatures was calculated and used to rank the genotypes. Three hexaploid geno types of Triticum aestivum [Perenjori (DI= -0.09), Pakistan W 20B (-0.18) and SST16 (-0.28)], all growing better at 35ºC than at 25ºC were identified as extremely heat tolerant (EHT). Two hexaploid genotypes of T. aestivum [Synthetic wheat (0.93) and Stiletto (0.92)] and two tetraploid genotypes of T. turgidum ssp dicoccoides [G3211 (0.98) and G3100 (0.93)] were identified as extremely heat susceptible (EHS). Another 14 geno types were classified as heat tolerant (HT) and 478 as heat susceptible (HS). Extremely heat tolerant and heat susceptible geno types were used to develop re combinant inbreeding line populations for genetic studies. Four major QTLs, HTI4D, HTI3B.1, HTI3B.2 and HTI3A located on wheat chromosomes 4D, 3B (x2) and 3A, explaining up to 34.67 %, 28.93 %, 13.46% % and 11.34% phenotypic variation, respectively, were detected. The four QTLs together accounted for 88.40% of the total phenotypic variation. Random wheat geno types possessing the four heat tolerant alleles performed significantly better under the heat condition than those lacking the heat tolerant alleles indicating the importance of the four QTLs in conferring heat tolerance in wheat. Molecular markers are being developed for marker assisted breeding of heat tolerant wheat.

Keywords: bread wheat, heat tolerance, screening, RILs, QTL mapping, association analysis

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Authors: Hicham Amine, Abdelouahab Mesnaoui

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Electronic data interchange EDI is the computer-to-computer exchange of structured business information. This information typically takes the form of standardized electronic business documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, bills of lading, and so on. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact EDI might have on supply chain and typically on customer satisfaction keeping in mind the constraints the organization might face. This study included 139 subject matter experts (SMEs) who participated by responding to a survey that was distributed. 85% responded that they are extremely for the implementation while 10% were neutral and 5% were against the implementation. From the quality assurance department, we have got 75% from the clients agreed to move on with the change whereas 10% stayed neutral and finally 15% were against the change. From the legal department where 80% of the answers were for the implementation and 10% of the participants stayed neutral whereas the last 10% were against it. The survey consisted of 40% male and 60% female (sex-ratio (F/M=1,5), who had chosen to participate. Our survey also contained 3 categories in terms of technical background where 80% are from technical background and 15% were from nontechnical background and 5% had some average technical background. This study examines the impact of EDI on customer satisfaction which is the primary hypothesis and justifies the importance of the implementation which enhances the customer satisfaction.

Keywords: electronic data interchange, supply chain, subject matter experts, customer satisfaction

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Authors: Leyi Wang

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The effect of religion on conflicts is usually over-focused. Religion is not the root cause of conflicts. There are always social, political or economic factors pushing the acceleration of conflicts. Meanwhile, the charisma of religion on calling for adherents is often utilized by political leaders as a tool of providing legitimacy to the initiating of violence and mobilizing the public during conflicts. What people identify from the connections between religion and conflicts is fake. There are some strategies used by politicians to upgrade the conflicts into violence. Consequently, there are some assumptions of which try to limit the religion’s effects on accelerating conflicts. This essay aims to discuss the roles of religion in international relations and argues that the religion difference is not the real source of conflicts in the globe, by reviewing the relevant literature for understanding the research background and gap of this topic. Also, this essay will suggest some implementations on dealing with the regional conflicts.

Keywords: religion, conflicts, criticism, international relations

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Authors: K. Sushma Varma, Rajesh Singh

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Non-engineered landfills cause serious environmental damage due to toxic emissions and mobilization of persistent pollutants, organic and inorganic contaminants, as well as soluble metal ions. The available treatment technologies for landfill leachate and solid waste are not effective from an economic, environmental, and social standpoint. The present study assesses the potential of the bioelectrochemical system (BES) integrated with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in the sustainable treatment and decontamination of landfill wastes. For this purpose, solid waste and landfill leachate collected from different landfill sites were evaluated for long-term treatment using the integrated SRB-BES anaerobic designed bioreactors after pre-treatment. Based on periodic gas composition analysis, physicochemical characterization of the leachate and solid waste, and metal concentration determination, the present system demonstrated significant improvement in volumetric hydrogen production by suppressing methanogenesis. High reduction percentages of Be, Cr, Pb, Cd, Sb, Ni, Cr, COD, and sTOC removal were observed. This mineralization can be attributed to the synergistic effect of ammonia-assisted pre-treatment complexation and microbial sulphide formation. Despite being amended with 0.1N ammonia, the treated leachate level of NO³⁻ was found to be reduced along with SO₄²⁻. This integrated SRB-BES system can be recommended as an eco-friendly solution for landfill reclamation. The BES-treated solid waste was evidently more stabilized, as shown by a five-fold increase in surface area, and potentially useful for leachate immobilization and bio-fortification of agricultural fields. The vector arrangement and magnitude showed similar treatment with differences in magnitudes for both leachate and solid waste. These findings support the efficacy of SRB-BES in the treatment of landfill leachate and solid waste sustainably, inching a step closer to our sustainable development goals. It utilizes low-cost treatment, and anaerobic SRB adapted to landfill sites. This technology may prove to be a sustainable treatment strategy upon scaling up as its outcomes are two-pronged: landfill waste treatment and energy recovery.

Keywords: bio-electrochemical system, leachate /solid waste treatment, landfill leachate, sulfate-reducing bacteria

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Authors: Jovana Vukcevic, Sanja Pekovic, Djurdjica Perovic, Tatjana Stanovcic

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This paper presents a critical inquiry into the role of uncomfortable heritage in nation branding with the particular focus on the specificities of the politics of memory, forgetting and revisionism in the post-communist post-Yugoslavia. It addresses legacies of unwanted, ambivalent or unacknowledged past and different strategies employed by the former-Yugoslav states and private actors in “rebranding” their heritage, ensuring its preservation, but re-contextualizing the narrative of the past through contemporary tourism practices. It questions the interplay between nostalgia, heritage and market, and the role of heritage in polishing the history of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in the Balkans. It argues that in post-socialist Yugoslavia, the necessity to limit correlations with former ideology and the use of the commercial brush in shaping a marketable version of the past instigated the emergence of the profit-oriented heritage practices. Building on that argument, the paper addresses these issues as “commodification” and “disneyfication” of Balkans’ ambivalent heritage, contributing to the analysis of changing forms of memorialisation and heritagization practices in Europe. It questions the process of ‘coming to terms with the past’ through marketable forms of heritage tourism, fetching the boundary between market-driven nostalgia and state-imposed heritage policies. In order to analyse plurality of ways of dealing with controversial, ambivalent and unwanted heritage of dictatorships in the Balkans, the paper considers two prominent examples of heritage commodification in Serbia and Montenegro, and the re-appropriations of those narratives for the nation branding purposes. The first one is the story of the Tito’s Blue Train, the landmark of the socialist past and the symbol of Yugoslavia which has nowadays being used for birthday parties and marriage celebrations, while the second emphasises the unusual business arrangement turning the fortress Mamula, former concentration camp through the Second World War, into a luxurious Mediterranean resort. Questioning how the ‘uneasy’ past was acknowledged and embedded into the official heritage institutions and tourism practices, study examines the changing relation towards the legacies of dictatorships, inviting us to rethink the economic models of the things past. Analysis of these processes should contribute to better understanding of the new mnemonics strategies and (converging?) ways of ‘doing’ past in Europe.

Keywords: commodification, heritage tourism, totalitarianism, Serbia, Montenegro

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Authors: Dina Mohamed Ahmed Mahmoud Bakr

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The concept of a circular economy is gaining increasing attention as a way to promote sustainable economic growth and reduce the environmental impact of human activities. The circular economy is a systemic approach that aims to keep materials and resources in use for as long as possible, minimize waste and pollution, and regenerate natural systems. The purpose of this article is to present a summary of the principles and tactics employed in the circular economy, along with examples of prosperous circular economy projects implemented in different sectors across Japan, Austria, the Netherlands, South Africa, Germany, and the United States. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities associated with the transition to a circular economy and the policy interventions that can support this transition.

Keywords: circular economy, waste reduction, sustainable development, recycling

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Authors: Rami Al-Sadi

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The assignment of lexical stress in English to its correct syllable is an enormous challenge to EFL learners, especially if their first language (L1) phonology is very different from English phonology. Arabic-speaking EFL learners not only stumble very frequently when it comes to placing the lexical stress in a given word, but they also seem to relegate the role of lexical stress as unimportant, mainly because in Arabic, unlike in English, lexical stress is not phonemic. This study aims at exploring the possible benefits of utilizing spectrographic representations of English words correctly pronounced, for the purpose of finding out how these spectrograms can provide a visual aid to the learners and help them rectify their stress placement errors as they see in real time spectrograms of the correct pronunciations juxtaposed on a computer screen with spectrograms of their own pronunciations for easy comparison. The study involved 120 students from the English Department at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. 60 participants were taught the English lexical stress rules and also received spectrographic guidance on pronunciation; the other 60 received only verbal instruction on the stress rules and verbal feedback on their pronunciations. Statistical results showed that when the learners had the opportunity to ‘see’ their pronunciation mistakes, they were three times more likely to rectify their placement of lexical stress.

Keywords: Arabic-speaking EFL learners, lexical stress, pronunciation, spectrographic representation, stress placement

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Authors: Maria Manzoor, Iram Gul, Muhammad Arshad, Jean Kallerhoff

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The potential of fungal isolates to be used in phytoremediation of widespread lead contaminated soil has been evaluated in this study. Five different fungal isolates (Trichoderma harzianum, Penicillium simplicissimum, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger and Mucor spp.) were obtained and tested for their tolerance to increasing concentration of lead (Pb) i.e. 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 mgL-1 on PDA and PDB culture experiment. All strains were tolerant up to 500 mgL-1 following sequence; A. flavus > A. niger > Mucor spp. > P. simplicissimum > T. harzianum. Further the isolates were then monitored for possible effect on Pb solubility/mobility through soil incubation experiments and characterized for essays including pathogenicity, germination and root elongation and plant growth promoting activities including IAA (indole acetic acid), phosphorus solubilization and gibberellic acid (GA3) production. Results revealed that fungal isolates have positive effect on Pb mobility in soil and plant biomass production. Pb solubility was significantly (P> 0.05) increased in soil upon application of Mucor spp. P. simplicissimum and T. harzianum. when compared to control. Among different strains three isolates (Mucor spp., P. simplicissimum and T. harzianum) were nonpathogenic because no inhibitory effect of fungus was observed to plant growth when exposed to these strains in root shoot elongation essay. Particularly T. harzianum and P. simplicissimum showed great ability to increase root length by 1.1 and 1.3 folds and shoot length by 1.47 and 1.5 folds respectively under Pb stress (500 mgL-1). Significantly high production of IAA was observed in A. niger (26.7 μg/ml), Phosphorus solubilization was observed in T. harzianum (9.15 μg/ml) and GA3 production was observed in P. simplicissimum (11.02 μg/ml). From results it is concluded that Mucor spp., P. simplicissimum and T. harzianum have potential to increase Pb mobility and improving plant growth under highy Pb contamination, therefore can be used in microbially assisted phytoremediation of Pb contaminated soil.

Keywords: Pb tolerant fungus, Pb mobility, plant growth promoting activities, indole acetic acid (IAA)

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Authors: Peter C. St. John, Michael F. Crowley, Yannick J. Bomble

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Production of chemicals from engineered organisms in a batch culture typically involves a trade-off between productivity, yield, and titer. However, strategies for strain design typically involve designing mutations to achieve the highest yield possible while maintaining growth viability. Such approaches tend to follow the principle of designing static networks with minimum metabolic functionality to achieve desired yields. While these methods are computationally tractable, optimum productivity is likely achieved by a dynamic strategy, in which intracellular fluxes change their distribution over time. One can use multi-stage fermentations to increase either productivity or yield. Such strategies would range from simple manipulations (aerobic growth phase, anaerobic production phase), to more complex genetic toggle switches. Additionally, some computational methods can also be developed to aid in optimizing two-stage fermentation systems. One can assume an initial control strategy (i.e., a single reaction target) in maximizing productivity - but it is unclear how close this productivity would come to a global optimum. The calculation of maximum theoretical yield in metabolic engineering can help guide strain and pathway selection for static strain design efforts. Here, we present a method for the calculation of a maximum theoretical productivity of a batch culture system. This method follows the traditional assumptions of dynamic flux balance analysis: that internal metabolite fluxes are governed by a pseudo-steady state and external metabolite fluxes are represented by dynamic system including Michealis-Menten or hill-type regulation. The productivity optimization is achieved via dynamic programming, and accounts explicitly for an arbitrary number of fermentation stages and flux variable changes. We have applied our method to succinate production in two common microbial hosts: E. coli and A. succinogenes. The method can be further extended to calculate the complete productivity versus yield Pareto surface. Our results demonstrate that nearly optimal yields and productivities can indeed be achieved with only two discrete flux stages.

Keywords: A. succinogenes, E. coli, metabolic engineering, metabolite fluxes, multi-stage fermentations, succinate

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Authors: Babak H. Tabrizi, Seyed Farid Ghaderi

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On-time availability of materials in the construction sites plays an outstanding role in successful achievement of project’s deliverables. Thus, this paper has investigated formulation of project scheduling and material procurement at the same time, by a mixed-integer programming model, aiming to minimize/maximize penalty/reward to deliver the project and minimize material holding, ordering, and procurement costs, respectively. We have taken both all-units and incremental discount possibilities into consideration to address more flexibility from the procurement side with regard to real world conditions. Finally, the applicability and efficiency of the mathematical model is tested by different numerical examples.

Keywords: discount strategies, material purchasing, project planning, project scheduling

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Authors: Erinma Chibuzo Nwandu

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Graduates unemployment has risen astronomically in spite of the emphasis on teaching of small scale business and Entrepreneurship in schools. This study sets out to evaluate the effect of teaching small scale business and Entrepreneurship on graduates’ unemployment in Nigeria. This study adopted the survey research design. Thus the nature of data for this study is primary, sourced by the use of a questionnaire administered to a sample of two thousand and sixty-five (2065) respondents drawn from groups of graduates who are employed, unemployed and self-employed in South East Nigeria. Simple percentages, Chi-square and regression analysis were used to derive useful and meaningful information and test the hypotheses respectively. Findings from the study suggest that Nigeria graduates are ill prepared to embark on small-scale business and entrepreneurship after graduation, and that teaching of small scale business and entrepreneurship in Nigeria tertiary institutions is ineffective on graduate unemployment reduction. Findings also suggest that while a lot of graduates agreed that they have taken a class(s) on small scale or entrepreneurship, they received more theoretical teachings than practical, more so while teachings on small scale business or entrepreneurship motivated graduates to think of self-employment, most of them cannot do a good business plan and hence could not benefit from some kind of Government assisted program for small-scale business and bank loan for the sake of small scale business. Thus, so many graduates are not interested in small scale business or entrepreneurship development as a result of lack of startup capital. The study thus recommends that course content and teaching method of entrepreneurship education needs to be reviewed and re-structured to constitute more practical teachings than theoretical teachings. Also, graduates should be exposed to seminar /workshop for self-employment at least once every semester. There should be practical teaching and practice of developing a business plan that will be viable to attract government or private sponsorship as well for it to be viable to attract financing from financing institutions. Government should provide a fund such as venture capital financing arrangement to empower business startups in Nigeria by graduates’.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, small scale business, startup capital, unemployment

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Authors: Shakeela Ahmed, Nabanita Hazarika

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The study aims to understand the effects of dementia on family members. The primary objectives of this research are to identify the main reasons for dementia among the elderly, understand the struggles and stigmas faced by the family members, and understand the effects of dementia on family members. The research employs a qualitative method and utilizes unstructured interviews with family members, counselors and caregivers. A descriptive research design is employed, and thematic analysis is used to analyze the data. A total of 17 family members in the age group of 54-69 years were interviewed, along with 2 counselors and 2 caretakers. In understanding dementia, the researcher has reviewed articles, and the studies revealed diverse meanings, symptoms, stages attached to dementia, and the complex interplay of protective and risk factors for dementia. However, in understanding dementia and its effects on families, there is a lack of studies in relation to the significant effects of dementia on family members and their role as primary caregivers. Therefore, an attempt has been made to understand the effects of dementia on family members, along with ways to improve dementia care for family members. The purpose of the study was to understand the effects and challenges of dementia on family members, the psychosocial reasons for dementia among the elderly, and the various struggles and stigmas faced by the family members of dementia patients. The major findings of the study indicate that people with dementia are cared for by family members at home. Dementia has a significant impact on family members. Family member's quality of life is affected; they experience feelings of anxiety, stress, irritation, frustration, and fear as they watch their loved ones struggle with dementia. They also experience financial strain, as dementia care, medication, and therapy are expensive. Another common impact is the role reversal of family members for their loved ones with dementia. There is a lack of awareness and social understanding about dementia, which leads to family members experiencing stigma and struggles. Caregivers are unable to take care of themselves, and many times, the primary caregiver, a spouse who is elderly, experiences acute stress and a physical inability to meet the demands of being a caregiver. Strategies to improve dementia care are understanding dementia, being patient with the person, showing love and care for the person, avoiding provoking the person, distracting them, offering reassurance, playing their favorite music, talking about things they love, going through old memories, following a structured routine, and remaining calm. The study has made an attempt to provide strategies to manage dementia care, understanding the struggles family members go through, and raising awareness about dementia that will enable further research and investigations.

Keywords: elderly, dementia, stigma, family members

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Authors: Timothy Adam Boleratzky

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The goal of this transformative endeavour lies in the repurposing of textile scraps, heralding a renaissance in the creation of wearable art. Through a judicious fusion of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies and cutting-edge techniques, this research embarks upon a voyage of exploration, unraveling the intricate tapestry of environmental implications woven into the fabric of textile waste. Delving deep into the annals of empirical evidence and scholarly discourse, the study not only elucidates the urgent imperative for waste reduction strategies but also unveils the transformative potential inherent in embracing circular economy principles within the hallowed halls of fashion. As the research unfurls its sails, guided by the compass of sustainability, it traverses uncharted territories, charting a course toward a more enlightened and responsible fashion ecosystem. The canvas upon which this journey unfolds is richly adorned with insights gleaned from the crucible of experimentation, laying bare the myriad pathways toward waste minimisation and resource optimisation. From the adoption of recycling strategies to the cultivation of eco-friendly production techniques, the research endeavours to sculpt a blueprint for a more sustainable future, one stitch at a time. In this unfolding narrative, the role of wearable art emerges as a potent catalyst for change, transcending the boundaries of conventional fashion to embrace a more holistic ethos of sustainability. Through the alchemy of creativity and craftsmanship, discarded textile scraps are imbued with new life, morphing into exquisite creations that serve as both a testament to human ingenuity and a rallying cry for environmental preservation. Each thread, each stitch, becomes a silent harbinger of change, weaving together a tapestry of hope in a world besieged by ecological uncertainty. As the research journey culminates, its echoes resonate far beyond the confines of academia, reverberating through the corridors of industry and beyond. In its wake, it leaves a legacy of empowerment and enlightenment, inspiring a generation of designers, entrepreneurs, and consumers to embrace a more sustainable vision of fashion. For in the intricate interplay of threads and textiles lies the promise of a brighter, more resilient future, where beauty coexists harmoniously with responsibility and where fashion becomes not merely an expression of style but a celebration of sustainability.

Keywords: fabric-manipulation, sustainability, textiles, waste, wearable-art

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Authors: Babak H. Tabrizi, Seyed Farid Ghaderi

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Concurrent planning of the resource constraint project scheduling and material ordering problems have received significant attention within the last decades. Hence, the issue has been investigated here with the aim to minimize total project costs. Furthermore, the presented model considers different discount options in order to approach the real world conditions. The incorporated alternatives consist of all-unit and incremental discount strategies. On the other hand, a modified version of the genetic algorithm is applied in order to solve the model for larger sizes, in particular. Finally, the applicability and efficiency of the given model is tested by different numerical instances.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, material ordering, project management, project scheduling

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Authors: M. Shaker, S. Minaei, M. H. Khoshtaghaza, A. Banakar, A. Jafari

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In this study a system of machine vision and singulation was developed to separate paddy from rice and determine paddy husking and rice breakage percentages. The machine vision system consists of three main components including an imaging chamber, a digital camera, a computer equipped with image processing software. The singulation device consists of a kernel holding surface, a motor with vacuum fan, and a dimmer. For separation of paddy from rice (in the image), it was necessary to set a threshold. Therefore, some images of paddy and rice were sampled and the RGB values of the images were extracted using MATLAB software. Then mean and standard deviation of the data were determined. An Image processing algorithm was developed using MATLAB to determine paddy/rice separation and rice breakage and paddy husking percentages, using blue to red ratio. Tests showed that, a threshold of 0.75 is suitable for separating paddy from rice kernels. Results from the evaluation of the image processing algorithm showed that the accuracies obtained with the algorithm were 98.36% and 91.81% for paddy husking and rice breakage percentage, respectively. Analysis also showed that a suction of 45 mmHg to 50 mmHg yielding 81.3% separation efficiency is appropriate for operation of the kernel singulation system.

Keywords: breakage, computer vision, husking, rice kernel

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Authors: Ali Emre Öztürk, Ergun Ercelebi

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Autonomous robotic systems needs an equipment like a human eye for their movement. Robotic camera systems, distance sensors and 3D laser scanners have been used in the literature. In this study a 3D laser scanner has been produced for those autonomous robotic systems. In general 3D laser scanners are using 2 dimension laser range finders that are moving on one-axis (1D) to generate the model. In this study, the model has been obtained by a one-dimensional laser range finder that is moving in two –axis (2D) and because of this the laser scanner has been produced cheaper. Furthermore for the laser scanner a motor driver, an embedded system control board has been used and at the same time a user interface card has been used to make the communication between those cards and computer. Due to this laser scanner, the density of the objects, the distance between the objects and the necessary path ways for the robot can be calculated. The data collected by the laser scanner system is converted in to cartesian coordinates to be modeled in AutoCAD program. This study shows also the synchronization between the computer user interface, AutoCAD and the embedded systems. As a result it makes the solution cheaper for such systems. The scanning results are enough for an autonomous robot but the scan cycle time should be developed. This study makes also contribution for further studies between the hardware and software needs since it has a powerful performance and a low cost.

Keywords: 3D laser scanner, embedded system, 1D laser range finder, 3D model

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Authors: Hwang Ahreum, Kang Taejoon, Kim Bongsoo

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Nanosensors for high sensitive detection of diseases have been widely studied to improve the quality of life. Here, we suggest robust nano-plasmonic diagnostic sensor using cysteine tagged protein G (Cys3-protein G) and ultraflat, ultraclean and single-crystalline Au nanoplates. Protein G formed on an ultraflat Au surface provides ideal background for dense and uniform immobilization of antibodies. The Au is highly stable in diverse biochemical environment and can immobilize antibodies easily through Au-S bonding, having been widely used for various biosensing applications. Especially, atomically smooth single-crystalline Au nanomaterials synthesized using chemical vapor transport (CVT) method are very suitable to fabricate reproducible sensitive sensors. As the C-reactive protein (CRP) is a nonspecific biomarker of inflammation and infection, it can be used as a predictive or prognostic marker for various cardiovascular diseases. Cys3-protein G immobilized uniformly on the Au nanoplate enable CRP antibody (anti-CRP) to be ordered in a correct orientation, making their binding capacity be maximized for CRP detection. Immobilization condition for the Cys3-protein G and anti-CRP on the Au nanoplate is optimized visually by AFM analysis. Au nanoparticle - Au nanoplate (NPs-on-Au nanoplate) assembly fabricated from sandwich immunoassay for CRP can reduce zero-signal extremely caused by nonspecific bindings, providing a distinct surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement still in 10-18 M of CRP concentration. Moreover, the NP-on-Au nanoplate sensor shows an excellent selectivity against non-target proteins with high concentration. In addition, comparing with control experiments employing a Au film fabricated by e-beam assisted deposition and linker molecule, we validate clearly contribution of the Au nanoplate for the attomolar sensitive detection of CRP. We expect that the devised platform employing the complex of single-crystalline Au nanoplates and Cys3-protein G can be applied for detection of many other cancer biomarkers.

Keywords: Au nanoplate, biomarker, diagnostic sensor, protein G, SERS

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Authors: Şeyda Akçalı

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This study explores the concept of social sustainability and its characteristics in terms of neighborhood (mahalle) which is a social phenomenon in Turkish urban life. As social sustainability indicators that moving away traditional themes toward multi-dimensional measures, the solutions for urban strategies may be achieved through learning lessons from historical precedents. It considers the inherent values of traditional urban forms contribute to the evolution of the city as well as the social functions of it. The study aims to measure non-tangible issues in order to evaluate social sustainability in historic urban environments and how they could contribute to the current urban planning strategies. The concept of neighborhood (mahalle) refers to a way of living that represents the organization of Turkish social and communal life rather than defining an administrative unit for the city. The distinctive physical and social features of neighborhood illustrate the link between social sustainability and historic urban environment. Instead of having a nostalgic view of past, it identifies both the failures and successes and extract lessons of traditional urban environments and adopt them to modern context. First, the study determines the aspects of social sustainability which are issued as the key themes in the literature. Then, it develops a model by describing the social features of mahalle which show consistency within the social sustainability agenda. The model is used to analyze the performance of traditional housing area in the historical city center of Bursa, Turkey whether it meets the residents’ social needs and contribute collective functioning of the community. Through a questionnaire survey exercised in the historic neighborhoods, the residents are evaluated according to social sustainability criteria of neighborhood. The results derived from the factor analysis indicate that social aspects of neighborhood are social infrastructure, identity, attachment, neighborliness, safety and wellbeing. Qualitative evaluation shows the relationship between key aspects of social sustainability and demographic and socio-economic factors. The outcomes support that inherent values of neighborhood retain its importance for the sustainability of community although there must be some local arrangements for few factors with great attention not to compromise the others. The concept of neighborhood should be considered as a potential tool to support social sustainability in national political agenda and urban policies. The performance of underlying factors in historic urban environment proposes a basis for both examining and improving traditional urban areas and how it may contribute to the overall city.

Keywords: historical city center, mahalle, neighborhood, social sustainability, traditional urban environment, Turkey

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Authors: Mulligan T., Barker-Collo S., Gobson K., Jones K.

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There is a relatively scarce body of literature regarding adolescent experiences of traumatic brain injury (TBI). This qualitative study explored how sustaining a TBI at this unique stage of development might impact a young person as they navigate the challenges of adolescence and transition to adulthood, and what might support recovery. Thirteen young adults who sustained a mild-moderate TBI as an adolescent (aged 13 – 17 years), approximately 7.7 years (range = 6.7 – 8.0 years) prior, participated in the research. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to explore participants’ experiences surrounding and following their TBIs. Thematic analysis of interview data produced five key categories of findings: (1) Following their TBIs, many participants experienced problems with cognitive (e.g., forgetfulness, concentration difficulties), physical (e.g., migraines, fatigue) and emotional (e.g., depression, anxiety) functioning, which were often endured into adulthood. (2) TBI-related problems often adversely affected important areas of life for the participant, including school, work and friendships. (3) Changes following TBI commonly impacted identity formation. (4) Recovery processes evolved over time as the participants coped initially by just ‘getting on with it’, before learning to accept new limitations and, ultimately, growing from their TBI experiences. (5) While the presence of friends and family assisted recovery, struggles were often exacerbated by a lack of emotional support from others, in addition to the absence of any assistance or information-provision from professionals regarding what to expect following TBI. The findings suggest that even mild TBI sustained during adolescence can have consequences for an individual’s functioning, engagement in life and identity development, whilst also giving rise to post-traumatic growth. Recovery following adolescent TBI might be maximised by facilitating greater understanding of the injury and acknowledging its impacts on important areas of life, as well as the provision of emotional support and facilitating self-reflection and meaning-making.

Keywords: adolescent, brain Injury, qualitative, post-traumatic growth

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Authors: Masanori Kimura

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Due to the decline of the 18-year-old population, Japanese universities have a tendency to convert their form of employment from tenured positions to fixed-term positions for newly hired teachers. The advantage of this is that universities can be more flexible in their employment plans in case they fail to fill the enrollment of quotas of prospective students or they need to supplement teachers who can engage in other academic fields or research areas where new demand is expected. The most serious disadvantage of this, however, is that if secure positions cannot be provided to faculty members, there is the possibility that coherence of education and continuity of research supported by the university cannot be achieved. Therefore, the question of this presentation is as follows: Are universities aiming to give first priority to management, or are they trying to prioritize educational and research rather than management? To answer this question, the author examined the number of job offerings for college foreign language teachers posted on the JREC-IN (Japan Research Career Information Network, which is run by Japan Science and Technology Agency) website from April 2012 to October 2015. The results show that there were 1,002 and 1,056 job offerings for tenured positions and fixed-term contracts respectively, suggesting that, overall, today’s Japanese universities show a tendency to give first priority to management. More detailed examinations of the data, however, show that the tendency slightly varies depending on the types of universities. National universities which are supported by the central government and state universities which are supported by local governments posted more job offerings for tenured positions than for fixed-term contracts: national universities posted 285 and 257 job offerings for tenured positions and fixed-term contracts respectively, and state universities posted 106 and 86 job offerings for tenured positions and fixed-term contracts respectively. Yet the difference in number between the two types of employment status at national and state universities is marginal. As for private universities, they posted 713 job offerings for fixed-term contracts and 616 offerings for tenured positions. Moreover, 73% of the fixed-term contracts were offered for low rank positions including associate professors, lectures, and so forth. Generally speaking, those positions are offered to younger teachers. Therefore, this result indicates that private universities attempt to cut their budgets yet expect the same educational effect by hiring younger teachers. Although the results have shown that there are some differences in personal strategies among the three types of universities, the author argues that all three types of universities may lose important human resources that will take a pivotal role at their universities in the future unless they urgently review their employment strategies.

Keywords: higher education, management, employment status, foreign language education

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Authors: Khalida Douibi, Rodrigo Balp, Solène Le Bars

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In the medical field, applications related to human experiments are frequently linked to reduced samples size, which makes the training of machine learning models quite sensitive and therefore not very robust nor generalizable. This is notably the case in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) studies, where the sample size rarely exceeds 20 subjects or a few number of trials. To address this problem, several resampling approaches are often used during the data preparation phase, which is an overly critical step in a data science analysis process. One of the naive approaches that is usually applied by data scientists consists in the transformation of the entire database before the resampling phase. However, this can cause model’ s performance to be incorrectly estimated when making predictions on unseen data. In this paper, we explored the effect of data leakage observed during our BCI experiments for device control through the real-time classification of SSVEPs (Steady State Visually Evoked Potentials). We also studied potential ways to ensure optimal validation of the classifiers during the calibration phase to avoid overfitting. The results show that the scaling step is crucial for some algorithms, and it should be applied after the resampling phase to avoid data leackage and improve results.

Keywords: data leackage, data science, machine learning, SSVEP, BCI, overfitting

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Authors: Zainab Atia, Hongwei He, Panagiotis Sarantopoulos

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Over the past few years, firms have witnessed a massive increase in sophisticated algorithmic deployment, which has become quite pervasive in today’s modern society. With the wide availability of data for retailers, the ability to track consumers using algorithmic pricing has become an integral option in online platforms. As more companies are transforming their businesses and relying more on massive technological advancement, pricing algorithmic systems have brought attention and given rise to its wide adoption, with many accompanying benefits and challenges to be found within its usage. With the overall aim of increasing profits by organizations, algorithmic pricing is becoming a sound option by enabling suppliers to cut costs, allowing better services, improving efficiency and product availability, and enhancing overall consumer experiences. The adoption of algorithms in retail has been pioneered and widely used in literature across varied fields, including marketing, computer science, engineering, economics, and public policy. However, what is more, alarming today is the comprehensive understanding and focus of this technology and its associated ethical influence on consumers’ perceptions and behaviours. Indeed, due to algorithmic ethical concerns, consumers are found to be reluctant in some instances to share their personal data with retailers, which reduces their retention and leads to negative consumer outcomes in some instances. This, in its turn, raises the question of whether firms can still manifest the acceptance of such technologies by consumers while minimizing the ethical transgressions accompanied by their deployment. As recent modest research within the area of marketing and consumer behavior, the current research advances the literature on algorithmic pricing, pricing ethics, consumers’ perceptions, and price fairness literature. With its empirical focus, this paper aims to contribute to the literature by applying the distinction of the two common types of algorithmic pricing, dynamic and personalized, while measuring their relative effect on consumers’ behavioural outcomes. From a managerial perspective, this research offers significant implications that pertain to providing a better human-machine interactive environment (whether online or offline) to improve both businesses’ overall performance and consumers’ wellbeing. Therefore, by allowing more transparent pricing systems, businesses can harness their generated ethical strategies, which fosters consumers’ loyalty and extend their post-purchase behaviour. Thus, by defining the correct balance of pricing and right measures, whether using dynamic or personalized (or both), managers can hence approach consumers more ethically while taking their expectations and responses at a critical stance.

Keywords: algorithmic pricing, dynamic pricing, personalized pricing, price ethicality

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Authors: G. Kermarrec, J. Hartmann

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Spline surfaces are a major representation of freeform surfaces in the computer-aided graphic industry and were recently introduced in the field of geodesy for processing point clouds from terrestrial laser scanner (TLS). The surface fitting consists of approximating a trustworthy mathematical surface to a large numbered 3D point cloud. The standard B-spline surfaces lack of local refinement due to the tensor-product construction. The consequences are oscillating geometry, particularly in the transition from low-to-high curvature parts for scattered point clouds with missing data. More economic alternatives in terms of parameters on how to handle point clouds with a huge amount of observations are the recently introduced T-splines. As long as the partition of unity is guaranteed, their computational complexity is low, and they are flexible. T-splines are implemented in a commercial package called Rhino, a 3D modeler which is widely used in computer aided design to create and animate NURBS objects. We have applied T-splines surface fitting to terrestrial laser scanner point clouds from a bridge under load and a sheet pile wall with noisy observations. We will highlight their potential for modelling details with high trustworthiness, paving the way for further applications in terms of deformation analysis.

Keywords: deformation analysis, surface modelling, terrestrial laser scanner, T-splines

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Authors: Peniah Mabaso-Shamano

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The paper evaluates Shona terms that were created to teach Phonetics and Phonology courses at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU). The phonetics and phonology terms to be discussed in this paper were created using different processes and strategies such as translation, borrowing, neologising, compounding, transliteration, circumlocution among many others. Most phonetics and phonology terms are alien to Shona and as a result, there are no suitable Shona equivalents. The lecturers and students for these courses have a mammoth task of creating terminology for the different modules offered in Shona and other Zimbabwean indigenous languages. Most linguistic reference books are written in English. As such, lecturers and students translate information from English to Shona, a measure which is proving to be too difficult for them. A term creation workshop was held at GZU to try to address the problem of lack of terminology in indigenous languages. Different indigenous language practitioners from different tertiary institutions convened for a two-day workshop at GZU. Due to the 'specialized' nature of phonetics and phonology, it was too difficult to come up with 'proper' indigenous terms. The researcher will consult tertiary institutions lecturers who teach linguistics courses and linguistics students to get their views on the created terms. The people consulted will not be the ones who took part in the term creation workshop held at GZU. The selected participants will be asked to evaluate and back-translate some of the terms. In instances where they feel the terms created are not suitable or user-friendly, they will be asked to suggest other terms. Since the researcher is also a linguistics lecturer, her observation and views will be important. From her experience in using some of the terms in teaching phonetics and phonology courses to undergraduate students, the researcher noted that most of the terms created have shortcomings since they are not user-friendly. These shortcomings include terms longer than the English terms as some terms are translated to Shona through a whole statement. Most of these terms are neologisms, compound neologisms, transliterations, circumlocutions, and blends. The paper will show that there is overuse of transliterated terms due to the lack of Shona equivalents for English terms. Most single English words were translated into compound neologisms or phrases after attempts to reduce them to one word terms failed. In other instances, circumlocution led to the problem of creating longer terms than the original and as a result, the terms are not user-friendly. The paper will discuss and evaluate the different phonetics and phonology terms created and the different strategies and processes used in creating them.

Keywords: blending, circumlocution, term creation, translation

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