Search results for: knowledge management model

Authors: Akbar Gharbali, Ali Abbasian Ardekani, Afshin Mohammadi

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Introduction: Thyroid nodules have an incidence of 33-68% in the general population. More than 5-15% of these nodules are malignant. Early detection and treatment of thyroid nodules increase the cure rate and provide optimal treatment. Between the medical imaging methods, Ultrasound is the chosen imaging technique for assessment of thyroid nodules. The confirming of the diagnosis usually demands repeated fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). So, current management has morbidity and non-zero mortality. Objective: To explore diagnostic potential of automatic texture analysis (TA) methods in differentiation benign and malignant thyroid nodules by ultrasound imaging in order to help for reliable diagnosis and monitoring of the thyroid nodules in their early stages with no need biopsy. Material and Methods: The thyroid US image database consists of 70 patients (26 benign and 44 malignant) which were reported by Radiologist and proven by the biopsy. Two slices per patient were loaded in Mazda Software version 4.6 for automatic texture analysis. Regions of interests (ROIs) were defined within the abnormal part of the thyroid nodules ultrasound images. Gray levels within an ROI normalized according to three normalization schemes: N1: default or original gray levels, N2: +/- 3 Sigma or dynamic intensity limited to µ+/- 3σ, and N3: present intensity limited to 1% - 99%. Up to 270 multiscale texture features parameters per ROIs per each normalization schemes were computed from well-known statistical methods employed in Mazda software. From the statistical point of view, all calculated texture features parameters are not useful for texture analysis. So, the features based on maximum Fisher coefficient and the minimum probability of classification error and average correlation coefficients (POE+ACC) eliminated to 10 best and most effective features per normalization schemes. We analyze this feature under two standardization states (standard (S) and non-standard (NS)) with Principle Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Non-Linear Discriminant Analysis (NDA). The 1NN classifier was performed to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors. The confusion matrix and Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used for the formulation of more reliable criteria of the performance of employed texture analysis methods. Results: The results demonstrated the influence of the normalization schemes and reduction methods on the effectiveness of the obtained features as a descriptor on discrimination power and classification results. The selected subset features under 1%-99% normalization, POE+ACC reduction and NDA texture analysis yielded a high discrimination performance with the area under the ROC curve (Az) of 0.9722, in distinguishing Benign from Malignant Thyroid Nodules which correspond to sensitivity of 94.45%, specificity of 100%, and accuracy of 97.14%. Conclusions: Our results indicate computer-aided diagnosis is a reliable method, and can provide useful information to help radiologists in the detection and classification of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.

Keywords: ultrasound imaging, thyroid nodules, computer aided diagnosis, texture analysis, PCA, LDA, NDA

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Elaine Y. L. Ng

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Elizabeth Gilbert’s (2006) biography Eat, Pray, Love describes her travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia after a painful divorce. The author’s experiences with love, loss, search for happiness, and meaning have resonated with a huge readership. As regards the translation of Gilbert’s (2006) Eat, Pray, Love into Chinese, it was first translated by a Taiwanese translator He Pei-Hua and published in Taiwan in 2007 by Make Boluo Wenhua Chubanshe with the fairly catching title “Enjoy! Traveling Alone.” The same translation was translocated to China, republished in simplified Chinese characters by Shanxi Shifan Daxue Chubanshe in 2008 and renamed in China, entitled “To Be a Girl for the Whole Life.” Later on, the same translation in simplified Chinese characters was reprinted by Hunan Wenyi Chubanshe in 2013. This study employs Munday’s (2002) systemic model for descriptive translation studies to investigate the translation of Gilbert’s (2006) Eat, Pray, Love into Chinese by the Taiwanese translator Hu Pei-Hua. It employs an interdisciplinary approach, combining systemic functional linguistics and corpus stylistics with sociohistorical research within a descriptive framework to study the translator’s discursive presence in the text. The research consists of three phases. The first phase is to locate the target text within its socio-cultural context. The target-text context concerning the para-texts, readers’ responses, and the publishers’ orientation will be explored. The second phase is to compare the source text and the target text for the categorization of translation shifts by using the methodological tools of systemic functional linguistics and corpus stylistics. The investigation concerns the rendering of mental clauses and speech and thought presentation. The final phase is an explanation of the causes of translation shifts. The linguistic findings are related to the extra-textual information collected in an effort to ascertain the motivations behind the translator’s choices. There exist sets of possible factors that may have contributed to shaping the textual features of the given translation within a specific socio-cultural context. The study finds that the translator generally reproduces the mental clauses and speech and thought presentation closely according to the original. Nevertheless, the language of the translation has been widely criticized to be unidiomatic and stiff, losing the elegance of the original. In addition, the several Chinese translations of the given text produced by one Taiwanese and two Chinese publishers are basically the same. They are repackaged slightly differently, mainly with the change of the book cover and its captions for each version. By relating the textual findings to the extra-textual data of the study, it is argued that the popularity of the Chinese translation of Gilbert’s (2006) Eat, Pray, Love may not be attributed to the quality of the translation. Instead, it may have to do with the way the work is promoted strategically by the social media manipulated by the four e-bookstores promoting and selling the book online in China.

Keywords: chinese translation of eat pray love, corpus stylistics, motivations for translation shifts, systemic approach to translation studies

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Authors: L. Asaro, M. Gratton, S. Seghar, N. Poirot, N. Ait Hocine

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Rubber waste disposal is an environmental problem. Particularly, many researches are centered in the management of discarded tires. In spite of all different ways of handling used tires, the most common is to deposit them in a landfill, creating a stock of tires. These stocks can cause fire danger and provide ambient for rodents, mosquitoes and other pests, causing health hazards and environmental problems. Because of the three-dimensional structure of the rubbers and their specific composition that include several additives, their recycling is a current technological challenge. The technique which can break down the crosslink bonds in the rubber is called devulcanization. Strictly, devulcanization can be defined as a process where poly-, di-, and mono-sulfidic bonds, formed during vulcanization, are totally or partially broken. In the recent years, super critical carbon dioxide (scCO₂) was proposed as a green devulcanization atmosphere. This is because it is chemically inactive, nontoxic, nonflammable and inexpensive. Its critical point can be easily reached (31.1 °C and 7.38 MPa), and residual scCO₂ in the devulcanized rubber can be easily and rapidly removed by releasing pressure. In this study thermomechanical devulcanization of ground tire rubber (GTR) was performed in a twin screw extruder under diverse operation conditions. Supercritical CO₂ was added in different quantities to promote the devulcanization. Temperature, screw speed and quantity of CO₂ were the parameters that were varied during the process. The devulcanized rubber was characterized by its devulcanization percent and crosslink density by swelling in toluene. Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) were also done, and the results were related with the Mooney viscosity. The results showed that the crosslink density decreases as the extruder temperature and speed increases, and, as expected, the soluble fraction increase with both parameters. The Mooney viscosity of the devulcanized rubber decreases as the extruder temperature increases. The reached values were in good correlation (R= 0.96) with de the soluble fraction. In order to analyze if the devulcanization was caused by main chains or crosslink scission, the Horikx's theory was used. Results showed that all tests fall in the curve that corresponds to the sulfur bond scission, which indicates that the devulcanization has successfully happened without degradation of the rubber. In the spectra obtained by FTIR, it was observed that none of the characteristic peaks of the GTR were modified by the different devulcanization conditions. This was expected, because due to the low sulfur content (~1.4 phr) and the multiphasic composition of the GTR, it is very difficult to evaluate the devulcanization by this technique. The lowest crosslink density was reached with 1 cm³/min of CO₂, and the power consumed in that process was also near to the minimum. These results encourage us to do further analyses to better understand the effect of the different conditions on the devulcanization process. The analysis is currently extended to monophasic rubbers as ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber (EPDM) and natural rubber (NR).

Keywords: devulcanization, recycling, rubber, waste

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Authors: Almira Sharafeeva

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In the Soviet Union of the 1930s, motherhood was seen as a natural need of women. The masculine Bolshevik state did not see the emancipated woman as free from her maternal burden. In order to support the idea of "joyful motherhood," a medical discourse on the anesthesia of childbirth emerges. In March 1935 at the IX Congress of obstetricians and gynecologists the People's Commissar of Public Health of the RSFSR G.N. Kaminsky raised the issue of anesthesia of childbirth. It was also from that year that medical, literary and artistic editions with enviable frequency began to publish articles, studies devoted to the issue, the goal - to anesthetize all childbirths in the USSR - was proclaimed. These publications were often filled with anti-German and anti-capitalist propaganda, through which the advantages of socialism over Capitalism and Nazism were demonstrated. At congresses, in journals, and at institute meetings, doctors' discussions around obstetric anesthesia were accompanied by discussions of shortening the duration of the childbirth process, the prevention and prevention of disease, the admission of nurses to the procedure, and the proper behavior of women during the childbirth process. With the help of articles from medical periodicals of the 1930s., brochures, as well as documents from the funds of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (TsGANTD SPb) and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the NKZ USSR (GARF) in this paper we will show, how the advantages of the Soviet system and the socialist way of life were constructed through the problem of childbirth pain relief, and we will also show how childbirth pain relief in the USSR was related to the foreign policy situation and how projects of labor pain relief were related to the anti-abortion policy of the state. This study also attempts to answer the question of why anesthesia of childbirth in the USSR did not become widespread and how, through this medical procedure, the Soviet authorities tried to take control of a female function (childbirth) that was not available to men. Considering this subject from the perspective of gender studies and the social history of medicine, it is productive to use the term "biopolitics. Michel Foucault and Antonio Negri, wrote that biopolitics takes under its wing the control and management of hygiene, nutrition, fertility, sexuality, contraception. The central issue of biopolitics is population reproduction. It includes strategies for intervening in collective existence in the name of life and health, ways of subjectivation by which individuals are forced to work on themselves. The Soviet state, through intervention in the reproductive lives of its citizens, sought to realize its goals of population growth, which was necessary to demonstrate the benefits of living in the Soviet Union and to train a pool of builders of socialism. The woman's body was seen as the object over which the socialist experiment of reproductive policy was being conducted.

Keywords: labor anesthesia, biopolitics of stalinism, childbirth pain relief, reproductive policy

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Authors: Priyoth Kittiteerasack, Alana Steffen, Alicia K. Matthews

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Depression is a leading cause of the worldwide burden of disability and disease burden. Notably, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations are more likely to be a high-risk group for depression compared to their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. To date, little is known about the rates and predictors of depression among Thai LGBT populations. As such, the purpose of this study was to: 1) measure the prevalence of depression among a diverse sample of Thai LGBT adults and 2) determine the influence of minority stress variables (discrimination, victimization, internalized homophobia, and identity concealment), general stress (stress and loneliness), and coping strategies (problem-focused, avoidance, and seeking social support) on depression outcomes. This study was guided by the Minority Stress Model (MSM). The MSM posits that elevated rates of mental health problems among LGBT populations stem from increased exposures to social stigma due to their membership in a stigmatized minority group. Social stigma, including discrimination and violence, represents unique sources of stress for LGBT individuals and have a direct impact on mental health. This study was conducted as part of a larger descriptive study of mental health among Thai LGBT adults. Standardized measures consistent with the MSM were selected and translated into the Thai language by a panel of LGBT experts using the forward and backward translation technique. The psychometric properties of translated instruments were tested and acceptable (Cronbach’s alpha > .8 and Content Validity Index = 1). Study participants were recruited using convenience and snowball sampling methods. Self-administered survey data were collected via an online survey and via in-person data collection conducted at a leading Thai LGBT organization. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses using multiple linear regression models were conducted to analyze study data. The mean age of participants (n = 411) was 29.5 years (S.D. = 7.4). Participants were primarily male (90.5%), homosexual (79.3%), and cisgender (76.6%). The mean score for depression of study participant was 9.46 (SD = 8.43). Forty-three percent of LGBT participants reported clinically significant levels of depression as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory. In multivariate models, the combined influence of demographic, stress, coping, and minority stressors explained 47.2% of the variance in depression scores (F(16,367) = 20.48, p < .001). Minority stressors independently associated with depression included discrimination (β = .43, p < .01) victimization (β = 1.53, p < .05), and identity concealment (β = -.54, p < .05). In addition, stress (β = .81, p < .001), history of a chronic disease (β = 1.20, p < .05), and coping strategies (problem-focused coping β = -1.88, p < .01, seeking social support β = -1.12, p < .05, and avoidance coping β = 2.85, p < .001) predicted depression scores. The study outcomes emphasized that minority stressors uniquely contributed to depression levels among Thai LGBT participants over and above typical non-minority stressors. Study findings have important implications for nursing practice and the development of intervention research.

Keywords: depression, LGBT, minority stress, sexual and gender minority, Thailand

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Authors: Miriam Schiff, Hadas Rosenne, Ran Nir-Paz, Shiri Shinan Altman

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To examine (1) the level, predictors, and subjective perception of professional quality of life (PRoQL), posttraumatic growth, roles, task changes during the pandemic, and perceived preparedness for the next pandemic. These variables were added as part of an international study on social workers in healthcare stress, resilience, and perceived preparedness we took part in, along with Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. (2) The extent to which background variables, rate of exposure to the virus, working in COVID wards, profession, personal resilience, and resistance to organizational change predict posttraumatic growth, perceived preparedness, and PRoQL (the latter was examined among social workers only). (3) The teams' perceptions of how the pandemic impacted them at the personal, professional, and organizational levels and what assisted them. Methodologies: Mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were used. 1039 hospital healthcare workers from various professions participated in the quantitative study while 32 participated in in-depth interviews. The same methods were used in six other countries. Findings: The level of PRoQL was moderate, with higher burnout and secondary traumatization level than during routine times. Differences between countries in the level of PRoQL were found as well. Perceived preparedness for the next pandemic at the personal level was moderate and similar among the different health professions. Higher exposure to the virus was associated with lower perceived preparedness of the hospitals. Compared to other professions, doctors and nurses perceived hospitals as significantly less prepared for the next pandemic. The preparedness of the State of Israel for the next pandemic is perceived as low by all healthcare professionals. A moderate level of posttraumatic growth was found. Staff who worked at the COVID ward reported a greater level of growth. Doctors reported the lowest level of growth. The staff's resilience was high, with no differences among professions or levels of exposure. Working in the COVID ward and resilience predicted better preparedness, while resistance to organizational change predicted worse preparedness. Findings from the qualitative part of the study revealed that healthcare workers reported challenges at the personal, professional and organizational level during the different waves of the pandemic. They also report on internal and external resources they either owned or obtained during that period. Conclusion: Exposure to the COVID-19 virus is associated with secondary traumatization on one hand and personal posttraumatic growth on the other hand. Personal and professional discoveries and a sense of mission helped cope with the pandemic that was perceived as a historical event, war, or mass casualty event. Personal resilience, along with the support of colleagues, family, and direct management, were seen as significant components of coping. Hospitals should plan ahead and improve their preparedness to the next pandemic.

Keywords: covid-19, health-care, social workers, burnout, preparedness, international perspective

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Authors: Vishnu Asokan, Zaid M. Paloba

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Flow over cavities is an important area of research due to the significant change in flow physics caused by cavity aspect ratio, free stream Mach number and the nature of upstream boundary layer approaching the cavity leading edge. Cavity flow finds application in aircraft wheel well, weapons bay, combustion chamber of scramjet engines, etc. These flows are highly unsteady, compressible and turbulent and it involves mass entrainment coupled with acoustics phenomenon. Variation of flow dynamics in an angled cavity with a heated and cooled pylon upstream to the cavity with spatial combinations of heat flux addition and removal to the wall studied numerically. The goal of study is to investigate the effect of energy addition, removal to the cavity walls and pylon cavity flow dynamics. Preliminary steady state numerical simulations on inclined cavities with heat addition have shown that wall pressure profiles, as well as the recirculation, are influenced by heat transfer to the compressible fluid medium. Such a hybrid control of cavity flow dynamics in the form of heat transfer and pylon geometry can open out greater opportunities in enhancement of mixing and flame holding requirements of supersonic combustors. Addition of pylon upstream to the cavity reduces the acoustic oscillations emanating from the geometry. A numerical unsteady analysis of supersonic flow past cavities exposed to cavity wall heating and cooling with heated and cooled pylon helps to get a clear idea about the oscillation suppression in the cavity. A Cavity of L/D 4 and aft wall angle 22 degree with an upstream pylon of h/D=1.5 mm with a wall angle 29 degree exposed to supersonic flow of Mach number 2 and heat flux of 40 W/cm² and -40 W/cm² modeled for the above study. In the preliminary study, the domain is modeled and validated numerically with a turbulence model of SST k-ω using an HLLC implicit scheme. Both qualitative and quantitative flow data extracted and analyzed using advanced CFD tools. Flow visualization is done using numerical Schlieren method as the fluid medium gives the density variation. The heat flux addition to the wall increases the secondary vortex size of the cavity and removal of energy leads to the reduction in vortex size. The flow field turbulence seems to be increasing at higher heat flux. The shear layer thickness increases as heat flux increases. The steady state analysis of wall pressure shows that there is variation on wall pressure as heat flux increases. Shift in frequency of unsteady wall pressure analysis is an interesting observation for the above study. The time averaged skin friction seems to be reducing at higher heat flux due to the variation in viscosity of fluid inside the cavity.

Keywords: energy addition, frequency shift, Numerical Schlieren, shear layer, vortex evolution

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Authors: Adeiza Matthew, Oluwadamilola Abubakar

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Wood energy, also known as wood fuel, is a renewable energy source that is derived from woody biomass, which is organic matter that is harvested from forests, woodlands, and other lands. Woody biomass includes trees, branches, twigs, and other woody debris that can be used as fuel. Wood energy can be classified based on its sources, such as trees outside forests, residues from wood harvesting and conversion, and energy plantations. There are several policy frameworks that support the use of wood energy, including participatory forest management and agroforestry. These policies aim to promote the sustainable use of woody biomass as a source of energy while also protecting forests and wildlife habitats. There are several options for using wood as a fuel, including central heating systems, pellet-based systems, wood chip-based systems, log boilers, fireplaces, and stoves. Each of these options has its own benefits and drawbacks, and the most appropriate option will depend on factors such as the availability of woody biomass, the heating needs of the household or facility, and the local climate. In order to use wood as a fuel, it must be harvested and stored properly. Hardwood or softwood can be used as fuel, and the heating value of firewood depends on the species of tree and the degree of moisture content. Proper harvesting and storage of wood can help to minimize environmental impacts and improve wildlife habitats. The use of wood energy has several environmental impacts, including the release of greenhouse gases during combustion and the potential for air pollution from combustion by-products. However, wood energy can also have positive environmental impacts, such as the sequestration of carbon in trees and the reduction of reliance on fossil fuels. The regulation and legislation of wood energy vary by country and region, and there is an ongoing debate about the potential use of wood energy in renewable energy technologies. Wood energy is a renewable energy source that can be used to generate electricity, heat, and transportation fuels. Woody biomass is abundant and widely available, making it a potentially significant source of energy for many countries. The use of wood energy can create local economic and employment opportunities, particularly in rural areas. Wood energy can be used to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Properly managed forests can provide a sustained supply of woody biomass for energy, helping to reduce the risk of deforestation and habitat loss. Wood energy can be produced using a variety of technologies, including direct combustion, co-firing with fossil fuels, and the production of biofuels. The environmental impacts of wood energy can be minimized through the use of best practices in harvesting, transportation, and processing. Wood energy is regulated and legislated at the national and international levels, and there are various standards and certification systems in place to promote sustainable practices. Wood energy has the potential to play a significant role in the transition to a low-carbon economy and the achievement of climate change mitigation goals.

Keywords: biomass, timber, charcoal, firewood

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Authors: M. Bukowski, K. Kreissl

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Social and environmental pressures in our times bear threats that often cross-border in scale, such as climate change, poverty-driven migration, demographic change as well as socio-economic developments. One of the hot topics is prevailing in many societies across Europe and worldwide, concerns 'affordable housing' and poverty-driven international and domestic migration (including displacements through gentrification processes), focusing here on the urban and regional context. The right to adequate housing and shelter is one of the recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and as such considered as a human right of the second generation. The decreasing supply of affordable housing, especially in urban areas, has reached dimensions that have led to an increasing 'housing crisis'. This crisis, which has even reached middle-income homes, has an even more devastating impact on low income and poor households raising poverty levels. Therefore, the understanding of the connection between housing and poverty is vital to integrate and support the different stakeholders in order to tackle poverty. When it comes to issues of inequalities and poverty within the SDG framework, multi-faceted stakeholders with different claims, distribution of resources and interactions with other development goals (spill-over and trade-offs) account for a highly complex context. To contribute to a sustainable and fair society and hence to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the University of Salzburg participates in the Austrian-wide universities' network 'UniNEtZ'. Our joint target is to develop an options report for the Austrian Government regarding the seventeen SDGs, so far hosted by 18 Austrian universities. In this vein, the University of Salzburg; i.e., the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, the departments of Geography and Geology and the Department of Sociology and Political Science are focusing on the SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). Our target and research focus is to assess and evaluate the status of SDG 1 and 10 in Austria, to find possible solutions and to support stakeholders' integration. We aim at generating and deducing appropriate options as scientific support, from interdisciplinary research studies to 'Sustainability Developing Goals and their Targets' in action. For this reason, and to deal with the complexity of the Agenda 2030, we have developed a special Model for Inequalities and Poverty Assessment (IPAM). Through the example of 'affordable housing' we provide insight into the situation focusing on sustainable outcomes, including ethical and justice perceptions. The IPAM has proven to be a helpful tool in detecting the different imponderables on the Agenda 2030, assessing the situation, showing gaps and options for ethical SDG actions combining different SDG targets. Supported by expert and expert group interviews, this assessment allows different stakeholders to overview a complex and dynamic SDG challenge (here housing) which is necessary to be involved in an action finding process.

Keywords: affordable housing, inequality, poverty, sustainable development goals

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Authors: Marina Shakleina, Konstantin Shaklein, Stanislav Yakiro

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The digitalization of modern human life over the last decade has facilitated the acquisition, storage, and processing of data, which are used to detect changes in consumer preferences and to improve the internal efficiency of the production process. This emerging trend has attracted academic interest in the use of big data in research. The study focuses on modeling the social comfort of the Russian population for the period 2010-2021 using big data. Big data provides enormous opportunities for understanding human interactions at the scale of society with plenty of space and time dynamics. One of the most popular big data sources is Google Trends. The methodology for assessing social comfort using big data involves several steps: 1. 574 words were selected based on the Harvard IV-4 Dictionary adjusted to fit the reality of everyday Russian life. The set of keywords was further cleansed by excluding queries consisting of verbs and words with several lexical meanings. 2. Search queries were processed to ensure comparability of results: the transformation of data to a 10-point scale, elimination of popularity peaks, detrending, and deseasoning. The proposed methodology for keyword search and Google Trends processing was implemented in the form of a script in the Python programming language. 3. Block and summary integral indicators of social comfort were constructed using the first modified principal component resulting in weighting coefficients values of block components. According to the study, social comfort is described by 12 blocks: ‘health’, ‘education’, ‘social support’, ‘financial situation’, ‘employment’, ‘housing’, ‘ethical norms’, ‘security’, ‘political stability’, ‘leisure’, ‘environment’, ‘infrastructure’. According to the model, the summary integral indicator increased by 54% and was 4.631 points; the average annual rate was 3.6%, which is higher than the rate of economic growth by 2.7 p.p. The value of the indicator describing social comfort in Russia is determined by 26% by ‘social support’, 24% by ‘education’, 12% by ‘infrastructure’, 10% by ‘leisure’, and the remaining 28% by others. Among 25% of the most popular searches, 85% are of negative nature and are mainly related to the blocks ‘security’, ‘political stability’, ‘health’, for example, ‘crime rate’, ‘vulnerability’. Among the 25% most unpopular queries, 99% of the queries were positive and mostly related to the blocks ‘ethical norms’, ‘education’, ‘employment’, for example, ‘social package’, ‘recycling’. In conclusion, the introduction of the latent category ‘social comfort’ into the scientific vocabulary deepens the theory of the quality of life of the population in terms of the study of the involvement of an individual in the society and expanding the subjective aspect of the measurements of various indicators. Integral assessment of social comfort demonstrates the overall picture of the development of the phenomenon over time and space and quantitatively evaluates ongoing socio-economic policy. The application of big data in the assessment of latent categories gives stable results, which opens up possibilities for their practical implementation.

Keywords: big data, Google trends, integral indicator, social comfort

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Authors: L. Abukova, O. Abramova, A. Goreva, Y. Yakovlev

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Important executive decisions on oil and gas production stimulation in Eastern Siberia have been recently taken. There are unique and large fields of oil, gas, and gas-condensate in Eastern Siberia. The Talakan, Koyumbinskoye, Yurubcheno-Tahomskoye, Kovykta, Chayadinskoye fields are supposed to be developed first. It will result in an abrupt increase in environmental load on the nature of Eastern Siberia. In Eastern Siberia, the introduction of ecological imperatives in hydrocarbon production is still realistic. Underground water movement is the one of the most important factors of the ecosystems condition management. Oil and gas production is associated with the forced displacement of huge water masses, mixing waters of different composition, and origin that determines the extent of anthropogenic impact on water drive systems and their protective reaction. An extensive hydrogeological system of the depression type is identified in the pre-salt deposits here. Pressure relieve here is steady up to the basement. The decrease of the hydrodynamic potential towards the basement with such a gradient resulted in reformation of the fields in process of historical (geological) development of the Nepsko-Botuobinskaya anteclise. The depression hydrodynamic systems are characterized by extremely high isolation and can only exist under such closed conditions. A steady nature of water movement due to a strictly negative gradient of reservoir pressure makes it quite possible to use environmentally-harmful liquid substances instead of water. Disposal of the most hazardous wastes is the most expedient in the deposits of the crystalline basement in certain structures distant from oil and gas fields. The time period for storage of environmentally-harmful liquid substances may be calculated by means of the geological time scales ensuring their complete prevention from releasing into environment or air even during strong earthquakes. Disposal of wastes of chemical and nuclear industries is a matter of special consideration. The existing methods of storage and disposal of wastes are very expensive. The methods applied at the moment for storage of nuclear wastes at the depth of several meters, even in the most durable containers, constitute a potential danger. The enormous size of the depression system of the Nepsko-Botuobinskaya anteclise makes it possible to easily identify such objects at the depth below 1500 m where nuclear wastes will be stored indefinitely without any environmental impact. Thus, the water drive system of the Nepsko-Botuobinskaya anteclise is the ideal object for large-volume injection of environmentally harmful liquid substances even if there are large oil and gas accumulations in the subsurface. Specific geological and hydrodynamic conditions of the system allow the production of hydrocarbons from the subsurface simultaneously with the disposal of industrial wastes of oil and gas, mining, chemical, and nuclear industries without any environmental impact.

Keywords: Eastern Siberia, formation pressure, underground water, waste burial

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Authors: Angelica Alvarez-Lee, Sergio Martinez-Diaz, Jose Luis Garcia-Corona, Humberto Lanz-Mendoza

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World aquaculture is always looking for improvements to achieve productions with high yields avoiding the infection by pathogenic agents. The best way to achieve this is to know the biological model to create alternative treatments that could be applied in the hatcheries, which results in greater economic gains and improvements in human public health. In the last decade, immunomodulation in shrimp culture with probiotics, organic acids and different carbon sources has gained great interest, mainly in larval and juvenile stages. Immune priming is associated with a strong protective effect against a later pathogen challenge. This work provides another perspective about immunostimulation from spawning until hatching. The stimulation happens during development embryos and generates resistance to infection by pathogenic bacteria. Massive spawnings of white shrimp L. vannamei were obtained and placed in experimental units with 700 mL of sterile seawater at 30 °C, salinity of 28 ppm and continuous aeration at a density of 8 embryos.mL⁻¹. The immunostimulating effect of three death strains of non-pathogenic bacterial (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis) and a pathogenic strain for white shrimp (Vibrio parahaemolyticus) was evaluated. The strains killed by heat were adjusted to O.D. 0.5, at A 600 nm, and directly added to the seawater of each unit at a ratio of 1/100 (v/v). A control group of embryos without inoculum of dead bacteria was kept under the same physicochemical conditions as the rest of the treatments throughout the experiment and used as reference. The duration of the stimulus was 12 hours, then, the larvae that hatched were collected, counted and transferred to a new experimental unit (same physicochemical conditions but at a salinity of 28 ppm) to carry out a challenge of infection against the pathogen V. parahaemolyticus, adding directly to seawater an amount 1/100 (v/v) of the live strain adjusted to an OD 0.5; at A 600 nm. Subsequently, 24 hrs after infection, nauplii survival was evaluated. The results of this work shows that, after 24 hrs, the hatching rates of immunostimulated shrimp embryos with the dead strains of B. subtillis and V. parahaemolyticus are significantly higher compared to the rest of the treatments and the control. Furthermore, survival of L. vanammei after a challenge of infection of 24 hrs against the live strain of V. parahaemolyticus is greater (P < 0.05) in the larvae immunostimulated during the embryonic development with the dead strains B. subtillis and V. parahaemolyticus, followed by those that were treated with E. coli. In summary superficial antigens can stimulate the development cells to promote hatching and can have normal development in agreeing with the optical observations, plus exist a differential response effect between each treatment post-infection. This research provides evidence of the immunostimulant effect of death pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacterial strains in the rate of hatching and oversight of shrimp L. vannamei during embryonic and larval development. This research continues evaluating the effect of these death strains on the expression of genes related to the defense priming in larvae of L. vannamei that come from massive spawning in hatcheries before and after the infection challenge against V. parahaemolyticus.

Keywords: immunostimulation, L. vannamei, hatching, survival

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Authors: T. Santiboon, S. Tongbu, P. S. Saihong

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This study focuses on investigating students' perceptions of their physics classroom learning environments of their individualizations and their interactions with the instructional practicum in teaching physics of the master science trainee educational students for improving and creating attitude skills’ sustainable development toward physics for upper secondary educational students in Thailand. Associations between these perceptions and students' attitudes toward physics were also determined. The learning environment perceptions were obtained using the 35-item Physics Laboratory Environment Inventory (PLEI) modified from the original Science Laboratory Environment Inventory. The 25-item Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) was assessed those dimensions which distinguish individualized physics classrooms from convention on individualized open and inquiry-based education Teacher-student interactions were assessed with the 48-item Questionnaires on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Both these questionnaires have an Actual Form (assesses the class as it actually is) and a Preferred Form (asks the students what they would prefer their class to be like - the ideal situation). Students’ creating attitude skills’ sustainable development toward physics were assessed with the Test Of Physics-Related Attitude (TOPRA) modified from the original Test Of Science-Related Attitude (TOSRA) The questionnaires were administered in three phases with the Custer Random Sampling technique to a sample consisted of 989 students in 28 physics classes from 10 schools at the grade 10, 11, and 12 levels in the Secondary Educational Service Area 26 (Maha Sarakham Province) and Area 27 (Roi-Et). Statistically significant differences were found between the students' perceptions of actual-1, actual-2 and preferred environments of their physics laboratory and distinguish individualized classrooms, and teacher interpersonal behaviors with their improving and creating attitudes skills’ sustainable development to their physics classes also were found. Predictions of the monitoring and evaluation of master science trainee educational students of their practicum in teaching physics; students’ skills developments of their physics achievements’ sustainable for the set of actual and preferred environments as a whole and physics related attitudes also were correlated. The R2 values indicate that 58%, 67%, and 84% of the variances in students’ attitudes to their actuale-1, actual-2 and preferred for the PLEI; 42%,science trainee educational students of their practicum in teaching physics; students’ skill developments of their physics achievements’ sustainable for the set of actual and preferred environments as a whole and physics related attitudes also were correlated. The R2 values indicate that 58%, 67%, and 84% of the variances in students’ attitudes to their actuale-1, actual-2 and preferred for the PLEI; 42%, 63%, and 72% for the ICEQ, and 38%, 59%, and 68% for the QTI in physics environment classes were attributable to their perceptions of their actual and preferred physics environments and their developing creative science skills’ sustainable toward physics, consequently. Based on all the findings, suggestions for improving the physics laboratory and individualized classes and teacher interpersonal behaviors with students' perceptions are provided of their improving and creating attitude skills’ sustainable development by the master science trainee educational students ’ instructional administrations.

Keywords: promotion, instructional model, qualitative method, reflective thinking, trainee teacher student

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: Asem Alhnity, Nicholas Pickett

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The leisure home industry is experiencing an increase in sales due to the rise in popularity of staycations. However, there is also a demand for improvements in thermal and structural behaviour from customers. Existing standards and codes of practice outline the requirements for leisure home design. However, there is a lack of expertise in applying Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to complex structures in this industry. As a result, manufacturers rely on standardized design approaches, which often lead to excessively engineered or inadequately designed products. This study aims to address this issue by investigating the impact of the habitation structure on chassis performance in leisure homes. The aim of this research is to comprehensively analyse the impact of the habitation structure on chassis performance in leisure homes. By employing FEA on the entire unit, including both the habitation structure and the chassis, this study seeks to develop a novel framework for designing and analysing leisure homes. The objectives include material reduction, enhancing structural stability, resolving existing design issues, and developing innovative modular and wooden chassis designs. The methodology used in this research is quantitative in nature. The study utilizes FEA to analyse the performance of leisure home chassis under various loads. The analysis procedures involve running the FEA simulations on the numerical model of the leisure home chassis. Different load scenarios are applied to assess the stress and deflection performance of the chassis under various conditions. FEA is a numerical method that allows for accurate analysis of complex systems. The research utilizes flexible mesh sizing to calculate small deflections around doors and windows, with large meshes used for macro deflections. This approach aims to minimize run-time while providing meaningful stresses and deflections. Moreover, it aims to investigate the limitations and drawbacks of the popular approach of applying FEA only to the chassis and replacing the habitation structure with a distributed load. The findings of this study indicate that the popular approach of applying FEA only to the chassis and replacing the habitation structure with a distributed load overlooks the strengthening generated from the habitation structure. By employing FEA on the entire unit, it is possible to optimize stress and deflection performance while achieving material reduction and enhanced structural stability. The study also introduces innovative modular and wooden chassis designs, which show promising weight reduction compared to the existing heavily fabricated lattice chassis. In conclusion, this research provides valuable insights into the impact of the habitation structure on chassis performance in leisure homes. By employing FEA on the entire unit, the study demonstrates the importance of considering the strengthening generated from the habitation structure in chassis design. The research findings contribute to advancements in material reduction, structural stability, and overall performance optimization. The novel framework developed in this study promotes sustainability, cost-efficiency, and innovation in leisure home design.

Keywords: static homes, caravans, motor homes, holiday homes, finite element analysis (FEA)

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Authors: Isaiah Ifeanyichukwu Agbo

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Human speech is capable of serving many purposes. Power and control are not always exercised overtly by linguistic acts, but maybe enacted and exercised in the myriad of taken-for-granted actions of everyday life. Domination, power control, discrimination and mind control exist in human speech and may lead to asymmetrical power relations. In discourse, there are persuasive and manipulative linguistic acts that serve to establish solidarity and identification with the 'we group' and polarize with the 'they group'. Political discourse is crafted to defend and promote the problematic narrative of outright controversial events in a nation’s history thereby sustaining domination, marginalization, manipulation, inequalities and injustices, often without the dominated and marginalized group being aware of them. They are designed and positioned to serve the political and social needs of the producers. Political crisis speeches in Nigeria, just like in other countries concentrate on positive self-image, de-legitimization of political opponents, reframing accusation to one’s advantage, redefining problematic terms and adopting reversal strategy. In most cases, the people are ignorant of the hidden ideological positions encoded in the text. Few researches have been conducted adopting the frameworks of critical discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics to investigate this situation in the political crisis speeches in Nigeria. In this paper, we focus attention on the analyses of the linguistic, semantic, and ideological elements in selected political crisis speeches in Nigeria to investigate if they create and sustain unequal power relations and manipulative tendencies from the perspectives of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Critical Discourse Analysis unpacks both opaque and transparent structural relationships of power dominance, power relations and control as manifested in language. Critical discourse analysis emerged from a critical theory of language study which sees the use of language as a form of social practice where social relations are reproduced or contested and different interests are served. Systemic function linguistics relates the structure of texts to their function. Fairclough’s model of CDA and Halliday’s systemic functional approach to language study are adopted in this paper. This paper probes into language use that perpetuates inequalities. This study demystifies the hidden implicature of the selected political crisis speeches and reveals the existence of information that is not made explicit in what the political actors actually say. The analysis further reveals the ideological configurations present in the texts. These ideological standpoints are the basis for naturalizing implicit ideologies and hegemonic influence in the texts. The analyses of the texts further uncovered the linguistic and discursive strategies deployed by text producers to manipulate the unsuspecting members of the public both mentally and conceptually in order to enact, sustain and maintain unhealthy power relations at crisis times in the Nigerian political history.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, language, political crisis, power relations, systemic functional linguistics

Procedia PDF Downloads 310

Authors: Thiwanka Weerakkody, Lakmali Handagiripathira, Poshitha Dabare, Thisari Guruge

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The determination of gross alpha and beta activity in water is important in a wide array of environmental studies and these parameters are considered in international legislations on the quality of water. This technique is commonly applied as screening method in radioecology, environmental monitoring, industrial applications, etc. Measuring of Gross Alpha and Beta emitters by using iSolo alpha beta counting system is an adequate nuclear technique to assess radioactivity levels in natural and waste water samples due to its simplicity and low cost compared with the other methods. Twelve water samples (Six samples of commercially available bottled drinking water and six samples of industrial waste water) were measured by standard method EPA 900.0 consisting of the gas-less, firm wear based, single sample, manual iSolo alpha beta counter (Model: SOLO300G) with solid state silicon PIPS detector. Am-241 and Sr90/ Y90 calibration standards were used to calibrate the detector. The minimum detectable activities are 2.32mBq/L and 406mBq/L, for alpha and beta activity, respectively. Each of the 2L water samples was evaporated (at low heat) to a small volume and transferred into 50mm stainless steel counting planchet evenly (for homogenization) and heated by IR lamp and the constant weighted residue was obtained. Then the samples were counted for gross alpha and beta. Sample density on the planchet area was maintained below 5mg/cm. Large quantities of solid wastes sludges and waste water are generated every year due to various industries. This water can be reused for different applications. Therefore implementation of water treatment plants and measuring water quality parameters in industrial waste water discharge is very important before releasing them into the environment. This waste may contain different types of pollutants, including radioactive substances. All these measured waste water samples having gross alpha and beta activities, lower than the maximum tolerance limits for industrial waste water discharge of industrial waste in to inland surface water, that is 10-9µCi/mL and 10-8µCi/mL for gross alpha and beta respectively (National Environmental Act, No. 47 of 1980). This is according to extraordinary gazette of the democratic socialist republic of Sri Lanka in February 2008. The measured water samples were below the recommended radioactivity levels and do not pose any radiological hazard when releasing the environment. Drinking water is an essential requirement of life. All the drinking water samples were below the permissible levels of 0.5Bq/L for gross alpha activity and 1Bq/L for gross beta activity. The values have been proposed by World Health Organization in 2011; therefore the water is acceptable for consumption of humans without any further clarification with respect to their radioactivity. As these screening levels are very low, the individual dose criterion (IDC) would usually not be exceeded (0.1mSv y⁻¹). IDC is a criterion for evaluating health risks from long term exposure to radionuclides in drinking water. Recommended level of 0.1mSv/y expressed a very low level of health risk. This monitoring work will be continued further for environmental protection purposes.

Keywords: drinking water, gross alpha, gross beta, waste water

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Authors: Maria Evnevich

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In modern conditions, in most markets, price competition is becoming less effective. On the one hand, there is a gradual decrease in the level of marginality in main traditional sectors of the economy, so further price reduction becomes too ‘expensive’ for the company. On the other hand, the effect of price reduction is leveled, and the reason for this phenomenon is likely to be informational. As a result, it turns out that even if the company reduces prices, making its products more accessible to the buyer, there is a high probability that this will not lead to increase in sales unless additional large-scale advertising and information campaigns are conducted. Similarly, a large-scale information and advertising campaign have a much greater effect itself than price reductions. At the same time, the cost of mass informing is growing every year, especially when using the main information channels. The article presents generalization, systematization and development of theoretical approaches and best practices in the field of customer focus approach to business management and in the field of relationship marketing in the modern digital economy. The research methodology is based on the synthesis and content-analysis of sociological and marketing research and on the study of the systems of working with consumer appeals and loyalty programs in the 50 largest client-oriented companies in Russia. Also, the analysis of internal documentation on customers’ purchases in one of the largest retail companies in Russia allowed to identify if buyers prefer to buy goods for complex purchases in one retail store with the best price image for them. The cost of attracting a new client is now quite high and continues to grow, so it becomes more important to keep him and increase the involvement through marketing tools. A huge role is played by modern digital technologies used both in advertising (e-mailing, SEO, contextual advertising, banner advertising, SMM, etc.) and in service. To implement the above-described client-oriented omnichannel service, it is necessary to identify the client and work with personal data provided when filling in the loyalty program application form. The analysis of loyalty programs of 50 companies identified the following types of cards: discount cards, bonus cards, mixed cards, coalition loyalty cards, bank loyalty programs, aviation loyalty programs, hybrid loyalty cards, situational loyalty cards. The use of loyalty cards allows not only to stimulate the customer to purchase ‘untargeted’, but also to provide individualized offers, as well as to produce more targeted information. The development of digital technologies and modern means of communication has significantly changed not only the sphere of marketing and promotion, but also the economic landscape as a whole. Factors of competitiveness are the digital opportunities of companies in the field of customer orientation: personalization of service, customization of advertising offers, optimization of marketing activity and improvement of logistics.

Keywords: customer focus, digital economy, loyalty program, relationship marketing

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: S. B. Q. Tran

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Drop condensation is the phenomenon that the tiny drops form when the oversaturated vapour present in the environment condenses on a substrate and makes the droplet growth. Recently, this subject has received much attention due to its applications in many fields such as thin film growth, heat transfer, recovery of atmospheric water and polymer templating. In literature, many papers investigated theoretically and experimentally in macro droplet growth with the size of millimeter scale of radius. However few papers about nanodroplet condensation are found in the literature especially theoretical work. In order to understand the droplet growth in nanoscale, we perform the numerical simulation work to study nanodroplet growth. We investigate and discuss the role of the droplet shape and monomer diffusion on drop growth and their effect on growth law. The effect of droplet shape is studied by doing parametric studies of contact angle and disjoining pressure magnitude. Besides, the effect of pinning and de-pinning behaviours is also studied. We investigate the axisymmetric homogeneous growth of 10–100 nm single water nanodroplet on a substrate surface. The main mechanism of droplet growth is attributed to the accumulation of laterally diffusing water monomers, formed by the absorption of water vapour in the environment onto the substrate. Under assumptions of quasi-steady thermodynamic equilibrium, the nanodroplet evolves according to the augmented Young–Laplace equation. Using continuum theory, we model the dynamics of nanodroplet growth including the coupled effects of disjoining pressure, contact angle and monomer diffusion with the assumption of constant flux of water monomers at the far field. The simulation result is validated by comparing with the published experimental result. For the case of nanodroplet growth with constant contact angle, our numerical results show that the initial droplet growth is transient by monomer diffusion. When the flux at the far field is small, at the beginning, the droplet grows by the diffusion of initially available water monomers on the substrate and after that by the flux at the far field. In the steady late growth rate of droplet radius and droplet height follow a power law of 1/3, which is unaffected by the substrate disjoining pressure and contact angle. However, it is found that the droplet grows faster in radial direction than high direction when disjoining pressure and contact angle increase. The simulation also shows the information of computational domain effect in the transient growth period. When the computational domain size is larger, the mass coming in the free substrate domain is higher. So the mass coming in the droplet is also higher. The droplet grows and reaches the steady state faster. For the case of pinning and de-pinning droplet growth, the simulation shows that the disjoining pressure does not affect the droplet radius growth law 1/3 in steady state. However the disjoining pressure modifies the growth rate of the droplet height, which then follows a power law of 1/4. We demonstrate how spatial depletion of monomers could lead to a growth arrest of the nanodroplet, as observed experimentally.

Keywords: augmented young-laplace equation, contact angle, disjoining pressure, nanodroplet growth

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: Arturo Galvan, Jatziri Y. Moreno-Martinez, Daniel Arroyo-Montoya, Jose M. Gutierrez-Villalobos

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Bridges are one of the most seismically vulnerable structures on highway transportation systems. The general process for assessing the seismic vulnerability of a bridge involves the evaluation of its overall capacity and demand. One of the most common procedures to obtain this capacity is by means of pushover analysis of the structure. Typically, the bridge capacity is assessed using non-linear static methods or non-linear dynamic analyses. The non-linear dynamic approaches use step by step numerical solutions for assessing the capacity with the consuming computer time inconvenience. In this study, a nonlinear static analysis (‘pushover analysis’) was performed to predict the collapse mechanism of a typical bridge built in the central zone of Mexico (Celaya, Guanajuato). The bridge superstructure consists of three simple supported spans with a total length of 76 m: 22 m of the length of extreme spans and 32 m of length of the central span. The deck width is of 14 m and the concrete slab depth is of 18 cm. The bridge is built by means of frames of five piers with hollow box-shaped sections. The dimensions of these piers are 7.05 m height and 1.20 m diameter. The numerical model was created using a commercial software considering linear and non-linear elements. In all cases, the piers were represented by frame type elements with geometrical properties obtained from the structural project and construction drawings of the bridge. The deck was modeled with a mesh of rectangular thin shell (plate bending and stretching) finite elements. The moment-curvature analysis was performed for the sections of the piers of the bridge considering in each pier the effect of confined concrete and its reinforcing steel. In this way, plastic hinges were defined on the base of the piers to carry out the pushover analysis. In addition, time history analyses were performed using 19 accelerograms of real earthquakes that have been registered in Guanajuato. In this way, the displacements produced by the bridge were determined. Finally, pushover analysis was applied through the control of displacements in the piers to obtain the overall capacity of the bridge before the failure occurs. It was concluded that the lateral deformation of the piers due to a critical earthquake occurred in this zone is almost imperceptible due to the geometry and reinforcement demanded by the current design standards and compared to its displacement capacity, they were excessive. According to the analysis, it was found that the frames built with five piers increase the rigidity in the transverse direction of the bridge. Hence it is proposed to reduce these frames of five piers to three piers, maintaining the same geometrical characteristics and the same reinforcement in each pier. Also, the mechanical properties of materials (concrete and reinforcing steel) were maintained. Once a pushover analysis was performed considering this configuration, it was concluded that the bridge would continue having a “correct” seismic behavior, at least for the 19 accelerograms considered in this study. In this way, costs in material, construction, time and labor would be reduced in this study case.

Keywords: collapse mechanism, moment-curvature analysis, overall capacity, push-over analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Erfan Abdeldaim Mohamed Ahmed Abdalla

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The complexity of Arabic grammar poses challenges for learners, particularly in relation to its arrangement, classification, abundance, and bifurcation. The challenge at hand is a result of the contextual factors that gave rise to the grammatical rules in question, as well as the pedagogical approach employed at the time, which was tailored to the needs of learners during that particular historical period. Consequently, modern-day students encounter this same obstacle. This requires a thorough examination of the arrangement and categorization of Arabic grammatical rules based on particular criteria, as well as an assessment of their objectives. Additionally, it is necessary to identify the prevalent and renowned grammatical rules, as well as those that are infrequently encountered, obscure and disregarded. This paper presents a compilation of grammatical rules that require arrangement and categorization in accordance with the standards outlined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In addition to facilitating comprehension of the curriculum, accommodating learners' requirements, and establishing the fundamental competencies for achieving proficiency in Arabic, it is imperative to ascertain the conventions that language learners necessitate in alignment with explicitly delineated benchmarks such as the CEFR criteria. The aim of this study is to reduce the quantity of grammatical rules that are typically presented to non-native Arabic speakers in Arabic textbooks. This reduction is expected to enhance the motivation of learners to continue their Arabic language acquisition and to approach the level of proficiency of native speakers. The primary obstacle faced by learners is the intricate nature of Arabic grammar, which poses a significant challenge in the realm of study. The proliferation and complexity of regulations evident in Arabic language textbooks designed for individuals who are not native speakers is noteworthy. The inadequate organisation and delivery of the material create the impression that the grammar is being imparted to a student with the intention of memorising "Alfiyyat-Ibn-Malik." Consequently, the sequence of grammatical rules instruction was altered, with rules originally intended for later instruction being presented first and those intended for earlier instruction being presented subsequently. Students often focus on learning grammatical rules that are not necessarily required while neglecting the rules that are commonly used in everyday speech and writing. Non-Arab students are taught Arabic grammar chapters that are infrequently utilised in Arabic literature and may be a topic of debate among grammarians. The aforementioned findings are derived from the statistical analysis and investigations conducted by the researcher, which will be disclosed in due course of the research. To instruct non-Arabic speakers on grammatical rules, it is imperative to discern the most prevalent grammatical frameworks in grammar manuals and linguistic literature (study sample). The present proposal suggests the allocation of grammatical structures across linguistic levels, taking into account the guidelines of the CEFR, as well as the grammatical structures that are necessary for non-Arabic-speaking learners to generate a modern, cohesive, and comprehensible language.

Keywords: grammar, Arabic, functional, framework, problems, standards, statistical, popularity, analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: Olga Hernán-Vega, Patricia López-Rodríguez, David Escot-Bocanegra, Raúl Fernández-Recio, Ignacio Bravo

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Non-Cooperative Target Identification has become a key research domain in the Defense industry since it provides the ability to recognize targets at long distance and under any weather condition. High Resolution Range Profiles, one-dimensional radar images where the reflectivity of a target is projected onto the radar line of sight, are widely used for identification of flying targets. According to that, to face this problem, an approach to Non-Cooperative Target Identification based on the exploitation of Singular Value Decomposition to a matrix of range profiles is presented. Target Identification based on one-dimensional radar images compares a collection of profiles of a given target, namely test set, with the profiles included in a pre-loaded database, namely training set. The classification is improved by using Singular Value Decomposition since it allows to model each aircraft as a subspace and to accomplish recognition in a transformed domain where the main features are easier to extract hence, reducing unwanted information such as noise. Singular Value Decomposition permits to define a signal subspace which contain the highest percentage of the energy, and a noise subspace which will be discarded. This way, only the valuable information of each target is used in the recognition process. The identification algorithm is based on finding the target that minimizes the angle between subspaces and takes place in a transformed domain. Two metrics, F1 and F2, based on Singular Value Decomposition are accomplished in the identification process. In the case of F2, the angle is weighted, since the top vectors set the importance in the contribution to the formation of a target signal, on the contrary F1 simply shows the evolution of the unweighted angle. In order to have a wide database or radar signatures and evaluate the performance, range profiles are obtained through numerical simulation of seven civil aircraft at defined trajectories taken from an actual measurement. Taking into account the nature of the datasets, the main drawback of using simulated profiles instead of actual measured profiles is that the former implies an ideal identification scenario, since measured profiles suffer from noise, clutter and other unwanted information and simulated profiles don't. In this case, the test and training samples have similar nature and usually a similar high signal-to-noise ratio, so as to assess the feasibility of the approach, the addition of noise has been considered before the creation of the test set. The identification results applying the unweighted and weighted metrics are analysed for demonstrating which algorithm provides the best robustness against noise in an actual possible scenario. So as to confirm the validity of the methodology, identification experiments of profiles coming from electromagnetic simulations are conducted, revealing promising results. Considering the dissimilarities between the test and training sets when noise is added, the recognition performance has been improved when weighting is applied. Future experiments with larger sets are expected to be conducted with the aim of finally using actual profiles as test sets in a real hostile situation.

Keywords: HRRP, NCTI, simulated/synthetic database, SVD

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Authors: Maximilian Engelhardt, Stephan Seeck

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The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the already growing field of e-commerce. The resulting urban freight transport volume leads to traffic and negative environmental impact. Furthermore, the service level of parcel logistics service provider is lacking far behind the expectations of consumer. These challenges can be solved by radically reorganize the urban last mile distribution structure: parcels could be consolidated in a micro hub within the inner city and delivered within time windows by cargo bike. This approach leads to a significant improvement of consumer satisfaction with their overall delivery experience. However, this approach also leads to significantly increased costs per parcel. While there is a relevant share of online shoppers that are willing to pay for such a delivery service there are no deeper insights about this target group available in the literature. Being aware of the importance of knowing target groups for businesses, the aim of this paper is to elaborate the most important factors that determine the willingness to pay for sustainable and service-oriented parcel delivery (factor analysis) and to derive customer segments (cluster analysis). In order to answer those questions, a data set is analyzed using quantitative methods of multivariate statistics. The data set was generated via an online survey in September and October 2020 within the five largest cities in Germany (n = 1.071). The data set contains socio-demographic, living-related and value-related variables, e.g. age, income, city, living situation and willingness to pay. In a prior work of the author, the data was analyzed applying descriptive and inference statistical methods that only provided limited insights regarding the above-mentioned research questions. The analysis in an exploratory way using factor and cluster analysis promise deeper insights of relevant influencing factors and segments for user behavior of the mentioned parcel delivery concept. The analysis model is built and implemented with help of the statistical software language R. The data analysis is currently performed and will be completed in December 2021. It is expected that the results will show the most relevant factors that are determining user behavior of sustainable and service-oriented parcel deliveries (e.g. age, current service experience, willingness to pay) and give deeper insights in characteristics that describe the segments that are more or less willing to pay for a better parcel delivery service. Based on the expected results, relevant implications and conclusions can be derived for startups that are about to change the way parcels are delivered: more customer-orientated by time window-delivery and parcel consolidation, more environmental-friendly by cargo bike. The results will give detailed insights regarding their target groups of parcel recipients. Further research can be conducted by exploring alternative revenue models (beyond the parcel recipient) that could compensate the additional costs, e.g. online-shops that increase their service-level or municipalities that reduce traffic on their streets.

Keywords: customer segmentation, e-commerce, last mile delivery, parcel service, urban logistics, willingness-to-pay

Procedia PDF Downloads 85

Authors: Olga Kruzhkova, Irina Vorobyeva, Roman Porozov

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Vandalism is a common phenomenon, but its definition is still not clearly defined. In the public sense, vandalism is the blatant cases of pogroms in cemeteries, destruction of public places (regardless of whether these actions are authorized), damage to significant objects of culture and history (monuments, religious buildings). From a legal point of view, only such an act can be called vandalism, which is aimed at 'desecrating buildings or other structures, damaging property on public transport or in other public places'. The key here is the notion of public property that is being damaged. In addition, the principal is the semantics of messages, expressed in a kind of sign system (drawing, inscription, symbol), which initially threatens public order, the calmness of citizens, public morality. Because of this, the legal qualification of vandalism doesn’t include a sufficiently wide layer of environmental destructions that are common in modern urban space (graffiti and other damage to private property, broken shop windows, damage to entrances and elevator cabins), which in ordinary consciousness are seen as obvious facts of vandalism. At the same time, the understanding of vandalism from the position of psychology implies an appeal to the question of the limits of the activity of the subject of vandalism and his motivational basis. Also recently, the discourse on the positive meaning of some forms of vandalism (graffiti, street-art, etc.) has been activated. But there is no discussion of the role and significance of vandalism in public and individual life, although, like any socio-cultural and socio-psychological phenomenon, vandalism is not groundless and meaningless. Our aim of the study was to identify and describe the functions of vandalism as a socio-cultural and socio-psychological phenomenon of the life of the urban community, as well as personal determinants of its manifestations. The study was conducted in the spatial environment of the Russian megalopolis (Ekaterinburg) by photographing visual results of vandal acts (6217 photos) with subsequent trace-assessment and image content analysis, as well as diagnostics of personal characteristics and motivational basis of vandal activity of possible subjects of vandalism among youth. The results of the study allowed to identify the functions of vandalism at the socio-environmental and individual-subjective levels. The socio-environmental functions of vandalism include the signaling function, the function of preparing of social changes, the constructing function, and the function of managing public moods. The demonstrative-protest function, the response function, the refund function, and the self-expression function are assigned to the individual-subjective functions of vandalism. A two-dimensional model of vandal functions has been formed, where functions are distributed in the spaces 'construction reconstruction', 'emotional regulation/moral regulation'. It is noted that any function of vandal activity at the individual level becomes a kind of marker of 'points of tension' at the social and environmental level. Acknowledgment: The research was supported financially by Russian Science Foundation, (Project No. 17-18-01278).

Keywords: destruction, urban environment, vandal behavior, vandalism, vandalism functions

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Authors: Laura Alvarez-Alonso, Francisco Garcia-Carro, Jorge Loredo

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Population growth and industrial development imply an increase in the energy demands and the problems caused by emissions of greenhouse effect gases, which has inspired the search for clean sources of energy. Hydrogen (H₂) is expected to play a key role in the world’s energy future by replacing fossil fuels. The properties of H₂ make it a green fuel that does not generate pollutants and supplies sufficient energy for power generation, transportation, and other applications. Supercritical Water Gasification (SCWG) represents an attractive alternative for the recovery of energy from wastes. SCWG allows conversion of a wide range of raw materials into a fuel gas with a high content of hydrogen and light hydrocarbons through their treatment at conditions higher than those that define the critical point of water (temperature of 374°C and pressure of 221 bar). Methane used as a transport fuel is another important gasification product. The number of different uses of gas and energy forms that can be produced depending on the kind of material gasified and type of technology used to process it, shows the flexibility of SCWG. This feature allows it to be integrated with several industrial processes, as well as power generation systems or waste-to-energy production systems. The final aim of this work is to study which conditions and equipment are the most efficient and advantageous to explore the possibilities to obtain streams rich in H₂ from oily wastes, which represent a major problem both for the environment and human health throughout the world. In this paper, the relative complexity of technology needed for feasible gasification process cycles is discussed with particular reference to the different feedstocks that can be used as raw material, different reactors, and energy recovery systems. For this purpose, a review of the current status of SCWG technologies has been carried out, by means of different classifications based on key features as the feed treated or the type of reactor and other apparatus. This analysis allows to improve the technology efficiency through the study of model calculations and its comparison with experimental data, the establishment of kinetics for chemical reactions, the analysis of how the main reaction parameters affect the yield and composition of products, or the determination of the most common problems and risks that can occur. The results of this work show that SCWG is a promising method for the production of both hydrogen and methane. The most significant choices of design are the reactor type and process cycle, which can be conveniently adopted according to waste characteristics. Regarding the future of the technology, the design of SCWG plants is still to be optimized to include energy recovery systems in order to reduce costs of equipment and operation derived from the high temperature and pressure conditions that are necessary to convert water to the SC state, as well as to find solutions to remove corrosion and clogging of components of the reactor.

Keywords: hydrogen production, organic wastes, supercritical water gasification, system integration, waste-to-energy

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Authors: M. Ciminello, I. Dimino, S. Ameduri, A. Concilio

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Improving aircraft's efficiency is one of the key elements of Aeronautics. Modern aircraft possess many advanced functions, such as good transportation capability, high Mach number, high flight altitude, and increasing rate of climb. However, no aircraft has a possibility to reach all of this optimized performance in a single airframe configuration. The aircraft aerodynamic efficiency varies considerably depending on the specific mission and on environmental conditions within which the aircraft must operate. Structures that morph their shape in response to their surroundings may at first seem like the stuff of science fiction, but take a look at nature and lots of examples of plants and animals that adapt to their environment would arise. In order to ensure both the controllable and the static robustness of such complex structural systems, a monitoring network is aimed at verifying the effectiveness of the given control commands together with the elastic response. In order to achieve this kind of information, the use of FBG sensors network is, in this project, proposed. The sensor network is able to measure morphing structures shape which may show large, global displacements due to non-standard architectures and materials adopted. Chord -wise variations may allow setting and chasing the best layout as a function of the particular and transforming reference state, always targeting best aerodynamic performance. The reason why an optical sensor solution has been selected is that while keeping a few of the contraindication of the classical systems (like cabling, continuous deployment, and so on), fibre optic sensors may lead to a dramatic reduction of the wires mass and weight thanks to an extreme multiplexing capability. Furthermore, the use of the ‘light’ as ‘information carrier’, permits dealing with nimbler, non-shielded wires, and avoids any kind of interference with the on-board instrumentation. The FBG-based transducers, herein presented, aim at monitoring the actual shape of adaptive trailing edge. Compared to conventional systems, these transducers allow more fail-safe measurements, by taking advantage of a supporting structure, hosting FBG, whose properties may be tailored depending on the architectural requirements and structural constraints, acting as strain modulator. The direct strain may, in fact, be difficult because of the large deformations occurring in morphing elements. A modulation transducer is then necessary to keep the measured strain inside the allowed range. In this application, chord-wise transducer device is a cantilevered beam sliding trough the spars and copying the camber line of the ATE ribs. FBG sensors array position are dimensioned and integrated along the path. A theoretical model describing the system behavior is implemented. To validate the design, experiments are then carried out with the purpose of estimating the functions between rib rotation and measured strain.

Keywords: fiber optic sensor, morphing structures, strain sensor, shape reconstruction

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Authors: Ayush Aditya

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In today's digitised world, the extent of an individual’s social involvement is largely determined by their interaction over the internet. The Internet has emerged as a primary source of information consumption and a reliable medium for receiving updates on everyday activities. Owing to this change in the information consumption pattern, the internet has also emerged as a hotbed of misinformation. Experts are of the view that media literacy has emerged as one of the most effective strategies for addressing the issue of misinformation. This paper aims to study the evolution of the Kerala government's media literacy policy, its implementation strategy, challenges and opportunities. The objective of this paper is to create a conceptual framework containing details of the implementation strategy based on the Kerala model. Extensive secondary research of literature, newspaper articles, and other online sources was carried out to locate the timeline of this policy. This was followed by semi-structured interview discussions with government officials from Kerala to trace the origin and evolution of this policy. Preliminary findings based on the collected data suggest that this policy is a case of policy by chance, as the officer who headed this policy during the state level implementation was the one who has already piloted a media literacy program in a district called Kannur as the district collector. Through this paper, an attempt is made to trace the history of the media literacy policy starting from the Kannur intervention in 2018, which was started to address the issue of vaccine hesitancy around measles rubella(MR) vaccination. If not for the vaccine hesitancy, this program would not have been rolled out in Kannur. Interviews with government officials suggest that when authorities decided to take up this initiative in 2020, a huge amount of misinformation emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic was the trigger. There was misinformation regarding government orders, healthcare facilities, vaccination, and lockdown regulations, which affected everyone, unlike the case of Kannur, where it was only a certain age group of kids. As a solution to this problem, the state government decided to create a media literacy curriculum to be taught in all government schools of the state starting from standard 8 till graduation. This was a tricky task, as a new course had to be immediately introduced in the school curriculum amid all the disruptions in the education system caused by the pandemic. It was revealed during the interview that in the case of the state-wide implementation, every step involved multiple checks and balances, unlike the earlier program where stakeholders were roped-in as and when the need emerged. On the pedagogy, while the training during the pilot could be managed through PowerPoint presentation, designing a state-wide curriculum involved multiple iterations and expert approvals. The reason for this is COVID-19 related misinformation has lost its significance. In the next phase of the research, an attempt will be made to compare other aspects of the pilot implementation with the state-wide implementation.

Keywords: media literacy, digital media literacy, curriculum based media literacy intervention, misinformation

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Authors: Aritra Majumdar

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While organizations strive to expand their new customer base, retaining existing relationships is a key aspect of improving overall profitability and also showcasing how successful an organization is in holding on to its customers. It is an experimentally proven fact that the lion’s share of profit always comes from existing customers. Hence seamless management of renewal journeys across different channels goes a long way in improving trust in the brand. From a quality assurance standpoint, time travel testing provides an approach to both business and technology teams to enhance the customer experience when they look to extend their partnership with the organization for a defined phase of time. This whitepaper will focus on key pillars of time travel testing: time travel planning, time travel data preparation, and enterprise automation. Along with that, it will call out some of the best practices and common accelerator implementation ideas which are generic across verticals like healthcare, insurance, etc. In this abstract document, a high-level snapshot of these pillars will be provided. Time Travel Planning: The first step of setting up a time travel testing roadmap is appropriate planning. Planning will include identifying the impacted systems that need to be time traveled backward or forward depending on the business requirement, aligning time travel with other releases, frequency of time travel testing, preparedness for handling renewal issues in production after time travel testing is done and most importantly planning for test automation testing during time travel testing. Time Travel Data Preparation: One of the most complex areas in time travel testing is test data coverage. Aligning test data to cover required customer segments and narrowing it down to multiple offer sequencing based on defined parameters are keys for successful time travel testing. Another aspect is the availability of sufficient data for similar combinations to support activities like defect retesting, regression testing, post-production testing (if required), etc. This section will talk about the necessary steps for suitable data coverage and sufficient data availability from a time travel testing perspective. Enterprise Automation: Time travel testing is never restricted to a single application. The workflow needs to be validated in the downstream applications to ensure consistency across the board. Along with that, the correctness of offers across different digital channels needs to be checked in order to ensure a smooth customer experience. This section will talk about the focus areas of enterprise automation and how automation testing can be leveraged to improve the overall quality without compromising on the project schedule. Along with the above-mentioned items, the white paper will elaborate on the best practices that need to be followed during time travel testing and some ideas pertaining to accelerator implementation. To sum it up, this paper will be written based on the real-time experience author had on time travel testing. While actual customer names and program-related details will not be disclosed, the paper will highlight the key learnings which will help other teams to implement time travel testing successfully.

Keywords: time travel planning, time travel data preparation, enterprise automation, best practices, accelerator implementation ideas

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Authors: Jaspinder Kaur, Jatinder Pal Singh

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Introduction- Delusional parasitosis is a rare psychotic illness characterized by a fixed belief of manifesting a parasite in a body when in reality, it was not. Also known as Ekbom syndrome or delusional infestations, or acarophobia. Although the patient has no primary skin pathology, but all skin findings were secondary to skin manipulation by the patient itself, which is why up to 90% of patients first seek consultation from a dermatologist. Most commonly, it was seen in older people with female to male ratio is 2:1. For treatment, the patient first need to be investigated to rule all other possible causes, as Delusional parasitosis can be caused by Vitamin B12 deficiency, pellagra, hepatic and renal disease, diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, and leprosy. When all possible causes ruled out, psychiatric referral to be done. Rule out other psychiatric comorbidities, and treatment should be done accordingly. Patient with delusional parasitosis responds well to second generation antipsychotics and need to continuous medication over years, and relapse is likely if treatment is stopped. Case Presentation- A 79-year-old female, belonging to lower socio-economic status, presented with complaints of itching sensation with erythematous patches over the scalp and multiple scratch excoriations lesion over the scalp, face and neck from the past 7-8 months. She had a feeling of small insect crawling under her skin and scalp area. To reduce the itching and kill the insect, she would scratch and squeeze her skin repeatedly. When the family tried to give her explanation that there was no insect in her body, she would not get convinced, rather got angry and abuse family members for not believing her. Gradually, her sleep would remain disturbed, she would be seen awake at night, seen to be scratching her skin, pull her scalp hair, even squeeze out her healed lesions. She collected her skin debris, scalp hairs and look out for insect. Because of her continuous illness, the patient started to remain sad and had crying spells. Her appetite decreased. She became socially isolated and stopped doing her activities of daily living. Family member’s first consulted dermatologist, investigated thoroughly with routine investigations, autoimmune and malignancy workup. As all investigations were normal, following which patient was referred for psychiatric evaluation. The patient was started on Tablet Olanzapine 2.5 mg, gradually increased to 7.5 mg. Over 1 month, there was reduction in itching, skin pricking. Lesions were gradually healed, and the patient continued to take other dermatological medications and ointment and was in regular follow up with psychiatric liaison from past 2 months with 70-80 % improvement in her symptoms. Conclusion- Delusional parasitosis is a psychiatric disorder of insidious onset, seen commonly in middle and old age people. Both psychiatric and dermatology consultation liaison will help the patient for an early diagnosis and adequate treatment. If a primary psychiatric diagnosis, the patient respond well to second generation antipsychotics but always require a further evaluation and treatment management if it is secondary to some physical or other psychiatric comorbidity.

Keywords: delusional parasitosis, delusional infestations, rare, primary psychiatric diagnosis, antipsychotic agents

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Authors: Emmanuel O. Ezim, Idowu A. Olayinka, Michael Oladunjoye, Izuchukwu I. Obiadi

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Monitoring of reservoir properties prior to well placements and production is a requirement for optimisation and efficient oil and gas production. This is usually done using well log analyses and 3-D seismic, which are often prone to errors. However, 4-D (Time-lapse) seismic, incorporating numerous 3-D seismic surveys of the same field with the same acquisition parameters, which portrays the transient changes in the reservoir due to production effects over time, could be utilised because it generates better resolution. There is, however dearth of information on the applicability of this approach in the Niger Delta. This study was therefore designed to apply 4-D seismic, well-log and geologic data in monitoring of reservoirs in the EK field of the Niger Delta. It aimed at locating bypassed accumulations and ensuring effective reservoir management. The Field (EK) covers an area of about 1200km2 belonging to the early (18ma) Miocene. Data covering two 4-D vintages acquired over a fifteen-year interval were obtained from oil companies operating in the field. The data were analysed to determine the seismic structures, horizons, Well-to-Seismic Tie (WST), and wavelets. Well, logs and production history data from fifteen selected wells were also collected from the Oil companies. Formation evaluation, petrophysical analysis and inversion alongside geological data were undertaken using Petrel, Shell-nDi, Techlog and Jason Software. Well-to-seismic tie, formation evaluation and saturation monitoring using petrophysical and geological data and software were used to find bypassed hydrocarbon prospects. The seismic vintages were interpreted, and the amounts of change in the reservoir were defined by the differences in Acoustic Impedance (AI) inversions of the base and the monitor seismic. AI rock properties were estimated from all the seismic amplitudes using controlled sparse-spike inversion. The estimated rock properties were used to produce AI maps. The structural analysis showed the dominance of NW-SE trending rollover collapsed-crest anticlines in EK with hydrocarbons trapped northwards. There were good ties in wells EK 27, 39. Analysed wavelets revealed consistent amplitude and phase for the WST; hence, a good match between the inverted impedance and the good data. Evidence of large pay thickness, ranging from 2875ms (11420 TVDSS-ft) to about 2965ms, were found around EK 39 well with good yield properties. The comparison between the base of the AI and the current monitor and the generated AI maps revealed zones of untapped hydrocarbons as well as assisted in determining fluids movement. The inverted sections through EK 27, 39 (within 3101 m - 3695 m), indicated depletion in the reservoirs. The extent of the present non-uniform gas-oil contact and oil-water contact movements were from 3554 to 3575 m. The 4-D seismic approach led to better reservoir characterization, well development and the location of deeper and bypassed hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Keywords: reservoir monitoring, 4-D seismic, well placements, petrophysical analysis, Niger delta basin

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Authors: Ifeyinwa Victor-Uadiale, Georgina Pearson, Sophie Witter, D. Reidpath

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Introduction: Smoking, alcohol misuse, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity are the primary drivers of noncommunicable diseases (NCD), including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, and diabetes, worldwide. Collectively, these diseases are the leading cause of all global deaths, most of which are premature, affecting people between 30 and 70 years. Empirical evidence suggests that these risk behaviors can be modified by community-based interventions (CBI). However, there is little insight into the mechanisms and contextual factors of successful community interventions that impact risk behaviours for chronic diseases. This study examined “Under what circumstances, for whom, and how, do community-based interventions modify smoking, alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity among adults”. Adopting the Capability (C), Opportunity (O), Motivation (M), Behavior (B) (COM-B) framework for behaviour change, it sought to: (1) identify the mechanisms through which CBIs could reduce tobacco use and alcohol consumption and increase physical activity and the consumption of healthy diets and (2) examine the contextual factors that trigger the impact of these mechanisms on these risk behaviours among adults. Methods: Pawson’s realist review method was used to examine the literature. Empirical evidence and theoretical understanding were combined to develop a realist program theory that explains how CBIs influence NCD risk behaviours. Documents published between 2002 and 2020 were systematically searched in five electronic databases (CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Medline, ProQuest Central, and PsycINFO). They were included if they reported on community-based interventions aimed at cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, and diabetes in a global context; and had an outcome targeted at smoking, alcohol, physical activity, and diet. Findings: Twenty-nine scientific documents were retrieved and included in the review. Over half of them (n = 18; 62%) focused on three of the four risk behaviours investigated in this review. The review identified four mechanisms: capability, opportunity, motivation, and social support that are likely to change the dietary and physical activity behaviours in adults given certain contexts. There were weak explanations of how the identified mechanisms could likely change smoking and alcohol consumption habits. In addition, eight contextual factors that may affect how these mechanisms impact physical activity and dietary behaviours were identified: suitability to work and family obligations, risk status awareness, socioeconomic status, literacy level, perceived need, availability and access to resources, culture, and group format. Conclusion: The findings suggest that CBIs are likely to improve the physical activity and dietary habits of adults if the intervention function seeks to educate, incentivize, change the environment, and model the right behaviours. The review applies and advances theory, realist research, and the design and implementation of community-based interventions for NCD prevention.

Keywords: community-based interventions, noncommunicable disease, realist program theory, risk behaviors

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