Search results for: online travel writing

Authors: Esther Mafunda

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The present study interrogated the lecturer’s skills in supporting visually impaired students during the Covid-19 era at the University of Zimbabwe. It particularly assesses how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the learning experience of visually impaired students and which skills the lecturers possessed in order to assist the visually impaired students during online learning. Data was collected from lecturers and visually impaired students at the University of Zimbabwe Disability Resource Centre. Data was collected through the use of interviews and questionnaires. Using content analysis, it was established that visually impaired students faced challenges of lack of familiarity with the Moodle learning platform, marginalization, lack of professional training, and lack of training for parents and guardians. Lecturers faced challenges of lack of training, the curriculum, access, and technical know-how deficit. It was established that lecturers had to resort to social media platforms in order to assist visually impaired students. Visually impaired students also received assistance from their friends and family members. On the basis of the results of the research, it can be concluded that lecturers needed in-service training to be provided with the necessary skills and knowledge to teach students with visual impairments and provide quality education to students with visual impairments.

Keywords: visual impairment, disability, covid-19, inclusive learning

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Authors: Rita Garcia

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Intelligent Programming Tutors, IPTs, are supplemental educational devices that assist in teaching software development. These systems provide customized learning allowing the user to select the presentation pace, pedagogical strategy, and to recall previous and additional teaching materials reinforcing learning objectives. In addition, IPTs automatically records individual’s progress, providing feedback to the instructor and student. These tutoring systems have an advantage over Tutoring Systems because Intelligent Programming Tutors are not limited to one teaching strategy and can adjust when it detects the user struggling with a concept. The Intelligent Programming Tutor is a category of Intelligent Tutoring Systems, ITS. ITS are available for many fields in education, supporting different learning objectives and integrate into other learning tools, improving the student's learning experience. This study provides a comparison of the IPTs currently adopted by the educational community and will focus on the different teaching methodologies and programming languages. The study also includes the ability to integrate the IPT into other educational technologies, such as massive open online courses, MOOCs. The intention of this evaluation is to determine one system that would best serve in a larger ongoing research project and provide findings for other institutions looking to adopt an Intelligent Programming Tutor.

Keywords: computer education tools, integrated software development assistance, intelligent programming tutors, tutoring systems

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Authors: Monika Paleczna, Barbara Szmigielska

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Adolescence is a developmental period, covering the period from 10 to 20 years of age, in which young people face many challenges. One of the most important tasks of the adolescence period is getting a structured identity. The development of identity is possible by undertaking various activities. Nowadays, virtual activities are very common among young people. One of the main adolescents’ activities in the online environment is playing computer games. The main aim of this work is to answer the question about the relationship between the identity style of adolescents and immersion, -a phenomenon often observed while playing computer games. The concept of identity created by Berzonsky is considered as one of the best-defined concepts of identity. He defines identity as both a structure and a process and distinguishes three styles of identity: informational, normative, and diffuse/avoidant. Immersion is a concept that can be applied in a broad context, but in the game environment, it is a specific psychological experience of being involved in a computer game. It refers to the relocation of the attention resources to the game world, with a limited or impossible perception of stimuli from reality. Considering how much time adolescents spend playing computer games, the question about the relationship between their identity and the immersion in the game seems to be extremely interesting. Fifty adolescents aged 15-17 participated in the study. They played a computer game and completed the Identity Style Inventory and the Immersion Questionaire.

Keywords: identity, immersion, computer games, adolescence

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Authors: Ali Alavi, Owen Nguyen, Jiangang Fei, Jafar Sayareh

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The main purpose of this research is to propose a conceptual framework to analyze port logistics integration in general and for the Iranian port sector in particular, including consideration of the challenges, outcomes, and opportunities in implementing port logistics integration. First, a literature review of studies on logistics integration in seaports and terminals is conducted. Second, a new conceptual framework for port logistics integration is proposed to incorporate the role of the new variables emerging from the recent developments in the global business environment. The literature review has found the logistics process and operations, information integration, value-added services, and logistics practices, organizational activities, resource sharing and institutional support being influential to logistics integration. The study used survey method to test the proposed conceptual framework. Both online and self-administrative survey have been used to collect data from ‎port official staffs in Iranian seaports and their associations (internal port ‎stakeholders) as well ‎as other experts in various actors. In the study, the questionnaire was first validated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and then by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the EFA and CFA confirmed the finding from the literature review. Research results and conceptual framework shed the lights on port logistics integration concept and suggest guidelines and procedures improve port logistics integration.

Keywords: maritime logistics, logistics integration, port management, EFA, CFA

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Authors: Ishak Kamal Baskhayroun

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This study examines consumer attitudes toward mobile marketing, especially toward SMS marketing. Unlike similar studies, this study does not focus on the young, but includes consumers who are in the 18-70 age range to the field research. According to the results, it has been concluded that most participants think SMS marketing is disturbing. Most important problems with SMS marketing are about getting subscribed to message lists without the permission of the receiver; the high number of messages sent; and the irrelevancy of the message content. The emergence of sponsorship as a new marketing communication tool and a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace has changed the entire marketing communication process. Sponsorship has overtaken other marketing communication tools in terms of growth and expenditure. This paper seeks to evaluate the role of sponsorship in marketing communication tools. The study recommends that proper measures be taken before the company embarks into sponsorship programs. This is necessary because investment in sponsorship does not always guarantee sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace.Mobile phones are one of the direct marketing tools that can be used to reach today’s hard to reach consumers. Mobile phones are very personal devices and they are always carried with the consumer, where ever they go. This creates an opportunity for marketers to create personalized marketing communications messages and send them on the right time and place.

Keywords: employee organizational performance, internal marketing, internal customer, direct marketing, mobile phones mobile marketing, sms advertising, marketing sponsorship, marketing communication theories, marketing communication tools corporate responsibility

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Authors: Swati Gupta, Shagun Sodhani, Dhaval Patel, Biplab Banerjee

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It is generic that news sources publish news in different broad categories. These categories can either be generic such as Business, Sports, etc. or time-specific such as World Cup 2015 and Nepal Earthquake or both. It is up to the news agencies to build the categories. Extracting news categories automatically from numerous online news sources is expected to be helpful in many applications including news source recommendations and time specific news category extraction. To address this issue, existing systems like DMOZ directory and Yahoo directory are mostly considered though they are mostly human annotated and do not consider the time dynamism of categories of news websites. As a remedy, we propose an approach to automatically extract news category URLs from news websites in this paper. News category URL is a link which points to a category in news websites. We use the news category URL as a prior knowledge to develop a news source recommendation system which contains news sources listed in various categories in order of ranking. In addition, we also propose an approach to rank numerous news sources in different categories using various parameters like Traffic Based Website Importance, Social media Analysis and Category Wise Article Freshness. Experimental results on category URLs captured from GDELT project during April 2016 to December 2016 show the adequacy of the proposed method.

Keywords: news category, category network, news sources, ranking

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Authors: Patricia Portugal Marques de Carvalho Lourenço

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Mental Health, mental illnesses, and suicide are old topics made young. While broadly addressed on a global scale to various extents and degrees, mental health, mental disorders, and suicide remain to a large extent a, taboo in a number of societies such as the Chinese. The country’s report on mental health was scrutinized for an in-depth understanding of the prevalence of mental disorders domestically, emphasizing depression, which is more accentuated in rural settings than urban, affecting a significant number of students, retired individuals and that unemployed country-wise. Depression in China is linked to anxiety in younger years, both decreasing as the population grows in age. Mental health, mental disorders and suicide remain for the most part, “forgotten”, despite statistically significant and the media’s yet small efforts in educating the population about the terms i.e. through online/television dramas that approach the topics, trying to demystify them. Whereas crucial to openly address mental health, mental disorders, and suicide, the issues remain an ongoing challenge in China, where series draw light into a reality the media and the population do not broadly converse about. The media in general and the entertainment media, in particular, have a vital role in helping China acknowledge mental health, mental disorders and suicide, albeit having a long way to go in assisting the Chinese population in dealing with the health of their inner minds.

Keywords: mental health, mental disorders, suicide, media, China, Chinese entertainment

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Authors: Chiao-Chen Chang, Yang-Chieh Chin

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Social media has created a change in the way the network community is clustered, especially from the location of the community, from the original virtual space to the intertwined network, and thus the communication between people will change from face to face communication to social media-based communication model. However, social media users who have had a fixed engagement may have an intention to switch to another service provider because of the emergence of new forms of social media. For example, some of Facebook or Twitter users switched to Instagram in 2014 because of social media messages or image overloads, and users may seek simpler and instant social media to become their main social networking tool. This study explores the impact of system features overload, information overload, social monitoring concerns, problematic use and privacy concerns as the antecedents on social media fatigue, dissatisfaction, and alternative attractiveness; further influence social media switching. This study also uses the online questionnaire survey method to recover the sample data, and then confirm the factor analysis, path analysis, model fit analysis and mediating analysis with the structural equation model (SEM). Research findings demonstrated that there were significant effects on multiple paths. Based on the research findings, this study puts forward the implications of theory and practice.

Keywords: social media, switching, social media fatigue, alternative attractiveness

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Authors: Hazel P. Atilano

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In this age of AI-assisted teaching and learning, there seems to be a dearth of research literature on the linguistic analysis of English as a Second Language (ESL) student-generated paraphrased academic texts. This study sought to examine the lexico-semantic, morphosyntactic features of paraphrased academic texts generated by ESL students. Employing a descriptive qualitative design, specifically linguistic analysis, the study involved a total of 85 students from senior high school, college, and graduate school enrolled in research courses. Data collection consisted of a 60-minute real-time, on-site paraphrasing practice exercise using excerpts from discipline-specific literature reviews of 150 to 200 words. A focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted to probe into the challenges experienced by the participants. The writing exercise yielded a total of 516 paraphrase pairs. A total of 176 paraphrase units (PUs) and 340 non-paraphrase pairs (NPPs) were detected. Findings from the linguistic analysis of PUs reveal that the modifications made to the original texts are predominantly syntax-based (Diathesis Alterations and Coordination Changes) and a combination of Miscellaneous Changes (Change of Order, Change of Format, and Addition/Deletion). Results of the analysis of paraphrase extremes (PE) show that Identical Structures resulting from the use of synonymous substitutions, with no significant change in the structural features of the original, is the most frequently occurring instance of PE. The analysis of paraphrase errors reveals that synonymous substitutions resulting in identical structures are the most frequently occurring error that leads to PE. Another type of paraphrasing error involves semantic and content loss resulting from the deletion or addition of meaning-altering content. Three major themes emerged from the FGD: (1) The Challenge of Preserving Semantic Content and Fidelity; (2) The Best Words in the Best Order: Grappling with the Lexico-semantic and Morphosyntactic Demands of Paraphrasing; and (3) Contending with Limited Vocabulary, Poor Comprehension, and Lack of Practice. A pedagogical paradigm was designed based on the major findings of the study for a sustainable instructional intervention.

Keywords: academic text, lexico-semantic analysis, linguistic analysis, morphosyntactic analysis, paraphrasing

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Authors: Araya Yordchim, Rosjana Chandhasa, Suwaree Yordchim

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This research aims to study guidelines on the development of management process for research journals in order to develop Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University to international standards. This research investigated affecting elements ranging from the format of the article, evaluation form for research article quality, the process of creating a scholarly journal, satisfaction level of those with knowledge and competency to conduct research, arisen problems, and solutions. Drawing upon the sample size of 40 persons who had knowledge and competency in conducting research and creating scholarly journal articles at an international level, the data for this research were collected using questionnaires as a tool. Through the usage of computer software, data were analyzed by using the statistics in the forms of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis. The majority of participants were civil servants with a doctorate degree, followed by civil servants with a master's degree. Among them, the suitability of the article format was rated at a good level while the evaluation form for research articles quality was assessed at a good level. Based on participants' viewpoints, the process of creating scholarly journals was at a good level, while the satisfaction of those who had knowledge and competency in conducting research was at a satisfactory level. The problems encountered were the difficulty in accessing the website. The solution to the problem was to develop a website with user-friendly accessibility, including setting up a Google scholar profile for the purpose of references counting and the articles being used for reference in real-time. Research article format influenced the level of satisfaction of those who had the knowledge and competency to conduct research with statistical significance at the 0.01 level. The research article quality assessment form (preface section, research article writing section, preparation for research article manuscripts section, and the original article evaluation form for the author) affected the satisfaction of those with knowledge and competency to conduct research with the statistical significance at the level of 0.01. The process of establishing journals had an impact on the satisfaction of those with knowledge and ability to conduct research with statistical significance at the level of .05

Keywords: guidelines, development of management, research journals, international standards

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Authors: Carla Lopes

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It is clear nowadays that the proper performance of different speech acts is one of the most difficult obstacles that a foreign language learner has to overcome to be considered communicatively competent. This communication presents the results of an investigation on the pragmatic performance of Portuguese Language students at the University of Macau. The research discussed herein is based on a survey consisting of fourteen speaking situations to which the participants must respond in writing, and that includes different types of speech acts: apology, response to a compliment, refusal, complaint, disagreement and the understanding of the illocutionary force of indirect speech acts. The responses were classified in a five levels Likert scale (quantified from 1 to 5) according to their suitability for the particular situation. In general terms, we can summarize that about 45% of the respondents' answers were pragmatically competent, 10 % were acceptable and 45 % showed weaknesses at socio-pragmatic competence level. Given that the linguistic deviations were not taken into account, we can conclude that the faults are of cultural origin. It is natural that in the presence of orthogonal cultures, such as Chinese and Portuguese, there are failures of this type, barely solved in the four years of the undergraduate program. The target population, native speakers of Cantonese or Mandarin, make their first contact with the English language before joining the Bachelor of Portuguese Language. An analysis of the socio - pragmatic failures in the respondents’ answers suggests the conclusion that many of them are due to the lack of cultural knowledge. They try to compensate for this either using their native culture or resorting to a Western culture that they consider close to the Portuguese, that is the English or US culture, previously studied, and also widely present in the media and on the internet. This phenomenon, known as 'pragmatic transfer', can result in a linguistic behavior that may be considered inauthentic or pragmatically awkward. The resulting speech act is grammatically correct but is not pragmatically feasible, since it is not suitable to the culture of the target language, either because it does not exist or because the conditions of its use are in fact different. Analysis of the responses also supports the conclusion that these students present large deviations from the expected and stereotyped behavior of Chinese students. We can speculate while this linguistic behavior is the consequence of the Macao globalization that culturally casts the students, makes them more open, and distinguishes them from the typical Chinese students.

Keywords: Portuguese foreign language, pragmatic failures, pragmatic transfer, pragmatic competence

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Authors: Francisca Margarita Ocran

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Underwear, and more particularly bras and panties, are defined as intimate clothing. Strictly speaking, they enhance the place of women in the public or private satchel. Therefore, women's lingerie is a complex garment with a high involvement profile, motivating consumers to buy it not only by its functional utility but also by the multisensory experience it provides them. Customer behavior models are generally based on customer data mining, and each model is designed to answer questions at a specific time. Predicting the customer experience is uncertain and difficult. Thus, knowledge of consumers' tastes in lingerie deserves to be treated as an experiential product, where the dimensions of the experience motivating consumers to buy a lingerie product and to remain faithful to it must be analyzed in detail by the manufacturers and retailers to engage and retain consumers, which is why this research aims to identify the variables that push consumers to choose their lingerie product, based on an in-depth analysis of the types of fabrics used to make lingerie. The data used in this study comes from online purchases. Machine learning approach with the use of Python programming language and Pycaret gives us a precision of 86.34%, 85.98%, and 84.55% for the three algorithms to use concerning the preference of a buyer in front of a range of lingerie. Gradient Boosting, random forest, and K Neighbors were used in this study; they are very promising and rich in the classification of preference in the textile industry.

Keywords: consumer behavior, data mining, lingerie, machine learning, preference

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Authors: Samar F. Elkasrawy

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Museums play a significant role in their communities with respect to culture, history, environment, and social development. They are considered as important sites for families, tourists, school groups, cultural visitors and individuals, looking to enjoy, learn and expand their horizons. Aim of audience development programs is to support individuals and organizations to work together to deliver messages that will raise museums' profile for both existing and potential visitors. They recognize the particular role that museums play for communities, the audiences they seek to reach, the experience they seek to offer and the extent and nature of their collections. This study aims at using both the qualitative and quantitative approach to explore the important role that audience development programs in museums can play in raising awareness in their communities concerning cultural heritage preservation and tourism. The Alexandria National Museum is considered as a valuable case study. In depth interviews with museum managers and staff was conducted as well as an online questionnaire. The study also includes suggestions and guidelines for applying audience development programs in Egyptian museums.

Keywords: Alexandria National Museum, audience development programs, cultural heritage, tourism and preservation awareness

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Authors: Noawanit Songkram

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This paper is a report on the findings of a study conducted on e–learning system in virtual learning environment to develop problem solving ability and team learning for learners in higher education. The methodology of this study was R&D research. The subjects were 18 undergraduate students in Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University in the academic year of 2013. The research instruments were a problem solving ability assessment, a team learning evaluation form, and an attitude questionnaire. The data was statistically analyzed using mean, standard deviation, one way repeated measure ANOVA and t–test. The research findings discovered the e –learning system in virtual learning environment to develop problem solving ability and team learning for learners in higher education consisted of five components:(1) online collaborative tools, (2) active learning activities, (3) creative thinking, (4) knowledge sharing process, (5) evaluation and nine processes which were (1) preparing in group working, (2) identifying interested topic, (3) analysing interested topic, (4) collecting data, (5) concluding idea (6) proposing idea, (7) creating workings, (8) workings evaluation, (9) sharing knowledge from empirical experience.

Keywords: e-learning system, problem solving ability, team leaning, virtual learning environment

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Authors: Qiaohui Zhong, Yiqi Kuang, Wanxun Cai, Libin Huang

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As a community public facility, the popularity and perfection of old clothes recycling products directly affect people's impression of the whole city, which is related to the happiness index of residents' lives and is of great significance to the construction of eco-civilized cities and the realization of sustainable urban development. At present, China's waste clothing is characterized by large production and a high utilization rate, but the current rate of old clothes recycling is low, and the ‘one-size-fits-all’ recycling model makes people's motivation for old clothes recycling low, and old clothes recycling is in a dilemma. Based on the two online and offline recycling modes of old clothes recycling in Chinese communities, this paper conducts an in-depth survey on the public, operators, and regulators from the aspects of activity scene analysis, crowd attributes analysis, and community space analysis summarizes the difficulties of old clothes recycling for the public - nowhere to recycle, inconvenient to recycle and unwilling to recycle, and analyzes the factors that lead to these difficulties, and gives a solution with foreign experience to solve these problems. It also analyzes the factors that lead to these difficulties and gives targeted suggestions in combination with foreign experience, exploring and proposing a set of appropriate modern old-clothes recycling modes.

Keywords: community, old clothes recycling, recycling mode, sustainable urban development

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Authors: S. Y. Ozkan, S. Taftaf

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This study aims to investigate the possible effects of guerrilla advertising on consumers' attitudes as well as purchase intentions in comparison with traditional advertising. Participants who were over 18 years of age were recruited and completed an online questionnaire. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of the four well-known brand conditions. The study had a within-subjects design where each participant evaluated two advertisements, one guerrilla advertisement, and one traditional advertisement od one respective brand. Participants rated both traditional advertisement and guerrilla advertisement on ad attitude, ad likability, and purchase intention scales. Ad attitude was measured by using both positive and negative adjectives. The hypotheses were tested by paired samples t-test analysis. The results indicated that perceivers were able to differentiate advertisements that include guerrilla techniques and advertisements that include traditional methods from one another. Regardless of the brand manipulation, guerrilla advertisements lead significantly higher positive ad attitude, negative ad attitude, ad likability, and purchase intention compared to traditional advertisements. Therefore, the results showed that while using guerrilla advertising, companies should be aware of any ethical concerns that may emerge in consumers' minds. Present study is one of the rare studies that measures the perceptions of guerrilla and traditional advertisements in an empirical manner in Turkish context, showing that guerrilla advertisements may stimulate negative ad attitudes together with positive ad attitudes, increasing ad likability and purchase intention.

Keywords: ad attitude, guerrilla advertisement, purchase intention, traditional advertisement

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Authors: Elisam Magara

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Like any other property, Intellectual Property (IP) must be regarded, respected, and remunerated to address the historical, ethical, economical and informational needs of society. Article 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995, the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (CNR) Act 2006 and CNR Regulations 2010 guide copyright protection in Uganda. However, an unpredictable environment has negatively impact on certain author/intellectual freedoms; and the infringements on academic works that affect the economic rights of authors that limit authors from fully enjoying the benefits of authorship. Notwithstanding the different licensing systems and copyright protection avenues, educational institutions and custodians of copyright works (libraries, archives) have continued to advocate for open access to information resources, under the legal exceptions of fair use for educational purposes. Thus, a study was conducted in educational institutions, libraries and archives in Uganda to assess the state of copyright infringement in Uganda in an increased use of academic authored works. The study attempted to establish the nature and forms of Copyright Infringement, the circumstances for copyright infringement, assessed the opinions from the custodians on strategies for balancing copyright protection for economic and moral gains by authors and increased access to information for educational purposes and fair-use. Through a survey, using a self-administered questionnaire, interviews and physical visits, the study was conducted in higher education institutions, libraries and archives among the officers that manage and keep copyright works. It established that the uncontrolled reproduction of copyright works in educational institutions and information institutions, have contributed copyright infringement robbing authors of their potential economic earnings and limiting their academic innovativeness and creativity. The study also established that lack of consciousness and awareness on copyright issues by lecturers, universities and libraries has made copyright works in Universities highly susceptible to copyright infringement. Thus the increased access to materials without restrictions has resulted in copyright infringement among the educational institutions, libraries and archives. A strategic alliance by the collecting Society (Uganda Reproduction Rights Organisation (URRO), government, Universities and right holders organisations (UTANA) to work together and institute a programme to address copyright protection and access to information is pertinently required.

Keywords: access to information, academic Writing, copyright, copyright infringement, copyright protection, exemptions of fair use, intellectual property rights

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Authors: Paula C. Latorre Arroyo, Andrea C. Latorre Arroyo

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In the present society, children are exposed to and impacted by technology from very early on in various ways. Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, directly affects them, be it positively or negatively. The concept of artificial intelligence is commonly defined as the technological programming of computers or robotic mechanisms with humanlike capabilities and characteristics. These technologies are often designed as helpful machines or disguised as handy tools that could ultimately steal private information for illicit purposes. Children, being one of the most vulnerable groups due to their lack of experience and knowledge, do not have the ability to recognize or have the malice to distinguish if an apparatus with artificial intelligence is good or bad for them. For this reason, as a society, there must be a sense of responsibility to regulate and monitor different types of uses for artificial intelligence to protect children from potential risks that might arise. This article aims to investigate the many implications that artificial intelligence has in the lives of children, starting from a home setting, within the classroom, and, ultimately, in online spaces. Irrefutably, there are numerous beneficial aspects to the use of artificial intelligence. However, due to its limitless potential and lack of specific and substantial regulations to prevent the illicit use of this technology, safety and privacy concerns surface, specifically regarding the youth. This written work aims to provide an in-depth analysis of how artificial intelligence can both help children and jeopardize their safety. Concluding with resources and data supporting the aforementioned statement.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, children, privacy, rights, safety

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Authors: Amir Farouk Ahmed Ali Hussin

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Social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Ex-Twitter have experienced exponential growth and a remarkable adoption rate in recent years. They give fantastic means of online social interactions and communications with family, friends, and colleagues from around the corner or across the globe, and they have become an important part of daily digital interactions for more than one and a half billion users around the world. The personal information sharing practices that social network providers encourage have led to their success as innovative social interaction platforms. Moreover, these practices have outcome in concerns with respect to privacy and security from different stakeholders. Guiding these privacy and security concerns in social networks is a must for these networks to be sustainable. Real security and privacy tools may not be enough to address existing concerns. Some points should be followed to protect users from the existing risks. In this research, we have checked the various privacy and security issues and concerns pertaining to social media. However, we have classified these privacy and security issues and presented a thorough discussion of the effects of these issues and concerns on the future of the social networks. In addition, we have presented a set of points as precaution measures that users can consider to address these issues.

Keywords: international legal, consultation mix, legal research, small and medium-sized enterprises, strategic International law, strategy alignment, house of laws, deployment, production strategy, legal strategy, business strategy

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Authors: Yeonjeong Lee, Kyoung-jae Kim, Youngtae Kim

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This study proposes a novel recommender system that uses data mining and multi-model ensemble techniques to enhance the recommendation performance through reflecting the precise user’s preference. The proposed model consists of two steps. In the first step, this study uses logistic regression, decision trees, and artificial neural networks to predict customers who have high likelihood to purchase products in each product group. Then, this study combines the results of each predictor using the multi-model ensemble techniques such as bagging and bumping. In the second step, this study uses the market basket analysis to extract association rules for co-purchased products. Finally, the system selects customers who have high likelihood to purchase products in each product group and recommends proper products from same or different product groups to them through above two steps. We test the usability of the proposed system by using prototype and real-world transaction and profile data. In addition, we survey about user satisfaction for the recommended product list from the proposed system and the randomly selected product lists. The results also show that the proposed system may be useful in real-world online shopping store.

Keywords: product recommender system, ensemble technique, association rules, decision tree, artificial neural networks

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Authors: Meltem Eryılmaz

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With the emergence of the COVID-19 infection outbreak, the socio-cultural, political, economic, educational systems dynamics of the world have gone through a major change, especially in the educational field, specifically dentistry preclinical education, where the students must have a certain amount of real-time experience in endodontics and other various procedures. The totality of the digital and physical elements that make our five sense organs feel as if we really exist in a virtual world is called virtual reality. Virtual reality, which is very popular today, has started to be used in education. With the inclusion of developing technology in education and training environments, virtual learning platforms have been designed to enrich students' learning experiences. The field of health is also affected by these current developments, and the number of virtual reality applications developed for students studying dentistry is increasing day by day. The most widely used tools of this technology are virtual reality glasses. With virtual reality glasses, you can look any way you want in a world designed in 3D and navigate as you wish. With this project, solutions that will respond to different types of dental practices of students who study dentistry with virtual reality applications are produced. With this application, students who cannot find the opportunity to work with patients in distance education or who want to improve themselves at home have unlimited trial opportunities. Unity 2021, Visual Studio 2019, Cardboard SDK are used in the study.

Keywords: dentistry, intelligent tutoring system, virtual reality, online learning, COVID-19

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Authors: D. M. Samartsev, A. G. Copping

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As with all industries, architects are using increasing amounts of automation within practice, with approaches such as generative design and use of AI becoming more commonplace. However, the discourse on the rate at which the architectural design process is being automated is often personal and lacking in objective figures and measurements. This results in confusion between people and barriers to effective discourse on the subject, in turn limiting the ability of architects, policy makers, and members of the public in making informed decisions in the area of design automation. This paper proposes the use of a framework to quantify the progress of automation within the design process. The use of a reductionist analysis of the design process allows it to be quantified in a manner that enables direct comparison across different times, as well as locations and projects. The methodology is informed by the design of this framework – taking on the aspects of a systematic review but compressed in time to allow for an initial set of data to verify the validity of the framework. The use of such a framework of quantification enables various practical uses such as predicting the future of the architectural industry with regards to which tasks will be automated, as well as making more informed decisions on the subject of automation on multiple levels ranging from individual decisions to policy making from governing bodies such as the RIBA. This is achieved by analyzing the design process as a generic task that needs to be performed, then using principles of work breakdown systems to split the task of designing an entire building into smaller tasks, which can then be recursively split further as required. Each task is then assigned a series of milestones that allow for the objective analysis of its automation progress. By combining these two approaches it is possible to create a data structure that describes how much various parts of the architectural design process are automated. The data gathered in the paper serves the dual purposes of providing the framework with validation, as well as giving insights into the current situation of automation within the architectural design process. The framework can be interrogated in many ways and preliminary analysis shows that almost 40% of the architectural design process has been automated in some practical fashion at the time of writing, with the rate at which progress is made slowly increasing over the years, with the majority of tasks in the design process reaching a new milestone in automation in less than 6 years. Additionally, a further 15% of the design process is currently being automated in some way, with various products in development but not yet released to the industry. Lastly, various limitations of the framework are examined in this paper as well as further areas of study.

Keywords: analysis, architecture, automation, design process, technology

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Authors: Davood Vatankhah, Reza Mokhtari Malekabadi, Mohsen Saghaei

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Function of urban transportation systems depends on the existence of the required infrastructures, appropriate placement of different components, and the cooperation of these components with each other. Establishing various neighboring parking spaces in city neighborhood in order to prevent long-term and inappropriate parking of cars in the allies is one of the most effective operations in reducing the crowding and density of the neighborhoods. Every place with a certain application attracts a number of daily travels which happen throughout the city. A large percentage of the people visiting these places go to these travels by their own cars; therefore, they need a space to park their cars. The amount of this need depends on the usage function and travel demand of the place. The study aims at investigating the spatial distribution of the public parking spaces, determining the effective factors in locating, and their combination in GIS environment in Khomeinishahr of Isfahan city. Ultimately, the study intends to create an appropriate pattern for locating parking spaces, determining the request for parking spaces of the traffic areas, choosing the proper places for providing the required public parking spaces, and also proposing new spots in order to promote quality and quantity aspects of the city in terms of enjoying public parking spaces. Regarding the method, the study is based on applied purpose and regarding nature, it is analytic-descriptive. The population of the study includes people of the center of Khomeinishahr which is located on Northwest of Isfahan having about 5000 hectares of geographic area and the population of 241318 people are in the center of Komeinishahr. In order to determine the sample size, Cochran formula was used and according to the population of 26483 people of the studied area, 231 questionnaires were used. Data analysis was carried out by usage of SPSS software and after estimating the required space for parking spaces, initially, the effective criteria in locating the public parking spaces are weighted by the usage of Analytic Hierarchical Process in the Arc GIS software. Then, appropriate places for establishing parking spaces were determined by fuzzy method of Order Weighted Average (OWA). The results indicated that locating of parking spaces in Khomeinishahr have not been carried out appropriately and per capita of the parking spaces is not desirable in relation to the population and request; therefore, in addition to the present parking lots, 1434 parking lots are needed in the area of the study for each day; therefore, there is not a logical proportion between parking request and the number of parking lots in Khomeinishahr.

Keywords: GIS, locating, parking, khomeinishahr

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Authors: Furkan Ozkan, M. Selcuk Arslan, Hatice Mercan

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Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular asa sustainable alternative to traditional combustion engine vehicles. However, to fully realize the potential of EVs in reducing environmental impact and energy consumption, efficient control strategies are essential. This study explores the application of green wave control using model predictive control for electric vehicles, coupled with energy consumption modeling using neural networks. The use of MPC allows for real-time optimization of the vehicles’ energy consumption while considering dynamic traffic conditions. By leveraging neural networks for energy consumption modeling, the EV's performance can be further enhanced through accurate predictions and adaptive control. The integration of these advanced control and modeling techniques aims to maximize energy efficiency and range while navigating urban traffic scenarios. The findings of this research offer valuable insights into the potential of green wave control for electric vehicles and demonstrate the significance of integrating MPC and neural network modeling for optimizing energy consumption. This work contributes to the advancement of sustainable transportation systems and the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. To evaluate the effectiveness of the green wave control strategy in real-world urban environments, extensive simulations were conducted using a high-fidelity vehicle model and realistic traffic scenarios. The results indicate that the integration of model predictive control and energy consumption modeling with neural networks had a significant impact on the energy efficiency and range of electric vehicles. Through the use of MPC, the electric vehicle was able to adapt its speed and acceleration profile in realtime to optimize energy consumption while maintaining travel time objectives. The neural network-based energy consumption modeling provided accurate predictions, enabling the vehicle to anticipate and respond to variations in traffic flow, further enhancing energy efficiency and range. Furthermore, the study revealed that the green wave control strategy not only reduced energy consumption but also improved the overall driving experience by minimizing abrupt acceleration and deceleration, leading to a smoother and more comfortable ride for passengers. These results demonstrate the potential for green wave control to revolutionize urban transportation by enhancing the performance of electric vehicles and contributing to a more sustainable and efficient mobility ecosystem.

Keywords: electric vehicles, energy efficiency, green wave control, model predictive control, neural networks

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Authors: Shauma L. Tamba

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This study examined whether morality is the most important aspect in actual behavior. The prediction was that people tend to behave in line with moral (as compared to competence) norms, especially when such norms are presented by their ingroup. The actual behavior that was tested was support for a military intervention without a mandate from the UN. In addition, this study also examined whether identification with the ingroup and religion moderated the effect of group and norm on support for the norm that was prescribed by their ingroup. The prediction was that those who identified themselves higher with the ingroup moral would show a higher support for the norm. Furthermore, the prediction was also that those who have religion would show a higher support for the norm in the ingroup moral rather than competence. In an online survey, participants were asked to read a scenario in which a military intervention without a mandate was framed as either the moral (but stupid) or smart (but immoral) thing to do by members of their own (ingroup) or another (outgroup) society. This study found that when people identified themselves with the smart (but immoral) norm, they showed a higher support for the norm. However, when people identified themselves with the moral (but stupid) norm, they tend to show a lesser support towards the norm. Most of the results in the study did not support the predictions. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.

Keywords: morality, competence, ingroup identification, religion, group norm

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Authors: Reiko Yamamoto

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This paper reports on a joint research project in which a researcher in applied linguistics and elementary school teachers in Japan explored new ways to realize emotional synchrony in a classroom in childhood education. The primary purpose of this project was to develop a cross-curriculum of the first language (L1) and second language (L2) based on the concept of plurilingualism. This concept is common in Europe, and can-do statements are used in forming the standard of linguistic proficiency in any language; these are attributed to the action-oriented approach in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). CEFR has a basic tenet of language education: improving communicative competence. Can-do statements are classified into five categories based on the tenet: reading, writing, listening, speaking/ interaction, and speaking/ speech. The first approach of this research was to specify the linguistic proficiency of the children, who are still developing their L1. Elementary school teachers brainstormed and specified the linguistic proficiency of the children as the competency needed to synchronize with others – teachers or peers – physically and mentally. The teachers formed original can-do statements in language proficiency on the basis of the idea that emotional synchrony leads to understanding others in communication. The research objectives are to determine the effect of language education based on the newly developed curriculum and can-do statements. The participants of the experiment were 72 third-graders in Uji Elementary School, Japan. For the experiment, 17 items were developed from the can-do statements formed by the teachers and divided into the same five categories as those of CEFR. A can-do checklist consisting of the items was created. The experiment consisted of three steps: first, the students evaluated themselves using the can-do checklist at the beginning of the school year. Second, one year of instruction was given to the students in Japanese and English classes (six periods a week). Third, the students evaluated themselves using the same can-do checklist at the end of the school year. The results of statistical analysis showed an enhancement of linguistic proficiency of the students. The average results of the post-check exceeded that of the pre-check in 12 out of the 17 items. Moreover, significant differences were shown in four items, three of which belonged to the same category: speaking/ interaction. It is concluded that children can get to understand others’ minds through physical and emotional synchrony. In particular, emotional synchrony is what teachers should aim at in childhood education.

Keywords: elementary school education, emotional synchrony, language proficiency, sympathy with others

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Authors: Elsa Lamy, Marília Prada, Ada Rocha, Cláudia Viegas

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The traditional and widely used nutrition-focused approach to communicate with consumers is reductionist and makes it difficult for consumers to assess their food intake. Without sufficient nutrition knowledge and understanding, it would be difficult to choose a healthful diet based only on nutritional recommendations. This study aimed to evaluate the understanding of how food/nutritional information is presented in menus to Portuguese consumers, comparing the nutrient-focused approach (currently used Nutrition Declaration) and the new food-focused approach (the infographic). For data collection, a questionnaire was distributed online using social media channels. A main effect of format on ratings of meal balance and completeness (Fbalance(1,79) = 18.26, p < .001, ηp2 = .188; Fcompleteness(1,67) = 27.18, p < .001, ηp2 = .289). Overall, dishes paired with the nutritional information were rated as more balanced (Mbalance= 3.70, SE = .11; Mcompleteness = 4.00, SE = .14) than meals with the infographic representation (Mbalance = 3.14, SE = .11; Mcompleteness = 3.29, SE = .13). We also observed a main effect of the meal, F(3,237) = 48.90, p < .001, ηp2 = .382, such that M1 and M2 were perceived as less balanced than the M3 and M4, all p < .001. The use of a food-focused approach (infographic) helped participants identify the lack of balance in the less healthful meals (dishes M1 and M2), allowing for a better understanding of meals' compliance with recommendations contributing to better food choices and a healthier lifestyle.

Keywords: food labelling, food and nutritional recommendations, infographics, portions based information

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Authors: Maha ALjohani, James Blustein

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Communicating users' needs, goals and problems help designers and developers overcome challenges faced by end users. Personas are used to represent end users’ needs. In our research, creating personas allowed the following questions to be answered: Who are the potential user groups? What do they want to achieve by using the service? What are the problems that users face? What should the service provide to them? To develop realistic personas, we conducted a focus group discussion with undergraduate and graduate students and also interviewed a university librarian. The personas were created to help evaluating the Institutional Repository that is based on the DSpace system. The profiles helped to communicate users' needs, abilities, tasks, and problems, and the task scenarios used in the heuristic evaluation were based on these personas. Four personas resulted of a focus group discussion with undergraduate and graduate students and from interviewing a university librarian. We then used these personas to create focused task-scenarios for a heuristic evaluation on the system interface to ensure that it met users' needs, goals, problems and desires. In this paper, we present the process that we used to create the personas that led to devise the task scenarios used in the heuristic evaluation as a follow up study of the DSpace university repository.

Keywords: heuristic evaluation, institutional repositories, user experience, human computer interaction, user profiles, personas, task scenarios, heuristics

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Authors: Silvia Riva, Ezekiel Chinyio

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Introduction: Workers in different sectors are prone to stress at varying levels. They also respond to stress in different ways. An inspiration was to study stress development amongst workers in a work dangerous setting (Construction Industry) as well as how they cope with specific stress incidences. Objective: The overarching objective of the study was to study and correlate between stress and coping strategies. The research was conducted in an organizational industrial setting, and its findings on the coping actions of construction workers are reported in this article. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with 80 participants aged 18-62. These were working for three different construction organizations in the West Midland region of the UK. Their coping actions were assessed using the COPE Inventory (Carver, 2013) instrument while the level of stress was assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, 1994). Results: Out of 80 workers (20 female, 25%, mean age 40.66), positive reinterpretation (M=4.15, SD=2.60) and active coping (M=4.18, SD=2.55) were the two most adaptive strategies reported by the workers while the most frequent maladaptive behavior was mental disengagement (M=3.62, SD=2.25). Among the maladaptive tactics, alcohol and drug abuse was a significant moderator in stress reactions (t=6.12, p=.000). Conclusion: Some maladaptive strategies are adopted by construction workers to cope with stress. So, it could be argued that programs of stress prevention and control in the construction industry have a basis to develop solutions that can improve and strengthen effective interventions when workers are stressed or getting stressed.

Keywords: coping, organization, strategies, stress

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Authors: Aisya Zaharin

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The reporting of Islam in the Malaysian government-controlled press is complicated and occurs almost daily. This is due to the Islamisation process that has been heavily politicized in recent years. This article analyses media representations of Islam in the Malaysian media through the social responsibility theory. A provocative case study of media reporting on the “I want to touch a dog” event was analysed since dog’s saliva is ritually considered unhygienic by Muslims. This paper will not question the Islamic ruling on the dog’s issue. Instead, it calls for discussions in relation to openness and maturity in religious discourse with respect to the dog’s saliva dialogue in 1937. It applies Hage’s “minor and major reality” to explain the increasing percentage of Muslim who define their own understandings of Islam vs the government’s dogmatic versions. This paper employs Alatas’s method of “sociological investigation in Southeast Asia” by using ethnographic examination on selected mass media. Through Asiacentricity approach, this paper revisited the local framework of Alatas’s New Man encouraging Muslims to engage in knowledge and to appreciate diversities in Islamic jurisprudences. Despite government’s control, findings showed that non-Malay languages and online media are more comprehensive in reporting the news about Islam. Clearly, there has to be a re-conceptualization of Islamic discourses in the Malay-language media.

Keywords: dog, Fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence, Malaysian media, New Man, social responsibility

Procedia PDF Downloads 309