Search results for: current account

Authors: Vangelis Papadimitropoulos

Abstract:

This paper is part of the research program “Techno-Social Innovation in the Collaborative Economy”, funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) for the years 2022-2024. The paper showcases the Open Food Network (OFN) as an open-sourced digital platform supporting short food supply chains in local agricultural production and consumption. The paper outlines the research hypothesis, the theoretical framework, and the methodology of research as well as the findings and conclusions. Research hypothesis: The model of open cooperativism as a vehicle for systemic change in the agricultural sector. Theoretical framework: The research reviews the OFN as an illustrative case study of the three-zoned model of open cooperativism. The OFN is considered a paradigmatic case of the model of open cooperativism inasmuch as it produces commons, it consists of multiple stakeholders including ethical market entities, and it is variously supported by local authorities across the globe, the latter prefiguring the mini role of a partner state. Methodology: Research employs Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse analysis -elements, floating signifiers, nodal points, discourses, logics of equivalence and difference- to analyse the breadth of empirical data gathered through literature review, digital ethnography, a survey, and in-depth interviews with core OFN members. Discourse analysis classifies OFN floating signifiers, nodal points, and discourses into four themes: value proposition, governance, economic policy, and legal policy. Findings: OFN floating signifiers align around the following nodal points and discourses: “digital commons”, “short food supply chains”, “sustainability”, “local”, “the elimination of intermediaries” and “systemic change”. The current research identifies a lack of common ground of what the discourse of “systemic change” signifies on the premises of the OFN’s value proposition. The lack of a common mission may be detrimental to the formation of a common strategy that would be perhaps deemed necessary to bring about systemic change in agriculture. Conclusions: Drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory of hegemony, research introduces a chain of equivalence by aligning discourses such as “agro-ecology”, “commons-based peer production”, “partner state” and “ethical market entities” under the model of open cooperativism, juxtaposed against the current hegemony of neoliberalism, which articulates discourses such as “market fundamentalism”, “privatization”, “green growth” and “the capitalist state” to promote corporatism and entrepreneurship. Research makes the case that for OFN to further agroecology and challenge the current hegemony of industrial agriculture, it is vital that it opens up its supply chains into equivalent sectors of the economy, civil society, and politics to form a chain of equivalence linking together ethical market entities, the commons and a partner state around the model of open cooperativism.

Keywords: sustainability, the digital commons, open cooperativism, innovation

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Authors: K. Debkowska

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The aim of this article is presenting the possibilities of using Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) in researches concerning business models of enterprises. FsQCA is a bridge between quantitative and qualitative researches. It's potential can be used in analysis and evaluation of business models. The article presents the results of a study conducted on the basis of enterprises belonging to different sectors: transport and logistics, industry, building construction, and trade. The enterprises have been researched taking into account the components of business models and the financial condition of companies. Business models are areas of complex and heterogeneous nature. The use of fsQCA has enabled to answer the following question: which components of a business model and in which configuration influence better financial condition of enterprises. The analysis has been performed separately for particular sectors. This enabled to compare the combinations of business models' components which actively influence the financial condition of enterprises in analyzed sectors. The following components of business models were analyzed for the purposes of the study: Key Partners, Key Activities, Key Resources, Value Proposition, Channels, Cost Structure, Revenue Streams, Customer Segment and Customer Relationships. These components of the study constituted the variables shaping the financial results of enterprises. The results of the study lead us to believe that fsQCA can help in analyzing and evaluating a business model, which is important in terms of making a business decision about the business model used or its change. In addition, results obtained by fsQCA can be applied by all stakeholders connected with the company.

Keywords: business models, components of business models, data analysis, fsQCA

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Authors: Amina Beldjazia, Djamel Alatou, Khaled Missaoui

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The forest of Mahouna is a part of the mountain range of the Tell Atlas in the northeast of Algeria. It is characterized by a significant biodiversity. The management of this resource requires thorough the understanding of the current state of the vegetation (inventories), degradation factors and ongoing monitoring of the various long-term ecological changes. Digital mapping is a very effective way to in-depth knowledge of natural resources. The realization of a vegetation map based on satellite images, aerial photographs and the use of geographic information system (GIS), shows large values results of the vegetation of the massif in the scientific view point (the development of a database of the different formations that exist on the site, ecological conditions) and economic (GIS facilitate our task of managing the various resources and diversity of the forest). The methodology is divided into three stages: the first involves an analysis of climate data (1988 to 2013); the second is to conduct field surveys (soil and phytoecological) during the months of June and July 2013 (10 readings), the third is based on the development of different themes and synthetic cards by software of GIS (ENVI 4.6 and 10 ARCMAP). The results show: cork oak covers an area of 1147 ha. Depending on the environmental conditions, it rests on sandstone and individualizes between 3 layers of vegetation from thermo-mediterranean (the North East part with 40ha), meso-Mediterranean (1061 ha) and finally the supra-Mediterranean (46ha ). The map shows the current actual state of the cork oak forest massif of Mahouna, it is an older forest (>150 years) where regeneration is absent because of several factors (fires, overgrazing, leaching, erosion, etc.). The cork oak is in the form of dense forest with Laburnum and heather as the dominant species. It may also present in open forest dominated by scrub species: Daphne gniduim, Erica arborea, Calycotome spinosa, Phillyrea angustifolia, Lavandula stoechas, Cistus salvifolius.

Keywords: biodiversity, environmental, Mahouna, Cork oak

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Authors: Rifqi Irvansyah, Abdullah Abdullah, Yunita Idris, Bunga Raihanda

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Banda Aceh is particularly susceptible to heightened vulnerability during natural disasters due to its concentrated exposure to multi-hazard risks. Despite urgent priorities during the aftermath of natural disasters, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, several public facilities, including school buildings, sustained damage yet continued operations without adequate repairs, even though they were submerged by the tsunami. This research aims to evaluate the consequences of column damage induced by tsunami inundation on the structural integrity of buildings. The investigation employs interaction diagrams for columns to assess their capacity, taking into account factors such as rebar deterioration and corrosion. The analysis result shows that one-fourth of the K1 columns on the first floor fall outside of the column interaction diagram, indicating that the column structure cannot handle the load above it, as evidenced by the presence of Pu and Mu, which are greater than the column's design strength. This suggests that the five columns of K1 should be cause for concern, as the column's capacity is decreasing. These results indicate that the structure of the building cannot sustain the applied load because the column cross-section has deteriorated. In contrast, all K2 columns meet the design strength, indicating that the column structure can withstand the structural loads.

Keywords: tsunami inundation, column damage, column interaction diagram, mitigation effort

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Authors: Zwalnan Selfa Johnson, Caleb Nanchen Nimyel, Gideon Duvuna Ayuba

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Air conditioning accounts for a significant share of the overall energy consumed in residential buildings. Solar thermal gains in buildings account for a significant component of the air conditioning load in buildings. This study compares the solar thermal gain and air conditioning load of a proposed building design with a typical conventional building in the climatic conditions of Jos, Nigeria, using a combined experimental and computational method using TRNSYS software. According to the findings of this study, the proposed design building's annual average solar thermal gains are lower compared to the reference building's average solar heat gains. The study case building's decreased solar heat gain is mostly attributable to the lower temperature of the building zones because of the greater building volume and lower fenestration ratio (ratio external opening area to the area of the external walls). This result shows that the proposed building design adjusts to the local climate better than the standard conventional construction in Jos to maintain a suitable temperature within the building. This finding means that the air-conditioning electrical energy consumption per volume of the proposed building design will be lower than that of a conventional building design.

Keywords: solar heat gain, building zone, cooling energy, air conditioning, zone temperature

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Authors: M. Naidoo

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AI in healthcare can have a massive positive effect in low-resource states like South Africa, where patients outnumber personnel greatly. However, the complexity and ‘black box’ aspects of these technologies pose challenges for the liability regimes of states. This is currently being discussed at the international level. This research finds that within the South African medical negligence context, the current common law fault-based inquiry proves to be wholly inadequate for patient redress. As a solution to this, this research paper culminates in legal reform recommendations designed to solve these issues.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, law, liability, policy

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Authors: Lodgaard Eirin, Myklebust Odd, Eleftheriadis Ragnhild

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Continuous improvement is becoming increasingly a prerequisite for manufacturing companies to remain competitive in a global market. In addition, future survival and success will depend on the ability to manage the forthcoming digitalization transformation in the industry 4.0 era. Industry 4.0 promises substantially increased operational effectiveness, were all equipment are equipped with integrated processing and communication capabilities. Subsequently, the interplay of human and technology will evolve and influence the range of worker tasks and demands. Taking into account these changes, the concept of continuous improvement must evolve accordingly. Based on a case study from manufacturing industry, the purpose of this paper is to point out what the concept of continuous improvement will meet and has to take into considering when entering the 4th industrial revolution. In the past, continuous improvement has the focus on a culture of sustained improvement targeting the elimination of waste in all systems and processes of an organization by involving everyone. Today, it has to be evolved into the forthcoming digital transformation and the increased interplay of human and digital communication system to reach its full potential. One main findings of this study, is how digital communication systems will act as an enabler to strengthen the continuous improvement process, by moving from collaboration within individual teams to interconnection of teams along the product value chain. For academics and practitioners, it will help them to identify and prioritize their steps towards an industry 4.0 implementation integrated with focus on continuous improvement.

Keywords: continuous improvement, digital communication system, human-machine-interaction, industry 4.0, team perfomance

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Authors: Weixiao Wei, Chris Shei

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This paper describes Mandate of Heaven as a source of justification for the ruling regime from ancient China approximately three thousand years ago. Initially, the kings of Shang dynasty simply nominated themselves as the sons of Heaven sent to Earth to rule the common people. As the last generation of the kings became corrupted and ruled withbrutal force and crueltywhich directly caused their destruction, the successive kings of Zhou dynasty realised the importance of virtue and the provision of goods to the people. Legitimacy of the ruling regimes became rested not entirely on random allocation of the throne by an unknown supernatural force but on a foundation comprising morality and the ability to provide goods. The latter composite was picked up by the current ruling regime, the Chinese Communist Party, and became the cornerstone of its political legitimacy, also known as ‘performance legitimacy’ where economic development accounts for the satisfaction of the people in place of election and other democratic means of providing legal-rational legitimacy. Under this circumstance, it becomes important as well for the ruling party to use political rhetoric to convince people of the good performance of the government in the economy, morality, and foreign policy. Thus, we see a lot of propaganda materials in both government policy statements and international press conference announcements. The former consists mainly of important speeches made by prominent figures in Party conferences which are not only made publicly available on the government websites but also become obligatory reading materials for university entrance examinations. The later consists of announcements about foreign policies and strategies and actions taken by the government regarding foreign affairsmade in international conferences and offered in Chinese-English bilingual versions on official websites. This documentation strategy creates an impressive image of the Chinese Communist Party that is domestically competent and international strong, taking care of the people it governs in terms of economic needs and defending the country against any foreign interference and global adversities. This political discourse system comprising reading materials fully extractable from government websites also becomes excellent repertoire for teaching and researching in contemporary Chinese language, discourse and rhetoric, Chinese culture and tradition, Chinese political ideology, and Chinese-English translation. This paper aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive description of the current Chinese political discourse system, arguing about its lineage from the rhetorical convention of Mandate of Heaven in ancient China and its current concentration on serving the people in place of election, human rights, and freedom of speech. The paper will also provide guidelines as to how this discourse system and the manifestation of official documents created under this system can become excellent research and teaching materials in applied linguistics.

Keywords: mandate of heaven, Chinese communist party, performance legitimacy, serving the people, political discourse

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Authors: Deniz Guven, Wil Ward, Jinming Duan, Li Bai

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Over the past two decades or so, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has been used to diagnose retina and optic nerve diseases. The retinal nerve fibre layer, for example, is a powerful diagnostic marker for detecting and staging glaucoma. With the advances in optical imaging hardware, the adoption of OCT is now commonplace in clinics. More and more OCT images are being generated, and for these OCT images to have clinical applicability, accurate automated OCT image segmentation software is needed. Oct image segmentation is still an active research area, as OCT images are inherently noisy, with the multiplicative speckling noise. Simple edge detection algorithms are unsuitable for detecting retinal layer boundaries in OCT images. Intensity fluctuation, motion artefact, and the presence of blood vessels also decrease further OCT image quality. In this paper, we introduce a new method for segmenting three-dimensional (3D) OCT images. This involves the use of a Kalman filter, which is commonly used in computer vision for object tracking. The Kalman filter is applied to the 3D OCT image volume to track the retinal layer boundaries through the slices within the volume and thus segmenting the 3D image. Specifically, after some pre-processing of the OCT images, points on the retinal layer boundaries in the first image are identified, and curve fitting is applied to them such that the layer boundaries can be represented by the coefficients of the curve equations. These coefficients then form the state space for the Kalman Filter. The filter then produces an optimal estimate of the current state of the system by updating its previous state using the measurements available in the form of a feedback control loop. The results show that the algorithm can be used to segment the retinal layers in OCT images. One of the limitations of the current algorithm is that the curve representation of the retinal layer boundary does not work well when the layer boundary is split into two, e.g., at the optic nerve, the layer boundary split into two. This maybe resolved by using a different approach to representing the boundaries, such as b-splines or level sets. The use of a Kalman filter shows promise to developing accurate and effective 3D OCT segmentation methods.

Keywords: optical coherence tomography, image segmentation, Kalman filter, object tracking

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Authors: Erdem Meriç

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Measuring total temperature of air flow accurately is a very important requirement in the development phases of many industrial products, including gas turbines and rockets. Thermocouples are very practical devices to measure temperature in such cases, but in high speed and high temperature flows, the temperature of thermocouple junction may deviate considerably from real flow total temperature due to the effects of heat transfer mechanisms of convection, conduction, and radiation. To avoid errors in total temperature measurement, special probe designs which are experimentally characterized are used. In this study, a validation case which is an experimental characterization of a specific class of total temperature probes is selected from the literature to develop a numerical conjugate heat transfer analysis methodology to study the total temperature probe flow field and solid temperature distribution. Validated conjugate heat transfer methodology is used to investigate flow structures inside and around the probe and effects of probe design parameters like the ratio between inlet and outlet hole areas and prob tip geometry on measurement accuracy. Lastly, a thermal model is constructed to account for errors in total temperature measurement for a specific class of probes in different operating conditions. Outcomes of this work can guide experimentalists to design a very accurate total temperature probe and quantify the possible error for their specific case.

Keywords: conjugate heat transfer, recovery factor, thermocouples, total temperature probes

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Authors: Mahmoud Reza Hosseini

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In this study, a comprehensive energy model is proposed and utilized to study the birth of universe from the state of nothing. The state of nothing main specification is introduced and its role in the creation of universe is studied. In addition, the current research work provides a different approach to some of the ongoing paradox in cosmology such as the singularity at the beginning of big bang, and the expansion of universe at an accelerated rate. Also, the possible mechanism responsible for the creation of space-time domain is investigated.

Keywords: big bang, cosmic inflation, birth of universe, energy creation, universe evolution

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Authors: J. S. Kim

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This paper presents a 0.13-µm Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) vector modulator for beamforming system. The vector modulator features a 360° phase and gain range of -10 dB to 10 dB with a root mean square phase and amplitude error of only 2.2° and 0.45 dB, respectively. These features make it a suitable for wireless backhaul system in the 5 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands. It draws a current of 20.4 mA from a 1.2 V supply. The total chip size is 1.87x1.34 mm².

Keywords: CMOS, vector modulator, beamforming, 802.11ac

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Authors: Smriti Mary Gupta

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This article intends to show how literature may be used in language classes to develop student’s knowledge of English. First, we examine the evolution of literature in the language classroom, then we give account of some reasons that justify its use in language classes, of the role of reading in language development, and of the way poetry is treated in the ESL classroom. This paper aims to emphasize the use of literature as a popular tool to teach language skills (i.e. reading, writing, listening and speaking), language areas (i.e. vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) as well as moral teachings, which is the necessity in present time. Reason for using religious literary texts in foreign language classroom and main criteria for selecting suitable religious literary texts in foreign language classes are stressed so as to make the reader familiar with the underlying reasons and criteria for language teachers, using and selecting religious literary texts. Moreover, religious literature and teaching of language skills, benefits the different genres of religious literature (i.e. poetry, fiction and drama), and also gaining knowledge of a particular religion through language teaching but some problems had been observed by language teachers within the area of English through religious literature (i.e. lack of preparation in the area of literature teaching in TESL/TEFL programs, absence of clarity in objectives defining the role of literature in ESL/EFL), language teachers not having the background, training and appropriate knowledge in religious literature, lack of pedagogically-designed teaching material that can be used by language teachers in a classroom.

Keywords: religious literature, teaching literature, teaching of language skills, foreign language teaching, literary competence

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Authors: Yueying Chen

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A city can be developed through memory, and memory is one of the most important elements for urban contexts. Collective memory is a collection of personal memories that can be preserved with objects, places, and events of heritage, expressing culture through spatial changes. These preserved forms can evoke a sense of community and certain emotions. Collective memory in cities reflects urban spatial alterations and historical developments. It can be preserved and reflected by revitalisation projects. A major current focus in collective memory research is how to identify and preserve memory in an intangible way. The influential elements within the preservation of collective memory mainly include institutions and objects. However, current research lacks the assessment of the collective memory after alterations of urban heritage. The assessment of urban heritage lacks visualization and qualitative methods. The emergence of the application of space syntax can fill in this gap. Hengshan Mansions was a new project in 2015. The original residential area has been replaced with a comprehensive commercial area integrating boutique shopping, upscale restaurants, and creative offices. Hengshan Mansions is located in the largest historic area in Shanghai, and its development is the epitome of the traditional culture in Shanghai. Its alteration is the newest project in this area and presents the new concept of revitalisation of urban heritage. For its physical parts, modern vitality is created, and historical information is preserved at the same time. However, most of the local people are moved away, and its functions are altered a lot. The preservation of its collective memory needs to discuss furtherly. Thus, the article builds a framework to assess the collective memory of urban heritage, including spatial configuration, spatial interaction, and cultural cognition. Then, it selects Hengshan Mansions in Shanghai as a case to analyse the assessed framework. Space syntax can be applied to visualize the assessment. Based on the analysis, the article will explore the influential reasons for the collective memory after alterations and proposes relevant advice for the preservation of the collective memory of urban heritage.

Keywords: collective memory, alternation of urban heritage, space syntax, Hengshan Mansions

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Authors: Taruna Katyal Arora, Geeta Kumari, Hari Shankar, Neelima Mishra

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Substandard and counterfeit antimalarials is a major problem in malaria endemic areas. The availability of counterfeit/ substandard medicines is not only decreasing the efficacy in patients, but it is also one of the contributing factors for developing antimalarial drug resistance. Owing to this, a pilot study was conducted to survey quality of drugs collected from different malaria endemic areas of India. Artesunate+Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (AS+SP), Artemether-Lumefantrine (AL), Chloroquine (CQ) tablets were randomly picked from public health facilities in selected states of India. The quality of antimalarial drugs from these areas was assessed by using Global Pharma Health Fund Minilab test kit. This includes physical/visual inspection and disintegration test. Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) was carried out for semi-quantitative assessment of active pharmaceutical ingredients. A total of 45 brands, out of which 21 were for CQ, 14 for AL and 10 for AS+SP were tested from Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), Mizoram, Meghalaya and Gujrat states. One out of 45 samples showed variable disintegration and retension factor. The variable disintegration and retention factor which would have been due to substandard quality or other factors including storage. However, HPLC analysis confirms standard active pharmaceutical ingredient, but may be due to humid temperature and moisture in storage may account for the observed result.

Keywords: antimalarial medicines, counterfeit, substandard, TLC

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Authors: Syed Atif Hassan, Luv Mehta, Syed Asif Hassan

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Hit song science is a field of investigation wherein machine learning techniques are applied to music tracks in order to extract such features from audio signals which can capture information that could explain the popularity of respective tracks. Record companies invest huge amounts of money into recruiting fresh talents and churning out new music each year. Gaining insight into the basis of why a song becomes popular will result in tremendous benefits for the music industry. This paper aims to extract basic musical and more advanced, acoustic features from songs while also taking into account external factors that play a role in making a particular song popular. We use a dataset derived from popular Spotify playlists divided by genre. We use ten genres (blues, classical, country, disco, hip-hop, jazz, metal, pop, reggae, rock), chosen on the basis of clear to ambiguous delineation in the typical sound of their genres. We feed these features into three different classifiers, namely, SVM with RBF kernel, a deep neural network, and a recurring neural network, to build separate predictive models and choosing the best performing model at the end. Predicting song popularity is particularly important for the music industry as it would allow record companies to produce better content for the masses resulting in a more competitive market.

Keywords: classifier, machine learning, music tracks, popularity, prediction

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Authors: Klio Monokrousou, Maria Giannopoulou

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Urban areas, as they have been developed and operate today, are areas of accumulation of a significant amount of people and a large number of activities that generate desires and reasons for traveling. The territorial expansion of the cities as well as the need to preserve the importance of the central city areas lead to the continuous increase of transportation needs which in the limited urban space results in creating serious traffic and operational problems. The modern perception of urban planning is directed towards more holistic approaches and integrated policies that make it economically competitive, socially just and more environmentally friendly. Over the last 25 years, the goal of sustainable transport development has been central to the agenda of any plan or policy for the city. The modern planning of urban space takes into account the economic and social aspects of the city and the importance of the environment to sustainable urban development. In this context, the European Union promotes direct or indirect related interventions according to the cohesion and environmental policies; many countries even had the chance to actually test them. This paper is part of a wider research still in progress and it explores the methods and processes that have been developed towards this direction and presents a review and systematic presentation of this work. The ultimate purpose of this research is to effectively use this review to create a decision making methodological framework which can be the basis of a useful operational tool for sustainable urban planning.

Keywords: methods, sustainable urban development, urban mobility, methodological framework

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Authors: A. Oukaira, A. Lakhssassi, O. Ettahri

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To make a good thermal management in an ABDM (Adapter Board Detector Module) card, we must first control temperature and its gradient from the first step in the design of integrated circuits ASIC of our complex system. In this paper, our main goal is to develop and validate the thermal stability in order to get an idea of the flow of heat around the ASIC in transient and thus address the thermal issues for integrated circuits at the ABDM card. However, we need heat sources simulations for ABDM card to establish its thermal mapping. This led us to perform simulations at each ASIC that will allow us to understand the thermal ABDM map and find real solutions for each one of our complex system that contains 36 ABDM map, taking into account the different layers around ASIC. To do a transient simulation under NISA, we had to build a function of power modulation in time TIMEAMP. The maximum power generated in the ASIC is 0.6 W. We divided the power uniformly in the volume of the ASIC. This power was applied for 5 seconds to visualize the evolution and distribution of heat around the ASIC. The DBC (Dirichlet Boundary conditions) method was applied around the ABDM at 25°C and just after these simulations in NISA tool we will validate them by COMSOL tool, wich is a numerical calculation software for a modular finite element for modeling a wide variety of physical phenomena characterizing a real problem. It will also be a design tool with its ability to handle 3D geometries for complex systems.

Keywords: ABDM, APD, thermal mapping, complex system

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Authors: Ken Hampshire, Thomas Mazzuchi, Shahram Sarkani

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As a subset of metaheuristics, nature-inspired optimization algorithms such as particle swarm optimization (PSO) have shown promise both in solving intractable problems and in their extensibility to novel problem formulations due to their general approach requiring few assumptions. Unfortunately, single instantiations of algorithms require detailed tuning of parameters and cannot be proven to be best suited to a particular illustrative problem on account of the “no free lunch” (NFL) theorem. Using these algorithms in real-world problems requires exquisite knowledge of the many techniques and is not conducive to reconciling the various approaches to given classes of problems. This research aims to present a unified view of PSO-based approaches from the perspective of relevant systems engineering problems, with the express purpose of then eliciting the best solution for any problem formulation in an ensemble learning bucket of models approach. The central hypothesis of the research is that extending the PSO algorithms found in the literature to real-world optimization problems requires a general ensemble-based method for all problem formulations but a specific implementation and solution for any instance. The main results are a problem-based literature survey and a general method to find more globally optimal solutions for any systems engineering optimization problem.

Keywords: particle swarm optimization, nature-inspired optimization, metaheuristics, systems engineering, ensemble learning

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Authors: Nicole A. Alford

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The study of online graduate education started just 30 years ago, with the first online graduate program in the 1990s. Institutions are looking for ways to increase retention and support the needs of students with the rapid expansion of online higher education due to the global pandemic. Online education provides access and opportunities to those who otherwise would be unable to pursue an advanced degree for logistical reasons. Thus, the objective of the critical literature review is to survey current research of student experiences given the expanding role of online doctoral programs. The guiding research questions are: What are the personal, professional, and student life practices of graduate students who enrolled in a fully online university doctoral program or course? and How do graduate students who enrolled in a fully online doctoral program or course describe the factors that contributed to their continued study? The systematic literature review was conducted employing a variety of databases to locate articles using key Boolean terms and synonyms within three categories of the e-learning, doctoral education, and student perspectives. Inclusion criteria for the literature review consisted of empirical peer-reviewed studies with original data sources that focused on doctoral programs and courses within a fully online environment and centered around student experiences. A total of 16 articles were selected based on the inclusion criteria and systemically analyzed through coding using the Boote and Beile criteria. Major findings suggest that doctoral students face stressors related to social and emotional wellbeing in the online environment. A lack of social connection, isolation, and burnout were the main challenges experienced by students. Students found support from their colleagues, advisors, and faculty to persist. Communities and cohorts of online doctoral students were found to guard against these challenges. Moreover, in the methods section of the articles, there was a lack of specificity related to student demographics, general student information, and insufficient detail about the online doctoral program. Additionally, descriptions regarding the experiences of cohorts and communities in the online environment were vague and not easily replicable with the given details. This literature review reveals that doctoral students face social and emotional challenges related to isolation and the rigor of the academic process and lean on others for support to continue in their studies. Given the lack of current knowledge about online doctoral students, it proves to be a challenge to identify effective practices and create high-retention doctoral programs in online environments. The paucity of information combined with the dramatic transition to e-learning due to the global pandemic can provide a perfect storm for attrition in these programs. Several higher education institutions have transitioned graduate studies online, thus providing an opportunity for further exploration. Given the new necessity of online learning, this work provides insight into examining current practices in online doctoral programs that have moved to this modality during the pandemic. The significance of the literature review provides a springboard for research into online doctoral programs as the solution to continue advanced education amongst a global pandemic.

Keywords: e-learning, experiences, higher education, literature review

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Authors: M. Kosacka, I. Kudelska

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Vehicle is one of the most influential and complex product worldwide, which affects people’s life, state of the environment and condition of the economy (all aspects of sustainable development concept) during each stage of lifecycle. With the increase of vehicles’ number, there is growing potential for management of End of Life Vehicle (ELV), which is hazardous waste. From one point of view, the ELV should be managed to ensure risk elimination, but from another point, it should be treated as a source of valuable materials and spare parts. In order to obtain materials and spare parts, there are established recycling networks, which are an example of sustainable policy realization at the national level. The basic object in the polish recycling network is dismantling facility. The output material streams in dismantling stations include waste, which very often generate costs and spare parts, that have the biggest potential for revenues creation. Both outputs are stored into warehouses, according to the law. In accordance to the revenue creation and sustainability potential, it has been placed a strong emphasis on storage process. We present the concept of storage method, which takes into account the specific of the dismantling facility in order to support decision-making process with regard to the principles of sustainable development. The method was developed on the basis of case study of one of the greatest dismantling facility in Poland.

Keywords: dismantling, end of life vehicles, sustainability, storage

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Authors: J. Das, T. S. Mahule, V. V. Srinivasu

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Electron spin resonance (ESR) study at 9.45 GHz and a field modulation frequency of 100Hz was performed on bulk polycrystalline samples of Mn:TM (Fe/Ni) and Mn:RE (Gd/Sm) co doped ZnO samples with composition Zn1-xMn:TM/RE)xO synthesised by solid state reaction route and sintered at 500 0C temperature. The room temperature microwave absorption data collected by sweeping the DC magnetic field from -500 to 9500 G for the Mn:Fe and Mn:Ni co doped ZnO samples exhibit a rarely reported non resonant low field absorption (NRLFA) in addition to a strong absorption at around 3350G, usually associated with ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) satisfying Larmor’s relation due to absorption in the full saturation state. Observed low field absorption is distinct to ferromagnetic resonance even at low temperature and shows hysteresis. Interestingly, it shows a phase opposite with respect to the main ESR signal of the samples, which indicates that the low field absorption has a minimum value at zero magnetic field whereas the ESR signal has a maximum value. The major resonance peak as well as the peak corresponding to low field absorption exhibit asymmetric nature indicating magnetic anisotropy in the sample normally associated with intrinsic ferromagnetism. Anisotropy parameter for Mn:Ni codoped ZnO sample is noticed to be quite higher. The g values also support the presence of oxygen vacancies and clusters in the samples. These samples have shown room temperature ferromagnetism in the SQUID measurement. However, in rare earth (RE) co doped samples (Zn1-x (Mn: Gd/Sm)xO), which show paramagnetic behavior at room temperature, the low field microwave signals are not observed. As microwave currents due to itinerary electrons can lead to ohmic losses inside the sample, we speculate that more delocalized 3d electrons contributed from the TM dopants facilitate such microwave currents leading to the loss and hence absorption at the low field which is also supported by the increase in current with increased micro wave power. Besides, since Fe and Ni has intrinsic spin polarization with polarisability of around 45%, doping of Fe and Ni is expected to enhance the spin polarization related effect in ZnO. We emphasize that in this case Fe and Ni doping contribute to polarized current which interacts with the magnetization (spin) vector and get scattered giving rise to the absorption loss.

Keywords: co-doping, electron spin resonance, hysteresis, non-resonant microwave absorption

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Authors: Moustafa Ahmed, Fumio Koyama

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Directly-modulated semiconductor lasers, including edge-emitting and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, have received considerable interest recently for use in data transmitters in cost-effective high-speed data centers, metro, and access networks. Optical feedback has been proved as an efficient technique to boost the modulation bandwidth and enhance the speed of the semiconductor laser. However, both the laser linewidth and frequency chirping in directly-modulated lasers are sensitive to both intensity modulation and optical feedback. These effects along width fiber dispersion affect the transmission bit rate and distance in single-mode fiber links. In this work, we continue our recent research on directly-modulated semiconductor lasers with modulation bandwidth in the millimeter-wave band by introducing simultaneous modeling and simulations on both the frequency chirping and lineshape broadening. The lasers are operating under strong optical feedback. The model takes into account the multiple reflections of laser reflections of laser radiation in the external cavity. The analyses are given in terms of the chirp-to-modulated power ratio, and the results are shown for the possible dynamic states of continuous wave, period-1 oscillation, and chaos.

Keywords: chirp, linewidth, optical feedback, semiconductor laser

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Authors: Jie Liu, Wei Wei, Chun-Ping Chang

Abstract:

Using a sample of 110 countries over the period 1984-2013, this paper examines the impacts of country risks on choosing a specific exchange rate regime (first by utilizing the Levy-Yeyati and Sturzenegger de facto classification and then robusting it by the IMF de jure measurement) relative to other regimes via the panel multinomial logit approach. Empirical findings are as follows. First, in the full samples case we provide evidence that government is more likely to implement a flexible regime, but less likely to adopt a fixed regime, under a low level of composite and financial risk. Second, we find that Eurozone countries are more likely to choose a fixed exchange rate regime with a decrease in the level of country risk and favor a flexible regime in response to a shock from an increase of risk, which is opposite to non-Eurozone countries. Third, we note that high-risk countries are more likely to choose a fixed regime with a low level of composite and political risk in the government, but do not adjust the exchange rate regime as a shock absorber when facing economic and financial risks. It is interesting to see that those countries with relatively low risk display almost opposite results versus high-risk economies. Overall, we believe that it is critically important to account for political economy variables in a government’s exchange rate policy decisions, especially for country risks. All results are robust to the panel ordered probit model.

Keywords: country risk, political economy, exchange rate regimes, shock absorber

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Authors: Y. J. Zhou, G. Lu

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In this paper, an analytical study is made for the dynamic behavior of human brain tissue under transient loading. In this analytical model the Mooney-Rivlin constitutive law is coupled with visco-elastic constitutive equations to take into account both the nonlinear and time-dependent mechanical behavior of brain tissue. Five ordinary differential equations representing the relationships of five main parameters (radial stress, circumferential stress, radial strain, circumferential strain, and particle velocity) are obtained by using the characteristic method to transform five partial differential equations (two continuity equations, one motion equation, and two constitutive equations). Analytical expressions of the attenuation properties for spherical wave in brain tissue are analytically derived. Numerical results are obtained based on the five ordinary differential equations. The mechanical responses (particle velocity and stress) of brain are compared at different radii including 5, 6, 10, 15 and 25 mm under four different input conditions. The results illustrate that loading curves types of the particle velocity significantly influences the stress in brain tissue. The understanding of the influence by the input loading cures can be used to reduce the potentially injury to brain under head impact by designing protective structures to control the loading curves types.

Keywords: analytical method, mechanical responses, spherical wave propagation, traumatic brain injury

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Authors: Ngong Eugene Ekia

Abstract:

Education is the foundation for the success of any society as its impact transcends across all sectors, including economics, politics, and social welfare. It is through education that individuals acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in life and contribute meaningfully to society. However, the world is changing rapidly, and it is vital for education systems to adapt to these changes to remain relevant. In this paper, we will discuss the current trends and challenges in education and management and propose solutions that can enable individuals to thrive in an ever-evolving world.

Keywords: access to education, effective teaching and learning, strong management practices, and empowering and personal development

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Hongshan Guo

Abstract:

Ground-source heat pumps provide stable and reliable heating and cooling when designed properly. The confounding effect of the borehole depth for a GSHP system, however, is rarely taken into account for any optimization: the determination of the borehole depth usually comes prior to the selection of corresponding system components and thereafter any optimization of the GSHP system. The depth of the borehole is important to any GSHP system because the shallower the borehole, the larger the fluctuation of temperature of the near-borehole soil temperature. This could lead to fluctuations of the coefficient of performance (COP) for the GSHP system in the long term when the heating/cooling demand is large. Yet the deeper the boreholes are drilled, the more the drilling cost and the operational expenses for the circulation. A controller that reads different building load profiles, optimizing for the smallest costs and temperature fluctuation at the borehole wall, eventually providing borehole depth as the output is developed. Due to the nature of the nonlinear dynamic nature of the GSHP system, it was found that between conventional optimal controller problem and model predictive control problem, the latter was found to be more feasible due to a possible history of both the trajectory during the iteration as well as the final output could be computed and compared against. Aside from a few scenarios of different weighting factors, the resulting system costs were verified with literature and reports and were found to be relatively accurate, while the temperature fluctuation at the borehole wall was also found to be within acceptable range. It was therefore determined that the MPC is adequate to optimize for the investment as well as the system performance for various outputs.

Keywords: geothermal borehole, MPC, dynamic modeling, simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Jeffrey R. Mueller

Abstract:

This paper expands on the role of the professor by detailing the origins of the profession, adding some of the unique contributions of North American Universities, as well as some of the best practice recommendations, to the unique tripartite role of the professor. It describes current challenges to the profession including the ever-controversial student rating of professors. It continues with the significance of empowerment to the role of the professor. It concludes with a predictive prescription for the future of the professoriate and the role of the university-level educational administrator toward that end.

Keywords: professoriate history, tripartite role, challenges, empowerment, shared governance, administratization

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Authors: Niloofar Yousefi, Marie Alaghband, Ivan Garibay

Abstract:

With the increase of credit card usage, the volume of credit card misuse also has significantly increased, which may cause appreciable financial losses for both credit card holders and financial organizations issuing credit cards. As a result, financial organizations are working hard on developing and deploying credit card fraud detection methods, in order to adapt to ever-evolving, increasingly sophisticated defrauding strategies and identifying illicit transactions as quickly as possible to protect themselves and their customers. Compounding on the complex nature of such adverse strategies, credit card fraudulent activities are rare events compared to the number of legitimate transactions. Hence, the challenge to develop fraud detection that are accurate and efficient is substantially intensified and, as a consequence, credit card fraud detection has lately become a very active area of research. In this work, we provide a survey of current techniques most relevant to the problem of credit card fraud detection. We carry out our survey in two main parts. In the first part, we focus on studies utilizing classical machine learning models, which mostly employ traditional transnational features to make fraud predictions. These models typically rely on some static physical characteristics, such as what the user knows (knowledge-based method), or what he/she has access to (object-based method). In the second part of our survey, we review more advanced techniques of user authentication, which use behavioral biometrics to identify an individual based on his/her unique behavior while he/she is interacting with his/her electronic devices. These approaches rely on how people behave (instead of what they do), which cannot be easily forged. By providing an overview of current approaches and the results reported in the literature, this survey aims to drive the future research agenda for the community in order to develop more accurate, reliable and scalable models of credit card fraud detection.

Keywords: Credit Card Fraud Detection, User Authentication, Behavioral Biometrics, Machine Learning, Literature Survey

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Authors: Amal Hentati, Mbarka Selmi, Tarek Kormi, Julien Baroth, Barthelemy Harthong

Abstract:

The impact of uncertainties on the performance assessment of shallow foundations is often significant. The need of the geotechnical engineers to a more objective and rigorous description of soil variations permitting to quantify these uncertainties and to incorporate them into calculation methods led to the development of reliability approaches. In this context, a mechanical-reliability coupling was developed in this paper, using a program coded in Matlab and the finite element software Abaqus, for the bearing capacity assessment of shallow foundations. The reliability analysis, based on the finite element method, assumed both soil cohesion and friction angle as uncertain parameters characterized by normal or lognormal probability distributions. The inherent spatial variability of both soil properties was, then, taken into account using 1D stationary random fields. The application of the proposed methodology to a shallow foundation subjected to a centered vertical loading permitted to highlight the proposed process interest. Findings proved the insufficiency of the conventional approach to predict the foundation failure and a high sensitivity of the ultimate loads to the soil properties uncertainties, mainly those related to the friction angle, was noted. Moreover, an asymmetry of both displacement and velocity fields was obtained.

Keywords: mechanical-reliability coupling, finite element method, shallow foundation, random fields, spatial variability

Procedia PDF Downloads 661