Search results for: purposes%20of%20education

Authors: Kehinde Augustina Odukoya

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This study examines the portrayal of women in Nigerian magazine advertisements, with the aim to investigate whether there is sexualization of women in the advertisements. To achieve this aim, content analyses of 61 magazine advertisements from 5 different categories of magazines; a general interest magazine (Genevieve), fashion magazine (Hints Complete Fashion), men’s magazine (Mode), women’s magazine (Totally Whole) and a relationship magazine (Forever) were carried out. Erving Goffman’s 1979 frame analysis and Kang’s two additional coding categories were used to investigate the sexualization of women. Findings show that women are used for decorative purposes and objectified in over 70 per cent of the advertisements analyzed. Also, there is sexualization of women in magazine advertisements because women are nude 57.4 percent of the magazine advertisements.

Keywords: advertisements, magazine, sexualization, women

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Fulufhelo Oscar Maphiri-Makananise

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The main purpose of this paper is to explore and provide substantiated evidence based on the usage patterns of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by females in the Vhembe District in Limpopo-Province, South Africa. The study presents a broader picture and understanding about the usage of ICTs from female’s perspective. The significance of this study stems from the need to discover the role, relevance and usage patterns of ICTs such as smartphones, computers, laptops, and iPods, internet and social networking sites among females following the trends of new media technologies in the society. The main objective of the study was to investigate the usability and accessibility of ICTs to empower the Vhembe District females in South Africa. The study used quantitative research method together with elements of qualitative research to determine the major ideas, perceptions and usage patterns of ICTs by females in the District. Data collection involved structured and self-administered questionnaire with both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Two groups of respondents participated in this study. Media Studies female students (n=50) at the University of Venda provided their ideas and perceptions about the usefulness and usage patterns of ICTs such as smartphones, internet and computers at the university level, while the second group were (n=50) Makhado comprehensive school learners who also provided their perceptions and ideas about the use of ICTs at the high school level. Also, the study provides a more balanced, accurate and rational results on the pertinent issues that concern the use of ICTs by females in the Vhembe District. The researcher also believes that the findings of the study are useful as a guideline and model for ICT intervention that work as an empowerment to women in South Africa. The study showed that the main purpose of using ICTs by females was to search information for writing assignments, conducting research, dating, exchanging ideas and networking with friends and relatives that are also members of social networking sites and maintaining existing friends in real life. The study further revealed that most females were using ICTs for social purposes and accessing the internet than entertaining themselves. The finding also indicated a high number of females that used ICTs for e-learning (62%) and social purposes (85%). Moreover, the study centred on providing strong insightful information on the females’ usage patterns and their perceptions of ICTs in the Vhembe district of Limpopo province.

Keywords: female users, information and communication technologies, internet, usage patterns

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Tamas Jancso, Andrea Podor, Eva Nagyne Hajnal, Peter Udvardy, Gabor Nagy, Attila Varga, Meng Qingyan

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The paper deals with the conditions and circumstances of integration of remotely sensed data for rural environmental monitoring purposes. The main task is to make decisions during the integration process when we have data sources with different resolution, location, spectral channels, and dimension. In order to have exact knowledge about the integration and data fusion possibilities, it is necessary to know the properties (metadata) that characterize the data. The paper explains the joining of these data sources using their attribute data through a sample project. The resulted product will be used for rural environmental analysis.

Keywords: remote sensing, GIS, metadata, integration, environmental analysis

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Authors: Proud Arunrangsiwed

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The part of “future direction” in the findings of meta-analysis could provide the great direction to conduct the future studies. This study, “The Documentary Analysis of Meta-Analysis Research in Violence of Media” would conclude “future directions” out of 10 meta-analysis papers. The purposes of this research are to find an appropriate research design or an appropriate methodology for the future research related to the topic, “violence of media”. Further research needs to explore by longitudinal and experimental design, and also needs to have a careful consideration about age effects, time spent effects, enjoyment effects, and ordinary lifestyle of each media consumer.

Keywords: aggressive, future direction, meta-analysis, media, violence

Procedia PDF Downloads 378

Authors: Joanna Błach, Anna Doś, Maria Gorczyńska, Monika Wieczorek-Kosmala

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Financial innovations can be regarded as the cause and the effect of the evolution of the financial system. Most of financial innovations are created by various financial institutions for their own purposes and needs. However, due to their diversity, financial innovations can be also applied by various business entities (other than financial institutions). This paper focuses on the potential application of financial innovations by non-financial companies. It is assumed that financial innovations may be effectively applied in all fields of corporate financial decisions integrating financial management with the risk management process. Appropriate application of financial innovations may enhance the development of the company and increase its value by improving its financial situation and reducing the level of risk. On the other hand, misused financial innovations may become the source of extra risk for the company threatening its further operation. The main objective of the paper is to identify the major types of financial innovations offered to non-financial companies by the banking system in Poland. It also aims at identifying the main factors determining the creation of financial innovations in the banking system in Poland and indicating future directions of their development. This paper consists of conceptual and empirical part. Conceptual part based on theoretical study is focused on the determinants of the process of financial innovations and their application by the non-financial companies. Theoretical study is followed by the empirical research based on the analysis of the actual offer of the 20 biggest banks operating in Poland with regard to financial innovations offered to SMEs and large corporations. These innovations are classified according to the main functions of the integrated financial management, such as: Financing, investment, working capital management and risk management. Empirical study has proved that the biggest banks operating in the Polish market offer to their business customers many types and classes of financial innovations. This offer appears vast and adequate to the needs and purposes of the Polish non-financial companies. It was observed that financial innovations pertained to financing decisions dominate in the banks’ offer. However, due to high diversification of the offered financial innovations, business customers may effectively apply them in all fields and areas of integrated financial management. It should be underlined, that the banks’ offer is highly dispersed, which may limit the implementation of financial innovations in the corporate finance. It would be also recommended for the banks operating in the Polish market to intensify the education campaign aiming at increasing knowledge about financial innovations among business customers.

Keywords: banking products and services, banking sector in Poland, corporate financial management, financial innovations, theory of innovation

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Authors: Anli Du Preez, James Bekker

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Data is currently one of the most critical and influential emerging technologies. However, the true potential of data is yet to be exploited since, currently, about 1% of generated data are ever actually analyzed for value creation. There is a data gap where data is not explored due to the lack of data analytics infrastructure and the required data analytics skills. This study developed a decision support framework for data analytics by following Jabareen’s framework development methodology. The study focused on machine learning algorithms, which is a subset of data analytics. The developed framework is designed to assist data analysts with little experience, in choosing the appropriate machine learning algorithm given the purpose of their application.

Keywords: Data analytics, Industrial engineering, Machine learning, Value creation

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Authors: Prakash Kattire, Rahul Pathare, Nilesh Tawde

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A canopy is an overhead roof structure generally used at the entrance of a building to provide shelter from rain and sun and may also be used for decorative purposes. In this paper, the canopy structure to cover the conveyor line has been studied. Existing most of the canopy structures are made of steel and glass, which makes a heavier structure, so the purpose of this study is to weight and cost optimization of the canopy. To achieve this goal, the materials of construction considered are Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) natural composite, Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP), and Structural steel Fe250. Designing and modeling were done in Solid works, whereas Altair Inspire software was used for the optimization of the structure. Through this study, it was found that there is a total 10% weight reduction in the structure with sufficient reserve for structural strength.

Keywords: canopy, composite, FRP, PVC

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Authors: Rajesh Kumar

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The largest issue in the current situation is managing solid waste since it pollutes the ecosystem. When considering how to manage waste, even the disposal of mixed waste is a challenge. The Saksham Yuva Project, which is managed by the Haryana government, highlights the consequences and drivers of managing the solid waste of urban areas in the municipal committee pundri in the present study. The overall goal of the Saksham Yuva project is to mobilise the public and educate them about the dangers associated with garbage management. There has been a 20% reduction in waste, according to the study's impacts, and the cost of waste management has also gone down. Further, the study also reported the alternative use of wastes in revenue generation by generating Khaad for agricultural purposes.

Keywords: solid waste management, people awareness, dry and wet waste disposal, material recover facility

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Authors: Agung Sujatmiko

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One of the purposes of patent licensing was to transfer technology from developed countries to developing countries. For this reason, the role of the patent license agreement was very important and had a function as a tool to achieve technological development. This goal was very good, but in fact, many problems and obstacles arose in its implementation, so the technology transfer that had been implemented had not given good results. For this reason, it was necessary to find a solution so that technology could switch properly. The problem approach used the statutory and conceptual approaches. The analysis used was deductive by analyzing general laws and regulations and then concluding. Several regulations related to technology transfer were the main source to find answers to why technology transfer was difficult to achieve and what caused it. Once the cause was known, a solution would be sought.

Keywords: license, patent, technology, tie in clause

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Authors: Masoomeh Estaji, Ahdie Tahamtani

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Considering the necessity of conducting research and publishing academic papers during Master’s and Ph.D. programs, graduate students are in dire need of improving their writing skills through either writing courses or self-study planning. One key feature that could aid academic papers to look more sophisticated is the application of grammatical metaphors (GMs). These types of metaphors represent the ‘non-congruent’ and ‘implicit’ ways of decoding meaning through which one grammatical category is replaced by another, more implied counterpart, which can alter the readers’ understanding of the text as well. Although a number of studies have been conducted on the application of GMs across various disciplines, almost none has been devoted to the field of environmental management, and the scope of the previous studies has been relatively limited compared to the present work. In the current study, attempts were made to analyze different types of GMs used in academic papers published in top-tiered journals in the field of environmental management, and make a list of the most frequently used GMs based on their functions in this particular discipline to make the teaching of academic writing courses more explicit and the composition of academic texts more well-structured. To fulfill these purposes, a corpus-based analysis based on the two theoretical models of Martin et al. (1997) and Liardet (2014) was run. Through two stages of manual analysis and concordancers, ten recent academic articles entailing 132490 words published in two prestigious journals were precisely scrutinized. The results yielded that through the whole IMRaD sections of the articles, among all types of ideational GMs, material processes were the most frequent types. The second and the third ranks would apply to the relational and mental categories, respectively. Regarding the use of interpersonal GMs, objective expanding metaphors were the highest in number. In contrast, subjective interpersonal metaphors, either expanding or contracting, were the least significant. This would suggest that scholars in the field of Environmental Management tended to shift the focus on the main procedures and explain technical phenomenon in detail, rather than to compare and contrast other statements and subjective beliefs. Moreover, since no instances of verbal ideational metaphors were detected, it could be deduced that the act of ‘saying or articulating’ something might be against the standards of the academic genre. One other assumption would be that the application of ideational GMs is context-embedded and that the more technical they are, the least frequent they become. For further studies, it is suggested that the employment of GMs to be studied in a wider scope and other disciplines, and the third type of GMs known as ‘textual’ metaphors to be included as well.

Keywords: English for specific purposes, grammatical metaphor, academic texts, corpus-based analysis

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Authors: Saad Bin Nasir

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The research will examine the role of corporate governance (CG) practices on firm’s financial performance. Population of this research will be manufacture sector of Pakistan. For the purposes of measurement of impact of corporate governance practices such as board size, board independence, ceo/chairman duality, will take as independent variables and for the measurement of firm’s performance return on assets and return on equity will take as dependent variables. Panel data regression model will be used to estimate the impact of CG on firm performance.

Keywords: corporate governance, board size, board independence, leadership

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Authors: Azimollah Aleshzadeh, Enver Vural Yavuz

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The main goal of this study is to produce landslide susceptibility maps using different data-driven bivariate statistical approaches; namely, entropy weight method (EWM), evidence belief function (EBF), and information content model (ICM), at Uzundere county, Erzurum province, in the north-eastern part of Turkey. Past landslide occurrences were identified and mapped from an interpretation of high-resolution satellite images, and earlier reports as well as by carrying out field surveys. In total, 42 landslide incidence polygons were mapped using ArcGIS 10.4.1 software and randomly split into a construction dataset 70 % (30 landslide incidences) for building the EWM, EBF, and ICM models and the remaining 30 % (12 landslides incidences) were used for verification purposes. Twelve layers of landslide-predisposing parameters were prepared, including total surface radiation, maximum relief, soil groups, standard curvature, distance to stream/river sites, distance to the road network, surface roughness, land use pattern, engineering geological rock group, topographical elevation, the orientation of slope, and terrain slope gradient. The relationships between the landslide-predisposing parameters and the landslide inventory map were determined using different statistical models (EWM, EBF, and ICM). The model results were validated with landslide incidences, which were not used during the model construction. In addition, receiver operating characteristic curves were applied, and the area under the curve (AUC) was determined for the different susceptibility maps using the success (construction data) and prediction (verification data) rate curves. The results revealed that the AUC for success rates are 0.7055, 0.7221, and 0.7368, while the prediction rates are 0.6811, 0.6997, and 0.7105 for EWM, EBF, and ICM models, respectively. Consequently, landslide susceptibility maps were classified into five susceptibility classes, including very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. Additionally, the portion of construction and verification landslides incidences in high and very high landslide susceptibility classes in each map was determined. The results showed that the EWM, EBF, and ICM models produced satisfactory accuracy. The obtained landslide susceptibility maps may be useful for future natural hazard mitigation studies and planning purposes for environmental protection.

Keywords: entropy weight method, evidence belief function, information content model, landslide susceptibility mapping

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Authors: Piyanut Suchit

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The purposes of this study was to investigate students’ satisfaction learning with the web based instruction on the puppet show. The population of this study includes 53 students in the Program of Library and Information Sciences who registered in the subject of Puppet for Assisting Learning Development in semester 2/2011, Suansunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand. The research instruments consist of web based instruction on the puppet show, and questionnaires for students’ satisfaction. The research statistics includes arithmetic mean, and standard deviation. The results revealed that the students reported very high satisfaction with mean = 4.63, SD = 0.52, on the web based instruction.

Keywords: puppet show, web based instruction, satisfaction, Suansunandha Rajabhat University

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Authors: Hsiu Tan Liu, Chun Jung Liu

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It has multiple purposes to develop a sign language receptive skills test. For example, this test can be used to be an important tool for education and to understand the sign language ability of deaf children. There is no available test for these purposes in Taiwan. Through the discussion of experts and the references of standardized Taiwanese Sign Language Receptive Test for adults and adolescents, the frame of Taiwanese Sign Language Receptive Skills Test (TSL-RST) for deaf children was developed, and the items were further designed. After multiple times of pre-trials, discussions and corrections, TSL-RST is finally developed which can be conducted and scored online. There were 33 deaf children who agreed to be tested from all three deaf schools in Taiwan. Through item analysis, the items were picked out that have good discrimination index and fair difficulty index. Moreover, psychometric indexes of reliability and validity were established. Then, derived the regression formula was derived which can predict the sign language receptive skills of deaf children. The main results of this study are as follows. (1). TSL-RST includes three sub-test of vocabulary comprehension, syntax comprehension and paragraph comprehension. There are 21, 20, and 9 items in vocabulary comprehension, syntax comprehension, and paragraph comprehension, respectively. (2). TSL-RST can be conducted individually online. The sign language ability of deaf students can be calculated fast and objectively, so that they can get the feedback and results immediately. This can also contribute to both teaching and research. The most subjects can complete the test within 25 minutes. While the test procedure, they can answer the test questions without relying on their reading ability or memory capacity. (3). The sub-test of the vocabulary comprehension is the easiest one, syntax comprehension is harder than vocabulary comprehension and the paragraph comprehension is the hardest. Each of the three sub-test and the whole test are good in item discrimination index. (4). The psychometric indices are good, including the internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s α coefficient), test-retest reliability, split-half reliability, and content validity. The sign language ability are significantly related to non-verbal IQ, the teachers’ rating to the students’ sign language ability and students’ self-rating to their own sign language ability. The results showed that the higher grade students have better performance than the lower grade students, and students with deaf parent perform better than those with hearing parent. These results made TLS-RST have great discriminant validity. (5). The predictors of sign language ability of primary deaf students are age and years of starting to learn sign language. The results of this study suggested that TSL-RST can effectively assess deaf student’s sign language ability. This study also proposed a model to develop a sign language tests.

Keywords: comprehension test, elementary school, sign language, Taiwan sign language

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Authors: Satien Janpla, Thanawan Boonpuck, Pattarapan Roonrakwit

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In this paper, we present a hamster knowledge system based on android application. The objective of this system is to advice user to upkeep and feed hamsters based on mobile application. We describe the design approaches and functional components of this system. The system was developed based on knowledge based of hamster experts. The results were divided by the research purposes into 2 parts: developing the mobile application for advice users and testing and evaluating the system. Black box technique was used to evaluate application performances and questionnaires were applied to measure user satisfaction with system usability by specialists and users.

Keywords: hamster knowledge, Android application, black box, questionnaires

Procedia PDF Downloads 309

Authors: Aleksandr Kavetskiy, Galina Yakubova, Nikolay Sargsyan, Stephen A. Prior, H. Allen Torbert

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Determining soil elemental content and distribution (mapping) within a field are key features of modern agricultural practice. While traditional chemical analysis is a time consuming and labor-intensive multi-step process (e.g., sample collections, transport to laboratory, physical preparations, and chemical analysis), neutron-gamma soil analysis can be performed in-situ. This analysis is based on the registration of gamma rays issued from nuclei upon interaction with neutrons. Soil elements such as Si, C, Fe, O, Al, K, and H (moisture) can be assessed with this method. Data received from analysis can be directly used for creating soil elemental distribution maps (based on ArcGIS software) suitable for agricultural purposes. The neutron-gamma analysis system developed for field application consisted of an MP320 Neutron Generator (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.), 3 sodium iodide gamma detectors (SCIONIX, Inc.) with a total volume of 7 liters, 'split electronics' (XIA, LLC), a power system, and an operational computer. Paired with GPS, this system can be used in the scanning mode to acquire gamma spectra while traversing a field. Using acquired spectra, soil elemental content can be calculated. These data can be combined with geographical coordinates in a geographical information system (i.e., ArcGIS) to produce elemental distribution maps suitable for agricultural purposes. Special software has been developed that will acquire gamma spectra, process and sort data, calculate soil elemental content, and combine these data with measured geographic coordinates to create soil elemental distribution maps. For example, 5.5 hours was needed to acquire necessary data for creating a carbon distribution map of an 8.5 ha field. This paper will briefly describe the physics behind the neutron gamma analysis method, physical construction the measurement system, and main characteristics and modes of work when conducting field surveys. Soil elemental distribution maps resulting from field surveys will be presented. and discussed. Comparison of these maps with maps created on the bases of chemical analysis and soil moisture measurements determined by soil electrical conductivity was similar. The maps created by neutron-gamma analysis were reproducible, as well. Based on these facts, it can be asserted that neutron stimulated soil gamma spectroscopy paired with GPS system is fully applicable for soil elemental agricultural field mapping.

Keywords: ArcGIS mapping, neutron gamma analysis, soil elemental content, soil gamma spectroscopy

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Authors: Golnush Masghati-Amoli, Paul Chin

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Over the past recent years, with the rapid increases in data availability and computing power, Machine Learning (ML) techniques have been called on in a range of different industries for their strong predictive capability. However, the use of Machine Learning in commercial banking has been limited due to a special challenge imposed by numerous regulations that require lenders to be able to explain their analytic models, not only to regulators but often to consumers. In other words, although Machine Leaning techniques enable better prediction with a higher level of accuracy, in comparison with other industries, they are adopted less frequently in commercial banking especially for scoring purposes. This is due to the fact that Machine Learning techniques are often considered as a black box and fail to provide information on why a certain risk score is given to a customer. In order to bridge this gap between the explain-ability and performance of Machine Learning techniques, a Hybrid Model is developed at Dun and Bradstreet that is focused on blending Machine Learning algorithms with traditional approaches such as scorecards. The Hybrid Model maximizes efficiency of traditional scorecards by merging its practical benefits, such as explain-ability and the ability to input domain knowledge, with the deep insights of Machine Learning techniques which can uncover patterns scorecard approaches cannot. First, through development of Machine Learning models, engineered features and latent variables and feature interactions that demonstrate high information value in the prediction of customer risk are identified. Then, these features are employed to introduce observed non-linear relationships between the explanatory and dependent variables into traditional scorecards. Moreover, instead of directly computing the Weight of Evidence (WoE) from good and bad data points, the Hybrid Model tries to match the score distribution generated by a Machine Learning algorithm, which ends up providing an estimate of the WoE for each bin. This capability helps to build powerful scorecards with sparse cases that cannot be achieved with traditional approaches. The proposed Hybrid Model is tested on different portfolios where a significant gap is observed between the performance of traditional scorecards and Machine Learning models. The result of analysis shows that Hybrid Model can improve the performance of traditional scorecards by introducing non-linear relationships between explanatory and target variables from Machine Learning models into traditional scorecards. Also, it is observed that in some scenarios the Hybrid Model can be almost as predictive as the Machine Learning techniques while being as transparent as traditional scorecards. Therefore, it is concluded that, with the use of Hybrid Model, Machine Learning algorithms can be used in the commercial banking industry without being concerned with difficulties in explaining the models for regulatory purposes.

Keywords: machine learning algorithms, scorecard, commercial banking, consumer risk, feature engineering

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Authors: Maroof Sakhi

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This article studies writing style in A Thousand Splendid Suns. It mainly discusses code-switching and usage of Persian words in the novel. Hosseini mainly writes in English; however, constantly he applies Persian words, phrases and syntax. Code-switching is used for different purposes in A Thousand Splendid Suns. It gives a voice to a character from Afghanistan. It is also used to mark a difference between the American and Afghanistan cultures and languages. Furthermore, representation of Persian language can be interpreted as valorization of the author’s mother tongue. In short, the writing style in A Thousand Splendid Suns represents Hosseini’s identity, culture and linguistic background.

Keywords: code-switching, hybridity, identity, linguistic background, Persian literature

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Authors: R. Ajith, Kamal Bijlani

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Over the past few years, tremendous evolutions have happened in the educational discipline. Serious game, which is regarded as one of the most important inventions is being widely for learning purposes. Serious games can be used to negate the various drawbacks that the current evaluation and assessment methods have, like examination anxiety and the lack of proper feedback given to the learners. This paper proposes serious game as a tool for conducting evaluations and assessments. The examination anxiety faced by learners can be reduced, as they are provided with a game as an examination. The serious game also tracks learner’s actions, records them and provide feedback based on the predefined set of actions according to the course objectives. The appropriate feedback given to the learner will help in developmental activities in the learning process.

Keywords: serious games, evaluation, performance assessment, examination anxiety, performance feedback

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Authors: Kittivate Boonyopakorn

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The purposes of this study were to investigate the method of the English use of the businessmen and to study their behavior of the utilization for the ASEAN economic community. The participants were divided into the three types of the merchants including the construction contractors, the construction material traders, and SME entrepreneurs. Survey questionnaires and interviews were used in this study. The findings showed that in the type of traders, 23 of the participants are construction contractors, 121 are construction material traders, and 206 are SME entrepreneurs. The study of English in language institute is highly 51.4%. The use of Google in translating English into Thai is 41.7%. Learning English themselves is 41.1% respectively. The businessmen study English for readiness for their trade.

Keywords: way of rnglish use, businessmen, ASEAN economic community, Chonburi province

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Authors: Somsak Assavasirisilp

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The purposes of this research were to study the level of participation in the politic activities of Thai women, to study the factors influencing the Thai women’s entry into national politics, and to study the problems and obstacles to prevent women from enter national politics. This was a mixed research method of both qualitative and quantitative technique. The findings revealed that there were many problems and obstacles, especially culture and social norm, to prevent women from enter national politics and did not have many factors to support Thai women to become successful women politician.

Keywords: culture, social norm, national politics, Thai women

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Authors: Joseph Mwiti Marangu, Joseph Karanja Thiong'o, Jackson Muthengia Wachira

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The mechanical performance of hydrated cements mortars mainly depends on its compressive strength and setting time. These properties are crucial in the construction industry. Pozzolana based cements are mostly characterized by low 28 day compressive strength and long setting times. These are some of the major impediments to their production and diverse uses despite numerous technological and environmental benefits associated with them. The study investigated the effects of potential chemical activators on calcined clay- Portland cement blends with an aim to achieve high early compressive strength and shorter setting times in cement mortar. In addition, standard consistency, soundness and insoluble residue of all cement categories was determined. The test cement was made by blending calcined clays with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) at replacement levels from 35 to 50 percent by mass of the OPC to make test cement labeled PCC for the purposes of this study. Mortar prisms measuring 40mmx40mmx160mm were prepared and cured in accordance with KS EAS 148-3:2000 standard. Solutions of Na2SO4, NaOH, Na2SiO3 and Na2CO3 containing 0.5- 2.5M were separately added during casting. Compressive strength was determined at 2rd, 7th, 28th and 90th day of curing. For comparison purposes, commercial Portland Pozzolana cement (PPC) and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) were also investigated without activators under similar conditions. X-Ray Florescence (XRF) was used for chemical analysis while X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) were used for mineralogical analysis of the test samples. The results indicated that addition of activators significantly increased the 2nd and 7th day compressive strength but minimal increase on the 28th and 90th day compressive strength. A relatively linear relationship was observed between compressive strength and concentration of activator solutions up to 28th of curing. Addition of the said activators significantly reduced both initial and final setting time. Standard consistency and soundness varied with increased amount of clay in the test cement and concentration of activators. Amount of insoluble residues increased with increased replacement of OPC with calcined clays. Mineralogical studies showed that N-A-S-H is formed in addition to C-S-H. In conclusion, the concentration of 2 molar for all activator solutions produced the optimum compressive strength and greatly reduced the setting times for all cement mortars.

Keywords: activators, admixture, cement, clay, pozzolana

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Authors: Divya Pradip Roy, Md. Zahirul Alam Chowdhury

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Electromyography (EMG) sensors are generally used to record the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. The conventional EMG sensors available in the market are expensive. This research suggests a low cost EMG sensor design which can be built with simple devices within our reach. In this research, one instrumentation amplifier, two high pass filters, two low pass filters and an inverting amplifier is connected sequentially. The output from the circuit exhibits electrical potential generated by the muscle cells when they are neurologically activated. This electromyography signal is used to control prosthetic devices, identifying neuromuscular diseases and for various other purposes.

Keywords: EMG, high pass filter, instrumentation amplifier, inverting amplifier, low pass filter, neuromuscular

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Authors: Gilberto Goracci, Fabio Curti

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This work presents a robust, light, and inexpensive algorithm to perform autonomous orbit determination using onboard magnetometer data in real-time. Magnetometers are low-cost and reliable sensors typically available on a spacecraft for attitude determination purposes, thus representing an interesting choice to perform real-time orbit determination without the need to add additional sensors to the spacecraft itself. Magnetic field measurements can be exploited by Extended/Unscented Kalman Filters (EKF/UKF) for orbit determination purposes to make up for GPS outages, yielding errors of a few kilometers and tens of meters per second in the position and velocity of a spacecraft, respectively. While this level of accuracy shows that Kalman filtering represents a solid baseline for autonomous orbit determination, it is not enough to provide a reliable state estimation in the absence of GPS signals. This work combines the solidity and reliability of the EKF with the versatility of a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) architecture to further increase the precision of the state estimation. Deep learning models, in fact, can grasp nonlinear relations between the inputs, in this case, the magnetometer data and the EKF state estimations, and the targets, namely the true position, and velocity of the spacecraft. The model has been pre-trained on Sun-Synchronous orbits (SSO) up to 2126 kilometers of altitude with different initial conditions and levels of noise to cover a wide range of possible real-case scenarios. The orbits have been propagated considering J2-level dynamics, and the geomagnetic field has been modeled using the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) coefficients up to the 13th order. The training of the module can be completed offline using the expected orbit of the spacecraft to heavily reduce the onboard computational burden. Once the spacecraft is launched, the model can use the GPS signal, if available, to fine-tune the parameters on the actual orbit onboard in real-time and work autonomously during GPS outages. In this way, the provided module shows versatility, as it can be applied to any mission operating in SSO, but at the same time, the training is completed and eventually fine-tuned, on the specific orbit, increasing performances and reliability. The results provided by this study show an increase of one order of magnitude in the precision of state estimate with respect to the use of the EKF alone. Tests on simulated and real data will be shown.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, extended Kalman filter, orbit determination, magnetic field

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Authors: Kunyanuth Kularbphettong, Kunnika Tenprakhon, Pattarapan Roonrakwit

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In this paper, we present a recommendation library application on Android system. The objective of this system is to support and advice user to use library resources based on mobile application. We describe the design approaches and functional components of this system. The system was developed based on under association rules, Apriori algorithm. In this project, it was divided the result by the research purposes into 2 parts: developing the Mobile application for online library service and testing and evaluating the system. Questionnaires were used to measure user satisfaction with system usability by specialists and users. The results were satisfactory both specialists and users.

Keywords: online library, Apriori algorithm, Android application, black box

Procedia PDF Downloads 456

Authors: Van Huong Mai, Kanokwan Nithiratphat, Adool Booncham

Abstract:

The Movement of Contemporary Life consisted of two purposes, which were to study the movement and development of the modern life and to create the visual arts, which were paintings expressed via the form of apartment buildings was used from mixed media (digital printing and acrylic painting on canvas) which conveyed the rapid pace of modern life leading to diverse movements in viewer’s feeling. The operation of this creation was collected field data, documentary data, and influence from creative work. The data analysis was analyzed in order to theme, form, technique, and process to satisfy of concept and special character of the pieces.

Keywords: movement, contemporary life, visual art, acrylic painting, digital art, urban space

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Authors: Supriyono, Sumardiyono, Puti Pertiwi

Abstract:

Crude palm oil (CPO) is a vegetable oil that came from a palm tree bunch. Palm oil tree was known as highest vegetable oil yield. It was grown across Equatorial County, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. The greenish red color on CPO was came from carotenoid antioxidant, which could be extracted and use separately as functional food and other purposes as antioxidant source. Another antioxidant that also found in CPO is tocopherol. The aim of the research work is to find antioxidant activity on CPO comparing to the synthetic antioxidant that available in a market. On this research work, antioxidant was extracted by using a mixture of acetone and n. hexane, while activity of the antioxidant extract was determine by DPPH method. The extracted matter was shown that their antioxidant activity was about 45% compare to pure tocopherol and beta carotene.

Keywords: antioxidant, , beta carotene, , crude palm oil, , DPPH, , tocopherol

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Authors: J. L. Oliver, T. Agryzkov, L. Tortosa, J. F. Vicent, J. Santacruz

Abstract:

This paper aims to demonstrate how a system of indicators can be used in order to evaluate some heritage areas which can be understood as minor ones. We mean by that those urban areas with high heritage interest from an academical point of view, but never properly valued. The reasons for this situation may be diverse, either they are not old enough, or they may show the modest architecture, the fact is these areas have not been considered deserving of protection, as the historical ones. As a result of this reality, they usually show now a very degraded urban space, which in addition contribute to accelerate a process of deterioration. Using a technic well known in urban design, we propose here a system of indicators for patrimonial purposes, as a tool to identify and quantify the heritage value of these kinds of areas. As a case study, we apply this system in some part of the City of Quito (El Ecuador).

Keywords: heritage cities, indicators, spatial analysis, historic sites

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Authors: Justyna Żywiołek, Marek Matulewski

Abstract:

Data, is information processed by enterprises for primary and secondary purposes as processes. Thanks to processing, the sales process takes place; in the case of the surveyed companies, sales take place online. However, this indirect form of contact with the customer causes many problems for both customers and furniture manufacturers. The article presents solutions that would solve problems related to the analysis of data and information in the order fulfillment process sent to post-warranty service. The article also presents an analysis of threats to the security of this information, both for customers and the enterprise.

Keywords: ordering furniture online, information security, furniture industry, enterprise security, risk analysis

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Authors: Abbas Hani, Maryam Jassasizadeh

Abstract:

The concentrations of Cd, Pb, and Ni were determined from 40 soil samples collected in surface soils of Khark Island. Geostatistic methods and GIS were used to identify heavy metal sources and their spatial pattern. Principal component analysis coupled with correlation between heavy metals showed that level of mentioned heavy metal was lower than the standard level. Then the data obtained from the soil analyzing were studied for the purposes of normal distribution. The best way of interior finding for cadmium and nickel was ordinary kriging and the best way of interpolation of lead was inverse distance weighted. The result of this study help us to understand heavy metals distribution and make decision for remediation of soil pollution.

Keywords: geostatistics, ordinary kriging, heavy metals, GIS, Khark

Procedia PDF Downloads 135