Search results for: sense of unity

Authors: Godwin Makaudze

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The majority of women in contemporary Zimbabwe continue to hold marginalised and insignificant positions in society and to be accorded negative and stereotyped images in literature. In light of this, government and civic organisations and even writers channel many resources, time, and efforts towards the emancipation of the female gender. Using the Africana womanist and socio-historical literary theories and focussing on two post-colonial novels, this paper re-engages the dis-empowerment of women in contemporary Zimbabwe, examining the believed causes and suggested solutions. The paper observes that the writers whip the already whipped by blaming patriarchy, African men and cultural practices as the underlying causes of such a sorry state of affairs while at the same time celebrating war against all these, as well as education, unity among women, Christianity and single motherhood as panaceas to the problem. The paper concludes that the writers’ anger is misdirected as they have fallen trap to the very popular yet mythical victim-blame motif espoused by many writers who focus on Shona people’s problems.

Keywords: cultural practices, female dis-empowerment, patriarchy, Shona novel, solutions, Zimbabwe

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Authors: G. Vinitha, A. Ramalingam

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In view of a possible application in optical data storage devices, diffraction grating efficiency of an organic dye, Acid Fuchsin doped in PMMA matrix was studied under excitation with CW diode pumped Nd: YAG laser at 532 nm. The open aperture Z-scan of dye doped polymer displayed saturable absorption and the closed aperture Z-scan of the samples exhibited negative nonlinearity. The diffraction efficiency of the grating is the ratio of the intensity of the first order diffracted power to the incident read beam power. The dye doped polymer films were found to be good media for recording. It is observed that the formation of gratings strongly depend on the concentration of dye in the polymer film, the intensity ratios of the writing beams and the angle between the writing beams. It has been found that efficient writing can be made at an angle of 20° and when the intensity ratio of the writing beams is unity.

Keywords: diffraction efficiency, nonlinear optical material, saturable absorption, surface-relief-gratings

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Authors: Vahid Mazloum, Mansour Sahebozamani, Amirhossein Barati, Nouzar Nakhaee, Pouya Rabiei

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Non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) is a common condition with no exact diagnosis and mechanism for its occurrence. Recently, different therapeutic exercises have taken into account to manage NSCLBP. So, the aim of this study has mainly been placed on comparing the effects of Pilates and Mackenzie exercises on quality of life (QOL) lumbar spine position sense (LSPS) in patients with NSCLBP. In this randomized clinical trial, 47 patients with NSCLBP were voluntarily divided into three groups of Pilates (n=16) (with mean age 37.1 ± 9.5 years, height 168.9 ± 7.4 cm, body mass 76.1 ± 5.9 k), McKenzie (n=15) (with mean age 42.7 ± 8.1 years, height 165.7 ± 6.8, body mass 74.1 ± 4.8 kg) and control (n=16) (with mean age 39.3 ± 9.8 years, height 168.1 ± 8.1 cm, body mass 74.2 ± 5.8 kg). Primary outcome included QOL and secondary was LSPS. Both variables were assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaires and electrogoniameter, respectively. The measurements were performed at baseline, following a 6-week intervention, and after a 4-week follow-up. The ANCOVA test at P < 0.05 was administrated to analyze the collected data using SPSS software. There was a statistically significant difference between experimental groups and the control group to improve QOL. But, no difference was seen regarding the effects of two exercises on LSPS (p < 0.05). Both Pilates and Mackenzie exercises demonstrated improvement in QOL after 6-week intervention and a 4-week follow-up while none of them considerably affected LSPS. Further studies are required to establish a supporting evidence for the effectiveness of two exercises on NSCLBP.

Keywords: pilates, Mackenzie, preconception, low back pain, physical health

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Authors: Jorge Gonzalez-Camus

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In this work is proved the existence of at least one minimal and maximal mild solutions to the Cauchy problem, for fractional evolution equation of neutral type, involving a general kernel. An operator A generating a resolvent family and integral resolvent family on a Banach space X and a kernel belonging to a large class appears in the equation, which covers many relevant cases from physics applications, in particular, the important case of time - fractional evolution equations of neutral type. The main tool used in this work was the Kuratowski measure of noncompactness and fixed point theorems, specifically Darbo-type, and an iterative method of lower and upper solutions, based in an order in X induced by a normal cone P. Initially, the equation is a Cauchy problem, involving a fractional derivate in Caputo sense. Then, is formulated the equivalent integral version, and defining a convenient functional, using the theory of resolvent families, and verifying the hypothesis of the fixed point theorem of Darbo type, give us the existence of mild solution for the initial problem. Furthermore, the existence of minimal and maximal mild solutions was proved through in an iterative method of lower and upper solutions, using the Azcoli-Arzela Theorem, and the Gronwall’s inequality. Finally, we recovered the case derivate in Caputo sense.

Keywords: fractional evolution equations, Volterra integral equations, minimal and maximal mild solutions, neutral type equations, non-local in time equations

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Authors: Julianne Macmullen

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Due to advances in technology and early detection and treatment of cancer, many cancer patients are surviving longer than five years post-diagnosis. Most cancer patients suffer from depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point during diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. A subgroup of patients will continue to suffer from depression and PTSD and require early intervention. Support groups provide patients with the emotional and informational support they require while also giving survivors a sense of community, friendship, and purpose. This type of support is recognized by researchers to improve the quality of life while also decreasing depression and PTSD symptoms. The gaps in the literature include cultural diversity, minorities, and support groups involving cancer types other than breast cancer. Another gap in the literature includes the perceptions of cancer patients as well as longitudinal studies to determine the relationships between support groups and decreased depression and PTSD rates over time. Future research is required to fill the gaps in the literature mentioned previously. Future research is also needed to analyze the difference in age groups and different types of support groups such as professionally-led, peer-led, and online. Implications for practice involve providers assessing for the symptoms of depression and PTSD in order to offer prompt treatment and support services to those patients. In conclusion, social support by way of support groups improves the quality of life, gives survivors a sense of purpose to help others while also gaining the support they need, and reduces the rate of depressive episodes related to PTSD.

Keywords: cancer survivor, survivorship, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, support groups

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Authors: Ghiwa Dandach

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By challenging the anti-failure bias and contributing to the theoretical territory of the attribution theory, this thesis develops a comprehensive process for entrepreneurial learning from failure. The practical implication of the findings suggests assisting entrepreneurs (current, failing, and nascent) in effectively anticipating and reflecting upon failure. Additionally, the process is suggested to enhance the level of institutional and private (accelerators and financers) support provided to entrepreneurs, the implications of which may improve future opportunities for entrepreneurial success. Henceforth, exploring learning from failure is argued to impact the potential survival of future ventures, subsequently revitalizing the economic contribution of entrepreneurship. This learning process can be enhanced with the cognitive development of causal ascriptions for failure, which eventually impacts learning outcomes. However, the mechanism with which entrepreneurs make sense of failure, reflect on the journey, and transform experience into knowledge is still under-researched. More specifically, the cognitive process of failure attribution is under-explored, majorly in the context of developing economies, calling for a more insightful understanding on how entrepreneurs ascribe failure. Responding to the call for more thorough research in such cultural contexts, this study expands the understanding of the dimensions of failure attributions as perceived by entrepreneurs and the impact of these dimensions on learning outcomes in the Lebanese context. The research adopted the exploratory interpretivism paradigm and collected data from interviews with industry experts first, followed by narratives of entrepreneurs using the qualitative multimethod approach. The holistic and categorical content analysis of narratives, preceded by the thematic analysis of interviews, unveiled how entrepreneurs ascribe failure by developing minor and major dimensions of each failure attribution. The findings have also revealed how each dimension impacts the learning from failure when accompanied by emotional resilience. The thesis concludes that exploring in-depth the dimensions of failure attributions significantly determines the level of learning generated. They are moving beyond the simple categorisation of ascriptions as primary internal or external unveiled how learning may occur with each attribution at the individual, venture, and ecosystem levels. This has further accentuated that a major internal attribution of failure combined with a minor external attribution generated the highest levels of transformative and double-loop learning, emphasizing the role of personal blame and responsibility on enhancing learning outcomes.

Keywords: attribution, entrepreneurship, reflection, sense-making, emotions, learning outcomes, failure, exit

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Authors: Andre M. Carvalho, Pedro Sebastiao

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This article is based on a dissertation that intends to analyze and make a model, intelligently, algorithms based on stochastic processes of a gamification application applied to marketing. Gamification is used in our daily lives to engage us to perform certain actions in order to achieve goals and gain rewards. This strategy is an increasingly adopted way to encourage and retain customers through game elements. The application of gamification aims to encourage children between 6 and 10 years of age to have healthy habits and the purpose of serving as a model for use in marketing. This application was developed in unity; we implemented intelligent algorithms based on stochastic processes, web services to respond to all requests of the application, a back-office website to manage the application and the database. The behavioral analysis of the use of game elements and stochastic processes in children’s motivation was done. The application of algorithms based on stochastic processes in-game elements is very important to promote cooperation and to ensure fair and friendly competition between users which consequently stimulates the user’s interest and their involvement in the application and organization.

Keywords: engage, games, gamification, randomness, stochastic processes

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Authors: Ghada Chater, Mounir Dhouib

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Zawiyas are mausoleums where saints called 'waly' are buried and where ritual practices of Sufi Islamic movement take place. These funerary monuments have constituted since the medieval period a fundamental component of rural and urban Islamic landscape, especially that of Tunisia.The hypothesis is that these monuments reflect in their architecture the Sufi underlying thought. The paper’s target is to verify the validity of this hypothesis and possibly show the incarnation mode of Islamic Sufi paradigm in the zawiya’s architecture. This study considers the main Zawiya of one of the most important religious brotherhoods in Tunisia, which is Kadiria. A morphological analysis has been conducted and crossed later to a spiritual hermeneutic test. The result of this confrontation was significant: the paradigmatic element of the zawiya, materialized by the esoteric / exoteric dome 'kubba', returns in its geometry and structure to one of the Sufism key concepts: the unity of the creative spirit in the diversity and plurality of evanescent bodies. Thus, the creative act finds its reflection not only in the spirit of the perfect human microcosm (the waly microcosm), but also within the building dedicated to him.

Keywords: architecture, Islam, Sufism, waly, zawiya

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Authors: Marylene S. Eder, Dorothy M. Jao, Paolo Marc Nicolas S. Laspiñas, Pukilan A. Malim, Sarah Jean D. Raterta

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Trash Dash is an android game application developed to serve as an alternative tool to practice proper waste segregation for children ages 3 years old and above. The researchers designed the application using Unity 3D and developed the text file that served as the database of the game application. An observation of a pre-school teacher shows that children know how to throw their garbage but they do not know yet how to segregate wastes. After launching the mobile application to K-2 pupils 4 – 5 years of age, the researchers have noticed that children within this age are active and motivated to learn the difference between biodegradable and non-biodegradable. Based on the result of usability test conducted, it was concluded that the game is easy to use and children will most likely use this application frequently. Furthermore, the children may need assistance from their parents and teachers when playing the game. An actual testing of the application has been conducted to different devices as well as functionality test by Thwack Application and it can be concluded that the mobile application can be launched and installed on a device with a minimum API requirement of Gingerbread (2.3.1).

Keywords: waste segregation, android application, biodegradable, non-biodegradable

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Authors: Angel Mauricio Castillo

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The background to the way theatrical performances and music dramas- as they were known in the mid-nineteenth century, provided the audience with a complete immersion into the feelings of the characters through poetry, music and other artistic representations which create a false sense of reality. However, a novel representation on stage some eighty years later, which is non-cathartic, is significant because it represents the antithesis to the common creations of the period and is originated by the separation of the elements as a dominant. A succinct description of the basic methodologies includes the sense of defamiliarization that results as a near translation of the German word Verfremdung will be referred to along this work as the V-effect (also known as the ‘alienation effect’) and will embody the representation of the performing techniques that enables the audience to watch a play being fully aware of its nature. A play might sometimes present the audience with a constant reminder that it is only a play; therefore, all elements will be introduced to provoke dissimilar reactions and opinions. A clear indication of the major findings of the study is that there is a strong correlation between Hegel, Marx and Brecht as it is disclosed how the didactics of Literature have been influencing not only Brecht’s productions but also every educational context in which these ideas are intertwined. The result is a new dialectical process that is to say, a new thesis that creates independent thinking skills on the part of the audience. Therefore, this model opposes to the Hegelian formula thesis-antithesis-synthesis in that the synthesis in the Brechtian theatre will inevitably fall into the category of a different thesis within an enlightening type of discourse. The confronting ideas of illusion versus reality will create a new dialectical thesis instead of resulting into a synthesis.

Keywords: Brechtian theatre, didactics, literature, education

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Authors: A. Llopis Alvarez, D. Muller-Eie

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Participatory GIS (geographic information systems) are designed for community mapping exercises in order to produce spatial representations of local knowledge. Ideally, participatory GIS caters to public participation through the use of spatial data in order to increase community-led policy-and decision-making. Having defined a spatial object, such as a neighborhood, subjective mapping involves attaining a description of the spatial, physical, social and psychological characteristics of that spatial object. This paper highlights an emerging appreciation of the subjective component, particularly in spatial analyses. The beliefs, feelings, and behaviors associated with an urban area reflect its sense of place for an individual or a group. It is important therefore to understand what types of beliefs, emotions, and behavioral patterns are relevant to particular resident, groups and urban scales. In this sense, resident’s emotional attachment to their urban areas motivates civic engagement and facilitates awareness of its strengths and its problems. Similarly, subjective perceptions act in complex ways to influence the formation and maintenance of social identity and quality of life. This paper reports on findings from a case study of immigrant population in Norwegian cities, their residential conditions and their relationship to quality of urban life. Cognitive mapping methodologies are used in this study to understand local perceptions of urban qualities. Thus, measures to alleviate disadvantages and improve quality of urban life are more likely to be effective when they are informed by an understanding of a place as constructed by those who live in it, meaning their subjective perceptions about it.

Keywords: mapping methodologies, participatory GIS, perceptual maps, public participation, spatial analysis, subjective perceptions

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Authors: Ezgiamn Abraha Hagos

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Higher education is important for college students to develop their authentic identity by means of getting exposure to diverse ideas and experiences. However, current college students are not successfully achieving a satisfying sense of meaning and purpose in their lives, which often places them in a state of existential vacuum. Thus, this study uncovers the existential concerns of youth in higher education by means of assessing their view on meaningful life and integration of it as a guide into their lives and challenges faced in doing so. Data were procured from thirty undergraduate students of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia via interview, naïve sketch method, and content analysis of selected magazines and newspapers. Data were analyzed using organization, immersion, generating themes, coding, offering interpretation as well as checking the data. Relationship, education, and belief were found to be main sources of meaning. But, many of the study participants failed to articulate their meaning in life explicitly and identified to be in a state of drifting. Moreover, hopelessness, economic problems and quality of training impinge their sense of meaning in life negatively. The content analysis principally embodied the youth in higher education as a group of people confronted with rafts of challenges such as debauchery, moral crisis, self-destructive behaviors and hankering for support and direction. Thus, crafting the asset-based approach and counseling services that will prepare the youth for the future and develop holistically in terms of body and mind are tremendously vital.

Keywords: higher education institutions; meaning in life; youth

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Authors: Akber Oumer Abdurezak

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Road traffic accident is a major problem in Ethiopia, resulting in the deaths of many people and potential injuries and crash every year and loss of properties. According to the Federal Transport Authority, one of the main causes of traffic accident and crash in Ethiopia is over speeding. Implementation of different technologies is used to monitor the speed of vehicles in order to minimize accidents and crashes. This research aimed at designing a speed monitoring system to monitor the speed of travelling vehicles and movements, reporting illegal speeds or overspeeding vehicles to the concerned bodies. The implementation of the system is through a wireless sensor network. The proposed system can sense and detect the movement of vehicles, process, and analysis the data obtained from the sensor and the cloud system. The data is sent to the central controlling server. The system contains accelerometer and gyroscope sensors to sense and collect the data of the vehicle. Arduino to process the data and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) module for communication purposes to send the data to the concerned body. When the speed of the vehicle exceeds the allowable speed limit, the system sends a message to database as “over speeding”. Both accelerometer and gyroscope sensors are used to collect acceleration data. The acceleration data then convert to speed, and the corresponding speed is checked with the speed limit, and those above the speed limit are reported to the concerned authorities to avoid frequent accidents. The proposed system decreases the occurrence of accidents and crashes due to overspeeding and can be used as an eye opener for the implementation of other intelligent transport system technologies. This system can also integrate with other technologies like GPS and Google Maps to obtain better output.

Keywords: accelerometer, IOT, GSM, gyroscope

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Authors: Paulo Da Silva Quadros

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This work aims to point out comparative parameters between the artistic production of two exponents of the contemporary popular culture scene: Caetano Veloso (Brazil) and David Bowie (England). Both Caetano Veloso and David Bowie were pioneers in establishing an aesthetic game between various artistic expressions at the service of the music-visual scene, that is, the conceptual interconnections between several forms of aesthetic processes, such as fine arts, theatre, cinema, poetry, and literature. There are also correlations in their expressive attitudes of art, especially regarding the dialogue between the fields of art and politics (concern with respect to human rights, human dignity, racial issues, tolerance, gender issues, and sexuality, among others); the constant tension and cunning game between market, free expression and critical sense; the sophisticated, playful mechanisms of metalanguage and aesthetic metacritique. Fact is that both of them almost came to cooperate with each other in the 1970s when Caetano was in exile in England, and when both had at the same time the same music producer, who tried to bring them closer, noticing similar aesthetic qualities in both artistic works, which was later glimpsed by some music critics. Among many of the most influential issues in Caetano's and Bowie's game of artistic-aesthetic expression are, for example, the ideas advocated by the sensation of strangeness (Albert Camus), art as transcendence (Friedrich Nietzsche), the deconstruction and reconstruction of auratic reconfiguration of artistic signs (Walter Benjamin and Andy Warhol). For deepen more theoretical issues, the following authors will be used as supportive interpretative references: Hans-Georg Gadamer, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schiller, Johan Huizinga. In addition to the aesthetic meanings of Ars Ludens characteristics of the two artists, the following supporting references will be also added: the question of technique (Martin Heidegger), the logic of sense (Gilles Deleuze), art as an event and the sense of the gesture of art ( Maria Teresa Cruz), the society of spectacle (Guy Debord), Verarbeitung and Durcharbeitung (Sigmund Freud), the poetics of interpretation and the sign of relation (Cremilda Medina). The purpose of such interpretative references is to seek to understand, from a cultural reading perspective (cultural semiology), some significant elements in the dynamics of aesthetic and media interconnections of both artists, which made them as some of the most influential interlocutors in contemporary music aesthetic thought, as a playful vivid experience of life and art.

Keywords: Caetano Veloso, David Bowie, music aesthetics, symbolic playfulness, cultural reading

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Authors: Zhao Luqian, Wang Yafei

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Participation in music activities is beneficial for enhancing wellbeing, especially for aged people (Creech, 2013). Looking at percussion group in particular, it can facilitate a sense of belonging, relaxation, energy, and productivity, learning, enhanced mood, humanising, seems of accomplishment, escape from trauma, and emotional expression (Newman, 2015). In health literatures, group drumming is effective in reducing stress and improving multiple domains of social-motional behaviors (Ho et al., 2011; Maschi et al., 2010) because it offers a creative and mutual learning space that allows patients to establish a positive peer interaction (Mungas et al., 2014; Perkins, 2016). However, very few studies have investigated the effect of group drumming from the aspect of patients’ needs. Therefore, this study focuses on the discussion of patients' specific needs within mental health and explores how group percussion may meet their needs. Seligman’s (2011) five core elements of mental health were applied as patients’ needs in this study: (1) Positive emotions; (2) Engagement; (3) Relationships; (4) Meaning and (5) Accomplishment. 12 participants aged 57- 80 years were interviewed individually. The researcher also had observation in four drumming groups simultaneously. The results reveal that group drumming could improve participants’ mental wellbeing. First, it created a therapeutic health care environment extending beyond the elimination of boredom, and patients could focus on positive emotions during the session of group drumming. Secondly, it was effective in satisfying patients’ level of engagement. Thirdly, this study found that joining a percussion group would require patients to work on skills such as turn-taking and sharing. This equal relationship is helpful for releasing patients’ negative mood and thus forming tighter relationships between and among them. Fourthly, group drumming was found to meet patients’ meaning needs through offering them a place of belonging and a place for sharing. Its leaner-oriented approach engaged patients by a sense of belonging, accepting, connecting, and ownership. Finally, group drumming could meet patients’ needs for accomplishment through the learning process. The inclusive learning process, which indicates there is no right or wrong throughout the process, allowed patients to make their own decisions. In conclusion, it is difficult for patients to achieve positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meanings, and accomplishments in a hospital setting. Drumming can be practiced for enhancement in terms of reducing patients’ negative emotions and improving their experiences in a hospital through enriched social interaction and sense of accomplishment. Also, it can help patients to enhance social skills in a controlled environment.

Keywords: group drumming, hospital, mental health, music psychology

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Authors: Hassan Sheikh, Mehdi Nilipour, Amiraslan Fila

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Many conventional town planning processes do little to give children and young people a voice on what is important about the urban environment. As a result of paying little attention to the children, their physical, social and mental needs are hardly met in urban environments. Therefore, urban spaces are impotent to attract children, while their recreational space has been confined to home or virtual spaces. Since children are just taking the first steps to learn the world beyond house borders, their living environment will profoundly influence almost all aspects of their lives. This puts a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of planners, who need to balance a number of different issues in urban design to make places more child-friendly. The main purpose of present research is to analyze and plan a child-friendly environment in an on-going urban settlement development for the benefit of all residents. Assessing children’s needs and regard them in development strategies and policies will help to “plan for children”. Following this purpose, based on child-friendly environment studies, indicators of child-friendly environments were collected. Then three distinct characteristics of case study, which are being under-construction, lack of social ties between dwellers and high-rise building, determined seven indicators included basic services, Urban and environmental qualities, Family, kin, peers and community, Sense of belonging and continuity, participation, Safety, security and freedom of movement and human scale. With the survey, Informal observation and participation in small communities, essential data has been collected and analyzed by SPSS software. The field study is Shahid-Keshvari town in Isfahan, Iran. Eighty-six middle childhood, children (ages 8-13) participated. The results show Children's satisfaction is correlated with basic services and the quality of the environment, social environment and the safety and security. The considerable number of children and youth (55%) like to live somewhere other than the town. Satisfaction and sense of belonging and continuity have a strong inverse correlation with age. In other words, as age increases, satisfaction and consequently a sense of belonging will be reduced; thus children and youth consider their future somewhere out of the town. The main reason for dissatisfaction was the basic services and social environment. More than half of children (55%) expressed their wish to develop basic services in terms of availability, hierarchy, and quality. Among all recreational places, children showed more interest to the parks. About three-quarters (76%) considered building a park as a crucial item for residents. The significant number of children (54%) want to have a relationship with more friends. This could be due to the serious shortage of the leisure spaces such as parks or playgrounds. Also, the space around the house or space between the apartments has not been designed for play or children’s activities. Moreover, the presence of strangers and construction workers have a negative impact on children's sense of peace and security; 60% of children are afraid of theft and 36% of children found strangers as a menace. The analysis of children’s issues and suggestions provides an insight to plan and design of child-friendly environment in new towns.

Keywords: child-friendly city (CFC), child-friendly environment, child participation, under-construction environment, Isfahan Shahid-Keshvari Town

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Authors: Saman Keshavarzi

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The process of planning, designing and building neighborhoods is a complex and multidimensional part of urban planning. Understanding the elements that give a neighborhood a sense of identity can lead to successful city planning and result in a cohesive and functional community where people feel a sense of belonging. These factors are important in ensuring that the needs of the urban population are met to live in a safe, pleasant and healthy society. This research paper aims to identify the elements of the identity of traditional neighborhoods in Isfahan and analyzes ways of using these elements in the design of modern neighborhoods to increase social interaction between communities and cultural reunification of people. The neighborhood of Jolfa in Isfahan has a unique socio-cultural identity as it dates back to the Safavid Dynasty of the 16^th century, and most of its inhabitants are Christian Armenians of a religious minority. The elements of the identity of Jolfa were analyzed through the following research methods: field observations, distribution of questionnaires and qualitative analysis. The basic methodology that was used to further understand the Jolfa neighborhood and deconstruct the identity image that residents associate with their respective neighborhoods was a qualitative research method. This was done through utilizing questionnaires that respondents had to fill out in response to a series of research questions. From collecting these qualitative data, the major finding was that traditional neighborhoods that have elements of identity embedded in them are seen to have closer-knit communities whose residents have strong societal ties. This area of study in urban planning is vital to ensuring that new neighborhoods are built with concepts of social cohesion, community and inclusion in mind as they are what lead to strong, connected, and prosperous societies.

Keywords: development, housing, identity, neighborhood, policy, urbanization

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Authors: Oluwaseun Simon Adekanle, M'hammed Guisser, Elhassane Abdelmounim, Mohamed Aboulfatah

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In this paper, modeling and control of a grid connected 660KW Doubly-Fed Induction Generator wind turbine is presented. Stator flux orientation is used to realize active-reactive power decoupling to enable independent control of active and reactive power. The recursive Integral Backstepping technique is used to control generator speed to its optimum value and to obtain unity power factor. The controller is combined with High Gain Observer to estimate the mechanical torque of the machine. The most important advantage of this combination of High Gain Observer and the Integral Backstepping controller is the annulation of static error that may occur due to incertitude between the actual value of a parameter and its estimated value by the controller. Simulation results under Matlab/Simulink show the robustness of this control technique in presence of parameter variation.

Keywords: doubly-fed induction generator, field orientation control, high gain observer, integral backstepping control

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Authors: Sergei P. Efimov

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The anomalous magnetic moment of the electron is calculated by introducing the effective mass of the virtual part of the electron structure. In this case, the anomalous moment is inversely proportional to the effective mass Meff, which is shown to be a linear combination of the neutron, proton, and electrostatic electron field masses. The spin of a rotating structure is assumed to be equal to 3/2, while the spin of a 'bare' electron is equal to unity, the resultant spin being 1/2. A simple analysis gives the coefficients for a linear combination of proton and electron masses, the approximation precision giving here nine significant digits after the decimal point. The summand proportional to α² adds four more digits. Thus, the conception of the effective mass Meff leads to the formula for the total magnetic moment of the electron, which is accurate to fourteen digits. Association with the virtual beta-decay reaction and possible reasons for simplicity of the derived formula are discussed.

Keywords: anomalous magnetic moment of electron, comparison with quantum electrodynamics. effective mass, fifteen significant figures, proton and neutron masses

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Authors: M. Doumi, K. Tahir, A. Miloudi, A. G. Aissaoui, C. Belfedal, S. Tahir

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This paper presents a three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic generation system with unity power factor for any situation of solar radiation based on voltage-oriented control (VOC). An input voltage clamping technique is proposed to control the power between the grid and photovoltaic system, where it is intended to achieve the maximum power point operation. This method uses a Perturb and Observe (P&O) controller. The main objective of this work is to compare the energy production unit performances by the use of two types of controllers (namely, classical PI and Sliding Mode (SM) Controllers) for the grid inverter control. The proposed control has a hierarchical structure with a grid side control level to regulate the power (PQ) and the current injected to the grid and to obtain a common DC voltage constant. To show the effectiveness of both control methods performances analysis of the system are analyzed and compared by simulation and results included in this paper.

Keywords: grid connected photovoltaic, MPPT, inverter control, classical PI, sliding mode, DC voltage constant, voltage-oriented control, VOC

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Authors: Alvaro Callejas-Ramos, Lorena Alvarez-Perez, Alexander Benitez-Buenache, Anibal R. Figueiras-Vidal

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This contribution presents a promising formulation which allows to extend the principled binary rebalancing procedures, also known as neutral re-balancing mechanisms in the sense that they do not alter the likelihood ratio

Keywords: Bregman divergences, imbalanced multiclass classifi-cation, informed re-balancing, invariant likelihood ratio

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Authors: Zahra Nouri Sangedehy

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There are two anthropologies considered in Protagoras. The first of them (Protagoras) considers the appearance of man, like all other beings, as the result of a natural evolution without a predetermined plan and aim. Not only the human's corporeal existence is the result of evolution and natural choices, but also his moral and social life can be explained in the light of this factor. In this anthropology, the moral and political laws derive from the contract and the people's majority agreement of society to survive. Society and socio-political institutions are the reason for the education and training (paidia) of virtues in general. The second anthropology is Socrates's, which is not clearly projected and is hidden behind his arguments. In this way, man's moral and social life is intrinsic. Man is intrinsically a moral and social being. Socrates intends to criticize the theory of the contractual nature of ethics by demonstrating the unity of virtues on the one hand and the identity of virtue and knowledge, and the problem of the teaching of virtues based on intrinsic and a priori knowledge of human beings, on the other hand, albeit with a new kind of education and training, which will replace the Sophists' education. Therefore, ethics will have undoubted foundations, and human beings will be defined again.

Keywords: Protagoras, techne, arête, paidia

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Authors: A. Brach

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The architecture of modern museums in the historical center should refer to a place in a cultural, historical, urban and architectural sense, using adequate and contemporary forms of architecture. The research and architectural analysis of selected museums in Cracow were conducted to illustrate which elements were decisive for the choice of architectural form. The evaluation of selected objects took into the consideration the following aspects: continuation of the historical form, contemporary form referring to the place, the individual-author form omitting the cultural aspect of the place. The presented projects showed the compromise as positive solutions rejecting both the direct imitation or 'historical continuation' as well as an individual form focused on an abstract form. In order to carry out research and confirm the thesis, three designs of Assoc. Prof. Eng. Arch. Krzysztof Ingarden in the historic city of Cracow were selected. Despite being constructed in one city, the neighborhood and cultural contexts of the locations are completely different. The neighborhood of the historical Royal Road and gothic church with unique decorations from the Polish Art Nouveau, artist Stanislaw Wyspianski (Wyspianski Pavilion), the bend of the Vistula hosting the Japanese culture (Museum of Japanese Art and Technology Manggha) and finally the old area of a horse riding school from the Austrian Empire times (Malopolska Garden of Art). All three buildings are dedicated to the culture of Japan, Polish artist Stanislaw Wyspianski, contemporary achievements and the promotion of art at its widest sense. Important fact for this research is that there is one author of all presented projects.

Keywords: adaptation of existing buildings, architecture in cracow, modern architecture, museums located in historic center

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Authors: Aida Raissi, Holly Wong, Elma Raissi

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Background: Connection is a primal need established during infancy and reiterated in many forms of social interaction. When we make connections with others we experience growth, continuity, and gain an understanding of the other’s sense of the world. Feeling socially connected to another individual or community has been shown to increase self-esteem, happiness, and meaning. However, feeling connected to another individual or a specific community may also decrease the motivation to seek connection with more distant individuals or communities. Furthermore, we allow ourselves to interact with those in other communities as apart from us, and in some cases, to dehumanize their existence. Objective: The aim of this project is to bridge the gap between different communities, specifically religious communities and foster feelings of connection as one with all members through the medium of art, specifically photography. Method: Members of all major faiths including Agnosticism, Atheism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity, Ismaili, Jewish, Ja’far Shia, Sunni will be interviewed. Participants will be asked to partake in a brief interview of two parts: A. Answering two questions: 1. What are you most looking forward to in the future, and why? 2. What does religion mean to you? B. Having their picture taken. Our questions aim to elicit individual stories that together, show that we have more in common, than differences, despite our faiths. With the completion of the interviews, the responses will be compiled together and major themes will be identified. Impact: The resulting stories and corresponding individual pictures provide an excellent opportunity to encourage and inspire people to get to know those of other beliefs and values, participate in each other’s communities and develop a sense of oneness within our shared humanity. Knowledge translation: The personal stories, and the common themes they illustrate, will be shared with various audiences, including the general public, academia and targeted groups such as students. This will be done through displaying the photographs and responses at art galleries, conferences, in print and online.

Keywords: social justice, religion, connection, understanding, community

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Authors: Zainul A. Khan, Malik Z. Abdin, Jawaid A. Khan

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Begomoviruses belonging to the family Geminiviridae, have single-stranded circular DNA genomes that are monopartite or bipartite. The large intergenic region (LIR) of the monopartite and common region (CR) of bipartite begomoviruses possess promoter activity in their genomes. In this study, we have characterized novel bidirectional promoters from Cotton leaf curl Burewala virus (CLCuBuV) genome using high-throughput software and analyzed with PlantCARE, PLACE, Cister and PlantPAN databases. The promoters (Rep and CP promoters) were assayed both in stable and transient expression systems in tobacco as well as cotton plants. Rep and CP-based promoters from the LIR sequence of CLCuBuV and 35S promoter of Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) were tagged with β-glucuronidase (GUS) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter genes to check the efficacy of the promoters. Histochemical staining of GUS in transformed tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) leaves showed higher GUS expression driven by CLCuBuV Rep (complimentary sense) promoter as compared to conventional CaMV 35S promoter and CLCuBuV CP (virion sense) promoter, respectively. GUS activity in individual plant cells driven by CLCuBuV Rep, CLCuBuV CP, and CaMV 35S promoter were quantified through fluorometric GUS assay and reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). The expression level of GUS tagged with CLCuBuV Rep promoter in the transformed tobacco plants was obtained 2 to 4 fold higher than CaMV 35S promoter. When CLCuBuV CP promoter was used, lower expression level was monitored than that by CaMV 35S promoter. The expression of GFP-tagged with CLCuBuV promoters was also investigated through agroinfiltration. The CLCuBuV Rep promoters showed stronger consistent transient expression in the leaves of N. benthamiana, N. tabacum and Gossypium hirsutum plants when compared with CaMV 35S and CLCuBuV CP promoter.

Keywords: Begmovirus, bidirectional promoter, CaMV 35S promoter, GFP, GUS, qPCR

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Authors: S. J. Yune, S. Y. Lee, S. J. Im, B. S. Kam, S. Y. Baek

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This study explored whether academic emotion, major satisfaction, and learning flow are associated with academic achievement in medical school. We know that emotion and affective factors are important factors in students' learning and performance. Emotion has taken the stage in much of contemporary educational psychology literature, no longer relegated to secondary status behind traditionally studied cognitive constructs. Medical school students (n=164) completed academic emotion, major satisfaction, and learning flow online survey. Academic performance was operationalized as students' average grade on two semester exams. For data analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, hierarchical multiple regression analyses and ANOVA were conducted. The results largely confirmed the hypothesized relations among academic emotion, major satisfaction, learning flow and academic achievement. Positive academic emotion had a correlation with academic achievement (β=.191). Positive emotion had 8.5% explanatory power for academic achievement. Especially, sense of accomplishment had a significant impact on learning performance (β=.265). On the other hand, negative emotion, major satisfaction, and learning flow did not affect academic performance. Also, there were differences in sense of great (F=5.446, p=.001) and interest (F=2.78, p=.043) among positive emotion, boredom (F=3.55, p=.016), anger (F=4.346, p=.006), and petulance (F=3.779, p=.012) among negative emotion by grade. This study suggested that medical students' positive emotion was an important contributor to their academic achievement. At the same time, it is important to consider that some negative emotions can act to increase one’s motivation. Of particular importance is the notion that instructors can and should create learning environment that foster positive emotion for students. In doing so, instructors improve their chances of positively impacting students’ achievement emotions, as well as their subsequent motivation, learning, and performance. This result had an implication for medical educators striving to understand the personal emotional factors that influence learning and performance in medical training.

Keywords: academic achievement, learning emotion, learning flow, major satisfaction

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Authors: Carine Kawakami

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In French, as well as in English, there are two types of psychological predicate constructions depending on where the experiencer argument is realized; the first type is in the subject position (e.g. Je regrette d’être venu ici. ‘I regret coming here'), hereinafter called ES construction, and the second type is in the object position (e.g. Cette nouvelle m’a surpris. ‘This new surprised me.'), referred as EO construction. In the previous studies about psychological predicates, the syntactic position of the experiencer argument has been just a matter of its connection with the syntactic or semantic structure of the predicate. So that few attentions have been paid to how two types of realization of experiencer are related to the conceptualization of psychological event and to the function of the sentence describing the psychological event, in the sense of speech act theory. In this research, focusing on the French phenomena limited to the first personal pronoun and the present tense, the ES constructions and the EO constructions will be analyzed from cognitive and functional approach. It will be revealed that, due to the possibility to be used in soliloquy and the high co-occurrence with ça (‘it’), the EO constructions may have expressive function to betray what speaker feels in hic et nunc, like interjection. And in the expressive case, the experiencer is construed as a locus where a feeling appears spontaneously and is construed subjectively (e.g. Ah, ça m’énerve! ‘Oh, it irritates me!'). On the other hand, the ES constructions describe speaker’s mental state in an assertive manner rather than the expressive and spontaneously way. In other words, they describe what speaker feels to the interlocutor (e.g. Je suis énervé. ‘I am irritated.'). As a consequence, when the experiencer argument is realized in the subject position, it is construed objectively and have a participant feature in the sense of cognitive grammar. Finally, it will be concluded that the choice of construction type, at least in French, is correlated to the conceptualization of the psychological event and the discourse feature of its expression.

Keywords: french psychological verb, conceptualization, expressive function, assertive function, experiencer realization

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Authors: S. S. Ramis Rauf

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This study will be explained the role of local wisdom in Tolakinese customary law on customs offense. The scope of this study was the informants who have a conflict located in Southeast Sulawesi. Then, their conflicts were resolved by using Kalosara tradition. The method of this study was a qualitative research by applying the techniques of deep interviews, revealing experiences and stories from informants, interviews customary leaders who are skilled and experienced in the customary settlement process of Kalosara tradition. Kalosara, as Tolakinese local wisdom, has contained in Tolakinese customary law. Kalosara was the application of customary law which was guided by Tolaki’s people when there was a problem. Knowledge and understanding of the customs have been conceived as something that comes from the ancestors. They created custom rules based on the law of Allah SWT for the elderly to do with full of awareness. Then, it was hereditary obeying by their children from generation to generation. The conflict occurred because of several things, namely bad words, aspersion, and other violations (such as harassment and affair). In custom settlement process, kalosara was done by using the enforcement of Tolakinese customary law that managed within an institution. It was called as Sara Wonua. It led by someone who was called as Pu'utobu that serves as a customary leader.

Keywords: kalosara, conflict resolution, tradition, unity, diversity

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Authors: Unity Nkateng

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New forms of academic writing such as apprenticeship genres are developing in the field of applied linguistics. However, these perspectives have not adequately addressed the issue of social work students in Botswana. The paper addresses the issue of academic writing with special attention to the types of documents written by University of Botswana (UB) social work students on their fieldwork placement. The research method for this study combines two major research tools in the qualitative inquiry which are text analysis and interviews in order to investigate the context in which the texts are produced. 12 students were consulted and gave their consent for the study. 26 case reports were collected from the Department of Social work at the University of Botswana. The findings show that the case reports students write during their fieldwork placements have 6 moves, which focus on the clients’ story and describe what the students have done and achieved. The significance is that the discrepancy between professional writing and students writing raise questions about the extent to which students are being prepared for professional writing. Students have indicated that their academic writing varies according to the preferences of individual lecturers rather than the requirement of the work situation.

Keywords: apprenticeship genres, client's voice, material processes, relational possesive processes

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Authors: Maxime Vignon

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This study delves into the discourse surrounding Africatown ancestors’ will, through a rigorous discourse analysis, to reveal the intricate narratives shaping heritage and identity within this unique community. Situated near Mobile, Alabama, Africatown traces its origins to the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to bring captives from Africa to the United States. Through a meticulous examination of Africatown ancestors posthumous will, this analysis aims to uncover the spiritual linguistic nuances which will contribute to the preservation of Africatown's ancestral heritage and the construction of individual self and collective empowerment. This research will be grounded in Michel Foucault discourse. In its attempt to analyze the four core elements of discourse, this study explores the role of rituals and spiritual discourses within the will of Africatown ancestors. Additionally, it delves into the descendants’ public appearance scrutinizing the use of ancestral names and identities. Ultimately, this discourse analysis contributes to a nuanced understanding of how language and narrative from the ancestors would shape unity, a valuable insight into the complexities of identity formation and the enduring impact of the transatlantic slave trade on this resilient community.

Keywords: applied linguistics, culture, discourse analysis, identity, spirituality, transatlantic slave trade

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