Search results for: stereo correspondence

Authors: I GD Yudha Partama, A. Kanno, Y. Akamatsu, R. Inui, M. Goto, M. Sekine

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The aerial photogrammetry of shallow water bottoms has the potential to be an efficient high-resolution survey technique for shallow water topography, thanks to the advent of convenient UAV and automatic image processing techniques Structure-from-Motion (SfM) and Multi-View Stereo (MVS)). However, it suffers from the systematic overestimation of the bottom elevation, due to the light refraction at the air-water interface. In this study, we present an empirical method to correct for the effect of refraction after the usual SfM-MVS processing, using common software. The presented method utilizes the empirical relation between the measured true depth and the estimated apparent depth to generate an empirical correction factor. Furthermore, this correction factor was utilized to convert the apparent water depth into a refraction-corrected (real-scale) water depth. To examine its effectiveness, we applied the method to two river sites, and compared the RMS errors in the corrected bottom elevations with those obtained by three existing methods. The result shows that the presented method is more effective than the two existing methods: The method without applying correction factor and the method utilizes the refractive index of water (1.34) as correction factor. In comparison with the remaining existing method, which used the additive terms (offset) after calculating correction factor, the presented method performs well in Site 2 and worse in Site 1. However, we found this linear regression method to be unstable when the training data used for calibration are limited. It also suffers from a large negative bias in the correction factor when the apparent water depth estimated is affected by noise, according to our numerical experiment. Overall, the good accuracy of refraction correction method depends on various factors such as the locations, image acquisition, and GPS measurement conditions. The most effective method can be selected by using statistical selection (e.g. leave-one-out cross validation).

Keywords: bottom elevation, MVS, river, SfM

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Authors: Claudia Matassa, Matthias Hohne, Dominic Ormerod, Yamini Satyawali

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Chiral amines integrate the backbone of several active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in modern medicine for the treatment of a vast range of diseases. Despite the demand, their synthesis remains challenging. Besides a range of chemicals and enzymatical methods, chiral amine synthesis using transaminases (EC 2.6.1.W) represents a useful alternative to access this important class of compounds. Even though transaminases exhibit excellent stereo and regioselectivity and the potential for high yield, the reaction suffers from a number of challenges, including the thermodynamic equilibrium, product inhibition, and low substrate solubility. In this work, we demonstrate a membrane assisted strategy for addressing these challenges. It involves the use of high molecular weight (HMW) amine donors for the transaminase-catalyzed synthesis of 4-phenyl-2-butylamine in both aqueous and organic solvent media. In contrast to common amine donors such as alanine or isopropylamine, these large molecules, provided in excess for thermodynamic equilibrium shifting, are easily retained by commercial nanofiltration membranes; thus a selective permeation of the desired smaller product amine is possible. The enzymatic transamination in aqueous media, combined with selective product removal shifted the equilibrium enhancing substrate conversion by an additional 25% compared to the control reaction. Along with very efficient amine product removal, there was undesirable loss of ketone substrate and low product concentration was achieved. The system was therefore further improved by performing the reaction in organic solvent (n-heptane). Coupling the reaction system with membrane-assisted product removal resulted in a highly concentrated and relatively pure ( > 97%) product solution. Moreover, a product yield of 60% was reached, compared to 15% without product removal.

Keywords: amine donor, chiral amines, in situ product removal, transamination

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Authors: Rima Hleiss, Elie Bitar, Mahmoud Hassan, Mohamad Khalil

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A comprehensive study of object recognition in the human brain requires combining both spatial and temporal analysis of brain activity. Here, we are mainly interested in three issues: the time perception of visual objects, the ability of discrimination between two particular categories (objects vs. animals), and the possibility to identify a particular spatial representation of visual objects. Our experiment consisted of acquiring dense electroencephalographic (EEG) signals during a picture-naming task comprising a set of objects and animals’ images. These EEG responses were recorded from nine participants. In order to determine the time perception of the presented visual stimulus, we analyzed the Event Related Potentials (ERPs) derived from the recorded EEG signals. The analysis of these signals showed that the brain perceives animals and objects with different time instants. Concerning the discrimination of the two categories, the support vector machine (SVM) was applied on the instantaneous EEG (excellent temporal resolution: on the order of millisecond) to categorize the visual stimuli into two different classes. The spatial differences between the evoked responses of the two categories were also investigated. The results showed a variation of the neural activity with the properties of the visual input. Results showed also the existence of a spatial pattern of electrodes over particular regions of the scalp in correspondence to their responses to the visual inputs.

Keywords: brain activity, categorization, dense EEG, evoked responses, spatio-temporal analysis, SVM, time perception

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Authors: M. Vieira, V. Infante, P. Serrão, A. Ribeiro

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The Portuguese guitar is a pear-shaped plucked chordophone particularly known for its role in Fado, the most distinctive traditional Portuguese musical style. The acknowledgment of the dynamic behavior of the Portuguese guitar, specifically of its modal and mode shape response, has been the focus of different authors. In this research, the experimental results of the dynamic behavior of the guitar, which were previously obtained, are correlated with a vibro-acoustic finite element model of the guitar. The modelling of the guitar offered several challenges which are presented in this work. The results of the correlation between experimental and numerical data are presented and indicate good correspondence for the studied mode shapes. The influence of the air inside the chamber, for the finite element analysis, is shown to be crucial to understand the low-frequency modes of the Portuguese guitar, while, for higher frequency modes, the geometry of the guitar assumes greater relevance. Comparison is made with the classical guitar, providing relevant information about the intrinsic differences between the two, such as between its tones and other acoustical properties. These results represent a sustained base for future work, which will allow the study of the influence of different location and geometry of diverse components of the Portuguese guitar, being as well an asset to the comprehension of its musical properties and qualities and may, furthermore, represent an advantage for its players and luthiers.

Keywords: dynamic behavior of guitars, instrument acoustics, modal analysis, Portuguese guitar

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Authors: Titis Indah Adi Rahayu

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Angiogenesis is the process of generating new capillary from pre-existing blood vessels. VEGFA is a major regulator in angiogenesis that binds and activates two tyrosine kinase receptors, VEGFR1 (Flt-1) and VEGFR2 (Flk-1/KDR) which regulate pathological and physiological angiogenesis. Disruption of VEGFA and VEGFR2 regulation lead to many diseases. The study of α-Mangostin (derivate of xanthone) as anti-oxidant and anti inflammation has been explored recently and both of them have relation to vasculature however the effect of α-Mangostin in blood vessel formation in healthy tissue in vivo has not been studied. Zebrafish is a powerful model in studying angiogenesis and shared many advantages that is a viable whole animal model for screening small molecules that affect blood vessel formation. Therefore the aim of this study is to evaluate angiogenic activity of α-Mangostin in healthy tissue in vivo in zebrafish embryo in relation of patterning blood vessel. Blood vessel patterning is highly characteristic in the developing of zebrafish embryo and the subintestinal vessel (SIV) can be stained and visualized microscopically as a primary screen for α-Mangostin that effect angiogenesis. The zebrafish embryos are divided into 2 groups. Group one consists of the zebrafish embryos at 1 dpf for 4 days which are tested to α-Mangostin in several concentration 2 µM, 4 µM, 6 µM, 8 µM and 10 µM whereas in group two the zebrafish larva at 4 dpf are exposed to α-Mangostin 1,75 µM, 2,3 µM, 2,9 µM, 3,8 µM dan 5 µM for 2 days. DMSO is served as a control for each group. The level expression of vegfa and vegfr2 are observed quantitatively using real time q-PCR and patterning of SIV are then analized via alkaline phospatase staining. Result shows that the level expression of vegfa and vegfr2 is repressed quantitatively as shown in real time q-PCR in the group of 1-4 days of α-Mangostin exposure where it is increased in the group of 4-6 days of α-Mangostin exposure. The result is then compared to alkaline phospatase staining of SIV using stereo microscope. It indicates that α-Mangostin does not disturb the patterning of SIV formation in zebrafish.

Keywords: angiogenesis, Danio rerio, α-Mangostin, SIV, vegfa, vegfr2

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Authors: Rosy Saikia, Krishna Barua

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The evolution of visual art can be traced back from “pre-historic” humans, from the age of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Metal Age. Mesopotamians and the Egyptians were the pioneers of art, in the first period of history. But the field of art first flourished in the west during the Renaissance. Since then, art represents a continuous yet varied tradition till present day. Until the early 19th century art focused chiefly on representational, religious and classical motifs, but gradually art became more abstract and conceptual approaches gained popularity. Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was one of the leading poets cum art critic of European modernism. This paper addresses the relationship between Rilke's poetry and visual art, which involves an intimate transference of aesthetic means and definitions of form in the creative process of writing. Rilke’s connection with Auguste Rodin made him learn that a person who can “see” things could realize the beauty of a “thing” and could subsequently write. To “see” the “thing” or “object” rather than representing emotion was considered as more important by Rodin and that was the way he cracked the old aesthetic mould. Rilke himself agreed that his correspondence with the artists made him acquainted nothing but a new way of seeing. Rilke admitted to the constant reference to the Bible, the books of the Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen and Auguste Rodin, who all had given him the experience of the essence of creativity, its depths and eternity. Rilke’s association with philosophers such as Nietzhche and artists, starting from Worpweders and Rodin to Cezanne’s paintings, made him almost an apprentice in visual art.

Keywords: seeing, gaze, aesthetic, beauty, visual art, Rilke

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Authors: C. Annapurna, Rao M. Srinivasa, Bhanu C. H. Vijaya, M. Sivalakshmi, Rao P. V. Surya

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A study on the community structure of meiobenthic fauna was undertaken during three cruises (June 2008, October 2008 and March 2009). Ten stations at depth between 10 and 40 m off Pudimadaka in Visakhapatnam (Lat.17º29′12″N and Long. 83º00′09″), East coast of India were investigated. Ninety species representing 3 major (meiofaunal) taxa namely foraminifera (2), copepoda (9), nematoda (58) and polychaeta (21) were encountered. Overall, meiofaunal (mean) abundance ranged from 2 individuals to 63 ind. 10cm-² with an average of 24.3 ind.10cm-2. The meiobenthic biomass varied between 0.135 to 0.48 mg.10cm-2 with an average 0.27 ± 0.12. On the whole, nematodes constituted 73.62% of the meiofauna in terms of numerical abundance. Shannon –Wiener index values were 2.053 ± 0.64 (June, 2008), 2.477 ± 0.177 (October 2008) and 2.2815±0.24 (March 2009). Multivariate analyses were used to define the most important taxon in nematode assemblages. Three nematode associations could be recognized off Pudimadaka coast, namely Laimella longicaudata, Euchromodora vulgaris and Sabatieria elongata assemblage (June, 2008); Catanema sp. and Leptosomatum sp. assemblage (October 2008) assemblage; Sabatieria sp. and Setosabatieria sp. assemblage (March 2009). Canonical correspondence analysis showed that temperature, organic matter, silt and mean particle diameter were important in controlling nematode community structure.

Keywords: meiofauna, marine nematode, biodiversity, community structure, India

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Authors: Yichin Chen

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Taiwan is an island characterized by an active tectonics and high erosion rates. Monitoring the dynamic landscape of Taiwan is an important issue for disaster mitigation, geomorphological research, and watershed management. Long-term and high spatiotemporal landform data is essential for quantifying and simulating the geomorphological processes and developing warning systems. Recently, the advances in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and computational photogrammetry technology have provided an effective way to rebuild and monitor the topography changes in high spatio-temporal resolutions. This study rebuilds the 30-years landform change in the Aiyuzi watershed in 1986-2017 by using the aerial photogrammetry-based techniques. The Aiyuzi watershed, located in central Taiwan and has an area of 3.99 Km², is famous for its frequent landslide and debris flow disasters. This study took the aerial photos by using UAV and collected multi-temporal historical, stereo photographs, taken by the Aerial Survey Office of Taiwan’s Forestry Bureau. To rebuild the orthoimages and digital surface models (DSMs), Pix4DMapper, a photogrammetry software, was used. Furthermore, to control model accuracy, a set of ground control points was surveyed by using eGPS. The results show that the generated DSMs have the ground sampling distance (GSD) of ~10 cm and ~0.3 cm from the UAV’s and historical photographs, respectively, and vertical error of ~1 m. By comparing the DSMs, there are many deep-seated landslides (with depth over 20 m) occurred on the upstream in the Aiyuzi watershed. Even though a large amount of sediment is delivered from the landslides, the steep main channel has sufficient capacity to transport sediment from the channel and to erode the river bed to ~20 m in depth. Most sediments are transported to the outlet of watershed and deposits on the downstream channel. This case study shows that UAV and photogrammetry technology are useful for topography change monitoring effectively.

Keywords: aerial photogrammetry, landslide, landform change, Taiwan

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Authors: Rajashree Naik, Laxmi Kant Sharma

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Sambhar lake is the largest inland Salt Lake of India, declared as a Ramsar site on 23 March 1990. Due to high salinity and alkalinity condition its biodiversity richness is contributed by haloalkaliphilic flora and fauna along with the diverse land cover including waterbody, wetland, salt crust, saline soil, vegetation, scrub land and barren land which welcome large number of flamingos and other migratory birds for winter harboring. But with the gradual increase in the irrational salt extraction activities, the ecological diversity is at stake. There is an urgent need to assess the ecosystem. Advanced technology like remote sensing and GIS has enabled to look into the past, compare with the present for the future planning and management of the natural resources in a judicious way. This paper is a research work intended to present a vegetation in typical inland lake environment of Sambhar wetland using satellite data of NASA’s EO-1 Hyperion sensor launched in November 2000. With the spectral range of 0.4 to 2.5 micrometer at approximately 10nm spectral resolution with 242 bands 30m spatial resolution and 705km orbit was used to produce a vegetation map for a portion of the wetland. The vegetation map was tested for classification accuracy with a pre-existing detailed GIS wetland vegetation database. Though the accuracy varied greatly for different classes the algal communities were successfully identified which are the major sources of food for flamingo. The results from this study have practical implications for uses of spaceborne hyperspectral image data that are now becoming available. Practical limitations of using these satellite data for wetland vegetation mapping include inadequate spatial resolution, complexity of image processing procedures, and lack of stereo viewing.

Keywords: Algal community, NASA’s EO-1 Hyperion, salt-tolerant species, wetland vegetation mapping

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Authors: Olga Colbert

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The present work examines the representation of dreaming in Charles Dickens’ novels, particularly Oliver Twist. Dickens showed great interest in the science of dreaming and had ample knowledge of the latest dream theories in the Victorian era, as can be seen in his personal correspondence, most notably in his famous letter to Dr. Thomas Stone on 2/2/1851. This essay places Dickens’ personal writings side by side with his novels to elucidate whether the scientific paradigm about dreaming included in the novel is consistent with the current (in Dickens’ time) scientific knowledge, or whether it is anachronistic or visionary (ahead of his time). Oliver Twist is particularly useful because it contains entire passages pondering on the nature of dreaming, enumerating types of common dreams, and taking a stand on the interference of sensory perception during the dreaming state. The author is particularly intrigued by Dickens’ assumption of the commonality and universality of lucid dreaming as revealed in these passages. This essay places popular Victorian dream theories, such as those contained in Robert Macnish’s The Philosophy of Sleep, side by side with recent dream theory, particularly psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge’s numerous articles and books on the topic of lucid dreaming to see if Dickens deviated in any way from the reigning paradigm of the Victorian era in his representation of dreaming in his novels. While Dickens puts to great narrative use many of the characteristics of dreaming described by leading Victorian theorists, the author of this study argues, however, that Dickens’ most visionary statements derive from his acute observations of his own dreaming experiences.

Keywords: consciousness, Dickens, dreaming, lucid dreaming, Victorian

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Authors: Arash Sepehri bonab

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One of the regions of critical development in medical devices has been the part of the software - as an indispensable component of a therapeutic device, as a standalone device, and more as of late, as applications on portable gadgets. The chance related to a breakdown of the standalone computer program utilized inside healthcare is in itself not a model for its capability or not as a medical device. It is, subsequently, fundamental to clarify a few criteria for the capability of a stand-alone computer program as a medical device. The number of computer program items and therapeutic apps is persistently expanding and so as well is used in wellbeing education (e. g., in clinics and doctors' surgeries) for determination and treatment. Within the last decade, the use of information innovation in healthcare has taken a developing part. In reality, the appropriation of an expanding number of computer devices has driven several benefits related to the method of quiet care and permitted simpler get to social and health care assets. At the same time, this drift gave rise to modern challenges related to the usage of these modern innovations. The program utilized in healthcare can be classified as therapeutic gadgets depending on the way they are utilized and on their useful characteristics. In the event that they are classified as therapeutic gadgets, they must fulfill particular directions. The point of this work is to show a computer program improvement system that can permit the generation of secure and tall, quality restorative gadget computer programs and to highlight the correspondence between each program advancement stage and the fitting standard and/or regulation.

Keywords: medical devices, regulation, software, development, healthcare

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Authors: M. Uysal, M. Yilmaz, I. Tiryakioğlu

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Digital Terrain Model (DTM) is a digital numerical representation of the Earth's surface. DTMs have been applied to a diverse field of tasks, such as urban planning, military, glacier mapping, disaster management. In the expression of the Earth' surface as a mathematical model, an infinite number of point measurements are needed. Because of the impossibility of this case, the points at regular intervals are measured to characterize the Earth's surface and DTM of the Earth is generated. Hitherto, the classical measurement techniques and photogrammetry method have widespread use in the construction of DTM. At present, RADAR, LiDAR, and stereo satellite images are also used for the construction of DTM. In recent years, especially because of its superiorities, Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) has an increased use in DTM applications. A 3D point cloud is created with LiDAR technology by obtaining numerous point data. However recently, by the development in image mapping methods, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for photogrammetric data acquisition has increased DTM generation from image-based point cloud. The accuracy of the DTM depends on various factors such as data collection method, the distribution of elevation points, the point density, properties of the surface and interpolation methods. In this study, the random data reduction method is compared for DTMs generated from image based point cloud data. The original image based point cloud data set (100%) is reduced to a series of subsets by using random algorithm, representing the 75, 50, 25 and 5% of the original image based point cloud data set. Over the ANS campus of Afyon Kocatepe University as the test area, DTM constructed from the original image based point cloud data set is compared with DTMs interpolated from reduced data sets by Kriging interpolation method. The results show that the random data reduction method can be used to reduce the image based point cloud datasets to 50% density level while still maintaining the quality of DTM.

Keywords: DTM, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), uniform, random, kriging

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Authors: Ada Yurman

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Social reactions to deviant groups with political goals follow two central patterns; one that associates personal characteristics with deviant behavior, and the other that claims that society is to be blamed for deviant behavior. The establishment usually tends towards the former notion and thus disclaims any responsibility for the distress of the underprivileged, while it is usually those who oppose government policies who believe that the fault lies with society. The purpose of the present research was to examine social reactions to the Wadi Salib riots that occurred in Haifa in 1959. These riots represented the first ethnic protest within Israeli society with its ideology of the ingathering of the exiles. The central question was whether this ideology contributed to the development of a different reaction when compared to reactions to similar events abroad. This question was examined by means of analyzing articles in the Israeli press of that period. The Israeli press representing the views of the establishment was at pains to point out that the rioters were criminals, their object being to obstruct the development of society. Opposition party leaders claimed that the rioters lived in poor circumstances, which constituted a direct result of government policies. An analysis of press reports on the Wadi Salib riots indicates a correspondence between the reaction to these events and similar events abroad. Nevertheless, the reaction to the Wadi Salib riots did not only express a conflict between different political camps, but also different symbolic universes. Each group exploited the events at Wadi Salib to prove that their ideology was the legitimate one.

Keywords: riots, media, political deviance, symbolic universe

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Authors: K. Sakthivel

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With the continuous increase in population worldwide, stress increased among agricultural peoples, so it is necessary to increase the yield of agro-products. But it is not possible to meet fully with the traditionally adopted ways of using pesticides and herbicides. Today, agriculture and horticulture has realized the need of tomorrow and opting for various technologies to get higher overall yield, quality agro-products. Most of today’s synthetic polymers are produced from petrochemical bi-products and are not biodegradable. Persistent polymers generate significant sources of environmental pollution, harming wildlife when they are disposed in nature. The disposal of non degradable plastic bags adversely affects human and wild life. Moreover incineration of plastic waste presents environmental issues as well, since it yields toxic emissions. Material incineration is also limited due to the difficulties to find accurate and economically viable outlets. In addition plastic recycling shows a negative eco balance due to the necessity in nearly all cases to wash the plastic waste as well as the energy consumption during the recycling process phases. As plastics represent a large part of the waste collection at the local regional and national levels institutions are aware of the significant savings that compostable or biodegradable materials would generate. Polylactic acid (PLA), which is one of the most important biocompatible polyesters that are derived from annually renewable biomass such as corn and wheat, has attracted much attention for automotive parts and also can be applied in agro textiles. The manufacturing method of PLA is the ring-opening polymerization of the dimeric cyclic ester of lactic acid, lactide. For the stereo complex PLA, we developed by the four unit processes, fermentation, separation, lactide conversion, and polymerization. Then the polymer is converted into mulching film and applied in agriculture field. PLA agro textiles have better tensile strength, tearing strength and with stand from UV rays than polyester agro textile and polypropylene-based products.

Keywords: biodegradation, environment, mulching film, PLA, technical textiles

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Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, E. Ghanbari Alamouty

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Deep soil mixing is one of the improvement methods in geotechnical engineering which is widely used in soft soils. This article investigates the consolidation behavior of a soft clay soil which is improved by soil-cement column (SCC) by numerical modeling using Plaxis2D program. This behavior is simulated under vertical static and cyclic load which is applied on the soil surface. The static load problem is the simulation of a physical model test in an axisymmetric condition which uses a single SCC in the model center. The results of numerical modeling consist of settlement of soft soil composite, stress on soft soil and column, and excessive pore water pressure in the soil show a good correspondence with the test results. The response of soft soil composite to the cyclic load in vertical direction also compared with the static results. Also the effects of two variables namely the cement content used in a SCC and the area ratio (the ratio of the diameter of SCC to the diameter of composite soil model, a) is investigated. The results show that the stress on the column with the higher value of a, is lesser compared with the stress on other columns. Different rate of consolidation and excessive pore pressure distribution is observed in cyclic load problem. Also comparing the results of settlement of soil shows higher compressibility in the cyclic load problem.

Keywords: area ratio, consolidation behavior, cyclic load, numerical modeling, soil-cement column

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Authors: Kay-Anne Haykal, Issack Biyong

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The post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rises from exposure to a traumatic event and appears by a persistent experience of this event. Several psychiatric co-morbidities are associated with PTSD and include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse. The main objective was to compare the criteria for PTSD according to the literature to those used to diagnose a patient in a francophone hospital and to check the correspondence of these two criteria. 700 medical charts of admitted patients on the medicine or psychiatric unit at the Montfort Hospital were identified with the following diagnoses: major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, substance abuse, and PTSD for the period of time between April 2005 and March 2006. Multiple demographic criteria were assembled. Also, for every chart analyzed, the PTSD criteria, according to the Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV were found, identified, and grouped according to pre-established codes. An analysis using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) method was elaborated for the study of data. A sample of 57 women and 50 men was studied. Age was varying between 18 and 88 years with a median age of 48. According to the PTSD criteria in the DSM IV, 12 patients should have the diagnosis of PTSD in opposition to only two identified in the medical charts. The ROC method establishes that with the combination of data from PTSD and depression, the sensitivity varies between 0,127 and 0,282, and the specificity varies between 0,889 and 0,917. Otherwise, if we examine the PTSD data alone, the sensibility jumps to 0.50, and the specificity varies between 0,781 and 0,895. This study confirms the presence of an underdiagnosed and treated PTSD that causes severe perturbations for the affected individual.

Keywords: post-traumatic stress disorder, co-morbidities, diagnosis, mental health disorders

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Authors: Wei Sun, Yan Dong

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There is an increasing interest in introducing computational thinking at an early age. Computational thinking, like mathematical thinking, engineering thinking, and scientific thinking, is a kind of analytical thinking. Learning computational thinking skills is not only to improve technological literacy, but also allows learners to equip with practicable skills such as problem-solving skills. As people realize the importance of computational thinking, the field of educational technology faces a problem: how to choose appropriate tools and activities to help students develop computational thinking skills. Robots are gradually becoming a popular teaching tool, as robots provide a tangible way for young children to access to technology, and controlling a robot through programming offers them opportunities to engage in developing computational thinking. This study explores whether the introduction of flowcharts into the robotics programming courses can help children convert natural language into a programming language more easily, and then to better cultivate their computational thinking skills. An experimental study was adopted with a sample of children ages six to seven (N = 16) participated, and a one-meter-tall humanoid robot was used as the teaching tool. Results show that children can master basic programming concepts through robotic courses. Children's computational thinking has been significantly improved. Besides, results suggest that flowcharts do have an impact on young children’s computational thinking skills development, but it only has a significant effect on the "sequencing" and "correspondence" skills. Overall, the study demonstrates that the humanoid robot and flowcharts have qualities that foster young children to learn programming and develop computational thinking skills.

Keywords: robotics, computational thinking, programming, young children, flow chart

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Authors: Khalid Al Mutairi, Mashhor Mansor, Magdy El-Bana, Asyraf Mansor, Saud AL-Rowaily

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Urban expansion and the associated increase in anthropogenic pressures have led to a great loss of the Red Sea’s biodiversity. Floristic composition, diversity, and environmental controls were investigated for 210 relive's on twenty coral islands of Farasan in the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia. Multivariate statistical analyses for classification (Cluster Analysis), ordination (Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA), and Redundancy Analysis (RDA) were employed to identify vegetation types and their relevance to the underlying environmental gradients. A total of 191 flowering plants belonging to 53 families and 129 genera were recorded. Geophytes and chamaephytes were the main life forms in the saline habitats, whereas therophytes and hemicryptophytes dominated the sandy formations and coral rocks. The cluster analysis and DCA ordination identified twelve vegetation groups that linked to five main habitats with definite floristic composition and environmental characteristics. The constrained RDA with Monte Carlo permutation tests revealed that elevation and soil salinity were the main environmental factors explaining the vegetation distributions. These results indicate that the flora of the study archipelago represents a phytogeographical linkage between Africa and Saharo-Arabian landscape functional elements. These findings should guide conservation and management efforts to maintain species diversity, which is threatened by anthropogenic activities and invasion by the exotic invasive tree Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC.

Keywords: biodiversity, classification, conservation, ordination, Red Sea

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Authors: Tatsiana Haiden

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The role of the translator in the publishing process has been underestimated for centuries. Any translation is produced in a certain socio-political context by agents with different background, interests, and opinions, i.e., no translation is neutral. Any translation goes beyond the text; it is not only an interlingual transfer of signs but a social phenomenon. The case study shows how Jewish social networks influence publishing translations and aims to explain the unexpected success of the Jewish publishing house in pre-Anschluss Austria. The research shows that translators play a central role (‘Translator’s visibility’ - Pym, ‘Activist turn’ - Wolf, ‘Translator studies’ - Chesterman) in choosing what has to be translated and establishing communication between the author and the publisher. The concept of Translationskultur of Prunc is being historized and applied to the publishing house for the first time by analyzing business correspondence between the main actors of translation (publisher-translator-author). The translation studies project has become interdisciplinary –it encompasses sociology (concepts of Bourdieu’s ‘Field theory’ are used) and history. The historical research method Histoire croiseé is being used to avoid subjectivity and to introduce a new ‘translator-oriented’ vision in translation studies instead of the author-oriented one. In the course of the archival research, it was established that Jewish background plays an essential role in the destiny of the translators and the publishing house, so the Jewish studies have been added to the project. The study goes beyond the Austrian translational culture; it can be used as an example of dealing with publishing houses policies, publishing translations, and translator studies.

Keywords: history of translation, Jewish studies, publishing translations, translation sociology, translator studies, translators as actors

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Authors: Carla S. C. da Silva, Cristiano Coelho, Junio Souza

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The universe of luxury has charmed and seduced consumers for centuries. Since the middle ages, their symbols are displayed as objects of power and status, arousing desire and provoking social covetousness. In this way, the counterfeit market is growing every day, offering a group of consumers the opportunity to enter into a distinct social position, where the beautiful and shiny brand logo signals an inclusion passport to everything this group wants. This work sought to investigate how the context and the social environment can influence consumers to choose products of symbolic brands even if they are not legitimate and how this behavior is accepted in society. The study proposed: a) to evaluate the measures of knowledge and quality of a set of marks presented in the manipulation of two contexts (luxury x academic) between buyers and non-buyers of forgeries, both for original products and their correspondence with counterfeit products; b) measure the effect of layout on the verbal responses of buyers and non-buyers in relation to their assessment of the behavior of buyers of counterfeits. The present study, in addition to measuring the level of knowledge and quality attributed to each brand investigated, also verified the willingness of consumers to pay for a falsified good of the brands of predilection compared to the original study. This data can serve as a parameter for luxury brand managers in their counterfeit coping strategies. The investigation into the frequency of purchase has shown that those who buy counterfeit goods do so regularly, and there is a propensity to repeat the purchase. It was noted that a significant majority of buyers of counterfeits are prone to invest in illegality to meet their expectations of being in line with the standards of their interest groups.

Keywords: luxury, consumers, counterfeits, context, behaviorism

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Authors: Cabangile Ncengeni Ngwane, Gerald Mills

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Anthropogenic climate change is exacerbating natural hazards such as droughts, heat waves and sea-level rise. The associated risks are the greatest in places where socio-ecological systems are exposed to these changes and the populations and infrastructure are vulnerable. Identifying the communities at risk and enhancing local resilience are key issues in responding to the current and project climate changes. This paper explores the types of risks associated with multiple overlapping hazards in Durban, South Africa where the social, cultural and economic dimensions that contribute to exposure and vulnerability are compounded by its history of apartheid. As a result, climate change risks are highly concentrated in marginalized communities that have the least adaptive capacity. In this research, a Geographic Information System is to explore the spatial correspondence among geographic layers representing hazards, exposure and vulnerability across Durban. This quantitative analysis will allow authors to identify communities at high risk and focus our study on the nature of the current human-environment relationships that result in risk inequalities. This work will employ qualitative methods to critically examine policies (including educational practices and financial support systems) and on-the-ground actions that are designed to improve the adaptive capacity of these communities and meet UN Sustainable Development Goals. This work will contribute to a growing body of literature on disaster risk management, especially as it relates to developing economies where socio-economic inequalities are correlated with ethnicity and race.

Keywords: adaptive capacity, disaster risk reduction, exposure, resilience, South Africa

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Authors: Tien Hui Chiang

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Along with the predominant influence of neo-liberalism, public managerialism is viewed as a panacea for curing the institutionalized weakness caused by the monopoly of the public sector. In the name of efficiency, its outcome-led approach acquires a legitimate status and, in turn, it transforms into the discourse of performativity, reformulating the souls of individual members into the form of docile bodies who are willing to demonstrate their own ability in organizational contributions. The evaluation system and the organizational reconstruction are viewed as the crucial means for achieving this mission. Inevitably, university teachers are confined within a rigid and bureaucratic setting, in which they do not have too much latitude but are subject to the commands of senior administrators. However, the notion of duality highlights the interaction between structural constraints and agency. If the actor discovers the rules or properties of social structure, he/she is able to transform structural constraints into resources for developing creative actions, conceptualized as an agency. This study was designed for examining how duality operates within this hierarchical arrangement formed by public managerialism. Fourteen informants were interviewed from February to August 2014. The findings show that the evaluation system created the culture of neo-academicalism, addressing excellence in research and, in turn, motivating academic-oriented teachers. This correspondence provided a gateway for them to win honor, dignity, and prestige in groups. However, unlike the concept of duality, this agency was operating within the institutionalized context, regulated by structural constraint. Furthermore, complying with the rule/property of social structure was able to secure their advantages.

Keywords: public managerialism, social discourse, neo-academicalism, duality, structural constraint, agency

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Authors: Yessenia Parrado, Ana Barbosa, Daniela Mahe, Sebastian Toro, Jhon Garcia

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The purpose of this work is to present the identification and characterization of the barriers and enablers to public innovation in the Central Region of Colombia from a mixed methodology in a research carried out in 2020 by the Laboratory of Innovation, Creativity and New Technologies of the National University of Colombia in alliance with the National Planning Department. Based on the research, the index of barriers to regional and departmental public innovation was built, which reflects the level of difficulty of the territorial entities to overcome the barriers present around three dimensions: organizational structure of the entity, generation of public value, and governance processes. The index was built from the item response methodology and the multiple correspondence analysis from the application of an institutional information form for public entities and a perception form for public servants. This investigation had the participation of 36 entities and 1038 servers and servants from the departments of Huila, Meta, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Tolima, and the Capital District. In this exercise, it was identified that the departmental indices range between 13 and 44 and that the regional index was 30 out of 100. From the analysis of the information, it was possible to establish that the main barriers are the lack of specialized agencies for public innovation exercises, lack of qualified personnel and work methodologies for public innovation, inadequate information management, lack of feedback between the learning from governmental and non-governmental entities, the inability of the initiatives to generate binding participation mechanisms and the lack of qualification of citizens to participate in these processes.

Keywords: item response, public innovation, quantitative analysis, compared analysis

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Authors: Olha Mostova, Maciej Stolarski, Gerald Matthews

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The present paper explores and tests Gary Chapman’s claims that (1) people vary in the ways they prefer to receive and express affection and (2) romantic partners, who communicate their feelings correspondingly to their partner’s preferences, experience greater relationship quality. The author proposes five distinct preferences for and tendencies to express love, including acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, and gifts. In the present study, partners (N = 100 romantic, heterosexual couples) completed measures assessing their preferences and behavioral tendencies reflecting 1) how they a) tend to express and b) prefer to receive signs of affection in correspondence to the five proposed categories; 2) relationship satisfaction; 3) sexual satisfaction and 4) empathy, which was expected to be the factor that leads to a better understanding of and responding to the partner’s needs. The degree of the within-couple match was calculated separately for each individual based on the discrepancies between one’s felt (preferred) and their partner’s expressed love language. The joint discrepancy indicator was a sum of such discrepancies across the five love languages. Conducted analyses provided evidence for significant associations between matching on love languages and both relationship and sexual satisfaction. In particular, people who expressed their affection in the way their partners preferred to receive it experienced greater satisfaction with their relationships and were more sexually satisfied compared to those who met their partner’s needs to a lesser extent. Other results provide some support for mediating effects of certain domains of empathy in the said associations among male but not female participants.

Keywords: affection, empathy, love languages, relationship satisfaction, romantic couples, sexual satisfaction

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Authors: Raquel Mateo Mendaza, Carmen Novo Urraca

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The current paper presents the elaboration of a corpus database that aligns two different corpora in order to simplify the search of information both for researchers and students of Old English. This database comprises the information contained in two main reference corpora, namely the Dictionary of Old English Corpus (DOEC), compiled at the University of Toronto, and the York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English (YCOE). The first one provides information on all surviving texts written in the Old English language. The latter offers the syntactical and morphological annotation of several texts included in the DOEC. Although both corpora are closely related, as the YCOE includes the DOE source text identifier, the main problem detected is that there is not an alignment of texts that allows for the search of whole fragments to be further analysed in terms of morphology and syntax. The database proposed in this paper gathers all this information and presents it in a simple, more accessible, visual, and educational way. The alignment of fragments has been done in an automatized way. However, some problems have emerged during the creating process particularly related to the lack of correspondence in the division of fragments. For this reason, it has been necessary to revise the whole entries manually to obtain a truthful high-quality product and to carefully indicate the gaps encountered in these corpora. All in all, this database contains more than 60,000 entries corresponding with the DOE fragments annotated by the YCOE. The main strength of the resulting product is its research and teaching implications in the study of Old English. The use of this database will help researchers and students in the study of different aspects of the language, such as inflectional morphology, syntactic behaviour of given words, or translation studies, among others. By means of the search of words or fragments, the annotated information on morphology and syntax will be automatically displayed, automatizing, and speeding up the search of data.

Keywords: alignment, corpus database, morphosyntactic analysis, Old English

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Authors: Diane M. Bender

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In design education, professional education is delivered in a studio, where students learn and understand their discipline. This learning methodology culminates in a final review, where students present their work before instructors and invited reviewers, known as jurors. These jurors are recognized experts who add a wide diversity of opinions in their feedback to students. This feedback can be provided in multiple formats, mainly a verbal critique of the work. To better understand how these expert reviewers prepare for a studio review, a survey was distributed to reviewers at a multi-disciplinary design school within the United States. Five design disciplines are involved in this case study: architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. Respondents (n=122) provided information about if and how they received training on how to critique and participate in a final review. Common forms of training included mentorship, modeled behavior from other designers/past professors, workshops on critique from the instructing faculty prior to the crit session, and by being a practicing design professional. Respondents also gave feedback about how much the instructor provided course materials prior to the review in order to better prepare for student interaction. Finally, respondents indicated if they had interaction, and in what format, with students prior to the final review. Typical responses included participation in studio desk crits, a midterm jury member, meetings with students, and email or social media correspondence. While the focus of this study is the studio review, the findings are equally applicable to other disciplines. Suggestions will be provided on how to improve the preparation of guests in the learning process and how their interaction can positively influence student engagement.

Keywords: critique, design, education, evaluation, juror

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Authors: Thomas LaRocca

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This study explores the development of a public-school music teacher’s professional identity within three domains: as an educator in the profession at large, as a music teacher in a school, and as a professional musician. An autoethnographic method is employed by calling upon undergraduate student teaching reflections, graduate writing assignments and presentations, cover letters for employment, professional correspondence, and reflective memos. These artifacts provide a reference for phenomenological insights into the values, hopes, and criticisms within each domain over time –all of which provide a window into the overall ontological perspective of one’s professional life at different moments in their career. While the topic of music teacher identity has been examined using autoethnographical methods before, by accessing materials over the course of ten years, the study is able to investigate the ‘how’ of identity development in a temporal context; from undergraduate student to established professional. Additionally, while the field offers a considerable amount of work surrounding the child and adolescent identity development, there are unmined opportunities to examine identity development in the adult years, especially surrounding adult professional life. Employing a postpositivist approach with social constructionism as a backdrop, this study examines adult identity formation and the contradictions, resonances, and priorities within each domain, between each domain, and perceived expectations of the professional community. What is revealed is a journey of self-improvement motivated by failure and success, marked by negotiation and sacrifice; as each domain competes for mental and temporal resources, identity is viewed as not just who one is, but also as what one leaves behind. These insights offer a window into the ontology of identity of a music educator and may provide considerations for differentiating professional development based on what stage educators are at in their careers.

Keywords: identity, longitudinal autoethnography, music teacher education, music teacher ontology

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Authors: Ashleigh Cicconi

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Teachers may not have access to necessary and effective strategies for managing stress, trauma, and emotional exhaustion, which can lead to burnout. This practice-based research focused on the exploration of teacher well-being through participation in a wellness program in order to mitigate high stress levels and feelings of burnout. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore how a multimodal, trauma-informed yoga and arts-based mindfulness program impacted stress levels and overall well-being for teachers in a school setting. The case study approach was used to investigate participant perceptions of interactions between multimodal accessibility, a trauma-informed wellness program, and teacher well-being. A sample size of 10 teachers employed full-time at a public high school in the Mid-Atlantic region were recruited via email correspondence to participate in the eight-week wellness program. Data were triangulated across semi-structured interviews, journal entries, and focus group guided questions, and transcripts were uploaded into the NVivo software application for thematic analysis. Data showed perceptions of improvements in overall well-being from participation in the wellness program and that utilizing trauma-informed practices may be an effective coping skill for stress. The multimodal design of the program was perceived to positively impact participation and accessibility to wellness strategies. Findings from this study suggest that the inclusion of trauma-informed practices within a wellness program may be effective for managing stress and trauma experienced by teachers, thereby aiding in improvement in overall well-being. Findings also suggest that multimodality may be effective for increasing participation in and accessibility to wellness strategies.

Keywords: trauma informed practices, wellness program, teacher wellbeing, accessible program, multimodal

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Authors: F. O. Arimoro, F. N. Okonkwo, R. B. Ikomi

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The environmental determinants structuring species richness has been generating interest recently but we still lack an understanding of these patterns in various regions (e.g. Afrotropical), and how seasons help to structure these patterns. Our aim was to assessed the environmental drivers importance in regulating species richness and community structure of fish species. The lchthyofauna assemblage of Warri River, Niger Delta area of Nigeria was studied between August 2013 and July 2014. A total of 1152 individuals representing 43 species in 23 families and 30 genera were caught. Of the 43 species recorded, 67.4%, 53.5% and 67.4% of the species occurred in Stations 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Eight taxa representing 18.6% of the total abundance were ubiquitous. The claroteid, Chrysichthys walkeri and the cichlid, Chromidotilapia guentheri were the most dominant species accounting for 19.2% and 6.0% respectively of the total catch. The species richness and general diversity were relatively higher in station 1 although Jaccard similarity index revealed that stations 1 and 3 were significantly similar while station 2 showed complete dissimilarity with stations 1 and 3. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, total nitrogen, Biochemical Oxygen demand and temperature were important variables structuring the overall fish assemblages. The presence of appreciable number of juveniles in this water body suggests that the Warri River is a breeding and nursery ground for fish species particularly those of brackish origin. These findings indicate that the water body is still useful as a good fishing ground for the rural communities and every effort should be put in place to ensure its protection and conservation for the production of healthy fish.

Keywords: Chrysichthys walkeri, fish communities, mangrove ecosystem, physicochemical parameters, Warri River

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Authors: Fereshteh M. Haskouei, Habib Alimohammadian

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Magnetic susceptibility (χ) is operational to identify of late quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles in loess-paleosol sequences. It is well accepted that many loess-paleosol sequences bear witness to cold-dry/warm-humid periods, well known as glacial-interglacial cycles, respectively. For this study, loess-paleosol sequence of north-east of Iran was magnetically investigated. The study area is situated at about 8 km away of Neka city, on the main road of Sari-Behshahr, in Mazandaran Province, north of Iran. The youngest deposits of study area are the late Quaternary wind-blown accumulations. In this study, the total number of 117 samples was collected from loess-paleosols units. After that, the natural remnant magnetization (NRM) and magnetic susceptibility (MS) of the samples were measured. Variation of MS of more than 110 loess samples was plotted to reveal the correlation of the MS and paleoclimatic changes. This study aims reconstruction of climatic changes (glacial-interglacial and stadials-interstadials cycles). To confirm our results we compared MS (χ) and the curves of other investigations in paleoclimatology. This correspondence abled us to recognize worldly events in the study area such as: Younger Dryas, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), deglaciation of Northern Hemisphere etc. The obtained magnetic data indicate that during almost 50 ka, at least two glacial-interglacial periods occurred in north-east of Iran. Further, variation of χ values revealed short period of climatically cycles known as stadials-interstadials. We recognized 4 stadials and a single stadial as colder sub-periods for S₀ (recently soil-paleosol) and S₂ (lower paleosol), respectively, Moreover, we recognized 6 warmer sub-periods (interstadials) for L₁ (upper loess) and one interstadial L₂ (lower loess).

Keywords: glacial-interglacial cycles, Iran, last glacial maximum (LGM), loess, magnetic susceptibility (χ), Neka, stadials-interstadials sub-periods, younger dryas

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