Search results for: mobile online social networks
675 Deep Injection Wells for Flood Prevention and Groundwater Management
Authors: Mohammad R. Jafari, Francois G. Bernardeau
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With its arid climate, Qatar experiences low annual rainfall, intense storms, and high evaporation rates. However, the fast-paced rate of infrastructure development in the capital city of Doha has led to recurring instances of surface water flooding as well as rising groundwater levels. Public Work Authority (PWA/ASHGHAL) has implemented an approach to collect and discharge the flood water into a) positive gravity systems; b) Emergency Flooding Area (EFA) – Evaporation, Infiltration or Storage off-site using tankers; and c) Discharge to deep injection wells. As part of the flood prevention scheme, 21 deep injection wells have been constructed to discharge the collected surface and groundwater table in Doha city. These injection wells function as an alternative in localities that do not possess either positive gravity systems or downstream networks that can accommodate additional loads. These injection wells are 400-m deep and are constructed in a complex karstic subsurface condition with large cavities. The injection well system will discharge collected groundwater and storm surface runoff into the permeable Umm Er Radhuma Formation, which is an aquifer present throughout the Persian Gulf Region. The Umm Er Radhuma formation contains saline water that is not being used for water supply. The injection zone is separated by an impervious gypsum formation which acts as a barrier between upper and lower aquifer. State of the art drilling, grouting, and geophysical techniques have been implemented in construction of the wells to assure that the shallow aquifer would not be contaminated and impacted by injected water. Injection and pumping tests were performed to evaluate injection well functionality (injectability). The results of these tests indicated that majority of the wells can accept injection rate of 200 to 300 m3 /h (56 to 83 l/s) under gravity with average value of 250 m3 /h (70 l/s) compared to design value of 50 l/s. This paper presents design and construction process and issues associated with these injection wells, performing injection/pumping tests to determine capacity and effectiveness of the injection wells, the detailed design of collection system and conveying system into the injection wells, and the operation and maintenance process. This system is completed now and is under operation, and therefore, construction of injection wells is an effective option for flood control.Keywords: Deep injection well, wellhead assembly system, emergency flood area, flood prevention scheme, geophysical tests, pumping and injection tests, Qatar geology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1396674 National Image in the Age of Mass Self-Communication: An Analysis of Internet Users' Perception of Portugal
Authors: L. Godinho, N. Teixeira
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Nowadays, massification of Internet access represents one of the major challenges to the traditional powers of the State, among which the power to control its external image. The virtual world has also sparked the interest of social sciences which consider it a new field of study, an immense open text where sense is expressed. In this paper, that immense text has been accessed to so as to understand the perception Internet users from all over the world have of Portugal. Ours is a quantitative and qualitative approach, as we have resorted to buzz, thematic and category analysis. The results confirm the predominance of sea stereotype in others' vision of the Portuguese people, and evidence that national image has adapted to network communication through processes of individuation and paganization.Keywords: Internet, national image, perception, web analytics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1050673 Improving the Flexibility of Employment in Polish Economic Practice
Authors: A. Bodak, A. Cierniak-Emerych, M. Gableta, A. Pietroń-Pyszczek, K. Piwowar-Sulej
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Modern organizations operate under the pressure of dynamic and often unpredictable changes, both in external and internal environment. Market success, in this context, requires a particular competence in the form of flexibility, interpreted here both on the level of individuals and on the level of organization. This paper addresses the changes taking place in the sphere of employment, as observed in economic entities operating on Polish market. Based on own empirical studies, the authors focus on the progressing trend of ‘flexibilization’ of employment, particularly in the context of transformations in organizational structure, designed to facilitate the transition into management by projects and differentiation of labor forms.
Keywords: Flexibility of employment, changes in organizational structure, forms of employment, social effects of flexibility.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1671672 Urban Waste Water Governance in South Africa: A Case Study of Stellenbosch
Authors: R. Malisa, E. Schwella, K. I. Theletsane
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Due to climate change, population growth and rapid urbanization, the demand for water in South Africa is inevitably surpassing supply. To address similar challenges globally, there has been a paradigm shift from conventional urban waste water management “government” to a “governance” paradigm. From the governance paradigm, Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) principle emerged. This principle emphasizes efficient urban waste water treatment and production of high-quality recyclable effluent. In so doing mimicking natural water systems, in their processes of recycling water efficiently, and averting depletion of natural water resources. The objective of this study was to investigate drivers of shifting the current urban waste water management approach from a “government” paradigm towards “governance”. The study was conducted through Interactive Management soft systems research methodology which follows a qualitative research design. A case study methodology was employed, guided by realism research philosophy. Qualitative data gathered were analyzed through interpretative structural modelling using Concept Star for Professionals Decision-Making tools (CSPDM) version 3.64. The constructed model deduced that the main drivers in shifting the Stellenbosch municipal urban waste water management towards IUWM “governance” principles are mainly social elements characterized by overambitious expectations of the public on municipal water service delivery, mis-interpretation of the constitution on access to adequate clean water and sanitation as a human right and perceptions on recycling water by different communities. Inadequate public participation also emerged as a strong driver. However, disruptive events such as draught may play a positive role in raising an awareness on the value of water, resulting in a shift on the perceptions on recycled water. Once the social elements are addressed, the alignment of governance and administration elements towards IUWM are achievable. Hence, the point of departure for the desired paradigm shift is the change of water service authorities and serviced communities’ perceptions and behaviors towards shifting urban waste water management approaches from “government” to “governance” paradigm.Keywords: Integrated urban water management, urban water system, waste water governance, waste water treatment works.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1078671 A New SIR-based Model for Influenza Epidemic
Authors: Kang-Hung Yang, Jin-Yuan Hsu
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In recent years, several severe large-scale influenza outbreaks happened in many countries, such as SARS in 2005 or H1N1 in 2009. Those influenza Epidemics have greatly impacts not only on people-s life and health, but medical systems in different countries. Although severe diseases are more experienced, they are not fully controlled. Governments have different policies to control the spreads of diseases. However, those policies have both positive and negative social or economical influence on people and society. Therefore, it is necessary and essential to develop an appropriate model for evaluations of policies. Consequently, a proper measure can be implemented to confront the diseases. The main goal of this study is to develop a SIR-based model for the further evaluations of the candidate policies during the influenza outbreaks.Keywords: SIR, influenza, systems dynamic model, H1N1
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2893670 The Attitude towards Sustainable Development Issues among Malaysian Engineering Undergraduates
Authors: Balamuralithara Balakrishnan
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This paper reports the findings of the perception and attitude towards Sustainable Development among Malaysian undergraduates. The study was carried out involving 86 engineering undergraduates from three universities in Malaysia. This research was conducted based on a survey whereby the respondents were given a questionnaire to gauge their attitude towards sustainable development. The output of the analyses showed that the respondents have an appropriate attitude towards the sustainability issues expect for economic and social equality aspects. These findings suggest that the engineering educators involved in sustainable development education need to educate undergraduate students on this important issue. This investigation serves as a cornerstone to which the current paradigm of sustainable development education can be examined for further improvement by related stakeholders.
Keywords: Sustainable development, engineering education, Malaysia, attitude.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 958669 Post Earthquake Volunteer Learning That Build Up Caring Learning Communities
Authors: Naoki Okamura
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From a perspective of moral education, this study has examined the experiences of a group of college students who volunteered in disaster areas after the magnitude 9.0 Earthquake, which struck the Northeastern region of Japan in March, 2011. The research, utilizing the method of grounded theory, has uncovered that most of the students have gone through positive changes in their development of moral and social characters, such as attaining deeper sense of empathy and caring personalities. The study expresses, in identifying the nature of those transformations, that the importance of volunteer work should strongly be recognized by the colleges and universities in Japan, in fulfilling their public responsibility of creating and building learning communities that are responsible and caring.
Keywords: Moral development, moral education, service learning, volunteer learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1760668 Analyzing Political Cartoons in Arabic-Language Media after Trump's Jerusalem Move: A Multimodal Discourse Perspective
Authors: Inas Hussein
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Communication in the modern world is increasingly becoming multimodal due to globalization and the digital space we live in which have remarkably affected how people communicate. Accordingly, Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) is an emerging paradigm in discourse studies with the underlying assumption that other semiotic resources such as images, colours, scientific symbolism, gestures, actions, music and sound, etc. combine with language in order to communicate meaning. One of the effective multimodal media that combines both verbal and non-verbal elements to create meaning is political cartoons. Furthermore, since political and social issues are mirrored in political cartoons, these are regarded as potential objects of discourse analysis since they not only reflect the thoughts of the public but they also have the power to influence them. The aim of this paper is to analyze some selected cartoons on the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital by the American President, Donald Trump, adopting a multimodal approach. More specifically, the present research examines how the various semiotic tools and resources utilized by the cartoonists function in projecting the intended meaning. Ten political cartoons, among a surge of editorial cartoons highlighted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) - an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States - as publications in different Arabic-language newspapers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Iran and UK, were purposively selected for semiotic analysis. These editorial cartoons, all published during 6th–18th December 2017, invariably suggest one theme: Jewish and Israeli domination of the United States. The data were analyzed using the framework of Visual Social Semiotics. In accordance with this methodological framework, the selected visual compositions were analyzed in terms of three aspects of meaning: representational, interactive and compositional. In analyzing the selected cartoons, an interpretative approach is being adopted. This approach prioritizes depth to breadth and enables insightful analyses of the chosen cartoons. The findings of the study reveal that semiotic resources are key elements of political cartoons due to the inherent political communication they convey. It is proved that adequate interpretation of the three aspects of meaning is a prerequisite for understanding the intended meaning of political cartoons. It is recommended that further research should be conducted to provide more insightful analyses of political cartoons from a multimodal perspective.
Keywords: Multimodal discourse analysis, multimodal text, political cartoons, visual modality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1535667 Taking People, Process and Partnership on Board for Participatory Decision Making
Authors: B. Mikulskienė
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Public administration institutions in cooperation with politicians are not the sole policy decision makers in full meaning any longer. Meanwhile, a special role, namely steering the decision making process, could be delegated to them. Despite the wide scientific discussion on different aspects what has direct impact on policy creation, there is a lack of holistic practical managerial advice, which could integrate infrastructure of policy decision making with intellectual capital and with interconnection of partnership. The proposed harmonized decision making model of process, people and partnership entitled by acronym HM-3P is analyzed as a framework for implementation of public administration steering role seeking the coherent social involvement in policy decision making.Keywords: participatory decision making, partnership, stakeholders.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1443666 Fear-Of-Failure and Women Entrepreneurship: Comparative Analysis Austria versus USA
Authors: Magdalena Meusburger, Caroline Maria Hofer
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The advancement of women entrepreneurship in the last decade has been a vital driver for social and economic development. Despite the positive evolution, women entrepreneurs are still underrepresented in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Fear-of-failure is a major factor inhibiting their entrepreneurial activity. This survey-based research focused on aspiring and established entrepreneurial women in Austria and in the USA. It explored and compared the extent to which entrepreneurial fear-of-failure influences their self-employment and their aspirations to become self-employed. The results demonstrate that entrepreneurial fear-of-failure is significantly higher for women with the wish for self-employment than it is for women who are already self-employed. In terms of the geographical and cultural setting no major differences were confirmed.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial ecosystems, fear-of-failure, female entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurship.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 278665 Modeling ICT Adoption Factors for the Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge
Authors: K.M. Ngcobo, S.D. Eyono Obono
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Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has many social and economic benefits. However, IK is at the risk of extinction due to the difficulties to preserve it as most of the IK largely remains undocumented. This study aims to design a model of the factors affecting the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for the preservation of IK. The proposed model is based on theoretical frameworks on ICT adoption. It was designed following a literature review of ICT adoption theories for households, and of the factors affecting ICT adoption for IK. The theory that fitted to the best all factors was then chosen as the basis for the proposed model. This study found that the Model of Adoption of Technology in Households (MATH) is the most suitable theoretical framework for modeling ICT adoption factors for the preservation of IK.Keywords: Adoption factors, ICT adoption theories, Indigenous knowledge.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2673664 Comparison of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Algorithms for Automatic Classification of 80 Different Pollen Species
Authors: Endrick Barnacin, Jean-Luc Henry, Jimmy Nagau, Jack Molinié
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Palynology is a field of interest in many disciplines due to its multiple applications: chronological dating, climatology, allergy treatment, and honey characterization. Unfortunately, the analysis of a pollen slide is a complicated and time consuming task that requires the intervention of experts in the field, which are becoming increasingly rare due to economic and social conditions. In this context, the automation of this task is urgent. In this work, we compare classical feature extraction methods (Shape, GLCM, LBP, and others) and Deep Learning (CNN and Transfer Learning) to perform a recognition task over 80 regional pollen species. It has been found that the use of Transfer Learning seems to be more precise than the other approaches.
Keywords: Image segmentation, stuck particles separation, Sobel operator, thresholding.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 183663 The Libyc Writing
Authors: S. Ait Ali Yahia
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One of the main features of the Maghreb is its linguistic richness. The multilingualism is a fact which always marked the Maghreb since the beginning of the history up to know. Since the arrival of the Phoenicians, followed by the Carthaginians, Romans, and Arabs, etc, there was a social group in the Maghreb which controlled two kinds of idioms. The libyc one remained, despite everything, the local language used by the major part of the population. This language had a support of written transmission attested by many inscriptions. Among all the forms of the Maghreb writing, this alphabet, however, continues to cause a certain number of questions about the origin and the date of its appearance. The archaeological, linguistic and historical data remain insufficient to answer these questions. This did not prevent the researchers from giving an opinion. In order to answer these questions we will expose here the various assumptions adopted by various authors who are founded on more or less explicit arguments. We will also speak about the various forms taken by the libyc writing during antiquity.
Keywords: The alphabet libyc, Eastern libyc, Western libyc.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2626662 Introduction of Open-Source e-Learning Environment and Resources: A Novel Approach for Secondary Schools in Tanzania
Authors: S. K. Lujara, M. M. Kissaka, L. Trojer, N. H. Mvungi
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The concept of e-Learning is now emerging in Sub Saharan African countries like Tanzania. Due to economic constraints and other social and cultural factors faced by these countries, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is increasing at a very low pace. The digital divide threat has propelled the Government of Tanzania to put in place the national ICT Policy in 2003 which defines the direction of all ICT activities nationally. Among the main focused areas is the use of ICT in education, since for the development of any country, there is a need of creating knowledge based society. This paper discusses the initiatives made so far to introduce the use of ICT tools to some secondary schools using open source software in e-content development to facilitate a self-learning environment
Keywords: e-content, e-Learning, ICT, Open Source Software.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1843661 The State-of-Art Environmental Impact Assessment: An Overview
Authors: Tsolmon Tumenjargal, Muhammad Hassan Khalil, Wu Yao Guo
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The research on the effectiveness of environmental assessment (EA) is a milestone effort to evaluate the state of the field, including many contributors related with a lot of countries since more than two decades. In the 1960s, there was a surge of interest between modern industrialized countries over unexpected opposite effects of technical invention. The interest led to choice of approaches for assessing and prediction the impressions of technology and advancement for social and economic, state health and safety, solidity and the circumstances. These are consisting of risk assessment, technology assessment, environmental impact assessment and costbenefit analysis. In this research contribution, the authors have described the research status for environmental assessment in cumulative environmental system. This article discusses the methods for cumulative effect assessment (CEA).
Keywords: Cumulative effect assessment, Environmental impact assessment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1683660 Issue Reorganization Using the Measure of Relevance
Authors: William Wong Xiu Shun, Yoonjin Hyun, Mingyu Kim, Seongi Choi, Namgyu Kim
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The need to extract R&D keywords from issues and use them to retrieve R&D information is increasing rapidly. However, it is difficult to identify related issues or distinguish them. Although the similarity between issues cannot be identified, with an R&D lexicon, issues that always share the same R&D keywords can be determined. In detail, the R&D keywords that are associated with a particular issue imply the key technology elements that are needed to solve a particular issue. Furthermore, the relationship among issues that share the same R&D keywords can be shown in a more systematic way by clustering them according to keywords. Thus, sharing R&D results and reusing R&D technology can be facilitated. Indirectly, redundant investment in R&D can be reduced as the relevant R&D information can be shared among corresponding issues and the reusability of related R&D can be improved. Therefore, a methodology to cluster issues from the perspective of common R&D keywords is proposed to satisfy these demands.
Keywords: Clustering, Social Network Analysis, Text Mining, Topic Analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2028659 Traditions of Theatrical Art in the Space of Nomadic Culture of the Kazakhs
Authors: Yeskendirov N.R., Karjaubaeva S.K., Ahmet A. K.
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A number of theoretical and methodological problems connected with substantiation of a new approach and searches of a new research paradigm and the analysis of features of formation and development of the Kazakh stage are considered in the article. The wide spectrum of questions connected with genesis of the Kazakh stage art has caused necessity of consideration of world outlook and social cultural aspects which have affected formation of the given phenomenon in the Kazakh culture. But how can we define the form of expression and aesthetics of the national theatre? Probably, the answer to this question we will find if we apply to deep world view sources, and, as a consequence, it is necessary to study deeply the plot dramaturgy, which is based on myths, rites and eposes, mastering of symbolic gestures and mimics, allegory of a word, etc.
Keywords: Tradition, theater, art, culture, nomadic Kazakhs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1498658 Information and Communication Technologies vs. Education and Training: Contribution to Understand the Millennials’ Generational Effect
Authors: Fauquet-Alekhine Philippe
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Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasing in importance everyday, especially since the 90’s (last decade of birth for the Millennials generation). While social interactions involving the Millennials generation have been studied, a lack of investigation remains regarding the use of the ICT by this generation as well as the impact on outcomes in education and professional training. Observing and interviewing students preparing a MSc, we aimed at characterizing the interaction students-ICT during the courses. We found that up to 50% of the students (mainly female) could use ICT during courses at a rate of 0.84 occurrence/minutes for some of them, and they thought this involvement did not disturb learning, even was helpful. As recent researches show that multitasking leads people think they are much better than they actually are, further observations with assessments are needed to conclude whether or not the use ICT by students during the courses is a real strength.
Keywords: Education, ICT, generational effect, training.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2129657 An Empirical Study of the Expectation- Perception Gap of I.S. Development
Authors: Linda, Sau-ling Lai
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This paper adopts a notion of expectation-perception gap of systems users as information systems (IS) failure. Problems leading to the expectation-perception gap are identified and modelled as five interrelated discrepancies or gaps throughout the process of information systems development (ISD). It describes an empirical study on how systems developers and users perceive the size of each gap and the extent to which each problematic issue contributes to the gap. The key to achieving success in ISD is to keep the expectationperception gap closed by closing all 5 pertaining gaps. The gap model suggests that most factors in IS failure are related to organizational, cognitive and social aspects of information systems design. Organization requirement analysis, being the weakest link of IS development, is particularly worthy of investigation.Keywords: Information Systems Development, Expectation- Perception Gap, Gap Analysis, Organization Analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1450656 Strategy Analysis and Creation by Simulation in the General Game
Authors: Gábor Szűcs, Gábor Neszveda, Xin Fang
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In this paper the General Game problem is described. In this problem the competition or cooperation dilemma occurs as the two basic types of strategies. The strategy possibilities have been analyzed for finding winning strategy in uncertain situations (no information about the number of players and their strategy types). The winning strategy is missing, but a good solution can be found by simulation by varying the ratio of the two types of strategies. This new method has been used in a real contest with human players, where the created strategies by simulation have reached very good ranks. This construction can be applied in other real social games as well.Keywords: competition, cooperation, finding good strategy, General Game
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1225655 Voyage Analysis of a Marine Gas Turbine Engine Installed to Power and Propel an Ocean-Going Cruise Ship
Authors: Mathias U. Bonet, Pericles Pilidis, Georgios Doulgeris
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A gas turbine-powered cruise Liner is scheduled to transport pilgrim passengers from Lagos-Nigeria to the Islamic port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Since the gas turbine is an air breathing machine, changes in the density and/or mass flow at the compressor inlet due to an encounter with variations in weather conditions induce negative effects on the performance of the power plant during the voyage. In practice, all deviations from the reference atmospheric conditions of 15 oC and 1.103 bar tend to affect the power output and other thermodynamic parameters of the gas turbine cycle. Therefore, this paper seeks to evaluate how a simple cycle marine gas turbine power plant would react under a variety of scenarios that may be encountered during a voyage as the ship sails across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea before arriving at its designated port of discharge. It is also an assessment that focuses on the effect of varying aerodynamic and hydrodynamic conditions which deteriorate the efficient operation of the propulsion system due to an increase in resistance that results from some projected levels of the ship hull fouling. The investigated passenger ship is designed to run at a service speed of 22 knots and cover a distance of 5787 nautical miles. The performance evaluation consists of three separate voyages that cover a variety of weather conditions in winter, spring and summer seasons. Real-time daily temperatures and the sea states for the selected transit route were obtained and used to simulate the voyage under the aforementioned operating conditions. Changes in engine firing temperature, power output as well as the total fuel consumed per voyage including other performance variables were separately predicted under both calm and adverse weather conditions. The collated data were obtained online from the UK Meteorological Office as well as the UK Hydrographic Office websites, while adopting the Beaufort scale for determining the magnitude of sea waves resulting from rough weather situations. The simulation of the gas turbine performance and voyage analysis was effected through the use of an integrated Cranfield-University-developed computer code known as ‘Turbomatch’ and ‘Poseidon’. It is a project that is aimed at developing a method for predicting the off design behavior of the marine gas turbine when installed and operated as the main prime mover for both propulsion and powering of all other auxiliary services onboard a passenger cruise liner. Furthermore, it is a techno-economic and environmental assessment that seeks to enable the forecast of the marine gas turbine part and full load performance as it relates to the fuel requirement for a complete voyage.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 844654 Inequalities in Higher Education and Students’ Perceptions of Factors Influencing Academic Performance
Authors: Violetta Parutis
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This qualitative study aims to answer the following research questions: i) What are the factors that students perceive as relevant to a) promoting and b) preventing good grades? ii) How does socio-economic status (SES) feature in those beliefs? We conducted in-depth interviews with 19 first- and second-year undergraduates of varying SES at a research-intensive university in the UK. The interviews yielded eight factors that students perceived as promoting and six perceived as preventing good grades. The findings suggested one significant difference between the beliefs of low and high SES students in that low SES students perceive themselves to be at a greater disadvantage to their peers while high SES students do not have such beliefs. This could have knock-on effects on their performance.
Keywords: Social class, education, academic performance, students’ beliefs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 691653 Bioclimatic Principles and Urban Open Spaces: The Case of Xanthi
Authors: Maria Giannopoulou
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Open urban public spaces comprise an important element for the development of social, cultural and economic activities of the population in the modern cities. These spaces are also considered regulators of the region-s climate conditions, providing better thermal, visual and auditory conditions which can be optimized by the application of appropriate strategies of bioclimatic design. The paper focuses on the analysis and evaluation of the recent unification of the open spaces in the centre of Xanthi, a medium – size city in northern Greece, from a bioclimatic perspective, as well as in the creation of suitable methodology. It is based both on qualitative observation of the interventions by fieldwork research and assessment and on quantitative analysis and modeling of the research area.Keywords: Bioclimatic principles, Quantitative analysis, Sustainability, TownScope III, Urban open spaces
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2773652 A Geographical Spatial Analysis on the Benefits of Using Wind Energy in Kuwait
Authors: Obaid AlOtaibi, Salman Hussain
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Wind energy is associated with many geographical factors including wind speed, climate change, surface topography, environmental impacts, and several economic factors, most notably the advancement of wind technology and energy prices. It is the fastest-growing and least economically expensive method for generating electricity. Wind energy generation is directly related to the characteristics of spatial wind. Therefore, the feasibility study for the wind energy conversion system is based on the value of the energy obtained relative to the initial investment and the cost of operation and maintenance. In Kuwait, wind energy is an appropriate choice as a source of energy generation. It can be used in groundwater extraction in agricultural areas such as Al-Abdali in the north and Al-Wafra in the south, or in fresh and brackish groundwater fields or remote and isolated locations such as border areas and projects away from conventional power electricity services, to take advantage of alternative energy, reduce pollutants, and reduce energy production costs. The study covers the State of Kuwait with an exception of metropolitan area. Climatic data were attained through the readings of eight distributed monitoring stations affiliated with Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). The data were used to assess the daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual available wind energy accessible for utilization. The researchers applied the Suitability Model to analyze the study by using the ArcGIS program. It is a model of spatial analysis that compares more than one location based on grading weights to choose the most suitable one. The study criteria are: the average annual wind speed, land use, topography of land, distance from the main road networks, urban areas. According to the previous criteria, the four proposed locations to establish wind farm projects are selected based on the weights of the degree of suitability (excellent, good, average, and poor). The percentage of areas that represents the most suitable locations with an excellent rank (4) is 8% of Kuwait’s area. It is relatively distributed as follows: Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdeba, Al-Salmi (5.22%), Al-Abdali (1.22%), Umm al-Hayman (0.70%), North Wafra and Al-Shaqeeq (0.86%). The study recommends to decision-makers to consider the proposed location (No.1), (Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdaba, and Al-Salmi) as the most suitable location for future development of wind farms in Kuwait, this location is economically feasible.Keywords: Kuwait, renewable energy, spatial analysis, wind energy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 882651 Sustainability Strategy and Firm Performance in Residential Trade and Industry: A Conceptual Analysis
Authors: Martin Macion
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The request for a sustainable development challenges both managers and consumers to rethink habitual practices and activities. While consumers are challenged to develop sustainable consumption patterns, companies are asked to establish managerial systems and structures considering economical, ecological, and social issues. As this is in particular true for housing associations, this paper aims first, at providing an understanding of sustainability strategy in residential trade and industry (RTI) by identifying relevant facets of this construct and second, at conceptually analyzing the impact of sustainability strategy in RTI on operational efficiency and performance of municipal housing companies. The author develops a model of sustainability strategy in RTI and its effects and further, sheds light in priorities for future research.Keywords: firm performance, sustainability strategy, residentialtrade and industry
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1514650 Kazakhstani Humanism: Challenges and Prospects
Authors: Samat Turganbekov, Zhakan Mol
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This article examines the emergence and development of the Kazakhstan species of humanism. The biggest challenge for Kazakhstan in terms of humanism is connected with advocating human values in parallel to promoting national interests; preserving the continuity of traditions in various spheres of life, business and culture. This should be a common goal for the entire society, the main direction for a national intelligence, and a platform for the state policy. An idea worth considering is a formation of national humanist tradition model; the challenges are adapting people to live in the context of new industrial and innovative economic conditions, keeping the balance during intensive economic development of the country, and ensuring social harmony in the society.Keywords: Kazakh humanism, humanist tradition, national culture, spiritual and moral priority, national interest.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1549649 From “Boat to Plate”: Creating Value through Sustainable Fish Supply Chain Visibility
Authors: Isabel Duarte de Almeida, João Vilas-Boas, Luís Miguel Ferreira
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Environmental concerns about the scarcity of marine resources are critical driving forces for firms aiming to prepare their supply chains for sustainability. Building on previous work, this paper highlights the implementation of good practices geared towards sustainable operations in the seafood department, which were pursued in an exploratory retailer case. Outcomes of the adopted environmentally and socially acceptable fish retailing strategies, ranged from traceability, to self-certification and eco-labelling. The consequences for business were, as follows: stronger collaboration and trust across the chain of custody, improvement of sponsors’ image and of consumers’ loyalty and, progress in the Greenpeace retailers’ evaluation ranking.Keywords: Sustainability in sea food, Supply Chain Traceability, Social Responsibility.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1721648 The Portuguese Press Portrait of “Environmental Refugees“
Authors: Inês Vieira
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The migration-environment nexus has gained increased interest from the social research field over the last years. While straightly connected to human security issues, this theme has pervaded through the media to the public sphere. Therefore, it is important to observe how did the discussions over environmentally induced migrations develop from the scientific basis to the media attention, passing through some political voices, and in which ways might these messages be interpreted within the broader public discourses. To achieve this purpose, the analysis of the press entries between 2004 and 2010 in three of the main Portuguese newspapers shall be presented, specially reflecting upon the events, protagonists, topics, geographical attributions and terms/expressions used to define those who migrate due to environmental degradation or disasters.
Keywords: Climate refugees, environmental refugees, environmentally induced migrations, Portuguese written press
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1555647 Convergence and Divergence in Telephone Conversations: A Case of Persian
Authors: Anna Mirzaiyan, Vahid Parvaresh, Mahmoud Hashemian, Masoud Saeedi
Abstract:
People usually have a telephone voice, which means they adjust their speech to fit particular situations and to blend in with other interlocutors. The question is: Do we speak differently to different people? This possibility has been suggested by social psychologists within Accommodation Theory [1]. Converging toward the speech of another person can be regarded as a polite speech strategy while choosing a language not used by the other interlocutor can be considered as the clearest example of speech divergence [2]. The present study sets out to investigate such processes in the course of everyday telephone conversations. Using Joos-s [3] model of formality in spoken English, the researchers try to explore convergence to or divergence from the addressee. The results propound the actuality that lexical choice, and subsequently, patterns of style vary intriguingly in concordance with the person being addressed.Keywords: Convergence, divergence, lexical formality, speechaccommodation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3508646 The Sustainable Value Model: Comparative Analysis Romania and EU
Abstract:
For Romania, the fulfilment of the obligations undertaken as a member state of the European Union in accordance with the Treaty of Accession requires the effective implementation of sustainable development principles and practices, this being the only reasonable development option, which adequately draws in on the economic, social and environment resources. Achieving this objective is based on a profound analysis of the realities in the Romanian economy, which will reflect the existent situation and the action directions for the future. The paper presents an analysis of the Romanian economic performances compared to the EU economy, based on the sustainable value (SV) model. The analysis highlighted the considerable gap between Romania and the EU regarding the sustainable capitalization of resources, the provided information being useful to justify strategic development decisions at a micro and macro levels.Keywords: Sustainable value, sustainable development, opportunity cost, economic performance.
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