Search results for: public lands
537 Secure Proxy Signature Based on Factoring and Discrete Logarithm
Authors: H. El-Kamchouchi, Heba Gaber, Fatma Ahmed, Dalia H. El-Kamchouchi
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A digital signature is an electronic signature form used by an original signer to sign a specific document. When the original signer is not in his office or when he/she travels outside, he/she delegates his signing capability to a proxy signer and then the proxy signer generates a signing message on behalf of the original signer. The two parties must be able to authenticate one another and agree on a secret encryption key, in order to communicate securely over an unreliable public network. Authenticated key agreement protocols have an important role in building a secure communications network between the two parties. In this paper, we present a secure proxy signature scheme over an efficient and secure authenticated key agreement protocol based on factoring and discrete logarithm problem.
Keywords: Discrete logarithm, factoring, proxy signature, key agreement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1211536 Airport Investment Risk Assessment under Uncertainty
Authors: Elena M. Capitanul, Carlos A. Nunes Cosenza, Walid El Moudani, Felix Mora Camino
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The construction of a new airport or the extension of an existing one requires massive investments and many times public private partnerships were considered in order to make feasible such projects. One characteristic of these projects is uncertainty with respect to financial and environmental impacts on the medium to long term. Another one is the multistage nature of these types of projects. While many airport development projects have been a success, some others have turned into a nightmare for their promoters. This communication puts forward a new approach for airport investment risk assessment. The approach takes explicitly into account the degree of uncertainty in activity levels prediction and proposes milestones for the different stages of the project for minimizing risk. Uncertainty is represented through fuzzy dual theory and risk management is performed using dynamic programming. An illustration of the proposed approach is provided.
Keywords: Airports, fuzzy logic, risk, uncertainty.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2480535 The Efficacy of Neurological Impress Method and Repeated Reading on Reading Fluency of Children with Learning Disabilities in Oyo State, Nigeria
Authors: A. O. Oladele
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The purpose of this study was to find out the effectiveness of neurological impress method and repeated reading technique on reading fluency of children with learning disabilities. Thirty primary four pupils in three public primary schools participated in the study. There were two experimental groups and a control. This research employed a 3 by 2 factorial matrix and the participants were taught for one session. Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the research. T-test was used to analyse the data gathered, and data analysis revealed that pupils exposed to the two treatment strategies had improvement in their reading fluency. It was recommended that the two strategies used in the study can be used to intervene in reading fluency problems in children with learning disabilities.Keywords: Learning disabilities, neurological impress method, repeated reading, reading fluency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3803534 Private Law, Public Justice: Another Look at Imprisonment for Debt under the Jordanian Law
Authors: Haitham A. Haloush
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Debtors' imprisonment in Jordan is a problematic issue since it impinges upon required financial guarantees that are presumably offered by debtors on the one hand, and infringes flagrantly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the other hand. Jordan lacks regulatory provisions in this respect and debtors' imprisonment is indirectly exercised in Jordan without giving a special legal attention to this concern. From this perspective, this research reviews the available regulations, standard laws and codes of conduct that might guide the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the Jordanian context. Furthermore, this article will examine the suitability of the Jordanian legal system in providing sufficient protection for debtors. The author argues that there are serious obstacles in this aspect.
Keywords: The Jordanian Civil Code, the Jordanian Execution Law, imprisonment for debt, good faith, the Jordanian Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 608533 Egyptian Electronic Government: The University Enrolment Case Study
Authors: Hend S.H. Hassan, Essam M. Shehab, Joe Peppard
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E-government projects have potential for greater efficiency and effectiveness of government operations. For this reason, many developing countries governments have invested heavily in this agenda and an increasing number of e-government projects are being implemented. However, there is a lack of clear case material, which describes the potentialities and consequence experienced by organizations trying to manage with this change. The Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD) is the organization responsible for the e-Government program in Egypt since early 2004. This paper presents a case study of the process of admission to public universities and institutions in Egypt which is led by MSAD. Underlining the key benefits resulting from the initiative, explaining the strategies and the development steps used to implement it, and highlighting the main obstacles encountered and how they were overcome will help repeat the experience in other useful e-government projects.
Keywords: Case studies, Egypt, Electronic government, Electronic services, University enrolment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1843532 Neural Network Imputation in Complex Survey Design
Authors: Safaa R. Amer
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Missing data yields many analysis challenges. In case of complex survey design, in addition to dealing with missing data, researchers need to account for the sampling design to achieve useful inferences. Methods for incorporating sampling weights in neural network imputation were investigated to account for complex survey designs. An estimate of variance to account for the imputation uncertainty as well as the sampling design using neural networks will be provided. A simulation study was conducted to compare estimation results based on complete case analysis, multiple imputation using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo, and neural network imputation. Furthermore, a public-use dataset was used as an example to illustrate neural networks imputation under a complex survey design
Keywords: Complex survey, estimate, imputation, neural networks, variance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1972531 Safety Assessment of Traditional Ready-to-Eat Meat Products Vended at Retail Outlets in Kebbi and Sokoto States, Nigeria
Authors: M. I. Ribah, M. Jibir, Y. A. Bashar, S. S. Manga
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Food safety is a significant and growing public health problem in the world and Nigeria as a developing country, since food-borne diseases are important contributors to the huge burden of sickness and death of humans. In Nigeria, traditional ready-to-eat meat products (RTE-MPs) like balangu, tsire, guru and dried meat products like kilishi, dambun nama, banda, were reported to be highly appreciated because of their eating qualities. The consumption of these products was considered as safe due to the treatments that are usually involved during their production process. However, during processing and handling, the products could be contaminated by pathogens that could cause food poisoning. Therefore, a hazard identification for pathogenic bacteria on some traditional RTE-MPs was conducted in Kebbi and Sokoto States, Nigeria. A total of 116 RTE-MPs (balangu-38, kilishi-39 and tsire-39) samples were obtained from retail outlets and analyzed using standard cultural microbiological procedures in general and selective enrichment media to isolate the target pathogens. A six-fold serial dilution was prepared and using the pour plating method, colonies were counted. Serial dilutions were selected based on the prepared pre-labeled Petri dishes for each sample. A volume of 10-12 ml of molten Nutrient agar cooled to 42-45°C was poured into each Petri dish and 1 ml each from dilutions of 102, 104 and 106 for every sample was respectively poured on a pre-labeled Petri plate after which colonies were counted. The isolated pathogens were identified and confirmed after series of biochemical tests. Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the presence of pathogens. The General Linear Model was used to analyze data on pathogen presence according to RTE-MPs and means were separated using the Tukey test at 0.05 confidence level. Of the 116 RTE-MPs samples collected, 35 (30.17%) samples were found to be contaminated with some tested pathogens. Prevalence results showed that Escherichia coli, salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus were present in the samples. Mean total bacterial count was 23.82×106 cfu/g. The frequency of individual pathogens isolated was; Staphylococcus aureus 18 (15.51%), Escherichia coli 12 (10.34%) and Salmonella 5 (4.31%). Also, among the RTE-MPs tested, the total bacterial counts were found to differ significantly (P < 0.05), with 1.81, 2.41 and 2.9×104 cfu/g for tsire, kilishi, and balangu, respectively. The study concluded that the presence of pathogenic bacteria in balangu could pose grave health risks to consumers, and hence, recommended good manufacturing practices in the production of balangu to improve the products’ safety.
Keywords: Ready-to-eat meat products, retail outlets, safety assessment, public health.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1210530 Novel Glycopolymers Containing Carbohydrate Moiety: Copolymerization and Thermal Properties
Authors: Liliana M. Ştefan, Ana M. Pană, Geza Bandur, Marcel Popa, Lucian M. Rusnac
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Polymers are one of the most widely used materials in our every day life. The subject of renewable resources has attracted great attention in the last period of time. New polymeric materials derived from renewable resources, like carbohydrates draw attention to public eye especially because of their biocompatibility and biodegradability. The aim of our paper was to obtain environmentally compatible polymers from monosaccharides. Novel glycopolymers based on D-glucose have been obtained from copolymerization of a new monomer carrying carbohydrate moiety with methyl methacrylate (MMA) via free radical bulk polymerization. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was performed in order to study the copolymerization process of the monomer into the chosen co-monomer; the activation energy of this process was evaluated using Ozawa method. The copolymers obtained were characterized using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The thermal stability of the obtained products was studied by thermogravimetry (TG).
Keywords: DSC, glycopolymer, monosaccarides, TG.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1707529 Stakeholder Analysis of Agricultural Drone Policy: A Case Study of the Agricultural Drone Ecosystem of Thailand
Authors: Thanomsin Chakreeves, Atichat Preittigun, Ajchara Phu-ang
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This paper presents a stakeholder analysis of agricultural drone policies that meet the government's goal of building an agricultural drone ecosystem in Thailand. Firstly, case studies from other countries are reviewed. The stakeholder analysis method and qualitative data from the interviews are then presented including data from the Institute of Innovation and Management, the Office of National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council, agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers. Study and interview data are then employed to describe the current ecosystem and to guide the implementation of agricultural drone policies that are suitable for the ecosystem of Thailand. Finally, policy recommendations are then made that the Thai government should adopt in the future.
Keywords: Drone public policy, drone ecosystem, policy development, agricultural drone.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 810528 Investigating Sustainable Neighborhood Development in Jahanshahr
Authors: Khashayar Kashani Jou, Ilnaz Fathololoomi
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Nowadays, access to sustainable development in cities is assumed as one of the most important goals of urban managers. In the meanwhile, neighborhood as the smallest unit of urban spatial organization has a substantial effect on urban sustainability. Hence, attention to and focus on this subject is highly important in urban development plans. The objective of this study is evaluation of the status of Jahanshahr Neighborhood in Karaj city based on sustainable neighborhood development indicators. This research has been applied based on documentary method and field surveys. Also, evaluating of Jahanshahr Neighborhood of Karaj shows that it has a high level in sustainability in physical and economical dimension while a low level in cultural and social dimension. For this purpose, this neighborhood as a semi-sustainable neighborhood must take measures for development of collective spaces and efficiency of utilizing the public neighborhood spaces via collaboration of citizens and officials.
Keywords: Neighborhood, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Neighborhood Development, Jahanshahr Neighborhood.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1878527 Analysis of Socio-Cultural Obstacles for Dissemination of Nanotechnology from Iran's Agricultural Experts Perspective
Authors: S. M. Mirdamadi, S. Esmaeili, S. A. Tohidloo
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The main purpose of this research was to analyze Socio-Cultural obstacles of disseminating of nanotechnology in Iran's agricultural section. One hundred twenty eight out of a total of 190 researchers with different levels of expertise in and familiarity with nanotechnology were randomly selected and questionnaires completed by them. Face validity have been done by expert's suggestion and correction, reliability by using Cronbakh-Alpha formula. The results of a factor analysis showed variation for different factors. For cultural factors 19/475 percent, for management 13/139 percent, information factor 11/277 percent, production factor 9/703 percent, social factor 9/267 percent, and for attitude factor it became 8/947 percent. Also results indicated that socio-cultural factors were the most important obstacle for nanotechnology dissemination in agricultural section in Iran.
Keywords: Agriculture, Iran, nanotechnology, public perception, social-cultural obstacles.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1852526 The National Security Assurance of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Authors: Sholpan Zhandossova, Erden Ordabek, Yelbolsyn Nazarov
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the article analyzes the national security as a scientific and practical problem, characterized by the state's political institutions to ensure effective action to maintain optimal conditions for the existence and development of the individual and society. National security, as a category of political science reflects the relationship between the security to the nation, including public relations and social consciousness, social institutions and their activities, ensuring the realization of national interests in a particular historical situation. In national security are three security levels: individual, society and state. Their role and place determined by the nature of social relations, political systems, the presence of internal and external threats. In terms of content in the concept of national security is taken to provide political, economic, military, environmental, information security and safety of the cultural development of the nation.
Keywords: Kazakhstan, national security, religious extremism
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1957525 The Household Behavior on Solid Waste and Wastewater Management in Municipal Area with Cleanliness Policy Determined by Community
Authors: Paiboon Jeamponk
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The Bangnanglee Sub-district Administrative Office, Thailand had initiated a policy to environmental protection with encouraging household waste management in order to promote civil responsibility for domestic hygienic. This research studied the household behaviors on solid waste and wastewater management. A sample population of 306 families answered a questionnaire. The study showed that, on average, domestic activities had produced 1.93 kilograms of waste per household per day. It has been found that 79% of the households made several attempts to reduce their own amount of waste. 80% of the households stationed their own garbage bins. 71% managed their waste by selling recyclable products. As for the rest of the waste, 51% burned them, while 29% disposed their waste in the nearby public trashcans and other 13% have them buried. As for wastewater, 60% of the households disposed it into the sewage, whereas 30% disposed them right from their elevated house.Keywords: Environmental integrated management, environmental protection, household waste management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2266524 The Paralinguistic Function of Emojis in Twitter Communication
Authors: Yasmin Tantawi, Mary Beth Rosson
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In response to the dearth of information about emoji use for different purposes in different settings, this paper investigates the paralinguistic function of emojis within Twitter communication in the United States. To conduct this investigation, the Twitter feeds from 16 population centers spread throughout the United States were collected from the Twitter public API. One hundred tweets were collected from each population center, totaling to 1,600 tweets. Tweets containing emojis were next extracted using the “emot” Python package; these were then analyzed via the IBM Watson API Natural Language Understanding module to identify the topics discussed. A manual content analysis was then conducted to ascertain the paralinguistic and emotional features of the emojis used in these tweets. We present our characterization of emoji usage in Twitter and discuss implications for the design of Twitter and other text-based communication tools.
Keywords: Computer mediated communication, content analysis, paralinguistics, sociology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2029523 Perceptions of Health Risks amongst Tertiary Education Students in Mauritius
Authors: Smita S. D. Goorah, Dilish Jokhoo
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A personal estimate of a health risk may not correspond to a scientific assessment of the health risk. Hence, there is a need to investigate perceived health risks in the public. In this study, a young, educated and healthy group of people from a tertiary institute were questioned about their health concerns. Ethics clearance was obtained and data was collected by means of a questionnaire. 362 students participated in the study. Tobacco use, heavy alcohol drinking, illicit drugs, unsafe sex and potential carcinogens were perceived to be the five greatest threats to health in this cohort. On the other hand natural health products, unemployment, unmet contraceptive needs, family violence and homelessness were felt to be the least perceived health risks. Nutrition-related health risks as well as health risks due to physical inactivity and obesity were not perceived as major health threats. Such a study of health perceptions may guide health promotion campaigns.
Keywords: Health promotion, perceptions of health risks, university students.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1863522 Fastest Growing Crime with Invisible Chains: A Review of Escaping Sex Trafficking Frameworks in Canada
Authors: Alisha Fisher
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Survivors of sex trafficking often report extensive harm not just from the violence itself, but multiple levels such as internalized shame, societal misunderstandings, and the process of reporting, exiting, and healing. The aim of this article is to examine the multi-layered approach to supporting survivors who are exiting sex trafficking through immediate, short-term, and long-term care approaches. We present a systematic review of the current barriers structurally, psychosocially, and psychologically through a Canadian perspective, and apply them to the interventions within the service continuum, basic needs, and further needs and supports to consider. This article suggests that ongoing and additional funding to survivor’s support services, specialized police and heath care training, and increased prevention and public education on the realities of sex trafficking in Canada is a necessity for survivor healing, and the prevention of further harm.
Keywords: Canada Sex Trafficking, exiting sex trafficking, sex trafficking survivors, sex trafficking supports.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 505521 Occurrence of Adult Taenia saginata in Cattle Slaughtered in Major Abattoirs in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Nigeria
Authors: Lebari B. Gboeloh
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The occurrence of adult Taenia saginata in major abattoirs in Port Harcourt metropolis was investigated. Out of 514 cattle investigated, an overall prevalence of 35(6.8%) was recorded. Infected male and female cattle represented 1.2% (6/514) and 5.6% (29/514) of the overall prevalence respectively. There was a statistical significant difference (P< 0.05) in prevalence of adult Taenaia saginata between male and female cattle examined in the study area. Old cattle have a significant (P< 0.05) infestation rate than young ones. Adult Taenia saginata exists in cattle and still remains a public health concern in the study area. Deliberate effort is needed from stake-holders and the Government to design and implement programs that will lead to the prevention and possible eradication of the parasite.
Keywords: Taenia saginata, Adult, Cattle, Occurrence, Port Harcourt.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2064520 Power Frequency Magnetic Field Survey in Indoor Power Distribution Substation in Egypt
Authors: Ahmed Hossam_ ElDin, Ahmed Farag, Ibrahim Madi., Hanaa Karawia
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In our modern society electricity is vital to our health, safety, comfort and well-being. While our daily use of electricity is often taken for granted, public concern has arisen about potential adverse health effects from electric and magnetic – electromagnetic – fields (EMFs) produced by our use of electricity. This paper aims to compare between the measured magnetic field values and the simulated models for the indoor medium to low voltage (MV/LV) distribution substations. To calculate the magnetic flux density in the substations, interactive software SUBCALC is used which is based on closed form solution of the Biot-Savart law with 3D conductor model. The comparison between the measured values and the simulated models was acceptable. However there were some discrepancies, as expected, may be due to the current variation during measurements.Keywords: Distribution substation, magnetic field, measurement, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2302519 An Intelligent Fuzzy-Neural Diagnostic System for Osteoporosis Risk Assessment
Authors: Chin-Ming Hong, Chin-Teng Lin, Chao-Yen Huang, Yi-Ming Lin
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In this article, we propose an Intelligent Medical Diagnostic System (IMDS) accessible through common web-based interface, to on-line perform initial screening for osteoporosis. The fundamental approaches which construct the proposed system are mainly based on the fuzzy-neural theory, which can exhibit superiority over other conventional technologies in many fields. In diagnosis process, users simply answer a series of directed questions to the system, and then they will immediately receive a list of results which represents the risk degrees of osteoporosis. According to clinical testing results, it is shown that the proposed system can provide the general public or even health care providers with a convenient, reliable, inexpensive approach to osteoporosis risk assessment.Keywords: BMD, osteoporosis, IMDS, fuzzy-neural theory, web interface.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1954518 Pervasive Computing in Healthcare Systems
Authors: Elham Rastegari, Amirmasood Rahmani, Saeed Setayeshi
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The hospital and the health-care center of a community, as a place for people-s life-care and health-care settings, must provide more and better services for patients or residents. After Establishing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system -which is a necessity- in the hospital, providing pervasive services is a further step. Our objective in this paper is to use pervasive computing in a case study of healthcare, based on EMR database that coordinates application services over network to form a service environment for medical and health-care. Our method also categorizes the hospital spaces into 3 spaces: Public spaces, Private spaces and Isolated spaces. Although, there are many projects about using pervasive computing in healthcare, but all of them concentrate on the disease recognition, designing smart cloths, or provide services only for patient. The proposed method is implemented in a hospital. The obtained results show that it is suitable for our purpose.Keywords: Pervasive computing, RFID, Health-care.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3010517 Nature of Cities: Ontological Dimension of the Urban
Authors: Ana Cristina García-Luna Romero
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This document seeks to reflect on the urban project from its conceptual identity root. In the first instance, a proposal is made on how the city project is sustained from the conceptual root, from the logos: it opens a way to assimilate the imagination; what we imagine becomes a reality. In this way, firstly, the need to use language as a vehicle for transmitting the stories that sustain us as humanity can be deemed as an important social factor that enables us to social behavior. Secondly, the need to attend to the written language as a mechanism of power, as a means to consolidate a dominant ideology or a political position, is raised; as it served to carry out the modernization project, it is therefore addressed differences between the real and the literate city. Thus, the consolidated urban-architectural project is based on logos, the project, and planning. Considering the importance of materiality and its relation to subjective well-being contextualized from a socio-urban approach, we question ourselves into how we can look at something that is doubtful. From a philosophy perspective, the truth is considered to be nothing more than a matter of correspondence between the observer and the observed. To understand beyond the relative of the gaze, it is necessary to expose different perspectives since it depends on the understanding of what is observed and how it is critically analyzed. Therefore, the analysis of materiality, as a political field, takes a proposal based on this research in the principles in transgenesis: principle of communication, representativeness, security, health, malleability, availability of potentiality or development, conservation, sustainability, economy, harmony, stability, accessibility, justice, legibility, significance, consistency, joint responsibility, connectivity, beauty, among others. The (urban) human being acts because he wants to live in a certain way: in a community, in a fair way, with opportunity for development, with the possibility of managing the environment according to their needs, etc. In order to comply with this principle, it is necessary to design strategies from the principles in transgenesis, which must be named, defined, understood, and socialized by the urban being, the companies, and from themselves. In this way, the technical status of the city in the neoliberal present determines extraordinary conditions for reflecting on an almost emergency scenario created by the impact of cities that, far from being limited to resilient proposals, must aim at the reflection of the urban process that the present social model has generated. Therefore, can we rethink the paradigm of the perception of life quality in the current neoliberal model in the production of the character of public space related to the practices of being urban. What we are trying to do within this document is to build a framework to study under what logic the practices of the social system that make sense of the public space are developed, what the implications of the phenomena of the inscription of action and materialization (and its results over political action between the social and the technical system) are and finally, how we can improve the quality of life of individuals from the urban space.
Keywords: Cities, nature, society, urban quality of life.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 564516 Adoption and Diffusion of E-Government Services in India: The Impact of User Demographics and Service Quality
Authors: Sayantan Khanra, Rojers P. Joseph
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This study attempts to analyze the impact of demography and service quality on the adoption and diffusion of e-Government services in the context of India. The objective of this paper is to study the users' perception about e-Government services and investigate the key variables that are most salient to the Indian populace. At the completion of this study, a research model that would help to understand the relationship involving the demographic variables and service quality dimensions, and the willingness to adopt e-Government services is expected to be developed. Dedicated authorities, particularly those in developing economies, may use that model or its augmented versions to design and update e-Government services and promote their use among citizens. After all, enhanced public participation is required to improve efficiency, engagement and transparency in the implementation of the aforementioned services.
Keywords: Adoption and diffusion of e-Government services, demographic variables, hierarchical regression analysis, service quality dimensions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1780515 Opportunities and Options for Government to Promote Corporate Social Responsibility in the Czech Republic
Authors: Pavel Adámek
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The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the Czech Republic has evolved notably during the last few years and an issue that started as an interest- and motive-based activity for businesses is becoming more commonplace. Governments have a role to play in ensuring that corporations behave according to the rules and norms of society and can legislate, foster, collaborate with businesses and endorse good practice in order to facilitate the development of CSR. The purpose of this paper is to examine the opportunities and options of CSR in government policy and research its relevance to a business sector. An increasing number of companies is engaging in responsible activities, the public awareness of CSR is rising, and customers are giving higher importance to CSR of companies in their choice. By drawing on existing CSR approach in Czech and understanding of CSR are demonstrated. The paper provides an overview, more detailed government approach of CSR.
Keywords: Approach, corporate social responsibility, government policy, instruments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2233514 An Approach Based on Statistics and Multi-Resolution Representation to Classify Mammograms
Authors: Nebi Gedik
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One of the significant and continual public health problems in the world is breast cancer. Early detection is very important to fight the disease, and mammography has been one of the most common and reliable methods to detect the disease in the early stages. However, it is a difficult task, and computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems are needed to assist radiologists in providing both accurate and uniform evaluation for mass in mammograms. In this study, a multiresolution statistical method to classify mammograms as normal and abnormal in digitized mammograms is used to construct a CAD system. The mammogram images are represented by wave atom transform, and this representation is made by certain groups of coefficients, independently. The CAD system is designed by calculating some statistical features using each group of coefficients. The classification is performed by using support vector machine (SVM).
Keywords: Wave atom transform, statistical features, multi-resolution representation, mammogram.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 882513 Hybrid Living: Emerging Out of the Crises and Divisions
Authors: Yiorgos Hadjichristou
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The paper will focus on the hybrid living typologies which are brought about due to the Global Crisis. Mixing of the generations and the groups of people, mingling the functions of living with working and socializing, merging the act of living in synergy with the urban realm and its constituent elements will be the springboard of proposing an essential sustainable housing approach and the respective urban development. The thematic will be based on methodologies developed both on the academic, educational environment including participation of students’ research and on the practical aspect of architecture including case studies executed by the author in the island of Cyprus. Both paths of the research will deal with the explorative understanding of the hybrid ways of living, testing the limits of its autonomy. The evolution of the living typologies into substantial hybrid entities, will deal with the understanding of new ways of living which include among others: re-introduction of natural phenomena, accommodation of the activity of work and services in the living realm, interchange of public and private, injections of communal events into the individual living territories. The issues and the binary questions raised by what is natural and artificial, what is private and what public, what is ephemeral and what permanent and all the in-between conditions are eloquently traced in the everyday life in the island. Additionally, given the situation of Cyprus with the eminent scar of the dividing ‘Green line’ and the waiting of the ‘ghost city’ of Famagusta to be resurrected, the conventional way of understanding the limits and the definitions of the properties is irreversibly shaken. The situation is further aggravated by the unprecedented phenomenon of the crisis on the island. All these observations set the premises of reexamining the urban development and the respective sustainable housing in a synergy where their characteristics start exchanging positions, merge into each other, contemporarily emerge and vanish, changing from permanent to ephemeral. This fluidity of conditions will attempt to render a future of the built- and unbuilt realm where the main focusing point will be redirected to the human and the social. Weather and social ritual scenographies together with ‘spontaneous urban landscapes’ of ‘momentary relationships’ will suggest a recipe for emerging urban environments and sustainable living. Thus, the paper will aim at opening a discourse on the future of the sustainable living merged in a sustainable urban development in relation to the imminent solution of the division of island, where the issue of property became the main obstacle to be overcome. At the same time, it will attempt to link this approach to the global need for a sustainable evolution of the urban and living realms.
Keywords: Social ritual scenographies, spontaneous urban landscapes, substantial hybrid entities, re-introduction of natural phenomena.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1078512 Problems of the Management of Legal Entities of Private Law in Georgia
Authors: Ketevan Kokrashvili, Rusudan Kutateladze, Nino Pailodze
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Importance of management of legal entities under private law of which especially corporate management, as well as looking for ways of its improvement and perfection has become especially relevant in the twenty-first century, which was greatly contributed to by the global economic crisis. Some states have adopted Corporate Governance Codes; the European Union has set to work on a series of directives the main purpose of which is an improvement of corporate governance, provision of greater transparency and implementation of an effective control mechanism. This process is not yet completed, and various problematic issues associated with management of legal persons are still being debated among practitioner experts and scholars. Georgia is not an exception in this regard. The article discusses the legislative gaps, and in some cases, discrepancies having arisen in legal relationships under private law and having caused many practical problems. This especially applies to the management of capital companies.Keywords: Business entities, corporate management, public capital management, collective norms, existing problems, legal discrepancies.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 922511 Evaluation of Haar Cascade Classifiers Designed for Face Detection
Authors: R. Padilla, C. F. F. Costa Filho, M. G. F. Costa
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In the past years a lot of effort has been made in the field of face detection. The human face contains important features that can be used by vision-based automated systems in order to identify and recognize individuals. Face location, the primary step of the vision-based automated systems, finds the face area in the input image. An accurate location of the face is still a challenging task. Viola-Jones framework has been widely used by researchers in order to detect the location of faces and objects in a given image. Face detection classifiers are shared by public communities, such as OpenCV. An evaluation of these classifiers will help researchers to choose the best classifier for their particular need. This work focuses of the evaluation of face detection classifiers minding facial landmarks.Keywords: Face datasets, face detection, facial landmarking, haar wavelets, Viola-Jones detectors.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5414510 Detecting Major Misconceptions about Employment in ICT: A Study of the Myths about ICT Work among Females
Authors: Eneli Kindsiko, Kulno Türk
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The purpose of the current article is to reveal misconceptions about ICT occupations that keep females away from the field. The study focuses on the three phases in one’s career life cycle: pre-university, university and workplace with the aim of investigating how to attract more females into an ICT-related career. By studying nearly 300 secondary school graduates, 102 university students and 18 female ICT specialists, the study revealed six myths that influence the decision-making process of young girls in pursuing an ICT-related education and career. Furthermore, discriminating conception of ICT as a primarily man’s world is developed before the university period. Stereotypical barriers should be brought out to the public debate, so that a remarkable proportion of possible employees (women) would not stay away from the tech-related fields. Countries could make a remarkable leap in efficiency, when turning their attention to the gender-related issues in the labour market structure.Keywords: ICT, women, education, stereotypes, computers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1641509 Consideration of Criteria of Vibration Comfort of People in Diagnosis and Design of Buildings
Authors: Kawecki J., Kowalska-Koczwara A., Stypula K.
Abstract:
The increasing influence of traffic on building objects and people residing in them should be taken into account in diagnosis and design. Users of buildings expect that vibrations occurring in their environment, will not only lead to damage to the building or its accelerated wear, but neither would affect the required comfort in rooms designed to accommodate people. This article describes the methods and principles useful in designing and building diagnostics located near transportation routes, with particular emphasis on the impact of traffic vibration on people in buildings. It also describes the procedures used in obtaining information about the parameters of vibrations in different cases of diagnostics and design. A universal algorithm of procedure in diagnostics and design of buildings taking into account assurance of human vibration comfort of people residing in the these buildings was presented.Keywords: diagnostics, influence of public transport, influence of vibrations on humans, transport vibrations
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2374508 Assessment of Noise Pollution in the City of Biskra, Algeria
Authors: Tallal Abdel Karim Bouzir, Nourdinne Zemmouri, Djihed Berkouk
Abstract:
In this research, a quantitative assessment of the urban sound environment of the city of Biskra, Algeria, was conducted. To determine the quality of the soundscape based on in-situ measurement, using a Landtek SL5868P sound level meter in 47 points, which have been identified to represent the whole city. The result shows that the urban noise level varies from 55.3 dB to 75.8 dB during the weekdays and from 51.7 dB to 74.3 dB during the weekend. On the other hand, we can also note that 70.20% of the results of the weekday measurements and 55.30% of the results of the weekend measurements have levels of sound intensity that exceed the levels allowed by Algerian law and the recommendations of the World Health Organization. These very high urban noise levels affect the quality of life, the acoustic comfort and may even pose multiple risks to people's health.Keywords: Noise pollution, road traffic, sound intensity, public health, noise monitoring.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1070