Search results for: Hierarchial groups
424 Gas Flaring in the Niger Delta Nigeria: An Act of Inhumanity to Man and His Environment
Authors: Okorowo Cyril Agochi
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The Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is home to about 20 million people and 40 different ethnic groups. The region has an area of seventy thousand square kilometers (70,000 KM2) of wetlands, formed primarily by sediments deposition and makes up 7.5 percent of Nigeria's total landmass. The notable ecological zones in this region includes: coastal barrier islands; mangrove swamp forests; fresh water swamps; and lowland rainforests. This incredibly naturally-endowed ecosystem region, which contains one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet, in addition to supporting abundant flora and fauna, is threatened by the inhuman act known as gas flaring. Gas flaring is the combustion of natural gas that is associated with crude oil when it is pumped up from the ground. In petroleum-producing areas such as the Niger Delta region of Nigeria where insufficient investment was made in infrastructure to utilize natural gas, flaring is employed to dispose of this associated gas. This practice has impoverished the communities where it is practiced, with attendant environmental, economic and health challenges. This paper discusses the adverse environmental and health implication associated with the practice, the role of Government, Policy makers, Oil companies and the Local communities aimed at bring this inhuman practice to a prompt end.
Keywords: Combustion, Emission, Environment, Flaring, Gas, Health, Niger Delta.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2710423 Research on Emotional Healing Street Furniture under the Background of Urban Micro-Renewal
Authors: Tanhao Gao, Hongtao Zhou
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With the COVID-19 pandemic spreading worldwide, people are facing more significant mental pressure. The government and social groups are sparing no effort to find ways to heal people's emotions and return to normal life. Therefore, research on emotional healing has urgency and practical significance. From the perspective of urban planning, street furniture has the potential to become "emotional healing touchpoints." This study first analyzed the suitable places for adding emotional healing street furniture in the background of urban micro-renewal and combined the 15-minute living circle, the leftover space, and urban acupuncture theories, then used the 5W analysis method to show the main characteristics of emotionally healing street furniture. Finally, the research discovers four design strategies, which can be summarized as: A. Exploring the renewal potential of the leftover space; B. Integrating with local culture and the surrounding environment; C. Discovering quick and straightforward ways of interaction; D. Finding a delicate balance between artistry and functionality. Then, we take one emotional healing street furniture located on Chifeng Road as an example to show the design strategies vividly.
Keywords: Emotional healing, street furniture, urban micro-renewal, urban acupuncture.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 446422 Integration of Best Practices and Requirements for Preliminary E-Learning Courses
Authors: Sophie Huck, Knut Linke
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This study will examine how IT practitioners can be motivated for IT studies and which kind of support they need during their occupational studies. Within this research project, the challenge of supporting students being engaged in business for several years arose. Here, it is especially important to successfully guide them through their studies. The problem of this group is that they finished their school education years ago. In order to gather first experiences, preliminary e-learning courses were introduced and tested with a group of users studying General Management. They had to work with these courses and have been questioned later on about their approach to the different methods. Moreover, a second group of potential students was interviewed with the help of online questionnaires to give information about their expectations regarding extra occupational studies. We also want to present best practices and cases in e-education in the subarea of mathematics and distance learning. Within these cases and practices, we use state of the art systems and technologies in e-education to find a way to increase teaching quality and the success of students. Our research indicated that the first group of enrolled students appreciated the new preliminary e-learning courses. The second group of potential students was convinced of this way of learning as a significant component of extra occupational studies. It can be concluded that this part of the project clarified the acceptance of the e-learning strategy by both groups and led to satisfactory results with the enrolled students.
Keywords: E-learning evaluation, self-learning, virtual classroom, virtual learning environments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1667421 Modular Hybrid Robots for Safe Human-Robot Interaction
Authors: J. Radojicic, D. Surdilovic, G. Schreck
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The paper considers a novel modular and intrinsically safe redundant robotic system with biologically inspired actuators (pneumatic artificial muscles and rubber bellows actuators). Similarly to the biological systems, the stiffness of the internal parallel modules, representing 2 DOF joints in the serial robotic chains, is controlled by co-activation of opposing redundant actuator groups in the null-space of the module Jacobian, without influencing the actual robot position. The decoupled position/stiffness control allows the realization of variable joint stiffness according to different force-displacement relationships. The variable joint stiffness, as well as limited pneumatic muscle/bellows force ability, ensures internal system safety that is crucial for development of human-friendly robots intended for human-robot collaboration. The initial experiments with the system prototype demonstrate the capabilities of independently, simultaneously controlling both joint (Cartesian) motion and joint stiffness. The paper also presents the possible industrial applications of snake-like robots built using the new modules.
Keywords: bellows actuator, human-robot interaction, hyper redundant robot, pneumatic muscle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1988420 Cross-Border Shopping Motivation, Behaviours and Ethnocentrism of Malaysian in Hatyai, Thailand
Authors: Wanwisa Kuncharin, Badaruddin Mohamed
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There have been few studies of cross-border shopping. However, many have focused on macroeconomic effects rather than on discovering the motivation and behaviour of cross-border shoppers who purchase abroad. Hatyai, Thailand is located about 30 km from the Malaysian border. The statistics reports that each year more than 400,000 Malaysian visitors visited Hatyai. The aims of this study are fourfold: (1) to investigate factors motivating cross-border shoppers to shop in Hatyai, Thailand; (2) to examine the relationship between ethnicity and shopper ethnocentrism; (3) to discover the impact of shopper ethnocentrism on foreign product judgment; and (4) to explore the impact of shopper ethnocentrism on the willingness to buy foreign products. The results reveal that the three most popular consumption items were food and beverages, clothing, and grocery products. Factor analysis shows that the three key reasons for choosing Hatyai as the cross-border shopping destination included product and store, close distance, and low exchange rate. Moreover, there were significant differences in ethnocentrism by three ethnic groups. Shopper ethnocentrism had a significant negative correlation with foreign product judgment, while shopper ethnocentrism was not significantly correlated with willingness to buy foreign products.
Keywords: Cross-border shopping behaviours, Malaysian shoppers, Ethnocentrism, Hatyai, Thailand.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3857419 Effect of Combined Carbimazole and Curcuma longa Powder in Human Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone and Thyroperoxidase Antibody in Hyperthyroidism
Authors: Ahmed Abdi Hassan, Mustapha Muhammad Aliyu
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Turmeric (Curcuma longa) belongs to the ginger family and is used for food coloring mostly in Asian countries. It has long traditional medicinal value for the treatment of inflammations with excellent antioxidant properties. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficiency of turmeric powder in the treatment of hyperthyroidism when combined with carbimazole antithyroid drug. The trial was conducted on 20 hyperthyroid patients but only 16 of them were successfully enrolled for the study. The 16 patients were divided into two equal groups where one group was treated with the only carbimazole while the other group was treated with a combined approach of carbimazole plus turmeric for 6 months consecutively. The result obtained is promising showing an average improvement of 99% in Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and 88%Thyroid Autoantibodies (TPOAb) in patients treated with the combined approach compared to those treated with the only carbimazole with an average of 3% and 18% of TSH and TPOAb improvement respectively. However, no major difference has been observed in both T4 and T3. Therefore, turmeric powder is a promising treatment if carefully and consistently combined with carbimazole antithyroid drug at very low amounts of 1.5 to 2 grams for at least 2 to 3 times a week.Keywords: Thyroid, curcuminoids, turmeric, thyroxine, triiodothyronine, thyroid stimulating hormone, TPOAb.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 409418 The Impact of Physics Taught with Simulators and Texts in Brazilian High School: A Study in the Adult and Youth Education
Authors: Leandro Marcos Alves Vaz
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The teaching of physics in Brazilian public schools emphasizes strongly the theoretical aspects of this science, showing its philosophical and mathematical basis, but neglecting its experimental character. Perhaps the lack of science laboratories explains this practice. In this work, we present a method of teaching physics using the computer. As alternatives to real experiments, we have the trials through simulators, many of which are free software available on the internet. In order to develop a study on the use of simulators in teaching, knowing the impossibility of simulations on all topics in a given subject, we combined these programs with phenomenological and/or experimental texts in order to mitigate this limitation. This study proposes the use of simulators and the debate using phenomenological/experimental texts on electrostatic theme in groups of the 3rd year of EJA (Adult and Youth Education) in order to verify the advantages of this methodology. Some benefits of the hybridization of the traditional method with the tools used were: Greater motivation of the students in learning, development of experimental notions, proactive socialization to learning, greater easiness to understand some concepts and the creation of collaborative activities that can reduce timidity of part of the students.
Keywords: Physics teaching, simulators, youth and adult education, experimentation, electrostatic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1171417 Adopting Flocks of Birds Approach to Predator for Anomalies Detection on Industrial Control Systems
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Industrial Control Systems (ICS) such as Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) can be seen in many different critical infrastructures, from nuclear management to utility, medical equipment, power, waste and engine management on ships and planes. The role SCADA plays in critical infrastructure has resulted in a call to secure them. Many lives depend on it for daily activities and the attack vectors are becoming more sophisticated. Hence, the security of ICS is vital as malfunction of it might result in huge risk. This paper describes how the application of Prey Predator (PP) approach in flocks of birds could enhance the detection of malicious activities on ICS. The PP approach explains how these animals in groups or flocks detect predators by following some simple rules. They are not necessarily very intelligent animals but their approach in solving complex issues such as detection through corporation, coordination and communication worth emulating. This paper will emulate flocking behavior seen in birds in detecting predators. The PP approach will adopt six nearest bird approach in detecting any predator. Their local and global bests are based on the individual detection as well as group detection. The PP algorithm was designed following MapReduce methodology that follows a Split Detection Convergence (SDC) approach.
Keywords: Industrial control systems, prey predator, SCADA, SDC.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1166416 Perception of the Frequency and Importance of Peer Social Support by Students with Special Educational Needs in Inclusive Education
Authors: Lucia Hrebeňárová, Jarmila Žolnová, Veronika Palková
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Inclusive education of students with special educational needs has been on the increase in the Slovak Republic, facing many challenges. Preparedness of teachers for inclusive education is one of the most frequent issues; teachers lack skills when it comes to the use of effective instruction depending on the individual needs of students, improvement of classroom management and social skills, and support of inclusion within the classroom. Social support is crucial for the school success of students within inclusive settings. The aim of the paper is to analyse perception of the frequency and importance of peer social support by students with special educational needs in inclusive education. The data collection tool used was the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS). The research sample consisted of 953 fourth grade students – 141 students with special educational needs educated in an inclusive setting and 812 students of the standard population. No significant differences were found between the students with special educational needs and the students without special educational needs in an inclusive setting when it comes to the perception of frequency and importance of social support of schoolmates and friends. However, the perception of frequency and importance of a friend’s social support was higher than the perception of frequency and importance of a classmate’s social support in both groups of students.Keywords: Inclusive education, peer social support, peer, student with special educational needs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1296415 The Search of Anomalous Higgs Boson Couplings at the Large Hadron Electron Collider and Future Circular Electron Hadron Collider
Authors: Ilkay Turk Cakir, Murat Altinli, Zekeriya Uysal, Abdulkadir Senol, Olcay Bolukbasi Yalcinkaya, Ali Yilmaz
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The Higgs boson was discovered by the ATLAS and CMS experimental groups in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Production and decay properties of the Higgs boson, Standard Model (SM) couplings, and limits on effective scale of the Higgs boson’s couplings with other bosons are investigated at particle colliders. Deviations from SM estimates are parametrized by effective Lagrangian terms to investigate Higgs couplings. This is a model-independent method for describing the new physics. In this study, sensitivity to neutral gauge boson anomalous couplings with the Higgs boson is investigated using the parameters of the Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) and the Future Circular electron-hadron Collider (FCC-eh) with a model-independent approach. By using MadGraph5_aMC@NLO multi-purpose event generator with the parameters of LHeC and FCC-eh, the bounds on the anomalous Hγγ, HγZ and HZZ couplings in e− p → e− q H process are obtained. Detector simulations are also taken into account in the calculations.Keywords: Anomalous Couplings, Effective Lagrangian, Electron-Proton Colliders, Higgs Boson.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 850414 Prevalence of Headache among Adult Population in Urban Varanasi, India
Authors: Hari Shankar, Kshitij Raj, Priya Keshari, Pragya Singh
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Headache is one of the most ubiquitous and frequent neurological disorders interfering with everyday life in all countries. India appears to be no exception. Objectives are to assess the prevalence of headache among adult population in urban area of Varanasi and to find out factors influencing the occurrence of headache. A community based cross sectional study was conducted among adult population in urban area of Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Total 151 eligible respondents were interviewed by simple random sampling technique. Proportion percentage and Chisquare test were applied for data analysis. Out of 151 respondents, majority (58.3%) were females. In this study, 92.8% respondents belonged to age group 18-60 years while 7.2% was either 60 year of age or above. The overall prevalence of headache was found to be 51.1%. Highest and lowest prevalence of headache was recorded in age groups 18-29 year & 40-49 year respectively. Headache was 62.1% in illiterate and was 40.0% among graduate & above. Unskilled workers had more headache 73.1% than other type of occupation. Headache was more prevalent among unemployed (35.9%) than employed (6.4%). Females had higher family history of headache (48.9%) as compared to males (41.3%). Study subjects having peaceful relation with family members, relatives and neighbors had more headache than those having no peaceful relation.Keywords: Family relationship, headache, neighbors, ration cards.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1634413 Effect of Bacillus subtilis Pb6 on Growth and Gut Microflora in Clostridium perfringens Challenged Broilers
Authors: A. Khalique, T. Naseem, N. Haque, Z. Rasool
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The objective of current study was to investigate the effect of Bacillus subtilis PB6 (CloSTAT) as a probiotic in broilers. The corn-soybean based diet was divided into four treatment groups; T1 (basal diet with no probiotic and no Clostridium perfringens); T2 (basal diet challenged with C. perfringens without probiotic); T3 (basal diet challenged with C. perfringens having 0.05% probiotic); T4 (basal diet challenged with C. perfringens having 0.1% probiotic). Every treatment group had four replicates with 24 birds each. Body weight and feed intake were measured on weekly basis, while ileal bacterial count was recorded on day-28 following Clostridium perfringens challenge. The 0.1% probiotic treatment showed 7.2% increase in average feed intake (P=0.05) and 8% increase in body weight compared to T2. In 0.1% treatment body weight was 5% higher than T3 (P=0.02). It was also observed that 0.1% treatment had improved feed conversion ratio (1.77) on 6th week. No effect of treatment was observed on mortality and ileal bacterial count. The current study indicated that 0.1% use of probiotic had positive response in C. perfringens challenged broilers.
Keywords: Bacillus subtilis PB6, antibiotic growth promoters, Clostridium perfringens, CloSTAT, broilers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1104412 Preliminary Toxicological Evaluations of Polypeptide-K Isolated from Momordica Charantia in Laboratory Rats
Authors: M Nazrul-Hakim, A Yaacob, Y Adam, A Zuraini
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This study examined the toxicological effects and safety of polypeptide k isolated from the seeds of Momordica charantia in laboratory rats. 30 male Sprague Dawley rats (12 weeks old, bodyweight 180-200 g) were randomly divided into 3 groups (1000 mg/kg, 500 mg and 0 mg/kg). Rats were acclimatized to laboratory conditions for 7 days and at day 8 rats were dosed orally with polypeptide k (in 2% DMSO/normal saline) and the controls received the dosed vehicle only. Rats were then observed for 72 hours before sacrificed. Rats were anaesthetized by pentobarbital (50 mg/kg ip) and 2-3.0 mL of blood was taken by cardiac puncture and rats were scarified by anaesthetic overdose. Immediately, organs (heart, lungs, liver, kidneys) were weigh and taken for histology. Organ sections were then evaluated by a histopathologist. Serum samples were assayed for liver functions (ALT and γ-GT) and kidney functions (BUN and creatinine). All rats showed normal behavior after the dosing and no statistical changes were observed in all blood parameters and organ weight. Histological examinations revealed normal organ structures. In conclusion, dosing of rats up to 1000 mg/kg did not have any effects on the rat behavior, liver or kidney functions nor histology of the selected organs.Keywords: Polypeptide k, safety, histology, toxicology, Momordica charantia
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2003411 Automatic Choice of Topics for Seminars by Clustering Students According to Their Profile
Authors: J.R. Quevedo, E. Montañés, J. Ranilla, A. Bahamonde
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The new framework the Higher Education is immersed in involves a complete change in the way lecturers must teach and students must learn. Whereas the lecturer was the main character in traditional education, the essential goal now is to increase the students' participation in the process. Thus, one of the main tasks of lecturers in this new context is to design activities of different nature in order to encourage such participation. Seminars are one of the activities included in this environment. They are active sessions that enable going in depth into specific topics as support of other activities. They are characterized by some features such as favoring interaction between students and lecturers or improving their communication skills. Hence, planning and organizing strategic seminars is indeed a great challenge for lecturers with the aim of acquiring knowledge and abilities. This paper proposes a method using Artificial Intelligence techniques to obtain student profiles from their marks and preferences. The goal of building such profiles is twofold. First, it facilitates the task of splitting the students into different groups, each group with similar preferences and learning difficulties. Second, it makes it easy to select adequate topics to be a candidate for the seminars. The results obtained can be either a guarantee of what the lecturers could observe during the development of the course or a clue to reconsider new methodological strategies in certain topics.Keywords: artificial intelligence, clustering, organizingseminars, student profile
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1356410 Chitosan Nanoparticle as a Novel Delivery System for A/H1n1 Influenza Vaccine: Safe Property and Immunogenicity in Mice
Authors: Nguyen Anh Dzung, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hà, Dang Thi Hong Van, Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong, Nguyen Thi Nhu Quynh, Dinh Minh Hiep, Le Van Hiep
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The aims of this paper are to study the efficacy of chitosan nanoparticles in stimulating specific antibody against A/H1N1 influenza antigen in mice. Chitosan nanoparticles (CSN) were characterized by TEM. The results showed that the average size of CSN was from 80nm to 106nm. The efficacy of A/H1N1 influenza vaccine loaded on the surface of CSN showed that loading efficiency of A/H1N1 influenza antigen on CSN was from 93.75 to 100%. Safe property of the vaccine were tested. In 10 days post vaccination, group of CSN 30 kDa and 300 kDa loaded A/H1N1 influenza antigen were the rate of immune response on mice to be 100% (9/9) higher than Al(OH)3 and other adjuvant. 100% mice in the experiment of all groups had immune response in 20 days post vaccination. The results also showed that HI titer of the group using CSN 300 kDa as an adjuvant increased significantly up to 3971 HIU, over three-fold higher than the Al(OH)3 adjuvant, chitosan (CS), and one hundredfold than the A/H1N1 antigen only. Stability of the vaccine formulation was investigated.Keywords: Chitosan nanoparticles, A/H1N1 influenza antigen, vaccine, immunogenicity, adjuvant, antibody titer
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2473409 Parental and Related Factors Affecting Students’ Academic Achievement in Oyo State, Nigeria
Authors: Oladele K. Ogunsola, Kazeem A. Osuolale, Akintayo O. Ojo
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Many factors influence the educational outcome of students. Some of these have been studied by researchers with many emphasizing the role of students, schools, governments, peer groups and so on. More often than not, some of these factors influencing the academic achievement of the students have been traced back to parents and family; being the primary platform on which learning not only begins but is nurtured, encouraged and developed which later transforms to the performance of the students. This study not only explores parental and related factors that predict academic achievement through the review of relevant literatures but also, investigates the influence of parental background on the academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. As one of the criteria of the quality of education, students’ academic achievement was investigated because it is most often cited as an indicator of school effectiveness by school authorities and educationists. The data collection was done through interviews and use of well-structured questionnaires administered to one hundred students (100) within the target local government. This was statistically analysed and the result showed that parents’ attitudes towards their children’s education had significant effect(s) on students’ self-reporting of academic achievement. However, such factors as parental education and socioeconomic background had no significant relationship with the students’ self-reporting of academic achievement.Keywords: Academic attainment, Parental factors, students, Oyo State, Nigeria.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8325408 Gender Based Variability Time Series Complexity Analysis
Authors: Ramesh K. Sunkaria, Puneeta Marwaha
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Non linear methods of heart rate variability (HRV) analysis are becoming more popular. It has been observed that complexity measures quantify the regularity and uncertainty of cardiovascular RR-interval time series. In the present work, SampEn has been evaluated in healthy normal sinus rhythm (NSR) male and female subjects for different data lengths and tolerance level r. It is demonstrated that SampEn is small for higher values of tolerance r. Also SampEn value of healthy female group is higher than that of healthy male group for short data length and with increase in data length both groups overlap each other and it is difficult to distinguish them. The SampEn gives inaccurate results by assigning higher value to female group, because male subject have more complex HRV pattern than that of female subjects. Therefore, this traditional algorithm exhibits higher complexity for healthy female subjects than for healthy male subjects, which is misleading observation. This may be due to the fact that SampEn do not account for multiple time scales inherent in the physiologic time series and the hidden spatial and temporal fluctuations remains unexplored.
Keywords: Heart rate variability, normal sinus rhythm group, RR interval time series, sample entropy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1754407 Education for Sustainability Using PBL on an Engineering Course at the National University of Colombia
Authors: Hernán G. Cortés-Mora, José I. Péna-Reyes, Alfonso Herrera-Jiménez
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This article describes the implementation experience of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in an engineering course of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, with the aim of strengthening student skills necessary for the exercise of their profession under a sustainability framework. Firstly, we present a literature review on the education for sustainability field, emphasizing the skills and knowledge areas required for its development, as well as the commitment of the Faculty of Engineering of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and other engineering faculties of the country, regarding education for sustainability. This article covers the general aspects of the course, describes how students team were formed, and how their experience was during the first semester of 2017. During this period two groups of students decided to develop their course project aiming to solve a problem regarding a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works with head-of-household mothers in a low-income neighborhood in Bogota (Colombia). Subsequently, we show how sustainability is involved in the course, how tools are provided to students, and how activities are developed as to strengthen their abilities, which allows them to incorporate sustainability in their projects while also working on the methodology used to develop said projects. Finally, we introduce the results obtained by the students who sent the prototypes of their projects to the community they were working on and the conclusions reached by them regarding the course experience.Keywords: Sustainability, project based learning, engineering education, higher education for sustainability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 813406 Art Street as a Way for Reflective Thinking in the Field of Adult and Primary Education: Examples of Educational Techniques
Authors: Georgia H. Mega
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Street art, a category of artwork displayed in public spaces, has been recognized as a potential tool for promoting reflective thinking in both adult and primary education. Educational techniques that encourage critical and creative thinking, as well as deeper reflection, have been developed and applied in educational curricula. This paper aims to explore the potential of art street in cultivating learners' reflective awareness towards multiculturalism. More specifically, two artworks displayed in public spaces have been selected: the artwork of Kleomenis Kostopoulos and the artwork of Rustam Obic. The reason of this selection is because of their strong symbolism towards multiculturalism. The street arts have been elaborated by adult (+18) and minor students (K-12) in educational settings, under the same educator’s guidance, following appropriate for each age learning techniques. Adults cultivate their reflection using Freire’s learning method, whereas minors cultivate critical thinking using visible thinking techniques from Project Zero. Through qualitative methodology (context analysis) the depth of reflection/critical thinking has been emphasized for both age groups. The case study shows that street art can play a significant role to the promotion/cultivation of deep thinking towards challenging contemporary phenomena like multiculturalism.
Keywords: Street art, observation of art works, reflective awareness, educational techniques, multiculturalism.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 66405 Effect of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria Inoculation, Addition of Biochar, and Mineral N Fertilization on Mycorrhizal Colonization
Authors: Irina Mikajlo, Jaroslav Záhora, Helena Dvořáčková, Jaroslav Hynšt, Jakub Elbl
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Strong anthropogenic impact has uncontrolled consequences on the nature of the soil. Hence, up-to-date sustainable methods of soil state improvement are essential. Investigators provide the evidence that biochar can positively effects physical, chemical, and biological soil properties and the abundance of mycorrhizal fungi which are in the focus of this study. The main aim of the present investigation is to demonstrate the effect of two types of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) inoculums along with the beech wood biochar and mineral N additives on mycorrhizal colonization. Experiment has been set up in laboratory conditions with containers filled with arable soil from the protection zone of the main water source “Brezova nad Svitavou”. Lactuca sativa (lettuce) has been selected as a model plant. Based on the obtained data, it can be concluded that mycorrhizal colonization increased as the result of combined influence of biochar and PGPB inoculums amendment. In addition, correlation analyses showed that the numbers of main groups of cultivated bacteria were dependent on the degree of mycorrhizal colonization.Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhiza, biochar, PGPB inoculum, soil microorganisms.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2587404 The Influence of Transformational Leadership on Knowledge Sharing in Iraq’s Public and Private Higher Education: A Comparison Study
Authors: Sawsan J. Al-Husseini
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Transformational leadership (TL) has been found to have an important influence on knowledge and knowledge management (KM). It can contribute to organizational learning, employees’ creativity, encourage followers to participate in educational programs and develop the skills needed to achieve exceptional performance. This research sought to examine the impact of TL on knowledge donating and collecting and the differences between these impacts in public and private higher education institutes (HEIs) in Iraq. A mixed method approach was taken and 580 valid responses were collected to test the causal relationships between the factors, then 12 interviews were conducted with the leaders of HEIs to give more insight of the findings from quantitative stage. Employing structural equation modelling with AMOS v.24, the research found that TL would be ideal in an educational context, promoting knowledge sharing activities in both sectors. The interviews revealed differences between public and private HEIs in terms of the effects relationships. Guidelines are developed for academics as well as leaders and provided evidence to support the use of TL to encourage knowledge sharing activities within higher education in developing countries particularly Iraq.Keywords: Transformational leadership, knowledge sharing, higher education, multi-groups.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 969403 Evaluating Accessibility to Bangkok Mass Transit System: Case Study of Saphan Taksin BTS Station
Authors: Rungpansa Noichan, Bart Julien Dewancker
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Access to the mass transit system, including rapid elevated and underground transport has become an outstanding issue for many cities. The mass transit access development should focus on behavioral responses of the different passenger groups. Moreover, it should consider about the appearance of intent-oriented action related accessibility that was explored from user’s satisfaction and attitudes related to services quality. This study aims to evaluate mass transit accessibility from passenger’s satisfaction, therefore, understanding the passenger’s attitudes about mass transit accessibility. The study area of this research is Bangkok Mass Transit system (BTS Skytrain) at Saphan Taksin station. 200 passengers at Saphan Taksin station were asked to rate the questionnaires survey that considers accessibility aspects of convenience, safety, feeder connectivity, and other dimensions. The survey was to find out the passenger attitudes and satisfaction for access to the BTS station, and the result shows several factors that influence the passenger choice of using the BTS as a public transportation mode and passenger’s opinion that needs to concern for the development mass transit system and accessibility performance.
Keywords: Urban transportation, user satisfaction, accessibility, Bangkok mass transit.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 777402 Design Criteria Recommendation to Achieve Accessibility In-house to Different Users
Authors: C. Valderrama-Ulloa, C. Schmitt, J.-P. Marchetti, V. Bucarey
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Access to adequate housing is a fundamental human right and a crucial factor for health. Housing should be inclusive, accessible, and able to meet the needs of all its inhabitants at every stage of their lives without hindering their health, autonomy, or independence. This article addresses the importance of designing housing for people with disabilities, which varies depending on individual abilities, preferences, and cultural considerations. Based on the components of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, wheelchair users, little people (achondroplasia), children with autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome were characterized, and six domains of activities related to daily life inside homes were defined. The article describes the main barriers homes present for this group of people. It proposes a list of architectural and design aspects to reduce barriers to housing use. The aspects are divided into three main groups: space management, building services, and supporting facilities. The article emphasizes the importance of consulting professionals and users with experience designing for diverse needs to create inclusive, safe, and supportive housing for people with disabilities.
Keywords: Achondroplasia, autism spectrum disorder, disability, down syndrome, wheelchair user.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 132401 The Influence of Congruence between Incentive System and Locus of Control on Team Performance: An Experiment
Authors: Siti Mutmainah, Slamet Sugiri
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Organizations are increasingly relying upon teamwork; however, little is known about the best fit among incentive system, team composition, and group performance. To further explore this issue this study examines whether the congruence between incentive system and locus of control (LoC) affects team performance. To reconcile opposite lines of argument in literature regarding the best incentive system for a team, this paper uses the social identity perspective and person-environment (P-E) fit theory to understand behavior in a group process. A laboratory experiment with postgraduate students is conducted to test the hypotheses. One hundred and five accounting students were assigned to three-person work groups, where they completed an independent task under one of two types of incentive—individual and group incentive systems—after their LoC was measured. The findings confirm the hypothesis. Group incentive results in an enhanced team performance. Team performance is better when there is congruence between incentive system and LoC. Group incentive system combined with external LoC results in the best performance, while individual incentive system results in a better team performance when combined with internal LoC. The result suggests that a cooperative process enables ‘ordinary people’ to obtain extraordinary results.Keywords: Incentive system, locus of control, person-environment fit, social identity perspective, team performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1152400 The Effect of Smartphones on Human Health Relative to User’s Addiction: A Study on a Wide Range of Audiences in Jordan
Authors: T. Qasim, M. Obeidat, S. Al-Sharairi
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The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the excessive use of smartphones. Smartphones have enormous effects on the human body in that some musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and health problems might evolve. These days, there is a wide use of the smartphones among all age groups of society, thus, the focus on smartphone effects on human behavior and health, especially on the young and elderly people, becomes a crucial issue. This study was conducted in Jordan on smartphone users for different genders and ages, by conducting a survey to collect data related to the symptoms and MSDs that are resulted from the excessive use of smartphones. A total of 357 responses were used in the analysis. The main related symptoms were numbness, fingers pain, and pain in arm, all linked to age and gender for comparative reasons. A statistical analysis was performed to find the effects of extensive usage of a smartphone for long periods of time on the human body. Results show that the significant variables were the vision problems and the time spent when using the smartphone that cause vision problems. Other variables including age of user and ear problems due to the use of the headsets were found to be a border line significant.Keywords: Smartphone, age group, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), health problems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2032399 An Exploratory Study of Reliability of Ranking vs. Rating in Peer Assessment
Authors: Yang Song, Yifan Guo, Edward F. Gehringer
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Fifty years of research has found great potential for peer assessment as a pedagogical approach. With peer assessment, not only do students receive more copious assessments; they also learn to become assessors. In recent decades, more educational peer assessments have been facilitated by online systems. Those online systems are designed differently to suit different class settings and student groups, but they basically fall into two categories: rating-based and ranking-based. The rating-based systems ask assessors to rate the artifacts one by one following some review rubrics. The ranking-based systems allow assessors to review a set of artifacts and give a rank for each of them. Though there are different systems and a large number of users of each category, there is no comprehensive comparison on which design leads to higher reliability. In this paper, we designed algorithms to evaluate assessors' reliabilities based on their rating/ranking against the global ranks of the artifacts they have reviewed. These algorithms are suitable for data from both rating-based and ranking-based peer assessment systems. The experiments were done based on more than 15,000 peer assessments from multiple peer assessment systems. We found that the assessors in ranking-based peer assessments are at least 10% more reliable than the assessors in rating-based peer assessments. Further analysis also demonstrated that the assessors in ranking-based assessments tend to assess the more differentiable artifacts correctly, but there is no such pattern for rating-based assessors.
Keywords: Peer assessment, peer rating, peer ranking, reliability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1104398 The Interplay of Locus of Control, Academic Achievement, and Biological Variables among Iranian Online EFL Learners
Authors: Azizeh Chalak, Niloufar Nasri
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Students' academic achievement, along with the effects of different variables, has been a serious concern of educators since long ago. This study was an attempt to investigate the interplay of Locus of Control (LOC), academic achievement and biological variables among Iranian online EFL Learners. The participants of the study included 100 students of different age groups and genders studying English online at Iran Language Institute (ILI), Isfahan, Iran. The instrument used was Trice Academic LOC questionnaire which identifies orientations of internality or externality. The participants' Grade Point Averages (GPAs) were used as the measure of their academic achievement. A series of independent samples ttests were performed on the data. The results of the study showed that (a) there were no significant differences between male and female participants in LOC orientation, (b) there was no relationship between LOC and academic achievement among internal males and females, (c) external females were better achievers than external males, (d) and the age had no significant relationship with LOC and academic achievement. It can be concluded that the social, cultural patterns of genders have changed. This study might help sociologists and psychologists as well as applied linguists in that they reflect the recent social changes and their effects on the LOC and their consequent implications in teaching languages.Keywords: Academic achievement, biological variables, Iranian online EFL learners, locus of control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2240397 An Authentic Algorithm for Ciphering and Deciphering Called Latin Djokovic
Authors: Diogen Babuc
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The question that is a motivation of writing is how many devote themselves to discovering something in the world of science where much is discerned and revealed, but at the same time, much is unknown. The insightful elements of this algorithm are the ciphering and deciphering algorithms of Playfair, Caesar, and Vigen`ere. Only a few of their main properties are taken and modified, with the aim of forming a specific functionality of the algorithm called Latin Djokovic. Specifically, a string is entered as input data. A key k is given, with a random value between the values a and b = a+3. The obtained value is stored in a variable with the aim of being constant during the run of the algorithm. In correlation to the given key, the string is divided into several groups of substrings, and each substring has a length of k characters. The next step involves encoding each substring from the list of existing substrings. Encoding is performed using the basis of Caesar algorithm, i.e. shifting with k characters. However, that k is incremented by 1 when moving to the next substring in that list. When the value of k becomes greater than b + 1, it will return to its initial value. The algorithm is executed, following the same procedure, until the last substring in the list is traversed. Using this polyalphabetic method, ciphering and deciphering of strings are achieved. The algorithm also works for a 100-character string. The x character is not used when the number of characters in a substring is incompatible with the expected length. The algorithm is simple to implement, but it is questionable if it works better than the other methods, from the point of view of execution time and storage space.
Keywords: Ciphering and deciphering, Authentic Algorithm, Polyalphabetic Cipher, Random Key, methods comparison.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 183396 Effects of Intrauterine and Extrauterine Exposure to 1800 MHz GSM-Like Radiofrequency Radiation on Liver Regulatory Enzymes Activities in Infant Female Rabbits
Authors: A. Tomruk, G. Guler, B. Tandogan, E. Ozgur, N.N. Ulusu, N. Seyhan
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In the present study, we aimed to design the intrauterine and extrauterine exposure to 1800 MHz GSM-like RF radiation and investigate its possible bio-effects on infant female rabbits. Totally thirty-six New Zealand White female rabbits, onemonth old, were randomly divided into four groups which are composed of 9 rabbits; i. Group I [Intrauterine (IU) exposure(-); Extrauterine (EU) exposure (-)], Group II [IU exposure (-); EU exposure (+)], Group III [IU exposure(+);EU exposure(-)], Group IV [IU exposure (+);EU exposure(+)]. The master regulatory enzymes activities of pentose phosphate pathway (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, G-6PD; 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, 6- PGDH) and glutathione-dependent metabolism (glutathione peroxidase, GSH-Px; glutathione reductase, GR; glutathione Stransferase, GST, thioredoxin reductase, TRx) were analyzed in liver tissues of young female rabbits. Decreased G-6PD, 6-PGD, GSH-Px, GR activities were found in Group III compared to Group I (p<0.05, Mann Whitney). Increased GSH-px and TRx activities were found in Group IV compared to Group I (p<0.05, Mann Whitney). It can be concluded that the intrauterine and extrauterine exposure to GSMlike RF radiation may influence the liver regulatory enzymes activities.Keywords: Radiofrequency (RF), intrauterine (IU) andextrauterine (EU) exposure, infant female rabbits.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2304395 The Governance of Islamic Banks in Morocco: Meaning, Strategic Vision and Purposes Attributed to the Governance System
Authors: Lalla Nezha Lakmiti, Abdelkahar Zahid
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Due to the setbacks on the international scene and the wave of cacophonic financial scandals affecting large international groups, the new Islamic finance industry is not immune despite its initial resistance. The purpose of this paper is to understand and analyze the meaning of the Corporate Governance (CG) concept in Moroccan Islamic banking systems with specific reference to their institutions. The research objective is to identify also the path taken and adopted by these banks recently set up in Morocco. The foundation is rooted in shari'a, in particular, no stakeholder (the shareholding approach) must be harmed, and the ethical value is reflected into these parties’ behavior. We chose a qualitative method, semi-structured interviews where six managers provided answers about their banking systems. Since these respondents held a senior position (directors) within their organizations, it is felt that they are well placed and have the necessary knowledge to provide us with information to answer the questions asked. The results identified the orientation of participating banks and assessing how governance works, while determining which party is fovoured: shareholders, stakeholders or both. This study discusses the favorable condition to the harmonization of the regulations and therefore a better integration between Islamic finance and conventional ones in the economic context of Morocco.
Keywords: Corporate governance, participating banks, stakeholders, shareholders, and interests.
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