Search results for: values education

Authors: Gökhan Yüksel, Serdar Akça, İlker Kalkan

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The present study is an attempt to demonstrate the significant levels of contribution of the moment-resisting beam-column connections with side plates to the earthquake behavior of special steel moment frames. To this end, the moment-curvature relationships of a regular beam-column connection and its SidePlate counterpart were determined with the help of finite element analyses. The connection stiffness and deformability values from these finite element analyses were used in the linear time-history analyses of an example structural steel frame under three different seismic excitations. The top-story lateral drift, base shear, and overturning moment values in two orthogonal directions were obtained from these time-history analyses and compared to each other. The results revealed the improvements in the system response with the use of SidePlate connections. The paper ends with crucial recommendations for the plan and design of further studies on this very topic.

Keywords: Seismic detailing, special moment frame, steel structures, beam-column connection, earthquake-resistant design.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma, Savas Guzel

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Iron is physiologically essential. However, it also participates in the catalysis of free radical formation reactions. Its deficiency is associated with amplified health risks. This trace element establishes some links with another physiological process related to cell death, apoptosis. Both iron deficiency and iron overload are closely associated with apoptosis. Soluble tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (sTWEAK) has the ability to trigger apoptosis and plays a dual role in the physiological versus pathological inflammatory responses of tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the status of these parameters as well as the associations among them in children with obesity, a low-grade inflammatory state. The study was performed on groups of children with normal body mass index (N-BMI) and obesity. 43 children were included in each group. Based upon age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentile tables prepared by the World Health Organization, children whose values varied between 85 and 15 were included in N-BMI group. Children, whose BMI percentile values were between 99 and 95, comprised obese (OB) group. Institutional ethical committee approval and informed consent forms were taken prior to the study. Anthropometric measurements (weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference, head circumference, neck circumference) and blood pressure values (systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure) were recorded. Routine biochemical analyses, including serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), transferrin saturation percent (Tf Sat %) and ferritin, were performed. sTWEAK levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. study data were evaluated using appropriate statistical tests performed by the statistical program SPSS. Serum iron levels were 91 ± 34 mcrg/dl and 75 ± 31 mcrg/dl in N-BMI and OB children, respectively. The corresponding values for TIBC, Tf Sat %, ferritin were 265 mcrg/dl vs. 299 mcrg/dl, 37.2 ± 19.1% vs. 26.7 ± 14.6%, and 41 ± 25 ng/ml vs 44 ± 26 ng/ml. In N-BMI and OB groups, sTWEAK concentrations were measured as 351 ng/L and 325 ng/L, respectively (p > 0.05). Correlation analysis revealed significant associations between sTWEAK levels and iron related parameters (p < 0.05) except ferritin. In conclusion, iron contributes to apoptosis. Children with iron deficiency have decreased apoptosis rate in comparison with that of healthy children. sTWEAK is an inducer of apoptosis. OB children had lower levels of both iron and sTWEAK. Low levels of sTWEAK are associated with several types of cancers and poor survival. Although iron deficiency state was not observed in this study, the correlations detected between decreased sTWEAK and decreased iron as well as Tf Sat % values were valuable findings, which point out decreased apoptosis. This may induce a proinflammatory state, potentially leading to malignancies in the future lives of OB children.

Keywords: Apoptosis, children, iron-related parameters, obesity, soluble tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis.

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Authors: Ivana Šalinović

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The term gender emerged in the second half of the last century and since then a growing body of research dealing with the topic demonstrates its importance. Primarily, the research and the theories that were addressing the topic were focused on stating the differences between the terms sex and gender, where sex refers to the biological aspect of a person, while gender refers to the socially ascribed roles, attitudes, behaviors, and etc., and on gender discrimination whose visible and invisible repercussions are harming society and one of the agents of change should be educators on all educational levels since they are emotionally sculpting their students, that is why considerable effort should be put into implementing education about this topic into the standard curriculum. Not only educators, but it is also necessary to change the mindset of the younger generations because they will be important agents in the further elimination of gender discrimination, thus causing societal changes. Therefore, it is very important to hear their voices and their experiences and for these reasons, this research has been done, to see what the students of the second year at a private college university Aspira in Croatia have gone through in their educational ladder. The hypothesis was that the findings would most certainly show a huge difference between female and male students’ experiences and effects of gender discrimination, but the results have actually shown a very mixed picture and the original hypothesis was somewhat disapproved. Instead of finding out that girls experienced a lot of gender discrimination, it turned out that it was the boys who believed that in their previous and current education, there was no equal time distribution between genders, they noticed that the language was not gender-sensitive, teaching aids were not adopted to the genders. They were also the ones that pointed out that the discipline path was not the same for everyone, and they were the ones that the teacher’s gender had more influence on and were also the ones that experienced more gender discrimination.

Keywords: Gender, discrimination, elementary school, high school.

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Authors: C. Cruz, A. Breda

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Emotions are manifestations of everything that happens around us, influencing, consequently, our actions. People experience emotions continuously when socialize with friends, when facing complex situations, and when at school, among many other situations. Although the influence of emotions in the teaching and learning process is nothing new, its study in the academic field has been more popular in recent years, distinguishing between positive (e.g., enjoyment and curiosity) and negative emotions (e.g., boredom and frustration). There is no doubt that emotions play an important role in the students’ learning process since the development of knowledge involves thoughts, actions, and emotions. Nowadays, one of the most significant changes in acquiring knowledge, accessing information, and communicating is the way we do it through technological and digital resources. Faced with an increasingly frequent use of technological or digital means with different purposes, whether in the acquisition of knowledge or in communicating with others, the emotions involved in these processes change naturally. The speed with which the Internet provides information reduces the excitement for searching for the answer, the gratification of discovering something through our own effort, the patience, the capacity for effort, and resilience. Thus, technological and digital devices are bringing changes to the emotional domain. For this reason and others, it is essential to educate children from an early age to understand that it is not possible to have everything with just one click and to deal with negative emotions. Currently, many curriculum guidelines highlight the importance of the development of so-called soft skills, in which the emotional domain is present, in academic contexts. Within the scope of the Portuguese reality, the “Students’ profile by the end of compulsory schooling” and the “Health education reference” also emphasize the importance of emotions in education. There are several resources to stimulate good emotions in articulation with cognitive development. One of the most predictable and not very used resources in the most diverse areas of knowledge after pre-school education is the literature. Due to its characteristics, in the narrative or in the illustrations, literature provides the reader with a journey full of emotions. On the other hand, literature makes it possible to establish bridges between narrative and different areas of knowledge, reconciling the cognitive and emotional domains. This study results from the presentation session of a children's book, entitled “From the Outside to Inside and from the Inside to Outside”, to children attending the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years of basic education in the Portuguese education system. In this book, rationale and emotion are in constant dialogue, so in this session, based on excerpts from the book dramatized by the authors, some questions were asked to the children in a large group, with an aim to explore their perception regarding certain emotions or events that trigger them. According to the aim of this study, qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative research was carried out based on participant observation and audio records.

Keywords: Emotions, children’s literature, basic education, soft skills.

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Authors: Yanwen Li, Shuguo Xie

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In electromagnetic imaging, because of the diffraction limited system, the pixel values could change slowly near the edge of the image targets and they also change with the location in the same target. Using traditional digital image segmentation methods to segment electromagnetic gradient images could result in lots of errors because of this change in pixel values. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel image segmentation and extraction algorithm based on Mean-Shift and dictionary learning. Firstly, the preliminary segmentation results from adaptive bandwidth Mean-Shift algorithm are expanded, merged and extracted. Then the overlap rate of the extracted image block is detected before determining a segmentation region with a single complete target. Last, the gradient edge of the extracted targets is recovered and reconstructed by using a dictionary-learning algorithm, while the final segmentation results are obtained which are very close to the gradient target in the original image. Both the experimental results and the simulated results show that the segmentation results are very accurate. The Dice coefficients are improved by 70% to 80% compared with the Mean-Shift only method.

Keywords: Gradient image, segmentation and extract, mean-shift algorithm, dictionary learning.

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Authors: Amogh Katti, J. Sai Asritha, D. Nivedh, M. Kalyan Srinivas, B. Somnath Chakravarthi

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Today's modern education system uses Learning Management System (LMS) portals for the scoring and grading of student performances, to maintain student records, and teachers are instructed to accept assignments through online submissions of .pdf, .doc, .ppt, etc. There is a risk of data tampering in the traditional portals; we will apply the Blockchain model instead of this traditional model to avoid data tampering and also provide a decentralized mechanism for overall fairness. Blockchain technology is a better and also recommended model because of the following features: consensus mechanism, decentralized system, cryptographic encryption, smart contracts, Ethereum blockchain. The proposed system ensures data integrity and tamper-proof assignment submission and grading, which will be helpful for both students and also educators.

Keywords: Education technology, learning management system, decentralized applications, blockchain.

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Authors: S. K. Mohan, T. Viruthagiri, C. Arunkumar

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Tannase (tannin acyl hydrolase, E.C.3.1.1.20) is an important hydrolysable enzyme with innumerable applications and industrial potential. In the present study, a kinetic model has been developed for the batch fermentation used for the production of tannase by A.flavus MTCC 3783. Maximum tannase activity of 143.30 U/ml was obtained at 96 hours under optimum operating conditions at 35oC, an initial pH of 5.5 and with an inducer tannic acid concentration of 3% (w/v) for a fermentation period of 120 hours. The biomass concentration reaches a maximum of 6.62 g/l at 96 hours and further there was no increase in biomass concentration till the end of the fermentation. Various unstructured kinetic models were analyzed to simulate the experimental values of microbial growth, tannase activity and substrate concentration. The Logistic model for microbial growth , Luedeking - Piret model for production of tannase and Substrate utilization kinetic model for utilization of substrate were capable of predicting the fermentation profile with high coefficient of determination (R2) values of 0.980, 0.942 and 0.983 respectively. The results indicated that the unstructured models were able to describe the fermentation kinetics more effectively.

Keywords: Aspergillus flavus, Batch fermentation, Kinetic model, Tannase, Unstructured models.

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Authors: Yousef Swesi, Asia Elmeshergi, Abdelati Elalem, Walid Alfoghy

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This paper involves a study of the heavy metal pollution of the soils around one of cement plants in Libya called Suk-Alkhameas and surrounding urban areas caused by cement kiln dust (CKD) emitted. Samples of soil was collected from sites at four directions around the cement factory at distances 250m, 1000m, and 3000m from the factory and at (0-10)cm deep in the soil. These samples are analyzed for Fe (iii), Zn(ii), and Pb (ii) as major pollutants. These values are compared with soils at 25 Km distances from the factory as a reference or control samples. The results show that the concentration of Fe ions in the surface soil was within the acceptable range of 1000ppm. However, for Zn and Pb ions the concentrations at the east and north sides of the factory were found six fold higher than the benchmark level. This high value was attributed to the wind which blows usually from south to north and from west to east. This work includes an investigation of the adsorption isotherms and adsorption efficiency of CKD as adsorbent of heavy metal ions (Fe (iii), Zn(ii), and Pb(ii)) from the polluted soils of Suk-Alkameas city. The investigation was conducted in batch and fixed bed column flow technique. The adsorption efficiency of the studied heavy metals ions removals onto CKD depends on the pH of the solution. The optimum pH values are found to be in the ranges of 8-10 and decreases at lower pH values. The removal efficiency of these heavy metals ions ranged from 93% for Pb, 94% for Zn, and 98% for Fe ions for 10 g.l^-1 adsorbent concentration. The maximum removal efficiency of these ions was achieved at 50-60 minutes contact times at which equilibrium is reached. Fixed bed column experimental measurements are also made to evaluate CKD as an adsorbent for the heavy metals. Results obtained are with good agreement with Langmuir and Drachsal assumption of multilayer formation on the adsorbent surface.

Keywords: Adsorption, Cement Kiln dust (CKD & CAC), Isotherms, Zn and Pb ions.

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Authors: Hiroaki Hirose, Hiroshi Ikeda, Isao Takeda

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The Japanese version of the SF-36 has been employed to assess individuals’ health-related QOL (HRQOL). This study aimed to clarify the HRQOL of motorists with a spinal cord injury, in order to compare these individuals' SF-36 scores and national standard values. A total of 100 motorists with a spinal cord injury participated in this study. Participants’ HRQOL was evaluated using the Japanese version of the SF-36 (second edition). The score for each subscale was standardized based on data on the Japanese population. The average scores for NPF, NRP, NBP, NGH, NVT, NSF, NRE, and NMH were 10.9, 41.8, 45.9, 47.1, 46.1, 46.7, 46.0, and 47.4 points, respectively. Subjects showed significantly lower scores for NPF and NRP compared with national standard values, which were both ≤ 45.0 points, but relatively normal scores for the other items: NBP, NGH, NVT, NSF, NRE and NMH (> 45.0 points). The average scores for PCS, MCS and RCS were 21.9, 56.0, and 50.0 points, respectively. Subjects showed a significantly lower PCS score (≤ 20.0 points); however, the MCS score was higher (> 55.0 points) along with a relatively normal RCS score in these individuals (= 50.0 points).

Keywords: Health-related QOL (HRQOL), SF-36, motorist, spinal cord injury, Japan.

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Authors: Mohammad R. Irshidat, Mohammed H. Al-Saleh, Mahmoud Al-Shoubaki

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This paper investigates the viability of using carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites modified with carbon nanotubes to strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) columns. Six RC columns was designed and constructed according to ASCE standards. The columns were wrapped using carbon fiber sheets impregnated with either neat epoxy or CNTs modified epoxy. These columns were then tested under concentric axial loading. Test results show that; compared to the unwrapped specimens; wrapping concrete columns with carbon fiber sheet embedded in CNTs modified epoxy resulted in an increase in its axial load resistance, maximum displacement, and toughness values by 24%, 109% and 232%, respectively. These results reveal that adding CNTs into epoxy resin enhanced the confinement effect, specifically, increased the axial load resistance, maximum displacement, and toughness values by 11%, 6%, and 19%, respectively compared with columns strengthening with carbon fiber sheet embedded in neat epoxy.

Keywords: CNT, epoxy, Carbon fiber, RC columns.

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Authors: Nur Aisyah Jalalludin, Arwindra Rizqiawan, Goro Fujita

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In this study, we aim to demonstrate a microgrid system experimental simulation for an easy understanding of a large-scale microgrid system. This model is required for industrial training and learning environments. However, in order to create an exact representation of a microgrid system, the laboratory-scale system must fulfill the requirements of a grid-connected inverter, in which power values are assigned to the system to cope with the intermittent output from renewable energy sources. Aside from that, during fluctuations in load capacity, the grid-connected system must be able to supply power from the utility grid side and microgrid side in a balanced manner. Therefore, droop control is installed in the inverter’s control board to maintain a balanced power sharing in both sides. This power control in a stand-alone condition and droop control in a grid-connected condition must be implemented in order to maintain a stabilized system. Based on the experimental results, power control and droop control can both be applied in the system by comparing the experimental and reference values.

Keywords: Droop control, droop characteristic, grid-connected inverter, microgrid, power control.

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Authors: J. M. Breed, E. Taylor

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In this paper challenges associated with a new generation of Computer Science students are examined. The mode of education in tertiary institutes has progressed slowly while the needs of students have changed rapidly in an increasingly technological world. The major learning paradigms and learning theories within these paradigms are studied to find a suitable strategy for educating modern students. These paradigms include Behaviourism, Constructivism, Humanism and Cogntivism. Social Learning theory and Elaboration theory are two theories that are further examined and a survey is done to determine how these strategies will be received by students. The results and findings are evaluated and indicate that students are fairly receptive to a method that incorporates both Social Learning theory and Elaboration theory, but that some aspects of all paradigms need to be implemented to create a balanced and effective strategy with technology as foundation.

Keywords: Computer Science, Education, Elaboration Theory, Learning Paradigms, Social Learning Theory.

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Authors: Jehad Al Dallal

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Class cohesion is an important object-oriented software quality attributes, and it refers to the degree of relatedness of class attributes and methods. Several class cohesion measures are proposed in the literature, and the impact of considering the special methods (i.e., constructors, destructors, and access and delegation methods) in cohesion calculation is not thoroughly theoretically studied for most of them. In this paper, we address this issue for three popular similarity-based class cohesion measures. For each of the considered measures we theoretically study the impact of including or excluding special methods on the values that are obtained by applying the measure. This study is based on analyzing the definitions and formulas that are proposed for the measures. The results show that including/excluding special methods has a considerable effect on the obtained cohesion values and that this effect varies from one measure to another. The study shows the importance of considering the types of methods that have to be accounted for when proposing a similarity-based cohesion measure.

Keywords: Object-oriented class, software quality, class cohesion measure, class cohesion, special methods.

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Authors: Lule Herman, E. Ovuga, M. Mshilla, S. Ojara, G. Kimbugwe, A. P. Adrawa, N. Mahuro

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Adolescents in Northern Uganda are at risk of teenage pregnancies, unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). There is silence on sex both at home and school. This cross sectional descriptive analytical study interviews a random sample of 827 students and 13 teachers on knowledge, perception and acceptability to a comprehensive adolescent sexual and reproductive health education in “O” and “A” level secondary schools in Gulu District. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 16.0. Directed content analysis of themes of transcribed qualitative data was conducted manually for common codes, sub-categories and categories. Of the 827 students; 54.3% (449) reported being in a sexual relationship especially those aged 15-17 years. Majority 96.1% (807) supported the teaching of a comprehensive ASRHE, citing no negative impact 71.5% (601). Majority 81.6% (686) agreed that such education could help prevention of STIs, abortions and teenage pregnancies, and that it should be taught by health workers 69.0% (580). Majority 76.6% (203) reported that ASRHE was not currently being taught in their schools. Students had low knowledge levels and misconceptions about ASRHE. ASRHE was highly acceptable though not being emphasized; its success in school settings requires multidisciplinary culturally sensitive approaches amongst which health workers should be frontiers.

Keywords: Acceptability, ASRHE, Knowledge, Perception.

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Authors: Alina Anton, Gheorghe Solcan, Carmen Solcan

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The influence of copper and zinc supplements on milk production performances and health indicators was tested in a 20- week feeding trial, with 40 Holstein-Friesian lactating cows, devided in four groups (copper, zinc, copper-zinc and control). Correlations of the Cu and Zn plasma values with some animal performance criteria of health (body condition score and somatic cell counts) and production (milk yield, peak milk yield, fat and crude protein content) were done. During the 140 days of the experiment, the two added minerals caused a statistically significant increase (p < 0.05) of their plasma values after the peak of the cows’ lactations. It was also observed that subjects that have received copper and zinc supplements had the lowest number of somatic cell counts in milk. The Pearson correlation test showed a positive corellation (p = 0.007, r = + 0.851) between the plasma Zn and the milk production. The improvement of the nutritional status improved the milk production performances of the cows as well as their health performances.

Keywords: Copper, dairy cows, health, milk production, zinc

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Authors: L. Piñeiro, N. Cobas, L. Gómez-Limia, S. Martínez, I. Franco

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The swordfish (Xiphias gladius) is a large oceanic fish of high commercial value, which is widely distributed in waters of the world’s oceans. They are considered to be an important source of high quality proteins, vitamins and essential fatty acids, although only half of the population follows the recommendation of nutritionists to consume fish at least twice a week. Swordfish is consumed worldwide because of its low fat content and high protein content. It is generally sold as fresh, frozen, and as pieces or slices. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of salting and frying on the composition of the water-soluble vitamins (B₂, B₃, B₉ and B₁₂) and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, and E) of swordfish. Three loins of swordfish from Pacific Ocean were analyzed. All the fishes had a weight between 50 and 70 kg and were transported to the laboratory frozen (-18 ºC). Before the processing, they were defrosted at 4 ºC. Each loin was sliced and salted in brine. After cleaning the slices, they were divided into portions (10×2 cm) and fried in olive oil. The identification and quantification of vitamins were carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), using methanol and 0.010% trifluoroacetic acid as mobile phases at a flow-rate of 0.7 mL min^-1. The UV-Vis detector was used for the detection of the water- and fat-soluble vitamins (A and D), as well as the fluorescence detector for the detection of the vitamin E. During salting, water and fat-soluble vitamin contents remained constant, observing an evident decrease in the values of vitamin B₂. The diffusion of salt into the interior of the pieces and the loss of constitution water that occur during this stage would be related to this significant decrease. In general, after frying water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins showed a great thermolability with high percentages of retention with values among 50–100%. Vitamin B₃ is the one that exhibited higher percentages of retention with values close to 100%. However, vitamin B₉ presented the highest losses with a percentage of retention of less than 20%.

Keywords: Frying, HPLC, salting, swordfish, vitamins.

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Authors: M. D. Nayeri, M. M. Mashhadi, K. Mohajeri

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Defining strategic position of the organizations within the industry environment is one of the basic and most important phases of strategic planning to which extent that one of the fundamental schools of strategic planning is the strategic positioning school. In today-s knowledge-based economy and dynamic environment, it is essential for universities as the centers of education, knowledge creation and knowledge worker evolvement. Till now, variant models with different approaches to strategic positioning are deployed in defining the strategic position within the various industries. Balanced Scorecard as one of the powerful models for strategic positioning, analyzes all aspects of the organization evenly. In this paper with the consideration of BSC strength in strategic evaluation, it is used for analyzing the environmental position of the best-s Iranian Business Schools. The results could be used in developing strategic plans for these schools as well as other Iranian Management and Business Schools.

Keywords: Strategic planning, Strategic position, Balancedscorecard, Higher education institutions.

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Authors: Saruhan Kartal, Ilker Kalkan

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The present paper reports the cracking moment estimates of a set of steel-reinforced, Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP)-reinforced and hybrid steel-FRP reinforced concrete beams, calculated from different analytical formulations in the codes, together with the experimental cracking load values. A total of three steel-reinforced, four FRP-reinforced, 12 hybrid FRP-steel over-reinforced and five hybrid FRP-steel under-reinforced concrete beam tests were analyzed within the scope of the study. Glass FRP (GFRP) and Basalt FRP (BFRP) bars were used in the beams as FRP bars. In under-reinforced hybrid beams, rupture of the FRP bars preceded crushing of concrete, while concrete crushing preceded FRP rupture in over-reinforced beams. In both types, steel yielding took place long before the FRP rupture and concrete crushing. The cracking moment mainly depends on two quantities, namely the moment of inertia of the section at the initiation of cracking and the flexural tensile strength of concrete, i.e. the modulus of rupture. In the present study, two different definitions of uncracked moment of inertia, i.e. the gross and the uncracked transformed moments of inertia, were adopted. Two analytical equations for the modulus of rupture (ACI 318M and Eurocode 2) were utilized in the calculations as well as the experimental tensile strength of concrete from prismatic specimen tests. The ACI 318M modulus of rupture expression produced cracking moment estimates closer to the experimental cracking moments of FRP-reinforced and hybrid FRP-steel reinforced concrete beams when used in combination with the uncracked transformed moment of inertia, yet the Eurocode 2 modulus of rupture expression gave more accurate cracking moment estimates in steel-reinforced concrete beams. All of the analytical definitions produced analytical values considerably different from the experimental cracking load values of the solely FRP-reinforced concrete beam specimens.

Keywords: Cracking moment, four-point bending, hybrid use of reinforcement, polymer reinforcement.

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Authors: Reiko Yamamoto

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This paper reports on a joint research project in which a researcher in applied linguistics and elementary school teachers in Japan explored new ways to realize emotional synchrony in a classroom in childhood education. The primary purpose of this project was to develop a cross-curriculum of the first language (L1) and second language (L2) based on the concept of plurilingualism. This concept is common in Europe, and can-do statements are used in forming the standard of linguistic proficiency in any language; these are attributed to the action-oriented approach in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). CEFR has a basic tenet of language education: improving communicative competence. Can-do statements are classified into five categories based on the tenet: reading, writing, listening, speaking/ interaction, and speaking/ speech. The first approach of this research was to specify the linguistic proficiency of the children, who are still developing their L1. Elementary school teachers brainstormed and specified the linguistic proficiency of the children as the competency needed to synchronize with others – teachers or peers – physically and mentally. The teachers formed original can-do statements in language proficiency on the basis of the idea that emotional synchrony leads to understanding others in communication. The research objectives are to determine the effect of language education based on the newly developed curriculum and can-do statements. The participants of the experiment were 72 third-graders in Uji Elementary School, Japan. For the experiment, 17 items were developed from the can-do statements formed by the teachers and divided into the same five categories as those of CEFR. A can-do checklist consisting of the items was created. The experiment consisted of three steps: first, the students evaluated themselves using the can-do checklist at the beginning of the school year. Second, one year of instruction was given to the students in Japanese and English classes (six periods a week). Third, the students evaluated themselves using the same can-do checklist at the end of the school year. The results of statistical analysis showed an enhancement of linguistic proficiency of the students. The average results of the post-check exceeded that of the pre-check in 12 out of the 17 items. Moreover, significant differences were shown in four items, three of which belonged to the same category: speaking/ interaction. It is concluded that children can get to understand others’ minds through physical and emotional synchrony. In particular, emotional synchrony is what teachers should aim at in childhood education.

Keywords: Elementary school education, emotional synchrony, language proficiency, sympathy with others.

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Authors: Paulina Pietrzyk-Kowalec

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This paper presents the phenomenon of multilingualism becoming the norm rather than the exception in the European Union. It also seeks to describe the correlation between the command of foreign languages and employability. It is evident that the challenges of today's societies when it comes to employability are more and more complex. Thus, it is one of the crucial tasks of higher education to prepare its students to face this kind of complexity, understand its nuances, and have the capacity to adapt effectively to situations that are common in corporations based in the countries belonging to the EU. From this point of view, the assessment of the impact that the command of foreign languages of European university students could have on the numerous business sectors becomes vital. It also involves raising awareness of future professionals to make them understand the importance of mastering communicative skills in foreign languages that will meet the requirements of students' prospective employers. The direct connection between higher education institutions and the world of business also allows companies to realize that they should rethink their recruitment and human resources procedures in order to take into account the importance of foreign languages. This article focuses on the objective of the multilingualism policy developed by the European Commission, which is to enable young people to master at least two foreign languages, which is crucial in their future careers. The article puts emphasis on the existence of a crucial connection between the research conducted in higher education institutions and the business sector in order to reduce current qualification gaps.

Keywords: Cross-cultural communication, employability, human resources, language attitudes, multilingualism.

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Authors: Emmanuel U. Ingwu

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The study examined the influence of pay differentials on employee retention in the State Colleges of Education in the South-South Region of Nigeria. 275 subjects drawn from members of the wage negotiating teams in the Colleges were administered questionnaires constructed for study. Analysis of Variance revealed that the observed pay differentials significantly influenced retainership, f(5,269 = 6.223, P< 0.05). However, the Multiple Classification Analysis and Post-Hoc test indicated that employees in two of the Colleges with slightly lower and higher pay levels may probably remain with their employers while employees in other Colleges with the least and highest pay levels suggested quitting. Based on these observations, the influence of pay on employee retention seems inconclusive. Generally, employees in the colleges studied are dissatisfied with current pay levels. Management should confront these challenges by improving pay packages to encourage employees to remain and be dedicated to duty.

Keywords: Employee, Influence, Pay differentials, Retention.

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Authors: Heide Lukosch, Roy Van Bussel, Sebastiaan Meijer

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Serious games have proven to be a useful instrument to engage learners and increase motivation. Nevertheless, a broadly accepted, practical instructional design approach to serious games does not exist. In this paper, we introduce the use of an instructional design model that has not been applied to serious games yet, and has some advantages compared to other design approaches. We present the case of mechanics mechatronics education to illustrate the close match with timing and role of knowledge and information that the instructional design model prescribes and how this has been translated to a rigidly structured game design. The structured approach answers the learning needs of applicable knowledge within the target group. It combines advantages of simulations with strengths of entertainment games to foster learner-s motivation in the best possible way. A prototype of the game will be evaluated along a well-respected evaluation method within an advanced test setting including test and control group.

Keywords: Serious Gaming, Simulation, Complex Learning.

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Authors: Muhammad Abdullah Arafat, Nahrin Nowrose

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Wireless charging of electric vehicles is becoming more and more attractive as large amount of power can now be transferred to a reasonable distance using magnetic resonance coupling method. However, proper tuning of the compensation network is required to achieve maximum power transmission. Due to the variation of coil distance from the nominal value as a result of change in tire condition, change in weight or uneven road condition, the tuning of the compensation network has become challenging. In this paper, a tuning method has been described to determine the optimum values of the compensation network in order to maximize the average output power. The simulation results show that 5.2% increase in average output power is obtained for 10% variation in coupling coefficient using the optimum values without the need of additional space and electro-mechanical components. The proposed method is applicable to both static and dynamic charging of electric vehicles.

Keywords: Coupling coefficient, electric vehicles, magnetic resonance coupling, tuning capacitor, wireless power transfer.

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Authors: Yu. I. Pigolkin, M. A. Garcia Corro

Abstract:

Age determination of unknown dead bodies in forensic personal identification is a complicated process which involves the application of numerous methods and techniques. Skeletal remains are less exposed to influences of environmental factors. In order to enhance the accuracy of forensic age estimation additional properties of bones correlating with age are required to be revealed. Material and Methods: Dimensional examination of the sella turcica was carried out on cadavers with the cranium opened by a circular vibrating saw. The sample consisted of a total of 90 Russian subjects, ranging in age from two months and 87 years. Results: The tendency of dimensional variations throughout life was detected. There were no observed gender differences in the morphometry of the sella turcica. The shared use of the sella turcica depth and length values revealed the possibility to categorize an examined sample in a certain age period. Conclusions: Based on the results of existing methods of age determination, the morphometry of the sella turcica can be an additional characteristic, amplifying the received values, and accordingly, increasing the accuracy of forensic biological age diagnosis.

Keywords: Age–related changes in bone structures, forensic personal identification, Sella turcica morphometry, body identification.

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Authors: Sangeeta Tripathi, Muna Al Shahri

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This research article presents the changing role and status of women in Oman. Transformation of women’s status started with the regime of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said in 1970. It is always desired by the Sultan to enable women in all the ways for the balance growth of the country. Forbidding full face veil for women in public offices is one of the best efforts for their empowerment. Women education is also increasing rapidly. They are getting friendly with new information communication technology and using different social media applications such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook for interaction and economic growth. Though there are some traditional and tribal boundaries, women are infused with courage and enjoying fair treatment and equal opportunities in different career positions. The study will try to explore changing mindset of young Omani women towards these traditional tribal boundaries, cultural heritage, business and career: ‘How are young Omani women making balance between work and social prestige?’, ‘How are they preserving their cultural values, embracing new technologies and approaching social network to enhance their economic power.’ This paper will discover their hurdles while using internet for their new entrepreneur. It will also examine the prospects of online business in Oman. The mixed research methodology is applied to find out the result.

Keywords: Advertising, business, entrepreneurship, Social Media, tribal barrier, traditional barriers.

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Authors: Yaser Rezapour, Armin Jabbarieh, Fatemeh Behfar, Ahadollah Azami, Aidin Shamsalghorayi

Abstract:

Social ideology, cultural values and principles shaping environment are inferred by environment and structural characteristics of construction site. In other words, this inference manifestation also indicates ideology and culture of its foundation and also applies its principles and values and somehow plays an important role in Cultural Revolution. All human behaviors and artifacts are affected and being influenced by culture. Culture is not abstract concept, it is a spiritual domain that an individual and society grow and develop in it. Social behaviors are affected by environmental comprehension, so the architecture work influences on its audience and it is the environment that fosters social behaviors. Indeed, sustainable architecture should be considered as background of culture for establishing optimal sustainable culture. Since unidentified architecture roots in cultural non identity and abnormalities, so the society possesses identity characteristics and life and as a consequence, the society and architecture are changed by transformation of life style. This article aims to investigate the interaction of architecture, society, environment and sustainable architecture formation in its cultural basis and analyzes the results approaching behavior and sustainable culture in recent era.

Keywords: Culture, Sustainable Architecture, Environment, Development

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Authors: D. Karnawati, T.F. Fathani , B. Andayani, Suharto

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This paper highlights the importance of integrating social and technical approach (which is so called a “hybrid socio-technical approach") as one innovative and strategic program to support the social development in geodisaster prone area in Indonesia. Such program mainly based on public education and community participation as a partnership program by the University, local government and may also with the private company and/ or local NGO. The indigenous, simple and low cost technology has also been introduced and developed as a part of the hybrid sociotechnical system, in order to ensure the life and environmental protection, with respect to the sustainable human and social development.

Keywords: Hybrid socio-technical system, indigenoustechnology, life and environmental protection, public education.

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Authors: Angelina A. Tzacheva, Jaishree Ranganathan

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Interest in (STEM) Science Technology Engineering Mathematics education especially Computer Science education has seen a drastic increase across the country. This fuels effort towards recruiting and admitting a diverse population of students. Thus the changing conditions in terms of the student population, diversity and the expected teaching and learning outcomes give the platform for use of Innovative Teaching models and technologies. It is necessary that these methods adapted should also concentrate on raising quality of such innovations and have positive impact on student learning. Light-Weight Team is an Active Learning Pedagogy, which is considered to be low-stake activity and has very little or no direct impact on student grades. Emotion plays a major role in student’s motivation to learning. In this work we use the student feedback data with emotion classification using surveys at a public research institution in the United States. We use Actionable Pattern Discovery method for this purpose. Actionable patterns are patterns that provide suggestions in the form of rules to help the user achieve better outcomes. The proposed method provides meaningful insight in terms of changes that can be incorporated in the Light-Weight team activities, resources utilized in the course. The results suggest how to enhance student emotions to a more positive state, in particular focuses on the emotions ‘Trust’ and ‘Joy’.

Keywords: Actionable pattern discovery, education, emotion, data mining.

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Authors: José Luis Oslinger, Luis Carlos Castro

Abstract:

Measurements of capacitance C and dissipation factor tand of the stator insulation system provide useful information about internal defects within the insulation. The index k is defined as the proportionality constant between the changes at high voltage of capacitance DC and of the dissipation factor Dtand . DC and Dtand values were highly correlated when small flat defects were within the insulation and that correlation was lost in the presence of large narrow defects like electrical treeing. The discrimination between small and large defects is made resorting to partial discharge PD phase angle analysis. For the validation of the results, C and tand measurements were carried out in a 15MVA 4160V steam turbine turbogenerator placed in a sugar mill. In addition, laboratory test results obtained by other authors were analyzed jointly. In such laboratory tests, model coil bars subjected to thermal cycling resulted highly degraded and DC and Dtand values were not correlated. Thus, the index k could not be calculated.

Keywords: Aging, capacitance, dissipation factor, electrical treeing, insulation condition, partial discharge.

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Authors: Sun-Young Jang, Sung-Ah Kim, Dongyoun Shin

Abstract:

Current real-estate value estimation, difficult for laymen, usually is performed by specialists. This paper presents an automated estimation process based on big data and machine-learning technology that calculates influences of building conditions on real-estate price measurement. The present study analyzed actual building sales sample data for Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea, measuring the major influencing factors among the various building conditions. Further to that analysis, a prediction model was established and applied using RapidMiner Studio, a graphical user interface (GUI)-based tool for derivation of machine-learning prototypes. The prediction model is formulated by reference to previous examples. When new examples are applied, it analyses and predicts accordingly. The analysis process discerns the crucial factors effecting price increases by calculation of weighted values. The model was verified, and its accuracy determined, by comparing its predicted values with actual price increases.

Keywords: Big data, building-value analysis, machine learning, price prediction.

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