Search results for: Primary Education

Authors: M. Ovinis, D. Kerr, K. Bouazza-Marouf, M. Vloeberghs

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In this paper, the feasibility of using machine vision to assess task completion in a surgical intervention is investigated, with the aim of incorporating vision based inspection in robotic surgery systems. The visually rich operative field presents a good environment for the development of automated visual inspection techniques in these systems, for a more comprehensive approach when performing a surgical task. As a proof of concept, machine vision techniques were used to distinguish the two possible outcomes i.e. satisfactory or unsatisfactory, of three primary surgical tasks involved in creating a burr hole in the skull, namely incision, retraction, and drilling. Encouraging results were obtained for the three tasks under consideration, which has been demonstrated by experiments on cadaveric pig heads. These findings are suggestive for the potential use of machine vision to validate successful task completion in robotic surgery systems. Finally, the potential of using machine vision in the operating theatre, and the challenges that must be addressed, are identified and discussed.

Keywords: Machine vision, robotic surgery, visual inspection.

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Authors: Bogdan Walek, Cyril Klimes

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This paper focuses on testing database of existing information system. At the beginning we describe the basic problems of implemented databases, such as data redundancy, poor design of database logical structure or inappropriate data types in columns of database tables. These problems are often the result of incorrect understanding of the primary requirements for a database of an information system. Then we propose an algorithm to compare the conceptual model created from vague requirements for a database with a conceptual model reconstructed from implemented database. An algorithm also suggests steps leading to optimization of implemented database. The proposed algorithm is verified by an implemented prototype. The paper also describes a fuzzy system which works with the vague requirements for a database of an information system, procedure for creating conceptual from vague requirements and an algorithm for reconstructing a conceptual model from implemented database.

Keywords: testing, database, relational database, information system, conceptual model, fuzzy, uncertain information, database testing, reconstruction, requirements, optimization

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Authors: Rosnani Hasham, Hyun Kyung Choi, Chang Seo Park

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Ficus deltoidea from the Moraceae family is a popular medicinal herb in Malaysia. It possesses strong antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties. In the present study, the anti-inflammatory effects of F. deltoidea extract on UVB-irradiated HaCaT Keratinocytes were investigated. HaCaT Keratinocytes were UVBirradiated (12.5 mJ/cm3) and were treated with 0.05, 0.08 or 0.1% of F. deltoidea extract. Cell viability following UVB irradiation was significantly higher in the groups treated with the F. deltoidea extract at doses of 0.05, 0.08 or 0.1% than in control group with UVB irradiation only. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1α (IL-1α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and cyclooxygenase (COX-2) play primary roles in the inflammation process upon UV irradiation and are known to be stimulated by UVB irradiation. Treatment with the F. deltoidea extract dramatically inhibited the UV-induced TNF-α, IL-1α, IL-6, and COX-2 expression. These results suggest that the F. deltoidea extract inhibits the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and may be an effective protective agent for the treatment of skin diseases.

Keywords: Ficus deltoidea, anti-inflammatory activity, cytokines, COX-2.

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Authors: Yue Zhao, Jianping Li

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This paper covers the present situation and problem of experimental teaching of mathematics specialty in recent years, puts forward and demonstrates experimental teaching methods for different education. From the aspects of content and experimental teaching approach, uses as an example the course “Experiment for Program Designing & Algorithmic Language" and discusses teaching practice and laboratory course work. In addition a series of successful methods and measures are introduced in experimental teaching.

Keywords: Differentiated teaching, experimental teaching, program design and algorithmic language, teaching method.

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Authors: Prakash G L, Thejaswini M, S H Manjula, K R Venugopal, L M Patnaik

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Wireless sensor network can be applied to both abominable and military environments. A primary goal in the design of wireless sensor networks is lifetime maximization, constrained by the energy capacity of batteries. One well-known method to reduce energy consumption in such networks is data aggregation. Providing efcient data aggregation while preserving data privacy is a challenging problem in wireless sensor networks research. In this paper, we present privacy-preserving data aggregation scheme for additive aggregation functions. The Cluster-based Private Data Aggregation (CPDA)leverages clustering protocol and algebraic properties of polynomials. It has the advantage of incurring less communication overhead. The goal of our work is to bridge the gap between collaborative data collection by wireless sensor networks and data privacy. We present simulation results of our schemes and compare their performance to a typical data aggregation scheme TAG, where no data privacy protection is provided. Results show the efficacy and efficiency of our schemes.

Keywords: Aggregation, Clustering, Query Processing.

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Authors: Haodong Wu, Ping Huang, Junsan Wang

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In China, with the rapid urbanization and industrialization, and highly accelerated economic development have resulted in degradation of water resource. The water quality deterioration usual result from eutrophication in most cases, so how to dispose this type pollution water higher efficiently is an urgent task. Hower, different with traditional technology, constructed wetlands are effective treatment systems that can be very useful because they are simple technology and low operational cost. A pilot-scale treatment including constructed wetlands was constructed at XingYun Lake, Yuxi, China, and operated as primary treatment measure before eutrophic-lake water draining to riverine landscape. Water quality indices were determined during the experiment, the results indicated that treatment removal efficiencies were high for Nitrate nitrogen, Chlorophyll–a and Algae, the final removal efficiency reached to 95.20%, 93.33% and 99.87% respectively, but the removal efficiency of Total phosphorous and Total nitrogen only reach to 68.83% and 50.00% respectively.

Keywords: Constructed wetland, Eutrophic-lake water, Nutrientremoval, Removal efficiency

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Authors: Manasjyoti Bhuyan, Kandarpa Kumar Sarma, Hirendra Das

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Signature represents an individual characteristic of a person which can be used for his / her validation. For such application proper modeling is essential. Here we propose an offline signature recognition and verification scheme which is based on extraction of several features including one hybrid set from the input signature and compare them with the already trained forms. Feature points are classified using statistical parameters like mean and variance. The scanned signature is normalized in slant using a very simple algorithm with an intention to make the system robust which is found to be very helpful. The slant correction is further aided by the use of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The suggested scheme discriminates between originals and forged signatures from simple and random forgeries. The primary objective is to reduce the two crucial parameters-False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Rejection Rate (FRR) with lesser training time with an intension to make the system dynamic using a cluster of ANNs forming a multiple classifier system.

Keywords: offline, algorithm, FAR, FRR, ANN.

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Authors: B. Siva Kumar Reddy, B. Lakshmi

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Cognitive Radio is a turning out technology that empowers viable usage of the spectrum. Energy Detector-based Sensing is the most broadly utilized spectrum sensing strategy. Besides, it's a lot of generic as receivers doesn't would like any information on the primary user's signals, channel data, of even the sort of modulation. This paper puts forth the execution of energy detection sensing for AM (Amplitude Modulated) signal at 710 KHz, FM (Frequency Modulated) signal at 103.45 MHz (local station frequency), Wi-Fi signal at 2.4 GHz and WiMAX signals at 6 GHz. The OFDM/OFDMA based WiMAX physical layer with convolutional channel coding is actualized utilizing USRP N210 (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) and GNU Radio based Software Defined Radio (SDR). Test outcomes demonstrated the BER (Bit Error Rate) augmentation with channel noise and BER execution is dissected for different Eb/N0 (the energy per bit to noise power spectral density ratio) values.

Keywords: BER, Cognitive Radio, GNU Radio, OFDM, SDR, WiMAX.

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Authors: R. Bremananth

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Biometric authentication is an essential task for any kind of real-life applications. In this paper, we contribute two primary paradigms to Iris recognition such as Robust Eyelash Detection (RED) using pathway kernels and hair curve fitting synthesized model. Based on these two paradigms, rotation invariant iris recognition is enhanced. In addition, the presented framework is tested with real-life iris data to provide the authentication for LRC (Learning Resource Center) users. Recognition performance is significantly improved based on the contributed schemes by evaluating real-life irises. Furthermore, the framework has been implemented using Java programming language. Experiments are performed based on 1250 diverse subjects in different angles of variations on the authentication process. The results revealed that the methodology can deploy in the process on LRC management system and other security required applications.

Keywords: Authentication, biometric, eye lashes detection, iris scanning, LRC security, secure access.

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Authors: M. S. Salimi, H. Kiamanesh, N. Hedayat

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In this survey the process of crack propagation at the toe of concrete gravity dam is investigated by applying principals and criteria of linear elastic fracture mechanic. Simulating process of earthquake conditions for three models of dam with different geometrical condition, in empty reservoir under plain stress is calculated through special fracture mechanic software FRANNC2D [1] for determining fracture mechanic criteria. The outcomes showed that in spite of the primary expectations, the simultaneous existence of fillet in both toe and heel area (model 3), the rate of maximum principal stress has not been decreased; however, even the maximum principal stress has increased, so it caused stress intensity factors increase which is undesirable. On the other hand, the dam with heel fillet has shown the best attitude and it is because of items like decreasing the rates of maximum and minimum principal stresses and also is related to decreasing the rates of stress intensity factors for 1st & 2nd modes of the model.

Keywords: Stress intensity factor, concrete gravity dam, numerical analysis, geometry of toe.

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Authors: Kirsi Korkealehto

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In Finland the transformation from homogenous culture into multicultural one as a result of heavy immigration has been rapid in the recent decades. As multilingualism and multiculturalism are growing features in our society, teachers in all educational levels need to be competent for encounters with students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Consequently, also the number of multicultural and multilingual vocational school students has increased which has not been taken into consideration in teacher education enough. To bridge this gap between teachers’ competences and the requirements of the contemporary school world, Finnish Ministry of Culture and Education established the DivEd-project. The aim of the project is to prepare all teachers to work in the linguistically and culturally diverse world they live in, to develop and increase culturally sustaining and linguistically responsive pedagogy in Finland, increase awareness among Teacher Educators working with preservice teachers and to increase awareness and provide specific strategies to in-service teachers. The partners in the nationwide project are 6 universities and 2 universities of applied sciences. In this research, the linguistically and culturally sustainable teaching practices developed within the DivEd-project are tested in practice. This research aims to explore vocational teachers’ perceptions of these multilingualism and multilingual educational practices. The participants of this study are vocational teachers in of different fields. The data were collected by individual, face-to-face interviews. The data analysis was conducted through content analysis. The findings indicate that the vocational teachers experience that they lack knowledge on linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogy. Moreover, they regard themselves in some extent incompetent in incorporating multilingually and multiculturally sustainable pedagogy in everyday teaching work. Therefore, they feel they need more training pertaining multicultural and multilingual knowledge, competences and suitable pedagogical methods for teaching students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Keywords: Multicultural, multilingual, teacher competences, vocational school.

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Authors: Carlos Oliveira

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This paper is a criticism of the traditional model of teaching and presents alternative teaching methods, different from the traditional lecture. These methods are accompanied by reports of experience of their application in a class. It was concluded that in the lecture, the student has a low learning rate and that other methods should be used to make the most engaging learning environment for the student, contributing (or facilitating) his learning process. However, the teacher should not use a single method, but rather a range of different methods to ensure the learning experience does not become repetitive and fatiguing for the student.

Keywords: Educational practices, experience report, IT in education, teaching methods.

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Authors: J. Tengrang, T. Rungrotmongkol, S. Hannongbua

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Every 2-3 years the influenza B virus serves epidemics. Neuraminidase (NA) is an important target for influenza drug design. Although, oseltamivir, an oral neuraminidase drug, has been shown good inhibitory efficiency against wild-type of influenza B virus, the lower susceptibility to the R152K mutation has been reported. Better understanding of oseltamivir efficiency and resistance toward the influenza B NA wild-type and R152K mutant, respectively, could be useful for rational drug design. Here, two complex systems of wild-type and R152K NAs with oseltamivir bound were studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Based on 5-ns MD simulation, the loss of notable hydrogen bond and decrease in per-residue decomposition energy from the mutated residue K152 contributed to drug compared to those of R152 in wildtype were found to be a primary source of high-level of oseltamivir resistance due to the R152K mutation.

Keywords: Influenza B neuraminidase, Molecular dynamics simulation, Oseltamivir resistance, R152K mutant

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Authors: Mikael Soini, Kari Björn

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Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (MUAS) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Degree Programme provides full-time Bachelor-level undergraduate studies. ICT Degree Programme has seven different major options; this paper focuses on Health Technology. In Health Technology, a significant curriculum change in 2014 enabled transition from fragmented curriculum including dozens of courses to a new integrated curriculum built around three 30 ECTS themes. This paper focuses especially on the second theme called Customer Oriented Software Applications. From students’ point of view, the goal of this theme is to get familiar with existing health related ICT solutions and systems, understand business around health technology, recognize social and healthcare operating principles and services, and identify customers and users and their special needs and perspectives. This also acts as a background for health related web application development. Built web application is tested, developed and evaluated with real users utilizing versatile user centred development methods. This paper presents experiences obtained from the first implementation of Customer Oriented Software Applications theme. Student feedback was gathered with two questionnaires, one in the middle of the theme and other at the end of the theme. Questionnaires had qualitative and quantitative parts. Similar questionnaire was implemented in the first theme; this paper evaluates how the theme-based integrated curriculum has progressed in Health Technology major by comparing results between theme 1 and 2. In general, students were satisfied for the implementation, timing and synchronization of the courses, and the amount of work. However there is still room for development. Student feedback and teachers’ observations have been and will be used to develop the content and operating principles of the themes and whole curriculum.

Keywords: Engineering education, integrated and theme-based curriculum, learning experience, student centred learning.

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Authors: Alexander Y. Vaninsky

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The paper compares the treatment of fractions in a typical undergraduate college curriculum and in abstract algebra textbooks. It stresses that the main difference is that the undergraduate curriculum treats equivalent fractions as equal, and this treatment eventually leads to paradoxes and impairs the students- ability to perceive ratios, proportions, radicals and rational exponents adequately. The paper suggests a simplified version of rigorous theory of fractions suitable for regular college curriculum.

Keywords: Fractions, mathematics curriculum, mathematics education, teacher preparation

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Authors: Achmad Zamroni, Masahiro Yamao

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Seaweed farming is emerging as a viable alternative activity in the Indonesian fisheries sector. This paper aims to investigate people-s perceptions of seaweed farming, to analyze its social and economic impacts and to identify the problems and obstacles hindering its continued development. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were prepared to obtain qualitative data, and interviews were conducted with fishermen who also plant seaweed. The findings showed that fishermen in the Laikang Bay were enthusiastic about cultivating seaweeds and that seaweed plays a major role in supporting the household economy of fishermen. However, current seaweed drying technologies cannot support increased seaweed production on a farm or plot, especially in the rainy season. Additionally, variable monsoon seasons and long marketing channels are still major constraints on the development of the industry. Finally, capture fisheries, the primary economic livelihood of fishermen of older generations, is being slowly replaced by seaweed farming.

Keywords: Coastal management, perception, seaweed development and livelihood diversification

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Authors: Gioacchino Lavanco, Elisabetta Di Giovanni, Floriana Romano

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The aim of this paper is to study in depth some methodological aspects of social interventation, focusing on desirable passage from social maternage method to peer advocacy method. For this purpose, we intend analyze social and organizative components, that affect operator-s professional action and that are part of his psychological environment, besides the physical and social one. In fact, operator-s interventation should not be limited to a pure supply of techniques, nor to take shape as improvised action, but “full of good purposes".

Keywords: Advocacy, Education, Relationship, Social Mandate.

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Authors: Tooba Qasim, Uzma Javed, Muhammad Safder Shafi

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This study empirically examines the differentiating impact of challenge-hindrance stressors on turnover intention through job satisfaction in IT industry of Pakistan. Moreover, perceived job alternatives were tested as a moderator in the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Primary data was collected from 186 randomly selected IT professionals, working in project-based IT organizations of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Results indicated significant: (1) positive relationship between challenge stressors and job satisfaction, (2) negative relationship between hindrance stressors and job satisfaction, (3) negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention, (4) Job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between challenge stressor and turnover intention, (5) Job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between hindrance stressor and turnover intention. However, it was observed that perceived job alternatives do not have any moderating effect. Proper balancing of two stressors may help top management to increase the job satisfaction and reduce the turnover intention of IT professionals.

Keywords: Challenge Stressors, Hindrance Stressors, Job Satisfaction, Perceived Job Alternatives, Project-based organizations, Turnover Intention.

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Authors: K. Sivasubramanian, K. B. Jayanthi

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Floorplanning plays a vital role in the physical design process of Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) chips. It is an essential design step to estimate the chip area prior to the optimized placement of digital blocks and their interconnections. Since VLSI floorplanning is an NP-hard problem, many optimization techniques were adopted in the literature. In this work, a music-inspired Harmony Search (HS) algorithm is used for the fixed die outline constrained floorplanning, with the aim of reducing the total chip area. HS draws inspiration from the musical improvisation process of searching for a perfect state of harmony. Initially, B*-tree is used to generate the primary floorplan for the given rectangular hard modules and then HS algorithm is applied to obtain an optimal solution for the efficient floorplan. The experimental results of the HS algorithm are obtained for the MCNC benchmark circuits.

Keywords: Floor planning, harmony search, non-slicing floorplan, very large scale integrated circuits.

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Authors: Md Shohidul Islam, Jongmyon Kim, Ui-pil Chong

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Medical image is an integral part of e-health care and e-diagnosis system. Medical image watermarking is widely used to protect patients’ information from malicious alteration and manipulation. The watermarked medical images are transmitted over the internet among patients, primary and referred physicians. The images are highly prone to corruption in the wireless transmission medium due to various noises, deflection, and refractions. Distortion in the received images leads to faulty watermark detection and inappropriate disease diagnosis. To address the issue, this paper utilizes error correction code (ECC) with (8, 4) Hamming code in an existing watermarking system. In addition, we implement the high complex ECC on a graphics processing units (GPU) to accelerate and support real-time requirement. Experimental results show that GPU achieves considerable speedup over the sequential CPU implementation, while maintaining 100% ECC efficiency.

Keywords: Medical Image Watermarking (MIW), e-health system, error correction, Hamming code, GPU.

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Authors: Zdena Lahodová, Michal Koleška, Ladislav Viererbl

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This article summarizes ways to verify neutron fluence for neutron transmutation doping of silicon with phosphorus on the LVR-15 reactor. Neutron fluence is determined using activation detectors placed along the crystal in a strip or encapsulated in a rod holder. Holders are placed at the centre of a water-filled capsule or in an aluminum or silicon ingot that simulates a real single crystal. If the diameter of the crystal is significantly less than the capsule diameter and water from the primary circuit enters the free space in the capsule, neutron interaction in the water changes neutron fluence, affecting axial irradiation homogeneity. The effect of moving the capsule vertically in the channel relative to maximum neutron fluence in the reactor core was also measured. Even a small shift of the capsule-s centre causes great irradiation inhomogeneity. This effect was measured using activation detectors, and was also confirmed by MCNP calculation.

Keywords: Irradiation homogeneity, neutron fluence, neutron transmutation doping, rotational channel.

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Authors: Sidi Yang, Haiyi Zhang

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Twitter is a microblogging platform, where millions of users daily share their attitudes, views, and opinions. Using a probabilistic Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model to discern the most popular topics in the Twitter data is an effective way to analyze a large set of tweets to find a set of topics in a computationally efficient manner. Sentiment analysis provides an effective method to show the emotions and sentiments found in each tweet and an efficient way to summarize the results in a manner that is clearly understood. The primary goal of this paper is to explore text mining, extract and analyze useful information from unstructured text using two approaches: LDA topic modelling and sentiment analysis by examining Twitter plain text data in English. These two methods allow people to dig data more effectively and efficiently. LDA topic model and sentiment analysis can also be applied to provide insight views in business and scientific fields.

Keywords: Text mining, Twitter, topic model, sentiment analysis.

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Authors: Ali Aqa Mohammad Jawad

Abstract:

Taking a relational approach, this paper analyzes the causal mechanisms associated with successful mobilization and rapid demobilization of the Enlightening Movement in post-2001 Afghanistan. The movement emerged after the state-owned Da Afghan Bereshna Sherkat (DABS) decided to divert the route for the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TUTAP) electricity project. The grid was initially planned to go through the Hazara-inhabited province of Bamiyan, according to Afghanistan’s Power Sector Master Plan. The reroute served as an aide-mémoire of historical subordination to other ethno-religious groups for the Hazara community. It was also perceived as deprivation from post-2001 development projects, financed by international aid. This torched the accumulated grievances, which then gave birth to the Enlightening Movement. The movement had a successful mobilization. However, it demobilized after losing much of its mobilizing capabilities through an amalgamation of external and internal relational factors. The successful mobilization yet rapid demobilization constitutes the puzzle of this paper. From the theoretical perspective, this paper is significant as it establishes the applicability of contentious politics theory to protest mobilizations that occurred in Afghanistan, a context-specific, characterized by ethnic politics. Both primary and secondary data are utilized to address the puzzle. As for the primary resources, media coverage, interviews, reports, public media statements of the movement, involved in contentious performances, and data from Social Networking Services (SNS) are used. The covered period is from 2001-2018. As for the secondary resources, published academic articles and books are used to give a historical account of contentious politics. For data analysis, a qualitative comparative historical method is utilized to uncover the causal mechanisms associated with successful mobilization and rapid demobilization of the Movement. In this pursuit, both mobilization and demobilization are considered as larger political processes that could be decomposed to constituent mechanisms. Enlightening Movement’s framing and campaigns are first studied to uncover the associated mechanisms. Then, to avoid introducing some ad hoc mechanisms, the recurrence of mechanisms is checked against another case. Mechanisms qualify as robust if they are “recurrent” in different episodes of contention. Checking the recurrence of causal mechanisms is vital as past contentious events tend to reinforce future events. The findings of this paper suggest that the public sphere in Afghanistan is drastically different from Western democracies known as the birthplace of social movements. In Western democracies, when institutional politics did not respond, movement organizers occupied the public sphere, undermining the legitimacy of the government. In Afghanistan, the public sphere is ethicized. Considering the inter- and intra-relational dynamics of ethnic groups in Afghanistan, the movement reduced to an erosive inter- and intra-ethnic conflict. This undermined the cohesiveness of the movement, which then kicked-off its demobilization process.

Keywords: Enlightening movement, contentious politics, mobilization, demobilization.

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Authors: Funmilayo L. Amao

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As a result of the high cost of housing, the increasing population is forced to live in substandard housing and unhealthy conditions giving rise to poor residential neighborhoods. The paper examines the causes and characteristics of poor residential neighborhood. The paper finds the problems that have influence poor neighborhoods to; poverty, growth of informal sector and housing shortage. The paper asserts that poor residential neighborhoods have adverse effects on the people.

The secondary data was obtained from books, journals and seminar papers while primary data relating to building and environmental quality from structured questionnaire administered on sample of 500 household heads, from sampling frame of 5000 housing units.

The study reveals that majority of the respondents are poor and employed in informal sector. The paper suggests urban renewal and slum upgrading programs as methods in dealing with the situation and an improvement in the socio-economic circumstances of the inhabitants.

Keywords: Environmental Degeneration, Housing, Poverty, Quality of life, Urban Upgrading.

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Authors: Shabrina Pritta Radyanti, Harimukti Wandebori

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A research study was conducted with an objective to propose a collaborative business strategy of a oil and gas trading company, representing PPT Energy Trading Co., Ltd., with its shareholder, especially electricity and power supply companies for LNG Form of Coal Bed Methane in B2B Transaction. Collaborative business strategy is a strategy to collaborate with other organizations due to have future benefits in both parties, or achieve the business objective through the collaboration of business, its strategy and partners. A structured interview was established to collect the required primary data from the company. Not only interview, but also company’s business plan and annual report were collected and analyzed for the company’s current condition. As the result, this research shows a recommendation to propose a new collaborative strategy with limiting its target market, diversifying product, conducting new business model, and considering other stakeholders.

Keywords: collaborative business strategy, trading company, LNG, coal bed methane

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Authors: D. Koutny, D. Palousek, P. Stoklasek, J. Rosicky, L. Tepla, M. Prochazkova, Z. Svoboda, P. Krejci

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The article deals with biomechanics of cyclist with unilateral transtibial amputation. Transtibial amputation completely removes ankle and part of muscles of a lower leg which are responsible for production of force during pedaling and causes significant geometric and power asymmetry between the limbs during cycling movement. The primary goal of this work is to assess the effects of length adjustment of the crank on the kinematics and muscle activity of cyclist. The paper presents experimental work, which aims to find a suitable ratio of the length of kinematic components to improve overall athletic performance. The study presents the results of the kinematic analysis of the cycling movement with different crank length realized by tracking camera system together with the results of muscle activity measurements captured by electromyography and measurement of forces in the cranks by strain gauges.

Keywords: Amputation, electromyography, kinematics of cycling, leg asymmetry, motion capture, transtibial prosthesis.

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Authors: Joerg Schweizer, Jason N. Meggs, Nazanin R. Dehkordi, Frederico Rupi, Anton Pashkevich

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We propose a low-cost uniform analysis framework allowing comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of the bicycling experience within and between cities. A primary component is an expedient, one-page mobility survey from which mode share is calculated. The bicycle mode share of many cities remains unknown, creating a serious barrier for both scientists and policy makers aiming to understand and increase rates of bicycling. Because of its low cost and expedience, this framework could be replicated widely, uniformly filling the data gap. The framework has been applied to 13 Central European cities with success. Data is collected on multiple modes with specific questions regarding both behavior and quality of travel experience. Individual preferences are also collected, examining the conditions under which respondents would change behavior to adopt more sustainable modes (bicycling or public transportation). A broad analysis opportunity results, intended to inform policy choices.

Keywords: bicycling, modal splits, transport policy, surveys.

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Authors: J. Furuya, S. Kobayashi, S. D. Meyer

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This research examines possible effects of climatic change focusing on global warming and its impacts on world agricultural product markets, by using a world food model developed to consider climate changes. GDP and population for each scenario were constructed by IPCC and climate data for each scenario was reported by the Hadley Center and are used in this research to consider results in different contexts. Production and consumption of primary agriculture crops of the world for each socio-economic scenario are obtained and investigated by using the modified world food model. Simulation results show that crop production in some countries or regions will have different trends depending on the context. These alternative contexts depend on the rate of GDP growth, population, temperature, and rainfall. Results suggest that the development of environment friendly technologies lead to more consumption of food in many developing countries. Relationships among environmental policy, clean energy development, and poverty elimination warrant further investigation.

Keywords: Global warming, SRES scenarios, World food model.

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Authors: Alquliyev R.M., Kazimov T.H., Mahmudova Sh.C., Mahmudova R.Sh.

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The given work is devoted to the description of Information Technologies NAS of Azerbaijan created and successfully maintained in Institute. On the basis of the decision of board of the Supreme Certifying commission at the President of the Azerbaijan Republic and Presidium of National Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan Republic, the organization of training courses on Computer Sciences for all post-graduate students and dissertators of the republic, taking of examinations of candidate minima, it was on-line entrusted to Institute of Information Technologies of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. Therefore, teaching the computer sciences to post-graduate students and dissertators a scientific - methodological manual on effective application of new information technologies for research works by post-graduate students and dissertators and taking of candidate minima is carried out in the Educational Center. Information and communication technologies offer new opportunities and prospects of their application for teaching and training. The new level of literacy demands creation of essentially new technology of obtaining of scientific knowledge. Methods of training and development, social and professional requirements, globalization of the communicative economic and political projects connected with construction of a new society, depends on a level of application of information and communication technologies in the educational process. Computer technologies develop ideas of programmed training, open completely new, not investigated technological ways of training connected to unique opportunities of modern computers and telecommunications. Computer technologies of training are processes of preparation and transfer of the information to the trainee by means of computer. Scientific and technical progress as well as global spread of the technologies created in the most developed countries of the world is the main proof of the leading role of education in XXI century. Information society needs individuals having modern knowledge. In practice, all technologies, using special technical information means (computer, audio, video) are called information technologies of education.

Keywords: Educational Center, post-graduate, database.

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Authors: Cyril Brom, Zuzana Vlckova

Abstract:

IVE toolkit has been created for facilitating research,education and development in the field of virtual storytelling and computer games. Primarily, the toolkit is intended for modelling action selection mechanisms of virtual humans, investigating level-of-detail AI techniques for large virtual environments, and for exploring joint behaviour and role-passing technique (Sec. V). Additionally, the toolkit can be used as an AI middleware without any changes. The main facility of IVE is that it serves for prototyping both the AI and virtual worlds themselves. The purpose of this paper is to describe IVE's features in general and to present our current work - including an educational game - on this platform.

Keywords: AI middleware, simulation, virtual world.

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