Search results for: research and development

Authors: Bua Srikos, Phusit Phukamchanoad, Suwaree Yordchim

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The purpose is to study the model and characteristic of participation of the suitable community to lead to develop permanent water marketing in Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti District, Samutsongkhram Province. A total of 342 survey questionnaire was administered to potential respondents. The researchers interviewed the leader of the community. Appreciation Influence Control (AIC) was used to talk with 20 villagers on arena. The findings revealed that overall, most people had the middle level of the participation in developing the durable Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti, Samutsongkhram Province and in aspects of gaining benefits from developing it with atmosphere and a beautiful view for tourism. For example, the landscape is beautiful with public utilities. The participation in preserving and developing Bang Noi Floating Market remains in the former way of life. The basic factor of person affects to the participation of people such as age, level of education, career, and income per month. Most participants are the original hosts that have houses and shops located in the marketing and neighbor. These people involve with the benefits and have the power to make a water marketing strategy, the major role to set the information database. It also found that the leader and the villagers play the important role in setting a five-physical database. Data include level of information such as position of village, territory of village, road, river, and premises. Information of culture consists of a two-level of information, interesting point, and Itinerary. The information occurs from presenting and practicing by the leader and villagers in the community.All of phases are presented for listening and investigating database together in both the leader and villagers in the process of participation.

Keywords: Community Participation, Sustainable Development, Encouragement Tourism.

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Authors: Pedro Llanos, Diego García

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Spaceflight is considered the last frontier in terms of science, technology, and engineering. But it is also the next frontier in terms of human physiology and performance. After more than 200,000 years humans have evolved under earth’s gravity and atmospheric conditions, spaceflight poses environmental stresses for which human physiology is not adapted. Hypoxia, accelerations, and radiation are among such stressors, our research involves suborbital flights aiming to develop effective countermeasures in order to assure sustainable human space presence. The physiologic baseline of spaceflight participants is subject to great variability driven by age, gender, fitness, and metabolic reserve. The objective of the present study is to characterize different physiologic variables in a population of STEM practitioners during an aerobatic flight. Cardiovascular and pulmonary responses were determined in Science Astronaut Candidates (SACs) during unusual attitude aerobatic flight indoctrination. Physiologic data recordings from 20 subjects participating in high-G flight training were analyzed. These recordings were registered by wearable sensor-vest that monitored electrocardiographic tracings (ECGs), signs of dysrhythmias or other electric disturbances during all the flight. The same cardiovascular parameters were also collected approximately 10 min pre-flight, during each high-G/unusual attitude maneuver and 10 min after the flights. The ratio (pre-flight/in-flight/post-flight) of the cardiovascular responses was calculated for comparison of inter-individual differences. The resulting tracings depicting the cardiovascular responses of the subjects were compared against the G-loads (Gs) during the aerobatic flights to analyze cardiovascular variability aspects and fluid/pressure shifts due to the high Gs. In-flight ECG revealed cardiac variability patterns associated with rapid Gs onset in terms of reduced heart rate (HR) and some scattered dysrhythmic patterns (15% premature ventricular contractions-type) that were considered as triggered physiological responses to high-G/unusual attitude training and some were considered as instrument artifact. Variation events were observed in subjects during the +Gz and –Gz maneuvers and these may be due to preload and afterload, sudden shift. Our data reveal that aerobatic flight influenced the breathing rate of the subject, due in part by the various levels of energy expenditure due to the increased use of muscle work during these aerobatic maneuvers. Noteworthy was the high heterogeneity in the different physiological responses among a relatively small group of SACs exposed to similar aerobatic flights with similar Gs exposures. The cardiovascular responses clearly demonstrated that SACs were subjected to significant flight stress. Routine ECG monitoring during high-G/unusual attitude flight training is recommended to capture pathology underlying dangerous dysrhythmias in suborbital flight safety. More research is currently being conducted to further facilitate the development of robust medical screening, medical risk assessment approaches, and suborbital flight training in the context of the evolving commercial human suborbital spaceflight industry. A more mature and integrative medical assessment method is required to understand the physiology state and response variability among highly diverse populations of prospective suborbital flight participants.

Keywords: Aerobatic maneuvers, G force, hypoxia, suborbital flight, commercial astronauts.

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Authors: Sagar Pramodrao Kadu, Rajendra H. Sarda

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The concerns about clean environment and high oil prices driving forces for the research on alternative fuels. The research efforts directed towards improving the performance of C.I engines using vegetable oil as fuel. The paper deals results of performance of a four stroke, single cylinder C.I. engine by preheated neat Karanja oil is done from 30 o C to 100 o C. The performance of the engine was studied for a speed range between 1500 to 4000 rpm, with the engine operated under full load conditions. The performance parameters considered for comparing are brake specific fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, brake power, Nox emission of the engine. The engine offers lower thermal efficiency when it is powered by preheated neat Karanja oil at higher speed. The power developed and Nox emission increase with the increase in the fuel inlet temperature and the specific fuel consumption is higher than diesel fuel operation at all elevated fuel inlet temperature.

Keywords: Alternative fuel, Compression ignition engine, neatKaranja oil, preheating.

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Authors: Randhir Singh Baghel

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In this study, the fundamental ideas guiding the dynamic area of machine learning—where models thrive and algorithms change over time—are rooted in an innate mathematical link. This study explores the fundamental ideas that drive the development of intelligent systems, providing light on the mutually beneficial link between mathematics and machine learning.

Keywords: Machine Learning, deep learning, Neural Network, optimization.

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Authors: Suman

Abstract:

In the continuous interaction between the past and the present that historiography is, each time when history gets re/written, a new representation emerges. This new representation is a reflection of the earlier archives and their interpretations, fragmented remembrances of the past, as well as the reactions to the present. Memory, or lack thereof, and stereotyping generally play a major role in this representation. William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (2009) is one such written account that sets out to narrate the representations of religion and culture of India and contemporary reactions to it. Dalrymple’s nine saints belong to different castes, sects, religions, and regions. By dealing with their religions and expressions of those religions, and through the lived mysticism of these nine individuals, the book engages with some important issues like class, caste and gender in the contexts provided by historical as well as present India. The paper studies the development of religion and accompanied feeling of religiosity in modern as well as historical contexts through a study of these elements in the book. Since, the language used in creation of texts and the literary texts thus produced create a new reality that questions the stereotypes of the past, and in turn often end up creating new stereotypes or stereotypical representations at times, the paper seeks to actively engage with the text in order to identify and study such stereotypes, along with their changing representations. Through a detailed examination of the book, the paper seeks to unravel whether some socio-cultural stereotypes existed earlier, and whether there is development of new stereotypes from Dalrymple’s point of view as an outsider writing on issues that are deeply rooted in the cultural milieu of the country. For this analysis, the paper takes help from the psycho-literary theories of stereotyping and representation.

Keywords: Religion, Representation, Stereotyping, William Dalrymple.

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Authors: Melissa C. LaDuke

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The use of new literacies within science classrooms needs to be balanced by teachers to both teach different forms of communication while assessing content area proficiency. Using new literacies such as Twitter and Facebook needs to be incorporated into science content area literacy studies in addition to continuing to use generally-accepted forms of scientific content area presentation which include scientific papers and textbooks. The research question this literature review seeks to answer is “What are some ways in which new forms of literacy are better suited to teach scientific content area literacy to 21st century learners?” The research question is addressed through a literature review that highlights methods currently being used to educate the next wave of learners in the world of science content area literacy. Both temporal discourse analysis (TDA) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) were used to determine the need to use new literacies to teach science content area literacy. Increased use of digital technologies and a change in science content area pedagogy were explored.

Keywords: Science content area literacy, new literacies, critical discourse analysis, temporal discourse analysis.

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Authors: Chin-Pin Chen, David W.S. Tai, Wen-Jong Chen, Hui-Min Lai

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This study aims to analyze the effect of e-learning on photonics technology and daily livings among college students. The course contents of photonics technology and daily livings are first drafted based on research discussions and expert interviews. Having expert questionnaires with Delphi Technique for three times, the knowledge units and items for the course of photonics technology and daily livings are established. The e-learning materials and the drafts of instructional strategies, academic achievement, and learning attitude scales are then developed. With expert inspection, reliability and validity test, and experimental instructions, the scales and the material are further revised. Finally, the formal instructions are implemented to test the effect of different instructional methods on the academic achievement of photonics technology and daily livings among students in universities of technology. The research results show that e-learning could effectively promote academic achievement and learning attitude, and the students with e-learning obviously outperform the ones with trandition instructions.

Keywords: E-learning, Photonics Technology and Daily Livings, Academic Achievement

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Authors: Stamatios A. Theocharis, George A. Tsihrintzis

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e-Government is already in its second decade. Prerequisite for further development and adaptation to new realities is the optimal management of administrative information and knowledge production by those involved, i.e. the public sector, citizens and businesses. Nowadays, the amount of information displayed or distributed on the Internet has reached enormous dimensions, resulting in serious difficulties when extracting and managing knowledge. The semantic web is expected to play an important role in solving this problem and the technologies that support it. In this article, we address some relevant issues.

Keywords: e-Government, semantic web, ontologies

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Authors: Jianguo Tang, Kun She, William Zhu

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Covering-based rough sets is an extension of rough sets and it is based on a covering instead of a partition of the universe. Therefore it is more powerful in describing some practical problems than rough sets. However, by extending the rough sets, covering-based rough sets can increase the roughness of each model in recognizing objects. How to obtain better approximations from the models of a covering-based rough sets is an important issue. In this paper, two concepts, determinate elements and indeterminate elements in a universe, are proposed and given precise definitions respectively. This research makes a reasonable refinement of the covering-element from a new viewpoint. And the refinement may generate better approximations of covering-based rough sets models. To prove the theory above, it is applied to eight major coveringbased rough sets models which are adapted from other literature. The result is, in all these models, the lower approximation increases effectively. Correspondingly, in all models, the upper approximation decreases with exceptions of two models in some special situations. Therefore, the roughness of recognizing objects is reduced. This research provides a new approach to the study and application of covering-based rough sets.

Keywords: Determinate element, indeterminate element, refinementof covering-element, refinement of covering, covering-basedrough sets.

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Authors: Krzysztof J. Czarnocki, F. Silveira, E. Czarnocka, K. Szaniawska

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Research background: Problems related to the occupational health and decreasing level of safety occur commonly in the construction industry. Important factor in the occupational safety in construction industry is scaffold use. All scaffolds used in construction, renovation, and demolition shall be erected, dismantled and maintained in accordance with safety procedure. Increasing demand for new construction projects unfortunately still is linked to high level of occupational accidents. Therefore, it is crucial to implement concrete actions while dealing with scaffolds and risk assessment in construction industry, the way on doing assessment and liability of assessment is critical for both construction workers and regulatory framework. Unfortunately, professionals, who tend to rely heavily on their own experience and knowledge when taking decisions regarding risk assessment, may show lack of reliability in checking the results of decisions taken. Purpose of the article: The aim was to indicate crucial parameters that could be modeling with Risk Assessment Model (RAM) use for improving both building enterprise productivity and/or developing potential and safety climate. The developed RAM could be a benefit for predicting high-risk construction activities and thus preventing accidents occurred based on a set of historical accident data. Methodology/Methods: A RAM has been developed for assessing risk levels as various construction process stages with various work trades impacting different spheres of enterprise activity. This project includes research carried out by teams of researchers on over 60 construction sites in Poland and Portugal, under which over 450 individual research cycles were carried out. The conducted research trials included variable conditions of employee exposure to harmful physical and chemical factors, variable levels of stress of employees and differences in behaviors and habits of staff. Genetic modeling tool has been used for developing the RAM. Findings and value added: Common types of trades, accidents, and accident causes have been explored, in addition to suitable risk assessment methods and criteria. We have found that the initial worker stress level is more direct predictor for developing the unsafe chain leading to the accident rather than the workload, or concentration of harmful factors at the workplace or even training frequency and management involvement.

Keywords: Civil engineering, occupational health, productivity, safety climate.

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Authors: R. Sekula

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Epoxy composites are broadly used as an electrical insulation for the high voltage applications since only such materials can fulfill particular mechanical, thermal, and dielectric requirements. However, properties of the final product are strongly dependent on proper manufacturing process with minimized material failures, as too large shrinkage, voids and cracks. Therefore, application of proper materials (epoxy, hardener, and filler) and process parameters (mold temperature, filling time, filling velocity, initial temperature of internal parts, gelation time), as well as design and geometric parameters are essential features for final quality of the produced components. In this paper, an approach for three-dimensional modeling of all molding stages, namely filling, curing and post-curing is presented. The reactive molding simulation tool is based on a commercial CFD package, and include dedicated models describing viscosity and reaction kinetics that have been successfully implemented to simulate the reactive nature of the system with exothermic effect. Also a dedicated simulation procedure for stress and shrinkage calculations, as well as simulation results are presented in the paper. Second part of the paper is dedicated to recent developments on formulations of functional composites for electrical insulation applications, focusing on thermally conductive materials. Concepts based on filler modifications for epoxy electrical composites have been presented, including the results of the obtained properties. Finally, having in mind tough environmental regulations, in addition to current process and design aspects, an approach for product re-design has been presented focusing on replacement of epoxy material with the thermoplastic one. Such “design-for-recycling” method is one of new directions associated with development of new material and processing concepts of electrical products and brings a lot of additional research challenges. For that, one of the successful products has been presented to illustrate the presented methodology.

Keywords: Curing, epoxy insulation, numerical simulations, recycling.

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Authors: Basem Mustafa Abd. Amer , Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Attas

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The aim of this research is to develop a fast and reliable surveillance system based on a personal digital assistant (PDA) device. This is to extend the capability of the device to detect moving objects which is already available in personal computers. Secondly, to compare the performance between Background subtraction (BS) and Temporal Frame Differencing (TFD) techniques for PDA platform as to which is more suitable. In order to reduce noise and to prepare frames for the moving object detection part, each frame is first converted to a gray-scale representation and then smoothed using a Gaussian low pass filter. Two moving object detection schemes i.e., BS and TFD have been analyzed. The background frame is updated by using Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filter so that the background frame is adapted to the varying illuminate conditions and geometry settings. In order to reduce the effect of noise pixels resulting from frame differencing morphological filters erosion and dilation are applied. In this research, it has been found that TFD technique is more suitable for motion detection purpose than the BS in term of speed. On average TFD is approximately 170 ms faster than the BS technique

Keywords: Surveillance, PDA, Motion Detection, ImageProcessing , Background Subtraction.

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Authors: Y. Kerboua Ziari, M. Benouahlima, A. Benzaoui

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We are interested in this paper to the thermal effects occurring during the filling of hydrogen tanks. The consequence of this heating on the storage performance of these speakers was appreciated. The motivation comes from the fact that the development of hydrogen as an energy carrier of the future will require strong evolution in the field of storage modes to smaller, less expensive lighter, with a strong security interest and considerable autonomy.

Keywords: Hydrogen, Fuel, Storage, Energy, Modeling, Simulation.

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Authors: Lim Chen Kim, Tan Kian Lam, Chan Yi Chee

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This research presents a multi-modal simulation in the reconstruction of the past and the construction of present in digital cultural heritage on mobile platform. In bringing the present life, the virtual environment is generated through a presented scheme for rapid and efficient construction of 360° panoramic view. Then, acoustical heritage model and crowd model are presented and improvised into the 360° panoramic view. For the reconstruction of past life, the crowd is simulated and rendered in an old trading port. However, the keystone of this research is in a virtual walkthrough that shows the virtual present life in 2D and virtual past life in 3D, both in an environment of virtual heritage sites in George Town through mobile device. Firstly, the 2D crowd is modelled and simulated using OpenGL ES 1.1 on mobile platform. The 2D crowd is used to portray the present life in 360° panoramic view of a virtual heritage environment based on the extension of Newtonian Laws. Secondly, the 2D crowd is animated and rendered into 3D with improved variety and incorporated into the virtual past life using Unity3D Game Engine. The behaviours of the 3D models are then simulated based on the enhancement of the classical model of Boid algorithm. Finally, a demonstration system is developed and integrated with the models, techniques and algorithms of this research. The virtual walkthrough is demonstrated to a group of respondents and is evaluated through the user-centred evaluation by navigating around the demonstration system. The results of the evaluation based on the questionnaires have shown that the presented virtual walkthrough has been successfully deployed through a multi-modal simulation and such a virtual walkthrough would be particularly useful in a virtual tour and virtual museum applications.

Keywords: Boid algorithm, crowd simulation, mobile platform, Newtonian laws, virtual heritage.

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Authors: Mikhail V. Khachaturyan

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The article analyzes problems of improving the management systems of the ownership risks in the conditions of the transformation of the Russian economy. Among the main sources of threats business owners should highlight is the inefficiency of the implementation of business models and interaction with hired managers. In this context, it is particularly important to analyze the relationship of business models and ownership risks. The analysis of this problem appears to be relevant for a number of reasons: Firstly, the increased risk appetite of the owner directly affects the business model and the composition of his holdings; secondly, owners with significant stakes in the company are factors in the formation of particular types of risks for owners, for which relations have a significant influence on a firm's competitiveness and ultimately determines its survival; and thirdly, inefficient system of management ownership of risk is one of the main causes of mass bankruptcies, which significantly affects the stable operation of the economy as a whole. The separation of the processes of possession, disposal and use in modern organizations is the cause of not only problems in the process of interaction between the owner and managers in managing the organization as a whole, but also the asymmetric information about the kinds and forms of the main risks. Managers tend to avoid risky projects, inhibit the diversification of the organization's assets, while owners can insist on the development of such projects, with the aim not only of creating new values for themselves and consumers, but also increasing the value of the company as a result of increasing capital. In terms of separating ownership and management, evaluation of projects by the ratio of risk-yield requires preservation of the influence of the owner on the process of development and making management decisions. It is obvious that without a clearly structured system of participation of the owner in managing the risks of their business, further development is hopeless. In modern conditions of forming a risk management system, owners are compelled to compromise between the desire to increase the organization's ability to produce new value, and, consequently, increase its cost due to the implementation of risky projects and the need to tolerate the cost of lost opportunities of risk diversification. Improving the effectiveness of the management of ownership risks may also contribute to the revitalization of creditors on implementation claims to inefficient owners, which ultimately will contribute to the efficiency models of ownership control to exclude variants of insolvency. It is obvious that in modern conditions, the success of the model of the ownership of risk management and audit is largely determined by the ability and willingness of the owner to find a compromise between potential opportunities for expanding the firm's ability to create new value through risk and maintaining the current level of new value creation and an acceptable level of risk through the use of models of diversification.

Keywords: Risk management, ownership risks, economic transformation, Russian economy, management systems.

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Authors: A. Smagina, A. Lindemanis

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In the time of globalisation, growing uncertainty, ambiguity and change, traditional way of doing business are no longer sufficient and it is important to consider non-conventional methods and approaches to release creativity and facilitate innovation and growth. Thus, creative industries, as a natural source of creativity and innovation, draw particular attention. This paper explores feasibility of building creative partnerships between creative industries and business and brings attention to mutual benefits derived from such partnerships. Design/approach - This paper is a theoretical exploration of projects, practices and research findings addressing collaboration between creative industries and business. Thus, it concerns creative industries, arts, business and its representatives in order to define requirements for creative partnerships to work and succeed. Findings – Current practices in engaging into arts-business partnerships are still very few, although most of creative partnerships proved to be highly valuable and mutually beneficial. Certain conditions shall be provided in order to benefit from arts-business creative synergy. Originality/value- By integrating different sources of literature, this article provides a base for conducting empirical research in several dimensions within arts-business partnerships.

Keywords: Arts, artists, business, creative industries, partnership

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Authors: Gizem Kodak

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The Strait of Çanakkale (Dardanelles), together with the Strait of Istanbul and the Sea of Marmara, form the Turkish Straits System. In other words, the Strait of Çanakkale is the southern gate of the system that connects the Black Sea countries with the other countries of the world. Due to the heavy maritime traffic, it is important to scientifically examine the accident characteristics in the region. In particular, the results indicated by the descriptive statistics are of critical importance in order to strengthen the safety of navigation. At this point, exploratory data analysis offers strategic outputs in terms of defining the problem and knowing the strengths and weaknesses against possible accident risk. The study aims to determine the accident characteristics in the Strait of Çanakkale with temporal and spatial analysis of historical data, using Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) as the research method. The study's results will reveal the general characteristics of maritime accidents in the region and form the infrastructure for future studies. Therefore, the text provides a clear description of the research goals and methodology, and the study's contributions are well-defined.

Keywords: Maritime Accidents, EDA, Strait of Çanakkale, navigational safety.

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Authors: Yun Bai

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This paper is to investigate the impplementation of security mechanism in object oriented database system. Formal methods plays an essential role in computer security due to its powerful expressiveness and concise syntax and semantics. In this paper, both issues of specification and implementation in database security environment will be considered; and the database security is achieved through the development of an efficient implementation of the specification without compromising its originality and expressiveness.

Keywords: database security, authorization policy, logic basedspecification

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Authors: G. Tamanza, A. Bossoni

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84 deaf students (from primary school to college) and their families participated in this inclusion project in cooperation with numerous institutions in northern Italy (Brescia-Lombardy). Participants were either congenitally deaf or their deafness was related to other pathologies. This research promoted the integration of deaf students as they pass from primary school to high school to college. Learning methods and processes were studied that focused on encour­aging individual autonomy and socialization. The research team and its collaborators included school teachers, speech ther­apists, psychologists and home tutors, as well as teaching assistants, child neuropsychiatrists and other external authorities involved with deaf persons social inclusion programs. Deaf children and their families were supported, in terms of inclusion, and were made aware of the research team that focused on the Bisogni Educativi Speciali (BES or Special Educational Needs) (L.170/2010 - DM 5669/2011). This project included a diagnostic and evaluative phase as well as an operational one. Results demonstrated that deaf children were highly satisfied and confident; academic performance improved and collaboration in school increased. Deaf children felt that they had access to high school and college. Empowerment for the families of deaf children in terms of networking among local services that deal with the deaf also improved while family satisfaction also improved. We found that teachers and those who gave support to deaf children increased their professional skills. Achieving autonomy, instrumental, communicative and relational abilities were also found to be crucial. Project success was determined by temporal continuity, clear theoretical methodology, strong alliance for the project direction and a resilient team response.

Keywords: Autonomy, inclusion, skills, well-being.

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Authors: Mimi N. A. Mohamed

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The complexity of teaching English in higher institutions by non-native speakers within a second/foreign language setting has created continuous discussions and research about teaching approaches and teaching practises, professional identities and challenges. In addition, there is a growing awareness that teaching English within discipline-specific contexts adds up to the existing complexity. This awareness leads to reassessments, discussions and suggestions on course design and content and teaching approaches and techniques. In meeting expectations teaching at a university specified in a particular discipline such as engineering, English language educators are not only required to teach students to be able to communicate in English effectively but also to teach soft skills such as problem solving skills. This paper is part of a research conducted to investigate how English language educators negotiate with the complexities of teaching problem solving skills through English language teaching at a technical university. This paper reports the way an English language educator identified himself and the way he approached his teaching in this institutional context.

Keywords: English Language Teaching, Teacher Agency, Problem Solving Skills, Professional Identities.

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Authors: Rosidah Musa, Rezian-na Muhammad Kassim

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The purpose of this research is to disentangle and validate the underlying factorial-structure of Ecotourism Experiential Value (EEV) measurement scale and subsequently investigate its psychometric properties. The analysis was based on a sample of 225 eco-tourists, collected at the vicinity of Taman Negara National Park (TNNP) via interviewer-administered questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to determine the factorial structure of EEV. Subsequently, to confirm and validate the factorial structure and assess the psychometric properties of EEV, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was executed. In addition, to establish the nomological validity of EEV a structural model was developed to examine the effect of EEV on Total Eco-tourist Experience Quality (TEEQ). It is unveiled that EEV is a secondorder six-factorial structure construct and it scale has adequately met the psychometric criteria, thus could permit interpretation of results confidently. The findings have important implications for future research directions and management of ecotourism destination.

Keywords: ecotourism, experiential value, experience quality, national park,

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Authors: J. Beel, B. Gipp

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Research papers are usually evaluated via peer review. However, peer review has limitations in evaluating research papers. In this paper, Scienstein and the new idea of 'collaborative document evaluation' are presented. Scienstein is a project to evaluate scientific papers collaboratively based on ratings, links, annotations and classifications by the scientific community using the internet. In this paper, critical success factors of collaborative document evaluation are analyzed. That is the scientists- motivation to participate as reviewers, the reviewers- competence and the reviewers- trustworthiness. It is shown that if these factors are ensured, collaborative document evaluation may prove to be a more objective, faster and less resource intensive approach to scientific document evaluation in comparison to the classical peer review process. It is shown that additional advantages exist as collaborative document evaluation supports interdisciplinary work, allows continuous post-publishing quality assessments and enables the implementation of academic recommendation engines. In the long term, it seems possible that collaborative document evaluation will successively substitute peer review and decrease the need for journals.

Keywords: Peer Review, Alternative, Collaboration, Document Evaluation, Rating, Annotations.

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Authors: Lan Wu

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China’s declared transformation towards a ‘new electricity system dominated by renewable energy’ requires a cleaner electricity consumption mix with high shares of renewable energy sourced-electricity (RES-E). Unfortunately, integration of RES-E into Chinese electricity markets remains a problem pending more robust legal support, evidenced by the curtailment of wind and solar power due to integration constraints. The upcoming Energy Law of the PRC (Energy Law) is expected to provide such long-awaiting support and coordinate the existing diverse sector-specific laws to deal with the weak implementation that dampening the delivery of their desired regulatory effects. However, in the shadow of the COVID-19 crisis, it remains uncertain how this new Energy Law brings synergies to RES-E integration, mindful of the significant impacts of the pandemic. Through the theoretical lens of the interplay between China’s electricity market reform and legislative development, this paper investigates whether there is a paradigm shift in Energy Law regarding renewable energy integration compared with the existing sector-specific energy laws. It examines the 2020 Draft for Comments on the Energy Law and analyses its relationship with sector-specific energy laws focusing on RES-E integration. The comparison is drawn upon five critical aspects of the RES-E integration issue, including the status of renewables, marketisation, incentive schemes, consumption mechanisms, access to power grids and dispatching. The analysis shows that it is reasonable to expect a more open and well-organised electricity market, enabling the absorption of high shares of RES-E. The present paper concludes that a period of prosperous development of RES-E in the post-COVID-19 era can be anticipated with the legal support by the upcoming Energy Law. It contributes to understanding the signals China is sending regarding the transition towards a cleaner energy future.

Keywords: energy law, energy transition, electricity market reform, renewable energy integration

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Authors: Faheem Ahmed, Piers Campbell, Ahmad Jaffar, Luiz Capretz

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Free and open source software is gaining popularity at an unprecedented rate of growth. Organizations despite some concerns about the quality have been using them for various purposes. One of the biggest concerns about free and open source software is post release software defects and their fixing. Many believe that there is no appropriate support available to fix the bugs. On the contrary some believe that due to the active involvement of internet user in online forums, they become a major source of communicating the identification and fixing of defects in open source software. The research model of this empirical investigation establishes and studies the relationship between open source software defects and online public forums. The results of this empirical study provide evidence about the realities of software defects myths of open source software. We used a dataset consist of 616 open source software projects covering a broad range of categories to study the research model of this investigation. The results of this investigation show that online forums play a significant role identifying and fixing the defects in open source software.

Keywords: About Open source software, software engineering, software defect management, empirical software engineering.

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Authors: Anunya Thanasrisuebwong

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This research paper aimed to find out how was the ethical climate in an organization and job performance satisfaction of employees affected employees’ engagement and commitment by using the case study of PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited, Thailand. The population of this research was 4,383 Thai employees of PTTEP, Thailand. From a total of 420 questionnaires sent out, 345 respondents replied. The statistics utilized was mean score and Multiple Regression Analysis. The findings revealed that the respondents had opinion towards ethical climate of their organization, job performance satisfaction and organization engagement and commitment at a high level. The test of hypothesis disclosed the determinant attributes of job performance satisfaction that affected the respondents’ overall level of organization engagement and commitment. The set of these determinant attributes consisted of employees’ responsibilities for duties, organization’s policies and practice, relationship with organization’s commanders, work security and stability, job description, career path and relationship with colleagues. These variables were able to predict the employees’ organization engagement and commitment at 50.6 percent.

Keywords: Ethical Climate in Organization, Job Performance Satisfaction, Organization Engagement and Commitment.

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Authors: Ali S. Al-Aufi, Paul Genoni

Abstract:

The emergence of networked information and communication has transformed the accessibility and delivery of scholarly information and fundamentally impacted on the processes of research and scholarly communication. The purpose of this study is to investigate disciplinary differences in the use of networked information for research and scholarly communication at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. This study has produced quantitative data about how and why academics within different disciplines utilize networked information that is made available either internally through the university library, or externally through networked services accessed by the Internet. The results indicate some significant differences between the attitudes and practice of academics in the science disciplines when compared to those from the social sciences and humanities. While respondents from science disciplines show overall longer and more frequent use of networked information, respondents from humanities and social sciences indicated more positive attitudes and a greater degree of satisfaction toward library networked services.

Keywords: Academics, Arab World, Disciplinary Culture, Networked Information, Scholarly Communication, Sultan QaboosUniversity, Oman.

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Authors: Hsin-Hui Lin

Abstract:

With the proliferation of multi-channel retailing, developing a better understanding of the factors that affect customers- purchase behaviors within a multi-channel retail context has become an important topic for practitioners and academics. While many studies have investigated the various customer behaviors associated with brick-and-mortar retailing, online retailing, and brick-and-click retailing, little research has explored how customer shopping value perceptions influence online purchase behaviors within the TV-and-online retail environment. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of TV and online shopping values on online patronage intention. Data collected from 116 respondents in Taiwan are tested against the research model using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The results indicate that utilitarian and hedonic TV shopping values have indirect, positive influences on online patronage intention through their online counterparts in the TV-and-online retail context. The findings of this study provide several important theoretical and practical implications for multi-channel retailing.

Keywords: Multi-channel retailing, utilitarian shopping value, hedonic shopping value, online purchase

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Authors: Krairop Charoensopa, Weera Chotethammaporn

Abstract:

This research aimed to produce offset printing inks from Samut Songkram’s coconut oil and to test properties of the printing inks comparing with commercial offset printing inks. One of the ingredients in the process of mixing varnish is coconut oil – used to produce black offset printing inks which were the subject of testing issues in order to compare with commercial offset printing inks. Based on the results of research, the best formula for mixing varnish was 50% of coconut oil, 36% of phenolic resin, and 14% of solvent oil. At the same time, the best formula in producing black offset inks was mixing varnish with 20% of coconut oil 20%. Consequently, the result of testing of properties of coconut oil based solvent offset printing inks regarding viscosity, tack and ink flow, showed that offset printing inks with oil based solvent had the properties less than commercial offset printing ink. Additionally, the result of testing also indicate that the rate of properties in aspects of ink spread and setting time of coconut oil based solvent offset printing were higher than that of commercial offset printing inks.

Keywords: Offset Printing Inks, Varnish Oil.

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

Abstract:

The manual system of voting has been the most widely used system of electing representatives around the globe, particularly in Africa. Due to the known numerous problems and challenges associated with the manual system of voting, many countries are migrating to the electronic voting system as a suitable and credible means of electing representatives over the manual paper-based system. This research paper therefore investigated the factors influencing adoption and use of an electronic voting system in Ghana. A total of 400 Questionnaire Instruments (QI) were administered to potential respondents in Ghana, of which 387 responded representing a response rate of 96.75%. The Technology Acceptance Model was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The research model was tested using a simple linear regression analysis with SPSS. A little of over 71.1% of the respondents recommended the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to adopt an electronic voting system in the conduct of public elections in Ghana. The results indicated that all the six predictors such as perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived free and fair elections (PFFF), perceived credible elections (PCE), perceived system integrity (PSI) and citizens trust in the election management body (CTEM) were all positively significant in predicting the readiness of citizens to adopt and use an electronic voting system in Ghana. However, jointly, the hypotheses tested revealed that apart from Perceived Free and Fair Elections and Perceived Credible and Transparent Elections, all the other factors such as PU, Perceived System Integrity and Security and Citizen Trust in the Election Management Body were found to be significant predictors of the Willingness of Ghanaians to use an electronic voting system. All the six factors considered in this study jointly account for about 53.1% of the reasons determining the readiness to adopt and use an electronic voting system in Ghana. The implications of this research finding on elections in Ghana are discussed.

Keywords: Credible elections, democracy, Election Management Body (EMB), electronic voting, Ghana, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

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Authors: Nikola Vlahovic, Blazenka Knezevic, Petra Batalic

Abstract:

In this paper, we will present a research about feasibility of implementing unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as 'drones', in logistics. Research is based on available information about current incentives and experiments in application of delivery drones in commercial use. Overview of current pilot projects and literature, as well as an overview of detected challenges, will be compiled and presented. Based on these findings, we will present a conceptual model of business process that implements delivery drones in business to business logistic operations. Business scenario is based on a pharmaceutical supply chain. Simulation modeling will be used to create models for running experiments and collecting performance data. Comparative study of the presented conceptual model will be given. The work will outline the main advantages and disadvantages of implementing unmanned aerial vehicles in delivery services as a supplementary distribution channel along the supply chain.

Keywords: Business process, delivery drones, logistics, simulation modelling, unmanned aerial vehicles.

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