Search results for: Civic Discrimination

Authors: Abbas Ali Mahmood Karwi

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Accurate timing alignment and stability is important to maximize the true counts and minimize the random counts in positron emission tomography So signals output from detectors must be centering with the two isotopes to pre-operation and fed signals into four units of pulse-processing units, each unit can accept up to eight inputs. The dual source computed tomography consist two units on the left for 15 detector signals of Cs-137 isotope and two units on the right are for 15 detectors signals of Co-60 isotope. The gamma spectrum consisting of either single or multiple photo peaks. This allows for the use of energy discrimination electronic hardware associated with the data acquisition system to acquire photon counts data with a specific energy, even if poor energy resolution detectors are used. This also helps to avoid counting of the Compton scatter counts especially if a single discrete gamma photo peak is emitted by the source as in the case of Cs-137. In this study the polyenergetic version of the alternating minimization algorithm is applied to the dual energy gamma computed tomography problem.

Keywords: Alignment, Spectrum, Laser, Detectors, Image

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Authors: Emine Tirali

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This article provides a conceptual framework of the freedom of media and its correlation with democracy. In a democracy, media should serve the publics’ right to know and reflect human rights violations and offer options for meaningful political choices and effective participation in civic affairs. On that point, the 2013 events at Gezi Park in Turkey are a good empirical example to be discussed. During the events, when self-censorship was broadly employed by mainstream Turkish media, social media filled the important role of providing information to the public. New technologies have made information into a fundamental tool for change and growth, and as a consequence, societies worldwide have merged into a single, interdependent, and autonomous organism. For this reason, violations of human rights can no longer be considered domestic issues, but rather global ones. Only global political action is an adequate response. Democracy depends on people shaping the society they live in, and in order to accomplish this, they need to express themselves. Freedom of expression is therefore necessary in order to understand diversity and differing perspectives, which in turn are necessary to resolve conflicts among people. Moreover, freedom of information is integral to freedom of expression. In this context, the international rules and laws regarding freedom of expression and freedom of information – indispensable for a free and independent media – are examined. These were put in place by international institutions such as the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the European Union, which have aimed to build a free, democratic, and pluralist world committed to human rights and the rule of law. The methods of international human rights institutions depend on effective and frequent employment of mass media to relay human rights violations to the public. Therefore, in this study, the relationship between mass media and democracy, the process of how mass media forms public opinion, the problems of mass media, the neo-liberal theory of mass media, and the use of mass media by NGOs will be evaluated.

Keywords: Freedom of expression, democracy, public opinion, self-censorship.

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Authors: W. Y. Leng, S. M. Shamsuddin

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Fingerprint based identification system; one of a well known biometric system in the area of pattern recognition and has always been under study through its important role in forensic science that could help government criminal justice community. In this paper, we proposed an identification framework of individuals by means of fingerprint. Different from the most conventional fingerprint identification frameworks the extracted Geometrical element features (GEFs) will go through a Discretization process. The intention of Discretization in this study is to attain individual unique features that could reflect the individual varianceness in order to discriminate one person from another. Previously, Discretization has been shown a particularly efficient identification on English handwriting with accuracy of 99.9% and on discrimination of twins- handwriting with accuracy of 98%. Due to its high discriminative power, this method is adopted into this framework as an independent based method to seek for the accuracy of fingerprint identification. Finally the experimental result shows that the accuracy rate of identification of the proposed system using Discretization is 100% for FVC2000, 93% for FVC2002 and 89.7% for FVC2004 which is much better than the conventional or the existing fingerprint identification system (72% for FVC2000, 26% for FVC2002 and 32.8% for FVC2004). The result indicates that Discretization approach manages to boost up the classification effectively, and therefore prove to be suitable for other biometric features besides handwriting and fingerprint.

Keywords: Discretization, fingerprint identification, geometrical features, pattern recognition

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Authors: Robert Grzeszczak, Magdalena Gniadzik

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The article deals with one of the most significant issues concerning the functioning of the internal market of the European Union – the free movement of workers and free movement of persons. The purpose is to identify the political and legal effects of the “renationalisation process” on the EU and its Member States. The concept of renationalisation is expressed through Member States’ aim to verify the relationship with the EU. The tendency is more visible in the public opinion of several MS’s of the ‘EU core’ and may be confirmed by the changes applied by the regulatory body. The thesis for the article is the return of renationalisation tendencies in the area of the Single Market, which is supported by, among others, an open criticism of the foundations of EU integration or considerations on withdrawal from the EU by some MS. This analysis will focus primarily on the effects that renationalisation may have on the free movement of persons. The free movement of persons is one of the key issues for the development of the European integration. It is still subject to theoretical reflections, new doubts and practical issues. The latest developments in politics, law and jurisprudence demonstrate the need to reflect on the attempts to redefine certain principles regarding migrant EU workers and their protection against nationality-based discrimination.

Keywords: European law, European Union, common market, free movement of workers, posting of workers, case law.

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Authors: Andreas Heindl, Alexander K. Seewald, Martin Schepelmann, Radu Rogojanu, Giovanna Bises, Theresia Thalhammer, Isabella Ellinger

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Bone remodeling occurs by the balanced action of bone resorbing osteoclasts (OC) and bone-building osteoblasts. Increased bone resorption by excessive OC activity contributes to malignant and non-malignant diseases including osteoporosis. To study OC differentiation and function, OC formed in in vitro cultures are currently counted manually, a tedious procedure which is prone to inter-observer differences. Aiming for an automated OC-quantification system, classification of OC and precursor cells was done on fluorescence microscope images based on the distinct appearance of fluorescent nuclei. Following ellipse fitting to nuclei, a combination of eight features enabled clustering of OC and precursor cell nuclei. After evaluating different machine-learning techniques, LOGREG achieved 74% correctly classified OC and precursor cell nuclei, outperforming human experts (best expert: 55%). In combination with the automated detection of total cell areas, this system allows to measure various cell parameters and most importantly to quantify proteins involved in osteoclastogenesis.

Keywords: osteoclasts, machine learning, ellipse fitting.

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Authors: M. Ahmadi Marvast, M. Sohrabi, H. Ganji

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The rate of production of main products of the Fischer-Tropsch reactions over Fe/HZSM5 bifunctional catalyst in a fixed bed reactor is investigated at a broad range of temperature, pressure, space velocity, H2/CO feed molar ratio and CO2, CH4 and water flow rates. Model discrimination and parameter estimation were performed according to the integral method of kinetic analysis. Due to lack of mechanism development for Fisher – Tropsch Synthesis on bifunctional catalysts, 26 different models were tested and the best model is selected. Comprehensive one and two dimensional heterogeneous reactor models are developed to simulate the performance of fixed-bed Fischer – Tropsch reactors. To reduce computational time for optimization purposes, an Artificial Feed Forward Neural Network (AFFNN) has been used to describe intra particle mass and heat transfer diffusion in the catalyst pellet. It is seen that products' reaction rates have direct relation with H2 partial pressure and reverse relation with CO partial pressure. The results show that the hybrid model has good agreement with rigorous mechanistic model, favoring that the hybrid model is about 25-30 times faster.

Keywords: Fischer-Tropsch, heterogeneous modeling, kinetic study.

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Authors: Asma Rabaoui, Zied Lachiri, Noureddine Ellouze

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Discrimination between different classes of environmental sounds is the goal of our work. The use of a sound recognition system can offer concrete potentialities for surveillance and security applications. The first paper contribution to this research field is represented by a thorough investigation of the applicability of state-of-the-art audio features in the domain of environmental sound recognition. Additionally, a set of novel features obtained by combining the basic parameters is introduced. The quality of the features investigated is evaluated by a HMM-based classifier to which a great interest was done. In fact, we propose to use a Multi-Style training system based on HMMs: one recognizer is trained on a database including different levels of background noises and is used as a universal recognizer for every environment. In order to enhance the system robustness by reducing the environmental variability, we explore different adaptation algorithms including Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression (MLLR), Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) and the MAP/MLLR algorithm that combines MAP and MLLR. Experimental evaluation shows that a rather good recognition rate can be reached, even under important noise degradation conditions when the system is fed by the convenient set of features.

Keywords: Sounds recognition, HMM classifier, Multi-style training, Environmental Adaptation, Feature combinations.

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Authors: M. Boukhrouk, R. Ed-Dali

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Outbound tourism in Morocco, as in the majority of developing countries, reveals some of the aspects of inequality between the north and the south. Considered by some researchers as one of the facets of the development crisis, access to tourism and especially international tourism is a chance for a small minority with financial means, while the vast portions of the population dream rather of immigrating to a developed country for the sake of improving their standard of living. The right to travel is also limited by visa requirements, procedures in host countries, security and technical measures and creates discrimination in the practice of tourism. These conditions do not seem to be favorable to the democratization of the practice of international tourism for the populations of the southern countries. This paper is a contribution to the reading of the trends of outbound tourism in developing countries through the example of Morocco. It highlights the different aspects of Moroccan outbound tourism, destinations and the behavior of tourists through an analysis of the offer of a sample of 50 travel agencies. In the same vein, it offers a reading grid of the possibilities offered for the development of outbound tourism and the various existing obstacles to the democratization of international outbound tourism in the southern countries. This reading reveals the transformation in the behavior of Moroccan international tourists as well as the profound changes in Moroccan society, through a model of statistical analysis.

Keywords: Demand, Hajj, Morocco, outbound tourism, tendency, Umrah.

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Authors: Young-Seok Choi

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This work proposes a data-driven multiscale based quantitative measures to reveal the underlying complexity of electroencephalogram (EEG), applying to a rodent model of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury and recovery. Motivated by that real EEG recording is nonlinear and non-stationary over different frequencies or scales, there is a need of more suitable approach over the conventional single scale based tools for analyzing the EEG data. Here, we present a new framework of complexity measures considering changing dynamics over multiple oscillatory scales. The proposed multiscale complexity is obtained by calculating entropies of the probability distributions of the intrinsic mode functions extracted by the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) of EEG. To quantify EEG recording of a rat model of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury following cardiac arrest, the multiscale version of Tsallis entropy is examined. To validate the proposed complexity measure, actual EEG recordings from rats (n=9) experiencing 7 min cardiac arrest followed by resuscitation were analyzed. Experimental results demonstrate that the use of the multiscale Tsallis entropy leads to better discrimination of the injury levels and improved correlations with the neurological deficit evaluation after 72 hours after cardiac arrest, thus suggesting an effective metric as a prognostic tool.

Keywords: Electroencephalogram (EEG), multiscale complexity, empirical mode decomposition, Tsallis entropy.

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Authors: Saad Chakkor, Mostafa Baghouri, Abderrahmane Hajraoui

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ESPRIT-TLS method appears a good choice for high resolution fault detection in induction machines. It has a very high effectiveness in the frequency and amplitude identification. Contrariwise, it presents a high computation complexity which affects its implementation in real time fault diagnosis. To avoid this problem, a Fast-ESPRIT algorithm that combined the IIR band-pass filtering technique, the decimation technique and the original ESPRIT-TLS method was employed to enhance extracting accurately frequencies and their magnitudes from the wind stator current with less computation cost. The proposed algorithm has been applied to verify the wind turbine machine need in the implementation of an online, fast, and proactive condition monitoring. This type of remote and periodic maintenance provides an acceptable machine lifetime, minimize its downtimes and maximize its productivity. The developed technique has evaluated by computer simulations under many fault scenarios. Study results prove the performance of Fast- ESPRIT offering rapid and high resolution harmonics recognizing with minimum computation time and less memory cost.

Keywords: Spectral Estimation, ESPRIT-TLS, Real Time, Diagnosis, Wind Turbine Faults, Band-Pass Filtering, Decimation.

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Authors: Luciana Steffen

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People with disabilities are often neglected in the exercise of their sexuality, facing several prejudices and discrimination in this area. For women with disabilities, the negligence is even major. Studies that relate sexual and reproductive rights with the experience of women with disabilities are rare, and in the field of Theology, practically nonexistent in Brazil. The aim of this work is to reflect on the relationship between women with disabilities, sexual and reproductive rights and Theology, according to a feminist perspective. The work is a literature review and involves the areas of Gender Studies, Disability Studies, Feminist Studies and Theology. In the article it will be addressed the relations between disability, sexual and reproductive rights, feminism, as well as the relations with the area of Theology, reflecting on these themes toward a fairer and more inclusive understanding of feminism, sexuality and women with disabilities. To reflect on sexual and reproductive rights of women with disabilities, it is important to reflect on religious concepts about the body, sexuality, reproduction and gender roles, because they are all connected. So, a critical analysis of traditional theological values taking into consideration the dimensions of sexuality and women with disability is important for a more liberating and inclusive understand about sexual and reproductive rights of women with disabilities. Theology should help the other areas in the understanding that all people have the right to live their lives with completeness, dignity and respect, so women with disabilities must have the opportunity of making their own choices on the fields of sexuality and reproduction.

Keywords: Disability, gender, sexual and reproductive rights, Theology.

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Authors: Hachem Ben Naceur, Amel Ben Rejeb Jenhani, Mohamed Salah Romdhane

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Endemic Artemia franciscana populations can be found throughout the American continent and also as an introduced specie in several country all over the world, such as in the Mediterranean region where Artemia franciscana was identified as an invasive specie replacing native Artemia parthenogenetica and Artemia salina. In the present study, the characterization of the new invasive Artemia franciscana reported from Sabkhet Halk El-Menzel (Tunisia) was done based on the cysts biometry, nauplii instar-I length, Adult sexual dimorphism and fatty acid profile. The mean value of the diameter of non-decapsulated and decapsulated cysts, chorion thickness and naupliar length is 235.8, 226.3, 4.75 and 426.8 μm, respectively. Sexual dimorphism for adults specimen showed that maximal distance between compound eyes, diameter for compound eyes, length of first antenna and the abdomen length compared to the total body length ratio, are the most important variables for males and females discrimination with a total contribution of 62.39 %. The analysis of fatty acid methyl esters profile of decapsulated cysts resulted in low levels of linolenic acid (LLA, C18:3n-3) and high levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5n-3) with 3.11 and 11.10 %, respectively. Low quantity of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) was also observed with 0.17 mg.g-1 dry weight.

Keywords: Invasive Artemia franciscana, biometry, sexualdimorphism, fatty acid, Tunisia.

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Authors: R.S.Sabeenian, V.Palanisamy

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Texture classification is a trendy and a catchy technology in the field of texture analysis. Textures, the repeated patterns, have different frequency components along different orientations. Our work is based on Texture Classification and its applications. It finds its applications in various fields like Medical Image Classification, Computer Vision, Remote Sensing, Agricultural Field, and Textile Industry. Weed control has a major effect on agriculture. A large amount of herbicide has been used for controlling weeds in agriculture fields, lawns, golf courses, sport fields, etc. Random spraying of herbicides does not meet the exact requirement of the field. Certain areas in field have more weed patches than estimated. So, we need a visual system that can discriminate weeds from the field image which will reduce or even eliminate the amount of herbicide used. This would allow farmers to not use any herbicides or only apply them where they are needed. A machine vision precision automated weed control system could reduce the usage of chemicals in crop fields. In this paper, an intelligent system for automatic weeding strategy Multi Resolution Combined Statistical & spatial Frequency is used to discriminate the weeds from the crops and to classify them as narrow, little and broad weeds.

Keywords: crop weed discrimination, MRCSF, MRFM, Weeddetection, Spatial Frequency.

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Authors: V.S.Kale, S.R.Bhide, P.P.Bedekar, G.V.K.Mohan

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The protection of parallel transmission lines has been a challenging task due to mutual coupling between the adjacent circuits of the line. This paper presents a novel scheme for detection and classification of faults on parallel transmission lines. The proposed approach uses combination of wavelet transform and neural network, to solve the problem. While wavelet transform is a powerful mathematical tool which can be employed as a fast and very effective means of analyzing power system transient signals, artificial neural network has a ability to classify non-linear relationship between measured signals by identifying different patterns of the associated signals. The proposed algorithm consists of time-frequency analysis of fault generated transients using wavelet transform, followed by pattern recognition using artificial neural network to identify the type of the fault. MATLAB/Simulink is used to generate fault signals and verify the correctness of the algorithm. The adaptive discrimination scheme is tested by simulating different types of fault and varying fault resistance, fault location and fault inception time, on a given power system model. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme for fault diagnosis is able to classify all the faults on the parallel transmission line rapidly and correctly.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, fault detection and classification, parallel transmission lines, wavelet transform.

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Authors: Aleksandra Zysk, Pawel Badura

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Recognizing and controlling vocal registers during singing is a difficult task for beginner vocalist. It requires among others identifying which part of natural resonators is being used when a sound propagates through the body. Thus, an application has been designed allowing for sound recording, automatic vocal register recognition (VRR), and a graphical user interface providing real-time visualization of the signal and recognition results. Six spectral features are determined for each time frame and passed to the support vector machine classifier yielding a binary decision on the head or chest register assignment of the segment. The classification training and testing data have been recorded by ten professional female singers (soprano, aged 19-29) performing sounds for both chest and head register. The classification accuracy exceeded 93% in each of various validation schemes. Apart from a hard two-class clustering, the support vector classifier returns also information on the distance between particular feature vector and the discrimination hyperplane in a feature space. Such an information reflects the level of certainty of the vocal register classification in a fuzzy way. Thus, the designed recognition and training application is able to assess and visualize the continuous trend in singing in a user-friendly graphical mode providing an easy way to control the vocal emission.

Keywords: Classification, singing, spectral analysis, vocal emission, vocal register.

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Authors: Morten Stigaard Laursen, Rasmus Nyholm Jørgensen, Henrik Skov Midtiby, Anders Krogh Mortensen, Sanmohan Baby

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This work contributes a statistical model and simulation framework yielding the best estimate possible for the potential herbicide reduction when using the MoDiCoVi algorithm all the while requiring a efficacy comparable to conventional spraying. In June 2013 a maize field located in Denmark were seeded. The field was divided into parcels which was assigned to one of two main groups: 1) Control, consisting of subgroups of no spray and full dose spraty; 2) MoDiCoVi algorithm subdivided into five different leaf cover thresholds for spray activation. In addition approximately 25% of the parcels were seeded with additional weeds perpendicular to the maize rows. In total 299 parcels were randomly assigned with the 28 different treatment combinations. In the statistical analysis, bootstrapping was used for balancing the number of replicates. The achieved potential herbicide savings was found to be 70% to 95% depending on the initial weed coverage. However additional field trials covering more seasons and locations are needed to verify the generalisation of these results. There is a potential for further herbicide savings as the time interval between the first and second spraying session was not long enough for the weeds to turn yellow, instead they only stagnated in growth.

Keywords: Weed crop discrimination, macrosprayer, herbicide reduction, site-specific, sprayer-boom.

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Authors: Yukiyo Yamamoto, Jun Furuya, Shintaro Kobayashi

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Using 1km grid datasets representing monthly mean precipitation, monthly mean temperature, and dry matter production (DMP), we considered the regional plant production ability in Southeast and South Asia, and also employed pixel-by-pixel correlation analysis to assess the intensity of relation between climate factors and plant production. While annual DMP in South Asia was approximately less than 2,000kg, the one in most part of Southeast Asia exceeded 2,500 - 3,000kg. It suggested that plant production in Southeast Asia was superior to South Asia, however, Rain-Use Efficiency (RUE) representing dry matter production per 1mm precipitation showed that inland of Indochina Peninsula and India were higher than islands in Southeast Asia. By the results of correlation analysis between climate factors and DMP, while the area in most parts of Indochina Peninsula indicated negative correlation coefficients between DMP and precipitation or temperature, the area in Malay Peninsula and islands showed negative correlation to precipitation and positive one to temperature, and most part of India dominating South Asia showed positive to precipitation and negative to temperature. In addition, the areas where the correlation coefficients exceeded |0.8| were regarded as “susceptible" to climate factors, and the areas smaller than |0.2| were “insusceptible". By following the discrimination, the map implying expected impacts by climate change was provided.

Keywords: Asia, correlation analysis, plant production, precipitation, temperature.

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Authors: Chia-Feng Lu, Yuh-Jen Wang, Shin Teng, Yu-Te Wu, Sui-Hing Yan

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Brain functional networks based on resting-state EEG data were compared between patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease (mAD) and matched patients with amnestic subtype of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). We integrated the time–frequency cross mutual information (TFCMI) method to estimate the EEG functional connectivity between cortical regions and the network analysis based on graph theory to further investigate the alterations of functional networks in mAD compared with aMCI group. We aimed at investigating the changes of network integrity, local clustering, information processing efficiency, and fault tolerance in mAD brain networks for different frequency bands based on several topological properties, including degree, strength, clustering coefficient, shortest path length, and efficiency. Results showed that the disruptions of network integrity and reductions of network efficiency in mAD characterized by lower degree, decreased clustering coefficient, higher shortest path length, and reduced global and local efficiencies in the delta, theta, beta2, and gamma bands were evident. The significant changes in network organization can be used in assisting discrimination of mAD from aMCI in clinical.

Keywords: EEG, functional connectivity, graph theory, TFCMI.

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Authors: Chaiwat Waree

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This research aims at development of the Multiple Intelligences Measurement of Elementary Students. The structural accuracy test and normality establishment are based on the Multiple Intelligences Theory of Gardner. This theory consists of eight aspects namely linguistics, logic and mathematics, visual-spatial relations, body and movement, music, human relations, self-realization/selfunderstanding and nature. The sample used in this research consists of elementary school students (aged between 5-11 years). The size of the sample group was determined by Yamane Table. The group has 2,504 students. Multistage Sampling was used. Basic statistical analysis and construct validity testing were done using confirmatory factor analysis. The research can be summarized as follows; 1. Multiple Intelligences Measurement consisting of 120 items is content-accurate. Internal consistent reliability according to the method of Kuder-Richardson of the whole Multiple Intelligences Measurement equals .91. The difficulty of the measurement test is between .39-.83. Discrimination is between .21-.85. 2). The Multiple Intelligences Measurement has construct validity in a good range, that is 8 components and all 120 test items have statistical significance level at .01. Chi-square value equals 4357.7; p=.00 at the degree of freedom of 244 and Goodness of Fit Index equals 1.00. Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index equals .92. Comparative Fit Index (CFI) equals .68. Root Mean Squared Residual (RMR) equals 0.064 and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation equals 0.82. 3). The normality of the Multiple Intelligences Measurement is categorized into 3 levels. Those with high intelligence are those with percentiles of more than 78. Those with moderate/medium intelligence are those with percentiles between 24 and 77.9. Those with low intelligence are those with percentiles from 23.9 downwards.

Keywords: Multiple Intelligences, Measurement, Elementary Students.

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Authors: Mirjana Ruppel, Rajendra Persad, Amit Bahl, Sanja Dogramadzi, Chris Melhuish, Lyndon Smith

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Multimodal image registration is a profoundly complex task which is why deep learning has been used widely to address it in recent years. However, two main challenges remain: Firstly, the lack of ground truth data calls for an unsupervised learning approach, which leads to the second challenge of defining a feasible loss function that can compare two images of different modalities to judge their level of alignment. To avoid this issue altogether we implement a generative adversarial network consisting of two registration networks GAB, GBA and two discrimination networks DA, DB connected by spatial transformation layers. GAB learns to generate a deformation field which registers an image of the modality B to an image of the modality A. To do that, it uses the feedback of the discriminator DB which is learning to judge the quality of alignment of the registered image B. GBA and DA learn a mapping from modality A to modality B. Additionally, a cycle-consistency loss is implemented. For this, both registration networks are employed twice, therefore resulting in images ˆA, ˆB which were registered to ˜B, ˜A which were registered to the initial image pair A, B. Thus the resulting and initial images of the same modality can be easily compared. A dataset of liver CT and MRI was used to evaluate the quality of our approach and to compare it against learning and non-learning based registration algorithms. Our approach leads to dice scores of up to 0.80 ± 0.01 and is therefore comparable to and slightly more successful than algorithms like SimpleElastix and VoxelMorph.

Keywords: Multimodal image registration, GAN, cycle consistency, deep learning.

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Authors: Pragya Paneru

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This paper explores altogether 10 primary teachers’ views on gender representation in primary level textbooks. Data were collected from the teachers who taught in private schools in the Kailali and Kathmandu districts. This research uses a semi-structured interview method to obtain information regarding teachers’ attitudes toward gender representations in textbook contents. The interview data were analysed by using critical skills of qualitative research. The findings revealed that most of the teachers were unaware and regarded gender issues as insignificant to discuss in primary-level classes. Most of them responded to the questions personally and claimed that there were no gender issues in their classrooms. Some of the teachers connected gender issues with contexts other than textbook representations such as school discrimination in the distribution of salary among male and female teachers, school practices of awarding girls rather than boys as the most disciplined students, following girls’ first rule in the assembly marching, encouraging only girls in the stage shows, and involving students in gender-specific activities such as decorating works for girls and physical tasks for boys. The interview also revealed teachers’ covert gendered attitudes in their remarks. Nevertheless, most of the teachers accepted that gender-biased contents have an impact on learners and this problem can be solved with more gender-centred research in the education field, discussions, and training to increase awareness regarding gender issues. Agreeing with the suggestion of teachers, this paper recommends proper training and awareness regarding how to confront gender issues in textbooks.

Keywords: Content analysis, gender equality, school education, critical awareness.

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Authors: Rohayu Izanwati M. R., Muhamad Ridhwan M. R., Abbe Maleyki M. J., Ahmad Zubaidi A. L., Zahri M. K.

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PPARs function as regulators of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. The aim of the study was to compare the lipid profile between two phases of fasting and to examine the frequency and relationship of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, PPARα gene polymorphisms to lipid profile in fasting respondents. We conducted a case-control study protocol, which included 21 healthy volunteers without gender discrimination at the age of 18 years old. 3 ml of blood sample was drawn before the fasting phase and during the fasting phase (in Ramadhan month). 1ml of serum for the lipid profile was analyzed by using the automated chemistry analyser (Olympus, AU 400) and the data were analysed using the Paired T-Test (SPSS ver.20). DNA was extracted and PCR was conducted utilising 6 sets of primer. Primers were designed within 6 exons of interest in PPARα gene. Genetic and metabolic characteristics of fasting respondents and controls were estimated and compared. Fasting respondents were significantly have lowered the LDL levels (p=0.03). There were no polymorphisms detected except in exon 1 with 5% of this population study respectively. The polymorphisms in exon 1 of the PPARα gene were found in low frequency. Regarding the 1375G/T and 1386G/T polymorphisms in the exon 1 of the PPARα gene, the T-allele in fasting phase had no association with the decreased LDL levels (Fisher Exact Test). However this association is more promising when the sample size is larger in order to elucidate the precise impact of the polymorphisms on lipid profile in the population. In conclusion, the PPARα gene polymorphisms do not appear to affect the LDL of fasting respondents.

Keywords: Fasting, LDL, Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPAR-α), Polymorphisms.

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Authors: Ambika Roy Bardhan

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Kolkata, the City of Joy, is a greying metropolis not only in respect of its concrete jungle but also because of the largest population of 60-plus residents that it shelters among all other cities in India. Declining birth and death rates and a negative growth of population indicate that the city has reached the last stage of demographic transition. Thus, the obvious consequence has been the ageing of its population. With this background, the present paper attempts to study the demographic and socio-economic status of the elderly population in Kolkata. Analysis and findings have been based on secondary data obtained from Census of India of various years, Sample Registration System Reports and reports by HelpAge India. Findings show that the elderly population is increasing continuously. With respect to gender, the male elderly outnumbers the female elderly population. The percentage of households having one elderly member is more in the city due to the emergence of the nuclear families and erosion of joint family system. With respect to socio-economic status, those elderly who are the heads of the family are lower in percentages than those in the other age groups. Also, male elderly as head of the family are greater in percentage than female elderly. Elderly in the category of currently married records the highest percentage followed by widowed, never married and lastly, separated or divorced. Male elderly outnumber the female elderly as currently married, while female elderly outnumbers the male elderly in the category of widowed. In terms of living status, the percentage of elderly who are living alone is highest in Kolkata and the reason for staying alone as no support from children also happens to be highest in this city. The literacy rate and higher level of education is higher among the male than female elderly. Higher percentages of female elderly have been found to be with disability. Disability in movement and multiple disabilities have been found to be more common among the elderly population in Kolkata. Percentages of male literate pensioners are highest than other categories. Also, in terms of levels of education male elderly who are graduate and above other than technical degree are the highest receivers of pension. Also, in terms of working status, elderly as non-workers are higher in percentages with the population of elderly females outnumbering the males. The old age dependency ratio in the city is increasing continuously and the ratio is higher among females than male. Thus, it can be stated that Kolkata is witnessing continuous and rapid ageing of its population. Increasing dependency ratio is likely to create pressure on the working population, available civic, social and health amenities. This requires intervention in the form of planning, formulation and implementation of laws, policies, programs and measures to safeguard and improve the conditions of the elderly in Kolkata.

Keywords: Demographic, Elderly, Population, Socio-economic.

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Authors: Huda S. Al-Azmi

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There is a growing consensus that adoption of teachers’ self-efficacy measurement tools help to assess teachers’ abilities in specific areas in order to improve their skills. As a result, different instruments to assess teachers’ ability were developed by academics and practitioners. However, many of these instruments focused either on general teaching skills, or on the other hand, were very specific to one subject. As such, these instruments do not offer a tool to measure the ability of teachers in teaching 21^st century skills such as innovation skills. Teaching innovation skills helps to prepare students for lives and careers in the 21^st century. The purpose of this study is to develop an instrument measuring teachers’ self-efficacy of teaching innovation skills related to the classroom context and evaluating the teachers’ beliefs regarding their ability in teaching innovation skills. To reach this goal, the 16-item instrument measures four dimensions of innovation skills: creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. 211 secondary-school teachers filled out the survey to quantitatively analyze the quality of the instrument. The instrument’s reliability and item analysis were measured by using jMetrik. The results concluded that the mean of self-efficacy ranged from 3 to 3.6 without extreme high or low self-efficacy scores. The discrimination analysis revealed that one item recorded a negative correlation with the total, and three items recorded low correlation with the total. The reliabilities of items ranged from 0.64 to 0.69 and the instrument needed a couple of revisions before practical use. The study concluded the need to discard one item and revise five items to increase the quality of the instrument for future work.

Keywords: Critical thinking, collaboration, innovation skills, self-efficacy.

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Authors: Tianjie Zhang, Bingqian Cheng, Peng Zeng

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Engineering science and technology progress and innovation have become an important engine to promote social development. The reform exploration of "new engineering" in China has drawn extensive attention around the world, with its connotation as "to cultivate future diversified, innovative and outstanding engineering talents by taking ‘fostering character and civic virtue’ as the guide, responding to changes and shaping the future as the construction concept, and inheritance and innovation, crossover and fusion, coordination and sharing as the principal approach". In this context, Tianjin University, as a traditional Chinese university with advantages in engineering, further launched the CCII (Coherent-Collaborative-Interdisciplinary-Innovation) program, raising the cultivation idea of integrating new liberal arts education, multidisciplinary engineering education and personalized professional education. As urban planning practice in China has undergone the evolution of "physical planning -- comprehensive strategic planning -- resource management-oriented planning", planning education has also experienced the transmutation process of "building foundation -- urban scientific foundation -- multi-disciplinary integration". As a characteristic and advantageous discipline of Tianjin University, the major of Urban and Rural Planning, in accordance with the "CCII Program of Tianjin University", aims to build China's top and world-class major, and implements the following educational reform measures: 1. Adding corresponding English courses, such as advanced course on GIS Analysis, courses on comparative studies in international planning involving ecological resources and the sociology of the humanities, etc. 2. Holding "Academician Forum", inviting international academicians to give lectures or seminars to track international frontier scientific research issues. 3. Organizing "International Joint Workshop" to provide students with international exchange and design practice platform. 4. Setting up a business practice base, so that students can find problems from practice and solve them in an innovative way. Through these measures, the Urban and Rural Planning major of Tianjin University has formed a talent training system with multi-disciplinary cross integration and orienting to the future science and technology.

Keywords: China, higher education reform, innovation, new engineering education, rural and urban planning, Tianjin University.

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Authors: Mehrnoosh Omati, Mahmod Reza Sahebi

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The information on land use/land cover changing plays an essential role for environmental assessment, planning and management in regional development. Remotely sensed imagery is widely used for providing information in many change detection applications. Polarimetric Synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image, with the discrimination capability between different scattering mechanisms, is a powerful tool for environmental monitoring applications. This paper proposes a new boundary-based segmentation algorithm as a fundamental step for land cover change detection. In this method, first, two PolSAR images are segmented using integration of marker-controlled watershed algorithm and coupled Markov random field (MRF). Then, object-based classification is performed to determine changed/no changed image objects. Compared with pixel-based support vector machine (SVM) classifier, this novel segmentation algorithm significantly reduces the speckle effect in PolSAR images and improves the accuracy of binary classification in object-based level. The experimental results on Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) polarimetric images show a 3% and 6% improvement in overall accuracy and kappa coefficient, respectively. Also, the proposed method can correctly distinguish homogeneous image parcels.

Keywords: Coupled Markov random field, environment, object-based analysis, Polarimetric SAR images.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Indices derived from anthropometric measurements [waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)] or body fat mass compositions [trunk-to-leg fat ratio (TLFR)] are used for the evaluation of obesity. The best for clinical practices is still being investigated. The aim of this study is to derive an index, which best suits the purpose for the discrimination of children with normal body mass index (N-BMI) from obese (OB) children. 83 children participated in the study. Groups 1 and 2 comprised 42 children with N-BMI and 41 OB children, whose age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentile values vary between 15-85 and 95-99, respectively. The institutional ethics committee approved the study protocol. Informed consent forms were filled by the parents of the participants. Anthropometric measurements (weight, height (Ht), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), neck circumference (NC) values) were taken. BMI, WHR, (WC+HC)/2, WC/Ht, (WC/HC)/Ht, WC*NC were calculated. Bioelectrical impedance analysis was performed to obtain body’s fat compartments in terms of total fat, trunk fat, leg fat, arm fat masses. TLFR, trunk-to-appendicular fat ratio (TAFR), (trunk fat+leg fat)/2 ((TF+LF)/2), fat mass index (FMI) and diagnostic obesity notation model assessment-II (D2I) index values were calculated. Statistical analysis was performed. Significantly higher values of (WC+HC)/2, (TF+LF)/2, D2I and FMI were observed in OB group than N-BMI group. Significant correlations were found between BMI and WC, (WC+HC)/2, (TF+LF)/2, TLFR, TAFR, D2I, FMI in both groups. Similar correlations were obtained for WC. (WC+HC)/2 was correlated with TLFR, TAFR, (TF+LF)/2, D2I and FMI in N-BMI group. In OB group, the correlations were the same except those with TLFR and TAFR. These correlations were not present with WHR. Correlations were observed between TLFR as well as TAFR and BMI, WC, (WC+HC)/2, (TF+LF)/2, D2I, FMI in N-BMI group. In OB group, correlations between TLFR or TAFR and BMI, WC as well as (WC+HC)/2 were missing. None was noted with WHR. In conclusion, the only correlation valid in both groups was that exists between (TF+LF)/2 and (WC+HC)/2, which was suggested as a link between fat-based and anthropometric indices. (WC+HC)/2, but not WHR, was much more suitable as an anthropometric obesity index.

Keywords: Children, hip circumference, obesity, waist circumference.

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Authors: Asli Yagmur Akbulut

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Despite a robust and growing job market and lucrative salaries, there is a global shortage of Information Technology (IT) professionals. To make matters worse, women continue to be underrepresented in the IT workforce and among IT degree holders. In today’s knowledge based economy and society, it is extremely important to increase the presence of women in the IT field. In order to do so, it is necessary to reduce entry barriers and attract more women to pursue degrees in various IT fields including the field of Management Information Systems (MIS). Even though MIS is considered to have a more feminine nature, women still tend to avoid majoring in this field. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research that investigates the specific factors that may deter women from pursuing a degree in MIS. To address this research gap, this study examined a set of key environmental barriers that might prevent women from pursuing an MIS degree and explored whether there were any gender differences between female and male students in terms of these key barriers. Based on a survey of 280 students enrolled in an introductory level MIS course, the study empirically confirmed that there were significant differences between male and female students in terms of the key contextual barriers perceived. Female students demonstrated major concerns about gender discrimination related barriers, whereas male students were more concerned about negative social influences. Both male and female students were equally concerned about not being able to fit in well with other MIS majors. The findings have important implications for MIS programs, as the information gained can be used to design and implement specific intervention strategies to overcome the barriers and attract larger pools of women to the MIS discipline. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, implications, and future research directions.

Keywords: Gender differences, MIS major, underrepresentation, women in IT.

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Authors: Tshimangadzo Oscar Magadze

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For successful re-integration, the individual offender must adapt and transform, which requires that the offender should adopt and internalise socially approved norms, attitudes, values, and beliefs. However, the offender’s labelling and community stigmatisation decide the destination of the offender. Community involvement in ex-offenders’ re-integration is an important issue in efforts to reduce recidivism and to control overcrowding in our correctional facilities. Crime is a social problem that requires society to come together to fight against it. This study was conducted in the Limpopo Province in Vhembe District Municipality within four local municipalities, namely Musina, Makhado, Mutale, and Thulamela. A total number of 30 participants were interviewed, and all were members of the Community Corrections Forums. This was necessitated by the fact that Musina is a very small area, which compelled the Department of Correctional Services to combine the two (Musina and Makhado) into one social re-integration entity. This is a qualitative research study where participants were selected through the use of purposive sampling. Participants were selected based on the value they would add to this study in order to achieve the objectives. The data collection method of this study was the focus group, which comprised of three groups of 10 participants each. Thulamela and Mutale local municipalities formed a group with (10) participants each, whereas Musina (2) and Makhado (8) formed another. Results indicate that the current situation is not conducive for re-integration to be successful. Participants raised many factors that need serious redress, namely offenders’ discrimination, lack of forgiveness by members of the community, which is fuelled by lack of community awareness due to the failure of the Department of Correctional Services in educating communities on ex-offenders’ re-integration.

Keywords: Ex-offender, labelling, re-integration, stigmatisation.

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Authors: Pearl K. Atuhaire, Sylvia Kaye

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While the need for equal access to civil, political as well as economic, social and cultural rights is clear under the international law, the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women in 1979 made this even clearer. Despite this positive progress, the abuse of refugee women's rights is one of the basic underlying root causes of their marginalisation and violence in their countries of asylum. This paper presents a critical review on the development of refugee women's rights at the international levels and national levels. It provides an array of scholarly literature on this issue and examines the measures taken by the international community to curb the problem of violence against women in their various provisions through the instruments set. It is cognizant of the fact that even if conflict affects both refugee women and men, the effects on women refugees are deep-reaching, due to the cultural strongholds they face. An important aspect of this paper is that it is conceptualised against the fact that refugee women face the problem of sexual and gender based first as refugees and second as women, yet, their rights are stumbled upon. Often times they have been rendered "worthless victims" who are only in need of humanitarian assistance than active participants committed to change their plight through their participation in political, economic and social participation in their societies. Scholars have taken notice of the fact that women's rights in refugee settings have been marginalized and call for a need to incorporate their perspectives in the planning and management of refugee settings in which they live. Underpinning this discussion is feminism theory which gives a clear understanding of the root cause of refugee women's problems. Finally, this paper suggests that these policies should be translated into action at local, national international and regional levels to ensure sustainable peace.

Keywords: Feminism theory, human rights, refugee women, sexual and gender based violence.

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