Search results for: Local community

Authors: S.Pancucci

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The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of setting up a learning community within an elementary school in Ontario, Canada. The description is provided through reflection and examination of field notes taken during the yearlong training and implementation process. Specifically the impact of teachers- capacity on the creation of a learning community was of interest. This paper is intended to inform and add to the debate around the tensions that exist in implementing a bottom-up professional development model like the learning community in a top-down organizational structure. My reflections of the process illustrate that implementation of the learning community professional development model may be difficult and yet transformative in the professional lives of the teachers, students, and administration involved in the change process. I conclude by suggesting the need for a new model of professional development that requires a transformative shift in power dynamics and a shift in the view of what constitutes effective professional learning.

Keywords: Learning community model, professionaldevelopment, teacher capacity, teacher leadership.

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Authors: Levente Varga, Dávid Deritei, Mária Ercsey-Ravasz, Răzvan Florian, Zsolt I. Lázár, István Papp, Ferenc Járai-Szabó

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One of the major shortcomings of widely used scientometric indicators is that different disciplines cannot be compared with each other. The issue of cross-disciplinary normalization has been long discussed, but even the classification of publications into scientific domains poses problems. Structural properties of citation networks offer new possibilities, however, the large size and constant growth of these networks asks for precaution. Here we present a new tool that in order to perform cross-field normalization of scientometric indicators of individual publications relays on the structural properties of citation networks. Due to the large size of the networks, a systematic procedure for identifying scientific domains based on a local community detection algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is tested with different benchmark and real-world networks. Then, by the use of this algorithm, the mechanism of the scientometric indicator normalization process is shown for a few indicators like the citation number, P-index and a local version of the PageRank indicator. The fat-tail trend of the article indicator distribution enables us to successfully perform the indicator normalization process.

Keywords: Citation networks, scientometric indicator, cross-field normalization, local cluster detection.

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Authors: Phusit Phukamchanoad, Bua Srikos

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This research aimed to study the characteristics of a community in the social, economic and cultural context. This research used interviews and surveys of the members in the Patthana Soi Ranongklang community, Dusit District, Bangkok. The results are as follows: In terms of overall conditions and characteristics, the Patthana Soi Ranongklang community is located on the property of the Treasury Department. 50 years ago, the location of this community consisted of paddy fields with limited convenience in terms of transportation. Rama V Road was only a small narrow road accessed only by three-wheelers there were no buses. The majority of community members moved in from Mak Khawan Rangsan Bridge. Thus, most community members were either workers or government officials as they were routers not the owners of the land. Therefore, there were no primary occupations within the 7 acres of this community. The development of the community started in 1981. At present, the community is continuously being developed and modernization is rapidly flowing in. One of the reasons was because the main roads were widened, especially Rama V Road that allows more convenient transportation, leading to heightened citizens’ convenience. In terms of the economy and society, Rama V Road causes the research to find out the development and expansion of change in the conditions of the area and buildings. Some buildings were improved and changed along the time, as well as the development of new facilities that caused the community members to continually become more materialistic. In the community, it has well organized and managed jobs to each part of community members, and areas were improved to allow the new buildings and apartments. The trend of jobs became more varied, in terms of both jobs at home, such as workers, merchandizing and small own businesses, and the community jobs outside, which became much more convenient to car drivers as they got used to the narrow roads inside the community. The location of the community next to Rama V Road also allows assistance from government agencies to reach the community with ease. Moreover, the welfare of the community was well taken care of by the community committee. In terms of education, the research found that there are two schools: Wat Pracharabuedham School and Wat Noi Noppakun School that are providing education within the community. The majority in the community have received Bachelor degrees. In areas of culture, the research found that the culture, traditions and beliefs of people in the community were mainly transferred from the old community: the majorities are Buddhists, so especially beliefs in Buddhism; the main reason for this is because the old community was situated near Wat Makut Kasattriyaram. Therefore, the community members have always had Buddhist temples as the centre of the community. Later years, more citizens moved along culture in and bring traditions and beliefs with them. The community members also took part in building a Dharma hall named Wat Duang Jai which is 72 year old.

Keywords: Social Capital, Patthana Soi Ranongklang community, Way of Life.

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Authors: Michelle D. Hand, Michelle L. Kaiser

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African refugees are among the fastest-growing populations in the United States and nearly half of these refugees come from Somalia, many of whom are Somali Bantus, the most marginalized group in Somali society. Yet limited research is available on Somali Bantu refugees. In this paper, Empowerment Theory is used to guide an in-depth exploration of the potential benefits of using community kitchen gardens to increase community food security among Somali Bantu refugees. In addition, recommendations for future research, policy and practice are offered following existing scholarly and grey source literature guidelines as informed by an Empowerment perspective to best meet the needs of this under-researched and underserved yet growing population.

Keywords: Community kitchen gardens, food insecurity, refugees, Somali Bantu.

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Authors: Dasimah Bt Omar, Faizul Abdullah, Fatimah Yusof, Hazlina Hamdan, Naasah Nasrudin, Ishak Che Abullah

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The impacts of near-campus student housing, or offcampus students accommodation cannot be ignored by the universities and as well as the community officials. Numerous scholarly studies, have highlighted the substantial economic impacts either; direct, indirect or induced, and cumulatively the roles of the universities have significantly contributed to the local economies. The issue of the impacts of off-campus student rental housing on neighbourhoods is one that has been of long-standing but increasing concern in Malaysia. Statistically, in Malaysia, there was approximately a total of 1.2 - 1.5 million students in 2009. By the year 2015, it is expected that 50 per cent of 18 to 30 year olds active population should gain access to university education, amounting to 120,000 yearly. The objectives of the research are to assess the impacts off-campus students on the local neighbourhood and specifically to obtain information on the living and learning conditions of off-campus students of Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam, Malaysia. It is also to isolate those factors that may impede the successful learning so that priority can be given to them in subsequent policy implementations and actions by government and the higher education institutions.

Keywords: off-campus students, neighbourhood, impacts, living and learning conditions

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Authors: André Smith, Amr Abdel-Dayem

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This paper presents an overview of the history and development of stereo matching algorithms. Details from its inception, up to relatively recent techniques are described, noting challenges that have been surmounted across these past decades. Different components of these are explored, though focus is directed towards the local matching techniques. While global approaches have existed for some time, and demonstrated greater accuracy than their counterparts, they are generally quite slow. Many strides have been made more recently, allowing local methods to catch up in terms of accuracy, without sacrificing the overall performance.

Keywords: Developmental survey, local stereo matching, stereo correspondence.

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Authors: Somsakul Jerasilp, Jong Boonpracha

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The objective of this research was to find the relationship between auspicious meaning in eastern wisdom and the interpretation as a guideline for the design and development of community souvenirs. The sample group included 400 customers in Bangkok who used to buy community souvenir products. The information was applied to design the souvenirs which were considered for the appropriateness by 5 design specialists. The data were analyzed to find frequency, percentage, and SD with the results as follows. 1) The best factor referring to the auspicious meaning is color. The application of auspicious meaning can make the value added to the product and bring the fortune to the receivers. 2) The effectiveness of the auspicious meaning integration on the design of community souvenir product was in high level. When considering in each aspect, it was found that the interpretation aspect was in high level, the congruency of the auspicious meaning and the utility of the product was in high level. The attractiveness and the good design were in very high level while the potential of the value added in the product design was in high level. The suitable application to the design of community souvenir product was in high level.

Keywords: Auspicious meaning, community products, souvenirs.

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Authors: Tayeb Bensattalah, Mohamed Zidour, Mohamed Ait Amar Meziane, Tahar Hassaine Daouadji, Abdelouahed Tounsi

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In this paper, the Differential Transform Method (DTM) is employed to predict and to analysis the non-local critical buckling loads of carbon nanotubes with various end conditions and the non-local Timoshenko beam described by single differential equation. The equation differential of buckling of the nanobeams is derived via a non-local theory and the solution for non-local critical buckling loads is finding by the DTM. The DTM is introduced briefly. It can easily be applied to linear or nonlinear problems and it reduces the size of computational work. Influence of boundary conditions, the chirality of carbon nanotube and aspect ratio on non-local critical buckling loads are studied and discussed. Effects of nonlocal parameter, ratios L/d, the chirality of single-walled carbon nanotube, as well as the boundary conditions on buckling of CNT are investigated.

Keywords: Boundary conditions, buckling, non-local, the differential transform method.

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Authors: Kawinphat Lertpongmanee

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The development of One Tambon One Product (OTOP) became the policy of the government in 1997 after the former Prime Minister had been in power. The strategy of sections is currently set for the policy. OTOP has become the part of the way of community lives around the country. OTOP may be developed under changing into ASEAN economic community in 2015 because of the flow of capitals, productions, and many workers in the region. All sectors are improved for the change. The purposes of study were to study the strength and weakness of the OTOP-creating process via its policy and to lead to the strategy to be able to apply before changing. The methodology is qualitative to study its policy including document and to interview experienced persons. The findings showed that the effort of improvement of all sectors obviously involves with OTOP development. Particularly, the strategic administration of OTOP is in every level of the state, central sector, region, and community.

Keywords: ASEAN Economic Community – AEC, One Tambon One Product – OTOP.

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Authors: Chutikarn Sriwiboon

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The main purpose of this research paper was to study the requirements for human capital development in order to be ready for ASEAN Community. Thai education institutions are encountering a challenging course of change to be effective members of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. It was vital that everyone and every organization participate in the process of becoming part of the ASEAN community, a pluralistic society. Thai universities will be required to partake in the human capital development in a variety of fields. In order to assist the whole nation to enhance potential development, there was a need to collaborate with other ASEAN leading universities to do researches to ameliorate the qualifications and capabilities of university management, administers, professors, and staffs.

Keywords: ASEAN, Education, Human capital development.

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Authors: El Mahdi Barrah, Said Safi, Abdessamad Malaoui

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In this paper, we describe an application for face recognition. Many studies have used local descriptors to characterize a face, the performance of these local descriptors remain low by global descriptors (working on the entire image). The application of local descriptors (cutting image into blocks) must be able to store both the advantages of global and local methods in the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) domain. This system uses neural network techniques. The letter method provides a good compromise between the two approaches in terms of simplifying of calculation and classifying performance. Finally, we compare our results with those obtained from other local and global conventional approaches.

Keywords: Face detection, face recognition, discrete cosine transform (DCT), FPLBP, TPLBP, NN.

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Authors: Heejin Yun, Juanjuan Zang

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This study aims to analyze the text terms posted on an online community of people from the same hometown and to understand the topic and trend of nostalgia composed online. For this purpose, this study collected 144 writings which the natives of Yeongjong Island, Incheon, South-Korea have posted on an online community. And it analyzed association relations. As a result, online community texts means that just defining nostalgia as ‘a mind longing for hometown’ is not an enough explanation. Second, texts composed online have abstractness rather than persons’ individual stories. This study figured out the relationship that had the most critical and closest mutual association among the terms that constituted nostalgia through literature research and association rule concerning nostalgia. The result of this study has a characteristic that it summed up the core terms and emotions related to nostalgia.

Keywords: Nostalgia, cultural memory, data mining, online community.

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Authors: W. J. Strydom, K. Puren

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Place-making is viewed here as an empowering process in which people represent, improve and maintain their spatial (natural or built) environment. With the above-mentioned in mind, place-making is multi-dimensional and include a spatial dimension (including visual properties or the end product/plan), a procedural dimension during which (negotiation/discussion of ideas with all relevant stakeholders in terms of end product/plan) and a psychological dimension (inclusion of intrinsic values and meanings related to a place in the end product/plan). These three represent dimensions of place-making. The purpose of this paper is to explore these dimensions of place-making in a case study of a local community in Ikageng, Potchefstroom, North-West Province, South Africa. This case study represents an inclusive process that strives to empower a local community (forcefully relocated due to Apartheid legislation in South Africa). This case study focussed on the inclusion of participants in the decision-making process regarding their daily environment. By means of focus group discussions and a collaborative design workshop, data is generated and ultimately creates a linkage with the theoretical dimensions of place-making. This paper contributes to the field of spatial planning due to the exploration of the dimensions of place-making and the relevancy of this process on spatial planning (especially in a South African setting).

Keywords: Case study, place-making, spatial planning, spatial dimension, procedural dimension, psychological dimension.

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Authors: Miho Tsukamoto

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Beppu hot spring provides medical treatment as well as comfort visitors and mental easiness for many years. This paper studies hot spring in Beppu and Tōji, medical treatment in hot spring, and investigates how people’s visit to Beppu has changed with Tōji, and how Beppu Tourism Office tries to regain visitors in Beppu. In this paper, firstly, hot spring history in Beppu will be explained especially focusing on Beppu Hattou (eight major hot springs) and Jigoku Meguri (eight major hell hot spring tours). Secondly, Tōji, a long-residential hot spring with the purpose of medical treatment along with the information about chemical efficacy of hot springs will be analyzed. Then, finally, the change of the long-stay type to short-stay Onsen programs with the combination of multiplex tourism resources will be focused along with the decrease of Onsen or hot spring visitors. It is concluded that Tōji is not only physically and mentally cure people but also bring people mental easiness and release them from their stressful life. All in all, it can be concluded that because Onsen is involved in people’s life in Beppu and keep local people united in the community. Tōji’s attraction is shown when local people try to create the new type of Onsen program so as to keep their traditional way of Tōji.

Keywords: Hot spring, Tōji, Treatment.

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Authors: Pennapa Palapin

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This study aimed to examine the management and development of forest tourism Kamchanoad. Ban Dung, Udon Thani sustainability. Data were collected by means of qualitative research including in-depth interviews, semi- structured, and then the data were summarized and discussed in accordance with the objectives. And make a presentation in the form of lectures. The target population for the study consisted of 16 people, including representatives from government agencies, community leaders and the community. The results showed that Guidelines for the Management and Development of Forest Tourism Kamchanoad include management of buildings and infrastructure such as roads, water, electricity, toilets. Other developments are the establishment of a service center that provides information and resources to facilitate tourists.; nature trails and informative signage to educate visitors on the path to the jungle Kamchanoad; forest activities for tourists who are interested only in occasional educational activities such as vegetation, etc.; disseminating information on various aspects of tourism through various channels in both Thailand and English, as well as a web site to encourage community involvement in the planning and management of tourism together with the care and preservation of natural resources and preserving the local cultural tourist area of Kamchanoad.

Keywords: Management and Development Guidelines, Tourist site, Sustainability.

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

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

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

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Authors: Ratchasak Suvannatsiri

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The objectives of the research are to find the basic engineering properties of lateritic soil and to predict the impact on community members who live nearby the excavation pits in the area of Amphur Pak Thor, Ratchaburi Province in the western area of Thailand. The research was conducted by collecting soil samples from four excavation pits for basic engineering properties, testing and collecting questionnaire data from 120 community members who live nearby the excavation pits, and applying statistical analysis. The results found that the basic engineering properties of lateritic soil can be classified into silt soil type which is cohesionless as the loess or collapsible soil which is not suitable to be used for a pavement structure for commuting highway because it could lead to structural and functional failure in the long run. In terms of opinion from community members toward the impact, the highest impact was on the dust from excavation activities. The prediction from the logistic regression in terms of impact on community members was at 84.32 which can be adapted and applied onto other areas with the same context as a guideline for risk prevention and risk communication since it could impact the infrastructures and also impact the health of community members.

Keywords: Lateritic soil, excavation pits, engineering properties, impact on community members

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Authors: Nur Shahirah Mior Sharifuddin, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Muaz Aizuddin, Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah

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This paper investigates and compares the community support for tourism development between two groups of minority ethnic descendants in Malacca, Malaysia, namely the Baba-Nyonya and Portuguese. A descriptive research design using a quantitative method with self-reported and self-administered questionnaires through across-sectional approach was applied. Through the descriptive and inferential statistics, some significantly useful insights pertaining to the issue investigated were obtained. The research outcomes indicate that the sense of community is somewhat more effective in small communities in terms of togetherness, closeness and a sense of belonging compared to the slightly bigger minority group. In addition, the sense of community attributes through membership, influence, integration and shared emotional connections contributes to community participation in tourism development regardless of which ethnic group one belongs to.

Keywords: Participation, minority, tourism, development.

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Authors: M. Mohammad, Y-C Lan

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Australian government agencies have a natural desire to provide migrants a wide range of opportunities. Consequently, government online services should be equally available to migrants with a non-English speaking background (NESB). Despite the commendable efforts of governments and local agencies in Australia to provide such services, in reality, many NESB communities are not taking advantage of these services. This article–based on an extensive case study regarding the use of online government services by the Arabic NESB community in Australia–reports on the possible reasons for this issue, as well as suggestions for improvement. The conclusion is that Australia should implement ICT-based or e-government policies, programmes, and services that more accurately reflect migrant cultures and languages so that migrant integration can be more fully accomplished. Specifically, this article presents an NESB Model that adopts the value of usercentricity or a more individual-focused approach to government online services in Australia.

Keywords: Barriers to use, e-government, ICT, NESB community, online services.

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Authors: Mubarak Alhajri

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This paper addresses certain inherent limitations of local priority hysteresis switching logic. Our main result establishes that under persistent excitation assumption, it is possible to relax constraints requiring strict positivity of local priority and hysteresis switching constants. Relaxing these constraints allows the adaptive system to reach optimality which implies the performance improvement. The unconstrained local priority hysteresis switching logic is examined and conditions for global convergence are derived.

Keywords: Adaptive control, convergence, hysteresis constant, hysteresis switching.

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Authors: Wang Ye, Wei Wei

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Residential block construction of big cities in China began in the 1950s, and four models had far-reaching influence on modern residential block in its development process, including unit compound and residential district in 1950s to 1980s, and gated community and open community in 1990s to now. Based on analysis of the four models’ fabric, the article takes residential blocks in Hangzhou west area as an example and carries on the studies from urban structure level and block spacial level, mainly including urban road network, land use, community function, road organization, public space and building fabric. At last, the article puts forward “Semi-open Sub-community” strategy to improve the current fabric.

Keywords: Hangzhou West Area, residential block model, residential block fabric, “Semi-open Sub-community” strategy.

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Authors: Oktia Woro Kasmini Handayani, Bambang Budi Raharjo, Efa Nugroho, Bertakalswa Hermawati

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Obesity prevalence and severe malnutrition in Indonesia has increased from 2007 to 2013. The utilization of local resources in nutritional program planning can be used to program efficiency and to reach the goal. The aim of this research is to plan a nutrition program based on local resources for urban fringe areas in a developing country. This research used a qualitative approach, with a focus on local resources including social capital, social system, cultural system. The study was conducted in Mijen, Central Java, as one of the urban fringe areas in Indonesia. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques are used to determine participants. A total of 16 participants took part in the study. Observation, interviews, focus group discussion, SWOT analysis, brainstorming and Miles and Huberman models were used to analyze the data. We have identified several local resources, such as the contributions from nutrition cadres, social organizations, social financial resources, as well as the cultural system and social system. The outstanding contribution of nutrition cadres is the participation and creativity to improve nutritional status. In addition, social organizations, like the role of the integrated health center for children (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu), can be engaged in the nutrition program planning. This center is supported by House of Nutrition to assist in nutrition program planning, and provide social support to families, neighbors and communities as social capitals. The study also reported that cultural systems that show appreciation for well-nourished children are a better way to improve the problem of balanced nutrition. Social systems such as teamwork and mutual cooperation can also be a potential resource to support nutritional programs and overcome associated problems. The impact of development in urban areas such as the introduction of more green areas which improve the perceived status of local people, as well as new health services facilitated by people and companies, can also be resources to support nutrition programs. Local resources in urban fringe areas can be used in the planning of nutrition programs. The expansion of partnership with all stakeholders, empowering the community through optimizing the roles of nutrition care centers for children as our recommendation with regard to nutrition program planning.

Keywords: Developing country, local resources, nutrition program, urban fringe.

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Authors: Porntip Ruengtam

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This article is an extension of previous research presenting the relevant factors related to environmental perceptions, residential community, and the design of a healing environment, which have effects on the well-being and requirements of Thai elderly. Research methodology began with observations and interviews in three case studies in terms of the management processes and environment design of similar existing projects in Thailand. The interview results were taken to summarize with related theories and literature. A questionnaire survey was designed for data collection to confirm the factors of requirements in a residential community intended for the Thai elderly. A structural equation model (SEM) was formulated to explain the cause-effect factors for the requirements of a residential community for Thai elderly. The research revealed that the requirements of a residential community for Thai elderly were classified into three groups when utilizing a technique for exploratory factor analysis. The factors were comprised of (1) requirements for general facilities and activities, (2) requirements for facilities related to health and security, and (3) requirements for facilities related to physical exercise in the residential community. The results from the SEM showed the background of elderly people had a direct effect on their requirements for a residential community from various aspects. The results should lead to the formulation of policies for design and management of residential communities for the elderly in order to enhance quality of life as well as both the physical and mental health of the Thai elderly.

Keywords: Elderly, environmental design, residential community, structural equation modeling.

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Authors: A. Irudaya Veni Mary, M. Victor Louis Anthuvan, P. Christie, A. Indira

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In India, social enterprises are working to create social value in various fields including education; health; women and child development; environment protection and community development. Although social enterprises have brought about tremendous changes in the lives of beneficiaries, the importance of their works is not understood thoroughly. One of the ways to prove themselves is to measure the impact, which in recent times has received much attention. This paper focuses on the study of social value created by the social enterprises in the field of community development. It also aims to put forth a research tool for measuring the social value created by the social enterprises in the field of community development. A close-ended interview schedule was prepared to measure the social value creation and it was administered among 60 beneficiaries of two social enterprises who work in the field of community development. The study results show that the social enterprises have brought four types of impact in the life of their beneficiaries; economic impact, social impact, political impact and cultural impact. This study is limited to the social enterprises those who work towards community development. This empirical finding will enable the reader to understand various types of social value created by the social enterprises working in the field of community development. This study will also serve as guide for social enterprises in community development activities to measure their impact and thereby improve their operation towards the betterment of the society. This paper is derived from an empirical research carried out to describe the different types of social value created by the social enterprises in India.

Keywords: Social enterprise, social entrepreneurs, social impact, social value, tool for social impact measurement.

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Authors: Sandhya Rijal, Saroj Adhikari, Ramesh R. Pant

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Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) have attracted substantial interest in the recent years with the increasing recognition that these can provide essential community needs for improved and diversified rural livelihood and support the objectives of biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, various challenges are witnessed in their sustainable harvest and management. Assuming that sustainable management with community stewardship can offer one of the solutions to existing challenges, the study assesses the linkages between NTFPs and rural livelihood in Lamabagar village of Dolakha, Nepal. The major objective was to document the status of NTFPs and their contributions in households of Lamabagar. For status documentation, vegetation sampling was done using systematic random sampling technique. 30 plots of 10 m × 10 m were laid down in six parallel transect lines at horizontal distance of 160 m in two different community forests. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted in 76 households (excluding non-response rate) using stratified random sampling technique for contribution analysis. Likewise, key informant interview and focus group discussions were also conducted for data triangulations. 36 different NTFPs were recorded from the vegetation sample in two community forests of which 50% were used for medicinal purposes. The other uses include fodder, religious value, and edible fruits and vegetables. Species like Juniperus indica, Daphne bholua Aconitum spicatum, and Lyonia ovalifolia were frequently used for trade as a source of income, which was sold in local market. The protected species like Taxus wallichiana and Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora were also recorded in the area for which the trade is prohibited. The protection of these species urgently needs community stewardship. More than half of the surveyed households (55%) were depending on NTFPs for their daily uses, other than economic purpose whereas 45% of them sold those products in the market directly or in the form of local handmade products as a source of livelihood. NTFPs were the major source of primary health curing agents especially for the poor and unemployed people in the study area. Hence, the NTFPs contributed to livelihood under three different categories: subsistence, supplement income and emergency support, depending upon the economic status of the households. Although the status of forest improved after handover to the user group, the availability of valuable medicinal herbs like Rhododendron anthopogon, Swertia nervosa, Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora, and Aconitum spicatum were declining. Inadequacy of technology, lack of easy transport access, and absence of good market facility were the major limitations for external trade of NTFPs in the study site. It was observed that people were interested towards conservation only if they could get some returns: economic in terms of rural settlements. Thus, the study concludes that NTFPs could contribute rural livelihood and support conservation objectives only if local communities are provided with the easy access of technology, market and capital.

Keywords: Contribution, medicinal, subsistence, sustainable harvest.

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Authors: M. P. Amado, C. V. Santos, E. B. Moura, V.G. Silva

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Urban planning, in particular on protected landscape areas, demands an increasing role of public participation within the frame of the efficiency of sustainable planning process. The development of urban planning actions in Protected Landscape areas, as Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, should perform a methodological process that is structured over distinct sequential stages, providing the development of a continuous, interactive, integrated and participative planning. From the start of Malveira da Serra and Janes Plan process, several public participation actions were promoted, in order to involve the local agents, stakeholders and the population in the decision of specific local key issues and define the appropriate priorities within the goals and strategies previously settled. As a result, public participation encouraged an innovative process that guarantees the efficiency of sustainable urban planning and promotes a sustainable new way of living in community.

Keywords: Protected landscape areas, Public participation, Sustainable development, Sustainable planning, Urban planning.

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Authors: S. Hma Salah, H. Du, N. Al-Jawad

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Ethnicity identification of face images is of interest in many areas of application, but existing methods are few and limited. This paper presents a fusion scheme that uses block-based uniform local binary patterns and Haar wavelet transform to combine local and global features. In particular, the LL subband coefficients of the whole face are fused with the histograms of uniform local binary patterns from block partitions of the face. We applied the principal component analysis on the fused features and managed to reduce the dimensionality of the feature space from 536 down to around 15 without sacrificing too much accuracy. We have conducted a number of preliminary experiments using a collection of 746 subject face images. The test results show good accuracy and demonstrate the potential of fusing global and local features. The fusion approach is robust, making it easy to further improve the identification at both feature and score levels.

Keywords: Ethnicity identification, fusion, local binary patterns, wavelet.

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Authors: Lei Zhang, Tao Wang, Xiantong Zhen

Abstract:

Naive Bayes Nearest Neighbor (NBNN) and its variants, i,e., local NBNN and the NBNN kernels, are local feature-based classifiers that have achieved impressive performance in image classification. By exploiting instance-to-class (I2C) distances (instance means image/video in image/video classification), they avoid quantization errors of local image descriptors in the bag of words (BoW) model. However, the performances of NBNN, local NBNN and the NBNN kernels have not been validated on video analysis. In this paper, we introduce these three classifiers into human action recognition and conduct comprehensive experiments on the benchmark KTH and the realistic HMDB datasets. The results shows that those I2C based classifiers consistently outperform the SVM classifier with the BoW model.

Keywords: Instance-to-class distance, NBNN, Local NBNN, NBNN kernel.

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Authors: Mohamed Ghorab

Abstract:

Local generated and distributed system for thermal and electrical energy is sighted in the near future to reduce transmission losses instead of the centralized system. Distributed Energy Resources (DER) is designed at different sizes (small and medium) and it is incorporated in energy distribution between the hubs. The energy generated from each technology at each hub should meet the local energy demands. Economic and environmental enhancement can be achieved when there are interaction and energy exchange between the hubs. Network energy system and CO₂ optimization between different six hubs presented Canadian community level are investigated in this study. Three different scenarios of technology systems are studied to meet both thermal and electrical demand loads for the six hubs. The conventional system is used as the first technology system and a reference case study. The conventional system includes boiler to provide the thermal energy, but the electrical energy is imported from the utility grid. The second technology system includes combined heat and power (CHP) system to meet the thermal demand loads and part of the electrical demand load. The third scenario has integration systems of CHP and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) where the thermal waste energy from the CHP system is used by ORC to generate electricity. General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is used to model DER system optimization based on energy economics and CO₂ emission analyses. The results are compared with the conventional energy system. The results show that scenarios 2 and 3 provide an annual total cost saving of 21.3% and 32.3 %, respectively compared to the conventional system (scenario 1). Additionally, Scenario 3 (CHP & ORC systems) provides 32.5% saving in CO₂ emission compared to conventional system subsequent case 2 (CHP system) with a value of 9.3%.  

Keywords: Distributed energy resources, network energy system, optimization, microgeneration system.

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Authors: A. Pouhassani

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to exhibit some properties of local topologies of an IVS. Also, we Introduce ISG structure as an interesting structure of semigroups in IVSs.

Keywords: IVS, ISG, Local topology, Lebesgue number, Lindelof theorem

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