bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Supporting Male Students in Female-Dominated Virtual Classrooms
Authors: Bates Daniel
Published: December 2023

In female-dominated academic disciplines, male college students face distinct challenges, such as lagging admission and graduation rates when compared to their female counterparts. To address this concerning trend and enhance support for male students, online educators should embrace a gender-adapted, culturally responsive teaching approach. This approach enables instructors to understand and support male student academic performance and tailor their educational strategies to enhance a male student's sense of belonging and engagement in the course. By adopting this approach, online educators can help male students cultivate a pro-social, strengths-based self-perception, fostering a positive sense of identity as learners, men, and future professionals. This approach emphasizes how their masculinity can be a source of strength, enabling them to derive maximum benefit from their educational journey and make meaningful contributions to their academic pursuits.
Using Facebook to Create Lesson Plans in a Mathematics Tutor Training Programme
Authors: Kandiero Agripah , Chizwina Sabelo
Published: December 2023

Mathematics remains a challenge for higher education institutions in South Africa. Higher education institutions have been attempting to assist in resolving the mathematics problem by adopting several strategies and processes to address the issue of mathematics comprehension. This chapter looks at the tutor intervention programme run at an institution of higher learning in South Africa and how the tutors' knowledge in creating a lesson plan can be improved by using social media. The theory that was used in this study was the community of practice. Facebook was selected as the social media platform based on an affordance analysis. The results of the proof of concept were that most of the respondents revealed that the video explained the concepts clearly to them. However, some respondents stated that the video would have been more effective if it had included aspects such as how to manage the students, prepare the lessons, and assess the work.
Challenges of Adopting E-Learning at the University of Ghana
Authors: Sahoo Kalyan Kumar , Patil Vaibhav S. , Odame Jonathan
Published: December 2023

The purpose of the study was to delve into the challenges faced in the use of e-learning at the University of Ghana. In all, 190 graduate students were selected for the study. The main instrument used for data gathering was questionnaire. The findings revealed that when using the SAKAI LMS, graduate students encounter issues such as poor internet access, lack of computer skills, among others. In comparison to their male counterparts, female graduate students faced more obstacles when using the e-learning platform. From the data analysis, there were no statistically significant variations between age and the problems graduate students had when using the e-learning platform. Based on the findings, graduate students should obtain sufficient instruction on how to use the SAKAI LMS. In order to facilitate lifelong learning and human resource development, the study recommends the incorporation of e-learning into the curriculum of higher education teaching and learning.
Challenges in Developing and Executing Higher Education Learners' Learning Outcomes (HELLO)
Authors: Mitra Arindam
Published: December 2023

Higher education learners' learning outcomes (HELLO) provide a standardized approach to defining and assessing learning outcomes in higher education. The implementation of this framework poses several challenges for higher education institutions. This chapter discusses the critical challenges involved in developing and executing HELLO. These challenges include ensuring alignment between the learning outcomes, the institution's overall educational goals, and the expectations of employers and society, defining clear and measurable learning outcomes, integrating learning outcomes into the curriculum and assessment processes, and ensuring that the learning outcomes are consistent and comparable across different programs. Overall, the chapter highlights the importance of careful planning, collaboration, and ongoing evaluation and refinement to ensure that students acquire the knowledge, skills, and values they need to succeed in their chosen careers and positively contribute to society.
Design and Implementation of Higher Education Learners' Learning Outcomes (HELLO)
Authors: Panda Subhajit , Kaur Navkiran
Published: December 2023

This chapter explores the dynamic landscape of higher education and its connection to the development of the higher education learners' learning outcomes (HELLO) framework. Divided into five interconnected yet distinct sections, it begins by discussing emerging trends in higher education, highlighting the expansion of higher education institutions (HEIs) and challenges related to quality assessment. The rationale for adopting HELLO is then explored, emphasizing accountability, standardization, and quality assurance. The chapter delves into the key challenges faced in developing and executing HELLO, suggesting strategies for addressing them. It also discusses strategic best practices for designing and implementing the HELLO framework effectively. Finally, it explores the alignment of HELLO with India's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, illustrating how HELLO supports holistic development and flexible education in higher education.
From Burning Crosses to Burning Books
Authors: Brewer T. Jameson , Timberlake Rob
Published: December 2023

Banning books, unfortunately, has a long history in the United States nearly always along political and religious lines. While efforts to restrict the types of books and curriculum available to students have crested and waned over the decades, we are currently in a heightened era of book banning. Developing political clout arguing against COVID-19 mitigation efforts, organizations like Moms for Liberty have expanded their vitriolic focus to banning books that highlight race, that present LGBTQ+ characters, and that take up critical thought. Fueled by politics, these organizations and some elected officials have also grounded their aims in Christian nationalism. Recognizing Christian nationalism and its influence on educational politics and policies, such as book banning, is necessary for understanding contemporary activism and division within the United States.
Open Books, Open Minds
Authors: Hudson Tanya M.
Published: December 2023

In this chapter, the author will share practical lessons and activities that explicitly address issues of intellectual freedom, censorship, diverse representation in children's literature, and students' self-advocacy for their right to read with elementary school students during library media center instruction. The goal of these lessons and activities is that by the time students leave for middle school, they will have a firm grasp of their own first amendment rights as readers, an understanding of how those rights are protected and fostered by their school libraries, and a sense of empowerment to speak out when they see those rights being threatened or infringed upon.
Oil Prices and Spain's Interest Rates
Authors: Jiménez-Rodríguez Rebeca , Sanchez Marcelo
Published: December 2023

This chapter studies the impact of oil shocks on Spain's short-term interest rates. In so doing, it investigates whether the connection between these two variables changed after 1986 – a period marked by both Spain's EU accession and the move to interest rates as the monetary policy instrument. For the period after 1986, we find that, in response to oil shocks, real short-term interest rates tended to rise, while nominal interest rates increased only gradually. Oil prices impacted interest rates in periods of high oil prices, such as that around the 1990 spike and in some instances since 1999. The increase in interest rates after an oil price shock contributed to reducing inflation, while also making the economic slowdown more marked. The main results are not robust to starting the estimation in 1970, implying that monetary policy became more restrictive in reaction to oil price changes after EU accession.
Phoenix Precision Algorithm for Blind People With Enhanced Voice Assistant
Authors: Flavia B. Judy , Sridevi S. , Srivathsan V. , Kumar R. K. Aravindak , Kumar M. K. Ashwin , Bose S. Rubin , Regin R.
Published: December 2023

The chapter presents an innovative approach to object detection that combines the advantages of the DETR (DEtection TRansformer) and RetinaNet models and features a phoenix precision algorithm. Object tracking is a basic computer vision task for identifying and locating objects in an image. The DETR model revolutionized object detection by introducing a transformer-based architecture that eliminates the need for anchor boxes rather than maximum damping, resulting in industry-leading performance. On the other hand, RetinaNet is a popular single-stage object detection model known for its efficiency and accuracy. This chapter proposes a hybrid model that uses both DETR and RetinaNet. The transformer-based architecture of the DETR model provides an excellent understanding of the overall context and allows you to capture long-range dependencies and maintain object associations. Meanwhile, RetinaNet's pyramid array (FPN) and focus loss enable precise localization and manipulation of objects at different scales.
Fine-Grained Deep Feature Expansion Framework for Fashion Apparel Classification Using Transfer Learning
Authors: Regin R. , Sharma Pravin Kumar , Singh Kunnal , Narendra Y. V. , Bose S. Rubin , Rajest S. Suman
Published: December 2023

The chapter focuses on developing a deep learning-based image classification model for fashion and apparel. With the rise of online retail services, there is a growing need for accurate and efficient apps to categorize fashion garments based on their attributes from image data. The study proposes a fine-grained deep feature expansion framework using transfer learning to address this need. The dataset consists of approximately 44,000 images of fashion apparel with six categories, including gender, subcategory, article type, base color, season, and usage. The images are preprocessed to remove corrupted images and resized to 256 by 256 pixels. The proposed framework employs pre-trained CNN models such as ResNet50 or Vgg19 for feature extraction, fine-tuning, and transfer learning. The CNN architecture consists of several layers: convolutional layers, residual blocks, max-pooling layers, and dense layers.
A Bibliometric Analysis of Ethical Investments (EI) Research
Authors: Lemonakis Christos , Kouskoukis Marios Nikolaos , Garefalakis Alexandros , Zopounidis Constantin , Eskantar Marianna
Published: December 2023

This chapter presents the evolution of academic research in Ethical Investments (EI) research between 1990 and 2019. The chapter analyzes the most influential journals in EI research by searching for papers, which were published on the Scopus database. Results show a steadily increasing rate of EI research during the past 30 years. The chapter reports the top academic journals that permanently publish articles about EI research. The main contribution of this work is to develop a general overview of the leading journals in EI research, which leads to the development of a future research agenda for bibliometric analysis. The survey covers all main areas of Social Sciences, Business, Management and Accounting, Economics, Econometrics, and Finance as well as Decision Sciences and its connections with other analytical fields.
Business Policy
Authors: Água Pedro B. , Morgado Andre Vilares
Published: December 2023

The purpose of this chapter is to explore improvements in existing corporate governing practices that are currently being implemented through methods that lag behind most of the recent developments taking place in the field of computer science. The authors suggest taking on board systems modeling by adopting a computer-assisted policy design based on system dynamics simulators. Implementing a system thinking approach to business organizations allows the designing of virtuous strategies by simulating organizational behavior. In addition, this approach may also help to mitigate unintended consequences, like risks and outcomes which may surprise the firm, particularly from the board-level perspective. The originality of the present work arrives from merging several approaches that have been around for many years, however not combined in the context of the business policy conceptual framework. Therefore, it brings together recent developments in the fields of business policy, systems thinking, and computer-assisted policy design.
Can Whistleblowing Be a Solution to Unethical Behaviors in the Tourism Industry?
Authors: Gunay Gulsevim Yumuk , Ozyurt Basak
Published: December 2023

Researchers have discussed the concept of whistleblowing in a variety of fields including psychology, sociology, ethics, law, and public policy. Whistleblowing is expressed as the disclosure of illegal, unethical or illegitimate practices under the control of employers by members of the organization to persons or organizations that may affect the action. Whistleblowing is so important especially in the tourism industry that many tourist establishments cannot disregard it. Unethical behaviors may arise from the organization itself as well as the personality characteristics of the employees in the tourism industry as in different sectors. The behaviors of superiors and individuals within the organization, ethical practices in the tourism industry, moral climate of society, and organizational policies constitute sources of unethical behaviors in the tourism businesses. For this reason, it is very important to encourage and legally protect whistleblowers who will inform the authorities of ethical and illegal behavior.
Corporate Citizenship
Authors: Agrawal Reena
Published: December 2023

The last few decades have witnessed serious sustainability challenges such as economic uncertainty, depletion ozone layer, increase in pollution, urban decay, overpopulation, degradation, and shortage of natural resources, etc. The increasing pace of change and rising competition has posed unknown challenges and unparalleled pressure on the corporates not only to prosper, but also to sustain in future. With customers, investors, and other stakeholders becoming increasing aware and critical about sustainable practices, the companies are forced to think past short term monetary gains. As there exists an interdependence, integration, and co-creation among the three basic tenets of sustainability-people, planet, and profits. There is a global call on companies to pursue socially responsible conduct and adopt innovative practices which create value for people, planet, as well as economy.
Dealing With Ethical Dilemma
Authors: Mishra Shobha , Tripathi Vibhuti
Published: December 2023

The unique role of salespeople as “revenue generators” for any organization is pivotal for its growth and success. An interfacing role of salesperson between organization and customers facilitates customer belief and builds long-term relationships. Due to affiliative separation, salespersons face ethical dilemmas more often than their counterparts. The chapter delineates the unique characteristics of sales behavior and major influencers that affect a salesperson's ethical/unethical decision making. The authors recommend designing of effective ethical plan and its implementation to inculcate a robust ethical environment/culture within an organization.
Green Human Resources and Its Implications on Green Organizational Social Responsibility and Organizational Green Image
Authors: Vargas-Hernández José G. , López-Lemus Jorge Armando , Cota María Fernanda H.
Published: December 2023

This chapter aims to analyze the implications between the green human resources and green organizational social responsibility and organizational green image. It is assumed that green organizational image is determinant of organizational social responsibility and in turn on green competitive advantage based on the green human resources management. The method employed is the analytical and reflective sustaining on a review of theoretical and empirical literature. It is concluded that the environmental green human resources management is a critical factor of organizations to achieve broader objectives in green organizational social responsibility practices, relevant to building green image, improving green brand reputation and stakeholder's engagement, which determine a positive impact in growth, enhancing green competitiveness.
Leadership and Business Ethics for Technology Students
Authors: Khun Jennie Lee
Published: December 2023

Technology ethics is a sub-field of ethics education addressing the dilemmas that are specific to the information technology age and encompasses a societal shift as technological devices provide a more efficient transfer of information. The use of technology poses unique ethical dilemmas and is an important topic to explore. Corruption in society is a problem and is further segmented by focusing on the technology industry. An overview of ethics in academia is discussed to impact a person's ethical values before entering the workforce. A review of business and technology ethics provides the background on the differences between topics. Ethical concerns about the use of the internet, security, biometrics, data, cryptocurrency, and elevated privileges for technology professionals are also explored. An overview of leadership ethics is included and the impact it has on culture. A curriculum approach to teaching ethics to technology students through practical ethics education in the program through simulation, case study, and real-world approaches is also provided.
Legal and Ethical Aspects of CSR
Authors: Wójcik Ewa Barbara , Olejko Katarzyna
Published: December 2023

The increasingly important role of sustainability issues and CSR in business activity has been widely recognized. In order to promote socially responsible decisions, changes in the macro- and micro-environment should be examined. The study offers insight into different aspects of CSR and defines those whose importance is growing, discusses trends, reasons for the state of affairs, and formulates conclusions of possible effects. The focus is on ethical values, in particular trust, and their changing perception which may lead to new business models strengthening and further development.
Leveraging the Web for Corporate Sustainability Disclosure
Authors: Raghupathi Viju , Raghupathi Wullianallur
Published: December 2023

Public outcry and demand for transparency have transitioned sustainability disclosure and reporting to the top of the corporate agenda. The web is a powerful vehicle for corporate disclosure, but it could be even more effective. By enabling transparency, the web helps foster better stakeholder relationships that favorably influence corporate sustainability. This research develops a comprehensive portfolio of sustainability design and content factors from the extant literature, and then uses it to evaluate the current online disclosure practices of S&P 100 companies. The authors offer a comprehensive empirical assessment of the state of reporting of these companies and identify differences by industry and by sustainability performance using the Newsweek Green Ranking. The results reveal significant differences in design and content of online disclosure/reporting across industries, but not across performance groups. Overall, this paper highlights how most companies use the web routinely but fail to capitalize on the potential to reflect due diligence and transparency.
Managerial Ethics and the Function of Culture in Mexico and the United States
Authors: Topor F. Sigmund
Published: December 2023

This chapter is a reflection on the ethical distinctions between two cultures that share the same civilization (i.e., Mexico and the United States). Impoverished ethical attitudes have inflicted observable harm upon business by unethical decisions and misconduct. Much of this phenomenon is traceable to distinctive cultural construal of ethics. This phenomenon exemplifies the influence that culture exerts on managers, which has a distinct influence on attitudes and behaviors. This chapter explores, through empirical data, whether differences rooted in culture have any contribution to differences in ethical attitudes. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between national culture and ethical attitudes and the cultural dimensions of uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation. A significant difference in ethical attitudes between managers from the United States and Mexico was also found.
Social Sustainable Supply Chain Practices Evidence From the Indian Manufacturing Sector
Authors: Kottala Sri Yogi
Published: December 2023

Due to consistent surge strength in the form of legislations as well as a part of corporate social responsibility, companies in emerging economies like India need to synchronize. This is possible by implementing the concept of social sustainability in supply chain business activities. This paper investigated key factors influencing the adoption of social sustainability in supply chain activities of Indian manufacturing sector as a social development perspective. The present study covered literature review on sustainable supply chain covering social perspectives as well-chosen Indian manufacturing companies to investigate social perspectives. Social sustainability issues among Indian manufacturing companies using a structured questionnaire were investigated. Using the convenience sampling, 155 responses were collected as part of data collection and performed factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and correlation to investigate and accomplish the research objectives. This paper investigated and found the following factors influencing the enactment of social sustainability in supply chain activities of Indian manufacturing sector as a social development perspective: community, safety, product responsibility, sustainable business opportunities. This study also investigated the relationship among different identified social sustainability practices in supply chain activities of manufacturing companies. The author has also proposed “house of social sustainable supply chain management practices” for Indian manufacturing sector. This paper proposed social sustainable factors to be implemented across the supply chain of the Indian manufacturing sector as it has been strong, pragmatic, and pertinent and can be conformed to by the organization with minimal changes in their prevailing work structure.
Sustainable Innovation in Fashion Products
Authors: De Chiara Alessandra , Iannone Floriana
Published: December 2023

The chapter deepens the theme of sustainability in fashion products, exploring the importance of sustainable innovation as a competitive driver. The fashion industry is not exempt from issues related to sustainability, in its economic, environmental, and social sense, since it is one of the most polluting industries in the world, in addition to being often shaken by scandals related to the poor working conditions for many fashion factory workers around the world. Given the relevance of the issue of sustainability in the fashion supply chains, the chapter will provide food for thought on the question of managerial behaviors based on sustainability and deepen the knowledge on the need of a collaborative approach among firms and within the supply chains of the fashion system.
Text Mining Business Policy Documents
Authors: Spruit Marco , Ferati Drilon
Published: December 2023

In a time when the employment of natural language processing techniques in domains such as biomedicine, national security, finance, and law is flourishing, this study takes a deep look at its application in policy documents. Besides providing an overview of the current state of the literature that treats these concepts, the authors implement a set of natural language processing techniques on internal bank policies. The implementation of these techniques, together with the results that derive from the experiments and expert evaluation, introduce a meta-algorithmic modelling framework for processing internal business policies. This framework relies on three natural language processing techniques, namely information extraction, automatic summarization, and automatic keyword extraction. For the reference extraction and keyword extraction tasks, the authors calculated precision, recall, and F-scores. For the former, the researchers obtained 0.99, 0.84, and 0.89; for the latter, this research obtained 0.79, 0.87, and 0.83, respectively. Finally, the summary extraction approach was positively evaluated using a qualitative assessment.
The Contribution of Social Responsibility to Achieving a Competitive Moral Advantage
Authors: Abdelli Mohammed El Amine , Malika Aied
Published: December 2023

The aim of this study was to research the contribution of social responsibility to the establishment of an ethical competitive advantage in the Sherhal Sweets Organization, which reached the contribution of the social responsibility of the actors to the creation of an ethical competitive advantage. This study yielded a number of suggestions. In order to strengthen the contribution of social responsibility for the operationalization of the ethical competitive advantage, recommendations are addressed to four parties: the economic foundation, universities and research centres, the media, and the state.
The Corporate Social Responsibility of the Family SMEs
Authors: Mighri Zouhayer , Ben Ghodbane Sana , Soufeljil Mohamed , Redouane Adel
Published: December 2023

The social responsibility of business is a topical theme, which is of interest to both the researchers and the leaders of the companies. This paper aims to respond to the following problem: if the family companies adopt CSR then what about the social dimensions to their counterparts among non-family members? The study that the authors conducted with 141 enterprises shows that the adoption of the social responsibility of the small business family is progressive and slow. The authors find that the family SME is characterized by societal choices that differ from those of the non-family business. Our results have a considerable professional contribution. In this paper the authors provide to the manager an analysis of the behavior of leaders in a family SME around their CSR commitments. This paper is organized as follows: first, there is presented an introduction and review of literature and research hypotheses. The third section describes the study's sample and methodology choice where the authors briefly describe the main methods or treatments applied. The fourth section presents the discussion of results, and the last section concludes the study.
Theoretical Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility
Authors: Falcó Javier Martínez , Marco-Lajara Bartolomé , Zaragoza-Saez Patrocinio
Published: December 2023

The research aims to analyze the different theoretical perspectives under which corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been analyzed. Based on the narrative review conducted, five motivations have been identified that drive the implementation of CSR practices: (1) the alignment of interests between agents and principal, (2) the satisfaction of stakeholder demands, (3) compliance with the institutional context, (4) obtaining a competitive advantage, and (5) maintaining congruence between the objectives of society and the objectives of the organization. These objectives are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. Thus, the reason why organizations develop CSR practices can be an accumulation of the five factors mentioned above.
Understanding Ethical and Other SMEs Internationalisation Determinants and Its Impact on Business Performance
Authors: Zaki Adyzakrie Mohamad , El-Gohary Hatem , Edwards David
Published: December 2023

The research in hand attempts to investigate the different factors influencing SMEs' decision to internationalise in developing countries (such as Malaysia) including the impacts of ethical issues on the internationalisation decision process. The study also attempts to investigate the impact of internationalisation adoption on SMEs' business performance since the relationship remains vague. The study will deepen the understanding of the complex interrelationship between internationalisation determinants (that influence top management's decision to internationalise), and how such factors (internal and external) might affect SMEs' business performance. Based on the outcomes of such investigation and extensive exploratory study, an acceptable and comprehensive conceptual framework will be presented to investigate and understand the different factors influencing internationalisation adoption by Malaysian SMEs and its impact on companies' performance.
Universal Principles of Tourism Ethics and the Future of Tourism and Hospitality Ethics
Authors: Meriç Sağbetullah
Published: December 2023

Ethics refers to the norms and collectively formed criteria created by a group of people for specific purposes. Ethics is the set of principles that guide a person or group's behaviour, setting the standards of good or bad, right, or wrong. In this section, the issue of ethics in the tourism sector is examined. Secondary sources were used while preparing the chapter. First of all, the place and importance of the tourism sector today and the tourism sector's ethical problems have been stated. The ethical principles determined by the World Tourism Organization were examined by saying that all stakeholders in the tourism sector should adopt and share ethical principles. By stating the problems caused by ethical violations, suggestions for solutions are presented. The necessity of eliminating ethical issues was expressed with the recommendations that set the groundwork for future research in this field. Finally, the general scope and results of the chapter are presented and discussed.
Workplace Spirituality for More Sustainable Organizations
Authors: Kalafatoğlu Yaprak
Published: December 2023

Climate change is threatening the Earth. Organizations are the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. If organizations do not take any action against climate change, the world will soon enter an irreversible path. This chapter begins with the definitions of climate change and pro-environmental behavior. Spirituality directs individuals to live a more meaningful life, and workplace spirituality can benefit green organizations. After the conceptual definitions of spirituality and workplace spirituality, their effects on green organizations were explored. The chapter then follows with eco-spirituality that combines a positive attitude towards the environment and spiritual elements. The chapter concludes with recommendations to decision-makers and future research ideas.
Challenges and Prospects of Homestay in Rural Tourism
Authors: Chourasia Bhola
Published: December 2023

This chapter examines the prospects and challenges of homestay accommodation in rural Uttarakhand, India, based on secondary data sources. Homestays are a sort of community-based tourism that provides visitors with an authentic experience of the local culture and way of life by allowing them to stay in the homes of local families. This chapter examines the potential of homestay accommodation to contribute to rural development and tourism promotion in Uttarakhand. The research is based on current literature and studies, as well as government and tourism sector data. The findings indicate that homestay accommodation has significant potential to generate income and provide alternative livelihood options for rural communities in Uttarakhand; but requires greater support and investment from the government and other stakeholders in order to address the challenges facing the homestay sector. The chapter finishes with suggestions for enhancing the viability of homestay accommodations in rural Uttarakhand, including capacity building, infrastructural improvement, and marketing assistance.
A Systematic Study of Central Bank Digital Currency
Authors: Nikhil M. S. , Atreya Nischal V. , Mehul Kumar H. , Priyadharshini B. , Ramya S.
Published: December 2023

This chapter examines central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their possible impact on the Indian economy in an age of digitization. Commercial value, user experience, legal frameworks, and financial stability are crucial to understanding digital currencies. CBDCs are a new payment infrastructure frontier. The chapter emphasizes the significant investments needed to build a large user and merchant network, highlighting the far-reaching effects of digital currencies. This exploration aims to demystify CBDCs as electronic variants of fiat currency. CBDCs, issued by central banks as legal money, are versatile and available to the public, financial institutions, and businesses for savings and transactions. The study describes the rise of digital cash by tracing currency from early barter systems to physical notes and coins. It admits initial skepticism about digital currencies due to their volatility, diversity, and lack of official backing.
Frameworks for Developing a 6G Communication Network to Intensify the Modern Vocational Education System
Authors: Liao XiFeng
Published: December 2023

A modern technology-supported vocational educational system significantly affects the quality of vocational training and contributes to the innovation and economic development of the regional area. The visualization literature analysis was adopted with the purpose of exploring the theoretical framework for developing a 6G-assisted network to realize the multi-party participation in the modern government-industry-education Integration system. The literature review showed the network should involve all cooperation entities into the communication system to intensify all coordination guided by the triple helix theory, should be strong enough to store all kinds of resources to support the optimized sharing, be efficient to track student training processes and learning data to provide scientific evaluation to student development in personal qualities and competencies, be supportive to develop a cooperating culture to form a healthy ecosystem in which all enterprises actively participate and invest in vocational education.
A IMPORTÂNCIA DA PSICOLOGIA PERINATAL NA PREVENÇÃO DA DEPRESSÃO PÓS PARTO E SUAS IMPLICAÇÕES NA VIDA DA CRIANÇA
Authors: AMANDA DE AMORIN LUIZ LOPES  , SILVANO PIOVAN
Published: December 2023

A pesquisa propõe avaliar o papel do atendimento psicológico pré-natal como um fator protetor na prevenção da depressão pós-parto, bem como seu impacto nas relações saudáveis entre mãe e bebê, influenciando o desenvolvimento cognitivo e emocional das crianças. O objetivo principal é analisar a eficácia do Pré-Natal Psicológico (PNP) na prevenção da depressão pós-parto e como a depressão pós-parto afeta a relação entre mãe e filho, bem como o desenvolvimento infantil. Essa pesquisa tem como objetivo fornecer uma visão abrangente sobre a depressão pós-parto, o papel do PNP na prevenção dessa condição e os efeitos da depressão pós-parto na relação mãe-filho e no desenvolvimento infantil. O diagnóstico da depressão pós-parto é desafiador, pois muitos sintomas depressivos podem se manifestar durante a gravidez, e os sintomas pós-parto podem ser confundidos com a adaptação normal à maternidade. O tratamento envolve uma abordagem que considera diversos fatores e implicações para a mãe e o filho, incluindo medidas não farmacológicas e uso de antidepressivos. A escolha dos medicamentos mais adequados e outras questões relacionadas ao tratamento são cruciais. A pesquisa enfatiza a recomendação de aplicar a terapia cognitivo-comportamental (TCC) às puérperas o mais precocemente possível. Essas estratégias visam não apenas a prevenção da depressão pós-parto, mas também a promoção do bem-estar materno e o fortalecimento do vínculo entre mãe e filho.
Synthesis, Characterization, and Wear Behavior of W-DLC Films Deposited on Si Substrates
Authors: Karslioglu Ramazan , Meletis Efstathios I.
Published: December 2023

Tungsten (W) reinforced diamond-like carbon (DLC) nanocomposite thin films were deposited on silicon substrates by magnetron sputtering in a CH4/Ar discharge. The W content of the films was varied by varying the W target power (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 W). The evolution of the W-DLC nanocomposites was studied by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, 3D optical profilometry and Raman spectroscopy. Increasing the W target power resulted in an almost liner increase in the W content, reduced the hardness and the sp3/sp2 ratio in the films, while it increased the surface roughness and promoted formation of WC nanoparticles. Tribological properties were studied by conducting sliding reciprocating testing. Wear tracks were analyzed with Raman spectroscopy and 3D optical profilometry. Increasing the W content in the films (increasing target power) resulted in a reduction of both, the friction coefficient and wear rate. The film deposited at 80 W target power (~8 at. % W) exhibited the lowest friction coefficient (0.15) and wear rate (6x10-7 mm3N-1m-1). The observed low friction and wear rate were attributed to the particular nanocomposite structure of the films involving a fine distribution of WC nanoparticles surrounded by a sp2 dominant carbon network. The present W-DLC nanocomposite films offer a highly desirable combination of low friction and low wear rate.
Application of Hybrid ANFIS Tool for Laser Beam Welding of Inconel 625 Alloy
Authors: Palanisamy D. , Devaraju Ayyannan , Natarajan Manikandan , Pasupuleti Thejasree
Published: December 2023

Over the past decade, there has been a steady rise in the application of laser sources; this has led to reduced costs and enhanced output. One aspect that has played a part and helped to the quickening of this phenomena is the invention of new techniques such as laser beam welding systems. These developments in technology have made it feasible to produce both tiny and large parts. The usage of nickel alloy can provide considerable benefits in a wide variety of contexts. The advantages acquired from combining difficult materials, such as metal alloys, are responsible for these benefits. Manufacturing equipment for the chemical, nuclear, maritime, aeronautical, and automotive industries all rely on components made from Inconel 625. It can withstand potentially corrosive situations without losing its outstanding mechanical qualities. Investigation of nickel alloy weldments is required for the improvement of the production method. The goal of this piece is to develop an ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System) based on Grey theory that can reliably forecast LBW variables. The values predicted by the model were compared with the results of the experiments, and it was discovered that the values found in the experiments are closely related to the values anticipated by the model. The manufacturer can make decisions that are more in accordance with the available facts due to the evidence provided by the performance investigation.
A critique on thermal performance and energy usage in  government office buildings in Trincomalee and the need for  sustainable retrofitting - a typological analysis
Authors: Harithra N. , Rajapaksha U.
Published: December 2023

Buildings use a large amount of energy during their lifetime and are identified as the main contributors to the increasing energy demand. A proper understanding of the Thermal Performance (TP) parameters can result in a climate-responsive design and reduce indoor overheating. In the construction field, sustainable retrofitting is identified as another important field of research, where new technologies can be introduced to the existing built environment and enhance their efficiency. This paper mainly focuses on how different building typologies of the existing public office buildings are contributing to inefficient TP and energy usage, and how sustainable retrofitting can help to improve their energy performances. 27 existing public office buildings in urban and suburban areas in Trincomalee, were selected for the typology analysis, and with special attention to plan form, one case study under spread-out plan form was selected. The TP of the building was investigated through an on-site Thermal Performance Investigation and Computational Simulation (CS) process. It is proposed that the energy required for cooling a building can be reduced if efficient sustainable retrofitting design strategies can be used to improve the TP. The outcome is beneficial in the formulation of design guidelines for new and existing buildings.
Forecasting COVID-19 Daily Infected Cases in Sri Lanka by Holt-Winters Exponential Smoothing Method
Authors: Wickramasinghe S. S. , Konarasinghe K. M. U. B.
Published: December 2023

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread from China since December 2019 and spread worldwide including Sri Lanka. The aim of this study was to forecast the daily infected cases of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka which in turn help administrators for effective management of the pandemic. The method used in this study was Holt-Winters three parameter with additive or multiplicative models. The daily infected cases in Sri Lanka during the period of 22nd January 2020 to 22nd December 2021 were obtained from the publicly available databases of Epidemiology Unit of Sri Lanka and World Health Organization. The pattern recognition of the daily infected cases was examined by time series plot and Auto Correlation Function (ACF). The model validation was performed by the Anderson Darling test which confirmed the normality of residuals (p > 0.05) and ACF that confirmed the independence of residuals of the model. The forecasting ability of the model was assessed by the three measurements of errors; Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) and Mean Square Error (MSE). Holt-Winters additive and multiplicative model with α (level) 0.61, β (trend) 0.4 and γ (seasonal) 0.3 at a length of repeating behaviour of 3 days, had the least relative and absolute measurement of errors during the model fitting and verification. İn the multiplicative model, MAPE, MAD and MSE were 0.2847, 0.0187 and 0.0005 respectively. Similarly in the additive model, corresponding values of MAPE, MAD and MSE were 0.0207, 0.0187 and 0.0005. The fits and the forecast of these models followed a similar pattern of the actual daily infected cases concluding that the Holt-Winters model can be used to forecast the COVID-19 outbreak in Sri Lanka.
Impact of Cobalt-60 Gamma Irradiation on Growth, Development, and Morphology of Acalypha hispida (Cat’s Tail Plant)
Authors: Rifnas L. M. , Vidanapathirana N. P. , Silva T. D. , Dahanayake N. , Subasinghe S. , Weerasinghe S. S. , Madushani W. G. C. , Nelka S. A. P.
Published: December 2023

Gamma irradiation-induced mutagenesis has been utilized to improve many genotypes of crop species. Mutation induction has been identified as a significant method for the production of genetic variation in flowering plants. Hence, a series of experiments were conducted in a completely randomized design at the University of Colombo Institute for Agro-technology and Rural Sciences, Hambantota, Sri Lanka, to evaluate the influence of gamma rays on the mutagenicity of Acalypha hispida. The rooted cuttings were subjected to various dosages of Cobalt-60 gamma irradiation, including 0, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 Gy. Based on the findings, a second experiment was carried out in which the plants were exposed to 0, 45, 50, 55, 60, and 65 Gy gamma irradiation dosages. Treated plants were maintained inside a shade net house (30% shade) and morphological changes in plants, survival %, plant height, number of leaves, inflorescence length, and mutation % were recorded. Plants that showed improved characters were multiplied and observed the character expression in the second generation. Further, attempts were made to combine the improved characters into a single plant. There were significant differences in plant height and number of leaves but not in survival % and inflorescence length in experiment one. Further, a significant difference was observed in measured variables survival %, plant height, number of leaves, and inflorescence length in experiment two. A gradual reduction was observed in survival percentage, plant height and inflorescence length with the increase in gamma irradiation dose. Treated plants showed narrowed and malformed leaves but those were not persisted and discontinued. But, irradiated plants produced colour changed (pink and white), partial and no blooming inflorescences which was persisted in the second generation too. Hence, it could be stated that treating the A. hispida plants with gamma radiation has the potential to create mutation in plants.
Emerging role of galectin 3 in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration
Authors: Lozinski Brian M. , Ta Khanh , Dong Yifei
Published: December 2023

Neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration are key processes that mediate the development and progression of neurological diseases. However, the mechanisms modulating these processes in different diseases remain incompletely understood. Advances in single cell based multi-omic analyses have helped to identify distinct molecular signatures such as Lgals3 that is associated with neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in the central nervous system (CNS). Lgals3 encodes galectin-3 (Gal3), a β-galactoside and glycan binding glycoprotein that is frequently upregulated by reactive microglia/macrophages in the CNS during various neurological diseases. While Gal3 has previously been associated with non-CNS inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, recent studies highlight Gal3 as a prominent regulator of inflammation and neuroaxonal damage in the CNS during diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. In this review, we summarize the pleiotropic functions of Gal3 and discuss evidence that demonstrates its detrimental role in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration during different neurological diseases. We also consider the challenges of translating preclinical observations into targeting Gal3 in the human CNS.