Social Networking

Sugarcane filter cake is a by-product from clarification step in sugar production process. Policosanol, a high value added compound is naturally presented in sugarcane wax. To improve value creation of sugarcane filter cake, policosanol was extracted from filter cake in a form of crude wax. The more environmental friendly extraction methods, accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) were studied to extract crude wax from filter cake in comparison with Soxhlet extraction. The result showed that ASE and SFE with co-solvent could separate wax from dried filter cake with % yield of 13.32% and 5.46% while Soxhlet extraction gave 9.03%. Chemical characterization from FT-IR and TLC-FID indicated a similarity in composition and it was not different from the wax extracted directly from sugarcane stem K84-200 a Thai commercial sugarcane variety. Thermal characteristic of crude wax was also analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

Madrasah atau Sekolah Agama Rakyat adalah satu institusi pengajian Islam yang bertujuan membawa pelajar-pelajar ke arah kejayaan dunia dan akhirat serta meningkatkan kebolehan mereka dalam menangani masalah semasa. Di Thailand, madrasah dilalui oleh zaman perubahan yang cukup mencabar semenjak dekad 1930-an. Perubahan besar berlaku pada dekad 1960-an dengan kerjasama pihak pengasas madrasah dan Kementerian Pendidikan. Hasil usaha yang gigih oleh pengasas madrasah, kini madrasah telah sampai satu darjat perkembangan yang lumayan baik dengan peluang untuk mendapat pendidikan tinggi seluruh Thailand dan luar negara dan dalam pelbagai bidang. Madrasah akan terus maju ke depan dengan cabaran utama tentang peningkatan kualiti pendidikan secara syumul dan kebolehan meningkat kualiti madrasah ke arah pengantarabangsaan.

Madrasah atau Sekolah Agama Rakyat adalah satu institusi pengajian Islam yang bertujuan membawa pelajar-pelajar ke arah kejayaan dunia dan akhirat serta meningkatkan kebolehan mereka dalam menangani masalah semasa. Di Thailand, madrasah dilalui oleh zaman perubahan yang cukup mencabar semenjak dekad 1930-an. Perubahan besar berlaku pada dekad 1960-an dengan kerjasama pihak pengasas madrasah dan Kementerian Pendidikan. Hasil usaha yang gigih oleh pengasas madrasah, kini madrasah telah sampai satu darjat perkembangan yang lumayan baik dengan peluang untuk mendapat pendidikan tinggi seluruh Thailand dan luar negara dan dalam pelbagai bidang. Madrasah akan terus maju ke depan dengan cabaran utama tentang peningkatan kualiti pendidikan secara syumul dan kebolehan meningkat kualiti madrasah ke arah pengantarabangsaan.

Resumo. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar os resultados de um estudo comparado sobre a apropriação das tecnologias digitais pelos deputados dos Estados Unidos, Brasil, Bélgica, Espanha e Reino Unido. A metodologia empregada será uma análise da frequência, da intensidade e do tipo de uso dos websites, assim como de diferentes redes sociais (especialmente Facebook, Twitter e YouTube) por parte dos parlamentares desses cinco países, associando esse uso com o perfil de representação institucional e parlamentar das casas legislativas. Nossa hipótese básica é a de que existem diferentes modelos de representação política virtual e estratégias de comunicação digital que variam de acordo com as características dos diversos sistemas políticos, e que impedem a reprodução do padrão mediano de utilização das tecnologias digitais pelas elites parlamentares dos EUA em contexto sociopolíticos diferentes, não se concretizando portanto a tendência à "americanização" da representação política ao menos da maneira linear postulada por alguns autores.

MLEARN, a European Union (EU)-funded project, is exploring and promoting teacher development of mobile learning practices in four member statesthe Netherlands, the United Kingdom (UK) (England), Greece and Italy. This paper details the ways research findings have both fed into and been elicited from this pilot, supporting development and implementation of a teacher education programme for in-service teachers, focusing on mobile learning through appropriate pedagogic uses of mobile or handheld technologies. The research has focused on three dimensions to date: how contextual backgrounds for the programme can be considered and provided; a training needs analysis of trainers and teachers involved in the pilot; and gathering initial outcomes from teachers and learners after involvement in teacher education events and some one to two months of pilot uses in classrooms. The paper considers implementation outcomes to date, and what the next steps will be.

This Master Thesis will assess the question; how much digitalization, and connected technology is of importance to sustain as an automotive OEM in the long run. Our research focuses on the 3 leading German premium OEMs namely Audi, BMW and Mercedes, a Daimler brand, as we believe they provide a representative picture of the overall OEM's status quo when it comes to applying connected technology and digitization in their vehicles. In addition, we will study whether digitalization and connected technologies are vital prerequisites to be understood and embraced in full by automotive OEMs in order to sustain as a brand, or even as an entire industry. In order to study this and find supporting evidence to confirm our hypothesis, we created a model allowing us to combine the behavior of the customer, the (mega)trends within society, the business structure of the automotive industry as well as the (smart)phone industry and the offerings of the chosen 3 German OEMs. The inputs for this ...

A nyílt hozzáférésű repozitóriumok szerves részét képezik a nyílt tudományos gyakorlatoknak és a tudás demokratizálásának. Egy Google Scholar keresés gyakran egy repozitórium által elérhetővé tett verzióhoz irányítja azokat, akiknek nincs hozzáférésük a megjelent cikkekhez. Ugyanakkor, ahogy Frédérique Bordignon rámutatott, ezeknek a repozitóriumoknak komoly vakfoltja van: gyakran elmulasztják megfelelően jelezni a folyóiratok által kiadott helyesbítéseket és visszavonásokat.

Chronic illnesses are significant to individuals and costly to society. When systematically implemented, the well-established and tested Chronic Care Model (CCM) is shown to improve health outcomes for people with chronic conditions. Since the development of the original CCM, tremendous information management, communication, and technology advancements have been established. An opportunity exists to improve the time-honored CCM with clinically efficacious eHealth tools. The first goal of this paper was to review research on eHealth tools that support self-management of chronic disease using the CCM. The second goal was to present a revised model, the eHealth Enhanced Chronic Care Model (eCCM), to show how eHealth tools can be used to increase efficiency of how patients manage their own chronic illnesses. Using Theory Derivation processes, we identified a "parent theory", the Chronic Care Model, and conducted a thorough review of the literature using CINAHL, Medline, OVID, ...

Les entrepreneurs issus de l’immigration extra-européenne représentent un segment dynamique et innovant de l’économie locale. Malgré leurs contributions significatives à l’économie belge, ces créateurs d’entreprise se heurtent à des défis spécifiques qui nécessitent une attention particulière de la part des décideurs politiques, économiques et administratifs. Parmi ces obstacles figurent les barrières linguistiques, un accès limité aux réseaux professionnels, la non-reconnaissance de leurs titres et qualifications, des difficultés d’accès au financement et une connaissance insuffisante des réglementations locales. À cela s’ajoutent les préjugés et les discriminations, qui freinent leur intégration économique et sociale. Face à ces enjeux, il est crucial de mieux comprendre les réalités auxquelles ces entrepreneurs sont confrontés, afin de concevoir des solutions institutionnelles adaptées et efficaces. Dans le prolongement de l’étude réalisée par l’IRFAM en 2024 « L’entrepreneuriat des migrants : une stratégie d’inclusion viable ? », le présent travail poursuit la réflexion sur l’opinion et l’impact des décideurs locaux — qu’ils soient politiques, administratifs et économiques, voire médiatiques — concernant la création d’entreprise par les migrants extra-européens en Wallonie. Nous analysons comment ces différents acteurs locaux perçoivent et abordent les initiatives entrepreneuriales des migrants, et dans quelle mesure leurs actions et décisions influencent le développement de ces entreprises. À travers des témoignages recueillis auprès de ces différents acteurs locaux, l’étude tente de mettre en lumière le manque d’intérêt politique et l’invisibilité médiatique des entrepreneurs issus de l’immigration, ainsi qu’une certaine méfiance à l’égard de leurs initiatives commerciales (Lévy-Tadjine, 2007). Cette publication examine également la perception des décideurs quant aux dispositifs mis en place par la Région wallonne, en soulignant leurs limites en matière d’accessibilité et d’adaptabilité. Enfin, elle évalue l’impact réel de ces mesures sur les entrepreneurs migrants et leur capacité à répondre efficacement à leurs besoins.

Introducción: Las redes sociales permite a los jóvenes estar en contacto con la sociedad y su entorno, gran cantidad del tiempo lo emplean en su uso, buscando aceptación por sus pares. Materiales y Métodos: Investigación descriptiva, transversal, correlacional. La muestra estuvo conformada por 400 estudiantes. La información se recolectó, mediante la utilización de dos cuestionarios. Para la comparación entre las variables, se empleó el coeficiente de correlación de Spearman y Chi cuadrado. Resultados: 354 (88,5%) de los universitarios tienen un dispositivo móvil con conexión a internet; 184 (46%) consultan entre 3 a 4 redes sociales, aproximadamente de 1 a 4 horas diarias 196 (49%).  157 (39.2%) manifestaron no ver afectada la academia por el uso de redes sociales. La salud general, en una escala de 0 a 100, obtuvo una puntuación de 58,5 por los colombianos y de 38,3 en los mexicanos. Discusión: Los jóvenes dedican mayor cantidad de su tiempo en el uso de redes sociales, siendo su ...

While some online social networking (OSN) websites, such as Facebook, have reported sustained growth, others, such as Bebo, have not. This study investigates the factors that influence users' intentions to continue using these websites. We adapt the theory of reasoned action and develop a model depicting how trusting beliefs, habit, attitude, and subjective norm lead to continuance intention. We propose that trusting beliefs and habit will have differential effects depending on the levels of privacy restrictiveness and site experience. An analysis of data collected from Facebook users shows that the effects of trusting beliefs on continuance intention diminish as OSN users become more experienced, yet, do not diminish when users set privacy controls high. The latter finding contradicts theory positing control and trusting beliefs are substitutes. The finding that the trusting belief-continuance intention relationship is not significant when experience is high demonstrates that trusting beliefs and experience interact. We also show that habit is a stronger predictor when users restrict their personal information. However, contrary to predictions, habit shapes intention among users with both high and low experience. These findings explain how habit and trusting beliefs predict continuance intention in the new OSN environment and have both practical and research implications.

Les auteurs présentent une lettre inédite du chanoine Pinier, Supérieur de l'Externat Saint-Maurille d'Angers, à Adrien Blanchet, qui apporte des informations complémentaires sur les fouilles qu'il venait d'effectuer dans et à côté de la collégiale Saint-Martin d'Angers à l'été 1913.

Recently mobile communication technology had tremendous advances and became the priority for most of the users with some opponent opinions that highlight the accountability and the privacy issues in using these messaging applications. WhatsApp is scored to be the first top used messaging application worldwide that is used in 180 countries by about 1.5 billion population. This research aims to determine the staff reflections regarding the WhatsApp usage for organizational communication. Methods: This study is implied among the staff at the medical and health life science cluster, Management and Science University (MSU), Malaysia. A questionnaire was distributed to all the staff through an online google form. Responses were analysed by the 'Statistical Package for Social Sciences' (SPSS) Version 24.0. Results: Results showed that all the staff responded (100%) are using WhatsApp for organizational communication with variable degrees of satisfaction; 8.1% are extremely satisfied, 61.3 % are satisfied, 12.9% are not satisfied and 16.1 % are extremely not satisfied. Their level of satisfaction is significantly affected by the respondent's age, benefit of usage, and the time of messaging. Conclusion: To ensure effectiveness of communication through WhatsApp, it should be through official groups and the organization should put specific announced rules for the time of usage and the content of messages to be posted to all members.

Individuals who shared actionable information during Hurricane Sandy were significantly more likely to exhibit risk-prone behavior, as measured by a novel Risk Behavior Quotient (RBQ). Using a dataset of 36,595 geo-located tweets from 774 users in the New York area, we found that a higher proportion of actional tweets predicted increased exposure to physical even if overall users ultimately moved toward lower-risk zones. This counterintuitive finding suggests that proactivity-manifested in sharing crisis-relevant content-correlates with greater exposure to risk, possibly due to increased mobility or engagement in hazardous areas. In contrast, a greater number of social media peers was associated with reduced risk exposure. This study builds on appraisal theory, which frames risk-related decisions as outcomes of cognitively mediated emotional and rational evaluations. We extend this theory to digital crisis behavior, distinguishing between emotional and actional appraisals expressed via social media. Tweets were categorized using sentiment analysis and semantic classification, enabling the isolation of affective and behavioral signals. Our methodology combines natural language processing with spatial vector analysis to estimate individual movement paths and risk exposure based on evacuation and flooding maps. The resulting RBQ captures both direction and intensity of risk behavior, allowing us to model how online communication reflects and predicts real-world risk engagement during natural disasters.

El presente estudio, pretende realizar un análisis acerca de la incidencia del uso de internet en el tiempo libre de los niños, tomando como referencia a estudiantes del Sexto Año de Educación Básica de la Unidad Educativa Nuestra Familia. Para llegar a las conclusiones pertinentes se ha investigado acerca de conceptos de Internet, tiempo libre, usos pedagógicos, influencia psicológica y los e-derechos de los niños entre otros puntos. Debido a los avances tecnológicos y la vinculación de estos a la sociedad de manera inminente, Internet adquiere la dimensión de derecho para el uso de los niños, quienes se enfrentan a varios riesgos identificados en la navegación por las redes: Cyberbullying, sexting, grooming, etc. La adicción y la encapsulación en el mundo que provee Internet hace que cada vez más se pierda el contacto cara a cara y es evidente la pérdida de la socialización en la vida real. El uso de internet en los niños puede encontrarse con los peligros antes citados, si no existe una normación adecuada para su uso y una constante supervisión de los contenidos que contemplan los "nativos de la red". Las reglas para su uso deben ser claras, comenzando desde casa, mientras que la enseñanza, para optimizar este instrumento en pro de su educación, debe sentar las bases y la guía que permita un buen nivel de conocimiento, previniendo los riesgos de la navegación. Los distintos gobiernos, los padres y las instituciones educativas, están llamados a formar un fuerte para la vigilancia y buen uso que los niños hagan de Internet.

In pursuit of a great many corporate crises and financial scandals undermining the public’s trust in organizations, which are referred as black swan events in literature, trust in an organization has become staggeringly pivotal to entrench legitimacy and corporate reputation within the environment that organization subsists since legitimacy and corporate reputation are correlated with a variety of covetable business outcomes. Hence, within the scope of this research, in which an extensive theoretical review was conducted largely in management and marketing literature, trust as a relational and social construct is discussed systematically in a way that clarifies the way trust is conceptually embraced. Moreover, the role of trust in building corporate reputation and trust in the context of internet were also discussed.

AGATHÓN 2015 AGATHÓN 2015 ArAcne università degli Studi di Palermo dipartimento di Architettura centro documentazione e ricerche Mediterranee deMetrA ce.ri.Med. Pubblicazione effettuata con fondi degli Autori a cura di Alberto Sposito Comitato Scientifico Alfonso Acocella, tarek brik (université de tunis), tor broström (gotland university, Svezia), Joseph burch I rius (universidad de girona), giuseppe de giovanni (università di Palermo), Maurizio de luca, gillo dorfles, Petra eriksson (gotland university, Svezia), Maria luisa germanà (università di Palermo), giuseppe guerrera (università di Palermo), cesare Sposito (università di Palermo), Maria clara ruggieri tricoli (università di Palermo) Redazione Alberto Sposito Editing e Segreteria Antonella chiazza (responsabile), Santina di Salvo, Starlight Vattano e giorgio Faraci Progetto grafico giovanni battista Prestileo Collegio dei Docenti giuseppe de giovanni (coordinatore), Valentina Acierno, Antonino Alagna, giuseppe Alaimo, tiziana campisi, Simona colajanni, rossella corrao, giuseppe de giovanni, Antonio de Vecchi, ernesto di natale, giovanni Fatta, tiziana Firrone, raffaello Frasca,

The Internet and online social media are now credited with the unprecedented ability to coordinate the mobilization of large masses of people to achieve incredible feats that require coverage of large geographical and informational landscapes in very limited time. Endeavors like the DARPA Network Challenge [1] aimed to push the power of the Internet and social media in time-critical social mobilization to its absolute limits. The Network Challenge required competing teams to locate and submit the coordinates of 10 tethered weather balloons dispersed at random locations all over the continental United States. The winning team, based at MIT, won the challenge by locating all balloons in less than 9 hours. In this work, we build on recent results on social network structure, information diffusion and urban economics, to elucidate the constraints that they pose on social mobilization. In particular, we conduct high-resolution simulations of the DARPA Network Challenge. We obtain statist...

Dancing UAV merupakan suatu pertunjukkan tari yang diperankan oleh puluhan hingga ribuan UAV. Dalam pertunjukkan tersebut UAV terbang membentuk pola yang telah ditentukan. Performa dancing UAV sangat terbatas oleh waktu pertunjukkan dan juga waktu terbang masing-masing UAV. Selain masalah waktu, menentukan lintasan masing-masing UAV untuk membentuk pola-pola tertentu di daerah tiga dimensi merupakan masalah yang cukup penting untuk diselesaikan. Untuk mengatasi masalah waktu dan menentukan lintasan, perlu melakukan penentuan waypoint terbaik dan lintasan terbaik. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) sebagai metode untuk menentukan waypoint dan lintasan terbaik dan Data-Driven Applications Systems (DDDAS) sebagai paradigma komunikasi untuk memastikan kondisi di lapangan berjalan sesuai dengan simulasi. Eksperimen menggunakan simulasi dilakukan untuk melihat besarnya efek memilih waypoint terbaik dan lintasan terbaik menggunakan ACO. Percobaan melibatkan 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, dan 25 unit UAV den...

This paper investigates human dynamics in a large online dating site with 3,000 new users daily who stay in the system for 3 months on the average. The daily activity is also quite large such as 500,000 massage transactions, 5,000 photo uploads, and 20,000 votes. The data investigated has 276, 210 male and 483, 963 female users. Based on the activity that they made, there are clear distinctions between men and women in their pattern of behavior. Men prefer lower, women prefer higher qualifications in their partner.

This study explored the perceptions of university students in the educational use of mobile technology. International degree and exchange students from the University of Lapland, Finland, were the main focus. Research questions were: 1. What is the rate of educational use of mobile technology by higher education students? 2. What is the rate of mobile technology use in promoting university students' learning? and 3. What is the amount of hindrance in the educational use of mobile technology by university students? The study described the Teaching and Meaningful Learning (TML) and the Enhanced Teaching and Meaningful e-Learning (ETMeL) models based on Ausubel's Theory of Cognitive Learning which explains the importance of meaningful learning process as being dependent on the abilities of learners to relate new concepts and propositions to what they already know. The models and the theory were used to investigate the research questions. In the study, I attempt to do an analysis of a survey done with the international degree and exchange students on the use of mobile technology (i.e., smartphone, laptop and tablet computers). This is to find out how the models have provided awareness into how mobile technology can be utilized in a pedagogically meaningful way in teaching, studying, and learning processes and to reflect on how some of these popular practices could be supported to enhance learning among the student community. Based on 120 survey responses, numeric data was used to gather all the relevant variables where the results of the study were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. In the final results, it was observed that the use of mobile technology for learning purposes has been widely adopted by students. Ownership and access to mobile computing devices was high among the respondents and through various synchronous and asynchronous online platforms, learning among students has been promoted. The study therefore concludes that the use of mobile technology has improved pedagogical possibilities among higher education students.

Workforce development is an important aspect of evidence-informed decision making (EIDM) interventions. The structure of formal and informal social networks can influence, and be influenced, by the implementation of EIDM interventions. In a mixed methods study we assessed the outcomes of a targeted training intervention to promote EIDM among the staff in three public health units in Ontario, Canada. This report focuses on the qualitative phase of the study in which key staff were interviewed about the process of engagement in the intervention, communications during the intervention, and social consequences. Senior managers identified staff to take part in the intervention. Engagement was a top-down process determined by the way organizational leaders promoted EIDM and the relevance of staff's jobs to EIDM. Communication among staff participating in the workshops and ongoing progress meetings was influential in overcoming personal and normative barriers to implementing EIDM, and ...

It is indicated, that one of the main trends characterizing the existence and development of modern society is the spread of network structures, their implementation in all spheres of human activity. The paper provides a socio-philosophical analysis of theories that study the network, in order to identify and study the concept of «network structure», the disclosure of their functioning the features. Ongoing research is necessary in order to find the origins of this concept, deepening the content of existing knowledge, formation additional opportunities for further theoretical and methodological study of «network structures».Указано, что одной из основных тенденций, характеризующих существование и развитие современного общества, является распространение сетевых структур, их внедрение во все сферы человеческой жизнедеятельности. В работе осуществляется социально-философский анализ теорий, изучающих сети, выявляются основные ракурсы рассмотрения понятия «сетевые структуры», проясняется...

The present study intended to find Facebook addiction and its relation with academic performance of university students from Pakistan. Sample comprised of eighty students (n=80) in total whom are purposefully selected and equally divided according to gender. The universe was public sector higher learning institute named as The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Cross-sectional survey research design was employed. Data were collected by use of Bergen Facebook addition scale. Data were analyzed from SPSS (21.0), descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were computed to test the hypotheses. Results depict significant negative relationship between Facebook addiction and academic performance of students (β = -.907, t = -4.554). Conclusively, female students consume more time to use Facebook as compare to male students; hence, male students exhibit better academic performance. Limitations and future implications of current study were enclosed

Online technologies have facilitated the development of Virtual Communities of Practice (virtual CoPs) to support health professionals collaborate online to share knowledge, improve performance and support the spread of innovation and best practices. Research, however, shows that many virtual CoPs do not achieve their expected potential because online interaction among healthcare professionals is generally low. Focusing on health visitors, who are UK qualified midwives or nurses who have undertaken additional qualifications as specialist public health workers in the community, the paper examines the factors that influence online interaction among health visitors collaborating to share knowledge and experience in a virtual CoP. The paper makes suggestions for how to improve online interaction among health professionals in virtual CoPs by increasing the size of membership in order to take advantage of both posting and viewing contributions, facilitating moderation to improve networking among geographically dispersed members groups and improving the topic relevance in order to stimulate contributions.

Dès le Haut Moyen Âge, la cité de Metz a été un important centre de production de manuscrits enluminés : de précieux ouvrages, comme le sacramentaire de Drogon (Paris, BnF ms. latin 9428), sont ainsi réalisés au IXe siècle dans l’entourage des évêques . Dans les siècles qui suivent, les abbayes Saint-Vincent, Saint-Arnoul et celle de Gorze abritent une riche activité intellectuelle qui nécessite la présence d’ateliers de copie de manuscrits, parfois enluminés. En parallèle de cette production monastique, des ateliers laïcs destinés à procurer aux membres des élites urbaines divers types d’ouvrages émergent dans le cours du XIIIe siècle : des enlumineurs et des parcheminiers sont ainsi attestés dans les bans de tréfonds messins dès les décennies 1260-1270. Si le terme d’enluminor disparaît après 1330 de ces archives, celui de peintre y apparaît alors : sous cette dénomination sont regroupés tous les artisans – y compris les enlumineurs – en charge de la production picturale ou travaillant à partir des matières premières précieuses (or, pigments rares…) . C’est dans le cours du XIVe siècle que ces corps de métier se regroupent et s’organisent.

PT Amanah Umroh Handal adalah marketplace para travel umroh untuk pencarian travel umroh terpadu. Demi kenyamanan dan kemudahan, PT Amanah Umroh Handal menyediakan sejumlah besar paket perjalanan oleh berbagai perusahaan travel umroh di seluruh indonesia. Pemilihan travel umroh harus dengan cara yang tepat untuk mendapatkan pelayanan yang bagus bagi jamaah yang ingin berangkat umroh. Antusias masyarakat untuk melakukan ibadah umroh semakin tinggi dan masyarakat ingin melakukan ibadah umroh dengan rasa nyaman dan aman. Maka pihak PT. Amanah Umroh Handal memfasilitasi dan bermitra dengan para travel umroh agar transaksi jamaah aman dan nyaman terlepas dari kebutuhan pada sistem pendukung keputusan dalam menentukan pemilihan travel umroh serta sistem yang memudahkan jamaah untuk memilih travel umroh yang aman, sehingga keberlangsungan pemberangkatan ibadah umroh tidak menjadi terkendala dan selalu aman. Penulis mengangkat permasalahan ini dengan melakukan penelitian sistem yang berjala...

This paper presents an application of a sequenced model course designed to improve the ability to learn English through studying this language in the context of English Communication for Thai Music Performing Arts (TMPA) and Thai Music Performance Management (TMPM) courses. The population comprises of the 45 undergraduate students majoring in Thai Music at Phranakhon Rajabhat University, all of whom were registered for both the English Communication for TMPA and TMPM courses during the second semester of the 2014 academic year. The instruments used in the research were lesson plans, learning materials in each learning unit of teachings and learning materials, and integrated tasks or assignments in both subjects on interpreting data on the basis of mean scores and standard deviations. In terms of the English language skills and knowledge acquired through the two courses, based on an evaluation of the four assignments integrated into the two courses, the students received a mean score of 86.22 (S.D. at 0.42). This result clearly indicates that the students' abilities and language skills improved on all the tasks evaluated-which included communication, teamwork, and writing.

Abstract.- The human society is a very complex system; still, there are several non-trivial, general features. One type of them is the presence of power-law distributed quantities in temporal statistics. In this Letter, we focus on the origin of power-laws in rating of movies. We present a systematic empirical exploration of the time between two consecutive ratings of movies (the interevent time). At an aggregate level, we find a monotonous relation between the activity of individuals and the power-law exponent of the interevent-time distribution. At an individual level, we observe a heavy-tailed distribution for each user, as well as a negative correlation between the activity and the width of the distribution. We support these findings by a similar data set from mobile phone text-message communication. Our results demonstrate a significant role of the activity of individuals on the society-level patterns of human behavior. We believe this is a common character in the interest-driv...

Colour plays a crucial role in human cognition, perception, and emotional response. This research explores how different colours stimulate the human brain, influencing neural activity, psychological states, and behavioural outcomes. Through an interdisciplinary approach combining neuroscience, psychology, and visual science, this study investigates the mechanisms through which colour perception affects cognitive processing and emotional regulation.

Recommendation for public radio is a challenging area. In contrast to music recommendation, which has been intensively discussed in research as well as in practice, recommendation for radio has some special additional challenges as it mixes diverse formats, such as news, articles, audio dramas, biographies, etc. Focusing on the interaction design of a radio player, we bring up and discuss these special challenges and find that in a radio recommender context, optimal interaction design has conflicting issues with optimal algorithmic design.

Ubiquitous information technologies like RFID allow for immediate, extensive and fine-grained capture of real world information. Scalable and efficient networks for exchange of this vast amount of information amongst companies are crucial for the economic exploitation of benefits of ubiquitous information technologies. Existing networks bear several limitations like risks of single-point-offailures or bottlenecks, unequally distributed power and burdens as well as inflexibility through stringent structures and formats. In particular there is a need for improving the scalability of solutions and ensuring autonomy of network participants. In this paper we introduce a Peer-to-Peer-based architecture for exchanging distributed information, which are shared among participants of a supply chain facilitated with ubiquitous information technologies. This architecture builds on the wellestablished EPCglobal standards, but can be implemented as an autonomous network. Unlike other architectures it does not need central coordination mechanisms, because it is based on self-organizing Peer-to-Peer protocols. We argue that our architecture supports business processes especially of small and medium-sized enterprises better than other architectures. We provide a discussion about requirements for solutions and a simulation-based analysis of the proposed architecture.

This study extends research on the impact of cross-cutting political discussion on dialogic openness and political participation by considering political network diversity and network sizes of various tie strengths. The study employs a national survey of U.S. citizens ( N = 1,001) and finds distinct paths to political participation through political networks’ attributes and political discussions according to network type and size. The study also identifies an interaction between cross-cutting discussion and strong tie political homogeneity on both dialogic openness and political participation. Politically homogeneous strong ties dampen participation when unaccompanied by frequent cross-cutting discussion. The study’s findings contribute to conceptual and empirical distinctions between the sizes of general social networks and the attributes of political networks. The research integrates various theorizations of the process leading to political participation.

∗University of Pune, India, sadanand@unipune.ernet.in †National Chemical Laboratory, India, nb.Dahibhate@ncl.res.in ‡Tata Consultancy Services, India, kishore.ingale@tcs.com This paper is posted at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. ...

The Twitter social network connects over 500 million users and generates more than 350 million tweets every day. Organizing the information generated and making it readily accessible is a challenging task, the currently available solutions are the search api and the personalized recommender system. The search api retrieves recent tweets containing the term queried while the recommender system suggests people to follow based on a user’s current friends. The existing apis are not useful for finding user communities interested in a given topic, or for finding the the most relevant users for a given topic. We explore the possibility of building a topic specific user recommender system by combining community information obtained from network analysis with content information extracted from tweets. We identify communities in a subgraph of the twitter network consisting of 115000 influential twitter users and validate the obtained clusters using rare words extracted from user tweets. The c...

This article serves as an introduction to both a conference (Semiotic and Cognitive Approaches to the Face, Noto, 14-16/12/2023) and a journal issue that address a range of topics related to the human face across multiple disciplines. The discussions explore the influence of digital tools in reproducing, re-signifying, and manipulating the face, and how these technologies impact the sensory and social perception of the self and others. Additionally, the conference and journal issue examine the possibility of restoring the ethics of face-to-face interaction in an increasingly polarized and digitized society, drawing from Levinas' philosophy and neuroscience. The role of the face in psychopathology is also considered, particularly in disorders like schizophrenia and autism, where alterations in face recognition and body image contribute to a sense of disembodiment and "otherness." A focus is placed on fostering dialogue between semiotics and cognitive sciences to better understand these phenomena. Finally, the representation of the face in art and media is analyzed, including how modern experimental approaches like neuroaesthetics can be integrated with semiotic perspectives, and how performance arts challenge the boundaries of body alterability and influence the study of the face.

Global child health Uganda a b s t r a c t Recent initiatives in global health have emphasized universal coverage of essential health services. Surgical conditions play a critical role in child health in resource-poor areas. This article discusses (1) the spectrum of pediatric surgical conditions and their treatment; (2) relevance to recent advances in global surgery; (3) challenges to the prioritization of surgical care within child health, and possible solutions; (4) a case example from a resource-poor area (Uganda) illustrating some of these concepts; and (5) important child health initiatives with which surgical services should be integrated. Pediatric surgery providers must lead the effort to prioritize children's surgery in health systems development.

During the World War I ,II over fifty countries in the world today have been inherited a legacy of antipersonnel landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) which represents a major threat to lives, and hinders reconstruction and development efforts. Landmines have specific properties that make it harder to detect .Therefore; these properties lead landmine detectors to become more complex. Many examples can be found to address the increasing complexity of Landmines detection; unfortunately, these new techniques are high of cost and need experts to deal with it. Many developing countries face financial difficulties to get advanced technologies for detection landmines such as Robotic systems, this due to their high cost, use and maintenance difficulties which makes them unaffordable to these countries. The safety of operators, transportability, ease of maintenance and operation are the most factors that must take into consideration to improve the applicability and effectiveness of landmin...

In this article, we explore how minority parents construct and promote cultural identities through a multicultural school event in Norway. Such events respond to the call for diverse and inclusive initiatives to facilitate learning, belonging, and cohesion in schools. Interestingly, while schools see these events as helping further inclusion, prior research on the subject has criticized such events for promoting essentialist understandings of cultural identities, hence regarding them as counterproductive to the aim of promoting inclusion. This research has directed scarce attention to the participant perspective, among them minority parents. Using the stall of the Kurdish parents as an example, we conducted fieldwork applying the method of Linguistic Landscaping. In addition, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the parents asking questions about the festival and the meaning of the displayed representations in their stall. The findings indicate that the Kurdish parents involved view the event as an important space for creative construction of transnational and diasporic identities, as well as an opportunity for a minority group to strive for acceptance for its cause. We end the article by reflecting on the pedagogical potential in multicultural school events as tools for creating inclusive school practices.

The aim of the study is to analyze how and why consumers use social media. With the scope of the aim, the user-generated media content and the uses and gratificitions theories were reviewed. The study was designed as a qualitative research with thirty-two social media users with semi-structured interviews. Data gathered and were analyzed with content analysis technique. The findings regarding the user-generated media showed that the participants contribute social media by consuming information, producing content for improving selfactualizations, and participating in social interaction by liking and writing comment. The findings regarding the uses and gratifications showed that six uses and gratifications were identified for customers, and five uses and gratificitations were identified for companies.

The aim of the study is to analyze how and why consumers use social media. With the scope of the aim, the user-generated media content and the uses and gratificitions theories were reviewed. The study was designed as a qualitative research with thirty-two social media users with semi-structured interviews. Data gathered and were analyzed with content analysis technique. The findings regarding the user-generated media showed that the participants contribute social media by consuming information, producing content for improving selfactualizations, and participating in social interaction by liking and writing comment. The findings regarding the uses and gratifications showed that six uses and gratifications were identified for customers, and five uses and gratificitations were identified for companies.

This study was carried out to investigate the perspectives of Zawia EFL university teachers about the role of the 21st century EFL teacher. A mixed-methods approach was used in this study. The quantitative data was collected through administering a close-ended questionnaire to fifty EFL Zawia university teachers, and the qualitative data was collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with six teachers form those who participated in the questionnaire. A Microsoft excel program was used in analyzing the quantitative data and the thematic analysis method was used in analyzing the qualitative data. The findings revealed that the participant teachers held positive perspectives about the new role(s) of the 21st century EFL teacher. However, they pointed out some challenges they were facing in implementing the new role. The analysis of the results attributed some of these challenges to the teachers, some others to the students and some others to the institutions. In order to help the Libyan EFL university teachers for adapting their new role, the Libyan Ministry of Higher Education needs to provide training courses for teachers to raise their awareness about the importance of these new roles and to develop the necessary skills they need for implementing them. English language curriculum designers also need to provide clear instructions and guidelines for implementing the new role. Nevertheless, it is motivating and promising to report the positive perspectives of the participant teachers towards implementing the role of the 21st century EFL teacher.

Penelitian ini menyajikan desain interface untuk Anak Berkebutuhan Khusus (ABK) dengan jenis autisme persepsi mid - high function dan yang didapat dari user persona, dan kebutuhan user. ABK cenderung tidak memiliki konsep untuk mengelola waktu, hal ini membuat mereka sulit untuk memahami aktivitas apa yang mereka ingin lakukan dalam keseharian mereka, maka dari itu perlu adanya penjadwalan aktivitas untuk ABK sehingga ABK mengetahui kapan dan bagaimana aktivitas tersebut harus dilakukan dalam kesehariannya. Desain interface yang dihasilkan nantinya diharapkan dapat membantu ABK dan orang tua dalam pembelajaran melakukan aktivitas sehari-hari dan aktivitas lainnya yang diberikan oleh orangtua. Pada penelitian ini akan dibuat User Interface Scheduling Activity untuk orangtua sehingga dapat memberikan aktivitas kepada anak dengan tahapan-tahapan yang dapat dimengerti oleh ABK, disamping itu model interface ini dapat digunakan sebagai alat terapi ABK untuk membiasakan diri dalam melakuk...