Design Research Articles

Exploring the Influence of Fashion Events on the Development of the Textile and Fashion Markets in Ghana: an in-Depth Study of Kumasi Metropolis

Purpose: The core aim of this study is to explore and analyze the influence fashion shows have on the growth of textiles and fashion markets within the Kumasi Metropolis in Ghana. It aims to appreciate how these events stimulate creativity, encourage textile production, promote local fashion designers, and facilitate market expansion, all of which can boost economic development.
 Methodology: The study used a quantitative explanatory design and a survey approach. A sample of 274 fashion designers was selected through a simple random method. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods, including correlational and multivariate OLS regression, were used to analyze the data.
 Results: The findings of the study revealed that frequent participation in fashion shows positively influenced the fashion design innovation practices of fashion design firms and that the attendance of fashion designers at fashion shows stimulated various fashion design innovation practices, which in turn significantly influenced the sales of textiles and fashion products in the market. Implying that customers were more likely to patronize fashion products from designers who frequently attended fashion shows.
 Conclusion: The exposure of fashion designers to fashion shows is reported to improve their comprehension of the concepts and, therefore, their innovative practices, which eventually enhance the sales performances of their products in the market.
 Originality/Value: This study highlights the limited interest of academicians in investigating the link between fashion shows and the growth of Ghana’s textile and fashion industry. It further presents a unique analysis of the interplay between fashion shows and the growth of textiles and fashion markets in a region that has not been intensely studied before - Kumasi Metropolis in Ghana. It uncovers how fashion shows, by promoting traditional and contemporary Ghanaian designs and fabrics, have a crucial role in the commercial growth and international recognition of the Ghanaian textile and fashion sectors, underscores the significance of cultural preservation and promotion in driving economic development and highlights the potential for this model to be replicated in other sectors and regions across Africa.

Remote Real-Time Training for Sustainable Cleft Operation in Rural Region of West Africa: Effective Webinar in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The surgical requirement for cleft lip and palate repair remains unmet in many developing areas of the world, including remote regions of Ghana. This article reviews the utilization of Internet education and online consultation for cleft lip and palate surgical training in Sunyani Regional Hospital (SRH), Ghana. The cleft lip and palate treatment was promoted to patients in remote areas of Sunyani, Ghana region, through a charitable outreach program. These basic designs and settings were managed by local participants such as doctors, residents, nurses, and staff in SRH, Ghana. From November 2014 to December 2020, the authors collaborated in surgical treatment for 84 cases that were diagnosed with unilateral cleft lip, bilateral cleft lip, hard and soft palate cleft, and microstomia. The type of surgery has varied and has included cheiloplasty, palatoplasty, and others. The average scores of esthetic outcome evaluation were nasal form=2.4, symmetry of the nose=2.9, and vermillion border=2.9. Through the program, the surgeons and residents became significantly more proficient at cleft lip and palate surgery. The seminar topics have covered essential and sustainable topics based on SRH's current needs and showed the effectiveness in the current coronavirus disease-19 pandemic situation. The shortage of orofacial cleft surgeons working in rural areas like Sunyani, Ghana, remains an obstacle that poses a challenge to any effort to improve health care quality in these rural communities. Sustainable remote education is essential for the training of local cleft surgeons to fill this local need; our collaborative and charitable program could be a recommended education design for cleft surgeons and institutes for their sustainable education.

Evaluation of The Texts in the Fifth Grade Turkish Textbook in Terms of Root Values

The aim of this study is to examine the texts in the fifth grade Turkish textbook in terms of root values in the 2019 Turkish Language Teaching Program. Basic qualitative design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The object of the study is the fifth grade Turkish textbook of the Secondary School and Imam Hatip Secondary School prepared by Anıttepe Publishing, which was used as a Turkish textbook at the fifth grade level of secondary school in the 2022-2023 academic year. Research data were obtained through document analysis. Within the scope of the research, 40 reading, listening and free reading texts under 8 units in the fifth grade Turkish textbook were analyzed in terms of ten root values. In these evaluations, the sub-values related to the ten root values were taken as criteria. As a result of the research, the texts in the fifth grade Turkish textbook were related to the ten root values in 173 places in total. It was concluded that the most used values in the textbook are responsibility, self-control, patriotism and love, while the least used values are justice and honesty. When the units in the textbook were examined in relation to the values, it was found that the root values were mostly used in the units of Our National Culture, Virtues, Individual and Society; and least in the units of Health and Sports, Science and Technology, Nature and the Universe. As a result of the research, it was determined that the root values were not homogeneously distributed in the units and texts in the fifth grade Turkish textbook.

Cartoons in The Context of Paul McGhee's Theory of Humor Development

This study, which was conducted to examine cartoons according to Paul McGhee's humor development theory, is a basic qualitative research design. The research study group consists of 8 cartoons, 4 Turkish and 4 foreign productions, which are available on national and international children's channels and digital broadcasting platforms. These cartoons are; Keloğlan Masalları, Niloya, Pepee, Rafadan Tayfa, Caillou, Masha and the Bear, SpongeBob, and The Smurfs. The study's data were analyzed using the "humor checklist" prepared by the researcher. Document analysis technique was used to analyze the data obtained. As a result of the study, it was determined that the cartoon with the most humor elements was Masha and the Bear, the cartoon with the least humor elements was Pepee. In the study, it was observed that the most humor elements were found in stage 4c, which includes humor aimed at distorting the properties of objects, people, and animals, and the least humor elements were found in stage 4d, which includes naming the opposite sex. As a result of the research, it was determined that the cartoon with the most and least humorous elements in each stage differed. Since cartoons have different characteristics, the amount of humor in different stages may vary. However, humor is universal, and children of all ages watch cartoons. In this context, it is suggested that cartoons should have humor elements with different characteristics.

Recent advances in high value-added carbon materials prepared from carbon dioxide for energy storage applications

Since the industrial revolution, the consumption of fossil fuels has increased year by year, which has resulted in increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon capture, utilization and storage technology has received extensive attention as a technology for converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into high value-added materials. Carbon materials, as ideal materials for various energy storage devices, have attracted extensive research. Therefore, the selective reduction of CO2 to carbon materials with high added value is a promising solution, which can not only effectively alleviate the greenhouse effect, but also promote the development of the energy storage field. This review introduces the research work of high-value conversion of carbon dioxide into carbon materials and its impact on the performance of energy storage devices in recent years. In particular, we emphasize the reaction processes during CO2 conversion, which can build an understanding of the science and technology involved in the control of interfacial properties, microstructure, and pore structure of CO2-converted carbon nanomaterials. We also summarized the basic design principles for the application of carbon nanomaterials in the field of energy storage. The effect of the microstructure and interface properties of carbon materials converted from CO2 on the energy storage performance are further analyzed. Finally, prospects and discussions are made on the challenges of future development.

Development of a spray-ejector condenser for the use in a negative CO2 emission gas power plant

One promising solution for developing low-emission power technologies is using gaseous fuel combustion in pure oxygen when the exhaust gas mixture is composed of H2O and CO2, and where CO2 is separated after steam condensation. The paper presents the results of computational analyses providing to the Spray-Ejector Condenser (SEC) development, which is one of the crucial components of the negative CO2 gas power plant (nCO2PP) cycle development. The proposed design of the ejector-condenser to ensure the high effectivity of vapor condensation and CO2 compression with preparation to separation, ready for application in gas power cycle, is a novelty of this research. Different computational techniques leading to the development and better understating of ejector operation were applied. The main operating conditions in the characteristic connected with the developed nCO2pp cycle points were investigated to evaluate the impact of the operating conditions on SEC performances. The amount of motive water needed for the cooling purpose is susceptible to the inlet water pressure and temperature and strongly affects the generated pressure of the suction stream. The preliminary results confirm that the SEC's basic design and geometrical dimensions can be applied in the negative CO2 power plant cycle. Results from CFD modeling give the possibility to investigate the turbulent flow of water/steam/CO2 mixture together with the condensation process occurring at this same time. It is found that the average droplet diameter and motive water supplying method significantly effects the condensation intensity. The further direction of the presented computational research activities and results is to test various designs of Spray-Ejector Condensers that will enable the evaluation of the direct contact condensation process and develop the final geometrical design.

Progress in Glucose‐Sensitive Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

AbstractDiabetes mellitus is one of the key diseases of clinical concern that can lead to a variety of serious complications and it is characterized by increased blood glucose levels. Glucose‐sensitive hydrogel is gaining attention as a smart hydrogel capable of sensing glucose molecules for diabetes and related complications. In order to better understand this hydrogel, this paper reviews its basic design principles and focuses on the therapeutic efficacy of this hydrogel in delivering insulin, drugs, and bioactives for diabetes and diabetes‐related complications. Its use as a biosensing device for glucose measurement in body fluids and dynamic monitoring of wounds is also presented, and its potential application in the treatment of diabetes and related diseases is highly summarized.

Exciton and Excited‐State Charge Transfer at 2D van der Waals Interfaces

Combining materials with diverse properties into two‐dimensional (2D) van der Waals heterostructures lies at the heart of electronic, optoelectronic, and photonic applications. Prerequisite is a significant degree of electronic or photonic coupling of the constituents across the heterointerface. Understanding and controlling these interactions is mandatory to achieve the desired functionality. This review focuses on the charge and energy transfer processes and their dynamics in a specific class of van der Waals heterostructures, namely such composed of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides and conjugated organic molecules. With the help of prototypical material combinations, the importance of a precise knowledge of the interfacial electronic structure is demonstrated as it governs the excited‐state dynamics. This review aims at providing basic design guidelines to achieve functional 2D organic/inorganic van der Waals heterostructures with final properties that can be designed by careful selection of the organic component.

Product Quality and Customer Loyalty: The Case of a Chocolate Production Cooperative, Peru

Purpose: The objective was to determine the effect of product quality on customer loyalty in a cooperative that produces chocolate in Peru. Theoretical framework: The combination of information studied in advance by several authors and with the contribution of the findings presented in this work allows maximizing the knowledge of future researchers who decide to study product quality and customer loyalty together. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded theory and non-experimental, descriptive-correlational basic design were considered. In addition, a sample of 53 people was considered, of which three were representatives of the cooperative and 50 were customers of the cooperative; the interview and the survey were considered as techniques. The approach considered was a mixed qualitative-quantitative one. Findings: The qualitative data revealed that the cooperative is interested in improving product quality since it considers the opinion during and after sales, which has allowed it to increase customer loyalty little by little, but it still needs to expand its business since its production is minimal. In the quantitative findings, product quality with customer loyalty (0.842), cognitive loyalty (0.784) and affective loyalty (0.632) maintain a medium to very strong connection since they achieved a Pearson of 0.842. On the other hand, with conative loyalty there is no favorable connection since the sigma was higher than 0.05. Research, Practical & Social implications: The benefits that the studied cooperative can receive is to know the bottlenecks that are generating that they cannot expand their market and get the loyalty of their customers in the established brand. Customer loyalty can be achieved by offering quality products that specify in the labeling the health benefits of chocolate consumption and the ingredients it contains. Originality/value: The peculiarity of this work is that it examines selected cooperative that have not been performed in previous works and tests the soundness of the theories used.

Turkish language teachers’ creative drama competence and opinions

Teachers need to have a positive opinion and competence for the thought or knowledge they plan to convey in any acquisition. It is important to determine the opinions and competencies of the teachers about the creative drama method in order to successfully complete the creative drama processes, which is an effective practice in Turkish education, and for teachers to apply creative drama as a method in their professional lives. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to determine the competencies of Turkish teachers about creative drama method and their views on creative drama. The study group of the research consisted of 60 teachers who were active Turkish teachers in the province of Balikesir in the 2022-2023 academic year. A two-question structured interview form developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool in the study, in which the basic interpretive qualitative research design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive analysis technique. According to the results obtained from the research, Turkish teachers do not see themselves in a good position in terms of proficiency in applying creative drama as a method. However, they expressed a positive opinion on their contribution to the Turkish lesson and students regarding the application of creative drama as a method. In addition, they said that they could benefit from creative drama practices in Turkish lessons such as expressing themselves in groups, developing communication skills, helping each other, developing positive relationships, cooperating, accepting each other as they are, and creating sincere environments. Keywords: creative drama, Turkish education, teacher competencies and opinions.

Design of ternary full-adder and full-subtractor using pseudo NCNTFETs

Now-a-days, the binary logic system has intensified by scaling the field effect transistor (FET). However, due to the effectiveness of scaling the FET, ternary logics became more popular. Out of numerous ternary logic devices, carbon nanotube (CNT) FET (CNTFET) is considered a good candidate over silicon FETs. Hence, in this study, ternary schematics are developed based on Pseudo N-type CNTFETs. The ternary basic designs such as standard ternary inverter (STI), AND and OR gates are presented. Then, using the proposed basic logic gates, the complex designs such as full adder and full subtractor are also proposed. The HSPICE simulator is utilized to design proposed circuits and analyze different performance parameters. The performance such as delay, power and power delay product (PDP) are analyzed for the proposed circuits. Moreover, the proposed schematics performances are also compared to complementary schematics. It investigated that Pseudo N-type CNTFET schematics improved the overall performance on an average up to 65.82% over the complementary ternary circuits.

Market Structure Analysis of Revenue of International Construction Professional Service (I-CPS): A Country-Level Analysis

Market Structure Analysis of Revenue of International Construction Professional Service (I-CPS): A Country-Level Analysis

THE EFFECTS OF COMPRESSOR PLUG-INS ON THE DYNAMIC RANGE IN MUSIC PRODUCTION

This study investigated the role of dynamic processors in audio processing and music production and the effects of different types of design on the audio signal. It has been tried to give information about the designs and parameters of dynamic processors. In order to create the sound sample analyzed within the scope of the study, a mono sample recording was taken from the virtual instrument plug-in. The sound sample taken from the bass guitar model was preferred in order to contain all the general envelope structure features of an audio signal. In this direction, the sound sample was chosen from the virtual instrument in order to keep it away from external factors during the recording stages and to make the work repeatable and developable. It is used as basic tools for dynamic processors to control and balance audio signals and create sensory effects. In this context, the effects of compressors in the dynamic processor class and their basic parameters and different design types on the audio signal are examined. Differences in tonal characteristics and dynamic changes of different compressor designs have been observed. In this context, the effects of FET, VCA, Vari-Mu, Optical and Digital compressor plug-ins on the audio signal were analyzed and the results were presented. These analyzes can provide guidance for the selection of different compressor designs for lecturers, students, and those interested in and working in the field of music technology. In future studies, the role of different music genres, instruments and recording conditions on the effects of compressor designs can be explored more deeply, and more comprehensive results can be reached by collecting experimental data and using machine learning techniques.

Revolutionizing Connectivity: The Breakthrough of Batteryless Mouse Using Magnetic Resonant Coupling for Communication Devices

With the rapid development of electronic technology and information technology, personal computer has gradually become the public's office or entertainment tools, which also makes the computer mouse a widely used tool. However, most computer mouse on the market today come with batteries. In this context, it is necessary to design a batteryless mouse that without using power supply such as battery. In view of such demand, on the basic of theoretical analysis, this paper summarizes and designs a classical wireless transmission structure – magnetic resonant coupling and antenna that used to transmit and received power for communication devices. In order to understand the operation of wireless power transmission technology, the paper analysed antenna construction and wireless power transmission technology. The basic design parameters of the axial mode helical antenna structure are also explained. Finally, by using CST STUDIO software, axial mode helical antenna with gain of 6.45 dBi was obtained. The system's output voltage is successfully simulated at 1.516 V that can powered up the computer mouse.

DESIGN OF BIOGAS COOLING PROCESSING FROM POME FOR (CSTR) CONTINUOUS STIRRED TANK REACTOR SYSTEM

POME (Palm Oil Mill Effluent) can be used as for biogas production, with the main content of (65%) methane gas (CH4) and 35% Carbon Dioxide (CO2), H2S, and H2O gases. Apart from being a gas fuel and a source of electricity generation, biogas from POME waste as well as a waste processor becomes more environmentally friendly (according to quality standards). In order to support the process production of biogas from POME by using Continuous Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTR), it is necessary to decrease POME’s temperature to meet the requirements of the reactor operating conditions. Cooling process by using a Cooling Tower through direct contact between fluids can be a good alternative to be used as a POME cooling method because of its effectiveness in heat exchange and smaller area needed than an open ponds. The type of cooling tower used is the Induced Draft Cooling Tower. In cooling tower design, the steps involved in determining the basic design, calculation of tower dimensions, basin, fan power, losses, and cooling air requirements. Based on the calculation, the tower dimensions determine a height of 5 m, length of 3.6 m, and width of 2.5 m, while the basin cooling tower dimensions determine a height of 2.7 m, length of 3.6 m, and width of 2.5 m, fan power of 5 hp. The cooling air requirement for the POME cooling process is 82,895.14 kg/hour.

Engineering angle selectivity of extraordinary optical transmission and nonlocal spatial filtering

Plasmonic metasurfaces can provide rich opportunities for miniaturized analog optical computing, such as ultrathin spatial filtering and free-space wavefront differentiation. In this work, the extraordinary optical transmission (EOT), one of the most fascinating phenomena of plasmonics, is revisited and rigorously studied in terms of the angle selectivity of the transmission resonance. In particular, the fundamental mechanisms of angle-selective transmission in 1D plasmonic nanoslit metasurfaces are investigated. Based on temporal coupled mode theory and Fano resonances, it is elucidated that the angle selectivity is due to strong coupling between multiple resonance channels. Using the theory that explains the origin of angle selectivity, the basic design rules for nonlocal lowpass and bandpass spatial filters based on infinite periodic metasurface structures were determined and verified numerically. Furthermore, the effect of the finite size of the metasurface structures on the nonlocality of the EOT was investigated and formulated by both a full numerical calculation and an analytical scalar wave approximation based on the convolution theorem together with the optical transfer function obtained for the infinite periodic structures. It is expected that the formulation of angle-selective EOT will be fruitfully exploited for the development of ultrathin designer spatial filters required for coherent imaging processes in compact Fourier optics applications.

Transformation of learning and writing in English: An analysis of strategies and competences in Peruvian university students

This study aims to understand the impact of learning strategies on students' ability to produce effective texts in English. Additionally, it seeks to identify the students' discursive and functional competencies by analyzing their relationship with the use of learning strategies. The study follows a basic design with a quantitative approach, utilizing a hypothetical-deductive method and adopting a non-experimental correlational descriptive approach within a positivist paradigm.The relationship between learning strategies and the production of texts in English was examined among university students. The findings indicate that 18.6% of the participants always employ learning strategies, while 44.3% use them quite often. A significant portion of the students (47.14%) frequently utilize cognitive and control strategies. Additionally, 32.9% of the students sometimes employ learning support strategies. Regarding discursive and functional competencies, 35.7% of students demonstrate a regular level in both,while 31.4% display a good level in both competencies. Encouragingly, 40% of the students achieve a good level in text production, and 24.3% reach an excellent level. These findings provide valuable insights for the design of educational strategies. This study contributes knowledge and validity to the teaching of English as a foreign language and text production in the university context. It holds significant value by enhancing students' English text production skills and preparing them to tackle communication challenges in diverse academic and professional settings.

Development of an Unmanned Mobile Current Turbine Platform

A prototype low-flow (~0.5 m/s) marine current turbine for deployment from a small unmanned mobile floating platform has been developed at Florida Atlantic University for autonomously seeking and harnessing tidal/coastal currents. The support platform is an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in the form of a catamaran with two electric outboard motors and with capabilities for autonomous navigation. An undershot water wheel (USWW), aided by a custom flow concentrator, has been selected as the basic design for the marine current turbine, which is mounted on the stern of the USV. The concept of operation is that the unmanned surface vehicle would navigate to a designated marine current resource, autonomously anchor at the location, align itself in the current, and deploy the USWW turbine using a custom cable-lift deployment mechanism. As the USWW harnesses the local current, an onboard power-take-off (PTO) device converts the harnessed mechanical energy to electricity which is stored in onboard batteries. The selected PTO utilizes a spur drivetrain/gearbox coupled with a NuVinci Ball-continuously variable transmission (CVT). It is estimated that the small prototype turbine system will produce over 12W power for currents over 0.5 m/s. The automated anchoring system consists of an electric winch, a Rocna anchor, anchor chain/rode and a line locking mechanism designed to aid in taking tension off the winch. Preparations have been made to test and demonstrate the application of the platform in harnessing tidal currents in the Intracoastal Waterway in South Florida and coastal currents at locations off Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The preparations include obtaining the necessary environmental permits for conducting in-water testing; developing required mitigation measures in protecting local wildlife and their habitats; and identifying potential in-water test sites and surveying them for their suitability in terms of current resource, bottom type, water depth and local boat traffic. Application of the marine current turbine platform to serve as an unmanned mobile floating recharge station for small aerial drones will be demonstrated. For this purpose, the USV includes a flight deck for landing and takeoff of small aerial drones whose batteries would be recharged via a wireless direct-contact recharging pad powered by the onboard batteries. Modeling in support of turbine design and parametric studies in support of optimization of the performance of the system will be discussed. Scaling of the prototype system in terms of size and capacity will be discussed.

GFNet: Global Filter Networks for Visual Recognition.

Recent advances in self-attention and pure multi-layer perceptrons (MLP) models for vision have shown great potential in achieving promising performance with fewer inductive biases. These models are generally based on learning interaction among spatial locations from raw data. The complexity of self-attention and MLP grows quadratically as the image size increases, which makes these models hard to scale up when high-resolution features are required. In this paper, we present the Global Filter Network (GFNet), a conceptually simple yet computationally efficient architecture, that learns long-term spatial dependencies in the frequency domain with log-linear complexity. Our architecture replaces the self-attention layer in vision Transformers with three key operations: a 2D discrete Fourier transform, an element-wise multiplication between frequency-domain features and learnable global filters, and a 2D inverse Fourier transform. Based on this basic design, we develop a series of isotropic models with a Transformer-style simple architecture and CNN-style hierarchical models with better performance. Isotropic GFNet models exhibit favorable accuracy/complexity trade-offs compared to recent vision Transformers and pure MLP models. Hierarchical GFNet models can inherit successful designs in CNNs and be easily scaled up with larger model sizes and more training data, showing strong performance on both image classification (e.g., 85.0% top-1 accuracy on ImageNet-1 k without any extra data or supervision, and 87.4% accuracy with ImageNet-21 k pre-training) and dense prediction tasks (e.g., 54.3 mIoU on ADE20 k val). Our results demonstrate that GFNet can be a very competitive alternative to Transformer-based models and CNNs in terms of efficiency, generalization ability and robustness. Code is available at https://github.com/raoyongming/GFNet.

Appreciating systems changes via multiparadigm inquiry: Architectural design, ecological anthropology, Classical Chinese Medicine and systems rhythms

AbstractIn which ways is the subject of systems change(s), as a first‐class concept, distinct from a reduction into (i) systems and (ii) changes? For practice, theory and methods to be authentically rigourous, the philosophy underlying an approach to systems changes can be explicated. Through an appreciative systems framework, presumptions are surfaced as to (i) what are and are not systems changes; (ii) when, where and for whom, systems changes are prioritized for attention; and (iii) how systems changes should be addressed. Philosophies of (i) architectural design, (ii) ecological anthropology, (iii) Classical Chinese Medicine and (iv) rhythms are explored through multiparadigm inquiry and open theorizing. The resulting influence of these four philosophies is considered, leading to a philosophy of systems rhythms more explicitly proposed as a foundation on which to approach systems changes.