Regional interaction in Central Asia and Northwest India in the Kidarite and Hephtalite periods

SpringerPlus, 2016

The malleable nature of the self led researchers to investigate the meaning of virtual identity by exploring virtual self-representation through avatars and its association with users' identity. The present study aims to investigate the changes in virtual body-representation in adolescence related to age levels and sex and the association with adolescents' self-esteem and body esteem. Anthropometric features, body esteem and self-esteem were used to assess adolescents' body image and identity. The scoring code of the "Drawing Me" graphical test was used to evaluate the avatars. The sample is composed of 63 adolescents of different ages-early, middle and late adolescence-balanced by sex. Results show that the creation of a digital avatar changes with age and is partially associated with adolescents' perceptions in terms of body esteem and self-esteem. Moreover, the creation of avatars occurs differently for boys, who enrich their avatars with many sexual features, than for girls, who prefer to detail their avatars' clothing to enrich them. Critical reflections and implications for psychological interventions that may use avatars to investigate adolescents' identity in integration with other tools will be discussed.

Mathematics, 2019

The main objectives of this paper are to formulate an introduction to the mathematical theory of indirect effects with respect to some biotic relations, including symbiosis, commensalism, mutualism and predation, along with the time functions for these relationships. We employ the theory of system linkage in Patten's Theory of Environment to develop an analysis of the theoretical properties of direct and indirect influences, using the variables and structure of each system involved in the linkage. In this paper, in order to formulate the mathematical theory, we develop, as a contribution to Patten's Theory of Environment, so-called H-semiotic systems.

This paper presents a stochastic dynamic analysis of functionally graded plates by following an efficient neural network based approach coupled with the finite element method. An isoparametric quadratic element having eight nodes is considered for the finite element analysis of pre-twisted functionally graded cantilever plates subjected to variation in geometric parameters, material properties and temperature. Both individual and compound effects of stochasticity in the uncertain input parameters are accounted to quantify their influence on the first three natural frequencies, mode shapes, and frequency response functions of functionally graded plates. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to ascertain the relative effects of various prospective sources of uncertainty. Latin hypercube sampling is utilised to train the efficient surrogate models, which are employed as a medium of uncertainty propagation. The comparative performance of artificial neural network and polynomial neural network is assessed in the stochastic dynamic analysis of the pre-twisted functionally graded plates from the viewpoint of accuracy and computational efficiency. The results are validated with respect to direct Monte Carlo simulation based on the finite element model of the functionally graded plates. It is observed that the artificial neural network based algorithm can achieve a significant level of computational efficiency without compromising the accuracy of results. The results presented in this article reveal that the source uncertainties of functionally graded plates have a significant effect on the dynamic responses of the structure.

Africa Today, 2009

The main reason for persistent widespread poverty in Nigeria is lack of transparency and accountability. Therefore, revenue transparency and accountability will contribute to poverty reduction and eventual eradication. 1 Questions about the effective use of natural resource revenues have in recent years become increasingly central to local and international efforts to address the problem of resource curse in Africa. The emerging and dominant perspective tends to emphasize the links between transparency and accountability. This approach has been instrumental to the opening of new spaces for stakeholder engagement in the bid to transform natural resource revenues into sustainable development benefits. However, despite its contribution, this transparency-accountability strategy is underpinned by a misdiagnosis of the governance failure complex in Africa. Consequently, the approach is unable to adequately facilitate the transformation of natural resource revenues into sustainable development benefits for Africans. Focusing largely on Nigeria, the paper suggests that the key to the effective use of natural resource revenue in Africa lies in addressing the structural inadequacies inherent in African state-nations and the systemic anomalies in its societies. This would require the pursuit of compatible cultural democracy, the strengthening of the technical and institutional capacities of institutions of checks and balances, the diversification of civil society strategies, an emphasis on macro-and microcorporate citizenship issues by transnational corporations, and the global regulations of their socioenvironmental impacts. The paper concludes by exploring the ramifications of its arguments for the resource curse literature. The QUesT for The effecTIve Use of NaTUral resoUrce reveNUe IN afrIca 4 africaToDAy 56(2)

TİHEK, Academic Journal(Akademik Dergi), Haziran, 4 ve 5: özel sayı; ss.131-144, 2020

Bu çalışma Türkiye’deki yerli televizyon dizilerindeki şiddet olgusunu incelemektedir. Ortaya çıktığı günden beri televizyonun etkileri çeşitli şekillerde tartışma konusu olmuştur. Bu çalışma kültürel göstergeler kuramından hareketle televizyon dizilerinin diğer toplumsal dinamiklerle birlikte bireyler ve toplumlar üzerinde olumsuz etkilerinin olabileceğini ileri sürmektedir. Türkiye’de yerli dizi olarak ifade edilen ve prime time kuşağında yayımlanan belli başlı dizilerdeki şiddet gösterimi hakkında çeşitli raporların incelenmesinin sonrasında fiziksel ve psikolojik şiddete bağlı olarak reel hayattaki pratiklere benzer ve koşut bir durumun olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Raporların ortaya koyduğu toplumsal gerçeklikten hareketle özellikle kadın cinayetlerinin her yıl daha da artmasının, televizyonun gösterime sunduğu ve özellikle yerli dizilerdeki şiddetin bir ilişkisini bulunabileceği tezi işlenmiştir. Bu bağlamda çalışmada özellikle ekrandaki şiddetin görselliğini ve söyleminin azaltılması adına çözüm önerileri sunulmuştur. Bu öneriler başta medya kuruluşlarına yönelik olmakla birlikte kamu yararına denetim gerçekleştiren Radyo Televizyon Üst Kurulu’nun (RTÜK) de uygulayabileceği ve sansür kapsamı dışındaki pratik çözümlerden oluşmaktadır. Çalışma teorik bir tartışma zemini üzerine oturtularak televizyonun şiddeti ürettiği ve toplumun da bunu taklit ettiği hipotezinden hareket etmiştir. Bu hipotez çalışmada, son yıllarda toplumda meydana gelen şiddet olaylarını gündem yapan raporların verileriyle de test edilerek doğrulanmıştır. Ayrıca çalışma televizyon dizilerindeki şiddet gösterimi raporlarının verilerinin kuramsal bir analizinden oluşmaktadır

The PUPPETS uses puppets as a stimulus for children to engage in conversations involving reasoning in education. Data were gathered using technically a variety of methods, including audio and video recording, and analysed using an open coding approach based on grounded theory. The data indicate that puppets are engaging and motivating for children; that they promote talk involving reasoning; that they can be particularly effective with reluctant speakers; that they appear to be effective across the whole primary age range; and that they promote significant changes in teachers' professional practice. We discuss different types of puppet dance & making process. This process style developed of new generation. We examined scientifically & technically modernized in puppet dance.

Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2012

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A careful examination of Xenophon’s geography reveals a circular pattern and a neat if rudimentary technique of entrelacement. Such an arrangement (i.e. the characters' 'round trip') squares well with Xenophon's orali(istic) style and accounts for its open-ended structure: far from being a shortcoming, this feature is best interpreted in the light of ancient oral poetics, and helps understand a number of alleged problems of this novel, such as the difference in style between the first (extra-circular, in fact) scene and the frantic adventures forming the core of the story. The circular pattern, thus, reinforces the case against the epitome theory in books II-V.

Commercial banks in Kenya are facing stiff competition necessitating the design of competitive strategies to guarantee their performance. These commercial banks have to consider how to enter a market and then build and protect its competitive position. Banks begin to realize that no bank can offer all products and be the best or leading bank for all customers. Banks should therefore not only come up with strategies to counter the competition but also measure the effects of the combined strategies that they employed. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of competitive strategies adopted by Commercial Banks in response to demand for banking services in Kenya and employed a descriptive research design. The study's population comprised of the employees of equity bank based at the head office in Nairobi. Structured questionnaires were administered to 44 respondents selected using stratified sampling technique. Data was analysed in form of frequencies and percentages and presented in form of tables and graphs. The study found that equity bank uses different competitive strategies among them the combination strategy, cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, and focus strategy. The main source of competition for equity bank is external. The study also found that equity bank possesses various strengths that make it survive in the market or compete favourably against other firms. The research established that equity bank is exposed to opportunities that would enable it to compete favourably against other banks in future. The study found that equity bank makes organizational changes that make it to remain competitive in the banking industry in Kenya. The bank is faced by many challenges in the implementation of the competitive strategies. The study found that there was a positive correlation between competitive strategy effectiveness; and innovation, customer focus, bench marking and differentiation which were found to be statistically significant. The researcher recommends that the commercial banks improve their information system, come up with effective pricing strategies, and adopt advanced technology. The government should come up with relevant policies regarding competition in the industry, and create an enabling environment for investment and market competition. The researcher recommends further research in the area of the factors affecting the effectiveness of competitive strategies in dealing with falling demand of banking services. The research also recommends further study on the effect of competition on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya.

Proceedings of the …, 2006

The dynamic response of the suspension spans of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (SFOBB) have been numerically modeled in a case-study to investigate the effects of long-period, near-field ground motions on flexible suspension bridges. The structural simulation model used in the study was developed as a special purpose computer program tailored to efficiently simulate the nonlinear response of cable supported bridges. The simulation model includes a number of special element technologies and solution algorithms that enable efficient nonlinear analysis of suspension bridges. The ground motions used in the study were site specific synthetic records for a Mw=7.25 earthquake along the Hayward fault at 12-15 km distant, and actual measured near-field records from the Izmit Turkey (1999) and Chi-Chi Taiwan (1999) earthquakes. These records include near-and far-field broad-band motions for three components. The results of the numerical simulations indicate that low frequency waveforms associated with near-field motions can place a significant demand on the structural systems of suspension bridges, and must be accounted for in suspension bridge analysis and design.