scholarly journals Traditional versus Modern? Perceptions and Preferences of Urban Park Users in Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2036
Author(s):  
Fariba Bahriny ◽  
Simon Bell

This study involved four parks in Iran—two modern ones located in Tehran and two historical, traditional examples, one in Kashan and one in Esfahan—in order to ask what are the key factors contributing to the satisfaction of visitors to the two types of park and also to compare user’s perceptions and values of the different types. An extensive questionnaire survey was conducted in each park, with a target of 300 responses, using a random sampling technique. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of a number of factors, while thinking about the park they were visiting, using a 5-point Likert scale. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was undertaken. The results of the scores revealed differences between the two types of park. A factor analysis of the pooled results revealed that the key aspects contributing to a visit were named as ‘having fun and enjoying oneself’, in a place with ‘no barriers to using the park’ and ‘leaving one’s cares behind’ followed by ‘relaxing in the presence of natural beauty’. A further Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling analysis was undertaken to determine the main factors affecting the differences in preference for each type of park in relation to the key demographic variables. This revealed that the modern parks were preferred over the traditional ones for three significant sets of factors—recreation, accessibility and culture—and that there was a tendency for the historical parks to been favoured by more educated people. The conclusions are that the modern parks support the main preferred activities to support the quality of life of the population—not through their design per se but because they offer many more recreational opportunities. There is potential to include traditional elements such as water features more into parks. Park planners can take the findings and use them to help improve the quality of the parks over time.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana M. Calvo ◽  
Blanca L. Botina ◽  
Maria C. García ◽  
William A. Cardona ◽  
Andrea C. Montenegro ◽  
...  

AbstractSeveral research efforts on cocoa have been focused on parameters for controlling the transformation process to guarantee homogeneity and quality of cocoa beans, the main raw material in the chocolate industry. The main changes that determine the final quality of cocoa—and also the product’s homogeneity—occur during fermentation, given the great number of factors that affect the process. This research seeks to identify the most relevant factors affecting quality in order to offer higher-quality and more homogeneous cocoa for the chocolate industry. The dynamics of the fermentation process were observed in three contrasting locations, monitoring different variables and evaluating the final quality of the cocoa. Results show that temperature and pH profile are the key factors to be monitored and controlled in order to achieve high-quality cocoa beans.


Author(s):  
Lina Lee ◽  
Mary Lou Maher

Smart environments and the use of interactive technology has the potential to improve the quality of life for the senior community as well as to support the connections among the senior community and the world outside their community. In addition to the increasing number of studies in the field of aging and technologies, research is needed to understand the practical issues of user focus, adoption, and engagement for older adults to accept interactive technologies in their lives. In this study, we use two commercial technological interventions (uDraw and GrandPad) to understand technology-related perceptions and behaviors of older adults. We present five case studies that emerge from empirical observations of initial engagement with technology through research methods such as focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, observations, and diary studies. The contributions of this study are identification of the key factors that influence the initial engagement with interactive technology for older adults.


2009 ◽  
Vol 630 ◽  
pp. 213-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Easton ◽  
David H. StJohn ◽  
Lisa Sweet

Grain refinement and hot tearing are important key factors affecting the quality of castings. There have been substantial advances in the understanding of both of these phenomena over the last two decades. The paper discusses strategies for obtaining the lowest cost grain refiner addition and provides an explanation for how the refinement of equiaxed grains leads to a reduction in hot tear susceptibility. However, it also provides a warning that adding more grain refiner may not be better for reducing hot tear susceptibility. Alloy factors affecting hot tearing are also discussed. Finally, a list of six key considerations is provided to help casthouse and foundry engineers when trying to optimise grain refinement and reduce hot tearing.


Author(s):  
Andrey V. Cherechukin ◽  

The article provides an analysis of key trends in the international market, using the example of the countries of Northeast Asia. In 2019, the world coal market amounted to 1,424.5 million tons, of which 78.1% are energy grades to produce electricity and heat, and 21.9% are in metallurgy, the reserves of which are significantly less. The import coal market of the countries of Northeast Asia in 2019 was already 680 million tons, covering 48% of the entire world coal market. The paper provides an overview of the key importers and exporters of coal in the world, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the supplied raw materials, and analyzes the key factors affecting the pricing of coal. In the conclusions, the main trends in the international coal market of the countries of Northeast Asia are presented, including "geographical" — the shift of the center of world trade from Europe to Asia, and "types and quality of imported coal" — an increase in the share of high-quality premium energy and coking (metallurgical). Trends can be clearly seen in the countries of Northeast Asia, which actively use coal, and are making efforts to decarbonize their national economies, while intensifying inter-fuel competition with other primary energy sources.


Author(s):  
Hendrik Knoche ◽  
M. Angela Sasse

This chapter provides an overview of the key factors that influence the quality of experience (QoE) of mobile TV services. It compiles the current knowledge from empirical studies and recommendations on four key requirements for the uptake of mobile TV services: (1) handset usability and its acceptance by the user, (2) the technical performance and reliability of the service, (3) the usability of the mobile TV service (depending on the delivery of content), and (4) the satisfaction with the content. It illustrates a number of factors that contribute to these requirements ranging from the context of use to the size of the display and the displayed content. The chapter highlights the interdependencies between these factors during the delivery of content in mobile TV services to a heterogeneous set of low resolution devices.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 757-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yubi Ji ◽  
Zhao Yang ◽  
Min Shi ◽  
Hong Tan

Abstract The gelation process of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastisol is very important to ensure the quality of the product and is affected by the type of resins, plasticizers, and other additives. In this study, the gelation process of the as-prepared PVC plastisol was characterized by measuring the evolution of vibrational viscosity with temperature or time using a vibrational viscometer. Furthermore, the effect of some commercial resins with different particulate morphologies on the gelation process was investigated by synchronously combining scanning election microscopy and laser particle size analyses. The results of this study proved that the particle size distribution and the aggregation degree of the secondary particles of a resin are the key factors affecting the gelation process. For the resin with bimodal particle size distribution, the closer the aggregation of the secondary particles, the slower the gel speed; however, an opposite behavior was observed for the resins with unimodal particle size distribution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 557-568
Author(s):  
Neni Wahyuni ◽  
Idhar Yahya ◽  
Sirojuzilam .

This study aims to empirically prove the effect of taxation knowledge, tax supervision, tax socialization, taxpayer awareness, and quality of tax services on individual taxpayers' annual tax return reporting with tax sanctions as a moderating variable. Respondents in this study were 100 individual taxpayers registered at Pratama West Medan. The sampling technique in this research is using the purposive sampling technique. The data used are primary. The data analysis tool used is SEM-PLS. The study results indicate that tax knowledge and tax service quality significantly affect reporting individual taxpayers' annual tax returns at the Pratama Medan Barat Tax Office. Tax sanctions are able to moderate the effect of taxation socialization on the reporting of the annual tax return of individual taxpayers at the Pratama Medan Barat Tax Office. However, it cannot moderate the effect of tax knowledge, tax supervision, taxpayer awareness and quality of tax services on the reporting of individual taxpayers' annual tax returns at the Pratama Medan Barat Tax Office. Keywords: tax knowledge, tax control, tax socialization, tax awareness, tax service quality, tax sanction, individual taxpayers' annual tax return reporting.


The potential of ICTs in promoting the development and reach of educational avenues in India is unambiguously clear in the light of the challenges facing the country. Role of ICTs with enhanced focus on development of content and the applications to provide enhanced quality of education must be synchronized with the various initiatives for using ICT for education and should be guided by adequate guidelines and framework. Provisioning of ICT is limited by the Infrastructure especially in the rural areas, where Internet and electrification are major issues of concern. It is well known that higher penetration of mobile phone, radio and TV implies increased development and delivery of innovative content via these media. This paper is focussed on the necessity to incorporate ICT as a part of the curriculum and also use it to strengthen the teaching learning process. The paper explores the key factors that drive the growth in the E-Learning sector. The authors undertook a research for identifying the various factors that may affect the choice and preference of employees for opting for online education as a measure for career/knowledge enhancement. The study indicates that online education market in India is currently booming. The growth of the market is dependent on the field of study, the willingness to pay, the credibility of the offering organization and the acceptability of the learning in the Corporate sector.


10.5219/1198 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1001-1012
Author(s):  
Kristína Predanocyová ◽  
Ľubica Kubicová ◽  
Zdenka Kádeková ◽  
Ingrida Košičiarová

Nowadays, meat and meat products are considered as a part of the daily diet of most people. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with meat and meat products and their consumption according to individual types of meat. Based on the above, the paper is focused on the issue of consumption of individual types of meat in the Slovak Republic and the identification of key factors affecting the consumption of meat and meat products from Slovak consumers' point of view. Secondary and primary data is used to fulfil the aim of the paper. Secondary data is obtained from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, on the basis of which the development of consumption of individual types of meat is predicted by 2020. It can be stated that poultry and pork meat and meat products consumption is constantly increasing and there is a slight change in beef and fish meat and meat products consumption, which is currently at a very low level. In the context of the above, a questionnaire survey is realised and based on its results it could be concluded that the price is a main reason for the inadequate consumption of different types of meat. However, consumers consume meat and meat products mainly because of taste, which can be considered as an aspect of irrationality in the diet of Slovak consumers. Furthermore, a number of factors affecting the purchase and consumption of meat and meat products have been identified. The results show rational and irrational aspects in the decision making of Slovak consumers. The most important factor is the quality of meat and meat products, which consumers perceive differently, mainly on the basis of their own personality and other aspects of meat quality (price, origin, freshness, and sensory characteristics of meat). Other important factors are the perception of composition, freshness, price and country of origin.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hariyono Seputro Youngky Pratama ◽  
Sri Murni Dewi ◽  
Ruslin Anwar

Hariyono Seputro Youngky Pratama1, Sri Murni Dewi2 & Ruslin Anwar31, 2 & 3Jurusan Teknik Sipil, Fakultas Teknik, Universitas Brawijaya MalangAlamat Korspondensi: Jl.MT. Haryono 167, Malang 65145, IndonesiaE-mail: [email protected] purpose of this study was: (1) to analyze the factors that affect the competence of foremanon the quality of construction of the building performance in Malang. (2) to know the relationship ofvariables that affect the competence of supervisors on the performance of the quality of buildingconstruction in Malang. The research was carried out on several samples of foreman in Malang.The sampling technique used is the judgmental technique (purposive). The statistical tool used inthis study is Structural Equation Model (SEM) to determine the relationship of variables that affectthe foreman’s competence on the quality of construction of the building performance in Malang.The analysis showed that foreman’s competency factors affecting the performance of thequality of building construction in Malang are competency skills, personal and management. Fromthe result of this research noted that there is a significant effect between skills variables, personalvariables and management variable on the quality of buildings construction in Malang. Based onthese result, it is advisable to conduct further research for other types of work that can be seen inmore depth the competence of foreman.Keywords: foreman competence, quality of building construction


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