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Control of unstable systems using a 7 DoF robotic manipulator
Get PDFRobotic manipulators are widely used in industrial applications, and their rigidity and flexibility are very important factors during their deployment. However, their usage is not limited to repetitive point-to-point tasks and can be used for more real-time control of various processes. This paper uses a 7-degrees-of-freedom manipulator to control an unstable system (Ball and Plate) as a proof of concept. The Ball and Plate system is widely used for testing algorithms designed for unstable systems, and many recent works have dealt with robotic manipulators as a control motion system. Robots are not usually used to control unstable systems, but bipedal robots are an exception. This paper aims to design a controller capable of stabilizing an unstable system with solid robustness while keeping actuator action values as low as possible because these robots will be indented to work for a prolonged time. An algorithm for an LQ polynomial controller is described and designed, and the whole setup is tested for ball stabilization in the center. The results show that the designed controller stabilizes the ball even with large external and internal disturbances while keeping the controller effort as low as possible
Examining the impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurial intention through a stimulus–organism–response perspective
Get PDFAmong scholars, there is an interest in understanding how entrepreneurial behavior is influenced by the consequences of crises. The COVID-19 pandemic may negatively or positively affect individuals' behavior, including entrepreneurial intention. Thus, this paper seeks to study whether or not the economic shock caused by the pandemic reinforces the intention to start a business. The research was administered at the individual level by distributing a structured survey. The hypotheses were developed based on a unique conceptual framework integrating the planned behavior theory and a stimulus-organism-response perspective. The relationships were tested using the structural equation modeling method with an original dataset of more than 800 respondents from three post-communist transition countries. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic, seen as an opportunity, positively influences both the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention and individuals' intention to start a business. The message that these findings convey is that, even in crises, there are opportunities from which one can benefit, including the individual's propensity to engage in startup activities. By examining the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on entrepreneurial behavior, educational institutions and policymakers can design effective policies to foster entrepreneurship and reduce unemployment, particularly among the youth
Use of a thermodynamic sensor in monitoring fermentation processes in gluten-free dough proofing
Get PDFDough fermentation in gluten-free bakery products is problematic due to the absence of gluten, which provides advantageous rheological properties. A thermodynamic sensor (TDS) system combined with an electronic nose was tested as an alternative to conventional methods monitoring dough development based on mechanical properties. In the first part, the configuration of the sensors in the thermodynamic system and their response to different heat-source positions, which significantly affect the output signal from the measurement system, were investigated. The practical contribution lies in the application of the measurements to the example of gluten-free doughs with and without edible insect enrichment. An optimized configuration of the thermodynamic system (one sensor on the inner wall of the container at the bottom and another in the middle of the container closer to the top of the dough) in combination with an experimental electronic nose was used for the aforementioned measurement. In some cases, up to 87% correlation between the signal from the TDS and the signals from a professional rheofermentometer Rheo F-4 (Chopin) was demonstrated. The differences between the results can be explained by the use of different techniques. Using a combination of sensor systems in one place, one time and one sample can lead to more comprehensive and robust results. Furthermore, it was shown that the fermentation activity increased in corn dough with the addition of insects compared to dough without the addition. In rice flour dough with the addition of edible insects, fermentation activity was similar to that of the flour without the addition.IGA/FT/2023/003; Vysoké Učení Technické v Brně, BUT: FEKT-S-20-621
The postmodern challenge of historiography in contemporary Canadian fiction: Kate Pullinger's weird sister and the silent voices in history
Get PDFAs defined by Georg G. Iggers and promoted by Hayden White, the postmodern challenge of historiography calls into question the objective enquiry and truth value of history writing. Many works of fiction have embodied this trend, embracing the challenge by exploring objectivity and the retrievability of the past. In contemporary Canadian literature, such cases are also to be found. The novel Weird Sister (1999) by Kate Pullinger thematizes history and history writing, utilizes Gothic elements, and employs the elements of historiographic metafiction, e.g. as characterized by Linda Hutcheon. The book features characters representing the so‐called silent voices whose testimony had remained lost in the official historical record. This paper aims to show that the depiction of the impossibility of uncovering the truth about the past represents a significant contribution by contemporary fiction authors to the postmodern challenge of historiography, with Pullinger’s novel emerging as a notable contribution to this discourse. © 2022, University of Pardubice. All rights reserved
A strategic framework for developing sustainable value propositions
Get PDFThe discussion on firms' sustainability performance has resulted in business organizations becoming more conscious of sustainability issues and implementing strategies to ensure sustainable value propositions. The purpose of this study is to explore strategies that firms could use to develop sustainable value propositions. Through an extensive literature review, the study proposed a conceptual framework and further developed hypotheses suggesting that the strategies such as stakeholder involvement, flexible decision- making, and social and environmental values could influence sustainable value propositions. The hypotheses were tested through quantitative research analysis using data collected from owners/managers in 143 SMEs in the coastal areas of Ghana. The data supported almost all the hypotheses, namely H1, H2, and H5-H8 with T-values and P-values of > 1.96 and 0.05, respectively, did not support sustainable value propositions resulting in rejecting H3 and H4. Despite this outcome, the study concludes that all three strategies are relevant and valuable to firms in developing sustainable value propositions. © Adwoa Yeboaa Owusu Yeboah, Abdul Bashiru Jibril, Petr Novak, 2022
Analyzing public opinions regarding virtual tourism in the context of COVID-19: Unidirectional vs. 360-degree videos
Get PDFOver the last few years, more and more people have been using YouTube videos to experience virtual reality travel. Many individuals utilize comments to voice their ideas or criticize a subject on YouTube. The number of replies to 360-degree and unidirectional videos is enormous and might differ between the two kinds of videos. This presents the problem of efficiently evaluating user opinions with respect to which type of video will be more appealing to viewers, positive comments, or interest. This paper aims to study SentiStrength-SE and SenticNet7 techniques for sentiment analysis. The findings demonstrate that the sentiment analysis obtained from SenticNet7 outperforms that from SentiStrength-SE. It is revealed through the sentiment analysis that sentiment disparity among the viewers of 360-degree and unidirectional videos is low and insignificant. Furthermore, the study shows that unidirectional videos garnered the most traffic during COVID-19 induced global travel bans. The study elaborates on the capacity of unidirectional videos on travel and the implications for industry and academia. The second aim of this paper also employs a Convolutional Neural Network and Random Forest for sentiment analysis of YouTube viewers' comments, where the sentiment analysis output by SenticNet7 is used as actual values. Cross-validation with 10-folds is employed in the proposed models. The findings demonstrate that the max-voting technique outperforms compared with an individual fold.IGA/CebiaTech/2022/001TBU in Zlin [CZ.02.2.69/0.0/19_073/0016941]; Faculty of Applied Informatics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin [IGA/CebiaTech/2022/001
Spiritual literacy: non-religious reconceptualisation for education in a secular environment
Get PDFThis article aims to facilitate the transition from a religious definition of spiritual literacy to a non-religious, secular one. Philosophical anthropology emphasises the spiritual dimension as an anthropological constant. However, research in various fields frequently considers its intersection with religiousness. Non-religious spirituality cultivates experiences of transcendence but does not enter into the processes of hierophany (the sacred, the holy). The term ‘spiritual literacy’, which emphasises that the given mode of human experience is not constant but can be intentionally cultivated, proves optimal for education even in secular environment of public schools. A spiritually literate (cultivated) personality is an individual who reflects and cultivates skills of self-reflection, who can act in relation to other people in a mode characterised by prosocial orientation and altruism, who can experience environmental sensitivity and kinship with nature, and who is capable of astonishment and amazement at experiencing transcendence in relation to the wholeness. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Inclusive education of gifted students at secondary schools in the Czech Republic compared to students with special educational needs
Get PDFThe research is focused on a comparison of the declared importance of fulfilling selected criteria of inclusive education between gifted students and students with special educational needs (SENs). Using the P-KAP II questionnaire, data were obtained from 541 secondary general schools (SGS) and secondary technical schools (STS). The findings showed that, in relation to students with SENs, schools declare a great interest in the issue of inclusive education, but in the context of gifted students a significant decrease in interest was revealed. The results show a low declared need for schools to deal conceptually with inclusive education, especially focused on gifted education. Schools prefer rather informal, inclusive pedagogical practices and cooperation with external counseling services. SGS schools declared a significantly higher importance of all criteria of inclusive education than do STS schools.Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve ZlíněFaculty of Humanities, Tomas Bata University in Zlin [FSR-ST-2020/006]; Education Support Center at the Faculty of Humanities, Tomas Bata University in Zlin [FSR-ST-2020/006
Dynamic stability of the financial monitoring system: Intellectual analysis
Get PDFIntroduction: Although there is a growing number of scientific publications on financial monitoring, combating money laundering, the shadow economy, and the impact of corruption on economic development, further research needs to determine the stability of the national financial system in dynamics. The dynamic stability of the national financial monitoring system subjects will allow to adequately assess the effectiveness of the existing national financial monitoring system in each country and determine the influential factors.
Materials and methods: The article investigates an approach to identifying the dynamic stability of the national financial monitoring system subjects based on the calculation of the integrated indicator of the country's financial system propensity to ALM, vector autoregression (VAR) model taking into account time lag. The proposed integrated indicator allowed to adequately assess the existing financial monitoring systems of the countries (15 countries of the European Union for 2000-2020: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain). In addition, vector autoregression models (VAR) of the dependence of the country's financial system propensity to ALM on the regressors Government Integrity, Index of economic freedom, Monetary Sector credit to the private sector (% GDP), were built, taking into account time lags in general and for each studied country.
Results: According to the modeling results, the national financial monitoring systems in Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Spain were resistant to money laundering. It is vice versa in Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Italy, Latvia. These conclusions are also confirmed based on a binary approach. Such exogenous variables as Government Integrity (with a lag of 2 years) and the Index of economic freedom (taking into account the time delays of the regression reflection under the influence of this regressor for 1 and 2 years) have a statistically significant effect on the country's financial system.
Conclusion: The general vector autoregression (VAR) model shows that the current value of the country's financial system propensity to ALM by 92.78% is determined by its previous value. With an increase of Government Integrity by 1%, the country's financial system's propensity to ALM will decrease by 0.000616 units with a lag of two years. The nature of the impact made by the Index of economic freedom on the performance feature was specific-when this indicator increases by 1% for a lag delay in one year, the PFSALM value will decrease by 0.001997 units, and for a lag delay of two years it will change the trend and increase by 0.003076 units per unit, respectively.National Research Foundation of Ukraine, NRFU; Vedecká Grantová Agentúra MŠVVaŠ SR a SAV, VEGA: 1/0797/20; Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, MESU: 0120U104810Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Sport of the Slovak Republic; Slovak Academy Sciences [VEGA 1/0797/20
VSS cyber security oriented on IP cameras
No full textThis article discusses the cyber security of camera systems, especially IP cameras, and their vulnerabilities. It focuses on warning about camera system cyber security risks, threats, and openness. It includes a description of the risks and hazards associ-ated with the cyber security of IP cameras, scenarios of possible attacks, their coun-termeasures, and the course of the testing