Search results for: weather research and forecasting (WRF) model

Authors: Md. Belal Uudin Rabbi, Sakib Al Montasir, Saifur Rahman, Niger Nahid, Esmail Hossain Emon

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The practice of radiation shielding protects against the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation. Radiation shielding depletes radiation by inserting a shield of absorbing material between any radioactive source. It is a primary concern when building several industrial fields, so using potent (high activity) radioisotopes in food preservation, cancer treatment, and particle accelerator facilities is significant. Radiation shielding is essential for radiation-emitting equipment users to reduce or mitigate radiation damage. Polymer composites (especially epoxy based) with high atomic number fillers can replace toxic Lead in ionizing radiation shielding applications because of their excellent mechanical properties, superior solvent and chemical resistance, good dimensional stability, adhesive, and less toxic. Due to being lightweight, good neutron shielding ability in almost the same order as concrete, epoxy-based radiation shielding can be the next big thing. Micro and nano-particles for the epoxy resin increase the epoxy matrix's radiation shielding property. Shielding is required to protect users of such facilities from ionizing radiation as recently, and considerable attention has been paid to polymeric composites as a radiation shielding material. This research will examine the radiation shielding performance of epoxy-based nano-WO3 reinforced composites, exploring the performance of epoxy-based nano-WO3 reinforced composites. The samples will be prepared using the direct pouring method to block radiation. The practice of radiation shielding protects against the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation.

Keywords: radiation shielding materials, ionizing radiation, epoxy resin, Tungsten oxide, polymer composites

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Authors: David Segun Adeniyi, Tongvwam P. J., Wekpe S., Owolagba F. E., Ofuche E., Samuels J. O., Okonkwo P.

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Background: Pediatrics HIV viral suppression remains a major challenge across Africa. In this study, we sought to establish the relationship between AMP and sustained plasma HIV viremia among a population of pediatric clients on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART). We also seek to determine the prevalence of AMP among the study population. Methods: 180 pediatrics clients on ART at four (4) Comprehensive Hospitals in Jos, Nigeria, participated in this study between the months of October to December 2022. The mean age of the study participants was 13 years. Venous blood was drawn from the participants after consent was sought, and ethical approval was obtained from the Plateau State Specialist Hospital (PSSH) Research and Ethics Committee. All samples were screened for AMP using the CareStart® HRP2 Malaria kit. The Absolute and % CD4 values of the clients were obtained using the BD Presto® CD4 Analyzer. The separated plasma samples were assayed for HIV viral load using the Roche Cobas C4800® system. Obtained data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Results: From the 180 participants in this study, 12.8% (23) have AMP. 90.6% (163) were virally suppressed (<1000 copies/ml), while 9.4% (17) were virally unsuppressed (>1000 copies/ml). 11.7% (19/163) of the virally suppressed population have AMP, with mean absolute and % CD4 values of 648 and 31%, respectively. The virally suppressed population without AMP has mean absolute and % CD4 values of 719 and 32%, respectively. 24% (4/17) of the virally unsuppressed population have AMP, with mean absolute and % CD4 values of 514 and 26%, respectively. The virally unsuppressed population without AMP has mean absolute and % CD4 values of 292 and 16%, respectively. Conclusion: Our study shows that there is a high prevalence of AMP among the study populations (11.7% and 24%, respectively). The high prevalence of AMP among the virally unsuppressed with mean absolute and % CD4 values of 514 and 26% alludes to the fact that malaria co-infection with HIV fosters a dysregulated immune complex response which favors an increased HIV plasma viremia. We thus recommend the routine use of Malaria IPT in pediatric HIV clients.

Keywords: pediatrics, HIV, Malaria, viral suppression

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Authors: Wilman Septina, Rajiv R. Prabhakar, Thomas Moehl, David Tilley

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Cupric oxide (CuO) is a promising absorber material for the fabrication of scalable, low cost solar energy conversion devices, due to the high abundance and low toxicity of copper. It is a p-type semiconductor with a band gap of around 1.5 eV, absorbing a significant portion of the solar spectrum. One of the main challenges in using CuO as solar absorber in an aqueous system is its tendency towards photocorrosion, generating Cu2O and metallic Cu. Although there have been several reports of CuO as a photocathode for hydrogen production, it is unclear how much of the observed current actually corresponds to H2 evolution, as the inevitability of photocorrosion is usually not addressed. In this research, we investigated the effect of the deposition of overlayers onto CuO thin films for the purpose of enhancing its photostability as well as performance for water splitting applications. CuO thin film was fabricated by galvanic electrodeposition of metallic copper onto gold-coated FTO substrates, followed by annealing in air at 600 °C. Photoelectrochemical measurement of the bare CuO film using 1 M phosphate buffer (pH 6.9) under simulated AM 1.5 sunlight showed a current density of ca. 1.5 mA cm-2 (at 0.4 VRHE), which photocorroded to Cu metal upon prolonged illumination. This photocorrosion could be suppressed by deposition of 50 nm-thick TiO2, deposited by atomic layer deposition. In addition, we found that insertion of an n-type CdS layer, deposited by chemical bath deposition, between the CuO and TiO2 layers was able to enhance significantly the photocurrent compared to without the CdS layer. A photocurrent of over 2 mA cm-2 (at 0 VRHE) was observed using the photocathode stack FTO/Au/CuO/CdS/TiO2/Pt. Structural, electrochemical, and photostability characterizations of the photocathode as well as results on various overlayers will be presented.

Keywords: CuO, hydrogen, photoelectrochemical, photostability, water splitting

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Authors: Krasimir I. Ivanov, Elitsa N. Kolentsova, Dimitar Y. Dimitrov, Georgi V. Avdeev, Tatyana T. Tabakova

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In recent research copper and manganese systems were found to be the most active in CO and organic compounds oxidation among the base catalysts. The mixed copper manganese oxide has been widely studied in oxidation reactions because of their higher activity at low temperatures in comparison with single oxide catalysts. The results showed that the formation of spinel CuxMn3−xO4 in the oxidized catalyst is responsible for the activity even at room temperature. That is why most of the investigations are focused on the hopcalite catalyst (CuMn2O4) as the best copper-manganese catalyst. Now it’s known that this is true only for CO oxidation, but not for mixture of CO and VOCs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the alumina supported copper-manganese catalysts with different Cu/Mn molar ratio in terms of oxidation of CO, methanol and dimethyl ether. The catalysts were prepared by impregnation of γ-Al2O3 with copper and manganese nitrates and the catalytic activity measurements were carried out in continuous flow equipment with a four-channel isothermal stainless steel reactor. Gas mixtures on the input and output of the reactor were analyzed with a gas chromatograph, equipped with FID and TCD detectors. The texture characteristics were determined by low-temperature (- 196 oС) nitrogen adsorption in a Quantachrome Instruments NOVA 1200e (USA) specific surface area&pore analyzer. Thermal, XRD and TPR analyses were performed. It was established that the active component of the mixed Cu-Mn/γ–alumina catalysts strongly depends on the Cu/Mn molar ratio. Highly active alumina supported Cu-Mn catalysts for CO, methanol and DME oxidation were synthesized. While the hopcalite is the best catalyst for CO oxidation, the best compromise for simultaneous oxidation of all components is the catalyst with Cu/Mn molar ratio 1:5.

Keywords: supported copper-manganese catalysts, CO, VOCs oxidation, combustion of exhaust gases

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Authors: Yi-Ting Chen, Yu-Fang Huang, Pei-Wei Wang, Hai-Wei Liang, Chun-Hao Lai, Mei-Lien Chen

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Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) is commonly used in consumer products, such as inner coatings of cans and polycarbonated bottles. BPA is considered to be an endocrine disrupting substance (EDs) that affects normal human hormones and may cause adverse effects on human health. Pregnant women and fetuses are susceptible groups of endocrine disrupting substances. Prenatal exposure to BPA has been shown to affect the fetus through the placenta. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the potential health risk of fetal exposure to BPA during pregnancy. The aims of this study were (1) to determine the urinary concentration of BPA in pregnant women, and (2) to investigate the association between BPA exposure during pregnancy and birth outcomes. Methods: This study recruited 117 pregnant women and their fetuses from 2012 to 2014 from the Taiwan Maternal- Infant Cohort Study (TMICS). Maternal urine samples were collected in the third trimester and questionnaires were used to collect socio-demographic characteristics, eating habits and medical conditions of the participants. Information about birth outcomes of the fetus was obtained from medical records. As for chemicals analysis, BPA concentrations in urine were determined by off-line solid-phase extraction-ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a Q-Tof mass spectrometer. The urinary concentrations were adjusted with creatinine. The association between maternal concentrations of BPA and birth outcomes was estimated using the logistic regression model. Results: The detection rate of BPA is 99%; the concentration ranges (μg/g) from 0.16 to 46.90. The mean (SD) BPA levels are 5.37(6.42) μg/g creatinine. The mean ±SD of the body weight, body length, head circumference, chest circumference and gestational age at birth are 3105.18 ± 339.53 g, 49.33 ± 1.90 cm, 34.16 ± 1.06 cm, 32.34 ± 1.37 cm and 38.58 ± 1.37 weeks, respectively. After stratifying the exposure levels into two groups by median, pregnant women in higher exposure group would have an increased risk of lower body weight (OR=0.57, 95%CI=0.271-1.193), smaller chest circumference (OR=0.70, 95%CI=0.335-1.47) and shorter gestational age at birth newborn (OR=0.46, 95%CI=0.191-1.114). However, there are no associations between BPA concentration and birth outcomes reach a significant level (p < 0.05) in statistics. Conclusions: This study presents prenatal BPA profiles and infants in northern Taiwan. Women who have higher BPA concentrations tend to give birth to lower body weight, smaller chest circumference or shorter gestational age at birth newborn. More data will be included to verify the results. This report will also present the predictors of BPA concentrations for pregnant women.

Keywords: bisphenol A, birth outcomes, biomonitoring, prenatal exposure

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Authors: Elif Gencturk, Ekin Yurdakul, Ahmet Y. Celik, Senol Mutlu, Kutlu O. Ulgen

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Yeast cells are generally used as a model system of eukaryotes due to their complex genetic structure, rapid growth ability in optimum conditions, easy replication and well-defined genetic system properties. Thus, yeast cells increased the knowledge of the principal pathways in humans. During fermentation, carbohydrates (hexoses and pentoses) degrade into some toxic by-products such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF or HMF) and furfural. HMF influences the ethanol yield, and ethanol productivity; it interferes with microbial growth and is considered as a potent inhibitor of bioethanol production. In this study, yeast single cell behavior under HMF application was monitored by using a continuous flow single phase microfluidic platform. Microfluidic device in operation is fabricated by hot embossing and thermo-compression techniques from cyclo-olefin polymer (COP). COP is biocompatible, transparent and rigid material and it is suitable for observing fluorescence of cells considering its low auto-fluorescence characteristic. The response of yeast cells was recorded through Red Fluorescent Protein (RFP) tagged Nop56 gene product, which is an essential evolutionary-conserved nucleolar protein, and also a member of the box C/D snoRNP complexes. With the application of HMF, yeast cell proliferation continued but HMF slowed down the cell growth, and after HMF treatment the cell proliferation stopped. By the addition of fresh nutrient medium, the yeast cells recovered after 6 hours of HMF exposure. Thus, HMF application suppresses normal functioning of cell cycle but it does not cause cells to die. The monitoring of Nop56 expression phases of the individual cells shed light on the protein and ribosome synthesis cycles along with their link to growth. Further computational study revealed that the mechanisms underlying the inhibitory or inductive effects of HMF on growth are enriched in functional categories of protein degradation, protein processing, DNA repair and multidrug resistance. The present microfluidic device can successfully be used for studying the effects of inhibitory agents on growth by single cell tracking, thus capturing cell to cell variations. By metabolic engineering techniques, engineered strains can be developed, and the metabolic network of the microorganism can thus be manipulated such that chemical overproduction of target metabolite is achieved along with the maximum growth/biomass yield.  

Keywords: COP, HMF, ribosome biogenesis, thermoplastic microbioreactor, yeast

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Authors: Danutė Jablonskytė-Raščė, Audronė MankevičIenė, Laura Masilionytė

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During the period 2009–2015, in Joniškėlis Experimental Station of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, the effect of ecologic fertilizers Ekoplant, bio-activators Biokal 01 and Terra Sorb Foliar and their combinations on the formation of the productivity elements, grain yield and quality of winter wheat, spelt (Triticum spelta L.), and common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was analysed in ecological agro-system. The soil under FAO classification – Endocalcari-Endo-hypogleyic-Cambisol. In a clay loam soil, ecological fertilizer produced from sunflower hull ash and this fertilizer in combination with plant extracts and bio-humus exerted an influence on the grain yield of spelt and common wheat and their mixture (increased the grain yield by 10.0%, compared with the unfertilized crops). Spelt grain yield was by on average 16.9% lower than that of common wheat and by 11.7% lower than that of the mixture, but the role of spelt in organic production systems is important because with no mineral fertilization it produced grains with a higher (by 4%) gluten content and exhibited a greater ability to suppress weeds (by on average 61.9% lower weed weight) compared with the grain yield and weed suppressive ability of common wheat and mixture. Spelt cultivation in a mixture with common wheat significantly improved quality indicators of the mixture (its grain contained by 2.0% higher protein content and by 4.0% higher gluten content than common wheat grain), reduced disease incidence (by 2-8%), and weed infestation level (by 34-81%).

Keywords: common and spelt-wheat, ecological fertilizers, bio-activators, productivity elements, yield, quality

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Authors: Shiuh-Kuang Yang, Sheam-Chyun Lin, Jyin-Wen Cheng, Deng-Guei Hsu

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The torsional mode of guided wave, T(0,1), has been applied to detect characteristics and defects in pipelines, especially in the cases of coated, elevated and buried pipes. The signals of minor corrosions would be covered by the noise, unfortunately, because the coated material and buried medium always induce a strong attenuation of the guided wave. Furthermore, the guided wave would be attenuated more seriously and make the signals hard to be identified when setting the array ring of the transducers on a general corrosion area of the pipe. The objective of this study is then to discuss the effects of the above-mentioned general corrosion on guided wave tests by experiments and signal processing techniques, based on the use of the finite element method, the two-dimensional Fourier transform and the continuous wavelet transform. Results show that the excitation energy would be reduced when the array ring set on the pipe surface having general corrosion. The non-uniformed contact surface also produces the unwanted asymmetric modes of the propagating guided wave. Some of them are even mixing together with T(0,1) mode and increase the difficulty of measurements, especially when a defect or local corrosion merged in the general corrosion area. It is also showed that the guided waves attenuation are increasing with the increasing corrosion depth or the rising inspection frequency. However, the coherent signals caused by the general corrosion would be decayed with increasing frequency. The results obtained from this research should be able to provide detectors to understand the impact when the array ring set on the area of general corrosion and the way to distinguish the localized corrosion which is inside the area of general corrosion.

Keywords: guided wave, finite element method, two-dimensional fourier transform, wavelet transform, general corrosion, localized corrosion

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Authors: Priyanka Sharma

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The women voter turnout in India is increasing. The rising female voter turnout is explained in part by men intimidating women in the household to vote. Women are more likely than men to be guided before voting. What is perhaps more significant is that the gender gap has shrunk significantly over the years. However, there are layers and categories of women voters in India. Some women are much more likely than the average woman to follow advice. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates the variation among women voters during the national elections of 2019 in India. The central question of this research paper is whether or not the development of greater political opinion among women would offset guided voting and allow them to emerge as more independent voters. So the independent variable of the study is Indian women’s opinion on politics, and the dependent variable is their voting behavior. The methodology used in this paper is both quantitative and qualitative. This study investigated and examined Lokniti’s election survey data. The sample size used in this survey is 11568. The analysis of this study has revealed that there is a considerable impact of women having a political opinion on their voting behavior. The Bivariate analysis of the variables states that 83% of Indian women who have opinions on political issues do not seek advice while going to vote. This proves the hypothesis of this paper that women with an opinion on politics are more likely to be independent voters. To check the statistical significance of the finding, a chi-square test was done and the p-value found is 0.009737, which shows it is statistically significant. Furthermore, a regression test has been done by controlling certain variables like age, educational qualification, caste, and financial position of the women to probe the influence on the dependent variable. The findings provide worthwhile insights into the relationship between these control variables and the women voting behavior in India.

Keywords: dependent voter, independent voter, political opinion, voting behavior, women voter

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Authors: Abdolrasoul Daneshjoo, Fatemeh Akbari Ghara

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Background and Purpose: Obesity is an increasing factor in cardiovascular disease and serum levels of cellular adhesion molecule. It plays an important role in predicting risk for coronary artery disease. The purpose of this research was to study the effect of eight weeks moderate intensity interval training and curcumin intake on ICAM-1 & VCAM-1 levels of menopausal fat rats. Materials and methods: in this study, 28 Wistar Menopausal fat rats aged 6-8 weeks with an average weight of 250-300 (gr) were randomly divided into four groups: control, curcumin supplement, moderate intensity interval training and moderate intensity interval training + curcumin supplement. (7 rats each group). The training program was planned as 8 weeks and 3 sessions per week. Each session consisted of 10 one-min sets with 50 percent intensity and the 2-minutes interval between sets in the first week. Subjects started with 14 meters per minute, and 2 (m/min) was added to increase their speed weekly until the speed of 28 (m/min) in the 8th week. Blood samples were taken 48 hours after the last training session, and ICAM-1 A and VCAM-1 levels were measured. SPSS software, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to assess the results. Results: The results showed that eight weeks of training and taking curcumin had significant effects on ICAM-1 levels of the rats (p ≤ 0.05). However, it had no significant effect on VCAM-1 levels in menopausal obese rates (p ≥ 0.05). There was no significant correlation between the levels of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 in eight weeks training and taking curcumin. Conclusion: Implementation of moderate intensity interval training and the use of curcumin decreased ICAM-1 significantly.

Keywords: curcumin, interval training , ICMA, VCAM

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Authors: Sarah Eldefrawi, Maike Didero

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In Egypt, residents’ urban interventions (colloquially named A’hali’s interventions) are always tackled by government, scholars, and media as an encroachment (taeadiyat), chaotic (a’shwa’i) or informal (gheir mokanan) practices. This paper argues that those interventions cannot be simply described as an encroachment on public space or chaotic behaviour. We claim here that they are relevant to traditional governing methods (‘Urf) that were governing Arab cities for many decades. Through an in-depth field study conducted in a real estate public housing project in the city of Giza called 'Masaken El-Barageel', we traced the urban transformations demonstrated in private and public spaces. To understand those transformations, we used wide-range of qualitative research methods such as semi-guided and informal interviews, observations and mapping of the built environment and the newly added interventions. This study was as well strengthened through the contributions of the author in studying nine sectors emerging by Ahali in six districts in Great Cairo. The results of this study indicate that a culturally and socially sensitive framework has to be related to the individual actions toward the spatial and social structures as well as to culturally transmitted views and meanings connected with 'Urf'. The study could trace three crucial principals in ‘urf that influenced these interventions; the eliminating of harm (Al-Marafiq wa Man’ al-Darar), the appropriation of space (Haqq el-Intefa’) and public interest (maslaha a’ma). Our findings open the discussion for the (il) legitimate of a’hali governing methods in contemporary cities.

Keywords: Urf, urban governance, public space, public housing, encroachments, chaotic, Egyptian cities

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Authors: Amin Akbari, Dongcai Wang, Huiru Li, Xiaoping Du, Jie Chen

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The effect of vibrational force (VF) on accelerating orthodontic tooth movement depends on the level of delivered stimulation to the tooth in terms of peak load (PL), which requires contacts between the tooth and the VF device. A personalized device ensures the contacts, but the resulting PL distribution on the teeth is unknown. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the PL on particular teeth can be adjusted to the prescribed values. The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of apersonalized VF device in controlling the level of stimulation on two teeth, the mandibular canines and 2nd molars. A 3-D finite element (FE) model of human dentition, including teeth, PDL, and alveolar bone, was created from the cone beam computed tomography images of an anonymous subject. The VF was applied to the teeth through a VFdevice consisting of a mouthpiece with engraved tooth profile of the subject and a VF source that applied 0.3 N force with the frequency of 30 Hz. The dentition and mouthpiece were meshed using 10-node tetrahedral elements. Interface elements were created at the interfaces between the teeth and the mouthpiece. The upper and lower teeth bite on the mouthpiece to receive the vibration. The depth of engraved individual tooth profile could be adjusted, which was accomplished by adding a layer of material as an interference or removing a layer of material as a clearance to change the PL on the tooth. The interference increases the PL while the clearance decreases it. Fivemouthpiece design cases were simulated, which included a mouthpiece without interference/clearance; the mouthpieces with bilateral interferences on both mandibular canines and 2nd molars with magnitudes of 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2-mm, respectively; and mouthpiece with bilateral 0.3-mm clearances on the four teeth. Then, the force distributions on the entire dentition were compared corresponding to these adjustments. The PL distribution on the teeth is uneven when there is no interference or clearance. Among all teeth, the anterior segment receives the highest level of PL. Adding 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2-mm interferences to the canines and 2nd molars bilaterally leads to increase of the PL on the canines by 10, 62, and 73 percent and on the 2nd molar by 14, 55, and 87 percent, respectively. Adding clearances to the canines and 2nd molars by removing the contactsbetween these teeth and the mouthpiece results in zero PL on them. Moreover, introducing interference to mandibular canines and 2nd molarsredistributes the PL on the entireteeth. The share of the PL on the anterior teeth are reduced. The use of the personalized mouthpiece ensures contactsof the teeth to the mouthpiece so that all teeth can be stimulated. However, the PL distribution is uneven. Adding interference between a tooth and the mouthpiece increases the PL while introducing clearance decreases the PL. As a result, the PL is redistributed. This study confirms that the level of VF stimulation on the individual tooth can be adjusted to a prescribed value.

Keywords: finite element method, orthodontic treatment, stress analysis, tooth movement, vibrational force

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Authors: Risna Wijayanti, Sumiati, Hanif Iswari

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This study aims to analyze the role of financial risk attitude as a mediation between financial knowledge and business growth. The ability of human resources in managing capital (financial literacy) can be a major milestone for a company's business to grow and build its competitive advantage. This study analyzed the important role of financial risk attitude in bringing about financial knowledge on corporate growth. There have been many discussions arguing that financial knowledge is one of the main abilities of corporate managers in determining the success of managing a company. However, a contrary argument of other scholars also enlightened that financial knowledge did not have a significant influence on corporate growth. This study used literatures' review to analyze whether there is another variable that can mediate the effect of financial knowledge toward corporate growth. Research mapping was conducted to analyze the concept of risk tolerance. This concept was related to people's risk aversion effects when making a decision under risk and the role of financial knowledge on changes in financial income. Understanding and managing risks and investments are complicated, in particular for corporate managers, who are always demanded to maintain their corporate growth. Substantial financial knowledge is extremely needed to identify and take accurate information for corporate financial decision-making. By reviewing several literature, this study hypothesized that financial knowledge of corporate managers would be meaningless without manager's courage to bear risks for taking favorable business opportunities. Therefore, the level of risk aversion from corporate managers will determine corporate action, which is a reflection of corporate-level investment behavior leading to attain corporate success or failure for achieving the company's expected growth rate.

Keywords: financial knowledge, financial risk attitude, corporate growth, risk tolerance

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Authors: Marwa Abdulsalam, Osamu Suzuki, Wirawan Dony Dahana

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One of the remarkable and unique industries in Japan is the food samples industry which can be noticed in most of the restaurants located around Japan. However, the market is getting saturated, which has pushed Japanese food sample manufacturers to start exploring new international markets. Most of the markets they explored were in the East Asian region, such as China or Korea. In this research, we examine the feasibility and the potential adoption rate of food samples in the international market outside the East Asian region. The main focus of this study is on the Saudi Arabian market. Nonetheless, since Saudi Arabia is a big market, the study results could possibly be applied to the international market as well. The study has conducted a quantitative survey to test the potential of the food samples industry in Saudi Arabia especially in 4 major cities: Jeddah, Mecca, Riyadh, and Dammam. The survey also tests the willingness to purchase, the average price point that the consumer is willing to pay for food samples, and the factors that drive restaurant owners to adopt the food samples system. The study created a correlation analysis between different factors, such as the geographic factor and the size of the restaurant factor, to examine the effect of different aspects on the purchasing decision. The study has found that the Japanese food samples system is predicted to adapt successfully in the Saudi Arabian market and in the international market alike due to the high importance of the food culture and the existence of the communication challenges that the food samples can solve. Additionally, the market survey stated in this study indicated that 83% of the restaurants’ managers are willing to adopt this system in their restaurants.

Keywords: food samples, innovative marketing, international market, marketing method

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Authors: Jianghe Niu, Zhu Xiao Di

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This research uses a qualitative case study of the literature review approach to explore and analyze the relationship between three pairs of famous and talented women in China and uncovers certain regularities. From all kinds of available Chinese materials, such as biographies, memoirs, and news reports, both in papers and from the internet, we carefully selected the following 3 pairs of 6 Chinese women, whose relationships went through upheavals from friendship to jealousy and hostility, and we analyzed many factors contributing to this kind of relationship. (1) Hong Huang and Su Mang, both are leaders in the contemporary Chinese fashion industry as editors-in-chief of major fashion magazines. (2) Lin Huiyin and Xie Bingxin, both are phenomenally successful women in the field of literature and/or architecture throughout most of the 20th century. They are also quite similar in terms of age, family background, professional achievements, and celebrity status, but the former has multiple men's pursuit and admiration, while the latter has fewer. (3) Zhang Ailing and Su Qing, their achievements in the field of literature are remarkably similar, as top two female authors in metropolitan Shanghai during 1940s. They once admired each other's talents very much. Zhang’s husband used to have a relationship with Su Qing, and it was through Su Qing that he met Zhang Ailing. Major Findings: (1) Across the three pairs of case studies, it is observed that the more they are similar to each other in age, family background, education level, career positions, and social statues, the more they are likely to be in discord, jealousy, and hostility. (2) In the relationship between Chinese women, especially between talented, educated women, if there are men involved and one is more adored and favored by men than the other, such as in the 2nd and third pairs, the resulting jealousy deepens the negative relationship between them. (3) The relationship between talented and successful Chinese women, as shown in the third example, where a man was introduced by a woman to her close female friend, and then the man fell in love with her and married her, would undoubtedly deteriorate until jealousy, hatred, and hostility reached climax.

Keywords: relationship, Chinese, women, men

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Authors: Hannele Kuusisto, Paivi Makila, Ursula Hyrkkanen

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Introduction: There have been arguments about the skills university students should have when graduated. Current trends argue that as well as the specific job-related skills the graduated students need problem-solving, interaction and networking skills as well as self-management skills. Skills required in working life are also considered in the Finnish national project called VALTE (short for 'prepared for working life'). The project involves 11 Finnish school organizations. As one result of this project, a five-credit independent online course in study and job engagement as well as in study and job crafting was developed at Turku University of Applied Sciences. The aim of the oral or e-poster presentation is to present the online course developed in the project. The purpose of this abstract is to present the development work of the online course and the feedback received from the pilots. Method: As the University of Turku is the leading partner of the VALTE project, the collaborative education platform ViLLE (https://ville.utu.fi, developed by the University of Turku) was chosen as the online platform for the course. Various exercise types with automatic assessment were used; for example, quizzes, multiple-choice questions, classification exercises, gap filling exercises, model answer questions, self-assessment tasks, case tasks, and collaboration in Padlet. In addition, the free material and free platforms on the Internet were used (Youtube, Padlet, Todaysmeet, and Prezi) as well as the net-based questionnaires about the study engagement and study crafting (made with Webropol). Three teachers with long teaching experience (also with job crafting and online pedagogy) and three students working as trainees in the project developed the content of the course. The online course was piloted twice in 2017 as an elective course for the students at Turku University of Applied Sciences, a higher education institution of about 10 000 students. After both pilots, feedback from the students was gathered and the online course was developed. Results: As the result, the functional five-credit independent online course suitable for students of different educational institutions was developed. The student feedback shows that students themselves think that the developed online course really enhanced their job and study crafting skills. After the course, 91% of the students considered their knowledge in job and study engagement as well as in job and study crafting to be at a good or excellent level. About two-thirds of the students were going to exploit their knowledge significantly in the future. Students appreciated the variability and the game-like feeling of the exercises as well as the opportunity to study online at the time and place they chose themselves. On a five-point scale (1 being poor and 5 being excellent), the students graded the clarity of the ViLLE platform as 4.2, the functionality of the platform as 4.0 and the easiness of operating as 3.9.

Keywords: job crafting, job engagement, online course, study crafting, study engagement

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Authors: Duangkamol Thitivesa

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This paper explores the use of project work in a content-based instruction in a Rajabhat University, Thailand. The use of project is to promote kinds of learning expected of student teachers as stated by Thailand Quality Framework: TQF. The kinds of learning are grouped into five domains: Ethical and moral development, knowledge, cognitive skill, interpersonal skills and responsibility, and analytical and communication skills. The content taught in class is used to lead the student teachers to relate their previously-acquired linguistic knowledge to meaningful realizations of the language system in passages of immediate relevance to their professional interests, teaching methods in particular. Two research questions are formulate to guide this study: 1) To what degree are the five domains of learning expected of student teachers after the use of project in a content class?, and 2) What is the academic achievement of the students’ writing skills, as part of the learning domains stated by TQF, against the 70% attainment target after the use of project to enhance the skill? The sample of the study comprised of 38 fourth-year English major students. The data was collected by means of a summative achievement test, student writing works, an observation checklist, and project diary. The scores in the summative achievement test were analyzed by mean score, standard deviation, and t-test. Project diary serves as students’ record of the language acquired during the project. List of structures and vocabulary noted in the diary has shown students’ ability to attend to, recognize, and focus on meaningful patterns of language forms.

Keywords: Thailand quality framework, project Work, writing skill, summative

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Authors: Huayuan Lu, Chunfang Yang, Ma Zhu, Baojun Qi, Yaqiong Qiao, Jiangqian Xu

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Image geolocalization has great application prospects in fields such as autonomous driving and virtual/augmented reality. In practical application scenarios, the size of the image to be located is not fixed; it is impractical to train different networks for all possible sizes. When its size does not match the size of the input of the descriptor extraction model, existing image geolocalization methods usually directly scale or crop the image in some common ways. This will result in the loss of some information important to the geolocalization task, thus affecting the performance of the image geolocalization method. For example, excessive down-sampling can lead to blurred building contour, and inappropriate cropping can lead to the loss of key semantic elements, resulting in incorrect geolocation results. To address this problem, this paper designs a learnable image resizer and proposes an arbitrary-sized image geolocation method. (1) The designed learnable image resizer employs the self-attention mechanism to enhance the geometric features of the resized image. Firstly, it applies bilinear interpolation to the input image and its feature maps to obtain the initial resized image and the resized feature maps. Then, SKNet (selective kernel net) is used to approximate the best receptive field, thus keeping the geometric shapes as the original image. And SENet (squeeze and extraction net) is used to automatically select the feature maps with strong contour information, enhancing the geometric features. Finally, the enhanced geometric features are fused with the initial resized image, to obtain the final resized images. (2) The proposed image geolocalization method embeds the above image resizer as a fronting layer of the descriptor extraction network. It not only enables the network to be compatible with arbitrary-sized input images but also enhances the geometric features that are crucial to the image geolocalization task. Moreover, the triplet attention mechanism is added after the first convolutional layer of the backbone network to optimize the utilization of geometric elements extracted by the first convolutional layer. Finally, the local features extracted by the backbone network are aggregated to form image descriptors for image geolocalization. The proposed method was evaluated on several mainstream datasets, such as Pittsburgh30K, Tokyo24/7, and Places365. The results show that the proposed method has excellent size compatibility and compares favorably to recently mainstream geolocalization methods.

Keywords: image geolocalization, self-attention mechanism, image resizer, geometric feature

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Authors: Jhemson C. Elis, Alvin S. Magadia

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Our world is full of numbers, shapes, and figures that illustrate the wholeness of a thing. Indeed, this statement signifies that mathematics is everywhere. Mathematics in its broadest sense helps people in their everyday life that is why in education it is a must to be taken by the students as a subject. The study aims to determine the profile of the respondents in terms of gender and age, performance of the control and experimental groups in the pretest and posttest, impact of the instructional game used as instructional intervention in teaching algebra for high school students, significant difference between the level of performance of the two groups of respondents in their pre–test and post–test results, and the instructional intervention can be proposed. The descriptive method was also utilized in this study. The use of the certain approach was to that it corresponds to the main objective of this research that is to determine the effectiveness of the instructional game used as an instructional intervention in teaching algebra for high school students. There were 30 students served as respondents, having an equal size of the sample of 15 each while a greater number of female teacher respondents which totaled 7 or 70 percent and male were 3 or 30 percent. The study recommended that mathematics teacher should conceptualize instructional games for the students to learn mathematics with fun and enjoyment while learning. Mathematics education program supervisor should give training for teachers on how to conceptualize mathematics intervention for the students learning. Meaningful activities must be provided to sustain the student’s interest in learning. Students must be given time to have fun at the classroom through playing while learning since mathematics for them was considered as difficult. Future researcher must continue conceptualizing some mathematics intervention to suffice the needs of the students, and teachers should inculcate more educational games so that the discussion will be successful and joyful.

Keywords: instructional game in algebra, mathematical intervention, joyful, successful

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Authors: M. Tarik Boyraz, M. Bilge Imer

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Conventionally cast nickel-based super alloys, such as commercial alloy IN 738 LC, are widely used in manufacturing of industrial gas turbine blades. With carefully designed microstructure and the existence of alloying elements, the blades show improved mechanical properties at high operating temperatures and corrosive environment. The aim of this work is to model and estimate these mechanical properties of IN 738 LC alloy solely based on simulations for projected heat treatment conditions or service conditions. The microstructure (size, fraction and frequency of gamma prime- γ′ and carbide phases in gamma- γ matrix, and grain size) of IN 738 LC needs to be optimized to improve the high temperature mechanical properties by heat treatment process. This process can be performed at different soaking temperature, time and cooling rates. In this work, micro-structural evolution studies were performed experimentally at various heat treatment process conditions, and these findings were used as input for further simulation studies. The operation time, soaking temperature and cooling rate provided by experimental heat treatment procedures were used as micro-structural simulation input. The results of this simulation were compared with the size, fraction and frequency of γ′ and carbide phases, and grain size provided by SEM (EDS module and mapping), EPMA (WDS module) and optical microscope for before and after heat treatment. After iterative comparison of experimental findings and simulations, an offset was determined to fit the real time and theoretical findings. Thereby, it was possible to estimate the final micro-structure without any necessity to carry out the heat treatment experiment. The output of this microstructure simulation based on heat treatment was used as input to estimate yield stress and creep properties. Yield stress was calculated mainly as a function of precipitation, solid solution and grain boundary strengthening contributors in microstructure. Creep rate was calculated as a function of stress, temperature and microstructural factors such as dislocation density, precipitate size, inter-particle spacing of precipitates. The estimated yield stress values were compared with the corresponding experimental hardness and tensile test values. The ability to determine best heat treatment conditions that achieve the desired microstructural and mechanical properties were developed for IN 738 LC based completely on simulations.

Keywords: heat treatment, IN738LC, simulations, super-alloys

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Authors: Hari Krishna Ayyappa, Reenu Singh

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Rising population and restricted land for development has led towards the growth of vertical buildings and small complexes. It provides many possibilities to change the shape and size of internal space in addition to the social impacts on the commercial spaces. With the increased volatility of necessities of people, the need for mental and physical comfort has continuously increased. . Living in a small space musts minimalist and space- saving cabinetwork results to sustain mortal good. This paper attempts to explore the Influence of Using Minimalist Furniture on the Efficiency of the commercial Space interiors by means of the variable resulting from preceding studies based on literature. A literature review was conducted on research articles to understand the contributing variables in a well designed small commercial spaces. A questionnaire survey was conducted to understand the layout of small commercial spaces with respect to Environmental impact, material, Design elements, Modern approach, Layered lightings, and colours. The problem of small spaces can be resolved by some ways; it's still needed for cabinetwork to develop to be more innovative to accommodate small living spaces. Since cabinetwork is a necessity and not luxury, everybody is in need of it. The spatial factors affecting overall satisfaction at a detailed position were bandied. The variable helped in proposing design ideation and mock ups to explore improved interiors. This paper concludes that most of the principles of the minimalist approach have been overlooked at, which had an impact on the space efficiency in commercial spaces like storage rooms, office area, retail stores, restaurants, and other spaces where business is conducted.

Keywords: materials, modern approach, space efficiency, tall commercial buildings

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Authors: Cleyton S. Stampa

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This paper addresses the perspectives of using low melting point metals (LMPMs) as phase change materials (PCMs) in latent thermal energy storage (LTES) units, through a numerical approach. This is a new class of PCMs that has been one of the most prospective alternatives to be considered in LTES, due to these materials present high thermal conductivity and elevated heat of fusion, per unit volume. The chosen type of LTES consists of several horizontal parallel slabs filled with PCM. The heat transfer fluid (HTF) circulates through the channel formed between each two consecutive slabs on a laminar regime through forced convection. The study deals with the LTES charging process (heat-storing) by using pure gallium as PCM, and it considers heat conduction in the solid phase during melting driven by natural convection in the melt. The transient heat transfer problem is analyzed in one arbitrary slab under the influence of the HTF. The mathematical model to simulate the isothermal phase change is based on a volume-averaged enthalpy method, which is successfully verified by comparing its predictions with experimental data from works available in the pertinent literature. Regarding the convective heat transfer problem in the HTF, it is assumed that the flow is thermally developing, whereas the velocity profile is already fully developed. The study aims to learn about the effect of the solid subcooling in the melting rate through comparisons with the melting process of the solid in which it starts to melt from its fusion temperature. In order to best understand this effect in a metallic compound, as it is the case of pure gallium, the study also evaluates under the same conditions established for the gallium, the melting process of commercial paraffin wax (organic compound) and of the calcium chloride hexahydrate (CaCl₂ 6H₂O-inorganic compound). In the present work, it is adopted the best options that have been established by several researchers in their parametric studies with respect to this type of LTES, which lead to high values of thermal efficiency. To do so, concerning with the geometric aspects, one considers a gap of the channel formed by two consecutive slabs, thickness and length of the slab. About the HTF, one considers the type of fluid, the mass flow rate, and inlet temperature.

Keywords: flat slab, heat storing, pure metal, solid subcooling

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Authors: B. Bergström, A. Ladd, A. Jones, L. Rosso, P. Michael

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Attitudes toward treatment manuals serve as a meaningful predictor of general attitudes toward evidence-based practice. Despite demonstrating high effectiveness in treating many mental disorders, manualized treatments have been underutilized by practitioners. Thus, one can assess the state of the field regarding the adoption of evidence-based practices by surveying practitioner attitudes towards manualized treatments. This study is an adapted replication that assesses psychology graduate student attitudes towards manualized treatments, as a general marker for attitudes towards evidence-based practice. Training programs provide future clinicians with the foundation for critical skills in clinical practice. Research demonstrates that post-graduate continuing education has little to no effect on clinical practice; thus, graduate programs serve as the primary, and often final platform for all future practice. However, there are little empirical data identifying the attitudes and training of graduate students in utilizing manualized treatments. The empirical analysis of this study indicates an increase in positive attitudes among graduate student attitudes towards manualized treatments (within the United States), when compared to past surveys of professional psychologists. Findings from this study may inform graduate programs of barriers for students in developing positive attitudes toward manualized treatments and evidence-based practice. This study also serves as a preliminary predictor of the state-of-the field, in regards to professional psychologists attitudes towards evidence-based practice, if attitudes remain stable. This study indicates that the attitudes toward utilizing evidence-based practices, such as treatment manuals, has become more positive since year 2000.

Keywords: exposure therapy, evidence based practice, manualized treatments, student attitudes

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Authors: Tsoaledi D. Thobejane, Barnabas C. Okere

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Gender mainstreaming has been adopted as a strategy for promoting gender equality in institutions of higher learning Worldwide, not least in Africa. This study investigated Gender Mainstreaming at the University of Venda, in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study was based on the Feminist Theoretical Framework. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. A case study research design was adopted. The study involved a population of 60 participants and a sample of 25 male and female workers selected using the purposive sampling technique. Data were presented in pie charts, tables, themes and in textual forms. Data were analysed through descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The major findings and conclusions of the study were that the University of Venda faces enormous challenges in mainstreaming gender in the university functions. There are perceptions that most strategic higher positions in the institution are dominated by men while women are marginalized. Although the University has policies on gender, staff members do not know about them while management does not implement its policies. University of Venda makes use of the Employment Equity Act of 1998, but it is not clear whether line managers are aware of its implementation and how. In addition, favouritism, nepotism, patronage, and patriarchy played a role in gender mainstreaming. The study recommended that there should be more gender awareness activities, such as workshops, conferences, and symposia for workers and staff members in order to sensitize them about gender towards understanding. The study also recommended that deserving female staff members should be promoted, and all employees should be encouraged to read and understand gender policies. In addition, management should implement the institutions and national gender policies without fear or favour.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, gender equality, institutions, representation

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Authors: Esther O. Adebitan, Florence Oyelade

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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was initiated by the UN member nations’ aspiration for the betterment of human life. It is expressed in a set of numerical ‎and time-bound targets. In more recent time, the aspiration is shifting away from just the achievement to the sustainability of achieved MDGs beyond the 2015 target. The main objective of this study was assessing how much the hotel industry within the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as a member of the global community is involved in the achievement of sustainable MDGs within the FCT. The study had two population groups consisting of 160 hotels and the communities where these are located. Stratified random sampling technique was adopted in selecting 60 hotels based on large, medium ‎and small hotels categorisation, while simple random sampling technique was used to elicit information from 30 residents of three of the hotels host communities. The study was guided by tree research questions and two hypotheses aimed to ascertain if hotels see the need to be involved in, and have policies in pursuit of achieving sustained MDGs, and to determine public opinion regarding hotels contribution towards the achievement of the MDGs in their communities. A 22 item questionnaire was designed ‎and administered to hotel managers while 11 item questionnaire was designed ‎and administered to hotels’ host communities. Frequency distribution and percentage as well as Chi-square were used to analyse data. Results showed no significant involvement of the hotel industry in achieving sustained MDGs in the FCT and that there was disconnect between the hotels and their immediate communities. The study recommended that hotels should, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility pick at least one of the goals to work on in order to be involved in the attainment of enduring Millennium Development Goals.

Keywords: MDGs, hotels, FCT, host communities, corporate social responsibility

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Authors: S. Potgieter-Vermaak, N. Bain, A. Brown, K. Shaw

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It is well-known from public news media that air pollution is a health hazard and is responsible for early deaths. The quantification of the relationship between air quality and health is a probing question not easily answered. It is known that airborne particulate matter (APM) <2.5µm deposits in the tracheal and alveoli zones and our research probes the possibility of quantifying pulmonary injury by linking reactive oxygen species (ROS) in these particles to DNA damage. Currently, APM mass concentration is linked to early deaths and limited studies probe the influence of other properties on human health. To predict the full extent and type of impact, particles need to be characterised for chemical composition and structure. APMs are routinely analysed for their bulk composition, but of late analysis on a micro level probing single particle character, using micro-analytical techniques, are considered. The latter, single particle analysis (SPA), permits one to obtain detailed information on chemical character from nano- to micron-sized particles. This paper aims to provide a snapshot of studies using data obtained from chemical characterisation and its link with in-vitro studies to inform on personal health risks. For this purpose, two studies will be compared, namely, the bioaccessibility of the inhalable fraction of urban road dust versus total suspended solids (TSP) collected in the same urban environment. The significant influence of metals such as Cu and Fe in TSP on DNA damage is illustrated. The speciation of Hg (determined by SPA) in different urban environments proved to dictate its bioaccessibility in artificial lung fluids rather than its concentration.

Keywords: air pollution, human health, in-vitro studies, particulate matter

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Authors: Phyo Kyaw Kyaw

Abstract:

In the Yangon urban landscape, one could not help, but notice old buildings from the colonial period along with condominium developments recently, and many walk-up apartment buildings to accommodate the urbanization, growing population and social-economic status of Myanmar people. Walk-up apartments were built and popular after the British colonial period (around 1950s) and are still built up to today due to its cost-effectiveness and to accommodate low to mid-income residents in the metropolitan Yangon. Approximately 90% of apartment buildings are walk-up apartments. The common impression of walk-up apartments in Yangon appears to be old rectangular box shape, homogenous envelope and limited square feet dull interior small space. In other words, the buildings are full of constraints, lack of good user experiences, and they are not well-fitted in the modern days. Therefore, the resident suffers consequently many years, some may live in the apartment their entire lives. Thousands of people living in the walk-up apartment on a daily basis are being shaped by the space and its inadequate quality of living. Can it be called “Home” by the dwellers or is the place a temporary shelter?. Online semi-structured interviews of 15 apartments’ residents and online questionnaire surveys of 70 apartment residents are conducted. This research aims to explore what makes “Home” “A sense of Home” for walk-up apartment users in Yangon, Myanmar by studying subjective responses shaped by the interior and experience of the spaces in apartment to understand the perception of the residents and improve the quality of living. The result reflects the priority level of important factors in relation to the sense of home framework.

Keywords: home, living quality, space, perception, residents, walk-up apartment, Yangon

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Authors: K. Parandhama Gowd

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Space technologies have changed the way we live in the present day society and manage many aspects of our daily affairs through Remote sensing, Navigation & Communications. Further, defense and military usage of spacecraft has increased tremendously along with civilian purposes. The number of satellites deployed in space in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and the Geostationary Orbit (GEO) has gone up. The dependency on remote sensing and operational capabilities are most invariably to be exploited more and more in future. Every country is acquiring spacecraft in one way or other for their daily needs, and spacecraft numbers are likely to increase significantly and create spacecraft traffic problems. The aim of this research paper is to propose innovative design concepts for adaptive spacecraft. The main idea here is to improve existing design methods of spacecraft design and development to further improve upon design considerations for futuristic adaptive spacecraft with inbuilt features for automatic adaptability and self-protection. In other words, the innovative design considerations proposed here are to have future spacecraft with self-organizing capabilities for orbital control and protection from anti-satellite weapons (ASAT). Here, an attempt is made to propose design and develop futuristic spacecraft for 2030 and beyond due to tremendous advancements in VVLSI, miniaturization, and nano antenna array technologies, including nano technologies are expected.

Keywords: satellites, low earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), geostationary earth orbit (GEO), self-organizing control system, anti-satellite weapons (ASAT), orbital control, radar warning receiver, missile warning receiver, laser warning receiver, attitude and orbit control systems (AOCS), command and data handling (CDH)

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: John Lloyd Angolluan, Jennile Caday, Crystal Mae Estrella, Reike Alliyah Taladua, Zion Michael Ysulat

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One of the requirements of having the ability to communicate in English is by having adequate vocabulary. Nowadays, people are more engaged in watching movie streams on which they can watch movies in a very portable way, such as Netflix. Wherein Netflix became global demand for online media has taken off in recent years. This research aims to know whether the use of bimodal subtitles on Netflix English movies can enhance vocabulary. This study is quantitative and utilizes a descriptive method, and this study aims to explore the use of bimodal subtitles on Netflix English movies to enhance the vocabulary of students. The respondents of the study were the selected Second-year English majors of Rizal Technological University Pasig and Boni Campus using the purposive sampling technique. The researcher conducted a survey questionnaire through the use of Google Forms. In this study, the weighted mean was used to evaluate the student's responses to the statement of the problems of the study of the use of bimodal subtitles on Netflix English movies. The findings of this study revealed that the bimodal subtitle on Netflix English movies enhanced students’ vocabulary learning acquisition by providing learners with access to large amounts of real and comprehensible language input, whether accidentally or intentionally, and it turns out that bimodal subtitles on Netflix English movies help students recognize vocabulary, which has a positive impact on their vocabulary building. Therefore, the researchers advocate that watching English Netflix movies enhances students' vocabulary by using bimodal subtitled movie material during their language learning process, which may increase their motivation and the usage of bimodal subtitles in learning new vocabulary. Bimodal subtitles need to be incorporated into educational film activities to provide students with a vast amount of input to expand their vocabulary.

Keywords: bimodal subtitles, Netflix, English movies, vocabulary, subtitle, language, media

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Authors: Rebecca Greenberg, Nipa Chauhan, Rashad Rehman

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Paternalism, in its traditional form, seems largely incompatible with Western medicine. In contrast, Family-Centred Care, a partial response to historically authoritative paternalism, carries its own challenges, particularly when operationalized as family-directed care. Specifically, in neonatology, decision-making is left entirely to Substitute Decision Makers (most commonly parents). Most models of shared decision-making employ both the parents’ and medical team’s perspectives but do not recognize the inherent asymmetry of information and experience – asking parents to act like physicians to evaluate technical data and encourage physicians to refrain from strong medical opinions and proposals. They also do not fully appreciate the difficulties in adjudicating which perspective to prioritize and, moreover, how to mitigate disagreement. Introducing a mild form of paternalism can harness the unique skillset both parents and clinicians bring to shared decision-making and ultimately work towards decision-making in the best interest of the child. The notion expressed here is that within the model of shared decision-making, mild paternalism is prioritized inasmuch as optimal care is prioritized. This mild form of paternalism is known as Beneficent Paternalism and justifies our encouragement for physicians to root down in their own medical expertise to propose treatment plans informed by medical expertise, standards of care, and the parents’ values. This does not mean that we forget that paternalism was historically justified on ‘beneficent’ grounds; however, our recommendation is that a re-integration of mild paternalism is appropriate within our current Western healthcare climate. Through illustrative examples from the NICU, this paper explores the appropriateness and merits of Beneficent Paternalism and ultimately its use in promoting family-centered care, patient’s best interests and reducing moral distress. A distinctive feature of the NICU is the fact that communication regarding a patient’s treatment is exclusively done with substitute decision-makers and not the patient, i.e., the neonate themselves. This leaves the burden of responsibility entirely on substitute decision-makers and the clinical team; the patient in the NICU does not have any prior wishes, values, or beliefs that can guide decision-making on their behalf. Therefore, the wishes, values, and beliefs of the parent become the map upon which clinical proposals are made, giving extra weight to the family’s decision-making responsibility. This leads to why Family Directed Care is common in the NICU, where shared decision-making is mandatory. However, the zone of parental discretion is not as all-encompassing as it is currently considered; there are appropriate times when the clinical team should strongly root down in medical expertise and perhaps take the lead in guiding family decision-making: this is just what it means to adopt Beneficent Paternalism.

Keywords: care, ethics, expertise, NICU, paternalism

Procedia PDF Downloads 124