Search results for: material flow analysis

Authors: Ayse Ozturk Samur, Gozde Inal Kiziltepe

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No matter what level of education it is, starting a school is an exciting process as it includes new experiences. In this process, child steps into a different environment and institution except from the family institution which he was born into and feels secure. That new environment is different from home; it is a social environment which has its own rules, and involves duties and responsibilities that should be fulfilled and new vital experiences. The children who have a positive attitude towards school and like school are more enthusiastic and eager to participate in classroom activities. Moreover, a close relationship with the teacher enables the child to have positive emotions and ideas about the teacher and school and helps children adapt to school easily. In this study, it is aimed to identify children’s perceptions of academic competence, attitudes towards school and ideas about their teachers. In accordance with the aim a mixed method that includes both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods are used. The study is supported with qualitative data after collecting quantitative data. The study group of the research consists of randomly chosen 250 children who are 60-72 month old and attending a preschool institution in a city center located West Anatolian region of Turkey. Quantitative data was collected using Feelings about School scale. The scale consists of 12 items and 4 dimensions; school, teacher, mathematic, and literacy. Reliability and validity study for the scale used in the study was conducted by the researchers with 318 children who were 60-72 months old. For content validity experts’ ideas were asked, for construct validity confirmatory factor analysis was utilized. Reliability of the scale was examined by calculating internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach alpha). At the end of the analyses it was found that FAS is a valid and reliable instrument to identify 60-72 month old children’ perception of their academic competency, attitude toward school and ideas about their teachers. For the qualitative dimension of the study, semi-structured interviews were done with 30 children aged 60-72 month. At the end of the study, it was identified that children’s’ perceptions of their academic competencies and attitudes towards school was medium-level and their ideas about their teachers were high. Based on the semi structured interviews done with children, it is identified that they have a positive perception of school and teacher. That means quantitatively gathered data is supported by qualitatively collected data.

Keywords: feelings, preschool education, school, teacher, thoughts

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Authors: Andrea Ando

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The development of the blockchain has been a major innovation in the technology field. It opened the door to the creation of novel cyberassets and currencies. In more recent times, the non-fungible tokens have started to be at the centre of media attention. Their popularity has been increasing since 2021, and they represent the latest in the world of distributed ledger technologies and cryptocurrencies. It seems more and more likely that NFTs will play a more important role in our online interactions. They are indeed increasingly taking part in the arts and technology sectors. Their impact on society and the market is still very difficult to define, but it is very likely that there will be a turning point in the world of digital assets. There are some examples of their peculiar behaviour and effect in our contemporary tech-market: the former CEO of the famous social media site Twitter sold an NFT of his first tweet for around £2,1 million ($2,5 million), or the National Basketball Association has created a platform to sale unique moment and memorabilia from the history of basketball through the non-fungible token technology. Their growth, as imaginable, paved the way for civil disputes, mostly regarding their position under the current intellectual property law in each jurisdiction. In April 2022, the High Court of England and Wales ruled in the OpenSea case that non-fungible tokens can be considered properties. The judge, indeed, concluded that the cryptoasset had all the indicia of property under common law (National Provincial Bank v. Ainsworth). The research has demonstrated that the ruling of the High Court is not providing enough answers to the dilemma of whether minting an NFT is a violation or not of intellectual property and/or property rights. Indeed, if, on the one hand, the technology follows the framework set by the case law (e.g., the 4 criteria of Ainsworth), on the other hand, the question that arises is what is effectively protected and owned by both the creator and the purchaser. Then the question that arises is whether a person has ownership of the cryptographed code, that it is indeed definable, identifiable, intangible, distinct, and has a degree of permanence, or what is attached to this block-chain, hence even a physical object or piece of art. Indeed, a simple code would not have any financial importance if it were not attached to something that is widely recognised as valuable. This was demonstrated first through the analysis of the expectations of intellectual property law. Then, after having laid the foundation, the paper examined the OpenSea case, and finally, it analysed whether the expectations were met or not.

Keywords: technology, technology law, digital law, cryptoassets, NFTs, NFT, property law, intellectual property law, copyright law

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Authors: Nadia Soledad Peralta

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Within the framework of socio-cognitive interaction, argumentation is understood as a psychological process that supports and induces reasoning and learning. Most authors emphasize the great potential of argumentation to negotiate with contradictions and complex decisions. So argumentation is a target for researchers who highlight the importance of social and cognitive processes in learning. In the context of social interaction among university students, different types of arguments are analyzed according to group size (dyads and triads) and the type of task (reading of frequency tables, causal explanation of physical phenomena, the decision regarding moral dilemma situations, and causal explanation of social phenomena). Eighty-nine first-year social sciences students of the National University of Rosario participated. Two groups were formed from the results of a pre-test that ensured the heterogeneity of points of view between participants. Group 1 consisted of 56 participants (performance in dyads, total: 28), and group 2 was formed of 33 participants (performance in triads, total: 11). A quasi-experimental design was performed in which effects of the two variables (group size and type of task) on the argumentation were analyzed. Three types of argumentation are described: authentic dialogical argumentative resolutions, individualistic argumentative resolutions, and non-argumentative resolutions. The results indicate that individualistic arguments prevail in dyads. That is, although people express their own arguments, there is no authentic argumentative interaction. Given that, there are few reciprocal evaluations and counter-arguments in dyads. By contrast, the authentically dialogical argument prevails in triads, showing constant feedback between participants’ points of view. It was observed that, in general, the type of task generates specific types of argumentative interactions. However, it is possible to emphasize that the authentically dialogic arguments predominate in the logical tasks, whereas the individualists or pseudo-dialogical are more frequent in opinion tasks. Nerveless, these relationships between task type and argumentative mode are best clarified in an interactive analysis based on group size. Finally, it is important to stress the value of dialogical argumentation in educational domains. Argumentative function not only allows a metacognitive reflection about their own point of view but also allows people to benefit from exchanging points of view in interactive contexts.

Keywords: sociocognitive interaction, argumentation, university students, size of the grup

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Authors: Saif Al-Qaisi, Alif Saba

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Normalization of electromyography (EMG) data in ergonomics research is a prerequisite for interpreting the data. Normalizing accounts for variability in the data due to differences in participants’ physical characteristics, electrode placement protocols, time of day, and other nuisance factors. Typically, normalized data is reported as a percentage of the muscle’s isometric maximum voluntary contraction (%MVC). Various MVC techniques have been recommended in the literature for normalizing EMG activity of back muscles. This research tests and compares the recommended MVC techniques in the literature for three back muscles commonly used in ergonomics research, which are the lumbar erector spinae (LES), latissimus dorsi (LD), and thoracic erector spinae (TES). Six healthy males from a university population participated in this research. Five different MVC exercises were compared for each muscle using the Tringo wireless EMG system (Delsys Inc.). Since the LES and TES share similar functions in controlling trunk movements, their MVC exercises were the same, which included trunk extension at -60°, trunk extension at 0°, trunk extension while standing, hip extension, and the arch test. The MVC exercises identified in the literature for the LD were chest-supported shoulder extension, prone shoulder extension, lat-pull down, internal shoulder rotation, and abducted shoulder flexion. The maximum EMG signal was recorded during each MVC trial, and then the averages were computed across participants. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized to determine the effect of MVC technique on muscle activity. Post-hoc analyses were performed using the Tukey test. The MVC technique effect was statistically significant for each of the muscles (p < 0.05); however, a larger sample of participants was needed to detect significant differences in the Tukey tests. The arch test was associated with the highest EMG average at the LES, and also it resulted in the maximum EMG activity more often than the other techniques (three out of six participants). For the TES, trunk extension at 0° was associated with the largest EMG average, and it resulted in the maximum EMG activity the most often (three out of six participants). For the LD, participants obtained their maximum EMG either from chest-supported shoulder extension (three out of six participants) or prone shoulder extension (three out of six participants). Chest-supported shoulder extension, however, had a larger average than prone shoulder extension (0.263 and 0.240, respectively). Although all the aforementioned techniques were superior in their averages, they did not always result in the maximum EMG activity. If an accurate estimate of the true MVC is desired, more than one technique may have to be performed. This research provides additional MVC techniques for each muscle that may elicit the maximum EMG activity.

Keywords: electromyography, maximum voluntary contraction, normalization, physical ergonomics

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Authors: Thammanoon Charmjuree, Yuosre F. Badir, Umar Safdar

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There is a consensus among innovation scholars that knowledge is a vital antecedent for firm’s innovation; e.g., process innovation. Recently, there has been an increasing amount of attention to more open approaches to innovation. This open model emphasizes the use of purposive flows of knowledge across the organization boundaries. Firms adopt open innovation strategy to improve their innovation performance by bringing knowledge into the organization (inbound open innovation) to accelerate internal innovation or transferring knowledge outside (outbound open innovation) to expand the markets for external use of innovation. Reviewing open innovation research reveals the following. First, the majority of existing studies have focused on inbound open innovation and less on outbound open innovation. Second, limited research has considered the possible interaction between both and how this interaction may impact the firm’s innovation performance. Third, scholars have focused mainly on the impact of open innovation strategy on product innovation and less on process innovation. Therefore, our knowledge of the relationship between firms’ inbound and outbound open innovation and how these two impact process innovation is still limited. This study focuses on the firm’s external technology acquisition (ETA) and external technology exploitation (ETE) and the firm’s process innovation performance. The ETA represents inbound openness in which firms rely on the acquisition and absorption of external technologies to complement their technology portfolios. The ETE, on the other hand, refers to commercializing technology assets exclusively or in addition to their internal application. This study hypothesized that both ETA and ETE have a positive relationship with process innovation performance and that ETE fully mediates the relationship between ETA and process innovation performance, i.e., ETA has a positive impact on ETE, and turn, ETE has a positive impact on process innovation performance. This study empirically explored these hypotheses in software development firms in Thailand. These firms were randomly selected from a list of Software firms registered with the Department of Business Development, Ministry of Commerce of Thailand. The questionnaires were sent to 1689 firms. After follow-ups and periodic reminders, we obtained 329 (19.48%) completed usable questionnaires. The structure question modeling (SEM) has been used to analyze the data. An analysis of the outcome of 329 firms provides support for our three hypotheses: First, the firm’s ETA has a positive impact on its process innovation performance. Second, the firm’s ETA has a positive impact its ETE. Third, the firm’s ETE fully mediates the relationship between the firm’s ETA and its process innovation performance. This study fills up the gap in open innovation literature by examining the relationship between inbound (ETA) and outbound (ETE) open innovation and suggest that in order to benefits from the promises of openness, firms must engage in both. The study went one step further by explaining the mechanism through which ETA influence process innovation performance.

Keywords: process innovation performance, external technology acquisition, external technology exploitation, open innovation

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Authors: Vanessa Kummer, Maik Meusel

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Real estate demand estimates are typically derived from transaction data. However, in regions with excess demand, transactions are driven by supply and therefore do not indicate what people are actually looking for. To estimate the demand for housing in Switzerland, search subscriptions from all important Swiss real estate platforms are used. These data do, however, suffer from missing information—for example, many users do not specify how many rooms they would like or what price they would be willing to pay. In economic analyses, it is often the case that only complete data is used. Usually, however, the proportion of complete data is rather small which leads to most information being neglected. Also, the data might have a strong distortion if it is complete. In addition, the reason that data is missing might itself also contain information, which is however ignored with that approach. An interesting issue is, therefore, if for economic analyses such as the one at hand, there is an added value by using the whole data set with the imputed missing values compared to using the usually small percentage of complete data (baseline). Also, it is interesting to see how different algorithms affect that result. The imputation of the missing data is done using unsupervised learning. Out of the numerous unsupervised learning approaches, the most common ones, such as clustering, principal component analysis, or neural networks techniques are applied. By training the model iteratively on the imputed data and, thereby, including the information of all data into the model, the distortion of the first training set—the complete data—vanishes. In a next step, the performances of the algorithms are measured. This is done by randomly creating missing values in subsets of the data, estimating those values with the relevant algorithms and several parameter combinations, and comparing the estimates to the actual data. After having found the optimal parameter set for each algorithm, the missing values are being imputed. Using the resulting data sets, the next step is to estimate the willingness to pay for real estate. This is done by fitting price distributions for real estate properties with certain characteristics, such as the region or the number of rooms. Based on these distributions, survival functions are computed to obtain the functional relationship between characteristics and selling probabilities. Comparing the survival functions shows that estimates which are based on imputed data sets do not differ significantly from each other; however, the demand estimate that is derived from the baseline data does. This indicates that the baseline data set does not include all available information and is therefore not representative for the entire sample. Also, demand estimates derived from the whole data set are much more accurate than the baseline estimation. Thus, in order to obtain optimal results, it is important to make use of all available data, even though it involves additional procedures such as data imputation.

Keywords: demand estimate, missing-data imputation, real estate, unsupervised learning

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Authors: Leyla Sattarzadeh, Shahin Fathi Molk Kian, Maghsoud Peeri, Mohammadali Azarbaijani, Hasan Matin Homaee

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Inflammation by various mechanisms may cause atherosclerosis. Systemic circulating inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP), pro-inflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), vascular inflammatory markers as adhesion molecules like Intracellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 (VCAM-1) are the predictors of cardiovascular diseases. Regarding the conflicting results about the effect of different patterns of resistance exercise training on these inflammatory markers, present study aimed to examine the effect of different patterns of eight week resistance exercise training on CRP, IL-6, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 levels in healthy untrained women. 56 healthy volunteered untrained female university students (aged: 21 ± 3 yr., Body Mass Index: 21.5 ± 3.5 kg/m²) were selected purposefully and divided into four groups. At the end of training protocol and after subject drop during the protocol, upper body exercise training (n=11), lower body (n=12) and whole body resistance exercise training group (n=11) completed the eight weeks of training period although the control group (n=7) did anything. Blood samples gathered pre and post-experimental period and CRP, IL-6, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 levels were evaluated using special laboratory kits, then the difference of pre and post values of each indices analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (α < 0.05). The results of one way ANOVA for difference of pre and post values of CRP, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 showed no significant changes due to the exercise training, but there were significant differences between groups about IL-6. Tukey post- hoc test indicated that there is significant difference between the differences of pre and post values of IL-6 between lower body exercise training group and control group, and eight weeks of lower body exercise training lead to significant changes in IL-6 values. There were no changes in anthropometric indices. The findings show that the different patterns of upper, lower and whole body exercise training by involving the different amounts of muscles altered the IL-6 values in lower body exercise training group probably because of engaging the bigger amount of muscles, but showed any significant changes about CRP, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 probably due to intensity and duration of exercise or the lower levels of these markers at baseline of healthy people.

Keywords: resistance training, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, intracellular adhesion molecule-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1

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Authors: Dr. Dionysis Panos Dpt. Communication, Internet Studies Cyprus University of Technology

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The widespread use of New Media and particularly Social Media, through fixed or mobile devices, has changed in a staggering way our perception about what is “intimate" and "safe" and what is not, in interpersonal communication and social relationships. The distribution of self and identity-related information in communication now evolves under new and different conditions and contexts. Consequently, this new framework forces us to rethink processes and mechanisms, such as what "exposure" means in interpersonal communication contexts, how the distinction between the "private" and the "public" nature of information is being negotiated online, how the "audiences" we interact with are understood and constructed. Drawing from an interdisciplinary perspective that combines sociology, communication psychology, media theory, new media and social networks research, as well as from the empirical findings of a longitudinal comparative research, this work proposes an integrative model for comprehending mechanisms of personal information management in interpersonal communication, which can be applied to both types of online (Computer-Mediated) and offline (Face-To-Face) communication. The presentation is based on conclusions drawn from a longitudinal qualitative research study with 458 new media users from 24 countries for almost over a decade. Some of these main conclusions include: (1) There is a clear and evidenced shift in users’ perception about the degree of "security" and "familiarity" of the Web, between the pre- and the post- Web 2.0 era. The role of Social Media in this shift was catalytic. (2) Basic Web 2.0 applications changed dramatically the nature of the Internet itself, transforming it from a place reserved for “elite users / technical knowledge keepers" into a place of "open sociability” for anyone. (3) Web 2.0 and Social Media brought about a significant change in the concept of “audience” we address in interpersonal communication. The previous "general and unknown audience" of personal home pages, converted into an "individual & personal" audience chosen by the user under various criteria. (4) The way we negotiate the nature of 'private' and 'public' of the Personal Information, has changed in a fundamental way. (5) The different features of the mediated environment of online communication and the critical changes occurred since the Web 2.0 advance, lead to the need of reconsideration and updating the theoretical models and analysis tools we use in our effort to comprehend the mechanisms of interpersonal communication and personal information management. Therefore, is proposed here a new model for understanding the way interpersonal communication evolves, based on a revision of social penetration theory.

Keywords: new media, interpersonal communication, social penetration theory, communication exposure, private information, public information

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Authors: Mareli Fischer, Kevin G. F. Thomas

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Although Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent childhood neurobehavioural disorders, little empirical research has been published on its clinical presentation in Africa, and, globally, few studies evaluate ADHD intervention programs that emphasize parent training. Hence, Stage 1 of this research programme aimed to describe the functional impairment of South African children with ADHD, and also sought to investigate the influence of sociodemographic variables (e.g., sex, age, socioeconomic status, family environment) and clinical variables (e.g., ADHD subtype and comorbidity) on the degree of that impairment. We used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents as a diagnostic tool, and the Child Behavior Checklist, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Impairment Rating Scale as measures of functional impairment. Results from this stage of the research indicated that South African children and adolescents who meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD experience most functional impairment in the school domain, as well as in the area of social functioning. None of the measured sociodemographic variables had a significant detrimental or protective effect on how ADHD symptoms impacted on functioning. In terms of comorbidity, the presence of Major Depressive Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder were all associated with significantly impaired overall functioning. Stage 2 of the research programme aimed to design, implement, and evaluate a child-specific intervention that targeted the primary areas of impairment identified in Stage 1. Existing literature suggests that a positive parent-training programme, in the group format, is one of the best options for cost-effective and successful ADHD intervention. Hence, the intervention took that form. Parents were taught basic behaviour analysis concepts within a supportive group context. Evaluation of the intervention’s efficacy used many of the same measures as in Stage 1, but also featured semi-structured interviews with participants and naturalistic observation of parent-child interaction. We will discuss preliminary results of that evaluation. Studying functional impairment and designing intervention plans in this way will pave the way for evidence-based treatment plans for children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD.

Keywords: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, children, intervention, parenting groups

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Authors: Farzana Esmailkassam, Usakorn Kunanuvat, Zahraa Mohammed Ali

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Objective: The key barrier in Clozapine treatment of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) includes frequent bloods draws to monitor neutropenia, the main drug side effect. WBC and ANC monitoring must occur throughout treatment. Accurate WBC and ANC counts are necessary for clinical decisions to halt, modify or continue clozapine treatment. The CSAN Pronto point-of-care (POC) analyzer generates white blood cells (WBC) and absolute neutrophils (ANC) through image analysis of capillary blood. POC monitoring offers significant advantages over central laboratory testing. This study evaluated the performance of the CSAN Pronto against the Beckman DxH900 Hematology laboratory analyzer. Methods: Forty venous samples (EDTA whole blood) with varying concentrations of WBC and ANC as established on the DxH900 analyzer were tested in duplicates on three CSAN Pronto analyzers. Additionally, both venous and capillary samples were concomitantly collected from 20 volunteers and assessed on the CSAN Pronto and the DxH900 analyzer. The analytical performance including precision using liquid quality controls (QCs) as well as patient samples near the medical decision points, and linearity using a mix of high and low patient samples to create five concentrations was also evaluated. Results: In the precision study for QCs and whole blood, WBC and ANC showed CV inside the limits established according to manufacturer and laboratory acceptability standards. WBC and ANC were found to be linear across the measurement range with a correlation of 0.99. WBC and ANC from all analyzers correlated well in venous samples on the DxH900 across the tested sample ranges with a correlation of > 0.95. Mean bias in ANC obtained on the CSAN pronto versus the DxH900 was 0.07× 109 cells/L (95% L.O.A -0.25 to 0.49) for concentrations <4.0 × 109 cells/L, which includes decision-making cut-offs for continuing clozapine treatment. Mean bias in WBC obtained on the CSAN pronto versus the DxH900 was 0.34× 109 cells/L (95% L.O.A -0.13 to 0.72) for concentrations <5.0 × 109 cells/L. The mean bias was higher (-11% for ANC, 5% for WBC) at higher concentrations. The correlations between capillary and venous samples showed more variability with mean bias of 0.20 × 109 cells/L for the ANC. Conclusions: The CSAN pronto showed acceptable performance in WBC and ANC measurements from venous and capillary samples and was approved for clinical use. This testing will facilitate treatment decisions and improve clozapine uptake and compliance.

Keywords: absolute neutrophil counts, clozapine, point of care, white blood cells

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Authors: Nadzeya Marozkina, Joe Zein, Benjamin Gaston

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Introduction: We have observed that many patients with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD) benefit from asthma medications. In healthy airways, the ciliary function is normal. Antigens and irritants are rapidly cleared, and NO enters the gas phase normally to be exhaled. In the PCD airways, however, antigens, such as Dermatophagoides, are not as well cleared. This defect leads to oxidative stress, marked by increased DUOX1 expression and decreased superoxide dismutase [SOD] activity (manuscript under revision). H₂O₂, in high concentrations in the PCD airway, injures the airway. NO is oxidized rather than being exhaled, forming cytotoxic peroxynitrous acid. Thus, antigen stasis on PCD airway epithelium leads to airway injury and may predispose PCD patients to asthma. Indeed, recent population genetics suggest that PCD genes may be associated with asthma. We therefore hypothesized that PCD patients would be predisposed to having asthma. Methods. We analyzed our database of 18 million individual electronic medical records (EMRs) in the Indiana Network for Patient Care research database (INPCR). There is not an ICD10 code for PCD itself; code Q34.8 is most commonly used clinically. To validate analysis of this code, we queried patients who had an ICD10 code for both bronchiectasis and situs inversus totalis in INPCR. We also studied a validation cohort using the IBM Explorys® database (over 80 million individuals). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex and race using a 1 PCD: 3 controls matching method in INPCR and multivariable logistic regression in the IBM Explorys® database. Results. The prevalence of asthma ICD10 codes in subjects with a code Q34.8 was 67% vs 19% in controls (P < 0.0001) (Regenstrief Institute). Similarly, in IBM*Explorys, the OR [95% CI] for having asthma if a patient also had ICD10 code 34.8, relative to controls, was =4.04 [3.99; 4.09]. For situs inversus alone the OR [95% CI] was 4.42 [4.14; 4.71]; and bronchiectasis alone the OR [95% CI] =10.68 (10.56; 10.79). For both bronchiectasis and situs inversus together, the OR [95% CI] =28.80 (23.17; 35.81). Conclusions: PCD causes antigen stasis in the human airway (under review), likely predisposing to asthma in addition to oxidative and nitrosative stress and to airway injury. Here, we show that, by several different population-based metrics, and using two large databases, patients with PCD appear to have between a three- and 28-fold increased risk of having asthma. These data suggest that additional studies should be undertaken to understand the role of ciliary dysfunction in the pathogenesis and genetics of asthma. Decreased antigen clearance caused by ciliary dysfunction may be a risk factor for asthma development.

Keywords: antigen, PCD, asthma, nitric oxide

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Authors: Isalira Peroba Ramos, Cherley Borba Vieira de Andrade, Grazielle Suhett, Camila Salata, Paulo Cesar Canary, Guilherme Visconde Brasil, Antonio Carlos Campos de Carvalho, Regina Coeli dos Santos Goldenberg

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Background: The therapeutic options for patients with cancer now include increasingly complex combinations of medications, radiation therapy (RT), and surgical intervention. Many of these treatments have important potential adverse cardiac effects and are likely to have significant effects on patient outcomes. Cell therapy appears to be promising for the treatment of chronic and degenerative diseases, including cardiomyopathy induced by RT, as the current therapeutic options are insufficient. Aims: To evaluate the potential of bone marrow mesenchymal cells (BMMCs) in radioinduced cardiac damage Methods: Female Wistar rats, 3 months old (Ethics Committee 054/14), were divided into 2 groups, non-treated irradiated group (IR n=15) and irradiated and BMMC treated (IRT n=10). Echocardiography was performed to evaluate heart function. After euthanasia, 3 months post treatment; the left ventricle was removed and prepared for RT-qPCR (VEGF and Pro Collagen I) and histological (picrosirius) analysis. Results: In both groups, 45 days after irradiation, ejection fraction (EF) was in the normal range for these animals (> 70%). However, the BMMC treated group had EF (83.1%±2.6) while the non-treated IR group showed a significant reduction (76.1%±2.6) in relation to the treated group. In addition, we observed an increase in VEGF gene expression and a decrease in Pro Collagen I in IRT when compared to IR group. We also observed by histology that the collagen deposition was reduced in IRT (10.26%±0.83) when compared to IR group (25.29%±0.96). Conclusions: Treatment with BMMCs was able to prevent ejection fraction reduction and collagen deposition in irradiated animals. The increase of VEGF and the decrease of pro collagen I gene expression might explain, at least in part, the cell therapy benefits. All authors disclose no financial or personal relationships with individuals or organizations that could be perceived to bias their work. Sources of funding: FAPERJ, CAPES, CNPq, MCT.

Keywords: mesenchymal cells, radioation, cardiotoxicity, bone marrow

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Authors: Qian Wang, Haibo Gu

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To drive practical interpretations and applications of various policies in building the transnational education joint-ventures, middle managers learn to navigate through uncertainties and ambiguities. However, the current literature views very little about those middle managers’ experiences, perceptions, and practices. This paper takes the empirical approach and aims to uncover the middle managers’ experiences by conducting interviews, campus visits, and document analysis. Following the qualitative research method approach, the researchers gathered information from a mixture of fourteen foreign and Chinese managers. Their perceptions of the China-foreign cooperation in higher education and their perceived roles have offered important, valuable insights to this group of people’s attitudes and management performances. The diverse cultural and demographic backgrounds contributed to the significance of the study. There are four key findings. One, middle managers’ immediate micro-contexts and individual attitudes are the top two influential factors in managers’ performances. Two, the foreign middle managers showed a stronger sense of self-identity in risk-taking. Three, the Chinese middle managers preferred to see difficulties as part of their assigned responsibilities. Four, middle managers in independent universities demonstrated a stronger sense of belonging and fewer frustrations than middle managers in secondary institutes. The researchers propose that training for managers in a transnational educational setting should consider these discoveries when select fitting topics and content. In particular, middle managers should be better prepared to anticipate their everyday jobs in the micro-environment; hence, information concerning sponsor organizations’ working culture is as essential as knowing the national and local regulations, and socio-culture. Different case studies can help the managers to recognize and celebrate the diversity in transnational education. Situational stories can help them to become aware of the diverse and wide range of work contexts so that they will not feel to be left alone when facing challenges without relevant previous experience or training. Though this research is a case study based in the Chinese transnational higher education setting, the implications could be relevant and comparable to other transnational higher education situations and help to continue expanding the potential applications in this field.

Keywords: educational management, middle manager performance, transnational higher education

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Authors: Tunde Szecsi, Janka Szilagyi

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Students majoring in education are underrepresented in undergraduate scholarship. To enable and encourage teacher candidates to engage in scholarly activities, it is essential to infuse skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, oral and written communication, collaboration and the utilization of information literacy, into courses in teacher preparation programs. In this empirical study, we examined two teacher education programs – one in New York State and one in Florida – in terms of the approaches of the course-based infusion of skills for undergraduate research, and the effectiveness of this infusion. First, course-related documents such as syllabi, assignment descriptions, and course activities were reviewed and analyzed. The goal of the document analysis was to identify and describe the targeted skills, and the pedagogical approaches and strategies for promoting research skills in teacher candidates. Next, a selection of teacher candidates’ scholarly products from the institution in Florida was used as a data set to examine teacher candidates’ skill development in the context of the identified assignments. This dataset was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to describe the changes that occurred in teacher candidates’ critical thinking, communication, and information literacy skills, and to uncover patterns in the skill development at the two institutions. Descriptive statistics were calculated to explore the changes in these skills of teacher candidates over a period of three years. The findings based on data from the teacher education program in Florida indicated a steady gain in written communication and critical thinking and a modest increase in informational literacy. At the institution in New York, candidates’ submission and success rates on the edTPA, a New York State Teacher Certification exam, was used as a measure of scholarly skills. Overall, although different approaches were used for infusing the development of scholarly skills in the courses, the results suggest that a holistic and well-orchestrated infusion of the skills into most courses in the teacher education program might result in steadily developing scholarly skills. These results offered essential implications for teacher education programs in terms of further improvements in teacher candidates’ skills for engaging in undergraduate research and scholarship. In this presentation, our purpose is to showcase two approaches developed by two teacher education programs to demonstrate how diverse approaches toward the promotion of undergraduate scholarship activities are responsive to the context of the teacher preparation programs.

Keywords: critical thinking, pedagogical strategies, teacher education, undergraduate student research

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Authors: Ahmed Elaksher, Islam Omar

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For many years, Mars surface has been a mystery for scientists. Lately with the help of geospatial data and photogrammetric procedures researchers were able to capture some insights about this planet. Two of the most imperative data sources to explore Mars are the The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). HiRISE is one of six science instruments carried by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched August 12, 2005, and managed by NASA. The MOLA sensor is a laser altimeter carried by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and launched on November 7, 1996. In this project, we used MOLA-based DEMs to orthorectify HiRISE optical images for generating a more accurate and trustful surface of Mars. The MOLA data was interpolated using the kriging interpolation technique. Corresponding tie points were digitized from both datasets. These points were employed in co-registering both datasets using GIS analysis tools. In this project, we employed three different 3D to 2D transformation models. These are the parallel projection (3D affine) transformation model; the extended parallel projection transformation model; the Direct Linear Transformation (DLT) model. A set of tie-points was digitized from both datasets. These points were split into two sets: Ground Control Points (GCPs), used to evaluate the transformation parameters using least squares adjustment techniques, and check points (ChkPs) to evaluate the computed transformation parameters. Results were evaluated using the RMSEs between the precise horizontal coordinates of the digitized check points and those estimated through the transformation models using the computed transformation parameters. For each set of GCPs, three different configurations of GCPs and check points were tested, and average RMSEs are reported. It was found that for the 2D transformation models, average RMSEs were in the range of five meters. Increasing the number of GCPs from six to ten points improve the accuracy of the results with about two and half meters. Further increasing the number of GCPs didn’t improve the results significantly. Using the 3D to 2D transformation parameters provided three to two meters accuracy. Best results were reported using the DLT transformation model. However, increasing the number of GCPS didn’t have substantial effect. The results support the use of the DLT model as it provides the required accuracy for ASPRS large scale mapping standards. However, well distributed sets of GCPs is a key to provide such accuracy. The model is simple to apply and doesn’t need substantial computations.

Keywords: mars, photogrammetry, MOLA, HiRISE

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Authors: Piumi L. Denagamage, Vibusha Madanayake

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At the end of a 30-year civil war in Sri Lanka in 2009, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) played a prominent role in post-war development and peacebuilding. Women were a major “beneficiary” of NGO activities on socio-economic empowerment, capacity building for advocacy, and grassroots participation in activism. Undoubtedly, their contribution to Sri Lanka’s post-war transition is tremendous. As development practitioners and researchers who have worked closely with several international and national NGOs in Sri Lanka’s post-war setting, the authors, while practicing self-reflexivity, intend to theorize the grey literature prepared by NGOs against the theoretical frameworks of Transnational and Third World feminisms. Using examples of the grassroots activities conducted by the NGOs with war-affected women, the paper questions whether Colombo-based feminism represents the lived realities of grassroots women at the transnational level. It argues that Colombo-based feminists use their power and exposure to Western feminist approaches to portray diverse forms of oppression women face at grassroots levels, their needs for advocacy, and different modes of resistance on the ground. Many NGOs depend on international donor funding for their grassroots work, which also contributes to their utilization of Western-led knowledge. Despite their efforts to “save marginalized women from oppression,” these modes of intervention are often rejected by the public, including women at local levels. This has also resulted in the rejection of feminism entirely as a culturally root-less alien Western ideology. The analysis connects with the Transnational and Third World theoretical feminist perspectives to problematize the power relations between Western knowledge systems and the lived experiences of grassroots women in the peacebuilding process through NGO activism in Sri Lanka. It also emphasizes that the infiltration of Western knowledge through NGOs has led to the participation of grassroots women only through adjustments of their lived experiences to match the alien knowledge rather than theorizing based on their own lived realities. While sharing a concern that NGOs’ power to adopt Western knowledge systems is often unchecked and unmitigated, the paper signifies the importance of adopting the methods of alternative theorizing to ensure meaningful participation of Third World women in peacebuilding.

Keywords: alternative theorizing, colombo-based feminism, grassroots women in peacebuilding, NGO activism, transnational and third world feminisms

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Authors: Hamada Ahmed, Mervat A. Abdel-Latif, Alaa. A. Ghoraba, Samah A. Ganna

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An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of microbial phytase (Quantum Blue®) supplementation on layer chickens fed diets with required or low phosphorous level in corn-soybean based diets. One hundred and sixteen 23-week-old Lohman brown laying hens were used in 8-week feeding trial. Hens were randomly allotted into four treatments where the group (1) (control group) was fed basal diet without phytase, group (2) fed basal diet supplemented with phytase, group (3) fed diet supplemented with phytase as a replacement of 25% of monocalcium phosphate and group (4) fed diet supplemented with phytase as a replacement of 50% of monocalcium phosphate. Records on daily egg production, egg mass, egg weight and body weight of hens at the end of experimental period were recorded. Results revealed no significant (p ≥ 0.05) differences were observed among the other dietary treatments in BW, egg production, egg mass, feed intake or feed conversion when these parameters were evaluated over the duration of the experiment while egg weight showed significant (p < 0.05) increase in all phytase supplemented groups. There was no significant (p ≥ 0.05) differences in egg quality including egg length, egg width, egg shape index, yolk height, yolk width, yolk index, yolk weight and yolk albumin ratio while egg albumin was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in group (2) and group (3). Egg shell weight increased significantly (p < 0.05) in all phytase supplemented groups when compared with the control group also shell thickness increased significantly (p < 0.05) in both group (2 &3). No significant (P ≥ 0.05) difference was observed in serum Ca, P level while alkaline phosphatase was significantly (P ˂ 0.05) increased in group (3). Egg shell analysis showed increase in egg shell ash% in all phytase supplemented groups when compared with the control group, egg shell calcium % was higher in group (3) and group (4) than the control group while group (2) showed lower egg shell calcium% than the other experimental groups, egg shell phosphorous% was higher in all phytase supplemented groups than the control group. Phosphorous digestability was significantly (P ˂ 0.05) increased in all phytase supplemented groups than the control group and the highest p digestability was in group (4). Calcium digestability showed significant (P ˂ 0.05) increase in all phytase supplemented groups when compared with the control group and the highest digetability was in group (4).

Keywords: layers, microbial phytase, Ca and P availability, egg production, egg characteristics

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Authors: Salma Akter, Md. Kamal Uddin

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Ashrayan (shelter) Prakalpa – a fully subsidized ‘integrated poverty eradication program’ through the provisioning of shelter of Bangladesh Government (GoB) targeting the internally displaced and homeless. In spite of the inclusiveness (poverty alleviation, employment opportunity, Tenure ship and training) of the shelter policy, dwellers are not merely questioned by the issue of 'the quality of life' .This study demonstrates how top-down policies, ambiguous ownership status of land and dwelling environments lead to ‘everyday compromise’ by the grassroots in both subjective (satisfaction, comfort and safety) and objective (physical design elements and physical environmental elements) issues in three respective scale macro (neighborhood) meso (shelter /built environment) and micro(family). It shows that by becoming subject to Government’s resettlements policies and after becoming user of its shelter units (although locally known as ‘barracks’ rather shelter or housing), the once displaced settlers assume a curious form of spatial practice where both social and spatial often bear slippery meanings. Thus, Policy-based shelter force the dwellers frequently compromise with their provided built environments and spaces within the settlements both in overtly and covertly. Compromises are made during the production of space and forms, whereas interesting new spaces and space-making practices emerge. The settlements under study are Dakshin Chandani Mahal Ashrayan Prakalpa located at the Eastern fringe area of Khulna, Bangladesh. In terms of methodology, this research is primarily exploratory and assumes a qualitative approach. Key tools used to obtain information are policy analysis, literature review, key informant interview, focus group discussion and participant observation at the level of dwelling and settlements. Necessary drawings and photographs have been taken to promote the study objective. Findings revealed that various shortages, inadequacies and negligence of policymakers make a compromising character of displaced by the means of 'quality of life' both in objective and subjective ground. Thus the study ends up with a recommendation to the policymakers to take an initiative to ensure the quality of life of the dwellers.

Keywords: Ashrayan, compromise, displaced people, quality of life

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Authors: E. H. Szeto, E. Ammendola, J. V. Tabares, A. Starkey, J. Hay, J. G. McClung, C. J. Bryan

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Introduction: Suicide is a leading cause of death globally, which accounts for more deaths annually than war, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, homicides, and car accidents, while an estimated 140 million individuals have significant suicide ideation (SI) each year in the United States. Typical risk factors such as hopelessness, depression, and psychiatric disorders can predict suicide ideation but cannot distinguish between those who ideate from those who attempt suicide (SA). The Fluid Vulnerability Theory of suicide posits that a person’s activation of the suicidal mode is predicated on one’s predisposition, triggers, baseline/acute risk, and protective factors. The current study compares self-conscious cognitive-affective states (including guilt, shame, anger towards the self, and suicidal beliefs) among patients based on the endorsement of recent SI (i.e., past two weeks; acute risk) and lifetime SA (i.e., baseline risk). Method: A total of 2,722 individuals in an outpatient primary care setting were included in this cross-sectional, observational study; data for 2,584 were valid and retained for analysis. The Differential Emotions Scale measuring guilt, shame, and self-anger and the Suicide Cognitions Scale measuring suicide cognitions were administered. Results: A total of 2,222 individuals reported no recent SI or lifetime SA (Group 1), 161 reported recent SI only (Group 2), 145 reported lifetime SA only (Group 3), 56 reported both recent SI and lifetime SA (Group 4). The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that guilt, shame, self-anger, and suicide cognitions were the highest for Group 4 (both recent SI and lifetime SA), followed by Group 2 (recent SI-only), then Group 3 (lifetime SA-only), and lastly, Group 1 (no recent SI or lifetime SA). Conclusion: The results on recent SI-only versus lifetime SA-only contribute to the literature on the Fluid Vulnerability Theory of suicide by capturing SI and SA in two different time periods, which signify the acute risks and chronic baseline risks of the suicidal mode, respectively. It is also shown that: (a) people with a lifetime SA reported more severe symptoms than those without, (b) people with recent SI reported more severe symptoms than those without, and (c) people with both recent SI and lifetime SA were the most severely distressed. Future studies may replicate the findings here with other pertinent risk factors such as thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capability, the last of which is consistently linked to attempting among ideators.

Keywords: suicide, guilt, shame, self-anger, suicide cognitions, suicide ideation, suicide attempt

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Authors: Minjuan Sun

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Ever since the late 1990s, China has experienced explosive growth in consumer lending, especially in short-term consumer loans, among which, the growth rate of non-bank lending has surpassed bank lending due to the development in financial technology. On the other hand, China does not have a universal credit scoring and registration system that can guide lenders during the processes of credit evaluation and risk control, for example, an individual’s bank credit records are not available for online lenders to see and vice versa. Given this context, the purpose of this paper is three-fold. First, we explore if and how alternative digital footprint data can be utilized to assess borrower’s creditworthiness. Then, we perform a comparative analysis of machine learning methods for the canonical problem of credit default prediction. Finally, we analyze, from an institutional point of view, the necessity of establishing a viable and nationally universal credit registration and scoring system utilizing online digital footprints, so that more people in China can have better access to the consumption loan market. Two different types of digital footprint data are utilized to match with bank’s loan default records. Each separately captures distinct dimensions of a person’s characteristics, such as his shopping patterns and certain aspects of his personality or inferred demographics revealed by social media features like profile image and nickname. We find both datasets can generate either acceptable or excellent prediction results, and different types of data tend to complement each other to get better performances. Typically, the traditional types of data banks normally use like income, occupation, and credit history, update over longer cycles, hence they can’t reflect more immediate changes, like the financial status changes caused by the business crisis; whereas digital footprints can update daily, weekly, or monthly, thus capable of providing a more comprehensive profile of the borrower’s credit capabilities and risks. From the empirical and quantitative examination, we believe digital footprints can become an alternative information source for creditworthiness assessment, because of their near-universal data coverage, and because they can by and large resolve the "thin-file" issue, due to the fact that digital footprints come in much larger volume and higher frequency.

Keywords: credit score, digital footprint, Fintech, machine learning

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Authors: Dana El-Mughayyar, Neil Manson, Erin Bigney, Eden Richardson, Dean Tripp, Edward Abraham

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Use of narcotics to treat pain has increased over the past two decades and is a contributing factor to the current public health crisis. Understanding the pre-operative risks of chronic narcotic use may be aided through investigation of psychological measures. The objective of the reported study is to determine predictors of narcotic use two years post-surgery in a thoracolumbar spine surgery population, including an array of psychological factors. A prospective observational study of 191 consecutively enrolled adult patients having undergone thoracolumbar spine surgery is presented. Baseline measures of interest included the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia, Multidimensional Scale for Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ-8), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Numeric Rating Scales for back and leg pain (NRS-B/L), SF-12’s Mental Component Summary (MCS), narcotic use and demographic variables. The post-operative measure of interest is narcotic use at 2-year follow-up. Narcotic use is collapsed into binary categories of use and no use. Descriptive statistics are run. Chi Square analysis is used for categorical variables and an ANOVA for continuous variables. Significant variables are built into a hierarchical logistic regression to determine predictors of post-operative narcotic use. Significance is set at α < 0.05. Results: A total of 27.23% of the sample were using narcotics two years after surgery. The regression model included ODI, NRS-Leg, time with condition, chief complaint, pre-operative drug use, gender, MCS, PCS subscale helplessness, and CPAQ subscale pain willingness and was significant χ² (13, N=191)= 54.99; p = .000. The model accounted for 39.6% of the variance in narcotic use and correctly predicted in 79.7% of cases. Psychological variables accounted for 9.6% of the variance over and above the other predictors. Conclusions: Managing chronic narcotic usage is central to the patient’s overall health and quality of life. Psychological factors in the preoperative period are significant predictors of narcotic use 2 years post-operatively. The psychological variables are malleable, potentially allowing surgeons to direct their patients to preventative resources prior to surgery.

Keywords: narcotics, psychological factors, quality of life, spine surgery

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Authors: Joulié Aurélien, Jourdain Elsa, Bailly Xavier, Gasqui Patrick, Yang Elise, Leblond Agnès, Rousset Elodie, Sidi-Boumedine Karim

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Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis caused by the gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Following the recent outbreaks in the Netherlands, a hyper virulent clone was found to be the cause of severe human cases of Q fever. In livestock, Q fever clinical manifestations are mainly abortions. Although the abortion rates differ between ruminant species, C. burnetii’s virulence remains understudied, especially in enzootic areas. In this study, the infectious potential of three C. burnetii isolates collected from French farms of small ruminants were compared to the reference strain Nine Mile (in phase II and in an intermediate phase) using an in vivo (CD1 mice) model. Mice were challenged with 105 live bacteria discriminated by propidium monoazide-qPCR targeting the icd-gene. After footpad inoculation, spleen and popliteal lymph node were harvested at 10 days post-inoculation (p.i). The strain invasiveness in spleen and popliteal nodes was assessed by qPCR assays targeting the icd-gene. Preliminary results showed that the avirulent strains (in phase 2) failed to pass the popliteal barrier and then to colonize the spleen. This model allowed a significant differentiation between strain’s invasiveness on biological host and therefore identifying distinct virulence profiles. In view of these results, we plan to go further by testing fifteen additional C. burnetii isolates from French farms of sheep, goat and cattle by using the above-mentioned in vivo model. All 15 strains display distant MLVA (multiple-locus variable-number of tandem repeat analysis) genotypic profiles. Five of the fifteen isolates will bee also tested in vitro on ovine and bovine macrophage cells. Cells and supernatants will be harvested at day1, day2, day3 and day6 p.i to assess in vitro multiplication kinetics of strains. In conclusion, our findings might help the implementation of surveillance of virulent strains and ultimately allow adapting prophylaxis measures in livestock farms.

Keywords: Q fever, invasiveness, ruminant, virulence

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Authors: Madhura Yadav

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Urban redevelopment planning initiatives in developing countries have been largely criticised due to top-down planning approach and lack of involvement of the targeted beneficiaries which have led to a challenging situation which is contrary to the perceived needs of beneficiaries. Urban renewal projects improve the lives of people and meaningful participation of community plays a pivotal role. Public perceptions on satisfaction and participation have been given less priority in the investigation, which hinders effective planning and implementation of urban renewal projects. Moreover, challenges of community participation in urban renewal projects are less documented, particularly in relation to public participation and satisfaction. There is a need for new paradigm shift focusing on community participatory approach in urban renewal projects. The over 125-year-old Bhendi Bazar in Mumbai, India is the country’s first ever cluster redevelopment project, popularly known as Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment and it will be one of the largest projects for urban rejuvenation of one of Mumbai’s oldest and dying inner city areas. The project is led by the community trust, inputs were taken from various stakeholders, including residents, commercial tenants and expert consultants to shape the master plan and design of the project. The project started in 2016 but there is a significant delay in implementing the project. The study aimed at studying and assessing public perceptions on satisfaction and the relationship between community participation and community satisfaction in Bhendi Bazaar of Mumbai, India. Furthermore, the study will outline the challenges and problems of community participation in urban renewal projects and it suggests recommendations for the future. The qualitative and quantitative methods such as reconnaissance survey, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, walking interviews, a narrative inquiry is used for analysis of data. Preliminary findings revealed that all tenants are satisfied for the redevelopment of an area but the willingness of residential tenants to move in transit accommodation has made the projects successful and reductant of some residential and commercial tenants, regulatory provisions rising to face challenges in implementation. Experiences from the case study can help to understand dynamics behind public participation and government. At the same time, they serve as an inspiration and learning opportunity for future projects to ensure that they are sustainable not only from an economic standpoint but also, a social perspective.

Keywords: urban renewal, Bhendi Bazaar, community participation, satisfaction, social perspective

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Authors: Afees Adebayo Salam

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This paper attempts an in-depth analysis of the economic impact of Ogbomoso migrant community in the Jos metropolis. It discusses the factors that motivated a sizeable number of Ogbomoso people (from southwestern Nigeria) to leave their hometown for a new place/space in Jos (northern Nigeria). It examines the historical antecedent of Ogbomoso migrants in northern Nigeria with emphasis on Jos metropolis. The movement of Ogbomoso migrants to Jos was dictated by the economic and social challenges of colonial and post-colonial periods. The political crisis of the 1960s was a contributory factor to the process of Ogbomoso migration to other parts of Nigeria. In the aftermath, many people migrated from Ogbomoso to different parts of the country and beyond to seek for better economic opportunities. The establishment of Ogbomoso migrant community in Jos was dated back to the colonial era when taxation was introduced by the British. Many people could not pay these taxes from their peasant farming activities, while some embarked on migration to places such as Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Keffi and Bauchi due to the harsh economic situation at home. Their settlement in Jos brought about success in several spheres of human endeavours. Ogbomoso migrants dominated both paid jobs and private business sector such as textile merchants, food stuff sellers, herbalists, printers, transporters, and religious missionaries, as well as clerical officers in the government establishments. Their remittances were invested in different sectors of Ogbomoso economy. The migrants had in one way or the other contributed to the socio-economic development of their host community in Jos as entrepreneurs. Branches of such industries were located in their hometown of Ogbomoso as a clear demonstration of community development. The remittance pattern of the migrants has transformed Ogbomoso to enviable position. Moreover, the economic success of Ogbomoso migrants over the period under review indicates the process of nation building due to peaceful nature of inter-ethnic engagements between Ogbomoso migrants and their host community in Jos. Therefore, the paper makes use of oral, archival and secondary sources to analyse the processes of migration and its economic impact. Oral interviews were conducted in Ogbomoso town with veteran migrants and their family members. Interviews were also conducted in Jos with the indigenous host community as well as other urban residents. Archival materials were obtained from Arewa House Archives and the National Archives, Kaduna and the National Archives, Ibadan.

Keywords: Ogbomoso migrants, Jos metropolis, community development, economic impact

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Authors: Fentie, Belay, Mulat

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In today’s high decrement figure of the global economy, nations are facing many economic, social and political challenges; universally, there is high distress of food and other survival insecurity. Further, as a result of conflict, natural disasters, and leadership influences, youths are existentially less empowered and unemployed, especially in developing countries. With this situation to handle well challenges, it’s important to search, investigate and deliberate about youth, unemployment, empowerment and possible management fashions, as youths have the potential to carry and fight such battles. The method adopted is a qualitative analysis of secondary data sources in youth empowerment, unemployment and development as an inclusive framework. Youth unemployment is a major development headache for most African countries. In Ethiopia, following weak youth empowerment, youth unemployment has increased from time to time, and quality education and organization linkage matter as an important constraint. As a management challenge, although accessibility of quality education for Ethiopian youths is an important constraint, the country's youths are fortified deceptively and harassed in a vicious political challenge in their struggle to fetch social and economic changes in the country. Further, thousands of youths are inactivated, criminalized and lost their lives and this makes youths hopeless anger in their lives and pushes them further to be exposed for addictions, prostitution, violence, and illegitimate migrations. This youth challenge wasn’t only destined for African countries; rather, indeed, it was a global burden and headed as a global agenda. As a resolution, the construction of a healthy education system can create independent youths who acquire success and accelerate development. Developing countries should ensue development in the cultivation of empowerment tools through long and short-term education, implementing policy in action, diminishing wide-ranging gaps of (religion, ethnicity & region), and take high youth population as an opportunity and empower them. Further managing and empowering youths to be involved in decision-making, giving political weight and building a network of organizations to easily access job opportunities are important suggestions to save youths in work, for both increasing their income and the country's food security balance.

Keywords: development, Ethiopia, management, unemployment, youth empowerment

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Authors: Ahmeda Ali, Mary Codd, Susan Brundage

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Importance: This research focuses on devising and improving Health Service Executive (HSE) policy and legislation and therefore improving patient trauma care and outcomes in Ireland. Objectives: The study measures components of the Trauma System in the district hospital setting of the Cavan/Monaghan Hospital Group (CMHG), HSE, Ireland, and uses the collected data to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the CMHG Trauma System organisation, to include governance, injury data, prevention and quality improvement, scene care and facility-based care, and rehabilitation. The information will be made available to local policy makers to provide objective situational analysis to assist in future trauma service planning and service provision. Design, setting and participants: From 28 April to May 28, 2016 a cross-sectional survey using World Health Organisation (WHO) Trauma System Assessment Tool (TSAT) was conducted among healthcare professionals directly involved in the level III trauma system of CMHG. Main outcomes: Identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the Trauma System of CMHG. Results: The participants who reported inadequate funding for pre hospital (62.3%) and facility based trauma care at CMHG (52.5%) were high. Thirty four (55.7%) respondents reported that a national trauma registry (TARN) exists but electronic health records are still not used in trauma care. Twenty one respondents (34.4%) reported that there are system wide protocols for determining patient destination and adequate, comprehensive legislation governing the use of ambulances was enforced, however, there is a lack of a reliable advisory service. Over 40% of the respondents reported uncertainty of the injury prevention programmes available in Ireland; as well as the allocated government funding for injury and violence prevention. Conclusions: The results of this study contributed to a comprehensive assessment of the trauma system organisation. The major findings of the study identified three fundamental areas: the inadequate funding at CMHG, the QI techniques and corrective strategies used, and the unfamiliarity of existing prevention strategies. The findings direct the need for further research to guide future development of the trauma system at CMHG (and in Ireland as a whole) in order to maximise best practice and to improve functional and life outcomes.

Keywords: trauma, education, management, system

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Authors: Emielex M. Aguilar, Kristen Angela G. Cruz, Czarina Joie L. Rivera, Francis Dave C. Tan, Gavino Ivan N. Tanodra, Dianne Katrina G. Usana, Mary Grace T. Valentin, Nico Albert S. Vasquez, Edwin Monico C. Wee

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The risk of diabetes mellitus is increasing in the Philippines, with Metformin and Insulin as drugs commonly used for its management. The use of herbal medicines has grown increasingly, especially among the elderly population. Moringa oleifera or malunggay is one of the most common plants in the country, and several studies have shown the plant to exhibit a hypoglycemic property with its flavonoid content. This study aims to investigate the possible effects of concomitant use of Metformin and powdered M. oleifera leaves (PMOL) on blood glucose levels. Twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats were equally distributed into four groups. Fasting blood glucose levels of the rats were measured prior to experimentation. The following treatments were administered to the four groups, respectively: glucose only 2 g/kg; glucose 2 g/kg + Metformin 100 mg/kg; glucose 2 g/kg + PMOL 200 mg/kg; and glucose 2 g/kg + PMOL 200 mg/kg and Metformin 100 mg/kg. Blood glucose levels were determined on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th hour post-treatment and compared between groups. Statistical analysis showed that the type of intervention did not show significance in the reduction of blood glucose levels when compared with the other groups (p=0.378), while the effect of time exhibited significance (p=0.000). The interaction between the type of intervention and time of blood glucose measurement was shown to be significant (p=0.024). Within each group, the control and PMOL-treated groups showed significant reduction in blood glucose levels over time with p-values of 0.000 and 0.000, respectively, while the Metformin-treated and the combination groups had p-values of 0.062 and 0.093, respectively, which are not significant. The descriptive data also showed that the mean total reduction of blood glucose levels of the Metformin and PMOL combination treatment group was lower than the PMOL-treated group alone, while the mean total reduction of blood glucose levels of the combination group was higher than the Metformin-treated group alone. Based on the results obtained, the combination of Metformin and PMOL did not significantly lower the blood glucose levels of the rats as compared to the other groups. However, the concomitant use of Metformin and PMOL may affect each other’s blood glucose lowering activity. Additionally, prolonged time of exposure and delay in the first blood glucose measurement after treatment could exhibit a significant effect in the blood glucose levels. Further studies are recommended regarding the effects of the concomitant use of the two agents on blood glucose levels.

Keywords: blood glucose levels, concomitant use, metformin, Moringa oleifera

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Authors: Kateryna Nykytchenko

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Modern fiction and non-fiction writers commonly use their own lexical and stylistic devices to capture a reader’s attention and bring certain thoughts and feelings to his reader. Among such devices is the appearance of one of the neologic notions – individual author’s formations: occasionalisms or nonce words. To a significant extent, the host of examples of new words occurs in chick lit genre which has experienced exponential growth in recent years. Chick Lit is a new-millennial postfeminist fiction which focuses primarily on twenty- to thirtysomething middle-class women. It brings into focus the image of 'a new woman' of the 21st century who is always fallible, funny. This paper aims to investigate different types of occasional word-formation which reflect cognitive mechanisms of conveying women’s perception of the world. Chick lit novels of Irish author Marian Keyes present genuinely innovative mixture of forms, both literary and nonliterary which is displayed in different types of occasional word-formation processes such as blending, compounding, creative respelling, etc. Crossing existing mental and linguistic boundaries, adopting herself to new and overlapping linguistic spaces, chick lit author creates new words which demonstrate the result of development and progress of language and the relationship between language, thought and new reality, ultimately resulting in hybrid word-formation (e.g. affixation or pseudoborrowing). Moreover, this article attempts to present the main characteristics of chick-lit fiction genre with the help of the Marian Keyes’s novels and their influence on occasionalisms. There has been a lack of research concerning cognitive nature of occasionalisms. The current paper intends to account for occasional word-formation as a set of interconnected cognitive mechanisms, operations and procedures meld together to create a new word. The results of the generalized analysis solidify arguments that the kind of new knowledge an occasionalism manifests is inextricably linked with cognitive procedure underlying it, which results in corresponding type of word-formation processes. In addition, the findings of the study reveal that the necessity of creating occasionalisms in postmodern fiction novels arises from the need to write in a new way keeping up with a perpetually developing world, and thus the evolution of the speaker herself and her perception of the world.

Keywords: Chick Lit, occasionalism, occasional word-formation, cognitive linguistics

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Authors: Fernando M. Soto, Gaetano Di Mino

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The design of an unmodified bituminous mixture and three rubber-aggregate mixtures containing rubber-aggregate by a dry process (RUMAC) was evaluated, using an empirical-analytical approach based on experimental findings obtained in the laboratory with the volumetric mix design by gyratory compaction. A reference dense-graded bituminous sub-ballast mixture (3% of air voids and a bitumen 4% over the total weight of the mix), and three rubberized mixtures by dry process (1,5 to 3% of rubber by total weight and 5-7% of binder) were used applying the Superpave mix-design for a level 3 (high-traffic) design rail lines. The railway trackbed section analyzed was a granular layer of 19 cm compacted, while for the sub-ballast a thickness of 12 cm has been used. In order to evaluate the effect of increasing the specimen density (as a percent of its theoretical maximum specific gravity), in this article, are illustrated the results obtained after different comparative analysis into the influence of varying the binder-rubber percentages under the sub-ballast layer mix-design. This work demonstrates that rubberized blends containing crumb and ground rubber in bituminous asphalt mixtures behave at least similar or better than conventional asphalt materials. By using the same methodology of volumetric compaction, the densification curves resulting from each mixture have been studied. The purpose is to obtain an optimum empirical parameter multiplier of the number of gyrations necessary to reach the same compaction energy as in conventional mixtures. It has provided some experimental parameters adopting an empirical-analytical method, evaluating the results obtained from the gyratory-compaction of bituminous mixtures with an HMA and rubber-aggregate blends. An extensive integrated research has been carried out to assess the suitability of rubber-modified hot mix asphalt mixtures as a sub-ballast layer in railway underlayment trackbed. Design optimization of the mixture was conducted for each mixture and the volumetric properties analyzed. Also, an improved and complete manufacturing process, compaction and curing of these blends are provided. By adopting this increase-parameters of compaction, called 'beta' factor, mixtures modified with rubber with uniform densification and workability are obtained that in the conventional mixtures. It is found that considering the usual bearing capacity requirements in rail track, the optimal rubber content is 2% (by weight) or 3.95% (by volumetric substitution) and a binder content of 6%.

Keywords: empirical approach, rubber-asphalt, sub-ballast, superpave mix-design

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Authors: Matej Komanec, Jan Bohata, Stanislav Zvanovec, Tomas Nemecek, Jan Broucek, Josef Beran

Abstract:

With the exponential growth of social networks, video streaming and increasing demands on data rates, the number of newly built data centers rises proportionately. The data centers, however, have to adjust to the rapidly increased amount of data that has to be processed. For this purpose, multi-mode (MM) fiber based infrastructures are often employed. It stems from the fact, the connections in data centers are typically realized within a short distance, and the application of MM fibers and components considerably reduces costs. On the other hand, the usage of MM components brings specific requirements for installation service conditions. Moreover, it has to be taken into account that MM fiber components have a higher production tolerance for parameters like core and cladding diameters, eccentricity, etc. Due to the high demands for the reliability of data center components, the determination of properly excited optical field inside the MM fiber core belongs to the key parameters while designing such an MM optical system architecture. Appropriately excited mode field of the MM fiber provides optimal power budget in connections, leads to the decrease of insertion losses (IL) and achieves effective modal bandwidth (EMB). The main parameter, in this case, is the encircled flux (EF), which should be properly defined for variable optical sources and consequent different mode-field distribution. In this paper, we present detailed investigation and measurements of the mode field distribution for short MM links purposed in particular for data centers with the emphasis on reliability and safety. These measurements are essential for large MM network design. The various scenarios, containing different fibers and connectors, were tested in terms of IL and mode-field distribution to reveal potential challenges. Furthermore, we focused on estimation of particular defects and errors, which can realistically occur like eccentricity, connector shifting or dust, were simulated and measured, and their dependence to EF statistics and functionality of data center infrastructure was evaluated. The experimental tests were performed at two wavelengths, commonly used in MM networks, of 850 nm and 1310 nm to verify EF statistics. Finally, we provide recommendations for data center systems and networks, using OM3 and OM4 MM fiber connections.

Keywords: optical fiber, multi-mode, data centers, encircled flux

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