Search results for: individual and household activities

Authors: Marriette Sakah, Samuel Gyamfi, Morkporkpor Delight Sedzro, Christoph Kuhn

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Ghana is experiencing rapid economic development and its cities command an increasingly dominant role as centers of both production and consumption. Cities run on energy and are extremely vulnerable to energy scarcity, energy price escalations and health impacts of very poor air quality. The overriding concern in Ghana and other West African states is bridging the gap between energy demand and supply. Energy efficiency presents a cost-effective solution for supply challenges by enabling more coverage with current power supply levels and reducing the need for investment in additional generation capacity and grid infrastructure. In Ghana, major issues for energy policy formulation in residential applications include lack of disaggregated electrical energy consumption data and lack of thorough understanding with regards to socio-economic influences on energy efficiency investment. This study uses a bottom up approach to estimate baseline electricity end-use as well as the energy consumption of best available technologies to enable estimation of energy-efficiency resource in terms of relative reduction in total energy use for Tema city, Ghana. A ground survey was conducted to assess the probable consumer behavior in response to energy efficiency initiatives to enable estimation of the amount of savings that would occur in response to specific policy interventions with regards to funding and incentives provision targeted at households. Results show that 16% - 54% reduction in annual electricity consumption is reasonably achievable depending on the level of incentives provision. The saved energy could supply 10000 - 34000 additional households if the added households use only best available technology. Political support and consumer awareness are necessary to translate energy efficiency resources into real energy savings.

Keywords: achievable energy savings, energy efficiency, Ghana, household appliances

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Authors: Hernández Marieta, Aguayo Mauricio, Pedreros María, Llompart Ovidio

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The hydrological cycle is influenced by multiple factors, including climate change, land use changes, and anthropogenic activities, all of which threaten water availability and quality worldwide. In recent decades, numerous investigations have used landscape metrics and hydrological modeling to demonstrate the influence of landscape patterns on the hydrological cycle components' natural dynamics. Many of these investigations have determined the repercussions on the quality and availability of water, sedimentation, and erosion regime, mainly in Asian basins. In fact, there is progress in this branch of science, but there are still unanswered questions for our region. This study examines the hydrological response in Chilean basins under various land use change scenarios (LUCC) and the influence of climate change. The components of the water cycle were modeled using a physically distributed type hydrological and hydraulic simulation model based on and oriented to mountain basins TETIS model. Future climate data were derived from Chilean regional simulations using the WRF-MIROC5 model, forced with the RCP 8.5 scenario, at a 25 km resolution for the periods 2030-2060 and 2061-2091. LUCC scenarios were designed based on nature-based solutions, landscape pattern influences, current national and international water conservation legislation, and extreme scenarios of non-preservation and conservation of native forests. The scenarios that demonstrate greater water availability, even under climate change, are those promoting the restoration of native forests in over 30% of the basins, even alongside agricultural activities. Current legislation promoting the restoration of native forests only in riparian zones (30-60 m or 200 m in steeper areas) will not be resilient enough to address future water shortages. Evapotranspiration, direct runoff, and water availability at basin outlets showed the greatest variations due to LUCC. The relationship between hydrological modeling and landscape configuration is an effective tool for establishing future territorial planning that prioritizes water resource protection.

Keywords: TETIS, landscape pattern, hydrological process, water availability, Chilean basins

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Authors: Chloe E. Edwards, Yasaman Shahtaheri

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Risk management plays a fundamental role in project planning and delivery. The purpose of incorporating risk management into project management practices is to identify and address uncertainties related to key project-related activities. The uncertainties, known as risk events, can relate to project deliverables that are quantifiable and are often measured by impact to project schedule, cost, or environmental impact. Risk management should be incorporated as an iterative practice throughout the planning, execution, and commissioning phases of a project. This paper specifically examines how risk management contributes to effective project planning and delivery through a case study of a transportation project. This case study focused solely on impacts to project schedule regarding three milestones: readiness for delivery, readiness for testing and commissioning, and completion of the facility. The case study followed the ISO 31000: Risk Management – Guidelines. The key factors that are outlined by these guidelines include understanding the scope and context of the project, conducting a risk assessment including identification, analysis, and evaluation, and lastly, risk treatment through mitigation measures. This process requires continuous consultation with subject matter experts and monitoring to iteratively update the risks accordingly. The risk identification process led to a total of fourteen risks related to design, permitting, construction, and commissioning. The analysis involved running 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations through @RISK 8.0 Industrial software to determine potential milestone completion dates based on the project baseline schedule. These dates include the best case, most likely case, and worst case to provide an estimated delay for each milestone. Evaluation of these results provided insight into which risks were the highest contributors to the projected milestone completion dates. Based on the analysis results, the risk management team was able to provide recommendations for mitigation measures to reduce the likelihood of risks occurring. The risk management team also provided recommendations for managing the identified risks and project activities moving forward to meet the most likely or best-case milestone completion dates.

Keywords: construction management, monte carlo simulation, project delivery, risk assessment, transportation engineering

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Authors: Reem Alshiha, Tanzila Saba

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Physical rehabilitation is the process of helping people to recover and be able to go back to their former activities that have been delayed due to external factors such as car accidents, old age and victims of strokes (chronic diseases and accidents, and those related to sport activities).The cost of hiring a personal nurse or driving the patient to and from the hospital could be costly and time-consuming. Also, there are other factors to take into account such as forgetfulness, boredom and lack of motivation. In order to solve this dilemma, some experts came up with rehabilitation software to be used with Microsoft Kinect to help the patients and their families for in-home rehabilitation. In home rehabilitation software is becoming more and more popular, since it is more convenient for all parties affiliated with the patient. In contrast to the other costly market-based systems that have no portability, Microsoft’s Kinect is a portable motion sensor that reads body movements and interprets it. New software development has made rehabilitation games available to be used at home for the convenience of the patient. The game will benefit its users (rehabilitation patients) in saving time and money. There are many software's that are used with the Kinect for rehabilitation, but the software that is chosen in this research is Kinectotherapy. Kinectotherapy software is used for rehabilitation patients in Riyadh clinics to test its acceptance by patients and their physicians. In this study, we used Kinect because it was affordable, portable and easy to access in contrast to expensive market-based motion sensors. This paper explores the importance of in-home rehabilitation by using Kinect with Kinectotherapy software. The software targets both upper and lower limbs, but in this research, the main focus is on upper-limb functionality. However, the in-home rehabilitation is applicable to be used by all patients with motor disability, since the patient must have some self-reliance. The targeted subjects are patients with minor motor impairment that are somewhat independent in their mobility. The presented work is the first to consider the implementation of in-home rehabilitation with real-time feedback to the patient and physician. This research proposes the implementation of in-home rehabilitation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The findings show that most of the patients are interested and motivated in using the in-home rehabilitation system in the future. The main value of the software application is due to these factors: improve patient engagement through stimulating rehabilitation, be a low cost rehabilitation tool and reduce the need for expensive one-to-one clinical contact. Rehabilitation is a crucial treatment that can improve the quality of life and confidence of the patient as well as their self-esteem.

Keywords: x-box, rehabilitation, physical therapy, rehabilitation software, kinect

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Authors: Chengxuan Geng, Yizhou E

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This paper mainly examines the changes in the relationship between earnings management and audit quality before and after financial crisis in the context of American firms from 2005 to 2010. Based on a sample of 3584 firm year observations, we find that there are changes concerning the relation between accrual-based earnings management and audit quality during the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods. However, the results do not provide enough evidence with regard to the variances in the association between real activities earnings management and audit quality during these two periods.

Keywords: audit quality, earnings management, financial crisis, relationship

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Authors: Jennifer Buz, Alvin Spivey

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The most common greenhouse gas emitted through human activities, carbon dioxide (CO2), is naturally consumed by plants during photosynthesis. This process is actively being monetized by companies wishing to offset their carbon dioxide emissions. For example, companies are now able to purchase protections for vegetated land due-to-be clear cut or purchase barren land for reforestation. Therefore, by actively preventing the destruction/decay of plant matter or by introducing more plant matter (reforestation), a company can theoretically offset some of their emissions. One of the biggest issues in the carbon credit market is validating and verifying carbon offsets. There is a need for a system that can accurately and frequently ensure that the areas sold for carbon credits have the vegetation mass (and therefore for carbon offset capability) they claim. Traditional techniques for measuring vegetation mass and determining health are costly and require many person-hours. Orbital Sidekick offers an alternative approach that accurately quantifies carbon mass and assesses vegetation health through satellite hyperspectral imagery, a technique which enables us to remotely identify material composition (including plant species) and condition (e.g., health and growth stage). How much carbon a plant is capable of storing ultimately is tied to many factors, including material density (primarily species-dependent), plant size, and health (trees that are actively decaying are not effectively storing carbon). All of these factors are capable of being observed through satellite hyperspectral imagery. This abstract focuses on speciation. To build a species classification model, we matched pixels in our remote sensing imagery to plants on the ground for which we know the species. To accomplish this, we collaborated with the researchers at the Teakettle Experimental Forest. Our remote sensing data comes from our airborne “Kato” sensor, which flew over the study area and acquired hyperspectral imagery (400-2500 nm, 472 bands) at ~0.5 m/pixel resolution. Coverage of the entire teakettle experimental forest required capturing dozens of individual hyperspectral images. In order to combine these images into a mosaic, we accounted for potential variations of atmospheric conditions throughout the data collection. To do this, we ran an open source atmospheric correction routine called ISOFIT1 (Imaging Spectrometer Optiman FITting), which converted all of our remote sensing data from radiance to reflectance. A database of reflectance spectra for each of the tree species within the study area was acquired using the Teakettle stem map and the geo-referenced hyperspectral images. We found that a wide variety of machine learning classifiers were able to identify the species within our images with high (>95%) accuracy. For the most robust quantification of carbon mass and the best assessment of the health of a vegetated area, speciation is critical. Through the use of high resolution hyperspectral data, ground-truth databases, and complex analytical techniques, we are able to determine the species present within a pixel to a high degree of accuracy. These species identifications will feed directly into our carbon mass model.

Keywords: hyperspectral, satellite, carbon, imagery, python, machine learning, speciation

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Authors: Trevor Toy, Josef Langerman

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Around a quarter of the world’s data is generated by financial with an estimated 708.5 billion global non-cash transactions reached between 2018 and. And with Open Banking still a rapidly developing concept within the financial industry, there is an opportunity to create a secure mechanism for connecting its stakeholders to openly, legitimately and consensually share the data required to enable it. Integration and data sharing of anonymised transactional data are still operated in silos and centralised between the large corporate entities in the ecosystem that have the resources to do so. Smaller fintechs generating data and businesses looking to consume data are largely excluded from the process. Therefore there is a growing demand for accessible transactional data for analytical purposes and also to support the rapid global adoption of Open Banking. The following research has provided a solution framework that aims to provide a secure decentralised marketplace for 1.) data providers to list their transactional data, 2.) data consumers to find and access that data, and 3.) data subjects (the individuals making the transactions that generate the data) to manage and sell the data that relates to themselves. The platform also provides an integrated system for downstream transactional-related data from merchants, enriching the data product available to build a comprehensive view of a data subject’s spending habits. A robust and sustainable data market can be developed by providing a more accessible mechanism for data producers to monetise their data investments and encouraging data subjects to share their data through the same financial incentives. At the centre of the platform is the market mechanism that connects the data providers and their data subjects to the data consumers. This core component of the platform is developed on a decentralised blockchain contract with a market layer that manages transaction, user, pricing, payment, tagging, contract, control, and lineage features that pertain to the user interactions on the platform. One of the platform’s key features is enabling the participation and management of personal data by the individuals from whom the data is being generated. This framework developed a proof-of-concept on the Etheruem blockchain base where an individual can securely manage access to their own personal data and that individual’s identifiable relationship to the card-based transaction data provided by financial institutions. This gives data consumers access to a complete view of transactional spending behaviour in correlation to key demographic information. This platform solution can ultimately support the growth, prosperity, and development of economies, businesses, communities, and individuals by providing accessible and relevant transactional data for big data analytics and open banking.

Keywords: big data markets, open banking, blockchain, personal data management

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Authors: Prince Chukwuneme Enwereji, Annelien Van Rooyen

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In recent years, technology integration in education has transformed the learning landscape, particularly in online institutions. One technological advancement that has gained popularity is e-tutoring, which offers personalised academic support to students through online platforms. While e-tutoring has become well-known and has been adopted to promote collaborative learning, there are still students who do not use these services for various reasons. However, little attention has been given to understanding the perspectives of students who have not utilized these services. The research objectives include identifying the perceived benefits that non-e-tutoring students believe e-tutoring could offer, such as enhanced academic support, personalized learning experiences, and improved performance. Additionally, the study explored the potential drawbacks or concerns that non-e-tutoring students associate with e-tutoring, such as concerns about efficacy, a lack of face-to-face interaction, and platform accessibility. The study adopted a quantitative research approach with a descriptive design to gather and analyze data on non-e-tutoring students' perspectives. Online questionnaires were employed as the primary data collection method, allowing for the efficient collection of data from many participants. The collected data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Ethical concepts such as informed consent, anonymity of responses and protection of respondents against harm were maintained. Findings indicate that non-e-tutoring students perceive a sense of control over their own pace of learning, suggesting a preference for self-directed learning and the ability to tailor their educational experience to their individual needs and learning styles. They also exhibit high levels of motivation, believe in their ability to effectively participate in their studies and organize their academic work, and feel comfortable studying on their own without the help of e-tutors. However, non-e-tutoring students feel that e-tutors do not sufficiently address their academic needs and lack engagement. They also perceive a lack of clarity in the roles of e-tutors, leading to uncertainty about their responsibilities. In terms of communication, students feel overwhelmed by the volume of announcements and find repetitive information frustrating. Additionally, some students face challenges with their internet connection and associated cost, which can hinder their participation in online activities. Furthermore, non-e-tutoring students express a desire for interactions with their peers and a sense of belonging to a group or team. They value opportunities for collaboration, teamwork in their learning experience, the importance of fostering social interactions and creating a sense of community in online learning environments. This study recommended that students seek alternate support systems by reaching out to professors or academic advisors for guidance and clarification. Developing self-directed learning skills is essential, empowering students to take charge of their own learning through setting objectives, creating own study plans, and utilising resources. For HEIs, it was recommended that they should ensure that a variety of support services are available to cater to the needs of all students, including non-e-tutoring students. HEIs should also ensure easy access to online resources, promote a supportive community, and regularly evaluate and adapt their support techniques to meet students' changing requirements.

Keywords: online-tutor;, student support;, online education, educational practices, distance education

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Authors: Asim Qayyum, David Smith

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The use of information tools is a common activity for students of any educational stage when they encounter online learning activities. Finding the relevant information for particular learning tasks is the topic of this paper as it investigates the use of information tools for a group of student participants. The paper describes and discusses the results with particular implications for use in higher education, and the findings suggest that improvement in assessment design and subsequent student learning may be achieved by structuring the purposefulness of information tools usage and online reading behaviors of university students.

Keywords: information tools, assessment, online learning, student assessment experience

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Authors: Carolina Mayen Huerta, Clara Ivanescu, Paloma Marcos

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Due to their unique geographic challenges and the imperative to combat climate change, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are experiencing rapid growth in the renewable energy (RE) sector. However, women's representation in formal employment within this burgeoning field remains significantly lower than their male counterparts. Conventional methodologies often overlook critical geographic data that influence women's job prospects. To address this gap, this paper introduces a Multicriteria Evaluation (MCE) framework designed to identify spatially enabling environments and restrictions affecting women's access to formal employment and business opportunities in the SIDS' RE sector. The proposed MCE framework comprises 24 key factors categorized into four dimensions: Individual, Contextual, Accessibility, and Place Characterization. "Individual factors" encompass personal attributes influencing women's career development, including caregiving responsibilities, exposure to domestic violence, and disparities in education. "Contextual factors" pertain to the legal and policy environment, influencing workplace gender discrimination, financial autonomy, and overall gender empowerment. "Accessibility factors" evaluate women's day-to-day mobility, considering travel patterns, access to public transport, educational facilities, RE job opportunities, healthcare facilities, and financial services. Finally, "Place Characterization factors" enclose attributes of geographical locations or environments. This dimension includes walkability, public transport availability, safety, electricity access, digital inclusion, fragility, conflict, violence, water and sanitation, and climatic factors in specific regions. The analytical framework proposed in this paper incorporates a spatial methodology to visualize regions within countries where conducive environments for women to access RE jobs exist. In areas where these environments are absent, the methodology serves as a decision-making tool to reinforce critical factors, such as transportation, education, and internet access, which currently hinder access to employment opportunities. This approach is designed to equip policymakers and institutions with data-driven insights, enabling them to make evidence-based decisions that consider the geographic dimensions of disparity. These insights, in turn, can help ensure the efficient allocation of resources to achieve gender equity objectives.

Keywords: gender, women, spatial analysis, renewable energy, access

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Authors: Carolina Mayen Huerta, Clara Ivanescu, Paloma Marcos

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Due to their unique geographic challenges and the imperative to combat climate change, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are experiencing rapid growth in the renewable energy (RE) sector. However, women's representation in formal employment within this burgeoning field remains significantly lower than their male counterparts. Conventional methodologies often overlook critical geographic data that influence women's job prospects. To address this gap, this paper introduces a Multicriteria Evaluation (MCE) framework designed to identify spatially enabling environments and restrictions affecting women's access to formal employment and business opportunities in the SIDS' RE sector. The proposed MCE framework comprises 24 key factors categorized into four dimensions: Individual, Contextual, Accessibility, and Place Characterization. "Individual factors" encompass personal attributes influencing women's career development, including caregiving responsibilities, exposure to domestic violence, and disparities in education. "Contextual factors" pertain to the legal and policy environment, influencing workplace gender discrimination, financial autonomy, and overall gender empowerment. "Accessibility factors" evaluate women's day-to-day mobility, considering travel patterns, access to public transport, educational facilities, RE job opportunities, healthcare facilities, and financial services. Finally, "Place Characterization factors" enclose attributes of geographical locations or environments. This dimension includes walkability, public transport availability, safety, electricity access, digital inclusion, fragility, conflict, violence, water and sanitation, and climatic factors in specific regions. The analytical framework proposed in this paper incorporates a spatial methodology to visualize regions within countries where conducive environments for women to access RE jobs exist. In areas where these environments are absent, the methodology serves as a decision-making tool to reinforce critical factors, such as transportation, education, and internet access, which currently hinder access to employment opportunities. This approach is designed to equip policymakers and institutions with data-driven insights, enabling them to make evidence-based decisions that consider the geographic dimensions of disparity. These insights, in turn, can help ensure the efficient allocation of resources to achieve gender equity objectives.

Keywords: gender, women, spatial analysis, renewable energy, access

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Authors: Andi Ismanto

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Indonesia is the largest palm oil producer in the world. The increasing number of palm oil extensification in Indonesia started on 2000-2011. Based on preliminary figures from the Directorate General of Plantation, palm oil area in Indonesia until 2011 is about 8.91 million hectares.On 2011 production of palm oil CPO reaches 22.51 million tons. In the other hands, the increasing palm oil production has impact to environment. The Empty Bunch of Palm Oil (EBPO)waste was increased to 20 million tons in 2009. Utilization of waste EBPO currently only used as an organic fertilizer for plants. But, it was not a good solution, because TKKS that used as organic compost has high content of carbon and hydrogen compound. The EBPO waste has potential used as fuel by gasification because it has short time of decomposition. So, the process will be more efficient in time. Utilization of urban wastehas been created using an incinerator used as a source of electrical energy for household.Usually, waste burning process by incinerator is using diesel fuel and kerosene. It is certainly less effective and not environment friendly, considering the waste incineration process using Incinerator tools are continuously. Considering biomass is a renewable source of energy and the world's energy system must be switch from an energy based on fossil resources into the energy based on renewable resources, the "Gurza Incinerator": Design Build Powerful Biomass Incinerator Empty Bunch of Palm Oil (EBPO) as Elecrical Biomass Base Development, a renewable future technology. The tools is using EBPO waste as source of burning to burn garbage inside the Incinerator hopper. EBPO waste will be processed by means of gasification. Gasification isa process to produce gases that can be used as fuel for electrical power. Hopefully, this technology could be a renewable future energy and also as starting point of electrical biomass base development.

Keywords: incinerator, biomass, empty bunch palm oil, electrical energy

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Authors: Elena Valionienė, Genutė Kalvaitienė

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The issue of resilience of an individual, an organisation, or an entire ecosystem of organisations has recently become an integral part of the education system, where the uncertainties that lead to societal development in the short term create economic, social, and psycho-emotional instability. The Maritime Transport Sector (MTS) is no exception, and the aim of the article is to model the possibilities of enhancing the professional, sociocultural, and psycho-emotional resilience of MTS specialists to proactively respond to crises caused by uncertainties. The research consists of theoretical model creation that helps to identify general maritime business resilience factors and critical success factors. This can develop high resilience and achieve business excellence in a highly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.

Keywords: maritime transport sector, resilience, uncertainties, VUCA

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Authors: Suwit Sadsunk

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This research paper was aimed to study different motifs found on Thai kites in order to be create new fabric printing designs. The objectives of the study were (1) to examine different motifs of Thai kites; and (2) to create appropriate printing designs for fabric based on an examination of motifs of Thai kites from primary and secondary sources. The study found that designs, motifs and colors found on Thai kites were various based on individual artisans’ imagination in each period. From the historical review, there have been 4 kinds of Thai kites namely I-Loom Kite, Pak Pao Kite, Chula Kite and Dui Dui Kite. Nowadays, the kite designs have been developed to be more various by shape and color such as snake- shaped kite, owl-shaped kite and peacock-shaped kite.

Keywords: Thai kites, fabric printing design

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Authors: Marziye Hadian, Alireza Jabbari

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Background: The World Health Organization has identified COVID-19 as a public health emergency and is urging governments to stop the virus transmission by adopting appropriate policies. In this regard, authorities have taken different approaches to cut the chain or controlling the spread of the disease. Now, the questions we are facing include what these approaches are? What tools should be used to implement each preventive protocol? In addition, what is the impact of each approach? Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the approaches to biological epidemics and related prevention tools with an emphasis on COVID-19 disease. Data sources: Databases including ISI web of science, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Ovid, and ProQuest were employed for data extraction. Furthermore, authentic sources such as the WHO website, the published reports of relevant countries, as well as the Worldometer website were evaluated for gray studies. The time-frame of the study was from 1 December 2019 to 30 May 2020. Methods: The present study was a systematic study of publications related to the prevention strategies for the COVID-19 disease. The study was carried out based on the PRISMA guidelines and CASP for articles and AACODS for grey literature. Results: The study findings showed that in order to confront the COVID-19 epidemic, in general, there are three approaches of "mitigation", "active control" and "suppression" and four strategies of "quarantine", "isolation", "social distance" and "lockdown" in both individual and social dimensions to deal with epidemics. Selection and implementation of each approach requires specific strategies and has different effects when it comes to controlling and inhibiting the disease. Key finding: One possible approach to control the disease is to change individual behavior and lifestyle. In addition to prevention strategies, use of masks, observance of personal hygiene principles such as regular hand washing and non-contact of contaminated hands with the face, as well as an observance of public health principles such as sneezing and coughing etiquettes, safe extermination of personal protective equipment, must be strictly observed. Have not been included in the category of prevention tools. However, it has a great impact on controlling the epidemic, especially the new coronavirus epidemic. Conclusion: Although the use of different approaches to control and inhibit biological epidemics depends on numerous variables, however, despite these requirements, global experience suggests that some of these approaches are ineffective. The use of previous experiences in the world, along with the current experiences of countries, can be very helpful in choosing the accurate approach for each country in accordance with the characteristics of that country and lead to the reduction of possible costs at the national and international levels.

Keywords: novel corona virus, COVID-19, approaches, prevention tools, prevention strategies

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Authors: Ricardo Hugo Gonzalez, Amanda Figueiredo Vasconcelos, Francisco Loureiro Neto Monteiro, Yara Luiza Freitas Silva, Ana Cristina Lindsay, Márcia Maria Tavares Machado

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The use of sport as an integration mean is a very important tool regarding the social involvement of children and teenagers in a vulnerability situation. This study aims to report the experiences of a multidisciplinary program that intends to improve the quality of life of children and teenagers in Fortaleza, in the Northeast of Brazil. More than 400 children and teenagers aging 11 and 16 years participated in this study. Poor communities experience many particular difficulties in the urban centers such as violence, poor housing conditions, unemployment, lack in health care and deficient physical education in school. Physical education, physiotherapy, odontology, medicine and pharmacy students are responsible for the activities in the project supervised by a general coordinator and a counselor teacher of each academic unit. There are classes about team sports like basketball and soccer. Lectures about sexual behavior and sexually transmitted diseases are ministered beside the ones about oral health education, basic life support education, first aids, use and care with pharmaceuticals and orientations about healthy nutrition. In order to get the children’s family closer, monthly informative lectures are ministered. There is also the concern about reflecting the actions and producing academic paperwork such as graduation final projects and books. The number of participants has oscillated lately, and one of the causes is the lack of practicing physical activities and sports regularly. However, 250 teenagers have participated regularly for at least two years. These teenagers have shown a healthier lifestyle and a better physical fitness profile. The resources for maintaining the project come from the Pro-Reitoria of Extension, Federal University of Ceara, as well as from the PROEXT/MEC, Federal Government. Actions of this nature need to be done thinking for long periods so the effects results can become effective. Public and private investments are needed due to low socioeconomic families who are most vulnerable and have fewer opportunities to enhance to health prevention services.

Keywords: children and teenagers, health, multidisciplinary program, quality of life

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Authors: Sri Yusnita Irda Sari, Deni Kurniadi Sunjaya, Ardini Saptaningsih Raksanagara

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Water is one of the fundamental basic needs for human life, particularly drinking water sources. Although water quality is getting better, fecal-contamination of water is still found around the world, especially in the slum area of mid-low income countries. Drinking water source contamination in urban slum dwellers increases the risk of water borne diseases. Low level of sanitation and poor drinking water supply known as risk factors for diarrhea, moreover bacteria-contaminated drinking water source is the main cause of diarrhea in developing countries. This study aimed to assess risk infection due to Fecal Coliform contamination in various drinking water sources in urban area by applying Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment (QMRA). A Cross-sectional survey was conducted in a period of August to October 2015. Water samples were taken by simple random sampling from households in Cikapundung river basin which was one of urban slum area in the center of Bandung city, Indonesia. About 379 water samples from 199 households and 15 common wells were tested. Half of the households used treated drinking water from water gallon mostly refill water gallon which was produced in drinking water refill station. Others used raw water sources which need treatment before consume as drinking water such as tap water, borehole, dug well and spring water source. Annual risk to get infection due to Fecal Coliform contamination from highest to lowest risk was dug well (1127.9 x 10-5), spring water (49.7 x 10-5), borehole (1.383 x 10-5) and tap water (1.121 x 10-5). Annual risk infection of refill drinking water was 1.577 x 10-5 which is comparable to borehole and tap water. Household water treatment and storage to make raw water sources drinkable is essential to prevent risk of water borne diseases. Strong regulation and intense monitoring of refill water gallon quality should be prioritized by the government; moreover, distribution of tap water should be more accessible and affordable especially in urban slum area.

Keywords: drinking water, quantitative microbiological risk assessment, slum, urban

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Authors: Nimra Parvez, Nawaz Ahmed

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Workplace aggression not only is a proven safety and health issue but it also is a problem witnessed at workplace which has far-reaching consequences. It hinders the overall productivity of the organizations and individual employees. The current study examined employee turnover intentions as a result of workplace aggression. The study was conducted on employees from the private sector. Self-report questionnaires that measured the workplace aggression and turnover intentions of employees were used to target a sample size of 200 employees. In the hypothesis, it was assumed that high levels of workplace aggression at any organization will result in subsequent high levels of employee turnover intentions. It was therefore identified that there has been a relationship between workplace aggression and employee turnover intentions. The results determined a positive relationship between the workplace bullying behaviors towards the individuals and the turnover intention.

Keywords: bullying, organizational commitment, turnover intention, workplace aggression

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Authors: Johnson-Egemba Helen Amaka

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Music is emotional in the sense that it controls people’s feelings. The way and manner people react to music at a point in time depend on the type of music that is playing. Music can make someone to march or dance, to cry or laugh, to be happy or sad, to fight or make peace and so on. It therefore makes someone o exhibit some kind of behaviours, either positive or negative. Even dangerous animals have been found to be controlled by music. In the psychiatric homes, mad people are always found to be dancing to music. During funeral ceremony, music singing and dancing are sources of comfort to the bereaved. As a background to the study, Tarok ethnic group in Plateau State was used. The Tarok comprise of Langtang North and South Local Government Areas. The ethnic group of Tarok integrates music in almost all the activities of their lives. A total of six (6) types of folk songs were identified. These songs range from marriages, funeral, royalty, togetherness, war, rituals, festivals, and farming. This paper points out the significance of basic responsiveness of the Tarok people towards the folk songs, their reaction generally whether positive or negative. The methods of data collection employed in this work include oral interview approach, recording of various types of Tarok folk songs, consulting of journals, magazines and textbooks. The researcher used oral interview as her primary source of information which is found to be the most effective procedure in carrying out this task. The songs were textually analyzed with a view to unveiling their meanings, thought processes, and conveying their direction and functions within the context of their rendition. The major findings of the study are that music in Tarok culture covers the physical, mental, emotional and social experiences. The physical aspect is the motor skills, which include dancing and demonstration of the songs. The mental experiences are intellectual levels which include construction and manufacturing of musical instruments, composing songs, teaching and learning etc. Furthermore, this research provided in addition to musical activities, the literature, history and culture of the Tarok communities.

Keywords: cultural, music, practice, responsiveness

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Authors: Geetika Vajpayee, Sugandha Asthana, Pratibha Kumari, Shanthy Sundaram

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Pseudomonas species possess a variety of promising properties of antifungal and growth promoting activities in the wheat plant. In the present study, Pseudomonas fluorescens MTCC-9768 is tested against plant pathogenic fungus Tilletia indica, causing Karnal bunt, a quarantine disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum) affecting kernels of wheat. It is one of the 1/A1 harmful diseases of wheat worldwide under EU legislation. This disease develops in the growth phase by the spreading of microscopically small spores of the fungus (teliospores) being dispersed by the wind. The present chemical fungicidal treatments were reported to reduce teliospores germination, but its effect is questionable since T. indica can survive up to four years in the soil. The fungal growth inhibition tests were performed using Dual Culture Technique, and the results showed inhibition by 82.5%. The interaction of antagonist bacteria-fungus causes changes in the morphology of hyphae, which was observed using Lactophenol cotton blue staining and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The rounded and swollen ends, called ‘theca’ were observed in interacted fungus as compared to control fungus (without bacterial interaction). This bacterium was tested for its antagonistic activity like protease, cellulose, HCN production, Chitinase, etc. The growth promoting activities showed increase production of IAA in bacteria. The bacterial secondary metabolites were extracted in different solvents for testing its growth inhibiting properties. The characterization and purification of the antifungal compound were done by Thin Layer Chromatography, and Rf value was calculated (Rf value = 0.54) and compared to the standard antifungal compound, 2, 4 DAPG (Rf value = 0.54). Further, the in vivo experiments showed a significant decrease in the severity of disease in the wheat plant due to direct injection method and seed treatment. Our results indicate that the extracted and purified compound from the antagonist bacteria, P. fluorescens MTCC-9768 may be used as a potential biocontrol agent against T. indica. This also concludes that the PGPR properties of the bacteria may be utilized by incorporating it into bio-fertilizers.

Keywords: antagonism, Karnal bunt, PGPR, Pseudomonas fluorescens

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Authors: Celeste E. van Rinsum, Sanne M. P. L. Gerards, Geert M. Rutten, Ien A. M. van de Goor, Stef P. J. Kremers

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Combined lifestyle interventions have shown to be effective in changing and maintaining behavioral lifestyle changes and reducing overweight and obesity. A lifestyle coach is expected to promote lifestyle changes in adults related to physical activity and diet. The present Coaching on Lifestyle (CooL) study examined participants’ physical activity level, dietary behavioral, and motivational changes immediately after the intervention and at 1.5 years after baseline. In CooL intervention a lifestyle coach coaches individuals from eighteen years and older with (a high risk of) obesity in group and individual sessions. In addition a process evaluation was conducted in order to examine the implementation process and to be able to interpret the changes within the participants. This action-oriented research has a pre-post design. Participants of the CooL intervention (N = 200) completed three questionnaires: at baseline, immediately after the intervention (on average after 44 weeks), and at 1.5 years after baseline. T-tests and linear regressions were conducted to test self-reported changes in physical activity (IPAQ), dietary behaviors, their quality of motivation for physical activity (BREQ-3) and for diet (REBS), body mass index (BMI), and quality of life (EQ-5D-3L). For the process evaluation, we used individual and group interviews, observations and document analyses to gain insight in the implementation process (e.g. the recruitment) and how the intervention was valued by the participants, lifestyle coaches, and referrers. The study is currently ongoing and therefore the results presented here are preliminary. On average, the participants that finished the intervention and those that have completed the long-term measurement improved their level of vigorous-intense physical activity, sedentary behavior, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and BMI. Mixed results were observed in motivational regulation for physical activity and nutrition. Moreover, an improvement on the quality of life dimension anxiety/depression was found, also in the long-term. All the other constructs did not show significant change over time. The results of the process evaluation have shown that recruitment of clients was difficult. Participants evaluated the intervention positively and the lifestyle coaches have continuously adapted the structure and contents of the intervention throughout the study period, based on their experiences and feedback from research. Preliminary results indicate that the CooL-intervention may have beneficial effects on overweight and obese participants in terms of energy balance-related behaviors, weight reduction, and quality of life. Recruitment of participants and embedding the position of the lifestyle coach in traditional care structures is challenging.

Keywords: combined lifestyle intervention, effect evaluation, lifestyle coaching, process evaluation, overweight, the Netherlands

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Authors: Saule Mussabekova

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Recent advances in genetics have allowed increasing acutely the capacities of the formation of reliable evidence in conducting forensic examinations. Thus, traces of biological origin are important sources of information about a crime. Currently, around the world, sexual offenses have increased, and among them are those in which the criminals use various detergents to remove traces of their crime. A feature of modern synthetic detergents is the presence of biological additives - enzymes. Enzymes purposefully destroy stains of biological origin. To study the nature and extent of the impact of modern washing powders on saliva stains on the physical evidence, specially prepared test specimens of different types of tissues to which saliva was applied have been examined. Materials and Methods: Washing machines of famous manufacturers of household appliances have been used with different production characteristics and advertised brands of washing powder for test washing. Over 3,500 experimental samples were tested. After washing, the traces of saliva were identified using modern research methods of forensic medicine. Results: The influence was tested and the dependence of the use of different washing programs, types of washing machines and washing powders in the process of establishing saliva trace and identify of the stains on the physical evidence while washing was revealed. The results of experimental and practical expert studies have shown that in most cases it is not possible to draw the conclusions in the identification of saliva traces on physical evidence after washing. This is a consequence of the effect of biological additives and other additional factors on traces of saliva during washing. Conclusions: On the basis of the results of the study, the feasibility of saliva traces of the stains on physical evidence after washing is established. The use of modern molecular genetic methods makes it possible to partially solve the problems arising in the study of unlaundered evidence. Additional study of physical evidence after washing facilitates detection and investigation of sexual offenses against women and children.

Keywords: saliva research, modern synthetic detergents, laundry detergents, forensic medicine

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Authors: Aruma Baduge Kithma De Silva

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Haskap (Lonicera caerulea L.), also known as blue honeysuckle, is a newly commercialized berry crop in Canada. Haskap berries are rich in polyphenols, including, anthocyanins, which are known for potential health-promoting properties. Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) is the most abundant anthocyanin of haskap berries. The compound C3G has the ability to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), which has become an increasingly common health issue around the world. The T2D is characterized as a metabolic disorder of hyperglycemia and insulin resistance. It has been demonstrated that C3G has anti-diabetic effects through several ways, including inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4), reduction of gluconeogenesis, improvement in insulin sensitivity, and inhibition of activities of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes, including α-amylase and α-glucosidase. The goal of this study was to investigate the influence of variety and harvests maturity of haskap on C3G, other fruit quality characteristics and anti-diabetic activities of haskap berries using in vitro studies. The polyphenols present in four commercially grown haskap cultivars, Aurora, Rebecca, Larissa, and Evie harvested at five harvesting dates (H1-H5) apart from 2-3 days, were extracted separately. High-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS) analyzes of polyphenols revealed that haskap berries contain predominantly anthocyanins, flavonols, flavan-3-ols, and phenolic acids. The compound C3G was the most prominent anthocyanin, which is available in approximately 79% of total anthocyanin in four cultivars. The Larissa at H5 contained the highest C3G content. The antioxidant capacity of Evie at H5 was greater than other cultivars. Furthermore, Larissa H5 showed the greatest inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes including alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase. In conclusion, the haskap variety and harvesting date influenced the polyphenol composition and biological properties. The variety Larissa, at H5 harvesting date, contained the highest polyphenol content and the ability of inhibition of the carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzyme as well as DPP4 enzyme in order to reduce type 2 diabetes.

Keywords: anthocyanin, Haskap, type 2 diabetes, polyphenol

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Authors: Lulu Sun

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In Addition is an after-school mathematics program in which students and their parents build mathematical confidence and competence by solving problems they curious about. It is a program consists of mix-grade from 4th to 6th grade of 10 to 20 students, including math problem solving and other activities. This partnership will focus on the relationship between the In-Addition and the parents’ engagement; in this kind of partnership, it has the In-Addition program teaching and the family engagement. This partnership is purpose to building cooperation between the program and parents, strengthening the links between the program and families.

Keywords: program-family, family engagement, positive bias, partnership

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Authors: Shahla Rostamirad

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Purpose: Giardiasis is a widespread infection in humans caused by Giardia lamblia. The prevalence of this parasite among children in Isfahan of Iran is unknown. This study intended to estimate Giardia lamblia infection prevalence and identify possible associated risk factors in a healthy pediatric population living in the Isfahan, a metropolitan city of Iran. Methods: Between September 2010 and March 2012, 1448 stool sample from children with clinical manifestation that refer to clinical lab in Isfahan city for stool examination were collected and analyzed. About 1218 samples were positive for parasitic disease. All of samples were examined and diagnosed by direct examination and formalin-ether concentration of stools. Results: A total of 1218 positive cases were analyzed in this study. The findings showed that 92.5% of patients were infected by protozoa and 7.5 percent with helminth infection. The highest and lowest rate of infection belongs to Giardia lamblia and Entamoeba histolytica with 75% and 1.1%, respectively. Other infection cases were included of Blastocystys hominis 9.9%, E. coli 6.5%, H. nana 1.3%, Enterobious vermicolaris 4% and Ascaris lumbricoides 2.2% percent. The population studied revealed a gender distribution of 53.2% male and 46.8% female. Age distribution was 57.3% between 0-5 years and 42.7% between 6-15 years.The prevalence was higher among children aged 0-5 years (57.8%), than among older children (42.2%). Conclusion: The prevalence of protozoan parasite, especially Giardiasis, in children residing in the region of Isfahan is high. Several risk factors were associated with this prevalence and highlight the importance of parents' education and sanitation conditions in the children's well being. The association between Giardia lamblia and H. pylori seems an important issue deserving further investigation in order to promote prevention or treatment strategies. Other risk factor include presence of Helicobacter pylori infection, living in houses with own drainage system and reported household, pet contact, especially with cat and dog.

Keywords: Giardia duodenalis, prevalence, risk factors, children, Isfahan, Iran

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Authors: Djehich Mohamed Yousri

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This paper aims to address the dialectic of law and politics in the philosophy of the state of the philosopher Hegel by addressing the concept of law, which refers to its general meaning to the set of rules and legislation that man sets to apply them within society, as it is considered one of the primary and necessary conditions for the functioning of And organizing social life, when it defines the rights and duties of every individual belonging to the state, by approaching it with central concepts in political philosophy, such as the state, freedom and the people. The most prominent result that we reached through our analysis of the details of the problematic research is the relationship between law and politics in the philosophical system of Hegel; on the one hand, We find that the state is rational only to the extent that it resorts to the law and works under it, and the latter does not realize its essence and effectiveness unless it is extracted from the customs, traditions, and culture of the people so that it does not conflict with the ideal goal of its existence, which is to achieve freedom and protect it from all possible. A state does not mean at all to reduce the freedom of the people, so there is no conflict between law and freedom.

Keywords: hegel, the law, country, freedom, citizen

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Authors: Jonjaua Ranogajec, Ognjen Rudic, Snezana Pasalic, Snezana Vucetic, Damir Cjepa

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The paper involves a chain of activities from synthesis, establishment of the methodology for characterization and testing of novel protective materials through the pilot production and application on model supports. It summarizes the results regarding the development of the pilot production protocol for newly developed self-cleaning materials. The optimization of the production parameters was completed in order to improve the most important functional properties (mineralogy characteristics, particle size, self-cleaning properties and photocatalytic activity) of the newly designed nanocomposite material.

Keywords: pilot production, self-cleaning materials, compatibility, cultural heritage

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Authors: Emmanuel Jaluchimike Iloputaife, Kelechi Nkechinyere Mbah-Omeje

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This study was designed to determine the antimicrobial activities and minimum inhibitory concentration of three different batches (Fresh, Oven dried and Sundried) of Ass Hay extracted with water, ethanol and methanolagainst selected human pathogenic microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella Pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger and Candidaalbicans). All extracts were reconstituted with peptone water and tested for antimicrobial activity. The antimicrobial activity, the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration and Minimum Bactericidal/Fungicidal concentrations were determined by agar well diffusion methodagainst test organismsin which aseptic conditions were observed. The antimicrobial activities of the different batches of Ass Hay on the test organisms varied considerably. The highest inhibition zone diameter at 200 mg/ml for the different batches of Ass Hay was recorded by sundried methanol extract against Escherichia coli at 36.4 ± 0.2 mm while fresh methanol extract inhibited Klebsiela pneumonia with the least inhibition zone diameter at 20.1 ± 0.1mm. At 100 mg/ml the highest inhibition zone diameter was recorded by oven dried water extract against Escherichia coli at 30.3 ± 0.3 mm while sun dried water extract inhibited Staphylococcus aureus with the least inhibition zone diameter at 15.1 ± 0.1 mm. At 50mg/ml, the highest inhibition zone diameter was recorded by fresh water extract against Escherichia coli at 25.9 ± 0.1 mm while oven dried water extract inhibited Klebsiela pneumonia with least inhibition zone diameter at 12.1 ± 0.2 mm. At 25mg/ml, the highest inhibition zone diameter was recorded by fresh water extract against Escherichia coli at 18.3 ± 0.2 mm while sun dried ethanol extract inhibited Escherichia coli with least inhibition zone diameter at 10.1 ± 0.1 mm. The MIC and MBC result of ethanol extract of fresh Ass Hay showed a uniform value of 6.25 mg/ml and 12.5 mg/ml respectively for all test bacterial isolates. The Minimum Inhibitory concentration and Minimum bactericidal concentration results of Oven dried ethanol Ass Hay extract showed a uniform value of 3.125 mg/ml and 6.25 mg/ml respectively for all test bacterial isolates and Minimum fungicidal concentration value of 12.5 mg/ml for Aspergillus niger. Statistical analysis showed there is significant difference in mean zone inhibition diameter of the products at p < 0.05, p = 0.019. This study has shown there is antimicrobial potential in Ass Hay and at such there is need to further exploit Donkey Ass Hay in order to maximize the potential.

Keywords: microorganisms, Ass Hay, antimicrobial activity, extracts

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Authors: Tamar Khardziani, Violeta Berikashvili, Mariam Rusitashvili, Eva Kachlishvili, Vladimir Elisashvili, Mikheil Asatiani

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Last years, the search for natural sources of novel and effective antifungal substances became a scientific and technological challenge. In the present research, thirty basidiomycetes isolated from various ecological niches of Georgia and belonging to different taxonomic groups were screened for their antifungal activities against pathogenic fungi such as Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Guignardia bidwellii. Among mushroom tested, several potential producers of antifungal substances have been revealed, such as Schizophyllum commune, Lentinula edodes, Ganoderma abietinum, Fomes fomentarius, Hericium erinaceus, and Trametes versicolor. For mushroom cultivation and expression of antifungal potential, submerged and solid-state fermentations of different plant raw materials were performed and various approaches and strategies have been exploited. Sch. commune appeared as a most promising producer of antifungal compounds. It was established that among different agro-industrial wastes, the presence of mandarin juice production waste in a nutrient medium, causing the significant increase of antifungal activity Sch. commune (growth inhibition: Aspergillus – 59 %, Fusarium – 55 %, G. bidwellii – 78 %, after 3, 2 and 4 days of cultivation, respectively). Besides this, Sch. commune demonstrate similar antifungal activities in the presence of glucose, glycerol, maltose, mannitol, and xylose, and growth inhibition of Fusarium ranged in 41 % - 49 % during 6 days of cultivation. Inhibition of Aspergillus growth inhibition varied in 27 % - 36 %, and inhibition of G. bidwellii was in the range 49 % - 61 %, respectively. Sch. commune under solid-state fermentation of mandarin peels at 13 days of cultivation demonstrates powerful growth inhibition of pathogenic fungi (growth inhibition: Aspergillus – 50 %, Fusarium – 61 %, G. bidwellii – 68 %, after 3, 4, and 4 days of cultivation, respectively) as well as at 20 days old mushroom (growth inhibition: Aspergillus – 41 %, Fusarium – 54 %, G. bidwellii – 66 %, after 3 days of cultivation). It was established that Sch. commune was effective as a producer of antifungal compounds in submerged as well as in solid-state fermentation. Finally, performed study confirms that the higher basidiomycetes possess antifungal potential, which strongly depends on the physiological factors of growth. Acknowledgments: The work was implemented with the financial support of fundamental science project FR-19-3719 by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia.

Keywords: antifungal potential, higher basidiomycetes, pathogenic fungi, submerged and solid-state fermentation

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Authors: Sergio D’Ambrosioa, Azza Dobousa, Chiara Schiraldia, Donatella Ciminib

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Probiotics are living microorganisms that give beneficial effects while consumed. Lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria are among the most representative strains assessed as probiotics and exploited as food supplements. Numerous studies demonstrated their potential as a therapeutic candidate for a variety of diseases (restoring gut flora, lowering cholesterol, immune response-enhancing, anti-inflammation and anti-oxidation activities). These beneficial actions are also due to biomolecules produced by probiotics, such as exopolysaccharides (EPSs), that demonstrate plenty of beneficial properties such as antimicrobial, antitumor, anti-biofilm, antiviral and immunomodulatory activities. Limosilactobacillus fermentum is a widely studied member of probiotics; however, few data are available on the development of fermentation and downstream processes for the production of viable biomasses for potential industrial applications. However, few data are available on the development of fermentation processes for the large-scale production of probiotics biomass for industrial applications and for purification processes of EPSs at an industrial scale. For this purpose, L. fermentum strain was isolated from buffalo milk and used as a test example for biotechnological process development. The strain was able to produce up to 109 CFU/mL on a (glucose-based) semi-defined medium deprived of animal-derived raw materials up to the pilot scale (150 L), demonstrating improved results compared to commonly used, although industrially not suitable, media-rich of casein and beef extract. Biomass concentration via microfiltration on hollow fibers, and subsequent spray-drying allowed to recover of about 5.7 × 1010CFU/gpowder of viable cells, indicating strain resistance to harsh processing conditions. Overall, these data demonstrate the possibility of obtaining and maintaining adequate levels of viable L. fermentum cells by using a simple approach that is potentially suitable for industrial development. A downstream EPS purification protocol based on ultrafiltration, precipitation and activated charcoal treatments showed a purity of the recovered polysaccharides of about 70-80%.

Keywords: probiotics, fermentation, exopolysaccharides (EPSs), purification

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