Search results for: public health infrastructure

Authors: Prasan Briboonnanggoul

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The major objective of this research study was to explore some aspects of the performance culture of musical folk drama called Ligkey. This study was undertaken in an effect to focus on the specific functions of orchestra which accompanied Ligkey on Thai musical instruments in Chachoengsao Province. The process of study and exploration consisted of questionnaire, interview, a tape recording of an interview and photographs of performances which all of them were analyzed for the finding. The information obtained from the study indicated that Ligkey still received stable attention from people despite lesser performances affected by economics crisis. Almost all of the performances were organized and supported by both the public sector and the private sector. Based on the summary and finding of this study, a) there were ten Ligkey ensemble and ten orchestra which were Mon orchestra, not the precedent and the predecessor known as Thai orchestra; b) a variety of functions performed by musicians must harmonize discipline, punctuality, patience, no negligence, proficiency in performance; c) folklore melodies known as Plengnapad were performed as usual, but folklore melodies and songs known as Plangsongchan got lesser and got a tendency towards extinction because of the plot which corresponded with a market-driven entertainment. Therefore, a purpose-built schema of the preservation of Thai folklore songs was that they should have been recognized by both the performers and the audiences and patronized by the public sector via the government media to publicize the value of popular art form.

Keywords: Pipat Ensemble, Ligkey, Amphur Muaeng, Chachoengsao Province

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Authors: Saeed S. Al-Sokari, Nasser A. Awadh Ali, Lianet Monzote

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Leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in at least 82 countries and considered to be a major public-health problem (1). The annual incidence of CL is 1–1.5 million cases of which 90% occur in only seven countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Brazil, Iran, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Syria (2). In Saudi Arabia, the disease was first described in 1973 by Moursy and Shoura (3). Currently, CL is common in the human population in different localities, including the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and in particular the Al-Hassa Oasis that is a known endemic area for CL (4). Five methanolic extracts obtained from Achillea biebersteinii (flower leaf), Euphorbia antiquorm, Solanum incanum (leaf and fruit extracts), collected from Albaha region and selected from ethno-botanical data, were screened for their anti-leishmanial activity against Leishmania amazonensis (6). The cytotoxic activity against normal peritoneal macrophages from normal BALB/c mice was also determined (6). The five extracts had IC50 values ranging from < 12.5 to 37.8 µg/ml against promastigotes. Achillea biebersteinii flower, Euphorbia antiquorm, Solanum incanum leaf extracts showed anti-leishmanial activities with IC50 between < 12.5 - 26.9µg/mL and acceptable selectivity indices of 8 - 5.

Keywords: plant extracts, Albaha, Leishmania amazonensis, Medicinal

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Authors: Sana Kouchi, Hassina Nacer, Kadda Beghdad-bey

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Cloud computing is growing very fast in the market and has become one of the most controversial discussed developments in recent years. Cloud computing providers become very numerous in these areas and each of them prefers its own cloud computing infrastructure, due to the incompatibility of standards and cloud access formats, which prevents them from accepting to support cloud computing applications in a standardized manner, this heterogeneity creates the problem of interoperability between clouds, and considering that cloud customers are probably in search of an interoperable cloud computing, where they will have total control over their applications and simply migrate their services as needed, without additional development investment. A cloud federation strategy should be considered. In this article, we propose a common architecture for the cloud that is based on existing architectures and also the use of best practices from ICT frameworks, such as IBM, ITIL, NIST, etc., to address the interoperability of architectures issues in a multi-cloud system.

Keywords: cloud computing, reference architecture, interoperability, standard

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Authors: Ming-Jyh Chen, Wen-Ming Huang, Yi-Chu Liu, Li-Hui Yang

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Introduction: Social responsibility is the key to sustainable organizational development. Under the ground Green Health Hospital Declaration signed by our superintendent, we have launched comprehensive energy conservation management in medical services, the community, and the staff’s life. To execute environment-friendly promotion with robust strategies, we build up a low-carbon medical system and community with smart green public construction promotion as well as intensifying energy conservation education and communication. Purpose/Methods: With the support of the board and the superintendent, we construct an energy management team, commencing with an environment-friendly system, management, education, and ISO 50001 energy management system; we have ameliorated energy performance and energy efficiency and continuing. Results: In the year 2021, we have achieved multiple goals. The energy management system efficiently controls diesel, natural gas, and electricity usage. About 5% of the consumption is saved when compared to the numbers from 2018 and 2021. Our company develops intelligent services and promotes various paperless electronic operations to provide people with a vibrant and environmentally friendly lifestyle. The goal is to save 68.6% on printing and photocopying by reducing 35.15 million sheets of paper yearly. We strengthen the concept of environmental protection classification among colleagues. In the past two years, the amount of resource recycling has reached more than 650 tons, and the resource recycling rate has reached 70%. The annual growth rate of waste recycling is about 28 metric tons. Conclusions: To build a green medical system with “high efficacy, high value, low carbon, low reliance,” energy stewardship, economic prosperity, and social responsibility are our principles when it comes to formulation of energy conservation management strategies, converting limited sources to efficient usage, developing clean energy, and continuing with sustainable energy.

Keywords: energy efficiency, environmental education, green hospital, sustainable development

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Authors: Veenapani Rajeev Verma

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Context: Assessing facility readiness is paramount as it can indicate capacity of facilities to provide essential care for resilience to health challenges. In the context of decentralization, estimation of supply side readiness indices at sub national level is imperative for effective evidence based policy but remains a colossal challenge due to lack of dependable and representative data sources. Setting: District Poonch of Jammu and Kashmir was selected for this study. It is remote, rural district with unprecedented topographical barriers and is identified as high priority by government. It is also a fragile area as is bounded by Line of Control with Pakistan bearing the brunt of cease fire violations, military skirmishes and sporadic militant attacks. Hilly geographical terrain, rudimentary/absence of road network and impoverishment are quintessential to this area. Objectives: Objective of the study is to a) Evaluate the service readiness of health facilities and create a concise index subsuming plethora of discrete indicators and b) Ascertain supply side barriers in service provisioning via stakeholder’s analysis. Study also strives to expand analytical domain unravelling context and area specific intricacies associated with service delivery. Methodology: Mixed method approach was employed to triangulate quantitative analysis with qualitative nuances. Facility survey encompassing 90 Subcentres, 44 Primary health centres, 3 Community health centres and 1 District hospital was conducted to gauge general service availability and service specific availability (depth of coverage). Compendium of checklist was designed using Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) in form of standard core questionnaire and scorecard generated for each facility. Information was collected across dimensions of amenities, equipment, medicines, laboratory and infection control protocols as proposed in WHO’s Service Availability and Readiness Assesment (SARA). Two stage polychoric principal component analysis employed to generate a parsimonious index by coalescing an array of tracer indicators. OLS regression method used to determine factors explaining composite index generated from PCA. Stakeholder analysis was conducted to discern qualitative information. Myriad of techniques like observations, key informant interviews and focus group discussions using semi structured questionnaires on both leaders and laggards were administered for critical stakeholder’s analysis. Results: General readiness score of health facilities was found to be 0.48. Results indicated poorest readiness for subcentres and PHC’s (first point of contact) with composite score of 0.47 and 0.41 respectively. For primary care facilities; principal component was characterized by basic newborn care as well as preparedness for delivery. Results revealed availability of equipment and surgical preparedness having lowest score (0.46 and 0.47) for facilities providing secondary care. Presence of contractual staff, more than 1 hr walk to facility, facilities in zone A (most vulnerable) to cross border shelling and facilities inaccessible due to snowfall and thick jungles was negatively associated with readiness index. Nonchalant staff attitude, unavailability of staff quarters, leakages and constraint in supply chain of drugs and consumables were other impediments identified. Conclusions/Policy Implications: It is pertinent to first strengthen primary care facilities in this setting. Complex dimensions such as geographic barriers, user and provider behavior is not under precinct of this methodology.

Keywords: effective coverage, principal component analysis, readiness index, universal health coverage

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Authors: Chhavi Rana

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The aim of the paper is to highlight the existing development in the field of big data analytics. Applications like bioinformatics, smart infrastructure projects, Healthcare, and business intelligence contain voluminous and incremental data, which is hard to organise and analyse and can be dealt with using the framework and model in this field of study. An organization's decision-making strategy can be enhanced using big data analytics and applying different machine learning techniques and statistical tools on such complex data sets that will consequently make better things for society. This paper reviews the current state of the art in this field of study as well as different application domains of big data analytics. It also elaborates on various frameworks in the process of Analysis using different machine-learning techniques. Finally, the paper concludes by stating different challenges and issues raised in existing research.

Keywords: big data, big data analytics, machine learning, review

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Authors: Chhavi Rana

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The aim of the paper is to highlight the existing development in the field of big data analytics. Applications like bioinformatics, smart infrastructure projects, healthcare, and business intelligence contain voluminous and incremental data which is hard to organise and analyse and can be dealt with using the framework and model in this field of study. An organisation decision-making strategy can be enhanced by using big data analytics and applying different machine learning techniques and statistical tools to such complex data sets that will consequently make better things for society. This paper reviews the current state of the art in this field of study as well as different application domains of big data analytics. It also elaborates various frameworks in the process of analysis using different machine learning techniques. Finally, the paper concludes by stating different challenges and issues raised in existing research.

Keywords: big data, big data analytics, machine learning, review

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Authors: F.Sadoughi, A. Sarsarshahi, L, Eerfannia, S.M.A. Khatami

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Hospital information systems with lots of ability would lead to health care quality improvement. Evaluation of this system has done according different method and criteria. The main goal of present study is to prioritize the most important factors which are influence these systems evaluation. At the first step, according relevant literature, three main factor and 29 subfactors extracted. Then, study framework was designed. Based on analytical hierarchical process (AHP), 28 paired comparisons with Saaty range, in a questionnaire format obtained. Questionnaires were filled by 10 experts in health information management and medical informatics field. Human factors with weight of 0.55 were ranked as the most important. Organization (0.25) and technology (0.14) were in next place. It seems MADM methods such as AHP have enough potential to use in health research and provide positive opportunities for health domain decision makers.

Keywords: Analytical hierarchy process, Multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM), Hospital information system, Evaluation factors

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Authors: Orathai Srithongtham, Ubonsri Thabuddha

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The youth with HIV positive is not difference from the general youth in term of sexual needs. Sexual health is crucial the most to support the youth with HIV positive to be sexual well-being. This study aims to elucidate the sexual health on protection from STDs (Sexual Transmitted Diseases) and HIV transmission and to explain sexual risk behavior of the youth with HIV positive. The target group was the youth with HIV positive about 23 cases from two provinces in northeastern part of Thailand. Qualitative method was applied for collecting data by in-depth interview. Content analysis was use for data analysis. The youth with HIV positive was protection from STDs and HIV transmission by using the condom during sexual activity. The reason to deny the condom use were ashamed, condom is not a part of life, no have fit size, and the youth fear to stigmatized as a mental disorder and fear to stigmatized as going to fuck someone. The youth who trust with nurse in clinic was dare to request the condom by face. Sexual activity without condom use is sexual risk behavior. The major causes were couple trust and the sexual enjoyment first and sexual active competition with friend without condom use. The concern on HIV was the boyfriend or girlfriend not accepts the HIV positive people, worry about the HIV transmutation, and finally not compliance to ARV drug. The youth with HIV positive was lacking of the knowledge on sexual health on the issues of access to condom and the concern to keep on relationship with the boyfriend or girlfriend. This concern issues was led to the non-adherence of ARV drug and HIV distribution. To provide the sexual health service is more essential to the youth with HIV positive.

Keywords: sexual health, sexual risk behavior, youth, HIV

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Authors: Itamir de Morais Barroca Filho, Cephas A. S. Barreto, Ramon Malaquias, Cezar Miranda Paula de Souza, Arthur Costa Gorgônio, João C. Xavier-Júnior, Mateus Firmino, Fellipe Matheus Costa Barbosa

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Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in healthcare are crucial for efficiently delivering medical healthcare services to patients. These ICTs are also known as e-health and comprise technologies such as electronic record systems, telemedicine systems, and personalized devices for diagnosis. The focus of e-health is to improve the quality of health information, strengthen national health systems, and ensure accessible, high-quality health care for all. All the data gathered by these technologies make it possible to help clinical staff with automated decisions using machine learning. In this context, we collected patient data, such as heart rate, oxygen saturation (SpO2), blood pressure, respiration, and others. With this data, we were able to develop machine learning models for patients’ risk of death and estimate the length of stay in ICU beds. Thus, this paper presents the methodology for applying machine learning techniques to develop these models. As a result, although we implemented these models on an IoT healthcare platform, helping clinical staff in healthcare in an ICU, it is essential to create a robust clinical validation process and monitoring of the proposed models.

Keywords: ICT, e-health, machine learning, ICU, healthcare

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Authors: Vivek Kumar Singh, Tripti Singh

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An ad hoc wireless network consists of mobile networks which creates an underlying architecture for communication without the help of traditional fixed-position routers. Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) is a routing protocol used for Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET). Nevertheless, the architecture must maintain communication routes although the hosts are mobile and they have limited transmission range. There are different protocols for handling the routing in the mobile environment. Routing protocols used in fixed infrastructure networks cannot be efficiently used for mobile ad-hoc networks, so that MANET requires different protocols. This paper presents the performance analysis of the routing protocols used various parameter-patterns with Two-ray model.

Keywords: AODV, packet transmission rate, pause time, ZRP, QualNet 6.1

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Authors: Fairuz Fadzilah Rahim

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Introduction: Indigenous adolescents are at higher risk of dog associated zoonotic infections (DAZI) as they live closely with free-roaming dogs and have limited access to veterinary care. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of health education interventions towards knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices (KAP) of adolescents on DAZI. Methods: This one-group pre-and post-intervention study in 5 months period was conducted among Jahai adolescents aged 12 years and above. Jahai is one of the three major tribes of indigenous people in Peninsular Malaysia. Health education intervention programs using posters, slide presentations, comics, video clips, and discussion on DAZI were employed. Repeated measures of within-subjects analysis were used to identify the pre- and post- KAP of the adolescents. Results: There were 54 adolescents participated in this study with a mean age of 15.72 (SD: 2.49) and equal proportions of males (50%) and females (50%). Among the adolescents, 22.2% were married, 5.6% were illiterate, and 44.4% not continuing education at the time of data collection. The majority of them keep dogs as pets (64.8%), and few used dogs for hunting (11.1%). There was significant increase in mean scores of knowledge (F = 40.92, p < 0.001) and attitudes (F = 6.43, p = 0.014) of the adolescents. However, the preventive practices towards DAZI showed non-significant improvement on the intervention. Conclusions: The health education intervention programs showed to be effective in improving the attitudes and practices related to dog associated zoonotic infections. Emphasis on sustained health education programs is important to foster good health and wellbeing of the indigenous community.

Keywords: adolescent health, dog associated infection, zoonotic, KAP, indigenous

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Authors: E. M. Vieira, C. S. Vieira, L. P. Bonifácio, L. M. de Oliveira Ciabati, A. C. A. Franzon, F. S. Zaratini, J. A. C. Sanchez, M. S. Andrade, J. P. Dias de Souza

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The quality of prenatal care is key to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. Communication between the health service and users can stimulate prevention and care. M-health has been an important and low cost strategy to health education. The PRENACEL programme (prenatal in the cell phone) was developed. It consists of a programme of information via SMS from the 20^th week of pregnancy up to 12^th week after delivery. Messages were about prenatal care, birth, contraception and breastfeeding. Communication of the pregnant woman asking questions about their health was possible. The objective of this study was to evaluate the implementation of PRENACEL as a useful complement to the standard prenatal care. Twenty health clinics were selected and randomized by cluster, 10 as the intervention group and 10 as the control group. In the intervention group, women and their partner were invited to participate. The control group received the standard prenatal care. All women were interviewed in the immediate post-partum and in the 12^th and 24^th week post-partum. Most women were married, had more than 8 years of schooling and visit the clinic more than 6 times during prenatal care. The intervention group presented lowest percentage of higher economic participants (5.6%), less single mothers and no drug user. It also presented more prenatal care visits than the control group and it was less likely to present Severe Acute Maternal Mortality when compared to control group as well as higher percentage of partners (75.4%) was present at the birth compared to control group. Although the study is still being carried out, preliminary data are showing positive results of the compliance of women to prenatal care.

Keywords: cellphone, health technology, prenatal care, prevention

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Authors: O. Y. Yurieva, O. V. Yurieva, O. V. Kiselkina, A. V. Kamaseva

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Since the early 2000s, there are some innovative changes in the civil service in Russia due to administrative reform. Perspectives of the reform of the civil service include a fundamental change in the personnel component, increasing the level of professionalism of officials, increasing their capacity for self-organization and self-regulation. In order to achieve this, the civil service must be able to continuously change. Organizational changes have long become the subject of scientific understanding; problems of research in the field of organizational change is presented by topics focused on the study of the methodological aspects of the implementation of the changes, the specifics of changes in different types of organizations (business, government, and so on), design changes in the organization, including based on the change in organizational culture. In this case, the organizational changes in the civil service are the least studied areas; research of problems of its transformation is carried out in fragments. According to the theory of resistance of Herbert Simon, the root of the opposition and rejection of change is in the person who will resist any change, if it threatens to undermine the degree of satisfaction as a member of the organization (regardless of the reasons for this change). Thus, the condition for successful adaptation to changes in the organization is the ability of its staff to perceive innovation. As part of the problem, the study sought to identify the innovation civil servants, to determine readiness for the development of proposals for the implementation of organizational change in the public service. To identify the relationship to organizational changes case study carried out by the method of "Attitudes to organizational change" of I. Motovilina, which allowed predicting the type of resistance to changes, to reveal the contradictions and hidden results. The advantage of the method of I. Motovilina is its brevity, simplicity, the analysis of the responses to each question, the use of "overlapping" issues potentially conflicting factors. Based on the study made by the authors, it was found that respondents have a positive attitude to change more local than those that take place in reality, such as "increase opportunities for professional growth", "increase the requirements for the level of professionalism of", "the emergence of possible manifestations initiatives from below". Implemented by the authors diagnostics related to organizational changes in the public service showed the presence of specific problem areas, with roots in the lack of understanding of the importance of innovation personnel in the process of bureaucratization of innovation in public service organizations.

Keywords: innovative changes, self-organization, self-regulation, civil service

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Authors: Saradiya Mukherjee

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Background: Indian Muslims, compared to their counterparts in other religions, generally do not fare well on many yardsticks related to socio-economic progress and the same is true with maternal health care utilization. Due to low age at marriage a major percentage of child birth is ascribed to young (15-24 years) Muslim mothers in, which pose serious concerns on the maternal health care of Young Married Muslim women (YMMW). A thorough search of past literature on Muslim women’s health and health care reveals that studies in India have mainly focused on religious differences in fertility levels and contraceptive use while the research on the determinants of maternal health care utilization among Muslim women are lacking in India. Data and Methods: Retrieving data from the National Family Health Survey -3 (2005-06) this study attempts to assess the level of utilization and factors effecting three key maternal health indicators (full ANC, safe delivery and PNC) among YMMW (15-24 years) in India. The key socio-economic and demographic variables taken as independent or predictor variables in the study was guided by existing literature particularly for India. Bi-variate analysis and chi square test was applied and variables which were found to be significant were further included in binary logistic regression. Results: The findings of the study reveal abysmally low levels of utilization for all three indicators i.e. full ANC, safe delivery and PNC of maternal health care included in the study. Mother’s education, mass media exposure, women’s autonomy, birth order, economic status wanted status of child and region of residence were found to be significant variables effecting maternal health care utilization among YMMW. Multivariate analysis reveals that no mass media exposure, lower autonomy, education, poor economic background, higher birth order and unintended pregnancy are some of the reasons behind low maternal health care utilization. Conclusion: Considering the low level of safe maternal health care utilization and its proximate determinants among YMMW the study suggests educating Muslim girls, promoting family planning use, involving media and collaboration between religious leader and health care system could be some important policy level interventions to address the unmet need of maternity services among YMMW.

Keywords: young Muslim women, religion, socio-economic condition, antenatal care, delivery, post natal care

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Authors: John Zacharias, Bin Wang

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Travel comfort is increasingly seen as crucial to effecting the switch from private motorized modes to public transit. Surveys suggest that travel comfort is closely related to perceived crowding, that may involve lack of available seating, difficulty entering and exiting, jostling and other physical contacts with strangers. As found in studies on environmental stress, other factors may moderate perceptions of crowding–in this case, we hypothesize that the ambient environment may play a significant role. Travel comfort was measured by applying a structured survey to randomly selected passengers (n=369) on 3 lines of the Beijing metro on workdays. Respondents were standing with all seats occupied and with car occupancy at 14 levels. A second research assistant filmed the metro car while passengers were interviewed, to obtain the total number of passengers. Metro lines 4, 6 and 10 were selected that travel through the central city north-south, east-west and circumferentially. Respondents evaluated the following factors: crowding, noise, smell, air quality, temperature, illumination, vibration and perceived safety as they experienced them at the time of interview, and then were asked to rank these 8 factors according to their importance for their travel comfort. Evaluations were semantic differentials on a 7-point scale from highly unsatisfactory (-3) to highly satisfactory (+3). The control variables included age, sex, annual income and trip purpose. Crowding was assessed most negatively, with 41% of the scores between -3 and -2. Noise and air quality were also assessed negatively, with two-thirds of the evaluations below 0. Illumination was assessed most positively, followed by crime, vibration and temperature, all scoring at indifference (0) or slightly positive. Perception of crowding was linearly and positively related to the number of passengers in the car. Linear regression tested the impact of ambient environmental factors on perception of crowding. Noise intensity accounted for more than the actual number of individuals in the car in the perception of crowding, with smell also contributing. Other variables do not interact with the crowding variable although the evaluations are distinct. In all, only one-third of the perception of crowding (R2=.154) is explained by the number of people, with the other ambient environmental variables accounting for two-thirds of the variance (R2=.316). However, when ranking the factors by their importance to travel comfort, perceived crowding made up 69% of the first rank, followed by noise at 11%. At rank 2, smell dominates (25%), followed by noise and air quality (17%). Commuting to work induces significantly lower evaluations of travel comfort with shopping the most positive. Clearly, travel comfort is particularly important to commuters. Moreover, their perception of crowding while travelling on metro is highly conditioned by the ambient environment in the metro car. Focussing attention on the ambient environmental conditions of the metro is an effective way to address the primary concerns of travellers with overcrowding. In general, the strongly held opinions on travel comfort require more attention in the effort to induce ridership in public transit.

Keywords: ambient environment, mass rail transit, public transit, travel comfort

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Authors: Emmanuel Yussuf, John Muthama, John Ng'ang'A

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There has been increasing noise levels all over the world in the last decade. Many factors contribute to this increase, which is causing health related effects to humans. Developing countries are not left out of the whole picture as they are still growing and advancing their development. Motor vehicles are increasing on urban roads; there is an increase in infrastructure due to the rising population, increasing number of industries to provide goods and so many other activities. All this activities lead to the high noise levels in cities. This study was conducted in Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD) with the main objective of simulating noise levels in order to understand the noise exposed to the people within the urban area, in relation to weather parameters namely temperature, rainfall and wind field. The study was achieved using the Neighbourhood Proximity Model and Time Series Analysis, with data obtained from proxies/remotely-sensed from satellites, in order to establish the levels of noise exposed to which people of Nairobi CBD are exposed to. The findings showed that there is an increase in temperature (0.1°C per year) and a decrease in precipitation (40 mm per year), which in comparison to the noise levels in the area, are increasing. The study also found out that noise levels exposed to people in Nairobi CBD were roughly between 61 and 63 decibels and has been increasing, a level which is high and likely to cause adverse physical and psychological effects on the human body in which air temperature, precipitation and wind contribute so much in the spread of noise. As a noise reduction measure, the use of sound proof materials in buildings close to busy roads, implementation of strict laws to most emitting sources as well as further research on the study was recommended. The data used for this study ranged from the year 2000 to 2015, rainfall being in millimeters (mm), temperature in degrees Celsius (°C) and the urban form characteristics being in meters (m).

Keywords: simulation, noise exposure, weather, proxy

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Authors: C. John Thomas, Sabitha Jannet

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The review concentrates on mental health wellbeing at workplace to create a safe work environment. The purpose of the study is to find the existing gaps in occupational health in the manufacturing sector. Mental wellbeing is important because it is an essential component of human life and influences our emotions, attitudes, and feelings. In the workplace, mental wellbeing can encourage a culture of safety and avoid accidents. An environment where individuals are comfortable voicing themselves and being themselves. More technically, when individuals have psychological protection at work, without regard for humiliation or punishment, they feel relaxed expressing complaints and errors. They are sure they are going to speak up and not humiliate, neglect, or accuse them. Once they are uncertain about something, they know they are going to ask questions. They are inclined to trust their colleagues and respect them. The reviews were considered through keywords and health-related topics. There are different characteristics of mental wellbeing in the literature and how it impacts the workplace. There is also a possibility that their personal lives will have an impact. In every occupation, however, there is widespread acknowledgment that psychosocial hazards are an important health risk for workers, yet in many workplaces, the focus remains on physical hazards. It is alleged that the understating of workplace psychosocial hazards is primarily due to the perception that they present a more difficult and complex challenge when compared to other health and safety issues. Others, however, allege it is the paucity of awareness about psychosocial hazards and their alleviation that explains their relative neglect. The other researchers focused that following global trends, it is believed that psychosocial hazards must be minimized within our workplaces and that there is a requirement for workplace interventions to reduce psychological harm and promote mental health for all the workman employees to achieve zero harm. In common, this literature review compares various results of the individual studies on their research methods and finding to fill gaps.

Keywords: mental health wellbeing, occupational health, psychosocial hazards, safety culture, safety management systems, workman employee, workplace safety

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Authors: Farah Naja, Mohamad Alameddine

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Background: The difficulty of compliance to therapeutic and lifestyle management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) encourages patients to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies. Little is known about the prevalence and mode of CAM use among diabetics in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in general and Lebanon in particular. Objective: To assess the prevalence and modes of CAM use among patients with T2DM residing in Beirut, Lebanon. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of T2DM patients was conducted on patients recruited from two major referral centers - a public hospital and a private academic medical center in Beirut. In a face-to-face interview, participants completed a survey questionnaire comprised of three sections: socio-demographic, diabetes characteristics and types and modes of CAM use. Descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were utilized to assess the prevalence, mode and correlates of CAM use in the study population. The main outcome in this study (CAM use) was defined as using CAM at least once since diagnosis with T2DM. Results: A total of 333 T2DM patients completed the survey (response rate: 94.6%). Prevalence of CAM use in the study population was 38%, 95% CI (33.1-43.5). After adjustment, CAM use was significantly associated with a “married” status, a longer duration of T2DM, the presence of disease complications, and a positive family history of the disease. Folk foods and herbs were the most commonly used CAM followed by natural health products. One in five patients used CAM as an alternative to conventional treatment. Only 7 % of CAM users disclosed the CAM use to their treating physician. Health care practitioners were the least cited (7%) as influencing the choice of CAM among users. Conclusion: The use of CAM therapies among T2DM patients in Lebanon is prevalent. Decision makers and care providers must fully understand the potential risks and benefits of CAM therapies to appropriately advise their patients. Attention must be dedicated to educating T2DM patients on the importance of disclosing CAM use to their physicians especially patients with a family history of diabetes, and those using conventional therapy for a long time.

Keywords: nutritional supplements, type 2 diabetes mellitus, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), conventional therapy

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Authors: Subhra Chattopadhyay

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New Towns are usually built up at city-periphery with an eye to accommodate overspill population and functions of the city. ‘New towns are self-sufficient planned towns having a full range of urban economic and social activities, so it can provide employments for all of its inhabitants as well as a balanced self-content social community could be maintained’. In 3rd world countries New towns often emerge from scratch i.e on the area having no urban background and therefore, it needs a massive land conversion from rural to urban. This paper aims to study the implication of such land title transfer into rural sustainability with a case study at Jatragachi, New Town Kolkata. Broad objectives of this study are to understand 1. new changes in this area like i)changes in land use, ii) demographic changes, iii) occupational changes of the local people and 2.their view about new town planning. Major observations are stated below. The studied area was completely rural till recent years and is now at the heart of New Town Kolkata. Though this area is now under the jurisdiction of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA), it is still administrated by rural self-government.It creates administrative confusion and misuse of public capital. It is observed in this study that cultivation was the mainstay of livelihood for the majority of residents till recent past. There was a dramatic rise in irrigated area in the decade of 90’s pointing out agricultural prosperity.The area achieved the highest productivity of rice in the District. Percentage of marginal workers dropped significantly.In addition to it, ascending women’s literacy rate as found in this rural Mouza obviously indicates a constant social progress .Through land conversion, this flourishing agricultural land has been transformed into urban area with highly sophisticated uses. Such development may satisfy educated urban elite but the dwellers of the area suffer a lot. They bear the cost of new town planning through loss of their assured food and income as well as their place identity. The number of marginal workers increases abruptly. The growth of female literacy drops down. The area loses its functional linkages with its surroundings and fails to prove its actual growth potentiality. The physical linkages( like past roads and irrigation infrastructure) which had developed through time to support the economy become defunct. The ecological services which were provided by the agricultural field are denied. The historicity of this original site is demolished. Losses of the inhabitants of the area who have been evicted are also immense and cannot be materially compensated. Therefore, the ethos of such new town planning in stake of rural sustainability is under question. Need for an integrated approach for rural and urban development planning is felt in this study.

Keywords: new town, sustainable development, growth potentiality, land transfer

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Authors: Jennifer Wallbrown

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It’s not uncommon in the US to see news article headlines about public school teachers being scrutinized for what they are teaching or see the general public weighing in on whether or not they think certain controversial subjects should be addressed in the classroom- such as LGBTQ+ or multicultural literature. Even though this is a subject that has been written about and discussed for years, it continues to be a relevant topic in education as it continues to be a struggle to implement more diverse texts. Although it is valid for teachers to fear controversy when they attempt to create a more diverse or inclusive curriculum, it is a fight worth fighting because of the benefits students can gain from being exposed to a wide range of texts. This paper is different from others of its kind because it addresses many of the counterarguments often made to implementing LGBTQ+ or multicultural literature in secondary classrooms. It not only encourages educators to try to include more diverse texts, but it gives them the tools to address common concerns and be sound in their reasoning for choosing these texts. This can be of interest to those educators who are not English teachers because a truly diverse and inclusive curriculum would include other subjects as well- including history, art, and more. By the end of my proposed paper, readers will feel encouraged to choose more diverse and inclusive texts for their classrooms. They can also be confident that if met with opposition or controversy, as is sometimes common when implementing new texts, that they have sound arguments and reasoning for why they chose to include these texts. This reasoning is that, based on the research, studies have found there are benefits to students studying texts about those different from themselves, because it teaches them empathy and helps fight prejudice.

Keywords: education, diverse, inclusive, multicultural, lgbtq+, pedagogy

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Authors: Tara Hunter, Kristine Concepcion, Wendy Cheng, Brianna Pike, Jane Estoesta, Anne Stuart

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In 2015, Family Planning NSW was contracted by the NSW Ministry of Health to design and deliver Sexual Safety Policy training (SSPT) to mental health professionals across NSW. The training was based on their current guidelines and developed in consultation with an expert reference group. From October 2015 to April 2017 it was delivered to over 2,400 mental health professionals with a view to supporting implementation of consistent prevention and intervention related to sexual safety in the mental health setting. An evaluation was undertaken to determine the knowledge and confidence of participants related to sexual safety before and after the training, and whether any improvements were translated into changes in practice. Participants were invited to complete a survey prior to the training, upon completion and three to six months thereafter. Telephone interviews were conducted among service managers and mental health champions six months post-training. Prior to training, the majority of mental health professionals reported being slightly to moderately confident in identifying a sexual safety incident. When asked on their understanding of sexual safety, gender sensitive practice and trauma informed care, they reported no confidence, slight confidence and moderate confidence. Immediately after the training, 54.5% reported being very confident and 10.9% extremely confident in identifying a sexual safety incident. More than half felt very confident or extremely confident in their understanding of sexual safety principles. The impact survey (six months later) found that the majority of participants (91%) were highly confident in identifying a sexual safety incident. Telephone interviewees reported a change in workplace culture and increased awareness after the training. Mental health professionals experienced increased knowledge and confidence about sexual safety principles following the training and were able to implement positive changes and concrete actions to better address sexual safety issues in their workplace.

Keywords: sexual safety, mental health professionals, trauma informed care, policy training

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Authors: M. A. Mulatu, L. C. Chang, Y. S. Han

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Energy harvesting tags with cooperative communication capabilities are emerging as possible infrastructure for internet of things (IoT) applications. This paper studies about the \ cooperative transmission strategy for a network of energy harvesting active networked tags (EnHANTs), that is adapted to the available energy resource and identification request. We consider a network of EnHANT-equipped objects to communicate with the destination either directly or by cooperating with neighboring objects. We formulate the the problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) under synchronised On/Off keying (S-OOK) pulse modulation format. The simulation results are provided to show the the performance of the cooperative transmission policy and compared against the greedy and conservative policies of single-link transmission.

Keywords: cooperative communication, transmission strategy, energy harvesting, Markov decision process, value iteration

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Authors: Jiayue Guo, Lili You

Abstract:

Background: Children and adolescent health are crucial for both personal well-being and the nation's future health landscape. Health Literacy (HL) is important in enabling adolescents to self-manage their health, a fundamental step towards health empowerment. However, there are limited tools for assessing HL among elementary and junior high school students. This study aims to construct and validate a test-based HL scale for Chinese students, offering a scientific reference for cross-cultural HL tool development. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey. Participants were recruited from a stratified cluster random sampling method, a total of 4189 Chinese in-school primary and secondary students. The development of the scale was completed by defining the concept of HL, establishing the item indicator system, screening items (7 health content dimensions), and evaluating reliability and validity. Delphi method expert consultation was used to screen items, the Rasch model was conducted for quality analysis, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to examine the internal consistency. Results: We developed four versions of the HL scale, each with a total score of 100, encompassing seven key health areas: hygiene, nutrition, physical activity, mental health, disease prevention, safety awareness, and digital health literacy. Each version measures four dimensions of health competencies: knowledge, skills, motivation, and behavior. After the second round of expert consultation, the average importance score of each item by experts is 4.5–5.0, and the coefficient of variation is 0.000–0.174. The knowledge and skills dimensions are judgment-based and multiple-choice questions, with the Rasch model confirming unidimensionality at a 5.7% residual variance. The behavioral and motivational dimensions, measured with scale-type items, demonstrated internal consistency via Cronbach's alpha and strong inter-item correlation with KMO values of 0.924 and 0.787, respectively. Bartlett's test of sphericity, with p-values <0.001, further substantiates the scale's reliability. Conclusions: The new test-based scale, designed to evaluate competencies within a multifaceted framework, aligns with current international adolescent literacy theories and China's health education policies, focusing not only on knowledge acquisition but also on the application of health-related thinking and behaviors. The scale can be used as a comprehensive tool for HL evaluation and a reference for other countries.

Keywords: adolescent health, Chinese, health literacy, rasch model, scale development

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Authors: Gheyder Concha Bendezu, Rodrigo Lescano Loli, Aldo Bravo Lizano

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In big urbanized cities of Latin America, motor vehicles have priority over non-motor vehicles and pedestrians. There is an important problem that affects people's health and quality of life; lack of inclusion towards pedestrians makes it difficult for them to move smoothly and safely since the city has been planned for the transit of motor vehicles. Faced with the new trend for sustainable and economical transport, the city is forced to develop infrastructure in order to incorporate pedestrians and users with non-motorized vehicles in the transport system. The present research aims to study the influence of non-motorized vehicles on an avenue, the optimization of a cycle using traffic lights based on simulation in Synchro software, to improve the flow of non-motor vehicles. The evaluation is of the microscopic type; for this reason, field data was collected, such as vehicular, pedestrian, and non-motor vehicle user demand. With the values of speed and travel time, it is represented in the current scenario that contains the existing problem. These data allow to create a microsimulation model in Vissim software, later to be calibrated and validated so that it has a behavior similar to reality. The results of this model are compared with the efficiency parameters of the proposed model; these parameters are the queue length, the travel speed, and mainly the travel times of the users at this intersection. The results reflect a reduction of 27% in travel time, that is, an improvement between the proposed model and the current one for this great avenue. The tail length of motor vehicles is also reduced by 12.5%, a considerable improvement. All this represents an improvement in the level of service and in the quality of life of users.

Keywords: bikeway, microsimulation, pedestrians, queue length, traffic light cycle, travel time

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Authors: Sharifah Liew, Azlihanis Abdul Hadi, Nurul Shahida Mohd Saffe, Azhar Hamzah, Maslina Musa

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Fatigue is a common health problem among healthcare workers, ranging from ambulance drivers to specialist doctors. In Malaysia, majority of healthcare workers prefer to commute to work by their own vehicle compared to public transport. Thus, exposed to risk on the road while commuting to work. The aim of the study is to find out the effects of fatigue on road crashes among healthcare workers while they commute to work. The research conducted using the semi-quantitative approach based on self- reported questionnaires. In total, five hundred and fifty-one healthcare workers from selected five hospitals were involved in this study. Results showed significant differences between crash involvement, travelling distance and time to and from work among healthcare workers. Most of the participants (37%) reported that causes of road crashes were due to fatigue, sleepiness and microsleep while driving to and back from work. In addition, there were significant differences between fatigue and road crashes and near misses. This research suggests that the hospitals’ management may need to review their staffs’ job scopes and workloads to overcome the fatigue problems and, consider their feedback when designing work schedules and investigate staff commuting distance from home to workplace and vice-versa.

Keywords: fatigue, healthcare, road crashes, near misses, Malaysia

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Authors: Sharda Kumari

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As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to leave its mark on the global business landscape, companies have had to adapt to new realities and find ways to sustain their operations amid social distancing measures, government restrictions, and heightened public health concerns. This unprecedented situation has placed considerable stress on both employees and employers, underscoring the need for innovative approaches to manage the risks associated with Covid-19 transmission in the workplace. In response to these challenges, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies, with an increasing preference for remote interactions and virtual collaboration. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems have risen to prominence as a vital resource for organizations navigating the post-pandemic world, providing a range of benefits that include acquiring new customers, generating insightful consumer data, enhancing customer relationships, and growing market share. In the context of pandemic management, CRM systems offer three primary advantages: (1) integration features that streamline operations and reduce the need for multiple, costly software systems; (2) worldwide accessibility from any internet-enabled device, facilitating efficient remote workforce management during a pandemic; and (3) the capacity for rapid adaptation to changing business conditions, given that most CRM platforms boast a wide array of remotely deployable business growth solutions, a critical attribute when dealing with a dispersed workforce in a pandemic-impacted environment. These advantages highlight the pivotal role of CRM systems in helping organizations remain resilient and adaptive in the face of ongoing global challenges.

Keywords: healthcare, CRM, customer relationship management, customer experience, digital transformation, pandemic response, patient monitoring, patient management, healthcare automation, electronic health record, patient billing, healthcare information systems, remote workforce, virtual collaboration, resilience, adaptable business models, integration features, CRM in healthcare, telehealth, pandemic management

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Authors: S. Vadivukkarasi, K. Karthi, M. Karthick, C. Dinesh, S. Santhosh, A. Yogaraj

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The appointment system was designed to minimize patient’s idle time overlooking patients waiting time in hospitals. This is no longer valid in today’s consumer oriented society. Long waiting times for treatment in the outpatient department followed by short consultations has long been a complaint. Nowadays, customers use waiting time as a decisive factor in choosing a service provider. Queuing theory constitutes a very powerful tool because queuing models require relatively little data and are simple and fast to use. Because of this simplicity and speed, modelers can be used to quickly evaluate and compare various alternatives for providing service. The application of queuing models in the analysis of health care systems is increasingly accepted by health care decision makers. Timely access to care is a key component of high-quality health care. However, patient delays are prevalent throughout health care systems, resulting in dissatisfaction and adverse clinical consequences for patients as well as potentially higher costs and wasted capacity for providers. Arguably, the most critical delays for health care are the ones associated with health care emergencies. The allocation of resources can be divided into three general areas: bed management, staff management, and room facility management. Effective and efficient patient flow is indicated by high patient throughput, low patient waiting times, a short length of stay at the hospital and overtime, while simultaneously maintaining adequate staff utilization rates and low patient’s idle times.

Keywords: appointment system, patient scheduling, bed management, queueing calculation, system analysis

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Authors: Imalka Wasana Rathnayaka, Rasheda Khanam, Mohammad Mafizur Rahman

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TheCOVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to both the health and economic states in countries around the world. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of governments' decisions to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 through proposing policy directions to reduce its magnitude. The study is motivated by the ongoing coronavirus outbreaks and comprehensive policy responses taken by countries to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and reduce death rates. This study contributes to filling the knowledge by exploiting the long-term efficacy of extensive plans of governments. This study employs a Panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework. The panels incorporate both a significant number of variables and fortnightly observations from22 countries. The dependent variables adopted in this study are the fortnightly death rates and the rates of the spread of COVID-19. Mortality rate and the rate of infection data were computed based on the number of deaths and the number of new cases per 10000 people.The explanatory variables are fortnightly values of indexes taken to investigate the efficacy of government interventions to control COVID-19. Overall government response index, Stringency index, Containment and health index, and Economic support index were selected as explanatory variables. The study relies on the Oxford COVID-19 Government Measure Tracker (OxCGRT). According to the procedures of ARDL, the study employs (i) the unit root test to check stationarity, (ii) panel cointegration, and (iii) PMG and ARDL estimation techniques. The study shows that the COVID-19 pandemic forced immediate responses from policymakers across the world to mitigate the risks of COVID-19. Of the four types of government policy interventions: (i) Stringency and (ii) Economic Support have been most effective and reveal that facilitating Stringency and financial measures has resulted in a reduction in infection and fatality rates, while (iii) Government responses are positively associated with deaths but negatively with infected cases. Even though this positive relationship is unexpected to some extent in the long run, social distancing norms of the governments have been broken by the public in some countries, and population age demographics would be a possible reason for that result. (iv) Containment and healthcare improvements reduce death rates but increase the infection rates, although the effect has been lower (in absolute value). The model implies that implementation of containment health practices without association with tracing and individual-level quarantine does not work well. The policy implication based on containment health measures must be applied together with targeted, aggressive, and rapid containment to extensively reduce the number of people infected with COVID 19. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that economic support for income and debt relief has been the key to suppressing the rate of COVID-19 infections and fatality rates.

Keywords: COVID-19, infection rate, deaths rate, government response, panel data

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Authors: Chiu-Wen Chang, I-Yun Chang, Wei-Ting Chen, Hui-Ping Ho, Ruei-Hun Chang, Joh-Jong Huang

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Kaohsiung City is located in the tropical region where has Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus distributed; once the virus invades, it’s can easily trigger local epidemic. Besides, Kaohsiung City has a world-class airport and harbor, trade and tourism are close and frequently with every country, especially with the Southeast Asian countries which also suffer from dengue. Therefore, Kaohsiung City faces the difficult challenge of dengue every year. The objectives of this study was to enhance dengue clinical care, border management and vector surveillance in Kaohsiung City by establishing an larger scale, innovatively and more coordinated dengue prevention and control strategies in 2016, including (1) Integrated medical programs: facilitated 657 contract medical institutions, widely set up NS1 rapid test in clinics, enhanced triage and referrals system, dengue case daily-monitoring management (2) Border quarantine: comprehensive NS1 screening for foreign workers and fisheries when immigration, hospitalization and isolation for suspected cases, health education for high risk groups (foreign students, other tourists) (3) Mosquito control: Widely use Gravitrap to monitor mosquito density in environment, use NS1 rapid screening test to detect community dengue virus (4) Health education: create a dengue app for people to immediately inquire the risk map and nearby medical resources, routine health education to all districts to strengthen public’s dengue knowledge, neighborhood cleaning awards program. The results showed that after new integration of dengue prevention and control strategies fully implemented in Kaohsiung City, the number of confirmed cases in 2016 declined to 342 cases, the majority of these cases are the continuation epidemic in 2015; in fact, only two cases confirmed after the 2016 summer. Besides, the dengue mortality rate successfully decreased to 0% in 2016. Moreover, according to the reporting rate from medical institutions in 2014 and 2016, it dropped from 27.07% to 19.45% from medical center, and it decreased from 36.55% to 29.79% from regional hospital; however, the reporting rate of district hospital increased from 11.88% to 15.87% and also increased from 24.51% to 34.89% in general practice clinics. Obviously, it showed that under the action of strengthening medical management, it reduced the medical center’s notification ratio and improved the notification ratio of general clinics which achieved the great effect of dengue clinical management and dengue control.

Keywords: dengue control, integrated control strategies, clinical management, NS1

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