Search results for: article incorporation

Authors: Yu-Shun Elisa Pong

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Music aesthetics related to phenomenology is rarely discussed and still in the ascendant while multi-dimensional discourses of philosophy were emerged to be an important trend in the 20th century. In the present study, a basic theory of phenomenology from Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) is revealed and discussed followed by the introduction of intentionality concepts, eidetic reduction, horizon, world, and inter-subjectivity issues. Further, phenomenology of music and general art was brought to attention by the introduction of Roman Ingarden’s The Work of Music and the Problems of its Identity (1933) and Mikel Dufrenne’s The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience (1953). Finally, Debussy’s music will be analyzed and discussed from the perspective of phenomenology. Phenomenology is not so much a methodology or analytics rather than a common belief. That is, as much as possible to describe in detail the different human experience, relative to the object of purpose. Such idea has been practiced in various guises for centuries, only till the early 20th century Phenomenology was better refined through the works of Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and others. Debussy was born in an age when the Western society began to accept the multi-cultural baptism. With his unusual sensitivity to the oriental culture, Debussy has presented considerable inspiration, absorption, and echo in his music works. In fact, his relationship with nature is far from echoing the idea of Chinese ancient literati and nature. Although he is not the first composer to associate music with human and nature, the unique quality and impact of his works enable him to become a significant figure in music aesthetics. Debussy’s music tried to develop a quality analogous of nature, and more importantly, based on vivid life experience and artistic transformation to achieve the realm of pure art. Such idea that life experience comes before artwork, either clear or vague, simple or complex, was later presented abstractly in his late works is still an interesting subject worth further discussion. Debussy’s music has existed for more than or close to a century. It has received musicology researcher’s attention as much as other important works in the history of Western music. Among the pluralistic discussion about Debussy’s art and ideas, phenomenological aesthetics has enlightened new ideas and view angles to relook his great works and even gave some previous arguments legitimacy. Overall, this article provides a new insight of Debussy’s music from phenomenological exploration and it is believed phenomenology would be an important pathway in the research of the music aesthetics.

Keywords: Debussy's music, music esthetics, oriental culture, phenomenology

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Authors: Mahya Saffarinia

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The family has existed as a natural unit of human relations from the beginning of creation and life of human society until now and has been the core of the relationship between women, men, and children. However, in the field of human relations, the definition of family, related rights and duties, principles governing the family, the impact of the family on other individual or social phenomena and various other areas have changed over time, especially in recent decades, and the subject has now become one of the important categories of studies including interdisciplinary studies. It is difficult to provide an accurate and comprehensive definition of the family, and in the context of different cultures, customs, and legal systems, different definitions of family are presented. The meaning of legal principles governing the family is the general rules of law that determine the organization of different dimensions of the family, and dozens of partial rules are inferred from it or defined in the light of these general rules. How each of these principles was formed has left its own detailed history. In international human rights standards, which have been gradually developed over the past 72 years, numerous data can be found that in some way represent a rule in the field of family law or provide an interpretation of existing international rules which also address obligations of governments in the field of family. Based on a descriptive-analytical method and by examining human rights instruments, the present study seeks to explain the effective elements in defining and the principles governing the family. This article makes it clear that international instruments do not provide a clear definition of the family and that governments are empowered to define the family in terms of the cultural context of their community. But at the same time, it has been stipulated that governments do not have the exclusive authority to provide this definition, and certain principles should be considered as essential elements. Also, 7 principles have been identified as general legal rules governing all international human rights instruments related to the family, such as the principle of voluntary family formation and the prohibition of forced marriage, and the principle of respecting human dignity for all family members. Each of these 7 principles has led to different debates, and the acceptance or non-acceptance of each of them has different consequences in the rights and duties related to the family and the relations between its members and even the family's interactions with others and society. One of the consequences of the validity of these principles in family-related human rights standards is that many of the existing legal systems of countries in some cases need to be amended and their regulations revised, and some established cultural traditions in societies that are considered inhumane in terms of these principles need to be modified and changed. Of course, this process of governing the principles derived from human rights standards over the family also has vulnerabilities and misinterpretations that should not be neglected.

Keywords: family, human rights, international instruments, principles

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Authors: Madjid Karimirad

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Floating solar was not very well-known in the renewable energy field a decade ago; however, there has been tremendous growth internationally with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of nearly 30% in recent years. To reach the goal of global net-zero emission by 2050, all renewable energy sources including solar should be used. Considering that 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometres of the coasts, floating solar in coastal waters is an obvious energy solution. However, this requires more robust floating solar solutions. This paper tries to enlighten the fundamental requirements in the design of floating solar for offshore installations from the hydrodynamic and offshore engineering points of view. In this regard, a closer look at dynamic characteristics, stochastic behaviour and nonlinear phenomena appearing in this kind of structure is a major focus of the current article. Floating solar structures are alternative and very attractive green energy installations with (a) Less strain on land usage for densely populated areas; (b) Natural cooling effect with efficiency gain; and (c) Increased irradiance from the reflectivity of water. Also, floating solar in conjunction with the hydroelectric plants can optimise energy efficiency and improve system reliability. The co-locating of floating solar units with other types such as offshore wind, wave energy, tidal turbines as well as aquaculture (fish farming) can result in better ocean space usage and increase the synergies. Floating solar technology has seen considerable developments in installed capacities in the past decade. Development of design standards and codes of practice for floating solar technologies deployed on both inland water-bodies and offshore is required to ensure robust and reliable systems that do not have detrimental impacts on the hosting water body. Floating solar will account for 17% of all PV energy produced worldwide by 2030. To enhance the development, further research in this area is needed. This paper aims to discuss the main critical design aspects in light of the load and load effects that the floating solar platforms are subjected to. The key considerations in hydrodynamics, aerodynamics and simultaneous effects from the wind and wave load actions will be discussed. The link of dynamic nonlinear loading, limit states and design space considering the environmental conditions is set to enable a better understanding of the design requirements of fast-evolving floating solar technology.

Keywords: floating solar, offshore renewable energy, wind and wave loading, design space

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Authors: Jihee Jang, Seowon Yoon, Gaeun Son, Minjung Kang, Joon Yeon Choeh, Kee-Hong Choi

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Background: Self-report multiple choice questionnaires have been widely utilized to quantitatively measure one’s personality and psychological constructs. Despite several strengths (e.g., brevity and utility), self-report multiple-choice questionnaires have considerable limitations in nature. With the rise of machine learning (ML) and Natural language processing (NLP), researchers in the field of psychology are widely adopting NLP to assess psychological constructs to predict human behaviors. However, there is a lack of connections between the work being performed in computer science and that psychology due to small data sets and unvalidated modeling practices. Aims: The current article introduces the study method and procedure of phase II, which includes the interview questions for the five-factor model (FFM) of personality developed in phase I. This study aims to develop the interview (semi-structured) and open-ended questions for the FFM-based personality assessments, specifically designed with experts in the field of clinical and personality psychology (phase 1), and to collect the personality-related text data using the interview questions and self-report measures on personality and psychological distress (phase 2). The purpose of the study includes examining the relationship between natural language data obtained from the interview questions, measuring the FFM personality constructs, and psychological distress to demonstrate the validity of the natural language-based personality prediction. Methods: The phase I (pilot) study was conducted on fifty-nine native Korean adults to acquire the personality-related text data from the interview (semi-structured) and open-ended questions based on the FFM of personality. The interview questions were revised and finalized with the feedback from the external expert committee, consisting of personality and clinical psychologists. Based on the established interview questions, a total of 425 Korean adults were recruited using a convenience sampling method via an online survey. The text data collected from interviews were analyzed using natural language processing. The results of the online survey, including demographic data, depression, anxiety, and personality inventories, were analyzed together in the model to predict individuals’ FFM of personality and the level of psychological distress (phase 2).

Keywords: personality prediction, psychological distress prediction, natural language processing, machine learning, the five-factor model of personality

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Authors: A. Rezaei, M. Huisman, W. Van Paepegem

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Atomic interactions in molecular systems are mainly studied by particle mechanics. Nevertheless, researches have also put on considerable effort to simulate them using continuum methods. In early 2000, simple equivalent finite element models have been developed to study the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes and graphene in composite materials. Afterward, many researchers have employed similar structural simulation approaches to obtain mechanical properties of nanostructured materials, to simplify interface behavior of fiber-reinforced composites, and to simulate defects in carbon nanotubes or graphene sheets, etc. These structural approaches, however, are limited to small deformations due to complicated local rotational coordinates. This article proposes a method for the finite element simulation of molecular mechanics. For ease in addressing the approach, here it is called Structural Finite Element Molecular Modeling (SFEMM). SFEMM method improves the available structural approaches for large deformations, without using any rotational degrees of freedom. Moreover, the method simulates molecular conformation, which is a big advantage over the previous approaches. Technically, this method uses nonlinear multipoint constraints to simulate kinematics of the atomic multibody interactions. Only truss elements are employed, and the bond potentials are implemented through constitutive material models. Because the equilibrium bond- length, bond angles, and bond-torsion potential energies are intrinsic material parameters, the model is independent of initial strains or stresses. In this paper, the SFEMM method has been implemented in ABAQUS finite element software. The constraints and material behaviors are modeled through two Fortran subroutines. The method is verified for the bond-stretch, bond-angle and bond-torsion of carbon atoms. Furthermore, the capability of the method in the conformation simulation of molecular structures is demonstrated via a case study of a graphene sheet. Briefly, SFEMM builds up a framework that offers more flexible features over the conventional molecular finite element models, serving the structural relaxation modeling and large deformations without incorporating local rotational degrees of freedom. Potentially, the method is a big step towards comprehensive molecular modeling with finite element technique, and thereby concurrently coupling an atomistic domain to a solid continuum domain within a single finite element platform.

Keywords: finite element, large deformation, molecular mechanics, structural method

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Authors: Yi-Fung Lin, Shiow-Ching Shun, Wen-Yu Hu

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Background: A skill mix model is regarded as one of the most effective methods of reducing nursing shortages, as well as easing nursing staff workloads and labor costs. Although this model shows several benefits for the health workforce, the relationship between the optimal model of skill mix and the patient mortality rate remains to be discovered. Objectives: This review aimed to explore the relationship between the skill mix model and patient mortality rate in acute care hospitals. Data Sources: A systematic search of the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases and researchers retrieved studies published between January 1986 and March 2022. Review methods: Two independent reviewers screened the titles and abstracts based on selection criteria, extracted the data, and performed critical appraisals using the STROBE checklist of each included study. The studies focused on adult patients in acute care hospitals, and the skill mix model and patient mortality rate were included in the analysis. Results: Six included studies were conducted in the USA, Canada, Italy, Taiwan, and European countries (Belgium, England, Finland, Ireland, Spain, and Switzerland), including patients in medical, surgical, and intensive care units. There were both nurses and nursing assistants in their skill mix team. This main finding is that three studies (324,592 participants) show evidence of fewer mortality rates associated with hospitals with a higher percentage of registered nurse staff (range percentage of registered nurse staff 36.1%-100%), but three articles (1,122,270 participants) did not find the same result (range of percentage of registered nurse staff 46%-96%). However, based on appraisal findings, those showing a significant association all meet good quality standards, but only one-third of their counterparts. Conclusions: In light of the limited amount and quality of published research in this review, it is prudent to treat the findings with caution. Although the evidence is not insufficient certainty to draw conclusions about the relationship between nurse staffing level and patients' mortality, this review lights the direction of relevant studies in the future. The limitation of this article is the variation in skill mix models among countries and institutions, making it impossible to do a meta-analysis to compare them further.

Keywords: nurse staffing level, nursing assistants, mortality, skill mix

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Authors: Fateme Aysin Anka, Farzad Kiani

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Forced migration is a situation in which people are forced to leave their homes against their will due to political conflicts, wars and conflicts, natural disasters, climate change, economic crises, or other emergencies. This type of migration takes place under conditions where people cannot lead a sustainable life due to reasons such as security, shelter and meeting their basic needs. This type of migration may occur in connection with different factors that affect people's living conditions. In addition to these general and widespread reasons, water security and resources will be one that is starting now and will be encountered more and more in the future. Forced migration may occur due to insufficient or depleted water resources in the areas where people live. In this case, people's living conditions become unsustainable, and they may have to go elsewhere, as they cannot obtain their basic needs, such as drinking water, water used for agriculture and industry. To cope with these situations, it is important to minimize the causes, as international organizations and societies must provide assistance (for example, humanitarian aid, shelter, medical support and education) and protection to address (or mitigate) this problem. From the international perspective, plans such as the Green New Deal (GND) and the European Green Deal (EGD) draw attention to the need for people to live equally in a cleaner and greener world. Especially recently, with the advancement of technology, science and methods have become more efficient. In this regard, in this article, a multidisciplinary case model is presented by reinforcing the water problem with an engineering approach within the framework of the social dimension. It is worth emphasizing that this problem is largely linked to climate change and the lack of a sustainable water management perspective. As a matter of fact, the United Nations Development Agency (UNDA) draws attention to this problem in its universally accepted sustainable development goals. Therefore, an artificial intelligence-based approach has been applied to solve this problem by focusing on the water management problem. The most general but also important aspect in the management of water resources is its correct consumption. In this context, the artificial intelligence-based system undertakes tasks such as water demand forecasting and distribution management, emergency and crisis management, water pollution detection and prevention, and maintenance and repair control and forecasting.

Keywords: water resource management, forced migration, multidisciplinary studies, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Mohammadreza Hedyehzadeh, Mahdi Yousefi

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Colon cancer is one of the most common cancer, which predicted to increase its prevalence due to the bad eating habits of peoples. Nowadays, due to the busyness of people, the use of fast foods is increasing, and therefore, diagnosis of this disease and its treatment are of particular importance. To determine the best treatment approach for each specific colon cancer patients, the oncologist should be known the stage of the tumor. The most common method to determine the tumor stage is TNM staging system. In this system, M indicates the presence of metastasis, N indicates the extent of spread to the lymph nodes, and T indicates the size of the tumor. It is clear that in order to determine all three of these parameters, an imaging method must be used, and the gold standard imaging protocols for this purpose are CT and PET/CT. In CT imaging, due to the use of X-rays, the risk of cancer and the absorbed dose of the patient is high, while in the PET/CT method, there is a lack of access to the device due to its high cost. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to estimate the tumor size and the extent of its spread to the lymph nodes using MR images. More than 1300 MR images collected from the TCIA portal, and in the first step (pre-processing), histogram equalization to improve image qualities and resizing to get the same image size was done. Two expert radiologists, which work more than 21 years on colon cancer cases, segmented the images and extracted the tumor region from the images. The next step is feature extraction from segmented images and then classify the data into three classes: T0N0، T3N1 و T3N2. In this article, the VGG-16 convolutional neural network has been used to perform both of the above-mentioned tasks, i.e., feature extraction and classification. This network has 13 convolution layers for feature extraction and three fully connected layers with the softmax activation function for classification. In order to validate the proposed method, the 10-fold cross validation method used in such a way that the data was randomly divided into three parts: training (70% of data), validation (10% of data) and the rest for testing. It is repeated 10 times, each time, the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the model are calculated and the average of ten repetitions is reported as the result. The accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of the proposed method for testing dataset was 89/09%, 95/8% and 96/4%. Compared to previous studies, using a safe imaging technique (MRI) and non-use of predefined hand-crafted imaging features to determine the stage of colon cancer patients are some of the study advantages.

Keywords: colon cancer, VGG-16, magnetic resonance imaging, tumor size, lymph node metastasis

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Authors: Narendra Akhadkar, Silvestre Cano, Christophe Gourru

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Injection-molded parts are widely used in power system protection products. One of the biggest challenges in an injection molding process is shrinkage and warpage of the molded parts. All these geometrical variations may have an adverse effect on the quality of the product, functionality, cost, and time-to-market. The situation becomes more challenging in the case of intricate shapes and in mass production using multi-cavity tools. To control the effects of shrinkage and warpage, it is very important to correctly find out the input parameters that could affect the product performance. With the advances in the computer-aided engineering (CAE), different tools are available to simulate the injection molding process. For our case study, we used the MoldFlow insight tool. Our aim is to predict the spread of the functional dimensions and geometrical variations on the part due to variations in the input parameters such as material viscosity, packing pressure, mold temperature, melt temperature, and injection speed. The input parameters may vary during batch production or due to variations in the machine process settings. To perform the accurate product assembly variation simulation, the first step is to perform an individual part variation simulation to render realistic tolerance ranges. In this article, we present a method to simulate part variations coming from the input parameters variation during batch production. The method is based on computer simulations and experimental validation using the full factorial design of experiments (DoE). The robustness of the simulation model is verified through input parameter wise sensitivity analysis study performed using simulations and experiments; all the results show a very good correlation in the material flow direction. There exists a non-linear interaction between material and the input process variables. It is observed that the parameters such as packing pressure, material, and mold temperature play an important role in spread on functional dimensions and geometrical variations. This method will allow us in the future to develop accurate/realistic virtual prototypes based on trusted simulated process variation and, therefore, increase the product quality and potentially decrease the time to market.

Keywords: correlation, molding process, tolerance, sensitivity analysis, variation simulation

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Authors: Riikka Elina Kallio

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“The walls have ears” phrase is defining the era of dictatorship in Portugal (1926–1974) and political unrest decades in Finland (1917–1948). The phrase is referring to the policing of the political, secret police, PIDE (Policia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado 1933–1969) in Portugal and VALPO (Valtiollinen Poliisi 1939–1948) in Finland. Free speech at any public space and even in private events could be fatal. The members of the PIDE/VALPO or informers/collaborators could be listening. Strict censorship under the Salazar´s regime was controlling media for example newspapers, music, and the film industry. Similarly, the politically affected censorship influenced the media in Finland in those unrest decades. This article examines the similarities and the differences in the images of the political police in Finland and Portugal, by analyzing Finnish and Portuguese films from the nineteen-thirties to nineteensixties. The text addresses two main research questions: what are the common and different features in the representations of the Finnish and Portuguese political police in films between the 1930s and 1960s, and how did the national censorship affect these representations? This study approach is interdisciplinary, and it combines film studies and criminology. Close reading is a practical qualitative method for analyzing films and in this study, close reading emphasizes the features of the police officer. Criminology provides the methodological tools for analysis of the police universal features and European common policies. The characterization of the police in this study is based on Robert Reiner´s 1980s and Timo Korander´s 2010s definitions of the police officer. The research material consisted of the Portuguese films from online film archives and Finnish films from Movie Making Finland -project´s metadata which offered suitable material by data mining the keywords such as poliisi, poliisipäällikkö and konstaapeli (police, police chief, police constable). The findings of this study suggest that even though there are common features of the images of the political police in Finland and Portugal, there are still national and cultural differences in the representations of the political police and policing.

Keywords: censorship, film studies, images, PIDE, political police, VALPO

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Authors: Perpetual Onyejelem, Kenichi Matsui

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Solid waste management is one essential area for urban administration to achieve environmental sustainability. Proper solid waste management (SWM) improves the environment by reducing diseases and increasing public health. On the other way, improper SWM practices negatively impact public health and environmental sustainability. This article evaluates SWM in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, with the goal of determining the current solid waste management practices and their health implications. This study used secondary data, which relies on existing published literature and official documents. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement and its four-stage inclusion/exclusion criteria were utilized as part of a systematic literature review technique to locate the literature that concerns SWM practices and the implementation of solid waste management policies between 2014-2023 in PortHarcourt and its health effects from specific databases (Scopus and Google Scholar). The results found that despite the existence and implementation of the Rivers State Waste Management Policy and the formulation of the National Policy on Solid Waste Management in Port Harcourt, residents continued to dump waste in drainages. They were unaware of waste sorting and dumped waste haphazardly. This trend has persisted due to a lack of political commitment to the effective implementation and monitoring of policies and strategies and a lack of training provided to waste collectors regarding the SWM approach, which involves sorting and separating waste. In addition, inadequate remuneration for waste collectors, the absence of community participation in policy formulation, and insufficient awareness among residents regarding the 3R approach are also contributory factors. This caused the emergence of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, lassa fever, and cholera in Port Harcourt, increasing the expense of healthcare for locals, particularly low-income households. The study urges the government to prioritize protecting the health of its citizens by studying the methods other nations have taken to address the problem of solid waste management and adopting those that work best for their region. The bottom-up strategy should be used to include locals in developing solutions. However, citizens who are always the most impacted by this issue should launch initiatives to address it and put pressure on the government to assist them when they have limitations.

Keywords: health effects, solid waste management practices, environmental pollution, Port-Harcourt

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Authors: Narendra Akhadkar, Philippe Delcambre

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In power protection and control products, assembly process variations due to the individual parts manufactured from single or multi-cavity tooling is a major problem. The dimensional and geometrical variations on the individual parts, in the form of manufacturing tolerances and assembly tolerances, are sources of clearance in the kinematic joints, polarization effect in the joints, and tolerance stack-up. All these variations adversely affect the quality of product, functionality, cost, and time-to-market. Variation simulation analysis may be used in the early product design stage to predict such uncertainties. Usually, variations exist in both manufacturing processes and materials. In the tolerance analysis, the effect of the dimensional and geometrical variations of the individual parts on the functional characteristics (conditions) of the final assembled products are studied. A functional characteristic of the product may be affected by a set of interrelated dimensions (functional parameters) that usually form a geometrical closure in a 3D chain. In power protection and control products, the prerequisite is: when a fault occurs in the electrical network, the product must respond quickly to react and break the circuit to clear the fault. Usually, the response time is in milliseconds. Any failure in clearing the fault may result in severe damage to the equipment or network, and human safety is at stake. In this article, we have investigated two important functional characteristics that are associated with the robust performance of the product. It is demonstrated that the experimental data obtained at the Schneider Electric Laboratory prove the very good prediction capabilities of the variation simulation performed using CETOL (tolerance analysis software) in an industrial context. Especially, this study allows design engineers to better understand the critical parts in the product that needs to be manufactured with good, capable tolerances. On the contrary, some parts are not critical for the functional characteristics (conditions) of the product and may lead to some reduction of the manufacturing cost, ensuring robust performance. The capable tolerancing is one of the most important aspects in product and manufacturing process design. In the case of miniature circuit breaker (MCB), the product's quality and its robustness are mainly impacted by two aspects: (1) allocation of design tolerances between the components of a mechanical assembly and (2) manufacturing tolerances in the intermediate machining steps of component fabrication.

Keywords: geometrical variation, product robustness, tolerance analysis, variation simulation

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Authors: Nino Damenia

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The paper discusses the risks arising in agriculture in Georgia, the possibilities of their acceptance and prevention, the threat created by the pandemic crisis, and the state programs for overcoming them. The share of agriculture in the country's GDP is 8.3%. Over the past five years, Georgia has imported $ 5.9 billion worth of agri-food products. Despite these figures, agriculture has become an important sector for the Georgian government since 2012, as evidenced by the more than 1.5 billion GEL spent from the 2012-2020 budget for agricultural development. Any field of agriculture, be it poultry, livestock, cereals, fruits, or vegetables, is very sensitive to various climatic and viral risks. Avoiding these risks requires additional investment. It is noteworthy that small farms are mainly affected by the risks, while relatively large farms face fewer problems because they are relatively prepared to face the problems and can avoid them more easily. An example of viral risk in the article is the export of hazelnuts, which has quite a lot of potential. Due to the spoilage of the crop caused by Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB), hazelnut exports have declined considerably over the years. If the volume of hazelnuts exported in 2016 was 179 378 thousand USD, due to the deficit caused by Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) in 2018, it became 57 124 thousand USD. And after the situation was relatively settled, hazelnut seedlings were poisoned. By 2020, this figure improved to 91,088 thousand US dollars. The development of the agricultural sector and the reduction of risks require technological development, investor interest, and even more state support to enable more small farms to have the potential for greater production and sustainable development. The aim of the study is to identify the risks arising in the agricultural sector of Georgia before and after the pandemic, to evaluate them, compare them with the agriculture of some European countries, and to develop the necessary recommendations to avoid the emerging risks. The research uses methods of analysis and synthesis, observation, induction, deduction, and analysis of statistics. The paper is based on both Georgian and foreign scientific research, as well as state-published documentation on agricultural assistance programs. The research is based on the analysis of data published by the European Statistics Office, the National Statistics Office of Georgia, and many other organizations. The results of the study and the recommendations will help reduce the risks in agriculture in Georgia and, in general, to identify the existing potential and the development of the sector as a whole.

Keywords: risk, agriculture, pandemi, brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB)

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Authors: Iman Shabanzadeh

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Earthquake is known as one of the most frequent natural hazards in Iran. Therefore, policy making to improve the strengthening of structures is one of the requirements of the approach to prevent and reduce the risk of the destructive effects of earthquakes. In order to choose the optimal policy in the face of earthquakes, this article tries to examine the cost of financial damages caused by earthquakes in the building sector and compare it with the costs of retrofitting. In this study, the results of adopting the scenario of "action after the earthquake" and the policy scenario of "strengthening structures before the earthquake" have been collected, calculated and finally analyzed by putting them together. Methodologically, data received from governorates and building retrofitting engineering companies have been used. The scope of the study is earthquakes occurred in the geographical area of Iran, and among them, eight earthquakes have been specifically studied: Miane, Ahar and Haris, Qator, Momor, Khorasan, Damghan and Shahroud, Gohran, Hormozgan and Ezgole. The main basis of the calculations is the data obtained from retrofitting companies regarding the cost per square meter of building retrofitting and the data of the governorate regarding the power of earthquake destruction, the realized costs for the reconstruction and construction of residential units. The estimated costs have been converted to the value of 2021 using the time value of money method to enable comparison and aggregation. The cost-benefit comparison of the two policies of action after the earthquake and retrofitting before the earthquake in the eight earthquakes investigated shows that the country has suffered five thousand billion Tomans of losses due to the lack of retrofitting of buildings against earthquakes. Based on the data of the Budget Law's of Iran, this figure was approximately twice the budget of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and five times the budget of the Islamic Revolution Housing Foundation in 2021. The results show that the policy of retrofitting structures before an earthquake is significantly more optimal than the competing scenario. The comparison of the two policy scenarios examined in this study shows that the policy of retrofitting buildings before an earthquake, on the one hand, prevents huge losses, and on the other hand, by increasing the number of earthquake-resistant houses, it reduces the amount of earthquake destruction. In addition to other positive effects of retrofitting, such as the reduction of mortality due to earthquake resistance of buildings and the reduction of other economic and social effects caused by earthquakes. These are things that can prove the cost-effectiveness of the policy scenario of "strengthening structures before earthquakes" in Iran.

Keywords: disaster economy, earthquake economy, cost-benefit analysis, resilience

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Authors: Nigatu Tadesse, Li Juan, Liuhong Ming

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Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common and fourth deadly cancer in the world with limited treatment options at late advanced stage in which surgical therapy is not recommended with chemotherapy remain as the mainstay of treatment. However, the occurrence of chemoresistance as well as intera-tumoral and inter-tumoral heterogeneity of response to targeted and immunotherapy underlined a clear unmet treatment need in gastroenterology. Several molecular and cellular alterations ascribed for chemo resistance in GC including cancer stem cells (CSC) and tumor microenvironment (TME) remodeling. Cancer cells including CSC bears higher metabolic demand and major changes in TME involves alterations of gut microbiota interacting with nutrients metabolism. Metabolic upregulation in lipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids biosynthesis pathways identified as a common hall mark in GC. Metabolic addiction to methionine metabolism occurs in many cancer cells to promote the biosynthesis of S-Adenosylmethionine (SAM), a universal methyl donor molecule for high rate of transmethylation in GC and promote cell proliferation. Targeting methionine metabolism found to promotes chemo-sensitivity with treatment non-heterogeneity. Methionine restriction (MR) promoted the arrest of cell cycle at S/G2 phase and enhanced downregulation of GC cells resistance to apoptosis (including ferroptosis), which suggests the potential of synergy with chemotherapies acting at S-phase of the cell cycle as well as inducing cell apoptosis. Accumulated evidences showed both the biogenesis as well as intracellular metabolism of exogenous methionine could be safe and effective target for therapy either alone or in combination with chemotherapies. This review article provides an over view of the upregulation in methionine biosynthesis pathway and the molecular signaling through the PI3K/Akt/mTOR-c-MYC axis to promote metabolic reprograming through activating the expression of L-type aminoacid-1 (LAT1) transporter and overexpression of Methionine adenosyltransferase 2A(MAT2A) for intercellular metabolic conversion of exogenous methionine to SAM in GC, and the potential of targeting with novel therapeutic agents such as methioninase (METase), Methionine adenosyltransferase 2A (MAT2A), c-MYC, methyl like transferase 16 (METTL16) inhibitors that are currently under clinical trial development stages and future perspectives.

Keywords: gastric cancer, methionine metabolism, pi3k/akt/mtorc1-c-myc axis, gut microbiota, MAT2A, c-MYC, METTL16, methioninase

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Authors: Amira Mabrouk

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This paper deals with the acceptability of urban toll in Tunisia. The price-based regulation, i.e. urban toll, is the outcome of a political process hampered by three-fold objectives: effectiveness, equity and social acceptability. This produces both economic interest groups and functions that are of incongruent preferences. The plausibility of this speculation goes hand in hand with the fact that these economic interest groups are also taxpayers who undeniably perceive urban toll as an additional charge. This wariness is coupled with an inquiry about the conditions of usage, the redistribution of the collected tax revenue and the idea of the leviathan state completes the picture. In a nutshell, if researches related to road congestion proliferate, no de facto legitimacy can be pleaded. Nonetheless, the theory on urban tolls engenders economists’ questioning of ways to reduce negative external effects linked to it. Only then does the urban toll appear to bear an answer to these issues. Undeniably, the urban toll suggests inherent conflicts due to the apparent no-payment principal of a public asset as well as to the social perception of the new measure as a mere additional charge. However, when the main concern is effectiveness is its broad sense and the social well-being, the main factors that determine the acceptability of such a tariff measure along with the type of incentives should be the object of a thorough, in-depth analysis. Before adopting this economic role, one has to recognize the factors that intervene in the acceptability of a congestion toll which brought about a copious number of articles and reports that lacked mostly solid theoretical content. It is noticeable that nowadays uncertainties float over the exact nature of the acceptability process. Accepting a congestion tariff could differ from one era to another, from one region to another and from one population to another, etc. Notably, this article, within a convenient time frame, attempts at bringing into focus a link between the social acceptability of the urban congestion toll and the value of time through a survey method barely employed in Tunisia, that of stated preference method. How can the urban toll, as a tax, be defined, justified and made acceptable? How can an equitable and effective tariff of congestion toll be reached? How can the costs of this urban toll be covered? In what way can we make the redistribution of the urban toll revenue visible and economically equitable? How can the redistribution of the revenue of urban toll compensate the disadvantaged while introducing such a tariff measure? This paper will offer answers to these research questions and it follows the line of contribution of JULES DUPUIT in 1844.

Keywords: congestion charge, social perception, acceptability, stated preferences

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Authors: Tamphasana Wairokpam

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Inflammatory myopathies (IMs) have long been recognised as a heterogenous family of myopathies with acute, subacute, and sometimes chronic presentation and are potentially treatable. Necrotizing autoimmune myopathies (NAM) are a relatively new subset of myopathies. Patients generally present with subacute onset of proximal myopathy and significantly elevated creatinine kinase (CK) levels. It is being increasingly recognised that there are limitations to the independent diagnostic utility of muscle biopsy. Immunohistochemistry tests may reveal important information in these cases. The traditional classification of IMs failed to recognise NAM as a separate entity and did not adequately emphasize the diversity of IMs. This review and case report on NAM aims to highlight the heterogeneity of this entity and focus on the distinct clinical presentation, biopsy findings, specific auto-antibodies implicated, and available treatment options with prognosis. This article is a meta-analysis of literatures on NAM and a case report illustrating the clinical course, investigation and biopsy findings, antibodies implicated, and management of a patient with NAM. The main databases used for the search were Pubmed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library. Altogether, 67 publications have been taken as references. Two biomarkers, anti-signal recognition protein (SRP) and anti- hydroxyl methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR) Abs, have been found to have an association with NAM in about 2/3rd of cases. Interestingly, anti-SRP associated NAM appears to be more aggressive in its clinical course when compared to its anti-HMGCR associated counterpart. Biopsy shows muscle fibre necrosis without inflammation. There are reports of statin-induced NAM where progression of myopathy has been seen even after discontinuation of statins, pointing towards an underlying immune mechanism. Diagnosisng NAM is essential as it requires more aggressive immunotherapy than other types of IMs. Most cases are refractory to corticosteroid monotherapy. Immunosuppressive therapy with other immunotherapeutic agents such as IVIg, rituximab, mycophenolate mofetil, azathioprine has been explored and found to have a role in the treatment of NAM. In conclusion,given the heterogeneity of NAM, it appears that NAM is not just a single entity but consists of many different forms, despite the similarities in presentation and its classification remains an evolving field. A thorough understanding of underlying mechanism and the clinical correlation with antibodies associated with NAM is essential for efficacious management and disease prognostication.

Keywords: inflammatory myopathies, necrotising autoimmune myopathies, anti-SRP antibody, anti-HMGCR antibody, statin induced myopathy

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Authors: Edward Shizha

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Citizenship is not only political, but it is also a socio-cultural expectation that naturalized immigrants desire for. However, the outcomes of citizenship desirability are determined by forces outside the individual’s control based on legislation and laws that are designed at the macro and exosystemic levels by politicians and policy makers. These laws are then applied to determine the status (permanency or temporariness) of citizenship for immigrants and refugees, but the same laws do not apply to non-immigrant citizens who attain it by birth. While theoretically, citizenship has generally been considered an irrevocable legal status and the highest and most secure legal status one can hold in a state, it is not inviolate for immigrants. While Article 8 of the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness provides grounds for revocation of citizenship obtained by immigrants and refugees in host countries, nation-states have their own laws tied to the convention that provide grounds for revocation. Ever since the 9/11 attacks in the USA, there has been a rise in conditional citizenship and the state’s withdrawal of citizenship through revocation laws that denaturalize citizens who end up not merely losing their citizenship but also the right to reside in the country of immigration. Because immigrants can be perceived as a security threat, the securitization of citizenship and the legislative changes have been adopted to specifically allow greater discretionary power in stripping people of their citizenship.The paper ‘Do We Really Belong Here?’ Transnationalism and the Temporality of Naturalized Citizenship examines literature on the temporality of naturalized citizenship and questions whether citizenship, for newcomers (immigrants and refugees), is a protected human right or a privilege. The paper argues that citizenship in a host country is a well sought-after status by newcomers. The question is whether their citizenship, if granted, has a permanent or temporary status and whether it is treated in the same way as that of non-immigrant citizens. The paper further argues that, despite citizenship having generally been considered an irrevocable status in most Western countries, in practice, if not in law, for immigrants and refugees, citizenship comes with strings attached because of policies and laws that control naturalized citizenship. These laws can be used to denationalize naturalized citizens through revocations for those stigmatized as ‘undesirables’ who are threatened with deportation. Whereas non-immigrant citizens (those who attain it by birth) have absolute right to their citizenship, this is seldom the case for immigrants.This paper takes a multidisciplinary approach using Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the macrosystem and exo-system, to examine and review literature on the temporality of naturalized citizenship and questions whether citizenship is a protected right or a privilege for immigrants. The paper challenges the human rights violation of citizenship revocation and argues for equality of treatment for all citizens despite how they acquired their citizenship. The fragility of naturalized citizenship undermines the basic rights and securities that citizenship status can provide to the person as an inclusive practice in a diverse society.

Keywords: citizenship, citizenship revocation, dual citizenship, human rights, naturalization, naturalized citizenship

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Authors: Irina Belozerova

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In the recent years, the number of crimes against peace and humanity has constantly been increasing. The development of the international community is inseparably connected to the compliance with the law which protects the rights and interests of citizens in all of their manifestations. The provisions of the law of criminal procedure are no exception. The rights of the victims of genocide, of the war crimes and the crimes against humanity, require particular attention. These crimes fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. These crimes have the following features. First, any such crime has a mass character and therefore requires specific regulation in the international criminal law and procedure and the national criminal law and procedure of different countries. Second, the victims of such crimes are usually children, women and old people; the entire national, ethnic, racial or religious groups are destroyed. These features influence the classification of victims by the age criterion. Article 68 of the Rome Statute provides for protection of the safety, physical and psychological well-being, dignity and privacy of victims and witnesses and thus determines the procedural status of these persons. However, not all the persons whose rights have been violated by the commission of these crimes acquire the status of victims. This is due to the fact that such crimes affect a huge number of persons and it is impossible to mention them all by name. It is also difficult to assess the entire damage suffered by the victims. While assessing the amount of damages it is essential to take into account physical and moral harm, as well as property damage. The procedural status of victims thus gains an exclusive character. In order to determine the full extent of the damage suffered by the victims it is necessary to collect sufficient evidence. However, it is extremely difficult to collect the evidence that would ensure the full and objective protection of the victims’ rights. While making requests for the collection of evidence, the International Criminal Court faces the problem of protection of national security information. Religious beliefs and the family life of victims are of great importance. In some Islamic countries, it is impossible to question a woman without her husband’s consent which affects the objectivity of her testimony. Finally, the number of victims is quantified by hundreds and thousands. The assessment of these elements demands time and highly qualified work. These factors justify the creation of a mechanism that would help to collect the evidence and establish the truth in the international criminal proceedings. This mechanism will help to impose a just and appropriate punishment for the persons accused of having committed a crime, since, committing the crime, criminals could not misunderstand the outcome of their criminal intent.

Keywords: crimes against humanity, evidence in international criminal proceedings, international criminal proceedings, protection of victims

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Authors: Woraya Som-Indra

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This article purposes to decode the notion of democracy embedded in the political speeches of Aung San Su Kyi by adopting critical discourse analysis approach, using Systemic Function Linguistics (SFL) and transitivity as a vital analytical tool. Two main objectives of the study are 1) to analyze linguistic strategies constituted the crucial characteristics of Su Kyi's political speeches by employing SFL and transitivity and 2) to examine ideology manifested the notion of democracy behind Su Kyi’s political speeches. The data consists of four speeches of Su Kyi delivering in different places within the year 2011 broadcasted through the website of US campaign for Burma. By employing linguistic tool and the concept of ideology as an analytical frame, the word choice selection found in the speeches assist explaining the manifestation of Su Kyi’s ideology toward democracy and power struggle. The finding revealed eight characters of word choice projected from Su Kyi’s political speeches, as follows; 1) support, hope and encouragement which render the recipients to uphold with the mutual aim to fight for democracy together and moving forwards for change and solution in the future, 2) aim and achievement evoke the recipients to attach with the purpose to fight for democracy, 3) challenge and change release energy to challenge the present political regime of Burma to change to the new political regime of democracy, 4) action, doing and taking signify the action and practical process to call for a new political regime, 5) struggle represents power struggle during the process of democracy requesting and it could refer to her long period of house arrest in Burma, 6) freedom implies what she has been long fighting for- to be released from house arrest, be able to access to the freedom of speech related to political ideology, and moreover, be able to speak out for the people of Burmese about their desirable political regime and political participation, 7) share and scarify call the recipients to have the spirit of shared value in the process of acquiring democracy, and 8) solution and achievement remind her recipients of what they have been long fighting for, and what could lead them to reach out the mutual achievement of a new political regime, i.e. democracy. Those word choice selections are plausible representation of democracy notion in Su Kyi’s terms. Due to her long journey of fighting for democracy in Burma, Suu Kyi’s political speeches always possess tremendously strong leadership characteristic, using words of wisdom and moreover, they are encoded with a wide range of words related to democracy ideology in order to push forward the future change into the Burma’s political regime.

Keywords: Aung San Su Kyi’s speeches, critical discourse analysis, democracy ideology, systemic function linguistics, transitivity

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Authors: Ifeanyi Adigwe, Thomas Van der Walt

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Digital media has been integrated into the social and entertainment life of young children, and as such, the impact of digital media appears to affect young people of all ages and it is believed that this will continue to shape the world of young children. Since, technological advancement of digital media presents adolescents with diverse contexts, platforms and avenues to engage with digital media outside the home environment and from parents' supervision, a wide range of new challenges has further complicated the already difficult tasks for parents and altered the landscape of parenting. Despite the fact that adolescents now have access to a wide range of digital media technologies both at home and in the learning environment, parenting practices such as active, restrictive, co-use, participatory and technical mediations are important in mitigating of online risks adolescents may encounter as a result of digital media use. However, these mediation practices only focus on the home environment including digital media present in the home and may not necessarily transcend outside the home and other learning environments where adolescents use digital media for school work and other activities. This poses the question of who mediates adolescent's digital media use outside the home environment. The learning environment could be a ''loose platform'' where an adolescent can maximise digital media use considering the fact that there is no restriction in terms of content and time allotted to using digital media during school hours. That is to say that an adolescent can play the ''bad boy'' online in school because there is little or no restriction of digital media use and be exposed to online risks and play the ''good boy'' at home because of ''heavy'' parental mediation. This is the reason why parent mediation practices have been ineffective because a parent may not be able to track adolescents digital media use considering the diversity of contexts, platforms and avenues adolescents use digital media. This study argues that due to the diverse nature of digital media technology, parents may not be able to monitor the 'whereabouts' of their children in the digital space. This is because adolescent digital media usage may not only be confined to the home environment but other learning environments like schools. This calls for urgent attention on the part of teachers to understand the intricacies of how digital media continue to shape the world in which young children are developing and learning. It is, therefore, imperative for parents to liaise with the schools of their children to mediate digital media use during school hours. The implication of parents- teachers mediation practices are discussed. The article concludes by suggesting that third party mediation by teachers in schools and other learning environments should be encouraged and future research needs to consider the emergent strategy of teacher-children mediation approach and the implication for policy for both the home and learning environments.

Keywords: digital media, digital age, parent mediation, third party mediation

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: I. Valdez, J. Perdomo, M. Colindres, N. Castro

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Today, digital servo systems are extensively used in industrial manufacturing processes, robotic applications, vehicles and other areas. In such control systems, control action is provided by digital controllers with different compensation algorithms, which are designed to meet specific requirements for a given application. Due to the constant search for optimization in industrial processes, it is of interest to design digital controllers that offer ease of realization, improved computational efficiency, affordable return rates, and ease of tuning that ultimately improve the performance of the controlled actuators. There is a vast range of options of compensation algorithms that could be used, although in the industry, most controllers used are based on a PID structure. This research article compares different types of digital compensators implemented in a servo system for DC motor position control. PID compensation is evaluated on its two most common architectures: PID position form (1 DOF), and PID speed form (2 DOF). State feedback algorithms are also evaluated, testing two modern control theory techniques: discrete state observer for non-measurable variables tracking, and a linear quadratic method which allows a compromise between the theoretical optimal control and the realization that most closely matches it. The compared control systems’ performance is evaluated through simulations in the Simulink platform, in which it is attempted to model accurately each of the system’s hardware components. The criteria by which the control systems are compared are reference tracking and disturbance rejection. In this investigation, it is considered that the accurate tracking of the reference signal for a position control system is particularly important because of the frequency and the suddenness in which the control signal could change in position control applications, while disturbance rejection is considered essential because the torque applied to the motor shaft due to sudden load changes can be modeled as a disturbance that must be rejected, ensuring reference tracking. Results show that 2 DOF PID controllers exhibit high performance in terms of the benchmarks mentioned, as long as they are properly tuned. As for controllers based on state feedback, due to the nature and the advantage which state space provides for modelling MIMO, it is expected that such controllers evince ease of tuning for disturbance rejection, assuming that the designer of such controllers is experienced. An in-depth multi-dimensional analysis of preliminary research results indicate that state feedback control method is more satisfactory, but PID control method exhibits easier implementation in most control applications.

Keywords: control, DC motor, discrete PID, discrete state feedback

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Authors: Erni Agustin, Zendy Prameswari

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The Law Number 1 Year 1974 on Marriage was issued by Indonesian Government to replace the old marriage law stipulated in Burgerlijk Wetboek inherited from the Dutch colonial. The Law defines marriage as both physical and mental bond between a man and a woman as husband and wife with the purpose to form a harmonious family based on deity. Marriage shall be conducted when determined requirements are met based on the Law. Article 7 of the Law Number 1 Year 1974 stipulates the minimum age requirement to enter into marriage, which is 19 years for men and 16 years for women. This stipulation is made to make the marriage achieve the true goal to form a happy, eternal and prosperous family. It is expected at that age, each party has a mature soul and physic. However, it is possible for those who have not reached the age to enter into marriage if there is a dispensation granted by the courts or other official designated by the parents of each party in the marriage. As many other countries in the world, Indonesia has serious problems linked with the child or underage marriage. Indonesia is one of the countries with the highest absolute numbers of child marriage. In 2012, a judicial review was filed to the Constitutional Court against the provisions of the minimum age limit in the Law Number 1 Year 1974 on Marriage. The appeal was filed in order to raise the limit of minimum age for women from 16 years to be 18 years. However, the Constitutional Court considered that the provisions on the minimum age in the Law Number 1 Year 1974 on Marriage is constitutional. At the international level, Indonesia has participated in the formulation of variety of international human rights instrument which have an impact on children, and is a party to a number of them. Indonesia ratified the CRC through Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia Number 36 Year 1990 on 5 September 1990. This paper attempts to analyze three main issues. Firstly, it will scrutinize the ratio legis of the stipulation on minimum age requirement to enter into marriage in the Law Number 1 Year 1974 on Marriage. Secondly, it will discuss the conformity of Indonesian marriage law to the principles and provisions on the CRC. Last, this paper will elaborate the legal measures shall be taken to strengthen the legal protection for children against child marriage. This paper is a doctrinal research using statute, conceptual and historical approaches. This study argues that The Law-making of Indonesian marriage law influenced by religious values that live in Indonesia. With regard to the conformity of Indonesian marriage law with the CRC, Indonesia is facing the issue of the compatibility of its respective national law with the CRC. Therefore, the legal measures that have to be taken are to review and amend the Indonesian Marriage Law to provide better protection for the children against underage marriage.

Keywords: child marriage, children’s rights, indonesian marriage law, underage marriage

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Authors: S. G. Vasantharaju, Viswanath Guptha, Raghavendra Shetty

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Introduction: Aminophylline is a methylxanthine derivative belonging to the class bronchodilator. From the literature survey, reported methods reveals the solid phase extraction and liquid liquid extraction which is highly variable, time consuming, costly and laborious analysis. Present work aims to develop a simple, highly sensitive, precise and accurate high-performance liquid chromatography method for the quantification of Aminophylline in rat plasma samples which can be utilized for preclinical studies. Method: Reverse Phase high-performance liquid chromatography method. Results: Selectivity: Aminophylline and the internal standard were well separated from the co-eluted components and there was no interference from the endogenous material at the retention time of analyte and the internal standard. The LLOQ measurable with acceptable accuracy and precision for the analyte was 0.5 µg/mL. Linearity: The developed and validated method is linear over the range of 0.5-40.0 µg/mL. The coefficient of determination was found to be greater than 0.9967, indicating the linearity of this method. Accuracy and precision: The accuracy and precision values for intra and inter day studies at low, medium and high quality control samples concentrations of aminophylline in the plasma were within the acceptable limits Extraction recovery: The method produced consistent extraction recovery at all 3 QC levels. The mean extraction recovery of aminophylline was 93.57 ± 1.28% while that of internal standard was 90.70 ± 1.30%. Stability: The results show that aminophylline is stable in rat plasma under the studied stability conditions and that it is also stable for about 30 days when stored at -80˚C. Pharmacokinetic studies: The method was successfully applied to the quantitative estimation of aminophylline rat plasma following its oral administration to rats. Discussion: Preclinical studies require a rapid and sensitive method for estimating the drug concentration in the rat plasma. The method described in our article includes a simple protein precipitation extraction technique with ultraviolet detection for quantification. The present method is simple and robust for fast high-throughput sample analysis with less analysis cost for analyzing aminophylline in biological samples. In this proposed method, no interfering peaks were observed at the elution times of aminophylline and the internal standard. The method also had sufficient selectivity, specificity, precision and accuracy over the concentration range of 0.5 - 40.0 µg/mL. An isocratic separation technique was used underlining the simplicity of the presented method.

Keywords: Aminophyllin, preclinical pharmacokinetics, rat plasma, RPHPLC

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Authors: Umedov Mekhroz, Griaznova Svetlana

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In connection with the growth of oncological diseases, the design of centers for diagnostics and the production of radiopharmaceuticals is the most relevant area of healthcare facilities. The design of new nuclear medicine centers should be carried out from the standpoint of solving the following tasks: the availability of medical care, functionality, environmental friendliness, sustainable development, improving the safety of drugs, the use of which requires special care, reducing the rate of environmental pollution, ensuring comfortable conditions for the internal microclimate, adaptability. The purpose of this article is to substantiate architectural and planning solutions, formulate recommendations and principles for the design of nuclear medicine centers and determine the connections between the production and medical functions of a building. The advantages of combining the production of radiopharmaceuticals and the department of medical care: less radiation activity is accumulated, the cost of the final product is lower, and there is no need to hire a transport company with a special license for transportation. A medical imaging department is a structural unit of a medical institution in which diagnostic procedures are carried out in order to gain an idea of the internal structure of various organs of the body for clinical analysis. Depending on the needs of a particular institution, the department may include various rooms that provide medical imaging using radiography, ultrasound diagnostics, and the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance. The production of radiopharmaceuticals is an object intended for the production of a pharmaceutical substance containing a radionuclide and intended for introduction into the human body or laboratory animal for the purpose of diagnosis, evaluation of the effectiveness of treatment, or for biomedical research. The research methodology includes the following subjects: study and generalization of international experience in scientific research, literature, standards, teaching aids, and design materials on the topic of research; An integrated approach to the study of existing international experience of PET / CT scan centers and the production of radiopharmaceuticals; Elaboration of graphical analysis and diagrams based on the system analysis of the processed information; Identification of methods and principles of functional zoning of nuclear medicine centers. The result of the research is the identification of the design principles of nuclear medicine centers with the functions of the production of radiopharmaceuticals and the department of medical imaging. This research will be applied to the design and construction of healthcare facilities in the field of nuclear medicine.

Keywords: architectural planning solutions, functional zoning, nuclear medicine, PET/CT scan, production of radiopharmaceuticals, radiotherapy

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Authors: Leticia Lengler, Jefferson Oliveira, Vania Estivalete, Jordana Marques Kneipp, Lucia Regina Da Rosa Gama Madruga

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The way social entrepreneurs act and can positively impact on our society engages the interest of academics, companies and governments, who seek solutions to solve or alleviate issues related to the abuse of natural resources, as well as the increase of poverty (social aspects). Studies on social entrepreneurship have been characterized by diverse ramifications and their transdisciplinary character, permeating various disciplines and approaches. Different bibliometric studies were conducted within the theme of social entrepreneurship. In this context, because it is a topic in development and multifaceted, the aim of this article is to present the main interfaces of the studies on the Social Entrepreneur figure in relation to the social concern of sustainability, highlighting the relevant researches and their trends, as well as their relationship with the organizations. Aiming to achieve this purpose, the specific goals are: to identify the most cited authors and articles, to verify the authors and journals with the greatest number of publications and their approaches and to point out their affiliations, countries, and languages of publications. It is still a secondary objective to identify the emerging trends in relation to the social entrepreneur and his social concern stemming from the discussions on sustainability. This way, we analyzed articles from two international databases (Scopus and Web of Science), from 2004 to 2016. The main results were the increase in the number of publications, with most of them in English language, coming mainly from the United States institutions (such as Indiana University and Harvard University) and the United Kingdom (whose main institutions are University of London and Robert Gordon University). Although publications in Spanish and Portuguese are the least expressive in quantity, some tendencies point to publications that discuss the social entrepreneur in terms of gender (that relates to female entrepreneurship) and social class (that relates to the need of building communities that contemplate the Social entrepreneur at the base of the pyramid). It should be noted that the trends of the themes emerged from the analysis of the publication titles only in Portuguese, since this is the native language of the authors who carry out their studies mainly in Brazil. When considering articles in Portuguese (57 indicated by WOS and 9 by Scopus), a previous analysis of the titles was carried out to identify how researchers were approaching the theme social entrepreneur in a joint way to the social dimension of sustainability. However, the analysis of the titles themselves brought a limitation to our study, since it was felt a need to carry out a qualitative study, in which it could be possible to consider the abstracts of the available articles.

Keywords: base of pyramid, social dimension, social entrepreneur, sustainability

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Authors: Nino Damenia

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E-commerce opens a new horizon for business development, which is why the presence of e-commerce is a necessary condition for the formation, growth, and development of the country's economy. Worldwide, e-commerce turnover is growing at a high rate every year, as the electronic environment provides great opportunities for product promotion. E-commerce in Georgia is developing at a fast pace, but it is still a relatively young direction in the country's economy. Movement restrictions and other public health measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced economic activity in most economic sectors and countries, significantly affecting production, distribution, and consumption. The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation. Digital solutions enable people and businesses to continue part of their economic and social activities remotely. This has also led to the growth of e-commerce. According to the data of the National Statistics Service of Georgia, the share of online trade is higher in cities (27.4%) than in rural areas (9.1%). The COVID-19 pandemic has forced local businesses to expand their digital offerings. The size of the local market increased 3.2 times in 2020 to 138 million GEL. And in 2018-2020, the share of local e-commerce increased from 11% to 23%. In Georgia, the state is actively engaged in the promotion of activities based on information technologies. Many measures have been taken for this purpose, but compared to other countries, this process is slow in Georgia. The purpose of the study is to determine development prospects for the economy of Georgia based on the analysis of electronic commerce. Research was conducted around the issues using Georgian and foreign scientists' articles, works, reports of international organizations, collections of scientific conferences, and scientific electronic databases. The empirical base of the research is the data and annual reports of the National Statistical Service of Georgia, internet resources of world statistical materials, and others. While working on the article, a questionnaire was developed, based on which an electronic survey of certain types of respondents was conducted. The conducted research was related to determining how intensively Georgian citizens use online shopping, including which age category uses electronic commerce, for what purposes, and how satisfied they are. Various theoretical and methodological research tools, as well as analysis, synthesis, comparison, and other types of methods, are used to achieve the set goal in the research process. The research results and recommendations will contribute to the development of e-commerce in Georgia and economic growth based on it.

Keywords: e-commerce, information technology, pandemic, digital transformation

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Authors: Zulkifli Yusop

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The severity of December 2014 flood on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia has raised concern over the adequacy of existing land use practices and policies. This article assesses flood responses to selective logging, plantation establishment (oil palm and rubber) and their subsequent management regimes. The hydrological impacts were evaluated on two levels: on-site (mostly in the upstream) and off-site to reflect the cumulative impact at downstream. Results of experimental catchment studies suggest that on-site impact of flood could be kept to a minimum when selecting logging strictly adhere to the existing guidelines. However, increases in flood potential and sedimentation rate were observed with logging intensity and slope steepness. Forest conversion to plantation show the highest impacts. Except on the heavily compacted surfaces, the ground revegetation is usually rapid within two years upon the cessation of the logging operation. The hydrological impacts of plantation opening and replanting could be significantly reduced once the cover crop has fully established which normally takes between three to six months after sowing. However, as oil palms become taller and the canopy gets closer, the cover crop tends to die off due to light competition, and its protecting function gradually diminishes. The exposed soil is further compacted by harvesting machinery which subsequently leads to greater overland flow and erosion rates. As such, the hydrological properties of matured oil palm plantations are generally poorer than in young plantation. In hilly area, the undergrowth in rubber plantation is usually denser compared to under oil palm. The soil under rubber trees is also less compacted as latex collection is done manually. By considering the cumulative effects of land-use over space and time, selective logging seems to pose the least impact on flood potential, followed by planting rubber for latex, oil palm and Latex Timber Clone (LTC). The cumulative hydrological impact of LTC plantation is the most severe because of its shortest replanting rotation (12 to 15 years) compared to oil palm (25 years) and rubber for latex (35 years). Furthermore, the areas gazetted for LTC are mostly located on steeper slopes which are more susceptible to landslide and erosion. Forest has limited capability to store excess rainfall and is only effective in attenuating regular floods. Once the hydrologic storage is exceeded, the excess rainfall will appear as flood water. Therefore, for big floods, rainfall regime has a much bigger influence than land use.

Keywords: selective logging, plantation, extreme rainfall, debris flow

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Authors: Yonit Nissim, Eyal Weissblueth

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This research is the continuation of a process that began in 2010 with the goal of redesigning the training program for future early childhood teachers at the Ohalo College, to integrate technology and provide 21st-century skills. The article focuses on a study of the processes involved in developing a special educational unit which challenged students with the task of designing, planning and building an internet site for kindergartens. This project was part of their second-year studies in the early childhood track of an interdisciplinary course entitled 'Educating for the Future.' The goal: enabling students to gain experience in developing an internet site specifically for kindergartens, and gain familiarity with Google platforms, the acquisition and use of innovative skills and the integration of technology in pedagogy. Research questions examined how students handled the task of building an internet site. The study explored whether the guided process of building a site helped them develop proficiency in creativity, teamwork, evaluation and learning appropriate to the 21st century. The research tool was a questionnaire constructed by the researchers and distributed online to the students. Answers were collected from 50-course participants. Analysis of the participants’ responses showed that, along with the significant experience and benefits that students gained from building a website for kindergarten, ambivalence was shown toward the use of new, unfamiliar and complex technology. This attitude was characterized by unease and initial emotional distress triggered by the departure from routine training to an island of uncertainty. A gradual change took place toward the adoption of innovation with the help of empathy, training, and guidance from the instructors, leading to the students’ success in carrying out the task. Initial success led to further successes, resulting in a quality product and a feeling of personal competency among the students. A clear and extreme emotional shift was observed on the spectrum from a sense of difficulty and dissatisfaction to feelings of satisfaction, joy, competency and cognitive understanding of the importance of facing a challenge and succeeding. The findings of this study can contribute to increased understanding of the complex training process of future kindergarten teachers, coping with a changing world, and pedagogy that is supported by technology.

Keywords: early childhood teachers, educating for the future, emotions, kindergarten website

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Authors: Yali Liu, Maria Avello Iturriagagoitia

Abstract:

Background: Fitness applications (apps) are one of the most popular mobile health (mHealth) apps. These apps can help prevent/control health issues such as obesity, which is one of the most serious public health challenges in the developed world in recent decades. Compared with the traditional intervention like face-to-face treatment, it is cheaper and more convenient to use fitness apps to interfere with physical activities and healthy behaviors. Nevertheless, fitness applications apps tend to have high abandonment rates and low levels of user engagement. Therefore, maintaining the endurance of users' usage is challenging. In fact, previous research shows a variety of strategies -goal-setting, self-monitoring, coaching, etc.- for promoting fitness and health behavior change. These strategies can influence the users’ perseverance and self-monitoring of the program as well as favoring their adherence to routines that involve a long-term behavioral change. However, commercial fitness apps rarely incorporate these strategies into their design, thus leading to a lack of engagement with the apps. Most of today’s mobile services and brands engage their users proactively via push notifications. Push notifications. These notifications are visual or auditory alerts to inform mobile users about a wide range of topics that entails an effective and personal mean of communication between the app and the user. One of the research purposes of this article is to implement the application of behavior change strategies through push notifications. Proposes: This study aims to better understand the influence that effective use of push notifications combined with the behavioral change strategies will have on users’ engagement with the fitness app. And the secondary objectives are 1) to discuss the sociodemographic differences in utilization of push notifications of fitness apps; 2) to determine the impact of each strategy in customer engagement. Methods: The study uses a combination of the Consumer Engagement Theory and UTAUT2 based model to conduct an online survey among current users of fitness apps. The questionnaire assessed attitudes to each behavioral change strategy, and sociodemographic variables. Findings: Results show the positive effect of push notifications in the generation of consumer engagement and the different impacts of each strategy among different groups of population in customer engagement. Conclusions: Fitness apps with behavior change strategies have a positive impact on increasing users’ usage time and customer engagement. Theoretical experts can participate in designing fitness applications, along with technical designers.

Keywords: behavioral change, customer engagement, fitness app, push notification, UTAUT2

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