Search results for: class discussion

Authors: Soowon Park, Min-Ji Kim, Jun-Young Lee

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Motivation: The stigma of mental illness has been studied in many disciplines, including social psychology, counseling psychology, sociology, psychiatry, public health care, and related areas, because individuals labeled as ‘mentally ill’ are often deprived of their rights and their life opportunities. To understand the factors that deepen the stigma of mental illness, it is important to understand the influencing factors of the stigma. Problem statement: Depression is a common disorder in adults, but the incidence of help-seeking is low. Researchers have believed that this poor help-seeking behavior is related to the stigma of mental illness, which results from low mental health literacy. However, it is uncertain that increasing mental health literacy decreases mental health stigmatization. Furthermore, even though decreasing stigmatization is important, the stigma of mental illness is still a stable and long-lasting phenomenon. Thus, factors other than knowledge about mental disorders have the power to maintain the stigma. Investigating the influencing factors that facilitate the stigma of psychiatric disease could help lower the social stigmatization. Approach: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a multi-clustering sample. A total of 700 Korean participants (38% male), ranging in age from 18 to 78 (M(SD)age= 48.5(15.7)) answered demographical questions, Korean version of Link’s Perceived Devaluation and Discrimination (PDD) scale for the assessment of social stigmatization against depression, and the Korean version of the WHO-Composite International Diagnostic Interview for the assessment of mental disorders. Multiple-regression was conducted to find the predicting factors of social stigmatization against depression. Ages, sex, years of education, income, living location, and experience of mental illness were used as the predictors. Results: Predictors accounted for 14% of the variance in the stigma of depressive disorders (F(6, 693) = 20.27, p < .001). Among those, only age, years of education, and experience of mental illness significantly predicted social stigmatization against depression. The standardized regression coefficient of age had a negative association with stigmatization (β = -.20, p < .001), but years of education (β = .20, p < .001) and experience of mental illness (β = .08, p < .05) positively predicted depression stigmatization. Conclusions: The present study clearly demonstrates the association between personal factors and depressive disorder stigmatization. Younger age, more education, and self-stigma appeared to increase the stigmatization. Young, highly educated, and mentally ill people tend to reject patients with depressive disorder as friends, teachers, or babysitters; they also tend to think that those patients have lower intelligence and abilities. These results suggest the possibility that people from a high social class, or highly educated people, who have the power to make decisions, help maintain the social stigma against mental illness patients. To increase the awareness that people from high social classes have more stigmatization against depressive disorders will help decrease the biased attitudes against mentally ill patients.

Keywords: depressive disorder stigmatization, age, education, self-stigma

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Authors: Goutam Kumar Ghorai, Sandip Sadhukhan, Arpita Sarkar, Debprasad Sinha, G. Sarkar, Ashis K. Dhara

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Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in all countries and continues to increase in numbers significantly. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is damage to the retina that occurs with long-term diabetes. DR is a major cause of blindness in the Indian population. Therefore, its early diagnosis is of utmost importance towards preventing progression towards imminent irreversible loss of vision, particularly in the huge population across rural India. The barriers to eye examination of all diabetic patients are socioeconomic factors, lack of referrals, poor access to the healthcare system, lack of knowledge, insufficient number of ophthalmologists, and lack of networking between physicians, diabetologists and ophthalmologists. A few diabetic patients often visit a healthcare facility for their general checkup, but their eye condition remains largely undetected until the patient is symptomatic. This work aims to focus on the design and development of a fully automated intelligent decision system for screening retinal fundus images towards detection of the pathophysiology caused by microaneurysm in the early stage of the diseases. Automated detection of microaneurysm is a challenging problem due to the variation in color and the variation introduced by the field of view, inhomogeneous illumination, and pathological abnormalities. We have developed aconvolutional neural network for efficient detection of microaneurysm. A loss function is also developed to handle severe class imbalance due to very small size of microaneurysms compared to background. The network is able to locate the salient region containing microaneurysms in case of noisy images captured by non-mydriatic cameras. The ground truth of microaneurysms is created by expert ophthalmologists for MESSIDOR database as well as private database, collected from Indian patients. The network is trained from scratch using the fundus images of MESSIDOR database. The proposed method is evaluated on DIARETDB1 and the private database. The method is successful in detection of microaneurysms for dilated and non-dilated types of fundus images acquired from different medical centres. The proposed algorithm could be used for development of AI based affordable and accessible system, to provide service at grass root-level primary healthcare units spread across the country to cater to the need of the rural people unaware of the severe impact of DR.

Keywords: retinal fundus image, deep convolutional neural network, early detection of microaneurysms, screening of diabetic retinopathy

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Authors: Dereje Regasa

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The global food system is at a crossroads, which requires prompt action to minimize the effects of the crises. Agroecology is gaining prominence due to its contributions to sustainable food systems. To support efforts in mitigating the crises, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) established alternative approaches for sustainable agri-food systems. Agroecological elements and principles were developed to guide and support measures that countries need to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs require the systemic integration of practices for a smart intensification or adaptation of traditional or industrial agriculture. As one of the countries working towards SDGs, the agricultural practices in Ethiopia need to be guided by these agroecological elements and principles. Aiming at the identification of challenging aspects of a sustainable agri-food system and the characterization of an enabling environment for agroecology, as well as exploring to what extent the existing policies and strategies support the agroecological transition process, five policy and strategy documents were reviewed. These documents are the Rural Development Policy and Strategy, the Environment Policy, the Biodiversity Policy, and the Soil Strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). Using the Agroecology Criteria Tool (ACT), the contents were reviewed, focusing on agroecological requirements and the inclusion of sustainable practices. ACT is designed to support a self-assessment of elements supporting agroecology. For each element, binary values were assigned based on the inclusion of the minimum requirements index and then validated through discussion with the document owners. The results showed that the documents were well below the requirements for an agroecological transition of the agri-food system. The Rural Development Policy and Strategy only suffice to 83% in Human and Social Value. It does not support the transition concerning the other elements. The Biodiversity Policy and Soil Strategy suffice regarding the inclusion of Co-creation and Sharing of knowledge (100%), while the remaining elements were not considered sufficiently. In contrast, the Environment Policy supports the transition with three elements accounting for 100%. These are Resilience, Recycling, and Human and Social Care. However, when the four documents were combined, elements such as Synergies, Diversity, Efficiency, Human and Social value, Responsible governance, and Co-creation and Sharing of knowledge were identified as fully supportive (100%). This showed that the policies and strategies complemented one another to a certain extent. However, the evaluation results call for improvements concerning elements like Culture and food traditions, Circular and solidarity economy, Resilience, Recycling, and Regulation and balance since the majority of the elements were not sufficiently observed. Consequently, guidance for the smart intensification of local practices is needed, as well as traditional knowledge enriched with advanced technologies. Ethiopian agricultural and environmental policies and strategies should provide sufficient support and guidance for the intensification of sustainable practices and should provide a framework for an agroecological transition towards a sustainable agri-food system.

Keywords: agroecology, diversity, recycling, sustainable food system, transition

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Authors: Mauro Cristeche

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This paper approaches the intervention of the American State in the social arena and the modeling of the rights system from the Argentinian experience, by observing the characteristics of its federal budgetary system, the evolution of social public spending and welfare programs in recent years, labor and poverty statistics, and the changes on the labor market structure. The analysis seeks to combine different methodologies and sources: in-depth interviews with specialists, analysis of theoretical and mass-media material, and statistical sources. Among the results, it could be mentioned that the tendency to state interventionism (what has been called ‘nationalization of social life’) is quite evident in the United States, and manifests itself in multiple forms. The bibliography consulted, and the experts interviewed pointed out this increase of the state presence in historical terms (beyond short-term setbacks) in terms of increase of public spending, fiscal pressure, public employment, protective and control mechanisms, the extension of welfare policies to the poor sectors, etc. In fact, despite the significant differences between both countries, the United States and Argentina have common patterns of behavior in terms of the aforementioned phenomena. On the other hand, dissimilarities are also important. Some of them are determined by each country's own political history. The influence of political parties on the economic model seems more decisive in the United States than in Argentina, where the tendency to state interventionism is more stable. The centrality of health spending is evident in America, while in Argentina that discussion is more concentrated in the social security system and public education. The biggest problem of the labor market in the United States is the disqualification as a consequence of the technological development while in Argentina it is a result of its weakness. Another big difference is the huge American public spending on Defense. Then, the more federal character of the American State is also a factor of differential analysis against a centralized Argentine state. American public employment (around 10%) is comparatively quite lower than the Argentinian (around 18%). The social statistics show differences, but inequality and poverty have been growing as a trend in the last decades in both countries. According to public rates, poverty represents 14% in The United States and 33% in Argentina. American public spending is important (welfare spending and total public spending represent around 12% and 34% of GDP, respectively), but a bit lower than Latin-American or European average). In both cases, the tendency to underemployment and disqualification unemployment does not assume a serious gravity. Probably one of the most important aspects of the analysis is that private initiative and public intervention are much more intertwined in the United States, which makes state intervention more ‘fuzzy’, while in Argentina the difference is clearer. Finally, the power of its accumulation of capital and, more specifically, of the industrial and services sectors in the United States, which continues to be the engine of the economy, express great differences with Argentina, supported by its agro-industrial power and its public sector.

Keywords: state intervention, welfare policies, labor market, system of rights, United States of America

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Authors: Budur Almutairi

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Introduction: There is an alarming increase in the number of diabetic patients in Saudi Arabia during the last twenty years. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the country ranks seventh in the world for the rate of diabetes. It is also estimated that around 7 million of the population are diabetic and almost around 3 million have pre-diabetes. The prevalence is more in urban area than in rural and more in women than in men and it is closely associated with the parallel rise in obesity rates. Diabetes is found to be contributing to the increasing mortality, morbidity and vascular complications and becoming a significant cause of medical complications and even death. The trends shown by the numbers are worrying as the prevalence is steadily doubling every two decades and particularly in Saudi Arabia, this could soon reach 50% in those over 50 years of age. The economic growth and prosperity have shown notable changes in the lifestyle of the people. Most importantly, along with an increased consumption of fast foods and sugar-rich carbonated soft drinks, eating habits became less healthy and the level of physical activity is decreased. The simultaneous technological advancement and the introduction of new mechanical devices like, elevators, escalators, remotes and vehicles pushed people to a situation of leading a more sedentary life. This study is attempting to evaluate the success of the campaign that introduced through popular social media in the country. Methodology: The Ministry of Health (MoH) has initiated a novel method of campaign activity to generate discussion among public about diabetes. There were mythical monsters introduced through popular social media with disguised messages about the condition of diabetes has generated widespread discussions about the disease among the general public. The characters that started appearing in social media About 600 retweets of the original post was testimonial for the success of the Twitter campaign. The second most successful form of campaign was a video that adopted a very popular approach of using Dark Comedy in which, the diabetes was represented through a twisted negative character that talks about his meticulous plans of how he is going to take the common people into his clutches. This fictional character gained more popularity when introduced into twitter and people started interacting with him raising various questions and challenging his anti-social activities. Major findings: The video generated more than 3,200,000 views ranking 9th in You Tube’s most popular video in Saudi Arabia and was shared 7000 times in a single week. Also, the hashtag got over 4,500,000impressions and over one million visits. Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus in Saudi Arabia is emerging as an epidemic of massive proportions, threatening to negate the benefits of modernization and economic revival. It is highly possible that healthy practices connected with the prevention and management of DM can easily be implemented in a manner that does not conflict with the cultural milieu of Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: campaign, diabetes, Saudi, social media

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Authors: Langhit Kurar, Loren Charles

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Introduction: In light of recent BOAST 12 (August 2016) published guidance on management of ankle fractures, the project aimed to highlight key discrepancies throughout the care trajectory from admission to point of discharge at a district general hospital. Wide breadth of data covering three key domains: accident and emergency, radiology, and orthopaedic surgery were subsequently stratified and recommendations on note documentation, and outpatient follow up were made. Methods: A retrospective twelve month audit was conducted reviewing results of ankle fracture management in 37 patients. Inclusion criterion involved all patients seen at Darent Valley Hospital (DVH) emergency department with radiographic evidence of an ankle fracture. Exclusion criterion involved all patients managed solely by nursing staff or having sustained purely ligamentous injury. Medical notes, including discharge summaries and the PACS online radiographic tool were used for data extraction. Results: Cross-examination of the A & E domain revealed limited awareness of the BOAST 12 recent publication including requirements to document skin integrity and neurovascular assessment. This had direct implications as this would have changed the surgical plan for acutely compromised patients. The majority of results obtained from the radiographic domain were satisfactory with appropriate X-rays taken in over 95% of cases. However, due to time pressures within A & E, patients were often left without a post manipulation XRAY in a backslab. Poorly reduced fractures were subsequently left for a long period resulting in swollen ankles and a time-dependent lag to surgical intervention. This had knocked on implications for prolonged inpatient stay resulting in hospital-acquired co-morbidity including pressure sores. Discussion: The audit has highlighted several areas of improvement throughout the disease trajectory from review in the emergency department to follow up as an outpatient. This has prompted the creation of an algorithm to ensure patients with significant fractures presenting to the emergency department are seen promptly and treatment expedited as per recent guidance. This includes timing for X-rays taken in A & E. Re-audit has shown significant improvement in both documentation at time of presentation and appropriate follow-up strategies. Within the orthopedic domain, we are in the process of creating an ankle fracture pathway to ensure imaging and weight bearing status are made clear to the consulting clinicians in an outpatient setting. Significance/Clinical Relevance: As a result of the ankle fracture algorithm we have adapted the BOAST 12 guidance to shape an intrinsic pathway to not only improve patient management within the emergency department but also create a standardised format for follow up.

Keywords: ankle, fracture, BOAST, radiology

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Authors: Ya-Hsing Yeh, I-Chun Tai, Ming-Chieh Lin, Li-Ting Lee, Ping-Ting Hsieh, Yi-Chen Ling, Jhia-Ying Du, Li-Ping Chang, Guan-Long Yu

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Objective: To understand the connection between children/adolescents and those who they miss, as well as the correlation between connection and their emotions. Method: Based on the objective, a close-ended questionnaire was made into a formal questionnaire after experts evaluated its validity. In February 2017, the paper-based questionnaire was adopted. Twenty-one elementary schools and junior high schools in Taiwan were sampled by purposive sampling approach and the fifth to ninth graders were our participants. A total of 2,502 valid questionnaires were retrieved. Results: Forty-four-point three percent of children/adolescents missed a person in mind, or they thought a person as a significant other in mind, but they had no connection with them. The highest proportion of those they wanted to contact with was ‘Friends and classmates’, and the others were ‘immediate family’, such as parents and grandparents, and ‘academic or vocational instructors, such as home-room teachers, coaches, cram school teachers and so on, respectively. Only 14% of children/adolescents would actively contact those they missed. The proportion of what children/adolescents ‘often’ actively keeping in touch with those they missed felt happy or cheerful was higher compared with those who ‘seldom’ actively keeping in touch with people they missed whenever they recalled who they missed, or the person actively contacted with them. Sixty-one-point seven percent of participants haven’t connected with those they missed for more than one year. The main reason was ‘environmental factors’, such as school/class transfer or moving, and then ‘academic or personal factors’, ‘communication tools’, and ‘personalities’, respectively. In addition to ‘greetings during festivals and holidays’, ‘hearing from those they missed’, and ‘knowing the latest information about those they missed on their Internet communities’, children/adolescents would like to actively contact with them when they felt ‘happy’ and ‘depressed or frustrated. The first three opinions of what children/adolescents regarded truly connection were ‘listening to people they missed attentively’, ‘sharing their secrets’, and ‘contacting with people they regularly missed with real actions’. In terms of gender, girls’ proportion on ‘showing with actions, including contacting with people they missed regularly or expressing their feelings openly’, and ‘sharing secrets’ was higher than boys’, while boy’s proportion on ‘the attitudes when contacting people they missed, including listening attentively or without being distracted’ was higher than girls’. Conclusions: I. The more ‘active’ connection they have, the more happiness they feel. II. Teachers can teach children how to manage their emotions and express their feelings appropriately. III. It is very important to turn connection into ‘action.’ Teachers can set a good example and share their moods with others whatever they are in the mood. This is a kind of connection.

Keywords: children, connection, emotion, mental health

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Authors: Musa Miah

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Society and social activities are directly governed by political sociology. Political sociology has an impact on the whole of human society, the interrelationships of people in society, social responsibilities and duties, the nature of society, society and culture of different countries, conducting social activities, social change and social development. Through this, the correct knowledge and decision are made by analyzing the complexities of society in different ways. In modern civilized society, people need to get accurate knowledge about how they live, their behavior, customs and principles. The need for political sociology is undeniable, even if new plans are to be adopted for the development of society. The importance of practicing political sociology is immense if any country, nation, or society is to move forward on the path of sustainable development. Research has shown that political sociology is an essential aspect of the social impact of development, sociological analysis of poverty or underdevelopment, development of human values in individual life. The importance of political sociology for knowing the overall aspect of society is undeniable. Because, to know about social problems, to identify social problems, to find the cause of any social problem, one needs to know political sociology. Apart from knowing about the class structure of the society, people of different classes and professions live in the society. It is possible to gain knowledge about. He is also involved in various societies, communities and groups in the country and abroad. Therefore, research has shown that in order to successfully solve any task of the society, it is necessary to know the society in full. Media Studies: Media studies are directly related to socialization. Media strategy has had a positive impact on the management and direction of society. At present, Media Studies in Bangladesh is working towards providing opportunities for up-to-date and quality higher education. Introduced Department of Journalism, Communication and Media Studies in different universities of Bangladesh. The department has gained immense popularity since its inception. Here the top degree holders, as well as eminent editors, senior journalists, writers and researchers, are giving their opinions. Now there is ample scope for research in newspapers, magazines, radio, television and online media as well as outside of work as an advertising-documentary filmmaker or in domestic and foreign NGOs or other corporate organizations. According to the study, media studies have had a positive impact on the media in Bangladesh, especially television channels, the expansion and development of online media and the creation of clear ideas about communication, journalism and the media. Workshops, seminars and discussions are being held on contemporary national and international issues in addition to theoretical concepts. Journalism, communication and mass media are quite exceptional and challenging compared to the traditional subjects considering the present times. In this regard, there is a unique opportunity to build a modern society with taste and personality without mere employment.

Keywords: Bangladesh, Dhaka, social activities, political sociology

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Authors: Agnes Siwi Purwaning Tyas, Dewi Cahya Ambarwati

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This paper concerns the language learning that develops as a habit formation and a constructive process while exercising an oppressive power to construct the learners. As a locus of discussion, the investigation problematizes the transfer of English language to Indonesian students of junior high school through the use of English textbooks ‘Real Time: An Interactive English Course for Junior High School Students Year VII-IX’. English language has long performed as a global language and it is a demand upon the non-English native speakers to master the language if they desire to become internationally recognized individuals. Generally, English teachers teach the language in accordance with the nature of language learning in which they are trained and expected to teach the language within the culture of the target language. This provides a potential soft cultural penetration of a foreign ideology through language transmission. In the context of Indonesia, learning English as international language is considered dilemmatic. Most English textbooks in Indonesia incorporate cultural elements of the target language which in some extent may challenge the sensitivity towards local cultural values. On the other hand, local teachers demand more English textbooks for junior high school students which can facilitate cultural dissemination of both local and global values and promote learners’ cultural traits of both cultures to avoid misunderstanding and confusion. It also aims to support language learning as bidirectional process instead of instrument of oppression. However, sensitizing and localizing this foreign language is not sufficient to restrain its soft infiltration. In due course, domination persists making the English language as an authoritative language and positioning the locality as ‘the other’. Such critical premise has led to a discursive analysis referring to how the cultural elements of the target language are presented in the textbooks and whether the local characteristics of Indonesia are able to gradually reduce the degree of the foreign oppressive ideology. The three textbooks researched were written by non-Indonesian author edited by two Indonesia editors published by a local commercial publishing company, PT Erlangga. The analytical elaboration examines the cultural characteristics in the forms of names, terminologies, places, objects and imageries –not the linguistic aspect– of both cultural domains; English and Indonesia. Comparisons as well as categorizations were made to identify the cultural traits of each language and scrutinize the contextual analysis. In the analysis, 128 foreign elements and 27 local elements were found in textbook for grade VII, 132 foreign elements and 23 local elements were found in textbook for grade VIII, while 144 foreign elements and 35 local elements were found in grade IX textbook, demonstrating the unequal distribution of both cultures. Even though the ideal pedagogical approach of English learning moves to a different direction by the means of inserting local elements, the learners are continuously imposed to the culture of the target language and forced to internalize the concept of values under the influence of the target language which tend to marginalize their native culture.

Keywords: bidirectional process, English, local culture, oppression

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Authors: Heichia Wang, Yalan Chao

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Social inequality is a persistent problem. One of the ways to solve this problem is through education. At present, vulnerable groups are often less geographically accessible to educational resources. However, compared with educational resources, communication equipment is easier for vulnerable groups. Now that information and communication technology (ICT) has entered the field of education, today we can accept the convenience that ICT provides in education, and the mobility that it brings makes learning independent of time and place. With mobile learning, teachers and students can start discussions in an online chat room without the limitations of time or place. However, because liquidity learning is quite convenient, people tend to solve problems in short online texts with lack of detailed information in a lack of convenient online environment to express ideas. Therefore, the ICT education environment may cause misunderstanding between teachers and students. Therefore, in order to better understand each other's views between teachers and students, this study aims to clarify the essays of the analysts and classify the students into several types of learning questions to clarify the views of teachers and students. In addition, this study attempts to extend the description of possible omissions in short texts by using external resources prior to classification. In short, by applying a short text classification, this study can point out each student's learning problems and inform the instructor where the main focus of the future course is, thus improving the ICT education environment. In order to achieve the goals, this research uses convolutional neural network (CNN) method to analyze short discussion content between teachers and students in an ICT education environment. Divide students into several main types of learning problem groups to facilitate answering student problems. In addition, this study will further cluster sub-categories of each major learning type to indicate specific problems for each student. Unlike most neural network programs, this study attempts to extend short texts with external resources before classifying them to improve classification performance. In short, by applying the classification of short texts, we can point out the learning problems of each student and inform the instructors where the main focus of future courses will improve the ICT education environment. The data of the empirical process will be used to pre-process the chat records between teachers and students and the course materials. An action system will be set up to compare the most similar parts of the teaching material with each student's chat history to improve future classification performance. Later, the function of short text classification uses CNN to classify rich chat records into several major learning problems based on theory-driven titles. By applying these modules, this research hopes to clarify the main learning problems of students and inform teachers that they should focus on future teaching.

Keywords: ICT education improvement, social equality, short text analysis, convolutional neural network

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Authors: Anita Bajpai, Sarah Duan, Ashlee Erskine, Shehzein Khan, Raymond Kramer

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Introduction: This research focuses on exploring the beneficial effects if any, of Vitamin-D in reducing the need for supplemental oxygen among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Two questions are investigated – Q1)Doeshaving a healthy level of baselineVitamin-D 25-OH (≥ 30ng/ml) help,andQ2) does administering Vitamin-D therapy after-the-factduring inpatient hospitalization help? Methods/Study Design: This is a comprehensive, retrospective, observational study of all inpatients at RUHS from March through December 2020 who tested positive for COVID-19 based on real-time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction assay of nasal and pharyngeal swabs and rapid assay antigen test. To address Q1, we looked atall N1=182 patients whose baseline plasma Vitamin-D 25-OH was known and who needed supplemental oxygen. Of this, a total of 121 patients had a healthy Vitamin-D level of ≥30 ng/mlwhile the remaining 61 patients had low or borderline (≤ 29.9ng/ml)level. Similarly, for Q2, we looked at a total of N2=893 patients who were given supplemental oxygen, of which713 were not given Vitamin-D and 180 were given Vitamin-D therapy. The numerical value of the maximum amount of oxygen flow rate(dependent variable) administered was recorded for each patient. The mean values and associated standard deviations for each group were calculated. Thesetwo sets of independent data served as the basis for independent, two-sample t-Test statistical analysis. To be accommodative of any reasonable benefitof Vitamin-D, ap-value of 0.10(α< 10%) was set as the cutoff point for statistical significance. Results: Given the large sample sizes, the calculated statistical power for both our studies exceeded the customary norm of 80% or better (β< 0.2). For Q1, the mean value for maximumoxygen flow rate for the group with healthybaseline level of Vitamin-D was 8.6 L/min vs.12.6L/min for those with low or borderline levels, yielding a p-value of 0.07 (p < 0.10) with the conclusion that those with a healthy level of baseline Vitamin-D needed statistically significant lower levels of supplemental oxygen. ForQ2, the mean value for a maximum oxygen flow rate for those not administered Vitamin-Dwas 12.5 L/min vs.12.8L/min for those given Vitamin-D, yielding a p-valueof 0.87 (p > 0.10). We thereforeconcludedthat there was no statistically significant difference in the use of oxygen therapy between those who were or were not administered Vitamin-D after-the-fact in the hospital. Discussion/Conclusion: We found that patients who had healthy levels of Vitamin-D at baseline needed statistically significant lower levels of supplemental oxygen. Vitamin-D is well documented, including in a recent article in the Lancet, for its anti-inflammatory role as an adjuvant in the regulation of cytokines and immune cells. Interestingly, we found no statistically significant advantage for giving Vitamin-D to hospitalized patients. It may be a case of “too little too late”. A randomized clinical trial reported in JAMA also did not find any reduction in hospital stay of patients given Vitamin-D. Such conclusions come with a caveat that any delayed marginal benefits may not have materialized promptly in the presence of a significant inflammatory condition. Since Vitamin-D is a low-cost, low-risk option, it may still be useful on an inpatient basis until more definitive findings are established.

Keywords: COVID-19, vitamin-D, supplemental oxygen, vitamin-D in primary care

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Authors: A. Wolfe

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Dayo Forster’s impressively crafted Reading the Ceiling (2007) enjoys a relatively high profile among Western readers. It is one of only a handful of Gambian novels to be published by an international publisher, Simon and Schuster of London, and was subsequently shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Best First Book Prize in 2008. It is currently available to US readers in print and as an e-book and has 167 ratings on Goodreads. This paper addresses the possible influence of the book on Western readers’ perception of The Gambia, or Africa in general, through its depiction of the conditions of Gambian women’s lives. Through a close reading of passages and analysis of imagery, intertextuality, and characterization in the book, the paper demonstrates that Forster portrays the culture of The Gambia as oppressively patriarchal and the prospects for young girls who stay in the country as extremely limited. Reading the Ceiling starts on Ayodele’s 18th birthday, the day she has planned to have sex for the first time. Most of the rest of the book is divided into three parts, each following the chain of events that occur after sex with a potential partner. Although Ayodele goes abroad for her education in each of the three scenarios, she ultimately capitulates to the patriarchal politics and demands of marriage and childrearing in The Gambia, settling for relationships with men she does not love, cooking and cleaning for husbands and children, and silencing her own opinions and desires in exchange for the familiar traditions of patriarchal—and, in one case, polygamous—marriage. Each scenario ends with resignation to death, as, after her mother’s funeral, Ayodele admits to herself that she will be next. Forster uses dust and mud imagery throughout the novel to indicate the dinginess of Ayodele’s life as a young woman, and then wife and mother, in The Gambia as well as the inescapability of this life. This depiction of earthen material is also present in the novel’s recounting of an oral tale about a mermaid captured by fishermen, a story that mirrors Ayodele’s ensnarement by traditional marriage customs and gender norms. A review of the fate of other characters in the novel reveals that Ayodele is not the only woman who becomes trapped by the expectations for women in The Gambia, as those who stay in the country end up subservient to their husbands and/or victims of men’s habitual infidelity. It is important to note that Reading the Ceiling is focused on the experiences of a minority—The Gambia’s middle class, Christian urban dwellers with money for education. Regardless of its limited scope, the novel clearly depicts The Gambia as a place where women are simply unable to successfully contend against traditional patriarchal norms. Although this novel evokes vivid imagery of The Gambia through original and compelling descriptions of food preparation, clothing, and scenery, it perhaps does little to challenge stereotypical perceptions of the lives of African women among a Western readership.

Keywords: African literature, commonwealth literature, marriage, stereotypes, women

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Authors: Chen Jin

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This topic seeks to re-examine the New Women Incident in 1935 Shanghai from the perspective of the influence of leftist cinematic aesthetics on public discourse in 1930s Shanghai. Accordingly, an original means of interpreting the death of Ruan Lingyu will be provided. On 8th March 1935, Ruan Lingyu, the queen of Chinese silent film, committed suicide through overdosing on sleeping tablets. Her last words, ‘gossip is fearful thing’, interlinks her destiny with the protagonist she played in the film The New Women (Cai Chusheng, 1935). The coincidence was constantly questioned by the masses following her suicide, constituting the enduring question: ‘who killed Ruan Lingyu?’ Responding to this query, previous scholars primarily analyze the characters played by women -particularly new women as part of the leftist movement or public discourse of 1930s Shanghai- as a means of approaching the truth. Nevertheless, alongside her status as a public celebrity, Ruan Lingyu also plays as a screen image of mechanical reproduction. The overlap between her screen image and personal destiny attracts limited academic focus in terms of the effect and implications of leftist aesthetics of reality in relation to her death, which itself has provided impetus to this research. With the reconfiguration of early Chinese film theory in the 1980s, early discourses on the relationship between cinematic reality and consciousness proposed by Hou Yao and Gu Kenfu in the 1920s are integrated into the category of Chinese film ontology, which constitutes a transcultural contrast with the Euro-American ontology that advocates the representation of reality. The discussion of Hou and Gu overlaps cinematic reality with effect, which emphasizes the empathy of cinema that is directly reflected in the leftist aesthetics of the 1930s. As the main purpose of leftist cinema is to encourage revolution through depicting social reality truly, Ruan Lingyu became renowned for her natural and realistic acting proficiency, playing leading roles in several esteemed leftist films. The realistic reproduction and natural acting skill together constitute the empathy of leftist films, which establishes a dialogue with the virtuous female image within the 1930s public discourse. On this basis, this research considers Chinese cinematic ontology and affect theory as the theoretical foundation for investigating the relationship between the screen image of Ruan Lingyu reproduced by the leftist film The New Women and the female image in the 1930s public discourse. Through contextualizing Ruan Lingyu’s death within the Chinese leftist movement, the essay indicates that the empathy embodied within leftist cinematic reality limits viewers’ cognition of the actress, who project their sentiments for the perfect screen image on to Ruan Lingyu’s image in reality. Essentially, Ruan Lingyu is imprisoned in her own perfect replication. Consequently, this article states that alongside leftist anti-female consciousness, the leftist aesthetics of reality restricts women in a passive position within public discourse, which ultimately plays a role in facilitating the death of Ruan Lingyu.

Keywords: cinematic reality, leftist aesthetics, Ruan Lingyu, The New Women

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Authors: Cynthia Adlerstein-Grimberg, Andrea Bralic-Echeverría

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An extensive and controversial research debate discusses pedagogical documentation (PD) within early childhood education (ECE) as integral to ECE teachers' professional development. The literature converges in acknowledging that ICT integration in PD can be fundamental for children's and teachers' collaborative learning by making their processes visible and open to reflection. Controversial issues about PD emerge around ICT integration and the use of multimedia applications and platforms, displacing the physical experience involved in this pedagogical practice. Authors argue that online platforms make PD become a passive device to demonstrate accountability and performance. Furthermore, ICT integration would make educators inform children and families of pedagogical processes, positioning them more as consumers instead of involving them in collective thinking and pedagogical decision-making. This article analyses how pedagogical documentation mediated by a multimedia application (MAFApp) allows for the positive strengthening of an ECE pedagogical online community that thinks collectively about learning environments. In doing so, the paper shows how ICT integration supports ECE teachers' collective online thinking, enabling them to move from the controversial version of online PD, where they only act as informers of children's learning and assume a voyeuristic perspective, towards a collective online thinking that builds professional development and supports pedagogical decision-making about learning environments. This article answers How ECE teachers' pedagogical documentation evolves with ICT integration using the MAFApp multimedia application in a national ECE online community. From a posthumanist stance, this paper draws on an 18-month collaborative ethnographic immersion in Chile's unique public ECE online PD community. It develops a unique case study of an online ECE pedagogical community mediated by a multimedia application called MAFApp. This ECE online community includes 32 Chilean public kindergartens, 45 ECE teachers, and 72 assistants, who produced 534 pedagogical documentation. Fieldwork included 35 in-depth interviews, 13 discussion groups, and the constant comparison method for the PD coding. Findings show ICT integration in PD builds collective online thinking that evolves through four moments of growing complexity: 1) teachernalism of built environments, 2) onlookerism of children's anecdotes in learning environments; 3) storytelling of children's place-making, and 4) empowering pedagogies for co-creating learning environments. ICT integration through the MAFApp multimedia application enabled ECE teachers to build collective online thinking, making pedagogies of place visible and engaging children in co-constructing learning environments. This online PD is a continuous professional learning space for ECE teachers, empowering pedagogies of place. In conclusion, ICT integration into PD progressively empowers pedagogies of place in Chilean public ECE. Strengthening collective online thinking using the MAFApp multimedia application sharply contrasts with some recent PD research findings. ICT integration to PD enabled strong collective online thinking. Doing so makes PD operate as a place of professional development, pedagogical reflective encounters, and experimentation while inhabiting their own learning environments with children.

Keywords: early childhood education, ICT integration, multimedia application, online collective thinking, pedagogical documentation, professional development

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Authors: Sakinah Idris, Gabrine Jagersma, Bjorn Jaime Van Pelt, Kirstin Greaves-Lord

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Background: The PEERS (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) intervention can be considered a well-established, evidence-based intervention in the USA. However, testing the efficacy of cultural adaptations of PEERS is still ongoing. More and more, the involvement of all stakeholders in the development and evaluation of interventions is acknowledged as crucial for the longer term implementation of interventions across settings. Therefore, in the current project, teens with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), their neurotypical peers, parents, teachers, as well as clinicians were involved in the development and evaluation of the Dutch version of PEERS. Objectives: The current presentation covers (1) the formative phase and (2) the preliminary adaptation test phase of the cultural adaptation of evidence-based interventions. In the formative phase, we aim to describe the process of adaptation of the PEERS program to the Dutch culture and care system. In the preliminary adaptation phase, we will present results from the preliminary adaptation test among 32 adolescents with ASD. Methods: In phase 1, a group discussion on common vocabulary was conducted among 70 teenagers (and their teachers) from special and regular education aged 12-18 years old. This inventory concerned 14 key constructs from PEERS, e.g., areas of interests, locations for making friends, common peer groups and crowds inside and outside of school, activities with friends, commonly used ways for electronic communication, ways for handling disagreements, and common teasing comebacks. Also, 15 clinicians were involved in the translation and cultural adaptation process. The translation and cultural adaptation process were guided by the research team, and who included input and feedback from all stakeholders through an iterative feedback incorporation procedure. In phase 2, The parent-reported Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), the Test of Adolescent Social Skills Knowledge (TASSK), and the Quality of Socialization Questionnaire (QSQ) were assessed pre- and post-intervention to evaluate potential treatment outcome. Results: The most striking cultural adaptation - reflecting the standpoints of all stakeholders - concerned the strategies for handling rumors and gossip, which were suggested to be taught using a similar approach as the teasing comebacks, more in line with ‘down-to-earth’ Dutch standards. The preliminary testing of this adapted version indicated that the adolescents with ASD significantly improved their social knowledge (TASSK; t₃₁ = -10.9, p < .01), social experience (QSQ-Parent; t₃₁ = -4.2, p < .01 and QSQ-Adolescent; t₃₂ = -3.8, p < .01), and in parent-reported social responsiveness (SRS; t₃₃ = 3.9, p < .01). In addition, subjective evaluations of teens with ASD, their parents and clinicians were positive. Conclusions: In order to further scrutinize the effectiveness of the Dutch version of the PEERS intervention, we recommended performing a larger scale randomized control trial (RCT) design, for which we provide several methodological considerations.

Keywords: cultural adaptation, PEERS, preliminary testing, translation

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Authors: Alexander Guzman Urbina, Atsushi Aoyama

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The sustainability of traditional technologies employed in energy and chemical infrastructure brings a big challenge for our society. Making decisions related with safety of industrial infrastructure, the values of accidental risk are becoming relevant points for discussion. However, the challenge is the reliability of the models employed to get the risk data. Such models usually involve large number of variables and with large amounts of uncertainty. The most efficient techniques to overcome those problems are built using Artificial Intelligence (AI), and more specifically using hybrid systems such as Neuro-Fuzzy algorithms. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce a hybrid algorithm for risk assessment trained using near-miss accident data. As mentioned above the sustainability of traditional technologies related with energy and chemical infrastructure constitutes one of the major challenges that today’s societies and firms are facing. Besides that, the adaptation of those technologies to the effects of the climate change in sensible environments represents a critical concern for safety and risk management. Regarding this issue argue that social consequences of catastrophic risks are increasing rapidly, due mainly to the concentration of people and energy infrastructure in hazard-prone areas, aggravated by the lack of knowledge about the risks. Additional to the social consequences described above, and considering the industrial sector as critical infrastructure due to its large impact to the economy in case of a failure the relevance of industrial safety has become a critical issue for the current society. Then, regarding the safety concern, pipeline operators and regulators have been performing risk assessments in attempts to evaluate accurately probabilities of failure of the infrastructure, and consequences associated with those failures. However, estimating accidental risks in critical infrastructure involves a substantial effort and costs due to number of variables involved, complexity and lack of information. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce a well trained algorithm for risk assessment using deep learning, which could be capable to deal efficiently with the complexity and uncertainty. The advantage point of the deep learning using near-miss accidents data is that it could be employed in risk assessment as an efficient engineering tool to treat the uncertainty of the risk values in complex environments. The basic idea of using a Near-Miss Deep Learning Approach for Neuro-Fuzzy Risk Assessment in Pipelines is focused in the objective of improve the validity of the risk values learning from near-miss accidents and imitating the human expertise scoring risks and setting tolerance levels. In summary, the method of Deep Learning for Neuro-Fuzzy Risk Assessment involves a regression analysis called group method of data handling (GMDH), which consists in the determination of the optimal configuration of the risk assessment model and its parameters employing polynomial theory.

Keywords: deep learning, risk assessment, neuro fuzzy, pipelines

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Authors: Saeed Nazari, Masoom Nazari, Ali Hejazi, Siamak Sanoobari Ghazi Jahani, Mohammad Dehghani, Javad Vakili

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More than ever, digitization is an imperative for businesses to keep their competitive advantages, foster innovation and reduce paperwork. To design and successfully implement digital transformation initiatives within process safety management system, employees need to be equipped with the right tool, frameworks, and best practices. we developed a unique full stack application so-called SHEQTool which is entirely dynamic based on our extensive expertise, experience, and client feedback to help business processes particularly operations safety management. We use our best knowledge and scientific methodologies published by CCPS and OSHA Guidelines to streamline operations and integrated them into task management within Petrochemical Companies. We digitalize their main process safety management system elements and their sub elements such as hazard identification and risk management, training and communication, inspection and audit, critical changes management, contractor management, permit to work, pre-start-up safety review, incident reporting and investigation, emergency response plan, personal protective equipment, occupational health, and action management in a fully customizable manner with no programming needs for users. We review the feedback from main actors within petrochemical plant which highlights improving their business performance and productivity as well as keep tracking their functions’ key performance indicators (KPIs) because it; 1) saves time, resources, and costs of all paperwork on our businesses (by Digitalization); 2) reduces errors and improve performance within management system by covering most of daily software needs of the organization and reduce complexity and associated costs of numerous tools and their required training (One Tool Approach); 3) focuses on management systems and integrate functions and put them into traceable task management (RASCI and Flowcharting); 4) helps the entire enterprise be resilient to any change of your processes, technologies, assets with minimum costs (through Organizational Resilience); 5) reduces significantly incidents and errors via world class safety management programs and elements (by Simplification); 6) gives the companies a systematic, traceable, risk based, process based, and science based integrated management system (via proper Methodologies); 7) helps business processes complies with ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 31000, best practices as well as legal regulations by PDCA approach (Compliance).

Keywords: process, safety, digitalization, management, risk, incident, SHEQTool, OSHA, CCPS

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Authors: Prateek Goyal, Archini Paruthi, Superb K. Misra

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Contamination of water resources has been a major concern, which has drawn attention to the need to develop new material models for treatment of effluents. Existing conventional waste water treatment methods remain ineffective sometimes and uneconomical in terms of remediating contaminants like heavy metal ions (mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium and chromium); organic matter (dyes, chlorinated solvents) and high salt concentration, which makes water unfit for consumption. We believe that nanotechnology based strategy, where we use nanoparticles as a tool to remediate a class of pollutants would prove to be effective due to its property of high surface area to volume ratio, higher selectivity, sensitivity and affinity. In recent years, scientific advancement has been made to study the application of photocatalytic (ZnO, TiO2 etc.) nanomaterials and magnetic nanomaterials in remediating contaminants (like heavy metals and organic dyes) from water/wastewater. Our study focuses on the synthesis and monitoring remediation efficiency of ZnO, Fe3O4 and Fe3O4 coated ZnO nanoparticulate system for the removal of heavy metals and dyes simultaneously. Multitude of ZnO nanostructures (spheres, rods and flowers) using multiple routes (microwave & hydrothermal approach) offers a wide range of light active photo catalytic property. The phase purity, morphology, size distribution, zeta potential, surface area and porosity in addition to the magnetic susceptibility of the particles were characterized by XRD, TEM, CPS, DLS, BET and VSM measurements respectively. Further on, the introduction of crystalline defects into ZnO nanostructures can also assist in light activation for improved dye degradation. Band gap of a material and its absorbance is a concrete indicator for photocatalytic activity of the material. Due to high surface area, high porosity and affinity towards metal ions and availability of active surface sites, iron oxide nanoparticles show promising application in adsorption of heavy metal ions. An additional advantage of having magnetic based nanocomposite is, it offers magnetic field responsive separation and recovery of the catalyst. Therefore, we believe that ZnO linked Fe3O4 nanosystem would be efficient and reusable. Improved photocatalytic efficiency in addition to adsorption for environmental remediation has been a long standing challenge, and the nano-composite system offers the best of features which the two individual metal oxides provide for nanoremediation.

Keywords: adsorption, nanocomposite, nanoremediation, photocatalysis

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Authors: William Elnemer, Nauman Hussain, Samir Al-Ali, Henry Shu, Diane Ghanem, Babar Shafiq

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Introduction: The incidence of infection in open tibial shaft injuries varies depending on the severity of the injury, with rates ranging from 1.8% for Gustilo-Anderson type I to 42.9% for type IIIB fractures. The timely administration of antibiotics upon presentation to the emergency department (ED) is an essential component of fracture management, and evidence indicates that prompt delivery of antibiotics is associated with improved outcomes. The objective of this study is to identify factors that contribute to the expedient administration of antibiotics. Methods: This is a retrospective study of open tibial shaft fractures at an academic Level I trauma center. Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes identified all patients treated for open tibial shaft fractures between 2015 and 2021. Open fractures were identified by reviewing ED and provider notes, and with ballistic fractures were considered open. Chart reviews were performed to extract demographics, fracture characteristics, postoperative outcomes, time to operative room, time to antibiotic order, and delivery. Univariate statistical analysis compared patients who received early antibiotics (EA), which were delivered within one hour of ED presentation, and those who received late antibiotics (LA), which were delivered outside of one hour of ED presentation. A multivariate analysis was performed to investigate patient, fracture, and transport/ED characteristics contributing to faster delivery of antibiotics. The multivariate analysis included the dependent variables: ballistic fracture, activation of Delta Trauma, Gustilo-Andersen (Type III vs. Type I and II), AO-OTA Classification (Type C vs. Type A and B), arrival between 7 am and 11 pm, and arrival via Emergency Medical Services (EMS) or walk-in. Results: Seventy ED patients with open tibial shaft fractures were identified. Of these, 39 patients (55.7%) received EA, while 31 patients (44.3%) received LA. Univariate analysis shows that the arrival via EMS as opposed to walk-in (97.4% vs. 74.2%, respectively, p = 0.01) and activation of Delta Trauma (89.7% vs. 51.6%, respectively, p < 0.001) was significantly higher in the EA group vs. the LA group. Additionally, EA cases had significantly shorter intervals between the antibiotic order and delivery when compared to LA cases (0.02 hours vs. 0.35 hours, p = 0.007). No other significant differences were found in terms of postoperative outcomes or fracture characteristics. Multivariate analysis shows that a Delta Trauma Response, arrival via EMS, and presentation between 7 am and 11 pm were independent predictors of a shorter time to antibiotic administration (Odds Ratio = 11.9, 30.7, and 5.4, p = 0.001, 0.016, and 0.013, respectively). Discussion: Earlier antibiotic delivery is associated with arrival to the ED between 7 am and 11 pm, arrival via EMS, and a coordinated Delta Trauma activation. Our findings indicate that in cases where administering antibiotics is critical to achieving positive outcomes, it is advisable to employ a coordinated Delta Trauma response. Hospital personnel should be attentive to the rapid administration of antibiotics to patients with open fractures who arrive via walk-in or during late-night hours.

Keywords: antibiotics, emergency department, fracture management, open tibial shaft fractures, orthopaedic surgery, time to or, trauma fractures

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Authors: Khondokar Farid Ahmmed, Robin Bown

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It is widely recognized that the formal financing of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) by Private Commercial Banks (PCBs) is restricted. Due to changing financial market competition, SMEs are now important customers to PCBs in the member countries of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Various initiatives in enhancing the efficiency of risk assessment of PCBs have failed in increasing financing accessibility in the traditional financing system where information asymmetry is a key constraint. In this circumstance, PCBs need to undertake a holistic approach. Holistic approach refers to methods that attempt to fundamentally change established traditions. To undertake holistic approach, this study intends to find the entire established financing culture between PCBs and SMEs in a new lens beyond the tradition on the basis of two basic questions: “What is the traditional lending culture between PCBs and SMEs” and “What could be potential role of PCBs to develop that culture where focusing on SME financing to PCBs". This study considered formal SME financing in Bangladesh by focusing on SMEs applying for their first loan. Bangladesh is a member country of ADB. The data collection method is semi-structured and we utilized face-to-face interviews with in-depth branch managers, higher officials and owner-managers of SME customers of PCBs and higher officials of SME Foundation and the Bangladesh central bank. Discourse analysis method was used for data analysis on the frame of thematic discussion fully based on participants’ views. The research found that branch managers and loan officers have a high level of power in assessing and financing decision-making. There is a changing attitude in PCB sector in requiring flexible collateral assets. Branch managers (Loan Officers) consider value of business prospect of owner-mangers as complementary of collateral assets. However, the study found the assessment process of business prospect is entirely unstructured and linked with socio-cultural settings that does not support PCBs’ changing manner in terms of collateral requirement. The study redefined and classified collateral assets to include all financing constructs in a structure. The degree of value of the collateral assets determines the degree of business prospects. This study suggested applying an outside classroom-learning paradigm such as “knowledge tour” to enhance the value of the kinds of collateral assets. This is the scope of PCBs in increasing SMEs’ financing eligibility in win-win basis. The findings and proposition could be effective in other ADB member countries and audiences in the field.

Keywords: CCA, financing, information asymmetry, PCA, PCB, financing

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Authors: Samantha Jeffries, Chontit Chuenurah

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Thailand incarcerates the largest number of women and has the highest female incarceration rate in South East Asia. Since the 1990s, there has been a substantial increase in the number, rate and proportion of women imprisoned. Thailand places a high priority on the gender specific contexts out of which offending arises and the different needs of women in the criminal justice system. This is manifested in work undertaken to guide the development of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules); adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010. The Bangkok Rules make a strong statement about Thailand’s recognition of and commitment to the fair and equitable treatment of women throughout their contact with the criminal justice system including at sentencing and in prison. This makes the comparatively high use of imprisonment for women in Thailand particularly concerning and raises questions about the relationship between gender, crime and criminal justice. While there is an extensive body of research in Western jurisdictions exploring women’s pathways to prison, there is a relative dearth of methodologically robust research examining the possible gendered circumstances leading to imprisonment in Thailand. In this presentation, we will report preliminary findings from a qualitative study of women’s pathways to prison in Thailand. Our research aims were to ascertain: 1) the type, frequency, and context of criminal behavior that led to women’s incarceration, 2) women’s experiences of the criminal justice system, 3) the broader life experiences and circumstances that led women to prison in Thailand. In-depth life history interviews (n=77) were utilized to gain a comprehensive understanding of women’s journeys into prison. The interview schedule was open-ended consisting of prisoner responses to broad discussion topics. This approach provided women with the opportunity to describe significant experiences in their lives, to bring together distinct chronologies of events, and to analyze links between their varied life experiences, offending, and incarceration. Analyses showed that women’s journey’s to prison take one of eight pathways which tentatively labelled as follows, the: 1) harmed and harming pathway, 2) domestic/family violence victimization pathway, 3) drug connected pathway, 4) street woman pathway, 5) economically motivated pathway, 6) jealousy anger and/or revenge pathway, 7) naivety pathway, 8) unjust and/or corrupted criminal justice pathway. Each will be fully discussed during the presentation. This research is significant because it is the first in-depth methodologically robust exploration of women’s journeys to prison in Thailand and one of a few studies to explore gendered pathways outside of western contexts. Understanding women’s pathways into Thailand’s prisons is crucial to the development of effective planning, policy and program responses not only while women are in prison but also post-release. To best meet women’s needs in prison and effectively support their reintegration, we must have a comprehensive understanding of who these women are, what offenses they commit, the reasons that trigger their confrontations with the criminal justice system and the impact of the criminal justice system on them.

Keywords: pathways, prison, women, Thailand

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Authors: Brajesh

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Introduction: It is generally believed that women's lack power to making decision may restrict their use of modern contraceptives practices. However, few studies have examined the different dimensions of women's empowerment and contraceptive use in Asian content. Pervasive gendered inequities and norms regarding the subordination of women give Asian men disproportionately more power than women, particularly in relation to the sex. We hypothesize that lack of sexual empowerment may pose an important barrier to reproductive health and adoption of family planning methods. Using the Demographic Health Survey, we examine the association between women’s sexual empowerment and contraceptive use in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Objectives: To understand the trend and pattern of contraceptive choices and use among women due to sexual empowerment in selected south Asian countries. To examine the association between women’s sexual empowerment and contraceptive practices among non-pregnant married and partnered women in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Methods: Data came from the latest round of Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2010-12 in and during deacde1990 -92 in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Responses from married or cohabiting women aged 15-49 years were analyzed for six dimensions of empowerment and the current use of female-only methods or couple of methods. Bi-variate and multivariate multinomial regressions were used to identify associations between the empowerment dimensions and method use. Results: Positive associations were found between the overall empowerment score and method use in all countries (relative risk ratios, 1.1-1.3). In multivariate analysis, household economic decision-making was associated with the use of either female-only or couple methods (relative risk ratios -1. 1 for all), as was agreement on fertility preferences (RRR-1.3-1.6) and the ability to negotiate sexual activity (RRR -1. 1-1.2). In Bangladesh, women's negative attitudes toward domestic violence were correlated with the use of couple of methods (RRR -1. 1). Increasing levels of sexual empowerment were found to be associated with use of contraceptives, even after adjusting for demographic predictors of contraceptive use. This association is moderated by the wealth. Formal education, increasing wealth, and being in an unmarried partnership are associated with contraceptive use, whereas women who identify as being Muslim are less likely to use contraceptives than those who identify as being Hindus or other. These findings suggest that to achieve universal access to reproductive health services, gendered disparities in sexual empowerment, particularly among economically disadvantaged women, need to be better addressed. Conclusions: Intervention programs aimed at increasing contraceptive use may need to involve different approaches, including promoting couples' discussion of fertility preferences and family planning, improving women's self-efficacy in negotiating sexual activity and increasing their economic independence. Policies are needed to encourage the rural families to give their girls a chance of attending higher level education and professional course so that can get a better job opportunity and can economically support their family as son are expected to do.

Keywords: reproductive and child health (RCH), relative risk ratios (RRR), demographic and health survey (DHS), women’s sexual empowerment (WSE)

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Authors: K. C. Sharda

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Introduction: In the world, almost half of the population are lacking proper access to improved sanitation services. In Nepal, large number of people are living without access to any sanitation facility. Ecological sanitation toilet which is defined as water conserving and nutrient recycling system for use of human urine and excreta in agriculture would count a lot to utilize locally available resources, to regenerate soil fertility, to save national currency and to achieve the goal of elimination open defecation in country like Nepal. The objectives of the research were to test the efficacy of human urine for improving crop performance and to evaluate the feasibility of ecological sanitation in rural area of Central Nepal. Materials and Methods: The field investigation was carried out at Palung Village Development Committee (VDC) of Makawanpur District, Nepal from March – August, 2016. Five eco-san toilets in two villages (Angare and Bhot Khoriya) were constructed and questionnaire survey was carried out. During the questionnaire survey, respondents were asked about socio-economic parameters, farming practices, awareness of ecological sanitation and fertilizer value of human urine and excreta in agriculture. In prior to a field experiment, soil was sampled for analysis of basic characteristics. In the field experiment, cauliflower was cultivated for a month in the two sites to compare the fertilizer value of urine with chemical fertilizer and no fertilizer with three replications. The harvested plant samples were analyzed to understand the nutrient content in plant with different treatments. Results and Discussion: Eighty three percent respondents were engaged in agriculture growing mainly vegetables, which may raise the feasibility of ecological sanitation. In the study area, water deficiencies in dry season, high demand of chemical fertilizer, lack of sanitation awareness were found to be solved. The soil at Angare has sandier texture and lower nitrogen content compared to that in Bhot Khoriya. While the field experiment in Angare showed that the aboveground biomass of cauliflower in the urine fertilized plot were similar with that in the chemically fertilized plot and higher than those in the non-fertilized plots, no significant difference among the treatments were found in Bhot Khoriya. The more distinctive response of crop growth to the three treatments in the former might be attributed to the poorer soil productivity, which in turn could be caused by the poorer inherent soil fertility and the poorer past management by the farmer in Angare. Thus, use of urine as fertilizer could help poor farmers with low quality soil. The significantly different content of nitrogen and potassium in the plant samples among three treatments in Bhot Khoriya would require further investigation. When urine is utilized as a fertilizer, the productivity could be increased and the money to buy chemical fertilizer would be utilized in other livelihood activities. Ecological sanitation is feasible in the area with similar socio-economic parameter.

Keywords: cauliflower, chemical fertilizer, ecological sanitation, Nepal, urine

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Authors: Yiorgos Hadjichristou

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The paper will focus on the strategic development deriving from the evolution of the traditional courtyard spatial organization towards a new, contemporary sustainable way of living. New sustainable approaches that engulf the social issues, the notion of place, the understanding of weather architecture blended together with the bioclimatic behaviour will be seen through a series of experimental case studies in the island of Cyprus, inspired and originated from its traditional wisdom, ranging from small scale of living to urban interventions. Weather and nature will be seen as co-architectural authors with architects as intelligently claimed by Jonathan Hill in his Weather Architecture discourse. Furthermore, following Pallasmaa’s understanding, the building will be seen not as an end itself and the elements of an architectural experience as having a verb form rather than being nouns. This will further enhance the notion of merging the subject-human and the object-building as discussed by Julio Bermudez. This eventually will enable to generate the discussion of the understanding of the building constructed according to the specifics of place and inhabitants, shaped by its physical and human topography as referred by Adam Sharr in relation to Heidegger’s thinking. The specificities of the divided island and the dealing with sites that are in vicinity with the diving Green Line will further trigger explorations dealing with the regeneration issues and the social sustainability offering unprecedented opportunities for innovative sustainable ways of living. The above premises will lead us to develop innovative strategies for a profound, both technical and social sustainability, which fruitfully yields to innovative living built environments, responding to the ever changing environmental and social needs. As a starting point, a case study in Kaimakli in Nicosia a refurbishment with an extension of a traditional house, already engulfs all the traditional/ vernacular wisdom of the bioclimatic architecture. It aims at capturing not only its direct and quite obvious bioclimatic features, but rather to evolve them by adjusting the whole house in a contemporary living environment. In order to succeed this, evolutions of traditional architectural elements and spatial conditions are integrated in a way that does not only respond to some certain weather conditions, but they integrate and blend the weather within the built environment. A series of innovations aiming at maximum flexibility is proposed. The house can finally be transformed into a winter enclosure, while for the most part of the year it turns into a ‘camping’ living environment. Parallel to experimental interventions in existing traditional units, we will proceed examining the implementation of the same developed methodology in designing living units and complexes. Malleable courtyard organizations that attempt to blend the traditional wisdom with the contemporary needs for living, the weather and nature with the built environment will be seen tested in both horizontal and vertical developments. A new social identity of people, directly involved and interacting with the weather and climatic conditions will be seen as the result of balancing the social with the technological sustainability, the immaterial and the material aspects of the built environment.

Keywords: building as a verb, contemporary living, traditional bioclimatic wisdom, weather architecture

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Authors: Purushottam P. Khatiwada, Bikash Paudel, Ram B. Rana, Parshuram Biswakarma, Roshan Pudasaini

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Nepal has been putting its efforts into securing food and nutrition security for its citizens adopting different models and approaches. Home Garden approach, that integrates vegetables, fruits, small livestock, poultry along with other components like fish, honeybee, mushroom, spices for the promotion of nutritional security of resource-poor and disadvantaged groups was implemented during March 2009 to July 2013 spreading over 16 districts of Nepal covering 115 farmers groups, directly working with 3500 households. Sustained long-term impact of development interventions targeted to the resource-poor and disadvantaged groups has been a recurrent issue for donors, policymakers and practitioners alike. Considering the issue, a post-project evaluation was carried out in a selected project group (Dangibari of Jhapa) after four years of project completion in 2017 in order to evaluate the impact and understand the factors associated with its success. Qualitative information was collected through focus group discussion with group members and associated local institutions. For quantitative information, a quick survey was carried out to the same group members only selecting few indicators. The results are compared with the data obtained from the baseline study conducted by the project in March 2009. The impact of project intervention was evident as compared to the benchmarks established during the baseline, even after four years of project completion. The area under home garden is increased to 729 m² from 386 m² and average food self-sufficiency months increased to 10.22 from 8.11. Seven to eleven fruit species are maintained in the home gardens. An average number of vegetable species grown increased to 15.85 from 9.86. It has resulted in an increase in vegetables self-sufficient month to 8.74 from 4.74 and a huge increase in cash income NPR 6142.8 (USD 59.6) from NPR 385.7 (USD 3.9) from the sale of surplus vegetables. Coaching and mentoring including nutrition sensitization by the project staff at the beginning, inputs and technical support during the project implementation phase and projects effort on the institutional building of disadvantaged farmers were the key drivers of home garden sustainability and expansion. Specifically, package of home garden management trainings provided by the project staff, availability of group funds for buying inputs even after the project, uniting home garden group members in a cooperative, resource leveraging by local institutions through group lobbying, farmers innovations for maintaining home garden diversity and continuous backstopping support by few active members as local resource persons to other members are some additional factors contributing to sustain and/or improve the home garden status by the resource-poor and disadvantaged group.

Keywords: food-based nutrition, home garden, resource-poor and disadvantaged group, sustained impact

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Authors: Anne-Margré C. Vink

Abstract:

Background: Food-related allergies and intolerances are frequently occurring in dogs. Diagnosis and monitoring according to ‘Golden Standard’ of elimination efficiency are time-consuming, expensive, and requires expert clinical setting. In order to facilitate rapid and robust, quantitative testing of intolerance, and determining the individual offending foods, a serological test is implicated. Method: As we developed Medisynx IgG Human Screening Test ELISA before and the dog’s immune system is most similar to humans, we were able to develop Medisynx IgG Dog Screening Test ELISA as well. In this study, 47 dogs suffering from Canine Atopic Dermatitis (CAD) and several secondary induced reactions were included to participate in serological Medisynx IgG Dog Screening Test ELISA (within < 0,02 % SD). Results were expressed as titers relative to the standard OD readings to diagnose alimentary induced diseases and monitoring the efficacy of an individual eliminating diet in dogs. Split sample analysis was performed by independently sending 2 times 3 ml serum under two unique codes. Results: The veterinarian monitored these dogs to check dog’ results at least at 3, 7, 21, 49, 70 days and after period of 6 and 12 months on an individual negative diet and a positive challenge (retrospectively) at 6 months. Data of each dog were recorded in a screening form and reported that a complete recovery of all clinical manifestations was observed at or less than 70 days (between 50 and 70 days) in the majority of dogs(44 out of 47 dogs =93.6%). Conclusion: Challenge results showed a significant result of 100% in specificity as well as 100% positive predicted value. On the other hand, sensitivity was 95,7% and negative predictive value was 95,7%. In conclusion, an individual diet based on IgG ELISA in dogs provides a significant improvement of atopic dermatitis and pruritus including all other non-specific defined allergic skin reactions as erythema, itching, biting and gnawing at toes, as well as to several secondary manifestations like chronic diarrhoea, chronic constipation, otitis media, obesity, laziness or inactive behaviour, pain and muscular stiffness causing a movement disorders, excessive lacrimation, hyper behaviour, nervous behaviour and not possible to stay alone at home, anxiety, biting and aggressive behaviour and disobedience behaviour. Furthermore, we conclude that a relatively more severe systemic candidiasis, as shown by relatively higher titer (class 3 and 4 IgG reactions to Candida albicans), influence the duration of recovery from clinical manifestations in affected dogs. These findings are consistent with our preliminary human clinical studies.

Keywords: allergy, canine atopic dermatitis, CAD, food allergens, IgG-ELISA, food-incompatibility

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Authors: Tahisa M. Pedroso, Hérida R. N. Salgado

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The microbiological turbidimetric assay allows the determination of potency of the drug, by measuring the turbidity (absorbance), caused by inhibition of microorganisms by ertapenem sodium. Ertapenem sodium (ERTM), a synthetic antimicrobial agent of the class of carbapenems, shows action against Gram-negative, Gram-positive, aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms. Turbidimetric assays are described in the literature for some antibiotics, but this method is not described for ertapenem. The objective of the present study was to develop and validate a simple, sensitive, precise and accurate microbiological assay by turbidimetry to quantify ertapenem sodium injectable as an alternative to the physicochemical methods described in the literature. Several preliminary tests were performed to choose the following parameters: Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, IAL 1851, 8 % of inoculum, BHI culture medium, and aqueous solution of ertapenem sodium. 10.0 mL of sterile BHI culture medium were distributed in 20 tubes. 0.2 mL of solutions (standard and test), were added in tube, respectively S1, S2 and S3, and T1, T2 and T3, 0.8 mL of culture medium inoculated were transferred to each tube, according parallel lines 3 x 3 test. The tubes were incubated in shaker Marconi MA 420 at a temperature of 35.0 °C ± 2.0 °C for 4 hours. After this period, the growth of microorganisms was inhibited by addition of 0.5 mL of 12% formaldehyde solution in each tube. The absorbance was determined in Quimis Q-798DRM spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 530 nm. An analytical curve was constructed to obtain the equation of the line by the least-squares method and the linearity and parallelism was detected by ANOVA. The specificity of the method was proven by comparing the response obtained for the standard and the finished product. The precision was checked by testing the determination of ertapenem sodium in three days. The accuracy was determined by recovery test. The robustness was determined by comparing the results obtained by varying wavelength, brand of culture medium and volume of culture medium in the tubes. Statistical analysis showed that there is no deviation from linearity in the analytical curves of standard and test samples. The correlation coefficients were 0.9996 and 0.9998 for the standard and test samples, respectively. The specificity was confirmed by comparing the absorbance of the reference substance and test samples. The values obtained for intraday, interday and between analyst precision were 1.25%; 0.26%, 0.15% respectively. The amount of ertapenem sodium present in the samples analyzed, 99.87%, is consistent. The accuracy was proven by the recovery test, with value of 98.20%. The parameters varied did not affect the analysis of ertapenem sodium, confirming the robustness of this method. The turbidimetric assay is more versatile, faster and easier to apply than agar diffusion assay. The method is simple, rapid and accurate and can be used in routine analysis of quality control of formulations containing ertapenem sodium.

Keywords: ertapenem sodium, turbidimetric assay, quality control, validation

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Authors: Kimberly M. Cacciato, Steven J. Singer, Allison R. Shapiro, Julianna F. Kamenakis

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This study examines the dynamics of communication among researchers and participants who have various levels of hearing, use multiple languages, have various disabilities, and who come from different social strata. This qualitative methodological study focuses on the strategies employed in an ethnographic research study examining the communication choices of six sets of parents who have Deaf-Disabled children. The participating families varied in their communication strategies and preferences including the use of American Sign Language (ASL), visual-gestural communication, multiple spoken languages, and pidgin forms of each of these. The research team consisted of two undergraduate students proficient in ASL and a Deaf principal investigator (PI) who uses ASL and speech as his main modes of communication. A third Hard-of-Hearing undergraduate student fluent in ASL served as an objective facilitator of the data analysis. The team created reflexive journals by audio recording, free writing, and responding to team-generated prompts. They discussed interactions between the members of the research team, their evolving relationships, and various social and linguistic power differentials. The researchers reflected on communication during data collection, their experiences with one another, and their experiences with the participating families. Reflexive journals totaled over 150 pages. The outside research assistant reviewed the journals and developed follow up open-ended questions and prods to further enrich the data. The PI and outside research assistant used NVivo qualitative research software to conduct open inductive coding of the data. They chunked the data individually into broad categories through multiple readings and recognized recurring concepts. They compared their categories, discussed them, and decided which they would develop. The researchers continued to read, reduce, and define the categories until they were able to develop themes from the data. The research team found that the various communication backgrounds and skills present greatly influenced the dynamics between the members of the research team and with the participants of the study. Specifically, the following themes emerged: (1) students as communication facilitators and interpreters as barriers to natural interaction, (2) varied language use simultaneously complicated and enriched data collection, and (3) ASL proficiency and professional position resulted in a social hierarchy among researchers and participants. In the discussion, the researchers reflected on their backgrounds and internal biases of analyzing the data found and how social norms or expectations affected the perceptions of the researchers in writing their journals. Through this study, the research team found that communication and language skills require significant consideration when working with multiple and complex communication modes. The researchers had to continually assess and adjust their data collection methods to meet the communication needs of the team members and participants. In doing so, the researchers aimed to create an accessible research setting that yielded rich data but learned that this often required compromises from one or more of the research constituents.

Keywords: American Sign Language, complex communication, deaf-disabled, methodology

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Authors: Sylvia Mac

Abstract:

This ethnographic case study examines disaster capitalism, neoliberal market-based school reforms, and disability through the lens of Disability Studies in Education. More specifically, it explores neoliberalism and special education at a small, urban charter school in a large city in California and the (re)production of social inequality. The study uses Sociology of Special Education to examine the ways in which special education is used to sort and stratify disabled students. At a time when rhetoric surrounding public schools is framed in catastrophic and dismal language in order to justify the privatization of public education, small urban charter schools must be examined to learn if they are living up to their promise or acting as another way to maintain economic and racial segregation. The study concludes that neoliberal contexts threaten successful inclusive education and normalize poor, disabled students’ continued low achievement and poor post-secondary outcomes. This ethnographic case study took place at a small urban charter school in a large city in California. Participants included three special education students, the special education teacher, the special education assistant, a regular education teacher, and the two founders and charter writers. The school claimed to have a push-in model of special education where all special education students were fully included in the general education classroom. Although presented as fully inclusive, some special education students also attended a pull-out class called Study Skills. The study found that inclusion and neoliberalism are differing ideologies that cannot co-exist. Successful inclusive environments cannot thrive while under the influences of neoliberal education policies such as efficiency and cost-cutting. Additionally, the push for students to join the global knowledge economy means that more and more low attainers are further marginalized and kept in poverty. At this school, neoliberal ideology eclipsed the promise of inclusive education for special education students. This case study has shown the need for inclusive education to be interrogated through lenses that consider macro factors, such as neoliberal ideology in public education, as well as the emerging global knowledge economy and increasing income inequality. Barriers to inclusion inside the school, such as teachers’ attitudes, teacher preparedness, and school infrastructure paint only part of the picture. Inclusive education is also threatened by neoliberal ideology that shifts the responsibility from the state to the individual. This ideology is dangerous because it reifies the stereotypes of disabled students as lazy, needs drains on already dwindling budgets. If these stereotypes persist, inclusive education will have a difficult time succeeding. In order to more fully examine the ways in which inclusive education can become truly emancipatory, we need more analysis on the relationship between neoliberalism, disability, and special education.

Keywords: case study, disaster capitalism, inclusive education, neoliberalism

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Authors: Patrícia Pires, Renata Vaz, Bárbara Teles, Marco Pato, Pedro Beckert

Abstract:

Introduction: The management of lateral third clavicle fractures can be challenging due to difficulty in distinguishing subtle variations in the fracture pattern, which may be suggestive of potential fracture instability. They occur most often in men between 30 and 50 years of age, and in individuals over 70 years of age, its distribution is equal between both men and women. These fractures account for 10%–30% of all clavicle fractures and roughly 30%–45% of all clavicle nonunion fractures. Lateral third clavicle fractures may be treated conservatively or surgically, and there is no gold standard, although the risk of nonunion or pseudoarthrosis impacts the recommendation of surgical treatment when these fractures are unstable. There are many strategies for surgical treatment, including locking plates, hook plates fixation, coracoclavicular fixation using suture anchors, devices or screws, tension band fixation with suture or wire, transacromial Kirschner wire fixation and arthroscopically assisted techniques. Whenever taking the hardware into consideration, we must not disregard that obtaining adequate lateral fixation of small fragments is a difficult task, and plates are more associated to local irritation. The aim of the appropriate treatment is to ensure fracture healing and a rapid return to preinjury activities of daily living but, as explained, definitive treatment strategies have not been established and the variety of techniques avalilable add up to the discussion of this topic. Methods and Results: We present a clinical case of a 43-year-old man with the diagnosis of a lateral third clavicle fracture (Neer IIC) in the sequence of a fall on his right shoulder after a bicycle fall. He was operated three days after the injury, and through K-wire temporary fixation and indirect reduction using a ZipTight, he underwent osteosynthesis with an interfragmentary figure-of-eight tension band with polydioxanone suture (PDS). Two weeks later, there was a good aligment. He kept the sling until 6 weeks pos-op, avoiding efforts. At 7-weeks pos-op, there was still a good aligment, starting the physiotherapy exercises. After 10 months, he had no limitation in mobility or pain and returned to work with complete recovery in strength. Conclusion: Some distal clavicle fractures may be conservatively treated, but it is widely accepted that unstable fractures require surgical treatment to obtain superior clinical outcomes. In the clinical case presented, the authors chose an osteosuture technique due to the fracture pattern, its location. Since there isn´t a consensus on the prefered fixation method, it is important for surgeons to be skilled in various techniques and decide with their patient which approach is most appropriate for them, weighting the risk-benefit of each method. For instance, with the suture technique used, there is no wire migration or breakage, and it doesn´t require a reoperation for hardware removal; there is also less tissue exposure since it requires a smaller approach in comparison to the plate fixation and avoids cuff tears like the hook plate. The good clinical outcome on this case report serves the purpose of expanding the consideration of this method has a therapeutic option.

Keywords: lateral third, clavicle, suture, fixation

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