Search results for: health justice and access

Authors: Davidson E. Egirani, Nanfe R. Poyi, Napoleon Wessey

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This paper would report the environmental challenges faced by stakeholders in the development and management of mineral resources in Mindanao mining region of the Philippines. The paper would proffer solutions via the development and management of integrated mineral resource framework. This is by interfacing the views of government, operating mining companies and the mining host communities. The project methods involved the desktop review of existing local, regional, national environmental and mining legislation. This was followed up with visits to mining sites and discussions were held with stakeholders in the mineral sector. The findings from a 2-year investigation would reveal lack of information, education, and communication campaign by stakeholders on environmental, health, political, and social issues in the mining industry. Small-scale miners lack the professional muscles for a balance shift of emphasis to sustainable and responsible mining to avoid environmental degradation and human health effect. Therefore, there is a need to balance ecological requirements, sustainability of the environment and development of mineral resources. This paper would provide an environmentally friendly mineral resource development framework.

Keywords: ecological requirements, environmental degradation, human health, mining legislation, responsible mining

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Authors: Adrian J. Forca, Simeon J. Cainday III

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The Jordan Water District Interactive Billing and Accounting Information Systems is designed for Jordan Water District to uplift the efficiency and effectiveness of its services to its customers. It is designed to process computations of water bills in accurate and fast way through automating the manual process and ensures that correct rates and fees are applied. In addition to billing process, a mobile app will be integrated into it to support rapid and accurate water bill generation. An interactive feature will be incorporated to support electronic billing to customers who wish to receive water bills through the use of electronic mail. The system will also improve, organize and avoid data inaccuracy in accounting processes because data will be stored in a database which is designed logically correct through normalization. Furthermore, strict programming constraints will be plunged to validate account access privilege based on job function and data being stored and retrieved to ensure data security, reliability, and accuracy. The system will be able to cater the billing and accounting services of Jordan Water District resulting in setting forth the manual process and adapt to the modern technological innovations.

Keywords: accounting, bill, information system, interactive

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Authors: Luiz Antonio Da Costa Rodrigues, Mara Aparecida De Castilho Lopes, Alexandre Santos Alencar

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Teaching of science must transcend simple transmission of fundamental concepts and allow scientific literacy, as a process for understanding the human being as an integral part of a complex and interdependent whole. In this context, approaching the theme ‘Antarctica’ in deaf education is an important advance for teaching, considering that that continent has direct interactions with the climatic and environmental system of the planet. Therefore, textbooks can be important tools to enable the Deaf Community to access the discussion about the natural environment. A specific script was used to analyze textbooks adopted by schools in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. Results show that none of the 14 analyzed books have a specific chapter on the theme, some presents images of the continent without reference to their environmental importance, and the complementary texts present in the analyzed material do not address the theme either. It is concluded that the study on Antarctica and global changes in elementary education is still incipient and the material used by most Brazilian public schools does not contemplate that subject in an accessible way for the deaf person. This fact represents the distance between deaf students and their environment, denoting the need for actions to promote that and other neglected themes in Science teaching.

Keywords: Antarctica, deaf education, science teaching, textbook

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Authors: Kenza Benali

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Over the past decade, a number of remarkable projects in urban brownfield reconversion emerged across Canada, including the reconversion of former military bases owned by the Canada Lands Company (CLC) into sustainable communities. However, unlike other developments, the regeneration project of the former Canadian Forces Base Rockcliffe in Ottawa – which was announced as one of the most ambitious Smart growth projects in Canada – faced serious obstacles in terms of social acceptance by the local community, particularly urban minorities composed of Francophones, Indigenous and vulnerable groups who live near or on the Base. This turn of events led to the project being postponed and even reconsidered. Through an analysis of its press coverage, this research aims to understand the causes of this urban conflict which lasted for nearly ten years. The findings reveal that the conflict is not limited to the “standard” issues common to most conflicts related to urban mega-projects in the world – e.g., proximity issues (threads to the quality of the surrounding neighbourhoods; noise, traffic, pollution, New-build gentrification) often associated with NIMBY phenomena. In this case, the local actors questioned the purpose of the project (for whom and for what types of uses is it conceived?), its local implementation (to what extent are the local history and existing environment taken into account?), and the degree of implication of the local population in the decision-making process (with whom is the project built?). Moreover, the interests of the local actors have “jumped scales” and transcend the micro-territorial level of their daily life to take on a national and even international dimension. They defined an alternative view of how this project, considered strategic by his location in the nation’s capital, should be a reference as well as an international showcase of Canadian ambition and achievement in terms of urban sustainability. This vision promoted, actually, a territorial and national identity approach - in which some cultural values are highly significant (respect of social justice, inclusivity, ethnical diversity, cultural heritage, etc.)- as a counterweight to planners’ vision which is criticized as a normative/ universalist logic that ignore the territorial peculiarities.

Keywords: smart growth, brownfield reconversion, sustainable neighborhoods, Canada Lands Company, Canadian Forces Base Rockcliffe, urban conflicts

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Authors: Shruti Sengupta

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According to the nationally representative data, about 73% of India's rural workforce is engaged in agriculture. While women make significant contributions to total agriculture production, they contribute to about one-third in India. In terms of gender composition, about 80% of the female and 69% of the male workforce is engaged in agriculture in rural India. Still, it is common to find gender differences in plot management within the household. In the last two and half years, India's agri-food system has undergone several changes due to this pandemic, both the demand and supply side, making agriculture more information and knowledge-intensive. Therefore, this paper investigates, using a nationally representative sample, how information asymmetry affects the net returns per hectare of land between female and male farm managers. Empirical results show that information intensity has a significant positive effect on net farm returns per hectare. Results suggest that if females have the same access to technical information as their male counterparts, their farm income can go up by .96 pp compared to male-headed farms. Results also indicate that literate females have higher farm incomes than non-literate females. The study contributes to the literature by employing gender differentials in farm income due to the information gap.

Keywords: agriculture, gender, information asymmetry, farm income, social bias

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Authors: Pankhuri Bansal, Sanjeev Kumar

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We examined the exotic role of electrical poling of layered BCZT-NZFO bulk composite for sustainable advancement of magnetoelectric (ME) technology. Practically, it seems quite difficult to access the full potential of ME composites due to their weak ME coupling performances. Using a standard poling protocol, we successfully deployed the coupling performance of laminated ME composite, comprised of a ferroelectric (FE) layer of BCZT and a ferrite layer of NZFO. However, the ME coupling constant of laminated composite is optimized by lowering the volume fraction of the FE component to strengthen the mechanical strain in the piezoelectric layer while fixing the thickness of the magnetostrictive ferrite layer. Here, we employed systematic zero field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) electrical poling protocol on morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) based BCZT composition, well-appreciated for it’s remarkable electromechanical activity. We report a record augmentation in magnetoelectric coupling as a consequence of a prudent field-cooled poling mechanism. On the basis of our findings, we emphasize that the degree of magnetoelectricity may be significantly improved for the miniaturization of efficient devices via proper execution of the poling technique.

Keywords: magnetoelectric, lead-free, ferroelctric, ferromagnetic, energy harvesting

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Authors: Baluku Nathan

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Transferring critically ill patients from one health facility to another poses a major risk to the patient because of increased oxygen demands. transferring patients with critical COVID-19 from a rural health canter in a rural district to a national referral hospital over 350 km in 7 hours would require three size H oxygen cylinders for successful transfer. It was always difficult to arrange the three size cylinders in the ambulance as workspace was greatly compromised for the ambulance assistant. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact and effectiveness of transport ventilators on the transportation of the critically ill patients from rural health canters to national referral hospitals in Uganda. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in sept 2022 among critical care nurses and ambulance assistants who had used both methods of transportation (ventilators and cylinders). A semi structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data after informed consent. Results: From the findings, distribution of transport ventilators to the regional referral hospitals by the Ministry of Health has gradually improved patient transfer as the team requires less than one size oxygen cylinder to successfully transfer a patient. We use two ambulance assistants (a critical care nurse and another nurse who has been trained on use of the ventilator) when transferring patients with critical COVID-19 as the teams have to interchange over the long distance. Conclusions: Transport ventilators are effective and efficient in transferring critically ill patients, therefore should be rolled out to lower levels coupled with user training to improve outcomes of patients transferred in ambulances in lower income countries.

Keywords: emergency medical technician, critically ill, COVID-19, transport ventilator

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Authors: M. Card

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Working with anorexia patients can be a challenging experience for mental and health care professionals. The reasons for not wanting to work with this patient population stems from the numerous concerns surrounding the patient’s health – physically and mentally. Many health care professionals reported having strong negative feelings, such as; anger, hopelessness and helplessness when working with anorexia patients. These feelings often impaired their judgement to treatment and affected how they related to the patient. This research focused on psychotherapists who preferred to work with anorexia patients; what countertransference feelings were evoked in them during sessions with patients and most importantly, how they managed the feelings. The research used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as the theoretical framework and data analysis method. Semi-structured interviews were used with ten experienced psychotherapists to obtain their countertransference experiences with anorexia patients and how they manage it. There were three main themes discovered; (1) the use of supervision, (2) their own personal therapy and finally (3) experience and evolution. The research unearthed that experienced psychotherapists also experienced strong countertransference feelings towards their patients; some positive and some negative. However, these feelings could actually be interpreted as co-transference with their anorexia patients. The psychotherapists were able to own their part in the evocative unconscious nature of a relational therapeutic space, where their personal issues may be entangled in their anorexia patient’s symptomatology.

Keywords: anorexia nervosa, countertransference, co-transference, psychotherapy, relational psychotherapy

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Authors: Emily Jin, Harry Sharples, Anne Weist

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Introduction: NICE Evidence Search Student Champion Scheme is a peer-assisted learning scheme that aims to improve the routine use of evidence-based information by future health and social care staff. The focus is on the NICE evidence search portal that provides selected information from more than 800 reliable health, social care, and medicines sources, including up-to-date guidelines and information for the public. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the scheme when implemented in Liverpool School of Medicine and to understand the experiences of those attending. Methods: Twelve student champions were recruited and trained in February 2020 as peer tutors during a workshop facilitated by NICE. Cascade sessions were then organised and delivered on an optional basis for students, in small groups of < 10 to approximately 70 attendees. Surveys were acquired immediately before and 8-12 weeks after cascade sessions (n=47 and 45 respectively). Data from these surveys facilitated the analysis of the scheme. Results: Surveys demonstrated 74% of all attendees frequently searched for health and social care information online as a part of their studies. However, only 15% of attendees reported having prior formal training on searching for health information, despite receiving such training earlier on in the curriculum. After attending cascade sessions, students reported a 58% increase in confidence when searching for information using evidence search, from a pre-session a baseline of 36%. Conclusion: NICE Evidence Search Student Champion Scheme provided clear benefits for attending students, increasing confidence in searching for peer-reviewed, mainly secondary sources of health information. The lack of reported training represents the unmet need that the champion scheme satisfies, and this likely benefits student champions as well as attendees. Increasing confidence in searching for healthcare information online may support future evidence-based decision-making.

Keywords: evidence-based medicine, NICE, medical education, medical school, peer-assisted learning

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Authors: S. Abed, S. O’Neill

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This research explored ward nurses’ views about the characteristics of effective nurse leaders in the context of Iraq as a developing country, where the delivery of health care continues to face disruption and change. It is well established that the provision of modern health care requires effective nurse leaders, but in countries such as Iraq the lack of effective nurse leaders is noted as a major challenge. In a descriptive quantitative study, a survey questionnaire was administered to 210 ward nurses working in two public hospitals in a major city in the north of Iraq. The participating nurses were of the opinion that the effectiveness of their nurse leaders was evident in their ability to demonstrate: good clinical knowledge, effective communication and managerial skills. They also viewed their leaders as needing to hold high-level nursing qualifications, though this was not necessarily the case in practice. Additionally, they viewed nurse leaders’ personal qualities as important, which included politeness, ethical behaviour, and trustworthiness. When considered against the issues raised in interviews with a smaller group (20) of senior nurse leaders, representative of the various occupational levels, implications identify the need for professional development that focuses on how the underpinning competencies relate to leadership and how transformational leadership is evidenced in practice.

Keywords: health care, nurse education, nursing in Iraq, nurse leadership

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Authors: Mammar Khames, Mustapha Oumouna

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Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonoses in the world. It represents a serious threat to human health; the existence of brucellosis in Algeria dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. Its transmission to humans is through coccobacilli of the genus Brucella following direct contact with contaminated animals or indirectly through the consumption of their unpasteurized dairy products. The present investigation covers a retrospective study on human brucellosis in the district of Medea over a period from 2011 to 2021 at the level of two public health establishments. In the first place, it is at the level of the Directorate of Public Health and in the infectious department level at Medea Hospital, and at the level of the directorate of agricultural services in the third place. The results showed that during these eleven years of study, 795 cases were collected from the department of health and population, and 141 cases were collected from the infectious department of the district of Medea. A total of 56 cases of bovine brucellosis were obtained from the directorate of agricultural services of the district of Medea. Human brucellosis affects all age groups with different percentages, but the rate has been higher in the 20-44 age group, with a predominance of men. However, the geographic distribution map of the cases shows that the western part of the district was the most affected. A cohort of 141 cases was hospitalized at the infectious service level of Medea Hospital. They were 89 men and 52 women. The most common age reached is [20-44] years. The majority were of rural origin. Two serological reactions were performed for diagnosis: the buffered antigen test and Wright's serodiagnosis. Bovine brucellosis affects all age groups with different percentages, but the rate was higher in the 2-to-4-year age group, with a predominance of females. From these data, we conclude that brucellosis has a strong spread in the region studied.

Keywords: human brucellosis, serology, Medea, Algeria

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Authors: Mukondi Esther Nethavhakone

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In 2020 World Health Organization announced the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also known as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To curb or contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID 19), global governments implemented social distancing and lockdown regulations. Subsequently, it was no longer business as per usual, life as we knew it had changed, and so many aspects of people's lives were negatively affected, including financial and employment stability. Mainly, because companies/businesses had to put their operations on hold, some had to shut down completely, resulting in the loss of income for many people globally. Finances and employment insecurities are some of the issues that exacerbated many social issues that the world was already faced with, such as school drop-outs, teenage pregnancies, sexual assaults, gender-based violence, crime, child abuse, elderly abuse, to name a few. Expectedly the majority of the population's mental health state was threatened. This resulted in an increased number of people seeking mental healthcare services. The increasing need for mental healthcare services in Low and Middle-income countries proves to be a challenge because it is a well-known fact due to financial constraints and not well-established healthcare systems, mental healthcare provision is not as prioritised as the primary healthcare in these countries. It is against this backdrop that the researcher seeks to find viable, cost-effective, and accessible mental health solutions for low and middle-income countries amid the pressures of any pandemic. The researcher will undertake a systematic review of the technology-based mental health solutions that have been implemented/adopted by developed countries during COVID 19 lockdown and social distancing periods. This systematic review study aims to determine if low and middle-income countries can adopt the cost-effective version of digital mental health solutions for the healthcare system to adequately provide mental healthcare services during critical times such as pandemics (when there's an overwhelming diminish in mental health globally). The researcher will undertake a systematic review study through mixed methods. It will adhere to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The mixed-methods uses findings from both qualitative and quantitative studies in one review study. It will be beneficial to conduct this kind of study using mixed methods because it is a public health topic that involves social interventions and it is not purely based on medical interventions. Therefore, the meta-ethnographic (qualitative data) analysis will be crucial in understanding why and which digital methods work and for whom does it work, rather than only the meta-analysis (quantitative data) providing what digital mental health methods works. The data collection process will be extensive, involving the development of a database, table of summary of evidence/findings, and quality assessment process lastly, The researcher will ensure that ethical procedures are followed and adhered to, ensuring that sensitive data is protected and the study doesn't pose any harm to the participants.

Keywords: digital, mental health, covid, low and middle-income countries

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Authors: Laerte Pereira da Silva Júnior, Maria Manuel Borges

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Institutional Repositories (IR) are complex constructs that depend on political, cultural and technological aspects. Because IRs are a mirror of the organization's intellectual production, their main function is to make that production available worldwide, and also to consider its long term preservation. To this end, there is a need to define clearly the digital preservation policies supported by political decisions. There are several guidelines about the definition of digital preservation policies focusing in different themes from preservation planning to rights and restriction management, sustainability planning, etc., but this work aims to verify the implementation of digital preservation policies on the Institutional Repositories of the Federal Universities of Brazil. The methodology used was to check the information available on the websites of the IRs selected against two fields of the OpenDOAR, policies and OpenDOAR ID, to verify the existence of digital preservation policies. For this purpose a sample of the 21 of the 25 IRs registered at the Directory of Open Access Repositories (DOAR) was used, which is about 1/3 rd of the total of the brazilian universities. The 4 IRs that presented no information by the OpenDOAR team were desconsidered. The main conclusion is that most of the IRs of these universities have no polices clearly stated or no policies at all, and that there is a need to include these concerns at the top level management of IRs. The number of initiatives in digital preservation policies around the world stress the need of awareness of its importance in Brazil and requires measures to raise this awareness.

Keywords: Brazil, digital preservation policies, institutional repositories, openDOAR

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Authors: Asharaf Abdul Salam, Ibrahim Elsegaey, Rshood Khraif, Abdullah AlMutairi, Ali Aldosari

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Arab World that comprises of 22 member states of Arab League undergoes rapid transition in demographic front - fertility, mortality and migration. A distinctive geographic region spread across West Asia and North East Africa unified by Arabic language shares common values and characteristics even though diverse in economic and political conditions. Demographic lag that characterizes Arab World is unique but the present trend of declining fertility combined with the existing relatively low mortality undergoes significant changes in its population size. The current research aimed at (i) assessing the growth of population, over a period of 3 decades, (ii) exploring the components and (iii) understanding the public health impact. Based on International Data Base (IDB) of US Census Bureau, for 3 time periods – 1992, 2002 and 2012; 21 countries of Arab World have been analyzed by dividing them into four geographic sectors namely Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), West Asia, Maghreb and Nile Valley African Horn. Population of Arab World grew widely during the past both through natural growth and migration. Immigrations pronounced especially in the resource intensive GCC nations not only from East Asian and central African countries but also from resource thrifty Arab nations. Migrations within the Arab World as well as outside of the Arab World remark an interesting demographic phenomenon that requires further research. But the transformations on public health statistics – impact of demographic change – depict a new era in the Arab World.

Keywords: demographic change, public health statistics, net migration, natural growth, geographic sectors, fertility and mortality, life expectancy

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Authors: Ramon Santana

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The use of biometric identifiers in the field of information security, access control to resources, authentication in ATMs and banking among others, are of great concern because of the safety of biometric data. In the general architecture of a biometric system have been detected eight vulnerabilities, six of them allow obtaining minutiae template in plain text. The main consequence of obtaining minutia templates is the loss of biometric identifier for life. To mitigate these vulnerabilities several models to protect minutiae templates have been proposed. Several vulnerabilities in the cryptographic security of these models allow to obtain biometric data in plain text. In order to increase the cryptographic security and ease of reversibility, a minutiae templates protection model is proposed. The model aims to make the cryptographic protection and facilitate the reversibility of data using two levels of security. The first level of security is the data transformation level. In this level generates invariant data to rotation and translation, further transformation is irreversible. The second level of security is the evaluation level, where the encryption key is generated and data is evaluated using a defined evaluation function. The model is aimed at mitigating known vulnerabilities of the proposed models, basing its security on the impossibility of the polynomial reconstruction.

Keywords: fingerprint, template protection, bio-cryptography, minutiae protection

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Authors: Sandip Sharma, Jayesh Ruparelia

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The present work focuses on the comparative study of ozone based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs): O3, O3/UV and O3/UV/Persulfate for mineralization of synthetic wastewater containing Reactive Black5 (RB5) dye. The effect of various parameters: pH, ozone flow rate, initial concentration of dye and intensity of UV light was analyzed to access performance efficiency of AOPs. The performance of all the three AOPs was evaluated on the basis of decolorization, % TOC removal and ozone consumption. The highest mineralization rate of 86.83% was achieved for O3/UV/Persulfate followed by 71.53% and 66.82 % for O3/UV and O3 respectively. This is attributed to the fact that Persulfate ions (S2O82-) upon activation produce sulfate radical (SO4-●) which is very strong oxidant capable of degrading a wide variety of recalcitrant organic compounds, moreover to enhance the performance of Persulfate it is activated using UV irradiation. On increasing the intensity of UV irradiation from 11W to 66W, TOC removal efficiency is increased by 59.04%. Ozone based AOPs gives better mineralization on basic conditions, at pH 12 it gives 68.81%, 60.01% and 40.32% TOC removal for O3/UV/Persulfate, O3/UV and O3 process respectively. The result also reveals that decolorization of 98.95%, 95.17% and 94.71% was achieved by O3/UV/Persulfate, O3/UV and O3 process respectively. In addition to above, ozone consumption was also considerably decreased by 17% in case of O3/UV/Persulfate, as efficiency of process is enhanced by means of activation of persulfate through UV irradiation. Thus study reveals that mineralization follows: O3/UV/Persulfate> O3/UV> O3.

Keywords: AOP, mineralization, TOC, recalcitrant organic compounds

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Authors: Loong Qing Zhe, Foo Jing Heng

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A variety of data files are now available on the internet due to the advancement of technology across the globe today. As more and more data are being uploaded on the internet, people are becoming more concerned that their private data, particularly medical health records, are being compromised and sold to others for money. Hence, the accessibility and confidentiality of patients' medical records have to be protected through electronic means. Blockchain technology is introduced to offer patients security against adversaries or unauthorised parties. In the blockchain network, only authorised personnel or organisations that have been validated as nodes may share information and data. For any change within the network, including adding a new block or modifying existing information about the block, a majority of two-thirds of the vote is required to confirm its legitimacy. Additionally, a consortium permission blockchain will connect all the entities within the same community. Consequently, all medical data in the network can be safely shared with all authorised entities. Also, synchronization can be performed within the cloud since the data is real-time. This paper discusses an efficient method for storing and sharing electronic health records (EHRs). It also examines the framework of roles within the blockchain and proposes a new approach to maintain EHRs with keyword indexes to search for patients' medical records while ensuring data privacy.

Keywords: healthcare sectors, distributed system, blockchain, electronic health records (EHR)

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Authors: Ashagrie Getnet Flattie

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Line-of-sight (LOS) information, data rates, good quality, and flexible network service are limited by the fact that, for the duration of any given connection, they experience severe variation in signal strength due to fading and path loss. Wireless system faces major challenges in achieving wide coverage and capacity without affecting the system performance and to access data everywhere, all the time. In this paper, the cell coverage and edge rate of different Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) schemes in 20 MHz Long Term Evolution (LTE) system under Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) platform are investigated. After some background on the enormous potential of UAV, MIMO, and LTE in wireless links, the paper highlights the presented system model which attempts to realize the various benefits of MIMO being incorporated into UAV platform. The performances of the three MIMO LTE schemes are compared with the performance of 4x4 MIMO LTE in UAV scheme carried out to evaluate the improvement in cell radius, BER, and data throughput of the system in different morphology. The results show that significant performance gains such as bit error rate (BER), data rate, and coverage can be achieved by using the presented scenario.

Keywords: LTE, MIMO, path loss, UAV

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Authors: Ashley Andrew

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Over the years, there have been drastic developments in technology that have altered the ways we interact with and utilize technology. Social media platforms have expanded, access to information is easily accessible on cellular devices, ways of banking have changed, and virtual meetings/work have become the norm. The COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the importance of pivoting and adapting to the benefits that technology provides, including Accessibility (services are more available to people living in remote areas and/or with mobility concerns), Convenience (technology has allowed easier options for booking appointments and connecting with loved ones), Availability (People can attend services that best meet their availability/schedule). Although there have been large improvements in accessibility to services and resources with the evolution of technology, there are also some major concerns that are not being addressed when it comes to technology and intimate partner violence. This study explores how the growth in technology has changed the way people are being abused and harmed and the sad reality that regulations and laws have not caught up with the advances in technology. The study will also explore cyberstalking, social media triggers, and location-tracking devices and applications. By exploring how technology impacts intimate partner violence, clinicians will learn how to better assess and safety plan for these risk factors.

Keywords: abuse, intimate partner violence, safety planning, technology

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Authors: Oluwaponmile David Alao

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Misdiagnosis has been the major problem in health sector. Heart attack has been one of diseases that have high level of misdiagnosis recorded on the part of physicians. In this paper, an intelligent system has been developed for diagnosis of heart attack in the health sector. Dataset of heart attack obtained from UCI repository has been used. This dataset is made up of thirteen attributes which are very vital in diagnosis of heart disease. The system is developed on the multilayer perceptron trained with back propagation neural network then simulated with feed forward neural network and a recognition rate of 87% was obtained which is a good result for diagnosis of heart attack in medical field.

Keywords: heart attack, artificial neural network, diagnosis, intelligent system

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Authors: Ma. Rosario Concepcion O. Ang, Luis Caezar Ian K. Panganiban, Charmyne B. Mamador, Oliver Dan G. De Luna, Michael D. Bausas, Joselito P. Cruz

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PhilSHORE is a multi-site, multi-device and multi-criteria decision support tool designed to support the development of tidal current energy in the Philippines. Its platform is based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which allows for the collection, storage, processing, analyses and display of geospatial data. Combining GIS tools with open source web development applications, PhilSHORE becomes a webGIS-based marine spatial planning tool. To date, PhilSHORE displays output maps and graphs of power and energy density, site suitability and site-device analysis. It enables stakeholders and the public easy access to the results of tidal current energy resource assessments and site suitability analyses. Results of the initial development shows PhilSHORE is a promising decision support tool for ORE project developments.

Keywords: gis, site suitability analysis, tidal current energy resource assessment, webgis

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Authors: Anish Bhargava

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By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans. 51 trillion micro-plastics pollute our waters and contaminate the food on our plates, increasing the risk of tumours and diseases such as cancer. Our product is a solution to the ever-growing problem of plastic pollution. We call it the SmartBin. The SmartBin is a cylindrical device which will float just below the surface of the water, able to move with the aid of 4 water thrusters situated on the sides. As it floats, our SmartBin will suck water into itself and pump it out through the bottom. All waste is collected into a reusable filter including microplastics measuring down to 1.5mm. A speaker emitting sound at a frequency of 9 hertz ensures marine life stays away from the SmartBin. Featured along with our product is a smartphone app which will enable the user to designate an area for the SmartBin to cover on a satellite image. The SmartBin will then return to its start position near the shore, configured through the app. As global pressure to tackle water pollution continues to increase, environmental spending increases too. As our product provides an effective solution to this issue, we can seize the opportunity and scale our company. Our product is unparalleled. It can move at a high speed, covering a wide area rather than being restricted to one position. We target not only oceans and sea-shores, but also rivers, lakes, reservoirs and canals, as they are much easier to access and control.

Keywords: water, plastic, pollution, solution, hydroclean, smartbin, cleanup

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Authors: Bashir Abdu Muzakkari, Mohamad Afendee Mohamad, Mohd Fadzil Abdul Kadir

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Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is an aggregation of several tiny, low-cost sensor nodes, spatially distributed to monitor physical or environmental status. WSN is constantly changing because of the rapid technological advancements in sensor elements such as radio, battery and operating systems. The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols remain very vital in the WSN because of its role in coordinating communication amongst the sensors. Other than battery consumption, packet collision, network lifetime and latency are factors that largely depend on WSN MAC protocol and these factors have been widely treated in recent days. In this paper, we survey some latest proposed WSN Contention-based, Scheduling-based and Hybrid MAC protocols while presenting an examination, correlation of advantages and limitations of each protocol. Concentration is directed towards investigating the treatment of Quality of Service (QoS) performance metrics within these particular protocols. The result shows that majority of the protocols leaned towards energy conservation. We, therefore, believe that other performance metrics of guaranteed QoS such as latency, throughput, packet loss, network and bandwidth availability may play a critical role in the design of future MAC protocols for WSNs.

Keywords: WSN, QoS, energy consumption, MAC protocol

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Authors: Maruf Ariyo Raheem, Patrick Oseloka Ezepue

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This research aimed at determining most appropriate heteroskedastic model to predicting volatility of 10 major Nigerian banks: Access, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Guaranty Trust, Skye, Diamond, Fidelity, Sterling, Union, ETI and Zenith banks using daily closing stock prices of each of the banks from 2004 to 2014. The models employed include ARCH (1), GARCH (1, 1), EGARCH (1, 1) and TARCH (1, 1). The results show that all the banks returns are highly leptokurtic, significantly skewed and thus non-normal across the four periods except for Fidelity bank during financial crises; findings similar to those of other global markets. There is also strong evidence for the presence of heteroscedasticity, and that volatility persistence during crisis is higher than before the crisis across the 10 banks, with that of UBA taking the lead, about 11 times higher during the crisis. Findings further revealed that Asymmetric GARCH models became dominant especially during financial crises and post crises when the second reforms were introduced into the banking industry by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Generally, one could say that Nigerian banks returns are volatility persistent during and after the crises, and characterised by leverage effects of negative and positive shocks during these periods

Keywords: global financial crisis, leverage effect, persistence, volatility clustering

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Authors: Floriane Shala, Evangeline Wagner, Yichun Zhao

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Background: Proper educational training and support are proven to be major components of EHR (Electronic Health Record) implementation and use. However, the majority of health providers are not sufficiently trained in EHR use, leading to adverse events, errors, and decreased quality of care. In response to this, students studying Health Information Science, Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine should all gain a thorough understanding of EHR use at different levels for different purposes. The design of a usable and safe EHR system that accommodates the needs and workflows of different users, user groups, and disciplines is required for EHR learning to be efficient and effective. Objectives: This project builds several artifacts which seek to address both the educational and usability aspects of an educational EHR. The artifacts proposed are models for and examples of such an EHR with a configurable UI to be learned by students who need a background in EHR use during their degrees. Methods: Review literature and gather professional opinions from domain experts on usability, the use of workflow patterns, UI configurability and design, and the educational aspect of EHR use. Conduct interviews in a semi-casual virtual setting with open discussion in order to gain a deeper understanding of the principal aspects of EHR use in educational settings. Select a specific task and user group to illustrate how the proposed solution will function based on the current research. Develop three artifacts based on the available research, professional opinions, and prior knowledge of the topic. The artifacts capture the user task and user’s interactions with the EHR for learning. The first generic model provides a general understanding of the EHR system process. The second model is a specific example of performing the task of MRI ordering with a configurable UI. The third artifact includes UI mock-ups showcasing the models in a practical and visual way. Significance: Due to the lack of educational EHRs, medical professionals do not receive sufficient EHR training. Implementing an educational EHR with a usable and configurable interface to suit the needs of different user groups and disciplines will help facilitate EHR learning and training and ultimately improve the quality of patient care.

Keywords: education, EHR, usability, configurable

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Authors: Betek Cecilia Kunseh, Musampa Christopher

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Despite significant investment and important progress, access to safe potable water continues to be one of the most pressing challenges for rural communities in O R Tambo District Municipality. This is coupled with the low income of most residents and government's policy which obliges municipalities to supply basic water usually set at 6 kilolitres per month to each household free of charge. During the research, data was collected from three local municipalities of O. R. Tambo, i.e. King Sabata Dalindyebo, Mhlontlo and Ingquza Hill local municipalities. According to the result, significant differences exist between the sources of water in the different local municipalities from which data was collected. The chi square was use to calculated the differences between the sources of water and the calculated critical value of the District Municipality was 18.77 which is more than the stipulated critical value of 3.84. More people in Mhlontlo Local Municipality got water from the taps while a greater percentage of households in King Sataba Dalindyebo and Ingquza hill local municipalities got their water from the natural sources. 77% of the sample population complained that there have been no improvements in water provision because they still get water from natural sources and even the remaining 33% that were getting water from the taps still have to depend on natural sources because the taps are most of the time broken and it takes a long time to fix them.

Keywords: availability, water, sources, supply

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Authors: Fatemeh Abdollahi, Munn-Sann Lye, Jamshid Yazdani Charati, Mehran Zarghami

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Background: In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, as a public health concern and pandemic. This situation is generating psychological consequences such as stress, anxiety, depression, and intimate partner violence (IPV) throughout the population. This is a brief note on the magnitude of this threat and different ways for abused women to minimize the effects of it in their daily life. Methods: A literature review was conducted using the MEDLINE, PSYCHINFO, and SCIENCE DIRECT databases. The keywords used included intimate partner violence, abuse, victims, pandemic, quarantine, coronavirus, and COVID-19. A Google search was also conducted using these words to identify reports published in non-indexed health care and social science journals. The literature search was restricted to English language studies. Results: The prevalence of IPV and its consequences are rising during such a pandemic. Having sufficient support from healthcare workers and acquaintances is critical for women in such circumstances. Conclusion: Community members, healthcare providers, governments, and policymakers should be informed of the increased risk of IPV during such a pandemic. They should provide a supporting structure for abused women. Social networking is also a good approach that could help abusive women during this situation.

Keywords: covid-19, intimate partner violence, pandemic, women

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Authors: Adesola O. Orimoloye, Edward Gobina

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Membrane separation technology is still considered as an emerging technology in the mining sector and does not yet have the widespread acceptance that it has in other industrial sectors. Underground Coal Gasification (UCG), wherein coal is converted to gas in-situ, is a safer alternative to mining method that retains all pollutants underground making the process environmentally friendly. In-situ combustion of coal for power generation allows access to more of the physical global coal resource than would be included in current economically recoverable reserve estimates. Where mining is no longer taking place, for economic or geological reasons, controlled gasification permits exploitation of the deposit (again a reaction of coal to form a synthesis gas) of coal seams in situ. The oxygen supply stage is one of the most expensive parts of any gasification project but the use of membranes is a potentially attractive approach for producing oxygen-enriched air. In this study, a variety of cost-effective membrane materials that gives an optimal amount of oxygen concentrations in the range of interest was designed and tested at diverse operating conditions. Oxygen-enriched atmosphere improves the combustion temperature but a decline is observed if oxygen concentration exceeds optimum. Experimental result also reveals the preparatory method, apparatus and performance of the fabricated membrane.

Keywords: membranes, oxygen-enrichment, gasification, coal

Procedia PDF Downloads 307

Authors: Karima Chaabna, Sohaila Cheema, Amit Abraham, Hekmat Alrouh, Ravinder Mamtani, Javaid I. Sheikh

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We aimed to assess the production of systematic reviews (SRs) that synthesize observational studies discussing population health issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Two independent reviewers systematically searched MEDLINE through PubMed. Between 2008-2016, 5,747 articles (reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses) were identified. Following a multi-stage screening process, 387 SRs (with or without meta-analysis) on population health issues in the MENA were included in our overview. Citation numbers for each SR were retrieved from Google Scholar. Impact factor of the journal during the publication year for the included SRs was retrieved from the Institute of Scientific Information’s Journal Citation Report. We conducted linear regression analysis to assess time trends of number of publications according to SRs’ characteristics. We characterized a linear statistically significant increase in the annual numbers of SRs that summarize observational studies on the MENA population health (p-value<0.0001, R2=0.95), from 15 in 2008 to 81 in 2016. Our analysis reveals also linear statistically significant increases in numbers of SRs published by authors affiliated to institutions located inside MENA and/or neighboring countries (N=113, p-value < 0.0001, R²=0.90), by authors located outside MENA (N=155, p-value=0.0007, R²=0.82), and by collaborating authors affiliated to institutions located outside MENA and inside the region and/or in MENA’s neighboring countries (total number of SRs (N)= 119, p-value=0.0004, R²=0.85). Furthermore, these SRs were published in journals with an IF ranging from 0 to 47.8 (median=2.1). Linear statistically significant increases in numbers of published SRs were demonstrated in journals’ impact factor (IF) categories (IF=[0-2[: R²=0.79, p-value=0.0012; IF=[2-4[:R²=0.86, p-value=0.0003; and IF=[4-6[:R²=0.53, p-value=0.026). Additionally, annual numbers of citations to the SRs varied between 0 and 471 (median=7). While each year, a couple of SRs were getting more than 50 annual citations, there were linear statistically significant increases in numbers of published SRs with an annual number of citations at [0-10[(R²=0.89, p-value=0.00014) and at [10-50[ (R²=0.76, p-value=0.0021). Between 2008-2016, increasingly SRs that summarize observational studies on population health issues in the MENA were published. Authors of these SRs were located inside and/or outside the MENA region and an increasing number of collaborations were seen. Increasing numbers of SRs were predominantly observed in journals with an IF between zero and six. Interestingly, SRs covering MENA region countries were being increasingly cited, indicating an escalation of interest in this region’s population health issues.

Keywords: bibliometric, citation, impact factor, Middle East and North Africa, population health, systematic review

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Authors: Clesse C., Lighezzolo-Alnot J., De Lavergne S.

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Considered as the most common surgical procedure worldwide, episiotomy can be defined as an incision around the vulva performed to enlarge it, in the aim of preventing the traumatic rupture of the perineum during childbirth. Rather mediatized, this practice raises many questions in the field of mental health, relayed by different users and health professionals. Today, is topicality is moderately hectic since many queries about the prophylactic exercise of episiotomy are subject to a relative consensus, particularly since WHO advocated in 1996 that only 10% of childbirths should involve an episiotomy. This indicator appeared after the publication of numerous results from randomized clinical trials. Unfortunately, these papers seem mostly centered about somatic impacts of episiotomy. From the side of psychological studies, they mostly integrate a major clinical methodological bias, especially considering that every primiparous woman is identical to the others face to the experience of parturition. In the aim to fill this lack of knowledge, we developed a longitudinal research starting in the 7th month of pregnancy and ending one year after delivery. We are studying in a comparative way different possible psychological consequences inherent to the use of episiotomy. To do this, we use a standardized methodology which combines semi-structured clinical interviews (IRMAG, IRMAN ...), free clinical interviews, a projective test (Rorschach) and five questionnaires (QIC, EPDS, CPQ WOMBLSQ4, SF36). Therefore, we can comprehend with shrewdness the question of psychic impacts of episiotomy in a qualitative and quantitative way by comparing it to other obstetric interventions. In this paper, we will present the first results obtained about a population of twenty-two primiparous women by focusing on body image, sexuality, quality of life, depressive affects, post-traumatic stress disorder and investment of the maternal role. Finally, we will consider the different implications and perspectives of this research which could improve the public health policies in the field of perinatal care.

Keywords: assessment, episiotomy, mental health, psychical impacts

Procedia PDF Downloads 349