Search results for: UK Human Rights Act

Authors: V. Verma, Syed Riyaz-ul-Hassan

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Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most commonly found pathogenic bacteria and is hard to eliminate from the human environment. It is responsible for many nosocomial infections, besides being the main causative agent of food intoxication by virtue of its variety of enterotoxins. Routine detection of S. aureus in food is usually carried out by traditional methods based on morphological and biochemical characterization. These methods are time-consuming and tedious. In addition, misclassifications with automated susceptibility testing systems or commercially available latex agglutination kits have been reported by several workers. Consequently, there is a need for methods to specifically discriminate S. aureus from other staphylococci as quickly as possible. Data on protocols developed using molecular means like PCR technology will be presented for rapid and specific detection of this pathogen in food, clinical and environmental samples, especially milk.

Keywords: food Pathogens, PCR technology, rapid and specific detection, staphylococcus aureus

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Authors: Preetinder Kaur Randhawa

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The rural areas can be differentiated from urban areas in terms of their economic activities as rural areas are primarily involved in agricultural sector and provide natural resources whereas, urban areas are primarily involved in infrastructure sector and provide manufacturing services. Census of India defines a Census Town as an area which satisfies the following three criteria i.e. population exceeds 5000, at least 75 percent of male population engaged in non-agricultural sector and minimum population density of 400 persons per square kilometers. Urban areas can be attributed to the improvement of transport facilities, the massive decline in agricultural, especially male workers and workers shift to non-agricultural activities. This study examines the pattern, process of rural areas transformed into urban areas/ census town. The study has analyzed the various factors which are responsible for land transformation as well as the socio-economic transformation of the village population. Nilpur (CT) which belongs to Rajpura Tehsil in Patiala district, Punjab has been selected for the present study. The methodology adopted includes qualitative and quantitative research design, methods based on secondary data. Secondary data has been collected from unpublished revenue record office of Rajpura Tehsil and Primary Census Abstract of Patiala district, Census of India 2011. The results have showed that rate of transformation of a village to census town in Rajpura Tehsil has been one of highest among other villages. The census town has evolved through the evolutionary process of human settlement which grows in size, population and physical development. There must be a complete economic transformation and attainment of high level of technological development. Urban design and construction of buildings and infrastructure can be carried out better and faster and can be used to aid human habitation with the enhancement of quality of life. The study has concluded that in the selected area i.e Nilpur (CT) literacy rate has increased to 72.1 percent in year 2011 from 67.6 percent in year 2001. Similarly non-agricultural work force has increased to 95.2 percent in year 2011 from 81.1 percent in year 2001. It is very much clear that the increased literacy rate has put a positive impact on the involvement of non-agricultural workers have enhanced. The study has concluded that rural-urban linkages are important tools for understanding complexities of people livelihood and their strategies which involve mobility migration and the diversification of income sources and occupations.

Keywords: Census Town, India, Nilpur, Punjab

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Authors: Haiyang Su, Kun Qian

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We developed a novel plasmonic matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI MS) approach to detect small nutrients and toxin in complex biological emulsion samples. We used silver nanoshells (SiO₂@Ag) with optimized structures as matrices and achieved direct analysis of ~6 nL of human breast milk without any enrichment or separation. We performed identification and quantitation of small nutrients and toxins with limit-of-detection down to 0.4 pmol (for melamine) and reaction time shortened to minutes, superior to the conventional biochemical methods currently in use. Our approach contributed to the near-future application of MALDI MS in a broad field and personalized design of plasmonic materials for real case bio-analysis.

Keywords: plasmonic materials, laser desorption/ionization, mass spectrometry, small nutrients, toxins

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Authors: Hamideh Rahmani

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The subject matter of ethics is being changed in modern life, which had been an issue for a long time and aimed to define its moral boundaries in human's intellectual and everyday life. This has led to the introduction of notions based on the separation of religion from ethics in recent decades. It is in conflict with the traditional view, which introduces ethics as raised from religion and religion as the most crucial credit for ethics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the elements of secular ethics from the perspective of Mostafa Malekian, seeking to achieve his notions. After examining the strengths of secular ethics parameters from the viewpoint of Malekian, this research found his ethics in his interpretation of the ideal life which he treats as ethics, got a very strong link with his secularist project known as rationality and spirituality. We will analyze, review, and critique his ethics in the following.

Keywords: secular ethics, Mostafa Malakian, global ethics, rationality, spirituality

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Authors: Hee Soo Kim, Ha Young Kyung

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This paper examines the role of positive emotions in human psychology. By understanding Fredrickson and Lyubomirsky et al.’s on positive emotions, one can better understand people’s intuitive understanding, mental health and well-being. Fredrickson asserts that positive emotions create positive affects and personal resources, and Lyubomirsky et al. relate such positive resources to the creation of happiness and personal development. This paper finds that positive emotions play a significant role in the learning process, and they are instrumental in creating a long-lasting repertoire of personal resources and play an essential role in the development of the intuitive understanding of life variables, resilience in coping with life challenges, and ability to build more successful lives.

Keywords: Positive emotions, positive affects, personal resources, negative emotions, development

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Authors: Mladen Milicevic

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This presentation will address how the statistical analysis of digitized popular music influences the music creation and emotionally manipulates consumers.Furthermore, it will deal with semiological aspect of uniformization of musical taste in order to predict the potential revenues generated by popular music sales. In the USA, we live in an age where most of the popular music (i.e. music that generates substantial revenue) has been digitized. It is safe to say that almost everything that was produced in last 10 years is already digitized (either available on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or some other platform). Depending on marketing viability and its potential to generate additional revenue most of the “older” music is still being digitized. Once the music gets turned into a digital audio file,it can be computer-analyzed in all kinds of respects, and the similar goes for the lyrics because they also exist as a digital text file, to which any kin of N Capture-kind of analysis may be applied. So, by employing statistical examination of different popular music metrics such as tempo, form, pronouns, introduction length, song length, archetypes, subject matter,and repetition of title, the commercial result may be predicted. Polyphonic HMI (Human Media Interface) introduced the concept of the hit song science computer program in 2003.The company asserted that machine learning could create a music profile to predict hit songs from its audio features Thus,it has been established that a successful pop song must include: 100 bpm or more;an 8 second intro;use the pronoun 'you' within 20 seconds of the start of the song; hit the bridge middle 8 between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 30 seconds; average 7 repetitions of the title; create some expectations and fill that expectation in the title. For the country song: 100 bpm or less for a male artist; 14-second intro; uses the pronoun 'you' within the first 20 seconds of the intro; has a bridge middle 8 between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 30 seconds; has 7 repetitions of title; creates an expectation,fulfills it in 60 seconds.This approach to commercial popular music minimizes the human influence when it comes to which “artist” a record label is going to sign and market. Twenty years ago,music experts in the A&R (Artists and Repertoire) departments of the record labels were making personal aesthetic judgments based on their extensive experience in the music industry. Now, the computer music analyzing programs, are replacing them in an attempt to minimize investment risk of the panicking record labels, in an environment where nobody can predict the future of the recording industry.The impact on the consumers taste through the narrow bottleneck of the above mentioned music selection by the record labels,created some very peculiar effects not only on the taste of popular music consumers, but also the creative chops of the music artists as well. What is the meaning of this semiological shift is the main focus of this research and paper presentation.

Keywords: music, semiology, commercial, taste

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Authors: Mohammad H. Taheri, David J. Brown, Nasser Sherkat

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Engagement is one of the most important factors in determining successful outcomes and deep learning in students. Existing approaches to detect student engagement involve periodic human observations that are subject to inter-rater reliability. Our solution uses real-time multimodal multisensor data labeled by objective performance outcomes to infer the engagement of students. The study involves four students with a combined diagnosis of cerebral palsy and a learning disability who took part in a 3-month trial over 59 sessions. Multimodal multisensor data were collected while they participated in a continuous performance test. Eye gaze, electroencephalogram, body pose, and interaction data were used to create a model of student engagement through objective labeling from the continuous performance test outcomes. In order to achieve this, a type of continuous performance test is introduced, the Seek-X type. Nine features were extracted including high-level handpicked compound features. Using leave-one-out cross-validation, a series of different machine learning approaches were evaluated. Overall, the random forest classification approach achieved the best classification results. Using random forest, 93.3% classification for engagement and 42.9% accuracy for disengagement were achieved. We compared these results to outcomes from different models: AdaBoost, decision tree, k-Nearest Neighbor, naïve Bayes, neural network, and support vector machine. We showed that using a multisensor approach achieved higher accuracy than using features from any reduced set of sensors. We found that using high-level handpicked features can improve the classification accuracy in every sensor mode. Our approach is robust to both sensor fallout and occlusions. The single most important sensor feature to the classification of engagement and distraction was shown to be eye gaze. It has been shown that we can accurately predict the level of engagement of students with learning disabilities in a real-time approach that is not subject to inter-rater reliability, human observation or reliant on a single mode of sensor input. This will help teachers design interventions for a heterogeneous group of students, where teachers cannot possibly attend to each of their individual needs. Our approach can be used to identify those with the greatest learning challenges so that all students are supported to reach their full potential.

Keywords: affective computing in education, affect detection, continuous performance test, engagement, flow, HCI, interaction, learning disabilities, machine learning, multimodal, multisensor, physiological sensors, student engagement

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Authors: Farzane Sadatnia, Bahram Fathi

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Today, all public and private organizations have found that the management of the world for key information related to the activities of a staff and its main essence and philosophy, though they constitute the management information systems are very helpful in this respect the right to apply systems can save a lot in terms of economic organizations including reducing the time decision - making, improve the quality of decision making, and cost savings to bring information systems is a backup system that can never be instead of logic and human reasoning, which can be used in the series is spreading, providing resources, and provide the necessary facilities, provide better services for users, balanced budget allocation, determine strengths and weaknesses and previous plans to review the current decisions and especially the decision . Hence; in this study attempts to the effect of an information system on a review of the organization.

Keywords: information system, planning, organization, coordination, control

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Authors: Deniz A. Apostol, Denyl A. Apostol, Oliver T. Macapinlac, George S. Katigbak

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Ang lupa ay buhay at ang buhay ay lupa (land is life and life is land). Based on the 2015 census, the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) population in the Philippines is estimated to be 11.3-20.2 million. They hail from various regions, possess distinct cultures, but encounter shared struggles in territorial disputes. Itogon, the largest Benguet municipality, is home to the Ibaloi, Kankanaey, and other Igorot tribes. Despite having three (3) Ancestral Domains (ADs), Itogon is predominantly labeled as timberland or forest. These overlapping land classifications highlight the presence of inconsistencies in national laws and jurisdictions. This study aims to analyze surveying procedures used by the Igorots, NCIP, and DENR in mapping the Itogon AD Boundaries, show land boundary delineation conflicts, propose surveying guidelines, and recommend 3D Participatory Mapping as geomatics solution for updated AD reference maps. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), Comparative Legal Analysis (CLA), and Map Overlay Analysis (MOA) were utilized to examine the interviews, compare land policies and surveying procedures, and identify differences and overlaps in conflicting land boundaries. In the IPA, master themes identified were AD Definition (rights, responsibilities, restrictions), AD Overlaps (land classifications, political boundaries, ancestral domains, land laws/policies), and Other Conflicts (with other agencies, misinterpretations, suggestions), as considerations for mapping ADs. CLA focused on conflicting surveying procedures: AD Definitions, Surveying Equipment, Surveying Methods, Map Projections, Order of Accuracy, Monuments, Survey Parties, Pre-survey, Survey Proper, and Post-survey procedures. MOA emphasized the land area percentage of conflicting areas, showcasing the impact of misaligned surveying procedures. The findings are summarized through a Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) Conflict, for AD versus AD and Political Boundaries. The products of this study are identification of land conflict factors, survey guidelines recommendations, and contested land area computations. These can serve as references for revising survey manuals, updating AD Sustainable Development and Protection Plans, and making amendments to laws.

Keywords: ancestral domain, gis, indigenous people, land policies, participatory mapping, surveying, survey procedures

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Authors: Olga A. Shvetsova

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The paper contains the different issues of competence management in industrial companies. The theoretical bases of human resources management and practical issues of innovative enterprises’ competitiveness are considered. The research is focused on the modern industrial enterprise changes management problems; it focuses on the effective personnel management of industrial enterprises on the basis of competence approach. The influence of organizational changes on the competence development is discussed. The need for development of the new technologies is mentioned, proposal is based on competence-based approach in personnel management including in the conditions of carrying out organizational changes; methods of acquisition and development of missing key professional competences are discussed; importance of key competencies in forming competitive advantage of the organization is mentioned.

Keywords: competence model, core competencies, development of industrial company, organizational changes, competitiveness

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Authors: Clara Tramuta, Floris Irene, Daniela Manila Bianchi, Monica Pitti, Giulia Federica Cazzaniga, Lucia Decastelli

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This work presents the results obtained by the Regional Reference Centre for Salmonella Typing (CeRTiS) in a retrospective study aimed to investigate, through Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis, the genetic relatedness of emerging Salmonella serotypes of human origin circulating in North-West of Italy. Furthermore, the goal of this work was to create a Regional database to facilitate foodborne outbreak investigation and to monitor them at an earlier stage. A total of 112 strains, isolated from 2016 to 2018 in hospital laboratories, were included in this study. The isolates were previously identified as Salmonella according to standard microbiological techniques and serotyping was performed according to ISO 6579-3 and the Kaufmann-White scheme using O and H antisera (Statens Serum Institut®). All strains were characterized by PFGE: analysis was conducted according to a standardized PulseNet protocol. The restriction enzyme XbaI was used to generate several distinguishable genomic fragments on the agarose gel. PFGE was performed on a CHEF Mapper system, separating large fragments and generating comparable genetic patterns. The agarose gel was then stained with GelRed® and photographed under ultraviolet transillumination. The PFGE patterns obtained from the 112 strains were compared using Bionumerics version 7.6 software with the Dice coefficient with 2% band tolerance and 2% optimization. For each serotype, the data obtained with the PFGE were compared according to the geographical origin and the year in which they were isolated. Salmonella strains were identified as follow: S. Derby n. 34; S. Infantis n. 38; S. Napoli n. 40. All the isolates had appreciable restricted digestion patterns ranging from approximately 40 to 1100 kb. In general, a fairly heterogeneous distribution of pulsotypes has emerged in the different provinces. Cluster analysis indicated high genetic similarity (≥ 83%) among strains of S. Derby (n. 30; 88%), S. Infantis (n. 36; 95%) and S. Napoli (n. 38; 95%) circulating in north-western Italy. The study underlines the genomic similarities shared by the emerging Salmonella strains in Northwest Italy and allowed to create a database to detect outbreaks in an early stage. Therefore, the results confirmed that PFGE is a powerful and discriminatory tool to investigate the genetic relationships among strains in order to monitoring and control Salmonellosis outbreak spread. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) still represents one of the most suitable approaches to characterize strains, in particular for the laboratories for which NGS techniques are not available.

Keywords: emerging Salmonella serotypes, genetic characterization, human strains, PFGE

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Authors: Bashaiar Al-Sanaa

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Class has always been a vital distinguishing factor among people within any society. Clear borders between social layers; such as royals, nobles, aristocrats, the bourgeoisie, and working class; have been minimized and blurred due to the advent of social media. Unprecedented access to information has played a significant role in teaching different individuals about the nature of other social layers, hence, allowing for imitation and integration. This study aims to fill the void in research conducted on such topic. The research explores how social media may be slowly but surely dissolving apparent and rigid borderlines of social class. In order to present an overview of the topic, the study surveys individuals in Kuwait to measure how using social media changed their views and style of social class. It also draws a framework through which implications and suggestions for future research may be discussed to better serve the advancement of human communication.

Keywords: class, communication, Kuwait, social media

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Authors: Darshna Sharma, Suban K. Sahoo

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The detection of intracellular fluoride in human cancer cell HeLa was achieved by chemosensors derived from vitamin B6 cofactors using fluorescence imaging technique. These sensors were first synthesized by condensation of pyridoxal/pyridoxal phosphate with 2-amino(thio)phenol. The anion recognition ability was explored by experimental (UV-VIS, fluorescence and 1H NMR) and theoretical DFT [(B3LYP/6-31G(d,p)] methods in DMSO and mixed DMSO-H2O system. All the developed sensors showed both naked-eye detectable color change and remarkable fluorescence enhancement in the presence of F- and AcO-. The anion recognition was occurred through the formation of hydrogen bonded complexes between these anions and sensor, followed by the partial deprotonation of sensor. The detection limit of these sensors were down to micro(nano) molar level of F- and AcO-.

Keywords: chemosensors, fluoride, acetate, turn-on, live cells imaging, DFT

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Authors: Samuel I. Becher, Tal Z. Zarsky

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The digital world becomes part of our DNA now. The way e-commerce, human behavior, and law interact and affect one another is rapidly and significantly changing. Among others things, the internet equips consumers with a variety of platforms to share information in a volume we could not imagine before. As part of this development, online information flows allow consumers to learn about businesses and their contracts in an efficient and quick manner. Consumers can become informed by the impressions that other, experienced consumers share and spread. In other words, consumers may familiarize themselves with the contents of contracts through the experiences that other consumers had. Online and offline, the relationship between consumers and businesses are most frequently governed by consumer standard form contracts. For decades, such contracts are assumed to be one-sided and biased against consumers. Consumer Law seeks to alleviate this bias and empower consumers. Legislatures, consumer organizations, scholars, and judges are constantly looking for clever ways to protect consumers from unscrupulous firms and unfair behaviors. While consumers-businesses relationships are theoretically administered by standardized contracts, firms do not always follow these contracts in practice. At times, there is a significant disparity between what the written contract stipulates and what consumers experience de facto. That is, there is a crucial gap (“the Gap”) between how firms draft their contracts on the one hand, and how firms actually treat consumers on the other. Interestingly, the Gap is frequently manifested by deviation from the written contract in favor of consumers. In other words, firms often exercise lenient approach in spite of the stringent written contracts they draft. This essay examines whether, counter-intuitively, policy makers should add firms’ leniency to the growing list of firms suspicious behaviors. At first glance, firms should be allowed, if not encouraged, to exercise leniency. Many legal regimes are looking for ways to cope with unfair contract terms in consumer contracts. Naturally, therefore, consumer law should enable, if not encourage, firms’ lenient practices. Firms’ willingness to deviate from their strict contracts in order to benefit consumers seems like a sensible approach. Apparently, such behavior should not be second guessed. However, at times online tools, firm’s behaviors and human psychology result in a toxic mix. Beneficial and helpful online information should be treated with due respect as it may occasionally have surprising and harmful qualities. In this essay, we illustrate that technological changes turn the Gap into a key component in consumers' understanding, or misunderstanding, of consumer contracts. In short, a Gap may distort consumers’ perception and undermine rational decision-making. Consequently, this essay explores whether, counter-intuitively, consumer law should sanction firms that create a Gap and use it. It examines when firms’ leniency should be considered as manipulative or exercised in bad faith. It then investigates whether firms should be allowed to enforce the written contract even if the firms deliberately and consistently deviated from it.

Keywords: consumer contracts, consumer protection, information flow, law and economics, law and technology, paper deal v firms' behavior

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Authors: Ben-Fred Ohia

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Code-switching and code-mixing are linguistic behaviours that arise in a bilingual situation. They limit speakers in a conversation to decide which code they should use to utter particular phrases or words in the course of carrying out their utterance. Every human society is characterized by the existence of diverse linguistic varieties. The speakers of these varieties at some points have various degrees of contact with the non-speakers of their variety, which one of the outcomes of the linguistic contact is code-switching or code-mixing. The work discusses the nature of code-switching and code-mixing in Ogba-English bilinguals’ speeches. It provides a detailed explanation of the concept of code-switching and code-mixing and explains the typology of code-switching and code-mixing and their manifestation in Ogba-English bilingual speakers’ speeches. The findings reveal that code-switching and code-mixing are functionally motivated and being triggered by various conversational contexts.

Keywords: bilinguals, code-mixing, code-switching, Ogba

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Authors: Rakesh Mishra, Rajni Singh, Mukunda Upadhyay

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Since the last few decades, the prima facie of development has shifted towards the working population in India. There has been a paradigm shift in the development approach with the realization that the present demographic dividend has to be harnessed for sustainable development. Rapid urbanization and improved socioeconomic characteristics experienced within its territory has catalyzed various forms of migration into it, resulting in massive transference of workforce between its states. Workforce in any country plays a very crucial role in deciding development of both the places, from where they have out-migrated and the place they are residing currently. In India, people are found to be migrating from relatively less developed states to a well urbanized and developed state for satisfying their neediness. Linking migration to HDI at place of destination, the regression coefficient (β ̂) shows affirmative association between them, because higher the HDI of the place would be, higher would be chance of earning and hence likeliness of the migrants would be more to choose that place as a new destination and vice versa. So the push factor is compromised by the cost of rearing and provides negative impulse on the in migrants letting down their numbers to metro cities or megacities of the states but increasing their mobility to the suburban areas and vice versa. The main objective of the study is to check the role of migration in deciding the dividend of the place of destination as well as people at the place of their usual residence with special focus to highly urban states in India. Idealized scenario of Indian migrants refers to some new theories in making. On analyzing the demographic dividend of the places we got to know that Uttar Pradesh provides maximum dividend to Maharashtra, West Bengal and Delhi, and the demographic divided of migrants are quite comparable to the native’s shares in the demographic dividend in these places. On analyzing the data from National Sample Survey 64th round and Census of India-2001, we have observed that for males in rural areas, the share of unemployed person declined by 9 percentage points (from 45% before migration to 36 % after migration) and for females in rural areas the decline was nearly 12 percentage points (from 79% before migration to 67% after migration. It has been observed that the shares of unemployed males in both rural and urban areas, which were significant before migration, got reduced after migration while the share of unemployed females in the rural as well as in the urban areas remained almost negligible both for before and after migration. So increase in the number of employed after migration provides an indication of changes in the associated cofactors like health and education of the place of destination and arithmetically to the place from where they have migrated out. This paper presents the evidence on the patterns of prevailing migration dynamics and corresponding demographic benefits in India and its states, examines trends and effects, and discusses plausible explanations.

Keywords: migration, demographic shift, human development index, multilevel analysis

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Authors: Hugo de Tarragon, Martine Hlady-Rispal, Gauthier Casteran

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Rooted in ethnographic research on city logistics, our paper examines how Logistics Service Providers (LSP) can move from a "subservient" posture to one of instigating the sustainable transformation of city logistics, using literature on sustainable city logistics. To do so, we start by providing a representation of the subservient posture adopted by LSPs during their interactions with stakeholders. We then mobilize ecosystem theories to analyze the follower posture LSP can adopt to ensure their financial, human, and environmental sustainability in a city logistics ecosystem. This study contributes to local authorities’ greater consideration/involvement of LSP in the definition of their city logistics strategy. It can also provide LSP with an insight into the transformations to be carried out to improve their sustainability. Finally, it encourages research projects aimed at exploring more precisely the value relationships between LSP and their stakeholders.

Keywords: city logistics, logistics service providers, sustainability, ecosystems, value creation

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Authors: Daniel Y. Abebe, Jaehyouk Choi

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The design philosophy of building structure has been changing over time. The reason behind this is an increase in human interest regarding the improvements in building materials and technology that will affect how we live, the aim to speed up construction period, and the environmental effect which includes earthquakes and other natural disasters. One technique which takes into account the above case is using a prefabricable structural system, in which each and every structural element is designed and prefabricated and assembled on a site so that the construction speed is increased and the environmental impact is also enhanced. This system has immense advantages such as reduced construction cost, reusability, recyclability, faster construction period and less enviromental effect. In this study, some of the developed and evaluated structural elements of building structures are presented.

Keywords: eccentrically braced frame, natural disaster, prefabricable structural system, removable link, SGSS

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Authors: Paul B Stone, Subhashini Ganapathy, Mary E. Fendley, Layla Akilan

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As notifications become more common through mobile devices, it is important to understand the impact of wearable devices on the improved user experience of man-machine interfaces. This study examined the use of a wearable device for a real-time system using a computer-simulated petrochemical system. The key research question was to determine how using the information provided by the wearable device can improve human performance through measures of situational awareness and decision making. Results indicate that there was a reduction in response time when using the watch, and there was no difference in situational awareness. Perception of using the watch was positive, with 83% of users finding value in using the watch and receiving haptic feedback.

Keywords: computer applications, haptic feedback, petrochemical systems, situational awareness, wearable technology

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Authors: Dammika Bandara Herath

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A group of people who inherits a long history of existence within a particular country may be known as early inhabitants or indigenous peoples. In other words, they have not migrated to the particular territory from another part of the world and at the same time, they have inhabited the territory in issue prior to the time of a major invasion/migration. According to the UN, there are a number of unique attributes of the indigenous peoples: Self-identification as indigenous people,Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies, Distinct social, economic or political systems, Distinct language, culture and beliefs, Form non-dominant groups of society, Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities. Indigenous peoples constitute 5% of the world’s population. They are also known as tribal people, first people, native people, and indigenous people. Various indigenous communities can be found in about 90 countries in the world. Asia is home to approximately 70 % of these indigenous communities who have their own unique socio-cultural identities. Most indigenous communities remain isolated from the mainstream social, cultural, and economic institutions of their homeland. Yet, they inherited their own unique rights and responsible peculiar to their own group. These include: Protecting the socio-cultural heritage of the group, Protecting the unique identity of their community from socio-cultural changes in the mainstream communities,Protecting their land, Diffusing their cultural heritage to the future generation, Co-existing peacefully with other community .However, indigenous peoples encounter a lot of challenges as a result of socio-cultural change and legal restrictions in the world today. To assist the communities to face these challenges, the mass –media can play a significant role and the radio media has a purpose-built mechanism for this mission, known as the indigenous radio. In Sri Lanka, Dambana FM is such a radio channel based on the indigenous radio model. The target audience of this channel is the vedda / indigenous community of Sri Lanka. This study intends to the current role of the indigenous radio based on Dambana FM, of which the target audience is the indigenous community of Dambana. For the purpose of this study, interviews were conducted among fifty randomly selected respondents from the indigenous community of Dambana. As far as the findings of this study are concerned, problems in the quality of the programmed broadcasted and problems of transmission are the key issues faced by the indigenous radio in Sri Lanka. Based on the findings, the researcher seeks to develop a model to enhance the impact of the indigenous radio on its listeners in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: indigenous, communities, radio, vedda, culture

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Authors: Kieren Wilson, Gulnaz Majeed

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NHS constitution gives rights to the patient with suspected cancer to be seen by a cancer specialist within 2 weeks of referral. Guys and St Thomas Hospital (GSTT) is one of the largest cancer centres in London. NICE guidelines have provided guidance for health professionals to refer patients appropriately to RAC. In GSTT suspected gynae cancer referrals are mostly by NHS e-Referral Service with some fax, emails as well as paper referrals. The objective of this study was to evaluate compliance with 2-week referral pathway with emphasis on one stop diagnostic service with supporting efficient pathways. A prospective evaluation over 3 months (1 Jan 2017 to 31 Mar 2017) was undertaken. There were 26 clinics, 761 patients were booked in the clinics with a DNA rate of 13% (n=101) hence 606 patients were seen. Majority of referrals were for post menopausal bleeding (PMB) 25% (n=194) followed by cervical, vaginal, vulval reasons 23% (n=179) (abnormal cytology excluded as patients directly referred to colposcopy unit in GSTT), ovarian 7% (n=54) and endometrial 5% (n=41). Women with new or previous established diagnosis of cancer were 24, cervical (n=17), vulva (n=6) and vagina (n=1). Multifocal preinvasive disease vulva (VIN), vagina (VAIN) and cervix (CIN) was confirmed in twenty-six patients 4% (high prevalence in HIV patients). Majority of cervical referrals: PCB (n=14), cervical erosion (n=7), polyps (n=9) and cervical cyst were benign. However, two women with PMB had cervical cancer. Only 2 out of 13 referrals with vaginal concerns had VAIN. One case with non-cervical glandular cytology was confirmed to have endometrial cancer. One stop service based on the diagnostic support of ultrasound, colposcopy and hysteroscopy was achieved in 54% (n=359). Patients were discharged to GP, benign gynaecology, endometriosis, combined vulval/dermatology clinic or gynae oncology. 33% (n=202) required a second visit, 12% (n=70) third visit, 3% (n=19) fourth visit, 1% (n=4) fifth visit and 1% (n=6) sixth visit. Main reasons for follow ups were the unavailability of diagnostic slots, patient choice, need for interpreters, the discussion following gynae MDM review for triage to benign gynae, delay in availability of diagnostic results like histology/MRI/CT. Recommendations following this study are multi disciplinary review of pathways with the availability of additional diagnostic procedure slots to aim for one stop service. Furthermore, establishment of virtual and telephone consultations to reduce follow ups.

Keywords: multifocal disease, post menopausal bleeding, preinvasive disease, rapid access clinic

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Authors: Dost Muhammad Halepoto, Laila AL-Ayadhi

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Neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism can cause lifelong disability. Genetic and environmental factors are believed to contribute to the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but relatively few studies have considered potential environmental risks. Several industrial chemicals and other environmental exposures are recognized causes of neurodevelopmental disorders and subclinical brain dysfunction. The toxic effects of such chemicals in the developing human brain are not known. This review highlights the role of environmental risk factors including drugs, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, vaccines, and other suspected neurotoxicants including persistent organic pollutants for ASD. It also provides information about the environmental toxins to yield new insights into factors that affect autism risk as well as an opportunity to investigate the relation between autism and environmental exposure.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD, environmental factors, neurodevelopmental disorder

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Authors: Adejoke Omowumi Adediran

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The commitment of African states to liberalise civil aviation in Africa through the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision of 1999 was reiterated in 2015 at the African Union Assembly meeting. A declaration was made by African Heads of government at the meeting to ensure the immediate implementation of the decision towards the establishment of a Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) by 2017. A SAATM will imply among others, a removal of all commercial restrictions for African airlines in Africa; access to any route in Africa by African airlines without any required permit or authorisation; and a common set of regulations for airlines in African member states. As the envisioned 2017 date for launching the SAATM could not be met, a new date of January 2018 has been set. The lack of political will by African States, however, remains a prominent challenge to the realisation of the SAATM. As at June 2017, only twenty-one states had signed the commitment to actualise the decision creating the SAATM. In actualisation of the SAATM, a regulatory framework has been established to efficiently manage the new African airline industry, and regulatory texts have been adopted as part of the legal regime. This legal regime is to regulate both interstate and domestic operations. Airlines in Nigeria are currently faced with certain challenges which ultimately affect their effectiveness and passengers as well do not enjoy utmost customer satisfaction with services rendered by the airlines. Although Nigeria has demonstrated support for the SAATM since 2015, as Nigeria alongside ten other states, signed the initial commitment, whether or not SAATM will eventually be beneficial to airlines and passengers has become an issue in the light of the challenges of the Nigerian airline industry. Remarkably, the benefit of the SAATM is to a large extent ultimately determined by its legal framework. Using doctrinal research, this paper examines the legal implications of the SAATM on airlines and passengers in Nigeria. This paper analyses the legal framework of SAATM and juxtaposes this with the particular issues affecting airlines and passengers in Nigeria such as financial difficulties on the part of airlines and consumer protection as regards passengers. Among others, it can be asserted that the legal regime affords an opportunity for business expansion and creates a fair environment for competition. This is beneficial not only to the airlines but to passengers as well. In addition, in the interest of passengers, consumer rights are prescribed, and the regulations also cater for situations where airlines interrupt their services, as losses arising from these situations will be mitigated. There is indeed no doubt that the SAATM will be of great utility to both airlines and passengers in Nigeria.

Keywords: airlines, civil aviation, competition, consumer protection, passengers, single African air transport market, yamoussoukro decision

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Authors: Ankur Chauhan, Amol Singh

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The increasing human resource has led to the rapid increment in the generation of healthcare waste across the world. Since, this waste consists of the infectious and hazardous components emerged from the patient care activities in different healthcare facilities; therefore, its proper management becomes vital for mitigating its negative impact on society and environment. The present research work focuses on the identification of the key success factors for developing a successful healthcare waste management plan. In addition, the key success factors have been studied by developing a causal diagram with the help of a decision making trial and evaluation (DEMATEL) approach. The findings of the study would help in the filtration of dominant key success factors which would further help in making a comparative assessment of the waste management plan of different hospitals.

Keywords: healthcare waste disposal, environment and society, multi-criteria decision making, DEMATEL

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Authors: Ghazanfar Bozai, Kanwal Gul

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In Pakistan, SMEs are the major source of contribution to the economy, but due to lack of proper HR practices (lack of employee engagement), these fast growing business shut down with in few years of startup. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive literature survy of the major best practices used for employee engagement globally. This paper could be used as employee engagement best practices guide for SME’s in developing countries. This article is focused on identifying the attributes of employee engagement in different countries/ cultures and organizations. It will provide a summary of employee engagement models used globally and how SMEs could pick suitable attributes of employee engagement as per their structural culture. This article will add valuable literature on employee engagement in developing countries for new startups and small, medium business.

Keywords: attributes, employee engagement, human resources practices, small medium enterprises

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Authors: Mirko Sailio

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Border crossing automatization reduces required human resources in handling people crossing borders. As technology replaces and augments the work done by border officers, new cyber threats arise to threaten border security. This research analyses the current cyber threat actors and their capabilities. The analysis is conducted by gathering the threat actor data from a wide range of public sources. A model for a general border automatization system is presented, and its most significant cyber-security attributes are then compared to threat actor activity and capabilities in order to predict priorities in securing such systems. Organized crime and nation-state actors present the clearest threat to border cyber-security, and additional focus is given to their motivations and activities.

Keywords: border automation, cyber-security, threat actors, border cyber-security

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Authors: Ioana G. Turcan

Abstract:

reimagined rituals towards unattachment wants to look at an ambiguous loss through the perspective of caregivers, those that accompany us at the beginning and possibly the end of life, those that observe, accumulate, and are impacted by our behavior and needs, but also those that are the witnesses of the human vulnerability. Someone taking care of a patient with dementia experiences ambiguous loss, being in a present of a person partially present, partially absent. The one offering care needs care, not isolation and the aim of the project is to consolidate existing communities or engage other possible ones using performance, storytelling, and other artistic methods. The long-term aim is that with community work, we will manage to co-create rituals in order to help us live with this kind of loss. Looking at them through the lens of different cultures and individuals exercises both the ability to extract the universal essence of a ritual, but also the need and freedom to express the specificity of each situation. To be seen and acknowledged by others, but more importantly, to see oneself from outside with dignity, is very powerful. Oftentimes we forget to express, look and appreciate our own stories, and instead, we choose to outcast them.

Keywords: grief, socio-politics of loss, ambiguous loss, rituals

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Authors: Nevruz Zogu, Shpetim Rezniqi

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In the framework of transformational economic development social pluralism and the free, market health systems operating in the countries of our region are naturally involved in a process of profound change and reform. Health systems actually represent complex ensembles centers and public and private institutions (domestic and foreign), who administer substantial amounts of human, technological, material, financial, information and scientific facts • The goal of health systems is much more than medical care. It includes the promotion, protection, treatment and rehabilitation of health of the population. • Meeting the needs of increasingly diverse broader health services efficient, secure the quality and affordability of their increasing cost of unstoppable, requires the necessary reform of health systems and implementing policies and new management methods, to ensure effectiveness and health benefits as higher population.

Keywords: health, management, economy, finance

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Authors: Raju K. Thadikkaran

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Introduction: The IPR have come to the centre stage of development discourse today for a variety of reasons: It ranges from the arbitrariness in the enforcement, overlapping and mismatch with various international agreements and conventions, divergence in the definition, nature and content and the duration as well as severe adverse consequences to technologically weak developing countries. In turn, the IPR have acquired prominence in the foreign policy making as well as in the relations among nations. Quite naturally, there is ample scope for an examination of the correlation between Technology, IPR and International Relations in the contemporary world. Nature and Scope: A cursory examination of the realm of IPR and its protection shall reveals the acute divergence that exists in the perspectives, on all matters related to the very definition, nature, content, scope and duration. The proponents of stronger protection, mostly technologically advanced countries, insist on a stringent IP Regime whereas technologically weak developing countries seem to advocate for flexibilities. From the perspective of developing countries like India, one of the most crucial concerns is related to the patenting of life forms and the protection of TK and BD. There have been several instances of Bio-piracy and Bio-prospecting of the resources related to BD and TK from the Bio-rich Global South. It is widely argued that many provisions in the TRIPS are capable of offsetting the welcome provisions in the CBD such as the Access and Benefit Sharing and Prior Informed Consent. The point that is being argued out is as to how the mismatch between the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD could be addressed in a healthy manner so that the essential minimum legitimate interests of all stakeholders could be secured thereby introducing a new direction to the international relations. The findings of this study reveal that the challenges roused by the TRIPS Regime over-weigh the opportunities. The mismatch in the provisions in this regard has generated various crucial issues such as Bio-piracy and Bio-prospecting. However, there is ample scope for managing and protecting IP through institutional innovation, legislative, executive and administrative initiative at the global, national and regional levels. The Indian experience is quite reflective of the same and efforts are being made through the new national IPR policy. This paper, employing Historical Analytical Method, has Three Sections. The First Section shall trace the correlation between the Technology, IPR and international relations. The Second Section shall review the issues and potential concerns in the protection and management of IP related to the BD and TK in the developing countries in the wake of the TRIPS and the CBD. The Final Section shall analyze the Indian Experience in this regard and the experience of the bio-rich Kerala in particular.

Keywords: IPR, technology and international relations, bio-diversity, traditional knowledge

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Authors: L. Strauta, S. Muižniece-Brasava

Abstract:

Even though legumes possess high nutritional value and have a rather high protein content for plant origin products, they are underutilized mostly due to their lengthy cooking time. To increase the presence of legume-based products in human diet, new extruded products were made of cow peas (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.). But as it is known, adding different moisture content to flour before extrusion can change the physical properties of the extruded product. Experiments were carried out to estimate the optimal moisture content for cow pea extrusion. After extrusion, the pH level had dropped from 6.7 to 6.5 and the lowest hardness rate was observed in the samples with additional 9 g 100g^-1 of moisture - 28±4N, but the volume mass of the samples with additional 9 g100g^-1 of water was 263±3 g L^-1; all samples were approximately 7±1mm long.

Keywords: cow pea, extrusion–cooking, moisture, size

Procedia PDF Downloads 189