Search results for: language intervention

Authors: Nasiruddin Khan, Nasser M. Al-Daghri, Dara A. Al-Disi, Asim Al-Fadda, Mohamed Al-Seif, Gyanendra Tripathi, A. L. Harte, Philip G. Mcternan

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For the last few decades, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is increasing alarmingly high and is unprecedented at 31.6 %. Preventive measures should be taken to curb down the increasing incidence. In this prospective, 3-month study, we aimed to determine whether dietary modification program would confer favorable affects among overweight and obese adult Saudi women with or without T2DM. A total of 92 Saudi women [18 healthy controls, 24 overweight subjects and 50 overweight or obese patients with early onset T2DM were included in this prospective study. Baseline anthropometrics and fasting blood samples were taken at baseline and after 3 months. Fasting blood sugar and lipid profile were measured routinely. A 500 Kcal deficit energy diet less than their daily recommended dietary allowances were prescribed to all participants. After 3 months of follow-up visit, significant improvements were observed in both the overweight and DMT2 group as compared to baseline with decreased mean BMI [Overweight Group 28.54±1.49 versus 27.95±2.25, p<0.05; DMT2 group 35.24±7.67 versus 35.04±8.07, p<0.05] and hip circumference [Overweight group 109.67±5.01 versus 108.07±4.07, p<0.05; DMT2 group 112.3±13.43 versus 109.21±12.71, p<0.01]. Moreover, in the overweight group, baseline HDL-cholesterol was significantly associated with protein intake and inversely associated with carbohydrate intake in controls. In the DMT2 group, carbohydrate intake at baseline was significantly associated with BMI. A 3-month 500kcal/day deficit dietary modification alone is probably effective among adult overweight or obese Saudi females without or with T2DM. Longer prospective studies are to determine whether the dietary intervention alone can reduce progression of T2DM among high-risk adult Arabs.

Keywords: diet, lipid, obesity, T2DM

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Authors: Magdy Abouzeid

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Introduction: Physical activity has been shown to have a positive effect on bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) among children, adolescents, and adults. Sports characterized by little or moderate weight bearing or impact have a low osteogenic effect. However, the action of such sports on bone turnover remains unclear. Swimming, as a non-weight-bearing sport, has been considered to be insignificant in the maintenance of bone mass. Purpose: To examine this issue we measured (BMD) and(BMC) of the lumbar spine, proximal femur via dual energy x-ray absorptiometry in the group of elite male swimmers, and determine the effect of swimming training on bone health and compared the results with matched controls group in age, body weight and height. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five male swimmers (age 20.7+/-0.8 years) training for 12-15 hours/week; and the controls group consisted of 25 non-active male (age 21.3 +/-1.3 years) were studied BMD and BMC of lumbar spine, femur were assessed via (DXA) absorptiometry. Results: There was significant difference between swimmers and control group in BMD and BMC, BMD of Swimmers was significantly greater than controls at all sites. The lumbar spine (1, 08 +/-0.202 vs., 0717+0.57 gxcm (-2), right proximal femur (1, 02 +/-, 044 vs., 771+/-, 027 gxcm (-2), and left proximal femur (1.374+/-0.212 vs. 1.01 +/-0.141 gxcm (-2). Swimmers were significantly taller, and had greater BMC and BMD compared to the controls group (P<0.001). Conclusions: These results suggest that swimming training may be beneficial in the prevention or therapy of OSTEOPENIA, and may lead to increased (BMD) and (BMC) for male swimmers. Swimming may be an effective non-pharmacological intervention for the adults and adolescent. Further research with younger athletes of another type of aquatics sport is warranted to better identify the periods of BMD development during which Aquatics sport has the greatest impact on bone health.

Keywords: bone mineral density, lumbar spine, femur, swimming, DXA absorptiometry

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Authors: Elvira Wahyuni

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This study is a classroom action research. The general objective of this study was to find out students’ speaking ability through teaching English by using video and to find out the effectiveness of using video in teaching English to improve students’ speaking ability. The subjects of this study were 34 of the first-year students of SMAN 12 Pekanbaru who were learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Students were given pre-test before the treatment and post-test after the treatment. Quantitative data was collected by using speaking test requiring the students to respond to the recorded questions. Qualitative data was collected through observation sheets and field notes. The research finding reveals that there is a significant improvement of the students’ speaking ability through the use of video in speaking class. The qualitative data gave a description and additional information about the learning process done by the students. The research findings indicate that the use of video in teaching and learning is good in increasing learning outcome.

Keywords: English teaching, fun learning, speaking ability, video

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Authors: Benedict Ita, Peter Okoi

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In this work, the concept of the extended Nikiforov-Uvarov technique is discussed and employed to obtain the exact bound state energy eigenvalues and the corresponding normalized eigenfunctions of the inverse square root potential. With expressions for the exact energy eigenvalues and corresponding eigenfunctions, the expressions for the expectation values of the inverse separation-squared, kinetic energy, and the momentum-squared of the potential are presented using the Hellmann Feynman theorem. For visualization, algorithms written and implemented in Python language are used to generate tables and plots for l-states of the energy eigenvalues and some expectation values. The results obtained here may find suitable applications in areas like atomic and molecular physics, chemical physics, nuclear physics, and solid-state physics.

Keywords: Schrodinger equation, Nikoforov-Uvarov method, inverse square root potential, diatomic molecules, Python programming, Hellmann-Feynman theorem, second order differential equation, matrix algebra

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Authors: Chimuanya Osuji, Kido Uyamasi, Morgan Bradley

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Introduction: Obesity is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases, with higher rates occurring among certain populations. Even though disparities in obesity rates exist for those with disabilities, few studies have assessed the association between disability and obesity status. This study aims to examine the association between type of disability and obesity status among US adults during the Covid-19 pandemic (2019-2021). Methods: Data for this cross-sectional study was obtained from the 2019, 2020 and 2021 NHIS. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to assess the relationship between each type of disability and obesity status (reference= normal/underweight). Each model adjusted for demographic, health status and health-related quality of life variables. Statistical analyses were conducted using SAS version 9.4. Results: Of the 82,632 US adults who completed the NHIS in 2019, 2020, and 2021. 8.9% (n= 7,354) reported at least 1 disability-related condition. Respondents reported having a disability across vision (1.5%), hearing (1.5%), mobility (5.3%), communication (0.8%), cognition (2.4%) and self-care (1.1%) domains. After adjusting for covariates, adults with at least 1 disability-related condition were about 30% more likely to have moderate-severe obesity (AOR=1.3; 95% CI=1.11, 1.53). Mobility was the only disability category positively associated with mild obesity (AOR=1.16; 95% CI=1.01, 1.35) and moderate/severe obesity (AOR=1.6; 95% CI=1.35, 1.89). Individuals with vision disability were about 35% less likely to have mild obesity (AOR=0.66; 95% CI=0.51, 0.86) and moderate-severe obesity (AOR=0.66; 95% CI= 0.48, 0.9). Individuals with hearing disability were 28% less likely to have mild obesity (AOR=0.72; 95% CI= 0.56, 0.94). Individuals with communication disability were about 30% less likely to be overweight (AOR=0.66; 95% CI=0.47, 0.93) and 50% less likely to have mild obesity (AOR=0.45; 95% CI= 0.29, 0.71). Individuals with cognitive disability were about 25% less likely to have mild obesity and about 35% less likely to have moderate-severe obesity. Individuals with self-care disability were about 30% less likely to be overweight. Conclusion: Mobility-related disabilities are significantly associated with obesity status among adults residing in the United States. Researchers and policy makers should implement obesity intervention methods that can address the gap in obesity prevalence rates among those with and without disabilities.

Keywords: cognition, disability, mobility, obesity

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Authors: Yizhi Zhang, Xiaozan Wang, Mingming Guo, Pengpeng Li

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Introduction: The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of after-school football training in improving the physical fitness of primary school students, so as to provide corresponding suggestions for carrying out after-school football training in primary schools. Methods: A total of 72 students from the experimental primary school of Mouping district, Yantai city, Shandong province, participated in this experiment. The experiment was conducted for two semesters. During the experiment period, the experimental group conducted one-hour football training after school from Monday to Thursday afternoon every week, and two hours of football training on Saturday morning every week. The control group conducted sports teaching and extracurricular activities as usual without other intervention. Before and after the experiment, both the experimental group and the control group underwent physical fitness tests according to the physical fitness test standards of Chinese students, including lung capacity, 50-meter run, one-minute skipping rope, sitting forward flexor, and one-minute sit-ups. The test results were all converted to the 100-point system according to the scoring standards. Results: (1) Before the experiment, there was no significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in various physical fitness indicators (p > 0.05). (2) After the experiment, the lung capacity score (T = 3.108, p < 0.05), the 50-meter run score (T = 6.593, p < 0.05), the skipping score (T = 9.227, p < 0.05), the sitting forward flexor score (T = 3.742, p < 0.05), and the sit-up score (T = 5.210, p < 0.05) of the experimental group were significantly higher than that of the control group. Conclusion: This study shows that the physical fitness of primary school students can be improved by football training in their spare time. It is suggested to carry out after-school football training activities in primary schools so as to effectively improve the physical fitness of pupils.

Keywords: after-school football training, physical fitness, primary school students, school sports

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Authors: Victoria Y. Garnova, Vladimir G. Merzlikin, Denis G. Yakovlev, Andrei А. Amelenkov, Sergey V. Khudyakov

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Assessment of novelty of studies submitted in Russian publications is given by the method citation analysis to identify scientific research with a high degree of innovation. This may be the basis of recommendations for subjects new joint projects setting of the RF and the EU. Apart from not the best rating of Russian publications (may even its lack) current IT ensure open access to the WEB-sites of these journals that make possible own expertise selective rapid assessment of the advanced developments in Russia by interested foreign investors. Cited foreign literature in Russian journals can become the subject of study to determine the innovative attractiveness of scientific research on the background a specific future-proof abroad. Authors introduced: (1) linguistic impact factor Li-f of journals for describing the share of publications in the majority language; (2) linguistic citation index Lact characterizing the significance of scientific research and linguistic top ones Ltop for evaluation of the spectral width of citing of foreign journals.

Keywords: citation analysis, linguistic citation indexes, linguistic impact factor, innovative projects

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Authors: Karish Thavabalan, Alistair Ovenell, Aman Sutaria, Annabelle Parkhouse, Numan Baydemir, Theodore Lally

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Background: Open discussions surrounding menopause are often associated with stigma, with many women feeling uncomfortable to engage in them with friends, colleagues, and healthcare professionals. Though the barriers regarding safe discussions of symptom management experienced by menopausal women are well documented, existing research offers little insight into whether these were shared by pre-menopausal women. This study aimed to explore the barriers regarding safe discussions about menopausal symptom management as perceived or experienced by pre-menopausal and menopausal women. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted over a 2-month period (March 2022 - April 2022) under the auspices of Imperial College Business School, London, UK. Snowball sampling was used to recruit both menopausal (age 45-70) and pre-menopausal participants (age <45), and sampling continued until data saturation was achieved. 16 semi-structured online interviews were conducted, and transcripts were thematically analyzed following Braun and Clarke’s six-step methodology. Results: A total of 7 higher themes regarding safe discussion of menopausal symptom management were identified by both pre-menopausal and menopausal women, including: “ineffective coping mechanisms”, “perceived onus to self-endure”, “lack of workplace support”, “poor knowledge of management approaches”, “poor healthcare infrastructure”, “poor support from friends and family”, “lack of knowledge and interest from a young age”. Conclusion: Identifying the barriers regarding safe discussion helped to highlight which areas require most significant intervention. Alongside tackling the barriers, menopausal women face, ultimately, there is a pertinent need to and address the lack of insight into menopause from a younger age and to encourage earlier discussions so as to not propagate the cycle of stigma.

Keywords: menopause, stigma, safe discussions, symptom management

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Authors: Aulia Fitri

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This aims to seek which part of the linguistics with the common mistakes occurred between Instagram translation and human translation. Instagram is a social media account that is widely used by people in the world. Everyone with the Instagram account can consume the captions and pictures that are shared by their friends, celebrity, and public figures across countries. Instagram provides the machine translation under its caption space that will assist users to understand the language of their non-native. The researcher takes samples from an Indonesian public figure whereas the account is followed by many followers. The public figure tries to help her followers from other countries understand her posts by putting up the English version after the Indonesian version. However, the research on Instagram account has not been done yet even though the account is widely used by the worldwide society. There are 20 samples that will be analysed on the perspective of translation quality and linguistics tools. As the MT, Instagram tends to give a literal translation without regarding the topic meant. On the other hand, the human translation tends to exaggerate the translation which leads a different meaning in English. This is an interesting study to discuss when the human nature and robotic-system influence the translation result.

Keywords: human translation, machine translation (MT), translation quality, linguistic tool

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Authors: A. D. Zikiryahodjaev, L. V. Bolotina, A. S. Sukhotko

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Purpose. To evaluate the expediency and timeliness of performance of surgical treatment as a component of multi-therapy treatment of patients with stage IV breast cancers. Materials and Methods. This investigation comparatively analyzed the results of complex treatment with or without surgery in patients with metastatic breast cancer. We analyzed retrospectively treatment experience of 196 patients with generalized breast cancer in the department of oncology and breast reconstructive surgery of P.A. Herzen Moscow Cancer Research Institute from 2000 to 2012. The average age was (58±1,1) years. Invasive ductul carcinoma was verified in128 patients (65,3%), invasive lobular carcinoma-33 (16,8%), complex form - 19 (9,7%). Complex palliative care involving drug and radiation therapies was performed in two patient groups. The first group includes 124 patients who underwent surgical intervention as complex treatment, the second group includes 72 patients with only medical therapy. Standard systemic therapy was given to all patients. Results. Overall, 3-and 5-year survival in fist group was 43,8 and 21%, in second - 15,1 and 9,3% respectively [p=0,00002 log-rank]. Median survival in patients with surgical treatment composed 32 months, in patients with only systemic therapy-21. The factors having influencing an influence on the prognosis and the quality of life outcomes for of patients with generalized breast cancer were are also studied: hormone-dependent tumor, Her2/neu hyper-expression, reproductive function status (age, menopause existence). Conclusion.Removing primary breast tumor in patients with generalized breast cancer improve long-term outcomes. Three- and five-year survival increased by 28,7 and 16,3% respectively, and median survival–for 11 months. These patients may benefit from resection of the breast tumor. One explanation for the effect of this resection is that reducing the tumor load influences metastatic growth.

Keywords: breast cancer, combination therapy, factors of prognosis, primary tumor

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Authors: Alalddin Al-Tarawneh

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In its literal translation, the Qur’an is frequently subject to misinterpretation as a result of failures to deliver its meaning into any language. This paper relies on the genuine aspect that the Qur’an is an oral performance in its nature; and the objective of any Qur’an translation is to deliver its meaning in English. Therefore, it approaches the translation of the Qur’an beyond the usual formal linguistic approach in order to include an extra-textual factor. This factor is the recitation or oral performance of the Qur’an, that is, tajweed as it is termed in Arabic. The translations used in this paper to apply the suggested approach were carefully chosen to be representative of the problems that exist in many Qur’an translations. These translations are The Meaning of the Holy Quran: Translation and Commentary by Ali (1989), The Meaning of the Glorious Koran by Pickthall (1997/1930), and The Quran: Arabic Text with Corresponding English Meanings by Sahih (2010). Through the examples cited in this paper, it is suggested that the agents involved in producing a ‘translation’ of the Holy Qur’an have to take into account its oral aspect which yields additional senses and meanings that are not being captured by adhering to the words of the ‘written’ discourse. This paper attempts in its translation into English.

Keywords: oral performance, tajweed, Qur'an translation, recitation

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Authors: Silvia Tamayo-Moreno, Diana Pérez-Marín

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In this paper, the possibility of children studying by using an interactive learning technology called Pedagogic Conversational Agent is presented. The main benefit is that the agent is able to adapt the dialogue to each student and to provide automatic feedback. Moreover, according to Math teachers, in many cases students are unable to solve the problems even knowing the procedure to solve them, because they do not understand what they have to do. The hypothesis is that if students are helped to understand what they have to solve, they will be able to do it. Taken that into account, we have started the development of Dr. Roland, an agent to help students understand Math problems following a User-Centered Design methodology. The use of this methodology is proposed, for the first time, to design pedagogic agents to teach any subject from Secondary down to Pre-Primary education. The reason behind proposing a methodology is that while working on this project, we noticed the lack of literature to design and evaluate agents. To cover this gap, we describe how User-Centered Design can be applied, and which usability techniques can be applied to evaluate the agent.

Keywords: pedagogic conversational agent, human-computer interaction, user-centered design, natural language interface

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Authors: Atefeh Saljooghi Khoshkar, Jafar Hassanpour

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One of the main problems of the design stage relating to many tunneling projects is the lack of an appropriate standard for the provision of engineering geological data in a predefined format. In particular, this is more reflected in highway and railroad tunnel projects in which there is a number of tunnels and different professional teams involved. In this regard, comprehensive software needs to be designed using the accepted methods in order to help engineering geologists to prepare standard reports, which contain sufficient input data for the design stage. Regarding this necessity, applied software has been designed using macro capabilities and Visual Basic programming language (VBA) through Microsoft Excel. In this software, all of the engineering geological input data, which are required for designing different parts of tunnels, such as discontinuities properties, rock mass strength parameters, rock mass classification systems, boreability classification, the penetration rate, and so forth, can be calculated and reported in a standard format.

Keywords: engineering geology, rock mass classification, rock mechanic, tunnel

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Authors: Marlon P. Perez

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The study intended to determine the level of occupational stress that was experienced by faculty members of private and public business schools in Batangas City with the end in view of proposing organizational development interventions in managing occupational stressors. Stressors such as factors intrinsic to the job, role in the organization, relationships at work, career development and organizational structure and climate were used as determinants of occupational stress level. Descriptive method of research was used as its research design. There were only 64 full-time faculty members coming from private and public business schools in Batangas City – University of Batangas, Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas, Golden Gate Colleges, Batangas State University and Colegio ng Lungsod ng Batangas. Survey questionnaire was used as data gathering instrument. It was found out that all occupational stressors were assessed stressful when grouped according to its classification of tertiary schools while response of subject respondents differs on their assessment of occupational stressors. Age variable has become significantly related to respondents’ assessments on factors intrinsic to the job and career development; however, it was not significantly related to role in the organization, relationships at work and organizational structure and climate. On the other hand, gender, marital status, highest educational attainment, employment status, length of service, area of specialization and classification of tertiary school were revealed to be not significantly related to all occupational stressors. Various organizational development interventions have been proposed to manage the occupational stressors that are experienced by business faculty members in the institution.

Keywords: occupational stress, business school, organizational development, intervention, stressors, faculty members, assessment, manage

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Authors: Qianxi Lv, Junying Liang

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Among the various modes of interpreting, simultaneous interpreting (SI) is regarded as a ‘complex’ and ‘extreme condition’ of cognitive tasks while consecutive interpreters (CI) do not have to share processing capacity between tasks. Given that SI exerts great cognitive demand, it makes sense to posit that the output of SI may be more compromised than that of CI in the linguistic features. The bulk of the research has stressed the varying cognitive demand and processes involved in different modes of interpreting; however, related empirical research is sparse. In keeping with our interest in investigating the quantitative linguistic factors discriminating between SI and CI, the current study seeks to examine the potential lexical simplification, syntactic complexity and sequential organization mechanism with a self-made inter-model corpus of transcribed simultaneous and consecutive interpretation, translated speech and original speech texts with a total running word of 321960. The lexical features are extracted in terms of the lexical density, list head coverage, hapax legomena, and type-token ratio, as well as core vocabulary percentage. Dependency distance, an index for syntactic complexity and reflective of processing demand is employed. Frequency motif is a non-grammatically-bound sequential unit and is also used to visualize the local function distribution of interpreting the output. While SI is generally regarded as multitasking with high cognitive load, our findings evidently show that CI may impose heavier or taxing cognitive resource differently and hence yields more lexically and syntactically simplified output. In addition, the sequential features manifest that SI and CI organize the sequences from the source text in different ways into the output, to minimize the cognitive load respectively. We reasoned the results in the framework that cognitive demand is exerted both on maintaining and coordinating component of Working Memory. On the one hand, the information maintained in CI is inherently larger in volume compared to SI. On the other hand, time constraints directly influence the sentence reformulation process. The temporal pressure from the input in SI makes the interpreters only keep a small chunk of information in the focus of attention. Thus, SI interpreters usually produce the output by largely retaining the source structure so as to relieve the information from the working memory immediately after formulated in the target language. Conversely, CI interpreters receive at least a few sentences before reformulation, when they are more self-paced. CI interpreters may thus tend to retain and generate the information in a way to lessen the demand. In other words, interpreters cope with the high demand in the reformulation phase of CI by generating output with densely distributed function words, more content words of higher frequency values and fewer variations, simpler structures and more frequently used language sequences. We consequently propose a revised effort model based on the result for a better illustration of cognitive demand during both interpreting types.

Keywords: cognitive demand, corpus-based, dependency distance, frequency motif, interpreting types, lexical simplification, sequential units distribution, syntactic complexity

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Authors: Rozi Laskaraki, Argyris Karapetsas, Aikaterini Karapetsa

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This paper is focused on the efficacy of a rehabilitation program based on musical activities, implied to a group of school-aged dyslexic children. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of auditory training including musical exercises in children with developmental dyslexia (DD). Participants and Methods: 45 third-, and fourth-grade students with DD and a matched control group (n=45) were involved in this study. In the beginning, students participated in a clinical assessment, including both electrophysiological (i.e., event related potentials (ERPs) esp.P300 waveform) and neuropsychological tests, being conducted in Laboratory of Neuropsychology, at University of Thessaly, in Volos, Greece. Initial assessment’s results confirmed statistically significant lower performance for children with DD, compared to that of the typical readers. After clinical assessment, a subgroup of children with dyslexia was submitted to a music auditory training program, conducted in 45-minute training sessions, once a week, for twenty weeks. The program included structured and digitized musical activities involving pitch, rhythm, melody and tempo perception and discrimination as well as auditory sequencing. After the intervention period, children underwent a new recording of ERPs. Results: The electrophysiological results revealed that children had similar P300 latency values to that of the controls, after the remediation program; thus children overcame their deficits. Conclusion: The outcomes of the current study suggest that ERPs is a valid clinical tool in neuropsychological assessment settings and dyslexia can be ameliorated through music auditory training.

Keywords: dyslexia, event related potentials, learning disabilities, music, rehabilitation

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Authors: John Doe

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This paper presents the research project “Escape Through Culture”, which is co-funded by the European Union and national resources through the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” 2014-2020 and the Single RTDI State Aid Action "RESEARCH - CREATE - INNOVATE". The project implementation is assumed by three partners, (1) the Computer Technology Institute and Press "Diophantus" (CTI), experienced with the design and implementation of serious games, natural language processing and ICT in education, (2) the Laboratory of Environmental Communication and Audiovisual Documentation (LECAD), part of the University of Thessaly, Department of Architecture, which is experienced with the study of creative transformation and reframing of the urban and environmental multimodal experiences through the use of AR and VR technologies, and (3) “Apoplou”, an IT Company with experience in the implementation of interactive digital applications. The research project proposes the design of innovative infrastructure of digital educational escape games for mobile devices and computers, with the use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for the promotion of Greek cultural heritage in Greece and abroad. In particular, the project advocates the combination of Greek cultural heritage and literature, digital technologies advancements and the implementation of innovative gamifying practices. The cultural experience of the players will take place in 3 layers: (1) In space: the digital games produced are going to utilize the dual character of the space as a cultural landscape (the real space - landscape but also the space - landscape as presented with the technologies of augmented reality and virtual reality). (2) In literary texts: the selected texts of Greek writers will support the sense of place and the multi-sensory involvement of the user, through the context of space-time, language and cultural characteristics. (3) In the philosophy of the "escape game" tool: whether played in a computer environment, indoors or outdoors, the spatial experience is one of the key components of escape games. The innovation of the project lies both in the junction of Augmented/Virtual Reality with the promotion of cultural points of interest, as well as in the interactive, gamified practices of literary texts. The digital escape game infrastructure will be highly interactive, integrating the projection of Greek landscape cultural elements and digital literary text analysis, supporting the creation of escape games, establishing and highlighting new playful ways of experiencing iconic cultural places, such as Elefsina, Skiathos etc. The literary texts’ content will relate to specific elements of the Greek cultural heritage depicted by prominent Greek writers and poets. The majority of the texts will originate from Greek educational content available in digital libraries and repositories developed and maintained by CTI. The escape games produced will be available for use during educational field trips, thematic tourism holidays, etc. In this paper, the methodology adopted for infrastructure development will be presented. The research is based on theories of place, gamification, gaming development, making use of corpus linguistics concepts and digital humanities practices for the compilation and the analysis of literary texts.

Keywords: escape games, cultural landscapes, gamification, digital humanities, literature

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Authors: Dorota Galeza

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This paper argues that networks, such as the ECN and the American network, are affected by certain small events which are inherent to path dependence and preclude the full evolution towards efficiency. It is advocated that the American network is superior to the ECN in many respects due to its greater flexibility and longer history. This stems in particular from the creation of the American network, which was based on a small number of cases. Such structure encourages further changes and modifications which are not necessarily radical. The ECN, by contrast, was established by legislative action, which explains its rigid structure and resistance to change. It might be the case that the ECN is subject not so much to path dependence but to past dependence. It might have to be replaced, as happened to its predecessor. This paper is an attempt to transpose the superiority of the American network on to the ECN. It looks at concepts such as judicial cooperation, harmonization of procedure, peer review and regulatory impact assessments (RIAs), and dispute resolution procedures. The aim is to adopt these concepts into the EU setting without recourse to legal transplantation. The major difficulty is that many of these concepts have been tested only in the US and it is difficult to tell whether they could be modified to meet EU standards. Concepts such as judicial cooperation might be difficult due to different language traditions in EU member states. It is hoped that greater flexibility, as in the American network, would boost legitimacy and transparency.

Keywords: ECN, networks, regulation, competition

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Authors: Florge Francis A. Sy

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Physicians develop emotional and psychological distress after facing a patient’s death. This can result in stress or burnout. Coping mechanisms in dealing with these deaths may be maladaptive. Determining grief, emotional impact, and coping strategies in physicians is necessary to identify those needing intervention. This can be done by employing validated assessment tools such as the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG) scale, Impact of Events Scale (IES), and BriefCOPE tool, respectively. This prospective, observational study was done in a private hospital in Cebu City. Fifty-five internal medicine residents were included and tasked to answer a survey based on their most memorable patient death encounter. The TRIG, IES, and BriefCOPE scores were determined. Participants were divided into severe grief and non-severe grief based on TRIG scores, low-impact, moderate-impact, and high-impact based on IES, and low-use, moderate-use, and high-use based on the BriefCOPE. The differences in the groups’ characteristics were statistically determined, and a p-value of < 0.05 was significant. The participants’ average age was 28.45 years. Most were female and single. Most belonged to the non-severe group based on TRIG, a moderate-impact group based on the IES, and high-use group based on the BriefCOPE. However, 21.8% reported severe grief, 27.3% reported high-impact, and 10.9% had low use of coping strategies. The proportion of residents who encountered CPR prior to the patient’s death was greater in the severe group. Proportions of both high-impact and non-high impact groups were comparable. The proportion of female residents was higher in the high-use group. There were a number of residents who reported severe grief, high emotional impact, and low coping strategies. This highlights the need for interventions such as debriefing after CPR or formal training in residency programs in dealing with emotional burden to counteract maladaptive coping behaviors and prevent negative outcomes.

Keywords: residents, grief, emotional impact, coping, patient death

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Authors: Max Butler

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Melanoma accounts for 80% of skin cancer-related deaths globally. The poor prognosis and increasing incidence of melanoma impose a significant burden on global healthcare systems. Early detection, precise diagnosis, and preventative strategies are critical to improving patient outcomes. Dermoscopy is the gold standard for specialist assessments of pigmented skin lesions, as it can differentiate between benign and malignant growths with greater accuracy than visual inspection. In the United Kingdom, guidelines from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) state dermoscopy should be used in all specialist assessments of pigmented skin lesions. Compliance with this guideline is low, resulting in missed and delayed melanoma diagnoses. To address this problem, a quality improvement project was initiated at Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust (BHT) within the plastic surgery department. The target group was a trainee and consultant plastic surgeons conducting outpatient skin cancer clinics. Analysis of clinic documentation over a one-month period found that only 62% (38/61) of patients referred with pigmented skin lesions were examined using dermoscopy. To increase dermoscopy rates, teaching was delivered to the department highlighting national guidelines and the evidence base for dermoscopic examination. In addition, clinic paperwork was redesigned to include a text box for dermoscopic examination. Reauditing after the intervention found a significant increase in dermoscopy rates (52/61, p = 0.014). In conclusion, implementing a quality improvement project with targeted teaching and documentation template templates successfully increased dermoscopy rates. This is a promising step toward improving early melanoma detection and patient outcomes.

Keywords: melanoma, dermoscopy, plastic surgery, quality improvement

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Authors: Amit Bhanushali

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In the ever-changing landscape of software development, automated software testing has emerged as a critical component of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This research undertakes a comparative study of three major automated testing tools -UFT, Selenium, and RPA- evaluating them on usability, maintenance, and effectiveness. Leveraging existing JAVA-based applications as test cases, the study aims to guide testers in selecting the optimal tool for specific applications. By exploring key features such as source and licensing, testing expenses, object repositories, usability, and language support, the research provides practical insights into UFT, Selenium, and RPA. Acknowledging the pivotal role of these tools in streamlining testing processes amid time constraints and resource limitations, the study assists professionals in making informed choices aligned with their organizational needs.

Keywords: software testing tools, software development lifecycle (SDLC), test automation frameworks, automated software, JAVA-based, UFT, selenium and RPA (robotic process automation), source and licensing, object repository

Procedia PDF Downloads 98

Authors: Naz Najma, Grace T. M. Dal Sasso, Maria de Lourdes de Souza

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The development of information and communication technologies and the accessibility of mobile devices has increased the possibilities of the teaching and learning process anywhere and anytime. Mobile and web application allows the production of constructive teaching and learning models in various educational settings, showing the potential for active learning in nursing. The objective of this study was to present the development of an educational technology (Savinglife®, an app) for learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation and advanced cardiovascular life support training. Savinglife® is a technological production, based on the concept of virtual learning and problem-based learning approach. The study was developed from January 2016 to November 2016, using five phases (analyze, design, develop, implement, evaluate) of the instructional systems development process. The technology presented 10 scenarios and 12 simulations, covering different aspects of basic and advanced cardiac life support. The contents can be accessed in a non-linear way leaving the students free to build their knowledge based on their previous experience. Each scenario is presented through interactive tools such as scenario description, assessment, diagnose, intervention and reevaluation. Animated ECG rhythms, text documents, images and videos are provided to support procedural and active learning considering real life situation. Accessible equally on small to large devices with or without an internet connection, Savinglife® offers a dynamic, interactive and flexible tool, placing students at the center of the learning process. Savinglife® can contribute to the student’s learning in the assessment and management of basic and advanced cardiac life support in a safe and ethical way.

Keywords: problem-based learning, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, nursing education, advanced cardiac life support, educational technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 305

Authors: John Ahluwalia

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As an affluent first-world nation, Canada took swift and comprehensive action during the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic compared to other countries in the same socio-economic cohort. The United States has stumbled to overcome obstacles most developed nations have faced, which has led to significantly more per capita cases and deaths. The initial outbreaks of COVID-19 occurred in the US and Canada within days of each other and posed similar potentially catastrophic threats to public health, the economy, and governmental stability. On a macro level, events that take place in the US have a direct impact on Canada. For example, both countries tend to enter and exit economic recessions at approximately the same time, they are each other’s largest trading partners, and their currencies are inexorably linked. Variables intrinsic to Canada’s national infrastructure have been instrumental in the country’s efforts to flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Canada’s coordinated multi-level governmental effort has allowed it to create and enforce policies related to COVID-19 at both the national and provincial levels. Canada’s policy of universal health care is another variable. Health care and public health measures are enforced on a provincial level, and it is within each province’s jurisdiction to dictate standards for public safety based on scientific evidence. Rather than introducing confusion and the possibility of competition for resources such as PPE and vaccines, Canada’s multi-level chain of government authority has provided consistent policies supporting national public health and local delivery of medical care. This paper will demonstrate that the coordinated efforts on provincial and federal levels have been the linchpin in Canada’s relative success in containing the deadly spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Keywords: COVID-19, canada, GIS, geospatial analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 69

Authors: Kehabtimer Shiferaw Kotiso, Getachew Hailemariam, Abiy Seifu Estifanos

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Introduction: Despite the highest share of low birth weight (LBW) for neonatal mortality and morbidity, predicting births with LBW for better intervention preparation is challenging. This study aims to predict LBW using a dataset encompassing 53,637 birth cohorts collected from 36 primary hospitals across seven regions in Ethiopia from February 2022 to June 2024. Methods: We identified ten explanatory variables related to maternal and neonatal characteristics, including maternal education, age, residence, history of miscarriage or abortion, history of preterm birth, type of pregnancy, number of livebirths, number of stillbirths, antenatal care frequency, and sex of the fetus to predict LBW. Using WEKA 3.8.2, we developed and compared seven machine learning algorithms. Data preprocessing included handling missing values, outlier detection, and ensuring data integrity in birth weight records. Model performance was evaluated through metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC AUC) using 10-fold cross-validation. Results: The results demonstrated that the decision tree, J48, logistic regression, and gradient boosted trees model achieved the highest accuracy (94.5% to 94.6%) with a precision of 93.1% to 93.3%, F1-score of 92.7% to 93.1%, and ROC AUC of 71.8% to 76.6%. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the effectiveness of machine learning models in predicting LBW. The high accuracy and recall rates achieved indicate that these models can serve as valuable tools for healthcare policymakers and providers in identifying at-risk newborns and implementing timely interventions to achieve the sustainable developmental goal (SDG) related to neonatal mortality.

Keywords: low birth weight, machine learning, classification, neonatal mortality, Ethiopia

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Authors: M. Isabel Santos, Ana Breda, Ana Margarida Almeida

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Research on academic abilities of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) underlines the importance of mathematics interventions. Yet the proposal of digital applications for children and youth with ASD continues to attract little attention, namely, regarding the development of mathematical reasoning, being the use of the digital technologies an area of great interest for individuals with this disorder and its use is certainly a facilitative strategy in the development of their mathematical abilities. The use of digital technologies can be an effective way to create innovative learning opportunities to these students and to develop creative, personalized and constructive environments, where they can develop differentiated abilities. The children with ASD often respond well to learning activities involving information presented visually. In this context, we present the digital Learning Environment on Mathematics for Autistic children (LEMA) that was a research project conducive to a PhD in Multimedia in Education and was developed by the Thematic Line Geometrix, located in the Department of Mathematics, in a collaboration effort with DigiMedia Research Center, of the Department of Communication and Art (University of Aveiro, Portugal). LEMA is a digital mathematical learning environment which activities are dynamically adapted to the user’s profile, towards the development of mathematical abilities of children aged 6–12 years diagnosed with ASD. LEMA has already been evaluated with end-users (both students and teacher’s experts) and based on the analysis of the collected data readjustments were made, enabling the continuous improvement of the prototype, namely considering the integration of universal design for learning (UDL) approaches, which are of most importance in ASD, due to its heterogeneity. The learning strategies incorporated in LEMA are: (i) provide options to custom choice of math activities, according to user’s profile; (ii) integrates simple interfaces with few elements, presenting only the features and content needed for the ongoing task; (iii) uses a simple visual and textual language; (iv) uses of different types of feedbacks (auditory, visual, positive/negative reinforcement, hints with helpful instructions including math concept definitions, solved math activities using split and easier tasks and, finally, the use of videos/animations that show a solution to the proposed activity); (v) provides information in multiple representation, such as text, video, audio and image for better content and vocabulary understanding in order to stimulate, motivate and engage users to mathematical learning, also helping users to focus on content; (vi) avoids using elements that distract or interfere with focus and attention; (vii) provides clear instructions and orientation about tasks to ease the user understanding of the content and the content language, in order to stimulate, motivate and engage the user; and (viii) uses buttons, familiarly icons and contrast between font and background. Since these children may experience little sensory tolerance and may have an impaired motor skill, besides the user to have the possibility to interact with LEMA through the mouse (point and click with a single button), the user has the possibility to interact with LEMA through Kinect device (using simple gesture moves).

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, digital technologies, inclusion, mathematical abilities, mathematical learning activities

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Darwin Castillo Huamaní, Francisco A. M. Gomes

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The aim of the multi-material topology optimization (MTO) is to obtain the optimal topology of structures composed by many materials, according to a given set of constraints and cost criteria. In this work, we seek the optimal distribution of materials in a domain, such that the flexibility of the structure is minimized, under certain boundary conditions and the intervention of external forces. In the case we have only one material, each point of the discretized domain is represented by two values from a function, where the value of the function is 1 if the element belongs to the structure or 0 if the element is empty. A common way to avoid the high computational cost of solving integer variable optimization problems is to adopt the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) method. This method relies on the continuous interpolation function, power function, where the base variable represents a pseudo density at each point of domain. For proper exponent values, the SIMP method reduces intermediate densities, since values other than 0 or 1 usually does not have a physical meaning for the problem. Several extension of the SIMP method were proposed for the multi-material case. The one that we explore here is the ordered SIMP method, that has the advantage of not being based on the addition of variables to represent material selection, so the computational cost is independent of the number of materials considered. Although the number of variables is not increased by this algorithm, the optimization subproblems that are generated at each iteration cannot be solved by methods that rely on second derivatives, due to the cost of calculating the second derivatives. To overcome this, we apply a globally convergent version of the sequential linear programming method, which solves a linear approximation sequence of optimization problems.

Keywords: globally convergence, multi-material design ordered simp, sequential linear programming, topology optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 315

Authors: Bernice Lottering, Yi-Wen Lin

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Chronic pain and depression have an estimated 80% rate of comorbidity with unsatisfactory treatment interventions signifying the importance of developing effective therapeutic interventions for a serious chronic condition affecting a large majority of the global population. Chronic pain is defined as persistent pain presenting for over 3 months. This disease state increases the risk of developing depression in comparison to healthy individuals. In the current study, complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) was used to induce cell-mediated chronic inflammatory pain in a murine model. Significant mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia was induced, alongside observable depression-like behaviors. These conditions were attenuated through the use of electroacupuncture (EA). Similarly, these effects were also investigated with respect to the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), by analyzing the effects of TRPV1 gene deletion on the comorbidity of chronic pain and depression. The expression of the TRPV1 inflammatory response, and related downstream molecules, including protein kinases (PKs), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPKs), and transcriptional factors, were significantly reduced in the thalamus, prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, and periaqueductal gray (PAG) of CFA-treated mice. In addition, phosphorylated N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor 1 was also found to be reduced in the aforementioned areas, suggesting potential application and validity in a clinical setting. Our study determined the prospective therapeutic effects of EA in the treatment of chronic inflammatory pain and depression comorbidity and provides a novel and detailed mechanism underlying EA-mediated analgesia. These findings may be relevant in the utilization of clinical intervention approaches related to chronic pain and depression comorbidity.

Keywords: chronic pain, depression, NMDA, prefrontal cortex, TRPV1

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Zahra F. Al-Khateeb, Shenel Shekerzade, Hasna Boumenar, Siân M. Henson, Jordi L. Tremoleda, A. T. Michael-Titus

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of disability and death in young adults and also increases the risk ofneurodegeneration. The mechanisms linking moderate to severe TBI to neurodegeneration are not known. It has been proposed that cellular senescence inductionpost-injury could amplify neuroinflammation and induce long-term changes. The impact of these processes after injury to an immature brain has not been characterised yet. We carried out a controlled cortical impact injury (CCI) in juvenile 1 month-old male CD1 mice. Animals were anesthetised and received a unilateral CCI injury. The sham group received anaesthesia and had a craniotomy. A naïve group had no intervention. The brain tissue was analysed at 5 days and 35 days post-injury using immunohistochemistry and markers for microglia, astrocytes, and senescence. Compared tonaïve animals, injured mice showed an increased microglial and astrocytic reaction early post-injury, as reflected in Iba1 and GFAP markers, respectively; the GFAP increase persisted in the later phase. The senescence analysis showed a significant increase inγH2AX-53BP1 nuclear foci, 8-oxoguanine, p19ARF, p16INK4a, and p53 expression in naïve vs. sham groups and naïve vs. CCI groups, at 5 dpi. At 35 days, the difference was no longer statistically significant in all markers. The injury induced a decrease p21 expression vs. the naïve group, at 35 dpi. These results indicate the induction of a complex senescence response after immature brain injury. Some changes occur early and may reflect the activation/proliferation of non-neuronal cells post-injury that had been hindered, whereas changes such as p21 downregulation may reflect a delayed response and pro-repair processes.

Keywords: cellular senescence, traumatic brain injury, brain injury, controlled cortical impact

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Narayana Murthy Akurathi, Vijaya Lakshmi Marella

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The literature is reviewed with regard to online Super critical fluid extraction (SFE) coupled directly with supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) -mass spectrometry that have typically more sensitive than conventional LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS. It is becoming increasingly interesting to use on-line techniques that combine sample preparation, separation and detection in one analytical set up. This provides less human intervention, uses small amount of sample and organic solvent and yields enhanced analyte enrichment in a shorter time. The sample extraction is performed under light shielding and anaerobic conditions, preventing the degradation of thermo labile analytes. It may be able to analyze compounds over a wide polarity range as SFC generally uses carbon dioxide which was collected as a by-product of other chemical reactions or is collected from the atmosphere as it contributes no new chemicals to the environment. The diffusion of solutes in supercritical fluids is about ten times greater than that in liquids and about three times less than in gases which results in a decrease in resistance to mass transfer in the column and allows for fast high resolution separations. The drawback of SFC when using carbon dioxide as mobile phase is that the direct introduction of water samples poses a series of problems, water must therefore be eliminated before it reaches the analytical column. Hundreds of compounds analysed simultaneously by simple enclosing in an extraction vessel. This is mainly applicable for pharmaceutical industry where it can analyse fatty acids and phospholipids that have many analogues as their UV spectrum is very similar, trace additives in polymers, cleaning validation can be conducted by putting swab sample in an extraction vessel, analysing hundreds of pesticides with good resolution.

Keywords: super critical fluid extraction (SFE), super critical fluid chromatography (SFC), LCMS/MS, GCMS/MS

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Farha Lakhani, Michael J. Pont

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There are two main architectures used to develop software for modern embedded systems: these can be labelled as “event-triggered” (ET) and “time-triggered” (TT). The research presented in this paper is concerned with the issues involved in migration between these two architectures. Although TT architectures are widely used in safety-critical applications they are less familiar to developers of mainstream embedded systems. The research presented in this paper began from the premise that–for a broad class of systems that have been implemented using an ET architecture–migration to a TT architecture would improve reliability. It may be tempting to assume that conversion between ET and TT designs will simply involve converting all event-handling software routines into periodic activities. However, the required changes to the software architecture are, in many cases rather more profound. The main contribution of the work presented in this paper is to identify ways in which the significant effort involved in migrating between existing ET architectures and “equivalent” (and effective) TT architectures could be reduced. The research described in this paper has taken an innovative step in this regard by introducing the use of ‘Design patterns’ for this purpose for the first time.

Keywords: embedded applications, software architectures, reliability, pattern

Procedia PDF Downloads 329