Search results for: forest ecosystem services

Authors: Sehrish Ather

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Introduction: To improve organizational achievements through the production of new knowledge, health policy and system research is the basic requirement. An aging population is always the source of the increased burden of chronic diseases, disabilities, mental illnesses, and other co-morbidities; therefore the provision of quality health care services to every group of the population should be achieved by making strong policy and system research for the betterment of health care system. Unfortunately, the whole world is lacking policies and system research for providing health care to their elderly population. Materials and Methods: A literature review of published studies on aging diseases was done, ranging from the year 2011-2018. Geriatric, population, health policy, system, and research were the key terms used for the search. Databases searched were Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, Ovid, and Research Gate. Grey literature was searched from various websites, including IHME, Library of the University of Lahore, World Health Organization (Ageing and Life Course), and Personal communication with Neuro-physicians. After careful reviewing published and un-published information, it was decided to carry on with commentary. Results and discussion: Most of the published studies have highlighted the need to advocate the funders of health policy and stakeholders of healthcare system research, and it was detected as a major issue, research on policy and healthcare system to provide health care to 'geriatric population' was found as highly neglected area. Conclusion: It is concluded that physicians are more involved with the policy and system research regarding any type of diseases, but scientists and researchers of basic and social science are less likely to be involved in methods used for health policy and system research due to lack of funding and resources. Therefore ageing diseases should be considered as a priority, and comprehensive policy and system research should be initiated for diseases of the geriatric population.

Keywords: geriatric population, health care system, health policy, system research

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Authors: J. S. P. Barbosa, L. C. Pereira, K. R. Garcia, P. C. P. Bouchardet, S. C. T. Vieira, A. O. Gomes, S. S. Funghetto, M. G. O. Kanikowski

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For this population, height seems to be a good predictor of strength and body composition. This increase in life expectancy of the Brazilian's population is associated with sociodemographic variables, but also to more access to health services in the prevention and better living conditions. With the growth of elderly population, a problem that has been a concern to health's professionals and public health at all is the use of psychoactive substances. The purpose of this study was to identify the sociodemographic profile of the elderly people who was attended at the Center of Psychosocial Care of alcohol and other drugs in the Federal District of Brazil. 408 medical records of people aged 60 years or over were evaluated, and it is possible to know that most of them were males (85.3%), with a mean age of 64 years (DP ± 4.16), 60 and 84 years and a mean age of 64 years (DP ± 4.42); 88.2% have some family ties, are married and have children, with relatives living in masonry housing. The educational level of drug users was considered low with more emphasis on those who had elementary education being the majority retired or unemployed. Regarding the street situation, there was no significance (p = 0.084), and the women (OR = 2.98) had few chances of street situations compared to men (OR = 0.89). As for substance consumption, the highest quantity of drug consumption bids in relation to the number of illicit. It did not present significant statistical value, and there is a greater probability of consumption/abuse of legal and/or illicit drugs for both sexes (OR = 0.96) for men and (OR = 1.32) for women. In relation to the use of multiple drugs, there was no significant difference between the sexes, (OR = 1.1) male sex and (OR = 0.74) female sex. Based on the results found in the present study, it was concluded that alcohol consumption is the main agent that causes vulnerability in the elderly and predisposes the latter to the consumption of other associated drugs.

Keywords: centers of attention psychosocial alcohol and drugs, elderly, mental disorder due to drug use, street situations

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Authors: Xingyu Gao, Qiang Wu

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Patents play a crucial role in protecting innovation and intellectual property. Early prediction of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) patents helps researchers and companies allocate resources and make better decisions. Understanding the key factors that influence patent impact can assist researchers in gaining a better understanding of the evolution of AI technology and innovation trends. Therefore, identifying highly impactful patents early and providing support for them holds immeasurable value in accelerating technological progress, reducing research and development costs, and mitigating market positioning risks. Despite the extensive research on AI patents, accurately predicting their early impact remains a challenge. Traditional methods often consider only single factors or simple combinations, failing to comprehensively and accurately reflect the actual impact of patents. This paper utilized the artificial intelligence patent database from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Len.org patent retrieval platform to obtain specific information on 35,708 AI patents. Using six machine learning models, namely Multiple Linear Regression, Random Forest Regression, XGBoost Regression, LightGBM Regression, Support Vector Machine Regression, and K-Nearest Neighbors Regression, and using early indicators of patents as features, the paper comprehensively predicted the impact of patents from three aspects: technical, social, and economic. These aspects include the technical leadership of patents, the number of citations they receive, and their shared value. The SHAP (Shapley Additive exPlanations) metric was used to explain the predictions of the best model, quantifying the contribution of each feature to the model's predictions. The experimental results on the AI patent dataset indicate that, for all three target variables, LightGBM regression shows the best predictive performance. Specifically, patent novelty has the greatest impact on predicting the technical impact of patents and has a positive effect. Additionally, the number of owners, the number of backward citations, and the number of independent claims are all crucial and have a positive influence on predicting technical impact. In predicting the social impact of patents, the number of applicants is considered the most critical input variable, but it has a negative impact on social impact. At the same time, the number of independent claims, the number of owners, and the number of backward citations are also important predictive factors, and they have a positive effect on social impact. For predicting the economic impact of patents, the number of independent claims is considered the most important factor and has a positive impact on economic impact. The number of owners, the number of sibling countries or regions, and the size of the extended patent family also have a positive influence on economic impact. The study primarily relies on data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for artificial intelligence patents. Future research could consider more comprehensive data sources, including artificial intelligence patent data, from a global perspective. While the study takes into account various factors, there may still be other important features not considered. In the future, factors such as patent implementation and market applications may be considered as they could have an impact on the influence of patents.

Keywords: patent influence, interpretable machine learning, predictive models, SHAP

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Authors: Yeşim Özer Özkan, Fatma Büşra Fincan

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Biased sample is a regression of an observation, design process and all of the specifications lead to tendency of a side or the situation of leaving from the objectivity. It is expected that, test items are answered by the students who come from different social groups and the same ability not to be different from each other. The importance of the expectation increases especially during student selection and placement examinations. For example, all of the test items should not be beneficial for just a male or female group. The aim of the research is an investigation of item bias whether or not the exam included in 2014 free boarding and scholarship examination in terms of gender variable. Data which belong to 5th, 6th, and 7th grade the secondary education students were obtained by the General Directorate of Measurement, Evaluation and Examination Services in Turkey. 20% students were selected randomly within 192090 students. Based on 38418 students’ exam paper were examined for determination item bias. Winsteps 3.8.1 package program was used to determine bias in analysis of data, according to Rasch Model in respect to gender variable. Mathematics items tests were examined in terms of gender bias. Firstly, confirmatory factor analysis was applied twenty-five math questions. After that, NFI, TLI, CFI, IFI, RFI, GFI, RMSEA, and SRMR were examined in order to be validity and values of goodness of fit. Modification index values of confirmatory factor analysis were examined and then some of the items were omitted because these items gave an error in terms of model conformity and conceptual. The analysis shows that in 2014 free boarding and scholarship examination exam does not include bias. This is an indication of the gender of the examination to be made in favor of or against different groups of students.

Keywords: gender, item bias, placement test, Rasch model

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Authors: Barsharani Maharana

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India is the country that shelters the largest number of poor. One of the major areas of concern in India is the unsatisfactory situation of the poor in social developmental and health parameters, not only in rural areas which are partly devoid of the facilities but also in the urban areas where the facilities are insufficient to provide services of a satisfactory quality. Objectives: 1) to examine the association between the environmental condition and health condition among poor women in urban areas. 2) to find out the significance of the effect of environment on the child health among the poor children. 3) to present the scenario of poor among highly urbanized and less urbanized states with respect to the health and environment. Data: data from National Family Health survey-3 and census are used to fulfill the objectives. Methodology: In this study, the standard of living condition of people living in urban areas is computed by taking some household characteristics and assets. People possessing low standard of living are considered as poor. Bivariate and multivariate analysis are employed to examine the effect of environment on poor women and children. A geographical information system is used to present the health and environmental condition of poor in highly and less urbanized states. Results: The findings reveal that the poor women who are not accessed to improved source of water, and sanitation facility are facing more health problems. Children who are living in a dirty environment and are not accessed to improved source of drinking water, among them prevalence of diarrhea and fever is found to be high. As well, the health condition of poor in highly urbanized states is dreadful. Policy implications: Government should emphasize on the implementation of programs regarding the improvement in the infrastructural facilities and health care treatment of urban poor.

Keywords: environment, urban poor, health, sanitation

Procedia PDF Downloads 262

Authors: C. Fernandez-Plaza, I. Abad, E. Diaz, I. Diaz

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Births occurring before the 37th week of gestation are considered preterm births. A threat of preterm is defined as the beginning of regular uterine contractions, dilation and cervical effacement between 23 and 36 gestation weeks. To author's best knowledge, the factors that determine the beginning of the birth are not completely defined yet. In particular, the incidence of sleep habits on preterm births is weekly studied. The aim of this study is to develop a model to predict the factors affecting premature delivery on pregnancy, based on the above potential risk factors, including those derived from sleep habits and light exposure at night (introduced as 12 variables obtained by a telephone survey using two questionnaires previously used by other authors). Thus, three groups of variables were included in the study (maternal, fetal and sleep habits). The study was approved by Research Ethics Committee of the Principado of Asturias (Spain). An observational, retrospective and descriptive study was performed with 481 births between January 1, 2015 and May 10, 2016 in the University Central Hospital of Asturias (Spain). A statistical analysis using SPSS was carried out to compare qualitative and quantitative variables between preterm and term delivery. Chi-square test qualitative variable and t-test for quantitative variables were applied. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between preterm vs. term births were found for primiparity, multi-parity, kind of conception, place of residence or premature rupture of membranes and interruption during nights. In addition to the statistical analysis, machine learning methods to look for a prediction model were tested. In particular, tree based models were applied as the trade-off between performance and interpretability is especially suitable for this study. C5.0, recursive partitioning, random forest and tree bag models were analysed using caret R-package. Cross validation with 10-folds and parameter tuning to optimize the methods were applied. In addition, different noise reduction methods were applied to the initial data using NoiseFiltersR package. The best performance was obtained by C5.0 method with Accuracy 0.91, Sensitivity 0.93, Specificity 0.89 and Precision 0.91. Some well known preterm birth factors were identified: Cervix Dilation, maternal BMI, Premature rupture of membranes or nuchal translucency analysis in the first trimester. The model also identifies other new factors related to sleep habits such as light through window, bedtime on working days, usage of electronic devices before sleeping from Mondays to Fridays or change of sleeping habits reflected in the number of hours, in the depth of sleep or in the lighting of the room. IF dilation < = 2.95 AND usage of electronic devices before sleeping from Mondays to Friday = YES and change of sleeping habits = YES, then preterm is one of the predicting rules obtained by C5.0. In this work a model for predicting preterm births is developed. It is based on machine learning together with noise reduction techniques. The method maximizing the performance is the one selected. This model shows the influence of variables related to sleep habits in preterm prediction.

Keywords: machine learning, noise reduction, preterm birth, sleep habit

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Authors: M. Gil, R. Montalvo

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Business Intelligence (BI) has become a major source of competitive advantages for firms around the world. BI has been defined as the process of data visualization and reporting for understanding what happened and what is happening. Moreover, BI has been studied for its predictive capabilities in the context of trade and financial transactions. The current literature has identified that BI permits managers to identify market trends, understand customer relations, and predict demand for their products and services. This last capability of BI has been of special concern to academics. Specifically, due to its power to build predictive models adaptable to specific time horizons and geographical regions. However, the current literature of BI focuses on predicting specific markets and industries because the impact of such predictive models was relevant to specific industries or organizations. Currently, the existing literature has not developed a predictive model of BI that takes into consideration the whole economy of a geographical area. This paper seeks to create a predictive model of BI that would show the bigger picture of a geographical area. This paper uses a data set from the Secretary of Economic Development of the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Such data set includes data from all the commercial transactions that occurred in the state in the last years. By analyzing such data set, it will be possible to generate a BI model that predicts supply and demand from specific industries around the state of Jalisco. This research has at least three contributions. Firstly, a methodological contribution to the BI literature by generating the predictive supply and demand model. Secondly, a theoretical contribution to BI current understanding. The model presented in this paper incorporates the whole picture of the economic field instead of focusing on a specific industry. Lastly, a practical contribution might be relevant to local governments that seek to improve their economic performance by implementing BI in their policy planning.

Keywords: business intelligence, predictive model, supply and demand, Mexico

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Authors: Amy Darwin, Claire Blacklock

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Background: Existing literature about delivering evidence-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in emergency settings is limited. It is difficult to monitor and evaluate the approach to MHPSS in informal refugee camps such as ‘The Jungle’ in Calais, where there are multiple service providers and where the majority of providers are volunteers. AIM: To identify experiences of MHPSS delivery by service providers in an informal camp environment in Calais, France and describe MHPSS barriers and opportunities in this type of setting. Method: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 individuals from different organisations offering MHPSS in Calais and analysed using conventional content analysis. Results: Unsafe, uncertain and unsanitary conditions in the camp meant MHPSS was difficult to implement, and such conditions contributed to the poor mental health of the residents. The majority of MHPSS was offered by volunteers who lacked resources and training, and there was no overall official camp leadership which meant care was poorly coordinated and monitored. Strong relationships existed between volunteers and camp residents, but volunteers felt frustrated that they could not deliver the kind of MHPSS that they felt residents required. Conclusion: While long-term volunteers had built supportive relationships with camp residents, lack of central coordination and leadership of MHPSS services and limited access to trained professionals made implementation of MHPSS problematic. Similarly, the camp lacked the necessary infrastructure to meet residents’ basic needs. Formal recognition of the camp, and clear central leadership were identified as necessary steps to improving MHPSS delivery.

Keywords: calais, mental health, refugees, the jungle, MHPSS

Procedia PDF Downloads 225

Authors: Adrian Ionita, Ana-Maria Ghimes

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The lack of features, design and the lack of promoting an integrated booking application are some of the reasons why most online travel platforms only offer automation of old booking processes, being limited to the integration of a smaller number of services without addressing the user experience. This paper represents a practical study on how to improve travel applications creating user-profiles through data-mining based on neural networks and genetic algorithms. Choices made by users and their ‘friends’ in the ‘social’ network context can be considered input data for a recommendation engine. The purpose of using these algorithms and this design is to improve user experience and to deliver more features to the users. The paper aims to highlight a broader range of improvements that could be applied to travel applications in terms of design and service integration, while the main scientific approach remains the technical implementation of the neural network solution. The motivation of the technologies used is also related to the initiative of some online booking providers that have made the fact that they use some ‘neural network’ related designs public. These companies use similar Big-Data technologies to provide recommendations for hotels, restaurants, and cinemas with a neural network based recommendation engine for building a user ‘DNA profile’. This implementation of the ‘profile’ a collection of neural networks trained from previous user choices, can improve the usability and design of any type of application.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, DNA profile, genetic algorithms, machine learning, neural networks, optimization, recommendation system, user profiling

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Authors: Helga Martins, Idália Matias

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Background:Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune demyelinating disease that affects young adults. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease in which the patient needs to self-manage the disease and the therapeutic regimen. Consequently, the promotion of health literacy assumes a relevant role for the accessibility, understanding, and use of information in order to promote and maintain the health of patients with multiple sclerosis. Aim: To determine the impact of lower health literacy in the self-management of patients with a multiple sclerosis. Methods: Literature review based on a search on the following electronic databases: CINAHLand MEDLINE; comprising all results published between September 2016 and September 2021. The search strategy was: (“Self-management [MeSH]” AND “Multiple sclerosis[MeSH]”AND “Health literacy[MeSH]”). The inclusion criteria were: original papers reporting about multiple sclerosis patients; participants with age above 18 years old, written in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Two independent reviewers have done the screening and analysis of the results. 38 citations were identified, and after duplicates removal, a total of 25 results were screened; 14 were included after the application of the inclusion criteria. Results: The lower health literacy in the self-management of patients with a multiple sclerosis is related toless healthy choices, riskier health behavior, poor health outcomes, decreased of adhering to the therapeutic regimen after discharge, less self-management of chronic illness, and increased the time of hospitalization. Conclusion: Inadequate levels of health literacy contribute to poor health outcomes, unsuccessful self-management of chronic illness, and inadequate adherence to the therapeutic regimen. Therefore, health literacy is important for health policy and the healthcare services, as it can be understood as a mediator of self-management of multiple sclerosis disease.

Keywords: health literacy, multiple sclerosis, review, self-management

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Vinay Kumar, M. Kishor, Sathyanarayana Rao Ts

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Background: Growth of elderly people in the general population in recent years is termed as ‘greying of the world’ where there is a shift from high mortality & fertility to low mortality and fertility, resulting in an increased proportion of older people as seen in India. Improved health care promises longevity but socio-economic factors like poverty, joint families and poor services pose a psychological threat. Epidemiological data regarding the prevalence of mental disorders in geriatric population with physical illness is required for proper health planning. Methods: Sixty consecutive elderly patients aged 60 years or above of both sexes, reporting with physical illness to general outpatient registration counter of JSS Medical College and Hospital, Mysore, India, were considered for the Study. With informed consent, they were screened with General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and were further evaluated for diagnosing mental disorders according to WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) criteria. Results: Mental disorders were detected in 48.3%, predominantly depressive disorders, nicotine dependence, generalized anxiety disorder, alcohol dependence and least was dementia. Most common physical illness was cardiovascular disease followed by metabolic, respiratory and other diseases. Depressive disorders, substance dependence and dementia were more associated with cardiovascular disease compared to metabolic disease and respiratory diseases were more associated with nicotine dependence. Conclusions: Depression and Substance use disorders among elderly population is of concern, which needs to be further studied with larger population. Psychiatric morbidity will adversely have an impact on physical illness which needs proper assessment and management. This will enhance our understanding and prioritize our planning for future.

Keywords: Geriatric, mental disorders, physical illness, psychiatry

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Hossein Aghababaei, Sergio Vitale, Giampaolo Ferraioli

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In the context of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, polarization is an important source of information for Earth's surface monitoring. SAR Systems are often considered to transmit only one polarization. This constraint leads to either single or dual polarimetric SAR imaging modalities. Single polarimetric systems operate with a fixed single polarization of both transmitted and received electromagnetic (EM) waves, resulting in a single acquisition channel. Dual polarimetric systems, on the other hand, transmit in one fixed polarization and receive in two orthogonal polarizations, resulting in two acquisition channels. Dual polarimetric systems are obviously more informative than single polarimetric systems and are increasingly being used for a variety of remote sensing applications. In dual polarimetric systems, the choice of polarizations for the transmitter and the receiver is open. The choice of circular transmit polarization and coherent dual linear receive polarizations forms a special dual polarimetric system called hybrid polarimetry, which brings the properties of rotational invariance to geometrical orientations of features in the scene and optimizes the design of the radar in terms of reliability, mass, and power constraints. The complete characterization of target scattering, however, requires fully polarimetric data, which can be acquired with systems that transmit two orthogonal polarizations. This adds further complexity to data acquisition and shortens the coverage area or swath of fully polarimetric images compared to the swath of dual or hybrid polarimetric images. The search for solutions to augment dual polarimetric data to full polarimetric data will therefore take advantage of full characterization and exploitation of the backscattered field over a wider coverage with less system complexity. Several methods for reconstructing fully polarimetric images using hybrid polarimetric data can be found in the literature. Although the improvements achieved by the newly investigated and experimented reconstruction techniques are undeniable, the existing methods are, however, mostly based upon model assumptions (especially the assumption of reflectance symmetry), which may limit their reliability and applicability to vegetation and forest scenarios. To overcome the problems of these techniques, this paper proposes a new framework for reconstructing fully polarimetric information from hybrid polarimetric data. The framework uses Deep Learning solutions to augment hybrid polarimetric data without relying on model assumptions. A convolutional neural network (CNN) with a specific architecture and loss function is defined for this augmentation problem by focusing on different scattering properties of the polarimetric data. In particular, the method controls the CNN training process with respect to several characteristic features of polarimetric images defined by the combination of different terms in the cost or loss function. The proposed method is experimentally validated with real data sets and compared with a well-known and standard approach from the literature. From the experiments, the reconstruction performance of the proposed framework is superior to conventional reconstruction methods. The pseudo fully polarimetric data reconstructed by the proposed method also agree well with the actual fully polarimetric images acquired by radar systems, confirming the reliability and efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: SAR image, polarimetric SAR image, convolutional neural network, deep learnig, deep neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 56

Authors: Malgorzata Sekulowicz, Krystyna Boron-Krupinska, Paulina Morga, Blazej Cieslik

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Burnout is highly prevalent in health care employees, especially in physicians. It significantly reduces the efficiency of these employees, which can have negative consequences for both physicians and patients. Resilience and mindfulness enhancing positive emotions, leading to sustainable development and personal commitment, can have a significant impact on burnout. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between burnout symptoms and mindfulness and resilience among physicians. The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey study among seventy-four polish physicians. Participants filled out the following psychometric tools: the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Areas of Work-Life Survey (AWS), International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), the Resilience Assessment Scale (SPP-25) and the Mini-COPE Inventory. The relationship between burnout and resilience and mindfulness was assessed with path analysis. Analyzing the relationship between MBI-HSS components and mindfulness, a significant negative correlation of the FFMQ score with emotional exhaustion (-0.50, p < 0.05) and depersonalization (-0.43, p < 0.05) and a positive correlation with personal accomplishment (0.50, p < 0.05) was demonstrated. Analyzing resilience, a statistically significant relationship of SPP-25 with all tested components of MBI-HSS was demonstrated: emotional exhaustion (-0.54, p < 0.05), depersonalization (-0.31, p < 0.05) and personal accomplishment (0.35, p < 0.05). In the group of medical doctors, the higher the level of mindfulness and resilience, the lower the risk of burnout. Furthermore, the more frequently used active coping strategies (planning, acceptance), the lower the risk of burnout, while the use of passive, evasive strategies increases the risk of burnout. It may be worth considering implementing mindfulness intervention to effectively manage burnout symptoms in this group.

Keywords: burnout, medical doctors, mindfulness, physicians, resilience

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Authors: Zubair Ahmad

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The aim of this study is to analyze the risks factors and issues with waste management in developing nations as barriers. Depending on their content and categorization, wastes are managed differently. Waste management strategies differ for liquid, solid, and organic wastes. The final stage of trash disposal entails procedures like burning, interment, recycling, and treatment. Due to the rising creation of solid waste, the growing urban population has a magnified impact on the environment and public health. All regions, but especially informal urban neighborhoods, tribal villages, and official rural settlements have a protracted backlog in waste services. Another significant impediment seen in the developing world is a lack of education and awareness of effective waste-management practices. Unauthorized dumpsites pose a serious risk to the environment since they could contain dangerous elements like radioactive, infectious, and toxic waste. Wealthier individuals are more inclined to think that their actions will have an impact on environmental problems and to act to address them. Waste managers need to take action to make sure the public is given information that is consistent with what they currently know. The results of the data analysis conducted with the aid of the various methodologies discussed in the preceding chapter are presented in this chapter by the researcher. Descriptive analysis has been used in research to determine whether or not there are relationships between variables and to determine the importance of the variables. According to a survey, there are no efforts being made to lessen the odor that garbage dump sites emit (in terms of treating or recycling the material placed at dumpsite) This might be the case since respondents only commented on the waste management conditions in their immediate surroundings and may not have fully understood the steps taken to resolve this issue.

Keywords: risk factor of waste material, lack of awareness, developing countries struggles, waste management

Procedia PDF Downloads 56

Authors: Tuba Sari

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One of the major transformations caused by the industrial revolution, technological developments and globalization is undoubtedly acceleration of urbanization process. Globalization, in particular, is one of the major factors that trigger this transformation. In this context, as a result of the global metropolitan city system, multifunctional rising structure forms are becoming undeniable fact of the world’s leading metropolises as the manifestation of prestige and power with different life choices, easy accessibility to services related to the era of technology. The scope of research deals with five different urban centers in İstanbul where high-rise housing is increasing dramatically after 2000’s. Therefore, the research regards multi-centered urban residential pattern being created by high-rise housing structures in the city. The methodology of the research is based on two main issue, one of them is related to sampling method of high-rise housing projects in İstanbul, while the other method of the research is based on the model of Semantics. In the framework of research hypothesis, it is aimed to prove that the character of vertical intensive structuring in Istanbul is based on seeking of different forms and images in the expressive quality, considering the production of existing high-rise buildings in residential areas in recent years. In respect to rising discourse of 'World City' in the globalizing world, it is very important to state the place of Istanbul in other developing world metropolises. In the perspective of 'World City' discourse, Istanbul has different projects concerning with globalization, international finance companies, cultural activities, mega projects, etc. In brief, the aim of this research is examining transformation forms of high-rise housing development in Istanbul within the frame of developing world cities, searching and analyzing discourse and image related to these projects.

Keywords: globalization, high-rise, housing, image

Procedia PDF Downloads 265

Authors: Aliyu Damri

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This study analyzed the emergence of WhatsApp and how employees at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Kaduna defined the concept base on their vast broadcasting experiences for over five decades and application of the phenomenon to the radio station. It also analyzed the nature, patterns, dimensions, features, challenges as well as the effects of WhatsApp as a social networking site with specific interest on the radio outlet. Also, the study identified how the radio organization responded to the challenges in an attempt to adapt to the new pattern of broadcasting characterized by many technological transformations. The study further explained in details such skills journalists need to function optimally using WhatsApp as well as the impacts of the WhatsApp on radio broadcasting. It used a combination of published materials, focus group discussion, in depth interviews and participant observation on the activities of the radio stations to address the research questions. The data generated provided insight to better understand the challenges posed to FRCN Kaduna as a result of WhatsApp application and how FRCN Kaduna responded to the challenges. It also provided information on the skills journalists need to function optimally in using WhatsApp application in the radio station. The interview and focus group discussion’s transcripts and the published materials were analyzed along thematic pattern related to the research questions in the study. The dominant response relied heavily on change in the radio station’s organizational and technical integration of newsrooms, the use of a multiskilled workforce, application of a flexible and user-friendly technology in all aspects of production, expansion of the station’s services in to new media such as internet and mobile phones as well as sharing of ideas across different units in the radio outfit.

Keywords: broadcasting, challenge, northern Nigeria, radio, WhatsApp application

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Elin Mordal, Meseret Tsegaye, Hirut Gemeda, Ingeborg Ulvund

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Background: Even the rural-urban gap in the provision of skilled care during childbirth has narrowed, developing countries have the highest percentage of maternal deaths. More important than uncovering deficiencies during pregnancy, is preventing situations of risk during childbirth. The aim of this study was to identify factors women in the rural area consider before they decide where to give birth. Methods: This study utilizes a qualitative descriptive design based on individual interviews with 25 women of childbearing age who has given birth at least once, where women who delivered both at home and a health centre were included. Data collection took place in rural areas around Hawassa Zuriya Worda in Ethiopia February 2015. To identify conditions associated to where women prefer to give birth a thematic analysis was carried out. Result: Experienced risks regarding child birth were the most common reason for women and their families to seek help from skilled birth attendants. Decision-making and planning were identified as a major factor contributing to where women give birth. The women’s position and responsibilities pointed to the fact that women's role is mainly to take care of children and manage the household, while husbands, mother in laws and the elderly are the family members who take most of the decisions. This includes decision about where women give birth. The infrastructure also influences where women choose to give birth. Conclusion: To further improve childbirth care in Hawassa Zuriya Worda it’s important that women get positive experiences, and are met in a safe and supportive way at Health Centers. Challenges appear to women’s autonomy, quality aspects, and infrastructure.

Keywords: childbirth, women, health care utilization, Hawassa Zuriya Worda, Ethiopia, rural area

Procedia PDF Downloads 184

Authors: Maria T. Cruz, Scott N. Thompson

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In recent years, Canadian federal and provincial law enforcement organizations have implemented numerous mental health strategies in an attempt to address officers’ mental health and wellness needs. Despite these reforms, however, mental illness continues to persist in these populations. Whereas workplace stressors continue to be factored into the development of mental health initiatives, it is proposed that aspects of masculine culture have been overlooked as contributing to the prevalence of mental illness among Canadian officers. By drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory of discourse, this study was conducted to determine if elements of masculine discourse exist as a socio-cultural barrier for officers seeking mental health assistance. This research supported the above hypothesis, and furthermore, identified how masculine discourse works in competition with mental health-related help-seeking discourses. To answer the research question, semi-structured phone interviews with active and retired male officers from Western provincial and municipal policing organizations, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were employed. Through thematic analysis of the transcripts, the data revealed three themes: i) masculinity in law enforcement is a determinant of workplace competency; ii) the dominance of masculine culture in law enforcement is problematic for mental health, and iii) improved help-seeking policies complicate how masculinity is expressed in law enforcement organizations. These findings suggest that within the reviewed Canadian law enforcement organizations, aspects of masculinity act as a socio-cultural barrier to officers seeking mental health services, and that the two conflicting discourses of masculinity and mental health-related help-seeking appear to be in competition with each other.

Keywords: competing discourses, dominant discourses, Foucault’s theory of discourse, law enforcement, masculinity, mental health, police officers

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Lily Yarney, Emmanuel M. Y. Seidu, Thomas Chireh Kuusaanu, Belinda Adzimah-Yeboah

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Healthcare delivery is labor-intensive; the role of the health worker is, therefore, indispensable in maintaining and improving individual and population health. In Ghana, doctor-patient ratio is 1:10,450, with a disproportionate tilt in favor of the relatively resource rich southern part of the country. The Upper West Region located in Northern Ghana, is among the poorest regions in the country. The study was aimed at finding out the reasons why medical doctors are unwilling to accept postings to the Upper West Region where their services are needed most despite some efforts to attract, motivate and retain them. Current initiatives by the Ministry of Health and its partners to attract and retain doctors in the region were also examined. Qualitative methodology was employed with an in-depth interview guide to collect data. Sixteen respondents comprising medical doctors, health managers, and other health-related partners purposively selected took part in the study. Data were recorded, transcribed, coded, and categorized into themes in tandem with the objectives of the study. The study found that medical doctors are unwilling to take up appointments in the Upper West Region because of limited opportunities for career and continuing professional development, poor financial inducement, and weak leadership, among other important contextual social and cultural factors. Critical success factors to surmount these challenges include concessions and sponsorship for medical specialization training for doctors and clear implementable national and local policies on postings.

Keywords: attraction, retention, medical doctors, deprived regions, Ghana

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Authors: Sugandhi, Parteek Kumar, Sanmeet Kaur

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Sign Language (SL) is used by deaf and other people who cannot speak but can hear or have a problem with spoken languages due to some disability. It is a visual gesture language that makes use of either one hand or both hands, arms, face, body to convey meanings and thoughts. SL automation system is an effective way which provides an interface to communicate with normal people using a computer. In this paper, an avatar based dictionary has been proposed for text to Indian Sign Language (ISL) generation system. This research work will also depict a literature review on SL corpus available for various SL s over the years. For ISL generation system, a written form of SL is required and there are certain techniques available for writing the SL. The system uses Hamburg sign language Notation System (HamNoSys) and Signing Gesture Mark-up Language (SiGML) for ISL generation. It is developed in PHP using Web Graphics Library (WebGL) technology for 3D avatar animation. A multilingual ISL dictionary is developed using HamNoSys for both English and Hindi Language. This dictionary will be used as a database to associate signs with words or phrases of a spoken language. It provides an interface for admin panel to manage the dictionary, i.e., modification, addition, or deletion of a word. Through this interface, HamNoSys can be developed and stored in a database and these notations can be converted into its corresponding SiGML file manually. The system takes natural language input sentence in English and Hindi language and generate 3D sign animation using an avatar. SL generation systems have potential applications in many domains such as healthcare sector, media, educational institutes, commercial sectors, transportation services etc. This research work will help the researchers to understand various techniques used for writing SL and generation of Sign Language systems.

Keywords: avatar, dictionary, HamNoSys, hearing impaired, Indian sign language (ISL), sign language

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Authors: Yue Huang, Hongcheng Gan

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The new urbanization pattern has led to a rapid growth in demand for short-distance intercity travel, and the emergence of new travel modes has also increased the variety of intercity travel options. In previous studies on intercity travel mode choice behavior, the impact of functional amenities of travel mode and travelers’ long-term personality characteristics has rarely been considered, and empirical results have typically been calibrated using revealed preference (RP) or stated preference (SP) data. This study designed a questionnaire that combines the RP and SP experiment from the perspective of a trip chain combining inner-city and intercity mobility, with consideration for the actual condition of the Huainan-Hefei traffic corridor. On the basis of RP/SP fusion data, a hybrid choice model considering both random taste heterogeneity and psychological characteristics was established to investigate travelers’ mode choice behavior for traditional train, high-speed rail, intercity bus, private car, and intercity online car-hailing. The findings show that intercity time and cost exert the greatest influence on mode choice, with significant heterogeneity across the population. Although inner-city cost does not demonstrate a significant influence, inner-city time plays an important role. Service attributes of travel mode, such as catering and hygiene services, as well as free wireless network supply, only play a minor role in mode selection. Finally, our study demonstrates that safety-seeking tendency, hedonism, and introversion all have differential and significant effects on intercity travel mode choice.

Keywords: intercity travel mode choice, stated preference survey, hybrid choice model, RP/SP fusion data, psychological latent variable, heterogeneity

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Authors: Hossein Aghababaei, Sergio Vitale, Giampaolo ferraioli

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In the context of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, polarization is an important source of information for Earth's surface monitoring . SAR Systems are often considered to transmit only one polarization. This constraint leads to either single or dual polarimetric SAR imaging modalities. Single polarimetric systems operate with a fixed single polarization of both transmitted and received electromagnetic (EM) waves, resulting in a single acquisition channel. Dual polarimetric systems, on the other hand, transmit in one fixed polarization and receive in two orthogonal polarizations, resulting in two acquisition channels. Dual polarimetric systems are obviously more informative than single polarimetric systems and are increasingly being used for a variety of remote sensing applications. In dual polarimetric systems, the choice of polarizations for the transmitter and the receiver is open. The choice of circular transmit polarization and coherent dual linear receive polarizations forms a special dual polarimetric system called hybrid polarimetry, which brings the properties of rotational invariance to geometrical orientations of features in the scene and optimizes the design of the radar in terms of reliability, mass, and power constraints. The complete characterization of target scattering, however, requires fully polarimetric data, which can be acquired with systems that transmit two orthogonal polarizations. This adds further complexity to data acquisition and shortens the coverage area or swath of fully polarimetric images compared to the swath of dual or hybrid polarimetric images. The search for solutions to augment dual polarimetric data to full polarimetric data will therefore take advantage of full characterization and exploitation of the backscattered field over a wider coverage with less system complexity. Several methods for reconstructing fully polarimetric images using hybrid polarimetric data can be found in the literature. Although the improvements achieved by the newly investigated and experimented reconstruction techniques are undeniable, the existing methods are, however, mostly based upon model assumptions (especially the assumption of reflectance symmetry), which may limit their reliability and applicability to vegetation and forest scenarios. To overcome the problems of these techniques, this paper proposes a new framework for reconstructing fully polarimetric information from hybrid polarimetric data. The framework uses Deep Learning solutions to augment hybrid polarimetric data without relying on model assumptions. A convolutional neural network (CNN) with a specific architecture and loss function is defined for this augmentation problem by focusing on different scattering properties of the polarimetric data. In particular, the method controls the CNN training process with respect to several characteristic features of polarimetric images defined by the combination of different terms in the cost or loss function. The proposed method is experimentally validated with real data sets and compared with a well-known and standard approach from the literature. From the experiments, the reconstruction performance of the proposed framework is superior to conventional reconstruction methods. The pseudo fully polarimetric data reconstructed by the proposed method also agree well with the actual fully polarimetric images acquired by radar systems, confirming the reliability and efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: SAR image, deep learning, convolutional neural network, deep neural network, SAR polarimetry

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Authors: Rachel Dolan

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Background: Over two thirds of women in prison in England are mothers, and estimates suggest between 100 and 200 women per year give birth during imprisonment. There are currently six mother and baby units (MBUs) in prisons in England which admit women and babies up to the age of 18 months. Although there are only 65 places available, and despite positive impacts, they are rarely full. Mental illness may influence the number of admissions, as may interpretation of admission criteria. They are the only current alternative to separation for imprisoned mothers and their babies. Aims: To identify the factors that affect the decision to apply for/be offered a place in a prison MBU; to measure the impact of a placement upon maternal mental health and wellbeing; To measure the Initial outcomes for mother and child. Methods: A mixed methods approach - 100 pregnant women in English prisons are currently being recruited from prisons in England. Quantitative measures will establish the prevalence of mental disorder, personality disorder, substance misuse and quality of life. Qualitative interviews will document the experiences of pregnancy and motherhood in prison. Results: Preliminary quantitative findings suggest the most prevalent mental disorders are anxiety and depression and approximately half the participants meet the criteria for one or more personality disorders. The majority of participants to date have been offered a place in a prison MBU, and those in a prison with an MBU prior to applying are more likely to be admitted. Those with a previous history of childcare issues, who are known to social services are less likely to be offered a place. Qualitative findings suggest that many women are often hungry and uncomfortable during pregnancy, many have feelings of guilt about having a child in prison and that feelings of anxiety and worry are exacerbated by lack of information.

Keywords: mothers, prison, mother and baby units, mental health

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Authors: Pia Moschall, Kathrin Sackmann

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Considering a purchasing volume of around two trillion Euros per year, which equals about 14% of the European Union’s gross domestic product, European public authorities have significant market power. Making use of this market power by prioritizing the procurement of green products and services offers a great potential to contribute to the Green New Deal. The market demand that is created by Green Public Procurement (GPP) sets incentives for European producers to design and develop Green Products and Eco-Innovations. However, most procurement still does not consider environmental criteria. The goal of the work is to encourage the adaptation of GPP in the European Union. To this end, the drivers for the adaptation were investigated over different case studies. The paper analyzes good-practice cases from European authorities from 2010 to 2020 that were provided by the European Commission. This analysis was guided by Philipp Mayring’s method of qualitative content analysis, whereby the inductively formed categories led to the identification of nine major drivers. The most important ones are ‘use of official guidelines and standards, ‘political support and requirements as well as ‘market research and involvement.’ Further, the paper discusses mutual dependencies between several drivers and how to exploit them. A supporting infrastructure was identified as a crucial factor for the successful adaption of green public procurement. In the next step, the work aims to examine on which administrative level the single drivers can be implemented most effectively. Practical implications of this research are recommendations on how to create a supporting structure on a municipal, federal and national level, including training for the responsible staff, support tools, as well as guidelines and standards for involved stakeholders.

Keywords: content analysis, green public procurement, public authorities, sustainable procurement

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Authors: Joy Ghosh, Debasmita Biswas

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The road network of any area is the most important indicator of regional planning. For proper utilization of urban road networks, the structural parameters such as connectivity and accessibility should be analyzed and evaluated. This paper aims to explain the application of GIS on urban road network connectivity and accessibility analysis with a case study of Chandannagar City. This paper has been made to analyze the road network connectivity through various connectivity measurements like the total number of nodes and links, Cyclomatic Number, Alpha Index, Beta Index, Gamma index, Eta index, Pi index, Theta Index, and Aggregated Transport Score, Road Density based on existing road network in Chandannagar city in India. Accessibility is measured through the shortest Path Matrix, associate Number, and Shimbel Index. Various urban services, such as schools, banks, Hospitals, petrol pumps, ATMs, police stations, theatres, parks, etc., are considered for the accessibility analysis for each ward. This paper also highlights the relationship between urban land use/ land cover (LULC) and urban road network and population density using various spatial and statistical measurements. The datasets were collected through a field survey of 33 wards of the Chandannagar Municipal Corporation area, and the secondary data were collected through an open street map and satellite image of LANDSAT8 OLI & TIRS from USGS. Chandannagar was actually once a French colony, and at that time, various sort of planning was applied, but now Chandannagar city continues to grow haphazardly because that city is facing some problems; the knowledge gained from this paper helps to create a more efficient and accessible road network. Therefore, it would be suggested that some wards need to improve their connectivity and accessibility for the future growth and development of Chandannagar.

Keywords: accessibility, connectivity, transport, road network

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Authors: Suikinai Nobre Santos, Ranko Gacesa, Paul F. Long, Itamar Soares de Melo

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Extremophilic microorganism are adapted to biotopes combining several stress factors (temperature, pressure, radiation, salinity and pH), which indicate the richness valuable resource for the exploitation of novel biotechnological processes and constitute unique models for investigations their biomolecules (1, 2). The above information encourages us investigate bioprospecting synthesized compounds by a noval actinomycete, designated thermotolerant Streptomyces caatingaensis CMAA 1322, isolated from sample soil tropical dry forest (Caatinga) in the Brazilian semiarid region (3-17°S and 35-45°W). This set of constrating physical and climatic factores provide the unique conditions and a diversity of well adapted species, interesting site for biotechnological purposes. Preliminary studies have shown the great potential in the production of cytotoxic, pesticidal and antimicrobial molecules (3). Thus, to extend knowledge of the genes clusters responsible for producing biosynthetic pathways of natural products in strain CMAA1322, whole-genome shotgun (WGS) DNA sequencing was performed using paired-end long sequencing with PacBio RS (Pacific Biosciences). Genomic DNA was extracted from a pure culture grown overnight on LB medium using the PureLink genomic DNA kit (Life Technologies). An approximately 3- to 20-kb-insert PacBio library was constructed and sequenced on an 8 single-molecule real-time (SMRT) cell, yielding 116,269 reads (average length, 7,446 bp), which were allocated into 18 contigs, with 142.11x coverage and N50 value of 20.548 bp (BioProject number PRJNA288757). The assembled data were analyzed by Rapid Annotations using Subsystems Technology (RAST) (4) the genome size was found to be 7.055.077 bp, comprising 6167 open reading frames (ORFs) and 413 subsystems. The G+C content was estimated to be 72 mol%. The closest-neighbors tool, available in RAST through functional comparison of the genome, revealed that strain CMAA1322 is more closely related to Streptomyces hygroscopicus ATCC 53653 (similarity score value, 537), S. violaceusniger Tu 4113 (score value, 483), S. avermitilis MA-4680 (score value, 475), S. albus J1074 (score value, 447). The Streptomyces sp. CMAA1322 genome contains 98 tRNA genes and 135 genes copies related to stress response, mainly osmotic stress (14), heat shock (16), oxidative stress (49). Functional annotation by antiSMASH version 3.0 (5) identified 41 clusters for secondary metabolites (including two clusters for lanthipeptides, ten clusters for nonribosomal peptide synthetases [NRPS], three clusters for siderophores, fourteen for polyketide synthetase [PKS], six clusters encoding a terpene, two clusters encoding a bacteriocin, and one cluster encoding a phenazine). Our work provide in comparative analyse of genome and extract produced (data no published) by lineage CMAA1322, revealing the potential of microorganisms accessed from extreme environments as Caatinga” to produce a wide range of biotechnological relevant compounds.

Keywords: caatinga, streptomyces, environmental stresses, biosynthetic pathways

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Authors: Jimmylen Tonio, Ali Anudin, Rochelle Irene G. Lucas

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Alongside the progress of electronic-business websites, consumers have become more comfortable with online shopping. It has become customary for consumers that prior to purchasing a product or availing services, they consult online reviews info as bases in evaluating and deciding whether or not they should push thru with their procurement of the product or service. Subsequently, after purchasing, consumers tend to post their own comments of the product in the same e-business websites. Because of this, product reviews (PRS) have become an indispensable feature in online businesses equally beneficial for both business owners and consumers. This study explored the linguistic features and motivations of online product reviews on selected Philippine online shops, LAZADA and SHOPEE. Specifically, it looked into the lexical features of the PRs, the factors that motivated consumers to write the product reviews, and the difference of lexical preferences between male and female when they write the reviews. The findings revealed the following: 1. Formality of words in online product reviews primarily involves non-standard spelling, followed by abbreviated word forms, colloquial contractions and use of coined/novel words; 2. Paralinguistic features in online product reviews are dominated by the use of emoticons, capital letters and punctuations followed by the use of pictures/photos and lastly, by paralinguistic expressions; 3. The factors that motivate consumers to write product reviews varied. Online product reviewers are predominantly driven by venting negative feelings motivation, followed by helping the company, helping other consumers, positive self-enhancement, advice seeking and lastly, by social benefits; and 4. Gender affects the word frequencies of product online reviews, while negation words, personal pronouns, the formality of words, and paralinguistic features utilized by both male and female online product reviewers are not different.

Keywords: lexical choices, motivation, online shop, product reviews

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Authors: Nur A. Azmi, Suseela D. Chandran, Fadilah Puteh, Azizan Zainuddin

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Medical tourism has been associated as a global phenomenon in developed and developing countries in the 21st century. Medical tourism is defined as an activity in which individuals who travel from one country to another country to seek or receive medical healthcare. Based on the global trend, the number of medical tourists is increasing annually, especially in the Southeast Asia (SEA) region. Since the establishment of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967, the SEA nations have worked towards regional integration in medical tourism. The medical tourism in the SEA has become the third-largest sector that contributes towards economic development. Previous research has demonstrated several factors that affect the development of medical tourism. However, despite the already published literature on SEA's medical tourism in the last ten years there continues to be a scarcity of research on niche areas each of the SEA countries. Hence, this paper is significant in enriching the literature in the field of medical tourism particularly in showcasing the niche market of medical tourism among the SEA best players namely Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. This paper also contributes in offering a comparative analysis between the said nations whether they are complementing or competing with each other in the medical tourism sector. This then, will increase the availability of information in SEA region on medical tourism. The data was collected through an in-depth interview with various stakeholders and private hospitals. The data was then analyzed using two approaches namely thematic analysis (interview data) and document analysis (secondary data). The paper concludes by arguing that the ASEAN countries have specific niche market to promote their medical tourism industry. This paper also concludes that these key nations complement each other in the industry. In addition, the medical tourism sector in SEA region offers greater prospects for market development and expansion that witnessed the emerging of new key players from other nations.

Keywords: healthcare services, medical tourism, medical tourists, SEA region, comparative analysis

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Authors: Moyosooore A. Babalola, Ayodeji S. Ogunleye

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The main focus of the study was to determine the profitability of investment in the Oil Palm value chain of Osun State, Nigeria in 2015. The specific objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of Oil Palm investors (producers, processors and marketers), to determine the profitability of the investment to investors in the Oil Palm value chain, and to determine the factors affecting the profitability of the investment of the oil palm investors in Osun state. A sample of 100 respondents was selected in this cross-sectional survey. Multiple stage sampling procedure was used for data collection of producers and processors while purposive sampling was used for marketers. Data collected was analyzed using the following analytical tools: descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis and regression analysis. The results of the gross margin showed that the producers and processors were more profitable than the marketers in the oil palm value chain with their benefit-cost ratios as 1.93, 1.82 and 1.11 respectively. The multiple regression analysis showed that education and years of experience were significant among marketers and producers while age and years of experience had significant influence on the gross margin of processors. Based on these findings, improvement on the level of education of oil palm investors is recommended in order to address the relatively low access to post-primary education among the oil palm investors in Osun State. In addition to this, it is important that training be made available to oil palm investors. This will improve the quality of their years of experience, ensuring that it has a positive influence on their gross margin. Low access to credit among processors and producer could be corrected by making extension services available to them. Marketers would also greatly benefit from subsidized prices on oil palm products to increase their gross margin, as the huge percentage of their total cost comes from acquiring palm oil.

Keywords: oil palm, profitability analysis, regression analysis, value chain

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Authors: Sujata Mukherjee, Arunavo Mukherjee

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Water covers 70 per cent of our planet; however, freshwater is incredibly rare, and scarce has been listed as the highest impact global risk. The problems related to freshwater scarcity multiplies with the human population having more than doubled coupled with climate change, changing water cycles leading to droughts and floods and a rise in water pollution. Businesses, governments, and local communities are constrained by water scarcity and are facing growing challenges to their growth and sustainability. Water foot printing as an indicator for water use was introduced in 2002. Business water footprint measures the total water consumed to produce the goods and services it provides. It is a combination of the water that goes into the production and manufacturing of a product or service and the water used throughout the supply chain, as well as during the use of the product. A case study approach was applied describing the efforts of Tata Steel. It is based on a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews with top executives of the company as well as observation and content analysis of internal and external documents about the company’s efforts in sustainable water management. Tata Steel draws water required for industrial use from surface water sources, primarily perennial rivers and streams, internal reservoirs and water from municipal sources. The focus of the present study was to explore Tata Steel’s engagement in sustainable water management focusing on water foot printing accounting as a tool to account for water use in the steel supply chain at its Jamshedpur plant. The findings enabled the researchers to conclude that no sources of water are adversely affected by the company’s production of steel at Jamshedpur.

Keywords: sustainability, corporate responsibility water management, risk management, business engagement

Procedia PDF Downloads 252