Search results for: global value chain participation

Authors: Alemayehu Agizew Woldeamanuel, Mekonnen Maschal Tarekegn, Raj Mohan Balakrishina

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Composting is one of the conventional techniques adopted for organic waste management, but the practice is very limited in emerging cities despite the most of the waste generated is organic. This paper aims to examine the viability of composting for organic waste management in the emerging city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by addressing the composting practice, quality of compost, and application of compost in urban agriculture. The study collects data using compost laboratory testing and urban farm households’ survey and uses descriptive analysis on the state of compost production and application, physicochemical analysis of the compost samples, and regression analysis on the urban farmer’s willingness to pay for compost. The findings of the study indicated that there is composting practice at a small scale, most of the producers use unsorted feedstock materials, aerobic composting is dominantly used, and the maturation period ranged from four to ten weeks. The carbon content of the compost ranges from 30.8 to 277.1 due to the type of feedstock applied, and this surpasses the ideal proportions for C:N ratio. The total nitrogen, pH, organic matter, and moisture content are relatively optimal. The levels of heavy metals measured for Mn, Cu, Pb, Cd and Cr⁶⁺ in the compost samples are also insignificant. In the urban agriculture sector, chemical fertilizer is the dominant type of soil input in crop productions but vegetable producers use a combination of both fertilizer and other organic inputs, including compost. The willingness to pay for compost depends on income, household size, gender, type of soil inputs, monitoring soil fertility, the main product of the farm, farming method and farm ownership. Finally, this study recommends the need for collaboration among stakeholders’ along the value chain of waste, awareness creation on the benefits of composting and addressing challenges faced by both compost producers and users.

Keywords: composting, emerging city, organic waste management, urban agriculture

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Authors: Franziska Mais, Till Gramberg

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The paper presents the development of a sustainable business model for a platform-based application tailored for sawing companies in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The focus is on the integration of sustainability principles into the design of the business model to ensure a technologically advanced, legally sound, and economically efficient solution. Easy2IoT is a research project that aims to enable companies in the prefabrication sheet metal and sheet metal processing industry to enter the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) with a low-threshold and cost-effective approach. The methodological approach of Easy2IoT includes an in-depth requirements analysis and customer interviews with stakeholders along the value chain. Based on these insights, actions, requirements, and potential solutions for smart services are derived. The structuring of the business ecosystem within the application plays a central role, whereby the roles of the partners, the management of the IT infrastructure and services, as well as the design of a sustainable operator model are considered. The business model is developed using the value proposition canvas, whereby a detailed analysis of the requirements for the business model is carried out, taking sustainability into account. This includes coordination with the business model patterns, according to Gassmann, and integration into a business model canvas for the Easy2IoT product. Potential obstacles and problems are identified and evaluated in order to formulate a comprehensive and sustainable business model. In addition, sustainable payment models and distribution channels are developed. In summary, the article offers a well-founded insight into the systematic development of a sustainable business model for platform-based applications in SME sawmills, with a particular focus on the synergy of ecological responsibility and economic efficiency.

Keywords: business model, sustainable business model, IIoT, IIoT-platform, industrie 4.0, big data

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Authors: Laura Josabeth Oros-Avilés, Josefina León-León

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In recent decades, the concern of the monetary authorities has increased because of the instability of the financial sector caused by the crash of speculative bubbles. In fact, the crash of "housing bubble" in U.S. (2007-2008) led the latest global crisis. The aim of paper is to analyze the features and causes of the financial and banking crisis from an historical view. In particular, in this research, a comparative study of some analytical approaches about economic and financial history is discussed. In addition, the role of monetary policy of central banks in managing financial crises, from its origins to today, is analyzed. According to the studied approaches, two types of factors that cause the financial instability were identified: subjective and objectives. In the research, these factors are deeply discussed, in order to noting the agreements and disagreement between the authors. Specially, it is worth noting that all of them recognized that the credit boom and the financial deregulation are the main causes of financial crises.

Keywords: asset prices, banking crises, financial bubble, financial instability, monetary policy

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Authors: Victor Birikorang Danquah

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Ghana's primary energy supply is heavily reliant on petroleum, biomass, and hydropower. Currently, Ghana gets its energy from hydropower (Akosombo and Bui), thermal power plants powered by crude oil, natural gas, and diesel, solar power, and imports from La Cote d'Ivoire. Until the early 2000s, large hydroelectric dams dominated Ghana's electricity generation. Due to unreliable weather patterns, Ghana increased its reliance on thermal power. However, thermal power contributes the highest percentage in terms of electricity generation in Ghana and is predominantly supplied by Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Ghana's electricity industry operates the corporate utility model as its business model. This model is typically' vertically integrated,' with a single corporation selling the majority of power generated by its generation assets to its retail business, which then sells the electricity to retail market consumers. The corporate utility model has a straightforward value proposition that is based on increasing the number of energy units sold. The unit volume business model drives the entire energy value chain to increase throughput, locking system users into unsustainable practices. This report uses the qualitative research approach to explore the electricity industry in Ghana. There is a need for increasing renewable energy, such as wind and solar, in electricity generation. The research recommends two critical business models for the penetration of renewable energy in Ghana's power sector. The first model is the peer-to-peer electricity trading model, which relies on a software platform to connect consumers and generators in order for them to trade energy directly with one another. The second model is about encouraging local energy generation, incentivizing optimal time-of-use behaviour, and allowing any financial gains to be shared among the community members.

Keywords: business model innovation, electricity generation, renewable energy, solar energy, sustainability, wind energy

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Authors: Rishi Saxena

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Cyanobacteria is a photosynthetic prokaryote, and these obtain their energy through photosynthesis. In this paper, we studied the effect of iron on metabolic changes in the diazotrophic cyanobacterium Anabaena PCC 7120. Nowadays, metal contamination due to natural and anthropogenic sources is a global environment concern. Iron induced changes in growth, N2-fixation, CO2 fixation and photosynthetic activity were studied in a diazotrophic cyanobacterium Anabaena PCC 7120. Iron at 50 uM concentration supported the maximum growth, heterocyst frequency, CO2 fixation, photosystem I (PS I), photosystem II (PS II) and nitrogenase activities in the organism. Higher concentration of iron inhibited these processes. Chl a and PS II activities were more sensitive to iron than the protein and PS I activity. Here, it is also mentioned that heavy metal induced altered macromolecules metabolism and changes in the central dogma of life (DNA→ mRNA → Protein). And also recent advances have been made in understanding heavy metal-cyanobacteria interaction and their application for metal detoxification.

Keywords: cyanobacterium anabaena 7120, nitrogen fixation, photosystem I (PS I), photosystem II (PS II)

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Authors: Saneeya Qureshi

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This paper reports doctoral research into the impact of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) on teachers in England, UK. Since 1994, it has been compulsory for all mainstream schools in the UK to have a SENCO who co-ordinates assessment and provision for supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN), helping teachers to develop and implement optimal SEN planning and resources. SENCOs’ roles have evolved as various policies continually redefined SEN provision, impacting their positioning within the school hierarchical structure. SENCOs in England are increasingly recognised as key members of school senior management teams. In this paper, It will be argued that despite issues around the transformative ‘professionalisation’ of their role, and subsequent conflict around boundaries and power relations, SENCOs enhance teachers’ abilities in terms of delivering optimal SEN provision. There is a significant international dimension to the issue: a similar role in respect of SEN management already exists in countries such as Ireland, Finland and Singapore, whilst in other countries, such as Italy and India, the introduction of a role similar to that of a SENCO is currently under discussion. The research question addressed is: do SENCOs enhance teachers’ abilities to be effective teachers of children with Special Educational Needs? The theoretical framework of the project is that of interpretivism, as it is acknowledged that there are contexts and realities are social constructions. The study applied a mixed method approach consisting of two phases. The first phase involved a purposive survey (n=42) of 223 primary school SENCOs, which enabled a deeper insight into SENCOs’ perceptions of their roles in relation to teachers. The second phase consisted of semi-structured interviews (n=36) of SENCOs, teachers and head teachers, in addition to school SEN-related documentation scrutiny. ‘Trustworthiness’ was accomplished through data and methodological triangulation, in addition to a rigorous process of coding and thematic analysis. The research was informed by an Ethical Code as per national guidelines. Research findings point to the evolutionary aspect of the SENCO role having engendered a culture of expectations amongst practitioners, as SENCOs transition from being ‘fixers’ to being ‘enablers’ of teachers. Outcomes indicate that SENCOs can empower teaching staff through the dissemination of specialist knowledge. However, there must be resources clearly identified for such dissemination to take place. It is imperative that both SENCOs and teachers alike address the issue of absolution of responsibility that arises when the ownership and accountability for the planning and implementation of SEN provision are not clarified so as to ensure the promotion of a positive school ethos around inclusive practices. Optimal outcomes through effective SEN interventions and teaching practices are positively correlated with the inclusion of teachers in the planning and execution of SEN provisions. An international audience can consider how the key findings are being manifest in a global context, with reference to their own educational settings. Research outcomes can aid the development of specific competencies needed to shape optimal inclusive educational settings in accordance with the official global priorities pertaining to inclusion.

Keywords: inclusion, school professionals, school leadership, special educational needs (SEN), special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs)

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Authors: Shweta Vardia

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The 2021 decision by the World Heritage Center to align buffer zones with the 2015 Strategy for Sustainable Development marks a significant advancement in the protection of cultural and natural heritage sites. Buffer zones play a critical role in preserving the outstanding universal value, authenticity, and integrity of heritage sites, shielding them from threats such as urbanization, industrialization, and tourism. The 2015 Strategy emphasizes the integration of culture and heritage into sustainable development policies, highlighting the importance of community participation, traditional knowledge, and effective management in the conservation of heritage sites. This paper examines the implications of this strategic alignment for tentative World Heritage Sites in India. It explores how buffer zones can serve as tools for sustainable tourism, economic growth, and environmental protection while also addressing the socio-economic needs of local communities. By adopting a people-centered approach, the study underscores the need for active community involvement in heritage conservation, recognizing local residents as long-term custodians of cultural heritage. The role of buffer zones in promoting sustainable livelihoods, enhancing resilience to environmental changes, and fostering a sense of belonging among communities is also discussed. The challenges associated with buffer zones, including restrictive boundaries, unclear legislative frameworks, and potential disconnection from sociocultural contexts, are critically analyzed. The paper advocates for a holistic and integrated approach to buffer zone management, ensuring that policies are not only theoretically sound but also practically feasible. It concludes by emphasizing the need for collaborative efforts among conservation professionals, local communities, and policymakers to achieve sustainable development goals that respect both the heritage site's integrity and the well-being of surrounding populations.

Keywords: buffer zones, India, local communities, urbanization, world heritage sites

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Authors: Sara Piccirillo

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The integrated urban regeneration represents a great opportunity to deliver correct management of the territory if implemented through the reuse, enhancement, and transformation of abandoned industrial areas, according to sustainability strategies. In environmental terms, recycling abandoned sites by demolishing buildings and regenerating the urban areas means promoting adaptation to climate change and a new sensitivity towards city living. The strategic vision of 'metabolism' can be implemented through diverse actions made on urban settlements, and planning certainly plays a primary role. Planning an urban transformation in a sustainable way is more than auspicable. It is necessary to introduce innovative urban soil management actions to mitigate the environmental costs associated with current land use and to promote projects for the recovery/renaturalization of urban or non-agricultural soils. However, by freeing up these through systematic demolition of the disused heritage, new questions open up in terms of environmental costs deriving from the inevitable impacts caused by the disposal of waste. The mitigation of these impacts involves serious reflection on the recycling supply chains aimed at the production and reuse of secondary raw materials in the construction industry. The recent developments in R&D of recycling materials are gradually becoming more and more pivotal in consideration of environmental issues such as increasing difficulties in exploiting natural quarries or strict regulations for the management and disposal of waste sites. Therefore, this contribution, set as a critical essay, presents the reconstruction outputs of the regulatory background on the material recycling chain up to the 'end of waste' stage, both at a national and regional scale. This extended approach to this urban design practice goes beyond the cultural dimension that has relegated urban regeneration to pure design only. It redefines its processes through an interdisciplinary system that affects human, environmental and financial resources.

Keywords: waste management, C&D waste, recycling, urban trasformation

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Authors: Weaam Aldeeban, Majd Aljamali, Lama A. Youssef

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Background & Objective: Warfarin is considered a problematic drug due to its narrow therapeutic window and wide inter-individual response variations, which are attributed to demographic, environmental, and genetic factors, particularly single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the genes encoding VKORC1 and CYP2C9 involved in warfarin's mechanism of action and metabolism, respectively. CYP2C9*2rs1799853 and CYP2C9*3rs1057910 alleles are linked to reduced enzyme activity, as carriers of either or both alleles are classified as moderate or slow metabolizers, and therefore exhibit higher sensitivity of warfarin compared with wild type (CYP2C9*1*1). Our study aimed to assess the frequency of *1, *2, and *3 alleles in the CYP2C9 gene in a cohort of Syrian patients receiving a maintenance dose of warfarin for different indications, the impact of genotypes on warfarin dosing, and the frequency of adverse effects (i.e., bleedings). Subjects & Methods: This retrospective cohort study encompassed 94 patients treated with warfarin. Patients’ genotypes were identified by sequencing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) specific products of the gene encoding CYP2C9, and the effects on warfarin therapeutic outcomes were investigated. Results: Sequencing revealed that 43.6% of the study population has the *2 and/or *3 SNPs. The mean weekly maintenance dose of warfarin was 37.42 ± 15.5 mg for patients with the wild-type allele (CYP2C9*1*1), whereas patients with one or both variants (*2 and/or *3) demanded a significantly lower dose (28.59 ±11.58 mg) of warfarin, (P= 0.015). A higher percentage (40.7%) of patients with allele *2 and/or *3 experienced hemorrhagic accidents compared with only 17.9% of patients with the wild type *1*1, (P = 0.04). Conclusions: Our study proves an association between *2 and *3 genotypes and higher sensitivity to warfarin and a tendency to bleed, which necessitates lowering the dose. These findings emphasize the significance of CYP2C9 genotyping prior to commencing warfarin therapy in order to achieve optimal and faster dose control and to ensure effectiveness and safety.

Keywords: warfarin, CYP2C9, polymorphisms, Syrian, hemorrhage

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Authors: Eunjoo Lee

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Background: As the number of surgeries increases, the incidence of adverse events is likely to become more prevalent. Patients who are somewhat knowledgeable about surgery-related adverse events are more likely to engage in safety initiatives to prevent them. Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a smartphone application developed during the study to enhance patients’ knowledge of surgery-related adverse events during hospitalization. Design: Non-randomized, one group, measured pre- and post-intervention. Participants: Thirty-six hospitalized patients admitted to the orthopedics unit of a general hospital in South Korea. Methods. First, a smartphone application to enhance patients’ knowledge of surgery-related adverse events was developed through an iterative process, which included a literature review, expert consultation, and pilot testing. The application was installed on participants’ smartphones, and research assistants taught the participants to use it. Twenty-five true/false questions were used to assess patients’ knowledge of preoperative precautions (eight items), surgical site infection (five items), Foley catheter management (four items), drainage management (four items), and anesthesia-related complications (four items). Results: Overall, the percentage of correct answers increased significantly, from 57.02% to 73.82%, although answers related to a few specific topics did not increase that much. Although the patients’ understanding of drainage management and the Foley catheter did increase substantially after they used the smartphone application, it was still relatively low. Conclusions: The smartphone application developed during this study enhanced the patients’ knowledge of surgery-related adverse events during hospitalization. However, nurses must make an additional effort to help patients to understand certain topics, including drainage and Foley catheter management. Relevance to clinical practice: Insufficient patient knowledge increases the risk of adverse events during hospitalization. Nurses should take active steps to enhance patients’ knowledge of a range of safety issues during hospitalization, in order to decrease the number of surgery-related adverse events.

Keywords: patient education, patient participation, patient safety, smartphone application, surgical errors

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Authors: Omair Anas

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The Persian Gulf has been in turmoil for a long time since the colonial administration has handed over the role to the small and weak kings and emirs who were assured of protection in return of many economic and security promises to them. The regional order, Saudi Arabia evolved was a rentier regional order secured by an expansion of rentier economy and taking responsibility for much of the expenses of the regional order on behalf of relatively poor countries. The two oil booms helped the Saudi state to expand the 'rentier order' driven stability and bring the countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine under its tutelage. The disruptive misadventure, however, came with Iran's proclamation of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 which it wanted to be exported to its 'un-Islamic and American puppet' Arab neighbours. For Saudi Arabia, even the challenge presented by the socialist-nationalist Arab dictators like Gamal Abdul Nasser and Hafez Al-Assad was not that much threatening to the Saudi Arabia’s then-defensive realism. In the Arab uprisings, the Gulf monarchies saw a wave of insecurity and Iran found it an opportune time to complete the revolutionary process it could not complete after 1979. An alliance of convenience and ideology between Iran and Islamist groups had the real potential to challenge both Saudi Arabia’s own security and its leadership in the region. The disruptive threat appeared at a time when the Saudi state had already sensed an impending crisis originating from the shifts in the energy markets. Low energy prices, declining global demands, and huge investments in alternative energy resources required Saudi Arabia to rationalize its economy according to changing the global political economy. The domestic Saudi reforms remained gradual until the death of King Abdullah in 2015. What is happening now in the region, the Qatar crisis, the Lebanon crisis and the Saudi-Iranian proxy war in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen has combined three immediate objectives, rationalising Saudi economy and most importantly, the resetting the Saudi royal power for Saudi Arabia’s longest-serving future King Mohammad bin Salman. The Saudi King perhaps has no time to wait and watch the power vacuum appearing because of Iran’s expansionist foreign policy. The Saudis appear to be employing an offensive realism by advancing a pro-active regional policy to counter Iran’s threatening influence amid disappearing Western security from the region. As the Syrian civil war is coming to a compromised end with ceding much ground to Iran-controlled militias, Hezbollah and Al-Hashad, the Saudi state has lost much ground in these years and the threat from Iranian proxies is more than a reality, more clearly in Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. This paper attempts to analyse the changing Saudi behaviour in the region, which, the author understands, is shaped by an offensive-realist approach towards finding a favourable security environment for the Saudi-led regional order, a post-rentier order perhaps.

Keywords: terrorism, Saudi Arabia, Rentier State, gulf crisis

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Authors: Anna Bohers, Emília Hroncová, Juraj Ladomerský

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Oil sludge with its main characteristic of high acidity is a waste product generated from the operation of refinery and petrochemical plants. Former refinery and petrochemical plant - Petrochema Dubová is present in Slovakia as well. Its activities was to process the crude oil through sulfonation and adsorption technology for production of lubricating and special oils, synthetic detergents and special white oils for cosmetic and medical purposes. Seventy years ago – period, when this historical acid sludge burden has been created – comparing to the environmental awareness the production was in preference. That is the reason why, as in many countries, also in Slovakia a historical environmental burden is present until now – 229 211 m3 of oil sludge in the middle of the National Park of Nízke Tatry mountain chain. Neither one of tried treatment methods – bio or non-biologic one - was proved as suitable for processing or for recovery in the reason of different factors admission: i.e. strong aggressivity, difficulty with handling because of its sludgy and liquid state et sim. As a potential solution, also incineration was tested, but it was not proven as a suitable method, as the concentration of SO2 in combustion gases was too high, and it was not possible to decrease it under the acceptable value of 2000 mg.mn-3. That is the reason why the operation of incineration plant has been terminated, and the acid sludge landfills are present until nowadays. The objective of this paper is to present a new possibility of processing and valorization of acid sludgy-waste. The processing of oil sludge was performed through the effective separation - thermal desorption technology, through which it is possible to split the sludgy material into the matrix (soil, sediments) and organic contaminants. In order to boost the efficiency in the processing of acid sludge through thermal desorption, the work will present the possibility of application of an original technology – Method of Blowing Decomposition for recovering of organic matter into technological lubricating oil.

Keywords: hazardous waste, oil sludge, remediation, thermal desorption

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Authors: Saou Mohamed Amine

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The construction industry has been identified as a user of substantial amount of materials and energy resources that has an enormous impact on environment. The energy efficient in refurbishment project is being considered as one of the approaches to achieve sustainability in construction industry. The increasing concern for environment has made building owners and designers to incorporate the energy efficiency features into their building projects. However, an overwhelming issue of existing non-energy efficient buildings which exceeds the number of new building could be ineffective if the buildings are not refurbished through the energy efficient measures. Thus, energy efficient in refurbishment project is being considered as one of the approaches to achieve sustainability that offers significant opportunities for reducing global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the quality of design team attributes and the characteristics of the refurbishment building projects have been argued to be the main factors that determine the energy efficiency performance of the building.

Keywords: construction industry, design team attributes, energy efficient performance, refurbishment projects characteristics

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Authors: Li Xu, Yang Hong, T. Zhao Wen

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Experimental results of many RC beam-column subassemblage indicate that slippage of longitudinal beam rebar within the joint and the shear deformation of joint core have significant influence on seismic behavior of the subassemblage. However, rigid joint assumption has been generally used in the seismic response analysis of RC frames, in which two kinds of inelastic deformation of joint have been ignored. Based on OpenSees platform, ‘Super Joint Element Model’ with more detailed inelastic mechanism is used to simulate the inelastic response of joints. Two finite element models of typical RC plane frame, namely considering or ignoring the inelastic deformation of joint respectively, were established and analyzed under seven strong earthquake waves. The simulated global and local inelastic deformations of the RC plane frame is shown and discussed. The analyses also confirm the security of the earthquake-resistant frame designed according to Chinese codes.

Keywords: frame structure, beam-column joint, longitudinal bar slippage, shear deformation, nonlinear analysis

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Authors: Evren Aysev Denec

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As an urban settlement dating as early as 8000 years and the capital for Byzantine and Ottoman empires; İstanbul has been a significant global city throughout history. The most drastic changes in the macro form of Istanbul have taken place in the last seven decades; starting from 1950’s with rapid industrialization and population growth; pacing up after the 1980’s with the efforts of integration to the global capitalist system; reaching to a climax in the 2000’s with the adaptation of a neoliberal urban regime. Today, the rate of urbanization together with land speculation and real estate investment has been growing enormously. Every inch of urban land is conceptualized as a commodity to be capitalized. This neoliberal mindset has many controversial implementations, from the privatization of public land to the urban transformation of historic neighbourhoods and consumption of natural resources. The planning decisions concerning the city have been mainly top down initiations; conceptualising historical, cultural and natural heritage as commodities to be capitalised and consumed in favour of creating rent value. One of the most crucial implementations of this neoliberal urban regime is the project of establishing a ‘new city’ around northern Istanbul; together with a number of large-scale infrastructural projects such as the Third Bosporus Bridge; a new highway system, a Third Airport Project and a secondary Bosporus project called the ‘Canal Istanbul’. Urbanizing northern Istanbul is highly controversial as this area consists of major natural resources of the city; being the northern forests, water supplies and wildlife; which are bound to be destroyed to a great extent following the implementations. The construction of the third bridge and the third airport has begun in 2013, despite environmental objections and protests. Over five hundred thousand trees are planned be cut for solely the construction of the bridge and the Northern Marmara Motorway. Yet the real damage will be the urbanization of the forest area; irreversibly corrupting the natural resources and attracting millions of additional population towards Istanbul. Furthermore, these projects lack an integrated planning scope as the plans prepared for Istanbul are constantly subjected to alterations forced by the central government. Urban interventions mentioned above are executed despite the rulings of Istanbul Environmental plan, due to top down planning decisions. Instead of an integrated action plan that prepares for the future of the city, Istanbul is governed by partial plans and projects that are issued by a profit based agenda; supported by legal alterations and laws issued by the central government. This paper aims to discuss the ongoing implementations with regards to northern Istanbul; claiming that they are not merely infrastructural interventions but parts of a greater neoliberal urbanization strategy. In the course of the study, firstly a brief account on the northern forests of Istanbul will be presented. Then, the projects will be discussed in detail, addressing how the current planning schemes deal with the natural heritage of the city. Lastly, concluding remarks on how the implementations could affect the future of Istanbul will be presented.

Keywords: Istanbul, urban design, urban planning, natural resources

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Authors: Hafida Bouarfa, Mohamed Abed

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The main object of our work is the development and the validation of a system indicated Fuzzy Vulnerability. Fuzzy Vulnerability uses a fuzzy representation in order to tolerate the imprecision during the description of construction. At the the second phase, we evaluated the similarity between the vulnerability of a new construction and those of the whole of the historical cases. This similarity is evaluated on two levels: 1) individual similarity: bases on the fuzzy techniques of aggregation; 2) Global similarity: uses the increasing monotonous linguistic quantifiers (RIM) to combine the various individual similarities between two constructions. The third phase of the process of Fuzzy Vulnerability consists in using vulnerabilities of historical constructions narrowly similar to current construction to deduce its estimate vulnerability. We validated our system by using 50 cases. We evaluated the performances of Fuzzy Vulnerability on the basis of two basic criteria, the precision of the estimates and the tolerance of the imprecision along the process of estimation. The comparison was done with estimates made by tiresome and long models. The results are satisfactory.

Keywords: case based reasoning, fuzzy logic, fuzzy case based reasoning, seismic vulnerability

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Authors: Myrto Dagkouli-Kyriakoglou

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Southern European countries tend to have a lot of connections in their culture, customs, ideals and attitude towards everyday aspects. On the contrary, all of them demonstrate a lot of differences in their history, political life and economic situation. Nevertheless, the state welfare and its insufficiency to deal with citizens’ needs, is common for the whole region. As the global financial crisis initiated, all of them gradually were affected and established austerity measures. Consequently, there were crucial budget cuts in state welfare and accordingly limited support to the citizens at a time that is most needed as the economic difficulties of the households are rising rapidly. Crisis in connection with austerity measures brought up a housing problem which was hidden for decades with the assistance of the institution of the Southern European family. New or old copying practices concerning housing are already developed and more will rise in order to survive this new era. Expressly, youth is one of the most vulnerable groups in this situation and therefore there is a special focus on the policies that affect their housing as well as their copying practices in connection with the family/kinship strategies.

Keywords: housing, coping practices, Greece, familism

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Authors: Elson Szeto

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Over the past 15 years, digital technology has ubiquitously penetrated societies around the world. New values of e-learning are emerging in the preparation of future talents, while e-learning is a key driver of widening participation and knowledge transfer in Chinese higher education. As a vibrant, Chinese society in Asia, Hong Kong’s new generation university students, perhaps the digital natives, have been learning with e-learning since their basic education. They can acquire new knowledge with the use of different forms of e-learning as a generic competence. These students who embrace this competence further their study journeys in higher education. This project reviews the Government’s policy of Information Technology in Education which has largely put forward since 1998. So far, primary to secondary education has embraced advantages of e-learning capability to advance the learning of different subject knowledge. Yet, e-learning capacity in higher education is yet to be fully examined in Hong Kong. The study reported in this paper is a pilot investigation into e-learning capacity in Chinese higher education in the region. By conducting a qualitative case study of Hong Kong, the investigation focuses on (1) the institutional ICT settings in general; (2) the pedagogic responses to e-learning in specific; and (3) the university students’ satisfaction of e-learning. It is imperative to revisit the e-learning capacity for promoting effective learning amongst university students, supporting new knowledge acquisition and embracing new opportunities in the 21st century. As a pilot case study, data will be collected from individual interviews with the e-learning management team members of a university, teachers who use e-learning for teaching and students who attend courses comprised of e-learning components. The findings show the e-learning capacity of the university and the key components of leveraging e-learning capability as a university-wide learning settings. The findings will inform institutions’ senior management, enabling them to effectively enhance institutional e-learning capacity for effective learning and teaching and new knowledge acquisition. Policymakers will be aware of new potentials of e-learning for the preparation of future talents in this society at large.

Keywords: capability, e-learning, higher education, student learning

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Authors: Davaakhuu Vandannyam, Amarsaikhan Dashtseren, Oyungoo Badamdorj

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Background: Shift work and extended working hours are increasing in many industries and organization's in the world. Over a 24 hour period, the circadian clock regulates sleep/wake patterns, body temperature, hormone levels, digestion and many other functions. Depending on the time of day or night, the human body is programmed for periods of wakefulness and sleep, high and low body temperature, high and low digestive activity and so on. Shift work is highly prevalent in industrialized societies (>20%) but, when it includes night work, it has pronounced negative effects on sleep, subjective and physiological sleepiness, performance, accident risk, as well as on health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and certain forms of cancer. Method: In this cross-sectional field study, 634 shift work and day work nurses from a plant were involved, with participation rate of 100% (634 nurses). The general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and RLS, ESS, ISI, FSS were used to evaluate the level of insomnia, sleepiness, fatigue and restless legs syndrome, respectively. Results: As a result of research on some indicators of health risks caused from work shift, it was proven that prevalence of restless legs syndrome was at 5.5% and 25.9% are in risk of becoming sick, 42.3% are in fatigue, 3.5% in high stage of insomnia and 27.4% are sleepy on duty. Insomnia of nurses mainly affected from long-hour shift, dissatisfaction, workload, lose of focus and use of coffee. There is sleepiness lies in the workplace due to number of shifts, unsatisfactory performance and emergency calls between shifts. It has been determined that risk of sickness influenced by number of shifts in a month and long hour shift, dissatisfaction and use of coffee and divisions are causing restless legs syndrome. Conclusions: Among the nurses, it was found that the prevalence of insomnia is 31.6%, sleepiness 27.4%, fatigue 42.3%, restless legs syndrome 35% and stress 25.9%. These factors of shift work affecting health tend to go up as working hours increase and more common among shift work nurses.

Keywords: shiftwork, insomnia, sleepiness, restless

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Authors: Mimi Mohaffyza Mohamad, Yee Mei Heong, Nurfirdawati Muhammad Hanafi, Tee Tze Kiong

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This study is conducted to investigate the disparity of between learning styles and cognitive abilities specifically in Vocational Education. Felder and Silverman Learning Styles Model (FSLSM) was applied to measure the students’ learning styles while the content in Building Construction Subject consists; knowledge, skills and problem solving were taken into account in constructing the elements of cognitive abilities. There are four dimension of learning styles proposed by Felder and Silverman intended to capture student learning preferences with regards to processing either active or reflective, perception based on sensing or intuitive, input of information used visual or verbal and understanding information represent with sequential or global learner. The study discovered that students are tending to be visual learners and each type of learner having significant difference whereas cognitive abilities. The finding may help teachers to facilitate students more effectively and to boost the student’s cognitive abilities.

Keywords: learning styles, cognitive abilities, dimension of learning styles, learning preferences

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Authors: Neelamshobha Nirala, R. Periyasamy, Awanish Kumar

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Diabetes is a metabolic disorder and with the increase of global prevalence of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and mortality related to diabetes has also increased. Diabetes causes the increase of arterial stiffness by elusive hormonal and metabolic abnormalities. We used photoplethysmograph (PPG), a simple non-invasive method to study the change in arterial stiffness due to diabetes. Toe PPG signals were taken from 29 diabetic subjects with mean age of (65±8.4) years and 21 non-diabetic subjects of mean age of (49±14) years. Mean duration of diabetes is 12±8 years for diabetic group. Rise-time (RT) and area under rise time (AUR) were calculated from the PPG signal of each subject and Welch’s t-test is used to find the significant difference between two groups. We obtained a significant difference of (p-value) 0.0005 and 0.03 for RT and AUR respectively between diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Average value of RT and AUR is 0.298±0.003 msec and 14.4±4.2 arbitrary units respectively for diabetic subject compared to 0.277±0.0005 msec and 13.66±2.3 a.u respectively for non-diabetic subjects. In conclusion, this study support that arterial stiffness is increased in diabetes and can be detected early using PPG.

Keywords: area under rise-time, AUR, arterial stiffness, diabetes, photoplethysmograph, PPG, rise-time (RT)

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Authors: P. S. Surya Meghana, K. Lingeshwaran, C. Kannan, V. Raghavendran, C. Priya

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One of the most basic and powerful tools in all of science and medicine is the light microscope, the fundamental device for laboratory as well as research purposes. With the improving technology, the need for portable, economic and user-friendly instruments is in high demand. The conventional microscope fails to live up to the emerging trend. Also, adequate access to healthcare is not widely available, especially in developing countries. The most basic step towards the curing of a malady is the diagnosis of the disease itself. The main aim of this paper is to diagnose Malaria with the most common device, cell phones, which prove to be the immediate solution for most of the modern day needs with the development of wireless infrastructure allowing to compute and communicate on the move. This opened up the opportunity to develop novel imaging, sensing, and diagnostics platforms using mobile phones as an underlying platform to address the global demand for accurate, sensitive, cost-effective, and field-portable measurement devices for use in remote and resource-limited settings around the world.

Keywords: cellular, hand-held, health care, image processing, malarial parasites, microscope

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Authors: Preet Gill, Danus Ravindran

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These The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in widespread implications for medical specialist training programs worldwide, including radiology. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the Australian and New Zealand radiology trainee experience and well-being, as well as to compare the Australasian experience with that reported by other countries. An anonymised electronic online questionnaire was disseminated to all training members of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists who were radiology trainees during the 2020 – 2022 clinical years. Trainees were questioned about their experience from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australasia (March 2020) to the time of survey completion. Participation was voluntary. Questions assessed the impact of the pandemic across multiple domains, including workload (inpatient/outpatient & individual modality volume), teaching, supervision, external learning opportunities, redeployment and trainee wellbeing. Survey responses were collated and compared with other peer reviewed publications. Answer options were primarily in categorical format (nominal and ordinal subtypes, as appropriate). An opportunity to provide free text answers to a minority of questions was provided. While our results mirror that of other countries, which demonstrated reduced case exposure and increased remote teaching and supervision, responses showed variation in the methods utilised by training sites during the height of the pandemic. A significant number of trainees were affected by examination cancellations/postponements and had subspecialty training rotations postponed. The majority of trainees felt that the pandemic had a negative effect on their training. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on radiology trainees across Australia and New Zealand. The present study has highlighted the extent of these effects, with most aspects of training impacted. Opportunities exist to utilise this information to create robust workplace strategies to mitigate these negative effects should the need arise in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19, radiology, training, pandemic

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Authors: Szu-Yi Chang, Jiin-Ru Rong

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This paper discussed a case involving a young female patient with schizophrenia. The patient's condition was deteriorating, and she was becoming increasingly reliant on her family to take care of her, and as her father did not understand the illness well and was afraid that others will learn about the presence of a mentally ill individual in their family, he and the patient's mother were thus unable to cope with the patient's deteriorating condition, which in turn caused her to suffer from a lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem. The patient received nursing care from July 26th to October 25th, 2017, during which counseling, family visits, and phone interviews were carried out, and her condition was monitored. By referring to the practical ability indicators for community psychiatric mental health nursing that were developed by the psychiatric mental health nurses' association of the Republic of China, defining categories such as 'self-construction,' 'self-management,' 'disease management,' and 'family nursing,' and incorporating indicators for empowerment and various skills into the steps and strategies used for nursing care, we will able to help the patient to construct her own identity, raise her self-esteem, improve her ability to independently perform activities of daily living, strengthen her disease management ability, and gradually build up her life management skills. The patient's family was also encouraged to communicate more among themselves, so as to align them with the nursing care objectives of improving the patient's ability to adapt to community life and her disease. The results indicated that the patient was able to maintain her mental stability within her community. By implementing effective self-management and maintaining a routine life, the patient was able to continue her active participation in community work and rehabilitation activities. Improvements were also achieved with respect to family role issues by establishing mutual understanding among the patient's family members and gaining their support. It is recommended that mental health nurses can leverage their community mental health nursing skills and the related strategies to promote adaptation to community life among mental life patients.

Keywords: community psychiatric mental health nursing, family nursing, schizophrenia, self-management

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Authors: Yahia Massinissa, Yahia Mouloud

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Cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common lethal genetic disease in the Europe population, is caused by mutations in the transmembrane conductance regulator gene (CFTR). It affects most organs including an epithelial tissue, base of hydroelectrolytic transepithelial transport, notably that aerial ways, the pancreas, the biliary ways, the intestine, sweat glands and the genital tractus. The gene whose anomalies are responsible of the cystic fibrosis codes for a protein Cl channel named CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) that exercises multiple functions in the cell, one of the most important in control of sodium and chlorine through epithelia. The deficient function translates itself notably by an abnormal production of viscous secretion that obstructs the execrator channels of this target organ: one observes then a dilatation, an inflammation and an atrophy of these organs. It also translates itself by an increase of the concentration in sodium and in chloride in sweat, to the basis of the sweat test. In order to do a phenotypical and genotypical diagnosis at a part of the Algerian population, our survey has been carried on 16 patients with evocative symptoms of the cystic fibrosis at that the clinical context has been confirmed by a sweat test. However, anomalies of the CFTR gene have been determined by electrophoresis in gel of polyacrylamide of the PCR products (polymerase chain reaction), after enzymatic digestion, then visualized to the ultraviolet (UV) after action of the ethidium bromide. All mutations detected at the time of our survey have already been identified at patients attained by this pathology in other populations of the world. However, the important number of found mutation with regard to the one of the studied patients testifies that the origin of this big clinical variability that characterizes the illness in the consequences of an enormous diversity of molecular defects of the CFTR gene.

Keywords: cystic fibrosis, CFTR gene, polymorphism, algerian population, sweat test, genotypical diagnosis

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Authors: Fatmanur Avar, Kubra G. Kostepen, Seda Lafci

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In today’s world, technological innovations have brought out entirely new business understanding. Companies operating in logistics have become more flexible to business trends such as digitalization, innovation, sustainability, flexibility, and productivity. Through the arrival of the fourth industrial revolution called as industry 4.0 approach, the logistics concepts have been redefined. By adopting automated planning and scheduling, organizing and controlling systems such as Transportation Management System (TMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), warehouse control systems, it will be possible for businesses to be ahead of logistics process. In this research, the aim is to reveal the effects of logistics 4.0 applications for a third party logistics service provider (3PL) located in Turkey. Also, the impacts of logistics 4.0 on key performance indicators (KPI) are examined under the scope of the study. As a methodology, a semi-structured interview is conducted with a global 3PL company and data collected from interviews is analyzed with content analysis. At the end of the analysis, it is presented the effects of logistics 4.0 applications on logistics activities of the company. Limitations and suggestions are also offered.

Keywords: key performance indicators, KPI, logistics activities, logistics 4.0, 3PL

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Authors: Esengül Elibol, Arzu Kader Harmancı Seren

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Individuals' reasons to choose a profession, profession image perceptions and future plans related to that profession affect their success in their future work lives. For nursing profession, this situation at the same time is important in terms of the health and safety of patients. The purpose of this study is to determine why medical vocational high school students in İstanbul choose nursing profession, their nursing image perceptions and future plans related to the profession. Descriptive and cross-sectional design are used. The study was carried out in four medical vocational high school in İstanbul. All third and fourth grade students who are attending to nursing programs and voluntary for participation were included in the study. In collecting data, two questionnaires that aim to learn about socio-demographic characteristics, profession choice reasons and future plans of nursing students and ‘Nursing Image Scale’ were used. Scale consisted of 28 items including individuals' opinions on nursing profession image and three sub-categories ‘General View,’ ‘Communication,’ and ‘Vocational-Educational Qualities.’ Analyzing profession choice reasons and future plans of participants, it is determined that majority chose nursing for easily finding a job (46.9%) and that majority had a dream profession other than nursing (65.8%). Analyzing nursing image perception of participants, it is determined that average of general view sub-category total scores was 9.75±2.27, average of communication sub-category total scores was8.68±2.86, and average of vocational-educational qualities sub-category total score was 21.18±3.96. In the perception score averages, meaningful differences were found according to independent variables. In conclusion, it was determined that majority of the participant students chose nursing for easily finding a job, perceived profession image negatively, and had a dream profession other than nursing.

Keywords: nursing image, medical vocational health school, perception, profession, student nurse

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Authors: Tingyu Zhang

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The horizontal ecological compensation (HEC) mechanism is the key to stimulating the active participation of the whole basin in ecological protection. In this paper, we construct an evolutionary model for HEC in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) basin with the introduction of the central government constraint and incentive mechanism (CGCIM) and explore the conditions for the realization of a (Protection and compensation) strategy that meets the social expectations. Further, the water quality-water quantity model is utilized to measure the HEC amount with the characteristic factual data of the YREB in 2020-2022. The results show that the stability of the evolutionary game model of upstream and downstream governments in the YREB is closely related to the CGCIM. If (Protection Compensation) is to be realized as the only evolutionary stable strategy of the evolutionary game system composed of upstream and downstream governments, it is necessary for the CGCIM to satisfy that the sum of the incentives for the protection side and its unilateral or bilateral constraints is greater than twice the input cost of the active strategy, and the sum of the incentives for the compensation side and its unilateral or bilateral constraints is greater than the amount of ecological compensation that needs to be paid by it when it adopts the active strategy. At this point, the total amount of HEC that the downstream government should give to the upstream government of the YREB is 2856.7 million yuan in 2020, 5782.1 million yuan in 2021, and 23166.7 million yuan in 2022. The results of the study can provide a reference for promoting the improvement and refinement of the HEC mechanism in the YREB.

Keywords: horizontal ecological compensation, Yangtze river economic belt, evolutionary game analysis, water quality and quantity model research on territorial ecological restoration in Mianzhu city, Sichuan, under the dual evaluation framework

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Authors: Sabika Khalid, Endale Fantahun Tadesse

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Unlike other professional sectors, a great deal of studies has addressed the overwhelming gender disparity phenomena in the early childhood education (ECE) workforce, which is acknowledged for the dominance of women over men teachers. The irony of ECE being a gendered working environment is not only observed in societies that are ruled by gender roles but also in Western countries that claim to margin the gender gap in several professions. The participation of male teachers in ECE across most countries ranged from 1% to 3% of the total preschool or kindergarten teachers. When it comes to a dynamic Chinese society tempered with a deep-rooted tradition and cultural ideology, the ECE has no less place for males, and males have a low place for ECE. According to the Ministry of Education of China (2020), there are over 5 million kindergarten teachers and staff members, while only 2.3% are accounted for male teachers. The traditional gender-based discourse asserts that giving care and guidance for young children related to nurturing ‘mothering’ labels the profession in ECE as women’s work derived from originated from their ‘naturality.’ Although a large volume of evidence sheds light on the cause for low male teachers, the perception of parents, female teachers working with male teachers, and the experience of male teachers working in ECE, less is known and understood before being a teacher. Hence, this study argues that the promotion of the involvement of male teachers in light of their masculinity identity asset in the children's learning environment is comprehended to understand the construction of male student teachers' (preservice) professional identity during early childhood teacher training that allows obtaining substantial evidence that provides a feasible and robust implication in the preparation of competent and professional male preschool teachers that understand, cherish, and bring harmony in Chinese ECE through professionalism socialization with the stakeholders. This study intended to reveal male ECE preservice teachers’ knowledge of their professional identity, i.e., how they perceive themselves as a teacher and what factors agents these perceptions towards their professional identity.

Keywords: male teachers, Early Childhood Education (ECE), self-identity, perception of stakeholders

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Authors: Shilpa Balan

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Radio Frequency Identification, also popularly known as RFID is used to automatically identify and track tags attached to items. This study focuses on the application of RFID in healthcare. The adoption of RFID in healthcare is a crucial technology to patient safety and inventory management. Data from RFID tags are used to identify the locations of patients and inventory in real time. Medical errors are thought to be a prominent cause of loss of life and injury. The major advantage of RFID application in healthcare industry is the reduction of medical errors. The healthcare industry has generated huge amounts of data. By discovering patterns and trends within the data, big data analytics can help improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. The number of increasing research publications leading to innovations in RFID applications shows the importance of this technology. This study explores the current state of research of RFID in healthcare using a text mining approach. No study has been performed yet on examining the current state of RFID research in healthcare using a data mining approach. In this study, related articles were collected on RFID from healthcare journal and news articles. Articles collected were from the year 2000 to 2015. Significant keywords on the topic of focus are identified and analyzed using open source data analytics software such as Rapid Miner. These analytical tools help extract pertinent information from massive volumes of data. It is seen that the main benefits of adopting RFID technology in healthcare include tracking medicines and equipment, upholding patient safety, and security improvement. The real-time tracking features of RFID allows for enhanced supply chain management. By productively using big data, healthcare organizations can gain significant benefits. Big data analytics in healthcare enables improved decisions by extracting insights from large volumes of data.

Keywords: RFID, data mining, data analysis, healthcare

Procedia PDF Downloads 238