Search results for: advance care planning

Authors: Rana Praween Kumar

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Preterm-low birth weight delivery is a major cause of infant morbidity and mortality in developing countries and has been linked to poor periodontal health during pregnancy. Gingivitis and chronic periodontitis are highly prevalent chronic inflammatory oral diseases. The detection and diagnosis of these common diseases is a fundamentally important component of oral health care. This study is intended to investigate predisposing and enabling factors as determinants of oral health indicators in pregnancy as well as the association between periodontal problems during pregnancy with age and socio economic status of the individual. A community –based prospective cohort study will be conducted in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India among pregnant women using completed interviews and a full mouth oral clinical examination using the CPITN (Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Need) and OHI-S (Simplified Oral Hygiene) indices with adequate sample size and informed consent to the patient following proper inclusion and exclusion criteria. Multiple logistic regression analyses will be used to identify independent determinants of periodontal problems and use of dental services during pregnancy. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) will be used to investigate the relationship between periodontal problems with the age and socioeconomic status. The result will help in proper monitoring of periodontal health during pregnancy encouraging the delivery of healthy child and the maintenance of proper health of the mother.

Keywords: infant, periodontal problems, pregnancy, pre-term-low birth weight delivery

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Authors: Amauri Josafat Gomez Aguilar, Jean Pierre Kenné

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This research presents the development of a self-sustainable manufacturing system from a circular economy perspective, structured by a multi-stage serial production system consisting of a series of machines under deterioration in charge of producing a single product and a reverse remanufacturing system constituted by the same productive systems of the first scheme and different tooling, fed by-products collected at the end of their life cycle, and non-conforming elements of the first productive scheme. Since the advanced production manufacturing system is unable to satisfy the customer's quality expectations completely, we propose the development of a mixed integer linear mathematical model focused on the optimal search and assignment of quality stations and preventive maintenance operation to the machines over a time horizon, intending to segregate the correct number of non-conforming parts for reuse in the remanufacturing system and thereby minimizing production, quality, maintenance, and customer non-conformance penalties. Numerical experiments are performed to analyze the solutions found by the model under different scenarios. The results showed that the correct implementation of a closed manufacturing system and allocation of quality inspection and preventive maintenance operations generate better levels of customer satisfaction and an efficient manufacturing system.

Keywords: closed loop, mixed integer linear programming, preventive maintenance, quality inspection

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Authors: Ganratchakan Ninlawan, Witthaya Mekhum

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The objective of this research was to investigate motivation needs in working of the employees in Rayong Province at Panakom Co., Ltd. The sample group included 59 operational employees of Panakom Co., Ltd divided into 2 main parts to complete the questionnaires. Part 1 dealt with personal information of the staff in the form of checklist questions. Part 2 was about the motivation needs in working in the form of 5 rating scales. The data were analyzed to find frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, and SD with the results as follows. They reported their working conditions in the moderate level while the first aspect was on the regulation of the Working Support Department. The second rated aspect was on the modern facilities and office stationeries followed by the working environment such as lighting, temperature, sound system, and atmosphere. The last aspect was on the provision of enough working equipment. On the part of work stability and work progress, they rated this aspect at the moderate level with the details below. The first aspect was their satisfaction in work rotation followed by the encouragement in joining training and seminar to increase working knowledge. The third aspect was their perception on the progress of their careers. The last aspect was on the chance to get promoted in special cases. On the payment and fringe benefit, they rated this part in the moderate level with the highest aspect being on the provided fringe benefit such as health care. The second aspect was on the suitable salary compared to their knowledge and proficiency. The third aspect was on the satisfaction on the activities and seminars provided by the company. Finally, the last aspect was on the sufficient salary when compared with the current cost of living.

Keywords: motivation needs, working, employees, Rayong Province

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Authors: Maria De Los Angeles Rodriguez Cadena

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This paper discusses how the fictional versions of women of the past contribute to advance today’s ideas of social justice, personal freedom and emancipation as well as to highlight the creative challenge of constructing people and events on fictional narratives on television that incorporate multiple and simultaneous layers of meaning and complexity. This project builds on existing scholarship on audiovisual texts by exploring an influential but under-studied director. In two Mexican television series, Patricia Arriaga Jordan, an award-winning television producer, scriptwriter and director, constructs the life of two outstanding women that have played an influential role in national history and captured Mexican’s popular imagination for generations: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Malinche. Malinche (2018) tells the story of an extraordinary indigenous woman, Malintzin, during the Spanish Conquest (1511-1550) that is considered to have played a key role in the fall of the Aztec empire by acting as translator, negotiator and cultural mediator for the Spanish conquerors. Juana Ines (2016) portrays Sor Juana, a poet, essayist, playwright, theologian, philosopher, nun, of XVII century colonial Mexico, one of the brightest minds of her time, and now recognized as the first feminist of the Americas who wrote on the rights of women to an education, religious authority and feminist advocacy. Both series, as fictional narratives that recreate defining historical periods, specific events and relevant characters in the History of Mexico can be read as an example of what is called texts of cultural memory. A cultural memory text is a narrative that bonds the concepts of history, identity and belonging, and that is realized and disseminated through symbolic systems such as written documents, visual images, and dramatic representation. Cultural memory, through its narratives of historical fiction, emphasizes memory processes (historiography) and its implications and artifacts (cultural memory) mainly through the medial frameworks of remembering, which are the medial process by which memories (narratives, documents) participate in public knowledge and become collective memory. Historical fiction on television not only creates a portrayal of the past related to the real lives of protagonists, but it also significantly contributes to understand the past as an ever-evolving entity that highlights both, the necessary connection with the present as part of a developing sense of collective identity and belonging, as well as the relevance of the medium in which the past is represented and that ultimately supports the process of historical awareness. Through the emblematic recreation of national heroines and historical events in the unique context of historical drama on television, those texts constitute a venue where concepts of the past and the traditionally established ideas about history and heroines are highlighted, questioned and transformed.

Keywords: cultural memory, historical fiction, Mexico, television, women directors

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Authors: Rowland R. Ogunrinde, Yusmadi Y. Jusoh, Noraini Che Pa, Wan Nurhayati W. Rahman, Azizol B. Abdullah

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Enterprise Applications (EAs) aid the organizations achieve operational excellence and competitive advantage. Over time, most Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which are known to be the major drivers of most thriving global economies, use the costly on-premise versions of these applications thereby making business difficult to competitively thrive in the same market environment with their large enterprise counterparts. The advent of cloud computing presents the SMEs an affordable offer and great opportunities as such EAs can be cloud-hosted and rented on a pay-per-use basis which does not require huge initial capital. However, as there are numerous Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) offering EAs as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), there is a challenge of choosing a suitable provider with Quality of Service (QoS) that meet the organizations’ customized requirements. The proposed model takes care of that and goes a step further to select the most affordable among a selected few of the CSPs. In the earlier stage, before developing the instrument and conducting the pilot test, the researchers conducted a structured interview with three experts to validate the proposed model. In conclusion, the validity and reliability of the instrument were tested through experts, typical respondents, and analyzed with SPSS 22. Results confirmed the validity of the proposed model and the validity and reliability of the instrument.

Keywords: cloud service provider, enterprise application, quality of service, selection criteria, small and medium enterprise

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Authors: Dragana Tomic

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This research deals with relations among strategies and styles of coping with stress, social interaction anxiety and the achievement motive of young athletes and non-athletes. The research was conducted on the sample of 402 examinees (197 female and 205 male participants) of the average age of 20.76, divided into three groups: athletes, recreationists, and non-athletes. The COPE-S questionnaire, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Achievement Motivation Questionnaire (MOP 2002) were used for conducting this research and they had satisfactory reliability. The results of the research indicate that athletes, recreationists and non-athletes are not different when it comes to strategies and styles of coping with stress. Non- athletes have more noticeable social interaction anxiety when compared to athletes (U=5281.5, p=.000) and also when compared to recreationists (U=7573, p=.000). There was a difference among these three groups in the achievement motive (χ2(2)=23,544, p=.000) and the three components of this motive (Competing with others, χ2(2)=31,718, p=.000, Perseverance, χ2(2)=9,415, p=.009 and Planning orientation, χ2(2)=8,171, p=.017). The research also indicates a significant difference in the relation between social interaction anxiety and the achievement motive of examinee subgroups, where the most significant difference is between athletes and non- athletes (q=-.45). Moreover, women more frequently use emotion-focused coping (U=16718, p=.003), while men more frequently use avoidance (U=14895.5, p=.000). Women have a lead when it comes to expressing social anxiety (U=17750.5, p=.036) and the achievement motive (U=17395.5, p=.020). The discussion of the results includes findings of similar previous research and theoretical concepts of the variables which were examined. Future research should be oriented towards examining the background of the differences which were (not) gained as well as towards the influence of personality dimensions on the variables which were examined in order to apply the results in practice in the best way.

Keywords: achievement motivation, athletes, coping with stress, non-athletes, recreationists, social interaction anxiety

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Authors: Mostafa Mohammadpour, Christoph Kapeller, Christy Li, Josef Scharinger, Christoph Guger

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Interictal spikes provide valuable information on electrocorticography (ECoG), which aids in surgical planning for patients who suffer from refractory epilepsy. However, the shape and temporal dynamics of these spikes remain unclear. The purpose of this work was to analyze the shape of interictal spikes and measure their distance to the seizure onset zone (SOZ) to use in epilepsy surgery. Thirteen patients' data from the iEEG portal were retrospectively studied. For analysis, half an hour of ECoG data was used from each patient, with the data being truncated before the onset of a seizure. Spikes were first detected and grouped in a sequence, then clustered into interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) and non-IED groups using two-step clustering. The distance of the spikes from IED and non-IED groups to SOZ was quantified and compared using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Spikes in the IED group tended to be in SOZ or close to it, while spikes in the non-IED group were in distance of SOZ or non-SOZ area. At the group level, the distribution for sharp wave, positive baseline shift, slow wave, and slow wave to sharp wave ratio was significantly different for IED and non-IED groups. The distance of the IED cluster was 10.00mm and significantly closer to the SOZ than the 17.65mm for non-IEDs. These findings provide insights into the shape and spatiotemporal dynamics of spikes that could influence the network mechanisms underlying refractory epilepsy.

Keywords: spike propagation, spike pattern, clustering, SOZ

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Authors: Amós García Montaño

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In a democracy, a public policy must be developed within the regulatory framework and considering citizen participation in its planning, design, execution, and evaluation stages, necessary factors to have both legal support and sufficient legitimacy for its operation. However, the complexity and magnitude of certain public problems results in difficulties for the generation of consensus among society members, leading to unstable and unsuccessful scenarios for the exercise of the right to citizen participation and the generation of effective and efficient public policies. This is the case of public policies against corruption, an issue that in Mexico is difficult to define and generates conflicting opinions. To provide a possible solution to this delicate reality, this paper analyzes the principle of reasonableness as a tool for identifying the basic elements that guarantee a fundamental level of the exercise of the right to citizen participation in the fight against corruption, adopting elements of human rights indicator methodologies. In this sense, the relevance of having a legal framework that establishes obligations to incorporate proactive and transversal citizen participation in the matter is observed. It is also noted the need to monitor the operation of various citizen participation mechanisms in the decision-making processes of the institutions involved in the fight and prevention of corruption, which lead to an increase in the improvement of the perception of the citizen role as a relevant actor in this field. It is concluded that the principle of reasonableness is presented as a very useful tool for the identification of basic elements that facilitate the fulfillment of human rights commitments in the field of public policies.

Keywords: anticorruption, public participation, public policies, reasonableness

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Authors: A. Buruzs, M. F. Hatwágner, A. Torma, L. T. Kóczy

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The development, operation and maintenance of Integrated Waste Management Systems (IWMS) affects essentially the sustainable concern of every region. The features of such systems have great influence on all of the components of sustainability. In order to reach the optimal way of processes, a comprehensive mapping of the variables affecting the future efficiency of the system is needed such as analysis of the interconnections among the components and modelling of their interactions. The planning of a IWMS is based fundamentally on technical and economical opportunities and the legal framework. Modelling the sustainability and operation effectiveness of a certain IWMS is not in the scope of the present research. The complexity of the systems and the large number of the variables require the utilization of a complex approach to model the outcomes and future risks. This complex method should be able to evaluate the logical framework of the factors composing the system and the interconnections between them. The authors of this paper studied the usability of the Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) approach modelling the future operation of IWMS’s. The approach requires two input data set. One is the connection matrix containing all the factors affecting the system in focus with all the interconnections. The other input data set is the time series, a retrospective reconstruction of the weights and roles of the factors. This paper introduces a novel method to develop time series by content analysis.

Keywords: content analysis, factors, integrated waste management system, time series

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Authors: Lela Pintarić, Iva Rezić, Ana Vrsalović Presečki

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Considering an enormous increase of the use of metal nanoparticles with the exactly defined characteristics, the main goal of this research was to found the optimal and environmental friendly method of their synthesis. The synthesis of the inorganic core-shell nanoparticles was optimized as a model. The core-shell nanoparticles are composed of the enzyme core belted with the metal ions, oxides or salts as a shell. In this research, enzyme urease was the core catalyst and the shell nanoparticle was made of silver. Silver nanoparticles are widespread utilized and some of their common uses are: as an addition to disinfectants to ensure an aseptic environment for the patients, as a surface coating for neurosurgical shunts and venous catheters, as an addition to implants, in production of socks for diabetics and athletic clothing where they improve antibacterial characteristics, etc. Characteristics of synthesized nanoparticles directly depend on of their size, so the special care during this optimization was given to the determination of the size of the synthesized nanoparticles. For the purpose of the above mentioned optimization, sixteen experiments were generated by the Design of Experiments (DoE) method and conducted under various temperatures, with different initial concentration of the silver nitrate and constant concentration of the urease of two separate manufacturers. Synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed by the Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) method on Malvern NanoSight NS300. Results showed that the initial concentration of the silver ions does not affect the concentration of the synthesized silver nanoparticles neither their size distribution. On the other hand, temperature of the experiments has affected both of the mentioned values.

Keywords: core-shell nanoparticles, optimization, silver, urease

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Authors: Muhammad L. A. Dwiyoga

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The condition of a spatial land in the industrial park needs special attention to be studied more deeply. Geoplanology modeling can help arrange area according to his ability. This research method is to perform the analysis of remote sensing, Geographic Information System, and more comprehensive analysis to determine geological characteristics and the ability to land on the area of research and its relation to the geological disaster. Cilegon is part of Banten province located in western Java, and the direction of the north is the Strait of Borneo. While the southern part is bordering the Indian Ocean. Morphology study area is located in the highlands to low. In the highlands of identified potential landslide prone, whereas in low-lying areas of potential flooding. Moreover, in the study area has the potential prone to earthquakes, this is due to the proximity of enough research to Mount Krakatau and Subdcution Zone. From the results of this study show that the study area has a susceptibility to landslides located around the District Waringinkurung. While the region as a potential flood areas in the District of Cilegon and surrounding areas. Based on the seismic data, this area includes zones with a range of magnitude 1.5 to 5.5 magnitude at a depth of 1 to 60 Km. As for the ability of its territory, based on the analyzes and studies carried out the need for renewal of the map Spatial Plan that has been made, considering the development of a fairly rapid Cilegon area.

Keywords: geoplanology, spatial plan, geological hazard, cilegon, Indonesia

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Authors: Meki Detamo, Ahmed

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Access to improved sanitation facilities is crucial for promoting community sanitation worldwide. In Ethiopia, however, sanitation remains a major development challenge despite growing attention and efforts by governments and donors. This study aimed to assess the availability of improved sanitation facilities and associated factors in urban kebeles of Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia, in 2022. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 6 to 30, 2022, using a multi-stage sampling technique to select 508 households. Data was collected through structured and pre-tested questionnaires using face-to-face interviews and observations and analyzed using SPSS Version 23. The availability of improved sanitation facilities was found to be remarkably high at 98.2% (95% CI: 97.0, 99.2), with 60.8% of households having a handwashing facility in or around the latrine, 86.0% using soap and water, and 89.0% using an improved water source for drinking. Logistic regression analysis revealed that households with a family size of less than four, those who owned their own house, and those who had self-initiated latrine construction were significantly associated with the availability of improved sanitation facilities. The study recommends the implementation of continuous refreshment training to emphasize the benefits of improved sanitation facilities in the urban community and family planning. This study provides valuable insights into the high availability of improved sanitation facilities in urban areas of Ethiopia and can inform future efforts to improve community sanitation.

Keywords: sanitation facilities, availability, improved, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

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Authors: Welawat Tienpratarn, Chaiyaporn Yuksen, Rungrawin Promkul, Chetsadakon Jenpanitpong, Pajit Bunta, Suthap Jaiboon

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Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is an abnormally fast atrial tachycardia characterized by narrow (≤ 120 ms) and constant QRS. Adenosine was the drug of choice; the first dose was 6 mg. It can be repeated with the second and third doses of 12 mg, with greater than 90% success. The study found that patients observed at 4 hours after normal sinus rhythm was no recurrence within 24 hours. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the recurrence of SVT after adenosine in the emergency department (ED). The study was conducted retrospectively exploratory model, prognostic study at the Emergency Department (ED) in Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, a university-affiliated super tertiary care hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. The study was conducted for ten years period between 2010 and 2020. The inclusion criteria were age > 15 years, visiting the ED with SVT, and treating with adenosine. Those patients were recorded with the recurrence SVT in ED. The multivariable logistic regression model developed the predictive model and prediction score for recurrence PSVT. 264 patients met the study criteria. Of those, 24 patients (10%) had recurrence PSVT. Five independent factors were predictive of recurrence PSVT. There was age>65 years, heart rate (after adenosine) > 100 per min, structural heart disease, and dose of adenosine. The clinical risk score to predict recurrence PSVT is developed accuracy 74.41%. The score of >6 had the likelihood ratio of recurrence PSVT by 5.71 times. The clinical predictive score of > 6 was associated with recurrence PSVT in ED.

Keywords: supraventricular tachycardia, recurrance, emergency department, adenosine

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Authors: Kimberley K. Whyte-Jones

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Public participation may improve the quality of environmental management decisions. However, the quality of such a decision is strongly dependent on the quality of the process that leads to it. In order to ensure an effective and efficient process, key features of best practice in participation should be carefully observed; this would also combat disillusionment of citizens, decision-makers and practitioners. The overarching aim of this study is to determine what constitutes an effective public participation process relevant to the Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada context, and to discover whether the public participation process that led to the 2014-2024 Provincial Sustainable Forest Management Strategy (PSFMS) met best practices criteria. The research design uses an exploratory case study strategy to consider a specific participatory process in environmental decision-making in Newfoundland and Labrador. Data collection methods include formal semi-structured interviews and the review of secondary data sources. The results of this study will determine the validity of a specific public participation best practice framework. The findings will be useful for informing citizen participation processes in general and will deduce best practices in public participation in environmental management in the province. The study is, therefore, meaningful for guiding future policies and practices in the management of forest resources in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and will help in filling a noticeable gap in research compiling best practices for environmentally related public participation processes.

Keywords: best practices, environmental decision-making, forest management, public participation

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Authors: Alexander Rodríguez-Hernández, Arnulfo Rojas-Perez, Liz Diaz-Vazquez

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The rise in consumerism over the past century has resulted in the creation of higher amounts of plasticizers, personal care products and other chemical substances, which enter and accumulate in water systems. Other sources of pollutants in Neotropical regions experience large inputs of nutrients with these pollutants resulting in eutrophication of water which consume large quantities of oxygen, resulting in high fish mortality. This dilemma has created a need for the development of targeted detection in complex matrices and remediation of emerging contaminants. We have synthesized carbon nanoparticles from macro algae (Ulva fasciata) by oxidizing the graphitic carbon network under extreme acidic conditions. The resulting material was characterized by STEM, yielding a spherical 12 nm average diameter nanoparticles, which can be fixed into a polysaccharide aerogel synthesized from the same macro algae. Spectrophotometer analyses show a pH dependent fluorescent behavior varying from 450-620 nm in aqueous media. Heavily oxidized edges provide for easy functionalization with enzymes for a more targeted analysis and remediation technique. Given the optical properties of the carbon base nanoparticles and the numerous possibilities of functionalization, we have developed a selective and robust targeted bio-detection and bioremediation technique for the treatment of emerging contaminants in complex matrices like estuarine embayment.

Keywords: aerogels, carbon nanoparticles, fluorescent, targeted analysis

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Authors: Amarendar Reddy Addula

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Definition of Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence is the simulation of mortal intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Explicit operations of AI comprise expert systems, natural language processing, and speech recognition, and machine vision. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an original medium for digital business, according to a new report by Gartner. The last 10 times represent an advance period in AI’s development, prodded by the confluence of factors, including the rise of big data, advancements in cipher structure, new machine literacy ways, the materialization of pall computing, and the vibrant open- source ecosystem. Influence of AI to a broader set of use cases and druggies and its gaining fashionability because it improves AI’s versatility, effectiveness, and rigidity. Edge AI will enable digital moments by employing AI for real- time analytics closer to data sources. Gartner predicts that by 2025, further than 50 of all data analysis by deep neural networks will do at the edge, over from lower than 10 in 2021. Responsible AI is a marquee term for making suitable business and ethical choices when espousing AI. It requires considering business and societal value, threat, trust, translucency, fairness, bias mitigation, explainability, responsibility, safety, sequestration, and nonsupervisory compliance. Responsible AI is ever more significant amidst growing nonsupervisory oversight, consumer prospects, and rising sustainability pretensions. Generative AI is the use of AI to induce new vestiges and produce innovative products. To date, generative AI sweats have concentrated on creating media content similar as photorealistic images of people and effects, but it can also be used for law generation, creating synthetic irregular data, and designing medicinals and accoutrements with specific parcels. AI is the subject of a wide- ranging debate in which there's a growing concern about its ethical and legal aspects. Constantly, the two are varied and nonplussed despite being different issues and areas of knowledge. The ethical debate raises two main problems the first, abstract, relates to the idea and content of ethics; the alternate, functional, and concerns its relationship with the law. Both set up models of social geste, but they're different in compass and nature. The juridical analysis is grounded on anon-formalistic scientific methodology. This means that it's essential to consider the nature and characteristics of the AI as a primary step to the description of its legal paradigm. In this regard, there are two main issues the relationship between artificial and mortal intelligence and the question of the unitary or different nature of the AI. From that theoretical and practical base, the study of the legal system is carried out by examining its foundations, the governance model, and the nonsupervisory bases. According to this analysis, throughout the work and in the conclusions, International Law is linked as the top legal frame for the regulation of AI.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, ethics & human rights issues, laws, international laws

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Authors: S. R. Shamili, C. Natarajan, J. Karthikeyan

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Rapid growth of world population and widespread urbanization has remarkably increased the development of the construction industry which caused a huge demand for sand and gravels. Environmental problems occur when the rate of extraction of sand, gravels, and other materials exceeds the rate of generation of natural resources; therefore, an alternative source is essential to replace the materials used in concrete. Now-a-days, electronic products have become an integral part of daily life which provides more comfort, security, and ease of exchange of information. These electronic waste (E-Waste) materials have serious human health concerns and require extreme care in its disposal to avoid any adverse impacts. Disposal or dumping of these E-Wastes also causes major issues because it is highly complex to handle and often contains highly toxic chemicals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, brominates flame retardants (BFRs), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and phosphorus compounds. Hence, E-Waste can be incorporated in concrete to make a sustainable environment. This paper deals with the composition, preparation, properties, classification of E-Waste. All these processes avoid dumping to landfills whilst conserving natural aggregate resources, and providing a better environmental option. This paper also provides a detailed literature review on the behaviour of concrete with incorporation of E-Wastes. Many research shows the strong possibility of using E-Waste as a substitute of aggregates eventually it reduces the use of natural aggregates in concrete.

Keywords: dumping, electronic waste, landfill, toxic chemicals

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Authors: Saima Hirani, Emmanuela Ojukwu, Nilanga Aki Bandara

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Background: Mental health challenges that begin during the youth age period may continue across the entire life course. One way to support youth mental health is to encourage youth engagement in prosocial activities. This study aimed to explore youth’s perceptions about helping others and mental well-being, barriers, and enablers for youth to initiate and continue prosocial activities, and strategies for developing the attribute of helping others in youth. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured, virtual interviews with 18 young individuals (aged 16-24 years) living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Results: Youth perceived helping others as a source of feeling peace and calm, finding meaning in life, experiencing social connection and promoting self-care, and relieving stress. Participants reported opportunities to learn new skills, the role of religion, social connections, previous positive experiences, and role modeling as enablers for their prosocial behaviour. Heavy time commitment, negative behaviour from others, self-doubt, and late exposure to such activities were considered barriers by youth when participating in prosocial activities. Youth also brought forward key recommendations for engaging youth in helping others. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the notion that youth have positive experiences when engaging in helping others and that involving young people in prosocial activities could be used as a protective intervention for promoting youth mental health and overall well-being.

Keywords: helping others, prosocial behaviour, youth, mental well-being

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Authors: Farshid Hajati, Federico Girosi, Shima Ghassempour

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We present a Deep Belief Network (DBN) method for clustering health trajectories. Deep Belief Network (DBN) is a deep architecture that consists of a stack of Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBM). In a deep architecture, each layer learns more complex features than the past layers. The proposed method depends on DBN in clustering without using back propagation learning algorithm. The proposed DBN has a better a performance compared to the deep neural network due the initialization of the connecting weights. We use Contrastive Divergence (CD) method for training the RBMs which increases the performance of the network. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated extensively on the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) database. The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a nationally representative longitudinal study that has surveyed more than 27,000 elderly and near-elderly Americans since its inception in 1992. Participants are interviewed every two years and they collect data on physical and mental health, insurance coverage, financial status, family support systems, labor market status, and retirement planning. The dataset is publicly available and we use the RAND HRS version L, which is easy to use and cleaned up version of the data. The size of sample data set is 268 and the length of the trajectories is equal to 10. The trajectories do not stop when the patient dies and represent 10 different interviews of live patients. Compared to the state-of-the-art benchmarks, the experimental results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method in clustering health trajectories.

Keywords: health trajectory, clustering, deep learning, DBN

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Authors: Mario C. Nierras

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This study aimed to determine the extension services’ needs of small farmers in Biliran province, Philippines. It also sought to find out other issues/concerns of the small farmers. Extension services’ needs of small farmers were gathered through personal interviewing and observational analysis of randomly-selected small farmers in Biliran, Philippines. Biliran small farmers extension services’ needs include: raising fruits, raising legumes, raising vegetables, raising swine, raising cattle, and raising chicken (as priority broad skills). For the specific skills, diagnosing symptoms on fertilizer deficiencies, controlling plant pests and diseases, diagnosing signs on specific pest and disease damage, controlling animal pests and diseases, and doing artificial insemination were the priority skills. They considered an on-farm trial of new technology as most needed to be coupled with industry and quality-orientedness, as positive behaviors needed in farming success. The farmers still adhere to the so-called wait-and-see attitude, thus they are more convinced to follow a particular technology if they see a concrete result of the introduced changes. Technical needs prioritization of Biliran small farmers showed that they have a real need for crop and animal production skills to include the other issues/concerns. Extension service program planning for small farmers should be patterned after their technical needs giving due attention to some issues/concerns so that extension work could deliver the right skills for the right needs of the farmers.

Keywords: extension, extension service, extension service needs, extension service program, farmers, small farmers, marginal farmers

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Authors: Phusit Phukamchanoad

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This study aimed to analyse the application of sufficiency economy in students’ ways of life on campus at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Data was gathered through 394 questionnaires. The study results found that the majority of students were confident that “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Overall, the students applied the sufficiency economy at a great level, along with being people who do not exploit others, were satisfied with living their lives moderately, according to the sufficiency economy. Importance was also given to kindness and generosity. Importantly, students were happy with living according to their individual circumstances and status at the present. They saw the importance of joint life planning, self-development, and self-dependence, always learning to be satisfied with “adequate”. As for their practices and ways of life, socially relational activities rated highly, especially initiation activities for underclassmen at the university and the seniority system, which are suitable for activities on campus. Furthermore, the students knew how to build a career and find supplemental income, knew how to earnestly work according to convention to finish work, and preferred to study elective subjects which directly benefit career-wise. The students’ application of sufficiency economy philosophy principles depended on their lives in their hometowns. The students from the provinces regularly applied sufficiency economy philosophy to their lives, for example, by being frugal, steadfast, determined, avoiding negligence, and making economical spending plans; more so than the students from the capital.

Keywords: application of sufficiency economy philosophy, way of living, undergraduate students, spending plan

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Authors: Velly Kapadia, Reenu Singh

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This report identifies the long-term driving forces behind urbanization and the impact of compact living on both society and the home and proposes a concept to create smarter and more sustainable homes. Compact living has been trending across India as a sustainable housing solution, and the reality is that India is currently facing a housing shortage in urban areas of around 10 million units. With the rising demand for housing, urban land prices have been rising and the cost of homes. The paper explores how and why the interior design of the homes can be improved to relieve the housing demand in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable manner. A questionnaire survey was conducted to determine living patterns, area requirements, ecological footprints, energy consumption, purchasing patterns, and various pro-environmental behaviors of people who downsize to compact homes. Quantitative research explores sustainable material choices, durability, functionality, cost, and reusability of furniture. Besides addressing the need for smart and sustainable designed compact homes, a conceptual model is proposed, including options of ideal schematic layouts for homes in urban areas. In the conclusions, suggestions to improve space planning and suitable interior entities have been made to support the fact that compact homes are an eminently practical and sensible solution for the urban citizen.

Keywords: compact living, housing shortage, lifestyle, sustainable interior design

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Authors: Mei Lin, Lana Yj Liu, Thin Ngoc Pham

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Postgraduate taught (PGT) students’ learning strategies align with what the learning task constitutes and the environment that the task creates. Cognitively, they can discover new perspectives, challenge general assumptions, establish clear connections, and synthesise information. Metacognitively, their engagement is conducive to the development of planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies. Given that there has been a lack of longitudinal insights into international PGT students’ experiences of the cognitive and metacognitive space created in the tasks, this paper presentation aims to fill the gaps by longitudinally exploring (1) the fundamentals of task designs to create cognitive and metacognitive space and (2) the opportunities and challenges of multicultural group discussions as a pedagogical approach for the implementation of cognitive and metacognitive space in the learning tasks. Data were collected from the two rounds of semi-structured interviews with 11 international PGT students in two programmes at a UK university -at the end of semester one and at the end of semester two. The findings show that the task designs, to create cognitive and metacognitive space, need to include four interconnected factors: clarity, relevance, motivation, and practicality. In addition, international PGT students perceived that they practised and developed their cognitive and metacognitive abilities while getting immersed in multicultural group discussions. The findings, from the learners’ point of view, make some pedagogy-related suggestions to the task designs at the master’s level, particularly how to engage students in learning during their transition into higher education in a different cultural setting.

Keywords: cognitive space, master students, metacognitive space, task design

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Authors: Apostolos Lagarias, Anastasia Stratigea

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Coastal urbanization is heavily affecting the Mediterranean, taking the form of linear urban sprawl along the coastal zone. This process is posing extreme pressure on ecosystems, leading to an unsustainable model of growth. The aim of this research is to analyze coastal urbanization patterns in the Mediterranean using High-resolution multi-temporal data provided by the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) database. Methodology involves the estimation of a set of spatial metrics characterizing the density, aggregation/clustering and dispersion of built-up areas. As case study areas, the Spanish Coast and the Adriatic Italian Coast are examined. Coastalization profiles are examined and selected sub-areas massively affected by tourism development and suburbanization trends (Costa Blanca/Murcia, Costa del Sol, Puglia, Emilia-Romagna Coast) are analyzed and compared. Results show that there are considerable differences between the Spanish and the Italian typologies of spatial development, related to the land use structure and planning policies applied in each case. Monitoring and analyzing spatial patterns could inform integrated Mediterranean strategies for coastal areas and redirect spatial/environmental policies towards a more sustainable model of growth

Keywords: coastalization, Mediterranean, multi-temporal, urban sprawl, spatial metrics

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Authors: Érick Aragão Ribeiro, George André Pereira Thé, José Marques Soares

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Several problems in industrial supervision software development projects may lead to the delay or cancellation of projects. These problems can be avoided or contained by using identification methods, analysis and control of risks. These procedures can give an overview of the possible problems that can happen in the projects and what are the immediate solutions. Therefore, we propose a risk management method applied to the teaching and development of industrial supervision software. The method is developed through a literature review and previous projects can be divided into phases of management and have basic features that are validated with experimental research carried out by mechatronics engineering students and professionals. The management is conducted through the stages of identification, analysis, planning, monitoring, control and communication of risks. Programmers use a method of prioritizing risks considering the gravity and the possibility of occurrence of the risk. The outputs of the method indicate which risks occurred or are about to happen. The first results indicate which risks occur at different stages of the project and what risks have a high probability of occurring. The results show the efficiency of the proposed method compared to other methods, showing the improvement of software quality and leading developers in their decisions. This new way of developing supervision software helps students identify design problems, evaluate software developed and propose effective solutions. We conclude that the risk management optimizes the development of the industrial process control software and provides higher quality to the product.

Keywords: supervision software, risk management, industrial supervision, project management

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Authors: Etaf Khlaed Haroun Alkhlaifat

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When doctors and patients do not share the same first language, language barriers may exist, which may have negative effects on the quality of communication and care provided. Doctors’ use of medical jargon and patients’ inability to fully express their illness, to a potential loss of relevant information can often create misunderstanding. This study sought to examine the extent to which a lack of “common” language represents one of the linguistic obstacles that may adversely influence the quality of healthcare services in Jordan. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) was used to interpret the phenomena under study. Doctors (n=9) and patients (n=18) were observed and interviewed in natural Jordanian medical settings. A thematic qualitative approach was employed to analyse the data. The preliminary findings of the study revealed that most doctors appeared to have a good sense of appropriate ways to break through communication barriers by changing medical terminologies or jargons into lay terms. However, for some, there were two main challenges: 1) the use of medical jargon in explaining medication and side effects and 2) the lack of patients’ knowledge in providing a full explanation about their illnesses. The study revealed that language barriers adversely affect health outcomes for patients with limited fluency in the English language. It argues that it is doctors’ responsibility to guarantee mutual understanding, educate patients on their condition and improve their health outcomes.

Keywords: communication accommodation theory, doctor-patient interaction, language barrier, medical jargon, misunderstanding

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Authors: Nahida Sultana

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Globally, an estimated 58 million people have chronic hepatitis C virus infection, with about 1.5 million new infections occurring per year. The hepatitis C virus is a blood-borne virus, and most infections occur through exposure to blood from unsafe injection practices, unsafe health care, unscreened blood transfusion, injection drug use, and sexual practices that lead to exposure to blood. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes chronic infections that mainly affect the liver leading to liver diseases. This study aimed to determine whether there is any significant association between HCV transmission risk factors in relation to genotypes in HCV-infected Bangladeshi patients. After quantification of HCV viral load, 36 samples were randomly selected for HCV genotyping and risk factor measurement. A greater proportion of genotype 1 (p > 0.05) patients (40%) underwent blood transfusion compared to patients (22.6%) with genotype 3 infections. More genotype 1 patient underwent surgery and invasive procedures (20%), and rather than those with genotype 3 patients (16.1%). The history of IDUs (25.8%) and sexual exposure (3.2%) are only prevalent in genotype 3 patients and absent in patients with genotype 1 (p >0.05). There was no significant statistical difference found in HCV transmission risk factors (blood transfusion, IDUs, Surgery& interventions, sexual transmission) between patients infected with genotypes 1 and 3. In HCV infection, genotype may have no relation to transmission risk factors among Bangladeshi patients.

Keywords: HCV genotype, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), HCV viral load, IDUs

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Authors: Jean-Francois Rajotte, Martin Sotir, Frank Gouineau

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The installation and management of traffic monitoring devices can be costly from both a financial and resource point of view. It is therefore important to take advantage of in-place infrastructures to extract the most information. Here we show how low-quality urban road traffic images from cameras already available in many cities (such as Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto) can be used to estimate traffic flow. To this end, we use a pre-trained neural network, developed for object detection, to count vehicles within images. We then compare the results with human annotations gathered through crowdsourcing campaigns. We use this comparison to assess performance and calibrate the neural network annotations. As a use case, we consider six months of continuous monitoring over hundreds of cameras installed in the city of Montreal. We compare the results with city-provided manual traffic counting performed in similar conditions at the same location. The good performance of our system allows us to consider applications which can monitor the traffic conditions in near real-time, making the counting usable for traffic-related services. Furthermore, the resulting annotations pave the way for building a historical vehicle counting dataset to be used for analysing the impact of road traffic on many city-related issues, such as urban planning, security, and pollution.

Keywords: traffic monitoring, deep learning, image annotation, vehicles, roads, artificial intelligence, real-time systems

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Authors: Feran Asur

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In cities, plants; with its visual and functional effects, it helps to provide balance between human and environmental system. It is possible to develop alternative solutions to eliminate visual pollution by evaluating the potential properties of plant materials with other inanimate materials such as color, texture, form, size, etc. characteristics and other inanimate materials such as highlighter, background forming, harmonizing and concealer. In cold climates, the number of ornamental plant species that grow in warmer climates is less. For this reason, especially in the landscaping works of urban spaces, it is difficult to create the desired visuality with aesthetically qualified plants that are suitable for the ecology of the area, without creating monotony, with color variety. In this study, the importance of plant and plant compositions in the solution of visual problems in urban environments in cold climatic conditions is emphasized. The potential of ornamental plants that can be used for this purpose in preventing visual pollution is given. It has been shown how to use prominent features of these ornamental plants such as size, form, texture, vegetation periods to improve visual landscape in urban spaces in a long time. In addition to the design group disciplines that have activity on planning or application basis in the city and its surroundings, landscape architecture discipline can provide visual improvement of the studies to be carried out in detail in terms of planting design.

Keywords: residential landscape, planting, urban space, visual improvement

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Authors: Nuria Vargas, Frances Rodriguez

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Neotropical medium cities have opportunities to develop in a good manner. Xalapa City (Veracruz capital, Mexico) and its metropolitan region, near to the Gulf of Mexico, has already <1 million inhabitants, a medium city size, but it’s growing rapidly as several cities in Latin America. Inside a landscape where it had been a forest cloud and coffee land, emerges the city with an irregular topography. The rapid grow of the urbanization and the loss of vegetation has result in a change on the climate parameters. Frequently warms spells, floods and landslides had been impacted last 2 decades, also a higher incidence of dengue and diarrhea is mentioned in the region. Therefore, the analysis of hydrometeorological events is crucial to understand the role they play in its problem. The urbanization and others radiative forces has created a modulation that can explain the decadal climate changes on the Xalapa region. The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation directly influences the temperature and precipitation of the region, even more than climate change does. The total effect of these drivers can create a significant context that origin more risk. However, the most policies frequently consider only the climate change as a principal factor, but other drivers are important to consider and evaluate for the implementation of actions that improve our ambient and cities, in a context of climate change. Medium-sized cities could create better conditions for future citizens, preventing with urban planning that considers possible risks associated with weather and climate.

Keywords: natural variability, urbanization, atlantic multidecadal oscillation, land use changes

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