Search results for: financial benefits

Authors: Andreas Kerstan, Darren Robey, Wesam Alvan, David Troiani

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Over the last 3.5 years, Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) technology has become increasingly important in infrared (IR) microscopy. The advantages over fourier transform infrared (FTIR) are that large areas of a few square centimeters can be measured in minutes and that the light intensive QCL makes it possible to obtain spectra with excellent S/N, even with just one scan. A firmly established solution of the laser direct infrared imaging (LDIR) 8700 is the analysis of microplastics. The presence of microplastics in the environment, drinking water, and food chains is gaining significant public interest. To study their presence, rapid and reliable characterization of microplastic particles is essential. Significant technical hurdles in microplastic analysis stem from the sheer number of particles to be analyzed in each sample. Total particle counts of several thousand are common in environmental samples, while well-treated bottled drinking water may contain relatively few. While visual microscopy has been used extensively, it is prone to operator error and bias and is limited to particles larger than 300 µm. As a result, vibrational spectroscopic techniques such as Raman and FTIR microscopy have become more popular, however, they are time-consuming. There is a demand for rapid and highly automated techniques to measure particle count size and provide high-quality polymer identification. Analysis directly on the filter that often forms the last stage in sample preparation is highly desirable as, by removing a sample preparation step it can both improve laboratory efficiency and decrease opportunities for error. Recent advances in infrared micro-spectroscopy combining a QCL with scanning optics have created a new paradigm, LDIR. It offers improved speed of analysis as well as high levels of automation. Its mode of operation, however, requires an IR reflective background, and this has, to date, limited the ability to perform direct “on-filter” analysis. This study explores the potential to combine the filter with an infrared reflective surface filter. By combining an IR reflective material or coating on a filter membrane with advanced image analysis and detection algorithms, it is demonstrated that such filters can indeed be used in this way. Vibrational spectroscopic techniques play a vital role in the investigation and understanding of microplastics in the environment and food chain. While vibrational spectroscopy is widely deployed, improvements and novel innovations in these techniques that can increase the speed of analysis and ease of use can provide pathways to higher testing rates and, hence, improved understanding of the impacts of microplastics in the environment. Due to its capability to measure large areas in minutes, its speed, degree of automation and excellent S/N, the LDIR could also implemented for various other samples like food adulteration, coatings, laminates, fabrics, textiles and tissues. This presentation will highlight a few of them and focus on the benefits of the LDIR vs classical techniques.

Keywords: QCL, automation, microplastics, tissues, infrared, speed

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Authors: Jennifer Kehinde, Claire O'donnell, Annmarie Grealish

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Introduction: Breastfeeding has been shown to provide numerous health benefits for both infants and mothers. The decision to breastfeed is influenced by physiological, psychological, and emotional factors. However, the importance of equipping mothers with the necessary knowledge for successful breastfeeding practice cannot be ruled out. The decline in global breastfeeding rate can be linked to lack of adequate breastfeeding education during prenatal stage.This systematic review examined the effectiveness of prenatal breastfeeding education on breastfeeding uptake postpartum. Method: This review was undertaken and reported in conformity with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systemic Reviews and Meta-Analysis statement (PRISMA) and was registered on the international prospective register for systematic reviews (PROSPERO: CRD42020213853). A PICO analysis (population, intervention, comparison, outcome) was undertaken to inform the choice of keywords in the search strategy to formulate the review question which was aimed at determining the effectiveness of prenatal breastfeeding educational programs at improving breastfeeding uptake following birth. A systematic search of five databases (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medline, Psych INFO, and Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts) were searched between January 2014 until July 2021 to identify eligible studies. Quality assessment and narrative synthesis were subsequently undertaken. Results: Fourteen studies were included. All 14 studies used different types of breastfeeding programs; eight used a combination of curriculum based breastfeeding education program, group prenatal breastfeeding counselling and one-to-one breastfeeding educational programs which were all delivered in person; four studies used web-based learning platforms to deliver breastfeeding education prenatally which were both delivered online and face to face over a period of 3 weeks to 2 months with follow-up periods ranging from 3 weeks to 6 months; one study delivered breastfeeding educational intervention using mother-to-mother breastfeeding support groups in promoting exclusive breastfeeding and one study disseminated breastfeeding education to participants based on the theory of planned behaviour. The most effective interventions were those that included both theory and hands-on demonstrations. Results showed an increase in breastfeeding uptake, breastfeeding knowledge, increase in positive attitude to breastfeeding and an increase in maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy among mothers who participated in breastfeeding educational programs during prenatal care. Conclusion: Prenatal breastfeeding education increases women’s knowledge of breastfeeding. Mothers who are knowledgeable about breastfeeding and hold a positive approach towards breastfeeding have the tendency to initiate breastfeeding and continue for a lengthened period. Findings demonstrates a general correlation between prenatal breastfeeding education and increased breastfeeding uptake postpartum. The high level of positive breastfeeding outcome inherent in all the studies can be attributed to prenatal breastfeeding education. This review provides rigorous contemporary evidence that healthcare professionals and policymakers can apply when developing effective strategies to improve breastfeeding rates and ultimately improve the health outcomes of mothers and infants.

Keywords: breastfeeding, breastfeeding programs, breastfeeding self-efficacy, prenatal breastfeedng education

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Authors: N. Schneider, M. Bruchhage, M. Hartweg, G. Mutungi, J. O Regan, S. Deoni

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Observational neuroimaging studies suggest differences between breast-fed and formula-fed infants in developmental myelination, a key brain process for learning and cognitive development. However, the possible effects of a nutrient formulation on myelin development in healthy term infants in an intervention study have not been investigated. Objective was, therefore, to investigate the efficacy of a nutrient formulation with higher levels of myelin-relevant nutrients as compared to a control formulation with lower levels of the same nutrients on brain myelination and cognitive development in the first 6 months of life. The study is an ongoing randomized, controlled, double-blind, two-center, parallel-group clinical trial with a nonrandomized, non-blinded arm of exclusively breastfed infants. The current findings result from a staged statistical analysis at 6 months; the recruitment and intervention period has been completed for all participants. Follow-up visits at 12, 18 and 24 months are still ongoing. N= 81 enrolled full term, neurotypical infants of both sexes were randomized into either the investigational (N= 42) or the control group (N= 39), and N= 108 children in the breast-fed arm served as a natural reference group. The effect of a blend of docosahexaenoic acid, arachidonic acid, iron, vitamin B12, folic acid as well as sphingomyelin from a uniquely proceed whey protein concentrate enriched in alpha-lactalbumin and phospholipids in an infant nutrition product matrix was investigated. The main outcomes for the staged statistical analyses at 6 months included brain myelination measures derived from MRI. Additional outcomes were brain volume, cognitive development and safety. The full analyses set at 6 months comprised N= 66 infants. Higher levels of myelin-relevant nutrients compared to lower levels resulted in significant differences in myelin structure, volume, and rate of myelination as early as 3 and 6 months of life. The cross-sectional change of means between groups for whole-brain myelin volume was 8.4% for investigational versus control formulation (3.5% versus the breastfeeding reference) group at 3 months and increased to 36.4% for investigational versus control formulation (14.1% versus breastfeeding reference) at 6 months. No statistically significant differences were detected for early cognition scores. Safety findings were largely similar across groups. This is the first pediatric nutritional neuroimaging study demonstrating the efficacy of a myelin nutrient blend on developmental myelination in well-nourished term infants. Myelination is a critical process in learning and development. The effects were demonstrated across the brain, particularly in temporal and parietal regions, known to be functionally involved in sensory, motor and language skills. These first results add to the field of nutritional neuroscience by demonstrating early life nutrition benefits for brain architecture which may be foundational for later cognitive and behavioral outcomes. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03111927 (Infant Nutrition and Brain Development - Full-Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov).

Keywords: brain development, infant nutrition, MRI, myelination

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Authors: Chevonne Reynolds, Res Altwegg, Andrew Balmford, Claire N. Spottiswoode

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Modern agriculture has revolutionised the planet’s capacity to support humans, yet has simultaneously had a greater negative impact on biodiversity than any other human activity. Balancing the demand for food with the conservation of biodiversity is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Biodiversity-friendly farming (‘land sharing’), or alternatively, separation of conservation and production activities (‘land sparing’), are proposed as two strategies for mediating the trade-off between agriculture and biodiversity. However, there is much debate regarding the efficacy of each strategy, as this trade-off has typically been addressed by short term studies at fine spatial scales. These studies ignore processes that are relevant to biodiversity at larger scales, such as meta-population dynamics and landscape connectivity. Therefore, to better understand species response to agricultural land-use and provide evidence to underpin the planning of better production landscapes, we need to determine the merits of each strategy at larger scales. In South Africa, a remarkable citizen science project - the South African Bird Atlas Project 2 (SABAP2) – collates an extensive dataset describing the occurrence of birds at a 5-min by 5-min grid cell resolution. We use these data, along with fine-resolution data on agricultural land-use, to determine which strategy optimises the agriculture-biodiversity trade-off in a southern African context, and at a spatial scale never considered before. To empirically test this trade-off, we model bird species population density, derived for each 5-min grid cell by Royle-Nicols single-species occupancy modelling, against both the amount and configuration of different types of agricultural production in the same 5-min grid cell. In using both production amount and configuration, we can show not only how species population densities react to changes in yield, but also describe the production landscape patterns most conducive to conservation. Furthermore, the extent of both the SABAP2 and land-cover datasets allows us to test this trade-off across multiple regions to determine if bird populations respond in a consistent way and whether results can be extrapolated to other landscapes. We tested the land sparing/sharing trade-off for 281 bird species across three different biomes in South Africa. Overall, a higher proportion of species are classified as losers, and would benefit from land sparing. However, this proportion of loser-sparers is not consistent and varies across biomes and the different types of agricultural production. This is most likely because of differences in the intensity of agricultural land-use and the interactions between the differing types of natural vegetation and agriculture. Interestingly, we observe a higher number of species that benefit from agriculture than anticipated, suggesting that agriculture is a legitimate resource for certain bird species. Our results support those seen at smaller scales and across vastly different agricultural systems, that land sparing benefits the most species. However, our analysis suggests that land sparing needs to be implemented at spatial scales much larger than previously considered. Species persistence in agricultural landscapes will require the conservation of large tracts of land, and is an important consideration in developing countries, which are undergoing rapid agricultural development.

Keywords: agriculture, birds, land sharing, land sparing

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Authors: Mona Isazad Mashinchi, Davood Roshan Sangachin, Francis J. Sullivan, Dietrich Rebholz-Schuhmann

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Background: Decision-making processes are nowadays driven by data, data analytics and Business Intelligence (BI). BI as a software platform can provide a wide variety of capabilities such as organization memory, information integration, insight creation and presentation capabilities. Visualizing data through dashboards is one of the BI solutions (for a variety of areas) which helps managers in the decision making processes to expose the most informative information at a glance. In the healthcare domain to date, dashboard presentations are more frequently used to track performance related metrics and less frequently used to monitor those quality parameters which relate directly to patient outcomes. Providing effective and timely care for patients and improving the health outcome are highly dependent on presenting and visualizing data and information. Objective: In this research, the focus is on the presentation capabilities of BI to design a dashboard for prostate cancer (PC) data that allows better decision making for the patients, the hospital and the healthcare system related to a cancer dataset. The aim of this research is to customize a retrospective PC dataset in a dashboard interface to give a better understanding of data in the categories (risk factors, treatment approaches, disease control and side effects) which matter most to patients as well as other stakeholders. By presenting the outcome in the dashboard we address one of the major targets of a value-based health care (VBHC) delivery model which is measuring the value and presenting the outcome to different actors in HC industry (such as patients and doctors) for a better decision making. Method: For visualizing the stored data to users, three interactive dashboards based on the PC dataset have been developed (using the Tableau Software) to provide better views to the risk factors, treatment approaches, and side effects. Results: Many benefits derived from interactive graphs and tables in dashboards which helped to easily visualize and see the patients at risk, better understanding the relationship between patient's status after treatment and their initial status before treatment, or to choose better decision about treatments with fewer side effects regarding patient status and etc. Conclusions: Building a well-designed and informative dashboard is related to three important factors including; the users, goals and the data types. Dashboard's hierarchies, drilling, and graphical features can guide doctors to better navigate through information. The features of the interactive PC dashboard not only let doctors ask specific questions and filter the results based on the key performance indicators (KPI) such as: Gleason Grade, Patient's Age and Status, but may also help patients to better understand different treatment outcomes, such as side effects during the time, and have an active role in their treatment decisions. Currently, we are extending the results to the real-time interactive dashboard that users (either patients and doctors) can easily explore the data by choosing preferred attribute and data to make better near real-time decisions.

Keywords: business intelligence, dashboard, decision making, healthcare, prostate cancer, value-based healthcare

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Authors: C. Bateira, J. Fernandes, A. Costa

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The Douro Demarked Region (DDR) is a production Porto wine region. On the NE of Portugal, the strong incision of the Douro valley developed very steep slopes, organized with agriculture terraces, have experienced an intense and deep transformation in order to implement the mechanization of the work. The old terrace system, based on stone vertical wall support structure, replaced by terraces with earth embankments experienced a huge terrace instability. This terrace instability has important economic and financial consequences on the agriculture enterprises. This paper presents and develops cartographic tools to access the embankment instability and identify the area prone to instability. The priority on this evaluation is related to the use of physically based mathematical models and develop a validation process based on an inventory of the past embankment instability. We used the shallow landslide stability model (SHALSTAB) based on physical parameters such us cohesion (c’), friction angle(ф), hydraulic conductivity, soil depth, soil specific weight (ϱ), slope angle (α) and contributing areas by Multiple Flow Direction Method (MFD). A terraced area can be analysed by this models unless we have very detailed information representative of the terrain morphology. The slope angle and the contributing areas depend on that. We can achieve that propose using digital elevation models (DEM) with great resolution (pixel with 40cm side), resulting from a set of photographs taken by a flight at 100m high with pixel resolution of 12cm. The slope angle results from this DEM. In the other hand, the MFD contributing area models the internal flow and is an important element to define the spatial variation of the soil saturation. That internal flow is based on the DEM. That is supported by the statement that the interflow, although not coincident with the superficial flow, have important similitude with it. Electrical resistivity monitoring values which related with the MFD contributing areas build from a DEM of 1m resolution and revealed a consistent correlation. That analysis, performed on the area, showed a good correlation with R2 of 0,72 and 0,76 at 1,5m and 2m depth, respectively. Considering that, a DEM with 1m resolution was the base to model the real internal flow. Thus, we assumed that the contributing area of 1m resolution modelled by MFD is representative of the internal flow of the area. In order to solve this problem we used a set of generalized DEMs to build the contributing areas used in the SHALSTAB. Those DEMs, with several resolutions (1m and 5m), were built from a set of photographs with 50cm resolution taken by a flight with 5km high. Using this maps combination, we modelled several final maps of terrace instability and performed a validation process with the contingency matrix. The best final instability map resembles the slope map from a DEM of 40cm resolution and a MFD map from a DEM of 1m resolution with a True Positive Rate (TPR) of 0,97, a False Positive Rate of 0,47, Accuracy (ACC) of 0,53, Precision (PVC) of 0,0004 and a TPR/FPR ratio of 2,06.

Keywords: agricultural terraces, cartography, landslides, SHALSTAB, vineyards

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Authors: Margherita Tufarelli, Leonardo Giliberti, Elena Pucci

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The fashion industry's interest in virtuality is linked, on the one hand, to the emotional and immersive possibilities of digital resources and the resulting languages and, on the other, to the greater efficiency that can be achieved throughout the value chain. The interaction between digital innovation and deep-rooted manufacturing traditions today translates into a paradigm shift for the entire fashion industry where, for example, the traditional values of industrial secrecy and know-how give way to experimentation in an open as well as participatory way, and the complete emancipation of virtual reality from actual 'reality'. The contribution aims to investigate the theme of digitisation in the Italian fashion industry, analysing its opportunities and the criticalities that have hindered its diffusion. There are two reasons why the most common approach in the fashion sector is still analogue: (i) the fashion product lives in close contact with the human body, so the sensory perception of materials plays a central role in both the use and the design of the product, but current technology is not able to restore the sense of touch; (ii) volumes are obtained by stitching flat surfaces that once assembled, given the flexibility of the material, can assume almost infinite configurations. Managing the fit and styling of virtual garments involves a wide range of factors, including mechanical simulation, collision detection, and user interface techniques for garment creation. After briefly reviewing some of the salient historical milestones in the resolution of problems related to the digital simulation of deformable materials and the user interface for the procedures for the realisation of the clothing system, the paper will describe the operation and possibilities offered today by the latest generation of specialised software. Parametric avatars and digital sartorial approach; drawing tools optimised for pattern making; materials both from the point of view of simulated physical behaviour and of aesthetic performance, tools for checking wearability, renderings, but also tools and procedures useful to companies both for dialogue with prototyping software and machinery and for managing the archive and the variants to be made. The article demonstrates how developments in technology and digital procedures now make it possible to intervene in different stages of design in the fashion industry. An integrated and additive process in which the constructed 3D models are usable both in the prototyping and communication of physical products and in the possible exclusively digital uses of 3D models in the new generation of virtual spaces. Mastering such tools requires the acquisition of specific digital skills and, at the same time, traditional skills for the design of the clothing system, but the benefits are manifold and applicable to different business dimensions. We are only at the beginning of the global digital transformation: the emergence of new professional figures and design dynamics leaves room for imagination, but in addition to applying digital tools to traditional procedures, traditional fashion know-how needs to be transferred into emerging digital practices to ensure the continuity of the technical-cultural heritage beyond the transformation.

Keywords: digital fashion, digital technology and couture, digital fashion communication, 3D garment simulation

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Authors: Miroslaw Wendeker, Piotr Kacejko, Mariusz Duk, Pawel Karpinski

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The research in the field of aircraft internal combustion engines is currently driven by the needs of decreasing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, while fulfilling the level of safety. Currently, reciprocating aircraft engines are found in sports, emergency, agricultural and recreation aviation. Technically, they are most at a pre-war knowledge of the theory of operation, design and manufacturing technology, especially if compared to that high level of development of automotive engines. Typically, these engines are driven by carburetors of a quite primitive construction. At present, due to environmental requirements and dealing with a climate change, it is beneficial to develop aircraft piston engines and adopt the achievements of automotive engineering such as computer-controlled low-pressure injection, electronic ignition control and biofuels. The paper describes simulation research of the innovative power and control systems for the aircraft radial engine of high power. Installing an electronic ignition system in the radial aircraft engine is a fundamental innovative idea of this solution. Consequently, the required level of safety and better functionality as compared to the today’s plug system can be guaranteed. In this framework, this research work focuses on describing a methodology for optimizing the electronically controlled ignition system. This attempt can reduce emissions of toxic compounds as a result of lowered fuel consumption, optimized combustion and engine capability of efficient combustion of ecological fuels. New, redundant elements of the control system can improve the safety of aircraft. Consequently, the required level of safety and better functionality as compared to the today’s plug system can be guaranteed. The simulation research aimed to determine the vulnerability of the values measured (they were planned as the quantities measured by the measurement systems) to determining the optimal ignition angle (the angle of maximum torque at a given operating point). The described results covered: a) research in steady states; b) velocity ranging from 1500 to 2200 rpm (every 100 rpm); c) loading ranging from propeller power to maximum power; d) altitude ranging according to the International Standard Atmosphere from 0 to 8000 m (every 1000 m); e) fuel: automotive gasoline ES95. The three models of different types of ignition coil (different energy discharge) were studied. The analysis aimed at the optimization of the design of the innovative ignition system for an aircraft engine. The optimization involved: a) the optimization of the measurement systems; b) the optimization of actuator systems. The studies enabled the research on the vulnerability of the signals to the control of the ignition timing. Accordingly, the number and type of sensors were determined for the ignition system to achieve its optimal performance. The results confirmed the limited benefits, in terms of fuel consumption. Thus, including spark management in the optimization is mandatory to significantly decrease the fuel consumption. This work has been financed by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development, INNOLOT, under Grant Agreement No. INNOLOT/I/1/NCBR/2013.

Keywords: piston engine, radial engine, ignition system, CFD model, engine optimization

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Authors: Samil Ozcan

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Airlines companies target different customer segments in consideration of pricing, service quality, flight network, etc. and their brand positioning accords with the marketization strategies developed in the same direction. The object of this study, Turkish Airlines, has many peculiarities regarding its brand positioning as compared to its rivals in the sector. In the first place, it appeals to a global customer group because of its Star Alliance membership and its broad flight network with 315 destination points. The second group in its customer segmentation includes domestic customers. For this group, the company follows a marketing strategy that plays to local culture and accentuates the image of Turkishness as an emotional allurement. The advertisements and publicity projects designed in this regard put little emphasis on the service quality the company offers to its clients; it addresses the emotions of the consumers rather than individual benefits and relies on the historical memory of the nation and shared cultural values. This study examines the publicity work which aims at the second segment customer group focusing on Turkish Airlines’ 85th Anniversary Commercial through a symbolic meaning analysis approach. The commercial presents six stories with undertones of nationalism in its theme. Nationalism is not just the product of collective interests based on reason but a result of patriotism in the sense of loyalty to state and nation and love of ethnic belonging. While nationalism refers to concrete notions such as blood tie, common ancestor, shared history, it is not the actuality of these notions that it draws its real strength but the emotions invested in them. The myths of origin, the idea of common homeland, boundary definitions, and symbolic acculturation have instrumental importance in the development of these commonalities. The commercial offers concrete examples for an analysis of Connor’s definition of nationalism based on emotions. Turning points in the history of the Turkish Republic and the historical mission Turkish Airlines undertook in these moments are narrated in six stories in the commercial with a highly emotional theme. These emotions, in general, depend on collective memory generated by national consciousness. Collective memory is not simply remembering the past. It is constructed through the reconstruction and reinterpretation of the past in the present moment. This study inquires the motivations behind the nationalist emotions generated within the collective memory by engaging with the commercial released for the 85th anniversary of Turkish Airlines as the object of analysis. Symbols and myths can be read as key concepts that reveal the relation between 'identity and memory'. Because myths and symbols do not merely reflect on collective memory, they reconstruct it as well. In this sense, the theme of the commercial defines the image of Turkishness with virtues such as self-sacrifice, helpfulness, humanity, and courage through a process of meaning creation based on symbolic mythologizations like flag and homeland. These virtues go beyond describing the image of Turkishness and become an instrument that defines and gives meaning to Turkish identity.

Keywords: collective memory, emotions, identity, nationalism

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Authors: Hirseland Andreas, Kerschbaumer Lukas

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In the case of Germany, there are about one million long-term unemployed – a figure that did not vary much during the past years. These long-term unemployed did not benefit from the prospering labor market while most short-term unemployed did. Instead, they are continuously dependent on welfare and sometimes precarious short-term employment, experiencing work poverty. Long-term unemployment thus turns into a main obstacle to become employed again, especially if it is accompanied by other impediments such as low-level education (school/vocational), poor health (especially chronical illness), advanced age (older than fifty), immigrant status, motherhood or engagement in care for other relatives. As can be shown by this current research project, in these cases the chance to regain employment decreases to near nil. Almost two-thirds of all welfare recipients have multiple impediments which hinder a successful transition from welfare back to sustainable and sufficient employment. Prospective employers are unlikely to hire long-term unemployed with additional impediments because they evaluate potential employees on their negative signaling (e.g. low-level education) and the implicit assumption of unproductiveness (e.g. poor health, age). Some findings of the panel survey “Labor market and social security” (PASS) carried out by the Institute of Employment Research (the research institute of the German Federal Labor Agency) spread a ray of hope, showing that unlikely does not necessarily mean impossible. The presentation reports on current research on these very scarce “success stories” of unlikely transitions from long-term unemployment to work and how these cases were able to perform this switch against all odds. The study is based on a mixed-method design. Within the panel survey (~15,000 respondents in ~10,000 households), only 66 cases of such unlikely transitions were observed. These cases have been explored by qualitative inquiry – in depth-interviews and qualitative network techniques. There is strong evidence that sustainable transitions are influenced by certain biographical resources like habits of network use, a set of informal skills and particularly a resilient way of dealing with obstacles, combined with contextual factors rather than by job-placement procedures promoted by Job-Centers according to activation rules or by following formal paths of application. On the employer’s side small and medium-sized enterprises are often found to give job opportunities to a wider variety of applicants, often based on a slow but steadily increasing relationship leading to employment. According to these results it is possible to show and discuss some limitations of (German) activation policies targeting the labor market and their impact on welfare dependency and long-term unemployment. Based on these findings, indications for more supportive small-scale measures in the field of labor-market policies are suggested to help long-term unemployed with multiple impediments to overcome their situation (e.g. organizing small-scale-structures and low-threshold services to encounter possible employers on a more informal basis like “meet and greet”).

Keywords: against-all-odds, mixed-methods, Welfare State, long-term unemployment

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Authors: Tavee Cheausuwantavee

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: COVID-19 pandemic significantly has impacted everyone’s life. Persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Thailand have been also effected by COVID-19 situation in many aspects of their lives, while there have been no more appropriate services of the government and providers. Research projects had been only focused on health precaution and protection. Rapid need assessments on populations and vulnerable groups were limited and conducted via social media and an online survey. However, little is known about the real problems and needs of Thai PWDs during the COVID-19 pandemic for an effective plan and integral services for those PWDs. Therefore, this study aims to explore the diverse problems and needs of Thai PWDs in the COVID -19 pandemic. Results from the study can be used by the government and other stakeholders for further effective services. Methods: This study was used a mixed-method design that consisted of both quantitative and qualitative measures. In terms of the quantitative approach, there were 744 PWDs and caregivers of all types of PWDs selected by proportional multistage stratified random sampling according to their disability classification and geographic location. Questionnaires with 59 items regarding participant characteristics, problems, and needs in health, education, employment, and other social inclusion, were distributed to all participants and some caregivers completed questionnaires when PWDs were not able to due to limited communication and/or literacy skills. Completed questionnaires were analyzed by descriptive statistics. For qualitative design, 62 key informants who were PWDs or caregivers were selected by purposive sampling. Ten focus groups, each consisting of 5-6 participants and 7 in-depth interviews from all the groups identified above, were conducted by researchers across five regions. Focus group and in-depth interview guidelines with 6 items regarding problems and needs in health, education, employment, other social inclusion, and their coping during COVID -19 pandemic. Data were analyzed using a modification of thematic content analysis. Results: Both quantitative and qualitative studies showed that PWDs and their caregivers had significant problems and needs all aspects of their life, including income and employment opportunity, daily living and social inclusion, health, and education, respectively. These problems and needs were related to each other, forming a vicious cycle. Participants also learned from negative pandemic to more positive life aspects, including their health protection, financial plan, family cohesion, and virtual technology literacy and innovation. Conclusion and implications: There have been challenges facing all life aspects of PWDs in Thailand during the COVID -19 pandemic, particularly incomes and daily living. All challenges have been the vicious cycle and complicated. There have been also a positive lesson learned of participants from the pandemic. Recommendations for government and stakeholders in the COVID-19 pandemic for PWDs are the following. First, the health protection strategy and policy of PWDs should be promoted together with other quality of life development including income generation, education and social inclusion. Second, virtual technology and alternative innovation should be enhanced for proactive service providers. Third, accessible information during the pandemic for all PWDs must be concerned. Forth, lesson learned from the pandemic should be shared and disseminated for crisis preparation and a positive mindset in the disruptive world.

Keywords: challenge, COVID-19, disability, Thailand

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Authors: Jessica To

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Feedback is one of the powerful levers for enhancing students’ performance. However, some students are under-engaged with feedback because they lack responsibility for feedback uptake. To resolve this conundrum, recent literature proposes feedback partnerships in which students and teachers share the power and responsibilities to co-construct feedback. During feedback co-construction, students express feedback needs to teachers, and teachers respond to individuals’ needs in return. Though this approach can increase students’ feedback ownership, its application is lagging as the field lacks conceptual clarity and implementation guide. This presentation aims to discuss the conceptual framework of feedback partnerships and feedback co-construction strategies. It identifies the components of feedback partnerships and strategies which could facilitate feedback co-construction. A systematic literature review was conducted to answer the questions. The literature search was performed using ERIC, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar with the keywords “assessment partnership”, “student as partner,” and “feedback engagement”. No time limit was set for the search. The inclusion criteria encompassed (i) student-teacher partnerships in feedback, (ii) feedback engagement in higher education, (iii) peer-reviewed publications, and (iv) English as the language of publication. Those without addressing conceptual understanding and implementation strategies were excluded. Finally, 65 publications were identified and analysed using thematic analysis. For the procedure, the texts relating to the questions were first extracted. Then, codes were assigned to summarise the ideas of the texts. Upon subsuming similar codes into themes, four themes emerged: students’ responsibilities, teachers’ responsibilities, conditions for partnerships development, and strategies. Their interrelationships were examined iteratively for framework development. Establishing feedback partnerships required different responsibilities of students and teachers during feedback co-construction. Students needed to self-evaluate performance against task criteria, identify inadequacies and communicate their needs to teachers. During feedback exchanges, they interpreted teachers’ comments, generated self-feedback through reflection, and co-developed improvement plans with teachers. Teachers had to increase students’ understanding of criteria and evaluation skills and create opportunities for students’ expression of feedback needs. In feedback dialogue, teachers responded to students’ needs and advised on the improvement plans. Feedback partnerships would be best grounded in an environment with trust and psychological safety. Four strategies could facilitate feedback co-construction. First, students’ understanding of task criteria could be increased by rubrics explanation and exemplar analysis. Second, students could sharpen evaluation skills if they participated in peer review and received teacher feedback on the quality of peer feedback. Third, provision of self-evaluation checklists and prompts and teacher modeling of self-assessment process could aid students in articulating feedback needs. Fourth, the trust could be fostered when teachers explained the benefits of feedback co-construction, showed empathy, and provided personalised comments in dialogue. Some strategies were applied in interactive cover sheets in which students performed self-evaluation and made feedback requests on a cover sheet during assignment submission, followed by teachers’ response to individuals’ requests. The significance of this presentation lies in unpacking the conceptual framework of feedback partnerships and outlining feedback co-construction strategies. With a solid foundation in theory and practice, researchers and teachers could better enhance students’ engagement with feedback.

Keywords: conceptual framework, feedback co-construction, feedback partnerships, implementation strategies

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Authors: Dan Kanmegne

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Africa will become the most populated continent by the end of the century, with around 4 billion inhabitants. Food security and climate changes will become continental issues since agricultural practices depend on climate but also contribute to global emissions and land degradation. Agroforestry has been identified as a cost-efficient and reliable strategy to address these two issues. It is defined as the integrated management of trees and crops/animals in the same land unit. Agroforestry provides benefits in terms of goods (fruits, medicine, wood, etc.) and services (windbreaks, fertility, etc.), and is acknowledged to have a great potential for carbon sequestration; therefore it can be integrated into reduction mechanisms of carbon emissions. Particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the constraint stands in the lack of information about both areas under agroforestry and the characterization (composition, structure, and management) of each agroforestry system at the country level. This study describes and quantifies “what is where?”, earliest to the quantification of carbon stock in different systems. Remote sensing (RS) is the most efficient approach to map such a dynamic technology as agroforestry since it gives relatively adequate and consistent information over a large area at nearly no cost. RS data fulfill the good practice guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) that is to be used in carbon estimation. Satellite data are getting more and more accessible, and the archives are growing exponentially. To retrieve useful information to support decision-making out of this large amount of data, satellite data needs to be organized so to ensure fast processing, quick accessibility, and ease of use. A new solution is a data cube, which can be understood as a multi-dimensional stack (space, time, data type) of spatially aligned pixels and used for efficient access and analysis. A data cube for Burkina Faso has been set up from the cooperation project between the international service provider WASCAL and Germany, which provides an accessible exploitation architecture of multi-temporal satellite data. The aim of this study is to map and characterize agroforestry systems using the Burkina Faso earth observation data cube. The approach in its initial stage is based on an unsupervised image classification of a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series from 2010 to 2018, to stratify the country based on the vegetation. Fifteen strata were identified, and four samples per location were randomly assigned to define the sampling units. For safety reasons, the northern part will not be part of the fieldwork. A total of 52 locations will be visited by the end of the dry season in February-March 2020. The field campaigns will consist of identifying and describing different agroforestry systems and qualitative interviews. A multi-temporal supervised image classification will be done with a random forest algorithm, and the field data will be used for both training the algorithm and accuracy assessment. The expected outputs are (i) map(s) of agroforestry dynamics, (ii) characteristics of different systems (main species, management, area, etc.); (iii) assessment report of Burkina Faso data cube.

Keywords: agroforestry systems, Burkina Faso, earth observation data cube, multi-temporal image classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Reggie Chandra

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Trafficaccidents and traffic signal optimization are correlated. However, 70-90% of the traffic signals across the USA are not synchronized. The reason behind that is insufficient resources to create and implement timing plans. In this work, we will discuss the use of a breakthrough Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to optimize traffic flow and collect 24/7/365 accurate traffic data using a vehicle detection system. We will discuss what are recent advances in Artificial Intelligence technology, how does AI work in vehicles, pedestrians, and bike data collection, creating timing plans, and what is the best workflow for that. Apart from that, this paper will showcase how Artificial Intelligence makes signal timing affordable. We will introduce a technology that uses Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and deep learning algorithms to detect, collect data, develop timing plans and deploy them in the field. Convolutional Neural Networks are a class of deep learning networks inspired by the biological processes in the visual cortex. A neural net is modeled after the human brain. It consists of millions of densely connected processing nodes. It is a form of machine learning where the neural net learns to recognize vehicles through training - which is called Deep Learning. The well-trained algorithm overcomes most of the issues faced by other detection methods and provides nearly 100% traffic data accuracy. Through this continuous learning-based method, we can constantly update traffic patterns, generate an unlimited number of timing plans and thus improve vehicle flow. Convolutional Neural Networks not only outperform other detection algorithms but also, in cases such as classifying objects into fine-grained categories, outperform humans. Safety is of primary importance to traffic professionals, but they don't have the studies or data to support their decisions. Currently, one-third of transportation agencies do not collect pedestrian and bike data. We will discuss how the use of Artificial Intelligence for data collection can help reduce pedestrian fatalities and enhance the safety of all vulnerable road users. Moreover, it provides traffic engineers with tools that allow them to unleash their potential, instead of dealing with constant complaints, a snapshot of limited handpicked data, dealing with multiple systems requiring additional work for adaptation. The methodologies used and proposed in the research contain a camera model identification method based on deep Convolutional Neural Networks. The proposed application was evaluated on our data sets acquired through a variety of daily real-world road conditions and compared with the performance of the commonly used methods requiring data collection by counting, evaluating, and adapting it, and running it through well-established algorithms, and then deploying it to the field. This work explores themes such as how technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence can benefit your community and how to translate the complex and often overwhelming benefits into a language accessible to elected officials, community leaders, and the public. Exploring such topics empowers citizens with insider knowledge about the potential of better traffic technology to save lives and improve communities. The synergies that Artificial Intelligence brings to traffic signal control and data collection are unsurpassed.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, convolutional neural networks, data collection, signal control, traffic signal

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Pavel Baroch, Jiri Rezek, Michal Prochazka, Tomas Kozak, Jiri Houska

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Transparent semiconducting amorphous IGZO films have attracted great attention due to their excellent electrical properties and possible utilization in thin film transistors or in photovoltaic applications as they show 20-50 times higher mobility than that of amorphous silicon. It is also known that the properties of IGZO films are highly sensitive to process parameters, especially to oxygen partial pressure. In this study we have focused on the comparison of properties of transparent semiconducting amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) thin films prepared by conventional sputtering methods and those prepared by high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) method. Furthermore we tried to optimize electrical and optical properties of the IGZO thin films and to investigate possibility to apply these coatings on thermally sensitive flexible substrates. We employed dc, pulsed dc, mid frequency sine wave and HiPIMS power supplies for magnetron deposition. Magnetrons were equipped with sintered ceramic InGaZnO targets. As oxygen vacancies are considered to be the main source of the carriers in IGZO films, it is expected that with the increase of oxygen partial pressure number of oxygen vacancies decreases which results in the increase of film resistivity. Therefore in all experiments we focused on the effect of oxygen partial pressure, discharge power and pulsed power mode on the electrical, optical and mechanical properties of IGZO thin films and also on the thermal load deposited to the substrate. As expected, we have observed a very fast transition between low- and high-resistivity films depending on oxygen partial pressure when deposition using conventional sputtering methods/power supplies have been utilized. Therefore we established and utilized HiPIMS sputtering system for enlargement of operation window for better control of IGZO thin film properties. It is shown that with this system we are able to effectively eliminate steep transition between low and high resistivity films exhibited by DC mode of sputtering and the electrical resistivity can be effectively controlled in the wide resistivity range of 10-² to 10⁵ Ω.cm. The highest mobility of charge carriers (up to 50 cm2/V.s) was obtained at very low oxygen partial pressures. Utilization of HiPIMS also led to significant decrease in thermal load deposited to the substrate which is beneficial for deposition on the thermally sensitive and flexible polymer substrates. Deposition rate as a function of discharge power and oxygen partial pressure was also systematically investigated and the results from optical, electrical and structure analysis will be discussed in detail. Most important result which we have obtained demonstrates almost linear control of IGZO thin films resistivity with increasing of oxygen partial pressure utilizing HiPIMS mode of sputtering and highly transparent films with low resistivity were prepared already at low pO2. It was also found that utilization of HiPIMS technique resulted in significant improvement of surface smoothness in reactive mode of sputtering (with increasing of oxygen partial pressure).

Keywords: charge carrier mobility, HiPIMS, IGZO, resistivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Z. Xu

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Immersive virtual reality (VR) has gained momentum in humanitarian communication due to its utopian promises of co-presence, immediacy, and transcendence. These potential benefits have led the United Nations (UN) to tirelessly produce and distribute VR series to evoke global empathy and encourage policymakers, philanthropic business tycoons and citizens around the world to actually do something (i.e. give a donation). However, it is unclear whether or not VR can cultivate cosmopolitans with a sense of social responsibility towards the geographically, socially/culturally and morally mediated misfortune of faraway others. Drawing upon existing works on the mediation of distant suffering, this article constructs an analytical framework to articulate the issue. Applying this framework on a case study of five of the UN’s VR pieces, the article identifies three paradoxes that exist between cyber-utopian and cyber-dystopian narratives. In the “paradox of distance”, VR relies on the notions of “presence” and “storyliving” to implicitly link audiences spatially and temporally to distant suffering, creating global connectivity and reducing perceived distances between audiences and others; yet it also enables audiences to fully occupy the point of view of distant sufferers (creating too close/absolute proximity), which may cause them to feel naive self-righteousness or narcissism with their pleasures and desire, thereby destroying the “proper distance”. In the “paradox of agency”, VR simulates a superficially “real” encounter for visual intimacy, thereby establishing an “audiences–beneficiary” relationship in humanitarian communication; yet in this case the mediated hyperreality is not an authentic reality, and its simulation does not fill the gap between reality and the virtual world. In the “paradox of the hierarchies of human life”, VR enables an audience to experience virtually fundamental “freedom”, epitomizing an attitude of cultural relativism that informs a great deal of contemporary multiculturalism, providing vast possibilities for a more egalitarian representation of distant sufferers; yet it also takes the spectator’s personally empathic feelings as the focus of intervention, rather than structural inequality and political exclusion (an economic and political power relations of viewing). Thus, the audience can potentially remain trapped within the minefield of hegemonic humanitarianism. This study is significant in two respects. First, it advances the turn of digitalization in studies of media and morality in the polymedia milieu; it is motivated by the necessary call for a move beyond traditional technological environments to arrive at a more novel understanding of the asymmetry of power between the safety of spectators and the vulnerability of mediated sufferers. Second, it not only reminds humanitarian journalists and NGOs that they should not rely entirely on the richer news experience or powerful response-ability enabled by VR to gain a “moral bond” with distant sufferers, but also argues that when fully-fledged VR technology is developed, it can serve as a kind of alchemy and should not be underestimated merely as a “bugaboo” of an alarmist philosophical and fictional dystopia.

Keywords: audience, cosmopolitan, distant suffering, virtual reality, humanitarian communication

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Authors: Betelhem M. Negede, Maarten Voors, Hugo De Groote, Bart Minten

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Farmers in Ethiopia produce most of their own food during one agricultural season per year. Therefore, they need to use on-farm storage technologies to bridge the lean season and benefit from price arbitrage. Maize stored using traditional storage bags offer no protection from insects and molds, leading to high storage losses. In Ethiopia access to and use of modern storage technologies are still limited, restraining farmers to benefit from local maize price fluctuations. We used a randomized controlled trial among 871 maize farmers to evaluate the impacts of Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, also known as hermetic bags, on storage losses, and especially on behavioral changes with respect to consumption, marketing, and income among maize farmers in Ethiopia. This study builds upon the limited previous experimental research that has tried to understand farmers’ grain storage and post-harvest losses and identify mechanisms behind the persistence of these challenges. Our main hypothesis is that access to PICS bags allows farmers to increase production, storage and maize income. Also delay the length of maize storage, reduce maize post-harvest losses and improve their food security. Our results show that even though farmers received only three PICS bags that represent 10percent of their total maize stored, they delay their length of maize storage for sales by two weeks. However, we find no treatment effect on maize income, suggesting that the arbitrage of two weeks is too small. Also, we do not find any reduction in storage losses due to farmers’ reaction by selling early and by using cheap and readily available but potentially harmful storage chemicals. Looking at the heterogeneity treatment effects between the treatment variable and highland and lowland villages, we find a decrease in the percentage of maize stored by 4 percent in the highland villages. This confirms that location specific factors, such as agro-ecology and proximity to markets are important factors that influence whether and how much of the harvest a farmer stores. These findings highlight the benefits of hermetic storage bags, by allowing farmers to make inter-temporal arbitrage and by reducing potential health risks from storage chemicals. The main policy recommendation that emanates from our study is that postharvest losses reduction throughout the whole value chain is an important pathway to food and income security in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, future storage loss interventions with hermetic storage technologies should take into account the agro-ecology of the study area and quantify storage losses beyond farmers self-reported losses, such as the count and weigh method. Finally, studies on hermetic storage technologies indicate positive impacts on post-harvest losses and in improving food security, but the adoption and use of these technologies is currently still low in SSA. Therefore, future works on the scaling up of hermetic bags, should consider reasons why farmers only use PICS bags to store grains for consumption, which is usually related to a safety-first approach or due to lack of incentives (higher price from maize not treated with chemicals), and no grain quality check.

Keywords: arbitrage, PICS hermetic bags, post-harvest storage loss, RCT

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Authors: Tamam Albelwi, Robert Rogers, Hans-Peter Kubis

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Background: Exercise is widely acknowledged as a highly important health behavior, which reduces risks related to lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease. However, exercise adherence is low in high-risk groups and sedentary lifestyle is more the norm than the exception. Expressed reasons for exercise participation are often based on delayed outcomes related to health threats and benefits but also enjoyment. Whether exercise is perceived as rewarding is well established in animal literature but the evidence is sparse in humans. Additionally, the question how stable any reward is perceived with time delays is an important question influencing decision-making (in favor or against a behavior). For the modality exercise, this has not been examined before. We, therefore, investigated the discounting of pre-established self-selected exercise compared with established rewards of food and money with a computer-based discounting paradigm. We hypothesized that exercise will be discounted like an established reward (food and money); however, we expect that the discounting rate is similar to a consumable reward like food. Additionally, we expected that individuals’ characteristics like preferred intensity, physical activity and body characteristics are associated with discount rates. Methods: 71 participants took part in four sessions. The sessions were designed to let participants select their preferred exercise intensity on a treadmill. Participants were asked to adjust their speed for optimizing pleasantness over an exercise period of up to 30 minutes, heart rate and pleasantness rating was measured. In further sessions, the established exercise intensity was modified and tested on perceptual validity. In the last exercise session rates of perceived exertion was measured on the preferred intensity level. Furthermore, participants filled in questionnaires related to physical activity, mood, craving, and impulsivity and answered choice questions on a bespoke computer task to establish discounting rates of their preferred exercise (kex), their favorite food (kfood) and a value-matching amount of money (kmoney). Results: Participants self-selected preferred speed was 5.5±2.24 km/h, at a heart rate of 120.7±23.5, and perceived exertion scale of 10.13±2.06. This shows that participants preferred a light exercise intensity with low to moderate cardiovascular strain based on perceived pleasantness. Computer assessment of discounting rates revealed that exercise was quickly discounted like a consumable reward, no significant difference between kfood and kex (kfood =0.322±0.263; kex=0.223±0.203). However, kmoney (kmoney=0.080±0.02) was significantly lower than the rates of exercise and food. Moreover, significant associations were found between preferred speed and kex (r=-0.302) and between physical activity levels and preferred speed (r=0.324). Outcomes show that participants perceived and discounted self-selected exercise like an established reward (food and money) but was discounted more like consumable rewards. Moreover, exercise discounting was quicker in individuals who preferred lower speeds, being less physically active. This may show that in a choice conflict between exercise and food the delay of exercise (because of distance) might disadvantage exercise as the chosen behavior particular in sedentary people. Conclusion: exercise can be perceived as a reward and is discounted quickly in time like food. Pleasant exercise experience is connected to low to moderate cardiovascular and perceptual strain.

Keywords: delay discounting, exercise, temporal discounting, time perspective

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Authors: Md. Wasiul Islam, Md. Jamius Shams Sowrov

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The Sundarbans is the largest single tract of mangrove forest in the world. This is located in the southwest corner of Bangladesh. This is a unique ecosystem which is a great breeding and nursing ground for a great biodiversity. It supports the livelihood of about 3.5 million coastal dwellers and also protects the coastal belt and inland areas from various natural calamities. Historically, the management of the Sundarbans was controlled by the Bangladesh Forest Department following top-down approach without the involvement of local communities. Such fence and fining-based blue-print approach was not effective to protect the forest which caused Sundarbans to degrade severely in the recent past. Fifty percent of the total tree cover has been lost in the last 30 years. Therefore, local multi-stakeholder based bottom-up co-management approach was introduced at some of the parts of the Sundarbans in 2006 to improve the biodiversity status by enhancing the protection level of the forest. Various co-management organizations were introduced under co-management approach where the local community people could actively involve in various activities related to the management and welfare of the Sundarbans including the decision-making process to achieve the goal. From this backdrop, the objective of the study was to assess the performance of co-management organizations to facilitate sustainable management of the Sundarbans mangrove forests. The qualitative study followed face-to-face interview to collect data using two sets of semi-structured questionnaires. A total of 40 respondents participated in the research that was from eight villagers under two forest ranges. 32 representatives from the local communities as well as 8 official representatives involved in co-management approach were interviewed using snowball sampling technique. The study shows that the co-management approach improved governance system of the Sundarbans through active participation of the local community people and their interactions with the officials via the platform of co-management organizations. It facilitated accountability and transparency system to some extent through following some formal and informal rules and regulations. It also improved the power structure of the management process by fostering local empowerment process particularly the women. Moreover, people were able to learn from their interactions with and within the co-management organizations as well as interventions improved environmental awareness and promoted social learning. The respondents considered good governance as the most important factor for achieving the goal of sustainable management and biodiversity conservation of the Sundarbans. The success of co-management planning process also depends on the active and functional participation of different stakeholders including the local communities where co-management organizations were considered as the most functional platform. However, the governance system was also facing various challenges which resulted in barriers to the sustainable management of the Sundarbans mangrove forest. But still there were some members involved in illegal forest operations and created obstacles against sustainable management of the Sundarbans. Respondents recommended greater patronization from the government, financial and logistic incentives for alternative income generation opportunities with effective participatory monitoring and evaluation system to improve sustainable management of the Sundarbans.

Keywords: Bangladesh, co-management approach, co-management organizations, governance, Sundarbans, sustainable management

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Heather Mroz

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Geothermal fluids can provide a nearly unlimited source of renewable energy but are often highly corrosive due to dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulphide (H2S), Ammonia (NH3) and chloride ions. The corrosive environment drives material selection for many components, including piping, heat exchangers and pressure vessels, to higher alloys of stainless steel, nickel-based alloys and titanium. The use of these alloys is cost-prohibitive and does not offer the pressure rating of carbon steel. One solution, explosion cladding, has been proven to reduce the capital cost of the geothermal equipment while retaining the mechanical and corrosion properties of both the base metal and the cladded surface metal. Explosion cladding is a solid-state welding process that uses precision explosions to bond two dissimilar metals while retaining the mechanical, electrical and corrosion properties. The process is commonly used to clad steel with a thin layer of corrosion-resistant alloy metal, such as stainless steel, brass, nickel, silver, titanium, or zirconium. Additionally, explosion welding can join a wider array of compatible and non-compatible metals with more than 260 metal combinations possible. The explosion weld is achieved in milliseconds; therefore, no bulk heating occurs, and the metals experience no dilution. By adhering to a strict set of manufacturing requirements, both the shear strength and tensile strength of the bond will exceed the strength of the weaker metal, ensuring the reliability of the bond. For over 50 years, explosion cladding has been used in the oil and gas and chemical processing industries and has provided significant economic benefit in reduced maintenance and lower capital costs over solid construction. The focus of this paper will be on the many benefits of the use of explosion clad in process equipment instead of more expensive solid alloy construction. The method of clad-plate production with explosion welding as well as the methods employed to ensure sound bonding of the metals. It will also include the origins of explosion cladding as well as recent technological developments. Traditionally explosion clad plate was formed into vessels, tube sheets and heads but recent advances include explosion welded piping. The final portion of the paper will give examples of the use of explosion-clad metals in geothermal energy recovery. The classes of materials used for geothermal brine will be discussed, including stainless steels, nickel alloys and titanium. These examples will include heat exchangers (tube sheets), high pressure and horizontal separators, standard pressure crystallizers, piping and well casings. It is important to educate engineers and designers on material options as they develop equipment for geothermal resources. Explosion cladding is a niche technology that can be successful in many situations, like geothermal energy recovery, where high temperature, high pressure and corrosive environments are typical. Applications for explosion clad metals include vessel and heat exchanger components as well as piping.

Keywords: clad metal, explosion welding, separator material, well casing material, piping material

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Ágnes Győri, Éva Perpék, Zsófia Bauer, Zsuzsanna Elek

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The aim of the research (funded by Hungarian national grant, NFKI- FK 138315) is to examine the professional mobility, mental health and work environment of social workers with a complex approach. Previous international and Hungarian research has pointed out that those working in the helping professions are strongly exposed to the risk of emotional-mental-physical exhaustion due to stress. Mental and physical strain, as well as lack of coping (can) cause health problems, but its role in career change and high labor turnover has also been proven. Even though satisfaction with working conditions of those employed in the human service sector in the context of the stress burden has been researched extensively, there is a lack of large-sample international and Hungarian domestic studies exploring the effects of profession-specific conditions. Nor has it been examined how the specific features of the social profession and mental health affect the career mobility of the professionals concerned. In our research, these factors and their correlations are analyzed by means of mixed methodology, utilizing the benefits of netnographic big data analysis and a sector-specific quantitative survey. The netnographic analysis of open web content generated inside and outside the social profession offers a holistic overview of the influencing factors related to mental health and the work environment of social workers. On the one hand, the topics and topoi emerging in the external discourse concerning the sector are examined, and on the other hand, focus on mentions and streams of comments regarding the profession, burnout, stress, coping, as well as labor turnover and career changes among social professionals. The analysis focuses on new trends and changes in discourse that have emerged during and after the pandemic. In addition to the online conversation analysis, a survey of social professionals with a specific focus has been conducted. The questionnaire is based on input from the first two research phases. The applied approach underlines that the mobility paths of social professionals can only be understood if, apart from the general working conditions, the specific features of social work and the effects of certain aspects of mental health (emotional-mental-physical strain, resilience) are taken into account as well. In this paper, the preliminary results from this innovative methodological mix are presented, with the aim of highlighting new opportunities and dimensions in the research on social work. A gap in existing research is aimed to be filled both on a methodological and empirical level, and the Hungarian domestic findings can create a feasible and relevant framework for a further international investigation and cross-cultural comparative analysis. Said results can contribute to the foundation of organizational and policy-level interventions, targeted programs whereby the risk of burnout and the rate of career abandonment can be reduced. Exploring different aspects of resilience and mapping personality strengths can be a starting point for stress-management, motivation-building, and personality-development training for social professionals.

Keywords: burnout, mixed methods, netnography, professional mobility, social work

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: Sascha Kraus, Wolfgang Hora, Philipp Stieg, Thomas Niemand, Ferdinand Thies, Matthias Filser

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In most countries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are the backbone of the economy due to their impact on job creation, innovation and wealth creation. Moreover, the ongoing globalization makes it inevitable – even for SME that traditionally focused on their domestic markets – to internationalize their business activities to realize further growth and survive in international markets. Thus, internationalization has become one of the most common growth strategies for SME and has received increasing scholarly attention over the last two decades. One the downside internationalization can be also regarded as the most complex strategy that a firm can undertake. Particularly for family firms, that are often characterized by limited financial capital, a risk-averse nature and limited growth aspirations, it could be argued that family firms are more likely to face greater challenges when taking the pathway to internationalization. Especially the triangulation of family, ownership, and management (so-called ‘familiness’) manifests in a unique behavior and decision-making process which is often characterized by the importance given to noneconomic goals and distinguishes a family firm from other businesses. Taking this into account, the concept of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) has been evolved to describe the behavior of family firms. In order to investigate how different internal and external firm characteristics shape internationalization success of family firms, we drew on a sample consisting of 297 small and medium-sized family firms from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Thus, we include SEW as essential family firm characteristic and added the two major intra-organizational characteristics, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), absorptive capacity (AC) as well as collaboration intensity (CI) and relational knowledge (RK) as two major external network characteristics. Based on previous research we assume that these characteristics are important to explain internationalization success of family firm SME. Regarding the data analysis, we applied a Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), an approach that allows identifying configurations of firm characteristics, specifically used to study complex causal relationships where traditional regression techniques reach their limits. Results indicate that several combinations of these family firm characteristics can lead to international success, with no permanently required key characteristic. Instead, there are many roads to walk down for family firms to achieve internationalization success. Consequently, our data states that family owned SME are heterogeneous and internationalization is a complex and dynamic process. Results further show that network related characteristics occur in all sets, thus represent an essential element in the internationalization process of family owned SME. The contribution of our study is twofold, as we investigate different forms of international expansion for family firms and how to improve them. First, we are able to broaden the understanding of the intersection between family firm and SME internationalization with respect to major intra-organizational and network-related variables. Second, from a practical perspective, we offer family firm owners a basis for setting up internal capabilities to achieve international success.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation, family firm, fsQCA, internationalization, socio-emotional wealth

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Authors: A. Kourou, A. Ioakeimidou, S. Hadjiefthymiades, V. Abramea

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During the last decades, the task of engaging governments, communities and citizens to reduce risk and vulnerability of the populations has made variable progress. Experience has demonstrated that lack of awareness, education and preparedness may result in significant material and other losses both on the onset of the disaster. Schools play a vital role in the community and are important elements of values and culture of the society. A proper school education not only teaches children, but also is a key factor in the promotion of a safety culture into the wider community. In Greece School Earthquake Safety Initiative has been undertaken by Earthquake Planning and Protection Ogranization with specific actions (seminars, lectures, guidelines, educational material, campaigns, national or EU projects, drills etc.). The objective of this initiative is to develop disaster-resilient school communities through awareness, self-help, cooperation and education. School preparedness requires the participation of Principals, teachers, students, parents, and competent authorities. Preparation and earthquake readiness involves: a) learning what should be done before, during, and after earthquake; b) doing or preparing to do these things now, before the next earthquake; and c) developing teachers’ and students’ skills to cope efficiently in case of an earthquake. In the above given framework this paper presents the results of a survey aimed to identify the level of education and preparedness of school community in Greece. More specifically, the survey questionnaire investigates issues regarding earthquake protection actions, appropriate attitudes and behaviors during an earthquake and existence of contingency plans at elementary and secondary schools. The questionnaires were administered to Principals and teachers from different regions of the country that attend the EPPO national training project 'Earthquake Safety at Schools'. A closed-form questionnaire was developed for the survey, which contained questions regarding the following: a) knowledge of self protective actions b) existence of emergency planning at home and c) existence of emergency planning at school (hazard mitigation actions, evacuation plan, and performance of drills). Survey results revealed that a high percentage of teachers have taken the appropriate preparedness measures concerning non-structural hazards at schools, emergency school plan and simulation drills every year. In order to improve the action-planning for ongoing school disaster risk reduction, the implementation of earthquake drills, the involvement of students with disabilities and the evaluation of school emergency plans, EPPO participates in E-PreS project. The main objective of this project is to create smart tools which define, simulate and evaluate all hazards emergency steps customized to the unique district and school. The project comes up with a holistic methodology using real-time evaluation involving different categories of actors, districts, steps and metrics. The project is supported by EU Civil Protection Financial Instrument with a duration of two years. Coordinator is the Kapodistrian University of Athens and partners are from four countries; Greece, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria.

Keywords: drills, earthquake, emergency plans, E-PreS project

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Authors: G. Kontochristopoulos, T. Spiliopoulos, V. Markantoni, E. Platsidaki, A. Kouris, E. Balamoti, C. Bokotas, G. Haidemenos

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Introduction: There is a high patient demand for periorbital rejuvenation since the facial area is often the first to show visible signs of aging. With advancing age, there are sometimes marked changes that occur in the skin, fat, muscle and bone of the periorbital region, resulting to wrinkles and skin laxity. These changes are among the easiest areas to correct using several minimally invasive techniques, which have become increasingly popular over the last decade. Lasers, radiofrequency, botulinum toxin, fat grafting and fillers are available treatments sometimes in combination to traditional blepharoplasty. This study attempts to show the benefits of a minimally invasive approach to periorbital wrinkles and skin laxity that combine microneedling and 10% trichloroacetic acid (TCA) peels. Method: Eleven female patients aged 34-72 enrolled in the study. They all gave informed consent after receiving detailed information regarding the treatment procedure. Exclusion criteria in the study were previous treatment for the same condition in the past six months, pregnancy, allergy or hypersensitivity to the components, infection, inflammation and photosensitivity on the affected region. All patients had diffuse periorbital wrinkles and mild to moderate upper or lower eyelid skin laxity. They were treated with Automatic Microneedle Therapy System-Handhold and topical application of 10% trichloroacetic acid solution to each periorbital area for five minutes. Needling at a 0,25 mm depth was performed in both latelar (x-y) directions. Subsequently, the peeling agent was applied to each periorbital area for five minutes. Patients were subjected to the above combination every two weeks for a series of four treatments. Subsequently they were followed up regularly every month for two months. The effect was photo-documented. A Physician's and a Patient's Global Assessment Scale was used to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment (0-25% indicated poor response, 25%-50% fair, 50%-75% good and 75%-100% excellent response). Safety was assessed by monitoring early and delayed adverse events. Results: At the end of the study, almost all patients demonstrated significant aesthetic improvement. Physicians assessed a fair and a good improvement in 9(81.8% of patients) and 2(18.1% of patients) participants respectively. Patients Global Assessment rated a fair and a good response in 6 (54.5%) and 5 (45.4%) participants respectively. The procedure was well tolerated and all patients were satisfied. Mild discomfort and transient erythema were quite common during or immediately after the procedure, however only temporary. During the monthly follow up, no complications or scars were observed. Conclusions: Microneedling is known as a simple, office–based collagen induction therapy. Low concentration TCA solution applied to the epidermis that has been more permeable by microneedling, can reach the dermis more effectively. In the present study, chemical peels with 10% TCA acted as an adjuvant to microneedling, as it causes controlled skin damage, promoting regeneration and rejuvenation of tissues. This combined therapy improved periorbital fine lines, wrinkles, and overall appearance of the skin. Thus it constitutes an alternative treatment of periorbital skin aging, with encouraging results and minor side-effects.

Keywords: chemical peels, microneedling, periorbital wrinkles, skin laxity

Procedia PDF Downloads 330

Authors: Deepak Loura

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Production and productivity of several crops in the country continue to be adversely affected by biotic (e.g., Insect-pests and diseases) and abiotic (e.g., water temperature and salinity) stresses. Over-dependence on pesticides and other chemicals is economically non-viable for the resource-poor farmers of our country. Further, pesticides can potentially affect human and environmental safety. While traditional breeding techniques and proper- management strategies continue to play a vital role in crop improvement, we need to judiciously use biotechnology approaches for the development of genetically modified crops addressing critical problems in the improvement of crop plants for sustainable agriculture. Modern biotechnology can help to increase crop production, reduce farming costs, and improve food quality and the safety of the environment. Genetic engineering is a new technology which allows plant breeders to produce plants with new gene combinations by genetic transformation of crop plants for improvement of agronomic traits. Advances in recombinant DNA technology have made it possible to have genes between widely divergent species to develop genetically modified or genetically engineered plants. Plant genetic engineering provides the strength to harness useful genes and alleles from indigenous microorganisms to enrich the gene pool for developing genetically modified (GM) crops that will have inbuilt (inherent) resistance to insect pests, diseases, and abiotic stresses. Plant biotechnology has made significant contributions in the past 20 years in the development of genetically engineered or genetically modified crops with multiple benefits. A variety of traits have been introduced in genetically engineered crops which include (i) herbicide resistance. (ii) pest resistance, (iii) viral resistance, (iv) slow ripening of fruits and vegetables, (v) fungal and bacterial resistance, (vi) abiotic stress tolerance (drought, salinity, temperature, flooding, etc.). (vii) quality improvement (starch, protein, and oil), (viii) value addition (vitamins, micro, and macro elements), (ix) pharmaceutical and therapeutic proteins, and (x) edible vaccines, etc. Multiple genes in transgenic crops can be useful in developing durable disease resistance and a broad insect-control spectrum and could lead to potential cost-saving advantages for farmers. The development of transgenic to produce high-value pharmaceuticals and the edible vaccine is also under progress, which requires much more research and development work before commercially viable products will be available. In addition, molecular-aided selection (MAS) is now routinely used to enhance the speed and precision of plant breeding. Newer technologies need to be developed and deployed for enhancing and sustaining agricultural productivity. There is a need to optimize the use of biotechnology in conjunction with conventional technologies to achieve higher productivity with fewer resources. Therefore, genetic modification/ engineering of crop plants assumes greater importance, which demands the development and adoption of newer technology for the genetic improvement of crops for increasing crop productivity.

Keywords: biotechnology, plant genetic engineering, genetically modified, biotic, abiotic, disease resistance

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Authors: Z. Gharaee

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Recognizing actions performed by others is important in our daily lives since it is necessary for communicating with others in a proper way. We perceive an action by observing the kinematics of motions involved in the performance. We use our experience and concepts to make a correct recognition of the actions. Although building the action concepts is a life-long process, which is repeated throughout life, we are very efficient in applying our learned concepts in analyzing motions and recognizing actions. Experiments on the subjects observing the actions performed by an actor show that an action is recognized after only about two hundred milliseconds of observation. In this study, hierarchical action recognition architecture is proposed by using growing grid layers. The first-layer growing grid receives the pre-processed data of consecutive 3D postures of joint positions and applies some heuristics during the growth phase to allocate areas of the map by inserting new neurons. As a result of training the first-layer growing grid, action pattern vectors are generated by connecting the elicited activations of the learned map. The ordered vector representation layer receives action pattern vectors to create time-invariant vectors of key elicited activations. Time-invariant vectors are sent to second-layer growing grid for categorization. This grid creates the clusters representing the actions. Finally, one-layer neural network developed by a delta rule labels the action categories in the last layer. System performance has been evaluated in an experiment with the publicly available MSR-Action3D dataset. There are actions performed by using different parts of human body: Hand Clap, Two Hands Wave, Side Boxing, Bend, Forward Kick, Side Kick, Jogging, Tennis Serve, Golf Swing, Pick Up and Throw. The growing grid architecture was trained by applying several random selections of generalization test data fed to the system during on average 100 epochs for each training of the first-layer growing grid and around 75 epochs for each training of the second-layer growing grid. The average generalization test accuracy is 92.6%. A comparison analysis between the performance of growing grid architecture and self-organizing map (SOM) architecture in terms of accuracy and learning speed show that the growing grid architecture is superior to the SOM architecture in action recognition task. The SOM architecture completes learning the same dataset of actions in around 150 epochs for each training of the first-layer SOM while it takes 1200 epochs for each training of the second-layer SOM and it achieves the average recognition accuracy of 90% for generalization test data. In summary, using the growing grid network preserves the fundamental features of SOMs, such as topographic organization of neurons, lateral interactions, the abilities of unsupervised learning and representing high dimensional input space in the lower dimensional maps. The architecture also benefits from an automatic size setting mechanism resulting in higher flexibility and robustness. Moreover, by utilizing growing grids the system automatically obtains a prior knowledge of input space during the growth phase and applies this information to expand the map by inserting new neurons wherever there is high representational demand.

Keywords: action recognition, growing grid, hierarchical architecture, neural networks, system performance

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Authors: Marta Lisowska

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The growing trend of market specialization imposes upon translators the need for proficiency in the working knowledge of specialist discourse. The notion of specialization differs from a broad general category to a highly specialized narrow field. The specialised discourse is used in the channel of communication based upon distinctive features typical for communities of practice whose co-existence is codified and hermetically locked against outsiders. Consequently, any translator deprived of professional discourse competence and social skills is incapable of providing competent translation product from source language into target language. In this paper, we report on research that explores the pedagogical practices aiming to bridge the dichotomy between the professionals and the specialist translators, while accounting for the reality of the world of professional communities entered by undergraduates on two levels: the text-based generic, and the social one. Drawing from the functional social constructivist approach, seen here as situated learning, this paper reports on the case of English-Polish, Polish-English undergraduate BA Level LSP of law translation class run in line with the simulated classroom-based and the reality-based (apprenticeship) approach. This blended method serves the purpose of introducing the young trainees to the professional world. The research provides new insights into how the LSP translation undergraduates become legitimized through discursive and social participation and engagement. The undergraduates, situated peripherally at the outset, experience their own transformation towards becoming members of these professional groups. With subjective evaluation, the trainees take a stance on this dual mode class and development of their skills. Comparing and contrasting their own work done in line with two models of translation teaching: authentic and near-authentic, the undergraduates answer research questions devised by a questionnaire survey The responses take us closer to how students feel about their LSP translation competence development. The major findings show how the trainees perceive the benefits and hardships of their functional translation class. In terms of skills, they related to communication as the most enhanced one; they highly valued the fact of being ‘exposed’ to a variety of texts (cf. multi literalism), team work, learning how to schedule work, IT skills boost and the ability to learn how to work individually. Another finding indicates that students struggled most with specialized language, and co-working with other students. The short-term research shows the momentum when the undergraduate LSP translation trainees entered the path of transformation i.e. gained consciousness of ‘how it is’ to be a participant-translator of real-life communities of practice, gaining pragmatic dint of the social and linguistic skills understood here as discursive competence (text > genre > discourse > professional practice). The undergraduates need to be aware of the work they have to do and challenges they are to face before arriving at the expert level of professional translation competence.

Keywords: communities of practice in LSP translation teaching, learning LSP translation as situated experience, peripheral participation, professional discourse for LSP translation teaching, professional translation competence

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Authors: Ntandazo Dlatu, Benjamin Longo-Mbenza, Andre Renzaho, Ruffin Appalata, Yolande Yvonne Valeria Matoumona Mavoungou, Mbenza Ben Longo, Kenneth Ekoru, Blaise Makoso, Gedeon Longo Longo

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Background: The gap between complexities related to the integration of Tuberculosis /HIV control and evidence-based knowledge motivated the initiation of the study. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore correlations between national TB management guidelines, multiple deprivation indexes, quantiles, components and levels of Tuberculosis control programme using mathematical modeling in rural O.R. Tambo District Health Facilities, South Africa. Methods: The study design used mixed secondary data analysis and cross-sectional analysis between 2009 and 2013 across O.R Tambo District, Eastern Cape, South Africa using univariate/ bivariate analysis, linear multiple regression models, and multivariate discriminant analysis. Health inequalities indicators and component of an impediment to the tuberculosis control programme were evaluated. Results: In total, 62 400 records for TB notification were analyzed for the period 2009-2013. There was a significant but negative between Financial Year Expenditure (r= -0.894; P= 0.041) Seropositive HIV status(r= -0.979; P= 0.004), Population Density (r = -0.881; P= 0.048) and the number of TB defaulter in all TB cases. It was shown unsuccessful control of TB management program through correlations between numbers of new PTB smear positive, TB defaulter new smear-positive, TB failure all TB, Pulmonary Tuberculosis case finding index and deprivation-concentration-dispersion index. It was shown successful TB program control through significant and negative associations between declining numbers of death in co-infection of HIV and TB, TB deaths all TB and SMIAD gradient/ deprivation-concentration-dispersion index. The multivariate linear model was summarized by unadjusted r of 96%, adjusted R2 of 95 %, Standard Error of estimate of 0.110, R2 changed of 0.959 and significance for variance change for P=0.004 to explain the prediction of TB defaulter in all TB with equation y= 8.558-0.979 x number of HIV seropositive. After adjusting for confounding factors (PTB case finding the index, TB defaulter new smear-positive, TB death in all TB, TB defaulter all TB, and TB failure in all TB). The HIV and TB death, as well as new PTB smear positive, were identified as the most important, significant, and independent indicator to discriminate most deprived deprivation index far from other deprivation quintiles 2-5 using discriminant analysis. Conclusion: Elimination of poverty such as overcrowding, lack of sanitation and environment of highest burden of HIV might end the TB threat in O.R Tambo District, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Furthermore, ongoing adequate budget comprehensive, holistic and collaborative initiative towards Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) is necessary for complete elimination of TB in poor O.R Tambo District.

Keywords: tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, success, failure, control program, health inequalities, South Africa

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Authors: Sumiti Saharan, Pallav Patankar, Lily W. Lee

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Understanding the health-seeking behaviors and attitudes of women towards maternal health in the context of gender roles and family dynamics is tremendously crucial for designing effective and impactful interventions aimed at improving maternal and child health outcomes. Further, as the digital world becomes more accessible and affordable, it is imperative to scope the potential of digital technology in enabling access to maternal health information in different socio-economic groups (SEGs). In the summer of 2017, we conducted a study with 500 women across different SEGs in urban India who were pregnant or had had a delivery in the last year. The study was undertaken to assess their maternal health information seeking behavior with a particular focus on probing their use of digital technology for health-related information. The study also measured women's decision-making autonomy in the context of maternal health, awareness of their rights to quality and respectful maternal healthcare, and agency to voice their rights. We probed the impact of key variables including education, age, and socioeconomic status on all outcome variables. In terms of health-seeking behaviors, we found that women heavily relied on medical professionals and/or their mothers and mothers-in-law for all maternal health advice. Digital adoption was found to be high across all SEGs, with around 70% of women from all populations using the internet several times a week. On the other hand, use of the internet for both accessing maternal health information and choosing maternity hospitals were both significantly dependent on SEG. The key reasons reported for not using the internet for health purposes were lack of awareness and lack of trust on content accuracy. Decisions around health practices and type of delivery were found to be jointly made by women and other family members. Almost all women reported their husbands to play a key role in all maternal health decisions and for decisions with a clear financial implication like choice of hospital for delivery, husbands were reported to be the sole decision maker by a majority of women. The agency of women was also found to be low in interactions with maternal healthcare providers with a third of respondents not comfortable with voicing their opinions and preferences to their doctors. Interestingly, we find that this relatively low agency was prominent in both lower middle class and middle-class SEGs. Recognition of the sociocultural determinants of behavior is the first step in developing actionable strategies for improving maternal health outcomes. Our study quantifies the agency and autonomy of women in urban India and the variables that impact them. Our findings emphasize the value of gender normative approaches that factor in the key role husbands play in guiding maternal health decisions. They also highlight the power of digital approaches for catalyzing access to maternal health information. These insights into the attitude and behaviors of mothers in context of their sociocultural environments—and their relationship with digital technology—can help pave the way towards designing effective, scalable maternal and child health programs in developing nations like India.

Keywords: access to healthcare information, behavior, digital health, maternal health

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Authors: Carly Nesvat, Dominic Jarrett, Colin Thomson, Wilma Coltart, Thelma Bowers, Jan Thomson

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Introduction: Within Scotland, the Same As You strategy committed to moving people with learning disabilities out of long-stay hospital accommodation into homes in the community. Much of the focus of this movement was on the placement of people within individual homes. In order to achieve this, potentially excessive supports were put in place which created dependence, and carried significant ongoing cost primarily for local authorities. The greater focus on empowerment and community participation which has been evident in more recent learning disability strategy, along with the financial pressures being experienced across the public sector, created an imperative to re-examine that provision, particularly in relation to the use of expensive sleepover supports to individuals, and the potential for this to be appropriately scaled back through the use of telecare. Method: As part of a broader programme of redesigning overnight supports within North Ayrshire, a cluster of individuals living in close proximity were identified, who were in receipt of overnight supports, but who were identified as having the capacity to potentially benefit from their removal. In their place, a responder service was established (an individual staying overnight in a nearby service user’s home), and a variety of telecare solutions were placed within individual’s homes. Active and passive technology was connected to an Alarm Receiving Centre, which would alert the local responder service when necessary. Individuals and their families were prepared for the change, and continued to be informed about progress with the pilot. Results: 4 individuals, 2 of whom shared a tenancy, had their sleepover supports removed as part of the pilot. Extensive data collection in relation to alarm activation was combined with feedback from the 4 individuals, their families, and staff involved in their support. Varying perspectives emerged within the feedback. 3 of the individuals were clearly described as benefitting from the change, and the greater sense of independence it brought, while more concerns were evident in relation to the fourth. Some family members expressed a need for greater preparation in relation to the change and ongoing information provision. Some support staff also expressed a need for more information, to help them understand the new support arrangements for an individual, as well as noting concerns in relation to the outcomes for one participant. Conclusion: Developing a telecare response in relation to a cluster of individuals was facilitated by them all being supported by the same care provider. The number of similar clusters of individuals being identified within North Ayrshire is limited. Developing other solutions such as a response service for redesign will potentially require greater collaboration between different providers of home support, as well as continuing to explore the full range of telecare, including digital options. The pilot has highlighted the need for effective preparatory and ongoing engagement with staff and families, as well as the challenges which can accompany making changes to long-standing packages of support.

Keywords: challenges, change, engagement, telecare

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