Search results for: developing skills

Authors: Yadav R. K., Baral S.

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Introduction: Nepal is one of the world’s least developed countries and has a high incidence of tuberculosis (TB). The TB prevalence survey in 2019 showed 69,000 Nepalese is developing TB and 4,000 die every year. Given its disproportionate impact on the impoverished segments of society, TB often thrusts patients into extreme poverty or exacerbates their existing economic struggles. Consequently, not only the patients but also their families suffer from the loss of livelihood. This study aims to assess the support of nutritional allowance on treatment compliance among retreatment tuberculosis patients in Nepal. This is a secondary analysis of data from HMIS (Health Management Information System) to investigate treatment compliance among tuberculosis patients and its association with nutritional allowance. The study population consisted of all individuals (N=2972) who had received services from July 16, 2021, to December 14, 2022. The SPSS 21version was used to conduct descriptive and bivariate analysis. Out of the total TB patients (n=2972), a third-fourth (65.9%) of TB patients were male. More than one-tenth (12.3%) of respondents received a nutrition support allowance. The TB treatment compliance rate was more (89.91%) in the nutrition support allowance group compared to the non-nutritional support group (87.98%). TB patients who received the nutritional support allowance were nearly twice as likely to have a higher TB treatment compliance rate compared to those who did not receive the nutritional support allowance. Providing nutritional allowance support to tuberculosis (TB) patients can play a significant role in improving treatment compliance and outcomes. Age and the type of TB are important factors that have shown statistical significance in relation to treatment compliance. Therefore, it is recommended to provide nutritional allowance support to both new and retreatment TB patients. To enhance treatment compliance among TB patients, it is beneficial to provide timely nutrition allowances and arrange home visits by TB focal persons.

Keywords: nutrition, support, treatment compliance, TB, Nepal

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Authors: Ayami Umemura

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the meaning of verbalization in clinical practice using the keywords silence and singularity. A patient's experience of illness and treatment is singular, irreplaceable, and irreproducible and ultimately cannot be compared with that of others. In his book Difference and Repetition, Gilles Deleuze positioned irreplaceable singularity as the opposite concept of particularity as a generalizable and substitutable property and matched the former with universality. He also said that singularity could not be represented because of its irreplaceable nature. Representation or verbalization is a procedure that converts an irreplaceable, idiosyncratic reality into something that can be substituted. Considering the act of verbalizing medical diagnosis based on this, it can be said that diagnosis is the practice of decontextualizing and generalizing the suffering embedded in the patient's irreplaceable life history as a disease. This paper examines the above with the key concept of the practice of "non-verbalization" in traditional medical practices in Sri Lanka. In the practice of Sri Lankan traditional medicine and the inheritance of medical knowledge and care techniques, there is a tendency to avoid verbalizing specific matters or stating them aloud. Specifically, the following should be avoided. The healer informs the patient of the name of the disease, mentions the name of the herb used in front of the patient, explains the patient's condition to the healer, and referring the names of poisonous animals, such as poisonous snakes that have been damaged. And so on. Furthermore, when passing on medical knowledge and skills, it is also possible to avoid verbalizing knowledge of medicinal herbs and medical treatment methods and explaining them verbally. In addition to the local belief that the soul of language in Sri Lanka is deeply involved in this background, Sri Lankan traditional medicine has a unique view of the human body and personality that is rooted in the singularity that appears in the relationship with the movement of celestial bodies and the supernatural realm. It can be pointed out that it is premised on the view. In other words, the “silence” in Sri Lankan indigenous medicine is the reason for emphasizing specificity. Furthermore, we can say that "non-verbalization" is a practice aimed at healing. Based on these discussions, this paper will focus on the unique relationships between practitioners and patients that become invisible due to verbalization, which is overlooked by clinical medicine, where informed consent, ensuring transparency, and audit culture is dominant. We will examine the experience of treatment and aim to relativize clinical medicine, which is based on audit cultures.

Keywords: audit cultures, indigenous medicine, singularity, verbalization

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Authors: Shahanaz Aboobacker Ahmed, P. Ajilal

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We live in the ‘age of migration’ where global migration and repatriation is the stark reality of human lives in the contemporary world. With increasing number of people migrating and repatriating for education, work, or crisis situations, there is an ever-growing need for active research into the effects of repatriation and migration on the psychological well-being of the migrants and expatriates. Moving across borders has resulted in individual developing a third culture and hence such individual are known as Third Culture Kids (TCKs). The aim of the study was to understand the difference in the resilience between Third Culture Kids and Non- Third Culture Kids and gain an insight into how resilience is shaped by migratory experience. The sample comprised of 200 participants that included 100 TCKs and 100 Non-TCKs. The participants were in the age range group of 17-26 years and were pursuing their college education in various parts of the world. The variable of Resilience was measured using the Resilience scale developed and standardized on TCK population which included subtests; Emotional Regulation, Impulse Control, Causal Analysis, Self Efficacy, Realistic Optimism, Empathy and Reaching Out. The data was obtained from in-person sessions and over Skype. The data was analyzed using independent sample t-tests. Results indicated that there is a significant difference between TCKs and Non-TCKs on Impulse Control, Causal Analysis, Realistic Optimism, Empathy and Reaching Out. However, no significant difference was found on the sub-variables of Self Efficacy and Emotional Regulation.

Keywords: third culture kids, resilience, immigration, cross-cultural psychology, repatriation, emotional maturity, emotional regulation, impulse control, causal analysis, self-efficacy, realistic optimism, empathy, reaching out

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Authors: Victoria Adamu Pam, Victor Ameh Adejoh, Akwashiki Ombugadu

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The prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of ruminant has been on the increase leading to great economic and production losses with more fatal cases occurring in developing countries. This study was conducted to investigate and provide data on the prevalence and impact of haemo and gastro intestinal parasites of small ruminants in Akwanga LGA of Nasarawa State. One hundred fecal and blood samples were collected from goats and sheep. The fecal and blood samples were examined using floatation method and thin blood smear method respectively. Four gastro intestinal parasites were identified in the study, these are; Strongyloides spp, Paramphistome spp, Coccidia spp and Moniezia spp. while 2 heamo parasites were identified; Babesia spp. and Anaplasma spp. The most prevalent gastro intestinal parasite encountered was Strongyloide pp with 48(64.86%) and 48(77.42%) in sheep and goat respectively. This is followed by Paramphistome spp with 18(24.32%) in sheep only. The least prevalent was Coccidia spp with 8(10.8%) in sheep and Moniezia spp with 2 (3.23%) in goats. The most prevalent heamo parasites was Babesia spp with 10(71.43%) and 10(100.00%) in sheep and goat respectively while the least prevalent was Anaplasma spp with 4(28.57%) in sheep only. Statistically, there is no significant difference between haemo and gastrointestinal parasites of sheep and goats in the study area. (P > 0.05). The prevalence of gastrointestinal and haemo parasites in relation to sex showed that female had the highest prevalence of 50% than in the male 2.00% while In relation to age the prevalence was higher in adult 58% than in the Young 2.00%. Statistically, there is a significant difference (P < 0.05) between adult and young. The study indicates that parasitic infections are prevalent in ruminants in the study area.

Keywords: akwanga, gastrointestinal, haemo, parasites

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Authors: Ren Moses, Emmanuel Kidando, Eren Ozguven, Yassir Abdelrazig

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This study applied traffic speed and occupancy to develop clustering models that identify different traffic conditions. Particularly, these models are based on the Dirichlet Process Mixture of Generalized Linear regression (DML) and change-point regression (CR). The model frameworks were implemented using 2015 historical traffic data aggregated at a 15-minute interval from an Interstate 295 freeway in Jacksonville, Florida. Using the deviance information criterion (DIC) to identify the appropriate number of mixture components, three traffic states were identified as free-flow, transitional, and congested condition. Results of the DML revealed that traffic occupancy is statistically significant in influencing the reduction of traffic speed in each of the identified states. Influence on the free-flow and the congested state was estimated to be higher than the transitional flow condition in both evening and morning peak periods. Estimation of the critical speed threshold using CR revealed that 47 mph and 48 mph are speed thresholds for congested and transitional traffic condition during the morning peak hours and evening peak hours, respectively. Free-flow speed thresholds for morning and evening peak hours were estimated at 64 mph and 66 mph, respectively. The proposed approaches will facilitate accurate detection and prediction of traffic congestion for developing effective countermeasures.

Keywords: traffic congestion, multistate speed distribution, traffic occupancy, Dirichlet process mixtures of generalized linear model, Bayesian change-point detection

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Authors: Soha A. Bahanshal, Vaibhav Verdhan, Bayong Kim

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Graduation rates at six-year colleges are becoming a more essential indicator for incoming fresh students and for university rankings. Predicting student graduation is extremely beneficial to schools and has a huge potential for targeted intervention. It is important for educational institutions since it enables the development of strategic plans that will assist or improve students' performance in achieving their degrees on time (GOT). A first step and a helping hand in extracting useful information from these data and gaining insights into the prediction of students' progress and performance is offered by machine learning techniques. Data analysis and visualization techniques are applied to understand and interpret the data. The data used for the analysis contains students who have graduated in 6 years in the academic year 2017-2018 for science majors. This analysis can be used to predict the graduation of students in the next academic year. Different Predictive modelings such as logistic regression, decision trees, support vector machines, Random Forest, Naïve Bayes, and KNeighborsClassifier are applied to predict whether a student will graduate. These classifiers were evaluated with k folds of 5. The performance of these classifiers was compared based on accuracy measurement. The results indicated that Ensemble Classifier achieves better accuracy, about 91.12%. This GOT prediction model would hopefully be useful to university administration and academics in developing measures for assisting and boosting students' academic performance and ensuring they graduate on time.

Keywords: prediction, decision trees, machine learning, support vector machine, ensemble model, student graduation, GOT graduate on time

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Authors: Wan-Ling Chang, Hsiu-Ju Huang, Jui-Hsiu Chang

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In 2004, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Taiwan launched ‘An Arrangement on Working Holiday Scheme’ with 15 countries including New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Germany, South Korea, Britain, Australia and others. The aim of the scheme is to allow young people to work and study English or other foreign languages. Each year, there are 30,000 Taiwanese youths applied for participating in the working holiday schemes. However, frequent accidents could cause huge medical expenses and post-delivery fee, which are usually unaffordable for most families. Therefore, this study explored the relationship among perceived risk toward working holiday, insurance product knowledge, brand image and insurance purchase intention for Taiwanese youths who plan to apply for working holiday. A survey questionnaire was distributed for data collection. A total of 316 questionnaires were collected for data analyzed. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples T-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation analysis, regression analysis and hierarchical regression methods of analysis and hypothesis testing. The results of this research indicate that perceived risk has a negative influence on insurance purchase intention. On the opposite, product knowledge has brand image has a positive influence on the insurance purchase intention. According to the mentioned results, practical implications were further addressed for insurance companies when developing a future marketing plan.

Keywords: insurance product knowledges, insurance purchase intention, perceived risk, working holiday

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Authors: Dina Siniora, Jasia Baig

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During the past few decades, the healthcare system has undergone profound changes in their healthcare decision-making competencies and moral aptitudes due to the vast advancement in technology, clinical skills, and scientific knowledge. Healthcare decision-making deals with morally contentious dilemmas ranging from illness, life and death judgments that require sensitivity and awareness towards the patient’s preferences while taking into consideration medicine’s abilities and boundaries. As the ever-evolving field of medicine continues to become more scientifically and morally multifarious; physicians and the hospital administrators increasingly rely on ethics committees to resolve problems that arise in everyday patient care. The role and latitude of responsibilities of ethics committees which includes being dispute intermediaries, moral analysts, policy educators, counselors, advocates, and reviewers; suggest the importance and effectiveness of a fully integrated committee. Despite achievements on Integrated Ethics and progress in standards and competencies, there is an imminent necessity for further improvement in quality within ethics consultation services in areas of credentialing, professionalism and standards of quality, as well as the quality of healthcare throughout the system. These concerns can be resolved first by collecting data about particular quality gaps and comprehend the level to which ethics committees are consistent with newly published ASBH quality standards. Policymakers should pursue improvement strategies that target both academic bioethics community and major stakeholders at hospitals, who directly influence ethics committees. This broader approach oriented towards education and intervention outcome in conjunction with preventive ethics to address disparities in quality on a systematic level. Adopting tools for improving competencies and processes within ethics consultation by implementing a credentialing process, upholding normative significance for the ASBH core competencies, advocating for professional Code of Ethics, and further clarifying the internal structures will improve productivity, patient satisfaction, and institutional integrity. This cannot be systemically achieved without a written certification exam for HCEC practitioners, credentialing and privileging HCEC practitioners at the hospital level, and accrediting HCEC services at the institutional level.

Keywords: ethics consultation, hospital, medical ethics, quality

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Authors: M. Ntswane, N. Mbuma, M. Labuschagne, A. Mofokeng, M. Rantso

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Cowpea is an essential legume for the nutrition and health of millions of people in different regions. The production and productivity of the crop are very limited in South Africa due to a lack of adapted and stable genotypes. The improvement of nutritional quality is made possible by manipulating the genes of diverse cowpea genotypes available around the world. Assessing the adaptability and stability of the cowpea mutant genotypes for yield and nutritional quality requires examining them in different environments. The objective of the study was to determine the adaptability and stability of cowpea mutant genotypes under South African conditions and to identify the superior genotypes that combine grain yield components, antioxidants, and nutritional quality. Thirty-one cowpea genotypes were obtained from the Agricultural Research Council grain crops (ARC-GC) and were planted in Glen, Mafikeng, Polokwane, Potchefstroom, Taung, and Vaalharts during the 2021/22 summer cropping season. Significant genotype by location interactions indicated the possibility of genetic improvement of these traits. The genotype plus genotype by environment indicated broad adaptability and stability of mutant genotypes. The principal component analysis identified the association of the genotypes with the traits. Phenotypic correlation analysis showed that Zn and protein content were significant and positively correlated and suggested the possibility of indirect selection of these traits. Results from this study could be used to help plant breeders in making informed decisions and developing nutritionally improved cowpea genotypes with the aim of addressing the challenges of poor nutritional quality.

Keywords: cowpea seeds, adaptability, stability, mineral elements, protein content

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Authors: Ya-Hsuan Wang

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This project of intercultural education aimed to explore pluricultural people’s interpretation and evaluation of the transnational community in Taiwan. Based on transnationalism and transculturalism, this study concerns the human right issues for immigrants and pluricultural people. Research participants as immigrants in Taiwan were asked about their typical thinking styles in the transnational community, their cultural integration in terms of transnational behaviors, and their collective memory of the transnational community. Interview questions included what key factors were involved in their identity negotiation, what roles the transnational community and collective memory would be for their identity negotiation and what were the positive or negative aspects impacting cross-border identity. Based on the experiences of pluricultural people and transnational communities, this project expected to enhance the depth and width of developing transcultural knowledge in textbook reform on History in K-12 schools. It is to transform cross-border identity into knowledge embedded with local culture in response to globalization and localization. The purpose of this paper is to portrait the cross-cultural practice of transnational community for Taiwan’s immigrants. It is to report their external socio-cultural expectation of ethnic economics, to understand their internal life course of national identity, and to clarify transnational community in relation to their cross-border identity. In conclusion, the cross-cultural practice of transnational community combined the external contexts such as ethnic economic interaction among transnational communities, social report and ethnic industry, and the internal contexts such as ethnic identity, language use, and collective memory in ethnic history.

Keywords: cross-cultural practice, immigrants, pluricultural people, transnational community

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Authors: Monsuru Oyenola Popoola, Oladapo Samson Abiola, Wusamotu Alao Adeniji

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The prevalent and incessant abandonment of road construction projects are alarming that it creates several negative effects to social, economic and environmental values of the project. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and determined the various causes and effects of abandoning road construction projects in Nigeria. Likert Scale questionnaire design was used to administered and analysed the data obtained for the stydy. 135 (Nr) questionnaires were completed and retrieved from the respondents, out of 200 (Nr) questionnaires sent out, representing a response rate of 67.5%. The analysis utilized the Relative Importance Index (R.I.I.) method and the results are presented in tabular form. The findings confirms that at least 20 factors were the causes of road projects abandonment in Nigeria with most including Leadership Instability, Improper Project Planning, Inconsistence in government policies and Design, Contractor Incompetence, Economy Instability and Inflation, Delay in remittance of money, Improper financial analysis, Poor risk management, Climatic Conditions, Improper Project Estimates etc. The findings also show that at least eight (8) effect were identified on the system, and these include; Waste of Financial Resources, Loss of economic value, Environmental degradation, Loss of economic value, Reduction in standard of living, Litigation and Arbitration, etc. The reflection is that allocating reasonable finance, developing appropriate and effective implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting on development project activities by key actors should enhance in resolving the problem of road projects abandonment.

Keywords: road construction, abandonment of road projects, climatic condition, project planning, contractor

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Authors: Victor Emery David Jr., Jiang Wenchao, Daniel Mmereki, Yasinta John

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The fundamentals of public health are access to safe and clean drinking water. The presence of arsenic and other contaminants in drinking water leads to the potential risk to public health and the environment particularly in most developing countries where there’s inadequate access to safe and clean water and adequate sanitation. Liberia has taken steps to improve its drinking water status so as to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of ensuring clean water and effective sanitation but there is still a lot to be done. The Sustainable Development Goals are a United Nation initiative also known as transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. It contains seventeen goals with 169 targets to be met by respective countries. Liberia is situated within in the gold belt region where there exist the presence of arsenic and other contaminants in the underground water due to mining and other related activities. While there are limited or no epidemiological studies conducted in Liberia to confirm illness or death as a result of arsenic contamination in Liberia, it remains a public health concern. This paper assesses the drinking water quality, the presence of arsenic in groundwater/drinking water in Liberia, and proposes strategies for mitigating contaminants in drinking water and suggests options for improvement with regards to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of ensuring clean water and effective sanitation in Liberia by 2030.

Keywords: arsenic, action plan, contaminants, environment, groundwater, sustainable development goals (SDGs), Monrovia, Liberia, public health, drinking water

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Authors: Leyla Noroozbabaee, David Nickerson

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We introduce a modular, consistent, reusable bond graph model of the renal nephron’s proximal convoluted tubule (PCT), which can reproduce biological behaviour. In this work, we focus on ion and volume transport in the proximal convoluted tubule of the renal nephron. Modelling complex systems requires complex modelling problems to be broken down into manageable pieces. This can be enabled by developing models of subsystems that are subsequently coupled hierarchically. Because they are based on a graph structure. In the current work, we define two modular subsystems: the resistive module representing the membrane and the capacitive module representing solution compartments. Each module is analyzed based on thermodynamic processes, and all the subsystems are reintegrated into circuit theory in network thermodynamics. The epithelial transport system we introduce in the current study consists of five transport membranes and four solution compartments. Coupled dissipations in the system occur in the membrane subsystems and coupled free-energy increasing, or decreasing processes appear in solution compartment subsystems. These structural subsystems also consist of elementary thermodynamic processes: dissipations, free-energy change, and power conversions. We provide free and open access to the Python implementation to ensure our model is accessible, enabling the reader to explore the model through setting their simulations and reproducibility tests.

Keywords: Bond Graph, Epithelial Transport, Water Transport, Mathematical Modeling

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Authors: Abhinav Chaturvedi, Joohi Chaturvedi, Renu Chaturvedi

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With rapid urbanization and growth of population, more buildings are require to be constructed to meet the increasing demand of the shelter. 80 % of the world population is living in developing countries, but the adequate energy supplied to only 30% of it. In India situation get little more difficult as majority of the villages of India are still deprived of energy. 1/3 of the Indian household does not have energy supply. So there is big gap between energy demand and supply. Moreover India is producing around 65 % of the energy from Non – Renewable sources and 25 % of the Energy is imported in the form of oil and gas and only 10% of the total, is generated from other sources like solar power, wind power etc. Present modern structures are big energy consumers as they are consuming 40 % of the total energy in providing comfort conditions to the users, in from of heating and cooling,5 % in Building Construction, 20 % in transportation and 20 % in industrial process and 10 % in other processes. If we minimize this Heating and Cooling and lighting load of the building we can conserve huge amount of energy for the future. In history, buildings do not have artificial systems of cooling or heating. These buildings, especially in Hadoti Region which have Semi Arid Climatic conditions, are provided with Solar Passive Design Techniques that is the reason of comfort inside the buildings. So if we use some appropriate elements of these heritage structures, in our present age building design we can find some certain solution to energy crises. Present paper describes Various Solar Passive design techniques used in past, and the same could be used in present to reduce the consumption of energy.

Keywords: energy conservation, Hadoti region, solar passive design techniques , semi - arid climatic condition

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Authors: Javed Mallick

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In metropolitan areas, rapid changes in land use and land cover (LULC) have ecological and environmental consequences. Saudi Arabia's cities have experienced tremendous urban growth since the 1990s, resulting in urban heat islands, groundwater depletion, air pollution, loss of ecosystem services, and so on. From 1990 to 2020, this study examines the variance and heterogeneity in land surface temperature (LST) caused by LULC changes in Abha-Khamis Mushyet, Saudi Arabia. LULC was mapped using the support vector machine (SVM). The mono-window algorithm was used to calculate the land surface temperature (LST). To identify LST clusters, the local indicator of spatial associations (LISA) model was applied to spatiotemporal LST maps. In addition, the parallel coordinate (PCP) method was used to investigate the relationship between LST clusters and urban biophysical variables as a proxy for LULC. According to LULC maps, urban areas increased by more than 330% between 1990 and 2018. Between 1990 and 2018, built-up areas had an 83.6% transitional probability. Furthermore, between 1990 and 2020, vegetation and agricultural land were converted into built-up areas at a rate of 17.9% and 21.8%, respectively. Uneven LULC changes in built-up areas result in more LST hotspots. LST hotspots were associated with high NDBI but not NDWI or NDVI. This study could assist policymakers in developing mitigation strategies for urban heat islands

Keywords: land use land cover mapping, land surface temperature, support vector machine, LISA model, parallel coordinate plot

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Authors: Md. Kamrul Hassan, Ari Pappinen

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Wood energy is the single most important form of renewable energy in many parts of the world especially in the least developing countries in South Asia like Bangladesh. The last portion of the national population of this country depends on wood energy for their daily primary energy need. This paper deals with the estimation of wood fuel at the current level and identifies the challenges and strategies related to the development of this resource. Desk research, interactive research and field survey were conducted for gathering and analyzing of data for this study. The study revealed that wood fuel plays a significant role in total primary energy supply in Bangladesh, and the contribution of wood fuel in final energy consumption in 2013 was about 24%. Trees on homestead areas, secondary plantation on off forest lands, and forests are the main sources of supplying wood fuel in the country. Insufficient supply of wood fuel against high upward demand is the main cause of concern for sustainable consumption, which eventually leads deterioration and depletion of the resources. Inadequate afforestation programme, lack of initiatives towards the utilization of set-aside lands for wood energy plantations, and inefficient management of the existing resources have been identified as the major impediments to the development of wood energy in Bangladesh. The study argued that enhancement of public-private-partnership afforestation programmes, intensifying the waste and marginal lands with short-rotation tree species, and formulation of biomass-based rural energy strategies at the regional level are relevant to the promotion of sustainable wood energy in the country.

Keywords: Bangladesh, challenge, supply, wood energy

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Authors: Mohammad Arabi

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Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a systematic approach to fundamentally redesign organizational processes to achieve significant improvements in organizational performance. At Fars Regional Electric Company, implementing BPR is deemed essential to increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve service quality. This article examines how BPR can help enhance the performance of Fars Regional Electric Company. The objective of this research is to evaluate and analyze the advancements in process modeling and reengineering at Fars Regional Electric Company and to provide solutions for improving the productivity and efficiency of organizational processes. This study aims to demonstrate how BPR can be used to improve organizational processes and enhance the overall performance of the company. This research employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods and includes interviews with senior managers and experts at Fars Regional Electric Company. The analytical tools include process modeling software such as Bizagi and ARIS, and statistical analysis software such as SPSS and Minitab. Data analysis was conducted using advanced statistical methods. The results indicate that the use of BPR techniques can lead to a significant reduction in process execution time and overall improvement in quality. Implementing BPR at Fars Regional Electric Company has led to increased productivity, reduced costs, and improved overall performance of the company. This study shows that with proper implementation of BPR and the use of modeling tools, the company can achieve significant improvements in its processes. Recommendations: (1) Continuous Training for Staff: Invest in continuous training of staff to enhance their skills and knowledge in BPR. (2) Use of Advanced Technologies: Utilize modeling and analysis software to improve processes. (3) Implementation of Effective Management Systems: Employ knowledge and information management systems to enhance organizational performance. (4) Continuous Monitoring and Review of Processes: Regularly review and revise processes to ensure ongoing improvements. This article highlights the importance of improving organizational processes at Fars Regional Electric Company and recommends that managers and decision-makers at the company seriously consider reengineering processes and utilizing modeling technologies to achieve developmental goals and continuous improvement.

Keywords: business process reengineering, electric company, Fars province, process modeling advancements

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Authors: Sergio Mauricio Pérez López, Luis Rodrigo Valencia Pérez, Juan Manuel Peña Aguilar, Adelina Morita Alexander

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The culture of continuous improvement in organizations is very important as it represents a source of competitive advantage. This article discusses the transfer of knowledge between companies which formed cross-functional teams and used a dynamic model for knowledge creation as a framework. In addition, the article discusses the structure of cognitive assets in companies and the concept of "stickiness" (which is defined as an obstacle to the transfer of knowledge). The purpose of this analysis is to show that an improvement in the attitude of individual members of an organization creates opportunities, and that an exchange of information and knowledge leads to generating continuous improvements in the company as a whole. This article also discusses the importance of creating the proper conditions for sharing tacit knowledge. By narrowing gaps between people, mutual trust can be created and thus contribute to an increase in sharing. The concept of adapting knowledge to new environments will be highlighted, as it is essential for companies to translate and modify information so that such information can fit the context of receiving organizations. Adaptation will ensure that the transfer process is carried out smoothly by preventing "stickiness". When developing the transfer process on cross-functional teams (as opposed to working groups), the team acquires the flexibility and responsiveness necessary to meet objectives. These types of cross-functional teams also generate synergy due to the array of different work backgrounds of their individuals. When synergy is established, a culture of continuous improvement is created.

Keywords: knowledge transfer, continuous improvement, teamwork, cognitive assets

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Authors: Ameema Mahroof, Muhammad Saeed

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The purpose of this study was to analyze the papers of computer science conducted by Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education with reference to Bloom’s taxonomy. The present study has two parts. First, the analysis is done on the papers conducted by Board of Intermediate of Secondary Education on the basis of basic rules of item construction especially Bloom’s (1956). And the item analysis is done to improve the psychometric properties of a test. The sample included the question papers of computer science of higher secondary classes (XI-XII) for the years 2011 and 2012. For item analysis, the data was collected from 60 students through convenient sampling. Findings of the study revealed that in the papers by Board of intermediate and secondary education the maximum focus was on knowledge and understanding level and very less focus was on the application, analysis, and synthesis. Furthermore, the item analysis on the question paper reveals that item difficulty of most of the questions did not show a balanced paper, the items were either very difficult while most of the items were too easy (measuring knowledge and understanding abilities). Likewise, most of the items were not truly discriminating the high and low achievers; four items were even negatively discriminating. The researchers also analyzed the items of the paper through software Conquest. These results show that the papers conducted by Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education were not well constructed. It was recommended that paper setters should be trained in developing the question papers that can measure various cognitive abilities of students so that a good paper in computer science should assess all cognitive abilities of students.

Keywords: Bloom’s taxonomy, question paper, item analysis, cognitive domain, computer science

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Authors: Ann Vibert, Heather Hemming

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This paper presentation summarizes the findings and implications of research on the plight and practices of women educational leaders in public school systems and in one university. The authors, both women university administrators, are also scholars and researchers of education. The research project on which this paper presentation is based proposed to examine how women educational leaders imagined, experienced, and carried out their leadership roles in the context of a growing local and global accountability-based performativity discourse which is reshaping educational work especially for women, we argue, in both public school and post-secondary sites. The research employed critical ethnographic interviews with 20 women educational leaders in P-12 school systems and three women university level educational leaders. Data were collected on women educational leaders’ perceptions of the effects of accountability and performativity discourses on the nature of their work. Specifically, leaders were asked to speak to whether they experienced a growth in managerial work as a consequence of increased accountability demands; how they experienced their work changing as a consequence of accountability and performativity demands; how these changes impacted the central values they enacted in their work as women educational leaders changes; and how they responded to/negotiated/accommodated changes in the nature of their work developing as a consequence of accountability and performativity frameworks. Findings from the research data and analyses confirm and extend recent scholarly work on the gendered nature of performativity and accountability discourses and frameworks, and their differential effects across differing genders. The oral presentation we propose here focusses on those findings in terms of similarities for women educational leaders across different educational contexts.

Keywords: women in educational leadership, gender and educational performativity, accountability and women leaders, gender and educational leadership

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Authors: Andras Gyorfi, Andras Torma, Adrienn Buruzs

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Mobility has been evolved to a determining field of science. The continuously developing segment involves a variety of affected issues such as public and economic sectors. Beside the changes in mobility the state of environment had also changed in the last period. Alternative mobility as a separate category and the idea of its widespread appliance is such a new field that needs to be studied deeper. Alternative mobility implies finding new types of propulsion, using innovative kinds of power and energy resources, revolutionizing the approach to vehicular control. Including new resources and excluding others has such a complex effect which cannot be unequivocally confirmed by today’s scientific achievements. Changes in specific parameters will most likely reduce the environmental impacts, however, the production of new substances or even their subtraction of the system will cause probably energy deficit as well. The aim of this research is to elaborate the environmental impact matrix of alternative mobility and cognize the factors that are yet unknown, analyse them, look for alternative solutions and conclude all the above in a coherent system. In order to this, we analyse it with a method called ‘the system of systems (SoS) method’ to model the effects and the dynamics of the system. A part of the research process is to examine its impacts on the environment, and to decide whether the newly developed versions of alternative mobility are affecting the environmental state. As a final result, a complex approach will be used which can supplement the current scientific studies. By using the SoS approach, we create a framework of reference containing elements in which we examine the interactions as well. In such a way, a flexible and modular model can be established which supports the prioritizing of effects and the deeper analysis of the complex system.

Keywords: environment, alternative mobility, complex model, element analysis, multidimensional map

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Authors: Tan Xin Zhong Timothy, Chang Chen Jie Victor, Yew Kwan Tong, Lim Geok Peng Sandy

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Background: Leaders in crisis response teams such as Trauma Teams in hospitals are essential to the effective coordination and direction of the team. The response to emergency trauma situations must be accurate, rapid, and well executed. To this end, the team leader’s social, technical and leadership skills are essential factors that implicate the success of an emergency trauma intervention. While each emergency trauma case varies in severity and complexity, and the experience and expertise of team leaders may vary, it would be productive to identify certain coordinative and directive functions that improve the capacity for leading a team. Methods: This qualitative study of Trauma Team physicians in Singapore General Hospital (SGH) involved 50 in-depth interviews with doctors and nurses involved in Trauma Team activations, observations of Trauma Teams managing emergency patients, and reviews of audio/video recordings of 65 trauma activations. The interviews were conducted with doctors of various ranks across the relevant departments, 12 from the Emergency Department (ED), 11 from General Surgery (GS) and 8 from Orthopaedics, while the 6 nurses were from ED. In accordance with the grounded theory approach, the content of the interviews was coded and analysed in order to derive broad leadership themes that corresponded with certain behavioural traits exhibited by trauma team leaders, supplemented with the observational and audio/video data. Results: The leadership behaviours of the team leaders could be typified into three broad categories: team orientation, engagement and activeness. Team orientation corresponds with the source and form of cognitive responsibility, decision-making and informational contributions, divisible into individualistic and consultative sub-categories. Engagement refers to the type of activity that leaders prefer to engage in, and which implicates their attentional focus, divisible into participatory and supervisory sub-categories. Activeness is a function of the leader’s attitudes towards the behavioural regulation of the team, which manifests in inactivity or activity to augment or merely align with protocol. These factors are not exhaustive and are contextually sensitive, but collectively implicate a significant portion of the leadership activity observed in trauma teams.

Keywords: trauma team activations, critical event management, leadership, teamwork

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Authors: Shih-Wen Hsiao, Rong-Qi Chen

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In the field of fashion design, 3D Mannequin is a kind of assisting tool which could rapidly realize the design concepts. While the concept of 3D Mannequin is applied to the computer added fashion design, it will connect with the development and the application of design platform and system. Thus, the situation mentioned above revealed a truth that it is very critical to develop a module of 3D Mannequin which would correspond with the necessity of fashion design. This research proposes a concrete plan that developing and constructing a system of 3D Mannequin with Kinect. In the content, ergonomic measurements of objective human features could be attained real-time through the implement with depth camera of Kinect, and then the mesh morphing can be implemented through transformed the locations of the control-points on the model by inputting those ergonomic data to get an exclusive 3D mannequin model. In the proposed methodology, after the scanned points from the Kinect are revised for accuracy and smoothening, a complete human feature would be reconstructed by the ICP algorithm with the method of image processing. Also, the objective human feature could be recognized to analyze and get real measurements. Furthermore, the data of ergonomic measurements could be applied to shape morphing for the division of 3D Mannequin reconstructed by feature curves. Due to a standardized and customer-oriented 3D Mannequin would be generated by the implement of subdivision, the research could be applied to the fashion design or the presentation and display of 3D virtual clothes. In order to examine the practicality of research structure, a system of 3D Mannequin would be constructed with JAVA program in this study. Through the revision of experiments the practicability-contained research result would come out.

Keywords: 3D mannequin, kinect scanner, interactive closest point, shape morphing, subdivision

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Authors: M. Aghili, S. Tabarestani, C. Freytes, M. Shojaie, M. Cabrerizo, A. Barreto, N. Rishe, R. E. Curiel, D. Loewenstein, R. Duara, M. Adjouadi

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A major challenge in medical studies, especially those that are longitudinal, is the problem of missing measurements which hinders the effective application of many machine learning algorithms. Furthermore, recent Alzheimer's Disease studies have focused on the delineation of Early Mild Cognitive Impairment (EMCI) and Late Mild Cognitive Impairment (LMCI) from cognitively normal controls (CN) which is essential for developing effective and early treatment methods. To address the aforementioned challenges, this paper explores the potential of using the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm in handling missing values in multiclass classification. We seek a generalized classification scheme where all prodromal stages of the disease are considered simultaneously in the classification and decision-making processes. Given the large number of subjects (1631) included in this study and in the presence of almost 28% missing values, we investigated the performance of XGBoost on the classification of the four classes of AD, NC, EMCI, and LMCI. Using 10-fold cross validation technique, XGBoost is shown to outperform other state-of-the-art classification algorithms by 3% in terms of accuracy and F-score. Our model achieved an accuracy of 80.52%, a precision of 80.62% and recall of 80.51%, supporting the more natural and promising multiclass classification.

Keywords: eXtreme gradient boosting, missing data, Alzheimer disease, early mild cognitive impairment, late mild cognitive impair, multiclass classification, ADNI, support vector machine, random forest

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Authors: Zdzisław Kobos, Robert Jędrys, Zbigniew Wochyński

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Motor activity and good health are sine qua non determinants of a proper practice of the profession, especially aviation. Therefore, candidates to the aviation are selected according their psychomotor ability by both specialist medical commissions. Moreover, they must past an examination of the physical fitness. During the studies in the air force academy, eye-hand coordination is formed in two stages. The future aircraft pilots besides all-purpose physical education must practice specialist training on SAGI. Training includes: looping, aerowheel, and gyroscope. Aim of the training on the above listed apparatuses is to form eye-hand coordination during the tasks in the air. Such coordination is necessary to perform various figures in the real flight. Therefore, during the education of the future pilots, determinants of the effective ways of this important parameter of the human body functioning are sought for. Several studies of the sport psychology indicate an important role of the temperament as a factor determining human behavior during the task performance and acquiring operating skills> Polish psychologist Jan Strelau refers to the basic, relatively constant personality features which manifest themselves in the formal characteristics of the human behavior. Temperament, being initially determined by the inborn physiological mechanisms, changes in the course of maturation and some environmental factors and concentrates on the energetic level and reaction characteristics in time. Objectives. This study aimed at seeking a relationship between temperamental features and eye-hand coordination formation during training on SAGI. Material and Methods: Group of 30 students of pilotage was examined in two situations. The first assessment of the eye-hand coordination level was carried out before the beginning of a 30-hour training on SAGI. The second assessment was carried out after training completion. Training lasted for 2 hours once a week. Temperament was evaluated with The Formal Characteristics of Behavior − Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI) developed by Bogdan Zawadzki and Jan Strelau. Eye-hand coordination was assessed with a computer version of the Warsaw System of Psychological Tests. Results: It was found that the training on SAGI increased the level of eye-hand coordination in the examined students. Conclusions: Higher level of the eye-hand coordination was obtained after completion of the training. Moreover, a relationship between eye-hand coordination level and selected temperamental features was statistically significant.

Keywords: temperament, eye-hand coordination, pilot, SAGI

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Authors: Rajendra N. Ghosh, Paramjeet Singh, Niranjan Khandelwal, Sameer Vyas, Pratibha Singhi, Naveen Sankhyan

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Background: Tuberculoma and neurocysticercosis (NCC) are two most common intracranial infections in developing country. They often simulate on neuroimaging and in absence of typical imaging features cause significant diagnostic dilemmas. Differentiation is extremely important to avoid empirical exposure to antitubercular medications or nonspecific treatment causing disease progression. Purpose: Better characterization and differentiation of CNS tuberculoma and NCC by using morphological and multiple advanced functional MRI. Material and Methods: Total fifty untreated patients (20 tuberculoma and 30 NCC) were evaluated by using conventional and advanced sequences like CISS, SWI, DWI, DTI, Magnetization transfer (MT), T2Relaxometry (T2R), Perfusion and Spectroscopy. rCBV,ADC,FA,T2R,MTR values and metabolite ratios were calculated from lesion and normal parenchyma. Diagnosis was confirmed by typical biochemical, histopathological and imaging features. Results: CISS was most useful sequence for scolex detection (90% on CISS vs 73% on routine sequences). SWI showed higher scolex detection ability. Mean values of ADC, FA,T2R from core and rCBV from wall of lesion were significantly different in tuberculoma and NCC (P < 0.05). Mean values of rCBV, ADC, T2R and FA for tuberculoma and NCC were (3.36 vs1.3), (1.09x10⁻³vs 1.4x10⁻³), (0.13 x10⁻³ vs 0.09 x10⁻³) and (88.65 ms vs 272.3 ms) respectively. Tuberculomas showed high lipid peak, more choline and lower creatinine with Ch/Cr ratio > 1. T2R value was most significant parameter for differentiation. Cut off values for each significant parameters have proposed. Conclusion: Quantitative MRI in combination with conventional sequences can better characterize and differentiate similar appearing tuberculoma and NCC and may be incorporated in routine protocol which may avoid brain biopsy and empirical therapy.

Keywords: advanced functional MRI, differentiation, neurcysticercosis, tuberculoma

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Authors: Wardoyo, Humairoh

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In global competition nowadays, the world economy heavily depends upon high technology and capital intensive industries that are mainly owned by well-established economic and developed countries, such as United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea. Indonesia as a developing country is building its economic activities towards industrial country as well, although a slightly different approach was implemented. For example, similar to the concept of one village one product (OVOP) implemented in Japan, Indonesia also adopted this concept by promoting local traditional products to improve incomes of village people and to enhance local economic activities. Analysis on how OVOP program increase local people’s income and influence customer satisfaction were the objective of this paper. Behavioral intention to purchase and re-purchase, customer satisfaction and promotion are key factors for local products to play significant roles in improving local income and economy of the region. The concepts of OVOP and key factors that influence economic activities of local people and the region will be described and explained in the paper. Results of research, in a case study based on 300 respondents, customers of a local restaurant at Tangerang City, Banten Province of Indonesia, indicated that local product, service quality and behavioral intention individually have significant influence to customer satisfaction; whereas simultaneous tests to the variables indicated positive and significant influence to the behavioral intention through customer satisfaction as the intervening variable.

Keywords: behavioral intention, customer satisfaction, local products, one village one product (OVOP)

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Authors: Tolulope Allo, Mofoluwake P. Ajayi, Adenike E. Idowu, Emmanuel O. Amoo, Fadeke Esther Olu-Owolabi

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Breast cancer which was more prevalent in Europe and America in the past is gradually being mirrored across the world today with greater economic burden on low and middle income countries (LMCs). Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women globally and current studies have shown that a woman dies with the diagnosis of breast cancer every thirteen minutes. The economic cost of breast cancer is overwhelming particularly for developing economies. While it causes billion of dollar in losses of national income, it pushes millions of people below poverty line. This study examined the economic burden of breast cancer on Nigerian women, its impacts on their standard of living and its effects on Nigeria’s socio economic development. The study adopts a qualitative research approach using the in-depth interview technique to elicit valuable information from respondents with cancer experience from the Southern part of Nigeria. Respondents constituted women in their reproductive age (15-49 years) that have experienced and survived cancer and also those that are currently receiving treatment. Excerpts from the interviews revealed that the cost of treatment is one of the major factors contributing to the late presentation of breast cancer incidences among women as many of them could not afford to pay for their own treatment. The study also revealed that many women prefer to explore other options such as herbal treatments and spiritual consultations which is less expensive and affordable. The study therefore concludes that breast cancer diagnosis and treatment should be subsidized by the government in order to facilitate easy access and affordability thereby promoting early detection and reducing the economic burden of treatment on women.

Keywords: breast cancer, development, economic burden, women

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Authors: Raghav Srivastava, Namrata Ramachandran

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Strong sustainability has been, by consensus, imagined as comprising economic and extra-economic variables and cannot be viewed merely in terms of a trade-off between the economic needs of today and the potential left for tomorrow. Specifically, the cultural as well the ecological impacts of development projects on the affected communities should be evaluated, in addition to the economic. In developing and densely populated economies such as India, energy intensive development is seen as a sine qua non – a necessary trade off with ecological conservation. Although social impact assessment has been included as an inalienable part of the Environmental Impact Assessment required to be conducted under Indian law, it seems that the same is unable to meet the ends it seeks to achieve. The dissociation between those bearing the costs of development, and those reaping its benefits, lies at the heart of this failure. This paper attempts to study the various cost–benefit relationships for these minority stakeholders using the proposed Nyamjang Chhu hydroelectric power plant in Tawang District of Arunachal Pradesh (in North-east India) as the chief object of study, and discusses whether the current model of sustainable development is truly sustainable, given the level of social dissociation and disintegration that occurs between affected communities and their environment. The economic allure of hydroelectric projects in the hilly regions of India very rarely results in a proper assessment of their ecological and social externalities. Examining the various issues that have been agitated in the course of litigation over the Nyamjang Chhu hydroelectric project, the authors argue that there is a pressing need to re-evaluate the current Indian model of sustainable development going forward.

Keywords: hydroelectric power, socio-cultural dissociation, sustainable development, trade offs

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Authors: Mei-Hui Liu

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This paper reports the progression of language teachers’ learning to assess students’ speech act performance via online videos in a cross-tier professional growth community. This yearlong research project collected multiple data sources from several stakeholders, including 12 preservice and 4 inservice English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers, 4 English professionals, and 82 high school students. Data sources included surveys, (focus group) interviews, online reflection journals, online video-based assessment items/scores, and artifacts related to teacher professional learning. The major findings depicted the effectiveness of this proposed learning module on language teacher development in pragmatic assessment as well as its impact on student learning experience. All these teachers appreciated this professional learning experience which enhanced their knowledge in assessing students’ pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic performance in an English speech act (i.e., making refusals). They learned how to design online video-based assessment items by attending to specific linguistic structures, semantic formula, and sociocultural issues. They further became aware of how to sharpen pragmatic instructional skills in the near future after putting theories into online assessment and related classroom practices. Additionally, data analysis revealed students’ achievement in and satisfaction with the designed online assessment. Yet, during the professional learning process most participating teachers encountered challenges in reaching a consensus on selecting appropriate video clips from available sources to present the sociocultural values in English-speaking refusal contexts. Also included was to construct test items which could testify the influence of interlanguage transfer on students’ pragmatic performance in various conversational scenarios. With pedagogical implications and research suggestions, this study adds to the increasing amount of research into integrating preservice and inservice EFL teacher education in pragmatic assessment and relevant instruction. Acknowledgment: This research project is sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology in the Republic of China under the grant number of MOST 106-2410-H-029-038.

Keywords: cross-tier professional development, inservice EFL teachers, pragmatic assessment, preservice EFL teachers, student learning experience

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