Search results for: review of literature

Authors: Trina Isabel Santiago, Daniel Chua, Jumee Tayaban, Joseph Daniel Timbol, Joshua Yanes

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Numerous instances of human rights violations on healthcare workers have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This brief aims to explore these civil and political rights violations and propose recommendations to address these. Our review shows that a wide range of civic and political human rights violations have been committed by individual citizens and government agencies on individual healthcare workers and health worker groups. These violations include discrimination, red-tagging, evictions, illegal arrests, and acts of violence ranging from chemical attacks to homicide. If left unchecked, these issues, compounded by the pandemic, may lead to the exacerbations of the pre-existing problems of the Philippine healthcare system. Despite all pre-existing reports by human rights groups and public media articles, there still seems to be a lack of government action to condemn and prevent these violations. The existence of government agencies which directly contribute to these violations with the lack of condemnation from other agencies further propagate the problem. Given these issues, this policy brief recommends the establishment of an interagency task force for the protection of human rights of healthcare workers as well as the expedited passing of current legislative bills towards the same goal. For more immediate action, we call for the establishment of a dedicated hotline for these incidents with adequate appointment and training of point persons, construction of clear guidelines, and closer collaboration between government agencies in being united against these issues.

Keywords: human rights violations, healthcare workers, COVID-19 pandemic, Philippines

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Authors: Sonny Dewi Judiasih

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Every person retains the right to marry and starts a family through a legitimized marriage. Indonesian Marriage Act has regulated the minimum age for boys to marry is 19 while the girls is 16, with an exception that the parents could ask for an exemption to the court or to the authorized official. Despite the age limit is set by the Marriage Act, however, with the influences from adat law and islamic law which allows younger persons to marry, the child marriage phenomenon is inevitable to happen in Indonesia. Child marriages in Indonesia have shown such alarming fact where 4.8 percentage of total marriage number come from persons with the age of 10 to 14 years old. The percentage was the result from a research conducted by the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN). The result shows 41.9 percent of child marriages was contributed by girls who marry in the age of 15 to 19, which mostly comes from villagers. Other fact shows 50 percent of child marriages end in divorce with grounds varied from the mental health of the children, economic situation, and so on. With more children committed early marriages, more babies will be borned from indebted families. Subsequently, the government’s program to alleviate poverty will be short of expectations. Other risk for child marriages includes death of the mother and the child after giving birth. The people have challenged the legality of child marriages through judicial review filed to the Constitutional Court. The Court decided to reinforce the age limitation previously set by the Marriage Act by issuing judicial decision no: 30-74/PUU-Xii/2014. The Court stated that changes to the age limit must be in conform with cultural and traditional situation. Further, it stated child marriages are allowed to be arranged as an “emergency exit” if the parents filed such request to an exemption on the grounds of coercive situation and after the court or the authorized officials issued its approval.

Keywords: child, marriage, court, Indonesia

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Authors: Anna Kristen

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There has been a pronounced increase in societal discourses around adolescent self-harm, yet there is a paucity of literature examining adolescent talk about self-harm that accounts for the sociocultural context. The objective of this study was to explore how adolescents with Depression talk about their self-harm engagement in consideration of both socio-cultural discourses and the therapy context during Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) sessions. Utilizing a sample from the Improving Mood with Psychoanalytic and Cognitive Therapies study, discourse analysis was carried out on audio-recorded CBT sessions. The study established three groupings of results: (a) adolescent positioning as stuck in self-harm engagement; (b) adolescent positioning as ambivalent in the talk about ceasing self-harm; and (c) adolescent use of stigma discourses in self-harm talk & constructions of self-harm scars. These findings indicate that clinician awareness of adolescent use of language and discourse may inform interventions beyond Manualized CBT strategies. These findings are highly relevant in light of research that demonstrates CBT treatment for adolescent depression does not effectively address concurring self-harm and given that self-harm is the most significant risk factor predictive of subsequent suicidal behaviours.

Keywords: adolescence, cognitive-behavioral therapy, discourse, self-harm, stigma

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Authors: Mehmet Cogal

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Students with disabilities perform historically lower than their peers on standardized assessments. There needs to be more work in the literature providing strategies to improve student scores on standardized assessments and how they are connected to teacher in-service programs. This quantitative causal-comparative study measured the impact of a teacher in-service program geared toward special education teachers. The study was conducted at a small public charter school serving grades 6-12 in Massachusetts. The students were given a pre and post-test before and after the teacher in-service program. Data were collected from 34 students’ reading scores in grades six, seven, eight, and 10. A paired t-test was conducted to measure if there was an increase in reading scores after the teacher in-service program. The study assumed that the teachers had implemented the strategies they learned during the teacher in-service program. The study also had limitations, including a small sample size, and the findings may not be generalized for the entire special education population. Although the study indicated no significant difference in the test scores, the teacher in-service programs and their effects on student achievement can still be further investigated.

Keywords: student achievement, standardized testing, teacher in-service, special education

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Authors: A. Khosravi, S. Ghadirian, J. S. McCartney

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Evaluation of the seismic-induced settlement of an unsaturated soil layer depends on several variables, among which the small strain shear modulus, Gmax, and soil’s state of stress have been demonstrated to be of particular significance. Recent interpretation of trends in Gmax revealed considerable effects of the degree of saturation and hydraulic hysteresis on the shear stiffness of soils in unsaturated states. Accordingly, the soil layer is expected to experience different settlement behaviors depending on the soil saturation and seasonal weathering conditions. In this study, a semi-empirical formulation was adapted to extend an existing Gmax model to infer hysteretic effects along different paths of the SWRC including scanning curves. The suitability of the proposed approach is validated against experimental results from a suction-controlled resonant column test and from data reported in literature. The model was observed to follow the experimental data along different paths of the SWRC, and showed a slight hysteresis in shear modulus along the scanning curves.

Keywords: hydraulic hysteresis, scanning path, small strain shear modulus, unsaturated soil

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Authors: Mohammed Berka, Khaled Merit

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Recent works on microwave filters show that the constituent materials such filters are very important in the design and realization. Several solutions have been proposed to improve the qualities of filtering. In this paper, we propose a new dual band-pass filter based on the coupling of a composite (CRLH) coplanar waveguide with complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs). The (CRLH) CPW is composed of two resonators, each one has an interdigital capacitor (CID) and two short-circuited stubs parallel to top ground plane. On the lower ground plane, we use defected ground structure technology (DGS) to engrave two (CSRRs) offered with different shapes and dimensions. Between the top ground plane and the substrate, we place a ferrite layer to control the electromagnetic coupling between (CRLH) CPW and (CSRRs). The global filter that has coplanar access will have a dual band-pass behavior around the magnetic resonances of (CSRRs). Since there’s no scientific or experimental result in the literature for this kind of complicated structure, it was necessary to perform simulation using HFSS Ansoft designer.

Keywords: complementary split ring resonators, coplanar waveguide, ferrite, filter, stub.

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Authors: K. O'Malley

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Background: The emergence and rapid evolution of large language models (LLMs) (i.e., models of generative artificial intelligence, or AI) has been unprecedented. ChatGPT is one of the most widely used LLM platforms. Using natural language processing technology, it generates customized responses to user prompts, enabling it to mimic human conversation. Responses are generated using predictive modeling of vast internet text and data swathes and are further refined and reinforced through user feedback. The popularity of LLMs is increasing, with a growing number of students utilizing these platforms for study and revision purposes. Notwithstanding its many novel applications, LLM technology is inherently susceptible to bias and error. This poses a significant challenge in the educational setting, where academic integrity may be undermined. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the latest iteration of ChatGPT (ChatGPT4.0) in standardized state medical licensing examinations. Methods: A considered search strategy was used to interrogate the PubMed electronic database. The keywords ‘ChatGPT’ AND ‘medical education’ OR ‘medical school’ OR ‘medical licensing exam’ were used to identify relevant literature. The search included all peer-reviewed literature published in the past five years. The search was limited to publications in the English language only. Eligibility was ascertained based on the study title and abstract and confirmed by consulting the full-text document. Data was extracted into a Microsoft Excel document for analysis. Results: The search yielded 345 publications that were screened. 225 original articles were identified, of which 11 met the pre-determined criteria for inclusion in a narrative synthesis. These studies included performance assessments in national medical licensing examinations from the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Taiwan, Japan and Germany. ChatGPT 4.0 achieved scores ranging from 67.1 to 88.6 percent. The mean score across all studies was 82.49 percent (SD= 5.95). In all studies, ChatGPT exceeded the threshold for a passing grade in the corresponding exam. Conclusion: The capabilities of ChatGPT in standardized academic assessment in medicine are robust. While this technology can potentially revolutionize higher education, it also presents several challenges with which educators have not had to contend before. The overall strong performance of ChatGPT, as outlined above, may lend itself to unfair use (such as the plagiarism of deliverable coursework) and pose unforeseen ethical challenges (arising from algorithmic bias). Conversely, it highlights potential pitfalls if users assume LLM-generated content to be entirely accurate. In the aforementioned studies, ChatGPT exhibits a margin of error between 11.4 and 32.9 percent, which resonates strongly with concerns regarding the quality and veracity of LLM-generated content. It is imperative to highlight these limitations, particularly to students in the early stages of their education who are less likely to possess the requisite insight or knowledge to recognize errors, inaccuracies or false information. Educators must inform themselves of these emerging challenges to effectively address them and mitigate potential disruption in academic fora.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, generative ai, large language models, licensing exam, medical education, medicine, university

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Authors: Mansoor Imam, Amber Afshan, Sumbul Mujeeb, Kamran Gill

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An investigative approach has been made to study the quality of living prevailing in the squatter slums of Karachi city that is influencing the urbanization trends and environmental degeneration of built environment. The paper identifies the issues and aspects that have directly and indirectly impacted the degeneration owing to inadequate basic infrastructural amenities, substandard housing, overcrowding, poor ventilation in homes and workplaces, and noncompliance with building bye-laws and regulations, etc. Primarily, secondary data has been critically examined and analyzed which was however not limited to census data, demographic / socioeconomic data, official documents and other relevant secondary data were obtained from existing literature and GIS. It is observed that the poor and sub-standard housing / living quality have serious adverse impacts on the environment and the health of city residents. Hence strategies for improving the quality of built environment for sustainable living are mandated. It is, therefore, imperative to check and prevent further degradation and promote harmonious living and sustainable urbanization.

Keywords: squatter slums, urbanization, degenerations, living quality, built environment

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Authors: Ulas Cinar, Omer Faruk Ugurlu, Selcuk Cebi

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Occupational safety risk management is the most important element of a safe working environment. Effective risk management can only be possible with accurate analysis and evaluations. Scoring-based risk assessment methods offer considerable ease of application as they convert linguistic expressions into numerical results. It can also be easily adapted to any field. Contrary to all these advantages, important problems in scoring-based methods are frequently discussed. Effective measurability is one of the most critical problems. Existing methods allow experts to choose a score equivalent to each parameter. Therefore, experts prefer the score of the most likely outcome for risk. However, all other possible consequences are neglected. Assessments of the existing methods express the most probable level of risk, not the real risk of the enterprises. In this study, it is aimed to develop a method that will present a more comprehensive evaluation compared to the existing methods by evaluating the probability and severity scores, all sub-parameters, and potential results, and a new scoring-based method is proposed in the literature.

Keywords: occupational health and safety, risk assessment, scoring based risk assessment method, underground mining, weighted risk scores

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Authors: Anis Eloud, Sayed Chehaibi

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Compaction of agricultural soils as a result of the passage of heavy machinery on the fields is a problem that affects many agronomists and farmers since it results in a loss of yield of most crops. To remedy this, and raise the overall future of the food security challenge, we must study and understand the process of soil degradation. The present review is devoted to understanding the effect of repeated passages on agricultural land. The experiments were performed on a plot of the area of the ESIER, characterized by a clay texture in order to quantify the soil compaction caused by the wheels of the tractor during repeated passages on agricultural land. The test tractor CASE type puissance 110 hp and 5470 kg total mass of 3500 kg including the two rear axles and 1970 kg on the front axle. The state of soil compaction has been characterized by measuring its resistance to penetration by means of a penetrometer and direct manual reading, the density and permeability of the soil. Soil moisture was taken jointly. The measurements are made in the initial state before passing the tractor and after each pass varies from 1 to 7 on the track wheel inflated to 1.5 bar for the rear wheel and broke water to the level of valve and 4 bar for the front wheels. The passages are spaced to the average of one week. The results show that the passage of wheels on a farm tilled soil leads to compaction and the latter increases with the number of passages, especially for the upper 15 cm depth horizons. The first passage is characterized by the greatest effect. However, the effect of other passages do not follow a definite law for the complex behavior of granular media and the history of labor and the constraints it suffers from its formation.

Keywords: wheel traffic, tractor, soil compaction, wheel

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Authors: Ahmed Yousef A. Al Sultan

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Introduction: The aim of this review is based on clinical research that studies the changes in middle cerebral artery velocity using Transcranial Doppler (TCD) and cerebral oxygen saturation using cerebral oximetry in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) surgery under local anesthesia (LA). Patients with or without neurological symptoms during the surgery are taking a role in this study using triplet method of cerebral oximetry, transcranial doppler and awake test in detecting any cerebral ischemic symptoms. Methods: about one hundred patients took part during their CEA surgeries under local anesthesia, using triple assessment mentioned method, Patients requiring general anesthesia be excluded from analysis. All data were recorded at eight surgery stages separately to serve this study. Results: In total regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2), middle cerebral artery (MCA) velocity, and pulsatility index were significantly decreased during carotid artery clamping step in CEA procedures on the targeted carotid side. With most observed changes in MCA velocity during the study. Discussion: Cerebral oxygen saturation and middle cerebral artery velocity were significantly decreased during clamping step of the procedures on the targeted side. The team with neurological symptoms during the procedures showed higher changes of rSO2 and MCA velocity than the team without neurological symptoms. Cerebral rSO2 and MCA velocity significantly increased directly after de-clamping of the internal carotid artery on the affected side.

Keywords: awake testing, carotid endarterectomy, cerebral oximetry, Tanscranial Doppler

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Authors: Hassan Gholibeigian, Kazem Gholibeigian

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In this paper, our goal is determination of loading versus time in crust. For this goal, we present a computational procedure to propose a cumulative strain energy time profile which can be used to predict the approximate location and time of the next major earthquake (M > 4.5) along a specific fault, which we believe, is more accurate than many of the methods presently in use. In the coming pages, after a short review of the research works presently going on in the area of earthquake analysis and prediction, earthquake mechanisms in both the jerk and sequence earthquake direction is discussed, then our computational procedure is presented using differential equations of equilibrium which govern the nonlinear dynamic response of a system of finite elements, modified with an extra term to account for the jerk produced during the quake. We then employ Von Mises developed model for the stress strain relationship in our calculations, modified with the addition of an extra term to account for thermal effects. For calculation of the strain energy the idea of Pulsating Mantle Hypothesis (PMH) is used. This hypothesis, in brief, states that the mantle is under diurnal cyclic pulsating loads due to unbalanced gravitational attraction of the sun and the moon. A brief discussion is done on the Denali fault as a case study. The cumulative strain energy is then graphically represented versus time. At the end, based on some hypothetic earthquake data, the final results are verified.

Keywords: pulsating mantle hypothesis, inner core’s dislocation, outer core’s bulge, constitutive model, transient hydro-magneto-thermo-mechanical load, diurnal stress, jerk, fault behaviour

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Authors: Kathrin Endres, Daniela Greven

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Although chatbots are a widely known and established communication instrument in B2C customer services, B2B industries still hesitate to implement chatbots due to the incertitude of customer acceptance. While many studies examine the chatbot acceptance of B2C consumers, few studies are focusing on the B2B sector, where the customer is represented by a buying center consisting of several stakeholders. This study investigates the challenges of chatbot acceptance in B2B industries compared to challenges of chatbot acceptance from current B2C literature by interviewing experts from German chatbot vendors. The results show many similarities between the customer requirements of B2B customers and B2C consumers. Still, due to several stakeholders involved in the buying center, the features of the chatbot users are more diverse but obfuscated at the same time. Using a factorial survey, this study further examines the customer acceptance of varying situations of B2B chatbot designs based on the chatbot variables transparency, fault tolerance, complexity of products, value of products, as well as transfer to live chat service employees. The findings show that all variables influence the propensity to use the chatbot. The results contribute to a better understanding of how firms in B2B industries can design chatbots to advance their customer service and enhance customer satisfaction.

Keywords: chatbots, technology acceptance, B2B customer service, customer satisfaction

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Authors: Jessica Hemberg, Amanda Sundqvist, Yulia Korzhina, Lillemor Östman, Sofia Gylfe, Frida Gädda, Lisbet Nyström, Henrik Groundstroem, Pia Nyman-Kurkiala

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Purpose: There are large gaps in the literature on COVID-19 pandemic-related mental health outcomes and after-effects specific to adolescents and young adults. The study's aim was to explore adolescents’ and young adults’ experiences of well-being, health, and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A qualitative exploratory design with qualitative content analysis was used. Twenty-three participants (aged 19-27; four men and 19 women) were interviewed. Results: Four themes emerged: Changed social networks – fewer and closer contacts, changed mental and physical health, increased physical and social loneliness, well-being, internal growth, and need for support. Conclusion: Adolescents’ and young adults’ experiences of well-being, health, and loneliness are subtle and complex. Participants experienced changed social networks, mental and physical health, and well-being. Also, internal growth, need for support, and increased loneliness were seen. Clear information on how to seek help and support from professionals should be made available.

Keywords: adolescents, COVID-19 pandemic, health, interviews, loneliness, qualitative, well-being, young adults

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Authors: Mohamed Haffar, Lombe Ngome Enongene, Mohammed Hamdan, Gbolahan Gbadamosi

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Despite the considerable body of literature investigating the influence of National Culture (NC) dimensions on consumer behaviour, there is a lack of studies comparing the influence of NC in Africa with Western European countries. This study is intended to fill the vacuum in knowledge by exploring how NC affects consumer buyer behavior in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. The primary data were collected through in depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with three groups of individuals: British students, Nigerian students in the United Kingdom, and Nigerian-based students. This approach and new frontier to analyze culture and consumer behaviour could help understand residual cultural threads of people (that are ingrained in their being) irrespective of exposure to other cultures. The findings of this study show that Nigerian and British consumers differ remarkably in cultural orientations such as symbols, values and psychological standpoints. This ultimately affects the choices made at every stage of the decision building process, and proves beneficial for international retail marketing.

Keywords: national culture, consumer behaviour, international business, Nigeria

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Authors: Salvador Treviño-Martinez, Christian Reich-Lopez

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This paper investigates the relationship between website appeal and brand value outcomes (brand attraction, brand loyalty, brand relationship, and brand experience), considering the mediating effect of emotional attractiveness. Data were collected from 221 customers of a quick-service restaurant in Culiacan, Mexico, using an online survey distributed via WhatsApp, following the clients' navigation of the restaurant's website. The study employed PLS-SEM to test the proposed hypotheses and performed 5,000 bootstrapping subsamples to obtain results. The findings indicate that consistent image, a key component of website appeal, has a statistically significant direct and mediated effect (through emotional attractiveness) on the aforementioned brand outcomes. The study's limitations include the convenience sampling method and the single company client database used for the sample composition. This research contributes to the branding and website quality literature by testing nine hypotheses using the Stimuli-Organism-Response theoretical approach in an underexplored context: quick-service restaurants in Latin America.

Keywords: website appeal, branding, emotional attractiveness, consistent image, website quality

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Authors: Niddal Imam, Vassilios G. Vassilakis

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After analysing messages posted by health-related spam campaigns in Twitter Arabic hashtags, we found that these campaigns use unique hijacked accounts (we call them adversarial hijacked accounts) as adversarial examples to fool deployed ML-based spam detectors. Existing ML-based models build a behaviour profile for each user to detect hijacked accounts. This approach is not applicable for detecting spam in Twitter hashtags since they are computationally expensive. Hence, we propose an adversary-aware ML-based detector, which includes a newly designed feature (avg posts) to improve the detection of spam tweets posted by the adversarial hijacked accounts at a tweet-level in trending hashtags. The proposed detector was designed considering three key points: robustness, adaptability, and interpretability. The new feature leverages the account’s temporal patterns (i.e., account age and number of posts). It is faster to compute compared to features discussed in the literature and improves the accuracy of detecting the identified hijacked accounts by 73%.

Keywords: Twitter spam detection, adversarial examples, evasion attack, adversarial concept drift, account hijacking, trending hashtag

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Authors: Leila Mohammadi

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This article discusses the technology of social egg freezing in the context of existing literature on medicalization, motherhood, and marketing. The social egg freezing technique offers to preserve some healthy eggs for age-related fertility decline in the future. The study draws on a qualitative analysis and participants observation of media publications, including text, images, or audio-visual about social egg freezing technology and postpone maternity, to identify and compare their communication strategies from a framing theory perspective. Using 442 surveys and 158 pieces of publications in Spanish media, this study demonstrated that the narratives used by these publications and their structures follow a marketing objective to medicalize motherhood. Within these frames, the market of preserving fertility is cast to show compassion and concern about women. In the opinion of participants, egg freezing technology liberates, empowers, and automates women from patriarchal control, and also gives them the responsibility of taking care of their body and reproductive system. This study showed this opinion is significantly influenced by media and their communication strategies supported by providers of this business.

Keywords: motherhood, social egg freezing, medicalization, marketing, media frames, fertility, assisted reproductive system

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Authors: Diego De Castro Rodrigues, Marcelo B. Nery, Sergio Adorno

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The project aims to develop a framework for social data analysis, particularly by mobilizing criminal records and applying descriptive computational techniques, such as associative algorithms and extraction of tree decision rules, among others. The methods and instruments discussed in this work will enable the discovery of patterns, providing a guided means to identify similarities between recurring situations in the social sphere using descriptive techniques and data visualization. The study area has been defined as the city of São Paulo, with the structuring of social data as the central idea, with a particular focus on the quality of the information. Given this, a set of tools will be validated, including the use of a database and tools for visualizing the results. Among the main deliverables related to products and the development of articles are the discoveries made during the research phase. The effectiveness and utility of the results will depend on studies involving real data, validated both by domain experts and by identifying and comparing the patterns found in this study with other phenomena described in the literature. The intention is to contribute to evidence-based understanding and decision-making in the social field.

Keywords: social data analysis, criminal records, computational techniques, data mining, big data

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Authors: Madhan Vinu, Yue-Chun Jiang, Yi-Feng Lin, Chia-Her Lin

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An effective approach to enhance the ethanol/water pervaporation of mixed matrix membranes prepared from three microporous aluminium based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), [Al(OH)(BPDC)] (DUT-5), [Al(OH)(NDC)] (DUT-4) and [Al(OH)(BzPDC)] (CAU-8) have been synthesized by employing solvothermal reactions. Interestingly, all Al-MOFs showed attractive surface area with microporous 12.3, 10.2 and 8.0 Å for DUT-5, DUT-4 and CAU-8 MOFs which are confirmed through N₂ gas sorption measurements. All the microporous compounds are highly stable as confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis and temperature-dependent powder X-ray diffraction measurements. Furthermore, the synthesized microporous MOF particles of DUT-5, DUT-4, and CAU-8 were successfully incorporated into biological chitosan (CS) membranes to form DUT-5@CS, DUT-4@CS, and CAU-8@CS membranes. The different MOF loadings such as 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 wt% in CS networks have been prepared, and the same were used to separate mixtures of water and ethanol at 25ºC in the pervaporation process. In particular, when 0.15 wt% of DUT-5 was loaded, MOF@CS membrane displayed excellent permeability and selectivity in ethanol/water separation than that of the previous literature. These CS based membranes separation through functionalized microporous MOFs reveals the key governing factors that are essential for designing novel MOF membranes for bioethanol purification.

Keywords: metal-organic framework, microporous materials, separation, chitosan membranes

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Authors: Ayeshmanthe Rathnayake, Ashutosh Hardikar

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Introduction: Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in Australia, with more than 13000 cases per year. Until now, there has been a major deficiency of national comprehensive thoracic surgery data. The thoracic workload for surgeons as well as caseload per unit, is highly variable, with some centres performing less than 15 cases per annum, thus raising concerns about optimal care at low-volume sites. This is an attempt to review the outcomes of lung cancer surgery in Tasmania. Method: The objective of this study is to determine the surgical outcomes of lung cancer surgery at Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) with the primary outcome of surgical mortality. Four hundred fifty-one cases were analysed retrospectively from 2010 to May 2022. Results: A total of 451 patients underwent thoracic surgery with a primary diagnosis of lung cancer. The primary outcome of 30-day mortality was <0.5%. The mean age was 65.3 years, with male predominance and a 4.2% prevalence of Indigenous Australians. The mean LOS was 7.5 days. The surgical approach was either VATS (50.3%) or Thoracotomy (49.7%), with a trend towards the former in recent years with an increase in the proportion of VATS from 18.2% to 51% (p<0.05) in complex resections since 2019. A corresponding reduction in conversion rate to open was observed (18% vs. 5.5%), and there were no deaths within this subgroup. Lung resections were divided into lobectomy (55.4%), wedge resection (36.8%), segmentectomy (2.9%) and pneumonectomy (4.9%). The RHH demonstrates good surgical outcomes for lung cancer and provides a sustainable service for Tasmania. Conclusion: This retrospective study reports the surgical outcomes of lung cancer surgery at the Royal Hobart Hospital, thereby providing insight into the surgical management of lung cancer in the state thus far. The state has been slow to catch up on the minimally invasive program, but the overall results have been comparable to most peers.

Keywords: lung cancer, thoracic surgery, lung resection, surgical outcomes

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Authors: Seyfollah Fazlollahi, Ahmad Bayan Memar

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Background: A review of manpower planning includes a training analysis based on job descriptions and job specifications which looks carefully at training from the points of view of the company, its various departments and personnel. This may show weaknesses in some departments and as a result, training is needed for the staff. Purpose: The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of training on employee’s efficiency in different aspects of work. Methodology: This is a descriptive-survey study. Statistical population was 85 official employees of University of Qom, Iran. 70 of these individuals were selected on a statistical random sampling method using Morgan&Gorki table. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire including 22 questions. Result: Findings in this study according to data analysis indicate that majority of respondents had positive attitude towards training programs, in the job or off the job. They believed that training programs promoted and enhanced their behavior positively which leads to high efficiency in their job. In fact, data support the main hypothesis that training has positive effects on job performance and efficiency. Conclusion: It is concluded from this study and other related researches that training (on the job and off the job) has positive and effective role in human development and labor as employee’s efficiency. Employees get acquainted with different tasks of a job. Group co-operation, creativity and innovation will be enforced. Training leads to job skills, increasing knowledge and information about a job. It also increases technical and conceptual human skills, which are important in an organization. We can also mention workers' increasing positive motivation toward their job, enforcement of coordinating moral, their good human relations and good contact with clients.

Keywords: training, work efficiency, employee, human relation, job satisfaction

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Authors: Manoj Kumar Gupta, Jayashree Bijwe

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Additives in lubricating oils are the focus of research attention since the further reduction in friction and wear properties of oils would lead to the further saving of tribo-materials and energy apart from improving their efficiency. Remarkable tribo-performance enhancement is reported in the literature due to addition of particles of solid lubricants in lubricating oils; especially that of nano-sizes. In the present work graphite nano-particles (NPs) in various amounts (1, 2, 3 and 4 wt. %) were used to explore the possible anti-wear (AW) performance enhancement in Group III oil. Polyisobutylene succinimide (PIBSI- 1 wt. %) was used as a dispersant for dispersing these NPs and to enhance the stability of these nano-suspensions. It was observed that PIBSI inclusion enhanced the stability of oil almost by eight times. NPs in all amounts enhanced the AW performance of oil considerably. The optimum amount was three wt. %, which led to the highest enhancement under all loads. The extent of benefits, however, were dependent on load. At the lowest (392 N) and highest loads (784 N), the benefits were not profound. At moderate load (588 N), highest improvement (around 60 %) was recorded. The SEM and AFM studies were done on the worn ball surfaces to reveal the detailed features of films transferred and proved useful to correlate the wear performance of oils.

Keywords: dispersant, graphite, nano-lubricant, anti-wear additive

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Authors: Prayas Sharma

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This paper proposed a generalized class of estimators, an exponential class of estimators based on the adaption of Sharma and Singh (2015) and Solanki and Singh (2013), and a simple difference estimator for estimating unknown population mean in the case of Poisson distributed population in simple random sampling without replacement. The expressions for mean square errors of the proposed classes of estimators are derived from the first order of approximation. It is shown that the adapted version of Solanki and Singh (2013), the exponential class of estimator, is always more efficient than the usual estimator, ratio, product, exponential ratio, and exponential product type estimators and equally efficient to simple difference estimator. Moreover, the adapted version of Sharma and Singh's (2015) estimator is always more efficient than all the estimators available in the literature. In addition, theoretical findings are supported by an empirical study to show the superiority of the constructed estimators over others with an application to earthquake data of Turkey.

Keywords: auxiliary attribute, point bi-serial, mean square error, simple random sampling, Poisson distribution

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Authors: Theresa Adderley

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Background: Aside from abstinence, correct and consistent use of latex condoms is the best known effective method to reduce HIV transmission among sexually active heterosexual individuals. When condoms are correctly used, the risk of HIV transmission is reduced by approximately 85%, relative to risk when not protected during sexual intercourse. The literature provides evidence that heterosexual young adults continue to be the group among whom STI rates are highest and the group that engages in more sexual risk-taking behaviors such as inconsistent or no condom usage. This study examines condom attitudes, condom use self-efficacy and their contributions to safer sex behaviors among heterosexual men living in The Bahamas. Methods: Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, and a convenience sample of 185 heterosexual males (Mage= 31.95, SD = 11.35), three standardized instruments were used to assess behaviors that may not only place heterosexual males at risk for HIV infection but also their female partners. Results: The results of this study suggest that condom attitudes, and condom use self-efficacy are important in explaining 24% variance in safer sex behaviors among Bahamian men. Income (β= -.15, p < .01; condom attitudes, (β= .36, p < .01), and condom use self-efficacy (β= .1, p < .01) were significantly associated with safer sex behaviors. Conclusion: Rather than focusing only on the use of safer sex behaviors, an effective HIV prevention strategy must consider condom attitudes and condom use self-efficacy as specific variables that may contribute to perpetuating the transmission of HIV.

Keywords: condom attitudes, safer sex behaviors, HIV, condom self-efficacy

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Authors: Sweta Iyer, Nemeshwaree Behary, Vincent Nierstrasz

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Various organisms involve bioluminescence for their particular biological function. The bio-based molecules responsible for bioluminescence vary from one species to another, research has been done to identify the chemistry and different mechanisms involved in light production in living organisms. The light emitting chemical systems such as firefly and bacterial luminous mostly involves enzyme-catalyzed reactions and is widely used for ATP measurement, bioluminescence imaging, environmental biosensors etc. Our strategy is to design bioluminescent textiles using such bioluminescent systems. Hence, a detailed literature work was carried out to study on how to mimic bioluminescence effect seen in nature. Reaction mechanisms in various bioluminescent living organisms were studied and the components or molecules responsible for luminescence were identified. However, the challenge is to obtain the same effect on textiles by immobilizing enzymes responsible for light creation. Another challenge is also to regenerate substrates involved in the reaction system to create a longer lasting illumination in bioluminescent textiles. Natural film-forming polymers were used to immobilize the reactive components including enzymes on textile materials to design a biomimetic luminescent textile.

Keywords: bioluminescence, biomimetic, immobilize, luminescent textile

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Authors: Tsegay Kahsay Gebrekidan, Gebremariam Gebrezgabher Gebremedhin, Abraha Kahsay Weldemariam, Meaza Kidane Teferi

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Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in Ethiopia is a complex issue with institutional, social, political, environmental, and economic dimensions, impacting sustainable development. Effective MSWM planning necessitates understanding the generation rate and composition of waste. This systematic review synthesizes qualitative and quantitative data from various sources to aggregate current knowledge, identify gaps, and provide a comprehensive understanding of municipal solid waste management in Ethiopia. The findings reveal that the generation rate of municipal solid waste in Ethiopia is 0.38 kg/ca/day, with the waste composition being predominantly food waste, followed by ash, dust, and sand, and yard waste. Over 85% of this MSW is either reusable or recyclable, with a significant portion being organic matter (73.13% biodegradable) and 11.78% recyclable materials. Physicochemical analyses reveal that Ethiopian MSW is suitable for composting and biogas production, offering opportunities to reduce environmental pollution, and GHGs, support urban agriculture, and create job opportunities. However; challenges persist, including a lack of political will, weak municipal planning, limited community awareness, and inadequate waste management infrastructure, and only 31.8% of MSW is collected legally, leading to inefficient and harmful disposal practices. To improve MSWM, Ethiopia should focus on public awareness; increased funding, infrastructure investment, private sector partnerships, and implementing the 4 R principles (reduce, reuse, and recycle). An integrated approach involving government, industry, and civil society is essential. Further research on the physicochemical properties and strategic uses of MSW is needed to enhance management practices. Implications: The comprehensive study of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in Ethiopia reveals the intricate interplay of institutional, social, political, environmental, and economic factors that influence the nation’s sustainable development. The findings underscore the urgent need for tailored, integrated waste management strategies that are informed by a thorough understanding of MSW generation rates, composition, and current management practices. Ethiopia’s lower per capita MSW generation compared to developed countries and the predominantly organic composition of its waste present significant opportunities for sustainable waste management practices such as composting and recycling. These practices can not only minimize the environmental impact but also support urban greening, agriculture, and renewable energy production. The high organic content, suitable physicochemical properties of MSW for composting, and potential for biogas and briquette production highlight pathways for creating employment, reducing waste, and enhancing soil fertility. Despite these opportunities, Ethiopia faces substantial challenges due to inadequate political will, weak municipal planning, limited community awareness, insufficient waste management infrastructure, and poor policy implementation. The high rate of illegal waste disposal further exacerbates environmental and health issues, emphasizing the need for a more effective and integrated MSWM approach. To address these challenges and harness the potential of MSW, Ethiopia must prioritize increasing public awareness; investing in infrastructure, fostering private sector partnerships, and implementing the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle (3 R). Developing strategies that involve all stakeholders and turning waste into valuable resources is crucial. Government, industry, and civil society must collaborate to implement integrated MSWM systems that focus on waste reduction at the source, alternative material use, and advanced recycling technologies. Further research at both federal and regional levels is essential to optimize the physicochemical analysis and strategic use of MSW. Prompt action is required to transform waste management into a pillar of sustainable urban development, ultimately improving environmental quality and human health in Ethiopia.

Keywords: biodegradable, healthy environment, integrated solid waste management, municipal

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Authors: Essardi Omar, Razzouk Redouane

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The concept of freedom requires notice of countries all over the world to consider welfare and the quality of life. Despite, many economics efforts in the field of development literature, they have often failed to incorporate the ideas of freedom and rights into their theoretical and empirical work. However, with Amartya Sen’s approach of capability and researches, we can provide a basis for moving forward in theory and measure of development. Indeed, with an approach based on the correlation and the analysis of data, particularly on the tool of principle component analysis, we are going to study assessments of World Bank, Freedom House, Fraster institute, and MINEFE experts. Our empirical objective is to reveal the existence of the institutional and freedom characteristics related to the development of the emergent countries. In order to help us to explain the recent performance reached by Central and Eastern Europe and Latine America in compared with the case of countries of North Africa. To do this, first we will try to build indicators based on dilemma liberties /institutions. Second we will introduce institutional variables and freedom variables to make comparisons in freedom, quality of institutions and development in the countries observed.

Keywords: freedoms, institutions, development, approach of capability, principle component analysis

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Authors: S. Raja Mohamed, M. H Shwehdi, D. Devaraj

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This paper is to present and discuss the new planned 380 kV transmission line performance under steady and transient states. Dynamic modeling and analysis of such inter-tie, which is, proposed to transfer energy from west to south and vice versa will be demonstrated and discussed. The west-central-south inter-tie links Al-Aula-Zaba-Tabuk-Tubajal-Jawf-Hail. It is essential to investigate the transient over-voltage to assure steady and stable transmission over such inter-tie. Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has been improving its grid to make the whole country as an interconnected system. Already east, central and west were interconnected, yet mostly each is fed with its local generation. The SEC is planning to establish many inter-ties to strengthen the transient stability of its grid. The paper studies one of the important links of 380 kV, 220 km between Tabouk and Tubarjal, which is a step towards connecting the West with the South region. Modeling and analysis using some softwares will be utilized under different scenarios. Adoption of methods to stabilize and increase its power transmission are also discussed. Improvement of power system transients has been controlled by FACTS elements such the Static Var Compensators (SVC) receiving a wide interest since many technical studies have proven their effects on damping system oscillations and stability enhancement. Illustrations of the transient at each main generating or load bus will be checked in all inter-tie links. A brief review of possible means to solve the transient over-voltage problem using different FACTS element modeling will be discussed.

Keywords: transient stability, static var compensator, central-west interconnected system, damping controller, Saudi Electricity Company

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Authors: Chyi Jaw

Abstract:

Prior literature on innovation diffusion or acceptance has almost exclusively concentrated on consumers’ positive attitudes and behaviors for new products/services. Consumers’ negative attitudes or behaviors to innovations have received relatively little marketing attention, but it happens frequently in practice. This study discusses consumer psychological factors when they try to learn or use new technologies. According to recent research, technological innovation acceptance has been considered as a dynamic or mediated process. This research argues that consumers can experience inertia and emotions in the initial use of new technologies. However, given such consumer psychology, the argument can be made as to whether the inclusion of consumer inertia (routine seeking and cognitive rigidity) and emotions increases the predictive power of new technology acceptance model. As data from the empirical study find, the process is potentially consumer emotion changing (independent of performance benefits) because of technology complexity and consumer inertia, and impact innovative technology use significantly. Finally, the study presents the superior predictability of the hypothesized model, which let managers can better predict and influence the successful diffusion of complex technological innovations.

Keywords: cognitive rigidity, consumer emotions, new technology acceptance, routine seeking, technology complexity

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