Search results for: healthcare and social services integration

Authors: Maryam Alkhalosi, Ahmad Naddaf, Rana Alani

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Qatar National Library has its main accounts on social media, which presents the general image of the library and its daily news. A paper will be presented based on a case study researching the outcome of having a separate Instagram account led by librarians, not the Communication Department of the library. The main purpose of the librarians-led account is to promote librarians’ services and events, such as research consultation, reference questions, community engagement programs, collection marketing, etc. all in the way that librarians think it reflects their role in the community. Librarians had several obstacles to help users understanding librarians' roles. As was noticed that Instagram is the most popular social media platform in Qatar, it was selected to promote how librarians can help users through a focused account to create a direct channel between librarians and users. Which helps librarians understand users’ needs and interests. This research will use a quantitative approach depending on the case study, librarians have used their case in the department of Research and learning to find out the best practices might help in promoting the librarians' services and reaching out to a bigger number of users. Through the descriptive method, this research will describe the changes observed in the numbers of community users who interact with the Instagram account and engaged in librarians’ events. Statistics of this study are based on three main sources: 1. The internal monthly statistics sheet of events and programs held by the Research and Learning Department. 2. The weekly tracking of the Instagram account statistics. 3. Instagram’s tools such as polls, quizzes, questions, etc. This study will show the direct effect of a librarian-led Instagram account on the number of community members who participate and engage in librarian-led programs and services. In addition to highlighting the librarians' role directly with the community members. The study will also show the best practices on Instagram, which helps reaching a wider community of users. This study is important because, in the region, there is a lack of studies focusing on librarianship, especially on contemporary problems and its solution. Besides, there is a lack of understanding of the role of a librarian in the Arab region. The research will also highlight how librarians can help the public and researchers as well. All of these benefits can come through one popular easy channel in social media. From another side, this paper is a chance to share the details of this experience starting from scratch, including the phase of setting the policy and guidelines of managing the social media account, until librarians reached to a point where the benefits of this experience are in reality. This experience had even added many skills to the librarians.

Keywords: librarian’s role, social media, instagram and libraries, promoting libraries’ services

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Authors: Sathyamangalam Rangasamy Guru Prasath

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Due to the increasing homogeneity in product offerings, the attendant services provided are emerging as a key differentiator in the mind of the consumers. Services marketing are a sub field of marketing which covers the marketing of both goods and services. Service marketing differs from product marketing due to the face that services are intangible and typically require personal interaction with the customer. Relationships are a key factor when it comes to the marketing of services. The role of interpersonal relationships distinguishes service and product marketing in strategic vision and organizational considerations. This paper explores some of the trends in service marketing as they relate to strategic vision, operational and organizational changes, and marketing tactics. The presence of the customer in the service facility means that capacity management becomes an important driver of the firm’s profitability service marketing is a process from the organization’s point of view, but an experience from the customer’s perspective. The quality of the experience is a function of the careful design of customer service processes, adoption of standardized procedures, rigorous management of service quality, high standards of training and automation. Services marketing helps to ensure that these processes are designed from the customer’s perspective. Services marketing includes customer loyalty, managing relationships, complaint handling, improving service quality and productivity of service operations, and how to become a service leader in your industry.

Keywords: customer perspective, product marketing, service marketing, rigorous management

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Authors: Nomcebo N. Mpili, Cynthia Z. Madlabana

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The South African Primary Health Care (PHC) system has undergone a number of transformations such as the introduction of National Health Insurance (NHI) to bring about easily accessible universal health coverage and to meet the health needs for all its citizens. This provides ongoing challenges to ensure that health workers are equipped with appropriate knowledge, support, and skills to meet these changes. Therefore it is crucial to understand the experiences and challenges of nurses as the backbone of PHC in providing quality healthcare services. In addition there has been a need to understand nurses’ experiences with management support, role ambiguity and role conflict amongst other challenges in light of the current reforms in healthcare. Indeed these constructs are notorious for having a detrimental impact on the outcomes of change initiatives within any organisation, this is no different in healthcare. This draws a discussion on professional nurses within the South African health care system especially since they have been labelled as the backbone of PHC, meaning any healthcare backlog falls on them. The study made use of semi-structured interviews and adopted the interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) as the researcher aimed to explore the lived experiences of (n= 18) participants. The study discovered that professional nurses experienced a lack of management support within PHC facilities and that management mainly played an administrative and disciplinary role. Although participants mainly held positive perceptions with regards to changes happening in health care however they also expressed negative experiences in terms of how change initiatives were introduced resulting in role conflict and role ambiguity. Participants mentioned a shortage of staff, inadequate training as well as a lack of management support as some of the key challenges faced in facilities. This study offers unique findings as participants have not only experienced the various reforms within the PHC system however they have also been part of NHI pilot. The authors are not aware of any other studies published that examine management support, role conflict and role ambiguity together especially in South African PHC facilities. In conclusion understanding these challenges may provide insight and opportunities available to improve the current landscape of PHC not only in South Africa but internationally.

Keywords: management support, professional nurse, role ambiguity, role conflict

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Authors: Jordan Fallow

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Service and advocacy organisations that serve refugee populations are often staffed by a large percentage of former refugees themselves, and this carries a number of implications for refugee rights, specifically economic and social rights. This paper makes an argument for the importance of introducing an understanding of intersectionality theory into organizations who provide services to and employ, refugee staff. The benefits of this are threefold; on an individual level it reduces the risks of burn out, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue while increasing employee satisfaction and development, at an organizational level services become more effective, and at a systems level it helps reduce structural violence, which may itself have been a contributing factor in the movement of refugee staff from their origin countries. In support of this argument, a case study of an Australian settlement services organization is provided. Mixed methods research, utilising both qualitative and quantitative data, measured the perceived efficacy of diversity management tools at the organization and the impact this had on staff performance, retention and wellbeing. The paper also draws on strategic human resource and reward management, diversity management, international development and intersectionality texts.

Keywords: structural violence, employment, human resource management, intersectionality

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Authors: Arshad Hussain

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Background: Sukh Initiative is a multi-donor funded, family planning and reproductive health project, primed by Aman Healthcare Services; implemented through a consortium of local and international organizations, in a selected one million underserved peri-urban population of Karachi, Sindh; which aims at increasing modern contraceptive prevalence rate by 15 percentage point. Objective: To empower women to access contraception by increasing knowledge, improving quality of services and expanding the basket of choices; contributing to the goals of FP2020. Methods: A five years project has a multi-pronged approach with door to door services by LHWs and CHWs in an LHWs covered population and provision of quality FP/RH services both at public and private health care facilities. The project engages youth (12-16 years) both with community and at secondary schools to mentor them for responsible adulthood with life skilled base initiative. A 24/7 availability of youth and FP helpline service provides counselling, referrals in addition with a follow-up mechanism. Results: 131,810 MWRAs were reached by 191 community health workers through 29,693 of community support group meetings and 166,775 house hold visits. These MWRAs were counselled on FP related myths and misconception and referred to 216 providers trained for quality family planning services and maintaining average 64% quality scores in 43 public health and 35 private facilities in the project area. Of those referred 26% MWRAs opted modern contraception with 17.56% in LARCs and 41% PPFP as compared to baseline. Aman TeleHealth is linked with 24/7 counselling, referrals and post services follow-ups to clients, showing 14% proportion of FP call volume. Sukh has a unique role in engaging all partners on youth SRHR issues through family life education sessions, 30 higher sec. schools in Sukh area have been provided LSBE to 16,000 students (aged 15-17), and in community approximately 10, 496 girls and boys have received SRHR information. Conclusion: Through individual counselling, access to quality family planning services and involvement of stakeholders, Suk created an enabling environment to rapid increase in family planning in the project intervention area.

Keywords: family planning and reproductive health, married women with reproductive age, urban squatter, Pakistan

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Authors: Lan Wu

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The declared transformation towards a ‘new electricity system dominated by renewable energy’ by China requires a cleaner electricity consumption mix with high shares of renewable energy sourced-electricity (RES-E). Unfortunately, integration of RES-E into Chinese electricity markets remains a problem pending more robust legal support, evidenced by the curtailment of wind and solar power as a consequence of integration constraints. The upcoming energy law of the PRC (energy law) is expected to provide such long-awaiting support and coordinate the existing diverse sector-specific laws to deal with the weak implementation that dampening the delivery of their desired regulatory effects. However, in the shadow of the COVID-19 crisis, it remains uncertain how this new energy law brings synergies to RES-E integration, mindful of the significant impacts of the pandemic. Through the theoretical lens of the interplay between China’s electricity reform and legislative development, the present paper investigates whether there is a paradigm shift in energy law regarding renewable energy integration compared with the existing sector-specific energy laws. It examines the 2020 draft for comments on the energy law and analyses its relationship with sector-specific energy laws focusing on RES-E integration. The comparison is drawn upon five key aspects of the RES-E integration issue, including the status of renewables, marketisation, incentive schemes, consumption mechanisms, access to power grids, and dispatching. The analysis shows that it is reasonable to expect a more open and well-organized electricity market enabling absorption of high shares of RES-E. The present paper concludes that a period of prosperous development of RES-E in the post-COVID-19 era can be anticipated with the legal support by the upcoming energy law. It contributes to understanding the signals China is sending regarding the transition towards a cleaner energy future.

Keywords: energy law, energy transition, electricity market reform, renewable energy integration

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Authors: Rajiv Kumar, Amit Sachan, Arindam Mukherjee

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Despite the transparency and benefits of e-government, and its potential to serve citizens better, there is low diffusion and adoption of e-government services in India. Limited access to computer and internet, lack of computer and internet skills, low trust in technology, and risk associated in using e-government services are major hindrances in e-government adoption in India. Despite a large number of citizens belonging to the non-adopter category, the government has made some services mandatory to be accessed online where citizens have no other choice. Also despite the digital divide, a large number of citizens prefer online access to government services. In such cases intermediaries like common service centers, internet café and services agents’ roles are significant for accessing e-government services. Hence research is needed to explore this. The study aims to investigate the role of intermediaries in online access to public services by citizens. Qualitative research methodology using semi-structured interview was used. The results show that intermediaries play an important role in bridging the digital divide. The study also highlights on what circumstances citizens are taking help of these intermediaries. The study then highlights its limitations and discusses scope for future study.

Keywords: adoption, digital divide, e-government, India, intermediaries

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Authors: L. R. Ferreira, R. Biscaro, C. C. Danziger, C. M. Galhardi, L. C. Biscaro, R. C. Biscaro, I. S. Vasconcelos, L. C. R. Ferreira, R. Reis, L. H. Oliveira

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Introduction: There is a worldwide trend for the employer to be aware of investing in health promotion that goes beyond occupational hygiene approaches with the implementation of a comprehensive program with integration between occupational health and safety, and social/psychosocial responsibility in the workplace. Work accommodation is a necessity in most companies as it allows the worker to return to its function respecting its physical limitations. This study had the objective to verify if the integration of health and safety in the companies, with the inclusion of the concept of TWH promoted by an occupational health service has impacted in the management of absenteeism of workers in work accommodation. Method: A retrospective and paired cohort study was used, in which the impact of the implementation of the Program for the Health/Safety Integration and Total Worker Health Concept (PHSITWHC) was evaluated using the indices of absenteeism, health attestations, days and hours of sick leave of workers that underwent job accommodation/rehabilitation. This was a cohort study and the data were collected from January to September of 2017, prior to the initiation of the integration program, and compared with the data obtained from January to September of 2018, after the implementation of the program. For the statistical analysis, the student's t-test was used, with statistically significant differences being made at p < 0.05. Results: The results showed a 35% reduction in the number of absenteeism rate in 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. There was also a significant reduction in the total numbers of days of attestations/absences (mean of 2,8) as well as days of attestations, absence and sick leaves (mean of 5,2) in 2018 data after the implementation of PHSITWHC compared to 2017 data, means of 4,3 and 25,1, respectively, prior to the program. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the inclusion of the PHSITWHC was associated with a reduction in the rate of absenteeism of workers that underwent job accommodation. It was observed that, once health and safety were approached and integrated with the inclusion of the TWH concept, it was possible to reduce absenteeism, and improve worker’s quality of life and wellness, and work accommodation management.

Keywords: absenteeism, health/safety integration, work accommodation management, total worker health

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Authors: Vasoontara Yiengprugsawan, Sam-ang Seubsman

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As Thais live longer, caregivers will become even more important to social and healthcare systems. Commonly reported in many low and middle‐income countries in Asia, formal social welfare services to support caregivers are lacking and informal family support will be required for all levels of care. In 2005, 87,151 open‐university adults were recruited to the Thai Cohort Study, with the majority aged between 25 and 39 years, and residing nationwide. At the 4‐year follow up in 2009 (n=60569) and the 8‐year follow‐up in 2013 (n=42785), prospective cohort participants were asked if they provide care for chronically ill, disabled, or frail family members. Among Thai cohort members reporting between 2009 and 2013, approximately 56% were not caregivers in either year, 24.5% reported providing care in 2009 only, 8.6% in 2013 only, and 10.6% reported providing care at both time points. Caregivers in the cohort reported providing financial support, help with shopping, emotional support, and assist with daily activities. Kessler 6 psychological distress scale, measured in both 2009 and 2013, was used as the primary outcome of a relationship between caregiving status and mental health. Using multivariate logistic regression, our 4‐year longitudinal findings revealed that cohort members who reported providing care at both time points were 1.4 to 1.6 times more likely to report high psychological distress than non‐caregivers, after accounting for potential covariates. With increasing needs for informal care provided by family members, the future health and social welfare system will need to provide adequate support to caregivers (e.g., respite care, clinical support and information for the family, and awareness of mental health among caregivers).

Keywords: family caregivers, psychological distress, prospective cohort, longitudinal study, Thailand

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Authors: Ana Campina, José Caramelo Gomes, Maria Emília Teixeira, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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In the pursuit of educational equity within Human Rights and European Fundamental Laws, the reality presents serious problems based on the psychologic, social understanding. Take into account the miscellaneous cultures in the global context and the nowadays numbers of Human mobilities, there are serious problems affecting the societies. This justifies the diagnosed need of a renew pedagogical and social education strategy to achieve the integration positive context preventing violence and discrimination, especially in Education systems. Consequently, it is important to have in mind the respect, acceptance, and integration of special needs students in all study degrees, as it is law but a complex reality. Despite the UN and International Human Rights, European Fundamental Chart, and all EU Treats, as the 28th EU State Member’s fundamental laws forecast the right of Education, the respect, the action and promotion of different cultures and the Education for ‘Difference’ integration – cultures; ideologies, Special Needs Students/Citizens – there are different and severe problems. Firstly, there are questions/contexts/problems not denounced by the lack of investments, political, social or ‘powers’ pressures, so, consequently, the authorities don’t have the action as laws demand and the transgressors haven´t any juridical or judicial punishment. Secondly, and our most important point: Governments, authorities and even victims hide these violations/violence/problems what disable the effective protection and law enforcement. Finally, the official and non-official strategies to get around the duties, break away the laws, failing the victims protection and consequently enable the problems increase dramatically. With this research, we observed that there are international Organizations/regions and States acting without respect to the Education right despite their democratic ideology and the generated external ‘image’ of law-abiding and Human Rights defenders. Nevertheless, it is urgent to develop a consistent Human Rights Education program aiming to protect, promote and implement the Right to be different and be respected by the law, the governments, institutions official and non-official, adapted to the needs in each society. The background of this research is the International and European laws, in accordance with the state’s legal systems. The approaches and the differences of the Education for Human and Fundamental Rights execution in the different EU countries, studying the pedagogy and social inclusion programs/strategies, with particular analysis of the Special Needs students. The results aim to construct a European Education profiling, with the governments and EU interventions need, as well as the panorama of the Special Needs Students effective integration achieving a renewed strategy to promote the respect of the Differences and an Inclusive School life.

Keywords: international human rights, culture, differences, European education profiling

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Authors: Sze Ming Yau

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Social worker-client interacting experience is scarcely studied in Hong Kong. Through this qualitative study, the experiences of Hong Kong social work practitioners in relating with clients provide new insights on social worker training and development. Thematic analysis is applied to examine the data collected by in-depth interviews with six local social work practitioners. The results show all practitioners have experienced both positive and challenging situations during the relating process. Their reactions either facilitate or hinder the process. Most of the practitioners’ strong reactions can be accounted for by using the concept of countertransference reactions during the interview session with clients. Moreover, they also have rarely reviewed the implications of those reactions after the session. In addition to countertransference, the self-expectation of practitioners also influences the relating process. Their self-expectations of being capable to help lead to anxiety. Though countertransference and anxiety of practitioners significantly influence the relating process, the practitioners do not adequately address personal issues and anxiety. Enhancing case conceptualization ability is their major coping strategy. The study has implications, including enhancement of social work training, workplace support, practitioner’s self-reflection, and integration of theory and practice.

Keywords: coping, countertransference, reactions, relating process, social workers

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Authors: Jurriaan Gillissen

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This work is concerned with stabilizing the numerical integration of the Navier-Stokes equation (NSE), backwards in time. Applications involve the detection of sources of, e.g., sound, heat, and pollutants. Stable reverse numerical integration of parabolic differential equations is also relevant for image de-blurring. While the literature addresses the reverse integration problem of the advection-diffusion equation, the problem of numerical reverse integration of the NSE has, to our knowledge, not yet been addressed. Owing to the presence of viscosity, the NSE is irreversible, i.e., when going backwards in time, the fluid behaves, as if it had a negative viscosity. As an effect, perturbations from the perfect solution, due to round off errors or discretization errors, grow exponentially in time, and reverse integration of the NSE is inherently unstable, regardless of using an implicit time integration scheme. Consequently, some sort of filtering is required, in order to achieve a stable, numerical, reversed integration. The challenge is to find a filter with a minimal adverse affect on the accuracy of the reversed integration. In the present work, we explore an adjoint gradient method (AGM) to achieve this goal, and we apply this technique to two-dimensional (2D), decaying turbulence. The AGM solves for the initial velocity field u0 at t = 0, that, when integrated forward in time, produces a final velocity field u1 at t = 1, that is as close as is feasibly possible to some specified target field v1. The initial field u0 defines a minimum of a cost-functional J, that measures the distance between u1 and v1. In the minimization procedure, the u0 is updated iteratively along the gradient of J w.r.t. u0, where the gradient is obtained by transporting J backwards in time from t = 1 to t = 0, using the adjoint NSE. The AGM thus effectively replaces the backward integration by multiple forward and backward adjoint integrations. Since the viscosity is negative in the adjoint NSE, each step of the AGM is numerically stable. Nevertheless, when applied to turbulence, the AGM develops instabilities, which limit the backward integration to small times. This is due to the exponential divergence of phase space trajectories in turbulent flow, which produces a multitude of local minima in J, when the integration time is large. As an effect, the AGM may select unphysical, noisy initial conditions. In order to improve this situation, we propose two remedies. First, we replace the integration by a sequence of smaller integrations, i.e., we divide the integration time into segments, where in each segment the target field v1 is taken as the initial field u0 from the previous segment. Second, we add an additional term (regularizer) to J, which is proportional to a high-order Laplacian of u0, and which dampens the gradients of u0. We show that suitable values for the segment size and for the regularizer, allow a stable reverse integration of 2D decaying turbulence, with accurate results for more then O(10) turbulent, integral time scales.

Keywords: time reversed integration, parabolic differential equations, adjoint gradient method, two dimensional turbulence

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Authors: Katarzyna Czarnota, Inga Hajdarowicz

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Political mechanisms of legal, social and economic segregation of refugees and migrants have reproduced and deepened existing hierarchies and inequalities in global labour relations. The consequences of these processes strengthened by current, so called, ‘refugee crisis’, tightening of border regimes, militarisation and closing of Balkan Route, will have a significant impact on future integration policies. One of the fields that require further research is limited access to labour rights of migrants and refugees. Although this phenomenon is experienced by a significant proportion of migrant population, these are the poorest who are also exposed to economic racism. The presentation will tackle the influence of current migration policies on increasing social and class inequalities between migrants, refugees, on the example of Syrian labours in Turkish textile factories. The authors will critically analyse examples of integration policies, especially planned changes in labour law as well as examples of violation of labour rights and exploitation of refugees and migrants in textile factories and industry. The presentation will be based on interviews with Syrian workers, conducted in Turkey and Greece in 2016.

Keywords: refugee crisis, economic racism, global labour relations, exploatation

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Authors: Ibrahim Abubakar Alkali, Abubakar Sarkile Kawuwa, Ibrahim Sani Khalil

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The concept of space and function forms the bedrock for spatial configuration in architectural design. Thus, the effectiveness and functionality of an architectural product depends their cordial relationship. This applies to all buildings especially to a hospital ward setting designed to accommodate various complex and diverse functions. Health care facilities design, especially an inpatient setting, is governed by many regulations and technical requirements. It is also affected by many less defined needs, particularly, response to culture and the need to provide for patient families’ presence and participation. The spatial configuration of the hospital ward setting in developing countries has no consideration for the patient’s families despite the significant role they play in promoting recovery. Attempts to integrate facilities for patients’ families have always been challenging, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, where accommodation for inpatients is predominantly in an open ward system. In addition, the situation is compounded by culture, which significantly dictates healthcare practices in Africa. Therefore, achieving such a hospital ward setting that is patient and family-centered requires careful assessment of family care actions and transaction spaces so as to arrive at an evidence based solution. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify how hospital ward spaces can be reconfigured to provide for sustainable family integration. In achieving this aim, a qualitative approach using the principles of behavioral mapping was employed in male and female medical wards of the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH) Gombe, Nigeria. The data obtained was analysed using classical and comparative content analysis. Patients’ families have been found to be a critical component of hospital ward design that cannot be undermined. Accordingly, bedsides, open yards, corridors and foyers have been identified as patient families’ transaction spaces that require design attention. Arriving at sustainable family integration can be achieved by revisiting the design requirements of the family transaction spaces based on the findings in order to avoid the rowdiness of the wards and uncoordinated sprawl.

Keywords: caregiving, design basics, family integration, hospital ward, sustainability

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Authors: Xueqing Ivy Chen, Christo De Coning

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It is clear from practice that a gap exists between Result-Based Monitoring and Evaluation (RBME) as a discipline, and Knowledge Management (KM) on the other hand. Whereas various government departments have institutionalised these functions, KM and M&E has functioned in isolation from each other in a practical sense in the public sector. It’s therefore necessary to explore the relationship between KM and M&E and the necessity for integration, so that a convergence of these disciplines can be established. An integration of KM and M&E will lead to integration and improvement of evidence-based information and policy decision-making. M&E and KM process models are available but the complementarity between specific process steps of these process models are not exploited. A need exists to clarify the relationships between these functions in order to ensure evidence based information and policy decision-making. This paper will depart from the well-known policy process models, such as the generic model and consider recent on the interface between policy, M&E and KM.

Keywords: result-based monitoring and evaluation, RBME, knowledge management, KM, evident based decision making, public policy, information systems, institutional arrangement

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Authors: Philippa Sambevski

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Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in Australian women. The incidence of breast cancer for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) women is lower than for non-indigenous women. However, the mortality rate for ATSI women is higher. The participation rate of ATSI women in BreastScreen Australia is below the general population. In this thematic literature review, the author collates viable strategies to increase breast screening rates among culturally and linguistically diverse individuals and provide culturally competent care. Barriers to accessing BreastScreen for ATSI women include language or communication limits, isolation, and a lack of culturally sensitive information. Culturally competent strategies require healthcare workers with an appropriate cultural and social background, clear messages, and the embedding of cultural respect within healthcare organisations. Cultural safety is determined by partnering with local indigenous groups, recognising the consumer experience, and allowing people to raise their concerns. The corresponding academic poster identifies strategies for healthcare workers to provide culturally competent care in a BreastScreen setting.

Keywords: breast screen, closing the gap, Australia, cultural safety, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

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Authors: Szu-Hua Wang, Yi-Wen Chen

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Urban ecosystems are complex coupled human-environment systems. They contain abundant natural resources for producing natural assets and attract urban assets to consume natural resources for urban development. Urban ecosystems provide several ecosystem services, including provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services, and supporting services. Rapid global climate change makes urban ecosystems and their ecosystem services encountering various natural disasters. Lots of natural disasters have occurred around the world under the constant changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in the past two decades. In Taiwan, hydrological disasters have been paid more attention due to the potential high sensitivity of Taiwan’s cities to climate change, and it impacts. However, climate change not only causes extreme weather events directly but also affects the interactions among human, ecosystem services and their dynamic feedback processes indirectly. Therefore, this study adopts a systematic method, solar energy synthesis, based on the concept of the eco-energy analysis. The Taipei area, the most densely populated area in Taiwan, is selected as the study area. The changes of ecosystem services between 2015 and Typhoon Soudelor have been compared in order to investigate the impacts of extreme precipitation events on ecosystem services. The results show that the forest areas are the largest contributions of energy to ecosystem services in the Taipei area generally. Different soil textures of different subsystem have various upper limits of water contents or substances. The major contribution of ecosystem services of the study area is natural hazard regulation provided by the surface water resources areas. During the period of Typhoon Soudelor, the freshwater supply in the forest areas had become the main contribution. Erosion control services were the main ecosystem service affected by Typhoon Soudelor. The second and third main ecosystem services were hydrologic regulation and food supply. Due to the interactions among ecosystem services, fresh water supply, water purification, and waste treatment had been affected severely.

Keywords: ecosystem, extreme precipitation events, ecosystem services, solar energy synthesis

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Authors: Agodo Mugenyi Herbert

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Background: A high prevalence of both HIV infection and mental disorders exists in Sub-Saharan Africa, however there is little integration of care for mental health disorders among HIV-infected individuals. The study aimed at determining the management of common mental disorders among HIV/AIDS clients attending Antiretroviral clinic in Hoima regional referral hospital. Significancy of the study: The information generated by this study would help mental health advocates, ministry of health, Civil society organizations in HIV programming to advocate for enhanced mental health care for PLWHA. The result will be used in policy development and lobbying for integration of mental health care in HIV/AIDS care. Methods: This study applied a cross sectional design. It involved data collection from clients with HIV/AIDS attending ART clinic in Hoima regional referral hospital at one specific point in time. It aimed at providing data on the entire population under study. Data was collected from Hoima Regional Referral Hospital at the ART clinic. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 24. Results: 66 HIV/AIDS clients and 10 health workers in the ART clinic who participated fully completed the study. The overall prevalence of at least one form of mental disorder was 83%. Majority of the health care practitioner do not use pharmacological, psychological, and social interventions to manage such disorders. Conclusion: These results are suggestive of a significant proportion of the HIV-infected patients experiencing psychological difficulty for which they do not receive treatment Recommendations: Current care practices applied to patients with HIV/AIDS should be integrated more generally to include treatment services to identify and manage common mental disorders.

Keywords: common mental disorders, mental health, mental illness, and severe mental illness

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Authors: Lani Fraizer, Faiz Shah

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Extreme poverty continues to plague the world. Forty-seven million people live well-below the poverty line in Bangladesh, enduring poor quality of life, often with no access to basic human needs like shelter and healthcare. It is not surprising that poverty eradication is central to the mission of social change makers, such as Muhammad Yunus, who have demonstrated how enterprise-led development initiatives empower individuals at the grassroots, and can galvanize entire communities to emerge out of poverty. Such strategies call for system-wide change, and like a number of systems leaders, social business champions have typically challenged the status quo, and broken out of silos to catalyze vibrant multi-stakeholder partnerships across sectors. Apart from individual charisma, social change makers succeed because they garner collaborative impact through socially beneficial partnerships. So while enterprise-led social development evolves in scope and complexity, in step with the need to create and sustain partnerships, Partnership Brokering is emerging as an approach to facilitate collaborative processes. As such, it may now be possible for anyone motivated by the idea of social business to acquire the skills and sophistication necessary for building enriching partnerships that harness the power of the market to address poverty. This paper examines dimensions of partnership brokering in the context of social business, and explores the implications of this emerging approach on fostering poverty eradication.

Keywords: poverty, social business, partnership brokering, social entrepreneurship, systems change, enterprise-led development, change making

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Authors: A. P. Puvanasvaran, Suresh A. L. Vasu, N. Norazlin

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The Lean Environmental Management Integration System (LEMIS) framework development is integration between lean core element and ISO 14001. The curiosity on the relationship between continuous improvement and sustainability of lean implementation has influenced this study toward LEMIS. Characteristic of ISO 14001 standard clauses and core elements of lean principles are explored from past studies and literature reviews. Survey was carried out on ISO 14001 certified companies to examine continual improvement by implementing the ISO 14001 standard. The study found that there is a significant and positive relationship between Lean Principles: value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection with the ISO 14001 requirements. LEMIS is significant to support the continuous improvement and sustainability. The integration system can be implemented to any manufacturing company. It gives awareness on the importance on why organizations need to sustain its Environmental management system. At the meanwhile, the lean principle can be adapted in order to streamline daily activities of the company. Throughout the study, it had proven that there is no sacrifice or trade-off between lean principles with ISO 14001 requirements. The framework developed in the study can be further simplified in the future, especially the method of crossing each sub requirements of ISO 14001 standard with the core elements of Lean principles in this study.

Keywords: LEMIS, ISO 14001, integration, framework

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Authors: Eli Buchbinder

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Dialectics theory perceives two or more forces or themes as mutually opposed and negating on the one hand and as interdependent for their definition, existence, and resolution on the other. Such opposites might never be fully reconciled but might, simultaneously, continue to produce a higher level of integration and synthesis as well as tension, contradictions, and paradoxes. The identity of social work is constructed by poles; an understanding that emerges through key concepts that shape the profession. The key concept of person-in-environment creates dialectical tensions between the psychological versus the social pole. Important examples that reflect this focus on the psychological versus the social nature of human beings. This meta-perspective influences and constructs the implementation of values, ways of intervention, and professional relationships, e.g., creating a conflict between personal/social empowerment and social control and correction as the aims of the profession. Social work is dynamic and changing, with a unique way of perceiving and conceptualizing human behavior. Social workers must be able to face and accept the contradicting elements inherent in practicing social work. The basic philosophy for social work education is a dialectic conceptualization. In light of the above, social work students require dialectics as a critical mode of perception, reflection, and intervention. In the presentation, the focus will be on reflection on teaching students to conceptualize dialectics as a frame when training to be social workers. It is believed that the focus should emphasis two points: 1) the need to assist students to identify poles and to analyze the interrelationships created between them while coping emotionally with the tension and difficulties involved in containing these poles; 2) teaching students to integrate poles as a basis for assessment, planning, and intervention.

Keywords: professional ontology, a generic social work education, skills and values of social work, reflecting on social work teaching methods

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Authors: Roberto Feltrero, Sara Osuna-Acedo

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Responsible Research and Innovation have to accomplish one fundamental aim: everybody has to participate in the benefits of innovation, but also innovation has to be democratic; that is to say, everybody may have the possibility to participate in the decisions in the innovation process. Particularly, a democratic and inclusive model of social participation and innovation includes persons with disabilities and people at risk of discrimination. Innovations on Artificial Intelligence for social development have to accomplish the same dual goal: improving equality for accessing fields of public interest like education, training and public services, as well as improving civic and democratic participation in the process of developing such innovations for all. This research aims to develop innovations, policies and policy recommendations to apply and disseminate such artificial intelligence and social model for making educational and administrative processes more accessible. First, designing a citizen participation process to engage citizens in the designing and use of artificial intelligence tools for public services. This will result in improving trust in democratic institutions contributing to enhancing the transparency, effectiveness, accountability and legitimacy of public policy-making and allowing people to participate in the development of ethical standards for the use of such technologies. Second, improving educational tools for lifelong learning with AI models to improve accountability and educational data management. Dissemination, education and social participation will be integrated, measured and evaluated in innovative educational processes to make accessible all the educational technologies and content developed on AI about responsible and social innovation. A particular case will be presented regarding access for all to educational tools and public services. This accessibility requires cognitive adaptability because, many times, legal or administrative language is very complex. Not only for people with cognitive disabilities but also for old people or citizens at risk of educational or social discrimination. Artificial Intelligence natural language processing technologies can provide tools to translate legal, administrative, or educational texts to a more simple language that can be accessible to everybody. Despite technological advances in language processing and machine learning, this becomes a huge project if we really want to respect ethical and legal consequences because that kinds of consequences can only be achieved with civil and democratic engagement in two realms: 1) to democratically select texts that need and can be translated and 2) to involved citizens, experts and nonexperts, to produce and validate real examples of legal texts with cognitive adaptations to feed artificial intelligence algorithms for learning how to translate those texts to a more simple and accessible language, adapted to any kind of population.

Keywords: responsible research and innovation, AI social innovations, cognitive accessibility, public participation

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Authors: Nam Don Kim, Jungho Moon, Tae Yun Chung

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This paper proposes an Internet of Things (IoT) based virtualization platform for providing smart tourism services. The virtualization platform provides a consistent access interface to various types of data by naming IoT devices and legacy information systems as pathnames in a virtual file system. In the other words, the IoT virtualization platform functions as a middleware which uses the metadata for underlying collected data. The proposed platform makes it easy to provide customized tourism information by using tourist locations collected by IoT devices and additionally enables to create new interactive smart tourism services focused on the tourist locations. The proposed platform is very efficient so that the provided tourism services are isolated from changes in raw data and the services can be modified or expanded without changing the underlying data structure.

Keywords: internet of things (IoT), IoT platform, serviceplatform, virtual file system (VSF)

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Authors: Pi-Chi Wu, Tsui-Ping Chu, Hsiu-Hung Wang

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Background: The ability to provide immediate medical service in outpatient departments is one of the keys to patient satisfaction. Objectives: This project used electronic equipment to integrate nursing care information to patient care at a blood pressure diagnostic counter. Through process reengineering, the average patient waiting time decreased from 35 minutes to 5 minutes, while service satisfaction increased from a score of 2.7 to 4.6. Methods: Data was collected from a local hospital in Southern Taiwan from a daily average of 2,200 patients in the outpatient department. Previous waiting times were affected by (1) space limitations, (2) the need to help guide patient mobility, (3) the need for nurses to appease irate patients and give instructions, (4), the need for patients to replace lost counter tickets, (5) the need to re-enter information, (6) the replacement of missing patient information. An ad hoc group was established to enhance patient satisfaction and shorten waiting times for patients to see a doctor. A four step strategy consisting of (1) counter relocation, (2) queue reorganization, (3) electronic information integration, (4) process reengineering was implemented. Results: Implementation of the developed strategy decreased patient waiting time from 35 minutes to an average of 5 minutes, and increased patient satisfaction scores from 2.7 to 6.4. Conclusion: Through the integration of information technology and process transformation, waiting times were drastically reduced, patient satisfaction increased, and nurses were allowed more time to engage in more cost-effective services. This strategy was simultaneously enacted in separate hospitals throughout Taiwan.

Keywords: process reengineering, electronic information integration, patient satisfaction, patient waiting time

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Authors: Mohammad Ali Fteiha, Ghanem Al Bustami

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The study aimed to identify the assessment of parents of children with Autism for services provided by the Center for special care in the United Arab Emirates, in terms of quality, comprehensive and the impact of some factors related to the diagnosis and place of service provision and efficient working procedures of service and the child age. In order to achieve the objective of the study, researchers used Parent’s Satisfaction Scale, and Parents Evaluation of Services Effectiveness, both the scale and the parents reports provided with accepted level of validity and reliability. Sample includes 300 families of children with Autism receiving educational and rehabilitation services, treatment and support services in both governmental and private centers in United Arab Emirates. ANOVA test was used through SPSS program to analyze the collected data. The results of the study have indicated that there are significant differences in the assessment of services provided by centers due to a place of service, the nature of the diagnosis, child's age at the time of the study, as well as statistically significance differences due to age when first diagnosed. The results also showed positive evaluation for the good level of services as international standard, and the quality of these services provided by autism centers in the United Arab Emirates, especially in governmental centers. At the same time, the results showed the presence of many needs problems faced by the parents do not have appropriate solutions. Based on the results the recommendations were stated.

Keywords: autism, evaluation, diagnosis, parents, autism programs, supportive services, government centers, private centers

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Authors: Foroozan Sadri, Mohammadmehdi Moulaii, Farkhondeh Vahdati

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Smart materials can create a great revolution in our built environment, as living systems do. In this research, the optimal structure of healthcare building envelopes is analyzed in terms of thickness according to the utility of the smart-nano materials as nontoxic substances in the region. The research method in this paper is based on library studies and simulation. Grasshopper program is employed to simulate thermal characteristics to achieve the optimum U-value in Semnan desert climate, according to Iranian national standards. The potential of healthcare envelope layouts in thermal properties development (primarily U-value) of these buildings is discussed due to the high thermal loads of healthcare buildings and also toxicity effects of conventional materials. As a result, envelope thicknesses are calculated, and the performance of the nano-PCM and gypsum wallboards are compared. A solution with comparable performance using smart-nano materials instead of conventional materials would determine a decrease in wall thickness.

Keywords: energy saving, exterior envelope, smart-nano materials, thermal performance, U-value

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Authors: Rachel Gugu Mkhasibe

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Incorporation of technology as a pedagogy has many benefits. For instance, improvement of pedagogy, increased information access, increased cooperation, and collaboration. However, as good as it may be, this integration of technology as a pedagogy has not been widely adopted in most historically Black higher education institutions especially those in developing countries. For example, the socioeconomic background of students in historically black universities, the weak financial support available from these universities, as well as a large population of students struggle to access the recommended modern physical resources such as iPads, laptops, mobile phones, to name a few. This contributes to an increase in the increase of educational inequalities. The qualitative research approach was utilized in this work to gather detailed data about the obstacles created by the integration of technology as a pedagogy. Interviews were conducted to generate data from 20 academics from 10 Leve two students from one of the historically disadvantaged higher education Institutions in South Africa. The findings revealed that although both students and academics had overwhelming support of the integration of technology as a pedagogy in their institution, the environment which they found themselves in compromise the incorporation of technology as a pedagogy. Therefore, this paper recommends that Department of Higher Education and University Management should intervene and budget for technology to be provided in all the institutions of higher education regardless of where the institutions are situated.

Keywords: collaboration, integration, pedagogy, technology

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Authors: Jeroen S. de Bruin, Karin Schindler, Christian Schuh

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With increasingly more mobile health applications appearing due to the popularity of smartphones, the possibility arises that these data can be used to improve the medical diagnostic process, as well as the overall quality of healthcare, while at the same time lowering costs. However, as of yet there have been no reports of a successful combination of patient-generated data from smartphones with data from clinical routine. In this paper, we describe how these two types of data can be combined in a secure way without modification to hospital information systems, and how they can together be used in a medical expert system for automatic nutritional classification and triage.

Keywords: mobile health, data integration, expert systems, disease-related malnutrition

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Authors: Hossein Miri, Zhou YongQi, Chan Bormei-Suy

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The development of advanced technologies and innovative solutions has opened up exciting new possibilities for revolutionizing healthcare systems. One such emerging concept is the use of virtual and holographic health information platforms that aim to provide interactive and personalized medical information to users. This paper provides a review of notable virtual and holographic health information platforms. It begins by highlighting the need for information visualization and 3D representation in healthcare. It then proceeds to provide background knowledge on information visualization and historical developments in 3D visualization technology. Additional domain knowledge concerning holography, holographic computing, and mixed reality is then introduced, followed by highlighting some of their common applications and use cases. After setting the scene and defining the context, the need and importance of virtual and holographic visualization in medicine are discussed. Subsequently, some of the current research areas and applications of digital holography and holographic technology are explored, alongside the importance and role of virtual and holographic visualization in genetics and genomics. An analysis of the key principles and concepts underlying virtual and holographic health information systems is presented, as well as their potential implications for healthcare are pointed out. The paper concludes by examining the most notable existing mixed-reality applications and systems that help doctors visualize diagnostic and genetic data and assist in patient education and communication. This paper is intended to be a valuable resource for researchers, developers, and healthcare professionals who are interested in the use of virtual and holographic technologies to improve healthcare.

Keywords: virtual, holographic, health information platform, personalized interactive medical information

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Authors: Sarah Vuningoma, Maria Rosa Lorini, Wallace Chigona

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Mobile phones are one of the main tools for promoting the wellbeing of people and supporting the integration of communities on the margins such as refugees. Information and Communication Technology has the potential to contribute towards reducing isolation, loneliness, and to assist in improving interpersonal relations and fostering acculturation processes. Therefore, the use of mobile phones by refugees might contribute to their social connectedness. This paper aims to demonstrate how existing literature has shown how the use of mobile phones by refugees should engender social connectedness amongst the refugees. Data for the study are drawn from existing literature; we searched a number of electronic databases for papers published between 2010 and 2019. The main findings of the study relate to the use of mobile phones by refugees to (i) create a sense of belonging, (ii) maintain relationships, and (iii) advance the acculturation process. The analysis highlighted a gap in the research over refugees and social connectedness. In particular, further studies should consider evaluating the differences between those who have a refugee permit, those who are waiting for the refugee permit, and those whose request was denied.

Keywords: belonging, mobile phones, refugees, social connectedness

Procedia PDF Downloads 182