Search results for: highly qualified personnel

Authors: Celso L. Fernando, Toshio Yoshii, Takahiro Tsubota

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Understanding the causes of a road accident and predicting their occurrence is key to preventing deaths and serious injuries from road accident events. Traditional statistical methods such as the Poisson and the Logistics regressions have been used to find the association of the traffic environmental factors with the accident occurred; recently, an artificial neural network, ANN, a computational technique that learns from historical data to make a more accurate prediction, has emerged. Although the ability to make accurate predictions, the ANN has difficulty dealing with highly unbalanced attribute patterns distribution in the training dataset; in such circumstances, the ANN treats the minority group as noise. However, in the real world data, the minority group is often the group of interest; e.g., in the road traffic accident data, the events of the accident are the group of interest. This study proposes a combination of the k-means with the ANN to improve the predictive ability of the neural network model by alleviating the effect of the unbalanced distribution of the attribute patterns in the training dataset. The results show that the proposed method improves the ability of the neural network to make a prediction on a highly unbalanced distributed attribute patterns dataset; however, on an even distributed attribute patterns dataset, the proposed method performs almost like a standard neural network.

Keywords: accident risks estimation, artificial neural network, deep learning, k-mean, road safety

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Authors: Dominik Krimpmann

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Cloud computing has provided the impetus for change in the demand, sourcing, and consumption of IT-enabled services. The technology developed from an emerging trend towards a ‘must-have’. Many organizations harnessed on the quick-wins of cloud computing within the last five years but nowadays reach a plateau when it comes to sustainable savings and performance. This study aims to investigate what is needed from an organizational perspective to make cloud computing a sustainable success. The study was carried out in Germany among senior IT professionals, both in management and delivery positions. Our research shows that IT executives must be prepared to realign their IT workforce to sustain the advantage of cloud computing for today and the near future. While new roles will undoubtedly emerge, roles alone cannot ensure the success of cloud deployments. What is needed is a change in the IT workforce’s business behaviour, or put more simply, the ways in which the IT personnel works. It gives clear guidance on which dimensions of an employees’ working behaviour need to be adapted. The practical implications are drawn from a series of semi-structured interviews, resulting in a high-level workforce enablement plan. Lastly, it elaborates on tools and gives clear guidance on which pitfalls might arise along the proposed workforce enablement process.

Keywords: cloud computing, organization design, organizational change, workforce enablement

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Authors: Pramod K. Prabhakar, Prem P. Srivastav

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Rohu (Labeo rohita) is an Indian major carp and highly relished freshwater food for its unique flavor, texture, and culinary properties. It is highly perishable and, spoilage occurs as a result of series of complicated biochemical changes brought about by enzymes which are the function of time and storage temperature also. The influence of storage temperature (5, 0, and -5 °C) on colour and texture of fish were studied during 14 days storage period in order to analyze kinetics of colour and textural changes. The rate of total colour change was most noticeable at the highest storage temperature (5°C), and these changes were well described by the first order reaction. Texture is an important variable of quality of the fish and is increasing concern to aquaculture industries. Textural parameters such as hardness, toughness and stiffness were evaluated on a texture analyzer for the different day of stored fish. The significant reduction (P ≤ 0.05) in hardness was observed after 2nd, 4th and 8th day for the fish stored at 5, 0, and -5 °C respectively. The textural changes of fish during storage followed a first order kinetic model and fitted well with this model (R2 > 0.95). However, the textural data with respect to time was also fitted to modified Maxwell model and found to be good fit with R2 value ranges from 0.96 to 0.98. Temperature dependence of colour and texture change was adequately modelled with the Arrhenius type equation. This fitted model may be used for the determination of shelf life of Rohu Rohu (Labeo rohita) Fish.

Keywords: first order kinetics, biochemical changes, Maxwell model, colour, texture, Arrhenius type equation

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Authors: Ugabi John Ibak, Odey Boniface Ugbem

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Education is considered the bedrock of any meaningful developments and teacher education plays a critical role in this direction. Teacher education is the master keys that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help achieve all round sustain enable development in Nigeria and the world over. This paper X-rays the nature and character of the teaching profession, historical background to teacher education in Nigeria, national policy on education, problems of teacher education in Nigeria and prospects of teacher education for sustainable national development. The study shows that the misfortunes of the teacher education owes much to it historical antecedent. Also majorly, is the failure of government to adequately fund education at the various levels in the country. It was discovered that in the history of the nation no government has budgeted 13% of its annual budget (half of 26% UNESCO minimum) to education. This has resulted to poor infrastructure, inadequate equipment and poorly motivated personnel in all the nations public schools at all levels. Hence, the paper concludes that in spite of these overwhelming challenges, teachers have a lot of prospects both in the teaching profession and outside teaching.

Keywords: teacher education, teaching profession, sustainable national development, education, development

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Authors: Emad M.Abdullat, Hasan A. Ader-Rahman, Rayyan Al Ali, Arwa.A.Hudaib

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This retrospective study aims to determine the epidemiological features of such deaths in one of the general teaching hospitals in Jordan with a focus on weaning practices and its relation to sucking as major factors underlying the mechanism of choking in infants and young children. The study utilized a retrospective design to review the records of forensic cases due to foreign body aspiration examined at the forensic department at the Jordan University Hospital. A total of 27 cases of choking in the pediatric age group were retrieved from the reports of the autopsy cases dissected. All cases of children who died due to chocking by foreign bodies were under 11 years old. Choking by food materials constituted (44.4%) of cases under 3 years of age while choking by non-food material were less prevalent under 3 years of age and comprising 18.5% of the cases. Health care personnel and parents need to be aware that introduction of solid food, unlike exclusive breast or formula-milk feeding, can have serious consequences if occurring in inappropriate timing or consistency during early childhood physical and functional development. Parents need to be educated regarding the appropriate timing and process of weaning.

Keywords: chocking, infants, weaning practices, young children

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Authors: Christopher Celozzi, Sarah Kochav

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Our research investigates the numerous challenges faced by Chinese ESL university students enrolled in the medical and related healthcare professional fields. The over-arching research question is how gender influences classroom participation and learning. The second research question addressed is 'what instructional strategies may be utilized to promote student participation and language acquisition?'. Participants’ language ability has been assessed and evaluated in order to facilitate the establishment of a statistical baseline for the subsequent intervention. This research delves deeper into each individual’s personal and academic circumstances, in an effort to reveal any held intrinsic gender beliefs and social identities that may influence learning. Also considered is the impact on learning for a homogenized student population within a uniform, highly structured learning environment. Specially, what is the influence of China’s ‘one-child policy’ on individual learning habits? The impact of their millennial identity and reliance on social media is also examined. A qualitative methodology with a case study approach is employed, with interviews conducted among the participants. Student response to the intervention and selected remediation strategies are documented, analyzed and discussed. The findings of the study may serve to inform educator instructional practice, while advancing the student learner in their pursuit of English competency in highly competitive professions.

Keywords: Chinese students, gender, English, language acquisition

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Authors: Mahdi Sadeghian, Somaye Sadeghian, Reza Dinarvand

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This paper is going to discuss two issues encountered in using PLAXIS. Both issues were monitored during application of PLAXIS to estimate the excavation-induced displacement. Column Soil Mixing (CSM) was applied to stabilise the excavation. It was understood that the estimated excavation induced deformation at the top of the CSM blocks highly depends on the material type defining pavement material adjacent to the CSM blocks. Cohesive material for pavement will result in the unrealistic connection between pavement and CSM even by defining an interface element. To find the most realistic approach, the interface defined in three different manners (1) no interface elements were applied (2) a non-cohesive soil layer was defined between pavement and CSM block to represent the friction between these materials (3) built-in interface elements in PLAXIS was used to define the boundary between the pavement and the CSM block. The result showed that the option 2 would result in more realistic results. The second issue was in the modelling of the contact line between the CSM block and an inclined layer underneath. The analysis result showed that the excavation-induced deformation highly depends on how the PLAXIS user defines the contact area. It was understood that if the contact area had defined as a point in which CSM block had intersected the layer underneath the estimated lateral displacement of CSM block would be unrealistically lower than the model in which the contact area was defined as a line.

Keywords: PLAXIS, FEM, CSM, Excavation-Induced Deformation

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Authors: Zeynep Karacor, Rahime Hulya Ozturk

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Located in developing countries but with the successful performance in recent years have shown in emerging economies , the labor factor has undoubtedly an important place in Turkish economy. The theorists have emphasized the importance of labor and human capital factors for many years. The importance of human capital is emerging in the process of determining the labor force participation rate. It is relatively easy to employ qualified labor force but employment of unskilled labor is particularly difficult. Another factor affecting the gender differences are employment opportunities in the labor force. In our country, the employment conditions of men and women differ. Factors causing these differentials are inherent job requirements, the social structure of society, women's point of view, working hours, working conditions. Crisis in our country in recent years have significantly affect the labor force participation rates. In particular, women's labor force participation rates have shown a decrease in crisis.In crisis female laborforce leave their job and go their home. It is the sole provider of social perception of men so in crisis period it is considered that woman lost their job. In the first part of this study the current situation in the world of female participation in the labor force in Turkey will examine. In the second part of the study literature will be examined. In the third and last part of the study factors of determinants of female labor force participation rate analysis will done by Granger Causality Analysis.

Keywords: female labour force, employment, labor force, Turkey

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Authors: Ragy Raafat Gaber Attaalla

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Despite having the greatest rates of mortality and morbidity in the world, low- and middle-income (LMIC) nations trail high-income nations in terms of the number of clinical trials, the number of qualified researchers, and the amount of research information specific to their people. Health inequities and the use of precision medicine may be hampered by a lack of local genomic data, clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics competence, and training opportunities. These issues can be solved by carrying out health care infrastructure development, which includes data gathering and well-designed clinical pharmacology training in LMICs. It will be advantageous if there is international cooperation focused at enhancing education and infrastructure and promoting locally motivated clinical trials and research. This paper outlines various instances where clinical pharmacology knowledge could be put to use, including pharmacogenomic opportunities that could lead to better clinical guideline recommendations. Examples of how clinical pharmacology training can be successfully implemented in LMICs are also provided, including clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics training programmes in Africa and a Tanzanian researcher's personal experience while on a training sabbatical in the United States. These training initiatives will profit from advocacy for clinical pharmacologists' employment prospects and career development pathways, which are gradually becoming acknowledged and established in LMICs. The advancement of training and research infrastructure to increase clinical pharmacologists' knowledge in LMICs would be extremely beneficial because they have a significant role to play in global health.

Keywords: low- and middle-income, clinical pharmacology, pharmacometrics, career development pathways

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Authors: Omer Zvi Shaked, Amir Tirosh

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Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM) is an incurable chronic illness with no known preventive measures. Excess to insulin therapy can lead to hypoglycemia with neuro-glycogenic symptoms such as shakiness, nausea, sweating, irritability, fatigue, excessive thirst or hunger, weakness, seizure, and coma. Severe Hypoglycemia (SH) is also considered a most aversive event since it may put patients at risk for injury and death, which matches the criteria of a traumatic event. SH has a ranging prevalence of 20%, which makes it a primary medical Issue. One of the results of SH is an intense emotional fear reaction resembling the form of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTS), causing many patients to avoid insulin therapy and social activities in order to avoid the possibility of hypoglycemia. As a result, they are at risk for irreversible health deterioration and medical complications. Fear of Hypoglycemia (FOH) is, therefore, a major disturbance for T1DM patients. FOH differs from prevalent post-traumatic stress reactions to other forms of traumatic events since the threat to life continuously exists in the patient's body. That is, it is highly probable that orthodox interventions may not be sufficient for helping patients after SH to regain healthy social function and proper medical treatment. Accordingly, the current presentation will demonstrate the results of a study conducted among T1DM patients after SH. The study was designed in two stages. First, a preliminary qualitative phenomenological study among ten patients after SH was conducted. Analysis revealed that after SH, patients confuse between stress symptoms and Hypoglycemia symptoms, divide life before and after the event, report a constant sense of fear, a loss of freedom, a significant decrease in social functioning, a catastrophic thinking pattern, a dichotomous split between the self and the body, and internalization of illness identity, a loss of internal locus of control, a damaged self-representation, and severe loneliness for never being understood by others. The second stage was a two steps study of intervention among five patients after SH. The first part of the intervention included three months of therapeutic 3rd wave CBT therapy. The contents of the therapeutic process were: acceptance of fear and tolerance to stress; cognitive de-fusion combined with emotional self-regulation; the adoption of an active position relying on personal values; and self-compassion. Then, the intervention included a one-week practical real-time 24/7 support by trained medical personnel, alongside a gradual exposure to increased insulin therapy in a protected environment. The results of the intervention are a decrease in stress symptoms, increased social functioning, increased well-being, and decreased avoidance of medical treatment. The presentation will discuss the unique emotional state of T1DM patients after SH. Then, the presentation will discuss the effectiveness of the intervention for patients with chronic conditions after a traumatic event. The presentation will make evident the unique situation of illness-related PTSD. The presentation will also demonstrate the requirement for multi-professional collaboration between social work and medical care for populations with chronic medical conditions. Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research will be discussed.

Keywords: type 1 diabetes, chronic illness, post-traumatic stress, illness-related PTSD

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Authors: Srinivasapriyan Vijayan

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Phenol is one of the most vital chemical in industry. Nowadays, phenol production is based upon the three-step cumene process, which involves a hazardous cumene hydroperoxide intermediate and produces nearly equimolar amounts of acetone as a coproduct. An attractive route in phenol production is the direct one-step selective hydroxylation of benzene using eco-friendly oxidants such as O2, N2O, and H2O2. In particular, the direct hydroxylation of benzene to form phenol with O2 has recently attracted extensive research attention because this process is green clean and eco-friendly. However, most of the catalytic systems involving O2 have a low rate of hydroxylation because the direct introduction of hydroxyl functionality into benzene is challenging. Almost all the developed catalytic systems require an elevated temperature and suffer from low conversion because of the notoriously low reactivity of aromatic C–H bonds. Moreover, increased reactivity of phenol relative to benzene makes the selective oxidation of benzene to phenol very difficult, especially under heating conditions. Hollow spheres, a very fascinating class of materials with good permeation and low density, highly monodisperse MOF hollow sandwich spheres have been rationally synthesized using monodisperse polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles as templates through a versatile step-by-step self-assembly strategy. So, our findings could pave the way toward highly efficient nonprecious catalysts for low-temperature oxidation reactions in heterogeneous catalysis. Because it is easy post-reaction separation, its cheap, green and recyclable.

Keywords: benzene hydroxylation, Fe-based metal organic frameworks, molecular oxygen, phenol

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

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

Keywords: dumping, electronic waste, landfill, toxic chemicals

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Authors: Emily Purdom, Rachel Robinson

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As the number of students worldwide requiring speech-language therapy, occupational therapy and mental health services during their school day increases, innovation is becoming progressively more important to meet the demand. Telepractice can be used to reach a greater number of students requiring specialized therapy while maintaining the highest quality of care. It can be provided in a way that is not only effective but ultimately more convenient for student, teacher and therapist without the added burden of travel. Teletherapy eradicates many hurdles to traditional on-site service delivery and helps to solve the pervasive shortage of certified professionals. Because location is no longer a barrier to specialized education plans for students with disabilities when teletherapy is conducted, there are many advantages that can be deployed. Increased frequency of engagement is possible along with students receiving specialized care from a clinician that may not be in their direct area. Educational teams, including parents, can work together more easily and engage in face-to-face, student-centered collaboration through videoconference. Practical strategies will be provided for connecting students with qualified therapists without the typical in-person dynamic. In most cases, better therapy outcomes are going to be achieved when treatment is most convenient for the student and educator. This workshop will promote discussion in the field of education to increase advocacy for remote service delivery. It will serve as a resource for those wanting to expand their knowledge of options for students with special needs afforded through innovation.

Keywords: education technology, innovation, student support services, telepractice

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Authors: Thanasuwit Thabhiranrak

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This research aims to study factors that affected the operations of the cassava industrial enterprises in northeast of Thailand. Hypothesis was tested by regress analysis and also the analysis in order to determine the relationship between variables with Pearson correlation and show a class action in cassava process including the owner of business executives and supervisors. The research samples were 400 people in northeast region of Thailand. The research results revealed that success of entrepreneurs related to transformation leadership and knowledge management in a positive way at statistical significance level of 0.01 and respondents also emphasized on the importance of transformational leadership factors. The individual and the use of intelligence affect the success of entrepreneurs in cassava industry at statistical significance level of 0.05. The qualitative data were also collected by interviewing with operational level staff, supervisors, executives, and enterprise owners in the northeast of Thailand. The result was found that knowledge management was important in their business operations. Personnel in the organizations should learn from working experience, develop their skills, and increase knowledge from education.

Keywords: transformational leadership, knowledge management (KM), cassava, northeast of Thailand, industrial

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Authors: Ryoma Tokonami, Teruya Goto, Tatsuhiro Takahashi,

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For enhancing the mechanical property ofcarbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), the surface modification of carbon fiber (CF) by multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) has received considerable attention using direct MWCNT growth on CF with a catalysis, MWCNT electrophoresis, and layer-by-layer of MWCNT with reactive polymers, etc. Among above approaches, the layer-by-layer method is the simplest process, however, the amount of MWCNTs on CF is very little, resulting in the small amount of improvement of the mechanical property of the composite. The remaining amount of MWCNT on CF after melt mixing of CF (short fiber) with thermoplastic matrix polymer was not examined clearly in the former studies. The present research aims to propose an effective layer-by-layer chemical grafting of a highly reactive oxazoline polymer, which has not been used before, and MWCNTs onto CF using the highly reactivity of oxazoline and COOH on the surface of CF and MWCNTs.With layer-by-layer method, the first uniform chemically bonded mono molecular layer on carbon fiber was formed by chemical surface reaction of carbon fiber, a reactive oxazoline polymer solution between COOH of carbon fiber and oxazoline. The second chemically bonded uniform layer of MWCNTs on the first layer was prepared through the first layer coated carbon fiber in MWCNT dispersion solution by chemical reaction between oxazoline and COOH of MWCNTs. The quantitative analysis of MWCNTs on carbon fiber was performed, showing 0.44 wt.% of MWCNTs based on carbon fiber, which is much larger amount compared with the former studies in layer-by-layer method. In addition, MWCNTs were also observed uniform coating on carbon fiber by scanning electron micrograph (SEM). Carbon fiber composites were prepared by melting mixing using polystyrene (PS) as a thermoplastic matrix because of easy removal of PS by solvent for additional analysis, resulting the 20% of enhancement of tensile strength and modulus by tensile strength test. It was confirmed bySEM the layer-by-layer structure on carbon fibers were remained after the melt mixing by removing PS with a solvent. As a conclusion, the effectiveness for the enhancement of the mechanical properties of CF(short fiber)/PS composite using the highly reactive oxazoline polymer for the first layer and MWCNT for the second layer, which act as the physical anchor, was demonstrated.

Keywords: interface, layer-by-layer, multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), oxazoline

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Authors: Busiswa Madikazi

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This systematic mapping study explores the underrepresentation of women's contributions to farming in the Global South within the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-based extension methods. Despite women farmers constituting 70% of the agricultural labour force, their productivity is hindered by various constraints, including illiteracy, household commitments, and limited access to credit and markets. A systematic mapping approach was employed with the aim of identifying evidence gaps in existing ICT extension for women farmers. The data collection protocol follows a structured approach, incorporating key criteria for inclusion, exclusion, search strategy, and coding and the PICO strategy (Population, Intervention, Comparator, and Outcome). The results yielded 119 articles that qualified for inclusion. The findings highlight that mobile phone apps (WhatsApp) and radio/television programming are the primary extension methods employed while integrating ICT with training, field visits, and demonstrations are underutilized. Notably, the study emphasizes the inadequate attention to critical issues such as food security, gender equality, and attracting youth to farming within ICT extension efforts. These findings indicate a significant policy and practice gap, neglecting community-driven approaches that cater to women's specific needs and enhance their agricultural production. Map highlights the importance of refocusing ICT extension efforts to address women farmers’ unique challenges, thereby contributing to their empowerment and improving agricultural practices.

Keywords: agricultural extension, ICT, women farmers, smallholders

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Authors: Simon Keller, Rainer Mueller

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Continuous range queries are a common means to handle mobile clients in high-density areas. Most existing approaches focus on settings in which the range queries for location-based services are more or less static, whereas the mobile clients in the ranges move. We focus on a category called dynamic real-time range queries (DRRQ), assuming that both, clients requested by the query and the inquirers, are mobile. In consequence, the query parameters and the query results continuously change. This leads to two requirements: the ability to deal with an arbitrarily high number of mobile nodes (scalability) and the real-time delivery of range query results. In this paper, we present the highly decentralized solution adaptive quad streaming (AQS) for the requirements of DRRQs. AQS approximates the query results in favor of a controlled real-time delivery and guaranteed scalability. While prior works commonly optimize data structures on the involved servers, we use AQS to focus on a highly distributed cell structure without data structures automatically adapting to changing client distributions. Instead of the commonly used request-response approach, we apply a lightweight streaming method in which no bidirectional communication and no storage or maintenance of queries are required at all.

Keywords: approximation of client distributions, continuous spatial range queries, mobile objects, streaming-based decentralization in spatial mobile environments

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Authors: Tracey Bone

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Deaf inmates, whose first or preferred language is a Signed Language, experience barriers to accessing the necessary two-way communication with correctional staff, and the educational and social programs that will enhance their eligibility for conditional release from the federal prison system in Canada. The development of visual content to enhance the knowledge and skill development of correctional staff is a contemporary strategy intended to significantly improve the correctional experience for deaf inmates. This presentation reports on the development of two distinct training videos created to enhance staff’s understanding of the needs of deaf inmates; one a two-part simulation of an interaction with a deaf inmate, the second an interview with a deaf academic. Part one of video one demonstrates the challenges and misunderstandings inherent in communicating across languages without a qualified sign language interpreter; the second part demonstrates the ease of communication when communication needs are met. Video two incorporates the experiences of a deaf academic to provide the cultural grounding necessary to educate staff in the unique experiences associated with being a visual language user. Lack of staff understanding or awareness of deaf culture and language must not be acceptable reasons for the inadequate treatment of deaf visual language users in federal prisons. This paper demonstrates a contemporary approach to meeting the human rights and needs of this unique and often ignored inmate subpopulation. The deaf community supports this visual approach to enhancing staff understanding of the unique needs of this population. A study of its effectiveness is currently underway.

Keywords: accommodations, American Sign Language (ASL), deaf inmates, sensory deprivation

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Authors: S. Anastasiou, C. Nathanailides

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There is considerable evidence to suggest that employees participation in the decision-making process of an organisation, has a positive effect on job satisfaction and work performance of the employees. The purpose of the present work was to examine the HRM practices, demographics and the level of job satisfaction of employees in Greek Aquaculture fish farms. A survey of employees (n=86) in 6 Greek Aquaculture Firms was carried out. The results indicate that HRM practices such as recruitment of the personnel and communication between the departments did not vary between different firms. The most frequent method of recruitment was through the professional network or the personal network of the managers. The preferred method of HRM communication was through the line managers and through group meeting. The level of job satisfaction increased with work experience participation and participation in the decision making process. A high percentage of the employees (81,3%±8.39) felt that they frequently participated in the decision making process. The Aquaculture employees exhibited high level of job satisfaction (88,1±6.95). The level of job satisfaction was related with participation in the decision making process (-0.633, P<0.05) but was not related with as age or gender. In terms of the working conditions, employees were mostly satisfied with their work itself, their colleagues and mostly dissatisfied with working hours, salary issues and low prospects of pay rises.

Keywords: aquaculture, human resources, job satisfaction

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Authors: Kaaryn M. Cater

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Students with sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), Meares-Irlen Syndrome (MIS) and dyslexia can become overwhelmed and struggle to thrive in traditional tertiary learning environments. An estimated 50% of tertiary students who disclose learning related issues are dyslexic. This study explores the relationship between SPS, MIS and dyslexia. Baseline measures will be analysed to establish any correlation between these three minority methods of information processing. SPS is an innate sensitivity trait found in 15-20% of the population and has been identified in over 100 species of animals. Humans with SPS are referred to as Highly Sensitive People (HSP) and the measure of HSP is a 27 point self-test known as the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS). A 2016 study conducted by the author established base-line data for HSP students in a tertiary institution in New Zealand. The results of the study showed that all participating HSP students believed the knowledge of SPS to be life-changing and useful in managing life and study, in addition, they believed that all tutors and in-coming students should be given information on SPS. MIS is a visual processing and perception disorder that is found in approximately 10% of the population and has a variety of symptoms including visual fatigue, headaches and nausea. One way to ease some of these symptoms is through the use of colored lenses or overlays. Dyslexia is a complex phonological based information processing variation present in approximately 10% of the population. An estimated 50% of dyslexics are thought to have MIS. The study exploring possible correlations between these minority forms of information processing is due to begin in February 2017. An invitation will be extended to all first year students enrolled in degree programmes across all faculties and schools within the institution. An estimated 900 students will be eligible to participate in the study. Participants will be asked to complete a battery of on-line questionnaires including the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, the International Dyslexia Association adult self-assessment and the adapted Irlen indicator. All three scales have been used extensively in literature and have been validated among many populations. All participants whose score on any (or some) of the three questionnaires suggest a minority method of information processing will receive an invitation to meet with a learning advisor, and given access to counselling services if they choose. Meeting with a learning advisor is not mandatory, and some participants may choose not to receive help. Data will be collected using the Question Pro platform and base-line data will be analysed using correlation and regression analysis to identify relationships and predictors between SPS, MIS and dyslexia. This study forms part of a larger three year longitudinal study and participants will be required to complete questionnaires at annual intervals in subsequent years of the study until completion of (or withdrawal from) their degree. At these data collection points, participants will be questioned on any additional support received relating to their minority method(s) of information processing. Data from this study will be available by April 2017.

Keywords: dyslexia, highly sensitive person (HSP), Meares-Irlen Syndrome (MIS), minority forms of information processing, sensory processing sensitivity (SPS)

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Authors: Shirin jalili, Hadi Shirzad, Samaneh Nabavi, Somayeh Khanjani

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Biosensors in forensic analysis are ideal biological tools that can be used for rapid and sensitive initial screening and testing to detect of suspicious components like biological and chemical agent in crime scenes. The wide use of different biomolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, microorganisms, antibodies and enzymes makes it possible. These biosensors have great advantages such as rapidity, little sample manipulation and high sensitivity, also Because of their stability, specificity and low cost they have become a very important tool to Forensic analysis and detection of crime. In crime scenes different substances such as rape samples, Semen, saliva fingerprints and blood samples, act as a detecting elements for biosensors. On the other hand, successful fluid recovery via biosensor has the propensity to yield a highly valuable source of genetic material, which is important in finding the suspect. Although current biological fluid testing techniques are impaired for identification of body fluids. But these methods have disadvantages. For example if they are to be used simultaneously, Often give false positive result. These limitations can negatively result the output of a case through missed or misinterpreted evidence. The use of biosensor enable criminal researchers the highly sensitive and non-destructive detection of biological fluid through interaction with several fluid-endogenous and other biological and chemical contamination at the crime scene. For this reason, using of the biosensors for detecting the biological fluid found at the crime scenes which play an important role in identifying the suspect and solving the criminal.

Keywords: biosensors, forensic analysis, biological fluid, crime detection

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Authors: Carlos Joel Tchawouo Mbiada

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This paper intends to refrain from debating the different meanings of justice, such as its social or moral meaning, nor to discuss the different theories of justice. This paper focuses on the legal understanding of access to justice to mean access to the court. Using the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts as a case study, this paper investigates whether the composition of the bench, the personnel and state mechanisms to promote access to court offer ideal conditions to access to court. The investigation is benchmarked against the South African new constitutional order underpinned by the concept of social justice to eradicate past injustices. To provide justice to all, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 guarantees the right to access to the court. The question that takes centre stage in this paper is whether litigants are denied the right to access the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts. The paper argues that factors such as the status of the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts, the number of judges, and the building structure prevent litigants from accessing these courts. The paper advocates for a legislative overhaul of the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts structure so that litigants may access the courts. Until such time, the paper argues that the right to access the Labour and Labour Appeal Courts would remain far from the reach of many litigants.

Keywords: access to justice, access to court, labour court, labour appeal court

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Authors: Aldin Justin Sundararaj, Austin Lord Tennyson, Divya Jose, A. N. Subash

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Blast waves are generated due to the explosions of high energy materials. An explosion yielding a blast wave has the potential to cause severe damage to buildings and its personnel. In order to understand the physics of effects of blast pressure on buildings, studies in the shock tube on generic configurations are carried out at various pressures on discrete models. The strength of shock wave is systematically varied by using different driver gases and diaphragm thickness. The basic material of the diaphragm is Aluminum. To simulate the effect of shock waves on discrete models a shock tube was used. Generic models selected for this study are suitably scaled cylinder, cone and cubical blocks. The experiments were carried out with 2mm diaphragm with burst pressure ranging from 28 to 31 bar. Numerical analysis was carried out over these discrete models. A 3D model of shock-tube with different discrete models inside the tube was used for CFD computation. It was found that cone has dissipated most of the shock pressure compared to cylinder and cubical block. The robustness and the accuracy of the numerical model were validation with the analytical and experimental data.

Keywords: shock wave, blast wave, discrete models, shock tube

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Authors: M. Attom, F. Abed, M. Elemam, M. Nazal, N. ElMessalami

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—The main objective of this paper is to study the effect of treated waste-water (TWW) on the compaction and compressibility properties of fine soil. Two types of fine soils (clayey soils) were selected for this study and classified as CH soil and Cl type of soil. Compaction and compressibility properties such as optimum water content, maximum dry unit weight, consolidation index and swell index, maximum past pressure and volume change were evaluated using both tap and treated waste water. It was found that the use of treated waste water affects all of these properties. The maximum dry unit weight increased for both soils and the optimum water content decreased as much as 13.6% for highly plastic soil. The significant effect was observed in swell index and swelling pressure of the soils. The swell indexed decreased by as much as 42% and 33% for highly plastic and low plastic soils, respectively, when TWW is used. Additionally, the swelling pressure decreased by as much as 16% for both soil types. The result of this research pointed out that the use of treated waste water has a positive effect on compaction and compression properties of clay soil and promise for potential use of this water in engineering applications. Keywords—Consolidation, proctor compaction, swell index, treated waste-water, volume change.

Keywords: consolidation, proctor compaction, swell index, treated waste-water, volume change

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Authors: Sonia Arradaza-Pajaron

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College students are expected to engage in an on-the-job training or internship for completion of a course requirement prior to graduation. In this scenario, they are exposed to the real world of work outside their training institution. To find out their readiness both emotionally and academically, this study has been conducted. A descriptive-correlational research design was employed and random sampling technique method was utilized among 265 randomly selected third year college students of PIT, SY 2014-15. A questionnaire on Emotional Intelligence (bearing the four components namely; emotional literacy, emotional quotient competence, values and beliefs and emotional quotient outcomes) was fielded to the respondents and GWA was extracted from the school automate. Data collected were statistically treated using percentage, weighted mean and Pearson-r for correlation. Results revealed that respondents’ emotional intelligence level is moderately high while their academic performance is good. A high significant relationship was found between the EI component; Emotional Literacy and their academic performance while only significant relationship was found between Emotional Quotient Outcomes and their academic performance. Therefore, if EI influences academic performance significantly when correlated, a possibility that their OJT performance can also be affected either positively or negatively. Thus, EI can be considered predictor of their academic and academic-related performance. Based on the result, it is then recommended that the institution would try to look deeply into the consideration of embedding emotional intelligence as part of the (especially on Emotional Literacy and Emotional Quotient Outcomes of the students) college curriculum. It can be done if the school shall have an effective Emotional Intelligence framework or program manned by qualified and competent teachers, guidance counselors in different colleges in its implementation.

Keywords: academic performance, emotional intelligence, college students, academic success

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Authors: Esther Burkitt

Abstract:

Background: Evidence is mounting that mixed emotions can be experienced simultaneously in different ways across the lifespan. Four types of patterns of simultaneously mixed emotions (sequential, prevalent, highly parallel, and inverse types) have been identified in middle childhood and adolescence. Moreover, the recognition of these experiences tends to develop firstly when children consider peers rather than the self. This evidence from children and adolescents is based on examining the presence of experiences specified in adulthood. The present study, therefore, applied an exhaustive coding scheme to investigate whether children experience types of previously unidentified simultaneous mixed emotional experiences. Methodology: One hundred and twenty children (60 girls) aged 7 years 1 month - 9 years 2 months (X=8 years 1 month; SD = 10 months) were recruited from mainstream schools across the UK. Two age groups were formed (youngest, n = 61, 7 years 1 month- 8 years 1 months: oldest, n = 59, 8 years 2 months – 9 years 2 months) and allocated to one of two conditions hearing vignettes describing happy and sad mixed emotion events in age and gender-matched protagonist or themselves. Results: Loglinear analyses identified new types of flexuous, vertical, and other experiences along with established sequential, prevalent, highly parallel, and inverse types of experience. Older children recognised more complex experiences other than the self-condition. Conclusion: Several additional types of simultaneously mixed emotions are recognised in middle childhood. The theoretical relevance of simultaneous mixed emotion processing in childhood is considered, and the potential utility of the findings in emotion assessments is discussed.

Keywords: emotion, childhood, self, other

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Authors: Azwadi Mohamad, Pauzi Yahaya, Nadiah Hudi

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Earthing system for high-voltage transmission tower is designed to protect the working personnel and equipments, and to maintain the quality of supply during fault. The existing earthing system for transmission towers in TNB’s system is purposely designed for normal power frequency (low-frequency) fault conditions that take into account the step and touch voltages. This earthing design is found to be inapt for lightning (transient) condition to a certain extent, which involves a high-frequency domain. The current earthing practice of laying the electrodes radially in straight 60 m horizontal lines under the ground, in order to achieve the specified impedance value of less than 10 Ω, was deemed ineffective in reducing the high-frequency impedance. This paper introduces a new earthing design that produces low impedance value at the high-frequency domain, without compromising the performance of low-frequency impedance. The performances of this new earthing design, as well as the existing design, are simulated for various soil resistivity values at varying frequency. The proposed concentrated earthing design is found to possess low TFR value at both low and high-frequency. A good earthing design should have a fine balance between compact and radial electrodes under the ground.

Keywords: earthing design, high-frequency, lightning, tower footing impedance

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Authors: Mannan Mridha, Usama Gazay, Kosovare V. Aslani, Hugo Linder, Alice Ravizza, Carmelo de Maria

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In most developing countries, although the vast majority of the people are living in the rural areas, the qualified medical doctors are not available there. Health care workers and paramedics, called village doctors, informal healthcare providers, are largely responsible for the rural medical care. Mishaps due to wrong diagnosis and inappropriate medication have been causing serious suffering that is preventable. While innovators have created many devices, the vast majority of these technologies do not find applications to address the needs and conditions in low-resource settings. The primary motive is to address the acute lack of affordable medical technologies for the poor people in low-resource settings. A low cost smart medical device that is portable, battery operated and can be used at any point of care has been developed to detect breathing rate, electrocardiogram (ECG) and arterial pulse rate to improve diagnosis and monitoring of patients and thus improve care and safety. This simple and easy to use smart medical device can be used, managed and maintained effectively and safely by any health worker with some training. In order to empower the health workers and village doctors, our device is being further developed to integrate with ICT tools like smart phones and connect to the medical experts wherever available, to manage the serious health problems.

Keywords: e-health for low resources settings, health awareness education, improve patient care and safety, smart and affordable medical device

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Authors: V. K. Tewari, M. Hussain, H. K. D.Gupta

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Aims/Background: The existing Intraoperative-MRI(IMRI) of developed countries is too costly to be utilized in any developing country. We have used the preexisting 3-side open 0.2-tesla MRI for IMRI in India so that the maximum benefit of the goal of IMRI is attained with cost effective state of the art surgeries. Material/Methods: We have operated 36-cases since 13thNov2005 via IMRI to till date. The table of MRI is used as an operating table which can be taken to the P3 level and as and when we require MRI to be done then the table can slide to P1 level so that the intraoperative monitoring can be done. The oxygen/nitrous tubes were taken out from vent made in the wall of the MRI room to outside. The small handy Boyel’s trolley was taken inside the MRI room with a small monitor. Anesthesia is been given in the MRI room itself. Usual skin markings were given with the help of scout MRI fields so the preciseness is increased. Craniotomy flap raised or the laminectomy and the dura opened in the similar fashion by same instruments as for the non IMRI case. Now corticectomy is planned after the T1 contrast image to localize and minimize the cortical resection. Staged and multiple P3 to P1 position and vice versa is planned respectively so that the resection is optimized to around 0.5 mm for radiotherapy. Immediate preclosure hematoma and edemas can be differentiated and cared for it. Results: Same MRI images as compared to highly expensive MRI of western world are achieved. Conclusion: 0.2 tesla Intraoperative MRI can be used for operative work for cranial and spinal cases easily with highly cost effectiveness.

Keywords: intraoperative MRI, 0.2 tesla intraoperative MRI, cost effective intraoperative MRI, medical and health sciences

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Authors: Usiobaifo Agharese Rosemary, Osaseri Roseline Oghogho

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Diabetes is a complex group of disease with a variety of causes; it is a disorder of the body metabolism in the digestion of carbohydrates food. The application of machine learning in the field of medical diagnosis has been the focus of many researchers and the use of recognition and classification model as a decision support tools has help the medical expert in diagnosis of diseases. Considering the large volume of medical data which require special techniques, experience, and high diagnostic skill in the diagnosis of diseases, the application of an artificial intelligent system to assist medical personnel in order to enhance their efficiency and accuracy in diagnosis will be an invaluable tool. In this study will propose a diabetes diagnosis model using rough set and K-nearest Neighbor classifier algorithm. The system consists of two modules: the feature extraction module and predictor module, rough data set is used to preprocess the attributes while K-nearest neighbor classifier is used to classify the given data. The dataset used for this model was taken for University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) database. Half of the data was used in the training while the other half was used in testing the system. The proposed model was able to achieve over 80% accuracy.

Keywords: classifier algorithm, diabetes, diagnostic model, machine learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 336