Search results for: berg balance scale

Authors: Tom Farrelly, Yvonne Kavanagh, Tony Murphy

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The sharp rise in international students into Ireland has provided colleges with a number of opportunities but also a number of challenges, both at an institutional and individual lecturer level and of course for the incoming student. Previously, Ireland’s population, particularly its higher education student population was largely homogenous, largely drawn from its own shores and thus reflecting the ethnic, cultural and religious demographics of the day. However, over the twenty years Ireland witnessed considerable economic growth, downturn and subsequent growth all of which has resulted in an Ireland that has changed both culturally and demographically. Propelled by Ireland’s economic success up to the late 2000s, one of the defining features of this change was an unprecedented rise in the number of migrants, both academic and economic. In 2013, Ireland’s National Forum for the Enhancement for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (hereafter the National Forum) invited proposals for inter-institutional collaborative projects aimed at different student groups’ transitioning in or out of higher education. Clearly, both as a country and a higher education sector we want incoming students to have a productive and enjoyable time in Ireland. One of the ways that will help the sector help the students make a successful transition is by developing strategies and polices that are well informed and student driven. This abstract outlines the research undertaken by the five colleges Institutes of Technology: Carlow; Cork; Tralee & Waterford and University College Cork) in Ireland that constitute the Southern cluster aimed at helping international students transition into the Irish higher education system. The aim of the southern clusters’ project was to develop a series of online learning units that can be accessed by prospective incoming international students prior to coming to Ireland and by Irish based lecturing staff. However, in order to make the units as relevant and informed as possible there was a strong research element to the project. As part of the southern cluster’s research strategy a large-scale online survey using SurveyMonkey was undertaken across the five colleges drawn from their respective international student communities. In total, there were 573 responses from students coming from over twenty different countries. The results from the survey have provided some interesting insights into the way that international students interact with and understand the Irish higher education system. The research and results will act as a model for consistent practice applicable across institutional clusters, thereby allowing institutions to minimise costs and focus on the unique aspects of transitioning international students into their institution.

Keywords: digital, international, support, transitions

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Authors: Sharmistha Chanda, Anindita Choudhuri

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This exploratory study highlights the psychological aspects of women's empowerment to find the importance of the psychological dimension of empowerment, such as; meaning, competence, self-determination, impact, and assumption, especially in the weaker marginalized section of women. A large proportion of rural, suburban, and urban poor survive by working in unorganized sectors of metropolitan cities. Relative Poverty and lack of employment in rural areas and small towns drive many people to the metropolitan city for work and livelihood. Women working in that field remain unrecognized as people of low socio-economic status. They are usually willing to do domestic work as daily wage workers, single wage earners, street vendors, family businesses like agricultural activities, domestic workers, and self-employed. Usually, these women accept such jobs because they do not have such an opportunity as they lack the basic level of education that is required for better-paid jobs. The unorganized sector, on the other hand, has no such clear-cut employer-employee relationships and lacks most forms of social protection. Having no fixed employer, these workers are casual, contractual, migrant, home-based, own-account workers who attempt to earn a living from whatever meager assets and skills they possess. Women have become more empowered both financially and individually through small-scale business ownership or entrepreneurship development and in household-based work. In-depth interviews have been done with 10 participants in order to understand their living styles, habits, self-identity, and empowerment in their society in order to evaluate the key challenges that they may face following by qualitative research approach. Transcription has been done from the collected data. The three-layer coding technique guides the data analysis process, encompassing – open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Women’s Entrepreneurship is one of the foremost concerns as the Government, and non-government institutions are readily serving this domain with the primary objectives of promoting self-employment opportunities in general and empowering women in specific. Thus, despite hardship and unrecognition unorganized sector provides a huge array of opportunities for rural and sub-urban poor to earn. Also, the upper section of society tends to depend on this working force. This study gave an idea about the well-being, and meaning in life, life satisfaction on the basis of their lived experience.

Keywords: marginalized women, psychological empowerment, relative poverty, unorganized sector

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Authors: Md. Rafiul Biswas, Uzair Shah, Mohammad Alkayal, Zubair Shah, Othman Althawadi, Kamila Swart

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Background: Social media platforms play a significant role in the mediated consumption of sport, especially so for sport mega-event. The characteristics of Twitter data (e.g., user mentions, retweets, likes, #hashtag) accumulate the users in one ground and spread information widely and quickly. Analysis of Twitter data can reflect the public attitudes, behavior, and sentiment toward a specific event on a larger scale than traditional surveys. Qatar is going to be the first Arab country to host the mega sports event FIFA World Cup 2022 (Q22). Qatar has hosted the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 (FAC21) to serve as a preparation for the mega-event. Objectives: This study investigates public sentiments and experiences about FAC21 and provides an insight to enhance the public experiences for the upcoming Q22. Method: FCA21-related tweets were downloaded using Twitter Academic research API between 01 October 2021 to 18 February 2022. Tweets were divided into three different periods: before T1 (01 Oct 2021 to 29 Nov 2021), during T2 (30 Nov 2021 -18 Dec 2021), and after the FAC21 T3 (19 Dec 2021-18 Feb 2022). The collected tweets were preprocessed in several steps to prepare for analysis; (1) removed duplicate and retweets, (2) removed emojis, punctuation, and stop words (3) normalized tweets using word lemmatization. Then, rule-based classification was applied to remove irrelevant tweets. Next, the twitter-XLM-roBERTa-base model from Huggingface was applied to identify the sentiment in the tweets. Further, state-of-the-art BertTopic modeling will be applied to identify trending topics over different periods. Results: We downloaded 8,669,875 Tweets posted by 2728220 unique users in different languages. Of those, 819,813 unique English tweets were selected in this study. After splitting into three periods, 541630, 138876, and 139307 were from T1, T2, and T3, respectively. Most of the sentiments were neutral, around 60% in different periods. However, the rate of negative sentiment (23%) was high compared to positive sentiment (18%). The analysis indicates negative concerns about FAC21. Therefore, we will apply BerTopic to identify public concerns. This study will permit the investigation of people’s expectations before FAC21 (e.g., stadium, transportation, accommodation, visa, tickets, travel, and other facilities) and ascertain whether these were met. Moreover, it will highlight public expectations and concerns. The findings of this study can assist the event organizers in enhancing implementation plans for Q22. Furthermore, this study can support policymakers with aligning strategies and plans to leverage outstanding outcomes.

Keywords: FIFA Arab Cup, FIFA, Twitter, machine learning

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Authors: Hui-Ling Yang, Kuei-Ru Chou

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Background: Studies show that cognitive training can effectively delay cognitive failure. However, there are several gaps in the previous studies of cognitive training in mild cognitive impairment: 1) previous studies enrolled mostly healthy older adults, with few recruiting older adults with cognitive impairment; 2) they also had limited generalizability and lacked long-term follow-up data and measurements of the activities of daily living functional impact. Moreover, only 37% were randomized controlled trials (RCT). 3) Limited cognitive training has been specifically developed for mild cognitive impairment. Objective: This study sought to investigate the changes in cognitive function, activities of daily living and degree of depressive symptoms in older adults with mild cognitive impairment after cognitive training. Methods: This double-blind randomized controlled study has a 2-arm parallel group design. Study subjects are older adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in residential care facilities. 124 subjects will be randomized by the permuted block randomization, into intervention group (Cognitive training, CT), or active control group (Passive information activities, PIA). Therapeutic adherence, sample attrition rate, medication compliance and adverse events will be monitored during the study period, and missing data analyzed using intent-to-treat analysis (ITT). Results: Training sessions of the CT group are 45 minutes/day, 3 days/week, for 12 weeks (36 sessions each). The training of active control group is the same as CT group (45min/day, 3days/week, for 12 weeks, for a total of 36 sessions). The primary outcome is cognitive function, using the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE); the secondary outcome indicators are: 1) activities of daily living, using the Lawton’s Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) and 2) degree of depressive symptoms, using the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short form (GDS-SF). Latent growth curve modeling will be used in the repeated measures statistical analysis to estimate the trajectory of improvement by examining the rate and pattern of change in cognitive functions, activities of daily living and degree of depressive symptoms for intervention efficacy over time, and the effects will be evaluated immediate post-test, 3 months, 6 months and one year after the last session. Conclusions: We constructed a rigorous CT program adhering to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) reporting guidelines. We expect to determine the improvement in cognitive function, activities of daily living and degree of depressive symptoms of older adults with mild cognitive impairment after using the CT.

Keywords: mild cognitive impairment, cognitive training, randomized controlled study

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Authors: T. N. Goh, M. Hashmi, O. Hussain

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Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction (TMD) is a condition that may affect patients via restricted mouth opening, significant pain during normal functioning, and/or reproducible joint noise. TMD includes myofascial pain, TMJ functional derangements (internal derangement, dislocation), and TMJ degenerative/inflammatory joint disease. Internal derangement (ID) is the most common cause of TMD-related clicking and locking. These patients are managed in a stepwise approach, from patient education (homecare advice and analgesia), splint therapy, physiotherapy, botulinum toxin treatment, to arthrocentesis. Arthrotomy is offered when the aforementioned treatment options fail to alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life. The aim of this prospective study was to review the outcomes of jaw joint open surgery in TMD patients. Patients who presented from 2015-2022 at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department in the Doncaster NHS Foundation Trust, UK, with a Wilkes classification of III -V were included. These patients underwent either i) discopexy with bone-anchoring suture (9); ii) intrapositional temporalis flap (ITF) with bone-anchoring suture (3); iii) eminoplasty and discopexy with suturing to the capsule (3); iii) discectomy + ITF with bone-anchoring suture (1); iv) discoplasty + bone-anchoring suture (1); v) ITF (1). Maximum incisal opening (MIO) was assessed pre-operatively and at each follow-up. Pain score, determined via the visual analogue scale (VAS, with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain), was also recorded. A total of 18 eligible patients were identified with a mean age of 45 (range 22 - 79), of which 16 were female. The patients were scored by Wilkes Classification as III (14), IV (1), or V (4). Twelve patients had anterior disc displacement without reduction (66%) and six had degenerative/arthritic changes (33%) to the TMJ. The open joint procedure resulted in an increase in MIO and reduction in pain VAS and for the majority of patients, across all Wilkes Classifications. Pre-procedural MIO was 22.9 ± 7.4 mm and VAS was 7.8 ± 1.5. At three months post-procedure there was an increase in MIO to 34.4 ± 10.4 mm (p < 0.01) and a decrease in the VAS to 1.5 ± 2.9 (p < 0.01). Three patients were lost to follow-up prior to six months. Six were discharged at six month review and five patients were discharged at 12 months review as they were asymptomatic with good mouth opening. Four patients are still attending for annual botulinum toxin treatment. Two patients (Wilkes III and V) subsequently underwent TMJ replacement (11%). One of these patients (Wilkes III) had improvement initially to MIO of 40 mm, but subsequently relapsed to less than 20 mm due to lack of compliance with jaw rehabilitation device post-operatively. Clinical improvements in 89% of patients within the study group were found, with a return to near normal MIO range and reduced pain score. Intraoperatively, the operator found bone-anchoring suture used for discopexy/discoplasty more secure than the soft tissue anchoring suturing technique.

Keywords: bone anchoring suture, open temporomandibular joint surgery, temporomandibular joint, temporomandibular joint dysfunction

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Authors: Linlong Mu, Maosong Huang

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Considering excavations in urban areas, the soil deformation induced by the excavations usually causes damage to the surrounding structures. Displacement control becomes a critical indicator of foundation design in order to protect the surrounding structures. Evaluation, the damage potential of the surrounding structures induced by the excavations, usually depends on the finite element method (FEM) because of the complexity of the excavation and the variety of the surrounding structures. Besides, evaluation the influence of the excavation on surrounding structures is a three-dimensional problem. And it is now well recognized that small strain behaviour of the soil influences the responses of the excavation significantly. Three-dimensional FEM considering small strain behaviour of the soil is a very complex method, which is hard for engineers to use. Thus, it is important to obtain a simplified method for engineers to predict the influence of the excavations on the surrounding structures. Based on large-scale finite element calculation with small-strain based soil model coupling with inverse analysis, an empirical method is proposed to calculate the three-dimensional soil movement induced by braced excavation. The empirical method is able to capture the small-strain behaviour of the soil. And it is suitable to be used in layered soil. Then the free-field soil movement is applied to the pile to calculate the responses of the pile in both vertical and horizontal directions. The asymmetric solutions for problems in layered elastic half-space are employed to solve the interactions between soil points. Both vertical and horizontal pile responses are solved through finite difference method based on elastic theory. Interactions among the nodes along a single pile, pile-pile interactions, pile-soil-pile interaction action and soil-soil interactions are counted to improve the calculation accuracy of the method. For passive piles, the shadow effects are also calculated in the method. Finally, the restrictions of the raft on the piles and the soils are summarized as: (1) the summations of the internal forces between the elements of the raft and the elements of the foundation, including piles and soil surface elements, is equal to 0; (2) the deformations of pile heads or of the soil surface elements are the same as the deformations of the corresponding elements of the raft. Validations are carried out by comparing the results from the proposed method with the results from the model tests, FEM and other existing literatures. From the comparisons, it can be seen that the results from the proposed method fit with the results from other methods very well. The method proposed herein is suitable to predict the responses of the pile-raft foundation induced by braced excavation in layered soil in both vertical and horizontal directions when the deformation is small. However, more data is needed to verify the method before it can be used in practice.

Keywords: excavation, pile-raft foundation, passive piles, deformation control, soil movement

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Authors: Dimitrios Kafetzopoulos

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Nowadays, companies are more concerned with adopting their own strategies for increased efficiency and sustainability. Dynamic environments are fertile fields for developing operational changes. For this purpose, organizations need to implement an advanced management philosophy that boosts changes to companies’ operation. Changes refer to new applications of knowledge, ideas, methods, and skills that can generate unique capabilities and leverage an organization’s competitiveness. So, in order to survive and compete in the global and niche markets, companies should incorporate the adoption of operational changes into their strategy with regard to their products and their processes. Creating the appropriate culture for changes in terms of products and processes helps companies to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the market. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of both incremental and radical changes into operations of a company, taking into consideration not only product changes but also process changes, and continues by measuring the impact of these two types of changes on business efficiency and sustainability of Greek manufacturing companies. The above discussion leads to the following hypotheses: H1: Radical operational changes have a positive impact on firm efficiency. H2: Incremental operational changes have a positive impact on firm efficiency. H3: Radical operational changes have a positive impact on firm sustainability. H4: Incremental operational changes have a positive impact on firm sustainability. In order to achieve the objectives of the present study, a research study was carried out in Greek manufacturing firms. A total of 380 valid questionnaires were received while a seven-point Likert scale was used to measure all the questionnaire items of the constructs (radical changes, incremental changes, efficiency and sustainability). The constructs of radical and incremental operational changes, each one as one variable, has been subdivided into product and process changes. Non-response bias, common method variance, multicollinearity, multivariate normal distribution and outliers have been checked. Moreover, the unidimensionality, reliability and validity of the latent factors were assessed. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were applied to check the factorial structure of the constructs and the factor loadings of the items. In order to test the research hypotheses, the SEM technique was applied (maximum likelihood method). The goodness of fit of the basic structural model indicates an acceptable fit of the proposed model. According to the present study findings, radical operational changes and incremental operational changes significantly influence both efficiency and sustainability of Greek manufacturing firms. However, it is in the dimension of radical operational changes, meaning those in process and product, that the most significant contributors to firm efficiency are to be found, while its influence on sustainability is low albeit statistically significant. On the contrary, incremental operational changes influence sustainability more than firms’ efficiency. From the above, it is apparent that the embodiment of the concept of the changes into the products and processes operational practices of a firm has direct and positive consequences for what it achieves from efficiency and sustainability perspective.

Keywords: incremental operational changes, radical operational changes, efficiency, sustainability

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Authors: Akindele Ojo, Olanike Ojo, Agatha Oseghale

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The empirical study examined the allocative efficiency of small holder tuber crop farmers in North central, Nigeria. Data used for the study were obtained from primary source using a multi-stage sampling technique with structured questionnaires administered to 300 randomly selected tuber crop farmers from the study area. Descriptive statistics, data envelopment analysis and Tobit regression model were used to analyze the data. The DEA result on the classification of the farmers into efficient and inefficient farmers showed that 17.67% of the sampled tuber crop farmers in the study area were operating at frontier and optimum level of production with mean allocative efficiency of 1.00. This shows that 82.33% of the farmers in the study area can still improve on their level of efficiency through better utilization of available resources, given the current state of technology. The results of the Tobit model for factors influencing allocative inefficiency in the study area showed that as the year of farming experience, level of education, cooperative society membership, extension contacts, credit access and farm size increased in the study area, the allocative inefficiency of the farmers decreased. The results on effects of the significant determinants of allocative inefficiency at various distribution levels revealed that allocative efficiency increased from 22% to 34% as the farmer acquired more farming experience. The allocative efficiency index of farmers that belonged to cooperative society was 0.23 while their counterparts without cooperative society had index value of 0.21. The result also showed that allocative efficiency increased from 0.43 as farmer acquired high formal education and decreased to 0.16 with farmers with non-formal education. The efficiency level in the allocation of resources increased with more contact with extension services as the allocative efficeincy index increased from 0.16 to 0.31 with frequency of extension contact increasing from zero contact to maximum of twenty contacts per annum. These results confirm that increase in year of farming experience, level of education, cooperative society membership, extension contacts, credit access and farm size leads to increases efficiency. The results further show that the age of the farmers had 32% input to the efficiency but reduces to an average of 15%, as the farmer grows old. It is therefore recommended that enhanced research, extension delivery and farm advisory services should be put in place for farmers who did not attain optimum frontier level to learn how to attain the remaining 74.39% level of allocative efficiency through a better production practices from the robustly efficient farms. This will go a long way to increase the efficiency level of the farmers in the study area.

Keywords: allocative efficiency, DEA, Tobit regression, tuber crop

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Authors: Michael Nolte, Iwona Kasior, Kala Flagg, Spiro Karavatas

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Background: Cryotherapy has been used as a post-exercise recovery modality for decades. Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) is an intervention which involves brief exposures to extremely cold air in order to induce therapeutic effects. It is currently being investigated for its effectiveness in treating certain exercise-induced impairments. Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review was to determine whether WBC as a recovery intervention is more, less, or equally as effective as other interventions at reducing perceived levels of muscle soreness and promoting recovery of muscle function after exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) from running. Methods: A systematic review of the current literature was performed utilizing the following MeSH terms: cryotherapy, whole-body cryotherapy, exercise-induced muscle damage, muscle soreness, muscle recovery, and running. The databases utilized were PubMed, CINAHL, EBSCO Host, and Google Scholar. Articles were included if they were published within the last ten years, had a CEBM level of evidence of IIb or higher, had a PEDro scale score of 5 or higher, studied runners as primary subjects, and utilized both perceived levels of muscle soreness and recovery of muscle function as dependent variables. Articles were excluded if subjects did not include runners, if the interventions included PBC instead of WBC, and if both muscle performance and perceived muscle soreness were not assessed within the study. Results: Two of the four articles revealed that WBC was significantly more effective than treatment interventions such as far-infrared radiation and passive recovery at reducing perceived levels of muscle soreness and restoring muscle power and endurance following simulated trail runs and high-intensity interval running, respectively. One of the four articles revealed no significant difference between WBC and passive recovery in terms of reducing perceived muscle soreness and restoring muscle power following sprint intervals. One of the four articles revealed that WBC had a harmful effect compared to CWI and passive recovery on both perceived muscle soreness and recovery of muscle strength and power following a marathon. Discussion/Conclusion: Though there was no consensus in terms of WBC’s effectiveness at treating exercise-induced muscle damage following running compared to other interventions, it seems as though WBC may at least have a time-dependent positive effect on muscle soreness and recovery following high-intensity interval runs and endurance running, marathons excluded. More research needs to be conducted in order to determine the most effective way to implement WBC as a recovery method for exercise-induced muscle damage, including the optimal temperature, timing, duration, and frequency of treatment.

Keywords: cryotherapy, physical therapy intervention, physical therapy, whole body cryotherapy

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Authors: María Luisa Gonzalez-SanJose, Mihaela Mihnea, Vicente Gomez-Miguel

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The zoning methodology currently recommended by the OIVV as official methodology to carry out viticulture zoning studies and to define and delimit the ‘terroirs’ has been applied in this study. This methodology has been successfully applied on the most significant an important Spanish Oenological D.O. regions, such as Ribera de Duero, Rioja, Rueda and Toro, but also it have been applied around the world in Portugal, different countries of South America, and so on. This is a complex methodology that uses edaphoclimatic data but also other corresponding to vineyards and other soils’ uses The methodology is useful to determine Homogeneous Soil Units (HSU) to different scale depending on the interest of each study, and has been applied from viticulture regions to particular vineyards. It seems that this methodology is an appropriate method to delimit correctly the medium in order to enhance its uses and to obtain the best viticulture and oenological products. The present work is focused on the comparison of volatile composition of wines made from grapes grown in different HSU that coexist in a particular viticulture region of Castile-Lion cited near to Burgos. Three different HSU were selected for this study. They represented around of 50% of the global area of vineyards of the studied region. Five different vineyards on each HSU under study were chosen. To reduce variability factors, other criteria were also considered as grape variety, clone, rootstocks, vineyard’s age, training systems and cultural practices. This study was carried out during three consecutive years, then wine from three different vintage were made and analysed. Different red wines were made from grapes harvested in the different vineyards under study. Grapes were harvested to ‘Technological maturity’, which are correlated with adequate levels of sugar, acidity, phenolic content (nowadays named phenolic maturity), good sanitary stages and adequate levels of aroma precursors. Results of the volatile profile of the wines produced from grapes of each HSU showed significant differences among them pointing out a direct effect of the edaphoclimatic characteristic of each UHT on the composition of the grapes and then on the volatile composition of the wines. Variability induced by HSU co-existed with the well-known inter-annual variability correlated mainly with the specific climatic conditions of each vintage, however was most intense, so the wine of each HSU were perfectly differenced. A discriminant analysis allowed to define the volatiles with discriminant capacities which were 21 of the 74 volatiles analysed. Detected discriminant volatiles were chemical different, although .most of them were esters, followed by were superior alcohols and fatty acid of short chain. Only one lactone and two aldehydes were selected as discriminant variable, and no varietal aroma compounds were selected, which agree with the fact that all the wine were made from the same grape variety.

Keywords: viticulture zoning, terroir, wine, volatile profile

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Authors: Anjula Negi, D. T. V. Raghu Ramaswamy, Rajneesh Sareen

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Road infrastructure is emphatically one of the top most critical infrastructure to the Indian economy. Road network in the country of around 3.3 million km is the second largest in the world. Nationwide statistics released by Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways reveal that every minute an accident happens and one death every 3.7 minutes. This reported scale in terms of safety is a matter of grave concern, and economically represents a national loss of 3% to the GDP. Union Budget 2016-17 has allocated USD 12 billion annually for development and strengthening of roads, an increase of 56% from last year. Thus, highlighting the importance of roads as critical infrastructure. National highway alone represent only 1.7% of the total road linkages, however, carry over 40% of traffic. Further, trends analysed from 2002 -2011 on national highways, indicate that in less than a decade, a 22 % increase in accidents have been reported, but, 68% increase in death fatalities. Paramount inference is that accident severity has increased with time. Over these years many measures to increase road safety, lessening damage to physical assets, reducing vulnerabilities leading to a build-up for resilient road infrastructure have been taken. In the context of national highway development program, policy makers proposed implementation of around 20 % of such road length on PPP mode. These roads were taken up on high-density traffic considerations and for qualitative implementation. In order to understand resilience impacts and safety parameters, enshrined in various PPP concession agreements executed with the private sector partners, such highway specific projects would be appraised. This research paper would attempt to assess such safety measures taken and the possible reasons behind an increase in accident severity through these PPP case study projects. Delving further on safety features to understand policy measures adopted in these cases and an introspection on reasons of severity, whether an outcome of increased speeds, faulty road design and geometrics, driver negligence, or due to lack of discipline in following lane traffic with increased speed. Assessment exercise would study these aspects hitherto to PPP and post PPP project structures, based on literature review and opinion surveys with sectoral experts. On the way forward, it is understood that the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway’s estimate for strengthening the national highway network is USD 77 billion within next five years. The outcome of this paper would provide an understanding of resilience measures adopted, possible options for accessible and safe road network and its expansion to policy makers for possible policy initiatives and funding allocation in securing critical infrastructure.

Keywords: national highways, policy, PPP, safety

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Authors: Valeria Panzetta, Ida Musella, Sabato Fusco, Paolo Antonio Netti

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The study of the biophysics of living cells drew attention to the pivotal role of the cytoskeleton in many cell functions, such as mechanics, adhesion, proliferation, migration, differentiation and neoplastic transformation. In particular, during the complex process of malignant transformation and invasion cell cytoskeleton devolves from a rigid and organized structure to a more compliant state, which confers to the cancer cells a great ability to migrate and adapt to the extracellular environment. In order to better understand the malignant transformation process from a mechanical point of view, it is necessary to evaluate the direct crosstalk between the cells and their surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) in a context which is close to in vivo conditions. In this study, human biopsy tissues of lung adenocarcinoma were analyzed in order to define their mechanical phenotype at cell and ECM level, by using particle tracking microrheology (PTM) technique. Polystyrene beads (500 nm) were introduced into the sample slice. The motion of beads was obtained by tracking their displacements across cell cytoskeleton and ECM structures and mean squared displacements (MSDs) were calculated from bead trajectories. It has been already demonstrated that the amplitude of MSD is inversely related to the mechanical properties of intracellular and extracellular microenvironment. For this reason, MSDs of particles introduced in cytoplasm and ECM of healthy and tumor tissues were compared. PTM analyses showed that cancerous transformation compromises mechanical integrity of cells and extracellular matrix. In particular, the MSD amplitudes in cells of adenocarcinoma were greater as compared to cells of normal tissues. The increased motion is probably associated to a less structured cytoskeleton and consequently to an increase of deformability of cells. Further, cancer transformation is also accompanied by extracellular matrix stiffening, as confirmed by the decrease of MSDs of matrix in tumor tissue, a process that promotes tumor proliferation and invasiveness, by activating typical oncogenic signaling pathways. In addition, a clear correlation between MSDs of cells and tumor grade was found. MSDs increase when tumor grade passes from 2 to 3, indicating that cells undergo to a trans-differentiation process during tumor progression. ECM stiffening is not dependent on tumor grade, but the tumor stage resulted to be strictly correlated with both cells and ECM mechanical properties. In fact, a greater stage is assigned to tumor spread to regional lymph nodes and characterized by an up-regulation of different ECM proteins, such as collagen I fibers. These results indicate that PTM can be used to get nanomechanical characterization at different scale levels in an interpretative and diagnostic context.

Keywords: cytoskeleton, extracellular matrix, mechanical properties, particle tracking microrheology, tumor

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Authors: Fatima Zahra Falah, Touria El. Ghailassi, Samia Yousfi, Ahmed Moussaif, Hasna Hamdane, Mouna Latifa Bouamrani

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The management and treatment of radioactive wastewater pose significant challenges to environmental safety and public health. This study presents an innovative approach to optimizing radioactive wastewater treatment using a novel biosorbent: chitosan-argan nutshell beads. By employing Response Surface Methodology (RSM), we aimed to determine the optimal conditions for maximum removal efficiency of radioactive contaminants. Chitosan, a biodegradable and non-toxic biopolymer, was combined with argan nutshell powder to create composite beads. The argan nutshell, a waste product from argan oil production, provides additional adsorption sites and mechanical stability to the biosorbent. The beads were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to confirm their structure and composition. A three-factor, three-level Box-Behnken design was utilized to investigate the effects of pH (3-9), contact time (30-150 minutes), and adsorbent dosage (0.5-2.5 g/L) on the removal efficiency of radioactive isotopes, primarily focusing on cesium-137. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted using synthetic radioactive wastewater with known concentrations of these isotopes. The RSM analysis revealed that all three factors significantly influenced the adsorption process. A quadratic model was developed to describe the relationship between the factors and the removal efficiency. The model's adequacy was confirmed through analysis of variance (ANOVA) and various diagnostic plots. Optimal conditions for maximum removal efficiency were pH 6.8, a contact time of 120 minutes, and an adsorbent dosage of 0.8 g/L. Under these conditions, the experimental removal efficiency for cesium-137 was 94.7%, closely matching the model's predictions. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics were also investigated to elucidate the mechanism of the process. The Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model best described the adsorption behavior, indicating a monolayer adsorption process on a homogeneous surface. This study demonstrates the potential of chitosan-argan nutshell beads as an effective and sustainable biosorbent for radioactive wastewater treatment. The use of RSM allowed for the efficient optimization of the process parameters, potentially reducing the time and resources required for large-scale implementation. Future work will focus on testing the biosorbent's performance with real radioactive wastewater samples and investigating its regeneration and reusability for long-term applications.

Keywords: adsorption, argan nutshell, beads, chitosan, mechanism, optimization, radioactive wastewater, response surface methodology

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Authors: Neha Pranav Kolhe, Harithapriya Vijaye, Arushi Kamle

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The economic growth engines are urban regions. As the economy expands, so does the need for peace and quiet, and noise pollution is one of the important social and environmental issue. Health and wellbeing are at risk from environmental noise pollution. Because of urbanisation, population growth, and the consequent rise in the usage of increasingly potent, diverse, and highly mobile sources of noise, it is now more severe and pervasive than ever before, and it will only become worse. Additionally, it will expand as long as there is an increase in air, train, and highway traffic, which continue to be the main contributors of noise pollution. The current study will be conducted in two zones of class I city of central India (population range: 1 million–4 million). Total 56 measuring points were chosen to assess noise pollution. The first objective evaluates the noise pollution in various urban habitats determined as formal and informal settlement. It identifies the comparison of noise pollution within the settlements using T- Test analysis. The second objective assess the noise pollution in silent zones (as stated in Central Pollution Control Board) in a hierarchical way. It also assesses the noise pollution in the settlements and compares with prescribed permissible limits using class I sound level equipment. As appropriate indices, equivalent noise level on the (A) frequency weighting network, minimum sound pressure level and maximum sound pressure level were computed. The survey is conducted for a period of 1 week. Arc GIS is used to plot and map the temporal and spatial variability in urban settings. It is discovered that noise levels at most stations, particularly at heavily trafficked crossroads and subway stations, were significantly different and higher than acceptable limits and squares. The study highlights the vulnerable areas that should be considered while city planning. The study demands area level planning while preparing a development plan. It also demands attention to noise pollution from the perspective of residential and silent zones. The city planning in urban areas neglects the noise pollution assessment at city level. This contributes to that, irrespective of noise pollution guidelines, the ground reality is far away from its applicability. The result produces incompatible land use on a neighbourhood scale with respect to noise pollution. The study's final results will be useful to policymakers, architects and administrators in developing countries. This will be useful for noise pollution in urban habitat governance by efficient decision making and policy formulation to increase the profitability of these systems.

Keywords: noise pollution, formal settlements, informal settlements, built environment, silent zone, residential area

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Authors: Celine Davis

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The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, which has detrimental respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological effects impacting over one million lives in the United States. New researches has emerged indicating long-term neurologic consequences in those who survive COVID-19 infections, including more than seven million Americans and another 27 million people worldwide. These consequences include attentional deficits, memory impairments, executive function deficits and aphasia-like symptoms which fall within the purview of speech-language pathology. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States. The NHIS is one of the most significant sources of health-related data in the country and has been conducted since 1957. The longitudinal nature of the study allows for analysis of trends in various variables over the years, which can be essential for understanding societal changes and making treatment recommendations. This current study will utilize NHIS data from 2020-2022 which contained interview questions specifically related to COVID-19. Adult cases of individuals between the ages of 18-50 diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States during 2020-2022 will be identified using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Multiple regression analysis of self-reported data confirming COVID-19 infection status and challenges with concentration, communication, and memory will be performed. Latent class analysis will be utilized to identify subgroups in the population to indicate whether certain demographic groups have higher susceptibility to cognitive-linguistic deficits associated with COVID-19. Completion of this study will reveal whether there is an association between confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and heightened incidence of cognitive deficits and subsequent implications, if any, on activities of daily living. This study is distinct in its aim to utilize national survey data to explore the relationship between confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and the prevalence of cognitive-communication deficits with a secondary focus on resulting activity limitations. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this will be the first large-scale epidemiological study investigating the associations between cognitive-linguistic deficits, COVID-19 and implications on activities of daily living in the United States population. These findings will highlight the need for targeted interventions and support services to address the cognitive-communication needs of individuals recovering from COVID-19, thereby enhancing their overall well-being and functional outcomes.

Keywords: cognition, COVID-19, language, limitations, memory, NHIS

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Authors: Tamara Anderson, Neela Badrie

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Plant phenolics which are found in red grape wine, have received considerable attention due to their potential antioxidant activity. Grape by-products contain large amounts of phenolic compounds, mostly flavonoids at high concentrations of 1000-1800 mg/L. Plant phenolics contribute to the flavor, and nutritional value. Sorrel or roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) belongs to the family Malvaceae. The brilliant red pigments in sorrel calyces contain anthocyanins which are the major sources of antioxidant capacity. Consumers are demanding novel beverages that are healthier, convenient and have appealing consumer acceptance. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of adding grape polyphenols and the influence of presenting health claims on the sensory acceptability of the wines. Fresh red sorrel calyces were fermented into wines. The total soluble solids of the pectinase-treated sorrel puree were from 4°Brix to 23.8°Brix. Polyphenol in the form of grape pomace extract was added to sorrel wines (w/v) in specified levels to give 0. 25. 50 and 75 ppm. A focus group comprising of 12 panelists was use to select the level of polyphenol to be added to sorrel wines for sensory preference The sensory attributed of the wines which were evaluated were colour, clarity, aroma, flavor, mouth-feel, sweetness, astringency and overall preference. The sorrel wine which was most preferred from focus group evaluation was presented for hedonic rating. In the first stage of hedonic testing, the sorrel wine was served chilled at 7°C for 24 h prior to sensory evaluation. Each panelist was provided with a questionnaire and was asked to rate the wines on colour, aroma, flavor, mouth-feel, sweetness, astringency and overall acceptability using a 9-point hedonic scale. In the second stage of hedonic testing, the panelist were instructed to read a health abstract on the health benefits of polyphenolic compounds and again to rate sorrel wine with added 25 ppm polyphenol. Paired t-test was used for the analysis of the influence of presenting health information on polyphenols on hedonic scoring of sorrel wines. Focus groups found that the addition of polyphenol addition had no significant effect on sensory color and aroma but affected clarity and flavor. A 25 ppm wine was liked moderately in overall acceptability. The presentation of information on the health benefit of polyphenols in sorrel wines to panelists had no significant influence on the sensory acceptance of wine. More than half of panelists would drink this wine now and then. This wine had color L 19.86±0.68, chroma 2.10±0.12, hue° 16.90 ±3.10 and alcohol content of 13.0%. The sorrel wine was liked moderately in overall acceptability with the added polyphenols.

Keywords: sorrel wines, Roselle Hibiscus sabdariffa L, novel wine, polyphenols, health benefits, physicochemical properties

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Authors: M. Moncef Khaddar

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This paper focuses mainly on a contextualized understanding of ‘autocratic authoritarianism’ in Tunisia without approaching its peculiarities in reference to the ideal type of capitalist-liberal democracy but rather analysing it as a Tunisian ‘civilian dictatorship’. This is reminiscent, to some extent, of the French ‘colonial authoritarianism’ in parallel with the legacy of the traditional formal monarchic absolutism. The Tunisian autocratic political system is here construed as a state manufactured nationalist-populist authoritarianism associated with a de facto presidential single party, two successive autocratic presidents and their subservient autocratic elites who ruled with an iron fist the de-colonialized ‘liberated nation’ that came to be subjected to a large scale oppression and domination under the new Tunisian Republic. The diachronic survey of Tunisia’s autocratic authoritarian system covers the early years of autocracy, under the first autocratic president Bourguiba, 1957-1987, as well as the different stages of its consolidation into a police-security state under the second autocratic president, Ben Ali, 1987-2011. Comparing the policies of authoritarian regimes, within what is identified synchronically as a bi-cephalous autocratic system, entails an in-depth study of the two autocrats, who ruled Tunisia for more than half a century, as modern adaptable autocrats. This is further supported by an exploration of the ruling authoritarian autocratic elites who played a decisive role in shaping the undemocratic state-society relations, under the 1st and 2nd President, and left an indelible mark, structurally and ideologically, on Tunisian polity. Emphasis is also put on the members of the governmental and state-party institutions and apparatuses that kept circulating and recycling from one authoritarian regime to another, and from the first ‘founding’ autocrat to his putschist successor who consolidated authoritarian stability, political continuity and autocratic governance. The reconfiguration of Tunisian political life, in the post-autocratic era, since 2011 will be analysed. This will be scrutinized, especially in light of the unexpected return of many high-profile figures and old guards of the autocratic authoritarian apparatchiks. How and why were, these public figures, from an autocratic era, able to return in a supposedly post-revolutionary moment? Finally, while some continue to celebrate the putative exceptional success of ‘democratic transition’ in Tunisia, within a context of ‘unfinished revolution’, others remain perplexed in the face of a creeping ‘oligarchic transition’ to a ‘hybrid regime’, characterized rather by elites’ reformist tradition than a bottom-up genuine democratic ‘change’. This latter is far from answering the 2010 ordinary people’s ‘uprisings’ and ‘aspirations, for ‘Dignity, Liberty and Social Justice’.

Keywords: authoritarianism, autocracy, democratization, democracy, populism, transition, Tunisia

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Authors: Naava Dihi, Jon Anson

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Love, so it appears, is not socially blind. We show that partner selection is socially constrained, and the freedom to choose is limited by at least two major factors or capitals: on the one hand, material resources and education, locating the partners on a scale of personal achievement and economic independence. On the other, the partners' ascriptive belonging to particular ethnic, or origin, groups, differentiated by the groups' social prestige, as well as by their culture, history and even physical characteristics. However, the relative importance of achievement and ascriptive factors, as well as the overlap between them, varies from society to society, depending on the society's structure and the factors shaping it. Israeli social structure has been shaped by the waves of new immigrants who arrived over the years. The timing of their arrival, their patterns of physical settlement and their occupational inclusion or exclusion have together created a mosaic of social groups whose principal common feature has been the country of origin from which they arrived. The analysis of marriage patterns helps illuminate the social meanings of the groups and their borders. To the extent that ethnic group membership has meaning for individuals and influences their life choices, the ascriptive factor will gain in importance relative to the achievement factor in their choice of marriage partner. In this research, we examine Jewish Israeli marriage patterns by looking at the marriage choices of 5,041 women aged 15 to 49 who were single at the census in 1983, and who were married at the time of the 1995 census, 12 years later. The database for this study was a file linking respondents from the 1983 and the 1995 censuses. In both cases, 5 percent of household were randomly chosen, so that our sample includes about 4 percent of women in Israel in 1983. We present three basic analyses: (1) Who was still single in 1983, using personal and household data from the 1983 census (binomial model), (2) Who married between 1983 and a1995, using personal and household data from the 1983 census (binomial model), (3) What were the personal characteristics of the womens’ partners in 1995, using data from the 1995 census (loglinear model). We show (i) that material and cultural capital both operate to delay marriage and to increase the probability of remaining single; and (ii) while there is a clear association between ethnic group membership and education, endogamy and homogamy both operate as separate forces which constraint (but do not determine) the choice of marriage partner, and thus both serve to reproduce the current pattern of relationships, as well as identifying patterns of proximity and distance between the different groups.

Keywords: Israel, nuptiality, ascription, achievement

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Authors: C. D. Ellis, H. Xia, X. Chen

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Experimental and computational studies investigating heat transfer in separated flows have been of increasing importance over the last 60 years, as efforts are being made to understand and improve the efficiency of components such as combustors, turbines, heat exchangers, nuclear reactors and cooling channels. Understanding of not only the time-mean heat transfer properties but also the unsteady properties is vital for design of these components. As computational power increases, more sophisticated methods of modelling these flows become available for use. The hybrid LES-RANS approach has been applied to a blunt leading edge flat plate, utilising a structured grid at a moderate Reynolds number of 20300 based on the plate thickness. In the region close to the wall, the RANS method is implemented for two turbulence models; the one equation Spalart-Allmaras model and Menter’s two equation SST k-ω model. The LES region occupies the flow away from the wall and is formulated without any explicit subgrid scale LES modelling. Hybridisation is achieved between the two methods by the blending of the nearest wall distance. Validation of the flow was obtained by assessing the mean velocity profiles in comparison to similar studies. Identifying the vortex structures of the flow was obtained by utilising the λ2 criterion to identify vortex cores. The qualitative structure of the flow compared with experiments of similar Reynolds number. This identified the 2D roll up of the shear layer, breaking down via the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Through this instability the flow progressed into hairpin like structures, elongating as they advanced downstream. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) analysis has been performed on the full flow field and upon the surface temperature of the plate. As expected, the breakdown of POD modes for the full field revealed a relatively slow decay compared to the surface temperature field. Both POD fields identified the most energetic fluctuations occurred in the separated and recirculation region of the flow. Latter modes of the surface temperature identified these levels of fluctuations to dominate the time-mean region of maximum heat transfer and flow reattachment. In addition to the current research, work will be conducted in tracking the movement of the vortex cores and the location and magnitude of temperature hot spots upon the plate. This information will support the POD and statistical analysis performed to further identify qualitative relationships between the vortex dynamics and the response of the surface heat transfer.

Keywords: heat transfer, hybrid LES-RANS, separated and reattached flow, vortex dynamics

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Authors: Zhe Wang

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The fashion week, as a critical international fashion event in shaping world fashion cities, is one of the most significant world events that serves as the core medium for designers to stage new collections. However, its role in bringing about and shaping design ideologies of major fashion cities have long been neglected from a fashion ecosystem perspective. With the expanding scale of international fashion weeks in terms of culture and commerce, the organizational structures of these fashion weeks are becoming more complex. In the emerging fashion city, typified by Shanghai, a newly-formed 'hodgepodge' transforming the current global fashion ecosystem. A city’s legitimate fashion institutions, typically the organizers of international fashion weeks, have cultivated various cultural characteristics via rules and regulations pertaining to international fashion weeks. Under these circumstances, designers’ participatory behaviors, specifically show design and production, are influenced by the cultural ideologies of official organizers and institutions. This research compares international based Chinese (IBC) independent designers’ participatory behavior in London and Shanghai Fashion Weeks: specifically, the way designers present their clothing and show production. both of which are found to be profoundly influenced by cultural and design ideologies of fashion weeks. They are, to a large degree, manipulated by domestic institutions and organizers. Shanghai fashion week has given rise to a multiple, mass-ended entertainment carnival design and cultural ideology in Shanghai, thereby impacting the explicit cultural codes or intangible rules that IBC designers must adhere to when designing and producing fashion shows. Therefore, influenced by various cultural characteristics in the two cities, IBC designers’ show design and productions, in turn, play an increasingly vital role in shaping the design characteristic of an international fashion week. Through researching the organizational systems and design preferences of organizers of London and Shanghai fashion weeks, this paper demonstrates the embeddedness of design systems in the forming of design ideologies under various cultural and institutional contexts. The core methodology utilized in this research is ethnography. As a crucial part of a Ph.D. project on innovations in fashion shows under a cross-cultural context run by Edinburgh College of Art, School of Design, the fashion week’s organizational culture in various cultural contexts is investigated in London and Shanghai for approximately six months respectively. Two IBC designers, Angel Chen and Xuzhi Chen were followed during their participation of London and Shanghai Fashion Weeks from September 2016 to June 2017, during which two consecutive seasons were researched in order to verify the consistency of design ideologies’ associations with organizational system and culture.

Keywords: institutional ideologies, international fashion weeks, IBC independent designers; fashion show

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Authors: Sevket Ceyhun Cetin, Mehmet Oren

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According to existing educational research studies, students learn better with high teacher quality. Therefore, professional development has become a crucial way of increasing the quality of novices and veteran in-service teachers by providing support regarding content and pedagogy. To answer what makes PD effective, researchers have studied different PD models and revealed some critical elements that need to be considered, such as duration of a PD and the manner of delivery (e.g., lecture vs. engaging). Also, it has been pointed out that if PDs are prepared as one-size-fits-all, they most likely be ineffective in addressing teachers’ needs toward improving instructional quality. Instead, teachers’ voices need to be heard, and the foci of PDs should be determined based on their specific needs. Thus, this study was conducted to identify professional development needs of middle school mathematics teachers based on their self-evaluation of their performances in light of teaching standards. This study also aimed to explore whether the PD needs with respect to years of teaching experience (novice vs. veteran). These teachers had participated in a federally-funded research grant, which aimed to improve the competencies of 6-9 grade-level mathematics teachers in pedagogy and content areas. In the research project, the participants had consistently videoed their lessons throughout a school year and reflected on their performances, using Teacher Advanced Program (TAPTM) rubric, which was based on the best practices of teaching. Particularly, they scored their performances in the following areas and provided evidence as the justifications of their scores: Standards and Objectives, Presenting Instructional Content, Lesson Structure and Pacing, Activities and Materials, Academic Feedback, Grouping Students, and Questioning. The rating scale of the rubric is 1 through 5 (i.e., 1=Unsatisfactory [performance], 3=Proficient, and 5=Exemplary). For each area mentioned above, the numerical scores of 77 written reports (for 77 videoed lessons) of 24 teachers (nnovices=12 and nveteran=12) were averaged. Overall, the average score of each area was below 3 (ranging between 2.43 and 2.86); in other words, teachers judged their performances incompetent across the seven areas. In the second step of the data analysis, the lowest three areas in which novice and veteran teachers performed poorly were selected for further qualitative analysis. According to the preliminary results, the lowest three areas for the novice teachers were: Questioning, Grouping Students, and Academic Feedback. Grouping Students was also one of the lowest areas of the veteran teachers, but the other two areas for this group were: Lesson Structure & Pacing, and Standards & Objectives. Identifying in-service teachers’ needs based on their reflective practitioner experiences provides educators very crucial information that can be used to create more effective PD that improves teacher quality.

Keywords: mathematics teacher, professional development, self-reflection, video data

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Authors: Bagam Venkateswarlu

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NMDC Limited, Indian multinational mining company operates under administrative control of Ministry of Steel, Government of India. This study is undertaken to evaluate how sustainable mining practiced by the company fulfils the provisions of Indian Constitution to secure to its citizen – justice, equality of status and opportunity, promoting social, economic, political, and religious wellbeing. The Constitution of India lays down a road map as to how the goal of being a “Welfare State” shall be achieved. The vision of sustainable mining being practiced is oriented along the constitutional responsibilities on Indian Citizens and the Corporate World. This qualitative study shall be backed by quantitative studies of National Mineral Development Corporation performances in various domains of sustainable mining and ESG, that is, environment, social and governance parameters. For example, Five Star Rating of mine is a comprehensive evaluation system introduced by Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India is one of the methodologies. Corporate Social Responsibilities is one of the thrust areas for securing social well-being. Green energy initiatives in and around the mines has given the title of “Eco-Friendly Miner” to NMDC Limited. While operating fully mechanized large scale iron ore mine (18.8 million tonne per annum capacity) in Bacheli, Chhattisgarh, M/s NMDC Limited caters to the needs of mineral security of State of Chhattisgarh and Indian Union. It preserves forest, wild-life, and environment heritage of richly endowed State of Chhattisgarh. In the remote and far-flung interiors of Chhattisgarh, NMDC empowers the local population by providing world class educational & medical facilities, transportation network, drinking water facilities, irrigational agricultural supports, employment opportunities, establishing religious harmony. All this ultimately results in empowered, educated, and improved awareness in population. Thus, the basic tenets of constitution of India- secularism, democracy, welfare for all, socialism, humanism, decentralization, liberalism, mixed economy, and non-violence is fulfilled. Constitution declares India as a welfare state – for the people, of the people and by the people. The sustainable mining practices by NMDC are in line with the objective. Thus, the purpose of study is fully met with. The potential benefit of the study includes replicating this model in existing or new establishments in various parts of country – especially in the under-privileged interiors and far-flung areas which are yet to see the lights of development.

Keywords: ESG values, Indian constitution, NMDC limited, sustainable mining, CSR, green energy

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Authors: Caitlin Bailey, Marian Frattarola Saulino, Beth Steinberg

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Today, virtually all programs offered to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities tout themselves as person-centered, community-based and inclusive, yet there is a vast range in type and quality of services that use these similar descriptors. The issue is exacerbated by the fields’ measurement practices around quality, inclusion, independent living, choice and person-centered outcomes. For instance, community inclusion for people with disabilities is often measured by the number of times person steps into his or her community. These measurement approaches set standards for quality too low so that agencies supporting group home residents to go bowling every week can report the same outcomes as an agency that supports one person to join a book club that includes people based on their literary interests rather than disability labels. Ultimately, lack of delineation in measurement contributes to the confusion between face value “quality” and true quality services and supports for many people with disabilities and their families. This exploratory study adopts alternative approaches to quality measurement including co-production methods and systems theoretical framework in order to identify the factors that 1) lead to high-quality supports and, 2) differentiate high-quality services. Project researchers have partnered with community practitioners who are all committed to providing quality services and supports but vary in the degree to which they are actually able to provide them. The study includes two parts; first, an online survey distributed to more than 500 agencies that have demonstrated commitment to providing high-quality services; and second, four in-depth case studies with agencies in three United States and Israel providing a variety of supports to children and adults with disabilities. Results from both the survey and in-depth case studies were thematically analyzed and coded. Results show that there are specific factors that differentiate service quality; however meaningful quality measurement practices also require that researchers explore the contextual factors that contribute to quality. These not only include direct services and interactions, but also characteristics of service users, their environments as well as organizations providing services, such as management and funding structures, culture and leadership. Findings from this study challenge researchers, policy makers and practitioners to examine existing quality service standards and measurements and to adopt alternate methodologies and solutions to differentiate and scale up evidence-based quality practices so that all people with disabilities have access to services that support them to live, work, and enjoy where and with whom they choose.

Keywords: co-production, inclusion, independent living, quality measurement, quality supports

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Authors: Joël Passicousset, David Gilbert, Chloé Chervier-Legourd, Emmanuel Caron-Garant, Didier Labarre

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Living soil agriculture tries to reconciliate food production while improving soil health, soil biodiversity, soil fertility and more generally attenuating the inherent environmental drawbacks induced by modern agriculture. Using appropriate organic materials as soil amendments has a role to play in the aim of increasing the soil organic matter, improving soil fertility, sequestering carbon, and diminishing the dependence on both mineral fertilizer and pesticides. Insect farming consists in producing insects that can be used as a rich-in-protein and entomo-based food. Usually, detritivores are chosen, thus they can be fed with food wastes, which contributes to circular economy while producing low-carbon food. This process also produces frass, made of insect feces, exuvial material, and non-digested fibrous material, that have valuable fertilizer and biostimulation properties. But frass, used as a sole fertilizer on a crop may be not completely adequate for plants’ needs. This is why this project considers black soldier fly (termed BSF, one of the three main insect species grown commercially) frass as a complementary fertilizer, both in organic and in conventional contexts. Three kinds of experiments are made to understand the behaviour of fertilizer treatments based on frass incorporation. Lab-scale mineralization experiments suggest that BSF frass alone mineralizes more slowly than chicken manure alone (CM), but at a ratio of 90% CM-10% BSF frass, the mineralization rate of the mixture is higher than both frass and CM individually. For example, in the 7 days following the fertilization with same nitrogen amount introduced among treatments, around 80% of the nitrogen content supplied through 90% CM-10% BSF frass fertilization is present in the soil under mineral forms, compared to roughly 60% for commercial CM fertilization and 45% with BSF-frass. This suggests that BSF frass contains a more recalcitrant form of organic nitrogen than CM, but also that BSF frass has a highly active microbiota that can increase CM mineralization rate. Consequently, when progressive mineralization is needed, pure BSF-frass may be a consistent option from an agronomic aspect whereas, for specific crops that require spikes of readily available nitrogen sources (like cranberry), fast release 90CM-10BSF frass biofertilizer are more appropriate. Field experiments on cranberry suggests that, indeed, 90CM-10BSF frass is a potent candidate for organic cranberry production, as currently, organic growers rely solely on CM, whose mineralization kinetics are known to imperfectly match plant’s needs, which is known to be a major reason that sustains the current yield gap between conventional and organic cranberry sectors.

Keywords: soil mineralization, biofertilizer, BSF-frass, chicken manure, soil functions, nitrogen, soil microbiota

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Authors: Sharmistha Chanda, Anindita Chaudhuri

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This exploratory study highlights the psychological aspects of women's empowerment to find the importance of the psychological dimension of empowerment, such as; meaning, competence, self-determination, impact, and assumption, especially in the weaker marginalized section of women. A large proportion of rural, suburban, and urban poor survive by working in unorganized sectors of metropolitan cities. Relative Poverty and lack of employment in rural areas and small towns drive many people to the metropolitan city for work and livelihood. Women working in that field remain unrecognized as people of low socio-economic status. They are usually willing to do domestic work as daily wage workers, single wage earners, street vendors, family businesses like agricultural activities, domestic workers, and self-employed. Usually, these women accept such jobs because they do not have such an opportunity as they lack the basic level of education that is required for better-paid jobs. The unorganized sector, on the other hand, has no such clear-cut employer-employee relationships and lacks most forms of social protection. Having no fixed employer, these workers are casual, contractual, migrant, home-based, own-account workers who attempt to earn a living from whatever meager assets and skills they possess. Women have become more empowered both financially and individually through small-scale business ownership or entrepreneurship development and in household-based work. In-depth interviews have been done with 10 participants in order to understand their living styles, habits, self-identity, and empowerment in their society in order to evaluate the key challenges that they may face following by qualitative research approach. Transcription has been done from the collected data. The three-layer coding technique guides the data analysis process, encompassing – open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Women’s Entrepreneurship is one of the foremost concerns as the Government, and non-government institutions are readily serving this domain with the primary objectives of promoting self-employment opportunities in general and empowering women in specific. Thus, despite hardship and unrecognition unorganized sector provides a huge array of opportunities for rural and sub-urban poor to earn. Also, the upper section of society tends to depend on this working force. This study gave an idea about the well-being, and meaning in life, life satisfaction on the basis of their lived experience.

Keywords: marginalized women, psychological empowerment, relative poverty, and unorganized sector.

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Tassana Boontong, Vilaivan Thongcharoen, Orapan Thosingha, Suphamon Chansakul, Anorut Jenwitheesuk, Chanin Chakkrapopyodhin, Isara Phiwchai, Mattika Chaichan, Rungnapha Khiewchaum

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According to Thailand health policy, subdistrict health promoting hospitals (SHPHs) serve as forefront facilities for inclusive health care service. Those services include health promotion, disease prevention, primary medical care and rehabilitation. However, SHPHs residing in some distant area, such as SHPHs residing on the islands, would deliver different services relevant to health needs of the local people and the tourists. This research aimed to study health care delivery services at SHPHs on the islands in Thailand. Data were collected using questionnaires. The result revealed that in Thailand, there are 58 SHPHs on the islands. During data collection process, the researchers were not allowed to collect data in 5 SHPHs in the southern part due to Covid-19 pandemic. The report is based on 53 SHPHs on the islands. Numbers of health care personnel were 201, 72.14 % were female, with the ages ranged from 22 to 60 years (mean = 35.56 years). About 53% were community health personnel, while 26.08% were professional nurses. In regard to work experiences, the range of year varied from less than 1 year to 30 years, with the mean of 8.36 years. The majority of their responsibilities focused on providing primary medical care (86.34%), caring of people with chronic illnesses (85.30%) and providing medical care procedures for patients with chronic illnesses at home (84.36%). Nurses were main health care personnel in performing primary medical care. Due to difficulty transportation from the islands to the mainland, nurses had to provide prompt emergency medical care while the patients arrived with emergency and critical illnesses such as severe head trauma, stroke or coronary artery disease. Although some medical procedures were complex and not covered by nursing and midwifery license, they decided to protect patients from life- threatening conditions and make them stable before transportation. In SHPHs, the workload exceeded manpower, health care personnel had to work overtime almost every day. In the famous tourist islands, health care personnel had to carry 3-4 folds of their workload during the holidays because of the large crowds of foreign and Thai tourists. It is recommended that SHPHs on the islands should scale up the level of services to cover advanced medical care. Health care personnel, in particular, professional nurses, should be equipped with emergency and critical care skills. The expected outcomes of the services should emphasize on rescuing patients with emergency and life-threatening illnesses and providing comprehensive care for people living on or visiting the islands.

Keywords: distant area, islands, sub district health promoting hospital, heath care services, Thailand

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Authors: Elisa Esposito, Johannes C. Jansen, Loredana Dellamuzia, Ugo Moretti, Lidietta Giorno

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The reduction of CO₂ emission into the atmosphere as a result of human activity is one of the most important environmental challenges to face in the next decennia. Emission of CO₂, related to the use of fossil fuels, is believed to be one of the main causes of global warming and climate change. In this scenario, the production of biomethane from organic waste, as a renewable energy source, is one of the most promising strategies to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission. Unfortunately, biogas upgrading still produces the greenhouse gas CO₂ as a waste product. Therefore, this work presents a case study on biogas upgrading, aimed at the simultaneous purification of methane and CO₂ via different steps, including CO₂/methane separation by polymeric membranes. The original objective of the project was the biogas upgrading to distribution grid quality methane, but the innovative aspect of this case study is the further purification of the captured CO₂, transforming it from a useless by-product to a pure gas with food-grade quality, suitable for commercial application in the food and beverage industry. The study was performed on a pilot plant constructed by Tecno Project Industriale Srl (TPI) Italy. This is a model of one of the largest biogas production and purification plants. The full-scale anaerobic digestion plant (Montello Spa, North Italy), has a digestive capacity of 400.000 ton of biomass/year and can treat 6.250 m3/hour of biogas from FORSU (organic fraction of solid urban waste). The entire upgrading process consists of a number of purifications steps: 1. Dehydration of the raw biogas by condensation. 2. Removal of trace impurities such as H₂S via absorption. 3.Separation of CO₂ and methane via a membrane separation process. 4. Removal of trace impurities from CO₂. The gas separation with polymeric membranes guarantees complete simultaneous removal of microorganisms. The chemical purity of the different process streams was analysed by a certified laboratory and was compared with the guidelines of the European Industrial Gases Association and the International Society of Beverage Technologists (EIGA/ISBT) for CO₂ used in the food industry. The microbiological purity was compared with the limit values defined in the European Collaborative Action. With a purity of 96-99 vol%, the purified methane respects the legal requirements for the household network. At the same time, the CO₂ reaches a purity of > 98.1% before, and 99.9% after the final distillation process. According to the EIGA/ISBT guidelines, the CO₂ proves to be chemically and microbiologically sufficiently pure to be suitable for food-grade applications.

Keywords: biogas, CO₂ separation, CO2 utilization, CO₂ food grade

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Authors: Peter G. Hollis, Kim G. Clarke

Abstract:

Accurate quantification of the overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient (KLa) is ubiquitously measured in bioprocesses by analysing the response of dissolved oxygen (DO) to a step change in the oxygen partial pressure in the sparge gas using a DO probe. Typically, the response lag (τ) of the probe has been ignored in the calculation of KLa when τ is less than the reciprocal KLa, failing which a constant τ has invariably been assumed. These conventions have now been reassessed in the context of multiphase bioprocesses, such as a hydrocarbon-based system. Here, significant variation of τ in response to changes in process conditions has been documented. Experiments were conducted in a 5 L baffled stirred tank bioreactor (New Brunswick) in a simulated hydrocarbon-based bioprocess comprising a C14-20 alkane-aqueous dispersion with suspended non-viable Saccharomyces cerevisiae solids. DO was measured with a polarographic DO probe fitted with a Teflon membrane (Mettler Toledo). The DO concentration response to a step change in the sparge gas oxygen partial pressure was recorded, from which KLa was calculated using a first order model (without incorporation of τ) and a second order model (incorporating τ). τ was determined as the time taken to reach 63.2% of the saturation DO after the probe was transferred from a nitrogen saturated vessel to an oxygen saturated bioreactor and is represented as the inverse of the probe constant (KP). The relative effects of the process parameters on KP were quantified using a central composite design with factor levels typical of hydrocarbon bioprocesses, namely 1-10 g/L yeast, 2-20 vol% alkane and 450-1000 rpm. A response surface was fitted to the empirical data, while ANOVA was used to determine the significance of the effects with a 95% confidence interval. KP varied with changes in the system parameters with the impact of solid loading statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. Increased solid loading reduced KP consistently, an effect which was magnified at high alkane concentrations, with a minimum KP of 0.024 s-1 observed at the highest solids loading of 10 g/L. This KP was 2.8 fold lower that the maximum of 0.0661 s-1 recorded at 1 g/L solids, demonstrating a substantial increase in τ from 15.1 s to 41.6 s as a result of differing process conditions. Importantly, exclusion of KP in the calculation of KLa was shown to under-predict KLa for all process conditions, with an error up to 50% at the highest KLa values. Accurate quantification of KLa, and therefore KP, has far-reaching impact on industrial bioprocesses to ensure these systems are not transport limited during scale-up and operation. This study has shown the incorporation of τ to be essential to ensure KLa measurement accuracy in multiphase bioprocesses. Moreover, since τ has been conclusively shown to vary significantly with process conditions, it has also been shown that it is essential for τ to be determined individually for each set of process conditions.

Keywords: effect of process conditions, measuring oxygen transfer coefficients, multiphase bioprocesses, oxygen probe response lag

Procedia PDF Downloads 266

Authors: Marcin Debowski, Marcin Zielinski, Magdalena Zielinska, Paulina Rusanowska

Abstract:

The problem with digestate management is one of the most important factors influencing on the development and operation of biogas plant. Turbidity and bacterial contamination negatively affect the growth of algae, which can limit the use of the effluent in the production of algae biomass on a large scale. These problems can be overcome by cultivating of algae species resistant to environmental factors, such as Chlorella sp., Scenedesmus sp., or reducing load of organic compounds to prevent bacterial contamination. The effluent requires dilution and/or purification. One of the methods of effluent treatment is the use of a membrane technology such as microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO), depending on the membrane pore size and the cut off point. Membranes are a physical barrier to solids and particles larger than the size of the pores. MF membranes have the largest pores and are used to remove turbidity, suspensions, bacteria and some viruses. UF membranes remove also color, odor and organic compounds with high molecular weight. In treatment of wastewater or other waste streams, MF and UF can provide a sufficient degree of purification. NF membranes are used to remove natural organic matter from waters, water disinfection products and sulfates. RO membranes are applied to remove monovalent ions such as Na⁺ or K⁺. The effluent was used in UF for medium to cultivation of two microalgae: Chlorella sp. and Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Growth rates of Chlorella sp. and P. tricornutum were similar: 0.216 d⁻¹ and 0.200 d⁻¹ (Chlorella sp.); 0.128 d⁻¹ and 0.126 d⁻¹ (P. tricornutum), on synthetic medium and permeate from UF, respectively. The final biomass composition was also similar, regardless of the medium. Removal of nitrogen was 92% and 71% by Chlorella sp. and P. tricornutum, respectively. The fermentation effluents after UF and dilution were also used for cultivation of algae Scenedesmus sp. that is resistant to environmental conditions. The authors recommended the development of biorafinery based on the production of algae for the biogas production. There are examples of using a multi-stage membrane system to purify the liquid fraction from digestate. After the initial UF, RO is used to remove ammonium nitrogen and COD. To obtain a permeate with a concentration of ammonium nitrogen allowing to discharge it into the environment, it was necessary to apply three-stage RO. The composition of the permeate after two-stage RO was: COD 50–60 mg/dm³, dry solids 0 mg/dm³, ammonium nitrogen 300–320 mg/dm³, total nitrogen 320–340 mg/dm³, total phosphorus 53 mg/dm³. However compostion of permeate after three-stage RO was: COD < 5 mg/dm³, dry solids 0 mg/dm³, ammonium nitrogen 0 mg/dm³, total nitrogen 3.5 mg/dm³, total phosphorus < 0,05 mg/dm³. Last stage of RO might be replaced by ion exchange process. The negative aspect of membrane filtration systems is the fact that the permeate is about 50% of the introduced volume, the remainder is the retentate. The management of a retentate might involve recirculation to a biogas plant.

Keywords: digestate, membrane filtration, microalgae cultivation, Chlorella sp.

Procedia PDF Downloads 352

Authors: Candy Chieh Lee

Abstract:

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between visual perception and social function in patients with schizophrenia. The specific aims are: 1) To explore performances in visual perception and social function in patients with schizophrenia 2) to examine the correlation between visual perceptual skills and social function in patients with schizophrenia The long-term goal is to be able to provide the most adequate intervention program for promoting patients’ visual perceptual skills and social function, as well as compensatory techniques. Background: Perceptual deficits in schizophrenia have been well documented in the visual system. Clinically, a considerable portion (up to 60%) of schizophrenia patients report distorted visual experiences such as visual perception of motion, color, size, and facial expression. Visual perception is required for the successful performance of most activities of daily living, such as dressing, making a cup of tea, driving a car and reading. On the other hand, patients with schizophrenia usually exhibit psychotic symptoms such as auditory hallucination and delusions which tend to alter their perception of reality and affect their quality of interpersonal relationship and limit their participation in various social situations. Social function plays an important role in the prognosis of patients with schizophrenia; lower social functioning skills can lead to poorer prognosis. Investigations on the relationship between social functioning and perceptual ability in patients with schizophrenia are relatively new but important as the results could provide information for effective intervention on visual perception and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: We recruited 50 participants with schizophrenia in the mental health hospital (Taipei City Hospital, Songde branch, Taipei, Taiwan) acute ward. Participants who have signed consent forms, diagnosis of schizophrenia and having no organic vision deficits were included. Participants were administered the test of visual-perceptual skills (non-motor), third edition (TVPS-3) and the personal and social performance scale (PSP) for assessing visual perceptual skill and social function. The assessments will take about 70-90 minutes to complete. Data Analysis: The IBM SPSS 21.0 will be used to perform the statistical analysis. First, descriptive statistics will be performed to describe the characteristics and performance of the participants. Lastly, Pearson correlation will be computed to examine the correlation between PSP and TVPS-3 scores. Results: Significant differences were found between the means of participants’ TVPS-3 raw scores of each subtest with the age equivalent raw score provided by the TVPS-3 manual. Significant correlations were found between all 7 subtests of TVPS-3 and PSP total score. Conclusions: The results showed that patients with schizophrenia do exhibit visual perceptual deficits and is correlated social functions. Understanding these facts of patients with schizophrenia can assist health care professionals in designing and implementing adequate rehabilitative treatment according to patients’ needs.

Keywords: occupational therapy, social function, schizophrenia, visual perception

Procedia PDF Downloads 138