Search results for: values and preferences

Authors: Mayank Mishra

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Market Economy can be broadly defined as economic system where supply and demand regulate the economy and in which decisions pertaining to production, consumption, allocation of resources, price and competition are made by collective actions of individuals or organisations with limited government intervention. On the other hand Market Society is one where instead of the economy being embedded in social relations, social relations are embedded in the economy. A market economy becomes a market society when all of land, labour and capital are commodified. This transition also has effect on people’s attitude and values. Such a transition commence impacting the non-material aspect of life such as public education, public health and the like. The inception of neoliberal policies in non-market norms altered the nature of social goods like public health that raised the following questions. What impact would the transition to a market society make on people in terms of accessibility to public health? Is healthcare a commodity that can be subjected to a competitive market place? What kind of private investments are being made in public health and how do private investments alter the nature of a public good like healthcare? This research problem will employ empirical-analytical approach that includes deductive reasoning which will be using the existing concept of market economy and market society as a foundation for the analytical framework and the hypotheses to be examined. The research also intends to inculcate the naturalistic elements of qualitative methodology which refers to studying of real world situations as they unfold. The research will analyse the existing literature available on the subject. Concomitantly the research intends to access the primary literature which includes reports from the World Bank, World Health Organisation (WHO) and the different departments of respective ministries of the countries for the analysis. This paper endeavours to highlight how the issue of commodification of public health would lead to perpetual increase in its inaccessibility leading to stratification of healthcare services where one can avail the better services depending on the extent of one’s ability to pay. Since the fundamental maxim of private investments is to churn out profits, these kinds of trends would pose a detrimental effect on the society at large perpetuating the lacuna between the have and the have-nots.The increasing private investments, both, domestic and foreign, in public health sector are leading to increasing inaccessibility of public health services. Despite the increase in various public health schemes the quality and impact of government public health services are on a continuous decline.

Keywords: commodity, India and Pakistan, market society, public health

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Authors: Katarzyna Wyka, Dana Sylvan, JoAnn Difede

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Background and significance: The following disaster, population-based screening programs are routinely established to assess physical and psychological consequences of exposure. These data sets are highly skewed as only a small percentage of trauma-exposed individuals develop health issues. Commonly used statistical methodology in post-disaster mental health generally involves population-averaged models. Such models aim to capture the overall response to the disaster and its aftermath; however, they may not be sensitive enough to accommodate population heterogeneity in symptomatology, such as post-traumatic stress or depressive symptoms. Methods: We use an archival longitudinal data set from Weill-Cornell 9/11 Mental Health Screening Program established following the World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks in New York in 2001. Participants are rescue and recovery workers who participated in the site cleanup and restoration (n=2960). The main outcome is the post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD) severity score assessed via clinician interviews (CAPS). For a detailed understanding of response to the disaster and its aftermath, we are adapting quantile regression methodology with particular focus on predictors of extreme distress and resilience to trauma. Results: The response variable was defined as the quantile of the CAPS score for each individual under two different scenarios specifying the unconditional quantiles based on: 1) clinically meaningful CAPS cutoff values and 2) CAPS distribution in the population. We present graphical summaries of the differential effects. For instance, we found that the effect of the WTC exposures, namely seeing bodies and feeling that life was in danger during rescue/recovery work was associated with very high PTSD symptoms. A similar effect was apparent in individuals with prior psychiatric history. Differential effects were also present for age and education level of the individuals. Conclusion: We evaluate the utility of quantile regression in disaster research in contrast to the commonly used population-averaged models. We focused on assessing the distribution of risk factors for post-traumatic stress symptoms across quantiles. This innovative approach provides a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between dependent and independent variables and could be used for developing tailored training programs and response plans for different vulnerability groups.

Keywords: disaster workers, post traumatic stress, PTSD, quantile regression

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Authors: Siva K. Bathina, Sudheer Siddapureddy

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Pool fires are formed when the flammable liquid accidentally spills on the ground or water and ignites. Pool fire is a kind of buoyancy-driven and diffusion flame. There have been many pool fire accidents caused during processing, handling and storing of liquid fuels in chemical and oil industries. Such kind of accidents causes enormous damage to property as well as the loss of lives. Pool fires are complex in nature due to the strong interaction among the combustion, heat and mass transfers and pyrolysis at the fuel surface. Moreover, the experimental study of such large complex fires involves fire safety issues and difficulties in performing experiments. In the present work, large eddy simulations are performed to study such complex fire scenarios using fire dynamic simulator. A 1 m diesel pool fire is considered for the studied cases, and diesel is chosen as it is most commonly involved fuel in fire accidents. Fire simulations are performed by specifying two different boundary conditions: one the fuel is in liquid state and pyrolysis model is invoked, and the other by assuming the fuel is initially in a vapor state and thereby prescribing the mass loss rate. A domain of size 11.2 m × 11.2 m × 7.28 m with uniform structured grid is chosen for the numerical simulations. Grid sensitivity analysis is performed, and a non-dimensional grid size of 12 corresponding to 8 cm grid size is considered. Flame properties like mass burning rate, irradiance, and time-averaged axial flame temperature profile are predicted. The predicted steady-state mass burning rate is 40 g/s and is within the uncertainty limits of the previously reported experimental data (39.4 g/s). Though the profile of the irradiance at a distance from the fire along the height is somewhat in line with the experimental data and the location of the maximum value of irradiance is shifted to a higher location. This may be due to the lack of sophisticated models for the species transportation along with combustion and radiation in the continuous zone. Furthermore, the axial temperatures are not predicted well (for any of the boundary conditions) in any of the zones. The present study shows that the existing models are not sufficient enough for modeling blended fuels like diesel. The predictions are strongly dependent on the experimental values of the soot yield. Future experiments are necessary for generalizing the soot yield for different fires.

Keywords: burning rate, fire accidents, fire dynamic simulator, pyrolysis

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Authors: Arianna Vedaschi

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This paper addresses the relationship between freedom of expression, national security and radicalization. Is it still possible to talk about a balance between the first two elements? Or, due to the intrusion of the third, is it more appropriate to consider freedom of expression as “permanently disfigured” by securitarian concerns? In this study, both the legislative and the judicial level are taken into account and the comparative method is employed in order to provide the reader with a complete framework of relevant issues and a workable set of solutions. The analysis moves from the finding according to which the tension between free speech and national security has become a major issue in democratic countries, whose very essence is continuously endangered by the ever-changing and multi-faceted threat of international terrorism. In particular, a change in terrorist groups’ recruiting pattern, attracting more and more people by way of a cutting-edge communicative strategy, often employing sophisticated technology as a radicalization tool, has called on law-makers to modify their approach to dangerous speech. While traditional constitutional and criminal law used to punish speech only if it explicitly and directly incited the commission of a criminal action (“cause-effect” model), so-called glorification offences – punishing mere ideological support for terrorism, often on the web – are becoming commonplace in the comparative scenario. Although this is direct, and even somehow understandable, consequence of the impending terrorist menace, this research shows many problematic issues connected to such a preventive approach. First, from a predominantly theoretical point of view, this trend negatively impacts on the already blurred line between permissible and prohibited speech. Second, from a pragmatic point of view, such legislative tools are not always suitable to keep up with ongoing developments of both terrorist groups and their use of technology. In other words, there is a risk that such measures become outdated even before their application. Indeed, it seems hard to still talk about a proper balance: what was previously clearly perceived as a balancing of values (freedom of speech v. public security) has turned, in many cases, into a hierarchy with security at its apex. In light of these findings, this paper concludes that such a complex issue would perhaps be better dealt with through a combination of policies: not only criminalizing ‘terrorist speech,’ which should be relegated to a last resort tool, but acting at an even earlier stage, i.e., trying to prevent dangerous speech itself. This might be done by promoting social cohesion and the inclusion of minorities, so as to reduce the probability of people considering terrorist groups as a “viable option” to deal with the lack of identification within their social contexts.

Keywords: radicalization, free speech, international terrorism, national security

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Authors: Aminu Mohammed, Shahidul Islam

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Aframomum melegueta K.Schum commonly known as Grains of Paradise has been a popularly used spice in most of the African food preparation. Available data have shown that ethyl acetate fraction from crude ethanolic extract exhibited α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory actions, improved pancreatic β-cell damage and ameliorated insulin resistance in diabetic rats. Additionally, 6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, 6-paradol and oleanolic acid are shown to be the compounds responsible for the antidiabetic action of A. melegueta. However, detail antioxidant potential of this spice in a diabetic animal model has not yet been reported. Thus, the present study investigates the effect of oral consumption of A. melegueta fruit on the in vivo antioxidant status of type 2 diabetes (T2D) model of rats. T2D was induced in rats by feeding a 10% fructose solution ad libitum for two weeks followed by a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (40 mg/kg body weight (bw)). The animals were orally administered with 150 (DAML) or 300 mg/kg bw (DAMH) of the fraction once daily for four weeks. Data were analyzed by using a statistical software package (SPSS for Windows, version 22, IBM Corporation, NY, USA) using Tukey’s-HSD multiple range post-hoc test. Values were considered significantly different at p < 0.05. According to the data, after four weeks of intervention, diabetic untreated animals showed significantly (p < 0.05) elevation of blood glucose levels. The levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were observed to increase with concomitant reduction of reduced glutathione (GSH) levels in the serum and organs (liver, kidney, heart and pancreas) of diabetic untreated animals. The activities of endogenous antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and reductase) were greatly reduced in the serum and organs of diabetic untreated animals compared to the normal animals. These alterations were reverted to near-normal after the treatment of A. melegueta fruit in the treated groups (DAML & DAMH) within the study period, especially at the dose of 300 mg/kg bw. This potent antioxidant action may partly be attributed to the presence of the 6-Gingerol, 6-shogaol and 6-paradol are known to possess antioxidant action. The results of our study showed that A. melegueta intake improved the antioxidant status of T2D rats and therefore could be used to ameliorate the diabetes-induced oxidative damage.

Keywords: Aframomum melegueta, antioxidant, ethyl acetate extract, type 2 diabetes

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Authors: Claudia Cabezas-Zabala, Jairo Lindarte-Artunduaga, Carlos Mario Zuluaga-Dominguez

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Amaranth is an emerging pseudocereal rich in such essential nutrients as protein and dietary fiber, which was employed as an ingredient in the formulation of crackers to evaluate the rheological performance and sensory acceptability of the obtained food. A completely randomized factorial design was used with two factors: (A) ratio of wheat and amaranth flour used in the preparation of the dough, in proportion 90:10 and 80:20 (% w/w) and (B) two levels of inulin addition of 8.4% and 16.7 %, having two control doughs made from amaranth and wheat flour, respectively. Initially, the functional properties of the formulations mentioned were measured, showing no significant differences in the water absorption capacity (WAC) and swelling power (SP), having mean values between 1.66 and 1.81 g/g for WAC and between 1.75 and 1.86 g/g for SP, respectively. The amaranth flour had the highest water holding capacity (WHR) of 8.41 ± 0.15 g/g and emulsifying activity (EA) of 74.63 ± 1.89 g/g. Moreover, the rheological behavior, measured through the use of farinograph, extensograph, Mixolab, and falling index, showed that the formulation containing 20% of amaranth flour and 7.16% of inulin had a rheological behavior similar to the control produced exclusively with wheat flour, being the former, the one selected for the preparation of crackers. For this formulation, the farinograph showed a mixing tolerance index of 11 UB, indicating a strong and cohesive dough; likewise, the Mixolab showed dough reaches stability at 6.47 min, indicating a good resistance to mixing. On the other hand, the extensograph exhibited a dough resistance of 637 UB, as well as extensibility of 13.4 mm, which corresponds to a strong dough capable of resisting the laminate. Finally, the falling index was 318 s, which indicates the crumb will retain enough air to enhance the crispness of a characteristic cracker. Finally, a sensory consumer test did not show significant differences in the evaluation of aroma between the control and the selected formulation, while this latter had a significantly lower rating in flavor. However, a purchase intention of 70 % was observed among the population surveyed. The results obtained in this work give perspectives for the industrial use of amaranth in baked goods. Additionally, amaranth has been a product typically linked to indigenous populations in the Andean South American countries; therefore, the search for diversification and alternatives of use for this pseudocereal has an impact on the social and economic conditions of such communities. The technological versatility and nutritional quality of amaranth is an advantage for consumers, favoring the consumption of healthy products with important contributions of dietary fiber and protein.

Keywords: amaranth, crackers, rheology, pseudocereals, kneaded products

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Authors: Hayat Omar

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Languages provide speakers with a wide range of linguistic units to organize and deliver information. There are several ways to verbally express the mental representations of events. According to the linguistic tools they have acquired, speakers select the one that brings out the most communicative effect to convey their message. Our study focuses on two markers, -mm and dämmo, in Amharic (Ethiopian Semitic language). Our aim is to examine, from a developmental perspective, how they are used by speakers. We seek to distinguish the communicative and pragmatic functions indicated by means of these markers. To do so, we created a corpus of sixty narrative productions of children from 5-6, 7-8 to 10-12 years old and adult Amharic speakers. The experimental material we used to collect our data is a series of pictures without text 'Frog, Where are you?'. Although -mm and dämmo are each used in specific contexts, they are sometimes analyzed as being interchangeable. The suffix -mm is complex and multifunctional. It marks the end of the negative verbal structure, it is found in the relative structure of the imperfect, it creates new words such as adverbials or pronouns, it also serves to coordinate words, sentences and to mark the link between macro-propositions within a larger textual unit. -mm was analyzed as marker of insistence, topic shift marker, element of concatenation, contrastive focus marker, 'bisyndetic' coordinator. On the other hand, dämmo has limited function and did not attract the attention of many authors. The only approach we could find analyzes it in terms of 'monosyndetic' coordinator. The paralleling of these two elements made it possible to understand their distinctive functions and refine their description. When it comes to marking a referent, the choice of -mm or dämmo is not neutral, depending on whether the tagged argument is newly introduced, maintained, promoted or reintroduced. The presence of these morphemes explains the inter-phrastic link. The information is seized by anaphora or presupposition: -mm goes upstream while dämmo arrows downstream, the latter requires new information. The speaker uses -mm or dämmo according to what he assumes to be known to his interlocutors. The results show that -mm and dämmo, although all the speakers use them both, do not always have the same scope according to the speaker and vary according to the age. dämmo is mainly used to mark a contrastive topic to signal the concomitance of events. It is more commonly used in young children’s narratives (F(3,56) = 3,82, p < .01). Some values of -mm (additive) are acquired very early while others are rather late and increase with age (F(3,56) = 3,2, p < .03). The difficulty is due not only because of its synthetic structure but primarily because it is multi-purpose and requires a memory work. It highlights the constituent on which it operates to clarify how the message should be interpreted.

Keywords: acquisition, cohesion, connection, contrastive topic, contrastive focus, discourse marker, pragmatics

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Authors: Kyung Jin Kim, Jiwon Kwak, Jae-Hoon Lee, Soo Suk Lee

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MicroRNAs (miRNA) are a class of endogenous, single-stranded, small, and non-protein coding RNA molecules typically 20-25 nucleotides long. They are thought to regulate the expression of other genes in a broad range by binding to 3’- untranslated regions (3’-UTRs) of specific mRNAs. The detection of miRNAs is very important for understanding of the function of these molecules and in the diagnosis of variety of human diseases. However, detection of miRNAs is very challenging because of their short length and high sequence similarities within miRNA families. So, a simple-to-use, low-cost, and highly sensitive method for the detection of miRNAs is desirable. In this study, we demonstrate a novel bi-directional extension (BDE) assay. In the first step, a specific linear RT primer is hybridized to 6-10 base pairs from the 3’-end of a target miRNA molecule and then reverse transcribed to generate a cDNA strand. After reverse transcription, the cDNA was hybridized to the 3’-end which is BDE sequence; it played role as the PCR template. The PCR template was amplified in an SYBR green-based quantitative real-time PCR. To prove the concept, we used human brain total RNA. It could be detected quantitatively in the range of seven orders of magnitude with excellent linearity and reproducibility. To evaluate the performance of BDE assay, we contrasted sensitivity and specificity of the BDE assay against a commercially available poly (A) tailing method using miRNAs for let-7e extracted from A549 human epithelial lung cancer cells. The BDE assay displayed good performance compared with a poly (A) tailing method in terms of specificity and sensitivity; the CT values differed by 2.5 and the melting curve showed a sharper than poly (A) tailing methods. We have demonstrated an innovative, cost-effective BDE assay that allows improved sensitivity and specificity in detection of miRNAs. Dynamic range of the SYBR green-based RT-qPCR for miR-145 could be represented quantitatively over a range of 7 orders of magnitude from 0.1 pg to 1.0 μg of human brain total RNA. Finally, the BDE assay for detection of miRNA species such as let-7e shows good performance compared with a poly (A) tailing method in terms of specificity and sensitivity. Thus BDE proves a simple, low cost, and highly sensitive assay for various miRNAs and should provide significant contributions in research on miRNA biology and application of disease diagnostics with miRNAs as targets.

Keywords: bi-directional extension (BDE), microRNA (miRNA), poly (A) tailing assay, reverse transcription, RT-qPCR

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Authors: Emine Aydin, Duygu Gocmen

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Pumpkin flour (PF) has a long shelf life and can be used as a nutritive, functional (antioxidant properties, phenolic contents, etc.) and coloring agent in many food items, especially in bakery products, sausages, instant noodles, pasta and flour mixes. Pre-treatment before drying is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of a final powdered product. Pretreatment, such as soaking in a bisulfite solution, provides that total carotenoids in raw materials rich in carotenoids, especially pumpkins, are retained in the dried product. This is due to the beneficial effect of antioxidant additives in the protection of carotenoids in the dehydrated plant foods. The oxygen present in the medium is removed by the radical SO₂, and thus the carotene degradation caused by the molecular oxygen is inhibited by the presence of SO₂. In this study, pumpkin flours (PFs) produced by two different applications (with or without metabisulfite pre-treatment) and then dried in a freeze dryer. The phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of pumpkin flour were determined. In addition to this, the compound of bioavailable phenolic substances which is obtained by PF has also been investigated using in vitro methods. As a result of researches made in recent years, it has been determined that all nutrients taken with foodstuffs are not bioavailable. Bioavailability changes depending on physical properties, chemical compounds, and capacities of individual digestion of foods. Therefore in this study; bioaccessible phenolics and phenolic bioaccessibility were also determined. The phenolics of the samples with metabisulfite application were higher than those of the samples without metabisulfite pre-treatment. Soaking in metabisulfite solution might have a protective effect for phenolic compounds. Phenolics bioaccessibility of pumpkin flours was investigated in order to assess pumpkin flour as sources of accessible phenolics. The higher bioaccessible phenolics (384.19 mg of GAE 100g⁻¹ DW) and phenolic bioaccessibility values (33.65 mL 100 mL⁻¹) were observed in the pumpkin flour with metabisulfite pre-treatment. Metabisulfite application caused an increase in bioaccessible phenolics of pumpkin flour. According to all assay (ABTS, CUPRAC, DPPH, and FRAP) results, both free and bound phenolics of pumpkin flour with metabisulfite pre-treatment had higher antioxidant activity than those of the sample without metabisulfite pre-treatment. The samples subjected to MS pre-treatment exhibited higher antioxidant activities than those of the samples without MS pre-treatment, this possibly due to higher phenolic contents of the samples with metabisulfite applications. As a result, metabisulfite application caused an increase in phenolic contents, bioaccessible phenolics, phenolic bioaccessibility and antioxidant activities of pumpkin flour. It can be said that pumpkin flour can be used as an alternative functional and nutritional ingredient in bakery products, dairy products (yoghurt, ice-cream), soups, sauces, infant formulae, confectionery, etc.

Keywords: pumpkin flour, bioaccessible phenolics, phenolic bioaccessibility, antioxidant activity

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Authors: Rohit Kothari

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Background: Leprosyis a chronic granulomatous diseasecaused by Mycobacterium leprae (M. Lepra). Reactions may interrupt its usual chronic course.Type-1 (T1R)and type-2 lepra reaction(T2R) are acute events and signifytype-IV and type-III hypersensitivity responses, respectively. Various chemokines like CCL3, 5, 11, and CCL24 may be increased during the course of leprosy or during reactions and may serve as markers of early diagnosis, response to therapy, and prognosis. Objective: To find correlation of CCL3, 5, 11, and CCL24 in leprosy patients on multidrug therapy and their family contacts after ruling out active disease during leprosy treatment and during periods of lepra reactions. Methodology: This randomized control trial was conducted in 50 clinico-histopathologically diagnosed cases of leprosy in a tertiary care hospital in Bengaluru, India. 50 of their family contacts were adequately examined and investigated should the need be to rule out active disease. The two study-groups comprised of leprosy cases, and the age, sex, and area of residence matched healthy contactswho were given single-dose rifampicin prophylaxis, respectively. Blood samples were taken at baseline, six months, and after one yearin both the groups (on completion of MDT in leprosy cases)and also during periods of reaction if occurred in leprosy cases. Results: Our study found that at baseline, CCL5, 11, and 24 were higher in leprosy cases as compared to the healthy contacts, and the difference was statistically significant.CCL3 was also found to be higherat baseline in leprosy cases, however, the difference was not statistically significant. At six months and one year, the levels of CCL 5, 11, and 24 reduced, and the difference was statistically significant in leprosy cases, whereas it remained almost static in all the healthy contacts. Twenty patients of leprosy developed lepra reaction during the course of one year, and during reaction, the increase in CCL11 and 24 was statistically significant from baseline, whereas CCL3 and 5 did not rise significantly. One of the healthy contacts developed signs of leprosy in the form of hypopigmented numb patch and was clinico-histopathologically, and CCL11 and 24 were found to be higher with a statistically significant difference from the baseline values. Conclusion: CCL5, 11, and 24 are sensitive markers of diagnosing leprosy, response to MDT, and prognosis and are not increased in healthy contacts. CCL11 and 24 are sensitive markers of lepra reactions and may serve as one of the early diagnostic modalities for identifying lepra reaction and also leprosy in healthy contacts. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate these biomarkers in leprosy cases and their healthy contacts with a follow-up of upto one year with one of them developing the disease, and the same was confirmed based on these biomarkers as well.

Keywords: chemokine profile, healthy contacts, leprosy, lepra reactions

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Authors: Susana Gonçalves, Joana Lencart, Anabela Gregório Dias

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Introduction: In combination with chemotherapy, Total Body Irradiation (TBI) is most used as part of the conditioning regimen prior to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Conventional TBI techniques have a long application time but non-conformality of beam-application with the inability to individually spare organs at risk. Our institution’s intention is to start using Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) techniques to increase homogeneity of delivered radiation. As a first approach, a dosimetric plan was performed on a computed tomography (CT) scan of a Rando Alderson antropomorfic phantom (head and torso), using a set of six arcs distributed along the phantom. However, a full body anthropomorphic phantom is essential to carry out technique validation and implementation. Our aim is to define the physical and chemical characteristics and the ideal manufacturing procedure of upper and lower limbs to our anthropomorphic phantom, for later validate TBI using VMAT. Materials and Methods: To study the better fit between our phantom and limbs, a CT scan of Rando Alderson anthropomorphic phantom was acquired. CT was performed on GE Healthcare equipment (model Optima CT580 W), with slice thickness of 2.5 mm. This CT was also used to access the electronic density of soft tissue and bone through Hounsfield units (HU) analysis. Results: CT images were analyzed and measures were made for the ideal upper and lower limbs. Upper limbs should be build under the following measures: 43cm length and 7cm diameter (next to the shoulder section). Lower limbs should be build under the following measures: 79cm length and 16.5cm diameter (next to the thigh section). As expected, soft tissue and bone have very different electronic density. This is important to choose and analyze different materials to better represent soft tissue and bone characteristics. The approximate HU values of the soft tissue and for bone shall be 35HU and 250HU, respectively. Conclusion: At the moment, several compounds are being developed based on different types of resins and additives in order to be able to control and mimic the various constituent densities of the tissues. Concurrently, several manufacturing techniques are being explored to make it possible to produce the upper and lower limbs in a simple and non-expensive way, in order to finally carry out a systematic and appropriate study of the total body irradiation. This preliminary study was a good starting point to demonstrate the feasibility of TBI with VMAT.

Keywords: TBI, VMAT, anthropomorphic phantom, tissue equivalent materials

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Authors: R. L. P. de Lima, F. C. B. Boogaard, D. Setyo Rini, P. Arisandi, R. E. de Graaf-Van Dinther

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Water quality in many Asian countries is very poor due to inefficient solid waste management, high population growth and the lack of sewage and purification systems for households and industry. A consortium of Indonesian and Dutch organizations has begun a large-scale international research project to evaluate and propose solutions to face the surface water pollution challenges in Brantas Basin, Indonesia (East Java: Malang / Surabaya). The first phase of the project consisted in a baseline study to assess the current status of surface water bodies and to determine the ambitions and strategies among local stakeholders. This study was conducted with high participatory / collaborative and knowledge sharing objectives. Several methods such as using mobile sensors (attached to boats or underwater drones), test strips and mobile apps, bio-monitoring (sediments), ecology scans using underwater cameras, or continuous / static measurements, were applied in different locations in the regions of the basin, at multiple locations within the water systems (e.g. spring, upstream / downstream of industry and urban areas, mouth of the Surabaya River, groundwater). Results gave an indication of (reference) values of basic water quality parameters such as turbidity, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen or nutrients (ammonium / nitrate). An important outcome was that collecting random samples may not be representative of a body of water, given that water quality parameters can vary widely in space (x, y, and depth) and time (day / night and seasonal). Innovative / dynamic monitoring methods (e.g. underwater drones, sensors on boats) can contribute to better understand the quality of the living environment (water, ecology, sediment) and factors that affect it. The field work activities, in particular, underwater drones, revealed potential as awareness actions as they attracted interest from locals and local press. This baseline study involved the cooperation with local managing organizations with Dutch partners, and their willingness to work together is important to ensure participatory actions and social awareness regarding the process of adaptation and strengthening of regulations, or for the construction of facilities such as sewage.

Keywords: water quality monitoring, pollution, underwater drones, social awareness

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Authors: Andrey Davydov, Konstantin Sveshnikov, Yulia Voronina

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There is now a lot of interest to the non-perturbative QED-effects, caused by diving of discrete levels into the negative continuum in the supercritical static or adiabatically slowly varying Coulomb fields, that are created by the localized extended sources with Z > Z_cr. Such effects have attracted a considerable amount of theoretical and experimental activity, since in 3+1 QED for Z > Z_cr,1 ≈ 170 a non-perturbative reconstruction of the vacuum state is predicted, which should be accompanied by a number of nontrivial effects, including the vacuum positron emission. Similar in essence effects should be expected also in both 2+1 D (planar graphene-based hetero-structures) and 1+1 D (one-dimensional ‘hydrogen ion’). This report is devoted to the study of such essentially non-perturbative vacuum effects for the supercritical Dirac-Coulomb systems in 1+1D and 2+1D, with the main attention drawn to the vacuum polarization energy. Although the most of works considers the vacuum charge density as the main polarization observable, vacuum energy turns out to be not less informative and in many respects complementary to the vacuum density. Moreover, the main non-perturbative effects, which appear in vacuum polarization for supercritical fields due to the levels diving into the lower continuum, show up in the behavior of vacuum energy even more clear, demonstrating explicitly their possible role in the supercritical region. Both in 1+1D and 2+1D, we explore firstly the renormalized vacuum density in the supercritical region using the Wichmann-Kroll method. Thereafter, taking into account the results for the vacuum density, we formulate the renormalization procedure for the vacuum energy. To evaluate the latter explicitly, an original technique, based on a special combination of analytical methods, computer algebra tools and numerical calculations, is applied. It is shown that, for a wide range of the external source parameters (the charge Z and size R), in the supercritical region the renormalized vacuum energy could significantly deviate from the perturbative quadratic growth up to pronouncedly decreasing behavior with jumps by (-2 x mc^2), which occur each time, when the next discrete level dives into the negative continuum. In the considered range of variation of Z and R, the vacuum energy behaves like ~ -Z^2/R in 1+1D and ~ -Z^3/R in 2+1D, exceeding deeply negative values. Such behavior confirms the assumption of the neutral vacuum transmutation into the charged one, and thereby of the spontaneous positron emission, accompanying the emergence of the next vacuum shell due to the total charge conservation. To the end, we also note that the methods, developed for the vacuum energy evaluation in 2+1 D, with minimal complements could be carried over to the three-dimensional case, where the vacuum energy is expected to be ~ -Z^4/R and so could be competitive with the classical electrostatic energy of the Coulomb source.

Keywords: non-perturbative QED-effects, one- and two-dimensional Dirac-Coulomb systems, supercritical fields, vacuum polarization

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Authors: Hellen L. De Castro e Silva, Ana A. Robles Aguilar, Erik Meers

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Digestates are residual by-products, rich in nutrients and trace elements, which can be used as organic fertilisers on soils. However, due to the non-digestibility of these elements and reduced dry matter during the anaerobic digestion process, metal concentrations are higher in digestates than in feedstocks, which might hamper their use as fertilisers according to the threshold values of some country policies. Furthermore, there is uncertainty regarding the required assimilated amount of these elements by some crops, which might result in their bioaccumulation. Therefore, further processing of the digestate to obtain safe fertilizing products has been recommended. This research aims to analyze the effect of applying the hydrothermal carbonization process to manure-derived digestates as a thermal treatment to reduce the bioavailability of heavy metals in mono and co-digestates derived from pig manure and maize from contaminated land in France. This study examined pig manure collected from a novel stable system (VeDoWs, province of East Flanders, Belgium) that separates the collection of pig urine and feces, resulting in a solid fraction of manure with high up-concentration of heavy metals and nutrients. Mono-digestion and co-digestion processes were conducted in semi-continuous reactors for 45 days at mesophilic conditions, in which the digestates were dried at 105 °C for 24 hours. Then, hydrothermal carbonization was applied to a 1:10 solid/water ratio to guarantee controlled experimental conditions in different temperatures (180, 200, and 220 °C) and residence times (2 h and 4 h). During the process, the pressure was generated autogenously, and the reactor was cooled down after completing the treatments. The solid and liquid phases were separated through vacuum filtration, in which the solid phase of each treatment -hydrochar- was dried and ground for chemical characterization. Different fractions (exchangeable / adsorbed fraction - F1, carbonates-bound fraction - F2, organic matter-bound fraction - F3, and residual fraction – F4) of some heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Ni, and Cr) have been determined in digestates and derived hydrochars using the modified Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) sequential extraction procedure. The main results indicated a difference in the heavy metals fractionation between digestates and their derived hydrochars; however, the hydrothermal carbonization operating conditions didn’t have remarkable effects on heavy metals partitioning between the hydrochars of the proposed treatments. Based on the estimated potential ecological risk assessment, there was one level decrease (considerate to moderate) when comparing the HMs partitioning in digestates and derived hydrochars.

Keywords: heavy metals, bioavailability, hydrothermal treatment, bio-based fertilisers, agriculture

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Authors: Salahud Din, Saima Masood, Hafsa Zaneb, Habib Ur Rehman, Saima Ashraf, Imad Khan, Muqader Shah

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The objective of this study was (1) to study gross morphological, osteometric and clinical important landmarks in the skull of adult Chinkara to obtain baseline data and (2) to study sexual dimorphism in male and female adult Chinkara through osteometry. For this purpose, after performing postmortem examination, the carcass of adult Chinkara of known sex and age was buried in the locality of the Manglot Wildlife Park and Ungulate Breeding Centre, Nizampur, Pakistan; after a specific period of time, the bones were unearthed. Gross morphological features and various osteometric parameters of the skull were studied in the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. The shape of the Chinkara skull was elongated and had thirty-two bones. The skull was comprised of the cranial and the facial part. The facial region of the skull was formed by maxilla, incisive, palatine, vomar, pterygoid, frontal, parietal, nasal, incisive, turbinates, mandible and hyoid apparatus. The bony region of the cranium of Chinkara was comprised of occipital, ethmoid, sphenoid, interparietal, parietal, temporal, and frontal bone. The foramina identified in the facial region of the skull of Chinkara were infraorbital, supraorbital foramen, lacrimal, sphenopalatine, maxillary and caudal palatine foramina. The foramina of the cranium of the skull of the Chinkara were the internal acoustic meatus, external acoustic meatus, hypoglossal canal, transverse canal, sphenorbital fissure, carotid canal, foramen magnum, stylomastoid foramen, foramen rotundum, foramen ovale and jugular foramen, and the rostral and the caudal foramina that formed the pterygoid canal. The measured craniometric parameters did not show statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) between male and female adult Chinkara except Palatine bone, OI, DO, IOCDE, OCT, ICW, IPCW, and PCPL were significantly higher (p > 0.05) in male than female Chinkara and mean values of the mandibular parameters except b and h were significantly (p < 0.5) higher in male Chinkara than female Chinkara. Sexual dimorphism exists in some of the orbital and foramen magnum parameters, while high levels of sexual dimorphism identified in mandible. In conclusion, morphocraniometric studies of Chinkara skull made it possible to identify species-specific skull and use clinical measurements during practical application.

Keywords: Chinkara, skull, morphology, morphometrics, sexual dimorphism

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Authors: Khasim Munir Bhasha Shaik

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Veligonda and adjoining hill range spread along about 170 Km North to South in Kadapa and Nellore Districts stretching a little further into Prakasam District. The latitude in general ranges up to 1000m. The forests are generally dry deciduous type. Veligonda and adjoining hill ranges comprise of Palakonda, Seshachalam, Lankamala and the terminal part of Nallamalais from mid-region of Southern Eastern Ghats. The Veligonda range which separates the Nellore district from Kadapa and Kurnool is the backbone of the Eastern Ghats, starting from Nagari promontory in Chittoor district. It runs in a northerly direction along the western border of the Nellore district, with a raising elevation of 3,626 ft at Penchalakona in Raipur thaluk. Veligonda hill ranges are high in altitude and have deep valleys. Among the Veligondas range of hills the Durgam in Venkatagiri range and Penchalakona are the most prominent and are situated 914 meters above mean sea level. It has more than 3000 species of plants along with 500 animal species. The unique specialty of this region is the presence of Pterocarpus santalinus(endangered) and Santalum album (vulnerable). In the present study, an attempt is made to assess the efforts that are going on to conserve the biodiversity of flora and fauna of this region. Various conservation strategies were suggested to protect the biodiversity and richness of Veligonda forest, hill region of Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh. The major threats and the reasons for the dwindling species richness are poor rainfall, adverse climatic conditions, robbery of Red sanders and poaching of animals by the local tribals. Efforts are to be made to conserve some of the animals by both in situ and ex-situ methods. More awareness is to be developed among the local communities who are dwelling in the vicinity and importance of conservation is to be emphasized to them. Anthropogenic attachments are to be made by introducing more numbers of sacred groves. Gross enforcement of law is to be made to protect the various forest resources in this area. The important species with the medicinal values are to be identified. It was found that two important wildlife sanctuaries named Sri Lankamalleswarawildlife sanctuary and Sripenusila Narasimha wildlife sanctuary are working for the comprehensive conservation of the environment in this area. Apart from this more than 38 important sacred grooves are there where the plants and animals are protected by local Yanadi and other communities.

Keywords: biodiversity, wild life sanctuary, habitat destruction, eastern Ghats

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Authors: Fatima Zahra Mahjoubi, Abderrahim Khalidi, Mohamed Abdennouri, Omar Cherkaoui, Noureddine Barka

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Industrial effluents are one of the major causes of environmental pollution, especially effluents discharged from various dyestuff manufactures, plastic, and paper making industries. These effluents can give rise to certain hazards and environmental problems for their highly colored suspended organic solid. Dye effluents are not only aesthetic pollutants, but coloration of water by the dyes may affect photochemical activities in aquatic systems by reducing light penetration. It has been also reported that several commonly used dyes are carcinogenic and mutagenic for aquatic organisms. Therefore, removing dyes from effluents is of significant importance. Many adsorbent materials have been prepared in the removal of dyes from wastewater, including anionic clay or layered double hydroxyde. The zinc/aluminium (Zn-AlNO₃), magnesium/aluminium (Mg-AlNO₃) and nickel/aluminium (Ni-AlNO₃) layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were successfully synthesized via coprecipitation method. Samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, TGA/DTA, TEM and pHPZC analysis. XRD patterns showed a basal spacing increase in the order of Zn-AlNO₃ (8.85Å)> Mg-AlNO₃ (7.95Å)> Ni-AlNO₃ (7.82Å). FTIR spectrum confirmed the presence of nitrate anions in the LDHs interlayer. The TEM images indicated that the Zn-AlNO3 presents circular to shaped particles with an average particle size of approximately 30 to 40 nm. Small plates assigned to sheets with hexagonal form were observed in the case of Mg-AlNO₃. Ni-AlNO₃ display nanostructured sphere in diameter between 5 and 10 nm. The LDHs were used as adsorbents for the removal of methyl orange (MO), as a model dye and for the treatment of an effluent generated by a textile factory. Adsorption experiments for MO were carried out as function of solution pH, contact time and initial dye concentration. Maximum adsorption was occurred at acidic solution pH. Kinetic data were tested using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. The best fit was obtained with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Equilibrium data were correlated to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The best conditions for color and COD removal from textile effluent sample were obtained at lower values of pH. Total color removal was obtained with Mg-AlNO₃ and Ni-AlNO₃ LDHs. Reduction of COD to limits authorized by Moroccan standards was obtained with 0.5g/l LDHs dose.

Keywords: chemical oxygen demand, color removal, layered double hydroxides, textile wastewater treatment

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Authors: Melvin Sethobya, Sithule Xanga, Sechaba Lenong, Lunga Nolakana, Gbenga Adesola

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Mining has been the cornerstone of the South African economy for the last century. Most of the gold mining in South Africa was conducted within the Witwatersrand basin, which contributed to the rapid growth of the city of Johannesburg and capitulated the city to becoming the business and wealth capital of the country. But with gradual depletion of resources, a stoppage in the extraction of underground water from mines and other factors relating to survival of the mining operations over a lengthy period, most of the mines were abandoned and left to pollute the local waterways and groundwater with toxins, heavy metal residue and increased acid mine drainage ensued. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy commissioned a project whose aim is to monitor, maintain, and mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of polluted water mine water flowing into local streams affecting local ecosystems and livelihoods downstream. As part of mitigation efforts, the diagnosis and monitoring of groundwater or surface water polluted sites has become important. Geophysical surveys, in particular, Resistivity and Magnetics surveys, were selected as some of most suitable techniques for investigation of local ingress points along of one the major streams cutting through the Witwatersrand basin, namely the Blesbokspruit, which is found in the eastern part of the basin. The aim of the surveys was to provide information that could be used to assist in determining possible water loss/ ingress from the Blesbokspriut stream. Modelling of geophysical surveys results offered an in-depth insight into the interaction and pathways of polluted water through mapping of possible ingress channels near the Blesbokspruit. The resistivity - depth profile of the surveyed site exhibit a three(3) layered model with low resistivity values (10 to 200 Ω.m) overburden, which is underlain by a moderate resistivity weathered layer (>300 Ω.m), which sits on a more resistive crystalline bedrock (>500 Ω.m). Two locations of potential ingress channels were mapped across the two traverses at the site. The magnetic survey conducted at the site mapped a major NE-SW trending regional linearment with a strong magnetic signature, which was modeled to depth beyond 100m, with the potential to act as a conduit for dispersion of stream water away from the stream, as it shared a similar orientation with the potential ingress channels as mapped using the resistivity method.

Keywords: eletrictrical resistivity, magnetics survey, blesbokspruit, ingress

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Authors: Satendra Pal Singh, Dalip Kr. Kakru, Jyoti Mishra, Rajesh Thakur, Tarana Sarwat

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COVID-19 is still an intrigue as far as morbidity or mortality is concerned. The rate of recovery varies from person to person, & it depends upon the accessibility of the healthcare system and the roles played by the physicians and caregivers. It is envisaged that with the passage of time, people would become immune to this virus, and those who are vulnerable would sustain themselves with the help of vaccines. The proposed study deals with the severeness of COVID-19 is associated with some specific biomarkers linked to correlate age and gender. We will be assessing the overall homeostasis of the persons who were affected by the coronavirus infection and also of those who recovered from it. Some people show more severe effects, while others show very mild symptoms, however, they show low CT values. Thus far, it is unclear why the new strain of Covid has different effects on different people in terms of age, gender, and ABO blood typing. According to data, the fatality rate with heart disease was 10.5 percent, 7.3 percent were diabetic, and 6 percent who are already infected from other comorbidities. However, some COVID-19 cases are worse than others & it is not fully explainable as of date. Overall data show that the ABO blood group is effective or prone to the risk of SARS-COV2 infection, while another study also shows the phenotypic effects of the blood group related to covid. It is an accepted fact that females have more strong immune systems than males, which may be related to the fact that females have two ‘X’ chromosomes, which might contain a more effective immunity booster gene on the X chromosome, and are capable to protect the female. Also specific sex hormones also induce a better immune response in a specific gender. This calls for in-depth analysis to be able to gain insight into this dilemma. COVID-19 is still not fully characterized, and thus we are not very familiar with its biology, mode of infection, susceptibility, and overall viral load in the human body. How many virus particles are needed to infect a person? How, then, comorbidity contribute to coronavirus infection? Since the emergence of this virus in 2020, a large number of papers have been published, and seemingly, vaccines have been prepared. But still, a large number of questions remain unanswered. The proneness of humans for infection by covid-19 needs to be established to be able to develop a better strategy to fight this virus. Our study will be on the Impact of demography on the Severity of covid-19 infection & at the same time, will look into gender-specific sensitivity of Covid-19 and the Operational variation of different biochemical markers in Covid-19 positive patients. Besides, we will be studying the co-relation, if any, of COVID severity & ABO Blood group type and the occurrence of the most common blood group type amongst positive patience.

Keywords: coronavirus, ABO blood group, age, gender

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Authors: Clara Oliver, Oibar Martinez, Jose Miguel Miranda

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Ensuring a safe environment for sensitive electronics boards in places with high limitations in size poses two major difficulties: the control of charge accumulation in floating floors and the prevention of excess charge generation due to air cooling flows. In this paper, we discuss these mechanisms and possible solutions to prevent them. An experiment was made in the control room of a Cherenkov Telescope, where six racks of 2x1x1 m size and independent cooling units are located. The room is 10x4x2.5 m, and the electronics include high-speed digitizers, trigger circuits, etc. The floor used in this room was antistatic, but it was a raised floor mounted in floating design to facilitate the handling of the cables and maintenance. The tests were made by measuring the contact voltage acquired by a person who was walking along the room with different footwear qualities. In addition, we took some measurements of the voltage accumulated in a person in other situations like running or sitting up and down on an office chair. The voltages were taken in real time with an electrostatic voltage meter and dedicated control software. It is shown that peak voltages as high as 5 kV were measured with ambient humidity of more than 30%, which are within the range of a class 3A according to the HBM standard. In order to complete the results, we have made the same experiment in different spaces with alternative types of the floor like synthetic floor and earthenware floor obtaining peak voltages much lower than the ones measured with the floating synthetic floor. The grounding quality one achieves with this kind of floors can hardly beat the one typically encountered in standard floors glued directly on a solid substrate. On the other hand, the air ventilation used to prevent the overheating of the boards probably contributed in a significant way to the charge accumulated in the room. During the assessment of the quality of the static charge control, it is necessary to guarantee that the tests are made under repeatable conditions. One of the major difficulties which one encounters during these assessments is the fact the electrostatic voltmeters might provide different values depending on the humidity conditions and ground resistance quality. In addition, the use of certified antistatic footwear might mask deficiencies in the charge control. In this paper, we show how we defined protocols to guarantee that electrostatic readings are reliable. We believe that this can be helpful not only to qualify the static charge control in a laboratory but also to asses any procedure oriented to minimize the risk of electrostatic discharge events.

Keywords: electrostatics, ESD protocols, HBM, static charge control

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Authors: Kristof Grätz

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Background: Coping with crisis situations (e.g., the identity crisis in adolescence) is omnipresent in today's socialization and should be encouraged as a child. For this reason, students should be given the opportunity to create, endure and manage these crisis situations in a sporting context within the project “Herausforderung.” They should prove themselves by working on a self-assigned task, accompanied by ‚coaches’ in a place outside of their hometown. The aim of the project is to observe this process from a resource-oriented perspective. Health promotion, as called for by the WHO in the Ottawa Charter since 1986, includes strengthening psychosocial resources. These include cognitive, emotional, and social potentials that contribute to improving the quality of life, provide favourable conditions for coping with health burdens and enable people to influence their physical performance and well-being self-confidently and actively. A systematic strengthening of psychosocial resources leads to an improvement in mental health and contributes decisively to the regular implementation and long-term maintenance of this health behavior. Previous studies have already shown significant increases in self-concept following experiential educational measures [Fengler, 2007; Eberle & Fengler, 2018] and positive effects of experience-based school trips on the social competence of students [Reuker, 2009]. Method: The research project examines the influence of the project “Herausforderung” on psychosocial resources such as self-efficacy, self-concept, social support, and group cohesion. The students participating in the project will be tested in a pre-post design in the context of the challenge. This test includes specific questions to capture the different psychosocial resources. For the measurement, modifications of existing scales with good item selectivity and reliability are used to a large extent, so that acceptable item and scale values can be expected. If necessary, the scales were adapted or shortened to the specific context in order to ensure a balanced relationship between reliability and test economy. Specifically, these are already tested scales such as FRKJ 8-16, FSKN, GEQ, and F-SozU. The aim is to achieve a sample size of n ≥ 100. Conclusion: The project will be reviewed with regard to its effectiveness, and implications for a resource-enhancing application in sports settings will be given. Conclusions are drawn as to which extent to specific experiential educational content in physical education can have a health-promoting effect on the participants.

Keywords: children, education, health promotion, psychosocial resources

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Authors: Ludmila Vucolova

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The thought is a process that underlies consciousness and cognition and understanding its origin and processes is a longstanding goal of many academic disciplines. By integrating over twenty novel ideas and hypotheses of this theoretical proposal, we can speculate that thought is an emergent property of coded neural events, translating the electro-chemical interactions of the body with its environment—the objects of sensory stimulation, X, and Y. The latter is a self- generated feedback entity, resulting from the arbitrary pattern of the motion of a body’s motor repertory (M). A culmination of these neural events gives rise to a thought: a state of identity between an observed object X and a symbol Y. It manifests as a “state of awareness” or “state of knowing” and forms our perception of the physical world. The values of the variables of a construct—X (object), S1 (sense for the perception of X), Y (object), S2 (sense for perception of Y), and M (motor repertory that produces Y)—will specify the particular conscious percept at any given time. The proposed principle of interaction between the elements of a construct (X, Y, S1, S2, M) is universal and applies for all modes of communication (normal, deaf, blind, deaf and blind people) and for various language systems (Chinese, Italian, English, etc.). The particular arrangement of modalities of each of the three modules S1 (5 of 5), S2 (1 of 3), and M (3 of 3) defines a specific mode of communication. This multifaceted paradigm demonstrates a predetermined pattern of relationships between X, Y, and M that passes from generation to generation. The presented analysis of a cognitive experience encompasses the key elements of embodied cognition theories and unequivocally accords with the scientific interpretation of cognition as the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses, and cognition means thinking and awareness. By assembling the novel ideas presented in twelve sections, we can reveal that in the invisible “chaos”, there is an order, a structure with landmarks and principles of operations and mental processes (thoughts) are physical and have a biological basis. This innovative proposal explains the phenomenon of mental imagery; give the first insight into the relationship between mental states and brain states, and support the notion that mind and body are inseparably connected. The findings of this theoretical proposal are supported by the current scientific data and are substantiated by the records of the evolution of language and human intelligence.

Keywords: agent, awareness, cognitive, element, experience, feedback, first person, imagery, language, mental, motor, object, sensory, symbol, thought

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Authors: Manuela Villani, Anila Xhahysa, Christopher Brooks, Marco Pagani

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The geological structure of Western Balkans is strongly affected by the collision between Adria microplate and the southwestern Euroasia margin, resulting in a considerably active seismic region. The Harmonization of Seismic Hazard Maps in the Western Balkan Countries Project (BSHAP) (2007-2011, 2012-2015) by NATO supported the preparation of new seismic hazard maps of the Western Balkan, but when inspecting the seismic hazard models produced later by these countries on a national scale, significant differences in design PGA values are observed in the border, for instance, North Albania-Montenegro, South Albania- Greece, etc. Considering the fact that the catalogues were unified and seismic sources were defined within BSHAP framework, obviously, the differences arise from the Ground Motion Prediction Equations selection, which are generally the component with highest impact on the seismic hazard assessment. At the time of the project, a modest database was present, namely 672 three-component records, whereas nowadays, this strong motion database has increased considerably up to 20,939 records with Mw ranging in the interval 3.7-7 and epicentral distance distribution from 0.47km to 490km. Statistical analysis of the strong motion database showed the lack of recordings in the moderate-to-large magnitude and short distance ranges; therefore, there is need to re-evaluate the Ground Motion Prediction Equation in light of the recently updated database and the new generations of GMMs. In some cases, it was observed that some events were more extensively documented in one database than the other, like the 1979 Montenegro earthquake, with a considerably larger number of records in the BSHAP Analogue SM database when compared to ESM23. Therefore, the strong motion flat-file provided from the Harmonization of Seismic Hazard Maps in the Western Balkan Countries Project was merged with the ESM23 database for the polygon studied in this project. After performing the preliminary residual analysis, the candidate GMPE-s were identified. This process was done using the GMPE performance metrics available within the SMT in the OpenQuake Platform. The Likelihood Model and Euclidean Distance Based Ranking (EDR) were used. Finally, for this study, a GMPE logic tree was selected and following the selection of candidate GMPEs, model weights were assigned using the average sample log-likelihood approach of Scherbaum.

Keywords: residual analysis, GMPE, western balkan, strong motion, openquake

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Authors: Spencer Jay Knafelc

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Some mental health practitioners and theorists have suggested that we approach remedying psychological problems by centering and intervening upon patients’ narrations. Such theorists and their corresponding therapeutic approaches see persons as narrators of their lives, where the stories they tell constitute and reflect their sense-making of the world. Psychological problems, according to these approaches to therapy, are often the result of problematic narratives. The solution is the construction of more salubrious narratives through therapy. There is trouble lurking within the history of these narrative approaches. These thinkers tend to denigrate the importance of truth, insisting that narratives are not to be thought of as aiming at truth, and thus the truth of our self-narratives is not important. There are multiple motivations for the tendency to eschew truth’s importance within the tradition of narrative approaches to therapy. The most plausible and interesting motivation comes from the observation that, in general, all dominant approaches to therapy are equally effective. The theoretical commitments of each approach are quite different and are often ostensibly incompatible (psychodynamic therapists see psychological problems as resulting from unconscious conflict and repressed desires, Cognitive-Behavioral approaches see them as resulting from distorted cognitions). This strongly suggests that there must be some cases in which therapeutic efficacy does not depend on truth and that insisting that patient’s therapeutic narratives be true in all instances is a mistake. Lewis’ solution is to suggest that narratives are metaphors. Lewis’ account appreciates that there are many ways to tell a story and that many different approaches to mental health treatment can be appropriate without committing us to any contradictions, providing us with an ostensibly coherent way to treat narratives as non-literal, instead of seeing them as tools that can be more or less apt. Here, it is argued that Lewis’ metaphor approach fails. Narratives do not have the right kind of structure to be metaphors. Still, another way to understand Lewis’ view might be that self-narratives, especially when articulated in the language of any specific approach, should not be taken literally. This is an idea at the core of the narrative theorists’ tendency to eschew the importance of the ordinary understanding of truth. This very tendency will be critiqued. The view defended in this paper more accurately captures the nature of self-narratives. The truth of one’s self-narrative is important. Not only do people care about having the right conception of their abilities, who they are, and the way the world is, but self-narratives are composed of beliefs, and the nature of belief is to aim at truth. This view also allows the recognition of the importance of developing accurate representations of oneself and reality for one’s psychological well-being. It is also argued that in many cases, truth factors in as a mechanism of change over the course of therapy. Therapeutic benefit can be achieved by coming to have a better understanding of the nature of oneself and the world. Finally, the view defended here allows for the recognition of the nature of the tension between values: truth and efficacy. It is better to recognize this tension and develop strategies to navigate it as opposed to insisting that it doesn’t exist.

Keywords: philosophy, narrative, psychotherapy, truth

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Authors: Silke Bustamante, Andrea Pelzeter, Andreas Deckmann, Rudi Ehlscheidt, Franziska Freudenberger

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Many companies increasingly seek to enhance their attractiveness as an employer to bind their employees. At the same time, corporate responsibility for social and ecological issues seems to become a more important part of an attractive employer brand. It enables the company to match the values and expectations of its members, to signal fairness towards them and to increase its brand potential for positive psychological identification on the employees’ side. In the last decade, several empirical studies have focused this relationship, confirming a positive effect of employees’ CSR perception and their affective organizational commitment. The current paper aims to take a slightly different view by analyzing the impact of another factor on commitment: the weighted employee’s satisfaction with the employer CSR. For that purpose, it is assumed that commitment levels are rather a result of the fulfillment or disappointment of expectations. Hence, instead of merely asking how CSR perception affects commitment, a more complex independent variable is taken into account: a weighted satisfaction construct that summarizes two different factors. Therefore, the individual level of commitment contingent on CSR is conceptualized as a function of two psychological processes: (1) the individual significance that an employee ascribes to specific employer attributes and (2) the individual satisfaction based on the fulfillment of expectation that rely on preceding perceptions of employer attributes. The results presented are based on a quantitative survey that was undertaken among employees of the German service sector. Conceptually a five-dimensional CSR construct (ecology, employees, marketplace, society and corporate governance) and a two-dimensional non-CSR construct (company and workplace) were applied to differentiate employer characteristics. (1) Respondents were asked to indicate the importance of different facets of CSR-related and non-CSR-related employer attributes. By means of a conjoint analysis, the relative importance of each employer attribute was calculated from the data. (2) In addition to this, participants stated their level of satisfaction with specific employer attributes. Both indications were merged to individually weighted satisfaction indexes on the seven-dimensional levels of employer characteristics. The affective organizational commitment of employees (dependent variable) was gathered by applying the established 15-items Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). The findings related to the relationship between satisfaction and commitment will be presented. Furthermore, the question will be addressed, how important satisfaction with CSR is in relation to the satisfaction with other attributes of the company in the creation of commitment. Practical as well as scientific implications will be discussed especially with reference to previous results that focused on CSR perception as a commitment driver.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, organizational commitment, employee attitudes/satisfaction, employee expectations, employer brand

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Authors: Katya E. Manalastas

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This thesis is a dialogue with Freud about vulnerability and any forms of transience we encounter in life. This study argues that Freud’s Ethics of Finitude, which is framed within the psychoanalytic context, is a critical theory about how human beings fail to become what they are because of their attachment to their illusions—to their visions of perfection and immortality. Freud’s Ethics of Finitude positions itself between our detachment to ideals and recognition of our own death through our loved one. His texts portray the predicament of the finite individual who suffers from feelings of guilt and anxiety because of his failure to live up to the demands of his idealistic civilized society. The civilized society has overestimated men’s susceptibility to culture. It imposes excessive sublimation, conformity to rigid moral ideals, and instinctive repression to manage human aggression. However, by doing this, civilization becomes a main source of men’s suffering. The lack of instinctive freedom will result in a community of tamed but unhappy people. Civilization has also constructed theories and measures to rule out death and pain from the realities of life. Therefore, a man lives his life repressing his instincts and ignorant of his own mortality. For Freud, war and neurosis are just few of the consequences of a civilization that imprisons the individual from cultural hypocrisy instead of giving more play to truthfulness. The occurrence of Great War destroyed our pride in the attainments of civilization and let loose the hostile impulses within us which we thought had been totally eradicated by means of instinctive repression and sublimation. War destroyed most of the things that we had loved and showed us the impermanence of all the things that we had deemed perfect and everlasting. This chaotic event also revealed the damaging impact of our attachment to past values that no longer bind us; our futile attempts to escape suffering; and our refusal to confront the painfulness of loss and mourning. With this given backdrop, this study launches Freud’s Ethics of Finitude—which culminates not in the submission of an individual to the unquestioned authority nor in the blind optimism and love for illusory happiness but in the pedagogy of mourning which brings forth the authentic education of man towards the truth about himself. His Ethics of Finitude is a form of labor in and through which the individual steps out of the realm of illusions and ideals that hinder him to confront his imperfections and accept the difficulties of existence. Through his analysis of the Great War, Freud seeks to awaken in us our ability to evaluate the way we see ourselves and to live our lives with death in mind. His Ethics of Finitude leads us to the fulfillment of our first duty as a living being, which is to endure life. We can only endure life if we are prepared to die and let go.

Keywords: critical theory, ethics of finitude, psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud

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Authors: Atucungwiire Rwebiita

Abstract:

Introduction: In Uganda, provision of adolescent sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services for key population is still hindered by negative attitudes, stigma and discrimination (S&D) at both the community and facility levels. To address this barrier, Integrated Community Based Initiatives (ICOBI) with support from SIDA is currently implementing a quality improvement (QI) innovative approach for strengthening the capacity of key population (KP) peer leaders and health workers to deliver friendly SRHR services without S&D. Methods: Our innovative approach involves continuous mentorship and coaching of 8 QI teams at 8 health facilities and their catchment areas. Each of the 8 teams (comprised of 5 health workers and 5 KP peer leaders) are facilitated twice a month by two QI Mentors in a 2-hour mentorship session over a period of 4 months. The QI mentors were provided a 2-weeks training on QI approaches for reducing S&D against young key populations in the delivery of SRHR Services. The mentorship sessions are guided by a manual where teams base to analyse root causes of S&D and develop key performance indicators (KPIs) in the 1st and 2nd second sessions respectively. The teams then develop action plans in the 3rd session and review implementation progress on KPIs at the end of subsequent sessions. The KPIs capture information on the attitude of health workers and peer leaders and the general service delivery setting as well as clients’ experience. A dashboard is developed to routinely track the KPIs for S&D across all the supported health facilities and catchment areas. After 4 months, QI teams share documented QI best practices and tested change packages on S&D in a learning and exchange session involving all the teams. Findings: The implementation of this approach is showing positive results. So far, QI teams have already identified the root causes of S&D against key populations including: poor information among health workers, fear of a perceived risk of infection, perceived links between HIV and disreputable behaviour. Others are perceptions that HIV & STIs are divine punishment, sex work and homosexuality are against religion and cultural values. They have also noted the perception that MSM are mentally sick and a danger to everyone. Eight QI teams have developed action plans to address the root causes of S&D. Conclusion: This approach is promising, offers a novel and scalable means to implement stigma-reduction interventions in facility and community settings.

Keywords: key populations, sexual reproductive health and rights, stigma and discrimination , quality improvement approach

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Authors: Tapiwa Shumba

Abstract:

The right to fairness and access to appeals and reviews enshrined under the South African Constitution seeks to ensure that justice is served. In essence, the constitution and the law have put in place mechanisms to ensure that a miscarriage of justice through wrongful convictions does not occur. However, once convicted and sentenced on appeal the procedural safeguards seem to resign as if to say, the accused has met his fate. The challenge with this construction is that even within an ideally perfect legal system wrongful convictions would still occur. Therefore, it is not so much of the failings of a legal system that demand attention but mechanisms to redress the results of such failings where evidence becomes available that a wrongful conviction occurred. In this context, this paper looks at the South African criminal procedural mechanisms for litigating innocence post-conviction. The discussion focuses on the role of section 327 of the South African Criminal Procedure Act and its apparent shortcomings in providing an avenue for victims of miscarriages to litigate their innocence by adducing new evidence at any stage during their wrongful incarceration. By looking at developments in other jurisdiction such as the United Kingdom, where South African criminal procedure draws much of its history, and the North Carolina example which in itself was inspired by the UK Criminal Cases Review Commission, this paper is able to make comparisons and draw invaluable lessons for the South African criminal justice system. Lessons from these foreign jurisdictions show that South African post-conviction criminal procedures need reform in line with constitutional values of human dignity, equality before the law, openness and transparency. The paper proposes an independent review of the current processes to assess the current post-conviction procedures under section 327. The review must look into the effectiveness of the current system and how it can be improved in line with new substantive legal provisions creating access to DNA evidence for post-conviction exonerations. Although the UK CCRC body should not be slavishly followed, its operations and the process leading to its establishment certainly provide a good point of reference and invaluable lessons for the South African criminal justice system seeing that South African law on this aspect has generally followed the English approach except that current provisions under section 327 are a mirror of the discredited system of the UK’s previous dispensation. A new independent mechanism that treats innocent victims of the criminal justice system with dignity away from the current political process is proposed to enable the South African criminal justice to benefit fully from recent and upcoming advances in science and technology.

Keywords: innocence, forensic law, post-conviction remedies, South African criminal justice system, wrongful conviction

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Authors: Mesfin Abebe Molla

Abstract:

This research aims to examine the practices of inclusion of the hard of hearing and deaf students in regular schools. It also focuses on exploring strategies for optimal benefits of students with Hard of Hearing and Deaf (HH-D) from inclusion. Concurrent mixed methods research design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The instruments used to gather data for this study were questionnaire, semi- structured interview, and observations. A total of 102 HH-D students and 42 primary and High School teachers were selected using simple random sampling technique and used as participants to collect quantitative data. Non-probability sampling technique was also employed to select 14 participants (4-school principals, 6-teachers and 4-parents of HH-D students) and they were interviewed to collect qualitative data. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques (independent sample t-test, one way ANOVA and Multiple regressions) were employed to analyze quantitative data. Qualitative data were also analyzed qualitatively by theme analysis. The findings reported that there were individual principals’, teachers’ and parents’ strong commitment and efforts for practicing inclusion of HH-D students effectively; however, most of the core values of inclusion were missing in both schools. Most of the teachers (78.6 %) and HH-D students (75.5%) had negative attitude and considerable reservations about the feasibility of inclusion of HH-D students in both schools. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant difference of attitude toward to inclusion between the two school’s teachers and the teachers’ who had taken and had not taken additional training on IE and sign language. The study also indicated that there was a statistically significant difference of attitude toward to inclusion between hard of hearing and deaf students. However, the overall contribution of the demographic variables of teachers and HH-D students on their attitude toward inclusion is not statistically significant. The finding also showed that HH-D students did not have access to modified curriculum which would maximize their abilities and help them to learn together with their hearing peers. In addition, there is no clear and adequate direction for the medium of instruction. Poor school organization and management, lack of commitment, financial resources, collaboration and teachers’ inadequate training on Inclusive Education (IE) and sign language, large class size, inappropriate assessment procedure, lack of trained deaf adult personnel who can serve as role model for HH-D students and lack of parents and community members’ involvement were some of the major factors that affect the practicing inclusion of students HH-D. Finally, recommendations are made to improve the practices of inclusion of HH-D students and to make inclusion of HH-D students an integrated part of Ethiopian education based on the findings of the study.

Keywords: deaf, hard of hearing, inclusion, regular schools

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Authors: Meera Tandan, Mohan Timilsina, Martin Cormican, Akke Vellinga

Abstract:

Background: In general practice, many infections are treated empirically without microbiological confirmation. Understanding susceptibility of antimicrobials during empirical prescribing can be helpful to reduce inappropriate prescribing. This study aims to apply a prediction model using a decision tree approach to predict the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of urinary tract infections (UTI) based on non-clinical features of patients over 65 years. Decision tree models are a novel idea to predict the outcome of AMR at an initial stage. Method: Data was extracted from the database of the microbiological laboratory of the University Hospitals Galway on all antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of urine specimens from patients over the age of 65 from January 2011 to December 2014. The primary endpoint was resistance to common antimicrobials (Nitrofurantoin, trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin, co-amoxiclav and amoxicillin) used to treat UTI. A classification and regression tree (CART) model was generated with the outcome ‘resistant infection’. The importance of each predictor (the number of previous samples, age, gender, location (nursing home, hospital, community) and causative agent) on antimicrobial resistance was estimated. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive (NPV) and positive predictive (PPV) values were used to evaluate the performance of the model. Seventy-five percent (75%) of the data were used as a training set and validation of the model was performed with the remaining 25% of the dataset. Results: A total of 9805 UTI patients over 65 years had their urine sample submitted for AST at least once over the four years. E.coli, Klebsiella, Proteus species were the most commonly identified pathogens among the UTI patients without catheter whereas Sertia, Staphylococcus aureus; Enterobacter was common with the catheter. The validated CART model shows slight differences in the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV in between the models with and without the causative organisms. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for the model with non-clinical predictors was between 74% and 88% depending on the antimicrobial. Conclusion: The CART models developed using non-clinical predictors have good performance when predicting antimicrobial resistance. These models predict which antimicrobial may be the most appropriate based on non-clinical factors. Other CART models, prospective data collection and validation and an increasing number of non-clinical factors will improve model performance. The presented model provides an alternative approach to decision making on antimicrobial prescribing for UTIs in older patients.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, urinary tract infection, prediction, decision tree

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