Search results for: health economy

Authors: Spada Alessia, Fiore Mariantonietta, Lamonaca Emilia, Contò Francesco

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Bioeconomy can give the chance to face new global challenges and can move ahead the transition from a waste economy to an economy based on renewable resources and sustainable consumption. Air pollution is a grave issue in green challenges, mainly caused by anthropogenic factors. The agriculture sector is a great contributor to global greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions due to lacking efficient management of the resources involved and research policies. In particular, livestock sector contributes to emissions of GHGs, deforestation, and nutrient imbalances. More effective agricultural research systems and technologies are crucial in order to improve farm productivity but also to reduce the GHGs emissions. Using data from FAOSTAT statistics and concern the EU countries; the aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of ASTI R&D (Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators) on GHGs emissions for countries EU in 2015 by generalized propensity score procedures, estimating a dose-response function, also considering a set of covariates. Expected results show the existence of the influence of ASTI R&D on GHGs across EU countries. Implications are crucial: reducing GHGs emissions by means of R&D based policies and correlatively reaching eco-friendly management of required resources by means of green available practices could have a crucial role for fair intra-generational implications.

Keywords: agricultural research systems, dose-response function, generalized propensity score, GHG emissions

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Authors: Macdonald Kanyangale, Sandram Naluso

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Globally, researchers have struggled over time to adequately define the notion of health system to inform research. This study is significant because it proposes an integrative framework for a robust definition of the health system. The objective of this article is to examine major pitfalls in definitions of health system used in prior literature and implications of these for research and management. The study used methodological steps of a scoping review proposed by Arksey and O'Malley to identify and examine 24 definitions of a health system in articles selected from six databases and web search engines. Thematic analysis was used to delineate and categorise definitional pitfalls into broader themes. There are a plethora of five major pitfalls in the extant definitions of a health system which may easily scupper any unsuspecting researcher if not avoided or addressed in research. These definitional pitfalls are reductionist assumptions which ignore dynamic and complex connections, overly wide boundary and lack of specification of levels in a health system, and limited focus on process in a health system. In addition, there is the tendency of treating different components of the health system as equal and simplifying of the ontological complexity of the health system. Future scholars are advised to avoid or address the identified five major pitfalls if they are to develop robust definitions of an HS. The use of an integrative framework for a robust definition of a health system is recommended, while implications of the pitfalls are discussed as a basis and catalyst for complexity-informed research and managing interactively.

Keywords: complexity management, health system, pitfalls, reductionism, research

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Authors: Jukka Torronen

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Introduction: Alcohol consumption and health are areas where gender binaries have persisted. By intoxication, men have displayed their masculinity as strong, while matters of health have formed a feminine undertaking. However, in recent years young people’s alcohol consumption has declined and been challenged by competing activities, including the rising health trend. This makes the comparison of young people’s masculinities and femininities in health and heavy drinking an important case to study. Methods: The data consists of semi-structured interviews about alcohol, health, and leisure activities among young people aged between 15 and 19 (N=56). By drawing on Butler’s work on “gender as performative” and Connell’s understanding of gendered identities as “configurations of practices,” the paper analyzes how the interviewees are doing masculinities and femininities in relation to health and heavy drinking, and how their gender performances are dichotomous, naturalized and contested. Results: The interviewees approach health from two perspectives, which are called “social health” and “physical health” approaches. They are both gendered. Especially in the “social health” approach, in which intoxication and risk-taking are used to increase well-being, the interviewees perform stereotypical gender binaries. The interviewees’ gendered performances in the “physical health” approach show more variability and are more reflective and critical. In contrast to intoxication, in relation to which the interviewees perform biologically driven gender binaries, they perform culturally driven genders in relation to health. Conclusions: Health seems to provide for the interviewees a field in which they feel more liberated to perform flexible and alternative genders.

Keywords: young people, decline in drinking, qualitative interviews, gender, health, risk-taking

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Authors: Ruttana Phetsitong, Patama Vapattanawong, Malee Sunpuwan, Marc Voelker

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The majority of care for older people at home in Thai society falls upon caregivers resulting in caregiver’s mental health problem. Beyond individual characteristics, household factors might have a profound effect on the caregiver’s mental health. But reliable data capturing this at the household level have been limited to date. The objectives of the present study were to explore the levels of Thai caregiver’s mental health and to investigate the factors affecting the mental health at household level. Data were obtained from the 2011 National Survey of Thai Older Persons conducted by the National Statistical Office of Thailand. Caregiver’s mental health was measured by using the 15- items-short version of the Thai Mental Health Indicator (TMHI-15) developed by the Department of Mental Health, the Ministry of Public Health. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to explore the impact of potential factors on caregiver’s mental health. The THMI-15 produced an overall average caregiver mental health score of 30.9 out of 45 (SD 5.3). The score can be categorized into good (34.02-45), fair (27.01-34), and poor (0-27). Duration of care for older people, household wealth, and functional dependency of the older people significantly predicted total caregiver’s mental health. Household economic factor was key in predicting better mental health. Compared to those poorest households, the adjusted effect of the fifth quintile household wealth was high (OR=2.34; 95%CI=1.47-3.73). The findings of this study provide a fuller picture to a better understanding of the level and factors that cause the mental health of Thai caregivers. Health care providers and policymakers should consider these factors when designing interventions aimed at alleviating caregiver’s psychological burden when provided care for older people at home.

Keywords: caregiver’s mental health, household, older people, Thailand

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Authors: Yuki Irie, Shota Ogawa, Hitomi Kosugi, Hiromitsu Shinozaki

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Background: Dropout from higher educational institutions is a major problem both for students and institutions, and poor mental health is one of the risk factors. Medical college students are at higher risk of poor mental health than general students because of their hard academic schedules. On the other hand, food insecurity has negative impacts on mental health. The healthcare college of the project site is located heavily snowy area. The students without own vehicles may be at higher risk of food insecurity, especially in the winter season. Therefore, they have many risks to mental health. The aim of the study is to clarify the relationship between mental health and its risk factors to promote students’ mental well-being. Method: A cross-sectional design was used to investigate the relationship between mental health status and lifestyle, including diet and food security among the students (n=421, 147 male, 274 females; 20.7 ± 2.8 years old). Participants were required to answer 3 questionnaires which consisted of diet, lifestyle, food security, and mental health. The survey was conducted during the snowy season from Dec. 2022 to Jan. 2023. Results: Mean mental score was 6.7±4.6 (max. score 27, a higher score means worse mental health). Significant risk factors in mental health were breakfast habit (p=0.02), subjective dietary habit (p=0.00), subjective health (p=0.00), exercise habit (p=0.02), food insecurity in the winter season (p=0.01), and vitamin A intakes (p=0.03). Conclusions: Nutrients intakes are not associated with mental health except vitamin A; however, some other lifestyle factors are significantly associated with mental health. Nutrition doesn’t lead to poor mental health directly; however, the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and improved food security in winter may be effective in better mental health.

Keywords: mental health, winter, lifestyle, students

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Authors: Ana Gabriela Diaz, Luis Fermín Córdova, Jr., Roberto Lamazares

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The island of Cuba, the largest of the Greater Antilles, is located in the tropical North Atlantic. It is annually affected by numerous weather events, which have caused severe damage to our coastal areas. In the same way that many other coastlines around the world, the beautiful beaches of the Hicacos Peninsula also suffer from erosion. This leads to a structural regression of the coastline. If measures are not taken, the hotels will be exposed to the advance of the sea, and it will be a serious problem for the economy. With the aim of studying the intensity of this type of activity, specialists of group of coastal and marine engineering from CIH, in the framework of the research conducted within the project MEGACOSTAS 2, provide their research to simulate extreme events and assess their impact in coastal areas, mainly regarding the definition of flood volumes and morphodynamic changes in sandy beaches. The main objective of this work is the evaluation of the process of Varadero beach erosion (the coastal sector has an important impact in the country's economy) on the Hicacos Peninsula for different paths of hurricanes. The mathematical model XBeach, which was integrated into the Coastal engineering system introduced by the project of MEGACOSTA 2 to determine the area and the more critical profiles for the path of hurricanes under study, was applied. The results of this project have shown that Center area is the greatest dynamic area in the simulation of the three paths of hurricanes under study, showing high erosion volumes and the greatest average length of regression of the coastline, from 15- 22 m.

Keywords: beach, erosion, mathematical model, coastal areas

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Authors: Ana Pego

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Environmental technologies were developed for decades. Clean technologies emerged a few years ago. In these perspectives, the use of cleantech technologies has become very important due the fact of new era of environmental feats. As such, the market itself has become more competitive, more collaborative towards a better use of clean technologies. This paper shows the importance of clean technologies in offshore energy sector in Portuguese market, its localization and its impact on economy. Clean technologies are directly related with renewable cluster and concomitant with economic and social resource optimization criteria, geographic aspects, climate change and soil features. Cleantech is related with regional development, socio-technical transitions in organisations. There are an economical and social combinations which allow specialisation of regions in activities, higher employment, reduce of energy costs, local knowledge spillover and, business collaboration and competitiveness. The methodology used will be quantitative (IO matrix for Portugal 2013) and qualitative (questionnaires to stakeholders). The mix of both methodologies will confirm whether the use of technologies will allow a positive impact on economic and social variables used on this model. It is expected a positive impact on Portuguese economy both in investment and employment taking in account the localization of offshore renewable activities. This means that the importance of offshore renewable investment in Portugal has a few points which should be pointed out: the increase of specialised employment, localization of specific activities in territory, and increase of value added in certain regions. The conclusion will allow researchers and organisation to compare the Portuguese model to other European regions in order to a better use of natural and human resources.

Keywords: cleantech, economic impact, localisation, territory dynamics

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Authors: Homyr L. Garcia, Jr., Anne Margaret A. Rendon, Carla Michaela B. Taguinod

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Nothing is constant in this world but change. This is the reality wherein a lot of people fail to recognize and maybe, it is because of the fact that some see things that are happening with little value or no value at all until it’s gone. For the past years, Egypt was known for its stable government. It was able to withstand a lot of problems and crisis which challenged their country in ways which can never be imagined. In the present time, it seems like in just a snap of a finger, the said stability vanished and it was immediately replaced by a crisis which resulted to a failure in some parts of their government. In addition, this problem continued to worsen and the current situation of Egypt is just a reflection or a result of it. On the other hand, as the researchers continued to study the reasons why the government of Egypt is unstable, they concluded that there might be a possibility that they will be able to produce ways in which their country could be helped or improved. The instability of the government of Egypt is the product of combining all the problems which affects the lives of the people. Some of the reasons that the researchers found are the following: 1) unending doubts of the people regarding the ruling capacity of elected presidents, 2) removal of President Mohamed Morsi in position, 3) economic crisis, 4) a lot of protests and revolution happened, 5) resignation of the long term President Hosni Mubarak and 6) the office of the President is most likely available only to the chosen successor. Also, according to previous researches, there are two plausible scenarios for the instability of Egypt: 1) a military intervention specifically the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces or SCAF, resulting from a contested succession and 2) an Islamist push for political power which highlights the claim that religion is a hindrance towards the development of their country and government. From the eight possible reasons, the researchers decided that they will be focusing on economic crisis since the instability is more clearly seen in the country’s economy which directly affects the people and the government itself. In addition, they made a hypothesis which states that stable economy is a prerequisite towards a stable government. If they will be able to show how this claim is true by using the Social Autopsy Research Design for the qualitative method and Pearson’s correlation coefficient for the quantitative method, the researchers might be able to produce a proposal on how Egypt can stabilize their government and avoid such problems. Also, the hypothesis will be based from the Rational Action Theory which is a theory for understanding and modeling social and economy as well as individual behavior.

Keywords: Pearson’s correlation coefficient, rational action theory, social autopsy research design, supreme council of the armed forces (SCAF)

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Authors: Aikaterini Tsalampouni

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The European Union has long been the most developed model of economic and political integration that has brought a common market, a common currency and a standardization of national policies in certain areas in consistent with EU values and principles. To this direction, there is a parallel process of social integration that effect public policy decisions of member states. Even though social policy, i.e. social protection and moreover healthcare policy, still remains in state's responsibility to develop, EU applies different mechanisms in order to influence health policy systems, since from a more federalist point of view, EU ought to expand its regulatory and legislative roles in as many policy areas as possible. Recently, the pandemic has become a turning point for health care provision and at the same time has also highlighted the need to strengthen the EU’s role in coordinating health care. This paper analyses the EU health policy in general, as well as the response to COVID-19 pandemic with an attempt to identify indications of interaction between EU policies and the promotion of sustainable and resilient health systems. More analytically, the paper investigates the EU binding legal instruments, non-binding legal instruments, monitoring and assessment instruments and instruments for co-financing concerning health care provision in member states and records the evolution of health policies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper concludes by articulating some remarks regarding the improvement of health policy in EU. Since the ability to deal with a pandemic depends on continuous and increased investment in health systems, the involvement of the EU can lead to a policy convergence, necessary for the resilience of the systems, maintaining at the same time, a strong health policy framework in Europe.

Keywords: EU health policy, EU response to COVID-19, European Health Union, health systems in Europe

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Authors: Omair Anas

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The Persian Gulf has been in turmoil for a long time since the colonial administration has handed over the role to the small and weak kings and emirs who were assured of protection in return of many economic and security promises to them. The regional order, Saudi Arabia evolved was a rentier regional order secured by an expansion of rentier economy and taking responsibility for much of the expenses of the regional order on behalf of relatively poor countries. The two oil booms helped the Saudi state to expand the 'rentier order' driven stability and bring the countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine under its tutelage. The disruptive misadventure, however, came with Iran's proclamation of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 which it wanted to be exported to its 'un-Islamic and American puppet' Arab neighbours. For Saudi Arabia, even the challenge presented by the socialist-nationalist Arab dictators like Gamal Abdul Nasser and Hafez Al-Assad was not that much threatening to the Saudi Arabia’s then-defensive realism. In the Arab uprisings, the Gulf monarchies saw a wave of insecurity and Iran found it an opportune time to complete the revolutionary process it could not complete after 1979. An alliance of convenience and ideology between Iran and Islamist groups had the real potential to challenge both Saudi Arabia’s own security and its leadership in the region. The disruptive threat appeared at a time when the Saudi state had already sensed an impending crisis originating from the shifts in the energy markets. Low energy prices, declining global demands, and huge investments in alternative energy resources required Saudi Arabia to rationalize its economy according to changing the global political economy. The domestic Saudi reforms remained gradual until the death of King Abdullah in 2015. What is happening now in the region, the Qatar crisis, the Lebanon crisis and the Saudi-Iranian proxy war in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen has combined three immediate objectives, rationalising Saudi economy and most importantly, the resetting the Saudi royal power for Saudi Arabia’s longest-serving future King Mohammad bin Salman. The Saudi King perhaps has no time to wait and watch the power vacuum appearing because of Iran’s expansionist foreign policy. The Saudis appear to be employing an offensive realism by advancing a pro-active regional policy to counter Iran’s threatening influence amid disappearing Western security from the region. As the Syrian civil war is coming to a compromised end with ceding much ground to Iran-controlled militias, Hezbollah and Al-Hashad, the Saudi state has lost much ground in these years and the threat from Iranian proxies is more than a reality, more clearly in Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. This paper attempts to analyse the changing Saudi behaviour in the region, which, the author understands, is shaped by an offensive-realist approach towards finding a favourable security environment for the Saudi-led regional order, a post-rentier order perhaps.

Keywords: terrorism, Saudi Arabia, Rentier State, gulf crisis

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Authors: Ivy Chen XQ

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This research places a much-needed focus on the conservation of the Blue Economy (BE) by focusing on the design and development of monitoring systems to track critical indicators on the status of the BE. In this process, local experiences provide an insight into important community issues, as well as the necessity to cooperate and collaborate in order to achieve sustainable options. Researchers worldwide and industry initiatives over the last decade show that the exploitation of marine resources has resulted in a significant decrease in the share of total allowable catch (TAC). The result has been strengthening law enforcement, yet the results have shown that problems were related to poor policies, a lack of understanding of over-exploitation, biological uncertainty and political pressures. This reality and other statistics that show a significant negative impact on the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), warrant an emphasis on the development of national M&E systems, in order to provide evidence-based information, on the nature and scale of especially transnational fisheries crime and under-sea marine resources in the BE. In particular, a need exists to establish a compendium of relevant BE indicators to assess such impact against the SDGs by using selected SDG indicators for this purpose. The research methodology consists of ATLAS.ti qualitative approach and a case study will be developed of Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) as component of the BE as it relates to the case of abalone in southern Africa and Far East. This research project will make an original contribution through the analysis and comparative assessment of available indicators, in the design process of M&E systems and developing indicators and monitoring frameworks in order to track critical trends and tendencies on the status of the BE, to ensure specific objectives to be aligned with the indicators of the SDGs framework. The research will provide a set of recommendations to governments and stakeholders involved in such projects on lessons learned, as well as priorities for future research. The research findings will enable scholars, civil society institutions, donors and public servants, to understand the capability of the M&E systems, the importance of showing multi-level governance, in the coordination of information management, together with knowledge management (KM) and M&E at the international, regional, national and local levels. This coordination should focus on a sustainable development management approach, based on addressing socio-economic challenges to the potential and sustainability of BE, with an emphasis on ecosystem resilience, social equity and resource efficiency. This research and study focus are timely as the opportunities of the post-Covid-19 crisis recovery package will be grasped to set the economy on a path to sustainable development in line with the UN 2030 Agenda. The pandemic raises more awareness for the world to eliminate IUU poaching and illegal wildlife trade (IWT).

Keywords: Blue Economy (BE), transnational governance, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Authors: Benet Reid, Nina Laurie, Matt Baillie-Smith

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Trans-national and tropical medicine, historically associated with colonial power and missionary activity, is now central to discourses of global health and development, thrust into mainstream media by events like the 2014 Ebola crisis and enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals. Research in this area remains primarily the province of health professional disciplines, and tends to be framed within a simple North-to-South model of development. The continued role of voluntary work in this field is bound up with a rhetoric of partnering and partnership. We propose, instead, the idea of International Voluntary Health Networks (IVHNs) as a means to de-centre global-North institutions in these debates. Drawing on our empirical work with IVHNs in countries both North and South, we explore geographical and sociological theories for mapping the multiple spatial and conceptual dynamics of power manifested in these phenomena. We make a radical break from conventional views of health as a de-politicised symptom or corollary of social development. In studying health work as it crosses between cultures and contexts, we demonstrate the inextricably political nature of health and health work everywhere.

Keywords: development, global health, power, volunteering

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Authors: Heba M. Mohamed

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Owing to scientific and public concern about health and environment and seeking for a better quality of life; “Green”, “Environmentally” and “Eco” friendly practices have been presented and implemented in different research areas. Subsequently, researchers’ attention is drawn in the direction of greening the analytical methodologies and taking the Green Analytical Chemistry principles (GAC) into consideration. It is of high importance to appraise the environmental impact of each of the implemented green approaches. Compared to the other traditional green metrics (E-factor, Atom economy and the process profile), the eco scale is the optimum choice to assess the environmental impact of the analytical procedures used for pharmaceuticals analysis. For analytical methodologies, Eco-Scale is calculated by allotting penalty points to any factor of the used analytical procedure which disagree and not match with the model green analysis, where the perfect green analysis has its Eco-Scale value of 100. In this work, calculation and comparison of the Eco-Scale for some of the reported green analytical methods was done, to accentuate their greening potentials. Where the different scores can reveal how green the method is, compared to the ideal value. The study emphasizes that greenness measurement is not only about the waste quantity determination but also dictates a holistic scheme, considering all factors.

Keywords: eco scale, green analysis, environmentally friendly, pharmaceuticals analysis

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Authors: Natasha Gabriella, Josef-Peter Schöggl, Alfred Posch

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Being a mature industry, pulp and paper industry (PPI) possess strength points coming from its existing infrastructure, technology know-how, and abundant availability of biomass. However, the declining trend of the wood-based products sales sends a clear signal to the industry to transform its business model in order to increase its profitability. With the emerging global attention on bio-based economy and circular economy, coupled with the low price of fossil feedstock, the PPI starts to integrate biorefinery as a value-added business model to keep the industry’s competitiveness. Nonetheless, biorefinery as an innovation exposes the PPI with some barriers, of which the uncertainty of the promising product becomes one of the major hurdles. This study aims to assess factors that affect the diffusion and development of forest biorefinery in the PPI, including drivers, barriers, advantages, disadvantages, as well as the most promising bio-based products of forest biorefinery. The study examines the identified factors according to the layer of business environment, being the macro-environment, industry, and strategic group level. Besides, an overview of future state of the identified factors is elaborated as to map necessary improvements for implementing forest biorefinery. A two-phase Delphi method is used to collect the empirical data for the study, comprising of an online-based survey and interviews. Delphi method is an effective communication tools to elicit ideas from a group of experts to further reach a consensus of forecasting future trends. Collaborating a total of 50 experts in the panel, the study reveals that influential factors are found in every layers of business of the PPI. The politic dimension is apparent to have a significant influence for tackling the economy barrier while reinforcing the environmental and social benefits in the macro-environment. In the industry level, the biomass availability appears to be a strength point of the PPI while the knowledge gap on technology and market seem to be barriers. Consequently, cooperation with academia and the chemical industry has to be improved. Human resources issue is indicated as one important premise behind the preceding barrier, along with the indication of the PPI’s resistance towards biorefinery implementation as an innovation. Further, cellulose-based products are acknowledged for near-term product development whereas lignin-based products are emphasized to gain importance in the long-term future.

Keywords: forest biorefinery, pulp and paper, bio-based product, Delphi method

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Authors: Maryam Bakhtyar-Pegah Akrami

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The relationship between spiritual health and spirituality is one of the important is that in recent years, the research about it is expanding and due to the rich heritage of the in this field of study and research in this important field more than before and we will come to spiritual life and healthier than before. In this research, we provide the following and the basics of Islamic Mysticism in the realm of spiritual health thoughts. This research is based on a descriptive method and comparison with analytical-method to data collected. The findings show that human beings due to this pivotal topic of full Islamic slab, and mental and physical education with the sought to reach the human place are complete, we can provide the basics along with new discussions of spiritual health help human beings to spiritual education along with our faiths in the reconstruction of the spiritual foundations of spiritual health are extremely helpful

Keywords: spirituality, health, Islam, mysticism, perfect human

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Authors: Peter R. Reuter

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Health professionals play important roles in helping patients use Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) practices safely and accurately. Consequently, it is important for future health professionals to learn about CAM practices during their time in undergraduate and graduate programs. To satisfy this need for education, teaching CAM in nursing and medical schools and other health professions programs is becoming more prevalent. Our study was the first to look specifically at the knowledge of, and attitude toward CAM of undergraduate health professions students at a university in the U.S. Students were invited to participate in one of two anonymous online surveys depending on whether they were pre-health professions students or graduating health professions seniors. Of the 763 responses analyzed, 71.7% were from pre-health professions students, and 28.3% came from graduating seniors. The overall attitude of participants toward and interest in learning about CAM practices was generally fairly positive with graduating seniors being more positive than pre-health professions students. Yoga, meditation, massage therapy, aromatherapy, and chiropractic care were the practices most respondents had personal experience with. Massage therapy, yoga, chiropractic care, meditation, music therapy, and diet-based therapy received the highest ratings from respondents. Three-quarters of respondents planned on including aspects of holistic medicine in their future career as a health professional. The top five practices named were yoga, meditation, massage therapy, diet-based therapy, and music therapy. The study confirms the need to educate health professions students about CAM practices to give them the background information they need to select or recommend the best practices for their patients' needs.

Keywords: CAM education, health professions, health professions students, pre-health professions students

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Authors: Mona Nikidehaghani, Freda Hui

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In Australia, one-third of mental health carers provide 40 hours or more of unpaid care per week. These hidden workers contribute significantly to the Australian mental health workforce by providing unpaid services both direct and indirect to people in their care. However, carers are often neglected in the healthcare system because Government services focus on those with a mental health condition rather than those supporting them. The aim of this study is to evaluate the perceptions of mental health carers on the effectiveness of community services designed for carers and how these services could be improved. We collaborated with One Door Mental Health, a community organisation that supports mental health carers. Through semi-structured interviews with 27 mental health carers residing in the Illawarra region (NSW), we documented their daily challenges and evaluated outcomes of the current programs for carers. Our findings demonstrate that services such as education programs enable capacity building and improve the social life and mental health of carers. Drawing on the perceptions of mental health carers, this study maps pathways for making meaningful changes in the lives of carers and proposes an outcome framework to evaluate the impact of a community organisation on the lives of their clients. The framework prepared by this project would be replicable, allowing other community organisations to measure the outcomes and improve their services.

Keywords: capacity building, community development, community service, mental health carers

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Authors: Adiyasa Muda Zannatan

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Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a plant originating from Brazil. Cassava plants categorized as sixth major food in the world after wheat, rice, corn and potatoes. It has been cultivated on hilly land for 97 years since 1918 at Cireundeu village, West Java Province, Indonesia. Cireundeu traditional village located in the mountain valleys and has a hilly slope up to 38%. Cassava is used as the primary food in that area. Uniquely, Cassava productivity is stable and continues until now. The assessment of soil quality is taking soil samples in the area and analysis the soil in laboratory. The result of analysis that soil in the area is not degraded because it has optimum nutrient, organic matter, and high value of cation exchange capacity in soil even though it has been cultivated in scarp with high slope. Commonly, soil on scarp with high slope has a high rate erosion and poor nutrient. It proved that cassava is able to be an alternative technique of soil conservation in the areas that have a high slope. Beside that, cassava can be utilized as a plant food, feed, fertilizer, and energy. With the utilization of Cassava, the target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) will be achieved with consideration three important components include economy, social, and environment. In economy, Cassava can to be the commercial product like processed food, feed, and alternative energy. In social, it will increase social welfare and will be hereditary. And for environment, Cassava prevents soil from erosion and keeps soil quality.

Keywords: Cassava, local wisdom, conservation, soil quality, sustainable

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Authors: A. Al Hinai, H. Jayasuriya, H. Kotagama

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Most Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries with oil-based economy like Oman are looking for other potential revenue generation options as the crude oil price is regularly fluctuating due to changing geopolitical environment. Oman has advantage of possessing world-heritage nature tourism hotspots around the country and the government is making investments and strategies to uplift the tourism industry following Oman Vision 2040 strategies. Oman’s agriculture is not significantly contributing to the economy, but possesses specific and diversified arid cropping systems. Oman has modern farms; nevertheless some of the agricultural production activities are done with cultural practices and styles that would be attractive to tourists. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potentials for promoting agritourism industry in Oman; recognize potential sites, commodities and activities, and predict potential revenue generation as a projection from that of the tourism sector. Moreover, the study enables to foresee possible auxiliary advantages of agritourism such as, empowerment of women and youth, enhancement in the value-addition industry for agricultural produce through technology transfer and capacity building, and producing export quality products. Agritourism could increase employability, empowerment of women and youth, improve value-addition industry and export-oriented agribusiness. These efforts including provision of necessary technology-transfer and capacity-building should be rendered by the collaboration of academic institutions, relevant ministries and other public and private sector stakeholders.

Keywords: agritourism, nature-based tourism, potentials, revenue generation, value addition

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Authors: Lu Yu Jyun

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Background: Health education is important nursing work aiming to strengthen patients’ self-caring ability and family members. Our department educates through three methods, including speech education, flyer and demonstration video education. The satisfaction rate of health education tool use is 54.3% in nursing staff. The main reason is there hadn’t been a storage area for flyers, causing extra workload in assessing flyers. The satisfaction rate of health education in patients and families is 70.7%. We aim to improve this situation between 13th April and 6th June 2021. Method: We introduce the ECRS method to erase repetitive and redundant actions. We redesign the health education tool usage workflow to improve nursing staffs’ efficiency and further enhance nursing staffs care quality and working satisfaction. Result: The satisfaction rate of health education tool usage in nursing staff elevated from 54.3% to 92.5%. The satisfaction rate of health education in patients and families elevated from 70.7% to 90.2%. Conclusion: The assessment time of health care tools dropped from 10minutes to 3minutes. This significantly reduced the nursing staffs’ workload. 1213 paper is saved in one month and 14,556 a year in the estimate; we save the environment via this action. Health education map implemented in other nursing departments since October due to its’ high efficiency and makes health care tools more humanize.

Keywords: health, education tools, satisfaction, nursing staff

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Authors: Şenay Pehli̇van, Gülümser Kublay

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Female inmates placed in a Correctional Institution (CI) have more physical health problems than other women and their male counterparts. Thus, they require more health care services in the CI and nursing services in particular. CI nurses also have the opportunity to teach behaviors which will protect and improve their health to these women who are difficult to reach in the community. The aim of this study was to evaluate effect of nursing services provided in a CI on the physical health levels and health behaviors of female inmates. The study has a quasi-experimental design. The study was done in Female Closed CI in Ankara, Turkey. The study was conducted on 30 female inmates. Before the implementation of nursing interventions in the initial phase of the study, female inmates were evaluated in terms of physical health problems and health behavior using forms, a physical examination, medical history, health files (file containing medical information related to prisons) and the Omaha System (OS). Findings obtained from evaluations were grouped and symptoms-findings were expressed with OS diagnosis codes. Knowledge, behavior and status scores of prisoners in relation to health problems were determined. After the implementation of the nursing interventions, female inmates were evaluated in terms of physical health problems and health behavior using OS. The research data were collected using the Female Evaluation Form developed by the researcher and the OS. It was found that knowledge, behavior and status scores of prisoners significantly increased after the implementation of nursing interventions (p < 0.05).

Keywords: prison nursing, health promotion and protecting, nursi̇ng servi̇ces, omaha system

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Authors: Duygu Çelgin

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Until the new Occupational Health and Safety Law of Turkey, most of the workers were excluded from the mandatory occupational health and safety services. This new law, made the OHS services mandatory for all workers from all sectors including both public and private. However, in the application some problems and disadvantageous cases are occurred and the government also considered these cases. In this study, the new OHS law of Turkey and the regulations prepared according to the law are studied with the literature search.

Keywords: occupational health and safety in Turkey, OHS servicing in Turkey, safety experts, OHS support

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Authors: Wardoyo, Humairoh

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In global competition nowadays, the world economy heavily depends upon high technology and capital intensive industries that are mainly owned by well-established economic and developed countries, such as United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea. Indonesia as a developing country is building its economic activities towards industrial country as well, although a slightly different approach was implemented. For example, similar to the concept of one village one product (OVOP) implemented in Japan, Indonesia also adopted this concept by promoting local traditional products to improve incomes of village people and to enhance local economic activities. Analysis on how OVOP program increase local people’s income and influence customer satisfaction were the objective of this paper. Behavioral intention to purchase and re-purchase, customer satisfaction and promotion are key factors for local products to play significant roles in improving local income and economy of the region. The concepts of OVOP and key factors that influence economic activities of local people and the region will be described and explained in the paper. Results of research, in a case study based on 300 respondents, customers of a local restaurant at Tangerang City, Banten Province of Indonesia, indicated that local product, service quality and behavioral intention individually have significant influence to customer satisfaction; whereas simultaneous tests to the variables indicated positive and significant influence to the behavioral intention through customer satisfaction as the intervening variable.

Keywords: behavioral intention, customer satisfaction, local products, one village one product (OVOP)

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Authors: Muhammad Shoaib, Hassan M. Al-Swaidan

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Air pollution has been a major challenge for the scientists today, due to the release of toxic emissions from various industries like power plants, desalination plants, industrial processes and transportation vehicles. Harmful emissions into the air represent an environmental pressure that reflects negatively on human health and productivity, thus leading to a real loss in the national economy. Variety of air pollutants in the form of carbon oxides, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, suspended particulate material etc. are present in air due to the combustion of different types of fuels like crude oil, diesel oil and natural gas. Among various pollutants, NOx and SOx emissions are considered as highly toxic due to its carcinogenicity and its relation with various health disorders. In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia electricity is generated by burning of crude, diesel or natural gas in the turbines of electricity stations. Out of these three, crude oil is used extensively for electricity generation. Due to the burning of the crude oil there are heavy contents of gaseous pollutants like sulfur dioxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), gases which are ultimately discharged in to the environment and is a serious environmental threat. The breakthrough point in case of lab studies using 1 gm of sliced activated carbon adsorbant comes after 20 and 30 minutes for NOx and SOx, respectively, whereas in case of PP8 plant breakthrough point comes in seconds. The saturation point in case of lab studies comes after 100 and 120 minutes and for actual PP8 plant it comes after 60 and 90 minutes for NOx and SOx adsorption, respectively. Surface characterization of NOx and SOx adsorption on SAC confirms the presence of peaks in the FT-IR spectrum. CHNS study verifies that the SAC is suitable for NOx and SOx along with some other C and H containing compounds coming out from stack emission stream from the turbines of a power plant.

Keywords: activated carbon, flue gases, NOx and SOx adsorption, physical activation, power plants

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Authors: Suantak Demkhosei Vaiphei

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Mental illness is still considered as an illness not to be treated, resulting India becoming the most depressed country in the world. At present, 150 million Indians are suffering from mental illness and desperately in need of immediate care assessment for their mental health condition. However, only 0.06 per cent of India’s health budget is devoted to mental health treatment, in which the available data suggests that the state of spending the sanctioned budget in this regard is abysmal. Lack of awareness, ignorance, social stigma, and discriminations becomes the underlying factors for worsening the individual mental health conditions. Unfortunately, India becomes the most depressed country in the world, which is hugely affected by anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder followed by China and USA as per the latest World Health Organization report. The National Care of Medical Health stated that at least 6.5 per cent of the Indian populations are under serious mental disorder both in the rural and the urban areas’Mental health is the integral part of health and can be affected by a range of psychosocial-economic factors that need comprehensive strategically approach for promotion, prevention, treatment, and recovery. In a low- and middle-income country like India, the advance progress in mental health service is visible consistently slow and minimal. Some of the major barriers can be seen in the existing public health priorities and its influence on funding; challenges to delivery of basic mental health care in the primary care settings; the minimal numbers of well-trained professionals in the area of mental health care; and lack of mental health perspective in public-health leadership. The existing barriers according to WHO (2007) are; lack of funding for mental health services is the core barrier in implementing quality mental health services, including inadequate coordinated and consensus based national mental health advocacy and plans, the absence of mental health in major donor priorities, marketing of expensive pharmaceuticals by industry, cost-effectiveness information on mental health services that is unknown to senior decision-makers and social stigma among others. Moreover, lack of strong mental health advocacy in countries to increase resources for mental health services and the role of social stigma and the view that mental health is a private responsibility are also the two barriers to mental health.

Keywords: mental health, depression, stigma, barriers

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Authors: Sandrine Andriantsimietry, Hantanirina Ravaosendrasoa

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Madagascar, in 2018, set up the first best available technology, autoclave, to treat the health care waste in public hospitals according the best environmental practices in health care waste management. Incineration of health care waste, frequently through open burning is the most common practice of treatment and elimination of health care waste across the country. Autoclave is a best available technology for non-incineration of health care waste that permits recycling of treated waste and prevents harm in environment through the reduction of unintended persistent organic pollutants from the health sector. A Global Environment Fund project supported the introduction of the non-incineration treatment of health care waste to help countries in Africa to move towards Stockholm Convention objectives in the health sector. Two teaching hospitals in Antananarivo and one district hospital in Manjakandriana were equipped respectively with 1300L, 250L and 80L autoclaves. The capacity of these model hospitals was strengthened by the donation of equipment and materials and the training of the health workers in best environmental practices in health care waste management. Proper segregation of waste in the wards to collect the infectious waste that was treated in the autoclave was the main step guaranteeing a cost-efficient non-incineration of health care waste. Therefore, the start-up of the switch of incineration into non-incineration treatment was carried out progressively in each ward with close supervision of hygienist. Emissions avoided of unintended persistent organic pollutants during these four months of autoclaves use is 9.4 g Toxic Equivalent per year. Public hospitals in low income countries can be model in best environmental practices in health care waste management but efforts must be made internally for sustainment.

Keywords: autoclave, health care waste management, model hospitals, non-incineration

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Authors: Yafa Haron, Hanna Adami

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Background: World Health Organization emphasizes the contribution of nurses in planning and implementing health policies and reforms. Aim: To evaluate nursing students’ attitudes towards nurses’ involvement in health policy issues. Methods: Mixed-methods; qualitative and quantitative – a descriptive study. Participants - nursing students who were enrolled in their last year in the undergraduate program (BSN). Qualitative data included two open-ended questions: What is health policy and what is the importance of studying health policy, and 18 statements on the Likert Scale range 1-5. Results: Qualitativeanalysisrevealed that the majority of students defined health policy as a set of rules and regulations that defined procedures, borders, and proper conduct. 73% of students responded that nurses should be active in policymaking, but only 22% thought that nurses were currently involved in political issues. 28% thought that nurses do not have the knowledge and the time needed (60%) for political activity. 77% thought that the work environment did not encourage nurses to be politically active. Nursing students are aware of the importance towards nurses’ involvement in health policy issues, however, they do not have role models based on their low evaluation regarding nurses’ involvement in the health policy decision making process at the local or national level. Conclusions: Results emphasize the importance and the need of implementation the recommendation to include “advance policy changes” as core competency in nursing education and practice.

Keywords: health policy, nursing education, health systems, student perceptions

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Authors: Giorgia Carratta

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Since the beginning of mass production, plastic items have been crucial in our daily lives. Thanks to their physical and chemical properties, plastic materials have proven almost irreplaceable in a number of economic sectors such as packaging, automotive, building and construction, textile, and many others. At the same time, the disruptive consequences of plastic pollution have been progressively brought to light in all environmental compartments. The overaccumulation of plastics in the environment, and its adverse effects on habitats, wildlife, and (most likely) human health, represents a call for action to decision-makers around the globe. From a regulatory perspective, plastic production is an unprecedented challenge at all levels of governance. At the international level, the design of new legal instruments, the amendment of existing ones, and the coordination among the several relevant policy areas requires considerable effort. Under the pressure of both increasing scientific evidence and a concerned public opinion, countries seem to slowly move towards the discussion of a new international ‘plastic treaty.’ However, whether, how, and with which scopes such instrument would be adopted is still to be seen. Additionally, governments are establishing regional-basedstrategies, prone to consider the specificities of the plastic issue in a certain geographical area. Thanks to the new Circular Economy Action Plan, approved in March 2020 by the European Commission, EU countries are slowly but steadily shifting to a carbon neutral, circular economy in the attempt to reduce the pressure on natural resources and, parallelly, facilitate sustainable economic growth. In this context, the EU Plastic Strategy is promising to change the way plastic is designed, produced, used, and treated after consumption. In fact, only in the EU27 Member States, almost 26 million tons of plastic waste are generated herein every year, whose 24,9% is still destined to landfill. Positive effects of the Strategy also include a more effective protection of our environment, especially the marine one, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, a reduced need for imported fossil energy sources, more sustainable production and consumption patterns. As promising as it may sound, the road ahead is still long. The need to implement these measures in domestic legislations makes their outcome difficult to predict at the moment. An analysis of the current international and European Union legal framework on plastic pollution, binding, and voluntary instruments included, could serve to detect ‘blind spots’ in the current governance as well as to facilitate the development of policy interventions along the plastic value chain, where it appears more needed.

Keywords: environmental law, European union, governance, plastic pollution, sustainability

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Authors: Charaia Vakhtang

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Global oil prices are seeing new bottoms every day. The prices have already collapsed beneath the psychological verge of 30 USD. This tendency would be fully acceptable for the Georgian consumers, but there is one detail: two our neighboring countries (one friendly and one hostile) largely depend on resources of these hydrocarbons. Namely, the ratio of Azerbaijan in Georgia’s total FDI inflows in 2014 marked 20%. The ratio reached 40% in the January to September 2015. Azerbaijan is Georgia’s leading exports market. Namely, in 2014 Georgia’s exports to Azerbaijan constituted 544 million USD, i.e. 19% in Georgia’s total experts. In the January to November period of 2015, the ratio exceeded 11%. Moreover, Azerbaijan is Georgia’s strategic partner country as part of many regional projects that are designated for long-term perspectives. For example, the Baku-Tbilisi-Karsi railroad, the Black Sea terminal, preferential gas tariffs for Georgia and so on. The Russian economic contribution to the Georgian economy is also considerable, despite the losses the Russian hostile policy has inflicted to our country. Namely, Georgian emigrants are mainly employed in the Russian Federation and this category of Georgian citizens transfers considerable funds to Georgia every year. These transfers account for about 1 billion USD and consequently, these funds previously equalized to total FDI inflows. Moreover, despite the difficulties in the Russian market, Russia still remains a leader in terms of money transfers to Georgia. According to the last reports, money transfers from Russia to Georgia slipped by 276 million USD in 2015 compared to 2014 (-39%). At the same time, the total money transfers to Georgia in 2015 marked 1.08 billion USD, down 25% from 1.44 billion USD in 2014. This signifies the contraction in money transfers is by ¾ dependent on the Russian factor (in this case, contraction in oil prices and the Russian Ruble devaluation directly make negative impact on money transfers to Georgia). As to other countries, it is interesting that money transfers have also slipped from Italy (to 109 million USD from 121 million USD). Nevertheless, the country’s ratio in total money transfers to Georgia has increased to 10% from 8%. Money transfers to Georgia have increased by 22% (+18 million USD) from the USA. Money transfers have halved from Greece to 117 million USD from 205 million USD. As to Turkey, money transfers to Georgia from Turkey have increased by 1% to 69 million USD. Moreover, the problems with the national currencies of Russia and Azerbaijan, along with the above-mentioned developments, outline unfavorable perspectives for the Georgian economy. The depreciation of the national currencies of Azerbaijan and Russia is expected to bring unfavorable results for the Georgian economy. Even more so, the statement released by the Russian Finance Ministry on expected default is in direct relation to the welfare of the whole region and these tendencies will make direct and indirect negative impacts on Georgia’s economic indicators. Amid the economic slowdown in Armenia, Turkey and Ukraine, Georgia should try to enhance economic ties with comparatively stronger and flexible economies such as EU and USA. In other case, the Georgian economy will enter serious turbulent zone. We should make maximum benefit from the EU association agreement. It should be noted that the Russian economy slowdown that causes both regretful and happy moods in Georgia, will make negative impact on the Georgian economy. The same forecasts are made in relation to Azerbaijan. However, Georgia has many partner countries. Enhancement and development of the economic relations with these countries may maximally alleviate negative impacts from the declining economies. First of all, the EU association agreement should be mentioned as a main source for Georgia’s economic stabilization. It is the Georgian government‘s responsibility to successfully fulfill the EU association agreement requirements. In any case the imports must be replaced by domestic products and the exports should be stimulated through government support programs. The Authorities should ensure drawing more foreign investments and money resources, accumulating more tourism revenues and reducing external debts, budget expenditures should be balanced and the National Bank should carry out strict monetary policy. Moreover, the Government should develop a long-term state economic policy and carry out this policy at various Ministries. It is also of crucial importance to carry out constitutive policy and promote perspective directions on the domestic level.

Keywords: oil prices, economic growth, foreign direct investments, international trade

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Authors: Kanda Janyam, Piyaporn Vijit

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Background: As a consequence of sustained declines in fertility and mortality during the last three decades of the 20th century, Thailand faces a rapidly growing population of older persons. This demographic change directly affect Thailand workforce. Therefore, the study of health promotion behaviour of the older employees will benefit the employers as they can then develop the preparation for promoting well-being in older persons. Purpose: The current study aims to investigate health promotion behaviour and factors related to health promotion behaviour of older employees in factory. Methodology: The research instrument was questionnaire on health promotion behaviour and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire was launched with 326 employees aged between 45-59 years in three factories in Songkhla Province, southern Thailand. The data collection started in December 2011. The data were analysed with mean, standard deviation, and correlation. Results: The results revealed that overall health promotion behaviour of the older employees in factory was at a high level. Moreover, when considered by aspect, it was found that their responsibility for health, nutrition, success in life, interpersonal relationship were at a high level while stress management, and exercise were at a moderate level. The results from correlation analysis indicated that the overall health promotion behaviour was positively related to knowledge of health promotion behaviour, attitude toward health promotion behaviour, health perception, the policy of health promotion, participation in health promotion activities, convenience in obtaining health promotion services, health resources, advice from people supporting health, and information received from the media. In addition, the results of the interviews with four key informants helped to confirm the factors related to health promotion behaviour of older employees in factory. Therefore, health promotion for elderly employees in factory is likely to be successful, if the support is given to the four health promotion factors that are divided into: leading factors consisting of attitude toward health promotion behaviour, and health perception, and supporting factors consisting of advice from other people, and information on health from various media. Practical implications: The results of the study identified the factors related to health promotion behaviour of older employees in factory. Such information will benefit employers as they can then develop specific strategies to increase their staffs’ well-being and, hence, presumably enhance the organization productivity.

Keywords: health promotion behavior, older, employee, factory

Procedia PDF Downloads 253