Search results for: teacher emotional support/conflict

Authors: Hamilton V. Niculescu

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This paper discusses findings relating to people's engagement with mobile communication technologies and remote automated systems. This interdisciplinary study employs a constructivist grounded theory methodology, with qualitative data that was generated following in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 people living in Ireland being corroborated with participants' observations and quantitative data. Additional data was collected following participants' remote interaction with six custom-built automated enclosures, located at six different sites around Dublin, Republic of Ireland. This paper argues that ownership and education play a vital role in people engaging with and adoption of new technologies. Analysis of participants' behavior and attitude towards Information Communication Technologies (ICT) suggests that innovations do not always improve peoples' social inclusion. Technological innovations are sometimes perceived as destroying communities and create a dysfunctional society. Moreover, the findings indicate that a lack of public information and support from Irish governmental institutions, as well as limited off-the-shelves availability, has led to low trust and adoption of renewable technologies. A limited variation in participants' behavior and interaction patterns with technologies was observed during the study. This suggests that people will eventually adopt new technologies according to their needs and experience, even though they initially rejected the idea of changing their lifestyle.

Keywords: automation, communication, ICT, renewables

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Authors: M. D. Antoine

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When a child is diagnosed with an illness, condition, or developmental disorder, the process involved in understanding and accepting this diagnosis can be a very stressful and isolating experience for parents and families. The healthcare providers’ ability to effectively communicate in such situations represents a vital lifeline for parents. In this context, communication becomes a crucial element not only for getting through the period of grief but also for the future. We mobilized the five stages of grief model to summarize existing literature regarding the ways in which the experience ofan autism spectrum disorder diagnosis disclosurealigns with the experience of grief to explore how this can inform best practices for effective communication with parents through the diagnosis disclosure. Fifteen publications met inclusion criteria. Findings from the scoping review of empirical studies show that parents/families experience grief-like emotions during the diagnosis disclosure. However, grief is not an outcome of the encounter itself. In fact, the experience of the encounter can help mitigate the grief experience. The way parents/families receive and react to the ‘news’ depends on their preparedness, knowledge, and the support received through the experience. Individual communication skills, as well as policies and regulations, should be examined to alleviate adverse reactions in this context. These findings highlight the importance of further research into effective parent-provider communication strategies and their place in supporting quality autism care.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, diagnosis disclosure, parent-provider communication, parental grief

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Authors: Evelyn Smith, Susan Simpson

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Background: Eating disorder (ED) treatment is complicated by high rates of chronicity, comorbidity, complex personality traits and client dropout. Given these complexities, Schema Therapy (ST) has been identified as a suitable treatment option. The study primarily aims to evaluate the efficacy of group ST for the treatment of EDs. The study further evaluated the effectiveness of ST in reducing schemas and improving quality of life. Method: Participant suitability was ascertained using the Eating Disorder Examination. Following this, participants attended 90-minute weekly group sessions over 25 weeks. Groups consisted of six to eight participants and were facilitated by two psychologists, at least one of who is trained in ST. Measures were completed at pre, mid and post-treatment. Measures assessed ED symptoms, cognitive schemas, schema mode presentations, quality of life, self-compassion and psychological distress. Results: As predicted, measures of ED symptoms were significantly reduced following treatment. No significant changes were observed in early maladaptive schema severity; however, reductions in schema modes were observed. Participants did not report improvements in general quality of life measures following treatment, though improvement in psychological well-being was observed. Discussion: Overall, the findings from the current study support the use of group ST for the treatment of EDs. It is expected that lengthier treatment is needed for the reduction in schema severity. Given participant dropout was considerably low, this has important treatment implications for the suitability of ST for the treatment of EDs.

Keywords: eating disorders, schema therapy, treatment, quality of life

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Authors: Lilah Inzelberg, David Rand, Stanislav Steinberg, Moshe David Pur, Yael Hanein

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Human facial expressions carry important psychological and neurological information. Facial expressions involve the co-activation of diverse muscles. They depend strongly on personal affective interpretation and on social context and vary between spontaneous and voluntary activations. Smiling, as a special case, is among the most complex facial emotional expressions, involving no fewer than 7 different unilateral muscles. Despite their ubiquitous nature, smiles remain an elusive and debated topic. Smiles are associated with happiness and greeting on one hand and anger or disgust-masking on the other. Accordingly, while high-resolution recording of muscle activation patterns, in a non-interfering setting, offers exciting opportunities, it remains an unmet challenge, as contemporary surface facial electromyography (EMG) methodologies are cumbersome, restricted to the laboratory settings, and are limited in time and resolution. Here we present a wearable and non-invasive method for objective mapping of facial muscle activation and demonstrate its application in a natural setting. The technology is based on a recently developed dry and soft electrode array, specially designed for surface facial EMG technique. Eighteen healthy volunteers (31.58 ± 3.41 years, 13 females), participated in the study. Surface EMG arrays were adhered to participant left and right cheeks. Participants were instructed to imitate three facial expressions: closing the eyes, wrinkling the nose and smiling voluntary and to watch a funny video while their EMG signal is recorded. We focused on muscles associated with 'enjoyment', 'social' and 'masked' smiles; three categories with distinct social meanings. We developed a customized independent component analysis algorithm to construct the desired facial musculature mapping. First, identification of the Orbicularis oculi and the Levator labii superioris muscles was demonstrated from voluntary expressions. Second, recordings of voluntary and spontaneous smiles were used to locate the Zygomaticus major muscle activated in Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles. Finally, recording with a wireless device in an unmodified natural work setting revealed expressions of neutral, positive and negative emotions in face-to-face interaction. The algorithm outlined here identifies the activation sources in a subject-specific manner, insensitive to electrode placement and anatomical diversity. Our high-resolution and cross-talk free mapping performances, along with excellent user convenience, open new opportunities for affective processing and objective evaluation of facial expressivity, objective psychological and neurological assessment as well as gaming, virtual reality, bio-feedback and brain-machine interface applications.

Keywords: affective expressions, affective processing, facial EMG, high-resolution electromyography, independent component analysis, wireless electrodes

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Authors: Hae-Jun Lee, Ji-Sun Shin, Kyung-Tae Lee

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Potentilla species (Rosasease) have been used in traditional medicine to treat different ailment, disease or malady. In this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of ethanol extracts of NUTT (EPP) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced Raw 264.7 macrophages and septic mice. EPP suppressed LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production in LPS-induced Raw 264.7 macrophages. Consistent with these observations, EPP reduced the expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) by downregulation of their promoter activities. EPP inhibited tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) at production and mRNA levels. Molecularly, EPP attenuated the LPS-induced transcriptional activity, and DNA-binding activity of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), and this was associated with a decrease of translocation and phosphorylation of p65 NF-κB by inhibiting the inhibitory κB-α (IκB-α) degradation and IκB kinase-α/β (IKK-α/β) phosphorylation. Furthermore, EPP suppressed the LPS-induced activation of activator protein-1 (AP-1) by reducing the expression of c-Fos and c-Jun in nuclear. EPP also reduced the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), such as p38 MAPK and c-Jun N-terminal kinase/stress-activated protein kinase (JNK). In a sepsis model, pretreatment with EPP reduced the LPS-induced lethality. Collectively, these results suggest that the anti-inflammatory effects of EPP were associated with the suppression of NF-κB and AP-1 activation, and support its possible therapeutic role for the treatment of sepsis.

Keywords: anti-inflammation, activator protein-1, nuclear factor κB, Potentilla paradoxa Nutt

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Authors: Jaeseo Lim, Jooyong Park

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Although there is ample evidence that student involvement enhances learning, college education is still mainly centered on lectures. However, in recent years, the effectiveness of discussions and the use of collective intelligence have attracted considerable attention. This study intends to examine the empirical effects of discussions on learning outcomes in various conditions. Eighty eight college students participated in the study and were randomly assigned to three groups. Group 1 was told to review material after a lecture, as in a traditional lecture-centered class. Students were given time to review the material for themselves after watching the lecture in a video clip. Group 2 participated in a discussion in groups of three or four after watching the lecture. Group 3 participated in a discussion after studying on their own. Unlike the previous two groups, students in Group 3 did not watch the lecture. The participants in the three groups were tested after studying. The test questions consisted of memorization problems, comprehension problems, and application problems. The results showed that the groups where students participated in discussions had significantly higher test scores. Moreover, the group where students studied on their own did better than that where students watched a lecture. Thus discussions are shown to be effective for enhancing learning. In particular, discussions seem to play a role in preparing students to solve application problems. This is a preliminary study and other age groups and various academic subjects need to be examined in order to generalize these findings. We also plan to investigate what kind of support is needed to facilitate discussions.

Keywords: discussions, education, learning, lecture, test

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Authors: Stella Chioma Nwizu, Emmanuel Nwangwu

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Entrepreneurship, Vocational, and Technical education is an education that prepares one for effective adaptation to the world of work. It equally makes individuals self-reliant, self-sufficient and contributes to the development of society. It is, therefore, imperative that this type of education should be a priority in the development of any nation and should be given the utmost political support because of its importance and increasing demand on a global scale. This paper qualitatively explores three research questions on the policy status of Entrepreneurial, Vocational, and Technical Education (EVTE) in Nigeria, challenges hindering the enhancement of Entrepreneurial skills, Vocational and Technical Education in Nigeria, and strategies for the way forward. The major sources of data are secondary, interview and observation. Findings revealed the need to revise the policy of ETVE to meet the needs of the changing world of work. Challenges identified include corruption, inadequate funding, inadequate equipment, unqualified TVET Teachers/Instructors, poor documentation, policy implementation, poor conditions of service, and poor supervision of TVET programmes. Finally, the study identified policy revision, improvement in budgetary allocation, collaboration, sensitization, Public-Private Partnership, and training and retraining of instructors as the way forward toward the amelioration of the issues raised.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial skills, vocational and technical education, technical and vocational education and training, VTE policy

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Authors: Mahmoud Hassanin, Amita Gupta

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Background: During current practice, Thiopentone is not cost-effectively added to resources wastage, risk of drug error with antibiotics, short shelf life, infection risk, and risk of delay while preparing during category one cesarean section. There is no significant difference or preference to the other alternative as per current use. Aims and Objectives: Patient safety, Cost-effective use of trust resources, problem awareness, Consider improvising on the current practice. Methods: In conjunction with the local department survey results, many studies support the change. Results: More than 50%(15 from 29) are already using Propofol, more than 75% of the participant are willing to shift to Propofol if it becomes standard, and the cost analysis also revealed that Thiopentone 10 X500=£60 Propofol 10X200= £5.20, Cost of Thiopentone/year =£2190. Approximately GA in a year =35-40 could cost approximately £20 Propofol, given it is a well-established practice. We could save not only money, but it will be environmentally friendly also to avoid adding any carbon footprints. Recommendation: Thiopentone is rarely used as an induction agent for the category one Caesarean section in our obstetric emergency theatres. Most obstetric anesthetists are using Propofol. Keep both Propofol and thiopentone(powder not withdrawn) in the cat one cesarean section emergency drugs tray ready until the department completely changes the practice protocol. A further retrospective study is required to compare the outcomes for these induction agents through the local database.

Keywords: thiopentone, propofol, category 1 caesarean, induction agents

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Authors: Zoran Herceg, Višnja Stulić, Tomislava Vukušić, Anet Režek Jambrak

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High voltage electrical discharge is a new technology used for inactivation of pathogen microorganisms. Pathogen yeasts can cause diseases in humans if they are ingested. Nowadays new technologies have become the focus of researching all over the world. Rhodotorula is known as yeast that can cause diseases in humans. The aim of this study was to examine whether the high voltage electrical discharge treatment generated in gas phase has an influence on yeast reduction and recovery of Rhodotorula spp 74 in pure culture. Rhodotorula spp. 74 was treated in 200 mL of model solution. Treatment time (5 and 10 min), frequency (60 and 90 Hz) and injected gas (air or argon 99,99%) were changed. Titanium high voltage needle was used as high voltage electrode (positive polarity) through which air or argon was injected at the gas flow of 0.6 L/min. Experimental design and statistical analyses were obtained by Statgraphics Centurion software (StatPoint Technologies, Inc., VA, USA). The best inactivation rate 1.7 log10 reduction was observed after the 10 min of treatment, frequency of 90 Hz and injected air. Also with a longer treatment time inactivation rate was higher. After the 24 h recovery of treated samples was observed. Therefore the further optimization of method is needed to understand the mechanism of yeasts inactivation and cells recovery after the treatment. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge the support by Croatian Science Foundation and research project ‘Application of electrical discharge plasma for preservation of liquid foods’.

Keywords: rhodotorula spp. 74, electrical discharge plasma, inactivation, stress response

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Authors: Rui Liu, Pengyu Cui, Nan Jiang

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At present, there is much research on the application of centralized management and cross-integration application of basic geographic information. However, the idea of information integration and sharing between land, sea, and air navigation targets is not deeply applied into the research of navigation information service, especially in the information expression. Targeting at this problem, the paper carries out works about the expression pattern of navigation electronic map for ground vehicles under air and land united navigation mechanism. At first, with the support from multi-source information fusion of GIS vector data, RS data, GPS data, etc., an air and land united information expression pattern is designed aiming at specific navigation task of emergency rescue in the earthquake. And then, the characteristics and specifications of the united expression of air and land navigation information under the constraints of map load are summarized and transferred into expression rules in the rule bank. At last, the related navigation experiment is implemented to evaluate the effect of the expression pattern. The experiment selects evaluation factors of the navigation task accomplishment time and the navigation error rate as the main index, and make comparisons with the traditional single information expression pattern. To sum up, the research improved the theory of navigation electronic map and laid a certain foundation for the design and realization of united navigation system in the aspect of real-time navigation information delivery.

Keywords: navigation electronic map, united navigation, multi-element expression pattern, multi-source information fusion

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Authors: Songul Kurucay, Mustafa Acarer, Harun Sepet

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Static strain aging occurs when metallic materials are subjected to deformation and then heat treated at low temperatures such as 150-200oC. Static strain aging occurs in BCC metals and results and increasing in yield and tensile strength and decreasing ductility due to carbon and/or nitrogen atoms locking dislocations. The locked dislocations increase yield and tensile strength. In this study, static strain aging behaviors of ferritic and austenitic stainless steel were investigated. Ferritic stainless steel was prestained at %5, %10 and %15 and then aged at 150oC and 200oC for 30 minutes. Austenitic stainless steel was also prestained at %20 and %30 and then heat treated at 200, 400 and 600oC for 30 minutes. After the heat treatment, the tensile test was performed to determine the effect of prestain and heat treatment on the steels. Hardness measurements and detailed microstructure characterization were also done. While AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel sample which was prestained at 15% and aged at 200oC, showed the highest increasing in the yield strength, AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel which was prestained at 30% and aged at 600oC, has the highest yield strength. Microstructure photographs also support the mechanical test results.

Keywords: austenitic stainless steel, ferritic stainless steel, static strain aging, tensile strength

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Authors: Elitsa N. Kolentsova, Dimitar Y. Dimitrov, Petya Cv. Petrova, Georgi V. Avdeev, Diana D. Nihtianova, Krasimir I. Ivanov, Tatyana T. Tabakova

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Recently, copper and manganese-containing systems are recognized as active and selective catalysts in many oxidation reactions. The main idea of this study is to obtain more information about γ-Al₂O₃ supported Cu-La catalysts and to evaluate their activity to simultaneous oxidation of CO, CH₃OH and dimethyl ether (DME). The catalysts were synthesized by impregnation of support with a mixed aqueous solution of nitrates of copper, manganese and lanthanum under different conditions. XRD, HRTEM/EDS, TPR and thermal analysis were performed to investigate catalysts’ bulk and surface properties. The texture characteristics were determined by Quantachrome Instruments NOVA 1200e specific surface area and pore analyzer. The catalytic measurements of single compounds oxidation were carried out on continuous flow equipment with a four-channel isothermal stainless steel reactor in a wide temperature range. On the basis of XRD analysis and HRTEM/EDS, it was concluded that the active component of the mixed Cu-Mn-La/γ–alumina catalysts strongly depends on the Cu/Mn molar ratio and consisted of at least four compounds – CuO, La₂O₃, MnO₂ and Cu_1.5Mn_1.5O₄. A homogeneous distribution of the active component on the carrier surface was found. The chemical composition strongly influenced catalytic properties. This influence was quite variable with regards to the different processes.

Keywords: Cu-Mn-La oxide catalysts, carbon oxide, VOCs, deep oxidation

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Authors: Titilayo Shodeinde, Bukola Dawodu

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Aquaculture practice in Nigeria is an industry that includes fish development in a controlled situation. It has developed through various stages and stages with its latent capacity yet to be completely tapped. To avow this potential in adding to human advancement, nourishment security and improved way of life, the aquaculture business requires new approaches. Subsequently, this seminar paper reviews the impact of aquaculture on sustainable development in Nigeria. The examination received on subjective research strategy. The segments and the frameworks of business fish cultivating were completely talked about. Additionally, imperatives to business fish cultivating in the area were explained. The systems for advancing business aquaculture, for example, increment in consciousness of aquaculture items, financing of aquaculture data sources, preparing and labor improvement, government support, arrangement of fish ranchers agreeable social orders, access to advances and credit offices, advancement of research exercises, viable fisheries approaches, great institutional structure, and decreasing the degrees of defilement and instability in the district, were plainly brought up as a veritable devices, for changing the current situation with aquaculture in Niger Delta, through arranged, engaged and composed compelling administration procedures, by singular ranchers, government organizations and applicable foundations for economical advancement of the locale specifically and the nation by and large.

Keywords: aquaculture, sustainability, Nigeria, research

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Authors: Sarah A. Harris, Fleur L. McIntyre, Paola T. Chivers, Benjamin G. Piggott, Fiona H. Farringdon

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Australian Rules Football (ARF) is an invasion based, contact field sport with over one million participants. The contact nature of the game increases exposure to all injuries, including head trauma. Evidence suggests that both concussion and sub-concussive traumas such as head knocks may damage the brain, in particular the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex may not reach full maturity until a person is in their early twenties with males taking longer to mature than females. Repeated trauma to the pre-frontal cortex during maturation may lead to negative social, cognitive and emotional effects. It is also during this period that males exhibit high levels of risk taking behaviours. Risk propensity and the incidence of injury is an unexplored area of research. Little research has considered if the level of player’s (especially younger players) risk propensity in everyday life places them at an increased risk of injury. Hence the current study, investigated if a relationship exists between risk propensity and self-reported injuries including diagnosed concussion and head knocks, among male ARF players aged 18 to 31 years. Method: The study was conducted over 22 weeks with one West Australian Football League (WAFL) club during the 2015 competition. Pre-season risk propensity was measured using the 7-item self-report Risk Propensity Scale. Possible scores ranged from 9 to 63, with higher scores indicating higher risk propensity. Players reported their self-perceived injuries (concussion, head knocks, upper body and lower body injuries) fortnightly using the WAFL Injury Report Survey (WIRS). A unique ID code was used to ensure player anonymity, which also enabled linkage of survey responses and injury data tracking over the season. A General Linear Model (GLM) was used to analyse whether there was a relationship between risk propensity score and total number of injuries for each injury type. Results: Seventy one players (N=71) with an age range of 18.40 to 30.48 years and a mean age of 21.92 years (±2.96 years) participated in the study. Player’s mean risk propensity score was 32.73, SD ±8.38. Four hundred and ninety five (495) injuries were reported. The most frequently reported injury was head knocks representing 39.19% of total reported injuries. The GLM identified a significant relationship between risk propensity and head knocks (F=4.17, p=.046). No other injury types were significantly related to risk propensity. Discussion: A positive relationship between risk propensity and head trauma in contact sports (specifically WAFL) was discovered. Assessing player’s risk propensity therefore, may identify those more at risk of head injuries. Potentially leading to greater monitoring and education of these players throughout the season, regarding self-identification of head knocks and symptoms that may indicate trauma to the brain. This is important because many players involved in WAFL are in their late teens or early 20’s hence, may be at greater risk of negative outcomes if they experience repeated head trauma. Continued education and research into the risks associated with head injuries has the potential to improve player well-being.

Keywords: football, head injuries, injury identification, risk

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Authors: M. Saard, A. Kolk, K. Sepp, L. Pertens, L. Reinart, C. Kööp

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Introduction: Social competence is often impaired in children with acquired brain injury (ABI), but evidence-based rehabilitation for social skills has remained undeveloped. Modern technology-based methods create effective and safe learning environments for pediatric social skills remediation. The aim of the study was to implement our structured model of neuro rehab for socio-cognitive deficit using multitouch-multiuser tabletop (MMT) computer-based platforms and virtual reality (VR) technology. Methods: 40 children aged 8-13 years (yrs) have participated in the pilot study: 30 with ABI -epilepsy, traumatic brain injury and/or tic disorder- and 10 healthy age-matched controls. From the patients, 12 have completed the training (M = 11.10 yrs, SD = 1.543) and 20 are still in training or in the waiting-list group (M = 10.69 yrs, SD = 1.704). All children performed the first individual and paired assessments. For patients, second evaluations were performed after the intervention period. Two interactive applications were implemented into rehabilitation design: Snowflake software on MMT tabletop and NoProblem on DiamondTouch Table (DTT), which allowed paired training (2 children at once). Also, in individual training sessions, HTC Vive VR device was used with VR metaphors of difficult social situations to treat social anxiety and train social skills. Results: At baseline (B) evaluations, patients had higher deficits in executive functions on the BRIEF parents’ questionnaire (M = 117, SD = 23.594) compared to healthy controls (M = 22, SD = 18.385). The most impaired components of social competence were emotion recognition, Theory of Mind skills (ToM), cooperation, verbal/non-verbal communication, and pragmatics (Friendship Observation Scale scores only 25-50% out of 100% for patients). In Sentence Completion Task and Spence Anxiety Scale, the patients reported a lack of friends, behavioral problems, bullying in school, and social anxiety. Outcome evaluations: Snowflake on MMT improved executive and cooperation skills and DTT developed communication skills, metacognitive skills, and coping. VR, video modelling and role-plays improved social attention, emotional attitude, gestural behaviors, and decreased social anxiety. NEPSY-II showed improvement in Affect Recognition [B = 7, SD = 5.01 vs outcome (O) = 10, SD = 5.85], Verbal ToM (B = 8, SD = 3.06 vs O = 10, SD = 4.08), Contextual ToM (B = 8, SD = 3.15 vs O = 11, SD = 2.87). ToM Stories test showed an improved understanding of Intentional Lying (B = 7, SD = 2.20 vs O = 10, SD = 0.50), and Sarcasm (B=6, SD = 2.20 vs O = 7, SD = 2.50). Conclusion: Neurorehabilitation based on the Structured Model of Neurorehab for Socio-Cognitive Deficit in children with ABI were effective in social skills remediation. The model helps to understand theoretical connections between components of social competence and modern interactive computerized platforms. We encourage therapists to implement these next-generation devices into the rehabilitation process as MMT and VR interfaces are motivating for children, thus ensuring good compliance. Improving children’s social skills is important for their and their families’ quality of life and social capital.

Keywords: acquired brain injury, children, social skills deficit, technology-based neurorehabilitation

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Authors: Uzoamaka Nwugo Akwiwu

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Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) among rural dwellers depletes quality of agricultural labour, and reduces quality of life. Use of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) has not significantly reduced consequences of infection, as the effort is being compromised by inadequate dietary intake. This study analysed the dietary intake of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in rural communities of Imo State, Nigeria. Data was collected from 114 PLWHA randomly selected from members of two rural support groups with high prevalence of HIV in Imo State using interview schedule. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation, and t-test at α0.05. Level of involvement in agriculture was (mean 12.7) and reduced to 7.0 after infection. Extent of involvement in agriculture significantly reduced after infection in Imo (t=8.1). Health status of 42.1% of PLWHA was perceived as poor. Diet diversity score (4.3±1.6) was low among majority (62.3%) of the PLWHA, with diet of 76.3% being inadequate. However, perceived health status had no significant correlation with dietary intake (r=0.09). The study concluded that diet of PLWHA in Imo State was inadequate, thus there is need for agricultural extension agents to collaborate with the health sector to develop nutritional guideline for PLWHA in rural communities.

Keywords: dietary intake, diet diversity, people living With HIV/AIDS, perceived health status

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Authors: Ming Ma, Rui Li

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In the highly urbanized district, green open space is playing an important role in human’s health and wellbeing as a physical, aesthetic and natural environment resources. The aim of this paper is to close this gap through providing a comprehensive, qualitative meta-analysis of existing studies related to this issue. A systematic scoping of current quantitative research is conducted which mostly focused on cross-sectional survey and experimental studies. Health benefits from contact with green open space could be categorized into physical health, psychological health and social wellbeing. Mechanism for the health related to green open space could be clearly identified with the regard to natural restoration, physical activities and social capital. These results indicate a multiple pathways framework between the health benefits and mechanism. In order to support design and planning, the most evident relationship was picked up that people could psychologically benefit from green open space through outdoors physical activities. Additionally, three design and planning strategies are put forward. Various and multi-level contacts with green open space would be considered as an explanation of the pathway results and tie to bridge the health to design and planning. There is a need to carry out long-term research emphasizing on causal relationship between health and green open space through excluding cofounding factors such as self-selection.

Keywords: urban green open space, planning and design, health benefit, mechanism, pathway framework

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Authors: Arnab Adhikari, Adrija Majumdar, Gaurav Gupta, Arnab Bisi

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Team formation plays an instrumental role in the sports like cricket. Existing literature reveals that most of the works on player selection focus only on the players’ efficiency and ignore the consistency. It motivates us to design an improved player selection method based on both player’s efficiency and consistency. To measure the players’ efficiency measurement, we employ a modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique namely ‘super-efficient DEA model’. We design a modified consistency index based on semi variance approach. Here, we introduce a new parameter called ‘fitness index’ for consistency computation to assess a player’s fitness level. Finally, we devise a single performance score using both efficiency score and consistency score with the help of a linear programming model. To test the robustness of our method, we perform a rigorous numerical analysis to determine the all-time best One Day International (ODI) Cricket XI. Next, we conduct extensive comparative studies regarding efficiency scores, consistency scores, selected team between the existing methods and the proposed method and explain the rationale behind the improvement.

Keywords: decision support systems, sports, super-efficient data envelopment analysis, semi variance approach

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Authors: Oyenike Eludoyin

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Extreme climate conditions are deviation from the norms and are capable of causing upsets in many important environmental parameter including disruption of water balance and air temperature balance. Studies have shown that extreme climate conditions can foretell disaster in regions with inadequate early warning systems. In this paper, we combined geographical information systems, statistics and social surveys to evaluate the physiologic indices [(Dewpoint Temperature (Td), Effective Temperature Index (ETI) and Relative Strain Index (RSI)] and extreme climate conditions in different parts of southwest Nigeria. This was with the view to assessing the nature and the impact of the conditions on the people and their coping strategies. The results indicate that minimum, mean and maximum temperatures were higher in 1960-1990 than 1991-2013 periods at most areas, and more than 80% of the people adapt to thermal stress by changing wear type or cloth, installing air conditioner and fan at home and/or work place and sleeping outside at certain period of the night and day. With respect to livelihoods, about 52% of the interviewed farmers indicated that too early rainfall, late rainfall, prolonged dryness after an initial rainfall, excessive rainfall and windstorms caused low crop yields. Main (76%) coping strategies were changing of planting dates, diversification of crops, and practices of mulching and intercropping. Government or institutional support was less than 20%.

Keywords: coping strategies, extreme climate, livelihoods, physiologic comfort

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Authors: Bilal Arshad, Johan Barthelemy, Elliott Pilton, Pascal Perez

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Getting reliable, informative, and up-to-date information about the location, mobility, and behavioural patterns of animals will enhance our ability to research and preserve biodiversity. The fusion of infra-red sensors and camera traps offers an inexpensive way to collect wildlife data in the form of images. However, extracting useful data from these images, such as the identification and counting of animals remains a manual, time-consuming, and costly process. In this paper, we demonstrate that such information can be automatically retrieved by using state-of-the-art deep learning methods. Another major challenge that ecologists are facing is the recounting of one single animal multiple times due to that animal reappearing in other images taken by the same or other camera traps. Nonetheless, such information can be extremely useful for tracking wildlife and understanding its behaviour. To tackle the multiple count problem, we have designed a meshed network of camera traps, so they can share the captured images along with timestamps, cumulative counts, and dimensions of the animal. The proposed method takes leverage of edge computing to support real-time tracking and monitoring of wildlife. This method has been validated in the field and can be easily extended to other applications focusing on wildlife monitoring and management, where the traditional way of monitoring is expensive and time-consuming.

Keywords: computer vision, ecology, internet of things, invasive species management, wildlife management

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Authors: Rima Hleiss, Elie Bitar, Mahmoud Hassan, Mohamad Khalil

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A comprehensive study of object recognition in the human brain requires combining both spatial and temporal analysis of brain activity. Here, we are mainly interested in three issues: the time perception of visual objects, the ability of discrimination between two particular categories (objects vs. animals), and the possibility to identify a particular spatial representation of visual objects. Our experiment consisted of acquiring dense electroencephalographic (EEG) signals during a picture-naming task comprising a set of objects and animals’ images. These EEG responses were recorded from nine participants. In order to determine the time perception of the presented visual stimulus, we analyzed the Event Related Potentials (ERPs) derived from the recorded EEG signals. The analysis of these signals showed that the brain perceives animals and objects with different time instants. Concerning the discrimination of the two categories, the support vector machine (SVM) was applied on the instantaneous EEG (excellent temporal resolution: on the order of millisecond) to categorize the visual stimuli into two different classes. The spatial differences between the evoked responses of the two categories were also investigated. The results showed a variation of the neural activity with the properties of the visual input. Results showed also the existence of a spatial pattern of electrodes over particular regions of the scalp in correspondence to their responses to the visual inputs.

Keywords: brain activity, categorization, dense EEG, evoked responses, spatio-temporal analysis, SVM, time perception

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Authors: Mamidi Ramakrishna Rao

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Doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG) due to their advantages like speed variation and four-quadrant operation, find its application in wind turbines. DFIG besides supplying power to the grid has to support reactive power (kvar) under grid voltage variations, should contribute minimum fault current during faults, have high efficiency, minimum weight, adequate rotor protection during crow-bar-operation from +20% to -20% of rated speed.  To achieve the optimum performance, a good electromagnetic design of DFIG is required. In this paper, a simple and heuristic global optimization – Differential Evolution has been used. Variables considered are lamination details such as slot dimensions, stack diameters, air gap length, and generator stator and rotor stack length. Two operating conditions have been considered - voltage and speed variations. Constraints included were reactive power supplied to the grid and limiting fault current and torque. The optimization has been executed separately for three objective functions - maximum efficiency, weight reduction, and grid fault stator currents. Subsequent calculations led to the conclusion that designs determined through differential evolution help in determining an optimum electrical design for each objective function.

Keywords: design optimization, performance, DFIG, differential evolution

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Authors: Maslan Lamria, Ralph E. H. Sims, Tatang H. Soerawidjaja

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In increasing its self-sufficiency on transportation fuel, Indonesia is currently developing commercial production and use of drop-in biofuel (DBF) from vegetable oil. To maximize the level of success, it is necessary to get insights on how the implementation would develop as well as any important factors. This study assessed the dynamics of transition from existing fossil fuel system to a renewable fuel system, which involves the transition from existing biodiesel to projected DBF. A systems dynamics approach was applied and a model developed to simulate the dynamics of liquid biofuel transition. The use of palm oil feedstock was taken as a case study to assess the projected DBF implementation by 2045. The set of model indicators include liquid fuel self-sufficiency, liquid biofuel share, foreign exchange savings and green-house gas emissions reduction. The model outputs showed that supports on DBF investment and use play an important role in the transition progress. Given assumptions which include application of a maximum level of supports over time, liquid fuel self-sufficiency would be still unfulfilled in which palm biofuel contribution is 0.2. Thus, other types of feedstock such as algae and oil feedstock from marginal lands need to be developed synergically. Regarding support on DBF use, this study recommended that removal of fossil subsidy would be necessary prior to applying a carbon tax policy effectively.

Keywords: biofuel, drop-in biofuel, energy transition, liquid fuel

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Authors: Michelle Marquard

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The evidence for collaboration technologies (CTs) as a source of business productivity has never been stronger, and grows each day. At the same time, paradoxically, there is an increasingly greater concern about the challenge CTs present to the unity and well-being of the virtual workforce than ever before, but nowhere in the literature has an empirical understanding of these linkages been set out. This study attempted to address by using virtual distance as a measure of the efficacy of CTs to reduce the psychological distance among people. Data from 350 managers and 101 individual contributors across twelve functions in six major industries showed that business value is related to collaboration (r=.84, p < .01), which, in turn, is associated with full spectrum participation (r=.60, p < .01), a summative function of inclusion, integration, and we-intention. Further, virtual distance is negatively related to both collaboration (r=-.54, p < .01) and full spectrum participation (r=-.26, p < .01). Additionally, CIO-CDO relationship is a factor in the degree to which virtual distance is managed in the organization (r=-.26, p < .01). Overall, the results support the positive relationship between business value and collaboration. They also suggest that the extent to which collaboration can be fostered may depend on the degree of full spectrum participation or the level of inclusion, integration, and we-intention among members. Finally, the results indicate that CTs, when managed wisely to lower virtual distance, are a compelling concomitant to collaboration and full spectrum participation. A strategic outcome of this study is an instrumental blueprint of CTs and virtual distance in relation to full spectrum participation that should serve as a shared dashboard for CIOs, CHROs, and CDOs.

Keywords: business value, collaboration, inclusion, integration, we-intention, full spectrum participation, collaboration technologies, virtual distance

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Authors: Emily Simone Doffing, Danielle Kohfeldt

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Disabled students are underrepresented in graduate-level degree enrollment and completion. There is limited research on disabled students' progression during the pandemic. Disabled graduate students (DGS) face unique interpersonal and institutional barriers, yet, limited research explores these barriers, buffering facilitators, and aids to academic persistence. This study adopts an asset-based, embodied disability approach using the critical pedagogy theoretical framework instead of the deficit research approach. The Participatory Action Research (PAR) paradigm, the critical pedagogy theoretical framework, and emancipatory disability research share the same purpose -creating a socially just world through reciprocal learning. This study is one of few, if not the first, to center solely on DGS’ lived understanding using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) epistemology. With a PAR paradigm, participants and investigators work as a research team democratically at every stage of the research process. PAR has individual and systemic outcomes. PAR lessens the researcher-participant power gap and elevates a marginalized community’s knowledge as expertise for local change. PAR and critical pedagogy work toward enriching everyone involved with empowerment, civic engagement, knowledge proliferation, socio-cultural reflection, skills development, and active meaning-making. The PAR process unveils the tensions between disability and graduate school in policy and practice during the pandemic. Likewise, institutional and ideological tensions influence the PAR process. This project is recruiting 10 DGS until September through purposive and snowball sampling. DGS will collectively practice praxis during four monthly focus groups in the fall 2023 semester. Participant researchers can attend a focus group or an interview, both with field notes. September will be our orientation and first monthly meeting. It will include access needs check-ins, ice breakers, consent form review, a group agreement, PAR introduction, research ethics discussion, research goals, and potential research topics. October and November will be available for meetings for dialogues about lived experiences during our collaborative data collection. Our sessions can be semi-structured with “framing questions,” which would be revised together. Field notes include observations that cannot be captured through audio. December will focus on local social action planning and dissemination. Finally, in January, there will be a post-study focus group for students' reflections on their experiences of PAR. Iterative analysis methods include transcribed audio, reflexivity, memos, thematic coding, analytic triangulation, and member checking. This research follows qualitative rigor and quality criteria: credibility, transferability, confirmability, and psychopolitical validity. Results include potential tension points, social action, individual outcomes, and recommendations for conducting PAR. Tension points have three components: dubious practices, contestable knowledge, and conflict. The dissemination of PAR recommendations will aid and encourage researchers to conduct future PAR projects with the disabled community. Identified stakeholders will be informed of DGS’ insider knowledge to drive social sustainability.

Keywords: participatory action research, graduate school, disability, higher education

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Authors: Priyajeet Kaur Kaleka

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Introduction: A dentist is often the first responder in the battle for a patient’s healthy body and maybe the first health professional to observe signs of child abuse, be it physical, emotional, and/or sexual mistreatment. Therefore, it is an ethical responsibility for the dental clinician to detect and report suspected cases of child abuse and neglect (CAN). The main reasons for not reporting suspected cases of CAN, with special emphasis on the third: 1) Uncertainty of the diagnosis, 2) Lack of knowledge of the reporting procedure, and 3) Child abuse and neglect somewhat remained the subject of ignorance among dental professionals because of a lack of advance clinical training. Given these epidemic proportions, there is a scope of further research about dental school curriculum design. Purpose: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of dentists in Canada regarding signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect (CAN), reporting procedures, and whether educational strategies followed by dental schools address this sensitive issue. In pursuit of that aim, this abstract summarizes the evidence related to this question. Materials and Methods: Data was collected through a specially designed questionnaire adapted and modified from the author’s previous cross-sectional study on (CAN), which was conducted in Pune, India, in 2016 and is available on the database of PubMed. Design: A random sample was drawn from the targeted population of registered dentists and dental students in Canada regarding their knowledge, professional responsibilities, and behavior concerning child abuse. Questionnaire data were distributed to 200 members. Out of which, a total number of 157 subjects were in the final sample for statistical analysis, yielding response of 78.5%. Results: Despite having theoretical information on signs and symptoms, 55% of the participants indicated they are not confident to detect child physical abuse cases. 90% of respondents believed that recognition and handling the CAN cases should be a part of undergraduate training. Only 4.5% of the participants have correctly identified all signs of abuse due to inadequate formal training in dental schools and workplaces. Although nearly 96.3% agreed that it is a dentist’s legal responsibility to report CAN, only a small percentage of the participants reported an abuse case in the past. While 72% stated that the most common factor that might prevent a dentist from reporting a case was doubt over the diagnosis. Conclusion: The goal is to motivate dental schools to deal with this critical issue and provide their students with consummate training to strengthen their capability to care for and protect children. The educational institutions should make efforts to spread awareness among dental students regarding the management and tackling of CAN. Clinical Significance: There should be modifications in the dental school curriculum focusing on problem-based learning models to assist graduates to fulfill their legal and professional responsibilities. CAN literacy should be incorporated into the dental curriculum, which will eventually benefit future dentists to break this intergenerational cycle of violence.

Keywords: abuse, child abuse and neglect, dentist knowledge, dental school curriculum, problem-based learning

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Authors: Silvina Caíno-Lores, Jesús Carretero

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Large scale computing infrastructures have been widely developed with the core objective of providing a suitable platform for high-performance and high-throughput computing. These systems are designed to support resource-intensive and complex applications, which can be found in many scientific and industrial areas. Currently, large scale data-intensive applications are hindered by the high latencies that result from the access to vastly distributed data. Recent works have suggested that improving data locality is key to move towards exascale infrastructures efficiently, as solutions to this problem aim to reduce the bandwidth consumed in data transfers, and the overheads that arise from them. There are several techniques that attempt to move computations closer to the data. In this survey we analyse the different mechanisms that have been proposed to provide data locality for large scale high-performance and high-throughput systems. This survey intends to assist scientific computing community in understanding the various technical aspects and strategies that have been reported in recent literature regarding data locality. As a result, we present an overview of locality-oriented techniques, which are grouped in four main categories: application development, task scheduling, in-memory computing and storage platforms. Finally, the authors include a discussion on future research lines and synergies among the former techniques.

Keywords: data locality, data-centric computing, large scale infrastructures, cloud computing

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Authors: Bharat Prasad Neupane

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Given the widespread concentration on beliefs, values, emotions, critical incidents, and practices in exploring teachers’ professional identities, this study presents the trajectories of identity construction of three English language teachers from Nepal, analyzing their storied lives from schoolteachers to university professors. For this purpose, the article considered the three-dimensional professional development model to explore the effective mediation by the state agencies, culture and the policies, appropriate support from the organizations, and the bottom-up initiatives taken by the teachers in their professional development. Besides, the professional development journey derived from the in-depth interview of the participants is analyzed by employing communities of practice theory, particularly engagement, alignment, and imagination, as theoretical categories to discover their professional identities. The analysis revealed that passion for language, creativity, and motivation to learn English during childhood initially encouraged them to study English. In addition, inspiration from their teachers during their schooling and later a competitive working environment motivated them to experiment with innovative teaching approaches and establish themselves in the profession. Furthermore, diversification in university teaching according to university requirements and resultant divergence from the professional root ultimately transformed their identity beyond English teachers. Finally, university policy, customization of teachers as per the university requirement, and their survival strategy as English teachers in a university where technical subjects are given more priority has impacted their professional identities.

Keywords: teachers’ professional development, English language teaching, professional identity, communities of practice

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Authors: Khadra Ahmed, Khaled Kheireldin

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In this paper, we present a pedestrian detection descriptor called Fused Structure and Texture (FST) features based on the combination of the local phase information with the texture features. Since the phase of the signal conveys more structural information than the magnitude, the phase congruency concept is used to capture the structural features. On the other hand, the Center-Symmetric Local Binary Pattern (CSLBP) approach is used to capture the texture information of the image. The dimension less quantity of the phase congruency and the robustness of the CSLBP operator on the flat images, as well as the blur and illumination changes, lead the proposed descriptor to be more robust and less sensitive to the light variations. The proposed descriptor can be formed by extracting the phase congruency and the CSLBP values of each pixel of the image with respect to its neighborhood. The histogram of the oriented phase and the histogram of the CSLBP values for the local regions in the image are computed and concatenated to construct the FST descriptor. Several experiments were conducted on INRIA and the low resolution DaimlerChrysler datasets to evaluate the detection performance of the pedestrian detection system that is based on the FST descriptor. A linear Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to train the pedestrian classifier. These experiments showed that the proposed FST descriptor has better detection performance over a set of state of the art feature extraction methodologies.

Keywords: planktons, diversity indices, water quality index, water ways

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Authors: Katherine Sparks, Christopher Ring

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This study aimed to investigate whether dispositional sport-specific mindfulness moderated the moderation effect of conscious processing on the relationship between anxiety and rowing race performance. Using a sport-specific (Rowing-Specific) Reinvestment Scale (RSRS) to measure state conscious processing, we examined the effects of trait sport-related mindfulness on the conscious processes of rowers under competitive racing pressure at a number of UK regattas. 276 rowers completed a survey post competitive race. The survey included the RSRS, mindfulness, a perceived performance rating scale, demographic and race information to identify and record the rower’s actual race performance. Results from the research demonstrated that high levels of dispositional mindfulness are associated with a superior performance under pressure. In relation to the moderating moderation effect, conscious processing amplifies the detrimental effects of anxiety on performance. However, mindfulness, mindful awareness, and mindful non-judgement all proved to attenuate this amplification effect by moderating the conscious processing moderation on the anxiety-performance relationship. Therefore, this study provides initial support for the speculation that dispositional mindfulness can help prevent the deleterious effects of rowing-specific reinvestment under pressure.

Keywords: mindful, reinvestment, under pressure, performance, rowing

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