Search results for: neurocognitive functioning

Authors: Ingrid van der Heijden, Kristen Dunkle, Rachel Jewkes

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Background: Emerging literature on prevalence shows that men with disabilities are four more times likely than men without disabilities to experience sexual violence during their lifetime. However, compared to women with disabilities, men with disabilities still have lesser experiences of violence. While empirical evidence on the prevalence of victimization of men with disabilities is emerging, there is scarcer evidence highlighting disabled men’s perpetration of different forms of violence, particularly intimate partner violence. We can assume that men are likely to be both perpetrators and victims of violence, making more complex the causes and risks of violence. Gender norms and disability stigma play important roles in men’s experiences of violence. Men may be stigmatized because of their inability to attain hegemonic masculine ideals of strength, control over women and sexual conquest, which makes them more susceptible to emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Little to no evidence exists of men with disabilities’ experiences of perpetration of intimate partner violence, family violence or community violence. So far studies on male victimization do not succeed to offer contextual evidence that would highlight why and how men with disabilities perpetrate and/or are victims of sexual or other forms of violence. Objective: The overall aim to highlight men with disabilities’ experiences of both victimization and perpetration, and how living up to normative and hegemonic ideals of masculinity and ‘ability’ shape their experiences. It will include: identifying how gender and impairments intersect and shape their experiences of violence; identifying the contexts of and risks for violence; identifying the impacts and consequences of violence on their lives (including mental health impacts), and identifying obstacles and enablers to support and interventions to prevent violence. Methodology: In-depth qualitative interviews with 20 men with disabilities participating in interventions conducted by the What Works Global Programme for violence prevention (DIFD) in Africa and Asia. Men with a range of disabilities will be invited to share their lifetime experiences of violence. Implications for Practice: The data from this study will be used to start thinking about strategies to include men with disabilities in violence prevention strategies for both men and women. Limitations: Because men will be participating in interventions, it is assumed that they will not have severe impairments that hamper their cognitive or physical ability to participate in the intervention activities - and therefore will be able to participate in the in-depth interviews. Of course, this is a limitation of the study as it does not include those men with severe disabilities – measured by the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning - who may be more vulnerable and at higher risk of experiencing violence, and who are less likely to be able to access services and interventions.

Keywords: gender, men with disabilities, perpetration of violence, victimization

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Authors: Palak Patel

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Mumbai is one of the largest cities of the country with a population of 12.44 million over 437 Sq.km, and it is known as financial hub of India. In early 20th century, with the expansion of industrialization and growth of port, a huge demand for housing was created. In response to this, government enacted rent controls. Over a period of time, due to rent controls, the existing rental housing stock has deteriorated. Therefore, in last 25 years, government has been focusing on redevelopment of these rental buildings, also called ‘Cessed buildings’, in order to provide better standard of living to the tenants and also, to supply new housing units in the market. In India, developers are the main players in the housing market as they are the supplier of maximum dwelling units in the market. Hence, government attempts are inclined toward facilitating developers for the cessed building redevelopment projects by incentivizing them through making special provisions in the development control regulations. This research focuses on the entire process of redevelopment by the developers and issues faced by the related stakeholders in the same to reduce the stress on housing. It also highlights the loopholes in the current system and inefficient functioning of the process. The research was carried out by interviewing various developers, tenants and landlords in the island city who have already gone through redevelopment. From the case studies, it is very evident that redevelopment is undoubtedly a huge profit making business. In some cases, developers make profit of almost double the amount of the investment. But yet, satisfactory results are not seen on ground. It clearly indicates that there are some issues faced by developers which have not been addressed. Some of these issues include cumbersome legal procedures, negotiations with landlords and tenants, congestion and narrow roads, small size of the plots, informal practicing of ‘Pagdi system’ and financial viability of the project. This research recommends the up gradation of the existing cessed buildings by sharing the repairing and maintenance cost between landlords and tenants and also, income levels of tenants can be traced and housing vouchers or incentives can be provided to those who actual need it so that landlord does not have to subsidize the tenants. For redevelopment, the current interventions are generalized in nature as it does not take on ground issues into the consideration. There is need to identify local issues and give area specific solutions. And also, government should play a role of mediator to ensure all the stakeholders are satisfied and project gets completed on time.

Keywords: cessed buildings, developers, government’s interventions, redevelopment, rent controls, tenants

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Authors: K. Vallianou, T. Alexopoulos, V. Plaka, M. K. Seleventi, V. Skanavis, C. Skanavis

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The present research addresses the role of place attachment and emotions in community resiliency and recovery within the context of a disaster. Natural disasters represent a disruption in the normal functioning of a community, leading to a general feeling of disorientation. This study draws on the trauma caused by a natural hazard such as a forest fire. The changes of the sense of togetherness are being assessed. Finally this research determines how the place attachment of the inhabitants was affected during the reorientation process of the community. The case study area is Mati, a small coastal town in eastern Attica, Greece. The fire broke out on July 23^rd, 2018. A quantitative research was conducted through questionnaires via phone interviews, one year after the disaster, to address community resiliency in the long-run. The sample was composed of 159 participants from the rural community of Mati plus 120 coming from Skyros Island that was used as a control group. Inhabitants were prompted to answer items gauging their emotions related to the event, group identification and emotional significance of their community, and place attachment before and a year after the fire took place. Importantly, the community recovery and reorientation were examined within the context of a relative absence of government backing and official support. Emotions related to the event were aggregated into 4 clusters related to: activation/vigilance, distress/disorientation, indignation, and helplessness. The findings revealed a decrease in the level of place attachment in the impacted area of Mati as compared to the control group of Skyros Island. Importantly, initial distress caused by the fire prompted the residents to identify more with their community and to report more positive feelings toward their community. Moreover, a mediation analysis indicated that the positive effect of community cohesion on place attachment one year after the disaster was mediated by the positive feelings toward the community. Finally, place attachment contributes to enhanced optimism and a more positive perspective concerning Mati’s future prospects. Despite an insufficient state support to this affected area, the findings suggest an important role of emotions and place attachment during the process of recovery. Implications concerning the role of emotions and social dynamics in meshing place attachment during the disaster recovery process as well as community resiliency are discussed.

Keywords: community resilience, natural disasters, place attachment, wildfire

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Authors: Gulden Aykinbaeva, Assem Umirzakova, Assel Makhadiyeva

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The problem of studying of young married couples in connection with a change of social institute of a family and marriage is represented very actual for family consultation, considering a family role in the development of modern society. Results of numerous researchs say that one of difficult in formation and stabilization of a matrimony is the period of a young family. This period is characterized by various processes of integration, adaptation and emotional compatibility of spouses. The young family in it the period endures the first standard crisis which postpones a print for the further development of the family scenario. Emergence new, earlier not existing, systems of values render a huge value on the process of formation of a young family and each of spouses separately. Possibly to solve the set family tasks at the development of the uniform system of the family relations in which socially mature persons capable to consider a family as the creativity of each other act as subjects. Due to the research objective in work the following techniques were used: a questionnaire of satisfaction with V. V. Stolin's marriage and A. N. Volkova's technique directed on detection of coherence of family values and role installations in a married couple, and also content – the analysis. Development of an internal basis of a family on mutual clearing of values is important during the work with married couples. 'The mature view' of the partner in the marriage union provides coherence between the expected and real behavior of the partner that is important for the realization of the purposes of adaptation in a family. For research of communication of the data obtained by means of A. N. Volkova's techniques, V. V. Stolina and content – the analysis, the correlation analysis, with the application of the criterion of Spirmen was used. The analysis of results of the conducted research allowed us to determine the number of consistent patterns: 1. Nature of change of satisfaction with marriage at spouses testifies that the matrimonial relations undergo high-quality changes at different stages of formation of a young family. 2. The matrimonial relations in the course of their development, formation and functioning in young marriage undergo considerable changes on psychological, social and psychological and insignificant — at the psychophysiological and sociocultural levels. The material received by us allows to plan ways of further detailed researches of the development of the matrimonial relations not only in the young marriage but also at further stages of development of a matrimony. We believe that the results received in this research can be almost applied at creation of algorithms of selection of marriage partners, at diagnostics of character and the maintenance of matrimonial disharmonies, at the forecast of stability of marriage and a family.

Keywords: married couples, formation of the young family, psychological consultation, matrimony

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Authors: Stefanie Santorsola, Natasha Frank

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Improving healthcare safety necessitates examining current trends and beliefs about safety and devising strategies to improve. Errors in healthcare continue to increase and be experienced by patients, which is preventable and directly correlated to a breakdown in healthcare communication. TeamSTEPPS is an evidence-based process designed to improve the quality and safety of healthcare by improving communication and team processes. Communication is at the core of effective team collaboration and is vital for patient safety. TeamSTEPPS offers insights and strategies for improving communication and teamwork and reducing preventable errors to create a safer healthcare environment for patients. The academic, clinical, and educational environment for nursing students is vital in preparing them for professional practice by providing them with foundational knowledge and abilities. This environment provides them with a prime opportunity to learn about errors and the importance of effective communication to enhance patient safety, as nursing students are often unprepared to deal with errors. Proactively introducing and discussing errors through a supportive culture during the nursing student’s academic beginnings has the potential to carry key concepts into practice to improve and enhance patient safety. TeamSTEPPS has been used globally and has collectively positively impacted improvements in patient safety and teamwork. A workshop study was introduced in winter 2023 of registered practical nurses (RPN) students bridging to the baccalaureate nursing program; the majority of the RPNs in the bridging program were actively employed in a variety of healthcare facilities during the semester. The workshop study did receive academic institution ethics board approval, and participants signed a consent form prior to participating in the study. The premise of the workshop was to introduce TeamSTEPPS and a variety of strategies to these students and have students keep a reflective journal to incorporate the presented communication strategies in their practicum setting and keep a reflective journal on the effect and outcomes of the strategies in the healthcare setting. Findings from the workshop study supported the objective of the project, resulting in students verbalizing notable improvements in team functioning in the healthcare environment resulting from the incorporation of enhanced communication strategies from TeamSTEPPS that they were introduced to in the workshop study. Implication for educational institutions is the potential of further advancing the safety literacy and abilities of nursing students in preparing them for entering the workforce and improving safety for patients.

Keywords: teamstepps, education, patient safety, communication

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Authors: Wasantha Pushpakumara Hitihami Mudiyanselage

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Since recent past, Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to reoccurring climate shocks that severely impact the food security, loss of human & animal lives, destructions of human settlements, displacement of people and damaging properties. Hence, the Government of Sri Lanka has taken important steps towards strengthening legal and institutional arrangements for Disaster Risks management in the country in May 2005. Puttalam administrative district is one of the disaster prone districts in Sri Lanka which constantly face the devastating consequences of the increasing natural disasters annually. Therefore disaster risk management will be a timely intervention in the area to minimize the adverse impacts of the disasters. The few functioning Disaster Risk management networks do not take children’s specific needs and vulnerabilities during emergencies into account. The most affected children and their families were evacuated to the government schools and temples and it was observed that children were left to roaming around as their parents were busy queuing up for relief goods and other priorities. In this sense, VOICE understands that the community has vital role that has to be played in facing challenges of disaster management in the area. During and after the disaster, it was viewed that some children were having psychological disorders which could be impacted negatively to children well–being. Need of child friendly space at emergency is a must action in the area to turn away negative impact coming from the hazards. VOICE with the support of national & international communities have established safer places for the children (Child Centered Spaces – CCS) and their families at emergencies. Village religious venues and schools were selected and equipped with necessary materials to be used for the children at emergency. Materials such as tools, stationeries, play materials, which couldn’t be easily found in surrounding environment, were provided for CCS centers. Village animators, youth and elders were given comprehensive training on Disaster management and their role at CCS. They did the facilitation in keeping children without fear and stress at flooding occurred in 2015 as well as they were able to improve their skills when working with children. Flooding in 2016, the government agencies have taken service of these village animators at early stage of flooding to make all disaster-related recovery actions productively & efficiently. This mechanism is sustained at village level that can be used for disaster events.

Keywords: child centered space, impacts, psychological disorders, village animators

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Authors: Jessica Scher Lisa, Eric Shyman

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder that is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction (i.e. deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communicative behaviors, and establishing/maintaining social relationships), as well as by the presence of repetitive behaviors and perseverative areas of interest (i.e. stereotyped or receptive motor movements, use of objects, or speech, rigidity, restricted interests, and hypo or hyperactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment). Additionally, diagnoses of ASD require the presentation of symptoms in the early developmental period, marked impairments in adaptive functioning, and a lack of explanation by general intellectual impairment or global developmental delay (although these conditions may be co-occurring). Over the past several decades, many theories have been developed in an effort to explain the root cause of ASD in terms of atypical central cognitive processes. The field of neuroscience is increasingly finding structural and functional differences between autistic and neurotypical individuals using neuro-imaging technology. One main area this research has focused upon is in visuospatial processing, with specific attention to the notion of ‘weak central coherence’ (WCC). This paper offers an analysis of findings from selected studies in order to explore research that challenges the ‘deficit’ characterization of a weak central coherence theory as opposed to a ‘superiority’ characterization of strong local coherence. The weak central coherence theory has long been both supported and refuted in the ASD literature and has most recently been increasingly challenged by advances in neuroscience. The selected studies lend evidence to the notion of amplified localized perception rather than deficient global perception. In other words, WCC may represent superiority in ‘local processing’ rather than a deficit in global processing. Additionally, the right hemisphere and the specific area of the extrastriate appear to be key in both the visual and lexicosemantic process. Overactivity in the striate region seems to suggest inaccuracy in semantic language, which lends itself to support for the link between the striate region and the atypical organization of the lexicosemantic system in ASD.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, neurology, visual processing, weak coherence

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Authors: Y. Mateyshina, A.Ulihin, N.Uvarov

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Electrolytes with different type of charge carrier can find widely application in different using, e.g. sensors, electrochemical equipments, batteries and others. One of important components ensuring stable functioning of the equipment is electrolyte. Electrolyte has to be characterized by high conductivity, thermal stability, and wide electrochemical window. In addition to many advantageous characteristic for liquid electrolytes, the solid state electrolytes have good mechanical stability, wide working range of temperature range. Thus search of new system of solid electrolytes with high conductivity is an actual task of solid state chemistry. Families of alkali perchlorates and nitrates have been investigated by us earlier. In literature data about transport properties of alkali nitrites are absent. Nevertheless, alkali nitrites MeNO2 (Me= Li+, Na+, K+, Rb+ and Cs+), except for the lithium salt, have high-temperature phases with crystal structure of the NaCl-type. High-temperature phases of nitrites are orientationally disordered, i.e. non-spherical anions are reoriented over several equivalents directions in the crystal lattice. Pure lithium nitrite LiNO2 is characterized by ionic conductivity near 10-4 S/cm at 180°C and more stable as compared with lithium nitrate and can be used as a component for synthesis of composite electrolytes. In this work composite solid electrolytes in the binary system LiNO2 - A (A= MgO, -Al2O3, Fe2O3, CeO2, SnO2, SiO2) were synthesized and their structural, thermodynamic and electrical properties investigated. Alkali nitrite was obtained by exchange reaction from water solutions of barium nitrite and alkali sulfate. The synthesized salt was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction technique using D8 Advance X-Ray Diffractometer with Cu K radiation. Using thermal analysis, the temperatures of dehydration and thermal decomposition of salt were determined.. The conductivity was measured using a two electrode scheme in a forevacuum (6.7 Pa) with an HP 4284A (Precision LCR meter) in a frequency range 20 Hz < ν < 1 MHz. Solid composite electrolytes LiNO2 - A A (A= MgO, -Al2O3, Fe2O3, CeO2, SnO2, SiO2) have been synthesized by mixing of preliminary dehydrated components followed by sintering at 250°C. In the series of nitrite of alkaline metals Li+-Cs+, the conductivity varies not monotonically with increasing radius of cation. The minimum conductivity is observed for KNO2; however, with further increase in the radius of cation in the series, the conductivity tends to increase. The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic research, grant #14-03-31442.

Keywords: conductivity, alkali nitrites, composite electrolytes, transport properties

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Authors: Ala’a F. Jaber, Bara’ah A. Bsharat, Noor T. Ismael

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Background: Sensory processing is a fundamental skill needed for the successful performance of daily living activities. These skills are impaired as parts of the neurodevelopmental process issues among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This systematic review aimed to summarize the evidence on the differences in sensory processing and motor characteristic between children with ASD and children with TD. Method: This systematic review followed the guidelines of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis. The search terms included sensory, motor, condition, and child-related terms or phrases. The electronic search utilized Academic Search Ultimate, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, ERIC, MEDLINE, MEDLINE Complete, Psychology, and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and SocINDEX with full-text databases. The hand search included looking for potential studies in the references of related studies. The inclusion criteria included studies published in English between years 2009-2020 that included children aged 3-18 years with a confirmed ASD diagnosis, according to the DSM-V criteria, included a control group of typical children, included outcome measures related to the sensory processing and/or motor functions, and studies available in full-text. The review of included studies followed the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine guidelines, and the Guidelines for Critical Review Form of Quantitative Studies, and the guidelines for conducting systematic reviews by the American Occupational Therapy Association. Results: Eighty-eight full-text studies related to the differences between children with ASD and children with TD in terms of sensory processing and motor characteristics were reviewed, of which eighteen articles were included in the quantitative synthesis. The results reveal that children with ASD had more extreme sensory processing patterns than children with TD, like hyper-responsiveness and hypo-responsiveness to sensory stimuli. Also, children with ASD had limited gross and fine motor abilities and lower strength, endurance, balance, eye-hand coordination, movement velocity, cadence, dexterity with a higher rate of gait abnormalities than children with TD. Conclusion: This systematic review provided preliminary evidence suggesting that motor functioning should be addressed in the evaluation and intervention for children with ASD, and sensory processing should be supported among children with TD. More future research should investigate whether how the performance and engagement in daily life activities are affected by sensory processing and motor skills.

Keywords: sensory processing, occupational therapy, children, motor skills

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Authors: Noelene Rose

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The DSM has been plagued with conceptual issues since its inception, not least discriminant validity and comorbidity issues. An attempt to remain a-theoretical in the divide between the psycho-dynamicists and the behaviourists contributed to much of this, in particular relating to the Personality Disorders. With the DSM-5, although the criterion have remained unchanged, major conceptual and structural directions have been flagged and proposed in section III. The biggest changes concern the Personality Disorders. While Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) was initially tagged for removal, instead the addition of section III proposes a move away from a categorical approach to a more dimensional approach, with a measure of Global Function of Personality. This global measure is an assessment of impairment of self-other relations; a measure of trait narcissism. In the same way mainstream psychology has struggled in its diagnosis of narcissism, so too in its treatment. Kohut’s self psychology represents the most significant inroad in theory and treatment for the narcissistic disorders. Kohut had moved away from a categorical system, towards disorders of the self. According to this theory, disorders of the self are the result of childhood trauma (impaired attunement) resulting in a developmental arrest. Self-psychological, Psychodynamic treatment of narcissism, however, is expensive, in time and money and outside the awareness or access of most people. There is more than a suggestion that narcissism is on the increase, created in trauma and worsened by a fearful world climate. A dimensional model of narcissism, from mild to severe, requires cut off points for diagnosis. But where do we draw the line? Mainstream psychology is inclined to set it high when there is some degree of impairment in functioning in daily life. Transpersonal Psychology is inclined to set it low, with the concept that we all have some degree of narcissism and that it is the point and the path of our life journey to transcend our focus on our selves. Mainstream psychology stops its focus on trait narcissism with a healthy level of self esteem, but it is at this point that Transpersonal Psychology can complement the discussion. From a Transpersonal point of view, failure to begin the process of self-transcendence will also create emotional symptoms of meaning or purpose, often later in our lives, and is also conceived of as a developmental arrest. The maps for this transcendence are hidden in plain sight; in the chakras of kundalini yoga, in the sacraments of the Catholic Church, in the Kabbalah tree of life of Judaism, in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, to name a few. This paper outlines some proposed research exploring the use of daily practices that can be incorporated into the therapy room; practices that utilise meditation, visualisation and imagination: that are informed by spiritual technology and guided by the psychodynamic theory of Self Psychology.

Keywords: narcissism, self-psychology, self-practice, self-transcendence

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Authors: Kaddour Fellague Mohammed

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The world has seen in recent years, significant developments affected various aspects of life and influenced the different types of institutions, thus was born a new world is a world of globalization, which dominated the scientific revolution and the tremendous technological developments, and that contributed to the re-formation of human resources in contemporary organizations, and made patterns new regulatory and at the same time raised and strongly values and new ideas, the organizations have become more flexible, and faster response to consumer and environmental conditions, and exceeded the problem of time and place in the framework of communication and human interaction and use of advanced information technology and adoption mainly mechanism in running its operations , focused on performance and based strategic thinking and approach in order to achieve its strategic goals high degrees of superiority and excellence, this new reality created an increasing need for a new type of human resources, quality aims to renew and aspire to be a strategic player in managing the organization and drafting of various strategies, think globally and act locally, to accommodate local variables in the international markets, which began organizations tend to strongly as well as the ability to work under different cultures. Human resources management of the most important management functions to focus on the human element, which is considered the most valuable resource of the Department and the most influential in productivity at all, that the management and development of human resources Tattabra a cornerstone in the majority of organizations which aims to strengthen the organizational capacity, and enable companies to attract and rehabilitation of the necessary competencies and are able to keep up with current and future challenges, human resources can contribute to and strongly in achieving the objectives and profit organization, and even expand more than contribute to the creation of new jobs to alleviate unemployment and achieve full operation, administration and human resources mean short optimal use of the human element is available and expected, where he was the efficiency and capabilities, and experience of this human element, and his enthusiasm for the work stop the efficiency and success in reaching their goals, so interested administration scientists developed the principles and foundations that help to make the most of each individual benefit in the organization through human resources management, these foundations start of the planning and selection, training and incentives and evaluation, which is not separate from each other, but are integrated with each other as a system systemic order to reach the efficient functioning of the human resources management and has been the organization as a whole in the context of development sustainable.

Keywords: configuration, training, development, human resources, operating

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Authors: Violina Angelova, Krasimir Ivanov, Stefan Krustev, Dimitar Dimitrov

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Availability of a metal is characterised by its quantity transgressing from soil into different extractants or by its content in plants. In literature, the terms 'available forms of compounds' and 'mobile' are often considered as equivalents of the term 'accessible' to plants. Rapid and a sufficiently reliable method for defining the accessible for plants forms turns out to be their extraction through different extractants, imitating the functioning of the root system. As a criterion for the pertinence of the extractant to this purpose usually serves the significant statistic correlation between the extracted quantities of the element from soil and its content in plants. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of various extractions (DTPA-TEA, AB-DTPA, Mehlich 3, 0.01 M CaCl₂, 1M NH₄NO₃) for the determination of bioavailability of heavy metals in industrially polluted soils from the metallurgical activity near Plovdiv and Kardjali, Bulgaria. Quantity measurements for contents of heavy metals were performed with ICP-OES. The results showed that extraction capacity was as follows: Mehlich 3>ABDTPA>DTPA-TEA>CaCl₂>NaNO₃. The content of the mobile form of heavy metals depends on the nature of metal ion, the nature of extractant and pH. The obtained results show that CaCl₂ extracts a greater quantity of mobile forms of heavy metals than NH₄NO₃. DTPA-TEA and AB-DTPA are capable of extracting from the soil not only the heavy metals participating in the exchange processes but also the heavy metals bound in carbonates and organic complexes, as well as bound and occluded in oxide and secondary clay minerals. AB-DTPA extracts a bit more heavy metals than DTPA-TEA. The darker color of the solutions obtained with AB-DTPA indicates that considerable quantities organic matter are being destructed. A comparison of the mobile forms of heavy metals extracted from clean and highly polluted soils has revealed that in the polluted soils the greater portion of heavy metals exists in a mobile form. High correlation coefficients are obtained between the metals extracted with different extractants and their total content in soil (r=0.9). A positive correlation between the pH, soil organic matter and the extracted quantities of heavy metals has been found. The results of correlation analysis revealed that the heavy metals extracted by DTPA-TEA, AB-DTPA, Mehlich 3, CaCl₂ and NaNO₃ correlated significantly with plant uptake. Significant correlation was found between DTPA-TEA, AB-DTPA, and CaCl₂ with heavy metals concentration in plants. Application of extracting methods contains chelating agents would be recommended in the future research onthe availabilityof heavy metals in polluted soils.

Keywords: availability, chemical extractants, heavy metals, mobile forms

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Authors: Junwen Chen, Celina Feleppa, Tingyue Sun, Satoko Sasagawa, Michael Smithson

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School refusal behaviours refer to behaviours to avoid school attendance, chronic lateness in arriving at school, or regular early dismissal. Poor attendance in schools is highly correlated with anxiety, depression, suicide attempts, delinquency, violence, and substance use and abuse. Poor attendance is also a strong indicator of lower achievement in school, as well as problematic social-emotional development. Long-term consequences of school refusal behaviours include fewer opportunities for higher education, employment, and social difficulties, and high risks of later psychiatric illness. Given its negative impacts on youth educational outcomes and well-being, a thorough understanding of factors that are involved in the development of this phenomenon is warranted for developing effective management approaches. This study investigated parental and adolescent factors that may contribute to school refusal behaviours by specifically focusing on the role of parental and adolescents’ anxiety and depression, emotion dysregulation, and parental rearing style. Findings are expected to inform the identification of both parental and adolescents’ factors that may contribute to school refusal behaviours. This knowledge will enable novel and effective approaches that incorporate these factors to managing school refusal behaviours in adolescents, which in turn improve their school and daily functioning. Results are important for an integrative understanding of school refusal behaviours. Furthermore, findings will also provide information for policymakers to weigh the benefits of interventions targeting school refusal behaviours in adolescents. One-hundred-and-six adolescents aged 12-18 years (mean age = 14.79 years old, SD = 1.78, males = 44) and their parents (mean age = 47.49 years old, SD = 5.61, males = 27) completed an online questionnaire measuring both parental and adolescents’ anxiety, depression, emotion dysregulation, parental rearing styles, and adolescents’ school refusal behaviours. Adolescents with school refusal behaviours reported greater anxiety and depression, with their parents showing greater emotion dysregulation. Parental emotion dysregulation and adolescents’ anxiety and depression predicted school refusal behaviours independently. To date, only limited studies have investigated the interplay between parental and youth factors in relation to youth school refusal behaviours. Although parental emotion dysregulation has been investigated in relation to youth emotion dysregulation, little is known about its role in the context of school refusal. This study is one of the very few that investigated both parental and adolescent factors in relation to school refusal behaviours in adolescents. The findings support the theoretical models that emphasise the role of youth and parental psychopathology in school refusal behaviours. Future management of school refusal behaviours should target adolescents’ anxiety and depression while incorporating training for parental emotion regulation skills.

Keywords: adolescents, school refusal behaviors, parental factors, anxiety and depression, emotion dysregulation

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Authors: Lacheheb Dhia Eddine Zakaria, Ballout Amor

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Today, it is necessary to be thrifty for its planet, on one hand the space being a rare, nonrenewable resource, and on the other hand the ecological, economic and social cost of the urban sprawl. It is commonly asserted that the promotion of a more compact and dense city has a positive effect in terms of public costs of investment, functioning and costs for the citizens and the users of the city. It is clear that the modes urban development management have to evolve profoundly, in particular towards a densification favourable to the raising of the urban quality through an ideal urban density on the scale of the individual housing estate. The lot as an individual housing estate was adopted as an alternative development model to the collective housing, thought in an anthropocentric perspective to emerge as a quality model where the density plays an important role, by being included in operations of a global coherence, in an optimal organization without forgetting the main importance of the deadlines of construction and the finalization of the works. The image of eternal construction site inflicted to our cities explains the renewed interest for the application of the regulatory framework and the completion of these limited operations without global coherence, which are summed up in our case to a ground cut in plots of land, sold then built independently without being finished, and support the relevance of the essential question of the improvement of the outside aspect bound to the appearance which can be revealed as a so important factor for a better use and a better acceptance of its housing environment, that the ratio of a number of houses on a plot of land or the number of square meters by house. To demonstrate the impact of the completion degree of the subdivision dwellings, roads system and urban public utilities on the density or the densification and therefore on the urban quality, we studied two residential subdivisions, the private subdivision Sellam and the subdivision El Imane with a common situation, and a different land surface, density and cutting, being occupied by various social classes, with different needs and different household average size. The approach of this work is based on the typo morphological analysis to reveal the differences in the degrees of completions of the subdivision’s built environment and on the investigation, by a household’s survey, to demonstrate importance of the degree of completion and to reveal the conditions of qualitative densification favourable and convenient to a better subdivision’s appropriation.

Keywords: subdivision, degree of completion, densification, urban quality

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Authors: Elif Gencturk, Ekin Yurdakul, Ahmet Y. Celik, Senol Mutlu, Kutlu O. Ulgen

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Yeast cells are generally used as a model system of eukaryotes due to their complex genetic structure, rapid growth ability in optimum conditions, easy replication and well-defined genetic system properties. Thus, yeast cells increased the knowledge of the principal pathways in humans. During fermentation, carbohydrates (hexoses and pentoses) degrade into some toxic by-products such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF or HMF) and furfural. HMF influences the ethanol yield, and ethanol productivity; it interferes with microbial growth and is considered as a potent inhibitor of bioethanol production. In this study, yeast single cell behavior under HMF application was monitored by using a continuous flow single phase microfluidic platform. Microfluidic device in operation is fabricated by hot embossing and thermo-compression techniques from cyclo-olefin polymer (COP). COP is biocompatible, transparent and rigid material and it is suitable for observing fluorescence of cells considering its low auto-fluorescence characteristic. The response of yeast cells was recorded through Red Fluorescent Protein (RFP) tagged Nop56 gene product, which is an essential evolutionary-conserved nucleolar protein, and also a member of the box C/D snoRNP complexes. With the application of HMF, yeast cell proliferation continued but HMF slowed down the cell growth, and after HMF treatment the cell proliferation stopped. By the addition of fresh nutrient medium, the yeast cells recovered after 6 hours of HMF exposure. Thus, HMF application suppresses normal functioning of cell cycle but it does not cause cells to die. The monitoring of Nop56 expression phases of the individual cells shed light on the protein and ribosome synthesis cycles along with their link to growth. Further computational study revealed that the mechanisms underlying the inhibitory or inductive effects of HMF on growth are enriched in functional categories of protein degradation, protein processing, DNA repair and multidrug resistance. The present microfluidic device can successfully be used for studying the effects of inhibitory agents on growth by single cell tracking, thus capturing cell to cell variations. By metabolic engineering techniques, engineered strains can be developed, and the metabolic network of the microorganism can thus be manipulated such that chemical overproduction of target metabolite is achieved along with the maximum growth/biomass yield.  

Keywords: COP, HMF, ribosome biogenesis, thermoplastic microbioreactor, yeast

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Authors: Agnieszka H. Ludwig-Slomczynska, Michal T. Seweryn, Przemyslaw Kapusta, Ewelina Pitera, Katarzyna Cyganek, Urszula Mantaj, Lucja Dobrucka, Ewa Wender-Ozegowska, Maciej T. Malecki, Pawel Wolkow

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Obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and its expenditure. Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) analyses have led to discovery of only about 100 variants influencing body mass index (BMI), which explain only a small portion of genetic variability. Analysis of gene epistasis gives a chance to discover another part. Since it was shown that interaction and communication between nuclear and mitochondrial genome are indispensable for normal cell function, we have looked for epistatic interactions between the two genomes to find their correlation with BMI. Methods: The analysis was performed on 366 T1DM patients using Illumina Infinium OmniExpressExome-8 chip and followed by imputation on Michigan Imputation Server. Only genes which influence mitochondrial functioning (listed in Human MitoCarta 2.0) were included in the analysis – variants of nuclear origin (MAF > 5%) in 1140 genes and 42 mitochondrial variants (MAF > 1%). Gene expression analysis was performed on GTex data. Association analysis between genetic variants and BMI was performed with the use of Linear Mixed Models as implemented in the package 'GENESIS' in R. Analysis of association between mRNA expression and BMI was performed with the use of linear models and standard significance tests in R. Results: Among variants involved in epistasis between mitochondria and nucleus we have identified one in mitochondrial transcription factor, TFB2M (rs6701836). It interacted with mitochondrial variants localized to MT-RNR1 (p=0.0004, MAF=15%), MT-ND2 (p=0.07, MAF=5%) and MT-ND4 (p=0.01, MAF=1.1%). Analysis of the interaction between nuclear variant rs6701836 (nuc) and rs3021088 localized to MT-ND2 mitochondrial gene (mito) has shown that the combination of the two led to BMI decrease (p=0.024). Each of the variants on its own does not correlate with higher BMI [p(nuc)=0.856, p(mito)=0.116)]. Although rs6701836 is intronic, it influences gene expression in the thyroid (p=0.000037). rs3021088 is a missense variant that leads to alanine to threonine substitution in the MT-ND2 gene which belongs to complex I of the electron transport chain. The analysis of the influence of genetic variants on gene expression has confirmed the trend explained above – the interaction of the two genes leads to BMI decrease (p=0.0308). Each of the mRNAs on its own is associated with higher BMI (p(mito)=0.0244 and p(nuc)=0.0269). Conclusıons: Our results show that nuclear-mitochondrial epistasis can influence BMI in T1DM patients. The correlation between transcription factor expression and mitochondrial genetic variants will be subject to further analysis.

Keywords: body mass index, epistasis, mitochondria, type 1 diabetes

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Authors: L. D. Upegui, Isabel Alvarez-Solorza, Karina Garduno-Ulloa, Maren Boecker

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Introduction: The increasing prevalence rate of resistant and multiresistant bacterial strains to antibiotics is a threat to public health and requires a rapid multifunctional answer. Individuals that are affected by resistant strains present a higher morbidity and mortality than individuals that are infected with the same species of bacteria but with sensitive strains. There have been identified risk factors that are related to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics, like socio-demographic characteristics and psychological aspects of the individuals that have not been explored objectively due to a lack of valid and reliable instruments for their measurement. Objective: To validate a questionnaire for the evaluation of the levels of knowledge related to the use of antibiotics in a Mexican population. Materials and Methods: Analytical cross-sectional observational study. The questionnaire consists of 12 items to evaluated knowledge (1=no, 2=not sure, 3=yes) regarding the use of antibiotics, with higher scores corresponding to a higher level of knowledge. Data are collected in a sample of students. Data collection is still ongoing. In this abstract preliminary results of 30 respondents are reported which were collected during pilot-testing. The validation of the instrument was done using the Rasch model. Fit to the Rasch model was tested checking overall fit to the model, unidimensionality, local independence and evaluating the presence of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) by age and gender. The software Rumm2030 and the SPSS were used for the analyses. Results: The participants of the pilot-testing presented an average age of 32 years ± 12.6 and 53% were women. The preliminary results indicated that the items showed good fit to the Rasch model (chi-squared=12.8 p=0.3795). Unidimensionality (number of significant t-tests of 3%) could be proven, the items were locally independent, and no DIF was observed. Knowledge was the smallest regarding statements on the role of antibiotics in treating infections, e.g., most of the respondents did not know that antibiotics would not work against viral infections (70%) and that they could also cause side effects (87%). The knowledge score ranged from 0 to 100 points with a transformed measurement (mean of knowledge 27.1 ± 4.8). Conclusions: The instrument showed good psychometric proprieties. The low scores of knowledge about antibiotics suggest that misinterpretations on the use of these medicaments were prevalent, which could influence the production of antibiotic resistance. The application of this questionnaire will allow the objective identification of 'Hight risk groups', which will be the target population for future educational campaigns, to reduce the knowledge gaps on the general population as an effort against antibiotic resistance.

Keywords: antibiotics, knowledge, misuse, overuse, questionnaire, Rasch model, validation

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Authors: Marcin Stasiulewicz, Sebastian Filipkowski, Aneta Panuszko

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Background: The hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, is an aggregation of the abnormal forms of peptides and proteins. Water is essential to functioning biomolecules, and it is one of the key factors influencing protein folding and misfolding. However, the hydration studies of proteins are complicated due to the complexity of protein systems. The use of model compounds can facilitate the interpretation of results involving larger systems. Objectives: The goal of the research was to characterize the properties of the hydration water surrounding the two three-residue K peptide fragments INS (Isoleucine - Asparagine - Serine) and NSR (Asparagine - Serine - Arginine). Methods: Fourier-transform infrared spectra of aqueous solutions of the tripeptides were recorded on Nicolet 8700 spectrometer (Thermo Electron Co.) Measurements were carried out at 25°C for varying molality of solute. To remove oscillation couplings from water spectra and, consequently, obtain narrow O-D semi-heavy water bands (HDO), the isotopic dilution method of HDO in H₂O was used. The difference spectra method allowed us to isolate the tripeptide-affected HDO spectrum. Results: The structural and energetic properties of water affected by the tripeptides were compared to the properties of pure water. The shift of the values of the gravity center of bands (related to the mean energy of water hydrogen bonds) towards lower values with respect to the ones corresponding to pure water suggests that the energy of hydrogen bonds between water molecules surrounding tripeptides is higher than in pure water. A comparison of the values of the mean oxygen-oxygen distances in water affected by tripeptides and pure water indicates that water-water hydrogen bonds are shorter in the presence of these tripeptides. The analysis of differences in oxygen-oxygen distance distributions between the tripeptide-affected water and pure water indicates that around the tripeptides, the contribution of water molecules with the mean energy of hydrogen bonds decreases, and simultaneously the contribution of strong hydrogen bonds increases. Conclusions: It was found that hydrogen bonds between water molecules in the hydration sphere of tripeptides are shorter and stronger than in pure water. It means that in the presence of the tested tripeptides, the structure of water is strengthened compared to pure water. Moreover, it has been shown that in the vicinity of the Asparagine - Serine - Arginine, water forms stronger and shorter hydrogen bonds. Acknowledgments: This work was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (grant 2017/26/D/NZ1/00497).

Keywords: amyloids, K-peptide, hydration, FTIR spectroscopy

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Authors: L. Mercier, D. Beladjine, K. Beddiar

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The digital transition of building in France brings many changes which some have been able to face very quickly, while others are struggling to find their place and the interest that BIM can bring in their profession. BIM today is already adopted or initiated by construction professionals. However, this change, which can be drastic for some, prevents them from integrating it definitively. This is the case with architects. The profession is shared on the practice of BIM in its exercise. The risk of not adopting this new working method now and of not wanting to switch to its new digital tools leads us to question the future of the profession in view of the gap that is likely to be created within project management. In order to deal with the subject efficiently, our work was based on a documentary watch on BIM and then on the profession of architect, which allowed us to establish links on these two subjects. The observation of the economic model towards which the agencies tend and the trend of the sought after profiles made it possible to develop the opportunities and the brakes likely to impact the future of the profession of architect. The centralization of research directs work towards the conclusion that the model implemented by companies does not allow to integrate BIM within their structure. A solution hypothesis was then issued, focusing on the development of agencies through the diversity of profiles, skills to be integrated internally with the aim of diversifying their skills, and their business practices. In order to address this hypothesis of a multidisciplinary agency model, we conducted a survey of architectural firms. It is built on the model of Anglo-Saxon countries, which do not have the same functioning in comparison to the French model. The results obtained showed a risk of gradual disappearance on the market from small agencies in favor of those who will have and could take this BIM working method. This is why the architectural profession must, first of all, look at what is happening within its training before absolutely wanting to diversify the profiles to integrate into its structure. This directs the study on the training of architects. The schools of French architects are generally behind schedule if we allow the comparison to the schools of engineers. The latter is currently experiencing a slight improvement with the emergence of masters and BIM options during the university course. If the training of architects develops towards learning BIM and the agencies have the desire to integrate different but complementary profiles, then they will develop their skills internally and therefore open their profession to new functions. The place of BIM Management on projects will allow the architect to remain in control of the project because of their overall vision of the project. In addition, the integration of BIM and more generally of the life cycle analysis of the structure will make it possible to guarantee eco-design or eco-construction by approaching the constraints of sustainable development omnipresent on the planet.

Keywords: building information modelling, BIM, BIM management, BIM manager, BIM architect

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Authors: Monika Szpringer, Aneta Pawlinska

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Adverse childhood experiences are linked to various types of health and adapt problems at different stages of life. They include various types of abuse, neglect, and dysfunctional environment. They have an unfavorable impact on the development of a child and his future functioning in society. Adolescents who were exposed to bad treatment may suffer from health problems during adulthood, like chronic diseases, psychological disorders, drug addiction, and suicide attempts. Objective: The aim of the project is to assess the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and the sense of efficacy and coping with emotions among teenagers aged 16-18 taking drugs. Material And Methods: The research was carried out in the period from March to December 2018 in Mazowieckie, Świętokrzyskie, Łódzkie, and Lubelskie Voivodship. The group consisted of 600 people aged 16-18 (M=16,58; SD=0, 78), men (63,2%) aged 16-18 (M=16,60;SD= 0,78) and women (35,5%) aged 16-18 (M16,55;SD=0,79). Participants included residents from Youth Educational Centers and Youth Sociotherapy Centers. Each participant filled in Author's Questionnaire, Adverse Childhood Questionnaire, then Courtland Emotional Control Scale-CECS and Generalized Self Efficacy Scale-GSES. Results and conclusions: The most common adverse experiences, according to teenagers, were family abuse, divorce/separation/parent's death, overuse of alcohol or drugs by an inmate, and emotional neglect. Adolescents who suffered from five to twelve adverse experiences had a higher level of depression's control. Adverse childhood experiences have an importance for the level of anger and depression's control among teenagers taking drugs. The greatest importance of the level of anger's control has emotional neglect. A higher level of emotional neglect is linked to a lower ability to control anger. The greatest importance of the level of depression's control has physical abuse and emotional neglect. The higher physical abuse during childhood, and the higher frequency of emotional neglect, the bigger the depression's control. The sense of efficacy in the group of people who suffered from one to four adverse experiences is close to the sense of efficacy that suffered people from five to twelve adverse experiences. The most important factor lowering the sense of one's efficacy was the intensification of sexual abuse. It was confirmed that the intensification and frequency of adverse childhood experiences were higher among women than men. Women also characterized lower anger control and greater depression's control. The authors’ own analyses confirmed the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and the sense of efficacy and coping with emotions among teenagers aged 16-18 taking drugs.

Keywords: adolescences, adverse childhood experiences, coping with emotions, drugs

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Authors: Tamar Lazariashvili

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Introduction: The growth and development of the economy in the country depend on many factors, the most important of which is the use of innovation. The article analyzes the innovations and the potential of agricultural development in Georgia, presents the problems in the field, justifies the need to introduce innovations, shows the policy of innovation development, evaluates the positive and negative factors of the use of innovations in agriculture. Methodology: The article uses general and specific research methods, namely, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison and statistical ones: selection, grouping, observation, trend. All these methods used together in the article reveal the main problems and challenges and their development trends. Main Findings: The introduction of innovations for the country has an impact if there is established state support system for business development and the State creates an effective environment for innovation development. As a result, the appropriate establishment gives incentives to increase budget revenues, create new jobs, increase export turnover and improve the overall economic situation in the country. Georgia has sufficient resource potential to create and develop new businesses in agriculture by introducing innovations and contribute to the further socio-economic development of the country. Political and economic stability, the existing legislation in the country, infrastructure, the proper functioning of financial institutions and the qualification of the workforce are crucial for the development of innovations. These criteria determine the political and economic ratings of all countries of the world, which are of great importance to foreign investors in the implementation of innovations. Conclusion: Enactment of agro-insurance will increase the interest and confidence of financial institutions in the farming sector, financial resources will be accessible to the farmers that will facilitate the stable development of the sector in the country. The size of the agro-insurance market in the country should be increased and the new territories should be covered. The State must have an obligation to ensure the risk of farmers and subsidize insurance companies. Based on an analysis of the insurance market the conclusions on agro-insurance issues and the relevant recommendations are proposed. The introduction of innovations in agriculture will have a great impact on the Georgian economy: it will improve the technological base, establish enterprises equipped with modern equipment and methodologies, retrain existing enterprises, promote to improve skills of workers and improve management systems. Based on the analysis, conclusions are made about the prospects for the development of innovation in agriculture and relevant recommendations are proposed.

Keywords: agriculture, development potential, innovation, optimal environment

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Authors: Arlinda Memetaj

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Building up of a well-functioning administrative justice system is one of the key prerequisites for ensuring the existence of an accountable and efficient public administration in Kosovo as well. To this aim, the country has already established an almost comprehensive legislative and institutional frameworks. The latter derives from (among others) the Kosovo`s Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU of 2016. A series of efforts are being presently still undertaken by all relevant domestic and international stakeholders being active in both the Kosovo`s public administration reform and the country` s system of a local self-government. Both systems are thus under a constant state of reform. Despite the aforesaid, there is still a series of shortcomings in the country in above context. There is a lot of backlog of administrative cases in the Prishtina Administrative court; there is a public lack in judiciary; the public administration is organized in a fragmented way; the administrative laws are still not properly implemented at local level; the municipalities` legislative and executive branches are not sufficiently transparent for the ordinary citizens ... Against the above short background, the full paper firstly outlines the legislative and institutional framework of the Kosovo's systems of an administrative justice and local self-government (on the basis of the fact that public administration and local government are not separate fields). It then illustrates the key specific shortcomings in those fields, as seen from the perspective of the citizens' right to good administration. It finally claims that the current status quo situation in the country may be resolved (among others) by granting Kosovo a status of full member state of the Council of Europe or at least granting it with a temporary status of a contracting party of (among others) the European Human Rights Convention. The later would enable all Kosovo citizens (regardless their ethnic or other origin whose human rights are violated by the Kosovo`s relative administrative authorities including the administrative courts) to bring their case/s before the respective well-known European Strasbourg-based Human Rights Court. This would consequently put the State under permanent and full monitoring process, with a view to obliging the country to properly implement the European Court`s decisions (as adopted by this court in those cases). This would be a benefit first of all for the very Kosovo`s ordinary citizens regardless their ethnic or other background. It would provide for a particular positive input in the ongoing efforts being undertaken by Kosovo and Serbia states within the EU-facilitated Dialogue, with a view to building up of an integral administrative justice system at central and local level in the whole Kosovo` s territory. The main method used in this paper is the descriptive, analytical and comparative one.

Keywords: administrative courts, administrative justice, administrative procedure, benefit, European Human Rights Court, human rights, monitoring, reform.

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Authors: Mahadehe Hassan

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In most countries manufacturing, trading and distribution of gasoline and diesel fuels belongs to the most important sectors of national economy. For Bangladesh, a robust, well-functioning, secure and smartly managed national fuel distribution chain is an essential precondition for achieving Government top priorities in development and modernization of transportation infrastructure, protection of national environment and population health as well as, very importantly, securing due tax revenue for the State Budget. Bangladesh is a developing country with complex fuel supply network, high fuel taxes incidence and – till now - limited possibilities in application of modern, automated technologies for Government national fuel market control. Such environment allows dishonest physical and legal persons and organized criminals to build and profit from illegal fuel distribution schemes and fuel illicit trade. As a result, the market transparency and the country attractiveness for foreign investments, law-abiding economic operators, national consumers, State Budget and the Government ability to finance development projects, and the country at large suffer significantly. Research shows that over 50% of retail petrol stations in major agglomerations of Bangladesh sell adulterated fuels and/or cheat customers on the real volume of the fuel pumped into their vehicles. Other forms of detected fuel illicit trade practices include misdeclaration of fuel quantitative and qualitative parameters during internal transit and selling of non-declared and smuggled fuels. The aim of the study is to recommend the implementation of a National Fuel Distribution Integrity Program (FDIP) in Bangladesh to address and resolve fuel adulteration and illicit trade problems. The program should be customized according to the specific needs of the country and implemented in partnership with providers of advanced technologies. FDIP should enable and further enhance capacity of respective Bangladesh Government authorities in identification and elimination of all forms of fuel illicit trade swiftly and resolutely. FDIP high-technology, IT and automation systems and secure infrastructures should be aimed at the following areas (1) fuel adulteration, misdeclaration and non-declaration; (2) fuel quality and; (3) fuel volume manipulation at retail level. Furthermore, overall concept of FDIP delivery and its interaction with the reporting and management systems used by the Government shall be aligned with and support objectives of the Vision 2041 and Smart Bangladesh Government programs.

Keywords: fuel adulteration, octane, kerosene, diesel, petrol, pollution, carbon emissions

Procedia PDF Downloads 78

Authors: J. Jessa

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Background: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, the incidence of which has significantly increased in recent years. Children with autism have impairments in social skills, communication, and imagination. Children with autism has more common than healthy children feeding problems: food selectivity, problems with gastrointestinal tract: diarrhea, constipations, abdominal pain, reflux and others. Many parents of autistic children report that after implementation of gluten-, casein- and sugar free diet those symptoms disappear and even cognitive functions become better. Some children begin to understand speech and to communicate with parents, regain eye contact, become more calm, sleep better and has better concentration. Probably at the root of this phenomenon lies elimination from the diet peptides construction of which is similar to opiates. Enhanced permeability of gut causes absorption of not fully digested opioid-like peptides from food, like gluten and casein and probably others (proteins from soy and corn) which impact on brain of autistic children. Aim of the study: The aim of the study is to assess the safety of gluten-free diet in children with autism, aged 2,5-7. Methods: Participants of the study (n=70) – children aged 2,5-7 with autism are divided into 3 groups. The first group (research group) are patients whose parents want to implement a gluten-free diet. The second group are patients who have been recommended to eliminate from the diet artificial substances, such as preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, and others (control group 1). The third group (control group 2) are children whose parents did not agree for implementation of the diet. Caregivers of children on the diet are educated about the specifics of the diet and how to avoid malnutrition. At the start of the study we exclude celiac disease. Before the implementation of the diet we performe a blood test for patients (morphology, ferritin, total cholesterol, dry peripheral blood drops to detect some genetic metabolic diseases), plasma aminogram) and urine tests (excretion of ions: Mg, Na, Ca, the profile of organic acids in urine), which assess nutritional status as well as the psychological test assessing the degree of the child's psychological functioning (PEP-R). All of these tests will be repeated after one year from the implementation of the diet. Results: To the present moment we examined 42 children with autism. 12 of children are on gluten- free diet. Our preliminary results are promising. Parents of 9 of them report that, there is a big improvement in child behavior, concentration, less aggression incidents, better eye contact and better verbal skills. Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggest that dietary intervention may positively affect developmental outcome for some children diagnosed with ASD.

Keywords: gluten free diet, autism spectrum disorder, autism, blood test

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Authors: Fernando Araujo, Sandra Cardoso, Fátima Fonseca, Sandra Cavaca

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A debureaucratization strategy for the Portuguese Health Service was assumed by the Executive Board of the SNS, in deep articulation with the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health. Two of the main dimensions were focused on sick leaves (SL), that transform primary health care (PHC) in administrative institutions, limiting access to patients. The self-declaration of illness (SDI) project, through the National Health Service Contact Centre (SNS24), began on May 1, 2023, and has already resulted in the issuance of more than 300,000 SDI without the need to allocate resources from the National Health Service (NHS). This political decision allows each citizen, in a maximum 2 times/year, and 3 days each time, if ill, through their own responsibility, report their health condition in a dematerialized way, and by this way justified the absence to work, although by Portuguese law in these first three days, there is no payment of salary. Using a digital approach, it is now feasible without the need to go to the PHC and occupy the time of the PHC only to obtain an SL. Through this measure, bureaucracy has been reduced, and the system has been focused on users, improving the lives of citizens and reducing the administrative burden on PHC, which now has more consultation times for users who need it. The second initiative, which began on March 1, 2024, allows the SL to be issued in emergency departments (ED) of public hospitals and in the health institutions of the social and private sectors. This project is intended to allow the user who has suffered a situation of acute urgent illness and who has been observed in an ED of a public hospital or in a private or social entity no longer need to go to PHC only to apply for the respective SL. Since March 1, 54,453 SLs have been issued, 242 in private or social sector institutions and 6,918 in public hospitals, of which 134 were in ED and 47,292 in PHC. This approach has proven to be technically robust, allows immediate resolution of problems and differentiates the performance of doctors. However, it is important to continue to qualify the proper functioning of the ED, preventing non-urgent users from going there only to obtain SL. Thus, in order to make better use of existing resources, it was operationalizing this extension of its issuance in a balanced way, allowing SL to be issued in the ED of hospitals only to critically ill patients or patients referred by INEM, SNS24, or PHC. In both cases, an intense public campaign was implemented to explain the way it works and the benefits for patients. In satisfaction surveys, more than 95% of patients and doctors were satisfied with the solutions, asking for extensions to other areas. The administrative simplification agenda of the NHS continues its effective development. For the success of this debureaucratization agenda, the key factors are effective communication and the ability to reach patients and health professionals in order to increase health literacy and the correct use of NHS.

Keywords: debureaucratization strategy, self-declaration of illness, sick leaves, SNS24

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Authors: Francisca Alves, Diana Figueiredo, Paula Vagos, Luiza Lima, Maria do Céu Salvador, Daniel Rijo

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In recent years, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been shown to be effective in the treatment of numerous anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, limited evidence exists on its therapeutic gains for adolescents with SAD. The current work presents a weekly 10-session manualized online ACT approach to adolescent SAD, being the first study to do so in a clinical sample of adolescents. The intervention ACT@TeenSAD addresses the six proposed processes of psychological inflexibility (i.e., experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, lack of values clarity, unworkable action, dominance of the conceptualized past and future, attachment to the conceptualized self) in social situations relevant to adolescents (e.g., doing a presentation). It is organized into four modules. The first module explores the role of psychological (in)flexibility in SAD (session 1 and 2), addressing psychoeducation (i.e., functioning of the mind) according to ACT, the development of an individualized model, and creative hopelessness. The second module focuses on the foundation of psychological flexibility (session 3, 4, and 5), specifically on the development and practice of strategies to promote clarification of values, contact with the present moment, the observing self, defusion, and acceptance. The third module encompasses psychological flexibility in action (sessions 6, 7, 8, and 9), encouraging committed action based on values in social situations relevant to the adolescents. The fourth modules’ focus is the revision of gains and relapse prevention (session 10). This intervention further includes two booster sessions after therapy has ended (3 and 6-month follow-up) that aim to review the continued practice of learned abilities and to plan for their future application to potentially anxious social events. As part of an ongoing clinical trial, the intervention will be assessed on its feasibility with adolescents diagnosed with SAD and on its therapeutic efficacy based on a longitudinal design including pretreatment, posttreatment, 3 and 6-month follow-up. If promising, findings may support the online delivery of ACT interventions for SAD, contributing to increased treatment availability to adolescents. This availability of an effective therapeutic approach will be helpful not only in relation to adolescents who face obstacles (e.g., distance) when attending to face-to-face sessions but also particularly to adolescents with SAD, who are usually more reluctant to look for specialized treatment in public or private health facilities.

Keywords: acceptance and commitment therapy, social anxiety disorder, adolescence, manualized online approach

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Authors: Dorit Olenik-Shemesh, Tali Heiman

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Aggressive peer behaviors, particularly bullying and cyberbullying (CB) victimization during adolescence, are strongly and consistently linked to decreased levels of subjective well-being, potentially hindering a healthy and consistent developmental process. These negative effects might be expressed in emotional, physical, and behavioral difficulties. Adolescents victims of bullying/CB present more depressive moods, more loneliness, and more suicidal thoughts, while adolescents who had never been victims of bullying and CB acts present higher levels of well-being. These difficulties in their lives may be both a consequence of and a partial explanation for bullying/CB victimization. Interpersonal behavior styles and psychosocial factors may interact to create a vicious cycle in which adolescents place themselves at risk, which might explain the reduced well-being reported among victims. Yet, to the best of our knowledge, almost no study has examined the effect of two key variables in adolescents' lives, resilience and self-concept, in the relationship between bullying/CB victimization and low levels of psychological well-being among adolescents. Resilience is defined as the individual's capacity of maintaining stable functioning and make adjustments in the face of adversity; a capacity that promotes efficiently coping with environmental stressors and protects from psycho-social difficulties when facing various challenges. Self-concept relates to the way we perceive ourselves, influenced by many forces, including our interactions with the surroundings; a collection of beliefs about oneself. Accordingly, the current study has examined the possible mediating effect of these two main positive personal variables, resilience, and self-concept, through a mediation model analysis. 507 middle school students aged 11–16 (53% boys, 47% girls) completed questionnaires regarding bullying and CB behaviors, psychological well-being, resilience, and self-concept. A mediation model analysis was performed, whereas the hypothesized mediation model was accepted in full. More specifically, it was found that both self-concept and resilience mediated the relationship between bullying/CB victimization and a sense of well-being. High levels of both variables might buffer against a potential decrease in well-being associated with youth bullying/CB victimization. No gender differences were found, except a small stronger effect of resilience on well-being for boys. The study results suggest focusing on specific personal positive variables when developing youth intervention programs, creating an infrastructure for new programs that address increasing resilience and self-concept in schools and family-school contexts. Such revamped programs could diminish bullying/CB acts and the harmful negative implications for youth well-being. Future studies that will incorporate longitudinal data may further deepen the understanding of these examined relationships.

Keywords: adolescents, well being, bullying/CB victimization, resilience, self-concept

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Authors: Rafael Castilho Carvalho, Edjair de Souza Mota

Abstract:

As the largest contributor to the biogeochemical functioning of the Earth system, the Amazon Rainforest has the greatest biodiversity on the planet, harboring about 15% of all the world's flora. Recognition and preservation are the focus of research that seeks to mitigate drastic changes, especially anthropic ones, which irreversibly affect this biome. Functional and low-cost monitoring alternatives to reduce these impacts are a priority, such as those using technologies such as Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN). Promising, reliable, secure and with low energy consumption, LPWAN can connect thousands of IoT devices, and in particular, LoRa is considered one of the most successful solutions to facilitate forest monitoring applications. Despite this, the forest environment, in particular the Amazon Rainforest, is a challenge for these technologies, requiring work to identify and validate the use of technology in a real environment. To investigate the feasibility of deploying LPWAN in remote water quality monitoring of rivers in the Amazon Region, a LoRa-based test bed consisting of a Lora transmitter and a LoRa receiver was set up, both parts were implemented with Arduino and the LoRa chip SX1276. The experiment was carried out at the Federal University of Amazonas, which contains one of the largest urban forests in Brazil. There are several springs inside the forest, and the main goal is to collect water quality parameters and transmit the data through the forest in real time to the gateway at the uni. In all, there are nine water quality parameters of interest. Even with a high collection frequency, the amount of information that must be sent to the gateway is small. However, for this application, the battery of the transmitter device is a concern since, in the real application, the device must run without maintenance for long periods of time. With these constraints in mind, parameters such as Spreading Factor (SF) and Coding Rate (CR), different antenna heights, and distances were tuned to better the connectivity quality, measured with RSSI and loss rate. A handheld spectrum analyzer RF Explorer was used to get the RSSI values. Distances exceeding 200 m have soon proven difficult to establish communication due to the dense foliage and high humidity. The optimal combinations of SF-CR values were 8-5 and 9-5, showing the lowest packet loss rates, 5% and 17%, respectively, with a signal strength of approximately -120 dBm, these being the best settings for this study so far. The rains and climate changes imposed limitations on the equipment, and more tests are already being conducted. Subsequently, the range of the LoRa configuration must be extended using a mesh topology, especially because at least three different collection points in the same water body are required.

Keywords: IoT, LPWAN, LoRa, coverage, loss rate, forest

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Authors: Paula Andrea Segura Delgado, Martha Helena Ramírez-Bahena

Abstract:

Research on how the brain learns has a transcendental application in the educational context. It is crucial for teacher training to understand the nature of brain changes and their direct influence on learning processes. This communication is based on a literature review focused on neuroscience, neuroeducation, and the impact of digital technology on the human brain. Information was gathered from both English and Spanish language sources, using online journals, books and reports. The general objective was to analyze the role of neuroscience knowledge in enriching our understanding of the learning process. In fact, the authors have focused on the impact of digital technology on the human brain as well as its influence in the field of education..Neuroscience knowledge can contribute significantly to improving the training of educators and therefore educational practices. Education as an instrument of change and school as an agent of socialization, it is necessary to understand what it aims to transform: the human brain. Understanding the functioning of the human brain has important repercussions on education: this elucidates cognitive skills, psychological processes and elements that influence the learning process (memory, executive functions, emotions and the circadian cycle); helps identify psychological and neurological deficits that can impede learning processes (dyslexia, autism, hyperactivity); It allows creating environments that promote brain development and contribute to the advancement of brain capabilities in alignment with the stages of neurobiological development. The digital age presents diverse opportunities to every social environment. The frequent use of digital technology (DT) has had a significant and abrupt impact on both the cognitive abilities and physico-chemical properties of the brain, significantly influencing educational processes. Hence, educational community, with the insights from advances in neuroscience, aspire to identify the positive and negative effects of digital technology on the human brain. This knowledge helps ensure the alignment of teacher training and practices with these findings. The knowledge of neuroscience enables teachers to develop teaching methods that are aligned with the way the brain works. For example, neuroscience research has shown that digital technology is having a significant impact on the human brain (addition, anxiety, high levels of dopamine, circadian cycle disorder, decrease in attention, memory, concentration, problems with their social relationships). Therefore, it is important to understand the nature of these changes, their impact on the learning process, and how educators should effectively adapt their approaches based on these brain's changes.

Keywords: digital technology, learn process, neuroscience knowledge, neuroeducation, training proffesors

Procedia PDF Downloads 62

Authors: Utsav Bhardwaj, Shyama Prasad Das

Abstract:

To meet the extensive requirements of thermal management of the circuit card assemblies (CCAs), satellites, PCBs, microprocessors, any other electronic circuitry, pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) have emerged in the recent past as one of the best solutions technically. But industrial application of PHPs is still unexplored up to a large extent due to their poor reliability. There are several systems as well as operational parameters which not only affect the performance of an operating PHP, but also decide whether the PHP can operate sustainably or not. Functioning may completely be halted for some particular combinations of the values of system and operational parameters. Among the system parameters, adiabatic length is one of the important ones. In the present work, a simplest single branch PHP system with an adiabatic section has been considered. It is assumed to have only one vapour bubble and one liquid plug. First, the system has been mathematically modeled using film evaporation/condensation model, followed by the steps of recognition of equilibrium zone, non-dimensionalization and linearization. Then proceeding with a periodical solution of the linearized and reduced differential equations, stability analysis has been performed. Slow and fast variables have been identified, and averaging approach has been used for the slow ones. Ultimately, temporal evolution of the PHP is predicted by numerically solving the averaged equations, to know whether the oscillations are likely to sustain/decay temporally. Stability threshold has also been determined in terms of some non-dimensional numbers formed by different groupings of system and operational parameters. A combined analytical and numerical approach has been used, and it has been found that for each combination of all other parameters, there exists a maximum length of the adiabatic section beyond which the PHP cannot function at all. This length has been called as “Critical Adiabatic Length (L_ac)”. For adiabatic lengths greater than “L_ac”, oscillations are found to be always decaying sooner or later. Dependence of “L_ac” on some other parameters has also been checked and correlated at certain evaporator & condenser section temperatures. “L_ac” has been found to be linearly increasing with increase in evaporator section length (L_e), whereas the condenser section length (L_c) has been found to have almost no effect on it upto a certain limit. But at considerably large condenser section lengths, “L_ac” is expected to decrease with increase in “L_c” due to increased wall friction. Rise in static pressure (p_r) exerted by the working fluid reservoir makes “L_ac” rise exponentially whereas it increases cubically with increase in the inner diameter (d) of PHP. Physics of all such variations has been given a good insight too. Thus, a methodology for quantification of the critical adiabatic length for any possible set of all other parameters of PHP has been established.

Keywords: critical adiabatic length, evaporation/condensation, pulsating heat pipe (PHP), thermal management

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