Search results for: essential elements

Authors: Myriam Benraad

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On 5 July 2016, just days before the bloody terrorist attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, the Al-Hayat media centre, one of the official propaganda branches of the Islamic State, broadcast a French nasheed which paid tribute to the Paris and Brussels attacks of November 2015 and March 2016. Entitled 'My Revenge', the terrorist anthem was of rare vehemence. It mentioned, sequentially, 'huddled bodies', in a reference to the civilian casualties of Western air strikes in the Iraqi-Syrian zone, 'explosive belts', 'sharp knives', 'large-calibre weapons' as well as 'localised targets'. France was accused of bearing the responsibility for the wave of attacks on its territory since the Charlie Hebdo massacre of January 2015 due to its 'ruthless war' against the Muslim world. Evoking an 'old aggression' and the 'crimes and spoliations' of which France has made itself guilty, the jihadist hymn depicted the rebirth of the caliphate as 'laudable revenge'. The notion of revenge has always been central to contemporary jihadism, understood both as a revolutionary ideology and a global militant movement. In recent years, the attacks carried out in Europe and elsewhere in the world have, for most, been claimed in its name. Whoever says jihad, says drama, yet few studies, if any, have looked at its dramatic and emotional elements, most notably its tragic vengefulness. This seems all the more astonishing that jihad is filled with drama; it could even be seen as a drama in its own right. The jihadists perform a script and take on roles inspired by their respective group’s culture (norms, values, beliefs, and symbols). The militants stage and perform such a script for a designated audience, either partisan, sympathising or hostile towards them and their cause. This research paper will examine the dramaturgy of jihadism and in particular, the genre that best characterises its violence: revenge tragedy. Theoretically, the research will rely on the tools of social movement theory and the sociology of emotions. Methodologically, it will draw from dramaturgical analysis and a combination of qualitative and quantitative tools to attain valuable observations of a number of developments, trends, and patterns. The choice has been made to focus mainly – however not exclusively – on the attacks which have taken place since 2001 in the European Union and more specific member states that have been significantly hit by jihadist terrorism. The research looks at a number of representative longitudinal samples identifying continuities and discontinuities, similarities, but also substantial differences. The preliminary findings tend to establish the relevance and validity of this approach in helping make better sense of sensitisation, mobilisation, and survival dynamics within jihadist groups, and motivations among individuals who have embraced violence. Besides, they illustrate their pertinence for counterterrorism policymakers and practitioners. Through drama, jihadist groups ensure the unceasing regeneration of their militant cause as well as their legitimation among their partisans. Without drama, and without the spectacular ideological staging of reality, they would not be able to maintain their attraction potential and power of persuasion.

Keywords: Jihadism, dramaturgy, revenge, tragedy

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Authors: Justine Jun

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This study aims to reveal migrant women English instructors' workplace learning experiences in Canadian post-secondary institutions in Ontario. Although many scholars have conducted research studies on internationally educated teachers and their professional and employment challenges, few studies have recorded migrant women English language instructors’ professional learning and support experiences in post-secondary English language programs in Canada. This study employs a qualitative research paradigm. Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory is an essential lens for the researcher to explain, analyze, and interpret the research data. It is a collaborative research project. The researcher and participants cooperatively create photographic or other artwork data responding to the research questions. Photovoice and arts-informed data collection methodology are the main methods. Research participants engage in the study as co-researchers and inquire about their own workplace learning experiences, actively utilizing their critical self-reflective and dialogic skills. Co-researchers individually select the forms of artwork they prefer to engage with to represent their transformative workplace learning experiences about the Canadian workplace cultures that they underwent while working with colleagues and administrators in the workplace. Once the co-researchers generate their cultural artifacts as research data, they collaboratively interpret their artworks with the researcher and other volunteer co-researchers. Co-researchers jointly investigate the themes emerging from the artworks. They also interpret the meanings of their own and others’ workplace learning experiences embedded in the artworks through interactive one-on-one or group interviews. The following are the research questions that the migrant women English instructor participants examine and answer: (1) What have they learned about their workplace culture and how do they explain their learning experiences?; (2) How transformative have their learning experiences been at work?; (3) How have their colleagues and administrators influenced their transformative learning?; (4) What kind of support have they received? What supports have been valuable to them and what changes would they like to see?; (5) What have their learning experiences transformed?; (6) What has this arts-informed research process transformed? The study findings implicate English language instructor support currently practiced in post-secondary English language programs in Ontario, Canada, especially for migrant women English instructors. This research is a doctoral empirical study in progress. This research has the urgency to address the research problem that few studies have investigated migrant English instructors’ professional learning and support issues in the workplace, precisely that of English instructors working with adult learners in Canada. While appropriate social and professional support for migrant English instructors is required throughout the country, the present workplace realities in Ontario's English language programs need to be heard soon. For that purpose, the conceptualization of this study is crucial. It makes the investigation of under-represented instructors’ under-researched social phenomena, workplace learning and support, viable and rigorous. This paper demonstrates the robust theorization of English instructors’ workplace experiences using Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory in the English language teacher education field.

Keywords: English teacher education, professional learning, transformative learning theory, workplace learning

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Authors: Nirmani Wijenayake, Louise Lutze-Mann, Lucy Jo, John Wilson, Vivian Yeung, Dean Lovett, Kim Snepvangers

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Sessional academic staff at universities have the most influence and impact on student learning, engagement, and experience as they have the most direct contact with undergraduate students. A blended technology-enhanced program was created for the development and support of sessional staff to ensure adequate training is provided to deliver quality educational outcomes for the students. This program combines innovative mixed media educational modules, a peer-driven support forum, and face-to-face workshops to provide a comprehensive training and support package for staff. Additionally, the program encourages the development of learning communities and peer mentoring among the sessional staff to enhance their support system. In 2018, the program was piloted on 100 sessional staff in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences to evaluate the effectiveness of this model. As part of the program, rotoscope animations were developed to showcase ‘typical’ interactions between staff and students. These were designed around communication, confidence building, consistency in grading, feedback, diversity awareness, and mental health and wellbeing. When surveyed, 86% of sessional staff found these animations to be helpful in their teaching. An online platform (Moodle) was set up to disseminate educational resources and teaching tips, to host a discussion forum for peer-to-peer communication and to increase critical thinking and problem-solving skills through scenario-based lessons. The learning analytics from these lessons were essential in identifying difficulties faced by sessional staff to further develop supporting workshops to improve outcomes related to teaching. The face-to-face professional development workshops were run by expert guest speakers on topics such as cultural diversity, stress and anxiety, LGBTIQ and student engagement. All the attendees of the workshops found them to be useful and 88% said they felt these workshops increase interaction with their peers and built a sense of community. The final component of the program was to use an adaptive e-learning platform to gather feedback from the students on sessional staff teaching twice during the semester. The initial feedback provides sessional staff with enough time to reflect on their teaching and adjust their performance if necessary, to improve the student experience. The feedback from students and the sessional staff on this model has been extremely positive. The training equips the sessional staff with knowledge and insights which can provide students with an exceptional learning environment. This program is designed in a flexible and scalable manner so that other faculties or institutions could adapt components for their own training. It is anticipated that the training and support would help to build the next generation of educators who will directly impact the educational experience of students.

Keywords: designing effective instruction, enhancing student learning, implementing effective strategies, professional development

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Authors: Martin Arguelles Perez, Woosoon Yim, Alexander Barzilov

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High-fidelity radiation monitoring is an essential component in the enhancement of the situational awareness capabilities of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) personnel. In this paper, multiple units of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) each equipped with a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) gamma-ray sensor are used for radiation source localization, which can provide vital real-time data for the EM tasks. To achieve this goal, a fully autonomous system of multicopter-based UAV swarm in 3D tetrahedron formation is used for surveying the area of interest and performing radiation source localization. The CZT sensor used in this study is suitable for small-size multicopter UAVs due to its small size and ease of interfacing with the UAV’s onboard electronics for high-resolution gamma spectroscopy enabling the characterization of radiation hazards. The multicopter platform with a fully autonomous flight feature is suitable for low-altitude applications such as radiation contamination sites. The conventional approach uses a single UAV mapping in a predefined waypoint path to predict the relative location and strength of the source, which can be time-consuming for radiation localization tasks. The proposed UAV swarm-based approach can significantly improve its ability to search for and track radiation sources. In this paper, two approaches are developed using (a) 2D planar circular (3 UAVs) and (b) 3D tetrahedron formation (4 UAVs). In both approaches, accurate estimation of the gradient vector is crucial for heading angle calculation. Each UAV carries the CZT sensor; the real-time radiation data are used for the calculation of a bulk heading vector for the swarm to achieve a UAV swarm’s source-seeking behavior. Also, a spinning formation is studied for both cases to improve gradient estimation near a radiation source. In the 3D tetrahedron formation, a UAV located closest to the source is designated as a lead unit to maintain the tetrahedron formation in space. Such a formation demonstrated a collective and coordinated movement for estimating a gradient vector for the radiation source and determining an optimal heading direction of the swarm. The proposed radiation localization technique is studied by computer simulation and validated experimentally in the indoor flight testbed using gamma sources. The technology presented in this paper provides the capability to readily add/replace radiation sensors to the UAV platforms in the field conditions enabling extensive condition measurement and greatly improving situational awareness and event management. Furthermore, the proposed radiation localization approach allows long-term measurements to be efficiently performed at wide areas of interest to prevent disasters and reduce dose risks to people and infrastructure.

Keywords: radiation, unmanned aerial system(UAV), source localization, UAV swarm, tetrahedron formation

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Authors: H. Alqunayeer, S. Zamir

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Blended learning, an ideal amalgamation of online learning and face to face traditional approach is a new approach that may result in outstanding outcomes in the realm of teaching and learning. The dexterity and effectiveness offered by e-learning experience cannot be guaranteed in a traditional classroom, whereas one-to-one interaction the essential element of learning that can only be found in a traditional classroom. In recent years, a spectacular expansion in the incorporation of technology in language teaching and learning is observed in many universities of Saudi Arabia. Some universities recognize the importance of blending face-to-face with online instruction in language pedagogy, Qassim University is one of the many universities adopting Blackboard Learning Management system (LMS). The university has adopted this new mode of teaching/learning in year 2015. Although the experience is immature; however great pedagogical transformations are anticipated in the university through this new approach. This paper examines the role of blended language learning with particular reference to the influence of Blackboard Learning Management System on the development of English language learning for EFL learners registered in Bachelors of English language program. This paper aims at exploring three main areas: (i) the present status of Blended learning in the educational process in Saudi Arabia especially in Qassim University by providing a survey report on the number of training courses on Blackboard LMS conducted for the male and female teachers at various colleges of Qassim University, (ii) a survey on teachers perception about the utility, application and the outcome of using blended Learning approach in teaching English language skills courses, (iii) the students’ views on the efficiency of Blended learning approach in learning English language skills courses. Besides, analysis of students’ limitations and challenges related to the experience of blended learning via Blackboard, the suggestion and recommendations offered by the language learners have also been thought-out. The study is empirical in nature. In order to gather data on the afore mentioned areas survey questionnaire method has been used: in order to study students’ perception, a 5 point Likert-scale questionnaire has been distributed to 200 students of English department registered in Bachelors in English program (level 5 through level 8). Teachers’ views have been surveyed with the help of interviewing 25 EFL teachers skilled in using Blackboard LMS in their lectures. In order to ensure the validity and reliability of questionnaire, the inter-rater approach and Cronbach’s Alpha analysis have been used respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used to analyze the students’ perception about the productivity of the Blended approach in learning English language skills. The analysis of feedback by Saudi teachers and students about the usefulness, ingenuity, and productivity of Blended Learning via Blackboard LMS highlights the need of encouraging and expanding the implementation of this new approach into the field of English language teaching in Saudi Arabia, in order to augment congenial learning aura. Furthermore, it is hoped that the propositions and practical suggestions offered by the study will be functional for other similar learning environments.

Keywords: blended learning, black board learning management system, English as foreign language (EFL) learners, EFL teachers

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Authors: Jihong Liang, Huiling Feng, Linqing Ma, Tianjiao Qi

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Confucius is the first sage in Chinese culture. Confucianism, the theories represented by Confucius, has long been at the core of Chinese traditional society, as the dominating political ideology of centralized feudal monarchy for more than two thousand years. Confucius Worship Ceremony held in the Confucian Temple in Qufu (Confucius’s birthplace), which is dedicated to commemorate Confucius and other 170 elites in Confucianism with a whole set of formal rites, pertains to “Auspicious Rites”, which worship heaven and earth, humans and ghosts. It was first a medium-scaled ritual activity but then upgraded to the supreme one at national level in the Qing Dynasty. As a national event, it was celebrated by Emperor as well as common intellectuals in traditional China. The Ceremony can be solemn and respectful, with prescribed and complicated procedures, well-prepared utensil and matched offerings operated in rhythm with music and dances. Each participant has his place, and everyone follows the specified rules. This magnificent ritual Ceremony, while embedded with rich culture connotation, actually symbolizes the social acknowledgment for orthodox culture represented by Confucianism. Rites reflected in this Ceremony, is one of the most important features of Chinese culture, serving as the key bond in the identification and continuation of Chinese culture. These rites and ritual ceremonies, as culture memories themselves, are not only treasures of China, but of the whole world. However, while the ancient Chinese Rite has been one of the thorniest and most complicated topics for academics, the more regrettable is that due to their interruption in practice and historical changes, these rites and ritual ceremonies have already become a vague language in today’s academic discourse and strange terms of the past for common people. Luckily, we, today, by virtue of modern digital technology, may be able to reproduce these ritual ceremonies, as most of them can still be found in ancient manuscripts, through which Chinese ancestors tell the beauty and gravity of their dignified rites and more importantly, their spiritual pursuits with vivid language and lively pictures. This research, based on review and interpretation of the ancient literature, intends to construct the ancient ritual ceremonies, with the Confucius Worship Ceremony as a case and by use of digital technology. Using 3D technology, the spatial scenes in the Confucian Temple can be reconstructed by virtual reality; the memorial tablet exhibited in the temple by GIS and different rites in the ceremonies by animation technology. With reference to the lyrics, melodies and lively pictures recorded in ancient scripts, it is also possible to reproduce the live dancing site. Also, image rendering technology can help to show the life experience and accomplishments of Confucius. Finally, lining up all the elements in a multimedia narrative form, a complete digitalized Confucius Worship Ceremony can be reproduced, which will provide an excellent virtual experience that goes beyond time and space by bringing its audience back to that specific historical time. This digital project, once completed, will play an important role in the inheritance and dissemination of cultural heritage.

Keywords: Confucius worship ceremony, multimedia narrative form, GIS, visual representation

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Authors: Eiji Nakamachi, Tsuyoshi Eguchi, Sayo Yamamoto, Yusuke Morita, H. Sakamoto

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In this study, we aim to reveal the relationship between the meniscal tearing and the articular cartilage injury of knee joint by using the dynamic explicit finite element (FE) method. Meniscal injuries reduce its functional ability and consequently increase the load on the articular cartilage of knee joint. In order to prevent the induction of osteoarthritis (OA) caused by meniscal injuries, many medical treatment techniques, such as artificial meniscus replacement and meniscal regeneration, have been developed. However, it is reported that these treatments are not the comprehensive methods. In order to reveal the fundamental mechanism of OA induction, the mechanical characterization of meniscus under the condition of normal and injured states is carried out by using FE analyses. At first, a FE model of the human knee joint in the case of normal state – ‘intact’ - was constructed by using the magnetron resonance (MR) tomography images and the image construction code, Materialize Mimics. Next, two types of meniscal injury models with the radial tears of medial and lateral menisci were constructed. In FE analyses, the linear elastic constitutive law was adopted for the femur and tibia bones, the visco-hyperelastic constitutive law for the articular cartilage, and the visco-anisotropic hyperelastic constitutive law for the meniscus, respectively. Material properties of articular cartilage and meniscus were identified using the stress-strain curves obtained by our compressive and the tensile tests. The numerical results under the normal walking condition revealed how and where the maximum compressive stress occurred on the articular cartilage. The maximum compressive stress and its occurrence point were varied in the intact and two meniscal tear models. These compressive stress values can be used to establish the threshold value to cause the pathological change for the diagnosis. In this study, FE analyses of knee joint were carried out to reveal the influence of meniscal injuries on the cartilage injury. The following conclusions are obtained. 1. 3D FE model, which consists femur, tibia, articular cartilage and meniscus was constructed based on MR images of human knee joint. The image processing code, Materialize Mimics was used by using the tetrahedral FE elements. 2. Visco-anisotropic hyperelastic constitutive equation was formulated by adopting the generalized Kelvin model. The material properties of meniscus and articular cartilage were determined by curve fitting with experimental results. 3. Stresses on the articular cartilage and menisci were obtained in cases of the intact and two radial tears of medial and lateral menisci. Through comparison with the case of intact knee joint, two tear models show almost same stress value and higher value than the intact one. It was shown that both meniscal tears induce the stress localization in both medial and lateral regions. It is confirmed that our newly developed FE analysis code has a potential to be a new diagnostic system to evaluate the meniscal damage on the articular cartilage through the mechanical functional assessment.

Keywords: finite element analysis, hyperelastic constitutive law, knee joint injury, meniscal tear, stress concentration

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Authors: Ana Handel, Jamal Ellerbe, Sarah Kanzaki, Natalie White, Nathan Ousey, Sean Gallagher

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A sense of belonging is the ability for individuals to feel they are a necessary part of whatever organization or community they find themselves in. In an academic setting, a sense of belonging is key to a student’s success. The collected research points to this sense of belonging in academic settings as a significant contributor of students’ levels of engagement and trust. When universities leverage the arts, students are provided with more opportunities to engage and feel confident in their surroundings. This allows for greater potential to develop within academic and social settings. The arts also call for the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion by showcasing works of artists from all different backgrounds, thus allowing students to gain cultural knowledge and be able to embrace differences. Equity, diversity, and inclusion are all emotional facets of belonging. Equity relates to the concept of making the conscious choice to recognize opportunities to incorporate inclusive and diverse ideals into different thought processes and collaboration. Inclusion involves providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people of all ‘ingroups. In an inclusive culture, individuals are able to maximize their potential with the confidence they have gained through an accepting environment. A variety of members in academic communities have noted it may be beneficial to make certain events surrounding the arts to be built into course requirements in order to ensure students are expanding their horizons and exposing themselves to the arts. These academics also recommend incorporating the arts into extracurricular activities, such as Greek life, in order to appeal to large groups of students. Once students have an understanding of the rich knowledge cultivated through exploring the arts, they will feel more comfortable in their surroundings and thus more confident to become involved in other areas of their university. A number of universities, including West Chester and Carnegie Mellon, have instituted programs aiming to provide students with the necessary tools and resources to feel comfortable in their educational settings. Different programs include references to hotlines for discrimination and office for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Staff members have also been provided with means of combating biases and increasing feelings of belongingness in order to properly support and communicate with students. These tools have successfully allowed universities to foster inviting environments for students of all backgrounds to feel belong as well as strengthening the community’s diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through demonstrating concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion by introducing the arts into learning spaces, students can find a sense of belonging within their academic environments. It is essential to understand these topics and how they work together to achieve a common goal. The efforts of universities have made much progress in shedding light on different cultures and ideas to show students their full potential and opportunities. Once students feel more comfortable within their organizations, engagement will increase substantially.

Keywords: arts, belonging, engagement, inclusion

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Authors: Jingsi Li, Neil S. Ferguson

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Time pressure could have an influence on the productivity, quality of decision making, and the efficiency of problem-solving. This has been mostly stemmed from cognitive research or psychological literature. However, a salient scarce discussion has been held for transport adjacent fields. It is conceivable that in many activity-travel contexts, time pressure is a potentially important factor since an excessive amount of decision time may incur the risk of late arrival to the next activity. The activity-travel rescheduling behavior is commonly explained by costs and benefits of factors such as activity engagements, personal intentions, social requirements, etc. This paper hypothesizes that an additional factor of perceived time pressure could affect travelers’ rescheduling behavior, thus leading to an impact on travel demand management. Time pressure may arise from different ways and is assumed here to be essentially incurred due to travelers planning their schedules without an expectation of unforeseen elements, e.g., transport disruption. In addition to a linear-additive utility-maximization model, the less computationally compensatory heuristic models are considered as an alternative to simulate travelers’ responses. The paper will contribute to travel behavior modeling research by investigating the following questions: how to measure the time pressure properly in an activity-travel day plan context? How do travelers reschedule their plans to cope with the time pressure? How would the importance of the activity affect travelers’ rescheduling behavior? What will the behavioral model be identified to describe the process of making activity-travel rescheduling decisions? How do these identified coping strategies affect the transport network? In this paper, a Mixed Heuristic Model (MHM) is employed to identify the presence of different choice heuristics through a latent class approach. The data about travelers’ activity-travel rescheduling behavior is collected via a web-based interactive survey where a fictitious scenario is created comprising multiple uncertain events on the activity or travel. The experiments are conducted in order to gain a real picture of activity-travel reschedule, considering the factor of time pressure. The identified behavioral models are then integrated into a multi-agent transport simulation model to investigate the effect of the rescheduling strategy on the transport network. The results show that an increased proportion of travelers use simpler, non-compensatory choice strategies instead of compensatory methods to cope with time pressure. Specifically, satisfying - one of the heuristic decision-making strategies - is adopted commonly since travelers tend to abandon the less important activities and keep the important ones. Furthermore, the importance of the activity is found to increase the weight of negative information when making trip-related decisions, especially route choices. When incorporating the identified non-compensatory decision-making heuristic models into the agent-based transport model, the simulation results imply that neglecting the effect of perceived time pressure may result in an inaccurate forecast of choice probability and overestimate the affectability to the policy changes.

Keywords: activity-travel rescheduling, decision making under uncertainty, mixed heuristic model, perceived time pressure, travel demand management

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Authors: Varsha Puri, Sharon Hudson, Ian Kim

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Background: Incest-related childhood sexual abuse (IRCSA) is challenging to study due to the shame and secrecy experienced by its survivors. Ramifications of IRCSA worsen when it is unidentified, and interventions are not made. IRCSA perspectives are essential for future prevention and intervention strategies. However, there is limited understanding of this population’s experiences, perspectives, and long-term struggles. To date, research for IRCSA has utilized data from treatment programs and qualitative research with cohorts of 10-20 people, much of the data is from 10-40 years prior. Methods. In June 2018, an anonymous online survey was posted to multiple social media sites (e.g., Facebook IRCSA groups) and sexual abuse resource sites. Survey responses were collected for a year. The survey collected non-identifying demographics, IRCSA experiences, and outcomes data. Results: We obtained 1310 completed surveys. Demographics of all ages, racial backgrounds, financial backgrounds, and genders were obtained; the majority identified as white (81%) and female (76%). Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) started before the age of 6 in 49% and was endured for more than one year in 84% of respondents, and 39% reported ten or more years of abuse. CSA by multiple perpetrators occurred in 58%, while 8% had ten or more perpetrators. CSA by perpetrators under 21 years old was reported by 46%. Female perpetrators were reported by 28% of respondents. Fathers were the highest reported sexual abusers at 60%, and mothers were reported at 17%. Only 16% reported that at least one of their perpetrators was prosecuted for sexual abuse of a minor. Respondents confirmed that 54% of the time, they informed an adult of the abuse; only 2% agreed that “an intervention was made by the family that protected me.” A majority reported that IRCSA has negatively impacted their intimate/sexual relationships (96%) and mental health (96%). A majority reported negative impacts on biological family relationships (88%), physical health (73%), finances (59%), educational achievement (57%), and employment (56%). When asked about suffering from addiction, 85% of respondents answered yes. Prevention strategies selected most by respondents include early school education around CSA prevention (67%), removing the statute of limitations for reporting CSA (69%), and improved laws protecting IRCSA survivors (63%). Conclusion: The data document that IRCSA can be pervasive, and the dearth of intervention and support for survivors have major lasting impacts. Survivors have a unique and valuable perspective on what interventions are needed to prevent IRCSA and support survivors; their voice has long been unheard in crafting prevention and intervention policies and services. These results thus provide an important call to action from these critical stakeholders. Pediatricians should recognize that perpetrators can be pediatric patients, women, and parents. Pediatricians can advocate for more early CSA prevention education and policy changes that remove the statute of limitations for reporting CSA.

Keywords: incest, childhood sexual abuse, incest-related childhood sexual abuse, incest survivor

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Authors: Colin Schmidt, Adrien Lecossier, Pascal Crubleau, Philippe Blanchard, Simon Richir

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Introduction:The widespread availability of artificial intelligence, exemplified by Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) relying on large language models (LLM), has caused a seismic shift in the realm of knowledge. Everyone now has the capacity to swiftly learn how these models can either serve them well or not. Today, conversational AI like ChatGPT is grounded in neural transformer models, a significant advance in natural language processing facilitated by the emergence of renowned LLMs constructed using neural transformer architecture. Inventiveness of an LLM : OpenAI's GPT-3 stands as a premier LLM, capable of handling a broad spectrum of natural language processing tasks without requiring fine-tuning, reliably producing text that reads as if authored by humans. However, even with an understanding of how LLMs respond to questions asked, there may be lurking behind OpenAI’s seemingly endless responses an inventive model yet to be uncovered. There may be some unforeseen reasoning emerging from the interconnection of neural networks here. Just as a Soviet researcher in the 1940s questioned the existence of Common factors in inventions, enabling an Under standing of how and according to what principles humans create them, it is equally legitimate today to explore whether solutions provided by LLMs to complex problems also share common denominators. Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) : We will revisit some fundamentals of TRIZ and how Genrich ALTSHULLER was inspired by the idea that inventions and innovations are essential means to solve societal problems. It's crucial to note that traditional problem-solving methods often fall short in discovering innovative solutions. The design team is frequently hampered by psychological barriers stemming from confinement within a highly specialized knowledge domain that is difficult to question. We presume ChatGPT Utilizes TRIZ 40. Hence, the objective of this research is to decipher the inventive model of LLMs, particularly that of ChatGPT, through a comparative study. This will enhance the efficiency of sustainable innovation processes and shed light on how the construction of a solution to a complex problem was devised. Description of the Experimental Protocol : To confirm or reject our main hypothesis that is to determine whether ChatGPT uses TRIZ, we will follow a stringent protocol that we will detail, drawing on insights from a panel of two TRIZ experts. Conclusion and Future Directions : In this endeavor, we sought to comprehend how an LLM like GPT addresses complex challenges. Our goal was to analyze the inventive model of responses provided by an LLM, specifically ChatGPT, by comparing it to an existing standard model: TRIZ 40. Of course, problem solving is our main focus in our endeavours.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, Triz, ChatGPT, inventiveness, problem-solving

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Authors: Yijie Wang, Tianyue Wang

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In the past two decades, there has been a great ‘piano lesson frenzy’ among Chinese middle-class families, with a large number of parents adding piano training to children’s extra-curriculum lists. Superficially, the frenzy reflects a rather ‘leisurely’ attitude: parents typically claim that pianos lessons are ‘just for fun’ and will hopefully render children’s life more exciting. However, a closer scrutiny reveals that there is great social-status anxiety hidden beneath this ‘leisurely’ surface. Based on pre-interviews of six Chinese middle-class parents who have enthusiastically signed their children up for piano lessons, several tentative analysis are made: 1. Owing to a series of historical and social factors, the Chinese middle-class have yet to establish their cultural norms in the past few decades, resulting in great confusion concerning how to cultivate cultural tastes in their offspring. And partly due to the fact that the middle-class status of the past Chinese generation is mostly self-acquired rather than inherited, parents are much less confident about their cultural resources—which require long-time accumulation—than material ones. Both factors combine to lead to a sort of blind, overcompensating enthusiasm in culture-related education, and the piano frenzy is but a demonstration. 2. The piano has been chosen to be the object of the frenzy partly because of its inherent characteristics as well as socially-constructed ones. Costly, large in size, imported from another culture and so forth, the piano has acquired the meaning of being exclusive, high-end and exotic, which renders it a token of top-tier status among Chinese people, and piano lessons for offspring have therefore become parents’ paths towards a kind of ‘symbolic elevation’. A child playing piano is an exhibition as well as psychological assurance of the families’ middle-class status. 3. A closer look at children’s piano training process reveals that there is much more anxiety than leisurely elements involved. Despite parents’ claim that ‘piano is mainly for kids to have fun,’ the whole process is evidently of a rather ‘ascetic’ nature, with the demands of diligence and senses of time urgency throughout, and techniques rather than flair or styles are emphasized. This either means that the apparent ‘piano-for-fun’ stance is unauthentic and is only other motives in disguise, or that the Chinese middle-class parents are not yet capable of shaking off the sense of anxiety even if they sincerely intend to. 4. When viewed in relation to Chinese formal school system as well as the job market at large, it can be said that by signing children up for piano lessons, parents are consciously or unconsciously seeking to prepare for, or reduce the risks of, their children’s future social mobility. In face of possible failures in the highly-crucial, highly-competitive formal school system, piano-playing as an extra-curriculum activity may be conveniently transferred into an alternative career path. Besides, in contemporary China, as the occupational structure goes through change, and the school-related certificates decline in value, aspects such as a person’s overall deportment, which can be gained or proved by piano-learning, have been gaining in significance.

Keywords: extra-curriculum activities, middle class, piano lesson frenzy, status anxiety

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Authors: Digdem M. Siyez, Bariscan Ozturk, Erol Esen, Ender Siyez, Yelda Kagnici, Bahar Baran

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Infertility is a reproductive disease identified with the absence of pregnancy after regular unprotected sexual intercourse that has been lasting for 12 months or more. Some of the factors that cause infertility, which has been considered as a social and societal issue since the first days of the humankind, are preventable. These are veneral diseases, age, the frequency of the intercourse and its timing, drug use, bodyweight, environmental and professional conditions. Having actual information about the reproductive health is essential to take protective and preventive measures, and it is accepted as the most effective way to reduce the rate of infertility. However, during the literature review, it has been observed that there are so few studies that focus on the prevention of the infertility. The aim of this study is to develop a psycho-education program to reduce infertility among university students and also to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. It is believed that this program will increase the information level about infertility among the university students, help them to adopt healthy attitudes, develop life skills, create awareness about the risk factors and also contribute to the literature. Throughout the study, first, the contents of sexual/reproductive health programs developed for university students were examined by the researches. Besides, “Views about Reproductive Health Psycho-education Program Survey” was developed and applied to 10221 university students from 21 universities. In accordance with the literature and the university students’ views about reproductive health psycho-education program consisting of 9 sessions each of which lasts for 90 minutes was developed. The pilot program was carried out with 16 volunteer undergraduate students attending to a state university. During the evaluation of the pilot study, at the end of each session “Session Evaluation Form” and at the end of the entire program “Program Evaluation Form” were administered to the participants. Besides, one week after the end of the program, a focus group with half of the group, and individual interviews with the rest were conducted. Based on the evaluations, it was determined that the session duration is enough, the teaching methods meet the expectation, the techniques applied are appropriate and clear, and the materials are adequate. Also, an extra session was added to psycho-education program based on the feedbacks of the participants. In order to evaluate program’s effectiveness, Solomon control group design will be used. According to this design, the research has 2 experiment groups and 2 control groups. The participants who voluntarily participated in the research after the announcement of the psycho-education program were divided into experiment and control groups. In the experiment 1 and control 1 groups, “Personal Information Test”, “Infertility Information Test” and “Infertility Attitude Scale”, “Self Identification Inventory” and “Melbourne Decision Scale” were administered as a preliminary test. Currently, at the present stage, psycho-education still continues. After this 10-week program, the same tests will be administered again as the post-tests. The decision upon which statistical method will be applied in the analysis will be made afterwards according to whether the data meets the presuppositions or not.

Keywords: infertility, prevention, psycho-education, reproductive health

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Authors: Chinwe Okpoko, Vivian Atasie

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One of the leading causes of death amongst women of child-bearing age in southeast Nigeria is pregnancy. Women in the reproductive age group die at a higher rate than men of the same age bracket. Furthermore, most maternal deaths occur among poor women who live in rural communities, and who generally fall within the low socio-economic group in society. Failure of policy makers and the media to create the strategic awareness and communication that conform with the sensibilities of this group account, in part, for the persistence of this malaise. Family planning (FP) is an essential component of safe motherhood, which is designed to ensure that women receive high-quality care to achieve an optimum level of health of mother and infant. The aim is to control the number of children a woman can give birth to and prevent maternal and child mortality and morbidity. This is what sustainable development goal (SDG) health target of World Health Organization (WHO) also strives to achieve. FP programmes reduce exposure to the risks of child-bearing. Indeed, most maternal deaths in the developing world can be prevented by fully investing simultaneously in FP and maternal and new-born care. Given the intrinsic value of communication in health care delivery, it is vital to adopt the most efficacious means of awareness creation and communication amongst rural women in FP. In a country where over 50% of her population resides in rural areas with attendant low-level profile standard of living, the need to communicate health information like FP through indigenous channels becomes pertinent. Interpersonal communication amongst family, friends, religious groups and other associations, is an efficacious means of communicating social issues in rural Africa. Communication in informal settings identifies with the values and social context of the recipients. This study therefore sought to determine the place of interpersonal communication on the knowledge of rural women on FP and how it influences uptake of FP. Descriptive survey design was used in the study, with interviewer administered questionnaire constituting the instrument for data collection. The questionnaire was administered on 385 women from rural communities in southeast Nigeria. The results show that majority (58.5%) of the respondents agreed that interpersonal communication helps women understand how to plan their family size. Many rural women (82%) prefer the short term natural method to the more effective modern contraceptive methods (38.1%). Husbands’ approval of FP, as indicated in the Mean response of 2.56, is a major factor that accounts for the adoption of FP messages among rural women. Socio-demographic data also reveal that educational attainment and/or exposure influenced women’s acceptance or otherwise of FP messages. The study, therefore, recommends amongst others, the targeting of husbands in subsequent FP communication interventions, since they play major role on contraceptive usage.

Keywords: family planning, interpersonal communication, interpersonal interaction, traditional communication

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Authors: Marina Karaseva

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The beginning of our century became a new digital epoch in the educational situation. Last decade the newest stage of this process had been initialized by the touch-screen mobile devices with program applications for them. The touch possibilities for learning fundamentals of music are of especially importance for music majors. The phenomenon of touching, firstly, makes it realistic to play on the screen as on music instrument, secondly, helps students to learn music theory while listening in its sound elements by music ear. Nowadays we can detect several levels of such mobile applications: from the basic ones devoting to the elementary music training such as intervals and chords recognition, to the more advanced applications which deal with music perception of non-major and minor modes, ethnic timbres, and complicated rhythms. The main purpose of the proposed paper is to disclose the main tendencies in this process and to demonstrate the most innovative features of music theory applications on the base of iOS and Android systems as the most common used. Methodological recommendations how to use these digital material musicologically will be done for the professional music education of different levels. These recommendations are based on more than ten year ‘iTheory’ teaching experience of the author. In this paper, we try to logically classify all types of ‘iTheory’mobile applications into several groups, according to their methodological goals. General concepts given below will be demonstrated in concrete examples. The most numerous group of programs is formed with simulators for studying notes with audio-visual links. There are link-pair types as follows: sound — musical notation which may be used as flashcards for studying words and letters, sound — key, sound — string (basically, guitar’s). The second large group of programs is programs-tests containing a game component. As a rule, their basis is made with exercises on ear identification and reconstruction by voice: sounds and intervals on their sounding — harmonical and melodical, music modes, rhythmic patterns, chords, selected instrumental timbres. Some programs are aimed at an establishment of acoustical communications between concepts of the musical theory and their musical embodiments. There are also programs focused on progress of operative musical memory (with repeating of sounding phrases and their transposing in a new pitch), as well as on perfect pitch training In addition a number of programs improvisation skills have been developed. An absolute pitch-system of solmisation is a common base for mobile programs. However, it is possible to find also the programs focused on the relative pitch system of solfegе. In App Store and Google Play Market online store there are also many free programs-simulators of musical instruments — piano, guitars, celesta, violin, organ. These programs may be effective for individual and group exercises in ear training or composition classes. Great variety and good sound quality of these programs give now a unique opportunity to musicians to master their music abilities in a shorter time. That is why such teaching material may be a way to effective study of music theory.

Keywords: ear training, innovation in music education, music theory, mobile devices

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Authors: Richard Harrison

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Developing competency in mathematics and related critical thinking skills is essential to the education of undergraduate students of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Recently, the HE sector has been impacted by a seemingly widening disconnect between the mathematical competency of incoming first-year STEM students and their entrance qualification tariffs. Despite relatively high grades in A-Level Mathematics, students may initially lack fundamental skills in key areas such as algebraic manipulation and have limited capacity to apply problem solving strategies. Compounded by compensatory measures applied to entrance qualifications during the pandemic, there has been an associated decline in student performance on introductory university mathematics modules. In the UK, a number of online resources have been developed to help scaffold the transition to university mathematics. However, in general, these do not offer a structured learning journey focused on individual developmental needs, nor do they offer an experience coherent with the teaching and learning characteristics of the destination institution. In order to address some of these issues, a bespoke framework has been designed and implemented on our VLE in the Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (FEPS) at the University of Surrey. Called the FEPS Maths Support Framework, it was conceived to scaffold the mathematical development of individuals prior to entering the university and during the early stages of their transition to undergraduate studies. More than 90% of our incoming STEM students voluntarily participate in the process. Students complete a set of initial diagnostic questions in the late summer. Based on their performance and feedback on these questions, they are subsequently guided to self-select specific mathematical topic areas for review using our proprietary resources. This further assists students in preparing for discipline related diagnostic tests. The framework helps to identify students who are mathematically weak and facilitates early intervention to support students according to their specific developmental needs. This paper presents a summary of results from a rich data set captured from the framework over a 3-year period. Quantitative data provides evidence that students have engaged and developed during the process. This is further supported by process evaluation feedback from the students. Ranked performance data associated with seven key mathematical topic areas and eight engineering and science discipline areas reveals interesting patterns which can be used to identify more generic relative capabilities of the discipline area cohorts. In turn, this facilitates evidence based management of the mathematical development of the new cohort, informing any associated adjustments to teaching and learning at a more holistic level. Evidence is presented establishing our framework as an effective early intervention strategy for addressing the sector-wide issue of supporting the mathematical development of STEM students transitioning to HE

Keywords: competency, development, intervention, scaffolding

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Authors: Anna Costanza Russo, Daniele Landi, Michele Germani

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Nowadays, the European Ecodesign Directive has emerged as a new approach to integrate environmental concerns into the product design and related processes. Ecodesign aims to minimize environmental impacts throughout the product life cycle, without compromising performances and costs. In addition, the recent Ecodesign Directives require products which are increasingly eco-friendly and eco-efficient, preserving high-performances. It is very important for producers measuring performances, for electric cooking ranges, hobs, ovens, and grills for household use, and a low power consumption of appliances represents a powerful selling point, also in terms of ecodesign requirements. The Ecodesign Directive provides a clear framework about the sustainable design of products and it has been extended in 2009 to all energy-related products, or products with an impact on energy consumption during the use. The European Regulation establishes measures of ecodesign of ovens, hobs, and kitchen hoods, and domestic use and energy efficiency of a product has a significant environmental aspect in the use phase which is the most impactful in the life cycle. It is important that the product parameters and performances are not affected by ecodesign requirements from a user’s point of view, and the benefits of reducing energy consumption in the use phase should offset the possible environmental impact in the production stage. Accurate measurements of cooking appliance performance are essential to help the industry to produce more energy efficient appliances. The development of ecodriven products requires ecoinnovation and ecodesign tools to support the sustainability improvement. The ecodesign tools should be practical and focused on specific ecoobjectives in order to be largely diffused. The main scope of this paper is the development, implementation, and testing of an innovative tool, which could be an improvement for the sustainable design of induction hobs. In particular, a prototypical software tool is developed in order to simulate the energy performances of the induction hobs. The tool is focused on a multiphysics model which is able to simulate the energy performances and the efficiency of induction hobs starting from the design data. The multiphysics model is composed by an electromagnetic simulation and a thermal simulation. The electromagnetic simulation is able to calculate the eddy current induced in the pot, which leads to the Joule heating of material. The thermal simulation is able to measure the energy consumption during the operational phase. The Joule heating caused from the eddy currents is the output of electromagnetic simulation and the input of thermal ones. The aims of the paper are the development of integrated tools and methodologies of virtual prototyping in the context of the ecodesign. This tool could be a revolutionary instrument in the field of industrial engineering and it gives consideration to the environmental aspects of product design and focus on the ecodesign of energy-related products, in order to achieve a reduced environmental impact.

Keywords: ecodesign, energy efficiency, induction hobs, virtual prototyping

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Authors: Roberta Martino, Viviana Ventre

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Empirical evidence has, over time, confirmed that the behavior of individuals is inconsistent with the descriptions provided by the Discounted Utility Model, an essential reference for calculating the utility of intertemporal prospects. The model assumes that individuals calculate the utility of intertemporal prospectuses by adding up the values of all outcomes obtained by multiplying the cardinal utility of the outcome by the discount function estimated at the time the outcome is received. The trend of the discount function is crucial for the preferences of the decision maker because it represents the perception of the future, and its trend causes temporally consistent or temporally inconsistent preferences. In particular, because different formulations of the discount function lead to various conclusions in predicting choice, the descriptive ability of models with a hyperbolic trend is greater than linear or exponential models. Suboptimal choices from any time point of view are the consequence of this mechanism, the psychological factors of which are encapsulated in the discount rate trend. In addition, analyzing the decision-making process from a psychological perspective, there is an equivalence between the selection of dominated prospects and a degree of impatience that decreases over time. The first part of the paper describes and investigates the anomalies of the discounted utility model by relating the cognitive distortions of the decision-maker to the emotional factors that are generated during the evaluation and selection of alternatives. Specifically, by studying the degree to which impatience decreases, it’s possible to quantify how the psychological and emotional mechanisms of the decision-maker result in a lack of decision persistence. In addition, this description presents inconsistency as the consequence of an inconsistent attitude towards time-delayed choices. The second part of the paper presents an experimental phase in which we show the relationship between inconsistency and impatience in different contexts. Analysis of the degree to which impatience decreases confirms the influence of the decision maker's emotional impulses for each anomaly in the utility model discussed in the first part of the paper. This work provides an application in the field of personalized behavioral finance. Indeed, the numerous behavioral diversities, evident even in the degrees of decrease in impatience in the experimental phase, support the idea that optimal strategies may not satisfy individuals in the same way. With the aim of homogenizing the categories of investors and to provide a personalized approach to advice, the results proven in the experimental phase are used in a complementary way with the information in the field of behavioral finance to implement the Analytical Hierarchy Process model in intertemporal choices, useful for strategic personalization. In the construction of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, the degree of decrease in impatience is understood as reflecting irrationality in decision-making and is therefore used for the construction of weights between anomalies and behavioral traits.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, behavioral finance, financial anomalies, impatience, time inconsistency

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Authors: Ting-I Lin

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Objective: This article explores the nursing care experience of a 51-year-old terminal lung cancer patient admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) following an upper right lobectomy. The patient initially sought emergency treatment due to worsening cough and dyspnea, which led to the placement of an endotracheal tube following sudden deterioration. Subsequent CT scans and chest X-rays revealed a tumor in the upper right lung with metastases to the lungs, liver, bones, and adrenal glands. The patient underwent a right upper lobectomy and a wedge resection of the right middle lobe. Pathology staging: T4N3M1c and the patient was diagnosed with advanced cancer postoperatively. Method: During the care period, nursing staff continuously monitored the patient’s physiological data through observations, direct care, interviews, physical assessments, and review of the patient’s medical records. The nursing team collaborated with the critical care team and the palliative care team, using Gordon's Eleven Functional Health Patterns to conduct a comprehensive assessment. The key health problems identified included pain related to postoperative cancer resection and invasive devices, fear of death due to rapid disease progression, and altered tissue perfusion associated with hemodynamic instability. Results: Postoperatively, the patient experienced pain from the surgical wound and dyspnea due to extensive metastasis, often leading to confusion. Through the adjustment of pain medication, the patient’s discomfort was alleviated, using Morphine 8 mg in 0.9% normal saline 60 ml IV drip q6h prn, and Ultracet 37.5 mg/325 mg 1# PO q6h. Additionally, lavender essential oil inhalation and limb massage were provided for 15 minutes four times a day. The patient’s FLACC pain score decreased from 7 to below 3. After respiratory training, the endotracheal tube was successfully removed, and the patient was weaned off the ventilator. Triflow exercises were used to promote alveolar expansion, with the goal of achieving 2 balls for 10 seconds, 5 repetitions per session, 6-8 times a day. The patient’s breathing stabilized at 16-18 breaths per minute, body temperature remained between 35.8°C and 36.1°C, and the mean arterial pressure was maintained between 60-80 mmHg. Conclusion: The critical care team and the palliative care team held a family meeting to discuss not only the patient’s care but also the emotional well-being of the family. Visiting hours were increased to two times per day, one hour each time, allowing the patient and family to express love and gratitude, which strengthened their emotional connection and reduced the patient’s anxiety from severe to mild. The family expressed that they had no regrets. After the patient was transferred to the general ward, the nursing team continued to provide end-of-life care with genuine empathy, compassion, and religious support, helping both the patient and family through the final stage of life.

Keywords: multiple metastases, lung cancer, palliative care, nursing experience

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Authors: A. F. G. Van Woezik, L. M. A. Braakman-Jansen, O. A. Kulyk, J. E. W. C. Van Gemert-Pijnen

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Background: Zoonoses pose a serious threat to public health and economies worldwide, especially as antimicrobial resistance grows and newly emerging zoonoses can cause unpredictable outbreaks. In order to prevent and control emerging and re-emerging zoonoses, collaboration between veterinary, human health and public health domains is essential. In reality however, there is a lack of cooperation between these three disciplines and uncertainties exist about their tasks and responsibilities. The objective of this ongoing research project (ZonMw funded, 2014-2018) is to develop an online education and communication One Health platform, “eZoon”, for the general public and professionals working in veterinary, human health and public health domains to support the risk communication of non-alimentary zoonoses in the Netherlands. The main focus is on education and communication in times of outbreak as well as in daily non-outbreak situations. Methods: A participatory development approach was used in which stakeholders from veterinary, human health and public health domains participated. Key stakeholders were identified using business modeling techniques previously used for the design and implementation of antibiotic stewardship interventions and consisted of a literature scan, expert recommendations, and snowball sampling. We used a stakeholder salience approach to rank stakeholders according to their power, legitimacy, and urgency. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders (N=20) from all three disciplines to identify current problems in risk communication and stakeholder values for the One Health platform. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded inductively by two researchers. Results: The following key values were identified (but were not limited to): (a) need for improved awareness of veterinary and human health of each other’s fields, (b) information exchange between veterinary and human health, in particularly at a regional level; (c) legal regulations need to match with daily practice; (d) professionals and general public need to be addressed separately using tailored language and information; (e) information needs to be of value to professionals (relevant, important, accurate, and have financial or other important consequences if ignored) in order to be picked up; and (f) need for accurate information from trustworthy, centrally organised sources to inform the general public. Conclusion: By applying a participatory development approach, we gained insights from multiple perspectives into the main problems of current risk communication strategies in the Netherlands and stakeholder values. Next, we will continue the iterative development of the One Health platform by presenting key values to stakeholders for validation and ranking, which will guide further development. We will develop a communication platform with a serious game in which professionals at the regional level will be trained in shared decision making in time-critical outbreak situations, a smart Question & Answer (Q&A) system for the general public tailored towards different user profiles, and social media to inform the general public adequately during outbreaks.

Keywords: ehealth, one health, risk communication, stakeholder, zoonosis

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Authors: Alexis D'Agostino, Amanda Pomeroy

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Background: Resource availability is essential to effective implementation of national nutrition policies. To this end, the SPRING Project has collected and analyzed budget data from government ministries in Uganda, international donors, and other nutrition implementers to provide data for the first time on what funding is actually allocated to implement nutrition activities named in the national nutrition plan. Methodology: USAID’s SPRING Project used the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (UNAP) as the starting point for budget analysis. Thorough desk reviews of public budgets from government, donors, and NGOs were mapped to activities named in the UNAP and validated by key informants (KIs) across the stakeholder groups. By relying on nationally-recognized and locally-created documents, SPRING provided a familiar basis for discussions to increase credibility and local ownership of findings. Among other things, the KIs validated the amount, source, and type (specific or sensitive) of funding. When only high-level budget data were available, KIs provided rough estimates of the percentage of allocations that were actually nutrition-relevant, allowing creation of confidence intervals around some funding estimates. Results: After validating data and narrowing in on estimates of funding to nutrition-relevant programming, researchers applied a formula to estimate overall nutrition allocations. In line with guidance by the SUN Movement and its three-step process, nutrition-specific funding was counted at 100% of its allocation amount, while nutrition sensitive funding was counted at 25%. The vast majority of nutrition funding in Uganda is off-budget, with over 90 percent of all nutrition funding is provided outside of the government system. Overall allocations are split nearly evenly between nutrition-specific and –sensitive activities. In FY 2013/14, the two-year study’s baseline year, on- and off-budget funding for nutrition was estimated to be around 60 million USD. While the 60 million USD allocations compare favorably to the 66 million USD estimate of the cost of the UNAP, not all activities are sufficiently funded. Those activities with a focus on behavior change were the most underfunded. In addition, accompanying qualitative research suggested that donor funding for nutrition activities may shift government funding into other areas of work, making it difficult to estimate the sustainability of current nutrition investments.Conclusions: Beyond providing figures, these estimates can be used together with the qualitative results of the study to explain how and why these amounts were allocated for particular activities and not others, examine the negotiation process that occurred, and suggest options for improving the flow of finances to UNAP activities for the remainder of the policy tenure. By the end of the PBN study, several years of nutrition budget estimates will be available to compare changes in funding over time. Halfway through SPRING’s work, there is evidence that country stakeholders have begun to feel ownership over the ultimate findings and some ministries are requesting increased technical assistance in nutrition budgeting. Ultimately, these data can be used within organization to advocate for more and improved nutrition funding and to improve targeting of nutrition allocations.

Keywords: budget, nutrition, financing, scale-up

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Authors: Patrick Louie Robles, Jerry Suls, Ciaran Friel, Mark Butler, Samantha Gordon, Frank Vicari, Joan Duer-Hefele, Karina W. Davidson

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Physical activity guidelines focus on increasing moderate-intensity activity for older adults, but adherence to recommendations remains low. This is despite the fact that scientific evidence finds increasing physical activity is positively associated with health benefits. Behavior change techniques (BCTs) have demonstrated some effectiveness in reducing sedentary behavior and promoting physical activity. This pilot study uses a personalized trials (N-of-1) design, delivered virtually, to evaluate the efficacy of using five BCTs in increasing low-intensity physical activity (by 2,000 steps of walking per day) in adults aged 45-75 years old. The 5 BCTs described in habit formation theory are goal setting, action planning, rehearsal, rehearsal in a consistent context, and self-monitoring. The study recruited health system employees in the target age range who had no mobility restrictions and expressed interest in increasing their daily activity by a minimum of 2,000 steps per day at least five days per week. Participants were sent a Fitbit Charge 4 fitness tracker with an established study account and password. Participants were recommended to wear the Fitbit device 24/7 but were required to wear it for a minimum of ten hours per day. Baseline physical activity was measured by Fitbit for two weeks. Participants then engaged remotely with a clinical research coordinator to establish a “walking plan” that included a time and day interval (e.g., between 7am -8am on Monday-Friday), a location for the walk (e.g., park), and how much time the plan would need to achieve a minimum of 2,000 steps over their baseline average step count (20 minutes). All elements of the walking plan were required to remain consistent throughout the study. In the 10-week intervention phase of the study, participants received all five BCTs in a single, time-sensitive text message. The text message was delivered 30 minutes prior to the established walk time and signaled participants to begin walking when the context (i.e., day of the week, time of day) they pre-selected is encountered. Participants were asked to log both the start and conclusion of their activity session by pressing a button on the Fitbit tracker. Within 30 minutes of the planned conclusion of the activity session, participants received a text message with a link to a secure survey. Here, they noted whether they engaged in the BCTs when prompted and completed an automaticity survey to identify how “automatic” their walking behavior had become. At the end of their trial, participants received a personalized summary of their step data over time, helping them learn more about their responses to the five BCTs. Whether the use of these 5 ‘habit formation’ BCTs in combination elicits a change in physical activity behavior among older adults will be reported. This study will inform the feasibility of a virtually-delivered N-of-1 study design to effectively promote physical activity as a component of healthy aging.

Keywords: aging, exercise, habit, walking

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Authors: Emre Basturk, Memet Vezir Kahraman

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In many developing countries, with the rapid economic improvements, energy shortage and environmental issues have become a serious problem. Therefore, it has become a very critical issue to improve energy usage efficiency and also protect the environment. Thermal energy storage system is an essential approach to match the thermal energy claim and supply. Thermal energy can be stored by heating, cooling or melting a material with the energy and then enhancing accessible when the procedure is reversed. The overall thermal energy storage techniques are sorted as; latent heat or sensible heat thermal energy storage technology segments. Among these methods, latent heat storage is the most effective method of collecting thermal energy. Latent heat thermal energy storage depend on the storage material, emitting or discharging heat as it undergoes a solid to liquid, solid to solid or liquid to gas phase change or vice versa. Phase change materials (PCMs) are promising materials for latent heat storage applications due to their capacities to accumulate high latent heat storage per unit volume by phase change at an almost constant temperature. Phase change materials (PCMs) are being utilized to absorb, collect and discharge thermal energy during the cycle of melting and freezing, converting from one phase to another. Phase Change Materials (PCMs) can generally be arranged into three classes: organic materials, salt hydrates and eutectics. Many kinds of organic and inorganic PCMs and their blends have been examined as latent heat storage materials. Organic PCMs are rather expensive and they have average latent heat storage per unit volume and also have low density. Most organic PCMs are combustible in nature and also have a wide range of melting point. Organic PCMs can be categorized into two major categories: non-paraffinic and paraffin materials. Paraffin materials have been extensively used, due to their high latent heat and right thermal characteristics, such as minimal super cooling, varying phase change temperature, low vapor pressure while melting, good chemical and thermal stability, and self-nucleating behavior. Ultraviolet (UV)-curing technology has been generally used because it has many advantages, such as low energy consumption , high speed, high chemical stability, room-temperature operation, low processing costs and environmental friendly. For many years, PCMs have been used for heating and cooling industrial applications including textiles, refrigerators, construction, transportation packaging for temperature-sensitive products, a few solar energy based systems, biomedical and electronic materials. In this study, UV-curable, fatty alcohol containing soybean oil based phase change materials (PCMs) were obtained and characterized. The phase transition behaviors and thermal stability of the prepared UV-cured biobased PCMs were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The heating process phase change enthalpy is measured between 30 and 68 J/g, and the freezing process phase change enthalpy is found between 18 and 70 J/g. The decomposition of UVcured PCMs started at 260 ºC and reached a maximum of 430 ºC.

Keywords: fatty alcohol, phase change material, thermal energy storage, UV curing

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Authors: Pantana Tor-Ngern

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In the global water cycle, tree water use (Tr) largely contributes to evapotranspiration which is the total amount of water evaporated from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere, regulating climates. Tree water use responds to environmental factors, including atmospheric humidity and sunlight (represented by vapor pressure deficit or VPD and photosynthetically active radiation or PAR, respectively) and soil moisture. In forests, Tr responses to such factors depend on species and their spatial and temporal variations. Tropical forests in Southeast Asia (SEA) have experienced land-use conversion from abandoned agricultural practices, resulting in patches of forests at different stages including old-growth and secondary forests. Because the inherent structures, such as canopy height and tree density, significantly vary among forests at different stages and can strongly affect their respective microclimate, Tr and its responses to changing environmental conditions in successional forests may differ. Daily and seasonal variations in the environmental factors may exert significant impacts on the respective Tr patterns. Extrapolating Tr data from short periods of days to longer periods of seasons or years can be complex and is important for estimating long-term ecosystem water use which often includes normal and abnormal climatic conditions. Thus, this study aims to investigate the diurnal variation of Tr, using measured sap flux density (JS) data, with changes in VPD in eight evergreen tree species in an old-growth forest (hereafter OF; >200 years old) and a young forest (hereafter YF, <10 years old) in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. The studied species included Sysygium syzygoides, Aquilaria crassna, Cinnamomum subavenium, Nephelium melliferum, Altingia excelsa in OF, and Syzygium nervosum and Adinandra integerrima in YF. Only Sysygium antisepticum was found in both forest stages. Specifically, hysteresis, which indicates the asymmetrical changes of JS in response to changing VPD across daily timescale, was examined in these species. Results showed no hysteresis in all species in OF, except Altingia excelsa which exhibited a 3-hour delayed JS response to VPD. In contrast, JS of all species in YF displayed one-hour delayed responses to VPD. The OF species that showed no hysteresis indicated their well-coupling of their canopies with the atmosphere, facilitating the gas exchange which is essential for tree growth. The delayed responses in Altingia excelsa in OF and all species in YF were associated with higher JS in the morning than that in the afternoon. This implies that these species were sensitive to drying air, closing stomata relatively rapidly compared to the decreasing atmospheric humidity (VPD). Such behavior is often observed in trees growing in dry environments. This study suggests that detailed investigation of JS at sub-daily timescales is imperative for better understanding of mechanistic responses of trees to the changing climate, which will benefit the improvement of earth system models.

Keywords: sap flow, tropical forest, forest succession, thermal dissipcation probe

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Authors: A. Kourou, S. Kyriakopoulos, N. Anyfanti

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A lot of children under the age of five spend their daytime hours away from their home, in a kindergarten. Caring for children is a serious subject, and their safety in case of earthquake is the first priority. Being aware of earthquakes helps to prioritize the needs and take the appropriate actions to limit the effects. Earthquakes occurring anywhere at any time require emergency planning. Earthquake planning is a cooperative effort and childcare providers have unique roles and responsibilities. Greece has high seismicity and Ionian Islands Region has the highest seismic activity of the country. The last five years Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (EPPO), which is a national organization, has analyzed the needs and requirements of kindergartens on earthquake protection issues. In this framework it has been noticed that although the State requires child care centers to hold drills, the standards for emergency preparedness in these centers are varied, and a lot of them had not written plans for emergencies. For these reasons, EPPO supports the development of emergency planning guidance and familiarizes the day care centers’ staff being prepared for earthquakes. Furthermore, the Handbook on Day Care Earthquake Planning that has been developed by EPPO helps the providers to understand that emergency planning is essential to risk reduction. Preparedness and training should be ongoing processes, thus EPPO implements every year dozens of specific seminars on children’s disaster related needs. This research presents the results of a survey that detects the level of earthquake preparedness of kindergartens in all over the country and Ionian Islands too. A closed-form questionnaire of 20 main questions was developed for the survey in order to detect the aspects of participants concerning the earthquake preparedness actions at individual, family and day care environment level. 2668 questionnaires were gathered from March 2014 to May 2019, and analyzed by EPPO’s Department of Education. Moreover, this paper presents the EPPO’s educational activities targeted to the Ionian Islands Region that implemented in the framework of “Telemachus” Project. To provide safe environment for children to learn, and staff to work is the foremost goal of any State, community and kindergarten. This project is funded under the Priority Axis "Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development" of Operational Plan "Ionian Islands 2014-2020". It is increasingly accepted that emergency preparedness should be thought of as an ongoing process rather than a one-time activity. Creating an earthquake safe daycare environment that facilitates learning is a challenging task. Training, drills, and update of emergency plan should take place throughout the year at kindergartens to identify any gaps and to ensure the emergency procedures. EPPO will continue to work closely with regional and local authorities to actively address the needs of children and kindergartens before, during and after earthquakes.

Keywords: child care centers, education on earthquake, emergency planning, kindergartens, Ionian Islands Region of Greece

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Alexander Suuk Laar, Emmanuel Bekyieriya, Sylvester Isang, Benjamin Baguune

Abstract:

Introduction: In Ghana, despite the implementation of strategies and initiatives to ensure universal access to reproductive health and family planning (FP) services for the past two decades, interventions have not adequately addressed the access and utilization needs of women of reproductive age, especially in rural Ghana. To improve access and use of reproductive and maternal health services in Ghana, a free maternal care exemption policy under the universal health coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme was implemented in 2005. Despite the importance of FP, this service was left out of the benefit package of the policy. Low or no use of FP services is often associated with poor health among women. However, to date, there has been limited research on perspectives of women for not making FP services as part of the benefit package of the free maternal health services. This qualitative study explored perceptions of women on the comprehensiveness of the free maternal health benefit package and the effects on utilisation of services in the rural Upper West region of Ghana to improve services. Methods: This exploratory qualitative study used focus group discussions with pregnant and lactating women in three rural districts in the Upper West region of Ghana. Six focus groups were held with both pregnant women and lactating mothers at the time of the interview. Three focus group discussions were organised with the same category of women in each district. We used a purposive sampling procedure to select the participants from the districts. The interviews with the written consent of the participants lasted between 60 minutes and 120 minutes. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke thematic framework guidelines. Results: This research presents an in-depth account of women's perceptions on the effects associated with the uptake of FP services and its exclusion from the benefit package of the free maternal health policy. Our study found that participants did not support the exclusion of FP services in the benefit package. Participants mentioned factors hampering their access to and use of FP and contraceptive services to include the cost of services, distance and cost of transport to health facilities, lack of knowledge about FP services, socio-cultural norms and negative attitude of healthcare professionals. Participants are of the view that making FP services part of the benefit package could have addressed the cost aspect of services which act as the main barrier to improve the use of services by poor rural women. Conclusion: Women of reproductive age face cost barriers that limit their access to and use of FP and contraception services in the rural Upper West region of Ghana and need health policymakers to revise the free maternal health package to include FP services. It is essential for policymakers to begin considering revising the free maternal health policy benefit package to include FP services to help address the cost barrier for rural poor women to use services.

Keywords: benefit package, free maternal policy, women, Ghana, rural Upper West Region, Universal Health Coverage.

Procedia PDF Downloads 233

Authors: Bulama Alhaji Alhassan, Roselyn Odeh, Rakiya Idris Labaran, Dorcas Yemi Danladi, Faith Ochonu

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Introduction: Contraceptive use has numerous health benefits such as preventing unplanned pregnancies thereby supporting women to achieve their life goals, maintaining the ideal amount of time between pregnancies, lowering the death rate for both mothers and children and generally enhancing the lives of women and children. Despite the numerous advantages of modern contraception and numerous initiatives by the government and development partners to promote its adoption, Nigeria's use of these methods has remained persistently low. Counseling about contraception is essential to providing high-quality treatment ensuring informed choice, and voluntarism for family planning is the key. The goal of the contraceptive counseling approach known as Counseling for Choice (C4C) is to ensure that people have the agency and voice to choose the contraceptive methods that best suit their requirements by altering the way both clients and providers engage in family planning counseling sessions. Aim: To evaluate the effect of counseling for choice on Modern Contraceptive adoption and continuation among married adolescent girls aged 15-19 years in 61 health facilities, within a 6-month period in Northern Nigeria. Methodology: Data from the NDHIS was obtained from selected facilities Pre & Post commencement of C4C intervention from 36 facilities Kaduna and 25 Nasarawa Matasan Matan Arewa (MMA) core implementation states putting into consideration the specific period of initiation of intervention, six months after deployment of the C4C, data was obtained from these facilities for post analysis. Data was analyzed on SPSS using paired sample t-test. Result: C4C resulted to improved access to FP services via increasing contraceptive adoption and continued used by 15% and 27% respectively (p<0.05) in Nasarawa state. While in Kaduna state we observed 11% and 28% improvement in adoption and continued use respectively as well with statistical significance (p<0.05) depicting that the increase is highly correlated (0.99 Nasarawa and 0.75 Kaduna) with the C4C intervention where the provider uses the NORMAL AND 3Ws Rubric to explain to the client in a simplified manner what to do with chosen method, what to expect with her method of adoption and when to return for a refill. Conclusion: In Northern Nigeria, it was observed that most clients discontinue their methods due to bleeding side effect and that was related to lack of appropriate and comprehensive information during counselling about what to expect with the clients method of adoption but with the intervention of the program, through capacity strengthening of PHC providers on counselling skills using the Counselling for Choice, it has helped to improve modern contraceptive uptake among young married women in northern Nigeria.

Keywords: continuation, counselling, uptake, adolescent, modern & implementation

Procedia PDF Downloads 73

Authors: Robert Pečenko, Karin Tomažič, Igor Planinc, Sabina Huč, Tomaž Hozjan

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Timber is favourable structural material due to high strength to weight ratio, recycling possibilities, and green credentials. Despite being flammable material, it has relatively high fire resistance. Everyday engineering practice around the word is based on an outdated design of timber structures considering standard fire exposure, while modern principles of performance-based design enable use of advanced non-standard fire curves. In Europe, standard for fire design of timber structures EN 1995-1-2 (Eurocode 5) gives two methods, reduced material properties method and reduced cross-section method. In the latter, fire resistance of structural elements depends on the effective cross-section that is a residual cross-section of uncharred timber reduced additionally by so called zero strength layer. In case of standard fire exposure, Eurocode 5 gives a fixed value of zero strength layer, i.e. 7 mm, while for non-standard parametric fires no additional comments or recommendations for zero strength layer are given. Thus designers often implement adopted 7 mm rule also for parametric fire exposure. Since the latest scientific evidence suggests that proposed value of zero strength layer can be on unsafe side for standard fire exposure, its use in the case of a parametric fire is also highly questionable and more numerical and experimental research in this field is needed. Therefore, the purpose of the presented study is to use advanced calculation methods to investigate the thickness of zero strength layer and parametric charring rates used in effective cross-section method in case of parametric fire. Parametric studies are carried out on a simple solid timber beam that is exposed to a larger number of parametric fire curves Zero strength layer and charring rates are determined based on the numerical simulations which are performed by the recently developed advanced two step computational model. The first step comprises of hygro-thermal model which predicts the temperature, moisture and char depth development and takes into account different initial moisture states of timber. In the second step, the response of timber beam simultaneously exposed to mechanical and fire load is determined. The mechanical model is based on the Reissner’s kinematically exact beam model and accounts for the membrane, shear and flexural deformations of the beam. Further on, material non-linear and temperature dependent behaviour is considered. In the two step model, the char front temperature is, according to Eurocode 5, assumed to have a fixed temperature of around 300°C. Based on performed study and observations, improved levels of charring rates and new thickness of zero strength layer in case of parametric fires are determined. Thus, the reduced cross section method is substantially improved to offer practical recommendations for designing fire resistance of timber structures. Furthermore, correlations between zero strength layer thickness and key input parameters of the parametric fire curve (for instance, opening factor, fire load, etc.) are given, representing a guideline for a more detailed numerical and also experimental research in the future.

Keywords: advanced numerical modelling, parametric fire exposure, timber structures, zero strength layer

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Masoud Mirzaee, Ghobad Behzadi Pour

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An aircraft tire is designed to tolerate extremely heavy loads for a short duration. The number of tires increases with the weight of the aircraft, as it is needed to be distributed more evenly. Generally, aircraft tires work at high pressure, up to 200 psi (14 bar; 1,400 kPa) for airliners and higher for business jets. Tire assemblies for most aircraft categories provide a recommendation of compressed nitrogen that supports the aircraft’s weight on the ground, including a mechanism for controlling the aircraft during taxi, takeoff; landing; and traction for braking. Accurate tire pressure is a key factor that enables tire assemblies to perform reliably under high static and dynamic loads. Concerning ambient temperature change, considering the condition in which the temperature between the origin and destination airport was different, tire pressure should be adjusted and inflated to the specified operating pressure at the colder airport. This adjustment superseding the normal tire over an inflation limit of 5 percent at constant ambient temperature is required because the inflation pressure remains constant to support the load of a specified aircraft configuration. On the other hand, without this adjustment, a tire assembly would be significantly under/over-inflated at the destination. Due to an increase of human errors in the aviation industry, exorbitant costs are imposed on the airlines for providing consumable parts such as aircraft tires. The existence of an intelligent system to adjust the aircraft tire pressure based on weight, load, temperature, and weather conditions of origin and destination airports, could have a significant effect on reducing the aircraft maintenance costs, aircraft fuel and further improving the environmental issues related to the air pollution. An intelligent tire pressure regulation system (ITPRS) contains a processing computer, a nitrogen bottle with 1800 psi, and distribution lines. Nitrogen bottle’s inlet and outlet valves are installed in the main wheel landing gear’s area and are connected through nitrogen lines to main wheels and nose wheels assy. Controlling and monitoring of nitrogen will be performed by a computer, which is adjusted according to the calculations of received parameters, including the temperature of origin and destination airport, the weight of cargo loads and passengers, fuel quantity, and wind direction. Correct tire inflation and deflation are essential in assuring that tires can withstand the centrifugal forces and heat of normal operations, with an adequate margin of safety for unusual operating conditions such as rejected takeoff and hard landings. ITPRS will increase the performance of the aircraft in all phases of takeoff, landing, and taxi. Moreover, this system will reduce human errors, consumption materials, and stresses imposed on the aircraft body.

Keywords: avionic system, improve efficiency, ITPRS, human error, reduced cost, tire pressure

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: Takoua Soltani, Imen Soltani, Taoufik Aguili

Abstract:

The communications' and radar systems' demands give rise to new developments in the domain of active integrated antennas (AIA) and arrays. The main advantages of AIA arrays are the simplicity of fabrication, low cost of manufacturing, and the combination between free space power and the scanner without a phase shifter. The integrated active antenna modeling is the coupling between the electromagnetic model and the transport model that will be affected in the high frequencies. Global modeling of active circuits is important for simulating EM coupling, interaction between active devices and the EM waves, and the effects of EM radiation on active and passive components. The current review focuses on the modeling of the active element which is a MESFET transistor immersed in a rectangular waveguide. The proposed EM analysis is based on the Method of Moments combined with the Generalised Equivalent Circuit method (MOM-GEC). The Method of Moments which is the most common and powerful software as numerical techniques have been used in resolving the electromagnetic problems. In the class of numerical techniques, MOM is the dominant technique in solving of Maxwell and Transport’s integral equations for an active integrated antenna. In this situation, the equivalent circuit is introduced to the development of an integral method formulation based on the transposition of field problems in a Generalised equivalent circuit that is simpler to treat. The method of Generalised Equivalent Circuit (MGEC) was suggested in order to represent integral equations circuits that describe the unknown electromagnetic boundary conditions. The equivalent circuit presents a true electric image of the studied structures for describing the discontinuity and its environment. The aim of our developed method is to investigate the antenna parameters such as the input impedance and the current density distribution and the electric field distribution. In this work, we propose a global EM modeling of the MESFET AsGa transistor using an integral method. We will begin by describing the modeling structure that allows defining an equivalent EM scheme translating the electromagnetic equations considered. Secondly, the projection of these equations on common-type test functions leads to a linear matrix equation where the unknown variable represents the amplitudes of the current density. Solving this equation resulted in providing the input impedance, the distribution of the current density and the electric field distribution. From electromagnetic calculations, we were able to present the convergence of input impedance for different test function number as a function of the guide mode numbers. This paper presents a pilot study to find the answer to map out the variation of the existing current evaluated by the MOM-GEC. The essential improvement of our method is reducing computing time and memory requirements in order to provide a sufficient global model of the MESFET transistor.

Keywords: active integrated antenna, current density, input impedance, MESFET transistor, MOM-GEC method

Procedia PDF Downloads 198