Search results for: micro public transport
1786 The Correlation between Governance Mechanism and Changing Trends in the Ownership of Mongolian Companies
Authors: Ernest Nweke
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This paper examines the changing trend in ownership of Mongolian companies and how this trend has influenced corporate governance mechanisms in Mongolian companies. A study of this magnitude is essential as it x-rays the systematic transformation of Mongolia’s corporate world from the public to private ownership and the tremendous impact it has had on firm governance mechanisms. Owing to Mongolia’s Soviet past, much of the companies in Mongolia were state-owned, state-directed and state-controlled resulting in serious inefficiencies in these companies. This scenario is antithetical to the economic growth and development of any nation as it is grossly at variance with the fundamental principles of good corporate governance that drive prosperity. Consequently, the Mongolian government has in the past decades fine-tuned government policy to prioritize private ownership, establishing various frameworks that will strengthen corporate governance structures in Mongolia. These efforts have paid off and gone a long way in changing the trend in the ownership of companies in Mongolia reversing the old order. The expectation locally and internationally is that companies in post-socialist Mongolia will be more closely aligned to generally accepted corporate governance mechanisms, generally improving company performance and ultimately returns to shareholders. To achieve the research objectives, the survey research method was employed utilizing a sample of seventy randomly selected listed companies representing 22% of Mongolian Stock Exchange listings. Research hypotheses formulated to guide the conduct of the study were tested using Chi-Square analysis, and results show that ownership trend has drastically changed in the post-socialist Mongolia leading to better corporate governance practices in Mongolian companies. This result has important policy implications.Keywords: corporate disclosure, free market, private ownership, Mongolia
Procedia PDF Downloads 1331785 Historical Analysis of the Landscape Changes and the Eco-Environment Effects on the Coastal Zone of Bohai Bay, China
Authors: Juan Zhou, Lusan Liu, Yanzhong Zhu, Kuixuan Lin, Wenqian Cai, Yu Wang, Xing Wang
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During the past few decades, there has been an increase in the number of coastal land reclamation projects for residential, commercial and industrial purposes in more and more coastal cities of China, which led to the destruction of the wetlands and loss of the sensitive marine habitats. Meanwhile, the influences and nature of these projects attract widespread public and academic concern. For identifying the trend of landscape (esp. Coastal reclamation) and ecological environment changes, understanding of which interacted, and offering a general science for the development of regional plans. In the paper, a case study was carried out in Bohai Bay area, based on the analysis of remote sensing data. Land use maps were created for 1954, 1970, 1981, 1990, 2000 and 2010. Landscape metrics were calculated and illustrated that the degree of reclamation changes was linked to the hydrodynamic environment and macrobenthos community. The results indicated that the worst of the loss of initial areas occurred during 1954-1970, with 65.6% lost mostly to salt field; to 2010, Coastal reclamation area increased more than 200km² as artificial landscape. The numerical simulation of tidal current field in 2003 and 2010 respectively showed that the flow velocity in offshore became faster (from 2-5 cm/s to 10-20 cm/s), and the flow direction seem to go astray. These significant changes of coastline were not conducive to the spread of pollutants and degradation. Additionally, the dominant macrobenthos analysis from 1958 to 2012 showed that Musculus senhousei (Benson, 1842) spread very fast and had been the predominant species in the recent years, which was a disturbance tolerant species.Keywords: Bohai Bay, coastal reclamation, landscape change, spatial patterns
Procedia PDF Downloads 2821784 The Quest for Institutional Independence to Advance Police Pluralism in Ethiopia
Authors: Demelash Kassaye Debalkie
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The primary objective of this study is to report the tributes that are significantly impeding the Ethiopian police's ability to provide quality services to the people. Policing in Ethiopia started in the medieval period. However, modern policing was introduced instead of vigilantism in the early 1940s. The progress counted since the date police became modernized is, however, under contention when viewed from the standpoint of officers’ development and technologies in the 21st century. The police in Ethiopia are suffering a lot to be set free from any form of political interference by the government and to be loyal to impartiality, equity, and justice in enforcing the law. Moreover, the institutional competence of the police in Ethiopia is currently losing its power derived from the constitution as a legitimate enforcement agency due to the country’s political landscape encouraging ethnic-based politics. According to studies, the impact of ethnic politics has been a significant challenge for police in controlling conflicts between two ethnic groups. The study used qualitative techniques and data was gathered from key informants selected purposely. The findings indicate that governments in the past decades were skeptical about establishing a constitutional police force in the country. This has certainly been one of the challenges of pluralizing the police: building police-community relations based on trust. The study conducted to uncover the obstructions has finally reported that the government’s commitment to form a non-partisan, functionally decentralized, and operationally demilitarized police force is too minimal and appalling. They mainly intend to formulate the missions of the police in accordance with their interests and political will to remain in power. It, therefore, reminds the policymakers, law enforcement officials, and the government in power to revise its policies and working procedures already operational to strengthen the police in Ethiopia based on public participation and engagement.Keywords: community, constitution, Ethiopia, law enforcement
Procedia PDF Downloads 751783 Household's Willingness to Pay for Safe Non-Timber Forest Products at Morikouali-Ye Community Forest in Cameroon
Authors: Eke Balla Sophie Michelle
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Forest provides a wide range of environmental goods and services among which, biodiversity or consumption goods and constitute public goods. Despite the importance of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in sustaining livelihood and poverty smoothening in rural communities, they are highly depleted and poorly conserved. Yokadouma is a town where NTFPs is a renewable resource in active exploitation. It has been found that such exploitation is done in the same conditions as other localities that have experienced a rapid depletion of their NTFPs in destination to cities across Cameroon, Central Africa, and overseas. Given these realities, it is necessary to access the consequences of this overexploitation through negative effects on both the population and the environment. Therefore, to enhance participatory conservation initiatives, this study determines the household’s willingness to pay in community forest (CF) of Morikouali-ye, eastern region of Cameroon, for sustainable exploitation of NTFPs using contingent valuation method (CVM) through two approaches, one parametric (Logit model) and the other non-parametric (estimator of the Turnbull lower bound). The results indicate that five species are the most collected in the study area: Irvingia gabonensis, the Ricinodendron heudelotii, Gnetum, the Jujube and bark, their sale contributes significantly to 41 % of total household income. The average willingness to pay through the Logit model and the Turnbull estimator is 6845.2861 FCFA and 4940 FCFA respectively per household per year with a social cost of degradation estimated at 3237820.3253 FCFA years. The probability to pay increases with income, gender, number of women in the household, age, the commercial activity of NTFPs and decreases with the concept of sustainable development.Keywords: non timber forest product, contingent valuation method, willingness to pay, sustainable development
Procedia PDF Downloads 4341782 Traumatic Brain Injury Induced Lipid Profiling of Lipids in Mice Serum Using UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS
Authors: Seema Dhariwal, Kiran Maan, Ruchi Baghel, Apoorva Sharma, Poonam Rana
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Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is defined as the temporary or permanent alteration in brain function and pathology caused by an external mechanical force. It represents the leading cause of mortality and morbidity among children and youth individuals. Various models of TBI in rodents have been developed in the laboratory to mimic the scenario of injury. Blast overpressure injury is common among civilians and military personnel, followed by accidents or explosive devices. In addition to this, the lateral Controlled cortical impact (CCI) model mimics the blunt, penetrating injury. Method: In the present study, we have developed two different mild TBI models using blast and CCI injury. In the blast model, helium gas was used to create an overpressure of 130 kPa (±5) via a shock tube, and CCI injury was induced with an impact depth of 1.5mm to create diffusive and focal injury, respectively. C57BL/6J male mice (10-12 weeks) were divided into three groups: (1) control, (2) Blast treated, (3) CCI treated, and were exposed to different injury models. Serum was collected on Day1 and day7, followed by biphasic extraction using MTBE/Methanol/Water. Prepared samples were separated on Charged Surface Hybrid (CSH) C18 column and acquired on UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS using ESI probe with inhouse optimized parameters and method. MS peak list was generated using Markerview TM. Data were normalized, Pareto-scaled, and log-transformed, followed by multivariate and univariate analysis in metaboanalyst. Result and discussion: Untargeted profiling of lipids generated extensive data features, which were annotated through LIPID MAPS® based on their m/z and were further confirmed based on their fragment pattern by LipidBlast. There is the final annotation of 269 features in the positive and 182 features in the negative mode of ionization. PCA and PLS-DA score plots showed clear segregation of injury groups to controls. Among various lipids in mild blast and CCI, five lipids (Glycerophospholipids {PC 30:2, PE O-33:3, PG 28:3;O3 and PS 36:1 } and fatty acyl { FA 21:3;O2}) were significantly altered in both injury groups at Day 1 and Day 7, and also had VIP score >1. Pathway analysis by Biopan has also shown hampered synthesis of Glycerolipids and Glycerophospholipiods, which coincides with earlier reports. It could be a direct result of alteration in the Acetylcholine signaling pathway in response to TBI. Understanding the role of a specific class of lipid metabolism, regulation and transport could be beneficial to TBI research since it could provide new targets and determine the best therapeutic intervention. This study demonstrates the potential lipid biomarkers which can be used for injury severity diagnosis and identification irrespective of injury type (diffusive or focal).Keywords: LipidBlast, lipidomic biomarker, LIPID MAPS®, TBI
Procedia PDF Downloads 1051781 Worldwide GIS Based Earthquake Information System/Alarming System for Microzonation/Liquefaction and It’s Application for Infrastructure Development
Authors: Rajinder Kumar Gupta, Rajni Kant Agrawal, Jaganniwas
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One of the most frightening phenomena of nature is the occurrence of earthquake as it has terrible and disastrous effects. Many earthquakes occur every day worldwide. There is need to have knowledge regarding the trends in earthquake occurrence worldwide. The recoding and interpretation of data obtained from the establishment of the worldwide system of seismological stations made this possible. From the analysis of recorded earthquake data, the earthquake parameters and source parameters can be computed and the earthquake catalogues can be prepared. These catalogues provide information on origin, time, epicenter locations (in term of latitude and longitudes) focal depths, magnitude and other related details of the recorded earthquakes. Theses catalogues are used for seismic hazard estimation. Manual interpretation and analysis of these data is tedious and time consuming. A geographical information system is a computer based system designed to store, analyzes and display geographic information. The implementation of integrated GIS technology provides an approach which permits rapid evaluation of complex inventor database under a variety of earthquake scenario and allows the user to interactively view results almost immediately. GIS technology provides a powerful tool for displaying outputs and permit to users to see graphical distribution of impacts of different earthquake scenarios and assumptions. An endeavor has been made in present study to compile the earthquake data for the whole world in visual Basic on ARC GIS Plate form so that it can be used easily for further analysis to be carried out by earthquake engineers. The basic data on time of occurrence, location and size of earthquake has been compiled for further querying based on various parameters. A preliminary analysis tool is also provided in the user interface to interpret the earthquake recurrence in region. The user interface also includes the seismic hazard information already worked out under GHSAP program. The seismic hazard in terms of probability of exceedance in definite return periods is provided for the world. The seismic zones of the Indian region are included in the user interface from IS 1893-2002 code on earthquake resistant design of buildings. The City wise satellite images has been inserted in Map and based on actual data the following information could be extracted in real time: • Analysis of soil parameters and its effect • Microzonation information • Seismic hazard and strong ground motion • Soil liquefaction and its effect in surrounding area • Impacts of liquefaction on buildings and infrastructure • Occurrence of earthquake in future and effect on existing soil • Propagation of earth vibration due of occurrence of Earthquake GIS based earthquake information system has been prepared for whole world in Visual Basic on ARC GIS Plate form and further extended micro level based on actual soil parameters. Individual tools has been developed for liquefaction, earthquake frequency etc. All information could be used for development of infrastructure i.e. multi story structure, Irrigation Dam & Its components, Hydro-power etc in real time for present and future.Keywords: GIS based earthquake information system, microzonation, analysis and real time information about liquefaction, infrastructure development
Procedia PDF Downloads 3081780 Effects of COVID-19 Confinement on Physical Activity and Screen Time in Spanish Children
Authors: Maria Medrano, Cristina Cadenas-Sanchez, Maddi Oses, Lide Arenaza, Maria Amasene, Idoia Labayen
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The COVID-19 outbreak began in December 2019 in China and was rapidly expanded globally. Emergency measures, such as social distance or home confinement, were adopted by many country governments to prevent its transmission. In Spain, one of the most affected countries, the schools were closed, and one of the most severe mandatory home confinement was established for children from 14th March to 26th April 2020. The hypothesis of this study was that the measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic may have negatively affected physical activity and screen time of children. However, few studies have examined the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on lifestyle behaviours. Thus, the aim of the current work was to analyse the effects of the COVID-19 confinement on physical activity and screen time in Spanish children. For the current purpose, a total of 113 children and adolescents (12.0 ± 2.6 yr., 51.3% boys, 24.0% with overweight/obesity according to the World Obesity Federation) of the MUGI project were included in the analyses. Physical activity and screen time were longitudinally assessed by 'The Youth Activity Profile' questionnaire (YAP). Differences in physical activity and screen time before and during the confinement were assessed by dependent t-test. Before the confinement, 60% did not meet physical activity recommendations ( ≥ 60/min/day of moderate to vigorous physical activity), and 61% used screens ≥ 2 h/day. During the COVID-19 confinement, children decreased their physical activity levels (-91 ± 55 min/day, p < 0.001) and increased screen time ( ± 2.6 h/day, p < 0.001). The prevalence of children that worsened physical activity and screen time during the COVID-19 confinement were 95.2% and 69.8%, respectively. The current study evidence the negative effects of the COVID-19 confinement on physical activity and screen time in Spanish children. These findings should be taken into account to develop and implement future public health strategies for preserving children's lifestyle behaviours and health during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.Keywords: COVID-19, lifestyle changes, paediatric, physical activity, screen time
Procedia PDF Downloads 1191779 The Effects of Functionality Level on Gait in Subjects with Low Back Pain
Authors: Vedat Kurt, Tansel Koyunoglu, Gamze Kurt, Ozgen Aras
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Low back pain is one of the most common health problem in public. Common symptoms that can be associated with low back pain include; pain, functional disability, gait disturbances. The aim of the study was to investigate the differences between disability scores and gait parameters in subjects with low back pain. Sixty participants are included in our study, (35 men, 25 women, mean age: 37.65±10.02 years). Demographic characteristics of participants were recorded. Pain (visual analog scale) and disability level (Oswestry Disability Index(ODI)) were evaluated. Gait parameters were measured with Zebris-FDM-2 platform. Independent samples t-test was used to analyse the differences between subjects with under 40 points (n=31, mean age:35.8±11.3) and above 40 points (n=29, mean age:39.6±8.1) of ODI scores. Significant level in statistical analysis was accepted as 0.05. There was no significant difference between the ODI scores and groups’ ages. Statistically significant differences were found in step width between subjects with under 40 points of ODI and above 40 points of ODI score(p < 0.05). But there were non-significant differences with other gait parameters (p > 0.05). The differences between gait parameters and pain scores were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Researchers generally agree that individuals with LBP walk slower and take shorter steps and have asymmetric step lengths when compared with than their age-matched pain-free counterparts. Also perceived general disability may have moderate correlation with walking performance. In the current study, the patients classified as minimal/moderate and severe disability level by using ODI scores. As a result, a patient with LBP who have higher disability level tends to increase support surface. On the other hand, we did not find any relation between pain intensity and gait parameters. It may be caused by the classification system of pain scores. Additional research is needed to investigate the effects of functionality level and pain intensity on gait in subjects with low back pain under different classification types.Keywords: functionality, low back pain, gait, pain
Procedia PDF Downloads 2791778 Development of an Online Raw-Vegan Eating Program to Reduce Sugar Intake
Authors: Sara D. Garduno-Diaz, Lorena Loriato
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Food selection is one of the main modifiable risk factors for the avoidance of several detrimental health conditions. Excessive and regular sugar intake has been identified as highly unfavorable, yet a highly occurring practice. A proposed approach to modify this eating practice is the online program developed here. The program targets a modification of mindset and lifestyle habits around food, through a four week raw-vegan guided eating program. While the focus of the program is to set up sustainable changes in sugar intake reduction, it also aims to promote a plant-based eating style. Three pilot sessions have been run with participants from seven different countries. Participants are guided through the program via a combination of daily e-mails, a 24-hour support platform, and by-weekly remote live sessions. Meal preparation techniques, as well as cooking instructions, are provided, following set menus developed by a team of professional chefs and nutritionists. Goal setting, as well as alternatives to specific food-related challenges, is addressed. While the program is intended for both women and men, the majority of participants to date have been female. Feedback has been positive, with changes in eating habits have included an elimination of added sugars, an increase in home cooking and vegetable intake, and a reduction in foods of animal origin. Difficulties in following the program have been reported as unavailability of certain ingredients depending on the country of residence of the participants, social and cultural hurdles, and time restrictions. Nevertheless, the results obtained to date indicate this to be a highly interactive program with the potential to be scaled up and applied to various populations as a public health measure on the way to better health.Keywords: eating habits, food addiction, nutrition education, plant-based, remote practice
Procedia PDF Downloads 1011777 Design and Creation of a BCI Videogame for Training and Measure of Sustained Attention in Children with ADHD
Authors: John E. Muñoz, Jose F. Lopez, David S. Lopez
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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder that affects 1 out of 5 Colombian children, converting into a real public health problem in the country. Conventional treatments such as medication and neuropsychological therapy have been proved to be insufficient in order to decrease high incidence levels of ADHD in the principal Colombian cities. This work demonstrates a design and development of a videogame that uses a brain computer interface not only to serve as an input device but also as a tool to monitor neurophysiologic signal. The video game named “The Harvest Challenge” puts a cultural scene of a Colombian coffee grower in its context, where a player can use his/her avatar in three mini games created in order to reinforce four fundamental aspects: i) waiting ability, ii) planning ability, iii) ability to follow instructions and iv) ability to achieve objectives. The details of this collaborative designing process of the multimedia tool according to the exact clinic necessities and the description of interaction proposals are presented through the mental stages of attention and relaxation. The final videogame is presented as a tool for sustained attention training in children with ADHD using as an action mechanism the neuromodulation of Beta and Theta waves through an electrode located in the central part of the front lobe of the brain. The processing of an electroencephalographic signal is produced automatically inside the videogame allowing to generate a report of the theta/beta ratio evolution - a biological marker, which has been demonstrated to be a sufficient measure to discriminate of children with deficit and without.Keywords: BCI, neuromodulation, ADHD, videogame, neurofeedback, theta/beta ratio
Procedia PDF Downloads 3611776 Synthesis of Smart Materials Based on Polyaniline Coated Fibers
Authors: Mihaela Beregoi, Horia Iovu, Cristina Busuioc, Alexandru Evanghelidis, Elena Matei, Monica Enculescu, Ionut Enculescu
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Nanomaterials field is very attractive for all researchers who are attempting to develop new devices with the same or improved properties than the micro-sized ones, while reducing the reagents and power consumptions. In this way, a wide range of nanomaterials were fabricated and integrated in applications for electronics, optoelectronics, solar cells, tissue reconstruction and drug delivery. Obviously, the most appealing ones are those dedicated to the medical domain. Different types of nano-sized materials, such as particles, fibers, films etc., can be synthesized by using physical, chemical or electrochemical methods. One of these techniques is electrospinning, which enable the production of fibers with nanometric dimensions by pumping a polymeric solution in a high electric field; due to the electrostatic charging and solvent evaporation, the precursor mixture is converted into nonwoven meshes with different fiber densities and mechanical properties. Moreover, polyaniline is a conducting polymer with interesting optical properties, suitable for displays and electrochromic windows. Otherwise, polyaniline is an electroactive polymer that can contract/expand by applying electric stimuli, due to the oxidation/reduction reactions which take place in the polymer chains. These two main properties can be exploited in order to synthesize smart materials that change their dimensions, exhibiting in the same time good electrochromic properties. In the context aforesaid, a poly(methyl metacrylate) solution was spun to get webs composed of fibers with diameter values between 500 nm and 1 µm. Further, the polymer meshes were covered with a gold layer in order to make them conductive and also appropriate as working electrode in an electrochemical cell. The gold shell was deposited by DC sputtering. Such metalized fibers can be transformed into smart materials by covering them with a thin layer of conductive polymer. Thus, the webs were coated with a polyaniline film by the electrochemical route, starting from and aqueous solution of aniline and sulfuric acid, where sulfuric acid acts as oxidant agent. For the polymerization of aniline, a saturated calomel electrode was employed as reference, a platinum plate as counter electrode and the gold covered webs as working electrode. Chronoamperometry was selected as deposition method for polyaniline, by modifying the deposition time. Metalized meshes with different fiber densities were used, the transmission ranging between 70 and 80 %. The morphological investigation showed that polyaniline layer has a granular structure for all deposition experiments. As well, some preliminary optical tests were done by using sulfuric acid as electrolyte, which revealed the modification of polyaniline colour from green to dark blue when applying a voltage. In conclusion, new multilayered materials were obtained by a simple approach: the merge of the electrospinning method benefits with polyaniline chemistry. This synthesis method allows the fabrication of structures with reproducible characteristics, suitable for display or tissue substituents.Keywords: electrospinning, fibers, smart materials, polyaniline
Procedia PDF Downloads 2831775 Profile of the Elderly Users of Alcohol and Other Drugs Attended at the Psychosocial Care Centers in the Federal District
Authors: J. S. P. Barbosa, L. C. Pereira, K. R. Garcia, P. C. P. Bouchardet, S. C. T. Vieira, A. O. Gomes, S. S. Funghetto, M. G. O. Kanikowski
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For this population, height seems to be a good predictor of strength and body composition. This increase in life expectancy of the Brazilian's population is associated with sociodemographic variables, but also to more access to health services in the prevention and better living conditions. With the growth of elderly population, a problem that has been a concern to health's professionals and public health at all is the use of psychoactive substances. The purpose of this study was to identify the sociodemographic profile of the elderly people who was attended at the Center of Psychosocial Care of alcohol and other drugs in the Federal District of Brazil. 408 medical records of people aged 60 years or over were evaluated, and it is possible to know that most of them were males (85.3%), with a mean age of 64 years (DP ± 4.16), 60 and 84 years and a mean age of 64 years (DP ± 4.42); 88.2% have some family ties, are married and have children, with relatives living in masonry housing. The educational level of drug users was considered low with more emphasis on those who had elementary education being the majority retired or unemployed. Regarding the street situation, there was no significance (p = 0.084), and the women (OR = 2.98) had few chances of street situations compared to men (OR = 0.89). As for substance consumption, the highest quantity of drug consumption bids in relation to the number of illicit. It did not present significant statistical value, and there is a greater probability of consumption/abuse of legal and/or illicit drugs for both sexes (OR = 0.96) for men and (OR = 1.32) for women. In relation to the use of multiple drugs, there was no significant difference between the sexes, (OR = 1.1) male sex and (OR = 0.74) female sex. Based on the results found in the present study, it was concluded that alcohol consumption is the main agent that causes vulnerability in the elderly and predisposes the latter to the consumption of other associated drugs.Keywords: centers of attention psychosocial alcohol and drugs, elderly, mental disorder due to drug use, street situations
Procedia PDF Downloads 2021774 Personal and Household Hygiene Measures for Prevention of Upper Respiratory Tract Infections among Children: A Cross Sectional Survey on Parental Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices
Authors: Man Wai Leung, Margaret O’Donoghue, Lorna K. P. Suen
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Personal and household hygiene measures are important to prevent upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and other infectious diseases, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). An online survey recruited 414 eligible parents in Hong Kong to study their hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) in the prevention of URTIs among their children. The average knowledge score was high (10.2/12.0), but some misconceptions were identified. The majority of participants agreed that good personal hygiene (93.5%) and good environmental hygiene (92.8%) can prevent URTIs. The average score for hand hygiene practices was high (3.78/4.00), but only 56.8% of parents always perform hand hygiene before touching their mouth, nose, or eyes. For environmental hygiene, only some household items were disinfected with disinfectants (69.8%: door handles, 60.4%: toilet seats, 42.8%: floor, 24.2%: dining chairs, 20.5%: dining tables). Higher knowledge score was associated with parents having a tertiary educational level or above, working as healthcare professionals, living at private residential flat or staff quarter, and having a household income of $70,000 or above. Hand hygiene practices varied significantly with parents’ age and income. During the 5th wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, misconceptions about hygiene knowledge were found among parents. Health promotion programs should target parents, especially those who are in old age, obtain lower educational levels, live in public housing, or have a lower income. Hand hygiene moments and proper use of disinfectants could be one of the targeted educational topics.Keywords: hygiene, upper respiratory tract infection, parents, children, COVID-19
Procedia PDF Downloads 1001773 Evaluation Means in English and Russian Academic Discourse: Through Comparative Analysis towards Translation
Authors: Albina Vodyanitskaya
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Given the culture- and language-specific nature of evaluation, this phenomenon is widely studied around the linguistic world and may be regarded as a challenge for translators. Evaluation penetrates all the levels of a scientific text, influences its composition and the reader’s attitude towards the information presented. One of the most challenging and rarely studied phenomena is the individual style of the scientific writer, which is mostly reflected in the use of evaluative language means. The evaluative and expressive potential of a scientific text is becoming more and more welcoming area for researchers, which stems in the shift towards anthropocentric paradigm in linguistics. Other reasons include: the cognitive and psycholinguistic processes that accompany knowledge acquisition, a genre-determined nature of a scientific text, the increasing public concern about the quality of scientific papers and some such. One more important issue, is the fact that linguists all over the world still argue about the definition of evaluation and its functions in the text. The author analyzes various approaches towards the study of evaluation and scientific texts. A comparative analysis of English and Russian dissertations and other scientific papers with regard to evaluative language means reveals major differences and similarities between English and Russian scientific style. Though standardized and genre-specific, English scientific texts contain more figurative and expressive evaluative means than the Russian ones, which should be taken into account while translating scientific papers. The processes that evaluation undergoes while being expressed by means of a target language are also analyzed. The author offers a target-language-dependent strategy for the translation of evaluation in English and Russian scientific texts. The findings may contribute to the theory and practice of translation and can increase scientific writers’ awareness of inter-language and intercultural differences in evaluative language means.Keywords: academic discourse, evaluation, scientific text, scientific writing, translation
Procedia PDF Downloads 3481772 [Keynote Talk]: Caught in the Tractorbeam of Larger Influences: The Filtration of Innovation in Education Technology Design
Authors: Justin D. Olmanson, Fitsum Abebe, Valerie Jones, Eric Kyle, Xianquan Liu, Katherine Robbins, Guieswende Rouamba
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The history of education technology--and designing, adapting, and adopting technologies for use in educational spaces--is nuanced, complex, and dynamic. Yet, despite a range of continually emerging technologies, the design and development process often yields results that appear quite similar in terms of affordances and interactions. Through this study we (1) verify the extent to which designs have been constrained, (2) consider what might account for it, and (3) offer a way forward in terms of how we might identify and strategically sidestep these influences--thereby increasing the diversity of our designs with a given technology or within a particular learning domain. We begin our inquiry from the perspective that a host of co-influencing elements, fields, and meta narratives converge on the education technology design process to exert a tangible, often homogenizing effect on the resultant designs. We identify several elements that influence design in often implicit or unquestioned ways (e.g. curriculum, learning theory, economics, learning context, pedagogy), we describe our methodology for identifying the elemental positionality embedded in a design, we direct our analysis to a particular subset of technologies in the field of literacy, and unpack our findings. Our early analysis suggests that the majority of education technologies designed for use/used in US public schools are heavily influenced by a handful of mainstream theories and meta narratives. These findings have implications for how we approach the education technology design process--which we use to suggest alternative methods for designing/ developing with emerging technologies. Our analytical process and re conceptualized design process hold the potential to diversify the ways emerging and established technologies get incorporated into our designs.Keywords: curriculum, design, innovation, meta narratives
Procedia PDF Downloads 5021771 Pregnant Women in Substance Abuse: Transition of Characteristics and Mining of Association from Teds-a 2011 to 2018
Authors: Md Tareq Ferdous Khan, Shrabanti Mazumder, MB Rao
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Background: Substance use during pregnancy is a longstanding public health problem that results in severe consequences for pregnant women and fetuses. Methods: Eight (2011-2018) datasets on pregnant women’s admissions are extracted from TEDS-A. Distributions of sociodemographic, substance abuse behaviors, and clinical characteristics are constructed and compared over the years for trends by the Cochran-Armitage test. Market basket analysis is used in mining the association among polysubstance abuse. Results: Over the years, pregnant woman admissions as the percentage of total and female admissions remain stable, where total annual admissions range from 1.54 to about 2 million with the female share of 33.30% to 35.61%. Pregnant women aged 21-29, 12 or more years of education, white race, unemployed, holding independent living status are among the most vulnerable. Concerns prevail on a significant number of polysubstance users, young age at first use, frequency of daily users, and records of prior admissions (60%). Trends of abused primary substances show a significant rise in heroin (66%) and methamphetamine (46%) over the years, although the latest year shows a considerable downturn. On the other hand, significant decreasing patterns are evident for alcohol (43%), marijuana or hashish (24%), cocaine or crack (23%), other opiates or synthetics (36%), and benzodiazepines (29%). Basket analysis reveals some patterns of co-occurrence of substances consistent over the years. Conclusions: This comprehensive study can work as a reference to identify the most vulnerable groups based on their characteristics and deal with the most hazardous substances from their evidence of co-occurrence.Keywords: basket analysis, pregnant women, substance abuse, trend analysis
Procedia PDF Downloads 1901770 Investigating the Relationship between Service Quality and Amount of Violations in Community Pharmacies with Their Type of Ownership
Authors: Afshin Azari, Farzad Peiravian, Nazila Yousefi
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Introduction: Community pharmacies have been always played an important role in public health. Therefore, having a decent service provided by these pharmacies is of paramount importance for the healthcare system. The issue of pharmacy ownership and its possible impact on the quality of services and amount of violations has been argued for many years, and there are different opinions around this debate. Since, so far, no scientific research has been performed to investigate this issue in Iran, this study aimed to examine the differences between these two types of pharmacies ownership in terms of violations and service quality. Method: This study investigates the impact of two different kinds of pharmacy ownership (pharmacists and non-pharmacist’s ownership) on the pharmacies’ amount of violations and services quality. Pharmacies’ amount of violations was examined using “pharmacy inspection reports” between September 2018 and September 2019, in their distinguishable categories: minor, major and critical violations. Then, service quality was examined using a questionnaire from the perspective of pharmacy customers. Results: Considering violations, there was no evidence to prove a significant relationship between critical violations and major violations with the type of pharmacy ownership. However, in minor violations, the average of violations was higher in pharmacies owned by pharmacists in comparison to their non-pharmacist owned counterparts. Regarding service quality, the results showed that there is no significant relationship between the quality of service and the type of pharmacy ownership. Discussion and Conclusion: In this study, no significant relationship was found between the amount of violations and the type of pharmacy ownership. This could indicate that the pharmacy ownership would not influence the rate of violations. Considering that more inspections have been carried out in non-pharmacist owned pharmacies, it can be concluded that these pharmacies are more under control, and in fact, this monitoring has reduced violations in these pharmacies. The quality of services in the two types of pharmacies were not significantly different from each other, and this shows that non-pharmacist-owned pharmacies also try to maintain the desired level of service in competition with their competitors.Keywords: pharmacy ownership, quality of service, violation, community pharmacy
Procedia PDF Downloads 1601769 Highly Conducting Ultra Nanocrystalline Diamond Nanowires Decorated ZnO Nanorods for Long Life Electronic Display and Photo-Detectors Applications
Authors: A. Saravanan, B. R. Huang, C. J. Yeh, K. C. Leou, I. N. Lin
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A new class of ultra-nano diamond-graphite nano-hybrid (DGH) composite materials containing nano-sized diamond needles was developed at low temperature process. Such kind of diamond- graphite nano-hybrid composite nanowires exhibit high electrical conductivity and excellent electron field emission (EFE) properties. Few earlier reports mention that addition of N2 gas to the growth plasma requires high growth temperature (800°C) to trigger the dopants to generate the conductivity in the films. High growth temperature is not familiar with the Si-based device fabrications. We have used a novel process such as bias-enhanced-grown (beg) MPECVD process to grow diamond films at low substrate temperature (450°C). We observed that the beg-N/UNCD films thus obtained possess high conductivity of σ=987 S/cm, ever reported for diamond films with excellent Electron field emission (EFE) properties. TEM investigation indicated that these films contain needle-like diamond grains about 5 nm in diameter and hundreds of nanometers in length. Each of the grains was encased in graphitic layers about tens of nano-meters in thickness. These materials properties suitable for more specific applications, such as high conductivity for electron field emitters, high robustness for microplasma cathodes and high electrochemical activity for electro-chemical sensing. Subsequently, other hand, the highly conducting DGH films were coated on vertically aligned ZnO nanorods, there is no prior nucleation or seeding process needed due to the use of BEG method. Such a composite structure provides significant enhancement in the field emission characteristics of the cold cathode was observed with ultralow turn on voltage 1.78 V/μm with high EFE current density of 3.68 mA/ cm2 (at 4.06V/μm) due to decoration of DGH material on ZnO nanorods. The DGH/ZNRs based device get stable emission for longer duration of 562min than bare ZNRs (104min) without any current degradation because the diamond coating protects the ZNRs from ion bombardment when they are used as the cathode for microplasma devices. The potential application of these materials is demonstrated by the plasma illumination measurements that ignited the plasma at the minimum voltage by 290 V. The photoresponse (Iphoto/Idark) behavior of the DGH/ZNRs based photodetectors exhibits a much higher photoresponse (1202) than bare ZNRs (229). During the process the electron transport is easy from ZNRs to DGH through graphitic layers, the EFE properties of these materials comparable to other primarily used field emitters like carbon nanotubes, graphene. The DGH/ZNRs composite also providing a possibility of their use in flat panel, microplasma and vacuum microelectronic devices.Keywords: bias-enhanced nucleation and growth, ZnO nanorods, electrical conductivity, electron field emission, photo-detectors
Procedia PDF Downloads 3631768 Self-reported Acute Pesticide Intoxication in Ethiopia
Authors: Amare Nigatu, Mågne Bratveit, Bente E. Moen
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Background: Pesticide exposure is an important public health concern in Ethiopia, but there is limited information on pesticide intoxications. Residents may have an increased risk of pesticide exposure through proximity of their homes to farms using pesticides. Also the pesticide exposure might be related to employment at these farms. This study investigated the prevalence of acute pesticide intoxications (API) by residence proximity to a nearby flower farm and assessed if intoxications are related to working there or not. Methods: A cross-sectional survey involving 516 persons was conducted. Participants were grouped according to their residence proximity from a large flower farm; living within 5 kilometers and 5-12 kilometers away, respectively. In a structured interview, participants were asked if they had health symptoms within 48 hours of pesticide exposure in the past year. Those, who had experienced this and reported two or more typical pesticide intoxication symptoms, were considered as having had API. Chi-square and independent t-tests were used to compare categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Confounding variables were adjusted by using binomial regression model. Results: The prevalence of API in the past year among the residents in the study area was 26%, and it was higher in the population living close to the flower farm (42%) compared to those living far away (11%), prevalence ratio (PR) = 3.2, 95% CI: 2.2-4.8, adjusted for age, gender & education. A subgroup living close to the farm & working there had significantly more API (56%) than those living close & did not work there (16%), adjusted PR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.8-4.9. Flower farm workers reported more API (56%) than those not working there (13%,), adjusted PR = 4.0, 95% CI: 2.9-5.6. Conclusion: The residents living closer than 5 kilometers to the flower farm reported significantly higher prevalence of API than those living 5-12 kilometers away. This increased risk of API was associated with work at the flower farm.Keywords: acute pesticide intoxications, self-reported symptoms, flower farm workers, living proximity
Procedia PDF Downloads 2831767 Equity and Diversity in Bangladesh’s Primary Education: Struggling Indigenous Children
Authors: Md Rabiul Islam, Ben Wadham
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This paper describes how indigenous students face challenges with various school activities due to inadequate equity and diversity principles in mainstream primary schools in Bangladesh. This study focuses on indigenous students’ interactions with mainstream class teachers and students through teaching-learning activities at public primary schools. Ethnographic research methods guided data collection under a case study methodology in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) region where maximum indigenous peoples’ inhabitants. The participants (class teachers) shared information through in-depth interviews about their experiences in the four selecting schools. The authors also observed the effects of school activities by use of equity and diversity lens for indigenous students’ situations in those schools. The authors argue that the socio-economic situations of indigenous families are not supportive of the educational development of their children. Similarly, the Bangladesh government does not have enough initiative programs based on equity and diversity principles for fundamental education of indigenous children at rural schools level. Besides this, the conventional teaching system cannot improve the diversification among the students in classrooms. The principles of equity and diversity are not well embedded in professional development of teachers, and using teaching materials in classrooms. The findings suggest that implementing equitable education; there are needed to arrange teachers’ education with equitable knowledge and introducing diversified teaching materials, and implementing teaching through students centered activities that promote the diversification among the multicultural students.Keywords: case study research, chittagong hill tracts, equity and diversity, Indigenous children
Procedia PDF Downloads 3081766 The Flashnews as a Commercial Session of Political Marketing: The Content Analysis of the Embedded Political Narratives in Non-Political Media Products
Authors: Zsolt Szabolcsi
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Political communication in Hungary has undergone a significant change in the 2010s. One element of the transformation is the Flashnews. This media product was launched in March 2015 and since then 40-50 blocks are broadcasted, daily, on 5 channels. Flashnews blocks are condensed news sessions, containing the summary of political narratives. It starts with the introduction of the narrator, then, usually four news topics are presented and, finally, the narrator concludes the block. The block lasts only one minute and, therefore, it provides a blink session into the main narratives of political communication at the time. Beyond its rapid pace, what makes its avoidance difficult is that these blocks are always in the first position in the commercial break of a non-political media product. Although it is only one minute long, its significance is high. The content of the Flashnews reflects the main governmental narratives and, therefore, the Flashnews is part of the agenda-setting capacity of political communication. It reaches media consumers who have limited knowledge and interest in politics, and their use of media products is not politically related. For this audience, the Flashnews pops up in the same way as commercials. Due to its structure and appearance, the impact of Flashnews seems to be similar to commercials, imbedded into the break of media products. It activates existing knowledge constructs, builds up associational links and maintains their presence in a way that the recipient is not aware of the phenomenon. The research aims to examine the extent to which the Flashnews and the main news narratives are identical in their content. This aim is realized with the content analysis of the two news products by examining the Flashnews and the evening news during main sport events from 2016 to 2018. The initial hypothesis of the research is that Flashnews is a contribution to the news management technique for an effective articulation of political narratives in public service media channels.Keywords: flashnews, political communication, political marketing, news management
Procedia PDF Downloads 1271765 Analyzing the Influence of Hydrometeorlogical Extremes, Geological Setting, and Social Demographic on Public Health
Authors: Irfan Ahmad Afip
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This main research objective is to accurately identify the possibility for a Leptospirosis outbreak severity of a certain area based on its input features into a multivariate regression model. The research question is the possibility of an outbreak in a specific area being influenced by this feature, such as social demographics and hydrometeorological extremes. If the occurrence of an outbreak is being subjected to these features, then the epidemic severity for an area will be different depending on its environmental setting because the features will influence the possibility and severity of an outbreak. Specifically, this research objective was three-fold, namely: (a) to identify the relevant multivariate features and visualize the patterns data, (b) to develop a multivariate regression model based from the selected features and determine the possibility for Leptospirosis outbreak in an area, and (c) to compare the predictive ability of multivariate regression model and machine learning algorithms. Several secondary data features were collected locations in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, based on the possibility it would be relevant to determine the outbreak severity in the area. The relevant features then will become an input in a multivariate regression model; a linear regression model is a simple and quick solution for creating prognostic capabilities. A multivariate regression model has proven more precise prognostic capabilities than univariate models. The expected outcome from this research is to establish a correlation between the features of social demographic and hydrometeorological with Leptospirosis bacteria; it will also become a contributor for understanding the underlying relationship between the pathogen and the ecosystem. The relationship established can be beneficial for the health department or urban planner to inspect and prepare for future outcomes in event detection and system health monitoring.Keywords: geographical information system, hydrometeorological, leptospirosis, multivariate regression
Procedia PDF Downloads 1061764 Using Computer Vision and Machine Learning to Improve Facility Design for Healthcare Facility Worker Safety
Authors: Hengameh Hosseini
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Design of large healthcare facilities – such as hospitals, multi-service line clinics, and nursing facilities - that can accommodate patients with wide-ranging disabilities is a challenging endeavor and one that is poorly understood among healthcare facility managers, administrators, and executives. An even less-understood extension of this problem is the implications of weakly or insufficiently accommodative design of facilities for healthcare workers in physically-intensive jobs who may also suffer from a range of disabilities and who are therefore at increased risk of workplace accident and injury. Combine this reality with the vast range of facility types, ages, and designs, and the problem of universal accommodation becomes even more daunting and complex. In this study, we focus on the implication of facility design for healthcare workers suffering with low vision who also have physically active jobs. The points of difficulty are myriad and could span health service infrastructure, the equipment used in health facilities, and transport to and from appointments and other services can all pose a barrier to health care if they are inaccessible, less accessible, or even simply less comfortable for people with various disabilities. We conduct a series of surveys and interviews with employees and administrators of 7 facilities of a range of sizes and ownership models in the Northeastern United States and combine that corpus with in-facility observations and data collection to identify five major points of failure common to all the facilities that we concluded could pose safety threats to employees with vision impairments, ranging from very minor to severe. We determine that lack of design empathy is a major commonality among facility management and ownership. We subsequently propose three methods for remedying this lack of empathy-informed design, to remedy the dangers posed to employees: the use of an existing open-sourced Augmented Reality application to simulate the low-vision experience for designers and managers; the use of a machine learning model we develop to automatically infer facility shortcomings from large datasets of recorded patient and employee reviews and feedback; and the use of a computer vision model fine tuned on images of each facility to infer and predict facility features, locations, and workflows, that could again pose meaningful dangers to visually impaired employees of each facility. After conducting a series of real-world comparative experiments with each of these approaches, we conclude that each of these are viable solutions under particular sets of conditions, and finally characterize the range of facility types, workforce composition profiles, and work conditions under which each of these methods would be most apt and successful.Keywords: artificial intelligence, healthcare workers, facility design, disability, visually impaired, workplace safety
Procedia PDF Downloads 991763 Thriving Organisations: Recommendations to Create a Workplace Culture That Prioritises Both Well-being and Performance Equally
Authors: Clare Victoria Martin
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With reports of increased mental health problems and a lack of proactive, consistent well-being initiatives, well-being is a topical issue in the workplace, as well as a wider public health concern. Additionally, workplace well-being is closely linked to performance, both from a business perspective and in psychological research. Businesses are therefore becoming increasingly motivated to promote well-being, yet there are still barriers, including a lack of evidence-based workplace interventions, issues with measuring effectiveness and problems creating lasting cultural change. This review aimed to collate workplace well-being research to propose a comprehensive new model for delivering evidence-based workplace well-being training with a real potential for lasting impact. Method: A narrative review was conducted to meta-synthesise relevant research. Thematic analysis was then adopted as a systematic method of identifying key themes from the review to lead to practical recommendations. Interventions focusing on strengths, psychological capital, mindfulness and positivity (SPMP) dominated the research in this area, suggesting benefits of incorporating all four into training. However, to avoid a ‘quick fix’ mentality, the concept of training ‘well-being ambassadors’ as a preventative counterpart to mental health ‘first aiders’ was proposed alongside a new ‘REST and RISE’ model: well-being interventions should be ‘relatable’, ‘enjoyable’, ‘sociable’ and ‘trackable’ (REST) in order to increase ‘resilience’, ‘innovation’, ‘strengths’ and ‘engagement’ (RISE). If the REST principles are applied to interventions focusing on SPMP, research suggests individuals will RISE. Future research should empirically test this new well-being ambassador programme and REST/RISE model in an applied setting.Keywords: performance, positive psychology, thriving, workplace well-being
Procedia PDF Downloads 1091762 Enhancing of Antibacterial Activity of Essential Oil by Rotating Magnetic Field
Authors: Tomasz Borowski, Dawid Sołoducha, Agata Markowska-Szczupak, Aneta Wesołowska, Marian Kordas, Rafał Rakoczy
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Essential oils (EOs) are fragrant volatile oils obtained from plants. These are used for cooking (for flavor and aroma), cleaning, beauty (e.g., rosemary essential oil is used to promote hair growth), health (e.g. thyme essential oil cures arthritis, normalizes blood pressure, reduces stress on the heart, cures chest infection and cough) and in the food industry as preservatives and antioxidants. Rosemary and thyme essential oils are considered the most eminent herbs based on their history and medicinal properties. They possess a wide range of activity against different types of bacteria and fungi compared with the other oils in both in vitro and in vivo studies. However, traditional uses of EOs are limited due to rosemary and thyme oils in high concentrations can be toxic. In light of the accessible data, the following hypothesis was put forward: Low frequency rotating magnetic field (RMF) increases the antimicrobial potential of EOs. The aim of this work was to investigate the antimicrobial activity of commercial Salvia Rosmarinus L. and Thymus vulgaris L. essential oil from Polish company Avicenna-Oil under Rotating Magnetic Field (RMF) at f = 25 Hz. The self-constructed reactor (MAP) was applied for this study. The chemical composition of oils was determined by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Model bacteria Escherichia coli K12 (ATCC 25922) was used. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) against E. coli were determined for the essential oils. Tested oils in very small concentrations were prepared (from 1 to 3 drops of essential oils per 3 mL working suspensions). From the results of disc diffusion assay and MIC tests, it can be concluded that thyme oil had the highest antibacterial activity against E. coli. Moreover, the study indicates the exposition to the RMF, as compared to the unexposed controls causing an increase in the efficacy of antibacterial properties of tested oils. The extended radiation exposure to RMF at the frequency f= 25 Hz beyond 160 minutes resulted in a significant increase in antibacterial potential against E. coli. Bacteria were killed within 40 minutes in thyme oil in lower tested concentration (1 drop of essential oils per 3 mL working suspension). Rapid decrease (>3 log) of bacteria number was observed with rosemary oil within 100 minutes (in concentration 3 drops of essential oils per 3 mL working suspension). Thus, a method for improving the antimicrobial performance of essential oil in low concentrations was developed. However, it still remains to be investigated how bacteria get killed by the EOs treated by an electromagnetic field. The possible mechanisms relies on alteration in the permeability of ionic channels in ionic channels in the bacterial cell walls that transport in the cells was proposed. For further studies, it is proposed to examine other types of essential oils and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), which are causing a serious concern throughout the world.Keywords: rotating magnetic field, rosemary, thyme, essential oils, Escherichia coli
Procedia PDF Downloads 1511761 Quality of Service of Transportation Networks: A Hybrid Measurement of Travel Time and Reliability
Authors: Chin-Chia Jane
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In a transportation network, travel time refers to the transmission time from source node to destination node, whereas reliability refers to the probability of a successful connection from source node to destination node. With an increasing emphasis on quality of service (QoS), both performance indexes are significant in the design and analysis of transportation systems. In this work, we extend the well-known flow network model for transportation networks so that travel time and reliability are integrated into the QoS measurement simultaneously. In the extended model, in addition to the general arc capacities, each intermediate node has a time weight which is the travel time for per unit of commodity going through the node. Meanwhile, arcs and nodes are treated as binary random variables that switch between operation and failure with associated probabilities. For pre-specified travel time limitation and demand requirement, the QoS of a transportation network is the probability that source can successfully transport the demand requirement to destination while the total transmission time is under the travel time limitation. This work is pioneering, since existing literatures that evaluate travel time reliability via a single optimization path, the proposed QoS focuses the performance of the whole network system. To compute the QoS of transportation networks, we first transfer the extended network model into an equivalent min-cost max-flow network model. In the transferred network, each arc has a new travel time weight which takes value 0. Each intermediate node is replaced by two nodes u and v, and an arc directed from u to v. The newly generated nodes u and v are perfect nodes. The new direct arc has three weights: travel time, capacity, and operation probability. Then the universal set of state vectors is recursively decomposed into disjoint subsets of reliable, unreliable, and stochastic vectors until no stochastic vector is left. The decomposition is made possible by applying existing efficient min-cost max-flow algorithm. Because the reliable subsets are disjoint, QoS can be obtained directly by summing the probabilities of these reliable subsets. Computational experiments are conducted on a benchmark network which has 11 nodes and 21 arcs. Five travel time limitations and five demand requirements are set to compute the QoS value. To make a comparison, we test the exhaustive complete enumeration method. Computational results reveal the proposed algorithm is much more efficient than the complete enumeration method. In this work, a transportation network is analyzed by an extended flow network model where each arc has a fixed capacity, each intermediate node has a time weight, and both arcs and nodes are independent binary random variables. The quality of service of the transportation network is an integration of customer demands, travel time, and the probability of connection. We present a decomposition algorithm to compute the QoS efficiently. Computational experiments conducted on a prototype network show that the proposed algorithm is superior to existing complete enumeration methods.Keywords: quality of service, reliability, transportation network, travel time
Procedia PDF Downloads 2141760 EMS Providers' Ability and Willingness to Respond to Bioterrorism
Authors: Ryan Houser
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Introduction: Previous studies have found that public health systems within the United States are inadequately prepared for an act of biological terrorism. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, few studies have evaluated bioterrorism preparedness of Emergency Medical Services, even in the accelerating environment of biothreats. Methods: This study utilized an Internet-based survey to assess the level of preparedness and willingness to respond to a bioterrorism attack and identify factors that predict preparedness and willingness among Nebraska EMS (Emergency Medical Services ) providers. The survey was available for one month in 2021, during which 190 EMS providers responded to the survey. Results: Only 56.8% of providers were able to recognize an illness or injury as potentially resulting from exposure to a CBRN agent. The provider Clinical Competency levels range from a low of 13.6% (ability to initiate patient care within his/her professional scope of practice and arrange for prompt referral appropriate to the identified condition(s)) to a high of 74% (the ability to respond to an emergency within the emergency management system of his/her practice, institution and community). Only 10% of the respondents are both willing and able to effectively function in a bioterror environment. Discussion: In order to effectively prepare for and respond to a bioterrorist attack, all levels of the healthcare system need to have the clinical skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to treat patients exposed. Policy changes and increased focus on training and drills are needed to ensure a prepared EMS system which is crucial to a resilient state. EMS entities need to be aware of the extent of their available workforce so that the country can be prepared for the increasing threat of bioterrorism or other novel emerging infectious disease outbreaks. A resilient nation relies on a prepared set of EMS providers who are willing to respond to biological terrorism events.Keywords: bioterrorism, prehospital, EMS, disaster, emergency, medicine, preparedness, policy
Procedia PDF Downloads 1461759 The Use of Microbiological Methods to Reduce Aflatoxin M1 in Cheese
Authors: Bruna Goncalves, Jennifer Henck, Romulo Uliana, Eliana Kamimura, Carlos Oliveira, Carlos Corassin
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Studies have shown evidence of human exposure to aflatoxin M1 due to the consumption of contaminated milk and dairy products (mainly cheeses). This poses a great risk to public health, since milk and milk products are frequently consumed by a portion of the population considered immunosuppressed, children and the elderly. Knowledge of the negative impacts of aflatoxins on health and economics has led to investigations of strategies to prevent their formation in food, as well as to eliminate, inactivate or reduce the bioavailability of these toxins in contaminated products This study evaluated the effect of microbiological methods using lactic acid bacteria on aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) reduction in Minas Frescal cheese (typical Brazilian product, being among the most consumed cheeses in Brazil) spiked with 1 µg/L AFM1. Inactivated lactic acid bacteria (0,5%, v/v de L. rhamnosus e L. lactis) were added during the cheese production process. Nine cheeses were produced, divided into three treatments: negative controls (without AFM1 or lactic acid bacteria), positive controls (AFM1 only), and lactic acid bacteria + AFM1. Samples of cheese were collected on days 2, 10, 20 and 30 after the date of production and submitted to composition analyses and determination of AFM1 by high-performance liquid chromatography. The reductions of AFM1 in cheese by lactic acid bacteria at the end of the trial indicate a potential application of inactivated lactic acid bacteria in reducing the bioavailability of AFM1 in Minas frescal cheese without physical-chemical and microbiological modifications during the 30-day experimental period. The authors would like to thank São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP (grants #2017/20081-6 and #2017/19683-1).Keywords: aflatoxin, milk, minas frescal cheese, decontamination
Procedia PDF Downloads 1851758 An Approach to Building a Recommendation Engine for Travel Applications Using Genetic Algorithms and Neural Networks
Authors: Adrian Ionita, Ana-Maria Ghimes
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The lack of features, design and the lack of promoting an integrated booking application are some of the reasons why most online travel platforms only offer automation of old booking processes, being limited to the integration of a smaller number of services without addressing the user experience. This paper represents a practical study on how to improve travel applications creating user-profiles through data-mining based on neural networks and genetic algorithms. Choices made by users and their ‘friends’ in the ‘social’ network context can be considered input data for a recommendation engine. The purpose of using these algorithms and this design is to improve user experience and to deliver more features to the users. The paper aims to highlight a broader range of improvements that could be applied to travel applications in terms of design and service integration, while the main scientific approach remains the technical implementation of the neural network solution. The motivation of the technologies used is also related to the initiative of some online booking providers that have made the fact that they use some ‘neural network’ related designs public. These companies use similar Big-Data technologies to provide recommendations for hotels, restaurants, and cinemas with a neural network based recommendation engine for building a user ‘DNA profile’. This implementation of the ‘profile’ a collection of neural networks trained from previous user choices, can improve the usability and design of any type of application.Keywords: artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, DNA profile, genetic algorithms, machine learning, neural networks, optimization, recommendation system, user profiling
Procedia PDF Downloads 1551757 Dissocial Personality in Adolescents
Authors: Tsirekidze M., Aprasidze T.
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Introduction: The problem of dissocial behavior is at the heart of the social sciences and psychiatry; however, it should be noted that its psychiatric aspect is little studied, and some issues of the problem are still controversial. This is complicated by the diversity of terminological concepts in defining “dissocial behavior”, “behavioral disorder”, “abnormal behavior”, “deviant behavior”, “delinquent behavior”, etc. In literature, there is no comprehensive definition of the essence of dissociative behavior. Numerous attempts to systematize dissociative disorders should also be considered unsatisfactory, which is primarily related to the lack of solid criteria for defining this group of disorders. According to the clinical classification, dissocial behavior is divided into psychotic and non-psychotic forms. Such differentiation is conditional in nature since it is not always possible to draw precise, clear distinctions between these forms, and in addition, there is a transition of a behavior disorder or so-called intermediate forms. One group of authors distinguishes two main forms of deviant behavior in terms of both theoretical and practical significance - non-pathological and pathological. In recent years, especially, the non-pathological form of behavior disorder has become topical. It refers to a large group of forms of deviant behavior, the emergence of which is associated with psychologically full-fledged reactions of children and adolescents to stressful situations and extreme conditions. According to the authors, its concept is understandable-it is difficult to draw a line between psychologically understandable reactions and psychogenically induced reactive states. In addition, the concept of "normal" child and adolescent is, to some extent, a vague concept, as in medicine, any definition of the norm. From a practical (more precisely, pragmatic) point of view, the term "abnormal behavioral disorder" undoubtedly makes sense, especially for the purpose of forensic psychiatric examination. Non-pathological deviation mainly includes transient situational reactions, microsocial-pedagogical backwardness, and character accentuation.Deviant behavior was predominantly manifested in a non-pathological form, which, in our opinion, is due to the difficult socio-economic situation of the country, moral-ethical deprivation, and expressed frustration. By itself, society is an indicator of deviation. Add to this situation complicated factors such as micro-social-pedagogical leave, unfavorable family environment, and parenting defects. Consideration is also given to the connection of acceptable deviation with the personal structural features of the adolescent. Aim: The topic of our discussion is the dissocial behavior of the non-psychotic register. Methods: We surveyed 120 adolescents with deviant behaviors. 61% of them were diagnosed with various neuropsychiatric disorders. Results: Abnormal forms of deviant behavior were observed in 13%, and non-pathological forms in -69%. A combination of non-pathological and pathological forms was present in 10% of cases. In the case of non-pathological deviation, microsocial-pedagogical acceptance was revealed in 62%, character accentuation in 22%; during the pathological forms, pathological reactions were observed in 21%, and abnormal formation of the person -21%. Conclusion: It should be emphasized that in case of any of the above defects, if the so-called family psychosis, and medical and pedagogical habilitation measures for the adolescent, it is quite possible to prevent the abnormal development of the child's personality, correct his character, regulate behavior and develop positive labor-social relations.Keywords: dissocial personality, deviant behavior, dissocial, delinquent behavior
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