Search results for: defined polymicrobial community

Authors: Tessa Heeren

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The following proposal pertains to the complex process of successfully implementing health policies that are based on public health research. A systematic review was conducted by myself and faculty at the Cluj School of Public Health in Romania. The reviewed articles covered a wide range of topics, such as barriers and facilitators to multi-sector collaboration, differences in professional cultures, and systemic obstacles. The reviewed literature identified communication, collaboration, user-friendly dissemination, and documentation of processes in the execution of applied research as important themes for the promotion of evidence in the public health decision-making process. This proposal fits into the Academy Health National Health Policy conference because it identifies and examines differences between the worlds of research and politics. Implications and new insights for federal and/or state health policy: Recommendations made based on the findings of this research include using politically relevant levers to promote research (e.g. campaign donors, lobbies, established parties, etc.), modernizing dissemination practices, and reforms in which the involvement of external stakeholders is facilitated without relying on invitations from individual policy makers. Description of how evidence and/or data was or could be used: The reviewed articles illustrated shortcomings and areas for improvement in policy research processes and collaborative development. In general, the evidence base in the field of integrating research into policy lacks critical details of the actual process of developing evidence based policy. This shortcoming in logistical details creates a barrier for potential replication of collaborative efforts described in studies. Potential impact of the presentation for health policy: The reviewed articles focused on identifying barriers and facilitators that arise in cross sector collaboration, rather than the process and impact of integrating evidence into policy. In addition, the type of evidence used in policy was rarely specified, and widely varying interpretations of the definition of evidence complicated overall conclusions. Background: Using evidence to inform public health decision making processes has been proven effective; however, it is not clear how research is applied in practice. Aims: The objectives of the current study were to assess the extent to which evidence is used in public health decision-making process. Methods: To identify eligible studies, seven bibliographic databases, specifically, PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, Web of Science, ClinicalKey, Health and Safety Science Abstract were screened (search dates: 1990 – September 2015); a general internet search was also conducted. Primary research and systematic reviews about the use of evidence in public health policy in Europe were included. The studies considered for inclusion were assessed by two reviewers, along with extracted data on objective, methods, population, and results. Data were synthetized as a narrative review. Results: Of 2564 articles initially identified, 2525 titles and abstracts were screened. Ultimately, 30 articles fit the research criteria by describing how or why evidence is used/not used in public health policy. The majority of included studies involved interviews and surveys (N=17). Study participants were policy makers, health care professionals, researchers, community members, service users, experts in public health.

Keywords: cross-sector, dissemination, health policy, policy implementation

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Authors: Mohd Zaimmudin Mohd Zain, Patsy Perry, Lee Quinn

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This study explores how fashion consumers are influenced by fashion bloggers towards pre-purchase decision for online fashion products in a non-Western context. Malaysians rank among the world’s most avid online shoppers, with apparel the third most popular purchase category. However, extant research on fashion blogging focuses on the developed Western market context. Numerous international fashion retailers have entered the Malaysian market from luxury to fast fashion segments of the market; however Malaysian fashion consumers must balance religious and social norms for modesty with their dress style and adoption of fashion trends. Consumers increasingly mix and match Islamic and Western elements of dress to create new styles enabling them to follow Western fashion trends whilst paying respect to social and religious norms. Social media have revolutionised the way that consumers can search for and find information about fashion products. For online fashion brands with no physical presence, social media provide a means of discovery for consumers. By allowing the creation and exchange of user-generated content (UGC) online, they provide a public forum that gives individual consumers their own voices, as well as access to product information that facilitates their purchase decisions. Social media empower consumers and brands have important roles in facilitating conversations among consumers and themselves, to help consumers connect with them and one another. Fashion blogs have become an important fashion information sources. By sharing their personal style and inspiring their followers with what they wear on popular social media platforms such as Instagram, fashion bloggers have become fashion opinion leaders. By creating UGC to spread useful information to their followers, they influence the pre-purchase decision. Hence, successful Western fashion bloggers such as Chiara Ferragni may earn millions of US dollars every year, and some have created their own fashion ranges and beauty products, become judges in fashion reality shows, won awards, and collaborated with high street and luxury brands. As fashion blogging has become more established worldwide, increasing numbers of fashion bloggers have emerged from non-Western backgrounds to promote Islamic fashion styles, such as Hassanah El-Yacoubi and Dian Pelangi. This study adopts a qualitative approach using netnographic content analysis of consumer comments on two famous Malaysian fashion bloggers’ Instagram accounts during January-March 2016 and qualitative interviews with 16 Malaysian Generation Y fashion consumers during September-October 2016. Netnography adapts ethnographic techniques to the study of online communities or computer-mediated communications. Template analysis of the data involved coding comments according to the theoretical framework, which was developed from the literature review. Initial data analysis shows the strong influence of Malaysian fashion bloggers on their followers in terms of lifestyle and morals as well as fashion style. Followers were guided towards the mix and match trend of dress with Western and Islamic elements, for example, showing how vivid colours or accessories could be worked into an outfit whilst still respecting social and religious norms. The blogger’s Instagram account is a form of online community where followers can communicate and gain guidance and support from other followers, as well as from the blogger.

Keywords: fashion bloggers, Malaysia, qualitative, social media

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Authors: Rebekah Granger Ellis, Pat J. Austin, Marc P. Bonis, Richard B. Speaker, Jr.

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Using two psychometric instruments, this study examined social and emotional intelligence and moral judgment levels of more than 300 gifted and talented high school students enrolled in arts-integrated, academic acceleration, and creative arts charter schools in an ethnically diverse large city in the southeastern United States. Gifted and talented individuals possess distinguishable characteristics; these frequently appear as strengths, but often serious problems accompany them. Although many gifted adolescents thrive in their environments, some struggle in their school and community due to emotional intensity, motivation and achievement issues, lack of peers and isolation, identification problems, sensitivity to expectations and feelings, perfectionism, and other difficulties. These gifted students endure and survive in school rather than flourish. Gifted adolescents face special intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental problems. Furthermore, they experience greater levels of stress, disaffection, and isolation than non-gifted individuals due to their advanced cognitive abilities. Therefore, it is important to examine the long-term effects of participation in various gifted and talented programs on the socio-affective development of these adolescents. Numerous studies have researched moral, social, and emotional development in the areas of cognitive-developmental, psychoanalytic, and behavioral learning; however, in almost all cases, these three facets have been studied separately leading to many divergent theories. Additionally, various frameworks and models purporting to encourage the different socio-affective branches of development have been debated in curriculum theory, yet research is inconclusive on the effectiveness of these programs. Most often studied is the socio-affective domain, which includes development and regulation of emotions; empathy development; interpersonal relations and social behaviors; personal and gender identity construction; and moral development, thinking, and judgment. Examining development in these domains can provide insight into why some gifted and talented adolescents are not always successful in adulthood despite advanced IQ scores. Particularly whether emotional, social and moral capabilities of gifted and talented individuals are as advanced as their intellectual abilities and how these are related to each other. This mixed methods longitudinal study examined students in urban gifted and talented charter schools for (1) socio-affective development levels and (2) whether a particular environment encourages developmental growth. Research questions guiding the study: (1) How do academically and artistically gifted 10th and 11th grade students perform on psychological scales of social and emotional intelligence and moral judgment? Do they differ from the normative sample? Do gender differences exist among gifted students? (2) Do adolescents who attend distinctive gifted charter schools differ in developmental profiles? Students’ performances on psychometric instruments were compared over time and by program type. Assessing moral judgment (DIT-2) and socio-emotional intelligence (BarOn EQ-I: YV), participants took pre-, mid-, and post-tests during one academic school year. Quantitative differences in growth on these psychological scales (individuals and school-wide) were examined. If a school showed change, qualitative artifacts (culture, curricula, instructional methodology, stakeholder interviews) provided insight for environmental correlation.

Keywords: gifted and talented programs, moral judgment, social and emotional intelligence, socio-affective education

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Authors: M. Shahab Uddin, Pennung Warnitchai

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Currently more than half of the world’s populations are living in cities, and the number and sizes of cities are growing faster than ever. Cities rely on the effective functioning of complex and interdependent critical infrastructures networks to provide public services, enhance the quality of life, and save the community from hazards and disasters. In contrast, complex connectivity and interdependency among the urban critical infrastructures bring management challenges and make the urban system prone to the domino effect. Unplanned rapid growth, increased connectivity, and interdependency among the infrastructures, resource scarcity, and many other socio-political factors are affecting the typical state of an urban system and making it susceptible to numerous sorts of diversion. In addition to internal vulnerabilities, urban systems are consistently facing external threats from natural and manmade hazards. Cities are not just complex, interdependent system, but also makeup hubs of the economy, politics, culture, education, etc. For survival and sustainability, complex urban systems in the current world need to manage their vulnerabilities and hazardous incidents more wisely and more interactively. Coordinated management in such systems makes for huge potential when it comes to absorbing negative effects in case some of its components were to function improperly. On the other hand, ineffective management during a similar situation of overall disorder from hazards devastation may make the system more fragile and push the system to an ultimate collapse. Following the quantum, the current research hypothesizes that a hazardous event starts its journey as an emergency, and the system’s internal vulnerability and response capacity determine its destination. Connectivity and interdependency among the urban critical infrastructures during this stage may transform its vulnerabilities into dynamic damaging force. An emergency may turn into a disaster in the absence of effective management; similarly, mismanagement or lack of management may lead the situation towards a catastrophe. Situation awareness and factual decision-making is the key to win a battle. The current research proposed a contextual decision support system for an urban critical infrastructure system while integrating three different models: 1) Damage cascade model which demonstrates damage propagation among the infrastructures through their connectivity and interdependency, 2) Restoration model, a dynamic restoration process of individual infrastructure, which is based on facility damage state and overall disruptions in surrounding support environment, and 3) Optimization model that ensures optimized utilization and distribution of available resources in and among the facilities. All three models are tightly connected, mutually interdependent, and together can assess the situation and forecast the dynamic outputs of every input. Moreover, this integrated model will hold disaster managers and decision makers responsible when it comes to checking all the alternative decision before any implementation, and support to produce maximum possible outputs from the available limited inputs. This proposed model will not only support to reduce the extent of damage cascade but will ensure priority restoration and optimize resource utilization through adaptive and collaborative management. Complex systems predictably fail but in unpredictable ways. System understanding, situation awareness, and factual decisions may significantly help urban system to survive and sustain.

Keywords: disaster prevention, decision support system, emergency response, urban critical infrastructure system

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Authors: Kaleem Kashif, Tayyaba Anam, Yizhi Wu

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This paper introduces a methodology for advancing Italian speech vowels landmark detection within the distinctive feature-based speech recognition domain. Leveraging the legacy tool 'xkl' by integrating combined convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs), the study presents a comprehensive enhancement to the 'xkl' legacy software. This integration incorporates re-assigned spectrogram methodologies, enabling meticulous acoustic analysis. Simultaneously, our proposed model, integrating combined CNNs and RNNs, demonstrates unprecedented precision and robustness in landmark detection. The augmentation of re-assigned spectrogram fusion within the 'xkl' software signifies a meticulous advancement, particularly enhancing precision related to vowel formant estimation. This augmentation catalyzes unparalleled accuracy in landmark detection, resulting in a substantial performance leap compared to conventional methods. The proposed model emerges as a state-of-the-art solution in the distinctive feature-based speech recognition systems domain. In the realm of deep learning, a synergistic integration of combined CNNs and RNNs is introduced, endowed with specialized temporal embeddings, harnessing self-attention mechanisms, and positional embeddings. The proposed model allows it to excel in capturing intricate dependencies within Italian speech vowels, rendering it highly adaptable and sophisticated in the distinctive feature domain. Furthermore, our advanced temporal modeling approach employs Bayesian temporal encoding, refining the measurement of inter-landmark intervals. Comparative analysis against state-of-the-art models reveals a substantial improvement in accuracy, highlighting the robustness and efficacy of the proposed methodology. Upon rigorous testing on a database (LaMIT) speech recorded in a silent room by four Italian native speakers, the landmark detector demonstrates exceptional performance, achieving a 95% true detection rate and a 10% false detection rate. A majority of missed landmarks were observed in proximity to reduced vowels. These promising results underscore the robust identifiability of landmarks within the speech waveform, establishing the feasibility of employing a landmark detector as a front end in a speech recognition system. The synergistic integration of re-assigned spectrogram fusion, CNNs, RNNs, and Bayesian temporal encoding not only signifies a significant advancement in Italian speech vowels landmark detection but also positions the proposed model as a leader in the field. The model offers distinct advantages, including unparalleled accuracy, adaptability, and sophistication, marking a milestone in the intersection of deep learning and distinctive feature-based speech recognition. This work contributes to the broader scientific community by presenting a methodologically rigorous framework for enhancing landmark detection accuracy in Italian speech vowels. The integration of cutting-edge techniques establishes a foundation for future advancements in speech signal processing, emphasizing the potential of the proposed model in practical applications across various domains requiring robust speech recognition systems.

Keywords: landmark detection, acoustic analysis, convolutional neural network, recurrent neural network

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Authors: Heejin Song

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Employing a critical action research approach that rejects essentialist onto-epistemological orientations to research in English language teaching (ELT) and interrogates the hegemonic relations in the knowledge construction and reconstruction processes, this study illuminates how an action research-informed pedagogical practice can transform the English for academic purposes (EAP) teaching to be more culturally and linguistically inclusive and critically oriented for English language learners’ advancement in academic literacies skills. More specifically, this paper aims to showcase the action research-informed pedagogical innovations that emphasize multilingual learners’ multiliteracies engagement and experiential education-oriented learning to facilitate the development of learners’ academic literacies, intercultural communicative competence, and inclusive global citizenship in the context of Canadian university EAP classrooms. The pedagogical innovations through action research embarked in response to growing discussions surrounding pedagogical possibilities of plurilingualism in ELT and synchronous online teaching. The paper is based on two iterations of action research over the pandemic years between 2020 and 2022. The data includes student work samples, focus group interviews, anonymous surveys, teacher feedback and comments on student work and teaching reflections. The first iteration of the action research focused on the affordances of multimodal expressions in individual learners’ academic endeavors for their literacy skills development through individual online activities such as ‘my language autobiography,’ ‘multimodal expression corner’ and public speeches. While these activities help English language learners enhance their knowledge and skills of English-spoken discourses, these tasks did not necessarily require learners’ team-based collaborative endeavors to complete the assigned tasks. Identifying this area for improvement in the instructional design, the second action research cycle/iteration emphasized collaborative performativity through newly added performance/action-based innovative learning tasks, including ‘situational role-playing’, ‘my cooking show & interview’, and group debates in order to provide learners increased opportunities to communicate with peers who joined the class virtually from different parts of the world and enhance learners’ intercultural competence through various strategic and pragmatic communicative skills to collaboratively achieve their shared goals (i.e., successful completion of the given group tasks). The paper exemplifies instances wherein learners’ unique and diverse linguistic and cultural strengths were amplified, and critical literacies were further developed through learners’ performance-oriented multiliteracies engagement. The study suggests that the action research-informed teaching practice that advocates for collaborative multiliteracies engagement serves to facilitate learners’ activation of their existing linguistic and cultural knowledge and contributes to the development of learners’ academic literacy skills. Importantly, the study illuminates that such action research-informed pedagogical initiatives create an inclusive space for learners to build a strong sense of connectedness as global citizens with increased intercultural awareness in their community of language and cultural practices, and further allow learners to actively participate in the construction of ‘collaborative relations of power’ with their peers.

Keywords: action research, EAP, higher education, multiliteracies

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Authors: Asim Abbasi, Muhammad Sufyan, Iqra, Hafiza Javaria Ashraf

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The share of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) in the global burden of infectious diseases is almost 17%. The advent of new drugs and latest research in medical science helped mankind to compete with these lethal diseases but still diseases transmitted by different mosquito species, including filariasis, malaria, viral encephalitis and dengue are serious threats for people living in disease endemic areas. Injudicious and repeated use of pesticides posed selection pressure on mosquitoes leading to development of resistance. Hence biological control agents are under serious consideration of scientific community to be used in vector control programmes. Fish have a history of predating immature stages of different aquatic insects including mosquitoes. The noteworthy examples in Africa and Asia includes, Aphanius discolour and a fish in the Panchax group. Moreover, common mosquito fish, Gambusia affinis predates mostly on temporary water mosquitoes like anopheline as compared to permanent water breeders like culicines. Mosquitoes belonging to genus Toxorhynchites have a worldwide distribution and are mostly associated with the predation of other mosquito larvae habituating with them in natural and artificial water containers. These species are harmless to humans as their adults do not suck human blood but feeds on floral nectar. However, their activity is mostly temperature dependent as Toxorhynchites brevipalpis consume 359 Aedes aegypti larvae at 30-32 ºC in contrast to 154 larvae at 20-26 ºC. Although many bacterial species were isolated from mosquito cadavers but those belonging to genus Bacillus are found highly pathogenic against them. The successful species of this genus include Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus sphaericus. The prime targets of B. thuringiensis are mostly the immatures of genus Aedes, Culex, Anopheles and Psorophora while B. sphaericus is specifically toxic against species of Culex, Psorophora and Culiseta. The entomopathogenic nematodes belonging to family, mermithidae are also pathogenic to different mosquito species. Eighty different species of mosquitoes including Anopheles, Aedes and Culex proved to be highly vulnerable to the attack of two mermithid species, Romanomermis culicivorax and R. iyengari. Cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus was the first described pathogenic virus, isolated from the cadavers of mosquito specie, Culex tarsalis. Other viruses which are pathogenic to culicine includes, iridoviruses, cytopolyhedrosis viruses, entomopoxviruses and parvoviruses. Protozoa species belonging to division microsporidia are the common pathogenic protozoans in mosquito populations which kill their host by the chronic effects of parasitism. Moreover, due to their wide prevalence in anopheline mosquitoes and transversal and horizontal transmission from infected to healthy host, microsporidia of the genera Nosema and Amblyospora have received much attention in various mosquito control programmes. Fungal based mycopesticides are used in biological control of insect pests with 47 species reported virulent against different stages of mosquitoes. These include both aquatic fungi i.e. species of Coelomomyces, Lagenidium giganteum and Culicinomyces clavosporus, and the terrestrial fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana. Hence, it was concluded that the integrated use of all these biological control agents can be a healthy contribution in mosquito control programmes and become a dire need of the time to avoid repeated use of pesticides.

Keywords: entomopathogenic nematodes, protozoa, Toxorhynchites, vector-borne

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Authors: Elham Abbas Aljaaly, Nahlaa Abdulwahab Khalifa

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The active method of disease prevention is seen as the most affordable and sustainable action to deal with risks of non-communicable diseases such as obesity. This eight-week project aimed to pilot the feasibility and acceptability of a school-based programme, which is proposed to prevent and modify overweight status and possible related risk factors among student girls 'at the intermediate level' in Jeddah city. The programme was conducted through comprehensible approach targeting physical environment and school policies (nutritional/exercise/behavioural approach). The programme was designed to cultivate the personal and environmental awareness in schools for girls. This was applied by promoting healthy eating and physical activity through policies, physical education, healthier options for school canteens, and the creation of school health teams. The prevention programme was applied on 68 students (who agreed to participate) from grades 7th, 8th and 9th. A pre and post assessment questionnaire was employed on 66 students. The questionnaires were designed to obtain information on students' knowledge about health, nutrition and physical activity. Survey questions included information about nutrients, food consumption patterns, food intake and lifestyle. Physical education included training sessions for new opportunities for physical activities to be performed during school or after school hours. A running competition 'to enhance students’ performance for physical activities' was also conducted during the school visit. A visit to the school canteen was conducted to check, observe, record and assess all available food/beverage items and meals. The assessment method was a subjective method for the type of food/beverages if high in saturated fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) or non-HFSS. The school canteen administrators were encouraged to provide healthy food/beverage items and a sample healthy canteen was provided for implementation. Two healthy options were introduced to the school canteen. A follow up for students’ preferences for the introduced options and the purchasing power were assessed. Thirty-eight percent of young girls (n=26) were not participating in any form of physical activities inside or outside school. Skipping breakfast was stated by 42% (n=28) of students with no daily consumption (19%, n=13) for fruit/vegetables. Significant changes were noticed in students’ (n=66) overall responses to the pre and post questions (P value=.001). All students had participated in the conducted running competition sessions and reported satisfaction and enjoyment about the sessions. No absence was reported by the research team for attending physical education and activity sessions throughout the delivered programme. The purchasing power of the introduced healthy options of 'Salad and oatmeal' was increased to 18% in 8 weeks at the school canteen, and slightly affected the purchase for other less healthy options. The piloted programme indorsed better health and nutrition knowledge, healthy eating and lifestyle attitude, which could help young girls to obtain sustainable changes. It is expected that the outcomes of the programme will be a cornerstone for the futuristic national study that will assist policy makers and participants to build a knowledgeable health promotion scenario and make sure that school students have access to healthy foods, physical exercise and healthy lifestyle.

Keywords: adolescents, diet, exercise, behaviours, overweight/obesity, prevention-intervention programme, Saudi Arabia, schoolgirls

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Authors: Tabbye Chavous, Felecia Webb, Bridget Richardson, Gloryvee Fonseca-Bolorin, Seanna Leath, Robert Sellers

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There has been recent renewed attention to Black students’ experiences at predominantly White U.S. universities (PWIs), e.g., the #BBUM (“Being Black at the University of Michigan”), “I too am Harvard” social media campaigns, and subsequent student protest activities nationwide. These campaigns illuminate how many minority students encounter challenges to their racial/ethnic identities as they enter PWI contexts. Students routinely report experiences such as being ignored or treated as a token in classes, receiving messages of low academic expectations by faculty and peers, being questioned about their academic qualifications or belonging, being excluded from academic and social activities, and being racially profiled and harassed in the broader campus community due to race. Researchers have linked such racial marginalization and stigma experiences to student motivation and achievement. One potential mechanism is through the impact of college experiences on students’ identities, given the relevance of the college context for students’ personal identity development, including personal beliefs systems around social identities salient in this context. However, little research examines the impact of the college context on Black students’ racial identities. This study examined change in Black college students’ (N=329) racial identity beliefs over the freshman year at three predominantly White U.S. universities. Using cluster analyses, we identified profile groups reflecting different patterns of stability and change in students’ racial centrality (importance of race to overall self-concept), private regard (personal group affect/group pride), and public regard (perceptions of societal views of Blacks) from beginning of year (Time 1) to end of year (Time 2). Multinomial logit regression analyses indicated that the racial identity change clusters were predicted by pre-college background (racial composition of high school and neighborhood), as well as college-based experiences (racial discrimination, interracial friendships, and perceived campus racial climate). In particular, experiencing campus racial discrimination related to high, stable centrality, and decreases in private regard and public regard. Perceiving racial climates norms of institutional support for intergroup interactions on campus related to maintaining low and decreasing in private and public regard. Multivariate Analyses of Variance results showed change cluster effects on achievement motivation outcomes at the end of students’ academic year. Having high, stable centrality and high private regard related to more positive outcomes overall (academic competence, positive academic affect, academic curiosity and persistence). Students decreasing in private regard and public regard were particularly vulnerable to negative motivation outcomes. Findings support scholarship indicating both stability in racial identity beliefs and the importance of critical context transitions in racial identity development and adjustment outcomes among emerging adults. Findings also are consistent with research suggesting promotive effects of a strong, positive racial identity on student motivation, as well as research linking awareness of racial stigma to decreased academic engagement.

Keywords: diversity, motivation, learning, ethnic minority achievement, higher education

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Authors: Nadja Ylvestedt

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Uppsala University Library is a geographically dispersed research library consisting of nine subject libraries located in different campus areas throughout the city of Uppsala. Despite the geographical dispersion, it is the library's ambition to be perceived as a cohesive library with consistently high service and quality. A key factor to being one cohesive library is the library's online services, especially the virtual reference service. E-mail, chat and phone are answered by a team of specially trained staff under the supervision of a team leader. When covid-19 hit, well-established routines and processes to provide an infrastructure for students and researchers at the university changed radically. The strong connection between services provided at the library locations as well as at the VRS has been one of the key components of the library’s success in providing patrons with the help they need. With radically minimized availability at the physical locations, the infrastructure was at risk of collapsing. Objectives:- The objective of this project has been to evaluate the consequences of the sudden change in the organization of the library. The focus of this evaluation is the library’s VRS as an important space for learning, interaction and communication between the library and the community when other traditional spaces were not available. The goal of this evaluation is to capture the lessons learned from providing infrastructure for learning and research in times of crisis both on a practical, user-centered level but also to stress the importance of leadership in ever-changing environments that supports and creates agile, flexible services and teams instead of rigid processes adhering to obsolete goals. Results:- Reduced availability at the physical library locations was one of the strategies to prevent the spread of the covid-19 virus. The library staff was encouraged to work from home, so student workers staffed the library’s physical locations during that time, leaving the VRS to be the only place where patrons could get expert help. The VRS had an increase of 65% of questions asked between spring term 2019 and spring term 2020. The VRS team had to navigate often complicated and fast-changing new routines depending on national guidelines. The VRS team has a strong emphasis on agility in their approach to the challenges and opportunities, with methods to evaluate decisions regularly with user experience in mind. Fast decision-making, collecting feedback, an open-minded approach to reviewing rules and processes with both a short-term and a long-term focus and providing a healthy work environment have been key factors in managing this crisis and learn from it. This was resting on a strong sense of ownership regarding the VRS, well-working communication tools and agile and active communication between team members, as well as between the team and the rest of the organization who served as a second-line support system to aid the VRS team. Moving forward, the VRS has become an important space for communication, interaction and provider of infrastructure, implementing new routines and more extensive availability due to the lessons learned during crisis. The evaluation shows that the virtual environment has become an important addition to the physical spaces, existing in its own right but always in connection with and in relationship with the library structure as a whole. Thereby showing that the basis of human interaction stays the same while its form morphs and adapts to changes, thus leaving the virtual environment as a space of communication and infrastructure with unique opportunities for outreach and the potential to become a staple in patron’s education and learning.

Keywords: virtual reference service, leadership, digital infrastructure, research library

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Authors: Sophy Joseph

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The study uses the concept of ‘Settler city’ to understand the nature of peripheralization that a neoliberal city initiates. The settler city designs powerless communities without inherent rights, title and sovereignty. Kathputli Colony, home to generations of artists/craftsmen, who have kept heritage of arts/crafts alive, has undergone eviction of its population from urban space. The proposed study, ‘Neoliberal Settler City: Socio-spatial segregation and livelihood of artists/craftsmen in Delhi’ would problematize the settler city as a colonial technology. The colonial regime has ‘erased’ the ‘unwanted’ as primitive and swept them to peripheries in the city. This study would also highlight how structural change in political economy has undermined their crafts/arts by depriving them from practicing/performing it with dignity in urban space. The interconnections between citizenship and In-Situ Private Public Partnership in Kathputli rehabilitation has become part of academic exercise. However, a comprehensive study connecting inherent characteristics of neoliberal settler city, trajectory of political economy of unorganized workers - artists/craftsmen and legal containment and exclusion leading to dispossession and marginalization of communities from the city site, is relevant to contextualize the trauma of spatial segregation. This study would deal with political, cultural, social and economic dominant behavior of the structure in the state formation, accumulation of property and design of urban space, fueled by segregation of marginalized/unorganized communities and disowning the ‘footloose proletariat’, the migrant workforce. The methodology of study involves qualitative research amongst communities and the field work-oral testimonies and personal accounts- becomes the primary material to theorize the realities. The secondary materials in the forms of archival materials about historical evolution of Delhi as a planned city from various archives, would be used. As the study also adopt ‘narrative approach’ in qualitative study, the life experiences of craftsmen/artists as performers and emotional trauma of losing their livelihood and space forms an important record to understand the instability and insecurity that marginalization and development attributes on urban poor. The study attempts to prove that though there was a change in political tradition from colonialism to constitutional democracy, new state still follows the policy of segregation and dispossession of the communities. It is this dispossession from the space, deprivation of livelihood and non-consultative process in rehabilitation that reflects the neoliberal approach of the state and also critical findings in the study. This study would entail critical spatial lens analyzing ethnographic and sociological data, representational practices and development debates to understand ‘urban otherization’ against craftsmen/artists. This seeks to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the resistance of communities against primitivity attached with them and to decolonize the city. This would help to contextualize the demand for declaring Kathputli Colony as ‘heritage artists village’. The conceptualization and contextualization would help to argue for right to city of the communities, collective rights to property, services and self-determination. The aspirations of the communities also help to draw normative orientation towards decolonization. It is important to study this site as part of the framework, ‘inclusive cities’ because cities are rarely noted as important sites of ‘community struggles’.

Keywords: neoliberal settler city, socio-spatial segregation, the livelihood of artists/craftsmen, dispossession of indigenous communities, urban planning and cultural uprooting

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Authors: Edward Shizha, Edward Makwarimba

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This literature review explores current research on the educational strengths and barriers of newcomer and refugee youth in Canada. Canada’s shift in immigration policy in the past three decades, from Europe to Asian and African countries as source continents of recent immigrants to Canada, has tremendously increased the ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious diversity of the population, including that of students in its education system. Over 18% of the country’s population was born in another country, of which 70% are visible minorities. There has been an increase in admitted immigrants and refugees, with a total of 226,203 between July 2020 and June 2021. Newcomer parents and their children in all major destination countries, including Canada, face tremendous challenges, including racism and discrimination, lack of English language skills, poverty, income inequality, unemployment, and underemployment. They face additional challenges, including discrimination against those who cannot speak the official languages, English or French. The severity of the challenges depends on several intersectional factors, including immigrant status (asylum seeker, refugee, or immigrant), age, gender, level of education and others. Through the lens of intersectionality as an explanatory perspective, this literature review examines the educational attainment and outcomes of newcomer and refugee youth in Canada in order to understand their educational needs, educational barriers and strengths. Newcomer youths’ experiences are shaped by numerous intersectional and interconnected sociocultural, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic factors—including gender, migration status, racialized status, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, sexual minority status, age, race—that produce and perpetuate their disadvantage. According to research, immigrants and refugees from visible minority ethnic backgrounds experience exclusions more than newcomers from other backgrounds and groups from the mainstream population. For many immigrant parents, migration provides financial and educational opportunities for their children. Yet, when attending school, newcomer and refugee youth face unique challenges related to racism and discrimination, negative attitudes and stereotypes from teachers and other school authorities, language learning and proficiency, differing levels of acculturation, and different cultural views of the role of parents in relation to teachers and school, and unfamiliarity with the social or school context in Canada. Recognizing discrepancies in educational attainment of newcomer and refugee youth based on their race and immigrant status, the paper develops insights into existing research and data gaps related to educational strengths and challenges for visible minority newcomer youth in Canada. The paper concludes that the educational successes or failures of the newcomer and refugee youth and their settlement and integration into the school system in Canada may depend on where their families settle, the attitudes of the host community and the school officials (teachers, guidance counsellors and school administrators) after-school support programs and their own set of coping mechanisms. Conceivably a unique approach to after-school programming should provide learning supports and opportunities that consider newcomer and refugee youth’s needs, experiences, backgrounds and circumstances. This support is likely to translate into significant academic and psychological well-being of newcomer students.

Keywords: deficit discourse, discrimination, educational outcomes, newcomer and refugee youth, racism, strength-based approach, whiteness

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Authors: Catherine Bradshaw

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Educators often report difficulty managing behavior problems and other mental health concerns that students display at school. These concerns also interfere with the learning process and can create distraction for teachers and other students. As such, schools play an important role in both preventing and intervening with students who experience these types of challenges. A number of models have been proposed to serve as a framework for delivering prevention and early intervention services in schools. One such model is called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), which has been scaled-up to over 26,000 schools in the U.S. and many other countries worldwide. PBIS aims to improve a range of student outcomes through early detection of and intervention related to behavioral and mental health symptoms. PBIS blends and applies social learning, behavioral, and organizational theories to prevent disruptive behavior and enhance the school’s organizational health. PBIS focuses on creating and sustaining tier 1 (universal), tier 2 (selective), and tier 3 (individual) systems of support. Most schools using PBIS have focused on the core elements of the tier 1 supports, which includes the following critical features. The formation of a PBIS team within the school to lead implementation. Identification and training of a behavioral support ‘coach’, who serves as a on-site technical assistance provider. Many of the individuals identified to serve as a PBIS coach are also trained as a school psychologist or guidance counselor; coaches typically have prior PBIS experience and are trained to conduct functional behavioral assessments. The PBIS team also identifies a set of three to five positive behavioral expectations that are implemented for all students and by all staff school-wide (e.g., ‘be respectful, responsible, and ready to learn’); these expectations are posted in all settings across the school, including in the classroom, cafeteria, playground etc. All school staff define and teach the school-wide behavioral expectations to all students and review them regularly. Finally, PBIS schools develop or adopt a school-wide system to reward or reinforce students who demonstrate those 3-5 positive behavioral expectations. Staff and administrators create an agreed upon system for responding to behavioral violations that include definitions about what constitutes a classroom-managed vs. an office-managed discipline problem. Finally, a formal system is developed to collect, analyze, and use disciplinary data (e.g., office discipline referrals) to inform decision-making. This presentation provides a brief overview of PBIS and reports findings from a series of four U.S. based longitudinal randomized controlled trials (RCTs) documenting the impacts of PBIS on school climate, discipline problems, bullying, and academic achievement. The four RCTs include 80 elementary, 40 middle, and 58 high schools and results indicate a broad range of impacts on multiple student and school-wide outcomes. The session will highlight lessons learned regarding PBIS implementation and scale-up. We also review the ways in which PBIS can help educators and school leaders engage in data-based decision-making and share data with other decision-makers and stakeholders (e.g., students, parents, community members), with the overarching goal of increasing use of evidence-based programs in schools.

Keywords: positive behavioral interventions and supports, mental health, randomized trials, school-based prevention

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Authors: Kazuhiro Tateda, Elisa Gonzalez, Shuhei Ito, Kirstin Heinrich, Kevin Sweetland, Pingping Zhang, Catia Ferreira, Michael Pride, Jennifer Moisi, Sharon Gray, Bennett Lee, Fred Angulo

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Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and infectious diarrhea in healthcare settings. Japan has an aging population; the elderly are at increased risk of hospitalization, antibiotic use, and C. difficile infection (CDI). Little is known about the population-based incidence and disease burden of CDI in Japan although limited hospital-based studies have reported a lower incidence than the United States. To understand CDI disease burden in Japan, CLOUD (Clostridium difficile Infection Burden of Disease in Adults in Japan) was developed. CLOUD will derive population-based incidence estimates of the number of CDI cases per 100,000 population per year in Ota-ku (population 723,341), one of the districts in Tokyo, Japan. CLOUD will include approximately 14 of the 28 Ota-ku hospitals including Toho University Hospital, which is a 1,000 bed tertiary care teaching hospital. During the 12-month patient enrollment period, which is scheduled to begin in November 2018, Ota-ku residents > 50 years of age who are hospitalized at a participating hospital with diarrhea ( > 3 unformed stools (Bristol Stool Chart 5-7) in 24 hours) will be actively ascertained, consented, and enrolled by study surveillance staff. A stool specimen will be collected from enrolled patients and tested at a local reference laboratory (LSI Medience, Tokyo) using QUIK CHEK COMPLETE® (Abbott Laboratories). which simultaneously tests specimens for the presence of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and C. difficile toxins A and B. A frozen stool specimen will also be sent to the Pfizer Laboratory (Pearl River, United States) for analysis using a two-step diagnostic testing algorithm that is based on detection of C. difficile strains/spores harboring toxin B gene by PCR followed by detection of free toxins (A and B) using a proprietary cell cytotoxicity neutralization assay (CCNA) developed by Pfizer. Positive specimens will be anaerobically cultured, and C. difficile isolates will be characterized by ribotyping and whole genomic sequencing. CDI patients enrolled in CLOUD will be contacted weekly for 90 days following diarrhea onset to describe clinical outcomes including recurrence, reinfection, and mortality, and patient reported economic, clinical and humanistic outcomes (e.g., health-related quality of life, worsening of comorbidities, and patient and caregiver work absenteeism). Studies will also be undertaken to fully characterize the catchment area to enable population-based estimates. The 12-month active ascertainment of CDI cases among hospitalized Ota-ku residents with diarrhea in CLOUD, and the characterization of the Ota-ku catchment area, including estimation of the proportion of all hospitalizations of Ota-ku residents that occur in the CLOUD-participating hospitals, will yield CDI population-based incidence estimates, which can be stratified by age groups, risk groups, and source (hospital-acquired or community-acquired). These incidence estimates will be extrapolated, following age standardization using national census data, to yield CDI disease burden estimates for Japan. CLOUD also serves as a model for studies in other countries that can use the CLOUD protocol to estimate CDI disease burden.

Keywords: Clostridium difficile, disease burden, epidemiology, study protocol

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Authors: Moshreka Aditi Huq

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This study shows how a progressive portion of civil intellectuals in Bangladesh contributed as the solidarity activist entities in a movement of tea workers that became the symbol of their unique moral struggle. Their passive yet sharp way of resistance, with the integration of mass tea workers of a tea estate, got demonstrated against certain private companies and government officials who approached to establish a special economic zone inside the tea garden without offering any compensation and rehabilitation for poor tea workers. Due to massive protests and rebellion, the authorized entrepreneurs had to step back and called off the project immediately. The extraordinary features of this movement generated itself from the deep core social need of indigenous tea workers who are still imprisoned in the colonial cage. Following an anthropological and ethnographic perspective, this study adopted the main three techniques of intensive interview, focus group discussion, and laborious observation, to extract empirical data. The intensive interviews were undertaken informally using a mostly conversational approach. Focus group discussions were piloted among various representative groups where observations prevailed as part of the regular documentation process. These were conducted among civil intellectual entities, tea workers, tea estate authorities, civil service authorities, and business officials to obtain a holistic view of the situation. The fieldwork was executed in capital Dhaka city, along with northern areas like Chandpur-Begumkhan Tea Estate of Chunarughat Upazilla and Habiganj city of Habiganj District of Bangladesh. Correspondingly, secondary data were accessed through books, scholarly papers, archives, newspapers, reports, leaflets, posters, writing blog, and electronic pages of social media. The study results find that: (1) civil intellectuals opposed state-sponsored business impositions by producing counter-discourse and struggled against state hegemony through the phases of the movement; (2) instead of having the active physical resistance, civil intellectuals’ strength was preferably in passive form which was portrayed through their intellectual labor; (3) the combined movement of tea workers and civil intellectuals reflected on social security of ethnic worker communities that contrasts state’s pseudo-development motives which ultimately supports offensive and oppressive neoliberal growths of economy; (4) civil intellectuals are revealed as having certain functional limitations in the process of movement organization as well as resource mobilization; (5) in specific contexts, the genuine need of protest by indigenous subaltern can overshadow intellectual elitism and helps to raise the voices of ‘subjugated knowledge’. This study is quite likely to represent two sets of apparent protagonist entities in the discussion of social injustice and oppressive development intervention. On the one, hand it may help us to find the basic functional characteristics of civil intellectuals in Bangladesh when they are in a passive mode of resistance in social movement issues. On the other hand, it represents the community ownership and inherent protest tendencies of indigenous workers when they feel threatened and insecure. The study seems to have the potential to understand the conditions of ‘subjugated knowledge’ of subalterns. Furthermore, being the memory and narratives, these ‘activism mechanisms’ of social entities broadens the path to understand ‘power’ and ‘resistance’ in more fascinating ways.

Keywords: civil intellectuals, resistance, subjugated knowledge, indigenous

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Authors: Rahel Birhane Eshetu

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This research investigates the complex landscape of project management practices and operational challenges in conflict-affected areas, with a specific focus on Kewot Woreda in the North Shewa Zone of the Amhara region in Ethiopia. The study aims to identify essential project management methodologies, the significant operational hurdles faced, and the adaptive strategies employed by project managers in these challenging environments. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the research combines qualitative and quantitative data collection. Initially, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to establish a theoretical framework. This was followed by the administration of questionnaires to gather empirical data, which was then analyzed using statistical software. This sequential approach ensures a robust understanding of the context and challenges faced by project managers. The findings reveal that project managers in conflict zones encounter a range of escalating challenges. Initially, they must contend with immediate security threats and the presence of displaced populations, which significantly disrupt project initiation and execution. As projects progress, additional challenges arise, including limited access to essential resources and environmental disruptions such as natural disasters. These factors exacerbate the operational difficulties that project managers must navigate. In response to these challenges, the study highlights the necessity for project managers to implement formal project plans while simultaneously adopting adaptive strategies that evolve over time. Key adaptive strategies identified include flexible risk management frameworks, change management practices, and enhanced stakeholder engagement approaches. These strategies are crucial for maintaining project momentum and ensuring that objectives are met despite the unpredictable nature of conflict environments. The research emphasizes that structured scope management, clear documentation, and thorough requirements analysis are vital components for effectively navigating the complexities inherent in conflict-affected regions. However, the ongoing threats and logistical barriers necessitate a continuous adjustment to project management methodologies. This adaptability is not only essential for the immediate success of projects but also for fostering long-term resilience within the community. Concluding, the study offers actionable recommendations aimed at improving project management practices in conflict zones. These include the adoption of adaptive frameworks specifically tailored to the unique conditions of conflict environments and targeted training for project managers. Such training should focus on equipping managers with the skills to better address the dynamic challenges presented by conflict situations. The insights gained from this research contribute significantly to the broader field of project management, providing a practical guide for practitioners operating in high-risk areas. By emphasizing sustainable and resilient project outcomes, this study underscores the importance of adaptive management strategies in ensuring the success of projects in conflict-affected regions. The findings serve not only to enhance the understanding of project management practices in Kewot Woreda but also to inform future research and practice in similar contexts, ultimately aiming to promote stability and development in areas beset by conflict.

Keywords: project management practices, operational challenges, conflict zones, adaptive strategies

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Authors: Andreas Rudisch, Ralf Lampert, Andreas Kolbitsch

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It is a well-known fact among the engineering community that earthquakes with comparatively low magnitudes can cause serious damage to nonstructural components (NSCs) of buildings, even when the supporting structure performs relatively well. Past research works focused mainly on NSCs of nuclear power plants and industrial plants. Particular attention should also be given to architectural façade elements of old masonry buildings (e.g. ornamental figures, balustrades, vases), which are very vulnerable under seismic excitation. Large numbers of these historical nonstructural components (HiNSCs) can be found in highly frequented historical city centers and in the event of failure, they pose a significant danger to persons. In order to estimate the vulnerability of acceleration sensitive HiNSCs, the peak horizontal floor acceleration (PHFA) is used. The PHFA depends on the dynamic characteristics of the building, the ground excitation, and induced nonlinearities. Consequently, the PHFA can not be generalized as a simple function of height. In the present research work, an extensive case study was conducted to investigate the influence of induced nonlinearity on the PHFA for old masonry buildings. Probabilistic nonlinear FE time-history analyses considering three different hazard levels were performed. A set of eighteen synthetically generated ground motions was used as input to the structure models. An elastoplastic macro-model (multiPlas) for nonlinear homogenized continuum FE-calculation was calibrated to multiple scales and applied, taking specific failure mechanisms of masonry into account. The macro-model was calibrated according to the results of specific laboratory and cyclic in situ shear tests. The nonlinear macro-model is based on the concept of multi-surface rate-independent plasticity. Material damage or crack formation are detected by reducing the initial strength after failure due to shear or tensile stress. As a result, shear forces can only be transmitted to a limited extent by friction when the cracking begins. The tensile strength is reduced to zero. The first goal of the calibration was the consistency of the load-displacement curves between experiment and simulation. The calibrated macro-model matches well with regard to the initial stiffness and the maximum horizontal load. Another goal was the correct reproduction of the observed crack image and the plastic strain activities. Again the macro-model proved to work well in this case and shows very good correlation. The results of the case study show that there is significant scatter in the absolute distribution of the PHFA between the applied ground excitations. An absolute distribution along the normalized building height was determined in the framework of probability theory. It can be observed that the extent of nonlinear behavior varies for the three hazard levels. Due to the detailed scope of the present research work, a robust comparison with code-recommendations and simplified PHFA distributions are possible. The chosen methodology offers a chance to determine the distribution of PHFA along the building height of old masonry structures. This permits a proper hazard assessment of HiNSCs under seismic loads.

Keywords: nonlinear macro-model, nonstructural components, time-history analysis, unreinforced masonry

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Authors: Murat Arıbaş, Uğur Özcan

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Due to the increasing number of universities and academics, the fund of the universities for research activities and grants/supports given by government institutions have increased number and quality of academic research projects. Although every academic research project has a specific purpose and importance, limited resources (money, time, manpower etc.) require choosing the best ones from all (Amiri, 2010). It is a pretty hard process to compare and determine which project is better such that the projects serve different purposes. In addition, the evaluation process has become complicated since there are more than one evaluator and multiple criteria for the evaluation (Dodangeh, Mojahed and Yusuff, 2009). Mehrez and Sinuany-Stern (1983) determined project selection problem as a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem. If a decision problem involves multiple criteria and objectives, it is called as a Multi Attribute Decision Making problem (Ömürbek & Kınay, 2013). There are many MCDM methods in the literature for the solution of such problems. These methods are AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), ANP (Analytic Network Process), TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation), UTADIS (Utilities Additives Discriminantes), ELECTRE (Elimination et Choix Traduisant la Realite), MAUT (Multiattribute Utility Theory), GRA (Grey Relational Analysis) etc. Teach method has some advantages compared with others (Ömürbek, Blacksmith & Akalın, 2013). Hence, to decide which MCDM method will be used for solution of the problem, factors like the nature of the problem, types of choices, measurement scales, type of uncertainty, dependency among the attributes, expectations of decision maker, and quantity and quality of the data should be considered (Tavana & Hatami-Marbini, 2011). By this study, it is aimed to develop a systematic decision process for the grant support applications that are expected to be evaluated according to their scientific adequacy by multiple evaluators under certain criteria. In this context, project evaluation process applied by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) the leading institutions in our country, was investigated. Firstly in the study, criteria that will be used on the project evaluation were decided. The main criteria were selected among TÜBİTAK evaluation criteria. These criteria were originality of project, methodology, project management/team and research opportunities and extensive impact of project. Moreover, for each main criteria, 2-4 sub criteria were defined, hence it was decided to evaluate projects over 13 sub-criterion in total. Due to superiority of determination criteria weights AHP method and provided opportunity ranking great number of alternatives TOPSIS method, they are used together. AHP method, developed by Saaty (1977), is based on selection by pairwise comparisons. Because of its simple structure and being easy to understand, AHP is the very popular method in the literature for determining criteria weights in MCDM problems. Besides, the TOPSIS method developed by Hwang and Yoon (1981) as a MCDM technique is an alternative to ELECTRE method and it is used in many areas. In the method, distance from each decision point to ideal and to negative ideal solution point was calculated by using Euclidian Distance Approach. In the study, main criteria and sub-criteria were compared on their own merits by using questionnaires that were developed based on an importance scale by four relative groups of people (i.e. TUBITAK specialists, TUBITAK managers, academics and individuals from business world ) After these pairwise comparisons, weight of the each main criteria and sub-criteria were calculated by using AHP method. Then these calculated criteria’ weights used as an input in TOPSİS method, a sample consisting 200 projects were ranked on their own merits. This new system supported to opportunity to get views of the people that take part of project process including preparation, evaluation and implementation on the evaluation of academic research projects. Moreover, instead of using four main criteria in equal weight to evaluate projects, by using weighted 13 sub-criteria and decision point’s distance from the ideal solution, systematic decision making process was developed. By this evaluation process, new approach was created to determine importance of academic research projects.

Keywords: Academic projects, Ahp method, Research projects evaluation, Topsis method.

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Authors: Tom S. Owens, Tom A. Calverley, Benjamin S. Stacey, Christopher J. Marley, George Rose, Lewis Fall, Gareth L. Jones, Priscilla Williams, John P. R. Williams, Martin Steggall, Damian M. Bailey

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Introduction and aims: Sports-related concussion (SRC) represents a significant and growing public health concern in rugby union, yet remains one of the least understood injuries facing the health community today. Alongside increasing SRC incidence rates, there is concern that prior recurrent concussion may contribute to long-term neurologic sequelae in later-life. This may be due to an accelerated decline in cerebral perfusion, a major risk factor for neurocognitive decline and neurodegeneration, though the underlying mechanisms remain to be established. The present study hypothesised that recurrent concussion in current professional rugby union players would result in elevated systemic oxidative-nitrosative stress, reflected by a free radical-mediated reduction in nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and impaired cerebrovascular and cognitive function. Methodology: A longitudinal study design was adopted across the 2017-2018 rugby union season. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of South Wales Ethics Committee. Data collection is ongoing, and therefore the current report documents result from the pre-season and first half of the in-season data collection. Participants were initially divided into two subgroups; 23 professional rugby union players (aged 26 ± 5 years) and 22 non-concussed controls (27 ± 8 years). Pre-season measurements were performed for cerebrovascular function (Doppler ultrasound of middle cerebral artery velocity (MCAv) in response to hypocapnia/normocapnia/hypercapnia), cephalic venous concentrations of the ascorbate radical (A•-, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy), NO (ozone-based chemiluminescence) and cognition (neuropsychometric tests). Notational analysis was performed to assess contact in the rugby group throughout each competitive game. Results: 1001 tackles and 62 injuries, including three concussions were observed across the first half of the season. However, no associations were apparent between number of tackles and any injury type (P > 0.05). The rugby group expressed greater oxidative stress as indicated by increased A•- (P < 0.05 vs. control) and a subsequent decrease in NO bioavailability (P < 0.05 vs. control). The rugby group performed worse in the Ray Auditory Verbal Learning Test B (RAVLT-B, learning, and memory) and the Grooved Pegboard test using both the dominant and non-dominant hands (visuomotor coordination, P < 0.05 vs. control). There were no between-group differences in cerebral perfusion at baseline (MCAv: 54 ± 13 vs. 59 ± 12, P > 0.05). Likewise, no between-group differences in CVRCO2Hypo (2.58 ± 1.01 vs. 2.58 ± 0.75, P > 0.05) or CVRCO2Hyper (2.69 ± 1.07 vs. 3.35 ± 1.28, P > 0.05) were observed. Conclusion: The present study identified that the rugby union players are characterized by impaired cognitive function subsequent to elevated systemic-oxidative-nitrosative stress. However, this appears to be independent of any functional impairment in cerebrovascular function. Given the potential long-term trajectory towards accelerated cognitive decline in populations exposed to SRC, prophylaxis to increase NO bioavailability warrants consideration.

Keywords: cognition, concussion, mild traumatic brain injury, rugby

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Authors: Monique M. Keller, Roline Barnes, Corlia Brandt

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Introduction Scientific evidence on the hand forces and the types of grasps measurement during daily tasks are lacking, leaving a gap in the field of hand rehabilitation and robotics. Measuring the grasp forces and types produced by the individual fingers during daily functional tasks is valuable to inform and grade rehabilitation practices for second to fifth metacarpal fractures with robust scientific evidence. Feix et al, 2016 identified the most extensive and complete grasp study that resulted in the GRASP taxonomy. Covid-19 virus changed data collection across the globe and safety precautions in research are essential to ensure the health of participants and researchers. Methodology A cross-sectional study investigated six healthy adults aged 20 to 59 years, pilot participants’ hand forces during 105 tasks. The tasks were categorized into five sections namely, personal care, transport and moving around, home environment and inside, gardening and outside, and office. The predominant grasp of each task was identified guided by the GRASP Taxonomy. Grasp forces were measured with 13mm force-sensing resistors glued onto a glove attached to each of the dominant and non-dominant hand’s individual fingers. Testing equipment included Flexiforce 13millimetres FSR .5" circle, calibrated prior to testing, 10k 1/4w resistors, Arduino pro mini 5.0v – compatible, Esp-01-kit, Arduino uno r3 – compatible board, USB ab cable - 1m, Ftdi ft232 mini USB to serial, Sil 40 inline connectors, ribbon cable combo male header pins, female to female, male to female, two gloves, glue to attach the FSR to glove, Arduino software programme downloaded on a laptop. Grip strength measurements with Jamar dynamometer prior to testing and after every 25 daily tasks were taken to will avoid fatigue and ensure reliability in testing. Covid-19 precautions included wearing face masks at all times, screening questionnaires, temperatures taken, wearing surgical gloves before putting on the testing gloves 1.5 metres long wires attaching the FSR to the Arduino to maintain social distance. Findings Predominant grasps observed during 105 tasks included, adducted thumb (17), lateral tripod (10), prismatic three fingers (12), small diameter (9), prismatic two fingers (9), medium wrap (7), fixed hook (5), sphere four fingers (4), palmar (4), parallel extension (4), index finger extension (3), distal (3), power sphere (2), tripod (2), quadpod (2), prismatic four fingers (2), lateral (2), large-diameter (2), ventral (2), precision sphere (1), palmar pinch (1), light tool (1), inferior pincher (1), and writing tripod (1). Range of forces applied per category, personal care (1-25N), transport and moving around (1-9 N), home environment and inside (1-41N), gardening and outside (1-26.5N), and office (1-20N). Conclusion Scientifically measurements of finger forces with careful consideration to types of grasps used in daily tasks should guide rehabilitation practices and robotic design to ensure a return to the full participation of the individual into the community.

Keywords: activities of daily living (ADL), Covid-19, force-sensing resistors, grasps, hand forces

Procedia PDF Downloads 189

Authors: Hamda Ajmal, Karen Young, Ruth Melia, John Bogue, Mary O'Sullivan, Jim Duggan, Hannah Wood

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The Covid-19 pandemic led to a range of public health mitigation strategies in order to suppress the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The drastic changes in everyday life due to lockdowns had the potential for a significant negative impact on public mental health, and a key public health goal is to now assess the evidence from available Irish datasets to provide useful insights on this issue. Text-50808 is an online text-based mental health support service, established in Ireland in 2020, and can provide a measure of revealed distress and mental health concerns across the population. The aim of this study is to explore statistical associations between public mental health in Ireland and the Covid-19 pandemic. Uniquely, this study combines two measures of emotional wellbeing in Ireland: (1) weekly text volume at Text-50808, and (2) emotional wellbeing indicators reported by respondents of the Amárach public opinion survey, carried out on behalf of the Department of Health, Ireland. For this analysis, a multivariate graphical exploratory data analysis (EDA) was performed on the Text-50808 dataset dated from 15th June 2020 to 30th June 2021. This was followed by time-series analysis of key mental health indicators including: (1) the percentage of daily/weekly texts at Text-50808 that mention Covid-19 related issues; (2) the weekly percentage of people experiencing anxiety, boredom, enjoyment, happiness, worry, fear and stress in Amárach survey; and Covid-19 related factors: (3) daily new Covid-19 case numbers; (4) daily stringency index capturing the effect of government non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in Ireland. The cross-correlation function was applied to measure the relationship between the different time series. EDA of the Text-50808 dataset reveals significant peaks in the volume of texts on days prior to level 3 lockdown and level 5 lockdown in October 2020, and full level 5 lockdown in December 2020. A significantly high positive correlation was observed between the percentage of texts at Text-50808 that reported Covid-19 related issues and the percentage of respondents experiencing anxiety, worry and boredom (at a lag of 1 week) in Amárach survey data. There is a significant negative correlation between percentage of texts with Covid-19 related issues and percentage of respondents experiencing happiness in Amárach survey. Daily percentage of texts at Text-50808 that reported Covid-19 related issues to have a weak positive correlation with daily new Covid-19 cases in Ireland at a lag of 10 days and with daily stringency index of NPIs in Ireland at a lag of 2 days. The sudden peaks in text volume at Text-50808 immediately prior to new restrictions in Ireland indicate an association between a rise in mental health concerns following the announcement of new restrictions. There is also a high correlation between emotional wellbeing variables in the Amárach dataset and the number of weekly texts at Text-50808, and this confirms that Text-50808 reflects overall public sentiment. This analysis confirms the benefits of the texting service as a community surveillance tool for mental health in the population. This initial EDA will be extended to use multivariate modeling to predict the effect of additional Covid-19 related factors on public mental health in Ireland.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, data analysis, digital health, mental health, public health, digital health

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Authors: Edward Shizha, Edward Makwarimba

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Newcomer and refugee youth feel excluded in the education system in Canada, and the formal education environment does not fully cater for their learning needs. The objective of this study was to build knowledge and understanding of the educational needs and experiences of these youth in Canada and how available afterschool programs can most effectively support their learning needs and academic outcomes. The Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), which funded this research, enables and empowers students to advance their educational experience through targeted investments in services that are delivered by youth-serving organizations outside the formal education system through afterschool initiatives. A literature review and a provincial/territorial internet scan were conducted to determine the availability of services and programs that serve the educational needs and academic outcomes of newcomer youth in 10 provinces and 3 territories in Canada. The goal was to identify intersectional factors (e.g., gender, sexuality, culture, social class, race, etc.) that influence educational outcomes of newcomer/refugee students and to recommend ways the ESDC could complement settlement services to enhance students’ educational success. First, data was collected through a literature search of various databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google docs, ACADEMIA, and grey literature, including government documents, to inform our analysis. Second, a provincial/territorial internet scan was conducted using a template that was created by ESDC staff with the input of the researchers. The objective of the web-search scan was to identify afterschool programs, projects, and initiatives offered to newcomer/refugee youth by service provider organizations. The method for the scan included both qualitative and quantitative data gathering. Both the literature review and the provincial/territorial scan revealed that there are gender disparities in educational outcomes of newcomer and refugee youth. High school completion rates by gender show that boys are at higher risk of not graduating than girls and that girls are more likely than boys to have at least a high school diploma and more likely to proceed to postsecondary education. Findings from literature reveal that afterschool programs are required for refugee youth who experience mental health challenges and miss out on significant periods of schooling, which affect attendance, participation, and graduation from high school. However, some refugee youth use their resilience and ambition to succeed in their educational outcomes. Another finding showed that some immigrant/refugee students, through ethnic organizations and familial affiliation, maintain aspects of their cultural values, parental expectations and ambitious expectations for their own careers to succeed in both high school and postsecondary education. The study found a significant combination of afterschool programs that include academic support, scholarships, bursaries, homework support, career readiness, internships, mentorship, tutoring, non-clinical counselling, mental health and social well-being support, language skills, volunteering opportunities, community connections, peer networking, culturally relevant services etc. These programs assist newcomer youth to develop self-confidence and prepare for academic success and future career development. The study concluded that advantages of afterschool programs are greatest for youth at risk for poor educational outcomes, such as Latino and Black youth, including 2SLGBTQI+ immigrant youth.

Keywords: afterschool programs, educational outcomes, newcomer youth, refugee youth, youth-serving organizations

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Authors: Mahbuba Kaneez Hasna

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Introductory Statement outlining the background: Little has been written about political ecology of urban gardening, such as a network of knowledge generation, technologies of food production and distribution, food consumption practices, and the regulation of ‘agricultural activities. For urban food gardens to sustain as a long-term food security enterprise, we will need to better understand the anthropological, ecological, political, and institutional factors influencing their development, management, and ongoing viability. Significance of the study: Dhaka as one of the fastest growing city. There are currently no studies regards to Bangladesh on how urban slum dwellerscope with the changing urban environment in the city, where they overcome challenges, and how they cope with the urban ecological cycle of food and vegetable production. It is also essential to understand the importance of their access to confined spaces in the slums they apply their indigenous knowledge. These relationships in nature are important factors in community and conservation ecology. Until now, there has been no significant published academic work on relationships between urban and environmental anthropology, urban planning, geography, ecology, and social anthropology with a focus on urban agriculture and how this contributes to the moral economies, indigenous knowledge, and government policies in order to improve the lives and livelihoods of slum dwellers surrounding parks and open spaces in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Methodology: it have applied participant observation, semi-structured questionnaire-based interviews, and focus group discussions to collect social data. Interviews were conducted with the urban agriculture practitioners who are slum dwellers who carry out their urban agriculture activities. Some of the interviews were conducted with non-government organisations (NGOs) and local and state government officials, using semi-structured interviews. Using these methods developed a clearer understanding of how green space cultivation, local economic self-reliance, and urban gardening are producing distinctive urban ecologies in Dhaka and their policy-implications on urban sustainability. Major findings of the study: The research provided an in-depth knowledge on the challenges that slum dwellers encounter in establishing and maintaining urban gardens, such as the economic development of the city, conflicting political agendas, and environmental constraints in areas within which gardening activities take place. The research investigated (i) How do slum dwellers perform gardening practices from rural areas to open spaces in the city? (ii) How do men and women’s ethno-botanical knowledge contribute to urban biodiversity; (iii) And how do slum dwellers navigate complex constellations of land use policy, competing political agendas, and conflicting land and water tenures to meet livelihood functions provided by their gardens. Concluding statement: Lack of infrastructure facilities such as water supply and sanitation, micro-drains and waste disposal areas, and poor access to basic health care services increase the misery of people in the slum areas. Lack of environmental health awareness information for farmers, such as the risks from the use of chemical pesticides in gardens and from grazing animals in contaminated fields or cropping and planting trees or vegetable in contaminated dumping grounds, can all cause high health risk to humans and their environment.

Keywords: gender, urban agriculture, ecosystem health, urban slum systems

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Authors: Manuel I. Capel, Antonio Tomeu, Alberto Salguero

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Tumor growth from a transformed cancer-cell up to a clinically apparent mass spans through a range of spatial and temporal magnitudes. Through computer simulations, Cellular Automata (CA) can accurately describe the complexity of the development of tumors. Tumor development prognosis can now be made -without making patients undergo through annoying medical examinations or painful invasive procedures- if we develop appropriate CA-based software tools. In silico testing mainly refers to Computational Biology research studies of application to clinical actions in Medicine. To establish sound computer-based models of cellular behavior, certainly reduces costs and saves precious time with respect to carrying out experiments in vitro at labs or in vivo with living cells and organisms. These aim to produce scientifically relevant results compared to traditional in vitro testing, which is slow, expensive, and does not generally have acceptable reproducibility under the same conditions. For speeding up computer simulations of cellular models, specific literature shows recent proposals based on the CA approach that include advanced techniques, such the clever use of supporting efficient data structures when modeling with deterministic stochastic cellular automata. Multiparadigm and multiscale simulation of tumor dynamics is just beginning to be developed by the concerned research community. The use of stochastic cellular automata (SCA), whose parallel programming implementations are open to yield a high computational performance, are of much interest to be explored up to their computational limits. There have been some approaches based on optimizations to advance in multiparadigm models of tumor growth, which mainly pursuit to improve performance of these models through efficient memory accesses guarantee, or considering the dynamic evolution of the memory space (grids, trees,…) that holds crucial data in simulations. In our opinion, the different optimizations mentioned above are not decisive enough to achieve the high performance computing power that cell-behavior simulation programs actually need. The possibility of using multicore and GPU parallelism as a promising multiplatform and framework to develop new programming techniques to speed-up the computation time of simulations is just starting to be explored in the few last years. This paper presents a model that incorporates parallel processing, identifying the synchronization necessary for speeding up tumor growth simulations implemented in Java and C++ programming environments. The speed up improvement that specific parallel syntactic constructs, such as executors (thread pools) in Java, are studied. The new tumor growth parallel model is proved using implementations with Java and C++ languages on two different platforms: chipset Intel core i-X and a HPC cluster of processors at our university. The parallelization of Polesczuk and Enderling model (normally used by researchers in mathematical oncology) proposed here is analyzed with respect to performance gain. We intend to apply the model and overall parallelization technique presented here to solid tumors of specific affiliation such as prostate, breast, or colon. Our final objective is to set up a multiparadigm model capable of modelling angiogenesis, or the growth inhibition induced by chemotaxis, as well as the effect of therapies based on the presence of cytotoxic/cytostatic drugs.

Keywords: cellular automaton, tumor growth model, simulation, multicore and manycore programming, parallel programming, high performance computing, speed up

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Authors: Rafael Carlos C. Aniceto, Bryce Abraham M. Anos, Don Christian A. Cornel, Marjerie Brianna S. Go, Samantha Nicole U. Roque, Earl Christian C. Te

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Indigenous peoples (IPs) in the Philippines are a vulnerable, marginalized group in terms of health and overall well-being due to social inequities and cultural differences. National standards regarding maternal healthcare are geared towards facility-based delivery with modern medicine, health services, and skilled birth attendants. Standards and procedures of care for pregnant mothers do not take into account cultural differences between indigenous people and the majority of the population. There do exist, however, numerous other factors that cause relatively poorer health outcomes among indigenous peoples (IPs). This analytic cross-sectional study sought to determine the association between social determinants of health (SDH), focusing on status as indigenous peoples, and maternal health-related knowledge and attitudes (KA), and health behavior of the Dumagat-Agta indigenous people of Barangay Catablingan and Barangay San Marcelino, General Nakar, Quezon Province, and their utilization of health facilities for antenatal care, facility-based delivery and postpartum care, which would affect their health outcomes (that were not within the scope of this study). To quantitatively measure the primary/secondary exposures and outcomes, a total of 90 face-to-face interviews with IP and non-IP mothers were done. For qualitative information, participant observation among 6 communities (5 IP and 1 non-IP), 11 key informant interviews (traditional and modern health providers) and 4 focused group discussions among IP mothers were conducted. Primary quantitative analyses included chi-squared, T-test and binary logistic regression, while secondary qualitative analyses involved thematic analysis and triangulation. The researchers spent a total of 15 days in the community to learn the culture and participate in the practices of the Dumagat-Agta more intensively and deeply. Overall, utilization of all MNCHN services measured in the study was lower for IP mothers compared to their non-IP counterparts. After controlling for confounders measured in the study, IP status (primary exposure) was found to be significantly correlated with utilization of and adherence to two MNCHN-prescribed services: number of antenatal care check-ups and place of delivery (secondary outcomes). Findings show that being an indigenous mother leads to unfavorable social determinants of health, and if compounded by a difference in knowledge and attitudes, would then lead to poor levels of utilization of MNCHN-prescribed services. Key themes from qualitative analyses show that factors that affected utilization were: culture, land alienation, social discrimination, socioeconomic status, and relations between IPs and non-IPs, specifically with non-IP healthcare providers. The findings of this study aim to be used to help and guide in policy-making, to provide healthcare that is not only adequate and of quality, but more importantly, that addresses inequities stemming from various social determinants, and which is socio-culturally acceptable to indigenous communities. To address the root causes of health problems of IPs, there must be full recognition and exercise of their collective rights to communal assets, specifically land, and self-determination. This would improve maternal and child health outcomes to one of the most vulnerable and neglected sectors in society today.

Keywords: child health, indigenous people, knowledge-attitudes-practices, maternal health, social determinants of health

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Authors: Delsy Salinas, Andreia Garcês, Augusto Silva, Paula Brilhante Simões

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Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common disease affecting dogs and cats in both community and hospital environment. Bacteria is the most frequent agent isolated, fewer than 1% of infections are due to parasitic, fungal, or viral agents. Common symptoms and laboratory abnormalities includeabdominal pain, pyrexia, renomegaly, and neutrophilia with left shift. A rapid and precise identification of the bacterial agent is still a challenge in veterinarian laboratories. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aims to describe bacterial colony patterns of urine samples by using chromID™ CPS® EliteAgar (BioMérieux, France) from canine and feline specimens submitted to a veterinary laboratory in Portugal (INNO Veterinary Laboratory, Braga)from January to March2022. All urine samples were cultivated in CPS Elite Agar with calibrated 1 µL inoculating loop and incubated at 37ºC for 18-24h. Color,size, and shape (regular or irregular outline)were recorded for all samples. All colonies were classified as Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteriausing Gram stain (PREVI® Color BioMérieux, France) and determined if they were pure colonies. Identification of bacteria species was performed using GP and GN cards inVitek 2® Compact(BioMérieux, France). A total of 256/1003 submitted urine samples presented bacterial growth, from which 172 isolates were included in this study. The sample’s population included 111 dogs (n=45 males and n=66 females) and 61 cats (n=35 males and n=26 females). The most frequent isolated bacteria wasEscherichia coli (44,7%), followed by Proteus mirabilis (13,4%). All Escherichia coli isolates presented red to burgundy colonies, a colony diameter between 2 to 6 mm, and regular or irregular outlines. Similarly, 100% of Proteus mirabilis isolates were dark yellow colonies with a diffuse pigment and the same size and shape as Escherichia coli. White and pink pale colonies where Staphylococcus species exclusively and S. pseudintermedius was the most frequent (8,2 %). Cian to blue colonies were mostly Enterococcusspp. (8,2%) and Streptococcus spp. (4,6%). Beige to brown colonies were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2,9%) and Citrobacter spp. (1,2%).Klebsiella spp.,Serratia spp. and Enterobacter spp were green colonies. All Gram-positive isolates were 1 to 2 mm diameter long and had a regular outline, meanwhile, Gram-negative rods presented variable patterns. This results showed that theprevalence of E coli and P. mirabilis as uropathogenic agents follows the same trends in Europe as previously described in other studies. Both agents presented a particular color pattern in CPS Elite Agar to identify them without needing complementary tests. No other bacteria genus could be correlated strongly to a specific color pattern, and similar results have been observed instudies using human’s samples. Chromogenic media shows a great advantage for common urine bacteria isolation than traditional COS, McConkey, and CLEDAgar mediums in a routine context, especially when mixed fermentative Gram-negative agents grow simultaneously. In addition, CPS Elite Agar is versatile for Artificial Intelligent Reading Plates Systems. Routine veterinarian laboratories could use CPS Elite Agar for a rapid screening for bacteria identification,mainlyE coli and P.mirabilis, saving 6h to 10h of automatized identification.

Keywords: cats, CPS elite agar, dogs, urine pathogens

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Authors: Dongping Fang, Lian Duan, Xiaojing Yuan, Mike Xu, Allyn Klunder, Kevin Tan, Suiting Cao, Yeqing Ji

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Accurate prediction of a medical condition with straight clinical evidence is a long-sought topic in the medical management and health insurance field. Although great progress has been made with machine learning algorithms, the medical community is still, to a certain degree, suspicious about the model's accuracy and interpretability. This paper presents an innovative hierarchical attention deep learning model to achieve good prediction and clear interpretability that can be easily understood by medical professionals. This deep learning model uses a hierarchical attention structure that matches naturally with the medical history data structure and reflects the member’s encounter (date of service) sequence. The model attention structure consists of 3 levels: (1) attention on the medical code types (diagnosis codes, procedure codes, lab test results, and prescription drugs), (2) attention on the sequential medical encounters within a type, (3) attention on the medical codes within an encounter and type. This model is applied to predict the occurrence of stage 3 chronic kidney disease (CKD3), using three years’ medical history of Medicare Advantage (MA) members from a top health insurance company. The model takes members’ medical events, both claims and electronic medical record (EMR) data, as input, makes a prediction of CKD3 and calculates the contribution from individual events to the predicted outcome. The model outcome can be easily explained with the clinical evidence identified by the model algorithm. Here are examples: Member A had 36 medical encounters in the past three years: multiple office visits, lab tests and medications. The model predicts member A has a high risk of CKD3 with the following well-contributed clinical events - multiple high ‘Creatinine in Serum or Plasma’ tests and multiple low kidneys functioning ‘Glomerular filtration rate’ tests. Among the abnormal lab tests, more recent results contributed more to the prediction. The model also indicates regular office visits, no abnormal findings of medical examinations, and taking proper medications decreased the CKD3 risk. Member B had 104 medical encounters in the past 3 years and was predicted to have a low risk of CKD3, because the model didn’t identify diagnoses, procedures, or medications related to kidney disease, and many lab test results, including ‘Glomerular filtration rate’ were within the normal range. The model accurately predicts members A and B and provides interpretable clinical evidence that is validated by clinicians. Without extra effort, the interpretation is generated directly from the model and presented together with the occurrence date. Our model uses the medical data in its most raw format without any further data aggregation, transformation, or mapping. This greatly simplifies the data preparation process, mitigates the chance for error and eliminates post-modeling work needed for traditional model explanation. To our knowledge, this is the first paper on an interpretable deep-learning model using a 3-level attention structure, sourcing both EMR and claim data, including all 4 types of medical data, on the entire Medicare population of a big insurance company, and more importantly, directly generating model interpretation to support user decision. In the future, we plan to enrich the model input by adding patients’ demographics and information from free-texted physician notes.

Keywords: deep learning, interpretability, attention, big data, medical conditions

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Authors: Sarah Niklas, Lynne Chester, Mark Diesendorf

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Geopolitical tensions, climate change and recent movements favouring a transformative shift in institutional power structures have influenced the economics of conventional energy supply for decades. This study takes a multi-dimensional approach to illustrate the potential of renewable energy (RE) technology to provide a pathway to a low-carbon economy driven by ecologically sustainable, independent and socially just energy. This comparative analysis identifies economic, political and social drivers that shaped the adoption of RE policy in two significantly different economies, Germany and Australia, with strong and weak commitments to RE respectively. Two complementary political-economy theories frame the document-based analysis. Régulation Theory, inspired by Marxist ideas and strongly influenced by contemporary economic problems, provides the background to explore the social relationships contributing the adoption of RE within the macro-economy. Varieties of Capitalism theory, a more recently developed micro-economic approach, examines the nature of state-firm relationships. Together these approaches provide a comprehensive lens of analysis. Germany’s energy policy transformed substantially over the second half of the last century. The development is characterised by the coordination of societal, environmental and industrial demands throughout the advancement of capitalist regimes. In the Fordist regime, mass production based on coal drove Germany’s astounding economic recovery during the post-war period. Economic depression and the instability of institutional arrangements necessitated the impulsive seeking of national security and energy independence. During the postwar Flexi-Fordist period, quality-based production, innovation and technology-based competition schemes, particularly with regard to political power structures in and across Europe, favoured the adoption of RE. Innovation, knowledge and education were institutionalized, leading to the legislation of environmental concerns. Lastly the establishment of government-industry-based coordinative programs supported the phase out of nuclear power and the increased adoption of RE during the last decade. Australia’s energy policy is shaped by the country’s richness in mineral resources. Energy policy largely served coal mining, historically and currently one of the most capital-intense industry. Assisted by the macro-economic dimensions of institutional arrangements, social and financial capital is orientated towards the export-led and strongly demand-oriented economy. Here energy policy serves the maintenance of capital accumulation in the mining sector and the emerging Asian economies. The adoption of supportive renewable energy policy would challenge the distinct role of the mining industry within the (neo)-liberal market economy. The state’s protective role of the mining sector has resulted in weak commitment to RE policy and investment uncertainty in the energy sector. Recent developments, driven by strong public support for RE, emphasize the sense of community in urban and rural areas and the emergence of a bottom-up approach to adopt renewables. Thus, political economy frameworks on both the macro-economic (Regulation Theory) and micro-economic (Varieties of Capitalism theory) scales can together explain the strong commitment to RE in Germany vis-à-vis the weak commitment in Australia.

Keywords: political economy, regulation theory, renewable energy, social relationships, energy transitions

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Authors: Oluwaseun Adeleke, Samuel O. Ikani, Fidelis Edet, Anthony Nwala, Mopelola Raji, Simeon Christian Chukwu

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Background: The DISC project collaborated with partners to implement demand creation and service delivery interventions, including the MoT (Moment of Truth) innovation, in over 500 health facilities across 15 states. This has increased the voluntary conversion rate to self-injection among women who opt for injectable contraception. While some facilities recorded an increasing trend in key performance indicators, few others persistently performed sub-optimally due to provider and system-related barriers. Methodology: Twenty-two facilities performing sub-optimally were selected purposively from three Nigerian states. Low productivity was appraised using low reporting rates and poor SI conversion rates as indicators. Interviews were conducted with health providers across these health facilities using a rapid diagnosis tool. The project also conducted a data quality assessment that evaluated the veracity of data elements reported across the three major sources of family planning data in the facility. Findings: The inability and sometimes refusal of providers to support clients to self-inject effectively was associated with the misunderstanding of its value to their work experience. It was also observed that providers still held a strong influence over clients’ method choices. Furthermore, providers held biases and misconceptions about DMPA-SC that restricted the access of obese clients and new acceptors to services – a clear departure from the recommendations of the national guidelines. Additionally, quality of care standards was compromised because job aids were not used to inform service delivery. Facilities performing sub-optimally often under-reported DMPA-SC utilization data, and there were multiple uncoordinated responsibilities for recording and reporting. Additionally, data validation meetings were not regularly convened, and these meetings were ineffective in authenticating data received from health facilities. Other reasons for sub-optimal performance included poor documentation and tracking of stock inventory resulting in commodity stockouts, low client flow because of poor positioning of health facilities, and ineffective messaging. Some facilities lacked adequate human and material resources to provide services effectively and received very few supportive supervision visits. Supportive supervision visits and Data Quality Audits have been useful to address the aforementioned performance barriers. The project has deployed digital DMPA-SC self-injection checklists that have been aligned with nationally approved templates. During visits, each provider and community mobilizer is accorded special attention by the supervisor until he/she can perform procedures in line with best practice (protocol). Conclusion: This narrative provides a summary of a range of factors that identify health facilities performing sub-optimally in their provision of DMPA-SC services. Findings from this assessment will be useful during project design to inform effective strategies. As the project enters its final stages of implementation, it is transitioning high-impact activities to state institutions in the quest to sustain the quality of service beyond the tenure of the project. The project has flagged activities, as well as created protocols and tools aimed at placing state-level stakeholders at the forefront of improving productivity in health facilities.

Keywords: family planning, contraception, DMPA-SC, self-care, self-injection, barriers, opportunities, performance

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Authors: Chales Mumbere Musavandalo, Lucie B. Mugherwa, Gloire Kayitoghera Mulondi, Naanson Bweya, Muyisa Musongora, Francis Lelo Nzuzi

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The landscape of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo harbors a large community of Mbuti indigenous peoples, often described as the guardians of nature. Living in and off the forest has long been a sustainable strategy for preserving natural resources. This strategy, seen as a form of eco-responsible citizenship, draws upon ethnobotanical knowledge passed down through generations. However, these indigenous communities are facing socio-cultural upheaval, which impacts their traditional way of life. This study aims to assess the relationship between the Mbuti indigenous people’s way of life and the preservation of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. The study was conducted under the assumption that, despite socio-cultural upheavals, the forest and its resources remain central to the Mbuti way of life. The study was conducted in six encampments, three of which were located inside the forest and two in the anthropized zone. The methodological approach initially involved group interviews in six Mbuti encampments. The objective of these interviews was to determine how these people perceive the various services provided by the forest and the resources obtained from this habitat. The technique of using pebbles was adopted to adapt the exercise of weighting services and resources to the understanding of these people. Subsequently, the study carried out ethnobotanical surveys to identify the wood resources frequently used by these communities. This survey was completed in third position by a transect inventory of 1000 m length and 25 m width in order to enhance the understanding of the abundance of these resources around the camps. Two transects were installed in each camp to carry out this inventory. Traditionally, the Mbuti communities sustain their livelihood through hunting, fishing, gathering for self-consumption, and basketry. The Manniophyton fulvum-based net remains the main hunting tool. The primary forest and the swamp are two habitats from which these peoples derive the majority of their resources. However, with the arrival of the Bantu people, who introduced agriculture based on cocoa production, the Mbuti communities started providing services to the Bantu in the form of labor and field guarding. This cultural symbiosis between Mbute and Bantu has also led to non-traditional practices, such as the use of hunting rifles instead of nets and fishing nets instead of creels. The socio-economic and ecological environment in which Mbuti communities live is changing rapidly, including the resources they depend on. By incorporating the time factor into their perception of ecosystem services, only their future (p-value = 0, 0,121), the provision of wood for energy (p-value = 0,1976), and construction (p-value = 0,2548) would be closely associated with the forest in their future. For other services, such as food supply, medicine, and hunting, adaptation to Bantu customs is conceivable. Additionally, the abundance of wood used by the Mbuti people has been high around encampments located in intact forests and low in those in anthropized areas. The traditional way of life of the Mbuti communities is influenced by the cultural symbiosis, reflected in their habits and the availability of resources. The land tenure security of Mbuti areas is crucial to preserve their tradition and forest biodiversity. Conservation efforts in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve must consider this cultural dynamism and promote positive values for the flagship species. The oversight of subsistence hunting is imperative to curtail the transition of these communities to poaching.

Keywords: traditional life, conservation, Indigenous people, cultural symbiosis, forest

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