Search results for: knowledge sharing oriented organizational climate

Authors: Azizah Che Omar

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Various studies have proposed factors of impulse purchase in different advertising mediums like website, mobile, traditional retail store and traditional television. However, to the best of researchers’ knowledge, none of the impulse purchase model is dedicated towards impulse purchase tendency for interactive TV (iTV) advertising. Therefore, the proposed model conceptual design model of interactive television advertising toward impulse purchase (iTVAdIP) was developed. The focus of this study is to evaluate the conceptual design model of iTVAdIP through expert review. As a result, the finding showed that majority of expert reviews agreed that the conceptual design model iTVAdIP is applicable to the development of interactive television advertising and it will increase the effectiveness of advertising. This study also shows the conceptual design model of iTVAdIP that has been reviewed.

Keywords: impulse purchase, interactive television advertising, persuasive

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Authors: Manely Ansary Mood, Farzaneh Aziizi, Mahmoud Akbarian

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This investigation included 130 cats diagnosed with FIP (Feb 2021-March 2022) in Iran, 74 with effusive FIP, and 56 with non-effusive FIP. The patients' initial dosage regime consisted of a subcutaneous injection of GS-441524 was 6-15mg/kg-every 24h (based on the wet or ocular and neurologic signs). The minimum treatment period was twelve weeks, extended in animals that still had abnormal lab values, clinical signs, and sonographic findings. The outcomes of the 130 cats that completed the duration of treatment (14 died, 116 cured) were checked and recorded. Clinical, sonographic, and laboratory responses were checked and compared on days 28, 56, and 83 of treatment. 2 of the 116 cured cats relapsed within observation days. At the time of this publication (May 2022), 114 of the studied patients remained healthy. We could conclude that GS-441524 appears to be an effective option for FIP treatment, and also, to the base of our knowledge, this is the first report for group treatment of infected cats of FIP with GS-441524 in Iran.

Keywords: FIP, cat, GS-441524, treatment

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Authors: Anita Padmanabhanunni, Labeeqah Jaffer

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Menstruation signifies the transition to biological sexual maturity and culture-bound values influence its meaning and experience for women. In South Africa there is a paucity of research specific to the topic of menstruation. This study addresses this gap in the literature by exploring the experiences of menstruation among a group of women from the ama-Xhosa ethnic group, one of the largest ethnic groups in the country. Focus group and individual interviews were conducted with ama-Xhosa woman (n= 15). Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The study found that traditional knowledge systems and cultural practices associated with menstruation including virginity testing and intonjane (female right of passage) still exist and impact on women’s subjective experiences. The study highlights the interface of tradition and modernity in the meanings ascribed to menstruation and women’s experiences of it.

Keywords: menstruation, cultural belief systems, South Africa, ama-Xhosa

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Authors: Isabel N. Sierra-Garcia, Maria J. Ferreira, Sandro Figuereido, Newton Gomes, Helena Silva, Angela Cunha

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Plant-associated microbial communities are considered crucial in the adaptation of halophytes to coastal environments. The plant microbiota can be horizontally acquired from the environment or vertically transmitted from generation to generation via seeds. Recruiting of the microbial communities by the plant is affected by geographical location, soil source, host genotype, and cultivation practice. There is limited knowledge reported on the microbial communities in halophytes the influence of biotic and abiotic factors. In this work, the microbiota associated with the halophyte Salicornia ramosissima was investigated to determine whether the structure of bacterial communities is influenced by host genotype or soil source. For this purpose, two contrasting sites where S. ramosissima is established in the estuarine system of the Ria de Aveiro were investigated. One site corresponds to a natural salt marsh where S. ramosissima plants are present (wild plants), and the other site is a former salt pan that nowadays are subjected to intensive crop production of S. ramosissima (crop plants). Bacterial communities from the rhizosphere, seeds and root endosphere of S. ramossisima from both sites were investigated by sequencing bacterial 16S rRNA gene using the Illumina MiSeq platform. The analysis of the sequences showed that the three plant-associated compartments, rhizosphere, root endosphere, and seed endosphere, harbor distinct microbiomes. However, bacterial richness and diversity were higher in seeds of wild plants, followed by rhizosphere in both sites, while seeds in the crop site had the lowest diversity. Beta diversity measures indicated that bacterial communities in root endosphere and seeds were more similar in both wild and crop plants in contrast to rhizospheres that differed by local, indicating that the recruitment of the similar bacterial communities by the plant genotype is active in regard to the site. Moreover, bacterial communities from the root endosphere and rhizosphere were phylogenetically more similar in both sites, but the phylogenetic composition of seeds in wild and crop sites was distinct. These results indicate that cultivation practices affect the seed microbiome. However, minimal vertical transmission of bacteria from seeds to adult plants is expected. Seeds from the crop site showed higher abundances of Kushneria and Zunongwangia genera. Bacterial members of the classes Alphaprotebacteria and Bacteroidia were the most ubiquitous across sites and compartments and might encompass members of the core microbiome. These findings indicate that bacterial communities associated with S. ramosissima are more influenced by host genotype rather than local abiotic factors or cultivation practices. This study provides a better understanding of the composition of the plant microbiota in S. ramosissima , which is essential to predict the interactions between plant and associated microbial communities and their effects on plant health. This knowledge is useful to the manipulations of these microbial communities to enhance the health and productivity of this commercially important plant.

Keywords: halophytes, plant microbiome, Salicornia ramosissima, agriculture

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Authors: Hafiz Haseeb Nisar, Maryam Bilal

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This qualitative study was conducted to investigate the underlying dynamics, key success factors and characteristics of Pakistani business leaders. The sample included 5 top businessmen from different business sectors. They were approached through the magazine “Manager Today” office in Lahore. Semi-structured interview technique was used to understand their experiences, attitudes, styles of management and key factors in their business success. Grounded theory was employed to analyze data. The following themes emerged as characteristics of business leaders: optimism, assertiveness, professionalism, effective management style, business knowledge/ excellence, supportive family and strong faith in God. It was noted that all these were interlinked, which leads the businessmen to become a successful business tycoon of this country. The importance of this study rests in its eastern contribution to the theoretical framework of the psychology of business leaders and particularly these findings will help to realize the basic key factors of success behind a business leader in Pakistan.

Keywords: business psychology, characteristics, key personality factors, leadership

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Authors: Sara Kakuk

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Pedagogy has always been open to other disciplines that reflect about the educational process (philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, technology, etc.). Its interdisciplinary openness puts education, as the subject of pedagogy within a broader context of the community, enabling the knowledge of other disciplines to contribute to a better understanding of the fundamental pedagogical notion of education. The purpose of pedagogy as a science serves humans, strives towards humans, must be for humans, and this is its ultimate goal. Humans are essentially dependent on education, which is also considered as a category of humans’ being, because through education an entire world develops in humans. Anthropological assumptions of humans as "deficient beings" see the solution in education, but they also indicate a wealth of shortcomings, because they provide an opportunity for enrichment and formation of culture, living and the self. In that context, this paper illustrates the determination of pedagogy through an anthropological conception of humans and the phenomenon of education. It presents a review of anthropological ideas about education, by providing an analysis of relevant literature dealing with the anthropological notion of humans, which provides fruitful conditions for a pedagogical reconsideration of education.

Keywords: pedagogy, education, humans, anthropology, culture

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Authors: M. Kishore Kumar

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The ancient Vedas and Upanishads are a treasure of knowledge gifted to the world by India. The four Vedas, a conglomerate of Hindu scriptures, contain many principles of modern management at organisation as well as at individual levels. It lays down the duties of a King and ministers as well as its citizens and cites values for leadership. Bhagawadgita (or ‘Gita’ in short), popularly cited as Pancham (Fifth) Veda, is stated to be sermoned about 5000 years ago by Lord Krishna. In the midst of the Kurukshetra battle, Gitopadesh was given various aspects such as dharma (duties), karma (action), stithaprajna (stable mind), nishkama (detachment from results) and ethics. Arjun was steered to victory by Lord Krishna as his charioteer, and the 700-odd-verse holy text Bhagawadgita can become a valuable guide for all of us to achieve success in business management. Many parallels exist between modern-day management theories and principles enshrined in Vedic texts.

Keywords: goal, motivation, leadership, mind, management

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Authors: Dawit Abay Tesfamariam

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Ethiopia’s Climate- Resilient Green Economy strategy focuses mainly on generating and utilization of Renewable Energy (RE). The data collected in 2016 by Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) indicates that the intermittent RE sources on the grid from solar and wind energy were only 8 % of the total energy produced. On the other hand, the EEP electricity generation plan in 2030 indicates that 36 % of the energy generation share will be covered by solar and wind sources. Thus, a case study was initiated to model and compute the balance and consumption of electricity in three different scenarios: 2016, 2025, and 2030 using the Energy PLAN Model (EPM). Initially, the model was validated using the 2016 annual power-generated data to conduct the EPM analysis for two predictive scenarios. The EPM simulation analysis using EPM for 2016 showed that there was no significant excess power generated. Hence, the model’s results are in line with the actual 2016 output. Thus, the EPM was applied to analyze the role of energy storage in RE in Ethiopian grid systems. The results of the EPM simulation analysis showed there will be excess production of 402 /7963 MW average and maximum, respectively, in 2025. The excess power was dominant in all months except in the three rainy months of the year (June, July, and August). Consequently, based on the validated outcomes of EPM indicates, there is a good reason to think about other alternatives for the utilization of excess energy and storage of RE. Thus, from the scenarios and model results obtained, it is realistic to infer that; if the excess power is utilized with a storage mechanism that can stabilize the grid system; as a result, the extra RE generated can be exported to support the economy. Therefore, researchers must continue to upgrade the current and upcoming energy storage system to synchronize with RE potentials that can be generated from RE.

Keywords: renewable energy, storage, wind, energyplan

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Authors: M. Roberts

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We Are Undefeatable - is a mass marketing behaviour change campaign that aims to support the least active people living with long term health conditions to be more active. This is an important issue to address because people with long term conditions are an historically underserved community for the sport and physical activity sector and the least active of those with long term conditions have the most to gain in health and wellbeing benefits. The campaign has generated a significant change in the way physical activity is communicated and people with long term conditions are represented in the media and marketing. The goal is to create a social norm around being active. The campaign is led by a unique partnership of organisations: the Richmond Group of Charities (made up of Age UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Asthma + Lung UK, Breast Cancer Now, British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, Diabetes UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Rethink Mental Illness, Royal Voluntary Service, Stroke Association, Versus Arthritis) along with Mind, MS Society, Parkinson’s UK and Sport England, with National Lottery Funding. It is underpinned by the COM-B model of behaviour change. It draws on the lived experience of people with multiple long term conditions to shape the look and feel of the campaign and all the resources available. People with long term conditions are the campaign messengers, central to the ethos of the campaign by telling their individual stories of overcoming barriers to be active with their health conditions. The central messaging is about finding a way to be active that works for the individual. We Are Undefeatable is evaluated through a multi-modal approach, including regular qualitative focus groups and a quantitative evaluation tracker undertaken three times a year. The campaign has highlighted the significant barriers to physical activity for people with long term conditions. This has changed the way our partnership talks about physical activity but has also had an impact on the wider sport and physical activity sector, prompting an increasing departure from traditional messaging and marketing approaches for this audience of people with long term conditions. The campaign has reached millions of people since its launch in 2019, through multiple marketing and partnership channels including primetime TV advertising and promotion through health professionals and in health settings. Its diverse storytellers make it relatable to its target audience and the achievable activities highlighted and inclusive messaging inspire our audience to take action as a result of seeing the campaign. The We Are Undefeatable campaign is a blueprint for physical activity campaigns; it not only addresses individual behaviour change but plays a role in addressing systemic barriers to physical activity by sharing the lived experience insight to shape policy and professional practice.

Keywords: behaviour change, long term conditions, partnership, relatable

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Authors: Daniel Phillip Svozil, Eileen Petrie, Kristy Robson, Lee Baumgartner, Max Finlayson

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Recreational angling is recognized for its potential to improve health and wellbeing which has translated into policy initiatives to increase participation in the sport. However, these benefits have been examined mostly among voluntary participants. Thus, there is an assumption that recreational angling is perceived equally and that these benefits may be evident even to non-anglers. This paper reviews the published benefits to health and wellbeing of recreational angling and proposes an approach to systemically analyze interactions among the perceptions, socio-economic barriers, and knowledge of these benefits among people at different levels of participation (including non-participants). The outcomes of this study will assist in identifying the feasibility of recreational angling for improving health and wellbeing outcomes among participants (i.e., fishing may not be for everyone) and designing interventions that address the perceptions and socio-economic barriers among individuals that may benefit from participation in recreational angling.

Keywords: angling, health, wellbeing, connecting with nature

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Authors: Tsegaw Abebe, Temesgen Abebe

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Land degradation is one of a serious environmental challenge in Ethiopia and is one of the major underlying causes for declining agricultural productivity. The Ethiopia government realized the significance of environmental restoration specifically on deforested and degraded land after the 1973 and 1984/85 major famines that struck the country. Among the various conservation strategies, the establishment of area exclosures have been regarded as an effective response to halt and reverse the problems of land degradation. There are limited studies in Ethiopia dealing how the conversion of free grazing lands and degraded lands by closures increase biomass accumulation. However, these studies are not sufficient to conclude about the strength of area closures to restore degraded vegetations at the diverse agro-ecological condition. The overall objective of this study was, therefore, to assess and evaluate the usefulness of area closure technique in enhancing rehabilitation of degraded ecosystem and thereby increase the natural capital in the study site (southern Ethiopia). Woody plant species were collected from area exclosure for eight year and adjacent degraded land with similar landscape positions using systematic sampling plot design technique. Woody species diversity was determined by Shannon diversity. Comparative assessment result of woody plant species analysis showed that the density of woody species in the exclosure and degraded site were 778 and 222 individuals per hectare, respectively. A total of 16 woody species, representing 12 families were recorded in the study site. Out of the 12 families, all were recorded in the exclosure while 5 were recorded in the degraded site. Out of the 16 species, 15 were recorded in the exclosure while six were in the degraded site. A total of 10 species were recorded in the exclosure, which were absent in the degraded site. Similarly, one species was recorded in the degraded site which was not present in the exclosure. The results showed that protecting of degraded site from human and animal disturbances promotes woody plant species regenerations and productivity Apart from increasing woody plant species, the local communities have benefited from the exclosure in the form of both products (grass harvesting) and services (ecological). Due to this reason the local communities have positive attitudes and contribute a lot for the success of enclosures in the study site. The present study clearly showed that area closure interventions should be oriented towards managing and improving the productivity of the degraded land, in such a way that both the need for conservation of biodiversity and environmental sustainability, and the demands of the local people for biomass resources can be achieved.

Keywords: degraded land, exclosure, land restoration, woody vegetation

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Authors: Rameesha Javaid

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Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of the province of Balochistan which is known as the ‘fruit basket’ of Pakistan. Its climate zones comprising highlands and plateaus, dependent on rain water, are more suited for the production of deciduous fruit. The vagaries of weather and more so the persistent droughts prompted the government to announce flat rates of electricity bills per month irrespective of the size of the farm, quantum or water used and the category of crop group. That has, no doubt, resulted in increased cropping intensity, more production and employment but has enormously burdened the official exchequer which picks up the residual bills in certain percentages amongst the federal and provincial governments and the local electricity company. This study tests the desirability of continuing the subsidy in the present mode. Optimization of social welfare of farmers has been the focus of the study with emphasis on the contribution of positive externalities and distortions caused in terms of negative externalities. By using the optimization technique with due allowance for distortions, it has been established that the subsidy calls for limiting policy distortions as they cause sub-optimal utilization of the tube well subsidy and improved policy programming. The sensitivity analysis with changed rankings of contributing variables towards social welfare does not significantly change the result. Therefore it leads to the net findings and policy recommendations of significantly reducing the subsidy size, correcting and curtailing policy distortions and targeting the subsidy grant more towards small farmers to generate more welfare by saving a sizeable amount from the subsidy for investment in the wellbeing of the farmers in rural Balochistan.

Keywords: distortion, policy distortion, socio-cultural distortion, social welfare, subsidy

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Authors: Reetinder Kaur, R. K. Pathak

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Mental health is recognised as an important global health concern. World Health Organisation in 2004 estimated that neuropsychiatric illnesses in India account for 10.8 percent of the global burden. The prevalence of serious mental illnesses is estimated as 6.5 percent by National Commission of Macroeconomics and Health in 2005. India spends only 0.06 percent of its health budget on mental health. One of the major problems that exist in Indian mental health care is the treatment gap due to scarcity of manpower, inadequate infrastructure and deficiencies in policy initiatives. As a result, traditional healing is a popular resource for mentally ill individuals and their families. The various traditional healing resources include faith healers, healers at temples and Dargahs. Chandigarh is a Union Territory located in North India. It has surplus manpower and infrastructure available for mental health care. Inspite of availability of mental health care services, mentally ill individuals and their families seek help from traditional healers at various Dargahs within or outside Chandigarh. For the present study, the data was collected from four dargahs. A total of thirty patients medically diagnosed with various mental illnesses, their family members who accompanied them and healers were part of this study. The aim of the study was to: Understand the interactions between healer, patient and family members during the course of treatment, understand explanations of mental illnesses and analyse the healing practices in context of culture. The interviews were conducted using an interview guide for the three sets of informants: Healers, patients and family members. The interview guide for healer focussed on the healing process, healer’s understanding of patient’s explanatory models, healer’s knowledge about mental illnesses and types of these illnesses cured by the healer. The interview guide for patients and family members focussed on their understanding of the symptoms, explanations for illness and help-seeking behaviour. The patients were observed over the weeks (every Thursday, the day of pir and healing) during their visits to the healer. Detailed discussions were made with the healer regarding the healing process and benefits of healing. The data was analysed thematically and the themes: The role of sacred, holistic healing, healer’s understanding of patient’s explanatory models of mental illness, the patient’s, and family’s understanding of mental illnesses, healer’s knowledge about mental illnesses, types of mental illnesses cured by the healer, bad dreams and their interpretation emerged. From the analysis of data, it was found that the healers concentrate their interventions in the social arena, ‘curing’ distressed patients by bringing significant changes in their social environment. It is suggested that in order to make the mental health care services effective in India, the collaboration between healers and psychiatrist is essential. However, certain specifications need to be made to make this kind of collaboration successful and beneficial for the stakeholders.

Keywords: Dargah, mental illness, traditional healing, policy

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Authors: Eldah Ephraim Buba, Amina Bata Zoaka, Aishatu Ibrahim

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This study appraised maintenance practices in selected tourist attractions in Bauchi state, Nigeria. Four tourist attractions were used for the research. Checklists were used to assess operations and repairs maintenance practices in the different attractions. The study carried out personal assessment thrice in six months without prior knowledge of the staff in charge for operational maintenance. Records of repairs maintenance from the attractions maintenance unit for a period of ten years were assessed using the checklists. The findings of the study show that operations maintenance was not adequately carried out in the four tourists attractions. Repairs maintenance was carried out in Yankari game reserve and safari, but repairs maintenance was poor in the other three attractions. The study therefore, recommends that adequate maintenance should be practiced in tourist attractions to expand the lifespan of the facilities and also encourage tourist patronage.

Keywords: appraisal, maintenance, practices, tourist attraction

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Authors: Balram Bhushan

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The emergence of social entrepreneurship challenges the strict categorization of not-for-profit, for-profit and hybrid organizations. Although the blurring of boundaries helps social entrepreneurial organizations (SEOs) make better use of emerging opportunities, it poses a significant challenge while mobilizing money from different sources. Additionally, for monetary resources, the legal framework of the host country may further complicate the issue by imposing strict accounting standards. Under such circumstances, the resource providers fail to recognize the suitable engagement strategy with the SEO of their choice. Based on the process of value creation and value capture, this paper develops a guiding framework for resource providers to design an appropriate mix of engagement with the identified SEOs. Essentially, social entrepreneurship creates value at the societal level, but value capture is a characteristic of an organization. Additionally, SEOs prefer value creation over value capture. The paper argued that the nature of the relationship between value creation and value capture determines the extent of blurred boundaries of the organization. Accordingly, synergistic, antagonistic and sequential relationships were proposed between value capture and value creation. When value creation is synergistically associated with value creation, the preferred nature of such action falls within the nature of for-profit organizations within the strictest legal framework. Banks offering micro-loans are good examples of this category. Opposite to this, the antagonist relationship between value creation and value capture, where value capture opportunities are sacrificed for value creation, dictates non-profit organizational structure. Examples of this category include non-government organizations and charity organizations. Finally, the sequential relationship between value capture opportunities is followed for value creation opportunities and guides the action closer to the hybrid structure. Examples of this category include organizations where a non-for-profit unit controls for-profit units of the organization either legally or structurally. As an SEO may attempt to utilize multiple entrepreneurial opportunities falling across any of the three relationships between value creation and value capture, the resource providers need to evaluate an appropriate mix of these relationships before designing their engagement strategies. The paper suggests three guiding principles for the engagement strategy. First, the extent of investment should be proportional to the synergistic relationship between value capture and value creation. Second, the subsidized support should be proportional to the sequential relationship. Finally, the funding (charity contribution) should be proportional to the antagonistic relationship. Finally, the resource providers are needed to keep a close watch on the evolving relationship between value creation and value capture for introducing appropriate changes in their engagement strategy.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, value creation, value capture, entrepreneurial opportunity

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Authors: Kashif Laeeq, Zubair A. Shaikh

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The paradigm of education is drastically changing from conventional to e-learning model. Due to ease of learning with various other benefits, several educational institutions are adopting the e-learning models. Some institutions are still willing to transform their educational system on to e-learning, but due to limited resources, they are still compromising on the old traditional system. The cloud computing could be one of the best solutions to overcome this problem by providing hardware, software, and infrastructure resources with cost efficient manner. The adoption of cloud computing in education will bring revolution in this paradigm. This paper introduces various positive features of e-learning and presents a way how cloud computing technology can be provisioned e-learning model. This paper also investigates the numerous challenges and opportunities that would be observed in cloud computing adoption in e-learning domain. The concept and knowledge present in this paper may create a new direction of research in the domain of cloud-based e-learning.

Keywords: cloud-based e-learning, e-learning, cloud computing application, smart learning

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Authors: Jana Ismail, Layla Fallatah, Maha Alshmaisi

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ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language model built on the GPT-3.5 architecture, has garnered attention for its profound natural language processing capabilities, holding promise for transformative applications in customer service and content creation. This study delves into ChatGPT's architecture, aiming to comprehensively understand its strengths and potential limitations. Through systematic experiments across diverse domains, such as general knowledge and creative writing, we evaluated the model's coherence, context retention, and task-specific accuracy. While ChatGPT excels in generating human-like responses and demonstrates adaptability, occasional inaccuracies and sensitivity to input phrasing were observed. The study emphasizes the impact of prompt design on output quality, providing valuable insights for the nuanced deployment of ChatGPT in conversational AI and contributing to the ongoing discourse on the evolving landscape of natural language processing in artificial intelligence.

Keywords: artificial Inelegance, chatGPT, open AI, NLP

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Authors: R. F. Mesquita Brandão

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Act Local, Think Global is the name of a campaign implemented at Superior Institute of Engineering of Porto (ISEP), one of schools of Polytechnic of Porto, with the main objective of increase the sustainability of the campus. ISEP has a campus with 52.000 m2 and more than 7.000 students. The campaign started in 2019 and the results are very clear. In 2019 only 16% of the waste created in the campus was correctly separate for recycling and now almost 50% of waste goes to the correct waste container. Actions to reduce the energy consumption were implemented with significantly results. One of the major problems in the campus are the water leaks. To solve this problem was implemented a methodology for water monitoring during the night, a period of time where consumptions are normally low. If water consumption in the period is higher than a determinate value it may mean a water leak and an alarm is created to the maintenance teams. In terms of energy savings, some measurements were implemented to create savings in energy consumption and in equivalent CO₂ produced. In order to reduce the use of plastics in the campus, was implemented the prohibition of selling 33 cl plastic water bottles and in collaboration with the students association all meals served in the restaurants changed the water plastic bottle for a glass that can be refilled with water in the water dispensers. This measures created a reduction of use of more than 75.000 plastic bottles per year. In parallel was implemented the ISEP water glass bottle to be used in all scientific meetings and events. Has a way of involving all community in sustainability issues was developed and implemented a vertical garden in aquaponic system. In 2019, the first vertical garden without soil was installed inside a large campus building. The system occupies the entire exterior façade (3 floors) of the entrance to ISEP's G building. On each of these floors there is a planter with 42 positions available for plants. Lettuces, strawberries, peppers are examples of some vegetable produced that can be collected by the entire community. Associated to the vertical garden was developed a monitoring system were some parameters of the system are monitored. This project is under development because it will work in a stand-alone energy feeding, with the use of photovoltaic panels for production of energy necessities. All the system was, and still is, developed by students and teachers and is used in class projects of some ISEP courses. These and others measures implemented in the campus, will be more developed in the full paper, as well as all the results obtained, allowed ISEP to be the first Portuguese high school to obtain the certification “Coração Verde” (Green Heart), awarded by LIPOR, a Portuguese company with the mission of transform waste into new resources through the implementation of innovative and circular practices, generating and sharing value.

Keywords: aquaponics, energy efficiency, recycling, sustainability, waste separation

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Authors: Lorenzo Ciletti, Ed Baines, Matt Somerville

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Internationally, supporting staff with limited training (Teaching Assistants (TA)) has played a critical role in the education of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Researchers have notably illustrated that TAs support the children’s classroom tasks while teachers manage the whole class. Rarely have researchers investigated the TAs’ support for children’s participation in whole-class or peer-group talk, despite this type of “social support” playing a significant role in children’s whole-class integration and engagement with the classroom curriculum and learning. Social support seems particularly crucial for a large proportion of children with SEND, namely those with communication and interaction difficulties (e.g., autism spectrum conditions and speech impairments). This study explored TA practice and, particularly, TA social support in a rarely examined context (Italy). The Italian case was also selected as it provides TAs, known nationally as “support teachers,” with the most comprehensive training worldwide, thus potentially echoing (effective) nuanced practice internationally. Twelve hours of video recordings of a single TA and a child with communication and interaction difficulties (CID) were made. Video data was converted into frequencies of TA multidimensional support strategies, including TA social support and pedagogical assistance. TA-pupil talk oriented to children’s participation in classroom talk was also analysed into thematic patterns. These multi-method analyses were informed by social scaffolding principles: in particular, the extent to which the TA designs instruction contingently to the child’s communication and interaction difficulties and how their social support fosters the child’s highest responsibility in dealing with whole-class or peer-group talk by supplying the least help. The findings showed that the TA rarely supported the group or whole class participation of the child with CID. When doing so, the TA seemed to highly control the content and the timing of the child’s contributions to the classroom talk by a) interrupting the teacher’s whole class or group conversation to start an interaction between themselves and the child and b) reassuring the child about the correctness of their talk in private conversations and prompting them to raise their hand and intervene in the whole-class talk or c) stopping the child from contributing to the whole-class or peer-group talk when incorrect. The findings are interpreted in terms of their theoretical relation to scaffolding. They have significant implications for promoting social scaffolding in TA training in Italy and elsewhere.

Keywords: children with communication and interaction difficulties, children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, social scaffolding, teaching assistants, teaching practice, whole-class talk participation

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Authors: Milena Trojanowska

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Disability is a phenomenon for which meanings and definitions have evolved over the decades. This became the trigger to start a project to answer the question of what disability constitutes in the course of an incurable chronic disease. The chosen research group are people living with multiple sclerosis.The contextual phase of the research was participant observation at the Polish Multiple Sclerosis Society, the largest NGO in Poland supporting people living with MS and their relatives. The research techniques used in the project are (in order of implementation): group interviews with people living with MS and their relatives, narrative interviews, asynchronous technique, participant observation during events organised for people living with MS and their relatives.The researcher is currently conducting follow-up interviews, as inaccuracies in the respondents' narratives were identified during the data analysis. Interviews and supplementary research techniques were used over the four years of the research, and the researcher also benefited from experience gained from 12 years of working with NGOs (diaries, notes). The research was carried out in Poland with the participation of people living in this country only.The research has been based on grounded theory methodology in a constructivist perspectivedeveloped by Kathy Charmaz. The goal was to follow the idea that research must be reliable, original, and useful. The aim was to construct an interpretive theory that assumes temporality and the processualityof social life. TheAtlas.ti software was used to collect research material and analyse it. It is a program from the CAQDAS(Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software) group.Several key factors influencing the construction of a disability identity by people living with multiple sclerosis was identified:-course of interaction with significant relatives,- the expectation of identification with disability (expressed by close relatives),- economic profitability (pension, allowances),- institutional advantages (e.g. parking card),- independence and autonomy (not equated with physical condition, but access to adapted infrastructure and resources to support daily functioning),- the way a person with MS construes the meaning of disability,- physical and mental state,- medical diagnosis of illness.In addition, it has been shown that making an assumption about the experience of disability in the course of MS is a form of cognitive reductionism leading to further phenomenon such as: the expectation of the person with MS to construct a social identity as a person with a disability (e.g. giving up work), the occurrence of institutional inequalities. It can also be a determinant of the choice of a life strategy that limits social and individual functioning, even if this necessity is not influenced by the person's physical or psychological condition.The results of the research are important for the development of knowledge about the phenomenon of disability. It indicates the contextuality and complexity of the disability phenomenon, which in the light of the research is a set of different phenomenon of heterogeneous nature and multifaceted causality. This knowledge can also be useful for institutions and organisations in the non-governmental sector supporting people with disabilities and people living with multiple sclerosis.

Keywords: disability, multiple sclerosis, grounded theory, poland

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Authors: Domingos Viegas, Miguel Almeida, Carmen Rocha, Ilda Novo, Yolanda Luna

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Forest fires along the more than 1200km of the Spanish-Portuguese border are more and more frequent, currently achieving around 2000 fire events per year. Some of these events develop to large international wildfire requiring concerted operations based on shared information between the two countries. The fire event of Valencia de Alcantara (2003) causing several fatalities and more than 13000ha burnt, is a reference example of these international events. Currently, Portugal and Spain have a specific cross-border cooperation protocol on wildfires response for a strip of about 30km (15 km for each side). It is recognized by public authorities the successfulness of this collaboration however it is also assumed that this cooperation should include more functionalities such as the development of a common risk information system for transboundary fire events. Since Portuguese and Spanish authorities use different approaches to determine the fire risk indexes inputs and different methodologies to assess the fire risk, sometimes the conjoint firefighting operations are jeopardized since the information is not harmonized and the understanding of the situation by the civil protection agents from both countries is not unique. Thus, a methodology aiming the harmonization of the fire risk calculation and perception by Portuguese and Spanish Civil protection authorities is hereby presented. The final results are presented as well. The fire risk index used in this work is the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI), which is based on meteorological data. The FWI is limited on its application as it does not take into account other important factors with great effect on the fire appearance and development. The combination of these factors is very complex since, besides the meteorology, it addresses several parameters of different topics, namely: sociology, topography, vegetation and soil cover. Therefore, the meaning of FWI values is different from region to region, according the specific characteristics of each region. In this work, a methodology for FWI calibration based on the number of fire occurrences and on the burnt area in the transboundary regions of Portugal and Spain, in order to assess the fire risk based on calibrated FWI values, is proposed. As previously mentioned, the cooperative firefighting operations require a common perception of the information shared. Therefore, a common classification of the fire risk for the fire events occurred in the transboundary strip is proposed with the objective of harmonizing this type of information. This work is integrated in the ECHO project SpitFire - Spanish-Portuguese Meteorological Information System for Transboundary Operations in Forest Fires, which aims the development of a web platform for the sharing of information and supporting decision tools to be used in international fire events involving Portugal and Spain.

Keywords: data harmonization, FWI, international collaboration, transboundary wildfires

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Authors: Syeda Mahnaz Hassan

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Social work as a specialized field, grounded in scientific knowledge and skills, is more inclined towards problem-solving process rather than charity focused approach. Medical social work, as a primary method, deals with the bio-psychosocial-spiritual elements of an individual with a problem and assesses the pliability and strength of the patients, social support systems, and their families, to assist the patients to resolve their problems independently. The medical social worker, also known as case-worker or care-worker, has to play a substantial role in the rehabilitation and retrieval of an affected person. This paper examines the roles played and responsibilities discharged by the Medical Social Workers internationally and specifically concerning Pakistan. The capacity constraints and challenges confronted by Medical Social Workers in hospitals have also been highlighted, and some policy implications have been suggested to enhance the capabilities of Medical Social Workers for serving the patients in a befitting manner.

Keywords: medical social work, Pakistan, patients, rehabilitation

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Authors: Wen-Wen Wang, Qian Ye, Yi-Feng Lin

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Carbon dioxide emissions are expected to increase continuously, resulting in climate change and global warming. As a result, CO₂ capture has attracted a large amount of research attention. Among the various CO₂ capture methods, membrane technology has proven to be highly efficient in capturing CO₂, because it can be scaled up, low energy consumptions and small area requirements for use by the gas separation. Various nanofibrous membranes were successfully prepared by a simple electrospinning process. The membrane contactor combined with chemical absorption and membrane process in the post-combustion CO₂ capture is used in this study. In a membrane contactor system, the highly porous and water-repellent nanofibrous membranes were used as a gas-liquid interface in a membrane contactor system for CO₂ absorption. In this work, we successfully prepared the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) porous membranes with an electrospinning process. Afterwards, the as-prepared water-repellent PVDF porous membranes were used for the CO₂ capture application. However, the pristine PVDF nanofibrous membranes were wetted by the amine absorbents, resulting in the decrease in the CO₂ absorption flux, the hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) materials were added into the PVDF nanofibrous membranes to improve the solvent resistance of the membranes. To increase the hydrophobic properties and CO₂ absorption flux, more hydrophobic surfaces of the PDMS/PVDF nanofibrous membranes are obtained by the grafting of fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) on the membranes surface. Furthermore, the highest CO₂ absorption flux of the PDMS/PVDF nanofibrous membranes is reached after the FAS modification with four times. The PDMS/PVDF nanofibrous membranes with 60 wt% PDMS addition can be a long and continuous operation of the CO₂ absorption and regeneration experiments. It demonstrates the as-prepared PDMS/PVDF nanofibrous membranes could potentially be used for large-scale CO₂ absorption during the post-combustion process in power plants.

Keywords: CO₂ capture, electrospinning process, membrane contactor, nanofibrous membranes, PDMS/PVDF

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Authors: Waseem Shahzad, Ayesha Tahir Khan, Hamid Hussain Awan

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Ant-Miner algorithm that lies under ACO algorithms is used to extract knowledge from data in the form of rules. A variant of Ant-Miner algorithm named as cAnt-MinerPB is used to generate list of rules using pittsburgh approach in order to maintain the rule interaction among the rules that are generated. In this paper, we propose a parallel Ant MinerPB in which Ant colony optimization algorithm runs parallel. In this technique, a data set is divided vertically (i-e attributes) into different subsets. These subsets are created based on the correlation among attributes using Mutual Information (MI). It generates rules in a parallel manner and then merged to form a final list of rules. The results have shown that the proposed technique achieved higher accuracy when compared with original cAnt-MinerPB and also the execution time has also reduced.

Keywords: ant colony optimization, parallel Ant-MinerPB, vertical partitioning, classification rule discovery

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Authors: Rafla Attia, Claudio Zucca, Bao Quang Le, Sana Dridi, Thouraya Sahli, Taoufik Hermassi

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In Tunisia, landscape change and land degradation are critical issues for landscape conservation, management, and planning. Landscapes are undergoing crucial environmental problems made evident by soil degradation and desertification. Human improper uses of land resources (e.g., unsuitable land uses, unsustainable crop intensification, and poor rangeland management) and climate change are the main factors leading to the landscape transformation and desertification affecting high proportions of the Tunisian lands. Land use planning (LUP) to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) must be supported by methodologies and technologies that help identify best solutions and practices and design context-specific sustainable land management (SLM) strategies. Such strategies must include restoration or rehabilitation efforts in areas with high land degradation, as well as prevention of degradation that could be caused by improper land use (LU) and land management (LM). The geoinformatics Land Use Planning for LDN (LUP4LDN) tool has been designed for this purpose. Its aim is to support national and sub-national planners in i) mapping geographic patterns of current land degradation; ii) anticipating further future land degradation expected in areas that are unsustainably managed; and iii) providing an interactive procedure for developing participatory LU-LM transitional scenarios over selected regions of interest and timeframes, visualizing the related expected levels of impacts on ecosystem services via maps and graphs. The tool has been co-developed and piloted with national stakeholders in Tunisia. The piloting implementation assessed how the LUP4LDN tool fits with existing LUP processes and the benefits achieved by using the tool to support land use planning for LDN.

Keywords: land use system, land cover, sustainable land management, land use planning for land degradation neutrality

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Authors: Elsayed Amer, Tarek Essam, Abdullah Hella, Mohammed Al-Ajmi

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Hydrocarbon production decline in mature gas fields is inevitable, and mitigating these circumstances is essential to ensure a longer production period. Production decline is not only influenced by reservoir pressure and wellbore integrity; however, associated liquids in the reservoir rock have a considerable impact on the production process. The associated liquid may result in liquid loading, near wellbore damage, condensate banking, fine sand migration, and wellhead pressure depletion. Consequently, the producing well will suffocate, and the liquid column will seize the well from flowing. A common solution in such circumstances is reducing the surface pressure by opening the well to the atmospheric pressure and flaring the produced liquids. This practice may not be applicable to many cases since the atmospheric pressure is not low enough to create a sufficient driving force to flow the well. In addition, flaring the produced hydrocarbon is solving the issue on account of the environment, which is against the world's efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change. This paper presents a novel approach and a case study that utilizes a multi-phase mobile wellhead gas compression unit (MMWGC) to reduce surface pressure to the sub-atmospheric level and transfer the produced hydrocarbons to the sales line. As a result, the liquid column will unload in a zero-flaring manner, and the life of the producing well will extend considerably. The MMWGC unit was able to successfully kick off a dead well to produce up to 10 MMSCFD after reducing the surface pressure for 3 hours. Applying such novelty on a broader scale will not only extend the life of the producing wells yet will also provide a zero-flaring, economically and environmentally preferred solution.

Keywords: petroleum engineering, zero-flaring, liquid loading, well revival

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Authors: Neta Kela Madar, Tali Teeni-Harari, Tamar Icekson, Yaron Sela

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This paper proposes and empirically tests a theoretical model positing relationships between dispositional optimism, emotional intelligence, and entrepreneurial intention. To author's best knowledge, this study examined for the first time the role of dispositional optimism together with emotional intelligence as predictors of entrepreneurial intentions. The study findings suggest that optimism may increase entrepreneurial intentions indirectly by enhancing emotional intelligence/ model formulation is based on a random survey of students (N= 227). Model parameter estimation was supported by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results indicate that students’ optimism and emotional intelligence are associated with increased levels of entrepreneurial intention. Additionally, the present study argues that emotional intelligence mediates the positive relationship between optimism and entrepreneurial intention. Theoretical and practical implications of this model are discussed.

Keywords: entrepreneurial intentions, emotional intelligence, optimism, dispositional optimism

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Authors: Christopher Reichstein, Ralf-Christian Härting, Martina Häußler

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With a continuously increasing speed of information exchange on the World Wide Web, retailers in the E-Commerce sector are faced with immense possibilities regarding different online purchase processes like dynamic price settings. By use of Dynamic Pricing, retailers are able to set short time price changes in order to optimize producer surplus. The empirical research illustrates the basics of Dynamic Pricing and identifies six influencing factors of Dynamic Pricing. The results of a structural equation modeling approach show five main drivers increasing the potential of dynamic price settings in the E-Commerce. Influencing factors are the knowledge of customers’ individual willingness to pay, rising sales, the possibility of customization, the data volume and the information about competitors’ pricing strategy.

Keywords: e-commerce, empirical research, experts, dynamic pricing (DP), influencing factors, potentials

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Authors: M. W. Sun, Y. Zhang, L. M. Zhang, Z. H. Wang, Z. Q. Chen

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In the realm of flight control, the Proportional- Derivative (PD) control is still widely used for the attitude control in practice, particularly for the pitch control, and the attitude dynamics using PD controller should be investigated deeply. According to the empirical knowledge about the unstable flight dynamics, the control parameter combination conditions to generate sole or finite number of closed-loop oscillations, which is a quite smooth response and is more preferred by practitioners, are presented in analytical or numerical manners. To analyze the effects of the combination conditions of the control parameters, the roots of several polynomials are sought to obtain feasible solutions. These conditions can also be plotted in a 2-D plane which makes the conditions be more explicit by using multiple interval operations. Finally, numerical examples are used to validate the proposed methods and some comparisons are also performed.

Keywords: attitude control, dynamic performance, numerical solving method, interval, unstable flight dynamics

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Authors: Meenakshi Pappu

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The terms like liveability, Sustainable Development Goals and pandemic have been widely analysed in proving sustainable cities and community living in growing urban areas by 2030. The pandemic has made us all ruminate about how we look into different fast-growing cities which vary in geographical location, climatic zones, terrains, land use and varying cultural backgrounds & traditions belong to the mother soil. India has taken up huge steps to move towards achieving UN-SDGs. Smart city missions have played a vital role in moving towards SDG. Visakhapatnam city is the executive capital in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Located on the Eastern Ghats in South India, it is surrounded by a mountain range on three sides and the Indian Ocean on one side. This unique geographical location and fast urbanization in the last two decades, has put up immense pressure on the natural environment and recourses. It's observed that a lot of investigation to address the existing and proposed land-use, spatial, natural resources, air quality, environmental challenges, and a range of socio-economic, economic challenges were identified during the assessment phase. The citizen concerns with quality and quantity of access to water, sewerage, energy, transportation (public & private) and safety for the public were found out through surveying. Urban infrastructure plays a major part in city building. These cities are occupied by people who come for a better living. This paper aims to provide off-center way of approach to citizens-oriented community habits by addressing SDG 11: Sustainable cities & community by enkindling a characteristic framework of amalgamating 1.eco-design principal, 2. three factors of liveability and 3. a local traditional planning solution. Aiming towards a sustainable development utilized with the focus on the quality of the life and experience of the people who live in urban areas integrating life with soil & water. Building strong social agenda that includes affordable housing for all levels of households, secure and place for good quality public realm for the local people with activity in green corridor, open meeting space & adding recreational places for advantage..

Keywords: livability, eco-design, smart city mission, sustainable

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