Search results for: safe motherhood program India

Authors: Ganga Brahma

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Boro employs verbs hooked up with morphemes which lead verbs to adjust with their arguments and hence, affecting the whole of sentence structures. This paper is based on few such syntactic parameters which are usually considered as argument decreasing parameters in linguistic works. Passivizing of few transitive clauses which are usually construed from the verbs occurring with certain morphemes and representation in middle constructions are few of such strategies which lead to conceptualizing of decreasing of syntactic arguments from a sentence. This paper focuses on the mentioned linguistic strategies and attempts to describe the linguistic processes as for how these parameters work in languages especially by concentrating on a particular Tibeto-Burman language i.e. Boro. Boro is a Tibeto-Burman language widely spoken in parts of the north-eastern regions of India. It has an agglutinative nature in forming words as well as clauses. There is a morpheme ‘za’ which means ‘to happen, become’ in Boro whose appearances with verb roots denotes an idea of the subject being passivized. Passivization, usually has notions that it is a reversed representation of its active sentence forms in the terms of argument placements. (However, it is not accountably true as passives and actives have some distinct features of their own and independent of one and the other.) This particular work will concentrate on the semantics of passivization at the same time along with its syntactic reality. The verb khɑo meaning ‘to steal’ offers a sense of passivization with the appearance of the morpheme zɑ which means ‘to happen, become’ (e.g Zunu-ɑ lama-ɑo phɯisɑ khɑo-zɑ-bɑi; Junu-NOM road-LOC money steal-PASS-PRES: Junu got her money stolen on the road). The focus, here, is more on the argument placed at the subject position (i.e. Zunu) and the event taken place. The semantics of such construction asks for the agent because without an agent the event could not have taken place. However, the syntactic elements fill the slots of relegated or temporarily deleted agent which, infact, is the actual subject cum agent in its active representation. Due to the event marker ‘zɑ’ in this presentation it affords to reduce one participant from such a situation which in actual is made up of three participants. Hence, the structure of di-transitive construction here reduces to mono-transitive structure. Unlike passivization, middle construction does not allow relegation of the agents. It permanently deletes agents. However, it also focuses on the fore-grounded subject and highlighting on the changed states on the subjects which happens to be the underlying objects of their respective transitive structures (with agents). This work intends to describe how these two parameters which are different at their semantic realization can meet together at a syntactic level in order to create a linguistic parameter that decreases participants from their actual structures which are with more than one participant.

Keywords: argument-decrease, middle-construction, passivization, transitivity-intransitivity

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Authors: Anchal Rana

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Indian Himalayas with their diverse climatic conditions are home to many rare and endangered medicinal flora. One such species is Polygonatum verticillatum Linn., popularly known as King Solomon’s Seal or Solomon’s Seal. Its mention as an incredible medicinal herb comes from 5000 years ago in Indian Materia Medica as a component of Ashtavarga, a poly-herbal formulation comprising of eight herbs illustrated as world’s first ever revitalizing and rejuvenating nutraceutical food, which is now commercialised in the name ‘Chaywanprash’. It is an erect tall (60 to 120 cm) perennial herb with sessile, linear leaves and white pendulous flowers. The species grows well in an altitude range of 1600 to 3600 m amsl, and propagates mostly through rhizomes. The rhizomes are potential source for significant phytochemicals like flavonoids, phenolics, lectins, terpenoids, allantoin, diosgenin, β-Sitosterol and quinine. The presence of such phytochemicals makes the species an asset for antioxidant, cardiotonic, demulcent, diuretic, energizer, emollient, aphrodisiac, appetizer, glactagogue, etc. properties. Having profound concentrations of macro and micronutrients, species has fine prospects of being used as a diet supplement. However, due to unscientific and gregarious uprooting, it has been assigned a status of ‘vulnerable’ and ‘endangered’ in the Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (CAMP) process conducted by Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) during 2010, according to IUCN Red-List Criteria. Further, destructive harvesting, land use disturbances, heavy livestock grazing, climatic changes and habitat fragmentation have substantially contributed towards anomaly of the species. It, therefore, became imperative to conserve the diversity of the species and make judicious use in future research and commercial programme and schemes. A Gene Bank was therefore established at High Altitude Herbal Garden of the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India situated at Chakarata (30042’52.99’’N, 77051’36.77’’E, 2205 m amsl) consisting 149 accessions collected from thirty-one geographical locations spread over three Himalayan States of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. The present investigations purport towards sampling and collection of divergent germplasm followed by planting and cultivation techniques. The ultimate aim is thereby focussed on analysing genetic diversity of the species and capturing promising genotypes for carrying out further genetic improvement programme so to contribute towards sustainable development and healthcare.

Keywords: Polygonatum verticillatum Linn., phytochemicals, genetic diversity, conservation, gene bank

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Authors: Wisam Ismail, Chole Wright, Elizabeth Baker, Cathy Tait, Mohamed Salhab, Richard Linforth

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Background: Post-mastectomy breast reconstruction is an important treatment option for women with breast cancer with psychosocial, emotional and quality of life benefits. Despite this, Asian patients are one-fifth as likely as Caucasian patients to undergo reconstruction after mastectomy. Aim: This study aimed to assess the difference in breast reconstruction rates between Asian and Caucasian patients treated at Bradford Teaching Hospitals between May 2011 – December 2015.The long-term goal is to equip healthcare professionals to improve breast cancer treatment outcome by increasing breast reconstruction rates in this sub-population. Methods: All patients undergoing mastectomy were identified using a prospectively collected departmental database. Further data was obtained via retrospective electronic case note review. Bradford city population is about 530.000 by the end of 2015, with 67.44% of the city's population was White ethnic groups and 26.83% Asian Ethnic Groups (UK population consensus). The majority of Asian population speaks Urdu, hence an Urdu speaking breast care nurse was appointed to facilitate communications and deliver a better understanding of the reconstruction options and pathways. Statistical analysis was undertaken using the SAS program. Patients were stratified by age, self-reported ethnicity, axillary surgery and reconstruction. Relative odds were calculated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses with adjustment for known confounders. An Urdu speaking breast care nurse was employed throughout this period to facilitate communication and patient decision making. Results: 506 patients underwent Mastectomy over 5 years. 72 (14%) Asian v. 434 (85%) Caucasian. Overall median age is 64 years (SD1.1). Asian median age is 62 (SD0.9), versus Caucasian 65 (SD1.2). Total axillary clearance rate was 30% (42% Asian v.30% Caucasian). Overall reconstruction rate was 126 patients (28.9%).Only 6 of 72 Asian patients (<1%) underwent breast reconstruction versus 121of 434 Caucasian (28%) (p < 0.04), Odds ratio 0.68, (95% confidence interval 0.57-0.79). Conclusions: There is a significant difference in post-mastectomy reconstruction rates between Asian and Caucasian patients. This difference is likely to be multi-factorial. Higher rates of axillary clearance in Asian patients might suggest later disease presentation and/or higher rates of subsequent adjuvant therapy, both of which, can impact on the suitability of breast reconstruction. Strategies aimed at reducing racial disparities in breast reconstruction should include symptom awareness to enable earlier presentation and facilitated communication to ensure informed decision-making.

Keywords: aesthetic, Asian, breast, reconstruction

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Authors: Najibullah M, Soumendra Nath Kuiry

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Dams and reservoirs are perceived for their estimable alms to irrigation, water supply, flood control, electricity generation, etc. which civilize the prosperity and wealth of society across the world. Meantime the dam breach could cause devastating flood that can threat to the human lives and properties. Failures of large dams remain fortunately very seldom events. Nevertheless, a number of occurrences have been recorded in the world, corresponding in an average to one to two failures worldwide every year. Some of those accidents have caused catastrophic consequences. So it is decisive to predict the dam break flow for emergency planning and preparedness, as it poses high risk to life and property. To mitigate the adverse impact of dam break, modeling is necessary to gain a good understanding of the temporal and spatial evolution of the dam-break floods. This study will mainly deal with one-dimensional (1D) dam break modeling. Less commonly used in the hydraulic research community, another possible option for modeling the rapidly varied dam-break flows is the extended Boussinesq equations (BEs), which can describe the dynamics of short waves with a reasonable accuracy. Unlike the Shallow Water Equations (SWEs), the BEs taken into account the wave dispersion and non-hydrostatic pressure distribution. To capture the dam-break oscillations accurately it is very much needed of at least fourth-order accurate numerical scheme to discretize the third-order dispersion terms present in the extended BEs. The scope of this work is therefore to develop an 1D fourth-order accurate in both space and time Boussinesq model for dam-break flow analysis by using finite-volume / finite difference scheme. The spatial discretization of the flux and dispersion terms achieved through a combination of finite-volume and finite difference approximations. The flux term, was solved using a finite-volume discretization whereas the bed source and dispersion term, were discretized using centered finite-difference scheme. Time integration achieved in two stages, namely the third-order Adams Basforth predictor stage and the fourth-order Adams Moulton corrector stage. Implementation of the 1D Boussinesq model done using PYTHON 2.7.5. Evaluation of the performance of the developed model predicted as compared with the volume of fluid (VOF) based commercial model ANSYS-CFX. The developed model is used to analyze the risk of cascading dam failures similar to the Panshet dam failure in 1961 that took place in Pune, India. Nevertheless, this model can be used to predict wave overtopping accurately compared to shallow water models for designing coastal protection structures.

Keywords: Boussinesq equation, Coastal protection, Dam-break flow, One-dimensional model

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Authors: Kaleem Ahmed, Jamal A. Khan

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Grouping patterns, habitat use, and overlap studies were conducted on five sympatric ungulate species sambar (Cervus unicolor), chital (Axis axis), muntjac (Muntiacus muntjac), goral (Nemorhaedus goral), and serow (Capricornis sumatraensis) in the Dabka watershed area within Indian West Himalayan range. Data on age, sex composition, group size, and various ecological and topographical factors governing the presence/absence of species within the study area were collected using a 250 km of a trail walk, 95 permanent circular plots of 10 m radius, and 3 vantage points with 58 scannings. The highest mean group size was recorded for chital (6.35 ± 0.50), followed by sambar (1.35 ± 0.10), goral (1.25 ±0.63), muntjac (1.12 ± 0.05), and serow (1.00 ± 0.00). Grouping pattern significantly varied among sympatric species (F = 85.10, df. = 6, P = 0.000). The highest mean pellet group density (/ha ± SE) was recorded for sambar (41.56 ± 3.51), followed by goral (23.31 ± 3.45), chital (19.21 ± 3.51), muntjac (7.43 ± 1.21), and serow (1.02 ± 0.10). Two-way variance analysis showed a significant difference in the density of the pellet group of all ungulate species across different study area habitats (F = 6.38, df = 4, P = 0.027). The availability-utilization (AU) analysis reveals that goral was mostly sighted in steep slopes, preferred > 2100 m altitudinal range with low shrub understory, avoided dense forest, and relatively more southern aspects were used. Chital had used a wide range of tree and shrub coverings with a preference towards moderate cover range (26-50%), preferred areas with low slope category ( < 25), avoided areas of high altitude > 900 m. Sambar avoided less tree cover (0-25), preferred slope category (26-500), altitudes between 1600-2100 m, and preferred dense forest with northern aspects. Muntjac used all elevation ranges in the study area with a preference towards the dense forest and northern aspects. Serow preferred high tree cover > 75%, avoided low shrub cover (0-25%), preferred high shrub cover 51-75%, utilized higher elevation > 2100 m, avoided low elevation range and northern aspects. All species occupied similar habitat types, forest or scrub, except for the goral, which preferred open spaces. Between muntjac and sambar, the highest overlap was found (65%), and there was no overlap between chital and serow, chital and goral. Aspect, slope, altitude, and vegetation characteristics were found to be important factors for the overlap of ungulate sympatric species. One major reason for their ecological separation at the fine-scale level is the differential use of altitude by ungulates in the present study. This is confirmed by the avoidance by chital of altitudes > 900 m and serow of < 2100 m.

Keywords: altitude, grouping pattern, Himalayas, overlap, ungulates

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Authors: T. J. O Ceallaigh

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Subject matter driven programs such as immersion programs are increasingly popular across the world. These programs have allowed for extensive experimentation in the realm of second language teaching and learning and have been at the centre of many research agendas since their inception. Even though immersion programs are successful, especially in terms of second language development, they remain complex to implement and not always as successful as what we would hope them to be. Among all the challenges these varied programs face, research indicates that the primary issue lies in the difficulty to create well-balanced programs where both content instruction and language/literacy instruction can be targeted simultaneously. Initial teacher education and professional development experiences are key drivers of successful language immersion education globally. They are critical to the supply of teachers with the mandatory linguistic and cultural competencies as well as associated pedagogical practices required to ensure learners’ success. However, there is a significant dearth of research on professional development experiences of immersion teachers. We lack an understanding of the nature of their expertise and their needs in terms of professional development as well as their perceptions of the primary challenges they face as they attempt to formulate a coherent pedagogy of integrated language and content instruction. Such an understanding is essential if their specific needs are to be addressed appropriately and thus improve the overall quality of immersion programs. This paper reports on immersion teacher perceptions of online professional development experiences that have a positive impact on their ability to facilitate language and content connections in instruction. Twenty Irish-medium immersion teachers engaged in the instructional integration of language and content in a systematic and developmental way during a year-long online professional development program. Data were collected from a variety of sources e.g., an extensive online questionnaire, individual interviews, reflections, assignments and focus groups. This study provides compelling evidence of the potential of online professional development experiences as a pedagogical framework for understanding the complex and interconnected knowledge demands that arise in content and language integration in immersion. Findings illustrate several points of access to classroom research and pedagogy and uncover core aspects of high impact online experiences. Teachers identified aspects such as experimentation and risk-taking, authenticity and relevance, collegiality and collaboration, motivation and challenge and teacher empowerment. The potential of the online experiences to foster teacher language awareness was also identified as a contributory factor to success. The paper will conclude with implications for designing meaningful and effective online CLIL professional development experiences.

Keywords: content and language integrated learning , immersion pedagogy, professional development, teacher language awareness

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Authors: Lorena Blasco-Arcas, Francesca Pucciarelli

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Business contexts have become globalised and digitalised, which requires that managers develop a strong sense of cross-cultural intelligence while working in geographically distant teams by means of digital technologies. How to better equip future managers on these kinds of skills has been put forward as a critical issue in Business Schools. In pursuing these goals, higher education is shifting from a passive lecture approach, to more active and experiential learning approaches that are more suitable to learn skills. For example, through the use of case studies, proposing plausible business problem to be solved by students (or teams of students), these institutions have focused for long in fostering learning by doing. Though, case studies are no longer enough as a tool to promote active teamwork and experiential learning. Moreover, digital advancements applied to educational settings have enabled augmented classrooms, expanding the learning experience beyond the class, which increase students’ engagement and experiential learning. Different authors have highlighted the benefits of digital engagement in order to achieve a deeper and longer-lasting learning and comprehension of core marketing concepts. Clickers, computer-based simulations and business games have become fairly popular between instructors, but still are limited by the fact that are fictional experiences. Further exploration of real digital platforms to implement real, live projects in the classroom seem relevant for marketing and business education. Building on this, this paper describes the development of an experiential learning activity in class, in which students developed a communication campaign in teams using the BuzzFeed platform, and subsequently implementing the campaign by using other social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…). The article details the procedure of using the project for a marketing module in a Bachelor program with students located in France, Italy and Spain campuses working on multi-campus groups. Further, this paper describes the project outcomes in terms of students’ engagement and analytics (i.e. visits achieved). the project included a survey in order to analyze and identify main aspects related to how the learning experience is influenced by the cultural competence developed through working in geographically distant and culturally diverse teamwork. Finally, some recommendations to use project-based social media tools while working with virtual teamwork in the classroom are provided.

Keywords: cultural competences, experiential learning, social media, teamwork, virtual group work

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Authors: Helene Jacobson Pettersson, Linda Lill

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Research that combines educational science, social work and migration studies shows that ethnic relations tend to be represented from various angles and with different content. As studied here, it is found in steering documents, literature, and teaching that the construction of ethnic relations related to social work varies in education over time. The study has its actuality in changed preconditions to social work education caused by the demographic development and the on-going globalization in the Swedish society. In this presentation we will explore strategies and experiences of teaching ethnic relations at social work educations in Sweden. The purpose is to investigate the strategies that are used and what content is given to ethnic relations in the social work education. University teachers are interviewed concerning their interpretation of steering documents related to the content and how they transform this in their teaching. Even though there has been a tradition to include aspects as intercultural relations and ethnicity, the norms of the welfare state has continued to be the basis for how to conceptualize people’s way of living and social problems. Additionally, the contemporary migration situation with a large number of refugees coming to Sweden peaking in 2015, dramatically changes the conditions for social work as a practice field. Increasing economic and social tensions in Sweden, becomes a challenge for the universities to support the students to achieve theoretical and critical knowledge and skills needed to work for social change, human rights and equality in the ethnic diverse Swedish society. The study raises questions about how teachers interpret the goals of the social work programs in terms of ethnic relations. How do they transform this into teaching? How are ethnic relations in social work described and problematized in lectures, cases and examinations? The empirical material is based on interviews with teachers involved in the social work education at four Swedish universities. The interviewees were key persons in the sense that they could influence the course content, and they were drawn from different semesters of the program. In depth interviews are made on the themes; personal entrance, description and understanding of ethnic relations in social work, teachers’ conception of students understanding of ethnic relations, and the content, form and strategies for teaching used by the teachers. The analysis is thematic and inspired from narrative analysis. The results show that the subject is relatively invisible in steering documents. The interviewees have experienced changes in the teaching over time, with less focus on intercultural relations and specific cultural competence. Instead ethnic relations are treated more contextually and interacting with categories as gender, class and age. The need of theoretical and critical knowledge of migration and ethnic relations in a broad sense but also for specific professional use is emphasized.

Keywords: ethnic relations, social work education, social change, human rights, equality, ethnic diversity in Sweden

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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The number of indices developed for the evaluation of obesity both in adults and pediatric population is ever increasing. These indices are also used in cases with metabolic syndrome (MetS), mostly the ultimate form of morbid obesity. Aside from anthropometric measurements, formulas constituted using these parameters also find clinical use. These formulas can be listed as two groups; being weight-dependent and –independent. Some are extremely sophisticated equations and their clinical utility is questionable in routine clinical practice. The aim of this study is to compare presently available obesity indices and find the most practical one. Their associations with MetS components were also investigated to determine their capacities in differential diagnosis of morbid obesity with and without MetS. Children with normal body mass index (N-BMI) and morbid obesity were recruited for this study. Three groups were constituted. Age- and sex- dependent BMI percentiles for morbid obese (MO) children were above 99 according to World Health Organization tables. Of them, those with MetS findings were evaluated as MetS group. Children, whose values were between 85 and 15 were included in N-BMI group. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institution. Parents filled out informed consent forms to participate in the study. Anthropometric measurements and blood pressure values were recorded. Body mass index, hip index (HI), conicity index (CI), triponderal mass index (TPMI), body adiposity index (BAI), body shape index (ABSI), body roundness index (BRI), abdominal volume index (AVI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference+hip circumference/2 ((WC+HC)/2) were the formulas examined within the scope of this study. Routine biochemical tests including fasting blood glucose (FBG), insulin (INS), triglycerides (TRG), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) were performed. Statistical package program SPSS was used for the evaluation of study data. p<0.05 was accepted as the statistical significance degree. Hip index did not differ among the groups. A statistically significant difference was noted between N-BMI and MetS groups in terms of ABSI. All the other indices were capable of making discrimination between N-BMI-MO, N-BMI- MetS and MO-MetS groups. No correlation was found between FBG and any obesity indices in any groups. The same was true for INS in N-BMI group. Insulin was correlated with BAI, TPMI, CI, BRI, AVI and (WC+HC)/2 in MO group without MetS findings. In MetS group, the only index, which was correlated with INS was (WC+HC)/2. These findings have pointed out that complicated formulas may not be required for the evaluation of the alterations among N-BMI and various obesity groups including MetS. The simple easily computable weight-independent index, (WC+HC)/2, was unique, because it was the only index, which exhibits a valuable association with INS in MetS group. It did not exhibit any correlation with other obesity indices showing associations with INS in MO group. It was concluded that (WC+HC)/2 was pretty valuable practicable index for the discrimination of MO children with and without MetS findings.

Keywords: children, insulin, metabolic syndrome, obesity indices

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Authors: Sevket Ceyhun Cetin, Mehmet Oren

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According to existing educational research studies, students learn better with high teacher quality. Therefore, professional development has become a crucial way of increasing the quality of novices and veteran in-service teachers by providing support regarding content and pedagogy. To answer what makes PD effective, researchers have studied different PD models and revealed some critical elements that need to be considered, such as duration of a PD and the manner of delivery (e.g., lecture vs. engaging). Also, it has been pointed out that if PDs are prepared as one-size-fits-all, they most likely be ineffective in addressing teachers’ needs toward improving instructional quality. Instead, teachers’ voices need to be heard, and the foci of PDs should be determined based on their specific needs. Thus, this study was conducted to identify professional development needs of middle school mathematics teachers based on their self-evaluation of their performances in light of teaching standards. This study also aimed to explore whether the PD needs with respect to years of teaching experience (novice vs. veteran). These teachers had participated in a federally-funded research grant, which aimed to improve the competencies of 6-9 grade-level mathematics teachers in pedagogy and content areas. In the research project, the participants had consistently videoed their lessons throughout a school year and reflected on their performances, using Teacher Advanced Program (TAPTM) rubric, which was based on the best practices of teaching. Particularly, they scored their performances in the following areas and provided evidence as the justifications of their scores: Standards and Objectives, Presenting Instructional Content, Lesson Structure and Pacing, Activities and Materials, Academic Feedback, Grouping Students, and Questioning. The rating scale of the rubric is 1 through 5 (i.e., 1=Unsatisfactory [performance], 3=Proficient, and 5=Exemplary). For each area mentioned above, the numerical scores of 77 written reports (for 77 videoed lessons) of 24 teachers (nnovices=12 and nveteran=12) were averaged. Overall, the average score of each area was below 3 (ranging between 2.43 and 2.86); in other words, teachers judged their performances incompetent across the seven areas. In the second step of the data analysis, the lowest three areas in which novice and veteran teachers performed poorly were selected for further qualitative analysis. According to the preliminary results, the lowest three areas for the novice teachers were: Questioning, Grouping Students, and Academic Feedback. Grouping Students was also one of the lowest areas of the veteran teachers, but the other two areas for this group were: Lesson Structure & Pacing, and Standards & Objectives. Identifying in-service teachers’ needs based on their reflective practitioner experiences provides educators very crucial information that can be used to create more effective PD that improves teacher quality.

Keywords: mathematics teacher, professional development, self-reflection, video data

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Authors: A. Kavita Murugkar, B. Anurag Kashyap

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With the Rights for Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWD Act) 2016, the Indian government has made it mandatory for all establishments, including Heritage Sites, to be accessible for People with Disabilities. However, recent access audit surveys done under the Accessible India Campaign by Ministry of Culture indicate that there are very few accessibility measures provided in the Heritage sites for people with disabilities. Though there are some measures for the mobility impaired, surveys brought out that there are almost no provisions for people with vision impairment (PwVI) in heritage sites thus depriving them of a reasonable physical & intellectual access that facilitates an enjoyable experience and enriching interpretation of the Heritage Site. There is a growing need to develop multisensory interpretative tools that can help the PwVI in perceiving heritage sites in the absence of vision. The purpose of this research was to examine the usability of an audio-tactile model as a haptic and sound-based strategy for augmenting the perception and experience of PwVI in a heritage site. The first phase of the project was a multi-stage phenomenological experimental study with visually impaired users to investigate the design parameters for developing an audio-tactile model for PwVI. The findings from this phase included user preferences related to the physical design of the model such as the size, scale, materials, details, etc., and the information that it will carry such as braille, audio output, tactile text, etc. This was followed by the second phase in which a working prototype of an audio-tactile model is designed and developed for a heritage site based on the findings from the first phase of the study. A nationally listed heritage site from the author’s city was selected for making the model. The model was lastly tested by visually impaired users for final refinements and validation. The prototype developed empowers People with Vision Impairment to navigate independently in heritage sites. Such a model if installed in every heritage site, can serve as a technological guide for the Person with Vision Impairment, giving information of the architecture, details, planning & scale of the buildings, the entrances, location of important features, lifts, staircases, and available, accessible facilities. The model was constructed using 3D modeling and digital printing technology. Though designed for the Indian context, this assistive technology for the blind can be explored for wider applications across the globe. Such an accessible solution can change the otherwise “incomplete’’ perception of the disabled visitor, in this case, a visually impaired visitor and augment the quality of their experience in heritage sites.

Keywords: accessibility, architectural perception, audio tactile model , inclusive heritage, multi-sensory perception, visual impairment, visitor experience

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Authors: Johannes Gantner, Michael Held, Rafael Horn, Matthias Fischer

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At the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2015 a global agreement on the reduction of climate change was achieved stating CO₂ reduction targets for all countries. For instance, the EU targets a reduction of 40 percent in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, the environmental performance of the different European electricity grid mixes is crucial. First, the electricity directly needed for everyone’s daily life (e.g. heating, plug load, mobility) and therefore a reduction of the environmental impacts of the electricity grid mix reduces the overall environmental impacts of a country. Secondly, the manufacturing of every product depends on electricity. Thereby a reduction of the environmental impacts of the electricity mix results in a further decrease of environmental impacts of every product. As a result, the implementation of the two-degree goal highly depends on the decarbonization of the European electricity mixes. Currently the production of electricity in the EU27 is based on fossil fuels and therefore bears a high GWP impact per kWh. Due to the importance of the environmental impacts of the electricity mix, not only today but also in future, within the European research projects, CommONEnergy and Senskin, time-dynamic Life Cycle Assessment models for all EU27 countries were set up. As a methodology, a combination of scenario modeling and life cycle assessment according to ISO14040 and ISO14044 was conducted. Based on EU27 trends regarding energy, transport, and buildings, the different national electricity mixes were investigated taking into account future changes such as amount of electricity generated in the country, change in electricity carriers, COP of the power plants and distribution losses, imports and exports. As results, time-dynamic environmental profiles for the electricity mixes of each country and for Europe overall were set up. Thereby for each European country, the decarbonization strategies of the electricity mix are critically investigated in order to identify decisions, that can lead to negative environmental effects, for instance on the reduction of the global warming of the electricity mix. For example, the withdrawal of the nuclear energy program in Germany and at the same time compensation of the missing energy by non-renewable energy carriers like lignite and natural gas is resulting in an increase in global warming potential of electricity grid mix. Just after two years this increase countervailed by the higher share of renewable energy carriers such as wind power and photovoltaic. Finally, as an outlook a first qualitative picture is provided, illustrating from environmental perspective, which country has the highest potential for low-carbon electricity production and therefore how investments in a connected European electricity grid could decrease the environmental impacts of the electricity mix in Europe.

Keywords: electricity grid mixes, EU27 countries, environmental impacts, future trends, life cycle assessment, scenario analysis

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Authors: Frazer McDonald Ng'oma

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Online Learning in Malawi has only immersed in recent years due to the need to increase access to higher education, the need to accommodate upgrading students who wish to study on a part time basis while still continuing their work, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the closure of schools resulting in academic institutions seeking alternative modes of teaching and Learning to ensure continued teaching and Learning. Realizing that this mode of Learning is becoming a norm, institutions of higher Learning have started pioneering online post-graduate programs from which they can draw lessons before fully implementing it in undergraduate programs. Online learning pedagogy has not been fully grasped and institutions are still experimenting with this mode of Learning until online Learning guiding policies are created and its standards improved. This single case descriptive qualitative research study sought to investigate online postgraduate students’ perceptions and experiences with Student to student interactive pedagogy in their programs. The results of the study are to inform institutions and educators how to structure their programs to ensure that their students get the full satisfaction. 25 Masters students in 3 recently introduced online programs at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHES), were engaged; 19 were interviewed and 6 responded to questionnaires. The findings from the students were presented and categorized in themes and subthemes that emerged from the qualitative data that was collected and analysed following Colaizzi’s framework for data analysis that resulted in themes formulation. Findings revealed that Student to student interactions occurred in the online programme during live sessions, on class Whatsapp group, in discussion boards as well as on emails. Majority of the students (n=18) felt the level of students’ interaction initiated by the institution was too much, referring to mandatory interactions activities like commenting in discussion boards and attending to live sessons. Some participants (n=7) were satisfied with the level of interaction and also pointed out that they would be fine with more program-initiated student–to–student interactions. These participants attributed having been out of school for some time as a reason for needing peer interactions citing that it is already difficult to get back to a traditional on-campus school after some time, let alone an online class where there is no physical interaction with other students. In general, majority of the participants (n=18) did not value Student to student interaction in online Learning. The students suggested that having intensive student-to-student interaction in postgraduate online studies does not need to be a high priority for the institution and they further recommended that if a lecturer decides to incorporate student-to-student activities into a class, they should be optional.

Keywords: online learning, interactions, student interactions, post graduate students

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Authors: André Melo Franco Lorena De Barros, Elida Geralda Campos

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The bilingual education has just started in Brazils public schools. This paper is a didactic sequence of biology bilingual lessons about biologic control in the Brazilian Savana. This sequence has been applied in the first year of a bilingual education program in the only public English and Portuguese bilingual high school in Brazil. The aim of this work is to develop and apply a didactic sequence capable of developing the scientific literacy through the bilingual education associated with Problem Based Learning. This didactic sequence was applied in a class of 30 students. It was divided in three lessons. In the first lesson the students were divided in groups and received a fiction Letter from a mayor explaining the problem and asking students for help. The organic soy plantation of the mayor’s is been attacked by caterpillars. The students read the text then raised hypothesis of how they could solve the problem. In the second lesson the students searched online to verify if theirs hypothesis were correct and to find answers for the question proposed. In the third lesson the groups got together and discussed about their results and wrote a final essay with the answers for the problem proposed. The tools used to acquire information about the didactic sequence were: researcher’s diary, survey, interview and essay developed by the students. Most of the initial hypothesis couldn’t answer the problem properly. By the second lesson most of the students could answer properly. During the third lesson all the groups figured out suitable answers. The forms of biological control, birds habits and transgenic were deeply studied by the students. This methodology was successful for developing the scientific literacy with most of the students and also concluded that the quality of learning is directly associated with the effort of each student during the process. [ARAÚJO, Denise Lino de. O que é (e como se faz) sequência didática. Entrepalavras, Fortaleza, v. 3, n. 3, p.322-334, jul. 2013.] [FRANCO, Aline Aparecida et al. Preferência alimentar de Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) por cultivares de soja. Científica: Revista de Ciências Agrárias, Jaboticabal, v. 1, n. 42, p.32-38, 29 jan. 2014.] [RIBEIRO, Luis Roberto de Camargo. Aprendizagem baseada em problemas (PBL): Uma experiência no ensino superior. São Carlos: Editora da Universidade Federal de São Carlos Ribeiro, 2008. 151 p.] [TRIVELATO, Sílvia L. Frateschi; TONIDANDEL, Sandra M. Rudella. Ensino Por Investigação: Eixos Organizadores Para Sequências De Ensino De Biologia. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências, Belo Horizonte, v. 17, n. especial, p.97-114, nov. 2015.].

Keywords: Bilingual Education, Environmental Education, Problem Based Learning, Science education

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Authors: Abhimanyu Kumar

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The relationship between religion and medicine is much evident in the context of Buddhism. This paper is an attempt to look at the processes of social and cultural evolution of scientific creativity in the field of medicine and institutionalization of medical practices. The objective of the paper is to understand the Buddhist responses towards health as understood from the Vinaya Piṭaka and the Jātaka. This work is a result of the analysis of two important Buddhist texts: the Vinaya Piṭaka and the Jātaka. Broadly the Vinaya Piṭaka is concerned with the growth of Buddhist monasticism. The Vinaya Piṭaka is considered one of the most important sacred texts of the Buddhists, and contains rules for monastic life. These rules deal with such aspects as formal meetings of the saṃgha (monastery), expiation, confession, training, and legal questions. The Jātaka stories, on the other hand, are in the form of folk narratives, and provide a major source of medical consultation for all classes. These texts help us to ascertain the ‘proficiency and perceptions’ of the prevailing medical traditions. The Jātakas are a collection of 547 stories about the past lives of the Buddha, who is represented in anthropomorphic and animal form. The Jātaka connects itself between existing cognitive environments related to ethics and Buddhist didacticism. These stories are a reflection of the connection between the past and contemporary times (in the sense of time of creation of the story) as well. This is visible through the narrative strategy of the text, where every story is sub-divided into the story of the past and story of the present, and there is a significant identification element or connection that established at the end of each story. The minimal presence of philosophical content and the adoption of a narrative strategy make it possible for more of everyday life. This study gives me an opportunity to raise questions about how far were the body and mind closely interrelated in the Buddhist perceptions, and also did the society act like a laboratory for the Buddhists to practice healing activities? How far did religious responses to afflictions, be they leprosy or plague or anger, influence medical care; what impact did medical practitioners, religious authorities and the regulation of medical activity and practice have on healing the body and the mind; and, how has the healing environment been viewed. This paper is working with the idea that medical science in early India was not only for the curative purpose of diseases, but it fulfilled a greater cause of promoting, maintaining and restoring human health. In this regard, studying these texts gives an insight regarding religious responses to epidemics, from leprosy to plague, as well as to behavioral disorder such as anger. In other words, it deals with the idea about healing the body and healing the soul from a religious perspective.

Keywords: food for health, folk narratives, human body, materia medica, social sickness

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Authors: Candy Chieh Lee

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Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between visual perception and social function in patients with schizophrenia. The specific aims are: 1) To explore performances in visual perception and social function in patients with schizophrenia 2) to examine the correlation between visual perceptual skills and social function in patients with schizophrenia The long-term goal is to be able to provide the most adequate intervention program for promoting patients’ visual perceptual skills and social function, as well as compensatory techniques. Background: Perceptual deficits in schizophrenia have been well documented in the visual system. Clinically, a considerable portion (up to 60%) of schizophrenia patients report distorted visual experiences such as visual perception of motion, color, size, and facial expression. Visual perception is required for the successful performance of most activities of daily living, such as dressing, making a cup of tea, driving a car and reading. On the other hand, patients with schizophrenia usually exhibit psychotic symptoms such as auditory hallucination and delusions which tend to alter their perception of reality and affect their quality of interpersonal relationship and limit their participation in various social situations. Social function plays an important role in the prognosis of patients with schizophrenia; lower social functioning skills can lead to poorer prognosis. Investigations on the relationship between social functioning and perceptual ability in patients with schizophrenia are relatively new but important as the results could provide information for effective intervention on visual perception and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: We recruited 50 participants with schizophrenia in the mental health hospital (Taipei City Hospital, Songde branch, Taipei, Taiwan) acute ward. Participants who have signed consent forms, diagnosis of schizophrenia and having no organic vision deficits were included. Participants were administered the test of visual-perceptual skills (non-motor), third edition (TVPS-3) and the personal and social performance scale (PSP) for assessing visual perceptual skill and social function. The assessments will take about 70-90 minutes to complete. Data Analysis: The IBM SPSS 21.0 will be used to perform the statistical analysis. First, descriptive statistics will be performed to describe the characteristics and performance of the participants. Lastly, Pearson correlation will be computed to examine the correlation between PSP and TVPS-3 scores. Results: Significant differences were found between the means of participants’ TVPS-3 raw scores of each subtest with the age equivalent raw score provided by the TVPS-3 manual. Significant correlations were found between all 7 subtests of TVPS-3 and PSP total score. Conclusions: The results showed that patients with schizophrenia do exhibit visual perceptual deficits and is correlated social functions. Understanding these facts of patients with schizophrenia can assist health care professionals in designing and implementing adequate rehabilitative treatment according to patients’ needs.

Keywords: occupational therapy, social function, schizophrenia, visual perception

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Authors: Da-Hye Jang, Woo-Jeong Cho

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Marine leisure tourism contributes greatly to the national economy in which the sea is located nearby and many countries are using marine tourism to create value added. The interest and investment of government and local governments on marine leisure tourism growing as a major trend of marine tourism is steadily increasing. But indiscriminate investment in marine leisure tourism such as duplicated business wastes limited resources. In other words, government and local governments need to select and concentrate on the goal they pursue by drawing priority on maritime leisure tourism policies. The purpose of this study is to analyze development strategies on supplier for marine leisure tourism and thus provide a comprehensive and rational framework for developing marine leisure tourism. In order to achieve the purpose, this study is to analyze priorities for each evaluation criterion of marine leisure tourism development policies using Analytic Hierarchy Process. In this study, a questionnaire was used as the survey tool and was developed based on the previous studies, government report, regional report, related thesis and literature for marine leisure tourism. The questionnaire was constructed by verifying the validity of contents from the expert group related to marine leisure tourism after conducting the first and second preliminary surveys. The AHP survey was conducted to experts (university professors, researchers, field specialists and related public officials) from April 6, 2018 to April 30, 2018 by visiting in person or e-mail. This study distributed 123 questionnaires and 68 valid questionnaires were used for data analysis. As a result, 4 factors with 12 detail strategies were analyzed using Excel. Extracted factors of development strategies of marine leisure tourism are consist of 4 factors such as infrastructure, popularization, law & system improvement and advancement. In conclusion, the results of the pairwise comparison of the four major factor on the first class were infrastructure, popularization, law & system improvement and advancement in order. Second, marine water front space maintenance had higher priority than marina facilities expansion and the establishment of marine leisure education center. Third, marine leisure safety·culture improvement had higher priority than strengthening experience·education program and the upkeep and open promotion event. Fourth, specialization·cluster of marine leisure tourism had higher priority than business support system of marine leisure tourism. Fifth, the revision of water-related leisure activities safety act had higher priority than an enactment of marine tourism promotion act and the foster of marina service industry. Finally, marine water front space maintenance was the most important development plan to boost marine leisure tourism.

Keywords: marine leisure tourism, marine leisure, marine tourism, analytic hierarchy process

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Authors: Sofia Papadimitriou

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INTRODUCTION: The differential diagnosis between acute viral and bacterial infections is an important cost-effectiveness parameter at the stage of the treatment process in order to achieve the maximum benefits in therapeutic intervention by combining the minimum cost to ensure the proper use of antibiotics.The discovery of sensitive and robust molecular diagnostic tests in response to the role of the host in infections has enhanced the accurate diagnosis and differentiation of infections. METHOD: The study used a sample of six independent blood samples (total=756) which are associated with human proteins-proteins, each of which at the transcription stage expresses a different response in the host network between viral and bacterial infections.Τhe individual blood samples are subjected to a sequence of computer filters that identify a gene panel corresponding to an autonomous diagnostic score. The data set and the correspondence of the gene panel to the diagnostic patents a new Bangalore -Viral Bacterial (BL-VB). FINDING: We use a biomarker based on the blood of 10 genes(Panel-VB) that are an important prognostic value for the detection of viruses from bacterial infections with a weighted average AUROC of 0.97(95% CL:0.96-0.99) in eleven independent samples (sets n=898). We discovered a base with a patient score (VB 10 ) according to the table, which is a significant diagnostic value with a weighted average of AUROC 0.94(95% CL: 0.91-0.98) in 2996 patient samples from 56 public sets of data from 19 different countries. We also studied VB 10 in a new cohort of South India (BL-VB,n=56) and found 97% accuracy in confirmed cases of viral and bacterial infections. We found that VB 10 (a)accurately identifies the type of infection even in unspecified cases negative to the culture (b) shows its clinical condition recovery and (c) applies to all age groups, covering a wide range of acute bacterial and viral infectious, including non-specific pathogens. We applied our VB 10 rating to publicly available COVID 19 data and found that our rating diagnosed viral infection in patient samples. RESULTS: Τhe results of the study showed the diagnostic power of the biomarker VB 10 as a diagnostic test for the accurate diagnosis of acute infections in recovery conditions. We look forward to helping you make clinical decisions about prescribing antibiotics and integrating them into your policies management of antibiotic stewardship efforts. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we are developing a new property of the RNA-based biomarker and a new blood test to differentiate between viral and bacterial infections to assist a physician in designing the optimal treatment regimen to contribute to the proper use of antibiotics and reduce the burden on antimicrobial resistance, AMR.

Keywords: acute infections, antimicrobial resistance, biomarker, blood transcriptome, systems biology, classifier diagnostic score

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Authors: Carmela Nardelli, Laura Iaffaldano, Valentina Capobianco, Antonietta Tafuto, Maddalena Ferrigno, Angela Capone, Giuseppe Maria Maruotti, Maddalena Raia, Rosa Di Noto, Luigi Del Vecchio, Pasquale Martinelli, Lucio Pastore, Lucia Sacchetti

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Maternal obesity and nutrient excess in utero increase the risk of future metabolic diseases in the adult life. The mechanisms underlying this process are probably based on genetic, epigenetic alterations and changes in foetal nutrient supply. In mammals, the placenta is the main interface between foetus and mother, it regulates intrauterine development, modulates adaptive responses to sub optimal in uterus conditions and it is also an important source of human amniotic mesenchymal stem cells (hA-MSCs). We previously highlighted a specific microRNA (miRNA) profiling in amnion from obese (Ob) pregnant women, here we compared the miRNA expression profile of hA-MSCs isolated from (Ob) and control (Co) women, aimed to search for any alterations in metabolic pathways that could predispose the new-born to the obese phenotype. Methods: We isolated, at delivery, hA-MSCs from amnion of 16 Ob- and 7 Co-women with pre-pregnancy body mass index (mean/SEM) 40.3/1.8 and 22.4/1.0 kg/m2, respectively. hA-MSCs were phenotyped by flow cytometry. Globally, 384 miRNAs were evaluated by the TaqMan Array Human MicroRNA Panel v 1.0 (Applied Biosystems). By the TargetScan program we selected the target genes of the miRNAs differently expressed in Ob- vs Co-hA-MSCs; further, by KEGG database, we selected the statistical significant biological pathways. Results: The immunophenotype characterization confirmed the mesenchymal origin of the isolated hA-MSCs. A large percentage of the tested miRNAs, about 61.4% (232/378), was expressed in hA-MSCs, whereas 38.6% (146/378) was not. Most of the expressed miRNAs (89.2%, 207/232) did not differ between Ob- and Co-hA-MSCs and were not further investigated. Conversely, 4.8% of miRNAs (11/232) was higher and 6.0% (14/232) was lower in Ob- vs Co-hA-MSCs. Interestingly, 7/232 miRNAs were obesity-specific, being expressed only in hA-MSCs isolated from obese women. Bioinformatics showed that these miRNAs significantly regulated (P<0.001) genes belonging to several metabolic pathways, i.e. MAPK signalling, actin cytoskeleton, focal adhesion, axon guidance, insulin signaling, etc. Conclusions: Our preliminary data highlight an altered miRNA profile in Ob- vs Co-hA-MSCs and suggest that an epigenetic miRNA-based mechanism of gene regulation could affect pathways involved in placental growth and function, thereby potentially increasing the newborn’s risk of metabolic diseases in the adult life.

Keywords: hA-MSCs, obesity, miRNA, biosystem

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Authors: Felipe M. de Freitas, Icaro V. Soares, Lucas L. L. Fortes, Sandro T. M. Gonçalves, Úrsula D. C. Resende

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The SPICE-based simulators are quite robust and widely used for simulation of electronic circuits, their algorithms support linear and non-linear lumped components and they can manipulate an expressive amount of encapsulated elements. Despite the great potential of these simulators based on SPICE in the analysis of quasi-static electromagnetic field interaction, that is, at low frequency, these simulators are limited when applied to microwave hybrid circuits in which there are both lumped and distributed elements. Usually the spatial discretization of the FDTD (Finite-Difference Time-Domain) method is done according to the actual size of the element under analysis. After spatial discretization, the Courant Stability Criterion calculates the maximum temporal discretization accepted for such spatial discretization and for the propagation velocity of the wave. This criterion guarantees the stability conditions for the leapfrogging of the Yee algorithm; however, it is known that for the field update, the stability of the complete FDTD procedure depends on factors other than just the stability of the Yee algorithm, because the FDTD program needs other algorithms in order to be useful in engineering problems. Examples of these algorithms are Absorbent Boundary Conditions (ABCs), excitation sources, subcellular techniques, grouped elements, and non-uniform or non-orthogonal meshes. In this work, the influence of the stability of the FDTD method in the modeling of concentrated elements such as resistive sources, resistors, capacitors, inductors and diode will be evaluated. In this paper is proposed, therefore, the electromagnetic modeling of electronic components in order to create models that satisfy the needs for simulations of circuits in ultra-wide frequencies. The models of the resistive source, the resistor, the capacitor, the inductor, and the diode will be evaluated, among the mathematical models for lumped components in the LE-FDTD method (Lumped-Element Finite-Difference Time-Domain), through the parametric analysis of Yee cells size which discretizes the lumped components. In this way, it is sought to find an ideal cell size so that the analysis in FDTD environment is in greater agreement with the expected circuit behavior, maintaining the stability conditions of this method. Based on the mathematical models and the theoretical basis of the required extensions of the FDTD method, the computational implementation of the models in Matlab® environment is carried out. The boundary condition Mur is used as the absorbing boundary of the FDTD method. The validation of the model is done through the comparison between the obtained results by the FDTD method through the electric field values and the currents in the components, and the analytical results using circuit parameters.

Keywords: hybrid circuits, LE-FDTD, lumped element, parametric analysis

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Authors: Getachew Weldemichael, Sentayehu Alamerew, Leta Tulu, Gezahegn Berecha

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Coffee quality improvement program is becoming the focus of coffee research, as the world coffee consumption pattern shifted to high-quality coffee. However, there is limited information on the genetic variation of C. Arabica for quality improvement in potential specialty coffee growing areas of Ethiopia. Therefore, this experiment was conducted with the objectives of determining the magnitude of variation among 105 coffee accessions collected from east Wollega coffee growing areas and assessing correlations between the different coffee qualities attributes. It was conducted in RCRD with three replications. Data on green bean physical characters (shape and make, bean color and odor) and organoleptic cup quality traits (aromatic intensity, aromatic quality, acidity, astringency, bitterness, body, flavor, and overall standard of the liquor) were recorded. Analysis of variance, clustering, genetic divergence, principal component and correlation analysis was performed using SAS software. The result revealed that there were highly significant differences (P<0.01) among the accessions for all quality attributes except for odor and bitterness. Among the tested accessions, EW104 /09, EW101 /09, EW58/09, EW77/09, EW35/09, EW71/09, EW68/09, EW96 /09, EW83/09 and EW72/09 had the highest total coffee quality values (the sum of bean physical and cup quality attributes). These genotypes could serve as a source of genes for green bean physical characters and cup quality improvement in Arabica coffee. Furthermore, cluster analysis grouped the coffee accessions into five clusters with significant inter-cluster distances implying that there is moderate diversity among the accessions and crossing accessions from these divergent inter-clusters would result in hetrosis and recombinants in segregating generations. The principal component analysis revealed that the first three principal components with eigenvalues greater than unity accounted for 83.1% of the total variability due to the variation of nine quality attributes considered for PC analysis, indicating that all quality attributes equally contribute to a grouping of the accessions in different clusters. Organoleptic cup quality attributes showed positive and significant correlations both at the genotypic and phenotypic levels, demonstrating the possibility of simultaneous improvement of the traits. Path coefficient analysis revealed that acidity, flavor, and body had a high positive direct effect on overall cup quality, implying that these traits can be used as indirect criteria to improve overall coffee quality. Therefore, it was concluded that there is considerable variation among the accessions, which need to be properly conserved for future improvement of the coffee quality. However, the variability observed for quality attributes must be further verified using biochemical and molecular analysis.

Keywords: accessions, Coffea arabica, cluster analysis, correlation, principal component

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Authors: Kever Gomes, Rosana Martins

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The use of environmental indicators is today an important strategy for analyzing the sustainability of agricultural systems. Despite of the considerable importance of family agriculture for Brazilian economy, sustainable agricultural practices are still weakly known, and the known ones, underused. Currently, economic aspects of the relationship between man and nature lead to the destruction of natural ecosystems, which justifies the urgent need for dissemination and usage of new sustainable production techniques. The study shows the agro-social and social-cultural trajectory of the farmers and hypothesis are advanced on what would imply the adoption of agroforestry systems in family agriculture. This study aimed to investigate aspects related to the perception of sustainable agriculture, especially on agroforestry systems in farms of farmers from Distrito Federal-Brazil. Agro-social characteristics of farmers were systematized considering their perceptions about agroforestry systems for the preparation of proposal for a program of Environmental Services Payment, intended for families who are involved in the various activities of home gardens. This study used qualitative methodological approaches of quantitative research, using descriptive exploratory research. To get the necessary elements for the intended analysis, interviews were conducted at 40 heads of households of which 15 were men and 25 women. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, having been considered in the analysis the frequency, consistency, coherence and originality of responses. It was found that the lack of financial resources and lack of technical assistance are limiting factors for the dissemination and use of sustainable agricultural practices. Considering the great number of species found for the main categories of use, it can be inferred that the home gardens play important functions for the interviewed families, contributing for the food and medicine production destined for the consumption by the families themselves, and also playing an important esthetic function thanks to the variety of their ornamental plants. The wealth of these home gardens may be related to the rural origin and to the culture of the owners, who still keep a cultivation tradition. It was found that the products obtained from the home gardens contributed for the diet’s variety of the informants, representing a promising potential for the improvement of the population alimentation. The study reached the conclusion over the need to motivate the interest of these farmers to seek information and resources to enable the implementation of Agroforestry projects, including the recovery of areas in their properties, even those distinct from their backyards. The study shows the agro-social and social-cultural trajectory of the farmers and hypothesis are advanced on what would imply the adoption of agroforestry systems in family agriculture.

Keywords: agro-biodiversity, natural conservation, silviculture, urban agriculture

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Authors: Claudia Norambuena, Myissa Weiss, Maria Ruiz Maya, Matthew Straley, Elijah Hammond, Benjamin Chesebrough, David Grow

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The purpose of this project is to develop a low-cost, portable sensor device that can be used at home for long-term analysis of gait and balance abnormalities. One area of particular concern involves the asymmetries in movement and balance that can accompany certain types of injuries and/or the associated devices used in the repair and rehabilitation process (e.g. the use of splints and casts) which can often increase chances of falls and additional injuries. This device has the capacity to monitor a patient during the rehabilitation process after injury or operation, increasing the patient’s access to healthcare while decreasing the number of visits to the patient’s clinician. The sensor device may thereby improve the quality of the patient’s care, particularly in rural areas where access to the clinician could be limited, while simultaneously decreasing the overall cost associated with the patient’s care. The device consists of nine interconnected accelerometer/ gyroscope/compass chips (9-DOF IMU, Adafruit, New York, NY). The sensors attach to and are used to determine the orientation and acceleration of the patient’s lower abdomen, C7 vertebra (lower neck), L1 vertebra (middle back), anterior side of each thigh and tibia, and dorsal side of each foot. In addition, pressure sensors are embedded in shoe inserts with one sensor (ESS301, Tekscan, Boston, MA) beneath the heel and three sensors (Interlink 402, Interlink Electronics, Westlake Village, CA) beneath the metatarsal bones of each foot. These sensors measure the distribution of the weight applied to each foot as well as stride duration. A small microntroller (Arduino Mega, Arduino, Ivrea, Italy) is used to collect data from these sensors in a CSV file. MATLAB is then used to analyze the data and output the hip, knee, ankle, and trunk angles projected on the sagittal plane. An open-source program Processing is then used to generate an animation of the patient’s gait. The accuracy of the sensors was validated through comparison to goniometric measurements (±2° error). The sensor device was also shown to have sufficient sensitivity to observe various gait abnormalities. Several patients used the sensor device, and the data collected from each represented the patient’s movements. Further, the sensors were found to have the ability to observe gait abnormalities caused by the addition of a small amount of weight (4.5 - 9.1 kg) to one side of the patient. The user-friendly interface and portability of the sensor device will help to construct a bridge between patients and their clinicians with fewer necessary inpatient visits.

Keywords: biomedical sensing, gait analysis, outpatient, rehabilitation

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Authors: Bruce Hunter

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Background: The transition for student veterans from military service to higher education can be a challenging endeavor, especially for those pursuing an education in nursing. While the experiences and perspectives of each student veteran is unique, their successful integration into an academic environment can be influenced by a complex array of barriers and facilitators. This mixed-methods study aims to explore the themes and concepts that can be found in the transition experiences of student veterans in nursing education, with a focus on identifying the barriers they face and the facilitators that support their success. Methods: This study utilizes an explanatory mixed-methods approach. The research participants include student veterans enrolled in nursing programs across three academic institutions in the Southeastern United States. Quantitative Phase: A Likert scale instrument is distributed to a sample of student veterans in nursing programs. The survey assesses demographic information, academic experiences, social experiences, and perceptions of institutional support. Quantitative data is analyzed using descriptive statistics to assess demographics and to identify barriers and facilitators to the transition. Qualitative Phase: Two open-ended questions were posed to student veterans to explore their lived experiences, barriers, and facilitators during the transition to nursing education and to further explain the quantitative findings. Thematic analysis with line-by-line coding is employed to identify recurring themes and narratives that may shed light on the barriers and facilitators encountered. Results: This study found that the successful academic integration of student veterans lies in recognizing the diversity of values and attitudes among student veterans, understanding the potential challenges they face, and engaging in initiative-taking steps to create an inclusive and supportive academic environment that accommodates the unique experiences of this demographic. Addressing these academic and social integration concerns can contribute to a more understanding environment for student veterans in the BSN program. Conclusion: Providing support during this transitional period is crucial not only for retaining veterans, but also for bolstering their success in achieving the status of registered nurses. Acquiring an understanding of military culture emerges as an essential initial step for nursing faculty in student veteran retention and for successful completion of their programs. Participants found that their transition experience lacked meaningful social interactions, which could foster a positive learning environment, enhance their emotional well-being, and could contribute significantly to their overall success and satisfaction in their nursing education journey. Recognizing and promoting academic and social integration is important in helping veterans experience a smooth transition into and through the unfamiliar academic environment of nursing education.

Keywords: nursing, education, student veterans, barriers, facilitators

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Authors: P. Tardi, B. Szilagyi, A. Makai, P. Acs, M. Hock, M. Jaromi

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Osteoporosis is becoming a major public health problem, particularly in postmenopausal women, as the incidence of this disease is getting higher. Nowadays, one of the most common chronic musculoskeletal diseases is osteoporosis. Osteoporosis-related knowledge is an important contributor to prevent or to treat osteoporosis. The most important strategies to prevent or treat the disease are increasing the level of physical activity at all ages, cessation of smoking, reduction of alcohol consumption, adequate dietary calcium, and vitamin D intake. The aim of the study was to measure the osteoporosis-related knowledge and physical activity among women age over 50 years. For the measurements, we used the osteoporosis questionnaire (OPQ) to examine the disease-specific knowledge and the global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ) to measure the quantity and quality of the physical activity. The OPQ is a self-administered 20-item questionnaire with five categories: general information, risk factors, investigations, consequences, and treatment. There are four choices per question (one of them is the 'I do not know'). The filler gets +1 for a good answer, -1 point for a bad answer, and 0 for 'I do not know' answer. We contacted with 326 women (63.08 ± 9.36 year) to fill out the questionnaires. Descriptive analysis was carried out, and we calculated Spearman's correlation coefficient to examine the relationship between the variables. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel, and all statistical analyses were performed using SPSS (Version 24). The participants of the study (n=326) reached 8.76 ± 6.94 points on OPQ. Significant (p < 0.001) differences were found in the results of OPQ according to the highest level of education. It was observed that the score of the participants with osteoporosis (10.07 ± 6.82 points) was significantly (p=0.003) higher than participants without osteoporosis (9.38 ± 6.66 points) and the score of those women (6.49 ± 6.97 points) who did not know that osteoporosis exists in their case. The GPAQ results showed the sample physical activity in the dimensions of vigorous work (479.86 ± 684.02 min/week); moderate work (678.16 ± 804.5 min/week); travel (262.83 ± 380.27 min/week); vigorous recreation (77.71 ± 123.46 min/week); moderate recreation (115.15 ± 154.82 min/week) and total weekly physical activity (1645.99 ± 1432.88 min/week). Significant correlations were found between the osteoporosis-related knowledge and the physical activity in travel (R=0.21; p < 0.001), vigorous recreation (R=0.35; p < 0.001), moderate recreation (R=0.35; p < 0.001), total vigorous minutes/week (R=0.15; p=0.001) and total moderate minutes/week (R=0.13; p=0.04) dimensions. According to the results that were achieved, the highest level of education significantly determines osteoporosis-related knowledge. Physical activity is an important contributor to prevent or to treat osteoporosis, and it showed a significant correlation with osteoporosis-related knowledge. Based on the results, the development of osteoporosis-related knowledge may help to improve the level of physical activity, especially recreation. Acknowledgment: Supported by the ÚNKP-20-1 New National Excellence Program of The Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the Source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

Keywords: osteoporosis, osteoporosis-related knowledge, physical activity, prevention

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Authors: Archil Undilashvili, Ketevan Stvilia, Dustin Gilbreath, Giorgi Dzneladze, Gordon Charchward

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Introduction: In recent years, diverse types of wheelchairs, both local production and imported, have been made available on the Georgian market for wheelchair users. Some types of wheelchairs are sold together with a service package, while the others, including the State Program, Supported locally-produced ones, don’t provide adjustment and maintenance service packages to users. Within the USAID Physical Rehabilitation Project in Georgia, a study was conducted to assess the impact of the wheelchair service provision in line with the WHO guidelines on the health and overall satisfaction of wheelchair users in Georgia. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in May 2021. A structured questionnaire was used for telephone interviews that, along with socio-demographic characteristics, included questions for assessment of accessibility, availability, timeliness, cost and quality of wheelchair services received. Out of 1060 individuals listed in the census of wheelchair users, 752 were available for interview, with an actual response rate of 73.4%. 552 wheelchair users (31%) or their caregivers (69%) agreed to participate in the survey. In addition to using descriptive statistics, the study used multivariate matching of wheelchair users who received wheelchair services and who did not (control group). In addition, to evaluate satisfaction with service provision, respondents were asked to assess services. Findings: The majority (67%) of wheelchair users included in the survey were male. The average age of participants was 43. The three most frequently named reasons for using a wheelchair were cerebral palsy (29%), followed by stroke (18%), and amputation (12%). Users have had their current chair for four years on average. Overall, 60% of respondents reported that they were assessed before providing a wheelchair, but only half of them reported that their preferences and needs were considered. Only 13% of respondents had services in line with WHO guidelines and only 22% of wheelchair users had training when they received their current chair. 16% of participants said they had follow-up services, and 41% received adjustment services after receiving the chair. A slight majority (56%) of participants were satisfied with the quality of service provision and the service provision overall. Similarly, 55% were satisfied with the accessibility of service provision. A slightly larger majority (61%) were satisfied with the timeliness of service provision. The matching analysis suggests that users that received services in line with WHO guidelines were more satisfied with their chairs (the difference 17 point/0-100 scale) and they were four percentage points less likely to have health problems attributed to the chair. The regression analysis provides a similar finding of a 21 point increase in satisfaction attributable to services. Conclusion: The provision of wheelchair services in line with WHO guidelines and with follow-up services is likely to have a positive impact on the daily lives of wheelchair users in Georgia. Wheelchair services should be institutionalized as a standard component of wheelchair provision in Georgia.

Keywords: physical rehabilitation, wheelchair users, persons with disabilities, wheelchair production

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Authors: Reena Aggarwal, Neha Kestwal

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The Himalayan Nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) has been used for centuries as fibre and food source by Himalayan communities. Himalayan Nettle is a natural cellulosic fibre that can be handled in the same way as other cellulosic fibres. The Uttarakhand Bamboo and Fibre Development Board based in Uttarakhand, India is working extensively with the nettle fibre to explore the potential of nettle for textile production in the region. The fiber is a potential resource for rural enterprise development for some high altitude pockets of the state and traditionally the plant fibre is used for making domestic products like ropes and sacks. Himalayan Nettle is an unconventional natural fiber with functional characteristics of shrink resistance, degree of pathogen and fire resistance and can blend nicely with other fibres. Most importantly, they generate mainly organic wastes and leave residues that are 100% biodegradable. The fabrics may potentially be reused or re-manufactured and can also be used as a source of cellulose feedstock for regenerated cellulosic products. Being naturally bio- degradable, the fibre can be composted if required. Though a lot of research activities and training are directed towards fibre extraction and processing techniques in different craft clusters villagers of different clusters of Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Bageshwar of Uttarakhand like retting and Degumming process, very little is been done to analyse the crucial properties of nettle fiber like shrinkage and wash fastness. These properties are very crucial to obtain desired quality of fibre for further processing of yarn making and weaving and in developing these fibers into fine saleable products. This research therefore is focused towards various on-field experiments which were focused on shrinkage properties conducted on cotton, nettle and cotton/nettle blended yarn samples. The objective of the study was to analyze the scope of the blended fiber for developing into wearable fabrics. For the study, after conducting the initial fiber length and fineness testing, cotton and nettle fibers were mixed in 60:40 ratio and five varieties of yarns were spun in open end spinning mill having yarn count of 3s, 5s, 6s, 7s and 8s. Samples of 100% Nettle 100% cotton fibers in 8s count were also developed for the study. All the six varieties of yarns were tested with shrinkage test and results were critically analyzed as per ASTM method D2259. It was observed that 100% Nettle has a least shrinkage of 3.36% while pure cotton has shrinkage approx. 13.6%. Yarns made of 100% Cotton exhibits four times more shrinkage than 100% Nettle. The results also show that cotton and Nettle blended yarn exhibit lower shrinkage than 100% cotton yarn. It was thus concluded that as the ratio of nettle increases in the samples, the shrinkage decreases in the samples. These results are very crucial for Uttarakhand people who want to commercially exploit the abundant nettle fiber for generating sustainable employment.

Keywords: Himalayan nettle, sustainable, shrinkage, blending

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Authors: A. Venkatakrishnan, M. Juneja, S. Kapoor

Abstract:

Background: Gastrointestinal dysfunction is an emerging co morbidity seen in autism and may further strengthen the association between autism and celiac disease. This is supported by increased rates (22-70%) of gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, abdominal discomfort/pain, and gastrointestinal inflammation in children with the etiology of autism is still elusive. In addition to genetic factors, environmental factors such as toxin exposure, intrauterine exposure to certain teratogenic drugs, are being proposed as possible contributing factors in the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in cognizance with reports of increased gut permeability and high rates of gastrointestinal symptoms noted in children with ASD, celiac disease has also been proposed as a possible etiological factor. Despite insufficient evidence regarding the benefit of restricted diets in Autism, GFD has been promoted as an alternative treatment for ASD. This study attempts to discern any correlation between ASD and celiac disease. Objective: This cross sectional study aims to determine the proportion of celiac disease in children with ASD. Methods: Study included 155 participants aged 2-12 yrs, diagnosed as ASD as per DSM-5 attending the child development center at a tertiary care hospital in Northern India. Those on gluten free diet or having other autoimmune conditions were excluded. A detailed Performa was filled which included sociodemographic details, history of gastrointestinal symptoms, anthropometry, systemic examination, and pertinent psychological testing was done using was assessed using Developmental Profile-3(DP-3) for Developmental Quotient, Childhood Autism Rating Scale-2 (CARS-2) for severity of ASD, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) for adaptive behavior, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for behavioral problems and BAMBI (Brief Autism Mealtime Behavior Scales) for feeding problems. Screening for celiac was done by TTG-IgA levels, and total serum IgA levels were measured to exclude IgA deficiency. Those with positive screen were further planned for HLA typing and endoscopic biopsy. Results: A total of 155 cases were included, out of which 5 had low IgA levels and were hence excluded from the study. The rest 150 children had TTG levels below the ULN and normal total serum IgA level. History of Gastrointestinal symptoms was present in 51 (34%) cases abdominal pain was the most frequent complaint (16.6%), followed by constipation (12.6%). Diarrhea was seen in 8 %. Gastrointestinal symptoms were significantly more common in children with ASD above 5 yrs (p-value 0.006) and those who were verbal (p = 0.000). There was no significant association between socio-demographic factors, anthropometric data, or severity of autism with gastrointestinal symptoms. Conclusion: None of the150 patients with ASD had raised TTG levels; hence no association was found between ASD and celiac disease. There is no justification for routine screening for celiac disease in children with ASD. Further studies are warranted to evaluate association of Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity with ASD and any role of gluten-free diet in such patients.

Keywords: autism, celiac, gastrointestinal, gluten

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Authors: Krishan Lal, Anish Dua

Abstract:

Gobind Sagar Reservoir has been created in Himachal Pradesh, India (31° 25´ N and 76 ° 25´E) by damming River Sutlej at village Bhakra in 1963. The average water spread area of this reservoir is 10,000 hectares. Fishermen have organized themselves in the form of co-operative societies. 26 fisheries co-operative societies were working in Gobind Sagar Reservoir up till 2012. June and July months were observed as closed season, no fishing was done during this period. Proper record maintaining of fish catch was done at different levels by the state fisheries department. Different measures like minimum harvestable size, mesh size regulation and prohibition of illegal fishing etc. were taken for fish conservation. Fishermen were actively involved in the management. Gill nets were used for catching fishes from this reservoir. State fisheries department is realizing 15% royalty of the sold fish. Data used in this paper is about the fish catch during 2006-2012 and were obtained from the state fisheries department, Himachal Pradesh. Catla catla, Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Sperata seenghala, Cyprinus carpio, Tor putitora, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Labeo calbasu, Labeo dero and Ctenopharyngodon idella etc., were the fish species exploited for commercial purposes. Total number of individuals of all species caught was 3141236 weighing 5637108.9 kg during 2006-2012. H. molitrix was introduced accidently in this reservoir and was making a good share of fish catch in this reservoir. The annual catch of this species was varying between 161279.6 kg, caught in 2011 and 788030.8 kg caught in 2009. Total numbers of individuals of C. idella caught were 8966 weighing 64320.2 kg. The catch of Cyprinus carpio was varying between 144826.1 kg caught in 2006 and 214480.1 kg caught in 2010. Total catch of Tor putitora was 180263.2 kg during 2006-2012. Total catch of L. dero, S. seenghala and Catla catla remained 100637.4 kg, 75297.8 kg and 561802.9 kg, respectively, during 2006-2012. Maximum fish catch was observed during the months of August (after observing Closed Season). Maximum catch of exotic carps was from Bhakra area of the reservoir which has fewer fluctuations in water levels. The reservoir has been divided into eight beats for administrative purpose, to avoid conflicts between operating fisheries co-operative societies for area of operation. Fish catch was more by co-operative societies operating in the area of reservoir having fewer fluctuations in water level and catch was less by co-operative societies operating in the area of more fluctuations in water level. Species-wise fish catch by different co-operative societies from their allotted area was studied. This reservoir is one of most scientifically managed reservoirs.

Keywords: co-operative societies, fish catch, fish species, reservoir

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Authors: Abhishek Sraw, Amit Sobti, Yamini Pandey, R. K. Wanchoo, Amrit Pal Toor

Abstract:

Monocrotophos (MCP) is a widely used pesticide in India, which belong to an extremely toxic organophosphorus family, is persistent in nature and its toxicity is widely reported in all environmental segments in the country. Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) is a promising solution to the problem of water pollution. TiO₂ is being widely used as a photocatalyst because of its many advantages, but it has a large band gap, due to which it is modified using metal and nonmetal dopant to make it active under sunlight and visible light. The use of nanosized powdered catalysts makes the recovery process extremely complicated. Hence the aim is to use low cost, easily available, eco-friendly clay material in form of bead as the support for the immobilization of catalyst, to solve the problem of post-separation of suspended catalyst from treated water. A recirculation type photocatalytic reactor (RTPR), using ultraviolet light emitting source (blue black lamp) was designed which work effectively for both suspended catalysts and catalyst coated clay beads. The bare, TiO₂ and W-TiO₂ coated clay beads were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and N₂ adsorption–desorption measurements techniques (BET) for their structural, textural and electronic properties. The study involved variation of different parameters like light conditions, recirculation rate, light intensity and initial MCP concentration under UV and sunlight for the degradation of MCP. The degradation and mineralization studies of the insecticide solution were performed using UV-Visible spectrophotometer, and COD vario-photometer and GC-MS analysis respectively. The main focus of the work lies in checking the recyclability of the immobilized TiO₂ over clay beads in the developed RTPR up to 30 continuous cycles without reactivation of catalyst. The results demonstrated the economic feasibility of the utilization of developed RTPR for the efficient purification of pesticide polluted water. The prepared TiO₂ clay beads delivered 75.78% degradation of MCP under UV light with negligible catalyst loss. Application of W-TiO₂ coated clay beads filled RTPR for the degradation of MCP under sunlight, however, shows 32% higher degradation of MCP than the same system based on undoped TiO₂. The COD measurements of TiO₂ coated beads led to 73.75% COD reduction while W-TiO₂ resulted in 87.89% COD reduction. The GC-MS analysis confirms the efficient breakdown of complex MCP molecules into simpler hydrocarbons. This supports the promising application of clay beads as a support for the photocatalyst and proves its eco-friendly nature, excellent recyclability, catalyst holding capacity, and economic viability.

Keywords: immobilized clay beads, monocrotophos, recirculation type photocatalytic reactor, TiO₂

Procedia PDF Downloads 163