Search results for: language network

Authors: Debamitra Chakravorty, Pratap K. Parida

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Cold-adapted proteases enhance wash performance in low-temperature laundry resulting in a reduction in energy consumption and wear of textiles and are also used in the dehairing process in leather industries. Unfortunately, the possible drawbacks of using cold-adapted proteases are their instability at higher temperatures. Therefore, proteases with broad temperature stability are required. Unfortunately, wild-type cold-adapted proteases exhibit instability at higher temperatures and thus have low shelf lives. Therefore, attempts to engineer cold-adapted proteases by protein engineering were made previously by directed evolution and random mutagenesis. The lacuna is the time, capital, and labour involved to obtain these variants are very demanding and challenging. Therefore, rational engineering for cold stability without compromising an enzyme's optimum pH and temperature for activity is the current requirement. In this work, mutations were rationally designed with the aid of high throughput computational methodology of network analysis, evolutionary conservation scores, and molecular dynamics simulations for Savinase from Bacillus lentus with the intention of rendering the mutants cold stable without affecting their temperature and pH optimum for activity. Further, an attempt was made to incorporate a mutation in the most stable mutant rationally obtained by this method to introduce oxidative stability in the mutant. Such enzymes are desired in detergents with bleaching agents. In silico analysis by performing 300 ns molecular dynamics simulations at 5 different temperatures revealed that these three mutants were found to be better in cold stability compared to the wild type Savinase from Bacillus lentus. Conclusively, this work shows that cold adaptation without losing optimum temperature and pH stability and additionally stability from oxidative damage can be rationally designed by in silico enzyme engineering. The key findings of this work were first, the in silico data of H5 (cold stable savinase) used as a control in this work, corroborated with its reported wet lab temperature stability data. Secondly, three cold stable mutants of Savinase from Bacillus lentus were rationally identified. Lastly, a mutation which will stabilize savinase against oxidative damage was additionally identified.

Keywords: cold stability, molecular dynamics simulations, protein engineering, rational design

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Authors: Mende Mensa Sorato, Majid Davari, Abbas Kebriaeezadeh, Nizal Sarrafzadegan, Tamiru Shibru, Behzad Fatemi

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Markov model, like cardiovascular disease (CVD) policy model based simulation, is being used for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of hypertension treatment. Stroke, angina, myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac arrest, and all-cause mortality were included in this model. Hypertension is a risk factor for a number of vascular and cardiac complications and CVD outcomes. Objective: This systematic review was conducted to evaluate the comprehensiveness of this model across different regions globally. Methods: We searched articles written in the English language from PubMed/Medline, Ovid/Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google scholar with a systematic search query. Results: Thirteen cohort studies involving a total of 2,165,770 (1,666,554 hypertensive adult population and 499,226 adults with treatment-resistant hypertension) were included in this scoping review. Hypertension is clearly associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke mortality, unstable angina, stable angina, MI, heart failure (HF), sudden cardiac death, transient ischemic attack, ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage, peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and abdominal aortic aneurism (AAA). Association between HF and hypertension is variable across regions. Treatment resistant hypertension is associated with a higher relative risk of developing major cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality when compared with non-resistant hypertension. However, it is not included in the previous CVD policy model. Conclusion: The CVD policy model used can be used in most regions for the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of hypertension treatment. However, hypertension is highly associated with HF in Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, it is important to consider HF in the CVD policy model for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of hypertension treatment in these regions. We do not suggest the inclusion of PAD and AAA in the CVD policy model for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of hypertension treatment due to a lack of sufficient evidence. Researchers should consider the effect of treatment-resistant hypertension either by including it in the basic model or during setting the model assumptions.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease policy model, cost-effectiveness analysis, hypertension, systematic review, twelve major cardiovascular events

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Authors: Sourabh Jain, S. S. Jain

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Intelligent transportation system (ITS) is the application of technologies for developing a user–friendly transportation system to extend the safety and efficiency of urban transportation systems in developing countries. These systems involve vehicles, drivers, passengers, road operators, managers of transport services; all interacting with each other and the surroundings to boost the security and capacity of road systems. The goal of urban corridor management using ITS in road transport is to achieve improvements in mobility, safety, and the productivity of the transportation system within the available facilities through the integrated application of advanced monitoring, communications, computer, display, and control process technologies, both in the vehicle and on the road. Intelligent transportation system is a product of the revolution in information and communications technologies that is the hallmark of the digital age. The basic ITS technology is oriented on three main directions: communications, information, integration. Information acquisition (collection), processing, integration, and sorting are the basic activities of ITS. In the paper, attempts have been made to present the endeavor that was made to interpret and evaluate the performance of the 27.4 Km long study corridor having eight intersections and four flyovers. The corridor consisting of six lanes as well as eight lanes divided road network. Two categories of data have been collected such as traffic data (traffic volume, spot speed, delay) and road characteristics data (no. of lanes, lane width, bus stops, mid-block sections, intersections, flyovers). The instruments used for collecting the data were video camera, stop watch, radar gun, and mobile GPS (GPS tracker lite). From the analysis, the performance interpretations incorporated were the identification of peak and off-peak hours, congestion and level of service (LOS) at midblock sections and delay followed by plotting the speed contours. The paper proposed the urban corridor management strategies based on sensors integrated into both vehicles and on the roads that those have to be efficiently executable, cost-effective, and familiar to road users. It will be useful to reduce congestion, fuel consumption, and pollution so as to provide comfort, safety, and efficiency to the users.

Keywords: ITS strategies, congestion, planning, mobility, safety

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Authors: Pedro Augusto Da Silva E Souza Miranda, Niloofar Jalali, Shweta Mistry

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BACKGROUND: Software developers utilize automated solutions to scrape users’ reviews to extract meaningful knowledge to identify problems (e.g., bugs, compatibility issues) and possible enhancements (e.g., users’ requests) to their solutions. However, most of these solutions do not consider the health risk aspects to users. Recent works have shed light on the importance of including health risk considerations in the development cycle of mHealth apps to prevent harm to its users. PROBLEM: The COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada (and World) is currently forcing physical distancing upon the general population. This new lifestyle made the usage of mHealth applications more essential than ever, with a projected market forecast of 332 billion dollars by 2025. However, this new insurgency in mHealth usage comes with possible risks to users’ health due to mHealth apps problems (e.g., wrong insulin dosage indication due to a UI error). OBJECTIVE: These works aim to raise awareness amongst mHealth developers of the importance of considering risks to users’ health within their development lifecycle. Moreover, this work also aims to help mHealth developers with a Proof-of-Concept (POC) solution to understand, process, and identify possible health risks to users of mHealth apps based on users’ reviews. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-method study design. We developed a crawler to mine the negative reviews from two samples of mHealth apps (my fitness, medisafe) from the Google Play store users. For each mHealth app, we performed the following steps: • The reviews are divided into two groups, before starting the COVID-19 (reviews’ submission date before 15 Feb 2019) and during the COVID-19 (reviews’ submission date starts from 16 Feb 2019 till Dec 2020). For each period, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model was used to identify the different clusters of reviews based on similar topics of review The topics before and during COVID-19 are compared, and the significant difference in frequency and severity of similar topics are identified. RESULTS: We successfully scraped, filtered, processed, and identified health-related topics in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results demonstrated the similarity between topics before and during the COVID-19.

Keywords: natural language processing (NLP), topic modeling, mHealth, COVID-19, software engineering, telemedicine, health risks

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Authors: Anoop T. R., Otman Basir, Robert F. Hess, Eileen E. Birch, Brooke A. Koritala, Reed M. Jost, Becky Luu, David Stager, Ben Thompson

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Strabismus refers to a misalignment of the eyes. Early detection and treatment of strabismus in childhood can prevent the development of permanent vision loss due to abnormal development of visual brain areas. We developed a two-stage method for strabismus detection and classification based on photographs of the face. The first stage detects the presence or absence of strabismus, and the second stage classifies the type of strabismus. The first stage comprises face detection using Haar cascade, facial landmark estimation, face alignment, aligned face landmark detection, segmentation of the eye region, and detection of strabismus using VGG 16 convolution neural networks. Face alignment transforms the face to a canonical pose to ensure consistency in subsequent analysis. Using facial landmarks, the eye region is segmented from the aligned face and fed into a VGG 16 CNN model, which has been trained to classify strabismus. The CNN determines whether strabismus is present and classifies the type of strabismus (exotropia, esotropia, and vertical deviation). If stage 1 detects strabismus, the eye region image is fed into stage 2, which starts with the estimation of pupil center coordinates using mask R-CNN deep neural networks. Then, the distance between the pupil coordinates and eye landmarks is calculated along with the angle that the pupil coordinates make with the horizontal and vertical axis. The distance and angle information is used to characterize the degree and direction of the strabismic eye misalignment. This model was tested on 100 clinically labeled images of children with (n = 50) and without (n = 50) strabismus. The True Positive Rate (TPR) and False Positive Rate (FPR) of the first stage were 94% and 6% respectively. The classification stage has produced a TPR of 94.73%, 94.44%, and 100% for esotropia, exotropia, and vertical deviations, respectively. This method also had an FPR of 5.26%, 5.55%, and 0% for esotropia, exotropia, and vertical deviation, respectively. The addition of one more feature related to the location of corneal light reflections may reduce the FPR, which was primarily due to children with pseudo-strabismus (the appearance of strabismus due to a wide nasal bridge or skin folds on the nasal side of the eyes).

Keywords: strabismus, deep neural networks, face detection, facial landmarks, face alignment, segmentation, VGG 16, mask R-CNN, pupil coordinates, angle deviation, horizontal and vertical deviation

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Authors: Lyka Selene Magnayi, Marcos Vinas, Roseanne Ramos

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As the real estate industry continually grows in the Philippines, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide advantages in generating spatial databases for efficient delivery of information and services. The real estate sector is not only providing qualitative data about real estate properties but also utilizes various spatial aspects of these properties for different applications such as hazard mapping and assessment. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) model and a spatial database of real estate properties in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City are developed using GIS and SketchUp. Spatial datasets include political boundaries, buildings, road network, digital terrain model (DTM) derived from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) image, Google Earth satellite imageries, and hazard maps. Multiple model layers were created based on property listings by a partner real estate company, including existing and future property buildings. Actual building dimensions, building facade, and building floorplans are incorporated in these 3D models for geovisualization. Hazard model layers are determined through spatial overlays, and different scenarios of hazards are also presented in the models. Animated maps and walkthrough videos were created for company presentation and evaluation. Model evaluation is conducted through client surveys requiring scores in terms of the appropriateness, information content, and design of the 3D models. Survey results show very satisfactory ratings, with the highest average evaluation score equivalent to 9.21 out of 10. The output maps and videos obtained passing rates based on the criteria and standards set by the intended users of the partner real estate company. The methodologies presented in this study were found useful and have remarkable advantages in the real estate industry. This work may be extended to automated mapping and creation of online spatial databases for better storage, access of real property listings and interactive platform using web-based GIS.

Keywords: geovisualization, geographic information systems, GIS, real estate, spatial database, three-dimensional model

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Authors: Senthil Kumar Anantharaman

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Providing telecommunications based network services in developing countries like India which has a population of 1.5 billion people, so that these services reach every individual, is one of the greatest challenges the country has been facing in its journey towards economic growth and development. With growing number of telecommunications service providers in the country, a constant challenge that has been faced by these providers is in providing not only quality but also delightful customer experience while simultaneously generating enhanced revenues and profits. Thus, the role played by process improvement methodologies like Six Sigma cannot be undermined and specifically in telecom service provider based operations, it has provided substantial benefits. Therefore, it advantages are quite comparable to its applications and advantages in other sectors like manufacturing, financial services, information technology-based services and Healthcare services. One of the key reasons that this methodology has been able to reap great benefits in telecommunications sector is that this methodology has been combined with many of its competing process improvement techniques like Theory of Constraints, Lean and Kaizen to give the maximum benefit to the service providers thereby creating a winning combination of organized process improvement methods for operational excellence thereby leading to business excellence. This paper discusses about some of the key projects and areas in the end to end ‘Quote to Cash’ process at big three Indian telecommunication companies that have been highly assisted by applying Six Sigma along with other process improvement techniques. While the telecommunication companies which we have considered, is primarily in India and run by both private operators and government based setups, the methodology can be applied equally well in any other part of developing countries around the world having similar context. This study also compares the enhanced revenues that can arise out of appropriate opportunities in emerging market scenarios, that Six Sigma as a philosophy and methodology can provide if applied with vigour and robustness. Finally, the paper also comes out with a winning framework in combining Six Sigma methodology with Kaizen, Lean and Theory of Constraints that will enhance both the top-line as well as the bottom-line while providing the customers a delightful experience.

Keywords: emerging markets, lean, process improvement, six sigma, telecommunications, theory of constraints

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Authors: I. Rodionov, A. Semenov, E. Gosteva, O. Sokolova

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Currently, the venture capital becomes more and more advanced and effective source of the innovation project financing, connected with a high-risk level. In the developed countries, it plays a key role in transforming innovation projects into successful businesses and creating prosperity of the modern economy. Actually, in Russia there are many necessary preconditions for creation of the effective venture investment system: the network of the public institutes for innovation financing operates; there is a significant number of the small and medium-sized enterprises, capable to sell production with good market potential. However, the current system does not confirm the necessary level of efficiency in practice that can be substantially explained by the absence of the accurate plan of action to form the national venture model and by the lack of experience of successful venture deals with profitable exits in Russian economy. This paper studies the influence of various factors on the venture industry development by the example of the IT-sector in Russia. The choice of the sector is based on the fact, that this segment is the main driver of the venture capital market growth in Russia, and the necessary set of data exists. The size of investment of the second round is used as the dependent variable. To analyse the influence of the previous round such determinant as the volume of the previous (first) round investments is used. There is also used a dummy variable in regression to examine that the participation of an investor with high reputation and experience in the previous round can influence the size of the next investment round. The regression analysis of short-term interrelations between studied variables reveals prevailing influence of the volume of the first round investments on the venture investments volume of the second round. Because of the research, the participation of investors with first-class reputation has a small impact on an indicator of the value of investment of the second round. The expected positive dependence of the second round investments on the forecasted market growth rate now of the deal is also rejected. So, the most important determinant of the value of the second-round investment is the value of first–round investment, so it means that the most competitive on the Russian market are the start-up teams which can attract more money on the start, and the target market growth is not the factor of crucial importance.

Keywords: venture industry, venture investment, determinants of the venture sector development, IT-sector

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Authors: Kalidas Sarma

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Fraud is a social problem changing with social change and it has a regional and global impact. Introduction of private domain in higher education along with public institutions has led to commercialization of higher education which encourages unprecedented mushrooming of private institutions resulting in fraudulent activities in higher educational institutions in Assam, India. Presently, fraud has been noticed in in-service promotion, fake entry qualification by teachers in different levels of work-place by using fake master degrees, master of philosophy and doctor of philosophy degree certificates. The aim and objective of the study are to identify grey areas in maintenance of quality in higher educational institutions in Assam and also to draw the contour for planning and implementation. This study is based on both primary and secondary data collected through questionnaire and seeking information through Right to Information Act 2005. In Assam, there are 301 undergraduate and graduate colleges distributed in 27 (Twenty seven) administrative districts with 11000 (Eleven thousand) college teachers. Total 421 (Four hundred twenty one) college teachers from the 14 respondent colleges have been taken for analysis. Data collected has been analyzed by using 'Hypertext Pre-processor' (PhP) application with My Sequel Structure Query Language (MySQL) and Google Map Application Programming Interface (APIs). Graph has been generated by using open source tool Chart.js. Spatial distribution maps have been generated with the help of geo-references of the colleges. The result shows: (i) the violation of University Grants Commission's (UGCs) Regulation for the awards of M. Phil/Ph.D. clearly exhibits. (ii) There is a gap between apex regulatory bodies of higher education at national and as well as state level to check fraud. (iii) Mala fide 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) issued by the Government of Assam have played pivotal role in the occurrence of fraudulent practices in higher educational institutions of Assam. (iv) Violation of verdict of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India regarding territorial jurisdiction of Universities for the awards of Ph.D. and M. Phil degrees in distance mode/study centre is also a responsible factor for the spread of these academic frauds in Assam and other states. The challenges and mitigation of these issues have been discussed.

Keywords: Assam, fraud, higher education, mitigation

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Authors: Hazel P. Atilano

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In this age of AI-assisted teaching and learning, there seems to be a dearth of research literature on the linguistic analysis of English as a Second Language (ESL) student-generated paraphrased academic texts. This study sought to examine the lexico-semantic, morphosyntactic features of paraphrased academic texts generated by ESL students. Employing a descriptive qualitative design, specifically linguistic analysis, the study involved a total of 85 students from senior high school, college, and graduate school enrolled in research courses. Data collection consisted of a 60-minute real-time, on-site paraphrasing practice exercise using excerpts from discipline-specific literature reviews of 150 to 200 words. A focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted to probe into the challenges experienced by the participants. The writing exercise yielded a total of 516 paraphrase pairs. A total of 176 paraphrase units (PUs) and 340 non-paraphrase pairs (NPPs) were detected. Findings from the linguistic analysis of PUs reveal that the modifications made to the original texts are predominantly syntax-based (Diathesis Alterations and Coordination Changes) and a combination of Miscellaneous Changes (Change of Order, Change of Format, and Addition/Deletion). Results of the analysis of paraphrase extremes (PE) show that Identical Structures resulting from the use of synonymous substitutions, with no significant change in the structural features of the original, is the most frequently occurring instance of PE. The analysis of paraphrase errors reveals that synonymous substitutions resulting in identical structures are the most frequently occurring error that leads to PE. Another type of paraphrasing error involves semantic and content loss resulting from the deletion or addition of meaning-altering content. Three major themes emerged from the FGD: (1) The Challenge of Preserving Semantic Content and Fidelity; (2) The Best Words in the Best Order: Grappling with the Lexico-semantic and Morphosyntactic Demands of Paraphrasing; and (3) Contending with Limited Vocabulary, Poor Comprehension, and Lack of Practice. A pedagogical paradigm was designed based on the major findings of the study for a sustainable instructional intervention.

Keywords: academic text, lexico-semantic analysis, linguistic analysis, morphosyntactic analysis, paraphrasing

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Authors: Cagdas Agirdas

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Background: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires non-grandfathered private insurance plans, starting with plan years on or after September 23rd, 2010, to provide certain preventive care services without any cost sharing in the form of deductibles, copayments or co-insurance. This requirement may affect racial and ethnic disparities in preventive care as it provides the largest copay reduction in preventive care. Objectives: We ask whether the ACA’s free preventive care benefits are associated with a reduction in racial and ethnic disparities in the utilization of four preventive services: cholesterol screenings, colonoscopies, mammograms, and pap smears. Methods: We use a data set of over 6,000 individuals from the 2009, 2010, and 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS). We restrict our data set only to individuals who are old enough to be eligible for each preventive service. Our difference-in-differences logistic regression model classifies privately-insured Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians as the treatment groups and 2013 as the after-policy year. Our control group consists of non-Hispanic whites on Medicaid as this program already covered preventive care services for free or at a low cost before the ACA. Results: After controlling for income, education, marital status, preferred interview language, self-reported health status, employment, having a usual source of care, age and gender, we find that the ACA is associated with increases in the probability of the median, privately-insured Hispanic person to get a colonoscopy by 3.6% and a mammogram by 3.1%, compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. Similarly, we find that the median, privately-insured African American person’s probability of receiving these two preventive services improved by 2.3% and 2.4% compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. We do not find any significant improvements for any racial or ethnic group for cholesterol screenings or pap smears. Furthermore, our results do not indicate any significant changes for Asians compared to non-Hispanic whites in utilizing the four preventive services. These reductions in racial/ethnic disparities are robust to reconfigurations of time periods, previous diagnosis, and residential status. Conclusions: Early effects of the ACA’s provision of free preventive care are significant for Hispanics and African Americans. Further research is needed for the later years as more individuals became aware of these benefits.

Keywords: preventive care, Affordable Care Act, cost sharing, racial disparities

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Authors: Leila Sadeghi

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Gender equality is a critical concern in the workplace, particularly in Iran, where legal and social barriers contribute to significant disparities. This abstract presents a case study of Dahi Bondad Co., a company based in Tehran, Iran that recognized the urgency of addressing the gender gap within its organization. Through a comprehensive investigation, the company identified issues related to biased recruitment, pay disparities, promotion biases, internal barriers, and everyday boundaries. This abstract highlights the strategies implemented by Dahi Bondad Co. to combat these challenges and foster gender equality. The company revised its recruitment policies, eliminated gender-specific language in job advertisements, and implemented blind resume screening to ensure equal opportunities for all applicants. Comprehensive pay equity analyses were conducted, leading to salary adjustments based on qualifications and experience to rectify pay disparities. Clear and transparent promotion criteria were established, and training programs were provided to decision-makers to raise awareness about unconscious biases. Additionally, mentorship and coaching programs were introduced to support female employees in overcoming self-limiting beliefs and imposter syndrome. At the same time, practical workshops and gamification techniques were employed to boost confidence and encourage women to step out of their comfort zones. The company also recognized the importance of dress codes and allowed optional hijab-wearing, respecting local traditions while promoting individual freedom. As a result of these strategies, Dahi Bondad Co. successfully fostered a more equitable and empowering work environment, leading to increased job satisfaction for both male and female employees within a short timeframe. This case study serves as an example of practical approaches that human resource managers can adopt to address gender inequality in the workplace, providing valuable insights for organizations seeking to promote gender equality in similar contexts.

Keywords: gender equality, human resource strategies, legal barrier, social barrier, successful result, successful strategies, workplace in Iran

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Authors: David Onen

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Staff exchanges amongst different work organizations are a growing international phenomenon. In higher education in particular, it is not only the staff participating on international exchange programs, but their students as well. The practice of exchanging staff is premised on the belief that participating members of staff would not only get the chance to network with colleagues from partner institutions but also gain the opportunity for knowledge sharing and skills development. As a result, it would not only benefit the participating individual staff but their institutions too. However, in practice, staff exchange programs everywhere are not all ‘a bed of roses’. In fact, some of the programs seem to be laden with unapparent source of trouble or danger for the participating staff. This paper is a report on an on-going study investigating the experiences of members of academic staff of Makerere University in Uganda who have ever participated on international staff exchange programs. The study is aimed at documenting individual experiences in order to stimulate, not only a debate, but practical ways of enriching the experiences of staff who engage on well-meant international staff exchange programs. The study has employed an exploratory survey research design in which self-administered questionnaire and interview guide are being used to collect data from university academic staff respondents selected through snow-ball and purposive sampling techniques. Data have been analysed with the use of appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics as well as content analysis techniques. Preliminary study findings reveal that the majority of the respondents (95.5%) were, to a large extent, fully satisfied with their participation on the staff exchange programs. Many attested to gaining new experience (97%), networking (75%), gaining new knowledge (94%), acquiring new skills (88%), and therefore bringing to their institutions something ‘new’ and ‘beneficial’. However, a reasonably large percentage (57%) of the participants too expressed dissatisfaction in the institutional support that Makerere University gave them during their participation on the exchange programs. Some respondents reported about the ‘unfriendly welcome’ they received upon returning ‘home’ because colleagues detested how they were chosen to participate on such programs. The researcher thus concluded that international staff exchange programs are truly beneficial to both the participating staff and their institutions though with pitfalls. The researcher thus recommended for mutual and preferably equal engagement of the participating institutions on staff exchange programs if such programs are to benefit both the participating staff and institutions. Besides, exchange programs require clear terms of cooperation including on how staff are selected, facilitated and what are expected of the sending and host institutions as well as the concerned staff.

Keywords: gains, exchange programs, higher education, pitfalls

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Authors: Jennifer Gallup, Joel Bocanegra, Greg Callan, Abigail Vaughn

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Students with disabilities (SWD) engaged in a distance summer program delivered over multiple virtual mediums that used gaming principles to teach and practice self-regulated learning (SRL) through the process of exploring possible jobs. Gaming quests were developed to explore jobs and teach transition skills. Students completed specially designed quests that taught and reinforced SRL and problem-solving through individual, group, and teacher-led experiences. SRL skills learned were reinforced through guided job explorations over the context of MinecraftEDU, zoom with experts in the career, collaborations with a team over Marco Polo, and Zoom. The quests were developed and laid out on an accessible web page, with active learning opportunities and feedback conducted within multiple virtual mediums including MinecraftEDU. Gaming mediums actively engage players in role-playing, problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. Gaming has been used as a medium for education since the inception of formal education. Games, and specifically board games, are pre-historic, meaning we had board games before we had written language. Today, games are widely used in education, often as a reinforcer for behavior or for rewards for work completion. Games are not often used as a direct method of instruction and assessment; however, the inclusion of games as an assessment tool and as a form of instruction increases student engagement and participation. Games naturally include collaboration, problem-solving, and communication. Therefore, our summer program was developed using gaming principles and MinecraftEDU. This manuscript describes a virtual learning summer program called Virtual Academy New and Exciting Transitions (VAN) that was redesigned from a face-to-face setting to a completely online setting with a focus on SWD aged 14-21. The focus of VAN was to address transition planning needs such as problem-solving skills, self-regulation, interviewing, job exploration, and communication for transition-aged youth diagnosed with various disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder).

Keywords: autism, disabilities, transition, summer program, gaming, simulations

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Authors: Jingyi Li, Laurence Stamford, Alejandro Gallego-Schmid

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Renewable electricity has become an indispensable contributor to achieving net-zero by the mid-century to tackle climate change. Unlike solar, wind, or hydro, geothermal was stagnant in its electricity production development for decades. However, with the significant breakthrough made in recent years, especially the implementation of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) in various regions globally, geothermal electricity could play a pivotal role in alleviating greenhouse gas emissions. Life cycle assessment has been applied to analyze specific geothermal power generation technologies, which proposed suggestions to optimize its environmental performance. For instance, selecting a high heat gradient region enables a higher flow rate from the production well and extends the technical lifespan. Although such process-level improvements have been made, the significance of geothermal power generation technologies so far has not explicitly displayed its competitiveness on a broader horizon. Therefore, this review-based study integrates a circular economy framework into life cycle assessment, clarifying the underlying added values for geothermal power plants to complete the sustainability profile. The derived results have provided an enlarged platform to discuss geothermal power generation technologies: (i) recover the heat and electricity from the process to reduce the fossil fuel requirements; (ii) recycle the construction materials, such as copper, steel, and aluminum for future projects; (iii) extract the lithium ions from geothermal brine and make geothermal reservoir become a potential supplier of the lithium battery industry; (iv) repurpose the abandoned oil and gas wells to build geothermal power plants; (v) integrate geothermal energy with other available renewable energies (e.g., solar and wind) to provide heat and electricity as a hybrid system at different weather; (vi) rethink the fluids used in stimulation process (EGS only), replace water with CO2 to achieve negative emissions from the system. These results provided a new perspective to the researchers, investors, and policymakers to rethink the role of geothermal in the energy supply network.

Keywords: climate, renewable energy, R strategies, sustainability

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Authors: Ahmed Bahieldin, Ahmed Atef, Jamal S. M. Sabir, Nour O. Gadalla, Sherif Edris, Ahmed M. Alzohairy, Nezar A. Radhwan, Mohammed N. Baeshen, Ahmed M. Ramadan, Hala F. Eissa, Sabah M. Hassan, Nabih A. Baeshen, Osama Abuzinadah, Magdy A. Al-Kordy, Fotouh M. El-Domyati, Robert K. Jansen

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Wild salt-tolerant barley (Hordeum spontaneum) is the ancestor of cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare or H. vulgare). Although the cultivated barley genome is well studied, little is known about genome structure and function of its wild ancestor. In the present study, RNA-Seq analysis was performed on young leaves of wild barley treated with salt (500 mM NaCl) at four different time intervals. Transcriptome sequencing yielded 103 to 115 million reads for all replicates of each treatment, corresponding to over 10 billion nucleotides per sample. Of the total reads, between 74.8 and 80.3% could be mapped and 77.4 to 81.7% of the transcripts were found in the H. vulgare unigene database (unigene-mapped). The unmapped wild barley reads for all treatments and replicates were assembled de novo and the resulting contigs were used as a new reference genome. This resultedin94.3 to 95.3%oftheunmapped reads mapping to the new reference. The number of differentially expressed transcripts was 9277, 3861 of which were uni gene-mapped. The annotated unigene- and de novo-mapped transcripts (5100) were utilized to generate expression clusters across time of salt stress treatment. Two-dimensional hierarchical clustering classified differential expression profiles into nine expression clusters, four of which were selected for further analysis. Differentially expressed transcripts were assigned to the main functional categories. The most important groups were ‘response to external stimulus’ and ‘electron-carrier activity’. Highly expressed transcripts are involved in several biological processes, including electron transport and exchanger mechanisms, flavonoid biosynthesis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, ethylene production, signaling network and protein refolding. The comparisons demonstrated that mRNA-Seq is an efficient method for the analysis of differentially expressed genes and biological processes under salt stress.

Keywords: electron transport, flavonoid biosynthesis, reactive oxygen species, rnaseq

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Authors: Bahar Hazal Yalçınkaya, Bayram Yılmaz, Mustafa Özilgen

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Brain information transmission in the neuronal network occurs in the form of electrical signals. Neural work transmits information between the neurons or neurons and target cells by moving charged particles in a voltage field; a fraction of the energy utilized in this process is dissipated via entropy generation. Exergy loss and entropy generation models demonstrate the inefficiencies of the communication along the dendritic trees. In this study, neurons of 4 different animals were analyzed with one dimensional cable model with N=6 identical dendritic trees and M=3 order of symmetrical branching. Each branch symmetrically bifurcates in accordance with the 3/2 power law in an infinitely long cylinder with the usual core conductor assumptions, where membrane potential is conserved in the core conductor at all branching points. In the model, exergy loss and entropy generation rates are calculated for each branch of equivalent cylinders of electrotonic length (L) ranging from 0.1 to 1.5 for four different dendritic branches, input branch (BI), and sister branch (BS) and two cousin branches (BC-1 & BC-2). Thermodynamic analysis with the data coming from two different cat motoneuron studies show that in both experiments nearly the same amount of exergy is lost while generating nearly the same amount of entropy. Guinea pig vagal motoneuron loses twofold more exergy compared to the cat models and the squid exergy loss and entropy generation were nearly tenfold compared to the guinea pig vagal motoneuron model. Thermodynamic analysis show that the dissipated energy in the dendritic tress is directly proportional with the electrotonic length, exergy loss and entropy generation. Entropy generation and exergy loss show variability not only between the vertebrate and invertebrates but also within the same class. Concurrently, single action potential Na⁺ ion load, metabolic energy utilization and its thermodynamic aspect contributed for squid giant axon and mammalian motoneuron model. Energy demand is supplied to the neurons in the form of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Exergy destruction and entropy generation upon ATP hydrolysis are calculated. ATP utilization, exergy destruction and entropy generation showed differences in each model depending on the variations in the ion transport along the channels.

Keywords: ATP utilization, entropy generation, exergy loss, neuronal information transmittance

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Authors: Zeina Bou Diab, Arij Daou

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The neural mechanisms of sequential behaviors are intensively studied, with songbirds a focus for learned vocal production. We are studying the premotor nucleus HVC at a nexus of multiple pathways contributing to song learning and production. The HVC consists of multiple classes of neuronal populations, each has its own cellular, electrophysiological and functional properties. During singing, a large subset of motor cortex analog-projecting HVCRA neurons emit a single 6-10 ms burst of spikes at the same time during each rendition of song, a large subset of basal ganglia-projecting HVCX neurons fire 1 to 4 bursts that are similarly time locked to vocalizations, while HVCINT neurons fire tonically at average high frequency throughout song with prominent modulations whose timing in relation to song remains unresolved. This opens the opportunity to define models relating explicit HVC circuitry to how these neurons work cooperatively to control learning and singing. We developed conductance-based Hodgkin-Huxley models for the three classes of HVC neurons (based on the ion channels previously identified from in vitro recordings) and connected them in several physiologically realistic networks (based on the known synaptic connectivity and specific glutaminergic and gabaergic pharmacology) via different architecture patterning scenarios with the aim to replicate the in vivo firing patterning behaviors. We are able, through these networks, to reproduce the in vivo behavior of each class of HVC neurons, as shown by the experimental recordings. The different network architectures developed highlight different mechanisms that might be contributing to the propagation of sequential neural activity (continuous or punctate) in the HVC and to the distinctive firing patterns that each class exhibits during singing. Examples of such possible mechanisms include: 1) post-inhibitory rebound in HVCX and their population patterns during singing, 2) different subclasses of HVCINT interacting via inhibitory-inhibitory loops, 3) mono-synaptic HVCX to HVCRA excitatory connectivity, and 4) structured many-to-one inhibitory synapses from interneurons to projection neurons, and others. Replication is only a preliminary step that must be followed by model prediction and testing.

Keywords: computational modeling, neural networks, temporal neural sequences, ionic currents, songbird

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Authors: Nassima Noufail, Sara Bouhali

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In this work, we develop a semi-supervised solution for the purpose of action detection in videos and propose an efficient algorithm for video segmentation. The approach is divided into video segmentation, feature extraction, and classification. In the first part, a video is segmented into clips, and we used the K-means algorithm for this segmentation; our goal is to find groups based on similarity in the video. The application of k-means clustering into all the frames is time-consuming; therefore, we started by the identification of transition frames where the scene in the video changes significantly, and then we applied K-means clustering into these transition frames. We used two image filters, the gaussian filter and the Laplacian of Gaussian. Each filter extracts a set of features from the frames. The Gaussian filter blurs the image and omits the higher frequencies, and the Laplacian of gaussian detects regions of rapid intensity changes; we then used this vector of filter responses as an input to our k-means algorithm. The output is a set of cluster centers. Each video frame pixel is then mapped to the nearest cluster center and painted with a corresponding color to form a visual map. The resulting visual map had similar pixels grouped. We then computed a cluster score indicating how clusters are near each other and plotted a signal representing frame number vs. clustering score. Our hypothesis was that the evolution of the signal would not change if semantically related events were happening in the scene. We marked the breakpoints at which the root mean square level of the signal changes significantly, and each breakpoint is an indication of the beginning of a new video segment. In the second part, for each segment from part 1, we randomly selected a 16-frame clip, then we extracted spatiotemporal features using convolutional 3D network C3D for every 16 frames using a pre-trained model. The C3D final output is a 512-feature vector dimension; hence we used principal component analysis (PCA) for dimensionality reduction. The final part is the classification. The C3D feature vectors are used as input to a multi-class linear support vector machine (SVM) for the training model, and we used a multi-classifier to detect the action. We evaluated our experiment on the UCF101 dataset, which consists of 101 human action categories, and we achieved an accuracy that outperforms the state of art by 1.2%.

Keywords: video segmentation, action detection, classification, Kmeans, C3D

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Authors: Monika Zalewska

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Hans Kelsen was a versatile legal thinker whose achievements in the fields of legal theory, international law, and the theory of democracy are remarkable. All of the fields tackled by Kelsen are regarded as part of his “pure theory of law.” While the link between international law and Kelsen’s pure theory of law is apparent, the same cannot be said about the link between the theory of democracy and his pure theory of law. On the contrary, the general thinking concerning Kelsen’s thought is that it can be used to legitimize authoritarian regimes. The aim of this presentation is to address this concern by identifying the common ground between Kelsen’s pure theory of law and his theory of democracy and to show that they are compatible in a way that his pure theory of law and authoritarianism cannot be. The conceptual analysis of the purity of Kelsen’s theory and his goal of creating ideology-free legal science hints at how Kelsen’s pure theory of law and the theory of democracy are brought together. The presentation will first demonstrate that these two conceptions have common underlying values and meta-ethical convictions. Both are founded on relativism and a rational worldview, and the aim of both is peaceful co-existence. Second, it will be demonstrated that the separation of law and morality provides the maximum space for deliberation within democratic processes. The conclusion of this analysis is that striking similarities exist between Kelsen’s legal theory and his theory of democracy. These similarities are grounded in the Enlightenment tradition and its values, including rationality, a scientific worldview, tolerance, and equality. This observation supports the claim that, for Kelsen, legal positivism and the theory of democracy are not two separate theories but rather stem from the same set of values and from Kelsen’s relativistic worldview. Furthermore, three main issues determine Kelsen’s orientation toward a positivistic and democratic outlook. The first, which is associated with personality type, is the distinction between absolutism and relativism. The second, which is associated with the values that Kelsen favors in the social order, is peace. The third is legality, which creates the necessary condition for democracy to thrive and reveals that democracy is capable of fulfilling Kelsen’s ideal of law at its fullest. The first two categories exist in the background of Kelsen’s pure theory of law, while the latter is an inherent part of Kelsen’s concept of law. The analysis of the text concerning natural law doctrine and democracy indicates that behind the technical language of Kelsen’s pure theory of law is a strong concern with the trends that appeared after World War I. Despite his rigorous scientific mind, Kelsen was deeply humanistic. He tried to create a powerful intellectual weapon to provide strong arguments for peaceful coexistence and a rational outlook in Europe. The analysis provided by this presentation facilitates a broad theoretical, philosophical, and political understanding of Kelsen’s perspectives and, consequently, urges a strong endorsement of Kelsen’s approach to constitutional democracy.

Keywords: hans kelsen, democracy, legal positivism, pure theory of law

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Authors: Juliana Bom-Tempo

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The proposed composition occurs between images, performances, clinics and philosophies. For this enterprise we depart for what is not known beforehand, so with a question as a compass: "would it be in the creation, production and implementation of images in a performance a 'when' for the event of a poetic clinic?” In light of this, there are, in order to think a 'when' of the event of a poetic clinic, images in performances created, produced and executed in partnerships with the author of this text. Faced with this composition, we built four indicators to find spatiotemporal coordinates that would spot that "when", namely: risk zones; the mobilizations of the signs; the figuring of the flesh and an education of the affections. We dealt with the images in performances; Crútero; Flesh; Karyogamy and the risk of abortion; Egg white; Egg-mouth; Islands, threads, words ... germs; Egg-Mouth-Debris, taken as case studies, by engendering risks areas to promote individuations, which never actualize thoroughly, thus always something of pre-individual and also individuating a environment; by mobilizing the signs territorialized by the ordinary, causing them to vary the language and the words of order dictated by the everyday in other compositions of sense, other machinations; by generating a figure of flesh, disarranging the bodies, isolating them in the production of a ground force that causes the body to leak out and undo the functionalities of the organs; and, finally, by producing an education of affections, by placing the perceptions in becoming and disconnecting the visible in the production of small deserts that call for the creation of a people yet to come. The performance is processed as a problematizing of the images fixed by the ordinary, producing gestures that precipitate the individuation of images in performance, strange to the configurations that gather bodies and spaces in what we call common. Lawrence proposes to think of "people" who continually use umbrellas to protect themselves from chaos. These have the function of wrapping up the chaos in visions that create houses, forms and stabilities; they paint a sky at the bottom of the umbrella, where people march and die. A chaos, where people live and wither. Pierce the umbrella for a desire of chaos; a poet puts himself as an enemy of the convention, to be able to have an image of chaos and a little sun that burns his skin. The images in performances presented, thereby, were moving in search for the power of producing a spatio-temporal "when" putting the territories in risk areas, mobilizing the signs that format the day-to-day, opening the bodies to a disorganization and the production of an education of affections for the event of a poetic clinic.

Keywords: Experimentations , Images in Performances, Poetic Clinic, Risk

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Authors: Fionnuala Tynan, Margaret Nohilly

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Wellbeing in not only a national priority in Ireland but in the international context. A review of the literature highlights the consistent efforts of researchers to define the concept of wellbeing. This study sought to explore the understating of Wellbeing in Irish primary schools. National Wellbeing Guidelines in the Irish context frame the concept of wellbeing through a mental health paradigm, which is but one aspect of wellbeing. This exploratory research sought the views of Irish primary-school teachers on their understanding of the concept of wellbeing and the practical application of strategies to promote wellbeing both in the classroom and across the school. Teacher participants from four counties in the West of Ireland were invited to participate in focus group discussion and workshops through the Education Centre Network. The purpose of this process was twofold; firstly to explore teachers’ understanding of wellbeing in the primary school context and, secondly, for teachers to be co-creators in the development of practical strategies for classroom and whole school implementation. The voice of the teacher participants was central to the research design. The findings of this study indicate that the definition of wellbeing in the Irish context is too abstract a definition for teachers and the focus on mental health dominates the discourse in relation to wellbeing. Few teachers felt that they were addressing wellbeing adequately in their classrooms and across the school. The findings from the focus groups highlighted that while teachers are incorporating a range of wellbeing strategies including mindfulness and positive psychology, there is a clear disconnect between the national definition and the implementation of national curricula which causes them concern. The teacher participants requested further practical strategies to promote wellbeing at whole school and classroom level within the framework of the Irish Primary School Curriculum and enable them to become professionally confident in developing a culture of wellbeing. In conclusion, considering wellbeing is a national priority in Ireland, this research promoted the timely discussion the wellbeing guidelines and the development of a conceptual framework to define wellbeing in concrete terms for practitioners. The centrality of teacher voices ensured the strategies proposed by this research is both practical and effective. The findings of this research have prompted the development of a national resource which will support the implementation of wellbeing in the primary school at both national and international level.

Keywords: primary education, shared understanding, teacher voice, wellbeing

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Authors: Dayane de Almeida

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This work aims at presenting a study that demonstrates the usability of categories of analysis from Discourse Semiotics – also known as Greimassian Semiotics in authorship cases in forensic contexts. It is necessary to know if the categories examined in semiotic analysis (the ‘grammar’ of the content plane) can distinguish authors. Thus, a study with 4 sets of texts from a corpus of ‘not on demand’ written samples (those texts differ in formality degree, purpose, addressees, themes, etc.) was performed. Each author contributed with 20 texts, separated into 2 groups of 10 (Author1A, Author1B, and so on). The hypothesis was that texts from a single author were semiotically more similar to each other than texts from different authors. The assumptions and issues that led to this idea are as follows: -The features analyzed in authorship studies mostly relate to the expression plane: they are manifested on the ‘surface’ of texts. If language is both expression and content, content would also have to be considered for more accurate results. Style is present in both planes. -Semiotics postulates the content plane is structured in a ‘grammar’ that underlies expression, and that presents different levels of abstraction. This ‘grammar’ would be a style marker. -Sociolinguistics demonstrates intra-speaker variation: an individual employs different linguistic uses in different situations. Then, how to determine if someone is the author of several texts, distinct in nature (as it is the case in most forensic sets), when it is known intra-speaker variation is dependent on so many factors?-The idea is that the more abstract the level in the content plane, the lower the intra-speaker variation, because there will be a greater chance for the author to choose the same thing. If two authors recurrently chose the same options, differently from one another, it means each one’s option has discriminatory power. -Size is another issue for various attribution methods. Since most texts in real forensic settings are short, methods relying only on the expression plane tend to fail. The analysis of the content plane as proposed by greimassian semiotics would be less size-dependable. -The semiotic analysis was performed using the software Corpus Tool, generating tags to allow the counting of data. Then, similarities and differences were quantitatively measured, through the application of the Jaccard coefficient (a statistical measure that compares the similarities and differences between samples). The results showed the hypothesis was confirmed and, hence, the grammatical categories of the content plane may successfully be used in questioned authorship scenarios.

Keywords: authorship attribution, content plane, forensic linguistics, greimassian semiotics, intraspeaker variation, style

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Authors: Diane M. Bender

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In architecture and design education, students learn and understand their discipline through lecture courses and within studios. A studio is where the instructor works closely with students to help them understand design by doing design work. The final jury is the culmination of the studio learning experience. It’s value and significance are rarely questioned. Students present their work before their peers, instructors, and invited reviewers, known as jurors. These jurors are recognized experts who add a breadth of feedback to students mostly in the form of a verbal critique of the work. Since the design review or jury has been a common element of studio education for centuries, jurors themselves have been instructed in this format. Therefore, they understand its value from both a student and a juror perspective. To better understand how these reviewers see the value of a studio review, a survey was distributed to reviewers at a multi-disciplinary design school within the United States. Five design disciplines were involved in this case study: architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. Respondents (n=108) provided written comments about their perceived value of the studio review system. The average respondent was male (64%), between 40-49 years of age, and has attained a master’s degree. Qualitative analysis with thematic coding revealed several themes. Reviewers view the final jury as important because it provides a variety of perspectives from unbiased external practitioners and prepares students for similar presentation challenges they will experience in professional practice. They also see it as a way to validate the assessment and evaluation of students by faculty. In addition, they see a personal benefit for themselves and their firm – the ability to network with fellow jurors, professors, and students (i.e., future colleagues). Respondents also provided additional feedback about the jury system and studio education in general. Typical responses included a desire for earlier engagement with students; a better explanation from the instructor about the project parameters, rubrics/grading, and guidelines for juror involvement; a way to balance giving encouraging feedback versus overly critical comments; and providing training for jurors prior to reviews. While this study focused on the studio review, the findings are equally applicable to other disciplines. Suggestions will be provided on how to improve the preparation of guests in the learning process and how their interaction can positively influence student engagement.

Keywords: assessment, design, jury, studio

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Authors: Hugh Battye

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In recent years, Muslim identity in China has strengthened against the backdrop of a worldwide Islamic revival. One discussion arising from this has been focused around the Hui, an ethnicity created by the Communist government in the 1950s covering the Chinese speaking 'Sino-Muslims' as opposed to those with their own language. While the term Hui in Chinese has traditionally meant 'Muslim', the strengthening of Hui identity in recent decades has led to a debate among scholars as to whether this identity is primarily ethnically or religiously driven. This article looks at the case of a mixed ethnic community in rural Gansu Province, Central Northwest China, which not only contains the official Hui ethnicity but also members of the smaller Muslim Salar and Bonan minority groups. In analyzing the close interaction between these groups, the paper will argue that, despite government attempts to promote the Hui as an ethnicity within its modern ethnic paradigm, in rural Gansu and the general region, Hui is still essentially seen as a religious identity. Having provided an overview of the historical evolution of the Hui ethnonym in China and presented the views of some of the important scholars involved in the discussion, the paper will then offer its findings based on participant observation and survey work in Gansu. The results will show that, firstly, for the local Muslims, religious identity clearly dominates ethnic identity. On the ground, the term Hui continues to be used as a catch-all term for Muslims, whether they belong to the official 'Hui' nationality or not, and against this backdrop, the ethnic importance of being 'Hui', 'Bonan' or 'Salar' within the Muslim community itself is by contrast minimal. Secondly, however, this local Muslim solidarity is not at present pointing towards some kind of national pan-ethnic Islamic movement that could potentially set itself up in opposition to the Chinese government; rather it is better seen as part of an ongoing negotiation by local Muslims with the state in the context of its ascribed ethnic categories. The findings of this study in a region where many of the Muslims are more conservative in their beliefs is not necessarily replicated in other contexts, such as in urban areas and in eastern and southern China, and hence reification of the term Hui as one idea extending all across China should be avoided, whether in terms of a united religious 'ummah' or of a real or imagined 'ethnic group.' Rather, this localized case study seeks to demonstrate ways in which Muslims of rural Central Northwest China are 'being Hui,' as a contribution to the broader discussion on what it means to be Muslim and Chinese in the reform era.

Keywords: China, ethnicity, Hui, identity, Muslims

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Authors: Carlos V. Gonzalez

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Background: Providers of in-home and community based services strive for the elimination of preventable harm to the people under their care as well as to the employees who support them. Traditional models of safety and protection from harm have assumed that the absence of incidents of harm is a good indicator of safe practices. However, this model creates an illusion of safety that is easily shaken by sudden and inadvertent harmful events. As an alternative, we have developed and implemented an evidence-based resilient model of safety known as C.O.P.E. (Caring, Observing, Predicting and Evaluating). Within this model, safety is not defined by the absence of harmful incidents, but by the presence of continuous monitoring, anticipation, learning, and rapid response to events that may lead to harm. Objective: The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of the C.O.P.E. model for the reduction of harm to individuals with mental disabilities who receive home and community based services. Methods: Over the course of 2 years we counted the number of incidents of harm and near misses. We trained employees on strategies to eliminate incidents before they fully escalated. We trained employees to track different levels of patient status within a scale from 0 to 10. Additionally, we provided direct support professionals and supervisors with customized smart phone applications to track and notify the team of changes in that status every 30 minutes. Finally, the information that we collected was saved in a private computer network that analyzes and graphs the outcome of each incident. Result and conclusions: The use of the COPE model resulted in: A reduction in incidents of harm. A reduction the use of restraints and other physical interventions. An increase in Direct Support Professional’s ability to detect and respond to health problems. Improvement in employee alertness by decreasing sleeping on duty. Improvement in caring and positive interaction between Direct Support Professionals and the person who is supported. Developing a method to globally measure and assess the effectiveness of prevention from harm plans. Future applications of the COPE model for the reduction of harm to people who receive home and community based services are discussed.

Keywords: harm, patients, resilience, safety, mental illness, disability

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Authors: Jutharat Attawet, Alex Y. Wang, Cindy M. Farquhar, Elizabeth A. Sullivan

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Background: Adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes of multiple pregnancies resulting from multiple embryo transfers (ET) has become significant concerns. This is particularly relevant for gestational carriers since they usually do not have infertility issues. Single embryo transfer (SET) therefore has been encouraged to assist reproductive technology (ART) practice in order to reduce multiple pregnancies. Objectives: This systematic review aims to investigate the pregnancy and birth outcomes of SET and multiple ET in surrogacy arrangements. Search methods: This study is a systematic review. Electronic databases were searched from CINAHL, Medline, Embase, Scopus and ProQuest for studies from 1980 to 2017. Cross-references and national ART reports were also manual searchings. Articles without restriction of English language and study types were accessed. Carrier cycles involving in SET and multiple ET were identified in database searching. The main outcome measures including clinical pregnancy, live delivery and multiple deliveries per gestational carrier cycle were compared between SET and multiple ET. Mantel-Haenzel risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), using the numbers of outcome events in SET and multiple ET of each study were calculated suing RevMan5.3. Outcomes: The search returned 97 articles of which 5 met the inclusion criteria. Approximately 50% of carrier cycles were transferred a single embryo and 50% were transferred more than one embryo. The clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) was 39% for SET and 53% for multiple ET, which was not significantly different with RR = 0.83 (95% CI: 0.67-1.03). The live delivery rate was 33% for SET and 57% for multiple ET which was not significantly different with RR = 0.78 (95% CI: 0.61-1.00). The multiple delivery rate per carrier was greater risks in the multiple ET carrier cycles (RR =0.4, 95% CI: 0.01-0.26). There were 104 sets of twins (including one set of twins selectively reduced from triplets to twins) and 1 set of triples in the multiple ET carrier cycle. In the SET carrier cycles, there were 2 sets of twins. Significance of the study: SET should be advocated among surrogate carriers to prevent multiple pregnancies and subsequent adverse outcomes for both carrier and baby. Surrogacy practice should be reviewed and surrogate carriers should be fully informed of the risk of adverse maternal and birth outcome of multiple pregnancies due to multiple embryo transfers.

Keywords: assisted reproduction, birth outcomes, carrier, gestational surrogacy, multiple embryo transfer, multiple pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, single embryo transfer, surrogate mother, systematic review

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Authors: Cengiz Akyildiz, Ismail Ekmekci

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In the past 15 years, many people have sought refuge and emigrated to developed countries due to the civil war in Syria, terrorism and turmoil in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, hunger problems in Africa and the purpose of work. Many of these people came to Turkey. By the end of the 2019, in Turkey, regular and irregular migrants, asylum seekers and foreigners under international protection are about 6 million people. The majority of these people are Syrians. Approximately 2 800 000 immigrants and refugees are in the workforce. Migrant workers in our country constitute the largest proportion among all countries in the world according to the local labor force. 2.5 million of these employees, with a high rate of about 90%, work informally and do not have legal records and valid employment contracts as a workforce; They cannot benefit from Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) services. Migrant workers generally receive less wages than local workers, working longer hours and worse conditions; they are often subjected to human rights violations, harassment, human trafficking and violence. Migrant workers face problems such as OHS practices, environmental and occupational exposures, language / cultural barriers, access to health services, and lack of documentation. Therefore, the OHS problems of these employees are becoming an increasingly problematic area. However, there is not enough research, analysis and academic studies in this field. The order of importance should be known for the radical solution of the problems, because of the problems with high severity are also at high risk. In this study, for the first time, a Search Conference was held with the participation of 45 stakeholders to reveal the OHS problems of regular and irregular migrant workers in our country. The problems arising from this workshop were compared with the problems in the literature and the problems in this field were determined and weighted for our country. Later, to determine the significance levels of these problems, AHP study, which is a Multi Criteria Decision Making Method in which 15 experts participated, was conducted and the significance levels of these problems were determined. When the data obtained are evaluated, it has been seen that the OSH risks of migrant workers arise from 58% laws and government policies, 29% from employers, 13% from personal faults of employees. An academic study has been carried out for the first time in this field regarding the OHS problems of migrant workers, and an academic study has been created to guide which of the problems should be prioritized.

Keywords: environmental conditions, migrant workers, OHS issues, workplace conditions

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Authors: Karen V. Lee

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The background and significance of this study involve communication in education by a faculty advisor exploring story and music that informs others about a disabled teacher. Social issues draw deep reflection about the emotional turmoil. As a musician becoming a teacher is a passionate yet complex endeavor, the faculty advisor shares a poetic but painful story about a disabled teacher being inducted into the teaching profession. The qualitative research method as theoretical framework draws on autoethnography of music and story where the faculty advisor approaches a professor for advice. His musicianship shifts her forward, backward, and sideways through feelings that evoke and provoke curriculum to remove communication barriers in education. They discover they do not transfer knowledge from educational method classes. Instead, the autoethnography embeds musical language as a metaphorical conduit for removing communication barriers in teacher education. Sub-themes involve communication barriers and educational technologies to ensure teachers receive social, emotional, physical, spiritual, and intervention disability resources that evoke visceral, emotional responses from the audience. Major findings of the study discover how autoethnography of music and story bring the authors to understand wider political issues of the practicum internship for teachers with disabilities. An epiphany reveals the irony of living in a culture of both uniformity and diversity. They explore the constructs of secrecy, ideology, abnormality, and marginalization by evoking visceral and emotional responses from the audience. As the voices harmonize plot, climax, characterization, and denouement, they dramatize meaning that is episodic yet incomplete to highlight the circumstances surrounding the disabled protagonist’s life. In conclusion, the qualitative research method argues for embracing storied experiences that depict communication in education. Scholarly significance embraces personal thoughts and feelings as a way of understanding social phenomena while highlighting the importance of removing communication barriers in education. The circumstance about a teacher with a disability is not uncommon in society. Thus, the authors resolve to removing barriers in education by using stories to transform the personal and cultural influences that provoke new ways of thinking about the curriculum for a disabled teacher.

Keywords: communication in education, communication barriers, autoethnography, teaching

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Authors: Tayyaba Bari, Muhammad Hamza Anjum, Samra Kanwal, Fakhera Ikram

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Osteoarthritis, a degenerative condition, affects more than 213 million individuals globally. Since articular cartilage has no or limited vessels, therefore, after deteriorating, it is unable to rejuvenate. Traditional approaches for cartilage repair, like autologous chondrocyte implantation, microfracture and cartilage transplantation are often associated with postoperative complications and lead to further degradation. Decellularized human umbilical cord has gained interest as a viable treatment for cartilage repair. Decellularization removes all cellular contents as well as debris, leaving a biologically active 3D network known as extracellular matrix (ECM). This matrix is biodegradable, non-immunogenic and provides a microenvironment for homeostasis, growth and repair. UC derived bioink function as 3D scaffolding material, not only mediates cell-matrix interactions but also adherence, proliferation and propagation of cells for 3D organoids. This study comprises different physical, chemical and biological approaches to optimize the decellularization of human umbilical cord (UC) tissues followed by the solubilization of these tissues to bioink formation. The decellularization process consisted of two cycles of freeze thaw where the umbilical cord at -20˚C was thawed at room temperature followed by dissection in small sections from 0.5 to 1cm. Similarly decellularization with ionic and non-ionic detergents Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and Triton-X 100 revealed that both concentrations of SDS i.e 0.1% and 1% were effective in complete removal of cells from the small UC tissues. The results of decellularization was further confirmed by running them on 1% agarose gel. Histological analysis revealed the efficacy of decellularization, which involves paraffin embedded samples of 4μm processed for Hematoxylin-eosin-safran and 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI). ECM preservation was confirmed by Alcian Blue, and Masson’s trichrome staining on consecutive sections and images were obtained. Sulfated GAG’s content were determined by 1,9-dimethyl-methylene blue (DMMB) assay, similarly collagen quantification was done by hydroxy proline assay. This 3D bioengineered scaffold will provide a typical atmosphere as in the extracellular matrix of the tissue, which would be seeded with the mesenchymal cells to generate the desired 3D ink for in vitro and in vivo cartilage regeneration applications.

Keywords: umbilical cord, 3d printing, bioink, tissue engineering, cartilage regeneration

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