Search results for: officer related mental health

Authors: Moncer Malika, Ben Brahim Mounir, Bel Hassen Malika, Hamza Asma

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During the last decades, microalgae communities have presented significant changes in their structure and taxa composition along the Mediterranean littoral shallow waters. The main purpose of this work was to evaluate possible changes, over a 17-year scale (1997–2013), in the diversity and abundance of three toxic and potentially toxic microalgae related to changes in environmental parameters on Sfax coasts, a pole of shellfish production in Tunisia. In this 17-year span, a chronological series of data showed that a clear disparity from one year to another was observed in the abundance of studied species. The distribution of these species has been subjected to a seasonal cycle. The studied microalgae, especially Prorocentrum lima, seem to have significant relationships with many physicochemicaland meteorological parameters.

Keywords: long-term monitoring HABs, physico-chemical parameters, meteorological parameters, Prorocentrum lima, Ostreopsis cf. ovata, Coolia monotis

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Authors: A. Augustyn, M. Florek, M. Herezniak

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Since the public authorities are constantly pressured by the public opinion to showcase the tangible and measurable results of their efforts, the evaluation of place brand-related activities becomes a necessity. Given the political and social character of place branding process, the legitimization of the branding efforts requires the compliance of the objectives set out in the city brand strategy with the actual needs, expectations, and aspirations of various internal stakeholders. To deliver on the diverse promises, city authorities and brand managers need to translate them into the measurable indicators against which the brand strategy effectiveness will be evaluated. In concert with these observations are the findings from branding and marketing literature with a widespread consensus that places should adopt a more systematic and holistic approach in order to ensure the performance of their brands. However, the measurement of the effectiveness of place branding remains insufficiently explored in theory, even though it is considered a significant step in the process of place brand management. Therefore, the aim of the research presented in the current paper was to collect insights on the nature of effectiveness measurement of city brand strategies and to juxtapose these findings with the theoretical assumptions formed on the basis of the state-of-the-art literature review. To this end, 15 international academic experts (out of 18 initially selected) with affiliation from ten countries (five continents), were individually interviewed. The standardized set of 19 open-ended questions was used for all the interviewees, who had been selected based on their expertise and reputation in the fields of place branding/marketing. Findings were categorized into four modules: (i) conceptualizations of city brand effectiveness, (ii) methodological issues of city brand effectiveness measurement, (iii) the nature of measurement process, (iv) articulation of key performance indicators (KPIs). Within each module, the interviewees offered diverse insights into the subject based on their academic expertise and professional activity as consultants. They proposed that there should be a twofold understanding of effectiveness. The narrow one when it is conceived as the aptitude to achieve specific goals, and the broad one in which city brand effectiveness is seen as an increase in social and economic reality of a place, which in turn poses diverse challenges for the measurement concepts and processes. Moreover, the respondents offered a variety of insights into the methodological issues, particularly about the need for customization and flexibility of the measurement systems, for the employment of interdisciplinary approach to measurement and implications resulting therefrom. Considerable emphasis was put on the inward approach to measurement, namely the necessity to monitor the resident’s evaluation of brand related activities instead of benchmarking cities against the competitive set. Other findings encompass the issues of developing appropriate KPIs for the city brand, managing the measurement process and the inclusion of diverse stakeholders to produce a sound measurement system. Furthermore, the interviewees enumerated the most frequently made mistakes in measurement mainly resulting from the misunderstanding of the nature of city brands. This research was financed by the National Science Centre, Poland, research project no. 2015/19/B/HS4/00380 Towards the categorization of place brand strategy effectiveness indicators – findings from strategic documents of Polish district cities – theoretical and empirical approach.

Keywords: city branding, effectiveness, experts’ insights, measurement

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Authors: Yuanxia Zheng, Min Zhong, Cong Xin, Guoxiong Liu, Liqi Zhu

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Trust is a critical foundation of social interaction and development, playing a significant role in the physical and mental well-being of children, as well as their social participation. Previous research has demonstrated that young children do not blindly trust others but make selective trust judgments based on available information. The characteristics of speakers can influence children’s trust judgments. According to Mayer et al.’s model of trust, these characteristics of speakers, including ability, benevolence, and integrity, can influence children’s trust judgments. While previous research has focused primarily on the effects of ability and benevolence, there has been relatively little attention paid to integrity, which refers to individuals’ adherence to promises, fairness, and justice. This study focuses specifically on how keeping/breaking promises affects young children’s trust judgments. The paradigm of selective trust was employed in two experiments. A sample size of 100 children was required for an effect size of w = 0.30，α = 0.05，1-β = 0.85, using G*Power 3.1. This study employed a 2×2 within-subjects design to investigate the effects of moral valence of promises (within-subjects factor: moral vs. immoral promises), and fulfilment of promises (within-subjects factor: kept vs. broken promises) on children’s trust judgments (divided into declarative and promising contexts). In Experiment 1 adapted binary choice paradigms, presenting 118 preschoolers (62 girls, Mean age = 4.99 years, SD = 0.78) with four conflict scenarios involving the keeping or breaking moral/immoral promises, in order to investigate children’s trust judgments. Experiment 2 utilized single choice paradigms, in which 112 preschoolers (57 girls, Mean age = 4.94 years, SD = 0.80) were presented four stories to examine their level of trust. The results of Experiment 1 showed that preschoolers selectively trusted both promisors who kept moral promises and those who broke immoral promises, as well as their assertions and new promises. Additionally, the 5.5-6.5-year-old children are more likely to trust both promisors who keep moral promises and those who break immoral promises more than the 3.5- 4.5-year-old children. Moreover, preschoolers are more likely to make accurate trust judgments towards promisor who kept moral promise compared to those who broke immoral promises. The results of Experiment 2 showed significant differences of preschoolers’ trust degree: kept moral promise > broke immoral promise > broke moral promise ≈ kept immoral promise. This study is the first to investigate the development of trust judgement in moral promise among preschoolers aged 3.5-6.5. The results show that preschoolers can consider both valence and fulfilment of promises when making trust judgments. Furthermore, as preschoolers mature, they become more inclined to trust promisors who keep moral promises and those who break immoral promises. Additionally, the study reveals that preschoolers have the highest level of trust in promisors who kept moral promises, followed by those who broke immoral promises. Promisors who broke moral promises and those who kept immoral promises are trusted the least. These findings contribute valuable insights to our understanding of moral promises and trust judgment.

Keywords: promise, trust, moral judgement, preschoolers

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Authors: Amar Aliche, Hocine Hammoum, Karima Bouzelha, Arezki Ben Abderrahmane

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Traditionally, the dimensioning of storage tanks is conducted with a deterministic approach based on partial coefficients of safety. These coefficients are applied to take into account the uncertainties related to hazards on properties of materials used and applied loads. However, the use of these safety factors in the design process does not assure an optimal and reliable solution and can sometimes lead to a lack of robustness of the structure. The reliability theory based on a probabilistic formulation of constructions safety can respond in an adapted manner. It allows constructing a modelling in which uncertain data are represented by random variables, and therefore allows a better appreciation of safety margins with confidence indicators. The work presented in this paper consists of a mecano-reliability analysis of a concrete storage tank placed on ground. The classical method of Monte Carlo simulation is used to evaluate the failure probability of concrete tank by considering the seismic acceleration as random variable.

Keywords: reliability approach, storage tanks, monte carlo simulation, seismic acceleration

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Authors: Liza Meutia Sari, Gus Permana Subita, Elza Ibrahim Auerkari

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Background: Many herbs have been discovered to be potential sources of anticancer drugs. Biji Pinang or areca nut (Areca catechu Linn.) has a high content of phenolics and flavonoids, and which is related to antioxidant activity. However, data on its effects on oral squamous cell carcinoma is not available. Objectives: Identification of the cytotoxicity and apoptosis activity in HSC-2 and HSC-3. Methods: The areca nut was extracted by ethanol 96%, MTS assay and apoptosis activity with flow cytometry. Results: The extract of areca nut showed higher toxicity on HSC-3 cell compared to HSC-2. The IC₅₀ of HSC-3 was 164.06 μg/ml vs. 629.50 μg/ml in HSC-2. There was an increase in late apoptosis percentage after 24 and 48 hours in HSC-2. There was a significant increase in early apoptosis percentage after 24 hours and late in 48 hours in HSC-3. Conclusion: The antioxidant activity of the extract of areca nut might be associated with the selective cytotoxicity on HSC-2 and HSC-3. Apoptosis is the major cell death mechanism involved. The areca nut may play an important role in anticancer herb medicine.

Keywords: areca nut, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, oral carcinoma

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Authors: Araujo J. F. Marina, Araujo F. Marcus Vinicius, Mulinari R. Daniella

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Due to the resultant leachate from waste decomposition in landfills has polluter potential hundred times greater than domestic sewage, this is considered a problem related to the depreciation of environment requiring pre-disposal treatment. In seeking to improve this situation, this project proposes the treatment of landfill leachate using natural fibers intercropped with advanced oxidation processes. The selected natural fibers were palm, coconut and banana fiber. These materials give sustainability to the project because, besides having adsorbent capacity, are often part of waste discarded. The study was conducted in laboratory scale. In trials, the effluents were characterized as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Turbidity and Color. The results indicate that is technically promising since that there were extremely oxidative conditions, the use of certain natural fibers in the reduction of pollutants in leachate have been obtained results of COD removals between 67.9% and 90.9%, Turbidity between 88.0% and 99.7% and Color between 67.4% and 90.4%. The expectation generated is to continue evaluating the association of efficiency of other natural fibers with other landfill leachate treatment processes.

Keywords: lndfill leachate, chemical treatment, natural fibers, advanced oxidation processes

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Authors: Gadanya, A.M., Ponfa, S., Jibril, M.M., Abubakar, S. M.

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Background: Edible insects such as grasshopper are important sources of food for humans, and have been consumed as traditional foods by many indigenous communities especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These communities have developed their skills and techniques in harvesting, preparing, consuming, and preserving edible insects, widely contributing to the role played by the use of insects in human nutrition. Aim/ objective: This study was aimed at determining the effect of insect enriched sprouted soyabean /millet based food on some gut health markers in albino rats. Methods. Four different formulations of Complementary foods (i.e Complementary Food B (CFB): sprouted millet (SM), Complementary Food C (CFC): sprouted soyabean (SSB), Complementary Food D (CFD): sprouted soybean and millet (SSBM) in a ratio of (50:50) and Complementary Food E (CFE): insect (grasshopper) enriched sprouted soybean and millet (SSBMI) in a ratio of (50:25:25)) were prepared. Proximate composition and short chain fatty acid contents were determined. Thirty albino rats were divided into5 groups of six rats each. Group 1(CDA) were fed with basal diet and served as a control group, while groups 2,3,4 and 5 were fed with the corresponding complimentary foods CFB, CFC, CFD and CFE respectively daily for four weeks. Concentrations of fecal protein, serum total carotenoids and nitric oxide were determined. DNA extraction for molecular isolation and characterization were carried out followed by PCR, the use of mega 11 software and NCBI blast for construction of the phylogenetic tree and organism identification respectively. Results: Significant increase (P<0.05) in percentage ash, fat, protein and moisture contents, as well as short chain fatty acid (acetate, butyrate and propionate) concentrations were recorded in the insect enriched sprouted composite food (CFE) when compared with the CFA, CFB, CFC and CFD composite food. Faecal protein, carotenoid and nitric oxide concentrations were significantly lower (P>0.05) in group 5 in comparison to groups 1to 4. Ruminococcus bromii and Bacteroidetes were molecularly isolated and characterized by 16s rRNA from the sprouted millet/sprouted soybean and the insect enriched sprouted soybean/sprouted millet based food respectively. The presence of these bacterial strains in the feaces of the treated rats is an indication that the gut of the treated rats is colonized by good gut bacteria, hence, an improved gut health. Conclusion: Insect enriched sprouted soya bean/sprouted millet based complementary diet showed a high composition of ash, fat, protein and fiber. Thus, could increase the availability of short chain fatty acids whose role to the host organism cannot be overemphasized. It was also found to have decrease the level of faecal protein, carotenoid and nitric oxide in the serum which is an indication of an improvement in the immune system function.

Keywords: gut-health, insect, millet, soybean, sprouted

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Authors: Nisha Gaur, K.Narasimhulu, Pydi Setty Yelamarthy

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Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have become a great concern due to their toxicity, transformation and bioaccumulation property. Therefore, this review highlights the types, sources, classification health hazards and mobility of organochlorine pesticides, industrial chemicals and their by-products. Moreover, with the signing of Aarhus and Stockholm convention on POPs there is an increased demand to identify and characterise such chemicals from industries and environment which are toxic in nature or to existing biota. Due to long life, persistent nature they enter into body through food and transfer to all tropic levels of ecological unit. In addition, POPs are lipophilic in nature and accumulate in lipid-containing tissues and organs which further indicates the adverse symptoms after the threshold limit. Though, several potential enzymes are reported from various categories of microorganism and their interaction with POPs may break down the complex compounds either through biodegradation, biostimulation or bioaugmentation process, however technological advancement and human activities have also indicated to explore the possibilities for the role of genetically modified organisms and metagenomics and metabolomics. Though many studies have been done to develop low cost, effective and reliable method for detection, determination and removal of ultra-trace concentration of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) but due to insufficient knowledge and non-feasibility of technique, the safe management of POPs is still a global challenge.

Keywords: persistent organic pollutants, bioaccumulation, biostimulation, microbial remediation

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Authors: Chung-Yuan Wang, Kai-Chun Lee, Min-Hung Wang, Yu-Ren Chen, Hung-Sheng Lin, Sen-Shan Fan

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Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) was launched in 1995. It is an important social welfare policy in Taiwan. Regardless of the diversified social and economic status, universal coverage of NHI was assured. In order to regain better self-care performance, stroke people received in-patient and out-patient rehabilitation. Though NHI limited the rehabilitation frequency to one per day, the cost of rehabilitation still increased rapidly. Through the intensive rehabilitation during the post-stroke rehabilitation golden period, stroke patients might decrease their disability and shorten the rehabilitation period. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation in hospital under per diem payment. This study was started from 2014/03/01. The stroke patients who were admitted to our hospital or medical center were indicated to the study. The neurologists would check his modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Only patients with their mRS score between 2 and 4 were included to the study. Patients with unclear consciousness, unstable medical condition, unclear stroke onset date and no willing for 3 weeks in-patient intensive rehabilitation were excluded. After the physiatrist’s systemic evaluation, the subjects received intensive rehabilitation programs. The frequency of rehabilitation was thrice per day. Physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech/swallowing therapy were included in the programs for the needs of the stroke patients. Activity daily life performance (Barthel Index) and functional balance ability (Berg Balance Scale) were used to measure the training effect. During 3/1 to 5/31, thirteen subjects (five male and eight female) were included. Seven subjects were aged below 60. Three subjects were aged over 70. Most of the subjects (seven subjects) received intensive post-stroke rehabilitation for three weeks. Three subjects drop out from the programs and went back home respectively after receiving only 7, 10, and 13 days rehabilitation. Among these 13 subjects, nine of them got improvement in activity daily life performance (Barthel Index score). Ten of them got improvement in functional balance ability (Berg Balance Scale). The intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation did help stroke patients promote their health in our study. Not only their functional performance improved, but also their self-confidence improved. Furthermore, their family also got better health status. Stroke rehabilitation under per diem payment was noted in long-term care institution in developed countries. Over 95% populations in Taiwan were supported under the Taiwan's National Health Insurance system, but there was no national long-term care insurance system. Most of the stroke patients in Taiwan live with his family and continue their rehabilitation programs from out-patient department. This pilot study revealed the effect of intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation in hospital under per diem payment. The number of the subjects and the study period were limited. Thus, further study will be needed.

Keywords: rehabilitation, post-acute stroke, per diem payment, NHI

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Authors: A. Giniatoulline

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We consider the internal oscillations of the ocean which are caused by the gravity force and the Coriolis force, for different models with changeable density, heat transfer, and salinity. Traditionally, the mathematical description of the resonance effect is related to the growing amplitude as a result of input vibrations. We offer a different approach: the study of the relation between the spectrum of the internal oscillations and the properties of the limiting amplitude of the solution for the harmonic input vibrations of the external forces. Using the results of the spectral theory of self-adjoint operators in Hilbert functional spaces, we prove that there exists an explicit relation between the localization of the frequency of the external input vibrations with respect to the essential spectrum of proper inner oscillations and the non-uniqueness of the limiting amplitude. The results may find their application in various problems concerning mathematical modeling of turbulent flows in the ocean.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, essential spectrum, limiting amplitude, rotating fluid, spectral theory, stratified fluid, the uniqueness of solutions of PDE equations

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Authors: Nora Alkharji, Wafa Fallatah

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Introduction: One of the major issues to consider when is deciding on what to feed a baby is the quality of the food itself. Whilst commercially prepared infant formulas are a nutritious alternative to breast milk, and even contain some vitamins and nutrients, most major medical organizations consider breastfeeding the best nutritional option for babies. Choosing whether to breastfeed or formula feed your baby is one of the first decisions expectant parents will make. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is in agreement with other organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Dietetic Association (ADA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) in recommending breastfeeding as the best nutrition for babies and best suited for a baby's digestive system. In addition, breastfeeding helps in the combatting of infections, prevention of allergies, and protection against various chronic conditions. The decision to breastfeed or formula feed one’s baby is a very personal one. However, certain points need to be clarified regarding the nutritional value of breastfeeding versus formula feeding to allow for informed decision-making. Methodology: -A formal debate about whether to breastfeed or formula feed babies as the better choice. -There will be two debaters, both lactation consultants -Arguments will be based on evidence-based medicine -Duration period of debated: 45 min Result: Clarification and heightened awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding. Conclusion: This debate will make the choice between breastfeeding or formula feeding a relatively easy one to make by both health worker and parents.

Keywords: breastmilk, formula milk, nutritional, comparison

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Authors: Siwapong Dheera-Aumpon

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Resource misallocation is known to be prevalent in many countries. Such misallocation in the manufacturing sector is large and has a considerable negative effect on aggregate productivity. Thailand is one of the countries having large resource misallocation in the manufacturing sector. Resource misallocation is also known to be widespread in the agricultural sector. It is, therefore, likely that resource misallocation exists in the agricultural sector of Thailand as well. This study aims to evaluate the extent of resource misallocation in Thai rice farming. Using household-level data from 2013 Thai Agricultural Census, this study calculates farm total factor productivity (TFP) controlling for land quality and rain. Similar to the case of Malawi, marginal products of land and capital are found to be related to farm TFP implying large resource misallocation. The output gain from a reallocation of resources to their best use is 67 percent. The gain from reallocation is highest for farms in the southern region and followed by the northeastern region.

Keywords: agriculture, misallocation, productivity, rice

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Authors: Yogendra Sisodia

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Researchers are becoming more interested in extracting useful information from legal documents thanks to the development of large-scale language models in natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning has accelerated the creation of powerful text mining models. Legal fields like contracts benefit greatly from semantic text search since it makes it quick and easy to find related clauses. After collecting sentence embeddings, it is relatively simple to locate sentences with a comparable meaning throughout the entire legal corpus. The author of this research investigated two pre-trained language models for this task: MiniLM and Roberta, and further fine-tuned them on Legal Contracts. The author used Multiple Negative Ranking Loss for the creation of sentence transformers. The fine-tuned language models and sentence transformers showed promising results.

Keywords: legal contracts, multiple negative ranking loss, natural language inference, sentence transformers, semantic textual similarity

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Authors: Lawan Muhammad Adam, Abduljabar Hilal Alsayoud

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One of the most promising techniques to produce pure hydrogen is through a palladium-based membrane (Pd-membrane). Density functional theory (DFT) is employed in this work to examine how the physical and chemical adsorption properties of hydrogen on the surface of Pd-Pt can be mutated in the presence of contaminating gases, CH₄, CO, and CO₂. The main target is to survey the energy topology related to hydrogen adsorption while adjusting the stages of freedom in both the structure and composition. The adsorption sites, crystal plane of the slab, and relative orientation of the adsorbed molecules on its surface, as well as various arrangements of adsorbed species, have been considered in this study. The dependency of hydrogen adsorption on surface coverage is studied. The study demonstrated the physical adsorption energies of the molecules on the surface concerning the different coverages of hydrogen atoms. The most stable combinations of the adsorption sites (Top, Hollow, and Bridge) with various orientations of gaseous molecules on the Pd-Pt surface were identified according to their calculated energies. When the binding of contaminating gaseous species to the Pd-Pt surface and their impact on the physical adsorption energies of the H₂ are examined, it is observed that the most poisonous gas relative to all other gases modifies the energetics of the adsorption process of hydrogen on the surface.

Keywords: DFT, Pd-Pt-membrane, H₂, CO, CO₂

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Authors: Arshad Ali

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This study aims to highlight the comparative patterns of social construction of gender among bureaucrats and non-bureaucrats. For the purpose of this study purposive sample of 8 respondents, including both male and female bureaucrats and non-bureaucrats, was collected from Gujranwala and Lahore. The measures for collecting data included an indigenous demographic information sheet and interview protocol related to gender roles, social construction of gender and managerial performance. The collected data was analyzed through the Nvivo version 11 and analysis reveals that there are diverse perceptions regarding male and female stereotyping among bureaucrats and non-bureaucrats, as different kinds of social environments lead to the modification of stereotypes. The research contributes to gender studies, specifically in the context of Pakistani society. There are very few studies available, and empirical data about Gender construction is scanty, so the study provides an impetus for future research. It is suggested that future research explore the phenomenon at a larger scale, including more respondents and another dimension, by keeping in view the socio-economic factors and policies of the government regarding the elimination of gender discrimination in Pakistan.

Keywords: social construction, gender, bureaucrats, gender perception

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Authors: Yan Fang, Jie Yin, Bihu Wu

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The interaction between climate change and tourism is one of the most promising research areas of recent decades. In this paper, a scientometric analysis of 976 academic publications between 1990 and 2015 related to climate change and tourism is presented in order to characterize the intellectual landscape by identifying and visualizing the evolution of the collaboration network, the co-citation network, and emerging trends of citation burst and keyword co-occurrence. The results show that the number of publications in this field has increased rapidly and it has become an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary topic. The research areas are dominated by Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and European countries, which have the most productive authors and institutions. The hot topics of climate change and tourism research in recent years are further identified, including the consequences of climate change for tourism, necessary adaptations, the vulnerability of the tourism industry, tourist behaviour and demand in response to climate change, and emission reductions in the tourism sector. The work includes an in-depth analysis of a major forum of climate change and tourism to help readers to better understand global trends in this field in the past 25 years.

Keywords: climate change, tourism, scientometrics, CiteSpace

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Authors: Yuping Liu, Li Tao, Yin Lu

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Accumulating evidence has been shown that diallyl trisulfide (DATS) from garlic may reduce the risk of developing several types of cancer. In view of the dynamic crosstalk interplayed by tumor cells and platelets in hematogenous metastasis, we demonstrate the effectiveness of DATS on the metastatic behaviors of MDA-MB-435s human breast cancer cell line co-incubated with activated platelets. Indeed, our data identified that DATS significantly blocked platelets fouction induced by PAF, followed by the decreased production of TXB2. DATS was found to dose-dependently suppressed MDA-MB-435s cell migration and invasion in presence of activated platelets by PAF in vitro. Furthermore, the expression, secretion and enzymatic activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2/9, as well as the luciferase activity of upstream regulator NF-κB in MDA-MB-435s, were obviously diminished by DATS. In parallel, DATS blocked upstream NF-κB activation signaling complexes composed of extracellular signal-related kinase (ERK) as assessed by measuring the levels of the phosphorylated forms.

Keywords: DATS, ERK, metastasis, MMPs, NF-κB, platelet

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Authors: Juan Pablo Hervas-Perez, Jesus Guodemar-Perez, Montserrat Ruiz-Lopez, Elena Sonsoles Rodriguez-Lopez, Noemi Mayoral-Gonzalo, Eduardo Cimadevilla Fernandez-Pola, Mario Caballero-Corella

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Physiotherapy is a healthcare discipline that covers many fields of action within the recovery and prevention of health. Some are well known, but others, such as working with newborns and premature children are not so. Physical therapist functions are well defined, but the impression of the population is that there are other professionals who can develop them, and a large part are unknown. Objective: To evaluate the level of knowledge of the sample on the role of the physiotherapist in general, and more specifically in the neonatal intensive care (NICU) units, and estimate your level of notions on the development centered care (DCC). Method: A descriptive, transversal, observational and prospective study developed on a 125 participants' sample. Results: From the sample studied, 87.2% had already had contact with physiotherapy previously. An 80.9% believed that the physiotherapist intervention was decisive for the cure, and 84.0% would recommend physiotherapy treatment to others. Of the total surveyed, 98.0% felt that the physiotherapist is who should run the physiotherapeutic treatments, but shares with other professions 71.0% of votes. The field's best-known work is rehabilitation (94.0%); Neonatology is on the 4th place (66.0% of votes). Conclusions: Many areas of work of physical therapy are unknown to a big part of the population, including the own health workers. Less than half of the sample meets the DCC, and only 58% of the interviewed physiotherapists know them.

Keywords: functions of physiotherapist, neonatal intensive care, physiotherapy, prematurity

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Authors: Nur Azemah Aminludin, Osman Mohd Tahir

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A dynamic landscape development is important for providing healthy ecosystem which supports all life. Nowadays, many initiatives towards sustainable development have been published. They lead to better living and more efficient use of natural resources in sustaining long-term ecological, economics and social benefits. To date, many assessment tools related to built environment have been established and practiced in this region, which mostly has the purpose assessing the environment performance of buildings. Hence, an assessment tool focusing on the sustainable landscape development itself is a necessity. This paper reviews the assessment criteria and indicators that are suitable for sustainable landscape development practices. The local and global assessment tools for landscape development are investigated, analyzed and discussed critically. Consideration also is given to the integration of the assessment tools with the surrounding environmental, social, and economical aspects. In addition, the assessment criteria and indicators for assessing the landscape development in Malaysia are also reviewed and discussed. In conclusion, this paper reviews, analyzes and discusses on available local and global landscape development assessment tools for sustainability.

Keywords: assessment tool, sustainable landscape development, assessment criteria, assessment indicator

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Authors: Sami Michael Ayodele

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Cordyceps are members of the fungi family Cordycepitaceae which are formally in Clavicipitaceae. They parasitize the larvae and adults of different susceptible arthropods. They are highly priced and have been reported to be highly medicinal. Cordyceps have been used for centuries in traditional medicine in China and other Asian countries. Survey studies were carried out to determine the presence of Cordyceps and another entomopathogenic fungal floral in North Central Nigeria for two consecutive years. Thirty samples were collected, twenty-eight were identified, and two were unidentified. Most identified species belong to Ophiocordyceps species (20samples), Cordyceps species (4samples) and Isaria species (4samples). The species identified were: Cordyceps pseudomilitaris, Cordyceps tuberculata, Cordyceps cylindrical, Ophiocordyceps nutans, O. criminals, O. oxycephala, O. kniphofioides and Isaria sinclairii. The morphological and microscopic features of the collected and identified species were similar to those reported in other countries. This is the first official report on the presence of Cordyceps species in Nigeria. Further collections from different ecological regions of Nigeria will show the richness of the floral diversity of these entomopathogenic and medicinal mushrooms in Nigeria.

Keywords: cordyceps, entomopathogenic, medicinal, North Central, Nigeria

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Authors: Monir Ahmed

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The main purpose of this literature review was to investigate the existing quantitative clinical studies on the relationship between transcendence and psychological well-being. The primary objective of the literature review is to determine whether the existing studies adequately demonstrate the relationship between transcendence and psychological well-being, including spiritual well-being. A further objective of this literature review is to see if the ‘creatio ex nihilo’ doctrine is necessary to understand transcendence and its relationship with psychological well-being. Systematic literature review methods including studies identified from search engines, extracting data from the studies and assessing their quality for the planned review were used. The outcome of this literature review indicates that self-transcendence (STa), spiritual transcendence (STb) are positively related to psychological well-being. However, such positive relationships present limited scope for understanding transcendence and its relationship with well-being. The findings of this review support the need for further research in the area of transcendence and well-being. This literature review reveals the importance of developing a new transcendence tool for determining an individual’s ability to transcend and the relationship between his/her ability for transcendence and psychological well-being. The author of this paper proposes that the inclusion of the theological doctrine (‘creatio ex nihilo’) in understanding transcendence and psychological well-being is crucial, necessary and unavoidable.

Keywords: transcendence, psychological well-being, self-transcendence, spiritual transcendence, ‘creatio ex nihilo’

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Authors: Riyona Chetty, Raisuyah Bhagwan, Nalini Govender

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Background: During rehabilitation, the prosthetist establishes prosthetic and/or orthotic realistic goals and programmes as well as clinical outcome measures. They are well-positioned to improve the amputee’s physical and psychosocial well-being. Objective: This study aims to explore the ways in which the prosthetist may be able to improve the holistic well-being of the amputee. Methods: Data was collected using a focus group discussion with 16 prosthetists at a medical facility in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Results: The findings indicate that amputees are encouraged to consider physical activities to improve their health. However, a major challenge experienced by the prosthetists was their lack of adequate psychosocial expertise, which affected their ability to offer emotional support. Additional factors such as language barriers, rotational systems, and unrealistic expectations further obstructed optimal service delivery. Conclusion: The prosthetists are adequately skilled in manufacturing the ideal prosthesis and encouraging physical exercise to promote the amputee’s physical health. However, their lack of psychosocial training limits them in providing emotional support during rehabilitation. It is recommended that prosthetists are provided with professional training to provide emotional support as part of holistic healthcare. Clinical relevance: The intention of this study was to provide pertinent recommendations for prosthetists, enabling them to provide holistic quality care to their patients.

Keywords: psychological, social, well-being, amputee, prosthetist

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Authors: Gemma A. Gruyal

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Plants can contain a wide variety of substances with antioxidative properties which are associated to important health benefits. These positive health effects are of great importance at a time when the environment is laden with many toxic substances. Five selected herbal plants namely, Mimosa pudica, Phyllanthus niruri, Ceiba pentandra, Eleusine polydactyla and Trema amboinensis, were chosen for the experiment to investigate their total phenolics content and antioxidant activities using ABTS radical cation decolorization power, and ferric reducing antioxidant power. The total phenolic content of each herbal plants ranges from 0.84 to 42.59 mg gallic acid equivalent/g. The antioxidant activity in the ABTS radical cation decolorization power varies from 0.005 to 0.362 mg trolox equivalent/g and the FRAP ranges from 0.30 to 28.42 mg gallic acid equivalent/g. Among the five medicinal plants, Mimosa pudica has been an excellent performer in terms of the 3 parameters measured; it is followed by Phyllanthus niruri. The five herbal plants do not have equivalent antioxidant power. The relative high values for M. pudica and P. niruri supports the medicinal value of both plants. The total phenolics, ABTS and FRAP correlate strongly with one another.

Keywords: ABTS, FRAP, Leaf extracts, phenol

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Authors: Saule Balmagambetova, Zhenisgul Tlegenova, Saule Madinova

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Cardiotoxicity associated with anticancer treatment, now defined as cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD), accompanies cancer patients and negatively impacts their survivorship. Currently, a cardio-oncological service is being created in Kazakhstan based on the provisions of the European Society of Cardio-oncology (ESC) Guidelines. In the frames of a pilot project, a cohort study on CTRCD conditions was initiated at the Aktobe Cancer center. One hundred twenty-eight newly diagnosed breast cancer patients started on doxorubicin and/or trastuzumab were recruited. Echocardiography with global longitudinal strain (GLS) assessment, biomarkers panel (cardiac troponin (cTnI), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), myeloperoxidase (MPO), galectin-3 (Gal-3), D-dimers, C-reactive protein (CRP)), and other tests were performed at baseline and every three months. Patients were stratified by the cardiovascular risks according to the ESC recommendations and allocated into the risk groups during the pre-treatment visit. Of them, 10 (7.8%) patients were assigned to the high-risk group, 48 (37.5%) to the medium-risk group, and 70 (54.7%) to the low-risk group, respectively. High-risk patients have been receiving their cardioprotective treatment from the outset. Patients were also divided by treatment - in the anthracycline-based 83 (64.8%), in trastuzumab- only 13 (10.2%), and in the mixed anthracycline/trastuzumab group 32 individuals (25%), respectively. Mild symptomatic CTRCD was revealed and treated in 2 (1.6%) participants, and a mild asymptomatic variant in 26 (20.5%). Mild asymptomatic conditions are defined as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≥50% and further relative reduction in GLS by >15% from baseline and/or a further rise in cardiac biomarkers. The listed biomarkers were assessed longitudinally in repeated-measures linear regression models during 12 months of observation. The associations between changes in biomarkers and CTRCD and between changes in biomarkers and LVEF were evaluated. Analysis by risk groups revealed statistically significant differences in baseline LVEF scores (p 0.001), BNP (p 0.0075), and Gal-3 (p 0.0073). Treatment groups found no statistically significant differences at baseline. After 12 months of follow-up, only LVEF values showed a statistically significant difference by risk groups (p 0.0011). When assessing the temporal changes in the studied parameters for all treatment groups, there were statistically significant changes from visit to visit for LVEF (p 0.003); GLS (p 0.0001); BNP (p<0.00001); MPO (p<0.0001); and Gal-3 (p<0.0001). No moderate or strong correlations were found between the biomarkers values and LVEF, between biomarkers and GLS. Between the biomarkers themselves, a moderate, close to strong correlation was established between cTnI and D-dimer (r 0.65, p<0.05). The dose-dependent effect of anthracyclines has been confirmed: the summary dose has a moderate negative impact on GLS values: -r 0.31 for all treatment groups (p<0.05). The present study found myeloperoxidase as a promising biomarker of cardiac dysfunction in the mixed anthracycline/trastuzumab treatment group. The hazard of CTRCD increased by 24% (HR 1.21; 95% CI 1.01;1.73) per doubling in baseline MPO value (p 0.041). Increases in BNP were also associated with CTRCD (HR per doubling, 1.22; 95% CI 1.12;1.69). No cases of chemotherapy discontinuation due to cardiotoxic complications have been recorded. Further observations are needed to gain insight into the ability of biomarkers to predict CTRCD onset.

Keywords: breast cancer, chemotherapy, cardiotoxicity, Kazakhstan

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Authors: Mahmoud Elrouby

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Metal chalcogenide materials have wide spectrum of properties, for that these materials can be used in electronics, optics, magnetics, solar energy conversion, catalysis, passivation, ion sensing, batteries, and fuel cells. This work aims to, how can obtain these materials via electrochemical methods simply for further applications. The work regards in particular the systems relevant to the sulphur sub-group elements, i.e., sulphur, selenium, and tellurium. The role of electrochemistry in synthesis, development, and characterization of the metal chalcogenide materials and related devices is vital and important. Electrochemical methods as preparation tool offer the advantages of soft chemistry to access bulk, thin, nano film and epitaxial growth of a wide range of alloys and compounds, while as a characterization tool provides exceptional assistance in specifying the physicochemical properties of materials. Moreover, quite important applications and modern devices base their operation on electrochemical principles. Thereupon, our scope in the first place was to organize existing facts on the electrochemistry of metal chalcogenides regarding their synthesis, properties, and applications.

Keywords: electrodeposition, metal chacogenides, semiconductors, applications

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Authors: Sélima Baccar, Ephraim Clark

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This paper can be considered as a new perspective to analyse credit spreads. A comprehensive empirical analysis of conditional variance of credit spreads indices is performed using various GARCH models. Based on a comparison between traditional and asymmetric GARCH models with alternative functional forms of the conditional density, we intend to identify what macroeconomic and financial factors have driven daily changes in the US Dollar credit spreads in the period from January 2011 through January 2013. The results provide a strong interdependence between credit spreads and the explanatory factors related to the conditions of interest rates, the state of the stock market, the bond market liquidity and the exchange risk. The empirical findings support the use of asymmetric GARCH models. The AGARCH and GJR models outperform the traditional GARCH in credit spreads modelling. We show, also, that the leptokurtic Student-t assumption is better than the Gaussian distribution and improves the quality of the estimates, whatever the rating or maturity.

Keywords: corporate bonds, default risk, credit spreads, asymmetric garch models, student-t distribution

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Authors: Asma Shaheen Hashmi, Omer Riaz, Khalid Mahmood, Fahad Ullah, Tanveer Ahmad

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The urban landscapes are being change with the population growth and advancements in new technologies. The urban sprawl pattern and utilizes are related to the local socioeconomic and physical condition. Urban policy decisions are executed mostly through spatial planning. A decision support system (DSS) is very powerful tool which provides flexible knowledge base method for urban planning. An application was developed using geographical information system (GIS) for urban planning. A scenario based DSS was developed to integrate the hierarchical muti-criteria data of different aspects of urban landscape. These were physical environment, the dumping site, spatial distribution of road network, gas and water supply lines, and urban watershed management, selection criteria for new residential, recreational, commercial and industrial sites. The model provided a framework to incorporate the sustainable future development. The data can be entered dynamically by planners according to the appropriate criteria for the management of urban landscapes.

Keywords: urban, GIS, spatial, criteria

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Authors: Youn Young Shim, Ji Hye Kim, Jae Youl Cho, Martin JT Reaney

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Flaxseed (Linumusitatissimum L.) is gaining popularity in the food industry as a superfood due to its health-promoting properties. Linusorbs (LOs, a.k.a. Cyclolinopeptide) are bioactive compounds present in flaxseed exhibiting potential health effects. The study focused on the effects of processing and storage on the stability of flaxseed-derived LOs added to various bakery products. The flaxseed meal fortified gluten-free (GF) bakery bread was prepared, and the changes of LOs during the bread-making process (meal, fortified flour, dough, and bread) and storage (0, 1, 2, and 4 weeks) at different temperatures (−18 °C, 4 °C, and 22−23 °C) were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection. The total oxidative LOs and LO1OB2 were almost kept stable in flaxseed meals at storage temperatures of 22−23 °C, −18 °C, and 4 °C for up to four weeks. Processing steps during GF-bread production resulted in the oxidation of LOs. Interestingly, no LOs were detected in the dough sample; however, LOs appeared when the dough was stored at −18 °C for one week, suggesting that freezing destroyed the sticky structure of the dough and resulted in the release of LOs. The final product, flaxseed meal fortified bread, could be stored for up to four weeks at −18 °C and 4 °C, and for one week at 22−23 °C. All these results suggested that LOs may change during processing and storage and that flaxseed flour-fortified bread should be stored at low temperatures to preserve effective LOs components.

Keywords: linum usitatissimum L., flaxseed, linusorb, stability, gluten-free, peptides, cyclolinopeptide

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Authors: A-Q. Nguyen. A. Amrhar, J. Zambrano, G. Brown, O.A. Yeste-Ojeda, R. Jr. Landry

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Since the presence of Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) has raised specific concerns related to the privacy and security, due to its vulnerable, low-level of security and limited payload. In this paper, the authors introduce and analyze the combination of Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) and Phase Shift Keying (PSK) Modulation in conventional ADS-B, forming Secure ADS-B (SADS-B) avionics. In order to demonstrate the potential of this combination, Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation was used. The tests' results show that, on the one hand, SADS-B can offer five times the payload as its predecessor. This additional payload of SADS-B can be used in various applications, therefore enhancing the ability and efficiency of the current ADS-B. On the other hand, by using the extra phase modulated bits as a digital signature to authenticate ADS-B messages, SADS-B can increase the security of ADS-B, thus ensure a more secure aviation as well. More importantly, SADS-B is compatible with the current ADS-B In and Out. Hence, no significant modifications will be needed to implement this idea. As a result, SADS-B can be considered the most promising approach to enhance the capability and security of ADS-B.

Keywords: ADS-B authentication, ADS-B security, NextGen ADS-B, PSK signature, secure ADS-B

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Authors: Sham Kidane, Fitsum Gaim, Ibrahim Abdella, Sirak Asmerom, Yoel Ghebrihiwot, Simon Mulugeta, Natnael Ambassager

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The lack of annotated datasets is a bottleneck to the progress of NLP in low-resourced languages. The work presented here consists of large-scale annotated datasets and models for the named entity recognition (NER) system for the Tigrinya language. Our manually constructed corpus comprises over 340K words tagged for NER, with over 118K of the tokens also having parts-of-speech (POS) tags, annotated with 12 distinct classes of entities, represented using several types of tagging schemes. We conducted extensive experiments covering convolutional neural networks and transformer models; the highest performance achieved is 88.8% weighted F1-score. These results are especially noteworthy given the unique challenges posed by Tigrinya’s distinct grammatical structure and complex word morphologies. The system can be an essential building block for the advancement of NLP systems in Tigrinya and other related low-resourced languages and serve as a bridge for cross-referencing against higher-resourced languages.

Keywords: Tigrinya NER corpus, TiBERT, TiRoBERTa, BiLSTM-CRF

Procedia PDF Downloads 98