Search results for: students with special educational needs

Authors: Lisa M. Coleman

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The focus on disability, LGBTQ+, and internationalization has certainly been the subject of much research and programmatic across higher education. Many universities have entered into global partnerships with varying success and challenges across the various areas, including laws and policies. Attentiveness to the specific nuances of global inclusion, diversity, equity, belonging, and access (GIDBEA) and the leadership to support these efforts is crucial to the development of longstanding success across the programs. There have been a number of shifts related to diversification across student and alumni bodies. These shifts include but are not limited to how people identify gender, race, and sexuality (and the intersections across such identities), as well as trends across emerging and diverse disability communities. NYU is the most international campus in the United States, with the most campuses and sites outside of its county of origin and the most international students and exchange programs than any other university. As a result, the ongoing work related to GIDEBA is at the center of much of the leadership, administrative, and research efforts. Climate assessment work across NYU’s diverse global campus landscape will serve as the foundation to exemplify best practices related to data collection and dissemination, community and stakeholder engagement, and effective implementation of innovative strategies to close gap areas as identified. The data (quantitative and qualitative) and related research findings represent data collected from close to 22,000 stakeholders across the NYU campuses. The case study centers on specific methodological considerations, data integrity, stakeholder engagement from across student-faculty, staff, and alumni constituencies, and tactics to advance specific GIDBEA initiatives related to navigating shifting landscapes. Design thinking, incubation, and co-creation strategies have been employed to expand, leverage, actualize, and implement GIDBEA strategies that are – concrete, measurable, differentiated, and specific to global sites and regions and emerging trends.

Keywords: disability, LGBTQ+, DEI, research, case studies

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Authors: Gusa Hall, Barrie Keeler, Achal Khanna

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Introduction: NICE guidelines have highlighted the consequences of IV fluid mismanagement. The main aim of this study was to audit fluid prescribing post laparotomies to identify if fluids were prescribed in accordance to NICE guidelines. Methodology: Retrospective database search of eight specific laparotomy procedures (colectomy right and left, Hartmann’s procedure, small bowel resection, perforated ulcer, abdominal perineal resection, anterior resection, pan proctocolectomy, subtotal colectomy) highlighted 29 laparotomies between April 2019 and May 2019. Two of 29 patients had secondary procedures during the same admission, n=27 (patients). Database case notes were reviewed for date of procedure, length of admission, fluid prescribed and amount, nasal gastric tube output, daily bloods results for electrolytes sodium and potassium and operational losses. Results: n=27 based on 27 identified patients between April 2019 – May 2019, 93% (25/27) received IV fluids, only 19% (5/27) received the correct IV fluids in accordance to NICE guidelines, 93% (25/27) who received IV fluids had the correct electrolytes levels (sodium & potassium), 100% (27/27) patients received blood tests (U&E’s) for correct electrolytes levels. 0% (0/27) no documentation on operational losses. IV fluids matched nasogastric tube output in 100% (3/3) of the number of patients that had a nasogastric tube in situ. Conclusion: A PubMed database literature review on barriers to safer IV prescribing highlighted educational interventions focused on prescriber knowledge rather than how to execute the prescribing task. This audit suggests IV fluids post laparotomies are not being prescribed consistently in accordance to NICE guidelines. Surgical management plans should be clearer on IV fluids and electrolytes requirements for the following 24 hours after the plan has been initiated. In addition, further teaching and training around IV prescribing is needed together with frequent surgical audits on IV fluid prescribing post-surgery to evaluate improvements.

Keywords: audit, IV Fluid prescribing, laparotomy, NICE guidelines

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Authors: Aditya Purohit, Neha Bansal

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Unplanned urbanization and multidirectional sprawl of the cities have resulted in increased motorization and deteriorating transport conditions like traffic congestion, longer commuting, pollution, increased carbon footprint, and above all increased fatalities. In order to overcome these problems, various practices have been adopted including– promoting and implementing mass transport; traffic junction channelization; smart transport etc. However, these methods are found to be primarily focusing on vehicular mobility rather than people accessibility. With this research gap, this paper tries to resolve the mobility issues for Ahmedabad city in India, which being the economic capital Gujarat state has a huge commuter and visitor inflow. This research aims to resolve the traffic congestion and urban mobility issues focusing on Gujarat State Regional Transport Corporation (GSRTC) for the city of Ahmadabad by analyzing the existing operations and network structure of GSRTC followed by finding possibilities of integrating it with other modes of urban transport. The network restructuring (NR) methodology is used with appropriate variations, based on commuter demand and growth pattern of the city. To do these ‘scenarios’ based on priority issues (using 12 parameters) and their best possible solution, are established after route network analysis for 2700 population sample of 20 traffic junctions/nodes across the city. Approximately 5% sample (of passenger inflow) at each node is considered using random stratified sampling technique two scenarios are – Scenario 1: Resolving mobility issues by use of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in joint venture to GSRTC and Private Operators for establishing feeder service, which shall provide a transfer service for passenger for movement from inner city area to identified peripheral terminals; and Scenario 2: Augmenting existing mass transport services such as BRTS and AMTS for using them as feeder service to the identified peripheral terminals. Each of these has now been analyzed for the best suitability/feasibility in network restructuring. A desire-line diagram is constructed using this analysis which indicated that on an average 62% of designated GSRTC routes are overlapping with mass transportation service routes of BRTS and AMTS in the city. This has resulted in duplication of bus services causing traffic congestion especially in the Central Bus Station (CBS). Terminating GSRTC services on the periphery of the city is found to be the best restructuring network proposal. This limits the GSRTC buses at city fringe area and prevents them from entering into the city core areas. These end-terminals of GSRTC are integrated with BRTS and AMTS services which help in segregating intra-state and inter-state bus services. The research concludes that absence of integrated multimodal transport network resulted in complexity of transport access to the commuters. As a further scope of research comparing and understanding of value of access time in total travel time and its implication on generalized cost on trip and how it varies city wise may be taken up.

Keywords: mass transportation, multi-modal integration, network restructuring, travel behavior, urban transport

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Authors: Amarendar Reddy Addula

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Definition of Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence is the simulation of mortal intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Explicit operations of AI comprise expert systems, natural language processing, and speech recognition, and machine vision. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an original medium for digital business, according to a new report by Gartner. The last 10 times represent an advance period in AI’s development, prodded by the confluence of factors, including the rise of big data, advancements in cipher structure, new machine literacy ways, the materialization of pall computing, and the vibrant open- source ecosystem. Influence of AI to a broader set of use cases and druggies and its gaining fashionability because it improves AI’s versatility, effectiveness, and rigidity. Edge AI will enable digital moments by employing AI for real- time analytics closer to data sources. Gartner predicts that by 2025, further than 50 of all data analysis by deep neural networks will do at the edge, over from lower than 10 in 2021. Responsible AI is a marquee term for making suitable business and ethical choices when espousing AI. It requires considering business and societal value, threat, trust, translucency, fairness, bias mitigation, explainability, responsibility, safety, sequestration, and nonsupervisory compliance. Responsible AI is ever more significant amidst growing nonsupervisory oversight, consumer prospects, and rising sustainability pretensions. Generative AI is the use of AI to induce new vestiges and produce innovative products. To date, generative AI sweats have concentrated on creating media content similar as photorealistic images of people and effects, but it can also be used for law generation, creating synthetic irregular data, and designing medicinals and accoutrements with specific parcels. AI is the subject of a wide- ranging debate in which there's a growing concern about its ethical and legal aspects. Constantly, the two are varied and nonplussed despite being different issues and areas of knowledge. The ethical debate raises two main problems the first, abstract, relates to the idea and content of ethics; the alternate, functional, and concerns its relationship with the law. Both set up models of social geste, but they're different in compass and nature. The juridical analysis is grounded on anon-formalistic scientific methodology. This means that it's essential to consider the nature and characteristics of the AI as a primary step to the description of its legal paradigm. In this regard, there are two main issues the relationship between artificial and mortal intelligence and the question of the unitary or different nature of the AI. From that theoretical and practical base, the study of the legal system is carried out by examining its foundations, the governance model, and the nonsupervisory bases. According to this analysis, throughout the work and in the conclusions, International Law is linked as the top legal frame for the regulation of AI.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, ethics & human rights issues, laws, international laws

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Authors: Stephen Wagman

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This paper identifies three common structures in English sentences that are important for understanding academic texts, regardless of the characteristics or background of the readers or whether they are reading English as a second or a foreign language. Adapting a model from the Humanities, the explication of texts used in literary studies, the paper analyses sample sentences to reveal structures that enable the reader not only to decide which words are necessary for understanding the main ideas but to make the decision without knowing the meaning of the words. By their very syntax noun structures point to the key word for understanding them. As a rule, the key noun is followed by easily identifiable prepositions, relative pronouns, or verbs and preceded by single adjectives. With few exceptions, the modifiers are unnecessary for understanding the idea of the sentence. In addition, sentences are often structured by lists in which the items frequently consist of parallel groups of words. The principle of a list is that all the items are similar in meaning and it is not necessary to understand all of the items to understand the point of the list. This principle is especially important when the items are long or there is more than one list in the same sentence. The similarity in meaning of these items enables readers to reduce sentences that are hard to grasp to an understandable core without excessive use of a dictionary. Finally, the idea of subordination and the identification of the subordinate parts of sentences through connecting words makes it possible for readers to focus on main ideas without having to sift through the less important and more numerous secondary structures. Sometimes a main idea requires a subordinate one to complete its meaning, but usually, subordinate ideas are unnecessary for understanding the main point of the sentence and its part in the development of the argument from sentence to sentence. Moreover, the connecting words themselves indicate the functions of the subordinate structures. These most frequently show similarity and difference or reasons and results. Recognition of all of these structures can not only enable students to read more efficiently but to focus their attention on the development of the argument and this rather than a multitude of unknown vocabulary items, the repetition in lists, or the subordination in sentences are the one necessary element for comprehension of academic articles.

Keywords: development of the argument, lists, noun structures, subordination

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Authors: Michael N. O'Sullivan, Con Sheahan

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Mass customization is the idea of offering custom products or services to satisfy the needs of each individual customer while maintaining the efficiency of mass production. Technologies like 3D printing and artificial intelligence have many start-ups hoping to capitalize on this dream of creating personalized products at an affordable price, and well established companies scrambling to innovate and maintain their market share. However, the majority of them are failing as they struggle to understand one key question – where does customization make sense? Customization and personalization only make sense where the value of the perceived benefit outweighs the cost to implement it. In other words, will people pay for it? Looking at the Kano Model makes it clear that it depends on the product. In products where customization is an inherent need, like prosthetics, mass customization technologies can be highly beneficial. However, for products that already sell as a standard, like headphones, offering customization is likely only an added bonus, and so the product development team must figure out if the customers’ perception of the added value of this feature will outweigh its premium price tag. This can be done through the use of a ‘serious game,’ whereby potential customers are given a limited budget to collaboratively buy and bid on potential features of the product before it is developed. If the group choose to buy customization over other features, then the product development team should implement it into their design. If not, the team should prioritize the features on which the customers have spent their budget. The level of customization purchased can also be translated to an appropriate production method, for example, the most expensive type of customization would likely be free-form design and could be achieved through digital fabrication, while a lower level could be achieved through short batch production. Twenty-five teams of final year students from design, engineering, construction and technology tested this methodology when bringing a product from concept through to production specification, and found that it allowed them to confidently decide what level of customization, if any, would be worth offering for their product, and what would be the best method of producing it. They also found that the discussion and negotiations between players during the game led to invaluable insights, and often decided to play a second game where they offered customers the option to buy the various customization ideas that had been discussed during the first game.

Keywords: Kano model, mass customization, new product development, serious game

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Authors: L. V. S. S. Phaneendra Bolem, S. Shankar

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Low Volume Rural Roads (LVRRs) constitute an integral component of the road system in all countries. These encompass all aspects of the social and economic development of rural communities. It is known that on a worldwide basis the number of low traffic roads far exceeds the length of high volume roads. Across India, 90% of the roads are LVRRs, and they often form the most important link in terms of providing access to educational, medical, recreational and commercial activities in local and regional areas. In the recent past, Government of India (GoI), with the initiation of the ambitious programme namely 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana' (PMGSY) gave greater importance to LVRRs realizing their role in economic development of rural communities. The vast expansion of the road network has brought connectivity to the rural areas of the country. Further, it is noticed that due to increasing axle loads and lack of timely maintenance, is accelerated the process of deterioration of LVRRs. In addition to this due to limited budget for maintenance of these roads systematic and scientific approach in utilizing the available resources has been necessitated. This would enable better prioritization and ranking for the maintenance and make ‘all-weather roads’. Taking this into account the present study has adopted a multi-criteria approach. The multi-criteria approach includes parameters such as social, economic, environmental and pavement condition as the main criterion and some sub-criteria to find the best suitable parameters and their weight. For this purpose the expert’s opinion survey was carried out using Delphi Technique (DT) considering Likert scale, pairwise comparison and ranking methods and entire data was analyzed. Finally, this study developed the maintenance criterion considering the socio-economic, environmental and pavement condition parameters for effective maintenance of low volume roads based on the engineering judgment.

Keywords: Delphi technique, experts opinion survey, low volume rural road maintenance, multi criteria analysis

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Authors: Chutikarn Sriviboon, Witthaya Mekhum

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The purposes of this research were to analyze and evaluate successful factors in OTOP production process for the developing of learning center on OTOP production process based on Sufficiency Economic Philosophy for sustainable life quality. The research has been designed as a qualitative study to gather information from 30 OTOP producers in Bangkontee District, Samudsongkram Province. They were all interviewed on 3 main parts. Part 1 was about the production process including 1) production 2) product development 3) the community strength 4) marketing possibility and 5) product quality. Part 2 evaluated appropriate successful factors including 1) the analysis of the successful factors 2) evaluate the strategy based on Sufficiency Economic Philosophy and 3) the model of learning center on OTOP production process based on Sufficiency Economic Philosophy for sustainable life quality. The results showed that the production did not affect the environment with potential in continuing standard quality production. They used the raw materials in the country. On the aspect of product and community strength in the past 1 year, it was found that there was no appropriate packaging showing product identity according to global market standard. They needed the training on packaging especially for food and drink products. On the aspect of product quality and product specification, it was found that the products were certified by the local OTOP standard. There should be a responsible organization to help the uncertified producers pass the standard. However, there was a problem on food contamination which was hazardous to the consumers. The producers should cooperate with the government sector or educational institutes involving with food processing to reach FDA standard. The results from small group discussion showed that the community expected high education and better standard living. Some problems reported by the community included informal debt and drugs in the community. There were 8 steps in developing the model of learning center on OTOP production process based on Sufficiency Economic Philosophy for sustainable life quality.

Keywords: production process, OTOP, sufficiency economic philosophy, learning center

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Authors: Abubakar Bello Usman, Alhassan Muhammad Gani, Kolo Ibrahim

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The use of botanical raw materials to produce pharmaceuticals, herbal remedies, teas, spirits, cosmetics, sweets, dietary supplements, special industrial compounds and crude materials constitute an important global resource in terms of healthcare and economy. In Nigeria and other developing countries, the indigenous knowledge on the uses of plants lies with the older generation and the traditional healers. However, these custodians are decreasing in number due to death and other unforeseen occurrences. An Ethno-botanical survey was carried out to obtain information on the ethno medical values of wide range of plants used by the people of Gombe State, North-Eastern Nigeria, in the practice of healing and cure of typhoid (enteric) fever. Oral interviews were conducted so as to consider those with low literacy level who are involved in the practice of traditional medicine and thirty four (34) informants availed themselves for the interview and were consulted. All relevant information obtained from the respondents was recorded. A recent and valid nomenclature, along with local names, family names, part of the plant(s) used, methods of preparation and administration and fifty four (54) plant species belonging to 27 families as well as 7 unidentified species that are commonly used by the people of the state in ethnomedical treatment of the ailment were tabulated. Those interviewed included traditional practitioners, local herb sellers, traditional rulers, hunters, farmers and patients. Specific questions were asked and information supplied by informants was promptly documented. Results showed that the people of Gombe State are knowledgeable on herbal medicine in the treatment of diseases and ailments. Furthermore, the aqueous leaf extracts of Senna siamea, the plant species with the highest PPK (percentage of people who have knowledge about the use of a species for treating typhoid fever) in this ethnobotanical survey, was tested for its activity against clinical isolates of Salmonella typhi using the agar well diffusion method. The aqueous extracts showed some activity (zones of inhibition 11, 9, 7.5, 3.5, 1.3 mm) at 2000, 1800, 1600, 1400, 1200 µg/ml concentrations respectively. Preliminary phytochemical studies of the aqueous leaf extracts of the plant revealed the presence of secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids and cardiac glycosides. Though a large number of traditionally used plants for the treatment of enteric fever were identified, further scientific validation of the traditional claims of anti-typhoid properties is imperative. This would establish their candidature for any possible future research for active principles and the possible development of new cheaper and more effective anti-typhoid drugs, as well as in the conservation of this rich diversity of medicinal plants.

Keywords: antimicrobial activities, ethnobotany, gombe state, north-eastern Nigeria, phytochemical screening, senna siamea, typhoid fever

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Authors: S. Jabeen

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Though Pakistan has a rich cultural history and a diverse population; its global image is tarnished with labels of Muslim ‘fundamentalism’ and ‘extremism.’ Cultural policy is a tool that can be used by the government of Pakistan to ameliorate this image, but instead, this fundamentalist reputation is reinforced in the 2005 draft of Pakistan’s cultural policy. With its stern focus on a homogenized cultural identity, this 2005 draft bases itself largely on forced participation from the largely Muslim public and leaves little or no benefits to them or cultural minorities in Pakistan. The effects of this homogenized ‘Muslim’ identity linger ten years later where the study and celebration of the cultural heritage of Pakistan in schools and educational festivals focus entirely on creating and maintaining a singular ‘Islamic’ cultural identity. The current lack of inclusion has many adverse effects that include the breeding of extremist mindsets through the usurpation of minority rights and lack of safe cultural public spaces. This paper argues that Pakistan can improve social inclusivity and boost its global image through cultural policy. The paper sets the grounds for research by surveying the effectiveness of different cultural policies across nations with differing socioeconomic status. Then, by sampling two public literary festivals in Pakistan as case studies, the National Youth Peace Festival hosted with a nationalistic agenda using public funds and the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) that aims to boost the cultural literacy scene of Lahore using both private and public efforts, this paper looks at the success of the private, more inclusive LLF. A revision of cultural policy is suggested that combines public and private efforts to host cultural festivals for the sake of cultural celebration and human development, without a set nationalistic agenda. Consequently, this comparison which is grounded in the human capabilities approach, recommends revising the 2005 draft of the Cultural Policy to improve human capabilities in order to support cultural diversity and ultimately contribute to economic growth in Pakistan.

Keywords: cultural policy, festivals, human capabilities, Pakistan

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Authors: Narissa Lewis, Susan Geertshuis

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The global and national employability agenda is changing the higher education landscape as academic staff are faced with the responsibility of developing employability capabilities and attributes in addition to delivering discipline specific content and skills. They realise that the shift towards teaching sustainable capabilities means a shift in the way they teach. But what that shift should be or how they should bring it about is unclear. As part of a national funded project, representatives from several New Zealand (NZ) higher education institutions and the NZ Association of Graduate Employers partnered to discover, trial and disseminate means of embedding employability in the curriculum. Findings from four focus groups (n=~75) and individual interviews (n=20) with staff from several NZ higher education institutions identified factors that enable or hinder embedded employability development within their respective institutions. Participants believed that higher education institutions have a key role in developing graduates for successful lives and careers however this requires a significant shift in culture within their respective institutions. Participants cited three main barriers: lack of strategic direction, support and guidance; lack of understanding and awareness of employability; and lack of resourcing and staff capability. Without adequate understanding and awareness of employability, participants believed it is difficult to understand what employability is let alone how it can be embedded in the curriculum. This presentation will describe some of the impacts that the employability agenda has on staff as they try to move from traditional to contemporary forms of teaching to develop employability attributes of students. Changes at the institutional level are required to support contemporary forms of teaching, however this is often beyond the sphere of influence at the teaching staff level. The study identified that small changes to teaching practices were necessary and a simple model to facilitate change from traditional to contemporary forms of teaching was developed. The model provides a framework to identify small but impactful teaching practices and exemplar teaching practices were identified. These practices were evaluated for transferability into other contexts to encourage small but impactful changes to embed employability in the curriculum.

Keywords: curriculum design, change management, employability, teaching exemplars

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Authors: Etibar Guliyev

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The breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991 has led to a considerable rise in the religious self-consciousness of Muslim population of the Central Asia. Additionally, huge amount of money spent by various states further facilitated the spread of religious ideas. According to some sources, Saudi Arabia spent 87 billion dollars to propagate Wahhabism abroad during two decades, whereas the Communist Party of the Soviet Union spent just over 7 billion dollars to spread its ideology worldwide between 1921 and 1991. As the result, today once a remote area from international politics has turned into third major source of recruitment of fighters for global terrorist organizations. In order to illustrate to scope of the involvement of the Central Asian residents in international terrorist networks it is enough to mention the name of Colonel Gulmorod Khalimov, the former head of the Tajik special police forces who served as ISIS war minister between 2016 and 2017. The importance of the topic stems from the fact that the above-mentioned republics with a territory of 4 million square km and the population of around 80 million people borders Russia, Iran Afghanistan and China. Moreover, the fact that political and military activities motivated with religious feelings in those countries have implications not only for domestic but also for regional and global political relations and all of them has root in politics of religions adds value to the research. This research aims to provide an in-depth analyses of the marked features of the state policies to regulate religious activities and approach this question both from individual, domestic, regional and global levels of analyses. The research will enable us to better understand what implications have the state of religious freedom in post-Soviet Muslim republics for international relations and the rise of global jihadi terrorism. The paper tries to find a linkage between the mentioned terror attacks and underground rise of religious extremism in Central Asia. This research is based on multiple research methods, mainly on qualitative one. The process tracing method is also employed to review religious policies implemented from 1918-1991 and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in a chronological way. In terms of the quantitative method, it chiefly will be used in a bid to process various statistics disseminated in academic and official sources. The research mostly explored constructivist, securitization and social movement theories. Findings of the research suggests that the endemic problems peculiar to authoritarian regimes of Central Asia such as crackdown on the expression of religious believe and any kind of opposition, economic decline, instrumental use of religion and corruption and tribalism further accelerated the recruitment problem. Paper also concludes that the Central Asian states in some cases misused counter-terrorism campaign as a pretext to further restrict freedom of faith in their respective countries.

Keywords: identity, political Islam, religious extremism, security, terrorism

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Authors: Rossukhon Makaramani, Supanan Sittilerd, Wipada Prasarnsaph

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The study aimed to 1) examine management status of a Program in Education at the Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU); 2) determine main components, indicators and criteria for constructing quality assessment framework; 3) assess quality of a SSRU Program in Education; and 4) provide recommendations to promote academic excellence. The program to be assessed was Bachelor of Education Program in Education (5 years), Revised Version 2009. Population and samples were stakeholders involving implementation of this program during an academic year 2012. Results were: 1) Management status of the Program in Education showed that the Faculty of Education depicted good level (4.20) in the third cycle of external quality assessment by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA). There were 1,192 students enrolling in the program, divided into 5 major fields of study. There were 50 faculty members, 37 holding master’s degrees and 13 holding doctorate degrees. Their academic position consisted of 35 lecturers, 10 assistant professors, and 5 associate professors. For program management, there was a committee of 5 members for the program and also a committee of 4 or 5 members for each major field of study. Among the faculty members, 41 persons taught in this program. The ratio between faculty and student was 1:26. The result of 2013 internal quality assessment indicated that system and mechanism of the program development and management was at fair level. However, the overall result yielded good level either by criteria of the Office of Higher Education Commission (4.29) or the NESQA (4.37); 2) Framework for assessing the quality of the program consisted of 4 dimensions and 15 indicators; 3) Assessment of the program yielded Good level of quality (4.04); 4) Recommendations to promote academic excellence included management and development of the program focusing on teacher reform toward highly recognized profession; cultivation of values, moral, ethics, and spirits of being a teacher; construction of specialized programs; development of faculty potentials; enhancement of the demonstration school’s readiness level; and provision of dormitories for learning.

Keywords: quality assessment, education program, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, academic excellence

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Authors: Marcin Dębowski, Marcin Zieliński, Mirosław Krzemieniewski

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As methane fermentation is a complex series of successive biochemical transformations, its subsequent stages are determined, to a various extent, by physical and chemical factors. A specific state of equilibrium is being settled in the functioning fermentation system between environmental conditions and the rate of biochemical reactions and products of successive transformations. In the case of physical factors that influence the effectiveness of methane fermentation transformations, the key significance is ascribed to temperature and intensity of biomass agitation. Among the chemical factors, significant are pH value, type, and availability of the culture medium (to put it simply: the C/N ratio) as well as the presence of toxic substances. One of the important elements which influence the effectiveness of methane fermentation is the pre-treatment of organic substrates and the mode in which the organic matter is made available to anaerobes. Out of all known and described methods for organic substrate pre-treatment before methane fermentation process, the ultrasound disintegration is one of the most interesting technologies. Investigations undertaken on the ultrasound field and the use of installations operating on the existing systems result principally from very wide and universal technological possibilities offered by the sonication process. This physical factor may induce deep physicochemical changes in ultrasonicated substrates that are highly beneficial from the viewpoint of methane fermentation processes. In this case, special role is ascribed to disintegration of biomass that is further subjected to methane fermentation. Once cell walls are damaged, cytoplasm and cellular enzymes are released. The released substances – either in dissolved or colloidal form – are immediately available to anaerobic bacteria for biodegradation. To ensure the maximal release of organic matter from dead biomass cells, disintegration processes are aimed to achieve particle size below 50 μm. It has been demonstrated in many research works and in systems operating in the technical scale that immediately after substrate supersonication the content of organic matter (characterized by COD, BOD5 and TOC indices) was increasing in the dissolved phase of sedimentation water. This phenomenon points to the immediate sonolysis of solid substances contained in the biomass and to the release of cell material, and consequently to the intensification of the hydrolytic phase of fermentation. It results in a significant reduction of fermentation time and increased effectiveness of production of gaseous metabolites of anaerobic bacteria. Because disintegration of Virginia fanpetals biomass via ultrasounds applied in order to intensify its conversion is a novel technique, it is often underestimated by exploiters of agri-biogas works. It has, however, many advantages that have a direct impact on its technological and economical superiority over thus far applied methods of biomass conversion. As for now, ultrasound disintegrators for biomass conversion are not produced on the mass-scale, but by specialized groups in scientific or R&D centers. Therefore, their quality and effectiveness are to a large extent determined by their manufacturers’ knowledge and skills in the fields of acoustics and electronic engineering.

Keywords: ultrasound disintegration, biomass, methane fermentation, biogas, Virginia fanpetals

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Authors: Hang T. T. Truong, Ronald S. Laura, Kylie Shaw

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Within Vietnam's system of higher education, its schools of business play a vital role in supporting the country’s economic objectives. However, the crucial contribution of soft skills for maximal success within the business sector has to date not been adequately recognized by its business schools. This being so, the development of the business school curriculum in Vietnam has not been able to 'catch up', so to say, with the burgeoning need of students for a comprehensive soft skills program designed to meet the national and global business objectives of their potential employers. The burden of the present paper is first to reveal the results of our survey in Vietnam which make explicit the extent to which major Vietnamese industrial employers’ value the potential role that soft skill competencies can play in maximizing business success. Our final task will be to determine which soft skills employers discern as best serving to maximize the economic interests of Vietnam within the global marketplace. Semi-structured telephone interviews have been conducted with the 15 representative Head Employers of Vietnam's reputedly largest and most successful of the diverse business enterprises across Vietnam. The findings of the study indicate that all respondents highly value the increasing importance of soft skills in business success. Our critical analysis of respondent data reveals that 19 essential soft skills are deemed by employers as integral to business workplace efficacy and should thus be integrated into the formal business curriculum. We are confident that our study represents the first comprehensive and specific survey yet undertaken within the business sector in Vietnam which accesses and analyses the opinions of representative employers from major companies across the country in regard to the growing importance of 19 specific soft skills essential for maximizing overall business success. Our research findings also reveal that the integration into business school curriculums nationwide of the soft skills we have identified is of paramount importance to advance the national and global economic interests of Vietnam.

Keywords: business curriculum, business graduates, employers’ perception, soft skills

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Authors: Antonio M. Oliveira, Patricia Oliveira-Silva, Jose Matias Alves, Gary McPherson

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The music teaching is oriented towards offering formal music training. Due to its specificities, this vocational program starts at a very young age. Although provided by the State, the offer is limited to 6 schools throughout the country, which means that the vacancies for prospective students are very limited every year. It is therefore crucial that these vacancies be taken by especially motivated children grown within households that offer the ideal setting for success. Some of the instruments used to evaluate musical performance are highly sensitive to specific previous training, what represents a severe validity problem for testing children who have had restricted opportunities for formal training. Moreover, these practices may be unfair because, for instance, they may not reflect the candidates’ music aptitudes. Based on what constitutes a prerequisite for making an excellent music student, researchers in this field have long argued that motivation, task commitment, and parents’ support are as important as ability. Thus, the aim of this study is: (1) to prepare an inventory of admission requirements in Australia, Portugal and Ireland; (2) to examine whether the candidates to music conservatories and parents’ level of motivation, assessed at three evaluation points (i.e., admission, at the end of the first year, and at the end of the second year), correlates positively with the candidates’ progress in learning a musical instrument (i.e., whether motivation at the admission may predict student musicianship); (3) an adaptation of an existing instrument to assess the motivation (i.e., to adapt the items to the music setting, focusing on the motivation for playing a musical instrument). The inclusion criteria are: only children registered in the administrative services to be evaluated for entrance to the conservatory will be accepted for this study. The expected number of participants is fifty (5-6 years old) in all the three frequency schemes: integrated, articulated and supplementary. Revisiting musical admission procedures is of particular importance and relevance to musical education because this debate may bring guidance and assistance about the needed improvement to make the process of admission fairer and more transparent.

Keywords: music learning, music admission requirements, student’s motivation, parent’s motivation

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Authors: Dalila Lino, Maria Joao Hortas, Carla Rocha, Clarisse Nunes, Natalia Vieira, Marina Fuertes, Kátia Sa

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The value of play is recognized worldwide and is considered a fundamental right of all children, as defined in Article 31 of the United Nations Children’s Rights. It is consensual among the scientific community that play, and toys are of vital importance for children’s learning and development. Play promotes the acquisition of language, enhances creativity and improves social, affective, emotional, cognitive and motor development of young children. Young children ages 0 to 6 who have had many opportunities to get involved in play show greater competence to adapt to new and unexpected situations and more easily overcome the pain and suffering caused by traumatic situations. The PlayTrain Project aims to understand the places/spaces of play in the education of children from 0 to 6 years and promoting the training of preschool teachers to become capable of developing practices that enhance children’s agency, experimentation in the physical and social world and the development of imagination and creativity. This project follows the Design-Based-Research (DBR) and has two dimensions: research and intervention. The participants are 120 students from the Master in Pre-school Education of the Higher School of Education, Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon enrolled in the academic year 2018/2019. The development of workshops focused on the role of play and toys for young children’s learning promotes the participants reflection and the development of skills and knowledge to construct developmentally appropriated practices in early childhood education. Data was collected through an online questionnaire and focal groups. Results show that the PlayTrain Project contribute to the development of a body of knowledge about the role of play for early childhood education. It was possible to identify the needs of preschool teacher education and to enhance the discussion among the scientific and academic community about the importance of deepening the role of play and toys in the study plans of the masters in pre-school education.

Keywords: children's learning, early childhood education, play, teacher education, toys

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Authors: Helge Rupprich, Elke Knisel

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In a time of mediazation and reduced physical movement, it is important to change passivity (akinesa) into physical activity to improve health. The approach is to encourage children, junior athletes, recreational athletes, and semi-professional athletes to do sports while attending a top sport event. The concept has the slogan: get out off your seat and move! A top sport event of a series of professional beach volleyball tournaments with 330.000 life viewers, 13,70 million cumulative reach viewers and 215,13 million advertising contacts is used as framework for different sports didactic approaches, social integrative approaches and migration valuations. An important aim is to use the big radiant power of the top sport event to extract active participants from the viewers of the top sport event. Even if it is the goal to improve physical activity, it is necessary to differentiate between the didactic approaches. The first approach contains psycho motoric exercises with children (N=158) between two and five years which was used in the project ‘largest sandbox of the city’. The second approach is social integration and promotion of activity of students (N=54) in the form of a student beach volleyball tournament. The third approach is activity in companies. It is based on the idea of health motivation of employees (N=62) in a big beach volleyball tournament. Fourth approach is to improve the sports leisure time activities of recreational athletes (N=292) in different beach volleyball tournaments. Fifthly approach is to build a foreign friendly measure which is implemented in junior athlete training with the French and German junior national team (N=16). Sixthly approach is to give semi professional athletes a tournament to develop their relation to active life. Seventh approach is social integration for disadvantaged people (N=123) in form of training with professional athletes. The top sport beach volleyball tournament had 80 athletes (N=80) and 34.000 viewers. In sum 785 athletes (N=785) did sports in 13 days. Over 34.000 viewers where counted in the first three days of top sport event. The project was evaluated positively by the City of Dresden, Politics of Saxony and the participants and will be continued in Dresden and expanded for the season 2015 in Jena.

Keywords: beach volleyball, event, sports didactic, sports project

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Authors: J. Shamash

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The high-school curriculum in algebra deals mainly with the solution of different types of equations. However, modern algebra has a completely different viewpoint and is concerned with algebraic structures and operations. A question then arises: What might be the relevance and contribution of an abstract algebra course for developing expertise and mathematical perspective in secondary school mathematics instruction? This is the focus of this paper. The course Algebra: From Equations to Structures is a carefully designed abstract algebra course for Israeli secondary school mathematics teachers. The course provides an introduction to algebraic structures and modern abstract algebra, and links abstract algebra to the high-school curriculum in algebra. It follows the historical attempts of mathematicians to solve polynomial equations of higher degrees, attempts which resulted in the development of group theory and field theory by Galois and Abel. In other words, algebraic structures grew out of a need to solve certain problems, and proved to be a much more fruitful way of viewing them. This theorems in both group theory and field theory. Along the historical ‘journey’, many other major results in algebra in the past 150 years are introduced, and recent directions that current research in algebra is taking are highlighted. This course is part of a unique master’s program – the Rothschild-Weizmann Program – offered by the Weizmann Institute of Science, especially designed for practicing Israeli secondary school teachers. A major component of the program comprises mathematical studies tailored for the students at the program. The rationale and structure of the course Algebra: From Equations to Structures are described, and its relevance to teaching school algebra is examined by analyzing three kinds of data sources. The first are position papers written by the participating teachers regarding the relevance of advanced mathematics studies to expertise in classroom instruction. The second data source are didactic materials designed by the participating teachers in which they connected the mathematics learned in the mathematics courses to the school curriculum and teaching. The third date source are final projects carried out by the teachers based on material learned in the course.

Keywords: abstract algebra , linking abstract algebra and school mathematics, school algebra, secondary school mathematics, teacher professional development

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Authors: Sabrina Neururer, Marco Schweitzer, Werner Hackl, Bernhard Tilg, Patrick Raudaschl, Andreas Huber, Bernhard Pfeifer

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History and the current outbreak of Covid-19 have shown the deadly potential of infectious diseases. However, infectious diseases also have a serious impact on areas other than health and healthcare, such as the economy or social life. These areas are strongly codependent. Therefore, disease control measures, such as social distancing, quarantines, curfews, or lockdowns, have to be adopted in a very considerate manner. Infectious disease modeling can support policy and decision-makers with adequate information regarding the dynamics of the pandemic and therefore assist in planning and enforcing appropriate measures that will prevent the healthcare system from collapsing. In this work, an agent-based simulation package named “survival” for simulating infectious diseases is presented. A special focus is put on SARS-Cov-2. The presented simulation package was used in Austria to model the SARS-Cov-2 outbreak from the beginning of 2020. Agent-based modeling is a relatively recent modeling approach. Since our world is getting more and more complex, the complexity of the underlying systems is also increasing. The development of tools and frameworks and increasing computational power advance the application of agent-based models. For parametrizing the presented model, different data sources, such as known infections, wastewater virus load, blood donor antibodies, circulating virus variants and the used capacity for hospitalization, as well as the availability of medical materials like ventilators, were integrated with a database system and used. The simulation result of the model was used for predicting the dynamics and the possible outcomes and was used by the health authorities to decide on the measures to be taken in order to control the pandemic situation. The survival package was implemented in the programming language Java and the analytics were performed with R Studio. During the first run in March 2020, the simulation showed that without measures other than individual personal behavior and appropriate medication, the death toll would have been about 27 million people worldwide within the first year. The model predicted the hospitalization rates (standard and intensive care) for Tyrol and South Tyrol with an accuracy of about 1.5% average error. They were calculated to provide 10-days forecasts. The state government and the hospitals were provided with the 10-days models to support their decision-making. This ensured that standard care was maintained for as long as possible without restrictions. Furthermore, various measures were estimated and thereafter enforced. Among other things, communities were quarantined based on the calculations while, in accordance with the calculations, the curfews for the entire population were reduced. With this framework, which is used in the national crisis team of the Austrian province of Tyrol, a very accurate model could be created on the federal state level as well as on the district and municipal level, which was able to provide decision-makers with a solid information basis. This framework can be transferred to various infectious diseases and thus can be used as a basis for future monitoring.

Keywords: modelling, simulation, agent-based, SARS-Cov-2, COVID-19

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Authors: Peter Akayuure

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One key determinant of the quality of mathematics learning is the teacher’s ability to assess students adequately and effectively and make assessment an integral part of the instructional practices. If the mathematics teacher lacks the required literacy to perform classroom assessment roles, the true trajectory of learning success and attainment of curriculum expectations might be indeterminate. It is therefore important that educators and policymakers understand and seek ways to improve the literacy level of mathematics teachers to implement classroom assessments that would meet curriculum demands. This study employed a descriptive survey design to explore perceived levels of assessment literacy of mathematics teachers to implement classroom assessment with the school based assessment framework in Ghana. A 25-item classroom assessment inventory on teachers’ assessment scenarios was adopted, modified, and administered to a purposive sample of 48 mathematics teachers from eleven Senior High Schools. Seven other items were included to further collect data on their self-efficacy towards assessment literacy. Data were analyzed using descriptive and bivariate correlation statistics. The result shows that, on average, 48.6% of the mathematics teachers attained standard levels of assessment literacy. Specifically, 50.0% met standard one in choosing appropriate assessment methods, 68.3% reached standard two in developing appropriate assessment tasks, 36.6% reached standard three in administering, scoring, and interpreting assessment results, 58.3% reached standard four in making appropriate assessment decisions, 41.7% reached standard five in developing valid grading procedures, 45.8% reached standard six in communicating assessment results, and 36.2 % reached standard seven by identifying unethical, illegal and inappropriate use of assessment results. Participants rated their self-efficacy belief in performing assessments high, making the relationships between participants’ assessment literacy scores and self-efficacy scores weak and statistically insignificant. The study recommends that institutions training mathematics teachers or providing professional developments should accentuate assessment literacy development to ensure standard assessment practices and quality instruction in mathematics education at senior high schools.

Keywords: assessment literacy, mathematics teacher, senior high schools, Ghana

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Authors: Xuan Li

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The English language occupies a crucial position in the Chinese educational system and is officially introduced in the school curriculum from the third year of primary school onward. However, it is worth noting that along with the movement to remove primary-oriented education from preschools, the teaching of English is banned in preschools. Considering the worldwide trend of learning English at a young age, whether this ban can be implemented successfully is doubtful. With an initial focus on the interaction of language-in-education planning and policy (LEPP) at the macro level and actual practice at the micro level, this research selected three private preschools and two public preschools to explore what is taking place in terms of English education. All data collected is qualitative and is gained from documentary analysis, school observation, interviews, and focus groups. The findings show that: (1) although the English ban in preschool education aims to regulate all types of preschools and all adult Chinese participants are aware of this ban, there are very different scenarios according to type of preschool, such that no English classes are found in public schools while private preschools commonly provide some kind of English education; (2) even public schools do not have an English-free environment and parents’ demand for English education is high; (3) there is an obvious top-down hierarchy in both public and private schools, in which administrators make the decisions while others have little power to influence the school curriculum; (4) there is a clear gap in the perception of English teaching between children and adults, in which adults prefer foreign English teachers and think English teaching is just playing, while children do not have a clear preference regarding teachers and do not think English class is just for fun; (5) without macro support, there are many challenges involved in preschool English education, including the shortage of qualified teachers and teaching resources, ineffective personnel management and few opportunities for speaking English in daily life. Hopefully, this research will not only highlight the interaction of LEPP at different levels and the importance of individual agency but also raise the awareness of how to provide qualified and equal education for all children.

Keywords: individual agency, language-in-education planning and policy, micro context, preschool English education

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Authors: Dativa Maria Aliddeki, Fred Monje, Godfrey Nsereko, Benon Kwesiga, Daniel Kadobera, Alex Riolexus Ario

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Background: Cholera is a severe gastrointestinal disease caused by Vibrio cholera. It has caused several pandemics. On 26 February 2018, a suspected cholera outbreak, with one death, occurred in School X in Hoima Municipality, western Uganda. We investigated to identify the scope and mode of transmission of the outbreak, and recommend evidence-based control measures. Methods: We defined a suspected case as onset of diarrhea, vomiting, or abdominal pain in a student or staff of School X or their family members during 14 February–10 March. A confirmed case was a suspected case with V. cholerae cultured from stool. We reviewed medical records at Hoima Hospital and searched for cases at School X. We conducted descriptive epidemiologic analysis and hypothesis-generating interviews of 15 case-patients. In a retrospective cohort study, we compared attack rates between exposed and unexposed persons. Results: We identified 15 cases among 75 students and staff of School X and their family members (attack rate=20%), with onset from 25-28 February. One patient died (case-fatality rate=6.6%). The epidemic curve indicated a point-source exposure. On 24 February, a student brought fried fish from her home in a fishing village, where a cholera outbreak was ongoing. Of the 21 persons who ate the fish, 57% developed cholera, compared with 5.6% of 54 persons who did not eat (RR=10; 95% CI=3.2-33). None of 4 persons who recooked the fish before eating, compared with 71% of 17 who did not recook it, developed cholera (RR=0.0, 95%CIFisher exact=0.0-0.95). Of 12 stool specimens cultured, 6 yielded V. cholerae. Conclusion: This cholera outbreak was caused by eating fried fish, which might have been contaminated with V. cholerae in a village with an ongoing outbreak. Lack of thorough cooking of the fish might have facilitated the outbreak. We recommended thoroughly cooking fish before consumption.

Keywords: cholera, disease outbreak, foodborne, global health security, Uganda

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Authors: Anthony F. Peressini

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The concept of race has recently come prominently back into discussion in the context of medicine and medical science, along with renewed effort to biologize racial concepts. This paper argues that this renewed effort to biologize race by way of medicine and population genetics fail on their own terms, and more importantly, that the philosophical project of biologizing race ought to be recognized for what it is—a retrograde racial project—and abandoned. There is clear agreement that standard racial categories and concepts cannot be grounded in the old way of racial naturalism, which understand race as a real, interest-independent biological/metaphysical category in which its members share “physical, moral, intellectual, and cultural characteristics.” But equally clear is the very real and pervasive presence of racial concepts in individual and collective consciousness and behavior, and so it remains a pressing area in which to seek deeper understanding. Recent philosophical work has endeavored to reconcile these two observations by developing a “thin” conception of race, grounded in scientific concepts but without the moral and metaphysical content. Such “thin,” science-based analyses take the “commonsense” or “folk” sense of race as it functions in contemporary society as the starting point for their philosophic-scientific projects to biologize racial concepts. A “philosophic-scientific analysis” is a special case of the cornerstone of analytic philosophy: a conceptual analysis. That is, a rendering of a concept into the more perspicuous concepts that constitute it. Thus a philosophic-scientific account of a concept is an attempt to work out an analysis of a concept that makes use of empirical science's insights to ground, legitimate and explicate the target concept in terms of clearer concepts informed by empirical results. The focus in this paper is on three recent philosophic-scientific cases for retaining “race” that all share this general analytic schema, but that make use of “medical necessity,” population genetics, and human genetic clustering, respectively. After arguing that each of these three approaches suffers from internal difficulties, the paper considers the general analytic schema employed by such biologizations of race. While such endeavors are inevitably prefaced with the disclaimer that the theory to follow is non-essentialist and non-racialist, the case will be made that such efforts are not neutral scientific or philosophical projects but rather are what sociologists call a racial project, that is, one of many competing efforts that conjoin a representation of what race means to specific efforts to determine social and institutional arrangements of power, resources, authority, etc. Accordingly, philosophic-scientific biologizations of race, since they begin from and condition their analyses on “folk” conceptions, cannot pretend to be “prior to” other disciplinary insights, nor to transcend the social-political dynamics involved in formulating theories of race. As a result, such traditional philosophical efforts can be seen to be disciplinarily parochial and to address only a caricature of a large and important human problem—and thereby further contributing to the unfortunate isolation of philosophical thinking about race from other disciplines.

Keywords: population genetics, ontology of race, race-based medicine, racial formation theory, racial projects, racism, social construction

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Authors: Guillaume P. Fernandez

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Individual language use is a matter of choice in particular interactions. The paper proposes a conceptual and theoretical framework with methodological consideration to develop how language produced in dyadic relations is to be considered and situated in the larger social configuration the interaction is embedded within. An integrated and comprehensive view is taken: social interactions are expected to be ruled by a normative context, defined by the chain of interdependences that structures the personal network. In this approach, the determinants of discursive practices are not only constrained by the moment of production and isolated from broader influences. Instead, the position the individual and the dyad have in the personal network influences the discursive practices in a twofold manner: on the one hand, the network limits the access to linguistic resources available within it, and, on the other hand, the structure of the network influences the agency of the individual, by the social control inherent to particular network characteristics. Concretely, we investigate how and to what extent consistent ego is from one interaction to another in his or her use of adverbs. To do so, social network analysis (SNA) methods are mobilized. Participants (N=130) are college students recruited in the french speaking part of Switzerland. The personal network of significant ones of each individual is created using name generators and edge interpreters, with a focus on social support and conflict. For the linguistic parts, respondents were asked to record themselves with five of their close relations. From the recordings, we computed an average similarity score based on the adverb used across interactions. In terms of analyses, two are envisaged: First, OLS regressions including network-level measures, such as density and reciprocity, and individual-level measures, such as centralities, are performed to understand the tenets of linguistic similarity from one interaction to another. The second analysis considers each social tie as nested within ego networks. Multilevel models are performed to investigate how the different types of ties may influence the likelihood to use adverbs, by controlling structural properties of the personal network. Primary results suggest that the more cohesive the network, the less likely is the individual to change his or her manner of speaking, and social support increases the use of adverbs in interactions. While promising results emerge, further research should consider a longitudinal approach to able the claim of causality.

Keywords: personal network, adverbs, interactions, social influence

Procedia PDF Downloads 37

Authors: Nji Clement Bang, Rosemary Shafack M., Kum Henry Asei, Yaro Loveline Y

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Scholars perceive learner-centered teaching-learning reform as roles and resources in teacher education (TE) and professional outcome with transformative learning (TL) continuum dimensions. But, teaching-learning reform is fast proliferating amidst debilitating stakeholder systemic dichotomies, resources, commitment, resistance and poor quality outcome that necessitate stronger TE and professional continuums. Scholars keep seeking greater understanding of themes in teaching-learning reform, TE and professional outcome as continuums and how policymakers, student-teachers, teacher trainers and local communities concerned with initial TE can promote continuous holistic quality performance. To sustain the debate continuum and answer the overarching question, we use mixed-methods research-design with diverse literature and 409 sample-data. Onset text, interview and questionnaire analyses reveal debilitating teaching-learning reform in TE continuums that need TL revival. Follow-up focus group discussion and teaching considering TL insights reinforce holistic teaching-learning in TE. Therefore, significant increase in diverse prior-experience articulation1; critical reflection-discourse engagement2; teaching-practice interaction3; complex-activity constrain control4 and formative outcome- reintegration5 reinforce teaching-learning in learning-to-teach role-resource pathways and outcomes. Themes reiterate complex teaching-learning in TE programs that suits TL journeys and student-teachers and students cum teachers, workers/citizens become akin, transformative-learners who evolve personal and collective roles-resources towards holistic-lifelong-learning outcomes. The article could assist debate about quality teaching-learning reform through TL dimensions as TE and professional role-resource continuums.

Keywords: transformative learning perspectives, teacher education, initial teacher education, learner-centered pedagogical reform, life-long learning

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Authors: Maren J. Coffman, Victoria C. Scott, J. Claire Schuch, Ashley N. Kelley, Jeri L. Ryan

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Postpartum Depression (PPD) is a leading cause of postpartum morbidity. PPD affects 7.1% of postpartum women and 19.2% of postpartum women when including minor depression. Lower-income women and ethnic minorities are more at risk for developing PPD and face multiple attitudinal and institutional barriers to receiving care. This study aims to identify PPD among low-income women and connect them to appropriate services in order to reduce the illness burden and enhance access to care. Screenings were conducted in two Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, from April 2017 to April 2018. WIC is a supplemental nutrition program that provides healthcare and nutrition to low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and children under the age of 5. Additionally, a qualitative study was conducted to better understand the PPD continuum of care in order to identify opportunities for improvement. Mothers with infants were screened for depression risk using the PHQ-2. Mothers who scored ≥ 2 completed two additional standardized screening tools (PHQ-7, to complete the PHQ-9, and the Edinburgh) to assess depressive symptomatology. If indicated they may be suffering from depression, women were referred for case management services. Open-ended questions were used to understand treatment barriers. Four weeks after the initial survey, a follow-up telephone call was made to see if women had received care. Seven focus groups with WIC staff and managers, referral agency staff, local behavioral health professionals, and students examining the screenings, are being conducted March - April, 2018 to gather information related to current screening practices, referrals, follow up and treatment. Mothers (n = 231 as of February, 2018) were screened in English (65%) or Spanish (35%). According to preliminary results, 29% of mothers screened were at risk for postpartum depression (PHQ-2 ≥ 2). There were significant differences in preliminary screening results based on survey language (

Keywords: health disparities, maternal health, mental health, postpartum depression

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Authors: Al. Tsertsvadze. L. Ebralidze, I. Matchutadze. D. Berashvili, A. Bakuridze

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Peatlands are landscape elements, they are formed over a very long period by physical, chemical, biologic, and geologic processes. In the moderate zone of Caucasus, the Kolkheti lowlands are distinguished by the diversity of relictual plants, a high degree of endemism, orographic, climate, landscape, and other characteristics of high levels of biodiversity. The unique properties of the Kolkheti region lead to the formation of special, so-called, endemic peat peloids. The composition and properties of peloids strongly depend on peat-forming plants. Peat is considered a unique complex of raw materials, which can be used in different fields of the industry: agriculture, metallurgy, energy, biotechnology, chemical industry, health care. They are formed in permanent wetland areas. As a result of decay, higher plants remain in the anaerobic area, with the participation of microorganisms. Peat mass absorbs soil and groundwater. Peloids are predominantly rich with humic substances, which are characterized by high biological activity. Humic acids stimulate enzymatic activity, regenerative processes, and have anti-inflammatory activity. Objects of the research were Kolkheti peat peloids (Ispani, Anaklia, Churia, Chirukhi, Peranga) possessing different formation phases. Due to specific physical and chemical properties of research objects, the aim of the research was to develop analytical methods in order to study the chemical composition of the objects. The research was held using modern instrumental methods of analysis: Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and Infrared spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Centrifuge, dry oven, Ultraturax, pH meter, fluorescence spectrometer, Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), Gas chromatography. Based on the research ration between organic and inorganic substances, the spectrum of micro and macro elements, also the content of minerals was determined. The content of organic nitrogen was determined using the Kjeldahl method. The total composition of amino acids was studied by a spectrophotometric method using standard solutions of glutamic and aspartic acids. Fatty acid was determined using GC (Gas chromatography). Based on the obtained results, we can conclude that the method is valid to identify fatty acids in the research objects. The content of organic substances in the research objects was held using GC-MS. Using modern instrumental methods of analysis, the chemical composition of research objects was studied. Each research object is predominantly reached with a broad spectrum of organic (fatty acids, amino acids, carbocyclic and heterocyclic compounds, organic acids and their esters, steroids) and inorganic (micro and macro elements, minerals) substances. Modified methods used in the presented research may be utilized for the evaluation of cosmetological balneological and pharmaceutical means prepared on the base of Kolkheti's Sphagnum Peat Peloids.

Keywords: modern analytical methods, natural resources, peat, chemistry

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Authors: Napasri Suwanajote

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The purposes of this research were to analyse and evaluate successful factors in OTOP production process for the developing of learning centre on OTOP production process based on Sufficiency Economic Philosophy for sustainable life quality. The research has been designed as a qualitative study to gather information from 30 OTOP producers in Bangkontee District, Samudsongkram Province. They were all interviewed on 3 main parts. Part 1 was about the production process including 1) production 2) product development 3) the community strength 4) marketing possibility and 5) product quality. Part 2 evaluated appropriate successful factors including 1) the analysis of the successful factors 2) evaluate the strategy based on Sufficiency Economic Philosophy and 3) the model of learning centre on OTOP production process based on Sufficiency Economic Philosophy for sustainable life quality. The results showed that the production did not affect the environment with potential in continuing standard quality production. They used the raw materials in the country. On the aspect of product and community strength in the past 1 year, it was found that there was no appropriate packaging showing product identity according to global market standard. They needed the training on packaging especially for food and drink products. On the aspect of product quality and product specification, it was found that the products were certified by the local OTOP standard. There should be a responsible organization to help the uncertified producers pass the standard. However, there was a problem on food contamination which was hazardous to the consumers. The producers should cooperate with the government sector or educational institutes involving with food processing to reach FDA standard. The results from small group discussion showed that the community expected high education and better standard living. Some problems reported by the community included informal debt and drugs in the community. There were 8 steps in developing the model of learning centre on OTOP production process based on Sufficiency Economic Philosophy for sustainable life quality.

Keywords: production process, OTOP, sufficiency economic philosophy, marketing management

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Authors: Tai Mei Kin, Omar Abdull Kareem

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In light of globalization, educational reform has become a top priority for many countries. However, the task of leading change effectively requires a multidimensional set of competencies. Over the past two decades, technical competencies of principal change leadership have been extensively analysed and discussed. Comparatively, little research has been conducted in Malaysian education context on non-technical competencies or popularly known as emotional intelligence, which is equally crucial for the success of change. This article provides a validation of the Principal Change Leadership Non-Technical Competencies (PCLnTC) Scale, a tool that practitioners can easily use to assess school principals’ level of change leadership non-technical competencies that facilitate change and maximize change effectiveness. The overall coherence of the PCLnTC model was constructed by incorporating three theories: a)the change leadership theory whereby leading change is the fundamental role of a leader; b)competency theory in which leadership can be taught and learned; and c)the concept of emotional intelligence whereby it can be developed, fostered and taught. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to determine the underlying factor structure of PCLnTC model. Before conducting EFA, five important pilot test approaches were conducted to ensure the validity and reliability of the instrument: a)reviewed by academic colleagues; b)verification and comments from panel; c)evaluation on questionnaire format, syntax, design, and completion time; d)evaluation of item clarity; and e)assessment of internal consistency reliability. A total of 335 teachers from 12 High Performing Secondary School in Malaysia completed the survey. The PCLnTCS with six points Liker-type scale were subjected to Principal Components Analysis. The analysis yielded a three-factor solution namely, a)Interpersonal Sensitivity; b)Flexibility; and c)Motivation, explaining a total 74.326 per cent of the variance. Based on the results, implications for instrument revisions are discussed and specifications for future confirmatory factor analysis are delineated.

Keywords: exploratory factor analysis, principal change leadership non-technical competencies (PCLnTC), interpersonal sensitivity, flexibility, motivation

Procedia PDF Downloads 403