Search results for: forest ecosystem services

Authors: Beatrice Adeoye

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Studies have associated social and demographic characteristics as strong determinants of utilization of health care services; however, not much has been done to explore the dynamics of these variables in Nigeria. This empirical study explores the link between demographic factors and the future use of health care services in Nsukka, southeast Nigeria. A total of 543 respondents were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. The findings of the study showed that majority (56.9%) of the respondents were female while 43.1% were male. More of the respondents were married (50.3%) while 41.80/0 of the respondents were between ages 26-35. Testing the demographic characteristics regarding where people will prefer to go first for treatment with multiple regression, It is only Sex as a demographic variable that indicates positive association for future occurrence to where people will prefer to go first for treatment with 0.08 significance. Age and education indicates no association considering their level of significance. This result shows that sex is one of the determinant factors of where and when people will go for treatment. This is pointing out the realities regarding African society where in the family setting, it is the father that dictates the cause of action. Also to buttress these findings, cross tabulating age with who determines where and when to go for treatment, findings show that majority (58.9%) within age 26-35 said their spouses decide on where and when to go for treatment. Findings showed that patriarchy still plays an important role in the utilization of health care delivery among the people studied.

Keywords: Demographic characters, Determinant, Health Care, treatment, self-medication, symptom,

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Authors: Nasim Hashemi, Abbas Sheikhtaheri

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Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies to provide health care services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities to people at these remote areas. Teleophthalmology is a branch of telemedicine that delivers eye care through digital medical equipment and telecommunications technology. Thus, teleophthalmology can overcome geographical barriers and improve quality, access, and affordability of eye health care services. Since teleophthalmology has been widespread applied in recent years, the aim of this study was to determine the different applications of teleophthalmology in the world. To this end, three bibliographic databases (Medline, ScienceDirect, Scopus) were comprehensively searched with these keywords: eye care, eye health care, primary eye care, diagnosis, detection, and screening of different eye diseases in conjunction with telemedicine, telehealth, teleophthalmology, e-services, and information technology. All types of papers were included in the study with no time restriction. We conducted the search strategies until 2015. Finally 70 articles were surveyed. We classified the results based on the’type of eye problems covered’ and ‘the type of telemedicine services’. Based on the review, from the ‘perspective of health care levels’, there are three level for eye health care as primary, secondary and tertiary eye care. From the ‘perspective of eye care services’, the main application of teleophthalmology in primary eye care was related to the diagnosis of different eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, strabismus and aged related macular degeneration. The main application of teleophthalmology in secondary and tertiary eye care was related to the screening of eye problems i.e. diabetic retinopathy, astigmatism, glaucoma screening. Teleconsultation between health care providers and ophthalmologists and also education and training sessions for patients were other types of teleophthalmology in world. Real time, store–forward and hybrid methods were the main forms of the communication from the perspective of ‘teleophthalmology mode’ which is used based on IT infrastructure between sending and receiving centers. In aspect of specialists, early detection of serious aged-related ophthalmic disease in population, screening of eye disease processes, consultation in an emergency cases and comprehensive eye examination were the most important benefits of teleophthalmology. Cost-effectiveness of teleophthalmology projects resulted from reducing transportation and accommodation cost, access to affordable eye care services and receiving specialist opinions were also the main advantages of teleophthalmology for patients. Teleophthalmology brings valuable secondary and tertiary care to remote areas. So, applying teleophthalmology for detection, treatment and screening purposes and expanding its use in new applications such as eye surgery will be a key tool to promote public health and integrating eye care to primary health care.

Keywords: applications, telehealth, telemedicine, teleophthalmology

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Authors: Sudhir Kumar Singh, Debashish Chakravarty

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Slope stability analysis is an important aspect in the field of geotechnical engineering. It is also important from safety, and economic point of view as any slope failure leads to loss of valuable lives and damage to property worth millions. This paper aims at mitigating the risk of slope failure by studying the effect of different joint sets on the stability of mine pit slopes under the influence of various external factors, namely degree of saturation, rainfall intensity, and seismic coefficients. Supervised machine learning approach has been utilized for making accurate and reliable predictions regarding the stability of slopes based on the value of Factor of Safety. Numerous cases have been studied for analyzing the stability of slopes using the popular Finite Element Method, and the data thus obtained has been used as training data for the supervised machine learning models. The input data has been trained on different supervised machine learning models, namely Random Forest, Decision Tree, Support vector Machine, and XGBoost. Distinct test data that is not present in training data has been used for measuring the performance and accuracy of different models. Although all models have performed well on the test dataset but Random Forest stands out from others due to its high accuracy of greater than 95%, thus helping us by providing a valuable tool at our disposition which is neither computationally expensive nor time consuming and in good accordance with the numerical analysis result.

Keywords: finite element method, geotechnical engineering, machine learning, slope stability

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Authors: F. O. Arimoro, F. N. Okonkwo, R. B. Ikomi

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The environmental determinants structuring species richness has been generating interest recently but we still lack an understanding of these patterns in various regions (e.g. Afrotropical), and how seasons help to structure these patterns. Our aim was to assessed the environmental drivers importance in regulating species richness and community structure of fish species. The lchthyofauna assemblage of Warri River, Niger Delta area of Nigeria was studied between August 2013 and July 2014. A total of 1152 individuals representing 43 species in 23 families and 30 genera were caught. Of the 43 species recorded, 67.4%, 53.5% and 67.4% of the species occurred in Stations 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Eight taxa representing 18.6% of the total abundance were ubiquitous. The claroteid, Chrysichthys walkeri and the cichlid, Chromidotilapia guentheri were the most dominant species accounting for 19.2% and 6.0% respectively of the total catch. The species richness and general diversity were relatively higher in station 1 although Jaccard similarity index revealed that stations 1 and 3 were significantly similar while station 2 showed complete dissimilarity with stations 1 and 3. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, total nitrogen, Biochemical Oxygen demand and temperature were important variables structuring the overall fish assemblages. The presence of appreciable number of juveniles in this water body suggests that the Warri River is a breeding and nursery ground for fish species particularly those of brackish origin. These findings indicate that the water body is still useful as a good fishing ground for the rural communities and every effort should be put in place to ensure its protection and conservation for the production of healthy fish.

Keywords: Chrysichthys walkeri, fish communities, mangrove ecosystem, physicochemical parameters, Warri River

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Authors: Gabriela Smeckova

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The entire world is becoming more and more diverse. The reasons why people migrate are different and unique for each family /individual. Professionals delivering services (including speech-language pathologists) must be prepared to work with clients coming from different cultural and/or linguistic backgrounds. Well-educated speech-language pathologists will consider many factors when delivering services. Some of them will be discussed during the presentation (language spoken, beliefs about health care and disabilities, reasons for immigration, etc.). The communication styles of the client can be different than the styles of the speech-language pathologist. The goal is to become culturally responsive in service delivery.

Keywords: culture, cultural competence, culturallly responsive practices, speech-language pathologist, cultural and linguistical variables, communication styles

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Authors: Pushkar Lal Sharma, Sanjana Singh, Umesh Kumar Sahu

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This paper helps to understand the need of Customer Relationship Management in Libraries and why Librarians should implement the marketing concept of Customer Relationship Management in their libraries. As like any industry, libraries too face growing challenges to continuously meet customer expectations, and attract and retain users in light of overflowing competition. The ability to understand customers, build relationships and market diverse services is essential when considering ways to expand service offerings and improve Return on Investment. Since Library is service oriented Enterprise, hence the Customer/User/ Reader/Patron are the most important element of Library & Information System to whom and for whom library offers various services. How to provide better and most efficient services to its users is the main concern of every Library & Information centre in the present era. The basic difference between Business Enterprise and Library Information System is that ‘in Business System ‘the efficiency is measured in terms of ’profit’ or ‘monetary gains’; whereas in a Library & Information System, the efficiency is measured in terms of ‘services’ and therefore the goals that are set in Business Enterprise are’ profit oriented’ whereas goals set in the Library & Information Centre are ‘Service-oriented’. With the explosion of information and advancement of technology readers have so many choices to get information rather than visiting a library. Everything is available at the click of a mouse, library customers have become more knowledgeable and demanding in an era marked by abundance of information resources and services. With this explosion of information in every field of knowledge and choice in selection of service, satisfying user has become a challenge now a day for libraries. Accordingly, Libraries have to build good relationship with its users by adopting Customer relationship Management. CRM refers to the methods and tools which help an organization to manage its relationship with its customers in an organized way. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) combines business strategy and technology to identify, acquire and retain good customer relationship. The goal of CRM is to optimize management of customer information needs & interests and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Implementing CRM in Libraries can improve customer data and process management, customer loyalty, retention and satisfaction.

Keywords: customer relationship management, CRM, CRM tools, customer satisfaction

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Authors: Muhammet Baldan, Emel Timuçin

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Molecular solubility prediction plays a crucial role in various fields, such as drug discovery, environmental science, and material science. In this study, we compare the performance of five machine learning algorithms—linear regression, support vector machines (SVM), random forests, gradient boosting machines (GBM), and neural networks—for predicting molecular solubility using the AqSolDB dataset. The dataset consists of 9981 data points with their corresponding solubility values. MACCS keys (166 bits), RDKit properties (20 properties), and structural properties(3) features are extracted for every smile representation in the dataset. A total of 189 features were used for training and testing for every molecule. Each algorithm is trained on a subset of the dataset and evaluated using metrics accuracy scores. Additionally, computational time for training and testing is recorded to assess the efficiency of each algorithm. Our results demonstrate that random forest model outperformed other algorithms in terms of predictive accuracy, achieving an 0.93 accuracy score. Gradient boosting machines and neural networks also exhibit strong performance, closely followed by support vector machines. Linear regression, while simpler in nature, demonstrates competitive performance but with slightly higher errors compared to ensemble methods. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the performance of machine learning algorithms for molecular solubility prediction, highlighting the importance of algorithm selection in achieving accurate and efficient predictions in practical applications.

Keywords: random forest, machine learning, comparison, feature extraction

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Authors: Veena Rani

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This paper presents the role of academic library in information literacy in the present time. Information is the very important aspect for the growth of any country. In this context information literacy is an essential tool in the development of various fields. Academic library is an essential part of university as well as of an institution. In Academic library we can include university library, college library as well as school library. Academic libraries are playing an important role for information literacy. Academic libraries provide excellent services for the benefit of students, teachers, researchers, and all those who are interested in education. All over the world many of the schemes, policies and services provide for information literacy.

Keywords: information literacy, academic library, tool literacy, higher education

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Authors: Dimakatso Machetele, Clare Kelso, Thea Schoeman

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In developing countries such as India, China, and South Africa, disposal of household solid waste in rural areas is of great concern. Rural communities face numerous challenges that include the absence of waste collection services and sanitation facilities. The inadequate provision of waste collection and sanitation services results to the occurrence of infectious diseases e.g., malaria. The gap in the management of household solid waste between rural and urban communities, whereby urban communities have better waste management services compared to rural areas is an environmental injustice towards rural communities. The unequal distribution of infrastructure in South Africa’s waste management is a concern that stems from the spatial inequalities of the country’s apartheid history. The Limpopo province has a higher proportion of households without waste collection services from the municipality. The present research objectives are to investigate the public’s perceptions and factors contributing to the management of household solid waste in two contrasting rural Wards in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality. There is limited data and studies that have been conducted to understand the management of household solid waste in rural areas, and specifically, for the Greater Tzaneen Municipality located in the Limpopo province, South Africa. The findings of the study will propose recommendations to the Greater Tzaneen Municipality, rural municipalities in South Africa, and globally to explore sustainable methods to manage household solid waste and explore economic opportunities within the waste management sector to alleviate poverty in rural communities.

Keywords: rural, household solid wase, perceptions, waste management

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Authors: Subhankar Kumar Sarkar

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Scarab beetles composing the family Scarabaeidae is one of the largest families in the order Coleoptera. The family is comprised of 11 subfamilies. Of these, the subfamily Scarabaeinae includes 13 tribes globally. Indian species are however considered within 2 tribes Scarabaeini and Coprini. Scarab beetles under this subfamily also known as Coprophagus beetles play an indispensable role in forestry and agriculture. Both adults and larvae of these beetles do a remarkable job of carrying excrement into the soil thus enriching the soil to a great extent. Eastern and North Eastern states of India are heavily rich in diversity of organisms as this region exhibits the tropical rain forests of the eastern Himalayas, which exhibits one of the 18 biodiversity hotspots of the world and one of the three of India. Buxa Tiger Reserve located in Dooars between latitudes 26°30” to 26°55” North & longitudes 89°20” to 89°35” East is one such fine example of rain forests of the eastern Himalayas. Despite this, the subfamily is poorly known, particularly from this part of the globe and demands serious revisionary studies. It is with this background; the attempt is being made to assess the Scarabaeinae fauna of the forest. Both extensive and intensive surveys were conducted in different beats under different ranges of Buxa Tiger Reserve. For collection sweep nets, bush beating and collection in inverted umbrella, hand picking techniques were used. Several pit fall traps were laid in the collection localities of the Reserve to trap ground dwelling scarabs. Dung of various animals was also examined to make collections. In the evening hours UV light, trap was used to collect nocturnal beetles. The collected samples were studied under Stereozoom Binocular Microscopes Zeiss SV6, SV11 and Olympus SZ 30. The faunistic investigation of the forest revealed in the recognition of 19 species under 6 genera distributed over 2 tribes. Of these Heliocopris tyrannus Thomson, 1859 was recorded new from the Country, while Catharsius javanus Lansberge, 1886, Copris corpulentus Gillet, 1910, C. doriae Harold, 1877 and C. sarpedon Harold, 1868 from the state. 4 species are recorded as endemic to India. The forest is dominated by the members of the Genus Onthophagus, of which Onthophagus (Colobonthophagus) dama (Fabricius, 1798) is represented by highest number of individuals. Their seasonal distribution is most during Premonsoon followed by Monsoon and Postmonsoon. Zoogeographically all the recorded species are of oriental distribution.

Keywords: buxa tiger reserve, diversity, India, new records, scarabaeinae, scarabaeidae

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Authors: Akilah A. Jardine

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The integration and expansion of the global economy have indeed brought about a number of positive changes such as access to new goods and services and the opportunity for individuals and businesses to migrate, communicate, and work globally. Nevertheless, the interconnectedness of world economies is not without its negative and shameful side effects. The subsequent overabundance of goods and services has resulted in heightened competition among firms and their supply chains, fuelling the exploitation of impoverished and vulnerable individuals who are unable to equally salvage from the benefits of the integrated economy. To maintain their position in a highly competitive arena, the operations of many businesses have adopted unethical and unscrupulous practices to maximise profit, often targeting the most marginalised members of society. Simultaneously, in a consumerist obsessed society preoccupied with the consumption and accumulation of material wealth, the demand for goods and services greatly contributes to the pressure on firms, thus bolstering the exploitation of labour. This paper aims to examine the impact of business operations on the practice of labour exploitation. It explores corrupt business practices that firms adopt and key labour exploitative conditions outlined by the International Labour Organization, particularly, paying workers low wages, forcing individuals to work in abusive and unsafe conditions, and considers the issue regarding individuals’ consent to exploitative environments. Further, it considers the role of consumers in creating the high demand for goods and services, which in turn fosters the exploitation of labour. This paper illustrates that the practice of labour exploitation in the economy is a by-product of both global competitive business operations and heightened consumer consumption.

Keywords: globalisation, labour exploitation, modern slavery, sweatshops, unethical business practices

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Authors: Yogendra K. Karna, Lauren T. Bennett

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Fire-tolerant eucalypt forests are one of the major forest ecosystems of south-eastern Australia and thought to be highly resistant to frequent high severity wildfires. However, the impact of different severity wildfires on the canopy structure of fire-tolerant forest type is under-studied, and there are significant knowledge gaps in relation to the assessment of tree and stand level canopy structural dynamics and recovery after fire. Assessment of canopy structure is a complex task involving accurate measurements of the horizontal and vertical arrangement of the canopy in space and time. This study examined the utility of multitemporal, small-footprint lidar data to describe the changes in the horizontal and vertical canopy structure of fire-tolerant eucalypt forests seven years after wildfire of different severities from the tree to stand level. Extensive ground measurements were carried out in four severity classes to describe and validate canopy cover and height metrics as they change after wildfire. Several metrics such as crown height and width, crown base height and clumpiness of crown were assessed at tree and stand level using several individual tree top detection and measurement algorithm. Persistent effects of high severity fire 8 years after both on tree crowns and stand canopy were observed. High severity fire increased the crown depth but decreased the crown projective cover leading to more open canopy.

Keywords: canopy gaps, canopy structure, crown architecture, crown projective cover, multi-temporal lidar, wildfire severity

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Authors: Matthew I. Bellgard

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The field of bioinformatics has made, and continues to make, substantial progress and contributions to life science research and development. However, this paper contends that a systems approach integrates bioinformatics activities for any project in a defined manner. The application of critical control points in this bioinformatics systems approach may be useful to identify and evaluate points in a pathway where specified activity risk can be reduced, monitored and quality enhanced.

Keywords: bioinformatics, food security, personalized medicine, systems approach

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Authors: Yun-Shan Tsai, Si-Ping Lin, En-Chieh Lin, Xin-Hong Chen, Shin-Yun Ho, Shin-Hong Huang, Ching-ju Hsieh

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Background and significance: Uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts are the main visually debilitating ophthalmological abnormalities in adult participants with intellectual disability (ID). However, not all adult participants with ID may receive a regular and timely ophthalmological assessment. Consequently, some of the ocular diseases may not be diagnosed until late, thereby causing unnecessary ocular morbidity. In addition, recent clinical practice and researches have also suggested that eye-care services for this group are neglected. Purpose: To investigate the unmet need for eye care services, clinical characteristics of cataract, visual function, surgical outcome and prognostic predictors in adult participants with ID at Taipei City Hospital in Taiwan. Methods: This is a one-year prospective clinical study. We recruited about 120 eyes of 60 adult participants with ID who were received cataract surgery. Caregivers of all participants received a questionnaire on current eye care services. Clinical demographic data, such as age, gender, and associated systemic diseases or syndromes, were collected. All complete ophthalmologic examinations were performed 1 month preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively, including ocular biometry, visual function, refractive status, morphology of cataract, associated ocular features, anesthesia methods, surgical types, and complications. Morphology of cataract, visual and surgical outcome was analyzed. Results: A total of 60 participants with mean age 43.66 ± 13.94 years, including 59.02% male and 40.98% female, took part in comprehensive eye-care services. The prevalence of unmet need for eye care services was high (about 70%). About 50% of adult participants with ID have bilateral cataracts at the time of diagnosis. White cataracts were noted in about 30% of all adult participants with ID at the time of presentation. Associated ocular disorders were included myopic maculopathy (4.54%), corneal disorders (11.36%), nystagmus (20.45%), strabismus (38.64%) and glaucoma (2.27%). About 26.7% of adult participants with ID underwent extracapsular cataract extraction whereas a phacoemulsification was performed in 100% of eyes. Intraocular lens implantation was performed in all eyes. The most common postoperative complication was posterior capsular opacification (30%). The mean best-corrected visual acuity was significantly improved from preoperatively (mean log MAR 0.48 ± 0.22) to at 3 months postoperatively (mean log MAR 0.045 ± 0.22) (p < .05). Conclusions: Regular follow up will help address the need for eye-care services in participants with ID. A high incidence of bilateral cataracts, as well as white cataracts, was observed in adult participants with ID. Because of early diagnosis and early intervention of cataract, the visual and surgical outcomes of cataract are good, but the visual outcomes are suboptimal due to associated ocular comorbidities.

Keywords: adult participants with intellectual disability, cataract, cataract surgery

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Authors: Bashir Aliyu Yauri, Rufai Aliyu Yauri

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With the introduction of cash-less society policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the concept of e-banking services has experienced a significant improvement over the years. Today quite a number of people are embracing e-banking activities especially ATM, thereby moving away from the conventional banking system. This paper presents a review of the underlying Architectural Layout of Intra-Bank and Inter-Bank ATM connectivity in Nigeria. The paper further investigates and discusses factors affecting the Intra-Bank and Inter-Bank ATM connectivity in Nigeria. And as well possible solutions to these factors affecting ATM Connectivity and Operations are proposed.

Keywords: architectural layout, automated teller machine, e-services, postilion

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Authors: Chandimal Jayawardena, Ridmal Mendis, Manoji Tennakoon, Theekshana Wijayathilaka, Randima Marasinghe

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This research paper defines the research area of the implementation of the socially assistive robot (SLIITBOT). It consists of the overall process implemented within the robot’s system and limitations, along with a literature survey. This project considers developing a socially assistive robot called SLIITBOT that will interact using its voice outputs and graphical user interface with people within the university and benefit them with updates and tasks. The robot will be able to detect a person when he/she enters the room, navigate towards the position the human is standing, welcome and greet the particular person with a simple conversation using its voice, introduce the services through its voice, and provide the person with services through an electronic input via an app while guiding the person with voice outputs.

Keywords: application, detection, dialogue, navigation

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Authors: Rafla Hchaichi

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The public administration is currently experiencing in the field of quality unprecedented effervescence. However, in a globalized world more and more competitive, public services are confronted with the need to improve their performances which push public companies to implement quality approaches. Quality approaches have taken diverse forms such as service commitment, labels, certifications and the Common Assessment Framework. This paper provides an overview on the strategy for administrative development in Tunisia since the Carthaginian civilization until today. It outlines the evolution of quality management in the Tunisian public context while focusing on the National Referential of Quality of Administrative Services.

Keywords: quality approach, the common assessment framework, service commitment, label, certification, quality of public service, performance of public service, Tunisian Public Service

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Authors: R. T. Aggangan

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Woodfuels continue to be a major component of the energy supply mix of the Philippines due to increasing demand for energy that are not adequately met by decreasing supply and increasing prices of fuel oil such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene. The Development Academy of the Philippines projects the demand of woodfuels in 2016 as 28.3 million metric tons in the household sector and about 105.4 million metric tons combined supply potentials of both forest and non-forest lands. However, the Revised Master Plan for Forestry Development projects a demand of about 50 million cu meters of fuelwood in 2016 but the capability to supply from local sources is only about 28 million cu meters indicating a 44 % deficiency. Household demand constitutes 82% while industries demand is 18%. Domestic household demand for energy is for cooking needs while the industrial demand is for steam power generation, curing barns of tobacco: brick, ceramics and pot making; bakery; lime production; and small scale food processing. Factors that favour increased use of wood-based energy include the relatively low prices (increasing oil-based fuel prices), availability of efficient wood-based energy utilization technology, increasing supply, and increasing population that cannot afford conventional fuels. Moreover, innovations in combustion technology and cogeneration of heat and power from biomass for modern applications favour biomass energy development. This paper recommends policies and strategic directions for the development of the woodfuel industry with the twin goals of sustainably supplying the energy requirements of households and industry.

Keywords: biomass energy development, fuelwood, households and industry, innovations in combustion technology, supply and demand

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Authors: Jennifer Donovan

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Practice collaborations between legal assistance and social support services have emerged as a growing framework worldwide for delivering services to clients with high degrees of disadvantage, vulnerability and complexity. In Australia, the past five years has seen a significant growth in these socio-legal collaborations, with programs being delivered through legal, social service and health organizations and addressing a range of issues including mental health, immigration, parental child abduction and domestic violence. This presentation is based on research currently mapping the nature of these collaborations in Australia and exploring the influence that collaborating professions are having on each other’s practice. In a similar way to problem-solving courts being seen as a systematic take up of therapeutic jurisprudence in the court setting, socio-legal collaborations have the potential to be a systematic take up of therapeutic jurisprudence in an advice setting. This presentation will explore the varied ways in which socio-legal collaboration is being implemented in these programs. It will also explore the development of interdisciplinary therapeutic jurisprudence within them, with preliminary findings suggesting that both legal and social service practice is being influenced by the collaborative setting, with legal practice showing a more therapeutic orientation and social service professions, such as social work, moving toward a legal and rights orientation.

Keywords: collaboration, socio-legal, Australia, therapeutic jurisprudence

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Authors: Bilgen Özlük, Ülkü Baykal

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The study was conducted with the aim of determining the evaluations of nurses directed at the restructuring process carried out in the nursing services of a private hospital, and reveal how they have been affected by this process, in an integrated manner between a prospective approach and methods of quantitative and qualitative research, and as a comparative study, comparing the changes over a period of three years. The sample for the study is comprised of all of the nurses employed at a private hospital, and data has been collected from 17 nurses (a total of 30 interviews) for the qualitative part 377 nurses in 2013 and 429 nurses in 2014 for the quantitative part. As vehicles of data collection, the study used a form directed at identifying the changes in the organisational and management structure of the hospital, a nurses' interview form, a questionnaire identifying the personal and occupational characteristics of the nurses, the "Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale", the "Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale" and the "Organisational Trust Scale". Qualitative data by researchers, quantitative data was analysed using number and percentage tests, a t-test, and ANOVA, progressive analysis Tukey and regression tests. While in the qualitative part of the study the nurses stated in the first year of the restructuring that they were satisfied with their relationship with top level management, the increases in salaries and changes in the working environment such as the increase in the number of staff, in later years, they stated that there had been a fall in their satisfaction levels due to reasons such as nursing services instead of nurse practitioners in a position they are not satisfied that the director, nursing services outside the nursing profession appointment of persons to positions of management and the lack of appropriate training and competence of these persons, increases in the burden of work, insufficient salaries and the lack of a difference in the salaries of senior and more junior staff. On the other hand, in the quantitative part, it was found that there was no difference in the levels of job satisfaction and organisational trust in any of the two years, that as the level of organisational trust increased the level of job satisfaction also increased, and that as the levels of job satisfaction and organisational trust a positive impact on organisational citizenship behaviour also increased.

Keywords: services, nursing management, re-structuring, job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, organisational trust

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Authors: Vesa Salminen, Esa Santakallio, Heikki Ruohomaa

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Introduction: The city of Riihimäki has decided robotics on well-being, service and industry as the main focus area on their ecosystem strategy. Robotics is going to be an important part of the everyday life of citizens and present in the working day of the average citizen and employee in the future. For that reason, also education system and education programs on all levels of education from diaper age to doctorate have been directed to fulfill this ecosystem strategy. Goal: The objective of this activity has been to develop education continuity from diaper age to doctorate. The main target of the development activity is to create a unique robotics study entity that enables ongoing robotics studies from preprimary education to university. The aim is also to attract students internationally and supply a skilled workforce to the private sector, capable of the challenges of the future. Methodology: Education instances (high school, second grade, Universities on all levels) in a large area of Tavastia Province have gradually directed their education programs to support this goal. On the other hand, applied research projects have been created to make proof of concept- phases on areal real environment field labs to test technology opportunities and digitalization to change business processes by applying robotic solutions. Customer-oriented applied research projects offer for students in robotics education learning environments to learn new knowledge and content. That is also a learning environment for education programs to adapt and co-evolution. New content and problem-based learning are used in future education modules. Major findings: Joint robotics education entity is being developed in cooperation with the city of Riihimäki (primary education), Syria Education (secondary education) and HAMK (bachelor and master education). The education modules have been developed to enable smooth transitioning from one institute to another. This article is introduced a case study of the change of education of wellbeing education because of digitalization and robotics. Riihimäki's Elderly citizen's service house, Riihikoti, has been working as a field lab for proof-of-concept phases on testing technology opportunities. According to successful case studies also education programs on various levels of education have been changing. Riihikoti has been developed as a physical learning environment for home care and robotics, investigating and developing a variety of digital devices and service opportunities and experimenting and learn the use of equipment. The environment enables the co-development of digital service capabilities in the authentic environment for all interested groups in transdisciplinary cooperation.

Keywords: ecosystem strategy, digitalization and robotics, education continuity, learning environment, transdisciplinary co-operation

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Authors: I. Hakki Eraslan, Birol Ozturk, Istemi Comlekci

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This paper begins by defining what is meant by “globalization” in finance and by identifying the sources of value-added in the internationally-competitive financial services sector origination, trading and distribution of debt and equity capital market instruments and their derivatives, foreign exchange trading and securities brokerage, management of market risk and credit risk, loan syndication and structured bank financings, corporate finance and advisory services, and asset management. These activities are considered in terms of a “value-chain” one that ultimately gives rise to the real economic gains attributable to financial-center operations. The research presents available evidence as to where the relevant value-added activities usually take place. It then examines the “centrifugal” and “centripetal” forces that determine the concentration or dispersal of value-added activity in financial intermediation, both interregionally and internationally. Next, the research assesses the factors, which appear to underlie the locational pattern of international financial centers that has evolved. In preparing this paper, also it is examined the current position and the main opportunities and challenges facing world major financial services sector, and attempted to lay out a potential vision and strategies. It is conducted extensive research, including many internal research materials and publications. It is also engaged closely with the academia, industry practitioners and regulators, and consulted market experts from major world financial centers. More than 60 in‐depth consultative sessions were conducted in the past two years which provided insightful suggestions and innovative ideas on how to further financial industry’s position as an international financial centre. The paper concludes with the outlook for the future pattern of financial centers in the global competitive environment. The ideas and advice gathered are condensed into this paper that recommends to the strategic decision leaders a vision and a strategy for financial services sector to move forward amid a highly competitive environment.

Keywords: financial centers, competitiveness, financial services industry, economics

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Authors: Michiko Miyamoto

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The market for "functional foods" and "foods with functional claims" that are effective in maintaining and improving health, has expanded year by year due to the entry of major food and beverage manufacturers following the introduction of the specified health food system in 1991 in Japan. To bring health claims related products or services to the market, it is necessary to let consumers to learn about these products or services; an effective marketing through advertising are important. This research proposes a framework for an effective advertisement medium for the food supplement industry by using survey data of 2,500 people.

Keywords: functional foods, dietary supplements, marketing strategy, structural equation modeling

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Authors: Zhiwen Pan, Jesus Pacheco, Salim Hariri, Yiqiang Chen, Bozhi Liu

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The Internet of Things (IoT) will lead to the development of advanced Smart Home services that are pervasive, cost-effective, and can be accessed by home occupants from anywhere and at any time. However, advanced smart home applications will introduce grand security challenges due to the increase in the attack surface. Current approaches do not handle cybersecurity from a holistic point of view; hence, a systematic cybersecurity mechanism needs to be adopted when designing smart home applications. In this paper, we present a generic intrusion detection methodology to detect and mitigate the anomaly behaviors happened in Smart Home Systems (SHS). By utilizing our Smart Home Context Data Structure, the heterogeneous information and services acquired from SHS are mapped in context attributes which can describe the context of smart home operation precisely and accurately. Runtime models for describing usage patterns of home assets are developed based on characterization functions. A threat-aware action management methodology, used to efficiently mitigate anomaly behaviors, is proposed at the end. Our preliminary experimental results show that our methodology can be used to detect and mitigate known and unknown threats, as well as to protect SHS premises and services.

Keywords: Internet of Things, network security, context awareness, intrusion detection

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Authors: V. R. Venugopal

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Human being evolved 200,000 years ago in an area which is now the Sahara desert and lived all along in the northern part of Africa. It was around 10,000 to15,00 years that he moved out of Africa. Various ancient civilizations – mainly the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indus valley and the Chinese yellow river valley civilizations - developed and perished till the beginning of the Christian era. Strangely the regions where all these civilizations flourished are no deserts. After the ancient civilizations the two major religions of the world the Christianity and Islam evolved. These too evolved in the regions of Jerusalem and Mecca which are now in the deserts of the present Israel and Saudi Arabia. Human activity since ancient age right from his origin was in areas which are now deserts. This is only because wherever Man lived in large numbers he has turned them into deserts. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the ancient days alone. Over the last 500 years the forest cover on the earth is reduced by 80 percent. Even more currently Just over the last forty decades human population has doubled but the number of bugs, beetles, worms and butterflies (micro fauna) have declined by 45%. Deforestation and defaunation are the first signs of desertification and Desertification is a process parallel to the extinction of life. There is every possibility that soon most of the earth will be in deserts. This writer has been involved in the process of forestation and increase of fauna as a profession since twenty years and this is a report of his efforts made in the process, the results obtained and concept generated to revert the ongoing desertification of this earth. This paper highlights how desertification can be reverted by applying these basic principles. 1) Man is not owner of this earth and has no right destroy vegetation and micro fauna. 2) Land owner shall not have the freedom to do anything that he wishes with the land. 3) The land that is under agriculture shall be reduced at least by a half. 4) Irrigation and modern technology shall be used for the forest growth also. 5) Farms shall have substantial permanent vegetation and the practice of all in all out shall stop.

Keywords: desertification, extinction, micro fauna, reverting

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Authors: nafees mahbub, blake tindol, utkarsh shrivastava, kuanchin chen

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Online shopping has become an integral part of businesses today. Big players such as Amazon are setting the bar for delivery services, and many businesses are working towards meeting them. However, what happens if a seller underestimates or overestimates the delivery time? Does it translate to consumer comments, ratings, or lost sales? Although several prior studies have investigated the impact of poor logistics on customer satisfaction, that impact of under estimation of delivery times has been rarely considered. The study uses real-time customer online purchase data to study the impact of missed delivery times on satisfaction.

Keywords: LOST SALES, DELIVERY TIME, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, CUSTOMER REVIEWS

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Authors: Lawrence Ngalim

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The paucity of entrepreneurial finance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can plausibly be tied to her comparatively less-developed capital markets, which potentially hurts entrepreneurial activities. The high rate of informality in SSA worsens information asymmetry, which restricts the supply of funds in a heavily bank-led environment. In this paper, we ask whether the adoption of recent technological improvements in delivering financial services, such as crowdfunding, assists the financially excluded within Africa. Secondly, we investigate the individual determinants of crowdfunding, such as income, level of education, demographics, culture/trust, and the effects of crowdfunding on households’ usage of formal financial services. The paper discusses the long-term policy implications of this particular type of fintech in achieving financial inclusion within the regional bloc and its advantage for Africa-Agenda-2063.

Keywords: fintech, banks, entrepreneurship, regional integration

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: Tassana Boontong, Vilaivan Thongcharoen, Orapan Thosingha, Suphamon Chansakul, Anorut Jenwitheesuk, Chanin Chakkrapopyodhin, Isara Phiwchai, Mattika Chaichan, Rungnapha Khiewchaum

Abstract:

According to Thailand health policy, subdistrict health promoting hospitals (SHPHs) serve as forefront facilities for inclusive health care service. Those services include health promotion, disease prevention, primary medical care and rehabilitation. However, SHPHs residing in some distant area, such as SHPHs residing on the islands, would deliver different services relevant to health needs of the local people and the tourists. This research aimed to study health care delivery services at SHPHs on the islands in Thailand. Data were collected using questionnaires. The result revealed that in Thailand, there are 58 SHPHs on the islands. During data collection process, the researchers were not allowed to collect data in 5 SHPHs in the southern part due to Covid-19 pandemic. The report is based on 53 SHPHs on the islands. Numbers of health care personnel were 201, 72.14 % were female, with the ages ranged from 22 to 60 years (mean = 35.56 years). About 53% were community health personnel, while 26.08% were professional nurses. In regard to work experiences, the range of year varied from less than 1 year to 30 years, with the mean of 8.36 years. The majority of their responsibilities focused on providing primary medical care (86.34%), caring of people with chronic illnesses (85.30%) and providing medical care procedures for patients with chronic illnesses at home (84.36%). Nurses were main health care personnel in performing primary medical care. Due to difficulty transportation from the islands to the mainland, nurses had to provide prompt emergency medical care while the patients arrived with emergency and critical illnesses such as severe head trauma, stroke or coronary artery disease. Although some medical procedures were complex and not covered by nursing and midwifery license, they decided to protect patients from life- threatening conditions and make them stable before transportation. In SHPHs, the workload exceeded manpower, health care personnel had to work overtime almost every day. In the famous tourist islands, health care personnel had to carry 3-4 folds of their workload during the holidays because of the large crowds of foreign and Thai tourists. It is recommended that SHPHs on the islands should scale up the level of services to cover advanced medical care. Health care personnel, in particular, professional nurses, should be equipped with emergency and critical care skills. The expected outcomes of the services should emphasize on rescuing patients with emergency and life-threatening illnesses and providing comprehensive care for people living on or visiting the islands.

Keywords: distant area, islands, sub district health promoting hospital, heath care services, Thailand

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Authors: Feng Yue, Fei Dai

Abstract:

With the rapid development of urbanization process in China, its environmental protection pressure is severely tested. So, analyzing and optimizing the landscape pattern is an important measure to ease the pressure on the ecological environment. This paper takes Wuhan Urban Development Zone as the research object, and studies its landscape pattern evolution and quantitative optimization strategy. First, remote sensing image data from 1990 to 2015 were interpreted by using Erdas software. Next, the landscape pattern index of landscape level, class level, and patch level was studied based on Fragstats. Then five indicators of ecological environment based on National Environmental Protection Standard of China were selected to evaluate the impact of landscape pattern evolution on the ecological environment. Besides, the cost distance analysis of ArcGIS was applied to simulate wildlife migration thus indirectly measuring the improvement of ecological environment quality. The result shows that the area of land for construction increased 491%. But the bare land, sparse grassland, forest, farmland, water decreased 82%, 47%, 36%, 25% and 11% respectively. They were mainly converted into construction land. On landscape level, the change of landscape index all showed a downward trend. Number of patches (NP), Landscape shape index (LSI), Connection index (CONNECT), Shannon's diversity index (SHDI), Aggregation index (AI) separately decreased by 2778, 25.7, 0.042, 0.6, 29.2%, all of which indicated that the NP, the degree of aggregation and the landscape connectivity declined. On class level, the construction land and forest, CPLAND, TCA, AI and LSI ascended, but the Distribution Statistics Core Area (CORE_AM) decreased. As for farmland, water, sparse grassland, bare land, CPLAND, TCA and DIVISION, the Patch Density (PD) and LSI descended, yet the patch fragmentation and CORE_AM increased. On patch level, patch area, Patch perimeter, Shape index of water, farmland and bare land continued to decline. The three indexes of forest patches increased overall, sparse grassland decreased as a whole, and construction land increased. It is obvious that the urbanization greatly influenced the landscape evolution. Ecological diversity and landscape heterogeneity of ecological patches clearly dropped. The Habitat Quality Index continuously declined by 14%. Therefore, optimization strategy based on greenway network planning is raised for discussion. This paper contributes to the study of landscape pattern evolution in planning and design and to the research on spatial layout of urbanization.

Keywords: landscape pattern, optimization strategy, ArcGIS, Erdas, landscape metrics, landscape architecture

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Authors: Ashfaq M. Naikwadi

Abstract:

Decided cases of medical negligence, mostly are not settled in the lower courts. Majority of them reach up to the apex courts. This is mostly due to different interpretations of the term medical negligence. After studying various cases of medical negligence it is found that in most of the cases the doctors/hospitals are not held liable. There are different interpretations of law concerning medical services. Globally the principles deciding medical negligence are same, viz. Legal duty of care - breach of that duty - direct causation resulting in damages. Since ordinary negligence is not punishable by law, doctors/hospitals have defenses to save themselves from liability. Complaints of negligence come to the courts whose judges mostly are not oriented with medical services or health sciences. Matters of medical negligence are decided on the basic principles of reasonableness and prudence or by relying on the expert’s opinion. Deciding reasonableness or prudence is a complex issue in case of medical services. Again expert opinion is also questionable as an expert in case of medical negligence is appointed from the same field and same faculty. There is a chance of favoritism to the doctor/hospital. The concept of vicarious liability is not widely applied to in many of the medical negligence cases. Established cases used as precedents were studied to understand the basic principles in deciding medical negligence. This paper evaluates the present criteria in interpreting medical negligence and concludes with suggesting reforms required to be made in deciding matters of medical negligence under the consumer laws.

Keywords: consumer, doctors, laws, medical negligence

Procedia PDF Downloads 349