Search results for: local people

Authors: Kibret Berhanu Getinet

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Off-farm income diversification by farm rural households has gained the attention of researchers and policymakers due to the fact that agriculture failed to meet the needs of people in developing countries like Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to investigate income diversification strategies into off-farm activities among rural households in Hawassa Zuria Woreda, Sidama National Regional State, Ethiopia. The study used primary and secondary data sources for the primary data collection questionnaire employed as a data collection instrument. A multistage sampling technique was used to collect data from a total of 197 sample households from four kebeles of the study area. Descriptive statistics, as well as econometrics methods of data analysis, were employed. The descriptive statistics result indicates that the majority of sample rural households (68.53 %) have engaged in off-farm income diversification activities while the remaining 31.47% of households did not participate in the diversification in the study area. The choice of participants among the strategies indicates that 6.60% of respondents participated in off-farm wage employment, 30.46% participated in off-farm self-employment, and about 31.47% of them participated in both off-farm wage employment. The study revealed that the share of off-farm income in total annual earnings of households was about 48.457%, and thus, the off-farm diversification significantly contributes to the rural household income. Moreover, binary and multinomial logistic regression models were employed to identify factors that affect the participation and the choices of the off-farm income diversification strategies, respectively. The binary logit model result indicated that agro-ecological zone, education status of the households, available technical skills of the household, household saving, total livestock owned by the households, access to electricity, road access and being married of household head were significant and positively affected the chance of diversification in off-farm activities while the on-farm income of households is negatively affected the chance of diversification. Similarly, the multinomial logistic regression model estimate revealed that agroecological zone, on-farm income, available technical skills, household savings, and access to electricity are positively related and significantly influenced the household’s choice of employment into off-farm wage employment. The off-farm self-employment diversification choice is significantly influenced by on-farm income, available technical skills, household savings, total livestock owned, and access to electricity. Moreover, the result showed that the factors that affect the choice of farm households to engage in both off-farm wage and self-employment are ecological zone, education status, on-farm income, available technical skills, household own saving, market access, total livestock owned, access to electricity and road access. Thus, due attention should be given to addressing the demographic, socio-economic, and institutional constraints to strengthen off-farm income diversification strategies to improve the income of rural households.

Keywords: off-farm, incoem, diversification, logit model

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Authors: Brittany Richardson, Ying Wang

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For physical therapy, exercise prescription, athlete training, and regular fitness training, it is crucial to perform health assessments or fitness assessments periodically. An accurate assessment is propitious for tracking recovery progress, preventing potential injury and making long-range training plans. Assessments include necessary measurements, height, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, body fat, etc. and advanced evaluation, muscle group strength, stability-mobility, and movement evaluation, etc. In the current standard assessment procedures, the accuracy of assessments, especially advanced evaluations, largely depends on the experience of physicians, coaches, and personal trainers. And it is challenging to track clients’ progress in the current assessment. Unlike the tradition assessment, in this paper, we present a deep learning based face recognition algorithm for accurate, comprehensive and trackable assessment. Based on the result from our assessment, physicians, coaches, and personal trainers are able to adjust the training targets and methods. The system categorizes the difficulty levels of the current activity for the client or user, furthermore make more comprehensive assessments based on tracking muscle group over time using a designed landmark detection method. The system also includes the function of grading and correcting the form of the clients during exercise. Experienced coaches and personal trainer can tell the clients' limit based on their facial expression and muscle group movements, even during the first several sessions. Similar to this, using a convolution neural network, the system is trained with people’s facial expression to differentiate challenge levels for clients. It uses landmark detection for subtle changes in muscle groups movements. It measures the proximal mobility of the hips and thoracic spine, the proximal stability of the scapulothoracic region and distal mobility of the glenohumeral joint, as well as distal mobility, and its effect on the kinetic chain. This system integrates data from other fitness assistant devices, including but not limited to Apple Watch, Fitbit, etc. for a improved training and testing performance. The system itself doesn’t require history data for an individual client, but the history data of a client can be used to create a more effective exercise plan. In order to validate the performance of the proposed work, an experimental design is presented. The results show that the proposed work contributes towards improving the quality of exercise plan, execution, progress tracking, and performance.

Keywords: exercise prescription, facial recognition, landmark detection, fitness assessments

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Authors: Mandayachepa C. Nyando, Lauren Suchman, Innocencia Mtalimanja, Address Malata, Tamanda Jumbe, Martha Kamanga, Peter Waiswa

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Background: Subcutaneous depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) is a new innovation in contraceptive methods that allow users to inject themselves with a hormonal contraceptive in their own homes. Self-injection (SI) of DMPA-SC has the potential to improve the accessibility of family planning to women who want it and who are capable of injecting themselves. Malawi started implementing this new innovation in 2018. SI was incorporated into the DMPA-SC delivery strategy from its outset. Methodology: This study involved two districts in Malawi where DMPA-SC SI was rolled out: Mulanje and Ntchisi. We used a qualitative cross-sectional study design where 60 in-depth interviews were conducted with women of reproductive age group stratified as 15-45 age band. These included women who were SI users, non-users, and any woman who was on any contraceptive methods. The women participants were tape-recorded, and data were transcribed and then analysed using Dedoose software, where themes were categorised into mother and child themes. Results: Women perceived DMPA SC SI as uniquely private, convenient, and less painful when self-injected. In terms of privacy, women in Mulanje and Ntchisi especially appreciated that self-injecting allowed them to use covertly from partners. Some men do not allow their spouses to use modern contraceptive methods; hence women prefer to use them covertly. “… but I first reach out to men because the strongest power is answered by men (MJ015).” In addition, women reported that SI offers privacy from family/community and less contact with healthcare providers. These aspects of privacy were especially valued in areas where there is a high degree of mistrust around family planning and among those who feel judged or antagonized purchasing contraception, such as young unmarried women. Women also valued the convenience SI provided in terms of their ability to save time by injecting themselves at home rather than visiting a healthcare provider and having more reliable access to contraception, particularly in the face of stockouts. SI allows for stocking up on doses to accommodate shifting work schedules in case of future stockouts or hard times, such as the period of COVID-19, where there was a limitation in the movement of the people. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that SI may meet the needs of many women in Malawi as long as the barriers are eliminated. The barriers women mentioned include fear of self-inject and proper storage of the DMPA SC SI, and these barriers can be eliminated by proper training. The findings also set the scene for policy revision and direction at a national level and integrate the approach with national family planning strategies in Malawi. Findings provide insights that may guide future implementation strategies, strengthen non-clinic family planning access programs and stimulate continued research.

Keywords: family planning, Malawi, Sayana press, self-injection

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Authors: Swati Bhomia, C. M. Kishtawal, Neeru Jaiswal

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Traditionally, monsoon forecasts have encountered many difficulties that stem from numerous issues such as lack of adequate upper air observations, mesoscale nature of convection, proper resolution, radiative interactions, planetary boundary layer physics, mesoscale air-sea fluxes, representation of orography, etc. Uncertainties in any of these areas lead to large systematic errors. Global circulation models (GCMs), which are developed independently at different institutes, each of which carries somewhat different representation of the above processes, can be combined to reduce the collective local biases in space, time, and for different variables from different models. This is the basic concept behind the multi-model superensemble and comprises of a training and a forecast phase. The training phase learns from the recent past performances of models and is used to determine statistical weights from a least square minimization via a simple multiple regression. These weights are then used in the forecast phase. The superensemble forecasts carry the highest skill compared to simple ensemble mean, bias corrected ensemble mean and the best model out of the participating member models. This approach is a powerful post-processing method for the estimation of weather forecast parameters reducing the direct model output errors. Although it can be applied successfully to the continuous parameters like temperature, humidity, wind speed, mean sea level pressure etc., in this paper, this approach is applied to rainfall, a parameter quite difficult to handle with standard post-processing methods, due to its high temporal and spatial variability. The present study aims at the development of advanced superensemble schemes comprising of 1-5 day daily precipitation forecasts from five state-of-the-art global circulation models (GCMs), i.e., European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (Europe), National Center for Environmental Prediction (USA), China Meteorological Administration (China), Canadian Meteorological Centre (Canada) and U.K. Meteorological Office (U.K.) obtained from THORPEX Interactive Grand Global Ensemble (TIGGE), which is one of the most complete data set available. The novel approaches include the dynamical model selection approach in which the selection of the superior models from the participating member models at each grid and for each forecast step in the training period is carried out. Multi-model superensemble based on the training using similar conditions is also discussed in the present study, which is based on the assumption that training with the similar type of conditions may provide the better forecasts in spite of the sequential training which is being used in the conventional multi-model ensemble (MME) approaches. Further, a variety of methods that incorporate a 'neighborhood' around each grid point which is available in literature to allow for spatial error or uncertainty, have also been experimented with the above mentioned approaches. The comparison of these schemes with respect to the observations verifies that the newly developed approaches provide more unified and skillful prediction of the summer monsoon (viz. June to September) rainfall compared to the conventional multi-model approach and the member models.

Keywords: multi-model superensemble, dynamical model selection, similarity criteria, neighborhood technique, rainfall prediction

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

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

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

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Authors: Vinu Elias Jacob, Manoj Kumar Kini

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Disasters of all types are occurring more frequently and are becoming more costly than ever due to various manmade factors including climate change. A better utilisation of the concept of governance and management within disaster risk reduction is inevitable and of utmost importance. There is a need to explore the role of pre- and post-disaster public policies. The role of urban planning/design in shaping the opportunities of households, individuals and collectively the settlements for achieving recovery has to be explored. Governance strategies that can better support the integration of disaster risk reduction and management has to be examined. The main aim is to thereby build the resilience of individuals and communities and thus, the states too. Resilience is a term that is usually linked to the fields of disaster management and mitigation, but today has become an integral part of planning and design of cities. Disaster resilience broadly describes the ability of an individual or community to 'bounce back' from disaster impacts, through improved mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The growing population of the world has resulted in the inflow and use of resources, creating a pressure on the various natural systems and inequity in the distribution of resources. This makes cities vulnerable to multiple attacks by both natural and man-made disasters. Each urban area needs elaborate studies and study based strategies to proceed in the discussed direction. Cochin in Kerala is the fastest and largest growing city with a population of more than 26 lakhs. The main concern that has been looked into in this paper is making cities resilient by designing a framework of strategies based on urban design principles for an immediate response system especially focussing on the city of Cochin, Kerala, India. The paper discusses, understanding the spatial transformations due to disasters and the role of spatial planning in the context of significant disasters. The paper also aims in developing a model taking into consideration of various factors such as land use, open spaces, transportation networks, physical and social infrastructure, building design, and density and ecology that can be implemented in any city of any context. Guidelines are made for the smooth evacuation of people through hassle-free transport networks, protecting vulnerable areas in the city, providing adequate open spaces for shelters and gatherings, making available basic amenities to affected population within reachable distance, etc. by using the tool of urban design. Strategies at the city level and neighbourhood level have been developed with inferences from vulnerability analysis and case studies.

Keywords: disaster management, resilience, spatial planning, spatial transformations

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Authors: Pirta Palola, Richard Bailey, Lisa Wedding

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Societies and economies worldwide fundamentally depend on natural capital. Alarmingly, natural capital assets are quickly depreciating, posing an existential challenge for humanity. The development of robust natural capital accounting systems is essential for transitioning towards sustainable economic systems and ensuring sound management of capital assets. However, the accurate, equitable and comprehensive estimation of natural capital asset stocks and their accounting values still faces multiple challenges. In particular, the representation of socio-cultural values held by groups or communities has arguably been limited, as to date, the valuation of natural capital assets has primarily been based on monetary valuation methods and assumptions of individual rationality. People relate to and value the natural environment in multiple ways, and no single valuation method can provide a sufficiently comprehensive image of the range of values associated with the environment. Indeed, calls have been made to improve the representation of multiple types of value (instrumental, intrinsic, and relational) and diverse ontological and epistemological perspectives in environmental valuation. This study addresses this need by establishing a novel valuation framework, Environmental Value Functions (EVF), that allows for the integration of multiple types of value in natural capital accounting systems. The EVF framework is based on the estimation and application of value functions, each of which describes the relationship between the value and quantity (or quality) of an ecosystem component of interest. In this framework, values are estimated in terms of change relative to the current level instead of calculating absolute values. Furthermore, EVF was developed to also support non-marginalist conceptualizations of value: it is likely that some environmental values cannot be conceptualized in terms of marginal changes. For example, ecological resilience value may, in some cases, be best understood as a binary: it either exists (1) or is lost (0). In such cases, a logistic value function may be used as the discriminator. Uncertainty in the value function parameterization can be considered through, for example, Monte Carlo sampling analysis. The use of EVF is illustrated with two conceptual examples. For the first time, EVF offers a clear framework and concrete methodology for the representation of multiple types of value in natural capital accounting systems, simultaneously enabling 1) the complementary use and integration of multiple valuation methods (monetary and non-monetary); 2) the synthesis of information from diverse knowledge systems; 3) the recognition of value incommensurability; 4) marginalist and non-marginalist value analysis. Furthermore, with this advancement, the coupling of EVF and ecosystem modeling can offer novel insights to the study of spatial-temporal dynamics in natural capital asset values. For example, value time series can be produced, allowing for the prediction and analysis of volatility, long-term trends, and temporal trade-offs. This approach can provide essential information to help guide the transition to a sustainable economy.

Keywords: economics of biodiversity, environmental valuation, natural capital, value function

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Authors: Margareth Guimaraes Lima, Marilisa Berti A. Barros, Deborah Carvalho Malta

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The relationship between physical activity (PA) and depression has been investigated, in both, observational and clinical studies: PA can integrate the treatments for depression; the physical inactivity (PI) may contribute to increase depression symptoms; and on the other hand, emotional problems can decrease PA. The main of this study was analyze the association among leisure and transportation PI and time watching television (TV) according to depression (minor and major), evaluated with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The association was also analyzed by gender. This is a cross-sectional study. Data were obtained from the National Health Survey 2013 (PNS), performed with representative sample of the Brazilian adult population, in 2013. The PNS collected information from 60,202 individuals, aged 18 years or more. The independent variable were: leisure time physical inactivity (LTPI), considering inactive or insufficiently actives (categories were linked for analyzes), those who do not performed a minimum of 150 or 74 minutes of moderate or vigorous LTPA, respectively, by week; transportation physical inactivity (TPI), individuals who did not reached 150 minutes, by week, travelling by bicycle or on foot to work or other activities; daily time watching TV > 5 hours. The principal independent variable was depression, identified by PHQ-9. Individuals were classified with major depression, with > 5 symptoms, more than seven days, but one of the symptoms was “depressive mood” or “lack of interest or pleasure”. The others had minor depression. The variables used to adjustment were gender, age, schooling and chronic disease. The prevalence of LTPI, TPI and TV time were estimated according to depression, and differences were tested with Chi-Square test. Adjusted prevalence ratios were estimated using multiple Poisson regression models. The analyzes also had stratification by gender. Mean age of the studied population was 42.9 years old (CI95%:42.6-43.2) and 52.9% were women. 77.5% and 68.1% were inactive or insufficiently active in leisure and transportation, respectively and 13.3% spent time watching TV 5 > hours. 6% and 4.1% of the Brazilian population were diagnosed with minor or major depression. LTPI prevalence was 5% and 9% higher among individuals with minor and major depression, respectively, comparing with no depression. The prevalence of TPI was 7% higher in those with major depression. Considering larger time watching TV, the prevalence was 45% and 74% higher among those with minor and major depression, respectively. Analyzing by gender, the associations were greater in men than women and TPI was note be associated, in women. The study detected the higher prevalence of leisure time physical inactivity and, especially, time spent watching TV, among individuals with major and minor depression, after to adjust for a number of potential confounding factors. TPI was only associated with major disorders and among men. Considering the cross-sectional design of the research, these associations can point out the importance of the mental problems control of the population to increase PA and decrease the sedentary lifestyle; on the other hand, the study highlight the need of interventions by encouraging people with depression, to practice PA, even to transportation.

Keywords: depression, physical activity, PHQ-9, sedentary lifestyle

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Authors: Marina Nechayeva, Malgorzata Marciniak, Vladimir Przhebelskiy, A. Dragutan, S. Lamichhane, S. Oikawa

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This presentation is a progress report on a faculty-student research collaboration at CUNY LaGuardia Community College (LaGCC) aimed at designing a small horizontal axis wind turbine optimized for the wind patterns on the roof of our campus. Our project combines statistical and engineering research. Our wind modeling protocol is based upon a recent wind study by a faculty-student research group at MIT, and some of our blade design methods are adopted from a senior engineering project at CUNY City College. Our use of genetic algorithms has been inspired by the work on small wind turbines’ design by David Wood. We combine these diverse approaches in our interdisciplinary project in a way that has not been done before and improve upon certain techniques used by our predecessors. We employ several estimation methods to determine the best fitting parametric probability distribution model for the local wind speed data obtained through correlating short-term on-site measurements with a long-term time series at the nearby airport. The model serves as a foundation for engineering research that focuses on adapting and implementing genetic algorithms (GAs) to engineering optimization of the wind turbine design using Blade Element Momentum Theory. GAs are used to create new airfoils with desirable aerodynamic specifications. Small scale models of best performing designs are 3D printed and tested in the wind tunnel to verify the accuracy of relevant calculations. Genetic algorithms are applied to selected airfoils to determine the blade design (radial cord and pitch distribution) that would optimize the coefficient of power profile of the turbine. Our approach improves upon the traditional blade design methods in that it lets us dispense with assumptions necessary to simplify the system of Blade Element Momentum Theory equations, thus resulting in more accurate aerodynamic performance calculations. Furthermore, it enables us to design blades optimized for a whole range of wind speeds rather than a single value. Lastly, we improve upon known GA-based methods in that our algorithms are constructed to work with XFoil generated airfoils data which enables us to optimize blades using our own high glide ratio airfoil designs, without having to rely upon available empirical data from existing airfoils, such as NACA series. Beyond its immediate goal, this ongoing project serves as a training and selection platform for CUNY Research Scholars Program (CRSP) through its annual Aerodynamics and Wind Energy Research Seminar (AWERS), an undergraduate summer research boot camp, designed to introduce prospective researchers to the relevant theoretical background and methodology, get them up to speed with the current state of our research, and test their abilities and commitment to the program. Furthermore, several aspects of the research (e.g., writing code for 3D printing of airfoils) are adapted in the form of classroom research activities to enhance Calculus sequence instruction at LaGCC.

Keywords: engineering design optimization, genetic algorithms, horizontal axis wind turbine, wind modeling

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Authors: Vaidehi Raipat

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A city is an expression of coexistence between its users and built environment. The way in which its spaces are animated signify the quality of this coexistence. Urban sustainability is the ability of a city to respond efficiently towards its people, culture, environment, visual image, history, visions and identity. The quality of built environment determines the quality of our lifestyles, but poor ability of the built environment to adapt and sustain itself through the changes leads to degradation of cities. Ranchi was created in November 2000, as the capital of the newly formed state Jharkhand, located on eastern side of India. Before this Ranchi was known as summer capital of Bihar and was a little larger than a town in terms of development. But since then it has been vigorously expanding in size, infrastructure as well as population. This sudden expansion has created a stress on existing built environment. The large forest covers, agricultural land, diverse culture and pleasant climatic conditions have degraded and decreased to a large extent. Narrow roads and old buildings are unable to bear the load of the changing requirements, fast improving technology and growing population. The built environment has hence been rendered unsustainable and unadaptable through fastidious changes of present era. Some of the common hazards that can be easily spotted in the built environment are half-finished built forms, pedestrians and vehicles moving on the same part of the road. Unpaved areas on street edges. Over-sized, bright and randomly placed hoardings. Negligible trees or green spaces. The old buildings have been poorly maintained and the new ones are being constructed over them. Roads are too narrow to cater to the increasing traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular. The streets have a large variety of activities taking place on them, but haphazardly. Trees are being cut down for road widening and new constructions. There is no space for greenery in the commercial as well as old residential areas. The old infrastructure is deteriorating because of poor maintenance and the economic limitations. Pseudo understanding of functionality as well as aesthetics drive the new infrastructure. It is hence necessary to evaluate the extent of sustainability of existing built environment of the city and create or regenerate the existing built environment into a more sustainable and adaptable one. For this purpose, research titled “Sustainability of the Built Environment of Ranchi District” has been carried out. In this research the condition of the built environment of Ranchi are explored so as to figure out the problems and shortcomings existing in the city and provide for design strategies that can make the existing built-environment sustainable. The built environment of Ranchi that include its outdoor spaces like streets, parks, other open areas, its built forms as well as its users, has been analyzed in terms of various urban design parameters. Based on which strategies have been suggested to make the city environmentally, socially, culturally and economically sustainable.

Keywords: adaptable, built-environment, sustainability, urban

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Authors: Dalia Hanna, Alexander Ferworn

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This research provides detailed proposed training modules for the public safety teams and, specifically, SAR teams responsible for search and rescue operations related to finding lost persons with dementia. Finding a lost person alive is the goal of this training. Time matters if a lost person is to be found alive. Finding lost people living with dementia is quite challenging, as they are unaware they are lost and will not seek help. Even a small contribution to SAR operations could contribute to saving a life. SAR operations will always require expert professional and human volunteers. However, we can reduce their time, save lives, and reduce costs by providing practical training that is based on real-life scenarios. The content for the proposed training is based on the research work done by the researcher in this area. This research has demonstrated that, based on utilizing drones, the algorithmic approach could support a successful search outcome. Understanding the behavior of the lost person, learning where they may be found, predicting their survivability, and automating the search are all contributions of this work, founded in theory and demonstrated in practice. In crisis management, human behavior constitutes a vital aspect in responding to the crisis; the speed and efficiency of the response often get affected by the difficulty of the context of the operation. Therefore, training in this area plays a significant role in preparing the crisis manager to manage the emotional aspects that lead to decision-making in these critical situations. Since it is crucial to gain high-level strategic choices and the ability to apply crisis management procedures, simulation exercises become central in training crisis managers to gain the needed skills to respond critically to these events. The training will enhance the responders’ ability to make decisions and anticipate possible consequences of their actions through flexible and revolutionary reasoning in responding to the crisis efficiently and quickly. As adult learners, search and rescue teams will be approaching training and learning by taking responsibility of the learning process, appreciate flexible learning and as contributors to the teaching and learning happening during that training. These are all characteristics of adult learning theories. The learner self-reflects, gathers information, collaborates with others and is self-directed. One of the learning strategies associated with adult learning is effective elaboration. It helps learners to remember information in the long term and use it in situations where it might be appropriate. It is also a strategy that can be taught easily and used with learners of different ages. Designers must design reflective activities to improve the student’s intrapersonal awareness.

Keywords: training, OER, dementia, drones, search and rescue, adult learning, UDL, instructional design

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Authors: Sudipta Garai

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Films as a cultural, social practice remains a dominant space for creation and destruction of ideologies and practices which make the sociological viewing, analysis, and interpretation of the same a complex affair. It remains the doorway between the interpretations and understanding of the writer/director and the reader/viewer. India, being a multi-linguistic culture, the media plays a much intriguing role than that of newspaper, books, stories, novels or any other medium of expression. Known to be the largest democracy, the State seem to guarantee and safeguard people’s choices and life of dignity through its Fundamental Rights and Directives. However, the laws contradict themselves when it comes to IPC 377 criminalizing anything except penovaginal sexual intercourse restricting alternative sexual preferences and practices questioning its sense of ‘democracy.' In this context, the issue of homosexuality came up in bits and pieces through various representations in ‘popular’ cinema mostly with sudden references of mockery and laughter where the explicit narratives of ‘queer’ seemed missing. Rituparno Ghosh, an eminent film maker of Bengal, came up as the ‘queer’ face in Kolkata specifically through his ‘queer’ trilogy (Memories in March, 2010; Arekti Premer Golpo, 2010; Chitrangada: A Crowning Wish, 2012) coming out of his own closet and speaking about his own sexual choices not only through the explicit narratives in films but also in person which made these films an important point of departure in Bengali film history. A sociological reading of these films through a discourse analysis is being done with the critical questions of ‘choice,' ’freedom,' ‘love and marriage’ and most importantly the ‘change.' This study not only focuses on the films and its analysis of content but also to engage with its audience, queer and not in order to extend beyond the art form into the actual vulnerabilities of life and experiences through informal interviews, focused group discussions and engaging with the real life narratives. A research of this kind is always looked upon as a medium of change hoping for a better world wiping away the discrimination and ‘shame’ the ‘queer’ faces in their everyday life, but a social science research is limited but its ‘time’ and academic boundary where the hope of change might be initiated but not fulfilled. The experiences and reflections of the ‘queer’ not only redefined the narratives of the films but also me as a researcher. The perspectives of the ‘hetero-normative’ informants gave a broader picture of the study and the socio-cultural complications that are intrigued with the ideas of resistance and change. The issues on subjectivity, power, and position couldn’t be wiped out in a study of this kind as both politics and aesthetics become integrated with each other in the creation of any art form be it films or a study of research.

Keywords: cinema, alternative sexualities, narratives, sexual choices, state and society

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Authors: Markéta Chmelíková, David Ullrich, Iva Burešová

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The paper maps the possibilities and limits of diagnosing selected personality and performance characteristics of military leadership and psychology students in the context of coping with challenging situations. Individuals vary greatly inter-individually in their ability to effectively manage extreme situations, yet existing diagnostic tools are often criticized mainly for their low predictive power. Nowadays, every modern army focuses primarily on the systematic minimization of potential risks, including the prediction of desirable forms of behavior and the performance of military commanders. The context of military leadership is well known for its life-threatening nature. Therefore, it is crucial to research stress load in the specific context of military leadership for the purpose of possible anticipation of human failure in managing extreme situations of military leadership. The aim of the submitted pilot study, using an experiment of 24 hours duration, is to verify the possibilities of a specific combination of psychodiagnostic to predict people who possess suitable equipment for coping with increased stress load. In our pilot study, we conducted an experiment of 24 hours duration with an experimental group (N=13) in the bomb shelter and a control group (N=11) in a classroom. Both groups were represented by military leadership students (N=11) and psychology students (N=13). Both groups were equalized in terms of study type and gender. Participants were administered the following test battery of personality characteristics: Big Five Inventory 2 (BFI-2), Short Dark Triad (SD-3), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), and Impulsive Behavior Scale (UPPS-P). This test battery was administered only once at the beginning of the experiment. Along with this, they were administered a test battery consisting of the Test of Attention (d2) and the Bourdon test four times overall with 6 hours ranges. To better simulate an extreme situation – we tried to induce sleep deprivation - participants were required to try not to fall asleep throughout the experiment. Despite the assumption that a stay in an underground bomb shelter will manifest in impaired cognitive performance, this expectation has been significantly confirmed in only one measurement, which can be interpreted as marginal in the context of multiple testing. This finding is a fundamental insight into the issue of stress management in extreme situations, which is crucial for effective military leadership. The results suggest that a 24-hour stay in a shelter, together with sleep deprivation, does not seem to simulate sufficient stress for an individual, which would be reflected in the level of cognitive performance. In the context of these findings, it would be interesting in future to extend the diagnostic battery with physiological indicators of stress, such as: heart rate, stress score, physical stress, mental stress ect.

Keywords: bomb shelter, extreme situation, military leadership, psychodiagnostic

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Authors: Lian Kösters, Wendy Smits, Raymond Montizaan

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The number of solo self-employed in the Netherlands has been increasing for years. The relative increase is among the largest in the EU. To explain this increase, most studies have focused on the supply side, workers who offer themselves as solo self-employed. The number of studies that focus on the demand side, the employer who hires the solo self-employed, is still scarce. Studies into employer behaviour conducted until now show that employers mainly choose self-employed workers when they have a temporary need for specialist knowledge, but also during projects or production peaks. These studies do not provide insight into the employers’ considerations for different contract types. In this study, interviews with employers were conducted, and available literature was consulted to provide an overview of the several factors employers use to compare different contract types. That input was used to set up a vignette study. This was carried out at the end of 2021 among almost 1000 business owners, HR managers, and business leaders of Dutch companies. Each respondent was given two sets of five fictitious candidates for two possible positions in their organization. They were asked to rank these candidates. The positions varied with regard to the type of tasks (core tasks or support tasks) and the time it took to train new people for the position. The respondents were asked additional questions about the positions, such as the required level of education, the duration, and the degree of predictability of tasks. The fictitious candidates varied, among other things, in the type of contract on which they would come to work for the organization. The results were analyzed using a rank-ordered logit analysis. This vignette setup makes it possible to see which factors are most important for employers when choosing to hire a solo self-employed person compared to other contracts. The results show that there are no indications that employers would want to hire solo self-employed workers en masse. They prefer regular employee contracts. The probability of being chosen with a solo self-employed contract over someone who comes to work as a temporary employee is 32 percent. This probability is even lower than for on-call and temporary agency workers. For a permanent contract, this probability is 46 percent. The results provide indications that employers consider knowledge and skills more important than the solo self-employed contract and that this can compensate. A solo self-employed candidate with 10 years of work experience has a 63 percent probability of being found attractive by an employer compared to a temporary employee without work experience. This suggests that employers are willing to give someone a less attractive contract for the employer if the worker so wishes. The results also show that the probability that a solo self-employed person is preferred over a candidate with a temporary employee contract is somewhat higher in business economics, administrative and technical professions. No significant results were found for factors where it was expected that solo self-employed workers are preferred more often, such as for unpredictable or temporary work.

Keywords: employer behaviour, rank-ordered logit analysis, solo self-employment, temporary contract, vignette study

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Authors: Anna Slupik, Anna Mosiolek, Sebastian Wojtowicz, Dariusz Bialoszewski

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Introduction: Whole-body vibration (WBV) uses high frequency mechanical stimuli generated by a vibration plate and transmitted through bone, muscle and connective tissues to the whole body. Research has shown that long-term vibration-plate training improves neuromuscular facilitation, especially in afferent neural pathways, responsible for the conduction of vibration and proprioceptive stimuli, muscle function, balance and proprioception. Some researchers suggest that the vibration stimulus briefly inhibits the conduction of afferent signals from proprioceptors and can interfere with the maintenance of body balance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of a single set of exercises associated with whole-body vibration on the joint position sense and body balance. Material and methods: The study enrolled 55 people aged 19-24 years. These individuals were randomly divided into a test group (30 persons) and a control group (25 persons). Both groups performed the same set of exercises on a vibration plate. The following vibration parameters: frequency of 20Hz and amplitude of 3mm, were used in the test group. The control group performed exercises on the vibration plate while it was off. All participants were instructed to perform six dynamic exercises lasting 30 seconds each with a 60-second period of rest between them. The exercises involved large muscle groups of the trunk, pelvis and lower limbs. Measurements were carried out before and immediately after exercise. Joint position sense (JPS) was measured in the knee joint for the starting position at 45° in an open kinematic chain. JPS error was measured using a digital inclinometer. Balance was assessed in a standing position with both feet on the ground with the eyes open and closed (each test lasting 30 sec). Balance was assessed using Matscan with FootMat 7.0 SAM software. The surface of the ellipse of confidence and front-back as well as right-left swing were measured to assess balance. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica 10.0 PL software. Results: There were no significant differences between the groups, both before and after the exercise (p> 0.05). JPS did not change in both the test (10.7° vs. 8.4°) and control groups (9.0° vs. 8.4°). No significant differences were shown in any of the test parameters during balance tests with the eyes open or closed in both the test and control groups (p> 0.05). Conclusions. 1. Deterioration in proprioception or balance was not observed immediately after the vibration stimulus. This suggests that vibration-induced blockage of proprioceptive stimuli conduction can have only a short-lasting effect that occurs only as long as a vibration stimulus is present. 2. Short-term use of vibration in treatment does not impair proprioception and seems to be safe for patients with proprioceptive impairment. 3. These results need to be supplemented with an assessment of proprioception during the application of vibration stimuli. Additionally, the impact of vibration parameters used in the exercises should be evaluated.

Keywords: balance, joint position sense, proprioception, whole body vibration

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Authors: Jui Chen Wu, Ming Yi Hsu

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Background and Purpose: Shift work of nursing staff is inevitable in hospital to provide continuing medical care. However, shift work is considered as a health hazard that may cause physical and psychological problems. Serious workplace fatigue of nursing shift work might impact on family, social and work life, moreover, causes serious reduction of quality of medical care, or even malpractice. This study aims to explore relationships among nursing staff’s shift, workplace fatigue and quality of working life. Method: Structured questionnaires were used in this study to explore relationships among shift work, workplace fatigue and quality of working life in nursing staffs. We recruited 590 nursing staffs in different Community Teaching hospitals in Taiwan. Data analysed by descriptive statistics, single sample t-test, single factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient and hierarchical regression, etc. Results: The overall workplace fatigue score is 50.59 points. In further analysis, the score of personal burnout, work-related burnout, over-commitment and client-related burnout are 57.86, 53.83, 45.95 and 44.71. The basic attributes of nursing staff are significantly different from those of workplace fatigue with different ages, licenses, sleeping quality, self-conscious health status, number of care patients of chronic diseases and number of care people in the obstetric ward. The shift variables revealed no significant influence on workplace fatigue during the hierarchical regression analysis. About the analysis on nursing staff’s basic attributes and shift on the quality of working life, descriptive results show that the overall quality of working life of nursing staff is 3.23 points. Comparing the average score of the six aspects, the ranked average score are 3.47 (SD= .43) in interrelationship, 3.40 (SD= .46) in self-actualisation, 3.30 (SD= .40) in self-efficacy, 3.15 (SD= .38) in vocational concept, 3.07 (SD= .37) in work aspects, and 3.02 (SD= .56) in organization aspects. The basic attributes of nursing staff are significantly different from quality of working life in different marriage situations, education level, years of nursing work, occupation area, sleep quality, self-conscious health status and number of care in medical ward. There are significant differences between shift mode and shift rate with the quality of working life. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis reveal that one of the shifts variables 'shift mode' which does affect staff’s quality of working life. The workplace fatigue is negatively correlated with the quality of working life, and the over-commitment in the workplace fatigue is positively related to the vocational concept of the quality of working life. According to the regression analysis of nursing staff’s basic attributes, shift mode, workplace fatigue and quality of working life related shift, the results show that the workplace fatigue has a significant impact on nursing staff’s quality of working life. Conclusion: According to our study, shift work is correlated with workplace fatigue in nursing staffs. This results work as important reference for human resources management in hospitals to establishing a more positive and healthy work arrangement policy.

Keywords: nursing staff, shift, workplace fatigue, quality of working life

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Authors: Buket Celik Ünal, Onur Ünal

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Communication is the most challenging part of maintenance operations. Communication between expert and fieldworker is crucial for effective maintenance and this also affects the safety of the fieldworkers. To support a machine user in a remote collaborative physical task, both, a mobile and a stationary device are needed. Such a system is called a shared vision system and the system supports two people to solve a problem from different places. This system reduces the errors and provides a reliable support for qualified and less qualified users. Through this research, it was aimed to validate the effectiveness of using a shared vision system to facilitate communication between on-site workers and those issuing instructions regarding maintenance or inspection works over long distances. The system is designed with head-worn display which is called a shared vision system. As a part of this study, a substitute system is used and implemented by using a shared vision system for maintenance operation. The benefits of the use of a shared vision system are analyzed and results are adapted to the wind turbines to improve the occupational safety and health for maintenance technicians. The motivation for the research effort in this study can be summarized in the following research questions: -How can expert support technician over long distances during maintenance operation? -What are the advantages of using a shared vision system? Experience from the experiment shows that using a shared vision system is an advantage for both electrical and mechanical system failures. Results support that the shared vision system can be used for wind turbine maintenance and repair tasks. Because wind turbine generator/gearbox and the substitute system have similar failures. Electrical failures, such as voltage irregularities, wiring failures and mechanical failures, such as alignment, vibration, over-speed conditions are the common and similar failures for both. Furthermore, it was analyzed the effectiveness of the shared vision system by using a smart glasses in connection with the maintenance task performed by a substitute system under four different circumstances, namely by using a shared vision system, an audio communication, a smartphone and by yourself condition. A suitable method for determining dependencies between factors measured in Chi Square Test, and Chi Square Test for Independence measured for determining a relationship between two qualitative variables and finally Mann Whitney U Test is used to compare any two data sets. While based on this experiment, no relation was found between the results and the gender. Participants` responses confirmed that the shared vision system is efficient and helpful for maintenance operations. From the results of the research, there was a statistically significant difference in the average time taken by subjects on works using a shared vision system under the other conditions. Additionally, this study confirmed that a shared vision system provides reduction in time to diagnose and resolve maintenance issues, reduction in diagnosis errors, reduced travel costs for experts, and increased reliability in service.

Keywords: communication support, maintenance and inspection tasks, occupational health and safety, shared vision system

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Authors: Alena Radina

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On the global stage, national image is shaped by historical memory of wars and alliances, government ideology and particularly media stereotypes which represent countries in positive or negative ways. News magazine covers are a key site for national representation. The object of analysis in this paper is the portrayals of the US, Germany, China, and Russia in the front pages and cover stories of “Time”, “Der Spiegel”, “Beijing Review”, and “Expert”. Political comedy helps people learn about current affairs even if politics is not their area of interest, and thus satire indirectly sets the public agenda. Coupled with satirical messages, cover images and the linguistic messages embedded in the covers become persuasive visual and verbal factors, known to drive about 80% of magazine sales. Preliminary analysis identified satirical elements in magazine covers, which are known to influence and frame understandings and attract younger audiences. Multimodal and transnational comparative framing analyses lay the groundwork to investigate why journalists, editors and designers deploy certain frames rather than others. This research investigates to what degree frames used in covers correlate with frames within the cover stories and what these framings can tell us about media professionals’ representations of their own and other nations. The study sample includes 32 covers consisting of two covers representing each of the four chosen countries from the four magazines. The sampling framework considers two time periods to compare countries’ representation with two different presidents, and between men and women when present. The countries selected for analysis represent each category of the international news flows model: the core nations are the US and Germany; China is a semi-peripheral country; and Russia is peripheral. Examining textual and visual design elements on the covers and images in the cover stories reveals not only what editors believe visually attracts the reader’s attention to the magazine but also how the magazines frame and construct national images and national leaders. The cover is the most powerful editorial and design page in a magazine because images incorporate less intrusive framing tools. Thus, covers require less cognitive effort of audiences who may therefore be more likely to accept the visual frame without question. Analysis of design and linguistic elements in magazine covers helps to understand how media outlets shape their audience’s perceptions and how magazines frame global issues. While previous multimodal research of covers has focused mostly on lifestyle magazines or newspapers, this paper examines the power of current affairs magazines’ covers to shape audience perception of national image.

Keywords: framing analysis, magazine covers, multimodality, national image, satire

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Authors: Yiorgos Hadjichristou

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The paper will focus on the hybrid living typologies which are brought about due to the Global Crisis. Mixing of the generations and the groups of people, mingling the functions of living with working and socializing, merging the act of living in synergy with the urban realm and its constituent elements will be the springboard of proposing an essential sustainable housing approach and the respective urban development. The thematic will be based on methodologies developed both on the academic, educational environment including participation of students’ research and on the practical aspect of architecture including case studies executed by the author in the island of Cyprus. Both paths of the research will deal with the explorative understanding of the hybrid ways of living, testing the limits of its autonomy. The evolution of the living typologies into substantial hybrid entities, will deal with the understanding of new ways of living which include among others: re-introduction of natural phenomena, accommodation of the activity of work and services in the living realm, interchange of public and private, injections of communal events into the individual living territories. The issues and the binary questions raised by what is natural and artificial, what is private and what public, what is ephemeral and what permanent and all the in-between conditions are eloquently traced in the everyday life in the island. Additionally, given the situation of Cyprus with the eminent scar of the dividing ‘Green line’ and the waiting of the ‘ghost city’ of Famagusta to be resurrected, the conventional way of understanding the limits and the definitions of the properties is irreversibly shaken. The situation is further aggravated by the unprecedented phenomenon of the crisis on the island. All these observations set the premises of reexamining the urban development and the respective sustainable housing in a synergy where their characteristics start exchanging positions, merge into each other, contemporarily emerge and vanish, changing from permanent to ephemeral. This fluidity of conditions will attempt to render a future of the built- and unbuilt realm where the main focusing point will be redirected to the human and the social. Weather and social ritual scenographies together with ‘spontaneous urban landscapes’ of ‘momentary relationships’ will suggest a recipe for emerging urban environments and sustainable living. Thus, the paper will aim at opening a discourse on the future of the sustainable living merged in a sustainable urban development in relation to the imminent solution of the division of island, where the issue of property became the main obstacle to be overcome. At the same time, it will attempt to link this approach to the global need for a sustainable evolution of the urban and living realms.

Keywords: social ritual scenographies, spontaneous urban landscapes, substantial hybrid entities, re-introduction of natural phenomena

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Authors: Chandanee Wasana Kalansooriya

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Dietary behaviour is a crucial factor affecting diabetes control. With increasing rates of diabetes prevalence in Asian countries, examining their dietary patterns, which are largely based on rice, is timely required. It has been identified that higher consumption of some rice varieties is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Although diabetes patients are advised to consume healthier rice varieties, which contains low glycemic, several conditions, one of which food insecurity, make them difficult to preserve those healthy dietary guidelines. Hence this study tries to investigate how food security affects on making right decisions of rice consumption within diabetes affected households using a sample from Sri Lanka, a country which rice considered as the staple food and records the highest diabetes prevalence rate in South Asia. The study uses data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2016, a nationally representative sample conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka. The survey used a two-stage stratified sampling method to cover different sectors and districts of the country and collected micro-data on demographics, health, income and expenditures of different categories. The study uses data from 2547 households which consist of one or more diabetes patients, based on the self-recorded health status. The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), which constructed based on twelve food groups, is used to measure the level of food security. Rice is categorized into three groups according to their Glycemic Index (GI), high GI, medium GI and low GI, and the likelihood and impact made by food security on each rice consumption categories are estimated using a Two-part Model. The shares of each rice categories out of total rice consumption is considered as the dependent variable to exclude the endogeneity issue between rice consumption and the HDDS. The results indicate that the consumption of medium GI rice is likely to increase with the increasing household food security, but low GI varieties are not. Households in rural and estate sectors are less likely and Tamil ethnic group is more likely to consume low GI rice varieties. Further, an increase in food security significantly decreases the consumption share of low GI rice, while it increases the share of medium GI varieties. The consumption share of low GI rice is largely affected by the ethnic variability. The effects of food security on the likelihood of consuming high GI rice varieties and changing its shares are statistically insignificant. Accordingly, the study concludes that a higher level of food security does not ensure diabetes patients are consuming healthy rice varieties or reducing consumption of unhealthy varieties. Hence policy attention must be directed towards educating people for making healthy dietary choices. Further, the study provides a room for further studies as it reveals considerable ethnic and sectorial differences in making healthy dietary decisions.

Keywords: diabetes, food security, glycemic index, rice consumption

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Authors: Bengan Simbarashe Manwere

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The entire African continent, comprising 55 countries, holds a 2% share of the global carbon market. The World Bank attributes the continent’s insignificant share and participation in the carbon market to the limited access to electricity. Approximately 800 million people spread across 47 African countries generate as much power as Spain, with a population of 45million. Only South Africa and North Africa have carbon-reduction investment opportunities on the continent and dominate the 2% market share of the global carbon market. On the back of the 2015 Paris Agreement, South Africa signed into law the Carbon Tax Act 15 of 2019 and the Customs and Excise Amendment Act 13 of 2019 (Gazette No. 4280) on 1 June 2019. By these laws, South Africa was ushered into the league of active global carbon market players. By increasing the cost of production by the rate of R120/tCO2e, the tax intentionally compels the internalization of pollution as a cost of production and, relatedly, stimulate investment in clean technologies. The first phase covered the 1 June 2019 – 31 December 2022 period during which the tax was meant to escalate at CPI + 2% for Scope 1 emitters. However, in the second phase, which stretches from 2023 to 2030, the tax will escalate at the inflation rate only as measured by the consumer price index (CPI). The Carbon Tax Act provides for carbon allowances as mitigation strategies to limit agents’ carbon tax liability by up to 95% for fugitive and process emissions. Although the June 2019 Carbon Tax Act explicitly makes provision for a carbon trading scheme (CTS), the carbon trading regulations thereof were only finalised in December 2020. This points to a delay in the establishment of a carbon trading scheme (CTS). Relatedly, emitters in South Africa are not able to benefit from the 95% reduction in effective carbon tax rate from R120/tCO2e to R6/tCO2e as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has not yet finalized the establishment of the market for trading carbon credits. Whereas most carbon trading schemes have been designed and constructed from the beginning as new tailor-made systems in countries the likes of France, Australia, Romania which treat carbon as a financial product, South Africa intends, on the contrary, to leverage existing trading infrastructure of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Clearing and Settlement platforms of Strate, among others, in the interest of the Paris Agreement timelines. Therefore the carbon trading scheme will not be constructed from scratch. At the same time, carbon will be treated as a commodity in order to align with the existing institutional and infrastructural capacity. This explains why the Carbon Tax Act is silent about the involvement of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).For South Africa, there is need to establish they equilibrium stability of the CTS. This is important as South Africa is an innovator in carbon trading and the successful trading of carbon credits on the JSE will lead to imitation by early adopters first, followed by the middle majority thereafter.

Keywords: carbon trading scheme (CTS), Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE), carbon tax act 15 of 2019, South Africa

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Authors: Maria F. Seran

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In second language interaction, an EFL student always carries his knowledge of targeted language and sometimes gets influenced by his first language cultures which makes him transfer his utterances from the first language to the second language. The influence of L1 cultures somehow can lead to face-threatening act when it comes to responding on speech act, for instance, compliment. A speaker praises a compliment to show gratitude, and in return, he expects for compliment respond uttered by the hearer. While Western people use more acceptance continuum on compliment response, Indonesians utter more denial continuum which can somehow put the speakers into a face-threating situation and offense. This study investigated compliment response employed by EFL students and English native speakers. The study was distinct as none compliment response studies had been conducted to compare the compliment response between English native speakers and two different Indonesian EFL proficiency groups in which this research sought to meet this need. This study was significant for EFL teachers because it gave insight on cross-cultural understanding and brought pedagogical implication on explicit pragmatic instruction. Two research questions were set, 1. How do Indonesian EFL students and English native speakers respond compliments? 2. Is there any correlation between Indonesia EFL students’ proficiency and their compliment response use in English? The study involved three groups of participants; 5 English native speakers, 10 high-proficiency and 10 low-proficiency Indonesian EFL university students. The research instruments used in this study were as follows, an online TOEFL prediction test, focusing on grammar skill which was modified from Barron TOEFL exercise test, and a discourse completion task (DCT), consisting of 10 compliment respond items. Based on the research invitation, 20 second-year university students majoring in English education at Widya Mandira Catholic University, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia who willingly participated in the research took the TOEFL prediction test online from the link provided. Students who achieved score 75-100 in test were categorized as high-proficiency students, while, students who attained score below 74 were considered as low-proficiency students. Then, the DCT survey was administered to these EFL groups and the native speaker group. Participants’ responses were coded and analyzed using categories of compliment response framework proposed by Tran. The study found out that 5 native speakers applied more compliment upgrades and appreciation token in compliment response, whereas, Indonesian EFL students combined some compliment response strategies in their utterance, such as, appreciation token, return and compliment downgrade. There is no correlation between students’ proficiency level and their CR responds as most EFL students in both groups produced less varied compliment responses and only 4 Indonesian high-proficiency students uttered more varied and were similar to the native speakers. The combination strategies used by EFL students can be explained as the influence of pragmatic transfer from L1 to L2; therefore, EFL teachers should explicitly teach more compliment response strategies to raise students’ awareness on English culture and elaborate their speaking to be more competence as close to native speakers as possible.

Keywords: compliment response, English native speakers, Indonesian EFL students, speech acts

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Authors: Mahdi Shaghaghi, Amir Ghaebi, Fariba Ahmadi

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Purpose: The main purpose of the present research is to analyze the knowledge creation environment at a Iranian University (Alzahra University) as a typical University in Iran, using a combination of the i-System and Ba models. This study is necessary for understanding the determinants of knowledge creation at Alzahra University as a typical University in Iran. Methodology: To carry out the present research, which is an applied study in terms of purpose, a descriptive survey method was used. In this study, a combination of the i-System and Ba models has been used to analyze the knowledge creation environment at Alzahra University. i-System consists of 5 constructs including intervention (input), intelligence (process), involvement (process), imagination (process), and integration (output). The Ba environment has three pillars, namely the infrastructure, the agent, and the information. The integration of these two models resulted in 11 constructs which were as follows: intervention (input), infrastructure-intelligence, agent-intelligence, information-intelligence (process); infrastructure-involvement, agent-involvement, information-involvement (process); infrastructure-imagination, agent-imagination, information-imagination (process); and integration (output). These 11 constructs were incorporated into a 52-statement questionnaire and the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were examined and confirmed. The statistical population included the faculty members of Alzahra University (344 people). A total of 181 participants were selected through the stratified random sampling technique. The descriptive statistics, binomial test, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) methods were also utilized to analyze the data. Findings: The research findings indicated that among the 11 research constructs, the levels of intervention, information-intelligence, infrastructure-involvement, and agent-imagination constructs were average and not acceptable. The levels of infrastructure-intelligence and information-imagination constructs ranged from average to low. The levels of agent-intelligence and information-involvement constructs were also completely average. The level of infrastructure-imagination construct was average to high and thus was considered acceptable. The levels of agent-involvement and integration constructs were above average and were in a highly acceptable condition. Furthermore, the regression analysis results indicated that only two constructs, viz. the information-imagination and agent-involvement constructs, positively and significantly correlate with the integration construct. The results of the structural equation modeling also revealed that the intervention, intelligence, and involvement constructs are related to the integration construct with the complete mediation of imagination. Discussion and conclusion: The present research suggests that knowledge creation at Alzahra University relatively complies with the combination of the i-System and Ba models. Unlike this model, the intervention, intelligence, and involvement constructs are not directly related to the integration construct and this seems to have three implications: 1) the information sources are not frequently used to assess and identify the research biases; 2) problem finding is probably of less concern at the end of studies and at the time of assessment and validation; 3) the involvement of others has a smaller role in the summarization, assessment, and validation of the research.

Keywords: i-System, Ba model , knowledge creation , knowledge management, knowledge creation environment, Iranian Universities

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Authors: Hengameh Hosseini

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Design of large healthcare facilities – such as hospitals, multi-service line clinics, and nursing facilities - that can accommodate patients with wide-ranging disabilities is a challenging endeavor and one that is poorly understood among healthcare facility managers, administrators, and executives. An even less-understood extension of this problem is the implications of weakly or insufficiently accommodative design of facilities for healthcare workers in physically-intensive jobs who may also suffer from a range of disabilities and who are therefore at increased risk of workplace accident and injury. Combine this reality with the vast range of facility types, ages, and designs, and the problem of universal accommodation becomes even more daunting and complex. In this study, we focus on the implication of facility design for healthcare workers suffering with low vision who also have physically active jobs. The points of difficulty are myriad and could span health service infrastructure, the equipment used in health facilities, and transport to and from appointments and other services can all pose a barrier to health care if they are inaccessible, less accessible, or even simply less comfortable for people with various disabilities. We conduct a series of surveys and interviews with employees and administrators of 7 facilities of a range of sizes and ownership models in the Northeastern United States and combine that corpus with in-facility observations and data collection to identify five major points of failure common to all the facilities that we concluded could pose safety threats to employees with vision impairments, ranging from very minor to severe. We determine that lack of design empathy is a major commonality among facility management and ownership. We subsequently propose three methods for remedying this lack of empathy-informed design, to remedy the dangers posed to employees: the use of an existing open-sourced Augmented Reality application to simulate the low-vision experience for designers and managers; the use of a machine learning model we develop to automatically infer facility shortcomings from large datasets of recorded patient and employee reviews and feedback; and the use of a computer vision model fine tuned on images of each facility to infer and predict facility features, locations, and workflows, that could again pose meaningful dangers to visually impaired employees of each facility. After conducting a series of real-world comparative experiments with each of these approaches, we conclude that each of these are viable solutions under particular sets of conditions, and finally characterize the range of facility types, workforce composition profiles, and work conditions under which each of these methods would be most apt and successful.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, healthcare workers, facility design, disability, visually impaired, workplace safety

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Authors: Taekyun Hur, Yoonyoung Kim, Junkyu Lim

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Previous works on leisure activities had been categorizing activities arbitrarily and subjectively while focusing on a single dimension (e.g. active-passive, individual-group). To overcome these problems, this study proposed a Korean leisure activities’ matrix model that considered multidimensional features of leisure activities, which was comprised of 3 main factors and 6 sub factors: (a) Active (physical, mental), (b) Relational (quantity, quality), (c) Expert (entry barrier, possibility of improving). We developed items for measuring the degree of each dimension for every leisure activity. Using the developed Leisure Activities Dimensions (LAD) questionnaire, we investigated the presented dimensions of a total of 78 leisure activities which had been enjoyed by most Koreans recently (e.g. watching movie, taking a walk, watching media). The study sample consisted of 1348 people (726 men, 658 women) ranging in age from teenagers to elderlies in their seventies. This study gathered 60 data for each leisure activity, a total of 4860 data, which were used for statistical analysis. First, this study compared 3-factor model (Activity, Relation, Expertise) fit with 6-factor model (physical activity, mental activity, relational quantity, relational quality, entry barrier, possibility of improving) fit by using confirmatory factor analysis. Based on several goodness-of-fit indicators, the 6-factor model for leisure activities was a better fit for the data. This result indicates that it is adequate to take account of enough dimensions of leisure activities (6-dimensions in our study) to specifically apprehend each leisure attributes. In addition, the 78 leisure activities were cluster-analyzed with the scores calculated based on the 6-factor model, which resulted in 8 leisure activity groups. Cluster 1 (e.g. group sports, group musical activity) and Cluster 5 (e.g. individual sports) had generally higher scores on all dimensions than others, but Cluster 5 had lower relational quantity than Cluster 1. In contrast, Cluster 3 (e.g. SNS, shopping) and Cluster 6 (e.g. playing a lottery, taking a nap) had low scores on a whole, though Cluster 3 showed medium levels of relational quantity and quality. Cluster 2 (e.g. machine operating, handwork/invention) required high expertise and mental activity, but low physical activity. Cluster 4 indicated high mental activity and relational quantity despite low expertise. Cluster 7 (e.g. tour, joining festival) required not only moderate degrees of physical activity and relation, but low expertise. Lastly, Cluster 8 (e.g. meditation, information searching) had the appearance of high mental activity. Even though clusters of our study had a few similarities with preexisting taxonomy of leisure activities, there was clear distinctiveness between them. Unlike the preexisting taxonomy that had been created subjectively, we assorted 78 leisure activities based on objective figures of 6-dimensions. We also could identify that some leisure activities, which used to belong to the same leisure group, were included in different clusters (e.g. filed ball sports, net sports) because of different features. In other words, the results can provide a different perspective on leisure activities research and be helpful for figuring out what various characteristics leisure participants have.

Keywords: leisure, dimensional model, activity, relationship, expertise

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Authors: Jaeyoung Lee

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Autonomous driving systems require high reliability to provide people with a safe and comfortable driving experience. However, despite the development of a number of vehicle sensors, it is difficult to always provide high perceived performance in driving environments that vary from time to season. The image segmentation method using deep learning, which has recently evolved rapidly, provides high recognition performance in various road environments stably. However, since the system controls a vehicle in real time, a highly complex deep learning network cannot be used due to time and memory constraints. Moreover, efficient networks are optimized for GPU environments, which degrade performance in embedded processor environments equipped simple hardware accelerators. In this paper, a semantic segmentation network, matrix multiplication accelerator network (MMANet), optimized for matrix multiplication accelerator (MMA) on Texas instrument digital signal processors (TI DSP) is proposed to improve the recognition performance of autonomous driving system. The proposed method is designed to maximize the number of layers that can be performed in a limited time to provide reliable driving environment information in real time. First, the number of channels in the activation map is fixed to fit the structure of MMA. By increasing the number of parallel branches, the lack of information caused by fixing the number of channels is resolved. Second, an efficient convolution is selected depending on the size of the activation. Since MMA is a fixed, it may be more efficient for normal convolution than depthwise separable convolution depending on memory access overhead. Thus, a convolution type is decided according to output stride to increase network depth. In addition, memory access time is minimized by processing operations only in L3 cache. Lastly, reliable contexts are extracted using the extended atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP). The suggested method gets stable features from an extended path by increasing the kernel size and accessing consecutive data. In addition, it consists of two ASPPs to obtain high quality contexts using the restored shape without global average pooling paths since the layer uses MMA as a simple adder. To verify the proposed method, an experiment is conducted using perfsim, a timing simulator, and the Cityscapes validation sets. The proposed network can process an image with 640 x 480 resolution for 6.67 ms, so six cameras can be used to identify the surroundings of the vehicle as 20 frame per second (FPS). In addition, it achieves 73.1% mean intersection over union (mIoU) which is the highest recognition rate among embedded networks on the Cityscapes validation set.

Keywords: edge network, embedded network, MMA, matrix multiplication accelerator, semantic segmentation network

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Authors: Carine Platat, Fatima Qshadi, Ghofran Kayed, Nour Hussein, Amjad Jarrar, Habiba Ali

Abstract:

Nowadays, smartphones are very popular. They are offering a variety of easy-to-use and free applications among which step counters and fitness tests. The number of users is huge making of such applications a potentially efficient new strategy to encourage people to become more active. Nonetheless, data on their reliability and validity are very scarce and when available, they are often negative and contradictory. Besides, weight status, which is likely to introduce a bias in the physical activity assessment, was not often considered. Hence, the use of these applications as motivational tool, assessment tool and in research is questionable. PACER is one of the free step counters application. Even though it is one of the best rated free application by users, it has never been tested for reliability and validity. Prior any use of PACER, this remains to be investigated. The objective of this work is to investigate the reliability and validity of the smartphone application PACER in measuring the number of steps and in assessing the cardiorespiratory fitness by the 6 minutes walking test. 20 overweight or obese students (10 male and 10 female) were recruited at the United Arab Emirate University, aged between 18 and 25 years old. Reliability and validity were tested in real life conditions and in controlled conditions by using a treadmill. Test-retest experiments were done with PACER on 2 days separated by a week in real life conditions (24 hours each time) and in controlled conditions (30 minutes on treadmill, 3km/h). Validity was tested against the pedometer OMRON in the same conditions. During treadmill test, video was recorded and steps numbers were compared between PACER, pedometer and video. The validity of PACER in estimating the cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max) as part of the 6 minutes walking test (6MWT) was studied against the 20m shuttle running test. Reliability was studied by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), 95% confidence interval (95%CI) and by Bland-Altman plots. Validity was studied by calculating Spearman correlation coefficient (rho) and Bland-Altman plots. PACER reliability was good in both male and female in real life conditions (p≤10-3) but only in female in controlled conditions (p=0.01). PACER was valid against OMRON pedometer in male and female in real life conditions (rho=0.94, p≤10-3 ; rho=0.64, p=0.01, in male and female respectively). In controlled conditions, PACER was not valid against pedometer. But, PACER was valid against video in female (rho=0.72, p≤10-3). PACER was valid against the shuttle run test in male and female (rho-=0.66, p=0.01 ; rho=0.51, p=0.04) to estimate VO2max. This study provides data on the reliability and viability of PACER in overweight or obese male and female young adults. Globally, PACER was shown as reliable and valid in real life conditions in overweight or obese male and female to count steps and assess fitness. This supports the use of PACER to assess and promote physical activity in clinical follow-up and community interventions.

Keywords: smartphone application, pacer, reliability, validity, steps, fitness, physical activity

Procedia PDF Downloads 422

Authors: Smita Lahkar

Abstract:

Sattriya, the youngest of the eight principal Classical Indian dance traditions, has undergone too many changes and modifications to arrive at its present stage of performing art form extracting itself from age-old religious confinement. Although some of the other traditions have been revived in the recent past, Sattriya has a living tradition since its inception in the 15th century by Srimanta Sankardeva, the great Vaishnavite saint, poet, playwright, lyricist, painter, singer and dancer of Assam, a primary north-eastern state of India. This living dance tradition from the Sattras, the Vaishnavite monasteries, has been practiced for over five hundred years by celibate male monks, as a powerful medium for propagating the Vaishnava religious faith. Sankardeva realised the potential of the vocalised word integrated with the visual image as a powerful medium of expression and communication. So he used this principal medium for propagating his newly found message of devotion among the people of his time. Earlier, Sattriya was performed by male monks alone in monasteries (Sattras) as a part of daily rituals. The females were not even allowed to learn this art form. But, in present time, Sattriya has come out from the Sattras to proscenium stage, performed mostly by female as well as few male dancers also. The technique of performing movements, costumes, ornaments, music and style of performance too have experienced too many changes and modifications. For example, earlier and even today in Sattra, the ‘Pataka’ hand gesture is depicted in conformity with the original context (religious) of creation of the dance form. But, today stage-performers prefer the instructions of the scripture ‘Srihastamuktavali’ and depict the ‘Pataka’ in a sophisticated manner affecting decontextualisation to a certain extent. This adds aesthetic beauty to the dance form as an art distancing it from its context of being a vehicle for propagating Vaishnava religion. The Sattriya dance today stands at the crossroads of past and future, tradition and modernity, devotion and display, spirituality and secularism. The traditional exponents trained under the tutelage of Sattra maestros and imbibing a devotionally inspired rigour of the religion, try to retain the traditional nuances; while the young artists being trained outside the monasteries are more interested in taking up the discipline purely from the perspective of ‘performing arts’ bereft of the philosophy of religion or its sacred associations. Hence, this paper will be an endeavor to establish the hypothesis that the Sattriya, whose origin was for propagating Vaishnava faith, has now entered the world of performing arts with highly aesthetical components. And as a transformed art form, Sattriya may be expected to carve a niche in world dance arena. This will be done with the help of historical evidences, observations from the recorded past and expert rendezvous.

Keywords: dance, performing art, religion, Sattriya

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: Despoina Chochtoula, Aristidis Ilias, Yannis Stamatiou

Abstract:

Modbus is a protocol that enables the communication among devices which are connected to the same network. This protocol is, often, deployed in connecting sensor and monitoring units to central supervisory servers in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA, systems. These systems monitor critical infrastructures, such as factories, power generation stations, nuclear power reactors etc. in order to detect malfunctions and ignite alerts and corrective actions. However, due to their criticality, SCADA systems are vulnerable to attacks that range from simple eavesdropping on operation parameters, exchanged messages, and valuable infrastructure information to malicious modification of vital infrastructure data towards infliction of damage. Thus, the SCADA research community has been active over strengthening SCADA systems with suitable data protection mechanisms based, to a large extend, on cryptographic methods for data encryption, device authentication, and message integrity protection. However, due to the limited computation power of many SCADA sensor and embedded devices, the usual public key cryptographic methods are not appropriate due to their high computational requirements. As an alternative, Elliptic Curve Cryptography has been proposed, which requires smaller key sizes and, thus, less demanding cryptographic operations. Until now, however, no such implementation has been proposed in the SCADA literature, to the best of our knowledge. In order to fill this gap, our methodology was focused on integrating Modbus, a frequently used SCADA communication protocol, with Elliptic Curve based cryptography and develop a server/client application to demonstrate the proof of concept. For the implementation we deployed two C language libraries, which were suitably modify in order to be successfully integrated: libmodbus (https://github.com/stephane/libmodbus) and ecc-lib https://www.ceid.upatras.gr/webpages/faculty/zaro/software/ecc-lib/). The first library provides a C implementation of the Modbus/TCP protocol while the second one offers the functionality to develop cryptographic protocols based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography. These two libraries were combined, after suitable modifications and enhancements, in order to give a modified version of the Modbus/TCP protocol focusing on the security of the data exchanged among the devices and the supervisory servers. The mechanisms we implemented include key generation, key exchange/sharing, message authentication, data integrity check, and encryption/decryption of data. The key generation and key exchange protocols were implemented with the use of Elliptic Curve Cryptography primitives. The keys established by each device are saved in their local memory and are retained during the whole communication session and are used in encrypting and decrypting exchanged messages as well as certifying entities and the integrity of the messages. Finally, the modified library was compiled for the Android environment in order to run the server application as an Android app. The client program runs on a regular computer. The communication between these two entities is an example of the successful establishment of an Elliptic Curve Cryptography based, secure Modbus wireless communication session between a portable device acting as a supervisor station and a monitoring computer. Our first performance measurements are, also, very promising and demonstrate the feasibility of embedding Elliptic Curve Cryptography into SCADA systems, filling in a gap in the relevant scientific literature.

Keywords: elliptic curve cryptography, ICT security, modbus protocol, SCADA, TCP/IP protocol

Procedia PDF Downloads 231

Authors: Rubaiat S. Ahmed, Jemer Garrido, Sergey M. Motov

Abstract:

Clinical informatics (CI) enables the transformation of data into a systematic organization that improves the quality of care and the generation of positive health outcomes.Innovative technology through informatics that compiles accurate data on analgesic utilization in the emergency department can enhance pain management in this important clinical setting. We aim to establish a simplified reporting system through CI to examine and assess the analgesic prescribing practices in the EDthrough executing a U.S. federal grant project on opioid reduction initiatives. Queried data points of interest from a level-one trauma ED’s electronic medical records were used to create data sets and develop informational/visual reporting dashboards (on Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets) concerning analgesic usage across several pre-defined parameters and performance metrics using CI. The data was then qualitatively analyzed to evaluate ED analgesic prescribing trends by departmental clinicians and leadership. During a 12-month reporting period (Dec. 1, 2020 – Nov. 30, 2021) for the ongoing project, about 41% of all ED patient visits (N = 91,747) were for pain conditions, of which 81.6% received analgesics in the ED and at discharge (D/C). Of those treated with analgesics, 24.3% received opioids compared to 75.7% receiving opioid alternatives in the ED and at D/C, including non-pharmacological modalities. Demographics showed among patients receiving analgesics, 56.7% were aged between 18-64, 51.8% were male, 51.7% were white, and 66.2% had government funded health insurance. Ninety-one percent of all opioids prescribed were in the ED, with intravenous (IV) morphine, IV fentanyl, and morphine sulfate immediate release (MSIR) tablets accounting for 88.0% of ED dispensed opioids. With 9.3% of all opioids prescribed at D/C, MSIR was dispensed 72.1% of the time. Hydrocodone, oxycodone, and tramadol usage to only 10-15% of the time, and hydromorphone at 0%. Of opioid alternatives, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were utilized 60.3% of the time, 23.5% with local anesthetics and ultrasound-guided nerve blocks, and 7.9% with acetaminophen as the primary non-opioid drug categories prescribed by ED providers. Non-pharmacological analgesia included virtual reality and other modalities. An average of 18.5 ED opioid orders and 1.9 opioid D/C prescriptions per 102.4 daily ED patient visits was observed for the period. Compared to other specialties within our institution, 2.0% of opioid D/C prescriptions are given by ED providers, compared to the national average of 4.8%. Opioid alternatives accounted for 69.7% and 30.3% usage, versus 90.7% and 9.3% for opioids in the ED and D/C, respectively.There is a pressing need for concise, relevant, and reliable clinical data on analgesic utilization for ED providers and leadership to evaluate prescribing practices and make data-driven decisions. Basic computer software can be used to create effective visual reporting dashboards with indicators that convey relevant and timely information in an easy-to-digest manner. We accurately examined our ED's analgesic prescribing practices using CI through dashboard reporting. Such reporting tools can quickly identify key performance indicators and prioritize data to enhance pain management and promote safe prescribing practices in the emergency setting.

Keywords: clinical informatics, dashboards, emergency department, health informatics, healthcare informatics, medical informatics, opioids, pain management, technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 120