Search results for: leisure attitude

Authors: Georgiana Ciobotaru

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The experience of exile is a defining one for the mittleeuropean writers, which is also the generator of an identity discourse manifested in the plan of fiction. In exile, the authors often build their marginality in opposition to that deserted mundi center. The Polish Gombrowicz carried out his existence, for more than twenty-three years, in a geographical exile, distancing himself from his country, and, from a cultural point of view, the writing meant a possibility of escape, of plunge into a literary exile that often constituted a way of conditioning the practice of writers. He opted for one of the attitudes that a writer in exile may have, namely he preferred to continue speaking Polish, although he was far from his homeland, turning to the public in his homeland, his entire literary creation in exile being promoted through Kulturia, the Paris-based immigration magazine. The problem of exile must be constantly related to three essential aspects, namely: territory, identity and language. The exile, both the writer and his characters, displays a characteristic attitude towards the abandoned land, but also towards the adoptive, towards the mother tongue, but also towards the idiom encountered, thus proving an original manner in terms of how it asserts, de-builds or re-builds its identity. In these texts written after leaving Poland, a series of open works by Trans-Atlantic, Gombrowicz assumes and internalizes the inadequacy between his self and the reality outside to make it the principle of his perception of the world. The expression of marginality that characterized the texts developed when the writer was still in Poland seems to acquire a certain coherence against the background of a logic imposed on the new experience, namely that of exile. Texts created during his exile in Argentina appear in a different context, in other words, in a situation of inadequacy towards the world: ignorance of the language, poverty, isolation that characterizes especially the first years spent there. This study aims to highlight how the Polish author de-builds and reconstructs his Mittel-European identity profile through language.

Keywords: discourse, exile, identity, immigration

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Authors: Siti Rajaah Binti Sayed Sultan

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Managing the code blue event is stressful for nurses, the patient, and the patient's families. The rapid response from the first and second responders in the code blue event will improve patient outcomes and prevent tissue hypoxia that leads to brain injury and other organ failures. Providing 1 minute for the cardiac massage and 2 minutes for defibrillation will significantly improve patient outcomes. As we know, the American Heart Association came out with guidelines for managing cardiac arrest patients. The hospital must provide competent staff to manage this situation. It can be achieved when the staff is well equipped with the skill, attitude, and knowledge to manage this situation with well-planned strategies, i.e., clear guidelines for managing the code blue event, competent staff, and functional equipment. The code blue simulation (CBS) was chosen in the training program for code blue management because it can mimic real scenarios. Having the code blue simulation module will allow the staff to appreciate what they will face during the code blue event, especially since it rarely happens in that area. This CBS module training will help the staff familiarize themselves with the activities that happened during actual events and be able to operate the equipment accordingly. Being challenged and independent in managing the code blue in the early phase gives the patient a better outcome. The CBS module will help the assessor and the hospital management team with the proper tools and guidelines for managing the code blue drill accordingly. As we know, prompt action will benefit the patient and their family. It also indirectly increases the confidence and job satisfaction among the nurses, increasing the standard of care, reducing the complication and hospital burden, and enhancing cost-effective care.

Keywords: code blue simulation module, development of code blue simulation module, code blue response time, code blue drill, cardiorespiratory arrest, managing code blue

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Authors: Raymond E. Raguindin

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Objective: This research studied the teaching improvement of daycare workers in imitation, joint attention, and language activities using the play-based early intervention training program in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. Methods: Focus group discussions were developed to explore the attitude, beliefs, and practices of daycare workers. Results: Findings of the study revealed that daycare workers have existing knowledge and experience in teaching children with autism. Their workshops on managing inappropriate behaviors of children with autism resulting in a general positive perception of accepting and teaching children with autism in daycare centers. Play based activities were modelled and participated in by daycare workers. These include demonstration, modelling, prompting and providing social reinforcers as reward. Five lectures and five training days were done to implement the training program. Daycare workers’ levels of skill in teaching imitation, joint attention and language were gathered before and after the participation in the training program. Findings suggest significant differences between pre-test and post test scores. They have shown significant improvement in facilitating imitation, joint attention, and language children with autism after the play-based early intervention training. They were able to initiate and sustain imitation, joint attention, and language activities with adequate knowledge and confidence. Conclusions: 1. Existing attitudes and beliefs greatly influenced the positive delivery mode of instruction. 2. Teacher-directed approach to improve attention, imitation, joint attention, and language of children with autism can be acquired by daycare workers. 3. Teaching skills and experience can be used as reference and basis for identifying future training needs.

Keywords: early intervention, imitation, joint attention, language

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Authors: Meng Qing Feng, Otsile Morake

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Background: Successful implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination ensures the prevention of virus infection. Postponement and refusal of the vaccination will threaten public health, which is now common among the general public across the world. In addition, an acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine appears as a decisive factor in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. Purpose: This study's objective is to explore the factors influencing the public intention to be vaccinated (ITBV). Design/methodology/approach: The web-based survey included socio-demographics and questions related to the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the health belief model (HBM). An online survey was administered using Google Form to collect data from participants of Botswana. The sample included 339 participants, half-half of the participants were female. Data analysis was run using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings: The study results highlight that perceived severity, perceived barriers, health motivation, and attitude have a positive and significant effect on ITBV, while perceived susceptibility, benefits, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control do not affect ITBV. Among all of the predictors, perceived barriers have the most significant influence on ITBV. Conclusion: Theoretically, this research stated that both HBM and TPB are effective in predicting and explaining the general public ITBV. Practically, this study offers insights to the government and health departments to arrange and launch health awareness programs and provide a better guide to vaccination so that doubts about vaccine confidence and the level of uncertainty can be decreased.

Keywords: COVID-19, Omicron, intention to be COVID-19 vaccine, health behavior model, theory of planned behavior, Botswana

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Authors: Juan Carlos Rubio Romero, Francico Salguero Caparros, Virginia Herrera-Pérez

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No one is in the slightest doubt about the high levels of risk involved in work in the construction industry. They are even higher in structural construction work. The Critical Decision Method (CDM) is a semi-structured interview technique that uses cognitive tests to identify the different disturbances that workers have to deal with in their work activity. At present, the vision of safety focused on daily performance and things that go well for safety and health management is facing the new paradigm known as Resilience Engineering. The aim of this study has been to describe the variability in formwork labour on concrete structures in the construction industry and, from there, to find out the resilient attitude of workers to unexpected events that they have experienced during their working lives. For this purpose, a series of semi-structured interviews were carried out with construction employees with extensive experience in formwork labour in Spain by applying the Critical Decision Method. This work has been the first application of the Critical Decision Method in the field of construction and, more specifically, in the execution of structures. The results obtained show that situations categorised as unthought-of are identified to a greater extent than potentially unexpected situations. The identification during these interviews of both expected and unexpected events provides insight into the critical decisions made and actions taken to improve resilience in daily practice in this construction work. From this study, it is clear that it is essential to gain more knowledge about the nature of the human cognitive process in work situations within complex socio-technical systems such as construction sites. This could lead to a more effective design of workplaces in the search for improved human performance.

Keywords: resilience engineering, construction industry, unthought-of situations, critical decision method

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Authors: Rama Krishna Supramanian, Marzuki Isahak, Noran Naqiah Hairi

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Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is one of the highest recorded occupational diseases, despite being preventable. Hearing Conservation Program (HCP) is designed to protect workers hearing and prevent them from developing hearing impairment due to occupational noise exposures. However, there is still a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of this program. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a Hearing Conservation Program (HCP) in preventing or reducing audiometric threshold changes among vector control workers. This study adopts a cluster randomized controlled trial study design, with district health offices as the unit of randomization. Nine district health offices were randomly selected and 183 vector control workers were randomized to intervention or control group. The intervention included a safety and health policy, noise exposure assessment, noise control, distribution of appropriate hearing protection devices, training and education program and audiometric testing. The control group only underwent audiometric testing. Audiometric threshold changes observed in the intervention group showed improvement in the hearing threshold level for all frequencies except 500 Hz and 8000 Hz for the left ear. The hearing threshold changes range from 1.4 dB to 5.2 dB with largest improvement at higher frequencies mainly 4000 Hz and 6000 Hz. Meanwhile for the right ear, the mean hearing threshold level remained similar at 4000 Hz and 6000 Hz after 3 months of intervention. The Hearing Conservation Program (HCP) is effective in preserving the hearing of vector control workers involved in fogging activity as well as increasing their knowledge, attitude and practice towards noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).

Keywords: adult, hearing conservation program, noise-induced hearing loss, vector control worker

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Authors: Selen Demirtas Zorbaz, Ozlem Ulas

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Examining the reasons of child behaviour problems has been one of the focus of psychology and related disciplines for so long. It can be said there is a lot of reasons of child behaviour problems and familial factors might be the leading ones. When taking into account the prevalence of the children having behaviour problems in Turkey, it can be said that it is important to carry out studies putting forward the reasons of behaviour problems. From this point of view, the aim of this study is to examine dissertations and thesis putting forward the relationship between problem behaviour of the children (12-year-old and younger) and teenagers (12-18 years old), and familial factors. For that purpose, 46 dissertations that were chosen according to the study criteria out of 141 dissertations scanned by using the keywords of ‘behaviour problems’ and ‘behaviour disorder’ at Higher Education Thesis Centre between the years of 1989 and 2016 have been taken into the scope of the study. ‘Thesis Examination Draft Form’ has been prepared for the purpose of being used for data collecting tool. For the analysis of the data, percentage, and frequency analysis methods have been used. When the results of these studies are evaluated on the whole, it is seen that all the dissertations and thesis done are descriptive study, and it was not encountered any studies designed as experimental. When looked at the distribution of dissertations by years, it is seen that the first thesis was done in 1989 and the most number of dissertations were done in the years of 2014 and 2016. When looked at the department in which the dissertations were done, it can be said that dissertations and thesis were done in many different fields of disciplines ranging from psychology and special education. In addition to this, when investigated the group taken into the scope of dissertations and thesis research, it is seen that the children mostly worked with are below the age of 12 and types of studies are master’s thesis. When the dissertations and thesis are examined by means of topics, it is seen that mostly-studied topics are demographic variables such as gender, whether the family is fragmented or not, education level of the family and the parents’ attitude. Obtained findings have been examined in the light of literature.

Keywords: family, child behaviour problem, dissertations, thesis

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Authors: Bassem Nassar, Wessam Hussein, Medhat Mokhtar

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The crucial concern of satellite operations is to ensure the health and safety of satellites. The worst case in this perspective is probably the loss of a mission but the more common interruption of satellite functionality can result in compromised mission objectives. All the data acquiring from the spacecraft are known as Telemetry (TM), which contains the wealth information related to the health of all its subsystems. Each single item of information is contained in a telemetry parameter, which represents a time-variant property (i.e. a status or a measurement) to be checked. As a consequence, there is a continuous improvement of TM monitoring systems in order to reduce the time required to respond to changes in a satellite's state of health. A fast conception of the current state of the satellite is thus very important in order to respond to occurring failures. Statistical multivariate latent techniques are one of the vital learning tools that are used to tackle the aforementioned problem coherently. Information extraction from such rich data sources using advanced statistical methodologies is a challenging task due to the massive volume of data. To solve this problem, in this paper, we present a proposed unsupervised learning algorithm based on Principle Component Analysis (PCA) technique. The algorithm is particularly applied on an actual remote sensing spacecraft. Data from the Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) was acquired under two operation conditions: normal and faulty states. The models were built and tested under these conditions and the results shows that the algorithm could successfully differentiate between these operations conditions. Furthermore, the algorithm provides competent information in prediction as well as adding more insight and physical interpretation to the ADCS operation.

Keywords: space telemetry monitoring, multivariate analysis, PCA algorithm, space operations

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Authors: R. K. Yadav, S. Baral, H. R. Paudel, R. Basnet

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The Public-Private Mix (PPM) approach is a strategic initiative that involves engaging all private and public healthcare providers in the fight against tuberculosis using international healthcare standards. For tuberculosis control in Nepal, the PPM approach could be a milestone. This study aimed to explore the barriers to a public-private mix approach in the management of tuberculosis cases in Nepal. A total of 20 respondents participated in the study. Barriers to PPM were identified in the following three themes: 1) Obstacles related to TB case detection, 2) Obstacles related to patients, and 3) Obstacles related to the healthcare system. PPM implementation was challenged by following subthemes that included staff turnover, low private sector participation in workshops, a lack of training, poor recording and reporting, insufficient joint monitoring and supervision, poor financial benefit, lack of coordination and collaboration, and non-supportive TB-related policies and strategies. The study concludes that numerous barriers exist in the way of effective implementation of the PPM approach, including TB cases detection barriers such as knowledge of TB diagnosis and treatment, HW attitude, workload, patient-related barriers such as knowledge of TB, self-medication practice, stigma and discrimination, financial status, and health system-related barriers such as staff turnover and poor engagement of the private sector in workshops, training, recording, and re-evaluation. Government stakeholders must work together with private sector stakeholders to perform joint monitoring and supervision. Private practitioners should receive training and orientation, and presumptive TB patients should be given adequate time and counseling as well as motivation to visit a government health facility.

Keywords: barrier, tuberculosis, case finding, PPM, nepal

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Authors: Fstemeh Rais Esmaili, Ehsan Ranjbar

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Pedestrian streets as one type of urban public spaces have an important role in improving the quality of urban life. In Iran, planning and designing of pedestrian streets is in its primary steps. In spite of starting this approach in Iran, and designing several pedestrian streets, there are still not organized studies about quality assessment of pedestrian streets. As a result, the strength and weakness points of the initial experiences have not been utilized. This inattention to quality assessment have caused designing pedestrian streets to be limited to just vehicles traffic control and preliminary actions like paving; so that, special potentials of pedestrian streets for creating social, livable and dynamic public spaces have not been used. This article, as an organized study about quality assessment of pedestrian streets in Iran, tries to reach two main goals: first, introducing a framework for quality assessment of pedestrian streets in Iran, and second, creating a context for improving the quality of pedestrian streets especially for further experiences. The main research methods are description and context analyzing. With respect to comparative analysis of ideas about quality, considering international and local case studies and analyzing existing condition of Saf Pedestrian Street, a particular model for quality assessment has been introduced. In this model, main components and assessment criteria have been presented. On the basis of this model, questionnaire and checklist for assessment have been prepared. The questionnaire and interview have been used to assess qualities which are in direct contact with people and the checklist has been used for analyzing visual qualities by authors through observation. Some results of questionnaire and checklist show that 7 of 11 primary components, diversity, flexibility, cleanness, legibility and imaginably, identity, livability, form and physical setting are rated low and very low in quality degree. Three components, efficiency, comfort and distinctiveness, have medium and low quality degree and one component, access, linkage and permeability has high quality degree. Therefore, based on implemented analyzing process, Saf Pedestrian Street needs to be improved and these quality improvement priorities are determined based on presented criteria. Adaption of final results with existing condition illustrates the shortage of services for satisfying user’s needs, inflexibility and impossibility of using spaces in various times, lack of facilities for different climatic conditions, lack of facilities such as drinking fountain, inappropriate designing of existing urban furniture like garbage cans, and creating pollution and unsuitable view, lack of visual attractions, neglecting disabled persons in designing entrances, shortage of benches and their undesirable designing, lack of vegetation, absence of special characters making it different from other streets, preventing people taking part in the space causing lack of affiliation, lack of appropriate elements for leisure time and lack of exhilaration in the space. On the other hand, these results present high access and permeability, high safety, less sound pollution and more relief, comfortable movement along the way due to suitable pavement and economic efficiency, as the strength points of Saf pedestrian street.

Keywords: pedestrian streets, quality assessment, quality criteria, Saf Pedestrian Street

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Authors: Ju-Chun Chien

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The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion proposed that the role of health services should shift the focus from cure to prevention. Nowadays, besides having physical examinations, people could also conduct genetic tests to provide important information for diagnosing, treating, and/or preventing illnesses. However, because of the incompletion of the Chinese Genetic Database, people in Taiwan were still unfamiliar with genetic testing. The purposes of the present study were to: (1) Figure out people’s attitudes towards genetic testing. (2) Examine factors that influence people’s intention to pursue genetic testing by means of the Health Belief Model (HBM). A pilot study was conducted on 249 Taiwanese in 2017 to test the feasibility of the self-developed instrument. The reliability and construct validity of scores on the self-developed questionnaire revealed that this HBM-based questionnaire with 40 items was a well-developed instrument. A total of 542 participants were recruited and the valid participants were 535 (99%) between the ages of 20 and 86. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, two-way contingency table analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used in this study. The main results were that only 32 participants (6%) had already undergone genetic testing; moreover, their attitude towards genetic testing was more positive than those who did not have the experience. Compared with people who never underwent genetic tests, those who had gone for genetic testing had higher self-efficacy, greater intention to pursue genetic testing, had academic majors in health-related fields, had chronic and genetic diseases, possessed Catastrophic Illness Cards, and all of them had heard about genetic testing. The variables that best predicted people’s intention to pursue genetic testing were cues to action, self-efficacy, and perceived benefits (the three variables all correlated with one another positively at high magnitudes). To sum up, the HBM could be effective in designing and identifying the needs and priorities of the target population to pursue genetic testing.

Keywords: genetic testing, knowledge of GT, people in Taiwan, the health belief model

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Authors: Noorulaine Maqsood, Saeed Khan

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Background: Concern regarding incident reporting and bio-safety training in clinical laboratories in Pakistan has increased remarkably in the last few years due to rapid increase in diagnosis and research on infectious organisms. In order to ensure the safety of employees, this issue needs to be addressed immediately. Bio-safety training sessions and lectures are necessary for the protection of laboratory workers in order to ensure safe practices and minimize the count of incident reporting in the lab. Objective: To carry out an inter-departmental survey in lab regarding the awareness of bio-safety practices among lab employees before and after conducting bio-safety training sessions. Methodology: We conducted a 30 questions survey of laboratory workers in June 2013 (before training session) to gather information related to bio-safety awareness. Afterwards, we conducted another survey after training sessions and workshops related to bio-safety. Result: The survey regarding bio-safety level showed that before the training session 32% of the participants were aware of bio-safety level being used in their lab whereas after the session this percentage increased to 72%. 48% of the participants had information about the proper usage of PPE which increased to 76%. Awareness regarding proper management of hazardous waste increased from 32% to 64%. The incident reporting practice, sample handling and hand hygiene awareness was previously reported to be 40%, 65%, and 52% that increased to 80%, 85% and 88% respectively after the training session was completed. Conclusion: The first survey results showed lack of awareness that suggest nearly all senior scientists, faculty, medical technologist, lab attendant and housekeeping staff working in laboratories are required to have bio-safety training, and required inspection at least twice a year by a bio-safety officer and also required to renew their bio-safety training. After the training session, significant changes in awareness level and attitude of the participants regarding biosafety practices were observed. Therefore, such bio-safety sessions should be carried out regularly in clinical laboratories.

Keywords: biosafety practices, clinical laboratory, Pakistan, survey

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Authors: Soori Nnko, Zaina Mchome, John Dusabe, Angela Obasi

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In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls living in urban and periurban settings are among the groups at increased risk of getting sexually transmitted infections. One of the challenges to improve uptake of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services among adolescents is linked to little appreciation about their vulnerability and the knowledge on availability of the SRH services. Objective: This study assesses adolescents’ perceptions on risks for SRH problems and the availability of services to prevent against SRH problems. Methodology: The study was conducted in March 2011 in Mwanza region, Tanzania. Data collection techniques included 18 Participatory Group Discussions and 17 In-depth Interviews with adolescents and young mothers aged 15-20 years. Results: Adolescents indicated that risk places included their homes, bushes, commercial centers, roadsides as well as school settings. Risk for having unprotected sex varied depending on where you are, and the time of the day. For example, collection of firewood in the bushes or water from the wells exposed girls to men who forced or lured them to have sex. The girls reported to encounter motorcyclists who offered the ride in exchange for sex. Girls also knew myriads places to seek SRH services, including public and private clinics, drug shops and traditional healers. Despite being aware of risky environment, and places to seek the services, access to SRH services were limited due to the stigma and negative attitude of community regarding adolescents’ utilization of SRH services. Conclusion: Adolescents are exposed to various risky environments, yet due to social stigma they have difficult to access the available SRH services.

Keywords: adolescent girls, sexual and reproductive health, AIDS, risk, opportunities, interventions, sub Saharan africa

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Authors: Suneet Jagdev

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Rapid urbanization has resulted in informal settlements on the periphery of nearly all big cities in the developing world due to lack of affordable housing options in the city. Residents of these communities have to travel long distances to get to work or search for jobs in these cities, and women, children and elderly people are excluded from urban opportunities. Affordable and safe public transport facilities can help them expand their possibilities. The aim of this research is to identify social capital as another important element of livable cities that can be protected and nurtured through transit-oriented development, as a tool to provide real resources that can help these transit-oriented communities become self-sustainable. Social capital has been referred to the collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other. It is one of the key component responsible to build and maintain democracy. Public spaces, pedestrian amenities and social equity are the other essential part of Transit Oriented Development models that will be analyzed in this research. The data has been collected through the analysis of several case studies, the urban design strategies implemented and their impact on the perception and on the community´s experience, and, finally, how these focused on the social capital. Case studies have been evaluated on several metrics, namely ecological, financial, energy consumption, etc. A questionnaire and other tools were designed to collect data to analyze the research objective and reflect the dimension of social capital. The results of the questionnaire indicated that almost all the participants have a positive attitude towards this dimensions of building a social capital with the aid of transit-oriented development. Statistical data of the identified key motivators against against demographic characteristics have been generated based on the case studies used for the paper. The findings suggested that there is a direct relation between urbanization, transit-oriented developments, and social capital.

Keywords: better opportunities, low-income settlements, social capital, social inclusion, transit oriented development

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Authors: Farah Fazlinda Binti Mohamad, Ahmad Saifizul Abdullah, Mohamed Rehan Karim , Jamilah Mohamad, Siti Hikmah Musthar

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Road safety is an important issue in Malaysia. It become important as it is discussed widely throughout printed and electronic media. Most of the news portrays on road accident and fatalities have increased the concern of everyone. This issue affects everyone's life as everyone shares the roads. The most vulnerable victims are the road user who uses the roads every day. It is appalling when World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in every 100,000 of population in Malaysia, 23 fatalities recorded due to road accident alone. This figure is quite alarming and requires serious attention. Furthermore, research by Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research concluded that that speeding has contributed to 60% of all road accident in the country. Therefore, this study aims to elucidate the factors that influence road users’ speeding behaviour on selected roads in Peninsular Malaysia. To achieve this, set of questionnaires has distributed to 500 respondents on selected roads in Peninsular Malaysia. The respondents came from various demographic backgrounds in order to have a fair opinion on the issue. Using descriptive analysis, the results have indicated that psychological factors such as emotion and attitude of road user are the prominent factors that influence the road user’s speeding behaviour. Furthermore, the results have shown that male road users were dominant in speeding compared to female, which led to increased vulnerability to road injuries and fatalities. These findings are very useful in order for us to understand road users’ driving behaviour. Relevant authorities should also revise the existing countermeasures and find ways to reduce road accident. Engineers and road experts could cooperate in designing new road specifications for the road user. Nevertheless, it is important to comprehend this speeding issue and factors associated with it. Each road user should take this matter seriously and responsibly as road safety is a responsibility of all.

Keywords: countermeasures, psychological, road safety, speeding

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Authors: Aamir Hasan, Subhash Mishra

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The purpose of the study was to determine the key drivers which influence the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store. In today‟s competitive world with increasing number of retail stores, the retailers need to be more customer oriented. Retail has changed and expanded in all lines of business, be it apparel,jewelry, footwear, groceries etc. The modern consumer is posing a challenging task for the Indian retailer. More aware, more confident and much more demanding, therefore the retailers are looking for ways to deliver better consumer value and to increase consumer purchase intention. Retailers tend to differentiate themselves by making their service easier to consumers. The study aims to study the key drivers that can influence shopping behavior in retail store. A survey (store intercept) method was employed to elicit primary information from 300 shoppers in different retail stores of Lucknow. The findings reveal the factors that play a greater role in influencing the shopping behavior of customers in retail store. As such, a survey of retail store customers‟ attitude towards reduced price, sales promotion, quality of the products, proximity to the home, customer service, store atmospherics were analyzed to identify the key drivers influencing shopping behavior in retail store. A questionnaire based on a five-item Likert scale, as well as random sampling, was employed for data collection. Data analysis was accomplished using SPSS software. The paper has found shopping experience, store image and value for money as three important variable out of which shopping experience emerged as a dominant factor which influences the consumer's shopping behavior in the retail store. Since the research has established empirical evidences in determining the key drivers which influences the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store, it serves as a foundation for a deeper probe into the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store research domain in the Indian context.

Keywords: retail, shopping, customers, questionnaire

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Authors: Asif Ali, Daud Salim Faruquie

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With the advancement of knowledge about the utility and impact of sustainability, its feasibility has been explored into different walks of life. Scientists, however; have established their knowledge in four areas viz environmental, economic, social and cultural, popularly termed as four pillars of sustainability. Aspects of environmental and economic sustainability have been rigorously researched and practiced and huge volume of strong evidence of effectiveness has been founded for these two sub-areas. For the social and cultural aspects of sustainability, dependable evidence of effectiveness is still to be instituted as the researchers and practitioners are developing and experimenting methods across the globe. Therefore, the present research aimed to identify globally used practices of social and cultural sustainability and through evidence synthesis assess their outcomes to determine the effectiveness of those practices. A PICO format steered the methodology which included all populations, popular sustainability practices including walkability/cycle tracks, social/recreational spaces, privacy, health & human services and barrier free built environment, comparators included ‘Before’ and ‘After’, ‘With’ and ‘Without’, ‘More’ and ‘Less’ and outcomes included Social well-being, cultural co-existence, quality of life, ethics and morality, social capital, sense of place, education, health, recreation and leisure, and holistic development. Search of literature included major electronic databases, search websites, organizational resources, directory of open access journals and subscribed journals. Grey literature, however, was not included. Inclusion criteria filtered studies on the basis of research designs such as total randomization, quasi-randomization, cluster randomization, observational or single studies and certain types of analysis. Studies with combined outcomes were considered but studies focusing only on environmental and/or economic outcomes were rejected. Data extraction, critical appraisal and evidence synthesis was carried out using customized tabulation, reference manager and CASP tool. Partial meta-analysis was carried out and calculation of pooled effects and forest plotting were done. As many as 13 studies finally included for final synthesis explained the impact of targeted practices on health, behavioural and social dimensions. Objectivity in the measurement of health outcomes facilitated quantitative synthesis of studies which highlighted the impact of sustainability methods on physical activity, Body Mass Index, perinatal outcomes and child health. Studies synthesized qualitatively (and also quantitatively) showed outcomes such as routines, family relations, citizenship, trust in relationships, social inclusion, neighbourhood social capital, wellbeing, habitability and family’s social processes. The synthesized evidence indicates slight effectiveness and efficacy of social and cultural sustainability on the targeted outcomes. Further synthesis revealed that such results of this study are due weak research designs and disintegrated implementations. If architects and other practitioners deliver their interventions in collaboration with research bodies and policy makers, a stronger evidence-base in this area could be generated.

Keywords: built environment, cultural sustainability, social sustainability, sustainable architecture

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Authors: I. Martinez-Conesa, E. Garcia-Meca, M. Barradas-Quiroz

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The objective of this study is to assess the impact on earnings management of latest two Hofstede cultural dimensions: long-term orientation and indulgence. Long-term orientation represents the alignment of a society towards the future and indulgence expresses the extent to which a society exhibits willingness, or restrain, to realise their impulses. Additionally, this paper tests if there are relevant differences by testing the moderating role of the legal tradition, Continental versus Anglo-Saxon. Our sample comprises 15 countries: Belgium, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Philippines, Portugal, Sweden, and Thailand, with a total of 12,936 observations from 2003 to 2013. Our results show that managers in countries with high levels of long-term orientation reduce their levels of discretionary accruals. The findings do not confirm the effect of indulgence on earnings management. In addition, our results confirm previous literature regarding the effect of individualism, noting that firms in countries with high levels of collectivism might be more inclined to use earnings discretion to protect the welfare of the collective group of firm stakeholders. Uncertainty avoidance results in downwards earnings management as well as high disclosure, suggesting that less manipulation takes place when transparency is higher. Indulgence is the cultural dimension that confronts wellbeing versus survival; dimension is formulated including happiness, the perception of live control and the importance of leisure. Indulgence shows a weak negative correlation with power distance indicating a slight tendency for more hierarchical societies to be less indulgent. Anglo-Saxon countries are a positive effect of individualism and a negative effect of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and disclosure. With respect to continental countries, we can see a significant and positive effect of individualism and a significant and negative effect of masculinity, long-term orientation, and indulgence. Therefore, we observe the negative effect on earnings management provoked by higher disclosure and uncertainty avoidance only happens in Anglo-Saxon countries. Meanwhile, the improvement in reporting quality motivated by higher long-term orientation and higher indulgence is dominant in Continental countries. Our results confirm that there is a moderating effect of the legal system in the association between culture and earnings management. This effect is especially relevant in the dimensions related to uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation, indulgence, and disclosure. The negative effect of long-term orientation on earnings management only happens in those countries set in continental legal systems because of the Anglo-Saxon legal systems is supported by the decisions of the courts and the traditions, so it already has long-term orientation. That does not occur in continental systems, depending mainly of contend of the law. Sensitivity analysis used with Jones modified CP model, Jones Standard model and Jones Standard CP model confirm the robustness of these results. This paper collaborates towards a better understanding on how earnings management, culture and legal systems relate to each other, and contribute to previous literature by examining the influence of the two latest Hofstede’s dimensions not previously studied in papers.

Keywords: Hofstede, long-term-orientation, earnings management, indulgence

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Authors: Muktadir Ahmed, Sayed Akhlakur Rahaman, Mridha Shihab Mahmud

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The parents of Bangladesh have scarcity of knowledge about children play. Most of them do not know which toys are perfect for their children. Appropriate toys for playing is one of the most significant parts of children development from early age, besides for proper amelioration of children’s mental growth and brain capacities, toys play an emergent role. So selection of proper toy for children is very important. A toy forms the sagacity of a child and instructs child’s attitude. In this era of globalization to keep pace with everything children toys are also going forward but in a deleterious way. Maximum toys are now battery-driven and for this psychological developments of children are not increasing in effective way; therefore, pedagogical toys are proper selection. This type of toy inspires the wisdom and helps a child to reveal himself/herself. Pedagogical toys are attractive to children and help to stimulate their imagination. Pedagogical toys help them to build senso-motoric skills and hand-eye coordination. In this study, some children divided into two groups, one group played with pedagogical toys and another group played with conventional toys. This study is going to exhibit the difference between pedagogical and conventional toys for kids. The main aim of this study is to reveal the potency of pedagogical toy for children. To implement this study two Daycare Centers (DCC) Projapoti 1 & 3 of Mymensingh city had chosen. Every DCC having 1.5-6 years old children but for this study 2-5 years old children had been selected. The children of Projapoti-1 played with pedagogical toys and the children of Projapoti-2 played with conventional toys. After 6 weeks of study, the children of Projapoti-1 proved that they have improved their skills more than those children of Projapoti-3 who were playing with conventional toys. The children of Projapoti-1 have developed their touch sensation, muscular movement, imitation power, hand-eye coordination whereas the children of Projapoti-3 have only developed their muscular movement fairly (while running after battery driven toys) which is not better than those children of Projapoti-1. They cannot imitate like the children of Projapoti-1. They just had fun from playing virtual games, battery driven toys, watching cartoons etc. Actually, it is not possible to develop a child’s brain without pedagogical toy.

Keywords: brain development, mental growth, pedagogical toys, play for children

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Authors: Ellina Zipman

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This research investigates the place of music education in aged care facilities through the implementation of a program of regular piano lessons for residents. Using a qualitative case study methodology, the research explores aged care residents’ experiences in learning to play the piano. Since the aged care homes are unlikely places for formal learning and since older adults, especially in residential care, are not considered likely candidates for learning, this research opens the door for innovative and transformative thinking about where and to whom educational programs can be delivered. By addressing the educational needs of residents in aged care facilities, this research fills the gap in the literature. The research took place in Australia in two of Melbourne’s residential aged care facilities, engaging two residents (a nonagenarian female and an octogenarian male) to participate in 12-months weekly individual piano lessons. The data was collected through video recording of lessons, observations, interviews, emails, and a reflective journal. Data analysis was done using Nvivo and hard copy analysis with identifications of themes. The case studies revealed that passion for music was a major driver in participants’ motivation to engage in a long-term piano lessons program. This participation led to experiences of positive emotions, positive attitude, successes and challenges, the exercise of control, maintaining and building new relationships, improved self-confidence through autonomy and independent skills development, and discovering new identities through finding a new purpose and new roles in life. Speaking through participants’ voices, this research project demonstrates the importance of music education for older adults and hopes to influence transformation in the residential aged care sector.

Keywords: adult music education, quality of life, passion, positive ageing, wellbeing

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Authors: Lize Tibiriçá, Ronnie Lee, Samantha Behbahani

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Fibromyalgia (FM) is a musculoskeletal disorder affecting men and women of different ages and cultures. The cause of this disorder is unknown; however, studies suggest an etiology that involves biological and psychosocial factors. Few studies have shown that a personality type such as neuroticism is associated with chronic pain conditions. Past research has explored whether patients with FM present with a specific personality trait. However, studies have used different methods (i.e. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Sociotropy and Autonomy Scale (SAS) and Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire or Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Karolinska scale of personality, Big Five Inventory or NEO Personality Inventory) to explore the connection between FM and a personality type. They have identified personality types that present similar characteristics but vary in the name (i.e. high harm avoidance and low novelty seeking, psychasthenia/muscular tension/somatic anxiety, neuroticism). Although Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire and the Big Five Inventory differ in terms of content and structure, both of them identify neuroticism as the personality type of FM patients, and the former also identifies these patients as having a low sociability personality trait. Previous research also shows a trend of sociotropic personality style with FM patients that also suffer from Major Depressive Disorder. Participants in these studies were, for the most part, adult female and researchers have recognized that as a limitation and whether their findings can be generalized to men and younger patients with FM. Furthermore, most studies reviewed were conducted in Europe (i.e. Spain) and had a cross-sectional design. Future research should replicate past studies in different countries and consider conducting a longitudinal study. Although it is suspected that FM course is modulated by FM patients’ personality, it is not known whether individuals with similar personalities will develop FM. This review sought to explain the differences and similarities between the personality types identified. Limitations in the studies reviewed were addressed, and considerations for future research and treatment were discussed.

Keywords: chronic pain, fibromyalgia, neuroticism, personality type

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Authors: B. N. Emenyeonu

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Initially identified as sensationalism in the eras of yellow journalism and tabloidization, the inclusion of news which shocks or provokes strong emotional responses among readers, viewers, and browsers has not only remained a persistent feature of journalism but has also seemingly escalated in the current climate of digital and social media. Whether in the relentless revelation of scandals in high places, profiles on people displaced by sporadic wars or natural disasters, gruesome accounts of trucks plowing into pedestrians in a city centre, or the coverage of mourners paying tributes to victims of a mass shooting, mainstream, and digital media are often awash with tragedy, tears, and trauma. While it may aim at inspiring sympathy, outrage, or even remedial reactions, it would appear that the deluge of grief and misery in the news merely generates in the audience a feeling that borders on hearing or seeing too much to care or act. This feeling also appears to be accentuated by the dizzying diffusion of social media news and views, most of whose authenticity is not easily verifiable. Through a survey of 400 regular consumers of news and an in-depth interview of 10 news managers in selected media organizations across the Middle East, this study therefore investigates public attitude to the profusion of bad news in mainstream and digital media. Among other targets, it examines whether the profusion of bad news generates empathy fatigue among the audience and, if so, whether there is any association between biographic variables (profession, age, and gender) and an inclination to empathy fatigue. It also seeks to identify which categories of bad news and media are most likely to drag the audience into indifference. In conclusion, the study discusses the implications of the findings for mass-mediated advocacies such as campaigns against conflicts, corruption, nuclear threats, terrorism, gun violence, sexual crimes, and human trafficking, among other threats to humanity.

Keywords: digital media, empathy fatigue, media campaigns, news selection

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Authors: Sangita Pokhrel, Nalinda Somasiri, Rebecca Jeyavadhanam, Swathi Ganesan

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Tourism is a booming industry with huge future potential for global wealth and employment. There are countless data generated over social media sites every day, creating numerous opportunities to bring more insights to decision-makers. The integration of Big Data Technology into the tourism industry will allow companies to conclude where their customers have been and what they like. This information can then be used by businesses, such as those in charge of managing visitor centers or hotels, etc., and the tourist can get a clear idea of places before visiting. The technical perspective of natural language is processed by analysing the sentiment features of online reviews from tourists, and we then supply an enhanced long short-term memory (LSTM) framework for sentiment feature extraction of travel reviews. We have constructed a web review database using a crawler and web scraping technique for experimental validation to evaluate the effectiveness of our methodology. The text form of sentences was first classified through Vader and Roberta model to get the polarity of the reviews. In this paper, we have conducted study methods for feature extraction, such as Count Vectorization and TFIDF Vectorization, and implemented Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier algorithm for the sentiment analysis to decide the tourist’s attitude towards the destinations is positive, negative, or simply neutral based on the review text that they posted online. The results demonstrated that from the CNN algorithm, after pre-processing and cleaning the dataset, we received an accuracy of 96.12% for the positive and negative sentiment analysis.

Keywords: counter vectorization, convolutional neural network, crawler, data technology, long short-term memory, web scraping, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Henry Prihanto Nugroho

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This paper suggests education tourism as an option into developing more sustainable mass tourism. Identifying the potential of education tourism and developing a sustainable packages will have an impact on social economic development in the area. Indonesia especially Yogyakarta can increase their tourism earnings by tapping into this growing market phenomenon. Educational tourism, a growing part in the world tourism market, has attracted great attention because of its direct impact on the community and as an alternative strategy for poverty alleviation. Tourism is considered as one of the main industries and sectors highly contributing to economic development in Indonesia especially in Yogyakarta, this region can be an ideal case for studying the issue of educational tourism in Universitas Gadjah Mada. This paper tries to introduce the educational tourism as an important alternative source of the economy accelerator in the context of Yogyakarta Indonesia. This paper also aims to discuss the education tourism potential at the University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta Indonesia then to create and established an Education Tourism package at Gadjah Mada University. Education Tourism is a means to empower academics, local community, local businesses, and to improve the economic welfare. Methods: Focus group discussions, direct observation, survey and best practice method. Conclusion: There is a positive relationship between attitude, environmental impact, economic impact, and socio-cultural impacts and practice in the field when the potential is seized. The findings incorporate insights into the socio-cultural and economic potential of education tourism and practices related to community development at the University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta Indonesia by creating an Education Tourism Packages that will suit the needs of the tourist. Educational tourism can create sustainable development for local communities, academic society, universities, and stakeholders.

Keywords: education tourism, Gadjah Mada, sustainable, tourism

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Authors: Nichole Patricia Pedrina, Karl Jasper Sumande, Alice Joan Ferrer

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Nogas Island situated in the municipality of Anini-y in the province of Antique is endowed with natural resources especially a thriving marine ecosystem that attracts tourists all year round. But despite its beauty and emerging popularity, the island and its surrounding waters remain vulnerable to degradation brought about by anthropocentric activities. An emphasis on the protection and conservation is paramount in order to ensure environmental sustainability over time. This study was conducted in order to determine the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of the local residents of Anini-y, Antique for the conservation of Nogas Island and its surrounding waters. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was used to determine the WTP of the study participants. In addition, the study also described the socio-demographic and economic characteristics, the level of awareness, knowledge and attitude towards the conservation and the reasons for the willingness to pay off the residents for the conservation of the island and its surrounding waters. A pilot-tested interview schedule was used to collect data from 320 randomly selected study participants in 8 barangays in the municipality of Anini-y from January to December 2017. Binary logit regression was conducted in order to identify factors affecting the study participants’ WTP. The results revealed that 54.69 percent of the study participants were willing to pay (with adjustment to the level of certainty) for the conservation program. The sex, monthly household income, randomly assigned bid price and the knowledge index were the variables that affected the willingness-to-pay of the study participants for both with and without adjustment to the level of certainty. The monthly mean WTP of the study participants with and without adjustment to the level of certainty were P115 and P104.5, respectively. This study can serve as a guide for the municipality of Anini-y in creating a policy or program that aims to conserve and protect Nogas Island and its surrounding waters.

Keywords: economic valuation, environmental conservation, total economic value, willingness to pay

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Authors: A. G. Back

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Urban planning is a relevant tool to address, in a systemic way, several sectoral policies capable of linking the urban agenda with the reduction of socio-environmental risks. The Sao Paulo’s master plan (2014) presents innovations capable of promoting the transition to sustainability in the urban space, with a view to its regulatory instruments related to i) promotion of density in the axes of mass transport involving the mixture of commercial, residential, services, and leisure uses (principles related to the compact city); ii) vulnerabilities reduction based on housing policies including regular sources of funds for social housing and land reservation in urbanized areas; iii) reserve of green areas in the city to create parks and environmental regulations for new buildings focused on reducing the effects of heat island and improving urban drainage. However, its long-term implementation involves distributive conflicts and can undergo changes in different political, economic, and social contexts over time. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to identify and analyze the dynamics of conflicts of interest between social groups in the implementation of Sao Paulo’s urban development policy, particularly in relation to recent attempts at a (re) interpretation of the Master Plan guidelines, in view of the proposals for revision of the urban zoning law. In this sense, we seek to identify the demands, narratives of urban actors, including the real estate market, middle-class neighborhood associations ('not in my backyard' movements), and social housing rights movements. And we seek to analyze the power resources that these actors mobilize to influence the decision-making process, involving five categories: social capital, political access; discursive resource; media, juridical resource. The major findings of this research suggest that the interests and demands of the real estate market do not always prevail in urban regulation. After all, other actors also press for the definition of urban law with interests opposite to those of the real estate market. This is the case of associations of middle-class neighborhoods, which work to protect the characteristics of the locality, acting, in general, to prevent constructive and population densification in neighborhoods well located near the center, in São Paulo. One of the main demands of these “not in my backyard” movements is the delimitation of exclusively residential areas in the central region of the city, which is not only contrary to the interests of the real state market but also contrary to the principles of the compact city. On the other hand, social housing rights movements have also made progress in delimiting special areas of social interest in well-located and valued areas in the city dedicated to building social housing, also contrary to the interests of the real estate market. An urban development that follows the principles of the compact city must take into account the insertion of low-income populations in well-located regions; otherwise, such a development model may continue to push the less favored to the peripheries towards the preservation areas and/or risk areas.

Keywords: interest groups, Sao Paulo, sustainable urban development, urban policies implementation

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Authors: Claudia Seabra, Elisabeth Kastenholz, José Luís Abrantes, Manuel Reis

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In a world of increasing mobility and global risks, terrorism has, in a perverse way, capitalized on contemporaneous society’s growing interest in travel to explore a world whose national boundaries and distances have decreased. Terrorists have identified the modern tourist flows originated from the economically more developed countries as new appealing targets so as to: i) call attention to the causes they defend and ii) destroy a country’s foundations of tourism, with the final aim of disrupting the economic and consequently social fabric of the affected countries. The present study analyses sensitivity towards risk and travel behaviors in international travel amongst a sample of 600 international tourists from 49 countries travelling by air. Specifically, the sample was segmented according to the Global Peace Index. This index defines country profiles regarding the levels of peace. The indicators used are established over three broad themes: i) ongoing domestic and international conflict; ii) societal safety and security; and iii) militarisation. Tourists were segmented, according to their country of origin, in different levels of peacefulness. Several facets of travel behavior were evaluated, namely motivations, attitude towards trip planning, quality perception and perceived value of the trip. Also factors related with risk perception were evaluated, specifically terrorism risk perception during the trip, unsafety sensation as well as importance attributed to safety in travel. Results contribute to our understanding of the role of previous exposure to the lack of peace and safety at home in the international tourists behaviors, which is further discussed in terms of tourism management and marketing implications which should particularly interest tourism services and destinations more affected by terrorism, war, political turmoil, crime and other safety risks.

Keywords: terrorism, tourism, safety, risk perception

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Authors: Krima M. Rohela, Raja Sabarinath Sundaralingam

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Humans have been launching rockets since the beginning of the space age in the late 1950s. We have come a long way since then, and the success rate for the launch of rockets has increased considerably. With every successful launch, there is a large amount of junk or debris which is released into the upper layers of the atmosphere. Space debris has been a huge concern for a very long time now. This includes the rocket shells released from the launch and the parts of defunct satellites. Some of this junk will come to fall towards the Earth and burn in the atmosphere. But most of the junk goes into orbit around the Earth, and they remain in orbits for at least 100 years. This can cause a lot of problems to other functioning satellites and may affect the future manned missions to space. The main concern of the space-debris is the increase in space activities, which leads to risks of collisions if not taken care of soon. These collisions may result in what is known as Kessler Syndrome. This debris can be removed by a space-based laser targeting system. Hence, the matter is investigated and discussed. The first step in this involves launching a satellite with a high-power laser device into space, above the debris belt. Then the target material is ablated with a focussed laser beam. This step of the process is highly dependent on the attitude and orientation of the debris with respect to the Earth and the device. The laser beam will cause a jet of vapour and plasma to be expelled from the material. Hence, the force is applied in the opposite direction, and in accordance with Newton’s third law of motion, this will cause the material to move towards the Earth and get pulled down due to gravity, where it will get disintegrated in the upper layers of the atmosphere. The larger pieces of the debris can be directed towards the oceans. This method of removal of the orbital debris will enable safer passage for future human-crewed missions into space.

Keywords: altitude, Kessler syndrome, laser ablation, Newton’s third law of motion, satellites, Space debris

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Authors: Mark Salisbury

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The arrival of artificially intelligent avatars and the automation they bring is worrying many of us, not only for our livelihood but for the jobs that may be lost to our kids. We worry about what our place will be as human beings in this new economy where much of it will be conducted online in the metaverse – in a network of 3D virtual worlds – working with intelligent machines. The Future of Leadership was written to address these fears and show what our place will be – the right place – in this new economy of AI avatars, automation, and 3D virtual worlds. But to be successful in this new economy, our job will be to bring wisdom to our workplace and the marketplace. And we will use AI avatars and 3D virtual worlds to do it. However, this book is about more than AI and the avatars that we will work with in the metaverse. It’s about building Organizational intelligence (OI) -- the capability of an organization to comprehend and create knowledge relevant to its purpose; in other words, it is the intellectual capacity of the entire organization. To increase organizational intelligence requires a new kind of knowledge worker, a wisdom worker, that requires a new kind of leadership. This book begins your story for how to become a leader of wisdom workers and be successful in the emerging wisdom economy. After this presentation, conference participants will be able to do the following: Recognize the characteristics of the new generation of wisdom workers and how they differ from their predecessors. Recognize that new leadership methods and techniques are needed to lead this new generation of wisdom workers. Apply personal and professional values – personal integrity, belief in something larger than yourself, and keeping the best interest of others in mind – to improve your work performance and lead others. Exhibit an attitude of confidence, courage, and reciprocity of sharing knowledge to increase your productivity and influence others. Leverage artificial intelligence to accelerate your ability to learn, augment your decision-making, and influence others.Utilize new technologies to communicate with human colleagues and intelligent machines to develop better solutions more quickly.

Keywords: metaverse, generative artificial intelligence, automation, leadership, organizational intelligence, wisdom worker

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Authors: Fatima Taqi, Abrar Alanzi

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Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine and assess the level of knowledge and attitudes of dental patients attending Kuwait University Dental Clinics (KUDC) regarding the infection control protocols practiced in the clinic. The results would highlight the importance of conducting awareness campaigns in the community to promote good oral healthcare in Kuwait. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried out among dental patients attending KUDC. A structured questionnaire, in both Arabic and English languages, was used for data collection about the socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge about the dental cross-infection, and attitudes and self-reported practices regarding infection transmission and control in dentistry. Results: A response rate of 80% (202/250) was reported. 47% of respondents had poor knowledge about dental infection transmission, and only 19.8% had satisfactory knowledge. Female participants obtained a higher satisfactory score (14.3%) compared to males (5.5%). Patients with a university degree or higher education had a better level of knowledge compared to patients with a lower educational level (p < 0.05). The majority of participants agreed that the dentist should wear gloves (95.5%), masks (89.6%), safety glasses (70.3%), and gowns (84.7%). Many patients believed that the protection measures are mainly to stop the infection transmission from patient to patient via the dentist. Half of the participants would ask if the instruments are sterilized and might accept treatment from non-vaccinated dentists. Conclusions: Many dental patients attending KUDC have obtained poor knowledge scores regarding infection transmission in the dental clinic. The educational level was significantly associated with their level of knowledge. An overall positive attitude was reported regarding the infection control protocols practiced in the dental clinic. Raising awareness among dental patients about dental infection transmission and protective measures is of utmost importance.

Keywords: dental infection, knowledge, dental patients, infection control

Procedia PDF Downloads 136