Search results for: global physical activity questionnaire

Authors: H. K. Ramaraju

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World is in deep trouble and deeper denial. Worse, the denial is now entirely on the side of action. It is well accepted that climate change is a reality. Scientists say we need to cap temperature increases at 2°C to avoid catastrophe, which means capping emissions at 450 ppm .We know global average temperatures have already increased by 0.8°C and there is enough green house gas in the atmosphere to lead to another 0.8°C increase. There is still a window of opportunity, a tiny one, to tackle the crisis. But where is the action? In the 1990’s, when the world did even not understand, let alone accept, the crises, it was more willing to move to tackle climate change. Today we are in reverse in gear. The rich world has realized it is easy to talk big, but tough to take steps to actually reduce emissions. The agreement was that these countries would reduce so that the developing World could increase. Instead, between 1990 and 2006, their carbon dioxide emissions increased by a whopping 14.5 percent, even green countries of Europe are unable to match words with action. Stop deforestation and take a 20 percent advantage in our carbon balance sheet, with out doing anything at home called REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) and push for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. There are warning signs elsewhere and they need to be read correctly and acted up on , if not the cases like flood –act of nature or manmade disaster. The full length paper orient in proper understanding of the issues and identifying the most appropriate course of action.

Keywords: catastrophe, deforestation, emissions, waste water

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Authors: Thinh Huu Nguyen, Shahab Sharfaei, Jindřich Soukup

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In the pursuit of reducing production costs, offshoring has been a major trend throughout global value chains for many decades. However, with the rise of advanced technologies, new opportunities to automate their production are changing the motivation of multinational firms to go offshore. Instead, many firms are working to relocate their offshored activities from developing economies back to their home countries. This phenomenon, known as reshoring, has recently garnered much attention as it becomes clear that automation in advanced countries might have major implications not only on their own economies but also through international trade on the economy of low-income countries, including their labor market outcomes and their comparative advantages. Thus, while using robots to substitute human labor may lower the relative costs of producing at home, it has the potential to decrease employment and demand for exports from developing economies through reshoring. In this paper, we investigate the recent literature to provide a further understanding of the relationships between robotization and the reshoring of production. Moreover, we analyze the impact of robot adoption on international trade in both developed and emerging markets. Finally, we identify the research gaps and provide avenues for future research in international economics. This study is a part of the project funded by the Internal Grant Agency (IGA) of the Faculty of Business Administration, Prague University of Economics and Business.

Keywords: automation, robotization, reshoring, international trade

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Authors: Shuwen Wu, Zhi LI

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Atomically dispersed Fe‒N₄ catalysts are proven as promising alternatives to commercial Pt/C for the oxygen reduction reaction. Most reported Fe‒N₄ catalysts suffer from inferior O‒O bond-breaking capability due to superoxo-like O₂ adsorption, though the isolated dual-atomic metal sites strategy is extensively adopted. Atomic Fe clusters hold greater promise for promoting O‒O bond cleavage by forming peroxo-like O₂ adsorption. However, the excessively strong binding strength between Fe clusters and oxygenated intermediates sacrifices the activity. Here, we first report a Fex/Cu‒N@CF catalyst with atomic Fe clusters functionalized by adjacent single Cu‒N₄ sites anchoring on a porous carbon nanofiber membrane. The theoretical calculation indicates that the single Cu‒N₄ sites can modulate the electronic configuration of Fe clusters to reduce O₂* protonation reaction free energy, which ultimately enhances the electrocatalytic performance. Particularly, the Cu‒N₄ sites can increase the overlaps between the d orbitals of Fe and p orbitals of O to accelerate O‒O cleavage in OOH*. As a result, this unique atomic catalyst exhibits a half potential (E1/2) of 0.944 V in an alkaline medium exceeding that of commercial Pt/C, whereas acidic performance E1/2 = 0.815 V is comparable to Pt/C. This work shows the great potential of single atoms for improvements in atomic cluster catalysts.

Keywords: Hierarchical porous fibers, atomic Fe clusters, Cu single atoms, oxygen reduction reaction; O-O bond cleavage

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Authors: Chukwunonso Igboamalu, Daprim Ogaji

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Background: With the limited number of trained health care providers in Nigeria, patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) are inevitable and highly needed especially in the rural areas for the supply of drugs in treating minor illnesses. These vendors serve as a crucial link between the healthcare system and the community, aiding in the distribution of medications and healthcare information, particularly in areas with limited hospital infrastructure. Objectives: The study set to measure the participants’ knowledge, attitude and patient referral practice and any association of their characteristics with patient referral. Methodology: This cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted among PPMVs in Obio-Akpor LGA of Rivers State. Data was collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire and analysed using SPSS version 25. Results: The study showed that 18.3% had adequate knowledge, 62.4% had moderate knowledge and 19.2% had poor knowledge. Attitude was moderate among 73.4% of the study participants with only 13% showing adequate attitude. In reporting their referral practice, 34% showed poor referral practice, 58% reported moderate practice and only 8% showed adequate practice. Conclusion: Various facilitators as well as barriers to patient referral were highlighted by the respondents. This study indicated that while attitude and practice were moderate among respondents, the percentage of PPMVs with the adequate knowledge of patient referral was high. To enhance the effectiveness of patient referrals, addressing barriers to referral and promoting education and training for PPMVs are critical steps forward.

Keywords: knowledge, attitude, practice, barriers, facilitators, patent medicine vendor, referral

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Authors: Amir H. Bayat, Mohammad R. Alipour, Saeed Khamneh

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As the respiration via nose is important physiologically, many studies have been done about nasal breathing that switches to oronasal breathing during exercise. The aim of this study was to assess the role of anterior nasal resistance as one of the effective factors on this switching. Twelve young, healthy, non-athletic and non-smoker male volunteers with normal BMI were selected after physical examination and participated in exercise protocol, including measurement of the ventilation, work load and oronasal switching point (OSP) during exercise, and anterior rhinomanometry at rest. The protocol was an incremental exercise with 25 watt increase in work load per minute up to OSP occurrence. There was a significant negative correlation between resting total anterior nasal resistance with OSP, work load and ventilation (p<0.05, r= -0.709). Resting total anterior nasal resistance can be considered as an important factor on OSP occurrence. So, the reducing the resistance of nasal passage may increase nasal respiration tolerance for longer time during exercise.

Keywords: anterior nasal resistance, exercise, OSP, ventilation, work load

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Authors: Nkechi V. Enwuru, Bullum Nkeki, Elizabeth A. Adekoya, Olumide A. Adebesin, Rebecca F. Peters, Victoria A. Aikhomu, Mendie E. U.

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Background: Probiotics are live microbial feed supplement beneficial for host. Probiotics and their postbiotic products have been used to prevent or treat various health conditions. However, the products cell viability is often low due to harsh conditions subjected during processing, handling, storage, and gastrointestinal transit. These strongly influence probiotics’ benefits; thus, viability is essential for probiotics to produce health benefits for the host. Microencapsulation is a promising technique with considerable effects on probiotic survival. The study is aimed to formulate a microencapsulated probiotic and evaluate its viability, antimicrobial efficacy, and cytotoxic activity of its postbiotic on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Method: Human and animal raw milk were sampled for lactic acid bacteria. The isolated bacteria were identified using conventional and VITEK 2 systems. The identified lactic acid bacterium was encapsulated using spray-dried and extrusion methods. The free, encapsulated, and chitosan-coated encapsulated probiotics were tested for viability in simulated-gastric intestinal (SGI) fluid and different storage conditions at refrigerated (4oC) and room (25oC) temperatures. The disintegration time and weight uniformity of the spray-dried hard gelatin capsules were tested. The antimicrobial property of free and encapsulated probiotics was tested against enteric pathogenic isolates from antiretroviral therapy (ART) treated HIV-positive patients. The postbiotic of the free cells was extracted, and its cytotoxic effect on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line was tested through an MTT assay. Result: The Lactobacillus plantarum was isolated from animal raw milk. Zero-size hard gelatin L. plantarum capsules with granules within a size range of 0.71–1.00 mm diameter was formulated. The disintegration time ranges from 2.14±0.045 to 2.91±0.293 minutes, while the average weight is 502.1mg. Simulated gastric solution significantly affected viability of both free and microcapsules. However, the encapsulated cells were more protected and viable due to impermeability in the microcapsules. Furthermore, the viability of free cells stored at 4oC and 25oC were less than 4 log CFU/g and 6 log CFU/g respectively after 12 weeks. However, the microcapsules stored at 4oC achieved the highest viability among the free and microcapsules stored at 25oC and the free cells stored at 4oC. Encapsulated cells were released in the simulated gastric fluid, viable and effective against the enteric pathogens tested. However, chitosan-coated calcium alginate encapsulated probiotics significantly inhibited Shigella flexneri, Candida albicans, and Escherichia coli. The Postbiotic Metabolites (PM) of L. plantarum produced a cytotoxic effect on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. The postbiotic showed significant cytotoxic activity similar to 5FU, a standard antineoplastic agent. The inhibition concentration of 50% growth (IC50) of postbiotic metabolite K3 is low and consistent with the IC50 of the positive control (Cisplatin). Conclusions: Lactobacillus plantarum postbiotic exhibited a cytotoxic effect on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line and could be used as combined adjuvant therapy in breast cancer management. The microencapsulation technique protects the probiotics, improving their viability and delivery to the gastrointestinal tract. Chitosan enhances antibacterial efficacy; thus, chitosan-coated microencapsulated L. plantarum probiotics could be more effective and used as a combined therapy in HIV management of opportunistic enteric infection.

Keywords: probiotics, encapsulation, gastrointestinal conditions, antimicrobial effect, postbiotic, cytotoxicity effect

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Authors: Saira Baloch, Mohsin Ali Baloch

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Background: Malaria is a potentially life-threatening disease and also a major public health problem in Pakistan. Renal failure is an emerging problem correlated with morbidity and mortality, however can be diagnosed and treated in the early stages. Objectives: To elucidate the biochemical renal parameters in patients with falciparum malaria and comparison with healthy control subjects. Method: 80 patients, who were diagnosed to be affected by falciparum malaria. Detailed history, general physical and systemic examination and necessary pathological, biochemical renal laboratory parameters and investigations were done. Results: Among the 80 patients, 43 were males and 37 were females. All patients were infected with P. falciparum. All patients had increased serum creatinine and urea levels and urine output of less than 400 ml/day were categorized as suffering from renal failure. Conclusion: Patients infected with P. falciparum are at an increased risk of developing renal failure when compared to patients infected with other complications. P. vivax has massive potential to cause life threatening complications and even death. Further research is required to understand the exact pathogenesis of various complications encountered in vivax malaria.

Keywords: falciparum malaria, renal failure, biochemical parameters, pathogenesis

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Authors: Emel Bayraktar, Gulengun Turk

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Introduction and Objective: Safe administration of medicines is one of the main responsibilities of nurses. Intramuscular drug administration is among the most common methods used by nurses among all drug applications. This study was carried out in order to determine determine the effect of education given on injection in ventrogluteal area on the level of knowledge of nurses on this subject. Methods: The sample of the study consisted of 20 nurses who agreed to participate in the study between 01 October and 31 December 2019. The research is a pretest-posttest comparative, quasi-experimental type pilot study. The nurses were given a 4-hour training prepared on injection into the ventrogluteal area. The training consisted of two hours of theoretical and two hours of laboratory practice. Before the training and 4 weeks after the training, a questionnaire form containing questions about their knowledge and practices regarding the injection of the ventrogluteal region was applied to the nurses. Results: The average age of the nurses is 26.55 ± 7.60, 35% (n = 7) of them are undergraduate and 30% (n = 6) of them work in intensive care units. Before the training, 35% (n = 7) of the nurses stated that the most frequently used intramuscular injection site was the ventrogluteal area, and 75% (n = 15) stated that the safest area was the rectus femoris muscle. After the training, 55% (n = 11) of the nurses stated that they most frequently used the ventrogluteal area and 100% (n = 20) of them stated that the ventrogluteal area was the safest area. The average score the nurses got from the premises before the training is 14.15 ± 6.63 (min = 0, max = 20), the total score is 184. The average score obtained after the training was determined as 18.69 ± 2.35 (min = 12, max = 20), and the total score was 243. Conclusion: As a result of the research, it was determined that the training given on the injection of ventrogluteal area increased the knowledge level of the nurses. It is recommended to organize in-service trainings for all nurses on the injection of ventrogluteal area.

Keywords: safe injection, knowledge level, nurse, intramuscular injection, ventrogluteal area

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Authors: Swasti Singh Ghai

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Creativity is understood as an intersubjective phenomenon shaped by socio-cultural values and economic forces. Creativity as a means to achieve progress is a very modern concept, driven by a global capitalist market economy. The dominant urban, often first-world articulations of creativity, overshadow the rural, local and cultural notions of people in the developing nations. Artisanal practices of making grounded in preindustrial and pre-capitalist contexts hold varying cultural and region-specific concepts and standards for ascribing creativity to a person or product, or process. These notions reflect the underlying philosophy that constitutes their worldview. The process of colonization through western education has blurred or overlapped some of these key philosophical concepts. This article adopts a post-colonial stance to understand the perceptions of skill, intelligence and creativity among tradition rooted textile craft practitioners of Kutch, Gujarat in India. The artisans, while negotiating their space in the contemporary markets, are making efforts to include the modern categories of art, craft, and design in their worldview. The paper will first review theories of creativity that throw light on the link between skill, intelligence and creativity. Then the paper will use secondary research and data from interviews to share crafts person notions of skill, creativity and intelligence and their interrelationship.

Keywords: traditional craft, textile, creativity, skill, intelligence

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Authors: Ahmed H. Elkholy

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The concept of applying a prescribed oscillation to viscous fluids to aid or increase flow is used to produce a maintenance free pump. Application of this technique to fluids presents unique problems such as physical separation; control of heat and mass transfer in certain industrial applications; and improvement of some fluid process methods. The problem as stated is to obtain the velocity distribution, wall shear stress and energy expended when a pipe containing a stagnant viscous fluid is externally excited by a sinusoidal pulse, one end of the pipe being pinned. On the other hand, the effect of different parameters on the results are presented. Such parameters include fluid viscosity, frequency of oscillations and pipe geometry. It was found that the flow velocity through the pump is maximum at the pipe wall, and it decreases rapidly towards the pipe centerline. The frequency of oscillation should be above a certain value in order to obtain meaningful flow velocity. The amount of energy absorbed in the system is mainly due to pipe wall strain energy, while the fluid pressure and kinetic energies are comparatively small.

Keywords: sinusoidal excitation, pump, shear stress, flow

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Authors: Mohammad Goli, Akram Sharifi, Mohammad Yousefi Jozdani, Seyed Ali Mortazavi

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An industrial spray dryer was used, and the effects of atomizer speed on the physicochemical properties of milk powder, the textural and sensory characteristics of white cheese made from this milk powder, were evaluated. For this purpose, whole milk was converted into powder by using three different speeds (10,000, 11,000, and 12,000 rpm). Results showed that with increasing atomizer speed in the spray dryer, the average size of casein micelle is significantly decreased (p < 0.05), whereas no significant effect is observed on the chemical properties of milk powder. White cheese characteristics indicated that with increasing atomizer speed, texture parameters, such as hardness, mastication, and gumminess, were significantly reduced (p < 0.05). Sensory evaluation also revealed that cheese samples prepared with dried milk produced at 12,000 rpm were highly accepted by panelists. Overall, the findings suggested that 12,000 rpm is the optimal atomizer speed for milk powder production.

Keywords: spray drying, powder technology, atomizer speed, particle size, white cheese physical properties

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Authors: Arista Mayang Sari Slamet

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This study was conducted to see the shape or behavior that shows the attitude of confidence in the practice of debate on science program students in Senior High School. This research is a descriptive qualitative study by explaining the forms of behavior of each indicator (there are ten indicators) confidence of Santrock. Data collection using interviews with Indonesian language teachers, direct observation, and documents. In this study, it was found that there is one item that is not visible indicator of the high school students of class X, which is the fourth item ‘Sitting with others in social activities’. This is caused by the forum examined are debating forum, so there is a social activity can’t be seen. The result of this study there are two students who do not show the behavior of confidence, their name is Dea and Audria (from the pro team). This indicates that the head of a pro team dominated the debate. The time for the debate is 45 minutes. Therefore all students in both of team can’t demonstrate their debate skill. In each team is only dominated by one student. The most common forms of confidence behavior are expressing opinion, look at the other person (speaker), and keeping eye contact with the other person. This indicates that the attitude of confidence by looking at the other person makes them more confident about their opinion. The most uncommon indicators is to direct or instruct to the other person. This shows that the attitude of self-confidence shown by the students isn’t lead.

Keywords: confidence, debate, senior high school, Jakarta

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Authors: Carlos Gordon, Patricio Encalada, Henry Lema, Diego Leon, Dennis Chicaiza

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The following work presents a proposal of autonomous navigation of mobile robots implemented in an omnidirectional robot Kuka Youbot. We have been able to perform the integration of robotic operative system (ROS) and machine learning algorithms. ROS mainly provides two distributions; ROS hydro and ROS Kinect. ROS hydro allows managing the nodes of odometry, kinematics, and path planning with statistical and probabilistic, global and local algorithms based on Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization (AMCL) and Dijkstra. Meanwhile, ROS Kinect is responsible for the detection block of dynamic objects which can be in the points of the planned trajectory obstructing the path of Kuka Youbot. The detection is managed by artificial vision module under a trained neural network based on the single shot multibox detector system (SSD), where the main dynamic objects for detection are human beings and domestic animals among other objects. When the objects are detected, the system modifies the trajectory or wait for the decision of the dynamic obstacle. Finally, the obstacles are skipped from the planned trajectory, and the Kuka Youbot can reach its goal thanks to the machine learning algorithms.

Keywords: autonomous navigation, machine learning, path planning, robotic operative system, open source computer vision library

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Authors: Abdulmohsen Alghadeer, Fahad Al Mahashir, Loai Al Owa, Najim Alshahrani

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Electrical continuity of steel structure members is an essential condition to ensure equipotential and ultimately to protect personnel and assets in industrial facilities. The steel structure is electrically connected to provide a low resistance path to earth through equipotential bonding to prevent sparks and fires in the event of fault currents and avoid malfunction of the plant with detrimental consequences to the local and global environment. The oil and gas industry is commonly establishing steel structure electrical continuity by bare surface connection of coated steel members. This paper presents information pertaining to a real case of exploring and applying different techniques to achieve the electrical continuity in erecting steel structures at a gas plant facility. A project was supplied with fully coated steel members even at the surface connection members that cause electrical discontinuity. This was observed while a considerable number of steel members had already been received at the job site and erected. This made the resolution of the case to use different techniques such as bolt tightening and torqueing, chemical paint stripping and single point jumpers. These techniques are studied with comparative analysis related to their applicability, workability, time and cost advantages and disadvantages.

Keywords: coated Steel, electrical continuity, equipotential bonding, galvanized steel, gas plant facility, lightning protection, steel structure

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Authors: Yanpei Zhen

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The nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation models wave dynamics in many physical problems related to fluids, plasmas, and optics. The standing periodic waves are known to be modulationally unstable, and rogue waves (localized perturbations in space and time) have been observed on their backgrounds in numerical experiments. The exact solutions for rogue waves arising on the periodic standing waves have been obtained analytically. It is natural to ask if the rogue waves persist on the standing periodic waves in the integrable discretizations of the integrable NLS equation. We study the standing periodic waves in the semidiscrete integrable system modeled by the high-order Ablowitz-Ladik (AL) equation. The standing periodic wave of the high-order AL equation is expressed by the Jacobi cnoidal elliptic function. The exact solutions are obtained by using the separation of variables and one-fold Darboux transformation. Since the cnoidal wave is modulationally unstable, the rogue waves are generated on the periodic background.

Keywords: Darboux transformation, periodic wave, Rogue wave, separating the variables

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Authors: Salaheddine Bendak, Sara S. Alnaqbi

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The seat belt is a vital tool in improving traffic safety conditions and minimising injuries due to traffic accidents. Most developing countries are facing a big problems associated with the human and financial losses due to traffic accidents. One way to minimise these losses is the use of seat belts by passengers both in the front and rear seats of a vehicle; however, at the same time, close to nothing is known about the rates of seat belt utilisation among rear seat passengers in many developing countries. Therefore, there is a need to estimate these rates in order to know the extent of this problem and how people interact with traffic safety measures like seat belts and find demographic characteristics that contribute to wearing or non-wearing of seat belts with the aim of finding solutions to improve wearing rates. In this paper, an observational study was done to gather data on restraints use in motor vehicle rear seats in eight observational stations in a rapidly developing country, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and estimate a use rate for the whole country. Also, a questionnaire was used in order to study demographic characteristics affecting the wearing of seatbelts in rear seats. Results of the observational study showed that the overall wearing/usage rate was 12.3%, which is considered very low when compared to other countries. Survey results show that single, male, less educated passengers from Arab and South Asian backgrounds use seat belts reportedly less than others. Finally, solutions are put forward to improve this wearing rate based on the results of this study.

Keywords: Seat belts, traffic crashes, United Arab Emirates, rear seats

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Authors: Yaseri Dahlia Apritasari

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Visual comfort is important for the building occupants to need. Visual comfort can be fulfilled through natural lighting (daylighting) and artificial lighting. One strategy to optimize natural lighting can be achieved through the facade second skin design. This strategy can reduce glare, and fulfill visual comfort need. However, the design strategy cannot achieve light intensity for visual comfort. Because the materials, design and opening percentage of the facade of second skin blocked sunlight. This paper discusses aluminum material for the facade second skin design that can fulfill the optimal visual comfort with the case studies Multi Media Tower building. The methodology of the research is combination quantitative and qualitative through field study observed, lighting measurement and visual comfort questionnaire. Then it used too simulation modeling (DIALUX 4.13, 2016) for three facades second skin design model. Through following steps; (1) Measuring visual comfort factor: light intensity indoor and outdoor; (2) Taking visual comfort data from building occupants; (3) Making models with different facade second skin design; (3) Simulating and analyzing the light intensity value for each models that meet occupants visual comfort standard: 350 lux (Indonesia National Standard, 2010). The result shows that optimization of aluminum material for the facade second skin design can meet optimal visual comfort for building occupants. The result can give recommendation aluminum opening percentage of the facade second skin can meet optimal visual comfort for building occupants.

Keywords: aluminium material, Facade, second skin, visual comfort

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Authors: Adewale O. Ogunde, Olusegun Folorunso, Adesina S. Sodiya

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Most existing Distributed Association Rule Mining (DARM) systems are still facing several challenges. One of such challenges that have not received the attention of many researchers is the inability of existing systems to adapt to constantly changing databases and mining environments. In this work, an Adaptive Incremental Mining Algorithm (AIMA) is therefore proposed to address these problems. AIMA employed multiple mobile agents for the entire mining process. AIMA was designed to adapt to changes in the distributed databases by mining only the incremental database updates and using this to update the existing rules in order to improve the overall response time of the DARM system. In AIMA, global association rules were integrated incrementally from one data site to another through Results Integration Coordinating Agents. The mining agents in AIMA were made adaptive by defining mining goals with reasoning and behavioral capabilities and protocols that enabled them to either maintain or change their goals. AIMA employed Java Agent Development Environment Extension for designing the internal agents’ architecture. Results from experiments conducted on real datasets showed that the adaptive system, AIMA performed better than the non-adaptive systems with lower communication costs and higher task completion rates.

Keywords: adaptivity, data mining, distributed association rule mining, incremental mining, mobile agents

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Authors: Hanna Corsini

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This article provides an analysis of counter-hegemonic movements and their consequences for the neoliberal world order at the international level. Even if calls for change are becoming louder, current research on populist forces at the domestic level in comparative politics is lacking an investigation of the international dimensions of the rise of such movements. At the same time, in the International Relations field, the focus still remains on the surge of challengers at the global level, while the national one stays neglected. This paper argues that to fill this gap as identified in the academic literature, the concept of hegemony, and more precisely, as deployed by Antonio Gramsci, can bear some interesting insights. An adaptation to the 21st century of Gramsci’s concept is proposed, highlighting the explanatory power that key concepts of his theoretical framework have. Transposing it to contemporary politics provides precious elements for an in-depth understanding of counter-hegemonic movements and the consequences of their rise for the neoliberal world order. In an era of disruption and turmoil in national politics, International Relations theory cannot avoid to engage with this dimension. However, populism as a theoretical concept lacks the capacity to go beyond the domestic border. It is therefore essential to create a dialogue between these two fields. Ultimately, the paper claims that (counter-)hegemony is crucial to build a bridge between the international and the domestic level.

Keywords: counter-hegemonic movements, Gramsci, hegemony, international relations

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Authors: Fernanda M. Assef, Maria Teresinha A. Steiner, David Gabriel F. Barros

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Review researches are useful in terms of analysis of research problems. Between the types of review documents, we commonly find bibliometric studies. This type of application often helps the global visualization of a research problem and helps academics worldwide to understand the context of a research area better. In this document, a bibliometric view surrounding clustering techniques and sustainability problems is presented. The authors aimed at which issues mostly use clustering techniques, and, even which sustainability issue would be more impactful on today’s moment of research. During the bibliometric analysis, we found ten different groups of research in clustering applications for sustainability issues: Energy; Environmental; Non-urban planning; Sustainable Development; Sustainable Supply Chain; Transport; Urban Planning; Water; Waste Disposal; and, Others. And, by analyzing the citations of each group, we discovered that the Environmental group could be classified as the most impactful research cluster in the area mentioned. Now, after the content analysis of each paper classified in the environmental group, we found that the k-means technique is preferred for solving sustainability problems with clustering methods since it appeared the most amongst the documents. The authors finally conclude that a bibliometric assessment could help indicate a gap of researches on waste disposal – which was the group with the least amount of publications – and the most impactful research on environmental problems.

Keywords: bibliometric assessment, clustering, sustainability, territorial partitioning

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Authors: Deependra Prasad Sarraf, Gajendra Prasad Rauniar, Robin Maskey, Rajiv Maharjan, Ashish Shrestha, Ramayan Prasad Kushwaha

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Objectives: To assess the perception of faculties towards online teaching-learning activities conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify barriers and facilitators to conducting online teaching-learning activities in our context. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among faculties at B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences using a 26-item semi-structured questionnaire. A Google Form was prepared, and its link was sent to the faculties via email. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and findings were presented as tables and graphs. Results: Out of 158 faculties, the majority were male (66.46%), medical faculties (85.44%), and assistant professors (46.84%). Only 16 (10.13%) faculties had received formal training regarding preparing and/or delivering online teaching learning activities. Out of 158, 133 (84.18%) faculties faced technical and internet issues. The most common advantage and disadvantage of online teaching learning activities perceived by the faculties were ‘not limited to time or place’ (94.30%) and ‘lack of interaction with the students’ (82.28%), respectively. Majority (94.3%) of them had a positive perception towards online teaching-learning activities conducted during COVID-19 pandemic. Slow internet connection (91.77%) and frequent electricity interruption (82.91%) were the most common perceived barriers to online teaching-learning. Conclusions: Most of the faculties had a positive perception towards online teaching-learning activities. Academic leaders and stakeholders should provide uninterrupted internet and electricity connectivity, training on online teaching-learning platform, and timely technical support.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, faculties, medical education, perception

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Authors: Iván González, Pablo Andrés Maya, Sebastián Jaén

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Eco-industrial parks (EIPs) work as networks for the exchange of by-products, such as materials, water, or energy. This research identifies the relevant factors in the formation of EIPs in different industrial environments around the world. Then an aggregation of these factors is carried out to reduce them from 50 to 17 and classify them according to 5 fundamental axes. Subsequently, the Vester Sensitivity Model (VSM) systemic methodology is used to determine the influence of the 17 factors on an EIP system and the interrelationship between them. The results show that the sequence of effects between factors: Trust and Cooperation → Business Association → Flows → Additional Income represents the “backbone” of the system, being the most significant chain of influences. In addition, the Organizational Culture represents the turning point of the Industrial Symbiosis on which it must act correctly to avoid falling into unsustainable economic development. Finally, the flow of Information should not be lost since it is what feeds trust between the parties, and the latter strengthens the system in the face of individual or global imbalances. This systemic understanding will enable the formulation of pertinent policies by the actors that interact in the formation and permanence of the EIP. In this way, it seeks to promote large-scale sustainable industrial development, integrating various community actors, which in turn will give greater awareness and appropriation of the current importance of sustainability in industrial production.

Keywords: critical factors, eco-industrial park, industrial symbiosis, system methodology

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Authors: Awad Mohamed Elkhadir, Rajab M. Ben Yousef

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Background/Aim: Radiological technologists are medical professionals who perform diagnostic imaging tests such as X-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, and computer tomography (CT) scans. Despite the recognition of image interpretation by British radiologists, it is still considered a problem in the Arab world. This study evaluates the perceptions of radiologists in the Middle East concerning the plain image interpretation of adults by radiologic technologist specialists. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that follows a quantitative approach. A close-ended questionnaire was distributed among 103 participants who were radiologists by profession from various hospitals in Saudi Arabia and Sudan. The gathered data was then analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: The results showed that 29% recognized the Radiologic Technologist Specialist (RTS) role of writing image reports, while 61% did not. A total of 38% of participants believed that RTS image interpretation would help diagnose unreported radiographs. 47% of the sample responded that the workload and stress on radiologists would reduce by allowing reporting for RTS, while 37% did not. Lastly, 43% believe that image interpretation by RTS can be introduced into the Middle East in the future. Conclusion: The study's findings reveal that the combination of image reporting and radiography improves the care of the patients. The study's outcomes also show that the burden of the medical practitioners reduces due to image reporting of the radiographers. Further researches need to be conducted in the Arab World to obtain and measure the associated factors of the desired criteria.

Keywords: Arab world, image interpretation, radiographer, radiologist, Saudi Arabia, Sudan

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Authors: Rana Alkattan

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Aim: This study aims to identify and analyze the factors predicting the professional clinical competency among newly recruited registered nurses. In addition, it aims to explore factors significantly correlated with high and low professional clinical competency score. Method: A descriptive analytical is applied in this study, cross-sectional which conducted between June 2012 and June 2013 at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, as one of the largest governmental university tertiary Hospital in Saudi Arabia. A survey questionnaire was designed to collect data. And then, data were analyzed using the SPSS. Results: A total of the 86 nurses provided valid responses. 69 were female and 17 were male. The majority of the participants in this study were married, from the Philippines, between 20-29 years old. The majority had certified university bachelor’s degree in nursing, as well as had prior experience in nursing between 1 to 5 years. There are two categories emerged from the data, which significantly correlated with nurses' professional competence and development. The first was the newly employed registered nurses demographic characteristic (correlation coefficients 0.154 to 0.470, P < 0.05), while the second was the list of studied environmental factors except 'job rotation factor' (correlation coefficients 0.122 to 0.540, P < 0.01). However, nurses' attitude including motivation and confidence were not associated with nurse's professional competency. Conclusion: that nurses' professional competence development is a process affected by certain personal demographic and environmental factors which will enable newly graduates nurses to provide safe effective patients' care and maintain their career responsibilities.

Keywords: clinical, competence, development nurses professional, registered

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Authors: Jana Gebhartova, Tomas Duda, Ivan Benes

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World is characterized by constantly emerging new links, increasing complexity and speed of processes in the society. The globalized world needs (except political and financial mechanisms and institutions) functional supply chains. Transport and supply chains can be interrupted in case of natural disasters, conflicts and civil disorders, sudden demand shocks, export/import restrictions, terrorism. Long-term interruption of crucial services for human existence can results in breakdown of the whole society. If global supply chains can be interrupted, the ability to survive a crisis situation depends on local self-sufficiency, it means ensuring water, food and energy. In the world of 21st century, new way of thinking (based on the concept of resilience) is needed. Planning for self-sufficiency and resilience must be part of the agenda of local governments. The paper presents first results of research project VF20112015518 “Security of population – crisis management” that deals with issue of critical infrastructure, ensuring regional self-sufficiency in crisis situations and issues related to population protection and water, energy and food security. The project is being solved within Security Research of Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic in 2011-2015.

Keywords: crisis management, resilience, indicators of self-sufficiency, continuity of supplies

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Authors: Juan Pablo Bertuzzi, Mauro Chiarella

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Employing a communication studies perspective and a socio-technological approach, this paper introduces a theoretical framework for understanding the concept of hybrid world; the avatarization phenomena; and the communicational archetype of co-hybridization. This analysis intends to make a contribution to future design of virtual reality experimental applications. Ultimately, this paper presents an ongoing research project that proposes the study of human-avatar interactions in digital educational environments, as well as an innovative reflection on inner digital communication. The aforementioned project presents the analysis of human-avatar interactions, through the development of an interactive experience in virtual reality. The goal is to generate an innovative communicational dimension that could reinforce the hypotheses presented throughout this paper. Being thought for its initial application in educational environments, the analysis and results of this research are dependent and have been prepared in regard of a meticulous planning of: the conception of a 3D digital platform; the interactive game objects; the AI or computer avatars; the human representation as hybrid avatars; and lastly, the potential of immersion, ergonomics and control diversity that can provide the virtual reality system and the game engine that were chosen. The project is divided in two main axes: The first part is the structural one, as it is mandatory for the construction of an original prototype. The 3D model is inspired by the physical space that belongs to an academic institution. The incorporation of smart objects, avatars, game mechanics, game objects, and a dialogue system will be part of the prototype. These elements have all the objective of gamifying the educational environment. To generate a continuous participation and a large amount of interactions, the digital world will be navigable both, in a conventional device and in a virtual reality system. This decision is made, practically, to facilitate the communication between students and teachers; and strategically, because it will help to a faster population of the digital environment. The second part is concentrated to content production and further data analysis. The challenge is to offer a scenario’s diversity that compels users to interact and to question their digital embodiment. The multipath narrative content that is being applied is focused on the subjects covered in this paper. Furthermore, the experience with virtual reality devices proposes users to experiment in a mixture of a seemingly infinite digital world and a small physical area of movement. This combination will lead the narrative content and it will be crucial in order to restrict user’s interactions. The main point is to stimulate and to grow in the user the need of his hybrid avatar’s help. By building an inner communication between user’s physicality and user’s digital extension, the interactions will serve as a self-guide through the gameworld. This is the first attempt to make explicit the avatarization phenomena and to further analyze the communicational archetype of co-hybridization. The challenge of the upcoming years will be to take advantage from these forms of generalized avatarization, in order to create awareness and establish innovative forms of hybridization.

Keywords: avatar, hybrid worlds, socio-technology, virtual reality

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Authors: Md Abdullah Al Mamun

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Background: The current situation of Ensuring WHO recommended feeding practices for infant and young children which is becoming a challenge nowadays in many developing countries, especially in areas where household food security is at risk. Because many households of the developing countries often encounter severe food insecurity hence provision of adequate child nutrition is threatened. Aim: The study aimed to assess the child feeding practices of 0-24 months childbearing mothers and explore their household food insecurity in a coastal region of Bangladesh. Methods: This study was conducted in Suborno Char (one of the coastal suburbs in Noakhali District in Bangladesh) from October 2019 to April 2020. A total of 400 mothers were selected with their children of 0-24 months following a cross sectional study sampling procedure of the population. Data were collected through a standard questionnaire and analyzed using statistical tests in SPSS version 20.0.0. Results: The frequency of exclusive breastfeeding, timely initiation of complementary feeding, and giving foods from four food groups to the children were 53.5%, 75.5%, and 22.2%, respectively. Mother's level of education showed a strong association with the child feeding practices of the mothers. Mothers of severely food insecure households showed lower odds in exclusive breastfeeding practice (COR 0.233 at 95% CI 0.083, 0.655; and AOR 0.478 at 95% CI 0.133, 1.713) than mothers of food secured households. Similar results have also been found in case of timely initiation of complementary feeding and minimum dietary diversity of the children.

Keywords: household food insecurity, exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, maternal education, mothers age, household income

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Authors: Stefana Francisca Lupu, Jasmin Chantah, Mara Krone, Ingo Roden, Stephan Bongard, Gunter Kreutz

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Long-term music interventions could enhance both musical and nonmusical skills. The present study was designed to explore cognitive, socio-emotional, and musical development in a longitudinal setting. Third-graders (N = 184: 87 male, 97 female; mean age = 8.61 years; 115 native German and 69 migrant children) were randomly assigned to two intervention groups (music and maths) and a control group over a period of one school-year. At baseline, children in these groups were similar in basic cognitive skills, with a trend of advantage in the control group. Dependent measures included the culture fair intelligence test CFT 20-R; the questionnaire of emotional and social school experience for grade 3 and 4 (FEESS 3-4), the test of resources in childhood and adolescence (FRKJ 8-16), the test of language proficiency for German native and non-native primary school children (SFD 3), the reading comprehension test (ELFE 1-6), the German math test (DEMAT 3+) and the intermediate measures of music audiation (IMMA). Data were collected two times at the beginning (T1) and at the end of the school year (T2). A third measurement (T3) followed after a six months retention period. Data from baseline and post-intervention measurements are currently being analyzed. Preliminary results of all three measurements will be presented at the conference.

Keywords: musical training, primary-school German and migrant children, socio-emotional skills, transfer

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Authors: Ana-Marija Stjepić, Dalia Suša Vugec

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Today, digital transformation is one of the leading topics that occupy the attention of scientific circles and business experts. Organizational success is most often reflected through the successful managing of business processes. Given the growing market for digital innovations and its ever-increasing impact on business, organizations need to be prepared for organizational changes that come with the digital era. In order to maintain their competitive advantage in the global market, organizations must adapt their processes to new digitalization conditions. The main goal of this study is to point out the link between the digital transformation and the business process management concept. Therefore, in order to contribute to the scientific field that explores the potential relation between business process management concept and digital transformation, a literature review has been conducted. Papers have been searched within the Business Process Management Journal by keywords related to the term digital transformation. Selected papers have been analyzed according to the topic, type of publication, year of publication, keywords, etc. The results reveal a growing number of papers published on the topic of digital transformation to the Business Process Management Journal, but the lack of case studies. This paper contributes to the extension of academic literature in this important, yet insufficiently researched, scientific field that creates the bond between two strong concepts of digital transformation and business process management.

Keywords: business process management, digital transformation, digitalization, process change

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Authors: Maha Soltan, Amal Z. Hassan, Howaida I. Abd-Alla, Atef G. Hanna

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Two naturally known cardenolides; acovenoside A and acobioside A were isolated from the Egyptian cultivar; Acokanthera spectabilis leaves. It is an ornamental and poisonous plant that has been traditionally claimed for their medicinal properties against infectious microbes, killing worms and curing some inflammations at little amounts. We examined the growth inhibition effects of both cardenolides against four types of human cancer cell lines using Sulphorhodamine B assay. In addition, the clonogenic assay was also performed for testing the growth inhibiting power of the isolated compounds. An in vitro mechanistic investigation was further accomplished against hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell line. Microscopic examination, colorimetric ELISA and flow cytometry techniques were our tools of proving at least part of the anticancer pathway of the tested compounds. Both compounds were able to inhibit the growth of 4 human cancer cell lines at less than 100 nM. In addition, they were able to activate the executioner Caspase-3 and apoptosis was then induced as a consequence of cell growth arrest at G2/M. An attention must be payed to those bioactive agents particularly when giving their activity against cancer cells at considerable small values while presenting safe therapeutic margins as indicated by literature.

Keywords: anticancer, cardenolides, Caspase-3, apoptosis

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