Search results for: multi criteria decision making (MCDM)

Authors: Lakshmi N. Reddi, Akanksha Varma Sagi

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Studies on biomimetics are largely developed, deriving inspiration from natural processes in our objective world to develop novel technologies. Recent studies are diverse in nature, making their categorization quite challenging. Based on an exhaustive survey, we developed categorizations based on either the essential elements of nature - air, water, land, fire, and space, or on form/shape, functionality, and process. Such diverse studies as aircraft wings inspired by bird wings, a self-cleaning coating inspired by a lotus petal, wetsuits inspired by beaver fur, and search algorithms inspired by arboreal ant path networks lend themselves to these categorizations. Our categorizations of biomimetic studies allowed us to define a different dimension of biomimetics. This new dimension is not restricted to inspiration from the objective world. It is based on the premise that the biological processes observed in the objective world find their reflections in our human bodies in a variety of ways. For example, the lungs provide the most efficient example for liquid-gas phase exchange, the heart exemplifies a very efficient pumping and circulatory system, and the kidneys epitomize the most effective cleaning system. The main focus of this paper is to bring out the magnificence of the cerebro-spinal system (CSS) insofar as it relates to our current computer architecture. In particular, the paper uses four key measures to analyze the differences between CSS and human- engineered computational systems. These are adaptability, sustainability, energy efficiency, and resilience. We found that the cerebrospinal system reveals some important challenges in the development and evolution of our current computer architectures. In particular, the myriad ways in which the CSS is integrated with other systems/processes (circulatory, respiration, etc) offer useful insights on how the human-engineered computational systems could be made more sustainable, energy-efficient, resilient, and adaptable. In our paper, we highlight the energy consumption differences between CSS and our current computational designs. Apart from the obvious differences in materials used between the two, the systemic nature of how CSS functions provides clues to enhance life-cycles of our current computational systems. The rapid formation and changes in the physiology of dendritic spines and their synaptic plasticity causing memory changes (ex., long-term potentiation and long-term depression) allowed us to formulate differences in the adaptability and resilience of CSS. In addition, the CSS is sustained by integrative functions of various organs, and its robustness comes from its interdependence with the circulatory system. The paper documents and analyzes quantifiable differences between the two in terms of the four measures. Our analyses point out the possibilities in the development of computational systems that are more adaptable, sustainable, energy efficient, and resilient. It concludes with the potential approaches for technological advancement through creation of more interconnected and interdependent systems to replicate the effective operation of cerebro-spinal system.

Keywords: cerebrospinal system, computer architecture, adaptability, sustainability, resilience, energy efficiency

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Authors: Collen Tebogo Masilo, Erik Schmikl

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The demand for the DataMiner product by customers has presented a great challenge for the vendor in Skyline Communications in deploying its limited resources in the form of human resources, financial resources, and office space, to achieve high organisational performance in all its international operations. The rapid growth of the organisation has been unable to efficiently support its existing customers across the globe, and provide services to new customers, due to the limited number of approximately one hundred employees in its employ. The combined descriptive and explanatory case study research methods were selected as research design, making use of a survey questionnaire which was distributed to a sample of 100 respondents. A sample return of 89 respondents was achieved. The sampling method employed was non-probability sampling, using the convenient sampling method. Frequency analysis and correlation between the subscales (the four themes) were used for statistical analysis to interpret the data. The investigation was conducted into mechanisms that can be deployed to balance the high demand for products and the limited production capacity of the company’s Belgian operations across four aspects: demand management strategies, capacity management strategies, communication methods that can be used to align a sales management department, and reward systems in use to improve employee performance. The conclusions derived from the theme ‘demand management strategies’ are that the company is fully aware of the future market demand for its products. However, there seems to be no evidence that there is proper demand forecasting conducted within the organisation. The conclusions derived from the theme 'capacity management strategies' are that employees always have a lot of work to complete during office hours, and, also, employees seem to need help from colleagues with urgent tasks. This indicates that employees often work on unplanned tasks and multiple projects. Conclusions derived from the theme 'communication methods used to align sales management department with operations' are that communication is not good throughout the organisation. This means that information often stays with management, and does not reach non-management employees. This also means that there is a lack of smooth synergy as expected and a lack of good communication between the sales department and the projects office. This has a direct impact on the delivery of projects to customers by the operations department. The conclusions derived from the theme ‘employee reward systems’ are that employees are motivated, and feel that they add value in their current functions. There are currently no measures in place to identify unhappy employees, and there are also no proper reward systems in place which are linked to a performance management system. The research has made a contribution to the body of research by exploring the impact of the four sub-variables and their interaction on the challenges of organisational productivity, in particular where an organisation experiences a capacity problem during its growth stage during tough economic conditions. Recommendations were made which, if implemented by management, could further enhance the organisation’s sustained competitive operations.

Keywords: high demand for products, high organisational performance, limited production capacity, limited resources

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Authors: Michael Josef Schwerer

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Background: Analyzing any aircraft accident is mandatory based on the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization and the respective country’s criminal prosecution authorities. Legal medicine investigations are unavoidable when fatalities involve the flight crew or when doubts arise concerning the pilot’s aeromedical health status before the event. As a result of frequently tremendous blunt and sharp force trauma along with the impact of the aircraft to the ground, consecutive blast or fire exposition of the occupants or putrefaction of the dead bodies in cases of delayed recovery, relevant findings can be masked or destroyed and therefor being inaccessible in standard pathology practice comprising just forensic autopsy and histopathology. Such cases are of considerable risk of remaining unsolved without legal consequences for those responsible. Further, no lessons can be drawn from these scenarios to improve flight safety and prevent future mishaps. Aims and Methods: To learn from previously unsolved aircraft accidents, re-evaluations of the investigation files and modern molecular pathology studies were performed. Genetic testing involved predominantly PCR-based analysis of gene regulation, studying DNA promotor methylations, RNA transcription and posttranscriptional regulation. In addition, the presence or absence of infective agents, particularly DNA- and RNA-viruses, was studied. Technical adjustments of molecular genetic procedures when working with archived sample material were necessary. Standards for the proper interpretation of the respective findings had to be settled. Results and Discussion: Additional molecular genetic testing significantly contributes to the quality of forensic pathology assessment in aviation mishaps. Previously undetected cardiotropic viruses potentially explain e.g., a pilot’s sudden incapacitation resulting from cardiac failure or myocardial arrhythmia. In contrast, negative results for infective agents participate in ruling out concerns about an accident pilot’s fitness to fly and the aeromedical examiner’s precedent decision to issue him or her an aeromedical certificate. Care must be taken in the interpretation of genetic testing for pre-existing diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or ischemic heart disease. Molecular markers such as mRNAs or miRNAs, which can establish these diagnoses in clinical patients, might be misleading in-flight crew members because of adaptive changes in their tissues resulting from repeated mild hypoxia during flight, for instance. Military pilots especially demonstrate significant physiological adjustments to their somatic burdens in flight, such as cardiocirculatory stress and air combat maneuvers. Their non-pathogenic alterations in gene regulation and expression will likely be misinterpreted for genuine disease by inexperienced investigators. Conclusions: The growing influence of molecular pathology on legal medicine practice has found its way into aircraft accident investigation. As appropriate quality standards for laboratory work and data interpretation are provided, forensic genetic testing supports the medico-legal analysis of aviation mishaps and potentially reduces the number of unsolved events in the future.

Keywords: aviation medicine, aircraft accident investigation, forensic pathology, molecular pathology

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Authors: Joy Tweed, Jon Pike

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In Thailand, a 4.0 policy has been initiated that is designed to prepare and train an appropriate workforce to support the move to a value-based economy. One aspect of support for this policy is a project to encourage the creation of double degree programmes, specifically between Thai and UK universities. This research into the project, conducted with its key players, explores the factors that can either enable or hinder the development of such programmes. It is an area that has received little research attention to date. Key findings focus on differences in quality assurance requirements, attitudes to benefits, risks, and committed levels of institutional support, thus providing valuable input into future policy making. The Transnational Education (TNE) Development Project was initiated in 2015 by the British Council, in conjunction with the Office for Higher Education Commission (OHEC), Thailand. The purpose of the project was to facilitate opportunities for Thai Universities to partner with UK Universities so as to develop double degree programme models. In this arrangement, the student gains both a UK and a Thai qualification, spending time studying in both countries. Twenty-two partnerships were initiated via the project. Utilizing a qualitative approach, data sources included participation in TNE project workshops, peer reviews, and over 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants within the participating UK and Thai universities. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed for key themes. The research has revealed that the strength of the relationship between the two partner institutions is critical. Successful partnerships are often built on previous personal contact, have senior-level involvement and are strengthened by partnership on different levels, such as research, student exchange, and other forms of mobility. The support of the British Council was regarded as a key enabler in developing these types of projects for those universities that had not been involved in TNE previously. The involvement of industry is apparent in programmes that have high scientific content but not well developed in other subject areas. Factors that hinder the development of partnership programmes include the approval processes and quality requirements of each institution. Significant differences in fee levels between Thai and UK universities provide a challenge and attempts to bridge them require goodwill on the part of the latter that may be difficult to realise. This research indicates the key factors to which attention needs to be given when developing a TNE programme. Early attention to these factors can reduce the likelihood that the partnership will fail to develop. Representatives in both partner universities need to understand their respective processes of development and approval. The research has important practical implications for policy-makers and planners involved with TNE, not only in relation to the specific TNE project but also more widely in relation to the development of TNE programmes in other countries and other subject areas. Future research will focus on assessing the success of the double degree programmes generated by the TNE Development Project from the perspective of universities, policy makers, and industry partners.

Keywords: double-degree, internationalization, partnerships, Thai-UK

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Authors: Naphaporn Sapsopha

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Aging population has been growing rapidly in Thailand due to several factors – namely, the declining size of the average Thai family, changing family structure, higher survival rates of women, and job migration patterns – there are fewer working-age citizens who are able to care for and support their aging family members. When a family can no longer provide for their elders, the responsibility shifts to the government. Many non-profit institutional care facilities for older adults have already been established, but having such institutions are not enough. In addition to the provisions that a reliable shelter can provide, older adults also need efficient social services, physical wellness, and mental health, all of which are crucial for successful aging. Yet, to date, there is no consensus or a well-accepted definition of what constitutes successful aging. The issue is further complicated by cultural expectations, and the gendered experience of the older adults. These issues need to be better understood to promote effective care and wellness. This qualitative research investigates the relationship between institutional care and successful aging among the institutionalized Thai older adults at a non-profit facility in Bangkok, Thailand. Specifically, it examines: a) How do institutionalized older adults define successful aging?, b) What factors do they believe contribute to successful aging?, and c) Do their beliefs vary by gender? Data was collected using a phenomenological research approach that included focus groups and in-depth interviews using open-ended questions, conducted on 10 institutionalized older adults (5 men and 5 women) ages 60 or over. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed using grounded theory methodology. The participants aged between 70-91 years old, and they varied in terms of gender, education, occupation, and life background. The results revealed that Thai institutionalized older adults viewed successful aging as a result of multiple interrelated factors: maintaining physical health, good mental and cognitive abilities. Remarkably, the participants identified as successful aging include independence for self-care and financial support, adhering to moral principles and religious practice, seeing the success of their loved ones, and making social contributions to their community. In addition, three primary themes were identified as a coping strategy to age successfully: self-acceptance by being sufficient and satisfied with all aspects of life, preparedness and adaptation for every stage of life, and self-esteem by maintaining their self. These beliefs are shared across gender and age differences. However, participants highlighted the importance of the interrelationship among these attributes similar to the need for a secure environment, the thoughtfulness and social support of institutional care in order to maintain positive attitude and well-being. With highly increased Thai aging population, many of these older adults will find themselves living in the institutional care; therefore, it is important to intensively understand how older adults viewed successful aging, what constituted successful aging and what could be done to promote it. Interventions to enhance successful aging may include meaningful practice and along with an effective coping strategy in order to lead a better quality of life those living in institutional care.

Keywords: institutional care, older adults, self-acceptant, successful aging

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Authors: Rafael Alexandre Dos Reis

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Research has shown a substantial increase in the participation of Conventionally Fuelled Vehicles (CFVs) in the urban transport modal split. The reasons for this unsustainable reality are multiple, from economic interventions to individual behaviour. The development and delivery of positive incentives for the adoption of more environmental-friendly modes of transport is an emerging strategy to help in tackling the problem of excessive use of conventionally fuelled vehicles. The efficiency of this approach, like other information-based schemes, can benefit from the knowledge of their potential impacts in theoretical constructs of multiple behaviour change theories. The goal of this research is to critically analyse theories of behaviour that are relevant to transport research and the impacts of positive incentives on the theoretical determinants of behaviour, strengthening the current body of evidence about the benefits of this approach. The main method to investigate this will involve a literature review on two main topics: the current theories of behaviour that have empirical support in transport research and the past or ongoing positive incentives programs that had an impact on car use reduction. The reviewed programs of positive incentives were the following: The TravelSmart®; Spitsmijden®; Incentives for Singapore Commuters® (INSINC); COMMUTEGREENER®; MOVESMARTER®; STREETLIFE®; SUPERHUB®; SUNSET® and the EMPOWER® project. The theories analysed were the heory of Planned Behaviour (TPB); The Norm Activation Theory (NAM); Social Learning Theory (SLT); The Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour (TIB); The Goal-Setting Theory (GST) and The Value-Belief-Norm Theory (VBN). After the revisions of the theoretical constructs of each of the theories and their influence on car use, it can be concluded that positive incentives schemes impact on behaviour change in the following manners: -Changing individual’s attitudes through informational incentives; -Increasing feelings of moral obligations to reduce the use of CFVs; -Increase the perceived social pressure to engage in more sustainable mobility behaviours through the use of comparison mechanisms in social media, for example; -Increase the perceived control of behaviour through informational incentives and training incentives; -Increasing personal norms with reinforcing information; -Providing tools for self-monitoring and self-evaluation; -Providing real experiences in alternative modes to the car; -Making the observation of others’ car use reduction possible; -Informing about consequences of behaviour and emphasizing the individual’s responsibility with society and the environment; -Increasing the perception of the consequences of car use to an individual’s valued objects; -Increasing the perceived ability to reduce threats to environment; -Help establishing goals to reduce car use; - iving personalized feedback on the goal; -Increase feelings of commitment to the goal; -Reducing the perceived complexity of the use of alternatives to the car. It is notable that the emerging technique of delivering positive incentives are systematically connected to causal determinants of travel behaviour. The preliminary results of the reviewed programs evidence how positive incentives might strengthen these determinants and help in the process of behaviour change.

Keywords: positive incentives, private car use reduction, sustainable behaviour, voluntary travel behaviour change

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Authors: Julia Terlet, Thomas H. Beach, Yacine Rezgui

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Urbanization, population growth, climate change and the current increase in water demand have made the adoption of innovative demand management strategies crucial to the water industry. Water conservation in urban areas has to be improved by encouraging consumers to adopt more sustainable habits and behaviours. This includes informing and educating them about their households’ water consumption and advising them about ways to achieve significant savings on a daily basis. This paper presents a study conducted in the context of the European FP7 WISDOM Project. By integrating innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) frameworks, this project aims at achieving a change in water savings. More specifically, behavioural change will be attempted by implementing smart meters and in-home displays in a trial group of selected households within Cardiff (UK). Using this device, consumers will be able to receive feedback and information about their consumption but will also have the opportunity to compare their consumption to the consumption of other consumers and similar households. Following an initial survey, it appeared necessary to implement these in-home displays in a way that matches consumer's motivations to save water. The results demonstrated the importance of various factors influencing people’s daily water consumption. Both the relevant literature on the subject and the results of our survey therefore led us to include within the in-home device a variety of elements. It first appeared crucial to make consumers aware of the economic aspect of water conservation and especially of the significant financial savings that can be achieved by reducing their household’s water consumption on the long term. Likewise, reminding participants of the impact of their consumption on the environment by making them more aware of water scarcity issues around the world will help increasing their motivation to save water. Additionally, peer pressure and social comparisons with neighbours and other consumers, accentuated by the use of online social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, will likely encourage consumers to reduce their consumption. Participants will also be able to compare their current consumption to their past consumption and to observe the consequences of their efforts to save water through diverse graphs and charts. Finally, including a virtual water game within the display will help the whole household, children and adults, to achieve significant reductions by providing them with simple tips and advice to save water on a daily basis. Moreover, by setting daily and weekly goals for them to reach, the game will expectantly generate cooperation between family members. Members of each household will indeed be encouraged to work together to reduce their water consumption within different rooms of the house, such as the bathroom, the kitchen, or the toilets. Overall, this study will allow us to understand the elements that attract consumers the most and the features that are most commonly used by the participants. In this way, we intend to determine the main factors influencing water consumption in order to identify the measures that will most encourage water conservation in both the long and short term.

Keywords: behavioural change, ICT technologies, water consumption, water conservation

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Authors: Alexander A. Stakheev, Larisa V. Samokhvalova, Sergey K. Zavriev

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Fusarium fungi are among the most devastating plant pathogens distributed all over the world. Significant reduction of grain yield and quality caused by Fusarium leads to multi-billion dollar annual losses to the world agricultural production. These organisms can also cause infections in immunocompromised persons and produce the wide range of mycotoxins, such as trichothecenes, fumonisins, and zearalenone, which are hazardous to human and animal health. Identification of Fusarium fungi based on the morphology of spores and spore-forming structures, colony color and appearance on specific culture media is often very complicated due to the high similarity of these features for closely related species. Modern Fusarium taxonomy increasingly uses data of crossing experiments (biological species concept) and genetic polymorphism analysis (phylogenetic species concept). A number of novel Fusarium sibling species has been established using DNA barcoding techniques. Species recognition is best made with the combined phylogeny of intron-rich protein coding genes and ribosomal DNA sequences. However, the internal transcribed spacer of (ITS), which is considered to be universal DNA barcode for Fungi, is not suitable for genus Fusarium, because of its insufficient variability between closely related species and the presence of non-orthologous copies in the genome. Nowadays, the translation elongation factor 1 alpha (TEF1α) gene is the “gold standard” of Fusarium taxonomy, but the search for novel informative markers is still needed. In this study, we used two novel DNA markers, frataxin (FXN) and heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) to discover phylogenetic relationships between Fusarium species. Multilocus phylogenetic analysis based on partial sequences of TEF1α, FXN, HSP90, as well as intergenic spacer of ribosomal DNA (IGS), beta-tubulin (β-TUB) and phosphate permease (PHO) genes has been conducted for 120 isolates of 19 Fusarium species from different climatic zones of Russia and neighboring countries using maximum likelihood (ML) and maximum parsimony (MP) algorithms. Our analyses revealed that FXN and HSP90 genes could be considered as informative phylogenetic markers, suitable for evolutionary and taxonomic studies of Fusarium genus. It has been shown that PHO gene possesses more variable (22 %) and parsimony informative (19 %) characters than other markers, including TEF1α (12 % and 9 %, correspondingly) when used for elucidating phylogenetic relationships between F. avenaceum and its closest relatives – F. tricinctum, F. acuminatum, F. torulosum. Application of novel DNA barcodes confirmed the fact that F. arthrosporioides do not represent a separate species but only a subspecies of F. avenaceum. Phylogeny based on partial PHO and FXN sequences revealed the presence of separate cluster of four F. avenaceum strains which were closer to F. torulosum than to major F. avenaceum clade. The strain F-846 from Moldova, morphologically identified as F. poae, formed a separate lineage in all the constructed dendrograms, and could potentially be considered as a separate species, but more information is needed to confirm this conclusion. Variable sites in PHO sequences were used for the first-time development of specific qPCR-based diagnostic assays for F. acuminatum and F. torulosum. This work was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant № 15-29-02527).

Keywords: DNA barcode, fusarium, identification, phylogenetics, taxonomy

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Authors: Mehwish Jawaad

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Purpose: The concept of GrSCM (Green Supply Chain Management) in the academic and research field is still thought to be in the development stage especially in Asian Emerging Economies. The purpose of this paper is to contribute significantly to the first wave of empirical investigation on GrSCM Practices and Firm Performance measures in Pakistan. The aim of this research is to develop a more holistic approach towards investigating the impact of Green Supply Chain Management Practices (Ecodesign, Internal Environmental Management systems, Green Distribution, Green Purchasing and Cooperation with Customers) on multiple dimensions of Firm Performance Measures (Economic Performance, Environmental Performance and Operational Performance) with a mediating role of Investment Recovery and Competitiveness. This paper also serves as an initiative to identify if the relationship between Investment Recovery and Firm Performance Measures is mediated by Competitiveness. Design/ Methodology/Approach: This study is based on survey Data collected from 272, ISO (14001) Certified Textile Firms Based in Lahore, Faisalabad, and Karachi which are involved in Spinning, Dyeing, Printing or Bleaching. A Theoretical model was developed incorporating the constructs representing Green Activities and Firm Performance Measures of a firm. The data was analyzed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling. Senior and Mid-level managers provided the data reflecting the degree to which their organizations deal with both internal and external stakeholders to improve the environmental sustainability of their supply chain. Findings: Of the 36 proposed Hypothesis, 20 are considered valid and significant. The statistics result reveal that GrSCM practices positively impact Environmental Performance followed by Economic and Operational Performance. Investment Recovery acts as a strong mediator between Intra organizational Green activities and performance outcomes. The relationship of Reverse Logistics influencing outcomes is significantly mediated by Competitiveness. The pressure originating from customers exert significant positive influence on the firm to adopt Green Practices consequently leading to higher outcomes. Research Contribution/Originality: Underpinning the Resource dependence theory and as a first wave of investigating the impact of Green Supply chain on performance outcomes in Pakistan, this study intends to make a prominent mark in the field of research. Investment and Competitiveness together are tested as a mediator for the first time in this arena. Managerial implications: Practitioner is provided with a framework for assessing the synergistic impact of GrSCM practices on performance. Upgradation of Accreditations and Audit Programs on regular basis are the need of the hour. Making the processes leaner with the sale of excess inventories and scrap helps the firm to work more efficiently and productively.

Keywords: economic performance, environmental performance, green supply chain management practices, operational performance, sustainability, a textile sector of Pakistan

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Authors: Iliuta Cumpanasu, Veronica Oana Cumpanasu

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This paper focuses on studying the conjunction between the new emerged theory of “Memory Effect” in Irregular Migration and Related Criminality and the notion of securitization, and its impact on border management, bringing about a scientific advancement in the field by identifying the patterns corresponding to the linkage of the two concepts, for the first time, and developing a theoretical explanation, with respect to the effects of the non-military threats on border security. Over recent years, irregular migration has experienced a significant increase worldwide. The U.N.'s refugee agency reports that the number of displaced people is at its highest ever - surpassing even post-World War II numbers when the world was struggling to come to terms with the most devastating event in history. This is also the fresh reality within the core studied coordinate, the Balkan Route of Irregular Migration, which starts from Asia and Africa and continues to Turkey, Greece, North Macedonia or Bulgaria, Serbia, and ends in Romania, where thousands of migrants find themselves in an irregular situation concerning their entry to the European Union, with its important consequences concerning the related criminality. The data from the past six years was collected by making use of semi-structured interviews with experts in the field of migration and desk research within some organisations involved in border security, pursuing the gathering of genuine insights from the aforementioned field, which was constantly addressed the existing literature and subsequently subjected to the mixed methods of analysis, including the use of the Vector Auto-Regression estimates model. Thereafter, the analysis of the data followed the processes and outcomes in Grounded Theory, and a new Substantive Theory emerged, explaining how the phenomena of irregular migration and cross-border criminality are the decisive impetus for implementing the concept of securitization in border management by using the proposed pattern. The findings of the study are therefore able to capture an area that has not yet benefitted from a comprehensive approach in the scientific community, such as the seasonality, stationarity, dynamics, predictions, or the pull and push factors in Irregular Migration, also highlighting how the recent ‘Pandemic’ interfered with border security. Therefore, the research uses an inductive revelatory theoretical approach which aims at offering a new theory in order to explain a phenomenon, triggering a practically handy contribution for the scientific community, research institutes or Academia and also usefulness to organizational practitioners in the field, among which UN, IOM, UNHCR, Frontex, Interpol, Europol, or national agencies specialized in border security. The scientific outcomes of this study were validated on June 30, 2021, when the author defended his dissertation for the European Joint Master’s in Strategic Border Management, a two years prestigious program supported by the European Commission and Frontex Agency and a Consortium of six European Universities and is currently one of the research objectives of his pending PhD research at the West University Timisoara.

Keywords: migration, border, security, memory effect

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Authors: Michael Sonne Kristensen, Frank Loesche, James Foster, Elif Ozcan, Judy Edworthy

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Auditory alarms play an integral role in intensive care nurses’ daily work. Most medical devices in the intensive care unit (ICU) are designed to produce alarm sounds in order to make nurses aware of immediate or prospective safety risks. The utilisation of sound as a carrier of crucial patient information is highly dependent on nurses’ presence - both physically and mentally. For ICU nurses, especially the ones who work with stationary alarm devices at the patient bed space, it is a challenge to display ‘appropriate’ alarm responses at all times as they have to navigate with great flexibility in a complex work environment. While being primarily responsible for a small number of allocated patients they are often required to engage with other nurses’ patients, relatives, and colleagues at different locations inside and outside the unit. This work explores the social strategies used by a team of nurses to comprehend and react to the information conveyed by the alarms in the ICU. Two main research questions guide the study: To what extent do alarms from a patient bed space reach the relevant responsible nurse by direct auditory exposure? By which means do responsible nurses get informed about their patients’ alarms when not directly exposed to the alarms? A comprehensive video-ethnographic field study was carried out to capture and evaluate alarm-related events in an ICU. The study involved close collaboration with four nurses who wore eye-level cameras and ear-level binaural audio recorders during several work shifts. At all time the entire unit was monitored by multiple video and audio recorders. From a data set of hundreds of hours of recorded material information about the nurses’ location, social interaction, and alarm exposure at any point in time was coded in a multi-channel replay-interface. The data shows that responsible nurses’ direct exposure and awareness of the alarms of their allocated patients vary significantly depending on work load, social relationships, and the location of the patient’s bed space. Distributed listening is deliberately employed by the nursing team as a social strategy to respond adequately to alarms, but the patterns of information flow prompted by alarm-related events are not uniform. Auditory Spatiotemporal Trajectory (AST) is proposed as a methodological label to designate the integration of temporal, spatial and auditory load information. As a mixed-method metrics it provides tangible evidence of how nurses’ individual alarm-related experiences differ from one another and from stationary points in the ICU. Furthermore, it is used to demonstrate how alarm-related information reaches the individual nurse through principles of social and distributed cognition, and how that information relates to the actual alarm event. Thereby it bridges a long-standing gap in the literature on medical alarm utilisation between, on the one hand, initiatives to measure objective data of the medical sound environment without consideration for any human experience, and, on the other hand, initiatives to study subjective experiences of the medical sound environment without detailed evidence of the objective characteristics of the environment.

Keywords: auditory spatiotemporal trajectory, medical alarms, social cognition, video-ethography

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Authors: Suneet Jagdev, Hrishabh Amrodia, Siddharth Menon, Abhishek Singh, Mansi Shivhare

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Delhi, the National Capital, has undergone a surge in development rate, consequently engendering an unprecedented increase in population. Over the years the city has transformed into a car-centric infrastructure with high-speed corridors, flyovers and fast lanes. A considerable section of the population is hankering to rehabilitate to the good old cycling days, in order to contribute towards a green environment as well as to maintain their physical well-being. Furthermore, an extant section of Delhi’s population relies on cycles as their primary means of commuting in the city. Delhi has the highest number of cyclists and second highest number of pedestrians in the country. However, the tumultuous problems of unregulated traffic, inadequate space on roads, adverse weather conditions stifle them to opt for cycling. Lately, the city has been facing a conglomeration of problems such as haphazard traffic movement, clogged roads, congestion, pollution, accidents, safety issues, etc. In 1957, Delhi’s cyclists accounted for 36 per cent of trips which dropped down to a mere 4 per cent in 2008. The declining rate is due to unsafe roads and lack of proper cycle lanes. Now as the 10 percent of the city has cycle tracks. There is also a lack of public recreational activities in the city. These conundrums incite the need of a covered elevated cycling bridge track to facilitate the safe and smooth cycle commutation in the city which would also serve the purpose of an alternate urban public space over the cycle bridge reducing the cost as well as the space requirement for the same, developing a user–friendly transportation and public interaction system for urban areas in the city. Based on the archival research methodologies, the following research draws information and extracts records from the data accounts of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. as well as the Centre for Science and Environment, India. This research will predominantly focus on developing a prototype design for high speed elevated bicycle lanes based on different road typologies, which can be replicated with minor variations in similar situations, all across the major cities of our country including the proposed smart cities. Furthermore, how these cycling lanes could be utilized for the place making process accommodating cycle parking and renting spaces, public recreational spaces, food courts as well as convenient shopping facilities with appropriate optimization. How to preserve and increase the share of smooth and safe cycling commute cycling for the routine transportation of the urban community of the polluted capital which has been on a steady decline over the past few decades.

Keywords: bicycle track, prototype, road safety, urban spaces

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Authors: Tiantian Min, Chuanxiang Cheng, Jin Yue

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The growth and reproduction of microorganisms in food packaging can cause food decay and foodborne diseases, which pose a serious threat to the health of consumers and even cause serious economic losses. Active food packaging containing antibacterial bioactive compounds is a promising strategy for extending the shelf life of products and maintaining the food quality, as well as reducing the food waste. However, most active packaging can only act as slow-release effect for antimicrobials, which causes the release rate of antimicrobials not match the growth rate of microorganisms. Stimuli-responsive active packaging materials based on biopolymeric substrates and bioactive substances that respond to some biological and non-biological trigger factors provide more opportunities for fresh food preservation. The biological stimuli factors such as relative humidity, pH and enzyme existed in the exudate secreted by microorganisms have been expected to design food packaging materials. These stimuli-responsive materials achieved accurate release or delivery of bioactive substances at specific time and appropriate dose. Recently, metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs) nanoparticles become attractive carriers to enhance the efficiency of bioactive compounds or drugs. Cellulose nanofibrils have been widely applied for film substrates due to their biodegradability and biocompatibility. The abundant hydroxyl groups in cellulose can be oxidized to carboxyl groups by TEMPO, making it easier to anchoring MOFs and to be further modification. In this study, a pH and enzyme dual-responsive CAR@ZIF-8/TOCNF/PE film was fabricated by in-situ growth of ZIF-8 nanoparticles onto TEMPO-oxidized cellulose (TOCNF) film and further coated with pectin (PE) for stabilization and controlled release of carvacrol (CAR). The enzyme triggered release of CAR was achieved owing to the degradation of pectin by pectinase secreted by microorganisms. Similarly, the pH-responsive release of CAR was attributed to the unique skeleton degradation of ZIF-8, further accelerating the release of CAR from the topological structure of ZIF-8. The composite film performed excellent crystallinity and adsorb ability confirmed by X-ray diffraction and BET analysis, and the inhibition efficiency against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Aspergillus niger reached more than 99%. The composite film was capable of releasing CAR when exposure to dose-dependent enzyme (0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 mg/mL) and acidic condition (pH = 5). When inoculated 10 μL of Aspergillus niger spore suspension on the equatorial position of mango and raspberries, this composite film acted as packaging pads effectively inhibited the mycelial growth and prolonged the shelf life of mango and raspberries to 7 days. Such MOF-TOCNF based film provided a targeted, controlled and sustained release of bioactive compounds for long-term antibacterial activity and preservation effect, which can also avoid the cross-contamination of fruits.

Keywords: active food packaging, controlled release, fruit preservation, in-situ growth, stimuli-responsive

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Jiamin Chen, Liping Yang

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In 2007, sociologist Putnam proposed a pessimistic forecast in the United States' "Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey," suggesting that "ethnic diversity would challenge social unity and undermine social cohesion." If this pessimistic assumption were proven true, it would indicate a risk of division in diverse societies. China, with 56 ethnic groups, is a multi-ethnic country. On May 26, 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed "building ethnically inter-embedded communities to promote deeper development in interactions, exchanges, and integration among ethnic groups." Researchers unanimously agree that ethnic inter-embedded communities can serve as practical arenas and pathways for solidifying the sense of the Chinese national community However, there is no research providing evidence that ethnic inter-embedded communities can foster the sense of the Chinese national community, and the influencing factors remain unclear. This study adopts a constructivist grounded theory research approach. Convenience sampling and snowball sampling were used in the study. Data were collected in three communities in Kunming City. Twelve individuals were eventually interviewed, and the transcribed interviews totaled 187,000 words. The research has obtained ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of Nanjing Normal University (NNU202310030). The research analyzed the data and constructed theories, employing strategies such as coding, constant comparison, and theoretical sampling. The study found that: firstly, ethnic inter-embedded communities exhibit characteristics of diversity, including ethnic diversity, cultural diversity, and linguistic diversity. Diversity has positive functions, including increased opportunities for contact, promoting self-expansion, and increasing happiness; negative functions of diversity include highlighting ethnic differences, causing ethnic conflicts, and reminding of ethnic boundaries. Secondly, individuals typically engage in interactions within the community using active embedding and passive embedding strategies. Active embedding strategies include maintaining openness, focusing on similarities, and pro-diversity beliefs, which can increase external group identification, intergroup relational identity, and promote ethnic integration. Individuals using passive embedding strategies tend to focus on ethnic stereotypes, perceive stigmatization of their own ethnic group, and adopt an authoritarian-oriented approach to interactions, leading to a perception of more identity threats and ultimately rejecting ethnic integration. Thirdly, the commonality of the Chinese nation is reflected in the 56 ethnic groups as an "identity community" and "interest community," and both active and passive embedding paths affect individual understanding of the commonality of the Chinese nation. Finally, community work and environment can influence the embedding process. The research constructed a social psychological process and mechanism model for solidifying sense of the Chinese national community in ethnic inter-embedded communities. Based on this theoretical model, future research can conduct more micro-level psychological mechanism tests and intervention studies to enhance Chinese national cohesion.

Keywords: diversity, sense of the chinese national community, ethnic inter-embedded communities, ethnic group

Procedia PDF Downloads 38

Authors: Lily Ranjbar, Haori Yang

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Online education has been around for several decades, but the importance of online education became evident after the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventhough the online delivery approach works well for knowledge building through delivering content and oversight processes, it has limitations in developing hands-on laboratory skills, especially in the STEM field. During the pandemic, many education institutions faced numerous challenges in delivering lab-based courses, especially in the STEM field. Also, many students worldwide were unable to practice working with lab equipment due to social distancing or the significant cost of highly specialized equipment. The laboratory plays a crucial role in nuclear science and engineering education. It can engage students and improve their learning outcomes. In addition, online education and virtual labs have gained substantial popularity in engineering and science education. Therefore, developing virtual labs is vital for institutions to deliver high-class education to their students, including their online students. The School of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) at Oregon State University, in partnership with SpectralLabs company, has developed an Advanced Virtual Radiation Detection and Measurement Lab (AVR-DML) to offer a fully online Master of Health Physics program. It was essential for us to use a system that could simulate nuclear modules that accurately replicate the underlying physics, the nature of radiation and radiation transport, and the mechanics of the instrumentations used in the real radiation detection lab. It was all accomplished using a Realistic, Adaptive, Interactive Learning System (RAILS). RAILS is a comprehensive software simulation-based learning system for use in training. It is comprised of a web-based learning management system that is located on a central server, as well as a 3D-simulation package that is downloaded locally to user machines. Users will find that the graphics, animations, and sounds in RAILS create a realistic, immersive environment to practice detecting different radiation sources. These features allow students to coexist, interact and engage with a real STEM lab in all its dimensions. It enables them to feel like they are in a real lab environment and to see the same system they would in a lab. Unique interactive interfaces were designed and developed by integrating all the tools and equipment needed to run each lab. These interfaces provide students full functionality for data collection, changing the experimental setup, and live data collection with real-time updates for each experiment. Students can manually do all experimental setups and parameter changes in this lab. Experimental results can then be tracked and analyzed in an oscilloscope, a multi-channel analyzer, or a single-channel analyzer (SCA). The advanced virtual radiation detection and measurement laboratory developed in this study enabled the NSE school to offer a fully online MHP program. This flexibility of course modality helped us to attract more non-traditional students, including international students. It is a valuable educational tool as students can walk around the virtual lab, make mistakes, and learn from them. They have an unlimited amount of time to repeat and engage in experiments. This lab will also help us speed up training in nuclear science and engineering.

Keywords: advanced radiation detection and measurement, virtual laboratory, realistic adaptive interactive learning system (rails), online education in stem fields, student engagement, stem online education, stem laboratory, online engineering education

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Atin Adhikari, Aniruddha Mitra, Abbas Rashidi, Imaobong Ekpo, Jefferson Doehling, Alexis Pawlak, Shane Lewis, Jacob Schwartz

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Building constructions in the US involve numerous wooden structures. Woods are routinely used in walls, framing floors, framing stairs, and making of landings in building constructions. Cross-laminated timbers are currently being used as construction materials for tall buildings. Numerous workers are involved in these timber based constructions, and wood dust is one of the most common occupational exposures for them. Wood dust is a complex substance composed of cellulose, polyoses and other substances. According to US OSHA, exposure to wood dust is associated with a variety of adverse health effects among workers, including dermatitis, allergic respiratory effects, mucosal and nonallergic respiratory effects, and cancers. The amount and size of particles released as wood dust differ according to the operations performed on woods. For example, shattering of wood during sanding operations produces finer particles than does chipping in sawing and milling industries. To our knowledge, how shattering, cutting and sanding of woods and wood slabs during new building construction release fine particles and nanoparticles are largely unknown. General belief is that the dust generated during timber cutting and sanding tasks are mostly large particles. Consequently, little attention has been given to the generated submicron ultrafine and nanoparticles and their exposure levels. These data are, however, critically important because recent laboratory studies have demonstrated cytotoxicity of nanoparticles on lung epithelial cells. The above-described knowledge gaps were addressed in this study by a novel newly developed nanoparticle monitor and conventional particle counters. This study was conducted in a large new building construction site in southern Georgia primarily during the framing of wooden side walls, inner partition walls, and landings. Exposure levels of nanoparticles (n = 10) were measured by a newly developed nanoparticle counter (TSI NanoScan SMPS Model 3910) at four different distances (5, 10, 15, and 30 m) from the work location. Other airborne particles (number of particles/m3) including PM2.5 and PM10 were monitored using a 6-channel (0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10 µm) particle counter at 15 m, 30 m, and 75 m distances at both upwind and downwind directions. Mass concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 (µg/m³) were measured by using a DustTrak Aerosol Monitor. Temperature and relative humidity levels were recorded. Wind velocity was measured by a hot wire anemometer. Concentration ranges of nanoparticles of 13 particle sizes were: 11.5 nm: 221 – 816/cm³; 15.4 nm: 696 – 1735/cm³; 20.5 nm: 879 – 1957/cm³; 27.4 nm: 1164 – 2903/cm³; 36.5 nm: 1138 – 2640/cm³; 48.7 nm: 938 – 1650/cm³; 64.9 nm: 759 – 1284/cm³; 86.6 nm: 705 – 1019/cm³; 115.5 nm: 494 – 1031/cm³; 154 nm: 417 – 806/cm³; 205.4 nm: 240 – 471/cm³; 273.8 nm: 45 – 92/cm³; and 365.2 nm: Keywords: wood dust, industrial hygiene, aerosol, occupational exposure

Procedia PDF Downloads 189

Authors: Jose L. Diego, Antonio Berlanga, Gregorio López, Diana López

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The Rayuela method is a success story, as it is part of a project selected by the European Commission to face the challenge launched by itself for achieving a better understanding of human factors, as well as social and organisational aspects that are able to solve issues in fighting against crime. Rayuela's method specifically focuses on the drivers of cyber criminality, including approaches to prevent, investigate, and mitigate cybercriminal behavior. As the internet has become an integral part of young people’s lives, they are the key target of the Rayuela method because they (as a victim or as a perpetrator) are the most vulnerable link of the chain. Considering the increased time spent online and the control of their internet usage and the low level of awareness of cyber threats and their potential impact, it is understandable the proliferation of incidents due to human mistakes. 51% of Europeans feel not well informed about cyber threats, and 86% believe that the risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime is rapidly increasing. On the other hand, Law enforcement has noted that more and more young people are increasingly committing cybercrimes. This is an international problem that has considerable cost implications; it is estimated that crimes in cyberspace will cost the global economy $445B annually. Understanding all these phenomena drives to the necessity of a shift in focus from sanctions to deterrence and prevention. As a research project, Rayuela aims to bring together law enforcement agencies (LEAs), sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, legal experts, computer scientists, and engineers, to develop novel methodologies that allow better understanding the factors affecting online behavior related to new ways of cyber criminality, as well as promoting the potential of these young talents for cybersecurity and technologies. Rayuela’s main goal is to better understand the drivers and human factors affecting certain relevant ways of cyber criminality, as well as empower and educate young people in the benefits, risks, and threats intrinsically linked to the use of the Internet by playing, thus preventing and mitigating cybercriminal behavior. In order to reach that goal it´s necessary an interdisciplinary consortium (formed by 17 international partners) carries out researches and actions like Profiling and case studies of cybercriminals and victims, risk assessments, studies on Internet of Things and its vulnerabilities, development of a serious gaming environment, training activities, data analysis and interpretation using Artificial intelligence, testing and piloting, etc. For facilitating the real implementation of the Rayuela method, as a community policing strategy, is crucial to count on a Police Force with a solid background in trust-building and community policing in order to do the piloting, specifically with young people. In this sense, Valencia Local Police is a pioneer Police Force working with young people in conflict solving, through providing police mediation and peer mediation services and advice. As an example, it is an official mediation institution, so agreements signed by their police mediators have once signed by the parties, the value of a judicial decision.

Keywords: fight against crime and insecurity, avert and prepare young people against aggression, ICT, serious gaming and artificial intelligence against cybercrime, conflict solving and mediation with young people

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Anja I. Petrov, Milica B. Veljković, Marija M. Ćorović, Ana D. Milivojević, Milica B. Simović, Katarina M. Banjanac, Dejan I. Bezbradica

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One of the fundamental requirements for overall human well-being is a stable and balanced microbiome. Aside from the microorganisms that reside within the body, a large number of microorganisms, especially bacteria, swarming the human skin is in homeostasis with the host and represents a skin microbiota. Even though the immune system of the skin is capable of distinguishing between commensal and potentially harmful transient bacteria, the cutaneous microbial balance can be disrupted under certain circumstances. In that case, a reduction in the skin microbiota diversity, as well as changes in metabolic activity, results in dermal infections and inflammation. Probiotics and prebiotics have the potential to play a significant role in the treatment of these skin disorders. The most common resident bacteria found on the skin, Staphylococcus epidermidis, can act as a potential skin probiotic, contributing to the protection of healthy skin from pathogen colonization, such as Staphylococcus aureus, which is related to atopic dermatitis exacerbation. However, as it is difficult to meet regulations in cosmetic products, another therapy approach could be topical prebiotic supplementation of the skin microbiota. In recent research, polyphenols are attracting scientists' interest as biomolecules with possible prebiotic effects on the skin microbiota. This research aimed to determine how herbal extracts rich in different polyphenolic compounds (lemon balm, St. John's wort, coltsfoot, pine needle, and yarrow) affected the growth of S. epidermidis and S. aureus. The first part of the study involved screening plants to determine if they could be regarded as probable candidates to be skin prebiotics. The effect of each plant on bacterial growth was examined by supplementing the nutrient medium with their extracts and comparing it with control samples (without extract). The results obtained after 24 h of incubation showed that all tested extracts influenced the growth of the examined bacteria to some extent. Since lemon balm and St. John's wort extracts displayed bactericidal activity against S. epidermidis, whereas coltsfoot inhibited both bacteria equally, they were not explored further. On the other hand, pine needles and yarrow extract led to an increase in S. epidermidis/S. aureus ratio, making them prospective candidates to be used as skin prebiotics. By examining the prebiotic effect of two extracts at different concentrations, it was revealed that, in the case of yarrow, 0.1% of extract dry matter in the fermentation medium was optimal, while for the pine needle extract, a concentration of 0.05% was preferred, since it selectively stimulated S. epidermidis growth and inhibited S. aureus proliferation. Additionally, the total polyphenols and flavonoid content of the two extracts were determined, revealing different concentrations and polyphenol profiles. Since yarrow and pine extracts affected the growth of skin bacteria in a dose-dependent manner, by carefully selecting the quantities of these extracts, and thus polyphenols content, it is possible to achieve desirable alterations of skin microbiota composition, which may be suitable for the treatment of atopic dermatitis.

Keywords: herbal extracts, polyphenols, skin microbiota, skin prebiotics

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: June Keeling, Christina Athanasiades, Vaiva Hendrixson, Delyth Wyndham

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Recognition and education in violence, abuse, and neglect for medical and healthcare practitioners (REVAMP) is a trans-European project aiming to introduce a training programme that has been specifically developed by partners across seven European countries to meet the needs of medical and healthcare practitioners. Amalgamating the knowledge and experience of clinicians, researchers, and educators from interdisciplinary and multi-professional backgrounds, REVAMP has tackled the under-resourced and underdeveloped area of domestic violence and abuse. The team designed an online training programme to support medical and healthcare practitioners to recognise and respond appropriately to survivors of domestic violence and abuse at their point of contact with a health provider. The REVAMP partner countries include Europe: France, Lithuania, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Norway, and the UK. The training is delivered through a series of interactive online modules, adapting evidence-based pedagogical approaches to learning. Capturing and addressing the complexities of the project impacted the methodological decisions and approaches to evaluation. The challenge was to find an evaluation methodology that captured valid data across all partner languages to demonstrate the extent of the change in knowledge and understanding. Co-development by all team members was a lengthy iterative process, challenged by a lack of consistency in terminology. A mixed methods approach enabled both qualitative and quantitative data to be collected, at the start, during, and at the conclusion of the training for the purposes of evaluation. The module content and evaluation instrument were accessible in each partner country's language. Collecting both types of data provided a high-level snapshot of attainment via the quantitative dataset and an in-depth understanding of the impact of the training from the qualitative dataset. The analysis was mixed methods, with integration at multiple interfaces. The primary focus of the analysis was to support the overall project evaluation for the funding agency. A key project outcome was identifying that the trans-European approach posed several challenges. Firstly, the project partners did not share a first language or a legal or professional approach to domestic abuse and neglect. This was negotiated through complex, systematic, and iterative interaction between team members so that consensus could be achieved. Secondly, the context of the data collection in several different cultural, educational, and healthcare systems across Europe challenged the development of a robust evaluation. The participants in the pilot evaluation shared that the training was contemporary, well-designed, and of great relevance to inform practice. Initial results from the evaluation indicated that the participants were drawn from more than eight partner countries due to the online nature of the training. The primary results indicated a high level of engagement with the content and achievement through the online assessment. The main finding was that the participants perceived the impact of domestic abuse and neglect in very different ways in their individual professional contexts. Most significantly, the participants recognised the need for the training and the gap that existed previously. It is notable that a mixed-methods evaluation of a trans-European project is unusual at this scale.

Keywords: domestic violence, e-learning, health professionals, trans-European

Procedia PDF Downloads 83

Authors: Liuhui Zhu, Peng Zeng

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With the rapid development in China, the urbanization has entered the transformation and promotion stage, and its direction of development has shifted to overall regional synergy. China has a large number of towns and villages, with comparative small scale and scattered distribution, which always support and provide resources to cities leading to urban-rural opposition, so it is difficult to achieve common development in a single town or village. In this context, the regional development should focus more on towns and villages to form a synergetic system, joining the regional association with cities. Thus, the paper raises the question about how to effectively organize towns and villages system to regulate the resource allocation and improve the comprehensive value of the regional area. To answer the question, it is necessary to find a suitable research unit and analysis of its present situation of towns and villages system for optimal development. By combing relevant researches and theoretical models, the county is the most basic administrative unit in China, which can directly guide and regulate the development of towns and villages, so the paper takes county as the research unit. Following the theoretical concept of ‘three structures and one network’, the paper concludes the research framework to analyse the present situation of towns and villages system, including scale structure, functional structure, spatial structure, and organization network. The analytical methods refer to the fractal theory and gravity model, using statistics and spatial data. The scale structure analyzes rank-size dimensions and uses the principal component method to calculate the comprehensive scale of towns and villages. The functional structure analyzes the functional types and industrial development of towns and villages. The spatial structure analyzes the aggregation dimension, network dimension, and correlation dimension of spatial elements to represent the overall spatial relationships. In terms of organization network, from the perspective of entity and ono-entity, the paper analyzes the transportation network and gravitational network. Based on the present situation analysis, the optimization strategies are proposed in order to achieve a synergetic relationship between towns and villages in the county area. The paper uses Suning county in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as a case study to apply the research framework and methods and then proposes the optimization orientations. The analysis results indicate that: (1) The Suning county is lack of medium-scale towns to transfer effect from towns to villages. (2) The distribution of gravitational centers is uneven, and the effect of gravity is limited only for nearby towns and villages. The gravitational network is not complete, leading to economic activities scattered and isolated. (3) The overall development of towns and villages system is immature, staying at ‘single heart and multi-core’ stage, and some specific optimization strategies are proposed. This study provides a regional view for the development of towns and villages and concludes the research framework and methods of towns and villages system for forming an effective synergetic relationship between them, contributing to organize resources and stimulate endogenous motivation, and form counter magnets to join the urban-rural integration.

Keywords: towns and villages system, organization structure, county area, fractal theory, gravity model

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: Aishwarya Venkat, Anastasia Marshak, Ryan B. Simpson, Elena N. Naumova

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Livestock ownership is simultaneously linked to improved nutritional status through increased availability of animal-source protein, and increased risk of enteric infections through higher exposure to contaminated water sources. Agrarian and agro-pastoral households, especially those with cattle, goats, and sheep, are highly dependent on seasonally various environmental conditions, which directly impact nutrition and health. This study explores global spatiotemporally explicit evidence regarding the relationship between livestock ownership, enteric infections, and malnutrition. Seasonal and cyclical fluctuations, as well as mediating effects, are further examined to elucidate health and nutrition outcomes of individual and communal livestock ownership. The US Agency for International Development’s Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund’s Multi-Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) provide valuable sources of household-level information on anthropometry, asset ownership, and disease outcomes. These data are especially important in data-sparse regions, where surveys may only be conducted in the aftermath of emergencies. Child-level disease history, anthropometry, and household-level asset ownership information have been collected since DHS-V (2003-present) and MICS-III (2005-present). This analysis combines over 15 years of survey data from DHS and MICS to study 2,466,257 children under age five from 82 countries. Subnational (administrative level 1) measures of diarrhea prevalence, mean livestock ownership by type, mean and median anthropometric measures (height for age, weight for age, and weight for height) were investigated. Effects of several environmental, market, community, and household-level determinants were studied. Such covariates included precipitation, temperature, vegetation, the market price of staple cereals and animal source proteins, conflict events, livelihood zones, wealth indices and access to water, sanitation, hygiene, and public health services. Children aged 0 – 6 months, 6 months – 2 years, and 2 – 5 years of age were compared separately. All observations were standardized to interview day of year, and administrative units were harmonized for consistent comparisons over time. Geographically weighted regressions were constructed for each outcome and subnational unit. Preliminary results demonstrate the importance of accounting for seasonality in concurrent assessments of malnutrition and enteric infections. Household assets, including livestock, often determine the intensity of these outcomes. In many regions, livestock ownership affects seasonal fluxes in malnutrition and enteric infections, which are also directly affected by environmental and local factors. Regression analysis demonstrates the spatiotemporal variability in nutrition outcomes due to a variety of causal factors. This analysis presents a synthesis of evidence from global survey data on the interrelationship between enteric infections, malnutrition, and livestock. These results provide a starting point for locally appropriate interventions designed to address this nexus in a timely manner and simultaneously improve health, nutrition, and livelihoods.

Keywords: diarrhea, enteric infections, households, livestock, malnutrition, seasonality

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Alexander K. Edwards

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Introduction: The moral dimension of teacher education globally has assumed a new paradigm of thinking based on the public gain (return-on-investments), value-creation (quality), professionalism (practice), and business strategies (innovations). Abundant literature reveals an interesting revolutionary trend in complimenting the raising of teachers and academic performances. Because of the global competition in the knowledge-creation and service areas, the C21st teacher at all levels is expected to be resourceful, strategic thinker, socially intelligent, relationship aptitude, and entrepreneur astute. This study is a significant contribution to practice and innovations to raise exemplary or primal teachers. In this study, the qualities needed were considered as ‘Quadrant Intelligence (Q-i)’ model for a primal teacher leadership beyond the classroom. The researcher started by examining the issue of the majority of teachers in Ghana Education Services (GES) in need of this Q-i to be effective and efficient. The conceptual framing became determinants of such Q-i. This is significant for global employability and versatility in teacher education to create premium and primal teacher leadership, which are again gaining high attention in scholarship due to failing schools. The moral aspect of teachers failing learners is a highly important discussion. In GES, some schools score zero percent at the basic education certificate examination (BECE). The question is what will make any professional teacher highly productive, marketable, and an entrepreneur? What will give teachers the moral consciousness of doing the best to succeed? Method: This study set out to develop a model for primal teachers in GES as an innovative way to highlight a premium development for the C21st business-education acumen through desk reviews. The study is conceptually framed by examining certain skill sets such as strategic thinking, social intelligence, relational and emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship to answer three main burning questions and other hypotheses. Then the study applied the causal comparative methodology with a purposive sampling technique (N=500) from CoE, GES, NTVI, and other teachers associations. Participants responded to a 30-items, researcher-developed questionnaire. Data is analyzed on the quadrant constructs and reported as ex post facto analyses of multi-variances and regressions. Multiple associations were established for statistical significance (p=0.05). Causes and effects are postulated for scientific discussions. Findings: It was found out that these quadrants are very significant in teacher development. There were significant variations in the demographic groups. However, most teachers lack considerable skills in entrepreneurship, leadership in teaching and learning, and business thinking strategies. These have significant effect on practices and outcomes. Conclusion and Recommendations: It is quite conclusive therefore that in GES teachers may need further instructions in innovations and creativity to transform knowledge-creation into business venture. In service training (INSET) has to be comprehensive. Teacher education curricula at Colleges may have to be re-visited. Teachers have the potential to raise their social capital, to be entrepreneur, and to exhibit professionalism beyond their community services. Their primal leadership focus will benefit many clienteles including students and social circles. Recommendations examined the policy implications for curriculum design, practice, innovations and educational leadership.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, entrepreneurship, leadership, quadrant intelligence (q-i), primal teacher leadership, strategic thinking, social intelligence

Procedia PDF Downloads 312

Authors: Ayon Mukherjee

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Covariate-adjusted response-adaptive (CARA) designs use the available responses to skew the treatment allocation in a clinical trial in towards treatment found at an interim stage to be best for a given patient's covariate profile. Extensive research has been done on various aspects of CARA designs with the patient responses assumed to follow a parametric model. However, ranges of application for such designs are limited in real-life clinical trials where the responses infrequently fit a certain parametric form. On the other hand, robust estimates for the covariate-adjusted treatment effects are obtained from the parametric assumption. To balance these two requirements, designs are developed which are free from distributional assumptions about the survival responses, relying only on the assumption of proportional hazards for the two treatment arms. The proposed designs are developed by deriving two types of optimum allocation designs, and also by using a distribution function to link the past allocation, covariate and response histories to the present allocation. The optimal designs are based on biased coin procedures, with a bias towards the better treatment arm. These are the doubly-adaptive biased coin design (DBCD) and the efficient randomized adaptive design (ERADE). The treatment allocation proportions for these designs converge to the expected target values, which are functions of the Cox regression coefficients that are estimated sequentially. These expected target values are derived based on constrained optimization problems and are updated as information accrues with sequential arrival of patients. The design based on the link function is derived using the distribution function of a probit model whose parameters are adjusted based on the covariate profile of the incoming patient. To apply such designs, the treatment allocation probabilities are sequentially modified based on the treatment allocation history, response history, previous patients’ covariates and also the covariates of the incoming patient. Given these information, an expression is obtained for the conditional probability of a patient allocation to a treatment arm. Based on simulation studies, it is found that the ERADE is preferable to the DBCD when the main aim is to minimize the variance of the observed allocation proportion and to maximize the power of the Wald test for a treatment difference. However, the former procedure being discrete tends to be slower in converging towards the expected target allocation proportion. The link function based design achieves the highest skewness of patient allocation to the best treatment arm and thus ethically is the best design. Other comparative merits of the proposed designs have been highlighted and their preferred areas of application are discussed. It is concluded that the proposed CARA designs can be considered as suitable alternatives to the traditional balanced randomization designs in survival trials in terms of the power of the Wald test, provided that response data are available during the recruitment phase of the trial to enable adaptations to the designs. Moreover, the proposed designs enable more patients to get treated with the better treatment during the trial thus making the designs more ethically attractive to the patients. An existing clinical trial has been redesigned using these methods.

Keywords: censored response, Cox regression, efficiency, ethics, optimal allocation, power, variability

Procedia PDF Downloads 165

Authors: C. Treadgold, S. Sivaraman

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The Starlight Children's Foundation (Starlight) is an Australian non-profit organisation that delivers programs, in partnership with health professionals, to support children, adolescents, and their families who are living with a serious illness. While supporting children and adolescents with life-limiting conditions has always been a feature of Starlight's work, providing a dedicated program, specifically targeting and meeting the needs of the paediatric palliative population, is a recent area of focus. Recognising the challenges in providing children’s palliative services, Starlight initiated a research and development project to better understand and meet the needs of this group. The aim was to create a program which enhances the wellbeing of children, adolescents, and their families receiving paediatric palliative care in their community through the provision of on-going, tailored, positive experiences or 'moments'. This paper will present the results of the formative evaluation of this unique program, highlighting the development processes and outcomes of the pilot. The pilot was designed using an innovation methodology, which included a number of research components. There was a strong belief that it needed to be delivered in partnership with a dedicated palliative care team, helping to ensure the best interests of the family were always represented. This resulted in Starlight collaborating with both the Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program (VPPCP) at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and the Sydney Children's Hospital Network (SCHN) to pilot the 'Moments' program. As experts in 'positive disruption', with a long history of collaborating with health professionals, Starlight was well placed to deliver a program which helps children, adolescents, and their families to experience moments of joy, connection and achieve their own sense of accomplishment. Building on Starlight’s evidence-based approach and experience in creative service delivery, the program aims to use the power of 'positive disruption' to brighten the lives of this group and create important memories. The clinical and Starlight team members collaborate to ensure that the child and family are at the centre of the program. The design of each experience is specific to their needs and ensures the creation of positive memories and family connection. It aims for each moment to enhance quality of life. The partnership with the VPPCP and SCHN has allowed the program to reach families across metropolitan and regional locations. In late 2019 a formative evaluation of the pilot was conducted utilising both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to document both the delivery and outcomes of the program. Central to the evaluation was the interviews conducted with both clinical teams and families in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the impact of and satisfaction with the program. The findings, which will be shared in this presentation, provide practical insight into the delivery of the program, the key elements for its success with families, and areas which could benefit from additional research and focus. It will use stories and case studies from the pilot to highlight the impact of the program and discuss what opportunities, challenges, and learnings emerged.

Keywords: children, families, memory making, pediatric palliative care, support

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Authors: Narottam Puri, Gurvinder Kaur

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Background: The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) is India’s apex standard setting accrediting body in health care which evaluates and accredits healthcare organizations. NABH requires accredited organizations to become reaccredited every three years. It is often though that once the initial accreditation is complete, the foundation is set and reaccreditation is a much simpler process. Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, a part of the Fortis Healthcare group is a 262 bed, multi-specialty tertiary care hospital. The hospital was successfully accredited in the year 2012. On completion of its first cycle, the hospital underwent a reaccreditation assessment in the year 2015. This paper aims to gain a better understanding of the challenges that accredited hospitals face when preparing for a renewal of their accreditations. Methods: The study was conducted using a cross-sectional mixed methods approach; semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior leadership team and staff members including doctors and nurses. Documents collated by the QA team while preparing for the re-assessment like the data on quality indicators: the method of collection, analysis, trending, continual incremental improvements made over time, minutes of the meetings, amendments made to the existing policies and new policies drafted was reviewed to understand the challenges. Results: The senior leadership had a concern about the cost of accreditation and its impact on the quality of health care services considering the staff effort and time consumed it. The management was however in favor of continuing with the accreditation since it offered competitive advantage, strengthened community confidence besides better pay rates from the payors. The clinicians regarded it as an increased non-clinical workload. Doctors felt accountable within a professional framework, to themselves, the patient and family, their peers and to their profession; but not to accreditation bodies and raised concerns on how the quality indicators were measured. The departmental leaders had a positive perception of accreditation. They agreed that it ensured high standards of care and improved management of their functional areas. However, they were reluctant in sparing people for the QA activities due to staffing issues. With staff turnover, a lot of work was lost as sticky knowledge and had to be redone. Listing the continual quality improvement initiatives over the last 3 years was a challenge in itself. Conclusion: The success of any quality assurance reaccreditation program depends almost entirely on the commitment and interest of the administrators, nurses, paramedical staff, and clinicians. The leader of the Quality Movement is critical in propelling and building momentum. Leaders need to recognize skepticism and resistance and consider ways in which staff can become positively engaged. Involvement of all the functional owners is the start point towards building ownership and accountability for standards compliance. Creativity plays a very valuable role. Communication by Mail Series, WhatsApp groups, Quizzes, Events, and any and every form helps. Leaders must be able to generate interest and commitment without burdening clinical and administrative staff with an activity they neither understand nor believe in.

Keywords: NABH, reaccreditation, quality assurance, quality indicators

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Authors: Rachel Jones

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Systemic Family therapy in the Queensland Foster Care System is the implementation of Integrative Practice as a purposeful intervention implemented with complex ‘family’ systems (by expanding the traditional concept of family to include all relevant stakeholders for a child) and is shown to improve the overall wellbeing of children (with developmental delays and trauma) in Queensland out of home care contexts. The importance of purposeful integrative practice in the field of systemic family therapy has been highlighted in achieving change in complex family systems. Essentially, it is the purposeful use of multiple interventions designed to meet the myriad of competing needs apparent for a child (with developmental delays resulting from early traumatic experiences - both in utero and in their early years) and their family. In the out-of-home care context, integrative practice is particularly useful to promote positive change for the child and what is an extended concept of whom constitutes their family. Traditionally, a child’s family may have included biological and foster care family members, but when this concept is extended to include all their relevant stakeholders (including biological family, foster carers, residential care workers, child safety, school representatives, Health and Allied Health staff, police and youth justice staff), the use of integrative family therapy can produce positive change for the child in their overall wellbeing, development, risk profile, social and emotional functioning, mental health symptoms and relationships across domains. By tailoring therapeutic interventions that draw on systemic family therapies from the first and second-order schools of family therapy, neurobiology, solution focussed, trauma-informed, play and art therapy, and narrative interventions, disability/behavioural interventions, clinicians can promote change by mixing therapeutic modalities with the individual and their stakeholders. This presentation will unpack the implementation of systemic family therapy using this integrative approach to formulation and treatment for a child in out-of-home care in Queensland (experiencing developmental delays resulting from trauma). It considers the need for intervention for the individual and in the context of the environment and relationships. By reviewing a case example, this study aims to highlight the simultaneous and successful use of pharmacological interventions, psychoeducational programs for carers and school staff, parenting programs, cognitive-behavioural and trauma-informed interventions, traditional disability approaches, play therapy, mapping genograms and meaning-making, and using family and dyadic sessions for the system associated with the foster child. These elements of integrative systemic family practice have seen success in the reduction of symptoms and improved overall well-being of foster children and their stakeholders. Accordingly, a model for best practice using this integrative systemic approach is presented for this population group and preliminary findings for this approach over four years of local data have been reviewed.

Keywords: systemic family therapy, treating families of children with delays, trauma and attachment in families systems, improving practice and functioning of children and families

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Authors: Nien-Te Kuo, Yi-Sung Cheng, Kuo-Chien Chang

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Cultural festival tourism is now seen by many as an opportunity to facilitate community development because it has significant influences on the economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of local communities. The potential for tourist attraction has been recognized as a useful tool to strengthen local economies from governments. However, most community festivals in Taiwan are short-lived, often only lasting for a few years or occasionally not making it past a one-off event. Researchers suggested that most governments and other stakeholders do not recognize the importance of building a partnership with residents when developing community tourism. Thus, the sustainable community tourism development still remains a key issue in the existing literature. The success of community tourism is related to the attitudes and lifestyles of local residents. In order to maintain sustainable tourism, residents need to be seen as development partners. Residents’ support intention for tourism development not only helps to increase awareness of local culture, history, the natural environment, and infrastructure, but also improves the interactive relationship between the host community and tourists. Furthermore, researchers have identified the social capital theory as the core of sustainable community tourism development. The social capital of residents has been seen as a good way to solve issues of tourism governance, forecast the participation behavior and improve support intention of residents. In addition, previous studies have pointed out the role of community participation and place identity in increasing resident support intention for tourism development. A lack of place identity is one of the main reasons that community tourism has become a mere formality and is not sustainable. It refers to how much residents participate during tourism development and is mainly influenced by individual interest. Scholars believed that the place identity of residents is the soul of community festivals. It shows the community spirit to visitors and has significant impacts on tourism benefits and support intention of residents in community tourism development. Although the importance of community participation and place identity have been confirmed by both governmental and non-governmental organizations, real-life execution still needs to be improved. This study aimed to use social capital theory to investigate the social structure between community residents, participation levels in festival tourism, degrees of place identity, and resident support intention for future community tourism development, and the causal relationship that these factors have with cultural festival tourism. A quantitative research approach was employed to examine the proposed model. Structural equation model was used to test and verify the proposed hypotheses. This was a case study of the Kaohsiung Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival. The festival was located in the Zuoying District of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. The target population of this study was residents who attended the festival. The results reveal significant correlations among social capital, community participation, place identity and support intention. The results also confirm that impacts of social capital on support intention were significantly mediated by community participation and place identity. Practical suggestions were provided for tourism operators and policy makers. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, Republic of China, under the grant MOST-105-2410-H-328-013.

Keywords: community participation, place identity, social capital, support intention

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Authors: Gabrielle Robertson, Matthew Downs, Joseph Dagher

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Iron deposition in the brain has been linked with a host of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Multiple Sclerosis. While some treatment options exist, there are no objective measurement tools that allow for the monitoring of iron levels in the brain in vivo. An emerging Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) method has been recently proposed to deduce iron concentration through quantitative measurement of magnetic susceptibility. This is a multi-step process that involves repeated modeling of physical processes via approximate numerical solutions. For example, the last two steps of this Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) method involve I) mapping magnetic field into magnetic susceptibility and II) mapping magnetic susceptibility into iron concentration. Process I involves solving an ill-posed inverse problem by using regularization via injection of prior belief. The end result from Process II highly depends on the model used to describe the molecular content of each voxel (type of iron, water fraction, etc.) Due to these factors, the accuracy and repeatability of QSM have been an active area of research in the MRI and medical imaging community. This work aims to estimate iron concentration in the brain via a single step. A synthetic numerical model of the human head was created by automatically and manually segmenting the human head on a high-resolution grid (640x640x640, 0.4mm³) yielding detailed structures such as microvasculature and subcortical regions as well as bone, soft tissue, Cerebral Spinal Fluid, sinuses, arteries, and eyes. Each segmented region was then assigned tissue properties such as relaxation rates, proton density, electromagnetic tissue properties and iron concentration. These tissue property values were randomly selected from a Probability Distribution Function derived from a thorough literature review. In addition to having unique tissue property values, different synthetic head realizations also possess unique structural geometry created by morphing the boundary regions of different areas within normal physical constraints. This model of the human brain is then used to create synthetic MRI measurements. This is repeated thousands of times, for different head shapes, volume, tissue properties and noise realizations. Collectively, this constitutes a training-set that is similar to in vivo data, but larger than datasets available from clinical measurements. This 3D convolutional U-Net neural network architecture was used to train data-driven Deep Learning models to solve for iron concentrations from raw MRI measurements. The performance was then tested on both synthetic data not used in training as well as real in vivo data. Results showed that the model trained on synthetic MRI measurements is able to directly learn iron concentrations in areas of interest more effectively than other existing QSM reconstruction methods. For comparison, models trained on random geometric shapes (as proposed in the Deep QSM method) are less effective than models trained on realistic synthetic head models. Such an accurate method for the quantitative measurement of iron deposits in the brain would be of important value in clinical studies aiming to understand the role of iron in neurological disease.

Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, iron deposition, machine learning, quantitative susceptibility mapping

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Authors: Sarah Lister, Pauline Palmer

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Research findings presented within this paper form part of a larger scale collaboration between academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and a technology company. The overarching aims of this project focus on developing a series of game-based resources to promote the teaching of aspects of mathematics through a second language (L2) in primary schools. This study explores the potential of game-based learning (GBL) as a dynamic way to engage and motivate learners, making learning fun and purposeful. The research examines the capacity of GBL resources to provide a meaningful and purposeful context for CLIL. GBL is a powerful learning environment and acts as an effective vehicle to promote the learning of mathematics through an L2. The fun element of GBL can minimise stress and anxiety associated with mathematics and L2 learning that can create barriers. GBL provides one of the few safe domains where it is acceptable for learners to fail. Games can provide a life-enhancing experience for learners, revolutionizing the routinized ways of learning through fusing learning and play. This study argues that playing games requires learners to think creatively to solve mathematical problems, using the L2 in order to progress, which can be associated with the development of higher-order thinking skills and independent learning. GBL requires learners to engage appropriate cognitive processes with increased speed of processing, sensitivity to environmental inputs, or flexibility in allocating cognitive and perceptual resources. At surface level, GBL resources provide opportunities for learners to learn to do things. Games that fuse subject content and appropriate learning objectives have the potential to make learning academic subjects more learner-centered, promote learner autonomy, easier, more enjoyable, more stimulating and engaging and therefore, more effective. Data includes observations of the children playing the games and follow up group interviews. Given that learning as a cognitive event cannot be directly observed or measured. A Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDF) construct was used to frame the research, to map the development of learners’ conceptual understanding in an L2 context and as a framework to observe the discursive interactions that occur learner to learner and between learner and teacher. Cognitively, the children were required to engage with mathematical content, concepts and language to make decisions quickly, to engage with the gameplay to reason, solve and overcome problems and learn through experimentation. The visual elements of the games supported the learning of new concepts. Children recognised the value of the games to consolidate their mathematical thinking and develop their understanding of new ideas. The games afforded them time to think and reflect. The teachers affirmed that the games provided meaningful opportunities for the learners to practise the language. The findings of this research support the view that using the game-based resources supported children’s grasp of mathematical ideas and their confidence and ability to use the L2. Engaging with the content and language through the games led to deeper learning.

Keywords: CLIL, gaming, language, mathematics

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Authors: Zeina Nasr, Bashar Merheb

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The honey bee is a social insect that had driven the human interest much more than any other organism. Beekeeping practices dated the appearance of Man on earth and now it provides a hobby or a secondary work that contributes to the family revenue and requires a little time engagement and money investment. Honey production is not the only contribution of honey bees to the economy, since honey bees play an important role in the pollination. Bee keeping in Lebanon is an important part of the agricultural economy. However, a growing concern about bees is spreading globally, due to an accelerated decline of bees colonies. This raises the alert to preserve and protect local bee strains against uncontrolled introduction of foreign strains and invasive parasitic species. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers are commonly used in studying genetic variation in the Apis mellifera species. The DraI-COI-COII test is based on the analysis of the intergenic region between the two genes COI and COII. The different honey bee strains differ in the presence or absence of the p sequence and the number of Q sequences present. A. m. syriaca belonging to the lineage Z, is the native honey bee subspecies in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine. A. m. syriaca is known for its high defensiveness, even though it has many important advantages. However, commercial breeder strains, such as the Italian (A. m. ligustica), and Carniolan (A. m. carnica) strains, have been introduced by beekeepers and regularly used for honey production. This raises worries about the disappearance of the local subspecies. It is obvious that identifying A. m. syriaca colonies and protecting them against uncontrolled mating with other bee strains is a crucial step to protect and improve the original local strain. This study aims to reveal the existing sub-species of honey bee in Akkar – Lebanon and to assess the influence of introgression on the hybridization of the local strain. This will help to identify areas of pure A.m. syriaca population over this district to be considered in choosing syriaca reserves. We collected samples of bees from different regions of Akkar district in order to perform mtDNA analysis. We determined the restriction fragments length of the intergenic region COI-COII, using the restriction enzyme DraI. The results showed both the C and the Z lineages. Four restriction patterns were identified among the restriction maps of the studied samples. The most abundant mitochondrial lineage is the Z lineage constituting about 60% of the identified samples. Al-Dreib region reported the lowest introgression with foreign mtDNA of 21% making it the most suitable area for a genetic reserve of syriaca in Akkar based on its lowest introgression and suitable environment in addition to the attitude of local beekeepers to conserve the local strain. Finally, this study is the first step in constructing conservation programs for the preservation of the local strain and should be generalized to the whole Lebanese population, consistent with the effort done in neighboring countries.

Keywords: Akkar Lebanon, Apis millefera syriaca, DraI-COI-COII test, mitochondrial DNA

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