Search results for: controlled cortical impact

Authors: Fawzyah Albaldi

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Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most prevalent of infectious diseases and > 80% are caused by uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC). Infection occurs following adhesion to urothelial plaques on bladder epithelial cells, whose major protein constituent are the uroplakins (UPs). Two of the four uroplakins (UPIa and UPIb) are members of the tetraspanin superfamily. The UPEC adhesin FimH is known to interact directly with UPIa. Tetraspanins are a diverse family of transmembrane proteins that generally act as “molecular organizers” by binding different proteins and lipids to form tetraspanin enriched microdomains (TEMs). Previous work by our group has shown that TEMs are involved in the adhesion of many pathogenic bacteria to human cells. Adhesion can be blocked by tetraspanin-derived synthetic peptides, suggesting that tetraspanins may be valuable drug targets. In this study, we investigate the role of tetraspanins in UPEC adherence to bladder epithelial cells. Human bladder cancer cell lines (T24, 5637, RT4), commonly used as in-vitro models to investigate UPEC infection, along with primary human bladder cells, were used in this project. The aim was to establish a model for UPEC adhesion/infection with the objective of evaluating the impact of tetraspanin-derived reagents on this process. Such reagents could reduce the progression of UTI, particularly in patients with indwelling catheters. Tetraspanin expression on the bladder cells was investigated by q-PCR and flow cytometry, with CD9 and CD81 generally highly expressed. Interestingly, despite these cell lines being used by other groups to investigate FimH antagonists, uroplakin proteins (UPIa, UPIb and UPIII) were poorly expressed at the cell surface, although some were present intracellularly. Attempts were made to differentiate the cell lines, to induce cell surface expression of these UPs, but these were largely unsuccessful. Pre-treatment of bladder epithelial cells with anti-CD9 monoclonal antibody significantly decreased UPEC infection, whilst anti-CD81 had no effects. A short (15aa) synthetic peptide corresponding to the large extracellular region (EC2) of CD9 also significantly reduced UPEC adherence. Furthermore, we demonstrated specific binding of that fluorescently tagged peptide to the cells. CD9 is known to associate with a number of heparan sulphate proteoglycans (HSPGs) that have also been implicated in bacterial adhesion. Here, we demonstrated that unfractionated heparin (UFH)and heparin analogs significantly inhibited UPEC adhesion to RT4 cells, as did pre-treatment of the cells with heparinases. Pre-treatment with chondroitin sulphate (CS) and chondroitinase also significantly decreased UPEC adherence to RT4 cells. This study may shed light on a common pathogenicity mechanism involving the organisation of HSPGs by tetraspanins. In summary, although we determined that the bladder cell lines were not suitable to investigate the role of uroplakins in UPEC adhesion, we demonstrated roles for CD9 and cell surface proteoglycans in this interaction. Agents that target these may be useful in treating/preventing UTIs.

Keywords: UTIs, tspan, uroplakins, CD9

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Authors: Shashikant Iyengar, Jasmeet Kaur, Anup Singh, Arun Kumar, Ira Sahay

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Insulin resistance (IR) is a condition that occurs when cells in the body become less responsive to insulin, leading to higher levels of both insulin and glucose in the blood. This condition is linked to metabolic syndromes, including diabetes. It is crucial to address IR promptly after diagnosis to prevent long-term complications associated with high insulin and high blood glucose. This four-month case study highlights the importance of treating the underlying condition to manage diabetes effectively. Insulin is essential for regulating blood sugar levels by facilitating the uptake of glucose into cells for energy or storage. In IR individuals, cells are less efficient at taking up glucose from the blood resulting in elevated blood glucose levels. As a result of IR, beta cells produce more insulin to make up for the body's inability to use insulin effectively. This leads to high insulin levels, a condition known as hyperinsulinemia, which further impairs glucose metabolism and can contribute to various chronic diseases. In addition to regulating blood glucose, insulin has anti-catabolic effects, preventing the breakdown of molecules in the body, such as inhibiting glycogen breakdown in the liver, inhibiting gluconeogenesis, and inhibiting lipolysis. If a person is insulin-sensitive or metabolically healthy, an optimal level of insulin prevents fat cells from releasing fat and promotes the storage of glucose and fat in the body. Thus optimal insulin levels are crucial for maintaining energy balance and plays a key role in metabolic processes. During the four-month study, researchers looked at the impact of a low-carb dietary (LCD) intervention on two male individuals (A & B) who had Type-2 diabetes. Althoughvneither of these individuals were obese, they were both slightly overweight and had abdominal fat deposits. Before the trial began, important markers such as fasting blood glucose (FBG), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and Hba1c were measured. These markers are essential in defining metabolic health, their individual values and variability are integral in deciphering metabolic health. The ratio of TG to HDL is used as a surrogate marker for IR. This ratio has a high correlation with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and with IR itself. It is a convenient measure because it can be calculated from a standard lipid profile and does not require more complex tests. In this four-month trial, an improvement in insulin sensitivity was observed through the ratio of TG/HDL, which, in turn, improves fasting blood glucose levels and HbA1c. For subject A, HbA1c dropped from 13 to 6.28, and for subject B, it dropped from 9.4 to 5.7. During the trial, neither of the subjects were taking any diabetic medications. The significant improvements in their health markers, such as better glucose control, along with an increase in energy levels, demonstrate that incorporating LCD interventions can effectively manage diabetes.

Keywords: metabolic disorder, insulin resistance, type-2 diabetes, low-carb nutrition

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Authors: Boukary Lam, Sebastien Deon, Patrick Fievet, Nadia Crini, Gregorio Crini

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Treatment of heavy metal-contaminated industrial wastewater has become a major challenge over the last decades. Conventional processes for the treatment of metal-containing effluents do not always simultaneously satisfy both legislative and economic criteria. In this context, coupling of processes can then be a promising alternative to the conventional approaches used by industry. The polymer-assisted ultrafiltration (PAUF) process is one of these coupling processes. Its principle is based on a sequence of steps with reaction (e.g., complexation) between metal ions and a polymer and a step involving the rejection of the formed species by means of a UF membrane. Unlike free ions, which can cross the UF membrane due to their small size, the polymer/ion species, the size of which is larger than pore size, are rejected. The PAUF process was deeply investigated herein in the case of removal of nickel ions by adding chitosan and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). Experiments were conducted with synthetic solutions containing 1 to 100 ppm of nickel ions with or without the presence of NaCl (0.05 to 0.2 M), and an industrial discharge water (containing several metal ions) with and without polymer. Chitosan with a molecular weight of 1.8×105 g mol⁻¹ and a degree of acetylation close to 15% was used. CMC with a degree of substitution of 0.7 and a molecular weight of 9×105 g mol⁻¹ was employed. Filtration experiments were performed under cross-flow conditions with a filtration cell equipped with a polyamide thin film composite flat-sheet membrane (3.5 kDa). Without the step of polymer addition, it was found that nickel rejection decreases from 80 to 0% with increasing metal ion concentration and salt concentration. This behavior agrees qualitatively with the Donnan exclusion principle: the increase in the electrolyte concentration screens the electrostatic interaction between ions and the membrane fixed the charge, which decreases their rejection. It was shown that addition of a sufficient amount of polymer (greater than 10⁻² M of monomer unit) can offset this decrease and allow good metal removal. However, the permeation flux was found to be somewhat reduced due to the increase in osmotic pressure and viscosity. It was also highlighted that the increase in pH (from 3 to 9) has a strong influence on removal performances: the higher pH value, the better removal performance. The two polymers have shown similar performance enhancement at natural pH. However, chitosan has proved more efficient in slightly basic conditions (above its pKa) whereas CMC has demonstrated very weak rejection performances when pH is below its pKa. In terms of metal rejection, chitosan is thus probably the better option for basic or strongly acid (pH < 4) conditions. Nevertheless, CMC should probably be preferred to chitosan in natural conditions (5 < pH < 8) since its impact on the permeation flux is less significant. Finally, ultrafiltration of an industrial discharge water has shown that the increase in metal ion rejection induced by the polymer addition is very low due to the competing phenomenon between the various ions present in the complex mixture.

Keywords: carboxymethyl cellulose, chitosan, heavy metals, nickel ion, polymer-assisted ultrafiltration

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Authors: Niyongabo Elyse

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Prefabricated building construction is a pioneering approach that combines design, production, and assembly to attain energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and economic feasibility. Despite continuous development in the industry in China, the low technical maturity of standardized design, factory production, and construction assembly introduces uncertainties affecting prefabricated component production and on-site assembly processes. This research focuses on enhancing project management performance under uncertainty to help enterprises navigate these challenges and optimize project resources. The study introduces a perspective on how uncertain factors influence the implementation of prefabricated building construction projects. It proposes a theoretical model considering project process management ability, adaptability to uncertain environments, and collaboration ability of project participants. The impact of uncertain factors is demonstrated through case studies and quantitative analysis, revealing constraints on implementation time, cost, quality, and safety. To address uncertainties in prefabricated component production scheduling, a fuzzy model is presented, expressing processing times in interval values. The model utilizes a cooperative co-evolution evolution algorithm (CCEA) to optimize scheduling, demonstrated through a real case study showcasing reduced project duration and minimized effects of processing time disturbances. Additionally, the research addresses on-site assembly construction scheduling, considering the relationship between task processing times and assigned resources. A multi-objective model with fuzzy activity durations is proposed, employing a hybrid cooperative co-evolution evolution algorithm (HCCEA) to optimize project scheduling. Results from real case studies indicate improved project performance in terms of duration, cost, and resilience to processing time delays and resource changes. The study also introduces a multistage dynamic process control model, utilizing IoT technology for real-time monitoring during component production and construction assembly. This approach dynamically adjusts schedules when constraints arise, leading to enhanced project management performance, as demonstrated in a real prefabricated housing project. Key contributions include a fuzzy prefabricated components production scheduling model, a multi-objective multi-mode resource-constrained construction project scheduling model with fuzzy activity durations, a multi-stage dynamic process control model, and a cooperative co-evolution evolution algorithm. The integrated mathematical model addresses the complexity of prefabricated building construction project management, providing a theoretical foundation for practical decision-making in the field.

Keywords: prefabricated construction, project management performance, uncertainty, fuzzy scheduling

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Authors: Elham Bagheri, Yalda Mohsenzadeh

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Image memorability refers to the phenomenon where certain images are more likely to be remembered by humans than others. It is a quantifiable and intrinsic attribute of an image. Understanding how visual perception and memory interact is important in both cognitive science and artificial intelligence. It reveals the complex processes that support human cognition and helps to improve machine learning algorithms by mimicking the brain's efficient data processing and storage mechanisms. To explore the computational underpinnings of image memorability, this study examines the relationship between an image's reconstruction error, distinctiveness in latent space, and its memorability score. A trained autoencoder is used to replicate human-like memorability assessment inspired by the visual memory game employed in memorability estimations. This study leverages a VGG-based autoencoder that is pre-trained on the vast ImageNet dataset, enabling it to recognize patterns and features that are common to a wide and diverse range of images. An empirical analysis is conducted using the MemCat dataset, which includes 10,000 images from five broad categories: animals, sports, food, landscapes, and vehicles, along with their corresponding memorability scores. The memorability score assigned to each image represents the probability of that image being remembered by participants after a single exposure. The autoencoder is finetuned for one epoch with a batch size of one, attempting to create a scenario similar to human memorability experiments where memorability is quantified by the likelihood of an image being remembered after being seen only once. The reconstruction error, which is quantified as the difference between the original and reconstructed images, serves as a measure of how well the autoencoder has learned to represent the data. The reconstruction error of each image, the error reduction, and its distinctiveness in latent space are calculated and correlated with the memorability score. Distinctiveness is measured as the Euclidean distance between each image's latent representation and its nearest neighbor within the autoencoder's latent space. Different structural and perceptual loss functions are considered to quantify the reconstruction error. The results indicate that there is a strong correlation between the reconstruction error and the distinctiveness of images and their memorability scores. This suggests that images with more unique distinct features that challenge the autoencoder's compressive capacities are inherently more memorable. There is also a negative correlation between the reduction in reconstruction error compared to the autoencoder pre-trained on ImageNet, which suggests that highly memorable images are harder to reconstruct, probably due to having features that are more difficult to learn by the autoencoder. These insights suggest a new pathway for evaluating image memorability, which could potentially impact industries reliant on visual content and mark a step forward in merging the fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. The current research opens avenues for utilizing neural representations as instruments for understanding and predicting visual memory.

Keywords: autoencoder, computational vision, image memorability, image reconstruction, memory retention, reconstruction error, visual perception

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Authors: Xuechun Kan, Dongdong Li, Fan Li, Peidang Liu

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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most malignant subtype of breast cancer with a poor prognosis, and radiotherapy is one of the main treatment methods. However, due to the obvious resistance of tumor cells to radiotherapy, high dose of ionizing radiation is required during radiotherapy, which causes serious damage to normal tissues near the tumor. Therefore, how to improve radiotherapy resistance and enhance the specific killing of tumor cells by radiation is a hot issue that needs to be solved in clinic. Recent studies have shown that silver-based nanoparticles have strong radiosensitization, and silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) also provide a broad prospect for tumor targeted radiosensitization therapy due to their ultra-small size, low toxicity or non-toxicity, self-fluorescence and strong photostability. Aptamer 5TR1 is a 25-base oligonucleotide aptamer that can specifically bind to mucin-1 highly expressed on the membrane surface of TNBC 4T1 cells, and can be used as a highly efficient tumor targeting molecule. In this study, AgNCs were synthesized by DNA template based on 5TR1 aptamer (NC-T5-5TR1), and its role as a targeted radiosensitizer in TNBC radiotherapy was investigated. The optimal DNA template was first screened by fluorescence emission spectroscopy, and NC-T5-5TR1 was prepared. NC-T5-5TR1 was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. The inhibitory effect of NC-T5-5TR1 on cell activity was evaluated using the MTT method. Laser confocal microscopy was employed to observe NC-T5-5TR1 targeting 4T1 cells and verify its self-fluorescence characteristics. The uptake of NC-T5-5TR1 by 4T1 cells was observed by dark-field imaging, and the uptake peak was evaluated by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The radiation sensitization effect of NC-T5-5TR1 was evaluated through cell cloning and in vivo anti-tumor experiments. Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining flow cytometry was utilized to detect the impact of nanomaterials combined with radiotherapy on apoptosis. The results demonstrated that the particle size of NC-T5-5TR1 is about 2 nm, and the UV-visible absorption spectrum detection verifies the successful construction of NC-T5-5TR1, and it shows good dispersion. NC-T5-5TR1 significantly inhibited the activity of 4T1 cells and effectively targeted and fluoresced within 4T1 cells. The uptake of NC-T5-5TR1 reached its peak at 3 h in the tumor area. Compared with AgNCs without aptamer modification, NC-T5-5TR1 exhibited superior radiation sensitization, and combined radiotherapy significantly inhibited the activity of 4T1 cells and tumor growth in 4T1-bearing mice. The apoptosis level of NC-T5-5TR1 combined with radiation was significantly increased. These findings provide important theoretical and experimental support for NC-T5-5TR1 as a radiation sensitizer for TNBC.

Keywords: 5TR1 aptamer, silver nanoclusters, radio sensitization, triple-negative breast cancer

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Authors: Panagiotis Lemonakis, Nikolaos Moisiadis, Andromachi Gkoutzini, George Kaliabetsos, Nikos Eliou

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The proper surface water drainage not only affects vehicle movement dynamics but also increases the likelihood of an accident due to the fact that inadequate drainage is associated with potential hydroplaning and splash and spray driving conditions. Nine solutions have been proposed to address hydroplaning in sections with inadequate drainage, e.g., augmented superelevation and longitudinal rates, reduction of runoff length, and skew superelevation. The latter has been extensively implemented in highways recently, enhancing the safety level in the applied road segments in regards to the effective drainage of the rainwater. However, the concept of the skew superelevation has raised concerns regarding the driver’s comfort when traveling over skew superelevation sections, particularly at high speeds. These concerns alleviated through the concept of the round-up skew superelevation, which reduces both the lateral and the vertical acceleration imposed to the drivers and hence, improves comfort and traffic safety. Various research studies aimed at investigating driving comfort by evaluating the lateral and vertical accelerations sustained by the road users and vehicles. These studies focused on the influence of the skew superelevation to passenger cars, buses and trucks, and the drivers themselves, traveling at a certain range of speeds either below or above the design speed. The outcome of these investigations which based on the use of simulations, revealed that the imposed accelerations did not exceed the statutory thresholds even when the travelling speed was significantly greater than the design speed. Nevertheless, the effect of the skew superelevation to other vehicle types for instance, motorcycles, has not been investigated so far. The present research study aims to bridge this gap by investigating the impact of skew superelevation on the motorcycle rider’s comfort. Power two-wheeler riders are susceptible to any changes on the pavement surface and therefore a comparison between the traditional superelevation practice and the skew superelevation concept is of paramount importance. The methodology based on the utilization of sophisticated software in order to design the model of the road for several values of the longitudinal slope. Based on the values of the slopes and the use of a mathematical equation, the accelerations imposed on the wheel of the motorcycle were calculated. Due to the fact that the final aim of the study is the influence of the skew superelevation to the rider, it was deemed necessary to convey the calculated accelerations from the wheel to the rider. That was accomplished by implementing the quarter car suspension model adjusted to the features of two-wheeler vehicles. Finally, the accelerations derived from this process evaluated according to specific thresholds originated from the International Organization for Standardization, which correspond to certain levels of comfort. The most important conclusion drawn is that the comfort of the riders is not dependent on the form of road gradient to a great extent due to the fact that the vertical acceleration imposed to the riders took similar values regardless of the value of the longitudinal slope.

Keywords: acceleration, comfort, motorcycle, safety, skew superelevation

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Authors: Karishma Kashyap, Subha D. Parida

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Rapid population growth and urbanization is creating pressure throughout the world. This has a dramatic effect on a lot of elements which include water, food, transportation, energy, infrastructure etc. as few of the key services. Built environment sector is growing concurrently to meet the needs of urbanization. Due to such large scale development of buildings, there is a need for them to be monitored and managed efficiently. Along with appropriate management, climate adaptation is highly crucial as well because buildings are one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emission in their operation phase. Buildings to be adaptive need to provide a triple bottom approach to sustainability i.e., being socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. Hence, in order to deliver these sustainability outcomes, there is a growing understanding and thrive towards switching to green buildings or renovating new ones as per green standards wherever possible. Academic institutions in particular have been following this trend globally. This is highly significant as universities usually have high occupancy rates because they manage a large building portfolio. Also, as universities accommodate the future generation of architects, policy makers etc., they have the potential of setting themselves as a best industry practice model for research and innovation for the rest to follow. Hence their climate adaptation, sustainable growth and performance management becomes highly crucial in order to provide the best services to users. With the objective of evaluating appropriate management mechanisms within academic institutions, a feasibility study was carried out in a recent 5-Star Green Star rated university building (housing the School of Construction) in Victoria (south-eastern state of Australia). The key aim was to understand the behavioral and social aspect of the building users, management and the impact of their relationship on overall building sustainability. A survey was used to understand the building occupant’s response and reactions in terms of their work environment and management. A report was generated based on the survey results complemented with utility and performance data which were then used to evaluate the management structure of the university. Followed by the report, interviews were scheduled with the facility and asset managers in order to understand the approach they use to manage the different buildings in their university campuses (old, new, refurbished), respective building and parameters incorporated in maintaining the Green Star performance. The results aimed at closing the communication and feedback loop within the respective institutions and assist the facility managers to deliver appropriate stakeholder engagement. For the wider design community, analysis of the data highlights the applicability and significance of prioritizing key stakeholders, integrating desired engagement policies within an institution’s management structures and frameworks and their effect on building performance

Keywords: building optimization, green building, post occupancy evaluation, stakeholder engagement

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Authors: T. Al-Alawi, N. Shorbaji, E. Rashaidi, M.Alidrisi

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Purpose/Objective(s): The main purpose of this study is to analyze the planning of SBRT treatments for localized prostate cancer with 6FFF and 10FFF energies to see if there is a dosimetric difference between the two energies and how we can increase the plan efficiency and reduce its complexity. Also, to introduce a planning method in our department to treat prostate cancer by utilizing high energy photons without increasing patient toxicity and fulfilled all dosimetric constraints for OAR (an organ at risk). Then toevaluate the target 95% coverage PTV95, V5%, V2%, V1%, low dose volume for OAR (V1Gy, V2Gy, V5Gy), monitor unit (beam-on time), and estimate the values of homogeneity index HI, conformity index CI a Gradient index GI for each treatment plan.Materials/Methods: Two treatment plans were generated for15 patients with localized prostate cancer retrospectively using the CT planning image acquired for radiotherapy purposes. Each plan contains two/three complete arcs with two/three different collimator angle sets. The maximum dose rate available is 1400MU/min for the energy 6FFF and 2400MU/min for 10FFF. So in case, we need to avoid changing the gantry speed during the rotation, we tend to use the third arc in the plan with 6FFF to accommodate the high dose per fraction. The clinical target volume (CTV) consists of the entire prostate for organ-confined disease. The planning target volume (PTV) involves a margin of 5 mm. A 3-mm margin is favored posteriorly. Organs at risk identified and contoured include the rectum, bladder, penile bulb, femoral heads, and small bowel. The prescription dose is to deliver 35Gyin five fractions to the PTV and apply constraints for organ at risk (OAR) derived from those reported in references. Results: In terms of CI=0.99, HI=0.7, and GI= 4.1, it was observed that they are all thesame for both energies 6FFF and 10FFF with no differences, but the total delivered MUs are much less for the 10FFF plans (2907 for 6FFF vs.2468 for 10FFF) and the total delivery time is 124Sc for 6FFF vs. 61Sc for 10FFF beams. There were no dosimetric differences between 6FFF and 10FFF in terms of PTV coverage and mean doses; the mean doses for the bladder, rectum, femoral heads, penile bulb, and small bowel were collected, and they were in favor of the 10FFF. Also, we got lower V1Gy, V2Gy, and V5Gy doses for all OAR with 10FFF plans. Integral dosesID in (Gy. L) were recorded for all OAR, and they were lower with the 10FFF plans. Conclusion: High energy 10FFF has lower treatment time and lower delivered MUs; also, 10FFF showed lower integral and meant doses to organs at risk. In this study, we suggest usinga 10FFF beam for SBRTprostate treatment, which has the advantage of lowering the treatment time and that lead to lessplan complexity with respect to 6FFF beams.

Keywords: FFF beam, SBRT prostate, VMAT, prostate cancer

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Authors: Munir Kassa, Mengistu Hailemariam, Meghan Obermeyer, Kefelegn Baruda, Yonas Getachew, Asnakech Dessie

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Improving the quality of sexual and reproductive health services that women receive is expected to have an impact on women’s satisfaction with the services, on their continued use and, ultimately, on their ability to achieve their fertility goals or reproductive intentions. Surprisingly, however, there is little empirical evidence of either whether this expectation is correct, or how best to improve service quality within sexual and reproductive health programs so that these impacts can be achieved. The Recent focus on quality has prompted more physicians to do quality improvement work, but often without the needed skill sets, which results in poorly conceived and ultimately unsuccessful improvement initiatives. As this renders the work unpublishable, it further impedes progress in the field of health care improvement and widens the quality chasm. Moreover, since 2014, the Center for International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT) has worked diligently with 11 teaching hospitals across Ethiopia to increase access to contraception and abortion care services. This work has included improving pre-service training through education and curriculum development, expanding hands-on training to better learn critical techniques and counseling skills, and fostering a “team science” approach to research by encouraging scientific exploration. This is the first time this systematic approach has been applied and documented to improve access to high-quality services in Ethiopia. The purpose of this article is to report initiatives undertaken, and findings concluded by the clinical service team at CIRHT in an effort to provide a pragmatic approach to quality improvement projects. An audit containing nearly 300 questions about several aspects of patient care, including structure, process, and outcome indicators was completed by each teaching hospital’s quality improvement team. This baseline audit assisted in identifying major gaps and barriers, and each team was responsible for determining specific quality improvement aims and tasks to support change interventions using Shewart’s Cycle for Learning and Improvement (the Plan-Do-Study-Act model). To measure progress over time, quality improvement teams met biweekly and compiled monthly data for review. Also, site visits to each hospital were completed by the clinical service team to ensure monitoring and support. The results indicate that applying an evidence-based, participatory approach to quality improvement has the potential to increase the accessibility and quality of services in a short amount of time. In addition, continued ownership and on-site support are vital in promoting sustainability. This approach could be adapted and applied in similar contexts, particularly in other African countries.

Keywords: abortion, contraception, quality improvement, service provision

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Authors: Sonia Bautista Carrascosa, Carlos Renedo Sanchez

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The effect of a rapid drawdown is a classical scenario to be considered in slope stability under submerged conditions. This situation arises when totally or partially submerged slopes experience a descent of the external water level and is a typical verification to be done in a dam engineering discipline, as reservoir water levels commonly fluctuate noticeably during seasons and due to operational reasons. Although the scenario is well known and predictable in general, site conditions can increase the complexity of its assessment and external factors are not always expected, can cause a reduction in the stability or even a failure in a slope under a rapid drawdown situation. The present paper describes and discusses the interaction between two different infrastructures, a dam and a highway, and the impact on the stability of a natural rock slope overlaid by the north abutment of a viaduct of the A-44 Highway due to the rapid drawdown of the Rules Dam, in the province of Granada (south of Spain). In the year 2011, with both infrastructures, the A-44 Highway and the Rules Dam already constructed, delivered and under operation, some movements start to be recorded in the approximation embankment and north abutment of the Guadalfeo Viaduct, included in the highway and developed to solve the crossing above the tail of the reservoir. The embankment and abutment were founded in a low-angle natural rock slope formed by grey graphic phyllites, distinctly weathered and intensely fractured, with pre-existing fault and weak planes. After the first filling of the reservoir, to a relative level of 243m, three consecutive drawdowns were recorded in the autumns 2010, 2011 and 2012, to relative levels of 234m, 232m and 225m. To understand the effect of these drawdowns in the weak rock mass strength and in its stability, a new geological model was developed, after reviewing all the available ground investigations, updating the geological mapping of the area and supplemented with an additional geotechnical and geophysical investigations survey. Together with all this information, rainfall and reservoir level evolution data have been reviewed in detail to incorporate into the monitoring interpretation. The analysis of the monitoring data and the new geological and geotechnical interpretation, supported by the use of limit equilibrium software Slide2, concludes that the movement follows the same direction as the schistosity of the phyllitic rock mass, coincident as well with the direction of the natural slope, indicating a deep-seated movement of the whole slope towards the reservoir. As part of these conclusions, the solutions considered to reinstate the highway infrastructure to the required FoS will be described, and the geomechanical characterization of these weak rocks discussed, together with the influence of water level variations, not only in the water pressure regime but in its geotechnical behavior, by the modification of the strength parameters and deformability.

Keywords: monitoring, rock slope stability, water drawdown, weak rock

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Authors: Noel Smith

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To achieve professional registration, UK social workers need to complete a programme of education and training which meets standards set down by central government. When it comes to practice, social work in local authorities must fulfil requirements of national legislation but there is considerable local variation in the organisation and delivery of services. This presentation discusses the on-going reform of social work education by central government in the context of research of social work services in a local authority. In doing so it highlights that the ‘direction of travel’ of the national reform of social work education seems at odds with the trajectory of development of local social work services. In terms of education reform, the presentation cites key government initiatives including the knowledge and skills requirements which have been published separately for, respectively, child and family social work and adult social work. Also relevant is the Government’s new ‘teaching partnership’ pilot which focuses exclusively on social work in local government, in isolation from social work in NGOs. In terms of research, the presentation discusses two studies undertaken by Professor Smith in Suffolk County Council, a local authority in the east of England. The first is an equality impact analysis of the introduction of a new model for the delivery of adult and community services in Suffolk. This is based on qualitative research with local government representatives and NGOs involved in social work with older people and people with disabilities. The second study is an on-going, mixed method evaluation of the introduction of a new model of social care for children and young people in Suffolk. This new model is based on the international ‘Signs of Safety’ approach, which is applied in this model to a wide range of services from early intervention to child protection. While both studies are localised, the service models they examine are good illustrations of the way services are developing nationally. Analysis of these studies suggest that, if services continue to develop as they currently are, then social workers will require particular skills which are not be adequately addressed in the Government’s plans for social work education. Two issues arise. First, education reform concentrates on social work within local government while increasingly local authorities are outsourcing service provision to NGOs, expecting greater community involvement in providing care, and integrating social care with health care services. Second, education reform focuses on the different skills required for working with older and disabled adults and working with children and families, to the point where potentially the profession would be fragmented into two different classes of social worker. In contrast, the development of adult and children’s services in local authorities re-asserts the importance of common social work skills relating to personalisation, prevention and community development. The presentation highlights the importance for social work education in the UK to be forward looking, in terms of the changing design of service delivery, and outward looking, in terms of lessons to be drawn from international social work.

Keywords: adult social work, children and families social work, European social work, social work education

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Authors: Julia Mathew

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This paper explores the use of Bollywood and Chinese movies as soft power instruments within the larger context of India-China contention in South Asia. As India and China compete for influence in South Asia, they have increasingly relied on cultural diplomacy, using cinema to change perceptions, promote goodwill, and build cultural linkages. Bollywood, with its long-standing popularity and cultural resonance, has been a powerful instrument for projecting Indian ideals and identity throughout South Asia. In contrast, China has made concerted attempts in recent years to promote its own films, showing Chinese culture and values in a positive manner to offset Bollywood’s effect. This study examines the ways in which Chinese and Bollywood films influence public opinion and appeal to South Asian audiences while also supporting their respective countries’ soft power goals. To learn about this, we take a mixed-methods approach that incorporates content analysis of popular Bollywood and Chinese films released in South Asia, focussing on issues such as cultural identity, nationalism, and social values. In addition, we use sentiment analysis and surveys to map how these two cinematic traditions are received in various South Asian countries. This study takes into account government activities and cultural policies that promote each country’s cinema industry as a diplomatic instrument. The present study uses case studies from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Bhutan to demonstrate the subtle ways in which Bollywood and Chinese movies influence regional attitudes. For example, in Nepal and Bangladesh, Bollywood’s deep cultural ties have historically given India an advantage, but China’s growing economic relations and media presence have presented Chinese cinema as an alternative cultural influence. In contrast, Sri Lanka exemplifies a complicated relationship in which Bollywood’s cultural attraction is strong, but Chinese state-backed media diplomacy is making inroads, altering the cultural landscape. Due to limited cultural interchange and Bhutan’s historical alignment with India, Chinese cinema has a small presence in the country. The findings highlight cinema’s significance as a soft power tool in India and China’s regional ambitions. Bollywood’s emotional resonance and cultural familiarity have long bolstered India’s prominence, but Chinese cinema’s expansion reflects China’s desire to shift cultural narratives in its favour. This paper closes by presenting insights into the broader implications of cultural diplomacy within the India-China competition, arguing that as India and China continue to compete for influence in South Asia, film will play an increasingly crucial role in defining the soft power environment.

Keywords: soft power, China, India, Bollywood, Chinese cinema

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Authors: Sudikshya Bhandari, Jonathan K. London

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The earthquake of April 2015 was one of the biggest disasters in the history of Nepal. The epicenter was located near Barpak, north of the Gorkha district. Before the disaster, this settlement was a compact and homogeneous settlement manifesting its uniqueness through the social and cultural activities, and a distinct vernacular architecture. Narrow alleys with stone paved streets, buildings with slate roofs, and common spaces between the houses made this settlement socially, culturally, and environmentally cohesive. With the presence of micro hydro power plants, local economic activities enabled the local community to exist and thrive. Agriculture and animal rearing are the sources of livelihood for the majority of families, along with the booming homestays (where local people welcome guests to their home, as a business) and local shops. Most of these activities are difficult to find as the houses have been destroyed with the earthquake and the process of reconstruction has been transforming the outlook of the settlement. This study characterized the drastic transformation in Barpak post-earthquake, and analyzed the consequences of the reconstruction process. In addition, it contributes to comprehending a broader representation about unsustainability created by the lack of contextual post-disaster development. Since the research is based in a specific area, a case study approach was used. Sample houses were selected on the basis of ethnicity and house typology. Mixed methods such as key informant and semi structured interviews, focus groups, observations and photographs are used for the collection of data. The research focus is predominantly on the physical change of the house typology from vernacular to externally adopted designs. This transformation of the house entails socio-cultural changes such as social fragmentation with differences among the rich and the poor and decreases in the social connectivity within families and neighborhood. Families have found that new houses require more maintenance and resources that have increased their economic expenses. The study also found that the reconstructed houses are not thermally comfortable in the cold climate of Barpak, leading to the increased use of different sources of heating like electric heaters and more firewood. Lack of storage spaces for crops and livestock have discouraged them to pursue traditional means of livelihood and depend more on buying food from stores, ultimately making it less economical for most of the families. The transformation of space leading to the economic, social and cultural changes demonstrates the unsustainability of Barpak. Conclusions from the study suggest place based and inclusive planning and policy formations that include locals as partners, identifying the possible ways to minimize the impact and implement these recommendations into the future policy and planning scenarios.

Keywords: earthquake, Nepal, reconstruction, settlement, transformation

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Authors: Anastasios Zopiatis, Antonis L. Theocharous

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In the midst of a fierce war for talent, the hospitality industry is seeking new and innovative ways to enrich its image as an employer of choice and not a necessity. Historically, the industry’s professions are portrayed as ‘unattractive’ due to their repetitious nature, long and unsocial working schedules, below average remunerations, and the mental and physical demands of the job. Aligning with the industry, hospitality and tourism scholars embarked on a journey to investigate pertinent topics with the aim of enhancing our conceptual understanding of the elements that influence employees at the hospitality world of work. Topics such as job involvement, commitment, job and career satisfaction, and turnover intentions became the focal points in a multitude of relevant empirical and conceptual investigations. Nevertheless, gaps or inconsistencies in existing theories, as a result of both the volatile complexity of the relationships governing human behavior in the hospitality workplace, and the academic community’s unopposed acceptance of theoretical frameworks mainly propounded in the United States and United Kingdom years ago, necessitate our continuous vigilance. Thus, in an effort to enhance and enrich the discourse, we set out to investigate the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction traits and the individual’s career satisfaction, and subsequent intention to remain in the hospitality industry. Reflecting on existing literature, a quantitative survey was developed and administered, face-to-face, to 650 individuals working as full-time employees in 4- and 5- star hotel establishments in Cyprus, whereas a multivariate statistical analysis method, namely Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), was utilized to determine whether relationships existed between constructs as a means to either accept or reject the hypothesized theory. Findings, of interest to both industry stakeholders and academic scholars, suggest that the individual’s future intention to remain within the industry is primarily associated with extrinsic job traits. Our findings revealed that positive associations exist between extrinsic job traits, and both career satisfaction and future intention. In contrast, when investigating the relationship of intrinsic traits, a positive association was revealed only with career satisfaction. Apparently, the local industry’s environmental factors of seasonality, excessive turnover, overdependence on seasonal, and part-time migrant workers, prohibit industry stakeholders in effectively investing the time and resources in the development and professional growth of their employees. Consequently intrinsic job satisfaction factors such as advancement, growth, and achievement, take backstage to the more materialistic extrinsic factors. Findings from the subsequent mediation analysis support the notion that intrinsic traits can positively influence future intentions indirectly only through career satisfaction, whereas extrinsic traits can positively impact both career satisfaction and future intention both directly and indirectly.

Keywords: career satisfaction, Cyprus, hotel employees, structural equation modeling, SEM

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Authors: Mauro Callejas-Cuervo, Andrea C. Alarcon-Aldana, Andres F. Ruiz-Olaya, Juan C. Alvarez

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Motion capture (MC) is the construction of a precise and accurate digital representation of a real motion. Systems have been used in the last years in a wide range of applications, from films special effects and animation, interactive entertainment, medicine, to high competitive sport where a maximum performance and low injury risk during training and competition is seeking. This paper presents an inertial and magnetic sensor based technological platform, intended for particular amplitude monitoring and telerehabilitation processes considering an efficient cost/technical considerations compromise. Our platform particularities offer high social impact possibilities by making telerehabilitation accessible to large population sectors in marginal socio-economic sector, especially in underdeveloped countries that in opposition to developed countries specialist are scarce, and high technology is not available or inexistent. This platform integrates high-resolution low-cost inertial and magnetic sensors with adequate user interfaces and communication protocols to perform a web or other communication networks available diagnosis service. The amplitude information is generated by sensors then transferred to a computing device with adequate interfaces to make it accessible to inexperienced personnel, providing a high social value. Amplitude measurements of the platform virtual system presented a good fit to its respective reference system. Analyzing the robotic arm results (estimation error RMSE 1=2.12° and estimation error RMSE 2=2.28°), it can be observed that during arm motion in any sense, the estimation error is negligible; in fact, error appears only during sense inversion what can easily be explained by the nature of inertial sensors and its relation to acceleration. Inertial sensors present a time constant delay which acts as a first order filter attenuating signals at large acceleration values as is the case for a change of sense in motion. It can be seen a damped response of platform virtual in other images where error analysis show that at maximum amplitude an underestimation of amplitude is present whereas at minimum amplitude estimations an overestimation of amplitude is observed. This work presents and describes the platform virtual as a motion capture system suitable for telerehabilitation with the cost - quality and precision - accessibility relations optimized. These particular characteristics achieved by efficiently using the state of the art of accessible generic technology in sensors and hardware, and adequate software for capture, transmission analysis and visualization, provides the capacity to offer good telerehabilitation services, reaching large more or less marginal populations where technologies and specialists are not available but accessible with basic communication networks.

Keywords: inertial sensors, joint amplitude measurement, MEMS, telerehabilitation

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Authors: C. Mazilu, D. P. Georgescu, A. Apostu, R. Deju

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Cement mortars and concretes are some of the most used construction materials in the world, global cement production being expected to grow to approx. 5 billion tons, until 2030. But, cement is an energy intensive material, the cement industry being responsible for cca. 7% of the world's CO2 emissions. Also, natural aggregates represent non-renewable resources, exhaustible, which must be used efficiently. A way to reduce the negative impact on the environment is the use of additional hydraulically active materials, as a partial substitute for cement in mortars and concretes and/or the use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) for the recovery of construction waste, according to EU Directive 2018/851. One of the most effective active hydraulic admixtures is microsilica and more recently, with the technological development on a nanometric scale, nanosilica. Studies carried out in recent years have shown that the introduction of SiO2 nanoparticles into cement matrix improves the properties, even compared to microsilica. This is due to the very small size of the nanosilica particles (<100nm) and the very large specific surface, which helps to accelerate cement hydration and acts as a nucleating agent to generate even more calcium hydrosilicate which densifies and compacts the structure. The cementitious compositions containing recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) present, in generally, inferior properties compared to those obtained with natural aggregates. Depending on the degree of replacement of natural aggregate, decreases the workability of mortars and concretes with RAC, decrease mechanical resistances and increase drying shrinkage; all being determined, in particular, by the presence to the old mortar attached to the original aggregate from the RAC, which makes its porosity high and the mixture of components to require more water for preparation. The present study aims to use micro and nanosilica for increase the performance of some mortars and concretes obtained with RCA. The research focused on two types of cementitious systems: a special mortar composition used for encapsulating Low Level radioactive Waste (LLW); a composition of structural concrete, class C30/37, with the combination of exposure classes XC4+XF1 and settlement class S4. The mortar was made with 100% recycled aggregate, 0-5 mm sort and in the case of concrete, 30% recycled aggregate was used for 4-8 and 8-16 sorts, according to EN 206, Annex E. The recycled aggregate was obtained from a specially made concrete for this study, which after 28 days was crushed with the help of a Retsch jaw crusher and further separated by sieving on granulometric sorters. The partial replacement of cement was done progressively, in the case of the mortar composition, with microsilica (3, 6, 9, 12, 15% wt.), nanosilica (0.75, 1.5, 2.25% wt.), respectively mixtures of micro and nanosilica. The optimal combination of silica, from the point of view of mechanical resistance, was later used also in the case of the concrete composition. For the chosen cementitious compositions, the influence of micro and/or nanosilica on the properties in the fresh state (workability, rheological characteristics) and hardened state (mechanical resistance, water absorption, freeze-thaw resistance, etc.) is highlighted.

Keywords: cement, recycled concrete aggregates, micro/nanosilica, durability

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Authors: Ines Raies, Eric Kohler, Marc Fleury, Béatrice Ledésert

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In this work, the impact of clay minerals on the formation damage of sandstone reservoirs is studied to provide a better understanding of the problem of deep geothermal reservoir permeability reduction due to fine particle dispersion and migration. In some situations, despite the presence of filters in the geothermal loop at the surface, particles smaller than the filter size (<1 µm) may surprisingly generate significant permeability reduction affecting in the long term the overall performance of the geothermal system. Our study is carried out on cores from a Triassic reservoir in the Paris Basin (Feigneux, 60 km Northeast of Paris). Our goal is to first identify the clays responsible for clogging, a mineralogical characterization of these natural samples was carried out by coupling X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The results show that the studied stratigraphic interval contains mostly illite and chlorite particles. Moreover, the spatial arrangement of the clays in the rocks as well as the morphology and size of the particles, suggest that illite is more easily mobilized than chlorite by the flow in the pore network. Thus, based on these results, illite particles were prepared and used in core flooding in order to better understand the factors leading to the aggregation and deposition of this type of clay particles in geothermal reservoirs under various physicochemical and hydrodynamic conditions. First, the stability of illite suspensions under geothermal conditions has been investigated using different characterization techniques, including Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). Various parameters such as the hydrodynamic radius (around 100 nm), the morphology and surface area of aggregates were measured. Then, core-flooding experiments were carried out using sand columns to mimic the permeability decline due to the injection of illite-containing fluids in sandstone reservoirs. In particular, the effects of ionic strength, temperature, particle concentration and flow rate of the injected fluid were investigated. When the ionic strength increases, a permeability decline of more than a factor of 2 could be observed for pore velocities representative of in-situ conditions. Further details of the retention of particles in the columns were obtained from Magnetic Resonance Imaging and X-ray Tomography techniques, showing that the particle deposition is nonuniform along the column. It is clearly shown that very fine particles as small as 100 nm can generate significant permeability reduction under specific conditions in high permeability porous media representative of the Triassic reservoirs of the Paris basin. These retention mechanisms are explained in the general framework of the DLVO theory

Keywords: geothermal energy, reinjection, clays, colloids, retention, porosity, permeability decline, clogging, characterization, XRD, SEM-EDS, STEM, DLS, NMR, core flooding experiments

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Authors: Christina Y. P. Ting

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Migration is a global phenomenon with movements of migrants from developed and developing countries to the host societies. Migrants have changed the host countries’ demography – its population structure and also its ethnic cultural diversity. Acculturation of migrants in terms of their adoption of the host culture is seen as important to ensure that they ‘fit into’ their adopted country so as to participate in everyday public life. However, this research found that the increase of the China-born migrants’ post-migration consumption level had impact on Australia’s environment reflected not only because of their adoption of elements of the host culture, but also retention of aspects of Chinese culture – indicating that the influence of bi-culturalism was in operation. This research, which was based on the face-to-face interview with 61 China-born migrants in the suburb of Box Hill, Melbourne, investigated the pattern of change in the migrants’ consumption upon their settlement in Australia. Using an ecological footprint calculator, their post-migration footprints were found to be larger than pre-migration footprint. The uniquely-derived CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) Index was used to measure individuals’ strength of connectedness to ethnic culture. Multi-variant analysis was carried out to understand which independent factors that influence consumption best explain the change in footprint (which is the difference between pre-and post-migration footprints, as a dependent factor). These independent factors ranged from socio-economic and demographics to the cultural context, that is, the CALD Index and indicators of acculturation. The major findings from the analysis were: Chinese culture (as measured by the CALD Index) and indicators of acculturation such as length of residency and using English in communications besides the traditional factors such as age, income and education level made significant contributions to the large increase in the China-born group’s post-migration consumption level. This paper as part of a larger study found that younger migrants’ large change in their footprint were related to high income and low level of education. This group of migrants also practiced bi-cultural consumption in retaining ethnic culture and adopting the host culture. These findings have importantly highlighted that for a host society to tackle environmental crisis, governments need not only to understand the relationship between age and consumption behaviour, but also to understand and embrace the migrants’ ethnic cultures, which may act as bridges and/or fences in relationships. In conclusion, for governments to deal with national issues such as environmental crisis within a cultural diverse population, it necessitates an understanding of age and aspects of ethnic culture that may act as bridges and fences. This understanding can aid in putting in place policies that enable the co-existence of a hybrid of the ethnic and host cultures in order to create and maintain a harmonious and secured living environment for population groups.

Keywords: bicultural consumer, CALD index, consumption, ethnic culture, migrants

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Authors: Maryam Ziaee, Himanshu Shee, Amrik Sohal

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Big Data Analytics (BDA) in supply chain management has recently drawn the attention of academics and practitioners. Big data refers to a massive amount of data from different sources, in different formats, generated at high speed through transactions in business environments and supply chain networks. Traditional statistical tools and techniques find it difficult to analyse this massive data. BDA can assist organisations to capture, store, and analyse data specifically in the field of supply chain. Currently, there is a paucity of research on BDA in the pharmaceutical supply chain context. In this research, the Australian pharmaceutical supply chain was selected as the case study. This industry is highly significant since the right medicine must reach the right patients, at the right time, in right quantity, in good condition, and at the right price to save lives. However, drug shortages remain a substantial problem for hospitals across Australia with implications on patient care, staff resourcing, and expenditure. Furthermore, a massive volume and variety of data is generated at fast speed from multiple sources in pharmaceutical supply chain, which needs to be captured and analysed to benefit operational decisions at every stage of supply chain processes. As the pharmaceutical industry lags behind other industries in using BDA, it raises the question of whether the use of BDA can improve transparency among pharmaceutical supply chain by enabling the partners to make informed-decisions across their operational activities. This presentation explores the impacts of BDA on supply chain management. An exploratory qualitative approach was adopted to analyse data collected through interviews. This study also explores the BDA potential in the whole pharmaceutical supply chain rather than focusing on a single entity. Twenty semi-structured interviews were undertaken with top managers in fifteen organisations (five pharmaceutical manufacturers, five wholesalers/distributors, and five public hospital pharmacies) to investigate their views on the use of BDA. The findings revealed that BDA can enable pharmaceutical entities to have improved visibility over the whole supply chain and also the market; it enables entities, especially manufacturers, to monitor consumption and the demand rate in real-time and make accurate demand forecasts which reduce drug shortages. Timely and precise decision-making can allow the entities to source and manage their stocks more effectively. This can likely address the drug demand at hospitals and respond to unanticipated issues such as drug shortages. Earlier studies explore BDA in the context of clinical healthcare; however, this presentation investigates the benefits of BDA in the Australian pharmaceutical supply chain. Furthermore, this research enhances managers’ insight into the potentials of BDA at every stage of supply chain processes and helps to improve decision-making in their supply chain operations. The findings will turn the rhetoric of data-driven decision into a reality where the managers may opt for analytics for improved decision-making in the supply chain processes.

Keywords: big data analytics, data-driven decision, pharmaceutical industry, supply chain management

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Authors: Sogand Barghi

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The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in accounting practices is reshaping the landscape of financial management. This paper explores the innovative applications of AI in the realm of accounting, emphasizing its transformative impact on efficiency, accuracy, decision-making, and financial insights. By harnessing AI's capabilities in data analysis, pattern recognition, and automation, accounting professionals can redefine their roles, elevate strategic decision-making, and unlock unparalleled value for businesses. This paper delves into AI-driven solutions such as automated data entry, fraud detection, predictive analytics, and intelligent financial reporting, highlighting their potential to revolutionize the accounting profession. Artificial intelligence has swiftly emerged as a game-changer across industries, and accounting is no exception. This paper seeks to illuminate the profound ways in which AI is reshaping accounting practices, transcending conventional boundaries, and propelling the profession toward a new era of efficiency and insight-driven decision-making. One of the most impactful applications of AI in accounting is automation. Tasks that were once labor-intensive and time-consuming, such as data entry and reconciliation, can now be streamlined through AI-driven algorithms. This not only reduces the risk of errors but also allows accountants to allocate their valuable time to more strategic and analytical tasks. AI's ability to analyze vast amounts of data in real time enables it to detect irregularities and anomalies that might go unnoticed by traditional methods. Fraud detection algorithms can continuously monitor financial transactions, flagging any suspicious patterns and thereby bolstering financial security. AI-driven predictive analytics can forecast future financial trends based on historical data and market variables. This empowers organizations to make informed decisions, optimize resource allocation, and develop proactive strategies that enhance profitability and sustainability. Traditional financial reporting often involves extensive manual effort and data manipulation. With AI, reporting becomes more intelligent and intuitive. Automated report generation not only saves time but also ensures accuracy and consistency in financial statements. While the potential benefits of AI in accounting are undeniable, there are challenges to address. Data privacy and security concerns, the need for continuous learning to keep up with evolving AI technologies, and potential biases within algorithms demand careful attention. The convergence of AI and accounting marks a pivotal juncture in the evolution of financial management. By harnessing the capabilities of AI, accounting professionals can transcend routine tasks, becoming strategic advisors and data-driven decision-makers. The applications discussed in this paper underline the transformative power of AI, setting the stage for an accounting landscape that is smarter, more efficient, and more insightful than ever before. The future of accounting is here, and it's driven by artificial intelligence.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, accounting, automation, predictive analytics, financial reporting

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Authors: Ravi Chaturvedi, Ghanshyam Beniwal

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Without going much into the detail of long history of Sufism in the world and the etymological definition of the word ‘Sufi’, it will be sufficient to underline that the concept of Sufism was to focus the mystic power on the spiritual dimension of Islam with a view-shielding the believers from the outwardly and unrealistic dogma of the faith. Sufis adopted rather a liberal view in propagating the religious order of Islam suitable to the cultural and social environment of the land. It is, in fact, a mission of higher religious order of any faith, which disdains strife and conflict in any form. The joy of self-realization being the essence of religion is experienced after a long spiritual practice. India had Sufi and Bhakti (devotion) traditions in Islam and Hinduism, respectively. Both Sufism and Bhakti traditions were based on respect for different religions. The poorer and lower caste Hindus and Muslims were greatly influenced by these traditions. Unlike Ulemas and Brahmans, the Sufi and Bhakti saints were highly tolerant and open to the truth in other faiths. They never adopted sectarian attitudes and were never involved in power struggles. They kept away from power structures. Sufism is integrated with the Indian cinema since its initial days. In the earliest Bollywood movies, Sufism was represented in the form of qawwali which made its way from dargahs (shrines). Mixing it with pop influences, Hindi movies began using Sufi music in a big way only in the current decade. However, of late, songs with Sufi influences have become de rigueur in almost every film being released these days, irrespective of the genre, whether it is a romantic Gangster or a cerebral Corporate. 'Sufi is in the DNA of the Indian sub-continent', according to several contemporary filmmakers, critics, and spectators.The inherent theatricality motivates the performer of the 'Sufi' rituals for a dramatic behavior. The theatrical force of these stages of Sufi practice is so powerful that even the spectator cannot resist himself from being moved. In a multi-cultural country like India, the mediating streams have acquired a multi-layered importance in recent history. The second half of Indian post-colonial era has witnessed a regular chain of some conflicting religio-political waves arising from various sectarian camps in the country, which have compelled the counter forces to activate for keeping the spirit of composite cultural ethos alive. The study has revealed that the Sufi practice methodology is also being adapted for inclusion of spirituality in life at par to Yoga practice. This paper, a part of research study, is an attempt to establish that the Sufism in Indian cinema is one such mediating voice which is very active and alive throughout the length and width of the country continuously bridging the gap between various religious and social factions, and have a significant role to play in future as well.

Keywords: Indian cinema, mediating voice, Sufi, yoga practice

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Authors: Eugene Allevato

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Developing a responsible personal worldview is central to sustainable development, but achieving quality education to promote transformative learning for sustainability is thus far, poorly understood. Most programs involving education for sustainable development rely on changing behavior, rather than attitudes. The emphasis is on the scientific and utilitarian aspect of sustainability with negligible importance on the intrinsic value of nature. Campus sustainability projects include building sustainable gardens and implementing energy-efficient upgrades, instead of focusing on educating for sustainable development through exploration of students’ values and beliefs. Even though green technology adoption maybe the right thing to do, most schools are not targeting the root cause of the environmental crisis; they are just providing palliative measures. This study explores the under-examined factors that lead to pro-environmental behavior by investigating the environmental perceptions of both college business students and personnel of green organizations. A mixed research approach of qualitative, based on structured interviews, and quantitative instruments was developed including 30 college-level students’ interviews and 40 green organization staff members involved in sustainable activities. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed for analysis. Categorization of the responses to the open‐ended questions was conducted with the purpose of identifying the main types of factors influencing attitudes and correlating with behaviors. Overall the findings of this study indicated a lack of appreciation for nature, and inability to understand interconnectedness and apply critical thinking. The results of the survey conducted on undergraduate students indicated that the responses of business and liberal arts students by independent t-test were significantly different, with a p‐value of 0.03. While liberal arts students showed an understanding of human interdependence with nature and its delicate balance, business students seemed to believe that humans were meant to rule over the rest of nature. This result was quite intriguing from the perspective that business students will be defining markets, influencing society, controlling and managing businesses that supposedly, in the face of climate change, shall implement sustainable activities. These alarming results led to the focus on green businesses in order to better understand their motivation to engage in sustainable activities. Additionally, a probit model revealed that childhood exposure to nature has a significantly positive impact in pro-environmental attitudes to most of the New Ecological Paradigm scales. Based on these findings, this paper discusses educators including Socrates, John Dewey and Paulo Freire in the implementation of eco-pedagogy and transformative learning following a curriculum with emphasis on critical and systems thinking, which are deemed to be key ingredients in quality education for sustainable development.

Keywords: eco-pedagogy, environmental behavior, quality education for sustainable development, transformative learning

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Authors: Ipek Goktepe, Israa Elnemr, Hammad Asim, Hao Feng, Mosbah Kushad, Hee Park, Sheikha Alzeyara, Mohammad Alhajri

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Food safety management in Qatar is under the shared oversight of multiple agencies in two government ministries (Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Municipality and Environment). Despite the increasing number and diversity of the food service establishments, no systematic food surveillance system is in place in the country, which creates a gap in terms of determining the food safety attitudes and practices applied in the food service operations. Therefore, this study seeks to partially address this gap through determination of food safety knowledge among food handlers, specifically with respect to food preparation and handling practices, and sanitation methods applied in food service providers (FSPs) and a major market in Doha, Qatar. The study covered a sample of 53 FSPs randomly selected out of 200 FSPs. Face-to-face interviews with managers at participating FSPs were conducted using a 40-questions survey. Additionally, 120 produce handlers who are in direct contact with fresh produce at the major produce market in Doha were surveyed using a questionnaire containing 21 questions. A written informed consent was obtained from each survey participant. The survey data were analyzed using the chi-square test and correlation test. The significance was evaluated at p ˂ 0.05. The results from the FSPs surveys indicated that the average age of FSPs was 11 years, with the oldest and newest being established in 1982 and 2015, respectively. Most managers (66%) had college degree and 68% of them were trained on the food safety management system known as HACCP. These surveys revealed that FSP managers’ training and education level were highly correlated with the probability of their employees receiving food safety training while managers with lower education level had no formal training on food safety for themselves nor for their employees. Casual sit-in and fine dine-in restaurants consistently kept records (100%), followed by fast food (36%), and catering establishments (14%). The produce handlers’ survey results showed that none of the workers had any training on safe produce handling practices. The majority of the workers were in the age range of 31-40 years (37%) and only 38% of them had high-school degree. Over 64% of produce handlers claimed to wash their hands 4-5 times per day but field observations pointed limited handwashing as there was soap in the settings. This observation suggests potential food safety risks since a significant correlation (p ˂ 0.01) between the educational level and the hand-washing practices was determined. This assessment on food safety culture through determination of food and produce handlers' level of knowledge and practices, the first of its kind in Qatar, demonstrated that training and education are important factors which directly impact the food safety culture in FSPs and produce markets. These findings should help in identifying the need for on-site training of food handlers for effective food safety practices in food establishments in Qatar.

Keywords: food safety, food safety culture, food service providers, food handlers

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Authors: Mohamed M. Zaki, Maha M. Hady

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Salmonella spp. have been categorized as the world’s biggest threats to human health and poultry products are mostly incriminated sources. In Egypt, it was found that S. enteritidis and S. typhimurium are the most prevalent ones in poultry farms. It is recommended to eliminate salmonella from living bird by competing for salmonella contamination in feed in order to establish a healthy gut. The Feed acidifiers are the group of feed additives containing low-molecular-weight organic acids and/ or their salts which act as performance promoters by lowering the pH in the gut, optimizes digestion and inhibit bacterial growth. The inclusion of organic acid in pure form nonetheless effective in feed, yet, it is difficult to handle in feed mills as it is corrosive and produce more losses during pelleting process. The current study aimed at to evaluate the impact of incorporation of sodium diformate (SDF) and a commercial acidifier, CA (a mixture of butyric and propionic acids and their ammonium salts) at 0.4% dietary levels on broilers performance and the control S. enteritidis infection. Two hundreds and seventy unsexed cobb chickens were allotted in one of three treatments (90/ group) which were, the control (no acidifier, C- &C+), the 0.4% SDF (SDF- & SDF +) and the 0.4% CA (CA- & CA +) dietary levels for 35 days. Before the allocation of the groups, ten extra birds and a diet sample were bacteriologically examined to ensure negative contamination with salmonella. The birds were raised on deep-litter separated pens and had free access to feed and water all the time. The experimentally formulated diets were kept at 40C. After 24h access to the different dietary treatments, all the birds in the positive groups (n=15/ replicate) were inoculated intra-crop with 0.2 ml of 24 h broth culture of S. entertidis containing 1X 107 organisms while the negative-treated groups were inoculated with the same amount of the negative broth and second inoculation was done at 22 d of age. Colocal swabs were collected individually from all birds 2 h pre-inoculation to assure the absence of salmonella, then 1, 3, 5, 7, 21 days post-inoculation to recover salmonella. Performance parameter (body weight gain and feed efficiency) were calculated. Mortalities were recorded and reisolation of the salmonella was adopted to ensure it was the inoculated ones. The results revealed that the dietary acidification with sodium diformate significantly improved broilers performance and tends to produce heavier birds as compared to the negative control and CA groups. Moreover, the dietary inclusion of both acidifiers at level of 0.4% was able to eliminate mortalities completely at the relevant inoculation time. Regarding the shedding of S. enteritidius in positive groups, the SDF treatment resulted in significant (p<0.05) cessation of the shedding at 3 days post-inoculation compared to 7 days post-inoculation for the CA-group. In conclusion, sodium diformate at 0.4% dietary level in broiler diets has a valuable effect not only on broilers performance but also by eliminating S. enteritidis the main source of salmonella contamination in poultry farms which is feed.

Keywords: acidifier, broilers, Salmonalla spp, sodium diformate

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Authors: Sara Camino, Fernando Vega, Mercedes Cano, Benito Navarrete, José A. Camino

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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies should play a relevant role towards low-carbon systems in the European Union by 2030. Partial oxy-combustion emerges as a promising CCS approach to mitigate anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Its advantages respect to other CCS technologies rely on the production of a higher CO₂ concentrated flue gas than these provided by conventional air-firing processes. The presence of more CO₂ in the flue gas increases the driving force in the separation process and hence it might lead to further reductions of the energy requirements of the overall CO₂ capture process. A higher CO₂ concentrated flue gas should enhance the CO₂ capture by chemical absorption in solvent kinetic and CO₂ cyclic capacity. They have impact on the performance of the overall CO₂ absorption process by reducing the solvent flow-rate required for a specific CO₂ removal efficiency. Lower solvent flow-rates decreases the reboiler duty during the regeneration stage and also reduces the equipment size and pumping costs. Moreover, R&D activities in this field are focused on novel solvents and blends that provide lower CO₂ absorption enthalpies and therefore lower energy penalties associated to the solvent regeneration. In this respect, sterically hindered amines are considered potential solvents for CO₂ capture. They provide a low energy requirement during the regeneration process due to its molecular structure. However, its absorption kinetics are slow and they must be promoted by blending with faster solvents such as monoethanolamine (MEA) and piperazine (PZ). In this work, the kinetic behavior of two sterically hindered amines were studied under partial oxy-combustion conditions and compared with MEA. A lab-scale semi-batch reactor was used. The CO₂ composition of the synthetic flue gas varied from 15%v/v – conventional coal combustion – to 60%v/v – maximum CO₂ concentration allowable for an optimal partial oxy-combustion operation. Firstly, 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) showed a hybrid behavior with fast kinetics and a low enthalpy of CO₂ absorption. The second solvent was Isophrondiamine (IF), which has a steric hindrance in one of the amino groups. Its free amino group increases its cyclic capacity. In general, the presence of higher CO₂ concentration in the flue gas accelerated the CO₂ absorption phenomena, producing higher CO₂ absorption rates. In addition, the evolution of the CO2 loading also exhibited higher values in the experiments using higher CO₂ concentrated flue gas. The steric hindrance causes a hybrid behavior in this solvent, between both fast and slow kinetic solvents. The kinetics rates observed in all the experiments carried out using AMP were higher than MEA, but lower than the IF. The kinetic enhancement experienced by AMP at a high CO2 concentration is slightly over 60%, instead of 70% – 80% for IF. AMP also improved its CO₂ absorption capacity by 24.7%, from 15%v/v to 60%v/v, almost double the improvements achieved by MEA. In IF experiments, the CO₂ loading increased around 10% from 15%v/v to 60%v/v CO₂ and it changed from 1.10 to 1.34 mole CO₂ per mole solvent, more than 20% of increase. This hybrid kinetic behavior makes AMP and IF promising solvents for partial oxy–combustion applications.

Keywords: absorption, carbon capture, partial oxy-combustion, solvent

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Authors: J. Hash, J. Converse, L. Gibson

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Plant medicines are of growing interest for addressing mental health concerns. Ayahuasca, a traditional plant-based medicine, has established itself as a powerful way of processing trauma and precipitating healing and mood stabilization. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is another treatment modality that aids in the rapid processing and resolution of trauma. We investigated group EMDR therapy, G-TEP, as a preparatory practice before Ayahuasca ceremonies to determine if the combination of these modalities supports participants in their journeys of letting go of past experiences negatively impacting mental health, thereby accentuating the healing of the plant medicine. We surveyed 96 participants (51 experimental G-TEP, 45 control grounding prior to their ceremony; age M=38.6, SD=9.1; F=57, M=34; white=39, Hispanic/Latinx=23, multiracial=11, Asian/Pacific Islander=10, other=7) in a pre-post, mixed methods design. Participants were surveyed for demographic characteristics, symptoms of PTSD and cPTSD (International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ), depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI), and stress (Perceived Stress Scale, PSS) before the ceremony and at the end of the ceremony weekend. Open-ended questions also inquired about their expectations of the ceremony and results at the end. No baseline differences existed between the control and experimental participants. Overall, participants reported a decrease in meeting the threshold for PTSD symptoms (p<0.01); surprisingly, the control group reported significantly fewer thresholds met for symptoms of affective dysregulation, 2(1)=6.776, p<.01, negative self-concept, 2 (1)=7.122, p<.01, and disturbance in relationships, 2 (1)=9.804, p<.01, on subscales of the ITQ as compared to the experimental group. All participants also experienced a significant decrease in scores on the BDI, t(94)=8.995, p<.001, and PSS, t(91)=6.892, p<.001. Similar to patterns of PTSD symptoms, the control group reported significantly lower scores on the BDI, t(65.115)=-2.587, p<.01, and a trend toward lower PSS, t(90)=-1.775, p=.079 (this was significant with a one-sided test at p<.05), compared to the experimental group following the ceremony. Qualitative interviews among participants revealed a potential explanation for these relatively higher levels of depression and stress in the experimental group following the ceremony. Many participants reported needing more time to process their experience to gain an understanding of the effects of the Ayahuasca medicine. Others reported a sense of hopefulness and understanding of the sources of their trauma and the necessary steps to heal moving forward. This suggests increased introspection and openness to processing trauma, therefore making them more receptive to their emotions. The integration process of an Ayahuasca ceremony is a week- to months-long process that was not accessible in this stage of research, yet it is an integral process to understanding the full effects of the Ayahuasca medicine following the closure of a ceremony. Our future research aims to assess participants weeks into their integration process to determine the effectiveness of EMDR, and if the higher levels of depression and stress indicate the initial reaction to greater awareness of trauma and receptivity to healing.

Keywords: ayahuasca, EMDR, PTSD, mental health

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Authors: Prajwal Paudel, Shreeprasad Adhikari, Shailendra Bir Karmacharya, Kalpana Upadhyaya

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Background: Human milk banks have been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for newborn and child nourishment in the provision of optimum nutrition as an alternative to breastfeeding in circumstances when direct breastfeeding is inaccessible. The vulnerable group of babies, mainly preterm, low birth weight, and sick newborns, are at a greater risk of mortality and possibly benefit from the safe use of donated human milk through milk banks. In this study, we aimed to shed light on the process involved during the setting up of the nation’s first milk bank and its vitality in small and sick newborn nutrition and care. Methods: The study was conducted in Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital, where the first human milk (HMB) was established. The establishment involved a stepwise process of need assessment meeting, formation of the HMB committee, learning visit to HMB in India, studying the strengths and weaknesses of promoting breastfeeding and HMB system integration, procurement, installation, and setting up the infrastructure, and developing technical competency, launching of the HMB. After the initiation of HMB services, information regarding the recruited donor mothers and the volume of milk pasteurized and consumed by the needy recipient babies were recorded. Descriptive statistics with frequencies and percentages were used to describe the utilization of HMB services. Results: During the study period, a total of 506113 ml of milk was collected, while 49930 ml of milk was pasteurized. Of the pasteurized milk, 381248 ml of milk was dispensed. The total volume of milk received was from a total of 883 after proper routine screening tests. Similarly, the total number of babies who received the donated human milk (DHM) was 912 with different neonatal conditions. Among the babies who received DHM, 527(57.7%) were born via CS, and 385 (42.21%) were delivered normally. In the birth weight category,9 (1%) of the babies were less than 1000 grams, 75 (8.2%) were less than 1500 grams, 405 (44.4%) were between 1500 to less than 2500 grams whereas, 423 (46.4%) of the babies who received DHM were normal weight babies. Among the sick newborns, perinatal asphyxia accounted for 166 (18.2%), preterm with other complications 372 (40.7%), preterm 23 (2.02%), respiratory distress 140 (15.35%), neonatal jaundice 150 (16.44%), sepsis 94 (10.30%), meconium aspiration syndrome 9(1%), seizure disorder 28 (3.07%), congenital anomalies 13 (1.42%) and others 33(3. 61%). The neonatal mortality rate dropped to 6.2/1000 live births from 7.5/1000 live births in the first year of establishment as compared to the previous year. Conclusion: The establishment of the first HMB in Nepal involved a comprehensive approach to integrate a new system with the existing newborn care in the provision of safe DHM. Premature babies with complication, babies born via CS, perinatal asphyxia and babies with sepsis consumed the greater proportion of DHM. Rigorous research is warranted to assess the impact of DHM in small and sick newborn who otherwise would be fed formula milk.

Keywords: human milk bank, sick-newborn, mortality, neonatal nutrition

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Authors: Arzu Firlarer, Duygu Gocmen, Gokhan Uysal

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There is currently a growing trend among universities towards blended learning. Blended learning is becoming increasingly important in higher education, with the aims of better accomplishing course learning objectives, meeting students’ changing needs and promoting effective learning both in a theoretical and practical dimension like interior architecture discipline. However, the practical dimension of the discipline cannot be supported in the university environment. During the undergraduate program, the practical training which is tried to be supported by two different internship programs cannot fully meet the requirements of the blended learning. The lack of education program frequently expressed by our graduates and employers is revealed in the practical knowledge and skills dimension of the profession. After a series of meetings for curriculum studies, interviews with the chambers of profession, meetings with interior architects, a gap between the theoretical and practical training modules is seen as a problem in all interior architecture departments. It is thought that this gap can be solved by a new education model which is formed by the cooperation of University-Industry in the concept of blended learning. In this context, it is considered that theoretical and applied knowledge accumulation can be provided by the creation of industry-supported educational environments at the university. In the application process of the Interior Architecture discipline, the use of materials and technical competence will only be possible with the cooperation of industry and participation of students in the production/manufacture processes as observers and practitioners. Wood manufacturing is an important part of interior architecture applications. Wood productions is a sustainable structural process where production details, material knowledge, and process details can be observed in the most effective way. From this point of view, after theoretical training about wooden materials, wood applications and production processes are given to the students, practical training for production/manufacture planning is supported by active participation and observation in the processes. With this blended model, we aimed to develop a training model in which theoretical and practical knowledge related to the production of wood works will be conveyed in a meaningful, lasting way by means of university-industry cooperation. The project is carried out in Ankara with Arcora Architecture and Furniture Company and Başkent University Department of Interior Design where university-industry cooperation is realized. Within the scope of the project, every week the video of that week’s lecture is recorded and prepared to be disseminated by digital medias such as Udemy. In this sense, the program is not only developed by the project participants, but also other institutions and people who are trained and practiced in the field of design. Both academicians from University and at least 15-year experienced craftsmen in the wood metal and dye sectors are preparing new training reference documents for interior architecture undergraduate programs. These reference documents will be a model for other Interior Architecture departments of the universities and will be used for creating an online education module.

Keywords: blended learning, interior design, sustainable training, effective learning.

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Authors: Mulindwa Gerald

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Forced Migration is believed to be the most pressing issue in migration studies today, it therefore makes it of paramount importance that we examine the efficacy of the prevailing laws, treaties, conventions and global policies of refugee management. It suffices to note that the existing policies are vague and ambiguous encouraging the hospitality but not assessing the social economic impact to not only the refugees but also their host communities. The commentary around the Off-shore arrangements like one of UK-Rwanda and the legal implications of the same, make it even more fascinating. These are issues that need to be amplified and captured in the Migration Policies. In Uganda, a small landlocked country in East Africa, there always appeared new faces who were refugees from the Congo and Rwanda the neighboring countries to the West and South West respectively. The refugees would migrate to Uganda with absolutely no idea whatsoever how they were going to meet the daily needs of life, no food, no shelter, no clothing. It interest’s one’s mind to conscientiously interrogate the policy issues surrounding refugee management. The 1951 convention sets a number of obligations to states and the conundrum, faced by citizens of the universe interested in Migration studies is ensuring maximum compliance to these obligations considering the resource challenges. States have a duty to protect refugees in accordance with Article 14 of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights which was adopted by the 1951 convention, these speak to rights like the most important right of refugees known as the Principle of Non-Refoulement, which prohibits expulsion or return of refugees or asylum seekers The International Organization for Migrations projection of the number of migrants globally by 2050 was overwhelmingly surpassed by 2019 due to wars, conflicts that have been experienced in different parts of the globe. This is also due natural calamities and tough economic conditions. It is a descriptive analysis that encompasses a qualitative design research based on a case study involving both desk research and field study. The use of qualitative research approaches like interview guides, document review and direct observation methods helped to bring in the experience, social, behavioral and cultural aspects of the respondents into the study, and since qualitative research uses subjective information and not limited to the rigidly definable variables, thus it helped to explore the research area of the study. it therefore verily believe that this paper is going to trigger perspectives and spark a conversation on this really pressing global issue of refugees and asylum seekers, it is suggesting viable solutions to the management challenges while making recommendations like the ensuring that no refugees or asylum seekers are closed at any borders on the globe for instance a concerted effort of all global players to ensure that refugees are protected efficiently.

Keywords: management, migration, refugees, rights

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