Search results for: ICT in developing countries

Authors: Felipa de Mello-Sampayo

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The aim of this study is to undertake, from patient’s perspective, the timing and probability of using teledermatology, comparing it with a conventional referral system. The dynamic stochastic model’s main value-added consists of the concrete application to patients waiting for dermatology surgical intervention. Patients with low health level uncertainty must use teledermatology treatment as soon as possible, which is precisely when the teledermatology is least valuable. The results of the model were then tested empirically with the teledermatology network covering the area served by the Hospital Garcia da Horta, Portugal, links the primary care centers of 24 health districts with the hospital’s dermatology department via the corporate intranet of the Portuguese healthcare system. Health level volatility can be understood as the hazard of developing skin cancer and the trend of health level as the bias of developing skin lesions. The results of the survival analysis suggest that the theoretical model can explain the use of teledermatology. It depends negatively on the volatility of patients' health, and positively on the trend of health, i.e., the lower the risk of developing skin cancer and the younger the patients, the more presurgical teledermatology one expects to occur. Presurgical teledermatology also depends positively on out-of-pocket expenses and negatively on the opportunity costs of teledermatology, i.e., the lower the benefit missed by using teledermatology, the more presurgical teledermatology one expects to occur.

Keywords: teledermatology, wait time, uncertainty, opportunity cost, survival analysis

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Authors: Ratna Kuswardani

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This paper aims to study the impact of recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on 6 selected emerging Asian economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea). We first figure out the contagion of GFC from the US and Europe to the selected emerging Asian countries by studying the tail dependence of market stock returns between those countries. We apply the concept of Extreme Value Theory (EVT) to model the dependence between multiple returns series of variables under examination. We explore the factors causing the contagion between the regions. We find dependencies between markets that are influenced by their size, especially for large markets in emerging Asian countries that tend to have a higher dependency to the market in the more advanced country such as the U.S. and some countries in Europe. The results also suggest that the dependencies between market returns and bank stock returns in the same region tend to be higher than dependencies between these returns across two different regions. We extend our analysis by studying the impact of GFC on the systemic in the banking system. We also find that larger institution has more dependencies with the market stock, suggesting that larger size bank can cause disruption in the market. Further, the higher probability of extreme loss can be seen during the crisis period, which is shown by the non-linear dependency between the pre-crisis and the post-crisis period. Finally, our analysis suggests that systemic risk appears in the domestic banking systems in emerging Asia, as shown by the extreme dependencies within banks in the system. Overall, our results provide caution to policy makers and investors alike on the possible contagion of the impact of global financial crisis across different markets.

Keywords: contagion, extreme value theory, global financial crisis, systemic risk

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Authors: Tiina Brandt, Isaac Wanasika

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Culturally diverse global companies need to understand cultural differences between leaders and employees from different backgrounds. Communication is culturally contingent and has a significant impact on effective execution of leadership goals. The awareness of cultural variations related to communication and interactions will help leaders modify their own behavior, and consequently improve the execution of goals and avoid unnecessary faux pas. Our focus is on young adults that have experienced cultural integration, culturally diverse surroundings in schools and universities, and cultural travels. Our central research problem is to understand the impact of different national cultures on communication. We focus on four countries with distinct national cultures and spatial distribution. The countries are Finland, Indonesia, Russia and USA. Our sample is based on business students (n = 225) from various backgrounds in the four countries. Their responses of communication and leadership styles were analyzed using ANOVA and post-hoc test. Results indicate that culture impacts on communication behavior. Even young culturally-exposed adults with cultural awareness and experience demonstrate cultural differences in their behavior. Apparently, culture is a deeply seated trait that cannot be completely neutralized by environmental variables. Our study offers valuable input for leadership training programs and for expatriates when recognizing specific differences on leaders’ behavior due to culture.

Keywords: communication, culture, interaction, leadership

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Authors: Nuruddeen Usman, Usman Mohammed Gidado

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A construction and post construction activity in buildings contributes to environmental degradation, because of the generation of solid waste during construction to the production of carbon dioxide by the occupants during utilization. These problems were caused as a result of lack of adopting green building technology during and after construction. However, this study aims at conceptualizing the factors that are affecting the adoption of green building technology with a view to suggest better ways for its successful adoption in the construction industry through developing a green building technology model. Thus, the research findings show that: Economic, social, cultural, and technological progresses are the factors affecting Green Building Technology Adoption. Therefore, identifying these factors and developing the model might help in the successful adoption of green building technology.

Keywords: green building technology, construction, post construction, degradation

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Authors: Rosni Lakandri

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With the development of science and technology, there has been a complete transformation in the domain of information technology. Particularly after the Second World War and Cold War period, the role of media and communication technology in shaping the political, economic, socio-cultural proceedings across the world has been tremendous. It performs as a channel between the governing bodies of the state and the general masses. As we have seen the international community constantly talking about the onset of Asian Century, India and China happens to be the major player in this. Both have the civilization history, both are neighboring countries, both are witnessing a huge economic growth and, important of all, both are considered the rising powers of Asia. Not negating the fact that both countries have gone to war with each other in 1962 and the common people and even the policy makers of both the sides view each other till now from this prism. A huge contribution to this perception of people goes to the media coverage of both sides, even if there are spaces of cooperation which they share, the negative impacts of media has tended to influence the people’s opinion and government’s perception about each other. Therefore, analysis of media’s impression in both the countries becomes important in order to know their effect on the larger implications of foreign policy towards each other. It is usually said that media not only acts as the information provider but also acts as ombudsman to the government. They provide a kind of check and balance to the governments in taking proper decisions for the people of the country but in attempting to answer this hypothesis we have to analyze does the media really helps in shaping the political landscape of any country? Therefore, this study rests on the following questions; 1.How do China and India depict each other through their respective News media? 2.How much and what influences they make on the policy making process of each country? How do they shape the public opinion in both the countries? In order to address these enquiries, the study employs both primary and secondary sources available, and in generating data and other statistical information, primary sources like reports, government documents, and cartography, agreements between the governments have been used. Secondary sources like books, articles and other writings collected from various sources and opinion from visual media sources like news clippings, videos in this topic are also included as a source of on ground information as this study is not based on field study. As the findings suggest in case of China and India, media has certainly affected people’s knowledge about the political and diplomatic issues at the same time has affected the foreign policy making of both the countries. They have considerable impact on the foreign policy formulation and we can say there is some mediatization happening in foreign policy issues in both the countries.

Keywords: China, foreign policy, India, media, public opinion

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Authors: Hadach Mohamed

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Tourism becomes more and more a source of added value for developing countries. In Morocco, the sector contributes at 20% of national GDP, or the effects of this activity become increasingly harmful. The methodology we followed is qualitative, we analyzed the data according to a process-based approach in two longitudinal period from 2001 to 2009 and a period of real time from 2010 to 2014.Through a process-based longitudinal study we analyzed the effects of tourism on the three components of sustainability: economic, environmental and socio-cultural in Essaouira destination in the south west of Morocco. The objective of this paper is to identify among others, harmful effects of mass tourism on fragile destination in terms of load capacity, promotion of youth employment and respect for indigenous traditions. This study also aims to analyze the impact of tourism on the fragile destination, which depends heavily on this activity; it also seeks to test a series of indicators for sustainable development of sensitive areas. Within results, we found that tourism as an activity is very linked to the international situation, tested sustainable development indicators showed us that tourism is environmentally destructive, job creator and changer modes and lives of indigenous. Between the two periods analyzed, the situation becomes more and more vulnerable and the state intervention is becoming more indispensable.

Keywords: Sustainable tourism; Essaouira; destination, environmental and socio-cultural

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Authors: Majdi M. Alomari, Nafesah I. Alshdaifat, Mohammad S. Widyan

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Different countries have introduced different schemes and policies to counter global warming. The rationale behind the proposed policies and the potential barriers to successful implementation of the policies adopted by the countries were analyzed and estimated based on different models. It is argued that these models enhance the transparency and provide a better understanding to the policy makers. However, these models are underpinned with several structural and baseline assumptions. These assumptions, modeling features and future prediction of emission reductions and other implication such as cost and benefits of a transition to a low-carbon economy and its economy wide impacts were discussed. On the other hand, there are potential barriers in the form political, financial, and cultural and many others that pose a threat to the mitigation options.

Keywords: energy models, environmental policy instruments, mitigating CO2 emission, economic wide impact

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Authors: Ankur Chauhan, Amol Singh

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The increasing human resource has led to the rapid increment in the generation of healthcare waste across the world. Since, this waste consists of the infectious and hazardous components emerged from the patient care activities in different healthcare facilities; therefore, its proper management becomes vital for mitigating its negative impact on society and environment. The present research work focuses on the identification of the key success factors for developing a successful healthcare waste management plan. In addition, the key success factors have been studied by developing a causal diagram with the help of a decision making trial and evaluation (DEMATEL) approach. The findings of the study would help in the filtration of dominant key success factors which would further help in making a comparative assessment of the waste management plan of different hospitals.

Keywords: healthcare waste disposal, environment and society, multi-criteria decision making, DEMATEL

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Authors: Ahmed Abdulfatah Yusuf, Collins Oduor Ondiek

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The automation of farming activities can have a transformational impact on the agricultural sector, especially from the emerging new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT). The system uses water level sensors and soil moisture sensors that measure the content of water in the soil as the values generated from the sensors enable the system to use an appropriate quantity of water, which avoids over or under irrigation. Due to the increase in the world’s population, there is a need to increase food production. With this demand in place, it is difficult to increase crop yield using the traditional manual approaches that lead to the wastage of water, thus affecting crop production. Food insecurity has become a scourge greatly affecting the developing countries and agriculture is an essential part of human life and tends to be the mainstay of the economy in most developing nations. Thus, without the provision of adequate food supplies, the population of those living in poverty is likely to multiply. The project’s main objective is to design and develop an IoT (Internet of Things) microcontroller-based Smart Irrigation System. In addition, the specific research objectives are to find out the challenges with traditional irrigation approaches and to determine the benefits of IoT-based smart irrigation systems. Furthermore, the system includes Arduino, a website and a database that works simultaneously in collecting and storing the data. The system is designed to pave the way in attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 1), which aims to end extreme poverty in all forms by 2030. The research design aimed at this project is a descriptive research design. Data was gathered through online questionnaires that used both quantitative and qualitative in order to triangulate the data. Out of the 32 questionnaires sent, there were 32 responses leading to a 100% response rate. In terms of sampling, the target group of this project is urban farmers, which account for about 25% of the population of Nairobi. From the findings of the research carried out, it is evident that there is a need to move away from manual irrigation approaches due to the high wastage of water to the use of smart irrigation systems that propose a better way of conserving water while maintaining the quality and moisture of the soil. The research also found out that urban farmers are willing to adopt this system to better their farming practices. However, this system can be improved in the future by incorporating it with other features and deploying it to a larger geographical area.

Keywords: crop production, food security, smart irrigation system, sustainable development goal

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Authors: Mehmet Tahir Dursun, Hilmi Rafet Yüncü

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In social life growing fast, not only people, but also, companies and regions are located in a struggle to provide continuity of life cycles. This struggle brings together an important competitiveness when considering environmental conditions. By emphasizing this point, being able to competitiveness notion comes out as a determiner of the struggle to exist. With the development of technology in tourism industry so as in all branches, it is seen that the companies and regions in different districts are in competitiveness and competitiveness ability is affected in assessing of marketing shares. A condition of competitiveness is to provide sustainability of all structured forms. In addition, environment and sensitiveness of environment are notions affecting directly the competitiveness ability of tourism destinations. It is claimed that providing the sustainability of environment gives competitiveness to tourism destinations. In this study, competitiveness and performances of tourism in Mediterranean countries are going to be compared by examining a variety of indexes related to the sensitiveness of environment. Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (T&TCI) (Environmental Sustainability and Natural Resources), Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Ecological Foot Print, Human Development Index (HDI), Climate Risk Index (CRI) will be used in this study. These Index data will be compared with international tourist arrivals, international tourism receives and expenses of per tourist of countries.

Keywords: ecological foot print, environmental performance index, human development index, sustainability, travel and tourism competitiveness index

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Authors: Omar Hamdy, Schichen Zhao, Hussein Abd El-Atty, Ayman Ragab, Muhammad Salem

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One of the most risky areas in Aswan is Abouelreesh, which is suffering from flood disasters, as heavy deluge inundates urban areas causing considerable damage to buildings and infrastructure. Moreover, the main problem was the urban sprawl towards this risky area. This paper aims to identify the urban areas located in the risk areas prone to flash floods. Analyzing this phenomenon needs a lot of data to ensure satisfactory results; however, in this case the official data and field data were limited, and therefore, free sources of satellite data were used. This paper used ArcGIS tools to obtain the storm water drains network by analyzing DEM files. Additionally, historical imagery in Google Earth was studied to determine the age of each building. The last step was to overlay the urban area layer and the storm water drains layer to identify the vulnerable areas. The results of this study would be helpful to urban planners and government officials to make the disasters risk estimation and develop primary plans to recover the risky area, especially urban areas located in torrents.

Keywords: risk area, DEM, storm water drains, GIS

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Authors: Shashi Arya, Nand L. Singh, Samiksha Singh, Pradeep K. Mishra, Siddh N. Upadhyay

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The enormous generation of E- waste and its recycling have greater environmental concern especially in developing countries like India. A major part of this waste comprises printed circuit boards (PCBs). Edge trims of PCBs have high copper content ranging between 25-60%. The extraction of various metals out of these PCBs is more or less a proven technology, wherein various hazardous chemicals are being used in the resource recovery, resulting into secondary pollution. The current trend of extracting of valuable metals is the utilization of microbial strains to eliminate the problem of a secondary pollutant. Keeping the above context in mind, this work aims at the enhanced recovery of copper from edge trims, through bioleaching using bacterial strain Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. The raw material such as motherboards, hard drives, floppy drives and DVD drives were obtained from the warehouse of the University. More than 90% copper could be extracted through bioleaching using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. Inoculate concentration has merely insignificant effect over copper recovery above 20% inoculate concentration. Higher concentration of inoculation has the only initial advantage up to 2-4 days. The complete recovery has been obtained between 14- 24 days.

Keywords: acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, bioleaching, e-waste, printed circuit boards

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Authors: Wilfred Jeyatheese Jeyaraj

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Considering the current digital age, Library Marketing, in its entirety, has evolved to elucidate the importance of falling back to the roots of searching for tangible and intangible resources, traversing through pages and references to acquire the required knowledge needs with proper guidance. With the turn of the century, the present generation has deeply entrenched their virtual presence, browsing via search engines for all their information needs. Not fully realizing the adverse effects of the materials available digitally, the authenticity of such resources cannot be verified. So a user might be led to believe false misdirected data. This paper tends to elucidate the prominent strategies to market Sri Lankan libraries in a proper manner so as to captivate a large user base making them aware that all resources and materials that they access without guidance outside the libraries are also available within the libraries with added guidance towards accessing the right data. The main contemplation here is to focus on getting more users to visit libraries in person to copiously apprehend the importance of browsing for materials with the proper direction. The current library marketing strategies in Sri Lankan libraries need to be streamlined to align with the best interest of acquiring the present generations to visit libraries in person to reap its benefits.

Keywords: accessibility, librarianship, marketing, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Chaiwat Wuthinitikornkit

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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inevitably affects the landscape of the political economy of the host country. It is, therefore, significant to review and uncover how and in what way(s) FDI shapes the preferences of the interest groups within the host country, as such preferences may, in turn, influence the policies of the host country. By conducting a review of relevant literature, this paper attempts to outline the key forces behind such preferences and identify potential gaps for future studies. This paper argues that while existing theories have specified endowment and political and institutional factors as key explanations behind the preferences of domestic interest groups, other qualitative attributes of the foreign investors' side, such as their nationalities, have yet to be adequately investigated empirically and may potentially also possess explanatory power. This is particularly important in the current global economic landscape, where key global investors hail from origins from both developed and developing countries with diverse political systems and business practices. This paper aims to provide the groundwork for future studies on these potential gaps, which may provide not only contributions to the academic sphere but also practical insight into policymaking and business communities.

Keywords: foreign direct investment, interest groups, international political economy, political economy

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Authors: Ananya Das, Arun Kumar, Gazala Habib, Vivekanandan Perumal

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Regulatory bodies has proposed limits on Particulate Matter (PM) concentration in air; however, it does not explicitly indicate the incorporation of effects of toxicities of constituents of PM in developing regulatory limits. This study aimed to provide a structured approach to incorporate toxic effects of components in developing regulatory limits on PM. A four-step human health risk assessment framework consists of - (1) hazard identification (parameters: PM and its constituents and their associated toxic effects on health), (2) exposure assessment (parameters: concentrations of PM and constituents, information on size and shape of PM; fate and transport of PM and constituents in respiratory system), (3) dose-response assessment (parameters: reference dose or target toxicity dose of PM and its constituents), and (4) risk estimation (metric: hazard quotient and/or lifetime incremental risk of cancer as applicable). Then parameters required at every step were obtained from literature. Using this information, an attempt has been made to determine limits on PM using component-specific information. An example calculation was conducted for exposures of PM_2.5 and its metal constituents from Indian ambient environment to determine limit on PM values. Identified data gaps were: (1) concentrations of PM and its constituents and their relationship with sampling regions, (2) relationship of toxicity of PM with its components.

Keywords: air, component-specific toxicity, human health risks, particulate matter

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Authors: Ahmed S. Khan, Amin Karim

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During the past several decades, the economy of each nation has been significantly affected by globalization and technology. Government regulations and private sector standards affect a majority of world trade. Countries have been working together to establish international standards in almost every field. As a result, workers in all sectors need to have an understanding of standards. Engineering and technology students must not only possess an understanding of engineering standards and applicable government codes, but also learn to apply them in designing, developing, testing and servicing products, processes and systems. Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology (ABET) criteria for engineering and technology education require students to learn and apply standards in their class projects. This paper is a follow-up of a 2006-2009 NSF initiative awarded to IEEE to help develop tutorials and case study modules for students and encourage standards education at college campuses. It presents the findings of a faculty/institution survey conducted through various U.S.-based listservs representing the major engineering and technology disciplines. The intent of the survey was to the gauge the status of use of standards and regulations in engineering and technology coursework and to identify benchmark practices. In light of survey findings, recommendations are made to standards development organizations, industry, and academia to help enhance the use of standards in engineering and technology curricula.

Keywords: standards, regulations, ABET, IEEE, engineering, technology curricula

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Authors: Azam Mohammadbagheri, Bahram Fathi

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DEA has become a very popular method of performance measure, but it still suffers from some shortcomings. One of these shortcomings is the issue of having multiple optimal solutions to weights for efficient DMUs. The cross efficiency evaluation as an extension of DEA is proposed to avoid this problem. Lam (2010) is also proposed a mixed-integer linear programming formulation based on linear discriminate analysis and super efficiency method (MILP model) to avoid having multiple optimal solutions to weights. In this study, we modified MILP model to determine more suitable weight sets and also evaluate the energy efficiency of MENA countries as an application of the proposed model.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, discriminate analysis, cross efficiency, MILP model

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Authors: Hossam Elborombaly, Nader Y. Azab

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The Middle East region is rich with its architecture and urban settings. This makes it viable for exploring and applying different strategies that deal with conservation. Current context characterized by pollution, socioeconomic issues, behavioral problems, etc. affects architectural and urban heritage –literally- in all Middle Eastern countries. Although there have been numerous strategies in place to preserve and/ or rehabilitate heritage, all has been designed and implemented following political more than technical or methodical processes. This only resulted in more deterioration of the targeted areas. This paper explores different approaches in some selected Arab countries and relies on comparative analysis with some successful European experiences. The aim is to establish some solid basis for dealing with heritage areas; an approach that respects heritage and traditions without compromising sustainability or socioeconomic opportunities.

Keywords: conservation, heritage, identity, urban conservation methodology,

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Authors: Abdulkerim Ilgun, Ahmad Javid Zia

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In developing countries, the urban populations are increasing rapidly and with this increment the residential areas are experiencing major problems. Construction of high-rise buildings in confined spaces is one of the most practical solutions for this problem. However, by living in high-rise buildings and sharing common residential areas, residents will face many problems. Irritating sound problem which is known as noise is one of the major problems mentioned above. The second most important problem is the weight of the high-rise buildings which makes the structure more vulnerable to earthquakes. To decrease earthquake loads it’s very important to decrease the weight of the buildings. To solve the problem of noise and keep the building weight at minimum level, experimentally designed soundproof gypsum partition wall which has optimum thickness has been used in high-rise story building and the results have been compared with ordinary brick partition walls. In this compression the effect of weights of soundproof gypsum walls and ordinary brick walls in accordance to structural engineering have been investigated.

Keywords: cellubor, gypsum board, gypsum partition walls, light partition walls, noise, sound

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Authors: Pumela Msweli, Dexter L. Ryneveldt

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This paper seeks to shed light on institutional logics and institutionalization processes that influence the successful implementation of financial sector regulations. We use the neo-institutional theory lens to interrogate how the newly promulgated Financial Sector Regulations Act (FSRA) provides for the institutionalisation of the Twin Peaks Model. With the enactment of FSRA, previous financial regulatory institutions were dismantled, and new financial regulators established. In point, the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) replaced the Financial Services Board (FSB), and accordingly, the Prudential Authority (PA) was established. FSRA is layered with complexities that make it mandatory to co-exist, cooperate, and collaborate with other institutions to fulfill FSRA’s overall financial stability objective. We use content analysis of the financial regulations that established the Twin Peaks Models (TPM) in South Africa and in the Netherlands, to map out the three-stage institutionalization processes: (1) habitualisation, (2) objectification and (3) sedimentation. This allowed for a comparison of how South Africa, as a developing country and Netherlands as a developed country, have institutionalized the Twin Peak model. We provide valuable insights into how differences in the institutional and societal logics of the developing and developed contexts shape the institutionalization of financial regulations.

Keywords: financial industry, financial regulation, financial stability, institutionalisation, habitualization, objectification, sedimentation, twin peaks model

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Authors: Michael T. Ajayi, Oluwakemi E. Fapojuwo

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Farmers are in need of regular and relevant information relating to new technologies. Production of extension materials has been found to be useful in facilitating the process. Extension materials help to provide information to reach large numbers of farmers quickly and economically. However, as good as extension materials are, previous materials produced are not used by farmers. The reasons for this include lack of involvement of farmers in the production of the extension materials, most of the extension materials are not relevant to the farmers’ environments, the agricultural extension agents lack capacity to prepare the materials, and many extension agents lack commitment. These problems led to this innovative capacity building of extension agents. This innovative approach involves five stages. The first stage is the diagnostic survey of farmers’ environment to collect useful information. The second stage is the development and production of draft extension materials. The third stage is the field testing and evaluation of draft materials by the same farmers that were involved at the diagnostic stage. The fourth stage is the revision of the draft extension materials by incorporating suggestions from farmers. The fifth stage is the action plans. This process improves the capacity of agricultural extension agents in the preparation of extension materials and also promotes engagement of farmers and beneficiaries in the process. The process also makes farmers assume some level of ownership of the exercise and the extension materials.

Keywords: capacity building, extension agents, dissemination, information/technologies

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Authors: Peter Adu

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Background: There is a paucity of mental health research in Ghana. Little is known about the beliefs and attitudes regarding specific mental disorders in Ghana. Method: A vignette study was conducted to examine the relationship between causal attributions, help-seeking, and stigma towards depression and schizophrenia using lay Ghanaians (N = 410). This adapted questionnaire presented two unlabelled vignettes about a hypothetical person with the above disorders for participants to provide their impressions. Next, participants answered questions on beliefs and attitudes regarding this person. Results: The results showed that causal beliefs about mental disorders were related to treatment options and stigma: spiritual causal attributions associated positively with spiritual help-seeking and perceived stigma for the mental disorders, whilst biological and psychosocial causal attribution of the mental disorders was positively related with professional help-seeking. Finally, contrary to previous literature, belonging to a particular religious group did not negatively associate with professional help-seeking for mental disorders. Conclusion: In conclusion, results suggest that Ghanaians may benefit from exposure to corrective information about depression and schizophrenia. Our findings have implications for mental health literacy and anti-stigma campaigns in Ghana and other developing countries in the region.

Keywords: stigma, mental health literacy, depression, schizophrenia, spirituality, religion

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Authors: Wesam Hamed

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This paper contributes to the existing literature by investigating the impact of political risks on the capital adequacy ratio in the banking sector of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which is the first attempt for this nexus to the best of our knowledge. The dynamic panel data model (System‐GMM) showed that political risks significantly decrease the capital adequacy ratio in the banking sector. For this purpose, we used political risks, bank-specific, profitability, and macroeconomic variables that are utilized from the data stream database for the period 2005-2017. The results also actively support the “too big to fail” hypothesis. Finally, the robustness results confirm the conclusions derived from the baseline System‐GMM model.

Keywords: capital adequacy ratio, system GMM, GCC, political risks

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Authors: Marthella Rivera Roidatua

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Since the release of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006, disability became a mainstreamed global issue. Many developed countries have shown the continuous effort to improve their disability employment policy, for example, the US and the UK with their integrated support system through disability benefits. Relative little recent research on developing country is available. Surprisingly, Indonesia, just enacted the Law No.8/2016 on Disability that bravely highlighted on integrating disabled people into the workforce. It shows a positive progress shifting traditional perspective to what Tom Shakespeare’s concept of a social model of disability. But, the main question is how can this law support the disabled people to access and maintain paid work. Thus, besides the earlier literature reviews, interviews with leading sectors, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Manpower, was conducted to examine government’s attitude towards the disabled worker. Insights from two local social enterprises on disability were also engaged in building better perspective. The various source of data was triangulated then analysed with a thematic approach. Results were encouraging the Indonesian government to have a better collaboration with other impactful local organisations in promoting the disability employment. In the end, this paper also recommends the government to make a reasonable adjustment and practical guideline for companies in hiring disabled.

Keywords: disability, employment, policy, Indonesia, collaboration, guidelines

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Authors: Bouchaïb Gazzaz, Hamid El Amri, Hind Dehbi, Abderraouf Hilali

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Medical cannabis has been cultivated and used in many countries around the world. The story of the use of cannabis as a therapeutic agent is difficult to trace, in particular, because the laws regulating its production, distribution, possession, and consumption are relatively recent. Nowadays, in countries where it is authorized, medical cannabis is used in a very wide variety of illnesses and pathologies, particularly in cancer cures. Presently, cannabinoid receptor agonists (like nabilone and dronabinol) are used for reducing chemotherapy induced vomiting. This review aims to discuss a recent finding on the use of therapeutic cannabis in patients with cancer. First, this work addresses the progress made in the use of cannabinoids as therapeutic agent and their application in the treatment of different types of cancer. Secondly, a detailed analysis of the pharmacogenetic aspect of cannabis will be discussed.

Keywords: cannabinoids, endocannabinoids system, cancer treatment, cannabinoid receptors, genetic polymorphism, pharmacogenomics

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Authors: Sarah Hamdy Abd-Al Hamid Seyam

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The research aimed investigating the effect of using web quest on developing English reading comprehension skills for preparatory experimental school students. The descriptive design was adopted in the study. The tools of the study are represented in: a checklist for the English reading comprehension skills and a test of the English reading comprehension skills for the first year preparatory experimental school students. Results of the study were discussed in relation to various factors that affect the learning process. Finally the research presented applicable contributions according to using web quest in teaching English as a foreign language generally and improving reading comprehension in particular.

Keywords: English as a second language, preparatory experimental schools, reading comprehension, WebQuest

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Authors: Md Serajul Islam

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High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy is used for cancer patients. In our country’s prospect, we are using only cervices and breast cancer treatment by using HDR. The air kerma rate in air at a reference distance of less than a meter from the source is the recommended quantity for the specification of gamma ray source Ir-192 in brachytherapy. The absorbed dose for the patients is directly proportional to the air kerma rate. Therefore the air kerma rate should be determined before the first use of the source on patients by qualified medical physicist who is independent from the source manufacturer. The air kerma rate will then be applied in the calculation of the dose delivered to patients in their planning systems. In practice, high dose rate (HDR) Ir-192 afterloader machines are mostly used in brachytherapy treatment. Currently, HDR-Co-60 increasingly comes into operation too. The essential advantage of the use of Co-60 sources is its longer half-life compared to Ir-192. The use of HDRCo-60 afterloading machines is also quite interesting for developing countries. This work describes the dosimetry at HDR afterloading machines according to the protocols IAEA-TECDOC-1274 (2002) with the nuclides Ir-192 and Co-60. We have used 3 different measurement methods (with a ring chamber, with a solid phantom and in free air and with a well chamber) in dependence of each of the protocols. We have shown that the standard deviations of the measured air kerma rate for the Co-60 source are generally larger than those of the Ir-192 source. The measurements with the well chamber had the lowest deviation from the certificate value. In all protocols and methods, the deviations stood for both nuclides by a maximum of about 1% for Ir-192 and 2.5% for Co-60-Sources respectively.

Keywords: Ir-192 source, cancer, patients, cheap treatment cost

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Authors: Lima Priscila, Gianotto Raiza, Arruda Leonan, Magalhães Filho Fernando

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Industrialization and especially the accentuated population growth in developing countries and the lack of drainage, public cleaning, water and sanitation services has caused concern about the need for expansion of water treatment units and sewage. However, these units have been generating by-products, such as the sludge. This paper aims to investigate aspects of operation and maintenance of sludge from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP - 90 L.s-1) and two water treatment plants (WTPs; 1.4 m3.s-1 and 0.5 m3.s-1) for the purpose of proper disposal and reuse, evaluating their qualitative and quantitative characteristics, the Brazilian legislation and standards. It was concluded that the sludge from the water treatment plants is directly related to the quality of raw water collected, and it becomes feasible for use in construction materials, and to dispose it in the sewage system, improving the efficiency of the WWTP regarding precipitation of phosphorus (35% of removal). The WTP Lageado had 55,726 kg/month of sludge production, more than WTP Guariroba (29,336 kg/month), even though the flow of WTP Guariroba is 1,400 L.s-1 and the WTP Lagedo 500 L.s-1, being explained by the quality that influences more than the flow. The WWTP sludge have higher concentrations of organic materials due to their origin and could be used to improve the fertility of the soil, crop production and recovery of degraded areas. The volume of sludge generated at the WWTP was 1,760 ton/month, with 5.6% of solid content in the raw sludge and in the dewatered sludge it increased its content to 23%.

Keywords: disposal, sludge, water treatment, wastewater treatment

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Authors: Reka Zsuzsanna Mathe

Abstract:

The globalization and the Europeanization have significantly contributed to a change in the role of the nation-states. The global economic crisis, the climate changes, and the recent refugee crisis, are just a few among many challenges that cannot be effectively addressed by the traditional role of the nation-states. One of the main roles of the states is to solve collective action problems, however due to their changing roles; apparently this is getting more and more difficult. Depending on political culture, collective action problems are solved either through cooperation or conflict. The political culture of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries is marked by low civic participation and by a weak civil society. In this type of culture collective action problems are likely to be induced through conflict, rather than the democratic process of dialogue and any type of social change is probably to be introduced by social movements. Several studies have been conducted on the social movements of the CEE countries, yet, it is still not clear if the most significant social movements of the region tend to choose rather the cooperative or the conflictual way as action strategy. This study differentiates between a national and a European action field, having different social orders. The actors of the two fields are the broadly understood civil society members, conceptualized as social movements. This research tries to answer the following questions: a) What are the norms that best characterize the CEE countries’ social order? b) What type of actors would prefer a change and in which areas? c) Is there a significant difference between the main actors active in the national versus the European field? The main hypotheses are that there are conflicting norms defining the national and the European action field, and there is a significant difference between the action strategies adopted by social movements acting in the two different fields. In mapping the social order, the study uses data provided by the European Social Survey. Big data of the Global Data on Events, Location and Tone (GDELT) database offers information regarding the main social movements and their preferred type of action. The unit of the analysis is the so called ‘Visegrad 4’ countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary and the research uses data starting from 2005 (after the European accession of these four countries) until May, 2017. According to the data, the main hypotheses were confirmed.

Keywords: big data, Central and Eastern Europe, civil society, GDELT, social movements

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Authors: Kristine Demilou Santiago

Abstract:

In a context of a developing nation, how important is the role of Corporate Social Responsibility health programs? Is there a possibility that this will render a large impact in a society where health benefits are insufficient? The Philippine government has been in an unceasing battle to provide its citizens competitive health benefits through launching various health programs. As the efforts are being claimed by the government, the numbers just show that all the health benefits being offered such as PhilHealth health cards, medical missions and other subsidized government health benefits are not effective and sufficient at the minimum level. This is a major characteristic of a developing nation which the Philippine government is focusing on addressing as it becomes a national concern under the effects of poverty. Industrial companies, through Corporate Social Responsibility, are playing an important role in the aspiration to resolve this problem on health programs as supposed to be basic services to citizens of the Philippine government. The rise of commitment by these industrial companies to render health programs to communities as part of their corporate citizenship has covered a large portion of the basic health services that the Filipino citizens are supposed to be receiving. This is the most salient subject that a developing nation should focus on determining the important contribution of industrial companies present in their country as part of the citizens’ access to basic health services. The use of survey forms containing quantitative and qualitative questions which aim to give numerical figures and support answers as to the role of CSR Health programs in helping the communities receive the basic health services they need was the methodological procedure followed in this research. A sample population in a community where the largest industrial company in a province of the Philippines was taken through simple random sampling. The assumption is that this sample population which represents the whole of the community has the highest opportunities to access both the government health services and the CSR health program services of the industrial company located in their community. Results of the research have shown a significant level of participation by industrial companies through their CSR health programs in the attainment of basic health services that should be rendered by the Philippine government to its citizens as part of the state’s health benefits. In a context of a developing nation such as the Philippines, the role of Corporate Social Responsibility is beyond the expectation of initiating to resolve environmental and social issues. It is moving deeper in the concept of the corporate industries being a pillar of the government in catering the support needed by the individuals in the community for its development. As such, the concept of the presence of an industrial company in a community is said to be a parallel progress: by which when an industrial company expands because it is becoming more profitable, so is the community gaining the same step of progress in terms of socioeconomic development.

Keywords: basic health services, CSR health program, health services in a developing nation, Philippines health benefits

Procedia PDF Downloads 201