Search results for: subject area modeling

Authors: Neeti Rustagi, Naveen Dutt, Arvind Sinha, Mahaveer S. Rhodha, Pankaja R. Raghav

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Background: Pre-hospital trauma care services are in developing stage in fast-urbanizing cities of India including Jodhpur. Training of health professionals in providing necessary pre-hospital trauma care is an essential step in decreasing accident related morbidity and mortality. The current study explores the response of a medical graduate toward helping an accident victim in a pre-hospital setting before patient can be transferred to definitive trauma facility. Methodology: This study examines the perceived competence in predicting response to an accident victim by medical graduates in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Participants completed measures of attitude, normative influence and perceived behavior control toward providing pre-hospital care to an accident victim. Likert scale was used to measure the participant responses. Preliminary and descriptive analysis were used using SPSS 21.0. Internal consistency of the responses received was measured using Cronbach’s alpha. Results: Almost all medical graduates agreed that road accidents are common in their area (male: 92%; female: 78%). More male medical graduates (28%) reported helping an accident victim as compared to female physicians (9%) in the previous three months. Majority of study participants (96%) reported that providing immediate care to an accident victim is essential to save the life of an individual. Experience of helping an accident victim was considered unpleasant by the majority of female participants (70%) as compared to male participants (36%). A large number of participants believed that their friends (80%) and colleagues (96%) would appreciate them helping an accident victim in a pre-hospital setting. A large number of participants also believed that they possess the necessary skills and competencies (80%) towards helping a roadside accident victim in the pre-hospital care environment. Perceived competence of helping a roadside accident victim until they are transferred to a health facility was reported by less than half of the participants (male: 56%; female: 43%). Conclusion: Medical graduates have necessary attitude, competencies, and intention of helping a roadside accident victim. The societal response towards helping a road side accident victim is also supportive. In spite of positive determinants, a large proportion of medical graduates have perceived lack of competence in helping a roadside accident victim. This is essential to explore further as providing pre-hospital care to a roadside accident victim is an essential step in establishing the continuum of care to an accident victim especially in countries where pre-hospital services are in developing phase.

Keywords: prehospital care, perceived behavior, perceived competence, medical graduates

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Authors: Zulkifli Yusop

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The severity of December 2014 flood on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia has raised concern over the adequacy of existing land use practices and policies. This article assesses flood responses to selective logging, plantation establishment (oil palm and rubber) and their subsequent management regimes. The hydrological impacts were evaluated on two levels: on-site (mostly in the upstream) and off-site to reflect the cumulative impact at downstream. Results of experimental catchment studies suggest that on-site impact of flood could be kept to a minimum when selecting logging strictly adhere to the existing guidelines. However, increases in flood potential and sedimentation rate were observed with logging intensity and slope steepness. Forest conversion to plantation show the highest impacts. Except on the heavily compacted surfaces, the ground revegetation is usually rapid within two years upon the cessation of the logging operation. The hydrological impacts of plantation opening and replanting could be significantly reduced once the cover crop has fully established which normally takes between three to six months after sowing. However, as oil palms become taller and the canopy gets closer, the cover crop tends to die off due to light competition, and its protecting function gradually diminishes. The exposed soil is further compacted by harvesting machinery which subsequently leads to greater overland flow and erosion rates. As such, the hydrological properties of matured oil palm plantations are generally poorer than in young plantation. In hilly area, the undergrowth in rubber plantation is usually denser compared to under oil palm. The soil under rubber trees is also less compacted as latex collection is done manually. By considering the cumulative effects of land-use over space and time, selective logging seems to pose the least impact on flood potential, followed by planting rubber for latex, oil palm and Latex Timber Clone (LTC). The cumulative hydrological impact of LTC plantation is the most severe because of its shortest replanting rotation (12 to 15 years) compared to oil palm (25 years) and rubber for latex (35 years). Furthermore, the areas gazetted for LTC are mostly located on steeper slopes which are more susceptible to landslide and erosion. Forest has limited capability to store excess rainfall and is only effective in attenuating regular floods. Once the hydrologic storage is exceeded, the excess rainfall will appear as flood water. Therefore, for big floods, rainfall regime has a much bigger influence than land use.

Keywords: selective logging, plantation, extreme rainfall, debris flow

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Authors: Somayeh Fani, Mahmood Ameen Abdulla

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Costus speciosus is an important Malaysian medicinal plant commonly used traditionally in the treatment of many aliments. The present investigation is designed to elucidate preventive effects of ethanolic extracts of C. speciosus rhizome against absolute ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury in Sprague-Dawley rats. Five groups of rats were orally pre-treated with vehicle, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) as normal control group (Group 1), ethanol as ulcer control group (Group 2), omeprazole 20 mg/kg (reference group) (Group 3), and 250 and 500 mg/kg of C. speciosus extract (experimental groups) (Group 4 and 5), respectively. An hour later, CMC was given orally to Group 1 rats and absolute ethanol was given orally to Group 2-5 rats to generate gastric mucosal injury. After an additional hour, the rats were sacrificed. Grossly, ulcer control group exhibited severe of gastric mucosal hemorrhagic injury and increased in ulcer area, whereas groups pre-treated with omeprazole or plant’s rhizomes exhibited the significant reduction of gastric mucosal injury. Significant increase in the pH and mucous of gastric content was observed in rats re-treated with C. speciosus rhizome. Histology, ulcer control rats, demonstrated remarkable disruption of gastric mucosa, increased in edema and inflammatory cells infiltration of submucosal layer compared to rats pre-treated with rhizomes extract. Periodic acid Schiff staining for glycoprotein, rats pre-fed with C. speciosus C. displayed remarkably intense uptake of magenta color by glandular gastric mucosa compared with ulcer control rats. Immunostaining of gastric epithelium, rats pre-treatment with rhizome extract provide evidence of up-regulation of HSP70 and down-regulation of Bax proteins compared to ulcer control animals. Gastric tissue homogenate, C. speciosus significantly increased the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT), increased the level of non-protein sulfhydryl (NP-SH) and decreased the level of lipid peroxidation after ethanol administration. Acute toxicity test did not show any signs of toxicity. The mechanisms implicated the gasrtoprotective property of C. speciosus depend upon the antisecretory activity, increased in gastric mucus glycoprotein, up-regulation of HSP70 protein and down-regulation of Bax proteins, reduction in the lipid peroxidation and increase in the level of NP-SH and antioxidant enzymes activity in gastic homogenate.

Keywords: antioxidant, Costus speciosus, gastric ulcer, histology, omeprazole

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Authors: Chukwuka Justus Iwegbu

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Background: A major concern facing the world is providing senior citizens, individuals with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups with high-quality care. This issue is more serious in Nigeria's North Eastern area, where the burden of disease and disability is heavy, and access to care is constrained. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the roles, challenges and support needs of caregivers, care home management, funding and administration in challenged communities in North Eastern Nigeria. The study will also provide a comprehensive understanding of the current situation and identify opportunities for improving the quality of care and support for caregivers and care recipients in these communities. Methods: A mixed-methods design, including both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, will be used, and it will be guided by the stress process model of caregiving. The qualitative stage approach will comprise a survey, In-depth interviews, observations, and focus group discussion and the quantitative analysis will be used in order to comprehend the variations between caregiver's roles and care home management. A review of relevant documents, such as care home policies and funding reports, would be used to gather quantitative data on the administrative and financial aspects of care. The data collected will be analyzed using both descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. A sample size of around 200-300 participants, including caregivers, care recipients, care home managers and administrators, policymakers and health care providers, would be recruited. Findings: The study revealed that caregivers in challenged communities in North Eastern Nigeria face significant challenges, including lack of training and support, limited access to funding and resources, and high levels of burnout. Care home management and administration were also found to be inadequate, with a lack of clear policies and procedures and limited oversight and accountability. Conclusion: There is a need for increased investment in training and support for caregivers, as well as a need for improved care home management and administration in challenged communities in North Eastern Nigeria. It also highlights the importance of involving community members in decision-making and planning processes related to care homes and services. The study would contribute to the existing body of knowledge by providing a detailed understanding of the challenges faced by caregivers, care home managers and administrators.

Keywords: caregivers, care home management, funding, administration, challenge communities, North Eastern Nigeria

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Authors: Hussah Alotaishan

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In today’s globally-driven modern cities diverse groups of new visitors face various challenges when attempting to find their desired location if culture and language are barriers. The most common way-showing tools such as directional and identificational signs are the most problematic and their usefulness can be limited or even non-existent. It is argued new methods should be implemented that could support or replace such conventional literacy and language dependent way-finding aids. It has been concluded in recent research studies that local urban features in complex pedestrian spaces are worthy of further study in order to reveal if they do function as way-showing clues. Some researchers propose a more comprehensive approach to the complex perception of buildings, façade design and surface patterns, while some have been questioning whether we necessarily need directional signs or can other methods deliver the same message but in a clearer manner for a wider range of users. This study aimed to test to what extent do existent environmental and urban features through the city center area of Swansea in the UK facilitate the way-finding process of a first time visitor. The three-hour experiment was set to attempt to find 11 visitor attractions ranging from recreational, historical, educational and religious locations. The challenge was attempting to find as many as possible when no prior geographical knowledge of their whereabouts was established. The only clues were 11 pictures representing each of the locations that had been acquired from the city of Swansea official website. An iPhone and a heart-rate tracker wristwatch were used to record the route was taken and stress levels, and take record photographs of destinations or decision-making points throughout the journey. This paper addresses: current limitations in understanding the ways that the physical environment can be intentionally deployed to facilitate pedestrians while finding their way around, without or with a reduction in language dependent signage; investigates visitor perceptions of their surroundings by indicating what urban elements manifested an impact on the way-finding process. The initial findings support the view that building facades and street features, such as width, could facilitate the decision-making process if strategically employed. However, more importantly, the anticipated features of a specific place construed from a promotional picture can also be misleading and create confusion that may lead to getting lost.

Keywords: pedestrian way-finding, environmental features, urban way-showing, environmental affordance

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Authors: Engin Eroğlu, Oktay Yıldız, Necmi Aksoy, Akif Keten, Mehmet Kıvanç Ak, Şeref Keskin, Elif Atmaca, Sertaç Kaya

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Nowadays, green spaces in urban areas are under threat and decreasing their percentages in the urban areas because of increasing population, urbanization, migration, and some cultural changes in quality. An important element of the natural landscape water and water-related natural ecosystems are exposed to corruption due to these pressures. A landscape has owned many different types of elements or units, a more dominant structure than other landscapes as good or bad perceptible extent different direction and variable reveals a unique structure and character of the landscape. Whereas landscapes deal with two main groups as urban and rural according to their location on the world, especially intersection areas of urban and rural named semi-urban or semi-rural present variety landscape features. The main components of the landscape are defined as patch-matrix-corridor. The corridors include quite various vegetation types such as riparian, wetland and the others. In urban areas, natural water corridors are an important elements of the diversity of the riparian vegetation cover. In particular, water corridors attract attention with a natural diversity and lack of fragmentation, degradation and artificial results. Thanks to these features, without a doubt, water corridors are the important component of all cities in the world. These corridors not only divide the city into two separate sides, but also assured the ecological connectivity between the two sides of the city. The main objective of this study is to determine the vegetation and habitat features of urban stream corridor according to environmental interactions. Within this context, this study will be realized that 'Asar Suyu' is an important component of the city of Düzce. Moreover, the riparian zone touched contiguous area borders of the city and overlaid the urban development limits of the city, determining of characteristics of the corridor will be carried out as floristic and habitat analysis. Consequently, vegetation structure and habitat features which play an important role between riparian zone vegetation covers and environmental interaction will be determined. This study includes first results of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK-116O596; 'Determining of Landscape Character of Urban Water Corridors as Visual and Ecological; A Case Study of Asar Suyu in Duzce').

Keywords: corridor, Duzce, landscape ecology, riparian vegetation

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Authors: Evelyn Asante Yeboah, Kwabena O. Asubonteng, Justice Camillus Mensah, Christine Furst

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Smallholder-dominated mosaic landscapes in rural Africa are relevant for food production, biodiversity conservation, and climate regulation. Land-use transitions threaten the multifunctionality of such landscapes, especially the production capacity of arable lands resulting in food security challenges. Using land-cover maps derived from maximum likelihood classification of Landsat satellite images for the years 2002, 2015, and 2020, post-classification change detection, landscape metrics, and key informant interviews, the study assessed the implications of rubber plantation expansion and oil business development on the food production capacity of Ahanta West District, Ghana. The analysis reveals that settlement and rubber areas expanded by 5.82% and 10.33% of the landscape area, respectively, between 2002 and 2020. This increase translates into over twice their initial sizes (144% in settlement change and 101% in rubber change). Rubber plantation spread dominates the north and southwestern areas, whereas settlement is widespread in the eastern parts of the landscape. Rubber and settlement expanded at the expense of cropland, palm, and shrublands. Land-use transitions between cropland, palm, and shrubland were targeting each other, but the net loss in shrubland was higher (-17.27%). Isolation, subdivision, connectedness, and patch adjacency indices showed patch consolidation in the landscape configuration from 2002 to 2015 and patch fragmentation from 2015 to 2020. The study also found patches with consistent increasing connectivity in settlement areas indicating the influence of oil discovery developments and fragmentation tendencies in rubber, shrubland, cropland, and palm, indicating springing up of smaller rubber farms, the disappearance of shrubland, and splitting up of cropland and palm areas respectively. The results revealed a trend in land-use transitions in favor of smallholder rubber plantation expansion and oil discovery developments, which suggest serious implications on food production systems and poses a risk for food security and landscape multifunctional characteristics. To ensure sustainability in land uses, this paper recommends the enforcement of legislative instruments governing spatial planning and land use in Ghana as embedded in the 2016 land-use and spatial planning act.

Keywords: food production systems, food security, Ghana’s west coast, land-use transitions, multifunctional rural landscapes

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Authors: Ayat-Allah Bouramdane

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Solar Photovoltaic (PV) and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) do not burn fossil fuels and, therefore, could meet the world's needs for low-carbon power generation as they do not release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as they generate electricity. The power output of the solar PV module and CSP collector is proportional to the temperature and the amount of solar radiation received by their surface. Hence, the determination of the most convenient locations of PV and CSP systems is crucial to maximizing their output power. This study aims to provide a hands-on and plausible approach to the multi-criteria evaluation of site suitability of PV and CSP plants using a combination of Geographic Referenced Information (GRI) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Applying the GRI-based AHP approach is meant to specify the criteria and sub-criteria, to identify the unsuitable areas, the low-, moderate-, high- and very high suitable areas for each layer of GRI, to perform the pairwise comparison matrix at each level of the hierarchy structure based on experts' knowledge, and calculate the weights using AHP to create the final map of solar PV and CSP plants suitability in Morocco with a particular focus on the Dakhla city. The results recognize that solar irradiation is the main decision factor for the integration of these technologies on energy policy goals of Morocco but explicitly account for other factors that cannot only limit the potential of certain locations but can even exclude the Dakhla city classified as unsuitable area. We discuss the sensitivity of the PV and CSP site suitability to different aspects, such as the methodology, the climate conditions, and the technology used in each source, and provide the final recommendations to the Moroccan energy strategy by analyzing if actual Morocco's PV and CSP installations are located within areas deemed suitable and by discussing several cases to provide mutual benefits across the Food-Energy-Water nexus. The adapted methodology and conducted suitability map could be used by researchers or engineers to provide helpful information for decision-makers in terms of sites selection, design, and planning of future solar plants, especially in areas suffering from energy shortages, such as the Dakhla city, which is now one of Africa's most promising investment hubs and it is especially attractive to investors looking to root their operations in Africa and import to European markets.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, concentrated solar power, dakhla, geographic referenced information, Morocco, multi-criteria decision-making, photovoltaic, site suitability

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Authors: Hung-Chun Lin, Tzu-Yuan Chao

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As the population aging has become an inevitable trend globally, issues of improving the well-being of elderly people in urban areas have been a challenging task for urban planners. Recent studies of ageing trend have also expended to explore the relationship between the built environment and mental condition of elderly people. These studies have proved that even though the built environment may not necessarily play the decisive role in affecting mental health, it can have positive impacts on individual mental health by promoting social linkages and social networks among older adults. There has been a great amount of relevant research examined the impact of the built environment attributes on depression in the elderly; however, most were conducted in the Western countries. Little attention has been paid in Asian cities with contrarily high density and mix-use urban contexts such as Taiwan regarding how the built environment attributes related to depression in elderly people. Hence, more empirical cross-principle studies are needed to explore the possible impacts of Asia urban characteristics on older residents’ mental condition. This paper intends to focus on Tainan city, the fourth biggest metropolis in Taiwan. We first analyze with data from National Health Insurance Research Database to pinpoint the empirical study area where residing most elderly patients, aged over 65, with depressive disorders. Secondly, we explore the relationship between specific attributes of the built environment collected from previous studies and elderly individuals who suffer from depression, under different socio-cultural and networking circumstances. To achieve the results, the research methods adopted in this study include questionnaire and database analysis, and the results will be proceeded by correlation analysis. In addition, through literature review, by generalizing the built environment factors that have been used in Western research to evaluate the relationship between built environment and older individuals with depressive disorders, a set of local evaluative indicators of the built environment for future studies will be proposed as well. In order to move closer to develop age-friendly cities and improve the well-being for the elderly in Taiwan, the findings of this paper can provide empirical results to grab planners’ attention for how built environment makes the elderly feel and to reconsider the relationship between them. Furthermore, with an interdisciplinary topic, the research results are expected to make suggestions for amending the procedures of drawing up an urban plan or a city plan from a different point of view.

Keywords: built environment, depression, elderly, Tainan

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Authors: Rebecca Zahra, Joseph G. Vella, Ernest Cachia

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The notion of cloud computing is rapidly gaining ground in the IT industry and is appealing mostly due to making computing more adaptable and expedient whilst diminishing the total cost of ownership. This paper focuses on the software as a service (SaaS) architecture of cloud computing which is used for the outsourcing of databases with their associated business processes. One approach for offering SaaS is basing the system’s architecture on multi-tenancy. Multi-tenancy allows multiple tenants (users) to make use of the same single application instance. Their requests and configurations might then differ according to specific requirements met through tenant customisation through the software. Despite the known advantages, companies still feel uneasy to opt for the multi-tenancy with data security being a principle concern. The fact that multiple tenants, possibly competitors, would have their data located on the same server process and share the same database tables heighten the fear of unauthorised access. Security is a vital aspect which needs to be considered by application developers, database administrators, data owners and end users. This is further complicated in cloud-based multi-tenant system where boundaries must be established between tenants and additional access control models must be in place to prevent unauthorised cross-tenant access to data. Moreover, when altering the database state, the transactions need to strictly adhere to the tenant’s known business processes. This paper focuses on the fact that security in cloud databases should not be considered as an isolated issue. Rather it should be included in the initial phases of the database design and monitored continuously throughout the whole development process. This paper aims to identify a number of the most common security risks and threats specifically in the area of multi-tenant cloud systems. Issues and bottlenecks relating to security risks in cloud databases are surveyed. Some techniques which might be utilised to overcome them are then listed and evaluated. After a description and evaluation of the main security threats, this paper produces a list of software requirements to ensure that proper security policies are implemented by a software development team when designing and implementing a multi-tenant based SaaS. This would then assist the cloud service providers to define, implement, and manage security policies as per tenant customisation requirements whilst assuring security for the customers’ data.

Keywords: cloud computing, data management, multi-tenancy, requirements, security

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Authors: Ashok Kumar Rastogi

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Glass is a material commonly used for Glassdoor, glass bottles, cookware, and containers. It can be harmful, as it is a hard and blunt object. Glass has been associated with severe injury and is a common cause of injuries warranting hospital visits to the emergency department (ED). These injuries can be accidental or intentionally inflicted. Broken glass injuries can be severe, even deadly. If broken glass shards fall out on your arm, it may cause fatal injuries. Case history: A 20-year-old male dead body was found aside the road, police informed, and a video recording ceased during an investigation. In the video recording, the person was in a drunken state (unable to walk and disoriented), wandering in the residential area road. He saw a barber shop, the shop door made of Glass. Suddenly, he hit the Glassdoor with his right hand forcefully. The Glassdoor broke into multiple pieces, and multiple injuries were seen over the right hand. Observations: Multiple small and large lacerations were seen over the right anterior part of the elbow. The main injury looked like an incised wound caused by a hard and sharp object. The main injury was noted as a laceration of size 13 x 06 cm bone deep, placed obliquely over the anteromedial aspect of the right elbow joint, its medial end at medial end of elbow joint while its anterior end was 04 cm below the elbow joint with laceration of underline brachialis muscles and complete transaction of ulnar artery and vein, skin margins looking sharply cut with irregular margins with tiny cuts at the medial lower border of laceration. Injuries were antemortem and fresh in nature, caused by hard and blunt objects but looking like hard and sharp objects. All organs were found pale, and the cause of death was shock and hemorrhage because of ulnar vessel injury. Conclusion: The findings of this case report highlight the potentially lethal consequences of glass injuries, especially those involving Glassdoors. The study underscores the importance of accurate interpretation and identification of wounds caused by Glass, as they may resemble injuries caused by other objects. It emphasizes the challenges faced by autopsy surgeons when determining the cause and manner of death in cases where visual evidence of injury is absent or when the weapon is not recovered. Ultimately, this case report serves as a reminder of the potential dangers posed by Glass and the importance of comprehensive forensic examinations.

Keywords: glassdoor, incised, wound, laceration, autopsy

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Authors: Bessy Thuranira

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Buildings, as they are designed and used, may contribute to serious environmental problems because of excessive consumption of energy and other natural resources. Buildings in the informal settlements particularly, due to their unplanned physical structure and design, have significantly contributed the global energy problematic scenario typified by high-level inefficiencies. Energy used in buildings in Africa is estimated to be the highest of the total national electricity consumption. Over the last decade, assessments of energy consumption and efficiency/inefficiency has focused on formal and modern buildings. This study seeks to go off the beaten path, by focusing on energy use in informal settlements. Operationally, it sought to establish the contribution of informal buildings in the overall energy consumption in the city and the country at large. This study was carried out in Mukuru kwa Reuben informal settlement where there is distinct manifestation of different settlement morphologies within a small locality. The research narrowed down to three villages (Mombasa, Kosovo and Railway villages) within the settlement, that were representative of the different slum housing typologies. Due to the unpredictability nature and informality in slums, this study takes a multi-methodology approach. Detailed energy audits and measurements are carried out to predict total building consumption, and document building design and envelope, typology, materials and occupancy levels. Moreover, the study uses semi-structured interviews and to access energy supply, cost, access and consumption patterns. Observations and photographs are also used to shed more light on these parameters. The study reveals the high energy inefficiencies in slum buildings mainly related to sub-standard equipment and appliances, building design and settlement layout, poor access and utilization/consumption patterns of energy. The impacts of this inefficiency are high economic burden to the poor, high levels of pollution, lack of thermal comfort and emissions to the environment. The study highlights a set of urban planning and building design principles that can be used to retrofit slums into more energy efficient settlements. The study explores principles of responsive settlement layouts/plans and appropriate building designs that use the beneficial elements of nature to achieve natural lighting, natural ventilation, and solar control to create thermally comfortable, energy efficient, and environmentally responsive buildings/settlements. As energy efficiency in informal settlements is a relatively less explored area of efficiency, it requires further research and policy recommendations, for which this paper will set a background.

Keywords: energy efficiency, informal settlements, renewable energy, settlement layout

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Authors: Angelo Garofalo, Laura Donato, Maria Concetta Carnevale, Enrico Drioli, Omar Alharbi, Saad Aljlil, Alessandra Criscuoli, Catia Algieri

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Nowadays, water scarcity may be considered one of the most important and serious questions concerning our community: in fact, there is a remarkable mismatch between water supply and water demand. Exploitation of natural fresh water resources combined with higher water demand has led to an increased requirement for alternative water resources. In this context, desalination provides such an alternative source, offering water otherwise not accessible for irrigational, industrial and municipal use. Considering the various drawbacks of the polymeric membranes, zeolite membranes represent a potential device for water desalination owing to their high thermal and chemical stability. In this area wide attention was focused on the MFI (silicalite, ZSM-5) membranes, having a pore size lower (about 5.5 Å) than the major kinetic diameters of hydrated ions. In the present work, a scale-up for the preparation of supported silicalite membranes was performed. Therefore, tubular membranes 30 cm long were synthesized by using the secondary growth method coupled with the cross flow seeding procedure. The secondary growth presents two steps: seeding and growth of zeolite crystals on the support. This process, decoupling zeolite nucleation from crystals growth, permits to control the conditions of each step separately. The seeding procedure consists of a cross-flow filtration through a porous support coupled with the support rotation and tilting. The combination of these three different aspects allows a homogeneous and uniform coverage of the support with the zeolite seeds. After characterization by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, the prepared membranes were tested by means of single gas permeation and then by Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) using both deionized water and NaCl solutions. The experimental results evidenced the possibility to perform the scale up for the preparation of almost defect free silicalite membranes. VMD tests indicated the possibility to prepare membranes that exhibit interesting performance in terms of fluxes and salt rejections for concentrations from 0.2 M to 0.9 M. Furthermore, it was possible to restore the original performance of the membrane after an identified cleaning procedure. Acknowledgements: The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) for funding the research Project 895/33 entitled ‘Preparation and Characterization of Zeolite Membranes for Water Treatment’.

Keywords: desalination, MFI membranes, secondary growth, vacuum membrane distillation

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Authors: G. Battistoni, F. Collamati, E. De Lucia, R. Faccini, C. Mancini-Terracciano, M. Marafini, I. Mattei, S. Muraro, V. Patera, A. Sarti, A. Sciubba, E. Solfaroli Camillocci, M. Toppi, G. Traini, S. M. Valle, C. Voena

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Accelerated charged particles, mainly protons and carbon ions, are presently used in Particle Therapy (PT) to treat solid tumors. The precision of PT exploiting the charged particle high localized dose deposition in tissues and biological effectiveness in killing cancer cells demands for an online dose monitoring technique, crucial to improve the quality assurance of treatments: possible patient mis-positionings and biological changes with respect to the CT scan could negatively affect the therapy outcome. In PT the beam range confined in the irradiated target can be monitored thanks to the secondary radiation produced by the interaction of the projectiles with the patient tissue. The Dose Profiler (DP) is a novel device designed to track charged secondary particles and reconstruct their longitudinal emission distribution, correlated to the Bragg peak position. The feasibility of this approach has been demonstrated by dedicated experimental measurements. The DP has been developed in the framework of the INSIDE project, MIUR, INFN and Centro Fermi, Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche 'E. Fermi', Roma, Italy and will be tested at the Proton Therapy center of Trento (Italy) within the end of 2017. The DP combines a tracker, made of six layers of two-view scintillating fibers with square cross section (0.5 x 0.5 mm2) with two layers of two-view scintillating bars (section 12.0 x 0.6 mm2). The electronic readout is performed by silicon photomultipliers. The sensitive area of the tracking planes is 20 x 20 cm2. To optimize the detector layout, a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation based on the FLUKA code has been developed. The complete DP geometry and the track reconstruction code have been fully implemented in the MC. In this contribution, the DP hardware will be described. The expected detector performance computed using a dedicated simulation of a 220 MeV/u carbon ion beam impinging on a PMMA target will be presented, and the result will be discussed in the standard clinical application framework. A possible procedure for real-time beam range monitoring is proposed, following the expectations in actual clinical operation.

Keywords: online range monitoring, particle therapy, quality assurance, tracking detector

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Authors: Anu Shrestha, Krassi Rumchev, Ben Mullins, Yun Zhao, Linda Selvey

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Cycling is often promoted as a means of reducing vehicular congestion, noise and greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions in urban areas. It is also indorsed as a healthy means of transportation in terms of reducing the risk of developing a range of physical and psychological conditions. However, people who cycle regularly may not be aware that they can become exposed to high levels of Vehicular Air Pollutants (VAP) emitted by nearby traffics and therefore experience adverse health effects as a result. The study will highlight the present scenario of ambient air pollution level in different cycling routes in Perth and also highlight significant contribution to the understanding of health risks that cyclist may face from exposure to particulate air pollution. Methodology: This research was conducted in Perth, Western Austral and consisted of two groups of cyclists cycling near high (2 routes) and low (two routes) vehicular traffic roads, at high and low levels of exertion, during the cold and warm seasons. A sample size of 123 regular cyclists who cycled at least 80 km/week, aged 20-55, and non-smoker were selected for this study. There were altogether 100 male and 23 female who were asked to choose one or more routes among four different routes, and each participant cycled the route for warm or cold or both seasons. Cyclist who reported cardiovascular and other chronic health conditions (excluding asthma) were not invited into the study. Exposures to selected air pollutants were assessed by undertaking background and personal measurements alone with the measurement of heart and breathe rate of each participant. Finding: According to the preliminary study findings, the cyclists who used cycling route close to high traffic route were exposed to higher levels of measured air pollutants Nitrogen Oxide (NO₂) =0.12 ppm, sulfur dioxide (SO₂)=0.06 ppm and carbon monoxide (CO)=0.25 PPM compared to those who cycled away from busy roads. However, we measured high concentrations of particulate air pollution near one of the low traffic route which we associate with the close proximity to ferry station. Concluding Statement: As a conclusion, we recommend that cycling routes should be selected away from high traffic routes. If possible, we should also consider that if the cycling route is surrounded by the dense populated infrastructures, it can trap the pollutants and always facilitate in increasing inhalation of particle count among the cyclists.

Keywords: air pollution, carbon monoxide, cyclists' health, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, respirable particulate matters

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Authors: Nilay Balkan

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Introductory statement: The purpose of this study is to understand how small business owners develop social media marketing competency, the challenges they encounter in doing so, and establish the social media training needs of such businesses. These challenges impact the extent to which small business owners build effective social media knowledge and, in turn, impact their ability to implement effective social media marketing into their business practices. This means small businesses are not fully able to benefit from social media, such as benefits to customer relationship management or increasing brand image, which would support the overall business operations for these businesses. This research is part one of a two-phased study. The first phase aims to establish the challenges small business owners face in building social media marketing competency and their specific training needs. Phase two will then focus in more depth on the barriers and challenges emerging from phase one. Summary of Methodology: Interviews with ten small business owners were conducted from various sectors, including fitness, tourism, food, and drinks. These businesses were located in the central belt of Scotland, which is an area with the highest population and business density in Scotland. These interviews were in-depth and semi-structured, with the purpose of being investigative and understanding the phenomena from the lived experience of the small business owners. A purposive sampling was used, where small business owners fulfilling certain criteria were approached to take part in the interviews. Key findings: The study found four ways in which small business owners develop their social media competency (informal methods, formal methods, learning through a network, and experimenting) and the various challenges they face with these methods. Further, the study established four barriers impacting the development of social media marketing competency among the interviewed small business owners. In doing so, preliminary support needs have also emerged. Concluding statement: The contribution of this study is to understand the challenges small business owners face when learning how to use social media for business purposes and identifying their training needs. This understanding can help the development of specific and tailored support. In addition, specific and tailored training can support small businesses in building competency. This supports small businesses to progress to the next stage of their development, which could be to further their digital transformation or grow their business. The insights from this study can be used to support business competitiveness and support small businesses to become more resilient. Moreover, small businesses and entrepreneurs share some similar characteristics, such as limited resources and conflicting priorities, and the findings of this study may be able to support entrepreneurs in their social media marketing strategies as well.

Keywords: small business, marketing theory and applications, social media marketing, strategic management, digital competency, digitalisation, marketing research and strategy, entrepreneurship

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Rohit Kothari

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Background: Leprosyis a chronic granulomatous diseasecaused by Mycobacterium leprae (M. Lepra). Reactions may interrupt its usual chronic course.Type-1 (T1R)and type-2 lepra reaction(T2R) are acute events and signifytype-IV and type-III hypersensitivity responses, respectively. Various chemokines like CCL3, 5, 11, and CCL24 may be increased during the course of leprosy or during reactions and may serve as markers of early diagnosis, response to therapy, and prognosis. Objective: To find correlation of CCL3, 5, 11, and CCL24 in leprosy patients on multidrug therapy and their family contacts after ruling out active disease during leprosy treatment and during periods of lepra reactions. Methodology: This randomized control trial was conducted in 50 clinico-histopathologically diagnosed cases of leprosy in a tertiary care hospital in Bengaluru, India. 50 of their family contacts were adequately examined and investigated should the need be to rule out active disease. The two study-groups comprised of leprosy cases, and the age, sex, and area of residence matched healthy contactswho were given single-dose rifampicin prophylaxis, respectively. Blood samples were taken at baseline, six months, and after one yearin both the groups (on completion of MDT in leprosy cases)and also during periods of reaction if occurred in leprosy cases. Results: Our study found that at baseline, CCL5, 11, and 24 were higher in leprosy cases as compared to the healthy contacts, and the difference was statistically significant.CCL3 was also found to be higherat baseline in leprosy cases, however, the difference was not statistically significant. At six months and one year, the levels of CCL 5, 11, and 24 reduced, and the difference was statistically significant in leprosy cases, whereas it remained almost static in all the healthy contacts. Twenty patients of leprosy developed lepra reaction during the course of one year, and during reaction, the increase in CCL11 and 24 was statistically significant from baseline, whereas CCL3 and 5 did not rise significantly. One of the healthy contacts developed signs of leprosy in the form of hypopigmented numb patch and was clinico-histopathologically, and CCL11 and 24 were found to be higher with a statistically significant difference from the baseline values. Conclusion: CCL5, 11, and 24 are sensitive markers of diagnosing leprosy, response to MDT, and prognosis and are not increased in healthy contacts. CCL11 and 24 are sensitive markers of lepra reactions and may serve as one of the early diagnostic modalities for identifying lepra reaction and also leprosy in healthy contacts. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate these biomarkers in leprosy cases and their healthy contacts with a follow-up of upto one year with one of them developing the disease, and the same was confirmed based on these biomarkers as well.

Keywords: chemokine profile, healthy contacts, leprosy, lepra reactions

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: Vinayak Malhotra, Samanyu Raina, Ajinkya Vajurkar

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Enhancing the rocket efficiency by controlling the external factors in solid rockets motors has been an active area of research for most of the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial system operations. Appreciable work has been done, but the complexity of the problem has prevented thorough understanding due to heterogenous heat and mass transfer. On record, severe issues have surfaced amounting to irreplaceable loss of mankind, instruments, facilities, and huge amount of money being invested every year. The coupled effect of an external heat source and external heat sink is an aspect yet to be articulated in combustion. Better understanding of this coupled phenomenon will induce higher safety standards, efficient missions, reduced hazard risks, with better designing, validation, and testing. The experiment will help in understanding the coupled effect of an external heat sink and heat source on the burning process, contributing in better combustion and fire safety, which are very important for efficient and safer rocket flights and space missions. Safety is the most prevalent issue in rockets, which assisted by poor combustion efficiency, emphasizes research efforts to evolve superior rockets. This signifies real, engineering, scientific, practical, systems and applications. One potential application is Solid Rocket Motors (S.R.M). The study may help in: (i) Understanding the effect on efficiency of core engines due to the primary boosters if considered as source, (ii) Choosing suitable heat sink materials for space missions so as to vary the efficiency of the solid rocket depending on the mission, (iii) Giving an idea about how the preheating of the successive stage due to previous stage acting as a source may affect the mission. The present work governs the temperature (resultant) and thus the heat transfer which is expected to be non-linear because of heterogeneous heat and mass transfer. The study will deepen the understanding of controlled inter-energy conversions and the coupled effect of external source/sink(s) surrounding the burning fuel eventually leading to better combustion thus, better propulsion. The work is motivated by the need to have enhanced fire safety and better rocket efficiency. The specific objective of the work is to understand the coupled effect of external heat source and sink on propellant burning and to investigate the role of key controlling parameters. Results as of now indicate that there exists a singularity in the coupled effect. The dominance of the external heat sink and heat source decides the relative rocket flight in Solid Rocket Motors (S.R.M).

Keywords: coupled effect, heat transfer, sink, solid rocket motors, source

Procedia PDF Downloads 221

Authors: Victoria Eugenia Garnacho-Garnacho, Elena Sonsoles Rodriguez-Lopez, Raquel Delgado-Delgado, Alvaro Otero-Campos, Jesus Guodemar-Perez, Angelo Michelle Vagali, Juan Pablo Hervas-Perez

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Asthma is a heterogeneous disease which has always had a drug treatment. Osteopathic treatment that we propose is aimed, seen through a dorsal manipulation (Dog Technic D1-D4) and a technique for diaphragm (Longitudinal Stroke) forced expiratory flow in spirometry changes there are in particular that there is an increase in the volumes of the Peak Flow and Post intervention and effort and that the application of these two techniques together is more powerful if we applied only a Longitudinal (Stroke). Also rating if this type of treatment will have repercussions on breathlessness, a very common symptom in asthma. And finally to investigate if provided vertebra pain decreased after a manipulation. Methods—Participants were recruited between students and professors of the University, aged 18-65, patients (n = 18) were assigned randomly to one of the two groups, group 1 (longitudinal Stroke and manipulation dorsal Dog Technic) and group 2 (diaphragmatic technique, Longitudinal Stroke). The statistical analysis is characterized by the comparison of the main indicator of obstruction of via area PEF (peak expiratory flow) in various situations through the peak flow meter Datospir Peak-10. The measurements were carried out in four phases: at rest, after the stress test, after the treatment, after treatment and the stress test. After each stress test was evaluated, through the Borg scale, the level of Dyspnea on each patient, regardless of the group. In Group 1 in addition to these parameters was calculated using an algometer spinous pain before and after the manipulation. All data were taken at the minute. Results—12 Group 1 (Dog Technic and Longitudinal Stroke) patients responded positively to treatment, there was an increase of 5.1% and 6.1% of the post-treatment PEF and post-treatment, and effort. The results of the scale of Borg by which we measure the level of Dyspnea were positive, a 54.95%, patients noted an improvement in breathing. In addition was confirmed through the means of both groups group 1 in which two techniques were applied was 34.05% more effective than group 2 in which applied only a. After handling pain fell by 38% of the cases. Conclusions—The impact of the technique of Dog-Technic for D1-D4 and the Longitudinal Stroke technique for diaphragm in the volumes of peak expiratory flow (PEF) in asthmatic patients were positive, there was a change of the PEF Post intervention and post-treatment, and effort and showed the most effective group in which only a technique was applied. Furthermore this type of treatment decreased facilitated vertebrae pain and was efficient in the improvement of Dyspnea and the general well-being of the patient.

Keywords: ANS, asthma, manipulation, manual therapy, osteopathic

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Simrin Kafle, Ulrika Enemark

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Catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) is a critical issue in low- and middle-income countries like Nepal, exacerbating financial hardship among vulnerable households. This study assesses the effectiveness of Nepal’s National Health Insurance Program (NHIP), launched in 2015, to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare costs and mitigate CHE. Conducted in Pokhara Metropolitan City, the study used an analytical cross-sectional design, sampling 1276 households through a two-stage random sampling method. Data was collected via face-to-face interviews between May and October 2023. The analysis was conducted using SPSS version 29, incorporating propensity score matching to minimize biases and create comparable groups of enrolled and non-enrolled households in the NHIP. PSM helped reduce confounding effects by matching households with similar baseline characteristics. Additionally, a doubly robust methodology was employed, combining propensity score adjustment with regression modeling to enhance the reliability of the results. This comprehensive approach ensured a more accurate estimation of the impact of NHIP enrollment on CHE. Among the 1276 samples, 534 households (41.8%) were enrolled in NHIP. Of them, 84.3% of households renewed their insurance card, though some cited long waiting times, lack of medications, and complex procedures as barriers to renewal. Approximately 57.3% of households reported known diseases before enrollment, with 49.8% attending routine health check-ups in the past year. The primary motivation for enrollment was encouragement from insurance employees (50.2%). The data indicates that 12.5% of enrolled households experienced CHE versus 7.5% among non-enrolled. Enrollment into NHIP does not contribute to lower CHE (AOR: 1.98, 95% CI: 1.21-3.24). Key factors associated with increased CHE risk were presence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) (AOR: 3.94, 95% CI: 2.10-7.39), acute illnesses/injuries (AOR: 6.70, 95% CI: 3.97-11.30), larger household size (AOR: 3.09, 95% CI: 1.81-5.28), and households below the poverty line (AOR: 5.82, 95% CI: 3.05-11.09). Other factors such as gender, education level, caste/ethnicity, presence of elderly members, and under-five children also showed varying associations with CHE, though not all were statistically significant. The study concludes that enrollment in the NHIP does not significantly reduce the risk of CHE. The reason for this could be inadequate coverage, where high-cost medicines, treatments, and transportation costs are not fully included in the insurance package, leading to significant out-of-pocket expenses. We also considered the long waiting time, lack of medicines, and complex procedures for the utilization of NHIP benefits, which might result in the underuse of covered services. Finally, gaps in enrollment and retention might leave certain households vulnerable to CHE despite the existence of NHIP. Key factors contributing to increased CHE include NCDs, acute illnesses, larger household sizes, and poverty. To improve the program’s effectiveness, it is recommended that NHIP benefits and coverage be expanded to better protect against high healthcare costs. Additionally, simplifying the renewal process, addressing long waiting times, and enhancing the availability of services could improve member satisfaction and retention. Targeted financial protection measures should be implemented for high-risk groups, and efforts should be made to increase awareness and encourage routine health check-ups to prevent severe health issues that contribute to CHE.

Keywords: catastrophic health expenditure, effectiveness, national health insurance program, Nepal

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Authors: Ana Paula S. A. Correa, Allan K. R. Galardo, Luana A. Lima, Talita F. Sobral, Josiane N. Muller, Jessica F. S. Barroso, Nercy V. R. Furtado, Ednaldo C. Rêgo., Jose B. P. Lima

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Malaria is a public health problem in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. Among the integrated approaches for anopheline control, the Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) remains one of the main tools in the basic strategy applied in the Amazonian States, where the National Malaria Control Program currently uses one of the insecticides from the pyrethroid class, the Etofenprox WP. Understanding the residual efficacy of insecticides on different surfaces is essential to determine the spray cycles, in order to maintain a rational use and to avoid product waste. The aim of this study was to evaluate the residual efficacy of Etofenprox - VECTRON ® 20 WP on surfaces of Unplastered Cement (UC) and Unpainted Wood (UW) on panels, in field, and in semi-field evaluation of Brazil’s Amapa State. The evaluation criteria used was the cone bioassay test, following the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended method, using plastic cones and female mosquitos of Anopheles sp. The tests were carried out in laboratory panels, semi-field evaluation in a “test house” built in the Macapa municipality, and in the field in 20 houses, being ten houses per surface type (UC and UW), in an endemic malaria area in Mazagão’s municipality. The residual efficacy was measured from March to September 2017, starting one day after the spraying, repeated monthly for a period of six months. The UW surface presented higher residual efficacy than the UC. In fact, the UW presented a residual efficacy of the insecticide throughout the period of this study with a mortality rate above 80% in the panels (= 95%), in the "test house" (= 86%) and in field houses ( = 87%). On the UC surface it was observed a mortality decreased in all the tests performed, with a mortality rate of 45, 47 and 29% on panels, semi-field and in field, respectively; however, the residual efficacy ≥ 80% only occurred in the first evaluation after the 24-hour spraying bioassay in the "test house". Thus, only the UW surface meets the specifications of the World Health Organization Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES) regarding the duration of effective action (three to six months). To sum up, the insecticide residual efficacy presented variability on the different surfaces where it was sprayed. Although the IRS with Etofenprox WP was efficient on UW surfaces, and it can be used in spraying cycles at 4-month intervals, it is important to consider the diversity of houses in the Brazilian Legal Amazon, in order to implement alternatives for vector control, including the evaluation of new products or different formulations types for insecticides.

Keywords: Anopheles, vector control, insecticide, bioassay

Procedia PDF Downloads 164

Authors: Ilona Pavlovska, Aneka Klavina, Agris Auce, Ivars Vanadzins, Alise Silova, Laura Komarovska, Linda Paegle, Baiba Silamikele, Linda Dobkevica

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Freshwater sapropel is a common material formed by complex biological transformations of Holocene sediments in the water basement of the lakes in Latvia that has the potential to be used as medical mud. Sapropel forms over a long period in shallow waters by slowly decomposing organic sediment and has different compositions depending on the location of the source, surroundings, the water regime, etc. Official geological survey of Latvia lakes, from Latvian lake database (ezeri.lv), used in the selection of the area of the exploration. The multifunctional effect of sapropel on the whole organism explained by its complex chemical and biological structure. This unique, organic substance and its ability to maintain heat for a long time ensures deep tissue warming and has a positive effect on the treatment of various joint and skin diseases. Sapropel is a valuable resource with multiple areas of application. Investigation of sapropel sediments and survey of the five sites selected according to the criteria performed in the current study. Also, our study includes sampling at different depths and their initial treatment, evaluation of external signs, and study of physical-chemical parameters, as well as analysis of biochemical parameters and evaluation of microbiological indicators. The main selection criteria were sapropel deposits depth, hydrological regime, the history of agriculture next to the lake, and the potential exposure to industrial waste. One hundred and five sapropel samples obtained from five lakes (Audzelu, Dunakla, Ivusku, Zielu, and Mazars Kivdalova) during the wintertime. The main goal of the study is to carry out detailed and systematic research on the medical properties of sapropel to be obtained in Latvia, to promote its scientifically based use in balneology, to develop new medical procedures and services, and to promote the development of new exportable products. Latvian freshwater sapropel could be used as raw material for getting sapropel extract and use it as a remedy. All mentioned above brings us to the main question for sapropel usage in medicine, balneology, and pharmacy “how to develop quality criteria for raw sapropel and its extracts. The research was co-financed by the project "Analysis of characteristics of medical sapropel and its usage for medical purposes and elaboration of industrial extraction methods" No.1.1.1.1/16/A/165.

Keywords: balneology, extracts, freshwater sapropel, Latvian lakes, medical mud, sapropel

Procedia PDF Downloads 264

Authors: Luis Fernando Calvo Prieto, Raul Herrero Martínez, Mónica Santamarta Llorente, Sergio Paniagua Bermejo

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The project that is presented starts from the questioning about the compartmentalization of knowledge that occurs in university higher education. There are several authors who describe the problems associated with this reality (Rodamillans, M) indicating a lack of integration of the knowledge acquired by students throughout the subjects taken in their university degree. Furthermore, this disintegration is accentuated by the enrollment system of some Faculties and/or Schools of Engineering, which allows the student to take subjects outside the recommended curricular path. This problem is accentuated in an ostentatious way when trying to find an integration between humanistic subjects and the world of experimental sciences or engineering. This abrupt separation between humanities and sciences can be observed in any study plan of Spanish degrees. Except for subjects such as economics or English, in the Faculties of Sciences and the Schools of Engineering, the absence of any humanistic content is striking. At some point it was decided that the only value to take into account when designing their study plans was “usefulness”, considering the humanities systematically useless for their training, and therefore banishing them from the study plans. forgetting the role they have on the capacity of both Leadership and Civic Humanism in our professionals of tomorrow. The teaching guides for the different subjects in the branch of science or engineering do not include any competency, not even transversal, related to leadership capacity or the need, in today's world, for social, civic and humanitarian knowledge part of the people who will offer medical, pharmaceutical, environmental, biotechnological or engineering solutions to a society that is generated thanks to more or less complex relationships based on human relationships and historical events that have occurred so far. If we want professionals who know how to deal effectively and rationally with their leadership tasks and who, in addition, find and develop an ethically civic sense and a humanistic profile in their functions and scientific tasks, we must not leave aside the importance that it has, for the themselves, know the causes, facts and consequences of key events in the history of humanity. The words of the humanist Paul Preston are well known: “he who does not know his history is condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.” The idea, therefore, that today there can be men of science in the way that the scientists of the Renaissance were, becomes, at the very least, difficult to conceive. To think that a Leonardo da Vinci can be repeated in current times is a more than crazy idea; and although at first it may seem that the specialization of a professional is inevitable but beneficial, there are authors who consider (Sánchez Inarejos) that it has an extremely serious negative side effect: the entrenchment behind the different postulates of each area of knowledge, disdaining everything. what is foreign to it.

Keywords: STEM, higher education, social sciences, history

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Shahzad A. Mughal, Ameer A. P. Ghaloo, Faisal Laghari, Mohsin A. Mirza

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Job satisfaction and level of job stressors among employees of a university are considered as essential factors responsible for institutional success. Job satisfaction is usually believed as a single baseline variable for the evaluation of a university human resource area. The objectives of this study were to assess the level of job satisfaction and influence of job stressors among university teachers and their association with long term physical health of the employees in government sector universities in Pakistan. A cross-sectional study was conducted on university employees including faculty members and administrative staff of three government sector universities in Sindh province of Pakistan who have completed at least ten years of their job. The study period was six months. All the employees were randomly selected. The job satisfaction scale Questionnaire with yes and no options, together with questions regarding demographic factors, job stress or other working factors and physical health issues were administered in questionnaires. These questionnaires were handed out to 100 faculty members of both genders with permanent job and 50 non faculty staff of grade 17 and above with permanent employment status. Students’ T test and one way ANOVA was applied to categorical variables and Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the correlations between study variables. 121 successful responses were obtained (effective respondent rate 80.6%). The average score of overall job satisfaction was 65.6%. Statistical analysis revealed that the job satisfaction and work related stressors had negative impact on overall health status of the employees with resultant less efficacy and mental stress. The positive relation was perceived by employees for organizational support and high income with job satisfaction. Demographic features such as age and female gender were also linked to the level of job satisfaction and health related issues. The total variation among all responses regarding correlation between job satisfaction job stressors and health related issues was 55%. A study was conducted on University employees of government sector Universities in Pakistan, regarding association of job satisfaction and job stressors with long term physical health of the employees. Study revealed a moderate level of job satisfaction among the employees of all universities included in this study. Attitude and personal relations with heads of the departments and institution along with salary packages were considered as biggest job stressors related correlated directly with physical health. Demographic features and gender were associated factors for job satisfaction. Organizational support was the strongest factor for job satisfaction and results pointed out that by improving support level from University may improve the quality of job satisfaction and overall health of employees.

Keywords: job satisfaction, organizational support, physical health, university employees

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Authors: Talal Alharigi, Kawther Alshlash, Mariska Weijerman

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The government of Saudi Arabia has developed an ambitious “Vision 2030”, which includes a Green Initiative (i.e., the planting of 10 billion trees) and the establishment of seven Royal Reserves as protected areas that comprise 13% of the total land area. The main objective of the reserves is to restore ecosystem balance and reconnect people with nature. Two royal reserves are managed by The Imam Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Royal Reserve Development Authority, including Imam Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Royal Reserve and King Khalid Royal Reserve. The authority has developed a management plan to enhance the habitat through seed dispersal and the planting of 10 million trees, and to restock wildlife that was once abundant in these arid ecosystems (e.g., oryx, Nubian ibex, gazelles, red-necked ostrich). Expectations are that with the restoration of the native vegetation, soil condition and natural hydrologic processes will improve and lead to further enhancement of vegetation and, over time, an increase in biodiversity of flora and fauna. To evaluate the management strategies in reaching these expectations, a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation program was developed. The main objectives of this program are to (1) monitor the status and trends of indicator species, (2) improve desert ecosystem understanding, (3) assess the effects of human activities, and (4) provide science-based management recommendations. Using a random stratified survey design, a diverse suite of survey methods will be implemented, including belt and quadrant transects, camera traps, GPS tracking devices, and drones. Data will be gathered on biotic parameters (plant and animal diversity, density, and distribution) and abiotic parameters (humidity, temperature, precipitation, wind, air, soil quality, vibrations, and noise levels) to meet the goals of the monitoring program. This case study intends to provide a detailed overview of the management plan and monitoring program of two royal reserves and outlines the types of data gathered which can be made available for future research projects.

Keywords: camera traps, desert ecosystem, enhancement, GPS tracking, management evaluation, monitoring, planting, restocking, restoration

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Olayemi Bakre

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The majoritant of the South African rural populace are directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural practices for a livelihood. However, impediments such as the climate change and inadequacy of governmental support has undermined the once thriving subsistence farming communities of South Africa. Furthermore, the poor leadership in hydrology, coupled with lack of depths in skills to facilitate the understanding and acceptance of groundwater from national level to local governance has made it near impossible for subsistence farmers to optimally benefit from the groundwater beneath their feet. The 2012 drought experienced in South Africa paralysed the farming activities across several subsistence farming communities across the KwaZulu-Natal Province. To revamp subsistence farming, a variety of interventions and strategies such as the Resource Poor Farmers (RPF) and Water Allocation Reforms (WAR) have been launched by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) as an agendum to galvanising the defunct subsistence farming communities of KwaZulu-Natal as well as other subsistence farming communities across South Africa. Despite the enormous resources expended on the subsistence farming communities whom often fall under the Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDI); indicators such as the unsustainable farming practices, poor crop yield, pitiable living condition as well as the poor standard of living, are evidential to the claim that these afore cited interventions and a host of other similar strategies indicates that these initiatives have not yield the desired result. Thus, this paper seeks to suggest practicable interventions aimed at salvaging the vulnerability of subsistence farmers within the province understudy. The study pursued a qualitative approach as the view of experts on ground water and similarly related fields from the DWS were solicited as an agendum to obtaining in-depth perspective into the current study. Some of the core challenges undermining the sustainability and growth of subsistence farming in the area of study were - inadequacy of experts (engineers, scientist, researchers) in ground water; water shortages; lack of political will as well as lack of coordination among stakeholders. As an agendum to optimising the ground water usage for subsistence farming, this paper advocates the strengthening of geohydrological skills, development of technical training capacity, interactive participation among stakeholders as well as the initiation of Participatory Action Research as an agenda to optimising the available ground water in KwaZulu-Natal which is intended to orchestrate a sustainable and viable subsistence farming practice within the province.

Keywords: subsistence farming, ground water optimisation, resource poor farmers, and water allocation reforms, hydrology

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: T. Poppendieker

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A new innovative tool for self-myofascial release is widely and increasingly used among athletes of various sports. The application of the foam roll is suggested to improve muscle performance and flexibility. Attempts to examine acute and somewhat long term effects of either have been conducted over the past ten years. However, the results of muscle performance have been inconsistent. It is suggested that regular use over a long period of time results in a different, muscle performance improving outcome. This study examines long-term effects of regular foam rolling combined with a short plyometric routine vs. solely the same plyometric routine on muscle performance and flexibility over a period of six weeks. Results of counter movement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), and isometric maximal force (IMF) of a 90° horizontal squat in a leg-press will serve as parameters for muscle performance. Data on the range of motion (ROM) of the sit and reach test will be used as a parameter for the flexibility assessment. Muscle activation will be measured throughout all tests. Twenty male and twenty female members of a Frankfurt area fitness center chain (7.11) with an average age of 25 years will be recruited. Women and men will be randomly assigned to a foam roll (FR) and a control group. All participants will practice their assigned routine three times a week over the period of six weeks. Tests on CMJ, SJ, IMF, and ROM will be taken before and after the intervention period. The statistic software program SPSS 22 will be used to analyze the data of CMJ, SJ, IMF, and ROM under consideration of muscle activation by a 2 x 2 x 2 (time of measurement x gender x group) analysis of variance with repeated measures and dependent t-test analysis of pre- and post-test. The alpha level for statistic significance will be set at p ≤ 0.05. It is hypothesized that a significant difference in outcome based on gender differences in all four tests will be observed. It is further hypothesized that both groups may show significant improvements in their performance in the CMJ and SJ after the six-week period. However, the FR group is hypothesized to achieve a higher improvement in the two jump tests. Moreover, the FR group may increase IMF as well as flexibility, whereas the control group may not show likewise progress. The results of this study are crucial for the understanding of long-term effects of regular foam roll application. The collected information on the matter may help to motivate the incorporation of foam rolling into training routines, in order to improve athletic performances.

Keywords: counter movement jump, foam rolling, isometric maximal force, long term effects, self-myofascial release, squat jump

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Abdul Basit Kiani

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Web development, the art of creating and maintaining websites, has witnessed remarkable advancements. The aim is to provide an overview of some of the cutting-edge developments in the field. Firstly, the rise of responsive web design has revolutionized user experiences across devices. With the increasing prevalence of smartphones and tablets, web developers have adapted to ensure seamless browsing experiences, regardless of screen size. This progress has greatly enhanced accessibility and usability, catering to the diverse needs of users worldwide. Additionally, the evolution of web frameworks and libraries has significantly streamlined the development process. Tools such as React, Angular, and Vue.js have empowered developers to build dynamic and interactive web applications with ease. These frameworks not only enhance efficiency but also bolster scalability, allowing for the creation of complex and feature-rich web solutions. Furthermore, the emergence of progressive web applications (PWAs) has bridged the gap between native mobile apps and web development. PWAs leverage modern web technologies to deliver app-like experiences, including offline functionality, push notifications, and seamless installation. This innovation has transformed the way users interact with websites, blurring the boundaries between traditional web and mobile applications. Moreover, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has opened new horizons in web development. Chatbots, intelligent recommendation systems, and personalization algorithms have become integral components of modern websites. These AI-powered features enhance user engagement, provide personalized experiences, and streamline customer support processes, revolutionizing the way businesses interact with their audiences. Lastly, the emphasis on web security and privacy has been a pivotal area of progress. With the increasing incidents of cyber threats, web developers have implemented robust security measures to safeguard user data and ensure secure transactions. Innovations such as HTTPS protocol, two-factor authentication, and advanced encryption techniques have bolstered the overall security of web applications, fostering trust and confidence among users. Hence, recent progress in web development has propelled the industry forward, enabling developers to craft innovative and immersive digital experiences. From responsive design to AI integration and enhanced security, the landscape of web development continues to evolve, promising a future filled with endless possibilities.

Keywords: progressive web applications (PWAs), web security, machine learning (ML), web frameworks, advancement responsive web design

Procedia PDF Downloads 52

Authors: Yu Zhang, Mingxue Lang, Li Dong

Abstract:

The hundreds of years of slow succession of living environment in rural area is a crucial carrier of China’s long history of culture and national wisdom. In recent years, the space evolution of traditional rural settlements has been promoted by the intervention of tourism development, among which the public architecture and outdoor activity areas together served as the major places for villagers, and tourists’ social activities are an important characterization for settlement spatial evolution. Traditional public space upgrade and layout study of new public space can effectively promote the tourism industry development of traditional rural settlements. This article takes Qi County, one China Traditional Culture Village as the exemplification and uses the technology of Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Space Syntax, studies the evolution features of public space of tourism-oriented traditional rural settlements in four steps. First, acquire the 2003 and 2016 image data of Qi County, using the remote sensing application EDRAS8.6. Second, vectorize the basic maps of Qi County including its land use map with the application of ArcGIS 9.3 meanwhile, associating with architectural and site information concluded from field research. Third, analyze the accessibility and connectivity of the inner space of settlements using space syntax; run cross-correlation with the public space data of 2003 and 2016. Finally, summarize the evolution law of the public space of settlements; study the upgrade pattern of traditional public space and location plan for new public space. Major findings of this paper including: first, location layout of traditional public space has a larger association with the calculation results of space syntax and further confirmed the objective value of space syntax in expressing the space and social relations. Second, the intervention of tourism development generates remarkable impact on public space location of tradition rural settlements. Third, traditional public space produces the symbols of both strengthening and decline and forms a diversified upgrade pattern for the purpose of meeting the different tourism functional needs. Finally, space syntax provides an objective basis for location plan of new public space that meets the needs of tourism service. Tourism development has a significant impact on the evolution of public space of traditional rural settlements. Two types of public space, architecture, and site are both with changes seen from the perspective of quantity, location, dimension and function after the intervention of tourism development. Function upgrade of traditional public space and scientific layout of new public space are two important ways in achieving the goal of sustainable development of tourism-oriented traditional rural settlements.

Keywords: public space evolution, Qi county, space syntax, tourism oriented, traditional rural settlements

Procedia PDF Downloads 340

Authors: Shan Jiang

Abstract:

China is a country with a distinct cultural system. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the central factor for everything, which naturally includes culture. There are quite a lot of cultural policies in China. The same goes for TV dramas. This paper traces the evolution of Chinese TV drama policy since 1986, examines the realistic situation behind the changes, and explores the structure and role of the government in shaping the process. Using historical documents and media reports, it first analyzes four key time nodes: 1986, 2003, 2012, and 2022. It shows how the policy shifts from restricting private production to opening up to public participation, from imposing one censorship to another, and from promoting some content to restricting some other area. It finds that the policy process is not simply rectilinear but rather wandering between deregulation and strengthening control. Secondly, it divides the policies into "basic" policies that establish the overall layout and more refined "strategic" policies that respond to more refined needs. It argues that the "basic" policy process is caused by China's political, economic, and cultural system reform, and then the "strategic" policy process is affected by more environmental factors, such as the government's follow-up development strategy, industrial development, technological innovation, and specific situations. Thirdly, it analysis the main body of the 104 policies from 2000 to 2021 and puts these subjects into China's power structure and cultural system, revealing that the policy issuers are all under the highest leadership of the Chinese Central Committee. Further, the paper challenges the typical description of Chinese cultural policy, which focuses on state control exclusively, identifies the forces within and outside the system that participate in or affect the policy-making process, and reveals the inter-subjective mechanism of policy change. In conclusion, the paper reveals that China's TV drama policy is under the unified leadership of the Party and the government, which greatly guarantees the consistency of the overall direction of cultural policy, that is, the right to speak firmly in the hands. The forces within the system can sometimes promote policy changes due to common development needs. However, folk discourse is only the object of control: when it breeds a certain amount of industrial space, the government will strengthen control over this space, suppress its potential "adverse effects", and instead provide protection and create conditions for the cultivation and growth of its mainstream discourse. However, the policy combination of basic policy and strategic policy, while having a strong effect and emergency capacity, also inhibits the innovation and diversification of the TV drama market. However, the state's substantial regulation will continue to exist in the future.

Keywords: TV Policy, China, policy process, cultural policy, culture management

Procedia PDF Downloads 91