Search results for: village level

Authors: Berrak Yildiz, Hinal Shah, Justine Fernandez, Nazje James, Anna Brown

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Cervical ectopic pregnancy, a rare type of ectopic pregnancies, is defined by blastocyst implantation within the cervical canal rather than the endometrium. Its rarity and potential for severe hemorrhage make cervical ectopic pregnancy a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. A 39-year-old woman, G5P2022, with a history of two cesarean sections and two elective terminations, presented to the emergency department with vaginal bleeding and pelvic pain. Initial assessment showed a beta-hCG level of 2,853 mIU/mL, and transvaginal ultrasound revealed a small, irregular gestational sac at the level of the internal cervical os. Serial betahCG measurements over subsequent visits showed a declining trend, consistent with a nonviable pregnancy. The patient was ultimately treated with methotrexate at a dose of 50 mg/m² (total 100 mg), following which she reported no further symptoms. On follow-up, her beta-hCG level returned to the normal non-pregnant range, with no additional intervention needed. This case highlights the importance of early diagnosis in cervical ectopic pregnancy to avoid complications like hysterectomy. Methotrexate is an effective first-line treatment in hemodynamically stable patients, offering a conservative approach that can preserve fertility. The success in this patient underscores the role of prompt diagnosis and careful management in achieving resolution while minimizing invasive procedures.

Keywords: beta-hCG, cervical, ectopic, methotrexate

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Authors: Adisai Thovicha

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This study is the survey research, designed to study the work happiness level of personnel at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The sample group consisted of 329 personnel. The results were collected by stratified sampling, using work positions for each stage. The results were analyzed and calculated by computer program. Statistics used during analyzing were percentage, mean, and standard deviation. From the study, the work happiness level of personnel were in very high score range in both overall and specific category. The top category which received the most score was positive attitude, work satisfaction, life satisfaction, and negative attitude.

Keywords: work happiness, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, personnel, positive attitude

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Authors: Seung Ah Lee, Sunghyun Cho, Kyong Mee Chung

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Rapid population aging became a worldwide demographic phenomenon due to rising life expectancy and declining fertility rates. Considering the current increasing rate of population aging, it is assumed that Korean society enters into a ‘super-aged’ society in 10 years, in which people aged 65 years or older account for more than 20% of entire population. In line with this trend, ICT services aimed to help elderly people to improve the quality of life have been suggested. However, existing ICT services mainly focus on supporting health or nursing care and are somewhat limited to meet a variety of specialized needs and challenges of this population. It is pointed out that the majority of services have been driven by technology-push policies. Given that the usage of ICT services greatly vary on individuals’ socio-economic status (SES), physical and psychosocial needs, this study systematically categorized elderly population into sub-groups and identified their needs and characteristics related to ICT usage in detail. First, three assessment criteria (demographic variables including SES, cognitive functioning level, and emotional functioning level) were identified based on previous literature, experts’ opinions, and focus group interview. Second, survey questions for needs assessment were developed based on the criteria and administered to 600 respondents from a national probability sample. The questionnaire consisted of 67 items concerning demographic information, experience on ICT services and information technology (IT) devices, quality of life and cognitive functioning, etc. As the result of survey, age (60s, 70s, 80s), education level (college graduates or more, middle and high school, less than primary school) and cognitive functioning level (above the cut-off, below the cut-off) were considered the most relevant factors for categorization and 18 sub-groups were identified. Finally, 18 sub-groups were clustered into 3 groups according to following similarities; computer usage rate, difficulties in using ICT, and familiarity with current or previous job. Group 1 (‘active users’) included those who with high cognitive function and educational level in their 60s and 70s. They showed favorable and familiar attitudes toward ICT services and used the services for ‘joyful life’, ‘intelligent living’ and ‘relationship management’. Group 2 (‘potential users’), ranged from age of 60s to 80s with high level of cognitive function and mostly middle to high school graduates, reported some difficulties in using ICT and their expectations were lower than in group 1 despite they were similar to group 1 in areas of needs. Group 3 (‘limited users’) consisted of people with the lowest education level or cognitive function, and 90% of group reported difficulties in using ICT. However, group 3 did not differ from group 2 regarding the level of expectation for ICT services and their main purpose of using ICT was ‘safe living’. This study developed a systematic needs assessment tool and identified three sub-groups of elderly ICT users based on multi-criteria. It is implied that current cognitive function plays an important role in using ICT and determining needs among the elderly population. Implications and limitations were further discussed.

Keywords: elderly population, ICT, needs assessment, population aging

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Authors: Daniel Asiamah Ameyaw

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This research attempts to investigate how lecturer evaluation makes a difference in enhancing higher education teaching and learning processes. The research questions to guide this research work states first as, “What are the perspectives on the difference made by evaluating academic teachers in order to enhance higher education teaching and learning processes?” and second, “What are the implications of the findings for Policy and Practice?” Data for this research was collected mainly through interviewing and partly documents review. Data analysis was conducted under the framework of grounded theory. The findings showed that for individual lecturer level, lecturer evaluation provides a continuous improvement of teaching strategies, and serves as source of data for research on teaching. At the individual student level, it enhances students learning process; serving as source of information for course selection by students; and by making students feel recognised in the educational process. At the institutional level, it noted that lecturer evaluation is useful in personnel and management decision making; it assures stakeholders of quality teaching and learning by setting up standards for lecturers; and it enables institutions to identify skill requirement and needs as a basis for organising workshops. Lecturer evaluation is useful at national level in terms of guaranteeing the competencies of graduates who then provide the needed manpower requirement of the nation. Besides, it mentioned that resource allocation to higher educational institution is based largely on quality of the programmes being run by the institution. The researcher concluded, that the findings have implications for policy and practice, therefore, higher education managers are expected to ensure that policy is implemented as planned by policy-makers so that the objectives can successfully be achieved.

Keywords: academic quality, higher education, lecturer evaluation, teaching and learning processes

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Authors: Rochelle Yun Ge

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University has played an active role in the country’s development in China. There has been an increasing research interest on the development of higher education cooperation, talent cultivation and attraction, and innovation in the regional development. The Triple Helix model, which indicates that regional innovation and development can be engendered by collaboration among university, industry and government, is often adopted as research framework. The research using triple helix model emphasizes the active and often leading role of university in knowledge-based economy. Within this framework, universities are conceptualized as key institutions of knowledge production, transmission and transference potentially making critical contributions to regional development. Recent research almost uniformly consistent in indicating the high-level research labours (i.e., doctoral, post-doctoral researchers and academics) as important actors in the innovation ecosystem with their cross-geographical human capital and resources presented. In 2019, the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) was officially launched as an important strategy by the Chinese government to boost the regional development of the Pearl River Delta and to support the realization of “One Belt One Road” strategy. Human Capital formation is at the center of this plan. One of the strategic goals of the GBA development is set to evolve into an international educational hub and innovation center with high-level talents. A number of policies have been issued to attract and cultivate human resources in different GBA cities, in particular for the high-level R&D (research and development) talents such as doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. To better understand the development of high-level talents hub in the GBA, more empirical considerations should be given to explore the approaches of talents cultivation and attraction in the GBA. What remains to explore is the ways to better attract, train, support and retain these talents in the cross-systems context. This paper aims to investigate the role of university in human capital development under China’s national agenda of GBA integration through the lens of universities and actors. Two flagship comprehensive universities are selected to be the cases and 30 interviews with university officials, research leaders, post-doctors and doctoral candidates are used for analysis. In particular, we look at in what ways have universities aligned their strategies and practices to the Chinese government’s GBA development strategy? What strategies and practices have been developed by universities for the cultivation and attraction of high-level research labor? And what impacts the universities have made for the regional development? The main arguments of this research highlights the specific ways in which universities in smaller sub-regions can collaborate in high-level human capital formation and the role policy can play in facilitating such collaborations.

Keywords: university, human capital, regional development, triple-helix model

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Authors: Xudong Guan, Ainong Li, Gaohuan Liu, Chong Huang, Wei Zhao

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Due to the low spatial resolution of MODIS data, the accuracy of small-area plaque extraction with a high degree of landscape fragmentation is greatly limited. To this end, the study combines Landsat data with higher spatial resolution and MODIS data with higher temporal resolution for decision-level fusion. Considering the importance of the land heterogeneity factor in the fusion process, it is superimposed with the weighting factor, which is to linearly weight the Landsat classification result and the MOIDS classification result. Three levels were used to complete the process of data fusion, that is the pixel of MODIS data, the pixel of Landsat data, and objects level that connect between these two levels. The multilevel decision fusion scheme was tested in two sites of the lower Mekong basin. We put forth a comparison test, and it was proved that the classification accuracy was improved compared with the single data source classification results in terms of the overall accuracy. The method was also compared with the two-level combination results and a weighted sum decision rule-based approach. The decision fusion scheme is extensible to other multi-resolution data decision fusion applications.

Keywords: image classification, decision fusion, multi-temporal, remote sensing

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Authors: Zakaria Elkhwesky, Islam E. Salem, Mona Barakat

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of disability management practices (DMPs) and the level of implementation from viewpoints of food and beverage (F & B) managers, F and B entry-level employees, working in F & B departments, and human resources (HRs) managers in five-star hotels in Egypt. It also examined the moderating effect of team orientation (TO) between the importance and the implementation. Data were collected from 400 participants. The correlation proved to be significant, moderate, and positive between the importance and the implementation of DMPs. More, the findings revealed that the relationship between the importance and the implementation is significantly more positive under the condition of a high encouragement of TO.

Keywords: disability management practices, diversity management, team orientation, HR management, hospitality, and tourism operations

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Authors: Zofia Wlodarczyk

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I study the experiences of domestic violence survivors who flee their countries of origin in times of political conflict using insight and evidence from forty-five biographical interviews with female Chechen refugees and twelve refugee resettlement professionals in Poland. Both refugees and women are often described as having less agency—that is, they lack the power to decide to migrate – refugees less than economic migrants and women less than men. In this paper, I focus on how female refugees who have been victims of domestic violence make decisions about leaving their countries of origin during times of political conflict. I use several existing migration theories to trace how the migration experience of these women is shaped by dynamics at different levels of society: the macro level, the meso level and the micro level. At the macro level of analysis, I find that political conflict can be both a source of and an escape from domestic violence. Ongoing conflict can strengthen the patriarchal cultural norms, increase violence and constrain women’s choices when it comes to marriage. However, political conflict can also destabilize families and make pathways for women to escape. At the meso level I demonstrate that other political migrants and institutions that emerge due to politically triggered migration can guide those fleeing domestic violence. Finally, at the micro level, I show that family dynamics often force domestic abuse survivors to make their decision to escape alone or with the support of only the most trusted female relatives. Taken together, my analyses show that we cannot look solely at one level of society when describing decision-making processes of women fleeing domestic violence. Conflict-related micro, meso and macro forces interact with and influence each other: on the one hand, strengthening an abusive trap, and on the other hand, opening a door to escape. This study builds upon several theoretical and empirical debates. First, it expands theories of migration by incorporating both refugee and gender perspectives. Few social scientists have used the migration theory framework to discuss the unique circumstances of refugee flows. Those who have mainly focus on “political” migrants, a designation that frequently fails to account for gender, does not incorporate individuals fleeing gender-based violence, including domestic-violence victims. The study also enriches migration scholarship, typically focused on the US and Western-European context, with research from Eastern Europe and Caucasus. Moreover, it contributes to the literature on the changing roles of gender in the context of migration. I argue that understanding how gender roles and hierarchies influence the pre-migration stage of female refugees is crucial, as it may have implications for policy-making efforts in host countries that recognize the asylum claims of those fleeing domestic violence. This study also engages in debates about asylum and refugee law. Domestic violence is normatively and often legally considered an individual-level problem whereas political persecution is recognized as a structural or societal level issue. My study challenges these notions by showing how the migration triggered by domestic violence is closely intertwined with politically motivated refuge.

Keywords: AGENCY, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, FEMALE REFUGEES, POLITICAL REFUGE, SOCIAL NETWORKS

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Authors: Irtaza M. Syed, Kaamran Raahemifar

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This paper presents modeling of a Alternating Current (AC) Photovoltaic (PV) module using Matlab/Simulink. The proposed AC-PV module model is simple, realistic, and application oriented. The model is derived on module level as compared to cell level directly from the information provided by the manufacturer data sheet. DC-PV module, MPPT control, BC, VSI and LC filter, all were treated as a single unit. The model accounts for changes in variations of both irradiance and temperature. The AC-PV module proposed model is simulated and the results are compared with the datasheet projected numbers to validate model’s accuracy and effectiveness. Implementation and results demonstrate simplicity and accuracy, as well as reliability of the model.

Keywords: PV modeling, AC PV Module, datasheet, VI curves irradiance, temperature, MPPT, Matlab/Simulink

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Authors: Kalpana Dahiya

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This paper discusses a two-level hierarchical time minimization transportation problem, which is an important class of transportation problems arising in industries. This problem has been studied by various researchers, and a number of polynomial time iterative algorithms are available to find its solution. All the existing algorithms, though efficient, have some shortcomings. The current study proposes an alternate solution algorithm for the problem that is more efficient in terms of computational time than the existing algorithms. The results justifying the underlying theory of the proposed algorithm are given. Further, a detailed comparison of the computational behaviour of all the algorithms for randomly generated instances of this problem of different sizes validates the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: global optimization, hierarchical optimization, transportation problem, concave minimization

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Authors: Nadhia Maharany Siara, Muammal, Ilham Nurhakim, Rofifah Yusadi, M. Adie Putra Tanggara, I. Nyoman Suluh Wijaya

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Urbanization in urban areas has impact to the demand of land use for housing, and it began to occur development in the high-density area called Kampung Kota. Kampung Kota grows and develops without planning or organically. The existence of Kampung Kota, becoming identity of the city development in Indonesia, gives self-identity to the city planning in Indonesia, but the existence of Kampung Kota in the development of the city in Indonesia is often considered as a source of environment, health, and social problems. This cause negative perception about the sustainability of Kampung Kota. This research aims to identify morphology and sustainability level of Kampung Kota in Polehan Sub-District, Blimbing District, Malang City. So far, there have not been many studies that define sustainability of Kampung Kota especially from the perspective of Kampung Kota morphology as a part of urban housing areas. This research took place in in Polehan Sub-District, Blimbing District, Malang City which is one of the oldest Kampung Kota in Malang City. Identification of the sustainability level in this research is done by defining the morphology of Kampung Kota in Polehan Sub-District, Blimbing District, Malang City with a descriptive approach to the observation case (Kampung Kota Polehan Sub-District). After that, definition of sustainability level is defined by quantifying the spatial structure by using the criteria from the new urbanism model which consist of buildings and populations density, compactness, diversity and mix land uses and sustainable transportation. In this case, the use of new urbanism model approach is very appropriate. New Urbanism is a design-driven strategy that is based on traditional forms to minimize urban sprawl in the suburbs. The result obtained from this study is the hometown of the level of sustainability in Polehan Sub-District, Blimbing District, Malang City of 3.2 and can be considered to have a good sustainability.

Keywords: Kampung Kota, new urbanism model, sustainability, urban morphology

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Authors: Jeisson Alejandro Triana, Maria Fernanda Quiceno Vallejo, Patricia del Portillo, Juan Manuel Anzola

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Most of the known antimicrobials so far discovered are secondary metabolites. The potential for new natural products of this category increases as new microbial genomes and metagenomes are being sequenced. Despite the advances, there is no systematic way to interrogate metagenomic clones for their potential to contain clusters of genes related to these pathways. Here we analyzed 52 biosynthetic pathways from the AntiSMASH database at the protein domain level in order to identify domains of high specificity and sensitivity with respect to specific biosynthetic pathways. These domains turned out to have various degrees of divergence at the DNA level. We propose PCR assays targetting such domains in-silico and corroborated one by Sanger sequencing.

Keywords: bioinformatic, anti smash, antibiotics, secondary metabolites, natural products, protein domains

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Authors: O. Nthoi-Molefe, V. Makwinja

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In the North West district of Botswana, Heritage tourism has the potential to offer tremendous economic and social opportunities for local communities in terms of supporting Tourism product development and entrepreneurship. This paper Identifies that Cultural Heritage Entrepreneur brings to the market goods and services, organizes and runs cultural heritage in a commercial or non-profit manner depending on characteristics of cultural resources identified. Data was collected through a series of focus group discussions that included sixteen village community members within the region. Data collected was transcribed and then further analyzed thematically to bring forward results to be analysed. Using Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site as a case study, the researchers acknowledged that Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurs in that area should use a creative approach in order toidentify suitable solutions for financing different tourism activities starting with sponsored events, grant funds, donations, including the benefits of financial opportunities brough be foreign visitors and domestic tourists alike. The researchers also identified a need for specialized training for the identified entrepreneurs in order to maintain quality services of tourism products and sites (interpretation), information for tourists, visitation services, diversification, and upgrading of the heritage experience. The research reveals that the identified Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurs prefer economic motivation, exploitation over the cultural value of their resources, further calling for recommendations of the research that emphasize on the need for detailed training on how to valorize their cultural resources for the growth of Tourism in the area.

Keywords: education, community development, entrepreneurship, cultural tourism

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Authors: Sujit K. Basak

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The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of literature review software on researchers. The aim of this study was achieved by analyzing models in terms of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and acceptance level. Collected data was analyzed using WarpPLS 4.0 software. This study used two theoretical frameworks namely Technology Acceptance Model and the Training Needs Assessment Model. The study was experimental and was conducted at a public university in South Africa. The results of the study showed that acceptance level has a high impact on research workload and productivity followed by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.

Keywords: technology acceptance model, training needs assessment model, literature review software, research productivity

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Authors: Shobha G. Ranjan

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Cloud computing is an emerging, on-demand and internet- based technology. Varieties of services like, software, hardware, data storage and infrastructure can be shared though the cloud computing. This technology is highly reliable, cost effective and scalable in nature. It is a must only the authorized users should access these services. Further the time granted to access these services should be taken into account for proper accounting purpose. Currently many organizations do the security measures in many different ways to provide the best cloud infrastructure to their clients, but that’s not the limitation. This paper presents the multi-level security measure technique which is in accordance with the OSI model. In this paper, details of proposed multilevel security measures technique are presented along with the architecture, activities, algorithms and probability of success in breaking authentication.

Keywords: cloud computing, cloud security, integrity, multi-tenancy, security

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Authors: Akudo Ejelonu, Sarah Willig, J. Anthony Sauder, Heather Murphy, Frances Shofer

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Background: The high prevalence of diarrheal diseases in the village of Tzununá, Guatemala is linked to lack of sanitation facilities and handwashing practices. Diarrheal diseases are preventable and improved access to latrines, hygiene education and clean water may improve sanitation by reducing the spread of disease. Objective: Between May 2015-January 2017, the University of Pennsylvania Chapter of Engineers Without Border (PennEWB) and local partners designed an intervention to reduce diarrheal disease by building pour flush latrines in 50 individual households and providing education on the importance of handwashing practice. Design/Methods: Through convenient sampling, we surveyed 45 households to evaluate the community’s knowledge of diarrheal disease, handwashing practices, and maintenance of the latrines. Results: 92% of the study participants experienced decrease of new cases of diarrheal disease after receiving a latrine. Only 11% washed their hands after defecating in the latrine. There was gap in understanding the health outcome of latrine sanitation and handwashing education. The respondents did not connect the reduction of diarrheal disease with latrine use and maintenance. Instead, they associated their motivation for latrine use with aesthetics, proximity to their home, ease and comfort, and reduction of shame. We recommend that PennEWB adopt UNICEF or WHO education on hand washing practice. Conclusion: Social interaction and social pressure drove the household use of latrines. The latrines are being valued and cleaned. The education that the residents received did not target norms and behaviors. Latrines could be used to create a new social norm that supports behavioral change.

Keywords: diarrheal disease, latrine, open defecation, water, sanitation and hygiene

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Authors: Senthilkumar S, Vijayakumar R M , Soorianathasundaram K, Durga Devi D

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A study was conducted to assess the influence of brassinosteroid and other bioregulators as pre-harvest sprays on yield and quality of newly introduced Californian grape cv. Italia. The vines were exposed to standardized pruning level of pruning 50% of the canes to 5-6 bud level for fruiting and 50% of the canes to two bud level for vegetative growth. The influence of brassinosteroid was assessed using BR (1 ppm) alone and in combination with GA3 and CPPU, sprayed at three different stages over the control (water spray) were given as treatments. The results revealed that the bunches treated with Brassinosteroid (1 ppm) + GA3 (10 ppm) at pea stage i.e., 7-8 mm berry size, recorded the maximum values on yield characters like bunch weight (719.94 g), yield per vine (12.70 kg/vine) and yield per hectare (15.88 t). The berry characters and quality traits were also significantly influenced by the application of bioregulators. The maximum value for all those characters was registered under bunch sprays of Brassinosteroid (1 ppm) + GA3 (10 ppm) at pea stage. The economic feasibility indicated that the treatment combination Brassinosteroid (1 ppm) + GA3 (10 ppm) at pea stage (7-8 mm berry size) had registered the maximum benefit cost ratio of 3.13, as compared to 1.89 in control (water spray). Overall, it was observed that a combined bunch spray of Brassinosteroid (1 ppm) + GA3 (10 ppm) at pea stage (7-8 mm berry size) was adjudged as the best treatment for promoting the crop for better the bunch quality and yield.

Keywords: bioregulators, brassinosteroid, CPPU, GA3, Italia grape cultivar

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Authors: Rudi Hartono, Bambang Purwanto

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The translation quality of food and drink labels from Indonesian into English is poor because the translation is not accurate, less natural, and difficult to read. The label translation can be found in some cans packages of food and drink products produced and marketed by several companies in Indonesia. If this problem is left unchecked, it will lead to a misunderstanding on the translation results and make consumers confused. This study was conducted to analyze the translation errors on food and drink products labels and formulate the solution for the better translation quality. The research design was the evaluation research with a holistic criticism approach. The data used were words, phrases, and sentences translated from Indonesian to English language printed on food and drink product labels. The data were processed by using Interactive Model Analysis that carried out three main steps: collecting, classifying, and verifying data. Furthermore, the data were analyzed by using content analysis to view the accuracy, naturalness, and readability of translation. The results showed that the translation quality of food and drink product labels from Indonesian to English has the level of accuracy (60%), level of naturalness (50%), and level readability (60%). This fact needs a help to create an effective strategy for translating food and drink product labels later.

Keywords: translation quality, food and drink product labels, a holistic criticism approach, interactive model, content analysis

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Authors: Glenda B. Minguito, Jenith L. Banluta

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One of the critical aspects of humanitarian operations is the distribution of relief goods to the affected community. The common assumption is that relief goods are prepositioned during disasters which are not applicable in developing countries like the Philippines. During disasters, the on-the-ground government agencies and responders have to procure, sort, weigh and pack the relief goods. There is a need to review the relief goods preparation as it seriously affects the delivery of necessary aid for human survival. This study also identifies the ideal location of the assembly hub to minimize the distance to the affected community. This paper reveals that location and resources are dependent on the type of disasters encountered at the local level. The Center-of-Gravity method and Multiple Activity Chart were applied in the analysis.

Keywords: humanitarian supply chain, location decision, resource allocation, local level

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Authors: El Hadji Mamadou Sonko, Ndiogou Sankhare, Maïmouna Lo, Jean Birane Gning, Cheikh Diop

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In Senegal, access to water, hygiene, and sanitation in small island towns is a particular problem, which is still poorly understood by the public authorities and development aid actors. The main objective of this study carried out in the Municipality of Foundiougne is to contribute to the knowledge of the problems related to the supply of drinking water, access to sanitation, and hygiene in small island towns in Senegal. The methodology adopted consisted of a literature review and quantitative surveys of a sample of 100 households in the Municipality. Semi-structured interviews using interview guides and informal interviews were also conducted with mechanical and manual emptiers, municipal authorities, public toilet managers, and neighbourhood leaders. Direct observation with photography was also used. The results show that, with regard to access to drinking water, 35% of households have unimproved water services, 46% have a limited level of service, and 19% have a basic level of service. Regarding sanitation, 77% of households are considered to have access to basic sanitation services, compared to 23% with limited sanitation services. However, these figures hide the dysfunctions of the sanitation system. Indeed, manual emptying is practiced exclusively by 4% of households, while 17% of households combine it with mechanical emptying. In addition, domestic wastewater is mainly evacuated outside the sanitation facilities, and all the sludge extracted from the pits is discharged directly into the environment without treatment. As a matter of fact, the surveys showed that 52% of households do not have access to a basic level of hygiene-related to handwashing when leaving the toilet. These results show that there is real work to be done at the level of small urban centres if we want to achieve MDG 6.

Keywords: Foundiougne, Senegal, small island, small town, water-sanitation, hygiene

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Authors: M. Umar Hafeez, Furqan Khursheed Hashmi, Nadeem Irfan Bukhari, Shahzad Ali, Muzammil Ali

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The trend of self-medication is increasing due to various factors and is associated with a large number of complications. A cross-sectional study was aimed to investigate self-medication trend in an urban community and its correlates such as level of education, gender and behavior of using psychoactive medicines. A validated questionnaire was used to collect the data from different locations of Lahore, provincial capital of Punjab, Pakistan. The trend of self-medication was noted in reference to difference in educational level and in gender. This study showed that total 110 respondents, all literate,were found to be self-medicating, and their educational status was as 73.13% primary, 63.15% secondary, 61.12% higher secondary and 62.15% university going. In this sample 74.99% were males and 48.00%were females. Twenty nine (26.36%) of the total sample were found to be using psychoactive agents without consulting the physician. The trend of self-medication was 10% higher in individuals having primary level education, whereas there was not much difference of self-medication trend in other levels of education. The main reasons involved in self-medication trend were socio-economic status, medicine accessibility, religious and cultural beliefs, lack of awareness about risks associated with medicine, non-prescription sale of medicines and previous medication experience. The trend of self-medication of psychotropic agents is quite significant.

Keywords: self-medication, educated community, psychotropic drugs, education levels

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Authors: Sutan Emir Hidayat, Latifa Hassan Al-Qassab

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The purpose of this study is to examine depositors’ awareness on the pursuit of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) conducted by Islamic retail banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain according to the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards. The outcome of the paper is the extent to which the depositors knew about the banks’ CSR activities in promoting the welfare of the society beyond their business objectives. The study covered all Islamic retail banks in the Kingdom of Bahrain where a survey questionnaire was distributed to a total of 200 Islamic banks' depositors. The results of the survey show that the level of depositors’ awareness is limited on the pursuit of corporate social responsibilities by the banks as indicated by the small number of statements in the survey questionnaire which the respondents agreed to or of which they had satisfactory knowledge. The significant statistical difference in the respondents' answers to the survey questionnaire when they are grouped according to their respective banks prove that the level of depositors’ awareness on the pursuit of corporate social responsibilities varies considerably among the six Islamic retail banks in the kingdom. The findings of the study might be used to assist the policy makers in the field of CSR of Islamic financial institutions in formulation of better CSR activities and in delivering better services for the public welfare. The study also might help Islamic banks in the kingdom to set up strategy in order to increase the level of depositors’ awareness on their CSR activities.

Keywords: corporate social responsibilities, awareness, Islamic banks, Bahrain

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Authors: Eman H. El-Gamal, Maher E. Saleh, Mohamed Rashad, Ibrahim Elsokkary, Mona M. Abd El-Latif

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Biochar application to calcareous soils could potentially influence the nitrogen dynamics that affect the bioavailability of plants. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of incubation periods on the changes of nitrogen levels (total nitrogen TN and exchangeable ammonium NH₄⁺ and nitrate NO₃⁻) in biochar-treated calcareous soil. The incubation course was extended to 144 days at 30 ± 3 ℃ and at 50% of soil water holding capacity (WHC). Two types of biochars were obtained by pyrolysis at 500 ℃ from rice husk (RHB) and sugarcane bagasse (SCBB). The experiment was planned in a factorial experimental design with three factors (6 periods '24 days for each period' × 3 biochar types 'un-amended, RHB and SCBB' × 3 nitrogen fertilizers 'control, ammonium nitrate; AN and animal manure; AM') in a completely randomized design. The results obtained showed that the highest level of TN was found in the first 24 days of the incubation period in all treatments. However, the amount of TN was decreased with proceeding incubation period up to 144 days and reached to the lowest level at the end of incubation with values of change rate was 17.5, 16.6, and 14.6 g kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ for the un-amended, RHB and SCBB treated soil, respectively. The values of change rate in biochar-soils treated with nitrogen fertilizers were decreased gradually through the whole incubation time from 127.22 to 12.45 g kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ and from 65.00 to 13.43 g kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ for AN and AM respectively, in the case of RHB-soil. While in SCBB-soil, these values were decreased from 70.83 to 12.13 g kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ and from 59.17 to 11.48 g kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ for AN and AM treatments, respectively. The lowest concentration of exchangeable NH₄⁺ was generally found through the period from 24-48 days of incubation. However, the addition of nitrogen fertilizers, enhanced NH₄⁺ production through incubation periods. In the case of RHB-soil, the value of change rate in NH₄⁺ level in the first 24 days of incubation was 0.43 mg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ and with the addition of AN and AM this value increased to 1.54 and 4.38 mg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹, respectively. In the case of SCBB-soil, the value of change rate in NH₄⁺ level was 0.29 mg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ which increased to 1.04 mg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ at the end of incubation, and due to the addition of AN and AM this value increased to 2.78 and 1.90 mg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹ in the first 24 days of incubation period, respectively. However, as compared to the control treatment, the lowest rate of change in NH₄⁺ level was found at the end of incubation. On the other hand, incubation of all biochars-amended soil and treated with AN and AM decreased the concentration levels of NO₃⁻, especially through the first 24-72 days of incubation period. As a result, the values of change rate in NO₃⁻ concentrations in all treatments were almost negative.

Keywords: ammonium nitrate, animal manure, biochar, rice husk, sugarcane bagasse

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Authors: Mohsen Shakerinejad

Abstract:

Due to the growing momentum of technology, the present age is called age of communication and information. And With Astounding progress of Communication and information tools, current world Is likened to the "global village". That a message can be sent from one point to another point of the world in a Time scale Less than a minute. However, one of the new sociologists -Alain Touraine- in describing the destructive effects of new changes arising from the development of information appliances refers to the "new fields for undemocratic social control And the incidence of acute and unrest social and political tensions", Yet, in this era That With the advancement of the industry, the life of people has been industrial too, quickly and accurately Data Transfer, Causes Blowing new life in the Body of Society And according to the features of each society and the progress of science and technology, Various tools should be used. One of these communication tools is Mobile. Cellular phone As Communication and telecommunication revolution in recent years, Has had a great influence on the individual and collective life of societies. This powerful communication tool Have had an Undeniable effect, On all aspects of life, including social, economic, cultural, scientific, etc. so that Ignoring It in Design, Implementation and enforcement of any system is not wise. Nowadays knowledge and information are one of the most important aspects of human life. Therefore, in this article, it has been tried to introduce mobile potentials in receive and transmit News and Information. As it follows, among the numerous capabilities of current mobile phones features such as sending text, photography, sound recording, filming, and Internet connectivity could indicate the potential of this medium of communication in the process of sending and receiving information. So that nowadays, mobile journalism as an important component of citizen journalism Has a unique role in information dissemination.

Keywords: mobile, informing, receiving information, mobile journalism, citizen journalism

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Authors: S. O. Odebode, O. E. Adelakun

Abstract:

The study assessed the perception of rural dwellers on the nutritional and social values of mushroom in Oyo state, Nigeria. One hundred and forty respondents were sampled and interviewed. Results showed that majority (84.9%) had below secondary education and 81.4 % were married, with fairly large (71.4%) household size (5–8). Also, 52.1% had favourable perception toward the nutritional values and 57.1% toward the social values of mushrooms in the study area. There was significant relationship between sex (X² = 4.673), educational level (X² = 11.969) and perception on the values of mushroom. The knowledge level of respondents on mushroom utilization and production is low in the study area. Farmers’ research field should be established to educate rural dwellers on mushroom farm practices and utilization.

Keywords: mushroom, nutritional value, rural dwellers, social value

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Authors: N. Sefiani, C. Fikri Benbrahim, A. Boumane, K. Reklaoui

Abstract:

Nowadays, the reflection on competence management is the basic for new competitive strategies. It is considered as the core of the problems of the global supply chain. It interacts a variety of actors: information, physical and activities flows, etc. Even though competence management is seen as the key factor for any business success, the existing approaches demonstrate the deficiencies and limitations of the competence concept. This research has two objectives: The first is to make a contribution by focusing on the development of a competence approach, based on continuous improvement. It allows the enterprise to spot key competencies, mobilize them in order to serve its strategic objectives and to develop future competencies. The second is to propose a method to evaluate the level of Collective Competence. The approach was confirmed through an application carried out at an automotive company.

Keywords: competence, competencies’ approach, competence management, continuous improvement, collective competence level, performance indicator

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Authors: Wei-Neng Wang, Jhy-Yuan Shieh, Jhy-Hwa Chen, Juin-Jen Chang

Abstract:

This paper incorporate tax evasion into a one-sector real business cycle (RBC) model to explores the quantitative interrelations between income tax rate and equilibrium (in)determinacy, and income tax rate is endogenously determined in order to balance the government budget. We find that the level of the effective income tax rate is key factor for equilibrium (in)determinacy, instead of the level of income tax rate in a tax evasion economy. Under an economy with tax evasion, the higher income tax rate is not sufficiently to lead to equilibrium indeterminate, it must combine with a necessary condition which is the lower fraction of tax evasion and that can result in agents' optimistic expectations to become self-fulfilling and sunspot fluctuation more likely to occur. On the other hand, an economy with tax evasion can see its macroeconomy become more stabilize, and a higher fraction of income tax evasion may has a stronger stabilizing effect.

Keywords: tax evasion, balanced-budget rule, equlibirium (in)determinacy, effective income tax rate

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Authors: Sherry Ann Ganase, Sandra Sookram

Abstract:

This study investigates the level of awareness to climate change and major factors that influence such awareness in Grande Riviere, Trinidad. Through the development of an Awareness Index and application of a Structural Equation Model to survey data, the findings suggest an Awareness index value of 0.459 in Grande Riviere. These results suggest that households have climate smart attitudes and behaviors but climate knowledge is lacking. This is supported by the structural equation model which shows a negative relationship between awareness and causes of climate change. The study concludes by highlighting the need for immediate action on increasing knowledge.

Keywords: awareness, climate change, climate education, index structural equation model

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Authors: Inyoung Park, Youngjoo Woo, Euiseong Seo

Abstract:

With the advent of WebGL, Web apps are now able to provide high quality graphics by utilizing the underlying graphic processing units (GPUs). Despite that the Web apps are becoming common and popular, the current power management schemes, which were devised for the conventional native applications, are suboptimal for Web apps because of the additional layer, the Web browser, between OS and application. The Web browser running on a CPU issues GL commands, which are for rendering images to be displayed by the Web app currently running, to the GPU and the GPU processes them. The size and number of issued GL commands determine the processing load of the GPU. While the GPU is processing the GL commands, CPU simultaneously executes the other compute intensive threads. The actual user experience will be determined by either CPU processing or GPU processing depending on which of the two is the more demanded resource. For example, when the GPU work queue is saturated by the outstanding commands, lowering the performance level of the CPU does not affect the user experience because it is already deteriorated by the retarded execution of GPU commands. Consequently, it would be desirable to lower CPU or GPU performance level to save energy when the other resource is saturated and becomes a bottleneck in the execution flow. Based on this observation, we propose a power management scheme that is specialized for the Web app runtime environment. This approach incurs two technical challenges; identification of the bottleneck resource and determination of the appropriate performance level for unsaturated resource. The proposed power management scheme uses the CPU utilization level of the Window Manager to tell which one is the bottleneck if exists. The Window Manager draws the final screen using the processed results delivered from the GPU. Thus, the Window Manager is on the critical path that determines the quality of user experience and purely executed by the CPU. The proposed scheme uses the weighted average of the Window Manager utilization to prevent excessive sensitivity and fluctuation. We classified Web apps into three categories using the analysis results that measure frame-per-second (FPS) changes under diverse CPU/GPU clock combinations. The results showed that the capability of the CPU decides user experience when the Window Manager utilization is above 90% and consequently, the proposed scheme decreases the performance level of CPU by one step. On the contrary, when its utilization is less than 60%, the bottleneck usually lies in the GPU and it is desirable to decrease the performance of GPU. Even the processing unit that is not on critical path, excessive performance drop can occur and that may adversely affect the user experience. Therefore, our scheme lowers the frequency gradually, until it finds an appropriate level by periodically checking the CPU utilization. The proposed scheme reduced the energy consumption by 10.34% on average in comparison to the conventional Linux kernel, and it worsened their FPS by 1.07% only on average.

Keywords: interactive applications, power management, QoS, Web apps, WebGL

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Authors: Hang Yang, Jichao Li, Kewei Yang, Tianyang Lei

Abstract:

Multivariate time series anomaly detection is a significant research topic in the field of data mining, encompassing a wide range of applications across various industrial sectors such as traffic roads, financial logistics, and corporate production. The inherent spatial dependencies and temporal characteristics present in multivariate time series introduce challenges to the anomaly detection task. Previous studies have typically been based on the assumption that all variables belong to the same spatial hierarchy, neglecting the multi-level spatial relationships. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a multi-scale spatial and unified temporal feature fusion network, denoted as MSUT-Net, for multivariate time series anomaly detection. The proposed model employs a multi-level modeling approach, incorporating both temporal and spatial modules. The spatial module is designed to capture the spatial characteristics of multivariate time series data, utilizing an adaptive graph structure learning model to identify the multi-level spatial relationships between data variables and their attributes. The temporal module consists of a unified temporal processing module, which is tasked with capturing the temporal features of multivariate time series. This module is capable of simultaneously identifying temporal dependencies among different variables. Extensive testing on multiple publicly available datasets confirms that MSUT-Net achieves superior performance on the majority of datasets. Our method is able to model and accurately detect systems data with multi-level spatial relationships from a spatial-temporal perspective, providing a novel perspective for anomaly detection analysis.

Keywords: data mining, industrial system, multivariate time series, anomaly detection

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