Search results for: adaptation strategies

Authors: Kwang Yeon Kim

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This paper will explore the directly proportional relationship between the influence of Hispanophone media in U.S. markets and Hispanic population growth. Though this growth has origins across south and central America, in U.S. media markets Mexican and Cuban immigrants, have traditionally been considered the most influential. Having endured significant historical discrimination, disparagement, and ethnic framing from conventional Anglophone media, such groups have sought to form their own identities as media consuming and producing Americans of Latin American origin. Although immigrants to the U.S. have traditionally faced obstacles in access to education, children of Mexican-Americans (Chicanos) and Cuban-Americans have made significant progress in overcoming these obstacles, partly explaining their media dominance. This is particularly true in the case of Cuban-Americans, for whom such media presence is not predicted by share of population. By conducting comparative studies of Chicano media and Cuban-Americans media, common ground was found in strategies of reliance on media-driven identity formation. In contrast to the mainstream media portrayal of Latino/as with limiting, negative stereotypes, Spanish-language media’s goal is to form the identity of being Latino for those living in the United States. Providing both news from countries of origin and local news within the United States, Chicano and Cuban-American media performs rituals of recollection while rooting such populations in more proximate media paradigms.

Keywords: Chicano identity, Cuban-Americans, Hispanophone media, Latino/a community

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Authors: Ali Haratian, Soroosh Emami Meybodi

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Using viable microbial cultures within hydrocarbon reservoirs so as to the enhancement of oil recovery through metabolic activities is exactly what we recognize as microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). In similar to many other processes in industries, there are some cons and pros following with MEOR. The creation of sulfides such as hydrogen sulfide as a result of injecting the sulfate-containing seawater into hydrocarbon reservoirs in order to maintain the required reservoir pressure leads to production and growth of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) approximately near the injection wells, turning the reservoir into sour; however, SRB is not considered as the only microbial process stimulating the formation of sulfides. Along with SRB, thermochemical sulfate reduction or thermal redox reaction (TSR) is also known to be highly effective at resulting in having extremely concentrated zones of ?2S in the reservoir fluids eligible to cause corrosion. Owing to extent of the topic, more information on the formation of ?₂S is going to be put finger on. Besides, confronting the undesirable production of sulfide species in the reservoirs can lead to serious operational, environmental, and financial problems, in particular the transporting pipelines. Consequently, conjuring up reservoir souring control strategies on the way production of oil and gas is the only way to prevent possible damages in terms of environment, finance, and manpower which requires determining the compound’s reactivity, origin, and partitioning behavior. This article is going to provide a comprehensive review of progress made in this field and the possible advent of new strategies in this technologically advanced world of the petroleum industry.

Keywords: corrosion, hydrogen sulfide, NRB, reservoir souring, SRB

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Authors: J. Herrero, D. Puigserver, I. Nijenhuis, K. Kuntze, J. M. Carmona

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In the transition zone between aquifers and basal aquitards, the perchloroethene (PCE)-pools are more recalcitrant than those elsewhere in the aquifer. Although biodegradation of chloroethenes occur in this zone, it is a slow process and a remediation strategy is needed. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that combined strategy of biostimulation and in situ chemical reduction (ISCR) is more efficient than the two separated strategies. Four different microcosm experiments with sediment and groundwater of a selected field site where an aged pool exists at the bottom of a transition zone were designed under i) natural conditions, ii) biostimulation with lactic acid, iii) ISCR with zero-value iron (ZVI) and under iv) a combined strategy with lactic acid and ZVI. Biotic and abiotic dehalogenation, terminal electron acceptor processes and evolution of microbial communities were determined for each experiment. The main results were: i) reductive dehalogenation of PCE-pools occurs under sulfate-reducing conditions; ii) biostimulation with lactic acid supports more pronounced reductive dehalogenation of PCE and trichloroethene (TCE), but results in an accumulation of 1,2-cis-dichloroethene (cDCE); iii) ISCR with ZVI produces a sustained dehalogenation of PCE and its metabolites iv) combined strategy of biostimulation and ISCR results in a fast dehalogenation of PCE and TCE and a sustained dehalogenation of cisDCE. These findings suggest that biostimulation and ISCR with ZVI are the most suitable strategies for a complete reductive dehalogenation of PCE-pools in the transition zone and further to enable the dissolution of dense non-aqueous phase liquids.

Keywords: aged PCE-pool, anaerobic microcosm experiment, biostimulation, in situ chemical reduction, natural attenuation

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Authors: Ayşin Sev, Görkem Aslan

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Sustainable tall buildings that provide comfortable, healthy and efficient indoor environments are clearly desirable as the densification of living and working space for the world’s increasing population proceeds. For environmental concerns, these buildings must also be energy efficient. One component of these tasks is the provision of indoor air quality and thermal comfort, which can be enhanced with natural ventilation by the supply of fresh air. Working spaces can only be naturally ventilated with connections to the outdoors utilizing operable windows, double facades, ventilation stacks, balconies, patios, terraces and skygardens. Large amounts of fresh air can be provided to the indoor spaces without mechanical air-conditioning systems, which are widely employed in contemporary tall buildings. This paper tends to present the concept of natural ventilation for sustainable tall office buildings in order to achieve healthy and comfortable working spaces, as well as energy efficient environments. Initially the historical evolution of ventilation strategies for tall buildings is presented, beginning with natural ventilation and continuing with the introduction of mechanical air-conditioning systems. Then the emergence of natural ventilation due to the health and environmental concerns in tall buildings is handled, and the strategies for implementing this strategy are revealed. In the next section, a number of case studies that utilize this strategy are investigated. Finally, how tall office buildings can benefit from this strategy is discussed.

Keywords: tall office building, energy efficiency, double-skin façade, stack ventilation, air conditioning

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Authors: Ozcan Yavas, Berrak Erol Nalbur, Sermin Gunarslan

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A materiality matrix is a tool that organizations use to prioritize their activities and adapt to the increasing sustainability requirements in recent years. For the materiality index to move from business models to the sustainability business model stage, it must be done with all partners in the raw material, supply, production, product, and end-of-life product stages. Within the scope of this study, the Materiality Matrix was used to transform the business model into a sustainability business model and to create a sustainability roadmap in a factory producing electric buses. This matrix determines the necessary roadmap for all stakeholders to participate in the process, especially in sectors that produce sustainable products, such as the electric vehicle sector, and to act together with the cradle-to-cradle approach of sustainability roadmaps. Global Reporting Initiative analysis was used in the study conducted with 1150 stakeholders within the scope of the study, and 43 questions were asked to the stakeholders under the main headings of 'Legal Compliance Level,' 'Environmental Strategies,' 'Risk Management Activities,' 'Impact of Sustainability Activities on Products and Services,' 'Corporate Culture,' 'Responsible and Profitable Business Model Practices' and 'Achievements in Leading the Sector' and Economic, Governance, Environment, Social and Other. The results of the study aimed to include five 1st priority issues and four 2nd priority issues in the sustainability strategies of the organization in the short and medium term. When the studies carried out in the short term are evaluated in terms of Sustainability and Environmental Risk Management, it is seen that the studies are still limited to the level of legal legislation (60%) and individual studies in line with the strategies (20%). At the same time, the stakeholders expect the company to integrate sustainability activities into its business model within five years (35%) and to carry out projects to become the first company that comes to mind with its success leading the sector (20%). Another result obtained within the study's scope is identifying barriers to implementation. It is seen that the most critical obstacles identified by stakeholders with climate change and environmental impacts are financial deficiency and lack of infrastructure in the dissemination of sustainable products. These studies are critical for transitioning to sustainable business models for the electric vehicle sector to achieve the EU Green Deal and CBAM targets.

Keywords: sustainability business model, materiality matrix, electricity bus, carbon neutrality, sustainability management

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Authors: Eda Ozkara San

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Nurse educators have been charged by several nursing organizations and accrediting bodies to provide innovative and evidence-based educational experiences, both didactic and clinical, to help students to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to provide culturally competent nursing care to patients. Clinical simulation, which offers the opportunity for students to practice nursing skills in a risk-free, controlled environment and helps develop self-efficacy (confidence) within the nursing role. As one simulation method, the standardized patients (SPs) simulation helps educators to teach nursing students variety of skills in nursing, medicine, and other health professions. It can be a helpful tool for nurse educators to enhance cultural competence of nursing students. An alarming gap exists within the literature concerning the effectiveness of SP strategy to enhance cultural competence development of diverse student groups, who must work with patients from various backgrounds. This grant-supported, longitudinal, one-group, pretest and post-test educational intervention study aimed to examine the effect of the Diverse Standardized Patient Simulation (DSPS) cultural competence education strategy on students’ (n = 53) transcultural self-efficacy (TSE). The researcher-developed multidimensional DSPS strategy involved careful integration of transcultural nursing skills guided by the Cultural Competence and Confidence (CCC) model. As a carefully orchestrated teaching and learning strategy by specifically utilizing the SP pedagogy, the DSPS also followed international guidelines and standards for the design, implementation, evaluation, and SP training; and had content validity review. The DSPS strategy involved two simulation scenarios targeting underrepresented patient populations (Muslim immigrant woman with limited English proficiency and Irish-Italian American gay man with his partner (Puerto Rican) to be utilized in a second-semester, nine-credit, 15-week medical-surgical nursing course at an urban public US university. Five doctorally prepared content experts reviewed the DSPS strategy for content validity. The item-level content validity index (I-CVI) score was calculated between .80-1.0 on the evaluation forms. Jeffreys’ Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool (TSET) was administered as a pretest and post-test to assess students’ changes in cognitive, practical, and affective dimensions of TSE. Results gained from this study support that the DSPS cultural competence education strategy assisted students to develop cultural competence and caused statistically significant changes (increase) in students’ TSE perceptions. Results also supported that all students, regardless of their background, benefit (and require) well designed cultural competence education strategies. The multidimensional DSPS strategy is found to be an effective way to foster nursing students’ cultural competence development. Step-by-step description of the DSPS provides an easy adaptation of this strategy with different student populations and settings.

Keywords: cultural competence development, the cultural competence and confidence model, CCC model, educational intervention, transcultural self-efficacy, TSE, transcultural self-efficacy tool, TSET

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Authors: Papathanasiou Anastasios, Liontos George, Liagkou Vasiliki, Glavas Euripides

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The purpose of this paper is to describe the growing problem of various cyber fraud schemes that exist on the internet and are currently among the most prevalent. The main focus of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the modus operandi, tools, and techniques utilized in four basic typologies of cyber frauds: Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, investment fraud, romance scams, and online sales fraud. The paper aims to shed light on the methods employed by cybercriminals in perpetrating these types of fraud, as well as the strategies they use to deceive and victimize individuals and businesses on the internet. Furthermore, this study outlines defense strategies intended to tackle the issue head-on, with a particular emphasis on the crucial role played by European Legislation. European legislation has proactively adapted to the evolving landscape of cyber fraud, striving to enhance cybersecurity awareness, bolster user education, and implement advanced technical controls to mitigate associated risks. The paper evaluates the advantages and innovations brought about by the European Legislation while also acknowledging potential flaws that cybercriminals might exploit. As a result, recommendations for refining the legislation are offered in this study in order to better address this pressing issue.

Keywords: business email compromise, cybercrime, European legislation, investment fraud, NIS, online sales fraud, romance scams

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Authors: Bernardino Vinoya, Cassandra D. Batton, Samantha Gayle M. Bonavente, Johnson O. Canoza, Lhea Flynn B. Capones, Camille S. Dispo, Johanna Neilvin T. Dontogan, Louise Angelica C. Lipana, Charlene Pearl P. Navalta, Rechelle Vhen W. Payo-os, Mary Reyna D. Ridao, Rushnol Jade P. Tupac, Pauline B. Sol

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Parenting is preparing children for life as productive adults and discipline strategies are needed to achieve it like non-aggressive, psychologically aggressive and physical discipline. The effects of disciplinary strategies on children are well explored as evidenced by existing studies, local and international laws and active international organizations which are all brimmed towards child protection but status quo shows a profound scarcity of studies engaged in the effects of disciplining the child on the parent. To know the deeper unexplored reasons and untold stories of the parent, mainly the lived experiences of parents in disciplining their children. Design is descriptive phenomelogical. Participants were chosen using snowball purposive sampling. Data were collected through interview with the general question, “Ano ang mga karanasan ninyo sa pagdidisiplina ng inyong anak (What are your experiences when disciplining your child?)”, followed with unstructured questions. Collaizi method was used in analyzing data. Data collected was verified through focused group discussion. Results show three main themes: Reason, Disciplinary Strategy, and Aftermath. The use of disciplinary strategy is influenced by the experiences of the parent, the triggers like the child’s misbehavior and parental desires or wishes for the child. Disciplinary strategy can either be physical punishment or verbal. Parent’s generally used both when children disrespects or disobeys. Parents also experience both positive and negative effects on their physical, social, emotional aspects after disciplining their children. As a result, parents use coping mechanisms to maintain ego stability. Disciplining a child is a cyclical process. Parents, just like the child will also experience both positive and negative outcomes after using different disciplinary strategies. Future researchers can replicate study or use triangulation in multi-site qualitative and quantitative studies, professors can teach findings on parents in the concepts of pediatric nursing and apply the findings in the clinical area particularly when dealing with families.

Keywords: parents, disciplinary strategy, parental effects, pediatric nursing

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Authors: Simone Leonardi, Luca Ardito

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Micro-influencers are effective elements in the marketing strategies of companies and institutions because of their capability to create an hyper-engaged audience around a specific topic of interest. In recent years, many scientific approaches and commercial tools have handled the task of detecting this type of social media users. These strategies adopt solutions ranging from rule based machine learning models to deep neural networks and graph analysis on text, images, and account information. This work compares the existing solutions and proposes an ensemble method to generalize them with different input data and social media platforms. The deployed solution combines deep learning models on unstructured data with statistical machine learning models on structured data. We retrieve both social media accounts information and multimedia posts on Twitter and Instagram. These data are mapped into feature vectors for an eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) classifier. Sixty different topics have been analyzed to build a rule based gold standard dataset and to compare the performances of our approach against baseline classifiers. We prove the effectiveness of our work by comparing the accuracy, precision, recall, and f1 score of our model with different configurations and architectures. We obtained an accuracy of 0.91 with our best performing model.

Keywords: deep learning, gradient boosting, image processing, micro-influencers, NLP, social media

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Authors: Ziwen Wang

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There are close links between religion and migration. As newcomers to a foreign nation, new immigrants endured many pressures and challenges. Religion can be an important part of a migrant’s personal identity, and religious communities can offer valued connections and relationships. During the migration process, religion can undergo significant changes as migrants travel across geographical and cultural gaps and as they face new opportunities or new constraints. For those migrants who are not religious, during this unsettling time, people might become sensitive to the "sacredness", accepting its guidance, and occasionally contemplating religious conversion. This research examines the role of faith and the church in supporting new Chinese immigrants from the perspective of the social function of Christianity, utilizing Chinese immigrants in New Zealand as a case study. Through participant observation in four Chinese churches and over seventy semi-structured interviews, this research illustrates how religion has provided them with a haven and how the church provides indispensable material, spiritual, and informational resources essential for their adaptation to life in New Zealand.

Keywords: migration and religion, overseas chinese, religious capital, christianity

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Authors: N. Türkmenoğlu Bayraktar, E. Kishalı

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Campus buildings are educational facilities where various amount of energy consumption for lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation occurs. Some of the new universities in Turkey, where this investigation takes place, still continue their educational activities in existing buildings primarily designed for different architectural programs and converted to campus buildings via changes of function, space organizations and structural interventions but most of the time without consideration of appropriate micro climatic conditions. Reducing energy consumption in these structures not only contributes to the national economy but also mitigates the negative effects on environment. Furthermore, optimum thermal comfort conditions should be provided during the refurbishment of existing campus structures and their building envelope. Considering this issue, the first step is to investigate the climatic performance of building elements regarding refurbishment process. In the context of the study Kocaeli University, Faculty of Design and Architecture building constructed in 1980s in Anıtpark campus located in the central part of Kocaeli, Turkey was investigated. Climatic factors influencing thermal conditions; the deteriorations on building envelope; temperature distribution; heat losses from façade elements observed by thermography were presented in order to improve strategies for retrofit process for the building envelope. Within the scope of the survey, refurbishment strategies towards providing optimum climatic comfort conditions, increasing energy efficiency of building envelope were proposed.

Keywords: building envelope, IRT, refurbishment, non-destructive test

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Authors: Jeffrey L. Hurst, Sarah M. Coyne

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With the growth of technology and media, teens are increasingly exposed to media such as pornography and engaging in risky media use such as sexting. Parental media mediation strategies including controlling or autonomy supporting strategies can be an important protective factor against risky media uses. The purpose of this study is to examine how parental media mediation around media, influence adolescents’ behaviors including frequency of pornography use and sexting. We also examine the effects of parental media mediation on adolescents disclosing pornography use to parents and the amount of secrets that adolescents keep about pornography use. We hypothesize that controlling media mediation will result in more sexting, more frequency pornography use, more secrets about pornography and less disclosure to parents. We also predict that autonomy supportive media mediation will show the opposite pattern. Data for this study came from a nationally representative research project, Project M.E.D.I.A. Participants included 783 adolescents. 49% of the participants were male, and the mean age for boys was 15.44 years (SD= 3.34) and for girls was 15.3 years (SD=2.93). Parental media mediation was assessed using an eight-item measure with subscales of controlling and autonomy supporting media mediation. Participants were also asked if they have ever viewed pornography. If they answered yes, they were asked about the frequency of pornography use as well as if they have ever kept secrets from their parents about it and if they had ever disclosed their pornography use to their parents. The data analysis strategy for this study was a multiple group path analysis. Frequency of pornography use, sexting, secrets from parents and disclosure to parents were predicted by controlling and autonomy supporting parental media mediation, frequency of parents warning against pornography use, income and ethnicity. Groups were distinguished by boys and girls, allowing for sex differences. After running the model in MPLUS, we found partial support for our hypotheses. Autonomy supportive media mediation resulted in less sexting for boys (β= -.15, p < .05) and girls ( β= -.13, p < .05). Autonomy supportive media mediation also predicted keeping fewer secrets for girls (β=-.27, p < .01) but had no effect for boys. Controlling media mediation predicted more disclosure about pornography to parents for boys (β=.16, p < .05) and less disclosure to parents about pornography for girls (β=-.14, p < .05). Frequency of pornography was not predicted by any of the predictors in the model. Autonomy supportive media mediation was a very strong predictor of less sexting for both boys and girls. Parents should approach media mediation with this supportive and understanding mindset. Parental autonomy support allows adolescents to explore and develop their own moral beliefs without feeling guilt or shame from their parents. This need to have autonomy is also shown by girls disclosing less pornography use to their parents when parents are really controlling about media use. Interestingly, boys disclosed more to their parents when their parents were controlling. Further research is needed on why this is. Further research should also look at the effects that disclosing pornography use to parents has on future pornography use.

Keywords: media, moral development, parental mediation, pornography, sexting

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Authors: Kiseob Chung, Hyeonmin Kang

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This study aims to explore what is intercultural competency needed for teacher through their experience at the public multicultural alternative school. The public alternative multicultural school is an accredited school for immigrants or students from multicultural families who have experienced school maladjustment at public school. This school has self-regulation in curriculum and function of bridge to public school by helping their adaptation. In particular, this study answers the following questions: What are the most difficulties for teacher at the multicultural alternative school in comparison to public school? What competencies are required for teacher at the multicultural alternative school? Which competencies in cognitive, emotional and practical area should be more required in order for teacher to communicate with student effectively (successfully) in class and other activities in school? What is the background of that we called these competencies especially as ‘intercultural’? This study focuses to clarify teacher’s competency to help immigrants of students from multicultural background to adjust to school life with the term of intercultural competency.

Keywords: intercultural competency for teacher, multicultural alternative school, multicultural students, school maladjustment

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Authors: Irina Rönnqvist

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The world is constantly changing; therefore previous views or cultural patterns and programs formed by the “old world” cannot be suitable for solving actual problems. Indeed, reformation of an education system is unlikely to be effective without understanding of the processes that emerge in the field of employment. There is a problem in overcoming of the negative trends that determine imbalance of needs of the qualified work force and preparation of professionals by an education system. At the contemporary stage of economics the processes occurring in the field of labor and employment reproduce the picture of economic development of the country that cannot be imagined without the factor of labor mobility (e.g. migration). On the one hand, adult education has a significant impact on multifaceted development of economy. On the other hand, Sweden has one of the world's most generous asylum reception systems and the most liberal labor migration policy among the OECD countries. This effect affects the increased productivity. The focus of this essay is on problems of education and employment concerning social inclusion of migrants in working life in Sweden.

Keywords: migration, adaptation, formal learning, informal learning, Sweden

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Authors: Augustine Ndudi Egere, Shehu Adamu, Esther Ishaya Solomon

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As internet accessibility and smartphones continue to increase in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, social media platforms have become ubiquitous, causing students of 18-25 age brackets to spend more time on social media. The research investigated the impact of prolonged social media use on the physical health of students, with a specific focus on computer vision syndrome, hand pain, headaches and mental status. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative surveys to gather statistical data on usage patterns and symptoms, along with qualitative interviews into the experiences and perceptions of medical practitioners concerning cases under study within the geopolitical region. The result was analyzed using Regression analysis. It was observed that there is a significant correlation between social media usage by the students in the study age bracket concerning computer vision syndrome, hand pain, headache and general mental status. The research concluded by providing valuable insights into potential interventions and strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of excessive social media use on student well-being and recommends, among others, that educational institutions, parents, and students themselves collaborate to implement strategies aimed at promoting responsible and balanced use of social media.

Keywords: social media, student health, computer vision syndrome, hand pain, headaches, mental staus

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Authors: Claire Griffin

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Recent years have witnessed a surge in the use of innovative teaching approaches to support student engagement and higher-order learning within higher education. This paper seeks to explore the use of collaborative, interactive teaching and learning strategies to support student engagement in a final year undergraduate Developmental Psychology module. In particular, the use of the jigsaw method, in-class presentations and online discussion fora were adopted in a ‘lectorial’ style teaching approach, aimed at scaffolding learning, fostering social interdependence and supporting various levels of student engagement in higher education. Using the ‘Student Course Engagement Questionnaire’, the impact of such teaching strategies on students’ college classroom experience was measured, with additional qualitative student feedback gathered. Results illustrate the positive impact of the teaching methodologies on students’ levels of engagement, with positive implications emerging across the four engagement factors: skills engagement, emotional engagement, participation/interaction engagement and performance engagement. Thematic analysis on students’ qualitative comments also provided greater insight into the positive impact of the ‘lectorial’ teaching approach on students’ classroom experience within higher level education. Implications of the findings are presented in terms of informing effective teaching practices within higher education. Additional avenues for future research and strategy usage will also be discussed, in light of evolving practice and cutting edge literature within the field.

Keywords: learning, higher education, scaffolding, student engagement

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Authors: Thorsten Prante, Robert Schöch, Ruth Fleisch, Vaheh Khachatouri, Alexander Walch

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The development of industrial plant control software is a complex and often very expensive task. One of the core problems is that a lot of the implementation and adaptation work can only be done after the plant hardware has been installed. In this paper, we present our approach to virtually developing and validating plant-level control software of production plants. This way, plant control software can be virtually commissioned before actual ramp-up of a plant, reducing actual commissioning costs and time. Technically, this is achieved by linking the actual plant-wide process control software (often called plant server) and an elaborate virtual plant model together to form an emulation system. Method-wise, we are suggesting a four-step iterative process with well-defined increments and time frame. Our work is based on practical experiences from planning to commissioning and start-up of several cut-to-size plants.

Keywords: iterative system design, virtual plant engineering, plant control software, simulation and emulation, virtual commissioning

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Authors: Martina Holenko Dlab, Natasa Hoic-Bozic, Ivica Boticki

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This paper presents technologically innovative and scalable mobile learning solution within the SCOLLAm project (“Opening up education through Seamless and COLLAborative mobile learning on tablet computers”). The main research method applied during the development of the SCOLLAm mobile learning system is design-based research. It assumes iterative refinement of the system guided by collaboration between researches and practitioners. Following the identification of requirements, a multiplatform mobile learning system SCOLLAm [in]Form was developed. Several experiments were designed and conducted in the first and second grade of elementary school. SCOLLAm [in]Form system was used to design learning activities for math classes during which students practice calculation. System refinements were based on experience and interaction data gathered during class observations. In addition to implemented improvements, the data were used to outline possible improvements and deficiencies of the system that should be addressed in the next phase of the SCOLLAm [in]Form development.

Keywords: adaptation, collaborative learning, educational technology, mobile learning, tablet computers

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Authors: Shakila Singh

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This research was conducted at a selected South African university campus with women students who drink alcohol. The purpose of the study was to examine their perspectives on the role of alcohol in their lives, their understandings about women’s vulnerability to alcohol-related sexual risk and their strategies against these. The study draws on feminist principles and practices to challenge gendered inequalities that legitimate and facilitate violence against women. Recognising the danger of focusing on risk management in ways that place the burden of responsibility entirely on young women to prevent their violation, this article focuses on women students’ agency in managing risk while taking up opportunities for self-discovery. Participation was voluntary, and a student-researcher administered an open-ended questionnaire to 55 participants. The findings suggest that young women position alcohol- use as a common activity at university, and that it gives them much pleasure. They recognise that it is riskier for women and articulate valuable strategies to manage the risk to their sexual safety when drinking. These include drinking within supportive networks, avoiding financial dependence, and managing their alcohol intake. This article argues that alcohol at university is an integral part of expressions of gender and sexuality and that risk-taking is a normal part of university students’ lives. Consequently, arguments about equality need to consider risk-taking as part of young people’s lives and promote ways of managing alcohol-related risks, rather than imagining that alcohol can be avoided entirely.

Keywords: alcohol-related sexual risk, drinking at university, managing risk, women students

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Authors: Bahareh Montakhabi

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Earthquake is known as one of the deadliest natural disasters, with a high potential for damage to life and property. Some of Iran's cities were completely destroyed after major earthquakes, and the people of the region suffered a lot of mental, financial and psychological damage. Tehran is one of the cities located on the fault line. According to experts, the only city that could be severely damaged by a moderate earthquake in Earthquake Engineering Intensity Scale (EEIS) (70% destruction) is Tehran because Tehran is built precisely on the fault. Seismic risk assessment (SRA) of cities in the scale of urban areas and neighborhoods is the first phase of the earthquake crisis management process, which can provide the information required to make optimal use of available resources and facilities in order to reduce the destructive effects and consequences of an earthquake. This study has investigated strategies to promote safety and reduce the vulnerability of worn-out urban textures in the District 12 of Tehran to the potential risk of earthquake aimed at prioritizing the factors affecting the vulnerability of worn-out urban textures to earthquake crises and how to reduce them, using the analytical-exploratory method, analytical hierarchy process (AHP), Expert choice and SWOT technique. The results of SWAT and AHP analysis of the vulnerability of the worn-out textures of District 12 to internal threats (1.70) and external threats (2.40) indicate weak safety of the textures of District 12 regarding internal and external factors and a high possibility of damage.

Keywords: risk management, vulnerability, worn-out textures, earthquake

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Authors: R. Ueda

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Today global society is seeking resilient partnership in local organizations and individuals, which realizes multi-stakeholders relationship. Although it is proposed by modern global framework of sustainable development, it is conceivable that such affiliation can be found out in the traditional local community in Japan, and that traditional spirit is tacitly sustaining in modern context of disaster mitigation in society and economy. Then this research is aiming to clarify and analyze implication for the global world by actual case studies. Regional and urban resilience is the ability of multi-stakeholders to cooperate flexibly and to adapt in response to changes in the circumstances caused by disasters, but there are various conflicts affecting coordination of disaster relief measures. These conflicts arise not only from a lack of communication and an insufficient network, but also from the difficulty to jointly draw common context from fragmented information. This is because of the weakness of our modern engineering which focuses on maintenance and restoration of individual systems. Here local ‘circles’ holistically includes local community and interacts periodically. Focusing on examples of resilient organizations and wisdom created in communities, what can be seen throughout history is a virtuous cycle where the information and the knowledge are structured, the context to be adapted becomes clear, and an adaptation at a higher level is made possible, by which the collaboration between organizations is deepened and expanded. And the wisdom of a solid and autonomous disaster prevention formed by the historical community called’ Waju’ – an area surrounded by circle embankment to protect the settlement from flood – lives on in government efforts of the coastal industrial island of today. Industrial company there collaborates to create a circle including common evacuation space, road access improvement and infrastructure recovery. These days, people here adopts new interface technology. Large-scale AR- Augmented Reality for more than hundred people is expressing detailed hazard by tsunami and liquefaction. Common experiences of the major disaster space and circle of mutual discussion are enforcing resilience. Collaboration spirit lies in the center of circle. A consistent key point is a virtuous cycle where the information and the knowledge are structured, the context to be adapted becomes clear, and an adaptation at a higher level is made possible, by which the collaboration between organizations is deepened and expanded. This writer believes that both self-governing human organizations and the societal implementation of technical systems are necessary. Infrastructure should be autonomously instituted by associations of companies and other entities in industrial areas for working closely with local governments. To develop advanced disaster prevention and multi-stakeholder collaboration, partnerships among industry, government, academia and citizens are important.

Keywords: industrial recovery, multi-sakeholders, traditional culture, user experience, Waju

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Authors: A. Abubakar, A. Parsa, S. Walker

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Despite advances made in the diagnosis and management of drug-sensitive tuberculosis (TB) over the past decades, treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) remains challenging and complex particularly in high burden countries including Nigeria. Treatment of MDR-TB is cost-prohibitive with success rate generally lower compared to drug-sensitive TB and if care is not taken it may become the dominant form of TB in future with many treatment uncertainties and substantial morbidity and mortality. Addressing these challenges requires collaborative efforts thorough sustained researches to evaluate the current treatment guidelines, particularly in high burden countries and prevent progression of resistance. To our best knowledge, there has been no research exploring the acceptability, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of community-based-MDR-TB treatment model in Nigeria, which is among the high burden countries. The previous similar qualitative study looks at the home-based management of MDR-TB in rural Uganda. This research aimed to explore patient’s views and acceptability of community-based-MDR-TB treatment model and to evaluate and compare the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of community-based versus hospital-based MDR-TB treatment model of care from the Nigerian perspective. Knowledge of patient’s views and acceptability of community-based-MDR-TB treatment approach would help in designing future treatment recommendations and in health policymaking. Accordingly, knowledge of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness are part of the evidence needed to inform a decision about whether and how to scale up MDR-TB treatment, particularly in a poor resource setting with limited knowledge of TB. Mixed methods using qualitative and quantitative approach were employed. Qualitative data were obtained using in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 MDR-TB patients in Nigeria to explore their views and acceptability of community-based MDR-TB treatment model. Qualitative data collection followed an iterative process which allowed adaptation of topic guides until data saturation. In-depth interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Quantitative data on treatment outcomes were obtained from medical records of MDR-TB patients to determine the effectiveness and direct and indirect costs were obtained from the patients using validated questionnaire and health system costs from the donor agencies to determine the cost-effectiveness difference between community and hospital-based model from the Nigerian perspective. Findings: Some themes have emerged from the patient’s perspectives indicating preference and high acceptability of community-based-MDR-TB treatment model by the patients and mixed feelings about the risk of MDR-TB transmission within the community due to poor infection control. The result of the modeling from the quantitative data is still on course. Community-based MDR-TB care was seen as the acceptable and most preferred model of care by the majority of the participants because of its convenience which in turn enhanced recovery, enables social interaction and offer more psychosocial benefits as well as averted productivity loss. However, there is a need to strengthen this model of care thorough enhanced strategies that ensure guidelines compliance and infection control in order to prevent the progression of resistance and curtail community transmission.

Keywords: acceptability, cost-effectiveness, multidrug-resistant TB treatment, community and hospital approach

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Authors: Tolga Levent

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Throughout the past few decades, forced immigration has been a significant problem for many developing countries. Turkey is one of those countries, which has experienced lots of forced immigration waves in the Republican era. However, the ongoing forced immigration wave of Syrians started with Syrian Civil War in 2011, is strikingly influential due to its intensity. In six years, approximately 3,4 million Syrians have entered to Turkey and presented high-level spatial concentrations in certain cities proximate to the Syrian border. These concentrations make Syrians and their problems relatively visible, especially in those cities. The problems of Syrians in Turkish cities could be associated with all dimensions of daily lives. Within economical dimension, high rates of Syrian unemployment push them to informal jobs offering very low wages. The financial aids they continuously demand from public authorities trigger anti-Syrian behaviors of local communities. Moreover, their relatively limited social adaptation capacities increase integration problems within social dimension day by day. Even, there are problems related to public health dimension such as the reappearance of certain child's illnesses due to the insufficiency of vaccination of Syrian children. These problems are significant but relatively easy to be prevented by using different types of management strategies and structural policies. However, there are other types of problems -urban problems- emerging with socio-spatial impacts of Syrians on Turkish cities in a very short period of time. There are relatively limited amount of studies about these impacts since they are difficult to be comprehended. The aim of the study, in this respect, is to understand these rapidly-emerging impacts and urban problems resulted from this massive immigration influx and to discuss new qualities of urban planning facing them. In the first part, there is a brief historical consideration of forced immigration waves in Turkey. These waves are important to make comparison with the ongoing immigration wave and to understand its significance. The second part is about quantitative and qualitative analyses of the spatial existence of Syrian immigrants in the city of Mersin, as an example of cities where Syrians are highly concentrated. By using official data from public authorities, quantitative statistical analyses are made to detect spatial concentrations of Syrians at neighborhood level. As methods of qualitative research, observations and in-depth interviews are used to define socio-spatial impacts of Syrians. The main results show that there emerges 'cities in cities' though sharp socio-spatial segregations which change density surfaces; produce unforeseen land-use patterns; result in inadequacies of public services and create degradations/deteriorations of urban environments occupied by Syrians. All these problems are significant; however, Turkish planning system does not have a capacity to cope with them. In the final part, there is a discussion about new qualities of urban planning facing these impacts and urban problems. The main point of discussion is the possibility of resilient urban planning under the conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability fostered by immigration crisis. Such a resilient planning approach might provide an option for countries aiming to cope with negative socio-spatial impacts of massive immigration influxes.

Keywords: cities, forced immigration, Syrians, urban planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 251

Authors: M. K. Benhaoua, A. K. Singh, A. E. Benyamina, P. Boulet

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Mapping parallelized tasks of applications onto these MPSoCs can be done either at design time (static) or at run-time (dynamic). Static mapping strategies find the best placement of tasks at design-time, and hence, these are not suitable for dynamic workload and seem incapable of runtime resource management. The number of tasks or applications executing in MPSoC platform can exceed the available resources, requiring efficient run-time mapping strategies to meet these constraints. This paper describes a new Spiral Dynamic Task Mapping heuristic for mapping applications onto NoC-based Heterogeneous MPSoC. This heuristic is based on packing strategy and routing Algorithm proposed also in this paper. Heuristic try to map the tasks of an application in a clustering region to reduce the communication overhead between the communicating tasks. The heuristic proposed in this paper attempts to map the tasks of an application that are most related to each other in a spiral manner and to find the best possible path load that minimizes the communication overhead. In this context, we have realized a simulation environment for experimental evaluations to map applications with varying number of tasks onto an 8x8 NoC-based Heterogeneous MPSoCs platform, we demonstrate that the new mapping heuristics with the new modified dijkstra routing algorithm proposed are capable of reducing the total execution time and energy consumption of applications when compared to state-of-the-art run-time mapping heuristics reported in the literature.

Keywords: multiprocessor system on chip, MPSoC, network on chip, NoC, heterogeneous architectures, run-time mapping heuristics, routing algorithm

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Authors: Jolanta Jonak, Sylvia Tolczyk

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Educational systems are tasked with preparing students for future success in academic or work environments. Schools strive to achieve this goal, but often it is challenging as conventional teaching approaches are often ineffective in increasingly diverse educational systems. In today’s ever-increasing global society, educational systems become increasingly diverse in terms of cultural and linguistic differences, learning preferences and styles, ability and disability. Through increased understanding of disabilities and improved identification processes, students having some form of disabilities tend to be identified earlier than in the past, meaning that more students with identified disabilities are being supported in our classrooms. Also, a large majority of students with disabilities are educated in general education environments. Due to cognitive makeup and life experiences, students have varying learning styles and preferences impacting how they receive and express what they are learning. Many students come from bi or multilingual households and with varying proficiencies in the English language, further impacting their learning. All these factors need to be seriously considered when developing learning opportunities for student's. Educators try to adjust their teaching practices as they discover that conventional methods are often ineffective in reaching each student’s potential. Many teachers do not have the necessary educational background or training to know how to teach students whose learning needs are more unique and may vary from the norm. This is further complicated by the fact that many classrooms lack consistent access to interventionists/coaches that are adequately trained in evidence-based approaches to meet the needs of all students, regardless of what their academic needs may be. One evidence-based way for providing successful education for all students is by incorporating cognitive approaches and strategies that tap into affective, recognition, and strategic networks in the student's brain. This can be done through Differentiated Instruction (DI). Differentiated Instruction is increasingly recognized model that is established on the basic principles of Universal Design for Learning. This form of support ensures that regardless of the students’ learning preferences and cognitive learning profiles, they have opportunities to learn through approaches that are suitable to their needs. This approach improves the educational outcomes of students with special needs and it benefits other students as it accommodates learning styles as well as the scope of unique learning needs that are evident in the typical classroom setting. Differentiated Instruction also is recognized as an evidence-based best practice in education and is highly effective when it is implemented within the tiered system of the Response to Intervention (RTI) model. Recognition of DI becomes more common; however, there is still limited understanding of the effective implementation and use of strategies that can create unique learning environments for each student within the same setting. Through employing knowledge of a variety of instructional strategies, general and special education teachers can facilitate optimal learning for all students, with and without a disability. A desired byproduct of DI is that it can eliminate inaccurate perceptions about the students’ learning abilities, unnecessary referrals for special education evaluations, and inaccurate decisions about the presence of a disability.

Keywords: differentiated instruction, universal design for learning, special education, diversity

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Authors: Alireza Vakili, Shahab Ehtesham, Mohsen Danesh Mesgaran

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The objective of this study was use different levels of spent mushroom substrate as a suitable substitute for wheat straw in the ration of male lambs. In this study 20 male lambs with the age of 90 days and initial average weight of 33± 1.7 kg were used. The animals were divided separately into single boxes with four treatments (control treatment, spent mushroom substrate 15%, spent mushroom substrate 25% and spent mushroom substrate 35%) and five replications. The experiment period was 114 days being 14 days adaptation and 90 days for breeding. On the days 36 and 94, blood samples were taken from the jugular vein. In order to carry out the trial, 20 male lambs received the four experimental diets in completely randomized design. The statistical analyses were carried out by using the GLM procedure of SAS 9.1. Means among treatments were compared by Tukey test. The results of the study showed that there was no significant differences between the serum biochemical and hematological contents of the lambs in the four treatments (p>0.05). It was concluded that spent mushroom substrate consumption has no harmful effect on the blood parameters of Kurdish male lambs.

Keywords: alternative food, nutrition, sheep performance, spent mushroom substrate

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Authors: Michele M. Mahr

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The purpose of this study is to educate, inform, and facilitate scholarly conversation and discussion regarding the implementation of mindfulness techniques when working with individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) or addictive behaviors in mental health. Mindfulness can be recognized as the present moment, non-judgmental awareness, initiated by concentrated attention that is non-reactive and as openheartedly as possible. Individuals with SUD or addiction typically are challenged with triggers, environmental situations, cravings, or social pressures which may deter them from remaining abstinent from their drug of choice or addictive behavior. Also, mindfulness is recognized as one of the cognitive and behavioral treatment approaches and is both a physical and mental practice that encompasses individuals to become aware of internal situations and experiences with undivided attention. That said, mindfulness may be an effective strategy for individuals to employ during these experiences. This study will reveal how mental health practitioners and addiction counselors may find mindfulness to be an essential component of increasing wellness when working with individuals seeking mental health treatment. To this end, mindfulness is simply the ability individuals have to know what is actually happening as it is occurring and what they are experiencing at the moment. In the context of substance abuse and addiction, individuals may employ breathing techniques, meditation, and cognitive restructuring of the mind to become aware of present moment experiences. Furthermore, the notion of mindfulness has been directly connected to the development of neuropathways. The creation of the neural pathways then leads to creating thoughts which leads to developing new coping strategies and adaptive behaviors. Mindfulness strategies can assist individuals in connecting the mind with the body, allowing the individual to remain centered and focused. All of these mentioned above are vital components to recovery during substance abuse and addiction treatment. There are a variety of therapeutic modalities applying the key components of mindfulness, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for depression (MBCT). This study will provide an overview of both MBSR and MBCT in relation to treating individuals with substance abuse and addiction. The author will also provide strategies for readers to employ when working with clients. Lastly, the author will create and foster a safe space for discussion and engaging conversation among participants to ask questions, share perspectives, and be educated on the numerous benefits of mindfulness within wellness.

Keywords: mindfulness, wellness, substance abuse, mental health

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Authors: Vicente Espinola, Luis Torres, Christhian Gonzalez

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Entrepreneurship is a topic of current interest in Mexico and the World, which has been fostered through public policies with great impact on its generation. The strategies used in Mexico have not been successful, being motivational strategies aimed at the masses with the intention that someone in the process generates a venture. The strategies used for its development have been "picking of winners" favoring those who have already overcome the initial stages of undertaking without effective support. This situation shows a disarticulation that appears even more in social entrepreneurship; due to this, it is relevant to research on those elements that could develop them and thus integrate a model of entrepreneurship and social innovation for Mexico. Social entrepreneurship should be generating social innovation, which is translated into business models in order to make the benefits reach the population. These models are proposed putting the social impact before the economic impact, without forgetting its sustainability in the medium and long term. In this work, we present a simple model of innovation and social entrepreneurship for Guanajuato, Mexico. This algorithm was based on how social innovation could be generated in a systemic way for Mexico through different institutions that promote innovation. In this case, the technological parks of the state of Guanajuato were studied because these are considered one of the areas of Mexico where its main objectives are to make technology transfer to companies but overlooking the social sector and entrepreneurs. An experimental design of n = 60 was carried out with potential entrepreneurs to identify their perception of the social approach that the enterprises should have, the skills they consider required to create a venture, as well as their interest in generating ventures that solve social problems. This experiment had a 2K design, the value of k = 3 and the computational simulation was performed in R statistical language. A simple model of interconnected variables is proposed, which allows us to identify where it is necessary to increase efforts for the generation of social enterprises. The 96.67% of potential entrepreneurs expressed interest in ventures that solve social problems. In the analysis of the variables interaction, it was identified that the isolated development of entrepreneurial skills would only replicate the generation of traditional ventures. The variable of social approach presented positive interactions, which may influence the generation of social entrepreneurship if this variable was strengthened and permeated in the processes of training and development of entrepreneurs. In the future, it will be necessary to analyze the institutional actors that are present in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem, in order to analyze the interaction necessary to strengt the innovation and social entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Keywords: social innovation, model, entrepreneurship, technological parks

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Authors: Min-Pei Ling

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Aflatoxin is a fungal secondary metabolite with high toxicity capable of contaminating various types of food crops. It has been identified as a Group 1 human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Chronic aflatoxin exposure has caused a worldwide public food safety concern. Peanuts and peanut products are the major sources of aflatoxin exposure. Therefore, some reduction interventions have been developed to minimize contamination through the peanut production chain. The purpose of this study is to estimate the efficacy of interventions in reducing the health impact of hepatocellular carcinoma caused by aflatoxin contamination in peanuts. The estimated total disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) was calculated using FDA-iRISK online software. Six aflatoxin reduction strategies were evaluated, including good agricultural practice (GAP), biocontrol, Purdue Improved Crop Storage packaging, basic processing, ozonolysis, and ultraviolet irradiation. The results indicated that basic processing could prevent huge public health loss of 4,079.7–21,833 total DALYs per year, which accounted for 39.6% of all decreased total DALYs. GAP and biocontrol were both effective strategies in the farm field, while the other three interventions were limited in reducing total DALYs. In conclusion, this study could help farmers, processing plants, and government policymakers to alleviate aflatoxin contamination issues in the peanut production chain.

Keywords: aflatoxin, health burden, disability-adjusted life-years, peanuts

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Authors: Faride Peña, Teresita Castillo, Concepción Campo

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Sexual violence, and particularly child sexual abuse, is a serious problem all over the world, México included. Given its importance, there are several preventive and care programs done by the government and the civil society all over the country but most of them are developed in urban areas even though these problems are especially serious in rural areas. Yucatán, a state in southern México, occupies one of the first places in child sexual abuse. Considering the above, the University Unit of Clinical Research and Victimological Attention (UNIVICT) of the Autonomous University of Yucatan, designed, implemented and is currently evaluating the program named “Sharing Mouth to Mouth: My Body, Nobody Can Touch It”, a program to prevent child sexual abuse in rural communities of Yucatán, México. Its aim was to develop skills for the detection of risk situations, providing protection strategies and mechanisms for prevention through culturally relevant psycho-educative strategies to increase personal resources in children, in collaboration with parents, teachers, police and municipal authorities. The diagnosis identified that a particularly vulnerable population were children between 4 and 10 years. The program run during 2015 in primary schools in the municipality whose inhabitants are mostly Mayan. The aim of this paper is to present its evaluation in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency. This evaluation included documental analysis of the work done in the field, psycho-educational and recreational activities with children, evaluation of knowledge by participating children and interviews with parents and teachers. The results show high efficiency in fulfilling the tasks and achieving primary objectives. The efficiency shows satisfactory results but also opportunity areas that can be resolved with minor adjustments to the program. The results also show the importance of including culturally relevant strategies and activities otherwise it minimizes possible achievements. Another highlight is the importance of participatory action research in preventive approaches to child sexual abuse since by becoming aware of the importance of the subject people participate more actively; in addition to design culturally appropriate strategies and measures so that the proposal may not be distant to the people. Discussion emphasizes the methodological implications of prevention programs (convenience of using participatory action research (PAR), importance of monitoring and mediation during implementation, developing detection skills tools in creative ways using psycho-educational interactive techniques and working assessment issued by the participants themselves). As well, it is important to consider the holistic character this type of program should have, in terms of incorporating social and culturally relevant characteristics, according to the community individuality and uniqueness, consider type of communication to be used and children’ language skills considering that there should be variations strongly linked to a specific cultural context.

Keywords: child sexual abuse, evaluation, PAR, prevention

Procedia PDF Downloads 291