Search results for: cost of poor quality (COPQ)

Authors: M. Masroor Akhtar Khan, Moin Uddin, Lalit Varshney

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Recently, there has been a rapidly expanding interest in finding applications of natural polymers in view of value addition to agriculture. It is now being realized that radiation processing of natural polysaccharides can be beneficially utilized either to improve the existing methodologies used for processing the natural polymers or to impart value addition to agriculture by converting them into more useful form. Gamma-ray irradiation is employed to degrade and lower the molecular weight of some of the natural polysaccharides like alginates, chitosan and carrageenan into small sized oligomers. When these oligomers are applied to plants as foliar sprays, they elicit various kinds of biological and physiological activities, including promotion of plant growth, seed germination, shoot elongation, root growth, flower production, suppression of heavy metal stress, etc. Furthermore, application of these oligomers can shorten the harvesting period of various crops and help in reducing the use of insecticides and chemical fertilizers. In recent years, the oligomers of sodium alginate obtained by irradiating the latter with gamma-rays at 520 kGy dose are being employed. It was noticed that the oligomers derived from the natural polysaccharides could induce growth, photosynthetic efficiency, enzyme activities and most importantly the production of secondary metabolite in the plants like Artemisia annua, Beta vulgaris, Catharanthus roseus, Chrysopogon zizanioides, Cymbopogon flexuosus, Eucalyptus citriodora, Foeniculum vulgare, Geranium sp., Mentha arvensis, Mentha citrata, Mentha piperita, Mentha virdis, Papaver somniferum and Trigonella foenum-graecum. As a result of the application of these oligomers, the yield and/or contents of the active constituents of the aforesaid plants were significantly enhanced. The productivity, as well as quality of medicinal and aromatic plants, may be ameliorated by this novel technique in an economical way as a very little quantity of these irradiated (depolymerised) polysaccharides is needed. Further, this is a very safe technique, as we did not expose the plants directly to radiation. The radiation was used to depolymerize the polysaccharides into oligomers.

Keywords: essential oil, medicinal and aromatic plants, plant production, radiation processed polysaccharides, active constituents

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Authors: Javier Carroquino, Nieves García-Casarejos, Pilar Gargallo, F. Javier García-Ramos

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The energy used in agriculture is a source of global emissions of greenhouse gases. The two main types of this energy are electricity for pumping and diesel for agricultural machinery. In order to reduce these emissions, the European project LIFE REWIND addresses the supply of this demand from renewable sources. First of all, comprehensive data on energy demand and available renewable resources have been obtained in several case studies. Secondly, a set of simulations and optimizations have been performed, in search of the best configuration and sizing, both from an economic and emission reduction point of view. For this purpose, it was used software based on genetic algorithms. Thirdly, a prototype has been designed and installed, that it is being used for the validation in a real case. Finally, throughout a year of operation, various technical and economic parameters are being measured for further analysis. The prototype is not connected to the utility grid, avoiding the cost and environmental impact of a grid extension. The system includes three kinds of photovoltaic fields. One is located on a fixed structure on the terrain. Another one is floating on an irrigation raft. The last one is mounted on a two axis solar tracker. Each has its own solar inverter. The total amount of nominal power is 44 kW. A lead acid battery with 120 kWh of capacity carries out the energy storage. Three isolated inverters support a three phase, 400 V 50 Hz micro-grid, the same characteristics of the utility grid. An advanced control subsystem has been constructed, using free hardware and software. The electricity produced feeds a set of seven pumps used for purification, elevation and pressurization of water in a drip irrigation system located in a vineyard. Since the irrigation season does not include the whole year, as well as a small oversize of the generator, there is an amount of surplus energy. With this surplus, a hydrolyser produces on site hydrogen by electrolysis of water. An off-road vehicle with fuel cell feeds on that hydrogen and carries people in the vineyard. The only emission of the process is high purity water. On the one hand, the results show the technical and economic feasibility of stand-alone renewable energy systems to feed seasonal pumping. In this way, the economic costs, the environmental impacts and the landscape impacts of grid extensions are avoided. The use of diesel gensets and their associated emissions are also avoided. On the other hand, it is shown that it is possible to replace diesel in agricultural machinery, substituting it for electricity or hydrogen of 100% renewable origin and produced on the farm itself, without any external energy input. In addition, it is expected to obtain positive effects on the rural economy and employment, which will be quantified through interviews.

Keywords: drip irrigation, greenhouse gases, hydrogen, renewable energy, vineyard

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Authors: M. Achemo, O. Saito

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Jefoure land use system is one of the traditional landscape human settlement patterns, and it is a cultural design and peculiar art of the people of Gurage in Ethiopia via which houses and trees flank roads left and right. Assessment of the multiple benefits of the traditional road that benefit society and development could enhance the understanding of the land use planners and decision makers to pay attention while planning and managing the land use system. Recent trend shows that the Jefoure land use is on the threshold of change as a result of flourishing road networks, overgrazing, and agricultural expansion. This study aimed to evaluate the multiple ecosystem services provided by the Jefoure land use system after characterization of the socio-ecological landscape. Information was compiled from existing data sources such as ordnance survey maps, aerial photographs, recent high resolution satellite imageries, designated questionnaires and interviews, and local authority contacts. The result generated scientific data on the characteristics, ecosystem services provision, and drivers of changes. The cultural landscape has novel characteristics and providing multiple ecosystem services to the community for long period of time. It is serving as road for humans, livestock and vehicles, habitat for plant species, regulating local temperature, climate, runoff and infiltration, and place for meeting, conducting religious and spiritual activities, holding social events such as marriage and mourning, playing station for children and court for football and other traditional games. As a result of its aesthetic quality and scenic beauty, it is considered as recreational place for improving mental and physical health. The study draws relevant land use planning and management solution in the improvement of socio-ecological resilience in the Jefoure land use system. The study suggests the landscape needs to be registrar as heritage site for recognizing the wisdom of the community and enhancing the conservation mechanisms.

Keywords: cultural landscape, ecosystem services, Gurage, Jefoure

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Authors: Hanan K. Hassanein

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Task-based language teaching (TBLT) and focus on form instruction (FFI) methods were proven to improve quality and quantity of immediate language production. However, studies that compare between the effectiveness of the language production when using TBLT versus FFI are very little with results that are not consistent. Moreover, teaching Arabic using TBLT is a new field with few research that has investigated its application inside classrooms. Furthermore, to the best knowledge of the researcher, there are no prior studies that compared teaching Arabic as a foreign language in a classroom setting using computer-assisted task-based language teaching (CATBLT) with computer-assisted form focused language instruction (CAFFI). Accordingly, the focus of this presentation is to display CATBLT and CAFFI tools when teaching Arabic as a foreign language as well as demonstrate an experimental study that aims to identify whether or not CATBLT is a more effective instruction method. The effectiveness will be determined through comparing CATBLT and CAFFI in terms of accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency of language produced by students. The participants of the study are 20 students enrolled in two intermediate-level Arabic as a foreign language classes. The experiment will take place over the course of 7 days. Based on a study conducted by Abdurrahman Arslanyilmaz for teaching Turkish as a second language, an in-house computer assisted tool for the TBLT and another one for FFI will be designed for the experiment. The experimental group will be instructed using the in-house CATBLT tool and the control group will be taught through the in-house CAFFI tool. The data that will be analyzed are the dialogues produced by students in both the experimental and control groups when completing a task or communicating in conversational activities. The dialogues of both groups will be analyzed to understand the effect of the type of instruction (CATBLT or CAFFI) on accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency. Thus, the study aims to demonstrate whether or not there is an instruction method that positively affects the language produced by students learning Arabic as a foreign language more than the other.

Keywords: computer assisted language teaching, foreign language teaching, form-focused instruction, task based language teaching

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: Riina I. Bray, Yifan Wang, Nikolas Argiropoulos, Stephanie Robins, John Molot, Kelly Tragash, Lynn M. Marshall, Margaret E. Sears, Marie-Andrée Pigeon, Michel Gaudet, Pierre Auger, Emily Bélanger, Rohini Peris

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Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a chronic medical condition characterized by intolerances to chemical substances. Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated health measures, people experiencing MCS (PEMCS) are at a heightened risk of environmental exposures associated with cleaners, disinfectants, and sanitizers. Little attention has been paid to the well-being of PEMCS in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: This study assesses the lived experiences of Canadian adults with MCS in relation to their living environment, access to healthcare, and levels of perceived social support before and during the pandemic. Methods: A total of 119 PEMCS completed an online questionnaire. McNemar Chi-Squared and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests were used to evaluate if there were statistically significant changes in participants’ perception of their living environment, access to healthcare, and levels of social support before and after March 11, 2020. Results: Both positive and negative outcomes were noted. Participants reported an increase in exposure to disinfectants/sanitizers that entered their living environment (p<.001). There was a reported decrease in access to a family doctor during the pandemic (p<0.001). Although PEMCS experienced increased social isolation (p<0.001), they also reported an increase in understanding from family (p<0.029) and a decrease in stigma for wearing personal protective equipment (p<0.001). Conclusion: PEMCS reported experiencing: increased exposure to disinfectants or sanitizers, a loss of social support, and barriers in accessing healthcare during the pandemic. However, COVID-19 provided an opportunity to normalize the living conditions of PEMCS, such as wearing masks and social isolation. These findings can guide decision-makers on the importance of implementing nontoxic alternatives for cleaning and disinfection, as well as improving accommodation measures for PEMCS.

Keywords: covid-19, multiple chemical sensitivity, MCS, quality of life, social isolation, physical environment, healthcare

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Authors: O. J. Osunkeye, P. O. Fakolade, B. E. Olorede

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Broilers productions depend on the provision of adequate and goo quality feed containing all the nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrate, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. All these nutrients have to be provided at a required amount to support maximum productivity and normal physiological functions and demands. Among these nutrients proteins are particularly important, since they are essential for meat and muscle production, optimum growth and health status. Poultry production industry in the developing countries is been threatened because of the over dependency on Soybean meal as one of the key/major conventional protein stuff for feeding livestock. Even the competition between man and livestock for Soybean and other protein sources made the price of this feed stuff to be on the increase. Hence the needs to seek for an alternative feed stuff which is cheap and less competitive. This study showed the blood profile, organ and carcass characteristics and performance of broilers fed with Cowpea Testa Meal (CTM) based diets. Four diets were formulated with Cowpea Testa replacing Soybean at 0%, 15%, 30%, and 50% graded levels. One hundred and twenty day-old unsexed broiler birds were allotted to these four treatments with 3 replicates of 10 birds per replicate. The results showed no significant differences in all the haematological parameters measured (P>0.05), the serum metabolites analysis revealed significant different in Cholesterol (99.8 mg/dl, 112.84 mg/dl, 131.07 mg/dl and 97.66 mg/dl respectively) (P<0.05) among others. There were significant differences within the diets for average daily weight gain, average feed intake and feed to gain ratio. The birds on control (0%) and CTM gained more weight than those fed with 30% and 50% CTM diets. The organs and carcass primal cuts of the broilers expressed significant different for the spleen (0.12 g, 0.09 g, 0.11 g and 0.14 g respectively), lungs (0.97 g, 0.72 g, 0.77 g and 1.01g respectively) and proventriculus (0.96 g, 0.99 g, 0.81 g and 0.85 g respectively) (P<0.05). For the carcass, there were no significant differences (P<0.05) in the breast, thigh, drumstick, wing and neck except for the Back (21.27 g, 21.04 g, 17.71 g, and 17.89 g respectively). In conclusion, CTM inclusion in broiler’s diet could be used as an alternative feed stuff in replacement of Soybean meal up to 15% without any adverse effects as revealed by the blood profile and to increase the growth performance of the birds.

Keywords: physiological functions, cholesterol, blood profiles, CTM and carcass analysis

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Authors: Mohammad Moezzibadi, Isabelle Charpentier, Adrien Wanko, Robert Mosé

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The calibration of hydrodynamic parameters for subsurface constructed wetlands (CWs) is a sensitive process since highly non-linear equations are involved in unsaturated flow modeling. CW systems are engineered systems designed to favour natural treatment processes involving wetland vegetation, soil, and their microbial flora. Their significant efficiency at reducing the ecological impact of urban runoff has been recently proved in the field. Numerical flow modeling in a vertical variably saturated CW is here carried out by implementing the Richards model by means of a mixed hybrid finite element method (MHFEM), particularly well adapted to the simulation of heterogeneous media, and the van Genuchten-Mualem parametrization. For validation purposes, MHFEM results were compared to those of HYDRUS (a software based on a finite element discretization). As van Genuchten-Mualem soil hydrodynamic parameters depend on water content, their estimation is subject to considerable experimental and numerical studies. In particular, the sensitivity analysis performed with respect to the van Genuchten-Mualem parameters reveals a predominant influence of the shape parameters α, n and the saturated conductivity of the filter on the piezometric heads, during saturation and desaturation. Modeling issues arise when the soil reaches oven-dry conditions. A particular attention should also be brought to boundary condition modeling (surface ponding or evaporation) to be able to tackle different sequences of rainfall-runoff events. For proper parameter identification, large field datasets would be needed. As these are usually not available, notably due to the randomness of the storm events, we thus propose a simple, robust and low-cost numerical method for the inverse modeling of the soil hydrodynamic properties. Among the methods, the variational data assimilation technique introduced by Le Dimet and Talagrand is applied. To that end, a variational data assimilation technique is implemented by applying automatic differentiation (AD) to augment computer codes with derivative computations. Note that very little effort is needed to obtain the differentiated code using the on-line Tapenade AD engine. Field data are collected for a three-layered CW located in Strasbourg (Alsace, France) at the water edge of the urban water stream Ostwaldergraben, during several months. Identification experiments are conducted by comparing measured and computed piezometric head by means of the least square objective function. The temporal variability of hydrodynamic parameter is then assessed and analyzed.

Keywords: automatic differentiation, constructed wetland, inverse method, mixed hybrid FEM, sensitivity analysis

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Authors: Iram Zahair, Tanith Rose, Oyinlola Oyebode, Stephen Clayton, Iman Ghosh, Michelle Maden, Ben Barr

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Background: Gastrointestinal infections exert a significant public health burden on UK healthcare services and the community. However, there are conflicting findings on where ethnic inequalities are likely to persist. This systematic review aimed to identify studies that ascertain differences in the incidence and prevalence of gastrointestinal infections within and between UK ethnic groups and explore possible explanations for heterogeneity observed within the literature. Methods: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidance, a systematic review methodology was used. Medline, Web of Science, CINAHL Plus, and grey literature were searched from 1980 to 2021 for studies reporting an association between ethnicity and gastrointestinal infections in UK population samples. Two reviewers independently screened the articles and conducted quality appraisals; data extraction was undertaken by one reviewer and verified by two reviewers (PROSPERO CRD 42021240714). A narrative synthesis was undertaken to synthesise the study findings. Results: The searches identified 8134 studies; 13 met the inclusion criteria. 12 out of 13 studies found a difference in the prevalence of gastrointestinal infections between different ethnic groups. UK ethnic minorities, predominantly men and children of Asian ethnicity, had an increased risk of infection than the white British majority in 12 studies; the Pakistani ethnic group had a higher risk of infection in three out of 13 studies. Studies reported that age and sex confounded the relationship between ethnicity and gastrointestinal infections. At the same time, the country of birth, socioeconomic status, and geographical location of ethnic groups mediated this association and significantly explained the heterogeneity observed across the studies. Harvest plots supported the textual synthesis. Conclusion: This systematic review elucidates the lack of extensive UK quantitative evidence examining the association between ethnicity and gastrointestinal infections. Insights into gastrointestinal infections and ethnicity's association can help address policy actions to mitigate the inequalities identified within and between UK ethnic groups.

Keywords: ethnic and racial populations, public health, public health policy, systematic review

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Authors: Silvia Miele, Patrice Rusconi, Harriet Tenenbaum

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An increasingly multi-ethnic Europe has been pushing citizens’ boundaries on who should be entitled and to what extent to practise their own diversity. Indeed, according to a Standard Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2017, immigration is seen by Europeans as the most serious issue facing the EU, and a third of respondents reported they do not feel comfortable interacting with migrants from outside the EU. Many of these come from Muslim countries, accounting for 4.9% of Europe population in 2016. However, the figure is projected to rise up to 14% by 2050. Additionally, political debates have increasingly focused on Muslim immigrants, who are frequently portrayed as difficult to integrate, while nationalist parties across Europe have fostered the idea of insuperable cultural differences, creating an atmosphere of hostility. Using a 3 X 3 X 2 between-subjects design, it was investigated how people reason about endorsing religious and non-religious rights to minorities. An online survey has been administered to university students of three different countries (Italy, Spain and the UK) via Qualtrics, presenting hypothetical scenarios through a vignette methodology. Each respondent has been randomly allocated to one of the three following conditions: Christian, Muslim or non-religious (vegan) target. Each condition entailed three questions about children self-determination rights to exercise some control over their own lives and 3 questions about children nurturance rights of care and protection. Moreover, participants have been required to further elaborate on their answers via free-text entries and have been asked about their contact and quality of contact with the three targets, and to self-report religious, national and ethnic identification. Answers have been recorded on a Likert scale of 1-5, 1 being "not at all", 5 being "very much". A two-way ANCOVA will be used to analyse answers to closed-ended questions, while free-text answers will be coded and data will be dichotomised based on Social Cognitive Domain Theory for four categories: moral, social conventional and psychological reasons, and analysed via ANCOVAs. This study’s findings aim to contribute to the implementation of educational interventions and speak to the introduction of governmental policies on human rights.

Keywords: children's rights, Europe, migration, minority

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Authors: Songul Aktas, Turkan Pasinlioglu, Kiymet Yesilcicek Calik

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Introduction: Emphatic approach during labor increases both quality of care and birth satisfaction of mothers. Besides; maternal satisfaction statements and expressions about midwives who assist labor contribute to a positive birth perception and wish to give vaginal delivery again. Aim: The study aimed at investigating the effect of empathy training given to midwives on mothers’ satisfaction with midwives and their birth perception. Material/Method: This experimental study was undertaken between February 2013 and January 2014 at a public hospital in Trabzon Province. The population of the study was composed of mothers who gave vaginal delivery and the sample was composed of 222 mothers determined with power analyzes. Ethical approval and written informed consents were obtained. Mothers who were assisted by midwives during 1st, 2nd and 3rd phases of delivery and first two postpartum hours were included. Empathy training given to midwives included didactic narration, creative drama, psychodrama techniques and lasted 32 hours. The data were collected before the empathy training (BET), right after empathy training (RAET) and 8 weeks later after birth (8WLAB). Mothers were homogenous in terms of socio-demographic, obstetric characteristics. Data were collected with a questionnaire and were analyzed with Chi-square tests. Findings: Rate of mother’s satisfaction with midwives was 36.5% in BET, 81.1% in RAET and 75.7% in 8WLAB. Key mother’s satisfaction with midwives were as follows: 27.6% of mothers told that midwives were “smiling-kind” in BET, 39.6% of them in RAET and 33.7% of them in 8WLAB; 31% of mothers told that midwives were “understanding” in BET, 38.2% of them in RAET and 33.7% of them in 8WLAB; 15.7% of mothers told that midwives were “reassuring” in BET, 44.9% of them in RAET and 39.3% of them in 8WLAB;19.5% of mothers told that midwives were “encouraging and motivating” in BET, 39.8% of them in RAET and 19.8% of mothers told that midwives were “informative” in BET, 45.6% of them in RAET and 35.1% of them in 8WLAB (p<0.05). Key mother’s dissatisfaction with midwives were as follows: 55.3% of mothers told that midwives were “poorly-informed” in BET, 17% of them in RAET and 27.7% of them in 8WLAB; 56.9% of mothers told that midwives were “poorly-listening” in BET, 17.6% of them in RAET and 25.5% of them in 8WLAB; 53.2% of mothers told that midwives were “judgmental-embarrassing” in BET, 17% of them in RAET and 29.8% of them in 8WLAB; 56.2% of mothers told that midwives had “fierce facial expressions” in BET, 15.6% of them in RAET and 28.1% of them in 8WLAB. Rates of mothers’ perception that labor was “easy” were 8.1% in BET, 21.6% in RAET and 13.5% in 8WLAB and rates of mothers’ perception that labor was “very difficult and tiring” were 41.9% in BET, 5.4% in RAET and 13.5% in 8WLAB (p<0.05). Conclusion: The effect of empathy training given to midwives upon statements that described mothers’ satisfaction with midwives and their birth perception was positive. Note: This study was financially funded by TUBİTAK project with number 113S672.

Keywords: empathy training, labor perception, mother’s satisfaction with midwife, vaginal delivery

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Authors: Shalinawati Ramli, Khairani Omar, Nurul Azmawati Mohamed, Zarini Ismail, Nur Syahrina Rahim, Nurul Hayati Chamhuri

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Medical doctors’ work to prevent, diagnose, treat diseases, disorders, and injuries as well as prescribing medication. Many people are attracted to this profession because it gives them the opportunity to help others. Doctors’ improve quality of life by providing advice, healing physical ailments and performing complex surgeries. Medicine is a profession in which dedication to the wellbeing of others is of paramount importance. Balancing the requirements of work and personal life can be a struggle as the demand of work as a doctors’ is great. Perception and expectation of medical students regarding the lifestyle of doctors’ is important to ensure that they had made the right career choice. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the perception of pre-clinical students regarding doctors’ lifestyle. This study is a cross-sectional study involving all third-year pre-clinical medical students at University Sains Islam Malaysia. A total of 81 students participated in this study. Participants were given a set of questionnaire consisting of demographic data, open-ended questions on their perception on doctors’ lifestyle of working environment, salary expectation and family life. Thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. The participants comprised 69% female and their age range was between 20-21 years old. Majority of them were from middle-income families. Majority of the students perceived that the doctors’ lifestyle would be busy (72%). Approximately 30% of them expected that the time schedule will be unpredictable, 21% mentioned that sacrifice is required and 16% perceived it as a tiring job. Other themes emerged were ‘requiring high commitment’ (6%), challenging (7%) and risky (4%). With regards to salary expectation, 48% expected reasonable salary, 33% high salary and 12% described it as 'not worth compared to the workload'. Majority of them perceived that their family life will be restricted (62%) and time management is important (33%). Only 15% mentioned that family members have to sacrifice and spousal understanding is important (7%). About 10% of them perceived that their family will not be affected by their profession. Majority of the medical students perceived a busy doctors’ lifestyle, reasonable salary and restricted family life. However, there was a significant proportion of them who required counselling for better preparation of their future lifestyle.

Keywords: doctors lifestyle, pre-clinical students, perception, understanding

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Authors: Maria Jose Granero Paris, Ana Isabel Jimenez Zarco, Agustin Pablo Alvarez Herranz

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In the industrial sector collaboration with suppliers is key to the development of innovations in the field of processes. Access to resources and expertise that are not available in the business, obtaining a cost advantage, or the reduction of the time needed to carry out innovation are some of the benefits associated with the process. However, the success of this collaborative process is compromised, when from the beginning not clearly rules have been established that govern the relationship. Abundant studies developed in the field of innovation emphasize the strategic importance of the concept of “Goverance”. Despite this, there have been few papers that have analyzed how the governance process of the relationship must be designed and managed to ensure the success of the cooperation process. The lack of literature in this area responds to the wide diversity of contexts where collaborative processes to innovate take place. Thus, in sectors such as the car industry there is a strong collaborative tradition between manufacturers and suppliers being part of the value chain. In this case, it is common to establish mechanisms and procedures that fix formal and clear objectives to regulate the relationship, and establishes the rights and obligations of each of the parties involved. By contrast, in other sectors, collaborative relationships to innovate are not a common way of working, particularly when their aim is the development of process improvements. It is in this case, it is when the lack of mechanisms to establish and regulate the behavior of those involved, can give rise to conflicts, and the failure of the cooperative relationship. Because of this the present paper analyzes the similarities and differences in the processes of governance in collaboration with service providers in engineering R & D in the European aerospace industry. With these ideas in mind, we present research is twofold: - Understand the importance of governance as a key element of the success of the cooperation in the development of process innovations, - Establish the mechanisms and procedures to ensure the proper management of the processes of cooperation. Following the methodology of the case study, we analyze the way in which manufacturers and suppliers cooperate in the development of new processes in two industries with different levels of technological intensity and collaborative tradition: the automotive and aerospace. The identification of those elements playing a key role to establish a successful governance and relationship management and the compression of the mechanisms of regulation and control in place at the automotive sector can be use to propose solutions to some of the conflicts that currently arise in aerospace industry. The paper concludes by analyzing the strategic implications for the aerospace industry entails the adoption of some of the practices traditionally used in other industrial sectors. Finally, it is important to highlight that in this paper are presented the first results of a research project currently in progress describing a model of governance that explains the way to manage outsourced engineering services to suppliers in the European aerospace industry, through the analysis of companies in the sector located in Germany, France and Spain.

Keywords: innovation management, innovation governance, managing collaborative innovation, process innovation

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Authors: Sergio J. Calleja, Adria Roca, José D. Santotoribio

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Pancreatic endocrine diseases include pathologies like insulin resistance (IR), prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). Some of them are highly prevalent in the U.S.—40% of U.S. adults have IR, 38% of U.S. adults have prediabetes, and 12% of U.S. adults have DM2—, as reported by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Building upon this imperative, the objective of the present study was to develop a non-invasive test for the assessment of the patient’s pancreatic endocrine function and to evaluate its accuracy in detecting various pancreatic endocrine diseases, such as IR, prediabetes, and DM2. This approach to a routine blood and urine test is based around serum and urine biomarkers. It is made by the combination of several independent public algorithms, such as the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP-III), triglycerides and glucose (TyG) index, homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), HOMA-2, and the quantitative insulin-sensitivity check index (QUICKI). Additionally, it incorporates essential measurements such as the creatinine clearance, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR), and urinalysis, which are helpful to achieve a full image of the patient’s pancreatic endocrine disease. To evaluate the estimated accuracy of this test, an iterative process was performed by a machine learning (ML) algorithm, with a training set of 9,391 patients. The sensitivity achieved was 97.98% and the specificity was 99.13%. Consequently, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve, the positive predictive value (PPV), and the negative predictive value (NPV) were 92.48%, 99.12%, and 98.00%, respectively. The algorithm was validated with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a target sample size (n) of 314 patients. However, 50 patients were initially excluded from the study, because they had ongoing clinically diagnosed pathologies, symptoms or signs, so the n dropped to 264 patients. Then, 110 patients were excluded because they didn’t show up at the clinical facility for any of the follow-up visits—this is a critical point to improve for the upcoming RCT, since the cost of each patient is very high and for this RCT almost a third of the patients already tested were lost—, so the new n consisted of 154 patients. After that, 2 patients were excluded, because some of their laboratory parameters and/or clinical information were wrong or incorrect. Thus, a final n of 152 patients was achieved. In this validation set, the results obtained were: 100.00% sensitivity, 100.00% specificity, 100.00% AUROC, 100.00% PPV, and 100.00% NPV. These results suggest that this approach to a routine blood and urine test holds promise in providing timely and accurate diagnoses of pancreatic endocrine diseases, particularly among individuals aged 40 and above. Given the current epidemiological state of these type of diseases, these findings underscore the significance of early detection. Furthermore, they advocate for further exploration, prompting the intention to conduct a clinical trial involving 26,000 participants (from March 2025 to December 2026).

Keywords: algorithm, diabetes, laboratory medicine, non-invasive

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Authors: Shahira M. Ezzat, Marwa I. Ezzat, Mona M. Okba, Esther T. Menze, Ashraf B. Abdel-Naim, Shahnas O. Mohamed

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Background: In order to decrease the burden of the high cost of synthetic drugs, it is important to focus on phytopharmaceuticals. The aim of our study was to search for the mechanism of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) anti-inflammatory potential and to correlate it to its biophytochemicals. Methods: Various extracts viz. water, 50%, 70%, 80%, and 90% ethanol were prepared from ginger rhizomes. Fractionation of the aqueous extract (AE) was accomplished using Diaion HP-20. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity of the different extracts and isolated compounds was evaluated by protein denaturation inhibition, membrane stabilization, protease inhibition, and anti-lipoxygenase assays. In vivo anti-inflammatory activity of AE was estimated by assessment of rat paw oedema after carrageenan injection. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), certain inflammation markers (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1α, IL-1β, INFr, MCP-1MIP, RANTES, and Nox) levels and MPO activity in the paw edema exudates were measured. Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was also determined. Histopathological alterations of paw tissues were scored. Results: All the tested extracts showed significant (p < 0.1) anti-inflammatory activities. The highest percentage of heat induced albumin denaturation (66%) was exhibited by the 50% ethanol (250 μg/ml). The 70 and 90% ethanol extracts (500 μg/ml) were more potent as membrane stabilizers (34.5 and 37%, respectively) than diclofenac (33%). The 80 and 90% ethanol extracts (500 μg/ml) showed maximum protease inhibition (56%). The strongest anti-lipoxygenase activity was observed for the AE. It showed more significant lipoxygenase inhibition activity than that of diclofenac (58% and 52%, respectively) at the same concentration (125 μg/ml). Fractionation of AE yielded four main fractions (Fr I-IV) which showed significant in vitro anti-inflammatory. Purification of Fr-III and IV led to the isolation of 6-poradol (G1), 6-shogaol (G2); methyl 6- gingerol (G3), 5-gingerol (G4), 6-gingerol (G5), 8-gingerol (G6), 10-gingerol (G7), and 1-dehydro-6-gingerol (G8). G2 (62.5 ug/ml), G1 (250 ug/ml), and G8 (250 ug/ml) exhibited potent anti-inflammatory activity in all studied assays, while G4 and G5 exhibited moderate activity. In vivo administration of AE ameliorated rat paw oedema in a dose-dependent manner. AE (at 200 mg/kg) showed significant reduction (60%) of PGE2 production. The AE at different doses (at 25-200 mg/kg) showed significant reduction in inflammatory markers except for IL-1α. AE (at 25 mg/kg) is superior to indomethacin in reduction of IL-1β. Treatment of animals with the AE (100, 200 mg/kg) or indomethacin (10 mg/kg) showed significant reduction in TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, and RANTES levels, and MPO activity by about (31, 57 and 32% ) (65, 60 and 57%) (27, 41 and 28%) (23, 32 and 23%) (66, 67 and 67%) respectively. AE at 100 and 200 mg/kg was equipotent to indomethacin in reduction of NOₓ level and in increasing the TAC. Histopathological examination revealed very few inflammatory cells infiltration and oedema after administration of AE (200 mg/kg) prior to carrageenan. Conclusion: Ginger anti-inflammatory activity is mediated by inhibiting macrophage and neutrophils activation as well as negatively affecting monocyte and leukocyte migration. Moreover, it produced dose-dependent decrease in pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines and replenished the total antioxidant capacity. We strongly recommend future investigations of ginger in the potential signal transduction pathways.

Keywords: anti-lipoxygenase activity, inflammatory markers, 1-dehydro-6-gingerol, 6-shogaol

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Authors: Sean Vincent

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Within the academic community, there is a consensus that political parties in established liberal democracies are facing a myriad of organisational challenges as a result of falling membership, weakening links to grass-roots support and rising voter apathy. During the same period of party decline and growing public disengagement political parties have become increasingly professionalised. The professionalisation of political parties owes much to changes in technology, with television becoming the dominant medium for political communication. In recent years, however, it has become clear that a new medium of communication is becoming utilised by political parties and candidates – New Media. New Media, a term hard to define but related to internet based communication, offers a potential revolution in political communication. It can be utilised by anyone with access to the internet and its most widely used platforms of communication such as Facebook and Twitter, are free to use. The advent of Web 2.0 has dramatically changed what can be done with the Internet. Websites now allow candidates at the constituency level to fundraise, organise and set out personalised policies. Social media allows them to communicate with supporters and potential voters practically cost-free. As such candidate dependency on the national party for resources and image now lies open to debate. Arguing that greater candidate independence may be a natural next step in light of the contemporary challenges faced by parties, this paper examines how New Media is being used by candidates at the constituency level to increase their personal vote. The paper will present findings from research carried out during two elections – the Japanese Lower House election of 2014 and the UK general election of 2015. During these elections a sample of candidates, totalling 150 candidates, from the three biggest parties in each country were selected and their new media output, specifically candidate websites, Twitter and Facebook output subjected to content analysis. The analysis examines how candidates are using new media to both become more functionally, through fundraising and volunteer mobilisation and politically, through the promotion of personal/local policies, independent from the national party. In order to validate the results of content analysis this paper will also present evidence from interviews carried out with 17 candidates that stood in the 2014 Japanese Lower House election or 2015 UK general election. With a combination of statistical analysis and interviews, several conclusions can be made about the use of New Media at constituency level. The findings show not just a clear difference in the way candidates from each country are using New Media but also differences within countries based upon the particular circumstances of each constituency. While it has not yet replaced traditional methods of fundraising and activist mobilisation, New Media is also becoming increasingly important in campaign organisation and the general consensus amongst candidates is that its importance will continue to grow along as politics in both countries becomes more diffuse.

Keywords: political campaigns, elections, new media, political communication

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Authors: Akulov M. A., Zaharov V. O., Jurishhev P. E., Tomskij A. A.

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Introduction: Spasticity is a severe consequence of stroke, leading to profound disability, decreased quality of life and decrease of rehabilitation efficacy [4]. Spasticity is often associated with pain syndrome, arising from joint damage of paretic limbs (postural arthropathy) or painful spasm of paretic limb muscles. It is generally accepted that injection of botulinum toxin into a cramped muscle leads to decrease of muscle tone and improves motion range in paretic limb, which is accompanied by pain alleviation. Study aim: To evaluate the change in pain syndrome intensity after incections of botulinum toxin A (Xeomin) in stroke patients with upper limb spasticity. Patients and methods. 21 patients aged 47-74 years were evaluated. Inclusion criteria were: acute stroke 4-7 months before the inclusion into the study, leading to spasticity of wrist and/or finger flexors, elbow flexor or forearm pronator, associated with severe pain syndrome. Patients received Xeomin as monotherapy 90-300 U, according to spasticity pattern. Efficacy evaluation was performed using Ashworth scale, disability assessment scale (DAS), caregiver burden scale and global treatment benefit assessment on weeks 2, 4, 8 and 12. Efficacy criterion was the decrease of pain syndrome by week 4 on PQLS and VAS. Results: The study revealed a significant improvement of measured indices after 4 weeks of treatment, which persisted until the 12 week of treatment. Xeomin is effective in reducing muscle tone of flexors of wrist, fingers and elbow, forearm pronators. By the 4th week of treatment we observed a significant improvement on DAS (р < 0,05), Ashworth scale (1-2 points) in all patients (р < 0,05), caregiver burden scale (р < 0,05). A significant decrease of pain syndrome by the 4th week of treatment on PQLS (р < 0,05) и VAS (р < 0,05) was observed. No adverse effect were registered. Conclusion: Xeomin is an effective treatment of pain syndrome in postural upper limb spasticity after stroke. Xeomin treatment leads to a significant improvement on PQLS and VAS.

Keywords: botulinum toxin, pain syndrome, spasticity, stroke

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Authors: Usman Bawa

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Macro-invertebrates have been used to monitor organic pollution in rivers and streams. Several biotic indices based on macro-invertebrates have been developed over the years including the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP). A new biotic index, the Gammarus:Asellus ratio has been recently proposed as an index of organic pollution. This study tested the validity of the Gammarus:Asellus ratio as an index of organic pollution, by examining the relationship between the Gammarus:Asellus ratio and physical-chemical parameters, and other biotic indices such as BMWP and, Average Score Per Taxon (ASPT) from lakes and streams at Markeaton Park, Allestree Park, and Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. Macro invertebrates were sampled using the standard five-minute kick sampling techniques physical and chemical environmental variables were obtained based on standard sampling techniques. Eighteen sites were sampled, six sites from Markeaton Park (three sites across the stream and three sites across the lake). Six sites each were also sampled from Allestree Park and Kedleston Hall lakes. The Gammarus:Asellus ratio showed an opposite significant positive correlations with parameters indicative of organic pollution such as the level of nitrates, phosphates, and calcium and also revealed a negatively significant correlations with other biotic indices (BMWP/ASPT). The BMWP score correlated positively significantly with some water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen and flow rate, but revealed no correlations with other chemical environmental variables. The BMWP score was significantly higher in the stream than the lake in Markeaton Park, also The ASPT scores appear to be significantly higher in the upper Lakes than the middle and lower lakes. This study has further strengthened the use of BMWP/ASPT score as an index of organic pollution. But, additional application is required to validate the use of Gammarus:Asellus as a rapid bio monitoring tool.

Keywords: Asellus, biotic index, Gammarus, macro invertebrates, organic pollution

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Authors: Nomcebo N. Mpili, Cynthia Z. Madlabana

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The South African Primary Health Care (PHC) system has undergone a number of transformations such as the introduction of National Health Insurance (NHI) to bring about easily accessible universal health coverage and to meet the health needs for all its citizens. This provides ongoing challenges to ensure that health workers are equipped with appropriate knowledge, support, and skills to meet these changes. Therefore it is crucial to understand the experiences and challenges of nurses as the backbone of PHC in providing quality healthcare services. In addition there has been a need to understand nurses’ experiences with management support, role ambiguity and role conflict amongst other challenges in light of the current reforms in healthcare. Indeed these constructs are notorious for having a detrimental impact on the outcomes of change initiatives within any organisation, this is no different in healthcare. This draws a discussion on professional nurses within the South African health care system especially since they have been labelled as the backbone of PHC, meaning any healthcare backlog falls on them. The study made use of semi-structured interviews and adopted the interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) as the researcher aimed to explore the lived experiences of (n= 18) participants. The study discovered that professional nurses experienced a lack of management support within PHC facilities and that management mainly played an administrative and disciplinary role. Although participants mainly held positive perceptions with regards to changes happening in health care however they also expressed negative experiences in terms of how change initiatives were introduced resulting in role conflict and role ambiguity. Participants mentioned a shortage of staff, inadequate training as well as a lack of management support as some of the key challenges faced in facilities. This study offers unique findings as participants have not only experienced the various reforms within the PHC system however they have also been part of NHI pilot. The authors are not aware of any other studies published that examine management support, role conflict and role ambiguity together especially in South African PHC facilities. In conclusion understanding these challenges may provide insight and opportunities available to improve the current landscape of PHC not only in South Africa but internationally.

Keywords: management support, professional nurse, role ambiguity, role conflict

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Authors: Ming-Hsiang Shih, Wen-Pei Sung, Shih-Heng Tung

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The purposes of hydraulic gate are to maintain the functions of storing and draining water. It bears long-term hydraulic pressure and earthquake force and is very important for reservoir and waterpower plant. The high tensile strength of steel plate is used as constructional material of hydraulic gate. The cracks and rusts, induced by the defects of material, bad construction and seismic excitation and under water respectively, thus, the mechanics phenomena of gate with crack are probing into the cause of stress concentration, induced high crack increase rate, affect the safety and usage of hydroelectric power plant. Stress distribution analysis is a very important and essential surveying technique to analyze bi-material and singular point problems. The finite difference infinitely small element method has been demonstrated, suitable for analyzing the buckling phenomena of welding seam and steel plate with crack. Especially, this method can easily analyze the singularity of kink crack. Nevertheless, the construction form and deformation shape of some gates are three-dimensional system. Therefore, the three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has been developed and applied to analyze the strain variation of steel plate with crack at weld joint. The proposed Digital image correlation (DIC) technique is an only non-contact method for measuring the variation of test object. According to rapid development of digital camera, the cost of this digital image correlation technique has been reduced. Otherwise, this DIC method provides with the advantages of widely practical application of indoor test and field test without the restriction on the size of test object. Thus, the research purpose of this research is to develop and apply this technique to monitor mechanics crack variations of weld steel hydraulic gate and its conformation under action of loading. The imagines can be picked from real time monitoring process to analyze the strain change of each loading stage. The proposed 3-Dimensional digital image correlation method, developed in the study, is applied to analyze the post-buckling phenomenon and buckling tendency of welded steel plate with crack. Then, the stress intensity of 3-dimensional analysis of different materials and enhanced materials in steel plate has been analyzed in this paper. The test results show that this proposed three-dimensional DIC method can precisely detect the crack variation of welded steel plate under different loading stages. Especially, this proposed DIC method can detect and identify the crack position and the other flaws of the welded steel plate that the traditional test methods hardly detect these kind phenomena. Therefore, this proposed three-dimensional DIC method can apply to observe the mechanics phenomena of composite materials subjected to loading and operating.

Keywords: welded steel plate, crack variation, three-dimensional digital image correlation (DIC), crack stel plate

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Authors: Filip Rusak, Yulia Arzhaeva, Dadong Wang

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Machine learning based Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) is gaining much popularity in medical imaging and diagnostic radiology. However, it requires a large amount of high quality and labeled training image datasets. The training images may come from different sources and be acquired from different radiography machines produced by different manufacturers, digital or digitized copies of film radiographs, with various sizes as well as different pixel intensity distributions. In this paper, a content-aware image augmentation method is presented to deal with these variations. The results of the proposed method have been validated graphically by plotting the removed and added seams of pixels on original images. Two different chest X-ray (CXR) datasets are used in the experiments. The CXRs in the datasets defer in size, some are digital CXRs while the others are digitized from analog CXR films. With the proposed content-aware augmentation method, the Seam Carving algorithm is employed to resize CXRs and the corresponding labels in the form of image masks, followed by histogram matching used to normalize the pixel intensities of digital radiography, based on the pixel intensity values of digitized radiographs. We implemented the algorithms, resized the well-known Montgomery dataset, to the size of the most frequently used Japanese Society of Radiological Technology (JSRT) dataset and normalized our digital CXRs for testing. This work resulted in the unified off-the-shelf CXR dataset composed of radiographs included in both, Montgomery and JSRT datasets. The experimental results show that even though the amount of augmentation is large, our algorithm can preserve the important information in lung fields, local structures, and global visual effect adequately. The proposed method can be used to augment training and testing image data sets so that the trained machine learning model can be used to process CXRs from various sources, and it can be potentially used broadly in any medical imaging applications.

Keywords: computer-aided diagnosis, image augmentation, lung segmentation, medical imaging, seam carving

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Authors: M. Invigorito, G. Elia, M. Panelli

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Hybrid propulsion combines beneficial properties of both solid and liquid rockets, such as multiple restarts, throttability as well as simplicity and reduced costs. A nitrous oxide (N2O)/paraffin-based hybrid rocket engine demonstrator is currently under development at the Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA) within the national research program HYPROB, funded by the Italian Ministry of Research. Nitrous oxide belongs to the class of self-pressurizing propellants that exhibit a high vapor pressure at standard ambient temperature. This peculiar feature makes those fluids very attractive for space rocket applications because it avoids the use of complex pressurization systems, leading to great benefits in terms of weight savings and reliability. To avoid feed-system-coupled instabilities, the phase change is required to occur through the injectors. In this regard, the oxidizer is stored in liquid condition while target chamber pressures are designed to lie below vapor pressure. The consequent cavitation and flash vaporization constitute a remarkably complex phenomenology that arises great modelling challenges. Thus, it is clear that the design of the injection system is fundamental for the full exploitation of hybrid rocket engine throttability. The Analytical Hierarchy Process has been used to select the injection architecture as best compromise among different design criteria such as functionality, technology innovation and cost. The impossibility to use engineering simplified relations for the dimensioning of the injectors led to the needs of applying a numerical approach based on OpenFOAM®. The numerical tool has been validated with selected experimental data from literature. Quantitative, as well as qualitative comparisons are performed in terms of mass flow rate and pressure drop across the injector for several operating conditions. The results show satisfactory agreement with the experimental data. Modeling assumptions, together with their impact on numerical predictions are discussed in the paper. Once assessed the reliability of the numerical tool, the injection plate has been designed and sized to guarantee the required amount of oxidizer in the combustion chamber and therefore to assure high combustion efficiency. To this purpose, the plate has been designed with multiple injectors whose number and diameter have been selected in order to reach the requested mass flow rate for the two operating conditions of maximum and minimum thrust. The overall design has been finally verified through three-dimensional computations in cavitating non-reacting conditions and it has been verified that the proposed design solution is able to guarantee the requested values of mass flow rates.

Keywords: hybrid rocket, injection system design, OpenFOAM®, cavitation

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Authors: Sedef Sert, Paola Garrone, Marco Melacini, Alessandro Perego

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This paper is aimed at enhancing our current understanding of motivations behind corporate in-kind donations and to find out whether economic efficiency may be a major driver. Our empirical setting is consisted of surplus food recovery and donation by companies from food supply chain. This choice of empirical setting is motivated by growing attention on the paradox of food insecurity and food waste i.e. a total of 842 million people worldwide were estimated to be suffering from regularly not getting enough food, while approximately 1.3 billion tons per year food is wasted globally. Recently, many authors have started considering surplus food donation to nonprofit organizations as a way to cope with social issue of food insecurity and environmental issue of food waste. In corporate philanthropy literature the motivations behind the corporate donations for social purposes, such as altruistic motivations, enhancements to employee morale, the organization’s image, supplier/customer relationships, local community support, have been examined. However, the relationship with economic efficiency is not studied and in many cases the pure economic efficiency as a decision making factor is neglected. Although in literature there are some studies give us the clue on economic value creation of surplus food donation such as saving landfill fees or getting tax deductions, so far there is no study focusing deeply on this phenomenon. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework which explores the economic barriers and drivers towards alternative surplus food management options i.e. discounts, secondary markets, feeding animals, composting, energy recovery, disposal. The case study methodology is used to conduct the research. Protocols for semi structured interviews are prepared based on an extensive literature review and adapted after expert opinions. The interviews are conducted mostly with the supply chain and logistics managers of 20 companies in food sector operating in Italy, in particular in Lombardy region. The results shows that in current situation, the food manufacturing companies can experience cost saving by recovering and donating the surplus food with respect to other methods especially considering the disposal option. On the other hand, retail and food service sectors are not economically incentivized to recover and donate surplus food to disfavored population. The paper shows that not only strategic and moral motivations, but also economic motivations play an important role in managerial decision making process in surplus food management. We also believe that our research while rooted in the surplus food management topic delivers some interesting implications to more general research on corporate in-kind donations. It also shows that there is a huge room for policy making favoring the recovery and donation of surplus products.

Keywords: corporate philanthropy, donation, recovery, surplus food

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Authors: Hendri Purwadi, Christine McCloud

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Triage is a complex decision-making process that aims to categorize a victim’s level of acuity and the need for medical assistance. Two common triage systems have been widely used in Mass Casualty Incidents (MCIs) and disaster situation are START (Simple triage algorithm and rapid treatment) and SALT (sort, asses, lifesaving, intervention, and treatment/transport). There is currently controversy regarding the effectiveness of SALT over START triage system. This systematic review aims to investigate and compare the effectiveness between SALT and START triage system in disaster and MCIs setting. Literatures were searched via systematic search strategy from 2009 until 2019 in PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Scopus, Science direct, Medlib, ProQuest. This review included simulated-based and medical record -based studies investigating the accuracy and applicability of SALT and START triage systems of adult and children population during MCIs and disaster. All type of studies were included. Joana Briggs institute critical appraisal tools were used to assess the quality of reviewed studies. As a result, 1450 articles identified in the search, 10 articles were included. Four themes were identified by review, they were accuracy, under-triage, over-triage and time to triage per individual victim. The START triage system has a wide range and inconsistent level of accuracy compared to SALT triage system (44% to 94. 2% of START compared to 70% to 83% of SALT). The under-triage error of START triage system ranged from 2.73% to 20%, slightly lower than SALT triage system (7.6 to 23.3%). The over-triage error of START triage system was slightly greater than SALT triage system (START ranged from 2% to 53% compared to 2% to 22% of SALT). The time for applying START triage system was faster than SALT triage system (START was 70-72.18 seconds compared to 78 second of SALT). Consequently; The START triage system has lower level of under-triage error and faster than SALT triage system in classifying victims of MCIs and disaster whereas SALT triage system is known slightly more accurate and lower level of over-triage. However, the magnitude of these differences is relatively small, and therefore the effect on the patient outcomes is not significance. Hence, regardless of the triage error, either START or SALT triage system is equally effective to triage victims of disaster and MCIs.

Keywords: disaster, effectiveness, mass casualty incidents, START triage system, SALT triage system

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Authors: Samantha Burns, Melissa Brown, Judith Rankin

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Background: As a specialised intervention, NEWPIP provides a service which supports both parents and their babies from conception to two years, who are experiencing issues which may affect the quality of their relationship and development of the infant. This evaluation of the NEWPIP approach was undertaken in response to the need for rich, in-depth data to understand the lived experiences of the parents who experienced the service to improve the service. NEWPIP is currently one of 34 specialised parent–infant relationship teams across England. This evaluation contributes to increasing understanding of the impact and effectiveness of this specialised service to inform future practice. Aim: The aim of this evaluation was to explore the perspectives and experiences of parents or caregivers (service users), to assess the impact of the NEWPIP service on the parents themselves and the relationship with their baby. Methods: The exploratory nature of the aim and focus on service users’ experience and perspectives provided scope for a qualitative approach for this evaluation. This consisted of 10 semi-structured interviews with parents who had received the service within the last two years. Recruitment involved both purposive and convenience sampling. The interviews took place between February 2021 – March 2021, lasting between 30-90 minutes and were guided by open-ended questions from a topic guide. The interviews adopted a narrative approach to enable the parents to share their lived experiences. The researchers transcribed the interviews and analysed the data thematically by using a coding method which is grounded in the data. Results: The analysis and findings from the data gathered illuminated an approach which supports parents to build a better bond with their baby and provides a safe space for parents to heal through their relationships. While the parents shared their experiences, the interviews were intended to receive feedback, so questions were asked about what could be improved and what recommendations could be offered to Children North East. Guided by the voice of the parents, this evaluation provides recommendations to support the future of the NEWPIP approach. Conclusions: The NEWPIP approach appears to successfully provide early and flexible support for new parents, increasing a parent’s confidence in their ability to not only cope but thrive as a new parent.

Keywords: maternal health, mental health, parent infant relationship, therapy

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Authors: Reena K., Mamatha H. G., Somshekarayya, P. Kumar

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Objectives: The annual proficiency testing of intermediate reference laboratories is conducted by the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) to assess the efficiency of the laboratories to correctly identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis and to determine its drug susceptibility pattern. The proficiency testing results from 2013 to 2017 were analyzed to determine laboratories that were consistent in reporting quality results and those that had difficulty in doing so. Methods: A panel of twenty cultures were sent out to each of these laboratories. The laboratories were expected to grow the cultures in their own laboratories, set up drug susceptibly testing by all the methods they were certified for and report the results within the stipulated time period. The turnaround time for reporting results, specificity, sensitivity positive and negative predictive values and efficiency of the laboratory in identifying the cultures were analyzed. Results: Most of the laboratories had reported their results within the stipulated time period. However, there was enormous delay in reporting results from few of the laboratories. This was mainly due to improper functioning of the biosafety level III laboratory. Only 40% of the laboratories had 100% efficiency in solid culture using Lowenstein Jensen medium. This was expected as a solid culture, and drug susceptibility testing is not used for diagnosing drug resistance. Rapid molecular methods such as Line probe assay and Genexpert are used to determine drug resistance. Automated liquid culture system such as the Mycobacterial growth indicator tube is used to determine prognosis of the patient while on treatment. It was observed that 90% of the laboratories had achieved 100% in the liquid culture method. Almost all laboratories had achieved 100% efficiency in the line probe assay method which is the method of choice for determining drug-resistant tuberculosis. Conclusion: Since the liquid culture and line probe assay technologies are routinely used for the detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis the laboratories exhibited higher level of efficiency as compared to solid culture and drug susceptibility testing which are rarely used. The infrastructure of the laboratory should be maintained properly so that samples can be processed safely and results could be declared on time.

Keywords: annual proficiency testing, drug susceptibility testing, intermediate reference laboratory, national reference laboratory

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Authors: Tapan Kumar Dhar

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How well are our city forms designed to adapt to climate change and its resulting uncertainty? What urban design tools can be used to measure and improve resilience to climate change, and how would they do so? In addressing these questions, this paper considers indeterminacy, a concept originated in the resilience literature, to measure the resilience of built environments. In the realm of urban design, ‘indeterminacy’ can be referred to as built-in design capabilities of an urban system to serve different purposes which are not necessarily predetermined. An urban system, particularly that with a higher degree of indeterminacy, can enable the system to be reorganized and changed to accommodate new or unknown functions while coping with uncertainty over time. Underlying principles of this concept have long been discussed in the urban design and planning literature, including open architecture, landscape urbanism, and flexible housing. This paper argues that the concept indeterminacy holds the potential to reduce the impacts of climate change incrementally and proactively. With regard to sustainable development, both planning and climate change literature highly recommend proactive adaptation as it involves less cost, efforts, and energy than last-minute emergency or reactive actions. Nevertheless, the concept still remains isolated from resilience and climate change adaptation discourses even though the discourses advocate the incremental transformation of a system to cope with climatic uncertainty. This paper considers indeterminacy, as an urban design tool, to measure and increase resilience (and adaptive capacity) of Long Bay’s coastal settlements in Negril, Jamaica. Negril is one of the popular tourism destinations in the Caribbean highly vulnerable to sea-level rise and its associated impacts. This paper employs empirical information obtained from direct observation and informal interviews with local people. While testing the tool, this paper deploys an urban morphology study, which includes land use patterns and the physical characteristics of urban form, including street networks, block patterns, and building footprints. The results reveal that most resorts in Long Bay are designed for pre-determined purposes and offer a little potential to use differently if needed. Additionally, Negril’s street networks are found to be rigid and have limited accessibility to different points of interest. This rigidity can expose the entire infrastructure further to extreme climatic events and also impedes recovery actions after a disaster. However, Long Bay still has room for future resilient developments in other relatively less vulnerable areas. In adapting to climate change, indeterminacy can be reached through design that achieves a balance between the degree of vulnerability and the degree of indeterminacy: the more vulnerable a place is, the more indeterminacy is useful. This paper concludes with a set of urban design typologies to increase the resilience of coastal settlements.

Keywords: climate change adaptation, resilience, sea-level rise, urban form

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Authors: Ademola A. Ladele, Peace I. Aburime

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Fake and substandard agricultural inputs pose a serious stumbling block to farm productivity and subsequently improved livelihood. There is, therefore, a need to pave ways for sustainable agriculture and self-sufficiency in food production by proffering solutions to this challenge. Maize farmers' perception of sharp practices among agro-input dealers in Ibadan/Ibarapa agricultural zone in Oyo state was therefore investigated. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select registered maize farmers in the Ibadan/Ibarapa agricultural zone of the Oyo State Agricultural Development Programme (OYSADEP). A structured questionnaire was used to collect information on the perception of sharp practices and the effects of sharp practices. A total of seventy-five maize farmers were interviewed. A focus group discussion was organized to identify ways of curbing sharp practices to complement the survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Forms of sharp practices indicated were sales of expired fertilizers, expired pesticides, expired herbicides, underweight fertilizers, adulterated fertilizers, adulterated herbicides, packs containing broken seeds, infested seeds, lack of truth in labeling/wrong labels, manipulation of measuring scales, and false declaration of hecterages covered by tractor operators. The majority had unfavorable perception of agro-input dealers on sharp practices. A significant relationship was observed between respondents’ level of education and their perception of sharp practices. There were no significant relationships between respondents’ sex, marital status and religion, and their perception of sharp practices. A significant correlation exists between the forms of sharp practices and the perceived effect on agricultural production. It is concluded that the perceived effect of sharp practices was critical and the endemic culture of sharp practices prevailed in agro-input in Ibadan/Ibarapa agricultural zone. A standard regulatory system that will certify and monitor the quality of inputs should be put in place.

Keywords: agricultural productivity, agro-input dealers, maize farmers, sharp practices

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Authors: Mark Davies, Carolyn Wallace, Christina Lloydwin, Tom Powell

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Background: Frailty is increasingly recognized as a public health problem within an aging population. It is often characterized as an accumulation of clinical symptoms with progressive decline. We contend that dehydration is potentially the missing link driving the cycle of frailty; it contributes to malnutrition and cognitive decline and is a risk factor for other conditions. Frailty may also impact on fluid intake in cognitively intact older adults, indicating the cyclical nature of dehydration contributing to increasing frailty. Aim: To examine the relationships between fluid, hydration, and frailty in older adults in order to determine what works, for whom, how, why, and in what circumstances. Methods: A Realist Synthesis was first undertaken with n=50 studies, leading to the development of a Refined Programme Theory (RPT) articulating what hydration interventions work, for whom, to what degree, in what contexts, and how & why. Within the subsequent evaluation, the RPT was further confirmed/refuted/refined following semi-structured interviews with n=8 participants (healthcare professionals and patients). The RAMESES Quality Standards were followed throughout the study. Results: The Refined Programme Theory (RPT) highlighted three factors that result in optimized hydration for frail older people, i.e., Developing an Understanding Around Hydration, Empowering Participation, and System Reconfiguration. Our RPT indicates that hydration interventions work by developing an understanding of the importance of hydration, mitigating physical & cognitive barriers, increasing the agency of the patient, using a prompting process to reinforce drinking behavior, and routinizing hydration as a dimension of overall care. Conclusion: The study indicates that a greater understanding of the importance of hydration is required for all parties. Patients also require physical and psychological support if they are to be active agents in meeting their hydration needs. At a wider ‘system’ level, organizations must work in an integrated manner introducing processes that enable continuing professional development (CPD), encourage ongoing holistic assessment, and routinize hydration support.

Keywords: frailty, dehydration, older adults, realist review, realist evaluation

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Authors: Tomohiko Utsuki, Kyoka Sato

Abstract:

In emergency medicine, it is recognized that brain resuscitation is very important for the reduction of mortality rate and neurological sequelae. Especially, the control of brain temperature (BT), intracranial pressure (ICP), and cerebral blood flow (CBF) are most required for stabilizing brain’s physiological state in the treatment for such as brain injury, stroke, and encephalopathy. However, the manual control of BT, ICP, and CBF frequently requires the decision and operation of medical staff, relevant to medication and the setting of therapeutic apparatus. Thus, the integration and the automation of the control of those is very effective for not only improving therapeutic effect but also reducing staff burden and medical cost. For realizing such integration and automation, a mathematical model of brain physiological state is necessary as the controlled object in simulations, because the performance test of a prototype of the control system using patients is not ethically allowed. A model of cerebral blood circulation has already been constructed, which is the most basic part of brain physiological state. Also, a migration model of extracellular fluid in brain has been constructed, however the condition that the total volume of intracranial cavity is almost changeless due to the hardness of cranial bone has not been considered in that model. Therefore, in this research, the dynamic migration model of extracellular fluid in brain was constructed on the consideration of the changelessness of intracranial cavity’s total volume. This model is connectable to the cerebral blood circulation model. The constructed model consists of fourteen compartments, twelve of which corresponds to perfused area of bilateral anterior, middle and posterior cerebral arteries, the others corresponds to cerebral ventricles and subarachnoid space. This model enable to calculate the migration of tissue fluid from capillaries to gray matter and white matter, the flow of tissue fluid between compartments, the production and absorption of cerebrospinal fluid at choroid plexus and arachnoid granulation, and the production of metabolic water. Further, the volume, the colloid concentration, and the tissue pressure of/in each compartment are also calculable by solving 40-dimensional non-linear simultaneous differential equations. In this research, the obtained model was analyzed for its validation under the four condition of a normal adult, an adult with higher cerebral capillary pressure, an adult with lower cerebral capillary pressure, and an adult with lower colloid concentration in cerebral capillary. In the result, calculated fluid flow, tissue volume, colloid concentration, and tissue pressure were all converged to suitable value for the set condition within 60 minutes at a maximum. Also, because these results were not conflict with prior knowledge, it is certain that the model can enough represent physiological state of brain under such limited conditions at least. One of next challenges is to integrate this model and the already constructed cerebral blood circulation model. This modification enable to simulate CBF and ICP more precisely due to calculating the effect of blood pressure change to extracellular fluid migration and that of ICP change to CBF.

Keywords: dynamic model, cerebral extracellular migration, brain resuscitation, automatic control

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Jarrod Haar, David Brougham, Azka Ghafoor

Abstract:

Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and have a unique perspective called Te Ao Māori (the Māori worldview) and important cultural values around utu (reciprocation), collectivism, long-term orientation, and whanaungatanga (networking, relationships). The present research conducts two studies to better understand how Māori businesses might have similarities and differences to New Zealand businesses. In study 1, we conducted 50 interviews with 25 Māori business owners and 25 New Zealand (non-Māori) owners. For the indigenous population, we used a kaupapa Māori research approach using Māori protocols. This ensured the research is culturally safe. Interviews were conducted around semi-structured questions tapping into the existing business challenges, the role of innovation, and business values and approaches. Transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analytic techniques. We identified several themes shared across all business owners: (1) the critical challenge around staff attraction and retention; (2) cost pressures including inflation; (3) and a focus on human resource (HR) practices to address issues including retention. Amongst the Māori businesses, the analysis also identified (4) a unique cultural approach to business relationships. Specifically, amongst the indigenous businesses we find a strong Te Ao Māori perspective amongst Māori business towards innovation. Analysis within this group only identified, within the following sub-themes: (a) whanaungatanga, around the development of strong relationships as a way to aid recruitment and retention, and business fluctuations; (b) mātauranga (knowledge) whereby Māori businesses seek to access advanced knowledge via universities; (c) taking a long-term orientation to business relationships – including with universities. The findings suggest people practices might be a way that firms address workforce retention issues, and we also acknowledge that Māori businesses might also leverage cultural practices to achieve better gains. Thus, in study 2, we survey 606 New Zealand private sector firms including 85 who self-identify as Māori Firms. We test the benefits of high-performance work-systems (HPWS), which represent bundle of human-resource practices designed to bolster workforce productivity through enhancing knowledge, skills, abilities, and commitment of the workforce. We test these on workforce retention and include Māori firm status and cultural capital (reflecting workforce knowledge around Māori cultural values) as moderators. Overall, we find all firms achieve superior workforce retention when they have high levels of HPWS, but Māori firms with high cultural capital are better able to leverage these HR practices to achieve superior workforce retention. In summary, the present study highlights how indigenous businesses in New Zealand might achieve superior performance by leveraging their unique cultural values. The study provides unique insights into established literatures around retention and HR practices and highlights the lessons around indigenous cultural values that appear to aid businesses.

Keywords: Māori business, cultural values, employee retention, human resource practices

Procedia PDF Downloads 66