Search results for: child safety

Authors: Sambit Supriya Dash

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Aerospace Industry has evolved over the last century and is growing by approaching towards, more fuel efficient, cheaper, simpler, convenient and safer ways of flight stages. In this paper, the accident records of aircrafts are studied and found about 71% of accidents caused on runways during Takeoff and Landing. By introducing the concept of interpreting electromagnetism, the cause of bounced touchdown and flare failure such as landing impact loads and instability could be eliminated. During Takeoff, the rate of fuel consumption is observed to be maximum. By applying concept of interpreting electromagnetism, a remarkable rate of fuel consumption is reduced, which can be used in case of emergency due to lack of fuel or in case of extended flight. A complete setup of the concept, its effects and characteristics are studied and provided with references of few popular aircrafts. By embedding series of strong and controlled electromagnets below the runway along and aside the centre line and fixed in the line of acting force through wing-fuselage aerodynamic centre. By the essence of its strength controllable nature, it can contribute to performance and fuel efficiency for aircraft. This ensures a perfect Takeoff with less fuel consumption followed by safe cruise stage, which in turn ensures a short and safe landing, eliminating the till known failures, due to bounced touchdowns and flare failure.

Keywords: efficiency, elctromagnetism, performance, reduced fuel consumption, safety

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Authors: G. A. Khalid, M. D. Jones, R. Prabhu, A. Mason-Jones, W. Whittington, H. Bakhtiarydavijani, P. S. Theobald

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Head injury in childhood is a common cause of death or permanent disability from injury. However, despite its frequency and significance, there is little understanding of how a child’s head responds during injurious loading. Whilst Infant Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) experimentation is a logical approach to understand injury biomechanics, it is the authors’ opinion that a lack of subject availability is hindering potential progress. Computer modelling adds great value when considering adult populations; however, its potential remains largely untapped for infant surrogates. The complexities of child growth and development, which result in age dependent changes in anatomy, geometry and physical response characteristics, present new challenges for computational simulation. Further geometric challenges are presented by the intricate infant cranial bones, which are separated by sutures and fontanelles and demonstrate a visible fibre orientation. This study presents an FE model of a newborn infant’s head, developed from high-resolution computer tomography scans, informed by published tissue material properties. To mimic the fibre orientation of immature cranial bone, anisotropic properties were applied to the FE cranial bone model, with elastic moduli representing the bone response both parallel and perpendicular to the fibre orientation. Biofiedility of the computational model was confirmed by global validation against published PMHS data, by replicating experimental impact tests with a series of computational simulations, in terms of head kinematic responses. Numerical results confirm that the FE head model’s mechanical response is in favourable agreement with the PMHS drop test results.

Keywords: finite element analysis, impact simulation, infant head trauma, material properties, post mortem human subjects

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Constance Singo, Choja Oduaran

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Child mental disorders are strongly associated with different forms of challenges, including behavioural problems. The burden of care for children with a mental disorder is high and put primary caregivers, parents in particular, at risk of poor mental wellbeing. Understanding the experience of parents of children with mental disorders is crucial to developing a relevant intervention to assist them to attain optimal mental wellbeing. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of parents of children with conduct disorder by focussing on the psychological and social stress experience of the parents in raising and caring for their children with conduct disorder. A qualitative research approach, using in-depth interview was utilized in this study. Purposive and snowballing sampling techniques were used to select 9 parents of children with conduct disorder in Thulamela Municipality, Limpopo Province of South Africa. Participants comprising of 2 males and 7 females aged between 30 years and 49 years were interviewed individually at scheduled appointment in-home setting. Interviews were conducted in both English and Setswana language. Data collected in Setswana language were translated to English by 'expert in language translation'. Ethical approval was obtained from appropriate authority before data collection. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the collected data. The findings identified anger, fear, depressive symptoms, denial, and suicidal ideation as predominant psychological experiences of the parents. Furthermore, deteriorated interpersonal relationships with family and community members, financial stress, and stigma emerged as social problems being the experience of the parents. It was concluded that parents of children with conduct disorder are highly traumatized by the challenges of caring for their children. We recommend professional engagement in terms of counselling service to support the parents. There is also a need for massive enlightenment programmes for members of the community in order to support the parents of children with child mental disorders.

Keywords: conduct disorder, parents, psychosocial experiences, South Africa

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Authors: Dejana Bouillet, Vlatka Domović

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Both policymakers and researchers recognize that participating in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is useful for all children, especially for those who are exposed to the high risk of social exclusion. Social exclusion of children is understood as a multidimensional construct including economic, social, cultural, health, and other aspects of disadvantage and deprivation, which individually or combined can have an unfavorable effect on the current life and development of a child, as well as on the child’s development and on disadvantaged life chances in adult life. ECEC institutions should be able to promote educational approaches that portray developmental, cultural, language, and other diversity amongst children. However, little is known about the ways in which Croatian ECEC institutions recognize and respect the diversity of children and their families and how they respond to their educational needs. That is why this paper is dedicated to the analysis of the capacities of ECEC professionals to respond to the demands of educational needs of this very diverse group of children and their families. The results obtained in the frame of the project “Models of response to educational needs of children at risk of social exclusion in ECEC institutions,” funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, will be presented. The research methodology arises from explanations of educational processes and risks of social exclusion as a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon. The preliminary results of the qualitative data analysis of educational practices regarding capacities to identify and appropriately respond to the requirements of children at risk of social exclusion will be presented. The data have been collected by interviewing educational staff in 10 Croatian ECEC institutions (n = 10). The questions in the interviews were related to various aspects of inclusive institutional policy, culture, and practices. According to the analysis, it is possible to conclude that Croatian ECEC professionals are still faced with great challenges in the process of implementation of inclusive policies, culture, and practices. There are several baselines of this conclusion. The interviewed educational professionals are not familiar enough with the whole complexity and diversity of needs of children at risk of social exclusion, and the ECEC institutions do not have enough resources to provide all interventions that these children and their families need.

Keywords: children at risk of social exclusion, ECEC professionals, inclusive policies, culture and practices, quallitative analysis

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Authors: Hassan M. Al-Ahmadi

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The fatality index (deaths/100 K population) due to road traffic accidents in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is over 25, according to the World Health Organization Statistics (WHO) statistics, which is much higher than in the neighboring Arab regions. The KSA has implemented measures to mitigate traffic accidents by enforcing road safety regulations. As a result, there has been a slight decline in the frequency of road traffic accidents within the Kingdom. This study was based on the variations in the accidents for three provinces of KSA, i.e., Riyadh, Eastern Province (EP), & Qaseem, for 2016 and 2017 using ANOVA method. Data appropriateness for the ANOVA method was confirmed by the normality and the randomness of residuals. Additionally, the half-normal plot was used to identify the significant terms for the ANOVA analysis. The analysis revealed that the accidents in the EP were significantly higher than in the other two provinces during the analysis period. The monthly variation showed a spike in the accidents from month 7th to 9th month in the EP region and a slight drop in the accidents in the Qaseem and the Riyadh region during the same period, which was attributed to the increased leisure travels from the other regions to the EP. Furthermore, most of the accidents were found to occur in the age group of 18+ and 30+, and also the major reduction of accidents in 2017 as compared to 2016 was found to have occurred in the same group. These findings can be beneficial for developing strategies to further reduce the number of accidents.

Keywords: fatality index, emergency, road traffic accident, safety, leisure travels

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Authors: Pranjali Sharma, Swati Neogi

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Composite pressure vessels are low weight structures mainly used in a variety of applications such as automobiles, aeronautics and chemical engineering. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials offer the simplicity of design and use, high fuel storage capacity, rapid refueling capability, excellent shelf life, minimal infrastructure impact, high safety due to the inherent strength of the pressure vessel, and little to no development risk. Apart from these preliminary merits, the subsidized weight of composite vessels over metallic cylinders act as the biggest asset to the automotive industry, increasing the fuel efficiency. The result is a lightweight, flexible, non-explosive, and non-fragmenting pressure vessel that can be tailor-made to attune with specific applications. The winding pattern of the composite over-wrap is a primary focus while designing a pressure vessel. The critical stresses in the system depend on the thickness, angle and sequence of the composite layers. The composite over-wrap is wound over a plastic liner, whose geometry can be varied for the ease of winding. In the present study, we aim to optimize the FRP vessel geometry that provides an ease in winding and also aids in weight reduction for enhancing the vessel performance. Finite element analysis is used to study the effect of dome geometry, yielding a design with maximum value of burst pressure and least value of vessel weight. The stress and strain analysis of different dome ends along with the cylindrical portion is carried out in ANSYS 19.2. The failure is predicted using different failure theories like Tsai-Wu theory, Tsai-Hill theory and Maximum stress theory. Corresponding to a given winding sequence, the optimum dome geometry is determined for a fixed internal pressure to identify the theoretical value of burst pressure. Finally, this geometry is used to decrease the number of layers to reach the set value of safety in accordance with the available safety standards. This results in decrease in the weight of the composite over-wrap and manufacturing cost of the pressure vessel. An improvement in the overall weight performance of the pressure vessel gives higher fuel efficiency for its use in automobile applications.

Keywords: Compressed Gas Storage, Dome geometry, Theoretical Analysis, Type-4 Composite Pressure Vessel, Improvement in Vessel Weight Performance

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Authors: Annie Devault

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Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) can be beneficial for the well-being of children. MBIs offered for children in contexts of vulnerability (poverty, neglect) report positive results in terms of emotion regulation and cognitive flexibility. Anxiety is a common issue for children living in a vulnerable context. It has a negative impact on children’s attention span, emotional regulation and self-esteem. The MBI (12 weeks) associated with this research has been developed for a total of 30 children suffering from anxiety (7 to 9 years old) and receiving services from a community center over the last seven years. The first objective is to describe in details the content of the mindfulness-based intervention. The second purpose is to document what helps and what hinders the practice of mindfulness for children living in a context of vulnerability. A special attention will be given to the importance of the way that the intervention is offered and the principles that are followed by the practitioners. Perceived effects of the intervention on children were collected through an individual semi-structured interview with each child at the end of the program. Parents were also interviewed to have their point of view on the effect of their children’s participation in the group. Anxiety was measure with the Beck youth pre-post and at follow up (2 months). Qualitative analysis of the interviews with children showed that most of them mentioned that the program helped them become calmer, more confident, less scared and more able to deal with difficult emotions. Almost all of them reported having used the material provided to them to practice at home. This result has been confirmed by parents. They reported that their child had gained confidence and were better at verbalizing emotions. Children also grew calmer, even though all anxiety was not gone. They would have liked more material to practice at home. The quantitative instrument used to measure anxiety did not corroborate the qualitative interviews about anxiety. Discussion will question the use of this questionnaire for children who have important cognitive limitations. Discussion will also report the importance of the personalized contact with children, along with other consideration, to enhance the adherence of children and parents. The MBI seems to have benefited children in different ways, which is corroborated by most parents. Since the sample was limited, we will need to continue documenting its effects with more children and parents. The major strength of this research is to have reported the subjective perspectives of children on their experience of mindfulness.

Keywords: anxiety, mindfulness, children, best practices

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Authors: M. Abou-Amouna, A. Radwan, L. Al-kuwari, A. Hammuda, K. Al-Khalifa

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There is growing concern over increasing incidences of road accidents and consequent loss of human life in Qatar. In light to the future planned event in Qatar, World Cup 2022; Qatar should put into consideration the future deaths caused by road accidents, and past trends should be considered to give a reasonable picture of what may happen in the future. Qatar roads should be arranged and paved in a way that accommodate high capacity of the population in that time, since then there will be a huge number of visitors from the world. Qatar should also consider the risk issues of road accidents raised in that period, and plan to maintain high level to safety strategies. According to the increase in the number of road accidents in Qatar from 1995 until 2012, an analysis of elements affecting and causing road accidents will be effectively studied. This paper aims to identify and criticize the factors that have high effect on causing road accidents in the state of Qatar, and predict the total number of road accidents in Qatar 2022. Alternative methods are discussed and the most applicable ones according to the previous researches are selected for further studies. The methods that satisfy the existing case in Qatar were the multiple linear regression model (MLR) and artificial neutral network (ANN). Those methods are analyzed and their findings are compared. We conclude that by using MLR the number of accidents in 2022 will become 355,226 accidents, and by using ANN 216,264 accidents. We conclude that MLR gave better results than ANN because the artificial neutral network doesn’t fit data with large range varieties.

Keywords: road safety, prediction, accident, model, Qatar

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Authors: Vanessa Do, Lauren Smith, Leslie Carver

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It is widely known that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may exhibit sensitivity to stimuli. Even at a young age, they tend to display stimuli-related discomfort in their behavior during play. Play serves a crucial role in a child’s early years as it helps support healthy brain development, socio-emotional skills, and adaptation to their environment There is research dedicated to studying infant preferences for toys, especially in regard to: gender preferences, the advantages of promoting play, and the caregiver’s role in their child’s play routines. However, there is a disproportionate amount of literature examining how play patterns may differ in children with sensory sensitivity, such as children diagnosed with ASD. Prior literature has studied and found supporting evidence that individuals with ASD have deficits in social communication and have increased presence of repetitive behaviors and/or restricted interests, which also display in early childhood play patterns. This study aims to examine potential differences in toy preference between infants with (FH+) and without (FH-) a familial history of ASD ages 6. 9, and 12 months old. More specifically, this study will address the question, “do FH+ infants tend to play more with toys that require less social engagement compared to FH- infants?” Infants and their caregivers were recruited and asked to engage in a free-play session in their homes that lasted approximately 5 minutes. The sessions were recorded and later coded offline for engagement behaviors categorized by toy; each toy that the infants interacted with was coded as belonging to one of 6 categories: sensory (designed to stimulate one or more senses such as light-up toys or musical toys) , construction (e.g., building blocks, rubber suction cups), vehicles (e.g., toy cars), instructional (require steps to accomplish a goal such as flip phones or books), imaginative (e.g., dolls, stuffed animals), and miscellaneous (toys that do not fit into these categories). Toy engagement was defined as the infant looking and touching the toy (ILT) or looking at the toy while their caregiver was holding it (IL-CT). Results reported include/will include the proportion of time the infant was actively engaged with the toy out of the total usable video time per subject — distractions observed during the session were excluded from analysis. Data collection is still ongoing; however, the prediction is that FH+ infants will have higher engagement with sensory and construction toys as they require the least amount of social effort. Furthermore, FH+ infants will have the least engagement with the imaginative toys as prior literature has supported the claim that individuals with ASD have a decreased likelihood to engage in play that requires pretend play and other social skills. Looking at what toys are more or less engaging to FH+ infants is important as it provides significant contributions to their healthy cognitive, social, and emotional development. As play is one of the first ways for a child to understand the complexities of the larger world, the findings of this study may help guide further research into encouraging play with toys that are more engaging and sensory-sensitive for children with ASD.

Keywords: autism engagement, children’s play, early development, free-play, infants, toy

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Authors: Evelyn Ilabaca, Ximena Valenzuela, Alejandra Torres, María José Galotto, Abel Guarda

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One of the biggest problems in food packaging industry, especially with the plastic materials, is the fact that these materials are usually obtained from non-renewable resources and also remain as waste after its use, causing environmental issues. This is an international concern and particular attention is given to reduction, reuse and recycling strategies for decreasing the waste from plastic packaging industry. In general, polyethylenes represent most plastic waste and recycling process of post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PCR-PET) has been studied. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) have generated different legislative documents to control the use of PCR-PET in the production of plastic packaging intended direct food contact in order to ensure the capacity of recycling process to remove possible contaminants that can migrate into food. Consequently, it is necessary to demonstrate by challenge test that the recycling process is able to remove specific contaminants, obtaining a safe recycled plastic to human health. These documents establish that the concentration limit for substitute contaminants in PET is 220 ppb (ug/kg) and the specific migration limit is 10 ppb (ug/kg) for each contaminant, in addition to assure the sensorial characteristics of food are not affected. Moreover, under the Commission Regulation (EU) N°10/2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, it is established that overall migration limit is 10 mg of substances per 1 dm2 of surface area of the plastic material. Thus, the aim of this work is to determine the safety of PCR-PET-containing food packaging materials in Chile by measuring their overall migration, and their comparison with the established limits at international level. This information will serve as a basis to provide a regulation to control and regulate the use of recycled plastic materials in the manufacture of plastic packaging intended to be in direct contact with food. The methodology used involves a procedure according to EN-1186:2002 with some modifications. The food simulants used were ethanol 10 % (v/v) and acetic acid 3 % (v/v) as aqueous food simulants, and ethanol 95 % (v/v) and isooctane as substitutes of fatty food simulants. In this study, preliminary results showed that Chilean food packaging plastics with different PCR-PET percentages agree with the European Legislation for food aqueous character.

Keywords: contaminants, polyethylene terephthalate, plastic food packaging, recycling

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Authors: Majid Samiee Zonoozian

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For such important constructions as jacket type platforms, scrupulous attention in analysis, design and calculation processes is needed. The reliability assessment method has been established into an extensively used method to behavior safety calculation of jacket platforms. In the present study, a methodology for the reliability calculation of an offshore jacket platform in contradiction of the extreme wave loading state is available. Therefore, sensitivity analyses are applied to acquire the nonlinear response of jacket-type platforms against extreme waves. The jacket structure is modeled by applying a nonlinear finite-element model with regards to the tubular members' behave. The probability of a member’s failure under extreme wave loading is figured by a finite-element reliability code. The FORM and SORM approaches are applied for the calculation of safety directories and reliability indexes have been detected. A case study for a fixed jacket-type structure positioned in the Persian Gulf is studied by means of the planned method. Furthermore, to define the failure standards, equations suggested by the 21st version of the API RP 2A-WSD for The jacket-type structures’ tubular members designing by applying the mixed axial bending and axial pressure. Consequently, the effect of wave Loades in the reliability index was considered.

Keywords: Jacket-Type structure, reliability, failure probability, tubular members

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Authors: Chalise Kiran

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The prime idea of inclusive education is to mainstream every child in education. However, it will be challenging for implementation when there are policy and practice gaps. It will be even more challenging when children have disabilities. Generally, the focus will be on the policy gap, but the problem may not always be with policy. The proper practice could be a challenge in the countries like Nepal. In determining practice, the teachers’ perceptions toward inclusive will play a vital role. Nepal has categorized disability in 7 types (physical, visual, hearing, vision/hearing, speech, mental, and multiple). Out of these, hearing impairment is the study realm. In the context of a limited number of researches on children with disabilities and rare researches on CWHI and their education in Nepal, this study is a pioneering effort in knowing basically the problems and challenges of CWHI focused on inclusive education in the schools including gaps and barriers in its proper implementation. Philosophically, the paradigm of the study is post-positivism. In the post-positivist worldview, the quantitative approach with the description of the situation and inferential relationship are revealed out in the study. This is related to the natural model of objective reality. The data were collected from an individual survey with the teachers and head teachers of 35 schools in Nepal. The survey questionnaire was prepared and filled by the respondents from the schools where the CWHI study in 7 provincial 20 districts of Nepal. Through these considerations, the perceptions of CWHI focused inclusive education were explored in the study. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential tools on which the Likert scale-based analysis was done for descriptive analysis, and chi-square mathematical tool was used to know the significant relationship between dependent variables and independent variables. The descriptive analysis showed that the majority of teachers have positive perceptions toward implementing CWHI focused inclusive education, and the majority of them have positive perceptions toward CWHI focused inclusive education, though there are some problems and challenges. The study has found out the major challenges and problems categorically. Some of them are: a large number of students in a single class; availability of generic textbooks for CWHI and no availability of textbooks to all students; less opportunity for teachers to acquire knowledge on CWHI; not adequate teachers in the schools; no flexibility in the curriculum; less information system in schools; no availability of educational consular; disaster-prone students; no child abuse control strategy; no disabled-friendly schools; no free health check-up facility; no participation of the students in school activities and in child clubs and so on. By and large, it is found that teachers’ age, gender, years of experience, position, employment status, and disability with him or her show no statistically significant relation to successfully implement CWHI focused inclusive education and perceptions to CWHI focused inclusive education in schools. However, in some of the cases, the set null hypothesis was rejected, and some are completely retained. The study has suggested policy implications, implications for educational authority, and implications for teachers and parents categorically.

Keywords: children with hearing impairment, disability, inclusive education, perception

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Authors: Sareh Rajabi, Salwa Bheiry

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In general, Covid-19 created many financial and non-financial damages to the economy and community. Level and severity of covid-19 as pandemic case varies over the region and due to different types of the projects. Covid-19 virus emerged as one of the most imperative risk management factors word-wide recently. Therefore, as part of portfolio management assessment, it is essential to evaluate severity of such risk on the project and program in portfolio management level to avoid any risky portfolio. Covid-19 appeared very effectively in South America, part of Europe and Middle East. Such pandemic infection affected the whole universe, due to lock down, interruption in supply chain management, health and safety requirements, transportations and commercial impacts. Therefore, this research proposes Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to analyze and assess such pandemic case like Covid-19 and its impacts on the construction projects. The AHP technique uses four sub-criteria: Health and safety, commercial risk, completion risk and contractual risk to evaluate the project and program. The result will provide the decision makers with information which project has higher or lower risk in case of Covid-19 and pandemic scenario. Therefore, the decision makers can have most feasible solution based on effective weighted criteria for project selection within their portfolio to match with the organization’s strategies.

Keywords: portfolio management, risk management, COVID-19, analytical hierarchy process technique

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Authors: Maryam Kamali Nezhad

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As part of the project to rehabilitate the main spillway ("main") of the Rapides-des-Îles development in 2019, it was noted that there is a difference between the water level of the intake gauge and the level measured at the main spillway. The Rapides-des-Îles Generating Station is a Hydro-Québec hydroelectric generating station and dam located on the Ottawa River in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue administrative region of Québec. This plant, with an installed capacity of 176 MW, was commissioned in 1966. During the start-up meeting held at the site in May 2019, it was noticed that the water level upstream of the main spillway was considerably higher than the water level at the powerhouse intake. Measurements showed that the level was 229.46 m, whereas the normal operating level (NOL) and the critical maximum level (CML) used in the design were 228.60 m and 229.51 m, respectively. Considering that the water level had almost reached the maximum critical level of the structure despite a flood with a recurrence period of about 100 years, the work was suspended while the project was being decided. This is the first time since the Rapides des îles project was commissioned that a significant difference in elevation between the water level at the powerhouse (intake) and the main spillway has been observed. Following this observation, the contractor's work was suspended. The objective of this study is to identify the reason(s) for this problem and find solutions. Then determine the new upstream levels at the main spillway at which the safety of the structure is ensured and then adjust the engineering of the main spillway in the rehabilitation project accordingly.

Keywords: spillway, rehabilitation, water level, powerhouse, normal operating level, critical maximum level, safety of the structure

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Authors: Moon Byung Woo, Seok Chang-Sung, Koo Jae-Mean, Kim Sang-Young, Choi Jae Gu, Huh Nam-Su

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Recently, the occurrence of the earthquake has increased sharply and many of the casualties have occurred worldwide, due to the influence of earthquakes. Especially, the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident which was caused by the earthquake in 2011 has significantly increased the fear of people and the demand for the safety of the nuclear power plant. Thus, in order to prevent the earthquake accident at nuclear power plant, it is important to evaluate the fracture toughness considering the seismic loading rate. To obtain fracture toughness for the safety evaluation of nuclear power plant, it is desirable to perform experiments with a real scale pipe which is expensive and hard to perform. Therefore, many researchers have proposed various test specimens to replicate the fracture toughness of a real scale pipe. Since such specimens have several problems, the equivalent stress gradient (ESG) specimen has been recently suggested. In this study, in order to consider the effects of the dynamic loading speed on fracture toughness, the experiment was conducted by applying five different kinds of test speeds using an ESG specimen. In addition, after we performed the fracture toughness test under dynamic loading with different speeds using an ESG specimen and a standard specimen, we compared them with the test results under static loading.

Keywords: dynamic loading speed, fracture toughness, load-ratio-method, equivalent stress gradient (ESG) specimen

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Authors: Genziana Lay

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A wide majority of older children and adolescents who enter the juvenile court system present with an array of problematic symptoms and behaviors including anxiety, depression, aggressive acting out, detachment, and substance abuse. Attachment theory offers a framework for understanding normative and pathological functioning, which during development is influenced by emotional, social and cognitive elements. There is clear evidence that children and adolescents with the highest risk of developing adaptation problems present an insecure attachment profile. Most offending minors have experienced dysfunctional family relationships as well as social and/or economic deprivation. Their maladaptive attachment develops not only through their relationship with caregivers but with the environment at large. Activation of their faulty attachment system leads them to feel emotionally overwhelmed and engage in destructive behaviors and decision-making. A psycho-social intervention with this population conceptualized as attachment therapy is a multi-faceted, practical approach that has shown excellent results in terms of increased psychological well-being and drastically reduced rates of re-offense/ destructive behavior. Through several; components including psychotherapy, monitoring, volunteering, meditation and socialization, the program focuses on seven dimensions: self-efficacy, responsibility, empathy/reparation, autonomy/security, containment/structure, insight building, and relational health. This paper presents the program and illustrates how the framework of attachment theory practically applied to psycho-social intervention has great therapeutic and social reparation potential. Preliminary evidence drawn from the Sassari Juvenile Court is very promising; this paper will illustrate these results and propose an even more comprehensive, applicable approach to psycho-social reparative intervention that leads to greater psychological health and reduced recidivism in the child and adolescent population.

Keywords: attachment, child, adolescent, crime, juvenile, psychosocial

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Authors: Almutasim Billa A. Alanazi, Hal S. Tharp

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Safe performance and efficient energy consumption are essential factors for designing a control system. This paper presents a reinforcement learning (RL) model that can be applied to control applications to improve safety and reduce energy consumption. As hardware constraints and environmental disturbances are imprecise and unpredictable, conventional control methods may not always be effective in optimizing control designs. However, RL has demonstrated its value in several artificial intelligence (AI) applications, especially in the field of control systems. The proposed model intelligently monitors a system's success by observing the rewards from the environment, with positive rewards counting as a success when the controlled reference is within the desired operating zone. Thus, the model can determine whether the system is safe to continue operating based on the designer/user specifications, which can be adjusted as needed. Additionally, the controller keeps track of energy consumption to improve energy efficiency by enabling the idle mode when the controlled reference is within the desired operating zone, thus reducing the system energy consumption during the controlling operation. Water temperature control for a hydroponic system is taken as a case study for the RL model, adjusting the variance of disturbances to show the model’s robustness and efficiency. On average, the model showed safety improvement by up to 15% and energy efficiency improvements by 35%- 40% compared to a traditional RL model.

Keywords: control system, hydroponics, machine learning, reinforcement learning

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Authors: C. Kuoh, C. Lucas, T. Lopes, I. Mechie, J. Yoong, W. Yoong

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For all surgeons, there is one preventable but still highly occurring complication – wrong site surgeries. They can have potentially catastrophic, irreversible, or even fatal consequences on patients. With the exponential development of microsurgery and the use of advanced technological tools, the consequences of operating on the wrong side, anatomical part, or even person is seen as the most visible and destructive of all surgical errors and perhaps the error that is dreaded by most clinicians as it threatens their licenses and arouses feelings of guilt. Despite the implementation of the WHO surgical safety checklist more than a decade ago, the incidence of wrong-site surgeries remains relatively high, leading to tremendous physical and psychological repercussions for the clinicians involved, as well as a financial burden for the healthcare institution. In this presentation, the authors explore various factors which can lead to wrong site surgery – a combination of environmental and human factors and evaluate their impact amongst patients, practitioners, their families, and the medical industry. Major contributing factors to these “never events” include deviations from checklists, excessive workload, and poor communication. Two real-life cases are discussed, and systems that can be implemented to prevent these errors are highlighted alongside lessons learnt from other industries. The authors suggest that reinforcing speaking-up, implementing medical professional trainings, and higher patient’s involvements can potentially improve safety in surgeries and electrosurgeries.

Keywords: wrong side surgery, never events, checklist, workload, communication

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Authors: Ishmael Ntlhamu

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In Limpopo Province, the use of herbal concoctions is becoming very popular. These concoctions are claimed to be capable of treating ulcers, diabetes, certain STDs, blood cleansing, and many more types of diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the phytochemical composition, evaluate the pharmacological effects and consumption safety in herbal concoctions to treat various kinds of ailments in Limpopo. The concoctions were extracted with 80% acetone. Microorganisms in the concoctions were identified using the Vitek 2 compact system. Qualitative phytochemical analysis was determined using standard chemical tests and thin layer chromatography (TLC). Total polyphenol content was quantified. Antioxidant activity was quantified using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay and ferric reducing power. Antimicrobial activities were determined using a broth micro-dilution assay and bioautography. Cell viability assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity. Results showed that concoctions had antioxidant activity. Presence of different phytoconstituents was observed. Isolated microorganisms were identified as Burkholderia pseudomallei, Staphylococcus vitulimus, Enterococcus columbae, Kocuria kristanae, Staphylococcus intermedius, Cryptococcus laurenti. and Burkholderia pseudomallei (highly pathogenic). Therefore, phytochemicals prove that the concoctions can heal as the antimicrobial tests also displayed activity. Moreover, the concoctions did not exhibit cytotoxic effects. However, contaminants raise concerns, not only for consumer safety but also the quality of herbal concoctions available as part of the traditional medicinal practice in Limpopo.

Keywords: antimicrobials, concoctions, cytotoxicity, phytochemicals

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Authors: Tomer Gans-Or, Shmulik Pinkert

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The determination of lateral pile capacity per unit length is a key aspect in geotechnical engineering. Traditional approaches for assessing piles lateral capacity in cohesive soils involve the application of upper-bound and lower-bound plasticity theorems. However, a comprehensive solution encompassing the entire spectrum of soil strength parameters, particularly in frictional soils with or without cohesion, is still lacking. This research introduces an innovative implementation of the slice method limit equilibrium solution for lateral capacity assessment. For any given numerical discretization of the soil's domain around the pile, the lateral capacity evaluation is based on mobilized strength concept. The critical failure geometry is then found by a unique optimization procedure which includes both factor of safety minimization and geometrical optimization. The robustness of this suggested methodology is that the solution is independent of any predefined assumptions. Validation of the solution is accomplished through a comparison with established plasticity solutions for cohesive soils. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the applicability of the limit equilibrium method to address unresolved cases related to frictional and cohesive-frictional soils. Beyond providing capacity values, the method enables the utilization of the mobilized strength concept to generate safety-factor distributions for scenarios representing pre-failure states.

Keywords: lateral pile capacity, slice method, limit equilibrium, mobilized strength

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Authors: Ki-seok Kwon, Dong-woo Ryu, Heung-Youl Kim

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Although high-strength concrete has many advantages over generic concrete at normal temperatures (around 20℃), it undergoes spalling at high temperatures, which constitutes its structurally fatal drawback. In this study, fire resistance tests were conducted for 3 hours in accordance with ASTM E119 on bearing wall specimens which were 3,000mm x 3,000mm x 300mm in dimensions to investigate the influence the type of admixtures would exert on the fire resistance performance of high-strength concrete. Portland cement, blast furnace slag, fly ash and silica fume were used as admixtures, among which 2 or 3 components were combined to make 7 types of mixtures. In 56MPa specimens, the severity of spalling was in order of SF5 > F25 > S65SF5 > S50. Specimen S50 where an admixture consisting of 2 components was added did not undergo spalling. In 70MPa specimens, the severity of spalling was in order of SF5 > F25SF5 > S45SF5 and the result was similar to that observed in 56MPa specimens. Acknowledgements— This study was conducted by the support of the project, “Development of performance-based fire safety design of the building and improvement of fire safety” (18AUDP-B100356-04) which is under the management of Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement as part of the urban architecture research project for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, for which we extend our deep thanks.

Keywords: high strength concrete, mineral admixture, fire resistance, social disaster

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Authors: Mohammed E. Ibrahim, Baraa A. Taha, Kamil M. A. Shabban

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Background: Epilepsy is a common but widely misunderstood illness. Consequently, patients with epilepsy suffer from considerable stigmatization in society. This social stigma and discrimination often cause more suffering for the patients than the disease itself. Since very few studies have explored the misperceptions about epilepsy among university students in Sudan, it is not possible to provide focused intervention aimed at eliminating this discrimination. Methods: A cross-sectional study was applied among the first-year medical students at the University of Khartoum between December (2020) and February (2021). A 29-item standardized questionnaire was self-administered by 198 students (out of 320) who agreed to participate in this study. Google form was the tool used to collect the data. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science software version 26. Result: Overall, the results indicate a negative trend in knowledge and attitude toward epilepsy. The vast majority of the respondents (84.8%) have read or heard about epilepsy, while 43.9% had seen someone with epilepsy. Only 7.5% of the participants reported that epilepsy is contagious, whereas 43.4% of them think that epilepsy is a psychological disorder. About 62.2% of students think head/birth trauma is a cause of epilepsy. On the other side, about 15.7% and 5.1% believed that evil spirits and punishment from god can also be a possible cause of epilepsy; we found these false beliefs are more common in participants from rural areas (p-value < 0.05). In regard to attitude, 19.7% of students thought that it is inappropriate for a patient with epilepsy to have a child. This attitude correlates with the mother’s education as the percentage is higher for those who have lower mother’s education (through secondary school education and below) (p < 0.05). The majority of Our participant knew that some people with epilepsy need life-long drug treatment; this belief was found to be more common in females than their counterparts(p < 0.05). . Finally, most of the respondents (93.9%) thought that a child with epilepsy Can be successful in a normal class. This belief is four-time as common in participants whose mothers have higher education (through university education and above) compared with corresponding respondents (p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study concludes that students' knowledge about epilepsy is limited and requires immediate intervention through educational campaigns to develop a well-informed and tolerant community.

Keywords: epilepsy, awareness, attitude, university students, Sudan

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Authors: E. Heintz, H. J. van Lent, K. Glass, J. Lim

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The trend for sodium reduction in food products is clear. Following the World Health Organization (WHO) publication on sodium usage and intake, several countries have introduced initiatives to reduce food-related sodium intake. As salt is a common food preservative, this trend motivates the formulation of a suitable additive with comparable benefits of shelf life extension and microbial safety. Organic acid derivatives like acetates are known as generic microbial growth inhibitors and are commonly applied as additives to meet food safety demands. However, modern consumers have negative perceptions towards -synthetic-derived additives and increasingly prefer natural alternatives. Vinegar, for example, is a well-known natural fermentation product used in food preservation. However, the high acidity of vinegar often makes it impractical for direct use in meat products and a neutralized form would be desirable. This research demonstrates the efficacy of powdered vinegar (Provian DV) in inhibiting Listeria and spoilage organisms (LAB) to increase safety and shelf life of meat products. For this, the efficacy of Provian DV was compared to the efficacy of Provian K, a commonly used sodium free acetate-based preservative, which is known for its inhibition against Listeria. Materials & methods— Cured pork hams: Ingredients: Pork ham muscle, water, salt, dextrose, sodium tripolyphosphate, carrageenan, sodium nitrite, sodium erythorbate, and starch. Targets: 73-74% moisture, 1.75+0.1% salt, and pH 6.4+0.1. Treatments: Control (no antimicrobials), Provian®K 0.5% and 0.75%, Provian®DV 0.5%, 0.65%, 0.8% and 1.0%. Meat formulations in casings were cooked reaching an internal temperature of 73.9oC, cooled overnight and stored for 4 days at 4oC until inoculation. Inoculation: Sliced products were inoculated with approximately 3-log per gram of a cocktail of L. monocytogenes (including serotypes 4b, 1/2a and 1/2b) or LAB-cocktail (C. divergens and L. mesenteroides). Inoculated slices were vacuum packaged and stored at 4oC and 7°C. Samples were incubated 28 days (LAB) or 12 weeks (L. monocytogenes) Microbial analysis: Microbial populations were enumerated in rinsate obtained after adding 100ml of sterile Butterfield’s phosphate buffer to each package and massaging the contents externally by hand. L. monocytogenes populations were determined on triplicate samples by surface plating on Modified Oxford agar whereas LAB plate counts were determined on triplicate samples by surface plating on All Purpose Tween agar with 0.4% bromocresol purple. Proximate analysis: Triplicate non-inoculated ground samples were analyzed for the moisture content, pH, aw, salt, and residual nitrite. Results—The results confirmed the no growth of Listeria on cured ham with 0.5% Provian K stored at 4°C and 7°C for 12 weeks, whereas the no-antimicrobial control showed a 1-log increase within two weeks. 0.5% Provian DV demonstrated similar efficacy towards Listeria inhibition at 4°C while 0.65% Provian DV was required to match the Listeria control at 7°C. 0.75% Provian K and 1% Provian DV were needed to show inhibition of the LAB for 4 weeks at both temperatures. Conclusions—This research demonstrated that it is possible to increase safety and shelf life of cured ready-to-eat ham using preservatives that meet current food trends, like sodium reduction and natural origin.

Keywords: food safety, natural preservation, listeria control, shelf life extension

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Authors: Stephanie Ducrot, Marie Vernet, Eve Meiss, Yves Chaix

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Learning to read is a key topic of debate today, both in terms of its implications on school failure and illiteracy and regarding what are the best teaching methods to develop. It is estimated today that four to six percent of school-age children suffer from specific developmental disorders that impair learning. The findings from people with dyslexia and typically developing readers suggest that the problems children experience in learning to read are related to the preliteracy skills that they bring with them from kindergarten. Most tools available to professionals are designed for the evaluation of child language problems. In comparison, there are very few tools for assessing the relations between visual skills and the process of learning to read. Recent literature reports that visual-motor skills and visual-spatial attention in preschoolers are important predictors of reading development — the main goal of this study aimed at improving screening for future reading difficulties in preschool children. We used a prospective, longitudinal approach where oculomotor processes (assessed with the DiagLECT test) were measured in pre-readers, and the impact of these skills on future reading development was explored. The dialect test specifically measures the online time taken to name numbers arranged irregularly in horizontal rows (horizontal time, HT), and the time taken to name numbers arranged in vertical columns (vertical time, VT). A total of 131 preschoolers took part in this study. At Time 0 (kindergarten), the mean VT, HT, errors were recorded. One year later, at Time 1, the reading level of the same children was evaluated. Firstly, this study allowed us to provide normative data for a standardized evaluation of the oculomotor skills in 5- and 6-year-old children. The data also revealed that 25% of our sample of preschoolers showed oculomotor impairments (without any clinical complaints). Finally, the results of this study assessed the validity of the DiagLECT test for predicting reading outcomes; the better a child's oculomotor skills are, the better his/her reading abilities will be.

Keywords: vision, attention, oculomotor processes, reading, preschoolers

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Authors: Yelda Kağnıcı, Seçil Seymenler, Bahar Baran, Erol Esen, Barışcan Öztürk, Ender Siyez, Diğdem M. Siyez

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Infertility is the inability to reproduce after twelve months or longer unprotected sexual relationship. Although infertility is not a life threatening illness, it is considered as a serious problem for both the individual and the society. At this point, the importance of examining attitudes towards infertility is critical. Negative attitudes towards infertility may postpone individuals’ help seeking behaviors. The aim of this study is to investigate university students’ attitudes towards infertility in terms of socio-demographic variables (gender, age, taking sexual health education, existence of an infertile individual in the social network, plans about having child and behaviors about health). The sample of the study was 9693 university students attending to 21 universities in Turkey. Of the 9693 students, % 51.6 (n = 5002) were female, % 48.4 (n = 4691) were male. The data was collected by Attitudes toward Infertility Scale developed by researchers and Personal Information Form. In data analysis first frequencies were calculated, then in order to test whether there were significant differences in attitudes towards infertility scores of university students in terms of socio-demographic variables, one way ANOVA was conducted. According to the results, it was found that female students, students who had sexual health education, who have sexual relationship experience, who have an infertile individual in their social networks, who have child plans, who have high caffeine usage and who use alcohol regularly have more positive attitudes towards infertility. On the other hand, attitudes towards infidelity did not show significant differences in terms of age and cigarette usage. When the results of the study were evaluated in general, it was seen that university students’ attitudes towards infertility were negative. The attitudes of students who have high caffeine and alcohols usage were high. It can be considered that these students are aware that their social habits are risky. Female students’ positive attitudes might be explained by their gender role. The results point out that in order to decrease university students’ negative attitudes towards infertility, there is a necessity to develop preventive programs in universities.

Keywords: infertility, attitudes, sex, university students

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Authors: Shivani Kolarkar

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Splendid growth in Indian IT has generated women employment on a large scale in India and continues to do it. Indian IT industry has achieved this in spite of total masculine dominance in other Indian engineering industries, where the ratio of women employment is almost negligible as compared to men. Indian IT today proudly enjoys a strong pool of technically educated, intellectual, and skillful women employees. IT industry has encouraged technical education for women in India, to a great extent. The software industry has definitely contributed to developing a positive and dignified role and status of women employees in Indian IT industry. It has promoted women’s social and economic role and status. In spite of all, gender discrimination still persists in Indian IT, also, which is low as compared to other industries, but it is a matter of concern. An Indian woman is bound to carry dual roles which are equally over-stressed for IT women employees. Long working hours, night shifts, work pressures and insufficient safety majors and necessary facilities for women contributes to making her physical-mental life, family and married life troublesome. Which forces her either to cluster at low-end jobs in IT/elsewhere or to sacrifice her career. Nature, role and status of HRM needs to be broadened, deepened and shaped into research-oriented multidimensional perspective in the context of really enhancing role and status of Indian IT women with high appreciation of women employees’ dignity and entity.

Keywords: attrition, gender discrimination, HRM, Indian IT, software industry, job satisfaction, safety, technical education, women employment

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Authors: Ergun Sakalar, Kubra Bilgic

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In the last decades, real-time PCR has become a reliable tool preferred to use in many laboratories for pathogen detection. This technique allows for monitoring target amplification via fluorescent molecules besides admit of quantitative analysis by enabling of convert outcomes of thermal cycling to digital data. Sensitivity and traceability of real-time PCR are based on measuring of fluorescence that appears only when fluorescent reporter dye bound to specific target DNA.The fluorescent reporter systems developed for this purpose are divided into two groups. The first group consists of intercalator fluorescence dyes such as SYBR Green, EvaGreen which binds to double-stranded DNA. On the other hand, the second group includes fluorophore-labeled oligonucleotide probes that are separated into three subgroups due to differences in mechanism of action; initial primer-probes such as Cyclicons, Angler®, Amplifluor®, LUX™, Scorpions, and the second one hydrolysis probes like TaqMan, Snake assay, finally hybridization probes, for instance, Molecular Beacons, Hybprobe/FRET, HyBeacon™, MGB-Eclipse, ResonSense®, Yin-Yang, MGB-Pleiades. In addition nucleic acid analogues, an increase of probe affinity to target site is also employed with fluorescence-labeled probes. Consequently, abundant real-time PCR detection chemistries are chosen by researcher according to the field of application, mechanism of action, advantages, and proper structures of primer/probes.

Keywords: fluorescent dye, food safety, molecular probes, nucleic acid analogues

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Authors: Sasha Mullally

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This paper investigates the transnational circulation of European Nordic ideas about and programs for manual education and training over the decades spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on the unexamined but voluminous correspondence (English-language) of Otto Salomon, an internationally famous education reformer who popularized a form of manual training called "slöjd" (anglicized as "sloyd"), this paper examines it's circulation and translation across global cultures. Salomon, a multilingual promoter of new standardized program for manual training, based his curricula on traditional handcrqafts, particularly Swedish woodworking. He and his followers claimed that the integration of manual training and craft work provided primary and secondary educators with an opportunity to cultivate the mental, but also the physical, and tangentially, the spiritual, health of children. While historians have examined the networks who came together in person to train at his slöjd school for educators in western Sweden, no one has mapped the international community he cultivated over decades of letter writing. Additionally, while the circulation of his ideas in Britain and Germany, as well as the northeastern United States has been placed in a broader narrative of "western" education reform in the Progressive or late Victorian era, no one has examined the correspondence for evidence of the program's wider international appeal beyond Europe and North America. This paper fills this gap by examining the breadth of his reach through active correspondence with educators in Asia (Japan), South America (Brazil), and Africa (South Africa and Zimbabwe). As such, this research presents an opportunity to map the international communities of education reformers active at the turn of the last century, compare and contrast their understandings of and interpretations of "holistic" education, and reveal the ways manual formation was understood to be foundational to the healthy development of children.

Keywords: history of education, history of medicine and psychiatry, child health, child formation, internationalism

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Authors: A. Degale Desta, Cheng Jian

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Deep learning application in computer vision is rapidly advancing, giving it the ability to monitor the public and quickly identify potentially anomalous behaviour from crowd scenes. Therefore, the purpose of the current work is to improve the performance of safety of people in crowd events from panic behaviour through introducing the innovative idea of Aggregation of Ensembles (AOE), which makes use of the pre-trained ConvNets and a pool of classifiers to find anomalies in video data with packed scenes. According to the theory of algorithms that applied K-means, KNN, CNN, SVD, and Faster-CNN, YOLOv5 architectures learn different levels of semantic representation from crowd videos; the proposed approach leverages an ensemble of various fine-tuned convolutional neural networks (CNN), allowing for the extraction of enriched feature sets. In addition to the above algorithms, a long short-term memory neural network to forecast future feature values and a handmade feature that takes into consideration the peculiarities of the crowd to understand human behavior. On well-known datasets of panic situations, experiments are run to assess the effectiveness and precision of the suggested method. Results reveal that, compared to state-of-the-art methodologies, the system produces better and more promising results in terms of accuracy and processing speed.

Keywords: action recognition, computer vision, crowd detecting and tracking, deep learning

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Authors: Anikó Kaluzsa

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The article's author aims to introduce and analyze those microbiological safety hazards which indicate the presence of secondary contamination in the water supply system. Since drinking water belongs to primary foods and is the basic condition of life, special attention should be paid on its quality. There are such indicators among the microbiological features can be found in water, which are clear evidence of the presence of water contamination, and based on this there is no need to perform other diagnostics, because they prove properly the contamination of the given water supply section. Laboratory analysis can help - both technologically and temporally – to identify contamination, but it does matter how long takes the removal and if the disinfection process takes place in time. The identification of the factors that often occur in the same places or the chance of their occurrence is greater than the average, facilitates our work. The pathogen microbiological risk assessment by the help of several features determines the most likely occurring microbiological features in the Carpathian basin. From among all the microbiological indicators, that are recommended targets for routine inspection by the World Health Organization, there is a paramount importance of the appearance of Escherichia coli in the water network, as its presence indicates the potential ubietiy of enteric pathogens or other contaminants in the water network. In addition, the author presents the steps of microbiological risk assessment analyzing those pathogenic micro-organisms registered to be the most critical.

Keywords: drinking water, E. coli, microbiological indicators, risk assessment, water safety plan

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