Search results for: color psychology

Authors: W. A. Nalaka Wijesooriya

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The increasing paddy production, stabilization of domestic rice consumption and the increasing dynamism of rice processing and domestic markets call for a rethinking of the general direction of the rice milling industry in Sri Lanka. The main purpose of the study was to explore levels of concentration in rice milling industry in Polonnaruwa and Hambanthota which are the major hubs of the country for rice milling. Concentration indices reveal that the rice milling industry in Polonnaruwa operates weak oligopsony and is highly competitive in Hambanthota. According to the actual quantity of paddy milling per day, 47 % is less than 8Mt/Day, while 34 % is 8-20 Mt/day, and the rest (19%) is greater than 20 Mt/day. In Hambanthota, nearly 50% of the mills belong to the range of 8-20 Mt/day. Lack of experience of the milling industry, poor knowledge on milling technology, lack of capital and finding an output market are the major entry barriers to the industry. Major problems faced by all the rice millers are the lack of a uniform electricity supply and low quality paddy. Many of the millers emphasized that the rice ceiling price is a constraint to produce quality rice. More than 80% of the millers in Polonnaruwa which is the major parboiling rice producing area have mechanical dryers. Nearly 22% millers have modern machineries like color sorters, water jet polishers. Major paddy purchasing method of large scale millers in Polonnaruwa is through brokers. In Hambanthota major channel is miller purchasing from paddy farmers. Millers in both districts have major rice selling markets in Colombo and suburbs. Huge variation can be observed in the amount of pledge (for paddy storage) loans. There is a strong relationship among the storage ability, credit affordability and the scale of operation of rice millers. The inter annual price fluctuation ranged 30%-35%. Analysis of market margins by using series of secondary data shows that farmers’ share on rice consumer price is stable or slightly increases in both districts. In Hambanthota a greater share goes to the farmer. Only four mills which have obtained the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification from Sri Lanka Standards Institution can be found. All those millers are small quantity rice exporters. Priority should be given for the Small and medium scale millers in distribution of storage paddy of PMB during the off season. The industry needs a proper rice grading system, and it is recommended to introduce a ceiling price based on graded rice according to the standards. Both husk and rice bran were underutilized. Encouraging investment for establishing rice oil manufacturing plant in Polonnaruwa area is highly recommended. The current taxation procedure needs to be restructured in order to ensure the sustainability of the industry.

Keywords: conduct, performance, structure (SCP), rice millers

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Authors: Md. Mahamud Hassan, Shantanu Biswas Linkon, Nur Mohammad Khan

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Over the last three decades, the primary education system in Bangladesh has experienced significant improvement, but it has failed to cope with different social and cultural aspects, which present many challenges for children, families, and the public school system. Neglecting our own contextual learning environment, it is a matter of sorrow that much attention has been paid to the more physical outcome-focused model, which is nothing but mere infrastructural development, and less subtle to the environment that suits the child's psychology and improves their social, emotional, physical, and moral competency. In South Asia, the symbol of education was never the little red house of colonial architecture but “A Guru sitting under a tree", whereas a responsive and inclusive design approach could help to create more innovative learning environments. Such an approach incorporates how the built, natural, and cultural environment shapes the learner; in turn, learners shape the learning. This research will be conducted to, i) identify the major issues and drawbacks of government policy for primary education development programs; ii) explore and evaluate the morphology of the conventional model of school, and iii) propose an alternative model in a collaborative design process with the stakeholders for maximizing the relationship between the physical learning environments and learners by treating “the built environment” as “the third teacher.” Based on observation, this research will try to find out to what extent built, and natural environments can be utilized as a teaching tool for a more optimal learning environment. It should also be evident that there is a significant gap in the state policy, predetermined educational specifications, and implementation process in response to stakeholders’ involvement. The outcome of this research will contribute to a people-place sensitive design approach through a more thoughtful and responsive architectural process.

Keywords: built environment, conventional planning, indigenous learning space, responsive design

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Authors: Farhad Fakoursevom

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Heart disease is one of the diseases which is found in abundance today. Various types of surgeries, such as bypasses, angiography, angioplasty, etc., are used to treat patients. People may receive such surgeries, some of which are invasive and some non-invasive, throughout their lives. People might cope with pre-surgery anxiety and stress, which can disrupt their normal life and even reduce the effects of the surgery, so the desired result can not be achieved in surgery. Considering this issue, the present study aimed to do a comparative assessment of people who received sedatives before surgery and people who did not receive sedatives. In terms of the purpose, this is an applied research and descriptive survey in terms of method. The statistical population included patients who underwent surgeries in the specialist heart hospitals of Mashhad, Iran; 60 people were considered as a statistical population, 30 of them received sedatives before surgery, and 30 others had not received sedatives before surgery. Valid and up-to-date articles were systematically used to collect theoretical bases, and a researcher-made questionnaire was used to examine the level of stress and anxiety of people. The questionnaire content validity was assessed by a panel of experts in psychology and medicine. The construct validity was tested using the software. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability were used for reliability, which shows the appropriate reliability of the questionnaire. SPSS software was used to compare the research results between two groups, and the research findings showed that there is no significant association between the people who received sedatives and those who did not receive sedatives in terms of the amount of stress and anxiety. The longer the time of taking the drugs before the surgery, the more the mental peace of the patients will be. According to the results, it can be said that if we don't need to have an emergency operation and need more time, we have to use sedative drugs with different doses compared to the severity of the surgery, and also in case of a medical emergency such as heart surgery due to a stroke, we have to take advantage of psychological services during and before the operation and sedative drugs so that the patients can control their stress and anxiety and achieve better outcomes.

Keywords: sedative drugs, stress, anxiety, surgery

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Authors: Alejandro Arnaldo Barroso Martinez

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Unlike sex, which is constituted by anatomic-physiological differences, gender is a social construction. Our thoughts and behaviors as females and males are not etched in stone by our biology but rather from how society expects us to think and behave based on our sex assignment in the womb. Social expectations, values, and roles are taken on by individuals and shape the ways considered acceptable and linked to our bodies, feelings, and interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, these evolve into dire consequences for those who do not meet these disciplinary, economic, and cultural standards. Then, the social learning of gender identity implies the individual’s psychological sense of being, and it might be highly linked to a sense of life and suicide attempts. As a result, suicide has been considered a gender issue with differences in the rates and means used by men and women worldwide. Nevertheless, there has been a misunderstanding of the meaning of being male or female in a particular context and how it becomes a risk process for suicide attempts. For this reason, the general objective of the current research is to explain how this process occurs in Cuba. From a Critical Sociology and Social Psychology, a qualitative methodology was developed through six case studies and qualitative in-depth interviews. The analysis is focused on the sequence and interplay between two dimensions of meaning: signifiers and voices. Findings show that the risk process of suicide attempts in Cuba means some patriarchal beliefs and practices as part of informal educational models and some positivist practices in mental health attention. Findings also show that community relations create a sense of belonging, and it is a protection against suicide attempts in Cuba. Those frames of signifiers and voices explain in both males and females but differently when and how they are suffering from isolation, violence, the normalization of emotional awareness, and emotional distress expression. Suicide prevention programs should take gender learning into account as a cultural process.

Keywords: social constructions, gender identity, meanings, suicide attempt

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Authors: Yung Yau

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'Little people' are those who have extremely short stature as they suffer from rare bone diseases. They are commonly known as 'dwarves' or 'people with dwarfism'. Dwarfism is generally regarded as a type of rare disease for its extremely small odds (~1 in 15,000). On account of its rarity, dwarfism, unlike other types of disability, has attracted relatively little attention from the general public and in various academic fields (e.g. architecture, psychology and sociology) except medical science. In view of the extant research gaps, this study aims to investigate the physical barriers facing the little people in the built environment in Hong Kong. Between November 2017 and July 2018, ten little people or their family members participated in in-depth interviews. Responses of the interviewees were transcribed (i.e., speech being converted to text word for word). Interview data were then analyzed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology developed by J. Smith and others in 2009. The findings of the project reveal that although Hong Kong's built environment has been designed barrier-free pursuant to the prevailing building standards, those standards do not cater to the special anthropometric characteristics of little people. As a result, little people face a lot of challenges when using built facilities. For example, most water closets, urinals, and wash hand basins are not fit for little people's use. As indicated by the project findings, we are still far away from providing a discrimination-free and barrier-free living environment for the little people in Hong Kong. To make Hong Kong society more inclusive to the little people, there is a need for further tailored building design. A set of building design principles for better inclusion of the little people in our society are highlighted. These principles include 'the building design should accommodate individuals with different heights' and 'the building design should allow individuals to use comfortably and efficiently with a minimum of fatigue'. At the end of the paper, the author also calls for an agenda for further studies. For instance, we need an anthropometric study on little people for developing practical building design guidelines.

Keywords: dwarfism, little people, inclusive buildings, people with disabilities, social sustainability

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Authors: Nuo Xu, Sijing Chen

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Background: Childbirth is considered a critical traumatic event throughout our lives, positively or negatively impacting the mother's physiology, psychology, and even the whole family. Adverse birth experiences, such as labor pain, anxiety, and fear can negatively impact the mother. Studies had shown that the immersive nature of VR can distract attention from pain and increase focus on interventions for pain relief. However, the existing studies that applied VR to maternal delivery were still in their infancy and showed disparate results, and the small sample size is not representative, so this review analyzed the effects of VR in labor, such as on maternal pain and anxiety, with a view to providing a basis for future applications. Search strategy: We searched Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wan-Fang database from the building to November 17, 2021. Selection Criteria: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that intervened the pregnant women aged 18-35 years with gestational >34 weeks and without complications with VR technology were contained within this review. Data Collection and Analysis: Two researchers completed the study selection, data extraction, and assessment of study quality. For quantitative data we used MD or SMD, and RR (risk ratio) for qualitative data. Random-effects model and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were used. Main Results: 12 studies were included. Using VR could relieve pain during labor (MD=-1.81, 95% CI (-2.04, -1.57), P< 0.00001) and active period (SMD=-0.41, 95% CI (-0.68, -0.14), P= 0.003), reduce anxiety (SMD=-1.39, 95% CI (-1.99, -0.78), P< 0.00001) and improve satisfaction (RR = 1.32; 95% CI (1.10, 1.59); P = 0.003), but the effect on the duration of first (SMD=-1.12, 95% CI (-2.38, 0.13), P=0.08) and second (SMD=-0.22, 95% CI (-0.67, 0.24), P=0.35) stage of labor was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Compared with conventional care, VR technology can relieve labor pain and anxiety and improve satisfaction. However, extensive experimental validation is still needed.

Keywords: virtual reality, delivery, labor pain, anxiety, meta-analysis, systematic review

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Authors: Maria Do Carmo Baracho De Alencar, Marciene Campos Fialho, Maria Do Carmo Vitório Ramos

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The subjects affected by Repetitive Strain Injury/Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorder (RSI/WRMSD) face an everyday life marked by pain, feelings of worthlessness and incapacity caused by the disease, and aggravated often because of discrimination society. Aim: To investigate the experiences and feelings of workers affected by RSI/WRMSD in removal from work situations and to understand the repercussions on mental health. Methods: Clinical records of workers were consulted, opened from July 1, 2014, to July 1, 2015, at the Reference Center for Worker's Health, in Santos city-SP. Selection of workers affected by RSI /WRMSD and who had experienced the removal from work situation due to the disease, and invitation to participate in the study. Semi-structured and individual interviews were carried out based on a pre-elaborated script, and for thematic content analysis. Results: Of a total of 502 medical records, 157 were selected, and of these, 18 workers participated in the interviews, both gender, most of them with low education level, aged between 35 and 56 years, and from different professions. Diseases affected several physical body regions and some workers had more than one body region affected by chronic pain. In the testimonies emerged the psychic suffering by the process of illness at work, fear of dismissal, invisibility of pain, in medical expertise attendance, by the incapacity to perform tasks that were easily achievable, with feelings of uselessness, revolt, and injustice, among others. Conclusion: The workers need to be readapted to new life situations, and the study promotes reflections on the need for more interdisciplinary actions and of the Psychology to the workers affected by RSI/ WRMSD.

Keywords: repetitive strain injury, cumulative trauma disorder, absence from work, mental health, occupational health

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Authors: Angela Cristina Da F. De Oliveira, Salma E. Asmar, Norbert P. Battlori, Yaz Vera, Uriel R. Valencia, Tâmara D. Borges, Antoni D. Bueno, Leandro B. Costa

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The present study aimed to evaluate the replacement of 5% of starch per 5% of sunflower oil (SO) on meat quality and animal welfare of growing and finishing pigs (Iberic x Duroc), exposed to a heat stress environment. The experiment lasted 90 days, and it was carried out in a randomized block design, in a 2 x 2 factorial, composed of two diets (starch or sunflower oil (with or without) and two feed intake management (ad libitum and restriction). Seventy-two crossbred males (51± 6,29 kg body weight - BW) were housed in climate-controlled rooms, in collective pens and exposed to heat stress environment (32°C; 35% to 50% humidity). The treatments studies were: 1) control diet (5% starch x 0% SO) with ad libitum intake (n = 18); 2) SO diet (replacement of 5% of starch per 5% of SO) with ad libitum intake (n = 18); 3) control diet with restriction feed intake (n = 18); or 4) SO diet with restriction feed intake (n = 18). Feed were provided in two phases, 50-100 Kg BW for growing and 100-140 Kg BW for finishing, respectively. Within welfare evaluations, dirtiness score was evaluated all morning during ninety days of the experiment. The presence of manure was individually measured based on one side of the pig´s body and scored according to: 0 (less than 20% of the body surface); 1 (more than 20% but less than 50% of the body surface); 2 (over 50% of the body surface). After the experimental period, when animals reach 130-140 kg BW, they were slaughtered using carbon dioxide (CO2) stunning. Carcass weight, leanness and fat content, measured at the last rib, were recorded within 20 min post-mortem (PM). At 24h PM, pH, electrical conductivity and color measures (L, a*, b*) were recorded in the Longissimus thoracis and Semimembranosus muscles. Data shown no interaction between diet (control x SO) and management feed intake (ad libitum x restriction) on the meat quality parameters. Animals in ad libitum management presented an increase (p < 0.05) on BW, carcass weight (CW), back fat thickness (BT), and intramuscular fat content (IM) when compared with animals in restriction management. In contrast, animals in restriction management showing a higher (p < 0.05) carcass yield, percentage of lean and loin thickness. To welfare evaluations, the interaction between diet and management feed intake did not influence the degree of dirtiness. Although, the animals that received SO diet, independently of the management, were cleaner than animals in control group (p < 0,05), which, for pigs, demonstrate an important strategy to reduce body temperature. Based in our results, the diet and management feed intake had a significant influence on meat quality and animal welfare being considered efficient nutritional strategies to reduce heat stress and improved meat quality.

Keywords: dirtiness, environment, meat, pig

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Authors: G. C. Phiri, E. A. Heil, A. A. Kalimbira, E. Muehlhoff, C. Masangano, B. M. Mtimuni, J. Herrmann, M. B. Krawinkel, I. Jordan

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Background and objectives: High prevalence of undernutrition in Malawi is caused by poor complementary foods. Lack of knowledge of age appropriate food within the household might affect utilization of available resources. FAO-Malawi implemented nutrition education (NE) sessions in 200 villages in Kasungu and Mzimba districts from December 2012 to April 2013 targeting 15 caregivers per village of children aged 6-18 months, grandmothers, spouses and community leaders. Two trained volunteers per village facilitated 10 NE sessions on breastfeeding, food safety and hygiene and complementary feeding using locally available resources. This study assessed the reported dietary diversification practices of infant and young child after nutrition education and the factors that influenced adoption of the practice. Methodology: Questionnaire-based interviews with caregivers were conducted in 16 randomly selected villages (n=108) before training-(t1) and seven months after training-(t2). Knowledge score (KS) was calculated on the indicators breastfeeding, hygiene and complementary feeding. Count regression was performed using SPSS 22. Eight focus group discussions (FGDs) were separately conducted among caregivers and grandmothers in 4 villages. Content analysis was used to analyze FGDs data. Results: Following NE, caregivers' KS significantly increased (p<0.001) between t1 and t2 for breastfeeding (7.7 vs. 9.8, max=18), hygiene (3.8 vs. 5.9, max=7) and complementary feeding (10.2 vs. 16.2, max=26). Caregivers indicated that they stopped preparation of plain-refined maize meal porridge after they gained knowledge on dietary diversification of complementary foods. They learnt mushing and pounding of ingredients for enriched porridge. Whole-maize meal or potatoes were often enriched with vegetables, legumes, small fish or eggs and cooking oil. Children liked the taste of enriched porridge. Amount of enriched porridge consumed at each sitting increase among previously fussy-eater children. Meal frequency increased by including fruits as snacks in child’s diet. Grandmothers observed preparation of enriched porridge among the mothers using locally available foods. Grandmothers liked the taste of enriched porridge and not the greenish color of the porridge. Both grandmothers and mothers reported that children were playing independently after consuming enriched porridge and were strong and healthy. These motivated adoption of the practice. Conclusion: Increased knowledge and skill of preparation and utilisation of locally available foods promoted children’s dietary diversification. Children liking the enriched porridge motivated adoption of dietary diversification.

Keywords: behaviour change, complementary feeding, dietary diversification, IYCN

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Authors: Jill Villarreal, Kristalyn Cooksey, Kai Lloyd, Daniel Ha

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Little research has been conducted to examine college students' reading attitudes, including students' perceptions of reading behaviors and reading abilities. This is problematic, as reading assigned course material is a critical component to an undergraduate student's academic success. For this study, flyers were electronically disseminated to instructors at 24 public and 10 private U.S. institutions in “Reading-Intensive Departments” including Psychology, Sociology, Education, Business, and Communications. We requested the online survey be completed as an in-class activity during the fall 2019 and spring 2020 semesters. All participants voluntarily completed the questionnaire anonymously. Of the participants, 280 self-identified their race as Black and 280 self-identified their race as White. Of the participants, 177 self-identified their gender as Male and 383 self-identified their Gender as Female. Participants ranged in age from 18-24. Factor analysis found four dimensions resulting from the questions regarding reading. The first we interpret as “Reading Proficiency”, accounted for 19% of the variability. The second dimension was “Reading Anxiety” (15%), the third was “Textbook Reading Ability” (9%), and the fourth was “Reading Enjoyment” (8%). Linear models on each of these dimensions revealed no effect of Age, Gender, Race, or Income on “Reading proficiency”. The linear model of “Reading Anxiety” showed a significant effect of race (p = 0.02), with higher anxiety in white students, as well as higher reading anxiety in female students (p < 0.001). The model of “Textbook Reading Ability” found a significant effect of race (p < 0.001), with higher textbook problems in white students. The model of “Reading Enjoyment” showed significant effects of race (p = 0.013) with more enjoyment for white students, gender (p = 0.001) with higher enjoyment for female students, and age (p = 0.033) with older students showing higher enjoyment. These findings suggest that gender, age, and race are important factors in many aspects of college students' reading attitudes. Further research will investigate possible causes for these differences. In addition, the effectiveness of college-level programs to reduce reading anxiety, promote the reading of textbooks, and foster a love of reading will be assessed.

Keywords: age, college, gender, race, reading

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Authors: Ranjita Ghoshmoulick, Aswathi Madhavan, Subhavna Juneja, Prasenjit Sen, Jaydeep Bhattacharya

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Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a very complex and multifactorial metabolic disease where the blood sugar level goes up. One of the major consequence of this elevated blood sugar is the formation of AGE (Advance Glycation Endproducts), from a series of chemical or biochemical reactions. AGE are detrimental because it leads to severe pathogenic complications. They are a group of structurally diverse chemical compounds formed from nonenzymatic reactions between the free amino groups (-NH2) of proteins and carbonyl groups (>C=O) of reducing sugars. The reaction is known as Maillard Reaction. It starts with the formation of reversible schiff’s base linkage which after sometime rearranges itself to form Amadori Product along with dicarbonyl compounds. Amadori products are very unstable hence rearrangement goes on until stable products are formed. During the course of the reaction a lot of chemically unknown intermediates and reactive byproducts are formed that can be termed as Early Glycation Products. And when the reaction completes, structurally stable chemical compounds are formed which is termed as Advanced Glycation Endproducts. Though all glycation products have not been characterized well, some fluorescence compounds e.g pentosidine, Malondialdehyde (MDA) or carboxymethyllysine (CML) etc as AGE and α-dicarbonyls or oxoaldehydes such as 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG) etc as the intermediates have been identified. In this work Gold NanoParticle (GNP) was used as an optical indicator of glycation products. To achieve faster glycation kinetics and high AGE accumulation, fructose was used instead of glucose. Hemoglobin A0 (HbA0) was fructosylated by in-vitro method. AGE formation was measured fluorimetrically by recording emission at 450nm upon excitation at 350nm. Thereafter this fructosylated HbA0 was fractionated by column chromatography. Fractionation separated the proteinaceous substance from the AGEs. Presence of protein part in the fractions was confirmed by measuring the intrinsic protein fluorescence and Bradford reaction. GNPs were synthesized using the templates of chromatographically separated fractions of fructosylated HbA0. Each fractions gave rise to GNPs of varying color, indicating the presence of distinct set of glycation products differing structurally and chemically. Clear solution appeared due to settling down of particles in some vials. The reactive groups of the intermediates kept the GNP formation mechanism on and did not lead to a stable particle formation till Day 10. Whereas SPR of GNP showed monotonous colour for the fractions collected in case of non fructosylated HbA0. Our findings accentuate the use of GNPs as a simple colorimetric sensing platform for the identification of intermediates of glycation reaction which could be implicated in the prognosis of the associated health risk due to T2DM and others.

Keywords: advance glycation endproducts, glycation, gold nano particle, sensor

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Authors: Anita Ghai

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The present paper explores the imperative to establish disability studies as an independent area of academic inquiry in India through the establishment of specific programmes in disability studies. The case study of the efforts made by the Ambedkar University, Delhi, to develop such programs and courses shall be used to substantiate this imperative as well as to explore some of the challenges entailed. The paper shall explore the certain extent aspects of relevant scholarship in the area of disability studies in India today and critically reflect on the perspectives of disability in this scholarship. The study of disability in India has hitherto been the prerogative of special education, rehabilitation psychology, and social work departments. While instances of these departments adopting critical approaches to disability can be identified, their empirical focus has perpetuated the production of disability as the site of suffering and oppression. The complex cultural, phenomenological, historical and economic discourses within which disability is embedded can be better captured within distinctive programmes that have disability sui generis as their focus. Such programs would foreground disability as an epistemology, which universalizes the study of disability from disabled people alone to an analysis of various other groups who have been historically marginalized. It will also play an important role in recuperating disability from a state of alterity. The interdisciplinary nature of disability studies offers an opportunity to integrate perspectives from the humanities and the social sciences in the proposed programs. Some of the challenges or rather aspects of reflection that emerge in the course of developing these programs are the criteria for determining the suitability of faculty to teach these programs and the challenges in identifying faculty and in addressing any apprehensions about career prospects that prospective students might have. The manner in which these concerns are being addressed through the collaboration of expertise as well as through the interdisciplinary and flexible nature of the program shall be addressed in the course of the paper. In conclusion, the paper shall foreground the need for disability studies programs in India, the re-appropriation of existing scholarship in the process of formulation these programs, emerging concerns and the manner in which these concerns will be addressed.

Keywords: academia, disability studies, epistemology, India

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Authors: Marcin Debowski, Marcin Zielinski, Magdalena Zielinska, Paulina Rusanowska

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The problem with digestate management is one of the most important factors influencing on the development and operation of biogas plant. Turbidity and bacterial contamination negatively affect the growth of algae, which can limit the use of the effluent in the production of algae biomass on a large scale. These problems can be overcome by cultivating of algae species resistant to environmental factors, such as Chlorella sp., Scenedesmus sp., or reducing load of organic compounds to prevent bacterial contamination. The effluent requires dilution and/or purification. One of the methods of effluent treatment is the use of a membrane technology such as microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO), depending on the membrane pore size and the cut off point. Membranes are a physical barrier to solids and particles larger than the size of the pores. MF membranes have the largest pores and are used to remove turbidity, suspensions, bacteria and some viruses. UF membranes remove also color, odor and organic compounds with high molecular weight. In treatment of wastewater or other waste streams, MF and UF can provide a sufficient degree of purification. NF membranes are used to remove natural organic matter from waters, water disinfection products and sulfates. RO membranes are applied to remove monovalent ions such as Na⁺ or K⁺. The effluent was used in UF for medium to cultivation of two microalgae: Chlorella sp. and Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Growth rates of Chlorella sp. and P. tricornutum were similar: 0.216 d⁻¹ and 0.200 d⁻¹ (Chlorella sp.); 0.128 d⁻¹ and 0.126 d⁻¹ (P. tricornutum), on synthetic medium and permeate from UF, respectively. The final biomass composition was also similar, regardless of the medium. Removal of nitrogen was 92% and 71% by Chlorella sp. and P. tricornutum, respectively. The fermentation effluents after UF and dilution were also used for cultivation of algae Scenedesmus sp. that is resistant to environmental conditions. The authors recommended the development of biorafinery based on the production of algae for the biogas production. There are examples of using a multi-stage membrane system to purify the liquid fraction from digestate. After the initial UF, RO is used to remove ammonium nitrogen and COD. To obtain a permeate with a concentration of ammonium nitrogen allowing to discharge it into the environment, it was necessary to apply three-stage RO. The composition of the permeate after two-stage RO was: COD 50–60 mg/dm³, dry solids 0 mg/dm³, ammonium nitrogen 300–320 mg/dm³, total nitrogen 320–340 mg/dm³, total phosphorus 53 mg/dm³. However compostion of permeate after three-stage RO was: COD < 5 mg/dm³, dry solids 0 mg/dm³, ammonium nitrogen 0 mg/dm³, total nitrogen 3.5 mg/dm³, total phosphorus < 0,05 mg/dm³. Last stage of RO might be replaced by ion exchange process. The negative aspect of membrane filtration systems is the fact that the permeate is about 50% of the introduced volume, the remainder is the retentate. The management of a retentate might involve recirculation to a biogas plant.

Keywords: digestate, membrane filtration, microalgae cultivation, Chlorella sp.

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Authors: Candy Chieh Lee

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Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between visual perception and social function in patients with schizophrenia. The specific aims are: 1) To explore performances in visual perception and social function in patients with schizophrenia 2) to examine the correlation between visual perceptual skills and social function in patients with schizophrenia The long-term goal is to be able to provide the most adequate intervention program for promoting patients’ visual perceptual skills and social function, as well as compensatory techniques. Background: Perceptual deficits in schizophrenia have been well documented in the visual system. Clinically, a considerable portion (up to 60%) of schizophrenia patients report distorted visual experiences such as visual perception of motion, color, size, and facial expression. Visual perception is required for the successful performance of most activities of daily living, such as dressing, making a cup of tea, driving a car and reading. On the other hand, patients with schizophrenia usually exhibit psychotic symptoms such as auditory hallucination and delusions which tend to alter their perception of reality and affect their quality of interpersonal relationship and limit their participation in various social situations. Social function plays an important role in the prognosis of patients with schizophrenia; lower social functioning skills can lead to poorer prognosis. Investigations on the relationship between social functioning and perceptual ability in patients with schizophrenia are relatively new but important as the results could provide information for effective intervention on visual perception and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: We recruited 50 participants with schizophrenia in the mental health hospital (Taipei City Hospital, Songde branch, Taipei, Taiwan) acute ward. Participants who have signed consent forms, diagnosis of schizophrenia and having no organic vision deficits were included. Participants were administered the test of visual-perceptual skills (non-motor), third edition (TVPS-3) and the personal and social performance scale (PSP) for assessing visual perceptual skill and social function. The assessments will take about 70-90 minutes to complete. Data Analysis: The IBM SPSS 21.0 will be used to perform the statistical analysis. First, descriptive statistics will be performed to describe the characteristics and performance of the participants. Lastly, Pearson correlation will be computed to examine the correlation between PSP and TVPS-3 scores. Results: Significant differences were found between the means of participants’ TVPS-3 raw scores of each subtest with the age equivalent raw score provided by the TVPS-3 manual. Significant correlations were found between all 7 subtests of TVPS-3 and PSP total score. Conclusions: The results showed that patients with schizophrenia do exhibit visual perceptual deficits and is correlated social functions. Understanding these facts of patients with schizophrenia can assist health care professionals in designing and implementing adequate rehabilitative treatment according to patients’ needs.

Keywords: occupational therapy, social function, schizophrenia, visual perception

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Authors: E. Kotrotsiou, A. S. Topsioti, S. Mantzoukas, E. Dragioti, M. Gouva

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Introduction: The literature has demonstrated that individual and psychological factors have a direct effect on the perceptions and attitudes of women with cancer. Objectives: To investigate the relationship between the fear of cancer and anxiety. Aim: To examine the impact of the fear of cancer in women with state and trait anxiety of women. Methods: A community sample of 286 women (mean age 39.6 years, SD = 9.5 ranged 20-60) participated in the current study. The women completed a) State - Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and b) questionnaire concerning socio-demographic information and questions for fear of cancer. Results: The perception of fear in women with cancer is statistically independent from their age (t–test, p = 0.58), their family status (χ2, p = 0.519), their place of residency (χ2, p = 0.148), the manifestation of gynecological cancer (χ2, p = 0.979) or the manifestation of any type of cancer in the family (χ2, p = 0.277). In contrast, it was observed that there was a dependence in relation to a total of phobias (χ2, p = 0.003), the fear of illness (χ2, p< 0.001) and the fear of heights (χ2, p = 0.004). Furthermore, the participants that responded that they feared cancer displayed greater level of stress both as situation (t=-3.462; p=0.001) and as a trait of their personality (t=-4.377; p<0.001), and at the same time they displayed greater levels of depression in comparisons with the other participants. Furthermore, following multiple linear regression analysis it was observed that the participants that responded positively to the question if they feared cancer had 8, 3 units greater stress level as a personality trait in comparison to women that responded negatively to the question if they feared cancer (B=8.3; p=0.016; R2=0.506). Conclusion: Women’s fear of cancer is statistically independent from their age, family status, place of residency, the manifestation of gynaecological cancer and with the manifestation of cancer any type in the family. In contrast, there is a dependency with the total of phobias, fear of illness and fear of heights. Women that state that they have a fear of cancer manifest greater levels of stress from the rest of the participants both as situation and as a trait of their personality (p = 0.001 and p< 0.001 accordingly). In specific, the study demonstrated that the participants that positively to the question if they feared cancer had 8,3 units greater stress level as a personality trait in comparison to women that responded negatively.

Keywords: fear, women health, anxiety, psychology, cancer

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Authors: Getachew Weldemichael, Sentayehu Alamerew, Leta Tulu, Gezahegn Berecha

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Coffee quality improvement program is becoming the focus of coffee research, as the world coffee consumption pattern shifted to high-quality coffee. However, there is limited information on the genetic variation of C. Arabica for quality improvement in potential specialty coffee growing areas of Ethiopia. Therefore, this experiment was conducted with the objectives of determining the magnitude of variation among 105 coffee accessions collected from east Wollega coffee growing areas and assessing correlations between the different coffee qualities attributes. It was conducted in RCRD with three replications. Data on green bean physical characters (shape and make, bean color and odor) and organoleptic cup quality traits (aromatic intensity, aromatic quality, acidity, astringency, bitterness, body, flavor, and overall standard of the liquor) were recorded. Analysis of variance, clustering, genetic divergence, principal component and correlation analysis was performed using SAS software. The result revealed that there were highly significant differences (P<0.01) among the accessions for all quality attributes except for odor and bitterness. Among the tested accessions, EW104 /09, EW101 /09, EW58/09, EW77/09, EW35/09, EW71/09, EW68/09, EW96 /09, EW83/09 and EW72/09 had the highest total coffee quality values (the sum of bean physical and cup quality attributes). These genotypes could serve as a source of genes for green bean physical characters and cup quality improvement in Arabica coffee. Furthermore, cluster analysis grouped the coffee accessions into five clusters with significant inter-cluster distances implying that there is moderate diversity among the accessions and crossing accessions from these divergent inter-clusters would result in hetrosis and recombinants in segregating generations. The principal component analysis revealed that the first three principal components with eigenvalues greater than unity accounted for 83.1% of the total variability due to the variation of nine quality attributes considered for PC analysis, indicating that all quality attributes equally contribute to a grouping of the accessions in different clusters. Organoleptic cup quality attributes showed positive and significant correlations both at the genotypic and phenotypic levels, demonstrating the possibility of simultaneous improvement of the traits. Path coefficient analysis revealed that acidity, flavor, and body had a high positive direct effect on overall cup quality, implying that these traits can be used as indirect criteria to improve overall coffee quality. Therefore, it was concluded that there is considerable variation among the accessions, which need to be properly conserved for future improvement of the coffee quality. However, the variability observed for quality attributes must be further verified using biochemical and molecular analysis.

Keywords: accessions, Coffea arabica, cluster analysis, correlation, principal component

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Authors: Shivalaxmi Arumugham

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Child sexual abuse (CSA) has taken several forms, particularly with the advent of internet technologies that provide pedophiles access to their targets anonymously at an affordable rate. To combat CSA which has far-reaching consequences on the physical and psychological health of the victims, a special act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, was formulated amongst the existing laws. With its latest amendment criminalizing various online activities about child pornography also known as child sexual abuse materials in 2019, tremendous pressure is speculated on law enforcement to identify offenders online. Effective investigations of CSA cases help in not only to detect perpetrators but also in preventing the re-victimization of children. Understanding the vulnerability of the child population and that the offenders continue to develop stealthier strategies to operate, it is high time that traditional investigation, where the focus is on apprehending and prosecuting the offender, must make a paradigm shift to proactively investigate to prevent victimization at the first place. One of the proactive policing techniques involves understanding the psychology of the offenders and children and operating undercover to catch the criminals before a real child is victimized. With the fundamental descriptive approach to research, the article attempts to identify the multitude of issues associated with the investigation of child sexual abuse cases currently in practice in India. Then, the article contextualizes the various covert operations carried out by numerous law enforcement agencies across the globe. To provide this comprehensive overview, the paper examines various reports, websites, guidelines, protocols, judicial pronouncements, and research articles. Finally, the paper presents the challenges and ethical issues that are to be considered before getting into undercover operations either in the guise of a pedophile or as a child. The research hopes to contribute to the making of standard operating protocols for investigation officers and other relevant policymakers in this regard.

Keywords: child sexual abuse, cybercrime against children, covert police operations, investigation of CSA

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Authors: Haidy Weliam Megaly Gouda

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Dermatology is often a neglected specialty in low-resource settings despite the high morbidity associated with skin disease. This becomes even more significant when associated with HIV infection, as dermatological conditions are more common and aggressive in HIV-positive patients. African countries have the highest HIV infection rates, and skin conditions are frequently misdiagnosed and mismanaged because of a lack of dermatological training and educational material. The frequent lack of diagnostic tests in the African setting renders basic clinical skills all the more vital. This project aimed to improve the diagnosis and treatment of skin disease in the HIV population in a district hospital in Malawi. A basic dermatological clinical tool was developed and produced in collaboration with local staff and based on available literature and data collected from clinics. The aim was to improve diagnostic accuracy and provide guidance for the treatment of skin disease in HIV-positive patients. A literature search within Embassy, Medline and Google Scholar was performed and supplemented through data obtained from attending 5 Antiretroviral clinics. From the literature, conditions were selected for inclusion in the resource if they were described as specific, more prevalent, or extensive in the HIV population or have more adverse outcomes if they develop in HIV patients. Resource-appropriate treatment options were decided using Malawian Ministry of Health guidelines and textbooks specific to African dermatology. After the collection of data and discussion with local clinical and pharmacy staff, a list of 15 skin conditions was included, and a booklet was created using the simple layout of a picture, a diagnostic description of the disease and treatment options. Clinical photographs were collected from local clinics (with full consent of the patient) or from the book ‘Common Skin Diseases in Africa’ (permission granted if fully acknowledged and used in a not-for-profit capacity). This tool was evaluated by the local staff alongside an educational teaching session on skin disease. This project aimed to reduce uncertainty in diagnosis and provide guidance for appropriate treatment in HIV patients by gathering information into one practical and manageable resource. To further this project, we hope to review the effectiveness of the tool in practice.

Keywords: prevalence and pattern of skin diseases, impact on quality of life, rural Nepal, interventions, quality switched ruby laser, skin color river blindness, clinical signs, circularity index, grey level run length matrix, grey level co-occurrence matrix, local binary pattern, object detection, ring detection, shape identification

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Authors: Y. Fandja, O. Colot, M. Croquet

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Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) face difficulties in accessing bank credit. Bank credit is actually the main source of external financing for SMEs. In general, SMEs are risky businesses because of the potential opacity maintained by the leader in the management of affairs, the agency conflicts between business owners and third-party funders and the potential opportunism of the leader due to the incompleteness of the contracts. These elements accentuate the problems of information asymmetries between SMEs and bankers leading to capital rationing. Moreover, the last economic crisis reinforced this rationing of capital. However, a long-term relationship between SMEs and their bank would enable the latter to accumulate a set of relevant information allowing the reduction of information asymmetry and, consequently, the reduction of credit rationing. The objective of this research is to investigate the lived experience of SMEs loan officers in their relationships with their clients in order to understand how these relationships can affect the financing structure of these SMEs. To carry out this research, an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is implemented. This approach is part of the constructivist paradigm and refers to the subjective narratives of the individual rather than to an objective description of the facts. The role of the researcher is to explore the lived experience of the interviewees and to try to understand the meaning they give to this experience. Currently, several sixty-minute semi-structured interviews with loan officers for SMEs have been conducted. The analysis of the content of these interviews brought out three main themes. First, the relationship between the credit officer and the company manager is complex because the credit officer is not aware of establishing a personal relationship with his client. Second; the emotional involvement in the bank financing decision is present and third, the trust in the relationship between the credit officer and his client is very important. The originality of this research is to use the interpretative phenomenological analysis more specific to psychology and sociology in order to approach in a different way the problem of the financing of SMEs through their particular relations with the bankers.

Keywords: financing structure, interpretative phenomenological analysis, relationship financing, SME

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Authors: Mariana Mangas, Yaroslava Martins, M. Suárez, Célia Santos, Ana Matos Pires

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Baixo Alentejo is a region of Portugal characterized by an aging population, geographic isolation, social deprivation and a lack of medical staff. It is one of the most problematic regions in regards to mental health, particularly due to the factors mentioned. The aim of this study is a presentation of liaison psychiatry in Hospital José Joaquim Fernandes; a sample of the work done, the current situation and future perspectives. The aim is to present a retrospective study of internal psychiatric emergencies from January 1st, 2016 to August 31st, 2016. Liaison psychiatry of Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health (Psychiatry Service) of ULSBA includes the following activities: internal psychiatry emergencies, HIV consultation (comprised in the general consultation) and liaison psychology (oncology and pain), consisting of a total of 111 internal psychiatry emergencies during the identified period. Gender distribution was uniform. The most prevalent age group was 71-80 years, and 66,6% of patients were 60 years old and over. The majority of the emergency observations was requested by hospital services of medicine (56,8%) and surgery (24,3%). The most frequent reasons for admission were: respiratory disease (18,0%); tumors (15.3%); other surgical and orthopedic pathology (14,5%) and stroke (11,7%). The most frequent psychiatric diagnoses were: neurotic and organic depression (24,3%); delirium (26,1%) and adjustment reaction (14,5%). Major psychiatric pathology (schizophrenia and affective disorders) was found in 10,8%. Antidepressive medication was prescribed in 37,8% patients; antipsychotics in 34,2%. In 9.9% of the cases, no psychotropic drug was prescribed, and 5,4% of patients received psychologic support. Regarding hospital discharge, 42,4% of patients were referred to the general practitioner or to the medical specialist; 22,5% to outpatient gerontopsychiatry; 17,1% to psychiatric outpatient and 14,4% deceased. A future perspective is to start liaison in areas of HIV and psycho oncology in multidisciplinary approach and to improve collaboration with colleagues of other specialties for refining psychiatric referrals.

Keywords: psychiatry, liaison, internal emergency, psychiatric referral

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Authors: Olga Giovani

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In this research, Bronfenbrenner's theory will be used to investigate the individual, microsystemic, and exosystemic factors that may affect adolescents' academic achievement as well as their expectations in Greece. First, the topic of academic achievement in an adolescent developmental context will be set as the target of the proposed study while focusing on the aspects of community influences on adolescents. More specifically, the effect of available resources and the perceived sense of safety and support will be further investigated. Then the issue of family factors will be analyzed, as they are subjectively perceived by the adolescents, focusing on the perceived parental style, parental monitor, and involvement as a mesosystemic factor. In turn, the school will also be discussed with emphasis on the perceived school climate and support as well as the academic aspects of student achievement. Finally, the adolescent's individual perspective will be taken into consideration in developmental terms, examining their perceptions regarding their community/neighborhood, their family, their school, as well as their sense of self-concept and self-esteem as these are expressed through their academic performance and prosocial behavior. The aim of the proposed research is to study these associations through the prism of the systemic perspective, the relationship between aspects of educational achievement and socioeconomic background, with an emphasis on the role of the community, which has not been adequately researched in the Greek context. Community will be defined by the available community resources (recreational activities, public library, local orchestras, free entrance museums, etc.), adolescents' own perception of social support, safety, and support inside that community. These perceptions need to be investigated since they may serve as possible predictors of a child's current cognitive, developmental, and psycho-social outcomes, such as their perceived self-concept and self-esteem, as well as on their future expectations related to the entrance to university and job expectations.

Keywords: bioecological model, developmental psychology, ecosystemic approach, student achievement, microsystemic factors, mesosystemic factors, individual perceptions

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Callistus I. Iheme, Kenneth E. Asika, Emmanuel I. Ugwor, Chukwuka U. Ogbonna, Ugonna H. Uzoka, Nneamaka A. Chiegboka, Chinwe S. Alisi, Obinna S. Nwabueze, Amanda U. Ezirim, Judeanthony N. Ogbulie

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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major threat to the global health sector. Zinc oxide nanocomposites (ZnONCs), composed of zinc oxide nanoparticles and phytochemicals from Azadirachta indica aqueous leaf extract, were assessed for their physico-chemicals, in silico and in vitro antimicrobial properties on multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli enzymes. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscope (GC-MS) analysis on the ZnONCs revealed the presence of twenty volatile phytochemical compounds, among which is scoparone. Characterization of the ZnONCs was done using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and x-ray diffractometer (XRD). Dehydrogenase enzyme converts colorless 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride to the red triphenyl formazan (TPF). The rate of formazan formation in the presence of ZnONCs is proportional to the enzyme activities. The color formation is extracted and determined at 500 nm, and the percentage of enzyme activity is calculated. To determine the bioactive components of the ZnONCs, characterize their binding to enzymes, and evaluate the enzyme-ligand complex stability, respectively Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) analysis, docking, and molecular dynamics simulations will be employed. The results showed arrays of ZnONCs nanorods with maximal absorption wavelengths of 320 nm and 350 nm and thermally stable at the temperature range of 423.77 to 889.69 ℃. In vitro study assessed the dehydrogenase inhibitory properties of the ZnONCs, conjugate of ZnONCs and ampicillin (ZnONCs-amp), the aqueous leaf extract of A. indica, and ampicillin (standard drug). The findings revealed that at the concentration of 500 μm/mL, 57.89 % of the enzyme activities were inhibited by ZnONCs compared to 33.33% and 21.05% of the standard drug (Ampicillin), and the aqueous leaf extract of the A. indica respectively. The inhibition of the enzyme activities by the ZnONCs at 500 μm/mL was further enhanced to 89.74 % by conjugating with Ampicillin. In silico study on the ZnONCs revealed scoparone as the most viable competitor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) for the coenzyme binding pocket on E. coli malate and histidinol dehydrogenase. From the findings, it can be concluded that the scoparone components of the nanocomposites in synergy with the zinc oxide nanoparticles inhibited E. coli malate and histidinol dehydrogenase by competitively binding to the NAD⁺ pocket and that the conjugation of the ZnONCs with ampicillin further enhanced the antimicrobial efficiency of the nanocomposite against multidrug resistant E. coli.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, dehydrogenase activities, E. coli, zinc oxide nanocomposites

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Authors: Shane Theunissen, Rob Grandy

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Historically and we would fairly conventionally within our formal schooling systems, we have convergent testing where all the students are expected to converge on the same answer, and that answer has been determined by an external authority that is reproducing knowledge of the hegemon. Many youths may not embody the cultural capital that's rewarded in formal schooling contexts as they aren't able to converge on the required answer that's being determined by the classroom teacher or the administrators. In this paper, we explore divergent processes that promote creative problem-solving. We embody this divergent process in our measurement of fundamental growth needs. To this end, we utilize the Mosaic Approach as a method for implementing the Outcomes That Matter framework. Outcomes That Matter is the name of the measurement tool built around the Circle of Courage framework, which is a way of identifying fundamental growth needs for young people. The Circle of Courage was developed by Martin-Broken-Leg and colleagues as a way to connect indigenous child-rearing philosophies with contemporary resilience and positive psychology research. The Outcomes that Matter framework puts forward four categories of growth needs for young people. These are: Belonging, which on a macro scale is acceptance into the greater community of practice, Mastery which includes a constellation of concepts including confidence, motivation, self-actualization, and self-determination, Independence refers to a sense of personal power into autonomy within a context where creativity and problem solving, and a personal voice can begin to emerge, and finally Generosity which includes interpersonal things like conflict resolution and teamwork. Outcomes of Matter puts these four domains into a measurement tool that facilitates collaborative assessment between the youth, teachers, and recreation therapists that allows for youth-led narratives pertaining to their fundamental growth outcomes. This application of the Outcomes That Matter framework is unique as it may be the first application of this framework in an educational boatbuilding context.

Keywords: collaboration, empowerment, outcomes that matter, mosaic approach, boat building

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Authors: Muhamad Hafiz Ismail, Ahmad H., Nelfianty M. R.

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The longitudinal study is conducted to identify predictive factors of soccer talent among male players aged 14 to 17 years. Convenience sampling involving elite respondents (n=20) and sub-elite respondents (n=20) male soccer players. Descriptive statistics were reported as frequencies and percentages. The inferential statistical analysis is used to report the status of reliability, independent samples t-test, paired samples t-test, and multiple regression analysis. Generally, there are differences in mean of height, muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, task orientation, cognitive anxiety, self-confidence, juggling skills, short pass skills, long pass skills, dribbling skills, and shooting skills for 20 elite players and sub-elite players. Accordingly, there was a significant difference between pre and post-test for thirteen variables of height, weight, fat percentage, muscle strength, muscle endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, BMI, task orientation, juggling skills, short pass skills, a long pass skills, and dribbling skills. Based on the first predictive factors (physical), second predictive factors (fitness), third predictive factors (psychological), and fourth predictive factors (skills in playing football) pledged to the soccer talent; four multiple regression models were produced. The first predictive factor (physical) contributed 53.5 percent, supported by height and percentage of fat in soccer talents. The second predictive factor (fitness) contributed 63.2 percent and the third predictive factors (psychology) contributed 66.4 percent of soccer talent. The fourth predictive factors (skills) contributed 59.0 percent of soccer talent. The four multiple regression models could be used as a guide for talent scouting for soccer players of the future.

Keywords: soccer talent identification, fitness and physical test, soccer skills test, psychological test

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Authors: Valentina Adduci

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The developing research aims to define in general the criteria of environmental sustainability of rural buildings in Puglia and particularly in the manor farm. The main part of the study analyzes the relationship / dependence between the rural building and the landscape which, after many stratifications, results clearly identified and sometimes also characterized in a positive way. The location of the manor farm, in fact, is often conditioned by the infrastructural network and by the structure of the agricultural landscape. The manor farm, without the constraints due to the urban pattern’s density, was developed in accordance with a logical settlement that gives priority to the environmental aspects. These vernacular architectures are the most valuable example of how our ancestors have planned their dwellings according to nature. The 237 farms, analysis’ object, have been reported in cartography through the GIS system; a symbol has been assigned to each of them to identify the architectural typology and a different color for the historical period of construction. A datasheet template has been drawn up, and it has made possible a deeper understanding of each manor farm. This method provides a faster comparison of the most recurring characters in all the considered buildings, except for those farms which benefited from special geographical conditions, such as proximity to the road network or waterways. Below there are some of the most frequently constants derived from the statistical study of the examined buildings: southeast orientation of the main facade; placement of the sheep pen on the ground tilted and exposed to the south side; larger windowed surface on the south elevation; smaller windowed surface on the north elevation; presence of shielding vegetation near the more exposed elevations to the solar radiation; food storage’s rooms located on the ground floor or in the basement; animal shelter located in north side of the farm; presence of tanks and wells, sometimes combined with a very accurate channeling storm water system; thick layers of masonry walls, inside of which were often obtained hollow spaces to house stairwells or depots for the food storage; exclusive use of local building materials. The research aims to trace the ancient use of bioclimatic constructive techniques in the Apulian rural architecture and to define those that derive from an empirical knowledge and those that respond to an already encoded design. These constructive expedients are especially useful to obtain an effective passive cooling, to promote the natural ventilation and to built ingenious systems for the recovery and the preservation of rainwater and are still found in some of the manor farms analyzed, most of them are, today, in a serious state of neglect.

Keywords: bioclimatic devices, farmstead, rural landscape, sustainability

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Authors: Goutam Kumar Ghorai, Sandip Sadhukhan, Arpita Sarkar, Debprasad Sinha, G. Sarkar, Ashis K. Dhara

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Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in all countries and continues to increase in numbers significantly. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is damage to the retina that occurs with long-term diabetes. DR is a major cause of blindness in the Indian population. Therefore, its early diagnosis is of utmost importance towards preventing progression towards imminent irreversible loss of vision, particularly in the huge population across rural India. The barriers to eye examination of all diabetic patients are socioeconomic factors, lack of referrals, poor access to the healthcare system, lack of knowledge, insufficient number of ophthalmologists, and lack of networking between physicians, diabetologists and ophthalmologists. A few diabetic patients often visit a healthcare facility for their general checkup, but their eye condition remains largely undetected until the patient is symptomatic. This work aims to focus on the design and development of a fully automated intelligent decision system for screening retinal fundus images towards detection of the pathophysiology caused by microaneurysm in the early stage of the diseases. Automated detection of microaneurysm is a challenging problem due to the variation in color and the variation introduced by the field of view, inhomogeneous illumination, and pathological abnormalities. We have developed aconvolutional neural network for efficient detection of microaneurysm. A loss function is also developed to handle severe class imbalance due to very small size of microaneurysms compared to background. The network is able to locate the salient region containing microaneurysms in case of noisy images captured by non-mydriatic cameras. The ground truth of microaneurysms is created by expert ophthalmologists for MESSIDOR database as well as private database, collected from Indian patients. The network is trained from scratch using the fundus images of MESSIDOR database. The proposed method is evaluated on DIARETDB1 and the private database. The method is successful in detection of microaneurysms for dilated and non-dilated types of fundus images acquired from different medical centres. The proposed algorithm could be used for development of AI based affordable and accessible system, to provide service at grass root-level primary healthcare units spread across the country to cater to the need of the rural people unaware of the severe impact of DR.

Keywords: retinal fundus image, deep convolutional neural network, early detection of microaneurysms, screening of diabetic retinopathy

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Authors: Chien-Chun Huang, Yi-U Chiou, Chiun-C.R. Wang

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For longer shelf life of noodles, air-dried method is the traditional way for the noodle preparation. Microwave drying has the specific advantage of rapid and uniform heating due to the penetration of microwaves into the body of the product. Microwave-assisted facility offers a quick and energy saving method during food dehydration as compares to the conventional air-dried method. Recently, numerous studies in the rheological characteristics of pasta or spaghetti were carried out with microwave–assisted air driers and many agricultural products were dried successfully. There are few researches about the evaluation of physicochemical characteristics and cooking quality of microwave-assisted air dried salted noodles. The purposes of this study were to compare the difference between conventional and microwave-assisted drying method on the physicochemical properties and eating quality of rice bran noodles. Three different microwave power including 0.5 KW, 0.75 KW and 1.0 KW installing with 50℃ hot air were applied for dehydration of rice bran noodles in this study. Three proportion of rice bran ranging in 0-20% were incorporated into salted noodles processing. The appearance, optimum cooking time, cooking yield and losses, textural profiles analysis, sensory evaluation of rice bran noodles were measured in this study. The results indicated that high power (1.0 KW) microwave facility caused partially burnt and porous on the surface of rice bran noodles. However, no characteristic of noodle was appeared on the surface of noodles preparing by low power (0.5 KW) microwave facility. The optimum cooking time of noodles was decreased as higher power microwave or higher proportion of rice bran was incorporated into noodles preparation. The higher proportion of rice bran (20%) or higher power of microwave-assisted dried noodles obtained the higher color intensity and the higher cooking losses as compared with conventional air dried noodles. The firmness of cooked rice bran noodles slightly decreased in the cooked noodles which were dried by high power microwave-assisted method. The shearing force, tensile strength, elasticity and texture profiles of cooked rice noodles decreased with the progress of the proportion of rice bran. The results of sensory evaluation indicated conventional dried noodles obtained the higher springiness, cohesiveness and acceptability of cooked noodles than high power (1.0 KW) microwave-assisted dried noodles. However, low power (0.5 KW) microwave-assisted dried noodles showed the comparable sensory attributes and acceptability with conventional dried noodles. Moreover, the sensory attributes including firmness, springiness, cohesiveness decreased, but stickiness increased, with the increases of rice bran proportion. These results inferred that incorporation of lower proportion of rice bran and lower power microwave-assisted dried noodles processing could produce faster cooking time and acceptable quality of cooked noodles as compared to conventional dried noodles.

Keywords: microwave-assisted drying method, physicochemical characteristics, rice bran noodles, sensory evaluation

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Authors: Anh Nguyen, Jane Fisher, Thach Tran, Anh T. T. Tran

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Trait Emotional Intelligence is the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes an individual has about their own and other people’s emotions. It is believed that trait emotional intelligence is a component of personality. Petrides’ Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) is well regarded and well-established, with validation data about its functioning among adults from many countries. However, there is little data yet about its use among Asian populations, including adolescents. The aims were to translate and culturally verify the Trait Emotional Intelligence Adolescent Short Form (TEIQue-ASF) and investigate content validity, construct validity, and reliability among adolescents attending high schools in Vietnam. Content of the TEIQue-ASF was translated (English to Vietnamese) and back-translated (Vietnamese to English) in consultation with bilingual and bicultural health researchers and pilot tested among 51 potential respondents. Phraseology and wording were then adjusted and the final version is named the VN-TEIQue-ASF. The VN-TEIQue-ASF’s properties were investigated in a cross-sectional elf-report survey among high school students in Central Vietnam. In total 1,546 / 1,573 (98.3%) eligible students from nine high schools in rural, urban, and coastline areas completed the survey. Explanatory Factor Analysis yielded a four-factor solution, including some with facets that loaded differently compared to the original version: Well-being, Emotion in Relationships, Emotion Self-management, and Emotion Sensitivity. The Cronbach’s alpha of the global score for the VN-TEIQue-ASF was .77. The VN-TEIQue-ASF is comprehensible and has good content and construct validity and reliability among adolescents in Vietnam. The factor structure is only partly replicated the original version. The VN-TEIQue-ASF is recommended for use in school or community surveys and professional study in education, psychology, and public health to investigate the trait emotional intelligence of adolescents in Vietnam.

Keywords: adolescents, construct validity, content validity, factor analysis, questionnaire validity, trait emotional intelligence, Vietnam

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Authors: Anne Lehner, Mostafa Salari Rad, Jeremy Ginges

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Many of life’s privileges (and burdens) are thrust on us at birth. Someone born white or male in the United States is also born with a set of advantages over someone born non-white or female. One aspect of privileges conferred by birth is that they are so entrenched in social institutions and social norms that until they are robustly challenged, they can be seen as a moral good. While American society increasingly confronts privileges based on gender and race, other types of privileges, like one's nationality, see less attention. The nationality one is born into can have enormous effects on one’s personal life, work opportunities, and health outcomes. Yet, we predicted that although most Americans would regard it as absurd to think that white people have a right to protect their privileges and 'way of life', they would regard it as obvious that Americans have a right to protect the American way of life and associated privileges. In a preregistered study we presented 300 Americans randomly with one out of three 'privilege scales' in order to assess their agreement with certain statements. The domains for the privilege scales were nationality, race, and gender. Next, all participants completed the switched-at-birth task assessing ones tendency to essentialize nationality. We found that Americans are more approving of privilege based on nationality than of privilege based on gender and race. In addition, we found an interaction of condition with ideology, showing that conservatives are in general more approving of the privilege of any kind than liberals are, and they especially approve of privilege based on nationality. For the switched-at-birth task, we found that both, liberals as well as conservatives are equally willing to grant the child 100% American nationality. Whether or not one chose 100% is unrelated to the expressed approval of privilege based on nationality. One might hesitate to fully grant the child 100% American nationality in the task, yet disapprove of privilege based on nationality. This shows that as much as we see beholders of privilege being oblivious to their statuses within other social categories, like gender or race, we seem to detect the same blindness for the privilege based on nationality. Liberals showing relatively fewer support for privilege based on nationality compared to conservatives still refused to acknowledge the child as having become 100% American and thereby denying the privileges it potentially bestows upon them.

Keywords: thought experiment, anti-immigrant attitudes, privilege of nationality, immigration, moral circles, psychology

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Authors: Norbert W. Paul

Abstract:

Since a number of years, scientific interest in human resilience is rapidly increasing especially in psychology and more recently and highly visible in neurobiological research. Concepts of resilience are regularly discussed in the light of liminal experiences and existential challenges in human life. Resilience research is providing both, explanatory models and strategies to promote or foster human resilience. Surprisingly, these approaches attracted little attention so far in philosophy in general and in ethics in particular. This is even more astonishing given the fact that the neurosciences as such have been and still are of major interest to philosophy and ethics and even brought about the specialized field of neuroethics, which, however, is not concerned with concepts of resilience, so far. As a result of the little attention given to the topic of resilience, the whole concept has to date been a philosophically under-theorized. This abstinence of ethics and philosophy in resilience research is lamentable because resilience as a concept as well as resilience interventions based on neurobiological findings do undoubtedly pose philosophical, social and ethical questions. In this paper, we will argue that particular notions of resilience are crossing the sometimes fine line between maintaining a person’s mental health despite the impact of severe psychological or physical adverse events and ethically more debatable discourses of enhancement. While we neither argue for or against enhancement nor re-interpret resilience research and interventions by subsuming them strategies of psychological and/or neuro-enhancement, we encourage those who see social or ethical problems with enhancement technologies should also take a closer look on resilience and the related neurobiological concepts. We will proceed in three steps. In our first step, we will describe the concept of resilience in general and its neurobiological study in particular. Here, we will point out some important differences in the way ‘resilience’ is conceptualized and how neurobiological research understands resilience. In what follows we will try to show that a one-sided concept of resilience – as it is often presented in neurobiological research on resilience – does pose social and ethical problems. Secondly, we will identify and explore the social and ethical challenges of (neurobiological) enhancement. In the last and final step of this paper, we will argue that a one-sided reading of resilience can be understood as latent form of enhancement in transition and poses ethical questions similar to those discussed in relation to other approaches to the biomedical enhancement of humans.

Keywords: resilience, neurosciences, epistemology, bioethics

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