Search results for: systems life cycle

Authors: Yuri V. Bykov, V. A. Baturin

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Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to perform a comparative analysis of the levels of autoantibodies (AAB) to the S-100 protein as well as to the dopamine and NMDA receptors in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) in therapeutic remission. Materials and methods: Blood serum obtained from 42 children ages 4 to 17 years (20 boys and 22 girls) was analyzed. Twenty-one of these children had a diagnosis of type 1 DM and were in therapeutic remission (study group). The mean duration of disease in children with type 1 DM was 9.6±0.36 years. Children without DM were included in a group of "apparently healthy children" (21 children, comparison group). AAB to the S-100 protein, the dopamine, and NMDA receptors were measured by ELISA. The normal range of IgG AAB was specified as up to 10 µg/mL. In order to compare the central parameters of the groups, the following parametric and non-parametric methods were used: Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney U test. The level of significance for inter-group comparisons was set at p<0.05. Results: The mean levels of AAB to the S-100B protein were significantly higher (p=0.0045) in children with DM (16.84±1.54 µg/mL) when compared with "apparently healthy children" (2.09±0.05 µg/mL). The detected elevated levels of AAB to NMDA receptors may indicate that in children with type 1 DM, there is a change in the activity of the glutamatergic system, which in its turn suggests the presence of excitotoxicity. The mean levels of AAB to dopamine receptors were higher (p=0.0082) in patients comprising the study group than in the children of the comparison group (40.47±2.31 µg/mL and 3.91±0.09 µg/mL). The detected elevated levels of AAB to dopamine receptors suggest an altered activity of the dopaminergic system in children with DM. This can also be viewed as indirect evidence of altered activity of the brain's glutamatergic system. The mean levels of AAB to NMDA receptors were higher in patients with type 1 DM compared with the "apparently healthy children," at 13.16±2.07 µg/mL and 1.304±0.05 µg/mL, respectively (p=0.0021). The elevated mean levels of AAB to the S-100B protein may indicate damage to brain tissue in children with type 1 DM. A difference was also detected between the mean values of the measured AABs, and this difference depended on the duration of the disease: mean AAB values were significantly higher in patients whose disease had lasted more than five years. Conclusions: The elevated mean levels of AAB to the S-100B protein may indicate damage to brain tissue in the setting of excitotoxicity in children with type 1 DM. The discovered elevation of the levels of AAB to NMDA and dopamine receptors may indicate the activation of the glutamatergic and dopaminergic systems. The observed abnormalities indicate the presence of central nervous system damage in children with type 1 DM, with a tendency towards the elevation of the levels of the studied AABs with disease progression.

Keywords: autoantibodies, brain damage, children, diabetes mellitus

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Authors: Daniel J. Patricio Jiménez

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The term 'total compensation’ refers to salary, training, innovation, and development, and of course, motivation; total compensation is an open and flexible system which must facilitate personal and family conciliation and therefore cannot be isolated from social reality. Today, the challenge for any company that wants to have a future is to be sustainable, and women play a ‘special’ role in this. Spain, in its statutory and conventional development, has not given sufficient response to new phenomena such as ‘bonuses’, ‘stock options’ or ‘fringe benefits’ (constructed dogmatically and by court decisions), the new digital reality, where cryptocurrency, new collaborative models and service provision -such as remote work-, are always ahead of the law. To talk about compensation is to talk about the gender gap, and with the entry into force of RD.902 /2020 on 14 April 2021, certain measures are necessary under the principle of salary transparency; the valuation of jobs, the pay register (Rd. 6/2019) and the pay audit, are an example of this. Analyzing the methodologies, and in particular the determination and weight of the factors -so that the system itself is not discriminatory- is essential. The wage gap in Spain is smaller than in Europe, but the sources do not reflect the reality, and since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a clear stagnation. A living wage is not the minimum wage; it is identified with rights and needs; it is that which, based on internal equity, reflects the competitiveness of the company in terms of human capital. Spain has lost and has not recovered the relative weight of its wages; this is having a direct impact on our competitiveness, consequently on the precariousness of employment and undoubtedly on the levels of extreme poverty. Training is becoming more than ever a strategic factor; the new digital reality requires that each component of the system is connected, the transversality is imposed on us, this forces us to redefine content, to give answers to the new demands that the new normality requires because technology and robotization are changing the concept of employability. The presence of women in this context is necessary, and there is a long way to go. The so-called emotional compensation becomes particularly relevant at a time when pandemics, silence, and disruption, are leaving after-effects; technostress (in all its manifestations) is just one of them. Talking about motivation today makes no sense without first being aware that mental health is a priority, that it must be treated and communicated in an inclusive way because it increases satisfaction, productivity, and engagement. There is a clear conclusion to all this: compensation systems do not respond to the ‘new normality’: diversity, and in particular women, cannot be invisible in human resources policies if the company wants to be sustainable.

Keywords: diversity, gender gap, human resources, sustainability.

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Authors: Gebrehiwot H., Giorgis Bahita

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Firms in Africa experience less financial market in comparison to other emerging and developed countries, thus lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of innovation and growth. Though there are different factors to be considered, underdeveloped financial systems take the lion's share in hindering firm innovation and growth in Africa. Insufficient capacity to innovate is one of the problems facing African businesses. Moreover, a critical challenge faced by firms in Africa is access to finance and the inability of financially constrained firms to grow. Only little is known about how different sources of finance affect firm innovation and growth in Africa, specifically the formal and informal finance effect on firm innovation and growth. This study's aim is to address this gap by using formal and informal finance for working capital and fixed capital and its role in firm innovation and firm growth using firm-level data from the World Bank enterprise survey 2006-2019 with a total of 5661 sample firms from 14 countries based on available data on the selected variables. Additionally, this study examines factors for accessing credit from a formal financial institution. The logit model is used to examine the effect of finance on a firm’s innovation and factors to access formal finance, while the Ordinary List Square (OLS) regression mode is used to investigate the effect of finance on firm growth. 2SLS instrumental variables are used to address the possible endogeneity problem in firm growth and finance-innovation relationships. A result from the logistic regression indicates that both formal and informal finance used for working capital and investment in fixed capital was found to have a significant positive association with product and process innovation. In the case of finance and growth, finding show that positive association of both formal and informal financing to working capital and new investment in fixed capital though the informal has positive relations to firm growth as measured by sale growth but no significant association as measured by employment growth. Formal finance shows more magnitude of effect on innovation and growth when firms use formal finance to finance investment in fixed capital, while informal finance show less compared to formal finance and this confirms previous studies as informal is mainly used for working capital in underdeveloped economies like Africa. The factors that determine credit access: Age, firm size, managerial experience, exporting, gender, and foreign ownership are found to have significant determinant factors in accessing credit from formal and informal sources among the selected sample countries.

Keywords: formal finance, informal finance, innovation, growth

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Authors: Sandra Carrillo Hoyos

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Mining activities in South America have significantly grown during the last decades, given the abundance of natural resources, the implemented governmental policies to incentivize foreign investment as well as the boom in international prices for metals and oil between 2002 and 2008. While this context allowed the region to occupy a leading position between the top producers of minerals around the world, it has also meant an increase in socio-environmental conflicts which have generated costs and negative impacts not only for the companies but especially for the governments and local communities.During the latest decade, the mining sector in Peru has faced with the social resistance of a large number of communities, which began organizing actions against the implementation of high investing projects. The dissatisfaction has derived in the prevalence of socio-environmental conflicts associated with mining activities, some of them never solved into an agreement. In order to prevent those socio-environmental conflicts and obtain the social license from local communities, most of the mining companies have developed diverse initiatives within the framework of policies and practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This paper has assessed the mining sector’s contribution toward the local development management along the last decade, as part of CSR strategies as well as the policies promoted by the Peruvian State. This assessment found that, in the beginning, these initiatives have been based on a philanthropic approach and were reacting to pressures from local stakeholders to maintain the consent to operate from the surrounding communities as well as to create, as a result, a harmonious atmosphere for operations. Due to the weak State presence, such practices have increased the expectations of communities related to the participation of mining companies in solving structural development problems, especially those related to primary needs, infrastructure, education, health, among others. In other words, this paper was focused on analyze in what extent these initiatives have promoted local empowerment for development planning and integrated management of natural resources from a territorial approach. From this perspective, the analysis demonstrates that, while the design and planning of social investment initiatives have improved due to the sector´s sustainability approach, many companies have developed actions beyond their competence during this process. In some cases, the referenced actions have generated dependency with communities, even though this relationship has not exempted the companies of conflict situations with unfortunate consequences. Furthermore, the social programs developed have not necessarily generated a significant impact in improving the quality of life of affected populations. In fact, it is possible to identify that those regions with high mining resources and investment are facing with a situation of poverty and high dependency on mining production. In spite of the revenues derived from mining industry, local governments have not been able to translate the royalties into sustainable development opportunities. For this reason, the proposed paper suggests some challenges for the mining sector contribution to local development based on the best practices and lessons learnt from a benchmarking for the leading mining companies.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, local development, mining, socio-environmental conflict

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Authors: A. Zuchowska, A. Buta, M. Mazurkiewicz-Pawlicka, A. Malolepszy, L. Stobinski, Z. Brzozka

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In recent years, graphene-based materials are finding more and more applications in biological science. As a thin, tough, transparent and chemically resistant materials, they appear to be a very good material for the production of implants and biosensors. Interest in graphene derivatives also resulted at the beginning of research about the possibility of their application in cancer therapy. Currently, the analysis of their potential use in photothermal therapy and as a drug carrier is mostly performed. Moreover, the direct anticancer properties of graphene-based materials are also tested. Nowadays, cytotoxic studies are conducted on in vitro cell culture in standard culture vessels (macroscale). However, in this type of cell culture, the cells grow on the synthetic surface in static conditions. For this reason, cell culture in macroscale does not reflect in vivo environment. The microfluidic systems, called Lab-on-a-chip, are proposed as a solution for improvement of cytotoxicity analysis of new compounds. Here, we present the evaluation of cytotoxic properties of graphene oxide (GO) on breast, liver and colon cancer cell line in a microfluidic system in two spatial models (2D and 3D). Before cell introduction, the microchambers surface was modified by the fibronectin (2D, monolayer) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (3D, spheroids) covering. After spheroid creation (3D) and cell attachment (2D, monolayer) the selected concentration of GO was introduced into microsystems. Then monolayer and spheroids viability/proliferation using alamarBlue® assay and standard microplate reader was checked for three days. Moreover, in every day of the culture, the morphological changes of cells were determined using microscopic analysis. Additionally, on the last day of the culture differential staining using Calcein AM and Propidium iodide were performed. We were able to note that the GO has an influence on all tested cell line viability in both monolayer and spheroid arrangement. We showed that GO caused higher viability/proliferation decrease for spheroids than a monolayer (this was observed for all tested cell lines). Higher cytotoxicity of GO on spheroid culture can be caused by different geometry of the microchambers for 2D and 3D cell cultures. Probably, GO was removed from the flat microchambers for 2D culture. Those results were also confirmed by differential staining. Comparing our results with the studies conducted in the macroscale, we also proved that the cytotoxic properties of GO are changed depending on the cell culture conditions (static/ flow).

Keywords: cytotoxicity, graphene oxide, monolayer, spheroid

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Authors: Shomaila Sadaf, Margarethe Olbertz-Siitonen

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This study looks at identity and othering in discourses around sensitive issues in social media. More specifically, the study explores the multimodal resources and narratives through which the other is formed, and identities are ascribed in online spaces. As an integral part of social life, media spaces have become an important site for negotiating and ascribing identities. In line with recent research, identity is seen hereas constructions of belonging which go hand in hand with processes of in- and out-group formations that in some cases may lead to othering. Previous findings underline that identities are neither fixed nor limited but rather contextual, intersectional, and interactively achieved. The goal of this study is to explore and develop an understanding of how people co-construct the ‘other’ and ascribe certain identities in social media using multiple modes. In the beginning of the year 2018, the British government decided to include relationships, sexual orientation, and sex education into the curriculum of state funded primary schools. However, the addition of information related to LGBTQ+in the curriculum has been met with resistance, particularly from religious parents.For example, the British Muslim community has voiced their concerns and protested against the actions taken by the British government. YouTube has been used by news companies to air video stories covering the protest and narratives of the protestors along with the position ofschool officials. The analysis centers on a YouTube video dealing with the protest ofa local group of parents against the addition of information about LGBTQ+ in the curriculum in the UK. The video was posted in 2019. By the time of this study, the videos had approximately 169,000 views andaround 6000 comments. In deference to multimodal nature of YouTube videos, this study utilizes multimodal discourse analysis as a method of choice. The study is still ongoing and therefore has not yet yielded any final results. However, the initial analysis indicates a hierarchy of ascribing identities in the data. Drawing on multimodal resources, the media works with social categorizations throughout the documentary, presenting and classifying involved conflicting parties in the light of their own visible and audible identifications. The protesters can be seen to construct a strong group identity as Muslim parents (e.g., clothing and reference to shared values). While the video appears to be designed as a documentary that puts forward facts, the media does not seem to succeed in taking a neutral position consistently throughout the video. At times, the use of images, soundsand language contributes to the formation of “us” vs. “them”, where the audience is implicitly encouraged to pick a side. Only towards the end of the documentary this problematic opposition is addressed and critically reflected through an expert interview that is – interestingly – visually located outside the previously presented ‘battlefield’. This study contributes to the growing understanding of the discursive construction of the ‘other’ in social media. Videos available online are a rich source for examining how the different social actors ascribe multiple identities and form the other.

Keywords: identity, multimodal discourse analysis, othering, youtube

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Authors: Jinming Du

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With the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020, many higher education institutions and education systems are turning to hybrid or fully distance online courses to maintain social distance and provide a safe virtual space for learning and teaching. However, the majority of faculty members were not well prepared for the shift to blended or distance learning. Communication frustrations are prevalent in both hybrid and full-distance courses. A systematic literature review was conducted by a comprehensive analysis of 1688 publications that focused on the application of the adoption of chatbots in education. This study aimed to explore instructors' experiences with chatbots in online and blended undergraduate English courses. Language learners are overwhelmed by the variety of information offered by many online sites. The recently emerged chatbots (e.g.: ChatGPT) are slightly superior in performance as compared to those traditional through previous technologies such as tapes, video recorders, and websites. The field of chatbots has been intensively researched, and new methods have been developed to demonstrate how students can best learn and practice a new language in the target language. However, it is believed that among the many areas where chatbots are applied, while chatbots have been used as effective tools for communicating with business customers, in consulting and targeting areas, and in the medical field, chatbots have not yet been fully explored and implemented in the field of language education. This issue is challenging enough for language teachers; they need to study and conduct research carefully to clarify it. Pedagogical chatbots may alleviate the perception of a lack of communication and feedback from instructors by interacting naturally with students through scaffolding the understanding of those learners, much like educators do. However, educators and instructors lack the proficiency to effectively operate this emerging AI chatbot technology and require comprehensive study or structured training to attain competence. There is a gap between language teachers’ perceptions and recent advances in the application of AI chatbots to language learning. The results of the study found that although the teachers felt that the chatbots did the best job of giving feedback, the teachers needed additional training to be able to give better instructions and to help them assist in teaching. Teachers generally perceive the utilization of chatbots to offer substantial assistance to English language instruction.

Keywords: artificial intelligence in education, chatbots, education and technology, education system, pedagogical chatbot, chatbots and language education

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Authors: Suzan Duygu Bedir Erişti

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The present study tried to make a general evaluation of the dissertations conducted in the last decade in the field of art education in the Department of Fine Arts Education in the Institutes of Education Sciences in Turkey. In the study, most of the universities which involved an Institute of Education Sciences within their bodies in Turkey were reached. As a result, a total of a hundred dissertations conducted in the departments of Fine Arts Education at several universities (Anadolu, Gazi, Ankara, Marmara, Dokuz Eylul, Ondokuz Mayıs, Selcuk and Necmettin Erbakan) were determined via the open access systems of universities as well as via the Thesis Search System of Higher Education Council. Most of the dissertations were reached via the latter system, and in cases of failure, the dissertations were reached via the former system. Consequently, most of the dissertations which did not have any access restriction and which had appropriate content were reached. The dissertations reached were examined based on document analysis in terms of their research topics, research paradigms, contents, purposes, methodologies, data collection tools, and analysis techniques. The dissertations conducted in institutes of Education Sciences could be said to have demonstrated a development, especially in recent years with respect to their qualities. It was also found that a great majority of the dissertations were carried out at Gazi University and Marmara University and that a similar number of dissertations were conducted in other universities. When all the dissertations were taken into account, in general, they were found to differ a lot in their subject areas. In most of the dissertations, the quantitative paradigm was adopted, while especially in recent years, more importance has been given to methods based on the qualitative paradigm. In addition, most of the dissertations conducted with quantitative paradigm were structured based on the general survey model and experimental research model. In terms of statistical techniques, university-focused approaches were used. In some universities, advanced statistical techniques were applied, while in some other universities, there was a moderate use of statistical techniques. Most of the studies produced results generalizable to the levels of postgraduate education and elementary school education. The studies were generally structured in face-to-face teaching processes, while some of them were designed in environments which did not include results generalizable to the face-to-face education system. In the present study, it was seen that the dissertations conducted in the departments of Fine Arts Education at the Institutes of Education Sciences in Turkey did not involve application-based approaches which included art-based or visual research in terms of either research topic or methodology.

Keywords: fine arts education, dissertations, evaluation of dissertations, research trends in fine arts education

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Authors: Ehsan Moradi, Parisa Paikhaste, Amir Alam Beigi, Seyedeh Somayeh Bathaei

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The need for entrepreneurial sustainability is as important as the entrepreneurship category itself. By transferring competencies in a sustainable entrepreneurship framework, entrepreneurship education can make a significant contribution to the effectiveness of businesses, especially for start-up entrepreneurs. This study analyzes the essential competencies of students in the development of sustainable entrepreneurship. It is an applied causal study in terms of nature and field in terms of data collection. The main purpose of this research project is to study and explain the dimensions of sustainability entrepreneurship competencies among agricultural students. The statistical population consists of 730 junior and senior undergraduate students of the Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran. The sample size was determined to be 120 using the Cochran's formula, and the convenience sampling method was used. Face validity, structure validity, and diagnostic methods were used to evaluate the validity of the research tool and Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability to evaluate its reliability. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used by the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) method to prepare a measurement model for data processing. The results showed that seven key dimensions play a role in shaping sustainable entrepreneurial development competencies: systems thinking competence (STC), embracing diversity and interdisciplinary (EDI), foresighted thinking (FTC), normative competence (NC), action competence (AC), interpersonal competence (IC), and strategic management competence (SMC). It was found that acquiring skills in SMC by creating the ability to plan to achieve sustainable entrepreneurship in students through the relevant mechanisms can improve entrepreneurship in students by adopting a sustainability attitude. While increasing students' analytical ability in the field of social and environmental needs and challenges and emphasizing curriculum updates, AC should pay more attention to the relationship between the curriculum and its content in the form of entrepreneurship culture promotion programs. In the field of EDI, it was found that the success of entrepreneurs in terms of sustainability and business sustainability of start-up entrepreneurs depends on their interdisciplinary thinking. It was also found that STC plays an important role in explaining the relationship between sustainability and entrepreneurship. Therefore, focusing on these competencies in agricultural education to train start-up entrepreneurs can lead to sustainable entrepreneurship in the agricultural higher education system.

Keywords: sustainable entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, competency, agricultural higher education

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Authors: Saman Kumara, Duminda Guruge, Krishani Jayasinghe

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Introduction: Nutrition strongly influences good health and development in early life. This study, based on a health promotion approach, used a community-based intervention to improve child nutrition. The approach provides the community with control of interventions, thereby building its capacity and empowering individuals and communities. The aim of this research was to reduce stunting, low birth weight and underweight in communities from Anuradhapura District in Sri Lanka, by identifying and addressing the underlying determinants of under-nutrition and strengthening families and communities to address them. Methods: A health promotion intervention was designed and implemented-based on a logical framework developed in collaboration with members of targeted community. Community members’ implements action, so they fully own the process. Members of the community identify and address the most crucial determinants of health including child health and development and monitor the initial results of their action and modify action to optimize outcomes as well as future goals. Group Discussion, group activities, awareness programs, cluster meetings, community tools and sharing success stories were major activities to address determinants. Continuous data collection was planned at different levels. Priority was given to strengthening the ability of families and groups or communities to collect meaningful data and analyze these themselves. Results: Enthusiasm and interest of the mother, happiness of the child/ family, dietary habits, money management, tobacco and alcohol use of fathers, media influences, illnesses in the child or others, hygiene and sanitary practices, community sensitiveness and domestic violence were the major perceived determinants elicited from the study. There were around 1000 well-functioning mothers groups in this district. ‘Happiness calendar’, ‘brain calendar’, ‘money tool’ and ‘stimulation books’ were created by the community members, to address determinants and measure the process. Evaluation of the process has shown positive early results, such as improvement of feeding habits among mothers, innovative ways of providing early stimulation and responsive care, greater involvement of fathers in childcare and responsive feeding. There is a positive movement of communities around child well-being through interactive play areas. Family functioning and community functioning improved. Use of alcohol and tobacco declined. Community money management improved. Underweight was reduced by 40%. Stunting and low birth weight among under-fives also declined within one year. Conclusion: The health promotion intervention was effective in changing the determinants of under-nutrition in early childhood. Addressing the underlying determinants of under-nutrition in early childhood can be recommended for similar contexts.

Keywords: birth-weight, community, determinants, stunting, underweight

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Authors: Ayon Mukherjee

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Covariate-adjusted response-adaptive (CARA) designs use the available responses to skew the treatment allocation in a clinical trial in towards treatment found at an interim stage to be best for a given patient's covariate profile. Extensive research has been done on various aspects of CARA designs with the patient responses assumed to follow a parametric model. However, ranges of application for such designs are limited in real-life clinical trials where the responses infrequently fit a certain parametric form. On the other hand, robust estimates for the covariate-adjusted treatment effects are obtained from the parametric assumption. To balance these two requirements, designs are developed which are free from distributional assumptions about the survival responses, relying only on the assumption of proportional hazards for the two treatment arms. The proposed designs are developed by deriving two types of optimum allocation designs, and also by using a distribution function to link the past allocation, covariate and response histories to the present allocation. The optimal designs are based on biased coin procedures, with a bias towards the better treatment arm. These are the doubly-adaptive biased coin design (DBCD) and the efficient randomized adaptive design (ERADE). The treatment allocation proportions for these designs converge to the expected target values, which are functions of the Cox regression coefficients that are estimated sequentially. These expected target values are derived based on constrained optimization problems and are updated as information accrues with sequential arrival of patients. The design based on the link function is derived using the distribution function of a probit model whose parameters are adjusted based on the covariate profile of the incoming patient. To apply such designs, the treatment allocation probabilities are sequentially modified based on the treatment allocation history, response history, previous patients’ covariates and also the covariates of the incoming patient. Given these information, an expression is obtained for the conditional probability of a patient allocation to a treatment arm. Based on simulation studies, it is found that the ERADE is preferable to the DBCD when the main aim is to minimize the variance of the observed allocation proportion and to maximize the power of the Wald test for a treatment difference. However, the former procedure being discrete tends to be slower in converging towards the expected target allocation proportion. The link function based design achieves the highest skewness of patient allocation to the best treatment arm and thus ethically is the best design. Other comparative merits of the proposed designs have been highlighted and their preferred areas of application are discussed. It is concluded that the proposed CARA designs can be considered as suitable alternatives to the traditional balanced randomization designs in survival trials in terms of the power of the Wald test, provided that response data are available during the recruitment phase of the trial to enable adaptations to the designs. Moreover, the proposed designs enable more patients to get treated with the better treatment during the trial thus making the designs more ethically attractive to the patients. An existing clinical trial has been redesigned using these methods.

Keywords: censored response, Cox regression, efficiency, ethics, optimal allocation, power, variability

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Authors: Chooi Fong Lee

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Maternal psychological well-being has been investigated from various aspects, such as social support, employment status. However, a perspective from self-discrepancy theory has not been employed. Moreover, most were focused on young mothers. Less is understanding the middle-aged mother’s psychological well-being. This research examined the influence of maternal self-discrepancy between actual and ideal self on maternal role achievement, state anxiety, trait anxiety, and subjective well-being among Japanese middle-aged mothers across their employment status. A pilot study with 20 Japanese mother participants (aged 40-55, 9 regular-employed, 8 non-regular-employed, and 3 homemakers) was conducted to assess the viability of survey questionnaires (Maternal Role Achievement Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Subjective Well-being Scale, and Self-report questionnaire). The self-report questionnaire prompted participants to list up to 3 ideal selves they aspired to be and rate the extent to which their actual selves deviated from their ideal selves on a 7-point scale (1= not at all; 4 = medium; 7 = extremely). Self-discrepancy scores were calculated by subtracting participants’ degree ratings from a 7-point scale, summing them up, and then dividing the total by 3. The final sample consisted of 241 participants, 97 regular-employed, 87 non-regular employed, and 57 homemaker mothers. We ensured participants were randomly selected to mitigate bias. The results show that regular-employed mothers tend to exhibit lower self-discrepancy scores compared to non-regular employed and homemaker mothers. Moreover, the discrepancy between actual and ideal self negatively correlated with maternal role achievement, state anxiety, and subjective well-being, while positively correlated with trait anxiety. Trait anxiety arises when one feels they did not meet their ideal self, as evidenced by higher levels in homemaker mothers, who experience lower state anxiety. Conversely, regular-employed mothers exhibit higher state anxiety but lower trait anxiety, suggesting satisfaction in their professional pursuits despite balancing work and family responsibilities. Full-time maternal roles contribute to lower state anxiety but higher trait anxiety among homemaker mothers due to a lack of personal identity achievement. Non-regular employed mothers show similarities to homemaker mothers. In self-reports, regular-employed mothers highlight support and devotion to their children’s development, while non-regular-employed mothers seek life fulfillment through part-time work alongside child-rearing duties. Homemaker mothers emphasize qualities like sociability, and communication skills, potentially influencing their self-discrepancy scores. Furthermore, the hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that the discrepancy between actual and ideal self significantly predicts subjective well-being. In conclusion, the findings offer valuable insights into the impact of maternal self-discrepancy on psychological well-being among middle-aged Japanese mothers across different employment statuses. Understanding these dynamics becomes crucial as contemporary women increasingly pursue higher education and depart from traditional motherhood norms. Working toward one ideal self might contribute to a mother psychological well-being. Acknowledgment: This project was made possible with funding support from the Japan ICU Foundation.

Keywords: maternal employment, maternal role, self-discrepancy, state-trait anxiety, subjective well-being

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Authors: Yu Zhang, Jie Wu, Li Dong

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Rural tourism is the service industry which regards the agricultural production, rural life, rural nature and cultural landscape as the tourist attraction. It aims to meet the needs of the city tourists such as country sightseeing, vacation, and leisure. According to the difference of the tourist resources, the rural settlements can be divided into different types: The type of tourism resources, scenic spot, and peri-urban. In the past ten years, the rural tourism has promoted the industrial transformation and economic growth in rural areas of China. And it is conducive to the coordinated development of urban and rural areas and has greatly improved the ecological environment and the standard of living for farmers in rural areas. At the same time, a large number of buildings and sites are built in the countryside in order to enhance the tourist attraction and the ability of tourist reception and also to increase the travel comfort and convenience, which has significant influence on the spatial evolution of the village settlement. This article takes the XiangYing Subdistrict, which is in JinPu District of Dalian in China as the exemplification and uses the technology of Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and the technology of Landscape Spatial Analysis to study the influence of the rural tourism development in the rural settlement spaces in four steps. First, acquiring the remote sensing image data at different times of 8 administrative villages in the XiangYing Subdistrict, by using the remote sensing application EDRAS8.6; second, vectoring basic maps of XiangYing Subdistrict including its land-use map with the application of ArcGIS 9.3, associating with social and economic attribute data of rural settlements and analyzing on the rural evolution visually; third, quantifying the comparison of these patches in rural settlements by using the landscape spatial calculation application Fragstats 3.3 and analyzing on the evolution of the spatial structure of settlement in macro and medium scale; finally, summarizing the evolution characteristics and internal reasons of tourism-oriented rural settlements. The main findings of this article include: first of all, there is difference in the evolution of the spatial structure between the developing rural settlements and undeveloped rural settlements among the eight administrative villages; secondly, the villages relying on the surrounding tourist attractions, the villages developing agricultural ecological garden and the villages with natural or historical and cultural resources have different laws of development; then, the rural settlements whose tourism development in germination period, development period and mature period have different characteristics of spatial evolution; finally, the different evolution modes of the tourism-oriented rural settlement space have different influences on the protection and inheritance of the village scene. The development of tourism has a significant impact on the spatial evolution of rural settlement. The intensive use of rural land and natural resources is the fundamental principle to protect the rural cultural landscape and ecological environment as well as the critical way to improve the attraction of rural tourism and promote the sustainable development of countryside.

Keywords: landscape pattern, rural settlement, spatial evolution, tourism-oriented, Xiangying Subdistrict

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Authors: Swati Arun

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The present paper argues that Balance of Power (BOP) needs to conjugate with certain contingencies like geography. It is evident that sea powers (‘insular’ for better clarity) are not balanced (if at all) in the same way as land powers. Its apparent that artificial insularity that the US has achieved reduces the chances of balancing (constant) and helps it maintain preponderance (variable). But how precise is this approach in assessing the dynamics between China’s rise and reaction of other powers and US. The ‘evolved’ theory can be validated by putting China and US in the equation. Systemic Relation between the nations was explained through the Balance of Power theory much before the systems theory was propounded. The BOP is the crux of functionality of ‘power relation’ dynamics which has played its role in the most astounding ways leading to situations of war and peace. Whimsical; but true that, the BOP has remained a complicated and indefinable concepts since Hans. Morganthau to Kenneth Waltz. A challenge of the BOP, however remains; “ that it has too many meanings”. In the recent times it has become evident that the myriad of expectations generated by BOP has not met the practicality of the current world politics. It is for this reason; the BoP has been replaced by Preponderance Theory (PT) to explain prevailing power situation. PT does provide an empirical reasoning for the success of this theory but fails in a abstract logical reasoning required for making a theory universal. Unipolarity clarifies the current system as one where balance of power has become redundant. It seems to reach beyond the contours of BoP, where a superpower does what it must to remain one. The centrality of this arguments pivots around - an exception, every time BOP fails to operate, preponderance of power emerges. PT does not sit well with the primary logic of a theory because it works on an exception. The evolution of such a pattern and system where BOP fails and preponderance emerges is absent. The puzzle here is- if BOP really has become redundant or it needs polishing. The international power structure changed from multipolar to bipolar to unipolar. BOP was looked at to provide inevitable logic behind such changes and answer the dilemma we see today- why US is unchecked, unbalanced? But why was Britain unchecked in 19th century and why China was unbalanced in 13th century? It is the insularity of the state that makes BOP reproduce “imbalance of power”, going a level up from off-shore balancer. This luxury of a state to maintain imbalance in the region of competition or threat is the causal relation between BOP’s and geography. America has applied imbalancing- meaning disequilibrium (in its favor) to maintain the regional balance so that over time the weaker does not get stronger and pose a competition. It could do that due to the significant parity present between the US and the rest.

Keywords: balance of power, china, preponderance of power, US

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Authors: Tina Stavredes

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Increasingly borderless learning opportunities including online learning are expanding. Singapore University of Social Science (SUSS) conducted research in February of 2017 to determine the level of consumer interest in undertaking a completely online distance learning degree program across three countries in the Asian Pacific region. The target audience was potential bachelor degree and post-degree students from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The results gathered were used to assess the market size and ascertain the business potential of online degree programs in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Secondly, the results were used to determine the most receptive markets to prioritise entry and identify the most receptive student segments. In order to achieve the key outcomes, the key points of understanding were as follows: -Motivations for higher education & factors that influence the choice of institution, -Interest in online learning, -Interest in online learning from a Singapore university relative to other foreign institutions, -Key drivers and barriers of interest in online learning. An online survey was conducted from from 7th Feb 2017 to 27th Feb 2017 amongst n=600 respondents aged 21yo-45yo, who have a basic command of English, A-level qualifications and above, and who have an intent to further their education in the next 12 months. Key findings from the study regarding enrolling in an online program include the need for a marriage between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors and the flexibility and support offered in an online program. Overall, there was a high interest for online learning. Survey participants stated they are intrinsically motivated to learn because of their interest in the program of study and the need for extrinsic rewards including opportunities for employment or salary increment in their current job. Seven out of ten survey participants reported they are motivated to further their education and expand their knowledge to become more employable. Eight in ten claims that the feasibility of furthering their education depends on cost and maintaining a work-life balance. The top 2 programs of interest are business and information and communication technology. They describe their choice of university as a marriage of both motivational and feasibility factors including cost, choice, quality of support facilities, and the reputation of the institution. Survey participants reported flexibility as important and stated that appropriate support assures and grows their intent to enrol in an online program. Respondents also reported the importance of being able to work while studying as the main perceived advantage of online learning. Factors related to the choice of an online university emphasized the quality of support services. Despite concerns, overall there was a high interest for online learning. One in two expressed strong intent to enrol in an online programme of study. However, unfamiliarity with online learning is a concern including the concern with the lack of face-to-face interactions. Overall, the findings demonstrated an interest in online learning. A main driver was the ability to earn a recognised degree while still being able to be with the family and the ability to achieve a ‘better’ early career growth.

Keywords: distance education, student motivations, online learning, online student needs

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Authors: Amelia Faotusia

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The blue economy concept was coined by Pacific nations in recognition of the importance of sustainably managing their extensive marine territories. This is especially important for major ocean-based economic sectors of Pacific economies, such as coastal tourism. There is an absence of research, however, on the key ways in which the blue economy concept has emerged in discourse and public policy in Pacific countries, as well as how it articulates with coastal tourism. This research helps to fill such a gap with a specific focus on Tonga through the application of a post-positivist research approach to conduct a desktop study of relevant national documents and qualitative interviews with relevant government staff, civil society organizations, and tourism operators. The findings of the research reflect the importance of institutional integration and partnerships for a successful blue economy transition and are presented in the form of two case studies corresponding to two sub-sectors of Tonga’s coastal tourism sector: (i) the whale-watching and swimming industry, and (ii) beach resorts and restaurants. A thematic analysis applied to the interview data of both cases then enabled the identification of key areas and issues for socio-economic policy intervention and recommendations in support of blue economy transitions in Tonga’s coastal tourism sector. Examples of the relevant areas and issues that emerged included the importance of foreign direct investment, local market access, community-based special management areas, as well as the need to address the anthropogenic impacts of tropical cyclones, whale tourism, plastic litter on coastal assets, and ecosystems. Policy and practical interventions in support of addressing such issues include a proposed restructuring of the whale-watching and swimming licensing system; integration of climate resilience, adaptation, and capacity building as priorities of local blue economy interventions; as well as strengthening of the economic sustainability dimension of blue economy policies. Finally, this research also revealed the need for further specificity and research on the influence and value of local Tongan culture and traditional knowledge, particularly within existing customary marine tenure systems, on Tonga’s national and sectoral blue economy policies and transitions.

Keywords: blue economy, coastal tourism, integrated ocean management, ecosystem resilience

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Authors: Ahmed Saeed Mohamed, Sadok Sassi, Mohammad Roshun Paurobally

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Gears are important machine components that are widely used to transmit power and change speed in many rotating machines. Any breakdown of these vital components may cause severe disturbance to production and incur heavy financial losses. One of the most common causes of gear failure is the tooth fatigue crack. Early detection of teeth cracks is still a challenging task for engineers and maintenance personnel. So far, to analyze the vibration behavior of gears, different approaches have been tried based on theoretical developments, numerical simulations, or experimental investigations. The objective of this study was to develop a numerical model that could be used to simulate the effect of teeth cracks on the resulting vibrations and hence to permit early fault detection for gear transmission systems. Unlike the majority of published papers, where only one single crack has been considered, this work is more realistic, since it incorporates the possibility of multiple simultaneous cracks with different lengths. As cracks significantly alter the gear mesh stiffness, we performed a finite element analysis using SolidWorks software to determine the stiffness variation with respect to the angular position for different combinations of crack lengths. A simplified six degrees of freedom non-linear lumped parameter model of a one-stage gear system is proposed to study the vibration of a pair of spur gears, with and without tooth cracks. The model takes several physical properties into account, including variable gear mesh stiffness and the effect of friction, but ignores the lubrication effect. The vibration simulation results of the gearbox were obtained via Matlab and Simulink. The results were found to be consistent with the results from previously published works. The effect of one crack with different levels was studied and very similar changes in the total mesh stiffness and the vibration response, both were observed and compared to what has been found in previous studies. The effect of the crack length on various statistical time domain parameters was considered and the results show that these parameters were not equally sensitive to the crack percentage. Multiple cracks are introduced at different locations and the vibration response and the statistical parameters were obtained.

Keywords: dynamic simulation, gear mesh stiffness, simultaneous tooth cracks, spur gear, vibration-based fault detection

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Authors: Elena Listo Ubeda, Miguel Marchamalo Sacristan

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The demand for water doubles every twenty years, at a rate which is twice as fast as the world´s population growth. Despite it´s great importance, water is one of the most degraded natural resources in the world, mainly because of the reduction of natural vegetation coverage, population growth, contamination and changes in the soil use which reduces its capacity to collect water. This situation is especially serious in Central America, as reflected in the Human Development reports. The objective of this project is to assist in the improvement of water production and quality in Central America. In order to do these two watersheds in Costa Rica were selected as experiments: that of the Virilla-Durazno River, located in the extreme north east of the central valley which has an Atlantic influence; and that of the Jabillo River, which flows directly into the Pacific. The Virilla river watershed is located over andisols, and that of the Jabillo River is over alfisols, and both are of great importance for water supply to the Greater Metropolitan Area and the future tourist resorts respectively, as well as for the production of agriculture, livestock and hydroelectricity. The hydrological reaction in different soil-cover complexes, varying from the secondary forest to natural vegetation and degraded pasture, was analyzed according to the evaluation of the properties of the soil, infiltration, soil compaction, as well as the effects of the soil cover complex on erosion, calculated by the C factor of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). A water balance was defined for each watershed, in which the volume of water that enters and leaves were estimated, as well as the evapotranspiration, runoff, and infiltration. Two future scenarios, representing the implementation of reforestation and deforestation plans, were proposed, and were analyzed for the effects of the soil cover complex on the water balance in each case. The results obtained show an increase of the ground water recharge in the humid forest areas, and an extension of the study of the dry areas is proposed since the ground water recharge here is diminishing. These results are of great significance for the planning, design of Payment Schemes for Environmental Services and the improvement of the existing water supply systems. In Central America spatial planning is a priority, as are the watersheds, in order to assess the water resource socially and economically, and securing its availability for the future.

Keywords: Costa Rica, infiltration, soil, water

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Authors: Kamal Tolani, Sandeep Kumar, Rohit Luthra, Ankit Dadhania, Krishnaprasad K., Ram Gupta, Deepa Joshi

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Background: Post-operative analgesia remains a clinical challenge, with central and peripheral sensitization playing a pivotal role in treatment-related complications and impaired quality of life. Centrally acting opioids offer poor risk benefit profile with increased intensity of gastrointestinal or central side effects and slow onset of clinical analgesia. The objective of this study was to assess the clinical feasibility of induction and maintenance therapy with Tapentadol Nasal Spray (NS) in moderate to severe acute post-operative pain. Methods: Phase III, randomized, active-controlled, non-inferiority clinical trial involving 294 cases who had undergone surgical procedures under general anesthesia or regional anesthesia. Post-surgery patients were randomized to receive either Tapentadol NS 45 mg or Tramadol 100mg IV as a bolus and subsequent 50 mg or 100 mg dose over 2-3 minutes. The frequency of administration of NS was at every 4-6 hours. At the end of 24 hrs, patients in the tramadol group who had a pain intensity score of ≥4 were switched to oral tramadol immediate release 100mg capsule until the pain intensity score reduced to <4. All patients who had achieved pain intensity ≤ 4 were shifted to a lower dose of either Tapentadol NS 22.5 mg or oral Tramadol immediate release 50mg capsule. The statistical analysis plan was envisaged as a non-inferiority trial involving comparison with Tramadol for Pain intensity difference at 60 minutes (PID60min), Sum of Pain intensity difference at 60 minutes (SPID60min), and Physician Global Assessment at 24 hrs (PGA24 hrs). Results: The per-protocol analyses involved 255 hospitalized cases undergoing surgical procedures. The median age of patients was 38.0 years. For the primary efficacy variables, Tapentadol NS was non-inferior to Inj/Oral Tramadol in relief of moderate to severe post-operative pain. On the basis of SPID60min, no clinically significant difference was observed between Tapentadol NS and Tramadol IV (1.73±2.24 vs. 1.64± 1.92, -0.09 [95% CI, -0.43, 0.60]). In the co-primary endpoint PGA24hrs, Tapentadol NS was non–inferior to Tramadol IV (2.12 ± 0.707 vs. 2.02 ±0.704, - 0.11[95% CI, -0.07, 0.28). However, on further assessment at 48hr, 72 hrs, and 120hrs, clinically superior pain relief was observed with the Tapentadol NS formulation that was statistically significant (p <0.05) at each of the time intervals. Secondary efficacy measures, including the onset of clinical analgesia and TOTPAR, showed non-inferiority to Tramadol. The safety profile and need for rescue medication were also similar in both the groups during the treatment period. The most common concomitant medications were anti-bacterial (98.3%). Conclusion: Tapentadol NS is a clinically feasible option for improved compliance as induction and maintenance therapy while offering a sustained and persistent patient response that is clinically meaningful in post-surgical settings.

Keywords: tapentadol nasal spray, acute pain, tramadol, post-operative pain

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Authors: Tas Yong Koh, Steve Rowlinson, Yuzhong Shen

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In construction safety management, safety climate has long been linked to workers' safety behaviors and performance. For this reason, safety climate concept and tools have been used as heuristics to diagnose a range of safety-related issues by some progressive contractors in Hong Kong and elsewhere. However, as a diagnostic tool, safety climate tends to treat the different components of the climate construct in a linear fashion. Safety management in construction projects, in reality, is a multi-faceted and multilevel phenomenon that resembles a complex system. Hence, understanding safety management in construction projects requires not only the understanding of safety climate but also the organizational-systemic nature of the phenomenon. Our involvement, diagnoses, and interpretations of a range of safety climate-related issues which culminated in the project’s sub-optimum safety performance in an infrastructure construction project have brought about such revelation. In this study, a range of data types had been collected from various hierarchies of the project site organization. These include the frontline workers and supervisors from the main and sub-contractors, and the client supervisory personnel. Data collection was performed through the administration of safety climate questionnaire, interviews, observation, and document study. The findings collectively indicate that what had emerged in parallel of the seemingly linear climate-based exploration is the exposition of the organization-systemic nature of the phenomenon. The results indicate the negative impacts of climate perceptions mismatch, insufficient work planning, and risk management, mixed safety leadership, workforce negative attributes, lapsed safety enforcement and resources shortages collectively give rise to the project sub-optimum safety performance. From the dynamic causation and multilevel perspective, the analyses show that the individual, group, and organizational levels issues are interrelated and these interrelationships are linked to negative safety climate. Hence the adoption of both perspectives has enabled a fuller understanding of the phenomenon of safety management that point to the need for an organizational-systemic intervention strategy. The core message points to the fact that intervention at an individual level will only meet with limited success if the risks embedded in the higher levels in group and project organization are not addressed. The findings can be used to guide the effective development of safety infrastructure by linking different levels of systems in a construction project organization.

Keywords: construction safety management, dynamic causation, multilevel analysis, safety climate

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Authors: Ehsan K. Hazaveh

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This research project explores creative methods of storytelling through photography to portray a vulnerable and marginalised community: former refugees living in Wellington, New Zealand. The project explores photographic representational techniques that can not only empower and give voice to those communities but also challenge dominant stereotypes about refugees and support humanitarian actions. The aims of this study are to develop insights surrounding issues associated with the photographic representation of refugees and to explore the collaborative construction of possible counter-narratives that might lead to the formulation of a practice framework for representing refugees using photography. In other words, the goal of this study is to explore representational and narrative strategies that frame refugees as active community members and as individuals with specific histories and expertise. These counter-narratives will bring the diversity of refugees to the surface by offering personal stories, contextualising their experience, raising awareness about the plight and human rights of the refugee community in New Zealand, evoking empathy and, therefore, facilitating the process of social change. The study has designed a photographic narrative framework by determining effective methods of photo storytelling, framing, and aesthetic techniques, focusing on different ways of taking, selecting, editing and curating photographs. Photo elicitation interviews have been used to ‘explore’, ‘produce’ and ‘co-curate’ the counter-narrative along with participants. Photo elicitation is a qualitative research method that employs images to evoke data in order to find out how other people experience their world - the researcher shows photographs to the participant and asks open-ended questions to get them to talk about their life experiences and the world around them. The qualitative data have been collected and produced through interactions with four former refugees living in Wellington, New Zealand. In this way, this project offers a unique account of their conditions and basic knowledge about their living experience and their stories. The participants of this study have engaged with PhotoVoice, a photo elicitation methodology that employs photography and storytelling, to share activities, emotions, hopes, and aspects of their lived experiences. PhotoVoice was designed to empower members of marginalised populations. It involves a series of meeting sessions, in which participants share photographs they have taken and discuss stories about the photographs to identify, represent, and enhance the issues important to their lives and communities. Finally, the data provide a basis for systematically producing visual counter-narratives that highlight the experiences of former- refugees. By employing these methods, refugees can represent their world as well as interpret it. The process of developing this research framing has enabled the development of powerful counter-narratives that challenge prevailing stereotypical depictions which in turn have the potential to shape improved humanitarian outcomes, shifts in public attitudes and political perspectives in New Zealand.

Keywords: media, photography, refugees, photo-elicitation, storytelling

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Authors: Nien-Te Kuo, Yi-Sung Cheng, Kuo-Chien Chang

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Cultural festival tourism is now seen by many as an opportunity to facilitate community development because it has significant influences on the economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of local communities. The potential for tourist attraction has been recognized as a useful tool to strengthen local economies from governments. However, most community festivals in Taiwan are short-lived, often only lasting for a few years or occasionally not making it past a one-off event. Researchers suggested that most governments and other stakeholders do not recognize the importance of building a partnership with residents when developing community tourism. Thus, the sustainable community tourism development still remains a key issue in the existing literature. The success of community tourism is related to the attitudes and lifestyles of local residents. In order to maintain sustainable tourism, residents need to be seen as development partners. Residents’ support intention for tourism development not only helps to increase awareness of local culture, history, the natural environment, and infrastructure, but also improves the interactive relationship between the host community and tourists. Furthermore, researchers have identified the social capital theory as the core of sustainable community tourism development. The social capital of residents has been seen as a good way to solve issues of tourism governance, forecast the participation behavior and improve support intention of residents. In addition, previous studies have pointed out the role of community participation and place identity in increasing resident support intention for tourism development. A lack of place identity is one of the main reasons that community tourism has become a mere formality and is not sustainable. It refers to how much residents participate during tourism development and is mainly influenced by individual interest. Scholars believed that the place identity of residents is the soul of community festivals. It shows the community spirit to visitors and has significant impacts on tourism benefits and support intention of residents in community tourism development. Although the importance of community participation and place identity have been confirmed by both governmental and non-governmental organizations, real-life execution still needs to be improved. This study aimed to use social capital theory to investigate the social structure between community residents, participation levels in festival tourism, degrees of place identity, and resident support intention for future community tourism development, and the causal relationship that these factors have with cultural festival tourism. A quantitative research approach was employed to examine the proposed model. Structural equation model was used to test and verify the proposed hypotheses. This was a case study of the Kaohsiung Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival. The festival was located in the Zuoying District of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. The target population of this study was residents who attended the festival. The results reveal significant correlations among social capital, community participation, place identity and support intention. The results also confirm that impacts of social capital on support intention were significantly mediated by community participation and place identity. Practical suggestions were provided for tourism operators and policy makers. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan, Republic of China, under the grant MOST-105-2410-H-328-013.

Keywords: community participation, place identity, social capital, support intention

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Authors: Ferzat Anka

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Many types of problems can be solved using traditional analytical methods. However, these methods take a long time and cause inefficient use of resources. In particular, different approaches may be required in solving complex and global engineering problems that we frequently encounter in real life. The bigger and more complex a problem, the harder it is to solve. Such problems are called Nondeterministic Polynomial time (NP-hard) in the literature. The main reasons for recommending different metaheuristic algorithms for various problems are the use of simple concepts, the use of simple mathematical equations and structures, the use of non-derivative mechanisms, the avoidance of local optima, and their fast convergence. They are also flexible, as they can be applied to different problems without very specific modifications. Thanks to these features, it can be easily embedded even in many hardware devices. Accordingly, this approach can also be used in trend application areas such as IoT, big data, and parallel structures. Indeed, the metaheuristic approaches are algorithms that return near-optimal results for solving large-scale optimization problems. This study is focused on the new metaheuristic method that has been merged with the chaotic approach. It is based on the chaos theorem and helps relevant algorithms to improve the diversity of the population and fast convergence. This approach is based on Chimp Optimization Algorithm (ChOA), that is a recently introduced metaheuristic algorithm inspired by nature. This algorithm identified four types of chimpanzee groups: attacker, barrier, chaser, and driver, and proposed a suitable mathematical model for them based on the various intelligence and sexual motivations of chimpanzees. However, this algorithm is not more successful in the convergence rate and escaping of the local optimum trap in solving high-dimensional problems. Although it and some of its variants use some strategies to overcome these problems, it is observed that it is not sufficient. Therefore, in this study, a newly expanded variant is described. In the algorithm called Ex-ChOA, hybrid models are proposed for position updates of search agents, and a dynamic switching mechanism is provided for transition phases. This flexible structure solves the slow convergence problem of ChOA and improves its accuracy in multidimensional problems. Therefore, it tries to achieve success in solving global, complex, and constrained problems. The main contribution of this study is 1) It improves the accuracy and solves the slow convergence problem of the ChOA. 2) It proposes new hybrid movement strategy models for position updates of search agents. 3) It provides success in solving global, complex, and constrained problems. 4) It provides a dynamic switching mechanism between phases. The performance of the Ex-ChOA algorithm is analyzed on a total of 8 benchmark functions, as well as a total of 2 classical and constrained engineering problems. The proposed algorithm is compared with the ChoA, and several well-known variants (Weighted-ChoA, Enhanced-ChoA) are used. In addition, an Improved algorithm from the Grey Wolf Optimizer (I-GWO) method is chosen for comparison since the working model is similar. The obtained results depict that the proposed algorithm performs better or equivalently to the compared algorithms.

Keywords: optimization, metaheuristic, chimp optimization algorithm, engineering constrained problems

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Authors: Marzieh Nojomi, Azadeh Mottaghi, Arghavan Haj-Sheykholeslami, Narjes Khalili, Arash Tehrani Banihashemi

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Background and objectives: Domestic violence is a global problem with severe consequences throughout the life of the victims. Iran’s Ministry of Health has launched an intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention program, integrated in the primary health care services since 2016. The present study is a part of this national program’s evaluation. In this section, we aimed to examine spousal abuse victims’ knowledge and attitude towards domestic violence before and after receivingthese services. Methods: To assess the knowledge and attitudes of victims, a questionnaire designed by Ahmadzadand colleagues in 2013 was used. This questionnaire includes 15 questions regarding knowledge in the fields of definition, epidemiology, and effects on children, outcomes, and prevention of domestic violence. To assess the attitudes, this questionnaire has 10 questions regarding the attitudes toward the causes, effects, and legal or protective support services of domestic violence. To assess the satisfaction and the effect of the program on prevention or reduction of spousal violence episodes, two more questions were also added. Since domestic violence prevalence differs in different parts of the country, we chose nine areas with the highest, the lowest, and moderate prevalence of IPVfor the study. The link to final electronic version of the questionnaire was sent to the randomly selected public rural or urban health centers in the nine chosen areas. Since the study had to be completed in one month, we used newly identified victims as pre-intervention group and people who had at least received one related service from the program (like psychiatric consultation, education about safety measures, supporting organizations and etc.) during the previous year, as our post- intervention group. Results: A hundred and ninety-two newly identified IPV victims and 267 victims who had at least received one related program service during the previous year entered the study. All of the victims were female. Basic characteristics of the two groups, including age, education, occupation, addiction, spouses’ age, spouses’ addiction, duration of the current marriage, and number of children, were not statistically different. In knowledge questions, post- intervention group had statistically better scores in the fields of domestic violence outcomes and its effects on children; however, in the remaining areas, the scores of both groups were similar. The only significant difference in the attitude across the two groups was in the field of legal or protective support services. From the 267 women who had ever received a service from the program, 91.8% were satisfied with the services, and 74% reported a decrease in the number of violent episodes. Conclusion: National IPV prevention program integrated in the primary health care services in Iran is effective in improving the knowledge of victims about domestic violence outcomes and its effects on children. Improving the attitude and knowledge of domestic violence victims about its causes and preventive measures needs more effective interventions. This program can reduce the number of IPV episodes between the spouses, and satisfaction among the service users is high.

Keywords: intimate partner violence, assessment, health services, efficacy

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Authors: Vinicius G. Goecks, Gregory M. Gremillion, William D. Nothwang

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Modern approaches to train intelligent agents rely on prolonged training sessions, high amounts of input data, and multiple interactions with the environment. This restricts the application of these learning algorithms in robotics and real-world applications, in which there is low tolerance to inadequate actions, interactions are expensive, and real-time processing and action are required. This paper addresses this issue introducing CyberSteer, a novel approach to efficiently design intrinsic reward functions based on human intention to guide deep reinforcement learning agents with no environment-dependent rewards. CyberSteer uses non-expert human operators for initial demonstration of a given task or desired behavior. The trajectories collected are used to train a behavior cloning deep neural network that asynchronously runs in the background and suggests actions to the deep reinforcement learning module. An intrinsic reward is computed based on the similarity between actions suggested and taken by the deep reinforcement learning algorithm commanding the agent. This intrinsic reward can also be reshaped through additional human demonstration or critique. This approach removes the need for environment-dependent or hand-engineered rewards while still being able to safely shape the behavior of autonomous robotic agents, in this case, based on human intention. CyberSteer is tested in a high-fidelity unmanned aerial vehicle simulation environment, the Microsoft AirSim. The simulated aerial robot performs collision avoidance through a clustered forest environment using forward-looking depth sensing and roll, pitch, and yaw references angle commands to the flight controller. This approach shows that the behavior of robotic systems can be shaped in a reduced amount of time when guided by a non-expert human, who is only aware of the high-level goals of the task. Decreasing the amount of training time required and increasing safety during training maneuvers will allow for faster deployment of intelligent robotic agents in dynamic real-world applications.

Keywords: human-robot interaction, intelligent robots, robot learning, semisupervised learning, unmanned aerial vehicles

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Authors: Amir Seyfoori, Ehsan Samiei, Mohsen Akbari

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The use of microtechnology for detection and high yield isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has shown enormous promise as an indication of clinical metastasis prognosis and cancer treatment monitoring. The Immunomagnetic assay has been also coupled to microtechnology to improve the selectivity and efficiency of the current methods of cancer biomarker isolation. In this way, generation and configuration of the local high gradient magnetic field play essential roles in such assay. Additionally, considering the intrinsic heterogeneity of cancer cells, real-time analysis of isolated cells is necessary to characterize their responses to therapy. Totally, on-chip isolation and monitoring of the specific tumor cells is considered as a pressing need in the way of modified cancer therapy. To address these challenges, we have developed a bi-layer magnetic-based microfluidic chip for enhanced CTC detection and capturing. Micromagnet arrays at the bottom layer of the chip were fabricated using a new method of magnetic nanoparticle paste deposition so that they were arranged at the center of the chain microchannel with the lowest fluid velocity zone. Breast cancer cells labelled with EPCAM-conjugated smart microgels were immobilized on the tip of the micromagnets with greater localized magnetic field and stronger cell-micromagnet interaction. Considering different magnetic nano-powder usage (MnFe2O4 & gamma-Fe2O3) and micromagnet shapes (ellipsoidal & arrow), the capture efficiency of the systems was adjusted while the higher CTC capture efficiency was acquired for MnFe2O4 arrow micromagnet as around 95.5%. As a proof of concept of on-chip tumor cell monitoring, magnetic smart microgels made of thermo-responsive poly N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid (PNIPAM-AA) composition were used for both purposes of targeted cell capturing as well as cell monitoring using antibody conjugation and fluorescent dye loading at the same time. In this regard, magnetic microgels were successfully used as cell tracker after isolation process so that by raising the temperature up to 37⁰ C, they released the contained dye and stained the targeted cell just after capturing. This microfluidic device was able to provide a platform for detection, isolation and efficient real-time analysis of specific CTCs in the liquid biopsy of breast cancer patients.

Keywords: circulating tumor cells, microfluidic, immunomagnetic, cell isolation

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Authors: Gianmaria Califano, Júlio Augusto Lucena Maciel, Olfa Zarrouk, Miguel Damasio, Jose Silvestre, Ana Margarida Fortes

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Global warming, with rapid and sudden changes in meteorological conditions, is one of the major constraints to ensuring agricultural and crop resilience in the Mediterranean regions. Several strategies are being adopted to reduce the pressure of drought stress on grapevines at regional and local scales: improvements in the irrigation systems, adoption of interline cover crops, and adaptation of pruning techniques. However, still, more can be achieved if also microbial compartments associated with plants are considered in crop management. It is known that the microbial community change according to several factors such as latitude, plant variety, age, rootstock, soil composition and agricultural management system. Considering the increasing pressure of the biotic and abiotic stresses, it is of utmost necessity to also evaluate the effects of drought on the microbiome associated with the grapevine, which is a commercially important crop worldwide. In this study, we characterize the diversity and the structure of the microbial community under three long-term irrigation levels (100% ETc, 50% ETc and rain-fed) in a drought-tolerant grapevine cultivar present worldwide, Syrah. To avoid the limitations of culture-dependent methods, amplicon sequencing with target primers for bacteria and fungi was applied to the same soil samples. The use of the DNeasy PowerSoil (Qiagen) extraction kit required further optimization with the use of lytic enzymes and heating steps to improve DNA yield and quality systematically across biological treatments. Target regions (16S rRNA and ITS genes) of our samples are being sequenced with Illumina technology. With bioinformatic pipelines, it will be possible to obtain a characterization of the bacterial and fungal diversity, structure and composition. Further, the microbial communities will be assessed for their functional activity, which remains an important metric considering the strong inter-kingdom interactions existing between plants and their associated microbiome. The results of this study will lay the basis for biotechnological applications: in combination with the establishment of a bacterial library, it will be possible to explore the possibility of testing synthetic microbial communities to support plant resistance to water scarcity.

Keywords: microbiome, metabarcoding, soil, vinegrape, syrah, global warming, crop sustainability

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Authors: Rebecca-Lee Kuhnert, Ron Rapee

Abstract:

Up to 15% of Australian youth will experience an emotional disorder, yet relatively few get the help they need. Schools provide an ideal environment through which we can identify young people who are struggling and provide them with appropriate help. Universal mental health screening is a method by which all young people in school can be quickly assessed for emotional disorders, after which identified youth can be linked to appropriate health services. Despite the obvious logic of this process, universal mental health screening has received little scientific evaluation and even less application in Australian schools. This study will develop methods for Australian education systems to help identify young people (aged 9-17 years old) who are struggling with existing and emerging emotional disorders. Prior to testing, a series of focus groups will be run to get feedback and input from young people, parents, teachers, and mental health professionals. They will be asked about their thoughts on school-based screening methods and and how to best help students at risk of emotional distress. Schools (n=91) across New South Wales, Australia will be randomised to do either immediate screening (in May 2021) or delayed screening (in February 2022). Students in immediate screening schools will complete a long online mental health screener consisting of standard emotional health questionnaires. Ultimately, this large set of items will be reduced to a small number of items to form the final brief screener. Students who score in the “at-risk” range on any measure of emotional health problems will be identified to schools and offered pathways to relevant help according to the most accepted and approved processes identified by the focus groups. Nine months later, the same process will occur among delayed screening schools. At this same time, students in the immediate screening schools will complete screening for a second time. This will allow a direct comparison of the emotional health and help-seeking between youth whose schools had engaged in the screening and pathways to care process (immediate) and those whose schools had not engaged in the process (delayed). It is hypothesised that there will be a significant increase in students who receive help from mental health support services after screening, compared with baseline. It is also predicted that all students will show significantly less emotional distress after screening and access to pathways of care. This study will be an important contribution to Australian youth mental health prevention and early intervention by determining whether school screening leads to a greater number of young people with emotional disorders getting the help that they need and improving their mental health outcomes.

Keywords: children and young people, early intervention, mental health, mental health screening, prevention, school-based mental health

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Authors: Sarah Lister, Pauline Palmer

Abstract:

Research findings presented within this paper form part of a larger scale collaboration between academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and a technology company. The overarching aims of this project focus on developing a series of game-based resources to promote the teaching of aspects of mathematics through a second language (L2) in primary schools. This study explores the potential of game-based learning (GBL) as a dynamic way to engage and motivate learners, making learning fun and purposeful. The research examines the capacity of GBL resources to provide a meaningful and purposeful context for CLIL. GBL is a powerful learning environment and acts as an effective vehicle to promote the learning of mathematics through an L2. The fun element of GBL can minimise stress and anxiety associated with mathematics and L2 learning that can create barriers. GBL provides one of the few safe domains where it is acceptable for learners to fail. Games can provide a life-enhancing experience for learners, revolutionizing the routinized ways of learning through fusing learning and play. This study argues that playing games requires learners to think creatively to solve mathematical problems, using the L2 in order to progress, which can be associated with the development of higher-order thinking skills and independent learning. GBL requires learners to engage appropriate cognitive processes with increased speed of processing, sensitivity to environmental inputs, or flexibility in allocating cognitive and perceptual resources. At surface level, GBL resources provide opportunities for learners to learn to do things. Games that fuse subject content and appropriate learning objectives have the potential to make learning academic subjects more learner-centered, promote learner autonomy, easier, more enjoyable, more stimulating and engaging and therefore, more effective. Data includes observations of the children playing the games and follow up group interviews. Given that learning as a cognitive event cannot be directly observed or measured. A Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDF) construct was used to frame the research, to map the development of learners’ conceptual understanding in an L2 context and as a framework to observe the discursive interactions that occur learner to learner and between learner and teacher. Cognitively, the children were required to engage with mathematical content, concepts and language to make decisions quickly, to engage with the gameplay to reason, solve and overcome problems and learn through experimentation. The visual elements of the games supported the learning of new concepts. Children recognised the value of the games to consolidate their mathematical thinking and develop their understanding of new ideas. The games afforded them time to think and reflect. The teachers affirmed that the games provided meaningful opportunities for the learners to practise the language. The findings of this research support the view that using the game-based resources supported children’s grasp of mathematical ideas and their confidence and ability to use the L2. Engaging with the content and language through the games led to deeper learning.

Keywords: CLIL, gaming, language, mathematics

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: S. Jamshidi, E. Feizi Ashtiani, M. Ardestani, A. Feizi Ashtiani

Abstract:

Waste load allocation (WLA) strategies usually intend to find economical policies for water resource management. Water quality trading (WQT) is an approach that uses discharge permit market to reduce total environmental protection costs. This primarily requires assigning discharge limits known as total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). These are determined by monitoring organizations with respect to the receiving water quality and remediation capabilities. The purpose of this study is to compare two approaches of TMDL assignment for WQT policy in small catchment area of Haraz River, in north of Iran. At first, TMDLs are assigned uniformly for the whole point sources to keep the concentrations of BOD and dissolved oxygen (DO) at the standard level at checkpoint (terminus point). This was simply simulated and controlled by Qual2kw software. In the second scenario, TMDLs are assigned using multi objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) method in which the environmental violation at river basin and total treatment costs are minimized simultaneously. In both scenarios, the equity index and the WLA based on trading discharge permits (TDP) are calculated. The comparative results showed that using economically optimized TMDLs (2nd scenario) has slightly more cost savings rather than uniform TMDL approach (1st scenario). The former annually costs about 1 M$ while the latter is 1.15 M$. WQT can decrease these annual costs to 0.9 and 1.1 M$, respectively. In other word, these approaches may save 35 and 45% economically in comparison with command and control policy. It means that using multi objective decision support systems (DSS) may find more economical WLA, however its outcome is not necessarily significant in comparison with uniform TMDLs. This may be due to the similar impact factors of dischargers in small catchments. Conversely, using uniform TMDLs for WQT brings more equity that makes stakeholders not feel that much envious of difference between TMDL and WQT allocation. In addition, for this case, determination of TMDLs uniformly would be much easier for monitoring. Consequently, uniform TMDL for TDP market is recommended as a sustainable approach. However, economical TMDLs can be used for larger watersheds.

Keywords: waste load allocation (WLA), water quality trading (WQT), total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), Haraz River, multi objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO), equity

Procedia PDF Downloads 394