Search results for: assessment leaders

Authors: Esha Banerji

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This paper attempts an assessment of India's behaviour as a foreign policy actor amidst the COVID 19 pandemic by briefly surveying the various introductions and alterations made to India's foreign policy. First, the paper attempts to establish the key strategic pillars of Indian foreign policy after reviewing the existing works. It then proceeds to assess the prominent part played by Health Diplomacy ("Vaccine Maitri") in India's bilateral and multilateral relations during the pandemic and the role of the Indian diaspora in shaping India's foreign policy. This is followed by examining "India's Neighbourhood First policy" and the way it's been employed by the Indian government to extend India’s strategic influence during the pandemic. An empirical assessment will be done to examine the changing dynamics of India's relation with different regional groupings like SAARC, ASEAN, BIMSTEC, etc. The paper also explores the new alliances formed post-pandemic and India's role in them. This paper analyses the contemporary challenges that the largest nation in South Asia faces with the onset of a global pandemic and how Ancient Indian values like "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" have influenced India's foreign policy, especially during the pandemic. It also attempts to grasp the changes within the negotiation style of the Indian government, and the role played by various stakeholders in shaping India's position in the present geopolitical landscape. The study has been conducted using data collected from government records, External Affairs Ministry database, and other available literature. The paper concludes with an attempt to predict the far-reaching strategic implications that the policy, as mentioned above, may have for India.

Keywords: Indian foreign policy, COVID19, diplomacy, post pandemic world

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Authors: Rania Mustafa, Anfal Gadour

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Specialty area: Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Wythenshawe Hospital Accident and Emergency Department. About, Documentation of verbal and written head injury advice given to all adults presenting following a head injury. Our aim was to assess verbal & written head injury advice for an adult patient attending ED in Wythenshawe hospital during the period from January 2022 to May 2022, with a view to evaluating the NICE head injury guidelines concerning discharge advice and also to review the clinical notes to ensure that all adult patients presenting with a head injury are documented to have received both verbal & written head injury advice as per the NICE guidelines. Here we collected data from a random sample over a 1 month period. This data was furtherly filtered to include the adult patient >16 years and resulted in 54 patients with head injuries attending ED during this time period; then patient’s age, sex and hospital number were used to identify the discharge advice for the purpose of chart review and to assess the documentation of head injuries compliance with recommendation for NICE assessment. Data were checked between January 2022 up to May 2022 to allow more intervals for better assessment. Our finding indicates that documentation of verbal advice, 26% of patients were not recorded to have received this in January compared to only 3% in May & Written advice was not recorded in 44% of patients studied in January compared to 1% in May.

Keywords: head, injuries, advice, leaflets

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Authors: Jerome Michael J. Sadullo, Jamaica Lois A. Torres, Trisha Muriel T. Valino

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In the Philippines, Central Luzon is one of the regions at high risk in terms of volcanic eruption. In fact, last June 15, 1991, which were the Mount Pinatubo has erupted, the most affected provinces were Zambales, Olangapo, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bataan, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. During the Mount Pinatubo eruption, Castillejos, Zambales, has recorded the most significant damage to both commercial and residential structures. In this study, the researchers aim to determine and analyze the various impacts of ashfall on roof structures in Concepcion, Tarlac, during the event of a volcanic eruption. In able for the researcher to determine the sample size of the study, they have utilized Cochran's sample size formula. With the computed sample size, the researchers have gathered data through the distribution of survey forms, utilizing public records, and picture documentation of different roof structures in Concepcion, Tarlac. With the data collected, Chi-squared goodness of fit was done by the researcher in order to compare the data collected from the observed N (Concepcion, Tarlac) and expected N (Castillejos, Zambales). The results showed that when it comes to the roof constructions material used in Concepcion, Tarlac and Castillejos, Zambales. Structures in Concepcion, Tarlac were most likely to suffer worse when another eruption happens compared to the structures in Castillejos, Zambales. Yet, considering the current structural statuses of structure in Concepcion Tarlac and its location from Mount Pinatubo, they are less likely to experience ashfall.

Keywords: risk assessment, Concepcion, Tarlac, Volcano Pinatubo, roof structures, ashfall

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Authors: Adekunle Saheed Ajisebiyawo, Christie Omoduwa Achime

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In Nigerian society, women have very little or no involvement in the decision-making process and this is large because women are objectified as effective means of reproduction and provision of emotional support to the society. Despite the movements and awareness by international, national and local bodies to promote and encourage women's empowerment, there are still many factors daunting to the efforts of women in society. This paper examined the critical role of feminism in the quest for women's emancipation in public life. Guided by African feminism theory, this paper utilizes both historical and descriptive methods to examine these factors. The paper argues that gender bias in Nigeria's public life is often traced to the onset of colonialism in Nigeria. Thus the Western cultural notion of colonialism woven around male superiority is reflected in their relations with Nigerians. The study outlines how women have strategized pathways through patriarchal structures by deploying their femininity. The paper concludes that women are strong, courageous, natural leaders and indeed have a major strategic role to play in public life; thus, women's movements and groups remain an important and necessary means of social cohesion and strength, especially in a country such as Nigeria.

Keywords: African feminism, democratic governance, feminism, patriarchy, women emancipation.

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Authors: Anamarija Kuhar, Veronika Kloboves Prevodnik, Nataša Nolde, Ulrika Klopčič

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The decision for immunocytochemistry (ICC) is usually made in the basis of the findings in Giemsa- and/or Papanicolaou- smears. More demanding diagnostic cases require preparation of additional cytological preparations. Therefore, it is convenient to suspend cytological samples in a liquid based medium (LBM) that preserve antigen and morphological properties. However, the duration of these properties being preserved in the medium is usually unknown. Eventually, cell morphology becomes impaired and altered, as well as antigen properties may be lost or become diffused. In this study, the influence of cytological sample storage length in in-house liquid based medium on antigen properties and cell morphology is evaluated. The question is how long the cytological samples in this medium can be stored so that the results of immunocytochemical reactions are still reliable and can be safely used in routine cytopathological diagnostics. The stability of 6 ICC markers that are most frequently used in everyday routine work were tested; Cytokeratin AE1/AE3, Calretinin, Epithelial specific antigen Ep-CAM (MOC-31), CD 45, Oestrogen receptor (ER), and Melanoma triple cocktail were tested on methanol fixed cytospins prepared from fresh fine needle aspiration biopsies, effusion samples, and disintegrated lymph nodes suspended in in-house cell medium. Cytospins were prepared on the day of the sampling as well as on the second, fourth, fifth, and eight day after sample collection. Next, they were fixed in methanol and immunocytochemically stained. Finally, the percentage of positive stained cells, reaction intensity, counterstaining, and cell morphology were assessed using two assessment methods: the internal assessment and the UK NEQAS ICC scheme assessment. Results show that the antigen properties for Cytokeratin AE1/AE3, MOC-31, CD 45, ER, and Melanoma triple cocktail were preserved even after 8 days of storage in in-house LBM, while the antigen properties for Calretinin remained unchanged only for 4 days. The key parameters for assessing detection of antigen are the proportion of cells with a positive reaction and intensity of staining. Well preserved cell morphology is highly important for reliable interpretation of ICC reaction. Therefore, it would be valuable to perform a similar analysis for other ICC markers to determine the duration in which the antigen and morphological properties are preserved in LBM.

Keywords: cytology samples, cytospins, immunocytochemistry, liquid-based cytology

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Authors: Li Chin Law, Epaminondas Mastorakos, Mohd Roslee Othman, Antonis Trakakis

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The paper introduces an alternative concept of carbon capture for shipping by using pre-combustion carbon capture technology (Pre-CCS), which was proven to be less energy intensive than post-combustion carbon capture from the engine exhaust. Energy assessment on amine-based post-combustion CCS on LNG-fuelled ships showed that the energy efficiency of CCS ships reduced from 48% to 36.6%. Then, an energy assessment was carried out to compare the power and heat requirements of the most used hydrogen production methods and carbon capture technologies. Steam methane reformer (SMR) was found to be 20% more energy efficient and achieved a higher methane conversion than auto thermal reaction and methane decomposition. Next, pressure swing adsorber (PSA) has shown a lower energy requirement than membrane separation, cryogenic separation, and amine absorption in pre-combustion carbon capture. Hence, an integrated system combining SMR and PSA (SMR-PSA) with waste heat integration (WHR) was proposed. This optimized SMR-based integrated system has achieved 65% of CO₂ reduction with less than 7-percentage point of energy penalty (41.7% of energy efficiency). Further integration of post-combustion CCS with the SMR-PSA integrated system improved carbon capture rate to 86.3% with 9-percentage points of energy penalty (39% energy efficiency). The proposed system was shown to be able to meet the carbon reduction targets set by International Maritime Organization (IMO) with certain energy penalties.

Keywords: shipping, decarbonisation, alternative fuels, low carbon, hydrogen, carbon capture

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Authors: Abeer Samy, Oliver C. Saavedra Valeriano, Abdelazim Negm

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The Blue Nile Basin is the most important tributary of the Nile River. Egypt and Sudan are almost dependent on water originated from the Blue Nile. This multi-dependency creates conflicts among the three countries Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia making the management of these conflicts as an international issue. Good assessment of the water resources of the Blue Nile is an important to help in managing such conflicts. Hydrological models are good tool for such assessment. This paper presents a critical review of the nature and variability of the climate and hydrology of the Blue Nile Basin as a first step of using hydrological modeling to assess the water resources of the Blue Nile. Many several attempts are done to develop basin-scale hydrological modeling on the Blue Nile. Lumped and semi distributed models used averages of meteorological inputs and watershed characteristics in hydrological simulation, to analyze runoff for flood control and water resource management. Distributed models include the temporal and spatial variability of catchment conditions and meteorological inputs to allow better representation of the hydrological process. The main challenge of all used models was to assess the water resources of the basin is the shortage of the data needed for models calibration and validation. It is recommended to use distributed model for their higher accuracy to cope with the great variability and complexity of the Blue Nile basin and to collect sufficient data to have more sophisticated and accurate hydrological modeling.

Keywords: Blue Nile Basin, climate change, hydrological modeling, watershed

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Authors: Michelle Ablian Mejica

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Female drop-outs due to teenage pregnancy and gender-based violence in schools are two of the most contentious and current gender-related issues faced by the Department of Education (DepEd) in the Philippines. The country adopted gender mainstreaming as the main strategy to eliminate gender inequalities in all aspects of the society including education since 1990. This research examines the extent and magnitude by which gender mainstreaming is implemented in the basic education from the national to the school level. It seeks to discover the challenges faced by the central and field offices, particularly by the principals who served as decision-makers in the schools where teaching and learning take place and where opportunities that may aggravate, conform and transform gender inequalities and hierarchies exist. The author conducted surveys and interviews among 120 elementary and secondary principals in the Division of Zambales as well as selected gender division and regional focal persons within Region III- Central Luzon. The study argues that DepEd needs to review, strengthen and revitalize its gender mainstreaming because the efforts do not penetrate the schools and are not enough to lessen or eliminate gender inequalities within the schools. The study found out some of the major challenges in the implementation of gender mainstreaming as follows: absence of a national gender-responsive education policy framework, lack of gender responsive assessment and monitoring tools, poor quality of gender and development related training programs and poor data collection and analysis mechanism. Furthermore, other constraints include poor coordination mechanism among implementing agencies, lack of clear implementation strategy, ineffective or poor utilization of GAD budget and lack of teacher and learner centered GAD activities. The paper recommends the review of the department’s gender mainstreaming efforts to align with the mandate of the agency and provide gender responsive teaching and learning environment. It suggests that the focus must be on formulation of gender responsive policies and programs, improvement of the existing mechanism and conduct of trainings focused on gender analysis, budgeting and impact assessment not only for principals and GAD focal point system but also to parents and other school stakeholders.

Keywords: curriculum and instruction, gender analysis, gender budgeting, gender impact assessment

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Authors: Christos E. Lampropoulos, Maria Konsta, Tamta Sirbilatze, Ifigenia Apostolou, Vicky Dradaki, Konstantina Panouria, Irini Dri, Christina Kordali, Vaggelis Lambas, Georgios Mavras

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Objectives: Full Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire is one of the most useful tools in diagnosis of malnutrition in hospitalized patients, which is related to increased morbidity and mortality. The purpose of our study was to assess the nutritional status of elderly, hospitalized patients and examine the hypothesis that MNA may predict mortality and extension of hospitalization. Methods: One hundred fifty patients (78 men, 72 women, mean age 80±8.2) were included in this cross-sectional study. The following data were taken into account in analysis: anthropometric and laboratory data, physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaires, IPAQ), smoking status, dietary habits, cause and duration of current admission, medical history (co-morbidities, previous admissions). Primary endpoints were mortality (from admission until 6 months afterwards) and duration of admission. The latter was compared to national guidelines for closed consolidated medical expenses. Logistic regression and linear regression analysis were performed in order to identify independent predictors for mortality and extended hospitalization respectively. Results: According to MNA, nutrition was normal in 54/150 (36%) of patients, 46/150 (30.7%) of them were at risk of malnutrition and the rest 50/150 (33.3%) were malnourished. After performing multivariate logistic regression analysis we found that the odds of death decreased 20% per each unit increase of full MNA score (OR=0.8, 95% CI 0.74-0.89, p < 0.0001). Patients who admitted due to cancer were 23 times more likely to die, compared to those with infection (OR=23, 95% CI 3.8-141.6, p=0.001). Similarly, patients who admitted due to stroke were 7 times more likely to die (OR=7, 95% CI 1.4-34.5, p=0.02), while these with all other causes of admission were less likely (OR=0.2, 95% CI 0.06-0.8, p=0.03), compared to patients with infection. According to multivariate linear regression analysis, each increase of unit of full MNA, decreased the admission duration on average 0.3 days (b:-0.3, 95% CI -0.45 - -0.15, p < 0.0001). Patients admitted due to cancer had on average 6.8 days higher extension of hospitalization, compared to those admitted for infection (b:6.8, 95% CI 3.2-10.3, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Mortality and extension of hospitalization is significantly increased in elderly, malnourished patients. Full MNA score is a useful diagnostic tool of malnutrition.

Keywords: duration of admission, malnutrition, mini nutritional assessment score, prognostic factors for mortality

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Authors: Rachel M. Edelstein, John D. Van Horn, Karen M. Schmidt, Sydney N. Cushing

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As a consequence of sports-related concussions, female athletes have been documented as reporting more symptoms than their male counterparts, in addition to incurring longer periods of recovery. However, the role of sex and its potential influence on symptom reporting and recovery outcomes in concussion management has not been completely explored. The present aims to investigate the relationship between female concussion symptom severity and the presence of assessment bias. The Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 3 (SCAT3), collected by the NCAA and DoD CARE Consortium, was quantified at five different time points post-concussion. N= 1,258 NCAA athletes, n= 473 female (soccer, rugby, lacrosse, ice hockey) and n=785 male athletes (football, rugby, lacrosse, ice hockey). A polytomous Item Response Theory (IRT) Graded Response Model (GRM) was used to assess the relationship between sex and symptom reporting. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) and Differential Group Functioning (DGF) were used to examine potential group-level bias. Interactions for DIF were utilized to explore the impact of sex on symptom reporting among NCAA male and female athletes throughout and after their concussion recovery. DIF was significantly detected after B-H corrections displayed in limited items; however, one symptom, “Pressure in Head” (-0.29, p=0.04 vs -0.20, p =0.04), was statistically significant at both < 6 hours and 24-48 hours. Thus, implies that at < 6 hours, males were 29% less likely to indicate “Pressure in the Head” compared to female athletes and 20% less likely at 24-48 hours. Overall, the DGF suggested significant group differences, suggesting that male athletes might be at a higher risk for returning to play prematurely (logits = -0.38, p < 0.001). However, after analyzing the SCAT 3, a clinically relevant trend was discovered. Twelve out of the twenty-two symptoms suggest higher difficulty in female athletes within three or more of the five-time points. These symptoms include Balance Problems, Blurry Vision, Confusion, Dizziness, Don’t Feel Right, Feel in Fog, Feel Slow Down, Low Energy, Neck Pain, Sensitivity to Light, Sensitivity to Noise, Trouble Falling Asleep. Despite a lack of statistical significance, this tendency is contrary to current literature stating that males may be unclear on symptoms, but females may be more honest in reporting symptoms. Further research, which includes possible modifying socioecological factors, is needed to determine whether females may consistently experience more symptoms and require longer recovery times or if, parsimoniously, males tend to present their symptoms and readiness for play differently than females. Such research will help to improve the validity of current assumptions concerning male as compared to female head injuries and optimize individualized treatments for sports-related head injuries.

Keywords: female athlete, sports-related concussion, item response theory, concussion assessment

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Authors: Chia-Feng Yen, Shyang-Woei Lin

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Background: In Taiwan, people with disability can obtain national social welfare services after evaluation. All subsidies and services in- kind are pronounced in People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act. The new disability eligibility determination system base on ICF has carried out five years in Taiwan. There were no systematic outcomes to discuss the relationships between the evaluation results of activity and participation functioning (AP functioning) and ratification of social services for people with disability. The decision-making of welfare resources allocation is in local government, so the ratification could be affected by resource variations in every area (local governments). The purposes of this study are to compare the ratification rate between different areas (the equity of allocation), and to understand the ratification of social services for people with disability after needs assessment stage that can help to predict the resources allocation for local governments in the further. Methods: A cross-sectional study was used, and the data came from Disability Eligibility Determination System in Taiwan between 2013/11/04-2015/01/12. All samples were evaluated by FUNDES-adult version 7th and they all above 18 years old. The samples were collected face to face by physicians and AP evaluators. Result: In the needs assessment stage, the welfare ratification rates are significant differences between these local governments for the samples with the similar impairment and AP functioning.

Keywords: allocation, activity and participation, people with disability, justice

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Authors: S. Ishak, M. G. Nasuruddin

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Traditional Malay performances are carried out for both entertainment and curing purposes. In curing rituals, the men and women serving as shamans, communicates with the spirits and beings from the nether world to facilitate the curing process. The dependency on engaging with these other-worldly beings however, have raised religious issues of being syirik, namely practicing in rituals which are religiously forbidden. This study aims to observe how ritual leaders attempt to negotiate the fine balance between what has been religiously forbidden and the psychological and sociological needs of the patient. Two curing rituals, the main peteri and the malibobou were chosen to exemplify the communication between the physical and spiritual realities. In both rituals, the healers engaged in procedures of curing as they attempted to diagnose sicknesses and proffer cures with the help of the spirits. The main peteri was conducted by a male shaman, the tuk teri whereas the malibobou was conducted by a female ritual specialist, the bobohizan. Main peteri and the malibobou both ended with ritually thanking and sending off the spirits back to their nether, invisible domains. These curing rituals heal not only the sick individual, but by extension, the village community. Therefore, there is a need to reconcile these rituals with religious tenets, beliefs and sociological-political-cultural dimensions.

Keywords: traditional healing, trance, spirits, main peteri, bobohizan

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Authors: Natalia Marulanda, Henry González, Gonzalo León, Alejandro Hincapié

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Continuous improvement tools are the result of a set of studies that developed theories and methodologies. These methodologies enable organizations to increase their levels of efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity. Based on these methodologies, lean manufacturing philosophy, which is based on the optimization of resources, waste disposal, and generation of value to products and services, was developed. Lean application has been massive globally, but Colombian companies have been made it incipiently. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to identify the impacts generated by the implementation of lean manufacturing tools in five companies located in Colombia and Medellín metropolitan area. It also seeks to make a comparison of the results obtained from the implementation of lean philosophy and Theory of Constraints. The methodology is qualitative and quantitative, is based on the case study interview from dialogue with the leaders of the processes that used lean tools. The most used tools by research companies are 5's with 100% and TPM with 80%. The less used tool is the synchronous production with 20%. The main reason for the implementation of lean was supply chain management with 83.3%. For the application of lean and TOC, we did not find significant differences between the impact, in terms of methodology, areas of application, staff initiatives, supply chain management, planning, and training.

Keywords: business strategy, lean manufacturing, theory of constraints, supply chain

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Authors: Joana Almeida, Kendall Reid, Jonas Bengtsson

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Pallets are devices that are used for moving and storing freight and are nearly omnipresent in supply chains. The market is dominated by timber pallets, with plastic being a common alternative. Either option underpins the use of important resources (oil, land, timber), the emission of greenhouse gases and additional waste generation in most supply chains. This study uses a dynamic approach to the life cycle assessment (LCA) of pallets. It demonstrates that what ultimately defines the environmental burden of pallets in the supply chain is how often the length of its lifespan, which depends on the durability of the material and on how pallets are utilized. This study proposes a life cycle assessment (LCA) of pallets in supply chains supported by an algorithm that estimates pallet durability in function of material resilience and of logistics. The LCA runs from cradle-to-grave, including raw material provision, manufacture, transport and end of life. The scope is representative of timber and plastic pallets in the Australian and South-East Asia markets. The materials included in this analysis are: -tropical mixed hardwood, unsustainably harvested in SE Asia; -certified softwood, sustainably harvested; -conventional plastic, a mix of virgin and scrap plastic; -recycled plastic pallets, 100% mixed plastic scrap, which are being pioneered by Re > Pal. The logistical model purports that more complex supply chains and rougher handling subject pallets to higher stress loads. More stress shortens the lifespan of pallets in function of their composition. Timber pallets can be repaired, extending their lifespan, while plastic pallets cannot. At the factory gate, softwood pallets have the lowest carbon footprint. Re > pal follows closely due to its burden-free feedstock. Tropical mixed hardwood and plastic pallets have the highest footprints. Harvesting tropical mixed hardwood in SE Asia often leads to deforestation, leading to emissions from land use change. The higher footprint of plastic pallets is due to the production of virgin plastic. Our findings show that manufacture alone does not determine the sustainability of pallets. Even though certified softwood pallets have lower carbon footprint and their lifespan can be extended by repair, the need for re-supply of materials and disposal of waste timber offsets this advantage. It also leads to most waste being generated among all pallets. In a supply chain context, Re > Pal pallets have the lowest footprint due to lower replacement and disposal needs. In addition, Re > Pal are nearly ‘waste neutral’, because the waste that is generated throughout their life cycle is almost totally offset by the scrap uptake for production. The absolute results of this study can be confirmed by progressing the logistics model, improving data quality, expanding the range of materials and utilization practices. Still, this LCA demonstrates that considering logistics, raw materials and material durability is central for sustainable decision-making on pallet purchasing, management and disposal.

Keywords: carbon footprint, life cycle assessment, recycled plastic, waste

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Authors: Ana Martins, Isabel Martins

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The purpose of this research is to ascertain whether students at HEIs cultivate distributed leadership and higher-level skills to inspire knowledge creation. Critical reflection of extant literature illustrates the need for a culture of innovation in organizational sustainability. New age leadership behaviors harmonize innovation. The leadership self-efficacy construct supports organizational learning. This exploratory study applies the pragmatic paradigm methodology using the survey research method for primary data collection. A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of university students based in the Southern Anatolian region of Turkey, from both under and postgraduate Business degree programs. An analysis of the findings reveals a greater connection in influencing behavior relying more on the task-centered perspective rather than with the people perspective. These results reveal the need for HEIs to instill a humanistic perspective in curricula enabling graduates to be capable leaders with the awareness soft skills to energize creativity and innovation. A limitation of this research is that one university makes it difficult to generalize to a broader population. This study is of added value for scholars and organizations in the current knowledge and innovation economy.

Keywords: distributed leadership, exploration, higher education institutions, innovation, knowledge creation, learning, self-efficacy

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Authors: John-Nelson Ekumah, Selorm Yao-Say Solomon Adade, Mingming Zhong, Yufan Sun, Qiufang Liang, Muhammad Safiullah Virk, Xorlali Nunekpeku, Nana Adwoa Nkuma Johnson, Bridget Ama Kwadzokpui, Xiaofeng Ren

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Enhancing starch gel strength and stability is crucial. However, traditional gel property assessment methods are destructive, time-consuming, and resource-intensive. Thus, understanding ethanol treatment effects on kudzu starch gel strength and developing a rapid, nondestructive gel strength assessment method is essential for optimizing the treatment process and ensuring product quality consistency. This study investigated the effects of different ethanol concentrations on the microstructure of kudzu starch gels using a comprehensive microstructural analysis. We also developed a nondestructive method for predicting gel strength and classifying treatment levels using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, and advanced data analytics. Scanning electron microscopy revealed progressive network densification and pore collapse with increasing ethanol concentration, correlating with enhanced mechanical properties. NIR spectroscopy, combined with various variable selection methods (CARS, GA, and UVE) and modeling algorithms (PLS, SVM, and ELM), was employed to develop predictive models for gel strength. The UVE-SVM model demonstrated exceptional performance, with the highest R² values (Rc = 0.9786, Rp = 0.9688) and lowest error rates (RMSEC = 6.1340, RMSEP = 6.0283). Pattern recognition algorithms (PCA, LDA, and KNN) successfully classified gels based on ethanol treatment levels, achieving near-perfect accuracy. This integrated approach provided a multiscale perspective on ethanol-induced starch gel modification, from molecular interactions to macroscopic properties. Our findings demonstrate the potential of NIR spectroscopy, coupled with advanced data analysis, as a powerful tool for rapid, nondestructive quality assessment in starch gel production. This study contributes significantly to the understanding of starch modification processes and opens new avenues for research and industrial applications in food science, pharmaceuticals, and biomaterials.

Keywords: kudzu starch gel, near-infrared spectroscopy, gel strength prediction, support vector machine, pattern recognition algorithms, ethanol treatment

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Authors: A. P. Pashkov

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The number of environmental factors that adversely affect children's health is growing every year; their combination in each territory is different. The contribution of socio-economic factors to the health status of the younger generation is increasing. It is the child’s body that is most sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, responding to this with a deterioration in health. Over the past years, scientists have determined the influence of environmental factors and the incidence of children. Currently, there is a tendency to study regional characteristics of the interaction of a combination of environmental factors with the child's body. The aim of the work was to identify trends in the primary non-infectious morbidity of the children of the Altai Territory as a unique region that combines territories with different levels of environmental quality indicators, as well as to assess the effect of atmospheric air, drinking water and socio-economic indicators on the incidence of children in the region. An unfavorable tendency has been revealed in the region for incidence of such nosological groups as neoplasms, including malignant ones, diseases of the endocrine system, including obesity and thyroid disease, diseases of the circulatory system, digestive diseases, diseases of the genitourinary system, congenital anomalies, and respiratory diseases. Between some groups of diseases revealed a pattern of geographical distribution during mapping and a significant correlation. Some nosologies have a relationship with socio-economic indicators for an integrated assessment: circulatory system diseases, respiratory diseases (direct connection), endocrine system diseases, eating disorders, and metabolic disorders (feedback). The analysis of associations of the incidence of children with average annual concentrations of substances that pollute the air and drinking water showed the existence of reliable correlation in areas of critical and intense degree of environmental quality. This fact confirms that the population living in contaminated areas is subject to the negative influence of environmental factors, which immediately affects the health status of children. The results obtained indicate the need for a detailed assessment of the influence of environmental factors on the incidence of children in the regional aspect, the formation of a database, and the development of automated programs that can predict the incidence in each specific territory. This will increase the effectiveness, including economic of preventive measures.

Keywords: incidence of children, regional features, socio-economic factors, environmental factors

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Authors: Maria Laura Alzua, Maria Adelaida Lopera

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This paper measures the relative importance of conditional cooperation and unconditional cooperation in a large public goods experiment conducted in Mali. We use expectations about total public goods provision to estimate a structural choice model with heterogeneous preferences. While unconditional cooperation can be captured by common preferences shared by all participants, conditional cooperation is much more heterogeneous and depends on unobserved individual factors. This structural model, in combination with two experimental treatments, suggests that leadership and group communication incentivize public goods provision through different channels. First, We find that participation of local leaders effectively changes individual choices through unconditional cooperation. A simulation exercise predicts that even in the most pessimistic scenario in which all participants expect zero public good provision, 60% would still choose to cooperate. Second, allowing participants to communicate fosters conditional cooperation. The simulations suggest that expectations are responsible for around 24% of the observed public good provision and that group communication does not necessarily ameliorate public good provision. In fact, communication may even worsen the outcome when expectations are low.

Keywords: conditional cooperation, discrete choice model, expectations, public goods game, random coefficients model

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Authors: Olatokunbo Shoyemi, Mario Brito, Ian Dawson

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In recent times, the Nigerian motor insurers have experienced high volume of motor insurance claim pay-outs and insignificant contribution to the net premium income of the Nigerian insurance market, which has been a major concern for the shareholders/stakeholders. It has been argued that there are many factors that have brought about these concerns. However, anecdotal evidence (ongoing debates among industry practitioners) suggests prevalence of fraud due to poor practices in motor insurance business in Nigeria. This study is therefore aimed to carry out an assessment of fraud in motor insurance claims as perceived by experts in the Nigerian insurance market. This study adopted a descriptive research design, and the analysis was built on a survey among insurance experts in Nigeria using a designed questionnaire. A purposive and snowball sampling were used to select our sample (N = 120) - representing a selection of all professionally qualified insurance experts in Nigeria insurance industry. The study found that Nigerian insurance experts (i) largely agree that there is a problematic level of fraud in the Nigerian motor insurance industry; (ii) perceive soft fraud to be about 3 times more common than hard fraud in the Nigerian motor insurance industry, and (iii) strongly agree there are problematic impacts from fraud on the solvency of the Nigerian motor insurers. This paper has provided an empirical understanding of the existence, extent, and impact of fraud risks within the Nigerian insurance market based on expert knowledge and insights rather than, as has often been the case, a reliance on individual anecdotes.

Keywords: claims, net premium income, motor insurance, soft fraud, hard fraud

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Authors: T. Sarat Chandra, M. Maneesh Kumar, S. N. Mudliar, V. S. Chauhan, S. Mukherji, R. Sarada

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The life cycle assessment (LCA) of biodiesel production from freshwater microalgae Scenedesmus dimorphus cultivated in open raceway pond is performed. Various scenarios for biodiesel production were simulated using primary and secondary data. The parameters varied in the modelled scenarios were related to biomass productivity, mode of culture mixing and type of energy source. The process steps included algae cultivation in open raceway ponds, harvesting by chemical flocculation, dewatering by mechanical drying option (MDO) followed by extraction, reaction and purification. Anaerobic digestion of defatted algal biomass (DAB) for biogas generation is considered as a co-product allocation and the energy derived from DAB was thereby used in the upstream of the process. The scenarios were analysed for energy demand, emissions and environmental impacts within the boundary conditions grounded on "cradle to gate" inventory. Across all the Scenarios, cultivation via raceway pond was observed to be energy intensive process. The mode of culture mixing and biomass productivity determined the energy requirements of the cultivation step. Emissions to Freshwater were found to be maximum contributing to 93-97% of total emissions in all the scenarios. Global warming potential (GWP) was the found to be major environmental impact accounting to about 99% of total environmental impacts in all the modelled scenarios. It was noticed that overall emissions and impacts were directly related to energy demand and an inverse relationship was observed with biomass productivity. The geographic location of an energy source affected the environmental impact of a given process. The integration of defatted algal remnants derived electricity with the cultivation system resulted in a 2% reduction in overall energy demand. Direct biogas generation from microalgae post harvesting is also analysed. Energy surplus was observed after using part of the energy in upstream for biomass production. Results suggest biogas production from microalgae post harvesting as an environmentally viable and sustainable option compared to biodiesel production.

Keywords: biomass productivity, energy demand, energy source, Lifecycle Assessment (LCA), microalgae, open raceway pond

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Authors: Urooj Saeed, Sajid Rashid Ahmad, Iqra Khalid, Sahar Mirza, Imtiaz Younas

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Pakistan, a flood-prone country, has experienced worst floods in the recent past which have caused extensive damage to the urban and rural areas by loss of lives, damage to infrastructure and agricultural fields. Poor flood management system in the country has projected the risks of damages as the increasing frequency and magnitude of floods are felt as a consequence of climate change; affecting national economy directly or indirectly. To combat the needs of flood emergency, this paper focuses on remotely sensed data based approach for rapid mapping and monitoring of flood extent and its damages so that fast dissemination of information can be done, from local to national level. In this research study, spatial extent of the flooding caused by heavy rains of 2014 has been mapped by using space borne data to assess the crop damages and affected population in sixteen districts of Punjab. For this purpose, moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) was used to daily mark the flood extent by using Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI). The highest flood value data was integrated with the LandScan 2014, 1km x 1km grid based population, to calculate the affected population in flood hazard zone. It was estimated that the floods covered an area of 16,870 square kilometers, with 3.0 million population affected. Moreover, to assess the flood damages, Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) aided with spectral signatures was applied on Landsat image to attain the thematic layers of healthy (0.54 million acre) and damaged crops (0.43 million acre). The study yields that the population of Jhang district (28% of 2.5 million population) was affected the most. Whereas, in terms of crops, Jhang and Muzzafargarh are the ‘highest damaged’ ranked district of floods 2014 in Punjab. This study was completed within 24 hours of the peak flood time, and proves to be an effective methodology for rapid assessment of damages due to flood hazard

Keywords: flood hazard, space borne data, object based image analysis, rapid damage assessment

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Authors: Sarah Louise Cruz, Jemille Venturina

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Ergonomics considers the capabilities and limitations of a person as they interact with tools, equipment, facilities and tasks in their work environment. Workplace is one example of physical work environment, be it a workbench or a desk. In school laboratories, sitting is the most common working posture of the students. Students maintain static sitting posture as they perform different computer-aided activities. The College of Engineering and College of Information and Communication Technology of a State University consist of twenty-two computer laboratories. Normally, students aren’t usually aware of the importance of sustaining proper sitting posture while doing their long hour computer laboratory activities. The study evaluates the perceived discomfort and working postures of students as they are exposed on current workplace design of computer laboratories. The current study utilizes Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), Body Discomfort Chart using Borg’s CR-10 Scale Rating and Quick Exposure Checklist in order to assess the posture and the current working condition. The result of the study may possibly minimize the body discomfort experienced by the students. The researchers redesign the individual workstations which includes working desk, sitting stool and other workplace design components. Also, the economic variability of each alternative was considered given that the study focused on improvement of facilities of a state university.

Keywords: computer workstation, ergonomics, posture, students, workplace

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Authors: Mehtap Öztürk, Adem Öğüt, Emine Öğüt

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Leader member exchange is considered as relationship-based approach to leadership. The focal point of this theory is that effective leadership processes occur when leaders and followers are able to develop mature leadership relationships and thus gain access to a variety of benefits these relationships bring. In this context, it can be claimed that the quality of leader member exchange appears to have a strong affect on perceived organizational support and reduce turnover intention. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between the levels of leader member exchange, perceived organizational support and turnover intention on the employees of a health institution operating in the province of Konya. A field study based on survey method on 134 physicians who are employees of a health institution operating in the mentioned sample. In accordance with this purpose, it has been observed that there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between leader member exchange and turnover intention. Furthermore, it has been also realized that there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between perceived organizational support and turnover intention.

Keywords: leader member exchange, perceived organizational support, social exchange theory, turnover intention

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Authors: Guangtong Xu, Yi He

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Like most historic and cultural cities in China, the historic urban area of Jingmen city is facing a typical spatial problem of fragmentation and fuzzification. This study focuses on exploring a method for evaluating the existing values of historic urban area based on spatial prototype, a concept introduced into urban morphology from 'Archetype' in architectural typology. As the spatial elements and built-up relationship of historic city, spatial prototype has habitual structural characteristics and formal modulus. It is the inherent logic and order rules behind the scattered historic environment, providing a clue to understand the spatial characteristics and a basis for guiding the construction and conservation in historic urban areas. Three criteria, the resolution of historical elements, the completeness of historical structure and the renewal potential of associated land, were selected to construct the integrated assessment system. These three dimensions are linked to the spatial prototype and its constituent elements, as well as the transformation relationship in ancient and present day. The results showed that historic urban areas have changed from a holistic city to different existing types dominated by their historic structure elements. It is necessary to improve the pertinence of planning strategies and develop diversified management measures in the conservation scope of historic urban area. Moreover, a constructive-conservation strategy should be put forward to enhance the integrity of historic urban area based on the trace of spatial prototype and evaluation results.

Keywords: constructive conservation, existing value, historic urban area, spatial prototype

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Authors: Thomas Seemann, Melanie Seemann

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The work environment has changed considerably due to the COVID pandemic. A growing body of empirical research shows that employees feel increasingly stressed and anxious. They consider themselves more detached from the organization they work for than previously. Organizations need to readjust their leadership practices to cope with this situation and rebuild work motivation and resilience. We propose a leadership tool that focuses on two key dimensions, which we call the "task channel" and the "energy channel." Managing the task channel comprises balancing the challenge [C] of a task and the corresponding skill set [S] of the individual performing the task. Recent research findings shed light on how to balance these two factors and create optimal work conditions in the workplace. Managing the energy channel comprise balancing the workload [WL] of an employee and his/her capacity to work [CW]. This ensures that the mid-term and long-term effectiveness of employees is maintained and energy depletion, fatigue, and burn-out are prevented. Organizations can actively apply strategies to leverage wellsprings and effectively reenergize their workforce. Thinking through and acting upon these factors will provide leaders with the insights they need to maximize their people's performance and, at the same time, establish a more mindful workplace.

Keywords: resilience, motivation, employee engagement, leadership

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Authors: Madiha Ijaz, Muhammad Akram, Sima Mir

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Underground mining of coal is carried out manually in Pakistan. Exposure to ergonomic hazards (musculoskeletal disorders) are very common among the coal cutters of these mines. Cutting coal in narrow spaces poses a great threat to both upper and lower limbs of these workers. To observe the prevalence of such hazards, a thorough study was conducted on 600 workers from 30 mines (20 workers from 1 mine), located in two districts of province Punjab, Pakistan. Rapid Upper Limb Assessment sheet and Rapid Entire Body Assessment sheet were used for the study along with a standard Nordic Musculoskeleton disorder questionnaire. SPSS, 25, software was used for data analysis on upper and lower limb disorders, and regression analysis models were run for upper and lower back pain. According to the results obtained, it was found that work stages (drilling & blasting, coal cutting, timbering & supporting, etc.), wok experience and number of repetitions performed/minute were significant (with p-value 0.00,0.004 and 0.009, respectively) for discomfort in upper and lower limb. Age got p vale 0.00 for upper limb and 0.012 for lower limb disorder. The task of coal cutting was strongly associated with the pain in upper back (with odd ratios13.21, 95% confidence interval (CI)14.0-21.64)) and lower back pain (3.7, 95% confidence interval 1.3-4.2). scored on RULA and REBA sheets, every work-stage was ranked at 7-highest level of risk involved. Workers were young (mean value of age= 28.7 years) with mean BMI 28.1 kg/m2

Keywords: workplace hazards, ergonomic disorders, limb disorders, MSDs.

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Authors: Connor Dunlop, Bassim Abbassi, Richard G. Zytner

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that can be used to assess the environmental impacts of a product or process from cradle to grave. Many studies utilize the LCA methodology within the site remediation field to compare various decontamination methods, including bioremediation, soil vapor extraction or excavation, and off-site disposal. However, with the authors' best knowledge, limited information is available in the literature on a sustainability tool that could be used to help with the selection of the optimal remediation technology. This tool, based on the LCA methodology, would consider site conditions like environmental, economic, and social impacts. Accordingly, this project was undertaken to develop a tool to assist with the selection of optimal sustainable technology. Developing a proper tool requires a large amount of data. As such, data was collected from previous LCA studies looking at site remediation technologies. This step identified knowledge gaps or limitations within project data. Next, utilizing the data obtained from the literature review and other organizations, an extensive LCA study is being completed following the ISO 14040 requirements. Initial technologies being compared include bioremediation, excavation with off-site disposal, and a no-remediation option for a generic gasoline-contaminated site. To complete the LCA study, the modelling software SimaPro is being utilized. A sensitivity analysis of the LCA results will also be incorporated to evaluate the impact on the overall results. Finally, the economic and social impacts associated with each option will then be reviewed to understand how they fluctuate at different sites. All the results will then be summarized, and an interactive tool using Excel will be developed to help select the best sustainable site remediation technology. Preliminary LCA results show improved sustainability for the decontamination of a gasoline-contaminated site for each technology compared to the no-remediation option. Sensitivity analyses are now being completed on on-site parameters to determine how the environmental impacts fluctuate at other contaminated gasoline locations as the parameters vary, including soil type and transportation distances. Additionally, the social improvements and overall economic costs associated with each technology are being reviewed. Utilizing these results, the sustainability tool created to assist in the selection of the overall best option will be refined.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, site remediation, sustainability tool, contaminated sites

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Authors: Adegboyega Adeolapo Ola, Gerelene Jagganath

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One of the greatest challenges of human right in the world, especially African states is the use of child soldiers in armed conflict, constituting a major source of destruction of lives and properties. Mostly, they are in developing countries with the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa, the abduction and employment of children as soldiers is a form of exploitative labour that is tantamount to slavery. Since the end of cold war, Child soldier has increased in Africa countries like Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda. This study examines the main cause of the recruitment and use of child soldiers and its challenges to human right. It further assesses the role of international regional bodies and various governments in curbing child soldiers with a view to proffer suggestions on how to address some of the resultant threat of human right. The study posits that the control of small arms and light weapons is essential in curtailing the spread of child soldier and abuse of human right. This hopefully should result in the sustainability of human/child right in African continent. It is a recommendation of this study that, in order to sustain human right in the region, all Africa leaders, government and regional bodies; such as African Union, Economic Community of West African States, South African Development Community among others, should cooperate and work together to address the issue of illicit small arms, which could eventually lead to child soldier.

Keywords: arms control, child soldier, human right, small arms

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Authors: Tarek M. Alguhane, Ayman H. Khalil, M. N. Fayed, Ayman M. Ismail

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A 15-storey RC building, studied in this paper, is representative of modern building type constructed in Madina City in Saudi Arabia before 10 years ago. These buildings are almost consisting of reinforced concrete skeleton, i. e. columns, beams and flat slab as well as shear walls in the stairs and elevator areas arranged in the way to have a resistance system for lateral loads (wind–earthquake loads). In this study, the dynamic properties of the 15-storey RC building were identified using ambient motions recorded at several spatially-distributed locations within each building. After updating the mathematical models for this building with the experimental results, three dimensional pushover analysis (nonlinear static analysis) was carried out using SAP2000 software incorporating inelastic material properties for concrete, infill and steel. The effect of modeling the building with and without infill walls on the performance point as well as capacity and demand spectra due to EQ design spectrum function in Madina area has been investigated. The response modification factor (R) for the 15 storey RC building is evaluated from capacity and demand spectra (ATC-40). The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the expected performance of structural systems by estimating, strength and deformation demands in design, and comparing these demands to available capacities at the performance levels of interest. The results are summarized and discussed.

Keywords: seismic assessment, pushover analysis, ambient vibration, modal update

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Authors: Wiem Daoud Ben Amor, Luis Martínez López, Hela Moalla Frikha

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Most of the multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM) problems dealing with qualitative criteria require consideration of the large background of expert information. It is common that experts have different degrees of knowledge for giving their alternative assessments according to criteria. So, it seems logical that they use different evaluation scales to express their judgment, i.e., multi granular linguistic scales. In this context, we propose the extension of the classical additive ratio assessment (ARAS) method to the case of a hierarchical linguistics term for managing multi granular linguistic scales in uncertain contexts where uncertainty is modeled by means in linguistic information. The proposed approach is called the extended hierarchical linguistics-ARAS method (ARAS-ELH). Within the ARAS-ELH approach, the DM can diagnose the results (the ranking of the alternatives) in a decomposed style, i.e., not only at one level of the hierarchy but also at the intermediate ones. Also, the developed approach allows a feedback transformation i.e the collective final results of all experts able to be transformed at any level of the extended linguistic hierarchy that each expert has previously used. Therefore, the ARAS-ELH technique makes it easier for decision-makers to understand the results. Finally, An MCGDM case study is given to illustrate the proposed approach.

Keywords: additive ratio assessment, extended hierarchical linguistic, multi-criteria group decision making problems, multi granular linguistic contexts

Procedia PDF Downloads 206