Search results for: health services in a developing nation

Authors: Rachna Jain, Sushila Madan, Bindu Garg

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Cloud computing is the key powerhouse in numerous organizations due to shifting of their data to the cloud environment. In recent years it has been observed that cloud-based-services are being used on large scale for content storage, distribution and processing. Various issues have been observed in cloud computing environment that need to be addressed. Security and privacy are found topmost concern area. In this paper, a novel security model is proposed to secure data by utilizing CDN services like image to icon conversion. CDN Service is a content delivery service which converts an image to icon, word to pdf & Latex to pdf etc. Presented model is used to convert an image into icon by keeping image secret. Here security of image is imparted so that image should be encrypted and decrypted by data owners only. It is also discussed in the paper that how server performs multiplication and selection on encrypted data without decryption. The data can be image file, word file, audio or video file. Moreover, the proposed model is capable enough to multiply images, encrypt them and send to a server application for conversion. Eventually, the prime objective is to encrypt an image and convert the encrypted image to image Icon by utilizing homomorphic encryption.

Keywords: cloud computing, user data security, homomorphic encryption, image multiplication, CDN service

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Authors: Samuel Bonato, Cineia Santos, Roberta Leite, Carla Ten Caten

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This paper aims to apply the A3 strategy deployment in a local department for healthcare. As a literature review, it was evaluated articles related to the period 2009 - 2018, considering the key-words A3, healthcare, public services and strategy deployment. The methodology used was action research, involving all the actors inside the secretary, beginning with the top management and deploying it through meetings and evaluation conferences with the participation of all secretary coordination. As main results, it is possible to highlight the development of 8 A3, one as the "mother A3" and 7 as "son A3", each one related to each coordination. In each A3, past results, new goals, new projects to achieve these goals and control deadlines were defined and implemented to a management strategy. In addition to this result, this paper is planning to present the use of this A3 during 6 months in 2019.

Keywords: A3 Strategy, strategy deployment, healthcare, Public services

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Authors: Sunila John, B. Rajashekhar

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Initial letter fluency tasks are one of the simple behavioral measures to evaluate the complex nature of word retrieval ability. This task requires the participant to retrieve as many words as possible beginning with a particular letter in a fixed time frame. Though the task of verbal fluency is popular among adult clinical conditions, its role in children has been less emphasized. There exists a lack of in-depth understanding of processes underlying verbal fluency performance in typically developing children. The present study, therefore, aims to delineate the developmental trend on initial letter fluency task observed in typically developing Malayalam speaking children. The participants were aged between 5 to 10 years and categorized into three groups: Group I (class I and II, mean (SD) age years: 6.44(.78)), Group II (class III and IV, mean (SD) age years: 8.59 (.83)) and group III (class V and VI, mean (SD) age years: 10.28 (.80). On two tasks of initial letter fluency, the verbal fluency outcome measures were analyzed. The study findings revealed a distinct pattern of initial letter fluency development which may enhance its usefulness in clinical and research settings.

Keywords: children, development, initial letter fluency, word retrieval

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Authors: Arnold Missiame

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In Ghana, rural dwellers who depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood constitute about 60% of the country’s population. This shows the critical role and potentials of the agricultural sector in helping to achieve Ghana’s vision 2030. With the current threat of climate change and advancements in technology, agricultural extension is not just about technology transfer and improvements in productivity, but it is also about improving the managerial and technical skills of farmers. In Ghana, the government of Ghana as well as other players in the sector like; non-governmental organizations, NGOs, local and international funding agencies, for decades now, have made capacity-building-investments in smallholder farmers by way of extension services delivery. This study sought to compare the technical efficiency of farmers who have access to agricultural extension and farmers who do not in Ghana. The study employed the stochastic meta-frontier model to analyze household survey data comprising 300 smallholder cassava farmers from the Fanteakwa district of Ghana. The farmers were selected through a two-stage sampling technique where 5 communities were purposively selected in the first stage and then 60 smallholder cassava farmers were randomly selected from each of the 5 communities. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data on farmers’ socioeconomic and farm-level characteristics. The results showed that farmers who have access to agricultural extensions services have higher technical efficiencies (TE) and produce much closer to their meta-production frontiers (higher technology gap ratios (TGR) than farmers who do not have access to such extension services. Furthermore, experience in cassava cultivation and formal education significantly improves the technical efficiencies of farmers. The study recommends that the mode and scope of agricultural extension service delivery in the country should be enhanced to ensure that smallholder farmers have easy access to extension agents.

Keywords: agricultural extension, Ghana, smallholder farmers, stochastic meta-frontier model, technical efficiency

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Authors: Niamh Herlihy, Helen Fischer, Rainer Sauerborn, Anneliese Depoux, Avner Bar-Hen, Antoine Flauhault, Stefanie Schütte

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In the recent decades, there has been an increase in the number of publications both in the scientific and grey literature on the potential health risks associated with climate change. Though interest in climate change and health is growing, there are still many gaps to adequately assess our future health needs in a warmer world. Generating a greater understanding of the health impacts of climate change could be a key step in inciting the changes necessary to decelerate global warming and to target new strategies to mitigate the consequences on health systems. A long term and broad overview of existing scientific literature in the field of climate change and health is currently missing in order to ensure that all priority areas are being adequately addressed. We conducted a scoping review of published peer-reviewed literature on climate change and health from two large databases, PubMed and Web of Science, between 1990 and 2015. A scoping review allowed for a broad analysis of this complex topic on a meta-level as opposed to a thematically refined literature review. A detailed search strategy including specific climate and health terminology was used to search the two databases. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied in order to capture the most relevant literature on the human health impact of climate change within the chosen timeframe. Two reviewers screened the papers independently and any differences arising were resolved by a third party. Data was extracted, categorized and coded both manually and using R software. Analytics and infographics were developed from results. There were 7269 articles identified between the two databases following the removal of duplicates. After screening of the articles by both reviewers 3751 were included. As expected, preliminary results indicate that the number of publications on the topic has increased over time. Geographically, the majority of publications address the impact of climate change and health in Europe and North America, This is particularly alarming given that countries in the Global South will bear the greatest health burden. Concerning health outcomes, infectious diseases, particularly dengue fever and other mosquito transmitted infections are the most frequently cited. We highlight research gaps in certain areas e.g climate migration and mental health issues. We are developing a database of the identified climate change and health publications and are compiling a report for publication and dissemination of the findings. As health is a major co-beneficiary to climate change mitigation strategies, our results may serve as a useful source of information for research funders and investors when considering future research needs as well as the cost-effectiveness of climate change strategies. This study is part of an interdisciplinary project called 4CHealth that confronts results of the research done on scientific, political and press literature to better understand how the knowledge on climate change and health circulates within those different fields and whether and how it is translated to real world change.

Keywords: climate change, health, review, mapping

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Authors: Shabana Noureen, Zafar Mahmood

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Economies consistently engage in trade across borders and face tariff, non-tariff barriers and other quotas that constitute trade costs. The trade costs imposed by policy barriers on exports are considered an impediment in the export growth rate. This work aims to measure over-year trends in total and bilateral trade costs and their trends in relevance to policy barriers (tariff and non-tariff). The analysis through the micro-founded theoretically based gravity model showed that the total trade costs have a general decreasing trend in the world while in the case of developing countries, the rate by which these trends decline is very low. Bilateral trade cost estimates associated with the policy barriers represent that the non-tariff barriers in a developing country have a major role in sustaining the high trade costs as compared to the tariff barriers. This ultimately leads to a low net declining rate. This work emphasizes that for developing countries the non-tariff barriers are a major factor that renders their exports and to be uncompetitive in the world market.

Keywords: trade costs, policy barriers, tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers, trade policies, export growth

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Authors: S. M. Abdus Sattar

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Introduction: The objectives of the study are to assess different aspects of the tourism and hospitality industry, analyze its contributions to the Gross Domestic Product of Bangladesh, identify the importance of the tourism and hospitality industry, explore future prospects in the sectors, identify challenges and provide recommendations for the development of these industries. The study explores the significance of the tourism and hospitality industry in economic growth and defines its role. Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today. Methodology: The study adopts statistical methods and utilizes both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. Data is collected through surveys, interviews, visitor registration, online platforms and analysis of various tourism-related records. The study focuses on marketing, management, attractions and services in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Result: The tourism and hospitality industry offers great opportunities for emerging economies and developing countries. The industry provides job creation, infrastructure development, cultural assets and environmental conservation, essential skills development, revenue generated, foreign exchange earned, economic growth and reduced poverty and inequality. Discussion: The study focuses on improving infrastructure and service quality in the tourism and hospitality industry to attract tourists. The industry significantly contributes to the Gross Domestic Product of Bangladesh. It highlights how the tourism and hospitality sectors can drive economic development, reduce poverty and promote cultural and environmental conservation. It also explores the challenges and future prospects in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Conclusion and Future Scope: The opportunities for tourism of Bangladesh are agricultural tourism, religious tourism, sports tourism, eco-tourism, educational tourism, rural tourism and cultural tourism. However, there is a lack of research and plans to explore the development of the industry. The tourism and hospitality industry offers numerous opportunities for growth and development. There are job opportunities for travel consultants, tour operators, event planners, hotel managers, travel writers, tourism development officers and airline executives in the future. The study recommends to development of tourism infrastructure, maintaining tourist destinations, railway stations, airports, rest houses, hotels and improving the quality of services.

Keywords: tourism, hospitality, employment, economic, development

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Authors: Nishimwe Clemence, Mchunu Gugu, Mukamusoni Dariya

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Background: Community health workers and extension workers can play an important role in supporting families to adopt health practices, encourage delivery in a health care facility, and ensure time referral of mothers and newborns if needed. Saving the lives of neonates should, therefore, be a significant health outcome in any maternal and newborn health program that is being implemented. Furthermore, about half of a million mothers die from pregnancy-related causes. Maternal and newborn deaths related to the period of postnatal care are neglected. Some authors emphasized that in developing countries, newborn mortality rates have been reduced much more slowly because of the lack of many necessary facility-based and outreach service. The aim of this review was to critically analyze the implementation and integration process of the maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers, into the health care system, in Africa. Furthermore, it aims to reduce maternal and newborn mortality. We addressed the following review question: (1) what process is involved in the implementation and integration of the maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers during antenatal, delivery and postnatal care into health system care in Africa? Methods: The database searched was from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition through academic search complete via EBSCO Host. An iterative approach was used to go through Google scholarly papers. The reviewers considered adapted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidance, and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used. Synthesis method in integrative review following elements of noting patterns and themes, seeing plausibility, clustering, counting, making contrasts and comparisons, discerning commons and unusual patterns, subsuming particulars into general, noting relations between variability, finding intervening factors and building a logical chain of evidence, using data–based convergent synthesis design. Results: From the seventeen of studies included, results focused on three dimensions inspired by the literature on antenatal, delivery, and postnatal interventions. From this, further conceptual framework was elaborated. The conceptual framework process of implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health care program by maternal community health workers was elaborated in order to ensure the sustainability of community based intervention. Conclusions: the review revealed that the implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health care program require planning. We call upon governments, non-government organizations, the global health community, all stakeholders including policy makers, program managers, evaluators, educators, and providers to be involved in implementation and integration of maternal and newborn health program in updated policy and community-based intervention. Furthermore, emphasis should be placed on competence, responsibility, and accountability of maternal community health workers, their training and payment, collaboration with health professionals in health facilities, and reinforcement of outreach service. However, the review was limited in focus to the African context, where the process of maternal and newborn health care program has been poorly implemented.

Keywords: Africa, implementation of integration, maternal, newborn

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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E-government has been adopted and used by many governments/countries around the world including Ghana to provide citizens and businesses with more accurate, real-time, and high quality services and information. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the Government of Ghana’s (GoG) adoption and implement of e-government and its usage by the Ministries, Departments and its agencies (MDAs) as well as other public sector institutions to deliver efficient public service to the general public i.e. citizens, business etc. Government implementation of e-government focused on facilitating effective delivery of government service to the public and ultimately to provide efficient government-wide electronic means of sharing information and knowledge through a network infrastructure developed to connect all major towns and cities, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and other public sector organizations in Ghana. One aim for the Government of Ghana use of ICT in public administration is to improve productivity in government administration and service by facilitating the exchange of information to enable better interaction and coordination of work among MDAs, citizens and private businesses. The study was prepared using secondary sources of data from government policy documents, national and international published reports, journal articles, and web sources. This study indicates that through the e-government initiative, currently citizens and businesses can access and pay for services such as renewal of driving license, business registration, payment of taxes, acquisition of marriage and birth certificates as well as application for passport through the GoG electronic service (eservice) and electronic payment (epay) portal. Further, this study shows that there is an enormous commitment from GoG to adopt and implement e-government as a tool not only to transform the business of government but also to bring efficiency in public services delivered by the MDAs. To ascertain this, a further study need to be carried out to determine if the use of e-government has brought about the anticipated improvements and efficiency in service delivery of MDAs and other state institutions in Ghana.

Keywords: electronic government, electronic services, electronic pay, MDAs

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Authors: Mouhammad Alkasassbeh, Mohammad Almseidin

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Network security engineers work to keep services available all the time by handling intruder attacks. Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is one of the obtainable mechanisms that is used to sense and classify any abnormal actions. Therefore, the IDS must be always up to date with the latest intruder attacks signatures to preserve confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the services. The speed of the IDS is a very important issue as well learning the new attacks. This research work illustrates how the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (or Knowledge Discovery in Databases) KDD dataset is very handy for testing and evaluating different Machine Learning Techniques. It mainly focuses on the KDD preprocess part in order to prepare a decent and fair experimental data set. The J48, MLP, and Bayes Network classifiers have been chosen for this study. It has been proven that the J48 classifier has achieved the highest accuracy rate for detecting and classifying all KDD dataset attacks, which are of type DOS, R2L, U2R, and PROBE.

Keywords: IDS, DDoS, MLP, KDD

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Authors: Mukesh Ravi Raushan

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Despite consideration of obesity as a deadly public health issue contributing 2.6 million deaths worldwide every year developing country like India is facing malnutrition and it is more common than in Sub-Saharan Africa. About one in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India. The paper assess the nutritional health among children using data from total number of 43737 infant and young children aged 0-59 months (µ = 29.54; SD = 17.21) of the selected households by National Family Health Survey, 2005-06. The wasting was measured by a Z-score of standardized weight-for-height according to the WHO child growth standards. The impact of education with place of residence was found to be significantly associated with the complementary food diversity score (CFDS) in India. The education of mother was positively associated with the CFDS but the degree of performance was lower in rural India than their counterpart from urban. The result of binary logistic regression on wasting with WHO seven types of recommended food for children in India suggest that child who consumed the milk product food (OR: 0.87, p<0.0001) were less likely to be malnourished than their counterparts who did not consume, whereas, in case of other food items as the child who consumed food product of seed (OR: 0.75, p<0.0001) were less likely to be malnourished than those who did not. The nutritional status among children were negatively associated with the protein containing complementary food given the child as those child who received pulse in last 24 hour were less likely to be wasted (OR: 0.87, p<0.00001) as compared to the reference categories. The frequency to feed the indexed child increases by 10 per cent the expected change in child health outcome in terms of wasting decreases by 2 per cent in India when place of residence, education, religion, and birth order were controlled. The index gets improved as the risk for malnutrition among children in India decreases.

Keywords: CFDS, food diversity index, India, logistic regression

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Authors: Haruka Ando

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Undernutrition of children is a critical issue, especially for people in the remote areas of the Republic of Djibouti, since household food insecurity, inadequate child caring and feeding, unhealthy environment and lack of clean water, as well as insufficient maternal and child healthcare, are underlying causes which affect. Nomadic pastoralists living in the Dikhil region (Dikhil) are socio-economically and geographically more vulnerable due to displacement, which in turn worsens the situation of child stunting. A high prevalence of inappropriate complementary feeding among pastoral mothers might be a significant barrier to child growth. This study aims to identify health promotion intervention strategies that would support an increase in optimal complementary feeding among pastoral mothers of children aged 6-23 months in Dikhil. There are four objectives; to explore and to understand the existing practice of complementary feeding among pastoral mothers in Dikhil; to identify the barriers in appropriate complementary feeding among the mothers; to critically explore and analyse the strategies for an increase in complementary feeding among the mothers; to make pragmatic recommendations to address the barriers in Djibouti. This is an in-depth study utilizing a conceptual framework, the behaviour change wheel, to analyse the determinants of complementary feeding and categorize health promotion interventions for increasing optimal complementary feeding among pastoral mothers living in Dikhil. The analytical tool was utilized to appraise the strategies to mitigate the selected barriers against optimal complementary feeding. The data sources were secondary literature from both published and unpublished sources. The literature was systematically collected. The findings of the determinants including the barriers of optimal complementary feeding were identified: heavy household workload, caring for multiple children under five, lack of education, cultural norms and traditional eating habits, lack of husbands' support, poverty and food insecurity, lack of clean water, low media coverage, insufficient health services on complementary feeding, fear, poor personal hygiene, and mothers' low decision-making ability and lack of motivation for food choice. To mitigate selected barriers of optimal complementary feeding, four intervention strategies based on interpersonal communication at the community-level were chosen: scaling up mothers' support groups, nutrition education, grandmother-inclusive approach, and training for complementary feeding counseling. The strategies were appraised through the criteria of effectiveness and feasibility. Scaling up mothers' support groups could be the best approach. Mid-term and long-term recommendations are suggested based on the situation analysis and appraisal of intervention strategies. Mid-term recommendations include complementary feeding promotion interventions are integrated into the healthcare service providing system in Dikhil, and donor agencies advocate and lobby the Ministry of Health Djibouti (MoHD) to increase budgetary allocation on complementary feeding promotion to implement interventions at a community level. Moreover, the recommendations include a community health management team in Dikhil training healthcare workers and mother support groups by using complementary feeding communication guidelines and monitors behaviour change of pastoral mothers and health outcome of their children. Long-term recommendations are the MoHD develops complementary feeding guidelines to cover sector-wide collaboration for multi-sectoral related barriers.

Keywords: Afar, child food, child nutrition, complementary feeding, complementary food, developing countries, Djibouti, East Africa, hard-to-reach areas, Horn of Africa, nomad, pastoral, rural area, Somali, Sub-Saharan Africa

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Authors: J. Niyitegeka, G. Nshimirimana, A. Silverstein, J. Odhiambo, Y. Lin, T. Nkurunziza, R. Riviello, S. Rulisa, P. Banguti, H. Magge, M. Macharia, J. P. Dushime, R. Habimana, B. Hedt-Gauthier

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In low-resource settings, women needing an emergency cesarean section experiences various delays in both reaching and receiving care that is often linked to poor neonatal outcomes. In this study, we quantified different measures of delays and assessed the association between these delays and neonatal outcomes at three rural district hospitals in Rwanda. This retrospective study included 441 neonates and their mothers who underwent emergency cesarean sections in 2015 at Butaro, Kirehe and Rwinkwavu District Hospitals. Four possible delays were measured: Time from start of labor to district hospital admission, travel time from a health center to the district hospital, time from admission to surgical incision, and time from the decision for the emergency cesarean section to surgical incision. Neonatal outcomes were categorized as unfavorable (APGAR < 7 or death) and favorable (APGAR ≥ 7). We assessed the relationship between each type of delay and neonatal outcomes using multivariate logistic regression. In our study, 38.7% (108 out of 279) of neonates’ mothers labored for 12 to 24 hours before hospital admission and 44.7% (159 of 356) of mothers were transferred from health centers that required 30 to 60 minutes of travel time to reach the district hospital. 48.1% (178 of 370) of caesarean sections started within five hours after admission and 85.2% (288 of 338) started more than thirty minutes after the decision for the emergency cesarean section was made. Neonatal outcomes were significantly worse among mothers with more than 90 minutes of travel time from the health center to the district hospital compared to health centers attached to the hospital (OR = 5.12, p = 0.02). Neonatal outcomes were also significantly different depending on decision to incision intervals; neonates with cesarean deliveries starting more than thirty minutes after decision had better outcomes than those started immediately (OR = 0.32, p = 0.04). Interventions that decrease barriers to access to maternal health care services can improve neonatal outcome after emergency cesarean section. Triaging could explain the inverse relationship between time from decision to incision and neonatal outcome; this must be studied more in the future.

Keywords: Africa, emergency obstetric care, rural health delivery, maternal and child health

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Authors: Muhammad Naveed, Yang Caixia

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The need for national space legislation is pivotal, particularly in light of the fact that in recent years space activities have grown immensely both in volume and diversity. Countries are progressively developing capabilities in space exploration and scientific discoveries, market their capabilities to manufacture satellites, provide launch services from their facilities and are looking to privatize and commercialize their space resources. Today, nations are also seeking to comprehend the technological and financial potential of the private sector and are considering to share their financial burdens with them and to limit their exposures to risks, but they are lagging behind in legal framework in this regard. In the perspective of these emerging developments, it is therefore, felt that national space legislation should be enacted with the goal of building and implementing a vibrant and transparent legal framework at the national level to hasten investments and to ensure growth in this capital intensive - highly yield strategic sector. This study looks at (I) the international legal framework that governs space activities; (II) motivation behind making national space laws; and (III) the need for national space legislation. The paper concludes with some recommendations with regards to the conceivable future direction for national space legislation, in particular space empowered sub-areas for countries.

Keywords: international conventions, national legislation, space faring nations, space law

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Authors: Grzegorz Sierpiński, Ireneusz Celiński, Marcin Staniek

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The article discusses multi modal mobility in contemporary societies as a main planning and organization issue in the functioning of administrative bodies, a problem which really exists in the space of contemporary cities in terms of shaping modern transport systems. The article presents classification of available resources and initiatives undertaken for developing multi modal mobility. Solutions can be divided into three groups of measures–physical measures in the form of changes of the transport network infrastructure, organizational ones (including transport policy) and information measures. The latter ones include in particular direct support for people travelling in the transport network by providing information about ways of using available means of transport. A special measure contributing to this end is a trip planner. The article compares several selected planners. It includes a short description of the Green Travelling Project, which aims at developing a planner supporting environmentally friendly solutions in terms of transport network operation. The article summarizes preliminary findings of the project.

Keywords: mobility, modal split, multimodal trip, multimodal platforms, sustainable transport

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Authors: Gabriel Chavira, Jorge Orozco, Salvador Nava, Eduardo Álvarez, Julio Rolón, Roberto Pichardo

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Ambient Intelligence promotes a shift in computing which involves fitting-out the environments with devices to support context-aware applications. One of main objectives is the reduction to a minimum of the user’s interactive effort, the diversity and quantity of devices with which people are surrounded with, in existing environments; increase the level of difficulty to achieve this goal. The mobile phones and their amazing global penetration, makes it an excellent device for delivering new services to the user, without requiring a learning effort. The environment will have to be able to perceive all of the interaction techniques. In this paper, we present the PICTAC model (Perceiving touch Interaction through TAgging Context), which similarly delivers service to members of a research group.

Keywords: ambient intelligence, tagging context, touch interaction, touching services

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Authors: Sukaina Al-Nasrawi, Maysoun Ibrahim

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Information and communication technologies (ICT) have affected recent public administration and governance. Electronic Government (e-government) services were developed to simplify government procedures and improve interaction with citizens on one hand and to create new governance models to empower citizens and involve them in the decision-making process while increasing transparency on another hand. It is worth noting that efficient governance models enable sustainable development at the social and economic levels. Currently, the status of e-government national strategies and implementation programs vary from one country to another. This variance in the development levels of e-government initiatives and applications noted the digital divide between countries of the same region, thereby highlighting the difficulty to reach regional integration. Many Arab countries realized the need for a well-articulated e-government strategy and launched national e-government initiatives. In selected Arab countries, the focus of e-government initiatives and programs shifted from the provision of services to advanced concepts such as open data initiatives. This paper aims at over viewing the e-government achievements of Arab countries and areas for enhancement, and share best practices in the area.of the best e-government programmes from the Arab region the world. It will also shed the light on the impact of the information society in general and e-government, in specific, on the social and economic development in the Arab region.

Keywords: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), services, e-government, development, Arab region, digital divide, citizens

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Authors: Marcel Hechler

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The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of entrepreneurs' receptiveness to opposing views on their entrepreneurial passion. Following a cross-cultural approach, we surveyed 1,228 entrepreneurs in seven developing and emerging countries. Besides a positive relationship between receptiveness to opposing views and harmonious passion for entrepreneurship, we found first evidence for a significant moderating effect of access to information reinforcing the positive main effect.

Keywords: harmonious passion, developing and emerging countries, self-determination theory, receptiveness to opposing views

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Authors: Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Rajesh Srivastava

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Human resource is the key point of success of any economy. From the past few decades, policies started to move in the route of expanding inclusive education with effective involvement of government.Governments of developing nations are generating policies for educational upliftment. Applying educational policies, the motive of the government is to maintain and develop the effective human resource within a society. The attention of the government includes primary education to higher education. It also involves professional training programmes related to every discipline. The aim of this paper is to find out the government policies in terms of expenditure and achievements for inclusive education to develop human resources in developing countries. A case of Indian experience has been taken into consideration. This approach generates a picture as to how India is enriching its educational system for human resource development and this research study will be useful for the policy makers to determine the appropriate level of overall spending of government and achievements in the education system for human resource development. Analytical research methodology has been adopted.

Keywords: government policies, inclusive education, National Educational Policy, NCERT

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Authors: Fernando Araujo, Sandra Cardoso, Fátima Fonseca, Sandra Cavaca

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A debureaucratization strategy for the Portuguese Health Service was assumed by the Executive Board of the SNS, in deep articulation with the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health. Two of the main dimensions were focused on sick leaves (SL), that transform primary health care (PHC) in administrative institutions, limiting access to patients. The self-declaration of illness (SDI) project, through the National Health Service Contact Centre (SNS24), began on May 1, 2023, and has already resulted in the issuance of more than 300,000 SDI without the need to allocate resources from the National Health Service (NHS). This political decision allows each citizen, in a maximum 2 times/year, and 3 days each time, if ill, through their own responsibility, report their health condition in a dematerialized way, and by this way justified the absence to work, although by Portuguese law in these first three days, there is no payment of salary. Using a digital approach, it is now feasible without the need to go to the PHC and occupy the time of the PHC only to obtain an SL. Through this measure, bureaucracy has been reduced, and the system has been focused on users, improving the lives of citizens and reducing the administrative burden on PHC, which now has more consultation times for users who need it. The second initiative, which began on March 1, 2024, allows the SL to be issued in emergency departments (ED) of public hospitals and in the health institutions of the social and private sectors. This project is intended to allow the user who has suffered a situation of acute urgent illness and who has been observed in an ED of a public hospital or in a private or social entity no longer need to go to PHC only to apply for the respective SL. Since March 1, 54,453 SLs have been issued, 242 in private or social sector institutions and 6,918 in public hospitals, of which 134 were in ED and 47,292 in PHC. This approach has proven to be technically robust, allows immediate resolution of problems and differentiates the performance of doctors. However, it is important to continue to qualify the proper functioning of the ED, preventing non-urgent users from going there only to obtain SL. Thus, in order to make better use of existing resources, it was operationalizing this extension of its issuance in a balanced way, allowing SL to be issued in the ED of hospitals only to critically ill patients or patients referred by INEM, SNS24, or PHC. In both cases, an intense public campaign was implemented to explain the way it works and the benefits for patients. In satisfaction surveys, more than 95% of patients and doctors were satisfied with the solutions, asking for extensions to other areas. The administrative simplification agenda of the NHS continues its effective development. For the success of this debureaucratization agenda, the key factors are effective communication and the ability to reach patients and health professionals in order to increase health literacy and the correct use of NHS.

Keywords: debureaucratization strategy, self-declaration of illness, sick leaves, SNS24

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Authors: Rebecca Johnson, Elizabeth Hoban

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Condom use among young men in Cambodia has declined between 2005 and 2014 which has public health implications such as increased risks of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and unplanned pregnancies. Conversations about sexual and reproductive health issues, including condom use, are not socially sanctioned in Cambodian society leaving young adults with limited knowledge of, and poor access to sexual and reproductive health services. Additionally, men play a dominant role in decision making regarding condom use within sexual partnerships. This study sought to fill a gap in knowledge by exploring young adult males’ attitudes, perceptions and behaviours regarding condom use. In February and March 2018, twenty young adult males, aged 18 to 24 years, were recruited from urban, peri urban and rural areas in Cambodia. The young adult males participated in a face-to-face semi structured interview that used an interview guide and photo elicitation method. The interview explored participants’ knowledge of sexual and reproductive health issues and efficacy, sexual behaviours, and use of condoms. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted and the following major themes emerged: understanding of reproduction, understanding of sexually transmitted infections, knowledge about condoms, condom use, access to condoms, and sexual behaviour. Participants’ knowledge of condoms and specific reasons for their use varied; most participants understood that condoms provide protection from sexually transmitted infections and prevent pregnancy. Stigma associated with condom access was consistently referred to as a problem and the main reason cited by young men for not using condoms during sexual intercourse. The perceived importance of condom use altered with partner type and relationship status, dependent upon the need for protection from sexually transmitted infections or pregnancy. Condoms were used for infection control in the context of multiple relationships, or as a contraceptive method for unmarried and some married couples. The majority of young men engaged in premarital sexual intercourse, of those men the many used condoms. The inconsistent use of condoms by young men in Cambodia is of public health concern because of the increased risk of sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), and unplanned pregnancy. Public health action is required in order to minimize long term health issues for individuals and the community. Health education is required to increase knowledge of condom use, sexually transmitted infections and HIV, and reduce the stigma associated with this topic. Sustainable health promotion programs are needed to increase ease of access to condoms for young people. Public health policy in Cambodia needs to be reviewed to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes for young adults.

Keywords: Cambodia, condom use, sexual and reproductive health, young adult males

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Authors: Angkayarkan Vinayakaselvi

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This paper aims at unpacking the questions of subjectivity and their role in altering and redefining the constructed images of self and community as represented in chosen Indian women’s autobiographies. India is a country of plurality and this plurality is further extended by diasporic explorations. As the third world feminism questioned the Euro-American views on homogenizing the socio-cultural condition of women of all over the world, Indian feminism needs to critique the view that all Indian women are one and the same. Similar to the plural nature of nation, the nature and condition of women, too, are plural in India. Indian women are differentiated by caste, class, and region. A critical scrutiny of autobiographies written by Indian women belong to different socio-cultural groups – Northeast Indian, Dalit and Diasporic categories – will assess the impact of education, profession and socio-cultural and economic status on Indian Women. Such a critique would highlight the heterogeneous subjectivity of Indian women. The images/selves of women as represented through these autobiographies are chosen with an aim to unmask and challenge, through ordering and positioning, the capitalist politics of literary representations of Indian women’s formation of 'her-self'. Methodologies and subjects associated with literature are considered essential for understanding and combating women’s oppression and empowerment. The representation of self in personal autobiographical history could be treated as the history of entire nation as personal is always political in feminist writings. The chosen narrators who are well-educated, well-settled, professional women of letters are capable of assessing, critiquing and re/articulating the shifting paradigms of women’s lives. Despite these factors, the textual spaces possess evidences to establish the facts that these women undergo sufferings, and they counter design cultural specific strategies for their empowerment. These metafictional self-conscious synecdoches extend to include the world of entire women. Thus these autobiographical texts could be reinterpreted as a searing critique of Indian society based on woman’s personal life.

Keywords: ethnicity and diversity, gender studies, Indian women’s autobiographies, subjectivity

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Authors: Awatef Hicheur Cairns, Billel Gueni, Hind Hafdi, Christian Joubert, Nasser Khelifa

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Given the ever changing needs of the job markets, education and training centers are increasingly held accountable for student success. Therefore, education and training centers have to focus on ways to streamline their offers and educational processes in order to achieve the highest level of quality in curriculum contents and managerial decisions. Educational process mining is an emerging field in the educational data mining (EDM) discipline, concerned with developing methods to discover, analyze and provide a visual representation of complete educational processes. In this paper, we present our distributed computation platform which allows different education centers and institutions to load their data and access to advanced data mining and process mining services. To achieve this, we present also a comparative study of the different clustering techniques developed in the context of process mining to partition efficiently educational traces. Our goal is to find the best strategy for distributing heavy analysis computations on many processing nodes of our platform.

Keywords: educational process mining, distributed process mining, clustering, distributed platform, educational data mining, ProM

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Authors: Aena Iqbal

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The lack of access to maternal and reproductive health in Pakistan poses a great threat to global public health. Obstetric issues, including vesicovaginal fistulas (VVF), are the most common in South Asian countries, leaving women in a more vulnerable state. Koohi Goth Women’s Hospital offers free VVF operations, which draws in women from all over Pakistan. Although reproductive health is being handled, mental health is often neglected in these scenarios. Using a series of questions inspired by the Warwick Edinburgh Model, this paper builds on the results from interviewing women who have received vesicovaginal fistula repair surgery on their mental health, a taboo topic in Pakistan.

Keywords: obstetrics, VVF, Pakistan, reproductive health

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Authors: G. S. Thyagaraju, U. P. Kulkarni

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Context-aware computing refers to a general class of computing systems that can sense their physical environment, and adapt their behaviour accordingly. Context aware computing makes systems aware of situations of interest, enhances services to users, automates systems and personalizes applications. Context-aware services have been introduced into mobile devices, such as PDA and mobile phones. In this paper we are presenting a novel approaches used to realize the context aware mobile. The context aware mobile phone (CAMP) proposed in this paper senses the users situation automatically and provides user context required services. The proposed system is developed by using artificial intelligence techniques like Bayesian Network, fuzzy logic and rough sets theory based decision table. Bayesian Network to classify the incoming call (high priority call, low priority call and unknown calls), fuzzy linguistic variables and membership degrees to define the context situations, the decision table based rules for service recommendation. To exemplify and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods, the context aware mobile phone is tested for college campus scenario including different locations like library, class room, meeting room, administrative building and college canteen.

Keywords: context aware mobile, fuzzy logic, decision table, Bayesian probability

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Authors: Y. Smirlis, G. Koronakos, S. Plitsos

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Shipbrokers assist the ship companies in chartering or selling and buying vessels, acting as intermediates between them and the market. They facilitate deals, providing their expertise, negotiating skills, and knowledge about ship market bargains. Their role is very important as it affects the profitability and market position of a shipping company. Due to their significant contribution, the shipping companies have to employ systematic procedures to evaluate the shipbrokers’ services in order to select the best and, consequently, to achieve the best deals. Towards this, in this paper, we consider shipbrokers as financial service providers, and we formulate the problem of evaluating and selecting shipbrokers’ services as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) procedure. The proposed methodology comprises a first normalization step to adjust different scales and orientations of the criteria and a second step that includes the mathematical model to evaluate the performance of the shipbrokers’ services involved in the assessment. The criteria along which the shipbrokers are assessed may refer to their size and reputation, the potential efficiency of the services, the terms and conditions imposed, the expenses (e.g., commission – brokerage), the expected time to accomplish a chartering or selling/buying task, etc. and according to our modelling approach these criteria may be assigned different importance. The mathematical programming model performs a comparative assessment and estimates for the shipbrokers involved in the evaluation, a relative score that ranks the shipbrokers in terms of their potential performance. To illustrate the proposed methodology, we present a case study in which a shipping company evaluates and selects the most suitable among a number of sale and purchase (S&P) brokers. Acknowledgment: This study is supported by the OptiShip project, implemented within the framework of the National Recovery Plan and Resilience “Greece 2.0” and funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU programme.

Keywords: shipbrokers, multi-criteria decision making, mathematical programming, service-provider selection

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Authors: Steven Walker

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This paper assesses recent data on the prevalence of poverty among children and young people diagnosed with mental health problems. The paper will demonstrate that the current hierarchy of risk factors for developing mental health problems needs adjusting to place poverty among the highest risk factors. Globally poverty is calculated to keep rising especially among less developed countries, and the post-Covid 19 economic recession in developed countries is set to rise. The experience of young people enduring Pandemic isolation is already being quantified and is expected to increase referrals for specialist intervention. Searches on several medical/psychological/social databases using keywords: poverty, children, mental illness were undertaken between 2018 and 2021. Worldwide, 700 million people still live in extreme poverty, half of whom are children. Children are physically and mentally disproportionately affected. Children who grow up impoverished lack the basic necessities they need to survive and thrive. 150 million children have been plunged into multidimensional poverty due to COVID-19. The poorest children are twice as likely to die in childhood than their wealthier peers. For those growing up in humanitarian crises such as Ukraine, the risks of deprivation and exclusion are magnified. In the world’s richest countries, one in seven children still live in poverty. Currently, one in four children in the European Union are at risk of falling into poverty. In Europe the impact of Brexit on the UK economy is predicted to reduce GDP by 5% in 2021 with a corresponding rise in poverty. According to the global charity Oxfam wealth inequality impacts levels of child abuse and affects women and girls worse and is a contributory factor in the risk of developing childhood mental illness. In the UK 2000 Foodbanks have opened since 2010, handing out 2 million food parcels annually, where there are currently 4 million children officially living in poverty. This research demonstrates that there is a strong association between families’ socio-economic circumstances and the chances that their children will experience mental illness. Evidence of this association is found repeatedly across developed countries. The paper will conclude by arguing that psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, social workers and CAMHS specialists need to place more importance on this critical socio-economic variable when assessing referred children and also advocate for political priorities in governments to reduce poverty and lower the risk of childhood mental illness.

Keywords: poverty, resilience, risk factor, socio economic, susceptibility

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Authors: Pintip Vajarothai, Saad Al-Jibouri, Johannes I. M. Halman

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Public investment projects are primarily aimed at achieving development strategies to increase national economies of scale and overall improvement in a country. However, experience shows that public projects, particularly in developing countries, struggle or fail to fulfill the immediate needs of local communities. In many cases, the reason for that is that projects are selected in a subjective manner and that a major part of the problem is related to the evaluation criteria and techniques used. The evaluation process is often based on a broad strategic economic effects rather than real benefits of projects to society or on the various needs from different levels (e.g. national, regional, local) and conditions (e.g. long-term and short-term requirements). In this paper, an extensive literature review of the types of criteria used in the past by various researchers in project evaluation and selection process is carried out and the effectiveness of such criteria and techniques is discussed. The paper proposes substitute social and project sustainability criteria to improve the conditions of local people and in particular the disadvantaged groups of the communities. Furthermore, it puts forward a way for modelling the interaction between the selected criteria and the achievement of the social goals of the affected community groups. The described work is part of developing a broader decision model for public investment project selection by integrating various aspects and techniques into a practical methodology. The paper uses Thailand as a case to review what and how the various evaluation techniques are currently used and how to improve the project evaluation and selection process related to social and sustainability issues in the country. The paper also uses an example to demonstrates how to test the feasibility of various criteria and how to model the interaction between projects and communities. The proposed model could be applied to other developing and developed countries in the project evaluation and selection process to improve its effectiveness in the long run.

Keywords: evaluation criteria, developing countries, public investment, project selection methodology

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Authors: Sophia El Ouazzani, Amer M. Burhan, Mary Wickenden

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Background: Despite improvements in recent years, the Moroccan mental healthcare system still face disparity between available resources and the current population’sneeds. The societal stigma, and limited economic, political, and human resources are all factors in shaping the psychiatric system, exacerbating the discontinuity of services for users after discharged from the hospital. As a result, limited opportunities for social inclusion and meaningful community engagement undermines human rights and recovery potential for people with mental health problems, especially those with psychiatric disabilities from serious mental illness (SMI). Recovery-oriented practice, such as mental health rehabilitation, addresses the complex needs of patients with SMI and support their community inclusion. The cultural acceptability of recovery-oriented practice is an important notion to consider for a successful implementation. Exploring the extent to which recovery-oriented practices are used in Morocco is a necessary first step to assess the cultural relevance of such a practice model. Aims: This study aims to explore understanding and knowledge, perception, and perspective about core concepts in mental health rehabilitation, including psychiatric disability, recovery, and engagement in meaningful occupations for people with SMI in Morocco. Methods: A pilot qualitative study was undertaken. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews and focusgroup discussions with healthcare professional students. Questions were organised around the following themes: 1) students’ perceptions, understanding, and expectations around concepts such as SMI, mental health disability, and recovery, and 2) changes in their views and expectations after starting their professional training. Further analysis of students’ perspectives on the concept of ‘meaningful occupation’ and how is this viewed within the context of the research questions was done. The data was extracted using an inductive thematic analysis approach. This is a pilot stage of a doctoral project, further data will be collected and analysed until saturation is reached. Results: A total of eight students were included in this study which included occupational therapy and mental health nursing students receiving training in Morocco. The following themes emerged as influencing students’ perceptions and views around the main concepts: 1) Stigma and discrimination, 2) Fatalism and low expectations, 3) Gendered perceptions, 4) Religious causation, 5) Family involvement, 6) Professional background, 7) Inaccessibility of services and treatment. Discussion/Contribution: Preliminary analysis of the data suggests that students’ perceptions changed after gaining more clinical experiences and being exposed to people with psychiatric disabilities. Prior to their training, stigma shaped greatly how they viewed people with SMI. The fear, misunderstanding, and shame around SMI and their functional capacities may contribute to people with SMI being stigmatizedand marginalised from their family and their community. Religious causations associated to SMIsare understood as further deepening the social stigma around psychiatric disability. Perceptions are influenced by gender, with women being doubly discriminated against in relation to recovery opportunities. Therapeutic pessimism seems to persist amongst students and within the mental healthcare system in general and regarding the recovery potential and opportunities for people with SMI. The limited resources, fatalism, and stigma all contribute to the low expectations for recovery and community inclusion. Implications and future directions will be discussed.

Keywords: disability, mental health rehabilitation, recovery, serious mental illness, transcultural psychiatry

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Authors: Yang L. Frances

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Women's health and wellness has been becoming an increasingly important issue in mass media in the age of globalization. In this context, the current research focuses on comparing the construction of healthy bodies in women's health magazines of China and U.S. Trends Health in China and Women's Health in U.S are chosen. Textual analysis and in depth interviews are combined to examine how the healthy bodies are constructed in two magazines through discursive strategies. The interviews with the Deputy Editorial Director, Creative Director and Senior Visual Design of two magazines are undertaken to make the further comparisons. In both Trends Health and Women's Health, women's subjectivity is realized in the construction of ideal healthy body; nevertheless in the process of constructing healthy body, the disciplinary practices imposed on women's bodies are different in two magazines. This paper argues that women's health magazines in both China and America provide an alternative discourse to speak their voices on the one hand, but on the other hand, Women's Health and Trends Health construct the healthy body through disparate disciplinary practices because of the different socio-cultural contexts in two societies.

Keywords: healthy body, women's health magazines, Foucault, textual analysis

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