Search results for: test case specification

Authors: Sara S. Fouad, Omneya Messallam

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In 1818, a seventy-five kilometer long canal was dug (called the Mahmoudiyah canal) connecting between Alexandria city in Egypt and the western branch of the Nile. It was a productive resource and vital to its environment, context, transportation, and recreation. It played a significant role in people’s lives and Alexandria city’s shape. The canal, which was the main vein of goods’ transporting from Alexandria’s seaport to the different parts of Egypt, was still in use today as a major source of clear water in the city. But nowadays, Mahmoudiyah canal is converting into ‘dead waterway’. The canal became sources of pollution as a result of solid and industrial waste thus causing many diseases, destroying communities and biodiversity, with urban invasion, the loss of community aesthetic value and healthy environment. Therefore, this paper aims to propose an urban strategy, as a solution to revive the forgotten canal, through recreating a cultural promenade on its shore. The main aim of this research is to formulate decent quality of life, unpolluted space, an area gathering the city space for nature, tourism and investments. As a case study, this paper investigates Mahmoudiyah canal through urban and ecological analyses, aiming to design an urban strategy for reviving it by creating a cultural promenade enriched with public spaces and green areas, which can most probably enhance the quality of life, city re-living and development. Community participation is also considered as vital and intrinsic implementation stage. The empirical research involved using several data assembly methods such as interviews, mental mapping, structural observations and questionnaires. The paper ends with a set of conclusions leading to proposals for the Mahmoudiyah canal revitalization considering the complex challenges and processes of sustainable regeneration focusing on city’s rehabilitation and lost identity.

Keywords: Mahmoudiyah canal, community aesthetic value, city re-living, cultural promenade

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Authors: Zarini Ismail, Mas Ayu Arina Mohd Anuwar, Ling Chai Ying, Tengku Zetty Maztura Tengku Jamaluddin, Nurul Azmawati Mohamed, Nadeeya Ayn Umaisara Mohamad Nor

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The transmission of infectious diseases can occur anywhere, including in the swimming pools. A large number of swimmers turnover and poor hygienic behaviours will increase the occurrence of direct and indirect water contamination. A wide variety of infections such as the gastrointestinal illnesses, skin rash, eye infections, ear infections and respiratory illnesses had been reported following the exposure to the contaminated water. Understanding the importance of pool hygiene with a healthy practice will reduce the risk of infection. The aims of the study are to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practices on pool hygiene among swimming pool users and to determine the microbial contaminants in swimming pools. A cross-sectional study was conducted using self-administered questionnaires to 600 swimming pool users from four swimming pools belong to the three educational institutions in Selangor. Data was analyzed using SPSS Statistics version 22.0 for Windows. The knowledge, attitude and practice of the study participants were analyzed using the sum score based on Bloom’s cut-off point (80%). Having a score above the cut-off point was classified as having high levels of knowledge, positive attitude and good practice. The association between socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge and attitude with practice on pool hygiene was determined by Chi-Square test. The physicochemical parameters and the microbial contamination were determined using a standard method for examination of waste and wastewater. Of the 600 respondents, 465 (77.5%) were females with the mean age of 21 years old. Most of the respondents are the students (98.8%) which belong to the three educational institutions in Selangor. Overall, the majority of the respondents (89.2%) had low knowledge on pool hygiene, but had positive attitudes (91.3%). Whereas only half of the respondents (50%) practice good hygiene while using the swimming pools. There was a significant association between practice level on pool hygiene with knowledge (p < 0.001) and also the attitude (p < 0.001). The measurements of the physicochemical parameters showed that all 4 swimming pools had low levels of pH and two had low levels of free chlorine. However, all the water samples tested were negative for Escherichia coli. The findings of this study suggested that high knowledge and positive attitude towards pool hygiene ensure a good practice among swimming pool users. Thus, it is recommended that educational interventions should be given to the swimming pool users to increase their knowledge regarding the pool hygiene and this will prevent the unnecessary outbreak of infectious diseases related to swimming pool.

Keywords: attitude, knowledge, pool hygiene, practice

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Authors: Faeze omid, Morteza Banakar

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on global health and healthcare systems, including oral health. The lockdown measures implemented in many countries have led to changes in oral health behaviors, access to dental care, and the delivery of dental services. However, the extent of these changes and their effects on oral health outcomes remains unclear. This systematic review aims to synthesize the available evidence on the state of oral health after the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: We conducted a systematic search of electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science) and grey literature sources for studies reporting on oral health outcomes after the COVID-19 lockdown. We included studies published in English between January 2020 and March 2023. Two reviewers independently screened the titles, abstracts, and full texts of potentially relevant articles and extracted data from included studies. We used a narrative synthesis approach to summarize the findings. Results: Our search identified 23 studies from 12 countries, including cross-sectional surveys, cohort studies, and case reports. The studies reported on changes in oral health behaviors, access to dental care, and the prevalence and severity of dental conditions after the COVID-19 lockdown. Overall, the evidence suggests that the lockdown measures had a negative impact on oral health outcomes, particularly among vulnerable populations. There were decreases in dental attendance, increases in dental anxiety and fear, and changes in oral hygiene practices. Furthermore, there were increases in the incidence and severity of dental conditions, such as dental caries and periodontal disease, and delays in the diagnosis and treatment of oral cancers. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures have had significant effects on oral health outcomes, with negative impacts on oral health behaviors, access to care, and the prevalence and severity of dental conditions. These findings highlight the need for continued monitoring and interventions to address the long-term effects of the pandemic on oral health.

Keywords: COVID-19, oral health, systematic review, dental public health

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Authors: Shaun G. Abbott, Rebecca C. Reynolds, John B. F. de Wit

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Low physical activity (PA) levels are a major public health concern in Australia. There is some evidence that PA interventions can increase PA levels via various methods, including online delivery. Low Socioeconomic Status (SES) people participate in less PA than the rest of the population, partly due to poor self-regulation behaviors associated with socioeconomic characteristics. Interventions that involve a particular method of self-regulation, Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII), has regularly achieved healthy behavior change, but few studies focus on PA behavior outcomes and no studies examining the effect of MCII on the PA behaviors of low SES people has been done. In this study, a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) will deliver MCII for PA behavior change to individuals of relative disadvantage for the first time. The current pilot study will predict sample size for a future full RCT and test the hypothesis that sedentary participants from areas of relative socioeconomic disadvantage of Sydney, who learn the MCII technique will be more physically active, have improved anthropometry and psychological indicators at the completion of a 12-week intervention compared to baseline and control. Eligible participants of relative socioeconomic disadvantage will be randomly assigned to either the ‘PA Information Plus MCII Intervention Group’ or a ‘PA Information-Only Control Group’. Both groups will attend a baseline and 12-week face-to-face consultation; where PA, anthropometric and psychological data will be gathered. The intervention group will be guided through an MCII session at the baseline appointment to establish a PA goal to aim to achieve over 12 weeks. Other than these baseline and 12-week consultations, all participant interaction will occur online. All participants will receive a ‘Fitbit’ accelerometer to record objectively. PA as a daily step count, along with a PA diary for the duration of the study. PA data will be recorded on a personalized online spreadsheet. Both groups will receive a standard PA information email at weeks 2, 4, and 8. The intervention group will also receive scripted follow-up online appointments to discuss goal progress. The current pilot study is in recruitment stage with findings to be presented at the conference in December if selected.

Keywords: implementation intentions, mental contrasting, motivation, pedometer, physical activity, socioeconomic

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Authors: Ali K. M. Al-Nasrawi, Uday A. Al-Hamdany, Sarah M. Hamylton, Brian G. Jones, Yasir M. Alyazichi

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Surface elevation dynamics have always responded to disturbance regimes. Creating Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) to detect surface dynamics has led to the development of several methods, devices and data clouds. DEMs can provide accurate and quick results with cost efficiency, in comparison to the inherited geomatics survey techniques. Nowadays, remote sensing datasets have become a primary source to create DEMs, including LiDAR point clouds with GIS analytic tools. However, these data need to be tested for error detection and correction. This paper evaluates various DEMs from different data sources over time for Apple Orchard Island, a coastal site in southeastern Australia, in order to detect surface dynamics. Subsequently, 30 chosen locations were examined in the field to test the error of the DEMs surface detection using high resolution global positioning systems (GPSs). Results show significant surface elevation changes on Apple Orchard Island. Accretion occurred on most of the island while surface elevation loss due to erosion is limited to the northern and southern parts. Concurrently, the projected differential correction and validation method aimed to identify errors in the dataset. The resultant DEMs demonstrated a small error ratio (≤ 3%) from the gathered datasets when compared with the fieldwork survey using RTK-GPS. As modern modelling approaches need to become more effective and accurate, applying several tools to create different DEMs on a multi-temporal scale would allow easy predictions in time-cost-frames with more comprehensive coverage and greater accuracy. With a DEM technique for the eco-geomorphic context, such insights about the ecosystem dynamic detection, at such a coastal intertidal system, would be valuable to assess the accuracy of the predicted eco-geomorphic risk for the conservation management sustainability. Demonstrating this framework to evaluate the historical and current anthropogenic and environmental stressors on coastal surface elevation dynamism could be profitably applied worldwide.

Keywords: DEMs, eco-geomorphic-dynamic processes, geospatial Information Science, remote sensing, surface elevation changes,

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Authors: Kirsi Korkealehto

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In Finland the transformation from homogenous culture into multicultural one as a result of heavy immigration has been rapid in the recent decades. As multilingualism and multiculturalism are growing features in our society, teachers in all educational levels need to be competent for encounters with students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Consequently, also the number of multicultural and multilingual vocational school students has increased which has not been taken into consideration in teacher education enough. To bridge this gap between teachers’ competences and the requirements of the contemporary school world, Finnish Ministry of Culture and Education established the DivEd-project. The aim of the project is to prepare all teachers to work in the linguistically and culturally diverse world they live in, to develop and increase culturally sustaining and linguistically responsive pedagogy in Finland, increase awareness among Teacher Educators working with preservice teachers and to increase awareness and provide specific strategies to in-service teachers. The partners in the nationwide project are 6 universities and 2 universities of applied sciences. In this research, the linguistically and culturally sustainable teaching practices developed within the DivEd-project are tested in practice. This research aims to explore vocational teachers’ perceptions of these multilingualism and multilingual educational practices. The participants of this study are vocational teachers in of different fields. The data were collected by individual, face-to-face interviews. The data analysis was conducted through content analysis. The findings indicate that the vocational teachers experience that they lack knowledge on linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogy. Moreover, they regard themselves in some extent incompetent in incorporating multilingually and multiculturally sustainable pedagogy in everyday teaching work. Therefore, they feel they need more training pertaining multicultural and multilingual knowledge, competences and suitable pedagogical methods for teaching students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Keywords: multicultural, multilingual, teacher competence, vocational school

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Authors: Majid Aldalbahi

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In 2009, over 3.4 billion people in the world resided in urban areas as a result of rapid urban growth. This figure is estimated to increase to 6.5 billion by 2050. This urban growth phenomenon has raised challenges for many countries in both the developing and developed worlds. Urban growth is a complicated process involving the spatiotemporal changes of all socio-economic and physical components at different scales. The socio-economic components of urban growth are related to urban population growth and economic growth, while physical components of urban growth and economic growth are related to spatial expansion, land cover change and land use change which are the focus of this research. The interactions between these components are complex and no-linear. Several factors and forces cause these complex interactions including transportation and communication, internal and international migrations, public policies, high natural growth rates of urban populations and public policies. Urban growth has positive and negative consequences. The positive effects relates to planned and orderly urban growth, while negative effects relate to unplanned and scattered growth, which is called sprawl. Although urban growth is considered as necessary for sustainable urbanization, uncontrolled and rapid growth cause various problems including consumption of precious rural land resources at urban fringe, landscape alteration, traffic congestion, infrastructure pressure, and neighborhood conflicts. Traditional urban planning approaches in fast growing cities cannot accommodate the negative consequences of rapid urban growth. Microsimulation programme, and modelling techniques are effective means to provide new urban development, management and planning methods and approaches. This paper aims to use these techniques to understand and analyse the complex interactions for the case study of Riyadh city, a fast growing city in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: policy implications, urban planning, traffic congestion, urban growth, Suadi Arabia, Riyadh

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Authors: César Coelho, Nikolai Wiegand

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The advancement of nanosatellite technology has opened new avenues for cost-effective and faster space missions. The NanoSat MO Framework (NMF) from the European Space Agency (ESA) provides a modular and simpler approach to the development of flight software and operations of small satellites. This paper presents a methodology using the NMF together with Docker for simulating constellations of satellites. By leveraging Docker containers, the software environment of individual satellites can be easily replicated within a simulated constellation. This containerized approach allows for rapid deployment, isolation, and management of satellite instances, facilitating comprehensive testing and development in a controlled setting. By integrating the NMF lightweight simulator in the container, a comprehensive simulation environment was achieved. A significant advantage of using Docker containers is their inherent scalability, enabling the simulation of hundreds or even thousands of satellites with minimal overhead. Docker's lightweight nature ensures efficient resource utilization, allowing for deployment on a single host or across a cluster of hosts. This capability is crucial for large-scale simulations, such as in the case of mega-constellations, where multiple traditional virtual machines would be impractical due to their higher resource demands. This ability for easy horizontal scaling based on the number of simulated satellites provides tremendous flexibility to different mission scenarios. Our results demonstrate that leveraging Docker containers with the NanoSat MO Framework provides a highly efficient and scalable solution for simulating satellite constellations, offering not only significant benefits in terms of resource utilization and operational flexibility but also enabling testing and validation of ground software for constellations. The findings underscore the importance of taking advantage of already existing technologies in computer science to create new solutions for future satellite constellations in space.

Keywords: containerization, docker containers, NanoSat MO framework, satellite constellation simulation, scalability, small satellites

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Authors: Md. Soebur Rahman, Mahbuba Begum, Raquib Ahsan

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Composite column is a structural member that uses a combination of structural steel shapes, pipes or tubes with or without reinforcing steel bars and reinforced concrete to provide adequate load carrying capacity to sustain either axial compressive loads alone or a combination of axial loads and bending moments. Composite construction takes the advantages of the speed of construction, light weight and strength of steel, and the higher mass, stiffness, damping properties and economy of reinforced concrete. The most usual types of composite columns are the concrete filled steel tubes and the partially or fully encased steel profiles. Fully encased composite column (FEC) provides compressive strength, stability, stiffness, improved fire proofing and better corrosion protection. This paper reports experimental and numerical investigations of the behaviour of concrete encased steel composite columns subjected to short-term axial load. In this study, eleven short FEC columns with square shaped cross section were constructed and tested to examine the load-deflection behavior. The main variables in the test were considered as concrete compressive strength, cross sectional size and percentage of structural steel. A nonlinear 3-D finite element (FE) model has been developed to analyse the inelastic behaviour of steel, concrete, and longitudinal reinforcement as well as the effect of concrete confinement of the FEC columns. FE models have been validated against the current experimental study conduct in the laboratory and published experimental results under concentric load. It has been observed that FE model is able to predict the experimental behaviour of FEC columns under concentric gravity loads with good accuracy. Good agreement has been achieved between the complete experimental and the numerical load-deflection behaviour in this study. The capacities of each constituent of FEC columns such as structural steel, concrete and rebar's were also determined from the numerical study. Concrete is observed to provide around 57% of the total axial capacity of the column whereas the steel I-sections contributes to the rest of the capacity as well as ductility of the overall system. The nonlinear FE model developed in this study is also used to explore the effect of concrete strength and percentage of structural steel on the behaviour of FEC columns under concentric loads. The axial capacity of FEC columns has been found to increase significantly by increasing the strength of concrete.

Keywords: composite, columns, experimental, finite element, fully encased, strength

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Authors: Borislava Dimitrova, Didem Kepir Savoly

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The movie analysis offers a dynamic and multifaceted lens in order to explore and understand various aspects of human behavior and relationship, emotion, and cognition. Cinema therapy can be an important tool for counselor education and counselors in therapy. Therefore, this paper aims to delve deeper into human relationships and individual behavior patterns and analyze some of their most vivid aspects in light of the transactional analysis and its main components. While describing certain human behaviors and emotional states in real life, sometimes it can be difficult even for mental health practitioners to become aware of the subtle social cues and hints that are being transmitted, often in a rushed and swift manner. To address this challenge, the current paper focuses on the relationship dynamics as conveyed through the plot of the movie “Sunset Boulevard”, and examines slightly exaggerated yet true-to-life examples. The movie was directed by Billy Wilder and written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and D.M. Marshman Jr. The scenes of interest were examined through Transactional Analysis concepts: the different ego states, strokes, the various kinds of transactions, the paradigm of games in transactional analysis, and lastly, with the help of the drama triangle. The addressed themes comprised mainly the way the main characters engaged in game playing, which eventually had a negative outcome on the sequences of interactions between the individuals and the desired payoffs that they craved as a result. Furthermore, counselor educators can use the result of this paper for educational purposes, such as for teaching theoretical knowledge about Transactional Analysis, and for utilizing characters’ interactions and behaviors as real-life situations that can serve as case studies and role-playing activities. Finally, the paper aims to foster the use of movies as materials for psychological analysis which can assist the teaching of new mental health professionals in the field.

Keywords: transactional analysis, movie analysis, drama triangle, games, ego-state

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Authors: Dammar Bahadur Adhikari

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Community forestry in Nepal has got disproportionately high level of support from government and other actors in forestry sector. Even though master plan for forestry sector (1989) has highlighted community and private forestry as one component, the government policies and other intervention deliberately left out private forestry in its structure and programs. The study aimed at providing the pathway for formulating appropriate policies to address need of different kind of forest management regimes in Rautahat district, Nepal. The key areas the research focused were assessment of current status of private forestry, community forest users' understanding on private forestry; criteria for choosing species of private forestry and factors affecting establishment of private forestry in the area. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected employing questionnaire survey, rapid forest assessment and key informant interview. The study found out that forest policies are imposed due to intense pressure of exogenous forces than due to endogenous demand. Most of the local people opine that their traditional knowledge and skills are not sufficient for private forestry and hence need training on the matter. Likewise, local use, market value and rotation dictate the choice of species for plantation in private forests. Currently district forest office is the only government institution working in the area of private forestry all other governmental and non-governmental organizations have condoned. private forestry. Similarly, only permanent settlers in the area are found to establish private forests other forest users such as migrants and forest encroachers follow opportunistic behavior to meet their forest product need from community and national forests. In this regard, the study recommends taking appropriate step to support other forest management system including private forestry provide community forestry the benefits of competition as suggested by Darwin in 18th century, one and half century back and to help alleviate poverty by channelizing benefits to household level.

Keywords: community forest, forest management, poverty, private forest, users’ group

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Authors: Mohammad Arif, Soumen Chatterjee, Krishnendu Gupta

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The peri-urban interface is an area of transition where the urban and rural areas meet and interact. So the peri-urban areas, which is characterized by strong urban influence, easy access to markets, services and other inputs, are ready supplies of labour but distant from the land paucity and pollution related to urban growth. Hence, the present study is primarily aimed at quantifying the spatio-temporal pattern of land use/land cover change during the last three decades (i.e., 1987 to 2016) in the peri-urban area of Burdwan city. In the recent past, the morphology of the study region has rapid change due to high growth of population and establishment of industries. The change has predominantly taken place along the State and National Highway 2 (NH-2) and around the Burdwan Municipality for meeting both residential and commercial purposes. To ascertain the degree of change in land use and land cover, over the specified time, satellite imageries and topographical sheets are employed. The data is processed through appropriate software packages to arrive at a deduction that most of the land use changes have occurred by obliterating agricultural land & water bodies and substituting them by built area and industrial spaces. Geospatial analysis of study area showed that this area has experienced a steep increase (30%) of built-up areas and excessive decrease (15%) in croplands between 1987 and 2016. Increase in built-up areas is attributed to the increase of out-migration during this period from the core city. This study also examined social, economic and institutional factors that lead to this rapid land use change in peri-urban areas of the Burdwan city by carrying out a field survey of 250 households in peri-urban areas. The research concludes with an urgency for regulating land subdivisions in peri-urban areas to prevent haphazard land use development. It is expected that the findings of the study would go a long way in facilitating better policy making.

Keywords: growth, land use land cover, morphology, peri-urban, policy making

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Authors: Md. Alauddin, Md. Ruhul Amin, Md. Omar Faruque, Muhammad Ali Siddiquee, Zakir Hossain Howlader, Mohammad Asaduzzaman

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Diabetes and hypertension are the major lifestyle related diseases. The α-amylase and angiotensin converting enzymes (ACE) are the key enzymes that regulate diabetes and hypertension. The aim was to develop a drug for the treatment of diabetes and hypertension. The Rice Bran (RB) sample (Oryza sativa; BRRI-Dhan-84) was collected from the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), and rice bran proteins were isolated and hydrolyzed by hydrolyzing enzyme alcalase and trypsin. In vivo experiment suggested that rice bran bioactives has an effect on regulating the expression of several key gluconeogenesis and lipogenesis-regulating genes, such as glucose-6-phosphatase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, and fatty acid synthase. The above genes have a connection of regulating the glucose level, lipids profile as well as act as an anti-inflammatory agent. A molecular docking, bioinformatics and in vitro experiments were performed. We found rice bran protein hydrolysates significantly (<0.05) influence the peptide concentration in the case of trypsin, alcalase, and (trypsin + alcalase) digestion. The in vitro analysis found that protein hydrolysate significantly (<0.05) reduced diabetic and hypertension as well as oxidative stress. A molecular docking study showed that the YY and IP peptide have a significantly strong binding affinity to the active site of the ACE enzyme and α-amylase with -7.8Kcal/mol and -6.2Kcal/mol, respectively. The Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and Swiss ADME data analysis showed that less toxicity risk, good physicochemical properties, pharmacokinetics, and drug-likeness with drug scores 0.45 and 0.55 of YY and IP peptides, respectively. Thus, rice bran bioactive could be a good candidate for the treatment of diabetes and hypertension.

Keywords: anti-hypertensive and anti-hyperglycemic, anti-oxidative, bioinformatics, in vitro study, rice bran proteins and peptides

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Authors: Şenol Yanar, Sinan Çeli̇kbi̇lek, Mehmet Bayansalduz, Yusuf Can

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Managerial competence defines as the skills that managers in managerial positions have in relation to managerial responsibilities and managerial duties. Today's organizations, which are in a competitive environment, have the desire to work with effective managers in order to be more advantageous position than the other organizations they are competing with. In today's organizations, self-efficacy and collective competence belief that determine managerial competencies of managers to assume managerial responsibility are of special importance. In this framework, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of sports managers' perceptions of self-efficacy and collective competence in managerial competence perceptions. In the study, it has also been analyzed if there is a significant difference between self-efficacy, collective competence and managerial competence levels of sports managers in terms of their gender, age, duty status, year of service and level of education. 248 sports managers, who work at the department of sports service’s central and field organization at least as a chief in the manager position, have been chosen with random sampling method and they have voluntarily participated in the study. In the study, the self-efficacy scale which was developed by Schwarzer, R. & Jerusalem, M. (1995), collective competence scale developed by Goddard, Hoy and Woolfolk-Hoy (2000) and managerial competence scale developed by Cetinkaya (2009) have been used as a data collection tool. The questionnaire form used as a data collection tool in the study includes a personal information form consisting of 5 questions; questioning gender, age, duty status, years of service and level of education. In the study, Pearson Correlation Analysis has been used for defining the correlation among self-efficacy, collective competence belief, and managerial competence levels in sports managers and regression analysis have been used to define the affect of self-efficacy and collective competence belief on the perception of managerial competence. T-test for binary grouping and ANOVA analysis have been used for more than binary groups in order to determine if there is any significant difference in the level of self-efficacy, collective and managerial competence in terms of the participants’ duty status, year of service and level of education. According to the research results, it has been found that there is a positive correlation between sports managers' self-efficacy, collective competence beliefs, and managerial competence levels. According to the results of the regression analysis, it is understood that the managers’ perception of self-efficacy and collective competence belief significantly defines the perception of managerial competence. Also, the results show that there is no significant difference in self-efficacy, collective competence, and level of managerial competence of sports managers in terms of duty status, year of service and level of education.

Keywords: sports manager, self-efficacy, collective competence, managerial competence

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Authors: Rodlyn Remina Hines

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Males and Females respond differently to life situations, including transnational living. Being in a transnational marriage relationship may put a strain on the relationship requiring partners to adjust their behaviors and expectancies of the other partner to accommodate the disruptions in the relationship. More so, when one partner is an immigrant to a new geographic location with the other in the native country, these disruptions may be intensive. This qualitative study examined gender differences in how married Ghanaian couples respond to making a life together as a couple while living across international borders. The study asked two questions: (1) What are the perceptions of males and females on transnational living? and (2) how do married males and females respond to transnational living situations? To answer these questions, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 married couples- with one partner living in the United States (U.S.) and the other spouse in Ghana via purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Participants were aged 26 to 59 years with an average age of 40; the average age of relationship: 10.41; and average years of living apart: 6.7. Induction and deduction hybrid analysis strategies were used to derive emerging themes. The results highlight significant gender differences in response to transnational living status and practices. The data indicate that transnational couples with the male spouse residing in the U.S. experience more relationship strains than is the case when the female partner is the immigrant. Three couples who were in divorce proceedings at the time of the interview had the male partner residing in the U.S. and the female spouse in Ghana. These gender differences also reflected spousal visitation frequency, duration of spousal reunification, amount of and frequency of spousal remittance(s), and immigration processing procedures. Finally, the data show female immigrant partners as better managers of transnational living stresses and strains than their male counterparts. Findings from this study have implications for marriage and family practitioners and immigration policy makers.

Keywords: gender differences, , ghanaian couples, ghanaian immigrants, transnational living

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Authors: Lucia Vodanovic, Bryan Pirolli

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The London College of Communication is one of the only universities in the world to offer a lifestyle journalism master’s degree. A hybrid originally constructed largely out of a generic journalism program crossed with numerous cultural studies approaches, the degree has developed into a leading lifestyle journalism education attracting students worldwide. This research project seeks to present a framework for structuring the degree as well as to understand how students in this emerging field of study value the program. While some researchers have addressed questions about journalism and higher education, none have looked specifically at the increasingly important genre of lifestyle journalism, which Folker Hanusch defines as including notions of consumerism and critique among other identifying traits. Lifestyle journalism, itself poorly researched by scholars, can relate to topics including travel, fitness, and entertainment, and as such, arguably a lifestyle journalism degree should prepare students to engage with these topics. This research uses the existing Masters of Arts and Lifestyle Journalism at the London College of Communications as a case study to examine the school’s approach. Furthering Hanusch’s original definition, this master’s program attempts to characterizes lifestyle journalism by a specific voice or approach, as reflected in the diversity of student’s final projects. This framework echoes the ethos and ideas of the university, which focuses on creativity, design, and experimentation. By analyzing the current degree as well as student feedback, this research aims to assist future educators in pursuing the often neglected field of lifestyle journalism. Through a discovery of the unique mix of practical coursework, theoretical lessons, and broad scope of student work presented in this degree program, researchers strive to develop a framework for lifestyle journalism education, referring to Mark Deuze’s ten questions for journalism education development. While Hanusch began the discussion to legitimize the study of lifestyle journalism, this project strives to go one step further and open up a discussion about teaching of lifestyle journalism at the university level.

Keywords: education, journalism, lifestyle, university

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Authors: Denise Schrama, Claudia Raposo, Pedro Rodrigues

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Background: Food allergies are conducted by a hypersensitive response of the immune system. These allergies are a global concern for the public health. Consumption of fish is increasing worldwide as it is a healthy meat with high nutritional value. Unfortunately, fish can cause adverse immune-mediate reactions, affecting part of the population with higher incidence in children. β-parvalbumin, a small, highly conserved stable, calcium or magnesium binding muscle protein is the main fish allergen. In fish-allergic patients, cross-reactivity between different fish species exist due to recognition of highly identical protein regions. Enolases, aldolases, or fish gelatin are other identified fish allergens in some fish species. With no available cure for fish allergies, clinical management is only based on an avoidance diet aiming at the total exclusion of offending food. Methods: Mediterranean fish (S. aurata and D. labrax) were fed specifically designed diets, enriched in components that target the expression or inactivation of parvalbumin (creatine and EDTA, respectively). After 90 days fish were sampled and biological tissues were excised. Proteomics was used to access fish allergens characterization and expression in muscle while IgE assays to confirm the lower allergenic potential are conducted in patients with history of fish allergies. Fish welfare and quality of flesh were established with biochemical, texture and sensorial analysis. Results: Fish welfare shows no major impact between diets. In case of creatine supplementation in D. labrax proteomic analysis show a slight decrease in parvalbumin expression. No accumulation of this compound was found in muscle. For EDTA supplementation in S. aurata IgE assay show a slight decrease in allergenicity when using sera of fish allergic patients. Conclusion: Supplementation with these two compounds seems to change slightly the allergenicity of the two mean Mediterranean species.

Keywords: fish allergies, fish nutrition, proteomics, aquaculture

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Authors: Emily Schuler, Cristina M. S. B. Dias

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The increase of human aging is a phenomenon observed in world scale and allows the experience of several roles within the family. Nowadays grandparents can see their grandchildren growing up and having children, becoming great-grandparents, and thus adding another generation in the network of relationships. Consequently, more and more multigenerational families are emerging, formed by four or even five generations, and therefore more vertically. Thus, the objective of this research was to understand the role of great-grandparents, as well as the intergenerational repercussions of this role in their lives and that of their relatives. More specifically it was intended: to analyze the meaning of being great-grandparents in the family, from the perspective of each generation; identify the activities performed by their great-grandparents; identify the legacy that the great-grandparents wish to convey; characterize the needs and feelings experienced by the great-grandparents and their families; understand intergenerational relations permeated by the presence of great-grandparents among family members. It is a multiple case study with four families consisting of four generations and a family with five generations, thus totaling twenty-two participants; three great-grandmothers, two great-grandfathers, and one great-great-grandmother. As for the other generations, five children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandchild were interviewed. As a research instrument, a semi-directed interview was used, with a specific script for each generation, as well as a questionnaire with the sociodemographic data of the participants. The data were analyzed through thematic content analysis. The main results pointed out the following: 1) As for the feelings experienced when becoming great-grandparents, they reported joy, satisfaction, and gratitude; 2) The support provided by them, most of the time, is of the emotional type; 3) The family relationship appeared quite significant, being characterized especially in the form of visits; 4) Conflicts exist, but seem to be circumvented with wisdom and much respect; 5) The legacies transmitted by them are related to faith, solidarity, education, and order; 6) The meaning of being great-grandmother is intimately linked to the feeling of transcendence, the sense of having fulfilled the purpose of life and also its continuity in grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In other generations, the appreciation of the great-grandparents, perceived as wise people, has been observed and can contribute as teachers to the new generations. It is hoped to give visibility to this generation still little studied in our country.

Keywords: great-grandparents, intergenerational relation, multigenerational families, transgenerational legacies

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Authors: Marina Wagdy Nageeb Eskander

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A descriptive statistical analysis of the data showed that the most important factor evoking negative attitudes among teachers is student behavior. have been presented as useful models for understanding the risk factors and protective factors associated with the emergence of autistic traits. Although these "syndrome" forms of autism reach clinical thresholds, they appear to be distinctly different from the idiopathic or "non-syndrome" autism phenotype. Most teachers reported that kindergartens did not prepare them for the educational needs of children with autism, particularly in relation to non-verbal skills. The study is important and points the way for improving teacher inclusion education in Thailand. Inclusive education for students with autism is still in its infancy in Thailand. Although the number of autistic children in schools has increased significantly since the Thai government introduced the Education Regulations for Persons with Disabilities Act in 2008, there is a general lack of services for autistic students and their families. This quantitative study used the Teaching Skills and Readiness Scale for Students with Autism (APTSAS) to test the attitudes and readiness of 110 elementary school teachers when teaching students with autism in general education classrooms. To uncover the true nature of these co morbidities, it is necessary to expand the definition of autism to include the cognitive features of the disorder, and then apply this expanded conceptualization to examine patterns of autistic syndromes. This study used various established eye-tracking paradigms to assess the visual and attention performance of children with DS and FXS who meet the autism thresholds defined in the Social Communication Questionnaire. To study whether the autistic profiles of these children are associated with visual orientation difficulties ("sticky attention"), decreased social attention, and increased visual search performance, all of which are hallmarks of the idiopathic autistic child phenotype. Data will be collected from children with DS and FXS, aged 6 to 10 years, and two control groups matched for age and intellectual ability (i.e., children with idiopathic autism).In order to enable a comparison of visual attention profiles, cross-sectional analyzes of developmental trajectories are carried out. Significant differences in the visual-attentive processes underlying the presentation of autism in children with FXS and DS have been suggested, supporting the concept of syndrome specificity. The study provides insights into the complex heterogeneity associated with autism syndrome symptoms and autism itself, with clinical implications for the utility of autism intervention programs in DS and FXS populations.

Keywords: attitude, autism, teachers, sports activities, movement skills, motor skills

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Authors: Thabo M. Bafitlhile, Adewole Oladele

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Botswana has been affected by floods since long ago and is still experiencing this tragic event. Flooding occurs mostly in the North-West, North-East, and parts of Central district due to heavy rainfalls experienced in these areas. The torrential rains destroyed homes, roads, flooded dams, fields and destroyed livestock and livelihoods. Palapye is one area in the central district that has been experiencing floods ever since 1995 when its greatest flood on record occurred. Heavy storms result in floods and inundation; this has been exacerbated by poor and absence of drainage structures. Since floods are a part of nature, they have existed and will to continue to exist, hence more destruction. Furthermore floods and highway plays major role in erosion and destruction of roads structures. Already today, many culverts, trenches, and other drainage facilities lack the capacity to deal with current frequency for extreme flows. Future changes in the pattern of hydro climatic events will have implications for the design and maintenance costs of roads. Increase in rainfall and severe weather events can affect the demand for emergent responses. Therefore flood forecasting and warning is a prerequisite for successful mitigation of flood damage. In flood prone areas like Palapye, preventive measures should be taken to reduce possible adverse effects of floods on the environment including road structures. Therefore this paper attempts to estimate return periods associated with huge storms of different magnitude from recorded historical rainfall depth using statistical method. The method of annual maxima was used to select data sets for the rainfall analysis. In the statistical method, the Type 1 extreme value (Gumbel), Log Normal, Log Pearson 3 distributions were all applied to the annual maximum series for Palapye area to produce IDF curves. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Chi Squared were used to confirm the appropriateness of fitted distributions for the location and the data do fit the distributions used to predict expected frequencies. This will be a beneficial tool for urgent flood forecasting and water resource administration as proper drainage design will be design based on the estimated flood events and will help to reclaim and protect the road structures from adverse impacts of flood.

Keywords: drainage, estimate, evaluation, floods, flood forecasting

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Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

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The photocurrent generations are influencing ultra-high efficiency solar cells based on self-assembled quantum dot (QD) nanostructures. Nanocrystal quantum dots (QD) provide a great enhancement toward solar cell efficiencies through the use of quantum confinement to tune absorbance across the solar spectrum enabled multi-exciton generation. Based on theoretical predictions, QDs have potential to improve systems efficiency in approximate regular electrons excitation intensity greater than 50%. In solar cell devices, an intermediate band formed by the electron levels in quantum dot systems. The spatial architecture is exploring how can solar cell integrate and produce not only high open circuit voltage (> 1.7 eV) but also large short-circuit currents due to the efficient absorption of sub-bandgap photons. In the proposed QD system, the structure allows barrier material to absorb wavelengths below 700 nm while multi-photon processes in the used quantum dots to absorb wavelengths up to 2 µm. The assembly of the electronic model is flexible to demonstrate the atoms and molecules structure and material properties to tune control energy bandgap of the barrier quantum dot to their respective optimum values. In terms of energy virtual conversion, the efficiency and cost of the electronic structure are unified outperform a pair of multi-junction solar cell that obtained in the rigorous test to quantify the errors. The milestone toward achieving the claimed high-efficiency solar cell device is controlling the edge causes of energy bandgap between the barrier material and quantum dot systems according to the media design limits. Despite this remarkable potential for high photocurrent generation, the achievable open-circuit voltage (Voc) is fundamentally limited due to non-radiative recombination processes in QD solar cells. The orientation of voltage recovery system is compared theoretically with experimental Voc variation in mediation upper–limit obtained one diode modeling form at the cells with different bandgap (Eg) as classified in the proposed spatial architecture. The opportunity for improvement Voc is valued approximately greater than 1V by using smaller QDs through QD solar cell recovery systems as confined to other micro and nano operations states.

Keywords: nanotechnology, photovoltaic solar cell, quantum systems, renewable energy, environmental modeling

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Authors: Maarja Karbus, Elsbet Lippmaa, Kadri Kööp, Mare Tupits

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Aim: The aim is to describe the experiences and needs of mothers of children with cancer in coping with the child's illness. Background: Cancer affects different life areas. Especially if it is a child, in this case the whole family is involved. Loved ones are mentally affected, there are limitations, and life changes need to be made to make the whole treatment regimen and recovery as comfortable as possible. Also, the whole process is expensive and time consuming. The research is part of a larger project that covers the experiences and needs of parents of children with chronic illness and coping strategies related to the child's illness. Design: Qualitative, empirical, descriptive research. Method: Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and inductive content analysis was used to analyze the data. The interviews were conducted in the autumn of 2020, 5 respondents participated in the research. Results and Conclusions: The research revealed that the mothers' experiences of coping with a child's disease included health-related experiences, material aspects, changes in lifestyle, support systems and contact with professionals. Regarding the organizational and material aspects of life, the subjects presented experiences with economic problems, adaptation of changes in lifestyle, access to information and changes in the treatment process. With regard to health, the respondents identified experiences with the mother's physical and mental health and experiences with the health of an ill child. The experience of different support systems was related to the support of family, friends, acquaintances, various organizations and specialists. Experiences with specialist support included experiences with family relationships and positive and negatiive experiences with staff. The mothers' needs in dealing with the child's disease included the mother's emotional needs, the support of other family members, and the need for various support systems and services. The needs of coping with the child were the need for understanding, support, confidence, the need to be strong and courageous, the need to ignore one's own needs, and the need for personal time and rest. The needs of other family members included the needs of an ill child and the need to pay attention to other children in the family. The needs of different supporters and services were related to different helpers and different services.

Keywords: cancer, mother, coping, child, need, experience, illness

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Authors: Gautier Viaud, Paul-Henry Cournède

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Plant growth models have been used extensively for the prediction of the phenotypic performance of plants. However, they remain most often calibrated for a given genotype and therefore do not take into account genotype by environment interactions. One way of achieving such an objective is to consider Bayesian hierarchical models. Three levels can be identified in such models: The first level describes how a given growth model describes the phenotype of the plant as a function of individual parameters, the second level describes how these individual parameters are distributed within a plant population, the third level corresponds to the attribution of priors on population parameters. Thanks to the Bayesian framework, choosing appropriate priors for the population parameters permits to derive analytical expressions for the full conditional distributions of these population parameters. As plant growth models are of a nonlinear nature, individual parameters cannot be sampled explicitly, and a Metropolis step must be performed. This allows for the use of a hybrid Gibbs--Metropolis sampler. A generic approach was devised for the implementation of both general state space models and estimation algorithms within a programming platform. It was designed using the Julia language, which combines an elegant syntax, metaprogramming capabilities and exhibits high efficiency. Results were obtained for Arabidopsis thaliana on both simulated and real data. An organ-scale Greenlab model for the latter is thus presented, where the surface areas of each individual leaf can be simulated. It is assumed that the error made on the measurement of leaf areas is proportional to the leaf area itself; multiplicative normal noises for the observations are therefore used. Real data were obtained via image analysis of zenithal images of Arabidopsis thaliana over a period of 21 days using a two-step segmentation and tracking algorithm which notably takes advantage of the Arabidopsis thaliana phyllotaxy. Since the model formulation is rather flexible, there is no need that the data for a single individual be available at all times, nor that the times at which data is available be the same for all the different individuals. This allows to discard data from image analysis when it is not considered reliable enough, thereby providing low-biased data in large quantity for leaf areas. The proposed model precisely reproduces the dynamics of Arabidopsis thaliana’s growth while accounting for the variability between genotypes. In addition to the estimation of the population parameters, the level of variability is an interesting indicator of the genotypic stability of model parameters. A promising perspective is to test whether some of the latter should be considered as fixed effects.

Keywords: bayesian, genotypic differentiation, hierarchical models, plant growth models

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Authors: Agnieszka Zalejska-Jonsson

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The Swedish Green Building Council (SGBC) was established in 2009. Since then, over 1000 buildings have been certified, of which approximately 600 are newly produced and 340 are residential buildings. During that time, approximately 2000 apartment buildings have been built in Sweden. This means that over a five- year period 17% of residential buildings have been certified according to the environmental building scheme. The certification of the building is not a guarantee of environmental progress but it gives us an indication of the extent of the progress. The overarching aim of this study is to investigate the factors behind the relatively slow evolution of the green residential housing market in Sweden. The intention is to examine stated willingness to pay (WTP) for green and low energy apartments, and to explore which factors have a significant effect on stated WTP among apartment owners. A green building was defined as a building certified according to the environmental scheme and a low energy building as a building designed and constructed with high energy efficiency goals. Data for this study were collected through a survey conducted among occupants of comparable apartment buildings: two green and one conventional. The total number of received responses was 429: green A (N=160), response rate 42%; green B (N=138) response rate 35%, and conventional (N=131) response rate 43%. The study applied a quasi-experimental method. Survey responses regarding factors affecting purchase of apartment, stated WTP and environmental literacy have been analysed using descriptive statistics, the Mann–Whitney (rank sum) test and logistic models. Comments received from respondents have been used for further interpretation of results. Results indicate that environmental education has a significant effect on stated WTP. Occupants who declared higher WTP showed a higher level of environmental literacy and indicated that energy efficiency was one of the important factors that affected their decision to buy an apartment. Generally, the respondents were more likely to pay more for low energy buildings than for green buildings. This is to a great extent a consequence of rational customer behaviour and difficulty in apprehending the meaning of green building certification. The analysis shows that people living in green buildings indicate higher WTP for both green and low energy buildings, the difference being statistically significant. It is concluded that growth in the green housing market in Sweden might be achieved if policymakers and developers engage in active education in the environmental labelling system. The demand for green buildings is more likely to increase when the difference between green and conventional buildings is easily understood and information is not only delivered by the estate agent, but is part of an environmental education programme.

Keywords: consumer, environmental education, housing market, stated WTP, Sweden

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Authors: Alexandra P. Alexandropoulou, Andreas Fousteris, Eleni Didaskalou, Dimitrios A. Georgakellos

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As urbanization is becoming a major stress factor not only for the urban environment but also for the wellbeing of city dwellers, incorporating the issues of urban health in strategic city planning and policy-making has never been more relevant. The impact of urbanization can vary from low to severe and relates to all non-communicable diseases caused by the different functions of cities. Air pollution, noise pollution, water and soil pollution, availability of open green spaces, and urban heat island are the major factors that can compromise citizens' health. Urban health describes the effects of the social environment, the physical environment, and the availability and accessibility to health and social services. To assess the quality of urban wellbeing, all urban characteristics that might have an effect on citizens' health must be considered, evaluated, and introduced in integrated local planning. A series of indices and indicators can be used to better describe these effects and set the target values in policy making. Local strategic planning is one of the most valuable development tools a local city administration can possess; thus, it has become mandatory under Greek law for all municipalities. It involves a two-stage procedure; the first aims to collect, analyse and evaluate data on the current situation of the city (administrative data, population data, environmental data, social data, swot analysis), while the second aims to introduce a policy vision described and supported by distinct (nevertheless integrated) actions, plans and measures to be implemented with the aim of city development and citizen wellbeing. In this procedure, the element of health is often neglected or under-evaluated. A relative survey was conducted among all Greek local authorities in order to shed light on the current situation. Evidence shows that the rate of incorporation of health in strategic planning is lacking behind. The survey also highlights key hindrances and concerns raised by local officials and suggests a path for the way forward.

Keywords: urban health, strategic planning, local authorities, integrated development

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Authors: Bong Jae Lee, Jeong Il Lee, Hyo Su Kim

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Both developed and developing countries have adopted the decision to join the Paris agreement to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 meeting in Paris. As a result, the developed and developing countries have to submit the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) by 2020, and each country will be assessed for their performance in reducing GHG. After that, they shall propose a reduction target which is higher than the previous target every five years. Therefore, an accurate method for calculating greenhouse gas emissions is essential to be presented as a rational for implementing GHG reduction measures based on the reduction targets. Non-CO2 GHGs (CF4, NF3, N2O, SF6 and so on) are being widely used in fabrication process of semiconductor manufacturing, and etching/deposition process of display manufacturing process. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) value of Non-CO2 is much higher than CO2, which means it will have greater effect on a global warming than CO2. Therefore, GHG calculation methods of the electronics industry are provided by Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and it will be discussed at ISO/TC 146 meeting. As discussed earlier, being precise and accurate in calculating Non-CO2 GHG is becoming more important. Thus this study aims to discuss the implications of the calculating methods through comparing the methods of IPCC and EPA. As a conclusion, after analyzing the methods of IPCC & EPA, the method of EPA is more detailed and it also provides the calculation for N2O. In case of the default emission factor (by IPCC & EPA), IPCC provides more conservative results compared to that of EPA; The factor of IPCC was developed for calculating a national GHG emission, while the factor of EPA was specifically developed for the U.S. which means it must have been developed to address the environmental issue of the US. The semiconductor factory ‘A’ measured F gas according to the EPA Destruction and Removal Efficiency (DRE) protocol and estimated their own DRE, and it was observed that their emission factor shows higher DRE compared to default DRE factor of IPCC and EPA Therefore, each country can improve their GHG emission calculation by developing its own emission factor (if possible) at the time of reporting Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (No. 10053589).

Keywords: non-CO2 GHG, GHG emission, electronics industry, measuring method

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Authors: Leo Laine, Morgan Johansson

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To meet the civilizations future needs for safe living and low environmental footprint, the engineers designing the complex systems of tomorrow will need efficient ways to model and optimize these systems for their intended purpose. For example, a civil defence shelter and its subsystem components needs to withstand, e.g. airblast and ground shock from decided design level explosion which detonates with a certain distance from the structure. In addition, the complex civil defence shelter needs to have functioning air filter systems to protect from toxic gases and provide clean air, clean water, heat, and electricity needs to also be available through shock and vibration safe fixtures and connections. Similar complex building systems can be found in any concentrated living or office area. In this paper, the authors use a multidomain modelling language called Modelica to model a concrete wall as a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system with elastoplastic properties with the implemented option of plastic hardening. The elastoplastic model was developed and implemented in the open source tool OpenModelica. The simulation model was tested on the case with a transient equivalent reflected pressure time history representing an airblast from 100 kg TNT detonating 15 meters from the wall. The concrete wall is approximately regarded as a concrete strip of 1.0 m width. This load represents a realistic threat on any building in a city like area. The OpenModelica model results were compared with an Excel implementation of a SDOF model with an elastic-plastic spring using simple fixed timestep central difference solver. The structural displacement results agreed very well with each other when it comes to plastic displacement magnitude, elastic oscillation displacement, and response times.

Keywords: airblast from explosives, elastoplastic spring model, Modelica modelling language, SDOF, structural response of concrete structure

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Authors: Maryam Memarian, Mahmood Naghizadeh

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Deconstruction is an approach that is entirely incompatible with the traditional prevalent architecture. Considering the fact that this approach attempts to put architecture in sharp contrast with its opposite events and transpires with attending to the neglected and missing aspects of architecture and deconstructing its stable structures. It also recklessly proceeds beyond the existing frameworks and intends to create a different and more efficient prospect for space. The aim of deconstruction architecture is to satisfy both the prospective and retrospective visions as well as takes into account all tastes of the present in order to transcend time. Likewise, it ventures to fragment the facts and symbols of the past and extract new concepts from within their heart, which coincide with today’s circumstances. Since this approach is an attempt to surpass the limits of the prevalent architecture, it can be employed to design places in which creative events occur and imagination and ambition flourish. Thought-provoking artistic events can grow and mature in such places and be represented in the best way possible to all people. The concept of event proposed in the plan grows out of the interaction between space and creation. In addition to triggering surprise and high impressions, it is also considered as a bold journey into the suspended realms of the traditional conflicts in architecture such as architecture-landscape, interior-exterior, center-margin, product-process, and stability-instability. In this project, at first, through interpretive-historical research method and examining the inputs and data collection, recognition and organizing takes place. After evaluating the obtained data using deductive reasoning, the data is eventually interpreted. Given the fact that the research topic is in its infancy and there is not a similar case in Iran with limited number of corresponding instances across the world, the selected topic helps to shed lights on the unrevealed and neglected parts in architecture. Similarly, criticizing, investigating and comparing specific and highly prized cases in other countries with the project under study can serve as an introduction into this architecture style.

Keywords: anti-architecture, creativity, deconstruction, event

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Authors: Mballa Abanda Luc Aurelien Serge, Henda Gnakate Biba, Kuate Guemo Romaric, Akono Rufine Nicole, Zabotom Yaya Fadel Biba, Petfiang Sidonie, Bella Suzane Jenifer

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The main hypotheses proposed around the definition of the syllable and of music, of the common origin of music and language, should lead the reader to reflect on the cross-cutting questions raised by the debate on the notion of universals in linguistics and musicology. These are objects of controversy, and there lies its interest: the debate raises questions that are at the heart of theories on language. It is an inventive, original, and innovative research thesis. A contribution to the theoretical, musicological, ethno musicological, and linguistic conceptualization of languages, giving rise to the practice of interlocution between the social and cognitive sciences, the activities of artistic creation, and the question of modeling in the human sciences: mathematics, computer science, translation automation, and artificial intelligence. When you apply this theory to any text of a folksong of a world-tone language, you do not only piece together the exact melody, rhythm, and harmonies of that song as if you knew it in advance but also the exact speaking of this language. The author believes that the issue of the disappearance of tonal languages and their preservation has been structurally resolved, as well as one of the greatest cultural equations related to the composition and creation of tonal, polytonal, and random music. The experimentation confirming the theorization, I designed a semi-digital, semi-analog application that translates the tonal languages of Africa (about 2,100 languages) into blues, jazz, world music, polyphonic music, tonal and anatonal music, and deterministic and random music). To test this application, I use music reading and writing software that allows me to collect the data extracted from my mother tongue, which is already modeled in the musical staves saved in the ethnographic (semiotic) dictionary for automatic translation ( volume 2 of the book). The translation is done (from writing to writing, from writing to speech, and from writing to music). Mode of operation: you type a text on your computer, a structured song (chorus-verse), and you command the machine a melody of blues, jazz, and world music or variety, etc. The software runs, giving you the option to choose harmonies, and then you select your melody.

Keywords: language, music, sciences, quantum entenglement

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Authors: Vicki Cameron

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Background: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) typically effects the feet and about 20% of patients present initially with foot and ankle symptoms. Custom moulded foot orthoses (FO) in the management of foot and ankle problems in RA is well documented in the literature. Off-the-shelf FO are thought to provide an effective alternative to custom moulded FO in patients with RA, however they are not evidence based. Objectives: To determine the effects of off-the-shelf FO on; 1. quality of life (QOL) 2. walking speed 4. peak plantar pressure in the forefoot (PPPft) Methods: Thirty-five patients (six male and 29 female) participated in the study from 11/2006 to 07/2008. The age of the patients ranged from 26 to 80 years (mean 52.4 years; standard deviation [SD] 13.3 years). A repeated measures design was used, with patients presenting at baseline, three months and six months. Patients were tested walking barefoot, shod and shod with FO. The type of orthoses used was the Slimflex Plastic ® (Algeos). The Leeds Foot Impact Scale (LFIS) was used to investigate QOL. The Vicon 612 motion analysis system was used to determine the effect of FO on walking speed. The F-scan walkway and in-shoe systems provided information of the effect on PPPft. Ethical approval was obtained on 07/2006. Data was analysed using SPSS version 15.0. Results/Discussion: The LFIS data was analysed with a repeated measures ANOVA. There was a significant improvement in the LFIS score with the use of the FO over the six months (p<0.01). A significant increase in walking speed with the orthoses was observed (p<0.01). Peak plantar pressure in the forefoot was reduced with the FO, as shown by a non-parametric Friedman’s test (chi-square = 55.314, df=2, p<0.05). Conclusion: The results show that off-the-shelf FO are effective in managing foot problems in patients with RA. Patients reported an improved QOL with the orthoses, and further objective measurements were quantified to provide a rationale for this change. Patients demonstrated an increased walking speed, which has been shown to be associated with reduced pain. The FO decreased PPPft which have been reported as a site of pain and ulceration in patients with RA. Salient Clinical Points: Off-the-shelf FO offer an effective alternative to custom moulded FO, and can be dispensed at the chair side. This is crucial in the management of foot problems associated with RA as early intervention is advocated due to the chronic and progressive nature of the disease.

Keywords: podiatry, rheumatoid arthritis, foot orthoses, gait analysis

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