Search results for: expectation before receiving services

Authors: Éva Pintér, Péter Bagó, Nikolett Deutsch, Miklós Hetényi

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The process of digital transformation has a profound influence on all sectors of the worldwide economy and the business environment. The influence of blockchain technology can be observed in the digital economy and e-government, rendering it an essential element of a nation's growth strategy. The banking industry is experiencing significant expansion and development of financial technology firms. Utilizing developing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and big data (BD), these entrants are offering more streamlined financial solutions, promptly addressing client demands, and presenting a challenge to incumbent institutions. The advantages of digital transformation are evident in the corporate realm, and firms that resist its adoption put their survival at risk. The advent of digital technologies has revolutionized the business environment, streamlining processes and creating opportunities for enhanced communication and collaboration. Thanks to the aid of digital technologies, businesses can now swiftly and effortlessly retrieve vast quantities of information, all the while accelerating the process of creating new and improved products and services. Big data analytics is generally recognized as a transformative force in business, considered the fourth paradigm of science, and seen as the next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. Big data, an emerging technology that is shaping the future of the banking sector, offers numerous advantages to banks. It enables them to effectively track consumer behavior and make informed decisions, thereby enhancing their operational efficiency. Banks may embrace big data technologies to promptly and efficiently identify fraud, as well as gain insights into client preferences, which can then be leveraged to create better-tailored products and services. Moreover, the utilization of big data technology empowers banks to develop more intelligent and streamlined models for accurately recognizing and focusing on the suitable clientele with pertinent offers. There is a scarcity of research on big data analytics in the banking industry, with the majority of existing studies only examining the advantages and prospects associated with big data. Although big data technologies are crucial, there is a dearth of empirical evidence about the role of big data analytics (BDA) capabilities in bank performance. This research addresses a gap in the existing literature by introducing a model that combines the resource-based view (RBV), the technical organization environment framework (TOE), and dynamic capability theory (DC). This study investigates the influence of Big Data Analytics (BDA) utilization on the performance of market and risk management. This is supported by a comparative examination of Hungarian mobile banking services.

Keywords: big data, digital transformation, dynamic capabilities, mobile banking

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Authors: Meena K. Yadav, Rupak Aryal, Michael D. Short, Ben Van Den Akker, Christopher P. Saint, Cobus Gerber

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Illicit drugs are considered as emerging contaminants of concern that have become an interesting issue for the scientific community from last few years due to their existence in the water environment. A number of the literature has revealed their occurrence in the environment. This is mainly due to the fact that some drugs are partially removed during wastewater treatment processes, and remaining being able to enter the environment and contaminate surface and groundwater and subsequently, drinking water. Therefore, this paper evaluates the occurrence of key illicit drugs in wastewater (influent and effluent) samples in 4 wastewater treatment plants across Adelaide, South Australia over a 1 year period. This paper also compares the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants adopting different technologies in the removal of selected illicit drugs, especially in the context of which technology has higher removal rates. The influent and effluent samples were analysed using Liquid Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The levels of drugs detected were in the range of mg/L – ng/L in effluent samples; thus emphasising the influence on water quality of receiving water bodies and the significance of removal efficiency of WWTPs(Wastewater Treatment Plants). The results show that the drugs responded differently in the removal depending on the treatment processes used by the WWTPs.

Keywords: illicit drugs, removal efficiency, treatment technology, wastewater

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Authors: Erin Louise Robinson, Emily Elsa Freeman

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Rough-and-tumble play (RTP) is a physical and competitive type of play that parents engage in with their children. While past research has reported RTP to be the preferred play type for western fathers, the frequency of these interactions in Australian families have not been explored. With parental perceptions of play importance playing a major role in the frequency of activity engagement, the present study investigated how perceptions and parent gender impact on RTP play frequency. By utilising child gender in our approach, we also examined the historical trend of boys receiving more physical play interactions with their parents. Three hundred and seventy-nine respondents completed the study with their 0–10-year-old children. The results indicated that, in line with past research, parents engaged more frequently in RTP with their sons than their daughters. While, both mothers and fathers participated in RTP with their children, fathers perceived RTP to be of greater important to their child’s development than mothers did. Moreover, supporting previous findings, this more positive perception of the play was related to greater frequency of RTP in these father-child dyads. Although RTP literature remains heavily focussed on fathers, the fact that mothers are engaging in these interactions as well, establishes the need to explore maternal influences in future research.

Keywords: parenting, play, child development, family, Australia

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Authors: Izabel Cristina Zattar, Gilberto Passos Lima, Guilherme Schünemann de Oliveira

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In Brazil, there are several institutions committed to the development of new businesses based on product innovation. Among them are business incubators, universities and science institutes. Business incubators can be defined as nurseries for new companies, which may be in the technology segment, discussed in this article. Business incubators provide services related to infrastructure, such as physical space and meeting rooms. Besides these services, incubators also offer assistance in the form of information and communication, access to finance, relationship networks and business monitoring and mentoring processes. Business incubators support not all technology companies. One of the business incubators tasks is to assess the nature and feasibility of new business proposals. To assist in this goal, this paper proposes a methodology for evaluating new business using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This paper presents the concepts used in the assessing methodology application for new business, concepts that have been tested with positive results in practice. This study counts on three main steps: first, a hierarchy was built, based on new business manuals used by the business incubators. These books and manuals relate business selection requirements, such as the innovation status and other technological aspects. Then, a questionnaire was generated, in order to guide incubator experts in the parity comparisons at all hierarchy levels. The weights of each requirement are calculated from information obtained from the questionnaire responses. Finally, the proposed method was applied to evaluate five new business proposals, which were applying to be part of a company incubator. The main result is the classification of these new businesses, which helped the incubator experts to decide what companies were more eligible to work with. This classification may also be helpful to the decision-making process of business incubators in future selection processes.

Keywords: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Brazilian companies incubators, technology companies, incubator

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Authors: Rishi Kanth Saripalle

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Medical experts highly recommend to include physical activity in everyone’s daily routine irrespective of gender or age as it helps to improve various medical issues or curb potential issues. Simultaneously, experts are also diligently trying to provide various healthcare services (interventions, plans, exercise routines, etc.) for promoting healthy living and increasing physical activity in one’s ever increasing hectic schedules. With the introduction of wearables, individuals are able to keep track, analyze, and visualize their daily physical activities. However, there seems to be no common agreed standard for representing, gathering, aggregating and analyzing an individual’s physical activity data from disparate multiple sources (exercise pans, multiple wearables, etc.). This issue makes it highly impractical to develop any data-driven physical activity applications and healthcare programs. Further, the inability to integrate the physical activity data into an individual’s Electronic Health Record to provide a wholistic image of that individual’s health is still eluding the experts. This article has identified three primary reasons for this potential issue. First, there is no agreed standard, both structure and semantic, for representing and sharing physical activity data across disparate systems. Second, various organizations (e.g., LA fitness, Gold’s Gym, etc.) and research backed interventions and programs still primarily rely on paper or unstructured format (such as text or notes) to keep track of the data generated from physical activities. Finally, most of the wearable devices operate in silos. This article identifies the underlying problem, explores the idea of reusing existing standards, and identifies the essential modules required to move forward.

Keywords: electronic physical activity record, physical activity in EHR EIM, tracking physical activity data, physical activity data standards

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Authors: Jacob A. Braun

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This paper uses mathematical modeling to show the spread of Herpes Simplex type-2 with and without the usage of condoms in a college population. The model uses four differential equations to calculate the data for the simulation. The dt increment used is one week. It also runs based on a fixated period. The period chosen was five years to represent time spent in college. The average age of the individual is 21, once again to represent the age of someone in college. In the total population, there are almost two times as many women who have Herpes Simplex Type-2 as men. Additionally, Herpes Simplex Type-2 does not have a known cure. The goal of the model is to show how condom usage affects women’s chances of receiving the virus in the hope of being able to reduce the number of women infected. In the end, the model demonstrates that condoms offer significant protection to women from the virus. Since fewer women are infected with the virus when condoms are used, in turn, fewer males are infected. Since Herpes Simplex Type-2 affects the carrier for their whole life, a small decrease of infections could lead to large ramifications over time. Specifically, a small decrease of infections at a young age, such as college, could have a very big effect on the long-term number of people infected with the virus.

Keywords: college, condom, Herpes, mathematical modelling

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Authors: Darma Putra Sitepu, Dewi Larasati, Yohanes Wolter Hendrik George

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Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency frequently observed in intensive care unit (ICU). Surviving Sepsis Campaign in 2018 has recommended the administration of early vasopressor in the first hour of sepsis or septic shock but has not yet included de-resuscitation protocol. De-resuscitation in acute management of septic shock is where patient received active removal of accumulated fluid. It has been proposed by some studies and ongoing clinical trials. Here we present a case with early vasopressor and de-resuscitation. Male, 27 years old presenting to the emergency room with shortness of breath, altered mental status, and widespread blisters on his body and lips started a few hours prior, after receiving non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug through intravenous injection. Patient was hypotensive, tachycardic, and tachypneic at admission, diagnosed with Steven Johnson Syndrome with Septic Shock. Patient received fluid resuscitation, early vasopressor, and diuresis agent aimed to actively remove fluid after the initial phase of resuscitation. Patient was admitted to ICU and progressively recovering. At day-10, patient was stabilized and was transferred to general ward. Early vasopressor and de-resuscitation are beneficial for the patient.

Keywords: sepsis, shock, de-resuscitation, vasopressor, fluid, case report

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Authors: Gi-Beom Park, Hyong-Gi Park, Seong-Yong Lee, Jaeho Choi, Seok Hong Min, Tae Kwon Ha

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The Nb silicide-based alloy has the excellent high-temperature strength and relatively lower density than the Ni-based superalloy; therefore, it has been receiving a lot of attention for the next generation high-temperature material. To enhance the high temperature creep property and oxidation resistance, Si was added to the Nb-based alloy, resulting in a multi-phase microstructure with metal solid solution and silicide phase. Since the silicide phase has a low machinability due to its brittle nature, it is necessary to fabricate components using the powder metallurgy. However, powder manufacturing techniques for the alloys have not yet been developed. In this study, we tried to fabricate Nb-based alloy powder by the hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reaction. The Nb-based alloy ingot was prepared by vacuum arc melting and it was annealed in the hydrogen atmosphere for the hydrogenation. After annealing, the hydrogen concentration was increased from 0.004wt% to 1.22wt% and Nb metal phase was transformed to Nb hydride phase. The alloy after hydrogenation could be easily pulverized into powder by ball milling due to its brittleness. For dehydrogenation, the alloy powders were annealed in the vacuum atmosphere. After vacuum annealing, the hydrogen concentration was decreased to 0.003wt% and Nb hydride phase was transformed back to Nb metal phase.

Keywords: Nb alloy, Nb metal and silicide composite, powder, hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reaction

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Authors: Charles Masulani Mwale

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Background: It is argued that 85% of children with the disability live in resource-poor countries where there are few available disability services. A majority of these children, including their parents, suffer a lot as a result of the disability and its associated stigmatization, leading to a marginalized life. These parents also experience more stress and mental health problems such as depression, compared with families of normal developing children. There is little research from Africa addressing these issues especially among parents of intellectually disabled children. WHO encourages research on the impact that child with a disability have on their family and appropriate training and support to the families so that they can promote the child’s development and well-being. This study investigated the parenting experiences, mechanisms of coping with these challenges and psychosocial needs while caring for children with intellectual disabilities in both rural and urban settings of Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Methods: This is part of a larger Mixed-methods study aimed at developing a contextualized psychosocial intervention for parents of intellectually disabled children. 16 focus group discussions and four in-depth interviews were conducted with parents in catchments areas for St John of God and Children of Blessings in Mzuzu and Lilongwe cities respectively. Ethical clearance was obtained from COMREC. Data were stored in NVivo software for easy retrieval and management. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and translated into English. Note-taking was performed during all the observations. Data triangulation from the interviews, note taking and the observations were done for validation and reliability. Results: Caring for intellectually disabled children comes with a number of challenges. Parents experience stigma and discrimination; fear for the child’s future; have self-blame and guilt; get coerced by neighbors to kill the disabled child; and fear violence by and to the child. Their needs include respite relief, improved access to disability services, education on disability management and financial support. For their emotional stability, parents cope by sharing with others and turning to God while other use poor coping mechanisms like alcohol use. Discussion and Recommendation: Apart from neighbors’ coercion to eliminate the child life, the findings of this study are similar to those done in other countries like Kenya and Pakistan. It is recommended that parents get educated on disability, its causes, and management to array fears of unknown. Community education is also crucial to promote community inclusiveness and correct prevailing myths associated with disability. Disability institutions ought to intensify individual as well as group counseling services to these parents. Further studies need to be done to design culturally appropriate and specific psychosocial interventions for the parents to promote their psychological resilience.

Keywords: psychological distress, intellectual disability, psychosocial interventions, mental health, psychological resilience, children

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Authors: Panisa Panyalert

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This research presents the tourism industry at Nakhon Sawan province in an aspect of developing points of attractions and destinations. The author attempts to empirically analyze the tourist destination, Nakhon Sawan, by using components of the tourism inventory include: attraction, accessibility, accommodation and amenity. An understanding of existing tourism product is very important in order to find out strength and weakness by comparing with the nearby well-known tourist destination, Phitsanulok province. Moreover, the hypothetical evolution of a tourist area will be utilized as a framework for indicating stages of the destination in relation to number of tourists. The study uses secondary data of number of tourist arrivals in Nakhon Sawan from 2008 to 2013 receiving from National Statistical Office and Nakhon Sawan Provincial Administration Organization (NPAO) in order to find the stage of destination development, and an in-depth interview with several open-ended questions would be preferred in order to get deep details of necessary data by video recording with ten respondents. The findings are concentrated on potential places and sites, existing tourism product, strength and weakness, and positioning to assist the province to be the destination of tourists’ mind.

Keywords: destination development, destination management, tourism inventory, tourism product

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Authors: Wisit Wichitkosoom

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Objectives: To find out the more effect of early cardiologist consultation using a simple technology on the diagnosis and early proper management of patients with Non-STEMI at emergency department of district hospitals without cardiologist on site before transferred. Methods: A cohort study was performed in Udonthani general hospital at Udonthani province. From 1 October 2012–30 September 2013 with 892 patients diagnosed with Non-STEMI. All patients mean aged 46.8 years of age who had been transferred because of Non-STEMI diagnosed, over a 12 week period of studied. Patients whose transferred, in addition to receiving proper care, were offered a cardiologist consultation with average time to Udonthani hospital 1.5 hour. The main outcome measure was length of hospital stay, mortality at 3 months, inpatient investigation, and transfer rate to the higher facilitated hospital were also studied. Results: Hospital stay was significantly shorter for those didn’t consult cardiologist (hazard ratio 1.19; approximate 95% CI 1.001 to 1.251; p = 0.039). The 136 cases were transferred to higher facilitated hospital. No statistically significant in overall mortality between the groups (p=0.068). Conclusions: Early cardiologist consultant can reduce length of hospital stay for patients with cardiovascular conditions outside of cardiac center. The new basic technology can apply for the safety patient.

Keywords: critical, telemedicine, safety, non STEMI

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Authors: Jin Sheng

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This paper addresses a promising area of insurance sector to develop in Asia. Captive insurance, which provides risk-mitigation services for its parent company, has great potentials to develop in energy, infrastructure, agriculture, logistics, catastrophe, and alternative risk transfer (ART), and will greatly affect the framework of insurance industry. However, the Asian captive insurance market only takes a small proportion in the global market. The recent supply chain interruption case of Hanjin Shipping indicates the significance of risk management for an Asian company’s sustainability and resilience. China has substantial needs and great potentials to develop captive insurance, on account of the currency volatility, enterprises’ credit risks, and legal and operational risks of the Belt and Road initiative. Up to date, Mainland Chinese enterprises only have four offshore captives incorporated by CNOOC, Sinopec, Lenovo and CGN Power), three onshore captive insurance companies incorporated by CNPC, China Railway, and COSCO, as well as one industrial captive insurance organization - China Ship-owners Mutual Assurance Association. Its captive market grows slowly with one or two captive insurers licensed yearly after September 2011. As an international financial center, Hong Kong has comparative advantages in taxation, professionals, market access and well-established financial infrastructure to develop a functional captive insurance market. For example, Hong Kong’s income tax for an insurance company is 16.5%; while China's income tax for an insurance company is 25% plus business tax of 5%. Furthermore, restrictions on market entry and operations of China’s onshore captives make establishing offshore captives in international or regional captive insurance centers such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and other overseas jurisdictions to become attractive options. Thus, there are abundant business opportunities in this area. Using methodology of comparative studies and case analysis, this paper discusses the incorporation, regulatory issues, taxation and prospect of captive insurance market in Hong Kong, China and Singapore. Hong Kong and Singapore are both international financial centers with prominent advantages in tax concessions, technology, implementation, professional services, and well-functioning legal system. Singapore, as the domicile of 71 active captives, has been the largest captive insurance hub in Asia, as well as an established reinsurance hub. Hong Kong is an emerging captive insurance hub with 5 to 10 newly licensed captives each year, according to the Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council. It is predicted that Hong Kong will become a domicile for 50 captive insurers by 2025. This paper also compares the formation of a captive in Singapore with other jurisdictions such as Bermuda and Vermont.

Keywords: Alternative Risk Transfer (ART), captive insurance company, offshore captives, risk management, reinsurance, self-insurance fund

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Authors: Lai Tzu-Hsuan, Lai Jung-Nien, Lin Jaung-Geng, Kao Shung-Te, Hsuan-Kuang Jung

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Background: Whether acupuncture therapy contributes to preserving residual renal function (RRF) remains largely unknown. This case series evidenced the potential beneficial effects of acupuncture for preserving RRF in five patients with the end-stage renal disease under hemodialysis (HD) treatment. Participants: Five patients on HD receiving eight sessions of weekly 30-min interdialytic acupuncture (Inter-A) with residual urine volume (rUV) and residual glomerular filtration rate (rGFR) recorded once every two weeks were included for analysis. Outcomes: Changes in rUV and rGFR calculated using 24-hour urine collection data were analyzed to assess RRF. Variations in hemoglobin, urea Kt/V and serum albumin levels measured monthly were analyzed to evaluate HD adequacy. Results: After eight Inter-A sessions, mean (standard deviation (SD)) rUV and rGFR increased from 612 (184) ml/day and 1.48 (.94) ml/min/1.73 m2 at baseline to 803(289) ml/day and 2.04(1.17) ml/min/1.73m2 at 2- and 4-week follow-up, respectively. The mean percentage difference increased by 31% in rUV and 38% in rGFR. Routine measurements on HD adequacy also showed improvement. Conclusions: Acupuncture might be an optional add-on treatment for HD population with poor control of water; however, further well-designed controlled trials are warranted.

Keywords: end-stage renal disease, hemodialysis, acupuncture, residual renal function, residual urine volume

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Authors: Narin Salehiyan

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The later sequencing of the complete genomes of Mycoplasma genitalium and M. pneumoniae has pulled in significant consideration to the atomic science of mycoplasmas, the littlest self-replicating living beings. It shows up that we are presently much closer to the objective of defining, in atomic terms, the complete apparatus of a self-replicating cell. Comparative genomics based on comparison of the genomic cosmetics of mycoplasmal genomes with those of other microbes, has opened better approaches of looking at the developmental history of the mycoplasmas. There's presently strong hereditary bolster for the speculation that mycoplasmas have advanced as a department of gram-positive microbes by a handle of reductive advancement. Amid this prepare, the mycoplasmas misplaced significant parcels of their ancestors’ chromosomes but held the qualities basic for life. In this way, the mycoplasmal genomes carry a tall rate of preserved qualities, incredibly encouraging quality comment. The critical genome compaction that happened in mycoplasmas was made conceivable by receiving a parasitic mode of life. The supply of supplements from their has clearly empowered mycoplasmas to lose, amid advancement, the qualities for numerous assimilative forms. Amid their advancement and adjustment to a parasitic mode of life, the mycoplasmas have created different hereditary frameworks giving a profoundly plastic set of variable surface proteins to avoid the have safe framework.

Keywords: mycoplasma, plasma, pathogen, genome

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Authors: Ahmed Ghalem

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The research to be explained is a collection of information about several public and private economic institutions. This information is represented in highlighting the large and useful role in adopting the method of electronic marketing. Which is widespread and easy to use among community members at the local and international levels. Which generates large sums of money with little effort and little time, and also satisfies the customers. Do these things, despite what we have said, run the risk of losing large amounts of money in a moment or a short time.

Keywords: economic, finance, bank, development, marketing

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Authors: Sarah Nasr, Maha M. A. Nasra, Ossama Y. Abdallah

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The present work aimed to prepare Silymarin loaded MCM-41 type mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) and to assess the system’s solubility enhancement ability on the pharmacodynamic performance of Silymarin as a hepatoprotective agent. MSNs prepared by soft-templating technique, were loaded with Silymarin, characterized for particle size, zeta potential, surface properties, DSC and XRPD. DSC and specific surface area data confirmed deposition of Silymarin in an amorphous state in MSNs’ pores. In-vitro drug dissolution testing displayed enhanced dissolution rate of Silymarin upon loading on MSNs. High dose Acetaminophen was then used to inflict hepatic injury upon albino male Wistar rats simultaneously receiving either free Silymarin, Silymarin loaded MSNs or blank MSNs. Plasma AST, ALT, albumin and total protein and liver homogenate content of TBARs or LDH as measures of antioxidant drug action were assessed for all animal groups. Results showed a significant superiority of Silymarin loaded MSNs to free drug in almost all parameters. Meanwhile prolonged administration of blank MSNs had no evident toxicity on rats.

Keywords: mesoporous silica nanoparticles, safety, solubility enhancement, silymarin

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Authors: Svetlana Bialkova, Marnix van Gisbergen

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Advanced Virtual Reality (VR) technologies offer compelling multisensory and interactive experiences applicable in various fields from education to entertainment. However, serious VR applications within the financial sector are scarce, and managing ‘real’ business services with(in) VR is a challenge inviting further investigation. The current research addresses this challenge, by exploring the key parameters influencing the VR business power and the development of appropriate VR applications in real financial business. We conducted profound investigation of both B2B and B2C needs, and how these could be met. In three studies, we have approached experts from leading international banks (finance to computer specialists), and their (potential) customers. Study 1 included focus group discussions with experts. First, participants could experience different VR devices such as Samsung Gear VR, then a structured discussion was held. The outcomes are analyzed and summarized in a portfolio. Study 2 further used the portfolio analyzer to profile the management of real business services with(in) VR. Again experts participated, where first being introduced with Samsung Gear, then experiencing it and being interviewed. Based on the outcomes, a survey was developed to interview (potential) customers and test ideas created (Study 3). The results suggest that developing proper system architectures to connect people and to connect devices is crucial for building up powerful business with(in) VR. From one side, connecting devices, e.g., pairing mobile Head Mounted Displays for VR with smart-phones and/or wearable technologies would be appropriate way “to have” customers anywhere, anytime with a brand and/or business. Developing VR Apps, providing detailed real time visualization of performance and infrastructure types could enable 3D VR navigation, 3D contents viewing, but also being opportunity for connecting people in collaborative platforms. The outcomes of the current research are summarized in a model which could be applied to unlock the real business power of VR.

Keywords: business power, B2B, B2C, VR applications

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Authors: Sarah Barnard, John Arnold, Fehmidah Munir, Sara Bosley

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Gender issues in higher education continue to represent a complex issue as institutions grapple with the role that organisations can play in combatting inequality. Schemes like Athena SWAN and the Aurora leadership programme in the UK context are attempting to tackle some of the issues around representation and the recognition of women in the sector. This paper is the first of its kind in reporting findings from a mixed-methods longitudinal study on both professional services and academic women in higher education in the UK. Online surveys have been completed by over 2,000 women in the sector. The qualitative elements include interviews with women and their mentors, and diaries with a select group of women. So far results have shown that contrary to the stereotype of women lacking leadership skills or having no desire to go into higher roles, women in the sector consistently assessed their leadership abilities positively, especially but not only regarding interpersonal interaction and facilitation. Over 80% of women agreed that they felt confident about putting themselves forward for positions of responsibility at work. However, qualitative data shows that confidence remains a salient term for how women talk about the challenges they have faced at work. This suggests that the work needed to challenge systemic gender issues requires action to be driven above the individual level. Overall, academics reported more negative experiences than professional services staff. Similarly BAME women’s responses are more negative. Therefore, the study offers some information on the differential experiences of women. In conclusion, women in higher education are undertaking considerable ‘below the radar’ leadership activities in what they perceive to be a somewhat inhospitable hostile workplace culture. The significant amount of effort expended in the sector is affecting slow, partial impacts on gender inequalities.

Keywords: gender, higher education, leadership, longitudinal research

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Authors: Joshna Rani S., Ahmadi Banu

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a significant task to carry out in the medical care contributions of things to come. As AI, it is the essential capacity behind the advancement of accuracy medication, generally consented to be a painfully required development in care. Albeit early endeavors at giving analysis and treatment proposals have demonstrated testing, we anticipate that AI will at last dominate that area too. Given the quick propels in AI for imaging examination, it appears to be likely that most radiology, what's more, pathology pictures will be inspected eventually by a machine. Discourse and text acknowledgment are now utilized for assignments like patient correspondence and catch of clinical notes, and their utilization will increment. The best test to AI in these medical services areas isn't regardless of whether the innovations will be sufficiently skilled to be valuable, but instead guaranteeing their appropriation in day by day clinical practice. For far reaching selection to happen, AI frameworks should be affirmed by controllers, coordinated with EHR frameworks, normalized to an adequate degree that comparative items work likewise, instructed to clinicians, paid for by open or private payer associations, and refreshed over the long haul in the field. These difficulties will, at last, be survived, yet they will take any longer to do as such than it will take for the actual innovations to develop. Therefore, we hope to see restricted utilization of AI in clinical practice inside 5 years and more broad use inside 10 years. It likewise appears to be progressively evident that AI frameworks won't supplant human clinicians for a huge scope, yet rather will increase their endeavors to really focus on patients. Over the long haul, human clinicians may advance toward errands and work plans that draw on remarkably human abilities like sympathy, influence, and higher perspective mix. Maybe the lone medical services suppliers who will chance their professions over the long run might be the individuals who will not work close by AI

Keywords: artificial intellogence, health care, breast cancer, AI applications

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Authors: Tzu-Jung Tseng, Pei-Hsuen Han, Tsung-Hsueh Lu

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Background: Ensuring patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) access to hospitals that could perform percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in time is an important concern of healthcare managers. One commonly used the method to assess the coverage of population access to PCI hospital is the use GIS-estimated linear distance (crow's fly distance) between the district centroid and the nearest PCI hospital. If the distance is within a given distance (such as 20 km), the entire population of that district is considered to have appropriate access to PCI. The premise of using district centroid to estimate the coverage of population resident in that district is that the people live in the district are evenly distributed. In reality, the population density is not evenly distributed within the administrative district, especially in rural districts. Fortunately, the Taiwan government released basic statistical area (on average 450 population within the area) recently, which provide us an opportunity to estimate the coverage of population access to PCI services more accurate. Objectives: We aimed in this study to compare the population covered by a give PCI hospital according to traditional administrative district versus basic statistical area. We further examined if the differences between two geographic units used would be larger in a rural area than in urban area. Method: We selected two hospitals in Tainan City for this analysis. Hospital A is in urban area, hospital B is in rural area. The population in each traditional administrative district and basic statistical area are obtained from Taiwan National Geographic Information System, Ministry of Internal Affairs. Results: Estimated population live within 20 km of hospital A and B was 1,515,846 and 323,472 according to traditional administrative district and was 1,506,325 and 428,556 according to basic statistical area. Conclusion: In urban area, the estimated access population to PCI services was similar between two geographic units. However, in rural areas, the access population would be overestimated.

Keywords: accessibility, basic statistical area, modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)

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Authors: Getaneh Berie Tarekegn

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A precise localization system is crucial for many artificial intelligence Internet of Things (AI-IoT) applications in the era of smart cities. Their applications include traffic monitoring, emergency alarming, environmental monitoring, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and smart health care. The most common method for providing continuous positioning services in outdoor environments is by using a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Due to nonline-of-sight, multipath, and weather conditions, GNSS systems do not perform well in dense urban, urban, and suburban areas.This paper proposes a generative AI-based positioning scheme for large-scale wireless settings using fingerprinting techniques. In this article, we presented a semi-supervised deep convolutional generative adversarial network (S-DCGAN)-based radio map construction method for real-time device localization. It also employed a reliable signal fingerprint feature extraction method with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), which extracts dominant features while eliminating noise from hybrid WLAN and long-term evolution (LTE) fingerprints. The proposed scheme reduced the workload of site surveying required to build the fingerprint database by up to 78.5% and significantly improved positioning accuracy. The results show that the average positioning error of GAILoc is less than 0.39 m, and more than 90% of the errors are less than 0.82 m. According to numerical results, SRCLoc improves positioning performance and reduces radio map construction costs significantly compared to traditional methods.

Keywords: location-aware services, feature extraction technique, generative adversarial network, long short-term memory, support vector machine

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Authors: Kim Toyer, Belinda Thompson, Louise Koelmeyer

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Lymphoedema is a chronic condition caused by dysfunction of the lymphatic system, which limits the drainage of fluid and tissue waste from the interstitial space of the affected body part. The normal physiological changes in pregnancy cause an increased load on a normal lymphatic system which can result in a transient lymphatic overload (oedema). The interaction between lymphoedema and pregnancy oedema is unclear. Women with pre-existing lymphoedema require accurate information and additional strategies to manage their lymphoedema during pregnancy. Currently, no resources are available to guide women or their healthcare providers with accurate advice and additional management strategies for coping with lymphoedema during pregnancy until they have recovered postnatally. This study explored the experiences of Australian women with pre-existing lymphoedema during recent pregnancy and the early postnatal period to determine how their usual lymphoedema management strategies were adapted and what were their additional or unmet needs. Interactions with their obstetric care providers, the hospital maternity services, and usual lymphoedema therapy services were detailed. Participants were sourced from several Australian lymphoedema community groups, including therapist networks. Opportunistic sampling is appropriate to explore this topic in a small target population as lymphoedema in women of childbearing age is uncommon, with prevalence data unavailable. Inclusion criteria were aged over 18 years, diagnosed with primary or secondary lymphoedema of the arm or leg, pregnant within the preceding ten years (since 2012), and had their pregnancy and postnatal care in Australia. Exclusion criteria were a diagnosis of lipedema and if unable to read or understand a reasonable level of English. A mixed-method qualitative design was used in two phases. This involved an online survey (REDCap platform) of the participants followed by online semi-structured interviews or focus groups to provide the transcript data for inductive thematic analysis to gain an in-depth understanding of issues raised. Women with well-managed pre-existing lymphoedema coped well with the additional oedema load of pregnancy; however, those with limited access to quality conservative care prior to pregnancy were found to be significantly impacted by pregnancy, including many reporting deterioration of their chronic lymphoedema. Misinformation and a lack of support increased fear and apprehension in planning and enjoying their pregnancy experience. Collaboration between maternity and lymphoedema therapy services did not happen despite study participants suggesting it. Helpful resources and unmet needs were identified in the recent Australian context to inform further research and the development of resources to assist women with lymphoedema who are considering or are pregnant and their supporters, including health care providers.

Keywords: lymphoedema, management strategies, pregnancy, qualitative

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Authors: Saeeda Batool, Ather Maqsood Ahmed

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This study investigates the impact of public healthcare facilities and socio-economic circumstances on the status of child health in Pakistan. The complete analysis is carried out in correspondence with fourth and sixth millennium development goals. Further, the health variables chosen are also inherited from targeted indicators of the mentioned goals (MDGs). Trends in the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) for both health inequalities and coverage are analyzed using the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PLSM) data set for 2001-02 to 2012-13 at the national and provincial level. To reveal the relative importance of each circumstance in achieving the targeted values for child health, Shorrocks decomposition is applied on HOI. The annual point average growth rate of HOI is used to simulate the time period for the achievement of target set by MDGs and universal access also. The results indicate an improvement in HOI for a reduction in child mortality rates from 52.1% in 2001-02 to 67.3% in 2012-13, which confirms the availability of healthcare opportunities to a larger segment of society. Similarly, immunization against measles and other diseases such as Diphtheria, Polio, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), and Hepatitis has also registered an improvement from 51.6% to 69.9% during the period of study at the national level. On a positive note, no gender disparity has been found for child health indicators and that health outcome is mostly affected by the parental and geographical features and availability of health infrastructure. However, the study finds that this achievement has been uneven across provinces. Pakistan is not only lagging behind in achieving its health goals, disappointingly with the current rate of health care provision, but it will take many additional years to achieve its targets.

Keywords: socio-economic circumstances, unmet MDGs, public healthcare services, child and infant mortality

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Authors: F. Bellali, M. Kharroubi, Y. Rady, N. Bourhim

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In Morocco, fish processing industry is an important source income for a large amount of by-products including skins, bones, heads, guts, and scales. Those underutilized resources particularly scales contain a large amount of proteins and calcium. Sardina plichardus scales from resulting from the transformation operation have the potential to be used as raw material for the collagen production. Taking into account this strong expectation of the regional fish industry, scales sardine upgrading is well justified. In addition, political and societal demands for sustainability and environment-friendly industrial production systems, coupled with the depletion of fish resources, drive this trend forward. Therefore, fish scale used as a potential source to isolate collagen has a wide large of applications in food, cosmetic, and biomedical industry. The main aim of this study is to isolate and characterize the acid solubilize collagen from sardine fish scale, Sardina pilchardus. Experimental design methodology was adopted in collagen processing for extracting optimization. The first stage of this work is to investigate the optimization conditions of the sardine scale deproteinization on using response surface methodology (RSM). The second part focus on the demineralization with HCl solution or EDTA. And the last one is to establish the optimum condition for the isolation of collagen from fish scale by solvent extraction. The advancement from lab scale to pilot scale is a critical stage in the technological development. In this study, the optimal condition for the deproteinization which was validated at laboratory scale was employed in the pilot scale procedure. The deproteinization of fish scale was then demonstrated on a pilot scale (2Kg scales, 20l NaOH), resulting in protein content (0,2mg/ml) and hydroxyproline content (2,11mg/l). These results indicated that the pilot-scale showed similar performances to those of lab-scale one.

Keywords: deproteinization, pilot scale, scale, sardine pilchardus

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Authors: Abdul-Rahman Al-Ali

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As the number of mobile devices is growing exponentially, it is estimated to connect about 50 million devices to the Internet by the year 2020. At the end of this decade, it is expected that an average of eight connected devices per person worldwide. The 50 billion devices are not mobile phones and data browsing gadgets only, but machine-to-machine and man-to-machine devices. With such growing numbers of devices the Internet of Things (I.o.T) concept is one of the emerging technologies as of recently. Within the smart grid technologies, smart home appliances, Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED) and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) are major I.o.T objects that can be addressable using the IPV6. These objects are called the smart grid internet of things (SG-I.o.T). The SG-I.o.T generates big data that requires high-speed computing infrastructure, widespread computer networks, big data storage, software, and platforms services. A company’s utility control and data centers cannot handle such a large number of devices, high-speed processing, and massive data storage. Building large data center’s infrastructure takes a long time, it also requires widespread communication networks and huge capital investment. To maintain and upgrade control and data centers’ infrastructure and communication networks as well as updating and renewing software licenses which collectively, requires additional cost. This can be overcome by utilizing the emerging computing paradigms such as cloud computing. This can be used as a smart grid enabler to replace the legacy of utilities data centers. The talk will highlight the role of I.o.T, cloud computing services and their development models within the smart grid technologies.

Keywords: intelligent electronic devices (IED), distributed energy resources (DER), internet, smart home appliances

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Authors: Daniel P. Kisangau, Ken M. Hosea, Herbert V. M. Lyaruu, Cosam C. Josep, Zakaria H. Mbwambo, Pax J. Masimba

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Crude extracts of Dracaena steudneri bark (DSB), Sapium ellipticum bark (SEB) and Capparis erythrocarpos root (CER) were investigated for their antifungal activity in immunocompromised mice infected with Candida albicans in an in vivo mice infection model. The results revealed a substantial dose dependency in all treatments given, with mice survival to the end of the experiment correlating well to the dose levels. At a dose of 400 mg/kg, C. erythrocarpos was the most effective with mice survival of 60% and organ burden clearance ranging from 64.0%-99.9% (P<0.0001) in all treatments. At the same dose, the least effective plant was S. ellipticum which had a mice survival of 20% and organ burden clearance ranging from 78.0%-96.6 (P>0.05). Mice survival for D. steudneri was 30% with organ burden clearance ranging from 89.0%-99.9% (P<0.05). All mice receiving no active treatment died before ten days post infection. In all treatment groups, there was a steady decline in mean weights of mice immediately after immunosuppression followed by gradual recovery in some cases which appeared to be dose dependent a few days post infection. Thus, extracts of D. steudneri and C. erythrocarpos portrayed the most significant potential as sources of antifungal drugs.

Keywords: antifungal activity, medicinal plants, candida albicans, East Africa

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Authors: A. O. Idris, J. Virgone, A. I. Ibrahim, D. David, E. Vergnault

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In hot countries, the major challenge is the air conditioning. The increase in energy consumption by air conditioning stems from the need to live in more comfortable buildings, which is understandable. But in Djibouti, one of the countries with the most expensive electricity in the world, this need is exacerbated by an architecture that is inappropriate and unsuitable for climatic conditions. This paper discusses the design of the roof which is the surface receiving the most solar radiation. The roof determines the general behavior of the building. The study presents Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling and analysis of the energy performance of a double skin ventilated roof. The particularity of this study is that it considers the climate of Djibouti characterized by hot and humid conditions in winter and very hot and humid in summer. Roof simulations are carried out using the Ansys Fluent software to characterize the flow and the heat transfer induced in the ventilated roof in steady state. This modeling is carried out by comparing the influence of several parameters such as the internal emissivity of the upper surface, the thickness of the insulation of the roof and the thickness of the ventilated channel on heat gain through the roof. The energy saving potential compared to the current construction in Djibouti is also presented.

Keywords: building, double skin roof, CFD, thermo-fluid analysis, energy saving, forced convection, natural convection

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Authors: Aliaa M. S. Salem, Soliman I. El-Hout, Amira Gaber, Hassan Nageh

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Nowadays, the development of poisonous gas detectors is considered to be an urgent matter to secure human health and the environment from poisonous gases, in view of the fact that even a minimal amount of poisonous gas can be fatal. Of these concerns, various inorganic or organic sensing materials have been used. Among these are conducting polymers, have been used as the active material in the gassensorsdue to their low-cost,easy-controllable molding, good electrochemical properties including facile fabrication process, inherent physical properties, biocompatibility, and optical properties. Moreover, conducting polymer-based chemical sensors have an amazing advantage compared to the conventional one as structural diversity, facile functionalization, room temperature operation, and easy fabrication. However, the low selectivity and conductivity of conducting polymers motivated the doping of it with varied materials, especially graphene, to enhance the gas-sensing performance under ambient conditions. There were a number of approaches proposed for producing polymer/ graphene nanocomposites, including template-free self-assembly, hard physical template-guided synthesis, chemical, electrochemical, and electrospinning...etc. In this work, we aim to prepare a novel gas sensordepending on Electrospun nanofibers of conducting polymer/RGO composite that is the effective and efficient expectation of poisonous gases like ammonia, in different application areas such as environmental gas analysis, chemical-,automotive- and medical industries. Moreover, our ultimate objective is to maximize the sensing performance of the prepared sensor and to check its recovery properties.

Keywords: electro spinning process, conducting polymer, polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, functionalized reduced graphene oxide, spin coating technique, gas sensors

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Authors: Giada Feletti, Daniela Tedesco, Paolo Trucco

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The present study aims to develop a dashboard of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to enhance information and predictive capabilities in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems, supporting both operational and strategic decisions of different actors. The employed research methodology consists of the first phase of revision of the technical-scientific literature concerning the indicators currently used for the performance measurement of EMS systems. From this literature analysis, it emerged that current studies focus on two distinct perspectives: the ambulance service, a fundamental component of pre-hospital health treatment, and the patient care in the Emergency Department (ED). The perspective proposed by this study is to consider an integrated view of the ambulance service process and the ED process, both essential to ensure high quality of care and patient safety. Thus, the proposal focuses on the entire healthcare service process and, as such, allows considering the interconnection between the two EMS processes, the pre-hospital and hospital ones, connected by the assignment of the patient to a specific ED. In this way, it is possible to optimize the entire patient management. Therefore, attention is paid to the dependency of decisions that in current EMS management models tend to be neglected or underestimated. In particular, the integration of the two processes enables the evaluation of the advantage of an ED selection decision having visibility on EDs’ saturation status and therefore considering the distance, the available resources and the expected waiting times. Starting from a critical review of the KPIs proposed in the extant literature, the design of the dashboard was carried out: the high number of analyzed KPIs was reduced by eliminating the ones firstly not in line with the aim of the study and then the ones supporting a similar functionality. The KPIs finally selected were tested on a realistic dataset, which draws us to exclude additional indicators due to the unavailability of data required for their computation. The final dashboard, which was discussed and validated by experts in the field, includes a variety of KPIs able to support operational and planning decisions, early warning, and citizens’ awareness of EDs accessibility in real-time. By associating each KPI to the EMS phase it refers to, it was also possible to design a well-balanced dashboard covering both efficiency and effective performance of the entire EMS process. Indeed, just the initial phases related to the interconnection between ambulance service and patient’s care are covered by traditional KPIs compared to the subsequent phases taking place in the hospital ED. This could be taken into consideration for the potential future development of the dashboard. Moreover, the research could proceed by building a multi-layer dashboard composed of the first level with a minimal set of KPIs to measure the basic performance of the EMS system at an aggregate level and further levels with KPIs that can bring additional and more detailed information.

Keywords: dashboard, decision support, emergency medical services, key performance indicators

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Authors: Stephen M. Magu

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The 9/11 and Christmas bombing attacks in the United States are mostly associated with the inability of intelligence agencies to connect dots based on intelligence that was already available. The 1998, 2002, 2013 and several 2014 terrorist attacks in Kenya, on the other hand, are probably driven by a completely different dynamic: the invisible hand of corruption. The World Bank and Transparency International annually compute the Worldwide Governance Indicators and the Corruption Perception Index respectively. What perhaps is not adequately captured in the corruption metrics is the impact of corruption on terrorism. The World Bank data includes variables such as the control of corruption, (estimates of) government effectiveness, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, regulatory quality, rule of law and voice and accountability. TI's CPI does not include measures related to terrorism, but it is plausible that there is an expectation of some terrorism impact arising from corruption. This paper, by examining the incidence, frequency and total number of terrorist attacks that have occurred especially since 1990, and further examining the specific cases of Kenya and Nigeria, argues that in addition to having major effects on governance, corruption has an even more frightening impact: that of facilitating and/or violating security mechanisms to the extent that foreign nationals can easily obtain identification that enables them to perpetuate major events, targeting powerful countries' interests in countries with weak corruption-fighting mechanisms. The paper aims to model interactions that demonstrate the cost/benefit analysis and agents' rational calculations as being non-rational calculations, given the ultimate impact. It argues that eradication of corruption is not just a matter of a better business environment, but that it is implicit in national security, and that for anti-corruption crusaders, this is an argument more potent than the economic cost / cost of doing business argument.

Keywords: corruption, global south, identification, passports, terrorism

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