Search results for: socio%20cognitive%20model

Authors: Samul Sahile Kebede

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Back ground: -Immune hemolytic anemia commonly affects human immune deficiency, infected individuals. Among anemic HIV patients in Africa, the burden of IHA due to autoantibody was ranged from 2.34 to 3.06 due to the drug was 43.4%. IHA due to autoimmune is potentially a fatal complication of HIV, which accompanies the greatest percent from acquired hemolytic anemia. Objective: -The main aim of this study was to determine the magnitude and associated factors of immune hemolytic anemia among human immuno deficiency virus infected adults at the university of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital north west Ethiopia from March to April 2021. Methods: - An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 358 human immunodeficiency virus-infected adults selected by systematic random sampling at the University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital from March to April 2021. Data for socio-demography, dietary and clinical data were collected by structured pretested questionnaire. Five ml of venous blood was drawn from each participant and analyzed by Unicel DHX 800 hematology analyzer, blood film examination, and antihuman globulin test were performed to the diagnosis of immune hemolytic anemia. Data was entered into Epidata version 4.6 and analyzed by STATA version 14. Descriptive statistics were computed and firth penalized logistic regression was used to identify predictors. P value less than 0.005 interpreted as significant. Result; - The overall prevalence of immune hemolytic anemia was 2.8 % (10 of 358 participants). Of these, 5 were males, and 7 were in the 31 to 50 year age group. Among individuals with immune hemolytic anemia, 40 % mild and 60 % moderate anemia. The factors that showed association were family history of anemia (AOR 8.30 at 95% CI 1.56, 44.12), not eating meat (AOR 7.39 at 95% CI 1.25, 45.0), and high viral load 6.94 at 95% CI (1.13, 42.6). Conclusion and recommendation; Immune hemolytic anemia is less frequent condition in human immunodeficiency virus infected adults, and moderate anemia was common in this population. The prevalence was increased with a high viral load, a family history of anemia, and not eating meat. In these patients, early detection and treatment of immune hemolytic anemia is necessary.

Keywords: anemia, hemolytic, immune, auto immune, HIV/AIDS

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Authors: Lawrence Gumbe

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Kenya Vision 2030 is the country's programme for transformation covering the period 2008 to 2030. Its objective is to help transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income, exceeding US$10000, country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by 2030, in a clean and secure environment. Increased agricultural and production and productivity is crucial for the realization of Vision 2030. Mechanization of agriculture in order to achieve greater yields is the only way to achieve these objectives. There are contending groups and views on the strategy for agricultural mechanization. The first group are those who oppose the widespread adoption of advanced technologies (mostly internal combustion engines and tractors) in agricultural mechanization as entirely inappropriate in most situations in developing countries. This group argues that mechanically powered -agricultural mechanization often leads to displacement of labour and hence increased unemployment, and this results in a host of other socio-economic problems, amongst them, rural-urban migration, inequitable distribution of wealth and in many cases an increase in absolute poverty, balance of payments due to the need to import machinery, fuel and sometimes technical assistance to manage them. The second group comprises of those who view the use of the improved hand tools and animal powered technology as transitional step between the most rudimentary step in technological development (characterized by entire reliance on human muscle power) and the advanced technologies (characterized 'by reliance on tractors and other machinery). The third group comprises those who regard these intermediate technologies (ie. improved hand tools and draught animal technology in agriculture) as a ‘delaying’ tactic and they advocate the use of mechanical technologies as-the most appropriate. This group argues that alternatives to the mechanical technologies do not just exist as a practical matter, or, if they are available, they are inefficient and they cannot be compared to the mechanical technologies in terms of economics and productivity. The fourth group advocates a compromise between groups two and third above. This group views the improved hand tools and draught animal technology as more of an 18th century technology and the modem tractor and combine harvester as too advanced for developing countries. This group has been busy designing an ‘intermediate’, ‘appropriate’, ‘mini’, ‘micro’ tractor for use by farmers in developing countries. This paper analyses and concludes on the different agricultural mechanization strategies available to Kenya and other third world countries

Keywords: agriculture, mechanazation, transformation, industrialization

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Authors: Francesca Perri

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This paper describes a proposal for a teachers’ training course, focused on the introduction of corpora in the EFL didactics (English as a foreign language) of some Italian secondary schools. The training course is conceived as a part of a TEDD participant’s five months internship. TEDD (Technologies for Education: diversity and devices) is an advanced course held by the Department of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Trento, Italy. Its main aim is to train a selected, heterogeneous group of graduates to engage with the complex interdependence between education and technology in modern society. The educational approach draws on a plural coexistence of various theories as well as socio-constructivism, constructionism, project-based learning and connectivism. TEDD educational model stands as the main reference source to the design of a formative course for EFL teachers, drawing on the digitalization of didactics and creation of learning interactive materials for L2 intermediate students. The training course lasts ten hours, organized into five sessions. In the first part (first and second session) a series of guided and semi-guided activities drive participants to familiarize with corpora through the use of a digital tools kit. Then, during the second part, participants are specifically involved in the realization of a ML (Mistakes Laboratory) where they create, develop and share digital activities according to their teaching goals with the use of corpora, supported by the digital facilitator. The training course takes place into an ICT laboratory where the teachers work either individually or in pairs, with a computer connected to a wi-fi connection, while the digital facilitator shares inputs, materials and digital assistance simultaneously on a whiteboard and on a digital platform where participants interact and work together both synchronically and diachronically. The adoption of good ICT practices is a fundamental step to promote the introduction and use of Corpus Linguistics in EFL teaching and learning processes, in fact dealing with corpora not only promotes L2 learners’ critical thinking and orienteering versus wild browsing when they are looking for ready-made translations or language usage samples, but it also entails becoming confident with digital tools and activities. The paper will explain reasons, limits and resources of the pedagogical approach adopted to engage EFL teachers with the use of corpora in their didactics through the promotion of digital practices.

Keywords: digital didactics, education, language learning, teacher training

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Authors: Janos Farkas, Maria Czeller, Ildiko Tar

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A remarkable feature of today’s language teaching is the learners’ language learning motivation. It is always considered as a very important factor and has been widely discussed and investigated. This paper aims to present a research study conducted in higher education institutions among students majoring in business and administration in Hungary. The aim of the research was to investigate the motivational factors of students learning languages for business purposes and set up a multivariate statistical model of language learning motivation, and examine the model's main components by different social background variables. The research question sought to answer the question of whether the motivation of students of business learning LSP could be characterized through some main components. The principal components of LSP have been created, and the correlations with social background variables have been explored. The main principal components of learning a language for business purposes were "professional future", "abroad", "performance", and "external". In the online voluntary questionnaire, 28 questions were asked about students’ motivational attitudes. 449 students have filled in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistical calculations were performed, then the difference between the highest and lowest mean was analyzed by one-sample t-test. The assessment of LSP learning was examined by one-way analysis of variance and Tukey post-hoc test among students of parents with different qualifications. The correlations between student motivation statements and various social background variables and other variables related to LSP learning motivation (gender, place of residence, mother’s education, father’s education, family financial situation, etc.) have also been examined. The attitudes related to motivation were seperated by principal component analysis, and then the different language learning motivation between socio-economic variables and other variables using principal component values were examined using an independent two-sample t-test. The descriptive statistical analysis of language learning motivation revealed that students learn LSP because this knowledge will come in handy in the future. It can be concluded that students consider learning the language for business purposes to be essential and see its future benefits. Therefore, LSP teaching has an important role and place in higher education. The results verify the second linguistic motivational self-system where the ideal linguistic self embraces the ideas and desires that the foreign language learner wants to achieve in the future. One such desire is to recognize that students will need technical language skills in the future, and it is a powerful motivation for them to learn a language.

Keywords: higher education, language learning motivation, LSP, statistical analysis

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Authors: Mukesh K. Dwivedi, Rajeshwar N. Srivastava, Amit K. Bhagat, Saloni Raj

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Introduction: Management of Pressure Ulcer (PU) is an ongoing clinical challenge particularly in traumatic paraplegia patients in developing countries where socio economic conditions often dictate treatment modalities. When negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) was introduced, there were a series of devices (V.A.C., KCI, San Antonio, TX) manufactured. These devices for NPWT are costly and hard to afford by patients in developing countries like India. Considering this limitation, this study was planned to design an RCT to compare NPWT by an indigenized locally constructed NPD and conventional gauze dressing for the treatment of PU. Material and Methods: This RCT (CTRI/2014/09/0050) was conducted in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at King George’s Medical University (KGMU), India. Thirty-four (34) subjects of traumatic paraplegia having PU of stage 3 or 4, were enrolled and randomized in two treatment groups (NPWT Group & Conventional dressing group). The outcome measures of this study were surface area and depth of PU, exudates, microorganisms and matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8) during 0 to 9 weeks follow-ups. Levels of MMP-8 were analyzed in the tissues of PU at week 0, 3, 6 and week 9 by Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA). Results: Significantly reduced length of PU in NPWT group was observed at week 6 (p=0.04) which further reduced at week 9 (p=0.001) as compared to conventionally treated group. Similarly significant reduction of width and depth of PU was observed in NPWT at week 9 (p<0.05). The exudate became significantly (p=0.001) lower in NPWT group as compared with conventionally treated group from 6th to 9th week. Clearance and conversion of slough into red granulation tissue was significantly higher in NPWT group (p=0.001). At week 9, the wound culture was negative in all the subjects of NPWT group, while it was positive in 10 (41⋅6%) subjects of conventional group. Significantly lower level of MMP-8 was observed in subjects of NPWT group at week 6 (0.006**), and continually more reduction was observed at week 9 (<0.0001**) as compared to the conventional group. Conclusion: NPWT by locally constructed NPD is better wound care procedure for management of PU. Our device gave similar results as commercially available devices. Reduction of level of MMP-8 and increased rate of healing was achieved by negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) as compared to conventional dressing.

Keywords: NPWT, NPD, MMP8, ELISA

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Authors: William Luke Hamel

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Existing conceptions of urban flooding caused by tidal fluctuations and sea-level rise have been inadequately conceptualized by metrics of resilience and methods of flow modeling. While a great deal of research has been devoted to the effects of urbanization on pluvial flooding, the kind of tidal flooding experienced by locations like Hampton Roads, Virginia, has not been adequately conceptualized as being a result of human factors such as urbanization and gray infrastructure. Resilience from sea level rise and its associated flooding has been pioneered in the region with the 2015 Norfolk Resilience Plan from 100 Resilient Cities as well as the 2016 Norfolk Vision 2100 plan, which envisions different patterns of land use for the city. Urban resilience still conceptualizes the city as having the ability to maintain an equilibrium in the face of disruptions. This economic and social equilibrium relies on the Elizabeth River, narrowly conceptualized. Intentionally or accidentally, the river was made to be a piece of infrastructure. Its development was meant to serve the docks, shipyards, naval yards, and port infrastructure that gives the region so much of its economic life. Inasmuch as it functions to permit the movement of cargo; the raising and lowering of ships to be repaired, commissioned, or decommissioned; or the provisioning of military vessels, the river as infrastructure is functioning properly. The idea that the infrastructure is malfunctioning when high tides and sea-level rise create flooding is predicated on the idea that the infrastructure is truly a human creation and can be controlled. The natural flooding cycles of an urban river, combined with the action of climate change and sea-level rise, are only abnormal so much as they encroach on the development that first encroached on the river. The urban political ecology of water provides the ability to view the river as an infrastructural extension of urban networks while also calling for its emancipation from stationarity and human control. Understanding the river and city as a hydrosocial territory or as a socio-natural system liberates both actors from the duality of the natural and the social while repositioning river flooding as a normal part of coexistence on a floodplain. This paper argues for the adoption of an urban political ecology lens in the analysis and governance of urban rivers like the Elizabeth River as a departure from the equilibrium-seeking and stability metrics of urban resilience.

Keywords: urban flooding, political ecology, Elizabeth river, Hampton roads

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Authors: Nahela Nowshin, Rafia Sultana, Farzana Misha, Sabina F. Rashid

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Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are currently an area of neglect for males (aged 15-24 years) in Bangladesh. The lack of focus on the male youth population has consequences not only for their own health and wellbeing, but the patriarchal structure of Bangladeshi society and socio-cultural norms mean that the male population’s SRH behavior can severely impact the lives of their female counterparts. A majority of sexual and reproductive health and rights-related research and interventions in the country are female-centric. Although the Government of Bangladesh has taken many initiatives to improve the SRHR of the general population, the male youth segment has not been prioritized in most of these interventions. There is an urgent need for male-youth-focused SRHR interventions in Bangladesh, but due to a lack of evidence-based research on this issue, there exist data gaps on how such interventions could be better designed and implemented. Therefore, to ascertain strategies for better program design and smoother implementation of male-youth-focused sexual and reproductive health and rights interventions, we carried out 25 key informant interviews with experts as well as focal persons involved in more than 20 ongoing and recently-ended SRHR-related interventions of national and international non-government organizations in which male youth were targeted or engaged. The results show that program implementers face several challenges at the field, organizational and policy levels. Some of the most common field challenges include high sensitivity to SRHR topics due to cultural reasons, difficulties in acquiring access to boys and young men due to their high mobility and engagement in labor for commercial purposes, as well as accessing them in hard-to-reach areas due to transportation and communication issues. Common organizational-level challenges include a lack of skilled manpower. Policy-level challenges include the prohibition of SRH service provision to unmarried adolescents and youth and lack of readiness of local governments to implement existing action plans. Some ways in which male-youth-focused SRHR interventions can be made more effective are through sensitization of service providers, awareness-raising at the community level to engage parents, advocacy to increase donor interest, and generating data on SRHR of male youth.

Keywords: Bangladesh, intervention, male, SRHR

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Authors: Athanasia Chatzifotiou, Karen Tait

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Eco-school is an international initiative that offers schools the opportunity to develop practices on education for sustainable development (EfSD). Such practices need to focus on nine areas, namely: energy, water, biodiversity, school grounds, healthy living, transport, litter, waste and global citizenship. Acquiring the green flag status is the ultimate stage (silver and bronze are the other two) that is awarded by a committee external to the school and it lasts for two years. Our project focused on two such primary schools that had acquired the green flag status. The aim of our project is to describe the schools’ approach of becoming an eco-school, the practitioners’ role in promoting the values and principles of such endeavors, thus identifying the impact of EfSD. We chose the eco-schools initiative as it gives a clear and straightforward way to identify a school with an interest in EfSD. The project is important because even though EfSD attracts high attention in rhetoric, there is evidence indicating that EfSD may be neglected in practice. This paper presents part of a bigger project that aims to compare how primary schools and early years settings have approached EfSD via the eco-school initiative in the North East of England. This is a qualitative project that used a case study design to focus on the practices of two particular primary schools to gain a green flag status. A semi-structured interview was used with the lead teachers/practitioners of the schools; an audit was also conducted as part of a tour of the schools’ premises highlighting the initiatives, curriculum work, projects undertaken as well as resources available to school. A content analysis of the interview transcripts was conducted with the creation of response categories and response narratives by the two researchers first working individually and then collaboratively; the findings of the project reflected issues that concerned: a) pupils’ cognitive, physical and socio-emotional development, b) the wider community and c) the lead practitioners’ role and status in school. In relation to EfSD, our findings indicated that its impact upon these two eco-schools was rather minimal; a mismatch was identified between the eco-school practices and a holistic understanding of issues that EfSD aims to achieve. This mismatch between eco-school practices and EfSD is discussed with regard to: a) pupils’ understanding of the sustainability dimension in the topics they addressed; and b) teachers’ knowledge of sustainability and willingness to keep on such work in schools.

Keywords: eco-schools, environment, primary schools, sustainability education

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Authors: E. Njuguna, S. Ilovi, P. Muiruri, K. Mutai, J. Kinuthia, P. Njoroge

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Introduction: Cervical cancer is the commonest cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality among women in developing countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Screening for cervical cancer in all women regardless of HIV status is crucial for the early detection of cancer of the cervix when treatment is most effective in curing the disease. It is particularly more important to screen HIV infected women as they are more at risk of developing the disease and progressing faster once infected with HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). We aimed to determine the factors affecting the utilization of cervical cancer screenings among HIV infected women above 18 years of age at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) Comprehensive Care Center (CCC). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional mixed quantitative and qualitative study involving randomly and purposefully selected HIV positive female respectively was conducted. Qualitative data collection involved 4 focus group discussions of eligible female participants while quantitative data were acquired by one to one interviewer administered structured questionnaires. The outcome variable was the utilization of cervical cancer screening. Data were entered into Access data base and analyzed using Stata version 11.1. Qualitative data were analyzed after coding for significant clauses and transcribing to determine themes arising. Results: We enrolled a total of 387 patients, mean age (IQ range) 40 years (36-44). Cervical cancer screening utilization was 46% despite a health care provider recommendation of 85%. The screening results were reported as normal in 72 of 81 (88.9%) and abnormal 7 of 81(8.6%) of the cases. Those who did not know their result were 2 of 81(2.5%). Patients were less likely to utilize the service with increasing number of years attending the clinic (OR 0.9, 95% CI 0.86-0.99, p-value 0.02), but more likely to utilize the service if recommendation by a staff was made (OR 10, 95% CI 4.2-23.9, p<0.001), and if cervical screening had been done before joining KNH CCC (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.7-4.9, p < 0.001). Similarly, they were more likely to rate the services on cervical cancer screening as good (OR 5.0, 95% CI 1.7-3.4, p <0.001) and very good (OR 8.1, 95% CI 2.5-6.1, p<0.001) if they had utilized the service. The main barrier themes emerging from qualitative data included fear of screening due to excessive pain or bleeding, lack of proper communication on screening procedures and increased waiting time. Conclusions: Utilization of cervical cancer screening services was low despite health care recommendation. Patient socio-demographic characteristics did not influence whether or not they utilized the services, indicating the important role of the health care provider in the referral and provision of the service.

Keywords: cervical, cancer, HIV, women, comprehensive care center

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Authors: Protik Basu, Indranil Ghosh, Pranab K. Dan

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Lean management is an integrated socio-technical system to bring about a competitive state in an organization. The purpose of this paper is to explore and integrate the role of customers and suppliers with the internal practices of the Indian manufacturing industries towards successful implementation of lean manufacturing (LM). An extensive literature survey is carried out. An attempt is made to build an exhaustive list of all the input manifests related to customers, suppliers and internal practices necessary for LM implementation, coupled with a similar exhaustive list of the benefits accrued from its successful implementation. A structural model is thus conceptualized, which is empirically validated based on the data from the Indian manufacturing sector. With the current impetus on developing the industrial sector, the Government of India recently introduced the Lean Manufacturing Competitiveness Scheme that aims to increase competitiveness with the help of lean concepts. There is a huge scope to enrich the Indian industries with the lean benefits, the implementation status being quite low. Hardly any survey-based empirical study in India has been found to integrate customers and suppliers with the internal processes towards successful LM implementation. This empirical research is thus carried out in the Indian manufacturing industries. The basic steps of the research methodology followed in this research are the identification of input and output manifest variables and latent constructs, model proposition and hypotheses development, development of survey instrument, sampling and data collection and model validation (exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling). The analysis reveals six key input constructs and three output constructs, indicating that these constructs should act in unison to maximize the benefits of implementing lean. The structural model presented in this paper may be treated as a guide to integrating customers and suppliers with internal practices to successfully implement lean. Integrating customers and suppliers with internal practices into a unified, coherent manufacturing system will lead to an optimum utilization of resources. This work is one of the very first researches to have a survey-based empirical analysis of the role of customers, suppliers and internal practices of the Indian manufacturing sector towards an effective lean implementation.

Keywords: customer management, internal manufacturing practices, lean benefits, lean implementation, lean manufacturing, structural model, supplier management

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Authors: Deepak Jugran, Rajesh Gill

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Purpose: To study the demographic, sociological, gender and clinical profile of the children presented for childhood cataract at a public sector tertiary eye care centre in India. Methodology: The design of the study is retrospective, and hospital-based data is available with the Central Registration Department of the PGIMER, Chandigarh. The majority of the childhood cataract cases are being reported in this hospital, yet not each and every case of childhood cataract approaches PGI, Chandigarh. Nevertheless, this study is going to be pioneering research in India, covering five-year data of the childhood cataract patients who visited the Advanced Eye Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh, from 1.1.2015 to 31.12.2019. The SPSS version 23 was used for all statistical calculations. Results: A Total of 354 children were presented for childhood cataract from 1.1.2015 to 31.12.2019. Out of 354 children, 248 (70%) were male, and 106 (30%) were female. In-spite of 2 flagship programmes, namely the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) and Aayushman Bharat (PM JAY) for eradication of cataract, no children received any financial assistance from these two programmes. A whopping 99% of these children belong to the poor families. In most of these families, the mothers were house-wives and did not employ anywhere. These interim results will soon be conveyed to the Govt. of India so that a suitable mechanism can be evolved to address this pertinent issue. Further, the disproportionate ratio of male and female children in this study is an area of concern as we don’t know whether the prevalence of childhood cataract is lower in female children or they are not being presented on time in the hospital by the families. Conclusion: The World Health Organization (WHO) has categorized Childhood blindness resulting from cataract as a priority area and urged all member countries to develop institutionalized mechanisms for its early detection, diagnosis and management. The childhood cataract is an emerging and major cause of preventable and avoidable childhood blindness, especially in low and middle-income countries. In the formative years, the children require a sound physical, mental and emotional state, and in the absence of either one of them, it can severely dent their future growth. The recent estimate suggests that India could suffer an economic loss of US$12 billion (Rs. 88,000 Crores) due to blindness, and almost 35% of cases of blindness are preventable and avoidable if detected at an early age. Besides reporting these results to the policy makers, synchronized efforts are needed for early detection and management of avoidable causes of childhood blindness such as childhood cataract.

Keywords: childhood blindness, cataract, Who, Npcb

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Authors: Oluwaseun Adeleke, Samuel O. Ikani, Fidelis Edet, Anthony Nwala, Mopelola Raji, Simeon Christian Chukwu

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Introduction: Digital innovations have been useful in supporting a client’s contraceptive user journey from awareness to method initiation. The concept of contraceptive self-care is being promoted globally as a means for achieving universal access to quality contraceptive care; however, information about this approach is limited. An important determinant of the scale of awareness is the message construct, choice of information channel, and an understanding of the socio-epidemiological dynamics within the target audience. Significant gains have been made recently in expanding the awareness base of DMPA-SC -a relatively new entrant into the family planning method mix. The cornerstone of this success is a multichannel promotion campaign themed Discover your Power (DYP). The DYP campaign combines content marketing across select social media platforms, chatbots, Cyber-IPC, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and radio campaigns. Methodology: During implementation, the project monitored predefined metrics of awareness and intent, such as the number of persons reached with the messages, the number of impressions, and meaningful engagement (link-clicks). Metrics/indicators are extracted through native insight/analytics tools across the various platforms. The project also enlists community mobilizers (CMs) who go door-to-door and engage WRA to advertise DISC’s online presence and support them to engage with IVR, digital companion (chatbot), Facebook page, and DiscoverYourPower website. Results: The result showed that the digital platforms recorded 242 million impressions and reached 82 million users with key DMPA-SC self-injection messaging in the three countries. As many as 3.4 million persons engaged (liked, clicked, shared, or reposted) digital posts -an indication of intention. Conclusion: Digital solutions and innovations are gradually becoming the archetype for the advancement of the self-care agenda. Digital innovations can also be used to increase awareness and normalize contraceptive self-care behavior amongst women of reproductive age if they are made an integral part of reproductive health programming.

Keywords: digital transformation, health systems, DMPA-SC, family planning, self-care

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Authors: Abderahim Ahmadou, Alfredo Napoli, Noel Durand, Didier Montet

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Biochar is a microporous and adsorbent solid carbon product obtained from the pyrolysis of various organic materials (biomass, agricultural waste). Biochar is distinguished from vegetable charcoal by its manufacture methods. Biochar is used as the amendment in soils to give them favorable characteristics under certain conditions, i.e., absorption of water and its release at low speed. Cashew nuts shell from Mali is usually discarded on land by local processors or burnt as a mean for waste management. The burning of this biomass poses serious socio-environmental problems including greenhouse gas emission and accumulation of tars and soot on houses closed to factories, leading to neighbor complaints. Some mycotoxins as aflatoxins are carcinogenic compounds resulting from the secondary metabolism of molds that develop on plants in the field and during their conservation. They are found at high level on some seeds and nuts in Africa. Ochratoxin A, member of mycotoxins, is produced by various species of Aspergillus and Penicillium. Human exposure to Ochratoxin A can occur through consumption of contaminated food products, particularly contaminated grain, as well as coffee, wine grapes. We showed that cashew shell biochars produced at 400, 600 and 800°C adsorbed aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2) at 100% by filtration (rapid contact) as well as by stirring (long contact). The average percentage of adsorption of Ochratoxin A was 35% by filtration and 80% by stirring. The duration of the biochar-mycotoxin contact was a significant parameter. The effect of biochar was also tested on two strains of toxigenic molds: Aspergillus parasiticus (producers of Aflatoxins) and Aspergillus carbonarius (producers of Ochratoxins). The growth of the strain Aspergillus carbonarius was inhibited at up to 60% by the biochar at 600°C. An opposite effect to the inhibition was observed on Aspergillus parasiticus using the same biochar. In conclusion, we observed that biochar adsorbs mycotoxins: Aflatoxins and Ochratoxin A to different degrees; 100% adsorption of aflatoxins under all conditions (filtration and stirring) and adsorption of Ochratoxin A varied depending on the type of biochar and the experiment conditions (35% by filtration and 85% by stirring). The effects of biochar at 600 °C on the toxigenic molds: Aspergillus parasiticus and Aspergillus carbonarius, varied according to the experimental conditions and the strains. We observed an opposite effect on the growth with an inhibition of Aspergillus carbonarius up to 60% and a stimulated growth of Aspergillus parasiticus.

Keywords: biochar, cashew nut shell, mycotoxins, toxicogenic molds

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Authors: Ioanna H. Lioliou, Despoina D. Zavraka

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The radical reformation that Greek urban space, has undergone over the last century, due to the socio-historical developments, technological development and political–geographic factors, has left its imprint on the urban landscape. While the big cities struggle to regain urban landscape balance, small towns are considered to offer high quality lifescapes, ensuring sustainable development potential. However, their unplanned urbanization process led to the loss of significant areas of nature, lack of essential infrastructure, chaotic built environment, incompatible land uses and urban cohesiveness. Natural environment reference points, such as springs, streams, rivers, forests, suburban greenbelts, and etc.; seems to be detached from urban space, while the public, open and green spaces, unequally distributed in the built environment, they are no longer able to offer a complete experience of nature in the city. This study focuses on Greek mainland, a small town Elassona, and aims to restore spatial coherence between the city’s homonymous river and its urban space surroundings. The existence of a linear aquatic ecosystem, is considered a precious greenway, also referred as blueway, able to initiate natural penetrations and ecosystems empowering. The integration of disconnected natural ecosystems forms the basis of a strategic intervention scheme, where the river becomes the urban integration tool / feature, constituting the main urban corridor and an indispensible part of a wider green network that connects open and green spaces, ensuring the function of all the established networks (transportation, commercial, social) of the town. The proposed intervention, introduces a green network highlighting the old stone bridge at the ‘entrance’ of the river in the town and expanding throughout the town with strategic uses and activities, providing accessibility for all the users. The methodology used, is based on the collection of design tools used in related urban river-design interventions around the world. The reinstallation/reactivation of the balance between natural and urban landscape, besides the environmental benefits, contributes decisively to the illustration/projection of urban green identity and re-enhancement of the quality of lifescape qualities and social interaction.

Keywords: green network, rehabilitation scheme, urban landscape, urban streams

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Authors: Aroge Stephen Talabi

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Work is a term that appears to be very common in usage and occurrence the world over. The meanings attached to it and what it implies equally appears to be that common and somewhat similar in description by individuals and groups as derivatives of their contexts. Work is generally seen as the exertion of efforts and the application of knowledge and skills to achieve different purposes comprising of earning a living, making money, prestige, achievement, recognition, companionship and other satisfactions. The paper examined the general meanings of work from the perspectives of various religions. It situated these meanings by drawing on the sociological significance of work among the Yoruba. It established work as social control for a reorientation in peoples approach to work. The Yoruba people of the Western Nigeria share, to a great extent, in common conceptualization and application of work as they believe and understand that their individual and community existence and living are contingent on work participation. The contextual meaning and sociological significance of work as investigated in this paper show that the Yorubas concept of work is daily applied variously in both their material and non-material cultural undertakings to influence individual and group for effective participation in productive ventures for overall social well-being. The Yoruba use all forms of training method which could be adopted by adult educators as pathways to increase individual’s work participation and to improve productivity in work organizations.The paper found out that in the Yoruba socio cultural milieu, the meanings, conceptions and the importance attached to work are used as method of inculcating in members of society the spirit of commitment and hard-work and the advantages thereof. Yoruba contexts of work are geared towards enhancement of commitment, diligence and improved productivity on-the-job behaviour. The paper, therefore, submits that using the Yoruba’s conceptions of work could enhance commitment on the parts of all those engaged in production of goods and services. The paper also suggests that the Yoruba principle and perception and application of work could be used as one of the training techniques in industrial education, which is a major aspect of adult education programmes for inculcating ethics in the workplace. Thus, effort should be made to embrace the Yoruba conception and tenet of work by all stakeholders such as the workers, group (Union), managers and the society at large. Such principles and tenet of work should be included in industrial education curriculum.

Keywords: work, contextual meaning, sociological significance, Yoruba-people, social milieu, productivity

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Authors: Miraji H. Mohamed

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The purpose of this study is to critique ‘radicalisation’ and more particularly ‘youth radicalisation’ by exploring its usage in online newspapers. ‘Radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ have become the most common terms in terrorism studies since the 9/11 attacks. Regardless of the geographic location, when the word terrorism is used the terms ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ always follow to attempt to explore the journey of the perpetrators towards violence. These terms have come to represent a discourse of dominantly pejorative traits often used to describe spaces, groups, and processes identified as problematic. Even though ambiguously defined they feature widely in government documents, political statements, news articles, academic research, social media platforms, religious gatherings, and public discussions. Notably, ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ have been closely conflated with the term youth to form ‘youth radicalisation’ to refer to a discourse of ‘youth at risk’. The three terms largely continue to be used unquestioningly and interchangeably hence the reason why they are placed in single quotation marks to deliberately question their conventional usage. Albeit this comes timely in the Kenyan context where there has been a proliferation of academic and expert research on ‘youth radicalisation’ (used as a neutral label) without considering the political, cultural and socio-historical contexts that inform this label. This study seeks to draw these nuances by employing a genealogical approach that historicises and deconstructs ‘youth radicalisation’; and by applying a Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) of Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse Kenyan online newspaper - The Daily Nation between 2015 and 2018. By applying the concept of representation to analyse written texts, the study reveals that the use of ‘youth radicalisation’ as a discursive strategy disproportionately affects young people especially those from cultural/ethnic/religious minority groups. Also, the ambiguous use of ‘radicalisation’ and ‘youth radicalisation’ by the media reinforces the discourse of ‘youth at risk’ which has become the major framework underpinning Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) interventions. Similarly, the findings indicate that the uncritical use of ‘youth radicalisation’ has been used to serve political interests; and has become an instrument of policing young people, thus contributing to their cultural shaping. From this, it is evident that the media could thwart rather than assist CVE efforts. By exposing the political nature of the three terms through evidence-based research, this study offers recommendations on how critical reflective reporting by the media could help to make CVE more nuanced.

Keywords: discourse, extremism, radicalisation, terrorism, youth

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Authors: Emma Van Schie

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The purpose of this study is to use mixed methods research to create typologies of the performance of firms in the cotton-to-clothing value chain in Zimbabwe, and to use these typologies to achieve the objective of adding to the small pool of studies on Sub-Saharan African value chains performing in the context of economic liberalisation and achieving development. The uptake of economic liberalisation measures across Sub-Saharan Africa has led to the restructuring of many value chains. While this action has resulted in some African economies positively reintegrating into global commodity chains, it has also been deeply problematic for the development impacts of the majority of others. Over and above this, these nations have been placed at a disadvantage due to the fact that there is little scholarly and policy research on approaches for managing economic liberalisation and value chain development in the unique African context. As such, the central question facing these less successful cases is how they can integrate into the world economy whilst still fostering their development. This paper draws from quantitative questionnaires and qualitative interviews with 28 stakeholders in the cotton-to-clothing value chain in Zimbabwe. This paper examines the performance of firms in the value chain, and the subsequent local socio-economic development impacts that are affected by the revival of the cotton-to-clothing value chain following its collapse in the wake of Zimbabwe’s uptake of economic liberalisation measures. Firstly, the paper finds the relatively undocumented characteristics and structures of firms in the value chain in the post-economic liberalisation era. As well as this, it finds typologies of the status of firms as either being in operation, closed down, or being placed under judicial management and the common characteristics that these typologies hold. The key findings show how a mixture of macro and local level aspects, such as value chain governance and the management structure of a business, leads to the most successful typology that is able to add value to the chain in the context of economic liberalisation, and thus unlock its socioeconomic development potential. These typologies are used in making industry and policy recommendations on achieving this balance between the macro and the local level, as well as recommendations for further academic research for more typologies and models on the case of cotton value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, this study adds to the small collection of academic evidence and policy recommendations for the challenges that African nations face when trying to incorporate into global commodity chains in attempts to benefit from their associated socioeconomic development opportunities.

Keywords: cotton-to-clothing value chain, economic liberalisation, restructuring value chain, typologies of firms, value chain governance, Zimbabwe

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Authors: Mengestie Mulugeta Belay, Serebe Abay Gebrie, Biruk Lambbiso Wamisho, Amare Worku

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Background: Low back pain (LBP) related to nursing profession, is a very common public health problem throughout the world. Various risk factors have been implicated in the etiology and LBP is assumed to be of multi-factorial origin as individual, work-related and psychosocial factors can contribute to its development. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and to identify risk factors of LBP among nurses working in Addis Ababa City Public Hospitals, Ethiopia, in the year 2015. Settings: Addis Ababa University, Black-Lion (‘Tikur Anbessa’) Hospital-BLH, is the country’s highest tertiary level referral and teaching Hospital. The three departments in connection with this study: Radiology, Pathology and Orthopedics, run undergraduate and residency programs and receive referred patients from all over the country. Methods: A cross-sectional study with internal comparison was conducted throughout the period October-December, 2015. Sample was chosen by simple random sampling technique by taken the lists of nurses from human resource departments as a sampling frame. A well-structured, pre-tested and self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantifiable information. The questionnaire included socio-demographic, back pain features, consequences of back pain, work-related and psychosocial factors. The collected data was entered into EpiInfo version 3.5.4 and was analyzed by SPSS. A probability level of 0.05 or less and 95% confidence level was used to indicate statistical significance. Ethical clearance was obtained from all respected administrative bodies, Hospitals and study participants. Results: The study included 395 nurses and gave a response rate of 91.9%. The mean age was 30.6 (±8.4) years. Majority of the respondents were female (285, 72.2%). Nearly half of the participants (n=181, 45.8% (95% CI (40.8%- 50.6%))) were complained low back pain. There was statistical significant association between low back pain and working shift, physical activities at work; sleep disturbance and felt little pleasure by doing things. Conclusion: A high prevalence of low back pain was found among nurses working in Addis Ababa Public Hospitals. Recognition and preventive measures like providing resting periods should be taken to reduce the risk of low back pain in nurses working in Public hospitals.

Keywords: low back pain, risk factors, nurses, public hospitals

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Authors: Amelia Faotusia

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

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

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Authors: Anilkumar L. Rathod

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This paper examines event tourism as a field of study and area of professional practice updating the previous review article published in 2015. In this substantially extended review, a deeper analysis of the field's evolution and development is presented, charting the growth of the literature, focusing both chronologically and thematically. A framework for understanding and creating knowledge about events and tourism is presented, forming the basis which signposts established research themes and concepts and outlines future directions for research. In addition, the review article focuses on constraining and propelling forces, ontological advances, contributions from key journals, and emerging themes and issues. It also presents a roadmap for research activity in event tourism. Published scholarly studies within this period are examined through content analysis, using such keywords as knowledge management, organizational learning, hospitality, tourism, tourist destinations, travel industry, hotels, lodging, motels, hotel industry, gaming, casino hotel and convention to search scholarly research journals. All contributions found are then screened for a hospitality and tourism theme. Researchers mostly discuss knowledge management approach in improving information technology, marketing and strategic planning in order to gain competitive advantage. Overall, knowledge management research is still limited. Planned events in tourism are created for a purpose, and what was once the realm of individual and community initiatives has largely become the realm of professionals and entrepreneurs provides a typology of the four main categories of planned events within an event-tourism context, including the main venues associated with each. It also assesses whether differences exist between socio-demographic groupings. An analysis using primarily descriptive statistics indicated both sub-samples had similar viewpoints although Maharashtra residents tended to have higher scores pertaining to the consequences of gambling. It is suggested that the differences arise due to the greater exposure of Maharashtra residents to the influences of casino development.

Keywords: organizational learning, hospitality, tourism, tourist destinations, travel industry, hotels, lodging, motels, hotel industry, gaming, casino hotel and convention to search scholarly research journals

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Authors: Adnan Celik

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Entrepreneurs are people who attempt to do a business and do not hesitate to do so. They are involved in the production of economic goods and services through factors of production. They also find the financial resources necessary for production and the markets where the production will be evaluated. After all, they create economic values. The main function of the entrepreneur in contemporary societies is to realize innovations. From this point, the power of the modern entrepreneur is based on her/his capacity to innovate and transform his innovations into tangible commercial products. In this context, the concept of an entrepreneur is used to mean the person or persons who constantly innovate. Successful entrepreneurs take on the role of the locomotive in the development of their countries. They support economic development with their activities. In addition to production and marketing activities, it also has important contributions to employment. Along with the development of the country, they also try to make the income distribution more balanced. Especially developed country entrepreneurs intensely perform the following functions; “to produce new goods and services or to increase the quality and quality of known goods and services; ability to develop and apply new production methods; establishing new organizations in the industry; reach new markets; to find new sources from which raw materials and similar materials can be obtained”. Entrepreneurs who fully implement business functions are easier to achieve economic efficiency. Thus, they provide great advantages to the business and the national economy. Successful entrepreneurs are people who make money by creating economic values. These revenues are; on the one hand, it is distributed to individuals in the business as wages, premiums, or dividends; It is also used in the growth of companies. Thus, employees, managers, entrepreneurs and the whole country can benefit greatly. In the least developed countries, the guiding effect of traditional value patterns on individuals' attitudes and behaviors varies depending on the socio-economic characteristics of individuals. It is normal for an entrepreneur with a low level of education, who was brought up in a traditional structure, to behave in accordance with traditional value patterns. In fact, this is the primary problem of all countries in the development effort. The solution to this problem will be possible by giving the necessary importance to the social dimension as well as the technical dimension of development. This study mainly focuses on the importance of entrepreneurship for the national economy. This issue has been handled separately in terms of developed and least developed countries. As a result of the study, entrepreneurship suggestions were made, especially to least developed countries, with the goal of national economy and development.

Keywords: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, national economy, entrepreneurship in developed and least developed countries

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Authors: Ayat-Allah Bouramdane

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Power generation from offshore wind energy does not emit carbon dioxide or other air pollutants and therefore play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector. In addition, these systems are considered more efficient than onshore wind farms, as they generate electricity from the wind blowing across the sea, thanks to the higher wind speed and greater consistency in direction due to the lack of physical interference that the land or human-made objects can present. This means offshore installations require fewer turbines to produce the same amount of energy as onshore wind farms. However, offshore wind farms require more complex infrastructure to support them and, as a result, are more expensive to construct. In addition, higher wind speeds, strong seas, and accessibility issues makes offshore wind farms more challenging to maintain. This study uses a combination of Geographic Referenced Information (GRI) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify the most suitable sites for offshore wind farm development in Morocco, with a particular focus on the Dakhla city. A range of environmental, socio-economic, and technical criteria are taken into account to solve this complex Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problem. Based on experts' knowledge, a pairwise comparison matrix at each level of the hierarchy is performed, and fourteen sub-criteria belong to the main criteria have been weighted to generate the site suitability of offshore wind plants and obtain an in-depth knowledge on unsuitable areas, and areas with low-, moderate-, high- and very high suitability. We find that wind speed is the most decisive criteria in offshore wind farm development, followed by bathymetry, while proximity to facilities, the sediment thickness, and the remaining parameters show much lower weightings rendering technical parameters most decisive in offshore wind farm development projects. We also discuss the potential of other marine renewable energy potential, in Morocco, such as wave and tidal energy. The proposed approach and analysis can help decision-makers and can be applied to other countries in order to support the site selection process of offshore wind farms.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, dakhla, geographic referenced information, morocco, multi-criteria decision-making, offshore wind, site suitability

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Authors: Mariamawit T. Belete

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Cereal production and marketing are the means of livelihood for millions of households in Ethiopia. However, cereal production is constrained by technical and socio-economic factors. Among the technical factors, cereal crop diseases are the major contributing factors to the low yield. The aim of this research is to develop an integration of data mining and knowledge based system for sorghum anthracnose disease diagnosis that assists agriculture experts and development agents to make timely decisions. Anthracnose diagnosing systems gather information from Melkassa agricultural research center and attempt to score anthracnose severity scale. Empirical research is designed for data exploration, modeling, and confirmatory procedures for testing hypothesis and prediction to draw a sound conclusion. WEKA (Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis) was employed for the modeling. Knowledge based system has come across a variety of approaches based on the knowledge representation method; case-based reasoning (CBR) is one of the popular approaches used in knowledge-based system. CBR is a problem solving strategy that uses previous cases to solve new problems. The system utilizes hidden knowledge extracted by employing clustering algorithms, specifically K-means clustering from sampled anthracnose dataset. Clustered cases with centroid value are mapped to jCOLIBRI, and then the integrator application is created using NetBeans with JDK 8.0.2. The important part of a case based reasoning model includes case retrieval; the similarity measuring stage, reuse; which allows domain expert to transfer retrieval case solution to suit for the current case, revise; to test the solution, and retain to store the confirmed solution to the case base for future use. Evaluation of the system was done for both system performance and user acceptance. For testing the prototype, seven test cases were used. Experimental result shows that the system achieves an average precision and recall values of 70% and 83%, respectively. User acceptance testing also performed by involving five domain experts, and an average of 83% acceptance is achieved. Although the result of this study is promising, however, further study should be done an investigation on hybrid approach such as rule based reasoning, and pictorial retrieval process are recommended.

Keywords: sorghum anthracnose, data mining, case based reasoning, integration

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Authors: Dina Magnaye

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In the Philippines, the performance of the agricultural sector is gauged through crop productivity and returns from farm production rather than the biodiversity in the agricultural ecosystem. Agricultural development hinges on the overall goal of increasing productivity through intensive agriculture, monoculture system, utilization of high yielding varieties in plants, and genetic upgrading in animals. This merits an analysis of the role of agro-biodiversity in terms of increasing productivity, food security and economic returns from community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises. These enterprises conserve biodiversity while equitably sharing production income in the utilization of biological resources. The study aims to determine how community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises become instrumental in local climate change adaptation and agro-biodiversity conservation as input to local green economic development planning. It also involves an assessment of the role of agrobiodiversity in terms of increasing productivity, food security and economic returns from community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises. The perceptions of the local community members both in urban and upland rural areas on community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises were evaluated. These served as a basis in developing a planning modality that can be mainstreamed in the management of local green economic enterprises to benefit the environment, provide local income opportunities, conserve species diversity, and sustain environment-friendly farming systems and practices. The interviews conducted with organic farmer-owners, entrepreneur-organic farmers, and organic farm workers revealed that pro-biodiversity enterprise such as organic farming involved the cyclic use of natural resources within the carrying capacity of a farm; recognition of the value of tradition and culture especially in the upland rural area; enhancement of socio-economic capacity; conservation of ecosystems in harmony with nature; and climate change mitigation. The suggested planning modality for community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises for a green economy encompasses four (4) phases to include community resource or capital asset profiling; stakeholder vision development; strategy formulation for sustained enterprises; and monitoring and evaluation.

Keywords: agro-biodiversity, agro-biodiversity conservation, local green economy, organic farming, pro-biodiversity enterprise

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Authors: Şeyda Akçalı

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This study explores the concept of social sustainability and its characteristics in terms of neighborhood (mahalle) which is a social phenomenon in Turkish urban life. As social sustainability indicators that moving away traditional themes toward multi-dimensional measures, the solutions for urban strategies may be achieved through learning lessons from historical precedents. It considers the inherent values of traditional urban forms contribute to the evolution of the city as well as the social functions of it. The study aims to measure non-tangible issues in order to evaluate social sustainability in historic urban environments and how they could contribute to the current urban planning strategies. The concept of neighborhood (mahalle) refers to a way of living that represents the organization of Turkish social and communal life rather than defining an administrative unit for the city. The distinctive physical and social features of neighborhood illustrate the link between social sustainability and historic urban environment. Instead of having a nostalgic view of past, it identifies both the failures and successes and extract lessons of traditional urban environments and adopt them to modern context. First, the study determines the aspects of social sustainability which are issued as the key themes in the literature. Then, it develops a model by describing the social features of mahalle which show consistency within the social sustainability agenda. The model is used to analyze the performance of traditional housing area in the historical city center of Bursa, Turkey whether it meets the residents’ social needs and contribute collective functioning of the community. Through a questionnaire survey exercised in the historic neighborhoods, the residents are evaluated according to social sustainability criteria of neighborhood. The results derived from the factor analysis indicate that social aspects of neighborhood are social infrastructure, identity, attachment, neighborliness, safety and wellbeing. Qualitative evaluation shows the relationship between key aspects of social sustainability and demographic and socio-economic factors. The outcomes support that inherent values of neighborhood retain its importance for the sustainability of community although there must be some local arrangements for few factors with great attention not to compromise the others. The concept of neighborhood should be considered as a potential tool to support social sustainability in national political agenda and urban policies. The performance of underlying factors in historic urban environment proposes a basis for both examining and improving traditional urban areas and how it may contribute to the overall city.

Keywords: historical city center, mahalle, neighborhood, social sustainability, traditional urban environment, Turkey

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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: Giorgia Zotti

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This research comprehensively investigates the multifaceted interplay determining school performance, individual backgrounds, and regional disparities within the landscape of Italian secondary education. Leveraging data gleaned from the INVALSI 2021-2022 database, the analysis meticulously scrutinizes two fundamental distributions of educational achievements: the standardized Invalsi test scores and official grades in Italian and Mathematics, focusing specifically on final-year secondary school students in Italy. Applying a comprehensive methodology, the study initially employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess school performances. This methodology involves constructing a production function encompassing inputs (hours spent at school) and outputs (Invalsi scores in Italian and Mathematics, along with official grades in Italian and Math). The DEA approach is applied in both of its versions: traditional and conditional. The latter incorporates environmental variables such as school type, size, demographics, technological resources, and socio-economic indicators. Additionally, the analysis delves into regional disparities by leveraging the Theil Index, providing insights into disparities within and between regions. Moreover, in the frame of the inequality of opportunity theory, the study quantifies the inequality of opportunity in students' educational achievements. The methodology applied is the Parametric Approach in the ex-ante version, considering diverse circumstances like parental education and occupation, gender, school region, birthplace, and language spoken at home. Consequently, a Shapley decomposition is applied to understand how much each circumstance affects the outcomes. The outcomes of this comprehensive investigation unveil pivotal determinants of school performance, notably highlighting the influence of school type (Liceo) and socioeconomic status. The research unveils regional disparities, elucidating instances where specific schools outperform others in official grades compared to Invalsi scores, shedding light on the intricate nature of regional educational inequalities. Furthermore, it emphasizes a heightened inequality of opportunity within the distribution of Invalsi test scores in contrast to official grades, underscoring pronounced disparities at the student level. This analysis provides insights for policymakers, educators, and stakeholders, fostering a nuanced understanding of the complexities within Italian secondary education.

Keywords: inequality, education, efficiency, DEA approach

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Authors: Seyda Can, Meryem Unulu

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Objective: Breast milk is the most fundamental nutritional element for the healthy growth and development of newborns as they supply all the necessary components. Various obstacles such as diseases of mother and child, allergies of the baby, and insufficient breastmilk affect breast-feeding adversely. The wet nursery or breast milk banking is the most important source in providing the nutrients closest to the ideal for the newborn. Despite increasing opinions about its benefits, breast milk banking practice is controversial because of reasons such as ethical problems, traditional beliefs and attitudes, security concerns of families and lack of knowledge. It is thought that the results of this study will create the data for studies to raise the awareness of the society regarding wet nursery, and milk banks. Method: The study was planned and performed in descriptive type. The population of the study consists of mothers that gave birth between October-November 2017 in a public hospital in Turkey, and the sample consisted of 205 mothers chosen by improbable sampling method from the population and accepted to participate in the study. While gathering data, a survey consisting of 33 questions designed to determine the socio-demographic characteristics and their views on wet nursery and breast milk banking. Written ethical committee and institution permit was taken. Before the interview, participants were informed about the purpose and content of the study and oral permit was taken. Result: When the distribution of 205 mothers according to their individual characteristics, it was detected that their age average was 28,16±5,23 and 63,4 of mothers (n=130) had normal delivery. It was determined that clear majority of mothers, 75,6% (n=155) had no breast-feeding problems and 75,1% (n=154) fed the baby only with breast milk. It was detected that 18,5% (n=38) would accept a stranger to be a wet nurse and 60% (n=123) would donate milk if there is a breast milk bank. It was detected 33,2 % (n=68) of participant mothers want to make use of breast milk bank if there is a situation that prevents breast feeding, 38,5 % (n=79) of mothers think breast milk bank would be problematic religiously. Statistical difference was detected between the educational status of women and the rate of wanting breast milk bank practice. As the educational status of mothers increased, their rate of wanting breast milk bank practice increased. Conclusion: It is essential that every baby is breastfed by its mother primarily. However, when this is not possible, in order to implement wet nursery and breast milk banking as an extension of national breast-feeding policy, regulations need to be made and worries should be eased. Also, organizing training programs are also really important to raise awareness of the society and mothers.

Keywords: breast feeding, breast milk, milk banks, wet nursery

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Authors: Friday I. Joseph

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Background: Nigeria has an under-five mortality rate that is 128 per 1000 live birth which is higher than the rate for the African region. Optimal breastfeeding practice has the potential to reduce under-five mortality by 13% in developing countries. However, documented exclusive breastfeeding rate in Nigeria from birth to six months is just 17%. Aim: To explore perceptions of the sociocultural factors that influence exclusive breastfeeding for six months among rural mothers in Bindawa and Baure Local Government Area (LGA), Katsina state, North West Nigeria, to inform policies, intervention or strategies to improve exclusive breastfeeding practice in Nigeria. Methods: The social constructionism-interpretivist epistemological approach informed the use of an exploratory study to understand mothers’ experiences and views. Twenty mothers, all from rural areas between 19-35 years old were conveniently sampled from two LGA in Katsina state, north –west Nigeria for semi-structured interviews. Sample size had representation of both Hausa and Fulani ethnic group. Thematic content analysis was utilized for analysis. Results: Three major themes emerged from the study: (1) Breastfeeding initiation - Immediate traditional newborn care practices, birth attendant, place of delivery, the perception of about colostrum determines how soon a mother initiate breastfeeding. (2) Exclusive breastfeeding and introduction of food-Motivation to sustain exclusive breastfeeding relies on the interplay between the obligation to perform traditional rites; mother’s awareness and family support. (3) Decision making about infant feeding – It is not independent of the influence of key social figures like the father, mother-in-law, traditional birth attendant and the health workers. Overall, in spite of awareness of exclusive breastfeeding benefits, mothers expressed concerns that they may not win their family support if they shared contrary views. Conclusions: Health promotion intervention should be tailored, taking cognizant and addressing the sociocultural barriers to the practice of optimal breastfeeding by a focused community and family-based participatory approach. Implementers of interventions should employ culture-sensitive approaches in community-based intervention.

Keywords: exclusive breastfeeding, perception, qualitative, sociocultural determinants

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Authors: L. Agneni, F. Carta, C. Micheletta, V. Tersigni

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The development of a qualitative method to profile jobseekers is needed to improve the quality of the Public Employment Services (PES) in Italy. This is why the National Agency for Active Labour Market Policies (ANPAL) decided to introduce a Qualitative Profiling Service in the context of the activities carried out by local employment offices’ operators. The qualitative profiling service provides information and data regarding the jobseeker’s personal transition status, through a semi-structured questionnaire administered to PES clients during the guidance interview. The questionnaire responses allow PES staff to identify, for each client, proper activities and policy measures to support jobseekers in their reintegration into the labour market. Data and information gathered by the qualitative profiling tool are the following: frequency, modalities and motivations for clients to apply to local employment offices; clients’ expectations and skills; difficulties that they have faced during the previous working experiences; strategies, actions undertaken and activated channels for job search. These data are used to assess jobseekers’ personal and career characteristics and to measure their employability level (qualitative profiling index), in order to develop and deliver tailor-made action programmes for each client. This paper illustrates the use of the above-mentioned qualitative profiling service on the national territory and provides an overview of the main findings of the survey: concerning the difficulties that unemployed people face in finding a job and their perception of different aspects related to the transition in the labour market. The survey involved over 10.000 jobseekers registered with the PES. Most of them are beneficiaries of the “citizens' income”, a specific active labour policy and social inclusion measure. Furthermore, data analysis allows classifying jobseekers into a specific group of clients with similar features and behaviours, on the basis of socio-demographic variables, customers' expectations, needs and required skills for the profession for which they seek employment. Finally, the survey collects PES staff opinions and comments concerning clients’ difficulties in finding a new job and also their strengths. This is a starting point for PESs’ operators to define adequate strategies to facilitate jobseekers’ access or reintegration into the labour market.

Keywords: labour market transition, public employment services, qualitative profiling, vocational guidance

Procedia PDF Downloads 125