Search results for: life event

Authors: Sarah Lister, Pauline Palmer

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Research findings presented within this paper form part of a larger scale collaboration between academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and a technology company. The overarching aims of this project focus on developing a series of game-based resources to promote the teaching of aspects of mathematics through a second language (L2) in primary schools. This study explores the potential of game-based learning (GBL) as a dynamic way to engage and motivate learners, making learning fun and purposeful. The research examines the capacity of GBL resources to provide a meaningful and purposeful context for CLIL. GBL is a powerful learning environment and acts as an effective vehicle to promote the learning of mathematics through an L2. The fun element of GBL can minimise stress and anxiety associated with mathematics and L2 learning that can create barriers. GBL provides one of the few safe domains where it is acceptable for learners to fail. Games can provide a life-enhancing experience for learners, revolutionizing the routinized ways of learning through fusing learning and play. This study argues that playing games requires learners to think creatively to solve mathematical problems, using the L2 in order to progress, which can be associated with the development of higher-order thinking skills and independent learning. GBL requires learners to engage appropriate cognitive processes with increased speed of processing, sensitivity to environmental inputs, or flexibility in allocating cognitive and perceptual resources. At surface level, GBL resources provide opportunities for learners to learn to do things. Games that fuse subject content and appropriate learning objectives have the potential to make learning academic subjects more learner-centered, promote learner autonomy, easier, more enjoyable, more stimulating and engaging and therefore, more effective. Data includes observations of the children playing the games and follow up group interviews. Given that learning as a cognitive event cannot be directly observed or measured. A Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDF) construct was used to frame the research, to map the development of learners’ conceptual understanding in an L2 context and as a framework to observe the discursive interactions that occur learner to learner and between learner and teacher. Cognitively, the children were required to engage with mathematical content, concepts and language to make decisions quickly, to engage with the gameplay to reason, solve and overcome problems and learn through experimentation. The visual elements of the games supported the learning of new concepts. Children recognised the value of the games to consolidate their mathematical thinking and develop their understanding of new ideas. The games afforded them time to think and reflect. The teachers affirmed that the games provided meaningful opportunities for the learners to practise the language. The findings of this research support the view that using the game-based resources supported children’s grasp of mathematical ideas and their confidence and ability to use the L2. Engaging with the content and language through the games led to deeper learning.

Keywords: CLIL, gaming, language, mathematics

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Authors: Olufemi Oyedele

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Building collapse (BC) in Nigeria is becoming a regular occurrence, each recording great casualties in the number of lives and materials lost. Building collapse is a situation where building which has been completed and occupied, completed but not occupied or under construction, collapses on its own due to action or inaction of man or due to natural event like earthquake, storm, flooding, tsunami or wildfire. It is different from building demolition. There are various causes of building collapse and each case requires expert judgment to decide the cause of its collapse. Rate of building collapse is a reflection of the level of organization and control of building activities and degree of sophistication of the construction professionals in a country. This study explored the use of case study by examining the causes of six (6) collapsed buildings (CB) across Nigeria. Samples of materials from the sites of the collapsed buildings were taken for testing and analysis, while critical observations were made at the sites to note the conditions of the ground (building base). The study found out that majority of the building collapses in Nigeria were due to poor workmanship, sub-standard building materials, followed by bad building base and poor design. The National Building Code 2006 is not effective due to lack of enforcement and the Physical Development Departments of states and Federal Capital Territory are just mere agents of corruption allowing all types of construction without building approvals.

Keywords: building collapse, concrete tests, differential settlement, integrity test, quality control

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Authors: Mike-Franck Mienlam Essi, Joseph Quentin Yene Atangana, Mbida Yem

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The Kribi-Campo sub-basin belongs to the southern domain of the Cameroon Atlantic Margin in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the African homologous segment of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, located at the northeast side of the Brazil margin. The onset of the seafloor spreading period in the Southwest African Margin in general and the study area particularly remains controversial. Various studies locate this event during the Cretaceous times (Early Aptian to Late Albian), while others suggested that this event occurred during Pre-Cretaceous period (Palaeozoic or Jurassic). This work analyses 02 Cameroon Span seismic lines to re-examine the Early marine incursion period of the study area for a better understanding of the margin evolution. The methodology of analysis in this study is based on the delineation of the first seismic sequence, using the reflector’s terminations tracking and the analysis of its internal reflections associated to the external configuration of the package. The results obtained indicate from the bottom upwards that the first deposits overlie a first seismic horizon (H1) associated to “onlap” terminations at its top and underlie a second horizon which shows “Downlap” terminations at its top (H2). The external configuration of this package features a prograded fill pattern, and it is observed within the depocenter area with discontinuous reflections that pinch out against the basement. From east to west, this sequence shows two seismic facies (SF1 and SF2). SF1 has parallel to subparallel reflections, characterized by high amplitude, and SF2 shows parallel and stratified reflections, characterized by low amplitude. The distribution of these seismic facies reveals a lateral facies variation observed. According to the fundamentals works on seismic stratigraphy and the literature review of the geological context of the study area, particularly, the stratigraphical natures of the identified horizons and seismic facies have been highlighted. The seismic horizons H1 and H2 correspond to Top basement and “Downlap Surface,” respectively. SF1 indicates continental sediments (Sands/Sandstone) and SF2 marine deposits (shales, clays). Then, the prograding configuration observed suggests a marine regression. The correlation of these results with the lithochronostratigraphic chart of Sergipe-Alagoas Basin reveals that the first marine deposits through the study area are dated from Pre-Cretaceous times (Palaeozoic or Jurassic). The first deposits onto the basement represents the end of a cycle of sedimentation. The hypothesis of Mike.F. Mienlam Essi is with the Earth Sciences Department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Yaoundé I, P.O. BOX 812 CAMEROON (e-mail: [email protected]). Joseph.Q. Yene Atangana is with the Earth Sciences Department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Yaoundé I, P.O. BOX 812 CAMEROON (e-mail: [email protected]). Mbida Yem is with the Earth Sciences Department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Yaoundé I, P.O. BOX 812 CAMEROON (e-mail: [email protected]). Cretaceous seafloor spreading through the study area is the onset of another cycle of sedimentation. Furthermore, the presence of marine sediments into the first deposits implies that this package could contain marine source rocks. The spatial tracking of these deposits reveals that they could be found in some onshore parts of the Kribi-Campo area or even in the northern side.

Keywords: cameroon span seismic, early marine incursion, kribi-campo sub-basin, pre-cretaceous period, sergipe-alagoas basin

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Authors: Artem A. Krylov

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Instrumental seismological researches in water areas are complicated and expensive, that leads to the lack of strong motion records in most offshore regions. In the same time the number of offshore industrial infrastructure objects, such as oil rigs, subsea pipelines, is constantly increasing. The empirical Green’s function technique proved to be very effective for accelerograms synthesis under the conditions of poorly described seismic wave propagation medium. But the selection of suitable small earthquake record in offshore regions as an empirical Green’s function is a problem because of short seafloor instrumental seismological investigation results usually with weak micro-earthquakes recordings. An approach based on moving average smoothing in the frequency domain is presented for preliminary processing of weak micro-earthquake records before using it as empirical Green’s function. The method results in significant waveform correction for modeled event. The case study for 2009 L’Aquila earthquake was used to demonstrate the suitability of the method. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (project № 18-35-00474 mol_a).

Keywords: accelerogram synthesis, empirical Green's function, marine seismology, microearthquakes

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Authors: Ashraf Ali, Kriti Upadhyay, Puja Sohal, Anant Mohan, Randeep Guleria

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Background: Gene silencing by aberrant promoter hypermethylation is common in lung cancer and is an initiating event in its development. Aim: To evaluate the gene promoter hypermethylation frequency in serum and tissue of lung cancer patients. Method: 95 newly diagnosed untreated advance stage lung cancer patients and 50 cancer free matched controls were studied. Bisulfite modification of tissue and serum DNA was done; modified DNA was used as a template for methylation-specific PCR analysis. Survival was assessed for one year. Results: Of 95 patients, 82% were non-small cell lung cancer (34% squamous cell carcinoma, 34% non-small cell lung cancer and 14% adenocarcinoma) and 18% were small cell lung cancer. Biopsy revealed that tissue of 89% and 75% of lung cancer patients and 85% and 52% of controls had promoter hypermethylated for MGMT (p=0.35) and p16(p<0.001) gene, respectively. In serum, 33% and 49% of lung cancer patients and 28% and 43% controls were positive for MGMT and p16 gene. No significant correlation was found between survival and clinico-pathological parameters. Conclusion: High gene promoter methylation frequency of p16 gene in tissue biopsy may be linked with early stages of carcinogenesis. Appropriate follow-up is required for confirmation of this finding.

Keywords: lung cancer, MS- PCR, methylation, molecular biology

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Authors: Xiaoxian Zhang

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Guidelines of ecological risk assessment (ERA) and food safety assessment (FSA) used nowadays, based on an S-shaped threshold dose-response curve (SDR), fail to consider hormesis, a reproducible biphasic dose-response model represented as a J-shaped or an inverted U-shaped curve, that occurs in the real-life environment across multitudinous compounds on cells, organisms, populations, and even the ecosystem. Specifically, in SDR-based ERA and FSA practice, predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) is calculated separately for individual substances from no observed effect concentration (NOEC, usually equivalent to 10% effect concentration (EC10) of a contaminant or food condiment) over an assessment coefficient that is bigger than 1. Experienced researchers doubted that hormesis in the real-life environment might lead to a waste of limited human and material resources in ERA and FSA practice, but related data are scarce. In this study, hormetic effects on bioluminescence of Aliivibrio fischeri (A. f) induced by sulfachloropyridazine (SCP) under 40 conditions to simulate the real-life scenario were investigated, and hormetic effects on growth of human MCF-7 cells caused by brown sugar and mascavado sugar were found likewise. After comparison of related parameters, it has for the first time been proved that there is a 50% probability for safe concentration (SC) of contaminants and food condiments to fall within the hormetic-stimulatory range (HSR) or left to HSR, revealing the unreliability of traditional parameters in standardized (eco)toxicological studies, and supporting qualitatively and quantitatively the over-strictness of ERA and FSA resulted from misuse of SDR. This study provides a novel perspective for ERA and FSA practitioners that hormesis should dominate and conditions where SDR works should only be singled out on a specific basis.

Keywords: dose-response relationship, food safety, ecological risk assessment, hormesis

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Authors: Prativa Das, Lay Poh Tan

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Three-dimensional microenvironment is a need to study the event cascades of liver fibrosis in vitro. Electrospun nanofibers modified with essential extracellular matrix proteins can closely mimic the random fibrous structure of native liver extracellular matrix (ECM). In this study, we fabricate a series of 3D electrospun scaffolds by wet electrospinning process modified with different ratios of collagen-I to fibronectin to achieve optimized distribution of these two ECM proteins on the fiber surface. A ratio of 3:1 of collagen-I to fibronectin was found to be optimum for surface modification of electrospun poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) fibers by chemisorption process. In 3:1 collagen-I to fibronectin modified scaffolds the total protein content increased by ~2 fold compared to collagen-I modified and ~1.5 fold compared to 1:1/9:1 collagen-I to fibronectin modified scaffolds. We have cultured LX-2 cells on this scaffold over 14 days and found that LX-2 cells acquired more quiescent phenotype throughout the culture period and shown significantly lower expression of alpha smooth muscle actin and collagen-I. Thus, this system can be used as a model to study liver fibrosis by using different fibrogenic mediators in vitro.

Keywords: electrospinning, collagen-I and fibronectin, surface modification of fiber, LX-2 cells, liver fibrosis

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Authors: Sadeem A. Alolayan

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The purpose of early intervention (EI) programs and services is to minimize the impact of disability on children ages 0-5 and to reduce future special education costs. This literature review identifies the status of families of children with special needs. Four major themes emerged from this literature review. The first was the family’s needs and the expressed desire for services to be obtained or outcomes to be achieved. The second was family support, meaning any information or skills needed to facilitate parents’ role as professionals in order to enable them to train and provide their child with the best quality of life. The third theme, barriers, was defined as parents’ actions or life circumstances that hindered families in obtaining appropriate EI services. The conclusions derived from the recommendations are that effective parent participation involves careful planning, establishing and maintaining a trusted rapport between parents, and EI providers that understand parents’ individual needs and interests, thus motivating effective parent involvement in early intervention programs.

Keywords: early intervention, individuals with disabilities education act, parents, recommendations

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Authors: Sherwan Kher Alden Yakub Alsofy

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In this paper, we consider the relativistic Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) equation and study the Hawking radiation (HR) of scalar particles from uncharged Grumiller black hole (GBH) which is affordable for testing in astrophysics. GBH is also known as Rindler modified Schwarzschild BH. Our aim is not only to investigate the effect of the Rindler parameter A on the Hawking temperature (TH ), but to examine whether there is any discrepancy between the computed horizon temperature and the standard TH as well. For this purpose, in addition to its naive coordinate system, we study on the three regular coordinate systems which are Painlev´-Gullstrand (PG), ingoing Eddington- Finkelstein (IEF) and Kruskal-Szekeres (KS) coordinates. In all coordinate systems, we calculate the tunneling probabilities of incoming and outgoing scalar particles from the event horizon by using the HJ equation. It has been shown in detail that the considered HJ method is concluded with the conventional TH in all these coordinate systems without giving rise to the famous factor- 2 problem. Furthermore, in the PG coordinates Parikh-Wilczek’s tunneling (PWT) method is employed in order to show how one can integrate the quantum gravity (QG) corrections to the semiclassical tunneling rate by including the effects of self-gravitation and back reaction. We then show how these corrections yield a modification in the TH.

Keywords: ingoing Eddington, Finkelstein, coordinates Parikh-Wilczek’s, Hamilton-Jacobi equation

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Authors: J. Bastos, P. Marques, S. Batterman, F. Freire

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Due to demands of a growing urban population, it is crucial to manage urban development and its associated environmental impacts. While most of the environmental analyses have addressed buildings and transportation separately, both the design and location of a building affect environmental performance and focusing on one or the other can shift impacts and overlook improvement opportunities for more sustainable urban development. Recently, several life-cycle (LC) studies of residential buildings have integrated user transportation, focusing exclusively on primary energy demand and/or greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, most papers considered only private transportation (mainly car). Although it is likely to have the largest share both in terms of use and associated impacts, exploring the variability associated with mode choice is relevant for comprehensive assessments and, eventually, for supporting decision-makers. This paper presents a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of a residential building in Lisbon (Portugal), addressing building construction, use and user transportation (commuting with private and public transportation). Five environmental indicators or categories are considered: (i) non-renewable primary energy (NRE), (ii) greenhouse gas intensity (GHG), (iii) eutrophication (EUT), (iv) acidification (ACID), and (v) ozone layer depletion (OLD). In a first stage, the analysis addresses the overall life-cycle considering the statistical model mix for commuting in the residence location. Then, a comparative analysis compares different available transportation modes to address the influence mode choice variability has on the results. The results highlight the large contribution of transportation to the overall LC results in all categories. NRE and GHG show strong correlation, as the three LC phases contribute with similar shares to both of them: building construction accounts for 6-9%, building use for 44-45%, and user transportation for 48% of the overall results. However, for other impact categories there is a large variation in the relative contribution of each phase. Transport is the most significant phase in OLD (60%); however, in EUT and ACID building use has the largest contribution to the overall LC (55% and 64%, respectively). In these categories, transportation accounts for 31-38%. A comparative analysis was also performed for four alternative transport modes for the household commuting: car, bus, motorcycle, and company/school collective transport. The car has the largest results in all impact categories. When compared to the overall LC with commuting by car, mode choice accounts for a variability of about 35% in NRE, GHG and OLD (the categories where transportation accounted for the largest share of the LC), 24% in EUT and 16% in ACID. NRE and GHG show a strong correlation because all modes have internal combustion engines. The second largest results for NRE, GHG and OLD are associated with commuting by motorcycle; however, for ACID and EUT this mode has better performance than bus and company/school transport. No single transportation mode performed best in all impact categories. Integrated assessments of buildings are needed to avoid shifts of impacts between life-cycle phases and environmental categories, and ultimately to support decision-makers.

Keywords: environmental impacts, LCA, Lisbon, transport

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Authors: Birsel Canan Demirbag, Kıymet Yesilcicek Calik, Hacer Kobya Bulut

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Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the problems of women over 65 with incontinence diagnosis. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted with women over 65 with incontinence diagnosis in four Family Health Centers in a city in Eastern Black Sea region between November 1, and December 20, 2015. 203, 107, 178, 180 women over 65 were registered in these centers and 262 had incontinence diagnosis at least once and had an ongoing complaint. 177 women were volunteers for the study. During home visits and using face-to-face survey methodology, participants were given socio-demographic characteristics survey, Sandvik severity scale, Incontinence Quality of Life Scale, Urogenital Distress Inventory and a questionnaire including challenges experienced due to incontinence developed by the researcher. Data were analyzed with SPSS program using percentages, numbers, Chi-square, Man-Whitney U and t test with 95% confidence interval and a significance level p <0.05. Findings: 67 ± 1.4 was the mean age, 2.05 ± 0.04 was parity, 44.5 ± 2.12 was menopause age, 66.3% were primary school graduates, 45.7% had deceased spouse, 44.4% lived in a large family, 67.2% had their own room, 77.8% had income, 89.2% could meet self- care, 73.2% had a diagnosis of mixed incontinence, 87.5% suffered for 6-20 years % 78.2 had diuretics, antidepressants and heart medicines, 20.5% had urinary fecal cases, 80.5% had bladder training at least once, 90.1% didn’t have bladder diary calendar/control training programs, 31.1% had hysterectomy for prolapse, 97.1'i% was treated with lower urinary tract infection at least once, 66.3% saw a doctor to get drug in the last three months, 76.2 could not go out alone, 99.2 % had at least one chronic disease, 87.6 % had constipation complain, 2.9% had chronic cough., 45.1% fell due to a sudden rise for toilet. Incontinence Impact Questionnaire Average score was (QOL) 54.3 ± 21.1, Sandvik score was 12.1 ± 2.5, Urogenital Distress Inventory was 47.7 ± 9.2. Difficulties experienced due to incontinence were 99.5% feeling of unhappiness, 67.1% constant feeling of urine smell due to failing to change briefs frequently, % 87.2 move away from social life, 89.7 unable to use pad, 99.2% feeling of disturbing households / other individuals, 87.5% feel dizziness/fall due to sudden rise, 87.4% feeling of others’ imperceptions about the situation, % 94.3 insomnia, 78.2 lack of assistance, 84.7% couldn’t afford urine protection briefs. Results: With this study, it was found out that there were a lot of unsolved issues at individual and community level affecting the life quality of women with incontinence. In accordance with this common problem in women, to facilitate daily life it is obvious that regular home care training programs at institutional level in our country will be effective.

Keywords: health problems, incontinence, incontinence quality of life questionnaire, old age, urinary urogenital distress inventory, Sandviken severity, women

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Authors: Lena Lapidot, Amir Amnon, Rita Nosenko, Veitsman Ella, Cohen-Ezra Oranit, Davidov Yana, Segev Shlomo, Koren Omry, Safran Michal, Ben-Ari Ziv

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Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer related mortality worldwide. Liver Cirrhosis is the main predisposing risk factor for the development of HCC. The factor(s) influencing disease progression from Cirrhosis to HCC remain unknown. Gut microbiota has recently emerged as a major player in different liver diseases, however its association with HCC is still a mystery. Moreover, there might be an important association between the gut microbiota, nutrition, life style and the progression of Cirrhosis and HCC. The aim of our study was to characterize the gut microbial signature in association with life style and nutrition of patients with Cirrhosis, HCC-Cirrhosis and healthy controls. Design: Stool samples were collected from 95 individuals (30 patients with HCC, 38 patients with Cirrhosis and 27 age, gender and BMI-matched healthy volunteers). All participants answered lifestyle and Food Frequency Questionnaires. 16S rRNA sequencing of fecal DNA was performed (MiSeq Illumina). Results: There was a significant decrease in alpha diversity in patients with Cirrhosis (qvalue=0.033) and in patients with HCC-Cirrhosis (qvalue=0.032) compared to healthy controls. The microbiota of patients with HCC-cirrhosis compared to patients with Cirrhosis, was characterized by a significant overrepresentation of Clostridium (pvalue=0.024) and CF231 (pvalue=0.010) and lower expression of Alphaproteobacteria (pvalue=0.039) and Verrucomicrobia (pvalue=0.036) in several taxonomic levels: Verrucomicrobiae, Verrucomicrobiales, Verrucomicrobiaceae and the genus Akkermansia (pvalue=0.039). Furthermore, we performed an analysis of predicted metabolic pathways (Kegg level 2) that resulted in a significant decrease in the diversity of metabolic pathways in patients with HCC-Cirrhosis (qvalue=0.015) compared to controls, one of which was amino acid metabolism. Furthermore, investigating the life style and nutrition habits of patients with HCC-Cirrhosis, we found significant correlations between intake of artificial sweeteners and Verrucomicrobia (qvalue=0.12), High sugar intake and Synergistetes (qvalue=0.021) and High BMI and the pathogen Campylobacter (qvalue=0.066). Furthermore, overweight in patients with HCC-Cirrhosis modified bacterial diversity (qvalue=0.023) and composition (qvalue=0.033). Conclusions: To the best of the our knowledge, we present the first report of the gut microbial composition in patients with HCC-Cirrhosis, compared with Cirrhotic patients and healthy controls. We have demonstrated in our study that there are significant differences in the gut microbiome of patients with HCC-cirrhosis compared to Cirrhotic patients and healthy controls. Our findings are even more pronounced because the significantly increased bacteria Clostridium and CF231 in HCC-Cirrhosis weren't influenced by diet and lifestyle, implying this change is due to the development of HCC. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and assess causality.

Keywords: Cirrhosis, Hepatocellular carcinoma, life style, liver disease, microbiome, nutrition

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Authors: M. Rojo, M. Blanco, T. Lacruz, S. Solano, L. Beltran, M. Graell, A. R. Sepulveda.

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There is an association between an early accumulation of Stressful Life Events (SLE) during childhood and various physical and psychological health complications. However, there are only a few studies on this topic in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity. The general aim of the study was to evaluate the accumulation and type of SLE in 200 children from 8 to 12 years old and analyze the relationship with their emotional well-being and weight status (obesity, overweight and normal weight). The children and their families completed an interview. The evaluated variables that are included in this study are sociodemographic measures, medical/psychological history, anthropometric measures (BMI, z-BMI), and psychological variables (children's clinical interview K-SADS-PL(Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children Present and Lifetime Version) and battery of questionnaires). Results: Children with overweight and obesity accumulate more stressful events from an early age and have a significantly higher percentage of psychiatric diagnoses, compared to their peers with normal weight. Presenting a child psychiatric disorder is related to greater z-BMI and the total number of SLE (p < 0.001). A higher z-BMI is also related to a greater number of stressful events during childhood. There is also a positive and significant relationship between the total number of SLE and worse emotional well-being (higher levels of anxious and depressive symptoms and low self-esteem of children) (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Children with overweight and obesity grow up in a family, school, and social context where more stressors are accumulated. This is also directly associated with worse emotional well-being. It is necessary to implement multidisciplinary prevention and intervention strategies in different changes (school, family, and health). This study is included in a project funded by the Ministry of Innovation and Science (PSI2011-23127).

Keywords: childhood obesity, emotional well-being, psychopathology, stressful life events

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Authors: Vitor S. Mendonca, Maria Luisa S. Schmidt

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The Brazilian medical profession is viewed as being error-free, so healthcare professionals who commit an error are condemned there. Medical errors occur frequently in the Brazilian healthcare system, so identifying better options for handling this issue has become of interest primarily for physicians. The purpose of this study is to better understand the tensions involved in the fear of making an error due to the harm and risk this would represent for those involved. A qualitative study was performed by means of the narratives of the lived experiences of ten acting physicians in the State of Sao Paulo. The concept and characterization of errors were discussed, together with the fear of making an error, the near misses or error in itself, how to deal with errors and what to do to avoid them. The analysis indicates an excessive pressure in the medical profession for error-free practices, with a well-established physician-patient relationship to facilitate the management of medical errors. The error occurs, but a lack of information and discussion often leads to its concealment due to fear or possible judgment by society or peers. The establishment of programs that encourage appropriate medical conduct in the event of an error requires coherent answers for humanization in Brazilian medical science. It is necessary to improve the discussion about medical errors and disseminate models of communication and notification of errors in Brazil.

Keywords: medical error, narrative, physician-patient relationship, qualitative research

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Authors: Anurag Savarnya

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The reliability of the various parts of electric mining shovel has been assessed through the application of Weibull Model. The study was initiated to find reliability of components of electric mining shovel. The paper aims to optimize the reliability of components and increase the life cycle of component. A multilevel decomposition of the electric mining shovel was done and maintenance records were used to evaluate the failure data and appropriate system characterization was done to model the system in terms of reasonable number of components. The approach used develops a mathematical model to assess the reliability of the electric mining shovel components. The model can be used to predict reliability of components of the hydraulic mining shovel and system performance. Reliability is an inherent attribute to a system. When the life-cycle costs of a system are being analyzed, reliability plays an important role as a major driver of these costs and has considerable influence on system performance. It is an iterative process that begins with specification of reliability goals consistent with cost and performance objectives. The data were collected from an Indian open cast coal mine and the reliability of various components of the electric mining shovel has been assessed by following a Weibull Model.

Keywords: reliability, Weibull model, electric mining shovel

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Authors: Hamnah Nisar

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As food is something which is particularly important for survival, in fact, it improves the quality of life and promotes health. Quality food is a key to a healthy life. Consumption of food depends on the knowledge we have regarding the nutrients it contains. Moreover, the awareness and knowledge about something is an initial stage for its improvement. We cannot work on anything unless we have knowledge about it. The pros and cons, effects, causes, dos, and don'ts, especially for an important things like food, are a necessity to learn. That is why my research would be all about analyzing what difference awareness makes on people and how making people more aware about a certain thing can help them improve their lifestyles and bring a positive change for them. The research would be done through questionnaires and interviews among two classes, one would be the upper class and the other would-be lower class. Because the upper class can easily access learning facilities and can know about the new things than the lower class. The questions would be related to what kind of food do they consume, what health issues they face, or what health issues are common among their regions. The results of the research would be helpful to know firstly the effects of awareness and education regarding food on health, how a basic thing like knowledge can have a significant effect on health and can be the cause of several diseases.

Keywords: nutrition, awareness, quality food, knowledge

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Authors: Kyaw Myint

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Each and everyone seeking happiness. People are trying various kinds of ways to earn happiness. Noble eight fold path is the way to attain the highest peace and happiness which includes three parts Morality ( Sila ) Concentration ( smadi ), and Wisdom ( Pyanna ). According to the Buddha’s teaching to attain higher level of peace and happiness, one must walk on this path . In the Buddha’s teaching morality is basic for all of these three parts. The right Livelihood consider as morality to reach peace or earn happiness in this life and here after next life. It is a way of earn a living without breaking the precepts. The essence of the teaching is to practice metal purity through the material gaining. In this article attempts to study right way of livelihood laid down by the Buddha for lay disciple special reference to Vinijja suttha, Ardiya Sutta, Dighajanu Sutta and singalovoda sutta. This paper approach qualitative research based mainly on documentary analysis. The result of the study shows that right livelihood in Buddha's teaching involves both abstaining from wrong livelihood and taking right livelihood with right view and right effort. Buddha guidance on right livelihood can consist both materially and spiritually for lay disciple.

Keywords: right livelihood, eight fold path, lay disciple, wrong livelihood

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Authors: Nahid Tavakoli, Asghar Ehteshami, Akbar Hassanzadeh, Fatemeh Amini

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Introduction: The Information security incident management guidelines was been developed to help hospitals to meet their information security event and incident management requirements. The purpose of this Study was to investigate on Information Security Incident Management in Isfahan’s educational hospitals in accordance to ISO/IEC 27002 standards. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study to investigate on Information Security Incident Management of educational hospitals in 2014. Based on ISO/IEC 27002 standards, two checklists were applied to check the compliance with standards on Reporting Information Security Events and Weakness and Management of Information Security Incidents and Improvements. One inspector was trained to carry out the assessments in the hospitals. The data was analyzed by SPSS. Findings: In general the score of compliance Information Security Incident Management requirements in two steps; Reporting Information Security Events and Weakness and Management of Information Security Incidents and Improvements was %60. There was the significant difference in various compliance levels among the hospitals (p-valueKeywords: information security incident management, information security management, standards, hospitals

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Authors: Gracia V. Navarro, Maria V. Gonzalez, Carlos G. Reed

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The eudaimonic perspective in philosophy and psychology suggests that a good life is closely related to developing oneself in order to contribute to the well-being and happiness of other people and of the world as a whole. Educational psychology can help to achieve this through the design and validation of educative models. Since 2004, the University of Concepcion and other Chilean universities apply an educative model to train socially responsible professionals, people that in the exercise of their profession contribute to generate equity for the development and assess the impacts of their decisions, opting for those that serve the common good. The main aim is to identify if a relationship exists between achieved learning, attitudes toward social responsibility, self-attribution of socially responsible behavior, value type, professional behavior observed and, participation in a specific model to train socially responsible (SR) professionals. The Achieved Learning and Attitudes Toward Social Responsibility Questionnaire, interview with employers and Values Questionnaire and Self-attribution of SR Behavior Questionnaire is applied to 394 students and graduates, divided into experimental and control groups (trained and not trained under the educative model), in order to identify the professional behavior of the graduates. The results show that students and graduates perceive cognitive, affective and behavioral learning, with significant differences in attitudes toward social responsibility and self-attribution of SR behavior, between experimental and control. There are also differences in employers' perceptions about the professional practice of those who were trained under the model and those who were not. It is concluded that the educative model has an impact on the learning of social responsibility and educates for a full life. It is also concluded that it is necessary to identify mediating variables of the model effect.

Keywords: educative model, good life, professional social responsibility, values

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Authors: Mohammad H. Ruhipour, Mahdi Goharrokhi, Mahsa Ghasemi, Artadokht Ostadsarayi

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In this paper, we are aiming to study the consequences of chlorine gas leak in direct chlorine gas injection compared to using bleach (sodium hypochlorite), studying the negative effects both on the environment and individuals. This study was performed in the cooling towers of a natural fractioning unit of Bandar-e-IMAM petrochemical plant. Considering that chlorine gas is highly toxic and based on the health regulation, its release into the surrounding environment can be very dangerous for people and even fatal for individuals. We studied performing quantitative studies in the worst cases of event incidence. In addition, studying alternative methods with a lower risk was also on the agenda to select the least likely possible option causing an accident. In this paper chlorine gas release consequences have been evaluated by using PHAST software. Reaching to 10 ppm of chlorine gas concentration was basis of hazardous area determination. The results show that the full chlorine gas line rupture scenario in Pasquill category F, were worst case, and many people could be harmed around cooling towers area because of chlorine gas inhalation.

Keywords: chlorine gas, consequence modeling, cooling towers, direct chlorination, risk assessment, system failure

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Authors: Rihab Hamdi, Amel Hadri Hamida, Ouafae Bennis, Fatima Babaa, Sakina Zerouali

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This paper features a sliding mode controller (SMC) for closed-loop voltage control of DC-DC three-cells buck converter connected in parallel, operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM), based on pulse-width modulation (PWM). To maintain the switching frequency, the approach is to incorporate a pulse-width modulation that utilizes an equivalent control, inferred by applying the SM control method, to produce a control sign to be contrasted and the fixed-frequency within the modulator. Detailed stability and transient performance analysis have been conducted using Lyapunov stability criteria to restrict the switching frequency variation facing wide variations in output load, input changes, and set-point changes. The results obtained confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme in achieving an enhanced output transient performance while faithfully realizing its control objective in the event of abrupt and uncertain parameter variations. Simulations studies in MATLAB/Simulink environment are performed to confirm the idea.

Keywords: DC-DC converter, pulse width modulation, power electronics, sliding mode control

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Authors: Jerome V. Cleofas

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Cyberspace has become a more viable arena for budding artists to share musical acts through digital forms. The increasing relevance of online communities has attracted scholars from various fields demonstrating its influence on social capital. This paper extends this understanding of social capital among Filipino music artists belonging to the SoundCloud Philippines Facebook Group. The study makes use of various qualitative data obtained from key-informant interviews and participant observation of online and physical encounters, analyzed using the case study approach. Soundcloud Philippines has over seven-hundred members and is composed of Filipino singers, instrumentalists, composers, arrangers, producers, multimedia artists, and event managers. Group interactions are a mix of online encounters based on Facebook and SoundCloud and physical encounters through meet-ups and events. Benefits reaped from the community are informational, technical, instrumental, promotional, motivational, and social support. Under the guidance of online group administrators, collaborative activities such as music productions, concerts and events transpire. Most conflicts and problems arising are resolved peacefully. Social capital in SoundCloud Philippines is mobilized through recognition, respect and reciprocity.

Keywords: Facebook, music artists, online communities, social capital

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Authors: María José Benitez Jimenez

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This study seeks to make clear the importance of family reunification in order to establish consolidated habits of coexistence of immigrants, directly favoring the relationship of the family nucleus and indirectly the social integration of foreigners. In addition to the theoretical analysis of the subject, information has been reviewed by the National Institute of Statistics and Reports of Spanish organizations that compile data on immigrants and specifically on family reunification. The Spanish regulations on foreigners include the right of foreigners legally residing in Spain to regroup their families. The general conditions required to exercise this right are having legally resided in Spain for one year and having obtained authorization to reside for one more year. There are exceptions to the requirement of having resided for one year in our country. Article 39 of the Spanish Constitution, although it does not express what is to be understood as a family, does refer to the fact that ‘the public authorities ensure the social, economic and legal protection of the family’. Therefore for the Spanish State, the family institution, in a broad sense, enjoys a privileged treatment that is revealed in the Supreme Norm and that reflects the interest of our society to address the relationships that subjects have in their immediate environment. Although we are aware of the reluctant position of the Spanish Constitutional Court to consider as a fundamental right the right to family life despite being enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, it is questionable whether access to authorization for family reunification should be more uniform in terms of requirements related to nationality, employment or training of applicants in order to have an egalitarian character. The requirement of having resided one year in Spain to be able to request successful family reunification seems dispensable because if foreigners can obviate this requirement by having a certain status, its abolition would be feasible by equating all situations and benefiting foreigners in general. The achievement of this proposal would help to strengthen the family life of immigrants from the beginning of their life in Spain.

Keywords: family, immigrants, social integration, reunification

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Authors: R. Bakr, M. Elmeligy, A. Ibrahim

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When the building loads are relatively small, challenges are often facing the foundation design especially when inappropriate soil conditions exist. These may be represented in the existence of soft soil in the upper layers of soil while sandy soil or firm cohesive soil exist in the deeper layers. In such cases, the design becomes infeasible if the piles are extended to the deeper layers, especially when there are sandy layers existing at shallower depths underlain by stiff clayey soil. In this research, models of piles terminated in sand underlain by clay soils are numerically simulated by different modelling theories. Finite element software, Plaxis 3-D Foundation was used to evaluate the pile behavior under different loading scenarios. The standard static load test according to ASTM D-1143 was simulated and compared with the real-life loading scenario. The results showed that the pile behavior obtained from the current static load test do not realistically represent that obtained from real-life loading. Attempts were carried out to capture the proper numerical loading scenario that simulates the pile behavior in real-life loading including the long-term effect. A modified method based on this research findings is proposed for the static pile loading tests. Field loading tests were carried out to validate the new method. Results obtained from both numerical and field tests by using the modified method prove that this method is more accurate in predicting the pile behavior in sand soil underlain by clay more than the current standard static load.

Keywords: numerical simulation, static load test, pile behavior, sand underlain with clay, creep

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Authors: Samuele Abagnato, Lucia Rigamonti

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Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) is an effective tool to quantify the environmental impacts of reuse models and recycling technologies for textiles. In this work, publications in the last ten years about LCA on textile waste are classified according to location, goal and scope, functional unit, waste composition, impact assessment method, impact categories, and sensitivity analysis. Twenty papers have been selected: 50% are focused only on recycling, 30% only on reuse, the 15% on both, while only one paper considers only the final disposal of the waste. It is found that reuse is generally the best way to decrease the environmental impacts of textiles waste management because of the avoided impacts of manufacturing a new item. In the comparison between a product made with recycled yarns and a product from virgin materials, in general, the first option is less impact, especially for the categories of climate change, water depletion, and land occupation, while for other categories, such as eutrophication or ecotoxicity, under certain conditions the impacts of the recycled fibres can be higher. Cultivation seems to have quite high impacts when natural fibres are involved, especially in the land use and water depletion categories, while manufacturing requires a remarkable amount of electricity, with its associated impact on climate change. In the analysis of the reuse processes, relevant importance is covered by the laundry phase, with water consumption and impacts related to the use of detergents. About the sensitivity analysis, it can be stated that one of the main variables that influence the LCA results and that needs to be further investigated in the modeling of the LCA system about this topic is the substitution rate between recycled and virgin fibres, that is the amount of recycled material that can be used in place of virgin one. Related to this, also the yield of the recycling processes has a strong influence on the results of the impact. The substitution rate is also important in the modeling of the reuse processes because it represents the number of avoided new items bought in place of the reused ones. Another aspect that appears to have a large influence on the impacts is consumer behaviour during the use phase (for example, the number of uses between two laundry cycles). In conclusion, to have a deeper knowledge of the impacts of a life-cycle approach of textile waste, further data and research are needed in the modeling of the substitution rate and of the use phase habits of the consumers.

Keywords: environmental impacts, life-cycle-assessment, textiles recycling, textiles reuse, textiles waste management

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Authors: Asad Naeem, Minsung Kim, Jinkoo Kim

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In this work, the effectiveness of damped cable systems (DCS) on the mitigation of earthquake-induced response of a framed structure is investigated. The seismic performance of DCS is investigated using fragility analysis and life cycle cost evaluation of an existing building retrofitted with DCS, and the results are compared with those of the structure retrofitted with viscous dampers. The comparison of the analysis results reveals that, due to the self-centering capability of the DCS, residual displacement becomes nearly zero in the structure retrofitted with the DCS. According to the fragility analysis, the structure retrofitted with the DCS has smaller probability of reaching a limit states compared to the structure with viscous dampers. It is also observed that both the initial and life cycle costs of the DCS method required for the seismic retrofit is smaller than those of the structure retrofitted with viscous dampers. Acknowledgment: This research was supported by a grant (17CTAP-C132889-01) from Technology Advancement Research Program (TARP) funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport of Korean government.

Keywords: damped cable system, seismic retrofit, self centering, fragility analysis

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Authors: Chika Catherine Ayogu

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Rehabilitation plays an important and integral part in the life of roadway rehabilitation management system. It is a systematic method for inspection and rating the roadway condition in a given area. The system performs a cost effective analysis of various maintenance and rehabilitation strategies. Finally the system prioritize and recommend roadway rehabilitation and maintenance to maximize results within a given budget amount. During execution of maintenance activity, the system also tracks labour, materials, equipment and cost for activities performed. The system implements physical assessment field inspection and rating of each street segment which is then entered into a database. The information is analyzed using a software, and provide recommendations and project future conditions. The roadway management system provides a deterioration curve for each segment based on input then assigns the most cost-effective maintenance strategy based on conditions, surface type and functional classification, and available budget. This paper investigates the roadway management system and its capabilities to assist in applying the right treatment to the right roadway at the right time so that expected service life of the roadway is extended as long as possible with acceptable cost.

Keywords: effectiveness, rehabilitation, roadway, software system

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Authors: Salma Akter, Md. Kamal Uddin

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This study aims to demonstrate how top-down shelter policy and its resultant dwelling environment leads to ‘everyday compromise’ by the grassroots according to subjective (satisfaction) and objective (physical design elements and physical environmental elements) indicators, which are measured across three levels of the settlement; macro (Community), meso (Neighborhood or shelter/built environment) and micro (family). Ashrayan Prakalpa is a resettlement /housing project of Government of Bangladesh for providing shelters and human resources development activities like education, microcredit, and training programme to landless, homeless and rootless people. Despite the integrated nature of the shelter policies (comprises poverty alleviation, employment opportunity, secured tenure, and livelihood training), the ‘quality of life’ issue at the different levels of settlements becomes questionable. As dwellers of shelter units (although formally termed as ‘barracks’ rather shelter or housing) remain on the receiving end of government’s resettlement policies, they often involve with spatial-physical and socio-economic negotiation and assume curious forms of spatial practice, which often upholds contradiction with policy planning. Thus, policy based shelter force dwellers to persistently compromise with their provided built environments both in overtly and covertly. Compromising with prescribed designed space and facilities across living places articulated their negotiation with the quality of allocated space, built form and infrastructures, which in turn exert as less quality of life. The top-down shelter project, Dakshin Chandani Mahal Ashrayan Prakalpa at Dighalia Upazila, the study area located at the Eastern fringe area of Khulna, Bangladesh, is still in progress to resettle internally displaced and homeless people. In terms of methodology, this research is primarily exploratory and adopts a case study method, and an analytical framework is developed through the deductive approach for evaluating the quality of life. Secondary data have been obtained from housing policy analysis and relevant literature review, while key informant interview, focus group discussion, necessary drawings and photographs and participant observation across dwelling, neighborhood, and community level have also been administered as primary data collection methodology. Findings have revealed that various shortages, inadequacies, and negligence of policymakers force to compromise with allocated designed space, physical infrastructure and economic opportunities across dwelling, neighborhood and mostly community level. Thus, the outcome of this study can be beneficial for a global-level understating of the compromising the ‘quality of life’ under top-down shelter policy. Locally, for instance, in the context of Bangladesh, it can help policymakers and concerned authorities to formulate the shelter policies and take initiatives to improve the well-being of marginalized.

Keywords: Ashrayan Prakalpa, compromise, displaced people, quality of life

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Authors: Kobi Kutsher

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On February 12th 2013, monitoring stations of the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) detected a seismic event with explosion-like underground characteristics in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The location was found to be in the vicinity of the two previous announced nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.The nuclear test was also announced by the government of the DPRK.After an underground nuclear explosion, radioactive fission products (mostly noble gases) can seep through layers of rock and sediment until they escape into the atmosphere. The fission products are dispersed in the atmosphere and may be detected thousands of kilometers downwind from the test site. Indeed, more than 7 weeks after the explosion, unusual detections of noble gases was reported at the radionuclide station in Takasaki, Japan. The radionuclide station is a part of the International Monitoring System, operated to verify the CTBT. This study provides an estimation of the possible source region and the total radioactivity of the release using Atmospheric Transport Modeling.

Keywords: atmospheric transport modeling, CTBTO, nuclear tests, radioactive fission products

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Authors: Amirmohammad Dahouri

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Each year, more than 795,000 individuals in the United States grieve a stroke, and by 2030, it is predictable that 4% of the U.S. people will have had a stroke. Ischemic stroke, accounting for about 80% of all strokes, is one of the main causes of disability. The goal of stroke rehabilitation is to help patients return to physical and mental functions and relearn the required aids to living everyday life. This flagging has an adverse effect on patients’ quality of life and affects their daily living activities. In recent years, the rehabilitation of ischemic stroke attractions more attention in the world. A review of the rudimentary perceptions of stroke rehabilitation that are price stressing to all specialists who delicacy patients with stroke. Ideas are made for patients on how to functionally manage daily activities after they have qualified for a stroke. It is vital for home healthcare clinicians to understand the process from acute events to medical equilibrium and rehabilitation to adaptation. Different sources such as Pub Med Google Scholar and science direct have been used and various contemporary articles in this era have been analyzed. The care plan must also foundation actual actions to protect against recurrent stroke, as stroke patients are generally at significant risk for further ischemic or hemorrhagic attacks. Here, we review evidence of rehabilitation in treating post-stroke impairment.

Keywords: rehabilitation, stroke, ischemic, hemorrhagic, brain

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