Search results for: controlling style

Authors: Dicle Aydın, Süheyla Büyükşahin Sıramkaya

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Conservation concept gained importance especially in 19th century, it found value with the change and developments lived globally. Basic values in the essence of the concept are important in the continuity of historical and cultural fabrics which have character special to them. Reuse of settlements and spaces carrying historical and cultural values in the frame of socio-cultural and socio-economic conditions is related with functional value. Functional dimension of reuse signifies interrogation of the usage potential of the building with a different aim other than its determined aim. If a building carrying historical and cultural values cannot be used with its own function because of environmental, economical, structural and functional reasons, it is advantageous to maintain its reuse from the point of environmental ecology. By giving a new function both a requirement of the society is fulfilled and a culture entity is conserved because of its functional value. In this study, functional dimension of reuse is exemplified in Antalya Kaleiçi where has a special location and importance with its natural, cultural and historical heritage characteristics. Antayla Kaleiçi settlement preserves its liveliness as a touristic urban fabric with its almost fifty thousand years of past, traditional urban form, civil architectural examples of 18th–19th century reflecting the life style of the region and monumental buildings. The civil architectural examples in the fabric have a special character formed according to Mediterranean climate with their outer sofa (open or closed), one, two or three storey, courtyards and oriels. In the study reuse of five civil architectural examples as boutique hotel by forming a whole with their environmental arrangements is investigated, it is analyzed how the spatial requirements of a boutique hotel are fulfilled in traditional dwellings. Usage of a cultural entity as a boutique hotel is evaluated under the headlines of i.functional requirement, ii.satisfactoriness of spatial dimensions, iii.functional organization. There are closed and open restaurant, kitchen, pub, lobby, administrative offices in the hotel with 70 bed capacity and 28 rooms in total. There are expansions to urban areas on second and third floors by the means of oriels in the hotel surrounded by narrow streets in three directions. This boutique hotel, formed by unique five different dwellings having similar plan scheme in traditional fabric, is different with its structure opened to outside and connected to each other by the means of courtyards, and its outside spaces which gained mobility because of the elevation differences in courtyards.

Keywords: reuse, adaptive reuse, functional dimension of reuse, traditional dwellings

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Authors: Hirbod Varasteh, Hamidreza Gohari Darabkhani

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The global warming and its impact on climate change is one of main challenges for current century. Global warming is mainly due to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) is known to be the major contributor to the GHG emission profile. Whilst the energy sector is the primary source for CO₂ emission, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) are believed to be the solution for controlling this emission. Oxyfuel combustion (Oxy-combustion) is one of the major technologies for capturing CO₂ from power plants. For gas turbines, several Oxy-combustion power cycles (Oxyturbine cycles) have been investigated by means of thermodynamic analysis. NetPower cycle is one of the leading oxyturbine power cycles with almost full carbon capture capability from a natural gas fired power plant. In this manuscript, sensitivity analysis of the heat exchanger design in NetPower cycle is completed by means of process modelling. The heat capacity variation and supercritical CO₂ with gaseous admixtures are considered for multi-zone analysis with Aspen Plus software. It is found that the heat exchanger design has a major role to increase the efficiency of NetPower cycle. The pinch-point analysis is done to extract the composite and grand composite curve for the heat exchanger. In this paper, relationship between the cycle efficiency and the minimum approach temperature (∆Tmin) of the heat exchanger has also been evaluated.  Increase in ∆Tmin causes a decrease in the temperature of the recycle flue gases (RFG) and an overall decrease in the required power for the recycled gas compressor. The main challenge in the design of heat exchangers in power plants is a tradeoff between the capital and operational costs. To achieve lower ∆Tmin, larger size of heat exchanger is required. This means a higher capital cost but leading to a better heat recovery and lower operational cost. To achieve this, ∆Tmin is selected from the minimum point in the diagrams of capital and operational costs. This study provides an insight into the NetPower Oxy-combustion cycle’s performance analysis and operational condition based on its heat exchanger design.

Keywords: carbon capture and storage, oxy-combustion, netpower cycle, oxy turbine cycles, zero emission, heat exchanger design, supercritical carbon dioxide, oxy-fuel power plant, pinch point analysis

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Authors: Aaron Kim, Nydia Hernandez

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Despite the known deficits in sleep duration among adolescents and the increasing prevalence of substance use behaviors among this group, relatively little is known about how insufficient sleep is related to various substance use behaviors and the underlying mechanisms. Informed by the literature suggesting the predictive role of insufficient sleep for substance use and depressive symptoms, we hypothesized that adolescents who lack sufficient sleep during school nights would report a higher level of depressive symptoms and substance use than their counterparts with sufficient sleep. We also hypothesized that depressive symptoms would explain the association of insufficient sleep with substance use, suggesting that mental health plays an important role as a mechanism between insufficient sleep and substance use. This study used the data drawn from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System Data, which includes a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students (N=13,677, 49.4% Female, 9th-12th graders). Self-report measures of insufficient sleep (sleeping<7 h on an average school night), depressive symptoms (yes/no), any past 30-day use of cigarette (yes/no), e-cigarette (yes/no), alcohol (yes/no), and marijuana (yes/no). Among the total sample, 47.9% of students reported that they did not have sufficient sleep on school nights, indicating sleeping less than 7 hours. Regarding depressive symptoms, 36.7% of students reported feeling sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row during the past 12 months. Also, the percentages of students who reported one or more times of cigarette use, e-cigarette use, alcohol use, and marijuana use in the past month were 5.32%, 30.11%, 26.83%, and 21.65%, respectively. For bivariate associations among these study variables, insufficient sleep was positively associated with other variables: depressive symptoms (r=.08, p<.001), cigarette use (r=.03, p<.001), e-cigarette use (r=.04, p<.001), alcohol use (r=.07, p<.001), and marijuana use (r=.08, p<.001). After controlling for students’ characteristics (i.e., age, gender, race/ethnicity, grades), sleeping less than 7 hours on school nights (vs. sleeping more than 7 hours) was significantly associated with the past 30-day use of alcohol and marijuana, whereas cigarette and e-cigarette uses were not. That is, the students who reported having an insufficient sleep on school nights had higher odds of alcohol (Odds Ratio [OR]=1.15, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]=1.014-1.301) and marijuana use (OR=1.36, 95% CI=1.132-1.543). In a subsequent analysis including depressive symptoms together with insufficient sleep, the association of insufficient sleep with alcohol use (OR=1.13, 95% CI=1.011-1.297) and marijuana use (OR=1.33, 95% CI=1.130-1.521) were attenuated and explained by depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms significantly increased the odds of alcohol use by 32.2% (OR=1.32, 95% CI=1.131-1.557) and marijuana use by 202.1% (OR=2.02, 95% CI=1.672-2.502). These findings together suggest that insufficient sleep may contribute to increased risks of substance uses among adolescents. The current study also shows that psychological disorders of adolescents play important roles in understanding the association between insufficient sleep and substance use, suggesting insufficient sleep is related to substance use indirectly through depressive symptoms. This study indicates the importance of sleep deprivation among adolescents and screening for insufficient sleep in preventing/intervening in substance use.

Keywords: adolescents, depressive symptoms, sleep, substance use

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Authors: Evan Lowhorn, Rocio Alba-Flores

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Traditional classification Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) attempt to classify an image in its entirety. This becomes problematic when trying to perform classification with a drone’s camera in real-time due to unpredictable backgrounds. Object detectors with bounding boxes can be used to isolate individuals and other items, but the original backgrounds remain within these boxes. These basic detectors have been regularly used to determine what type of object an item is, such as “person” or “dog.” Recent advancement in computer vision, particularly with human imaging, is keypoint detection. Human keypoint detection goes beyond bounding boxes to fully isolate humans and plot points, or Regions of Interest (ROI), on their bodies within an image. ROIs can include shoulders, elbows, knees, heads, etc. These points can then be related to each other and used in deep learning methods such as pose estimation. For drone control based on human motions, poses, or signals using the onboard camera, it is important to have a simple method for pilot identification among multiple individuals while also giving the pilot fine control options for the drone. To achieve this, the OpenPose keypoint detection network was used with body and hand keypoint detection enabled. OpenPose supports the ability to combine multiple keypoint detection methods in real-time with a single network. Body keypoint detection allows simple poses to act as the pilot identifier. The hand keypoint detection with ROIs for each finger can then offer a greater variety of signal options for the pilot once identified. For this work, the individual must raise their non-control arm to be identified as the operator and send commands with the hand on their other arm. The drone ignores all other individuals in the onboard camera feed until the current operator lowers their non-control arm. When another individual wish to operate the drone, they simply raise their arm once the current operator relinquishes control, and then they can begin controlling the drone with their other hand. This is all performed mid-flight with no landing or script editing required. When using a desktop with a discrete NVIDIA GPU, the drone’s 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection combined with OpenPose restrictions to only body and hand allows this control method to perform as intended while maintaining the responsiveness required for practical use.

Keywords: computer vision, drone control, keypoint detection, openpose

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Authors: Marutani M, Kawajiri H, Usui C, Takai Y, Kawaguchi T

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Background: To build the inclusive society, the Japanese government provides “transition support for employment system” for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). It is, however, difficult to provide appropriate accommodations due to their changeable health conditions. Mobile phone applications (App) are useful to monitor their health conditions and their environments, and effective to improve reasonable accommodations for PWDs. Purpose: This study aimed to develop an App that PWDs input their self-assessment and make their health conditions and environment conditions visible. To attain the goal, we investigated the items of the App for the first step. Methods: Qualitative and descriptive design was used for this study. Study participants were recruited by snowball sampling in July and August 2023. They had to have had minimum of five-years of experience to support PWDs’ employment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on their assessment regarding PWDs’ conditions of daily activities, their health conditions, and living and working environment. Verbatim transcript was created from each interview content. We extracted the following items in tree groups from each verbatim transcript: daily activities, health conditions, and living and working. Results: Fourteen participants were involved (average years of experience: 10.6 years). Based on the interviews, tree item groups were enriched. The items of daily activities were divided into fifty-five. The example items were as follows: “have meals on one’s style” “feel like slept well” “wake-up time, bedtime, and mealtime are usually fixed.” “commute to the office and work without barriers.” Thirteen items of health conditions were obtained like “feel no anxiety” “relieve stress” “focus on work and training” “have no pain” “have the physical strength to work for one day.” The items of categories of living and working environments were divided into fifteen-two. The example items were as follows: “have no barrier in home” “have supportive family members” “have time to take medication on time while at work” “commute time is just right” “people at the work understand the symptoms” “room temperature and humidity are just right” “get along well with friends in my own way.” The participants also mentioned the styles to input self-assessment like that a face scale would be preferred to number scale. Conclusion: The items were enriched existent paper-based assessment items in terms of living and working environment because those were obtained from the perspective of PWDs. We have to create the app and examine its usefulness with PWDs toward inclusive society.

Keywords: occupational health, innovatiove tool, people with disability, employment

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Authors: Zan Chen, D. Kwok

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The SkillsFuture Singapore’s mission to develop a responsive and forward-looking Training and Adult Education (TAE) and workforce development system is undergirded by how successful TAE providers are in their business performance and strategies that strengthen their operational efficiency and processes. Therefore, understanding the factors that drive the business performance of TAE providers is critical to the success of SkillsFuture Singapore’s initiatives. This study aims to investigate how business strategy, work autonomy, work intensity and professional development support impact the business performance of private TAE providers. Specifically, the three research questions are: (1) Are there significant relationships between the above-mentioned four factors and TAE providers’ business performance?; (2) Are there significant differences on the four factors between low and high TAE providers’ business performance groups?; and (3) To what extent and in what manner do the four factors predict TAE providers’ business performance? This was part of the first national study on organizations and professionals working in the Training and Adult Education (TAE) sector. Data from 265 private TAE providers where respondents were Chief Executive Officers representatives from the Senior Management were analyzed. The results showed that business strategy (the extent that the organization leads the way in terms of developing new products and services; uses up-to-date learning technologies; customizes its products and services to the client’s needs), work autonomy (the extent that the staff personally have an influence on how hard they work; deciding what tasks they are to do; deciding how they are to do the tasks, and deciding the quality standards to which they work) and professional development support (both monetary and non-monetary support and incentives) had positive and significant relationships with business performance. However, no significant relationship is found between work intensity and business performance. A business strategy, work autonomy and professional development support were significantly higher in the high business performance group compared to the low-performance group among the TAE providers. Results of hierarchical regression analyses controlling for the size of the TAE providers showed significant impacts of business strategy, work autonomy and professional development support on TAE providers’ business performance. Overall, the model accounted for 27% of the variance in TAE providers’ business performance. This study provides policymakers with insights into improving existing policies, designing new initiatives and implementing targeting interventions to support TAE providers. The findings also have implications on how the TAE providers could better formulate their organizational strategies and business models. Finally, limitations of study, along with directions for future research will be discussed in the paper.

Keywords: adult education, business performance, business strategy, training, work autonomy

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Authors: Prataksitorn Chonlakan, Tiparat Wongsilarat

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The traditional clinical practice guideline used at the emergency room at Songkhla Hospital in caring for patients who come in contact with jellyfish venom took a long time for the pain to reduce to the level that patients can cope with. To investigate the effectiveness of clinical practice guidelines by comparing the effectiveness of a newly developed clinical practice guideline with the traditional clinical practice guideline in the following aspects: 1) pain reduction, 2) length of pain, 3) the rate of patient’s re-visit, 4) the rate of severe complications such as anaphylactic shock, and cardiac arrest, and death, and 5) patient satisfaction. This study employed a quasi-experimental research design. Thirty subjects were selected with purposive sampling from jellyfish-sting patients who came for treatment at the Emergency Room of Songkhla Hospital. The subjects were divided using random assignment into two groups of 15 each: an experimental group, and the control group. The control group was treated using the traditional clinical practice guideline consisting of rinsing the affected area with 0.9% normal saline, using a cloth soaked with vinegar to press against the affected area, and controlling pain using tramadol or diclofenac intramuscular injection. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-test at the significance level p < 0.05. The results of the study revealed the following. The pain level in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group (the average pain score of the experimental group was 3.46 while that of the control group was 6.33) (p < 0.05).The length of pain in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group (the average length of pain in the experimental group was 48.67 minutes while that of the control group was 105.35 minutes) (p < 0.05). The rate of re-visit within 12 hours in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group (the rate of re-visit within 12 hours of the experimental group was 0.07 while that of the control group was 0.00) (p < 0.05).No severe complications such as anaphylactic shock, and cardiac arrest were found in the two groups of subjects.The rate of satisfaction among the subjects in the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (the rate of satisfaction among the subjects of the experimental group was 90.00 percent while that among the control group was 66.33 percent) (p < 0.05). The newly develop clinical practice guideline could reduce pain and increase satisfaction among jellyfish-sting patients better than the traditional clinical practice guideline.

Keywords: effectiveness, clinical practice guideline, jellyfish-sting patients, cardiac arrest

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Authors: Tadesse Kebede Dabsu

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Insect pest is one the major limiting factor for sustainable food production. To overtake insect pest problem, since Second World War, producers have used excessive insecticide for insect pest management. However, in the era of 21st Century, the excessive use of insecticide caused insect resistant, insecticide bioaccumulation, insecticide hazard to environment, human health problem, and the like. Due to these problems, research efforts have been focused on the development of environmental free sustainable insect pest management method. To minimize all above mentioned risk utilizing of biological control such as entomopathogenicmicroorganism include bacteria, virus, fungus, and their productsare the best option for suppress insect population below certain density level. The objective of this review was to review the updated available studies and recent developments on the entomopathogenic bacteria (EPB) as biological control of insect pest and challenge of using them for control of insect pest. EPB’s mechanisms of insecticidal activities, type, taxonomy, and history are included in this paper body. EPB has been successfully used for the suppression of populations of insect pests. Controlling of harmful insect by entomopathogenic bacteria is an effective, low bioaccumulation in environment and food, very specific, reduce resistance risk in insect pest, economically and sustainable method of major insect pest management method. Identified and reported as potential major common type of entomopathogenic bacteria include Bacillus thuringiensis, Photorhabdus sp., Xenorhabdus spp.Walbachiaspp, Actinomycetesspp.etc. These bacteria being enter into insect body through natural opening or by vector release toxin protein inside of insect and disrupt the cell’s content cause natural mortality under natural condition. As per reported by different scientists, insect orders like Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and Dipterahave been successful controlled by entomopathogenic bacteria. As per coming across in different scientific research journals, much of the work was emphasised on Bacillus thuringiensisbsp. Therefore, for commercial production like Bacillus thuringiensi, detail research should be done on other bacteria species. The efficacy and practical application of EPB are restricted to some crops and greenhouse area, but their field application at farmers’ level very less. So still much work needs to be done to the practical application of the EPB at widely application. Their efficacy, pathogenicity, and host range test should be tested under environmental condition.

Keywords: insect pest, entomopathogenic bacteria, biological control, agent

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Authors: Sangwoo Han, Saeed Khaleghi Rahimian, Ying Liu

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Vehicle electrification is gaining momentum, and many car manufacturers promise to deliver more electric vehicle (EV) models to consumers in the coming years. In controlling the battery pack, the battery management system (BMS) must maintain optimal battery performance while ensuring the safety of a battery pack. Tasks related to battery performance include determining state-of-charge (SOC), state-of-power (SOP), state-of-health (SOH), cell balancing, and battery charging. Safety related functions include making sure cells operate within specified, static and dynamic voltage window and temperature range, derating power, detecting faulty cells, and warning the user if necessary. The BMS often utilizes an RC circuit model to model a Li-ion cell because of its robustness and low computation cost among other benefits. Because an equivalent circuit model such as the RC model is not a physics-based model, it can never be a prognostic model to predict battery state-of-health and avoid any safety risk even before it occurs. A physics-based Li-ion cell model, on the other hand, is more capable at the expense of computation cost. To avoid the high computation cost associated with a full-order model, many researchers have demonstrated the use of a single particle model (SPM) for BMS applications. One drawback associated with the single particle modeling approach is that it forces to use the average current density in the calculation. The SPM would be appropriate for simulating drive cycles where there is insufficient time to develop a significant current distribution within an electrode. However, under a continuous or high-pulse electrical load, the model may fail to predict cell voltage or Li⁺ plating potential. To overcome this issue, a multi-particle reduced-order model is proposed here. The use of multiple particles combined with either linear or nonlinear charge-transfer reaction kinetics enables to capture current density distribution within an electrode under any type of electrical load. To maintain computational complexity like that of an SPM, governing equations are solved sequentially to minimize iterative solving processes. Furthermore, the model is validated against a full-order model implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics.

Keywords: battery management system, physics-based li-ion cell model, reduced-order model, single-particle and multi-particle model

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Authors: A. Rezazadeh, B Damari, S. Riazi-Esfahani, M. Hajian

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The consumption of junk food in Iran is alarmingly increasing. This study aimed to investigate the influencing factors of junk food consumption and amendable interventions that are criticized and approved by stakeholders, in order to presented to health policy makers. The articles and documents related to the content of study were collected by using the appropriate key words such as junk food, carbonated beverage, chocolate, candy, sweets, industrial fruit juices, potato chips, French fries, puffed corn, cakes, biscuits, sandwiches, prepared foods and popsicles, ice cream, bar, chewing gum, pastilles and snack, in scholar.google.com, pubmed.com, eric.ed.gov, cochrane.org, magiran.com, medlib.ir, irandoc.ac.ir, who.int, iranmedex.com, sid.ir, pubmed.org and sciencedirect.com databases. The main key points were extracted and included in a checklist and qualitatively analyzed. Then a summarized abstract was prepared in a format of a questionnaire to be presented to stakeholders. The design of this was qualitative (Delphi). According to this method, a questionnaire was prepared based on reviewing the articles and documents and it was emailed to stakeholders, who were asked to prioritize and choose the main problems and effective interventions. After three rounds, consensus was obtained.            Studies revealed high consumption of junk foods in the Iranian population, especially in children and adolescents. The most important affecting factors include availability, low price, media advertisements, preference of fast foods taste, the variety of the packages and their attractiveness, low awareness and changing in lifestyle. Main interventions recommended by stakeholders include developing a protective environment, educational interventions, increasing healthy food access and controlling media advertisements and putting pressure from the Industry and Mining Ministry on producers to produce healthy snacks. According to the findings, the results of this study may be proposed to public health policymakers as an advocacy paper and to be integrated in the interventional programs of Health and Education ministries and the media. Also, implementation of supportive meetings with the producers of alternative healthy products is suggested.

Keywords: junk foods, situation, qualitative study, Iran

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Authors: Ernest Nweke

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Mongolia has made giant strides in the development of its auditing and accounting system from Soviet-style to a market-oriented system. High levels of domestic and foreign investment desired by the Mongolian government require that better and improved quality of corporate information and disclosure consistent with international standards be made available to investors. However, the Mongolian Certified Public Accountants (CPA) profession is still developing, and the quality of services provided by accounting firms in most cases do not comply with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) framework approved by the government for use in financial reporting. Against this backdrop, Accounting and audit reforms, liberalization and deregulation, establishment of an efficient and effective professional monitoring and supervision regime are policy necessities. These will further enhance the Mongolian business environment, eliminate incompetence in the system, make the economy more attractive to investors and ultimately lift reporting standards and bring about improved accounting, auditing and disclosure practices among Mongolian firms. This paper examines the fundamental issues in the accounting and auditing environment in Mongolia and investigates the relationship between selected characteristics of Mongolian Stock Exchange (MSE) listed firms (profitability, leverage, firm size, firm auditor size, firm listing age, board size and proportion of independent directors) and voluntary accounting disclosures in their annual reports and accounts. The selected sample of firms for the research purpose consists of the top 20 indexes of the MSE, representing over 95% of the market capitalization. An empirical analysis of the hypothesized relationship was carried out using multiple regression in EViews analytical software. Research results lend credence to the fact that only a few of the company attributes positively impact voluntary accounting disclosures in Mongolian Stock Exchange-listed firms. The research is motivated by the absence of empirical evidence on the correlation between the quality of voluntary accounting disclosures made by listed companies in Mongolia and company characteristics and the findings thereof significantly useful to both firms and regulatory authorities. The concluding part of the paper precisely consists of useful research-based recommendations for listed firms and regulatory agencies on measures to put in place in order to enhance the quality of corporate financial reporting and disclosures in Mongolia.

Keywords: accounting, auditing, corporate disclosure, listed firms

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Authors: Păcurar Diana Istina

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Structured in three chapters, the article attempts an X-ray of the theatrical aesthetics, correctly understood through the emotions generated in the intimate structure of the spectator that precedes the triggering of the viewer’s perception and not through the superposition, unfortunately common, of the notion of aesthetics with the style in which a theater show is built. The first chapter contains a brief history of the appearance of the word aesthetic, the formulation of definitions for this new term, as well as its connections with the notions of semiotics, in particular with the perception of the message transmitted. Starting with Aristotle and Plato, and reaching Magritte, their interventions should not be interpreted in the sense that the two scientific concepts can merge into one discipline. The perception that is the object of everyone’s analysis, the understanding of meaning, the decoding of the messages sent, and the triggering of feelings that culminate in pleasure, shaping the aesthetic vision, are some elements that keep semiotics and aesthetics distinct, even though they share many methods of analysis. The compositional processes of aesthetic representation and symbolic formation are analyzed in the second part of the paper from perspectives that include or do not include historical, cultural, social, and political processes. Aesthetics and the organization of its symbolic process are treated, taking into account expressive activity. The last part of the article explores the notion of aesthetics in applied theater, more specifically in the theater show. Taking the postmodern approach that aesthetics applies to the creation of an artifact and the reception of that artifact, the intervention of these elements in the theatrical system must be emphasized –that is, the analysis of the problems arising in the stages of the creation, presentation, and reception, by the public, of the theater performance. The aesthetic process is triggered involuntarily, simultaneously, or before the moment when people perceive the meaning of the messages transmitted by the work of art. The finding of this fact makes the mental process of aesthetics similar or related to that of semiotics. No matter how perceived individually, beauty, the mechanism of production can be reduced to two. The first step presents similarities to Peirce’s model, but the process between signified and signified additionally stimulates the related memory of the evaluation of beauty, adding to the meanings related to the signification itself. Then, the second step, a process of comparison, is followed, in which one examines whether the object being looked at matches the accumulated memory of beauty. Therefore, even though aesthetics is derived from the conceptual part, the judgment of beauty and, more than that, moral judgment come to be so important to the social activities of human beings that it evolves as a visible process independent of other conceptual contents.

Keywords: aesthetics, semiotics, symbolic composition, subjective joints, signifying, signified

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Authors: Shriya Chawla, Vinayak Malhotra

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Space exploration has noted an exponential rise in the past two decades. The world has started probing the alternatives for efficient and resourceful sustenance along with utilization of advanced technology viz., satellites on earth. Space propulsion forms the core of space exploration. Of all the issues encountered, space debris has increasingly threatened the space exploration and propulsion. The efforts have resulted in the presence of disastrous space debris fragments orbiting the earth at speeds up to several kilometres per hour. Debris are well known as a potential damage to the future missions with immense loss of resources, mankind, and huge amount of money is invested in active research on them. Appreciable work had been done in the past relating to active space debris-removal technologies such as harpoon, net, drag sail. The primary emphasis is laid on confined removal. In recently, remove debris spacecraft was used for servicing and capturing cargo ships. Airbus designed and planned the debris-catching net experiment, aboard the spacecraft. The spacecraft represents largest payload deployed from the space station. However, the magnitude of the issue suggests that active space debris-removal technologies, such as harpoons and nets, still would not be enough. Thus, necessitating the need for better and operative space debris removal system. Techniques based on diverting the path of debris or the spacecraft to avert damage have turned out minimal usage owing to limited predictions. Present work focuses on an active hybrid space debris removal system. The work is motivated by the need to have safer and efficient space missions. The specific objectives of the work are 1) to thoroughly analyse the existing and conventional debris removal techniques, their working, effectiveness and limitations under varying conditions, 2) to understand the role of key controlling parameters in coupled operation of debris capturing and removal. The system represents the utilization of the latest autonomous technology available with an adaptable structural design for operations under varying conditions. The design covers advantages of most of the existing technologies while removing the disadvantages. The system is likely to enhance the probability of effective space debris removal. At present, systematic theoretical study is being carried out to thoroughly observe the effects of pseudo-random debris occurrences and to originate an optimal design with much better features and control.

Keywords: space exploration, debris removal, space crafts, space accidents

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Authors: Wenqian Bai

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Background: In response to the post-pandemic directives of Xi Jinping concerning the new era of ecological civilization, China has embarked on ecological restoration projects across its territorial spaces. This initiative faces challenges such as complex evaluation metrics and subpar informatization standards. Methodology: This research focuses on Mianzhu City, Sichuan Province, to assess its resource and environmental carrying capacities and the appropriateness of land use for development from ecological, agricultural, and urban perspectives. The study incorporates a range of spatial data to evaluate factors like ecosystem services (including water conservation, soil retention, and biodiversity), ecological vulnerability (addressing issues like soil erosion and desertification), and resilience. Utilizing the Minimum Cumulative Resistance model along with the ‘Three Zones and Three Lines’ strategy, the research maps out ecological corridors and significant ecological networks. These frameworks support the ecological restoration and environmental enhancement of the area. Results: The study identifies critical ecological zones in Mianzhu City's northwestern region, highlighting areas essential for protection and particularly crucial for water conservation. The southeastern region is categorized as a generally protected ecological zone with respective ratings for water conservation functionality and ecosystem resilience. The research also explores the spatial challenges of three ecological functions and underscores the substantial impact of human activities, such as mining and agricultural expansion, on the ecological baseline. The proposed spatial arrangement for ecological restoration, termed ‘One Mountain, One Belt, Four Rivers, Five Zones, and Multiple Corridors’, strategically divides the city into eight major restoration zones, each with specific tasks and projects. Conclusion: With its significant ‘mountain-plain’ geography, Mianzhu City acts as a crucial ecological buffer for the Yangtze River's upper reaches. Future development should focus on enhancing ecological corridors in agriculture and urban areas, controlling soil erosion, and converting farmlands back to forests and grasslands to foster ecosystem rehabilitation.

Keywords: ecological restoration, resource and environmental carrying capacity, land development suitability, ecosystem services, ecological vulnerability, ecological networks

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Authors: Leyla A. Sandoval Hamón, Fernando Casani

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Sustainability has been integrated into the cities’ agenda due to the impact that they generate. The dimensions of greater proliferation of sustainability, which are taken as a reference, are economic, social and environmental. Thus, the decisions of management of the sustainable cities search a balance between these dimensions in order to provide environment-friendly alternatives. In this context, urban models (where water consumption, energy consumption, waste production, among others) that have emerged in harmony with the environment, are known as Ecocity. A similar model, but on a smaller scale, is ‘Ecocampus’ that is developed in universities (considered ‘small cities’ due to its complex structure). So, sustainable practices are being implemented in the management of university campus activities, following different relevant lines of work. The universities have a strategic role in society, and their activities can strengthen policies, strategies, and measures of sustainability, both internal and external to the organization. Because of their mission in knowledge creation and transfer, these institutions can promote and disseminate more advanced activities in sustainability. This model replica also implies challenges in the sustainable management of water, energy, waste, transportation, among others, inside the campus. The challenge that this paper focuses on is the water management, taking into account that the universities consume big amounts of this resource. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the sustainability experience, with emphasis on water management, of two different campuses belonging to two different Spanish universities - one urban campus in a historic city and the other a suburban campus in the outskirts of a large city. Both universities are in the top hundred of international rankings of sustainable universities. The methodology adopts a qualitative method based on the technique of in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions with administrative and academic staff of the ‘Ecocampus’ offices, the organizational units for sustainability management, from the two Spanish universities. The hypotheses indicate that sustainable policies in terms of water management are best in campuses without big green spaces and where the buildings are built or rebuilt with modern style. The sustainability efforts of the university are independent of the kind of (urban – suburban) campus but an important aspect to improve is the degree of awareness of the university community about water scarcity. In general, the paper suggests that higher institutions adapt their sustainability policies depending on the location and features of the campus and their engagement with the water conservation. Many Spanish universities have proposed policies, good practices, and measures of sustainability. In fact, some offices or centers of Ecocampus have been founded. The originality of this study is to learn from the different experiences of sustainability policies of universities.

Keywords: ecocampus, ecocity, sustainability, water management

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Authors: Anshita Sharma

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India is one of the countries to initiate family planning with intention to control the growing population by reducing fertility. In effort to this, India had introduced the National family planning programme in 1952. The level of unmet need in India shows a reducing trend with increasing effectiveness of family planning services as in NFHS-1 the unmet need for limiting, spacing and total was 46 percent, 14 percent & 9 percent, respectively. The demand for spacing has reduced to at 8 percent, 8 percent for limiting and total unmet need was 16 percent in NFHS-2. The total unmet need has reduced to 13 percent in NFHS-3 for all currently married women and the demand for limiting and spacing is 7 percent and 6 percent respectively. The level of unmet need in India shows a reducing trend with increasing effectiveness of family planning services. Despite the progress, there is chunk of women who are deprived of controlling unintended and unwanted pregnancies. The present paper examines the socio-cultural and economic and demographic correlates of unmet need for contraception in India. It also examines the effect of women’s autonomy and unmet need for contraception on family size among different socio-economic groups of population. It uses data from national family health survey-3 carried out in 2005-06 and employs bi-variate techniques and multivariate techniques for analysis. The multiple regression analysis has done to seek the level and direction of relationship among various socio-economic and demographic factors. The result reveals that women with higher level of education and economic status have low level of unmet need for family planning. Women living in non-nuclear family have high unmet need for spacing and women living in nuclear family have high unmet need for limiting and family size is slightly higher of women of nuclear family. In India, the level of autonomy varies at different life point; usually women with higher age enjoy higher autonomy than their junior female member in the family. The finding shows that women with higher autonomy have large family size counter to women with low autonomy have low family size. Unmet need for family planning decrease with women’s increasing exposure to mass- media. The demographic factors like experience of child loss are directly related to family size. Women who experience higher child loss have low unmet need for spacing and limiting. Thus, It is established with the help that women’s autonomy status play substantial role in fulfilling demand of contraception for limiting and spacing which affect the family size.

Keywords: family size, socio-economic correlates, unmet need for limiting, unmet need for spacing, women`s autonomy

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Authors: Hugo Reis, Isabel Rabiais

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The main purpose of the present study is to understand the nurse’s responsibility in preventing the septic shock in an oncological patient with febrile neutropenia submitted to chemotherapy. In order to do it, an integrative review of literature has been conducted. In the research done in many databases, it was concluded that only 7 out of 5202 articles compiled the entire inclusion standard present in the strict protocol of research, being this made up by all different methodologies. On the research done in the 7 articles it has resulted 8 text macro-units associated to different nursing interventions: ‘Health Education’; ‘Prophylactic Therapy Administration’; ‘Scales Utilization’; ‘Patient Evaluation’; ‘Environment Control’; ‘Performance of Diagnostic Auxiliary Exams’; ‘Protocol Enforcement/Procedure Guidelines’; ‘Antibiotic Therapy Administration’. Concerning the prevalence/result’s division there can be identified many conclusions: the macro-units ‘Patient Evaluation’, ‘Performance of Diagnostic Auxiliary Exams’, and ‘Antibiotic Therapy Administration’ present themselves to be the most prevalent in the research – 6 in 7 occurrences (approximately 85.7%). Next, the macro-unit ‘Protocol Enforcement/Procedure Guidelines’ presents itself as an important expression unit – being part of 5 out of the 7 analyzed studies (approximately 71.4%). The macro-unit ‘Health Education’, seems to be in the same way, an important expression unit – 4 out of the 7 (or approximately 57%). The macro-unit ‘Scales Utilization’, represents a minor part in the research done – it’s in only 2 out of the 7 cases (approximately 28.6%). On the other hand, the macro-units ‘Prophylactic Therapy Administration’ and ‘Environment Control’ are the two categories with fewer results in the research - 1 out of the 7 cases, the same as approximately 14.3% of the research results. Every research done to the macro-unit ‘Antibiotic Therapy Administration’ agreed to refer that the intervention should be strictly done, in a period of time less than one hour after diagnosing the fever, with the purpose of controlling the quick spread of infection – minimizing its seriousness. Identifying these interventions contributes, concluding that, to adopt strategies in order to prevent the phenomenon that represents a daily scenario responsible for the cost´s increase in health institutions, being at the same time responsible for the high morbidity rates and mortality increase associated with this specific group of patients.

Keywords: febrile neutropenia, oncology nursing, patient, septic shock

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Authors: Farhan J. M. Al-Behadili, Vineeta Bilgi, Miyuki Taniguchi, Junxi Li, Wei Xu

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Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) is one of the most destructive pests of fruits and vegetables. Medfly originated from Africa and spread in many countries, and is currently an endemic pest in Western Australia. Medfly has been recorded from over 300 plant species including fruits, vegetables, nuts and its main hosts include blueberries, citrus, stone fruit, pome fruits, peppers, tomatoes, and figs. Global trade of fruits and other farm fresh products are suffering from the damages of this pest, which prompted towards the need to develop more effective ways to control these pests. The available quarantine treatment technologies mainly include chemical treatment (e.g., fumigation) and non-chemical treatments (e.g., cold, heat and irradiation). In recent years, with the loss of several chemicals, it has become even more important to rely on non-chemical postharvest control technologies (i.e., heat, cold and irradiation) to control fruit flies. Cold treatment is one of the most potential trends of focus in postharvest treatment because it is free of chemical residues, mitigates or kills the pest population, increases the strength of the fruits, and prolongs storage time. It can also be applied to fruits after packing and ‘in transit’ during lengthy transport by sea during their exports. However, limited systematic study on cold treatment of Medfly stages in artificial diets was reported, which is critical to provide a scientific basis to compare with previous research in plant products and design an effective cold treatment suitable for exported plant products. The overall purpose of this study was to evaluate and understand Medfly responses to cold treatments. Medfly stages were tested. The long-term goal was to optimize current postharvest treatments and develop more environmentally-friendly, cost-effective, and efficient treatments for controlling Medfly. Cold treatment with different exposure times is studied to evaluate cold eradication treatment of Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), that reared on carrot diet. Mortality is important aspect was studied in this study. On the other hand, study effects of exposure time on mortality means of medfly stages.

Keywords: cold treatment, fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, carrot diet, temperature effects

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Authors: Divyans Mahansaria

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User authentication is an important security measure for protecting confidential data and systems. However, the vulnerability while authenticating into a system has significantly increased. Thus, necessary mechanisms must be deployed during the process of authenticating a user to safeguard him/her from the vulnerable attacks. The proposed solution implements a novel authentication mechanism to counter various forms of security breach attacks including phishing, Trojan horse, replay, key logging, Asterisk logging, shoulder surfing, brute force search and others. QR code (Quick Response Code) is a type of matrix barcode or two-dimensional barcode that can be used for storing URLs, text, images and other information. In the proposed solution, during each new authentication request, a QR code is dynamically generated and presented to the user. A piece of generic information is mapped to plurality of elements and stored within the QR code. The mapping of generic information with plurality of elements, randomizes in each new login, and thus the QR code generated for each new authentication request is for one-time use only. In order to authenticate into the system, the user needs to decode the QR code using any QR code decoding software. The QR code decoding software needs to be installed on handheld mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistant (PDA), etc. On decoding the QR code, the user will be presented a mapping between the generic piece of information and plurality of elements using which the user needs to derive cipher secret information corresponding to his/her actual password. Now, in place of the actual password, the user will use this cipher secret information to authenticate into the system. The authentication terminal will receive the cipher secret information and use a validation engine that will decipher the cipher secret information. If the entered secret information is correct, the user will be provided access to the system. Usability study has been carried out on the proposed solution, and the new authentication mechanism was found to be easy to learn and adapt. Mathematical analysis of the time taken to carry out brute force attack on the proposed solution has been carried out. The result of mathematical analysis showed that the solution is almost completely resistant to brute force attack. Today’s standard methods for authentication are subject to a wide variety of software, hardware, and human attacks. The proposed scheme can be very useful in controlling the various types of authentication related attacks especially in a networked computer environment where the use of username and password for authentication is common.

Keywords: authentication, QR code, cipher / decipher text, one time password, secret information

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Authors: Malahat Rezaee, Mahiran Basri, Abu Bakar Salleh, Raja Noor Zaliha Raja Abdul Rahman

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Sodium diclofenac is one of the most commonly used drugs of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). It is especially effective in the controlling the severe conditions of inflammation and pain, musculoskeletal disorders, arthritis, and dysmenorrhea. Formulation as nanoemulsions is one of the nanoscience approaches that has been progressively considered in pharmaceutical science for transdermal delivery of the drug. Nanoemulsions are a type of emulsion with particle sizes ranging from 20 nm to 200 nm. An emulsion is formed by the dispersion of one liquid, usually the oil phase in another immiscible liquid, water phase that is stabilized using the surfactant. Palm kernel oil esters (PKOEs), in comparison to other oils, contain higher amounts of shorter chain esters, which suitable to be applied in micro and nanoemulsion systems as a carrier for actives, with excellent wetting behavior without the oily feeling. This research aimed to study the effect of terpene type and concentration on sodium diclofenac permeation from palm kernel oil esters nanoemulsions and physicochemical properties of the nanoemulsions systems. The effect of various terpenes of geraniol, menthone, menthol, cineol and nerolidol at different concentrations of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0% on permeation of sodium diclofenac were evaluated using Franz diffusion cells and rat skin as permeation membrane. The results of this part demonstrated that all terpenes showed promoting effect on sodium diclofenac penetration. However, menthol and menthone at all concentrations showed significant effects (<0.05) on drug permeation. The most outstanding terpene was menthol with the most significant effect for skin permeability of sodium diclofenac. The effect of terpenes on physicochemical properties of nanoemulsion systems was investigated on the parameters of particle size, zeta potential, pH, viscosity and electrical conductivity. The result showed that all terpenes had the significant effect on particle size and non-significant effects on the zeta potential of the nanoemulsion systems. The effect of terpenes was significant on pH, excluding the menthone at concentrations of 0.5 and 1.0%, and cineol and nerolidol at the concentration of 2.0%. Terpenes also had significant effect on viscosity of nanoemulsions exception of menthone and cineol at the concentration of 0.5%. The result of conductivity measurements showed that all terpenes at all concentration except cineol at the concentration of 0.5% represented significant effect on electrical conductivity.

Keywords: nanoemulsions, palm kernel oil esters, sodium diclofenac, terpenes, skin permeation

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Authors: Michael Mihalicz, Aziz Guergachi

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Background: The science of modelling choice preferences has evolved over centuries into an interdisciplinary field contributing to several branches of Microeconomics and Mathematical Psychology. Early theories in Decision Science rested on the logic of rationality, but as it and related fields matured, descriptive theories emerged capable of explaining systematic violations of rationality through cognitive mechanisms underlying the thought processes that guide human behaviour. Cognitive limitations are not, however, solely responsible for systematic deviations from rationality and many are now exploring the effect of visceral factors as the more dominant drivers. The current study builds on the existing literature by exploring sleep deprivation, thermal comfort, stress, hunger, fear, anger and sadness as moderators to three distinct elements that define individual risk preference under Cumulative Prospect Theory. Methodology: This study is designed to compare the risk preference of participants experiencing an elevated affective or visceral state to those in a neutral state using nonparametric elicitation methods across three domains. Two experiments will be conducted simultaneously using different methodologies. The first will determine visceral states and risk preferences randomly over a two-week period by prompting participants to complete an online survey remotely. In each round of questions, participants will be asked to self-assess their current state using Visual Analogue Scales before answering a series of lottery-style elicitation questions. The second experiment will be conducted in a laboratory setting using psychological primes to induce a desired state. In this experiment, emotional states will be recorded using emotion analytics and used a basis for comparison between the two methods. Significance: The expected results include a series of measurable and systematic effects on the subjective interpretations of gamble attributes and evidence supporting the proposition that a portion of the variability in human choice preferences unaccounted for by cognitive limitations can be explained by interacting visceral states. Significant results will promote awareness about the subconscious effect that emotions and other drive states have on the way people process and interpret information, and can guide more effective decision making by informing decision-makers of the sources and consequences of irrational behaviour.

Keywords: decision making, emotions, prospect theory, visceral factors

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Authors: Sungeun Hyun, Sooin Lee, Gyewan Moon

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Work-Family Conflict has been an active research area for the past decades. Work-Family Conflict harms individuals and organizations, it is ultimately expected to bring the cost of losses to the company in the long run. WFC has mainly focused on effects of organizational effectiveness and job attitude such as Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intention variables. This study is different from consequence variable with previous research. For this purpose, we selected the positive job attitude 'Work Engagement' as a consequence of WFC. This research has its primary research purpose in identifying the negative effects of the Work-Family Conflict, and started out from the recognition of the problem that the research on the direct relationship on the influence of the WFC on Work Engagement is lacking. Based on the COR(Conservation of resource theory) and JD-R(Job Demand- Resource model), the empirical study model to examine the negative effects of WFC with Emotional Exhaustion as the link between WFC and Work Engagement was suggested and validated. Also, it was analyzed how much Positive Psychological Capital may buffer the negative effects arising from WFC within this relationship, and the Mediated Moderation model controlling the indirect effect influencing the Work Engagement by the Positive Psychological Capital mediated by the WFC and Emotional Exhaustion was verified. Data was collected by using questionnaires distributed to 500 employees engaged manufacturing, services, finance, IT industry, education services, and other sectors, of which 389 were used in the statistical analysis. The data are analyzed by statistical package, SPSS 21.0, SPSS macro and AMOS 21.0. The hierarchical regression analysis, SPSS PROCESS macro and Bootstrapping method for hypothesis testing were conducted. Results showed that all hypotheses are supported. First, WFC showed a negative effect on Work Engagement. Specifically, WIF appeared to be on more negative effects than FIW. Second, Emotional exhaustion found to mediate the relationship between WFC and Work Engagement. Third, Positive Psychological Capital showed to moderate the relationship between WFC and Emotional Exhaustion. Fourth, the effect of mediated moderation through the integration verification, Positive Psychological Capital demonstrated to buffer the relationship among WFC, Emotional Exhastion, and Work Engagement. Also, WIF showed a more negative effects than FIW through verification of all hypotheses. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications on research and management of the WFC, and proposed limitations and future research directions of research.

Keywords: emotional exhaustion, positive psychological capital, work engagement, work-family conflict

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Authors: Chang Hsueh-Sheng, Chen Tzu-Ling

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Earthquake is an unpredictable natural disaster and intensive earthquakes have caused serious impacts on social-economic system, environmental and social resilience, and further increase vulnerability. Due to earthquakes do not kill people, buildings do. When buildings located nearby earthquake-prone areas and constructed upon poorer soil areas might result in earthquake-induced ground damage. In addition, many existing buildings built before any improved seismic provisions began to be required in building codes and inappropriate land usage with highly dense population might result in much serious earthquake disaster. Indeed, not only do earthquake disaster impact seriously on urban environment, but urban growth might increase the vulnerability. Since 1980s, ‘Cutting down risks and vulnerability’ has been brought up in both urban planning and architecture and such concept has way beyond retrofitting of seismic damages, seismic resistance, and better anti-seismic structures, and become the key action on disaster mitigation. Land use planning and zoning are two critical non-structural measures on controlling physical development while it is difficult for zoning boards and governing bodies restrict development of questionable lands to uses compatible with the hazard without credible earthquake loss projection. Therefore, identifying potential earthquake exposure, vulnerability people and places, and urban development areas might become strongly supported information for decision makers. Taiwan locates on the Pacific Ring of Fire where a seismically active zone is. Some of the active faults have been found close by densely populated and highly developed built environment in the cities. Therefore, this study attempts to base on the perspective of carrying capacity and draft out micro-zonation according to both vulnerability index and urban growth index while considering spatial variances of multi factors via geographical weighted principle components (GWPCA). The purpose in this study is to construct supported information for decision makers on revising existing zoning in high-risk areas for a more compatible use and the public on managing risks.

Keywords: earthquake disaster, vulnerability, urban growth, carrying capacity, /geographical weighted principle components (GWPCA), bivariate spatial association statistic

Procedia PDF Downloads 256

Authors: Sung-Hee Nam, Kwang-Gill Lee, You-Young Jo, HaeYong Kweon

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Entomopathogenic fungi is a Cordyceps species that is isolated from dead silkworm and cicada. Fungi on cicadas were described in old Chinese medicinal books and From ancient times, vegetable wasps and plant worms were widely known to have active substance and have been studied for pharmacological use. Among many fungi belonging to the genus Cordyceps, Cordyceps sinensis have been demonstrated to yield natural products possessing various biological activities and many bioactive components. Generally, It is commonly used to replenish the kidney and soothe the lung, and for the treatment of fatigue. Due to their commercial and economic importance, the demand for Cordyceps has been rapidly increased. However, a supply of Cordyceps specimen could not meet the increasing demand because of their sole dependence on field collection and habitat destruction. Because it is difficult to obtain many insect hosts in nature and the edibility of host insect needs to be verified in a pharmacological aspect. Recently, this setback was overcome that P. tenuipes was able to be cultivated in a large scale using silkworm as host. Pharmacological effects of P. tenuipes cultured on silkworm such as strengthening immune function, anti-fatigue, anti-tumor activity and controlling liver etc have been proved. They are widely commercialized. In this study, we attempted to establish a method for stable growth inhibition of P. tenuipes on silkworm hosts and an optimal condition for synnemata formation. To determine optimum culturing conditions, temperature and light conditions were varied. The length and number of synnemata was highest at 25℃ temperature and 100~300 lux illumination. On an average, the synnemata of wild P. tenuipes measures 70 ㎜ in length and 20 in number; those of the cultured strain were relatively shorter and more in number. The number of synnemata may have increased as a result of inoculating the host with highly concentrated conidia, while the length may have decreased due to limited nutrition per individual. It is not able that changes in light illumination cause morphological variations in the synnemata. However, regulation of only light and temperature could not produce stromata like perithecia, asci, and ascospores. Yamanaka reported that although a complete fruiting body can be produced under optimal culture conditions, it should be regarded as synnemata because it does not develop into an ascoma bearing ascospores.

Keywords: paecilomyces tenuipes, entomopathogenic fungi, silkworm larva, bombyx mori

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Authors: Natalia Alonso-Alberca, Ana I. Vergara

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From the very first years of their life, children are confronted with situations in which they need to deal with emotions. The family provides the first emotional experiences, and it is in the family context that children usually take their first steps towards acquiring emotion knowledge. Parents play a key role in this important task, helping their children develop emotional skills that they will need in challenging situations throughout their lives. Specifically, mothers are models imitated by their children. They create specific spatial and temporal contexts in which children learn about emotions, their causes, consequences, and complexity. This occurs not only through what mothers say or do directly to the child. Rather, it occurs, to a large extent, through the example that they set using their own emotional skills. The aim of the current study was to analyze how maternal abilities to perceive and to manage emotions influence children’s emotion knowledge, specifically, their emotion situation knowledge, taking into account the role played by the mother’s personality, the time spent together, and controlling the effect of age, sex and the child’s verbal abilities. Participants were 153 children from 4 schools in Spain, and their mothers. Children (41.8% girls)age range was 35 - 72 months. Mothers (N = 140) age (M = 38.7; R = 27-49). Twelve mothers had more than one child participating in the study. Main variables were the child´s emotion situation knowledge (ESK), measured by the Emotion Matching Task (EMT), and receptive language, using the Picture Vocabulary Test. Also, their mothers´ Emotional Intelligence (EI), through the Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and personality, with The Big Five Inventory were analyzed. The results showed that the predictive power of maternal emotional skills on ESK was moderated by the mother’s personality, affecting both the direction and size of the relationships detected: low neuroticism and low openness to experience lead to a positive influence of maternal EI on children’s ESK, while high levels in these personality dimensions resulted in a negative influence on child´s ESK. The time that the mother and the child spend together was revealed as a positive predictor of this EK, while it did not moderate the influence of the mother's EI on child’s ESK. In light of the results, we can infer that maternal EI is linked to children’s emotional skills, though high level of maternal EI does not necessarily predict a greater degree of emotionknowledge in children, which seems rather to depend on specific personality profiles. The results of the current study indicate that a good level of maternal EI does not guarantee that children will learn the emotional skills that foster prosocial adaptation. Rather, EI must be accompanied by certain psychological characteristics (personality traits in this case).

Keywords: emotional intelligence, emotion situation knowledge, mothers, personality, young children

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Authors: Kamrun Nahar Koly, Saimul Islam

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Overweight and obesity is increasing at an alarming rate and a leading risk factor for morbidity throughout the world. In a country like Bangladesh where under nutrition and overweight both co-exist at the same time, but this issue has been underexplored as expected. The aim of the present study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and identify the barriers of the physicians regarding overweight and obesity management on an urban hospital of Dhaka city in Bangladesh. A simple cross sectional study was conducted at two selected government and two private hospital to assess the knowledge, attitude and common barriers regarding overweight and obesity management among healthcare professionals. One hundred and fifty five physicians were surveyed. A standard questionnaire was constructed in local language and interview was administrated. Among the 155 physicians, majority 53 (34.20%) were working on SMC, 36 (23.20%) from DMC, 33 (21.30%) were based on SSMC and the rest 33 (21.30%) were from HFRCMH. Mean age of the study physicians were 31.88±5.92. Majority of the physicians 80 (51.60%) were not able to answer the correct prevalence of obesity but also a substantial number of them 75(48.40%) could mark the right answer. Among the physicians 150 (96.77%) reported BMI as a diagnostic index for overweight and obesity, where as 43 (27.74%) waist circumference, 30 (19.35%) waist hip ratio and 26 (16.77%) marked mid-arm circumference. A substantial proportion 71 (46.70%) of the physicians thought that they do not have much to do controlling weight problem in Bangladesh context though it has been opposed by 42 (27.60%) of the physicians and 39(25.70%) was neutral to comment. The majority of them 147 (96.1%) thought that a family based education program would be beneficial followed by 145 (94.8%) physicians mentioned about raising awareness among mothers as she is the primary caregiver. The idea of a school based education program will also help to early intervene referred by 142 (92.8%) of the physicians. Community based education program was also appreciated by 136 (89.5%) of the physicians. About 74 (47.7%) of them think that the patients still lack in motivation to maintain their weight properly at the same time too many patients to deal with can be a barrier as well assumed by 73 (47.1%) of them. Lack of national policy or management guideline can act as an obstacle told by 60 (38.7%) of the physicians. The relationship of practicing as a part of the general examination and chronic disease management was statistically significant (p<0.05) with physician occupational status. As besides, perceived barriers like lack of parents support, lack of a national policy was statistically significant (p<0.05) with physician occupational status. For the young physician, more training programme will be needed to transform their knowledge and attitude into practice. However, several important barriers interface for the physician treatment efforts and need to address.

Keywords: obesity management, physician, awareness, barriers, Bangladesh

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Authors: Prachi Sharma, B. V. Ramkumar

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In current days, autism is a well-known neurodevelopmental disorder that may restrict child development globally. Ignorance or delayed identification or incorrect diagnosis of autism is a major challenge in controlling such an incurable disorder. This may lead to various behavioural complications followed by mental illness in adulthood. Autism is an incurable disorder that is progressive and negatively affects our development globally. This may vary in degree in different skills. However, a deviation from the normal range creates a complex outcome in social and communication areas and restricts or deviates cognitive ability. The primary goal of the present research is to identify and understand the deviations in cognitive, social communication, and behaviour in children during their growing age, with a focus on autism. In this study, five children with mild autism were taken. All the children had achieved normal developmental milestones until the age of one year. The maximum age of observation of children’s development was four years to see the difference in their developmental rates in the areas of cognitive, social communication, and behaviour. The study is based on the parental report about their children from 1 year to 4 years. Videos and pictures of children during their development were also seen as a reference to verify information received by the parents of the children. This research is qualitative, with samples for which were selected using a purposive sampling technique. The data was collected from the OPD, NIEPID RC, NOIDA, India. The data was collected in the form of parental reports based on their observations about their kids. Videos were also seen to verify the information reported by the parents (just shown to verify the facts, not shared). In results, we observed a significant difference in the rate of development in all five children taken for this research. The children having mild autism, at present, showed variations in all three domains (cognitive, social communication, and behaviour). These variations were seen in terms of restricted development in global areas. The result revealed that typical features of ASD had created more cognitive restrictions as compared to the children having ASD features with hyperactivity. Behavioral problems were observed with different levels of severity in the children having ASD with hyperactivity, whereas children with typical ASD are found with some typical problem behaviours like head banging, body rocking, self-biting, etc., with different levels of severity. The social-communication area was observed as equally affected in all children, as no major difference was found in the information received from each parent.

Keywords: autism/ASD, behaviour, cognitive skill, hyperactivity, social-communication skill

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Authors: Matthew J. I. Woolley, Gemma J. M. Read, Paul M. Salmon, Natassia Goode

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The significance of high consequence, workplace failures within construction continues to resonate with a combined average of 12 fatal incidents occurring daily throughout Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Within the Australian construction domain, more than 35 serious, compensable injury incidents are reported daily. These alarming figures, in conjunction with the continued occurrence of fatal and serious, occupational injury incidents globally suggest existing approaches to incident analysis may not be achieving required injury prevention outcomes. One reason may be that, incident analysis methods used in construction have not kept pace with advances in the field of safety science and are not uncovering the full range system-wide contributory factors that are required to achieve optimal levels of construction safety performance. Another reason underpinning this global issue may also be the absence of information surrounding the construction operating and project delivery system. For example, it is not clear who shares the responsibility for construction safety in different contexts. To respond to this issue, to the author’s best knowledge, a first of its kind, control structure model of the construction industry is presented and then used to analyse a fatal construction incident. The model was developed by applying and extending the Systems Theoretic and Incident Model and Process method to hierarchically represent the actors, constraints, feedback mechanisms, and relationships that are involved in managing construction safety performance. The Causal Analysis based on Systems Theory (CAST) method was then used to identify the control and feedback failures involved in the fatal incident. The conclusions from the Coronial investigation into the event are compared with the findings stemming from the CAST analysis. The CAST analysis highlighted additional issues across the construction system that were not identified in the coroner’s recommendations, suggested there is a potential benefit in applying a systems theory approach to incident analysis in construction. The findings demonstrate the utility applying systems theory-based methods to the analysis of construction incidents. Specifically, this study shows the utility of the construction control structure and the potential benefits for project leaders, construction entities, regulators, and construction clients in controlling construction performance.

Keywords: construction project management, construction performance, incident analysis, systems thinking

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Authors: Yuko Ishiwaka, Tomohiro Yoshida, Tadateru Itoh

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Human makes preparation called readiness potential unconsciously (RP) before awareness of their own decision. For example, when recognizing a button and pressing the button, the RP peaks are observed 200 ms before the initiation of the movement. It has been known that the preparatory movements are acquired before actual movements, but it has not been still well understood how humans can obtain the RP during their growth. On the proposition of why the brain must respond earlier, we assume that humans have to adopt the dangerous environment to survive and then obtain the behavior to cover the various time lags distributed in the body. Without RP, humans cannot take action quickly to avoid dangerous situations. In taking action, the brain makes decisions, and signals are transmitted through the Spinal Cord to the muscles to the body moves according to the laws of physics. Our research focuses on the time lag of the neuron signal transmitting from a brain to muscle via a spinal cord. This time lag is one of the essential factors for readiness potential. We propose a firing pattern controller model of a motor nerve system considered innervation and jitter, which produces time lag. In our simulation, we adopt innervation and jitter in our proposed muscle-skeleton model, because these two factors can create infinitesimal time lag. Q10 Hodgkin Huxley model to calculate action potentials is also adopted because the refractory period produces a more significant time lag for continuous firing. Keeping constant power of muscle requires cooperation firing of motor neurons because a refractory period stifles the continuous firing of a neuron. One more factor in producing time lag is slow or fast-twitch. The Expanded Hill Type model is adopted to calculate power and time lag. We will simulate our model of muscle skeleton model by controlling the firing pattern and discuss the relationship between the time lag of physics and neurons. For our discussion, we analyze the time lag with our simulation for knee bending. The law of inertia caused the most influential time lag. The next most crucial time lag was the time to generate the action potential induced by innervation and jitter. In our simulation, the time lag at the beginning of the knee movement is 202ms to 203.5ms. It means that readiness potential should be prepared more than 200ms before decision making.

Keywords: firing patterns, innervation, jitter, motor nerve system, readiness potential

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Authors: Babatope David Omoniyi, Fiona Lalor, Sinead Furey

Abstract:

This ongoing project investigates the impact of Brexit on consumer perceptions of trust in the food industry. Brexit has significantly impacted the food industry, triggering a paradigm shift in the movement of food/agricultural produce, regulations, and cross-border collaborations between Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. In a world where the dynamics have shifted because of regulatory changes that impact trade and the free movement of foods and agricultural produce between these three countries, monitoring and controlling every stage of the food supply chain have become challenging, increasing the potential for food fraud and food safety incidents. As consumers play a pivotal role in shaping the market, understanding any shifts in trust post-Brexit enables them to navigate the market with confidence and awareness. This study aims to explore the complexities of consumer perceptions, focusing on trust as a cornerstone of consumer confidence in the post-Brexit food landscape. The objectives include comparing trust in official controls pre- and post-Brexit, determining consumer awareness of food fraud, and devising recommendations that reflect the evidence from this primary research regarding consumer trust in food authenticity post-Brexit. The research design follows an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, incorporating qualitative methods such as focus groups and structured interviews, along with quantitative research through a large-scale survey. Participants from UCD and Ulster University campuses, comprising academic and non-academic staff, students, and researchers, will provide insights into the impact of Brexit on consumer trust. Preliminary findings from focus groups and interviews highlight changes in labelling, reduced quantity and quality of foods in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, fewer food choices, and increased food prices since Brexit. The study aims to further investigate and quantify these impacts through a comprehensive large-scale survey involving participants from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The results will inform official controls and consumer-facing messaging contributing valuable insights to navigate the evolving post-Brexit food landscape.

Keywords: Brexit, consumer trust, food fraud, food authenticity, food safety, food industry

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