Search results for: information design

Authors: Xiaomin Zhong, Alexander Pate, Ya-Ting Yang, Ali Fahmi, Darren M. Ashcroft, Ben Goldacre, Brian Mackenna, Amir Mehrkar, Sebastian C. J. Bacon, Jon Massey, Louis Fisher, Peter Inglesby, Kieran Hand, Tjeerd van Staa, Victoria Palin

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Background: This study aimed to predict risks of potentially inappropriate antibiotic type and repeat prescribing and assess changes during COVID-19. Methods: With the approval of NHS England, we used the OpenSAFELY platform to access the TPP SystmOne electronic health record (EHR) system and selected patients prescribed antibiotics from 2019 to 2021. Multinomial logistic regression models predicted the patient’s probability of receiving an inappropriate antibiotic type or repeating the antibiotic course for each common infection. Findings: The population included 9.1 million patients with 29.2 million antibiotic prescriptions. 29.1% of prescriptions were identified as repeat prescribing. Those with same-day incident infection coded in the EHR had considerably lower rates of repeat prescribing (18.0%), and 8.6% had a potentially inappropriate type. No major changes in the rates of repeat antibiotic prescribing during COVID-19 were found. In the ten risk prediction models, good levels of calibration and moderate levels of discrimination were found. Important predictors included age, prior antibiotic prescribing, and region. Patients varied in their predicted risks. For sore throat, the range from 2.5 to 97.5th percentile was 2.7 to 23.5% (inappropriate type) and 6.0 to 27.2% (repeat prescription). For otitis externa, these numbers were 25.9 to 63.9% and 8.5 to 37.1%, respectively. Interpretation: Our study found no evidence of changes in the level of inappropriate or repeat antibiotic prescribing after the start of COVID-19. Repeat antibiotic prescribing was frequent and varied according to regional and patient characteristics. There is a need for treatment guidelines to be developed around antibiotic failure and clinicians provided with individualised patient information.

Keywords: antibiotics, infection, COVID-19 pandemic, antibiotic stewardship, primary care

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Authors: Chia-Wen Wang, Patou Masika Musumari, Teeranee Techasrivichien, S. Pilar Suguimoto, Chang-Chuan Chan, Masako Ono-Kihara, Masahiro Kihara

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Background: In recent years, a particular form of bullying, referred to as 'cyberbullying' has emerged along with the rapid expansion of the Internet, social network services (SNSs) and smart phones. Many Asian countries, including Taiwan, are faced with both the cyberbullying and the traditional form of bullying. This study aims to explore Taiwanese adolescents’ experiences, perceptions and opinions regarding cyberbullying and traditional bullying through the perspective of victim, perpetrator, or witness. Method: This is a qualitative study using face-to-face in-depth interviews guided by a semi-structured questionnaire among high school students -aged 16 to 18 years- in Taipei, Taiwan. The participants were recruited through convenience sampling from five high schools between June and November 2016. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. Results: Forty-eight participants were recruited, of which, 14 (29.2%) reported had ever experienced bullying. Specifically, 7 participants (14.6%) reported had ever been victims of cyberbullying, 1 (2%) had been victims of traditional bullying, and 6 (12.5%) had been victims of both cyber and traditional bullying. The majority (70.8%) reported had ever witnessed acts of bullying; however, none of the participants recognized had ever been a perpetrator of bullying. Cyberbullying mostly happens on social media (Facebook and Instagram) or LINE instant messaging application, and included upload and sharing of degrading pictures and videos of victims, as well as gossip and mean messages by the perpetrators. The anonymous and public nature of social media groups in schools made it easier to perpetrate bullying. The victim of traditional bullying reported being the target of verbal attack because of his physical appearance. Regardless of the type of bullying, victims reported feeling bad, angry, or depressed as a result of being bullied. Witnesses of both cyber- and traditional bullying cited physical appearance (e.g. having the big/flat bust or big butt, or overweight or obese) and disability as the most reasons of being a bullying victim. Conclusion: Both cyberbullying and traditional bullying had negative emotional and psychological impacts on victims. This study warrants further research to assess the extent of this phenomenon and understand the characteristics of perpetrators, victims, and witnesses to inform the design of tailored interventions using appropriate channels of dissemination.

Keywords: cyberbullying, traditional bullying, social media, adolescents

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Authors: Debasis Sarkar, Jatan Talati

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This paper is an attempt to develop an Integrated Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) for a smart city project in Western India. Integrated transportation is one of the enablers of smart transportation for providing a seamless intercity as well as regional level transportation experience. The success of a smart city project at the city level for transportation is providing proper integration to different mass rapid transit modes by way of integrating information, physical, network of routes fares, etc. The methodology adopted for this study was primary data research through questionnaire survey. The respondents of the questionnaire survey have responded on the issues about their perceptions on the ways and means to improve public transport services in urban cities. The respondents were also required to identify the factors and attributes which might motivate more people to shift towards the public mode. Also, the respondents were questioned about the factors which they feel might restrain the integration of various modes of MRTS. Furthermore, this study also focuses on developing a utility equation for respondents with the help of multiple linear regression analysis and its probability to shift to public transport for certain factors listed in the questionnaire. It has been observed that for shifting to public transport, the most important factors that need to be considered were travel time saving and comfort rating. Also, an Integrated MRTS can be obtained by combining metro rail with BRTS, metro rail with monorail, monorail with BRTS and metro rail with Indian railways. Providing a common smart card to transport users for accessing all the different available modes would be a pragmatic solution towards integration of the available modes of MRTS.

Keywords: mass rapid transit systems, smart city, metro rail, bus rapid transit system, multiple linear regression, smart card, automated fare collection system

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Authors: Xun Sun, Le Li, Ce Mo, Lei Mo, Ruiming Wang, Guosheng Ding

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Cognitive control plays a central role in information processing, which is comprised of various components including response suppression and inhibitory control. Response suppression is considered to inhibit the irrelevant response during the cognitive process; while inhibitory control to inhibit the irrelevant stimulus in the process of cognition. Both of them undertake distinct functions for the cognitive control, so as to enhance the performances in behavior. Among numerous factors on cognitive control, bilingual experience is a substantial and indispensible factor. It has been reported that bilingual experience can influence the neural activity of cognitive control as whole. However, it still remains unknown how the neural influences specifically present on the components of cognitive control imposed by bilingualism. In order to explore the further issue, the study applied fMRI, used anti-saccade paradigm and compared the cerebral activations between high and low proficient Chinese-English bilinguals. Meanwhile, the study provided experimental evidence for the brain plasticity of language, and offered necessary bases on the interplay between language and cognitive control. The results showed that response suppression recruited the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) in low proficient Chinese-English bilinguals, but the inferior patrietal lobe in high proficient Chinese-English bilinguals. Inhibitory control engaged the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG) in low proficient Chinese-English bilinguals, yet the right insula cortex was more active in high proficient Chinese-English bilinguals during the process. These findings illustrate insights that bilingual experience has neural influences on different components of cognitive control. Compared with low proficient bilinguals, high proficient bilinguals turn to activate advanced neural areas for the processing of cognitive control. In addition, with the acquisition and accumulation of language, language experience takes effect on the brain plasticity and changes the neural basis of cognitive control.

Keywords: bilingual experience, cognitive control, inhibition control, response suppression

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Authors: Thiago Spilborghs Bueno Meyer, Plinio Thomaz Aquino Junior

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Through speech, which privileges the functional and interactive nature of the text, it is possible to ascertain the spatiotemporal circumstances, the conditions of production and reception of the discourse, the explicit purposes such as informing, explaining, convincing, etc. These conditions allow bringing the interaction between humans closer to the human-robot interaction, making it natural and sensitive to information. However, it is not enough to understand what is said; it is necessary to recognize emotions for the desired interaction. The validity of the use of neural networks for feature selection and emotion recognition was verified. For this purpose, it is proposed the use of neural networks and comparison of models, such as recurrent neural networks and deep neural networks, in order to carry out the classification of emotions through speech signals to verify the quality of recognition. It is expected to enable the implementation of robots in a domestic environment, such as the HERA robot from the RoboFEI@Home team, which focuses on autonomous service robots for the domestic environment. Tests were performed using only the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients, as well as tests with several characteristics of Delta-MFCC, spectral contrast, and the Mel spectrogram. To carry out the training, validation and testing of the neural networks, the eNTERFACE’05 database was used, which has 42 speakers from 14 different nationalities speaking the English language. The data from the chosen database are videos that, for use in neural networks, were converted into audios. It was found as a result, a classification of 51,969% of correct answers when using the deep neural network, when the use of the recurrent neural network was verified, with the classification with accuracy equal to 44.09%. The results are more accurate when only the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients are used for the classification, using the classifier with the deep neural network, and in only one case, it is possible to observe a greater accuracy by the recurrent neural network, which occurs in the use of various features and setting 73 for batch size and 100 training epochs.

Keywords: emotion recognition, speech, deep learning, human-robot interaction, neural networks

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Authors: Meltem Kürtüncü, Işın Alkan

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Objective: This study was carried out with an experimental design in order to determine whether the lullaby, which was listened from mother’s voice and a stranger’s voice to the babies born at term and hospitalized in neonatal intensive care unit, had an effect on stress and relaxation symptoms of the infants. Method: Data from the study were obtained from 90 newborn babies who were hospitalized in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Zonguldak Maternity And Children Hospital between September 2015-January 2016 and who met the eligibility criteria. Lullaby concert was performed by choosing one of the suitable care hours. Stress and relaxation symptoms were recorded by the researcher on “Newborn response follow-up form” at pre-care and post-care. Results: After lullaby concert when stress symptoms compared to infants in the experimental and control groups before the care was not detected statistically significant difference between crying, contraction, facial grimacing, flushing, cyanosis and the rates of increase in temperature. After care, crying, contractions, facial grimacing, flushing, and restlessness revealed a statistically significant difference between the groups, but as the cyanosis and temperature increased stress responses did not result in a significant difference between the groups. In the control group babies the crying, contraction, facial grimacing, flushing, and restlessness behaviors rates were found to be significantly higher than experimental group babies. After lullaby concert when relaxation symptoms compared to infants in the experimental and control groups before the care, eye contact rates who listen to lullaby from mother’s voice was found to be significantly higher than infants who listen to lullaby from stranger’s voice and infants in the control group. After care as eye contact, smiling, sucking/searching, yawning, non-crying and sleep behaviors relaxation symptoms revealed statistically significant results. In the control group, these behaviors were found statistically lower degree than the experimental groups. Conclusion: Lullaby concerts as masking the ambient noise, reducing the stress symptoms and increasing the relaxation symptoms, and also for soothing and stimulant affects, due to ease the transition to the sleep state should be preferred in the neonatal intensive care units.

Keywords: lullaby, mother voice, relaxation, stress

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Authors: Crisanto H. Ecaldre

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Gender perception represents how an individual perceives the gender identity of a person. Since this is a subjective assessment, it paves the way to various social reactions, either in the form of acceptance or discrimination. Reports across the world show that lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) people often face discrimination, stigmatization, and targeted violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. However, the challenges faced by those who belong to both a sexual minority and a marginalized ethnic, religious, linguistic, or indigenous community are even more complex. Specifically, in Palaw’an community, members own those who identify themselves as gays or lesbians and use “bantut” to identify them. There was also the introduction of various scholarly works to facilitate dialogues that promote visibility and inclusivity across sectors in terms of gender preferences; however, there are still gaps that need to be addressed in terms of recognition and visibility. Though local research initiatives are slowly increasing in terms of numbers, culturally situating gender studies appropriately within the context of indigenous cultural communities is still lacking. Indigenous community-based discourses on gender or indigenizing gender discourses remain a challenge; hence, this study aimed to contribute to addressing these identified gaps. These research objectives were realized through a qualitative approach following an exploratory design. Findings revealed that the Palaw’an indigenous cultural community has an existing concept of homosexuality, which they termed “bantut.” This notion was culturally defined by the participants as (a) kaloob ng diwata; (b) a manifestation of physical inferiority; (c) hindi nakapag-asawa or hindi nagka-anak; and (d) based on the ascribed roles by the community. These were recognized and valued by the community. However, despite the recognition and visibility within the community, the outside people view them otherwise. The challenges experienced by the Palaw’an homosexuals are imposed by the people outside their community, and these include prejudice, discrimination, and double marginalization. Because of these struggles, they are forced to cope. They deal with these imposed limitations, biases, and burdens by non-Palaw’an through self-acceptance, strong self-perception, and the option to leave the community to seek a more open and progressive environment for LGBTs. While these are indications of their ‘resilience’ amidst difficult situations, this reality poses an important concern -how the recognition and visibility of indigenous homosexuals from the mainstream perspective can be attained.

Keywords: gender preference, acceptability, challenge, recognition, visibility, coping

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Authors: Sanchir Erdenebayar, Namuuntsetseg Oyunbaatar

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Objectives: Peritoneal dialysis treatment is one of the important forms of kidney replacement therapy, and it has recently developed instantly in Mongolia for the past five years. Currently, more than 120 patients undergo peritoneal dialysis nationwide. These patients lack nutritional education, which predisposes them to protein deficiency and further impairs their quality of life. However, there is no study which is conducted among those about their dietary in Mongolia. Therefore, integrated nutrition information and educating them about dietary patterns to follow are urgently needed for PD patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 45 patients aged between 18 and 60 years who were undergoing CAPD at the biggest Medvic dialysis center in Ulaanbaatar. The knowledge of nutrition and food intake is assessed by interview based on a validated questionnaire prepared from KDIGO guidelines, semi-FFQ and a 24-hour dietary recall method. In addition, a biochemical blood test that includes total protein, albumin, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and hemoglobin is used for an assessment of the patient’s current nutritional status. Results: Knowledge of nutritional status for CAPD was great, with 21.4% of patients and 78.65% having poor nutrition knowledge. The rate of mild to moderate malnutrition was 48.8% among research participants. Serum albumin was 38.4 ± 4.7 g/L, and total protein was 67.3±7.5g/l. Patients met 62.5± 26.5% of their daily intake nutritional requirement for calories and 72±40% of their nutritional requirement for protein. All patients’ energy intake was significantly /1328±304kcal/ lower than the energy requirement (2124±378kcal). Only 14.2% met the recommended dietary protein intake recommended to them of greater than 1.2 g/kg. Conclusions: As was established before, nutritional education has a vital positive impact on the health and nutritional status of peritoneal dialysis patients. The results of this study show that nutritional education programs are not enough adequate in peritoneal dialysis patients. There is a crucial priority to establish nutritional educational programs and guidelines for PD patients in Mongolia.

Keywords: renal diet, peritoneal dialysis, nutrition education, CKD diet

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Authors: Areti Angeliki Veroniki, Sofia Tsokani, Evangelos Paraskevaidis, Dimitris Mavridis

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The plethora of diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) studies has led to the increased use of systematic reviews and meta-analysis of DTA studies. Clinicians and healthcare professionals often consult DTA meta-analyses to make informed decisions regarding the optimum test to choose and use for a given setting. For example, the human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA, mRNA, and cytology can be used for the cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2+ (CIN2+) diagnosis. But which test is the most accurate? Studies directly comparing test accuracy are not always available, and comparisons between multiple tests create a network of DTA studies that can be synthesized through a network meta-analysis of diagnostic tests (DTA-NMA). The aim is to summarize the DTA-NMA methods for at least three index tests presented in the methodological literature. We illustrate the application of the methods using a real data set for the comparative accuracy of HPV DNA, HPV mRNA, and cytology tests for cervical cancer. A search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus from inception until the end of July 2019 to identify full-text research articles that describe a DTA-NMA method for three or more index tests. Since the joint classification of the results from one index against the results of another index test amongst those with the target condition and amongst those without the target condition are rarely reported in DTA studies, only methods requiring the 2x2 tables of the results of each index test against the reference standard were included. Studies of any design published in English were eligible for inclusion. Relevant unpublished material was also included. Ten relevant studies were finally included to evaluate their methodology. DTA-NMA methods that have been presented in the literature together with their advantages and disadvantages are described. In addition, using 37 studies for cervical cancer obtained from a published Cochrane review as a case study, an application of the identified DTA-NMA methods to determine the most promising test (in terms of sensitivity and specificity) for use as the best screening test to detect CIN2+ is presented. As a conclusion, different approaches for the comparative DTA meta-analysis of multiple tests may conclude to different results and hence may influence decision-making. Acknowledgment: This research is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) through the Operational Programme «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020» in the context of the project “Extension of Network Meta-Analysis for the Comparison of Diagnostic Tests ” (MIS 5047640).

Keywords: colposcopy, diagnostic test, HPV, network meta-analysis

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Authors: Jacqueline Kunzelman, Val Anderson, Robert Johnson, Nicholas Anderson, Rebecca Bates

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In an effort to protect honeybees from colony collapse disorder, beekeepers are filing for government permits to use natural lands as summer pasture for honeybees under the multiple-use management regime in the United States. Utilizing natural landscapes in high mountain ranges may help strengthen honeybee colonies, as this natural setting is generally void of chemical pollutants and pesticides that are found in agricultural and urban settings. However, the introduction of a competitive species could greatly impact the native species occupying these natural landscapes. While honeybees and butterflies have different life histories, behavior, and foraging strategies, they compete for the same nectar resources. Few, if any, studies have focused on the potential population effects of commercial honeybees on native butterfly abundance and diversity. This study attempts to observe this impact using a paired before-after control-impact (BACI) design. Over the course of two years, malaise trap samples were collected every week during the months of the flowering season in two similar areas separated by 11 kilometers. Each area contained nine malaise trap sites for replication. In the first year, samples were taken to analyze and establish trends within the pollinating communities. In the second year, honeybees were introduced to only one of the two areas, and a change in trends between the two areas was assessed. Contrary to the original hypothesis, the resulting observation was an overall significant increase in the mean butterfly abundance in the impact areas after honeybees were introduced, while control areas remained relatively stable. This overall increase in abundance over the season can be attributed to an increase in butterflies during the first and second periods of the data collection when populations were near their peak. Several potential theories are 1) Honeybees are deterring a natural predator/competitor of butterflies that previously limited population growth. 2) Honeybees are consuming resources regularly used by butterflies, which may extend the foraging time and consequent capture rates of butterflies. 3) Environmental factors such as number of rainy days were inconsistent between control and impact areas, biasing capture rates. This ongoing research will help determine the suitability of high mountain ranges for the summer pasturing of honeybees and the population impacts on many different pollinators.

Keywords: butterfly, competition, honeybee, pollinator

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Authors: Babar Rasheed, Saad Ghafoor

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Introduction: Idea campaigns are commonly held across organizations for generating employee engagement. The contribution is specifically designed to identify and solve prevalent issues. It is argued that numerous organizations fail to achieve their desired goals despite arranging for such campaigns and investing heavily in them. There are however practices that organizations use to achieve higher degree of effectiveness, and these practices may be up for exploration by research to make them usable for the other organizations. Purpose: The aim of this research is to surface the idea management practices of a leading electric company with global operations. The study involves a large sized, multi site organization that is attributed to have added challenges in terms of managing ideas from employees, in comparison to smaller organizations. The study aims to highlight the factors that are looked at as the idea management team strategies for the campaign, sets terms and rewards for it, makes follow up with the employees and lastly, evaluate and award ideas. Methodology: The study is conducted in a leading electric appliance corporation that has a large number of employees and is based in numerous regions of the world. A total of 7 interviews are carried out involving the chief innovation officer, innovation manager and members of idea management and evaluation teams. The interviews are carried out either on Skype or in-person based on the availability of the interviewee. Findings: While this being a working paper and while the study is under way, it is anticipated that valuable information is being achieved about specific details on how idea management systems are governed and how idea campaigns are carried out. The findings may be particularly useful for innovation consultants as resources they can use to promote idea campaigning. The usefulness of the best practices highlighted as a result is, in any case, the most valuable output of this study.

Keywords: employee engagement, motivation, idea campaigns, large organizations, best practices, employees input, organizational output

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Authors: Mpho Agnes Mbeo, Patient Rambe

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The thirteenth year of the Central University of Technology, Free State’s (CUT) transition from a vocational and professional training orientation institution (i.e. a technikon) into a university with a strong research focus has neither been a smooth nor an easy one. At the heart of this transition was the need to transform the psychological faculties of academic and research staffs compliment who were accustomed to training graduates for industrial placement. The lack of a culture of research that fully embraces a strong ethos of conducting world-class research needed to be addressed. The induction and socialisation of academic staff into the development and execution of cutting-edge research also required the provision of research support and the creation of a conducive academic environment for research, both for emerging and non-research active academics. Drawing on ten cases, comprising four heads of departments, three prolific established researchers, and three emerging researchers, this study explores the challenges faced in establishing a strong research culture at the university. Furthermore, it gives an account of the extent to which the current research interventions have addressed the perceivably “missing research culture”, and the implications of these interventions for knowledge management. Evidence suggests that the endowment of an ideal institutional research environment (comprising strong internet networks, persistent connectivity on and off campus), research peer mentorship, and growing publication outputs should be matched by a coherent research incentive culture and strong research leadership. This is critical to building new knowledge and entrenching knowledge management founded on communities of practice and scholarly networking through the documentation and communication of research findings. The study concludes that the multiple policy documents set for the different domains of research may be creating pressure on researchers to engage research activities and increase output at the expense of research quality.

Keywords: Central University of Technology, performance, publication, research culture, university

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Authors: A. A. Adebayo, O. Osibanjo

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Informal electronic waste (e-waste) processing is a crude method of recycling, which is on the increase in Nigeria. The release of hazardous substances such as heavy metals (HMs) into the environment during informal e-waste processing has been a major concern. However, there is insufficient information on environmental contamination from e-waste recycling, associated ecological risk in Alaba International Market, a major electronic market in Lagos, Nigeria. The aims of this study were to determine the levels of HMs in soil, resulting from the e-waste recycling; and also assess associated ecological risks in Alaba international market. Samples of soils (334) were randomly collected seasonally for three years from fourteen selected e-waste activity points and two control sites. The samples were digested using standard methods and HMs analysed by inductive coupled plasma optical emission. Ecological risk was estimated using Ecological Risk index (ER), Potential Ecological Risk index (RI), Index of geoaccumulation (Igeo), Contamination factor (Cf) and degree of contamination factor (Cdeg). The concentrations range of HMs (mg/kg) in soil were: 16.7-11200.0 (Pb); 14.3-22600.0 (Cu); 1.90-6280.0 (Ni), 39.5-4570.0 (Zn); 0.79-12300.0 (Sn); 0.02-138.0 (Cd); 12.7-1710.0 (Ba); 0.18-131.0 (Cr); 0.07-28.0 (V), while As was below detection limit. Concentrations range in control soils were 1.36-9.70 (Pb), 2.06-7.60 (Cu), 1.25-5.11 (Ni), 3.62-15.9 (Zn), BDL-0.56 (Sn), BDL-0.01 (Cd), 14.6-47.6 (Ba), 0.21–12.2 (Cr) and 0.22-22.2 (V). The trend in ecological risk index was in the order Cu > Pb > Ni > Zn > Cr > Cd > Ba > V. The potential ecological risk index with respect to informal e-waste activities were: burning > dismantling > disposal > stockpiling. The index of geo accumulation indices revealed that soils were extremely polluted with Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn and Ni. The contamination factor indicated that 93% of the studied areas have very high contamination status for Pb, Cu, Ba, Sn and Co while Cr and Cd were in the moderately contaminated status. The degree of contamination decreased in the order of Sn > Cu > Pb >> Zn > Ba > Co > Ni > V > Cr > Cd. Heavy metal contamination of Alaba international market environment resulting from informal e-waste processing was established. Proper management of e-waste and remediation of the market environment are recommended to minimize the ecological risks.

Keywords: Alaba international market, ecological risk, electronic waste, heavy metal contamination

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Authors: Indu ray

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In today’s digital world the internet is already flooded with information on how to master grammar in a foreign language. It is well known that one cannot master a language without grammar. Grammar is the backbone of any language. Without grammar there would be no structure to help you speak/write or listen/read. Successful communication is only possible if the form and function of linguistic utterances are firmly related to one another. Grammar has its own rules of use to formulate an easier-to-understand language. Like a tool, grammar formulates our thoughts and knowledge in a meaningful way. Every language has its own grammar. With grammar, we can quickly analyze whether there is any action in this text: (Present, past, future). Knowledge of grammar is an important prerequisite for mastering a foreign language. What’s most important is how teachers can make grammar lessons more interesting for students and thus promote grammar skills more successfully. Through this paper, we discuss a few important methods like (Interactive Grammar Exercises between students, Interactive Grammar Exercise between student to teacher, Grammar translation method, Audio -Visual Method, Deductive Method, Inductive Method). This paper is divided into two sections. In the first part, brief definitions and principles of these approaches will be provided. Then the possibility and the case of combination of this approach will be analyzed. In the last section of the paper, I would like to present a survey result conducted at my university on a few methods to quickly learn grammar in Foreign Language. We divided the Grammatical Skills in six Parts. 1.Grammatical Competence 2. Speaking Skills 3. Phonology 4. The syntax and the Semantics 5. Rule 6. Cognitive Function and conducted a survey among students. From our survey results, we can observe that phonology, speaking ability, syntax and semantics can be improved by inductive method, Audio-visual Method, and grammatical translation method, for grammar rules and cognitive functions we should choose IGE (teacher-student) method. and the IGE method (pupil-pupil). The study’s findings revealed, that the teacher delivery Methods should be blend or fusion based on the content of the Grammar.

Keywords: innovative method, grammatical skills, audio-visual, translation

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Authors: Sven Borén, Lisiana Nurhadi, Henrik Ny

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From a theoretical perspective, electric buses can be more sustainable and can be cheaper than fossil fuelled buses in city traffic. The authors have not found other studies based on actual urban public transport in Swedish winter climate. Further on, noise measurements from buses for the European market were found old. The aims of this follow-up study was therefore to test and possibly verify in a real-life environment how energy efficient and silent electric buses are, and then conclude on if electric buses are preferable to use in public transport. The Ebusco 2.0 electric bus, fitted with a 311 kWh battery pack, was used and the tests were carried out during November 2014-April 2015 in eight municipalities in the south of Sweden. Six tests took place in urban traffic and two took place in more of a rural traffic setting. The energy use for propulsion was measured via logging of the internal system in the bus and via an external charging meter. The average energy use turned out to be 8% less (0,96 kWh/km) than assumed in the earlier theoretical study. This rate allows for a 320 km range in public urban traffic. The interior of the bus was kept warm by a diesel heater (biodiesel will probably be used in a future operational traffic situation), which used 0,67 kWh/km in January. This verified that electric buses can be up to 25% cheaper when used in public transport in cities for about eight years. The noise was found to be lower, primarily during acceleration, than for buses with combustion engines in urban bus traffic. According to our surveys, most passengers and drivers appreciated the silent and comfortable ride and preferred electric buses rather than combustion engine buses. Bus operators and passenger transport executives were also positive to start using electric buses for public transport. The operators did however point out that procurement processes need to account for eventual risks regarding this new technology, along with personnel education. The study revealed that it is possible to establish a charging infrastructure for almost all studied bus lines. However, design of a charging infrastructure for each municipality requires further investigations, including electric grid capacity analysis, smart location of charging points, and tailored schedules to allow fast charging. In conclusion, electric buses proved to be a preferable alternative for all stakeholders involved in public bus transport in the studied municipalities. However, in order to electric buses to be a prominent support for sustainable development, they need to be charged either by stand-alone units or via an expansion of the electric grid, and the electricity should be made from new renewable sources.

Keywords: sustainability, electric, bus, noise, greencharge

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Authors: Kinga Zebrowska, Maria Falis, Katarzyna Kosinska-Kaczynska, Bartosz Godek, Olga Plaza, Katarzyna Kwiatkowska

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Introduction: According to the ministerial decree of 16 August 2018, each woman in Poland during childbirth has the right to the pharmacological and non-pharmacological labour pain management (LPM). Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge of Polish mothers about pharmacological and non-pharmacological LPM, to investigate which methods they chose and their satisfaction with chosen ones. Material And Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was performed among women who gave birth between 2015 and 2018. The self-composed questionnaire was distributed via the Internet in October 2018. Results: 13.727 women participated in the study. 75% have learned about LPM from the Internet. 68% of them did not gain any information on LPM from doctors during their prenatal appointments Safety of the newborn (46%), midwife’s advice (40%) and the chance of the immediate pain relief (39%) were the most important issues while choosing LPM. Respondents used a wide range of non-pharmacological methods, such as the assistance of partner during labour (81%), physical activity (58%), immersion in water (37%), relaxation techniques (15%) and others. 11% of mothers did not use any of the LPM methods. 52% of women declared that they wanted to use the pharmacological anaesthesia, while 49% had it performed (28% epidural, 16% inhaled anaesthesia, 5% parenteral opioids). Pharmacological methods were unavailable due to lack of anaesthesiologist in the maternity ward (41%) or inaccessibility of the chosen methods in the hospital (31%) and too advanced labour (43%). 48% of respondents did not decide to use pharmacological methods, because the pain was bearable (29%), anxiety of child’s health (17%), or belief that the pain is natural and it should not be avoided (16%). 83% of respondents believed that epidural analgesia has no influence on the time needed to gain a full cervix dilatation and 81% of them claimed that serious spinal cord injury is a common side effect of epidural. 51% believed that epidural increases the risk of caesarean section. Conclusions: The knowledge about the methods of LPM is not satisfactory. We should focus on well- maintained education guided by doctors, midwives, and media.

Keywords: childbirth, labour pain management, maternity experiences, obstetrics

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Authors: Benedictus Asriparusa, Lathifah Al Hakimi, Aulia Husada

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A large amount of energy is being wasted by the release of natural gas associated with the oil industry. This release interrupts the environment particularly atmosphere layer condition globally which contributes to global warming impact. This research presents an overview of the methods employed by researchers in PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia in the Minas area to determine a new prediction method of measuring and reducing gas flaring and its emission. The method emphasizes advanced research which involved analytical studies, numerical studies, modeling, and computer simulations, amongst other techniques. A flaring system is the controlled burning of natural gas in the course of routine oil and gas production operations. This burning occurs at the end of a flare stack or boom. The combustion process releases emissions of greenhouse gases such as NO2, CO2, SO2, etc. This condition will affect the chemical composition of air and environment around the boundary layer mainly during transition season. Transition season in Indonesia is absolutely very difficult condition to predict its pattern caused by the difference of two air mass conditions. This paper research focused on transition season in 2013. A simulation to create the new pattern of the pollutants distribution is needed. This paper has outlines trends in gas flaring modeling and current developments to predict the dominant variables in the pollutants distribution. A Fluent model is used to simulate the distribution of pollutants gas coming out of the stack, whereas WRF model output is used to overcome the limitations of the analysis of meteorological data and atmospheric conditions in the study area. Based on the running model, the most influence factor was wind speed. The goal of the simulation is to predict the new pattern based on the time of fastest wind and slowest wind occurs for pollutants distribution. According to the simulation results, it can be seen that the fastest wind (last of March) moves pollutants in a horizontal direction and the slowest wind (middle of May) moves pollutants vertically. Besides, the design of flare stack in compliance according to EPA Oil and Gas Facility Stack Parameters likely shows pollutants concentration remains on the under threshold NAAQS (National Ambient Air Quality Standards).

Keywords: flare motion, new prediction, pollutants distribution, transition season, WRF model

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Authors: Santosh Sharma

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Background: Drug abuse, needle sharing, and risky sexual behaviour are often compounded to increase the risk of HIV transmission. Injecting Drug Users are at the duel risk of needle sharing and risky sexual Behaviour, becoming more vulnerable to STI and HIV. Thus, studying the interface of injecting drug use and risky sexual behaviour is important to curb the pace of HIV epidemic among IDUs. The aim of this study is to determine the factor associated with HIV among injecting drug users in three states of India. Materials and methods: This paper analyzes covariates of multiplicity of risk behavior among injecting drug users. Findings are based on data from Integrated Behavioral and Biological Assessment (IBBA) round 2, 2010. IBBA collects the information of IDUs from the six districts. IDUs were selected on the criteria of those who were 18 years or older, who injected addictive substances/drugs for non-medical purposes at least once in past six month. A total of 1,979 in round 2 were interviewed in the IBBA. The study employs quantitative techniques using standard statistical tools to achieve the above objectives. All results presented in this paper are unweighted univariate measures. Results: Among IDUs, average duration of injecting drugs is 5.2 years. Mean duration between first drug use to first injecting drugs among younger IDUs, belongs to 18-24 years is 2.6 years Needle cleaning practices is common with above two-fifths reporting its every time cleaning. Needle sharing is quite prevalent especially among younger IDUs. Further, IDUs practicing needle sharing exhibit pervasive multi-partner behavior. Condom use with commercial partners is almost 81 %, whereas with intimate partner it is 39 %. Coexistence of needle sharing and unprotected sex enhances STI prevalence (6.8 %), which is further pronounced among divorced/separated/widowed (9.4 %). Conclusion: Working towards risk reduction for IDUs must deal with multiplicity of risk. Interventions should deal with covariates of risk, addressing youth, and risky sexual behavior.

Keywords: IDUs, HIV, STI, behaviour

Procedia PDF Downloads 265

Authors: Manish Pandey, Gurinderjit Kaur, Meenu Talwar, Sachin Chauhan, Jagbir Gill

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Health-care management systems are a unit of nice connection as a result of the supply a straightforward and fast management of all aspects relating to a patient, not essentially medical. What is more, there are unit additional and additional cases of pathologies during which diagnosing and treatment may be solely allotted by victimization medical imaging techniques. With associate ever-increasing prevalence, medical pictures area unit directly acquired in or regenerate into digital type, for his or her storage additionally as sequent retrieval and process. Data Mining is the process of extracting information from large data sets through using algorithms and Techniques drawn from the field of Statistics, Machine Learning and Data Base Management Systems. Forecasting may be a prediction of what's going to occur within the future, associated it's an unsure method. Owing to the uncertainty, the accuracy of a forecast is as vital because the outcome foretold by foretelling the freelance variables. A forecast management should be wont to establish if the accuracy of the forecast is within satisfactory limits. Fuzzy regression strategies have normally been wont to develop shopper preferences models that correlate the engineering characteristics with shopper preferences relating to a replacement product; the patron preference models offer a platform, wherever by product developers will decide the engineering characteristics so as to satisfy shopper preferences before developing the merchandise. Recent analysis shows that these fuzzy regression strategies area units normally will not to model client preferences. We tend to propose a Testing the strength of Exponential Regression Model over regression toward the mean Model.

Keywords: health-care management systems, fuzzy regression, data mining, forecasting, fuzzy membership function

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Authors: Elena Listo Ubeda, Miguel Marchamalo Sacristan

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The demand for water doubles every twenty years, at a rate which is twice as fast as the world´s population growth. Despite it´s great importance, water is one of the most degraded natural resources in the world, mainly because of the reduction of natural vegetation coverage, population growth, contamination and changes in the soil use which reduces its capacity to collect water. This situation is especially serious in Central America, as reflected in the Human Development reports. The objective of this project is to assist in the improvement of water production and quality in Central America. In order to do these two watersheds in Costa Rica were selected as experiments: that of the Virilla-Durazno River, located in the extreme north east of the central valley which has an Atlantic influence; and that of the Jabillo River, which flows directly into the Pacific. The Virilla river watershed is located over andisols, and that of the Jabillo River is over alfisols, and both are of great importance for water supply to the Greater Metropolitan Area and the future tourist resorts respectively, as well as for the production of agriculture, livestock and hydroelectricity. The hydrological reaction in different soil-cover complexes, varying from the secondary forest to natural vegetation and degraded pasture, was analyzed according to the evaluation of the properties of the soil, infiltration, soil compaction, as well as the effects of the soil cover complex on erosion, calculated by the C factor of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). A water balance was defined for each watershed, in which the volume of water that enters and leaves were estimated, as well as the evapotranspiration, runoff, and infiltration. Two future scenarios, representing the implementation of reforestation and deforestation plans, were proposed, and were analyzed for the effects of the soil cover complex on the water balance in each case. The results obtained show an increase of the ground water recharge in the humid forest areas, and an extension of the study of the dry areas is proposed since the ground water recharge here is diminishing. These results are of great significance for the planning, design of Payment Schemes for Environmental Services and the improvement of the existing water supply systems. In Central America spatial planning is a priority, as are the watersheds, in order to assess the water resource socially and economically, and securing its availability for the future.

Keywords: Costa Rica, infiltration, soil, water

Procedia PDF Downloads 368

Authors: Nithra Kitreerawutiwong, Sunsanee Mekrungrongwong, Artitaya Wongwonsin, Chakkraphan Phetphoom, Buaploy Phromjang

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Background: Thailand has implemented a district health system based on the concept of primary health care. Since 2014, Family Care Team (FCT) was launched to improve the quality of care through a multidisciplinary team include not only the health sector but also social sector work together. FCT classified into 3 levels: district, sub-district, and community. This system now consists of 66,353 teams, including 3,890 teams at district level, 12,237 teams at the sub-district level, and 50,326 teams at the community level. There is a report regarding assessment the situation and perception on FCT, however, relatively few examined the operationality of this policy. This study aimed to explore the perception of district manager on the process of the implementation of FCT policy and the factors associating to implement FCT in the district health system. Methods/Results: Forty in-depth interviews were performed: 5 of primary care manager at the provincial medical health office, 5 of community hospital director, 5 of district administrative health office, 10 of sub-district health promoting hospital, and 10 of local organization. Semi-structure interview guidelines were used in the discussions. The data was analyzed by thematic analysis. This policy was formulated based on the demographic change and epidemiology transition to serve a long term care for elderly. Facilitator factors are social capital in district health systems such as family health leader and multidisciplinary team. Barrier factors are communication to the frontline provider and local organization. The output of this policy in relation to the structure of FCT is well-defined. Unanticipated effects include training of FCT in community level. Conclusion: Early feedback from healthcare manager is valuable information for the improvement of FCT to function optimally. Moreover, in the long term, health outcome need to be evaluated.

Keywords: family care team, district health system, primary care, qualitative study

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Authors: Valery Gulyayev, Sergey Glazunov, Elena Andrusenko, Nataliya Shlyun

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Enhancement of technology and techniques for drilling deep directed oil and gas bore-wells are of essential industrial significance because these wells make it possible to increase their productivity and output. Generally, they are used for drilling in hard and shale formations, that is why their drivage processes are followed by the emergency and failure effects. As is corroborated by practice, the principal drilling drawback occurring in drivage of long curvilinear bore-wells is conditioned by the need to obviate essential force hindrances caused by simultaneous action of the gravity, contact and friction forces. Primarily, these forces depend on the type of the technological regime, drill string stiffness, bore-hole tortuosity and its length. They can lead to the Eulerian buckling of the drill string and its sticking. To predict and exclude these states, special mathematic models and methods of computer simulation should play a dominant role. At the same time, one might note that these mechanical phenomena are very complex and only simplified approaches (‘soft string drag and torque models’) are used for their analysis. Taking into consideration that now the cost of directed wells increases essentially with complication of their geometry and enlargement of their lengths, it can be concluded that the price of mistakes of the drill string behavior simulation through the use of simplified approaches can be very high and so the problem of correct software elaboration is very urgent. This paper deals with the problem of simulating the regimes of drilling deep curvilinear bore-wells with prescribed imperfect geometrical trajectories of their axial lines. On the basis of the theory of curvilinear flexible elastic rods, methods of differential geometry, and numerical analysis methods, the 3D ‘stiff-string drag and torque model’ of the drill string bending and the appropriate software are elaborated for the simulation of the tripping in and out regimes and drilling operations. It is shown by the computer calculations that the contact and friction forces can be calculated and regulated, providing predesigned trouble-free modes of operation. The elaborated mathematic models and software can be used for the emergency situations prognostication and their exclusion at the stages of the drilling process design and realization.

Keywords: curvilinear drilling, drill string tripping in and out, contact forces, resistance forces

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Authors: Maad Kamal Al-Anni

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This study is about an algorithmic dependence of Artificial Neural Network on Multilayer Perceptron (MPL) pertaining to the classification and clustering presentations for Mobile Adhoc Network vulnerabilities. Moreover, mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is ubiquitous intelligent internetworking devices in which it has the ability to detect their environment using an autonomous system of mobile nodes that are connected via wireless links. Security affairs are the most important subject in MANET due to the easy penetrative scenarios occurred in such an auto configuration network. One of the powerful techniques used for inspecting the network packets is Intrusion Detection System (IDS); in this article, we are going to show the effectiveness of artificial neural networks used as a machine learning along with stochastic approach (information gain) to classify the malicious behaviors in simulated network with respect to different IDS techniques. The monitoring agent is responsible for detection inference engine, the audit data is collected from collecting agent by simulating the node attack and contrasted outputs with normal behaviors of the framework, whenever. In the event that there is any deviation from the ordinary behaviors then the monitoring agent is considered this event as an attack , in this article we are going to demonstrate the  signature-based IDS approach in a MANET by implementing the back propagation algorithm over ensemble-based Traffic Table (TT), thus the signature of malicious behaviors or undesirable activities are often significantly prognosticated and efficiently figured out, by increasing the parametric set-up of Back propagation algorithm during the experimental results which empirically shown its effectiveness  for the ratio of detection index up to 98.6 percentage. Consequently it is proved in empirical results in this article, the performance matrices are also being included in this article with Xgraph screen show by different through puts like Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Through Put(TP), and Average Delay(AD).

Keywords: Intrusion Detection System (IDS), Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANET), Back Propagation Algorithm (BPA), Neural Networks (NN)

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Authors: Malak Alasli

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Hungarians come to use geographic names that are foreign to their environment and language in diverse settings, hence the aim of trying to adapt them to their own linguistic context. The Maghreb region (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) uses both Arabic and French in presenting the place names. Consequently, the lexicographical treatment of the toponym will, therefore, consist of both the presentation of the toponymic term and the pronunciation of the entries. The motivation behind this approach is the need for a better identification of the place in question by avoiding ambiguities, and for more respect to the heritage by conforming to the right use of toponyms both in written as well as in oral practice. The goal is to provide Hungarians with a set of data by attempting a system of transliteration from French/Arabic to Hungarian, where the place names of the Maghreb are transliterated for more efficient usage. To examine the importance of toponyms’ pronunciation, the latter were collected from several 20th and 21st Hungarian school atlases. Most people meet, for the first time, foreign place names in school, hence the choice of solely extracting place names from school atlases as sample data. Interviews targeted university students, where they were asked to pronounce the place names collected. Results revealed the intricacy behind the pronunciation. Two main conclusions emerged; Hungarian students encountered challenges reading the toponyms, and Arabic speakers could not identify the names either, which causes a cut in communication. Ergo, the importance of elaborating on the pronunciation of toponyms. Concordance is where you find variants of a name. Therefore, a chart was put forward including all the name variants obtained from various references with their Arabic transcription indicating any changes that may have occurred, and the origin of the denomination (Roman, Berber, etc.). A case will also be added for comments and observations. This work embraces a dual purpose. It will provide information to Hungarians on the official names of foreign places in case of occurring changes; for instance, 'El-goléa, Algeria' (used in a latest edition of a school atlas) has now the official name of 'El Ménia'. It will also serve as a reference for knowing the correct and precise forms of place names’ pronunciation.

Keywords: concordance, onomastics, settlement names, school atlases

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Authors: Mohammad Afkhami, Saeid Reza Ameli Ranani

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Since the bitcoin invention in 2008, blockchain technology surpassed so many innovations that the pioneer networks such as Ethereum are adaptable to host a decentral bunch of information containing pictures, audio, video, domains, etc., or even a metaverse versatile avatar. Transformation of tangible goods into virtual assets, known as AR-utility of luxury products, and the intermixture of reality and virtuality organized a worldwide, semi-regulated, and decentralized marketplace for digital goods. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are doing a great help to artists worldwide, sharing diverse cultural outlooks by setting up a remote cross-cultural corporation potential and, at the same time, metamorphosizing the middleman role and ceasing the necessity of having a SWIFT-connected bank account. Under critical sanctions, a group of artists in Tehran did not take for granted such an opportunity to show off their artworks undisturbed, offering an introspective attitude, exerting Iranian motifs while intermingling westernized symbols. The cryptocurrency market has already acquired allocation, and interest in the global domain, paving the way for a flourishing enthusiasm among entrepreneurs who have been preoccupied with high-tech start-ups before. In a project found by Iranian female artists, we decipher the ups and downs of the new cyberculture and the environment it provides to fairly promote the artwork and obstacles it put forward in the way of interested entrepreneurs as we get through the details of starting up an NFT collection. An in-depth interview and empirical encounters with diverse Social Network Sites (SNS) and the strategies that other successful projects deploy to sell their artworks in an international and, at the same time, an anonymous market is the main focus, which shapes the paper fieldwork perspective. In conclusion, we discuss strategies for promoting an NFT project.

Keywords: NFT, metaverse, intercultural, art, illustration, start-up, entrepreneurship

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Authors: Calister Wingang Makebe, Wilson Ambindei Agwanande, Emmanuel Jong Nso, P. Nisha

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Traditional liquid-state fermentation processes of Annona muricata L. juice can result in fluctuating product quality and quantity due to difficulties in control and scale up. This work describes a laboratory-scale batch fermentation process to produce a probiotic Annona muricata L. enzymatically extracted juice, which was modeled using the Doehlert design with independent extraction factors being incubation time, temperature, and enzyme concentration. It aimed at a better understanding of the traditional process as an initial step for future optimization. Annona muricata L. juice was fermented with L. acidophilus (NCDC 291) (LA), L. casei (NCDC 17) (LC), and a blend of LA and LC (LCA) for 72 h at 37 °C. Experimental data were fitted into mathematical models (Monod, Logistic and Luedeking and Piret models) using MATLAB software, to describe biomass growth, sugar utilization, and organic acid production. The optimal fermentation time was obtained based on cell viability, which was 24 h for LC and 36 h for LA and LCA. The model was particularly effective in estimating biomass growth, reducing sugar consumption, and lactic acid production. The values of the determination coefficient, R2, were 0.9946, 0.9913 and 0.9946, while the residual sum of square error, SSE, was 0.2876, 0.1738 and 0.1589 for LC, LA and LCA, respectively. The growth kinetic parameters included the maximum specific growth rate, µm, which was 0.2876 h-1, 0.1738 h-1 and 0.1589 h-1 as well as the substrate saturation, Ks, with 9.0680 g/L, 9.9337 g/L and 9.0709 g/L respectively for LC, LA and LCA. For the stoichiometric parameters, the yield of biomass based on utilized substrate (YXS) was 50.7932, 3.3940 and 61.0202, and the yield of product based on utilized substrate (YPS) was 2.4524, 0.2307 and 0.7415 for LC, LA, and LCA, respectively. In addition, the maintenance energy parameter (ms) was 0.0128, 0.0001 and 0.0004 with respect to LC, LA and LCA. With the kinetic model proposed by Luedeking and Piret for lactic acid production rate, the growth associated, and non-growth associated coefficients were determined as 1.0028 and 0.0109, respectively. The model was demonstrated for batch growth of LA, LC, and LCA in Annona muricata L. juice. The present investigation validates the potential of Annona muricata L. based medium for heightened economical production of a probiotic medium.

Keywords: L. acidophilus, L. casei, fermentation, modelling, kinetics

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Authors: Mohammad H. Yarmohammadian, Mehdi Nasr Isfahani, Elham Anbari

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Introduction: The awareness of using chemical, biological, and nuclear agents in everyday industrial and non-industrial incidents has increased recently; release of these materials can be accidental or intentional. Since hospitals are the forefronts of confronting Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear( CBRN) incidents, the goal of the present research was to provide a generic protocol for CBRN incidents through a comparative review of CBRN protocols and guidelines of different countries and reviewing various books, handbooks and papers. Method: The integrative approach or research synthesis was adopted in this study. First a simple narrative review of programs, books, handbooks, and papers about response to CBRN incidents in different countries was carried out. Then the most important and functional information was discussed in the form of a generic protocol in focus group sessions and subsequently confirmed. Results: Findings indicated that most of the countries had various protocols, guidelines, and handbooks for hazardous materials or CBRN incidents. The final outcome of the research synthesis was a 50 page generic protocol whose main topics included introduction, definition and classification of CBRN agents, four major phases of incident and disaster management cycle, hospital response management plan, equipment, and recommended supplies and antidotes for decontamination (radiological/nuclear, chemical, biological); each of these also had subtopics. Conclusion: In the majority of international protocols, guidelines, handbooks and also international and Iranian books and papers, there is an emphasis on the importance of incident command system, determining the safety degree of decontamination zones, maps of decontamination zones, decontamination process, triage classifications, personal protective equipment, and supplies and antidotes for decontamination; these are the least requirements for such incidents and also consistent with the provided generic protocol.

Keywords: hospital, CBRN, decontamination, generic protocol, CBRN Incidents

Procedia PDF Downloads 282

Authors: Athena Daniilidou, Maria Platsidou

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Resilience is considered to greatly affect the personal and occupational wellbeing and efficacy of individuals; therefore, it has been widely studied in the social and behavioral sciences. Given its significance, several scales have been created to assess resilience of children and adults. However, most of these scales focus on examining only the internal protective or risk factors that affect the levels of resilience. The aim of the present study is to create a reliable scale that assesses both the internal and the external protective factors that affect Greek teachers’ levels of resilience. Participants were 136 secondary school teachers (89 females, 47 males) from urban areas of Greece. Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-Risc) and Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) were used to collect the data. First, exploratory factor analysis was employed to investigate the inner structure of each scale. For both scales, the analyses revealed a differentiated factor solution compared to the ones proposed by the creators. That prompt us to create a scale that would combine the best fitting subscales of the CD-Risc and the RSA. To this end, the items of the four factors with the best fit and highest reliability were used to create the ‘Teachers' resilience scale’. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale assesses the following protective/risk factors: Personal Competence and Strength (9 items, α=.83), Family Cohesion Spiritual Influences (7 items, α=.80), Social Competence and Peers Support (7 items, α=.78) and Spiritual Influence (3 items, α=.58). This four-factor model explained 49,50% of the total variance. In the next step, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the 26 items of the derived scale to test the above factor solution. The fit of the model to the data was good (χ2/292 = 1.245, CFI = .921, GFI = .829, SRMR = .074, CI90% = .026-,056, RMSEA = 0.43), indicating that the proposed scale can validly measure the aforementioned four aspects of teachers' resilience and thus confirmed its factorial validity. Finally, analyses of variance were performed to check for individual differences in the levels of teachers' resilience in relation to their gender, age, marital status, level of studies, and teaching specialty. Results were consistent to previous findings, thus providing an indication of discriminant validity for the instrument. This scale has the advantage of assessing both the internal and the external protective factors of resilience in a brief yet comprehensive way, since it consists 26 items instead of the total of 58 of the CD-Risc and RSA scales. Its factorial inner structure is supported by the relevant literature on resilience, as it captures the major protective factors of resilience identified in previous studies.

Keywords: protective factors, resilience, scale development, teachers

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Authors: Yasir M. Alyazichi, Brian G. Jones, Errol McLean, Hamd N. Altalyan, Ali K. M. Al-Nasrawi

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The main purpose of this study is to assess the sediment quality and potential ecological risk in marine sediments in Gymea Bay located in south Sydney, Australia. A total of 32 surface sediment samples were collected from the bay. Current track trajectories and velocities have also been measured in the bay. The resultant trace elements were compared with the adverse biological effect values Effect Range Low (ERL) and Effect Range Median (ERM) classifications. The results indicate that the average values of chromium, arsenic, copper, zinc, and lead in surface sediments all reveal low pollution levels and are below ERL and ERM values. The highest concentrations of trace elements were found close to discharge points and in the inner bay, and were linked with high percentages of clay minerals, pyrite and organic matter, which can play a significant role in trapping and accumulating these elements. The lowest concentrations of trace elements were found to be on the shoreline of the bay, which contained high percentages of sand fractions. It is postulated that the fine particles and trace elements are disturbed by currents and tides, then transported and deposited in deeper areas. The current track velocities recorded in Gymea Bay had the capability to transport fine particles and trace element pollution within the bay. As a result, hydrodynamic measurements were able to provide useful information and to help explain the distribution of sedimentary particles and geochemical properties. This may lead to knowledge transfer to other bay systems, including those in remote areas. These activities can be conducted at a low cost, and are therefore also transferrable to developing countries. The advent of portable instruments to measure trace elements in the field has also contributed to the development of these lower cost and easily applied methodologies available for use in remote locations and low-cost economies.

Keywords: current track velocities, gymea bay, surface sediments, trace elements

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Authors: Murad Al-Rajab, Sherin Hazboun, Azhar Al-Hamamreh, Nirmeen Odeh, Siham Halaseh

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Tourism is considered an important sector for most countries, while maintaining good tourism attractions can promote national economic development. The State of Palestine is historically considered a wealthy country full of many archaeological places. In the city of Bethlehem, for example, the Church of the Nativity is the most important touristic site, but it does not have enough technology development to attract tourists. In this paper, we propose a smart mobile application named “Pal-STAR” (Palestine Smart Tourist Augmented Reality) as an innovative solution which targets tourists and assists them to make a visit inside the Church of the Nativity. The application will use augmented reality and feature a virtual tourist guide showing views of the church while providing historical information in a smart, easy, effective and user-friendly way. The proposed application is compatible with multiple mobile platforms and is considered user friendly. The findings show that this application will improve the practice of the tourism sector in the Holy Land, it will also increase the number of tourists visiting the Church of the Nativity and it will facilitate access to historical data that have been difficult to obtain using traditional tourism guidance. The value that tourism adds to a country cannot be denied, and the more technological advances are incorporated in this sector, the better the country’s tourism sector can be served. Palestine’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism in many of its main cities, despite several limitations, and technological development is needed to enable this sector to flourish. The proposed mobile application would definitely have a good impact on the development of the tourism sector by creating an Augmented Reality environment for tourists inside the church, helping them to navigate and learn about holy places in a non-traditional way, using a virtual tourist guide.

Keywords: smartphones, tourism, tourists guide, augmented reality, Palestine

Procedia PDF Downloads 150