Search results for: kuwait environment public authority regulations

Authors: Majda Ibrahim Aljaroudi, Jwaher Alburake

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The study aimed to identify the active role of the teacher in the management of the effective classroom environment for high school students from the viewpoint of the teachers, and to identify whether there were statistically significant differences between the averages of the respondents regarding the active role of the high school teachers in managing effective classroom environment in Riyadh, and also the total score depending on the variables of the study (qualifications, years of experience, training and development programs). This study used the descriptive survey approach where a questionnaire has been built and consisted of (35) items about five areas as a tool to measure the teacher's role in the management of effective classroom environment for high school students. The study population consisted of (1313) high school teachers in the government schools in south of Riyadh. It consisted of (70) teachers who were selected randomly. It used the appropriate statistical methods to analyze data by using statistical packages (SPSS). The study found the following results: • Most of the study sample members agreed on their role in the effective classroom environment management for high school students in government schools in Riyadh with an average (3.91 out of 5), which falls in the fifth category of Quintet scale (from 3.41 to 4.20) that refers to the option "often". • There are statistically significant differences between the mean responses of the study sample about the active role of the teacher in the effective classroom environment management for high school students regarding the concept of order in the classroom depending on the variable of years of experience for the benefit of teachers who have over 10 years of experience. There are statistically significant differences between the mean responses of the study sample about the teacher's active role in the effective classroom environment management for high school students regarding the educational process for maintaining the order in the classroom depending on the variable of training and development programs for the benefit of the teachers who have more than (5) courses. Due to the results of the study the researcher recommended a number of recommendations to improve the teacher's role in the effective classroom environment management for high school students.

Keywords: effective management, active learning, educational sciences, pedagogical sciences

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Authors: Anna K. Wood, Terri Friedline

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In April and May 2020, the private banking industry approved over 1.7 million emergency small business loans, totaling over $650 billion in federal relief funds as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Since the program’s rollout, the extensive evidence of discriminatory lending and misuse of funds has been revealed by investigative journalism and academic studies. This study is based on 41 interviews with frontline banking industry professionals conducted during the days and weeks of the PPP rollout, presenting a real-time narrative of the program rollout through the eyes of those in the role of a street-level bureaucrat. We present two themes from this data about the conditions under which these frontline workers experienced the PPP: Exigent Timelines and Defaulting to Existing Workplace Norms and Practices. We analyze these themes using literature on street-level organizations, bureaucratic discretion, and the differences between public and private sector logic. The results of this study present new directions for theorizing sector-level differences in street-level bureaucratic discretion in the context of mixed-sector collaboration on public service delivery, particularly under conditions of crisis and urgency.

Keywords: street level bureaucracy, social policy, bureaucratic discretion, public private partnerships

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Authors: Sara Sousa

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The environmental goods and services have often been neglected in crucial decisions affecting the environment mainly because the difficulty in estimating their economic value, since we are dealing with non-market goods and, thus, without a price associated. Nevertheless, the inexistence of prices does not necessarily mean these goods have no value. The environment is a key element in today's society that seeks to be as sustainable as possible, where the environmental assets have both use and non-use values. To estimate the use value, researchers may apply the revealed preference methods. This paper provides a theoretical review of the main concepts and methodologies on the economic valuation of the environment, with particular emphasis on the revealed preference techniques. Based on a detailed literature review, this study concludes that, despite some inherent limitations, the revealed preference methodologies – travel cost, hedonic price, and averting behaviour – represent essential tools for the researchers who accept the challenge to estimate the use value of environmental goods and services based on the actual individuals` behaviour. The main purpose of this study is to contribute to an increased theoretical information on the economic valuation of environmental assets, allowing researchers and policymakers to improve future decisions regarding the environment.

Keywords: economic valuation, environmental goods, revealed preference methods, total economic value

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Authors: Asmamaw Yigzaw Chirkos

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Corruption increasingly has become one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary world. It undermines good government and rule of law and in turn leads to the misallocation of public resources, harms both the private and public sector and particularly hurts the poor. Corruption is found everywhere, but it is deep-rooted in the poor countries of Sub-Saharan Africa countries. Corruption in developing countries continues to be one of the greatest factors of poverty and underdevelopment. As it is the case in other developing countries, in Ethiopia, the culture of corruption has grown roots in the society at large and become endemic. Institutions, which were designed for the regulation of the relationships between citizens and the State, are being used instead for the personal enrichment of public officials and other corrupt private agents. This paper, therefore, assesses the major factors affecting Corruption in Ethiopia from higher education instructors’ Perceptions with special reference to Business and Economics College of Bahir Dar University. The findings of the study support several previously conducted studies in that each factor examined had a moderate to high positive correlation with corruption, where r ranged between .35 and .54. In addition, the 13 variables together explain about 37 percent change in perceived corruption in Ethiopia (R²= .37).

Keywords: Bahir Dar university, corruption, Ethiopia, factors, instructors perceptions

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Authors: Nasrin Mohammadhasani, Rosa Angela Fabio

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The attention to relevance information is the key element for learning. Otherwise, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) students have a fuzzy visual pattern that prevents them to attention and remember learning subject. The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that the presence of a pedagogical agent can effectively support ADHD learner's attention and learning outcomes in a multimedia learning environment. The learning environment was integrated with a pedagogical agent, named Koosha as a social peer. This study employed a pretest and posttest experimental design with control group. The statistical population was 30 boys students, age 10-11 with ADHD that randomly assigned to learn with/without an agent in well designed environment for mathematic. The results suggested that experimental and control groups show a significant difference in time when they participated and mathematics achievement. According to this research, using the pedagogical agent can enhance learning of ADHD students by gaining and guiding their attention to relevance information part on display, so it can be considered as asocial cue that provides theme cognitive supports.

Keywords: attention, computer assisted instruction, multimedia learning environment, pedagogical agent

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Authors: Jessica Gonzalez

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Veganism, along with different types of vegetarianism, consists in the abstinence of animal products. Far from being only an alimentary regulation, it stands as a political posture against the food industry generating itself a set of beliefs, prohibitions, and attitudes that compel the individual to a reevaluation of his obligations towards the environment. Veganism defends animal rights and at the same time reinforces a different conception of natural resources embodying it in alimentary restrictions. These practices emerge in the context of alimentary modernity, which is characterized by bringing new concerns to the consumer. An increased skepticism towards the government ability to protect food supply; a notable distrust toward the market guaranties on providing safe food with sustainable techniques and the desire to react to the neoliberal forms of exploitation are some of its consequences of this phenomenon. This study aims to approach the concept of governmentality as a coproduced system of legitimized practices and knowledge, formed by the interaction of the different actors that are involved. In a scenario where the State seems to retreat from centralized regulation of food production giving up importance to citizens, dietary consultants, farmers, and stockbreeders, veganism plays its role on the conformation of distinctive forms of environmentalism, nature rights and responses to ecological crisis. The ethnographic method allows observing the mechanisms of interaction of consumers and discourses with the mainstream food system, providing evidence about the means of generation of new conceptions about nature and the environment. The paper focuses on how the dietary restrictions, consumption patterns and public discourses of vegans in Barcelona impact local consumption, demonstrating its relevance as a mechanism that associates particular concerns about food with political economy.

Keywords: animal rights, environmentalism, food system, governmentality, veganism

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Authors: M. A. H. Barry

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The concept of Good faith (husn al-niyyah) and fair-dealing (Nadl) are the fundamental guiding elements in all contracts and other agreements under Islamic law. The preaching of Al-Quran and Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be upon Him) firmly command people to act in good faith in all dealings. There are several Quran verses and the Prophet’s saying which stressed the significance of dealing honestly and fairly in all transactions. Under the English law, the good faith is not considered a fundamental requirement for the formation of a legal contract. However, the concept of Good Faith in private contracts is recognized by the civil law system and in Article 7(1) of the Convention on International Sale of Goods (CISG-Vienna Convention-1980). It took several centuries for the international trading community to recognize the significance of the concept of good faith for the international sale of goods transactions. Nevertheless, the recognition of good faith in Civil law is only confined for the commercial contracts. Subsequently to the CISG, this concept has made inroads into the private international law. There are submissions in favour of applying the good faith concept to public international law based on tacit recognition by the international conventions and International Tribunals. However, under public international law the concept of good faith is not recognized as a source of rights or obligations. This weakens the spirit of the good faith concept, particularly when determining the international disputes. This also creates a fundamental flaw because the absence of good faith application means the breaches tainted by bad faith are tolerated. The objective of this research is to evaluate, examine and analyze the application of the concept of good faith in the modern laws and identify its limitation, in comparison with Islamic concept of good faith. This paper also identifies the problems and issues connected with the non-application of this concept to public international law. This research consists of three key components (1) the preliminary inquiry (2) subject analysis and discovery of research results, and (3) examining the challenging problems, and concluding with proposals. The preliminary inquiry is based on both the primary and secondary sources. The same sources are used for the subject analysis. This research also has both inductive and deductive features. The Islamic concept of good faith covers all situations and circumstances where the bad faith causes unfairness to the affected parties, especially the weak parties. Under the Islamic law, the concept of good faith is a source of rights and obligations as Islam prohibits any person committing wrongful or delinquent acts in any dealing whether in a private or public life. This rule is applicable not only for individuals but also for institutions, states, and international organizations. This paper explains how the unfairness is caused by non-recognition of the good faith concept as a source of rights or obligations under public international law and provides legal and non-legal reasons to show why the Islamic formulation is important.

Keywords: good faith, the civil law system, the Islamic concept, public international law

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Authors: Amna I. Shibeika, Batoul Y. Hittini, Tasneem B. Abd Bakri

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Regulation and integration of public policy, economy, insurance industry, education, and construction stakeholders are the main contributors to achieve sustainable development. Building environmental assessment methods were introduced in the field to address issues such as global warming and conservation of natural resources. In the UAE, Estidama framework with its associated Pearl Building Rating System (PBRS) has been introduced in 2010 to address and spread sustainability practices within the country’s fast-growing built environment. Based on literature review of relevant studies investigating different project characteristics that influence sustainability outcomes, this paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding the adoption of PBRS in UAE projects. The framework also draws on Diffusion of Innovations theory to address the questions of how the assessment method is chosen in the first place and what is the impact of PBRS on the multi-disciplinary design and construction processes. The study highlights the mandatory nature of the adoption of PBRS for government buildings as well as imbedding Estidama principles within Abu Dhabi building codes as key factors for raising awareness about sustainable practices. Moreover, several project-related elements are addressed to understand their relationship with the adoption process, including project team collaboration; communication and coordination; levels of commitment and engagement; and the involvement of key actors as sustainability champions. This conceptualization of the adoption of PBRS in UAE projects contributes to the growing literature on the adoption of energy assessment tools and addresses the UAE vision is to be at the forefront of innovative sustainable development by 2021.

Keywords: adoption, building assessment, design management, innovation, sustainability

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Authors: Mehrdad Abkenari, Naghmeh Pournayeb, Mohsen Ramezan Shirazi

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Nano-science has been widely used in different engineering sciences. Generally, materials’ application can be determined through their chemical and physical properties. Nano-science has introduced as a new way in production systems that not only turns the materials into very small particles but also, gives them new and considerable properties. Like other fields of study, civil engineering has not been ignorant of benefits and characteristics of new nanotechnology and has used it in the construction industry and environmental engineering. Therefore, considering such chemical properties as elemental analysis and molecular or atomic structure, the present article is aimed at studying the effects of Nano-materials on different branches of civil engineering. Finally, by identifying new Nano-materials, this study attempts to introduce advantages of using these materials for increasing the strength of materials during construction as well as finding new approaches to prevent or reduce the entrance of chemical pollutants during or after construction to the environment.

Keywords: civil, nano-science, construction, environment

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Authors: Elisângela de Albuquerque Sobreira Borovoski, Ricardo Willian Borovoski

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Microbiological infections acquired by animals pose a risk to public health. In public health, monitoring the health of primates is linked to the risk of transmission of zoonoses through scratches, bites and contact with biological samples. The project was approved by the Ethics Committee on the Use of Animals Protocol No. 170/2019. It was authorized by ICMBio Protocol No. 52117-1. The study was carried out in the period 2019-2022 in the municipality of Anápolis. Iron and galvanized wire traps were used and the animals were anesthetized with 4.4mg/kg zolethyl intramuscularly and saliva was collected through swabs. Fifty-three capuchin monkeys were captured from the Onofre Quinan Environmental Park in Anápolis-Goiás for health monitoring purposes. In the laboratory, the samples were deposited on the agar surface and seeded by exhaustion to obtain isolated colonies. These colonies were analyzed according to morphocolonial characteristics. Morphometric characterization and biochemical tests for bacterial identification were performed. A total of 861 bacterial samples were isolated, nine of which were strict anaerobic bacteria of the genus Peptostreptococcus. Previous and constant knowledge of the prevalence of pathogenic agents in biological samples is essential to be prepared to act in pandemic situations.

Keywords: Brazil, microbiology, monkeys, public health

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Authors: Azzi Mohammed Amin

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In the last decade Algeria has investigated in a scale of economic reforms including different areas, among these; reforms in the banking system. This was mainly through the implementation of some regulations that facilitate the shift to market economy and guarantee integration into global economy. The most important new ideas that have emerged in this area are perhaps to find a possibility of integrating the so called e-banking. Based on what has already been stated, we will try in this study to highlight the significant role of electronic banking services as novel trends in the modernization and development of Algerian banks.

Keywords: banking technology, Internet banks, modernization of banks, virtual banks

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Authors: Crysovaladou Kefaloudi, Kassiani Mellou, Eirini Saranti-Papasaranti, Athanasios Koustenis, Chrysoula Botsi, Agapios Terzidis

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Recent migration crisis led to a vast migrant – refugees movement to Greece which created an urgent need for hosting settlements. Taken into account the protection of public health from possible pathogens related to water and food supply as well as waste and sewage accumulation, a 'Living Conditions Recording Form' was created in the context of 'PHILOS' European Program funded by the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) of EU’s DG Migration and Home Affairs, in order to assess a number of environmental sanitation parameters, in refugees – migrants camps in mainland. The assessment will be completed until the end of July. From March to June 2017, mobile unit teams comprised of health inspectors of sub-action 2 of “PHILOS” proceeded with the assessment of living conditions in twenty-two out of thirty-one camps and 'Stata' was used for the statistical analysis of obtained information. Variables were grouped into the following categories: 1) Camp administration, 2) hosted population number, 3) accommodation, 4) heating installations, 5) personal hygiene, 6) sewage collection and disposal, 7) water supply, 8) waste collection and management, 9) pest control, 10) fire safety, 11) food handling and safety. Preliminary analysis of the results showed that camp administration was performed in 90% of the camps by a public authority with the coordination of various NGOs. The median number of hosted population was 222 ranging from 62 to 3200, and the median value of hosted population per accommodation type was 4 in 19 camps. Heating facilities were provided in 86.1% of camps. In 18.2 % of the camps, one personal hygiene facility was available per 6 people ranging in the rest of the camps from 1 per 3 to 1 per 20 hosted refugees-migrants. Waste and sewage collection was performed depending on populations demand in an adequate way in all recorded camps. In 90% of camps, water was supplied through the central water supply system. In 85% of camps quantity and quality of water supply inside camps was regularly monitored for microbial and chemical indices. Pest control was implemented in 86.4% of the camps as well as fire safety measures. Food was supplied by catering companies in 50% of the camps, and the quality and quantity food was monitored at a regular basis. In 77% of camps, food was prepared by the hosted population with the availability of proper storage conditions. Furthermore, in all camps, hosted population was provided with personal hygiene items and health sanitary educational programs were implemented in 77.3% of camps. In conclusion, in the majority of the camps, environmental sanitation parameters were satisfactory. However, waste and sewage accumulation, as well as inadequate pest control measures were recorded in some camps. The obtained data have led to a number of recommendations for the improvement of sanitary conditions, disseminated to all relevant stakeholders. Special emphasis was given to hygiene measures implementation during food handling by migrants – refugees, as well as to waste and sewage accumulation taking in to account the population’s cultural background.

Keywords: environmental sanitation parameters, food borne diseases risk assessment, refugee – migrants camps, water borne diseases risk assessment

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Authors: Ahmed Sameer, Braj Bhushan

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The objective of our study was to compare two techniques (no landmark vs imaginary landmark) of remembering route while traversing in an unfamiliar homogenous environment. We used two videos each having nine identical turns with no landmarks. In the first video participant was required to remember the sequence of turns. In the second video participant was required to imagine a landmark at each turn and associate the turn with it. In both the task the participant was asked to recall the sequence of turns as it appeared in the video. Results showed that performance in the first condition i.e. without use of landmarks was better than imaginary landmark condition. The difference, however, became significant when the participant were tested again about 30 minutes later though performance was still better in no-landmark condition. The finding is surprising given the past research in memory and is explained in terms of cognitive factors such as mental workload.

Keywords: wayfinding, landmarks, unfamiliar environment, cognitive psychology

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Authors: Hung-Chun Lin, Tzu-Yuan Chao

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As the population aging has become an inevitable trend globally, issues of improving the well-being of elderly people in urban areas have been a challenging task for urban planners. Recent studies of ageing trend have also expended to explore the relationship between the built environment and mental condition of elderly people. These studies have proved that even though the built environment may not necessarily play the decisive role in affecting mental health, it can have positive impacts on individual mental health by promoting social linkages and social networks among older adults. There has been a great amount of relevant research examined the impact of the built environment attributes on depression in the elderly; however, most were conducted in the Western countries. Little attention has been paid in Asian cities with contrarily high density and mix-use urban contexts such as Taiwan regarding how the built environment attributes related to depression in elderly people. Hence, more empirical cross-principle studies are needed to explore the possible impacts of Asia urban characteristics on older residents’ mental condition. This paper intends to focus on Tainan city, the fourth biggest metropolis in Taiwan. We first analyze with data from National Health Insurance Research Database to pinpoint the empirical study area where residing most elderly patients, aged over 65, with depressive disorders. Secondly, we explore the relationship between specific attributes of the built environment collected from previous studies and elderly individuals who suffer from depression, under different socio-cultural and networking circumstances. To achieve the results, the research methods adopted in this study include questionnaire and database analysis, and the results will be proceeded by correlation analysis. In addition, through literature review, by generalizing the built environment factors that have been used in Western research to evaluate the relationship between built environment and older individuals with depressive disorders, a set of local evaluative indicators of the built environment for future studies will be proposed as well. In order to move closer to develop age-friendly cities and improve the well-being for the elderly in Taiwan, the findings of this paper can provide empirical results to grab planners’ attention for how built environment makes the elderly feel and to reconsider the relationship between them. Furthermore, with an interdisciplinary topic, the research results are expected to make suggestions for amending the procedures of drawing up an urban plan or a city plan from a different point of view.

Keywords: built environment, depression, elderly, Tainan

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Authors: Felippe Clemente, Viviani S. Lírio

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Brazilian tax evasion is very high. It causes many problems for economics as budget realization, income distribution and no allocation of productive resources. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to use the instrumental game theory to understand tax evasion agents and tax authority in Brazil (Federal Revenue and Federal Police). By means of Game Theory approaches, the main results from considering cases both with and without specialists show that, in a high dropout situation, penalizing taxpayers with either high fines or deprivations of liberty may not be very effective. The analysis also shows that audit and inspection costs play an important role in driving the equilibrium system. This would suggest that a policy of investing in tax inspectors would be a more effective tool in combating non-compliance with tax obligations than penalties or fines.

Keywords: tax evasion, Brazil, game theory, specialists

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Authors: Jacolien Barnard, Corlia Van Heerden

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Effective and accessible consensual dispute resolution and in particular alternative dispute resolution, are central to consumer protection legislation. In this regard, the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA) of South Africa is no exception. Due to the nature of consumer disputes, alternative dispute resolution (in theory) is an effective vehicle for the adjudication of disputes in a timely manner avoiding overburdening of the courts. The CPA sets down as one of its core purposes the provision of ‘an accessible, consistent, harmonized, effective and efficient system of redress for consumers’ (section 3(1)(h) of the CPA). Section 69 of the Act provides for the enforcement of consumer rights and provides for the National Consumer Commission to be the Central Authority which streamlines, adjudicates and channels disputes to the appropriate forums which include Alternative Dispute Resolution Agents (ADR-agents). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the regulation of these enforcement and redress mechanisms with particular focus on the Central Authority as well as the ADR-agents and their crucial role in successful and efficient adjudication of disputes in South Africa. The South African position will be discussed comparatively with the European Union (EU) position. In this regard, the European Union (EU) Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (2013/11/EU) will be discussed (The ADR Directive). The aim of the ADR Directive is to solve contractual disputes between consumers and traders (suppliers or businesses) regardless of whether the agreement was concluded offline or online or whether or not the trader is situated in another member state (Recitals 4-6). The ADR Directive provides for a set of quality requirements that an ADR body or entity tasked with resolving consumer disputes should adhere to in member states which include regulatory mechanisms for control. Transparency, effectiveness, fairness, liberty and legality are all requirements for a successful ADR body and discussed within this chapter III of the Directive. Chapters III and IV govern the importance of information and co-operation. This includes information between ADR bodies and the European Commission (EC) but also between ADR bodies or entities and national authorities enforcing legal acts on consumer protection and traders. (In South Africa the National Consumer Tribunal, Provincial Consumer Protectors and Industry ombuds come to mind). All of which have a responsibility to keep consumers informed. Ultimately the papers aims to provide recommendations as to the successfulness of the current South African position in light of the comparative position in Europe and the highlight the importance of proper regulation of these redress and enforcement institutions.

Keywords: alternative dispute resolution, consumer protection law, enforcement, redress

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Authors: Loreta Kaklauskiene, Arturas Kaklauskas

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This employee productivity and work well-being effective system aims to maximise the work performance of personnel and boost well-being in offices. Affective computing, decision support, and knowledge-based systems were used in our research. The basis of this effective system is our European Patent application (No: EP 4 020 134 A1) and two Lithuanian patents (LT 6841, LT 6866). Our study examines ways to support efficient employee productivity and well-being by employing mass-customised, personalised office environment. Efficient employee performance and well-being are managed by changing mass-customised office environment factors such as air pollution levels, humidity, temperature, data, information, knowledge, activities, lighting colours and intensity, scents, media, games, videos, music, and vibrations. These aspects of management generate a customised, adaptive environment for users taking into account their emotional, affective, and physiological (MAP) states measured and fed into the system. This research aims to develop an innovative method and system which would analyse, customise and manage a personalised office environment according to a specific user’s MAP states in a cohesive manner. Various values of work spaces (e.g., employee utilitarian, hedonic, perceived values) are also established throughout this process, based on the measurements that describe MAP states and other aspects related to the office environment. The main contribution of our research is the development of a real-time mass-customised office environment to boost employee performance and well-being. Acknowledgment: This work was supported by Project No. 2020-1-LT01-KA203-078100 “Minimizing the influence of coronavirus in a built environment” (MICROBE) from the European Union’s Erasmus + program.

Keywords: effective decision support and a knowledge-based system, human resource management, employee productivity and work well-being, affective computing

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Authors: Soroush Mokallaei

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Since ancient times, urbanization engineers have always thought of creating green spaces along with urbanization. Athens and Rome have attempted to construct public gardens around streets and palaces. Since then developing green space has become a part of urban civilization. In medieval ages, all Western cities had palaces and houses with internal gardens. In different sources green belt is defined as a green band of trees and bushes around the cities which has multiple functions. It is said that green belts are not only around the mountains, cities, and rivers but also around houses, subways, and highways. Constructing green belt around cities has different advantages such as: protecting cities against pollution, purifying air, screening dust, being a place for recreation, buffer zone of city internal lands, confronting the phenomenon of heat island, increasing agricultural products, helping to prevent illegal city development, confronting deforestation, preventing flood and increasing subterranean water resources.

Keywords: environment, garden cities, green belt, metropolises

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Authors: Jingjue Bao, Ye Li, Yujie Qi

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The explosive growth of ride-hailing has reshaped residents' travel behavior and plays a crucial role in urban mobility within the built environment. Contributing to the research of the spatial variation of ride-hailing demand and its relationship to the built environment and socioeconomic factors, this study utilizes multi-source data from Haikou, China, to construct a Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression model (MGWR), considering spatial scale heterogeneity. The regression results showed that MGWR model was demonstrated superior interpretability and reliability with an improvement of 3.4% on R2 and from 4853 to 4787 on AIC, compared with Geographically Weighted Regression model (GWR). Furthermore, to precisely identify the surrounding environment of sampling point, DeepLabv3+ model is employed to segment street-level images. Features extracted from these images are incorporated as variables in the regression model, further enhancing its rationality and accuracy by 7.78% improvement on R2 compared with the MGWR model only considered region-level variables. By integrating multi-scale geospatial data and utilizing advanced computer vision techniques, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the spatial dynamics between ride-hailing demand and the urban built environment. The insights gained from this research are expected to contribute significantly to urban transportation planning and policy making, as well as ride-hailing platforms, facilitating the development of more efficient and effective mobility solutions in modern cities.

Keywords: travel behavior, ride-hailing, spatial relationship, built environment, street-level image

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Authors: S. Sokel, M. Kale

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Norovirus (NoV) infection is effective and contagious in humans and many animals such as calves, pigs, dogs, cats, monkeys. There is not enough evidence about the zoonotic transmission of NoV between humans and animals. However, the fact that contamination of foods and environment by animal/human waste happens in indirect way leads to consideration of the agent as a zoonotic character. In our study, we aim to search the presence of NoV infection, which is a major public health problem, in possessed dogs showing diarrhea symptoms, to detect its genotype and to study nutrition and life conditions. We searched the existence of human NoV GI, GII and GIV in the stool of 128 pet dogs in Burdur Province with diarrhoea in various sex, age and breed by using Real-Time PCR method. Human NoV GII was found in only 5 of the 128 dog stool samples (3.91%). In the study, it was determined that the owners of the dogs with NoV GII are middle aged or elderly people most of whom are male and that there were no children in their houses. As these dogs are treated like the owner’s child, it is assumed that they could be transmitted with NoV GII as a result of close interaction with their owner.

Keywords: dog, human, norovirus, Real-Time PCR, stool

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Authors: Ramdane Gaouir

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Farmers in the two regions of Tizi-Ouzou, DBK and Tadmait, face different crop pests, namely, fungal diseases, insect attack as well as different types of deficiencies. To fight against all these threats, they resort to the use of a wide variety of chemicals. Our survey carried out in these two regions, aims to identify the different types of pesticides used, the method of management of the packaging generated by these phytosanitary products as well as the evaluation of the effect of these products on the farmers' health and the environment. The results obtained highlighted the use of two types of pesticides with a very wide application, namely fungicides and insecticides. The two most widely identified chemical families are neonicotoids and organophosphates, which are among the most toxic and persistent pesticides in the environment. The management method of packaging and the application of products by spraying reflect the lack of training and the unawareness of farmers vis-à-vis the impact of pesticides on their health and on the environment.

Keywords: farmers, crops, pesticides, fungicides, neonicotinoids, organochlorines

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Authors: Yujie Zhao, Jiantao Weng

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In the past decade, with the rapid development of China's economy, the purchasing power and physical demand of residents have been improved, which results in the vast emergence of public buildings like large shopping malls. However, the architects usually focus on the internal functions and streamlines of these buildings, ignoring the impact of the environment on the subjective feelings of building users. Only in Zhejiang province, the infiltration of cold air in winter frequently occurs at the entrance of sizeable commercial complex buildings that have been in operation, which will affect the environmental comfort of the building lobby and internal public spaces. At present, to reduce these adverse effects, it is usually adopted to add active equipment, such as setting air curtains to block air exchange or adding heating air conditioners. From the perspective of energy consumption, the infiltration of cold air into the entrance will increase the heat consumption of indoor heating equipment, which will indirectly cause considerable economic losses during the whole winter heating stage. Therefore, it is of considerable significance to explore the suitable entrance forms for improving the environmental comfort of commercial buildings and saving energy. In this paper, a commercial complex with apparent cold air infiltration problem in Hangzhou is selected as the research object to establish a model. The environmental parameters of the building entrance, including temperature, wind speed, and infiltration air volume, are obtained by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation, from which the heat consumption caused by the natural air infiltration in the winter and its potential economic loss is estimated as the objective metric. This study finally obtains the optimization direction of the building entrance form of the commercial complex by comparing the simulation results of other local commercial complex projects with different entrance forms. The conclusions will guide the entrance design of the same type of commercial complex in this area.

Keywords: air infiltration, commercial complex, heat consumption, CFD simulation

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Authors: Di Wei, Xing Hu, Yangjun Chen, Baofeng Li, Hong Chen

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To achieve the research purpose of guiding the spatial morphology design of blocks through the indicators to obtain a good wind environment, it is necessary to find the most suitable type and value range of each urban spatial morphology indicator. At present, most of the relevant researches is based on the numerical simulation of the ideal block shape and rarely proposes the results based on the complex actual block types. Therefore, this paper firstly attempted to make theoretical speculation on the main factors influencing indicators' effectiveness by analyzing the physical significance and formulating the principle of each indicator. Then it was verified by the field wind environment measurement and statistical analysis, indicating that Porosity(P₀) can be used as an important indicator to guide the design of block wind environment in the case of deep street canyons, while Frontal Area Density (λF) can be used as a supplement in the case of shallow street canyons with no height difference. Finally, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to quantify the impact of block height difference and street canyons depth on λF and P₀, finding the suitable type and value range of λF and P₀. This paper would provide a feasible wind environment index system for urban designers.

Keywords: urban spatial morphology indicator, urban microclimate, computational fluid dynamics, block ventilation, correlation analysis

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Authors: Tomasz Zarebski

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A very important element of the education system is its evaluation procedure. Each education system should be systematically evaluated and improved. Among the criteria subject to evaluation, attention should be paid to the following: structure of the study programme, implementation of the study programme, admission to studies, verification of learning outcomes achievement by students, giving credit for individual semesters and years, and awarding diplomas, competence, experience, qualifications and the number of staff providing education, staff development, and in-service training, education infrastructure, cooperation with social and economic stakeholders on the development, conditions for and methods of improving the internationalisation of education provided as part of the degree programme, supporting learning, social, academic or professional development of students and their entry on the labour market, public access to information about the study programme and quality assurance policy. Concerning the assessment process and the individual assessment indicators, the participation of students in these processes is essential. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the rules of student participation in accreditation processes on the example of individual countries in Europe. The rules of students' participation in the work of accreditation committees and their influence on the final grade of the committee were analysed. Most of the higher education institutions follow similar rules for accreditation. The general model gives the individual institution freedom to organize its own quality assurance, as long as the system lives up to the criteria for quality and relevance laid down in the particular provisions. This point also applies to students. The regulations of the following countries were examined in the legal-comparative aspect: Poland (Polish Accreditation Committee), Denmark (The Danish Accreditation Institution), France (High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education), Germany (Agency for Quality Assurance through Accreditation of Study Programmes) and Italy (National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes).

Keywords: accreditation, student, study programme, quality assurance in higher education

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Authors: Yuan Fang, Wang-Ming Li, Yi-Chen Ruan

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Rural healthy old-age care for urban elderly who go to surrounding villages on vacation is a new mode of old-age care in developed coastal areas of China. Such villages that receive urban elderly can be called old-caring villages. Due to the popularity of healthy old-age care in rural areas, more and more urban elderly people participate in the ranks of rural old-age care, resulting in excessive number of tourists in some old-caring villages, exceeding the carrying capacity of the village. Excessive passenger flow may damage the ecological environment, social environment, and facilities environment of the village, and even affect the development potential of the village pension industry. On the basis of on-site investigation and questionnaire survey, this paper summarizes the willingness and behavioral characteristics of the urban elderly population and finds that it will have a certain impact on the old-caring villages in the process of pension vacation in the aspects of ecology, construction, society, and economy. According to the influence of tourists, the paper constructs a system of capacity restriction factors of the old-caring villages, which includes four types: ecological environment capacity, policy environment capacity, perceived congestion capacity, and village service capacity, and fourteen specific indicators. It will provide a theoretical basis for reasonable control of the development scale of the old-caring villages.

Keywords: old-caring villages, restriction factors system, tourists' influence, environmental capacity

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Authors: Myriam Roy

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The perspectives of the Togolese public towards mental illness were assessed, looking at religious affiliation, personal knowledge of someone with a mental illness, and education level as influencers. The goal was to observe which factors influenced most strongly the general public’s attitudes towards mental illness. The Togolese population was surveyed within the context of mental health awareness workshops and involved college and university students, rural community members, and company employees. Taylor and Dear’s Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill (CAMI) questionnaire was used to assess these influencers and includes four dimensions of community attitudes towards mental illness: authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness, and community mental health ideology (CMHI). Demographic questions were also included, tailored to the various realities of the Togolese population. These questions looked, among others, at religious, ethnical (region of origin within Togo), and educational background. It was found that religious affiliation and personal knowledge did not correlate significantly with changes in the four dimensions of the CAMI scale. It suggests that public perspectives towards mental illness might not be as associated with these variables as was previously thought. The dimensions, however, did correlate with themselves as was expected. Authoritarianism was associated positively with social restrictiveness, benevolence was associated negatively with social restrictiveness and positively with CMHI, and CMHI was associated negatively with social restrictiveness, indicating the CAMI did not suffer from reliability and validity issues when used with this population. Interestingly, level of education significantly impacted authoritarianism level, with higher education associated with a decrease in authoritarianism. This finding would support the notion that education is likely to provide access to a wide array of information as well as interaction with people from various backgrounds and situations. Providing increased awareness regarding mental health and illness in schools could be beneficial to favor the impact that education appears to have on public perspectives towards mental illness in Togo. Future studies could assess which mental health interventions in schools would be the most useful in Togo.

Keywords: CAMI questionnaire, cross-cultural psychology, stigma towards mental illness, West African psychology

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Authors: Amber Shahi, Ayesha Tazeen, Abdus Samad, Shama Parveen

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Nanoparticles (NPs) are tiny particles. According to the International Organization for Standardization, the size range of NPs is in the nanometer range (1-100 nm). They show distinct properties that are not shown by larger particles of the same material. NPs are currently being used in different fields due to their unique physicochemical nature. NPs are a boon for medical sciences, environmental sciences, electronics, and textile industries. However, there is growing concern about their potential adverse effects on human health. This poster presents a comprehensive review of the current literature on the pros and cons of NPs on human health. The poster will discuss the various types of interactions of NPs with biological systems. There are a number of beneficial uses of NPs in the field of health and environmental welfare. NPs are very useful in disease diagnosis, antimicrobial action, and the treatment of diseases like Alzheimer’s. They can also cross the blood-brain barrier, making them capable of treating brain diseases. Additionally, NPs can target specific tumors and be used for cancer treatment. To treat environmental health, NPs also act as catalytic converters to reduce pollution from the environment. On the other hand, NPs also have some negative impacts on the human body, such as being cytotoxic and genotoxic. They can also affect the reproductive system, such as the testis and ovary, and sexual behavior. The poster will further discuss the routes of exposure of NPs. The poster will conclude with a discussion of the current regulations and guidelines on the use of NPs in various applications. It will highlight the need for further research and the development of standardized toxicity testing methods to ensure the safe use of NPs in various applications. When using NPs in diagnosis and treatment, we should also take into consideration their safe concentration in the body. Overall, this poster aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons of NPs on human health and to promote awareness and understanding of the potential risks and benefits associated with their use.

Keywords: disease diagnosis, human health, nanoparticles, toxicity testing

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Authors: Changdong Oh

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With the arrival of post-industrial society, social scientists have been giving attention to issues of which factors shape cleavage of political parties. Especially, there is a heated controversy over whether and how social and cultural values influence the identities of parties and voting behavior. Drawing from Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), which approached similar issues by considering the effect of five moral foundations on political decision-making of people, this study investigates the role of moral rhetoric in the evolution of Korean political parties. Researcher collected official announcements released by the major two parties (Democratic Party of Korea, Saenuri Party) from 2007 to 2016, and analyzed the data by using Word2Vec algorithm and Moral Foundations Dictionary. Five moral decision modules of MFT, composed of care, fairness (individualistic morality), loyalty, authority and sanctity (group-based, Durkheimian morality), can be represented in vector spaces consisted of party announcements data. By comparing the party vector and the five morality vectors, researcher can see how the political parties have actively used each of the five moral foundations to express themselves and the opposition. Results report that the conservative party tends to actively draw on collective morality such as loyalty, authority, purity to differentiate itself. Notably, such moral differentiation strategy is prevalent when they criticize an opposition party. In contrast, the liberal party tends to concern with individualistic morality such as fairness. This result indicates that moral cleavage does exist between parties in South Korea. Furthermore, individualistic moral gaps of the two political parties are eased over time, which seems to be due to the discussion of economic democratization of conservative party that emerged after 2012, but the community-related moral gaps widened. These results imply that past political cleavages related to economic interests are diminishing and replaced by cultural and social values associated with communitarian morality. However, since the conservative party’s differentiation strategy is largely related to negative campaigns, it is doubtful whether such moral differentiation among political parties can contribute to the long-term party identification of the voters, thus further research is needed to determine it is sustainable. Despite the limitations, this study makes it possible to track and identify the moral changes of party system through automated text analysis. More generally, this study could contribute to the analysis of various texts associated with the moral foundation and finding a distributed representation of moral, ethical values.

Keywords: moral foundations theory, moral politics, party system, Word2Vec

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Authors: Giulia I. Pintea

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The Roma people are a nomadic ethnic group native to India, and they are one of the most prevalent minorities in Europe. In the past, Roma were enslaved and they were imprisoned in concentration camps during the Holocaust; today, Roma are subject to hate crimes and are denied access to healthcare, education, and proper housing. The aim of this project is to analyze how the public perception of the Roma people may be influenced by antiziganist and pro-Roma institutions in Europe. In order to carry out this project, we used social network analysis to build two large social networks: The antiziganist network, which is composed of institutions that oppress and racialize Roma, and the pro-Roma network, which is composed of institutions that advocate for and protect Roma rights. Measures of centrality, density, and modularity were obtained to determine which of the two social networks is exerting the greatest influence on the public’s perception of Roma in European societies. Furthermore, data on hate crimes on Roma were gathered from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). We analyzed the trends in hate crimes on Roma for several European countries for 2009-2015 in order to see whether or not there have been changes in the public’s perception of Roma, thus helping us evaluate which of the two social networks has been more influential. Overall, the results suggest that there is a greater and faster exchange of information in the pro-Roma network. However, when taking the hate crimes into account, the impact of the pro-Roma institutions is ambiguous, due to differing patterns among European countries, suggesting that the impact of the pro-Roma network is inconsistent. Despite antiziganist institutions having a slower flow of information, the hate crime patterns also suggest that the antiziganist network has a higher impact on certain countries, which may be due to institutions outside the political sphere boosting the spread of antiziganist ideas and information to the European public.

Keywords: applied mathematics, oppression, Roma people, social network analysis

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Authors: Monica Sanchez

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What responsibility does urban planning have on climate changes? How does the territory give us answers of resilience? Historically, urban plans have civilized territories: waters are channeled, grounds are sealed, foreign species are incorporated, native ones are extinguished, and/or enclosed spaces are heated or cooled. Socially this facilitates coexistence, but in turn brings negative environmental consequences. The past fifty years, mankind has tried to redirect these consequences through different strategies. Research studies produced strategies designed to alleviate climate change. Exploring the nature of territories has been incorporated in urban planning to discover natures response. The case to be studied is Santiago, Chile: for its combined impacts of climate change and the significant response by this city on climate governance in the last decades. Warmer areas in Santiago are seen in the areas of high-density buildings such as the commune of Recoleta, while the coldest are characterized by the predominance of low residential densities as the commune of Providencia. These two communes are separated and complemented by an undulating body that comes from the Andes mountains called San Cristobal Hill. What if the hill were taken into account when making roads, zoning and buildings? Was it difficult to prolong in the urban plans the hill characteristics to the city solving the intersection with other natural areas? Apparently it was, because the projected-profile informs us that the planned strategies used correspond to the same operations used in the flat areas of Santiago. This research focuses on: explaining the geographic relationships between city-hill; explaining the planning process around the hill with a morphological analysis; evaluating how the hill has been considered the in the city in the plans that intended to cushion the environmental impacts and studying what is missing on the hill and city to strengthen their integration. Therefore, the research will have different scales of understanding: addressing territorial scale -understanding the vegetation, topography and hydrology; a city scale -analyzing urban plans that Santiago has dealt with the environment and city; and a local scale -studying the integration and public spaces and coverage- norms of the adjacent communes. The expected outcome is to decipher possible deficits and capabilities of the current urban plans for climate change. It is anticipated that the hill and valley is now trying to reconcile after such a long separation. Yet it seems that never will prevail all the Rules of Nature, but the Urban Rules. The plans will require pruning, irrigation, control of invasive alien species and public safety standards, but will be rejoining a dose of nature with the building environment -this will protect us better from it from the time that we feared from it and knew little about it. Today we know a little more, enough to adapt to the process. Although nature is not perceived and we ignore it, it has a remarkable ability to respond.

Keywords: resilience, climate change, urban plans, land use, hills and cities, heat islands, morphology

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