Search results for: factors influencing project selection

Authors: Estefanya Vazquez-Casaubon, Veroline Cauberghe, Dieneke Van de Sompel, Hayley Pearce

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Working together to reduce the anthropogenic impact should be a collective action, including effort within the household. In the matter, children are considered to have an important role in influencing the household to reduce the environmental impact through reversed socialization where children motivate and increase the concern of the parents towards environmental protection. Previous studies reveal that communication between parents and kids is key for effective reversed socialization. However, multiple barriers have been identified in the literature, such as the acceptance of the influence from the kids, the properties of the communication, among other factors. Based on the previous evidence, the present study aims to assess barriers and facilitators of communication at the household level that have an impact on reversed socialization. More precisely, the study examines how parents’ climate change coping strategy (problem-focused, meaning-focused, disregarding) influences the valence and the type of the communication related to climate change, and eventually the extent to which they report their beliefs and behaviours to be influenced by the pro-environmental perspectives of their children; i.e. reversed socialization. Via an online survey, 723 Belgian parents self-reported on communication about environmental protection and risk within their household (such as the frequency of exchange about topics related to climate change sourced from school, the household rules, imparting knowledge to the children, and outer factors like media or peer pressure, the emotional valence of the communication), their perceived socialization, and personal factors (coping mechanisms towards climate change). The results, using structural equation modelling, revealed that parents applying a problem-solving coping strategy related to climate change, appear to communicate more often in a positive than in a negative manner. Parents with a disregarding coping style towards climate change appear to communicate less often in a positive way within the household. Parents that cope via meaning-making of climate change showed to communicate less often in either a positive or negative way. Moreover, the perceived valence of the communication (positive or negative) influenced the frequency and type of household communication. Positive emotions increased the frequency of the communication overall. However, the direct effect of neither of the coping mechanisms on the reversed socialization was significant. High frequency of communication about the media, environmental views of the household members among other external topics had a positive impact on the perceived socialization, followed by discussions school-related; while parental instructing had a negative impact on the perceived socialization. Moreover, the frequency of communication was strongly affected by the perceived valence of the communication (positive or negative). The results go in line with previous evidence that a higher frequency of communication facilitates reversed socialization. Hence the results outstand how the coping mechanisms of the parents can be either a facilitator when they cope via problem-solving, while parents that disregard might avert frequent communication about climate change at the household.

Keywords: communication, parents’ coping mechanisms, environmental protection, household, perceived socialization

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Authors: Daming Xu, Yuanyuan Wang

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Abstract: Under the trend of rapid expansion of urbanization, the motorized urban characteristics become more and more obvious, and the walkability of urban space is seriously affected. The construction of walkability of space, as the main mode of travel for the elderly in their daily lives, has become more and more important in the current social context of serious aging. Settlement is the most basic living unit of residents, and daily shopping, medical care, and other daily trips are closely related to the daily life of the elderly. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore the impact of built environment on elderly people's daily walking trips at the settlement level for the construction of pedestrian-friendly settlements for the elderly. The study takes three typical settlements in Harbin Daoli District in three different periods as examples and obtains data on elderly people's walking trips and built environment characteristics through field research, questionnaire distribution, and internet data acquisition. Finally, correlation analysis and multinomial logistic regression model were applied to analyze the influence mechanism of built environment on elderly people's walkability based on the control of personal attribute variables in order to provide reference and guidance for the construction of walkability for elderly people in built environment in the future.

Keywords: built environment, elderly, walkability, multinomial logistic regression model

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Authors: Jason Ceavers, Travis Thompson, Juan Torres, Ramanakumar Anam, Alan Wong, Andrei Carvalho, Shane Quo, Shawn Alonso, Moises Cintron, Ricardo C. Carrero, German Lopez, Vamsi Garimella, German Giese

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Introduction: Advance directives (AD) are essential for patients to communicate their wishes when they are not able to. Ideally, these discussions should not occur for the first time when a patient is hospitalized with an acute life-threatening illness. There is a large number of patients who do not have clearly documented ADs, resulting in the misutilization of resources and additional patient harm. This is a nationwide issue, and the Joint Commission has it as one of its national quality metrics. Presented here is a proposed protocol to increase the number of documented AD discussions in a community-based, internal medicine residency primary care clinic in South Florida. Methods: The SMART Aim for this quality improvement project is to increase documentation of AD discussions in the outpatient setting by 25% within three months in medicare patients. A survey was sent to stakeholders (clinic attendings, residents, medical assistants, front desk staff, and clinic managers), asking them for three factors they believed contributed most to the low documentation rate of AD discussions. The two most important factors were time constraints and systems issues (such as lack of a standard method to document ADs and ADs not being uploaded to the chart) which were brought up by 25% and 21.2% of the 32 survey responders, respectively. Pre-intervention data from clinic patients in 2020-2021 revealed 17.05% of patients had clear, actionable ADs documented. To address these issues, an AD pocket card was created to give to patients. One side of the card has a brief explanation of what ADs are. The other side has a column of interventions (cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, dialysis, tracheostomy, feeding tube) with boxes patients check off if they want the intervention done, do not want the intervention, do not want to discuss the topic, or need more information. These cards are to be filled out and scanned into their electronic chart to be reviewed by the resident before their appointment. The interventions that patients want more information on will be discussed by the provider. If any changes are made, the card will be re-scanned into their chart. After three months, we will chart review the patients seen in the clinic to determine how many medicare patients have a pocket card uploaded and how many have advance directives discussions documented in a progress note or annual wellness note. If there is not enough time for an AD discussion, a follow-up appointment can be scheduled for that discussion. Discussion: ADs are a crucial part of patient care, and failure to understand a patient’s wishes leads to improper utilization of resources, avoidable litigation, and patient harm. Time constraints and systems issues were identified as two major factors contributing to the lack of advance directive discussion in our community-based resident primary care clinic. Our project aims at increasing the documentation rate for ADs through a simple pocket card intervention. These are self-explanatory, easy to read and allow the patients to clearly express what interventions they desire or what they want to discuss further with their physician.

Keywords: advance directives, community-based, pocket card, primary care clinic

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Authors: Dianis Wulan Sari, Takeo Minematsu, Mikako Yoshida, Hiromi Sanada

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Introduction: Pruritus is diagnosed as itching without macroscopic abnormalities on skin. It is the most skin complaint of elderly people. In the present study, we conducted a dermatological study to examine the risk factors of pruritic skin and predicted how to prevent pruritus especially in the elderly population. Pruritus is caused several types of inflammation, including epidermal innate immunity based on keratinocyte responses and acquired immunity regulated by type 1 or 2 helper T (Th) cells. The triggers of pruritus differ among inflammation types, therefore we did separately assess the pruritus-associated factors of each inflammation type in an effort to contribute to the identification of intervention targets for preventing pruritus. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the factors related with actual condition of pruritic skin by examine the skin properties. Method: This study was conducted in elderly population of Indonesian nursing home. Basic characteristics and behaviors were obtained by interview. The properties of pruritic skin were collected by examination of skin biomarker using skin blotting as novel method of non-invasive skin assessment method and examination of skin barrier function using stratum corneum hydration and skin pH. Result: The average age of participants was 74 years with independent status was 66.8%. Age (β = -0.130, p = 0.044), cumulative lifetime sun exposure (β = 0.145, p = 0.026), bathing duration (β = 0.151, p = 0.022), clothing change frequency (β = 0.135, p = 0.029), and clothing type (β = -0.139, p = 0.021) were risk factors of pruritic skin in multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Risk factors of pruritic skin in elderly population were caused by internal factors such as skin senescence and external factors such as sun exposure, hygiene care and skin care behavior.

Keywords: aging, hygiene care, pruritus, skin care, sun exposure

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Authors: Sogol Zarafshan

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The present study aimed to identify important factors affecting the effectiveness of quality control circles in a hospital, as well as rank them using a combination of fuzzy VIKOR and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA). The study population consisted of five academic members and five experts in the field of nursing working in a hospital, who were selected using a purposive sampling method. Also, a sample of 107 nurses was selected through a simple random sampling method using their employee codes and the random-number table. The required data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire which consisted of 12 factors. The validity of this questionnaire was confirmed through giving the opinions of experts and academic members who participated in the present study, as well as performing confirmatory factor analysis. Its reliability also was verified (α=0.796). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and LISREL 8.8, as well as VIKOR–GRA and IPA methods. The results of ranking the factors affecting the effectiveness of quality control circles showed that the highest and lowest ranks were related to ‘Managers’ and supervisors’ support’ and ‘Group leadership’. Also, the highest hospital performance was for factors such as ‘Clear goals and objectives’ and ‘Group cohesiveness and homogeneity’, and the lowest for ‘Reward system’ and ‘Feedback system’, respectively. The results showed that although ‘Training the members’, ‘Using the right tools’ and ‘Reward system’ were factors that were of great importance, the organization’s performance for these factors was poor. Therefore, these factors should be paid more attention by the studied hospital managers and should be improved as soon as possible.

Keywords: Quality control circles, Fuzzy VIKOR, Grey Relational Analysis, Importance–Performance Analysis

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Authors: Padmini Raman

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The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is facing enormous technological and institutional changes and challenges including the information technology and appropriate application of sustainable practices. The engineer and architect must be able to handle with a rapid pace of technological change. BIM is a unique process of producing and managing a building by exploring a digital module before the actual project is constructed and later during its construction, facility operation and maintenance. BIM has been Adopted by construction contractors and architects in the western country mostly in US and UK to improve the planning and management of construction projects. In India, BIM is a basic stage of adoption only, several issues about data acquisition and management comes during the design formation and planning of a construction project due to the complexity, ambiguity, and fragmented nature of the Indian construction industry. This paper tells about the view a strategy for India’s AEC firms to successfully implement BIM in their current working processes. By surveying and collecting data about problems faced by these architectural firms, it will be analysed how to avoid those situations from rising and, thus, introducing BIM Capabilities in such firms in the most effective way. while this application is widely accepted throughout the industry in many countries for managing project information for cost control and facilities management.

Keywords: AEC industry, building information module, Indian industry, new technology, BIM implementation in India

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Authors: Shoji Katagiri

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This study deals with wage inequality in organization and shows the relationship between ICT and wage in organization. To do so, we incorporate ICT’s factors in organization into our model. ICT’s factors are efficiencies of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Computer Assisted Design/Computer Assisted Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and NETWORK. The improvement of ICT’s factors decrease the learning cost to solve problem pertaining to the hierarchy in organization. The improvement of NETWORK increases the wage inequality within workers and decreases within managers and entrepreneurs. The improvements of CAD/CAM and ERP increases the wage inequality within all agent, and partially increase it between the agents in hierarchy.

Keywords: endogenous economic growth, ICT, inequality, capital accumulation

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Authors: Pastraporn Thipayasothorn, Vipawan Tadapratheep, Jintana Nokyoo

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A physical realization of good environmental governance about an environmental principle, educational psychology and architecture in the three King Mongkut's Institutes of Technology, is generated for researching physical environmental factors which related to the good environmental governance, communication between the good environmental governance and a physical environmental, and a physical environmental design policy. Moreover, we collected data by a survey, observation and questionnaire that participants are students of the three King Mongkut's Institutes of Technology, and analyzed a relationship between a building utilization and the good environmental governance awareness. We found that, from the data analysis, a balance and creativity participation which played as the project users and communities of the good governance environmental promotion in the institutes helps the good governance and environmental development in the future.

Keywords: built environment, good governance, environmental governance, physical environmental

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Authors: Zuzana Sedláková, Magda Kárászová, Jiří Vejražka, Lenka Morávková, Pavel Izák

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Membrane separations are mentioned frequently as a possibility for CO2 capture. Selectivity of ionic liquid membranes is strongly determined by different solubility of separated gases in ionic liquids. The solubility of separated gases usually varies over an order of magnitude, differently from diffusivity of gases in ionic liquids, which is usually of the same order of magnitude for different gases. The present work evaluates the selection of an appropriate ionic liquid for the selective membrane preparation based on the gas solubility in an ionic liquid. The current state of the art of CO2 capture patents and technologies based on the membrane separations was considered. An overview is given of the discussed transport mechanisms. Ionic liquids seem to be promising candidates thanks to their tunable properties, wide liquid range, reasonable thermal stability, and negligible vapor pressure. However, the uses of supported liquid membranes are limited by their relatively short lifetime from the industrial point of view. On the other hand, ionic liquids could overcome these problems due to their negligible vapor pressure and their tunable properties by adequate selection of the cation and anion.

Keywords: biogas upgrading, carbon dioxide separation, ionic liquid membrane, transport properties

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Authors: Elena Cangelosi, Wayne Beyea

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This research expands the resilience planning literature by exploring the barriers and enablers to climate and health adaptation planning for small urban, coastal Great Lakes communities. With funding from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Climate Ready City and States Initiative, this research took place during a 3-year pilot intervention project which integrates urban planning and public health. The project used the CDC’s Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework to prevent or reduce the human health impacts from climate change in Marquette County, Michigan. Using a deliberation with the analysis planning process, interviews, focus groups, and community meetings with over 25 stakeholder groups and over 100 participants identified the area’s climate-related health concerns and adaptation interventions to address those concerns. Marquette County, on the shores of Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes, was selected for the project based on their existing adaptive capacity and proactive approach to climate adaptation planning. With Marquette County as the context, this study fills a gap in the adaptation literature, which currently heavily emphasizes large-urban or agriculturally-based rural areas, and largely neglects small urban areas. This research builds on the qualitative case-study, survey, and interview approach established by previous researchers on contextual barriers and enablers for adaptation planning. This research uses a case study approach, including surveys and interviews of public officials, to identify the barriers and enablers for climate and health adaptation planning for small-urban areas within a large, non-agricultural, Great Lakes county. The researchers hypothesize that the barriers and enablers will, in some cases, overlap those found in other contexts, but in many cases, will be unique to a rural setting. The study reveals that funding, staff capacity, and communication across a large, rural geography act as the main barriers, while strong networks and collaboration, interested leaders, and community interest through a strong human-land connection act as the primary enablers. Challenges unique to rural areas are revealed, including weak opportunities for grant funding, large geographical distances, communication challenges with an aging and remote population, and the out-migration of education residents. Enablers that may be unique to rural contexts include strong collaborative relationships across jurisdictions for regional work and strong connections between residents and the land. As the factors that enable and prevent climate change planning are highly contextual, understanding, and appropriately addressing the unique factors at play for small-urban communities is key for effective planning in those areas. By identifying and addressing the barriers and enablers to climate and health adaptation planning for small-urban, coastal areas, this study can help Great Lakes communities appropriately build resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change. In addition, this research expands the breadth of research and understanding of the challenges and opportunities planners confront in the face of climate change.

Keywords: climate adaptation and resilience, climate change adaptation, climate change and urban resilience, governance and urban resilience

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Authors: Thuduwage Lasanthika Sajeevanie

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Success is very important, and there are many factors affecting the success of any situation or a person. In Sri Lankan Context, it is hardly possible to find an empirical study relating to time management and academic success. Globally many organizations, individuals practice time management to be effective. Hence it is very important to examine the nature of time management practice. Thus this study will fill the existing gap relating to achieving academic success through proper time management practices. The research problem of this study is what is the relationship exist among time management skills and academic success of university lecturers in state universities. The objective of this paper is to identify the impact of time management skills for academic success of university lecturers. This is a conceptual study, and it was done through a literature survey by following purposive sampling technique for the selection of literature. Most of the studies have found that time management is highly related to academic performance. However, most of them have done on the academic performance of the students, and there were very few studies relating to academic performance of the university lecturers. Hence it can be further suggested to conduct a study relating to identifying the relationship between academic performance and time management skills of university lecturers.

Keywords: academic success, performance, time management skills, university lecturers

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Authors: Rajesh Kumar

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The largest issue in the current situation is managing solid waste since it pollutes the ecosystem. When considering how to manage waste, even the disposal of mixed waste is a challenge. The Saksham Yuva Project, which is managed by the Haryana government, highlights the consequences and drivers of managing the solid waste of urban areas in the municipal committee pundri in the present study. The overall goal of the Saksham Yuva project is to mobilise the public and educate them about the dangers associated with garbage management. There has been a 20% reduction in waste, according to the study's impacts, and the cost of waste management has also gone down. Further, the study also reported the alternative use of wastes in revenue generation by generating Khaad for agricultural purposes.

Keywords: solid waste management, people awareness, dry and wet waste disposal, material recover facility

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Authors: Uday S. Goel, G. Senthil Kumar, Biswajit Ghosh, V. V. Mahashabde, Dhirendra Kumar, H. Manjunath, Ritesh Kumar, Mahesh Bhagwat, Subodh Pandey

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Tata Steel Bhushan Steel Ltd.(TSBSL)’s Hot Mill at Angul , Orissa , India, was facing shape issues in Hot Rolled (HR) coils. This was resulting in a defect called as ‘Ridge’, which was appearing in subsequent cold rolling operations at various cold mills (CRM) and external customers. A collaborative project was undertaken to resolve this issue. One of the reasons identified was the strange drop in thermal crown after rolling of 20-25 coils in the finishing mill (FM ) schedule. On the shop floor, it was observed that work roll temperatures in the FM after rolling were very high and non uniform across the work roll barrel. Jammed work roll cooling nozzles, insufficient roll bite lubrication and inadequate roll cooling water quality were found to be the main reasons. Regular checking was initiated to check roll cooling nozzles health, and quick replacement done if found jammed was implemented. Improvements on roll lubrication, especially flow rates, was done. Usage of anti-peeling headers and inter stand descaling was enhanced. A subsequent project was also taken up for improving the quality of roll cooling water. Encouraging results were obtained from the project with a reduction in rejection due to ridge at CRM’s by almost 95% of the pre project start levels. Poor profile occurrence of HR coils at HSM was also reduced from a high of 32% in May’19 to <1% since Apr’20.

Keywords: hot rolling flat, shape, ridge, work roll, roll cooling nozzle, lubrication

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Authors: K. Masingboon, S. Duangpaeng, N. Chaiwong

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Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the most common cause of death among Thai with coronary heart disease (CHD). Thai AMI survivors are most likely to have impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL) due to their lifestyle, functional, and psychological problems. Guided by the Individual and Family Self-Management Theory, this study aimed to explore HRQoL and identify its predictors among Thai AMI survivors. 155 Thai AMI survivors were recruited by stratified random sampling from three hospitals located in eastern region of Thailand. HRQol was measured using the Short Form -12 Health Survey (SF-12). The Center for Epidemiologic studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was utilized to assess the presence of depression, and the Family Support questionnaire was administered to examine family support. Results revealed that 92 percent of Thai AMI survivors reported a generally high level of HRQoL and 80 percent of them reported higher level of HRQoL in physical health and mental health dimension. Depression and family support were significantly predicted HRQoL among Thai AMI survivors and accounted for 28.5 percent of variance (p < .001). Interestingly, depression was the most significant predictors of HRQoL (β = -.65, p < .001) In conclusion, depression is a significant predictor of HRQoL in Thai AMI survivors. Increasing awareness of depression among these survivors is important. Depressive symptoms in should be routinely assessed. In addition, intervention to improve HRQoL among Thai AMI survivors should be addressed through depressive symptom management and family collaboration.

Keywords: health-related quality of life, AMI survivors, predictors, collaboration

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Authors: Jana Heimel, Franziska Drescher, Lauren Ugur, Graciela Kuchle

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Sharing platforms are a widely investigated field. However, there is a research gap with a lack of focus on ‘real’ (non-profit-orientated) sharing platforms. The research project addresses this gap by conducting an empirical study on a private peer-to-peer (P2P) network to investigate cooperative behavior from a socio-psychological perspective. In recent years the conversion from possession to accessing is increasingly influencing different sectors, particularly the traveling industry. The number of people participating in hospitality exchange platforms like Airbnb, Couchsurfing, and Warmshowers (WS) is rapidly growing. WS is an increasingly popular online community that is linking cycling tourists and locals. It builds on the idea of the “sharing economy” as a not-for-profit hospitality network for bicycle tourists. Hosts not only provide a sleeping berth and warm shower free of charge but also offer additional services to their guests, such as cooking and washing clothes for them. According to previous studies, they are motivated by the idea of promoting cultural experience and forming new friendships. Trust and reciprocity are supposed to play major roles in the success of such platforms. The objective of this research project is to analyze the reciprocity behavior within the WS community. Reciprocity is the act of giving and taking among each other. Individuals feel obligated to return a favor and often expect to increase their own chances of receiving future benefits for themselves. Consequently, the drivers that incite giving and taking, as well as the motivation for hosts and guests, are examined. Thus, the project investigates a particular tourism offer that contributes to sustainable tourism by analyzing P2P resp. cyclist-to-cyclist, C2C) tourism. C2C tourism is characterized by special hospitality and generosity. To find out what motivations drive the hosts and which determinants drive the sharing cycling economy, an empirical study has been conducted globally through an online survey. The data was gathered through the WS community and comprised responses from more than 10,000 cyclists around the globe. Next to general information mostly comprising quantitative data on bicycle tourism (year/tour distance, duration and budget), qualitative information on traveling with WS as well as hosting was collected. The most important motivations for a traveler is to explore the local culture, to save money, and to make friends. The main reasons to host a guest are to promote the use of bicycles and to make friends, but also to give back and pay forward. WS members prefer to stay with/host cyclists. The results indicate that C2C tourists share homogenous characteristics and a similar philosophy, which is crucial for building mutual trust. Members of WS are generally extremely trustful. The study promotes an ecological form of tourism by combining sustainability, regionality, health, experience and the local communities' cultures. The empirical evidence found and analyzed, despite evident limitations, enabled us to shed light, especially on the issue of motivations and social capital, and on the functioning of ‘sharing’ platforms. Final research results are intended to promote C2C tourism around the globe to further replace conventional by sustainable tourism.

Keywords: bicycle tourism, homogeneity, reciprocity, sharing economy, trust

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Authors: Amanda Kenny, Virginia Dickson-Swift, Jane Farmer, Sarah Larkins, Karen Carlisle, Helen Hickson

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Rural ECOH (Engaging Communities in Oral Health) is a collaborative project that connects policy makers, service providers and community members. The aim of the project is to empower community members to determine what is important for their community and to design the services that they need. This three-year project is currently underway in six rural communities across Australia. This study is specifically focused on Remote Services Futures (RSF), an evidence-based method of community participation that was developed in Scotland. The findings highlight the complexities of community participation in health service planning. We assumed that people living in rural communities would welcome participation in oral health planning and engage with their community to discuss these issues. We found that to understand the relationships between community members and health service providers, it was essential to identify the formal and informal community leaders and to engage stakeholders from the various community governance structures. Our study highlights the sometimes ‘messiness’ of decision making in rural communities as well as ways to ensure that community members have the training and practical skills necessary to participate in community decision making.

Keywords: community participation, health planning, rural ECOH, Remote Services Futures

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Authors: Karwan Khudhir

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A cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and psychosocial factors associated with it, among Kurdistan nursing professionals. Simple random sampling was used to select 220 nurses and data were collected by self-administrative questionnaire. Results of the study showed that the overall prevalence of MSDs among Kurdistan nurses was 74% in different body regions and, by body regions, neck pain was reported to be the highest complaint of twelve-month MSDs (48.4%) compared to other body parts. Logistic regression analysis indicated 6 variables that are significantly associated with musculoskeletal disorders: smoking (OR=19.472, 95% CI: 5.396, 70.273), BMI (OR= 5.106, 95% CI: 1.735, 15.025), physical activity (OR=8.639, 95% CI: 3.075, 24.271), psychological demand (OR=6.685, 95% CI: 3.318, 13.468), social support (OR=3.143, 95% CI: 1.202, 4.814) and job satisfaction (OR=2.44, 95% CI: 1.04, 5.63). Prevention strategies and health education which emphasizes on psychosocial risk factors and how to improve working conditions should be introduced.

Keywords: Kurdistan Region, Iraq, musculoskeletal disorders, nurses, psycho-social factors

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Authors: Saba Ebrahimi, Saeed Ahmadian, Hedie Ashrafi

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Selecting appropriate patients for surgery is one of the main issues in thoracic surgery (TS). Both short-term and long-term risks and benefits of surgery must be considered in the patient selection criteria. There are some limitations in the existing datasets of TS patients because of missing values of attributes and imbalanced distribution of survival classes. In this study, a novel ensemble architecture of deep learning networks is proposed based on stacking different linear and non-linear layers to deal with imbalance datasets. The categorical and numerical features are split using different layers with ability to shrink the unnecessary features. Then, after extracting the insight from the raw features, a novel biased-kernel layer is applied to reinforce the gradient of the minority class and cause the network to be trained better comparing the current methods. Finally, the performance and advantages of our proposed model over the existing models are examined for predicting patient survival after thoracic surgery using a real-life clinical data for lung cancer patients.

Keywords: deep learning, ensemble models, imbalanced classification, lung cancer, TS patient selection

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Authors: Indrani Gupta, Leena Vachasiddha, Rakesh Kumar

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Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai intends to undertake Mumbai Sewage Disposal (MSDP) for improvement of environment in and around Mumbai city. Sewage generated from the city currently gets partly into the inadequate collection system for treatment and the rest into nearby marine water body through drains. This paper addresses the cost benefit analysis of MSDP works for better compliance of sewage treatment and disposal. Cost benefit analysis indicates that the investment in sewage treatment is economically beneficial and will provide immense social, environmental, health and economic benefits. Monetary values of positive benefits such as avoided health costs, enhanced fish catches and improved tourism have been quantified. The total capital cost of the project is estimated to be about INR 51,510 million and operation and maintenance cost is about INR 2240.6 million per year. The cost benefit analysis indicates that a benefit of about 25,882 million per year can be achieved due to the implementation of this project. Other than these benefits, better marine ecosystem quality; higher property cost; improved recreational opportunities were not included because of lack of information.

Keywords: waste water treatment, cost-benefit analysis, health, tourism, fisheries

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Authors: Ahsan Ali Khan

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During past few years, researchers are emphasizing more on the need of safety in construction industry. This need of safety is an important issue in developing countries. As due to development they are facing huge construction growth. This research is done to evaluate labor safety condition in construction industry of Pakistan. The research carried out through questionnaire survey at different construction sites. Useful data are gathered from these sites which then factor analyzed resulting in five factors. These factors reflect that most of the workers are aware of the safety need, but they divert this responsibility towards management and claim that the work is more essential for management instead of safety. Moreover, those work force which is unaware of safety state that there is lack of any training and guidance from upper management which lead to many unfavorable events on construction sites. There is need of implementation safety activities by management like training, formulation of rules and policies. This research will be helpful to divert management attention towards safety need so they will make efforts for safety of their manpower—the workers.

Keywords: labor's safety, management role, Pakistan, safety factors

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Authors: Luciana Marrone

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Natural dyes are a great resource for today's artists and designers providing endless possibilities for design and sustainability. This research and development project focuses on the idea of making these dyeing or painting methodologies reach the widest possible range of students. The main objective is to inform and train, free of charge, teachers and students from different academic institutions, at different levels, kindergarten, primary, secondary, tertiary and university. In this research and dissemination project, in the first instance, institutions from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Colombia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Brazil and Australia joined the project, reaching the grassroots of education from the very beginning. Natural dyes will become part of everyday life for more people, achieving their own colors for art, textiles or any other application. The knowledge of the techniques and resources of the student a fundamental tool, sustainable and opens endless possibilities even in places or homes with few economic resources, thus achieving that natural dyes are not only part of the world of designers but also that they are incorporated from the basics and can thus become a resource applicable in different areas even in places with few economic or development possibilities.

Keywords: art, education, natural dyes, sustainability, textile design.

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Authors: Hernán G. Cortés-Mora, José I. Péna-Reyes, Alfonso Herrera-Jiménez

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This article describes the implementation experience of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in an engineering course of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, with the aim of strengthening student skills necessary for the exercise of their profession under a sustainability framework. Firstly, we present a literature review on the education for sustainability field, emphasizing the skills and knowledge areas required for its development, as well as the commitment of the Faculty of Engineering of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and other engineering faculties of the country, regarding education for sustainability. This article covers the general aspects of the course, describes how students team were formed, and how their experience was during the first semester of 2017. During this period two groups of students decided to develop their course project aiming to solve a problem regarding a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works with head-of-household mothers in a low-income neighborhood in Bogota (Colombia). Subsequently, we show how sustainability is involved in the course, how tools are provided to students, and how activities are developed as to strengthen their abilities, which allows them to incorporate sustainability in their projects while also working on the methodology used to develop said projects. Finally, we introduce the results obtained by the students who sent the prototypes of their projects to the community they were working on and the conclusions reached by them regarding the course experience.

Keywords: sustainability, project-based learning, engineering education, higher education for sustainability

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Authors: Özlem Ateş Sönmezoğlu, Begüm Terzi, Ahmet Yıldırım, Ramazan Özbey

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The basic criteria which determine durum wheat quality is its suitability for pasta processing that is pasta making quality. Bright yellow color is a desired property in pasta products. Durum wheat pasta making quality is affected by grain pigment content and oxidative enzymes which affect adversely bright yellow color. Of the oxidative enzymes, lipoxygenase LOX is the most effective one on oxidative bleaching of yellow pigments in durum wheat products. Thus, wheat cultivars that are high in yellow pigments but low in LOX enzyme activity should be preferred for the production of pasta with high color quality. The aim of this study was to reduce lipoxygenase activities of the backcross durum wheat lines that were previously improved for their protein quality. For this purpose, two advanced lines with different parents (TMB2 and TMB3) were used recurrent parents. Also, Gediz-75 wheat with low LOX enzyme activity was used as the gene source. In all of the generations, backcrossed plants carrying the targeted gene region (Lpx-B1.1) were selected using SSR markers by marker assisted selection method. As a result, the study will be completed in three years instead of six years required in a classical backcross breeding study, leading to the development of high-quality candidate varieties. This research has been financially supported by TÜBİTAK (Project No: 112T910).

Keywords: durum wheat, lipoxygenase, LOX, Lpx-B1.1, MAS, Triticum durum

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Authors: Bo Yan, Amy Y. M. Chow

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Bereavement is recognized as a universal challenging experience. It is important to gather research evidence on protective factors in bereavement. Hope is considered as one of the protective factors in previous coping studies. The present study aims to add knowledge by investigating hope at the first month after death to predict psychological symptoms altogether including complicated grief (CG), anxiety, and depressive symptoms at the seventh month. The data were collected via one-on-one interview survey in a longitudinal project with Hong Kong hospice users (sample size 105). Most participants were at their middle age (49-year-old on average), female (72%), with no religious affiliation (58%). Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling (BSEM) analysis was conducted on the longitudinal dataset. The BSEM findings show that hope at the first month of bereavement negatively predicts both CG and anxiety symptoms at the seventh month but not for depressive symptoms. Age and gender are controlled in the model. The overall model fit is good. The current study findings suggest assessing hope at the first month of bereavement. Hope at the first month after the loss is identified as an excellent predictor for complicated grief and anxiety symptoms at the seventh month. The result from this sample is clear, so it encourages cross-cultural research on replicated modeling and development of further clinical application. Particularly, practical consideration for early intervention to increase the level of hope has the potential to reduce the psychological symptoms and thus to improve the bereaved persons’ wellbeing in the long run.

Keywords: anxiety, complicated grief, depressive symptoms, hope, structural equational modeling

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Authors: Atheer Al-Nuaimi, Harry Evdorides

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Every day many people die or get disabled or injured on roads around the world, which necessitates more specific treatments for transportation safety issues. International road assessment program (iRAP) model is one of the comprehensive road safety models which accounting for many factors that affect road safety in a cost-effective way in low and middle income countries. In iRAP model road safety has been divided into five star ratings from 1 star (the lowest level) to 5 star (the highest level). These star ratings are based on star rating score which is calculated by iRAP methodology depending on road attributes, traffic volumes and operating speeds. The outcome of iRAP methodology are the treatments that can be used to improve road safety and reduce fatalities and serious injuries (FSI) numbers. These countermeasures can be used separately as a single countermeasure or mix as multiple countermeasures for a location. There is general agreement that the adequacy of a countermeasure is liable to consistent losses when it is utilized as a part of mix with different countermeasures. That is, accident diminishment appraisals of individual countermeasures cannot be easily added together. The iRAP model philosophy makes utilization of a multiple countermeasure adjustment factors to predict diminishments in the effectiveness of road safety countermeasures when more than one countermeasure is chosen. A multiple countermeasure correction factors are figured for every 100-meter segment and for every accident type. However, restrictions of this methodology incorporate a presumable over-estimation in the predicted crash reduction. This study aims to adjust this correction factor by developing new models to calculate the effect of using multiple countermeasures on the number of fatalities for a location or an entire road. Regression models have been used to establish relationships between crash frequencies and the factors that affect their rates. Multiple linear regression, negative binomial regression, and Poisson regression techniques were used to develop models that can address the effectiveness of using multiple countermeasures. Analyses are conducted using The R Project for Statistical Computing showed that a model developed by negative binomial regression technique could give more reliable results of the predicted number of fatalities after the implementation of road safety multiple countermeasures than the results from iRAP model. The results also showed that the negative binomial regression approach gives more precise results in comparison with multiple linear and Poisson regression techniques because of the overdispersion and standard error issues.

Keywords: international road assessment program, negative binomial, road multiple countermeasures, road safety

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Authors: Anjali Malik

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This paper presents a review of the literature on behavioral addictions with a particular focus on understanding online gaming habits among adolescents. Extant researches yielded many different sets of antecedent factors for developing pathological online gaming behavior. This paper draws findings from the most-cited publications most closely associated with factors explaining why individuals develop such kind of problematic behavior. What emerges as central to understanding this phenomenon is the presence of multiple variable causes that take into account the individual, the environment and their interaction to explain the risk behavior such as pathological online gaming. In addition to that role of some mediating factors and pull factors has also been discussed, along with the consequences on personal, social and academic performance resulting from such kind of addictive behavior. The paper also makes recommendations for future research including developing a deeper understanding of the phenomena studied here by examining the relative contribution of these multiple-risk contexts.

Keywords: pathological gaming, gaming addiction, adolescents, behavior

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Authors: Mai Al-Subaie

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This research suggests that women in traditional families of Saudi Arabia are divided into two groups, the one who conform to the society and the new type of women that has been emerged due to the changing and development of the culture, who do not want to conform to the rules. The factors underlying the differences were explored by using a test and an interview. That concluded some of the main factors that were a real effect of why some women still want to follow the society and traditional rules, and other want to break free.

Keywords: conformity, non conformity, females, Saudi Arabia

Procedia PDF Downloads 508

Authors: Mareike Dornhoefer, Madjid Fathi

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Water supply and water quality are key problems of mankind at the moment and - due to increasing population - in the future. Management disciplines like water, environment and quality management therefore need to closely interact, to establish a high level of water quality and to guarantee water supply in all parts of the world. Groundwater remediation is one aspect in this process. From a knowledge management perspective it is only possible to solve complex ecological or environmental problems if different factors, expert knowledge of various stakeholders and formal regulations regarding water, waste or chemical management are interconnected in form of a knowledge base. In general knowledge management focuses the processes of gathering and representing existing and new knowledge in a way, which allows for inference or deduction of knowledge for e.g. a situation where a problem solution or decision support are required. A knowledge base is no sole data repository, but a key element in a knowledge based system, thus providing or allowing for inference mechanisms to deduct further knowledge from existing facts. In consequence this knowledge provides decision support. The given paper introduces an environmental knowledge system in water management. The proposed environmental knowledge system is part of a research concept called Green Knowledge Management. It applies semantic technologies or concepts such as ontology or linked open data to interconnect different data and information sources about environmental aspects, in this case, water quality, as well as background material enriching an established knowledge base. Examples for the aforementioned ecological or environmental factors threatening water quality are among others industrial pollution (e.g. leakage of chemicals), environmental changes (e.g. rise in temperature) or floods, where all kinds of waste are merged and transferred into natural water environments. Water quality is usually determined with the help of measuring different indicators (e.g. chemical or biological), which are gathered with the help of laboratory testing, continuous monitoring equipment or other measuring processes. During all of these processes data are gathered and stored in different databases. Meanwhile the knowledge base needs to be established through interconnecting data of these different data sources and enriching its semantics. Experts may add their knowledge or experiences of previous incidents or influencing factors. In consequence querying or inference mechanisms are applied for the deduction of coherence between indicators, predictive developments or environmental threats. Relevant processes or steps of action may be modeled in form of a rule based approach. Overall the environmental knowledge system supports the interconnection of information and adding semantics to create environmental knowledge about water environment, supply chain as well as quality. The proposed concept itself is a holistic approach, which links to associated disciplines like environmental and quality management. Quality indicators and quality management steps need to be considered e.g. for the process and inference layers of the environmental knowledge system, thus integrating the aforementioned management disciplines in one water management application.

Keywords: water quality, environmental knowledge system, green knowledge management, semantic technologies, quality management

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Authors: Genesis F. Dela Cruz, Liza C. Costa

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The study is concerned with the Risk factors of dropping out among Grade VII students for SY 2012-2013. A total of 87 Grade VII Students-At-Risk-of-Dropping Out (SARDOs) were involved in this study. The descriptive survey method was used in this study. A 50-item questionnaire was used in data gathering. Expert validation was done to determine the validity and reliability of the instrument. The study used Chi Square, Kruskal Wallis Test and Mann Whitney Test in the statistical treatment of data. The study revealed that the respondents are within the standard age limit for Grade VII students in the Philippines which is 13 years old. Males more than females usually becomes SARDOs. SARDOs come from low economic status and complete families contrary to the common belief that they came from single-parent families. The study also showed that parent’s involvement in educating their children on family-related factors contributed to the very good perception on the family related factors. Based on age, there are no significant differences in their perception of the four major recognized risk factors for dropping out among all ages. There are no significant differences in their perception of the family, individual and community related factors for dropping out based on sex. However, females have a more favorable perception when it comes to school related factors. No significant differences in their perception of dropping out were also noted when they are classified according to distance of school from home. The respondents do not differ in their perception on family, individual and community related factors when they are classified according to type of family. When surveyed regarding the respondents’ reason for being absent, it was found out that laziness and being late are the two major reasons. Respondents also perceived remedial and tutorial classes as school-initiated intervention measure to prevent school disengagement or dropping out.

Keywords: drop-out, guidance and counseling, school initiated intervention, students at risk of dropping out

Procedia PDF Downloads 283

Authors: Tigabu Dagne Akal

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Electronic health records (EHRs) can help to store, maintain, and make the appropriate handling of patient histories for proper treatment and decision. Merging the EHRs with big data analytics (BDA) capabilities enable healthcare stakeholders to provide effective and efficient treatments for chronic diseases. Though there are huge opportunities and efforts that exist in the deployment of EMRs and the development of BDA, there are challenges in addressing resources and organizational capabilities that are required to achieve the competitive advantage and sustainability of EHRs and BDA. The resource-based view (RBV), information system (IS), and non- IS theories should be extended to examine organizational capabilities and resources which are required for successful data analytics in the healthcare industries. The main purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework for the development of healthcare BDA capabilities based on past works so that researchers can extend. The research question was formulated for the search strategy as a research methodology. The study selection was made at the end. Based on the study selection, the conceptual framework for the development of BDA capabilities in the healthcare settings was formulated.

Keywords: EHR, EMR, Big data, Big data analytics, resource-based view

Procedia PDF Downloads 131