Search results for: accessibility score

Authors: Hasibul Kabir, Samin Shahriar Tokey, Md. Tofazzal Hossain

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One of the most necessary things in the present time is raising social awareness about global warming and climate change among the people. Though many types of mediums and techniques have been used to teach people about this global phenomenon, there are still more effective ways to reach people with useful information about global warming. As many traditional methods to teach people about global warming and climate change did not work well, video games were overdue. To learn how effective a video game can be in this regard, we developed a Video game, "Historia's Nightmare," that teaches people about Global warming and climate change. The game was designed to entertain people and give them an idea about the reasons and consequences of global warming and climate change while not being like traditional educational games. The game threw a mini quiz consisting of two MCQs based on the information shown in the game, where a gamer had to pass the quiz to reach the next level. We published the game on different platforms to let all types of people play and complete our experiment effectively. The game continuously communicated with our server to send data about gamers' performance. We observed the data, including the participants' performance, time spent, quiz score, and the in-game feedback on a regular basis, and finally came to a verdict. In our experiment, we have found that most participants positively accepted the game and learned something new. The participants who spent more on our game performed better in both quiz and the game. Our experiment's result demonstrates that video games can be a great way to teach people something, particularly to raise social awareness about global warming and climate change. It also demonstrates that the game can be a significant element in education and learning improvement.

Keywords: video game, global warming, social awareness, climate change, education, feedback

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Peter Williams

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Mobile digital technology, in the form of smart phones, tablets, laptops and their accompanying functionality/apps etc., is becoming ever more used by people with Learning Disabilities (LD) - for entertainment, to communicate and socialize, and enjoy self-expression. Despite this, there has been very little research into the experiences of such technology by this cohort, it’s role in articulating personal identity and self-advocacy and the barriers encountered in negotiating technology in everyday life. The proposed talk describes research funded by the British Academy addressing these issues. It aims to explore: i) the experiences of people with LD in using mobile technology in their everyday lives – the benefits, in terms of entertainment, self-expression and socialising, and possible greater autonomy; and the barriers, such as accessibility or usability issues, privacy or vulnerability concerns etc. ii) how the technology, and in particular the software/apps and interfaces, can be improved to enable the greater access to entertainment, information, communication and other benefits it can offer. It is also hoped that results will inform parents, carers and other supporters regarding how they can use the technology with their charges. Rather than the project simply following the standard research procedure of gathering and analysing ‘data’ to which individual ‘research subjects’ have no access, people with Learning Disabilities (and their supporters) will help co-produce an accessible, annotated and hyperlinked living e-archive of their experiences. Involving people with LD as informants, contributors and, in effect, co-researchers will facilitate digital inclusion and empowerment. The project is working with approximately 80 adults of all ages who have ‘mild’ learning disabilities (people who are able to read basic texts and write simple sentences). A variety of methods is being used. Small groups of participants have engaged in simple discussions or storytelling about some aspect of technology (such as ‘when my phone saved me’ or ‘my digital photos’ etc.). Some individuals have been ‘interviewed’ at a PC, laptop or with a mobile device etc., and asked to demonstrate their usage and interests. Social media users have shown their Facebook pages, Pinterest uploads or other material – giving them an additional focus they have used to discuss their ‘digital’ lives. During these sessions, participants have recorded (or employed the researcher to record) their observations on to the e-archive. Parents, carers and other supporters are also being interviewed to explore their experiences of using mobile technology with the cohort, including any difficulties they have observed their charges having. The archive is supplemented with these observations. The presentation will outline the methods described above, highlighting some of the special considerations required when working inclusively with people with LD. It will describe some of the preliminary findings and demonstrate the e-archive with a commentary on the pages shown.

Keywords: inclusive research, learning disabilities, methods, technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 224

Authors: Marike Venter de Villiers, Jessica Ramoshaba

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In recent years, the fashion industry has been associated with the exploitation of both people and resources. This is largely due to the emergence of the fast fashion concept, which entails rapid and continual style changes where clothes quickly lose their appeal, become out-of-fashion, and are then disposed of. This cycle often entails appalling working conditions in sweatshops with low wages, child labor, and a significant amount of textile waste that ends up in landfills. Although the awareness of the negative implications of ‘mindless fashion production and consumption’ is growing, fast fashion remains to be a popular choice among the youth. This is especially prevalent in South Africa, a poverty-stricken country where a vast number of young adults are unemployed and living in poverty. Despite being in poverty, the celebrity conscious culture and fashion products frequently portrayed on the growing intrusive social media platforms in South Africa pressurizes the consumers to purchase fashion and luxury products. Young adults are therefore more vulnerable to the temptation to purchase fast fashion products. A possible solution to the detrimental effects that the fast fashion industry has on the environment is the revival of the secondhand clothing trend. Although the popularity of secondhand clothing has gained momentum among selected consumer segments, the adoption rate of such remains slow. The main purpose of this study was to explore consumers’ perceptions of the secondhand clothing trend and to gain insight into factors that inhibit the adoption of secondhand clothing. This study also aimed to investigate whether consumers are aware of the negative implications of the fast fashion industry and their likelihood to shift their clothing purchases to that of secondhand clothing. By means of a quantitative study, fifty young females were asked to complete a semi-structured questionnaire. The researcher approached females between the ages of 18 and 35 in a face-to-face setting. The results indicated that although they had an awareness of the negative consequences of fast fashion, they lacked detailed insight into the pertinent effects of fast fashion on the environment. Further, a number of factors inhibit their decision to buy from secondhand stores: firstly, the accessibility to the latest trends was not always available in secondhand stores; secondly, the convenience of shopping from a chain store outweighs the inconvenience of searching for and finding a secondhand store; and lastly, they perceived secondhand clothing to pose a hygiene risk. The findings of this study provide fashion marketers, and secondhand clothing stores, with insight into how they can incorporate the secondhand clothing trend into their strategies and marketing campaigns in an attempt to make the fashion industry more sustainable.

Keywords: eco-friendly fashion, fast fashion, secondhand clothing, eco-friendly fashion

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Abeer A. Aljohani

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COVID-19 virus spread has been one of the extreme pandemics across the globe. It is also referred to as coronavirus, which is a contagious disease that continuously mutates into numerous variants. Currently, the B.1.1.529 variant labeled as omicron is detected in South Africa. The huge spread of COVID-19 disease has affected several lives and has surged exceptional pressure on the healthcare systems worldwide. Also, everyday life and the global economy have been at stake. This research aims to predict COVID-19 disease in its initial stage to reduce the death count. Machine learning (ML) is nowadays used in almost every area. Numerous COVID-19 cases have produced a huge burden on the hospitals as well as health workers. To reduce this burden, this paper predicts COVID-19 disease is based on the symptoms and medical history of the patient. This research presents a unique architecture for COVID-19 detection using ML techniques integrated with feature dimensionality reduction. This paper uses a standard UCI dataset for predicting COVID-19 disease. This dataset comprises symptoms of 5434 patients. This paper also compares several supervised ML techniques to the presented architecture. The architecture has also utilized 10-fold cross validation process for generalization and the principal component analysis (PCA) technique for feature reduction. Standard parameters are used to evaluate the proposed architecture including F1-Score, precision, accuracy, recall, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and area under curve (AUC). The results depict that decision tree, random forest, and neural networks outperform all other state-of-the-art ML techniques. This achieved result can help effectively in identifying COVID-19 infection cases.

Keywords: supervised machine learning, COVID-19 prediction, healthcare analytics, random forest, neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: Larry Turkish

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Introduction: The NBA is an example of mediocrity and this will be evident in the following paper. The study examines and evaluates the characteristics of the NBA champions. As divisions and playoff teams increase, there is an increase in the probability that the champion originates from the mediocre category. Since it’s inception in 1947, the league has been mediocre and continues to this day. Why does a professional league allow any team with a less than 50% winning percentage into the playoffs? As long as the finances flow into the league, owners will not change the current algorithm. The objective of this paper is to determine if the regular season has meaning in finding an NBA champion. Statistical Analysis: The data originates from the NBA website. The following variables are part of the statistical analysis: Rank, the rank of a team relative to other teams in the league based on the regular season win-loss record; Winning Percentage of a team based on the regular season; Divisions, the number of divisions within the league and Playoff Teams, the number of playoff teams relative to a particular season. The following statistical applications are applied to the data: Pearson Product-Moment Correlation, Analysis of Variance, Factor and Regression analysis. Conclusion: The results indicate that the divisional structure and number of playoff teams results in a negative effect on the winning percentage of playoff teams. It also prevents teams with higher winning percentages from accessing the playoffs. Recommendations: 1. Teams that have a winning percentage greater than 1 standard deviation from the mean from the regular season will have access to playoffs. (Eliminates mediocre teams.) 2. Eliminate Divisions (Eliminates weaker teams from access to playoffs.) 3. Eliminate Conferences (Eliminates weaker teams from access to the playoffs.) 4. Have a balanced regular season schedule, (Reduces the number of regular season games, creates equilibrium, reduces bias) that will reduce the need for load management.

Keywords: alignment, mediocrity, regression, z-score

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: A. T. Perez Fontenla, S. Sgobba, A. Bartkowska, Y. Askar, M. Dalemir Celuch, A. Newborough, M. Karppinen, H. Haalien, S. Deleval, S. Larcher, C. Charvet, L. Bruno, R. Trant

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The present study investigates the corrosion behavior of copper (Cu) based conducts predominantly brazed with Sil-Fos (self-fluxing copper-based filler with silver and phosphorus) within various cooling circuits of demineralized water across different particle accelerator components at CERN. The study covers a range of sample service time, from a few months to fifty years, and includes various accelerator components such as quadrupoles, dipoles, and bending magnets. The investigation comprises the established sample extraction procedure, examination methodology including non-destructive testing, evaluation of the corrosion phenomena, and identification of commonalities across the studied components as well as analysis of the environmental influence. The systematic analysis included computed microtomography (CT) of the joints that revealed distributed defects across all brazing interfaces. Some defects appeared to result from areas not wetted by the filler during the brazing operation, displaying round shapes, while others exhibited irregular contours and radial alignment, indicative of a network or interconnection. The subsequent dry cutting performed facilitated access to the conduct's inner surface and the brazed joints for further inspection through light and electron microscopy (SEM) and chemical analysis via Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Brazing analysis away from affected areas identified the expected phases for a Sil-Fos alloy. In contrast, the affected locations displayed micrometric cavities propagating into the material, along with selective corrosion of the bulk Cu initiated at the conductor-braze interface. Corrosion product analysis highlighted the consistent presence of sulfur (up to 6 % in weight), whose origin and role in the corrosion initiation and extension is being further investigated. The importance of this study is paramount as it plays a crucial role in comprehending the underlying factors contributing to recently identified water leaks and evaluating the extent of the issue. Its primary objective is to provide essential insights for the repair of impacted brazed joints when accessibility permits. Moreover, the study seeks to contribute to the improvement of design and manufacturing practices for future components, ultimately enhancing the overall reliability and performance of magnet systems within CERN accelerator facilities.

Keywords: accelerator facilities, brazed copper conducts, demineralized water, magnets

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: Geyang Xia

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In many countries, governments have responded to the growing demand for educational resources through school district systems, and there is substantial evidence that school district systems have been effective in promoting inter-district and inter-school equity in educational resources. However, the scarcity of quality educational resources has brought about varying levels of education among different school districts, making it a common choice for many parents to buy a house in the school district where a quality school is located, and they are even willing to bear huge commuting costs for this purpose. Moreover, this is evidenced by the fact that parents of families in school districts with quality education resources have longer average commute lengths and longer average commute distances than parents in average school districts. This "unequal traveling" under the influence of the school district system is more common in school districts at the primary level of education. This further reinforces the differential hierarchy of educational resources and raises issues of inequitable educational public services, education-led residential segregation, and gentrification of school district housing. Against this background, this paper takes Nanjing, a famous educational city in China, as a case study and selects the school districts where the top 10 public elementary schools are located. The study first identifies the spatio-temporal behavioral trajectory dataset of these high-quality school district households by using spatial vector data, decrypted cell phone signaling data, and census data. Then, by constructing a "house-school-work (HSW)" commuting pattern of the population in the school district where the high-quality educational resources are located, and based on the classification of the HSW commuting pattern of the population, school districts with long employment hours were identified. Ultimately, the mechanisms and patterns inherent in this unequal commuting are analyzed in terms of six aspects, including the centrality of school district location, functional diversity, and accessibility. The results reveal that the "unequal commuting" of Nanjing's high-quality school districts under the influence of the school district system occurs mainly in the peripheral areas of the city, and the schools matched with these high-quality school districts are mostly branches of prestigious schools in the built-up areas of the city's core. At the same time, the centrality of school district location and the diversity of functions are the most important influencing factors of unequal commuting in high-quality school districts. Based on the research results, this paper proposes strategies to optimize the spatial layout of high-quality educational resources and corresponding transportation policy measures.

Keywords: school-district system, high quality school district, commuting pattern, unequal traveling

Procedia PDF Downloads 97

Authors: Asrarul H. Jeelani

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Arsenic contamination of groundwater and its’ health implications in lower Gangetic plain of Indian states started reporting in the 1980s. The same period was declared as the first water decade (1981-1990) to achieve ‘water for all.’ To fulfill the aim, the Indian government, with the support of international agencies installed millions of hand-pumps through water resources development programs. The hand-pumps improve the accessibility if the groundwater, but over-extraction of it increases the chances of mixing of trivalent arsenic which is more toxic than pentavalent arsenic of dug well water in Gangetic plain and has different physical manifestations. Now after three decades, Bihar (middle Gangetic plain) is also facing arsenic contamination of groundwater and its’ health implications. Objective: This interdisciplinary research attempts to understand the health and social implications of arsenicosis among different castes in Haldi Chhapra village and to find the association of ramifications with water resources development. Methodology: The Study used concurrent quantitative dominant mix method (QUAN+qual). The researcher had employed household survey, social mapping, interviews, and participatory interactions. However, the researcher used secondary data for retrospective analysis of hand-pumps and implications of arsenicosis. Findings: The study found 88.5% (115) household have hand-pumps as a source of water however 13.8% uses purified supplied water bottle and 3.6% uses combinations of hand-pump, bottled water and dug well water for drinking purposes. Among the population, 3.65% of individuals have arsenicosis, and 2.72% of children between the age group of 5 to 15 years are affected. The caste variable has also emerged through quantitative as well as geophysical locations analysis as 5.44% of arsenicosis manifested individual belong to scheduled caste (SC), 3.89% to extremely backward caste (EBC), 2.57% to backward caste (BC) and 3% to other. Among three clusters of arsenic poisoned locations, two belong to SC and EBC. The village as arsenic affected is being discriminated, whereas the affected individual is also facing discrimination, isolation, stigma, and problem in getting married. The forceful intervention to install hand-pumps in the first water decades and later restructuring of the dug well destroyed a conventional method of dug well cleaning. Conclusion: The common manifestation of arsenicosis has increased by 1.3% within six years of span in the village. This raised the need for setting up a proper surveillance system in the village. It is imperative to consider the social structure for arsenic mitigation program as this research reveals caste as a significant factor. The health and social implications found in the study; retrospectively analyzed as the collateral impact of water resource development programs in the village.

Keywords: arsenicosis, caste, collateral impact, water resources

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Syed Asif Hassan, Syed Atif Hassan

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Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is an infection caused by the resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that do not respond either to isoniazid or rifampicin, which are the most important anti-TB drugs. The increase in the occurrence of a drug-resistance strain of MTB calls for an intensive search of novel target-based therapeutics. In this context LprG (Rv1411c) a lipoprotein from MTB plays a pivotal role in the immune evasion of Mtb leading to survival and propagation of the bacterium within the host cell. Therefore, a machine learning method will be developed for generating a computational model that could predict for a potential anti LprG activity of the novel antituberculosis compound. The present study will utilize dataset from PubChem database maintained by National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The dataset involves compounds screened against MTB were categorized as active and inactive based upon PubChem activity score. PowerMV, a molecular descriptor generator, and visualization tool will be used to generate the 2D molecular descriptors for the actives and inactive compounds present in the dataset. The 2D molecular descriptors generated from PowerMV will be used as features. We feed these features into three different classifiers, namely, random forest, a deep neural network, and a recurring neural network, to build separate predictive models and choosing the best performing model based on the accuracy of predicting novel antituberculosis compound with an anti LprG activity. Additionally, the efficacy of predicted active compounds will be screened using SMARTS filter to choose molecule with drug-like features.

Keywords: antituberculosis drug, classifier, machine learning, molecular descriptors, prediction

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Maryam Mostafaee, Hassan Sadeghi Naeini, Sara Mostowfi

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Today’s Knowledge management (KM), plays an important role in organizations. Basically, knowledge management is in the relation of using it for taking advantage of work forces in an organization for forwarding the goals and demand of that organization used at the most. The purpose of knowledge management is not only to manage existing documentation, information, and Data through an organization, but the most important part of KM is to control most important and key factor of those information and Data. For sure it is to chase the information needed for the employees in the right time of needed to take from genuine source for bringing out the best performance and result then in this matter the performance of organization will be at most of it. There are a lot of definitions over the objective of management released. Management is the science that in force the accurate knowledge with repeating to the organization to shape it and take full advantages for reaching goals and targets in the organization to be used by employees and users, but the definition of Knowledge based on Kalinz dictionary is: Facts, emotions or experiences known by man or group of people is ‘ knowledge ‘: Based on the Merriam Webster Dictionary: the act or skill of controlling and making decision about a business, department, sport team, etc, based on the Oxford Dictionary: Efficient handling of information and resources within a commercial organization, and based on the Oxford Dictionary: The art or process of designing manufactured products: the scale is a beautiful work of industrial design. When knowledge management performed executive in universities, discovery and create a new knowledge be facilitated. Make procedures between different units for knowledge exchange. College's officials and employees understand the importance of knowledge for University's success and will make more efforts to prevent the errors. In this strategy, is explored factors and affective trends and manage of it in University. In this research, Iranian universities for a time being analyzed that over usage of knowledge management, how they are behaving and having understood this matter: 1. Discovery of knowledge management in Iranian Universities, 2. Transferring exciting knowledge between faculties and unites, 3. Participate of employees for getting and using and transferring knowledge, 4.The accessibility of valid sources, 5. Researching over factors and correct processes in the university. We are pointing in some examples that we have already analyzed which is: -Enabling better and faster decision-making, -Making it easy to find relevant information and resources, -Reusing ideas, documents, and expertise, -Avoiding redundant effort. Consequence: It is found that effectiveness of knowledge management in the Industrial design field is low. Based on filled checklist by Education officials and professors in universities, and coefficient of effectiveness Calculate, knowledge management could not get the right place.

Keywords: knowledge management, industrial design, educational curriculum, learning performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 370

Authors: Asmamaw Yehun

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The name “TANA” is one of International Geodetic Service (IGS) Global Positioning System (GPS) station which is found in Bahir Dar University in Institute of Land Administration. The station name taken from one of big Lakes in Africa ,Lake Tana. The Institute of Land Administration (ILA) is part of Bahir Dar University, located in the capital of the Amhara National Regional State, Bahir Dar. The institute is the first of its kind in East Africa. The station is installed by cooperation of ILA and Sweden International Development Agency (SIDA) fund support. The Continues Operating Reference Station (CORS) is a network of stations that provide global satellite system navigation data to help three dimensional positioning, meteorology, space, weather, and geophysical applications throughout the globe. TANA station was as CORS since 2013 and sites are independently owned and operated by governments, research and education facilities and others. The data collected by the reference station is downloadable through Internet for post processing purpose by interested parties who carry out GNSS measurements and want to achieve a higher accuracy. We made a first observation on TANA, monitor stations on May 29th 2013. We used Leica 1200 receivers and AX1202GG antennas and made observations from 11:30 until 15:20 for about 3h 50minutes. Processing of data was done in an automatic post processing service CSRS-PPP by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) . Post processing was done June 27th 2013 so precise ephemeris was used 30 days after observation. We found Latitude (ITRF08): 11 34 08.6573 (dms) / 0.008 (m), Longitude (ITRF08): 37 19 44.7811 (dms) / 0.018 (m) and Ellipsoidal Height (ITRF08): 1850.958 (m) / 0.037 (m). We were compared this result with GAMIT/GLOBK processed data and it was very closed and accurate. TANA station is one of the second IGS station for Ethiopia since 2015 up to now. It provides data for any civilian users, researchers, governmental and nongovernmental users. TANA station is installed with very advanced choke ring antenna and GR25 Leica receiver and also the site is very good for satellite accessibility. In order to test hydrostatic and wet zenith delay for positional data quality, we used GAMIT/GLOBK and we found that TANA station is the most accurate IGS station in East Africa. Due to lower tropospheric zenith and ionospheric delay, TANA and ADIS IGS stations has 2 and 1.9 meters 3D positional accuracy respectively.

Keywords: atmosphere, GNSS, neutral atmosphere, precipitable water vapour

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Authors: V. Bezverbny

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The actuality of the project deals with stable growing of deviant behavior’ statistics among Moscow citizens. During the recent years the socioeconomic health, wealth and life expectation of Moscow residents is regularly growing up, but the limits of crime and drug addiction have grown up seriously. Another serious Moscow problem has been economical stratification of population. The cost of identical residential areas differs at 2.5 times. The project is aimed at complex research and the development of methodology for main factors and reasons evaluation of deviant behavior growing in Moscow. The main project objective is finding out the links between the urban environment quality and dynamics of citizens’ deviant behavior in regional and municipal aspect using the statistical research methods and GIS modeling. The conducted research allowed: 1) to evaluate the dynamics of deviant behavior in Moscow different administrative districts; 2) to describe the reasons of crime increasing, drugs addiction, alcoholism, suicides tendencies among the city population; 3) to develop the city districts classification based on the level of the crime rate; 4) to create the statistical database containing the main indicators of Moscow population deviant behavior in 2010-2015 including information regarding crime level, alcoholism, drug addiction, suicides; 5) to present statistical indicators that characterize the dynamics of Moscow population deviant behavior in condition of expanding the city territory; 6) to analyze the main sociological theories and factors of deviant behavior for concretization the deviation types; 7) to consider the main theoretical statements of the city sociology devoted to the reasons for deviant behavior in megalopolis conditions. To explore the level of deviant behavior’ factors differentiation, the questionnaire was worked out, and sociological survey involved more than 1000 people from different districts of the city was conducted. Sociological survey allowed to study the socio-economical and psychological factors of deviant behavior. It also included the Moscow residents’ open-ended answers regarding the most actual problems in their districts and reasons of wish to leave their place. The results of sociological survey lead to the conclusion that the main factors of deviant behavior in Moscow are high level of social inequality, large number of illegal migrants and bums, nearness of large transport hubs and stations on the territory, ineffective work of police, alcohol availability and drug accessibility, low level of psychological comfort for Moscow citizens, large number of building projects.

Keywords: deviant behavior, megapolis, Moscow, urban environment, social stratification

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Emmanuel Iyamuremye, Irenee Ndayambaje

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This study investigated the influence of Concrete Pictorial Abstract (CPA) teaching approach on mathematics achievement based on a sample of eighth-grade students (N = 10,345) from the Rwandan Lower Secondary School quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test control group of 2019 (RLSQES19). Key aspects studied included mathematics concept understanding and mathematics concept retention and how these are influenced by teacher's teaching approach. Specifically, the study aimed to a.) investigate students' concept understanding and concept retention in mathematics when exposed to CPA approach and to those exposed to non-CPA approach before and after the intervention, and b.) ascertain the significant difference between the performance of the students exposed to CPA approach and those exposed to non-CPA approach in terms of post-test scores and retention test scores. Two groups (control and experimental) undergone pre-test, post-test, and retention test. The assignment of control and experimental group among senior two classes from 10 schools was done randomly. The materials used to determine the performance of the students is a teacher-made test. Descriptive statistics and ANCOVA were used for the analysis of the study. For determining the improvement in concept understanding of mathematics, Hakes methods of calculating gain were used to analyze the pre-test and post test score. The level of performance of the two groups in the pre-test is below average level. During the post-test and retention test, the performance of students in non-CPA group is on average level, and students in CPA group are on above average level. Hakes methods of calculating gain revealed higher significant performance in the post-test and retention test of CPA group of students than non-CPA group of students.

Keywords: concept understanding, concept retention, performance, teaching approach

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Nermeen Elbeltagy, Sara Hassan, Tamer Hosny, Mostafa Abdelaziz

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Introduction: Adequate postoperative analgesia after caesarean section (CS) is crucial as it impacts the distinct surgical recovery needs of the parturient. Over recent years, there has been increased interest in regional nerve block techniques with promising results on efficacy. These techniques reduce the need for additional analgesia, thereby lowering the incidence of drug-related side effects. As postoperative pain after cesarean is mainly due to abdominal incision, the transverses abdomenis plane ( TAP ) block is a relatively new abdominal nerve block with excellent efficacy after different abdominal surgeries, including cesarean section. Objective: The main objective is to compare ultrasound-guided TAP block provided by the anesthesiologist with TAP provided by the surgeon through a caesarean incision regarding the duration of postoperative analgesia, intensity of analgesia, timing of mobilization, and easiness of the procedure. Method: Ninety pregnant females at term who were scheduled for delivery by elective cesarean section were randomly distributed into two groups. The first group (45) received spinal anesthesia and postoperative ultrasound guided TAP block using 20ml on each side of 0.25% bupivacaine which was provided by the anesthesiologist. The second group (45) received spinal anesthesia plus a TAP block using 20ml on each side of 0.25% bupivacaine, which was provided by the surgeon through the cesarean incision. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used for the comparison between the two groups. Results: VAS score after four hours was higher among the TAP block group provided by the surgeon through the surgical incision than the postoperative analgesic profile using ultrasound-guided TAP block provided by the anesthesiologist (P=0.011). On the contrary, there was no statistical difference in the patient’s dose of analgesia after four hours of the TAP block (P=0.228). Conclusion: TAP block provided through the surgical incision is safe and enhances early patient’s mobilization.

Keywords: TAP block, CS, VAS, analgesia

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Authors: Abu Salim Mustafa

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Rv3873 is a relatively large size protein (371 amino acids in length) and its gene is located in the immunodominant genomic region of difference (RD)1 that is present in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis but deleted from the genomes of all the vaccine strains of Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) and most other mycobacteria. However, when tested for cellular immune responses using peripheral blood mononuclear cells from tuberculosis patients and BCG-vaccinated healthy subjects, this protein was found to be a major stimulator of cell mediated immune responses in both groups of subjects. In order to further identify the sequence of immunodominant epitopes and explore their Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-restriction for epitope recognition, 24 peptides (25-mers overlapping with the neighboring peptides by 10 residues) covering the sequence of Rv3873 were synthesized chemically using fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl chemistry and tested in cell mediated immune responses. The results of these experiments helped in the identification of an immunodominant peptide P9 that was recognized by people expressing varying HLA-DR types. Furthermore, it was also predicted to be a promiscuous binder with multiple epitopes for binding to HLA-DR, HLA-DP and HLA-DQ alleles of HLA-class II molecules that present antigens to T helper cells, and to HLA-class I molecules that present antigens to T cytotoxic cells. In addition, the evaluation of peptide P9 using an immunogenicity predictor server yielded a high score (0.94), which indicated a greater probability of this peptide to elicit a protective cellular immune response. In conclusion, P9, a peptide with multiple epitopes and ability to bind several HLA class I and class II molecules for presentation to cells of the cellular immune response, may be useful as a peptide-based vaccine against tuberculosis.

Keywords: mycobacterium tuberculosis, PPE68, peptides, vaccine

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Olga Plaza, Katarzyna Kosinska-Kaczynska, Stepan Feduniw, Dominika Pazdzior, Kinga Zebrowska, Katarzyna Kwiatkowska

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Introduction: The main causes of depression among pregnant women remain unclear. However, it is clear that pregnancy carries a higher risk of depression occurrence. Left untreated, prenatal depression can be a cause of serious both maternal and neonatal complications. Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to define potential risk factors of prenatal depression and to assess the frequency of its occurrence among pregnant women. Material and Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was performed among 346 women. The self- composed questionnaire consisting of 46 questions, was distributed via the Internet between November 2017 and March 2018. The questionnaire contained the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), in which the results of 13 and more points (out of 30) suggested possible prenatal depression. Statistical analysis was performed with Chi2 Pearson. P value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: 37.57% (n=130) of women had a score of 13 or more points. Women with depressive symptoms (DS) reported lack of support from the partner (46.9% vs. 16.2%; p < 0.001) as well as other family members (40.8% vs. 14.4%; p < 0.001), current pregnancy being unplanned (21.5% vs. 12.5%; p=0.014) and low socio-economic status (10% vs. 0.9%; p < 0.001). Both early and advanced maternal age seemed to play a role in occurrence of DS: in women aged 17-24 40.8% declared symptoms (vs 28.7%; p < 0.01), in mothers aged ≥37 6.2% did (vs 0.5%; p < 0.001). Smoking during pregnancy was also more frequent among patients with DS (31.5% vs. 18.1%; p=0.004). Previous diagnosis of depression or other mood disorders significantly increased a chance of DS occurrence (respectively- 17.7% vs. 4.6%; p < 0.001 and 49.2% vs. 25%; p<0.001). Parental diagnosis of mood disorders and other mental disorders was also more frequent in this group of patients (respectively- 24.6% vs. 15.7%; p= 0.026 and 26.4% vs. 9.7%; p < 0.001). Only 23.8% of women with DS sought help from healthcare professionals, with 21.5% receiving pharmacological treatment. Conclusions: Pregnant women often report having DS. Evaluation of risk factors of DS and possible prenatal depression is essential in proper screening for depression among pregnant women.

Keywords: obstetrics, polish women, prenatal care, prenatal depression, risk factors

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Authors: Elucir Gir, Laelson Rochelle Milanês Sousa, Pedro Henrique Tertuliano Leoni, Carla Aparecida Arena Ventura, Ana Cristina de Oliveira e Silva, Renata Karina Reis

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Context and significance: Resilience is a protective agent for the physical and mental well-being of nursing professionals. Team members are constantly subjected to high levels of work stress that can negatively impact care performance and users of health services. Stress levels have been exacerbated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the resilience of nursing professionals in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach carried out with professionals from nursing teams from all regions of Brazil. Data collection took place in the first year of the pandemic between October and December 2020. Data were obtained through an online questionnaire posted on social networks. The information collected included the sociodemographic characterization of the nursing professionals and the Brief Resilient Coping Scale was applied. Student's t-test for independent samples and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare resilience scores with sociodemographic variables. Results: 8,792 nursing professionals participated in the study, 5,767 (65.6%) were nurses, 7,437 (84.6%) were female and 2,643 (30.1%) were from the Northeast region of Brazil, 5,124 (58.8% ) had low levels of resilience. The results showed a statistically significant difference between the resilience score and the variables: professional category (p<0.001); sex (p = 0.003); age range (p<0.001); region of Brazil (p<0.001); marital status (p=0.029) and providing assistance in a field hospital (p<0.001). Conclusion: Participants in this study had, in general, low levels of resilience. There is an urgent need for actions aimed at promoting the psychological health of nursing professionals inserted in pandemic contexts. Descriptors: Psychological Resilience; Nursing professionals; COVID-19; SARSCoV-2.

Keywords: psychological resilience, nursing professionals, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2

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Authors: Amardass Dhami, Clare Samuelson

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Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a complex, multisystem condition that significantly impacts patients' quality of life, characterized by acute illness episodes, progressive organ damage, and reduced life expectancy. In the UK, over 13,000 individuals are affected, with South Yorkshire having the fifth highest prevalence, including approximately 800 patients. Retinal complications in SCD can manifest as either proliferative or non-proliferative disease, with proliferative changes being more prevalent. These retinal issues can cause significant morbidity, including visual loss and increased care requirements, underscoring the need for regular monitoring. An integrated approach was applied to ensure timely interventions, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes and reduce ‘did not attend’ rates. Aim: To assess the factors which may influence attendance to Haematology and Ophthalmology Clinics with attention towards levels of deprivation towards non-attendance. Method : A retrospective study on 84 eligible patients, from the regional tertiary Centre for Sickle Cell Care (Sheffield Teaching Hospital) from 2017 to 2023. The study focused on the incidence of sickle cell eye disease, specifically examining the outcomes of patients who attended the combined haematology and ophthalmology clinics. Patients who did not attend either clinic were excluded from the analysis to ensure a clear understanding of the combined clinic's impact. This data was then compared with the United Kingdom’s Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) datasets to assess if inequalities of care affected this population. Results: The study concluded that the effectiveness of combining haematology and ophthalmology clinics was reduced following the intervention. The DNA rates increased to 40% for the haematology clinic. Additionally, a significant proportion of the cohort was classified as residing in areas of deprivation, suggesting a possible link between socioeconomic factors and non-attendance rates Conclusion: These findings underscore the challenges of integrating care for SCD patients, particularly in relation to socioeconomic barriers. Despite the intent to streamline care and improve patient outcomes, the increase in DNA rates points to the need for further investigation into the underlying causes of non-attendance. Addressing these issues, especially in deprived areas, could enhance the effectiveness of combined clinics and ensure that patients receive the necessary monitoring and interventions for their eye health and overall well-being. Future strategies may need to focus on improving accessibility, outreach, and support for patients to mitigate the impact of socioeconomic factors on healthcare attendance.

Keywords: south yorkshire, sickle cell anemia, deprivation, factors, haematology

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Authors: Seon-Young Lee, Harkiran Sagoo, Reem Farwana, Katharine Whitehurst, Alex Fowler, Riaz Agha

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Background/Aims: Systematic reviews and meta-analysis are becoming increasingly important way of summarizing research evidence. Researches in ophthalmology may represent further challenges, due to their potential complexity in study design. The aim of our study was to determine the reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta-analysis in ophthalmology with the PRISMA statement, by assessing the articles published between 2010 and 2015 from five major journals with the highest impact factor. Methods: MEDLINE and EMBASE were used to search systematic reviews published between January 2010 and December 2015, in 5 major ophthalmology journals: Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, Ophthalmology, Archives of Ophthalmology, American Journal of Ophthalmology, Journal of the American Optometric Association. Screening, identification, and scoring of articles were performed independently by two teams, followed by statistical analysis including the median, range, and 95% CIs. Results: 115 articles were involved. The median PRISMA score was 15 of 27 items (56%), with a range of 5-26 (19-96%) and 95% CI 13.9-16.1 (51-60%). Compliance was highest in items related to the description of rationale (item 3,100%) and inclusion of a structured summary in the abstract (item 2, 90%), while poorest in indication of review protocol and registration (item 5, 9%), specification of risk of bias affecting the cumulative evidence (item 15, 24%) and description of clear objectives in introduction (item 4, 26%). Conclusion: The reporting quality of systematic reviews and meta-analysis in ophthalmology need significant improvement. While the use of PRISMA criteria as a guideline before journal submission is recommended, additional research identifying potential barriers may be required to improve the compliance to the PRISMA guidelines.

Keywords: systematic reviews, meta-analysis, research methodology, reporting quality, PRISMA, ophthalmology

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Authors: E. Hegazy, S. Anderberg, J. Krook

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The city's wire-based infrastructure systems (WBIS) are responsible for the delivery of electricity, telecommunications, sanitation, drainage, and district heating and are a necessity for sustainable modern urban life. Maintaining the functionality of these structures involves high costs and, brings disturbance to the local community and effects on the environment. One key reason for this is that the cables and pipes are placed under streets, making system parts easily worn and their service lifetime reduced, and all maintenance and renewal rely on recurrent needs for excavation. In Sweden, a significant part of wire-based infrastructure is already outdated and will need to be replaced in the coming decades. The replacement of these systems will entail massive costs as well as important traffic disruption and environmental disturbance. However, this challenge may also open a unique opportunity to introduce new, more sustainable technologies and management practices. The transformation of WBIS management for long-term sustainability and meeting maintenance and renewal needs does not have a comprehensive approach. However, a systemic approach may inform WBIS management. This approach considers both technical and non-technical aspects, as well as time-related factors. Nevertheless, there is limited systemic knowledge of how different factors influence current management practices. The aim of this study is to address this knowledge gap and contribute to the understanding of what factors influence the current practice of WBIS management. A case study approach is used to identify current management practices, the underlying factors that influence them, and their implications for sustainability outcomes. The case study is based on both quantitative data on the local system and data from interviews and workshops with local practitioners and other stakeholders. Linköping was selected as a case since it provided good accessibility to the water administration and relevant data for analyzing water infrastructure management strategies. It is a sufficiently important city in Sweden to be able to identify challenges, which, to some extent, are common to all Swedish cities. By uncovering current practices and what is influencing Linköping, knowledge gaps and uncertainties related to sustainability consequences were highlighted. The findings show that goals, priorities, and policies controlling management are short-termed, and decisions on maintenance and renewal are often restricted to finding solutions to the most urgent issues. Sustainability transformation in the infrastructure area will not be possible through individual efforts without coordinated technical, organizational, business, and regulatory changes.

Keywords: case study, infrastructure, management, practice, Sweden

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Authors: Szymon Szemik, Małgorzata Kowalska

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Objective: Medical students experience numerous demands during the education process, determining their quality of life (QoL) and health status. POLLEK (POLski LEKarz, eng. Polish Physician) study aims to identify and evaluate the quality of life, mental health status, and ever-recognized chronic diseases by simultaneously assessing their determinants in Polish medical students during long-term observation. Material and Methods: The POLLEK is the follow-up cohort study conducted among medical students at the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice. Students were followed during two observation periods: in their first year of studies, the academic year 2021/2022 (T1), and in their second year, the academic year 2022/2023 (T2). Results: The total number of participants in the first year of observation (T1) was 427 while in the second year (T2) was 335. Obtained results confirmed that the QoL score significantly decreased in their second year of studies mainly in the somatic and psychological domains. Moreover, we observed a significant increase in self-declared scoring of somatic symptoms year by year (from M=4.75 at T1 to M=8.06 at T2, p<0.001) in the GHQ-28 questionnaire survey. The determinants of QoL domains common to T1 and T2 remained self-declared health status, frequency of physical activity, and current financial situation. In the first year of evaluation, 56 students (13.10%) were overweight or obese, and 52 (15.8%) in the second. Regardless of the academic year, the increased risk of being overweight or obese was significantly associated with dissatisfaction with personal health, financial deficiencies, and a diet abundant in meat consumption. Conclusions: The QoL in medical students and selected determinants of their health status deteriorated during the observation period. Our findings suggest that medical schools should actively promote the activity needed to achieve a balance between schoolwork and the personal life of medical students from the beginning of university study.

Keywords: quality of life, mental health, medical students, follow-up study

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Authors: Minhui Chiu

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According to relevant studies, clinical nurses have high work pressure and relatively high job adaptation needs. The nurses who work in oncology wards have more adaptation needs when they face repeating hospitalization patients. The aims of this study were to investigate the job stress adaptation and related factors of nurses in oncology wards and to understand the predictors of job stress adaptation needs. Convenience sampling was used in this study. The nurses in the oncology specialist ward of a regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan were selected as the research objects. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire, random sampling, and the questionnaires were filled out by the participating nurses. A total of 68 people were tested, and 65 valid questionnaires (95.6%). One basic data questionnaire and nurses’ job stress adaptation needs questionnaire were used. The data was archived with Microsoft Excel, and statistical analysis was performed with JMP12.0. The results showed that the average age was 28.8 (±6.7) years old, most of them were women, 62 (95.38%), and the average clinical experience in the hospital was 5.7 years (±5.9), and 62 (95.38%) were university graduates. 39 people (60.0%) had no work experience. 39 people (60.0%) liked nursing work very much, and 23 people (35.3%) just “liked”. 47 (72.3%) people were supported to be oncology nurses by their families. The nurses' job stress adaptation needs were 119.75 points (±17.24). The t-test and variance analysis of the impact of nurses' job pressure adaptation needs were carried out. The results showed that the score of college graduates was 121.10 (±16.39), which was significantly higher than that of master graduates 96.67 (±22.81), and the degree of liking for nursing work also reached a Significant difference. These two variables are important predictors of job adaptation needs, and the R Square is 24.15%. Conclusion: Increasing the love of clinical nurses in nursing and encouraging university graduation to have positive effects on job pressure adaptation needs and can be used as a reference for the management of human resources hospitals for oncology nurses.

Keywords: oncology nurse, job stress, job stress adaptation needs, manpower

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Authors: Alejandro Molina-Villegas, Silvia Fernández-Sabido, Eduardo Mendoza-Vargas, Fátima Miranda-Pestaña

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The automatic detection of indigenous languages ​​in digital texts is essential to promote their inclusion in digital media. Underrepresented languages, such as Maya, are often excluded from language detection tools like Google’s language-detection library, LANGDETECT. This study addresses these limitations by developing a hybrid language detection solution that accurately distinguishes Maya (YUA) from Spanish (ES). Two strategies are employed: the first focuses on creating a profile for the Maya language within the LANGDETECT library, while the second involves training a Naive Bayes classification model with two categories, YUA and ES. The process includes comprehensive data preprocessing steps, such as cleaning, normalization, tokenization, and n-gram counting, applied to text samples collected from various sources, including articles from La Jornada Maya, a major newspaper in Mexico and the only media outlet that includes a Maya section. After the training phase, a portion of the data is used to create the YUA profile within LANGDETECT, which achieves an accuracy rate above 95% in identifying the Maya language during testing. Additionally, the Naive Bayes classifier, trained and tested on the same database, achieves an accuracy close to 98% in distinguishing between Maya and Spanish, with further validation through F1 score, recall, and logarithmic scoring, without signs of overfitting. This strategy, which combines the LANGDETECT profile with a Naive Bayes model, highlights an adaptable framework that can be extended to other underrepresented languages in future research. This fills a gap in Natural Language Processing and supports the preservation and revitalization of these languages.

Keywords: indigenous languages, language detection, Maya language, Naive Bayes classifier, natural language processing, low-resource languages

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Authors: Mohamed Aly, Aliaa Rehan Youssef, Emad Sawerees, Mounir Guirgis

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Relevance: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative disease seen in all populations. It causes disability and substantial socioeconomic burden. Evidence supports that exercise are the most effective conservative treatment for patients with OA. Therapists experience and clinical judgment play major role in exercise prescription and scientific evidence for this regard is lacking. The development of clinical prediction rules to identify patients who are most likely benefit from exercise may help solving this dilemma. Purpose: This study investigated whether body mass index and functional ability at baseline can predict patients’ response to a selected exercise program. Approach: Fifty-six patients, aged 35 to 65 years, completed an exercise program consisting of open kinetic chain strengthening and passive stretching exercises. The program was given for 3 sessions per week, 45 minutes per session, for 6 weeks Evaluation: At baseline and post treatment, pain severity was assessed using the numerical pain rating scale, whereas functional ability was being assessed by step test (ST), time up and go test (TUG) and 50 feet time walk test (50 FTW). After completing the program, global rate of change (GROC) score of greater than 4 was used to categorize patients as successful and non-successful. Thirty-eight patients (68%) had successful response to the intervention. Logistic regression showed that BMI and 50 FTW test were the only significant predictors. Based on the results, patients with BMI less than 34.71 kg/m2 and 50 FTW test less than 25.64 sec are 68% to 89% more likely to benefit from the exercise program. Conclusions: Clinicians should consider the described strengthening and flexibility exercise program for patents with BMI less than 34.7 Kg/m2 and 50 FTW faster than 25.6 seconds. The validity of these predictors should be investigated for other exercise.

Keywords: clinical prediction rule, knee osteoarthritis, physical therapy exercises, validity

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Authors: Elifsu Sahin

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In the world and in Turkey, approximately 1 in 10 people is 65 years of age or older. The age group of 65 and over is the fastest-growing age group since 1990. This demographic aging trend and demographic transformation have spread over a long period in Western Europe and North America, while in Turkey, they have occurred over a relatively short period. The aging of the population poses many challenges in terms of housing supply, housing satisfaction, and economic access to housing, due to factors such as a decrease in the number of people in households, low incomes, and increased time spent in housing and housing neighborhoods. On the other hand, since 2000, neoliberal economic policies and government policies have led to serious growth in the construction and housing sectors in Turkey. During this process, the housing market in Turkey generally produced housing for high-income groups and foreigners. Housing has become an investment instrument, and rising housing prices and rents have seriously reduced both the affordability of housing and households' chances of living in healthy housing. Housing has become a growing problem for vulnerable groups such as low- and middle-income households, students, refugees, and the elderly. Moreover, in recent years, international migration, pandemics, economic crises, inflation, and the expected Istanbul earthquake have raised housing prices and rent in Turkey as a whole, especially in Istanbul. The aim of the study is to investigate how elderly households that don't own homes deal with the economic accessibility of housing and other affordability-related housing problems in the Istanbul Metropolitan Area today, when housing becomes an investment instrument, the issue of social housing is not on the agenda, and households can be added to the market according to their ability to pay. A complex method was adopted in the research, using a combination of various statistical data and interview findings. Based on household income, in-depth interviews were conducted with 100 elderly households who don't own their own homes and were randomly selected in identified neighborhoods, analyzing the micro-area within the districts in the Istanbul Metropolitan Area, where middle- and low-income households are concentrated. The study found that more than 50% of the net income of elderly households was spent on rent and other housing expenses. Some of the households said that they restrict spending on food, health, and entertainment because of their housing expenses. Among the findings of the study is that households receive financial support from their children or move into their children’s house for economic reasons. Due to the decrease in household income, especially after the loss of a spouse, the single individual moves into their children’s house. Moreover, some of the interviewed households had to change their house and move to a smaller, lower-rent house on the urban periphery for economic reasons after retirement, especially after 2020, despite their unwillingness.

Keywords: affordable housing, elderly households, housing policy, istanbul metropolitan area

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Authors: Ken Zakreski

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Regulating Canadian Facebook Groups, of a size and type, when they reach a threshold of audio video content. Consider the evolution of the Streaming Act, Parl GC Bill C-11 (44-1) and the regulations that will certainly follow. The Canadian Heritage Minister's office stipulates, "the Broadcasting Act only applies to audio and audiovisual content, not written journalism.” Governance— After 10 years, a community radio station for Gabriola Island, BC – Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (“CRTC”) was approved but never started – became a Facebook Group “Community Bulletin Board - Life on Gabriola“ referred to as CBBlog. After CBBlog started and began to gather real traction, a member of the Group cloned the membership and ran their competing Facebook group under the banner of "free speech”. Here we see an inflection point [change of cultural stewardship] with two different mathematical results [engagement and membership growth]. Canada's telecommunication history of “portability” and “interoperability” made that Facebook Group CBBlog the better option, over broadcast FM radio for a community pandemic information sharing service for Gabriola Island, BC. A culture of ignorance flourishes in social media. Often people do not understand their own experience, or the experience of others because they do not have the concepts needed for understanding. It is thus important they are not denied concepts required for their full understanding. For example, Legislators need to know something about gay culture before they can make any decisions about it. Community Media policies and CRTC regulations are known and regulators can use that history to forge forward with regulations for internet platforms of a size and content type that reach a threshold of audio / video content. Mostly volunteer run media services, provide order of magnitude lower costs over commercial media. (Treating) Facebook Groups as new media.? Cathy Edwards, executive director of the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (“CACTUS”), calls it new media in that the distribution platform is not the issue. What does make community groups community media? Cathy responded, "... it's bylaws, articles of incorporation that state they are community media, they have accessibility, commitments to skills training, any member of the community can be a member, and there is accountability to a board of directors". Eligibility for funding through CACTUS requires these same commitments. It is risky for a community to invest into a platform as ownership has not been litigated. Is a FaceBook Group an asset of a not for profit society? The memo, from law student, Jared Hubbard summarizes, “Rights and interests in a Facebook group could, in theory, be transferred as property... This theory is currently unconfirmed by Canadian courts. “

Keywords: social media, governance, community media, Canadian radio

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Authors: Lanchi Xie, Zhihui Li, Zhigang Li, Guiqiang Wang, Lei Xu, Yuwen Yan

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Image-based facial features can be classified into category recognition features and individual recognition features. Current automated face recognition systems extract a specific feature vector of different dimensions from a facial image according to their pre-trained neural network. However, to improve the efficiency of parameter calculation, an algorithm generally reduces the image details by pooling. The operation will overlook the details concerned much by forensic experts. In our experiment, we adopted a variety of face recognition algorithms based on deep learning, compared a large number of naturally collected face images with the known data of the same person's frontal ID photos. Downscaling and manual handling were performed on the testing images. The results supported that the facial recognition algorithms based on deep learning detected structural and morphological information and rarely focused on specific markers such as stains and moles. Overall performance, distribution of genuine scores and impostor scores, and likelihood ratios were tested to evaluate the accuracy of biometric systems and forensic experts. Experiments showed that the biometric systems were skilled in distinguishing category features, and forensic experts were better at discovering the individual features of human faces. In the proposed approach, a fusion was performed at the score level. At the specified false accept rate, the framework achieved a lower false reject rate. This paper contributes to improving the interpretability of the objective method of facial comparison and provides a novel method for human-machine collaboration in this field.

Keywords: likelihood ratio, automated facial recognition, facial comparison, biometrics

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Authors: Pauline Blanchet

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In a world where images are a prominent part of our daily lives and a way of absorbing information, the analysis of the representation of migration narratives is vital. This thesis raises questions concerning the power of illustrations, drawings and visual culture in order to represent the migration narratives in the age of Instagram. The rise of graphic novels and comics has come about in the last fifteen years, specifically regarding contemporary authors engaging with complex social issues such as migration and refugeehood. Due to this, refugee subjects are often in these narratives, whether they are autobiographical stories or whether the subject is included in the creative process. Growth in discourse around migration has been present in other art forms; in 2018, there has been dedicated exhibitions around migration such as Tania Bruguera at the TATE (2018-2019), ‘Journeys Drawn’ at the House of Illustration (2018-2019) and dedicated film festivals (2018; the Migration Film Festival), which have shown the recent considerations of using the arts as a medium of expression regarding themes of refugeehood and migration. Graphic visuals are fast becoming a key instrument when representing migration, and the central thesis of this paper is to show the strength and limitations of this form as well the methodology used by the actors in the production process. Recent works which have been released in the last ten years have not being analysed in the same context as previous graphic novels such as Palestine and Persepolis. While a lot of research has been done on the mass media portrayals of refugees in photography and journalism, there is a lack of literature on the representation with illustrations. There is little research about the accessibility of graphic novels such as where they can be found and what the intentions are when writing the novels. It is interesting to see why these authors, NGOs, and curators have decided to highlight these migrant narratives in a time when the mainstream media has done extensive coverage on the ‘refugee crisis’. Using primary data by doing one on one interviews with artists, curators, and NGOs, this paper investigates the efficiency of graphic novels for depicting refugee stories as a viable alternative to other mass medium forms. The paper has been divided into two distinct sections. The first part is concerned with the form of the comic itself and how it either limits or strengthens the representation of migrant narratives. This will involve analysing the layered and complex forms that comics allow such as multimedia pieces, use of photography and forms of symbolism. It will also show how the illustration allows for anonymity of refugees, the empathetic aspect of the form and how the history of the graphic novel form has allowed space for positive representations of women in the last decade. The second section will analyse the creative and methodological process which takes place by the actors and their involvement with the production of the works.

Keywords: graphic novel, refugee, communication, media, migration

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Authors: Marji Umil, Miane Karyle Urolaza, Ian Winston Dale Uy, John Charle Magne Valdez, Karen Elizabeth Valdez, Ervin Charles Valencia, Cheryleen Tan-Chua

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Objective: Distraction techniques can be successful in reducing the anxiety of children during medical procedures. Dental procedures, in particular, are associated with dental anxiety which has been identified as a significant and common problem in children, however, only limited studies were conducted to address such problem. Thus, this study determined the effectiveness of computer video games on the levels of anxiety of children between 5-12 years old scheduled for tooth extraction. Methods: A pre-test post-test quasi-experimental study was conducted involving 30 randomly-assigned subjects, 15 in the experimental and 15 in the control. Subjects in the experimental group played computer video games for a maximum of 15 minutes, however, no intervention was done on the control. The modified Yale Pre-operative Anxiety Scale (m-YPAS) with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.9 was used to assess anxiety at two different points: upon arrival in the clinic (pre-test anxiety) and 15 minutes after the first measurement (post-test anxiety). Paired t-test and ANCOVA were used to analyze the gathered data. Results: Results showed that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test anxiety scores of the control group (p=0.0002) which indicates an increased anxiety. A significant difference was also noted between the pre-test and post-test anxiety scores of the experimental group (p=0.0002) which indicates decreased anxiety. Comparatively, the experimental group showed lower anxiety score (p=<0.0001) than the control. Conclusion: The use of computer video games is effective in reducing the pre-operative anxiety among children and can be an alternative non-pharmacological management in giving pre-operative care.

Keywords: play therapy, preoperative anxiety, tooth extraction, video games

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Authors: Adeyinka Adeniran, Omowunmi Bakare, Esther Oluwole, Florence Chieme, Temitope Durojaiye, Modupe Akinyinka, Omobola Ojo, Babatunde Olujobi, Marcus Ilesanmi, Akintunde Ogunsakin

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Introduction: Globally, COVID-19 has greatly impacted the human race physically, socially, mentally, and economically. However, healthcare workers seemed to bear the greatest impact. The study, therefore, sought to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the primary healthcare workers in Ekiti, South-west Nigeria. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional descriptive study using a quantitative data collection method of 716 primary healthcare workers in Ekiti state. Respondents were selected using an online convenience sampling method via their social media platforms. Data was collected, collated, and analyzed using SPSS version 25 software and presented as frequency tables, mean and standard deviation. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted using a t-test, and the level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: Less than half (47.1%) of respondents were between 41-50 age group and a mean age of 44.4+6.4SD. A majority (89.4%) were female, and almost all (96.2%) were married. More than (90%) had ever heard of Coronavirus, and (85.8%) had to spend more money on activities of daily living such as transportation (90.1%), groceries (80.6%), assisting relations (95.8%) and sanitary measures (disinfection) at home (95.0%). COVID-19 had a huge negative impact on about (89.7%) of healthcare workers, with a mean score of 22+4.8. Conclusion: COVID-19 negatively impacted the daily living and professional duties of primary healthcare workers, which reflected their psychological, physical, social, and economic well-being. Disease outbreaks are unlikely to disappear in the near future. Hence, global proactive interventions and homegrown measures should be adopted to protect healthcare workers and save lives.

Keywords: Covid-19, health workforce, primary health care, health systems, depression

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