Search results for: working life

Authors: Farida Naceur

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Algerian cities experienced after the independence of the country a rapid urbanisation process fostered by population growth. In order to deal with the severe housing shortage resulted, large social public housing programs totally financed by the government were launched across the country during the eighty. Unfortunately, the standardized multistory buildings produced underwent intense deterioration and turned very quickly after their occupancy into sources of nuisance and distress. The government adopted a new housing policy in 2000, which aims to diversify housing types according to household incomes and encourage access to housing property. The model of participatory social housing emerged; it was designed for the intermediate groups, allowing them to benefit from direct financial aid and to borrow credit from banks in order to purchase their dwellings. Twenty years afterward, no assessment to date has been established to evaluate the real impact of such a strategy. The aim of this paper is to examine whether this type of housing helped to stimulate a participative dynamism among its occupants to strengthen their commitment, their involvement in the maintenance and keeping of their surroundings. For the purpose of the study, we focus our attention on various participatory social housing settlements in Batna and Biskra, two medium-sized cities in eastern Algeria. The investigation is structured in various types of analysis: a spatial analysis, observations, interviews with public authorities representatives, chief planners, and experts. In addition to this, informal interviews with occupants of various participatory social housing settlements were arranged to collect qualitative data. Occupants were asked open questions focusing on their daily life and practices in order to examine their degree of involvement in their neighbourhood’s life.

Keywords: participatory social housing, rental social housing, involvement, maintenance, social interactions, community life

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Authors: Li Wang

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The explosive of technology advances has opened up many avenues of career options for engineering graduates. Hence, how relevant their learning at university is very much dependent on their actual jobs. Bridging the gap between education and industrial practice is important, but it also becomes evident how both engineering education and industrial training can be leveraged at the same time and balance between what students should grasp at university and what they can be continuously trained at the working environment. Through a case study of developing a commercial product, this paper presents the required level of depth of technical knowledge and skills for some typical engineering jobs (for mechanical/materials engineering). It highlights the necessary collaboration for industry, university, and accreditation bodies to work together to nurture the next generation of engineers.

Keywords: leverage, collaboration, career, industry, engineering education

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Authors: Danila Zuffetti, Lorenzo Chiesa

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Background: A hospice narrative interview aims at putting the sick at the core of disease and treatment allowing them to explore their most intimate facets. The aim of this work is to favor authentic narration by leading towards awareness and acceptance of terminality and to face death with serenity. Narration in palliative care aims at helping to reduce the chaos generated by the disease and to elaborate interpretations on the course of reality, besides, the narration delivered to the doctor is fundamental and communicates the meaning given to symptoms. Methods: The narrative interview has become a regular activity in the Castellini Foundation since 2017. Patients take part every week, and for more days, in one hour sessions, in a welcoming and empathic setting and the interaction with the operator leads to a gradual awareness of their terminality. Patients are submitted with free answer questions with the purpose of facilitating and stimulating self-narration. Narration has not always been linear, but patients are left free to shift in time to revisit their disease process by making use of different tools, such as digital storytelling. Results: The answers provided by the patients show to which extent the narrative interview is an instrument allowing the analysis of the stories and gives the possibility to better understand and deepen the different implications of patient and caregiver’s background. Conclusion: The narration work in the hospice demonstrates that narrative medicine is an added value. This instrument has proven useful not only in the support of patients but also for the palliative doctor to identify wishes for accompanying them to the end with dignity and serenity. The narrative interview favors the construction of an authentic therapeutic relationship. The sick are taken wholly in charge, and they are guaranteed a high quality of life until their very last instant.

Keywords: construction of an authentic therapy relationship, gradual awareness of their terminality, narrative interview, reduce the chaos generated by the desease

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Authors: Gabriela Smeckova

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The entire world is becoming more and more diverse. The reasons why people migrate are different and unique for each family /individual. Professionals delivering services (including speech-language pathologists) must be prepared to work with clients coming from different cultural and/or linguistic backgrounds. Well-educated speech-language pathologists will consider many factors when delivering services. Some of them will be discussed during the presentation (language spoken, beliefs about health care and disabilities, reasons for immigration, etc.). The communication styles of the client can be different than the styles of the speech-language pathologist. The goal is to become culturally responsive in service delivery.

Keywords: culture, cultural competence, culturallly responsive practices, speech-language pathologist, cultural and linguistical variables, communication styles

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Authors: Carine Platat, Fatima Qshadi, Ghofran Kayed, Nour Hussein, Amjad Jarrar, Habiba Ali

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Nowadays, smartphones are very popular. They are offering a variety of easy-to-use and free applications among which step counters and fitness tests. The number of users is huge making of such applications a potentially efficient new strategy to encourage people to become more active. Nonetheless, data on their reliability and validity are very scarce and when available, they are often negative and contradictory. Besides, weight status, which is likely to introduce a bias in the physical activity assessment, was not often considered. Hence, the use of these applications as motivational tool, assessment tool and in research is questionable. PACER is one of the free step counters application. Even though it is one of the best rated free application by users, it has never been tested for reliability and validity. Prior any use of PACER, this remains to be investigated. The objective of this work is to investigate the reliability and validity of the smartphone application PACER in measuring the number of steps and in assessing the cardiorespiratory fitness by the 6 minutes walking test. 20 overweight or obese students (10 male and 10 female) were recruited at the United Arab Emirate University, aged between 18 and 25 years old. Reliability and validity were tested in real life conditions and in controlled conditions by using a treadmill. Test-retest experiments were done with PACER on 2 days separated by a week in real life conditions (24 hours each time) and in controlled conditions (30 minutes on treadmill, 3km/h). Validity was tested against the pedometer OMRON in the same conditions. During treadmill test, video was recorded and steps numbers were compared between PACER, pedometer and video. The validity of PACER in estimating the cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max) as part of the 6 minutes walking test (6MWT) was studied against the 20m shuttle running test. Reliability was studied by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), 95% confidence interval (95%CI) and by Bland-Altman plots. Validity was studied by calculating Spearman correlation coefficient (rho) and Bland-Altman plots. PACER reliability was good in both male and female in real life conditions (p≤10-3) but only in female in controlled conditions (p=0.01). PACER was valid against OMRON pedometer in male and female in real life conditions (rho=0.94, p≤10-3 ; rho=0.64, p=0.01, in male and female respectively). In controlled conditions, PACER was not valid against pedometer. But, PACER was valid against video in female (rho=0.72, p≤10-3). PACER was valid against the shuttle run test in male and female (rho-=0.66, p=0.01 ; rho=0.51, p=0.04) to estimate VO2max. This study provides data on the reliability and viability of PACER in overweight or obese male and female young adults. Globally, PACER was shown as reliable and valid in real life conditions in overweight or obese male and female to count steps and assess fitness. This supports the use of PACER to assess and promote physical activity in clinical follow-up and community interventions.

Keywords: smartphone application, pacer, reliability, validity, steps, fitness, physical activity

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Authors: Muhamad Sahir Bin Ahmad Shatiry, Wan Normeza Wan Zakaria, Mohamad Zaki Hassan

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The pandemic Covid19 has significantly impacted the world; the spreading of the Covid19 virus initially from China has dramatically impacted the world's economy. Therefore, the world reacts with establishing the new way or norm in daily life. The rapid rise of the latest technology has been seen by introducing many technologies to ease human life to have a minor contract between humans and avoid spreading the virus Covid19. Digital twin technologies are one of the technologies created before the pandemic Covid19 but slow adoption in the industry. Throughout the Covid19, most of the companies in the world started to explore to use it. The digital twin technology provides the virtual platform to replicate the existing condition or setup for anything such as office, manufacturing line, factories' machine, building, and many more. This study investigates the effect on the economic perspective after the companies use the Digital Twin technology in the industry. To minimize the contact between humans and to have the ability to operate the system digitally remotely. In this study, the explanation of the digital twin technology impacts the world's microeconomic and macroeconomic.

Keywords: productivity, artificially intelligence, IoT, digital twin

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Authors: Robert John Godby

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To be responsive now and in the future, workplaces must address the demands of multicultural teams as they become more common elements of the global labor force. This is especially the case for aged care due to the aging population, industry growth and migrant recruitment. This research identifies influences on and improvements for learning in these environments. Its unique contribution is to illuminate how culturally diverse workplaces can work and learn together more effectively. A mixed-methods approach was used to gather data about this topic in two phases. Firstly, the research methods included a survey of 102 aged care workers around Australia from two multi-site aged care organisations. The questionnaire elicited both quantitative and qualitative data about worker characteristics and perspectives on working and learning in aged care. Secondly, a case study of one aged care worksite was formulated drawing on worksite information and interviews with workers. A review of the literature suggests that learning in multicultural work environments is influenced by three main factors: 1) the individual workers themselves, 2) their interaction with each other and 3) the environment in which they work. There are various accounts of these three factors, how they are manifested and how they lead to a change in workers’ disposition, knowledge, or expertise when confronted with new circumstances. The study has found that a key individual factor influencing learning is cultural background. Their unique view of the world was shown to affect their approach to both their work and co-working. Interactional factors suggest that the high requirement for collaboration in aged care positively supports learning in this context; however, it can be hindered by cultural bias and spoken accent. The study also found that environmental factors, such as disruptions caused by the pandemic, were another key influence. For example, the need to wear face masks hindered the communication needed for workplace learning. This was especially challenging due to the diverse language backgrounds and abilities within the teams. Potential improvements for learning in multicultural aged care work environments were identified. These include more frequent and structured inter-peer learning (e.g. buddying), communication training (e.g. English language usage for both native and non-native speaking workers) and support for cross-cultural habitude (e.g. recognizing and adapting to cultural differences). Workplace learning in cross-cultural aged care environments is an area that is not extensively dealt with in the literature. This study addresses this gap and holds the potential to contribute practical insights to aged care and other diverse industries.

Keywords: cross-cultural learning, learning in aged care, migrant learning, workplace learning

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Authors: R. Barbour

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Peace-building organisations act as a network of information for communities. Through fieldwork, it was highlighted that grassroots organisations and activists may cooperate with each other in their actions of peace-building; however, they would not collaborate. Within two divided societies; Nicosia in Cyprus and Jerusalem in Israel, there is a distinction made by organisations and activists with regards to activities being more ‘co-operative’ than ‘collaborative’. This theme became apparent when having informal conversations and semi-structured interviews with various members of the activist communities. This idea needs further exploration as these distinctions could impact upon the efficiency of peacebuilding activities within divided societies. Civil societies within divided landscapes, both physically and socially, play an important role in conflict resolution. How organisations and activists interact with each other has the possibility to be very influential with regards to peacebuilding activities. Working together sets a positive example for divided communities. Cooperation may be considered a primary level of interaction between CSOs. Therefore, at the beginning of a working relationship, organisations cooperate over basic agendas, parallel power structures and focus, which led to the same objective. Over time, in some instances, due to varying factors such as funding, more trust and understanding within the relationship, it could be seen that processes progressed to more collaborative ways. It is evident to see that NGOs and activist groups are highly independent and focus on their own agendas before coming together over shared issues. At this time, there appears to be more collaboration in Nicosia among CSOs and activists than Jerusalem. The aims and objectives of agendas also influence how organisations work together. In recent years, Nicosia, and Cyprus in general, have perhaps changed their focus from peace-building initiatives to more environmental issues which have become new-age reconciliation topics. Civil society does not automatically indicate like-minded organisations however solidarity within social groups can create ties that bring people and resources together. In unequal societies, such as those in Nicosia and Jerusalem, it is these ties that cut across groups and are essential for social cohesion. Societies are a collection of social groups; individuals who have come together over common beliefs. These groups in turn shape the identities and determine the values and structures within societies. At many different levels and stages, social groups work together through cooperation and collaboration. These structures in turn have the capabilities to open up networks to less powerful or excluded groups, with the aim to produce social cohesion which may contribute social stability and economic welfare over any extended period.

Keywords: collaboration, cooperation, grassroots activism, networks of communication

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Authors: Drazen Simlesa, Jelena Pudjak, Anita Tonkovic Busljeta

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Regarding social economy (SE), Croatia is, on general level, considered as ex-communist country with good tradition, bad performance in second part of 20th Century because of political control in the business sector, which has in transition period (1990-1999) became a problem of ignorance in public administration (policy level). Today, social economy in Croatia is trying to catch up with other EU states on all important levels of SE sector: legislative and institutional framework, financial infrastructure, education and capacity building, and visibility. All four are integral parts of Strategy for the Development of Social Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Croatia for the period of 2015 – 2020. Within iPRESENT project, funded by Croatian Science Foundation, we have mapped social economy actors and after many years there is a clear and up to date social economy base. At the ICSE 2016 we will present main outcomes and results of this process. In the second year of the project we conducted a field research across Croatia carried out 19 focus groups with most influential, innovative and inspirational social economy actors. We divided interview questions in four themes: laws on social economy and public policies, definition/ideology of social economy and cooperation on SE scene, the level of democracy and working conditions, motivation and existence of intrinsic values. The data that are gathered through focus group interviews has been analysed via qualitative data analysis software (Atlas ti.). Major finding that will be presented in ICSA 2016 are: Social economy actors are mostly unsatisfied with legislative and institutional framework in Croatia and consider it as unsupportive and confusing. Social economy actors consider SE to be in the line with WISE model and as a tool for community development. The SE actors that are more active express satisfaction with cooperation amongst SE actors and other partners and stakeholders, but the ones that are in more isolated conditions (spatially) express need for more cooperation and networking. Social economy actors expressed their praise for democratic atmosphere in their organisations and fair working conditions. And finally, they expressed high motivation to continue to work in the social economy and are dedicated to the concept, including even those that were at the beginning interested just in getting a quick job. It means that we can detect intrinsic values for employees in social economy organisations. This research enabled us to describe for the first time in Croatia the view from the inside, attitudes and opinion of employees of social economy organisations.

Keywords: employees, focus groups, mapping, social economy

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Authors: Hazem Abuorf

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From the perspective of viewing urban design as the architecture of public spaces, the latter has many advantages; for example, in achieving attractive and vibrant public spaces, ensuring safety and amenity, supporting a strong sense of place and local character. Besides all advantages, such spaces nevertheless trigger numerous dilemmas, how to design urban spaces preserving the quality of life in the long term while equally achieving cohesion between new urban developments and the already existing urban structure without causing a split in history through the cause of functional and aesthetic degradation. Analysis of this article seeks to propose a methodology deemed essential for assessing and stimulating design criteria of the public spaces when rehabilitating urban sites. The method’s utility is shown by analyzing rehabilitation projects in Gaza Strip, whose design of the public spaces has mainly focused on the physical aspect ignoring the place’s local identity, users’ needs, and history. The proposed methodology serves as a guide for municipal authorities and technical teams to deal with interventions that would rework the role of urban design towards making sense of place.

Keywords: urban design, public realm, rehabilitation projects, quality of life

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Authors: Jina Hong, Seongeun Ryu, Sungeun You

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Suicide rate among homeless people are much higher than one in the general population. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of PTSD and aggression in the relationship between childhood physical abuse and suicidal behavior among homeless people. One hundred one homeless were recruited from street and shelters in Korea. Face-to-face interviews were conducted by master’s level graduate students or facility employees of shelters. All participants completed the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), Life History of Aggression Questionnaire (LHAQ), Primary Care PTSD (PC-PTSD), and Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ). The average age of homeless people participated in the study was 55.2 years (SD = 10.7) with the age range of 30 to 87. Results indicated that PTSD symptoms and aggression fully mediated the relationship between childhood physical abuse and suicidal behavior among the homeless. These findings suggest the need for trauma-informed care for the homeless, and warrant the need for psychological services for PTSD and aggression in order to reduce suicide risk among homeless people.

Keywords: aggression, homeless, PTSD, suicidal behavior

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Authors: Sara Mostofian

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The nuclear industry is a technology that can fulfill future energy needs but requires special attention to ensure safety and reliability while minimizing any environmental impact. To meet these expectations, the nuclear industry is exploring different reactor technologies for power production. Several designs are under development and the technical viability of these new designs is the subject of many ongoing studies. One of these studies considers the radioactive emissions and radioactive waste generated during the life of a nuclear power production plant to allow a successful license process. For all the modern technologies, a good understanding of the radioactivity generated in the process systems of the plant is essential. Some of that understanding may be gleaned from the performance of some prototype reactors of similar design that operated decades ago. This paper presents how, with that understanding, a model can be developed to estimate the emissions as well as the radioactive waste during the normal operation of a nuclear power plant. The model would predict the radioactive material concentrations in different waste streams. Using this information, the radioactive emission and waste generated during the life of these new technologies can be estimated during the early stages of the design of the plant.

Keywords: SMRs, activity transport, model, radioactive waste

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Authors: Lisdey Espinoza Pedraza

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Organised crime in Mexico evolves faster that our capacity to understand and explain it. Organised gangs have become successful entrepreneurs in many ways ad they have somehow mimicked the working ways of the authorities and in many cases, they have successfully infiltrated the governmental spheres. This business model is only possible under a clear scheme of rampant impunity. Impunity, however, is not exclusive to the PRI. Nor the PRI, PAN, or PRD can claim the monopoly of corruption, but what is worse is that none can claim full honesty in their acts either. The current security crisis in Mexico shows a crisis in the Mexican political party system. Corruption today is not only a problem of dishonesty and the correct use of public resources. It is the principal threat to Mexican democracy, governance, and national security.

Keywords: security, war on drugs, drug trafficking, Mexico, Latin America, United States

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Authors: Alice Robba, Renaud Bouchet, Celine Barchasz, Jean-Francois Colin, Erik Elkaim, Kristina Kvashnina, Gavin Vaughan, Matjaz Kavcic, Fannie Alloin

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With their high theoretical energy density (~2600 Wh.kg-1), lithium/sulfur (Li/S) batteries are highly promising, but these systems are still poorly understood due to the complex mechanisms/equilibria involved. Replacing S8 by Li2S as the active material allows the use of safer negative electrodes, like silicon, instead of lithium metal. S8 and Li2S have different conductivity and solubility properties, resulting in a profoundly changed activation process during the first cycle. Particularly, during the first charge a high polarization and a lack of reproducibility between tests are observed. Differences observed between raw Li2S material (micron-sized) and that electrochemically produced in a battery (nano-sized) may indicate that the electrochemical process depends on the particle size. Then the major focus of the presented work is to deepen the understanding of the Li2S material charge mechanism, and more precisely to characterize the effect of the initial Li2S particle size both on the mechanism and the electrode preparation process. To do so, Li2S nanoparticles were synthetized according to two ways: a liquid path synthesis and a dissolution in ethanol, allowing Li2S nanoparticles/carbon composites to be made. Preliminary chemical and electrochemical tests show that starting with Li2S nanoparticles could effectively suppress the high initial polarization but also influence the electrode slurry preparation. Indeed, it has been shown that classical formulation process - a slurry composed of Polyvinylidone Fluoride polymer dissolved in N-methyle-2-pyrrolidone - cannot be used with Li2S nanoparticles. This reveals a complete different Li2S material behavior regarding polymers and organic solvents when going at the nanometric scale. Then the coupling between two operando characterizations such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Absorption and Emission Spectroscopy (XAS/XES) have been carried out in order to interpret the poorly understood first charge. This study discloses that initial particle size of the active material has a great impact on the working mechanism and particularly on the different equilibria involved during the first charge of the Li2S based Li-ion batteries. These results explain the electrochemical differences and particularly the polarization differences observed during the first charge between micrometric and nanometric Li2S-based electrodes. Finally, this work could lead to a better active material design and so to more efficient Li2S-based batteries.

Keywords: Li-ion/Sulfur batteries, Li2S nanoparticles effect, Operando characterizations, working mechanism

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Authors: Rasmita Mishra, Chander Shekher

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Background: Population ageing is an inevitable outcome of demographic transition. Due to increased life expectancy, the old age population in India and worldwide has increased, and it will continue to grow more alarmingly in the near future. There are redundant austerity that has been bestowed upon the widows, thus, the life of widows is never been easy in India. The loss of spouse along with other disadvantaged socioeconomic intermediaries like illiteracy and poverty often make the life of widows more difficult to live. Methodology: Ethical statement: The study used secondary data available in the public domain for its wider use in social research. Thus, there was no requirement of ethical consent in the present study. Data source: Building a Knowledge Base on Population Aging in India (BKPAI), 2011 dataset is used to fulfill the objectives of this study. It was carried out in seven states – Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal – having a higher percentage of the population in the age group 60 years and above compared to the national average. Statistical analysis: Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to understand the level of elderly widows and incidence of abuse against them in India and selected states. Bivariate and Trivariate analysis were carried out to check the pattern of abuse by selected covariates. Chi-Square test is used to verify the significance of the association. Further, Discriminant Analysis (DA) is carried out to understand which factor can separate out group of neglect and non-neglect elderly. Result: With the addition of 27 million from 2001 to 2011, the total elderly population in India is more than 100 million. Elderly females aged 60+ were more widows than their counterpart elderly males. This pattern was observed across selected states and at national level. At national level, more than one tenth (12 percent) of elderly experienced abuse in their lifetime. Incidence of abuse against elderly widows within family was considerably higher than the outside the family. This pattern was observed across the selected place and abuse in the study. In discriminant analysis, the significant difference between neglected and non-neglected elderly on each of the independent variables was examined using group mean and ANOVA. Discussion: The study is the first of its kind to assess the incidence of abuse against elderly widows using large-scale survey data. Another novelty of this study is that it has assessed for those states in India whereby the proportion of elderly is higher than the national average. Place and perpetrators involved in the abuse against elderly widows certainly envisaged the safeness in the present living arrangement of elderly widows. Conclusion: Due to the increasing life expectancy it is expected that the number of elderly will increase much faster than before. As biologically women live longer than men, there will be more women elderly than men. With respect to the living arrangement, after the demise of the spouse, elderly widows are more likely to live with their children who emerged as the main perpetrator of abuse.

Keywords: elderly abuse, emotional abuse physical abuse, material abuse, psychological abuse, quality of life

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Authors: Josip Arneric, Antonio Sostaric

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Crikvenica is one of the favourite tourist destinations at the Adriatic Sea in Croatia which attracts guests with its natural beauties and is one of the top destinations with the highest number of overnights stays. The main purpose of this research is to determine which elements of tourist offer should be improved to achieve sustainable development of the town of Crikvenica. Namely, the survey results from a random sample have shown that the most common reason of the visits is relaxation and vacation, and that more attention should be given to the following categories: restaurants and the working hours of stores and banks. We have also examined whether or not there is a correlation between an average daily expenditure and the overnight stay. The paper ends with the conclusion and the recommendations on how to improve the tourist offer of Crikvenica in order to increase guest satisfaction and to keep its reputation at a high level.

Keywords: tourism development, survey, Crikvenica, management sciences

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Authors: Yasmine Salehy, Yann Leroy, Francois Cluzel, Hong-Minh Hoang, Laurence Fournaison, Anthony Delahaye, Bernard Yannou

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Taking into consideration all the life cycle of a product is now an important step in the eco-design of a product or a technology. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a standard tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of a system or a process. Despite the improvement in refrigerant regulation through protocols, the environmental damage of refrigeration systems remains important and needs to be improved. In this paper, the environmental impacts of refrigeration systems in a typical supermarket are compared using the LCA methodology under different conditions. The system is used to provide cold at two levels of temperature: medium and low temperature during a life period of 15 years. The most commonly used architectures of supermarket cold production systems are investigated: centralized direct expansion systems and indirect systems using a secondary loop to transport the cold. The variation of power needed during seasonal changes and during the daily opening/closure periods of the supermarket are considered. R134a as the primary refrigerant fluid and two types of secondary fluids are considered. The composition of each system and the leakage rate of the refrigerant through its life cycle are taken from the literature and industrial data. Twelve scenarios are examined. They are based on the variation of three parameters, 1. location: France (Paris), Spain (Toledo) and Sweden (Stockholm), 2. different sources of electric consumption: photovoltaic panels and low voltage electric network and 3. architecture: direct and indirect refrigeration systems. OpenLCA, SimaPro softwares, and different impact assessment methods were compared; CML method is used to evaluate the midpoint environmental indicators. This study highlights the significant contribution of electric consumption in environmental damages compared to the impacts of refrigerant leakage. The secondary loop allows lowering the refrigerant amount in the primary loop which results in a decrease in the climate change indicators compared to the centralized direct systems. However, an exhaustive cost evaluation (CAPEX and OPEX) of both systems shows more important costs related to the indirect systems. A significant difference between the countries has been noticed, mostly due to the difference in electric production. In Spain, using photovoltaic panels helps to reduce efficiently the environmental impacts and the related costs. This scenario is the best alternative compared to the other scenarios. Sweden is a country with less environmental impacts. For both France and Sweden, the use of photovoltaic panels does not bring a significant difference, due to a less sunlight exposition than in Spain. Alternative solutions exist to reduce the impact of refrigerating systems, and a brief introduction is presented.

Keywords: eco-design, industrial engineering, LCA, refrigeration system

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Authors: Christopher Pullen

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This paper explores the significance of British cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s as offering a renaissance of realist discourse, in the representation of everyday social issues. Offering a rejection of Hollywood cinema and the superficially of the middle classes, these ‘kitchen sink dramas’ often set within modest and sometimes squalid domestic and social environments, focused on the political struggle of the disenfranchised examining poverty, the oppressed and the outsider. While films like Look Back in Anger and Room at the Top looked primarily at male heterosexual subjectivity, films like A Taste of Honey and Victim focused on female and queer male narratives. Framing the urban landscape as a discursive architectural arena, representing basic living conditions and threatening social worlds, these iconic films established new storytelling processes for the outsider. This paper examines this historical context foregrounding the contemporary films Beautiful Thing (Hettie Macdonald, 1996), Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011) and Pride (Marcus Warchus, 2014), while employing the process of textual analysis in relation to theories of affect, defined by writers such as Lisa U. Marks and Sara Ahmed. Considering both romance narratives and public demonstrations of unity, where the queer ‘affective’ body is placed within architectural and social space, Beautiful Thing tells the story of gay male teenagers falling in love despite oppression from family and school, Weekend examines a one-night stand between young gay men and the unlikeliness of commitment, but the drive for sensitivity, and Pride foregrounds an historical relationship between queer youth activists and the miner’s union, who were on strike between 1984-5. These films frame the queer ‘affective’ body within politicized public space, evident in lower class men’s working clubs, tenement housing and brutal modernist tower blocks, focusing on architectural features such as windows, doorways and staircases, relating temporality, desire and change. Through such an examination a hidden history of gay male performativity is revealed, framing the potential of contemporary cinema to focus on the context of the outsider in encouraging social change.

Keywords: queer, affect, cinema, architecture, life chances

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Authors: Hafsa Raheel

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Objectives: Secondary school girls, ages 15–19 years old were surveyed to find out the coping strategies they used when stressed. Adolescents, who are affected with stress and depression early in life, suffer from depression throughout their lives, especially if they are utilizing improper ways to cope with it. Methods: A cross-sectional school-based survey among 1028 adolescent girls was conducted among the secondary schools in Riyadh city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Results: About 25% stated that they cry, 19% listen to music, 15% start eating a lot, 12% sit alone/isolate themselves, 11% pray/read the Quran, 10% get into a verbal argument or a fight. Only a few, 3% exercise, and 2% stated that they find someone to discuss and talk to. Conclusion: The majority of the adolescent girls in our survey rely on emotion-related coping mechanisms rather than problem-solving mechanisms. This can cause long-term implications in these adolescents as there is an increased probability to develop depression later on in life. Policy makers need to implement strategies for early identification of stress and depression. Talking to friends and family can serve as an effective way to cope with stress.

Keywords: adolescents, stress, Saudi Arabia, mental health

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Authors: Giulia Sarego, Lorenzo Olivieri, Andrea Valmorbida, Carlo Bettanini, Giacomo Colombatti, Marco Pertile, Enrico C. Lorenzini

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International guidelines recommend removing any artificial body in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) within 25 years from mission completion. Among disposal strategies, electrodynamic tethers appear to be a promising option for LEO, thanks to the limited storage mass and the minimum interface requirements to the host spacecraft. In particular, recent technological advances make it feasible to deorbit large objects with tether lengths of a few kilometers or less. To further investigate such an innovative passive system, the European Union is currently funding the project E.T.PACK – Electrodynamic Tether Technology for Passive Consumable-less Deorbit Kit in the framework of the H2020 Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Open program. The project focuses on the design of an end of life disposal kit for LEO satellites. This kit aims to deploy a taped tether that can be activated at the spacecraft end of life to perform autonomous deorbit within the international guidelines. In this paper, the orbital performance of the E.T.PACK deorbiting kit is compared to other disposal methods. Besides, the orbital decay prediction is parametrized as a function of spacecraft mass and tether system performance. Different values of length, width, and thickness of the tether will be evaluated for various scenarios (i.e., different initial orbital parameters). The results will be compared to other end-of-life disposal methods with similar allocated resources. The analysis of the more innovative system’s performance with the tape coated with a thermionic material, which has a low work-function (LWT), for which no active component for the cathode is required, will also be briefly discussed. The results show that the electrodynamic tether option can be a competitive and performant solution for satellite disposal compared to other deorbit technologies.

Keywords: deorbiting performance, H2020, spacecraft disposal, space electrodynamic tethers

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Authors: Ahmed Al Ansari, Khalid Al Khalifa

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Objective: Multisource feedback (MSF), also called the 360-Degree evaluation is an evaluation process by which questionnaires are distributed amongst medical peers and colleagues to assess physician performance from different sources other than the attending or the supervising physicians. The aim of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a 360-Degree process in assessing emergency physicians trainee in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Method: The study was undertaken in Bahrain Defense Force Hospital which is a military teaching hospital in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Thirty emergency physicians (who represent the total population of the emergency physicians in our hospital) were assessed in this study. We developed an instrument modified from the Physician achievement review instrument PAR which was used to assess Physician in Alberta. We focused in our instrument to assess professionalism, communication skills and collaboration only. To achieve face and content validity, table of specification was constructed and a working group was involved in constructing the instrument. Expert opinion was considered as well. The instrument consisted of 39 items; were 15 items to assess professionalism, 13 items to assess communication skills, and 11 items to assess collaboration. Each emergency physicians was evaluated with 3 groups of raters, 4 Medical colleague emergency physicians, 4 medical colleague who are considered referral physicians from different departments, and 4 Coworkers from the emergency department. Independent administrative team was formed to carry on the responsibility of distributing the instruments and collecting them in closed envelopes. Each envelope was consisted of that instrument and a guide for the implementation of the MSF and the purpose of the study. Results: A total of 30 emergency physicians 16 males and 14 females who represent the total number of the emergency physicians in our hospital were assessed. The total collected forms is 269, were 105 surveys from coworkers working in emergency department, 93 surveys from medical colleague emergency physicians, and 116 surveys from referral physicians from different departments. The total mean response rates were 71.2%. The whole instrument was found to be suitable for factor analysis (KMO = 0.967; Bartlett test significant, p<0.00). Factor analysis showed that the data on the questionnaire decomposed into three factors which counted for 72.6% of the total variance: professionalism, collaboration, and communication. Reliability analysis indicated that the instrument full scale had high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α 0.98). The generalizability coefficients (Ep2) were 0.71 for the surveys. Conclusions: Based on the present results, the current instruments and procedures have high reliability, validity, and feasibility in assessing emergency physicians trainee in the emergency room.

Keywords: MSF system, emergency, validity, generalizability

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Authors: Aslı Taş, Şebnem Ertaş

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Culture consists of material and spiritual values adopted by the emerging societies during the historical and social processes and continues to exist from past to present by being transferred through generations. Culture and cultural sustainability are interdependent concepts. Cultural sustainability exists when the requirements established cultural expression are added to the social life as lifestyle and habits. However, sustainability renders change inevitable. Changes that take place in the culture of a society also shows the impact in the daily life places. Functional changes occur in the spaces in order to adapt particularly to cultural change that appear in the aftermath of the user change, to modern technology and living standards. In this context, in this study, it was aimed to investigate the effect of the time-dependent functional changes that took place in the housing where non-Muslim population who was subject to population exchange and Muslim population lived after the population exchange in the vacated housing in Sille. Therefore, the changed and newly added venues in the house belonging to Ali Oğuz in Hacı Ali Ağa Street were investigated over the generated graphic in order to clearly perceive the cultural exchange on the housing and settlement and the functional changes were demonstrated.

Keywords: culture, house, spatial changes, sustainability

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Authors: Gabriel Montague, Max Vilgalys, Catherine H. Crawford, Jorge Ortiz, Dava Newman

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There has never been so much publicly accessible atmospheric and environmental data. The possibilities of these data are exciting, but the sheer volume of available datasets represents a new challenge for researchers. The task of identifying and working with a new dataset has become more difficult with the amount and variety of available data. Datasets are often documented in ways that differ substantially from the common English used to describe the same topics. This presents a barrier not only for new scientists, but for researchers looking to find comparisons across multiple datasets or specialists from other disciplines hoping to collaborate. This paper proposes a method for addressing this obstacle: creating a knowledge graph to bridge the gap between everyday English language and the technical language surrounding these datasets. Knowledge graph generation is already a well-established field, although there are some unique challenges posed by working with Earth data. One is the sheer size of the databases – it would be infeasible to replicate or analyze all the data stored by an organization like The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or the European Space Agency. Instead, this approach identifies topics from metadata available for datasets in NASA’s Earthdata database, which can then be used to directly request and access the raw data from NASA. By starting with a single metadata standard, this paper establishes an approach that can be generalized to different databases, but leaves the challenge of metadata harmonization for future work. Topics generated from the metadata are then linked to topics from a collection of English queries through a variety of standard and custom natural language processing (NLP) methods. The results from this method are then compared to a baseline of elastic search applied to the metadata. This comparison shows the benefits of the proposed knowledge graph system over existing methods, particularly in interpreting natural language queries and interpreting topics in metadata. For the research community, this work introduces an application of NLP to the ecological and environmental sciences, expanding the possibilities of how machine learning can be applied in this discipline. But perhaps more importantly, it establishes the foundation for a platform that can enable common English to access knowledge that previously required considerable effort and experience. By making this public data accessible to the full public, this work has the potential to transform environmental understanding, engagement, and action.

Keywords: earth metadata, knowledge graphs, natural language processing, question-answer systems

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Authors: Gihan Mosaad, Bakr Gomaa, Rana Elbadri

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Modern parts of Alexandria city lack in vibrancy, causing a number of problems such as urban areas with poor security measures as well as weak economic state. Vibrancy provides a livable, attractive and secure environments; it also boosts the city’s economy and social life. Vibrant city is a city full of energy and life. To achieve this, a number of resources are needed; namely specific urban density, the availability of alternative modes of transportation and finally diversity of land-uses. Literature review shows no comprehensive study that assesses vibrancy in the streets of modern Alexandria. This study aims to measure the vibrancy potential in Sidi-Gaber station area thought the assessment of existing resources performance. Methods include literature reviews, surveying of existing case, questionnaire as well as GIS techniques. Expected results include GIS maps defining the vibrancy potentials in land use, density and statistical study regarding public transportation use in the area.

Keywords: Alexandria, density, mixed use, transportation, vibrancy

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Authors: Bisemiire Anthony,

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PESH Poultry is a business project proposed specifically to solve unemployment and income-related problems affecting the youths in the Busia district. The project is intended to transform the life of the youth in terms of economic, social and behavioral, as well as the domestic well-being of the community at large. PESH Poultry is a start-up poultry farm that will be engaged in the keeping of poultry birds, broilers and layers for the production of quality and affordable poultry meat and eggs respectively and other poultry derivatives targeting consumers in eastern Uganda, for example, hotels, restaurants, households and bakeries. We intend to use a semi-intensive system of farming, where water and some food are provided in a separate nighttime shelter for the birds; our location will be in Lumino, Busia district. The poultry project will be established and owned by Bisemiire Anthony, Nandera Patience, Naula Justine, Bwire Benjamin and other investors. The farm will be managed and directed by Nandera Patience, who has five years of work experience and business administration knowledge. We will sell poultry products, including poultry eggs, chicken meat, feathers and poultry manure. We also offer consultancy services for poultry farming. Our eggs and chicken meat are hygienic, rich in protein and high quality. We produce processes and packages to meet the standard organization of Uganda and international standards. The business project shall comprise five (5) workers on the key management team who will share various roles and responsibilities in the identified business functions such as marketing, finance and other related poultry farming activities. PESH Poultry seeks 30 million Ugandan shillings in long-term financing to cover start-up costs, equipment, building expenses and working capital. Funding for the launch of the business will be provided primarily by equity from the investors. The business will reach positive cash flow in its first year of operation, allowing for the expected repayment of its loan obligations. Revenue will top UGX 11,750,000, and net income will reach about UGX115 950,000 in the 1st year of operation. The payback period for our project is 2 years and 3 months. The farm plans on starting with 1000 layer birds and 1000 broiler birds, 20 workers in the first year of operation.

Keywords: chicken, pullets, turkey, ducks

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Authors: Neringa Bagdonaite

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Background: The main focus of this paper is to explore how self-determination interplays in suicidal and addictive context leading one to autonomously choose self-destructive addictive behaviour or suicidal intentions. Methods: Phenomenological descriptions of the experiential structure of self-determination in addiction and suicidal mental life are used. The phenomenological method describes structures of mental life from the first-person-perspective, with a focus on how an experienced object is given in a subject’s conscious experience. Results: A sense of self-determination in the context of suicidal and addictive behaviour is possibly impaired. In the context of suicide, it's proposed that suicide is always experienced at least minimally self-determined, as it's the last freely discovered self-efficient behaviour, in terms of radically changing one's desperate mental state. Suicide can never be experienced as fully self-determined because no future retrospective re-evaluation of behaviour is possible. Understanding self-determination in addiction is challenging because addicts perceive themselves and experience situations differently depending on: (I) their level of intoxication; (II) whether the situation is in the moment or in retrospect; and (III) the goals set out in that situation. Furthermore, within phenomenology addiction is described as an embodied custom, which‘s acquired and established while performing 'psychotropic technique'. The main goal of performing such a technique is to continue 'floating in an indifference state' or being 'comfortably numb'. Conclusions: Based on rich phenomenological descriptions of the studied phenomenon, this paper draws on the premise that to experience self-determination in both suicide and addiction, underlying desperate or negative emotional states are needed. Such underlying desperate or negative mental life experiences are required for one to pre-reflectively evaluate suicide or addictive behaviours as positive, relieving or effective in terms of changing one's emotional states. Such pre-reflective positive evaluations serve as the base for the continuation of behaviour and later are identified reflectively.

Keywords: addiction, phenomenology, self-determination, self-effectivity, suicide

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Authors: Nassim Labdaoui, Fabienne Nouvel, Stéphane Dutertre

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging as a crucial communication technology for the future. Many solutions have been proposed, and among them, licensed operators have put forward LTE-M and NB-IoT. However, implementing these technologies requires a good understanding of the device energy requirements, which can vary depending on the coverage conditions. In this paper, we investigate the power consumption of LTE-M and NB-IoT devices using Ublox SARA-R422S modules based on relevant standards from two French operators. The measurements were conducted under different coverage conditions, and we also present an empirical consumption model based on the different states of the radio modem as per the RRC protocol specifications. Our findings indicate that these technologies can achieve a 5 years operational battery life under certain conditions. Moreover, we conclude that the size of transmitted data does not have a significant impact on the total power consumption of the device under favorable coverage conditions. However, it can quickly influence the battery life of the device under harsh coverage conditions. Overall, this paper offers insights into the power consumption of LTE-M and NBIoT devices and provides useful information for those considering the use of these technologies.

Keywords: internet of things, LTE-M, NB-IoT, MQTT, cellular IoT, power consumption

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Authors: Emil Iskandarov, Nazrin Agayeva

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Background: The effectiveness of hormone suppressive therapy (HST) in patients with nodular goiter (NG) is controversial. The aim of this study was to identify the impact of long-time HST on the Quality of Life (QoL) of patients with NG. Material and Methods: A retrospective analysis of 146 patients with NG showed treated with HST showed that in 38,4% of cases, HST was not effective. Nodules were increased in size and moreover, and new nodules were developed. Statistical procedure identified the predictors of resistant nodules: only one nodule in the left lobe; nodule size >17mm; calcinate within the nodule. 174 patients with NG, by whom predictors of resistant nodules were established, were informed about the results of previous research and surgery was suggested. Eighty-eight patients (the basic group) agreed with surgery and thyroidectomy was led. 86 patients (control group) ignored the suggestion and wished to receive HST. 3, 6 and 12 months after starting HST; control group patients were examined. HST was non-effective and patients, due to developing symptoms, were operated on. Patients in both groups were followed up 3, 6 and 12 months after thyroidectomy. Quality of Life was checked with the SF-36 survey form and compared between groups. The statistical analysis was performed with the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test and with the Student t-test. P values ＜0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results and Discussions: QoL of patients in the basic and control groups 3 months after surgery was almost the same. However, Emotional problems severely interfered with patients in a control group with normal social activities with family, friends, and neighbors. The causes were related to the non-effective HST treatment before surgery: stress for forgetting to take drugs timely every day for a long time; blood tests for thyroid hormone level; needle biopsies of nodules for cancer screening and regular ultrasound investigations, which showed that nodules not diminished in size. Changing the treatment method after 1-year non-effective HST and delayed surgery negatively impacted patient's QoL. Social role functioning and mental health in the control group were also impaired and the difference between the results in the basic group was statistically significant (p <0.05). Conclusion: Predictors, such as only one nodule, the width of nodules more than 17mm, and the existence of calcinate within the nodule, are able to forecast the resistant nodules. HST in patients with resistant nodules is non-effective and surgery is suggested in patients with resistant nodules in the thyroid gland. Long time HST has a negative impact on the QoL patient after surgery.

Keywords: thyroid gland, nodule, hormone suppressive therapy, quality of life

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Authors: Anna Triwijayati, Etsa Astridya Setiyati, Titik Desi Harsoyo

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Culture is the important determinant of human behavior and desire. Culture influences the consumer through the norms and values established by the society in which they live and reflect it. The cultural values of Javanese society certainly have united in the Javanese society behavior in consumption. This research is expected to give big enough theoretical benefits in the findings of cultural value in consumption in Javanese society. These can be an incentive in finding the local cultural value in many tribes in Indonesia, so one time, the local cultural value in Indonesia about consumption can be fundamental part in education and consumption practice in Indonesia. The approach used in this research is non positivist research or is known as qualitative approach. The method or type of research used in this research is ethnomethodology. The collection data is done in Central Java region. The research subject or informant is determined by the purposive technique by certain criteria determined by the researcher. The data is collected by deep interview and observation. Before the data analysis, the researcher does the storing method data stage and implements the data validity procedures. Then, the data is analyzed by the theme and interactive analysis technique. The Javanese Mataraman society has such consumption values such as has to be sufficient, be careful, economical, submit to the one who creates the life, the way life flow, and the present problem is thought in the present also. In the financial management for consumption, the consumer should have the simple life principles, has to be sufficient, has to be able to eat, has to be able to self-press, well-managed/diligent/accurate/careful, the open or transparent management, has the struggle effort, like to self-sacrifice and think about the future. The meaning of consumption value in family is centered to the submission and full-trust to God. These consumption values are applied in consumer behavior in self, family, investment and credit need in short term and long term perspective.

Keywords: values, consumer, consumption, Javanese Mataraman, ethnomethodology

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Authors: Mary Booth

Abstract:

Biophotovoltaics is a method of green energy generation derived from exposing plants to lights. Its vast potential is hampered by the public’s relative ignorance of its existence. This work aims to formalize the principles of the physical processes of biophotovoltaics into a comprehensible visual software model, thus amplifying the human thought process. The methods used involve initially crafting a scale model of a working biophotovoltaic system from household materials inspired by the work of Paolo Bombelli. The scale model is then programmed into a system-level simulation, wherein a 3D animation dissects the system and its general energy generation process. The completed 3D system-level simulation ultimately creates a simplified visual understanding of the complex principles of the biophotovoltaic system.

Keywords: 3D, biophotovoltaics, render

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