Search results for: principal creative leadership

Authors: Ezra Kavana

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This article analyses the role those East African countries play in enforcing crude oil pipeline regulations. The paper finds that countries are more likely to have responsibility for enforcing these regulations if they have larger networks of gathering and transmission lines and if their citizens are more liberal and more pro-environment., Pipeline operations, transportation costs, new pipeline construction, and environmental effects are all heavily controlled. All facets of pipeline systems and the facilities connected to them are governed by statutory bodies. In order to support the project manager on such new pipeline projects, companies building and running these pipelines typically include personnel and consultants who specialize in these permitting processes. The primary permissions that can be necessary for pipelines carrying different commodities are mentioned in this paper. National, regional, and local municipalities each have their own permits. Through their right-of-way group, the contractor's project compliance leadership is typically directly responsible for obtaining those permits, which are typically obtained through government agencies. The whole list of local permits needed for a planned pipeline can only be found after a careful field investigation. A country's government regulates pipelines that are entirely within its borders. With a few exceptions, state regulations governing ratemaking and safety have been enacted to be consistent with regulatory requirements. Countries that produce a lot of energy are typically more involved in regulating pipelines than countries that produce little to no energy. To identify the proper regulatory authority, it is important to research the several government agencies that regulate pipeline transportation. Additionally, it's crucial that the scope determination of a planned project engage with a various external professional with experience in linear facilities or the company's pipeline construction and environmental professional to identify and obtain any necessary design clearances, permits, or approvals. These professionals can offer precise estimations of the costs and length of time needed to process necessary permits. Governments with a stronger energy sector, on the other hand, are less likely to take on control. However, the performance of the pipeline or national enforcement activities are unaffected significantly by whether a government has taken on control. Financial fines are the most efficient government enforcement instrument because they greatly reduce occurrences and property damage.

Keywords: crude oil, pipeline, regulatory compliance, and construction permits

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Authors: Christelle E. Chua, Alicia L. Ho

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The development of a panel of differential gene expression signatures has been of interest in the field of biomarker discovery for radiation exposure. In the absence of the availability of exposed human subjects, lymphocyte cell lines have often been used as a surrogate to human whole blood, when performing ex vivo irradiation studies. The extent of variation between different lymphocyte cell lines is currently unclear, especially with regard to the expression of extracellular miRNA. This study compares the expression profile of extracellular miRNA isolated from different lymphocyte cell lines. It also compares the profile of miRNA obtained when different exosome isolation kits are used. Lymphocyte cell lines were created using lymphocytes isolated from healthy adult males of similar racial descent (Chinese American and Chinese Singaporean) and immortalised with Epstein-Barr virus. The cell lines were cultured in exosome-free cell culture media for 72h and the cell culture supernatant was removed for exosome isolation. Two exosome isolation kits were used. Total exosome isolation reagent (TEIR, ThermoFisher) is a polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based exosome precipitation kit, while ExoSpin (ES, Cell Guidance Systems) is a PEG-based exosome precipitation kit that includes an additional size exclusion chromatography step. miRNA from the isolated exosomes were isolated using miRNEASY minikit (Qiagen) and analysed using nCounter miRNA assay (Nanostring). Principal component analysis (PCA) results suggested that the overall extracellular miRNA expression profile differed between the lymphocyte cell line originating from the Chinese American donor and the cell line originating from the Chinese Singaporean donor. As the gender, age and racial origins of both donors are similar, this may suggest that there are other genetic or epigenetic differences that account for the variation in extracellular miRNA gene expression in lymphocyte cell lines. However, statistical analysis showed that only 3 miRNA genes had a fold difference > 2 at p < 0.05, suggesting that the differences may not be of that great a significance as to impact overall conclusions drawn from different cell lines. Subsequent analysis using cell lines from other donors will give further insight into the reproducibility of results when difference cell lines are used. PCA results also suggested that the method of exosome isolation impacted the expression profile. 107 miRNA had a fold difference > 2 at p < 0.05. This suggests that the inclusion of an additional size exclusion chromatography step altered the subset of the extracellular vesicles that were isolated. In conclusion, these results suggest that extracellular miRNA can be isolated and analysed from exosomes derived from lymphocyte cell lines. However, care must be taken in the choice of cell line and method of exosome isolation used.

Keywords: biomarker, extracellular miRNA, isolation methods, lymphocyte cell line

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Authors: Ruchi B. Semwal, Deepak K. Semwal, Thobile A. N. Nkosi, Alvaro M. Viljoen

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The use of Lawsonia inermis L. (Lythraeae), commonly known as henna, has many medicinal benefits and is used as a remedy for the treatment of diarrhoea, cancer, inflammation, headache, jaundice and skin diseases in folk medicine. Although widely used for hair dyeing and temporary tattooing, henna body art has popularized over the last 15 years and changed from being a traditional bridal and festival adornment to an exotic fashion accessory. The naphthoquinone, lawsone, is one of the main constituents of the plant and responsible for its dyeing property. Henna leaves typically contain 1.8–1.9% lawsone, which is used as a marker compound for the quality control of henna products. Adulteration of henna with various toxic chemicals such as p-phenylenediamine, p-methylaminophenol, p-aminobenzene and p-toluenodiamine to produce a variety of colours, is very common and has resulted in serious health problems, including allergic reactions. This study aims to assess the quality of henna products collected from different parts of the world by determining the lawsone content, as well as the concentrations of any adulterants present. Ultra high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) was used to determine the lawsone concentrations in 172 henna products. Separation of the chemical constituents was achieved on an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column using gradient elution (0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile). The results from UPLC-MS revealed that of 172 henna products, 11 contained 1.0-1.8% lawsone, 110 contained 0.1-0.9% lawsone, whereas 51 samples did not contain detectable levels of lawsone. High performance thin layer chromatography was investigated as a cheaper, more rapid technique for the quality control of henna in relation to the lawsone content. The samples were applied using an automatic TLC Sampler 4 (CAMAG) to pre-coated silica plates, which were subsequently developed with acetic acid, acetone and toluene (0.5: 1.0: 8.5 v/v). A Reprostar 3 digital system allowed the images to be captured. The results obtained corresponded to those from UPLC-MS analysis. Vibrational spectroscopy analysis (MIR or NIR) of the powdered henna, followed by chemometric modelling of the data, indicates that this technique shows promise as an alternative quality control method. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to investigate the data by observing clustering and identifying outliers. Partial least squares (PLS) multivariate calibration models were constructed for the quantification of lawsone. In conclusion, only a few of the samples analysed contain lawsone in high concentrations, indicating that they are of poor quality. Currently, the presence of adulterants that may have been added to enhance the dyeing properties of the products, is being investigated.

Keywords: Lawsonia inermis, paraphenylenediamine, temporary tattooing, lawsone

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Authors: Asta Sarkauskiene

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The pedagogy of Olympic education is based upon the main idea of P. de Coubertin, that physical education can and has to support the education of the perfect person, the one who was an aspiration in archaic Greece, when it was looking towards human as a one whole, which is composed of three interconnected functions: physical, psychical and spiritual. The following research question was formulated in the present study: What curriculum of non-formal physical education in school can positively influence physical development of 11-13 years old children? The aim of this study was to formulate and implement curriculum of non-formal physical education, based on Olympic pedagogy, and assess its effectiveness for physical development of 11-13 years old children. The research was conducted in two stages. In the first stage 51 fifth grade children (Mage = 11.3 years) participated in a quasi-experiment for two years. Children were organized into 2 groups: E and C. Both groups shared the duration (1 hour) and frequency (twice a week) but were different in their education curriculum. Experimental group (E) worked under the program developed by us. Priorities of the E group were: training of physical powers in unity with psychical and spiritual powers; integral growth of physical development, physical activity, physical health, and physical fitness; integration of children with lower health and physical fitness level; content that corresponds children needs, abilities, physical and functional powers. Control group (C) worked according to NFPE programs prepared by teachers and approved by school principal and school methodical group. Priorities of the C group were: motion actions teaching and development; physical qualities training; training of the most physically capable children. In the second stage (after four years) 72 sixth graders (Mage = 13.00) attended in the research from the same comprehensive schools. Children were organized into first and second groups. The curriculum of the first group was modified and the second - the same as group C. The focus groups conducted anthropometric (height, weight, BMI) and physiometric (VC, right and left handgrip strength) measurements. Dependent t test indicated that over two years E and C group girls and boys height, weight, right and left handgrip strength indices increased significantly, p < 0.05. E group girls and boys BMI indices did not change significantly, p > 0.05, i.e. height and weight ratio of girls, who participated in NFPE in school, became more proportional. C group girls VC indices did not differ significantly, p > 0.05. Independent t test indicated that in the first and second research stage differences of anthropometric and physiometric measurements of the groups are not significant, p > 0.05. Formulated and implemented curriculum of non-formal education in school, based on olympic pedagogy, had the biggest positive influence on decreasing 11-13 years old children level of BMI and increasing level of VC.

Keywords: non – formal physical education, olympic pedagogy, physical development, health sciences

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Authors: Igor Jerkovic

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Biodiversity of flora provides many different nectar sources for the bees. Unifloral honeys possess distinctive flavours, mainly derived from their nectar sources (characteristic volatile organic components (VOCs)). Specific or nonspecific VOCs (chemical markers) could be used for unifloral honey characterisation as addition to the melissopalynologycal analysis. The main honey volatiles belong, in general, to three principal categories: terpenes, norisoprenoids, and benzene derivatives. Some of these substances have been described as characteristics of the floral source, and other compounds, like several alcohols, branched aldehydes, and furan derivatives, may be related to the microbial purity of honey processing and storage conditions. Selection of the extraction method for the honey volatiles profiling should consider that heating of the honey produce different artefacts and therefore conventional methods of VOCs isolation (such as hydrodistillation) cannot be applied for the honey. Two-way approach for the isolation of the honey VOCs was applied using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and ultrasonic solvent extraction (USE). The extracts were analysed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). HS-SPME (with the fibers of different polarity such as polydimethylsiloxane/ divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB) or divinylbenzene/carboxene/ polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS)) enabled isolation of high volatile headspace VOCs of the honey samples. Among them, some characteristic or specific compounds can be found such as 3,4-dihydro-3-oxoedulan (in Centaurea cyanus L. honey) or 1H-indole, methyl anthranilate, and cis-jasmone (in Citrus unshiu Marc. honey). USE with different solvents (mainly dichloromethane or the mixture pentane : diethyl ether 1 : 2 v/v) enabled isolation of less volatile and semi-volatile VOCs of the honey samples. Characteristic compounds from C. unshiu honey extracts were caffeine, 1H-indole, 1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-one, methyl anthranilate, and phenylacetonitrile. Sometimes, the selection of solvent sequence was useful for more complete profiling such as sequence I: pentane → diethyl ether or sequence II: pentane → pentane/diethyl ether (1:2, v/v) → dichloromethane). The extracts with diethyl ether contained hydroquinone and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid as the major compounds, while (E)-4-(r-1’,t-2’,c-4’-trihydroxy-2’,6’,6’-trimethylcyclo-hexyl)but-3-en-2-one predominated in dichloromethane extracts of Allium ursinum L. honey. With this two-way approach, it was possible to obtain a more detailed insight into the honey volatile and semi-volatile compounds and to minimize the risks of compound discrimination due to their partial extraction that is of significant importance for the complete honey profiling and identification of the chemical biomarkers that can complement the pollen analysis.

Keywords: honey chemical biomarkers, honey volatile compounds profiling, headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), ultrasonic solvent extraction (USE)

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Authors: Fentie, Belay, Mulat

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In today’s high decrement figure of the global economy, nations are facing many economic, social and political challenges; universally, there is high distress of food and other survival insecurity. Further, as a result of conflict, natural disasters, and leadership influences, youths are existentially less empowered and unemployed, especially in developing countries. With this situation to handle well challenges, it’s important to search, investigate and deliberate about youth, unemployment, empowerment and possible management fashions, as youths have the potential to carry and fight such battles. The method adopted is a qualitative analysis of secondary data sources in youth empowerment, unemployment and development as an inclusive framework. Youth unemployment is a major development headache for most African countries. In Ethiopia, following weak youth empowerment, youth unemployment has increased from time to time, and quality education and organization linkage matter as an important constraint. As a management challenge, although accessibility of quality education for Ethiopian youths is an important constraint, the country's youths are fortified deceptively and harassed in a vicious political challenge in their struggle to fetch social and economic changes in the country. Further, thousands of youths are inactivated, criminalized and lost their lives and this makes youths hopeless anger in their lives and pushes them further to be exposed for addictions, prostitution, violence, and illegitimate migrations. This youth challenge wasn’t only destined for African countries; rather, indeed, it was a global burden and headed as a global agenda. As a resolution, the construction of a healthy education system can create independent youths who acquire success and accelerate development. Developing countries should ensue development in the cultivation of empowerment tools through long and short-term education, implementing policy in action, diminishing wide-ranging gaps of (religion, ethnicity & region), and take high youth population as an opportunity and empower them. Further managing and empowering youths to be involved in decision-making, giving political weight and building a network of organizations to easily access job opportunities are important suggestions to save youths in work, for both increasing their income and the country's food security balance.

Keywords: development, Ethiopia, management, unemployment, youth empowerment

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Authors: T. Garlan, I. Gabelotaud, S. Lucas, E. Marchès

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Production of a global sedimentological seabed map has been initiated in 1995 to provide the necessary tool for searches of aircraft and boats lost at sea, to give sedimentary information for nautical charts, and to provide input data for acoustic propagation modelling. This original approach had already been initiated one century ago when the French hydrographic service and the University of Nancy had produced maps of the distribution of marine sediments of the French coasts and then sediment maps of the continental shelves of Europe and North America. The current map of the sediment of oceans presented was initiated with a UNESCO's general map of the deep ocean floor. This map was adapted using a unique sediment classification to present all types of sediments: from beaches to the deep seabed and from glacial deposits to tropical sediments. In order to allow good visualization and to be adapted to the different applications, only the granularity of sediments is represented. The published seabed maps are studied, if they present an interest, the nature of the seabed is extracted from them, the sediment classification is transcribed and the resulted map is integrated in the world map. Data come also from interpretations of Multibeam Echo Sounder (MES) imagery of large hydrographic surveys of deep-ocean. These allow a very high-quality mapping of areas that until then were represented as homogeneous. The third and principal source of data comes from the integration of regional maps produced specifically for this project. These regional maps are carried out using all the bathymetric and sedimentary data of a region. This step makes it possible to produce a regional synthesis map, with the realization of generalizations in the case of over-precise data. 86 regional maps of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean have been produced and integrated into the world sedimentary map. This work is permanent and permits a digital version every two years, with the integration of some new maps. This article describes the choices made in terms of sediment classification, the scale of source data and the zonation of the variability of the quality. This map is the final step in a system comprising the Shom Sedimentary Database, enriched by more than one million punctual and surface items of data, and four series of coastal seabed maps at 1:10,000, 1:50,000, 1:200,000 and 1:1,000,000. This step by step approach makes it possible to take into account the progresses in knowledge made in the field of seabed characterization during the last decades. Thus, the arrival of new classification systems for seafloor has improved the recent seabed maps, and the compilation of these new maps with those previously published allows a gradual enrichment of the world sedimentary map. But there is still a lot of work to enhance some regions, which are still based on data acquired more than half a century ago.

Keywords: marine sedimentology, seabed map, sediment classification, world ocean

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Authors: Sandra Maria Cerqueira Da Silva

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The construction of the material world involves a series of social power relations. These relations, in a way, can dictate, shape, judge and drive the profiles of so-called ‘ideal’ individuals. Gender relations, as power relations, are defined based on hierarchies, obediences and inequalities, and male domination seems, with few exceptions, to be rooted in every society around the world. The profile of the Brazilian woman, beyond patriarchal and market determinations, is strongly subjected to media products. Women are, numerically, the majority in Brazilian society. The social indicators point to slight advances in terms of years of study and professional qualification, as well as access to the job market; yet, differences in opportunity and conditions — often explained though the ‘unquestionable’ cultural rancidness argument — still hinder women’s ability to reach and keep job positions. These unequalities are also visible in everyday interactions and in gender relations, and they become greater once race is added to the analysis. For a black woman, her racial origins may play a part in determining the construction of her gender roles. In these terms, there is need to investigate the racial character of the sexual differences within a larger social proccess of naturalization and justification of cultural hierarchies. Thus, the goal of this study is to identify and discuss the media-built image of black women in Brazil. Furthermore, it is necessary to seek views different than those of the ruling classes. The study uses a qualitative approach based on the feminist standpoint, which intends to hold women’s experiences as central. The body of the research — images taken from the Internet — was treated through critical content analysis. The results show that in Brazil the profile of black women, beyond the machist and sexist generalizations, objectifies them or sees them as servants, always at the disposal of non-blacks. It is necessary to overcome the history of this nation, always considering the contribution of these women to the growth and development of places and societies. This can be done through the acknowledgement and highlighting of the few black women who were able to overcome the many barriers in their path and reach leadership position in the country. There are still many important challenges in the way of finding affirmative policies and reaching a more equal society in terms of gender and race; a serious and firm political commitment seems sine qua non.

Keywords: black woman, feminist standpoint, markings, objectification

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Authors: Handan Alan, Ulkü Baykal

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Personal characteristics help people understand and recognize both themselves and other people. They are also known to have direct effects on managerial behaviors. Managers’ personalities indicate how they think, perceive reality and relate to others, and affect their decision-making and problem-solving methods. This descriptive study aims to determine the personal characteristics of nurse managers and the personal and professional factors that affect them since sufficient data does not exist on personal characteristics despite the focus on the leadership and managerial characteristics in nursing. The study population consisted of nurses working in administrative positions at hospitals affiliated with the public hospitals union, research and practice hospitals affiliated with universities and private hospitals in cities in the Marmara Region. The study sample consisted of nurse managers working in the hospitals that permitted conducting the study (excluding private branch hospitals). The data were collected after obtaining the approval of the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (Approval date: 1.7.2015, Decision No: 2015-01) and written official permissions from the administrations of the hospitals included in the study. The data analysis was carried out using means and standard deviations (SD) as descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance for inter-group comparisons and the independent samples t-test for paired group comparisons. A significance threshold of p < 0.05 was used to evaluate the findings. The data were collected using the Five Factor Personality Inventory. The study included 900 nurse managers, who obtained the highest mean score on the conscientiousness dimension (X=4.22 ±0.35). This dimension was followed by their mean scores on the agreeableness (X=4.06±0.40), intelligence (X=4.05±0.37), extroversion (X=3.50±0.43), and emotional instability (X=2.07±0.53) dimensions. Statistically significant differences were found between the independent variables of age, gender, marital status, education level, work institution, professional experience, institutional experience, managerial experience, administrative position, work unit and managerial education when compared using the five factor personality inventory (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the nurse managers described themselves having high conscientiousness. Statistically significant differences were found between the five factor personality inventory mean scores and their personal and professional characteristics.

Keywords: nurse manager, personality, personal characteristics, professional characteristics

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Authors: Mahmoud M. AbuAlSamen, Tamam El-Elimat

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Amid the economic crisis in Jordan, the Jordanian government has opted for a knowledge economy where education is promoted as a mean for economic development. University education usually comes at the expense of study-related stress that may adversely impact the health of students. Since stress is a latent variable that is difficult to measure, a valid tool should be used in doing so. The effort-reward imbalance (ERI) is a model used as a measurement tool for occupational stress. The model was built on the notion of reciprocity, which relates ‘effort’ to ‘reward’ through the mediating ‘over-commitment’. Reciprocity assumes equilibrium between both effort and reward, where ‘high’ effort is adequately compensated with ‘high’ reward. When this equilibrium is violated (i.e., high effort with low reward), this may elicit negative emotions and stress, which have been correlated to adverse health conditions. The theory of ERI was established in many different parts of the world, and associations with chronic diseases and the health of workers were explored at length. While much of the effort-reward imbalance was investigated in work conditions, there has been a growing interest in understanding the validity of the ERI model when applied to other social settings such as schools and universities. The ERI questionnaire was developed in Arabic recently to measure ERI among high school teachers. However, little information is available on the validity of the ERI questionnaire in university students. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 833 students in Jordan to measure the validity and reliability of the ERI questionnaire in Arabic among university students. Reliability, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha of the effort, reward, and overcommitment scales, was 0.73, 0.76, and 0.69, respectively, suggesting satisfactory reliability. The factorial structure was explored using principal axis factoring. The results fitted a five-solution model where both the effort and overcommitment were uni-dimensional while the reward scale was three-dimensional with its factors, namely being ‘support’, ‘esteem’, and ‘security’. The solution explained 56% of the variance in the data. The established ERI theory was replicated with excellent validity in this study. The effort-reward ratio in university students was 1.19, which suggests a slight degree of failed reciprocity. The study also investigated the association of effort, reward, overcommitment, and ERI with participants’ demographic factors and self-reported health. ERI was found to be significantly associated with absenteeism (p < 0.0001), past history of failed courses (p=0.03), and poor academic performance (p < 0.001). Moreover, ERI was found to be associated with poor self-reported health among university students (p=0.01). In conclusion, the Arabic ERI questionnaire is reliable and valid for use in measuring effort-reward imbalance in university students in Jordan. The results of this research are important in informing higher education policy in Jordan.

Keywords: effort-reward imbalance, factor analysis, validity, self-reported health

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Authors: Alan Johnson

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This paper focuses on modern pilgrimage narratives about sites affiliated with Indian religious expressions located both within and outside India. The paper uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine poetry, personal essays, and online attestations of pilgrimage to illustrate how non-religious ideas coexist with outwardly religious ones, exemplifying a characteristically Indian form of syncretism that pre-dates Western ideas of pluralism. The paper argues that the syncretism on display in these modern creative works refutes the current exclusionary vision of India as a primordially Hindu-nationalist realm. A crucial premise of this argument is that the narrative’s intrinsic heteroglossia, so evident in India’s historically rich variety of stories and symbols, belies this reactionary version of Hindu nationalism. Equally important to this argument, therefore, is the vibrancy of Hindu sites outside India, such as the Batu Caves temple complex in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The literary texts examined in this paper include, first, Arun Kolatkar’s famous 1976 collection of poems, titled Jejuri, about a visit to the pilgrimage site of the same name in Maharashtra. Here, the modern, secularized visitor from Bombay (Mumbai) contemplates the effect of the temple complex on himself and on the other, more worshipful visitors. Kolatkar’s modernist poems reflect the narrator’s typically modern-Indian ambivalence for holy ruins, for although they do not evoke a conventionally religious feeling in him, they nevertheless possess an aura of timelessness that questions the narrator’s time-conscious sensibility. The paper bookends Kolatkar’s Jejuri with considerations of an early-twentieth-century text, online accounts by visitors to the Batu Caves, and a recent, more conventional Hindu account of pilgrimage. For example, the pioneering graphic artist Mukul Chandra Dey published in 1917, My Pilgrimages to Ajanta and Bagh, in which he devotes an entire chapter to the life of the Buddha as a means of illustrating the layering of stories that is a characteristic feature of sacred sites in India. In a different but still syncretic register, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and a committed secularist proffers India’s ancient pilgrimage network as a template for national unity in his classic 1946 autobiography The Discovery of India. Narrative is the perfect vehicle for highlighting this layering of sensibilities, for a single text can juxtapose the pilgrim-narrator’s description with that of a far older pilgrimage, a juxtaposition that establishes an imaginative connection between otherwise distanced actors, and between them and the reader.

Keywords: India, literature, narrative, syncretism

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Authors: Silvia Portarena, Chiara Anselmi, Chiara Baldacchini, Enrico Brugnoli

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Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a complex matrix mainly composed by fatty acid and other minor compounds, among which carotenoids are well known for their antioxidative function that is a key mechanism of protection against cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and macular degeneration in humans. EVOO composition in terms of such constituents is generally the result of a complex combination of genetic, agronomical and environmental factors. To selectively improve the quality of EVOOs, the role of each factor on its biochemical composition need to be investigated. By selecting fruits from four different cultivars similarly grown and harvested, it was demonstrated that Raman spectroscopy, combined with chemometric analysis, is able to discriminate the different cultivars, also as a function of the harvest date, based on the relative content and composition of fatty acid and carotenoids. In particular, a correct classification up to 94.4% of samples, according to the cultivar and the maturation stage, was obtained. Moreover, by using gas chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography as reference techniques, the Raman spectral features further allowed to build models, based on partial least squares regression, that were able to predict the relative amount of the main fatty acids and the main carotenoids in EVOO, with high coefficients of determination. Besides genetic factors, climatic parameters, such as light exposition, distance from the sea, temperature, and amount of precipitations could have a strong influence on EVOO composition of both major and minor compounds. This suggests that the Raman spectra could act as a specific fingerprint for the geographical discrimination and authentication of EVOO. To understand the influence of environment on EVOO Raman spectra, samples from seven regions along the Italian coasts were selected and analyzed. In particular, it was used a dual approach combining Raman spectroscopy and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) with principal component and linear discriminant analysis. A correct classification of 82% EVOO based on their regional geographical origin was obtained. Raman spectra were obtained by Super Labram spectrometer equipped with an Argon laser (514.5 nm wavelenght). Analyses of stable isotope content ratio were performed using an isotope ratio mass spectrometer connected to an elemental analyzer and to a pyrolysis system. These studies demonstrate that RR spectroscopy is a valuable and useful technique for the analysis of EVOO. In combination with statistical analysis, it makes possible the assessment of specific samples’ content and allows for classifying oils according to their geographical and varietal origin.

Keywords: authentication, chemometrics, olive oil, raman spectroscopy

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Authors: Lindsay Foreman

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Introduction: Goals have become synonymous with the quest for the good life and the pursuit of happiness, with coaching and positive psychology gaining popularity as an approach in recent decades. And yet mental health is on the rise and the leading cause of disability, wellbeing is on the decline, stress is leading to 50-60% of workday absences and the need for action is indisputable and urgent. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to better understand two things we cannot see, but that play the most significant role in these outcomes - what we think and how we feel. With many working on the assumption that positive thinking and an optimistic outlook are necessary or valuable components of goal pursuit, this study uncovers the reality of the ‘inner-game’ from the coachee's perspective. Method: With a mixed methods design using a Q Method study of subjectivity to ‘make the unseen seen’. First, a wide-ranging universe of subjective thoughts and feelings experienced during goal pursuit are explored. These are generated from literature and a Qualtrics survey to create a Q-Set of 40 statements. Then 19 participants in professional and organisational settings offer their perspectives on these 40 Q-Set statements. Each rank them in a semi-forced distribution from ‘most like me’ to ‘least like me’ using Q-Sort software. From these individual perspectives, clusters of perspectives are identified using factor analysis and four distinct viewpoints have emerged. Findings: These Goal Pursuit Viewpoints offer insight into the states and self-talk experienced by coachees and may not reflect the assumption of positive thinking associated with achieving goals. The four Viewpoints are 1) the Optimistic View, 2) the Realistic View 3) The Dreamer View and 4) The Conflicted View. With only a quarter of the Dreamer View, and a third of the Optimistic view going on to achieve their goals, these assumptions need review. And with all the Realistic Views going on to achieve their goals, the role of self-doubt, overwhelm and anxiousness in goal achievement cannot be overlooked. Contribution: This study offers greater insight and understanding of people's inner experiences as they pursue goals and highlights the necessary and normal negative states associated with goal achievement. It also offers a practical tool of the Q-set statements to help coaches and coachees explore the current state and help navigate the journey towards goal achievement. It calls into question whether goals should always be part of coaching and if values, identity, and purpose may play a greater role than goals.

Keywords: coaching, goals, positive psychology, mindset, leadership, mental health, beliefs, cognition, emotional intelligence

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Authors: Saleh Alumaran, Giampaolo Bella, Feng Chen

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The study of organisations’ information security cultures has attracted scholars as well as healthcare services industry to research the topic and find appropriate tools and approaches to develop a positive culture. The vast majority of studies in Saudi national health services are on the use of technology to protect and secure health services information. On the other hand, there is a lack of research on the role and impact of an organisation’s cultural dimensions on information security. This research investigated and analysed the role and impact of cultural dimensions on information security in Saudi Arabia health service. Hypotheses were tested and two surveys were carried out in order to collect data and information from three major hospitals in Saudi Arabia (SA). The first survey identified the main cultural-dimension problems in SA health services and developed an initial information security culture framework model. The second survey evaluated and tested the developed framework model to test its usefulness, reliability and applicability. The model is based on human behaviour theory, where the individual’s attitude is the key element of the individual’s intention to behave as well as of his or her actual behaviour. The research identified six cultural dimensions: Saudi national culture, Saudi health service leadership, employees’ trust, technology, multicultural interactions and employees’ job roles. The research also identified a set of cultural sub-dimensions. These include working values and norms, tribe values and norms, attitudes towards women, power sharing, vision, social interaction, respect and understanding, hospital intra-net, hospital employees’ language(s) used, multi-national culture, communication system, employees’ job satisfaction and job security. The research identified that (a) the human behaviour towards medical information in SA is one of the main threats to information security and one of the main challenges to SA health authority, (b) The current situation of SA hospitals’ IS cultures is falling short in protecting medical information due to the current value and norms towards information security, (c) Saudi national culture and employees’ job role are the main dimensions playing major roles in the employees’ attitude, and technology is the least important dimension playing a role in the employees’ attitudes.

Keywords: cultural dimension, electronic health record, information security, privacy

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Authors: Rima Abu Jaber Bransi, Rawya Jarjoura Burbara

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This study deals with two pioneering approaches in teaching Arabic as a mother tongue: first, computerization of literary and functional texts in the mother tongue; second, the pioneering model in teaching writing skills by computerization. The significance of the study lies in its treatment of a serious problem that is faced in the era of technology, which is the widening gap between the pupils and their mother tongue. The innovation in the study is that it introduces modern methods and tools and a pioneering instructional model that turns the process of mother tongue teaching into an effective, meaningful, interesting and motivating experience. In view of the Arabic language diglossia, standard Arabic and spoken Arabic, which constitutes a serious problem to the pupil in understanding unused words, and in order to bridge the gap between the pupils and their mother tongue, we resorted to computerized techniques; we took texts from the pre-Islamic period (Jahiliyya), starting with the Mu'allaqa of Imru' al-Qais and other selected functional texts and computerized them for teaching in an interesting way that saves time and effort, develops high thinking strategies, expands the literary good taste among the pupils, and gives the text added values that neither the book, the blackboard, the teacher nor the worksheets provide. On the other hand, we have developed a pioneering computerized model that aims to develop the pupil's ability to think, to provide his imagination with the elements of growth, invention and connection, and motivate him to be creative, and raise level of his scores and scholastic achievements. The model consists of four basic stages in teaching according to the following order: 1. The Preparatory stage, 2. The reading comprehension stage, 3. The writing stage, 4. The evaluation stage. Our lecture will introduce a detailed description of the model with illustrations and samples from the units that we built through highlighting some aspects of the uniqueness and innovation that are specific to this model and the different integrated tools and techniques that we developed. One of the most significant conclusions of this research is that teaching languages through the employment of new computerized strategies is very likely to get the Arabic speaking pupils out of the circle of passive reception into active and serious action and interaction. The study also emphasizes the argument that the computerized model of teaching can change the role of the pupil's mind from being a store of knowledge for a short time into a partner in producing knowledge and storing it in a coherent way that prevents its forgetfulness and keeping it in memory for a long period of time. Consequently, the learners also turn into partners in evaluation by expressing their views, giving their notes and observations, and application of the method of peer-teaching and learning.

Keywords: classical poetry, computerization, diglossia, writing skill

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Authors: Amrita Sen

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In the face of a growing insurgent movement and the perceived failure of the state and the market towards sustainable resource management, a range of decentralized forest management policies was formulated in the last two decades, which recognized the need for community representations within the statutory methods of forest management. The recognition conceded on the virtues of ecological sustainability and traditional environmental knowledge, which were considered to be the principal repositories of the forest dependent communities. The present study, in the light of empirical insights, reflects on the contemporary disjunctions between the preconceived communitarian ethic in environmentalism and the lived reality of forest based life-worlds. Many of the popular as well as dominant ideologies, which have historically shaped the conceptual and theoretical understanding of sociology, needs further perusal in the context of the emerging contours of empirical knowledge, which lends opportunities for substantive reworking and analysis. The image of the community appears to be one of those concepts, an identity which has for long defined perspectives and processes associated with people living together harmoniously in small physical spaces. Through an ethnographic account of the implementation of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in a forest fringe village in Sundarban, the study explores the ways in which the idea of ‘community’ gets transformed through the process of state-making, rendering the necessity of its departure from the standard, conventional definition of homogeneity and internal equity. The study necessitates an attention towards the anthropology of micro-politics, disaggregating an essentially constructivist anthropology of ‘collective identities’, which can render the visibility of political mobilizations plausible within the seemingly culturalist production of communities. The two critical questions that the paper seeks to ask in this context are: how the ‘local’ is constituted within community based conservation practices? Within the efforts of collaborative forest management, how accurately does the depiction of ‘indigenous environmental knowledge’, subscribe to its role of sustainable conservation practices? Reflecting on the execution of JFM in Sundarban, the study critically explores the ways in which the state ceases to be ‘trans-national’ and interacts with the rural life-worlds through its local factions. Simultaneously, the study attempts to articulate the scope of constructing a competing representation of community, shaped by increasing political negotiations and bureaucratic alignments which strains against the usual preoccupations with tradition primordiality and non material culture as well as the amorous construction of indigeneity.

Keywords: community, environmentalism, JFM, state-making, identities, indigenous

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Authors: Adisorn Banhan, Toansakul Santiboon, Prasong Saihong

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Using the Socio-Scientific Issues-Based Learning Method is to compare of the blended instruction of STEM education with a sample consisted of 84 students in 2 classes at the 11th grade level in Sarakham Pittayakhom School. The 2-instructional models were managed of five instructional lesson plans in the context of electronic wave issue. These research procedures were designed of each instructional method through two groups, the 40-experimental student group was designed for the instructional STEM education (STEMe) and 40-controlling student group was administered with the Socio-Scientific Issues-Based Learning (SSIBL) methods. Associations between students’ learning achievements of each instructional method and their science attitudes of their predictions to their exploring activities toward physics with the STEMe and SSIBL methods were compared. The Measuring Reasonable Ethics Test (MRET) was assessed students’ reasonable ethics with the STEMe and SSIBL instructional design methods on two each group. Using the pretest and posttest technique to monitor and evaluate students’ performances of their reasonable ethics on electromagnetic wave issue in the STEMe and SSIBL instructional classes were examined. Students were observed and gained experience with the phenomena being studied with the Socio-Scientific Issues-Based Learning method Model. To support with the STEM that it was not just teaching about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics; it is a culture that needs to be cultivated to help create a problem solving, creative, critical thinking workforce for tomorrow in physics. Students’ attitudes were assessed with the Test Of Physics-Related Attitude (TOPRA) modified from the original Test Of Science-Related Attitude (TOSRA). Comparisons between students’ learning achievements of their different instructional methods on the STEMe and SSIBL were analyzed. Associations between students’ performances the STEMe and SSIBL instructional design methods of their reasonable ethics and their science attitudes toward physics were associated. These findings have found that the efficiency of the SSIBL and the STEMe innovations were based on criteria of the IOC value higher than evidence as 80/80 standard level. Statistically significant of students’ learning achievements to their later outcomes on the controlling and experimental groups with the SSIBL and STEMe were differentiated between students’ learning achievements at the .05 level. To compare between students’ reasonable ethics with the SSIBL and STEMe of students’ responses to their instructional activities in the STEMe is higher than the SSIBL instructional methods. Associations between students’ later learning achievements with the SSIBL and STEMe, the predictive efficiency values of the R2 indicate that 67% and 75% for the SSIBL, and indicate that 74% and 81% for the STEMe of the variances were attributable to their developing reasonable ethics and science attitudes toward physics, consequently.

Keywords: socio-scientific issues-based learning method, STEM education, science attitudes, measurement, reasonable ethics, physics classes

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Authors: V. Esteves

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As products of participatory culture, internet memes represent a global form of interaction with online culture. These digital objects draw upon a rich historical engagement with remix practices that dates back decades: from the copy and paste practices of Dadaism and punk to the re-appropriation techniques of the Situationist International; memes echo a long established form of cultural creativity that pivots on the art of the remix. Online culture has eagerly embraced the changes that the Web 2.0 afforded in terms of making use of remixing as an accessible form of societal expression, bridging these remix practices of the past into a more widely available and accessible platform. Memes embody the idea of 'intercreativity', allowing global creative collaboration to take place through networked digital media; they reflect the core values of participation and interaction that are present throughout much internet discourse whilst also existing in a historical remix continuum. Memes hold the power of cultural symbolism manipulated by global audiences through which societies make meaning, as these remixed digital objects have an elasticity and low literacy level that allows for a democratic form of cultural engagement and meaning-making by and for users around the world. However, because memes are so elastic, their ability to be re-appropriated by other powers for reasons beyond their original intention has become evident. Recently, corporations have made use of internet memes for advertising purposes, engaging in the circulation and re-appropriation of internet memes in commercial spaces – which has, in turn, complicated this relation between online users and memes' democratic possibilities further. By engaging in a widespread online ethnography supplemented by in-depth interviews with meme makers, this research was able to not only track different online meme use through commercial contexts, but it also allowed the possibility to engage in qualitative discussions with meme makers and users regarding their perception and experience of these varying commercial uses of memes. These can be broadly put within two categories: internet memes that are turned into physical merchandise and the use of memes in advertising to sell other (non-meme related) products. Whilst there has been considerable acceptance of the former type of commercial meme use, the use of memes in adverts in order to sell unrelated products has been met with resistance. The changes in reception regarding commercial meme use is dependent on ideas of cultural ownership and perceptions of authorship, ultimately uncovering underlying socio-cultural ideologies that come to the fore within these overlapping contexts. Additionally, this adoption of memes by corporate powers echoes the recuperation process that the Situationist International endured, creating a further link with older remix cultures and their lifecycles.

Keywords: commodification, internet culture, memes, recuperation, remix

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Authors: Belay Mulat Fentie

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In today’s high decrement figure of the global economy, nations are facing many economic, social, and political challenges; universally, there is high distress of food and other survival insecurity. Further, as a result of conflict, natural disaster, and leadership influences, youths are existentially less empowered and unemployed, especially in developing countries. With this situation to handle well challenges, it’s important to search, investigate and deliberate about youth, unemployment, empowerment, and possible management fashions, as youths has a potential to carry and fight such battles. The method adopted is qualitative analysis of secondary data sources in youth empowerment, unemployment, and development as inclusive framework. Youth unemployment is a major development headache for most African countries. In Ethiopia, following weak youth empowerment, youth unemployment has been increased time to time; and quality education and organizations linkage matters as an important constraint. As a management challenge, although accessibility of quality education for Ethiopian youths is an important constraint; the country youths fortified deceptively and harassed in a vicious political challenge in their struggle to fetch social and economic changes in the country. Further, thousands of youths inactivated, criminalized, and lost their lives, and this makes youths to be hopeless, anger in their lives and pushes further to expose for addictions, prostitution, violence, and illegitimate migrations. This youth challenge didn’t only destinate in African countries, rather, indeed, the global burden and headed as a global agenda. As a resolution, the construction of a healthy education system can create independent youths that acquire success and accelerate development. Developing countries should ensue development in cultivation of empowerment tool through long and short-term education, implementing policy in action, diminishing wide ranged gaps of (religion, ethnicity & region), and take the high youth population as an opportunity and empower them. And further manage and empower youths to involve in decision making, in giving political weight and build a network on organizations to easily access jobs opportunities are important suggestion to alive youths in work, for both increasing their income and country food security balance.

Keywords: development, Ethiopia, management, unemployment, youth empowerment

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Authors: Saddam Hussain, Ghadeer Mohsen Albadrani

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Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Being a country where 23% of the country’s GDP relies on agriculture, this is a serious cause of concern. Introducing industrial hemp in Pakistan can help build climate resilience in the agricultural sector of the country, as hemp has recently emerged as a sustainable, eco-friendly, resource-efficient, and climate-resilient crop globally. Hemp has the potential to absorb huge amounts of CO₂, nourish the soil, and be used to create various biodegradable and eco-friendly products. Hemp is twice as effective as trees at absorbing and locking up carbon, with 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of hemp reckoned to absorb 8 to 22 tonnes of CO₂ a year, more than any woodland. Along with its high carbon-sequestration ability, it produces higher biomass and can be successfully grown as a cover crop. Hemp can grow in almost all soil conditions and does not require pesticides. It has fast-growing qualities and needs only 120 days to be ready for harvest. Compared with cotton, hemp requires 50% less water to grow and can produce three times higher fiber yield with a lower ecological footprint. Recently, the Government of Pakistan has allowed the cultivation of industrial hemp for industrial and medicinal purposes, making it possible for hemp to be reinserted into the country’s economy. Pakistan’s agro-climatic and edaphic conditions are well-suitable to produce industrial hemp, and its cultivation can bring economic benefits to the country. Pakistan can enter global markets as a new exporter of hemp products. The production of hemp in Pakistan can be most exciting to the workforce, especially for farmers participating in hemp markets. The minimum production cost of hemp makes it affordable to small holding farmers, especially those who need their cropping system to be as highly sustainable as possible. Dr. Saddam Hussain is leading the first pilot project of Industrial Hemp in Pakistan. In the past three years, he has been able to recruit high-impact research grants on industrial hemp as Principal Investigator. He has already screened the non-toxic hemp genotypes, tested the adaptability of exotic material in various agroecological conditions, formulated the production agronomy, and successfully developed the complete value chain. He has developed prototypes (fabric, denim, knitwear) using hemp fibre in collaboration with industrial partners and has optimized the indigenous fibre processing techniques. In this lecture, Dr. Hussain will talk on hemp agronomy and its complete fibre value chain. He will discuss the current progress, and will highlight the major challenges and future research direction on hemp research.

Keywords: industrial hemp, agricultural sustainability, agronomic evaluation, hemp value chain

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Authors: Samedin Mehmeti

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Very tens political and economic situation, in particular armed conflicts that followed at the time of the destruction of the former Yugoslavia, influenced migrations and displacement of population. Especially setting international sanctions and embargo influenced the creation of organized criminal groups. A lot of members of the former Yugoslav security apparatus in collaboration with ordinary criminal groups engaged in: smuggling of goods, petroleum and arms, sale and transport of drugs, payable murder, damage to public property, kidnappings, extortion, racketeering, etc. This tradition of criminality, of course in other forms and with other methods, has continued after conflicts and continues with a high intensity even in nowadays. One of the most delicate problems of organized crime activity is the impact on the economic sphere, where organized crime opposes and severely damages national security and economy to criminalize it in certain sectors and directions. Organized crime groups including who find Kosovo as a place to develop their criminal activities are characterized by: loyalty of many people especially through family connections and kinship in carrying out criminal activities and the existence of powerful hierarchy of leadership which in many cases include the corrupt officials of state apparatus. Groups have clear hierarchy and flexible structure of command, each member within the criminal group knows his duties concrete. According to statistics presented in police reports its notable that Kosovo has a large number of cases of organized crime, cultivation, trafficking and possession of narcotics. As already is very well known that one of the primary conditions that must be fulfilled on track toward integration in the European Union is precisely to prevent and combat organized crime. Kosovo has serious problems with prosecutorial and judicial system. But the misuse of public funds, even those coming directly from EU budget or the budget of the European Union member states, have a negative impact on this process. The economic crisis that has gripped some of the EU countries has led to the creation of an environment in which there are far fewer resources and opportunities to invest in preventing and combating organized crime within member states. This automatically reduces the level of financial support for other countries in the fight against organized crime. Kosovo as a poor country, now has less likely benefiting from the support tools that will be eventually offered by Europe set of in this area.

Keywords: police, european integration, organized crime, narcotics

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Authors: Anna-Akrivi Thomatou, Anastasios Zotos, Eleni C. Mazarakioti, Efthimios Kokkotos, Achilleas Kontogeorgos, Athanasios Ladavos, Angelos Patakas

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It is well known that accurate determination of geographic origin to confront mislabeling and adulteration of foods is considered as a critical issue worldwide not only for the consumers, but also for producers and industries. Among agricultural products, rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the world’s third largest crop, providing food for more than half of the world’s population. Consequently, the quality and safety of rice products play an important role in people’s life and health. Despite the fact that rice is predominantly produced in Asian countries, rice cultivation in Greece is of significant importance, contributing to national agricultural sector income. More than 25,000 acres are cultivated in Greece, while rice exports to other countries consist the 0,5% of the global rice trade. Although several techniques are available in order to provide information about the geographical origin of rice, little data exist regarding the ability of these methodologies to discriminate rice production from Greece. Thus, the aim of this study is the comparative evaluation of stable isotope ratio methodology regarding its discriminative ability for geographical origin determination of rice samples produced in Greece compared to those from three other Asian countries namely Korea, China and Philippines. In total eighty (80) samples were collected from selected fields of Central Macedonia (Greece), during October of 2021. The light element (C, N, S) isotope ratios were measured using Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) and the results obtained were analyzed using chemometric techniques, including principal components analysis (PCA). Results indicated that the 𝜹 15N and 𝜹 34S values of rice produced in Greece were more markedly influenced by geographical origin compared to the 𝜹 13C. In particular, 𝜹 34S values in rice originating from Greece was -1.98 ± 1.71 compared to 2.10 ± 1.87, 4.41 ± 0.88 and 9.02 ± 0.75 for Korea, China and Philippines respectively. Among stable isotope ratios studied, values of 𝜹 34S seem to be the more appropriate isotope marker to discriminate rice geographic origin between the studied areas. These results imply the significant capability of stable isotope ratio methodology for effective geographical origin discrimination of rice, providing a valuable insight into the control of improper or fraudulent labeling. Acknowledgement: This research has been financed by the Public Investment Programme/General Secretariat for Research and Innovation, under the call “YPOERGO 3, code 2018SE01300000: project title: ‘Elaboration and implementation of methodology for authenticity and geographical origin assessment of agricultural products.

Keywords: geographical origin, authenticity, rice, isotope ratio mass spectrometry

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Authors: Mladen Milicevic

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This presentation will address how the statistical analysis of digitized popular music influences the music creation and emotionally manipulates consumers.Furthermore, it will deal with semiological aspect of uniformization of musical taste in order to predict the potential revenues generated by popular music sales. In the USA, we live in an age where most of the popular music (i.e. music that generates substantial revenue) has been digitized. It is safe to say that almost everything that was produced in last 10 years is already digitized (either available on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or some other platform). Depending on marketing viability and its potential to generate additional revenue most of the “older” music is still being digitized. Once the music gets turned into a digital audio file,it can be computer-analyzed in all kinds of respects, and the similar goes for the lyrics because they also exist as a digital text file, to which any kin of N Capture-kind of analysis may be applied. So, by employing statistical examination of different popular music metrics such as tempo, form, pronouns, introduction length, song length, archetypes, subject matter,and repetition of title, the commercial result may be predicted. Polyphonic HMI (Human Media Interface) introduced the concept of the hit song science computer program in 2003.The company asserted that machine learning could create a music profile to predict hit songs from its audio features Thus,it has been established that a successful pop song must include: 100 bpm or more;an 8 second intro;use the pronoun 'you' within 20 seconds of the start of the song; hit the bridge middle 8 between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 30 seconds; average 7 repetitions of the title; create some expectations and fill that expectation in the title. For the country song: 100 bpm or less for a male artist; 14-second intro; uses the pronoun 'you' within the first 20 seconds of the intro; has a bridge middle 8 between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 30 seconds; has 7 repetitions of title; creates an expectation,fulfills it in 60 seconds.This approach to commercial popular music minimizes the human influence when it comes to which “artist” a record label is going to sign and market. Twenty years ago,music experts in the A&R (Artists and Repertoire) departments of the record labels were making personal aesthetic judgments based on their extensive experience in the music industry. Now, the computer music analyzing programs, are replacing them in an attempt to minimize investment risk of the panicking record labels, in an environment where nobody can predict the future of the recording industry.The impact on the consumers taste through the narrow bottleneck of the above mentioned music selection by the record labels,created some very peculiar effects not only on the taste of popular music consumers, but also the creative chops of the music artists as well. What is the meaning of this semiological shift is the main focus of this research and paper presentation.

Keywords: music, semiology, commercial, taste

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Authors: Leena Inamdar, David Allen, Sushma Acquilla, James Gore

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Health systems globally are facing increasingly complex challenges. Emerging health threats, changing population demographics and increasing health inequalities, globalisation, economic constraints on government spending are some of the most critical ones. These challenges demand not only innovative funding and cross-sectoral approaches, but also require a multidisciplinary public health workforce equipped with skills and expertise to meet the future challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We aim to outline an approach to assessing the feasibility of establishing a competency-based public health training at a country level. Although the SDGs provide an enabling impetus for change and promote positive developments, public health training and education still lag behind. Large gaps are apparent in both the numbers of trained professionals and the options for high quality training. Public health training in most Low-Middle Income Countries is still largely characterized by a traditional and limited public health focus. There is a pressing need to review and develop core and emerging competences for a well-equipped workforce fit for the future. This includes the important role of national Health and Human Resource Ministries in determining these competences. Public health has long been recognised as a multidisciplinary field, with need for professionals from a wider range of disciplines such as management, health promotion, health economics, law. Leadership and communication skills are also critical to achieve the successes in meeting public health outcomes. Such skills and competences need to be translated into competency-based training and education, to prepare current public health professionals with the skills required in today’s competitive job market. Integration of academic and service based public-health training, flexible accredited programmes to support existing mid-career professionals, continuous professional development need to be explored. In the current global climate of austerity and increasing demands on health systems, the need for stepping up public health training and education is more important than ever. By using a case study, we demonstrate the process of assessing the in-county capacity to establish a competency based public health training programme that will help to develop a stronger, more versatile and much needed public health workforce to meet the SDGs.

Keywords: public health training, competency-based, assessment, SDGs

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Authors: Zoltan Sebestyen, Eszter Barta-Rajnai, Emma Jakab, Zsuzsanna Czegeny

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Extraction of the energy content of lignocellulosic biomass is one of the possible pathways to reduce the greenhouse gas emission derived from the burning of the fossil fuels. The application of the bioenergy can mitigate the energy dependency of a country from the foreign natural gas and the petroleum. The diversity of the plant materials makes difficult the utilization of the raw biomass in power plants. This problem can be overcome by the application of thermochemical techniques. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of the raw materials under inert atmosphere at high temperatures, which produces pyrolysis gas, biooil and charcoal. The energy content of these products can be exploited by further utilization. The differences in the chemical and physical properties of the raw biomass materials can be reduced by the use of torrefaction. Torrefaction is a promising mild thermal pretreatment method performed at temperatures between 200 and 300 °C in an inert atmosphere. The goal of the pretreatment from a chemical point of view is the removal of water and the acidic groups of hemicelluloses or the whole hemicellulose fraction with minor degradation of cellulose and lignin in the biomass. Thus, the stability of biomass against biodegradation increases, while its energy density increases. The volume of the raw materials decreases so the expenses of the transportation and the storage are reduced as well. Biooil is the major product during pyrolysis and an important by-product during torrefaction of biomass. The composition of biooil mostly depends on the quality of the raw materials and the applied temperature. In this work, thermoanalytical techniques have been used to study the qualitative and quantitative composition of the pyrolysis and torrefaction oils of a woody (black locust) and two herbaceous samples (rape straw and wheat straw). The biooil contains C5 and C6 anhydrosugar molecules, as well as aromatic compounds originating from hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, respectively. In this study, special emphasis was placed on the formation of the lignin monomeric products. The structure of the lignin fraction is different in the wood and in the herbaceous plants. According to the thermoanalytical studies the decomposition of lignin starts above 200 °C and ends at about 500 °C. The lignin monomers are present among the components of the torrefaction oil even at relatively low temperatures. We established that the concentration and the composition of the lignin products vary significantly with the applied temperature indicating that different decomposition mechanisms dominate at low and high temperatures. The evolutions of decomposition products as well as the thermal stability of the samples were measured by thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry (TG/MS). The differences in the structure of the lignin products of woody and herbaceous samples were characterized by the method of pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). As a statistical method, principal component analysis (PCA) has been used to find correlation between the composition of lignin products of the biooil and the applied temperatures.

Keywords: pyrolysis, torrefaction, biooil, lignin

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Authors: In-Tsang Lin, Chiching Wei

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Reading order is an important task in many digitization scenarios involving the preservation of the logical structure of a document. From the paper survey, it finds that the state-of-the-art algorithm could not fulfill to get the accurate reading order in the portable document format (PDF) files with rich formats, diverse layout arrangement. In recent years, most of the studies on the analysis of reading order have targeted the specific problem of associating layout components with logical labels, while less attention has been paid to the problem of extracting relationships the problem of detecting the reading order relationship between logical components, such as cross-references. Over 3 years of development, the company Foxit has demonstrated the layout recognition (LR) engine in revision 20601 to eager for the accuracy of the reading order. The bounding box of each paragraph can be obtained correctly by the Foxit LR engine, but the result of reading-order is not always correct for single-column, and two-column layout format due to the table issue, formula issue, and multiple mini separated bounding box and footer issue. Thus, the algorithm is developed to improve the accuracy of the reading order based on the Foxit LR structure. In this paper, a creative observation method (Here called the MESH method) is provided here to open a new chance in the research of the reading-order field. Here two important parameters are introduced, one parameter is the number of the bounding box on the right side of the present bounding box (NRight), and another parameter is the number of the bounding box under the present bounding box (Nunder). And the normalized x-value (x/the whole width), the normalized y-value (y/the whole height) of each bounding box, the x-, and y- position of each bounding box were also put into consideration. Initial experimental results of single column layout format demonstrate a 19.33% absolute improvement in accuracy of the reading-order over 7 PDF files (total 150 pages) using our proposed method based on the LR structure over the baseline method using the LR structure in 20601 revision, which its accuracy of the reading-order is 72%. And for two-column layout format, the preliminary results demonstrate a 44.44% absolute improvement in accuracy of the reading-order over 2 PDF files (total 18 pages) using our proposed method based on the LR structure over the baseline method using the LR structure in 20601 revision, which its accuracy of the reading-order is 0%. Until now, the footer issue and a part of multiple mini separated bounding box issue can be solved by using the MESH method. However, there are still three issues that cannot be solved, such as the table issue, formula issue, and the random multiple mini separated bounding boxes. But the detection of the table position and the recognition of the table structure are out of the scope in this paper, and there is needed another research. In the future, the tasks are chosen- how to detect the table position in the page and to extract the content of the table.

Keywords: document processing, reading order, observation method, layout recognition

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Authors: Henrie Yunianto, Dermawan Wibisono

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PT. XYZ is a family business (private company) in Indonesia that provide an educational program and consultation services. Since its establishment in 2011, the company has run without any strategic management system implemented. Though the company could survive until now. The management of PT. XYZ sees the business opportunity for such product is huge, even though the targeted market is very specific (niche), the volume is large (due to large population of Indonesia) and numbers of competitors are low (now). It can be said if the product life cycle is in between ‘Introduction stage’ and ‘growth’ stage. It is observed that nowadays the new entrants (competitors) are increasing, thus PT. XYZ consider reacting in facing the intense business rivalry by conducting the business in an appropriate manner. A Performance Management System is important to be implemented in accordance with the business sustainability and growth. The framework of Performance Management System chosen is Integrated Performance Management System (IPMS). IPMS framework has the advantages of its simplicity, linkage between its business variables and indicators where the company can see the connections between all factors measured. IPMS framework consists of perspectives: (1) Business Result, (2) Internal Processes, (3) Resource Availability. Variables and indicators were examined through deep analysis of the business external and internal environments, Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) analysis, Porter’s five forces analysis. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis was then used to quantify the weight of each variable/indicators. AHP is needed since in this study, PT. XYZ, the data of existing performance indicator was not available. Later, where the IPMS is implemented, the real data measured can be examined to determine the weight factor of each indicators using correlation analysis (or other methods). In this study of IPMS design for PT. XYZ, the analysis shows that with current company goals, along with the AHP methodology, the critical indicators for each perspective are: (1) Business results: Customer satisfaction and Employee satisfaction, (2) Internal process: Marketing performance, Supplier quality, Production quality, Continues improvement; (3) Resources Availability: Leadership and company culture & value, Personal Competences, Productivity. Company and/or organization require performance management system to help them in achieving their vision and mission. Company strategy will be effectively defined and addressed by using performance management system. Integrated Performance Management System (IPMS) framework and AHP analysis help us in quantifying the factors which influence the business output expected.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process, business strategy, differentiation strategy, integrated performance management system

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Authors: Odirachukwu S. Mwim, Tana Pistorius

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Since the early 1990s political and economic pressures have been mounted on policy and law makers to increase patent protection by raising the protection standards. The perception of the relation between patent protection and development, particularly economic development, has evolved significantly in the past few years. Debate on patent protection in the international arena has been significantly influenced by the perception that there is a strong link between patent protection and economic development. The level of patent protection determines the extent of development that can be achieved. Recently there has been a paradigm shift with a lot of emphasis on extending patent protection to method of doing business generally referred to as Business Method Patenting (BMP). The general perception among international organizations and the private sectors also indicates that there is a strong correlation between BMP protection and economic growth. There are two diametrically opposing views as regards the relation between Intellectual Property (IP) protection and development and innovation. One school of thought promotes the view that IP protection improves economic development through stimulation of innovation and creativity. The other school advances the view that IP protection is unnecessary for stimulation of innovation and creativity and is in fact a hindrance to open access to resources and information required for innovative and creative modalities. Therefore, different theories and policies attach different levels of protection to BMP which have specific implications for economic growth. This study examines the impact of BMP protection on development by focusing on the challenges confronting economic growth in African communities as a result of the new paradigm in patent law. (Africa is used as a single unit in this study but this should not be construed as African homogeneity. Rather, the views advanced in this study are used to address the common challenges facing many communities in Africa). The study reviews (from the point of views of legal philosophers, policy makers and decisions of competent courts) the relevant literature, patent legislation particularly the International Treaty, policies and legal judgments. Findings from this study suggest that over and above the various criticisms levelled against the extreme liberal approach to the recognition of business methods as patentable subject matter, there are other specific implications that are associated with such approach. The most critical implication of extending patent protection to business methods is the locking-up of knowledge which may hamper human development in general and economic development in particular. Locking up knowledge necessary for economic advancement and competitiveness may have a negative effect on economic growth by promoting economic exclusion, particularly in African communities. This study suggests that knowledge of BMP within the African context and the extent of protection linked to it is crucial in achieving a sustainable economic growth in Africa. It also suggests that a balance is struck between the two diametrically opposing views.

Keywords: Africa, business method patenting, economic growth, intellectual property, patent protection

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Authors: Ines Antunes, Andrea Massari, Concetta Bartucca

Abstract:

Greenhouse gasses (GHG) role in the atmosphere has been well known since the 19th century; however, researchers have begun to relate them to climate changes only in the second half of the following century. From this moment, scientists started to correlate the presence of GHG such as CO₂ with the global warming phenomena. This has raised the awareness not only of those who were experts in this field but also of public opinion, which is becoming more and more sensitive to environmental pollution and sustainability issues. Nowadays the reduction of GHG emissions is one of the principal objectives of EU nations. The target is an 80% reduction of emissions in 2050 and to reach the important goal of carbon neutrality. Road sector is responsible for an important amount of those emissions (about 20%). The most part is due to traffic, but a good contribution is also given directly or indirectly from road construction and maintenance. Raw material choice and reuse of post-consumer plastic rather than a cleverer design of roads have an important contribution to reducing carbon footprint. Bituminous membranes can be successfully used as reinforcement systems in asphalt layers to improve road pavement performance against cracking. Composite materials coupling membranes with grids and/or fabrics should be able to combine improved tensile properties of the reinforcement with stress absorbing and waterproofing effects of membranes. Polyglass, with its brand dedicated to road construction and maintenance called Polystrada, has done more than this. The company's target was not only to focus sustainability on the final application but also to implement a greener mentality from the cradle to the grave. Starting from production, Polyglass has made important improvements finalized to increase efficiency and minimize waste. The installation of a trigeneration plant and the usage of selected production scraps inside the products as well as the reduction of emissions into the environment, are one of the main efforts of the company to reduce impact during final product build-up. Moreover, the benefit given by installing Polystrada products brings a significant improvement in road lifetime. This has an impact not only on the number of maintenance or renewal that needs to be done (build less) but also on traffic density due to works and road deviation in case of operations. During the end of the life of a road, Polystrada products can be 100% recycled and milled with classical systems used without changing the normal maintenance procedures. In this work, all these contributions were quantified in terms of CO₂ emission thanks to an LCA analysis. The data obtained were compared with a classical system or a standard production of a membrane. What it is possible to see is that the usage of Polyglass products for street maintenance and building gives a significant reduction of emissions in case of membrane installation under the road wearing course.

Keywords: CO₂ emission, LCA, maintenance, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 44

Authors: Anup Anand Deshmukh, Catherine Soladie, Renaud Seguier

Abstract:

Emotion plays a key role in many applications like healthcare, to gather patients’ emotional behavior. Unlike typical ASR (Automated Speech Recognition) problems which focus on 'what was said', it is equally important to understand 'how it was said.' There are certain emotions which are given more importance due to their effectiveness in understanding human feelings. In this paper, we propose an approach that models human stress from audio signals. The research challenge in speech emotion detection is finding the appropriate set of acoustic features corresponding to an emotion. Another difficulty lies in defining the very meaning of emotion and being able to categorize it in a precise manner. Supervised Machine Learning models, including state of the art Deep Learning classification methods, rely on the availability of clean and labelled data. One of the problems in affective computation is the limited amount of annotated data. The existing labelled emotions datasets are highly subjective to the perception of the annotator. We address the first issue of feature selection by exploiting the use of traditional MFCC (Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) features in Convolutional Neural Network. Our proposed Emo-CNN (Emotion-CNN) architecture treats speech representations in a manner similar to how CNN’s treat images in a vision problem. Our experiments show that Emo-CNN consistently and significantly outperforms the popular existing methods over multiple datasets. It achieves 90.2% categorical accuracy on the Emo-DB dataset. We claim that Emo-CNN is robust to speaker variations and environmental distortions. The proposed approach achieves 85.5% speaker-dependant categorical accuracy for SAVEE (Surrey Audio-Visual Expressed Emotion) dataset, beating the existing CNN based approach by 10.2%. To tackle the second problem of subjectivity in stress labels, we use Lovheim’s cube, which is a 3-dimensional projection of emotions. Monoamine neurotransmitters are a type of chemical messengers in the brain that transmits signals on perceiving emotions. The cube aims at explaining the relationship between these neurotransmitters and the positions of emotions in 3D space. The learnt emotion representations from the Emo-CNN are mapped to the cube using three component PCA (Principal Component Analysis) which is then used to model human stress. This proposed approach not only circumvents the need for labelled stress data but also complies with the psychological theory of emotions given by Lovheim’s cube. We believe that this work is the first step towards creating a connection between Artificial Intelligence and the chemistry of human emotions.

Keywords: deep learning, brain chemistry, emotion perception, Lovheim's cube

Procedia PDF Downloads 127