Search results for: practice-led research

Authors: Michelle Jennett, Jana Dengler, Maytal Perlman

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Background: Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating event that results in upper limb paralysis, loss of independence, and disability. People living with cervical SCI have identified improvement of upper limb function as a top priority. Nerve and tendon transfer surgery has successfully restored upper limb function in cervical SCI but is not universally used or available to all eligible individuals. This exploratory mixed-methods study used an implementation science approach to better understand these factors that influence access to upper limb reconstruction in the Canadian context and design an intervention to increase access to care. Methods: Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s Discharge Abstracts Database (CIHI-DAD) and the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS) were used to determine the annual rate of nerve transfer and tendon transfer surgeries performed in cervical SCI in Canada over the last 15 years. Semi-structured interviews informed by the consolidated framework for implementation research (CFIR) were used to explore Ontario healthcare provider knowledge and practices around upper limb reconstruction. An inductive, iterative constant comparative process involving descriptive and interpretive analyses was used to identify themes that emerged from the data. Results: Healthcare providers (n = 10 upper extremity surgeons, n = 10 SCI physiatrists, n = 12 physical and occupational therapists working with individuals with SCI) were interviewed about their knowledge and perceptions of upper limb reconstruction and their current practices and discussions around upper limb reconstruction. Data analysis is currently underway and will be presented. Regional variation in rates of upper limb reconstruction and trends over time are also currently being analyzed. Conclusions: Utilization of nerve and tendon transfer surgery to improve upper limb reconstruction in Canada remains low. There are a complex array of interrelated individual-, provider- and system-level barriers that prevent individuals with cervical SCI from accessing upper limb reconstruction. In order to offer equitable access to care, a multi-modal approach addressing current barriers is required.

Keywords: cervical spinal cord injury, nerve and tendon transfer surgery, spinal cord injury, upper extremity reconstruction

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Authors: Amean A. Yasir, Zainab Kh. A. Al-Mahdi Al-Amean

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In both developed and developing countries, obesity among women is increasing, but in different patterns and at very different speeds. It may have a negative effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems. This research studied the age distribution among obese women, the types of overweight and obesity, and the extent of the problem of overweight/obesity and the obesity etiological factors among women in Hillah city in central Iraq. A total of 322 overweight and obese women were included in the study, those women were randomly selected. The Body Mass Index was used as indicator for overweight/ obesity. The incidence of overweight/obesity among age groups were estimated, the etiology factors included genetic, environmental, genetic/environmental and endocrine disease. The overweight and obese women were screened for incidence of infection and/or diseases. The study found that the prevalence of 322 overweight and obese women in Hillah city in central Iraq was 19.25% and 80.78%, respectively. The obese women types were recorded based on BMI and WHO classification as class-1 obesity (29.81%), class-2 obesity (24.22%) and class-3 obesity (26.70%), the result was discrepancy non-significant, P value < 0.05. The incidence of overweight in women was high among those aged 20-29 years (90.32%), 6.45% aged 30-39 years old and 3.22% among ≥ 60 years old, while the incidence of obesity was 20.38% for those in the age group 20-29 years, 17.30% were 30-39 years, 23.84% were 40-49 years, 16.92% were 50-59 years group and 21.53% were ≥ 60 years age group. These results confirm that the age can be considered as a significant factor for obesity types (P value < 0.0001). The result also showed that the both genetic factors and environmental factors were responsible for incidents of overweight or obesity (84.78%) p value < 0.0001. The results also recorded cases of different repeated infections (skin infection, recurrent UTI and influenza), cancer, gallstones, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and infertility. Weight stigma and bias generally refers to negative attitudes; Obesity can affect quality of life, and the results of this study recorded depression among overweight or obese women. This can lead to sexual problems, shame and guilt, social isolation and reduced work performance. Overweight and Obesity are real problems among women of all age groups and is associated with the risk of diseases and infection and negatively affects quality of life. This result warrants further studies into the prevalence of obesity among women in Hillah City in central Iraq and the immune response of obese women.

Keywords: obesity, overweight, Iraq, body mass index

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Authors: Zongmin Ma, Shaowen Zhang, Yueping Fu, Jun Tang, Yunbo Shi, Jun Liu

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Solid-state quantum sensors are attracting wide interest because of their high sensitivity at room temperature. In particular, spin properties of nitrogen–vacancy (NV) color centres in diamond make them outstanding sensors of magnetic fields, electric fields and temperature under ambient conditions. Much of the work on NV magnetic sensing has been done so as to achieve the smallest volume, high sensitivity of NV ensemble-based magnetometry using micro-cavity, light-trapping diamond waveguide (LTDW), nano-cantilevers combined with MEMS (Micro-Electronic-Mechanical System) techniques. Recently, frequency-modulated microwaves with continuous optical excitation method have been proposed to achieve high sensitivity of 6 μT/√Hz using individual NV centres at nanoscale. In this research, we built-up an experiment to measure static magnetic field through continuous wave optical excitation with frequency-modulated microwaves method under continuous illumination with green pump light at 532 nm, and bulk diamond sample with a high density of NV centers (1 ppm). The output of the confocal microscopy was collected by an objective (NA = 0.7) and detected by a high sensitivity photodetector. We design uniform and efficient excitation of the micro strip antenna, which is coupled well with the spin ensembles at 2.87 GHz for zero-field splitting of the NV centers. Output of the PD signal was sent to an LIA (Lock-In Amplifier) modulated signal, generated by the microwave source by IQ mixer. The detected signal is received by the photodetector, and the reference signal enters the lock-in amplifier to realize the open-loop detection of the NV atomic magnetometer. We can plot ODMR spectra under continuous-wave (CW) microwave. Due to the high sensitivity of the lock-in amplifier, the minimum detectable value of the voltage can be measured, and the minimum detectable frequency can be made by the minimum and slope of the voltage. The magnetic field sensitivity can be derived from η = δB√T corresponds to a 10 nT minimum detectable shift in the magnetic field. Further, frequency analysis of the noise in the system indicates that at 10Hz the sensitivity less than 10 nT/√Hz.

Keywords: nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, frequency-modulated microwaves, magnetic field sensitivity, noise density

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Authors: Scott Andersen

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Perhaps simply and rather unadornedly, consciousness is having multiple goals for action and the continuously adjudication of such goals to implement action, referred to as the Maps of Meaning (MoM) Consciousness Theory. The MoM theory triangulates through three parallel corollaries, action (behavior), mechanism (morphology/pathophysiology), and goals (teleology). (1) An organism’s consciousness contains a fluid, nested goals. These goals are not intentionality, but intersectionality, embodiment meeting the world. i.e., Darwinian inclusive fitness or randomization, then survival of the fittest. These goals form via gradual descent under inclusive fitness, the goals being the abstraction of a ‘match’ between the evolutionary environment and organism. Human consciousness implements the brain efficiency hypothesis, genetics, epigenetics, and experience crystallize efficiencies, not necessitating best or objective but fitness, i.e., perceived efficiency based on one’s adaptive environment. These efficiencies are objectively arbitrary, but determine the operation and level of one’s consciousness, termed extreme thrownness. Since inclusive fitness drives efficiencies in physiologic mechanism, morphology and behavior (action) and originates one’s goals, embodiment is necessarily entangled to human consciousness as its the intersection of mechanism or action (both necessitating embodiment) occurring in the world that determines fitness. Perception is the operant process of consciousness and is the consciousness’ de facto goal adjudication process. Goal operationalization is fundamentally efficiency-based via one’s unique neuronal mapping as a byproduct of genetics, epigenetics, and experience. Perception involves information intake and information discrimination, equally underpinned by efficiencies of inclusive fitness via extreme thrownness. Perception isn’t a ‘frame rate,’ but Bayesian priors of efficiency based on one’s extreme thrownness. Consciousness and human consciousness is a modular (i.e., a scalar level of richness, which builds up like building blocks) and dimensionalized (i.e., cognitive abilities become possibilities as emergent phenomena at various modularities, like stratified factors in factor analysis). The meta dimensions of human consciousness seemingly include intelligence quotient, personality (five-factor model), richness of perception intake, and richness of perception discrimination, among other potentialities. Future consciousness research should utilize factor analysis to parse modularities and dimensions of human consciousness and animal models.

Keywords: consciousness, perception, prospection, embodiment

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Authors: Samuele Abagnato, Lucia Rigamonti

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Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) is an effective tool to quantify the environmental impacts of reuse models and recycling technologies for textiles. In this work, publications in the last ten years about LCA on textile waste are classified according to location, goal and scope, functional unit, waste composition, impact assessment method, impact categories, and sensitivity analysis. Twenty papers have been selected: 50% are focused only on recycling, 30% only on reuse, the 15% on both, while only one paper considers only the final disposal of the waste. It is found that reuse is generally the best way to decrease the environmental impacts of textiles waste management because of the avoided impacts of manufacturing a new item. In the comparison between a product made with recycled yarns and a product from virgin materials, in general, the first option is less impact, especially for the categories of climate change, water depletion, and land occupation, while for other categories, such as eutrophication or ecotoxicity, under certain conditions the impacts of the recycled fibres can be higher. Cultivation seems to have quite high impacts when natural fibres are involved, especially in the land use and water depletion categories, while manufacturing requires a remarkable amount of electricity, with its associated impact on climate change. In the analysis of the reuse processes, relevant importance is covered by the laundry phase, with water consumption and impacts related to the use of detergents. About the sensitivity analysis, it can be stated that one of the main variables that influence the LCA results and that needs to be further investigated in the modeling of the LCA system about this topic is the substitution rate between recycled and virgin fibres, that is the amount of recycled material that can be used in place of virgin one. Related to this, also the yield of the recycling processes has a strong influence on the results of the impact. The substitution rate is also important in the modeling of the reuse processes because it represents the number of avoided new items bought in place of the reused ones. Another aspect that appears to have a large influence on the impacts is consumer behaviour during the use phase (for example, the number of uses between two laundry cycles). In conclusion, to have a deeper knowledge of the impacts of a life-cycle approach of textile waste, further data and research are needed in the modeling of the substitution rate and of the use phase habits of the consumers.

Keywords: environmental impacts, life-cycle-assessment, textiles recycling, textiles reuse, textiles waste management

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Authors: Sahar Elsaleh, Ghada Farhat, Shaikha Al-Derham, Fasih Alam

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Background: Cesarean section (CS) delivery is one of the major concerns both in developing and developed countries. The rate of CS deliveries are on the rise globally, and especially in Qatar. Many socio-economic, demographic, clinical and institutional factors play an important role for cesarean sections. This study aims to investigate factors affecting the prevalence of CS among women in Qatar using the UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2012 database. Methods: The study has focused on the women’s questionnaire of the MICS, which was successfully distributed to 5699 participants. Following study inclusion and exclusion criteria, a final sample of 761 women aged 19- 49 years who had at least one delivery of giving birth in their lifetime before the survey were included. A number of socio-economic, demographic, clinical and institutional factors, identified through literature review and available in the data, were considered for the analyses. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models, along with a multi-level modeling to investigate clustering effect, were undertaken to identify the factors that affect CS prevalence in Qatar. Results: From the bivariate analyses the study has shown that, a number of categorical factors are statistically significantly associated with the dependent variable (CS). When identifying the factors from a multivariate logistic regression, the study found that only three categorical factors -‘age of women’, ‘place at delivery’ and ‘baby weight’ appeared to be significantly affecting the CS among women in Qatar. Although the MICS dataset is based on a cluster survey, an exploratory multi-level analysis did not show any clustering effect, i.e. no significant variation in results at higher level (households), suggesting that all analyses at lower level (individual respondent) are valid without any significant bias in results. Conclusion: The study found a statistically significant association between the dependent variable (CS delivery) and age of women, frequency of TV watching, assistance at birth and place of birth. These results need to be interpreted cautiously; however, it can be used as evidence-base for further research on cesarean section delivery in Qatar.

Keywords: cesarean section, factors, multiple indicator cluster survey, MICS database, Qatar

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Authors: Zbigniew Izdebski, Alicja Kozakiewicz, Maciej Białorudzki, Joanna Mazur

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Work is an extremely important part of everyone's life and affects functioning in daily life. Healthcare workers (HCW) are suffering from negative actions in and out of the workplace, such as harassment, abuse, long working hours, mental suffering, exhaustion, and professional burnout. Staff burnout is detrimental not only in terms of individual employees but also to working with patients and to the healthcare institution as a whole. The purpose of this study was to explore the level of professional burnout among HCW working in medical institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. The extent to which selected sociodemographic factors and perceived stress increase the risk of professional burnout was assessed. In addition, the frequency of use of professional psychological help and less formal support groups by HCW in relation to the level of professional burnout was presented. The survey was conducted as part of a larger project on the humanization of medicine and clinical communication from February-April 2022. This study used a self-administered online survey (CAWI) technique and PAPI (pen and paper interview) technique. The BAT-12 scale was used to measure burnout, the PSS-4 scale was used to measure stress, and questions formulated by the research team were also used. For the purpose of analysis, the sample was limited to 2196 HCWs who worked on a daily basis with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frequency distributions were analyzed, and multivariate logistic regression was performed. The mean scores (scores) of job burnout as measured by the BAT-12 scale ranged among the professional groups from 2.15(0.69) to 2.30 (0.69) and remained highest for the nurses' group. The groups differed significantly in levels of burnout (chi-sq=17.719; d.f.=8; p<0.023). In the final model, raised stress most likely increased the risk of burnout (OR=3.88; 95%CI <3.13-3.81>; p<0,001). Other significant predictors of burnout included: traumatic work-related experience (OR=1.91, p<0.001), mobbing (OR=1.83, p<0.001), and a higher workload than before the pandemic (OR=1.41, p=0.002). Only 7% of respondents decided to use various forms of psychological support during the pandemic. HCW experiences challenges in dealing with an unpredictable pandemic. Limited preparedness can lead to physical and psychological problems such as high-stress levels, anxiety, fear, helplessness, hopelessness, anger and stigma. The workload can lead to professional burnout, as well as threaten patient safety.

Keywords: burnout, work, healthcare, healthcare worker, stress

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Authors: Branimir Jurun, Elza Jurun

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The focus of this paper is the description of an instrument called 'Quattuor 45' and defining of wave pressure measurement. Special attention is given to measurement of wave pressure created by the wind speed increasing obtained with the instrument 'Quattuor 45' in the investigated area. The study begins with respect to theoretical attitudes and numerous up to date investigations related to the waves approaching the coast. The detailed schematic view of the instrument is enriched with pictures from ground plan and side view. Horizontal stability of the instrument is achieved by mooring which relies on two concrete blocks. Vertical wave peak monitoring is ensured by one float above the instrument. The synthesis of horizontal stability and vertical wave peak monitoring allows to create a representative database for wave pressure measuring. Instrument ‘Quattuor 45' is named according to the way the database is received. Namely, the electronic part of the instrument consists of the main chip ‘Arduino', its memory, four load cells with the appropriate modules and the wind speed sensor 'Anemometers'. The 'Arduino' chip is programmed to store two data from each load cell and two data from the anemometer on SD card each second. The next part of the research is dedicated to data processing. All measured results are stored automatically in the database and after that detailed processing is carried out in the MS Excel. The result of the wave pressure measurement is synthesized by the unit of measurement kN/m². This paper also suggests a graphical presentation of the results by multi-line graph. The wave pressure is presented on the left vertical axis, while the wind speed is shown on the right vertical axis. The time of measurement is displayed on the horizontal axis. The paper proposes an algorithm for wind speed measurements showing the results for two characteristic winds in the Adriatic Sea, called 'Bura' and 'Jugo'. The first of them is the northern wind that reaches high speeds, causing low and extremely steep waves, where the pressure of the wave is relatively weak. On the other hand, the southern wind 'Jugo' has a lower speed than the northern wind, but due to its constant duration and constant speed maintenance, it causes extremely long and high waves that cause extremely high wave pressure.

Keywords: instrument, measuring unit, waves pressure metering, wind seed measurement

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Authors: Richard Roberts, Anna Kravtcova

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Introduction: The realisation that personality can change over the course of a lifetime has led to a new companion model to the Big Five, the behavioural, emotional, and social skills approach (BESSA). BESSA hypothesizes that this set of skills represents how the individual is thinking, feeling, and behaving when the situation calls for it, as opposed to traits, which represent how someone tends to think, feel, and behave averaged across situations. The five major skill domains share parallels with the Big Five Factor (BFF) model creativity and innovation (openness), self-management (conscientiousness), social engagement (extraversion), cooperation (agreeableness), and emotional resilience (emotional stability) skills. We point to noteworthy limitations in the current operationalisation of BESSA skills (i.e., via Likert-type items) and offer up a different measurement approach: forced choice. Method: In this forced-choice paradigm, individuals were given three skill items (e.g., managing my time) and asked to select one response they believed they were “worst at” and “best at”. The Thurstonian IRT models allow these to be placed on a normative scale. Two multivariate studies (N = 1178) were conducted with a 22-item forced-choice version of the BESSA, a published measure of the BFF, and various criteria. Findings: Confirmatory factor analysis of the forced-choice assessment showed acceptable model fit (RMSEA<0.06), while reliability estimates were reasonable (around 0.70 for each construct). Convergent validity evidence was as predicted (correlations between 0.40 and 0.60 for corresponding BFF and BESSA constructs). Notable was the extent the forced-choice BESSA assessment improved upon test-criterion relationships over and above the BFF. For example, typical regression models find BFF personality accounting for 25% of the variance in life satisfaction scores; both studies showed incremental gains over the BFF exceeding 6% (i.e., BFF and BESSA together accounted for over 31% of the variance in both studies). Discussion: Forced-choice measurement models offer up the promise of creating equated test forms that may unequivocally measure skill gains and are less prone to fakability and reference bias effects. Implications for practitioners are discussed, especially those interested in selection, succession planning, and training and development. We also discuss how the forced choice method can be applied to other constructs like emotional immunity, cross-cultural competence, and self-estimates of cognitive ability.

Keywords: Big Five, forced-choice method, BFF, methods of measurements

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Authors: Zhang Kehan, Du Luona

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Wireless power transfer (WPT) systems have been widely investigated for advantages of convenience and safety compared to traditional plug-in charging systems. The research contents include impedance matching, circuit topology, transfer distance et al. for improving the efficiency of WPT system, which is a decisive factor in the practical application. What is more, coil structures such as spiral circular coil and helical coil with variable distance between two turns also have indispensable effects on the efficiency of WPT systems. This paper compares the efficiency of WPT systems utilizing spiral or helical coil with variable distance between two turns, and experimental results show that efficiency of spiral circular coil with an optimum distance between two turns is the highest. According to efficiency formula of resonant WPT system with series-series topology, we introduce M²/R₋₁ to measure the efficiency of spiral circular coil and helical coil WPT system. If the distance between two turns s is too close, proximity effect theory shows that the induced current in the conductor, caused by a variable flux created by the current flows in the skin of vicinity conductor, is the opposite direction of source current and has assignable impart on coil resistance. Thus in two coil structures, s affects coil resistance. At the same time, when the distance between primary and secondary coils is not variable, s can also make the influence on M to some degrees. The aforementioned study proves that s plays an indispensable role in changing M²/R₋₁ and then can be adjusted to find the optimum value with which WPT system achieves the highest efficiency. In actual application situations of WPT systems especially in underwater vehicles, miniaturization is one vital issue in designing WPT system structures. Limited by system size, the largest external radius of spiral circular coil is 100 mm, and the largest height of helical coil is 40 mm. In other words, the turn of coil N changes with s. In spiral circular and helical structures, the distance between each two turns in secondary coil is set as a constant value 1 mm to guarantee that the R2 is not variable. Based on the analysis above, we set up spiral circular coil and helical coil model using COMSOL to analyze the value of M²/R₋₁ when the distance between each two turns in primary coil sp varies from 0 mm to 10 mm. In the two structure models, the distance between primary and secondary coils is 50 mm and wire diameter is chosen as 1.5 mm. The turn of coil in secondary coil are 27 in helical coil model and 20 in spiral circular coil model. The best value of s in helical coil structure and spiral circular coil structure are 1 mm and 2 mm respectively, in which the value of M²/R₋₁ is the largest. It is obviously to select spiral circular coil as the first choice to design the WPT system for that the value of M²/R₋₁ in spiral circular coil is larger than that in helical coil under the same condition.

Keywords: distance between two turns, helical coil, spiral circular coil, wireless power transfer

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Authors: Toshiki Ito, Takahiro Yamane, Yuki Adachi, Yoshiko Kato, Eiji Tsuda, Kousaku Nagasaka, Keigo Yoshida, Yoshiko Kawasaki, Naoki Aizawa, Kyouhei Nishi, Tetsuko Kato

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The epidemic of the coronavirus (COVID-19), first reported in Wuhan at the end of 2019, has drastically changed our daily lives. Under these circumstances, counseling, which provides psychological support to people, was also greatly affected. The structure of counseling, which had generally been implicitly common practice to be conducted in person, was greatly shaken. The author wondered how counseling can be conducted in situations where it is impossible to meet face-to-face. This is where telepsychological support (online counseling) came into use. The authors found that there were the following problems in telepsychological support: (1) anxiety about whether the communication is appropriate, (2) difficulty in understanding the client's situation and condition, (3) inability to perceive what was normally perceived in person, (4) difficulty in adjusting to severely ill clients, (5) difficulty in dealing with emergency situations, etc. In this study, we interviewed psychologists who had been accustomed to telepsychological support for more than two years after the Corona disaster began to clarify how they had or had not overcome the problems of telepsychological support identified in the above studies. We also aim to consider the unique possibilities of how telepsychological support, a new technique of psychological support, can be implemented to provide more effective and meaningful support in society after the end of the Corona disaster (post-Corona society). Thirteen psychologists who are currently providing telepsychological support in the Corona Disaster will be interviewed, and semi-structured interviews will be conducted for one hour per person. In order to empirically examine how the problems in telepsychological support had been overcome or not through the interview survey, the authors asked (1) how they overcame their anxiety about whether they were able to communicate appropriately, (2) how they devised ways to overcome it, (3) how they overcame the difficulty in adapting to heavy clients in terms of the level of the disease, (4) how they overcame the difficulty in dealing with emergency situations. The interviews were analyzed using Thematic Analysis, a qualitative analysis method commonly used in qualitative research overseas. The authors found that some devices and perspectives were newly discovered as a result of two years of practice of telepsychological support and that psychologists in this study considered face-to-face interviews and telepsychological support to be separate and were flexible enough to use them when available and to move to face-to-face interviews when not appropriate.

Keywords: telepsychology, COVID-19, Corona, psychologist

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Authors: Zichao Zhang, Yifan Zhao, Samuel Court

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The carbon emission problem of the traditional construction industry has long been a pressing issue. With the growing emphasis on environmental protection and advancement of science and technology, the organic integration of digital technology and emission reduction has gradually become a mainstream solution. Among various sophisticated digital technologies, digital twins, which involve creating virtual replicas of physical systems or objects, have gained enormous attention in recent years as tools to improve productivity, optimize management and reduce carbon emissions. However, the relatively high implementation costs including finances, time, and manpower associated with digital twins have limited their widespread adoption. As a result, most of the current applications are primarily concentrated within a few industries. In addition, the creation of digital twins relies on a large amount of data and requires designers to possess exceptional skills in information collection, organization, and analysis. Unfortunately, these capabilities are often lacking in the traditional construction industry. Furthermore, as a relatively new concept, digital twins have different expressions and usage methods across different industries. This lack of standardized practices poses a challenge in creating a high-quality digital twin framework for construction. This paper firstly reviews the current academic studies and industrial practices focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the construction industry using digital twins. Additionally, it identifies the challenges that may be encountered during the design and implementation of a digital twin framework specific to this industry and proposes potential directions for future research. This study shows that digital twins possess substantial potential and significance in enhancing the working environment within the traditional construction industry, particularly in their ability to support decision-making processes. It proves that digital twins can improve the work efficiency and energy utilization of related machinery while helping this industry save energy and reduce emissions. This work will help scholars in this field to better understand the relationship between digital twins and energy conservation and emission reduction, and it also serves as a conceptual reference for practitioners to implement related technologies.

Keywords: digital twins, emission reduction, construction industry, energy saving, life cycle, sustainability

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Authors: Shireen Bhatti, M. Asif Shaikh, Atif Khan

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Sexually abusive behavior is seen as a social phenomenon across different societies and different territories. An institution of sport has its own uniqueness. It is different from other workplaces and academia. The challenges in sports raised are different, which require a call to action for specific sexual harassment policies and practices. Many sportswomen who are members of team games or individual games experience sexually abusive behavior from their male counterparts, including trainers, coaches, and lower staff. The power of the coach over the athlete is massive due to the coach’s position. The power can be disguised for possible abuse, whether physical or emotional. Female athletes are victims in most offensive situations that occur in collegiate settings by male coaches. The objective of the study is to identify the relationship between the sexually abusive behavior of male coaches and the motivation of female athletes at public sector universities in Sindh, Pakistan. The descriptive approach was used, whereas The cross-sectional survey design was used to support the study. Intercollegiate, intervarsity, provincial, and national level female athletes of public sector universities of Sindh province were the subject of this study. The tool of research was a self-developed scale that encompassed the relationship between the sexually abusive behaviors of coaches and the motivation of female athletes. Frequency, percentage, and mean and Pearson Correlation, chi square, and ANOVA were used. The results indicate that there is a strong negative relationship between the sexually abusive behavior of male coaches and female athletes’ sports motivation. The Pearson correlation shows that there is a strong negative relation between the sexually abusive behavior of male athletes and female athletes’ sports motivation. The significant level is (r = -.741); however, The findings confirmed that the coach’s power, authority, decision-making position, the threat of rejection on the refusal of sexual cooperation, the ready availability of inexperienced female athletes, and lack of implication of policies regarding sexual misconducts in public sector universities decline motivation of female athletes witnessed. Based on the findings, the study recommended that the family background, career history, and participation record of coaches should be investigated to ensure that they have ever been involved in any criminal activity or sexual misconduct during their career or participation.

Keywords: abusive, athlete, coach, motivation

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Authors: Ella Tyuryumina, Alexey Neznanov

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Finding algorithms to predict the growth of tumors has piqued the interest of researchers ever since the early days of cancer research. A number of studies were carried out as an attempt to obtain reliable data on the natural history of breast cancer growth. Mathematical modeling can play a very important role in the prognosis of tumor process of breast cancer. However, mathematical models describe primary tumor growth and metastases growth separately. Consequently, we propose a mathematical growth model for primary tumor and primary metastases which may help to improve predicting accuracy of breast cancer progression using an original mathematical model referred to CoM-IV and corresponding software. We are interested in: 1) modelling the whole natural history of primary tumor and primary metastases; 2) developing adequate and precise CoM-IV which reflects relations between PT and MTS; 3) analyzing the CoM-IV scope of application; 4) implementing the model as a software tool. The CoM-IV is based on exponential tumor growth model and consists of a system of determinate nonlinear and linear equations; corresponds to TNM classification. It allows to calculate different growth periods of primary tumor and primary metastases: 1) ‘non-visible period’ for primary tumor; 2) ‘non-visible period’ for primary metastases; 3) ‘visible period’ for primary metastases. The new predictive tool: 1) is a solid foundation to develop future studies of breast cancer models; 2) does not require any expensive diagnostic tests; 3) is the first predictor which makes forecast using only current patient data, the others are based on the additional statistical data. Thus, the CoM-IV model and predictive software: a) detect different growth periods of primary tumor and primary metastases; b) make forecast of the period of primary metastases appearance; c) have higher average prediction accuracy than the other tools; d) can improve forecasts on survival of BC and facilitate optimization of diagnostic tests. The following are calculated by CoM-IV: the number of doublings for ‘nonvisible’ and ‘visible’ growth period of primary metastases; tumor volume doubling time (days) for ‘nonvisible’ and ‘visible’ growth period of primary metastases. The CoM-IV enables, for the first time, to predict the whole natural history of primary tumor and primary metastases growth on each stage (pT1, pT2, pT3, pT4) relying only on primary tumor sizes. Summarizing: a) CoM-IV describes correctly primary tumor and primary distant metastases growth of IV (T1-4N0-3M1) stage with (N1-3) or without regional metastases in lymph nodes (N0); b) facilitates the understanding of the appearance period and manifestation of primary metastases.

Keywords: breast cancer, exponential growth model, mathematical modelling, primary metastases, primary tumor, survival

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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: V. Reyes, P. Ferreira

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In response to high levels of competitiveness, industrial systems have evolved to improve productivity. As a consequence, a rapid increase in volume production and simultaneously, a customization process require lower costs, more variety, and accurate quality of products. Reducing time-cycle production, enabling customizability, and ensure continuous quality improvement are key features in advance intelligent industry. In this scenario, customers and producers will be able to participate in the ongoing production life cycle through real-time interaction. To achieve this vision, transparency, predictability, and adaptability are key features that provide the industrial systems the capability to adapt to customer demands modifying the manufacturing process through an autonomous response and acting preventively to avoid errors. The industrial system incorporates a diversified number of components that in advanced industry are expected to be decentralized, end to end communicating, and with the capability to make own decisions through feedback. The evolving process towards advanced intelligent industry defines a set of stages to empower components of intelligence and enhancing efficiency to achieve the decision-making stage. The integrated system follows an industrial cyber-physical system (CPS) architecture whose real-time integration, based on a set of enabler technologies, links the physical and virtual world generating the digital twin (DT). This instance allows incorporating sensor data from real to virtual world and the required transparency for real-time monitoring and control, contributing to address important features of the advanced intelligent industry and simultaneously improve sustainability. Assuming the industrial CPS as the core technology toward the latest advanced intelligent industry stage, this paper reviews and highlights the correlation and contributions of the enabler technologies for the operationalization of each stage in the path toward advanced intelligent industry. From this research, a real-time integration architecture for a cyber-physical system with applications to collaborative robotics is proposed. The required functionalities and issues to endow the industrial system of adaptability are identified.

Keywords: cyber-physical systems, digital twin, sensor data, system integration, virtual model

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Authors: Henry Ataburo, Dominic Essuman, Emmanuel Kwabena Anin

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Recent trends of catastrophic events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the Suez Canal blockage, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and the climate change crisis, continue to devastate supply chains and the broader society. Prior authors have advocated for a simultaneous pursuit of resilience and sustainability as crucial for navigating these challenges. Nevertheless, the relationship between resilience and sustainability is a rather complex one: resilience and sustainability are considered unrelated, substitutes, or complements. Scholars also suggest that different firms prioritize resilience and sustainability differently for varied strategic reasons. However, we know little about whether, how, and when these choices produce different typologies of firms to explain differences in financial and market performance outcomes. This research draws inferences from the systems configuration approach to organizational fit to contend that a taxonomy of firms may emerge based on how firms configure resilience and environmental sustainability. The study further examines the effects of these taxonomies on financial and market performance in differing transportation disruption conditions. Resilience is operationalized as a firm’s ability to adjust current operations, structure, knowledge, and resources in response to disruptions, whereas environmental sustainability is operationalized as the extent to which a firm deploys resources judiciously and keeps the ecological impact of its operations to the barest minimum. Using primary data from 199 firms in Ghana and cluster analysis as an analytical tool, the study identifies four clusters of firms based on how they prioritize resilience and sustainability: Cluster 1 - "strong, moderate resilience, high sustainability firms," Cluster 2 - "sigh resilience, high sustainability firms," Cluster 3 - "high resilience, strong, moderate sustainability firms," and Cluster 4 - "weak, moderate resilience, strong, moderate sustainability firms". In addition, ANOVA and regression analysis revealed the following findings: Only clusters 1 and 2 were significantly associated with both market and financial performance. Under high transportation disruption conditions, cluster 1 firms excel better in market performance, whereas cluster 2 firms excel better in financial performance. Conversely, under low transportation disruption conditions, cluster 1 firms excel better in financial performance, whereas cluster 2 firms excel better in market performance. The study provides theoretical and empirical evidence of how resilience and environmental sustainability can be configured to achieve specific performance objectives under different disruption conditions.

Keywords: resilience, environmental sustainability, developing economy, transportation disruption

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Authors: Saeidreza Radpour, Md. Alam Mondal, Amit Kumar

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Market penetration of high energy efficiency technologies has key impacts on energy consumption and GHG mitigation. Also, it will be useful to manage the policies formulated by public or private organizations to achieve energy or environmental targets. Energy intensity in residential sector of Alberta was 148.8 GJ per household in 2012 which is 39% more than the average of Canada 106.6 GJ, it was the highest amount among the provinces on per household energy consumption. Energy intensity by appliances of Alberta was 15.3 GJ per household in 2012 which is 14% higher than average value of other provinces and territories in energy demand intensity by appliances in Canada. In this research, a framework has been developed to analyze the market penetration and market share of high energy efficiency technologies in residential sector. The overall methodology was based on development of data-intensive models’ estimation of the market penetration of the appliances in the residential sector over a time period. The developed models were a function of a number of macroeconomic and technical parameters. Developed mathematical equations were developed based on twenty-two years of historical data (1990-2011). The models were analyzed through a series of statistical tests. The market shares of high efficiency appliances were estimated based on the related variables such as capital and operating costs, discount rate, appliance’s life time, annual interest rate, incentives and maximum achievable efficiency in the period of 2015 to 2050. Results show that the market penetration of refrigerators is higher than that of other appliances. The stocks of refrigerators per household are anticipated to increase from 1.28 in 2012 to 1.314 and 1.328 in 2030 and 2050, respectively. Modelling results show that the market penetration rate of stand-alone freezers will decrease between 2012 and 2050. Freezer stock per household will decline from 0.634 in 2012 to 0.556 and 0.515 in 2030 and 2050, respectively. The stock of dishwashers per household is expected to increase from 0.761 in 2012 to 0.865 and 0.960 in 2030 and 2050, respectively. The increase in the market penetration rate of clothes washers and clothes dryers is nearly parallel. The stock of clothes washers and clothes dryers per household is expected to rise from 0.893 and 0.979 in 2012 to 0.960 and 1.0 in 2050, respectively. This proposed presentation will include detailed discussion on the modelling methodology and results.

Keywords: appliances efficiency improvement, energy star, market penetration, residential sector

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Authors: Jifeng Zhang , Yongpeng Lei

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Continuous carbon fiber reinforced polyamide 6 (CF/PA6) composites are potential for application in the automotive industry due to their high specific strength and stiffness. However, PA6 resin is sensitive to the moisture in the hydrothermal environment and CF/PA6 composites might undergo several physical and chemical changes, such as plasticization, swelling, and hydrolysis, which induces a reduction of mechanical properties. So far, little research has been reported on the assessment of the effects of hydrothermal aging on the mechanical properties of continuous CF/PA6 composite. This study deals with the effects of hydrothermal aging on moisture absorption and mechanical properties of polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyamide 6 reinforced with continuous carbon fibers composites (CF/PA6) by immersion in distilled water at 30 ℃, 50 ℃, 70 ℃, and 90 ℃. Degradation of mechanical performance has been monitored, depending on the water absorption content and the aging temperature. The experimental results reveal that under the same aging condition, the PA6 resin absorbs more water than the CF/PA6 composite, while the water diffusion coefficient of CF/PA6 composite is higher than that of PA6 resin because of interfacial diffusion channel. In mechanical properties degradation process, an exponential reduction in tensile strength and elastic modulus are observed in PA6 resin as aging temperature and water absorption content increases. The degradation trend of flexural properties of CF/PA6 is the same as that of tensile properties of PA6 resin. Moreover, the water content plays a decisive role in mechanical degradation compared with aging temperature. In contrast, hydrothermal environment has mild effect on the tensile properties of CF/PA6 composites. The elongation at breakage of PA6 resin and CF/PA6 reaches the highest value when their water content reaches 6% and 4%, respectively. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were also used to explain the mechanism of mechanical properties alteration. After exposed to the hydrothermal environment, the Tg (glass transition temperature) of samples decreases dramatically with water content increase. This reduction can be ascribed to the plasticization effect of water. For the unaged specimens, the fibers surface is coated with resin and the main fracture mode is fiber breakage, indicating that a good adhesion between fiber and matrix. However, with absorbed water content increasing, the fracture mode transforms to fiber pullout. Finally, based on Arrhenius methodology, a predictive model with relate to the temperature and water content has been presented to estimate the retention of mechanical properties for PA6 and CF/PA6.

Keywords: continuous carbon fiber reinforced polyamide 6 composite, hydrothermal aging, Arrhenius methodology, interface

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Authors: Suganya Chandrababu, Dhundy Bastola

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Like in the gut, the subgingival microbiota plays a crucial role in oral hygiene, health, and cariogenic diseases. Human activities like diet, antibiotics, and periodontal treatments alter the bacterial communities, metabolism, and functions in the oral cavity, leading to a dysbiotic state and changes in the plaques of orthodontic patients. Fixed periodontal appliances hinder oral hygiene and cause changes in the dental plaques influencing the subgingival microbiota. However, the microbial species’ diversity and complexity pose a great challenge in understanding the taxa’s community distribution patterns and their role in oral health. In this research, we analyze the subgingival microbial samples from individuals with fixed dental appliances (metal/clear) using an in silico approach. We employ exploratory hypothesis-driven multivariate and regression analysis to shed light on the microbial community and its functional fluctuations due to dental appliances used and identify risks associated with complex disease phenotypes. Our findings confirm the changes in oral microbiota composition due to the presence and type of fixed orthodontal devices. We identified seven main periodontic pathogens, including Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, and Firmicutes, whose abundances were significantly altered due to the presence and type of fixed appliances used. In the case of metal braces, the abundances of Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Candidatus saccharibacteria, and Spirochaetes significantly increased, while the abundance of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria decreased. However, in individuals With clear braces, the abundance of Bacteroidetes and Candidatus saccharibacteria increased. The highest abundance value (P-value=0.004 < 0.05) was observed with Bacteroidetes in individuals with the metal appliance, which is associated with gingivitis, periodontitis, endodontic infections, and odontogenic abscesses. Overall, the bacterial abundances decrease with clear type and increase with metal type of braces. Regression analysis further validated the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results, supporting the hypothesis that the presence and type of the fixed oral appliances significantly alter the bacterial abundance and composition.

Keywords: oral microbiota, statistical analysis, fixed or-thodontal appliances, bacterial abundance, multivariate analysis, regression analysis

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Authors: Sanjay Rathee, Arti Kashyap

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Extraction of useful information from large datasets is one of the most important research problems. Association rule mining is one of the best methods for this purpose. Finding possible associations between items in large transaction based datasets (finding frequent patterns) is most important part of the association rule mining. There exist many algorithms to find frequent patterns but Apriori algorithm always remains a preferred choice due to its ease of implementation and natural tendency to be parallelized. Many single-machine based Apriori variants exist but massive amount of data available these days is above capacity of a single machine. Therefore, to meet the demands of this ever-growing huge data, there is a need of multiple machines based Apriori algorithm. For these types of distributed applications, MapReduce is a popular fault-tolerant framework. Hadoop is one of the best open-source software frameworks with MapReduce approach for distributed storage and distributed processing of huge datasets using clusters built from commodity hardware. However, heavy disk I/O operation at each iteration of a highly iterative algorithm like Apriori makes Hadoop inefficient. A number of MapReduce-based platforms are being developed for parallel computing in recent years. Among them, two platforms, namely, Spark and Flink have attracted a lot of attention because of their inbuilt support to distributed computations. Earlier we proposed a reduced- Apriori algorithm on Spark platform which outperforms parallel Apriori, one because of use of Spark and secondly because of the improvement we proposed in standard Apriori. Therefore, this work is a natural sequel of our work and targets on implementing, testing and benchmarking Apriori and Reduced-Apriori and our new algorithm ReducedAll-Apriori on Apache Flink and compares it with Spark implementation. Flink, a streaming dataflow engine, overcomes disk I/O bottlenecks in MapReduce, providing an ideal platform for distributed Apriori. Flink's pipelining based structure allows starting a next iteration as soon as partial results of earlier iteration are available. Therefore, there is no need to wait for all reducers result to start a next iteration. We conduct in-depth experiments to gain insight into the effectiveness, efficiency and scalability of the Apriori and RA-Apriori algorithm on Flink.

Keywords: apriori, apache flink, Mapreduce, spark, Hadoop, R-Apriori, frequent itemset mining

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Authors: Esther Pearl Palmer

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Driven by the increased pressure on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to produce work-ready graduates for the modern world of work, this study reflects on triad teaching and learning practices to increase student engagement and employability. In the South African higher education context, the employability of graduates is imperative in strengthening the country’s economy and in increasing competitiveness. Within this context, the field of Human Resource Management (HRM) calls for innovative methods and approaches to teaching and learning and assessing the skills and competencies of graduates to render them employable. Digital competency in Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) is an important component and prerequisite for employment in HRM. The purpose of this research is to reflect on the subject HRIS developed by lecturers at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT), with the intention to actively engage students in real-world learning activities and increase their employability. The Enrichment Triad Model (ETM) was used as theoretical framework to develop the subject as it supports a triad teaching and learning approach to education. It is, furthermore, an inter-structured model that supports collaboration between industry, academics and students. The study follows a mixed-method approach to reflect on the learning experiences of the industry, academics and students in the subject field over the past three years. This paper is a work in progress and seeks to broaden the scope of extant studies about student engagement in work-related learning to increase employability. Based on the ETM as theoretical framework and pedagogical practice, this paper proposes that following a triad teaching and learning approach will increase work-related skills of students. Findings from the study show that students, academics and industry alike regard educational opportunities that incorporate active learning experiences with the world of work enhances student engagement in learning and renders them more employable.

Keywords: digital competence, enriched triad model, human resource information systems, student engagement, triad pedagogy.

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Authors: Cagdas Agirdas

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Background: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires non-grandfathered private insurance plans, starting with plan years on or after September 23rd, 2010, to provide certain preventive care services without any cost sharing in the form of deductibles, copayments or co-insurance. This requirement may affect racial and ethnic disparities in preventive care as it provides the largest copay reduction in preventive care. Objectives: We ask whether the ACA’s free preventive care benefits are associated with a reduction in racial and ethnic disparities in the utilization of four preventive services: cholesterol screenings, colonoscopies, mammograms, and pap smears. Methods: We use a data set of over 6,000 individuals from the 2009, 2010, and 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS). We restrict our data set only to individuals who are old enough to be eligible for each preventive service. Our difference-in-differences logistic regression model classifies privately-insured Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians as the treatment groups and 2013 as the after-policy year. Our control group consists of non-Hispanic whites on Medicaid as this program already covered preventive care services for free or at a low cost before the ACA. Results: After controlling for income, education, marital status, preferred interview language, self-reported health status, employment, having a usual source of care, age and gender, we find that the ACA is associated with increases in the probability of the median, privately-insured Hispanic person to get a colonoscopy by 3.6% and a mammogram by 3.1%, compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. Similarly, we find that the median, privately-insured African American person’s probability of receiving these two preventive services improved by 2.3% and 2.4% compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. We do not find any significant improvements for any racial or ethnic group for cholesterol screenings or pap smears. Furthermore, our results do not indicate any significant changes for Asians compared to non-Hispanic whites in utilizing the four preventive services. These reductions in racial/ethnic disparities are robust to reconfigurations of time periods, previous diagnosis, and residential status. Conclusions: Early effects of the ACA’s provision of free preventive care are significant for Hispanics and African Americans. Further research is needed for the later years as more individuals became aware of these benefits.

Keywords: preventive care, Affordable Care Act, cost sharing, racial disparities

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Authors: Joshua Fogel, Rivka Herzog

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Although direct-to-consumer prescription medication advertisements (DTCA) are viewed or heard in many venues, there does not appear to be any research for internet social media DTCA. We study the association of traditional media DTCA and digital media DTCA including internet social media of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter with three different outcomes. There was one intentions outcome and two different behavior outcomes. The intentions outcome was the agreement level for seeking additional information about a prescription medication after seeing a DTCA. One behavior outcome was the agreement level for obtaining additional information about a prescription medication after seeing a DTCA. The other behavior outcome was the frequency level for obtaining additional information about a prescription medication after seeing a DTCA. Surveys were completed by 635 college students. Predictors included demographic variables, theory of planned behavior variables, health variables, and advertisements seen or heard. Also, in the behavior analyses, additional predictors of intentions and sources for seeking additional prescription drug information were included. Multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted. We found that increased age was associated with increased behavior, women were associated with increased intentions, and Hispanic race/ethnicity was associated with decreased behavior. For the theory of planned behavior variables, increased attitudes were associated with increased intentions, increased social norms were associated with increased intentions and behavior, and increased intentions were associated with increased behavior. Very good perceived health was associated with increased intentions. Advertisements seen in spam mail were associated with decreased intentions. Advertisements seen on traditional or cable television were associated with decreased behavior. Advertisements seen on television watched on the internet were associated with increased behavior. The source of seeking additional information of reading internet print content was associated with increased behavior. No internet social media advertisements were associated with either intentions or behavior. In conclusion, pharmaceutical brand managers and marketers should consider these findings when tailoring their DTCA advertising campaigns and directing their DTCA advertising budget towards young adults such as college students. They need to reconsider the current approach for traditional television DTCA and also consider dedicating a larger advertising budget toward internet television DTCA. Although internet social media is a popular place to advertise, the financial expenditures do not appear worthwhile for DTCA when targeting young adults such as college students.

Keywords: brand managers, direct-to-consumer advertising, internet, social media

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Authors: Marius Sebastian Secula, Mihaela Darie, Gabriela Carja

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Ibuprofen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs) and is among the most frequently detected pharmaceuticals in environmental samples and among the most widespread drug in the world. Its concentration in the environment is reported to be between 10 and 160 ng L-1. In order to improve the abatement efficiency of this compound for water source prevention and reclamation, the development of innovative technologies is mandatory. AOPs (advanced oxidation processes) are known as highly efficient towards the oxidation of organic pollutants. Among the promising combined treatments, photo-Fenton processes using layered double hydroxides (LDHs) attracted significant consideration especially due to their composition flexibility, high surface area and tailored redox features. This work presents the self-supported Fe, Mn or Ti on ZnFeAl LDHs obtained by co-precipitation followed by reconstruction method as novel efficient photo-catalysts for Fenton-like catalysis. Fe, Mn or Ti/ZnFeAl LDHs nano-hybrids were tested for the degradation of a model pharmaceutical agent, the anti-inflammatory agent ibuprofen, by photocatalysis and photo-Fenton catalysis, respectively, by means of a lab-scale system consisting of a batch reactor equipped with an UV lamp (17 W). The present study presents comparatively the degradation of Ibuprofen in aqueous solution UV light irradiation using four different types of LDHs. The newly prepared Ti/ZnFeAl 4:1 catalyst results in the best degradation performance. After 60 minutes of light irradiation, the Ibuprofen removal efficiency reaches 95%. The slowest degradation of Ibuprofen solution occurs in case of Fe/ZnFeAl 4:1 LDH, (67% removal efficiency after 60 minutes of process). Evolution of Ibuprofen degradation during the photo Fenton process is also studied using Ti/ZnFeAl 2:1 and 4:1 LDHs in the presence and absence of H2O2. It is found that after 60 min the use of Ti/ZnFeAl 4:1 LDH in presence of 100 mg/L H2O2 leads to the fastest degradation of Ibuprofen molecule. After 120 min, both catalysts Ti/ZnFeAl 4:1 and 2:1 result in the same value of removal efficiency (98%). In the absence of H2O2, Ibuprofen degradation reaches only 73% removal efficiency after 120 min of degradation process. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0405.

Keywords: layered double hydroxide, advanced oxidation process, micropollutant, heterogeneous Fenton

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Authors: Carla Lopes

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It is clear nowadays that the proper performance of different speech acts is one of the most difficult obstacles that a foreign language learner has to overcome to be considered communicatively competent. This communication presents the results of an investigation on the pragmatic performance of Portuguese Language students at the University of Macau. The research discussed herein is based on a survey consisting of fourteen speaking situations to which the participants must respond in writing, and that includes different types of speech acts: apology, response to a compliment, refusal, complaint, disagreement and the understanding of the illocutionary force of indirect speech acts. The responses were classified in a five levels Likert scale (quantified from 1 to 5) according to their suitability for the particular situation. In general terms, we can summarize that about 45% of the respondents' answers were pragmatically competent, 10 % were acceptable and 45 % showed weaknesses at socio-pragmatic competence level. Given that the linguistic deviations were not taken into account, we can conclude that the faults are of cultural origin. It is natural that in the presence of orthogonal cultures, such as Chinese and Portuguese, there are failures of this type, barely solved in the four years of the undergraduate program. The target population, native speakers of Cantonese or Mandarin, make their first contact with the English language before joining the Bachelor of Portuguese Language. An analysis of the socio - pragmatic failures in the respondents’ answers suggests the conclusion that many of them are due to the lack of cultural knowledge. They try to compensate for this either using their native culture or resorting to a Western culture that they consider close to the Portuguese, that is the English or US culture, previously studied, and also widely present in the media and on the internet. This phenomenon, known as 'pragmatic transfer', can result in a linguistic behavior that may be considered inauthentic or pragmatically awkward. The resulting speech act is grammatically correct but is not pragmatically feasible, since it is not suitable to the culture of the target language, either because it does not exist or because the conditions of its use are in fact different. Analysis of the responses also supports the conclusion that these students present large deviations from the expected and stereotyped behavior of Chinese students. We can speculate while this linguistic behavior is the consequence of the Macao globalization that culturally casts the students, makes them more open, and distinguishes them from the typical Chinese students.

Keywords: Portuguese foreign language, pragmatic failures, pragmatic transfer, pragmatic competence

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Authors: Lalit Kumar, Rashid Al Shidi

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Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) is a major crop in many middle-eastern countries, including Oman. The Dubas bug Ommatissus lybicus is the main pest that affects date palm crops. However not all plantations are infested. It is still uncertain why some plantations get infested while others are not. This research investigated whether tree density and the system of planting (random versus systematic) had any relationship with infestation and levels of infestation. Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems were used to determine the density of trees (number of trees per unit area) while infestation levels were determined by manual counting of insects on 40 leaflets from two fronds on each tree, with a total of 20-60 trees in each village. The infestation was recorded as the average number of insects per leaflet. For tree density estimation, WorldView-3 scenes, with eight bands and 2m spatial resolution, were used. The Local maxima method, which depends on locating of the pixel of highest brightness inside a certain exploration window, was used to identify the trees in the image and delineating individual trees. This information was then used to determine whether the plantation was random or systematic. The ordinary least square regression (OLS) was used to test the global correlation between tree density and infestation level and the Geographic Weight Regression (GWR) was used to find the local spatial relationship. The accuracy of detecting trees varied from 83–99% in agricultural lands with systematic planting patterns to 50–70% in natural forest areas. Results revealed that the density of the trees in most of the villages was higher than the recommended planting number (120–125 trees/hectare). For infestation correlations, the GWR model showed a good positive significant relationship between infestation and tree density in the spring season with R² = 0.60 and medium positive significant relationship in the autumn season, with R² = 0.30. In contrast, the OLS model results showed a weaker positive significant relationship in the spring season with R² = 0.02, p < 0.05 and insignificant relationship in the autumn season with R² = 0.01, p > 0.05. The results showed a positive correlation between infestation and tree density, which suggests the infestation severity increased as the density of date palm trees increased. The correlation result showed that the density alone was responsible for about 60% of the increase in the infestation. This information can be used by the relevant authorities to better control infestations as well as to manage their pesticide spraying programs.

Keywords: dubas bug, date palm, tree density, infestation levels

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Authors: Emma E. Hellawell, Susan J. Hughes

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BBrownfield sites are currently being redeveloped for residential use. Information on soil contamination on these former industrial sites is collected as part of the planning process by the local government. This research project analyses this untapped resource of environmental data, using site investigation data submitted to a local Borough Council, in Surrey, UK. Over 150 site investigation reports were collected and interrogated to extract relevant information. This study involved three phases. Phase 1 was the development of a database for soil contamination information from local government reports. This database contained information on the source, history, and quality of the data together with the chemical information on the soil that was sampled. Phase 2 involved obtaining site investigation reports for development within the study area and extracting the required information for the database. Phase 3 was the data analysis and interpretation of key contaminants to evaluate typical levels of contaminants, their distribution within the study area, and relating these results to current guideline levels of risk for future site users. Preliminary results for a pilot study using a sample of the dataset have been obtained. This pilot study showed there is some inconsistency in the quality of the reports and measured data, and careful interpretation of the data is required. Analysis of the information has found high levels of lead in shallow soil samples, with mean and median levels exceeding the current guidance for residential use. The data also showed elevated (but below guidance) levels of potentially carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Of particular concern from the data was the high detection rate for asbestos fibers. These were found at low concentrations in 25% of the soil samples tested (however, the sample set was small). Contamination levels of the remaining chemicals tested were all below the guidance level for residential site use. These preliminary pilot study results will be expanded, and results for the whole local government area will be presented at the conference. The pilot study has demonstrated the potential for this extensive dataset to provide greater information on local contamination levels. This can help inform regulators and developers and lead to more targeted site investigations, improving risk assessments, and brownfield development.

Keywords: Brownfield development, contaminated land, local government planning data, site investigation

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Authors: Santosh Kaware, Dnyandeo Patil, Moninder Modgil, Hemant Bhoir, Debendra Behera

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The Unified Field Theory has been an area of intensive research since many decades. This paper focuses on philosophy and metaphysics of unified field theory at Planck scale - and its relationship with super string theory and Quantum Vacuum Dynamic Physics. We examined the epistemology of questions such as - (1) what is the Unified Field of universe? (2) can it actually - (a) permeate the complete universe - or (b) be localized in bound regions of the universe - or, (c) extend into the extra dimensions? - -or (d) live only in extra dimensions? (3) What should be the emergent ontological properties of Unified field? (4) How the universe is manifesting through its Quantum Vacuum energies? (5) How is the space time metric coupled to the Unified field? We present a number of ansatz - which we outline below. It is proposed that the unified field possesses consciousness as well as a memory - a recording of past history - analogous to ‘Consistent Histories’ interpretation of quantum mechanics. We proposed Planck scale geometry of Unified Field with circle like topology and having 32 energy points on its periphery which are the connected to each other by 10 dimensional meta-strings which are sources for manifestation of different fundamentals forces and particles of universe through its Quantum Vacuum energies. It is also proposed that the sub energy levels of ‘Conscious Unified Field’ are used for the process of creation, preservation and rejuvenation of the universe over a period of time by means of negentropy. These epochs can be for the complete universe, or for localized regions such as galaxies or cluster of galaxies. It is proposed that Unified field operates through geometric patterns of its Quantum Vacuum energies - manifesting as various elementary particles by giving spins to zero point energy elements. Epistemological relationship between unified field theory and super-string theories is examined. Properties of ‘consciousness’ and 'memory' cascades from universe, into macroscopic objects - and further onto the elementary particles - via a fractal pattern. Other properties of fundamental particles - such as mass, charge, spin, iso-spin also spill out of such a cascade. The manifestations of the unified field can reach into the parallel universes or the ‘multi-verse’ and essentially have an existence independent of the space-time. It is proposed that mass, length, time scales of the unified theory are less than even the Planck scale - and can be called at a level which we call that of 'Super Quantum Gravity (SQG)'.

Keywords: super string theory, Planck scale geometry, negentropy, super quantum gravity

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Authors: Julius Oluwayomi Oluwadamilare, Michael Olutayo Olatunji

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In the African traditional societies, women have always played the role of a teacher, albeit informally. This is evident in the upbringing of their babies. As mothers, they also serve as the first teachers to teach their wards lessons through day-to-day activities. Furthermore, women always play the role of a musician during naming ceremonies, in the singing of lullabies, during initiation rites of adolescent boys and girls into adulthood, and in preparing their children especially daughters (and sons) for marriage. They also perform this role during religious and cultural activities, chieftaincy title/coronation ceremonies, singing of dirges during funeral ceremonies, and so forth. This traditional role of the African/Nigerian women puts them at a vantage point to contribute maximally to the teaching and learning of music at every level of education. The need for more women in the field of music education in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. Today, gender equality is a major discourse in most countries of the world, Nigeria inclusive. Statistical data in the field of education and music education reveal the high ratio of male teachers/lecturers over their female counterparts in Nigerian tertiary institutions. The percentage is put at 80% Male and a distant 20% Female! This paper, therefore, examines feminine gender in Nigerian music education by tracing the involvement of women in musical practice from the pre-colonial to the post-colonial periods. The study employed both primary and secondary sources of data collection. The primary source included interviews conducted with 19 music lecturers from 8 purposively selected tertiary institutions from 4 geo-political zones of Nigeria. In addition, observation method was employed in the selected institutions. The results show, inter alia, that though there is a remarkable improvement in the rate of admission of female students into the music programme of Nigerian tertiary institutions, there is still an imbalance in the job placement in these institutions especially in the Colleges of Education which is the main focus of this research. Religious and socio-cultural factors are highly traceable to this development. This paper recommends the need for more female music teachers to be employed in the Nigerian tertiary institutions in line with the provisions stated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Keywords: gender, education, music, women

Procedia PDF Downloads 205