Search results for: relationship maintenance

Authors: Yisong Cong, Mingming Guo, Xiaozan Wang, Yizhi Zhang, Qingqing Yuan

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This study is to test the correlation between the Physical Fitness (PF) of middle school students and their performance and sports grade of table tennis. Methods: 398 middle school students from Shanghai Tongji No.2 Middle School participated in the study, including 232 boys and 166 girls. Each participant participated in the Chinese Students’ Physical Fitness Test (CSPFT), including BMI, 50-meter running, vital capacity, sitting body flexion, standing long jump, 800-meter running, 1000-meter running, pull-ups, and sit-ups. Test scores were converted to a percentage score according to the CSPFT guidelines. In addition, each student participated in the Nation Junior Table Tennis grade test, and completed the table tennis sports grade assessment of 1-9. Results: There is a significant positive correlation between the scores of multiple PF tests and the total scores of table tennis, such as BMI (r = 0.15, p < 0.01), standing long jump (r = 0.15, p < 0.05), 800-meter run (r = 0.02, p <0.01); The scores of multiple PF are positively correlated with table tennis grade, such as vital capacity (r = 0.1, p < 0.01) and 50-meter running (r = 0.18, p < 0.05). At the same time, the sit-ups performance showed a significant negative correlation with the table tennis performance (r = -0.08, p < 0.01); There is no significant correlation between the other PF indicators and the performance and grade of table tennis. Conclusions: This study shows that there is a corresponding relationship between some PF indicators of middle school students and their table tennis performance and table tennis grade，but the specific form and reason of the relationship need to be further explored.

Keywords: middle school students, physical fitness, table tennis grade, table tennis performance

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Authors: Joann Douziech

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Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) possess characteristics that present both challenges and gifts. Individuals with IDD require and are worthy of intentional, strategic, and specialized support throughout their lifespan to ensure optimum quality-of-life outcomes. The current global advocacy movement advancing the rights of individuals with IDD emphasizes a high degree of choice over life decisions. For some individuals, this degree of choice results in a variety of negative health and well-being outcomes. Improving the quality of life outcomes requires the combination of a commitment to the rights of the individual with a responsibility to provide support and choice commensurate with individual capacity. A belief that individuals with IDD are capable of learning and they are worthy of being taught provides the foundation for a holistic model of support throughout their lifespan. This model is based on three pillars of engineering the environment, promoting skill development and maintenance, and staff support. In an ever-changing world, supporting quality of life requires attention to moments, phases, and changes in stages throughout the lifespan. Balancing these complexities with strategic, responsive, and dynamic interventions enhances the quality of life of individuals with ID throughout their lifespan.

Keywords: achieving optimum quality of life, comprehensive support, lifespan approach, philosophy and pedagogy

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Authors: Baoubadi Atozou, Koffi Akakpo

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Since the decade 2000, the use of foodstuffs such as corn, wheat, and soybeans in biofuel production has been growing sharply in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Thus, prices for these agricultural products are rising in the world market. These cereals are the most important source of calorific energy for West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries members’ population. These countries are highly dependent on imports of most of these products. Thereby, rising prices can have an important impact on import levels and consequently on food security in these countries. This study aims to analyze the interrelationship between the prices of these commodities and their volatilities, and their effects on imports of these agricultural products by each WAEMU ’country member. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, the GARCH Multivariate model, and the Granger Causality Test are used in this investigation. The results show that import levels are highly and significantly sensitive to price changes as well as their volatility. In the short term as well as in the long term, there is a significant relationship between the prices of these products. There is a positive relationship in general between price volatility. And these volatilities have negative effects on the level of imports. The market characteristics affect food security in these countries, especially access to food for vulnerable and low-income populations. The policies makers must adopt viable strategies to increase agricultural production and limit their dependence on imports.

Keywords: price volatility, import of agricultural products, food safety, WAEMU

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Authors: Yili Wang, Jarmo Kinos, Tuire Palonen, Tarja-Riitta Hurme

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This longitudinal study aims to examine how five- and six-year-old children’s peer relationships are formed and fostered during one preschool year in a southwestern Finnish preschool. All 16 kindergarteners participated in the study (at dyad level N=240; i.e., 16 x 15 relationships among the children). The children were divided into four daily groups, based on the table order during the daily routines, and four intervention groups, based on the teachers’ pedagogical plan. During the intervention, one iPad was given to each group in order to stimulate interaction among peers and, thus, enable the children to form new peer relationships. In the data gathering, sociometric nomination techniques were used to investigate the nature (i.e., stability and mutuality) of the peer relationships. The data was collected five times during the year to see what kind of peer relationship changes occurred at the dyad level and the group level, i.e., in establishing and losing friendship ties among the children. Social network analyses were used to analyze the data. The results indicate that the children’s preference for gender segregation was strong compared to age preference and intervention. In all, the number of reciprocal friendship ties and the mutual absence of friendship ties increased towards the end of the year, whereas the number of unilateral friendship ties decreased. This indicates that children’s nominations narrow down; thus, the group structure becomes more crystalized. Instead of extending their friendship networks, children seek stable and mutual relationships with their peers in their middle childhood years. The intervention only had a slightly negative influence on children’s peer relationships.

Keywords: intervention study, peer relationship, preschool education, social network analysis, sociometric ratings

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Authors: Rosita Kanapeckaite

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The modern operational military environment is a combination of factors such as change, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Stiehm (2002) refers to such situations as VUCA situations. VUCA is an acronym commonly used to describe the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of various situations and conditions. Increasingly fast-paced military operations require military personnel to demonstrate readiness and resilience under stressful conditions in order to maintain the optimum cognitive and physical performance necessary to achieve success. Military resilience can be defined as the ability to cope with the negative effects of setbacks and associated stress on military performance and combat effectiveness. In the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous modern operational environment, both current and future operations require and place a higher priority on enhancing and maintaining troop readiness and resilience to win decisively in multidimensional combat. This paper explores the phenomenon of soldiers' psychological resilience, theories of leadership, and commitment to the organisation. The aim of the study is to examine the relationship between soldiers' psychological resilience, leadership style and commitment to the organisation. The study involved 425 professional soldiers, the research method was a questionnaire survey. The instruments used were measures of psychological resilience, leadership styles and commitment to the organisation. Results: transformational leadership style predicts higher psychological resilience, and psychologically resilient professional servicemen are more committed to the organisation. The study confirms the importance of soldiers' psychological resilience for their commitment to the organisation. The paper also discusses practical applications.

Keywords: resilience, commitment, solders, leadership style

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Authors: Jiyeon Kang, Yeon Jin Jeong, Hoon Heo

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Purpose: Bullying in nursing workplace has been a serious problem that increases the turnover of nurses. Few studies have examined the effects of communication training on workplace bullying for nurses, and all used a single-group design and a small sample size. Thus, more rigorous research has been needed to evaluate the effects properly. This research was aimed to identify the effects of the mobile type communication training of responses on bullying behaviors among nurses. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was performed. Subjects were 62 critical care nurses working in university hospitals in Busan, South Korea. We developed a mobile phone application to train nurses to deal with bullying situation. This application includes 6 common bullying situations and appropriate empathetic communication (non-violent communication) samples in the form of webtoons. The experimental group used this application for 4 weeks, and we measured interpersonal relationship, workplace bullying, symptom experience, and intention to leave before, post, and 8 weeks after the intervention from both experimental and control groups. The effect of the intervention was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Results: The mobile type communication training developed in this study was effective for decreasing nurses’ intention to leave workplace (F = 5.11, p = .027). However, it had no effect on interpersonal relationship (F = 2.54, p = .116), workplace bullying (F = 2.99, p = .089) or symptom experience (F = 2.81, p = .099). The beneficial effects on intention to leave lasted at least up to 4 weeks after the training. Conclusion: The mobile type communication training can be utilized as an effective personal coping strategy for workplace bullying among nurses. Further studies on the long-term effects of the communication training are necessary.

Keywords: bullying, communication, mobile applications, nurses, training, workplace

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Authors: Klara Smith-Etxeberria

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main goal of this study was to analyze the predictive ability of some variables associated with the parental divorce process alongside attachment history with parents on both, mother-child and father-child relationship quality. Our sample consisted of 173 undergraduate and vocational school students from the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. All of them belonged to a divorced family. Results showed that adequate maternal strategies during the divorce process (e.g.: stable, continuous and positive role as a mother) was the variable with greater predictive ability on mother-child relationships quality. In addition, secure attachment history with mother also predicted positive mother-child relationships. On the other hand, father-child relationship quality was predicted by adequate paternal strategies during the divorce process, such as his stable, continuous and positive role as a father, along with not badmouthing the mother and promoting good mother-child relationships. Furthermore, paternal negative emotional state due to divorce was positively associated with father-child relationships quality, and both, history of attachment with mother and with father predicted father-child relationships quality. In conclusion, our data indicate that both, paternal and maternal strategies for children´s adequate adjustment during the divorce process influence on mother-child and father-child relationships quality. However, these results suggest that paternal strategies during the divorce process have a greater predictive ability on father-child relationships quality, whereas maternal positive strategies during divorce determine positive mother-child relationships among young adults.

Keywords: father-child relationships quality, mother-child relationships quality, parental divorce process, young adulthood

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Authors: Anuradha Ranawakage, Chathurani Silva

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With the growing expansion of global businesses, supply chains are increasingly exposed to numerous disruptions. Organizations adopt various strategies to mitigate the impact of these disruptions. Depending on the variations in the conditions and characteristics of supply chains, the adoption of resilience strategies may vary across industries. However, these differences are largely unexplored in the existing literature. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the adoption of three proactive strategies: proactive collaboration, digital connectivity, integrated SC risk management, and three reactive strategies: reactive collaboration, inventory and reserve capacity, and lifeline maintenance in the apparel and construction industries in Sri Lanka. An online questionnaire was used to collect data on the implementation of resilience strategies from a sample of 162 apparel and 185 construction companies operating in Sri Lanka. This research makes a significant contribution to the field of supply chain management by assessing the extent to which different resilience strategies are functioned within the apparel and construction industries in Sri Lanka, particularly in an era after a global pandemic that significantly disrupted supply chains all around the world.

Keywords: apparel, construction, proactive strategies, reactive strategies, supply chain resilience

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Authors: Juan Li, Hui Tian, Min Wang

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In China, under the considerable pressure of 'Gaokao' –the highly competitive college entrance examination, high school teachers and parents often worry that doing physical activity would take away the students’ precious study time and may have a negative impact on the academic grades. There was a tendency to achieve high academic scores at the cost of physical exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the physical fitness and academic achievement of Chinese high school students. The participants were 968 grade one (N=457) and grade two students (N=511) with an average age of 16 years from three high schools of different levels in Beijing, China. 479 were boys, and 489 were girls. One of the schools is a top high school in China, another is a key high school in Beijing, and the other is an ordinary high school. All analyses were weighted using SAS 9.4 to ensure the representatives of the sample. The weights were based on 12 strata of schools, sex, and grades. Physical fitness data were collected using the scores of the National Physical Fitness Test, which is an annual official test administered by the Ministry of Education in China. It includes 50m run, sits and reach test, standing long jump, 1000m run (for boys), 800m run (for girls), pull-ups for 1 minute (for boys), and bent-knee sit-ups for 1 minute (for girls). The test is an overall evaluation of the students’ physical health on the major indexes of strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiorespiratory function. Academic scores were obtained from the three schools with the students’ consent. The statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS 24. Independent-Samples T-test was used to examine the gender group differences. Spearman’s Rho bivariate correlation was adopted to test for associations between physical test results and academic performance. Statistical significance was set at p<.05. The study found that girls obtained higher fitness scores than boys (p=.000). The girls’ physical fitness test scores were positively associated with the total academic grades (rs=.103, p=.029), English (rs=.096, p=.042), physics (rs=.202, p=.000) and chemistry scores (rs=.131, p=.009). No significant relationship was observed in boys. Cardiorespiratory fitness had a positive association with physics (rs=.196, p=.000) and biology scores (rs=.168, p=.023) in girls, and with English score in boys (rs=.104, p=.029). A possible explanation for the greater association between physical fitness and academic achievement in girls rather than boys was that girls showed stronger motivation in achieving high scores in whether academic tests or fitness tests. More driven by the test results, girls probably tended to invest more time and energy in training for the fitness test. Higher fitness levels were associated with an academic benefit among girls generally in Chinese high schools. Therefore, physical fitness needs to be given greater emphasis among Chinese adolescents and gender differences need to be taken into consideration.

Keywords: physical fitness; adolescents; academic achievement; high school

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Authors: Jaimin Patel

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Cloud computing is one of the most sharp and important movement in various computing technologies. It provides flexibility to users, cost effectiveness, location independence, easy maintenance, enables multitenancy, drastic performance improvements, and increased productivity. On the other hand, there are also major issues like security. Being a common server, security for a cloud is a major issue; it is important to provide security to protect user’s private data, and it is especially important in e-commerce and social networks. In this paper, encryption algorithms such as Advanced Encryption Standard algorithms, their vulnerabilities, risk of attacks, optimal time and complexity management and comparison with other algorithms based on software implementation is proposed. Encryption techniques to improve the performance of AES algorithms and to reduce risk management are given. Secure Hash Algorithms, their vulnerabilities, software implementations, risk of attacks and comparison with other hashing algorithms as well as the advantages and disadvantages between hashing techniques and encryption are given.

Keywords: Cloud computing, encryption algorithm, secure hashing algorithm, brute force attack, birthday attack, plaintext attack, man in middle attack

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Authors: Godian Asami Mabindah

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The convergence of knowledge management (KM) and competitive intelligence (CI) has gained significant attention in recent years as organizations seek to enhance their competitive advantage in an increasingly complex and dynamic business environment. This research study aims to explore and understand the synergistic relationship between KM and CI and its impact on organizational performance. By investigating how the integration of KM and CI practices can contribute to decision-making, innovation, and competitive advantage, this study seeks to unlock the potential benefits and challenges associated with this integration. The research employs a mixed-methods approach to gather comprehensive data. A quantitative analysis is conducted using survey data collected from a diverse sample of organizations across different industries. The survey measures the extent of integration between KM and CI practices and examines the perceived benefits and challenges associated with this integration. Additionally, qualitative interviews are conducted with key organizational stakeholders to gain deeper insights into their experiences, perspectives, and best practices regarding the synergistic relationship. The findings of this study are expected to reveal several significant outcomes. Firstly, it is anticipated that organizations that effectively integrate KM and CI practices will outperform those that treat them as independent functions. The study aims to highlight the positive impact of this integration on decision-making, innovation, organizational learning, and competitive advantage. Furthermore, the research aims to identify critical success factors and enablers for achieving constructive interaction between KM and CI, such as leadership support, culture, technology infrastructure, and knowledge-sharing mechanisms. The implications of this research are far-reaching. Organizations can leverage the findings to develop strategies and practices that facilitate the integration of KM and CI, leading to enhanced competitive intelligence capabilities and improved knowledge management processes. Additionally, the research contributes to the academic literature by providing a comprehensive understanding of the synergistic relationship between KM and CI and proposing a conceptual framework that can guide future research in this area. By exploring the synergies between KM and CI, this study seeks to help organizations harness their collective power to gain a competitive edge in today's dynamic business landscape. The research provides practical insights and guidelines for organizations to effectively integrate KM and CI practices, leading to improved decision-making, innovation, and overall organizational performance.

Keywords: Competitive Intelligence, Knowledge Management, Organizational Performance, Incusivity, Optimum Performance

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Authors: Monika Skura

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People with physical disabilities, as with other people with differences in appearance or style of functioning come under negative social mechanisms. Therefore, it is worth asking what the relationship of the group is, who experience psychosocial effects because of their physical disability, towards people with intellectual disabilities, hearing impairments, visual impairments, mental illnesses, and their own physically disabled group. To analyse the perception of people with a physical disability, the study explores three areas: the acceptance or rejection of society’s stigmatization towards persons with disabilities; the importance of their own experience regarding their disability, in relation to another kind of disability; their level of acceptance to social interactions, in relation to various types of disabilities. The research sample consisted of 90 people with physical disabilities, who suffer from damage to the locomotor system. The data was collected using a questionnaire and the Adjective Check List by H. B. Gough and A. B. Heilbrun. This study utilized focus interviews to develop survey items for the questionnaire. The findings highlight that the response from those who were physically disabled agreed with the opinions of general society, not only with the issue of promoting integrated solutions and offering assistance but also having the same preferences and opinions about specific types of disability. However, their perception regarding their own group was noticeably different from that of general society. In the light of the study, for people with physical disabilities, just as for able-bodied people, it can be challenging to develop a meaningful relationship with people who have disabilities. All forms of disability suffer from negative attitudes and opinions that exist in society. The majority of those who were researched were focused primarily on their own problems, this inevitably hinders the integrity of the entire group, making it more difficult for it to find a cohesive voice, in which to promote their place within society.

Keywords: general society’s opinions about disability, people with different kinds of disability, perception, physical disability

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Authors: Imaneh Abbasi, Ladan Fata, Majid Sadeghi, Sara Banihashemi, Abolfazl Mohammadee

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Background: Dimensional and transdiagnostic approaches as a result of high comorbidity among mental disorders have captured researchers and clinicians interests for exploring the latent factors of development and maintenance of some psychological disorders. The goal of present study is to compare some of these common factors between generalized anxiety disorder and unipolar mood disorder. Methods: 27 patients with generalized anxiety disorder, 29 patients with depression disorder were recruited using SCID-I and 69 non-clinical population were selected using GHQ cut off point. MANCOVA was used for analyzing data. Results: The results show that worry, rumination, intolerance of uncertainty, maladaptive metacognitive beliefs, and experiential avoidance were all significantly different between GAD and unipolar mood disorder groups. However, there were not any significant differences in difficulties in emotion regulation and neuroticism between GAD and unipolar mood disorder groups. Discussion: Results indicate that although there are some transdiagnostic and common factors in GAD and unipolar mood disorder, there may be some specific vulnerability factors for each disorder. Further study is needed for answering these questions.

Keywords: transdiagnostic, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, emotion regulation

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Authors: Berna Çalışkan

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The integrated water management is a colloborative approach to planning that brings together institutions that influence all elements of the water cycle, waterways, watershed characteristics, wetlands, ponds, lakes, floodplain areas, stream channel structure. It encourages collaboration where it will be beneficial and links between water planning and other planning processes that contribute to improving sustainable urban development and liveability. Hydraulic considerations can influence the selection of a highway corridor and the alternate routes within the corridor. widening a roadway, replacing a culvert, or repairing a bridge. Because of this, the type and amount of data needed for planning studies can vary widely depending on such elements as environmental considerations, class of the proposed highway, state of land use development, and individual site conditions. The extraction of drainage networks provide helpful preliminary drainage data from the digital elevation model (DEM). A case study was carried out using the Arc Hydro extension within ArcGIS in the study area. It provides the means for processing and presenting spatially-referenced Stream Model. Study area’s flow routing, stream levels, segmentation, drainage point processing can be obtained using DEM as the 'Input surface raster'. These processes integrate the fields of hydrologic, engineering research, and environmental modeling in a multi-disciplinary program designed to provide decision makers with a science-based understanding, and innovative tools for, the development of interdisciplinary and multi-level approach. This research helps to manage transport project planning and construction phases to analyze the surficial water flow, high-level streams, wetland sites for development of transportation infrastructure planning, implementing, maintenance, monitoring and long-term evaluations to better face the challenges and solutions associated with effective management and enhancement to deal with Low, Medium, High levels of impact. Transport projects are frequently perceived as critical to the ‘success’ of major urban, metropolitan, regional and/or national development because of their potential to affect significant socio-economic and territorial change. In this context, sustaining and development of economic and social activities depend on having sufficient Water Resources Management. The results of our research provides a workflow to build a stream network how can classify suitability map according to stream levels. Transportation projects establish, develop, incorporate and deliver effectively by selecting best location for reducing construction maintenance costs, cost-effective solutions for drainage, landslide, flood control. According to model findings, field study should be done for filling gaps and checking for errors. In future researches, this study can be extended for determining and preventing possible damage of Sensitive Areas and Vulnerable Zones supported with field investigations.

Keywords: water resources management, hydro tool, water protection, transportation

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Authors: Matthew Cardeiro, Amalia D. Ardeljan, Lexi Frankel, Dianela Prado Escobar, Catalina Molnar, Omar M. Rashid

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Introduction: Enterococci comprise the natural flora of nearly all animals and are ubiquitous in food manufacturing and probiotics. However, its role in the microbiome remains controversial. The gut microbiome has shown to play an important role in immunology and cancer. Further, recent data has suggested a relationship between gut microbiota and breast cancer. These studies have shown that the gut microbiome of patients with breast cancer differs from that of healthy patients. Research regarding enterococcus infection and its sequala is limited, and further research is needed in order to understand the relationship between infection and cancer. Enterococcus may prevent the development of breast cancer (BC) through complex immunologic and microbiotic adaptations following an enterococcus infection. This study investigated the effect of enterococcus infection and the incidence of BC. Methods: A retrospective study (January 2010- December 2019) was provided by a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant national database and conducted using a Humans Health Insurance Database. International Classification of Disease (ICD) 9th and 10th codes, Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), and National Drug Codes were used to identify BC diagnosis and enterococcus infection. Patients were matched for age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), antibiotic treatment, and region of residence. Chi-squared, logistic regression, and odds ratio were implemented to assess the significance and estimate relative risk. Results: 671 out of 28,518 (2.35%) patients with a prior enterococcus infection and 1,459 out of 28,518 (5.12%) patients without enterococcus infection subsequently developed BC, and the difference was statistically significant (p<2.2x10⁻¹⁶). Logistic regression also indicated enterococcus infection was associated with a decreased incidence of BC (RR=0.60, 95% CI [0.57, 0.63]). Treatment for enterococcus infection was analyzed and controlled for in both enterococcus infected and noninfected populations. 398 out of 11,523 (3.34%) patients with a prior enterococcus infection and treated with antibiotics were compared to 624 out of 11,523 (5.41%) patients with no history of enterococcus infection (control) and received antibiotic treatment. Both populations subsequently developed BC. Results remained statistically significant (p<2.2x10-16) with a relative risk of 0.57 (95% CI [0.54, 0.60]). Conclusion & Discussion: This study shows a statistically significant correlation between enterococcus infection and a decrease incidence of breast cancer. Further exploration is needed to identify and understand not only the role of enterococcus in the microbiome but also the protective mechanism(s) and impact enterococcus infection may have on breast cancer development. Ultimately, further research is needed in order to understand the complex and intricate relationship between the microbiome, immunology, bacterial infections, and carcinogenesis.

Keywords: breast cancer, enterococcus, immunology, infection, microbiome

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Authors: Saidu Ibrahim, Winston M. W. Shakantu

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The problem of construction material waste remains unresolved, as a significant percentage of the materials delivered to some project sites end up as waste which might result in additional project cost. Cost overrun is a problem which affects 90% of the completed projects in the world. The argument on how to eliminate it has been on-going for the past 70 years, but there is neither substantial improvement nor significant solution for mitigating its detrimental effects. Research evidence has proposed various construction cost overruns and material-waste management approaches; nonetheless, these studies failed to give a clear indication on the framework and the equation for managing construction material waste and cost overruns. Hence, this research aims to develop a conceptual framework and a mathematical equation for managing material waste and cost overrun in the construction industry. The paper adopts the desktop methodological approach. This involves comparing the causes of material waste and those of cost overruns from the literature to determine the possible relationship. The review revealed a relationship between material waste and cost overrun that; increase in material waste would result to a corresponding increase in the amount of cost overrun at both the pre-contract and the post contract stages of a project. It was found from the equation that achieving an effective construction material waste management must ensure a “Good Quality-of-Planning, Estimating, and Design Management” and a “Good Quality- of-Construction, Procurement and Site Management”; a decrease in “Design Complexity” which would reduce “Material Waste” and subsequently reduce the amount of cost overrun by 86.74%. The conceptual framework and the mathematical equation developed in this study are recommended to the professionals of the construction industry.

Keywords: conceptual framework, cost overrun, material waste, project stags

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Authors: Erwin L. Descallar

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Food safety is crucial in protecting the health of consumers, maintaining integrity in the entire food industry, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Food is a universal need for survival, and everyone is at risk of engaging in improper food handling, which increases vulnerability to foodborne illnesses. The level of knowledge or awareness and meat storage practices of students are behaviors influenced by various demographic factors. The Health Belief Model examines the relationship of such demographic factors towards the attitude, perception, and actions of individuals on perceived risk. This study aims to analyze and understand the correlation of said behaviors with course programs, prior food poisoning experience, and food handling of university students. The study employed randomized responses from 89 university students (n=89) under the College of Science at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines–Sta. Mesa (Manila). The results were subjected to measures of central tendency for score ranking and inferential statistics. The statistics were compared using Pearson ‘r’ Product Moment Correlation to determine the degree of relationship between the knowledge and practices on meat storage and safety. No statistically significant differences were found between the course program of students, food poisoning experiences, level of knowledge, and awareness regarding proper meat storage practices. However, increased frequency and involvement in meat handling have shown a positive correlation, indicating that there is a correlation between food handling and proper meat storage practices of university students.

Keywords: meat storage practices, food handling, food safety, meat science and technology

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Authors: Marija Knez, James C.R. Stangoulis, Manja Zec, Zoran Pavlovic, Jasmina D. Martacic, Mirjana Gurinovic, Maria Glibetic

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Background: Zinc is an essential micronutrient for humans with important physiological functions. A sensitive and specific biomarker for assessing Zn status is still needed. Objective: The major aim of this study was to examine if the changes in the content of plasma phospholipid LA, DGLA and LA: DGLA ratio can be used to efficiently predict the dietary Zn intake and plasma Zn status of humans. Methods: The study was performed on apparently healthy human volunteers. The dietary Zn intake was assessed using 24h recall questionnaires. Plasma phospholipid fatty acid analysis was done by gas chromatography and plasma analysis of minerals by atomic absorption spectrometry. Biochemical, anthropometrical and hematological parameters were assessed. Results: No significant relationship was found between the dietary and plasma zinc status (r=0.07; p=0.6). There is a statistically significant correlation between DGLA and plasma Zn (r=0.39, p=0.00). No relationship was observed between the linoleic acid and plasma Zn, while there was a significant negative correlation between LA: DGLA ratio and plasma Zn status (r=-0.35, p=0.01). Similarly, there were statistically significant difference in DGLA status (p=0.004) and LA: DGLA ratio (p=0.042) between the Zn formed groups. Conclusions: This study is an initial step in evaluating LA: DGLA ratio as a biomarker of Zn status in humans. The results are encouraging as they show that concentration of DGLA is decreased and LA: DGLA ratio increased in people with lower dietary Zn intake. However, additional studies are needed to fully examine the sensitivity of this biomarker.

Keywords: dietary Zn intake Zinc, fatty acid composition, LA: DGLA, healthy population, plasma Zn status, Zn biomarker

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Authors: Stefan Werrlich, Phuc-Anh Nguyen, Kai Nitsche, Gunther Notni

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Augmented Reality (AR) is a strong growing research topic. This innovative technology is interesting for several training domains like education, medicine, military, sports and industrial use cases like assembly and maintenance tasks. AR can help to improve the efficiency, quality and transfer of training tasks. Due to these reasons, AR becomes more interesting for big companies and researchers because the industrial domain is still an unexplored field. This paper presents the research proposal of a PhD thesis which is done in cooperation with the BMW Group, aiming to explore head-mounted display (HMD) based training in industrial environments. We give a short introduction, describing the motivation, the underlying problems as well as the five formulated research questions we want to clarify along this thesis. We give a brief overview of the current assembly training in industrial environments and present some AR-based training approaches, including their research deficits. We use the Design Science Research (DSR) framework for this thesis and describe how we want to realize the seven guidelines, mandatory from the DSR. Furthermore, we describe each methodology which we use within that framework and present our approach in a comprehensive figure, representing the entire thesis.

Keywords: assembly, augmented reality, research proposal, training

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Authors: Mozhgan Sigarchian, Shiva Alizadeh, Seyedeh Akram Nazarkardeh

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Introduction: The one of the most common forms of violence against women is domestic violence and it is one of the most acute social problems that affecting the individual physical and mental health and, in turn, the health of the family and the community. In all of the world especially in developing country, women suffer violent during her lifetime. Violence against women and girls is a serious threat to health and human rights. Several factors such as low literacy, the low income and poverty affects violence. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors conducive to domestic violence against women in Rasht, Iran, So that based on the findings, preventive measures can be taken to reduce violence and increase support for women. Methods: This is a descriptive-analytic study that was performed on 300 eligible women referred to clinics and physicians' offices in Rasht, Iran, 2017, by convenience sampling method. The questionnaire used included demographic questionnaires and domestic violence with 3 domains: physical, psychological, and sexual violence. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using independent t-test, Chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests. Result: The mean age in the group with and without domestic violence was 28.31 ± 6.097 and 32.52 ± 9.8, respectively. 168 women (56%) were reported to be violent. The results indicate that there is a significant relationship between age, husband's age, number of family members, and educational level of women with violence. But, there was no significant relationship between the duration of marriage, the education of husbands, the occupation of women and their husbands, housing situation, smoking with violence. Conclusion: The results showed that some factors such as education, age, and the number of families can affect the level of violence. According to the results, as well as a high prevalence of domestic violence among women in this study, it is suggested that training be given to families to increase women's empowerment and prevent violence against women.

Keywords: domestic violence, predisposing factors, violence, women

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Authors: Katharina Kargel, Frederic Vobbe

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Sexual online grooming is generally defined as digital interactions for the purpose of sexual exploitation of children or minors, i.e. as a process for preparing and framing sexual child abuse. Due to its conceptual history, sexual online grooming is often associated with perpetrators who are previously unknown to those affected. While the strategies of perpetrators and the perception of those affected are increasingly being investigated, the instrumentalisation of digital media has not yet been researched much. Therefore, the present paper aims at contributing to this research gap by examining in what kind of ways perpetrators instrumentalise digital media. Our analyses draw on 46 case documentations and 18 interviews with those affected. The cases and the partly narrative interviews were collected by ten cooperating specialist centers working on sexualized violence in childhood and youth. For this purpose, we designed a documentation grid allowing for a detailed case reconstruction i.e. including information on the violence, digital media use and those affected. By using Reflexive Grounded Theory, our analyses emphasize a) the subjective benchmark of professional practitioners as well as those affected and b) the interpretative implications resulting from our researchers’ subjective and emotional interaction with the data material. It should first be noted that sexualized online grooming can result in both online and offline sexualized violence as well as hybrid forms. Furthermore, the perpetrators either come from the immediate social environment of those affected or are unknown to them. The perpetrator-victim relationship plays a more important role with regard to the question of the instrumentalisation of digital media than the question of the space (on vs. off) in which the primary violence is committed. Perpetrators unknown to those affected instrumentalise digital media primarily to establish a sexualized system of norms, which is usually embedded in a supposed love relationship. In some cases, after an initial exchange of sexualized images or video recordings, a latent play on the position of power takes place. In the course of the grooming process, perpetrators from the immediate social environment increasingly instrumentalise digital media to establish an explicit relationship of power and dependence, which is directly determined by coercion, threats and blackmail. The knowledge of possible vulnerabilities is strategically used in the course of maintaining contact. The above explanations lead to the conclusion that the motive for the crime plays an essential role in the question of the instrumentalisation of digital media. It is therefore not surprising that it is mostly the near-field perpetrators without commercial motives who initiate a spiral of violence and stress by digitally distributing sexualized (violent) images and video recordings within the reference system of those affected.

Keywords: sexualized violence, children and youth, grooming, offender strategies, digital media

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Authors: Jinhoa Lee

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The relationships between environmental quality, energy use and economic output have created growing attention over the past decades among researchers and policy makers. Focusing on the empirical aspects of the role of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and energy use in affecting the economic output, this paper is an effort to fulfill the gap in a comprehensive case study at a country level using modern econometric techniques. To achieve the goal, this country-specific study examines the short-run and long-run relationships among energy consumption (using disaggregated energy sources: crude oil, coal, natural gas, and electricity), CO2 emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) for Turkey using time series analysis from the year 1980-2010. To investigate the relationships between the variables, this paper employs the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test for stationarity, Johansen’s maximum likelihood method for cointegration and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) for both short- and long-run causality among the research variables for the sample. The long-run equilibrium in the VECM suggests no effects of the CO2 emissions and energy use on the GDP in Turkey. There exists a short-run bidirectional relationship between the electricity and natural gas consumption, and also there is a negative unidirectional causality running from the GDP to electricity use. Overall, the results partly support arguments that there are relationships between energy use and economic output; however, the effects may differ due to the source of energy such as in the case of Turkey for the period of 1980-2010. However, there is no significant relationship between the CO2 emissions and the GDP and between the CO2 emissions and the energy use both in the short term and long term.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, energy consumption, GDP, Turkey, time series analysis

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Authors: A. Kherraf, S. Ouarrak, L. Azzouzi, R. Habbal

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Introduction: Preserved LVEF heart failure is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in hypertensive patients. A strong correlation between impaired diastolic function and longitudinal systolic dysfunction. could have several explanations, first, the diastole is an energy dependent process, especially during its first phase, it also includes active systolic components during the phase of iso volumetric relaxation, in addition, the impairment of the intrinsic myocytic function is part of hypertensive pathology as evidenced by recent studies. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This work consists of performing in a series of 333 hypertensive patients (aged 25 to 75 years) a complete echocardiographic study, including LVEF by Simpson biplane method, the calculation of the indexed left ventricular mass, the analysis of the diastolic function, and finally, the study of the longitudinal deformation of the LV by the technique of speckletracking (calculation of the GLS). Patients with secondary hypertension, leaky or stenosing valve disease, arrhythmia, and a history of coronary insufficiency were excluded from this study. RESULTS: Of the 333 hypertensive patients, 225 patients (67.5%) had impaired diastolic function, of which 60 patients (18%) had high filling pressures. 49.39% had echocardigraphic HVG, Almost all of these patients (60 patients) had low GLS. There is a statistically very significant relationship between lower GLS and increased left ventricular filling pressures in hypertensive patients. These results suggest that increased filling pressures are closely associated with atrioventricular interaction in patients with hypertension, with a strong correlation with impairment of longitudinal systolic function and diastolic function CONCLUSION: Overall, a linear relationship is established between increased left ventricular mass, diastolic dysfunction, and longitudinal LV systolic dysfunction

Keywords: hypertension, diastolic function, left ventricle, heart failure

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Authors: Naman Singla, Ajay Pal Singh Chauhan

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As the demand for providing high bit rate and high bandwidth is increasing at a rapid rate so there is a need to see in this problem and finds a technology that provides high bit rate and also high bandwidth. One possible solution is by use of optical fiber. Optical fiber technology provides high bandwidth in THz. But the disadvantage of optical fiber is of high cost and not used everywhere because it is not possible to reach all the locations on the earth. Also high maintenance required for usage of optical fiber. It puts a lot of cost. Another technology which is almost similar to optical fiber is Free Space Optics (FSO) technology. FSO is the line of sight technology where modulated optical beam whether infrared or visible is used to transfer information from one point to another through the atmosphere which works as a channel. This paper concentrates on analyzing the performance of FSO in terms of bit error rate (BER) and quality factor (Q) using different modulation techniques like non return to zero on off keying (NRZ-OOK), differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) using OptiSystem software. The findings of this paper show that FSO system based on DQPSK modulation technique performs better.

Keywords: attenuation, bit rate, free space optics, link length

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Authors: Ernest Nweke

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Mongolia has made giant strides in the development of its auditing and accounting system from Soviet-style to a market-oriented system. High levels of domestic and foreign investment desired by the Mongolian government require that better and improved quality of corporate information and disclosure consistent with international standards be made available to investors. However, the Mongolian Certified Public Accountants (CPA) profession is still developing, and the quality of services provided by accounting firms in most cases do not comply with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) framework approved by the government for use in financial reporting. Against this backdrop, Accounting and audit reforms, liberalization and deregulation, establishment of an efficient and effective professional monitoring and supervision regime are policy necessities. These will further enhance the Mongolian business environment, eliminate incompetence in the system, make the economy more attractive to investors and ultimately lift reporting standards and bring about improved accounting, auditing and disclosure practices among Mongolian firms. This paper examines the fundamental issues in the accounting and auditing environment in Mongolia and investigates the relationship between selected characteristics of Mongolian Stock Exchange (MSE) listed firms (profitability, leverage, firm size, firm auditor size, firm listing age, board size and proportion of independent directors) and voluntary accounting disclosures in their annual reports and accounts. The selected sample of firms for the research purpose consists of the top 20 indexes of the MSE, representing over 95% of the market capitalization. An empirical analysis of the hypothesized relationship was carried out using multiple regression in EViews analytical software. Research results lend credence to the fact that only a few of the company attributes positively impact voluntary accounting disclosures in Mongolian Stock Exchange-listed firms. The research is motivated by the absence of empirical evidence on the correlation between the quality of voluntary accounting disclosures made by listed companies in Mongolia and company characteristics and the findings thereof significantly useful to both firms and regulatory authorities. The concluding part of the paper precisely consists of useful research-based recommendations for listed firms and regulatory agencies on measures to put in place in order to enhance the quality of corporate financial reporting and disclosures in Mongolia.

Keywords: accounting, auditing, corporate disclosure, listed firms

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Authors: Noor Azlina Mohamed Yunus, Baharom Abd Rahman, Abdul Kadir Othman, Narehan Hassan, Rohana Mat Som, Ibhrahim Zakaria

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Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are the most important outcomes of marketing in which both elements serve various stages of consumer buying behavior. Excellent service quality has become a major corporate goal as more companies gradually struggle for quality for their products and services. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of service quality on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty at one telecommunication company in Malaysia which is Telekom Malaysia. The scope of this research is to evaluate satisfaction on the products or services at TMpoint Bukit Raja, Malaysia. The data are gathered through the distribution of questionnaires to a total of 306 respondents who visited and used the products or services. By using correlation and multiple regression analyses, the result revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. The most influential factor on customer satisfaction was empathy followed by reliability, assurance and tangibles. However, there was no significant influence between responsiveness and customer satisfaction. The result also showed there was a positive and significant relationship between service quality and customer loyalty. The most influential factor on customer loyalty was assurance followed by reliability and tangibles. TMpoint Bukit Raja is recommended to device excellent strategies to satisfy customers’ needs and to adopt action-oriented approach by focusing on what the customers wanted. It is also recommended that similar study can be carried out in other industries using different methodologies such as longitudinal method, enlarge the sample size and use a qualitative approach.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, service quality, telecommunication company

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Authors: Mabruka S. Elashheb, Adullah Ali Bakush

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Schizophrenia is referred to as a disorder, not a disease, because there has not been any clear, reliable, and specific etiological factor. Even if schizophrenia is not a very frequent disease, it is among the most burdensome and costly illnesses worldwide. Prevention of relapse is a major goal of maintenance treatment in patients with psychotic disorders. We performed a comparison of a newer, atypical antipsychotic drug, Risperidone, and an older, conventional neuroleptic drug, Haloperidol, in terms of the effect on the usual kidney and liver functions and negative and positive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder after three and five weeks of their treatments. It is apparent from the comparative data of Haloperidol and Risperidone treatments in schizophrenic patients that Resperidone had superior improvement of negative and positive symptoms of patients, no harmful effect on liver and kidney functions and greater efficacy and faster recovery from schizophrenic symptoms in patients. On the basis of our findings of the present study, we concluded that treatment with Risperidone is superior to Haloperidol in reducing the risk of relapse among outpatients with schizophrenic disorders.

Keywords: schizophrenia, Haloperidol, Risperidone, positive and negative symptom

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Authors: Madhu Babu Cherukuri, Tamoghna Ghosh

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Factory supply chain management spends billions of dollars every year to procure and manage equipment spare parts. Due to technology -and processes changes some of these spares become obsolete/dead inventory. Factories have huge dead inventory worth millions of dollars accumulating over time. This is due to lack of a scientific methodology to identify them and send the inventory back to the suppliers on a timely basis. The standard approach followed across industries to deal with this is: if a part is not used for a set pre-defined period of time it is declared dead. This leads to accumulation of dead parts over time and these parts cannot be sold back to the suppliers as it is too late as per contract agreement. Our main idea is the time period for identifying a part as dead cannot be a fixed pre-defined duration across all parts. Rather, it should depend on various properties of the part like historical consumption pattern, type of part, how many machines it is being used in, whether it- is a preventive maintenance part etc. We have designed a predictive algorithm which predicts part obsolescence well in advance with reasonable accuracy and which can help save millions.

Keywords: obsolete inventory, machine learning, big data, supply chain analytics, dead inventory

Procedia PDF Downloads 319

Authors: Tessa Sellis, Marike A. Wierda, Elke Tichelman, Mirjam T. Van Lohuizen, Marjolein Berger, François Schellevis, Claudi Bockting, Lilian Peters, Huib Burger

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Introduction: Most women develop a healthy bond with their children, however, adequate mother-to-infant bonding cannot be taken for granted. Mother-to-infant bonding refers to the feelings and emotions experienced by the mother towards her child. It is an ongoing process that starts during pregnancy and develops during the first year postpartum and likely throughout early childhood. The prevalence of inadequate bonding ranges from 7 to 11% in the first weeks postpartum. An impaired mother-to-infant bond can cause long-term complications for both mother and child. Very little research has been conducted on the direct relationship between the personality of the mother and mother-to-infant bonding. This study explores the associations between maternal personality and postnatal mother-to-infant bonding. The main hypothesis is that there is a relationship between neuroticism and mother-to-infant bonding. Methods: Data for this study were used from the Pregnancy Anxiety and Depression Study (2010-2014), which examined symptoms of and risk factors for anxiety or depression during pregnancy and the first year postpartum of 6220 pregnant women who received primary, secondary or tertiary care in the Netherlands. The study was expanded in 2015 to investigate postnatal mother-to-infant bonding. For the current research 3836 participants were included. During the first trimester of gestation, baseline characteristics, as well as personality, were measured through online questionnaires. Personality was measured by the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), which covers the big five of personality (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, altruism and conscientiousness). Mother-to-infant bonding was measured postpartum by the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ). Univariate linear regression analysis was performed to estimate the associations. Results: 5% of the PBQ-respondents reported impaired bonding. A statistically significant association was found between neuroticism and mother-to-infant bonding (p < .001): mothers scoring higher on neuroticism, reported a lower score on mother-to-infant bonding. In addition, a positive correlation was found between the personality traits extraversion (b: -.081), openness (b: -.014), altruism (b: -.067), conscientiousness (b: -.060) and mother-to-infant bonding. Discussion: This study is one of the first to demonstrate a direct association between the personality of the mother and mother-to-infant bonding. A statistically significant relationship has been found between neuroticism and mother-to-infant bonding, however, the percentage of variance predictable by a personality dimension is very small. This study has examined one part of the multi-factorial topic of mother-to-infant bonding and offers more insight into the rarely investigated and complex matter of mother-to-infant bonding. For midwives, it is important recognize the risks for impaired bonding and subsequently improve policy for women at risk.

Keywords: mother-to-infant bonding, personality, postpartum, pregnancy

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Authors: Saima Kalsoom, Sobia Masood, Muhammad Faran

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This study aimed to examine the association between emotional intelligence and gender role attitudes of married individuals. Another aim of this study was to test the moderating role of gender work status of married individuals for predicting gender role attitudes from emotional intelligence. A sample of (N = 500) married working men and women (both working & housewives) was approached through purposive convenience sampling technique. The data was collected employing cross-sectional research design. The indigenous versions of the Gender Role Attitudes Scale and perceived Emotional Intelligence Scale were used. The results of alpha coefficients for both the scales and subscales used in this study designated satisfactory evidence for internal consistency and reliability. Assessment of correlation coefficients showed significant positive correlation between gender role attitudes and emotional intelligence, subfactors of emotional intelligence i.e., emotional self-regulation, emotional self-awareness, and interpersonal skills with gender role attitudes. Results of model testing revealed that gender (the effect was significant for women) and work status (the effect was more significant for married working women than married working men and housewives) of the married individuals significantly moderated the relationship between emotional intelligence and gender role attitudes into the positive direction. Further, it was also found that gender and work status also moderated the relationship between emotional self-regulation (as sub factor of emotional intelligence) and gender role attitudes in a positive direction. In conclusion, this empirical evidence is vital contribution derived from the traditional and collectivistic socio-cultural background of Pakistan.

Keywords: gender role attitudes, emotional intelligence, emotional self-regulation, gender, work status, married working women

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